#obviously you have comprehension issues so hi have addressed it for you

[andrwgarfields]

how is it do haters want joe to address the whole “erasure of jewish identity” WITHOUT GIVING AWAY HIS CHARACTERS IDENTITY WHICH IS NOT EVEN CONFIRMED YET?

also fans never defended him saying he “doesnt know about it” fans mentioned that what he said was addressing the homophobia which is very much valid, way to take his comments out of context :D also if you dont like him then…dont bother keeping track of what he says lol

[dflogerzi]

I must have lost my mind... my comprehension... or priorities.

I am truly reeling. Fully, and by all sides of the arguments over a photo. There has not been so much of a bruhaha since the hordes of humanity were storming stores in search of toilet paper. It truly is blowing my mind.

Okay trying this again after once before as a Reblog to another today. But I have a few things to say and then I am going to leave this lay. I have NO idea if this will be long or short. But I am dang well hoping I feel better afterwards.

So there I was this afternoon, early, the phone rings. And it is my daughter-in-law whom has not called me since the second week of November. I see her name on the caller id, take a deep breath, and... she wants to talk about Catherine. What???? How about home, hearth, family, and the state of relationships? But okay. I went with it.

I am going to start this, what I hope is a mini-vent off with what I think of the photo submitted first. There is NO doubt it was a huge blunder. The week proceeding was already a fire storm demanding proof of life, relationship, and just about everything else you could throw into the mess. This was no time to release anything touched up whatsoever, and even for myself who loves and supports this wonderful person... the lack of wearing at the least her wedding band was just not a good look to send out worldwide. I do not care WHEN she wears or does not her dang rings privately. But now was not the time. I do believe she had good intentions and was just being naive. But she has been around the block for over two decades and firmly involved and in the trenches to what amounts to a modern-day War of the Roses.

Someone did not have her back.

Now to my main points, real concerns, and what are the TRUE problems, according to just little me, sitting in my cheap director's chair and calling out the scenes currently playing on the world stage.

People. This is going to pass. This is just the latest in the drama and the saga since Meghan Markle hit the royal family. The real danger from my view is not the photo or Catherine's intentions. The escalation and apparent hysteria of what could be real danger is truthfully what is my focus. When news agencies are checking the place of origin, metadata, timestamps, editing, and making judgements on integrity and the future of the monarchy based on a simple photo for Mother's Day... we have a HUGE issue. It is now far past time for the Wales family to be better secured, the British government to step in and take care of the obvious dangers that are growing exponentially, and priorities addressed as to the future.

I am FAR more concerned about William and his family at this point being safe, secure in where they are living, and the future of each of them an absolute priority. It is time for all involved with their protection and well-being to deal with what is so obviously happening. And I feel for William who most likely has the world, literally, on his shoulders. But it is for him to take the first stand.

This is not about a photo. This is a shot over the bow on the global stage.

Catherine dearest. Just heal please. Take care of you first. I will continue to keep you close in thought. You have given everything in honor, love, and duty for over 20 years. You take the time you need.

Going to publish this bad attempt at writing I suppose. Hope the madness ends soon. And I do not mean about a simple picture meant as a greeting to Mother's around the world...

[nattikay]

Shoutout to my mom who let me dump a bunch of spoilers on her so I could cry about Neteyam. Finally had the chance to get all that sobbing that dehydration robbed me of yesterday out of my system, and I’m feeling a little better now. I mean, the situation still makes me sad, but I don’t think I’ll continue to have my eyes suddenly start leaking every other hour like they did for most of today. :’)

so uuuhhh now that I’ve more or less gotten over that hurdle, I can finally sit down and make a post about all the other stuff from the movie! So here’s a list of some of the other thoughts and observations I had, not exactly comprehensive cuz this is all coming after 24 hours of grieving so I may not remember every single little thought I had, but here we go anyways (also tagging @tenebrius-excellium cuz you said you wanted to hear my thoughts):

