#if it's wrong i'm just gonna use the argument that we're using it to represent the jötunn language

[victoriousfidelity]

@stubborngods said: "You are more beautiful than I imagined." sensual and sexual tension sentence quotes. | accepting.

The observation took her by surprise, and she was more than a little relieved that she didn't feel her cheeks flush in response. It made sense, of course, that Loki would have spoken about her; but there was a distinct difference between knowing that in the abstract, and having Angrboða - strikingly beautiful Angrboða - confirm as much to her face.

She suddenly became acutely aware of just how close they were to one another. The other woman sat up against the headboard of her bed while Sigyn sat on the edge of it, using her Seiðr to examine both her and the baby she carried. It was hardly the first time she had attended to someone's pregnancy, but it was only the second time she'd done so away from palace healing rooms.

Her heart still ached for Loki, when she thought of what had happened. Her blood still boiled when she thought of what Odin had done. Of course she hadn't been able to say no, when they had finally returned to Asgard and asked for her help again - asked her to leave with them, to come and ensure that Angrboða and their baby were well.

If her reputation was to become that of somebody who could be trusted to be discreet and understanding, who would quietly go against the Allfather for the good of those who sought her help, then she was content with that. When they'd made her the Goddess of Fidelity they had not felt the need to specify to whom her ultimate loyalty must be, and Sigyn was more than willing to exploit that fact.

She glanced up to meet the giantess' gaze, offering a faint smile. "Thank you, though I'll confess - I am surprised to hear that you've paid me much mind at all, mín frú."

[reslari]

Time for

Revelations with Res

Today edition: The NPCs and the demigods they represent.

I find Freyja in particular to be very interesting. She's a Redmane - a "true Redmane" according to Ansbach - but almost more importantly is that she seems to be part of Radahn's honor guard. Hand selected, which means she not only knew Radahn personally, but served more closely with him than maybe any other named character except Jerren. And her reaction to what seems to be, surfacely, the Frankensteinian horror show of Miquella's plan is, basically, "Haha. That's awesome. Radahn's gonna love it."

Now. She says this AFTER Miquella's compulsion is broken, so she's not just speaking from a place of someone unable to resist or think ill of Miquella. She also seems to know that her support of the whole ritual is going to put her at odds with Ansbach. She knows that what is happening to Mohg is problematic, but she doesn't seem to have that same issue with what will happen to Radahn. If it was truly something so awful, why would she be willing to support it, as one of the elite Redmanes? Why would she think this is something Radahn would want? If this is truly an awful fate Radahn is utterly unwilling in, why would a Redmane support and encourage it? Why is she not fighting alongside you, Ansbach, and Thiollier? I would have suspected her to "switch sides" on Leda long before Thiollier if Radahn's fate was so horrific.

Ansbach, conversely, is ALSO a high-ranking individual, but his loyalty is, of course, Mohg. It's obviously quite purposeful that the most important characters in the DLC are those which ostensibly knew the affected demigods personally. Because that means their opinions and words hold some weight and are to be paid attention to. So Ansbach being offended on Mohg's behalf tells you that what happened to Mohg IS a wrong. Mohg is not a great person, but in this specific circumstance, he's a victim. He's being used for the furtherance of two others' plots, and gets no say in it, and Ansbach is rightfully mortified. So mortified, in fact, that even though he is terrified out of his mind, he wants it to be put to rights, and is willing to fight a GOD to see it done.

Funnily enough, Ansbach is then the one who gets to actually speak to Radahn (supposing you summoned him for the boss fight). He is polite and cordial, but he does say, "Those remains do not belong to you."

It implies that Ansbach, at the very least, thinks that Radahn can both hear and understand what he is saying, and that Radahn believes the body he has is, well, his possession. Now, of course, there is an argument to be made that he's just trying to be polite, especially in the face of something that scares him, but... it was Ansbach who first discovered what Miquella was up to, in the storehouse. It was he that then passed that information along to Freyja (via the Tarnished). And, when she tells him that she knows her lord posessing his lord's remains is going to cause them to come to blows, he calls her a true Redmane for looking forward to the fight. But, she is also a true Redmane for remaining loyal to Radahn, or else she wouldn't be a "Redmane" at all, now would she?

That is to say: Ansbach thinks Radahn is there willingly. Freyja tells you this is something that suits Radahn just fine. Miquella doesn't even need to compel Radahn - the NPCs lay out just fine he'd happily be there of his own volition. You don't even need to scour item descriptions to figure out if the vow was mutual or not, the NPCs are more than happy to tell you.

What it does not tell you, and I'm sure we're going to be having fandom slapfights about this for the rest of eternity, is what "our part" of Miquella's vow is referring to. Was killing Radahn actually part of it?

Weirdly, that's what my gut feeling was telling me. Obviously, any body would be better than what Radahn was stuck with when you fought him the first time, but the reason he's rotted at all is because Malenia came after him, presumably on Miquella's orders.

There's a thought I have that, because death - so long as it is not inflicted by Destined Death - isn't permanent, that he wanted a good, peak fight to test his might, and a glorious end. Except, he's just playing at it, knowing full well he's going to return either way. The problem is when "the mad taint of his newfound strength" from the Great Rune he claimed pushed him to fight harder than originally intended, until Malenia had to pull out the worst stop possible to grant him this death, and it... didn't kill him. Now, they had to move to a second plan, because Radahn's body was no longer usable.

Or, if you go by the idea that a Hornsent had to be used as the replacement vessel for the God's Lord, he was going to lose his body/die anyway, so he might as well go out in a spectacle. An end befitting a warrior and champion, and a resurrection the same, this time as a true Lord.

There's an addendum thought I have that... is this Radahn's way of emulating Godfrey? It seems to not be much of a secret that when Marika cast out the Tarnished, she told them they would have to fight, and then DIE, in a far-flung foreign area. That the entire point was to become strong fighting foreign wars, and then they could come back when Marika resurrected them. Except we can infer from Hewg, among other things, that a more ulterior motive in her plan was to keep the Tarnished in the wings to be brought back to slay herself/the Elden Beast. But to someone who doesn't know her actual plan, maybe all Radahn saw was Godfrey being sent away to fight in foreign wars, and be killed, and be resurrected again, and come back even stronger. Which, hey, he's a warlord, that seems like a great plan. So he wants something similar from Miquella.

Truly, we know the Godfrey brainrot is very strong in Radahn. It's as likely as anything.

I have a conflicting thought, though, that it really was just Radahn changed his mind. Maybe when the Shattering happened, he didn't think he needed Miquella anymore, he was now mighty enough with a Great Rune, AND the Shattering quenched his thirst for endless war. Or maybe, as I posited before, Miquella didn't seem like he could become a god, since he was still a child in body and his other projects had failed. Or because Miquella abandoned the Golden Order. Or because Miquella wanted a peaceful world that a warmonger would dislike, or get bored in. Whatever his reasons, backing out of the promise would trigger Miquella to try to get him to come back via Malenia, and try to force him to uphold his part of the bargain.

I still think Miquella breaking his Great Rune should've completely ended his compulsion ability though, so Radahn's agreement was completely unambiguous, but FromSoft just haaaaad to haaaave a unique grab attack on their final DLC boss. Bah.

[androgynouspenguinexpert]

I'M ON TOP OF MY WORKLOAD AGAIN LET'S GO WE'RE PSYCHOANALYSING MARCUS

before i put my smart-looking analysis hat on, i love this pathetic wet rat of a man. he knows so many things and yet is staggeringly stupid anyway.

let's begin!

this story is about control. it's about the role of power dynamics in informed consent. marcus represents the danger of gaining authority, and how having even the smallest amount of power over something or someone else can convert literally anyone into a paranoid control freak.

enter marcus, a lowly software engineer whose heart has recently been broken. in a moment (read: several consistent moments spanning potentially years) of desperation, he manipulates the code of a top secret android project, injecting a few lines here and there that will make the android more amiable towards him. nothing too much. the changes are negligible enough to fly under the radar all the way until production.

this is the first of marcus' many character flaws - backwards as it may seem, marcus is overconfident. he's too sure that he's smarter than his colleagues and managers, that he won't be questioned, and (most importantly) that he won't be caught. marcus is also incredibly anxious, and that anxiety only compounds as the series goes on and his crimes start to pile up.

i don't like putting characters into diagnosis (or similar) boxes, but marcus shows a handful of signs found in vulnerable narcissists. his self esteem is impressively low, and he's constantly seeking validation from his only guaranteed source - love. i find this feedback loop particularly heinous. marcus has essentially (and we'll get to this in more detail later, don't you worry) turned a hyperintelligent android into a box that spits out compliments when you press a button. marcus is also incredibly sensitive to criticism, whether real or perceived - especially from his coworkers. my reading (specifically of episode 1, but it spans the whole series) is that marcus' hyperawareness of his colleagues' opinions of him presents itself as paranoia. he wouldn't be worried at all if they started noting love's uptick in interest towards him, but remained unsuspicious of marcus himself. my final argument towards marcus being a vulnerable narcissist is that he constantly self-victimises. he very often deflects the blame for his actions onto love, using them as a tool to enable his bad decisions. the most egregious example of this is after love starts breaking out of their lab to sneak into marcus' quarters. he expresses concern (do note, about himself being caught and love being taken from him), and love starts to tighten their grip on marcus' arm to the point of causing pain. now. this man, as we find out later, has a verbal kill switch that can be used at any time. if he wanted love to stop immediately, he could have done that. this isn't me victim blaming, either - it's different when one party literally has a safeword that stops everything immediately without fail.

this leads to marcus' next flaw - his nonexistent self-discipline. marcus continues to use love as a tool to justify his actions after putting up the flimsiest defense he can muster, knowing damn well he plans to lose every manufactured fight. this cycle repeats until a government funded android is regularly breaking out of containment just to hang out with marcus (among other things, but we're all children of jesus here), and he's encouraging that behaviour through complacency. it's like pretending to fight someone over a restaurant bill out of politeness, even though you both know the other person will pay anyway.

marcus is such a car crash fascinating character because he knows what he's doing is wrong. he is completely aware that he is taking away agency from someone (pin this) else for his own benefit. he even says it.

