#it is time to let go the ww2 groupings

[dolceminerva97]

Había leído por ahí que según parece en una tira de hetalia Francia había llorado???¿¿ por la salida de Inglaterra de la UE. TBH prefiero mil veces tu hc donde es la burla de Europa. Cada día más alejada del canon de Hetalia GRACIAS a Dios 🙏

CÓMO QUE VA A LLORAR EL FRANCISCO POR ESO, habrá llorado pero de risa KJJJJJJJ 😭😭😭😭😭

[slut4megantheestallion]

2AM

Duke dennis x black!reader

Summary: y/n being a streamer and being a part of a amp like her boyfriend duke, until in her stream she tries to do a cartwheel but her boyfriends pop up and starts laughing at her failed attempt, which became roasting to affectionate love.

You've been a part of amp for quite some time now. When you were younger, you always wanted to be a social media star, but people alas told you that your not gonna make it, but that didn't stop you from where you are today until you met kai, fanum, agent, Chris, duke, and Daviss and together you guys became one of the most popular YouTube group. And you love all of them like they were your own family.

Yeah, being the only girl in the group is kinda hard because there's niggas on the internet trolling, but you didn't give a fuck before they accepted you anyway, the more you got comfortable will all of them the more you loved all of them. You have a crush on Duke. You both were pretty close, and y'all both became best friends, and everyone in the group thought y'all was dating even if your fans thought y'all was dating, but it wasn't true.

You hide your feelings because you thought Duke would reject you or didn't like you until he made the first move and your relationship started from there. Y'all both were lucky to have each other, y'all would both come to each other streams, pranks, and all of that other stuff.

Your love language with him is roasting. People make it seem like y'all mean, but it ain't true both you just be joking with each other.

You were streaming playing a horror game, you was tired as fuck, but you wanted to finish playing the game.

"Bruh, chat, I'm not gonna lie,I'm tired as fuck I've been playing this game for an hour, I've been trying to stay awake for y'all." Y/n said tiredly as she picked up her water drinking it as she looked at the chat.

"Bro, somebody in the chat told me to do a cartwheel to stay awake." Y/n laughed as she pushed her chair back and stood up.

"Yo chat, I ain't gonna lowkey don't know how to do a cartwheel, like I'm being so deadass, I'm not an athletic person, hold on imma try for you guys." Y/n stands up as she pushes her chair farther away so she can have some room.

"Bro, I'm scared. What if I bust my ass!!" Y/n yelled as she looked back at the chat. Y/n raised both her hands as she placed both of them on the ground, trying to kick her legs up, but ended up falling on the ground.

"Shit, hold on chat. Let me try again, damn this shit is harder than I thought." Y/n got herself up as she tried to do another cartwheel. Y/n puts both her hands on the ground. As she tried to kick her legs up, she heard her door open.

"Aye, bae do you got my charg-" Duke was about to finish his sentence as he saw you trying to cartwheel he started busting out laughing, making you laugh as you got up.

"It's not funny, nigga. I'm trying to do a cartwheel. " y/n laughed, feeling embarrassed as Duke started laughing.

"Nah, that gotta be one of the worst cartwheels I've seen bruh, you don't know how to do a cartwheel?" Duke said, still laughing, making fun of you.

"Shut the fuck up, nigga can you do a cartwheel?" Y/n said asking him as she was huffing and puffing form those failed attempt cartwheel.

"Yes, way much better than that, bro. Imagine not lifting yourself up." Duke said, laughing at you.

"Nigga, I know you talking you pushing 40 and you was in the back of the bus with rosa parks, with yo old ass." Y/n commented as she started laughing as the people in the chat start making fun of Duke going crazy.

"Oh, so that's how you gonna do me, for real." Duke said, smiling in disbelief as you roasted him.

"Yes, imma do you like, ayo chat spam 1987 in the chat, that's the year you was born at with you old ass." Y/n started laughing as everyone in the chart started spamming 1987 in the chat.

"Yeah, I got you on mute. You were serving in ww2 with yo old ass. " You still kept roasting as you both were facing each other as Duke started smiling at the smile that you melt.

Duke wasn't listening to anything you were saying while you were still roasting him. He was looking at your lips as he grabbed your waist and started kissing you. You were caught off guard by this, but you kissed him back. You broke this kiss as he looked back at you. "You so gorgeous, bae." Duke smiled at you as was still holding you close, as he was still holding your waist. "Aww, thank you, bae. I would say something nice about you, but you were making fun of me." Y/n teased.

"Damn, that's fair, I love you y/n" Duke said, genuinely looking at you with so much love in his eyes.

"I love you too," y/n responded as she kissed him on the lips. As Duke lifted your legs up, carrying you as laughed, he was yours, and you were his.

[sapphiresaphics]

A common complaint I see is that it’s “wrong” for the Zaunites to help Piltover in the final battle and ESPECIALLY for them to put on Enforcer uniforms to do it!

I’m gonna get the enforcer bullshit out of the way first because… it’s fucking ARMOR. If you’re going to stay and fight with the Piltover people IN A WAR… you’re going to want to put on ARMOR. They don’t have time to make custom uniforms, the army is literally less than a day away. They’ve got like ONE NIGHT to get everything together. So yeah, if you’re from Zaun and you decide to stay and fight IN A WAR, you better believe you’re gonna be putting on that ARMOR. Pride be DAMNED.

Now about the staying and fighting part.. after everything Piltover has done to them it would be understandable to NOT stay and fight. Let them deal with the consequences of their own actions, right?

So let me tell you about this country called America.

Built upon the BRUTAL colonization of the Native Americans, and made wealthy through the BRUTAL slave trade industry, you might be inclined to think that Native Americans and black people should probably not want to defend our country. Why should they? After everything we’ve done to them? Erased their culture? Destroyed their sacred lands and monuments? Forcefully separated families across thousands miles of ocean? Enslaved them? Burned them? Brutalized and rapes them? Why the FUCK would anyone whose family or ancestors who’ve been harmed by the USA fight for the USA?

But you know what army groups have been the most decorated and loyal and brave? Groups that contained native Americans and black people. Black people fought for the north during the civil war despite the fact that one of the most profitable locations for the slave trade was in BOSTON. A northern city. Native Americans famously used their native language (which was unknown to the Germans) as a form of encryption for passing secret messages during World War 2. Black and native American soldiers are some of the bravest defenders of our country. Despite everything we’ve done to their history and culture.

And that’s how I look at the battle with Piltover. Zaunites fought with them, even though they had NO REASON to, because at the end of the day it was the right thing to do, and because they love their city and their culture. They defended their homes, not for Piltover, but for themselves. Because if Piltover goes down, so does Zaun.

And yeah, that’s SUPER NOT FAIR. They should not be put in that position. But to me that just shows the STRENGTH and COURAGE and INTEGRITY of the Zaunite people.

It won’t solve all their problems. Fighting for Piltover won’t magically solve decades upon decades of inequality and racism and tensions between the two cities any more than fighting in WW2 did for the Native American and Black soldiers.

It also doesn’t feel to me like they’ve forgiven Piltover either or that somehow fighting in this battle means they endorse Piltover and makes this a pro-cop story. Instead this just feels very realistic, because I’ve studied history and done my best to learn about the marginalized people we’ve hurt in our past. And history has taught me that when the enemy grows too large and threatens all of us, we stand together.

However temporary that bond may be.

[evidenceof]

and roll credits for webgott valentine's week! long-ish post but i don't think it can be anything but saur...

haguenau is for lovers was me deciding to shoot for the moon after 1) meg wondered out loud about a webgott week (after injecting webgott into my brain), 2) i zoomed in on lieb reading sunday comics, feverishly tore through the stars and stripes archive only to realize that easy was in haguenau during valentine's week 3) caoimhe said, "haguenau is for lovers" and it sticking into my brain permanently.

that is to say, i am so very lucky to be friends with people whose thoughts are so infectious and always brilliant. would like to take this time to thank the people who held my sweaty hand all throughout my first stab at organizing a fan event.

tierney @kbsd my beloved!! thank you for literally putting up with my anxiety through all this and for reading (and proofreading) walls of text on gdocs to make sure i still sounded sane. putting up with wips for queueing and scheduling posts when i'm asleep even if you've had a Long Day of Moving houses. i would literally be in the trenches without you. thank you for never doubting me and for genuinely matching my (control) freak.

meg @ww2yaoi head webgott babe (let's all acknowledge that) for the really kind messages. they helped me more than you'd know!! licherally hilf wouldnt even be alive if i hadn't seen you post theee Webgott Wednesday Locket way back last year, and if you hadn't written lippenstift, down in the valley, no ghost looms (tbh all ur webgott) and made me spiral into this for good.

caoimhe @randlemartin. this'll sound weird but just trust ok. thank you for writing both text posts and fic that compel me to no end. the germ of the idea wouldn't have grown into anything good without it being fattened by your thoughts and words!! haguenau is for lovers <3 ik it isn't webgott, but reading delichon while prepping for this over the holidays kept me going fr.