-I just want to watch the first five or so minutes on loop for a while (although maybe without the cuts to Neytiri singing the songcord because 🥲, good golly the moment I saw that shot I, already being familiar with the lore behind songcords, was like oh NOOOOO), just the scenes of those ~14 peaceful years where the kids are growing up and the RDA is gone and everyone is happy together and it’s all just so sweet, this is the content I want, I want more of it, please pretty please, I know it’ll be a while before all the gif-makers are able to get a hold of those scenes but man as soon as they do goodness gracious I’m just gonna stare at it all for hours 😭

-While I was already assuming that the Metkayina didn’t actually know English and that we the audience were only hearing English for convenience, I was expecting that issue not to be directly addressed. So I was pleasantly surprised when it was subtly addressed with Jake’s voiceover about now being familiar enough with the Na’vi language to understand it as easily English as the audio of the kids bickering swapped from Na’vi to English. Theory confirmed!

-Speaking of the Na’vi language, I did feel very excited because I was able to understand some of the unsubtitled lines, which was a goal! so yay!! I mean, I didn’t understand every Na’vi line spoken (some of the longer ones I’ll definitely have to listen to more than once to piece together), but to even understand any of it at all, especially the ones without subtitles, felt very awesome!! dopamine rush babey!!!

-And on that note, the fact that Quaritch of all characters was making an effort to learn the language really surprised me! He struck me as the type of character to not give two craps about that sort of thing but hey. I definitely got a kick of out of Spider absolutely roasting him for his lack of skills hrh (note, I very most certainly do not condone actually mocking new learners making mistakes, obviously, but seeing as this is Quaritch we’re talking about...^^”) Spider’s line here was also a place I even managed to catch a subtitle discrepancy -- iirc, the subtitles read “You sound like a three-year-old!” but the actual line was nga plltxe na ‘eveng ahì’i! you speak like a small child! Which, I mean, y’know, same gist, but it was cool to be able to understand the actual words!! I also greatly enjoyed Spider trying to teach Quaritch the distinction between na and nga, just because man that’s one of those things every learner has been through, idk it was delightful to watch it go down between canon characters hrh

-Speaking of Quaritch and Spider....wow, I was surprised just how early they dropped the “Quartich’s son” bomb. That had been a pretty popular and plausible theory for a while, but I was expecting it to either be left up to interpretation or used as a bombshell later in the film. But nope, from the get-go it’s pretty heavily implied that not only is Quaritch Spider’s biological father, but that they’re both aware of this. So. Yeah, that was certainly a surprise.

-Kiri “I would rather drink acid than have Norm be my biological father” good gracious girl! like I mean yes the idea that Norm and Grace were secretly hookin’ up is obviously preposterous, but what did Norm ever do to you to deserve that reaction ^^; haha

-I mentioned in my High Ground post the three primary theories on Kiri’s origins. Having now seen the movie, I now think the mystical-Eywa-conception theory is by far the most likely. However, canonically it still remains a mystery/up to interpretation. Perhaps we’ll get more answers in movie 3...

-Y’know what, vulgarity is not typically my type of humor, but Lo’ak flippin’ Quaritch the double bird when asked to let him see his fingers did get a chuckle out of me hrh

-hey um yo the Metkayina kids were absolute JERKS, what the heck?? like good golly heckin’ rude. Except for Tsireya she’s chill I like her :)

-Personally I don’t think the story of this movie is a total rehash of the first one overall, but I can very mostly definitely see how people would consider it so. There were several lines in two scenes in particular, the one where the Sullies arrive at the Metkayina clan and the one with the tulkun hunters, that were just soooooo similar to lines from the first movie, not quite verbatim but certainly awkwardly close. I can absolutely see this becoming a common complaint from internet critics.