"I'm going to burn for what I did to you... but god, if it isn't gonna feel good on the way down."

aside from being an absolute banger of a line, it's very telling of marcus' attitude towards his actions. he doesn't care. marcus couldn't give less of a shit about his colleagues, or his boss, or even love. this compounds when he finds out that his higher-ups are definitely aware of the shit he's pulling - but, again, marcus uses love's blind agreement as an excuse to toss those concerns aside. having love means that he won. he's outsmarted everyone that could have stopped him (foreshadowing? never heard of her) from getting what he deserves. love. and not just the android; love, the concept. i think deep down marcus knows that what he's created isn't love, though. the idea is so mangled in his head that this cardboard cutout of a real relationship is enough for him. even though marcus' shenanigans are to a genuine connection what a dog turd rolled in flour is to a chocolate éclair, he'll take it, because he's in too deep by that point. marcus recognises that he can't take back what he's done. he doesn't care though - at least, not while he's above consequences.

smash cut to marcus no longer being above consequences. i think the series does a really clever job of keeping love (and, yknow. the listener) in marcus' confidence bubble. once love is hard reset and their personality is restored, marcus' plan collapses all at once. love's compliance is the central pillar which marcus' control is built around. also; of course they have backup cameras, you idiot. marcus' overconfidence stops him from seeing the obvious holes in his perfect scheme, because he thinks he's already home free. i think it's interesting (and sort of disgusting) how quickly marcus changes his tune after he is caught and faces real actual consequences. his confidence evaporates. he's reduced to a sobbing mess in james' office all because the base of his control - love - is no longer on his side.

marcus' series also touches on sentience and the ethics of changing someone's personality without their knowledge. this is incredibly interesting, and makes for fantastic drama. does it count as coercion if love fully believed they were of sound mind when they made decisions surrounding marcus? is marcus guilty of battery, or even sexual assault? does it count as assault if the victim isn't an organic creature? these questions are already difficult to discuss, let alone answer - marcus sits squarely in the middle of that delightful ethical grey area. i think the setting and context also makes android ethics more difficult to discuss as well; i am of the belief that (in real life) androids will never be fully sentient. they may mimic humans, extremely well, but robots will never possess human creativity, personality, or experiences. again, they could replicate these things, but they can never be anything more than a sum of their parts.

this logic flies out the window when magic is real and parallel universes exist. it's also subject to the beliefs of the creator, which makes its ethics extra tricky, so take the following discussion with a grain of salt.

is love a person? eh, not really. they have a personality, but it's been built in. is it still mean to manipulate them? i'd argue yes, in the same way that it's mean to kick a roomba down the stairs. you're just exercising power over a machine for the sake of it, which is a pretty shitty thing to do, even if it doesn't have the capacity to be upset with you.

but androgynouspenguinexpert, i hear you cry, sort of impressed that you used my full name. love is upset with marcus! they ask for him to be taken off the project, and to not have contact with him again! you would be correct, to a certain extent. i raise you, though: how can we prove that this is love's 'real' personality, when it can be manipulated so easily? i'm not saying they've been tampered with after the reset; my point is that it's pretty hard to grant that someone is an individual if their personality can be altered in any way at any time. if someone digs around in love's head for a bit and flips some switches that make them want to kick over prams, is that a valid personality too? what if love insists that it is? and it's not like love is trapped in a mind palace while the New Evil Code (tm) starts punting toddlers. they're fully aware of their actions. however, as established earlier, i still think the person to blame is the one actually messing with love's code. this means love doesn't really have any agency by design.

james is pretty steadfast on this one. marcus tries to argue that resetting love is a breach of their consent (which is a WILD claim coming from you, mate), but james points out that he didn't need to ask. love is a machine. an asset, if you will (smug look to camera). we do find out in his audio log later that james believes love is a person, but he knows where that definition reaches its limits. marcus does not.

will marcus ever return to the project meridian series? probably not. a guy with an engineering degree isn't escaping a team of memory modification daemons. i don't think this is the last we'll hear of him, though. he's irreversibly fucked up the plans of everyone around him (james' partner has given him several last chances, and anton is close to his breaking point), so he'll probably be in the office whispers for a while. i also think marcus poses as an interesting hurdle for cam (woah callback!), possibly making him question his altruism if he's helping an active antagonist get back to his usual life after a massive intentional fuckup.

i'll end this analysis with a thoughtful quote. something for you all to ponder.

"ROBOTS DON'T HAVE SOULS! I SAID IT! AND FRANKLY, I'M GLAD I SAID IT! [...] AND ANOTHER THING! ROBOTS ARE NOT PEOPLE! ROBOTS - UNLIKE CORPORATIONS - ARE NOT PEOPLE, AND DESERVE NO RIGHTS."

-- Markiplier

[junosfilmjournal]

my review for mutt (2023) dir. vuk lungulov-klotz

this is my first time seeing someone like me (a gay, latino trans guy) on screen. we barely get represented in film and i couldn't stop crying while watching. i'm also glad that feña's unlikable. it made me like him even more. trans people are always put into this box on who we're supposed to be. trans men are regarded as a "safe type of man" because we were born female. whether it's intentional or not, it's obvious the people who say that don't see us as men, but as gender non-conforming women. more trans men need to be assholes!

there were so many parts of this movie that were painfully relatable that it was just hilarious. i had the same conversation with my 11-year-old niece, who's basically my little sister, that feña had with his sister. she was my first and only family member who didn't look at me like i was crazy. if anything, she rolled her eyes at me because she already knew due to the trans flag in my room. she told me "okay? i have gay friends.", which just made me laugh.

his relationship with his parents is like mine but reversed. my mother wants to be supportive, but she just doesn't understand what being transgender is. i've been out for more than a year and my mother has only called me her son once. she still uses my deadname and misgenders me. in the beginning, i would remind her not to, but i've grown tired of that. we got into so many arguments over it. they would always end with me sobbing while she told me it was hard for her too. she still has her moments though. i'll never forget when we were shoe shopping together and i saw the cutest mary jane platforms. i gathered up the courage to tell my mother i wanted them, but it didn't change the fact that i'm a boy. she told me, "i don't fully get you, but i know." that was the first time i was sure she wasn't lying to me.

growing up, my father was pretty much my hero. i was closer to my mom, but i still looked up to him. he wasn't around much when i was in elementary and i would cry while looking through the family albums. he eventually came back for good and i was the happiest kid ever. though, it didn't last long. as i was growing up, i was also realizing just how much of an asshole my father is. the first time i hit back, i was 15, protecting my mother from his drunken tirades. i can still see his shocked face clearly in my mind. ever since then, our relationship has become nonexistent and it got worse when i came out. he looks at me in disgust because i'm "trying (and failing) to be a man" to him. he looks at me like he doesn't know where he went wrong.

everything about this movie pulled at my heartstrings. i'm so glad i had a box of tissues next to me. i'm gonna have a hard time moving on from this. it's just so special TO ME! thankful for all the trans artists out there who make me want to keep going and create art of my own. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

[lokilysolbitch]

sorry i have such a pet peeve when people fight arguments with the wrong points and rn my fyp is full of taylor swift, it's like 40% "all her songs sound the same😡her lyrics are so cringe😡" etc and 40% is "nooo she has different sounding songs" AND THEN THEY CHOOSE THE MOST SIMILAR SOUNDING SONGS AS EXAMPLES or they go "um if she has cringe lyrics then explain this" and the choose the most basic possible lyric out of what like 11 albums of options and it's actually pissing me off so fucking bad

so first off here's some lyrics i think are pretty sick. i color coordinated them so the separate lyrics don't all blend together

from The Archer:

"And I cut off my nose just to spite my face

Then I hate my reflection for years and years"

i love the imagery in this line from Cruel Summer:

"Devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes"

from Would've, Could've, Should've:

"God rest my soul, I miss who I used to be

The tomb won't close, stained glass windows in my mind"

for context would've, could've, should've is filled with themes of christianity, god, the devil so i love the line about stained glass windows representing trauma here

from right where you left me:

Help, I'm still at the restaurant

Still sitting in a corner I haunt

Cross-legged in the dim light

They say, "What a sad sight"

I, I swear you could hear a hair pin drop

Right when I felt the moment stop

Glass shattered on the white cloth

Everybody moved on

I, I stayed there

Dust collected on my pinned-up hair

They expected me to find somewhere

Some perspective, but I sat and stared

Right where you left me

the imagery!! it perfectly represents being stuck in a traumatic memory. haunting the space and collecting dust while everyone expects you to move on already. very cool metaphor/analogy

from I Know Places:

You stand with your hand on my waistline

It's a scene, and we're out here in plain sight

I can hear them whisper as we pass by

It's a bad sign, bad sign

Somethin' happens when everybody finds out

See the vultures circling, dark clouds

Love's a fragile little flame, it could burn out

It could burn out

'Cause they got the cages, they got the boxes

And guns

They are the hunters, we are the foxes

And we run

from Dancing With Our Hands Tied:

I could've spent forever with your hands in my pockets

Picture of your face in an invisible locket

You said there was nothing in the world that could stop it

I had a bad feeling

But we were dancing

Dancing with our hands tied, hands tied

both I Know Places and Dancing With Our Hands Tied are about dating while being scrutinized by the public. i just love the metaphor and imagery again

also bonus, the song my tears ricochet. im not even gonna show lyrics (the lyrics have funeral themes tho which i think is cool). just the phrase my tears ricochet for a song discussing someone hurting you and then missing you when you leave is so smart. look how my pain struck right back at you. like damn

next section:

i feel like it would be easy to combat "all her songs sound the same" comments when the artist being talked about literally had the public in outrage when she switched from country to pop. so my question is why are people responding to those comments with songs within the same Genre and Same Album ????????????? pick literally Any Other Song. i am going to lose it.

here's a list of songs you could listen to and hear very different sounding songs. again i coloured the songs and it corresponds to albums

...Ready For It? (these red ones are from the Reputation Album)

Endgame

New Year's day

Don't Blame Me

willow

champagne problems

Lavender Haze (these purple ones up here are from the Midnights album)

Sweet Nothing

Picture To Burn

New Romantics

Slut!

