#i wish i wasn't sick

[suujatan]

Nov. 4th DC March

Right now, I am currently stuck sick at home , and I decided to scroll through news coverage of the protest earlier today. I don't watch TV, I'm mostly going through online written articles and media-posted videos. These are just the first few publications to pop up in my search results.

The Independent, article by John Bowden - decent summary, either an objectively written article or just one that agrees with my subconscious biases. Bowden states how the march is predominantly driven by the shocking and heartbreaking devastation occurring in Gaza, plus criticism for our nations backing of Israel's military.

Mention is given in this article (as well as the various fallowing ones) to Macklemore attending. Mention is also given to anonymous sources stating that the Biden Administration's staff has apparantly been receiving hundreds of calls from various progressive and centre-leaning democrats who do not support how we've been giving aid to Israel's activities in Gaza, described as "a backlash from the left that they did not predict."

The Independent is a British newspaper. According to Wikipedia, its majority shareholders are Evgeny Levedev (41%) Sultan Muhammad Abuljadayel (30%) and Justin Byam Shaw (26%)

Huffpost via Yahoo!News, article by Sara Boboltz - short and more-or-less to the point. Only briefly goes into the driving issues behind the protest. I dislike that the fifth paragraph describes the Hamas terrorist attack as a "brutal slaughter" that included "children and older adults," which comes before another paragraph that only states "Palestinian authorities say more than 9,000 people have died in the well-funded Israeli military campaign" with somewhat more passive language.

Huffpost, formerly the Huffington Post, is a progressive news site currently owned by Buzzfeed

USA Today, article by Minnah Arshad and Dan Morrison - decently long article that summarizes the general timeline of the protest. Direct quotes from various people who attended are include within the article. Coinciding demonstrations in New York, London, and Paris also receive mention. The demonstration is describing as going pretty civilly, with only one known arrest made in relation to the protest (specifically of a guy spray painting pro-Palestinian grafitti, aka "vandalism").

Speaker Nihad Awad of CAIR is quoted to frame the growing divide between the Democratic party and young and Arab American voters critical of Biden's support of Israel. Attendee. A statement from Laila El Haddad, who has recently lost family members to Israeli airstrikes, emphasizes how she and many people are here to say "Enough is enough" to the ongoing devastation.

Also included is a statement from Meredith Weisel of the Anti-Defamation League, who remarks that there was "zero acknowledgement of Israeli suffering" at the rally, and that most of the people on stage were apparently "justifying" the Hama's attack on October 7th. I personally dislike this quote, given the Anti-Defamation League's frequent support of Zionism, but I recognize the logic in including a statement from them on this matter. Also, whether intentionally or not, its plausible that antisemitic elements leaked into the otherwise righteous stance (between Isreal equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism, and actual antisemitic hate groups probably using Palestine as an excuse to be nasty, there's probably a great deal of misinformation getting spread about).

USA Today is an American daily newspaper and broadcasting company, generally described as left-leaning in persuasion.

WTOP News, article by Tadiwos Abedje and Dick Uliano - pretty brief, took about a minute to read. Props for the headline, I like the impact of the quote used. Article includes a couple quotes and paraphrasing lining out the main message's of those protesting: call for ceasefire, end US aid to Israel, and to end the Apartheid state under which Gaza and the West Bank have persisted these last few decades.

At the bottom of the article is a link to another one about the protesters who interrupted Blinken's testimony on Gaza yesterday, 56 of whom were subsequently arrested.

WTOP-FM is an all news radio station in Washington DC owned by the Hubbard Broadcasting Inc.

The Hill, article by Brad Dress and Filip Timotija - writing is fair enough, as far as US media goes. Describes how the thousands of protesters from all over the country rallied around speakers and demonstrated before the White House. Attendees are directly quoted on their motivations for being there, such as the killing of children in Gaza, the settler colonialism being committed by Israel, and the US backing of Israeli war crimes. Incidentally, one of the people mentioned in the article as against US aid to Israel, is also stated as strongly condemning Hamas and "any form of terrorism", only humanitarian causes.

