#not super good metaphors

[molarcupcake]

my body isn’t a temple or a house for my soul really it’s more like my body

[anghraine]

It's interesting (if often frustrating) to see the renewed Orc Discourse after the last few episodes of ROP. I've seen arguments that orcs have to be personifications of evil rather than people as such or else the ethics of our heroes' approach to them becomes much more fraught. Tolkien's work, as written, seems an odd choice to me for not wrangling with difficult questions, and of course, more diehard fans are going to immediately bring up Shagrat and Gorbag.

If you haven't read LOTR recently, Shagrat and Gorbag are two orcs who briefly have a conversation about how they're being screwed over by Sauron but have no other real options, about their opinions of mistakes that have been made, that they think Sauron himself has made one, but it's not safe to discuss because Sauron has spies in their own ranks. They reminisce about better times when they had more freedom and fantasize about a future when they can go elsewhere and set up a small-scale banditry operation rather than being involved in this huge-scale war. Eventually, however, they end up turning on each other.

Basically any time that someone brings up the "humanity" of this conversation, someone else will point out that they're still bad people. They're not at all guilty about what they're part of. They just resent the dangers to themselves, the pressure from above, failures of competence, the surveillance they're under, and their lack of realistic alternative options. The dream of another life mentioned in the conversation is still one of preying on innocent people, just on a much smaller and more immediate scale, etc.

I think this misses the reason it keeps getting brought up, though. The point is not that Shagrat and Gorbag are good people. The point is that they are people.

There's something very normal and recognizable about their resentment of their superiors, their fears of reprisal and betrayal that ultimately are realized, their dislike of this kind of industrial war machine that erases their individual work and contributions, the tinge of wistfulness in their hope of escape into a different kind of life. Their dialect is deliberately "common"—and there's a lot more to say about that and the fact that it's another commoner, Sam, who outwits them—but one of the main effects is to make them sound familiar and ordinary. And it's interesting that one of the points they specifically raise is that they're not going to get better treatment from "the good guys" so they can't defect, either.

This is self-interested, yes, but it's not the self-interest of some mystical being or spirit or whatnot, but of people.

Tolkien's later remarks tend to back this up. He said that female orcs do exist, but are rarely seen in the story because the characters only interact with the all-male warrior class of orcs. Whatever female orcs "do," it isn't going to war. Maybe they do a lot of the agricultural work that is apparently happening in distant parts of Mordor, maybe they are chiefly responsible for young orcs, maybe both and/or something else, we don't know. But we know they're out there and we know that they reproduce sexually and we know that they're not part of the orcish warrior class.

Regardless of all the problems with this, the idea that orcs have a gender-restricted warrior class at all and we're just not seeing any of their other classes because of where the story is set doesn't sound like automatons of evil. It sounds like an actual culture of people that we only see along the fringes.

And this whole matter of "but if they're people, we have to think about ethics, so they can't be people" is a weird circular argument that cannot account for what's in LOTR or for much of what Tolkien said afterwards. Yes, he struggled with The Problem of Orcs and how to reconcile it with his world building and his ethical system, but "maybe they're not people" is ultimately not a workable solution as far as LOTR goes and can't even account for much of the later evolution of his ideas, including explicit statements in his letters.

And in the end, the real response that comes to mind to that circular argument is "maybe you should think about ethics more."

[kirby-the-gorb]

[ladyloveandjustice]

Mayonaka Punch is about a toxic Youtuber and an incredibly gay punk vampire girl and I love this concept so much, this is why I can't quit anime.

Also, little vampire already confirmed gay:

[svtskneecaps]

lukewarm take of the evening: y'all care too much about being ""outdated"". fellas this smp moves inhumanly fast. it is ok to CHILL holy shit CHILL. y'all are like "(posts BANGER ART) super late guys sorry" friend i am hitting you with a blanket i am snapping you with my metaphorical towel WHAT DO YOU MEAN SORRY. "(posts BANGER FIC) rip this is outdated now" WHO CARES???? I LOVE YOU, OK. ohhhh woe is us as the fandom at large for having MORE HAPPY PILLS ARC CONTENT oh no how outdated!! how could you be writing speculative fiction about how forever felt during happy pills :( slash SARCASM!! WHAT DO YOU MEAN!!!! THERE ARE SO MANY BANGER ARCS, WHAT, YOU THINK WE'RE COMPLAINING????? FOR GETTING MORE OF THE CONTENT WE LOVED????? oh no we're past the period where everyone thought green gay ninjas were like Dead Dead, my work is now outdated and noncanon :( WDYM. GIMME. A BANGER IS A BANGER IDC IF IT TAKES THREE MONTHS. you think rome was built in a day?? fuck you, baltimore, GIMME. my ass has been cooking a goddamn backflipo family fic since july when it was ALREADY outdated do you think i fear god??? "oh no, you're making an edit of slime's (attempted) egg murdering spree?? how could you, that was months ago it's irrelevant" SAID NO ONE EVER.

save your wrists kidlings ok carpal tunnel is no joke. CHILL!!!!! CHILL!!!!!!!! TAKE YOUR TIME SHEEEEEESH OK LOVE YOU <3

[fumifooms]

Hijoushoku to Gochisou / A Feast of Emergency Rations

Mayonaka no Waltz / Midnight Waltz

Nagabe

[hastor]

safest place in the world

[supertrunks]

genuinely the most anti-gamer sentence i’ve ever read in a video game

[bonefall]

I recognize a lot of ADHD symptoms in Nightheart too.