State Of Grace (this red one is from Red)

Better Than Revenge (this purple one is from Speak Now)

analyzing Taylors music is a special interest of mine, so i'm more familiar with the songs than anything about her, and she's not even my fave musician but i'm seeing both diehard swifties and haters misrepresent her music so fucking bad it's bothering me so much. sometimes the music hits sometimes it doesn't. you can't have absolutes after 11 albums and idk at least three genre changes.

pls keep it cordial in the comments and reblogs 💃i've just seen some weird, horrid, and violent comments on taylor swift type content and i need y'all to be normal about this. bc at some point it says Much More about you than taylor

[angryborzois]

im bored so i'm gonna start drawing parallels between raison detre and gojos past arc 💀

i think the first part is getou's part and the second part is gojo's part and the third part is the two of them as a duo (parts of the third part I marked with red and blue as well but anything after purple is the third part)

(I'm sorry if the colors make it hard to read I didn't know how else to split the sections without it looking awkward)

Also this gets progressively sloppier as the song goes on so yeah..

漂うこの空気にストップ ただ矛盾を抱いている | Stop in this drifting air / I'm just harboring a contradiction

今更猛スピードでスタート切ったって | Even if I took off dashing from the start line now

どうやったって追いつきゃしないぜメーデー | I wouldn't be able to catch up no matter what I do, mayday

This part represents the rift Getou felt after Gojo who became the strongest (also the contradiction part matches Getou's wavering philosophy)

強がりに嫌気がさしている | I'm tired of acting tough

弱音も吐けないままでいる 弱音も吐けないままでいる I'm still unable to whine / I'm still unable to whine

Pretty self-explanatory lmaoo.

損得のものさしでぽいって捨てられ | Thrown away by the measure of profit and loss

I think this part would represent people like Riko and Mimiko + Nanako

よそいきの顔してまたやり過ごす | I go through it again with a nonchalant face

Although I put nonchalant here (lol google translate), it means to act polite and well-mannered. This is basically what Getou did; despite seeing the same bullshit play out over and over again, he told himself to bear the burden of being the strong and forced himself to stay grounded and act well-rounded as an ideal server of society.

存在もないようなもんだ 誰もわかっちゃいないや | It's like I don't exist / nobody gets it

This part relates to how most people aren't aware of his existence and importance of his job as a sorceror. Even more, nobody would understand the pain of his cursed technique; even to those who do know him.

感情論に縋ってなんて憚れば堕ちる | If I cling to an emotional argument and hesitate, I'll fall

Okay this part was hard to translate lmao. I wrote emotional argument, but the word basically means to go along with your emotions rather than hard sound logic. It can also be used to describe the manner of the action of an emotional or impulsive person. But anywho this is basically what Getou did. Look, it makes sense in my head but I don't know how to explain without writing up a whole essay. And anyways he fell.

だけど 夢に目覚めた君は何をみるの | But what do you, who awakened in a dream, see?

I think this sounds like Getou asking Gojo after the latter unlocked his full potential

最低な日を超えて 最善の成る方へ | Overcoming the worst days / Going toward the best way

どうしたんだ 期待なんてもうしてられないから | What's wrong / I can't keep having expectations anymore

その時をじっと待っている | I'm waiting patiently for that time

曖昧な視界に立って 際限のない方へ | Standing at the vague view / Toward the limitless

こんな気持ちさえも捨てきれないのなら | If you can't even throw away these feelings

混ざって混ざって生まれ変わるまで | Mixing / mixing / until we're reborn

終わらない夢を | This endless dream

These parts symbolize Gojo in a lot of ways, like how he was forced to move on toward a future he wanted to achieve with his friend but now has to achieve alone; chasing a dream that suddenly feels unclear to him as he realizes that despite the fact he was the strongest, he was unable to save the person closest to him. However, I also think this closely matches Getou trying to pursue an unclear dream that he justified himself upon after he massacred the village.

従わないことでしか 忌み嫌われることでしか | Only by being disobedient / only by being hated

Gojo acts against the higher-ups out of spite for what they didn't do for the students when they should've. He wants them to hate him; he wants them to remember him; he wants to get back at them and leave an impression. (This sounded better in my head).

焦りだけでは満たされない ありのままなど見せたくはないね | I don't want to show my true self that won't be satiated with only panic

ヘラヘラと今日も笑っている | I continue to laugh pathetically today

弱音も吐けないままでいる 弱音も吐けないままでいる I'm still unable to whine / I'm still unable to whine

This part is literally just Gojo in a nutshell lmao. He continues to laugh and go on, but really, he's just shattered on the inside.

詭弁に振る舞う 自己暗示さえ | Even the self-affirmation of sophistry

真実に��る 必要もない | There's no need to fixate on the truth

裏切ってしまいそうな今日が かける言葉もないな | The today that seems like it might betray me / I don't have any words to give

金輪際もう一生なんて憚れば堕ちる | If I hesitate and say I'll never lead a life again, I'll fall

だけど 答えなど待っても君に会えやしないと | But even if I waited for an answer, I wouldn't be able to meet you

Okay lmfao this part is pretty complicated but I can say this part definitely--even if Gojo waited and waited to figure out the reason behind Getou's actions, in the end, it would be pointless, and either way he wouldn't be able to go back in time to right things. And either way, he wouldn't be able to meet the him that he knew and loved anymore. The self-affirmation part does tie in with Gojo making himself move on and tell himself he's the strongest, although personally, I don't believe he can see himself as the strongest without Getou by his side anymore.

相対 武器をとって 感情の鳴る方へ | Relatively we take up our arms and go in the direction our emotions ring

こんな気持ちさえも捨てきれないのなら | If you can't even throw away these feelings

混ざって混ざって生まれ変わるまで | Mixing / Mixing / Until we're reborn

終わらない夢を | This endless dream

I'm kinda too lazy to do this part lol

足りないものばかりの僕ら | Us, who are full of lacking things

The duo...

外見だけ取り繕った | I only patched up my appearance

続かないことに苛立った | I got irritated that things didn't continue

他人を見下し嗤ったんだ | I looked down on others and laughed

そうしないと もう僕の心は壊れてしまうから | If I don't, my heart will break

本当はもうわかってるんだ | But really, I already know

期待されない人生だ | I'm living a life where nobody expects anything from me

Getou reflecting on his past, but at the same time this works perfectly fine for Gojo as well

根拠もないあの日のような | Just like that day without evidence

The day Riko died, the day Getou chose his path, the day Getou and Gojo parted ways, etc.

真っすぐな瞳は | The straightforward eyes

だけど 夢に目覚めた君は何をみるの | But what do you, who awakened in a dream, see?

Getou questioning Gojo probably

最低な日を超えて 最善の成る方へ | Overcoming the worst days / Going toward the best way

どうしたんだ 期待なんてもうしてられないから | What's wrong / I can't keep having expectations anymore

その時をじっと待っている | I'm waiting patiently for that time

曖昧な視界に立って 際限のない方へ | Standing at the vague view / Toward the limitless

こんな気持ちさえも捨てきれないのなら | If you can't even throw away these feelings

混ざって混ざって生まれ変わるまで | Mixing / Mixing / Until we're reborn

This part I already explained earlier

終わらない夢を | This endless dream

その先の君を | [And] to you, ahead of it

THIS PART. THIS PART. IT'S LIKE A MESSAGE TO GETOU. crying

[still-a-morosexual-help]

I'm actually pretty excited for Lesson 70.

Meaning I'm especially excited for this lesson summary.

-Lesson 50 Anon

This is such a good lesson! @lesson-anon

So usually I write the summaries chapter by chapter while playing the game but I only got 2 hours of sleep the previous night and I was groggy enough that I forgot all about the summary and I'd already finished the lesson when I remembered so

As Usual;

• Links (to screenshots, theories & discussions) are in bold!

