#nothing has actually changed

[lazylittledragon]

Does Cyra's childhood trauma carry over to Baldur's Skate and does she have any bonus skating related trauma

yeah i think it’s all pretty much the same just with extra layers of awful

[wandixx]

I've seen a lot of different takes on Fear Toxin/other fear causing stuff (Yellow Lanterns Ring or something)(later just called Fear Toxin cause I'm lazy) but here is another one.

Danny seems like he isn't affected by Fear Toxin because his biggest fear is that his accident changed him so much he is no longer human, he can no longer truly experience human things.

So when he gets lungful of fear Toxin, he feels normal. He was antsy before, because c'mon, it's a rogue attack but it's not worse. Or so he thought. Because the anxiety lingers. Not enough to register as abnormal just this slight hypervigilance that makes you see things about yourself and your surroundings that you'd never realize otherwise. He'd realize he doesn't blink as often. He'd realize that if he doesn't consciously focus, he sometimes seems to not touch the ground. Forgets to breathe. He can't feel his own pulse at time. He'd realize people will miss him when he's walking down the street as if he was invisible (people just don't care about everyone they pass by). When he'd look straight into his reflection, he'd look slightly to the left. Not enough to actually name anything that was wrong but just stretched enough to fall on the wrong side of the uncanny valley. If he just caught his reflection in the peripheral vision, it'd be vaguely shadowy creature with glowing green eyes and white smoke instead of hair. Overall he'd be just wrong enough to be distinctly not human.

For everyone else, he'd be just a dude. Literally couldn't find more normal dude than this dude. Will pass as absolutely normal human unless someone is specifically looking for ecto-ghost stuff. Even most magic users wouldn't clock him at the glance

Tldr: Fear Toxin makes Danny perceive himself as some sort of eldritch horror but not enough to make him believe he'd actually be affected, while from outside perspective he's Just A Dude™

[wasyago]

me when i work as a humble bartender and not a double agent against multiple governments

[bonefall]

Splashtail and Atheism

Hello. I am an Atheist and I call Splashstar an Atheist because he is based on widespread bigoted depictions of godless people like myself. There have now been several posts about this written as if they're trying to "correct a misconception," and I am tired of vagueposts completely missing the point of the criticism to get caught up on arguing semantics.

The misanthropic, god-hating "Atheist" character in Christian propaganda, which I feel Splashstar has some alarming similarities with, does not come from the writer's correctable "misconception" of irreligious labels. It is born from a hatred of nonbelievers.

Specifically, my point that Splashtail is a mashup of two popular anti-secular tropes common in religious media;

The assertion that there's no such thing as a "real" nonbeliever, and that Atheists are just "rebelling" against God because we're mad at him, want to do bad things without guilt, or have "lost our way."

The belief that morality itself stems from faith in a higher moral being, asserting that the irreligious are "evil" in contrast to the faithful.

Even passing familiarity with the arguments of Christian apologia seen in Chick Tracts, Pureflix films, PragerU videos, and so on, will have put these tropes in front of you. They are false and harmful, and they target Atheists.

For more on this, TVTropes has an entire article dedicated to the Hollywood Atheist and its sub-tropes. Note how many of these Curlfeather and Splashtail fall into, regardless of if you're arguing that they are "real atheists" or not.

Those that hate us do not care about semantic labels. To them, we are without God, A-Theistic, and they do not actually care what is at the core of your beliefs if it contradicts their narrative.

But, even worse, the "Splashtail Can't Be An Atheist" crowd isn't even totally correct on the semantics they're trying to have a pedant battle about.

Most atheistic organizations and online atheists define Atheism as "one who does not believe in God" and attempt to push a sliding scale of "agnosticism" on how hard of a "maybe" you're feeling about your lack of faith. In the sliding agnostic scale, Agnostic Atheists are a "probably no god" and Gnostic Atheists are a "definitely no god." Others describe that scale as "hard" and "soft" Atheism-- but there is NOT universal agreement on that definition.

