#if I got anything wrong feel free to correct me

[destiny2-names]

A post for fellow "healer main" warlocks

I'm not sure if it's intentional, and maybe this was already a thing and I just didn't notice it, but there are now some activities where healing rifts don't heal. Defeating the whole point of healing rifts. Which can be quite off-putting for warlocks whose builds prioritize that.

So! What can we do instead?

Healing grenades, especially when combined with the Seeker's Sight exotic helmet, are quite useful in a pinch. They even have the added bonus that, unlike rifts, you can throw them at allies you can't reach quickly. However, healing grenades can only be used by Solar and Prismatic subclasses.

A lot of warlocks, me included, have probably spent a good amount of time trying to get their Recovery stat as high as possible. That's the stat that contributes to how fast your rift recharges, and normally a higher Recovery makes your health regenerate faster; for activities where natural health regeneration is disabled, you might want to focus more on Resilience.

Don't COMPLETELY dump Recovery though, because non-healing rifts are still useful! Empowering rifts buff your weapons, and phoenix dive (another ability option unique to Solar and Prismatic) gives your allies a brief burst of healing.

Things like solar mortars and arc souls still work regardless of what you've got equipped in your rift ability slot, but they won't stick around for as long with phoenix dive.

Remember: you can't help anyone if you're dead. Sometimes, if you can't reach your downed teammates safely, the best way to avoid a wipe is to take cover until at least one other person respawns.

Certain weapons, such as those with a support frame or the Healing Clip trait, can give a little boost to the amount of healing you can do for both others and yourself. Hey, anything counts.

For keeping yourself alive, Karnstein's Armlets can be handy (pun intended) when you're being swarmed by weaker enemies. They're a great combo with Monte Carlo, but even unpowered melee kills should activate the gauntlets' effect.

Don't forget about armor mods! Two leg armor mods, Recuperation and Better Already, give you small bursts of healing when you pick up orbs of power. If one or both aren't already part of your kit, you might want to take a look at them, because that healing really adds up when combined with helmet Siphon mods.

If you're using healing grenades, there are also several armor mods that will help that ability recharge faster, such as Bomber, Ennervation, and Explosive Finisher.

This post is meant to help save fellow players– especially newbies and people who only have time to play casually– some time and frustration. If you have any advice to add, please do! If you have questions, please ask! If I got something wrong, please tell me so I can correct it! And if this all seems super obvious to you or you have a better way of doing things, feel free to comment, but please don't be a jackass about it. Thank you.

[justtrashperson]

Hi you're the Irish lads expert in my brain. How favorable are people to shipping the lads. (And not magisbur/rtsoot) I need to know for. Reasons

Haha thank you for that anon! I’ll take it I guess

As for that question, I do know there are people who ship the lads with each other, and I feel like you can get quite an audience since the Irish lads community is big, but one thing to know if to try and avoid main tagging them because not everyone is comfortable with that idea

Gonna put it in read more because this got a bit long

For example, Do not use the Tag RTgame or Callmekevin if you want to post a shippy thing about them, but use their ship tag like cmrt (?? I think??)

If they don’t have a ship tag either do not tag any of it, or maybe tag it as like, (…) X (…) though I don’t know if it would also appear in tumblrs tags

Oh also an exception to this tag is Terrornogla/Daithi de Terroriser. As far as I know since they are also in another group called BBS that kind of have shipping in the community, and I think they have also made fun/acknowledge them, most people couldn’t care less if you tag em, but still use the ship tag.

But yeah, basically do not maintag, if there’s a ship tag use that. I think you can tag it as Irish lads if you want to but keep in mind to also tag it as shipping just to be sure

Oh one more note! If it’s vaguely shipping but still can be taken platonically, you can maintag them, or if it’s like an ambiguous relationship that can still be taken platonically, maintag is fine

That is all, now go wild anon

[chair002]

Thinking about Bacon's role on The Players.