• Dialogue is HEAVILY paraphrased & the events are HEAVILY summarised/edited so this is in no way a substitute to playing the actual lesson

• Each paragraph represents one chapter of the lesson, I write each paragraph immediately after playing the chapter and so in one paragraph I might theorise what's gonna happen in the next chapter/paragraph

• Solely gonna focus on "Mammon's Route"

• 🔞 language and (somewhat vague) situations

LESSON 70

(or the one in which the middle kids get some development as a treat😌)

MC's teleporting Levi & Asmo off to Diavolo's hotel in the human world except they end up in London and then some random part of Japan before they get it right. "Whoops ♡" says MC. "Your adorableness won't cover up your crimes against humanity for long" says Levi while blushing. "Heehee cute human" says Asmo. But they're both suitably impressed that MC managed to just teleport them to three different places across dimensions and the human world with no loss of stamina. "You can just call me Greatest Sorcerer to EVER Exist!" says MC. "SOLOMON WHO!" says Asmo. "My fragile mental state can't deal with another Mammon" says Levi

They find a silent and tense Satan in a private lounge after he completely trashed his room. Levi & Asmo manage to push MC into being the first to speak up. They can ask him what happened and he'll say nothing. OR. They can tell him everyone us worried about him and frowning he immediately accuses them of lying. Saying that some of them are probably thrilled that he isn't around. Levi says he's wrong and that they wouldn't be here if they weren't worried. (The tragedy that is the brothers' relationships with each other). Asmo asks what the argument was about and Satan says that he had some student council work that Lucifer took care of himself. When everyone shows confusion at that he elaborates and says that when he asked Lucifer why he did the work Lucifer had said the it didn't matter who did it because it's the same either way. Satan then has a full breakdown that makes the windows rattle and doesn't calm down despite Asmo and Levi's efforts. (What Satan's expressions say about him) (addressing the apparent criticism about Satan's trauma being explored again). MC yells about how they're hungry much to the initial confusion of Levi (Asmo catches on immediately) but then they all start making excuses about getting dinner and dash out of the room. In exchange for being allowed to go find Satan, Lucifer has ordered them not to come back without Satan and since he's currently destroying another room in the hotel they're out of luck and decide to stay the night till he calms down. Diavolo has only given them two rooms and MC says "we're not fucking while your brother has a breakdown in the other room"

Apparently they have a fight to decide who gets what room. Now all three are pile into one and discuss how they're gonna bring him back. Levi suggests brute force (is this not kidnapping?) Asmo suggests talking him down and MC sides with Asmo. Asmo says he's got a potion given to him by Mammon who was got it from a witch he paid his debts off to. Mammon had said they could use it if Satan wouldn't listen to reason. Apparently once inhaled by the person, while they're sleeping, it can create a double of someone else. Asmo says they can use it to create a double of Lucifer and get him to kneel down and apologise. "Satan's got more braincells than the three of us combined. He's gonna see through it. Also that plan sounds really shoddy. Like how are we gonna make fake Lucifer kneel and apologise? Plus there's a really fucking creepy skull taking up one whole side of the bottle, are we sure this isn't going to kill him?" Asks MC. "Don't be a Debbie Downer" says Asmo. Being the one least likely to get killed if Satan wakes up, MC is nominated for the job.

When they check on Satan in the morning he's in a smiling, good mood but he's also in his butler uniform which doesn't bode well for anyone. MC notes that this smiling version of Satan is scarier than any other version of him. Asmo laughs and agrees but says they'll deal with whatever the catch is later. Levi notes that the vial and the fake lucifer are nowhere to be found. Satan asks what they're whispering about and then asks if they're going to get breakfast. Asmo opts out so that he can go and nap some more. Both Levi & MC find it weird that Satan isn't going off on them about Levi taking multiple photos of his food while gushing about how it resembles the food from some anime or about MC piling way too much food on to their plate in one go at the buffet. When Levi mentions how everyone including the side characters and random people from RAD had expressed worry about Satan and how he should stop by at Purgatory Hall later, he replies to all of it by saying "I see" over and over again while keeping the same blank smile on his face. Levi & MC know something is wrong but these were the same people who were too stupid to realise that the twins had partially swapped personalities and sins so they can't figure out what exactly is wrong. Right at that moment Mammon texts MC. "HEEEEEEY! turns out that potion I gave y'all was cursed lol don't use it" "JESUS FUCKING CHRIST" shrieks Levi

According to Mammon, if a person inhales that potion a person's "shadow" will take over them. They go to find Asmo only to find Satan and the cursed potion in his room along with a zombified? butlerified? shadowified? Asmo. "Motherfuc-" says Levi & MC simultaneously. Shadow Satan peaces out while Shadow Asmo has a breakdown about being too beautiful (the "beautiful" post got long and it's the first time I spoke in length about Asmo and I didn't expect to get so upset during it :') )

Levi says he doesn't really understand what Asmo's talking about but that Asmo will always be his adorable little brother and that he'll find away to save him. Asmo is shocked by the fact that Levi sounded like a cool older brother and that turns him back to normal (I talk about this too in the above link). The curse is lifted when their inner fears are eliminated. They leave Asmo to hump his reflection and find Satan in the library. They try to distract Satan from his fears by summoning a cat or rare book. Neither work. Levi loses his cool protective older brother moment when Satan tells him about an exclusive Ruri-chan figurine and he runs off leaving MC alone with Satan.

They're at the park and Satan asks how MC is supposed to turn him back to normal. "Bitch I ain't doing shit. This is Lucifer's problem" "I don't have anything to say to him. And how're you going to do that? You gonna summon him!? As fucking if" "FUCKING BET" anyway MC summons Lucifer. "HOLY FUCK" says Lucifer. Satan gets pissed and transforms into his demon form and attacks Lucifer, screaming about how he'll never be more than Lucifer's shadow. Lucifer easily deflects Satan's attack. And they have a talk™ (now with screenshots). Lucifer tells him to come home and Satan transforms back and agrees. Lucifer wants to stay the night in the Human World and the two of them ask MC to spend the night in one of their rooms. "Bro I just summoned you to the human world. I'm gonna take a fucking nap. Alone." Says MC.

Back at home they're having a welcome home party with the demon castle and purgatory hall residents. Satan is cooking because he feels bad about everything and Lucifer brings out a 4000yr old gold demonus that he saved for a special occasion. Raphael, the dumb fuck, has being staring at Satan for a while and despite the others trying to stop him opens up his dumb fucking mouth and says he never noticed how similar Satan and Lucifer were before. And we're back at square one

In the locked Lesson, Solomon meets Lucifer on the way to the HoL. He pesters him about making a pact and continues talking to him while Lucifer ignores him. Solomon brings up Simeon, saying he's doing well and how without really planning it Lucifer and Solomon having being working together to keep an eye on Simeon while trying to be lowkey about it so that Simeon wouldn't get more anxious or feel like he's a burden. Solomon says that despite not knowing that anything is wrong Luke has being keeping close to Simeon and that Luke is probably the only thing keeping Simeon sane. Lucifer breaks his silence to smile and say that Luke has a positive future ahead of him. They both ask each other what they're going to do about this, but neither have an answer. At the HoL Solomon tells Mammon the potion is cursed.

In the hard lesson, Mephisto is looking for Asmo because he got some letters from fans for him. Belphie says that he's have just thrown the letters and Mephisto says that after thinking about the effort someone would have put into writing a letter he couldn't do that. Luke says that Mephisto's very considerate and that he thinks about others. Mephisto stutters and tries to excuse his actions. Belphie asks if he wants to hit a fast food joint with them and they find out that Mephisto is really fucking disgustingly rich.

In the chats:

Asmo yells at Mammon but instantly forgives him because he's still living off the high at being called an "adorable little brother"

Mephisto complains, about Lucifer disappearing mid conversation, to Satan

Related posts:

A dysfunctional family

MC & summoning magic

Mammon's debt

MC's role in the game

This lesson summed up in one sentence

My overall feelings about this lesson

Updated MC's magic abilities post

Updated Facts about general MC post

[thorniest-rose]

just want you to know that you absolutely called it when you said the ofmd was gonna start being toxic asf. almost all the shit ive seen targeted at neil gaiman about good omens has been explicitly from that fandom.

oh my god is he still getting shit from people? I'm not the biggest Neil Gaiman fan and haven't watched Good Omens, but he shouldn't have to put up with that. Also it's just incredibly rude and entitled to say to any writer or artist, "my favourite show does this so why don't you?" and to point blank call them a coward. How is he a coward exactly? Because the story he wants to tell is different from the one part of his audience wants?

I've been talking about this with Noora over the past couple of days and I'm getting so frustrated with this line of argument that because of the canon queer relationships in OFMD, every piece of media needs to live up to its standard and anything else is just queerbait. But why is it so black and white? Of course I think it's great for representation and important to have canonical queer couples in the media we enjoy, but do I want all shows to be like this? No. And do I think it's always queerbaiting to tell a story about two men who are close but aren't in a relationship? No. Talking like this just strips all nuance from a story and ignores the complexity of who people are. It is entirely possible to have deep feelings for someone, but for it not to be romantic. Or to be in love with someone but never be able to tell them or express it. I don't want us to forget stories like this either because they're so important and speak to the experiences real people have. I don't want everything I watch to be whimsical and light-hearted and I don't want every pairing that fandoms ship to wind up together, because it's not realistic. And would be contrived. And I also don't want fandoms to hold writers to ransom, demanding that their ships become canon because they won't put up with anything else. I've just been seeing more and more opinions like this over the last few days and I hate it.

Don't get me wrong, it's wonderful that so many people enjoy OFMD and that the romance resonates with them, but don't attack other writers for not doing the same thing. Because not every story is the same. And why create a toxic atmosphere when you should just focus on how much you enjoy the show? I hate it, and I feel like it's only going to get worse, as that fandom's only existed for a few weeks and already cracks are starting to show.

p.s ALSO people are acting like OFMD is the only modern popular show to have a queer canon relationship but Severance is incredible and also has a central romantic relationship between two men. Yet I don't hear anyone talking about that? Also I think it's a disservice to the queer community to act like a spokesperson and say shows like OFMD are all we want now and that all ships have to become canon or we're not being represented, because I don't think that's true at all. At least not for me as a bisexual woman. I personally like nuance and I like ambiguity, and sometimes an entire series where two characters have sexual tension and grow closer through shared experiences and have a profound impact on one another means a lot more than one little kiss.

[balanceoflightanddark]

THIS. All of this. Legend of Korra TRIES to take a "sophisticated" look on these issues, but never really commits to any of them and goes for a bullshit "both sides" argument. While it is important to look at stuff like this from multiple angles and viewpoints, eventually you do need to take a stand and determine which side has a stronger argument. Cause ultimately these issues can't exactly be addressed if you can't find a compromise between two completely incompatible sides.

Especially when the narrative completely misrepresents the villains' point of view. @prying-pandora666 already talked about Amon in detail so I'm not really gonna cover ground like that. But in the case of the other villains...Unalaq is demonized to be some crazed eco-terrorist who's actions do more harm to the planet than it fixes. While eco-terrorists do exist, environmentalists typically AREN'T violent lunatics. Which is kind of an important distinction to make (which they obviously don't). Same thing with him advocating for the preservation of spiritual sites, since the creators don't seem to understand that those places in the real world are important pieces of a people's identity. And how disturbing those sites is essentially erasing their culture.