karina @markedfordead and julia @joe-fuckingtwice-toye. your tags and everything you made throughout the event made me wanna cryyyy. they were all so sweet and genuinely, when i'd be fidgeting over the event day ahead, seeing that you two took the time to make something so lovely nearly every single day literally pacified the gnawing self-doubt hahaha thank you i mean it so much.

to everyone who participated!! wrote fics and drabbles, made web weaves, beautiful art that made me want to chew my screen because of how beautiful they all are, thank you so much!!!!!!! to everyone who rb-ed and liked, made valentines, my heart feels a lot bigger thanks to all of you.

shoutout to my laptop, photoshop, my secondhand wacom tablet that's been roi-ed the fuck out since november, my two hands, and futura condensed (1940s print would be NOTHING without you). thank god none of them decided to give up on me during event prep and proper. (and to my bubs who had to literally listen to me scream and yap about this from beginning to end. you are a saint. idk how i got so lucky to be with someone who supports my being a fujo wife with dead ww2 vets)

really wanted to keep my modding this on the down low, largely cos idk!! i just wanted the focus to be on webgott and the event, but also bc i knew this whole thing couldn't have come together because of a singular person, or even moreso, a singular interpretation of the ship. so i felt the distance was necessary. though i am proud, in a small way (im allowing myself a lil' bit of it), of being able to create a bunch of things for a pair i've fallen in love with, and for a group of people who hold so much affection for them.

all that to say! im glad to have made things with love, and (tw: cheesy as fuck) im only really able to do that bc im surrounded by people who love so beautifully. thank you all from da bottom of mi heart. if u read up until here. thank you for that too. ♡

♡ happy webgott wednesday. haguenau will always be for lovers. ♡

sorry this is literally too many scrolls down lmfao

[cannibalmukbang]

researching Victorian and early 20th century fashion for Kingmaker reasons has made me aware of something in the movie Nosferatu (1922) that I now consider one of the funniest things about Nosferatu (1922) and that is the fact that they chose to style Ruth Landshoff Like That.

See I had, between viewings, kind of forgotten that, unlike Dracula, which is set contemporaneously in current year Eighteen Ninety Whatever, Nosferatu is specifically meant to be set in 1838. And everyone else in the movie is like, as period accurate as you were probably going to get in a movie from 1922 that was aiming to be deliberately surreal and non-representational. The men have their cravats and tail coats and tight pants and Ellen has bell sleeves and a floor-length hoop skirt. Orlock's jacket is kind of atemporal but he's a vampire, that works for him. But then you have Ellen's friend Ruth.

Because I know many of you are not freaks in the way that I am I will break down the look. We have a flared bob. We have an ankle-length a-line day dress with a v-neck collar. We have paired this dress with a pair of pumps. So, in summary, very extremely EXTREMELY late 1910's-early 1920's. Why did they style her like that.

Like look at this group shot.

This is the 1920's version of ipad face, to me. To put it into perspective- 1838 was 83 years before they started shooting Nosferatu. 83 years ago from now times was 1941. literally can you imagine how funny it would be if this year they released a movie set in WW2 and there was one recurring cast member who is wearing a hoodie and yoga pants and it's never addressed.

And I'm not pointing this all out to be like 'cinemasins ding! immersion broken!' because I know Nosferatu is not meant to be a realistic-looking movie. It's German expressionism. It's supposed to be weird. I am pointing this out because like, this character has the same name as her actor, and she's not super plot-essential, and she looks extremely contemporary, so I think it's funny to imagine they put her in the movie last minute. like she's some rando who just showed up on set one day and they didn't have a costume for her but they let her be in the movie anyway.

[musingsofahistorymajor]

really have to thank the algorithm for putting your blog on my dash 🥰

& with that - hello!

will read through your review of “the six triple eight” later (exited for that, in terms of accuracy, even though i thoroughly enjoyed the movie ☺️👀) … but since you pointed out the scarcity of movies/ tv shows featuring the women during ww2 (& probably ww1, too), do you have any recs that fall into that category? or overall, what others did you enjoy?

have a nice day! 💖

Hi there!!! I'm glad you found me!! Welcome!

If after you read my long Six Triple Eight post you have any questions or wanna chat let me know! I love the WACs. I love the 6888th. I love talking about the WACs. Happy to chat.

Oh my god YES. YES I DO HAVE RECS. I devour all media with Women in WWII. Scarce as it may be. And finding a halfway decent representation is even harder to find. Here are some I really enjoy. They aren't perfect but I enjoyed them a lot.

Bomb Girls

Bomb Girls is about the story of the women who joined a munitions factory in Canada during WWII. It's so good.

Lee

This just came out and yeah there were some mistakes/liberties taken but what movie doesn't at this point and it's about Lee Miller who is incredible and Kate Winslet killed it. Definitely give it watch.

All Creatures Great and Small

While not directly about women in the war, this show is one of my FAVORITES. It starts pre war and then goes into the war as the season move on. It's based on the book series that follow the adventures of James Herriot, a Scottish veterinary surgeon, who moves to Yorkshire in the 1930s/1940s. The women in this show are amazing. Helen runs her family farm. Mrs. Hall is the housekeeper but she basically runs everything and I adore her. You can see the homefront side of the war really well here.

The Land Girls (1998 film)

The film is about three young women from very different walks of life join the Women's Land Army during World War II and are sent to work together on a farm in Dorset.

There's also a tv series about the WLA called Land Girls but I freaking hated that show. Way too many inaccuracies and the way the women are portrayed made me so angry. This movie is far from perfect but I liked it enough.

Home Fires

Okay so I haven't watched Home Fires yet but my mom has and she's as into wwii women's history as I am and she said I absolutely should put this on the list.

Home Fires is about group of women living in a rural Cheshire village during World War II who face the challenges of the home front during the war including rationing, the dangers of German bombing, and their loved ones going off to war.

A League of Their Own (the tv series AND the original movie)

Watch both of these!! I love them both so much!! I'm still so mad the show was cancelled.

A League of Their Own is about the women who joined the All American Girls Professional Baseball League and both the movie and the show are excellent. I mean the movie is a classic and I love it but the tv series goes into aspects of the League that the movie never touched. Like the women of color who weren't allowed to join the league and instead joined the men's leagues. And the fact that a lot of the women in the league were lesbians.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Based on a book, this movies is set in 1946. "A London-based writer begins exchanging letters with residents on the island of Guernsey, which was German-occupied during WWII. Feeling compelled to visit the island, she starts to get a picture of what it was like during the occupation." This movie is so good I cry every time. You get a look at life on the homefront and in a German occupied area. Lily James, Jessica Brown Findlay, Penelope Wilton, and Katherine Parkinson are all amazing and play such amazing female characters. Definitely watch it.

Charlotte Gray

"A young Scottish woman joins the French Resistance during World War II to rescue her Royal Air Force boyfriend who is lost in France."

World on Fire

This one is hard show to watch but it's soo good. And it goes into some really interesting aspect of women's history. You've got homefront, military, resistance. France, Britain, Germany. Allied. Axis. A lot of roles are shown and it's impressive.

A Call To Spy

This movie is about the female members of the British SOE. Female spies! This one made me excited because the characters are Noor Inayat Khan, Virginia Hall, and Vera Atkins. Three real life female spies during the war.

So Proudly We Hail (1943)

About US Army Nurses in the Pacific

Keep Your Powder Dry (1945)

A debutante (Lana Turner), a serviceman's bride (Susan Peters) and a girl (Laraine Day) from a military family join the Women's Army Corps.

And now I'm gonna give two WW1 recs too:

Anzac Girls

I adore this tv series so much. It's incredible. This is based on the Australian and New Zealand Army Nursing Service. Starts with their service in Egypt and then extends to France and the Greek Island Lemnos.

The Crimson Field

This tv series focuses on the VADs and other medical personnel who served in the field hospitals. SO GOOD! Still bitter it was cancelled.

I know I'm missing something but I'll leave off there for now. If I think of more I'll let you know!!

[generallemarc]

Just when I think I'm out, they pull me right back in

This shouldn't work. I'm too cynical, too over it. Seeing all these comparatively-lesser-known characters should make me start speculating about garbage-ass spinoff tv shows, not excite me. This shouldn't work. And yet...and yet @apintofguinness talked me into watching Guardians 3, a movie that actively went against Endgame by making the assumption that "hey, Gamorra's back" into a plot point that was the fault of the crew in general and Peter in particular for treating a separate version of her with massively different experiences(almost a different person entirely) as if she were "their Gamorra" simply because she had identical DNA. And I saw three things that I hadn't then, and still haven't(barring Deadpool & Wolverine) seen in any Marvel movie for well over half a decade: jokes that were actually funny, a story that was actually compelling, and most importantly of all, heart. Guardians 3 was made by people who cared about telling a good story and who cared about the characters they were telling it with.

