#ignore the horrific quality lol

[uhhh-ghouls007]

This episode changed lives btw

[dramatic-delirium]

Look at my

(In the tune of Barbie gurl)

Lil princess boy from a lill rp woooorld

Picrew: Adventurer Avatar

I love how my dot is right in the Middle of chaotic lol

Quiz: Moral Alignment Test

Now this character/picrew is so cool imma make lore ATSJJFKKGKGKDHK

Content warning: Scars

So He is a warlock? Maybe? His god thingy he gets his power from has accepted to be his gf recently. He actually became a warlock to woo her he probs also have other stuff up his sleeves?

This guy is so accident prone

The shoulder pads are to protect and those knee scar are actually multiple scars piled on each other

Environmental storytelling everyone:

Get a dog and not a wolf

These are both sh scars...

One was for a ritual...

Look close he has handcuffs... He broke from prison once and liked the quality of handcuffs so he kept it. It really is good metal.

His boots are like an interdimensional storage thing. It can only hold a bit tho.

Most of these is juice, the others might be horrific poison.

Dunno what most his powers are but one thing for sure that he uses his powers to color his hair

Don't Mind the black aura look at the flowers and hearts he so friendly (fr) (chaotic af too tho)

Thank you so much for the tag @wyrmtung I love this thing it tickled my brain so muchhhhhb

I'm still tagging everyone ever ignore if nuh uh plz @itsmiguel2099 @moth-wave @demigod-of-the-agni @obi-mom-kenobi @inverted-writes-stuff @n1an-gao @methegreatest @winterpotatostuff @kingscross-33 @dailyohara @ratzforaster @eefweef do both the picrew and test and SHOW ME

[sage-nebula]

Hey I just want to say that reading your analysis on arcane fuels my soul and I’m not even exaggerating. It’s not always biased for the characters, which is something very lacking in this fandom. You critically analyse every aspect of the character you recognize and how it aligns with them and the themes and etcetera, and make your conclusions and stop there. Like, period. The end. I really appreciate that, thank you for appreciating the show as the nuanced, complex narrative that it is.

Shame that most arcane fans don��t think this way though…

I especially love your recent Vi analysis with her view of the undercity. Makes sooo much sense for her character now. I fucking get it. Though it would’ve helped if the writing elaborated more on it like they’ve done with Cait and Jinx’s motives. They kind of just expect us to get it. I think that’s way too much faith in people that aren’t in your head lol.

Thank you so much!! This is such a nice thing to say, and it truly brought a smile to my face. You know, in the wake of watching the first three episodes of season 2, I just had so many thoughts in my head that I had to get them down in posts so that I could rest. I was posting very fast because that's how my brain works, so I honestly wasn't sure if what I was trying to say came across the way I wanted it to. But it seems like I did, and I really appreciate you taking the time to say so; thank you!

Arcane really is a deep, nuanced show, with characters to match. Even characters that at first seem like they're meant to be hate sinks (e.g. Marcus) are later shown to still be people, with good and bad qualities, with families that they love and are willing to fight for. Marcus was, overall, still not a good person; he threw a teenager into a horrific prison for years, and despite his bigotry against Zaun still acted in the pocket of a crime lord. But he loved his daughter, and thought he was "saving" Vi when he did what he did, for whatever reason he thought that. (I mean, he did stop her getting herself killed by Silco, but what a way to "save" someone, am I right?) There is so much to dig into these characters, to see how they think and what motivates them. It's what makes the show an effective tragedy; we see exactly how they got where they are, and how they might have avoided it, but also we know that they couldn't avoid it because of who they are, intrinsically, as people.

So while I obviously have characters that I love more than others (e.g Jinx is my favorite because she makes me the saddest; I also really love Mel because she's smart as hell, compassionate, and gorgeous), I try to see where all of the characters are coming from. Because this isn't a story where some characters are Evil and others are Good, and Good must triumph over Evil. Even when we have characters that we may deem villainous because the net worth of their actions is more bad than good (e.g. Silco -- the amount of harm he brought to the people of the undercity while simultaneously fighting for its independence from Piltover can't be ignored), they still aren't the Villain That Must Be Defeated. Instead, the true villain of Arcane is the systemic oppression that leads to the creation of people like Silco, like Jinx. Silco died, but look at how many chembarons were there to fight to take his place. And even if Vi or Caitlyn had succeeded in killing Jinx in the temple, there absolutely would have been someone else just like her, give or take a few years. Hell, it might have even been Isha.

And the same is true on the other side. This system of class privilege and the police state is also exactly why Caitlyn is the way that she is. If it hadn't been Caitlyn accepting Ambessa's offer to become commander, it would have been any other enforcer who grew up in a house of privilege, raised on stories of all the dangerous criminals in Zaun, and therefore ready to wolf down the classist propaganda Ambessa fed them. (Because the word degeneracy when used to refer to the Zaunites was very deliberate.) Ambessa didn't introduce the idea of Zaunite inferiority to the minds of the enforcers in that room; that's the sort of thing that most topsiders have grown up believing for generations. It's why Jayce, without thinking, said that Zaunites were "dangerous" to Viktor's face in season one, despite Viktor himself being from Zaun! (He did apologize right after, when Viktor called him on it, but the point stands: this wasn't a case of Jayce being uniquely prejudiced, this is a case of a system of oppression baking that prejudice into its upper class so that they will continue to oppress the lower class in order to keep the system running as intended.)

So what I'm trying to say is, given that this is a story where the villain isn't any individual person, but rather systemic oppression, I find value in looking at each character as they are and trying to see where it is they're coming from. Admittedly I know I may be missing some things, because I don't play League and know very little about its lore, but I do my best with what the show and the music videos give us. (For instance, Ambessa's music video did an amazing job at fleshing out more of her character -- showing where she started, and how she got to where she is -- in addition to foreshadowing Mel's potential magical capabilities.) It's what makes the show most enjoyable to me, anyway, and I'm glad there are others who can appreciate it!

Lastly (and whew, I'm sorry this is so long!), re: what you said about the show not elaborating more on Vi -- I feel you. For me at least, I wish they had done more to show why she has done such a 180 with regards to Jinx. It feels difficult to square who she is in these first three episodes (and during the fight especially, where even the tiny moment of regret and hesitation she seemed to have on the altar was quickly dismissed and she would have delivered the finishing blow had Isha not intervened) with who she was even in the last third of the last episode of season one. Because even after Jinx had asked her to kill Caitlyn, even after Jinx had put the gun to Caitlyn's head herself, and even after Jinx knocked Caitlyn out, Vi was still fighting to get through to her, still insisting that she believed in her. Even after Jinx killed Silco, Vi was telling her that it was okay, that it would be okay, that they were okay. So to do a rundown, Vi was okay with:

Kidnapping

Coercion (for Vi to kill Caitlyn)

Attempted murder

Assault

Accidental manslaughter

But firing a missile into the council tower was too much? Or was Jinx saying that she didn't believe Vi could "love [her] like she used to" that made Vi change her mind? Because that really doesn't make sense, given all the times Jinx had insisted before that that Vi didn't love her, and Vi insisted that she did regardless.

I don't know. Vi's decision-making in the first three episodes seems extremely shaky, and I think that in regards to the Jinx issue in particular, showing more emotional conflict during the fight especially would have helped. I'm hoping that they can bring it back in episodes four through nine, but right now I'm just finding it very difficult to see how they got Vi to this point. It really seems like they skipped showing several pivotal moments, because they knew how they got there and just assumed we would know as well even though we aren't, as you said, in their heads.

Anyway! Once again, thank you for your kind words, and I'm sorry this reply is so long. Arcane really just gets the words flowing, haha. Thanks again, and I hope you have a great night / day!

[emily84]

saw alien romulus and i was so pissed the entire movie it didn't even scare me lol

i am so annoyed i'm making a whole post about it, i'll just be rambling so just ignore it

like the blatant ableism towards andy, the fact they thought it was a good idea to have a young black man with autistic traits be treated like an object by everyone including his white girl ''handler'' (that evolved throughout the movie but not quite enough imo). the obligatory scene where the heroine at the end remains in her underwear (the fact that it wasn't revealing is beside the point. was that necessary except to reenact sigourney weaver's scenes?), the "Black best friend" trope, the horrifying scene of a brown woman being horrifically [spoiler!] tortured, killed, and finally eaten and disposed of (like she literally is put in the film to suffer, with zero other scenes for her); not to mention an asian woman who has literally one good scene before getting her face brutally penetrated by the alien (the only time it's actually graphic. when the man gets fucked in the face, it's not sexual at all, just bloody). it also could have done with one or three aliens, they didn't need a fucking swarm of them - it's ridiculous that the protagonist was able to survive lmao

and let's not forget the inherent threat of the xenomorphs as an allegory for the fear of being forcibly penetrated by a phallus, which was fine i guess for the first film, in a time when homophobia was more rampant, and we all know ridley scott's hold-ups with that and how it was deliberate, but i'm sorry, it just doesn't hold up in 2024 with all the fucking fearmongering by transphobes and terfs alike. i am not a fan.

and finally, and this is last because it's more personal for me specifically: the use of the weird-looking and deformed as synonymous withbeing horrific and 'wrong'. like the hybrid spawn or whatever that was supposed to be at the end - it looked terrifying not because of any actual evil quality or alien-like aesthetic (it didn't look like the xenomorph at ALL), but rather because it mirrored a deformed human with severe autism or some other kind of mental impairment - and immediately you think "wrong", "evil", "disgusting", "terrifying". i thought it was crass and uncalled for. the evil penis-shaped aliens weren't enough for them that they had to add this extra layer for flavor i guess???

