#like the functions it offered

[jvlianbashir]

please be nice to me the handlers don't let me out of the enclosure very often 😔

dunno if you use xkit at all but it has an option to fix the reblog chain nonsense that tumblr changed

i thought xkit died

[the-copycat-hero]

watched last week's episode again and the Monoma & Aizawa dynamic has got me in a chokehold, so have some headcanons

Eraserhead used to be one of Monoma's favorite heroes, but some of the hero worship wore off when he saw how Aizawa approached teaching for the first time. part of it was petulant dismay over Aizawa teaching Class A, but some of it was also legitimate criticism of Aizawa's methods.

regardless, a lot of that admiration comes rushing back after the war when Monoma realizes how hard Aizawa's role has been, both physically and emotionally. (watching Bakugo die haunts them both, but it was particularly humbling to realize that Aizawa had to have seen similar things happen in the past).

Aizawa's perception of Monoma underwent it's own evolution as well. at first, he saw Monoma as clever and talented, but overall aggravating and unreliable. then, when Aizawa saw Monoma interact with Eri for the first time, he moved him into the "dependable but annoying" category. it wasn't until after the war that his perception of Monoma became predominantly positive.

Aizawa was one of the first people to check on Monoma in the hospital after the war. Monoma was so out of it that he can't even remember the visit, but Vlad King made sure to let him know that Aizawa had swung by when he was finally cognizant enough to hold a coherent conversation.

both Aizawa and Monoma carry unspoken guilt. Monoma feels guilty that he got taken out of commission and potentially left millions to die, and Aizawa feels guilty that he dragged a child into the conflict to take on his role in the first place. neither of them have properly spoken about it, but it's only a matter of time.

when school starts back up, Monoma begins making a multitude of guest appearances at the Class A lecture room. he spends a lot of his time subtly checking on Bakugo and flirting chatting with Shinsou, but he usually ends up bothering Aizawa for a while as well.

Aizawa bears it with a patience that most students do not expect of him, but it really isn't all that surprising. (Aizawa realized that he had effectively fed a stray the minute that he and Monoma witnessed The Horrors together. it's only natural that Monoma would seek him out.)

even after the final battle, Aizawa occasionally enlists Monoma's help using Erasure. he's able to handle most smaller situations by himself, but there are a number of (typically PTSD-driven) moments where a student's quirk gets out of hand and he needs reinforcement.

[trainwreckgenerator]

hey do you guys remember razias shadow? cause i just did

[ineed-to-sleep]

*me immediately after going through a terrifying and traumatic experience* haha yeah I guess it was rough but I'm fine now like I'm totally chill. It was kinda funny actually if you think about it

[angie-starz]

And if I said toxic role reversal chronohaul?

[videogamelover99]

Listen, I can write a whole thing on why I'm starting to resent the whole "evil pedo Mori" trope and it very much is that whole "banality of evil" thing where it's just not interesting, but it's also that by doing that, you inherently take away any and all complexity present in the character in the first place.

Lemme tell you about The Last of Us episode 8, ok? Spoilers I guess.

I don't care about David.

I don't care about his character, I don't care about his philosophy, I don't care about any question the situation might have posed about canibalism or survival or community that he presents. Why? Because he is evil. Because in the series he is shown to abuse and exploit members of his own community. Because he is a child predator, and because of what he did to Ellie, I stop caring about him as a character and start seeing him as a vehicle of evil for Ellie to overcome. Which is his role, his function in the story and it's what TLOU needed at that moment.

But everything I've listed about David is what people like to give Mori in fanon and I hate it. Because Mori is meant to raise questions. He is meant to be a complex character. He's not just there to be an antagonistic force for the other characters to overcome, he's meant to be a character in his own right who sure does a lot of evil, but there is a difference between a character who does evil and an evil character.

Not every character needs complexity, but to see complexity get taken away by derivative works is like. You're not just character asassinating Mori, but pretty much every other character that is influenced by him. If Mori is Evil and was known to abuse children, why the hell did Natsume pick him to help with his plan for Yokohama? Why did Fukuzawa partner with him? Why does Yosano have mixed feelings about him in the current arc? Why would Kouyou or Chuuya or any other PM member we see as sympathetic choose to follow him? And if the answer to all of this is "they didn't know" then what is the point of doing this trope in the first place?

[infriga]

To add to the discussion about plagiarization and misinformation, one thing I know that can contribute to complacency is how much time and effort it can take to fact check everything you watch. That's daunting for most people, let alone people who don't have as much experience with it or who deal with disabilities and executive dysfunction.

