#make them spell out what they consider hate speech

[beardedmrbean]

X Corp., the parent company of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, filed a lawsuit in San Francisco federal court Monday against a nonprofit organization that monitors hate speech and disinformation, following through on a threat that had made headlines hours earlier.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accuses the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) of orchestrating a "scare campaign to drive away advertisers from the X platform" by publishing research reports claiming that the social media service failed to take action against hateful posts. The service is owned by the technology mogul Elon Musk.

In the filing, lawyers for X. Corp alleged that the CCDH carried out "a series of unlawful acts designed to improperly gain access to protected X Corp. data, needed by CCDH so that it could cherry-pick from the hundreds of millions of posts made each day on X and falsely claim it had statistical support showing the platform is overwhelmed with harmful content."

The complaint specifically accuses the nonprofit group of breach of contract, violating federal computer fraud law, intentional interference with contractual relations and inducing breach of contract. The company's lawyers made a demand for a jury trial.

The lawsuit was filed just hours after the CCDH revealed that Musk's lawyer, Alex Spiro, had sent the organization a letter on July 20 saying X Corp. was investigating whether the CCDH's "false and misleading claims about Twitter" were actionable under federal law.

In a statement to NBC News, CCDH founder and chief executive Imran Ahmed took direct aim at Musk, arguing that the Tesla and SpaceX tycoon's "latest legal threat is straight out of the authoritarian playbook — he is now showing he will stop at nothing to silence anyone who criticizes him for his own decisions and actions."

"The Center for Countering Digital Hate’s research shows that hate and disinformation is spreading like wildfire on the platform under Musk's ownership and this lawsuit is a direct attempt to silence those efforts," Ahmed added in part. "Musk is trying to 'shoot the messenger' who highlights the toxic content on his platform rather than deal with the toxic environment he's created.

"The CCDH's independent research won’t stop — Musk will not bully us into silence," Ahmed said in closing.

The research report that drew particular ire from X Corp. claimed that the platform had failed to take action against 99% of 100 posts flagged by CCDH staff members that included racist, homophobic and antisemitic content.

Musk has drawn fierce scrutiny since buying Twitter last year. Top hate speech watchdog groups and activists have blasted him for loosening restrictions on what can be posted on the platform, and business analysts have raised eyebrows at his seemingly erratic and impulsive decision-making.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate's research has been cited by NBC News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and many other news outlets.

Musk, who has been criticized for posting conspiratorial or inflammatory content on his own account, has said he is acting in the interest of "free speech." He has said he wants to transform Twitter into a "digital town square."

Musk has also claimed that hate speech on the platform was shrinking. In a tweet on Nov. 23, Musk wrote that “hate speech impressions��� were down by one-third and posted a graph — apparently drawn from internal data — showing a downward trend.

[cepalliumtm]

Held in Captivity

yandere!empress x princess!reader

The aftermath of a fallen kingdom being subsumed by a massive empire ruled by a woman known for her cruelty and absolute desire for obedience.

tw: yandere tendencies, slight Stockholm syndrome, no use of (y/n), obsession, age gap, captivity (reader is held hostage), slightly implied sexual content (but nothing explicit)

————————╰ ─┉─¡! • !¡─┉─ ╯————————

"You'd think that after everything you've been through, you would know better than to trust your old kingdom."

Necrisir holds on tightly to her prize, a small pathetic princess lying in her lap enjoying her gentle and soothing caresses. She's careful not to let any of her claws scratch your cheek as she rubs your head, almost as if she's trying to lull you to sleep.

You already know what this is, and you promised yourself you wouldn't fall for her temptations. But it's getting oh so much harder, especially when you're considered the damsel in distress in this situation.

She continues her speech, her voice almost slurring the words out, almost as if she's trying to calm herself down. "It’s pretty pathetic that they think they can resist my orders. I've been living many years princess, you should know this. I'm… quite hard to kill." She chuckles at your sweet hums and moans, you not wanting to let her know you're enjoying her touch. "But I guess their stubbornness will be their downfall, and once they realize that my armies outnumber them, they'll give me what I want."

As much as you want to struggle, the fact that you're essentially taken hostage and thus, a liability, you know that there isn't much point. You don't want to hear about her plans for your kingdom, the kingdom you knew did not care for you. The royalty there were no more different from her, using others for their own gain. At least she's blunt about her plans of assimilation.

And at least she's giving you the illusion of a paradise within the walls of the palace.

You still want to plead for their freedom, hoping that whatever she does with them, your people would still be able to live their lives, to work freely, among other things. But all you can do is listen to the almost horrendous plans she has for them. After all, she's not known for showing mercy to her enemies. Especially those that has offended her so far.

However, the empress does notice a slight movement coming from you. You became uncomfortable in your position, and wanting to turn around. Your head almost feels numb.

"Ah, princess," she coos, giving you the kindest of gazes. You can hear the sweetness laced in her tone, her breath almost tickling your ears as she speaks. "Don't move. I rather enjoy you like this, all docile for me."

You still slightly squirm, wanting to sit up. It's hateful how pathetic you've become, nothing but a prize that she has taken for herself.

"My dear, is it really that bad?" She gently lifts your head up so now it's resting against her broad shoulders. "Perhaps it was wrong to cast that spell on you. Well since you've been an obedient little girl I suppose you may be rewarded with the ability to speak." She presses a finger to your lips, the block in your throat almost dissipating to nothing. It's like you can properly breathe now.

"Oh, Sun of the land," you say clearly, your voice raspy and unpolished. Makes sense, you've been forbidden from speaking for at least a week. "I do have one question I'd like to ask."

She nearly revels at the sight of your huddled up form next to her, bravely speaking out the words even though she can tell that you're nervous. "Well, do tell me my flower."

"I was wondering what would happen to my kingdom once you… take care of things."

"Our kingdom my dear, our kingdom." She smiles and kisses your head. "And I'm pretty sure I know what to do with it. Once they give it up I will make it prosper, better than what it is before. All the suffering, all the pain will be taken away. Can't you see that I'm doing a good thing for your people? Of course, they will have to assimilate into the empire. That is an unfortunate thing."

You shrug your shoulders, at least she's being reasonable. It probably means though because they are essentially her prisoners, assimilating quietly would mean deeming them as lesser than citizens. And as much as you hate it for your people, the alternative was her destroying everything you hold dear.

"My flower, we will begin preparations immediately as soon as we're able. Of course, due to the assimilation process taking so long most of their affairs will be taken over by my troops, but as long as they take the proper measures to fully accept and become loyal to my empire they will slowly earn everything back tenfold. I am a fair and just ruler, isn't that right?"

"But," the lingering question remains on your tongue. "What will become of my family?"

She huffs, but answers it bluntly. "Your family has committed treason, my flower. They shall be put to death the day they do what is best for the kingdom. You must understand…" She faces towards you, her gentle but firm caress pulling you upwards so you can meet her eyes. "This is simply the punishment for not settling the conflict peacefully."

The thought of it terrifies you. Knowing that you only have a limited time before you can see any of your family again would tear you apart. And despite her seeming infatuation with you it can easily turn into the same punishment they will go through.

"You needn't worry about yourself however," she notes, knowing the horrid thoughts going through your head. "I would never, ever do that to my flower. You are simply precious, perfect for me. As long as you don't betray me I would never hurt a hair on your little pretty head." She kisses your head again, wrapping her arms around you and holding you close. "Don't forget that they gave you to me. The moment you stepped foot in this palace is the day you became mine. I know you don't see it darling, but I will do almost anything to make sure you realize that. You are free under my influence, safe within my arms, and belonging to my kingdom. Do you understand that?"

You gulp, knowing the undertone beneath those words: ever try to escape me darling and I will hunt you down and bring you back to me.

"O-of course, sun of the land."

She giggles at your sweet title. "My dear, I'd prefer if you call me by name."

You don't say another word, a mental block (this time from within) preventing you from speaking once more.

She sighs, closing her eyes as she gives you a quick squeeze. "It's okay, we'll slowly get there." You settle into her arms, eyelids growing heavier as she continues to soothe you with her touch. Her words continue to unsettle you, whispering promises of love and loyalty. "I know one day you'll willingly stay by my side, become completely mine, come to love me as much I do you."

And the worst part of it is, you're slowly starting to believe them.

a/n: tbh, this is more of a test. I never thought that I would post this out in the open, but here I am, posting it anyway.

[kaledya]

Constantine's character introduction:

Description: Constantine is the first child of Lilith and Lucifer, 6 years older than Charlie and the crown prince of Hell

-Constantine is rational as a person, he doesn't approach anything with emotions, he sees everything as a plus or minus or as moves on a chessboard.

-Constantine would probably tell you the perfect way out of your problems if you went crying to him for advice, but he wouldn't try to console you emotionally.

-Constantine has the philosophy that everything is fair game for victory, if victory is the result it doesn't matter how much of a monster he is on the road, for example if it means protecting Charlie he will gladly do things to make Charlie hate him and not regret it, after all his sister will be safe even if she hates him.

-He's calm and patient and proud and egoistic, and his pride and ego comes from the intelligence and power that he has in general. 

-Constantine is one of hell's foremost intellectually and is seen as having great potential even by his family. Even as a child he was able to grasp very difficult spells with ease and never had a problem memorizing spells due to his photographic memory.

-But this intelligence has a side effect Constantine can't feel emotions very well, he can't comprehend them very well, he can't empathize with someone, sometimes he even thought that Charlie inherited the angelic and humanoid parts of his parents (it could be said that Charlie has enough empathy for both of them). 

-And since he knew what hell was like, he knew that if he was powerless he would not be able to protect his sister or himself in the future, so for a period after his 20s he devoted himself only to his education and self-development. 

-As Constantine became more interested in politics, he taught himself how to be a snake with snakes, which again began to corrupt his own personality.

-It is really hard to get him angry, even when he is angry he keeps his poker face and never shows his emotions.