thank god i didn't spend my money on it, because jesus fucking christ

[ibringyouasong89]

Story Time! (Bear with me, it’s a long post; sorry)

My most favorite movie of all time. I was four years old when I first saw it - sitting on my father’s lap, trying to recite our home address (in case I got lost, lol), when I turned and looked at the TV screen...and there he was; Captain Quint, getting eaten alive by the shark, while I sat there watching with horrific awe, crying and stuttering through said home address, doubtlessly traumatized beyond repair.  I had nightmares. Vivid nightmares. My mother had to buy rails for the bed because I kept falling out of it due to said nightmares. I used to take every single stuffed animal I had in my room and make an outline around my body with them, in hopes of protecting myself from the imagined shark fin that was, beyond a reasonable doubt, poking up between my floorboards in the middle of the night and swimming around my bed...even whilst I held my orca plushie (which my father bought for me due to my love for Free Willy). I wouldn’t go near the deep end of the in-ground pool of my childhood home, which had a tree from the neighbor’s yard overshadowing it. I was convinced that there was a man-eating great white shark living within those shady waters, and it was best just to stir clear of it altogether. When I was nine years old, I saw it again on TV, and because dad had control of the remote, there was no way I was going to be able to negotiate for a channel change. Again, I became heavily traumatized (because now I could actually comprehend what was going on throughout the entirety of the movie), but there was also something so...intriguing to me, at nine years old. So, the next day (it was a Jaws movie marathon that week; summertime, y’know), I sat myself down and watched it with my father - who was obviously noticing my willing and voluntary subjection to the horrors that this film invoked in me - who said not a word but held me on his lap all the same. I watched the movie every day, that whole week, still shaken, but no longer afraid. Now...now I was stirred. During the next two years of watching the movie, the dreams stopped, the rails were tossed out with the garbage, and my stuffed animals no longer had to be queen’s guards. Though I still snuggled with ‘Willy,’ ‘cause he was the best. And here I am, now in the present in my early-to-mid 30′s, Willy-less (thanks for throwing out my prized orca plushie, mom - more traumatizing than the movie now), and I can quote this entire film, from start to finish, verbatim. Including the songs. Wanna know why it’s my favorite? And no, it’s not just the obvious action/adventure of it all, nor the chowing down of the innocent swimmers, or the madness and obvious Ahab-like qualities of Quint...the camaraderie between Brody and Hooper, while Hooper and Quint fought like ally-cats on a boat. It’s not even the whole small-town-cop vs man-eating-predator thing...or the obvious family moments Steven Spielberg threw into the movie as a way to relive his own childhood...while all of those are wonderful elements (along with the bts stuff that came out and all the technical coolness, and humor, of a mechanical shark in the water), that’s not the main reason. The main reason is that I found myself relating to Chief Martin Brody over a simple notion: overcoming your fears. During the course of the movie, it’s revealed by Ellen Brody, his wife, that the Chief of Police of Amity Island has had a fear of drowning since he was a boy. His response in the following scene with Hooper, while drunk on Hooper’s private boat (”It’s only an island if you look at it from the water.”), is obviously meant to be a sort of humorous deflection about a serious phobia that he does not deal well with or tries to ignore. He sits in his car when they take the ferry to the mainland, for Christ's sake. So, what happens to change that? Naturally, he’s forced to confront his fear to save the town he’s charged with protecting, and in so doing, comes face-to-face with the monster that is trying to eat him and everybody else. Instead of allowing that fear to cripple him in the end, he overcomes it by allowing his natural inclination for survival, and his powerful will to live and need to protect the innocents, to overshadow it. To drown out that voice of fear so that he can do what he’s obviously meant to do. He’s able to kill the shark that not even the shark-studying-expert, or the shark-killing-captain, can overcome...and in a twist, it’s revealed that Quint’s need to hunt down and kill sharks is born out of a need to not only gain vengeance against the sharks that killed his fellow friends and officers when the USS Indianapolis went down, but also out of the traumatizing fear that he would be forced to face death and be killed by one of them as well (which, ironically, he was in the end - which sort of served as a symbol for both retribution for the innocent sharks and nature’s revenge against him, I suppose). Hooper’s need to study sharks, and perhaps try to preserve them, is also born out of fear that gives way to deep obsession and fascination from when he was a boy. He watched a shark turn his boat into a sinking vessel after he reeled one in while fishing and had to swim to shore. Still, he finds himself also outmatched by this mindless “eating machine” that he so deeply reveres and is forced to hide in a patch of seaweed forest on the ocean floor. So, if the two most expert-like people in the world, one who kills and one who studies sharks, can’t kill the murderous beast, why Brody? Is it because he was destined to be the hero all along? Maybe...but he was an anti-hero, through and through. He got pulled into this because it was his job and because he supported Quint’s proposal to the town to kill the shark. Did he want to go out, onto a somewhat-dilapidated boat, to go “fishing” for the man-eating shark, in the middle of the ocean? Of course not! Nor would I expect him to spend willing time with two crazy people who went to sea whenever they got the chance to either kill or study these animals in their natural environments. But in being forced to play the hero, he is able to overcome his fear...cause what’s the last scene in the movie? Him and Hooper (who survives in the film only; not the book - spoiler alert for those of you who did not read it!), grab a couple of those yellow barrels, lash ‘em together, and swim a couple of miles back to shore. Is Brody screaming, or showing any signs of fear, at being in the water? Nope. The shark doesn’t just represent a mindless, man-eating creature that swims the oceans...the shark also represents the subconscious, and even conscious, fears that lurk deep within our minds. Brody, in killing the shark, kills his fear, and is able to find both resolution to the obvious conflict and peace for his inner child.On some subconscious level, I must’ve recognized that, and that’s why I forced myself to sit down and watch this movie for that one week at nine years old. I, too, wanted to flee the room and avoid the thing that was causing me such terrible nightmares and anxiety...but I also knew I would be missing out on an opportunity to learn something. And I did, but about myself. I’ve kept that lesson in mind all of these years - in order to get over a fear, one must push through it - and though it has not always worked out, whether it’s because of stress or an inability to handle an entire situation - it has helped me in a lot of ways, both big and small. And while I revere this movie and adore it endlessly, that main theme is something that continues to stick out to me and is what makes it a one-of-a kind movie.

JAWS (1975)

[itsclydebitches]

I kinda wonder, what could bakugou do (hori write bakugou to do) to make him less popular with the "anti" crowd. Like He was a horrid child no doubt and people who try to put blame on Deku or lessen the terrible shit bakugou did aren't great. But as we don't rly see it, we have to assume bakugous behaviour wasn't stopped, we only ever saw his mum "punishing" him when he was being rude after getting kiddnapped. Nothing will excuse what bakugou did, but he has stopped? He's overall a harsh person but he's not harrassing and bullying people anymore, specifically not deku, he's trying to attone for what he did to deku and has now apologised for it. His behaviour was never viewed as justified or good in the series, he's a scary figure in middle school, we're not meant to like his behaviour, so the series itself hasn't justified his actions.

As someone who relate to both bakugou and deku more than I'd like to admit (never told someone to jump tho, that's fucked lol) so I can 100% understand not liking or even hating bakugou but as someone who's not 15 anymore, looking back I also made a lot of really shitty decisions and like bakugou have tried to make up for it, and like deku I was 'friends' with people who hurt me.

Is there anything he can do for the "antis" to just dislike him rather that be "anti"?

(I'm very sorry if you've talked about this somewhere, you can just tell me to look for it if you have, I'll continue to look for your posts on the subject)

Hey there, anon! I think I’ve spoken about this only tangentially and/or in my main Bakugo meta, which is too big for anyone sane to read. So yeah, let’s chat here!

For me personally—and that’s all I can ever do: speak personally. I think it’s important to keep in mind that there is no single solution to please the “anti” crowd. Each fan will be looking for something slightly different in Bakugo’s character, much of which might contradict what a “stan” is currently enjoying. Given how charged a character he is, I'm not sure it's possible to get the entire fandom to like him—what I’m looking for hinges on having a different reading of the story than you seem to. Meaning, I think the series does justify his behavior. Not in any overt, super obvious way like having all the characters go, “Wow, Bakugo! I sure do love how you threaten people all the time. That’s super cool and heroic!” Things are rarely that straightforward. Rather, it’s in a more subtle, but consistent manner that paints a rather conclusive picture across hundreds of chapters.

Simply put, Bakugo is continually rewarded for his actions. Or, if not outright rewarded, his actions are ignored in a way that implies silent acceptance. Characters may not always like what he does... but they're willing to let it slide because Bakugo's heroism was always treated as a given, not something he had to earn and prove.

With the ever necessary disclaimer that I’m not fully caught up yet, here’s a list of some of the things that stood out to me in the first half of the series:

Bakugo’s bullying made him the most popular kid in school.

Bakugo’s bullying was ignored by/outright supported by the teachers.

Bakugo’s bullying did not hinder him from getting into U.A., one of the most prestigious hero schools around.

Despite acting horribly throughout his time at U.A. too, this behavior was continually ignored by the teachers and other authority figures around him.

Bakugo’s struggle to realize that other people aren’t “trash” doesn’t hurt his achievements in any way. He still gets top scores, still wins the tournament, etc.

Bakugo’s behavior gets him special attention from All Might, the greatest hero and Bakugo’s personal idol.

His behavior doesn’t make others dislike him in any manner that’s taken seriously. Everybody is still willing to not just put up with Bakugo, but—in time—start treating his behavior as a quirk (no pun intended lol) that they’re secretly fond of, rather than something he should legitimately be striving to change. Kirishima is the most overt example of this.