There other definitions of an "Atheist," and even those who reject the "agnostic scale" completely (I am one of them). "Atheism" was historically the catch-all term for what we might now call "Irreligious," and more.

The Encyclopedia of Philosophy explores its many meanings, and proposes that what defines an Atheist is an active choice to distance oneself from faith; "Someone who rejects the premise of gods either based on lack of belief, or meaninglessness of the question." Matt Dillahunty, a prominent educator and activist, intentionally refers to himself as an Atheist when others (including religious people!) have tried to pressure him into using the label Agnostic, for reasons he covers in great depth. Historically, "atheist" simply meant anyone who denied the gods or acted impiously, evolving into use as a broad label for irreligious practices around the 1500s, until attempts to narrow it to "nonbelievers in deities" in the 1800s.

By EoP's expanded definition alone, Splashstar qualifies as an Atheist. The rejection does not have to come from a belief that Theism is false, but that the question is meaningless. He doesn't have to "believe" in StarClan any more than you have to "believe" in a total stranger. He rejects faith in it and lives without their influence.

But even more than that, "atheist" is a broad, stigmatized term with a history you can't erase. Hundreds of combinations of philosophies, spiritual beliefs, and logical positions have been called "Atheism."

"Atheist" can refer to Agnostics (those who aren't sure if there is a god or not), Antitheists (opposition to the belief in and/or worship of gods), Igtheists (those that feel that "god" is such a nebulous term that the question of belief is meaningless), Apatheists (people who just don't care), practitioners of Non-Deistic religions (such as Humanistic Judaism and some sects of Buddhism), and even heretics who spoke against religion like Diagoras of Melos (gay guy who chopped up a statue of hercules and used it to bake beans. king.)

In a fantasy universe where gods are provably, visibly real, the term "Atheist" is going to look a lot more like those historic and expansive uses.

Unless you want to argue that "atheism" by the narrow, popular definition of "believing in deities" can't exist in such a setting. So, arguing that Cloudtail stopped being an Atheist when he saw demons in OotS, in spite of this not affecting his spiritual practices. Or, dancing around using one uniting term, you could specifically say Curlfeather is a Misotheist, Splashstar is an Antitheist or Agnostic, Mothwing is Deist, etc.

You could have a discussion about how applicable these words even are in the setting. Or make up terms that satisfy yourself. You could do this forever. But I choose not to.

I think it's counterproductive to push people to learn a bunch of terms for hyperspecific branches of irreligious philosophy just to discuss clear anti-secular sentiment within the text of a book, actually. Or push people to abandon a useful word because fantasy isn't exactly the same as real life. Functionally, imo, all of those aforementioned cats are Atheists within this setting, living "without god" by rejecting belief-- and many of them invoke real world bigotry, with tropes much older than WC itself.

So the simple fact is; Calling Splashtail an "Evil Atheist" immediately communicates the narrative tropes I am criticizing.

Either by authorial accident or on purpose, Splashstar's lack of morality being tied to his rejection of StarClan invokes the demonized atheist trope, very much like the ones seen in PureFlix's God's Not Dead or Jack Chick's The Last Generation.

All the arbitrary wishing that the terms were more narrow and exclusive will not change the reality that those characters are intended by bigots as atheists. The terms of the discussion reflect that. Trying to tut-tut the fandom for calling a spade a spade is a smug way to phrase you completely missed the damn point.

[gurggggleburgle]

the reason why Luo Binghe and Shen Yuan can't attic wife each other in there house and never leave is that they don't have internet or anything else around to help keep them moving. I think we chalk too much of Shen Qingqiu being a super productive person post transmigration often too much to reading into things and treating his unreliable narration as fact.

But like, what is he supposed to do all if not actually go outside and talk to people and get a job. Luo Binghe needs to do things other than be a housewife for his own sanity so he doesn't cabin fever. He can't live focusing his day around a singular person being in the room its not healthy and would drive him insane. These are not overly productive constantly doing things people. These are people doing things to make sure they aren't malaise slugs feeling nothing in their day to day drudgery.