In one of his conversations with Zam, Minute talks about the cycle of violence on Lifesteal and Zam retors by saying "why would I not want it to continue? I like it," (paraphrased) and while it's true that all of The Players *liked* conflict & violence & doing fucked up things in theory, because it's fun for them, Zam is a fairly strong player who can afford to get into huge conflicts and come out alive & on top. At the time of the conversation he had 18 hearts and at his peak he had 30 (!!!) so one of the ways Zam does benefit from having huge conflicts on the server, aside from the fact that he simply finds them fun, is that he can stand up for himself and his ideals with his fists, he can come out of encounters heart-positive and if he does something drastic he is pretty hard to stop or retaliate against. Same can be said about Mapicc, and about Roshambo & Clown, but not Bacon.

One of PB&J's morals they wanted to uphold is being nice to the weaker players. Minute believed that violence and killing are bad for Lifesteal as a whole, but obviously, the impact Minute felt from conflicts was not the same one as someone with <10 hearts would feel. He'd make a show out of giving 4C (i think?) gear and hearts, going, this is how i care about the weak, unlike the evil Players, who are evil & cruel to them, but for obvious reasons, unless Bacon completely switched sides, Minute would never include him in the category of people he'd like to help or donate to and he was fine with killing him in battles (granted most if not all of Bacon's hearts are technically Mapicc's). He's not a strong player and can't hold his own in a (PVP) conflict but simultaneously he doesn't fit the image of someone like a KITC member, or Poafa, or Spepticle, or whoever the 'good' chungus players were that PB&J wanted to help. So he ends up in this limbo where he's not strong enough to benefit from the war The Players are waging but PB&J don't pity him either.

So this was always interesting to me. Bacon's a pretty nasty person with bad morals so he likes the villains, sure, but in a weird way this loops around to him being selfless in how much he sacrifices for The Players' goals (literally his life) while not reaping any benefits at all, besides temporary ones, like having access to the team's gear and hearts, which expired as soon as the new season started and they weren't teamed anymore. They won, and the cycle continued, but where he had Mapicc and the rest to support him in S5, in S6 he's struggling really badly, because, well, there's no one like Minute going around and giving him stuff out of the kindness of his heart.

It's a little similar to how he got into CFG, though obviously The Players treated him much much better. He thought, 'oh, this will be fun for me, i can team with the evil villain and do evil stuff!' and it was fun for a while before he realized the way Wemmbu goes about conflict is only making him feel shitty and lose time & resources and he's losing more than he is gaining. And it will probably be that way forever for him, but there is nothing he can do, because his beliefs and his personality and everything he stands for, and, most importantly, the server itself, the nature of the cycle of violence on Lifesteal that he so respects, are all working against him at all times.

Bacon Waffles is the woman who keeps voting for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party, keeps getting his face eaten by the leopards after they win, and keeps going 'hm. my life fucking sucks' and regretting nothing. and you gotta respect that

[thewolfprince]

Saw a post (by a white supremacy OP) that was basically Jake Sully betrayed his species for “blue (slur) cat girl p*ssy”

Which is absolutely incorrect and already has a wonderful response using dialogue from the movie. I can’t remember who made the amazing response but I’m here for another one.

I checked the reblogs and someone asked (and I’m putting this in short, sweet, non-slur words) if the US military has all this technology and the Avatar program and putting people into cryosleep - why didn’t they heal Jake?

I present two reasons, and they both lead to my final theory (*cough* thesis statement *cough) which I will present first:

The US military was never going to heal Jake and “give him his legs back” (not sure if this is the exact quote from the movie but I’m fairly certain it’s at least close).

First, I believe Jake in the eyes of the US Military is nothing but another foot soldier. Another grunt, another Marine. The only reason he got into the Avatar program was because his brother Tommy died and they didn’t want the Avatar to go to waste and cost thousands of dollars. So they brought in Jake.