This is compounded by his behavior constantly being framed as humorous. Much like with Mineta’s perverted actions, characters might superficially go, “No, that’s bad!” but the story never demands any significant development because then we’d lose the “joke” of Bakugo screaming in rage at the slightest inconvenience, threatening to murder someone over nothing, constantly belittling everyone around him in a “funny” manner, etc. When fans talk about development of a manga character as archetypal and extreme as Bakugo, most don’t really want to see significant change to his base personality. Because then that would result in someone who doesn’t look like the “real” Bakugo: someone nicer, more even-tempered, more mature, etc. But for those of us who were never drawn to that personality in the first place, the continued acceptance of his rude, egotistical, and violent behavior is discomforting. The easiest comparison I can draw is between this and Bakugo’s mother slapping him. That slap is meant to be another “joke”—we see it constantly in shonen anime, something "humorous" you shouldn’t take too seriously because haha, it's just an overprotective mother—but many fans do take it seriously, using it as the basis for a whole “Bakugo was abused and this explains his behavior” reading. Well, I take the “joke” of Bakugo’s threats and insults seriously, especially in a story that starts with something like telling Izuku to jump off the roof. In the same way that many fans want others to treat Bakugo’s mother as a serious topic that has had a negative influence on his development, I want the series to take Bakugo’s everyday actions seriously as a negative influence on… well, everyone around him. But it doesn’t. His base personality is grudgingly adored.

The above two points are seen most overtly in Izuku, who never wavers in his respect for Bakugo despite how Bakugo treats him. Not just prior to U.A., but during their training too. Izuku, as the protagonist, is the emotional heart of this tale, so when he talks about how inspiring Bakugo is, it encourages the reader to see his behavior as inspiring too. Rather than, as said, something that needs to change. Izuku's continued friendship with Bakugo, his adoration of him, and his acceptance of the way he's treated has severely warped how the entire story sees Bakugo's actions. After all, if #pure Izuku can see the good in Bakugo, why can't everyone else? He must not be that bad after all.

I could get into detailed analyses of all the above—like how Bakugo was the one comforted after attacking Izuku outside the dorms at night and how the messed up relationship he has with Izuku is upheld as something to nurture; how the remedial courses he had to take were made to be rather silly, thereby undermining their supposed importance to his development; how Bakugo’s kidnapping had nothing to do with his flaws, but much of the fandom uses it as a way to dismiss any appropriate consequences because, “Hasn’t he suffered enough?” etc.—but in the interest of keeping this within a readable length, I’ll leave it at that. The point is that Bakugo has always been privileged when it comes to his behavior, resulting in others either outright praising it, ignoring it, or demanding that he change a miniscule bit, which always keeps him far below the standards of both his peers and the expectations of a hero. Everyone in 1-A must learn to be even better than the good people they already are... Bakugo needs to learn that other people aren't dirt at the bottom of his shoes. It's never been a particularly impressive development when pit against the rest of the class. All of which can make something like an apology feel pretty hollow. Yes, he’s apologized and I say with all seriousness that that’s great! But how does that apology stack up against 300+ chapters of content? As Bakugo’s words highlight, he's been a really awful person up "until now": he was consumed by Izuku being “miles ahead of [him],” he “looked down on [him]” because he didn’t have a quirk, he “didn’t want to recognize that,” he “hated that,” “grew distant,” “tried to beat you down,” “opposed you and tried to show my superiority over you,” and ends it all with, “it probably doesn’t mean anything telling you all this” before finally getting to the “I’m sorry.” This is basically a laundry list of how horrible a person Bakugo has been for the entire series, with an acknowledgement that this apology is coming really, really late. This is the moment where I could START to like Bakugo, depending on how he acts form here on out, but that pivotal moment arrived after six years of content and in the final arc of the story. It’s too late. Bakugo needed this kind of self-reflection and positive action 250+ chapters ago so he could (hopefully) grow into a better person across the story, not at the story's end. What we got instead is 322 chapters of him being a really horrible person, but the story going out of its way to excuse or even praise that behavior the majority of the time.

As a quick comparison to end on, I think what Bakugo needed was what Soo Jin got in True Beauty. You don’t need to have seen the drama to follow along. The tl;dr is that she has a lot of the core qualities of Bakugo: an all-consuming drive to win that was created due to abusive parents with high expectations, resulting in her bullying a peer to a pretty horrific extent. The difference between them is how the story frames their actions. When Soo Jin becomes the bully she loses everything. Rather than succeeding academically, her grades plummet, making it clear that this anxiety and self-doubt (things the fandom keeps insisting Bakugo is struggling with, but that rarely ever show up in the text) is actually impacting her day-to-day life. Her best friend drops her because she’s not going to support her choices. The boy she likes rejects her. She’s eventually forced to start over somewhere new - which importantly separates her from the girl she was bullying - and get some distance from her parents, resulting in the growth needed to become a healthier, happier, good person again. So when Soo Jin apologizes to the girl she hurt, it feels earned. The story continually recognized how horrific her actions were and put her into a place where she either had to change, or continue losing at everything else that was important to her. Bakugo? Bakugo doesn’t lose. Oh, he claims he does because he’s comparing himself to Izuku constantly, but that’s just him thinking in extremes. He still wins academically. Still wins many battles. Still wins at having friends. Still wins by maintaining the prestige of being a U.A. student. Still wins by getting All Might’s attention. Still wins by receiving Izuku’s respect and an agreement to maintain this rivalry that Bakugo is so obsessed with. Bakugo comes out well 99% of the time, he just thinks he's "lost" because he can't stand not being the absolute best.

For me, the story needed to have Bakugo face consequences for his behavior, not receive rewards and/or have others ignore it, and that revelation/apology needed to come way, way sooner. For me the issue is not a specific action that Horikoshi can have Bakugo do in the next chapter and them bam, I like him now. The problem is Bakugo’s entire concept, how he’s received by the entire cast, and his run across this entire series. "Entire" is the key word there. Which is why the “But he’s apologized. What more do you antis want?” reactions don’t sit well. What we wanted is a better written redemption arc across those 300+ chapters, not a single scene that’s meant to have us forget all the other problems inherent in the story. At this point it’s a far more complicated situation than, “Bakugo just needs to do X, Y, and Z and then we’re golden.” At the end of the day, Horikoshi failed to make me like him as a person and I’m pretty sure he isn’t going to change Bakugo enough to make him likable to me. Bakugo was never the sort of character I’d be inclined towards without a serious, nuanced redemption arc, but sadly, a core, crucial part of that redemption arc took six years to arrive. At this point there’s no way to change the problems in Bakugo’s writing for that huge chunk of the series and not enough time left in the series, it seems, to do the work we should have seen across the entire run. Honestly, idk if the Bakugo we'll get going forward is someone I can just dislike as opposed to being really uncomfortable with, but my money is on there being too little story left and too much investment in upholding Bakugo's base personality for that to happen. I could absolutely be proven wrong! But I think the problems are structural and needed to be better dealt with from page one, not hastily patched over in the final hour.

[clydesdonovan]

ginger cow? you’ve said you hate it but i want to hear why!

okay this is the only episode I'm not rewatching LOL so. my b if this is a little rusty

★ Do I like this episode? Why or why not?

Absolutely not. This is one of my least favorite episodes. I'm talking like... bottom 3. I find the whole episode to be some of the most disturbing content the show has ever put out. I won’t ever forget how seriously disgusted and horrified I felt watching it, like… dude what the fuck lmao?? I honestly couldn’t believe I was watching an ep of south park. There was no absurd comedy within it to balance out the dark and the bleak (like “Scott Tenorman” had, for example). It’s literally just 25 minutes of Kyle being psychologically abused. Kyle is so clearly, obviously, painfully distressed throughout the whole thing, and the amount of glee Cartman feels at hurting him that way is really upsetting. I don't find any of it funny. I just find it tragic and horrific and incredibly disturbing. I watched it when it aired and I haven’t (and won’t ever) seen it since.

★ Favorite moment?

Honestly, I don't have one because I hate every aspect of the episode. The beginning is okay, I guess, before the ball really gets rolling... so I guess that? if it counts lmao

★ Least favorite moment?

Literally all of it. The entire episode. It's a big awful time.

★ Do I have an unpopular opinion about this episode? What is it?

I don't think so... as far as I know, most people agree that it's a bad episode and has no redeeming qualities. It's probably one of the few episodes I think we all (mostly?) agree we can do without, and there's nothing lost in ignoring its entire existence.

★ Something I would change?

EVERYTHING. It could've been a good classic Cartman vs Kyle episode if it had been done differently. Tbh, I wouldn't even have minded the "Kyle does whatever Cartman says" plotline, if it had been like… stupid and/or childish stuff (like, idk, Kyle does his homework or insults someone or something) and not downright psychological torture.

★ Rating out of 5?

0/5 lmfaooo

★ Anything else I want to say about this episode?