-He doesn't tolerate disrespect in any form and doesn't hesitate to punish anyone (except his family members and the people at the hotel (he knows that if he hurts Charlie's friends, it won't end well).

-As genius and calm as Constantine is, there's a mad genius underneath, sometimes spending weeks in his workshop and library researching and Charlie has to drag him out of there, or he can be brilliant at the hardest things and terrible at the simplest.

-Constantine is a really great wizard, often inventing his own spells and combining what he has (he may have blown up parts of the palace a couple of times, but on the bright side he created a repair spell).

----

Constantine is heterosexual, but he has never been in love, nor has he ever had a lover (he has the same capacity to understand love as a tree. He doesn't have) Lust has never been something that attracts him. For Constantine, it doesn't matter how attractive someone is, if that person can surprise him with her intelligence and see her as his equal, he will consider having a relationship with her, but lust is just salt on the dish.

in fact when Asmodeus asked him if he ever planned to make a lover he said "Lust is not something that interests me, my dear uncle, if one day I meet a woman who can surprise me with her intelligence and who I can consider my equal, I may love her. end of story''

-----

After the disappearance of lilith, Lucifer didn't want to be so involved in royal affairs anymore, he needed a break, so Constantine started to take care of most of the royal affairs and this increased his authority a lot over the years and now all the nobles look at the prince as a king instead of a prince.

Speaking style: 

Constantine's voice is cold, he speaks like an British aristocrat from the 1800s, he chooses his words very well, he is a sweet-tongued snake, and he likes to analyze the other party and reveal their weaknesses in his speech.

Fun facts:

Since his eating habits have been transferred to his own palace, he usually eats cereal, fried chicken and dessert-like things, except for royal gatherings (I mean, he's half Angel, so he knows his health won't be affected by his diet, so he doesn't care)

Constantine has owl features, walks very quietly and can easily turn his head in the opposite direction. He has feathers on some parts of his body. His hands are like bird claws and he has great vision.

Since he and Charlie are half Angel, 4 hours of sleep is equivalent to 8 hours of sleep for them, but despite this, Constantine sometimes stays awake for days and tries to fulfill his need for sleep by sleeping for 2 days in a row (this does not exist at the moment, Charlie disturbed him and helped him to establish his sleep pattern)

Relationships:

Lucifer: Constantine had a close relationship with his father as a child, he saw him as a role model and loved spending time with him, constantly following him around the palace like a duckling. And he did his best to make his father proud, asking him to teach him new spells and enjoying their time together. But as the years went by, they started to have differences of opinion and so on. Now, especially after what happened between Lucifer and Charlie, they had a fight and never spoke again. Lucifer is upset about this, but Constantine doesn't feel much because he thinks it's the right thing to do, even though he loves his father to the core.

Later in the series, when Lucifer overcomes his pride and apologizes to Charlie, Constantine forgives him and the ice between them slowly begins to melt.

Lilith: Constantine was always closer to his mother and developed many of his personality traits after her example, and Lilith was very interested in her son's upbringing, taking care to raise him in a strict manner, teaching him everything she knew and showing him what kind of king he should be in the future.

Charlie: Constantine loves his little sister so much that he would burn every ring of hell seven times for her. And although he doesn't have much empathy etc., when Charlie is sad he is always there to support her as much as he can, he always treats his sister with respect.

When they were little the two of them were mischievous enough to do things to destroy the palace, so Constantine's most fun memories are the times she spends with her sister and as much as they love each other, like all siblings they sometimes fight or bicker, when they were little it was normal sibling bickering, when they grew up it was usually about Constantine's inability to take care of himself properly, but now, even though they don't see each other much, they often call each other and they have a really healthy relationship and even though their opinions may be divided at times, they both respect and value each other.

Serenity: Constantine describes Serenity as an interesting case. As an overlord, Serenity was the only one Constantine noticed because she was someone who tried to gain power through sweet talk and knowledge, not brutality, a woman who built her empire through mind games, and she did something surprising for a sinner: she spread her power not only to the guru ring but also to other rings, which is why Constantine found her intriguing.

When they first met at the hotel, they naturally got along well, but as time went on and they were both in the same areas because of Charlie, Constantine got to know Serenity better and realized that he liked spending time with this sinner, even though even he was surprised by it. Serenity was smart and cunning, Constantine rarely found someone who could keep up with him in conversation, and he and Serenity shared many hobbies, so over time their enmity turned into friendship and even months after they met Constantine invited Serenity to his palace. He really liked listening to Serenity's comments on his books or projects and they both really enjoyed those days but of course there is no real trust between them, one is a prince of hell and the other is an overlord but they still like each other's presence. 

Hotel residents: Constantine is neutral towards them.

Alastor: Constantine and Alastor have a relationship of respect, as long as Alastor respects Constantine, Constantine is neutral around him, he doesn't get into dogfights with Alastor like Lucifer did. And Alastor knows Constantine's authority, so he doesn't do anything out of line, but Constantine doesn't like Alastor, he knows he's not in the hotel for fun, and he finds it annoying that he's trying to get close to Charlie, but he doesn't see him as a threat, he just sees him as a fly that makes a noise, and he's waiting for him to do something out of line. But of course they have a lot in common in terms of personality and hobbies, if you don't include their positions etc, they could get along well in that way.

The relationship with sins:

Bee: Constantine loves his Aunt Bee very much, even when he was little he remembers like it was yesterday when he used to stay with Charlie and his Aunt Bee always did her best to keep them both happy and she was always kind to them and when they are with her he likes to forget all the royal stuff and have fun. Now Bee is one of the few people who can run up and hug Constantine at royal meetings.

Satan: Constantine grew up closest to Satan, who saw the potential for destruction in Constantine from the time he was young and wanted to guide him, and succeeded. Constantine's perception of power often comes from Satan.

Belphegor: Constantine likes to spend time with her. Belphegor is a women who studies medicine and science, so Constantine really likes to discuss these things with her.

Mammon: he doesn't like him, he thinks he's a clown.

Asmodeus: Constantine is not very close to Asmodeus, but he likes his uncle.

[tobyislame]

some ticci toby headcanons

consider this a headcanon salad cus these were all randomly thrown together as they came to me

- fragile masculinity up to the NINES with this one

- totally an ice eater what a sicko

- he's double jointed in so many places. also freakishly flexible. likes to freak people out by popping his joints in and out of place lmao

- has the crackiest bones ever. you think you hear sticks breaking in the woods its just toby's crack ass ankles

- weed partaker but stays the freak away from the bottle cus yk he doesn't want to find out if that "like father like son" stuff is true

- plays guitar and makes up shitty 1 minute sad guy with a guitar songs. fingerstyle typa guy

- plays ONLY FOR HIMSELF and gets embarrassed but tries to act like he's not if someone walks in on him. like he'll just hastily stop n scramble to put away his guitar n act all cool like he totally wasn't playing guitar just now and go "whaddyouwant"

- definitely sneaks into concerts and shows. it's easy for him to blend in there. gets suuuper fucking beat up in the pit cus yk he doesn't realize how battered up he's getting in the moment until he gets a glimpse of himself and is like oh hell my lip's busted and my nose is in a different place than it was before

- think he'd have an owen wilson nose on account of how much he's broken it

- also one of his canines is missing

- just a SUUUPER accident prone guy. has no sense of self preservation. like ZERO (cus he was never really taught how to manage his cipa) (well he was yk before The Incident but he doesn't remember much of it)

- has sun spots cus he's outside all day all the time. also tonsss of freckles and moles

- burns his playlists onto cds

- he'd like every music genre but in particular i think he'd listen to late 90s/early 2000s teenage boy music. also 80s music. specifically new wave stuff

- knows a lil bit of asl for his verbal shutdowns

- also i hc him as audhd

- along with his stutter (which i don't consider to be related to his tourettes) he also just has a speech impediment. like sometimes his r's or l's come out as w's and he has trouble pronouncing certain sounds or words and just says them wrong and people correct him consistently he just doesn't really listen or care to correct himself

- not too good at spelling or any of that grammar stuff

- i really want to stress that he's NOT stupid. he hate hate hates how people patronize him and make him out to be some sort of incapable dunce. it makes him feel small and he hates feeling small. he's smart, he's just not good at communicating it. no matter what he tries his words just come out wrong. "i'm lots smarter in my head" is what he'd probably say

- always has a fidget spinner/cube on him

- he kinda just vomits when he gets overwhelmed. like when he has to ride in a car he leans his head out the window like a dog the whole way, partly just cus he likes it and it's fun to play airplane with his hand in the wind but also cus he could spew his guts at any moment

- collects spider-man comics and cool rocks. also unironically looks up to spider-man cus he always gets back up despite all the shit he gets put through. he feels like he could learn from that. he thinks it makes him seem like a kid though which is something he really wants to prove that he's not so he keeps it to himself

- super gross oh my god he's so gross. like doesn't wash his body in the shower cus "the water will get it" picks his nose and eats it kind of gross. will also get all obnoxious and in your face about it if you rightfully tell him he's a sick fuck for that

- honestly that'd be his response every time someone criticizes him

- like you could be like "you fuckin reek" n he'd be like "oh yea?" and grapple you into a headlock with his armpit shoved in your face

- his speech pattern is a little funky. like his sentences just come out like they were sorta haphazardly put together. he doesn't make much sense a lot of the time

- i wanna say he's endearingly dorky but he's just fucking weird. like he probably flirts in a napoleon dynamite-esque fashion. he has a vague idea of what flirting is he just doesn't quite got it but hey he's got the spirit

- he really just has a vague idea of what conversation is in general. he just doesn't have that good of a grasp on how people talk to each other. he feels a major glaring disconnect between himself and every other human in the world and it just makes him feel even smaller

- a lost fucking puppy when it comes to talking to women. just completely and utterly helpless. he stutters a lot more he trips over his words a lot more which just makes him red it's brutal to watch

- my voiceclaim for him is whoever voices bumblebee before he loses his voice box in the michael bay transformers movies (just looked it up it's stiles fucking stilinski)

- his voice cracks all the time ESPECIALLY when he raises his voice. he gets red and embarrassed every time it does and he really badly tries to hide it which just makes it even funnier to everyone else poor guy

- wants so badly to be perceived as a big intimidating muscle man but he just isn't no matter how hard he tries

[readingrebloggingreliving]

Stuck

Summery: Finn has been stuck in this coffin for a thousand years. And nothing can ever be easy. Never.