Secondly, and the more important point: they were using Jake’s own disability as leverage against him to get him to do what they wanted. Why would they bother to feed the horse the carrot when they can keep dangling it just out of reach? Evil Military Guy, after one of Jake’s missions, tells him “keep this up and we can get you your legs back.” He knows that Jake wants to walk again. It’s the perfect leverage to keep Jake under his thumb to extract information from him about the Avatar program and the Omatikaya people.

And of course once the military wipes the tribe out and gets their investor’s ore, what reason would they need to keep Jake around? None. Why pay hundreds of thousands of dollars when you can simply kill the dude and say “oh no, the wilds of Pandora got him!”?

Once I watch Avatar again I’ll probably reblog this with stuff that I missed.

[real-reulbbr-band]

The Reimagining of Cats Undermines Female Characterization

My anxiety's going to eat me alive if I keep being chicken about posting this so here's my more in depth feelings regarding what I mean in this post. All opinions expressed are my own and based on what I know of pac. Anyone is free to disagree with me. and thank you to @pinkieclown and @per-the-jellicle-magician for proof reading!

I”ll keep this simple cause I don’t want to get ranty on Tumblr, but by removing and cutting so many aspects of the show out they’ve lost key characterization for the female cast and replaced them with virtually nothing.

My problem isn’t that the characters don’t resemble their stage counterparts; that was expected. The issue is that they aren’t given much of a character at all. You could switch their names, and nothing would change. This problem isn’t apparent with their male counterparts with previously established on-stage storylines. 

Male characters in the reimagining, such as Munkustrap, Rum Tum Tugger, and even Macavity, retain or gain distinctive characteristics and storylines. Munkustrap is portrayed as an MC not a leader but still very much leading the show, it’s the same general role; Rum Tum Tugger as a charming rogue though slightly more akin to his 2019 movie counterpart except he still manages to ‘save the day’ at the end, and Macavity, despite his thievery, is given a more comical persona with a deeper relation to his now fellow jellicles.

 In contrast, female characters are stripped of their individuality and reduced to plot devices or mere extensions of male characters. Victoria doesn’t experience a coming-of-age or even touch Grizabella here. (It’s old Deut pretty sure which…I have problems with) She’s simply another attendant at the ball with a solo at the start that lacks deeper meaning. She’s portrayed as a ‘drag baby,’ and as stated by her actress  this isn’t even her first ball. No pas de deux or additional solo is performed to further her importance in the narrative. This reduction strips Victoria of her journey and her role within the tribe or in this case community. 

Demeter and Bombalurina have no dark history with Macavity, which affects Demeter’s characterization more than Bomb’s. They are reduced to his drag daughters and are merely other competitors at the ball who further Macavity’s story by being the ones he steals for. This change eliminates the layers of trauma and complexity in Demeter’s character, reducing her to a plot device for Macavity’s storyline.

If the female characters aren’t given distinct roles, their characters end up heavily associated with male counterparts: Jellylorum with Gus, Jennyanydots with Munkustrap, and of course, Bombalurina and Demeter with Macavity. They don’t exist as individuals without these associations, as their typical roles are relegated to the background.

In the original stage show, despite its issues in instances, female characters like Demeter and Bombalurina exhibit significant agency and emotional depth. Demeter’s fear of Macavity and Bombalurina’s protective nature towards her and the kittens add layers to their characters. The reimagining erases this agency, reducing them to passive participants who exist only to further male characters' narratives. Namely Macavity’s here.

Now, it is important to note that a lot of characterization happens outside of the character’s main numbers. Things like who they interact with in their down time, what they do when they’re not actively participating in a song besides simply watching and waiting for the next que; that’s when the actors are given time to just be the character. The actors don’t have as many opportunities to do that here just due to the formatting of the show with the runway catwalk and walking space outside it. During which they’re mostly interacting with the audience or reacting to what’s happening on stage. They don’t have a lot of moments to just interact with each other to give the audience a better feel of who they are. 