The thinking everyone hates him is a big thing, taking rejection harder than it should be,

You're right... the Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria... I am Nightheart's therapist and I am slapping him with so many mental illnesses.

[birdricks]

been thinking about this dialogue again.

[king-of-tragedy]

I think one of my favorite and enlightening discussions about gender identity was when a table full of trans humans (and one questioning) explained their perception and relationship with gender to the single cishet ally sitting with us. (She asked us to, she's so incredibly nice and wanted to know more.) And it was really funny and silly! We had a pretend microphone that we'd hand off to the speaker and a game show introduction, then the rest of us would clap and cheer. Somehow during the conversation, we came up with a really good analogy: "So, if there are two chairs, one being for boy and one being for girl...I'm on the floor." And we kept rolling with that. "If we're talking about the chairs, I'm sitting on the table in the other room." "I used to just lie directly across both of the chairs, but I realized they're uncomfortable and hurt my back so now I've kind of slid off halfway." "I'm just draped over the chairs, with my legs on the floor and the majority of my body on the boy chair. Sometimes I'll readjust to a more comfortable position." "I'm like, sitting on the floor and leaning against the girl chair." "I'm on the girl chair, but am I?" "I'm sitting on the girl chair, and it's quite comfortable for me." Hands down, the most positive experience I've ever had. And now whenever I want to explain my perceptions, I just bring out the chairs!

[we-are-inevitable]

can i force u to think abt newsies and masks and types of heroes. can i force it into ur brain. maybe. -@jack-kellys

ill do you one better.

---

"It's bad," Jack says, the words tumbling out of his mouth before he can catch them. "I'm bad, David. I'm bad luck."

They're sitting in the rubble. Something is burning, and neither of them know what it is. Up in flames, they said. His partnership with David, whatever that means, would end up in flames. And Jack had fought hard to provide some sort of safety, of stability, but when have his wants ever mattered that way?

"I don't care."

And there David is, breaking through his defenses.

Jack is sitting on his knees on the ground as it happens. His face is bare, smattered with blood and dirt and grime, and he watches, shaking, as David kneels in front of him. David picks up Jack's mask from the ground. Two jagged halves, split.

Slowly, he looks up, and Davey takes in Jack's face for the first time.

Jack fights back the urge to cringe. He knows what he is. He's rough edges, he's scars and imperfections, he's a split lip and bruised eye socket and nothing good. Nothing pure, nothing David deserves to see.

"I don't care," David repeats, his voice softer. "I understand. You don't have to be perfect, Jackie."

"But I do. I have to- I have to be good."

"You're good just like this," David's hands shift, and Jack sees him gently place one half of the mask in his hand with the other, then uses his free hand to gently cup Jack's face- a mess, a rotten thing, something to be concealed. "You're good just like this."

Jack doesn't know if he believes it. Not even as David's thumb runs along his cheekbone.

David pulls his hand away, then looks down at the broken mask. He puts the pieces together, then slowly holds the mask up again, hiding Jack's face.

"This is good too," he whispers. "You can keep this, if you'd prefer."

Jack takes in a shuddering breath. "I can't- Davey, I..."

"I know," David says softly, smiling like it's the easiest thing in the world. "I know. You're okay."

With trembling hands, Jack takes the mask. He holds the cracked pieces to his face, and David leans forward, pressing his forehead to the mask- accepting it. Accepting Jack, in any form.

Up in flames. Down in smoke.

Jack can be the hero if David's by his side.

[be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie]

I've been complaining a lot lately about people not having enough media literacy but seeing some of ya'll's takes on this banger new season of Black Mirror has me wondering if you guys have... too much media literacy.

[buggbuzz]

lemonade leak just updated so we are celebrating with another bit of art!!! i was gonna wait to post til my account got unshadowbanned but screw it here we go

(fanart of the lemonade leak by @turtleinsoup!!!)

[itspileofgoodthings]

.

[myersesque]

so like. what is the general consensus abt getting gale's orb tattooed on u. bc i relate to him n his backstory a fuckton and Really Want It (no promises i'll listen to the general consensus, i just wanna know what it is)