So when I see Hawkgirl and Mr. Terrific, I don't see cynical attempts to set up spinoff shows, I see the creators drawing on less-prominent JLA members and, for the first time ever, the JSA, the Justice Society of America. Yeah, it's obviously not the original Mr. Terrific, but we're to the point where the original JSA members either need to all be dead or have a different backstory than "they were the WW2-era League", because even if Marvel hadn't laid claim to the easiest way to transplant a character from WW2 into the present it'd still be impossible to do that on all of 'em(I think I saw something about Jay Garrick having the Speed Force slow his aging, but " his powers conveniently stop aging!" won't work on anyone else except maybe Hourman, and after that you'd be unable to do it anymore without it being an obvious attempt to keep them going forever with that backstory). Also, I read some of the second-generation JSA comics, and Mr. Terrific was a damn cool hero, being the Society's tech guy in the same way Batman is for the League, but using and relying on his tech to a much greater extent, to the point where while he can absolutely still fight on his own, the shot we see here of him letting his tech do the fighting for him is usually how he prefers to operate. And that's great! That lets him be "the group's tech guy" in a way that provides all the plot-support of Batman's tech while not making him as a hero just some Batman derivative. Listen to me, I'm already going into mini-essays on this shit!

The only thing I can think of that's an issue is "Luthorcorp"-that's just dumb. It's called Lexcorp for a damn good reason, and that reason is because that name sounds both more intimidating and overall better, even if it does make less sense to name a company after your first name instead of your last name. But yeah, besides that I'm hyped as hell. One question though: who's the guy in the black suit? The one punching through the wall and tackling Superman into the stadium? For some reason my brain is saying it's Mr. Terrific, but that makes zero sense for any number of reasons(his tech doesn't let him fly or give him enhanced strength, he's too smart to misunderstand things in a Batman v Superman way and James Gunn is too smart to write that, and also we're clearly getting more villains than just Lex so this will be the one who matches Superman in raw power).

[pettytiredandjewish]

Are you pro-Israel or pro-Palestine?

I honestly don’t think it’s any of your concern but if you really want to know my “stance”, I’ll tell you. You may or may not like my answer but I’m at the point where I really don’t give a flying F. So here we go-

A little background about me-I’m not Israeli, I’m from the states but my great-grandparents on my mom side left Germany sometime a little before WW1 due to antisemitism (they were Ashkenazi Jews.) Not everyone left and the ones who did stay ended up in the concentration camps/ghettos during WW2. Honestly if my great grandparents didn’t leave Germany- well there is a high chance that I wouldn’t be here and that this family tree branch would be non existent.

I’m gonna be honest I’m a “zionost”. There is no safe place for Jews. A lot of countries made it known for many years and they are still making it known to this day. Not only is the land of Israel is considered holy (I’m not super religious but I do recognize and respect that it’s a sacred and holy site) but it is also considered a safe place for many Jews who had to leave their own homes due to all the antisemitism/hate/etc. I’m not an “anti-Zionist”. Did you know that one of Russian’s leaders during- I believe the Soviet Union created that term as a way to help destroy Jewish culture during that era? That term just rubs me the wrong way.

I constantly worry about my friends and family. I worry about mine and their safety. I have to keep looking over my shoulder when I leave the house or when I go to the store, it to work… I know my parents worry too and I know my mom is secretly happy that I attended Shabbat services via online. I don’t want to think about what would happen if something happened to me or to my family/friends. But I don’t hide my “Jewishness”. I love being Jewish- I’m not ashamed of it. It’s a beautiful culture but it also is sad too. The history is not all butterfly’s and rainbows. We (Jews) have suffered for generations but we also overcome everything that people throws at us. Are we traumatized? Probably yes, but we don’t give up. We work hard to keep our culture alive so that we can keep passing it down.

The situation in Israel and Palestine is/has always been messy. It’s like a pressure pot- every little issue and conflict has been cooking up for some time. And every once in a while someone will let some steam out- to help let out some pressure but if you keep it covered and not let out the pressure, well it’s all going to build up and explode. And il that’s what’s happening here. That’s what we’re seeing now. This is the aftermath.

So to answer your question- I’m “pro Israel”: I think that Israelites have the right to live there. It’s their home. They did not colonize it. It is also not an apartheid state. Really people- please read a dictionary to understand these terms that you keep throwing out. Gaza’s government has been unstable for some time and it did eventually fell to hamas control sometime earlier 2000’s(?) for those who don’t know and or still in denial about what they really are- hamas is a terrorist organization. They’re not a resistance group of freedom fighters “fighting to save their people” cuz they don’t give a damn about their own people. They a literally using their own civilians as human shields. They’re stealing resources that’s mental for the civilians and using it themselves.

Also quick question(s) but why is Israel getting blasted for defending themselves after Oct 7? Is anyone gonna call out the other neighboring countries for how they are handling the situation- why aren’t they opening up their borders for refugees? Also why are most of y’all blaming Israel citizens and well- Jewish people in general- i mean I know the answer to this (*cough* most of y’all hate Jews and are using this as a reason to unmask yourselves).

I honestly could keep going- I’ve mostly kept this to myself, so it’s building up, but to be “nice” I’m gonna stop there for now. I don’t know what your “stance” is and I really don’t care per se- the whole situation has been stressing me out like crazy. If you don’t like my answer to bad so sad- I’m no one’s “good Jew”. If you or anyone have any questions you can ask but if you say some antisemitic crap I will block you and depending on my mood- call you out on it too. Have a happy holiday.

Am Yisrael Chai

[nor5tar]

Well, Agent Phoenix is a blank slate character so you can choose any of these. But it's all up to you.

Regarding the whole "less likely to have family connections", the Philippines is a lot more biased towards people with said connections, especially in government jobs (if you're buying into the "the agency sometimes has ties to the military/government" headcanon but it still applies to other parts of society) so it is a possible (but still kinda unlikely, in my opinion) scenario for Phoenix to have strong family ties that can lead to 'favors' and other similar things when it comes to gathering intel.

Onto the backstory suggestions. I'll just give a blanket warning that this will not paint the countries in a positive light if you dig deep into this and (based on the few in this fandom I've told some details about) would generally be upsetting. Also, I'm going off what I remember.

I'm going off the assumption you headcanon the games' time period to be in the 1960s.

If you're going for third gen, that would mean one of your Phoenix's ancestors would've been alive to see or experience what is called "benevolent assimilation", which may not be a fun thing to read about. It also might contribute to your Phoenix not being able to speak a lot of any of the Philippine languages, no matter which people group he's from (Some areas are hit harder). If you're going to draw from real historical events. It could tie to the theory of "Zoraxis and the agency were once allies", especially if you consider that Zoraxis as a company, may have been pushed onto Filipinos. But this requires a bit more research and nuance that I don't have time to dig into.

If WWII occurred in your interpretation, there can be a lot more nuance to his attitude towards conflict, especially depending on where he lived in at the time. And on those he grew up around. There's a lot of potential characterization elements if you know where to look. (Look into the many guerilla fighter groups in the Philippines since some were against their own fellow Filipinos, which may contribute to why he's treating this espionage career seriously, seeing how many other spies from guerilla groups ended up dead or tortured. But since he's American, he could be more sympathetic towards Americans but also quite resentful if he grew up hearing about the grizzly details of the death march. There is a lot of fodder for that.)

Depending on how you write his parents, you might want to look into OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers) and their children. Due to historical events, Filipinos in healthcare can be a good place to start looking into.

There are more but these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. The history between these two countries is quite interconnected and nuanced that I can't think of the right words for it since I could misinterpret a side or event.

This got longer than I planned. Whoops.

Thanks for the ideas!

Your asks sent me down a rabbit hole yesterday of looking into Phillipines/US history at the time /pos

So I've heard of some of those things, but I'll dig a little deeper into those

Thoughts of my Phoenix so far under the cut:

First of all, I'm going off of the timeline that IEYTD takes place in 1967 (which I saw from @agent-calivide 's post on the timeline)

(I'm also not American or Filipino and not the most knowledgeable about history so anyone can correct me if I'm wrong and sorry if I mess anything up🙏)

If that's the case and I'm saying Phoenix is in his early 30s, let's say 34. So he would have been born in 1933, right between WW1 and WW2. He would have been 6 when WW2 started and 12 when it ended in 1945, so while he wouldn't have participated, his father probably would have. It would have shaped his childhood and had a huge effect on how he thinks - I could definitely see it as what led him to want a job in an intelligence agency.

So, if we assume people around then are having kids in their 20s, that would put his parents as born around 1913 and their parents around 1893.

I'm also going off of the assumption that he'd have to be white-passing and definitely a US-born citizen to get a government job in that time period.

That tells me that both his grandparents and parents likely married someone born in the US - which causes issues because apparently anti-interracial marriage laws in the US counted for Filipinos, so relationships between them and white people would have been illegal. However, I think people do have a history of going around the law in cases like that.

And from what I can tell, even if the marriage was illegal, as long as their kid was born in the US that would make them a citizen.

I read that the manong generation was the first to come to the US as a group in 1903, right after the US made the Phillipines a colony. In that case, if I say one (or both) of his grandparents came over in 1903 (I can say they were born a little earlier than 1893 in that case, maybe ~1885), that seems to fit pretty well.

That's the extent of my thoughts so far. I think that vague family history works, but I haven't come up with any specifics.