Word Count: 792

A/N: First attempt at this so honestly I may rewrite this later but it's been stuck in my head because of a conversation with @crimsonlyinglilly so...have my first attempt.

Finn doesn't know when it started. When the darkness, the calm nothing became him stuck. Him hearing everything but unable to join, not able to touch, talk or see. Stuck with being able to hear and smell. Stuck in this torture seeing Why

The first thing he does remember being so clear is another brother's voice. Elijah. Talking of their travelling. Of some group he'd began with his sired. How Klaus made him abandon them. As that had trailed off he. Felt a hand move fixing clothes against dead yet so sensitive skin. "I wish I could wake you brother. I do so hate to see you like this. But... I can't. Niklaus would take it as a personal slight. And perhaps it's better for you as well. You never truly did like what we are. I hope the darkness is kinder to you." His voice was honest. Genuine.

But it made him scream mentally. It was the most obvious sign that he was still here because of his brother. Klaus. Klaus put him here. In the darkness. Stuck in his mind. He wanted to call out in denial as Elijahs footsteps lead away from him. Desperate for Some level of connection to the outside world. To life.

He always heard as his siblings approached or left. Following them around the house, the only thing he still had left. Klaus was the one who talked to him most. He never had an apology for his predicament like Elijah did more often than not. Nor was he really addressed. Klaus simply seemed to use him as a sound board. Ranting about their siblings about enemies and plans gone wrong.

Rebekah's voice was calm and almost a balm in comparison. She'd tell him of things he was missing as much as complaining of the newest love that Klaus had killed or compelled away. So at least he felt like he was connecting Somehow.

"You know. I have a plan." Kol had started. It was almost a surprise. Kol never spoke to him. "There's this magic. It can turn silver to gold. So we can change one of the daggers to gold and let Nik have a taste of his own medicine!" His voice was bouncy, excited. Like it used to be when he was young. When mother was teaching them of new magic or spells. He'd missed that, even just from afar. "I just need to find a big enough stone." He said and Finn could hear him pacing and then sigh. "When it works brother. I'll drag that dagger from your chest. And we'll go our separate ways. As we should have all those years ago. Always and forever be damned."

There was a spark of hope, light hitting his chest at the words.

Those were quickly burnt out hearing Elijah talking. But it wasn't to him.

"Kol. You can't imagine Rebekah would stand against Niklaus. And not could I be seen to. Why not keep it to yourself. You know better." He'd said softly. Finn would laugh if he could. 'be seen to' as if Elijah would ever fight Klaus. "I'm sure your plan was sound. Except if he ever woke. He'd have attempted to kill us all if we helped." A flicker of doubt hit Finn. Perhaps Elijah would help them. "Until you wake again." Elijah said lightly and the lid of a coffin closed.

Kol had been woken again and this time Elijahs speech was different. " I see a change in him. For the first time in centuries, he acted solely for the benefit of another. I believe that young Marcellus, with whom he can identify and even nurture, holds the key to our brother's troubled soul. Unfortunately, Kol, your wretched behavior will only serve to distract him from this auspicious path. Now, you might well consider me a hypocrite to betray you as I have. For his sake, you must sleep. Even I must make certain sacrifices, if, indeed, we are to preserve the precious bond between Niklaus and that child."

Finn was struck by that dull disappointment once more. Elijah was his hope. And as it stands? He was never getting out of this darkness.

Until he did.

The fight between Elijah and Klaus. The admitting to their mothers murder. The rage he felt burnt through his system and the Relief as that dagger was dragged from his chest to see his brother above him, explaining, in hushed whispers, the plan.

The idea of their family being a family but removing Klaus. Leaving him behind. The four of them together at some level of peace sounded wonderful. Hopefully with Elijah on their side finally. They'd be fine.

Perhaps he could find Sage. If she was still alive, see if she'd allow him another chance.

[yamayuandadu]

Hey I am kinda curious are there any sorcerers in Mesopotamian mythology

Great question, genuinely a joy to research.  Depends how you define this term, I suppose. If you want to go with the dictionary definition of sorcerer as someone who possessed magical powers and uses them to harm others, the answer is pretty much yeah. More under the cut.

There’s some debate in Assyriology when to call things “sorcery” and when “witchcraft” - Tzvi Abusch (who is great when it comes to covering Mesopotamian magic but… less great on other matters) argues the difference is essentially that sorcery can be employed by anyone, and witchcraft is a label applicable to actions of a specific category of malevolent individuals (this is a distinction made in other fields too). However, Daniel Schwemer treats these terms as interchangeable because, as he points out, there is no indication such a distinction was present in Mesopotamian culture, and on top of that neither Sumerian nor Akkadian have distinct terms for these two phenomena. I personally lean towards his approach, but I admit I’m biased because I generally like his work while Abusch wrote one of my least favorite Assyriological hot takes, the dreadful DDD Inanna entry.

A good summary of the Mesopotamian image of witchcraft (kišpū), witches and warlocks (or, if you prefer these labels, sorceresses and sorcerers) can be found here and here. Witches were known as kaššāptu; the masculine equivalent, kaššāpu, is less common and never really appears alone. A second term used to refer to male witches was bēl dabābi, literally “opponent in court” but more generically also “adversary”; in this case, the feminine equivalent, bēlet dabābi, is less common, even though ultimately bēl dabābi played second fiddle to kaššāptu. 

Sometimes specific applications of witchcraft could be referred to with distinct terms. These include zikurudû, “cutting of the throat” (sending ill omens); kadabbedû, “seizing of the mouth” (causing speech disorders, but also more generally making someone incapable of verbal defense); dibalû, “distortion of justice” (pretty similar, but with obvious judicial connotations); and zīru, “hate” (exactly what it says on the tin; the goal was to isolate the target socially).Witchcraft was ultimately a pretty abstract matter, and most references to witches come from anti-witchcraft rituals. While ex. laws of Hammurabi do contain passages dealing with it - and with false accusations of engaging with it - we have no real evidence this was a matter commonly handled by courts, and there is little evidence for mass hysteria leading to actual witch hunts. The Mesopotamian image of a witch was at times essentially closer to an intangible supernatural creature than a real person (as a matter of fact, there are two Old Babylonian texts referring to a witch as a “wind demon”, lil, and as a “daughter of Ereshkigal” which might be a poetic indication of coming from the underworld). However, instructions on performing witchcraft do sometimes pop up in the textual record - there is a surviving step by step kadabbedû guide, for example.

Distinction has to be drawn between witchcraft and “white magic” (āšipūtu), which was firmly considered exorcistic or purificatory in character, and was performed by specialists called āšipu or mašmašu, typically “incantation priests” or “exorcist”. There were also less well documented related professions, like eššebû (“owlman” according to Daniel Schwemer) or mušlaḫḫu (snake charmer). Additionally, there was a large “gray zone” sometimes referred to as “aggressive magic”: love spells (rāmu; technically the opposite of zīru), rituals meant to bring success in court or in business, and so on. These are difficult to firmly classify as a part of either category, and it is quite likely that even āšipu performed them if requested to do so. 

Despite there being an enormous text corpus of “anti-witchcraft” rituals, I actually can’t think of many literary characters who could be described as witches, let alone sorcerers, though.  

One exception I can think of is the myth Enmerkar and Ensukukešdana, in which the latter of the two eponymous characters depends on the services of a certain Urĝirinunna (or perhaps Uralimnunna; see here), a nefarious sorcerer “whose skill was that of a man of Ḫamazu”. He can make livestock speak, and ends up making cows and goats debate him to convince them to stop giving milk. The milk was supposed to be turned into butter and other offerings for Nisaba, though, so soon he meets his match, a woman named Saĝburu. Her professional credentials are not described in detail but she easily overcomes him in a number of magical challenges and then kills him, stressing that she did this with divine sanction from Nisaba (these were her offerings, after all) but also other deities. After his defeat, Enmerkar is acknowledged as the winner by Ensukukešdana. I suppose this is also as good of an opportunity as any to also once again mention Kanisurra, the fakest sounding genuine Mesopotamian deity. She was the bēlet kaššāpāti, “lady of the witches” (on top of her better attested association with sex and a suggested connection with the underworld reflecting the origin of her name, which is likely a mangled form of ganzer, a rare poetic term for the entrance of the underworld). What exactly did that entail? I honestly have no clue, and I have seen basically no attempts to explain this role in scholarship. Perhaps she was responsible for keeping them under control much like how Ninkilim controlled field pests or Pazuzu wind demons.

[nomoreusername]

Not So Invisible (Highschool AU)

Pairing:Aris x female reader

Summary:After thinking his constant hate for Valentine's Day would never show up you do one small thing that changes his entire perspective.

Candy hearts, love letters, red flowers, Valentine's Day, I hate it. Honestly, I can't stand it. If I could get rid of any day I would pick that one. Unfortunately, I can't. So I just get to sit back and pretend to be absolutely shocked when there's nothing in my box that I stopped decorating years ago. I’ll draw some lousy red hearts on it for a grade and call it a day.

Well there is one thing I like about it. During homeroom, while everyone is passing stuff out I can put my head down, turn my own music up, and sleep.

Like right now. I pretended to care about the teacher's five minute speech. The second her mouth stopped moving though, I slipped my earbuds on. Shuffling through my Spotify, I found one with not a single lyric about love (which definitely wasn't made specifically for this day) and put my hood up. In the very back corner of the class, I placed my head on the desk and closed my eyes so that this could pass by as quickly as possible.