I just... really, really hate it. Seeing Kyle being tormented like that and being unable to put an end to it was terrible. I feel like this episode showcases some of Cartman’s most deplorable moments and behaviors. For me, this is the episode Eric can’t come back from (and so for my own sanity and enjoyment of his character, I willingly ignore it’s existence). The whole episode just left me feeling so genuinely, viscerally disturbed, and it was the first time an episode has ever left such an impression on me. It was a very jarring experience lmao and I don’t want to experience it again

[unionizedwizard]

It's funny that you mentioned rupi kaur because she was in my mind when i replied to your ask (also sorry if it's a bit nonsensical i had LITERALLY just woke up 13 seconds before and was already #hating). Also i'll be honest part of my visceral reaction stems from my personal experience where everything that was deemed safe, cozy, good, comforting, etc. was actually a living nightmare and i kept getting gaslit about it lol so i sort of grew up with an inverted sense of values where, typically, wholesome cutesy fantasies were lies and extremely nefarious in an anxiety-inducing way while more violent (if not straight-up horrific) stories felt a lot more real and honest. i know i talk about it a lot but i think the truman show is the closest equivalent i can point at in terms of. vibes?

specifically when it comes to cutesy, hollow, forcefully-positive fiction or art (bonus if theyre riddled with the therapyspeak du jour) what i resent is their association with childhood. and specifically the false and dangerous narrative that children are some kind of positive, sheltered, innocent and stupid little things who don't understand or experience violence. this one admittedly is aimed at the "duh it sucks. that's because it's for children"

but yeah that's what you said, i think it all boils down to the presumed and proclaimed "apolitical" quality of "pure entertainment", which is crazy because you can NEVER see the political and ideological biases and pressures than in "pure entertainement" and "wholesome aspirational and comforting" fiction. sidenote but i'm reading agatha christie novels these days and it's CRAZY how politically charged and conservatively ideologically inclined they are and i'll have to talk about it at some point lol but anyway

i think what really bothers me is when something is dishonest. untrue. and comforting/aspirational/cozy fiction especially tends to do so by revealing what is thought of as inherently safe, aspirational, beautiful, and free from conflict. somehow it's always socially and politically conservative with an underlying colonial motif. huh. funny how that works. surely this is nothing to worry about though. doesn't it make you feel GOOD?

edit: also i focused on the bad ones here but i mean. as far as fiction goes, "relatively low stakes drama in a domestic setting" is my favorite sort of plot. like i mean my favorite novel of all times is madame bovary (arguably she died of being assigned cutesy cottagecore at societal exportations. comrade emma). i'm not big on action or thrillers or sci-fi or anything. it's not a TASTE situation. and honestly there are great works of "cottagecore" fiction that are not ethically bankrupt or anything, like Moomins for example. i LOVE moomins. it's cute and cottagecore but it's HONEST. like it's not simply about ignoring the world! and it's no coincidence that tove jansson was very much a leftist lol

do you think your derision for twee stuff is self-contained or do you think it's heavily influenced by how prevalent and aggressively marketed that stuff is

i think it's both. and the fact that it's aggressively presented as "innocent" and wholesome and devoid of, like, political biases or effects or whatever. which is funny because i LOVE pretty things, i love softness in general too, it's not that i'm like, an edgelord who hisses at anything pink that enters his field of vision.... i think that it's the insincerity and artificiality of it that really annoys me, and the fact that (AS ANON PROVED JUST NOW) it's generally considered "too innocent" to be criticized or even thought of critically at all. and youre pressured into pretending it's like. charming or whatever and youre supposed to be as stupid than the thing itself. obviously this is coupled with the fact these things are marketed towards children and women (yikes) hence the infantilization. maybe we deserve better. is just what i'm sayingggggg

[maevelin]

I know you didn't enjoy Nesta's book that much. What were the parts you didn't like and were there things you did enjoy?

I found the plot very basic and simplistic. The author has the tendency to overhype certain things and then drop the hints and the foreshadowing or write something totally anticlimactic about it.

An example for the anticlimactic part is how the former books had presented the Blood Rite as such a horrific event. One that in order to survive it Illyrians trained their whole life and then you take a few completely untrained individuals, train them basically for a few months a few hours in the mornings (I mean it is as if they went to the gym) and then they are ready to own the whole thing. It was ridiculous.

You introduce the concept of Valkyries and instead of writing an actual story about it you give a child’s play with some girls basically saying...hey they sound cool, we have no idea past the surface what and who they were or if we are basically appropriating their culture but let’s make a new club about it. I mean...why not just introduce Valkyries in a more grounded way, even the rebirth of their nation and lore, in a more realistic way? Instead you get a lost female tradition and you have males teaching girls about it. Take Thor Ragnarok for example (one movie that has not won me over as much as others). So why not introduce a new character that is a Valkyrie, even the last of her kind, a jaded character that has quit life just as Nesta and then create a story to reignite the myth of the Valkyries into something new that Nesta would accept and embrace.

Although for the life of me I don’t understand why PTSD and healing has to be connected with that sort of training in the first place. Why get a character like Nesta and  turn her into a Xena type of character all of the sudden...because that’s the only way to show inner strength or any kind of strength? I just don’t get it. 

However I did appreciate Nesta’s journey at certain parts although some felt forced in order to accept the Inner Circle bullshit and when people had predicted that in the end Nesta would how to bow and kneel to the ‘awesomeness’ of the Inner Circle so to be welcomed into the Night Court and be redeemed I am pretty sure no one expected this to literally happen. It gave me such a visceral reaction.

I couldn’t have disliked the IC more in this book even if I tried (and boy there were dubious, problematic and outright offensive and abusive things in their behavior) but what I didn’t like was that Nesta didn’t have an interesting story plot wise. Her journey of healing was okay and it has some interesting and beautiful moments but the story surrounding it was sloppy.

I hated the concept/threat of throwing Nesta in the Court of Nightmares but just from a creative perspective it would have made the book a thousand times more interesting. The dynamic felt off in general and in the end it felt as if the main concept was not resolved but the realization came that there was no main concept. 

Say what you will for the first three ACOTAR books but they had a goal, a purpose, a target. Feysand and Feyre’s personal journey were the focus but the their books served far more than that thus making those parts work in a solid (at least as far as these books are concerned) structure. Here we got some treasure hunt but everything was left open ended and it was not even focused entirely on Nesta and Cassian. I felt robbed somehow especially given the dynamic Nesta’s powers had and based on that alone a personal story could have been built upon that potential that got wasted for the most part. We could have gotten an epic storyline and we...did not.

AND YOU KNOW WHAT? Nesta DESERVED  a GREAT VILLAIN/ANTAGONIST for her own story and she did not get that (come on Briallyn was such weak sauce and unremarkable)  and I am offended on Nesta’s behalf to be honest LOL

Nesta’s voice and the way she was written was reminiscent of Feyre’s at parts but I assume this is because of the writing style of the author but it still felt jarring if not OOC at parts.

And I felt that some behaviors we had seen in previous books (how Cassian avoided her in Acowar and so on) were overlooked and the good things Nesta did along with the bad (how she went after Feyre after Tamlin took her and how she was ready to sacrifice herself to give Feyre a chance and how she was so focused on saving children and so on) were completely ignored all so to ‘excuse’ how she was treated and how she deserved to be treated that way by all others and how she had to redeem herself. And yeah she had to face her wrongdoings because she had been abusive too but I felt there were double standards concerning her which I did not appreciate in the way the book was written.

In the end I found the sacrifice of her powers a beautiful thing for her personal growth but at the same time I also got the intention behind the writing that has nothing to do with Nesta’s journey and that is disappointing.

There was also the usual writing style/editing that has its issues and I got really tired with the phrase “like calls to like”. Like...okay we got it the first hundred times enough already.

All that been said there were things I enjoyed in the book too.

1. The House... which let’s face it it’s Tardis to Nesta’s Doctor.

2. Nesta’s connection with music and dancing was beautiful.

3. Her love of books? Brilliant.

4. The scene with the Kelpie? QUALITY STUFF! 

5. As was the description of Nesta entering the Cauldron.

6. The scene with her nightmare engulfed in silver flames was amazing too.

7. Hello Nes and Lady Death!

8. Cassian’s protectiveness over Nesta was also nice especially when he was able to man up (no I won’t go for male up LOL) and stand up against certain bullshit behavior targeted at Nesta.

9. Emerie and Gwyn were cute and their relationship with Nesta beautiful although it did also feel rushed at parts. I would have much preferred that build up to have happened with her sisters but given the fuckery of the IC in general I will take this and savor it!

10. Azriel was a relief and I would have liked more interaction between him and Nesta. Brilliant indeed.

11. I HATED Amren but I loved the parallel of what she had once told Nesta:  “When you erupt, girl, make sure it is felt across worlds” and we got this scene when Nesta. (P.s You unmade her...She had it coming LMAO)

12. The cookie offer in the end made me laugh.

13. Overall Nessian was cute and thankfully Cassian wasn’t the same creep he was in Acofas. Although his low esteem and blind servitude left much to be desired at times.

14. The smut at times was making me cringe but the sexual drive and dynamic of the characters felt appropriate given their personalities.

15. I also liked Feyre’s inner thoughts when Eris asked Nesta’s hand in marriage and the way she was protective of Nesta and wanted to end him LOL.

16. Speaking of which...everyone wanting Nesta as their bride was very funny and after a while it kept happening and I couldn’t stop laughing.

17. Nesta’s first “I love you” was given to Feyre and thank you!

I think that’s about it.

[portraitsofivy]

Abortion Clinics Are Not Safer; A Compilation

TRIGGER WARNING: Some of these contain murder, botched abortions and other gory things. But, abortion is a gory business so quite frankly if you’re going to support the abortion industry you should probably know exactly what it does.

If you skip this, I do not blame you. These articles can have some very triggering content.

 However, if you can’t stomach reading the articles, maybe you shouldn’t support the industry. There are many more cases such as these that are not reported, and I’m sure many are much worse. 

Also, I literally got these from a quick Google search. Over 11 different stories, even more sources, and I’m not even done!! There’s more!! I’m just trying not to clutter up everyone’s dashboard with a super long post lol. 

Abortion Industry Negligence Nationwide: Highlighting the Most Egregious Offenses

More Abortion Clinics Face Suspension Over Health Codes

On April 9, ABC Philadelphia news reported that two former nurses at the Planned Parenthood of Delaware abortion facility quit their jobs, citing unsafe, unsanitary conditions, and “a meat-market style of assembly-line abortions.”