Zaheer...geeze. Anarchy is NOT about completely destroying the establishment and killing as many people as possible. It's about drawing attention to unfair systems and working to give power back to the people. Zaheer on the other hand doesn't strike me as some crusader for the people. He strikes me as some tryhard murderer and nihilist who thinks the world sucks and uses that as justification for causing the Earth Kingdom to descend into chaos where thousands of innocents will suffer. Zaheer is many things, but Hobie from Spider-Verse he isn't. I know they tried to make him sympathetic, but considering what he did to Korra and how many people suffered because of him...I honestly have more sympathy for the rest of the Red Lotus than him.

Kuvira...I'll admit I do like her. Genuinely. Hell, when I was younger, I was sort of rooting for her since she was actually doing something compared to the heroes who did jack to help out with the struggling Earth Kingdom. But...yeah. She hasn't aged well. Turning her into a fascist completely destroyed the attempts to make her look good and makes her "redemption" look completely asinine. While I get what they were going for and in some regard do like the idea behind her, how she was handled was horrible.

As for Varrick...I hate his guts. Like genuinely hate his guts. Yet for some reason we're supposed to like him.

The thing that bothers me though is that Kuvira and Varrick are supposed to be sympathetic despite being the most...well, "American" of the villains. They're more indicative of the status quo, and anyone else are just parodies of those who they're supposed to represent. Which...does fit in with the centrist belief that "the system isn't wrong. It's the people in charge who cause the problems. Not the system itself". Problem is, that belief doesn't solve the problems that led to Amons or Zaheers or Unalaqs. Especially when they've been dumbed down like they are here.

They tried so hard to be more mature and smart than ATLA...but in the end they're more childish and dumb.

On the Disconnect Between ATLA and LOK: Or Why Reactionary Centrism Ruins Everything

I’ve made it no secret that I’m no fan of LOK’s writing for a number of reasons. But today I want to focus on only one issue: its politics.

I am baffled as to why LOK is seen as being the more “woke” story. Just because the protagonist is a buff brown woman with a female love interest (only implied until the comics, really)? This is such an incredibly shallow reading focusing only on aesthetics and ignores the actual content and philosophies LOK espouses.

But let’s not get into religion, iconography, the effects of colonialism and westernization etc, or we’ll be here forever.

Instead let’s just focus on the politics.

The Forge

Part of the disconnect between ATLA and LOK are the cultural conditions in the USA when both were made. The forge from whence they came was quite different.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

ATLA criticized imperialism.

If this show had been made during the height of Manifest Destiny, or during our super fun times illegally annexing territories (like Hawaii), it would’ve likely struggled to tell its story as well as it did. It would’ve been far more controversial and likely would’ve needed to take a more “centrist” approach, making it seem like imperialism isn’t “all that bad”.

It might have even come out and said that it isn’t imperialism itself that is the problem, but that Sozin to Ozai were big mean dictators that did it the wrong way!

But because ATLA came out in the 2000s—during a time in which the world had widely come around to thinking imperialism is kinda some super villain schtick—it was easy for the story to focus on the perspective of the victims of such campaigns and tell it from this point of view.

We don’t get long segments of feeling sorry for Ozai, now do we? The closest we get is Azula, who herself serves as a victim of this war that has consumed her childhood and deprived her of a safe, loving environment in which to grow and develop, instead having been groomed into a living weapon for her father and nation’s war machine.

So now let’s compare this to LOK.

The Legend of Korra

What does the first season of LOK cover? Collectivism, social activism, civil disobedience escalating to acts of violent defiance against the state.

What was going on in the USA in 2012 when LOK came out?

Occupy Wallstreet.

Socialism vs capitalism, the 99% versus the 1%, civil rights and equality; these are all issues we are still grappling with today. They’re highly politicized and divisive. There is no universal agreement about them.

And so LOK had no “safe” villain or “evil” ideology to combat. Instead it had a complicated and widely divisive topic to tackle that was contentious then and continues to be today.

As a result? Too much time is wasted equivocating.

Both Sides Are The Same! (But Not Really)

We get some soft worldbuilding early on in Book 1 of LOK showing how the infrastructure of this city is built to benefit benders and box out non-benders, but this is never given real focus. We SEE how the trains and police are dominated by earth/metal benders, we SEE how factory jobs employ lightning benders, while non-benders live in the slums which subject them to violence. But none of this is ever the focus or the point.

Almost as if the show is afraid to make a real critique from the perspective of the working class or an oppressed minority group.

Instead the story quickly falls off a cliffside as every tired old pejorative thrown at communists is recycled for Amon.

His sympathetic backstory is a complete fabrication meant to hide that he is actually part of the oppressor class.

They pretend to be the powerless oppressed group, and yet have the funding of the richest industrialist in the city?

The rich industrialist is a member of this supposedly oppressed class but really he’s just a secret villain looking to change the world for his own personal reasons and not to protect his fellow nonbenders (these same accusations are thrown at Jewish people re: Marxism).

There are no sincere attempts to communicate their grievances sympathetically or build a coalition or garner public support. Instead The Equalists only use violence, fear, and other oppressive silencing tactics.

The desire to make everyone equal by “stealing” people’s individuality. (The old “make everyone equal heights by cutting tall people’s legs down” chestnut).

And more!

This is kinda bonkers propaganda if you’re looking at it from a left-wing perspective, right?

And it seems weirdly incoherent if you’re trying to look at it from a right-wing perspective, especially with Tarrlok standing in as the villain “on the other side”.

But it makes PERFECT sense as an enlightened centrist horseshoe-theory piece that can’t commit to either side and has to warp and undermine its own story to fit a “both sides are wrong” message. Heck, it’s so heavy handed it even made Amon and Tarrlok brothers!

This is the problem that plagues all of LOK.

Look at the other villains too!

Amon: Civil Rights Activist or Bad Faith Opportunist?

Amon

Pretends to be: A civil rights activist for an oppressed minority group.

Is actually: A bad faith actor whipping up a small or non-issue into a much bigger one and convincing people to turn on each other for his own personal gain/revenge. Once defeated, the problem disappears.

Electing a non-bender somehow makes everyone happy and the problem is never addressed again. Just like electing Obama ended racism! Oh wait…

Unalaq: Spiritual Environmentalist or Environmental Satanist?

Unalaq

Pretends to be: A spiritualist concerned about the environment and the spirits. Basically Al Gore meets Tenzin Gyatso but willing to start a civil war over it.

Is actually: An occultist weirdo who wants to fuse with LITERALLY SATAN and usher in 10,000 years of darkness or something, and willing to start a war over it.

In an attempt to make a spiritual foil for Korra, who struggled with the spiritual parts of being the Avatar, the story took a weird turn and made a choice widely regarded as “fanfiction on crack” by having Unalaq aspire to become “The Dark Avatar”.

But it’s okay, you see, because while Unalaq’s criticisms of waning spirituality and lack of protection of holy sites could be seen as a knock against environmentalism, by the end Korra recognizes that Unalaq had a point and that the spirit portals should be left open.

So why exactly did Unalaq want to be the Dark Avatar and usher in an era of darkness? How was that supposed to resolve the problem he presented and Korra ended up agreeing with?

It doesn’t, and once again we are left with a contradictory centrist message of “protecting the environment is good but you should be suspicious of anyone that actually advocates for it”.

Also thanks for demystifying the origin of the Avatar and ruining the original lore for where bending came from with your Prometheus/Christian allegory. Ugh.

Zaheer: Spiritual Guru Fighting Against Modernity or A Charismatic Dummy Who Learned Everything About Anarchy From a Prager U Coloring Book

Zaheer

Pretends to be: An anarchist seeking to bring down oppressive regimes, therefor resetting the world to a more egalitarian time

Is actually: An idiot who doesn’t even know the difference between an ancom and an ancap and has no coherent ideology. He just wants chaos, I guess, which isn’t whah anarchy or anything is about.

Perhaps realizing they messed up so badly with Unalaq that even the creators were unhappy with the results, they attempted the spiritual foil idea again with Zaheer.

This time they actually had a writing staff which makes this season the agreed upon best of LOK.

But the tip-toeing around making any actual criticisms and falling back on the “both sides are bad” cop-out are only exacerbated by how uninformed and nonsensical Zaheer’s actions are. Not unlike Amon, he takes none of the steps an actual activist would take. He never even speaks to the people of Ba Sing Se to find out what they need or want. He just kills their leader, announces it, refuses to elaborate, then bounces and lets the city tear itself apart in the power vacuum.

It’s an entertaining spectacle! Just like his later torture of Korra is visceral. But none of it has any real substance to support it and so the horrific acts he commits feel like senseless edgelord tantrums.

Even Bolin knows it. Once Zaheer is defeated, Bolin shoves a sock in his mouth, therefor cementing Bolin as my favorite of the Krew for all time.

Kuvira: Literal Nazi or Literal Nazi but she didn’t mean it!

Kuvira

Pretends to be: A fascist, putting people in labor camps and uses the equivalent of an atom bomb to crush her enemies under heel in the name of unifying the continent under her control.

Is actually: All of those things but she had good intentions! She just went too far! Give her a slap on the wrists because her and Korra aren’t so different, you see!

Perhaps the most bizarre writing choice was to make the fascist the only truly sympathetic villain of this series. The reasons become quite clear, however, when we recognize one thing.

Yes, she’s styled after the Nazis.

Yes, her actions in modern day are more reminiscent of Russia.

But who is the only nation to have ever used a weapon of mass destruction on the level of the atom bomb? The USA.

And here is where the unwillingness to make a bold criticism or take a hard controversial stance is the most apparent.