One thing I didn't mention is that it's possible the family/some members went back to the Phillipines at some point - all that matters for my version is that Phoenix was born in the US and had some caucasian ancestors. I made the assumption that his grandparents/parents got married in the US, but there were Americans occupying the Phillipines at the time so that's also a possibility (though based on what I read there could be some very dark implications if his family were in the Phillipines during that time, especially WW2)

I'll look into anon's suggestions and see what comes up along the way, and I'm also open to new comments if anyone has thoughts based on that whole essay :]

[moreespressoformydepresso]

New ask gameeee thanks for the tag @ylvisruinedmylife and @majorsoapfan

send me an emoji and i'll write a couple sentences for the corresponding WIP, both ongoing works, things I haven’t started yet but want to, and the travesties in the making that reside in my drafts✨

Don’t question the emojis they make sense to me and me alone I fear. I tried to summarize as best as possible but while brevity is the soul of wit, I fear I am terminally stupid:

❤️‍🔥The Losing Battle(We Won’t Stop Fighting) Treech and Lamina stay together during the Hunger Games

⛲️ I Didn’t Think I’d Care (But I’m Not Letting Go) the zoo gets blown up and the kids stay with their mentors, somehow this causes the end of the games and the downfall of Gaul’s career and plans

⚜️ Ragtag Group Of Kids Separately Escape Death Through Various Increasingly Stupid Means And Wreak Havoc, More At 11 crack fic where all sorts of fix-it ideas are mashed together to create the end of Gaul’s career, the President’s dignity, and the Capitol’s ego. It’s funny to me but I am not funny so…

🐍 Vipsania’s Version: Realizations Vipsania Sickle’s POV of the events of When The Clock Stops Ticking (We’ll Be Painted Red) where Treech and Reaper meet, fall in love, and lose each other as Treech becomes the victor of the 10th Hunger Games

🕰️ Treaper: The Extended Universe Time Travel AU of When The Clock Stops Ticking (We’ll Be Painted Red) @tumblingghosts graced me with where Treech and Reaper travel back in time following the events of the 10th Hunger Games to the first time they saw each other in the train, decide that they’re not gonna suffer through this all over again and change the world through the power of teamwork and emotional manipulation

🪷 Flowers Bloom In The Ash Of Our Past Where Treech is a Jehova’s Witness and Tanner is a leather wearing social outcast in High School. One learns to open themself up to the world beyond their rigid upbringing, the other learns to not judge the person based on their beliefs, but on their actions instead. And perhaps they can both find each other in the middle

🪸 Mythical Creatures All the tributes are some kind of mythical creature and the first part of the mentorship assignment is for the mentors to earn their tribute’s trust. This forces them to learn more about the districts as a whole and makes the Capitol realize the districts all have cultures just as rich, if not more so, than the Capitol itself. The tributes get to blow up Gaul’s lab and thus the Hunger Games with it.

🦊 They Don’t Bite (Yeah They Do) The districts are all animal shapeshifters and their cuteness ends the Hunger Games. No that’s it that’s the fic it’s just cute animals ruining Gaul’s life

🧞 A Girl On A Mission And Her Anxious Genie Lamina hates life until she finds a lamp, cleans it, and gets herself a genie named Treech in return. A very cute genie who gives her three wishes a day and is curious about the human world. On her quest to get back at bullies and solve the problems that pop up in her life, she drags her new genie friend around on adventures and may just score herself a boyfriend in the process.

🖋️ Written In Ink, Printed In Gold Lamina’s a famous author who meets Treech on a boulevard where he’s trying to sell his own books because no agent will take him for totally not racist reasons. They fall in love at first nerd-session and Lamina loves his book so much she vows to get him and authors like him the attention they deserve.

🔏 The Author And The Actor Lamina’s a world-famous author working on the adaptation of her most recent work when she overrules a casting decision made by the director because she thinks Treech, who was originally rejected, perfectly captures her vision of the male lead. Her originally white male lead. The people object, Lamina rejects their objection, bing bang romance.

⚔️ Of Medics And Mercy Non-romantic WW2 AU: Treech is a young Japanese war medic sent to aid the Germans in France in the summer of 1944. Tanner (USA), Reaper (Canada), Marcus (UK), and Facet (French resistance member) are a group of allied soldiers trying to take back France. They meet in a small French town when Treech ignores his orders to retreat to help an injured Tanner.

🔮 Growing Pains Harry Potter AU where TreeMina are childhood friends. Treech is a muggleborn sorted into Slytherin and Lamina is a pureblood sorted into Hufflepuff. They grow apart, especially when Lamina’s new friend start to bully Treech for being in the “bad house” and her attempts to remain ‘neutral’ push him away further and further. Years later, she realizes just how far apart they’ve grown and just how deep her love for him runs, but is it too late to fix things?

❄️ Charmed To Meet You Lamina, a Gryffindor whose friend group is known at Hogwarts for fighting a new evil each year, is trying to find a solution for an obstacle on their latest adventure when she stumbles across Treech. A Ravenclaw (in)famous for playing around with magic of all kinds purely out of curiosity for what might happen and occasionally inventing new spells/potions in the process. When he offers to help her in hopes of learning something new, he not only becomes a valuable part of the team by creating a new spell for them, but also possibly Lamina’s date to the Winter Ball…

♈️ Heavens Know What Earth Must Learn

The Districts all have Zodiac-related magic, but they can only use it when summoned by someone who has their Rune, an object that acts as the key to temporarily activating one’s magic. Whoever holds the Rune can force the person tied to it to do as the holder pleases. When the Districts lost the war, they were forced to give their magic item to a Capitol citizen once they’re old enough to use that magic. The mentors come in possession of the Runes of their canon tributes (no games in this universe though) they learn how cruel Capitol citizens can be and begin to realize the flaws in the system, slowly rallying the people behind them and overthrowing the government.

I’m going to tag @persephoneprice, @tumblingghosts and @cleverqueencommander (I’m gonna post about Descendants again soon I promise I’m just still trying to recover from The Rise Of Red) I am very sorry if you’ve been tagged already

[dandelionh3art]

There are no countries that are good or on your side. This is the conclusion and truth I'm forced to accept.

Not America, not Israel, not the UK, not Russia, not China not Iran, not Syria, not anyone.

The east vs west conflict and rivalry is an illusion. Everyone is selling out, cashing in, it's always been this way. Why do you think major countries never destroy each other, they only go to, "war," via proxy.

Russia will arm insurgents in the Middle East against the US and west. The US will arm Ukraine against Russia, etc.

None of it designed to actually beat, destroy, conquer. Sure real people die, it's necessary to give the illusion of, "rivals," and, "History of bad blood."

In truth, all these countries leaders are comrades, they know the game to keep us, the people divided and on the mental plantation. I suppose you want proof, it's very simple to find it.

Think about the leaders and countries that stray from, "the game," or, "the plan." What happens to them? They are immediately and with extreme violence and prejudice destroyed.

Think of Germany in WW2. Why didn't the US use, "proxies," to fight Germany? Why didn't Russia use, "proxies," or arm some, "rebels," to fight Germany?

Because Hitler and Germany were not playing ball, not pledging allegiance to the true masters, not, "playing the game," so to speak. So the major countries of the world ended them. They didn't arm fringe rebel groups, didn't play slap ass in the news, didn't play games of, "I'm attacking you but not really because technically it's these rebels or proxy country so I can plausibly deny involvement."

No, they sent American, Russian, British, troops and more to take care of it because it was a serious threat to their game and bullshit. And to keep anyone from ever doing it again, they spin wild tales of the horrors of this time and place.

Point is, if Russia, the US, Iran, China, Israel etc, etc, we're really rivals, they'd long have engaged in a massive hot war. It's all bullshit theater. This is why nothing changes, just bullshit news that we latch onto, meant to appeal to us and keep us divided.

There is no one on your side, not Trump, not Putin, not Zelensky, not Netanyahu, not anyone. Of course this ties into my previous post about those willing to chase truth, or those who will read this and allow personal bias and belief to dismiss it.

But let me ask you,

What has changed? The same stories, same troubles, same everything we see today is the same thing we saw ten, twenty, forty, sixty years ago.

But who has remained in power, rich, in charge through it all? Who is always at the top?

[endless-ineffabilities]

tongue in cheek - three

Tom Bennett x f!reader

word count: 1.3k ▪︎ masterlist ▪︎ part one ▪︎ part two ▪︎ part four

The reader finds herself properly settling in the Bennett household, much to Tom's pleasure.

a/n: I've set the story post-WW2. So if in S1 of the show, Tom was around 23-24(?), here he is 26-28. The reader and Lois are just a bit younger than him. Also, I've only watched Tom's scenes so I'm probably not going to write 100% in line with the world of World on Fire! But the focus here is - Tom and the reader 🖤

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

Time seems to pass quickly under the Bennett household.

With everyone keeping busy – you with your job at the local paper, Lois as a secretary for the newly-created NHS, Douglas getting his veteran support group up and running, and Tom… well, Tom just does what he does, let’s put it that way.

Just two weeks prior, a few days after the window incident, an issue arose with your former accommodation. More so with your former landlord, that is, and how he has all but kicked you out of the flat due to “safety concerns”.