The reduction of female characters in 'Cats: The Jellicle Ball' reflects broader patterns of misogyny in the media. Historically, female characters have often been sidelined, their stories minimized, and their roles diminished to support male-centric plots. This reimagining perpetuates this problematic trend by failing to provide female characters with the same depth and development afforded to their male counterparts.

I know what you’re going to say ‘but Grizabella’. Yea, Grizabella has fifteen minutes of stage time and she’s the character who resembles her stage counterpart the most. That’s why these issues negate her and she’s of the few I don’t have this problem with, the others being Rumpleteazer, Cassandra, and Skimbleshanks as her role has never had a deeper narrative meaning outside of reflecting the behaviors of the tribe as a whole.

In conclusion, the reimagining of 'Cats: The Jellicle Ball' is a missed opportunity to reframe and enrich the narratives of its female characters. Instead, it falls into the trap of diminishing their roles and individuality, perpetuating a longstanding issue in media representation.

[dittydipity]

what is kagepro? - a quick guide

you may be seeing the word "kagepro" around a whole bunch, especially during august, but what the hell is it?

you may have heard or seen something from kagepro without realizing it! you know that vocaloid song, kagerou daze, about the kids who get hit by a truck and are stuck in a timeloop of saving each other? that's actually one of the songs from kagepro.

kagepro, short for the kagerou project, is a series created by vocaloid composer jin (also known as shizen no teki-p). it's a mixed media series that has music, manga, an anime, movie, a radio talk show, books, etc but i’ll try to keep it simple!

basic premise: people who die on 8/15 are taken to another world called the kagerou daze and if they return to the real world, they will have gained a “snake ability” that will turn their eyes red when used. a group of teens that have these abilities form a little gang but are thrown into an endless timeloop.

THE MEDIA

if you want to get into it, there’s a bunch of different ways you can do it, but do keep in mind: each form of media is NOT just a different adaptation of the story.

kagepro is a timeloop story, and each form of media is actually a different timeline (or “route”). the music videos, the anime, the manga, the books - each one is only a piece of the whole story. that’s why many people may have seen the anime, mekakucity actors, and gotten super confused because the anime is actually one of the last routes haha.

but the order of media that has been generally agreed upon to be the most coherent is music videos -> manga -> light novels -> anime

a lot of kagepro media, esp the light novels and manga, are hard to find since they’re almost entirely out of print, but there’s translations or e-book versions of them available, or if you skip them there’s summaries that people have made. you can also ask me if you want :]

music videos

i’ve actually made a couple playlists for the songs! one is in release order and the other is in story chronological order (mostly).

release order: - i tried to get all the original ia/miku versions of the songs with the original pv if there was one - a couple might be a little out of order since some songs came out together in the same album

this is the order that fans got the music, so if you want to try to figure things out and put things together the way we did you can go with this order!

chronological order: - tried to grab some english covers where i could, but if you don’t like eng covers there are plenty of noneng covers or you can use the videos from the other playlist. there's plenty of really great covers out there! - exceptions to the “chronological”: children record acts as the cover/opening song for the series and summertime record is the ending song for the series - some songs aren’t in here bc they’re not part of the music route (they’re mostly from the newer albums and are kinda like ‘epilogue’ songs after the ending of the anime/good ending or are songs made for the anime)

THE STORY

if you don't want to go through all the media yourself, here’s a video explaining the whole story by breadbox/david toth! he also has other really great kagepro videos

[a bit of an extra] a very common misconception about the story/mechanics: people do not have to die in pairs or with somebody else on 8/15 to enter the daze. i didn’t realize this myself until super recently

all in all, the kagerou project is a story about finding strength and support from the people around you, moving on to look towards the future, and overcoming trauma.

there’s definitely other people who have also made guides or summaries or videos that are much better and cover much more than i did, but i hope this was a decent introduction!

feel free to reach out and/or ask me anything! i'm sure there are also plenty of people who would be willing to help newcomers understand kagepro as well :]

happy kagerou day!