Includes quotes from attendees mentioning how this is greater than just Jews vs Muslims, and how condemning the killing of civilians should not be a complicated issue. One of the people quoted is also stated to be involved in supporting other oppressed groups throughout the world.

The Hill is a newspaper and digital media company based in Washington DC, currently owned by the Nexstar Media Group

New York Post via MSN, article by Olivia Land and Alyssa Guzman - definitely not my favorite article. Doesn't contradict any of the articles already covered, but it definitely focuses in on the "righteous anger" of those attending, the chants accusing Biden of supporting genocide, and contextualizing of "Long Live the Intifada" being connected with past Palestinian uprisings over the decades that "left thousands dead."

The summary of black activist Marte White's statements about the rights of peoples to resist their oppressors is written to imply he is a Hamas sympathizer, describing his speech as "particularly fiery rhetoric" followed by a moment of silence for Palestinian martyrs.

Also, here's the last four paragraphs of the article:

Despite the frequent anti-Semitic tone from the speakers, one woman, Ahlam, from Maryland2Palestine, insisted that “righteous anger is not hate, it’s love.” “We should be angry when it’s our money going to fund these entities,” she said of the US and corporations’ support of Israel’s efforts to defeat Hamas. Ahlam called for a continued boycott of companies like Starbucks and McDonald’s that have expressed solidarity with Israel. “We will not get our names written on Starbucks cups while Palestinian children are writing their names on their arms so that their bodies may be identified after an airstrike!” she cried.

I dislike how the subtext implies her to be well-meaning but naive, and that the rally itself is perhaps predominantly rooted in antisemitism rather than humanitarianism.

The New York Post is a conservative tabloid owned by the Murdoch Corporation.

-

Oh yeah, there was also a Fox News clip or something about anti-Israel grafitti calling for a violent overthrow or something, but I didn't bother checking it out because fuck them, I've already read one rag from under the Murdoch umbrella, I don't need another.

[evilmom]

🌱.

[ghstkss]

i don't want anybody but you

[lotus-pear]

lore accurate chuuya canonically drives a 2006 sparkly barbie motorcycle

[myiliterallyhavenolifegoals]

[gingermintpepper]

Obsessed with the way Evadne's relationship with Apollo is described. Obsessed with the way Apollo was especially gentle with her because she was sheltered, hidden away and hadn't had any sort of experience with love prior to Apollo (and due to it being described as her 'first learning Aphrodite's joy' through Apollo', it was probably her first time even being attracted to someone). Obsessed with the way when she runs away, she stops in a violet patch to give birth. Y'know, violets, very famously the flower so strongly associated with Aphrodite that they were used in love potions? Those violets. Obsessed with the way that when Apollo realised his lover was going to have to deliver their child alone, he sent BOTH the goddess of childbirth and ALL THREE OF THE FATES to help and support her. Obsessed with the way that Apollo sends snakes to feed his baby honey straight from their fangs because Evadne abandons their son out of straight primal fear when her stepfather finds her and how the description of that honey is 'sweet venom' [ἰός] of the bees and is DEFINITELY a poetic pair/pun with [ἴον] aka violets and that every single thing about this relationship, conception and birth is a complete and utter fairytale down to Evadne's insanely overprotective stepfather having an immediate change of heart when he learned Evadne's child was an actual, legitimate Son of Apollo and the babe, after being cared for by his dad's honey-fanged snake buddies, was found perfectly healthy five days later swaddled in a blanket of violets (y'know the flowers so strongly associated with Aphrodite that they were used for lo-) and they called him Iamus aka Boy of the Violets which is AAAAAARRRR I AM GNAWING AT MY ENCLOSURE

Iamus was made of love. Everything about him was surrounded by deep and profound love and like, let's not even talk about his whole Thing of when he came of age and was like "I need to find out what my purpose is" and he literally had a Disney Protagonist moment where he ran out into the wilds and was like "Father!! Grandfather!! Tell me what I'm supposed to doooo!!" and then APOLLO FUCKING ANSWERED AND LED HIM TO ONE HIS TEMPLES ENTIRELY BY TALKING WITH IAMUS AND LETTING HIM FOLLOW HIS VOICE FOR THE WHOLE JOURNEY LIKE -

What do y'all know about the kind of SSS tier romantic escapades Apollo had fr?