This is just what a healthy post/pre internet mental state kinda looks like.

[watchingwisteria]

aziraphale, the one who gave the first human exiles his flaming sword as both a source of protection and warmth, who did not look on them as sinners deserving of destruction but people entitled to the best chances possible, has never once looked at crowley, a heavenly exile, with anything other than compassion and a desire to protect. from their first meeting, he never wanted anything bad to happen to him. when crowley slithers up to him in eden, he treats him like an equal rather than an adversary. when crowley appears, his eyes fill with love and excitement, his gaze turns soft and hesitant, his whole body seizes with joy of seeing him. crowley might typically the one to seek him out, but aziraphale has always welcomed him home.

[pro-sipper]

"- 'proshippers' or whatever the fuck you people are calling yourselves now -"

It's. It's still just "proshippers". It's you guys (antis) and the fence-straddlers trying to have their cake and eat it too that keep creating random new phrases to "other" and distance themselves from us. We're here, unchanging, same as ever, in our corner with our silly little stories. We aren't the ones interested in coming up with 500 new labels for people who know that fiction isn't reality.

[crippled-peeper]

spent early child life recovering and healing from the traumas of the worst storm to hit the continent in 100 years only to have other adult white neurodivergents try to tell me that it doesn’t count because I was too young and that talking about it makes me “desperate for attention”... sorry but if you can cry about being a gifted kid in middle school for 10 paragraphs straight despite being in your 30s now I’m allowed to refer to a trauma that happened to me when I was 6 that made international news. suck my ass

[humijpg]

I didn't even know the anniversary was today are you kidding

[chrkrose]

I think fandom needs to accept a certain fact regardless of their bias or headcanons: Nettles isn’t Daemon’s biological daughter. Period. No, there’s not “if” or “but”. End of discussion. She simply isn’t.

I’m not gonna argue about the nature of Nettles and Daemon’s relationship, because that is something that is up for interpretation (even though I think people oversell the idea that George wrote it to be this super ambiguous situation where we don’t know the truth. I think it’s pretty obvious what the truth is about, but I digress).

I’m talking about facts. And here they are:

Nettles was born in 113AC

Daemon was away from Westeros from 111AC to 115AC.

This is stated in several asoiaf books: Fire & Blood, A World of Ice and Fire and so on. It’s simply not possible for Daemon to be Nettles’ biological father, because he wasn’t even in Westeros during the time Nettles would have been conceived.

Fire&Blood is written by unreliable sources, but that doesn’t mean every piece of factual information is suspect. Core dates and events such as Daemon fighting a war on the Stepstones aren’t up for debate. “Oh, but what if he secretly returned to Westeros” “what if her mother was at the war and ran away” “what if” then George would have written it. Because this is all from George’s mind and if he wanted it that way, he would have it written that way. As it is, he hasn’t. And if we are going to bend canon so it can embrace our headcanons, then I might as well go as far and say that actually, Aegon was secretly named heir by Viserys and Rhaenyra was excluded from the line of succession, and are we sure Daemon wasn’t actually a woman and married to Viserys because at this point I’m just making up shit.

These are the facts as they are. Take it or leave it, ignore it or not, they won’t change. If you want to headcanon that they were father/daughter, feel free to do so. But that’s all that will be: a headcanon. It’s not a theory. It’s not a “maybe”. In canon, it’s not a possibility.

Daemon is not her biological father.

[journey-to-the-attic]

barbatos's villain outfit reminded me of doc ock and i've been wanting to try designing ik's spiderkid costume for a while, so here!

[arthur-lesters-right-arm]

Harlan Guthrie doesn't add romance to Malevolent because he voices all the characters and he knows that given his repertoire he'd have to make the most juicy wet sloppy immersive kissing noises and he reasonably doesn't want to do that.