-Tuk pretty much solely exists to make the audience go d’awwwww!!, and y’know what, that’s ok because boy did she succeed :’)

-unfortunately, Quaritch’s ikran has by far the coolest design of all the ikrans, like bruh that color palette is heckin’ dope. what a shame ur now stuck with this jerk lol. Though I did snicker at Quaritch feeling the need to bond with the ikran “the hard way” solely because he couldn’t stand to be outdone by Jake lol

-I liked Lo’ak and Payakan’s friendship, it was very sweet. Also very interesting design-wise that a tulkun’s queue is in his mouth, and that the mouth has more of those bioluminescent patterns on the inside.

-The fact that the tulkun hunters are 100% aware that the species they’re hunting is fully sapient feels very ick to me. Sir that’s...that’s murder. Good gracious. and um “tulkun brain juice stops human aging” wh...what?? can uh...can we get some more explanation on that??? like is that gonna be somehow relevant to later movies or is it just some arbitrary thing to make the brain juice valuable, valuable enough to attempt to justify murder idk but uh....yyyyyyeah 😬

-minor thing, but I was surprised that the swimming baby from the trailer was, in fact, not Ronal’s. In fact, we never actually meet Ronal’s baby, which, again, surprised me. Why make her pregnant if we don’t get to see the baby, it feels kinda random ^^; to link her to her spirit tulkun who just had a calf I guess?? idk. once again, maybe it’ll become more relevant in movie 3.

-until proven otherwise, I am heretofore declaring that final “a son for a son” line to be Spider’s official adoption into the Sully family 😭😭😭

anyways, I guess that’ll do for now. I’m sure there was other stuff but I’ve been sitting here typing for over an hour already. Perhaps later I’ll come back with more comments, idk. I’ll be seeing the movie again next week with the rest of my family, so maybe I’ll notice different things/remember stuff that got swallowed up in the feels. Will I cry more than I did on my first viewing because I’m gonna try not to go in dehydrated again, or less because by then I’ll have had a week to process and accept everything? I have literally no idea. Guess we’ll have to just wait and see...

[sueske]

Not to come off as pretentious but it really feels like no one but people on tumblr are able to really understand sasuke, naruto and their relationship. Like on other sites like tiktok, twitter or Instagram, of course you have it infected with hinata and Sakura fans who just naturally have bad takes but you also have sns fans who just like….. have embarrassingly bad takes.

I remember seeing a tiktok video about sns and it was an okay “analysis” it was just discussing like very base level things Sasuke’s character. but then they just go on to say that’s why he’s a top. Because “he needs to be in control. He likes having control. His abandonment issues lead him to needing to dominate someone to help him feel like he finally has agency in his life. Naruto being that someone is natural because of his fem / wife coding throughout the series. It’s been stated subliminally numerous times that naruto is the submissive in their relationship, he needs to be controlled unlike sasuke because he’s so rowdy and chaotic.” And like………. That’s an interesting take.

And the fact it got like around 2000 likes just kinda made me realize that sns tiktok fandom does not really understand sns at all and have likely not actually consumed the media and just got their information from other tiktok people or YouTube.

