#legwork

[welcometotheunknownlosers]

me: okay time to make misha rp submission just gonna get up mishas backstoryyy to make sure everything’s all set

Me: hmm oh haha i think some of misha character story pt 1 is alluding to mikhail razalina and Tiernan lol what a fun easter egg

Me:

1 hr later:

Me: Mikhail had childhood trauma of some sort of event happening on a party. Perhaps his birthday. Considering the TV implies a death of some kind, perhaps someone close to Mikhail died on his birthday? This ties in with childrens toys that won’t be played with again, and the fact that the couch is void of children, implying that for one reason or another, there wont be more kids. We know that Mikhail (seafarer edition) left to save Lushanka again when Mikhail (misha) left for the express, so it cant be his death. This leaves 2 options. Boring option number one is Mikhail’s OG Parents but i dont think theres sustenance there. Option number two, it being adopted parent legendary seafarer Char, now thats much more likely. HOWEVER CHAR HAS NO FUCKING LORE OR GENDER SO WHOSE TO EVEN SAY

[shaibtheherbanlegend777]

This man's legwork is impressive, killed it

[iwieldthesword]

I need to talk about this because it's making me feel insane.

Last week, my white leftist goyisch friends sat me, a wholeass antizionist Jew, down for a "talk" because they "needed to check in about Palestine" and make sure "our values aligned before we hung out again". They apparently needed to "suss out" where I stood on Palestinian rights, despite having had several conversations about Palestine and them being some of my closest friends. They needed to check, to search for and uncover my true values, because I had said some "disturbing things" that had made them "suspicious".

Disturbing things included:

Supporting IfNotNow which is a "liberal zionist organization" because it normalizes Jewish heritage in the Levant

Not bringing Palestine up enough, despite them also not bringing it up (this was apparently a test)

Mentioning that the Houthi's flag talks about cursing all Jews

Saying Stalin was antisemitic because of the "all the paw-grihms"

...and apparently other things they wouldn't specify, but had been tracking for months.

To clarify, I am an antizionist Jew from three generations of antizionist Jews. I have been vocal in my support of Palestinian liberation and in my condemnation both of Israel's actions and its violent founding as a state, and of zionism in many of its forms. I am a regular donor to Palestinian and Jewish NGOs and advocate for Jewish antizionism in person, at temple, and online. I have been talking about Palestinian liberation before they could point to Gaza on a map. But they needed to make sure, they needed to "suss out", they needed to check. And it's notable that the majority of moments that made them suspicious of me were times where I talked about antisemitism: not about Palestinian liberation, not about Israeli decolonization, not about anything actually relevant to Palestine. It was talking about antisemitism that made them check to see if I was a cryptozionist.

One of the most pervasive and insidious forms of antisemitism is the idea that Jews are inherently untrustworthy and suspicious. You have to constantly be on guard, track what they say and do, "suss out" the real truth. You have to keep them in line and and watch them carefully because they're liars and sneaks, and if you're not looking closely they'll return to their real values (and drag you down with them). This is where the idea of "cryptozionist" comes from and what it's directly building off of: the inherent untrustworthiness of Jews and the need to check. Because no matter how close you become you can't actually trust them, and any upstanding gentile should make sure to avoid associating with Jews before "sussing out" their real allegiances and intentions. You have to make them turn out their pockets, just in case.

I'm the first and only Jew they actually were friends with; I know because they've told me (strangely proud of it in the way white Americans are proud of that kind of thing). They've asked me questions about Judaism and fawned over how beautiful and unique it was for me to be connected to my community and culture. Pre-October 7th, one of them had even mentioned being interested in coming to services at my temple. She still has my copy of our siddur. But now she needed to "check" before she could be seen with me in public. Which is what it was: it wasn't a "you're my friend and I need to give you some feedback because you're fucking up" kind of intervention (which is normal and important to have), it was a trial. It was a last chance for me to prove to them that I'm clean-enough that they could afford to risk being seen with me in public, just in case someone noticed them fraternizing with a hypothetical Enemy and their leftism was compromised. It was a test to make sure that I behave properly when required to, that I'd play along and do what I'm told and turn out my pockets if asked (because any refusal would validate the notion of having something to hide). And above all it was an opportunity for them to reaffirm their own cleanliness by putting my imagined immorality in its place.