It all boiled down one morning, with that telegram sent to you by your landlord, telling you to retrieve the remains of your possessions from the flat. Apparently, he was enraged about the damage done to the wall, even though you had already explained that it was your neighbour’s doing. Additionally, you had been asked to pay a hefty fine for “reparations”.

And it wasn’t that bad. “Clearly the ol’ bloke is just trying to rinse a bit more money out of ya,” Tom exclaimed, after he fished the telegram from your hand.

“Impossible,” you scoffed, “how is he coming up with this shit now? We agreed that he would have that damned wall repaired. We even spoke to the man living on the other side of that bloody wall and he explained everything - ”

Tom put a hand on your arm, making you cease your rant.

“Want me to beat him up for ya, doll?” His thumb gently caressed your upper arm. For a second, you forgot all about the problem at hand.

“I… well…”

Douglas intervened, “There will be no beatin’ up anybody, son. Surely this man can be reasoned with, and if not, then there’s going to be a solution, y/n. We’re here to help.”

You breathed out, already relieved. “Thank you, Douglas.”

“Right, maybe it’s all for the best, doll. After all, I’ve gotten way too used to having you sleep in the same room as me.” Tom said with his signature shit-eating smirk. You attempted to appear unaffected, and rolled your eyes in return.

“Sure.” You shrugged your shoulders, looking around the living room. What to do now? “I suppose I should head over there, find out if anything can be done, but if the flat is lost…” Your voice broke slightly at the end.

“Then you can stay with us. I’m sure Lois will be happier for it.” Douglas smiled comfortingly.

“And me.” Tom mumbled under his breath, but you heard it clearly.

“I’ll pay rent,” you said determinedly, “I’ll help out with everything around the house.”

“There’s no need for that, kid. We’re happy to have you.” Douglas patted you on the back.

You turned to face Tom, who had been lounging in a chair, cigarette carelessly dangling from his lips. He breathed out a puff of smoke, and the motion catches your eye. His lips began to curve in mischief when he caught you looking, “So, dollface? Shall we?” He stood up, and held a hand out for you to take.

“Pardon?” You asked, startled out of your haze.

“There's no way you’re going to go meet this arse all by yourself. I’m coming with ya, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

And that was that. You found yourself saddled with your new living arrangement. Weeks on, you can admit that you have gotten used to being the “honorary Bennett”, as Lois kindly puts it.

You can also admit, albeit reluctantly, that Tom Bennett is starting to get under your skin.

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

“It’s just a small shindig, a few blocks from here. Should be fun.” Tom says. The partition between his and yours and Lois’ beds is pushed aside, and you can see him completely. Clad in nothing but boxers and a tattered wife beater, Tom sure has gotten comfortable around you.

Not that he ever wasn’t.

The three of you remain awake late into the night, conversing. You sit by the foot of your bed, sipping from a cup of tea, while Lois leans against the headboard, newspaper in hand.

“A bit too soon for that, isn’t it?” Lois remarks, referring to the end of the war, which officially happened just one year prior. Everyone still feels the effects of the devastation suffered, but life goes on. Britain is currently in rehabilitation mode, tending to the infrastructure and the various industries. Majority of the soldiers and officers have since been repatriated, including Tom.

“Don’t think so,” Tom puffs his smoke, “if anythin’, we should bloody celebrate.”

“Could be a good idea.” You shrug. “We haven’t had a chance to just… be… you know? Not for a really long time.”

“That’s right, sweetheart.” Tom smiles at you, and you mirror the gesture.

Lois narrows her eyes at the exchange. She hasn’t been blind as to how Tom is around you. Not that Tom doesn’t have his way around dames – he normally draws them in like moth to a flame, with his charm and devil-may-care ways. But with you…

It’s like her brother is the moth and you’re the sacred ball of light.

Lois thinks it may be only a matter of time before things get going, as it tends to be in these situations. But she also thinks that you might be too guarded, and Tom too roguish.

With the two of you, it could possibly take a while.

“Alright,” Lois relents, “tomorrow night, was it?”

“Yeah,” Tom confirms, “you can take Harry if you want.”

“I’m sure he’d love that.” Lois thumbs through her paper, her attention caught on the page.

Standing, you place your teacup on the dresser against the wall opposite the two beds. You stand in front of the mirror, and roll out the tension in your shoulders. The ease it brings causes you to momentarily shut your eyes, but after some movement, one strap of your nightgown falls.

Before you can pull it up in a haste, Tom stands behind you, his fingers taking hold of the fallen strap. Slowly, he takes it back up your shoulders, grazing your skin along the way.

The entire time, his blue eyes are locked on yours in the mirror. Tom is arrested by the way your lips are slightly parted, by your startled expression. By the feel of your skin, the sight of your exposed décolletage.

The reflection betrays the fact – that of the moth and his flame.

Then the sound of shuffling newspaper crunches in the room, and you turn to see Lois getting up to leave. “I could use some tea,” she mutters quickly, and she flashes you a knowing smile before shutting the door behind her.

What on earth? The moment persists for a few more seconds, before you found the nerve to speak.

“Hmm,” you place your hand above his and pry it from your shoulder, “good job, Tom. I think we’ve made your sister uncomfortable.”

When you turn around, he stands close. Very close. He towers over you, making you lean back against the dresser, almost sitting atop it.

One think you notice is that Tom doesn’t have his usual smug smirk. Rather, his brows are slightly furrowed, as if he is pondering something.

His teeth clamp on his bottom lip, and he just… stares at you.

You look to the side, searching for something. Anything. A distraction. But that doesn’t last long, because Tom finally makes a move, cupping your face with one hand, and prying it towards him.

He leans in, eyes heavy-lidded.

“Tom?”

He pauses halfway, “I’d like to try something, doll.”

“Try someth - ”

You don’t get to finish the words.

end of part three.

- - - - -

series taglist: @greenowlfactif @schniiipsel @tssf-imagines @aemond-secondson @ahdushenka @bat-revival @mefools @mischiefmanaged71 @svtansdaddyx @chainsawangel

[midnightactual]

I don't know if you're kept up with the anime adaptation or not, but can I ask if you have any opinions on the new "lore" drops?

I don't watch the anime, but I hear some things, so I'll offer some thoughts:

First, I find it utterly hilarious that the people who, for 20 years, have said the anime is not canon, are now suddenly acting like it is, when it still isn't; and no, Kubo's involvement does not change that. People who think that when an author retcons, it isn't a retcon, or that an author cannot write their characters out of character, are inherently and literally authoritarian-minded bootlickers incapable of thinking for themselves.

Second, I adhere to something like the old canonicity ranking system for Star Wars. The manga is the highest canonicity, then the novels, then Klub Outside answers, and far away is the anime, then the movies, then games. So, to me, Kubo's involvement with the anime doesn't mean anything except when it doesn't contradict with things that were already known.

Third, I will assume this is about Yhwach, and I will take this opportunity to go off on my own rant. This morning I saw this:

And I honestly have to ask: why as a group are Bleach fans the dumbest shōnen fans that there ever have been? This guy's entire argument is impossibly stupid primae facie. Let's review. Chapter 565:

We are told, by the narrator, not by same fallible character, that YHWH was a name given to Yhwach by the people around him, not one that he picked out himself, and was given in honor of the god of those people. This pretty clearly suggests Yhwach was around Jews who were using the Tetragrammaton.

(This makes Yhwach's connections with Nazi Germany, through having a unit named the Schutzstaffel, extremely icky, but I don't think Kubo really knows much about WW2 in general or the Holocaust in particular, and I don't think this was deliberate.)

The point is, though, Yhwach didn't pick the name YHWH, and doesn't feel any connection with it. So the argument by "The Senpai" that maybe he has some relation to the Soul King, who was named Adnyeus, which comes from Adonai, on the basis of his name, is complete nonsense.

Because that's not Yhwach's name. In fact, his name isn't YHWH, or Ywhach, or Yūhabahha, and anyone saying the last (like "The Senpai") is an idiot because that's not how katakana works. Katakana are for rendering foreign words into a format that is workable to Japanese people. If you aren't Japanese, or don't have a thick Japanese accent, you shouldn't be pronouncing things per their katakana reading.

His name is ユーハバッハ. Knowing that he speaks German, we can therefore determine what his real name is.

ユーハ is either a stylistic rendition of Johan (normally ヨハン) or it's Juch as in Juchheim as in Karl Juchheim, a guy who introduced baumkuchen cake to Japan. You can see this by flipping his Wikipedia page to Japanese, where his surname is given as ユーハイム.

バッハ is Bach, as in Johann Sebastian Bach. You can again see this by flipping his Wikipedia page to Japanese.

Yhwach's real name is either Juch Bach or Johan Bach.

Now, I hate to tell "The Senpai" and everyone else this, but German wasn't around 2,000 years ago, let alone 10,000 or more years ago, and has nothing to do with anything Biblical. I will also note that "The Senpai" got it wrong in that Yhwach was not around 2,000 years ago anyway. Chapter 631:

We first hear of him from Bazz-B's flashback as having been active for maybe 200 years, which puts him as active around 600-700 AD at the earliest. The "progenitor" of the Quincies" thing is clearly wrong, because chapter 632:

Quincy like Jugram were born every few decades, until a few centuries ago—when Yhwach was born. So the Quincy long predate Yhwach. We know this also from Pernida having "always been a Quincy".