On May 29, Jayne Mitchell-Werbrich and Joyce Vasikonis testified before the Delaware state senate. They referred to the clinic conditions as “ridiculously unsafe” and noted that women were at risk for hepatitis and AIDS.

[ . . . ] two of the highest volume Planned Parenthood abortion facilities (Far Northeast and Elizabeth Blackwell Center, both in Philadelphia) in Pennsylvania failed inspection. Inspectors found that both facilities were improperly storing fetal remains – in undated bags at Elizabeth Blackwell Center, and unpreserved in a janitor’s closet at Far Northeast. They also discovered unsanitary implements, including unused syringes and needles that had been removed from their packaging. At Elizabeth Blackwell Center there were dark stains on the carpet and on a bench in a patient area.

[ . . .] abortionist Kermit Gosnell was found guilty of the murder of three newborn children and the negligent death of one patient. He had been charged with eight counts of murder including seven babies who were born alive and then killed with scissors. Prosecutors said that he made millions of dollars over 30 years, performing as many illegal, late-term abortions as he could.

In May, Operation Rescue released a report revealing that 3 former staff members of the Aaron Women’s Clinic in Houston had come forward with evidence of horrific late term abortions conducted by abortionist Douglas Karpen. The informants provided photographic evidence (taken on their cell phones) of illegal late-term abortions. The photos depicted two babies aborted well beyond Texas’ legal limit of 24 weeks. Their necks had been cut. The physical condition of the babies revealed that they had likely been born alive and then subsequently killed. Testimony from the former workers indicated that Dr. Karpen was committing both very late term abortions and infanticide. Patients would be administered doses of Cytotec, a drug that causes strong and unpredictable uterine contractions, to induce labor, and then he would proceed with the abortion.“When he did an abortion, especially an over 20 week abortion, most of the time the fetus would come completely out before he cut the spinal cord, or he introduced one of the instruments into the soft spot of the fetus in order to kill the fetus,” stated former surgical assistant Deborah Edge. According to Edge, this was a common occurrence.

Steven Chase Brigham’s Fairfax, VA facility remained closed as of June 2 after an April inspection in which “unsanitary equipment, expired medication and failure to maintain equipment or follow proper patient care protocols” were discovered.

Nova Women’s Health Center, the busiest abortion clinic in Virginia, closed when its lease was terminated via a lawsuit by the property owners on the grounds that the abortion clinic created a public nuisance. According to the lawsuit filings, Nova patients were regularly inside the building “lying down in corridors…and, in some instances, even vomiting.” One filing said witnesses would testify that this was a daily occurrence. Previously in 2007, the state Board of Health reported evidence of negligence and abuse at Nova Women’s Health Center clinic including: failing to provide follow-up care, keeping inadequate records, and improperly handling and dispensing drugs. Abortionist Mi Yong Kim was forced to surrender her medical license, but continued to operate the clinic.

Itai Gravely, a 26-year-old woman, filed suit against the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia and abortionist Rodney Lee Stephens after Stephens allegedly forced Ms. Gravely to proceed with an abortion against her will and then left her dead baby’s head inside her womb. Gravely changed her mind about the abortion after adequate anaesthesia could not be administered. Stephens ordered clinic workers to physically restrain Ms. Gravely as he proceeded with the abortion. The next day, Ms. Gravely was rushed to the emergency room where it was discovered that dismembered body parts of her child had been left in her womb.

The New Woman All Women abortion facility in Birmingham sent three women with botched abortions to the hospital. Paramedics had to hand-lift a partially clad woman through a narrow doorway and down several steps because the building did not have a gurney-accessible entrance. The Alabama Department of Public Health issued a 76-page deficiency report citing the following among other violations.

Clinic staff was not properly trained to provide safe quality patient care.

Failure to have policy and procedures related to medication administering and errors. This resulted in the hospitalization of three abortion patients on January 21, 2012, with one patient placed in ICU.

There was no documentation that the two abortionists employed by Derzis were even qualified to do abortions.

Abortionists made illegible notations on patient charts, which made determining critical information about patient care impossible.

In several cases, the notes about patient care and conditions were completely false.

On July 20, 24-year-old Tonya Reaves died following a second-trimester abortion at a Chicago Planned Parenthood. Autopsy results reveal that Ms. Reaves died as a result of a hemorrhage following a botched surgical abortion. The autopsy reported that she was a healthy woman at the time of her abortion but that she suffered an “extensive” perforation of her broad uterine ligament with a possible severing of her left uterine artery as a result of the abortion procedure. The autopsy also revealed that the abortion was incomplete as the medical examiner discovered that pieces of placenta had been left attached to her womb, despite the dilation and evacuation (D & E) abortion performed by Planned Parenthood. Reports indicate that Planned Parenthood ignored instructions by an emergency dispatcher to call 911.

So I don’t mean to be blunt or anything, but tbh I am not looking into entering discourse with you. Any comments trying to bait me into arguments/debates will be deleted, and any hate in my inbox will be blocked. If you don’t agree with me, that’s fine, you’re entitled to your own opinion, but don’t come yelling at me to change mine. Anyone who does so will be blocked.

However, if you have a question and want to pm me privately, I would love to talk to you about it! Just don’t start venting in my ask box or the notes of this post. 

If you want an insiders’ opinion of the abortion industry, go see the movie Unplanned!! It follows Planned Parenthood’s employee of the year as she discovers what the industry is really like.

tldr; The abortion industry is fraught with gory deaths and botched surgeries. They are not safe.

[akatokuro]

The Inevitable Saint Seiya Rewatch, Episodes 16-19

i am legitimately unsure how to respond to seiya fucking murdering a lady

- Hyouga, why the fuck would you leave your invincible rosary at Ikki's grave. TAKE THAT SHIT TO MU AND HAVE HIM RESEARCH IT HADES WILL NOT STAND A CHANCE

- ah yes, time for delicious toei filler

- In all seriousness, this filler is goofy and ridiculous as fuck, (OH NO THE BUGS ARE STEALING MY COSMO!!!) but I actually do like some of the character moments a lot, and I like the idea of the core group + Saori having time to bond and really become a team before shit starts really going down, and before Saori realizes she's a goddess.

- I have to wonder, though, if you're going to make filler to try to buy time while Kurumada smokes weed and makes shit up, why would you go with a really obvious "evil Pope" plotline? Seriously, it should be super obvious that eventually the manga is going to have its own plans for the Pope and Sanctuary, since he was a big figure in the first chapter/episode. Like, if the anime went to do completely its own thing, that'd be fine, but the halfway measure where it tries to weave weirdly back into the manga is just, uh, strange.

- Not that projecting Saga onto Toei's Evil Pope (complete with Evil Harem!) isn't the funniest fucking thing, don't get me wrong. Wait until they find out how much he loves being an owl!

- I mean, yeah, the montage of trainees dying horrifically by the hundreds is brutal and disturbing, but... is it really that much harsher than the picture we get of regular Saint training, considering LOL NINETY DEAD KIDS WHOOPS? I dunno...

- Marin and Shaina are both legitimately really cool characters. Saint Seiya ladies in general are cool as hell, you just wish that they got more focus, Saori included.

- The way Toei tries to inject RACISM!!! as another reason why Sanctuary evil feels a little weird, considering that, like, half of their Gold Saints aren't from Greece either...

- A wild Aiolia appears! The early stealth appearances of the Golds are a lot of fun. (Imagine how much more fun they could be if they were actually seeded in with, like, intent!) At this stage if you're watching blind you probably have no idea to make of this guy, who is also the narrator for the episodes...? It doesn't feel like he's obviously been set up as a "future opponent", but he's also not going out of his way to oppose the bad guys, either... but he does seem to be Marin's friend, so hmm...

-  It just seems like the kind of thing that'd be fun to play with, expectations-wise, if you're going to revise the series with hindsight in mind. In a way that, you know, gender-swapping Shun is not. What? Did I say something?

- Man, though, a Silver Saint like Shaina who is willing to shit-talk a Gold like Lia to his face... yikes. That's sort of nuts. You really do get no respect around here, do you, Aiolia...?

- have i mentioned lately that i'm in love with saori

- "Why are they after the Gold Cloth?" UH, BECAUSE IT'S A GOLD CLOTH, GUYS? HYOUGA, SHIRYUU, YOU TWO WERE TRAINED BY FUCKING GOLDS. SEIYA YOU'VE LIVED HALF YOUR LIFE IN SANCTUARY. YOU SHOULD UNDERSTAND THIS IS KIND OF A BIG DEAL?

- "Our magic warriors were secretly behind every major historical event ever" was cringe in Madoka Magica and, uh, it's cringe here too, sorry!

- I'd loooove to see a more elaborate process of Saori slowly realizing and coming to terms with being Athena. More Saori content in general, pls.

- AH YES, THE SHUN SHOWER SCENE

- AH YES, THE SHIRYUU WAKING UP WITH KIKI SCENE

- I really like seeing the Bronzies do stuff like run around town doing "normal" activities, like Shun jogging, though! Shun is cute! CUTE! I even like seeing Seiya hanging around with the orphanage kids and setting up Miho for extreme disappointment.

- SAORI STANDING UP TO AND SASSING A SAINT WHO JUST BLEW HER HOUSE UP BY HERSELF I CAN'T IMAGINE BEING THIS BADASS GOD

- her expression change when seiya shows up though hnnnnng

- The setup is dumb filler, but I like the underscoring that Saori is HARDCORE (ignore me, protect the Cloth!), the Bronzies meeting up to discuss what they should do, and Seiya's not-super-personal rationale at this point for going to rescue Saori. I actually do think their relationship has nice progression, the fact that ideally there would have been more focus on Saori realizing her Foundation is pretty fucking evil aside.