I did what I needed to do: I smiled. I apologized. I "didn't know that". I "appreciated the feedback". I turned out my pockets because what else could I do? They'd decided who I was and what I believed, regardless of what I said or did, so there was no point in explaining that they were wrong about me. If I had told them they were being antisemitic, it would just have been proof that they were right. Caring about antisemitism is a dogwhistle in the spaces they've chosen: it's not a real form of oppression, it's a tactic for sneaky, lying Jews to weasel out of admitting their true alliances. There was nothing I could say.

Nothing's really changed for me. I'm going to continue my activism for Palestinian liberation rooted in my culture and my faith. Antizionism is still not antisemitism. But I got a reminder that many white goyisch leftists fundamentally just don't trust Jews, and that the activist spaces they're in not only exacerbate their antisemitism in an increasingly insular echo chamber, but also allow them to finally vent their internalized bigotry in a socially-acceptable way. In my former friends' eyes, what they did was activism—disavowing a Jew (and making me feel humiliated, scared, and unclean in the process) as a cathartic stand-in for doing fucking anything for actual Palestinian liberation—but for me it was a grief that I'll be feeling for a long time: not only over losing friends I loved and trusted, but also over my sense of belonging and security in leftist spaces.

[taraxippos]

I think people tend to assume that any criticism of worldbuilding is ultimately a demand for a story to grind itself to a halt and give the reader 20 paragraphs of exposition, and like. Most of the time good-faith criticism of this nature is coming from a core aspect of the story not being grounded in the setting in a way that outright detracts from the story's quality. You fix it not by Explaining but by Showing it passively in the makeup of the world.

Like the last instance I saw this critique in was like 'you can't expect an author to stop and exposit the nuances of gender roles/Queerness in a fictional society' and it's like yeah I don't, and in fact this is actually one of the easiest things to show in the text without exposition. If a society has gender norms to begin with you'll see aspects of these norms baked into EVERYTHING. You'll see it in its stories, its religion, its taboos, its etiquette, its clothing, its family structures, its language, its insults, its labor, its leadership, etc. It will have massive impacts on how characters interact with one another and how they perceive themselves. It will help Shape your characters.

If you do this legwork to begin with for the core facets of your story, you will find very natural places for these concepts to be demonstrated without derailing the plot and with little to no exposition. THAT sort of thing is what's being asked of you.

[krazieka2]

Fire Emblem Awakening Doodles and also Mozu doodles because I forgot she's from Fates oops

[ducktracy]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!TICKETS ARE ON SALE FOR THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RELEASE DATE MARCH 14TH!!!!!

as the self appointed, officially unofficial Pig & Duck Embassador, it is my duty to let you know that TICKETS ARE ON SALE!!!!! GOOOOOO GO GO GO GO SEE THIS MOVIE AND DRAG YOUR FRIENDS WITH YOU!! go see it twice, thrice, four times!! i'm going to be really obnoxious about this movie and expect you to do the same!! let's out-obnoxious each other, and start by yelling at your friends to GO SEE THIS FILM!!

[mangokabuto]

And if I said we should be having more fun with their hair. What then.

They should have dress up parties on wash day and style each other for hours i think. Quality time w peepaw qvq

(btw if you can figure out all of the references i put in usopp's beads u get a prize 😊 Good thing i made that literally actually unfair and impossible 😌🫶

Hint: there are 59 refs, and they are only there to entertain Me Specifically)

[annabelle--cane]

in isolation I think it's fine as a writing move for sasha and melanie to misattribute people weird to them at their Spooky Jobs as being because of misogyny, that is a reasonable conclusion for those characters to make when they are unaware of the Spooky Reasons that people don't want them involved, but alas it leads to this weird thing I see sometimes where fans get boiling mad at these characters and start saying "this stupid bitch thinks she's experiencing discrimination in the workplace when akshually she's being iced out for completely logical reasons due to her lack of skills, something she might realize if she weren't so self-centered with such a massive victim complex." like guys. you don't actually need to say this.

[pinkypastal]

This meme, nameless edition

[erinwantstowrite]

Those notes Duke took on how to defeat Loki would come in handy rn

Duke and Damian are going to be so fucking pissed that they missed this. I'm pretty sure i have Duke say "so I took notes for no reason?"

[kris48]

We all know what he's going after....

[shampookoski]

🃏 penacony out of order 7/? - the watchmaker's legacy

[centaur-dreaming]

Jean’s already made reference to fairytales and being by ‘saved by a dragon’, so can I put in an order for Jean whisking Jeremy away from his family on his scary bike (dragon) and driving off down the PCH into the sunset

[phantome29]

"This is where my journey ends. From now on... it is your path to walk."

[ag40249]

once there was a way to get back home

[spellbound037]

Of course you have white hair and pronouns (and probably trauma)