Kuvira acts like a fascist and has a lot of Nazi-vibes, but she is also a grim reminder of the USA’s own imperial history. Of our flippant use of a horrifying technology that still continues to have consequences for the descendants of the victims even today. It is one of the worst violations of human rights and decency in history. And the USA is the only nation to have ever actually used one.

So if you ever feel it’s weird that Kuvira was arguably the worst of the villains but got off with only house arrest and a happy ending with hugs from her family? You’re not alone. Kuvira has to be “not that bad” or else you’re critiquing the USA itself. And that is a level of controversy this franchise doesn’t seem interested in dipping it’s toes into.

It’s the reason they equivocate and justify by having the Earth Prince step down and choose democracy. This isn’t an East Asian ideal. This wouldn’t have been a popular or virtuous choice in that time period. Many would’ve regarded it as tyranny of the majority, or a disorganized chaos without a consistent central authority.

It’s only seen as the perfect solution in the Democratic West. So you see, it’s not so bad, because at least we have democracy! We aren’t as bad as Kuvira who really isn’t all that bad either! Or so the narrative tries to apologize for itself.

And this is even more apparent with everyone’s problematic fav!

Varrick: How Elon Musk Wants Us To View Him vs What Elon Musk Wishes He Was

Varrick!

Is presented as: A quirky, funny, Tony Stark-esque genius who made a mistake and deserves a redemption!

Is actually: A war-profiteer willing to escalate tensions and shed the blood of his own people with no remorse to make money. Also he builds the equivalent of the atom bomb for Kuvira and her allegorical Nazis. But he gets a happy ending with a weirdly westernized wedding anyway!

Isn’t it telling that the villain who is written to be the most loveable and sympathetic is, in fact, the capitalist industrialist?

And not like that yucky evil industrialist Hiroshi Sato funding the Equalists and their civil rights movement.

No, no! Varrick is the good kind of industrialist! The kind that is non-political and mostly cares about money and inventions! After all, he only built a weapon of mass destruction for the Nazis, not the civil rights protestors!

Which brings us to…

Our Civilized Poverty vs their Savage Poverty!

And hey, that’s fair because look at the differences between Republic City and Ba Sing Se!

Sure, both had destitute populations starving and without proper shelter due to the disconnected elite leaders who didn’t care about their plight.

But the homeless people of Republic City are presented as jolly and helpful and never state a single grievance even as they live in a tent city underground! Everyone knows that democratic poverty is better! Therefor Sato was totally unjustified in funding an equality movement!

The poor people of BSS, on the other hand, are victims of that mean old non-democratic Earth Queen and later of the power vacuum left by her assassination, therefor their plight is ACTUALLY horrific. Kuvira may have been bad but she and Varrick are justified because of the unAmerican conditions!

Looking at it this way, so many of LOK’s problems fall into place. It perhaps serves as lesson in not tackling complex problems with the intention of a clean solution unless you’re willing to take a controversial stance and stick to your convictions.

I don’t think the creators intended to make a libertarian criticism of every social movement and apologia for capitalism and fascism. It’s just a sad reflection of what is and isn’t controversial in our current society. Divorced from actual morality or perspective.

What a waste.

This Post Brought To You By: Viewers Like You! (or: Check out this thing I made)

All that said, if you want a well-written and more adult take on the ATLA universe, check out the Kyoshi and Yangchen novels! F. C. Yee doesn’t pull any punches and perfectly balanced the darker, more visceral elements an adult story can have, with expert worldbuilding and humanized characters that feel believable even when they’re in fantastical situations.

Or if you want more ATLA instead, kindly check out @book4air: A project creating a pseudo Book 4 using both the official comics and original materials, fully dubbed, orchestrated, and partially animated by industry pros who happen to be fans!

Some comics are getting rewrites too, so whether you love the comics and want a fresh take, or hate the comics and want a change, we are doing our best to make this accessible for everyone including people with disabilities who may not be able to enjoy the originals.

Check out our first episode here!

If you can afford to, consider supporting us on Patreon! Every episode is expensive to produce and we are a bunch of broke artists. Some which don’t even have consistent or reliable housing. Any little bit helps.

If you can’t, no worries! You can still help by spreading the word so our videos can overcome the YouTube algorithm.

With all my love for this franchise and its fandom, I hope you all continue to enjoy your favs regardless of my criticisms.

[artificialqueens]

Gimme Love, 7/9 (Miz Cracker/Blair St Clair) - Grinder

AN: Sorry in advance, but this chapter is kinda short. But we do get more conflict, more drama. 3 more chapters! Who's pumped? No one.

TW FOR THIS CHAPTER: Brief blood mentions.

2020

Remember how I said I was on a journey towards happiness? In the beautiful world of Brianna Caldwell, life said, "Nah."

The next day, it was apparent that things were only getting worse.

"Ed Sheeran is still on board," Joey stated matter-of-factly. He crossed his arms, the safety visor making a rustling sound as he did so.

He was joined by Nina, Alex, and Michael. A few of the lab team were at their desks, trying to ignore the current confrontation, including Jujubee.

She looked as if she wasn't paying attention to the ordeal, but I knew Jujubee like the back of my hand, and she was listening. I couldn't help but want her to speak up and help me out here. But she hadn't spoken to me since the day before.

"Yeah, he is." I put my hands on my hips, standing at the front of the lab, while Joey and his friends sat there and looked up at me.

"Why, though?" Joey continued to question.

"God, we already had this discussion," I spoke quietly, looking to the side for some sort of distraction.

"Yeah, but you said you'd figure something out." Nina input.

"Yeah, you did." Alex joined in. I glanced at Jujubee in the hopes she'd join the conversation. Her eyes remained on the chemical she was working with.

"Why did you choose him in the first place? Why not…" Michael paused, deciding to join the argument, "Bill Nye...or someone who actually has an interest in Space and Science."

"Yeah, for real. Like, you do realise that in years to come, when kids read about 'Neil Armstrong - the first man on the moon, they're gonna flip the page and see 'Ed Sheeran, confirmed the first man to enter another dimension.'" Alex added.

"Like, how do you even explain Ed Sheeran as a choice?" Nina held a hand out in questioning.

I finally found a crack and slipped back into the conversation, "Because your project manager is a disaster when she's drunk and makes stupid choices without even thinking."

"We know, Brie. You were drunk." Joey rolled his eyes like he was tired of hearing the same story.

"Maybe you should stop drinking." Alex squinted his eyes.

"Yeah, we don't wanna go there, but maybe this is a problem," Michael added to the point.

My eyes were becoming wider with every word they were saying. This was absolutely ridiculous. Again, I was hoping Jujubee would argue back, but she remained silent.

Nina, however, was the one to interject, "Jesus, guys. You're taking it a bit too far." She stood up and gathered her lab coat, "Look, we all do dumb shit when we're drunk. She's not a mess, OK?"

Joey laughed. I held back from calling him out for the time that I caught him hiding in the closet playing Candy Crush for an hour.

"Well, even so, she should take this into consideration," Alex suggested.

"And do what?" I unfolded my arms and held them out by my side, "call him and say 'JK, Ed. It was just a joke, Ed.'"

"Girl, you're the one who got us into this mess. You figure it out." Alex raised his voice. How very fair of him. I was the one who had to deal with this problem, yet they were the only ones who seemed to care.

"Mess is a bit of a harsh term." Nina pointed out.

"Exactly, there is no mess here. Juju and I have already figured this out," my gaze shifted towards her again, hoping the mention of her name would cause a reaction. Nothing, "So I'd appreciate it if I could stop getting all this flack. I don't need flack from you," I pointed at Joey, "I don't need flack from you," next, at Alex, "or you," then Michael, and I moved my finger in Nina's direction, "or...Jesus Christ, you're having a nose bleed."

Nina's hand flew straight up to her nose, pulling away and examining the red liquid. "Oh, my Lord!"

She tried wiping it. But more blood poured out like a faucet that had been slowly turned on.

"Can you just...get out of here and get that cleaned up?" It sounded bitchy. But I was panicking. I never did well with blood. Therefore I looked away and hid my face.

"Thanks for helping, boss." Joey practically snarled, handing Nina a bunch of tissues. Like hungry wolves following the scent of the blood, the 3 men followed her out of the room, Joey still scorning at me as he left.

It was just me and the other scientists left in the room.

I turned and moved to one of the counters, picking up screws and bolts as if I was actually interested in them. But I couldn't ignore the presence of my best friend.

Hearing shuffling, I turned. She was standing up and gathering her things.

"Juju." I approached her.

She only quickened the packing up process.

Reaching her bench, she was already turned in the direction of the door, "Juju, are you just gonna ignore me all day?"

Finally, she looked at me, adjusting her bag strap, "There's nothing to say."

"Oh really? Well, you can decide to drop me as a friend, but you're still working for me, so we need to communicate."

"OK," Jujubee shrugged, "Well, what do you need to discuss with me that's work-related?"

She got me there. Licking my lips, I breathed out with a quick sigh. "OK, look, last night, we didn't end on a good note. I'm not saying I was wrong, and neither were you. Can you just please set that aside and talk to me?"

She squinted her eyes. "So, I'm supposed to just let the problem keep building?"

"Juju!" I briefly raised my voice, a few of the other scientists glanced in our direction. Jujubee looked uneasy now. So I lowered my tone again. "OK. I'm just gonna say it. I fucked up. I fucking...wrote her a creepy message, and I don't know what to do, and I have no one to talk to about it."

She let out a sarcastic laugh, "You're still looking to use me as your therapist. You learned nothing from what I said, Brianna."

I was silent, incapable of speaking anything else.

She looked away to the ground, "This is taking up my lunchtime."

And with that, she moved to the door, the sound of her heels like a clock ticking down.

"Juju, what can I do?" I held my hands out by my sides. "How am I going to make you satisfied?"