So, the Yhwach present with the Soul King in the primordial sea or whatever, is most likely a visual literary allusion, not a concrete entity that has existed this entire time. Why? Because that would contradict a higher tier of canon—the manga. And not just Bazz-B, a fallible character, but the narrator of the manga.

We also know stuff can occur in Bleach in a nonlinear way with regard to time. We know this because of interacting with the Kōtotsu sending people back in time:

We know this because Ichibē can steal energy from the future:

And we know this because Ichibē named Bankai thousands of years ago, using a meaning for a kanji that wouldn't come about until the 1990s as teen girl slang, and even he still doesn't fully understand why he himself named it that:

So in other words, the Yhwach that you see in that anime-only scene, based on everything that exists in the manga, is a kind of premonition or manifestation of Yhwach from outside of time. It does not mean he has always been around. That is the only thing that squares with all the actual lore.

Everyone rushing to assume new contradictions is a fool who has no actual respect for the lore that we have already been given, and apparently has no way of properly contextualizing it.

I'll spell it out very simply: if the anime contradicts manga narration, then the anime is once again its own timeline. The manga is the original work, and the anime doesn't 'patch' it; it's not software. The manga is the overriding correct take. If the anime retcons, then it's either wrong or it makes a new continuity: so either anime-only scenes must be squared with the manga's authoritative stance, or it must be accepted that the anime has nothing to do with the manga. One or the other must be picked. Anyone who doesn't understand this must either be new to media analysis, or is just media illiterate.

So, just like fake fans rushed out to say Ichibē was lying about the Soul King's binding, when that scene was 100% consistent with what Ichibē said in CFYOW, I think this is another instance of fake fans misinterpreting a scene. Yhwach's origins were given in the manga. What are the odds the anime comes up with a completely different origin for him? Low. And if it does, it's anime-only.

[beauty-and-passion]

Eurovision and the jury’s problem (but mostly the jury’s problem)

Ah, the Eurovision national juries. I love them so much. My love is so big that, since I started this tradition of writing a post about Eurovision, I’ve always included one paragraph to openly express my love for them and, not surprisingly, my love took the shape of FUCK YOU JURY.

So this year gave me the final push to do more research and finally give them the post they deserve, in which I will finally explain why they do more harm than good and are generally useless.

If that’s what you wanted to know, you can close the post now, thank you for your time. But if you want to know why I think the jury is useless, then allow me to expand more and properly explain myself.

_______________________

The jury has always been part of the show!

Yes, but now always with the same power.

Let’s do a bit of history: Eurovision started in the 50s, right after the end of WW2. TV was starting to grow stronger and with the birth of the EBU, they were searching for a TV program that could’ve involved and united all nations.

And so, an Italian journalist said: “Hey, here in Italy we have this sick song competition called Sanremo. We can make something similar, but every European country should send an artist.”. Marcel Bezençon, general manager of the EBU at the time, liked the idea and, after a few meetings, it was decided to make this music competition that will become Eurovision.

So yes, this is how Eurovision started. It’s because of Sanremo. It’s because of Italy. My country might do stupid shit, but we are still able to do something good once in a while.

The first edition counted 7 countries: Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Switzerland. Four of them will become the “Big Five”, because they are the ones that put more money into this competition. Other countries will slowly join in.

The jury was first introduced because, well, there was no possible way to call every single person who was watching the show. The TV was still in its infancy, let alone the global communications, so of course there was a jury. IT was the only way.

However, over time the televoting system was born and it started to improve. In 1997 five countries used it for the first time and from the year after all countries could use it. The jury was left in the back and used only under exceptional circumstances when televoting was not possible.

This lasted from 1997 to 2009. Then from 2010 it started the 50/50 system.

So yes, the jury has always been part of the show. But at first it was present because it was the only way to choose a winner, then it was pushed in the back, only to regain more power in the last 10 years.

But hey, you may ask: since Eurovision has been inspired by Sanremo, maybe this is how Sanremo voting system works too, right?

Nope. We are Italians, so we should make the most complicated voting system ever. Sanremo is currently articulated in five evenings and every evening has different juries and different ways to vote. I won’t go into too much detail because it’s bonkers, but I can tell you that:

1) There are multiple juries: the public, a jury made of 150 accredited representatives and the opinion poll jury. This one in particular is a group of people chosen by the national public broadcasting company RAI (which broadcasts Sanremo) out of a sample of habitual music users and selected according to criteria of age/geographical origin.

So no, the system is completely different and yes, this system is evolving too, because the opinion poll jury counted 1000 people last year, this year only 300 and who knows how many there will be in the future.

2) The final result is the sum of all three votes: 33% of the final voting is made of the representative’s jury, 33% of the opinion poll jury and 34% of the televoting. So even if by just one measly point, the televoting is the most important one out of the three.

Is this system perfect? No, it doesn’t work either and it’s fucking complicated. But at least it acknowledges that the public deserves to have more power than the juries. And there is also more than one jury, which at least allows a wider vision of things.

_______________________

The jury is here because it brings more variety!

Aww, how adorable.

I specifically searched for every single winning song from 1997 to 2023, thus including both the years without jury (1997-2008) and the ones with jury (2009-2023). I checked which is the musical genre of every winning song.

Do you want to know which genre won the most? Pop.

Do you want to know how many times a pop song won in the years without jury (including europop and latin-pop)? 9 times.

Do you want to know how many times a pop song won in the years with jury (including folk-pop, dance-pop and electro-pop)? 10 times.

Please, tell me more about the variety the jury brings. Can’t wait to hear it.

_______________________

The jury is here because it brings variety 2: Englishvision

Europe: a country with a shit ton of languages and we use always the same one for singing.

Do you want to know how many times we had a winning song that wasn’t in English from 1997 to 2023? 7 times and in two of them there were English parts.

The first three winners come from the years without jury (Dana International - "Diva", Ruslana - "Wild Dances", Marija Šerifović - "Molitva"). The others come from the years with jury and my god we had to fight tooth and nail to have them:

Jamala - "1944"

Salvador Sobral - "Amar Pelos Dois"

Måneskin - "Zitti e buoni"

Kalush Orchestra - "Stefania"

Those are people’s winners. Well, except for Jamala who no one wanted as a winner, because the public wanted Russia and the jury Australia. However, let’s leave it in for now: it’s a particular case I want to talk about later.

What I want to let you know is that, in order to have these winners, the public had to do a massive collective effort to give them enough points to overcome the jury - especially the last two. And if you know them, it’s because they are in the top 10 list of the public’s favorites.

But what if I tell you we could’ve had two more songs in their native languages on this list?

In 2015 the public’s favourite was Italy with Il Volo. An Italian song, genre classical music. It lost against Sweden’s pop song.

In 2023 the public’s massive favourite was, as you know, Finland. A Finnish song, genre hyperpop/industrial metal. It lost against Sweden’s pop song.

What a strange coincidence, isn’t it? Both times a song in a native language lost against an English pop song. Both times, the public’s favourite lost because the jury’s favourite won. Both times it was against Sweden.

Please, tell me again about the fairness of this system and how much variety it brings.

________________________

The jury is here because the eastern countries all vote for their neighbors!

Just because the western countries all hate each other’s neighbours, it’s not a valid reason to blame the eastern ones for that.

Also, hey, wasn’t that a music competition? Why should we even care about which country the winning song comes from? Shouldn’t the jury think just about the music? Please tell me more about the impartiality of the jury.

Another thing: maybe it’s just me, but I supposed everyone studied math or had a basic knowledge of how many countries are in Europe. Well, I did both for you and if we divide Europe in half, we will have more o less 21 countries on the west and 26 countries on the east (I am including Australia in the west).

In my world, 26 is a bigger number than 21. So if the east slightly wins more times than the west is, well, understandable. The probability for them to win is higher, because there are more artists from those countries and so they have more chances to bring the winning song. I don’t think it’s so difficult to understand.

Maybe the reason why the western countries win less is not because “the easterns votes for their neighbours”, but because the westerns do not take the competition seriously and send shitty songs. Why Italy rarely gets a bad position? Because we care about music and we want to send something good. Why the UK fails a lot of times? Because they don’t care enough to send a good song. They are both Big Fives and they both put money on this show: the only difference is that one cares a bit more than the other. So instead of blaming the east, maybe it’s time to start bringing more decent songs.

And this “the east wins more” is even more stupider, if you look at the countries with the highest number of victories: Ireland, Sweden, the Netherlands, the UK, Luxembourg and France.

In my world, those countries are all in the west. I know we all hate each other, but knowing when our rivals are on a map would be a good start.

Do you want to know why this stupid theory exists? It’s all because of the years without jury. It’s because in the years 2001-2008 we had this series of winners:

Estonia

Latvia

Turkey

Ukraine

Greece

Finland

Serbia

Russia

Since they are all in the east, they thought these countries were all voting for each other’s. That’s it.

I don’t know how they justified Ireland winning 3 times in a row (1992-1994) in their minds but hey, maybe that’s why I’m not a member of the EBU.

_________________________

The jury doesn’t have a favourite!