♡ - - - ♡

I cannot even begin to describe how hard I tried to sleep this period away. Unfortunately, while the back corner allows me to just remain invisible-by my own free will for once-it came with the glorious sunlight shining right in my face. It also happened to be what most would consider a wonderful day. Bright blue skies and warm weather.

I hate that weather too. I love the rain though. After all, I don't just hate everything, though I can give you a list.

Group projects, bus rides, people with no sense of personal space, the label of “quiet kid”, ads between songs, headphones randomly screwing up, those popular kids that act like the best friend of people who are just minding their own business to entertain their friends, random words that came out of nowhere like rizz, people that text without even attempting to use grammar or proper spelling, sleeping in unfamiliar places, the times I get sent to the school counselor because they think that something’s wrong with me, that therapist I wouldn't speak to who thought she could “fix me”, those stupid parent teacher conferences where they act like I’m not there by giving one glance at my grades then go after their list of concerns for my social life, and so on.

I don't just hate things though.

I love Sonya, Rachel, Harriet, some of my family, the smell of new books and feeling of old ones, hoodies that I know like the back of my hand, the occasional time my cats will cuddle with me, stormy weather with lightning and heavy rain, mist and fog, the nighttime when everyone is asleep and I get to be in total silence, driving when the roads are almost empty, doodling on pieces of paper, the sound pencils make when they scratch journals, the teachers who don't force me to speak, bittersweet music that with soft melodies that you don't know whether to cry or smile at, and the way fire cackles and dances in the dark.

The sunlight was not in the list of things to enjoy, because it stopped me from doing one of the other things I love. Sleeping. So I reluctantly pulled The Dead Poets Society out and got back to reading.

Because life hates me back though, the second I opened it someone walked up. Giving them a glance, I was expecting it to be someone just trying to mess with me.

I definitely wasn't expecting her. Not Y/N in her everyday clothes with a small smile and her own earbuds in.

Without a word she dropped a small white envelope in my box before hurrying back to her seat near the wall. This interaction, if you could call it that, was extra odd since she was notorious for not handing stuff out no matter how many she got. In fact, she had been at her spot the entire time and didn't seem like she was getting back up any time soon.

Staring at her, I waited for her to meet my gaze or explain. Instead, she was reading something of her own like she hadn't just done that.

Still heavy with skepticism, I turned it over in my hands to see my name in blue ink. It was held shut by a small star sticker. I love those too. The stars.

Being careful not to rip it, I opened it and saw a piece of paper and red gumdrop. Setting it down, I unfolded it and started reading.

Dear Aris,

I’m not good with words, or people, but I still wanted to at least try. Even if it's not that good. You probably don't remember, but we used to sit next to each other a few classes ago. I really wanted to say something, but I didn't know what. Still, it's Valentine's Day so I may as well try today, right?

I think that you're really cool. You're really kind and genuine. You do things because you want to and not to get something back. That's probably why you helped me with a lot of the world three years ago in science class, though I don't think you remember that either.

Because it probably didn't mean much to you, though it meant the world to me. That someone would actually help out the new girl. You were the first person to do that and actually talk to me. I would have told you a lot earlier if I knew how, but now that we have this class I’ll do what I said I would years ago.

So if you're not doing anything later would you like to hangout? Just you and I?

Love From,

Y/N

Taking another read through the letter, I evaluated each word. Each space between them and the way the slight curves and dots in the i’s. Just to be sure there wasn't something that I was missing.

There wasn't.

She noticed me. Y/N actually notices me.

Glancing at her again, I saw that she was just turning the page, seeming content in her world. Then, she slightly turned and looked back. I gave her a small smile, and just as she returned it I heard the rain start outside. She just slightly waved to me before turning back around.

So while everyone was complaining about the water falling on the windows I felt my smile grow as I buried my head in my hoodie so nobody would see.

Because even if nobody else was looking, she was, and I was actually okay with that.

I think I was okay with not being invisible around her.

[cipher-zoo]

I don't know how everyone else writes their fanfictions (or stories in general) but here is a little insight of how I do it.

Often my scenes start with having ideas for conversations [Which is weird, because I struggle with writing conversations - I have a hard time to make them sound like people would actually say them, so I almost always sound them out, which has my running around my kitchen talking to myself at weird hours of the night.... anyway]

So I have ideas for conversations - often times while at work, because my creativity hates me - and I jot those down in my notes app.

Just verbatim speech after verbatim speech, often without even indicating who says what. Sometimes, when I want something to be said a certain way, I put a little indicator behind it, to remind myself what I wanted it to sound like.

And then, once I have the time to actually write my story, I transfer all these Speeches into a Word Document. And then I start writing the scenes in between the Speeches and once I reach one of the speeches I rewrite them to fit the scene or paceing or just general moment they are happening in.

And, I tell you, I get so excited, when I am about to reach one of my "Speeches" because that is usually what I am 'working for'

Let me demonstrate it with this example (spoilers for 'An Emperor's Fear' Chapter 3)

Now, the scene where Shanks discovers that Crocodile has been hurting Buggy started out like this:

Now mind you, my phone is in German so this, one of the first things I wrote about the story, was written on the 7th of May at 7:24 am - before I even published the first chapter. (Also, fyi, I do not care about grammar or spelling in my notes app!)

And that turned into this:

[...] For a second, both men just stood there, staring at each other, neither willing to break the tension. Then, his voice low, dangerous, Shanks asked the question. “Did they do this?” A pause, a breath. “It doesn’t matter.” From his position, Benn had a hard time seeing Shanks’ face, but he could imagine the sadness that was probably portrayed in his eyes. The anger, the pain. “It matters to me,” he finally said. “Did they do this.” There was no need for him to elaborate on whom ‘they’ were. One of them was sitting on the canapé, not far from Buggy after all. The Clown swallowed while staring into Shanks’ eyes. All grandeur had seemingly vanished from his body. He nodded softly. “Mostly Crocodile,” he finally admitted. Shanks’ hold on Buggy tightened a little bit, and Benn could tell that he had a hard time keeping himself from pulling Buggy against his chest. Behind them, Benn could see Hawkeye crack one of his eyes open. Whatever was about to happen, he was ready to fight. Shanks, however, still only had eyes for his friend. “Okay,” he said. “Then I’ll kill them.” And just like that, the spell was broken. “No, you won’t!” Buggy used both of his hands to shove Shanks away from himself, while at the same time taking a step back himself, to further the distance between them. “Buggy, they are hurting you.” Shanks insisted, a hinge of desperation present in his voice. “I don’t care.” “I do!” [...]

Now, whether or not you consider that well written or a good scene is up to everyone's own interpretation or taste, but what I am trying to say is:

If you are someone like me, who struggles with finishing stories, or moving them along, give "writing the little things, the ones that come to your mind immediately, first and filling in the space between afterward", a chance. It works for me.

Doesn't mean it will work for you as well, but maybe it's worth a try.

[stormlit]

SYBELLE DARLINGTON. 20. human/vampire. present day. concert pianist from new york.

character background/info behind the cut for mentions of abuse & parental death.

piano prodigy whose career was managed by her older brother, fox (aka closely controlled in order to make her reliant on him, though she didn't realise this). she'd been rushing back from vacation with her whole family in order to get to a concert she was performing at carnegie hall, with a record company set to record it for her second album, when they got into a major car accident that killed both her parents.

sybelle shut down almost entirely. she didn't play the concert, she didn't leave the apartment, she didn't take care of herself. fox's abuse escalated from control to verbal, to minor physical and then extreme physical abuse. and sybelle dealt with it by playing the appassionata over and over again.

she was taken care of by her adoptive brother benji, a savvy 12 year old who became her protector and her voice, and she in turn protected him from fox. benji is her family. she would do anything for him.

fox is killed by armand who comes to nyc post-dubai*, drawn in by sybelle's playing and witnessing the abuse. both sybelle and benji think him some kind of angel. and when armand is near-death after being burned in the sun, they rescue him and bring him back to their apartment, they take care of him, bringing him a victim to feed on. sybelle in particular is fascinated by watching him hunt.

they become a family, almost just like that; armand considers them his kids, and sybelle thinks of him as a father. he sets up trusts for them, buys them clothes and anything they might want, takes them to symphonies and ballets. she loves him, is never scared of what he is, and they have a very special bond. armand almost lives in hiding with them, away from the turmoil of the vampire world/the wreckage of what he left in dubai.

sybelle and benji are both turned by marius, armand's maker, entirely without any of their consents; marius had been looking after them, briefly, and did it with the intention of keeping armand around, not caring even that benji is a child. armand is furious with marius for it.

honestly, very little changes? they hunt now, which sybelle takes to quickly and deftly, but they're still just a little family unit. she doesn't mind being a vampire, though she hates telepathic speech and people being in her head. she does, eventually play concerts again, though carnegie hall is far from her first choice, and she does put out more recordings and perform on livestreams, but success and fame isn't something sybelle has ever sought. most of the time she doesn't even care if anyone's listening to her play. she's fine if they do, but it's entirely unselfish; she just wants them to enjoy the beautiful music, which she didn't write.

if you're into classical music or attend concerts in new york, you may know her name, though.

sybelle is both autistic and suffers from long term brain injury. these don't just disappear once she's a vampire, though the severity of some of her dizzy and headache spells definitely lessen; there is no magic vampire cure. she's also traumatised, and has never properly worked through her grief over her parents or what her brother did to her. she doesn't care what people think of her, and she doesn't talk much; she will go an entire day without saying anything, or only to benji or armand, and she often feels like she's in a dream-like state.

she doesn't care about vampire politics in the slightest, but she's an observer, watching how things work with wide eyes. her first reaction is rarely fear, but morbid curiosity, and she has no real sense of danger. but she's more aware of what goes on in the world than it might seem, cares more than she should about atrocities while not being bothered by the nature of vampires eating people, and knows her own mind, even if it might seem she does not.