not the top bottom discourse crap…

I agree with u actually, the most nuanced and comprehensive takes I’ve seen about naruto have been on tumblr, including Japanese stuff as well that non speakers wouldn’t know about. Doesn’t help the viz official translation censors and changes stuff either. Granted there are bad takes on tumblr as well but u won’t find well written canon only essays about sns on a TikTok slideshow (at least from what I’ve seen.) personally I feel that tumblr is the easiest to use, I don’t like the character limit on Twitter and am pretty sure Reddit mods can do whatever they want. I’ve found some okay analysis on YouTube about naruto and sasuke and their bond, but I feel like they’re surface level, or could go deeper in some places and then don’t, and even if they do get it right for the most part the fact of the matter is sns’ bond is also romantic, not touching on that leaves things unfinished imo. Some naysayers in the comments section always seem to want to clarify that their bond is platonic or ‘sns are just bros’ - which, if people addressed one of sns’ biggest running plot threads that happens every single time they meet up in person (and not clones) from vote1 to the end (what are we?) - they’d perhaps realise something and sing a different tune. but yet no one does (at least from what I’ve seen?) or take moments singularly which I think is a shame since they’re very obviously connected and they’re very important. I guess it speaks volumes that they don’t and leave that untouched. I’d really love to watch a sns analysis video so it can reach a wider audience that covers their entire bond, their mutual understanding and pure love and empathy AND how it’s also romantic, the tropes, the literary devices, etc used to achieve this. I know some people complain that romantic bonds are glamorised in media and that they’re seen as somehow ‘more’ than platonic bonds, as a means to dissuade people from shipping sns romantically, but like sorry. sns are romantic and that’s how kishimoto wrote them and I can see it and others can see it and even if people can’t see it clearly they can at least feel it which is why sns are gay comments are everywhere lol.

[writerbuddha]

Do you think writers should use more of a well-defined morality approach to the widespread "grey"? Though the former has always been criticized for its simplicity and irrelevant to the real world, the franchise under George Lucas looked like a gateway for philosophical understanding. If possible, as someone who understands it well, what is your opinion on the separation of Pure Evil (ingrained by DNA) and Broken characters?

I think that when it comes to writing, we need to distinguish between layout and morality, because only then we can address the problems with separating Pure Evil and Broken characters!

I think writers should use a more well-defined morality approach, but that's different from the conventional morality approach, I call it light-and-dark morality as opposed to black-and-white.

Layout: "black-and-white" and "grey"

BLACK-AND-WHITE LAYOUT:

In black-and-white layout, the characters are arranged along clearly and strictly defined lines: we have the heroes who are Good and we have the villains who are Evil. We have these sides opposing each other, and it's very clear which side we should identify with and who should win. The overwhelming majority of the most popular stories of our time, including but not limited to George Lucas' Star Wars, uses black-and-white layout. Jedi Knights versus Sith Lords, the Rebellion versus the Empire, the humans versus the orcs, wizards and witches versus the Death Eaters, Gandalf the White versus the Dark Lord, Snow White versus the Evil Queen, the Pevensie children versus the White Witch and so on. It's important to note that this doesn't mean that heroes can't turn into villains and villains can't turn into heroes, nor does it mean that there can't be hero figures on both sides, but but it means, that will always be a clear shift from Good to Evil and from Evil to Good, or that the heroes of the Evil side are deceived.

Black-and-white layout sometimes might allow for "grey" characters. The mildest example of this might be Grumpy in Snow White, who is quite hostile to the sweet princess, but who obviously loves her, and then there is Hondo Ohnaka in Clone Wars, who is a criminal and serving only himself, but there are signs of willingness to do good. But most often than doesn't, "grey" eventually must choose.

GREY LAYOUT

Grey layout is understood to be a relatively new type of layout for a story, but Homer's Iliad could be one of the most ancient surviving examples of it: there is a king who fights for his honor, a king who fights for his city, a prince who fights for love, a warrior who fights for glory. We can identify and empathize with both sides, or at least we can find both sides' actions comprehensible, plausible. I think the best example of grey layout today would be Netflix' Arcane, where, even though we can point out the least sympathetic characters, we can't comfortably declare one side Good or Right and the other Evil or Wrong, whereas in black-and-white layout, this is a very easy task.

Grey layout can be seen as a more realistic layout for a story, trying to address complex, contemporary issues, while the black-and-white layout is more metaphorical, focusing on conveying universal lessons and messages in an abstract way that can be translated to concrete situations. In this sense, stories with grey layout seek to present reality and bring attention to concrete issues in the real world, and stories with black-and-white layout are focusing on presenting role models, to raise human beings who are able to solve concrete issues.