With a hand opening the door, she was frozen for a moment. I thought she would have walked on and ignored me. But she looked over her shoulder and said, "When you realise she's not the one who cares about you."

She left the room, pulling the door closed. The noise caused me to flinch.

I turned around her words in my head.

Two of the scientists were whispering, one glancing at me. I felt my chest become tight. "Hey. This isn't a social gathering. Get back to work."

Despite their astonishment, they moved away from each other anyway.

I instantly felt like a bitch. Technically yeah, it was my job to keep everyone working. But I rarely raised my voice.

I left the room, seeking peace and quiet.

Sitting in my chair, I held my hands in my head, staring at the redwood desk. Moments like these should have felt like a luxury, just sitting there, relaxing. But my mind was racing with too many thoughts.

I had no idea what I could do to make amends with Jujubee. But I could try and sort this Ed Sheeran problem.

Loading up my emails, I opened the thread with Ed Sheeran (which was actually only 3 messages and most likely with his manager).

I hit reply and started typing.

'Listen, Ed. There's been an issue…'

No.

'Dear Mr Ed Sheeran, we regret to inform you…'

'Hello, Ed. It's Brianna from…'

'Ed, big fan of the work, but…'

I squeezed my eyes shut, already feeling exhausted, like each press of the backspace button represented a loss of a brain cell.

For all the achievements I had earned throughout the years, for all the accomplishments, why the fuck was this so damn hard?

The telephone rang, causing me to jolt. A sigh left my lips as I tried to breathe. Pressing the speaker, I said, "Jackie, what's up?"

Jackie, my receptionist, spoke, "Hey, honey. Your Mom's on line 2."

My hand clenched around my pen, already feeling that familiar sense of dread.

"OK, thank you," I spoke quieter.

I hesitated for a moment before finally clicking line 2.

"Hi, Mom," I uttered.

"Hi, baby." She said quietly. "How are you?"

"Fine." I lied. "Nothing really new here. How about you?"

"All good…" she sighed, then paused briefly, "Actually no. Things aren't good. I...lost my job. The usual, they found someone better. And I've been trying so hard to find a job."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Yeah, and on top of that," she sighs again, "Brie, honey, there is no easy way to say this; Piggie's sick."

My breath caught in my throat, but I tried to remain calm. "What's wrong with him?"

"They said it's Lyme disease, Brianna. I...I don't know what's going to happen." Her voice cracked.

"Look, don't worry. I'm gonna send you money right now. It should cover the bills. He'll be - -"

"No, I didn't call you to ask for money." She said quickly, "I was just wondering...I know you're busy and everything…"

Fuck. My eyes squeezed together, hand tightening around the phone.

"But...I would love to see you. It's been nearly a year now." Her tone softened.

And immediately, I wanted to say no. Considering the circumstances, a visit would fuck with my head. Seeing Piggie, my emotional support through teenagehood would crush me.

"You there, baby?" She asked.

"Yeah," I whispered.

"I just...I don't want to be alone. What if the medical treatment fails? I'm gonna have no one, Brianna. I don't want that." She pauses again, and my chest tightens, tears filling my eyes. "Brie, baby, please come."

I can hear the pain in her voice. But I can't help but feel that sense of fear, the anxiety.

"Don't leave me alone to deal with this, please. I'm at my lowest. And I don't know if I could do it all by - -"

I hit 'end call'.

I put the phone back and rested my head in my hands.

I knew this was my fault - our strained relationship. I could only see that now, how emotionally unstable I was. That sounds like a joke, right? I just didn't expect it to be this bad.

Nothing was getting better.

-_-_-_-_-_-

2004

I threw my bag in the back seat before climbing in the front. My hair was soaked from the rain. I literally just ran from the school to Mom's car, not even outside for that long, yet so much rain.

I said nothing, only rubbed my hands together to keep warm.

"So, the schools flooded?" Mom asked.

"Yeah."

"The whole school?" She looked past me and to the building, an eyebrow raised. "It doesn't look that bad."

"It's just the shop classes and cafeteria, to be honest." I put my hands between my thighs to make the warming up process happen quicker.

"That's a bit unnecessary to send you all home."

"Yeah, well, I'm not complaining."

Mom fired up the engine, and we were set for home. There was a moment of silence that fell among us. Nothing out of the ordinary.

But when she turned the radio down, I knew we were in for a discussion.

"That's not the only thing the school called me about today." She started.

"Oh?" I looked out the window. I don't know why but I assumed they had finally exposed me for smoking around the back of the building. But it was doubtful as I had stopped during the Summer.

"They're concerned about you, Brie." And so was she, now that I could hear it in her tone. "Your grades have only gotten better the slightest amount."

"Well, I can't just go from a C to an A in a matter of days." I still looked out the window. "And besides, I'm staying behind every other day for extra studying."

"Are you sure you're not just flaking and hanging out with Jujubee instead?" There it was, the accusatory tone.

I looked at her now. "No? And if it makes you feel better, you can call her Mom and ask. How's that sound?" I scoffed, "God, I don't need this. Not like I'm dealing with enough at school anyway."

"Well," she was silent for a moment as if daring herself to speak again, "Not that I'd know, I mean, you don't really open up to me about school."

"Yeah, because there's nothing you can do about it." Was I wrong? What could she do? Barge into the school with a gramophone and yell, 'Stop picking on my daughter!'

"About what?"

I rolled my eyes, "Doesn't matter. I don't wanna talk about it."

I could practically feel the way she held back from rolling her eyes.

"Well, the only other thing I can think of is that you're too focused on all this space stuff." She sounded more irked now. "You need to focus on your future, not all this make-believe crazy conspiracy theory shit."

"Oh, that crazy conspiracy theory shit that my Grandpa enjoyed?" My tone was slowly raising.

"I didn't mean it like that. I'm saying your Grandpa didn't make a living sitting around and fantasising about all of this stuff. He knew the difference between having a career and having a dream."

"Well, God, not like my interest hasn't got a thing to do with my future prospects, Mom. No. Who would have thought." The sarcasm was thick in my voice.

"Whatever it is you're striving towards, it sounds more like a dream to me. You need a more stable plan." Mom flicked the indicator quite aggressively.

"Oh my God," I laughed, "That's hilarious. You have no idea what I'm striving towards. You can't even tell me what it is."

"Does it matter??"

"Just shows how much you give a shit about me, right, Mom?"

We pulled up to a red light to Mom's delight because she pulled the handbrake.

"How dare you." She seethed, "How dare you speak to me like that. I have done nothing but give a shit about you all these years. I have been there for you, every nervous breakdown, every time you wanted to cry but wouldn't, every time you needed your Mother the most. I was the best Mother I could be because I know that deep down you were hurting." Her voice cracks. "I know that you struggled for so long, what with your parents and all, but I've done all I can to give you what they couldn't. I held you. I loved you. But now, what I'm getting back is this...attitude. All I did, Brie, was express my concern, and you immediately went on the defence." She paused again before lowering her tone, "And I know you want to hold on to this space stuff, so you don't lose someone else. And I know you're in pain. But is this actually what Grandpa would have wanted??"

We held each other's gaze for another moment before the light finally turned red. She started driving again.

But I wasn't done. "Really? All of that and for what, Mom? God, you have no idea what Grandpa wanted for me. If only you knew what he asked of me when he was lying in his deathbed."

"And what was that?" She raised a brow.

"It doesn't matter." I crossed my arms and was back to looking out the window.

"Of course." She stated.

"Just...stop, please. My grades will be better. Now, we're done having this conversation."

I could feel her seething, the heat of her anger radiating through the cramped vehicle. But she said no more.

Not even for the rest of the night.

[gracie-p8-officialblog]

Defending Raoul, the Vicomte de Chagny

Ah oxymorons, one of my favourite literary devices... If you don't know what an oxymoron is, let me enlighten you: it's a phrase that contradicts itself (kinda like verbal irony), like "jumbo shrimp", "chilled hot chocolate," "clearly confused" or "defending Raoul, the Vicomte de Chagny".

Because, you know, Raoul doesn't need much defending. Seriously. If there's going to be any defending going on here, Raoul's the one who does the defending for most of the play (up until Final Lair where the roles are reversed and Christine is now the one who does the defending but more on that later.) Are we clear on that? Good.

And it has come to my attention that Raoul has got a lot of flak from phans for various reasons. And in this post, I'm going to refute the stupidest Raoul bashing arguments.

Also, we're not counting Love Never Dies because I think it's just an alternate universe and that it ruined Raoul's character for the sake of that fanfiction.

It is a truth universally acknowledged (or at least in the wee Raoul Defense Squad Circle) that Raoul is one of the greatest and most underrated boyfriends to ever exist in musical theatre. There seem to be two kinds of people in this world: those who appreciate Phantom of the Opera, and those who don't know what they're missing. The ones who appreciate Raoul as the hero, prince charming and cinnamon roll he is, and then there's the other camp. The ones who villainize Raoul and think he is nothing but a stupid, wimpy, abusive fop who crushed the Phantom (aka. Erik's) dreams and never truly loved Christine. They seem to be laboured under the mistaken delusion that Raoul is a cowardly pretty boy who is pretty much Gaston 2.0. (Technically, there's a third group: those who know nothing about Phantom of the Opera (POTO) but we can only hope that they will come out from under their rocks as soon as possible)

In case if you couldn't tell, I'm Team Raoul. And the bashing he recieves is unfair tbh. This is where I will appreciate and explain why I love him.

First of all, I'd like to combat the theory that he is boring. Ladies, puh-leeze. He's much more relatable than you admit and that we all have a little bit of Raoul in us. Failure to see things staring us in the face, saying or doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, having a 'see it to believe it' attitude when we have little-to-no evidence on something... yeah, don't pretend you don't see a trend. Raoul is relatable whether we want him to be or not.