Very cute.

Do you want to know which are the countries with the most victories in the years 1997-2023? Here is a very funny list:

Israel: 2 times

1998 (no jury year) with Dana International - "Diva" (public’s favourite)

2018 (jury year) with Netta - "Toy" (public’s favourite)

Denmark: 2 times

2000 (no jury year) with Olsen Brothers - "Fly On The Wings Of Love" (public’s favourite)

2013 (jury year) with Emmelie de Forest - "Only Teardrops" (public’s favourite)

Ukraine: 3 times

2004 (no jury year) with Ruslana - "Wild Dances" (public’s favourite)

2016 (jury year) with Jamala - "1944" (not public’s favourite, but highly appreciated by the public)

2022 (jury year) with Kalush Orchestra - "Stefania" (public’s favourite)

Sweden: 4 times

1999 (no jury year) with Charlotte Nilsson - "Take Me To Your Heaven" (public’s favourite)

2012 (jury year) with Loreen - "Euphoria" (public’s favourite)

2015 (jury year) with Måns Zelmerlöw - "Heroes" (jury’s favourite)

2023 (jury year) with Loreen - "Tattoo" (jury’s favourite)

I don’t know you, but I notice two victories that made the public unhappy because both times the jury’s power overcame the public’s power. How weird it happened for the same country that won three times since the 50/50 system has been introduced.

Sure, the first victory was wanted by the public, but the other two were against the public’s will. And please allow me to repeat it again because this is what upsets me the most: both times an English pop song won instead of a song in a native language with a different musical genre.

And what makes these two victories even more undeserved, is that in general the winner has always been the public’s favourite. In 27 years the public’s favourite won 23 times and two times it was a public’s appreciated artist (Jamala, Duncan Lawrence).

The only two times public’s favourite didn’t win, it was a Swedish artist with a massive push from the jury that made it impossible to defeat it.

But hey, maybe this point is a bit unfair. After all, it’s not Sweden’s fault if they learned what the jury likes and keep sending the same kind of song to get their votes. Maybe I am just jealous: I mean, my country basically invented Eurovision and yet we’re not able to exploit this show to win all the times? Gosh, we’re useless :P

The problem is not Sweden’s cleverness. The problem is that the jury always uses the same criteria, so one country has been able to recognize and exploit them. In a democratic world with a fair competition, the organizers of said competition would say: “okay, maybe we should change the criteria all the time, so no one would be able to use them and the jury will remain impartial”. But I suppose this was a too difficult choice for the EBU.

Or maybe they just own Sweden some money, who knows. I really have no idea.

_____________________

The jury is here because otherwise people’s votes would be political!

Oh, so hilarious.

This is the list of the winning entries by jury and by the public:

Until the recent years, public and jury agreeded on the winner and when the public chose a winner, it was jury’s second choice. So if the public’s votes were political back then, the jury’s votes were political as well.

Only in the last editions jury and public started to truly diverge and unless I missed something, Israel just had a catchy song, Italy’s victory had nothing political behind, Ukraine’s victory was a massive collective justifiable effort to say “fuck you” to Russia and people just like Finland’s song more. So, again, nothing political behind.

However, there are also two very interesting cases, the only ones in which the winner was a country no one chose as favorite:

2016: public’s favourite: Russia - jury’s favourite: Australia. Winner: Ukraine

2019: public’s favourite: Norway - jury’s favourite: North Macedonia. Winner: the Netherlands

Do you want to know why the jury’s favourite of 2016 is Australia? I don’t know. What I know is that Australia joined Eurovision in 2015 and it was supposed to be just a one time thing, so they were automatically qualified for the finals. But in 2016 they joined like everyone else and had to make through the semifinals and... well, it wouldn’t be nice to send back home a country that just joined. I am not saying these two things are related, but it’s a bit of a weird coincidence, isn’t it?

Do you want to know why the jury’s favourite of 2019 is North Macedonia? I don’t know. What I know is that on June 2018 the country changed its name to the Republic of North Macedonia. And, you know, it’s nice to hear it more times, just to leave an impression on people’s minds. Again: I am not saying these two things are related, but it’s a bit of a weird coincidence, isn’t it?

Okay, let’s leave the tinfoil hat theories on the side. Do you really want to know where the “the public’s vote is too political” thing comes from? It comes from Jamala winning in 2016. Because Russia has already started with their bullshit in Crimea and Jamala’s song (despite not specifically talking about that invasion) was a reminder of that situation. And so everyone blamed the public for this victory and said that “the public was influenced by the actual political situation”. All while Jamala was second favorite of both the public AND the jury. So, again, if the public was biased, the jury is biased as well.

Actually, in her case the jury is a lot more biased than the public, because the public’s favorite was Russia! So, well, who is the political one now?

The truth is that the public is made of people and of course people will be influenced by the situation in which they live. But same goes for the jury: the jury is also influenced by the current situations, both Eurovision-related and world-related. So it’s totally unfair to blame the public for having a heart and a mind and for their will to choose a song over the other - especially when they are not influenced by the world situation (like in 2016) or when they are as it happened in 2022.

And, honestly, I’d much rather prefer people choosing a winner because of a fucking war, than a bunch of people choosing their winner for reasons that will benefit them only.

______________________

The jury is made of experts and they give their expert opinion!

Awesome. Now explain to me how can you objectively choose the best song between a pop one, a folk one, a metal one and a rock one. Tell me which universal criteria will you apply.

Voice? But each genre requires a different kind of voice. An opera singer has a powerful voice, but growl music requires a powerful voice as well - heck, it’s even more complicated than opera, so it should be more praised than that! I mean, try growling without sounding like an idiot: it’s immensely hard. How can you decide which is better in an objective way? Do you just focus on which is more difficult to perform? But then it’s unfair to the pop singers, who also have good beautiful voices. How can you objectively choose the best?

Performance? But every genre requires a specific kind of performance. You can’t put an energetic performance on a ballad or slow dancers on a rock song. If two performance are equally beautifully ftting for their music genre, how can you decide which is objectively better?

Lyrics? But not everyone knows the lyrics of all songs and some lyrics might have multiple meanings or refer to particular aspects of the country’s culture, so you might not understand how beautiful they are. How can you choice which one is better, without knowing all these details?

Overall impression of the song? That’s not even an objective criteria, try harder.

The truth is that you CANNOT choose between different songs and different genres in a universally objective way. You will always be influenced by your own preferences and musical tastes.

Do you want to know how these criteria could’ve worked? If everyone brought the same song. Then okay, you can objectively make your choice: after all, we are talking about one genre and one song. In all other cases, this criteria makes zero sense.

And before you say “the jury needs to recognize the good singers”: people have ears. If a singer is bad, people can hear it by themselves. Polish people proved very well that they can recognize a very bad singer from an extremely good one and I doubt the entire country of Poland is made of musical experts or that everyone likes dance-pop/electro-industrial music.

Same goes for all the people around the world who praised Jann and said Blanka is terrible: I doubt they are all music experts or Polish. Maybe they just have ears.

Sure, some people have better taste than others, I don’t deny that. But considering that all humans have ears and a brain, I don’t think they need someone else to tell them that yes, this thing you like is good or no, that thing you don’t like is bad. Maybe they can understand it by themselves.

And if the problem is that the public doesn’t have a taste, then give them the means to acquire said taste. Let experts give more insights about an artist: they could explain why their voices are good or bad, why their performance works or not and why the lyrics are complex or simple. Let the public take a decision, instead of treating them like toddlers who should be spoon-fed.

______________________

The importance of the public

What makes this 2023 victory so empty, is that it has nothing Eurovision stands for. It’s not the victory of an unknown, talented artist. It’s not a victory the majority wanted. It’s not a victory that sends a good message.

It’s the victory of mainstream and safety. It’s a victory that doesn’t look forward and doesn’t try anything new, because it prefers to rely on the same old stuff. It’s a victory of nostalgia, industries and brands.

And if it hurts so much, it’s not just because the public’s will has never been so blatantly clear about who they wanted to win, but also because after two years in which we had native languages and new genres on the top, we were really, really hoping for a switch towards something different.

I don’t blame the past artists for not trying more, the years were different. But we are in the 20s of the year 2000 now. We are more open to different people, genders, sexual orientations. We don’t have to play safe anymore, not in a world that is moving forward. We can have different winners, we can have different cultures and we can have different genres.

I really hope that this year will teach something, not just to us, but to the EBU and to Europe. If things will change, good. And despite my harsh words, I am okay if the jury stays: it has always been present, after all, even when pushed in the back. So if we have to keep it, let’s keep it.

But it’s time to give them less power. It’s time for a 30/70 or a 20/80 system. 50/50 is just not acceptable anymore.

Or, as the 2023 public’s winner said:

Thank you for your time and please, keep support your winners.

(Clips from THIS video)

[somethingsbehindyou]

~~ looking for new roleplay partners ~~

Hi everyone! I'm not new to roleplaying at all, but am looking to get back into it after a little break and hoping for some new writing partners. I only write on discord!

Sorry in advance for the long post:

I'm 25f and have been roleplaying for a looong time. Please be 21+ before interacting (I will be checking and blocking if not). My availability fluctuates, but I’ll keep you in the loop and I won’t leave you in the dark for weeks.