- wait, you guys are going with hyouga's plan? seriously? oh shit..........

- AND THE CRYSTAL SAINT APPEARS. MY NEMESIS

- oh my god i want to see camus demonstrating this hilarious ass leg freezing technique. 'donk' sound effect and all. why would you deprive me of this

- i like how even the crystal saint, someone who is obviously defined as very much a 'nice/good saint', will cheerfully watch his student get mauled by a polar bear as part of his training though

- I'm not sure if it's more plausible that CRYSTAL SAINT failed to warn Hyouga that "hey, even if you freeze their legs, they can still punch you" or if Hyouga heard and just forgot...

- Shiryuu and Kiki are too late to reach the cave, watching them fly away in a helicopter because this is a filler arc. Wait, Sanctuary uses helicopters? Is there a helipad in Saga's house? Is it equipped with a personal bath? I need to know these things, dammit!

- I would seriously watch an entire fucking episode of just the Bronzies and Saori sitting in a room together discussing battle plans and other serious business, punctuated by Seiya and Saori occasionally flirting, and Hyouga occasionally invading Shun's personal space. A+++ quality episode right there.

- GHOOOOOOST SAAAAAAAAAAAAINTS

- poor shaina, getting filler villain-ized. but on the other hand, i kind of like her more in the role of 'ruthless and threatening villain/supporting character' as opposed to having a crush on seiya, ngl.

- Saori shitting on Tatsumi is always the greatest thing. But even that aside, even with the GHOOOST SAAAAINTS, I... like the idea of more elements of the Graude Foundation and their interactions with the actual world getting involved in this conflict?

- ghost saints tho...........

- I also really like Saori already showing she's growing up and changing the way she thinks. She has this perpetually troubled air about her even in the Ikki arc, so even though there's not as much focus on what's going on in her head as there SHOULD be, it's plausible she's really mulling things over, re-evaluating them, and internally struggling so she can be up to this task she doesn't fully understand. Rather than being smug about Graude's capabilities like Tatsumi and like she was in the early episodes, she's already thinking about the impact of their actions on the world at large. Because she rules.

- Really wish we had some aspect of her more directly confronting the fact that her grandfather was an evil fuck, but it's one of those things I feel like I can probably headcanon too, I suppose.

- shun and the nebula chains mvp all day every day

- i like how seiya is sitting there playing sad guitar and hyouga and shiryuu huddle together and are just like "man seiya's guitar sucks" “i know right”

- Saori's growth is great because she really feels like an actual character to me? There's an awkwardness about how she's trying to approach the Bronzies and bond with them that feels really organic and endearing, but she's trying very hard. I really like touches like Saori trying to say the reason she came was because she was worried about them, and Hyouga and Shiryuu sort of exchanging this skeptical glance. It's what makes things on Saori's end sort of easy to 'headcanon', so to speak.

- I love this whole idea of Saori randomly chucking her jewelry into the ocean to 'show her appreciation'. Because it's so fucking weird and awkward. This is a gesture that doesn't actually mean anything to the Bronzies - they're totally like "huh? uh, okay" - and objectively it's a dumb useless thing to do, but you can tell she, as a young girl, has really been wracking her brain over how to SHOW that she's growing to care about them, and... and came up with this? Uh, it seemed like a good idea maybe? And her self-consciousness continues to come through, the way she can't even look at the Bronzies as she explains what she's trying to say is that their lives are more important than any Cloth.

- In growing this way, Saori is already vastly different from her grandfather and even Sanctuary, who obviously didn't value life at all - but Saori is trying to figure out and navigate this new way of thinking and caring on her own. Of course it'll be clumsy as hell, but there's also a real earnestness to it. Saori is so great...

- THE HYOSHUN IS VERY REAL. even in the midst of dumb filler, i love the way hyouga is so consistently attentive to shun. why is hyouga the only one who reacts to shun getting pulled underwater and then tries to save him? shiryuu was right there too... i mean...

- (the answer: hyouga is crushing on him hard, but)

- shun catching hyouga on the cliff against THE EVIL BUGS too ffffffffff

- NEBULA CHAIN! PULL IT UP!

- "Shiryuu, what happened!?" "I DON'T KNOW." and then we never speak of this again. sounds legit tbh

- holy shit did seiya just fucking murder a lady

- seiya just totally cold-bloodedly murdered a lady

- AIOLOS DID YOU JUST FUCKING WINK AT SEIYA AFTER HE MURDERED A LADY THROUGH YOUR HELMET I..................

- no, but seriously, she's fucking lying helpless face down on the ground and seiya fucking punches her to death what the fuck. even the way the shot is framed. and then you get to hear her scream in pain as she's being fucking punched to death. like seiya could have seen an opening and punched her as she was falling from aiolos's sucker punch, but while she's literally lying on the ground is really... uh...

- WELL, UM, MOVING ON I GUESS... SAINT SEIYA!

[valeriemperez]

tati do you think Eobad helped Nora with her powers and made her turn against her mom and played with her head? do you think anyone will ask Nora who trained her and helped her time travel and ask her to stop lying and just tell the truth?

I do think Eobard helped Nora with her powers and convinced her to come to this time and do the satellite thing, but I don’t think Nora knows it was Eobard. I’m sure the ‘whole truth’ will be explained in time for the 100th episode, though.

Since Spin is still around, I want to see her again and challenge Iris. I want to see these two women go at it for real (And Iris to come out on top).

My thoughts exactly! Another Iris face-off and another Nora flirt-on, lol.

Finally caught up on the flash and I’m kinda confused about the Iris/Nora controversy. I doubt the writers would ever go this dark, but I can see so many reasons to suppress a child speedster’s powers. Imagine a new born baby phasing through your arms and getting hurt? A toddler literally disappearing in a store and ending up in the middle of a highway? Accidentally vibrating a limb and killing the family pet? Holy shit the potential for horrific accidents or exposure are endless…

Yeah, I don’t think the writers will get into the details, but there are plenty of reasons for Iris to have hid the powers from Nora and dampened them. I’m sure they’ll give us a more blanket statement on why, though. I just watched A Discovery of Witches and there’s a similar situation there, which was handled with ease once it was discovered. As usual, you can’t really put realistic parameters on such a supernatural situation.

Why does it have to be only one person is right? I can see both Iris’ and Nora’s POV. Like you said I’m just happy we’re getting some quality content with the WA family. Here’s to hoping poppa joe has a nice long talk with his granddaughter. Iris and Nora seem to be trying to move on as a family in the stills from the next episode. Fingers crossed☺️

I think we’re gonna get some great Iris and Nora moments next week, plus some cute Westallen! Can’t wait.

Small parody commercial presented by me: “Meet West-Allen. Barry is the almighty CSI and crime fighting Flash that apparently doesn’t know hand-eye coordination when catching the ball (Shows clips of him failing). Then comes his wife, Iris West-Allen. Ace reporter and leader of Team Flash that hasn’t learn the basics of cooking essentials (Shows clips of her failing). But despite all of that, they’re our Gold Standard couple. Catch them on the Flash, Tuesday nights on the CW.”

Awww, lol! Bless them and you.

Danielle did it AGAIN and she didn’t mention Candice when she talked about Shethority and gave all the credit to Caity. Do we know anyone in Shethority that we can talk to them about this? Caity is ignoring all our tweets about this and she doesn’t care to correct her friend 👎

I mean, I’m sure Candice is well aware and has been tagged multiple times, so you don’t need to worry too much. There is a feedback email if you really wanted Lynn to see it, but I’m not sure what would change as they can’t actually monitor Danielle’s interviews. shethorityarticles@gmail.com?

I can imagine ur pretty tired of talking about this but I’m really happy about this Iris-Nora story line, it’s not black and white. I’ve watched a lot of reactions and everyone seems to be at odds lol. Iris fans, haters, casual viewers.. everyone is kinda split at the middle but majority believe she did it out of love, it hasn’t been this way for a long time. To me, this is the most interesting storyline and It makes me really excited about the season.

Totally agree that it’s a very interesting, shades of grey storyline and one that the show has handled well so far.

I’m still laughing at how little it fazes him. “Everything you do is perfect, and that’s that on that!” Barry’s been thinking Iris is perfect since he’s fallen in love with her. Can you blame the guy? He’d give her an award with the way she sneezes. LOL!

And I love him for it.

[theplagueraven]

This is my new character, T/5 Philip Muldoon, part of the 69th Armored Regiment and gunner for an M4 Sherman tank called The Badger. Currently in Japan in 1946 at the end of AU WWII, cleaning up after the third nuclear bomb went off. It’s an alternate history TTRPG in the Savage Worlds system that I’ve been doing with some friends on Discord and havin’ a good time! Someday I’ll finish shading this picture. There’s an awkward half-shaded one somewhere, but meh. Ain’t showing that. XD

Muldoon likes to think he’s quiet and calculated, but in reality he tends to talk a lot, especially when his fellow tankers are down, and is a bit of a jokester in times where laughter is needed. Dedicated to a fault to anything he puts his mind to, he has incredible skill in medicine from everything he worked toward before the war, and now is an absolute deadeye shot when it comes to guns--big or small--since he shifted his focus to that once he was drafted. Changing his profession from healing to killing has damaged his psyche, and is almost never seen without dark circles under his eyes from severe lack of sleep from the traumas he’s gone through.