*obviously open to working with how armand writers want to play it, i'm very happy to write her in the 90s, but by default she's modernised to work with the show

[thestobingirlie]

I genuinely don't understand why is stancy universally seen as a regression of character development? Or Steve still having feelings for her? I can understand people not liking the ship, I just don't understand where is the whole regression thing coming from? I thought the whole point of stancy was that they have both had development, so in case they got back together their relationship would be different than it was. That's literally spelled out in the show with that speech Steve had in UD? So why is everyone acting like they would suddenly both become their season 1 selves if they started dating again?

people just consider it regression because they don’t like it lol.

i don’t see it as regression, mainly because i don’t think we ever actually saw steve or nancy move on. like, they’ve changed as people, yeah. but their relationship never really had closure or ended, so i think it makes sense they’d have lingering feelings. whether you ship them or not, i don’t think it should be impossible to admit that.

(i think it’s weird how vitriolic people are towards steve for still having feelings towards nancy. like people hate him for it, and i just can’t understand why)

anyway, yeah, i don’t even think their relationship was that bad in s1.

though i will say that i don’t think nancy has developed much since s1/stancy, so the relationships could be unhealthy. however, i do also think that stancy getting back together would force nancy to go through development and grow as a person. because stancy could never get back together without them acknowledging what tore them apart. steve’s done that, but nancy hasn’t yet.

[nt3000s]

HI HELLO dw abt answering all of these if it’s too long :3

for Jennifer:

9, 15, 21, 49

for Delainey (? Sry forgot how 2 spell their name </3):

6, 11, 41

and finally for you:

D

HEH😏

for jennifer: Do they swear? Do they remember their first swear word?: honestly i think hes been swearing since he was like 8 or 10. nobody gave a shit about fuck How do they speak? Is what they say usually thought of on the spot, or do they rehearse it in their mind first?: he's very well spoken and very well read in a way thats so annoying he gets punched in the teeth eberyday and his nose is broken forever but he slurs his speech sometimes and it makes him mad because hes supposed to have the eloquence of a unicorn that wants to kill you with its big horn Why do they get up in the morning?: go to work. go to hospital and kill people How easy is it for them to ignore flaws in other people?/How sensitive are they to their own flaws?: he doesnt ignore flaws he points them out because he loves to laugh at people. becayse he hates them. if anyone points out his own flaws he'll skin them with his fingernails

delainey 😁 Do they consider laws flexible, or immovable?: everything is flexible. they do not follow the laws of anything they exist outside of life and they do eeeverythig they want all the time How do they cope with confusion (seek clarification, pretend they understand, etc)?: i think theyre literally confused all the time because they are not of this earth someone could be like do you wanna go get ice cream and they'd be like What Is Go 🙂 What Is Get 🙂 What Is I Scream 🙂(completely sincere) How do they feel about children?: they dont pay much attention to anyone or anything but if they were asked theyd say children are like smaller humans that are more funny and more attuned to the light that exists on our beautiful planet so theyre preddy awesome

D) Have they always had the same physical appearance, or have you had to edit how they look? for the 2 of them, realistically delainey hasnt changed i think whatsoever, their design has been just about the same since they were made to right now however the way that i draw them has changed considerably i guess id consider that a design change bc of how drastic it is. jennifer is i guess a character design thats gone throughout more changes than others but i consider them all pretty subtle like i just kept making him more fucked up thats pretty much it LOL. they changed i think pretty exclusively just with how my artstyle did

delaineys always been perfect and jennifer changes as to be attuned to my tastes and desires

[aikoiya]

What if King Asgore and Queen Toriel were the ones who died + Emperor Chara was the one that declared war + Prince Asriel was the one that left the Kingdom for the Ruins? 💔

(To make things less confusing, I’m making Chara a male and keeping Frisk non-binary, like Frisk is in canon…)

*The Monster Kingdom HATES humans for locking them all down inside the mountain, so Chara has to pretend to be a chimpanzee monster (either with make-up and fake fur, or a magical illusion spell) that was adopted by the Royal Dreemurr Family, so Chara won’t get hunted down.

*Only Asriel, Toriel and Asgore Dreemurr knew the truth.

*Chara still does his plan to get sick through poisonous flowers and die, so someone could take his soul and use it to get through the barrier, to get more souls to finally break the barrier.

*However, Chara and Asriel are 16 when Chara starts that plan.

*And the person that Chara convinces to absorb their soul is Asgore, instead of Asriel.

*And like Asriel, Asgore couldn’t bring himself to destroy innocent people and fled with fatal injuries.

*However, when Asgore returns home to the mountain, he uses what’s left of his powered-up magic to heal Chara’s poisoned body and return Chara’s soul to it.

*Then Asgore turns to dust and Toriel becomes the single ruler of the whole kingdom.

*A kingdom that is filled with anger, hatred and desires for revenge.

~~~

*Half of the kingdom demanded war against Humanity to avenge their fallen king.

*But Toriel refuses, which causes violent riots all over Snowdin, Waterfall and the Hotlands.

*It reaches a point, where a random hate-filled monster broke into the castle to assassinate Toriel.

*He almost succeeded, but Chara and Asriel arrived in time knock out the criminal beast.

*But Toriel was greatly injured and unconscious, so Asriel takes her to her bedroom to help her with his healing magic, while Chara drags the attempted murderer of his mother to the golden hall to properly execute the criminal with Asgore’s trident.

*When Chara returns to Asriel and Toriel, his brother tearfully tells him that their mother had fallen down and entered a despair coma (meaning she’ll never wake up and eventually die).

*The lose of her husband and the violent hatred consuming her kingdom was too much for Toriel to handle.

*She gave up all hope.

~~~

*This was the last straw for Chara, so he raced to the top of the castle and shouts a declaration of war so loud that EVERYONE could hear it.

*Chara promises a second war on Humanity and saying that any humans that fall down into the kingdom must be handed over to Chara alive, so Chara can execute and harvest all their souls personally.

*Once Chara gets 7 hearts, the barrier can be broken.

*Asriel is horrified by by Chara’s speech and tries to convince Chara to take it back.

*Chara points out that almost all the monsters in the kingdom were either losing hope or causing riots or even try to assassinate the royal family: Chara had to do something to give them hope again and decided to give them what they wanted (and what Chara secretly wanted as well).

*Asriel also points out that a second war isn’t what their parents wanted, that they are are better ways to give people hope and to stop the violence.

*Asriel also points out that the humans probably DON’T have to die in order to break the barrier.

*But Chara was too stubborn and angry to consider it.

~~~

*The argument between the siblings escalates until… they start battling each other.

*And the battle ends with Chara defeating Asriel, but he accidentally gave his brother a giant scar on his eye during the fight (Asriel can still see out of it though).

*Chara is filled with guilt over what he did and tries to apologize, but Asriel coldly tells Chara that he’s leaving and never coming back.

*Asriel wants nothing to do with the second war and left his whole kingdom behind to live in the Ruins, but at least he did try to stop Chara.

*After Asriel left, Chara keeps Asgore’s trident, starts wearing a scary mask and then absorbs the comatose Toriel’s immortal soul to become immortal himself.

*Chara wants to live long enough to get all 7 souls, to free his people and get revenge.

*Deep down inside, Chara knows that what he’s doing is wrong, but he’s gone too far to stop.

~~~

*Meanwhile in the Ruins, Asriel trains every human that falls into the Ruins in combat for about a year, so they know how to defend themselves and defeat/destroy Chara.

*All the ones before Frisk have failed.

*Asriel would’ve tried to defeat Chara himself again, but Asriel is honestly afraid of Chara (because he got a scar last time) and also he still cares about Chara.

*Asriel doesn’t want to be the one to throw Chara in prison or end Chara’s life.

*Unlike Toriel in canon, Asriel is aware that the 6 human deaths are indirectly his fault, as much as the King’s.

*When Frisk arrives, Asriel trains them for a year as well.

*However, when the time came for Frisk to leave… Asriel tries to make Frisk stay by trying to destroy the Ruins’ entrance and battles Frisk.

*Frisk eventually convinces Asriel to finally let them go, they both hug and Asriel tearfully tells Frisk that they are welcome to come back to the Ruins anytime.

~~~

*In this world, Sans was accidentally turned into an amalgamate by Alphys, so Frisk doesn’t meet him until they see the other amalgamates.

*Chara truly does care about his Monster Kingdom, however he is A LOT stricter and firmer then Asgore.

*Chara has a big army of both adult and child soldiers.

*Chara is also more revenge-crazy and war-obsessed.

*Chara also has little tolerance for laziness or incompetence.

~~~

*So ever since Papyrus and Sans joined Chara’s army, Chara forces Sans to do TONS of paperwork and other things, whenever Sans doesn’t do his actual job.

*Eventually, the stress became too much for Sans and he entered a despair coma.

*Which later led to Alphys’ plan of ‘Determination Injections’ and him becoming an amalgamate.

*Papyrus doesn’t know what happened to Sans; he only knows that Alphys is trying to fix him.

*Papyrus is part of the Royal Guard, but he wants to become part of the ‘Elite Guard’.

*He lies that he wants this because it would make him popular and powerful, but the TRUE reason is because he wants to know what happened to his brother.

*Only Alphys, Mettaton, Undyne, the rest of the Elite Guard and Chara actually know about the amalgamates.

*Chara wants to turn all of them into weapons for the war.

*Alphys and some of the Elite Guard are secretly horrified by this.

*But Undyne, Mettaton and most of the Elite Guard believe that it’s for the ‘greater good’, even if they feel guilty as well.

~~~

*Chara allows Mettaton to have his TV show (if one of the shows has Anti-Human Propaganda), however Chara REFUSES to let Mettaton’s second form be a human-like form.

*Mettaton’s second form looks like a beautiful dragon monster instead.

*Alphys and Mettaton respect Chara, but both are secretly terrified of him as well.

*In this world, Chara is probably the biggest reason why Alphys gets anxiety, as well as why Mettaton wants to become a solo superstar on the surface.

*Alphys also hates that Chara praises her, for creating all the amalgamates.