But there are some things you can do to minimize damages that are easier to manage on a more individual basis.

You don't have to necessarily fact check every single thing every creator says in every video in order to make sure they're 100% legit every time. I know not everyone has the mental bandwidth to do that sort of thing constantly. Generally it's okay to just practice some mindfulness and not blindly trust someone if you haven't vetted their claims personally.

What you can do is fact check yourself. Don't repeat stuff you hear from a video as if it is a fact unless you have looked into it yourself first to confirm that what the video said about it is true and that their sources are good. And if you source someone make sure you've vetted them specifically and checked their own sources on that particular topic or bit of information (and check that they even HAVE sources to begin with and aren't just copying their sources verbatim). You can't source every video essay you ever watch or check every single one for plagiarism, but you can source yourself and what you say, and make sure you're not spreading bullshit or citing the wrong person. If you find that you don't have the energy to do even that much in a given moment, then just keep the information in question to yourself for the time being until you do have the energy to verify it.

And some stuff that's generally just good practice: if it's a topic that you're particularly interested in, it's a good idea to seek out more than one video about it from more than one creator. The more diverse your sources of info on the topic the better, especially if you seek out more than just the popular stuff. Get a broader picture of it from a wide variety of people from a wide variety of demographics. It's a lot easier to spot stuff like plagiarism if you're looking at more than just one or two channels, and even if you don't spot it, because they're often good at hiding it, you at least can make sure that you're giving more obscure creators the same attention as well instead of only defaulting to the most popular wide-spread creators and content.

Seeking out more than one type of medium is usually a good idea as well. I know reading stuff like written papers or essays or books on a topic can be difficult for some people, but if you can manage it even just occasionally then branching out every once in a while is still worth doing because it gets you out of one particular information sphere and into another, reducing the chances of an echo chamber effect. If you can't bring yourself to do that much homework on a topic, then again remember to keep in mind that your knowledge about it is limited and could be wrong, and don't spread that info without doing your own research first. Videos are not inherently a bad way to learn about stuff, papers or books can be wrong, and plagiarized, and badly sourced, and can spread misinformation too, my main point is that it's good to avoid having your information come to you through a single choke point if you can help it.

It can be exhausting trying to hold every online creator accountable on an individual basis, I get that, so I don't expect everyone to extensively peer review every channel they ever watch, but at the end of the day you can at least make sure to try and hold yourself accountable first and foremost.

[neurotypical-sonic]

idk I think these are fun

[naranjapetrificada]

The first thing I should ever have said about Izzy and the last thing I intend to say until at least October 26th.

[Although I am not Her strongest soldier, so who knows if I will stick the landing.]

So to start with, I was a "late" arrival to the show. I knew it existed of course, but I only occasionally saw things that reminded me it existed. The first time I saw a mention of "grumpy/sunshine" it was with a picture of Ed and Stede, so I guess on some level I knew there was shipping going on, but that was literally all I knew. I didn't even know it involved Blackbeard lol.

Which is all to say that I first approached and watched season 1 removed from basically anything anyone had to say about it. I think what actually got me to watch it wasn't anything anyone had to say either, it was from youtube recommendations? Like I think I had watched a couple Taika interviews or something and ofmd stuff started showing up? So after catching a few clips and intentionally spoiling the kiss for myself (life is too short to be queerbaited) I watched it in April/May 2023, and was Changed by it the way so many other people were. It grabbed me so hard I started looking for fics, and when fic grabbed me even harder I became a regular tumblr user for the first time ever in June 2023.

What I didn't do, before the second half of 2023, was care particularly much about Izzy Hands.

I remember describing him as psychologically fascinating to the first IRL friend I talked to about the show, and joking that he just needed a good dom. As much as his decision to call in the navy was a threat to Stede's and Ed's lives, I saw his actions as part of a thing needed for the story, and while I knew he was one of the season's villains there wasn't really any heat behind that assessment.

For me he was there to set things in motion, and to serve the narrative in certain ways, to be a foil, more storytelling tool than man. That doesn't mean I didn't think Con did an excellent job adding layers to him, he absolutely made Izzy take up space and feel more present and textured than he otherwise might have. But when I began to zoom out and consider things on meta level, Izzy existed to do a certain thing or occupy a certain place in relation to the narrative and other characters more than anything else. And that was fine.