BACKSTORY STUFF (Copy/pasted wall of text from elsewhere that I don’t really expect anybody to read, lol)

His father (whose name I’d like to figure out at some point) was a British immigrant who came to the US not long before the First World War. He met his sweetheart there, but was quickly torn away from her when the War started up. He worked as an army doctor, and was a fairly decent one as far as that era of medicine goes. Even so, he was injured while out in the war zone toward the very end of the war, crippling his leg. Despite his injury, he refused to quit until he had saved as many people as he thought he should. Dude had a real bee in his bonnet about saving everyone he could get his hands on, even to his own detriment. 

Upon getting home at the conclusion of the war, he reunites with his sweetheart and gets married, and soon after in 1920 little Philip was born. Philip, or Pip as his dad affectionally called him, looked up to his dad as a hero, always asking for the glorious stories of him saving people from the brink of death throughout the war. It was absolutely magical to the boy, and he decided he wanted to learn how to do that, thus his early fascination with medicine. Even from a young age, his dad humored him and taught him what he knew.

Once the Great Depression hit, the Muldoon family fell into shambles, Pip’s father working himself to the bone to try and make ends meet. Always a stubborn man, he refused to tackle anything without 100% determination, a quality Philip inherited. His crippled leg naturally caused him issues, forcing him out of the best jobs and down into whatever horrific jobs he could get his hands on, putting further strain on the humble family’s failing finances. Still, he never stopped for a moment. He secretly squirreled away money for Pip’s higher education penny by penny, held back from eating to give Pip more to keep up growing boy’s strength, worked absolutely insane hours with dangerous conditions, etc. Eventually it caught up to him, ending his life when Pip was barely 15.

Philip was absolutely heartbroken. His hero, and the hero of an untold number of soldiers, the veteran of the Great War, fallen to something as mundane as a workplace accident. The boy was devastated by the loss, but sought to keep his father’s memory alive and take care of his mother as well as his father always did his best to do. He took up some extra hours himself—no stranger to putting in some work for some extra money for the family—echoing that bullheaded determination to give it all he had. He was merely focusing on surviving th hard times with his mother, until they found his father’s stash of set aside money, along with a loving note explaining what it was. Though a paltry sum, it carried a weight of expectation that Pip couldn’t ignore. He needed to become a doctor and save people’s lives, make the world better for other people, just like his father had. He would have nothing else.

With renewed vigor, he committed himself to doing what he could to earn the rest of the money he would need to get himself started with proper higher education. Once the Second World War broke out and men were stolen away by enlistment and drafts, Pip moved in on the vacancies to snatch better and better jobs, finally reaching his financial goal and starting his medical training, again always putting a stupid amount of effort into being the BEST he could be.

He was able to avoid the draft for a bit, but eventually got caught by it once the US officially joined the war. Though sorely disappointed at being stolen away from his dream, true to his stubborn determination, he shifted gears and decided to try and be the best soldier he could be as long as he was stuck there. Thus his proficiency in shooting. Dude’s honestly a maniac who needs to spend less time studying and practicing, and more time freaking sleeping. A good day is when the bags under his eyes don’t look like he’s been punched in the face. But he thrives on keeping busy, and is a hard one to keep still. At this point the lack of sleep is just a refusal to sleep because he could be DOING THINGS and sleeping takes away from that, and has nothing to do with bad dreams. When he does sleep, it’s like a freaking log. Sleeps like the dead. 

Once he got put out in the war zone, he found himself slapped in the face by a brutal reality. He had to actually kill people. And it wasn’t heroic or glorious like he had imagined as a boy. Oh no, it was brutal, grueling, and soul-shattering. He was a man who had dedicated his life to saving people. Not taking lives away. Regardless, he numbed himself, plugging away at his duties to keep his mind off the horrors as much as humanly possible. 

His vigorous practice at honing his stellar shooting skill became his worst nightmare. In fact, the first night after killing a man was the night his nightmares began. Every face of every soldier he killed wouldn’t leave his memory. Even if he never actually saw their faces, he still counted and estimated the numbers of those who fell by his hand, harboring bitter guilt and resentment for every single one, and suffering from the visions of those cold, dead eyes that visited his dreams every night. Sometimes he cries out to them, begging for forgiveness, trying to explain it was what he had to do. But he doesn’t really believe his own excuses; he feels like he’s some horrific farce. A healer turned into a savage murderer. The opposite of what he dreamed to be his entire life. So now his dreams are haunted by that cruel, cruel irony. 

Regardless of this, he will never willingly say a word about it, and can get quite defensive about how much he struggles with it day to day. He keeps a straight face, barreling ever onward in that inherited stubborn, determined charge. He knows the other soldiers around him know of his nightmares. How could they not? With his tossing and turning, shouts and cries, avoidance of sleep after a day with a particularly high kill count... it’s no secret Philip is traumatized by what he does everyday. And though it shows clear in his red, sunken, exhausted eyes, it’s still ignored in favor of always doing his best. That’s what his father would have wanted for him, right? 

His well-paid position is something he does have a touch of pride in. He sends a huge portion of his earnings home to his mother, always making sure that she’s doing well, since at the time of writing this, I don’t have any sweethearts of his own in mind. He still aches for the chance to go home and continue his career, get away from all the killing and do what he’s supposed to be doing, but also can’t leave a job unfinished, so he sticks around to his own detriment.

As a side effect of growing up with all that lovely Great Depression nonsense, he’s become a tad bit of a hoarder. Had a hard time letting things go. Because of this, he’s always got all kinds of odd doo-dads and whatnots around his workstation and in all his pockets. Never know when something seemingly mundane may become incredibly useful! Save everything you’ve got, just in case! And so, his “I’ve got one!” perk is born. ;)

As an extension of this, he’s also fond of photography, since it’s another way to hold onto something. As a kid, he and his father dabbled in a bit of it, so it holds a bit of extra sentiment beyond what the photos themselves can capture and keep. He has a photograph of his father among his belongings, and sees it as a source of determination and strength, reminding him of all the things his father went through and urging him toward succeeding as much as he did. 

Just before leaving on his deployment, he splurged on a portable ‘instant’ camera for himself, taking a handful of sentimental photos of his home, his mother, friends, and other things he wanted to remember for his journey overseas. Now out on the field, it’s not uncommon for him to take notes and snap a photo of certain things. Usually the mundane. A group of soldiers circled around a stove, cooking some pitiful gruel. A shot of the tank he loves and hates. A group shot of his fellow crewmen.

Though on occasion, he does take photos of more dire things. A shredded battleground. The soot-stained dog tags of a fallen friend. A soldier trumpeting the end of the day after a particularly nasty battle. Things to remind him of what has been lost. These darker photos he doesn’t share, instead keeping deep and hidden among his belongings.All in all, Philip Muldoon is governed greatly by sentiment, determination, and guilt. 

Should be noted that though his first front is that of a serious, business-like soldier that wants to get things done quick and right, when he’s not in work mode he’s got a bit more spirit to him. A streak of mischief and sass that manifests in calmer moments around friends. He cares very deeply to those precious few he adopts as comrades, and is loyal to a fault. He would take a bullet it it meant his friends would live, though unless it’s a dire situation like that, he’ll still exhibit a touch of selfishness to keep himself safe. As long as nobody’s dying, he’s gonna pull out and take cover, because as long as he’s alive, he can still help more later. An example of this is during the Ol’ Leggy attack. He more or less volunteered to be the one to go out with the lights, because he knew if he did this, it would protect his buddies. However, once the lift was up and he got himself whacked pretty solidly, he was like “nope” and crawled back inside once Peterson (who he’s still warming up to) was in and safe. Live to help another day, no point staying out there and trying to shoot until he or Leggy died if the critter’s gonna just leave them alone.

Additionally, because of all that lovely starvation growing up, dude freaking loves food. Offer him a good sandwich and you can get anything you want out of him. Nothing puts him in as good of a mood as a nice, stuffed belly.

[shrapnelstars]

Mark finally exploding at WT/TG/2 was cathartic. I don’t care what anyone else says. People across the whole internet told the dev a thousand and a half times that there were bugs that needed to be fixed and rebalances that needed to be made, and he ignored them, telling them “lol, git gud”. He can’t cry in the corner now after he told everyone to fuck off.

The game is exactly what Mark said. It’s tedious, it’s intentionally misleading about the mechanics and how to win, it’s broken to Hell, there’s too much going on to keep track of, and even when you do make progress, it doesn’t feel good. That’s not a game.

In FNaF, even when there’s a billion things going on, they all go off in set patterns at set times, have clear telegraphing, and some can be doubled up on to defeat with one tactic. And Scott broke his back to balance things and keep them from being too frustrating when people complained. Hello Nei/ghbor had an admittedly solid story to fall back on when it’s mechanics failed miserably. WT/TG/2 is a hideous clusterfuck with absolutely no redeeming qualities. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I watched the ending, and it is bullshit tripe barely rising above “all just a dream”.

Save yourself the annoyance and go play/watch Harvester, an old 90′s FMV shock horror adventure game that does that style of ending 60000 times better, which is really saying something, because that game is a jank-stank-fest.

Spoilers for both games below:

This was all just a test!: Check

Friend turns out to be puppetmaster, and that character is played by the dev: Check

Shock scenes: Check

Choose between innocent girl and your life at the end: Check

Only it felt properly unsettling in Harvester because it built up a horrific atmosphere, and the atmosphere turned out to have a deliberate purpose: to desensitize the protagonist to violence and breed him as a serial killer. And your choice at the end does feel like it has a bit more weight to it because self-terminating is a bittersweet ending. You don’t unleash you hellish, re-programmed self onto the world, and you get to live happily with the girl, but you both die in the machine. Though sad, it feels like it was right and meaningful.