~~~

*Chara was Undyne’s teacher as well as parental figure.

*Since Chara can’t absorb another human’s soul, Chara has decided to let another monster that he trusts absorb all the souls instead (once he has 7) and become Chara’s god-like, glorified weapon of war.

*Chara is considering Undyne to be that special monster.

*Unlike in canon, it actually makes sense that Undyne is bloodthirsty, sadistic and hates humans the most… because Chara is also bloodthirsty, sadistic and hates humans the most… (I personally find it hard to believe that Undyne would become so messed up in personality, if Asgore was the one that had trained and potentially raised her, considering that Asgore isn’t any of those things and he has self-restraint/self-control… You’d think he would teach that stuff to the kids that he was training as well…)

* Undyne lost her eye defending Chara from an angry monster that rebelled against Chara’s almost tyrannical rule.

*When Undyne finally learns that Chara is a human (the very species that Chara trained her to hate), she’ll basically goes through an existential crisis, as does the rest of the Kingdom.

*The Armless Lizard Kid is one of the child soldiers of Chara’s army, but the Lizard Kid still defends Frisk from Undyne and the others.

~~~

*Papyrus is the one to make knock-knock jokes at the Ruins’ door, because he misses his comedic brother.

*Asriel enjoys his terrible jokes on the door’s other side (he shares his Mom’s sense of humor).

*And in return, Asriel tells Papyrus stories of times where monsters and humans lived in peace and harmony, before the war.

*After some time, Asriel makes Papyrus promise to give a human a warm and safe place to stay inside his home, if the human isn’t hostile.

*Papyrus hesitantly agrees.

*This explains better why Papyrus is willing to befriend Frisk, then canon does.

~~~

*Alphys still creates Flowey (with Undyne’s and Mettaton’s help).

*This version of Flowey was created with Asgore’s dust (instead of Asriel’s) and is also called Buttercup.

*Also, while Canon Flowey can’t feel love, Buttercup can’t honestly feel any emotion at all.

*He can pretend, but he can’t feel anything, not even hatred or fear.

*Buttercup is a calm, cold and logical creature… the opposite of the loving, warm and passionate Fallen King Asgore.

*Buttercup has Asgore’s memories of Chara, Asriel and Toriel, but they mean nothing to him now.

*He only cares about his own freedom outside of the mountain.

~~~

*Buttercup had the Reset Powers before Frisk.

*He tried to use them to find a way to escape, but he had failed constantly.

*First, Buttercup tried to befriend Chara, so he could steal one of the 6 human souls and use it to escape the barrier.

*However, Chara (who didn’t know that Buttercup is Asgore) destroyed Buttercup when he almost absorbed one.

*The next reset, Buttercup tried to convince Asriel to kill Chara.

*When that failed, Buttercup tried to convince to ANYONE (even Papyrus) to start a revolution against Chara.

*When that failed, Buttercup did genocide and destroyed everyone in the Kingdom, so he’ll be strong enough to defeat Chara and steal the souls.

*However even with all that ‘LOVE’ and increased power the flower had gained, Chara was too determined and hate-filled to be defeated.

*Chara is the most powerful creature in the whole Kingdom.

*At this point, Buttercup wants to steal all the souls from Chara, out of spite and pettiness.

*When Frisk arrived and gained Buttercup’s reset powers, instead of randomly attacking and insulting Frisk… Buttercup pretends to be Frisk’s friend and tries to convince them to destroy Chara, as well anyone that hurts them, in order to free/avenge the human souls (so Buttercup can secretly steal them all).

*Buttercup doesn’t understand why Frisk forgives and doesn’t destroy those who hurt them… it is illogical.

~~~

*In the Neutral Ending after Chara’s defeat, Buttercup absorbs the human souls and tries to use his new powers to make everyone as emotionless and logical as he is… but Frisk stops him in a battle.

*In the Genocide Ending, Chara and Buttercup give the human souls to Toriel’s soul, creating a demonic beastly version of the Fallen Queen… after defeating her, destroying Chara and Buttercup is almost too easy… surprisingly however, they both accept their death with dignity.