[bluetiefling]

"Her time with Halbrand was a time where she was very much herself in some ways because she was an Elf alone. She wasn't following the rules of her people at that point. So, he knows a part of her that other people, other beings, don't, and there's a tragedy to losing that, and through losing him, she's also lost that part of herself. " --Morfydd Clark

I thought we were done with LA press day bounties and the latest drop brought the most devastating line yet. 😭 I could go on and on about this aspect of Galadriel's characterization and in particular what being around Halbrand/Sauron brings out of her compared to how she acts when she's back in the 'nest' as it were. I don't know if it's intentional or not but something about the way they've written Galadriel reintegrating back into her community just felt subtly stifling and like that'd be one thing if the writers were self-aware about it but I got the impression it's meant to be this 100% good/wholesome thing about maturation and growth. I think this is the first time someone from the show has spoken of it differently, because there is a Loss there too. A pretty profound one.

Yes she had reasons to feel guilty and that would mean a humbled Galadriel in season 2, but I couldn't help but also notice the way she holds herself, bites her tongue, struggles to contain her anger and pain, are all pretty similar to how she acted around the elves in season 1 before she was exiled. And we subsequently saw her really sparking and expressing everything she felt after jumping off that ship, meeting Halbrand, causing a ruckus on Numenor, etc etc. (With Habrand especially, I think the way I described it once when watching s1, the reason the dynamic really grabbed me and what I saw as Galadriel coming alive, is that he spoke to her like she was just a woman, the real flesh and blood person in between the black sheep of the elves or the untouchable Lady of Light. It's no wonder he got her to bare her soul in that forge.) I reject the idea that all of that was just this flawed part of her she needs to erase from her character to become the true Galadriel. Character growth should temper her more impulsive and reckless traits but not figuratively lobotomize her.

[autumnwhistles]

(note: this is purely from a character perspective, not a comment on CCs.)

grian and scar have now both been in opposite positions to the original 'cactus ring', and it's so interesting to compare their attitudes to sacrifice on both ends. whether or not scar threw the fight in the cactus ring, he did offer for grian to kill him before it began. grian declined this, but was clearly fighting with the intention to win during the fight itself – he's giving scar a chance, but not sacrificing.

in secret life, scar's on the other end of things. he's fighting another winner – who herself has been sacrificed for previously – and, like grian, is going into what he assumes to be a fair fight... but which is in his favour due to the others' willingness to sacrifice themselves for him. this is a common pattern for winners: in whichever order, they take the win once, and are once willing to sacrifice themselves to let another take it.

cut to wild life.

this time, it's grian in the final two once more, yet again against an – albeit more distant – ally. he's got a win under his belt already, so you might expect him to do what pearl did, what scott did, right? sacrifice their chance at glory to let another taste it for the first time.

and yet:

"I'm going to have to kill Joel"

"Can I win this? I worked so hard on this series, I'd love to win it!"

because here's an important thing about life series!grian: though he's willing to even the playing field, he's not willing to sacrifice – not when it matters. pledge your loyalty to right a wrong, yes; give lives to gain allies hours, yes; refuse others' sacrifices to fight on fair terms, yes. but in the end, no matter how much he wants to stick with friends, no matter how bad he feels about it, no matter how may "i'm so sorry"s he gives – he will put his own life first, in the end.

there's a reason he's the reason for so many of his allies' deaths, after all. and in its contrast, the wild life finale showcases this beautifully.

(and for the record, i don't see anything wrong with this from an out-of-univere perspective – it's been 5 seasons and 3.5 years since Grian's last win, and even if it hadn't been, it's the CCs place to judge fairness, not ours.)

[ryuki-draws]

I watched the Witch from Mercury recently and all I need now is Saionji wrecking three mech suits before getting expelled to camping

[grossdyke]

we as a society really need to get into the torrid awful years long harry/hermione affair that started with them stumbling into bed together during the horcrux hunt when ron left. btw