This game, it’s just “you have two shitty choices: Fuck you or Fuck off”.

[itsclydebitches]

Your explanation of how RWDE came to be reminds me a bit of a different fandom I'm in. It's a multi-pov rp with a big cast who often get into conflict one another. There's this one character who's widely regarded as a villain (and he is a villain, abused some people and did a bunch of horrible stuff) but he's treated like a one dimensional morally black villain.

Anyone who tries to point out that maybe he's more complex than a disney villain or that he might - god forbid - have good qualities or not be at fault for everything gets labelled as an apologist for that character.

Eventually people gave up and said "okay fine we're that character's apologists". Then the fandom used that to claim that anyone who call themselves an apologist for that character obviously excuses or justifies all the bad things he did.

It's not exactly the same but the parallels jumped out to me.

To continue the association train, THIS reminds me of some fans' reactions to Izzy from OFMD. Exact same song and dance. A lot of viewers enjoy him, understand 100% that he's the antagonist, he's done a whole lot of shit, but point out that he's not irredeemable (especially given other characters' actions + the genre of the show)/he's more complex than a Disney villain/being responsible for some awfulness doesn't make him responsible for every bad thing in the canon. Lo and behold, people came out of the tumblr woodwork to scream about how we're all Izzy apologists and after a while we went, "Okay fine lol. We're Izzy apologists. What are you gonna do about it?" which set off a whole new wave of, "Do you SEE how AWFUL they are?"

Interestingly, one of the major differences that I've seen with OFMD is that fans with even the slightest association with Izzy get targeted. I mean, it's no surprise that I get angry anons about RWBY. I write a bunch of RWBY meta, answer RWBY-related asks, and frequently post my opinions about this kind of fandom drama. I am 100% aware of what I'm getting myself into. Same with OFMD. I posted some metas and others have found me through my fic, so of course I'd attract anyone with a vendetta against fans enjoying this character when I analyze him and frequently make him a focus of my stories. The "I enjoy Ironwood-Izzy" dramas kinda go hand-in-hand, despite stemming from different fandoms. But other stories I've heard are wild. Fans saying that they reblogged just a single, neutral post about Izzy, or mentioned something vaguely positive in one tag, or actually DON'T like him, yet are for some unfathomable reason being targeted anyway. Idk if that's happened in your rp fandom at all, but it was a new experience for me. OFMD leveled up the discourse in an unfortunate way lmfao.

But yeah, all of it sucks. I've been in fandoms where I think the majority of participants are ignoring/reworking the horrific things a character has done and yeah, it can be really frustrating. That's why I make my own posts so I can purge myself of my opinions on the matter lol. But these people going into others' inboxes to yell about them being "apologists"??? Absolutely wild. Please chill out and let people enjoy fictional characters. Because, you know, that's why they exist... to enjoy them... 🤷‍♀️

[jeanjauthor]

So I saw the impeach trump thing on my local news and I thought, Ms (mrs? Your imperial highness?)Johnson will be posting this soon, and I was right.

Ms is fine, lol…and yeah.  I knew the moment Trump called for Russia to “find her emails” back during the campaign, in that moment I knew he was colluding with Russia.  Trump telegraphs his moves.  How so?  Several factors.

First, there’s a saying:  You see most often in others a reflection of what is actually in you.  Trump claims horrible things are being done by others, but they’re mostly things that he is doing himself.  Second, as an apparent narcissistic sociopath, he cannot help but gloat whenever he’s pulling a con on someone.  It’s evident in the way he smirks, the way he drawls…he gloats.  Third, he can’t lie for shit (pardon my language), because his innocence-look is too scripted, too studied, too acted…and fourth, he always tells such big bold-faced lies that he always has to walk them back at some point…but he tells them to conceal the biggest awful truths.

Calling upon a foreign government to hack into his poiltical opponent’s emails IS an act of treason.  Calling publicly for that treasonous act is so outrageously huge, “no one would believe it was true”…except those of us who’ve been studying this guy for years, even for decades.

Now, why have I been studying Trump?  For overblown villain traits, such as narcissism, egomaniac qualities, sociopathy, psychopathy, grifting, conman activities, schmoozing and oozing a trail of slime wherever he goes.  He’s the boldest liar in the world, mixing in fact and fantasy in such overblown quantities that you’d swear he’d be a laughingstock villain on the silver screen…but that’s part of his protective camouflage.  He uses glitter and gilded paint to spruce up the bullshit he sells, making it look attractively solid like gold-leafed concrete…but in the end, it’s just a wall made of shit.

Someone on Twitter pointed out that he sells false images of wealth and prestige to gullible poor folk who desperately want to be seen as “rich folks just having a minor, temporary setback right now.”  No one actually rich would bother buying a Trump Steak, for example. It’s not good enough quality as a meat to even poke a sterling silver fork at in disdain.

But Trump stages everything to make it seem attractive and emulation-worthy, and so you end up paying $40 for a mediocre chunk of meat that shouldn’t even cost you $8.  It’s the ultimate con, convincing you that if you eat his name-branded stuff, wear his name-branded clothes, sleep in his name-branded hotels, you’ll “lead a life just as exciting and wealthy!!” as his seems to be.

His wealth is based on lies, more lies, conning people, shortsheeting people, stiffing almost everyone who ever works with him, claiming all the glory even for the stuff he never touched (which is often why it succeeds) and blaming anyone but himself and his ideas if anything goes wrong, falls through, or winds up terrible in quality, etc.

He’s fascinating as a character study, but absolutely horrific as a leader.  He’s a conman who sold out America for shady deals with foreign enemies…who are so very, very much better at these games than him.

America, “…you in danger, girl.”

…And the really painful part?  The GOP is so wrapped up in trying to push their unwanted kleptocratic oligarchic agendas that they are aiding & abetting him, and thus colluding in his treason by not stopping it cold, hard and fast, right away.  They are so ass-over-heads deep into Party > Patriotism, that they don’t see they are being used horrifically by Trump’s puppetmaster, too.  The longer Trump stays in power, the more control over this nation Putin holds.

I’m deeply worried about the hundreds of mid-level officials that Trump’s Administration has settled into jobs in and around the capital and the Executive Branch, positions that don’t need congressional hearings for approval.  Are they neo-Nazi alt-righters?  Are they Russian spies & plants?  Are they both?  “Heyyy, Donny, we got some guys who’ll do good work for you, they’re solid white supremacists just like you, it’s just that they need some jobs in X and Y and H Departments.  You’ll do us a solid by appointing them, and then we’ll owe you one, right, comrade?”

Am I going overboard in my imagination?  …Maybe.Can we take the chance that this is not true?  …No.

No.  We cannot take that chance.

Do I think the impeachment will go anywhere right away?  No.  The GOP is so deep in the mud of their own wallowings that there’s no way for them to pull out of the slops and get ouf of their sty anytime soon.  They’re ripe for manipulating and for slaughtering by Russia…except Russia wants to keep them there, destroying the American government through partisan politics and neo-conservatism.

Russia’s just now starting to step up the shit-smearing campaigns once again.  Watch.  There’ll be all sorts of claims on the internet, articles and memes trying to sully the truth with the filth of doubt.  The whole “FakeNewsMedia” spiel is part and parcel of it.  All of it is gaslighting, a massive campaign to gaslight the nation’s perceptions of the facts, and thus the truth.

Some of this is frighteningly efficient in the way it’s being done.  I’d say that’s the work of Russian efforts at studying psychological warfare, to couple it with and render more effective their cyberwarfare attacks.  Some of this is unbelievably stupid…such as Trump Junior’s stupidly blatant confession of his intent to commit treason last summer.  Conmen–Trump & kids, save for maybe Barron–tend to trip themselves up at some point.  It’s a rare grifter who can invent the perfect, unassailable…and unimpeachable…lie.

So yes, long story short, I did post it.  Why?  Because if we flood Members of Congress with demands for impeachment, and remind them that their jobs are very much on the line, we might get it done.  Get out Trump, get out his adult kids, get out Mike Pence (who very much is a part of this, even if he’s desperately trying to play the ingenue), get out McConnell (who literally sold the nation to the enemy to secure his wife’s offered Cabinet position, a modern day #30silvercoins Judas), and so on and so forth…including, hopefully, everyone Trump appointed, and everyone they appointed into the government.

By the way, the concept of Marvel’s evil organization, Hydra, is very much alive and real…and the neoNazis are desperate to emulate it, because it is very, very effective.

But I’ll end the speculative ramblings here.  It sucks to be used to finding very uncomfortably plausible connections among seemingly disparate plot threads.  I’ve been a modern-day Cassandra for over a year now, weeping in grief every time my warnings pass by so blatantly ignored.  It’s exhausting finding out my top 10% worst fears are coming true day after day in slow chaotic unravelings.

…And we still have to fight for Net Neutrality, and we still have to fight for adequate healthcare, and we still have to fight for our Constitutional Rights, and we still have to fight for…

To be completely honest?  I’d be even more pissed if it had been HRC colluding with Russia.  I can understand why Trump is doing it.  Thinking about it hurts to think that way, but after studying him, and conmen in general, I understand.  Plus the whole Russia-is-flattering-him and the white-supremacy stuff...  It hurts to think that way, and I am angry about it.  But I’m not surprised he’s doing it.  HRC...would be a betrayal beyond words.  Except, she wouldn’t have done it.  She’s too smart, too savvy, too aware of the ramifications and the consequences...whereas the Trumps are too ignorant of what they’ve gotten themselves into, and too dumb to actually acquire and heed competent help.  And yet, too cunning not to get away with it, thanks to the GOP’s mindless party-over-national-interests.