[fuckmatpat]

Hey! I was wondering if you had thoughts on wendigoon? I have been watching his videos lately and he mentioned matpat in his fnaf episode (I found out later after trying to watch the video that fnaf's creator is transphobic). So, transphobic references x2. I am basically on the fence about wendigoon bc he hasn't said anything specifically on the other videos I've seen... idk I was wondering if you had thoughts on this. Thank you for your time!

well... i don't watch him. so i don't have much or any comment on his work or videos. but i'd probably start with the name/branding he has going on. He profits off of indigenous culture/folklore by selling plushes of the creature in its image. The creature is used to represent (from what i've been told) native americans being displaced and their people being horribly mistreated by colonizers. It's representitve of trauma. Knowing what i know from natives in this community and outside of it, it feels extra gross and anti-indigenous, what he's doing.

Also turning a creature from indigenous folklore into a 'quirky username' is kind of 😬😬

i would not really suggest him as a content creator to watch

[mistyycowoa]

Confessing my sins to the internet because my irl friends don't know my tumblr

I'm actually a horrible friend and I don't plan to change :)

I'll be a good friend to anyone I actually like and I usually don't associate with people who I don't like, but sometimes there will be an occasional lonely (usually annoying) kid that follows me around. (They're lonely for a reason.) I kinda hate people who are loud literally all the time but I can hold my tongue and this kinda person just doesn't leave because they're not being told directly to leave.

What do I do? I talk to them only when I need them, I make unnecessarily mean comments as a joke, I point out their obvious flaws that I know they have a hard time changing, and all while they still follow me around like I'm not kinda bullying them.

Sometimes I'll treat them like an actual friend when I'm in a good mood, but if I'm not, then the unfortunate victim becomes my emotional punching bag. (I have ways to quickly fix my mood and this is completely unnecessary and I could distance myself until I feel better like how I do with actual friends.) I think this is like. Breadcrumbing? Anyways yeah, toxic shit.

If any of your "friends" treat you like this, they don't see you as a friend. If they leave you doubting if they like you or not, leave you doubting if you're actually friends, they probably don't see you as a friend. (because that's the case for me :3 )

I'm a horrible human being and I don't feel nearly as bad as I should about it :)

[littlepillbugs]

On my site: Cat breeding genes simulator

Use it here!

Note: The ginger gene is sex-linked, so only the XX parent (the queen) can be a tortie/calico in this simulation. But feel free to use this for gay cat pairings if you want to

[mrrosedoodler]

News Update

Let's start with what's going on in Palestine today. On June 25th, 2024, Israeli forces have targeted five displacement camps, have attacked a home in Khan Younis and a tent in al-Mawasi that was sheltering people. Said attack has killed and injured at least six people at the time of this report.

Famine continues to be a struggle for Palestinians, as they are left with little to nothing to feed themselves and their families. Families have been resorting to eating grass, animal feed, and anything they can get their hands on to try and keep themselves alive.

Two schools have been bombed and set ablaze, killing 14 people thus far.

The current death toll for Palestinians stands at 37,658 deaths, with an additional 86,237 injured.

(1) (2) (3)

Sudan has been having a humanitarian crisis for years, with the situation only becoming worse.

Since April 15th, 2023, the Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been locked in a violent civil war. Many Sudan residents have had to flee their homes to escape the conflict. On top of all of this, Sudan has been experiencing severe weather events - mainly floods and droughts. Crops and livestock have dwindled, bringing about an extreme shortage of food and water.

As of June 10, 2024, 12+ million people have been forced to leave behind their homes and evacuate.

Almost 15,000 people have been killed as of April 19, 2024.