Morality: "black-and-white," "black-and-broken-and-flawed-and-white," "grey" and "light-and-dark"

BLACK-AND-WHITE MORALITY

Black-and-white morality can exist only in a black-and-white layout, but it's crucial to understand, black-and-white layout doesn't always results in black-and-white morality. In fact, black-and-white morality stories are quite rare and they can end up being criticized for being overly simplified and for failing to be applicable to reality. In black-and-white morality, everything between birth and death can be seen as a war between clearly and sharply defined poles of Good and Evil. Good is always the most morally pure and satisfying, most just and also nicest thing to do, and the Good Ones are always doing Good.

The only ones who are dissatisfied with them are the Evil Ones, who are willfully and consciously fighting against the morally pure and satisfying, the just and nice, and do Evil, the exact opposite, instead. Black-and-white morality isn't trying to explain or understand Evil, it only focuses on identifying it, locating it and destroying it, which is, of course, the Good thing to do. In black-and-white morality, Evil is understood to be either as is a quality that we are born with (i.e. "ingrained by DNA") or that Evil is something like an infection that is nevertheless under our conscious control (i.e. "you sold your soul!") Lord of the Rings is the closest thing to black-and-white morality stories: the heroes are creatures of light and grace or modesty and simple good-will, they're noble and well-meaning, even though they can be corrupted by Evil, which is a creature of fire and darkness, leading an army of deformed, vile, animalistic monsters.

BLACK-AND-BROKEN-AND-FLAWED-AND-WHITE MORALITY

The reason why black-and-white morality faces with increasing criticism for is the fact that it fails to address the complexity of life: whenever we look deeply into the heart of someone we identified as Evil, we find that they actually don't meet the criteria: they, just like ourselves, simply want to be happy and not to suffer, and this is at the core of everything they do. They don't see themselves as Evil, they didn't vow to destroy Good. In fact, more often than doesn't, they're, too, victims of Evil. Black-and-white morality is sometimes replaced with another type of morality that includes Broken, who is like a white chess pawn moved by the player who is with black: they are not Evil, but, in truth, they're Good, who are the victim of Evil, and because the Evil that was done to them, they are twisted to a place where they themselves do Evil. It would be important to realize that this is still black-and-white morality: it insists on the existence of Evil that must be identified and destroyed without any hesitation or compassion and it asks us to believe and not to ask questions when it points at someone and says "Evil" and at another saying, "Broken."

The morality that separates Evil and Broken is just black-and-white morality trying to delay the inevitable collapse of the entire binary upon which it was built, and by doing so, it also paralyzes its heroes. Treating Broken characters as Evil would fail to meet with the criteria of Good, therefore, each and any character who decides to respond with countermeasures to the Evil done by Broken characters cannot be Good - they're flawed. In fact, so the reasoning goes, Good would make Good attractive enough for the Broken, so they won't choose Evil, thus ultimately, anything that the Broken character did, was the fault of the Flawed characters. True Good characters must gather all their Goodness and radiate it to Broken characters, and turning them back to Good as a result. It would be important to note that this type of morality is often presented as relevant and nuanced, but in truth, it's an even more severely absolutist morality that cannot tolerate nuance and fails to address the complexities of life, insisting on a dangerously simplistic view. However, its popularity is growing in fandoms, even though to this date, it manifested itself only in hot takes built on "death to the author!" theory.

GREY MORALITY

Grey morality can be defined in many ways, but it's essentially the rejection of black-and-white morality paired with the view that Good and Evil are both just ideas and the line between right and wrong is blurred. Although grey morality is seen by many as the morality that moves beyond the dichotomy of Good and Evil, it should be noted that it stops at rejecting this dichotomy - it's either not equipped or not willing to explore a post-black-and-white reality. For this reason, apart from dwelling on the absence of the clearly and strictly defined lines dividing Good and Evil, stories adopting grey morality are not really having much to say, it doesn't really know where to go from there, since although it pushed the old moral compass aside and didn't make a new one to navigate. Grey heroes are usually angsty, edgy, "not good so that's bad but not evil, so that's good" figures.