Then I started reading meta here, and found myself surrounded by passionate conversations about Izzy from many directions occurring with an intensity that I couldn't wrap my brain around. I saw people tying themselves into knots to justify and excuse the behavior of a textual antagonist, and I was baffled and because I still saw Izzy for what his role in the narrative was, it literally made no sense to see his behavior explained away. In the framework I brought to the fandom when I first arrived, trying to explain away Izzy's behavior would be like looking at a forest fire and trying to explain away processes like combustion and oxidation. Or if you'll allow me to borrow another extended, nature-based metaphor from a fic in an entirely different fandom:

Again, because from where my head was at, it didn't make sense to look at Izzy's morality as a zero sum game because in this metaphor, he was functionally just a brackish body of water. I'm not saying the morality is brackish, I'm saying the morality was literally not the point because like an estuary, an antagonist "must exist" because antagonists exist for specific reasons directly related to storytelling goals.

So there was no real heat behind my feelings about him or his actions, beyond the natural emotional reactions we have to characters and their behaviors before we zoom out. I was of course upset with his treatment of Lucius, which was targeted compared to other members of the crew. I was annoyed with the way he talked to and about Ed. I laughed when his plans had the equal and opposite results of what he intended, which you could argue happened with every single plan he made for the entirety of season 1. And yes, especially as a Black person living in the US, I felt the fear and betrayal that comes from seeing someone call the cops (which given the show and its writers, it does not feel like a stretch to describe calling the navy that). I wondered if there was any coming back from a choice like that, which is a big overriding question for the series as a whole.

I'm not here to debate any of the points in the previous paragraph. I know how I feel and you feel how you feel and there's already been so much said about the morality of it all by people who have explained themselves well, so let them convince you or not. Instead I've been trying to talk about the two sides of my experience before and after getting into the fandom with Izzy.

Before: Izzy Hands, Narratively Useful Antagonist Portrayed Compellingly And Effectively by Con O'Neill.

After: Izzy Hands, Unfortunate Avatar Of The Sadly Common Tendency For Certain Fans To Hyperfocus On A White Antagonist Or Secondary Character When There Already Exists A Protagonist They're A Foil Of (And Also It Looks Bad TO Do That When The Protagonist Is Someone With A Marginalized Identity).

I'm not here to argue the merits of those assessments either, because that's not the point. The point is the vast gulf between them and how the latter does such an incredible disservice to the Izzy we were given and that so many people claim to love. The latter comes from a place where morality is the focus, which I'm sorry y'all, feels like it originates with people who refuse to countenance Izzy's role in the story as well as his characterization.

Viewers who were willing to see Izzy as an antagonist, who don't view the word "antagonist" as a value judgement in and of itself, who don't think that finding an antagonist charismatic or compelling means anything about their own morality, those people can look at the show we were given and take it for what it was made to be. I'm not saying that it's only the Izzy stans (not enjoyers, not jar people) who start fights or that people who understand that Izzy is an antagonist don't also have deep morality related feelings about him and his actions in the first season. What I am saying is that sanding off Izzy's rough edges and trying to make him into something he isn't poisons even the possibility of having a discussion about him because people enter the conversation with two completely different understandings of reality. If you cannot accept the job that season 1 Izzy was given to do to move the story along, well you might as well have watched a completely different show for how much that fanon Izzy has anything to do with the canon one.

This show deserves better than that. The writers deserve better than that. Con O'Neill deserves better than that. Israel Basilica Hands deserves better than that. We all do.

[daylighteclipsed]

I doubt the devs meant for cloud strife to be so autistic-coded, but holy hell does he come across autistic

[dancedance-resolution]

well fellas it’s happening i think i am maybe developing a crush on the girl ive been fucking recently 🫥

[didnt-hear-cold-as-you-live]

I cannot deal with shopping for bras anymore like is anyone gonna tell Aerie every single one of these these are just. TANK TOPS.

[maegalkarven]

I have the suspicion what the Cult of Murder wasn't very keen on healing/ had many healers around.

They probs had healing potions and scrolls and stuff, but do you think Durge would bother with them? Or would they, intimately familiar with the anatomy of the body, occasionally treat their own wounds with the cold precision of a surgeon?

What I have in mind is Durge casually sewing their own wounds shut with the first found rusty needle and something they deemed would suffice for a thread, Gortash seeing this horrific display and deciding enough is enough and taking the ordeal of healing this freak of an ally into his own hands.

[ivyithink]

behold the fools!

separately: some of the smartest (if not actually THE smartest) people in the room

together: share one rusty dusty braincell that they stubbornly refuse to actually use

[sysig]

Greetings, human! ♥ (Patreon)

[nico-di-genova]

Charles was absolutely not fucking around when he said Ferrari was his family.

This is more of a family dinner than any family event I’ve been to in the past year.