(1) (2) (3)

Here are some charities you can donate to in order to help Palestine and Sudan;

PALESTINE -

Palestine Children's Relief Fund

UNRWA

Doctors Without Borders

SUDAN -

CARE

Doctors Without Borders

Sudan Relief Fund

If you can't help monetarily, spread the word and look into this document for ways to help Palestine. I'm going to start looking into ways to help Sudan outside of charities - if anyone has anything they can contribute, please reach out!

[yaboijakie]

context: i never watched rvb zero, i watched one episode and just never felt the desire to continue watching it

however i am currently rewatching the rvb series with a friend who is watching it for the first time, so i'm willing to give rvb zero a chance once we get to it. maybe it isn't as bad as i saw people say it was

but i got curious and decided to look into the reactions towards it and also learned a bit more about how the season was made and all i can say is

what the fuck were they thinking

[im-not-buying-it-ether]

Ok so!

My mind is an overtime worker with benefits that loves its job, and holy moley does having writer friends get those extra hours in

So, Reverse Robin Au’s right? General consensus I see is that Tim gets JJ’d in those worlds to coincide with Jason getting crowbarred and/or Steph goes and has her revenge on Black Mask a-la Jason’s revenge on the Joker

My friend, @thefantasmarex, shared their idea and we got to chatting and I thought “Huh, what about a reverse YJ?”

Reverse in the fact that they have their lives swapped with their other counterparts or more villainous characters like them to fit an Outlaws model to go with the Reverse Robins! Tim and Steph

My mind went to swapping Kon with Match, making Kon an initially obedient clone who escaped and has a degenerative issue with his body YJ!outlaws helped him with when they found him. With this swap Kon isn’t a mixed DNA clone, he’s a genetic ‘Match’ to Superman but is really unstable and needs maintenance CADMUS can’t keep up with for their pet superhero so he’s left to die after a mission gone wrong, so he names himself Matthew after getting consciousness the same way he elongated his Kryptonian name. Kon -> Conner, Match -> Matthew

Bart is swapped with Inertia, aged slower instead of faster and this chaotic kid who’s way to smart and aware for his age bc he aged really messed up. I named him Ardor.

Cassie, in lack of villains or nemeses I knew about for her, is swapped with Artemis of Bana-Mighdall. Having been scooped up by Amazons while with her mom at a dig after she’d wandered off really young and was raised as a warrior in the same vein as Artemis, going in this AU but he name Hestia instead.

Plus, I toyed around with the thought of Artemis and “Match” still being around the same way Jason comes into okay and becomes the next Robin later. The new ‘Superboy’ is a mix of Superman and a human donor to be more stabilized but is more attention seeking and only cares about heroism when it’s caught on camera, leaning into being the perfect pet superhero because it gets him what he wants: Adoration from his fans and praise from his creators.

From what I read (admittedly from a few wiki’s and feel free to correct me or add on) Artemis was raised by patriotic American soldiers as parents (??) so while she gets Cassie’s old backstory she’s also a bit flawed, earning the recognition that grants her the blessing that empower her to be like an Amazon but leans more towards the fighting and warrior spirit bit of it all and not the diplomatic “fight with compassion and love” side of it all Diana also promotes.

[birds-are-cool90]

One of my favorite past times is to go on the transformers wiki and find the most obscure characters for example did you know that Blaster has a brother who turns into a Toaster who showed up once in idw more than meets the eye he does show up in the marvel comics but I haven't read those yet.

[bretwalda-lamnguin]

Ptolemaic Gondor?

Tolkien named Ancient Egypt as one of the inspirations for Gondor-particularly aesthetically and in their capacity for grand architecture. The crown of Gondor also resembles the crown of Upper Egypt, tall and conical, with similar symbolism between the combining of the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt and the combination of the Gondorian crown with the Arnorian diadem-the Elendilmir. I think there is also a deeper link between Gondor and Ancient Egypt, particularly Egypt under the Ptolemaic dynasty, the last to rule Egypt before the Romans annexed it.