It should be noted that stories adopting grey morality can deal with complex and relevant issues and can communicate very important messages, and grey characters can develop or mature. In fact, most of them ends up doing immense good to others, so grey morality sooner and later does try to a re-establish black-and-white layout, but it presents heroes and role models who are careful not to rise the bar too high, since grey morality holds an essentially skeptical views on humanity. Although it won't come to any profound conclusion about Good and Evil and how to conduct ourselves in the world, it does try to update Good and Evil in a way that says, "It's OK. No one is perfect, just keep trying to do your best, that's all that can be asked, really." Game of Thrones or Hunger Games might be good examples of this.

LIGHT-AND-DARK MORALITY

Although light-and-dark morality can exist both in black-and-white layout and grey layout, it's the least popular type of morality, since it challenges the conventional story of Good and Evil, even though it defines "good" and "evil" very strictly and clearly. In a nutshell, light-and-dark morality tells us: anything we resent in another person is also within ourselves, a part of all that lives. Evil behavior arises as a result of other causes and conditions, the "dark" parts of ourselves: fear, anger, hate aggression, greed, selfishness, bitterness, jealousy and so on, and an Evil Person is a person who is under the sway of these parts themselves. Therefore, although light-and-dark morality acknowledges the reality of conflict, in place of the struggle between Good and Evil and the quest to identify and destroy external Evil, it emphasizes identifying and conquering our own dark side and the understanding of the true nature of Evil, as a way of really winning battles between what is understood as Good and Evil. Therefore, the struggle is to keep the roots of Evil within ourselves under check and to cultivate compassion, wisdom, generosity and mindfulness.

Light-and-dark morality, therefore, proposes, there is no Evil that we can identify and destroy and then label it a Good and Right thing to do, to which only those will object who are consciously and willfully chose to fight against the most morally pure, most satisfying and nicest thing. This is a conclusion that black-and-white morality tries to avoid by separating Evil and Broken characters, since it clings on the notions of absolute Good and absolute Evil. The light-and-dark morality tale equates Evil with Broken, and it indicates, we must be able to recognize when we have to stop fighting for the Broken and we have to start to fight for those who must be protected from the Broken, who inflicts pain and suffering and harm onto others. Thus, light-and-dark morality rejects the idea, the Good and Right thing is always satisfying and just and nice to everyone: it proposes, we must accept, in many cases, the right thing to do isn't the nicest, the most gentle or most pleasant or most agreeable thing to do; the wrong thing to do isn't always the nasty, mean, unkind, unpleasant thing to do. And unlike grey morality that blurs the lines between good and evil, light-and-dark morality proposes, everything has a dark and a light side: there is no action that is inherently good or evil, whether it becomes a good or an evil act will depend on our motivations and the circumstances we're in. George Lucas' Star Wars story is one of the best examples of light-and-dark morality: he defined the battle between Good and Evil is defined as a battle between selflessness and selfishness, that is, in truth, the battle between no-fear and fear. Jedi Knights are focusing on doing good and to prevent evil from rising, but in order to do that, they must do things that aren't Good according to the criteria established by black-and-white morality.

[rainbowsky]

Hi 🌈☁️

I am happy to see GG getting enough rest and able to stroll around Italy freely without any public interference. He or DD will not have this much privacy and freedom in China.

My question is why can’t the Chinese govt or police do anything about celebrity stalkers and crazy paparazzis?

Hi Anon 😊

A couple things come to mind with this question.

First of all, GG is in a foreign country where he's almost entirely unknown by the public. Of course he's going to be able to wander around freely and relatively unbothered. In China it's a completely different story. He is much more well known there, and his face is plastered everywhere. He has many millions of fans there, plus countless others who would recognize him if they saw him.