I've been having so much inspiration recently and am dying for some new roleplays. I'm a real sucker for writing deep and complex characters, and very much enjoy writing for the plot and character development as opposed to poorly written smut just for the sake of it. NSFW / romance isn’t required if it’s not something you vibe with, or if it fits in with the rp I'm happy to write smut, or fade to black, whatever you're more comfortable with.

I like writing MxF, and MxM. I prefer writing complex male characters, but have a handful of female muses I adore writing.

I love playing multiple characters in a rp, but you're welcome to play as many or few as you like. The guys I play are pretty well thought out, with lots of depth, background, emotion, and usually a bunch of trauma (please tell me any limits in advance). All I ask is your character is not dry and impossible to work with. If you present me with an overly subby character who's lacking personality, I’ll probably drop the rp, sorry.

I prefer quality over quantity. I can get carried away and write pages upon pages, but if you can only manage a couple of good paragraphs, that's fine with me. I'll try and match your length in replies as long as they're not one liners, please.

I have a special soft spot for horror roleplays, and roleplays which have a lot of plot more than a dry romance between two characters. I don’t like playing the villain / victim trope constantly. I’m not going to write a kidnapper to a cutesy innocent character, sorry. But apart from that I’m open to pretty much anything, so if you’ve got any plots you’d like to try out please let me know and I’m sure we can work something out together.

Very few dark themes are off limits with me, which can all be discussed through DMs, but at the same time I love soft and fluffy plots just as much so please don’t be afraid to ask for anything!

Here’s some tropes which have been nagging at my brain recently:

Cannibal family x prying detective (or something equivalent)

Apocalypse (zombies, plague, etc — I’ve got so many characters to play for this)

Your characters car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and he stumbles across a shitty looking motel, my character is the receptionist but he’s a morally grey ghost who was murdered in the motel 20 years ago

Haunted house (I’m thinking we play a family, one parent and one teen / kid each kinda vibe - or a group of friends on vacation)

Pirates

1960s catholic orphanage with lots of religious trauma

1950s criminal x good girl

Victorian era - I have a thieving conman character who would love to scam your character out of everything they own

Supernatural creatures: vampires / werewolves / sirens (mixed with small town vibes?)

WW2 - I’ve got a couple of injured soldiers to pair with a sweet lil nurse

1930s outlaws

Stripper x gang member

Killer x cop

I’m rambling on now, but I’m open to a lot and would love to hear any thoughts or ideas you have. This is my new account so please message me if you’re interested because I don’t want to get shadow banned, but if not leave a like and I’ll reach out as soon as I can, I might just be a bit slower.

If you’ve read this far, thank you! Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or ideas or anything at all really. 🌸

[beardedmrbean]

[Huey Zoomer Anon]

>Be modern black Hollywood

>Have the ability to showcase our history more with slightly less racist executives to deal with

>More access to our history than ever before

>Blackwash and try to pop feminism girl boss Cleopatra to where Assassins Creed Origins did her better (yeah I’m going back to that later in the ip)

>Lionize the Dahomey despite THEY are the major reason our cultural roots are destroyed and why majority of African Americans can never truly feel a connection to our ancestors birthplace

>Allow Tyler Perry to writer and direct a movie of the Black WAC unit of WW2.

>Perry had a tantrum towards the boondocks creator for making fun of him and made the episode about it be banned on tv for a couple of years (here the clip of that episode, I think 99.9% of black people on here or anyone who watch a Medea movie get the joke https://youtu.be/hJtYVpLAZmI?si=oSFcNG6GFUcTC87u)

>Make the historical black characters and figures more condensing then they were

>Refuse to acknowledge the struggles the MAJORITY of the population was suffering during those times hence why it took the marginalized to get their rights

>Don’t acknowledge how other groups like feminism deny black men proper voting rights and treated black women like shit until they conveniently used them to promote their hedonistic agenda during the 60’s

>Go overboard with their importance and not in the saving private Ryan and Braveheart

>Casually forget that even though there was fuck up status quos like they are today. Not everyone of the majority support it

>Seemly make race racial worsen

I know a lot of people can say Assassin Creed doing this with Yasuke. I think Ubisoft pr need to learn the term they try to be more historically AUTHENTIC rather than accurate as historians can have a tantrum to how much stuff that don’t fit with the 972-77 CE time stamp of AC Valhalla base story.

Though they probably figured out Ubi wanted to cash in on the Viking shows tv craze at the time.

Also one thing about DEI…they don’t really like family driven stories unless it the bastardized fictional young adult “found family thing”

Also they mention they are going to retool some established lore….I mean most of AC lore about Japan is from a long erased mobile AC game. From what I seen they are retooling something but fleshly out more stuff

Ot won’t be the first ac game to retcon shit *Vietnam flashbacks to certain controversies*

Now let me talk about the other MC Naoe, when the devs described her. They mentioned she is hot headed, where her heart on her shoulder….soooo a shounen female mc who is driven by vengeance where Yasuke and the other assassins try to make sure she won’t be consume by it?

Interesting, more personality than most girlboss characters Hollywood pump out

(Also they confirm you can do the Naruto run, LOL)

Than there was a Entertainment Weekly issue (yes they do games now) that dive into the Naoe backstory and they show off this character

https://x.com/ac_landmarks/status/1869806301238439992?s=46

What nice picture-fuck I heard Baal, Azreal, and the Shinto god Raiden arguing who will devour the boy’s soul when he killed off for story reasons

But Naoe got a little brother figure? Perfect!

Shit sorry for these super long anon everyone

I mean for the black WAC unit, they could have down where like in AC black flag you saw the Maroons or in AC mirage you saw the Nestorian Christians in 9th century Baghdad was they were in their respective timeline. So do a anthology series about the lesson known units of WW2 with the that unit getting a episode

Hell I’m very curious about the Japanese American units who I heard are some of our most decorative unit in our military history. Despite the absolute hell we gave them during that time

Just why WHY, have Hollywood got much much worse at telling black historical stories despite us now having more flesh out sources than ever before?

Hope others get it, never seen one of his movies.

The WAC thing is a good story to tell, not sure it's worth a full movie but maybe, theatrical release would depend on if it was something they could make enough money off of.

>I think Ubisoft pr need to learn the term they try to be more historically AUTHENTIC rather than accurate

I like that phrasing there.

>Though they probably figured out Ubi wanted to cash in on the Viking shows tv craze at the time.

I enjoyed the show, what I saw of it at least, dropped out when it started getting a bit too fantastical in places.

>Also one thing about DEI…they don’t really like family driven stories unless it the bastardized fictional young adult “found family thing”

Found family can be good if it serves a legitimate narrative purpose

And since I know you want the full quote

If nothing else this is gonna do a whole thing with getting him into the brotherhood and the two of them someone to lean on here and there. Some learning as well since Japan is still gonna be new to him.

They both have things to learn

>Also they mention they are going to retool some established lore......

They have to do that sometimes, so long as they're not trying to rewrite actual history

I still don't get the opposition to Yasuke, he's a real guy that had the title of samurai and they used him for a game so they could make a historical samurai game but make it different than every other historical samurai game.

>.......Interesting, more personality than most girlboss characters Hollywood pump out

So far it looks like that may be the case, hope things stay that way I'm tired of mary sue's.

>(Also they confirm you can do the Naruto run, LOL)

Nice

>But Naoe got a little brother figure? Perfect!

I hope so

>Shit sorry for these super long anon everyone

They're all tagged with your tag they can filter them out if they like

>........So do a anthology series about the lesson known units of WW2 with the that unit getting a episode

WAC's are so poorly known as a group from WWII that would actually be good anyway, the recruitment mantra of "Free a man up to fight" From the ladies doing the mail room (like in the upcoming thingy) to the clerical workers and everything else in between (like the ones that flew the planes from one coast to the other for delivery) they made a huge contribution, and should be recognized.

So long as we don't get "Red Ball Express" level revisionism, which would be difficult since they get the race of the people right in this film, but they can still get all kinds of other things wrong.

>Hell I’m very curious about the Japanese American units who I heard are some of our most decorative unit in our military history. Despite the absolute hell we gave them during that time

Think they've gotten a movie or two, had a moment with them in the first Karate Kid movie, where we find out Mr Miyagi earned the Medal of Honor as a member of the 442nd Infantry Regiment

while his wife and child were back home in the US, in one of Roosevelt's internment camps, where they died while he was fighting with honor for the country that had put them in there.

If you've never seen the 1984 Karate Kid, it's not all corny wax on wax off stuff, or sweep the leg, or what's it's become since 1984, even as a kid that scene hurt to watch.

There's a few for the "Codetalkers" too, which as codes go, nobody was ever going to break that one.

>Just why WHY, have Hollywood got much much worse at telling black historical stories despite us now having more flesh out sources than ever before?

Inflating the contributions instead of just stating what they were and why they were so important seems to be the method now, while yes sorting mail seems like a silly thing to make a big deal out of, it really was important to the war effort.

Letter from home can make all the difference in the world, anyone that's been deployed can probably confirm.