[seyaryminamoto]

My latest completed commission may have been a bit ambitious... because I went wild with it. But I certainly relished in doing so :') Combining my favorite ship with my favorite-ever Disney movie is, uh... a dangerous concoction :'D

The commissioner specifically requested for Azula as Mulan, Sokka as Shang, and Xin Long (my OC dragon from Gladiator) as Mushu. The rest of the cast was up to me to choose, and I pretty much went wild rewatching this movie and picking out some of my favorite moments to recreate them in my style, with these characters. I came up with a lot of correlating characters between both ATLA and 1998's Mulan, but I couldn't hope to draw EVERYTHING, unfortunately. Still, if you want my reasoning for the cast correlation... check out the Read More! Beyond that, feel free to reach out to me if you'd like to commission me, or if you want to join my Patreon!

The Herbalist as Mulan's grandmother might feel arbitrary but she honestly felt like the ATLA elderly lady with the most similar personality to Grandma Fa. Fickle, with a unique connection with a seemingly perfectly ordinary animal, old and sassy? Figured it fit! So for once, the Herbalist is Azula's grandma! xD strange notion, I know, Azulon/Herbalist is not a ship I ever thought I'd accidentally put out in the world but there have been wilder ships than that in this fandom...

Momo became Cri-Kee, I wasn't 100% sold on it but when I considered that Avatar features soooo many hybrid animals... I figured he could be a hybrid cricket-lemur. Weird, I know, but eh? Better than nothing xD

Aang as Chien-Po was a no-brainer. He's the only character I settled on instantly, never even considered anyone else for the role. Their personalities line up really well, and Chien-Po's tendency to be OP and resolve things that are outside of other people's reach sounded like he was prime Avatar material! So, while their dietary preferences are an obvious difference between them, I decided to go for it nonetheless considering all their other similarities!

Kino (another Gladiator OC) is Ling, and he actually did give me a ton of trouble to choose. I considered many characters for the role right up until I realized that Kino's personality actually lines up fairly well with Ling's, down to being a class clown type (who ABSOLUTELY would have cut gym class!) and breaking out in song about the hypothetical woman he'd like to fight for? Yeeeeah that's right up his alley xD but there's another reason why I picked Kino...

... And that is my likely unexpected choice for Yao:

ZUKO.

ZUKO IS YAO.

YES.

I'M NOT EVEN SORRY.

(For the uninitiated, Aang, Zuko and Kino are best friends in Gladiator, very often together, and they make a really good team, so that's the extra reason why Kino became the obvious choice for Ling aside from having really similar personalities, definitely closer personalities than, say, Jet, for instance.)

People have likened Zuko to Shang a LOT since ATLA aired. This is the main reason why I'm even making this huge note! I suspect it's primarily because of the aesthetic, let's be real here, and because he becomes Aang's teacher, but people have exaggerated Zuko's alleged similarities with Shang, or taken them out of proportion, in many ways. I actually remember an AMV ages ago with "Be a Man" and it was Zuko "training the Gaang"?? It... didn't feel right to me. Obviously, someone might rebuff with "well, how does Sokka make MORE sense than that, though?" And believe it or not, I have arguments for that... (when do I not...?)

Not only is this what the commissioner specifically requested (and it obviously lines up with the ship we love!), but let's examine the actual reasons why Sokka as Shang adds up:

Sokka actually had to train a bunch of toddlers who weren't paying any attention to him. You know. Kind of how Shang had to train the unruly soldiers who weren't getting anything right. Sokka has a positive relationship with his dad (Zuko, ofc, does not). Shang also has a positive relationship with his dad! And not only this, but there's a military component to both relationships, specifically with Shang wanting to follow on his father's footsteps and aid him in the war... so much like someone else I know, who jumped at every opportunity to rejoin his father in the war, even wishing to join him as a child until Hakoda tasked him with protecting their Tribe instead (kinda like Shang is tasked with training soldiers rather than joining a battlefield).