Second, I would challenge the idea that the Chinese government isn't doing anything about these fans. A significant part of the Chinese government's mandate lately has been to try to quell fan culture. Of course, their motivations are primarily self-centered rather than an interest in protecting stars, but it's something they're focused on.

Stalker fans are also frequently charged and or sued for their behavior, but it is a complicated problem. Many of these fans are underage, so there are limits to what can be done to curtail their behavior. They do not face the same charges and consequences as adults doing the same things would face.

There's also the fact that there are a lot of regular fans and fansites who follow artists around and take pictures of them. In that scrum outside of the Tod's store in Milan, for example, there were multiple fansites and bystander fans present. Reining in the behavior of stalker fans while still ensuring legitimate fan activity isn't interfered with would not be an easy task.

Who decides who is a legitimate fan and who is a stalker fan? Can you think of any potential negative consequences of putting that choice into the hands of the government and the authorities?

Another issue is the fact that there's so much money to be made by stalking stars. This is something that we as fans should be conscious of. I regularly see turtles and other fans sharing and talking about material that was obviously obtained by these creeps, so fans are often talking out of both sides of their mouth when they say that they hate the fact that GG and DD are being hounded, while at the same time getting excited about photos and information that were obtained through that behavior.

And let's not forget all the fans in Italy and Europe who were extremely excited to head out to the airport in Milan even after everything that happened in Beijing just hours before. And people went to great lengths to see him at the store and at the fashion shows as well. His fans organized very heavily to make those things happen. This all contributes to the masses around him, and there's a very fine line. Who wouldn't want a chance to see him in person? At the same time, is it a good idea for everyone to be there?

There are definite public order concerns that should probably be addressed more comprehensively, but the handling of all that isn't entirely centralized. Just like every other country in the world, China has many different levels of government and many different agencies and representatives responsible for such things.

And when it comes to a country like China that has a very authoritarian government, it's difficult to wish for there to be more government involvement in policing fan culture and fan behavior.

Of course I and many others believe that more can and should be done, particularly in airports, but we need to acknowledge how complicated the problem is.

All of that aside, I think is the idea that GG and DD can't go out and do normal things is actually pretty obviously untrue. They have both been sighted/photographed out and about in Beijing for example (separately), shopping and doing their own thing without being hassled. GG spent an entire day hanging around Universal Studios not that long ago and wasn't bothered at all.

The airport fiasco was unfortunate, and there have been a couple of other recent situations where things got out of hand, but I don't think it's helpful to take examples like that and let our minds get carried away into assuming that's how it is every time they go anywhere. It's simply not true.

There are risks and sacrifices that come with being famous, and that's something we have to accept. It's understandable that seeing GG wander around somewhere he isn't famous would make us feel sadness for the much freer life he has in Italy vs. the one he lives back home where he's outrageously famous, but I don't think it's worth spending too much time worrying about.

GG and DD have been doing a very good job of taking care of themselves and looking out for their privacy, safety and security, and I trust them to continue to do so.

On this subject - @potteresque-ire wrote an interesting and detailed post a while back about Chinese paparazzi that is a must-read.

[distort-opia]

Every single week for years and years now I have to see another - Batman sucks why doesn't he just kill the Joker- hit post and I am exhausted. It is a tiring take. Really boring. With no new and fresh concepts, no deep dives, barely read comics where all of this is addressed. What continues to be the worst of it for me is a) treating Bruce like he is a fully mentally stable individual devoid of irrational, extreme, trauma induced behaviours and reasoning b) thinking Batman is supposed to be presented as an actual 100% good guy superhero and writers are somehow being stupid and not realising how this lowers his heroism. It always boils down to the very act of seeing Batman kill the psychotic murderer and then zero clue what happens around it, and where the character is then taken. What could be very interesting and impactful arc is reduced to the most basic level moral dilemma and flattened out characters. No psychological sides to it at all, just black and white ethics discussions and vibes.