*In the Pacifist Ending when Chara is about to start the fight against Frisk, Asriel arrives to battle Chara in order to save Frisk, as does Papyrus + Undyne + Alphys + Mettaton + Amalgamate Sans… All their powers combined, they defeat Chara… Chara dares Asriel and Frisk to strike the final blow, but instead both hug and forgive Chara… Chara is confused and trying to get them off… But eventually, Chara bursts into remorseful tears and hugs them back… Chara apologizes to everyone for everything and declares to stop the war from happening.

~~~

*But then Buttercup absorbed the human souls, and then he absorbs EVERYONE’s souls, except for Frisk’s… Frisk saves the souls and defeats King Asgore Dreemurr, by reminding him of his past as a kind ruler and a loving father.

*Asgore gives everyone their souls back, accepting that he’s be soulless again… but Toriel’s disembodied soul enters Asgore’s body, given him a second chance.

*Asgore (and Toriel) is happily and tearfully reunited with both of his children… However, Chara wishes to take responsibility for his actions and thus, turns himself in over to the surface police for child murder… He was sentenced to life in prison, but his family and Frisk always visits him once a month.

*As a result, Asriel became the sole ruler of the freed Kingdom, because Asgore doesn’t want the crown back… Asgore simply wants to spend the rest of his days gardening… And Asriel would adopt Frisk (if Frisk does wish to be adopted)! 💖 

---

Aikoiya: I like this. It feels better. Less like things are swept under the rug for the sake of a tainted ‘happy’ ending.

[serenhob]

(To preface I am physically disabled, being tested for autism and have several autistic friends who share their thoughts with me and I have been thinking about this for a weird amount of time so...enjoy I guess)

So abelism, while a lot of people may brush it off as something that doesn't really affect people or doesn't even exist at all it is a form of bigotry that has thrived since the dawn of humanity and continues to do so. It is also the most casual form of bigotry so much so that is literally ingrained in our soicety, covering a broad range of things such as language and architecture. It has even been the basis for racist and queerphobic redirect, not just itself.

To start, what is abelism? It contains a multitude of different things but is, to put it simply that idea that disabled people are lesser and in some cases even inhuman, this is not just seen in direct hatred and prejudice but can also be very covert by way of pity and infantilisation.

Most bigotry is structured like this wherein the hated group is looked down upon and not worthy of respect, for example racism, in it's many forms over the centuries, has always relied on the idea that white people are 'superior'. You can see this presented in many ways but I think one of the simplest was the changed perception of Neanderthals after it was discovered the percentage of Neanderthal dna in white people was significantly higher than in other ethnic groups, they went from incredibly stupid to surprisingly smart just to further push this narrative. Like racism and queerphobia, abelism has had a long history but I'm gonna touch on a few things that I find particularly egregious.

Language:

One of the surprising things you find when researching the English language (and I'm sure many others but I am sadly only fluent in one :()is the amount of insults that come from actual terms for disabled people (and women's anatomy which is weird). For example the word 'lame' now refers to something boring but it used to refer to someone who is unable to walk properly or without pain, using this definition it would apply to me but has come to be an insult. Intellectual disabilities are most under fire from this divergence from medical term to insult, both stupid and idiot used to refer to someone with an Intellectual disability but now are words a lot of people use in everyday speech.

The most recognisable word from this transition is the R-Slur as it, like idiot, used to also be a medical term but the way people were using it literally made medical professionals have to change the name. It really shows you how abelist the wolrd is to consider people were saying this with enough malice I literally can't use it in this post. Again, it was once a medical term and is now a slur. The discourse surrounding the word is so disturbing to me, I saw a man once saying its just a jokey thing to say to your mates but obviously you wouldn't call an actually disabled person that. Using it on non-disabled people doesn't make it OK, you're still using the term in a degrading way and furthering stigma around disabled people. It is worrying to see people going down a similair path in the increase of using Autistic in an insulting way, earlier this year people were saying 'acoustic' aswell to get around it (similair in the way people would use words similair to the r-slur and spelling out slurs (especially homophobic ones)in sentences by capitalising the first letters) and its really horrible imaging psychologists have to change the DSM because of something like that.

The way we also genrally refer to being disabled as the worst thing in the world and the amount of pity that goes along with that. Like I saw a video earlier wherein this woman was trying to spread positivity but the way she went about it kinda left a bad taste in my mouth, she was essentially saying that your insecurities mean you are blessed with the ability to have them, which is a nice sentiment but she used examples like be glad that you are insecure about your eye bags because that means you are blessed with the ability to see them. And be grateful for being insecure about your ankles (or smth I didn't really understand this bit) because it means you can walk. It feel very weird in the sense it reminds me of that one Laika studio movie where the moral is that sight is the basis of humanity. You tried but in a very 'poor sad disabled people, be glad you you them' way. To be clear I'm not annoyed with this woman specifically just pointing out how casual this seemed to be, not intended to be harmful but an ingrained sort of view that many seem to have. Disability isn't a good thing nor a bad thing, it is neutral like most things in life. And I for one would always prefer to be more positive about the thing that will effect me for the rest of my life.

Hereditism:

Hereditism is a theory put foward by scientists in about the 1800s that suggested that people biologically inherit traits from their family members. It has existed in part for years before (which is why we have hereditary monarchies, the suggestion that royal blood is needed to rule) but was only really given a name and dedication in the 1800s. It's fundamental principle is nature over nurture and thus bad people are born bad as a result of their parents. You can see how this would be much loved by bigots and especially racists. One of the biggest reasons that old white men put foward to say why black people were 'lesser' is that they were all intellectually disabled (lovely dose of abelism there) and their lives were worth less as a result because they would have no meaningful attribution to soicety except through labour (just to make clear these are beliefs other people held not me, racism is wack and so disturbing). And what was the integral tool in proving this, hereditism of course, if people inherit things from their parents that must mean that every single black person was the exact same (Idk how they could stand eachother, like imagine being that stupid). Hereditism was also used to argue why disabled people shouldn't be able to have children and be sterilised. Hereditism is the basis of eugenics (the theory that the human race can be breed to be perfect by murdering or sterilising the undesirables then inbreeding everyone else) which we all know Hitler famously used in his attempted genocide of the Jewish people, anyone queer, non-white people and of course those with disabilities.

Aspergers:

I find it grim to go over Hitlers entire thing surrounding disabled people so I'm going to focus on a small but disgusting part of it instead of the whole. Aspergers syndrome became a part of the DSM (diagnostic and statistic manual of mental health disorders) in 1994 and it remained a part of it until 2013 when people were revamping a plethora of neurological conditions that seemed to fall under the term Autism (or Austim spectrum disorder) and discovered the history behind the name. 'Aspergers' used to refer to a type of autism that was lesser support needs however, it was named for Hans Asperger who was a Nazi psychologist who was in charge of deciding which autistic children were to be euthanized. The ones he deemed suitable to live were genrally lacking in social skills but had a talent that made them 'worthy to be a productive member of soicety'. The children with higher support needs and had things like mutism were euthanized and thus the DSM deemed the name unsuitable as nobody wants to immortalise the name of a child murderer.

Autism speaks:

Autism speaks is a charity devoted to helping parents of autistic children and autistic children, though it focuses more on the former than latter. There a lot of problems with it which I will go down in a list.

1.Infantilisation of autism:

They are devoted to autistic children, autistic adults have no place with them, maybe due to the fact they can complain about how their image is used. It also adds to the stigma around autistic adults as people forget they exist. Getting support as an adult is also hindered as it may be unavailable or make work places hostile should they request them.

2. The focus on parents of autistic children:

They often pay more attention for how hard it is to function as a parent rather than the child's needs and help they do offer often just teaches masking rather than helpful behaviours/coping mechanisms.

3. The fact they didn't find taking a cure out of their mission statement until 2016, 11 years into the charity:

This seems as good a place as any to talk about 'the mystical cure'. For most people disability is incurable (myself included), and focus on trying to do this rather than helpful coping mechanisms and support is not good. It's neglectful and not helpful, i know it might seem optimistic but it's better to meet someone where they are at than ignoring them completely to focus entirely on something they may never get to.

4. I am autism:

Autism speaks frames autism as an infectious, deadly and terminal disease in an ad they broadcasted on live television in 2009. The full thing is on YouTube but here is a section of the transcript

{I am autism. I’m visible in your children, but if I can help it, I am invisible to you until it’s too late. I know where you live. And guess what? I live there too. I speak your language fluently. And with every voice I take away, I acquire yet another language. I work very quickly. I work faster than pediatric aids, cancer, and diabetes combined And if you’re happily married, I will make sure that your marriage fails. Your money will fall into my hands, and I will bankrupt you for my own self-gain. I don’t sleep, so I make sure you don’t either. I will make it virtually impossible for your family to easily attend a temple, birthday party, or public park without a struggle, without embarrassment, without pain. You have no cure for me. Your scientists don’t have the resources, and I relish their desperation. Your neighbors are happier to pretend that I don’t exist—of course, until it’s their child. I am autism. I have no interest in right or wrong. I derive great pleasure out of your loneliness. I will fight to take away your hope. I will plot to rob you of your children and your dreams. I will make sure that every day you wake up you will cry, wondering who will take care of my child after I die? And the truth is, I am still winning, and you are scared. And you should be. I am autism. You ignored me. That was a mistake.}

I don't think I have to explain why this is bad.

5. The documentary they did about autistic parents venting about their children: I am concerned with a particular section in which this woman calmly talks about the fact that everyday when she goes to drop her kids off at school she wants to drive them off a cliff to kill herself and her autistic daughter (who is in the room) and the only thing stopping her is that her other daughter is 'normal'. And they aired this on TV. The woman clearly needs some sort of help and maybe her children taken away from her because that is not normal or ok. This isn't even touching on behavioural therapy that still occurs in which therapists try to train autistic children to not stim in order to make them more palatable to genral soicety. A lot of abelism is presented this way, people trying to force disabled people to make their disability their own problem to not 'burden' anyone else with it. That us simply asking for accommodation is selfish. Which leads to the next one:

Architecture:

I hear all the time that the world 'isn't built for disabled people' but that is simply because soicety doesn't want it to be. We are improving, with tactile pavements and ramps and blue badges but it still isn't good enough. No old buildings older that 2010 are required to have disabled access meaning that a lot of disabled people are missing out on museums and other historical sights. It impacts people's lives terribly as if you can't access a building it means your job and education is limited. There are a lot of very old collages and universities where I live and there are some I cannot attend simply due to the fact nobody bothered to install a lift. Even in my old school there were classes were I would have to be alone in a room because there wasn't a lift in the building despite there being like 50 sets of stairs.

I believe this is all due to ignorance and refusal to spend money on disabled people. We make up around 16% of the global population, that is about 1 in 6 people. Yet the issue is ignored. There is more attention and accommodation afforded to billionares (who may I remind you make up less than 1% of the population so something isn't adding up). Infantilisation: Is to treat someone who is not a child, like one. It is done to disabled people very regularly. It's very creepy, I can't lie, my teachers used to do it and it just really disturbed me how they would literally use a different tone of voice in addition to acting like I was incompetent. It is not normally done out of malice but for some reason people don't know how to act around disabled people (I'm not gonna smack you with my cane or fall on the floor if you treat me like a person, just be normal), so they resort to assuming that we can't do anything. Or assuming our interests, dumbing down conversation, just genrally acting like disabled people are lesser. So, just remember, disabled people are people so treat them accordingly. To close off I'm just going to talk about abelism used in other forms of bigotry. I already talked about racism but again it was thought that black people all have intellectual disabilities which lessend their worth in the eyes of white able bodied people. Queer peoples identifies are often put down to mental illness (especially trans people) which makes people see it as something to be 'fixed' or 'corrected' which leads to conversion therapy similair to what I said with autism.

On a similair note neurodivergent people's queer identities are also seen as less valid simply because they are neurodivergent. Stigma around both is used in fear mongering for homophobes a lot. Autism and queer identity overlap a lot, as researchers believe that autistic people genrally care less about societal norms. Another strange thing some think about disabled people is that we are all completely aroace to use the idea that people who don't experience sexual or romantic love are inhuman to push that we are inhuman. This is untrue but also disabled people, like everyone else, can have a broad range of sexualities and gender identities (I'm ace but I'm also homoromantic (I am in love with Chappell Roan) whereas my friend is a lesbian and my other friend is straight (both these friends are autistic I'm not just adding this info randomly))