Under the cut for a brief history of Ptolemaic Egypt and what that has to do with Gondor!

The Ptolemies were descended from one of Alexander the Great’s generals, called, unsurprisingly, Ptolemy. Alexander and his army were from Macedon, a northern Greek kingdom. In the chaos after Alexander’s death his generals carved up his empire, with Ptolemy rushing to Egypt and having himself proclaimed Pharaoh. The Ptolemaic dynasty ruled from Alexandria, a city founded by Alexander in the Nile delta, on the shores of the Mediterranean. Ptolemy was a Macedonian, and many other Macedonians, both soldiers of Alexander and others, followed them to Egypt. Alexandria became a great centre of Greek Hellenic culture dominated by Macedonians, who became basically a ruling class of this new Ptolemaic state. The highest offices of government were reserved for Macedonians, Macedonian Greek was the court language, the military was made up (at first at least) of Macedonians and mercenaries, with no recruitment from the Egyptian population. The traditional Egyptian religion and the role of the Pharaoh within it remained (with some Greek introductions), but in most other things Macedonians and their customs dominated. No Ptolemaic Pharaoh even knew how to speak Egyptian until Cleopatra VII (yes, that’s THE Cleopatra), the last ruler of the dynasty! Even she seems to have done little to better integrate Egyptians and Macedonians, with the Macedonians remaining firmly in charge until the Romans annexed Egypt.

Now the Ptolemies were not the only successors of Alexander, and one of their main rivals were the Seleucid empire, founded by fellow Macedonian general Seleucus. The Ptolemies often fought for control of the Levant in the Syrian wars. During the reign of Ptolemy IV the Ptolemies and Seleucids were embroiled in the fourth Syrian war. Faced with manpower shortages within the Macedonian ruling class, Ptolemy IV’s army included Egyptians trained to fight in the Macedonian style as part of the phalanx. At Raphia, Ptolemy IV won a decisive victory, with the Egyptian troops playing a key role in the battle. While this did improve the lot of Egyptians within Ptolemaic Egypt, Macedonians continued to dominate both the state and the military, and the failure to further integrate Egyptians into the army contributed to the weakening of the Ptolemaic state, which enjoyed arguably its finest hour at Raphia. A succession of poor rulers and civil war would see the state decline, eventually being annexed into the Roman empire after the death of Cleopatra VII.

Now, how does that fit with Gondor?

Gondor was founded by Númenorian exiles, with a Númenorian ruling class. Its main languages are Westron (descended from Númenorian Andunaic) and Sindarin, a common language among certain Númenorian communities. Comparisons may be made between Alexandria and cities like Pelargir and Osgiliath as centres of Númenorian dominance and culture (Pelargir especially, there is a reason Castamir liked it so much). And, like Ptolemaic Egypt, it seems like Númenorians dominated the military, with other peoples excluded. To quote Faramir:

“But the stewards were wiser and more fortunate. Wiser, for they recruited the strength of our people from the sturdy folk of the sea-coast, and from the hardy mountaineers of Ered Nimrais.”

This would seem to imply that prior to this, these peoples were excluded, and Númenorians dominated the military. But the Gondorians learned their lesson, at least to a greater degree than the Ptolemies did, and were able to slow their decline by better integrating non-Númenorians into the state. Númenorians still hold the highest positions of power (Denethor and Imrahil are the two most powerful men in the country in the late third age, both are Númenorians), but military discrimination is at least heavily reduced.

The appendices and unfinished tales do say that Northmen were recruited into the Gondorian military after the Kin-Strife, and mentions them in Eärnur’s army sent to fight Angmar. These may have been analogous to the mercenary forces used by the Ptolemies, rather than representing a widening of recruitment (though many Northmen did settle in Gondor after the Kin-Strife).