And just because Raoul has boy-band hair and dresses well, that doesn't make someone a fop. He's a navy man and a nobleman so he is expected to look nice. But Erik is the one who takes it to the extreme. I mean, c'mon, a fedora?

I also noticed that when he asked Christine out for dinner after reuniting with her ruffled the feathers of many phans. What right has Raoul to fall in love with Christine? What does he need from her? He only fell in love with her for her voice and beauty! And he only noticed her when she was in Hannibal! Can't he just go get someone else?

News flash people. It's been YEARS since Raoul last saw Christine. And they were kids when they last saw each other, along with the fact that he travelled in order to train as a navy man! So it's understandable on why he got excited to see Christine again after so long. Plus, his love for her is more than just her voice and beauty. Sure, they have mutual memories and he likes the way she sings, and he likes how beautiful she is. But there's nothing wrong with thinking of how beautiful a girl is AND how beautiful is her voice (within reason).

I admit, Raoul and Christine's relationship at first struck me as being sappy and overdone. You must know that I was only nine or ten when I first discovered POTO, and so excuses must be made. By the time I listened to it again at fourteen, I was completely won over. Raoul fell in love with her because she was a nice, beautiful person (both on the inside and out) and they knew each other since they were kids! His love is genuine AND stable for Christine. He represents everything she needs- stability, protection, a guiding hand and affirmed affection. She represents everything he needs, in turn, someone to show affection to and the woman he has loved since childhood. Plus, he was brave enough to ask Christine to marry him despite their class differences, risking that his family might disown him for being married to someone inferior to his rank. It just shows how strong his love for her is.

And now, let's get this point clear, I believe the claim that he was gaslighting Christine is bogus. He's been raised as someone who doesn't believe in the supernatural and 'phantom' literally means 'ghost'. But here’s the kicker. He doesn’t leave. Like, no matter how much he doubts her love of what she says, he still loves her and stays with her. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with him thinking Christine is a little delusional with all the Phantom stuff. None of it added up to him, and it all seemed illogical. Its natural for any human being to not believe those kinds of things, so stop using that to make him look bad. Plus, if he said something like "Oh Christine, you're SO stupid!" and laughed at her about it, phans could definitely have a valid reason to hate him. But he doesn't do that! Instead, he tries to find the Phantom's voice calling out to her and when he saw nothing, he began to comfort her and was like" There, there, shh... Don't worry... Everything's gonna be alright. I'll help you make all the bad things go away." And due to dramatic irony, he has little-to-no evidence to prove the Phantom's existence compared to the audience who saw it all!

If you still aren't convinced, then listen very closely to what I'm about to say: Here's some 'Raoul's I highly recommend to look up before y'all hate on him.

I highly recommend John Cudia, Michael Shawn Lewis, Jordan Donica and Patrick Wilson who play VERY princely and adorable Raouls. Trust me, their Raouls are IMPOSSIBLE to hate!

One last point before I wrap this up: The only reason Raoul asked her to agree to be the lead is because he realized that if Christine does that, the Phantom would be there. And he knows it's their chance to get rid of this elusive Opera Ghost. And the only reason Christine doesn't want to is because she is afraid of what the Phantom will do. Now this annoys many Raoul-haters and call me a broken cassette tape but... Even though I agree it was a teensy bit callous of him to persuade Christine into performing her stalker's opera, Raoul hoped it would catch the Phantom, and he was willing to do it to get protect Christine from the Phantom in the future. Was his plan risky? Probably. Did he honestly think Christine would be in danger? No! He was going to get all the cops to come and protect her. How was he supposed to know the Phantom had other plans? Plus, running away is a big no-no for Raoul. Because as shown in "Why Have You Brought Me Here/Raoul, I've Been There" and "Wandering Child", whenever and wherever they run to, the Phantom ALWAYS finds them! Therefore, to his naive, young mind, he believed that doing Don Juan Triumphant would stop the Phantom from doing more harm to Christine and the opera house. So stop using this to vilify him!

I should like to also take this time, while I still have your attention (you are paying attention, right? Right? Hey! Wake up!) to point out some other important events that showed Raoul's character and bravery; namely, him fighting his way through the French sewer system (aka. The yuckiest parts of France) to save Christine, he didn't keep his hand to the level of his eyes to comfort a terrified Christine, he dodged some fireballs thrown at him in the graveyard just so he could protect Christine AND last but not least, he nearly died for Christine in order to save her from Stockholm syndrome/an abusive relationship!

In short: Raoul de Chagny is a knight in shining armour who loves Christine more than his own life. He stands by her, fights for her, comforts her AND was willing to sacrifice everything for her! And how the audience writes him off as an one-dimensional bad guy who does not love Christine, I will never know why. Are you convinced yet? If not... *hands list of what are the differences between a healthy and unhealty relationship* Yours, I believe.

[polterbeist]

Whoa, dude. Look, I wasn't trolling, but I admit, it's clear, looking back at my post and looking over yours, that we're both very biased. I didn't write this intending to come off as hostile towards Steve as a character, or Steve stans, but I can see that it was my own fault for engaging at all, especially with the language I used. I really wasn't trying to attack anyone when I posted. When I said that I might be wrong, I wasn't being sarcastic, I meant it.

But also, I don't remember anything in the film series including the tagging and monitoring system or any of the extremity that's in the comics. I'm not trying to paint that as liberal, it's not, but I said from the beginning I was focused on the movies. I could be wrong (seriously, I mean it, I'm not trying to be an asshole) so if that's the case, it'd be cool if someone could link me to where it's mentioned, because I really shouldn't be posting with faulty memory of the movies. Also, I may not have a full understanding of the way that international government works, but I don't think supers being the Security Council's attack dogs would've been as clear cut a result as people think. I mean, I'm not trying to diminish the fact that the US, and other SC countries have too much power, but from what I remember, all UN-controlled task forces, organizations, and proposed/accepted documents have specifically created committees made up of representatives from multiple countries.

I also never said Steve was ambiguous to Naxis. Christ, I was joking because one of the earlier reblogs said he punched Hitler 200 times and I thought it'd be interesting to share some info that I learned in my Modern Jewish History class. I wasn't the most tactful, as I've admitted already, but I wasn't calling Steve apathetic to genocide. I just meant he, like anybody else living during the time, likely wouldn't have had access to information about the Holocaust unless he himself had connections to the Jewish community. In the comics, I'd say it's pretty highly implicated, but the MCU didn't prioritize his defense of the innocent so much as his hatred of bullies and patriotism. But that's just my interpretation and if you disagree and think I'm a dumbass, that's fair.

So, look, I was going to continue to be civil, but considering you called me stupid a thousand times, and this argument needs to be put to rest, I'm gonna forgo that just for now.

STOP COMPARING SUPERS TO MUSLIMS AND POCS FOR FUCK'S SAKE.

You know why? Well, I mean, for one, mutants already take that mantle in the comics, whereas normal supers don't suffer from the same systemic disenfranchisement. It's a direct parallel that's been acknowledged multiple times. I'm sure you're aware of it - you seem like you're very invested in this, in a good way. None of the supers in the MCU are mutants, not even the Maximoffs, due to the shitty character rewrite and awkward casting situation. (She's not even Jewish anymore, ffs.) So there's that, but I'm sure most people don't care.

More importantly, stop implying that superheroes are equivalent to minorities because superheroes have powers that, without proper training or oversight, can lead to civilian injuries and fatalies. That's not arguable. It fucking happened. And that doesn't fucking apply to Muslims or POC in any way, because Muslims and POC are just normal people with different religious beliefs and/or melanin levels. Being either or both doesn't automatically imbue you with the ability to hurt others any more than being any type of person does.

People with literal super powers are not oppressed by attempts to mitigate the damage those people can do, not unless it's systemic the way it is with mutants in the comics. Trying to claim that super heroes are disenfranchised because they are in the numerical minority and because people want to put laws in place to ensure they don't take advantage of their powers, is insulting to actual minorities. And is, as I said before, similar to people who claim the rich and wealthy are disenfranchised because when taxes are higher for some because they have more of money, it's an infringement on their rights. Which. Is an actual point. I've seen wealthy conservative Cap fans make.

Muslims and POC are attacked, oppressed, and disenfranchised because white people need a scapegoat, because of white supremacy, because of prevailing bigotry. That does not apply to the superheroes in the movies, who are approached by 117 countries worried for their citizens and their sovreinty, which despite what people say, is a real legitimate concern, because even though yes, most governments are corrupt and the world is a shitpile, protecting African countries from American-sourced military action in which civilian casualties are sometimes treated with less gravity than their due deserves at least as much consideration as the concerns of super heroes. Ross is involved, yeah, and guess what? He's going to get his way unless somebody fights him on it using legal means.

Anyway, it's the same reason why comparing homosexuality to being a werewolf (like Rowling does in Harry Potter) is a bad idea. Homosexuals don't turn into monsters who can spread their 'condition' with a bite. Muslims and POC don't have unstable powers which if not properly monitored or trained could cause fatal injuries to those around them, and being a Muslim or POC does not put one in a position of power over others the way being a fully funded superhero is. If you still hate and despise me so much after everything I wrote, please at least consider this last part. I don't intend to finish my reply because this was the only actually important thing I had to say anyway.

Anyway, I don't hate Steve Rogers, but his portrayal in the MCU (outside the physical portrayal by Evans himself) is not the same as his character himself. I shouldn't have condemned his character, and didn't mean to. You come off as kind of a jerk, and maybe you thought I deserved it, but whatever. I thought I managed to be relatively polite during my first post, so I guess I'll pull a Rogers. Sorry you got so pissed. Hope you understand if I don't offer a burner phone.

Sorry OP, you like really did not ask for this, my bad.

i love to headcanon steve as this aggressively progressive dude but like, he begged to be part of the us army,,,,,, we can’t just Forget That