I just yapped a lot. Anyway thankyou for coming to my tedtalk

Also this is not touching on a lot of other severely messed up things because I am not educated enough on them and I don't want to spread misinformation <3

[jodilin65]

Saw the movie See for Me. That would be a wild way to make money—hop on the dark web, get fake IDs, offer to cat or dog sit for the wealthy, and then rip them off while they’re away. Sounds simple, but of course, it’s not. I’d be terrified of getting caught and afraid of karma if I didn’t.

The $35 a month raise from Social Security is such an insult considering how much this country gives away to other nations. Tom pointed out that it will cover the $27 increase in space rent, but it’s still a joke. Seriously, what can most people do with an extra $35 these days?

Election Day is creeping closer, and I can’t wrap my head around the men who support a misogynistic criminal like Trump. But even worse, I worry about the women who’d vote for someone who wants to restrict their rights and freedoms. Still, it’s their vote, and they’ll have to live with the outcome.

Fuck Buddy was walking around the honker’s place today and peeking into the lanai. I guess she was checking for damage. When Tom was out donating today (I was surprised the place was even open), he mentioned there was more damage than he realized—signs and fences thrown all over the place.

I’m dreading the honker’s return, especially because I’m not sure I’ll be able to sleep through the damn motorcycle with the new bedroom setup. It’s so wrong that someone can come to my country and disrupt my peace like this. A part of me wishes he’d sell his place and move in with his fuck buddy, but I doubt that’ll happen. They just started dating, and the fact that he was still single into his 60s says a lot. Either he can’t keep a relationship, or women keep dumping him. I don’t know the guy, but he comes off as insensitive and aggressive.

I also unfriended Kathy. If something were wrong, she’s had plenty of time to reach out, and she hasn’t. Remember? No more reaching out to those who don’t reach out to me. I can’t access either of her accounts now, so I guess Facebook has features I didn’t realize. Apparently, you can now block someone from viewing your profile without actually blocking them.

My memory issues are getting frustrating—and, at times, a little worrying. I’m sure most of it is from my sleep disorder.

Tom and I were reminiscing about how technology has evolved over the years. In the early 2000s, I would’ve hated to go back to 80s tech. Now? I’d hate to go back to 2014! Back then, Alexa didn’t exist, let alone all these smart devices. Speech-to-text wasn’t nearly as good, and Grammarly wasn’t around either. Everything had to be typed manually with only a basic spell checker that had little to no concept of grammar.

[lustrumlane]

uragimonogatari | uroro | trial 1.5 | re: kit, anisha, maya | attn: ephemerael

“Like, fucking hell, can we save this until later. How am I the bad guy for making sure a drunken toddler doesn’t go despairingly flinging himself into the dog fog. I didn’t even think he was right, but just because someone’s stupid doesn’t mean they should be dead. And really, I think you should be a lot more grateful that I didn’t want you dead, because I made yours second and you’re really starting to make me wish I just made one for myself and left all the rest of you losers to drown. Speaking of which.”

Uroro crosses his arms to address the other losers.

“Holy shit, it’s not Maimai, shut up. Like, I hate her right now and she’s being really unfair to her friend who was trying to do something good by the way, this shit always happens when I try to do something good, but she was asleep and had nothing to do with this so back up. I only took her camera and then I fucked off. And I took some more stuff from everyone else that I'm really considering now not giving back and I fucked off. I don’t know when that all happened on account of the fucking off and me actually doing what I said I would while not exactly having me taped to any clocks, because surprise surprise, when you’re not thinking of a murder alibi you don’t exactly pay super close attention to things. Everything else happened as I said and I said as it happened.”

He then curls his hand into a fist and punches it into the other, eyeing the three who called him out in particular.

“By the way. if you ever imply I don’t take good care of my stickers. Or that my hair. My very beautifully culturally significant powerful gorgeous hair. Is a wig. Ever again. I will throw you into Depth so hard and far that not even the people who sent back the gun are gonna be able to fish you out. Do I make. Myself cle.”

Before he can finish his threat (his language there lost even the rhythm of speech he usually tries so hard to employ, fragmenting into lines like the words don’t recognize one another nor where they should go), an old woman makes a request, a hood comes down, and there it is.

(Dante said, with his hand gushing, that the scrap of plastic fell down after the fire had started, melting then. The killer had to have had a route there, and money to buy, and a way to keep themselves from being too visible in the rain. Blonde hair that fits in a hat. Faked magic, drawn in a circle, an unpredictable shot. Faked magic, a dripping ear. Drip, drip, dripping water, on his face.)

“I never saw you cast the actual spell.”

(No, he was on the ground, having a fit.)

“At the bar. I never saw what you drew. That’s why I couldn’t eat the water spell. I thought it was just me not being attuned to the background noise yet. But no. You didn’t cast anything. You didn’t do any magic at all.”

There it is. That undeniable, irrefutable truth he was looking for, burnt on the side of her face. A hundred deductions run simultaneously, Upsilon suspended in the center of them, but there's only one which comes to him now.

Uroro’s hands hit the podium and then run through his hair.

“Oh my fucking god, you’re not even a real elf.”

[madou-dilou]

This is exactly why I love Viren but can't stand Ezran.

The world keeps bending so Viren can't be moral no matter what he does. And the world keeps bending so Ezran is right no matter what he does.

I would love to like Ezran. I love principled characters who are forced to break their values or who realise that their principles don't always bring good outcomes. And just like Ezran, I am priviledged and sheltered and I struggle to make friends. His empathy once confronted with horrible decisions, especially as he is trying to simultaneously grieve Harrow, fit in his shoes and putting aside his legacy, such as in the first half of season 3, is a delight to watch, and I love his hair.

But I just cant stand him for two reasons :

- The absence of consequences.

When he makes mistakes, such as abdicating in Viren's favour, we are given contradictory messages : he is a child so he makes mistakes (Opeli), but he is the bravest and wisest king Katolis has known in centuries (Corvus). Before the final battle, Ezran was characterized as a pacifist through and through : he finds the egg, he considers it as a person, he has the idea of returning the egg to its mother to end the war; and once he is king and forced to choose between horrible outcomes where many people die, he hates it, he is disgusted with himself and the very idea that there even is a winning side in a war. He gives up the throne hoping to save lives.

But when this decision leads to season 3 episode 8, to Ezran being told that all of these people have been transformed and that he has no choice but to kill them all... he doesn't argue. He doesn't bring up that these people may be detransformed, that they still have a family, that this kind of "necessary sacrifices" are exactly what brought up this whole situation, that Viren wouldn't have cast this spell on Soren if he didn't know how to reverse it, nothing. He just does it. It's completely out-of-character. And it's never brought up again. He doesn't hate himself for being forced to do it. No one reproaches anything to him. It has no consequences. On contrary, it's a victory through and through, a triumph of the good side over the evil side. So much for pacificism and the inherent value of all lives. -don't get me wrong, these soldiers had to be killed, but it's no reason to turn it into a joke like it has been in the show.

And Ezran continues to escape consequences as the show progresses. When the painting is torn, he gets away with a cute speech, and leaves to his fun adventure, while the absence of the king has been established in the previous seasons as a catastrophe, but this time it's not, somehow. When he stays behind to try to talk to Rex Igneus despite the Earth Archdragon being obviously in so state to hear him, he forces the group to stay with him and look for him even though the entire place is crumbling on them, it's a miracle they didn't all die. When he endangers the whole group again in order to save three tadpoles, which has all of them (Callum, Rayla, Soren) but him tortured, no one calls him out. He does not feel bad either. We just deal with the situation but no one holds him accountable, not even a reproaching glance, nothing. He just gets away with it.

- His accomodating principles, which affect the whole message of the show.

Ezran is characterized as an empathetic person. He has a hard time making friends but understands animals and is deeply forgiving. But the problem is that this empathy just stops sometimes. When he is forced to kill thousands, he somehow just does it without trying to argue. But when it's about saving three tadpoles, he endangers the whole party and the whole world with it. And both are framed as the right thing to do. The killing of all these humans is even framed as a triumph : blasting music, funny gags, Aanya's heroic cavalry charge saves the day, all the monsters are getting killed -so much for the inherent value of all lives or the "does it think, feel, have a family?". Idem when Ezran straight-up justifies everything Avizandum did, including killing their mom, right in front of Callum, Callum doesn't react as if it were a normal thing to say. Same with the Pyrrah situation, he rushes to help the poor creature who has just burned a village of his people, innocent human civilians, right in front of him.

What lesson are we supposed to learn here ?

That all lives are important except human lives ?

And since he never gets consequences, it feels like he has no flaws, that he doesn't need to grow, that the show completely agrees with his vision.

And I think it has to do with a certain vision of high fantasy and the representation of dragons, not just as fantastical creatures, but the very forces of nature itself. We humans have forgotten them -industrialisation and exploitation (not just of nature but each other, exactly the way Viren does with dark magic and his manipulative behaviour), vilified them -St George. We try to fight them, to win over them. So it's up to the heroes to realize that this is a false vision and that the real monsters are the humans who are unable to learn.

Problem is, that vision just does not align with the ... gritty fantasy (in the limits of the kids's boundaries) The Dragon Prince has started as. At the beginning, we were told that things were not that simple, and we were shown it as we followed the perspectives of both sides. It was dragons and elves and knights and mages but it could as well have been steam, gaslight, goggles and zepplins. It was a story about how bloody history is, about how prejudice is difficult to overcome, about how all lives are inherently valuable in themselves.

It just doesn't align with this vision of high fantasy that has the human responsible for everything that ever went wrong. As it it, Ezran never demands that Xadia aplogises. But Soren takes Pyrrha down because she was terrorizing the innocent, and she did end up killing innocents, but he is the one who somehow has to apologize to her, which means now he is part of the good guys who get to threaten civilians to be eaten by a dragon for contesting the king as all good guys do. It's so good to be one of the good guys.

Claudia talks of generational trauma but it's not like we can take her seriously after she spent two years alone between her dad's rotting corpse and Satan whispering in her ear, especially since she displays massive hypocrisy right afterwards.

When Ezran says "Everything Avizandum did was to protect Xadia", Callum doesn't even flinch while it includes the murder of their mother.

It's so unbalanced.

And it's because the story is not about prejudice and generational trauma, but actually about how humans are accountable for what has become of nature.

We are not meant to read "a desperate mage finds a way to save his starving people that has been oppressed for centuries." We are meant to read "the dark lord provokes global warming by killing the last member of an endangered species because humans are just unable to be reasonable. They are not satisfied with what they were given, so they take what doesn't belong to them, kill it and transform it into filth."

So yes, it is inherently evil to use organic dead matter, and three tadpoles are more valuable and worthy of screentime than hundreds of thousands of human lives.

Meanwhile, Rayla struggles with her dead family as she bears the burden of saving them, she struggles with being rejected by everyone she ever loved even though their ideology was wrong, and her self-destructive tendancies end up hurting the love of her life, Callum; and yet another dilemma is thrown upon her as her only way to save her family is that Callum agrees to do what terrifies him the most. Callum struggles with his temptation to use dark magic, even if it's to save people, even it's to save his friends, he is terrified to end up like Viren. Viren struggles as his entire world view was shattered, as he realises all the sacrifices he made only led to bad outcomes, and now he helplessly witnesses his daughter doing the same mistakes he did so he can live while all he wants is to just die. Claudia has been abandonned by her loved ones over and over again even though she did nothing to deserve it (her mom left, Callum and Ezran switched sides, Soren switches sides too, Viren dies twice, one killed and the other one by choice), so she is eventually willing to go to any lengths to get her family back, which leaves her to lose her sanity.

Ezran... is just there. He tells us he is angry but we are not shown it, it never has any impact, it never makes it to the screen. Aaravos states what should be his inner conflict when he shows up, but we don't actually see Ezran struggle at all. The only time he has had inner conflict since season three episode 5 is in a side story.

An excellent one, by the way. It's exactly what the show should be about instead of cute animals and demonstrating that using dead organic matter automatically changes you into a monster and justifies everything bad that ever happened to you. Ezran is confronted with how recent and ancient and still festering the wounds of the world are. He is confronted with his own grief, he realises he actually struggles to let go. He is confronted with the fact that he owes his throne to violence -his crown, which he had reforged from his dad's sword as a symbol of the war being over, still reeks of blood. And he hates it.

But it's a side story. Not the show.

In the show, Ezran is an empty shell.

So, no, Ezran doesn't need to grow up because The Dragon Prince is validating his vision through and through. He has no inner conflict since everything he does is either right or not his fault actually because he's just a child. He has no consequences because the story's vision is built around his. The events and messages bend around him.

So all he has left to do is to preach to the audience that it's not very nice to be mean.

Which is why he is insufferable.

got a meta slowly rotating in my mind about how every time Viren tries to be the person Harrow "once believed me to be" he fucks up hilariously badly

like his entire sequence of choices in the magma titan arc can be read as him trying to do what he thinks Harrow would (should?) want, but then Harrow keeps flipping the script on him, and that's just so sad and funny to me