And the final cherry-on-top that I'd loooove to hear Zuko fans try to argue against... is sexism :') didn't Sokka get characterized as a sexist guy for four episodes, which made people decide that this was his main character trait even if it went away that quickly? Um, yes, that happened. Shang literally sings the memorable song that's a crazy ode to masculinity, including the rather sexist line of "did they send me daughters when I asked for sons". Shang outright abandons Mulan once they discover that she was a woman all along (while, admittedly, choosing to abandon her rather than KILL HER, which as we saw from Chi-Fu, he was NOT supposed to spare her!)...

So, is this REALLY what Zuko fans, who willfully believe their boy is a feminist king (... why? beats me...) are trying to compare their unproblematic blorbo to? :'D Me? I have no problem linking Sokka with Shang due to Sokka's beginnings and due to the fact that both Shang and Sokka have similar growth when it comes to accepting femininity is as valid as masculinity, and as they both learn to respect women as fighters and potential heroes! (I simply do not believe Sokka's ENTIRE tenure in ATLA was about that, though, and that's what I continue to clash with the fandom over...) So... all this is why I've reasoned that Sokka is a VERY solid choice for Shang, in fact, better than Zuko could hope to be.

... but this isn't all.

Maybe some might accept my arguments for Sokka-Shang. And then, they might ask:

WHY ZUKO AS YAO, THO??

... And the truth is it took me long to see it, myself, but HOLY SHIT, DOES IT FIT!

What is the primary thing we remember about Yao in Mulan? This guy is constantly itching for a fight, to prove himself, surely riddled with insecurities that he exteriorizes through overcompensation of masculinity. He's funny as fuck, but he's taking himself 100% seriously as a manly man all the time, and he's always ready for violence. But there's one more thing...

He treats Mulan as his RIVAL.

And more often than not? SHE SCREWS HIM OVER. Intentionally or not.

What does that sound like? Why, yes, it sounds a LOT like Azula and Zuko's sibling relationship!

The fact that Yao is a temperamental dude who lashes out easily at things (oh, something he has in common with Zuko!), that he specifically resents Mulan (in this case, Azula, just as Zuko does!) and is either constantly looking to defeat her and prove his superiority over her (... wait, just as Zuko with Azula??), that he has a black eye perpetually across the movie, and it's his LEFT EYE (just as Zuko's scar is on his left eye! :'D), that he's friends with a pacifist he has basically nothing in common with, personality-wise (just like Zuko and Aang!), and that he pretty much has a REDEMPTION ARC in which he goes from a bitter, asshole rival to Mulan to treating her as a friend and ally, to the point where he was disappointed to leave her behind and THEN joined her at once when she says she has a plan? :') I have always been critical of Zuko's redemption arc, goes without saying. But if ANY of these characters redeemed himself in any significant way, it certainly seems to be Yao to me, and with people gushing NON-STOP about Zuko's redemption? Why, he ought to be the character who goes from bitter rival to loyal friend, right?

So. I'm not even sorry. Zuko is Yao. And I'd dare say that he should be flattered by the comparison, even, because Yao ends up being cool as FUCK!

I don't really talk about this much nowadays, but Mulan was my favorite Disney movie growing up, it ABSOLUTELY had a formative influence on me as a little girl, and Mulan was my favorite female character for a looooong time. Thus, any excuse to rewatch this movie makes me happy as heck. With the wisdom of age I know, of course, that it's not perfect, it's not what China wants, it's not the most thoughtful depiction of Chinese culture or the most faithful adaptation of Mulan's poem (... but I'd also dare bring up that the 2009 Chinese adaptation ISN'T all that faithful either...), but it has a kind of magic in it, a solid storytelling flow, so many memorable moments one after the next, that I could hardly choose which scenes to depict... Disney has never again seen the storytelling heights it reached with Mulan in 1998. I don't even care if that's a controversial opinion in any way... this is their best animated feature for me, and nobody can change my mind.