Obviously the comparisons are not 1:1, but I think early Gondor may well have resembled Ptolemaic Egypt in the structure and stratification of society. I suspect that this began heavily breaking down after the Kin-Strife. For a start, a lot of Númenorians are dead, or have been forced to renounce their ancestry by Eldacar. The Gondorians will need to look elsewhere for a supply of manpower. Númenorian supremacy may well start being seen as treasonous due to Castamir’s actions, and an active threat to the continued existence of the Gondorian state. By Denethor II’s time the Gondorian army seems far more diverse, and even many of the aristocrats may well be non-Númenorian (though again, Denethor and Imrahil occupy the most powerful positions).

[angie-da-spoof]

Listen up

For anyone who is somehow not aware what is going on, or is, in Palestine, I want to inform or remind you with whatever knowledge I have. Right now Palestinians are being bombed, tortured, and misplaced from their families. They are without clean water and little food, and almost all houses have been destroyed. Israel is trying to paint the murder they committed as justifiable because Palestinians are "dangerous", and because they deserve their turn at a genocide too. Promised refuge and safety they fled to Gaza, only to be met with more death. They are STEALING the land away from Palestinians, forcing them bit by bit to either hand over $10,000 per person to evacuate, to resist and survive the best they can, or to die. More than 35,000 Palestinians have died, about 5,100 being children. 100 Palestinian journalists have been murdered in an attempt to silence them, so, if you are supporting companies that are funding the genocide against them, shame on you. If you think or say that speaking out against Israeli is "anti-semitic", shame on you. If you believe that because this doesn't affect you it doesn't matter, shame on you. If you are refraining from speaking out because you "don't know enough", shame on you. If you know what is happening and aren't doing anything, anything at all, Shame. On. You. As said by Elie Wiesel-an author who wrote many books on another very important and sickening genocide, the Holocaust- in his speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, "And then I explain to him how naive we were, that the world did know and remained silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent when and wherever human beings endure suf- fering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." Now, I'm asking you to think. Think reeeeaaalll hard about what's going on. Is it right to stay silent? Is it right, to just ignore everything as Palestinians are being bombed and murdered at this very moment? Is it right, to go to Starbucks because you can't go without your fucking vanilla latte? Even what I'm doing is not enough, and if you're wondering, "then what is?" I can tell you: Banding together and protesting, donating, speaking out, doing all of that, ENDING the genocide for fucks sake. That is what would be enough.

[azrantimes]

Shazam #15 spoilers ahead

I don't know what to think about Freddy possibly getting his powers back. Like for one I'm holding out hope that he'll be more involved in the future but I don't really like how they're trying to get their pre new 52 dynamics back at the cost of the rest of the family. And yeah, it's a big part of Freddy's character, especially in current comics, to yearn to be a superhero, but I wished it was more thought out.

Like when Freddy was introduced he was one of the better representations of disability. If you think about the 40s and how many people became disabled because of the war, than it was nice to see someone making the best of it, but the needs for representation have shifted, especially with Freddy not gaining his disability from an accident (if my memory of teen titans academy is right atleast). Again, I don't like how Billy and Mary became the main focus of the shazam brand. Yes, Billy is obviously gonna have a bigger role, and The New Champion is my favorite run, but like it or not, the Vasquez's are very important to Billy's character in this continuity, there should be a focus on the shazamily, even if not all of them are active heroes, it shouldn't be the Mary and Billy show because people want back to the golden age.

Back to Freddy, and this part is really my experience, nothing in this post is objective. His grief for being disabled AND losing his powers are important, but the comics seem to really push the "I am miserable without my powers" mindset which is a choice, but without really acknowledging his disability (I do feel this run and post-new 52 comics in general handle it pretty well) it isn't pleasant to see him get his powers back and make it seem like he is whole again. This run has been very fun tho, so I hope the next issue will have me change my mind, and hopefully include more of Freddy and the rest.

This I just what I thought as a physically disabled person, but I'm only one guy, and I have the unpopular opinion of preferring the modern shazamily dynamic over the classic marvel family so I'm biased.