So... depicting Azula, my beloved, in all these scenarios as this character I adored and idolized as a child, was so damn fulfilling for me. While some might think that, personality-wise, these two ladies don't have much in common, the fact that Mulan is sent to a matchmaker who basically tells her she looks good but is going to be the worst wife ever...? Our girl Azula, with all those insecurities about being unloveable and a monster, probably would relate big time to that.

Mulan is also an INTELLIGENT soldier rather than a brawny one, which is how she starts to make progress in the army, it's how she manages to overcome the huns with that avalanche... and Azula's primary difference with most other antagonists in ATLA is that she's smart as fuck. She is very strong, no doubt, but a LOT of that strength comes from her intelligence, from assessing situations in unique ways, from planning and strategizing. The way Mulan finds the most unexpected solutions that still pay off reminds me a lot of how Azula achieves unexpected feats through rather unorthodox means, capable of taking over a city with basically no bloodshed while her nation has spent 100 years trying and failing to do so through major army incursions and who knows how much senseless violence. Obviously, I'm not saying what Azula did is GOOD and it's kind of dumb that we always have to point that out... I'm merely comparing the magnitude of the feats, and the fact that they both come from ladies who use strategy and intelligence to achieve their goals rather than muscle and physical power.

And while anyone would rage at me for the comparison between Fa Zhou (her dad) and Ozai, the truth is the dynamic between them CAN be compared, if loosely: Mulan literally goes to war to keep her father safe. Azula goes to war under her father's orders. Hell, she makes herself BAIT in the Eclipse to make sure the Gaang won't get to her dad?? While it's very much possible to say that both characters have different personalities and attitudes in life... I'd also bring up that their contexts are evidently completely different. I wouldn't say for certain that Azula, had she been raised outside a Royal Family, would be EXACTLY like Mulan... but they might have more similar traits than one might expect. Ultimately, though... I love them both. And this opportunity to swap their places was pretty much a dream come true!

Alright, that was plenty of rambling xD ultimately, I had a blast doing this commission, as I'm sure is obvious by now. So! If anyone wants to commission me, feel free to check out my prices right here and hit me up if you're interested!

[vickysaurus]

A theropod skeleton I encountered painted under a bridge near Saverne.

[possumkingluca]

i think the PLA protagonist should've been allowed to attack and kill people with their bare hands

[catonatrain]

knb x sanrio collab !!

[mylittleredgirl]

as someone with lifelong chronic illnesses that have bailed me out of some awkward situations in my time, sometimes i feel the need to be like hey universe!!!! listen up!!!! i do NOT want to be rescued from this scenario by getting sick!!!! i mean you know i'll always be grateful for that one time with the midterms, i understand you're trying to be on my side here when you hit the eject button using a whole stick of dynamite, BUT NOT THIS TIME!! I APPRECIATE THE THOUGHT BUT I'M GOOD!!

[feedingicetothedog]

i can't believe ppl are still debating ep 5....like come on! use your brains for once.

i'm going to start blocking ppl for calling the dv scene 'shock value' or out of character. it's neither of those things and straight up the beginning of that scene comes almost directly from the books.

"And our fragile domestic tranquility erupted with his outrage. He did not have to be loved but he would not be ignored; and once he even flew at her, shouting that he would slap her, and I found myself in the wretched position of fighting him as I'd done years earlier before she'd come to us." (IWTV p. 104)

yeah is the scene in ep 5 more graphic/brutal? sure. but one could argue that louis in the book is playing down the violence in order to maintain the image he's painted of lestat as a weak, stupid failure of a mentor. in opposition to the book, the show has added claudia's account as corroboration of the abuse that they experienced as well as the scale and scope of that abuse. later in the book when claudia proposes that they leave together, louis says this:

"I could hear a vague mingling of sounds now, which meant he had entered the carriage way, that he would soon be on the back stairs. And I thought of what I always felt when I heard him coming, a vague anxiety, a vague need. And then the thought of being free of him forever rushed over me like water I'd forgotten, waves and waves of cool water." (IWTV p. 117)

i don't know about anyone else but this reads to me as an abused spouse hearing their abuser come home. i also think that this vague anxiety and vague need that book louis describes here is etched all over ep 6. the louis of ep 6 is Extremely submissive and placating to lestat in a way he never has been in the previous eps because he's afraid of him. at the beginning of ep 5 itself he straight up tells lestat to shut the fuck up and in the middle he goads lestat by making fun of his intelligence. the contrast is stark and why? because he has been given a fuller picture of the sheer magnitude of lestat's strength and power and knows that it can be turned onto him or claudia. to say that the show doesn't reference the violence after that ep is absolutely ludicrous. claudia references it directly!

this is only one example of several in this ep. the violence was necessary to make the urgency of louis and claudia's need to leave make sense. if lestat wasn't keeping them there with the unspoken threat of repeated violence why would claudia need to scheme and plot to walk out the front door? she did it at the beginning of ep 5, why couldn't she do it again? claudia is older in the show than the book, she's not a 5 year old trying to brave it on her own, the modern conceptualization of the teenager didn't exist, she could reasonably get by. the dv scene was necessary to account for the new context of the characters.

also the slave/master dynamic was not created wholesale by the show writers, that's straight up from the book:

"The vampire made a slave of him, and he would be no more a slave than I would be a slave, and so he killed him. Killed him before he knew what he might know, and then in panic made a slave of you. And you've been his slave." (IWTV p. 120)

they have claudia say this in the show practically verbatim. they didn't add this just to make on the nose points about race, they simply expanded on what already existed in the book. the fact that claudia and louis in the show are black make this sentiment more uncomfortable but it's not any less true. in fact, i think it adds to why claudia refuses to let the situation continue. the transgression becomes more egregious because of the larger implications of white frenchman lording his status over his black creole subordinates (this where lestat's 18th century roots become so interesting as well as his aristocratic heritage. i also think it's interesting that you have lestat = aristocrat; louis = bourgeois; claudia = working class/poor as their economic backgrounds but that's a different post).

if the showrunners were to walk this back i legit would be pissed. it would be such a cheap shot to write such a brutal, narratively cruel scene (i mean this as a compliment) that contextualizes one of the main character's motivation, plot, and worldview (claudia and to an extent louis) and then be like 'jk nevermind, louis was lying! claudia was exaggerating! it wasn't that bad actually!'. like that's just bad writing. it also would be racist. i actually love ep 5, all of it. i've never been to affected by an ep of television in my life and i think it's so brilliantly written. do i think it complicates the loustat relationship? sure but i'm not watching this show because of ships, i'm watching it because it's some of the best crafted television i've seen in years. it's not afraid to piss off fans in favor of a better, more compelling narrative choice and that's why i respect and trust writers more than i do for most other shows.

i also need to emphasize that i love lestat. he's my special boy and has been one of my favorite characters for like 16 years. ep 5 did not diminish that for me, i love how it works in relation to his backstory and how in the books lestat does not break the cycles that terrorized him as a child/young adult. he continues them by putting himself as the perpetrator and isn't that what he does ep 5? the writers get these characters, the actors get these characters. i still think lestat is wildly sympathetic and that's a testament to how strong the writing, directing, and performances on this show are.

anyway, let's all start talking about a different ep, this one has been discoursed to death

[miniagula]

atm i'm sick over charlie hauling al into a hug after he's helped her figure out the answer to something monumental, and luci can see the easy implicit trusting way she leans into him

[ace-milo-thatch]

pros of being a milo thatch enjoyer: serotonin

cons: everything else

[femmefighter]

This time a year ago, I went camping all along Australia's eastern coast right into FNQ with my furry partner in crime.

[runefactorynonsense]

Cozytober - Day 20 - Wreath