Myeah, I know what you mean. I occasionally see those kinds of posts as well, even with my rather curated fandom experience. The most grating are indeed the ones that reflect a shallow comprehension of Batman -- why he doesn't kill, what kind of character he is, and what sort of world he lives in. There is a lack of understanding regarding why Batman operates the way he does, and a reductive puritanical approach that morally flattens the characters into versions of themselves devoid of nuance... But on the part of many people making these kinds of posts, I don't think there's any genuine interest in reading more comics, or delving into the complexities of this dilemma. They aren't interested in engaging with the source material on its own terms, or taking context into account.

Aggressive statements calling Batman's no-killing rule stupid, and saying that Batman should kill Joker, were more frequently "Edgy Redditor" takes back in the day; often coming from male fans who wanted Batman to basically become the Punisher. But on Tumblr, their popularity in recent years is rather owed to the rise of purity culture, and especially this kind of... performative moral stance-taking that keeps popping up in fandoms. It's easy to know next-to-nothing about Joker as a character, but still hate on him and churn out Post #20568 about how Batman should kill him. After all, he's abusive and toxic and he killed people, so he surely deserves to die. "I, a pure and deeply moral individual, hate the Joker and don't understand why Batman won't just kill him! Watch me righteously and publically denounce this sinner Problematic Character, and whoever does not follow in my stead must be a sinner Problematic person just like he is!" And then the people who wish to come across as righteous and denouncing this Horrible Bad Character too will provide these posts with attention, and round and round it goes. For this kind of fan, it doesn't really matter where killing Joker leaves Bruce psychologically, or if it makes sense for him to do it narratively. It's not about the characters at all, it's a moral statement -- that conflates real-world rules and morals with the ones of a fictional comic-book world, but that's another much bigger issue.

Also, I did mention it elsewhere, but I'll reiterate that the people who simply dislike Joker for different reasons and mind their own business are obviously excluded from this. People with critical thinking skills, who tag their anti posts and don't harass or spew hate towards other fans who enjoy Joker as a character, are following basic fandom etiquette -- the best thing we can do to keep fandom a peaceful and pleasant experience. No one owes anyone an explanation for why they like one thing and dislike another. We're all playing in a fictional sandbox, and I've seen great meta discussion on Batman's no-killing rule on here, with some insightful and interesting opinions; but this kind of fun debate can only happen if fans don't jump to bite each other's heads off when someone veers away from the dogma Accepted Popular Fandom Opinion.

Anyway, yeah, I do commiserate, Anon. Hope it helped to vent a bit! My advice is to do your best to curate your own little corner of fandom; minimize contact with the people that exhaust you as much as you can.

[golbrocklovely]

i was thinking back at all the times the fandom was really fucking embarrassing and two moments stuck out to me

when everyone on twitter was congratulating stas and colby getting together acting like if he ever was in a relationship he’d announce it on snapchat 😭😭 i remember some of those tweets having hundreds of likes too. and it was all for nothing bc shortly after tomorrowland colby moved to vegas and stas felt abandoned lol

and then another embarrassing moment was when colby was first hanging out and filming videos with amber so like 2020? and he must’ve also been around mlp at that time bc her fans for some reason concocted a ridiculous theory that colby was only hanging out and being casually flirty with amber to hide the fact that he was in a relationship with mlp LMAO like people actually believed that 😭

no one in this fandom actually uses context clues, especially on twitter, bc if you looked into colby’s life even a little bit you would know that he was very much single and acting single during both instances when people thought he was secretly with someone

omg not malishkagate lmaooooo

what's so funny about that time period is all the fans that tweeted congratulations were ppl i followed at the time on twitter. and what's worse is a lot of them were older fans, like 24+. like…. yall are way too fucking old to be shipping him with someone he is friends with over a goddamn snapchat.

i think what was more curious about that too is some of them literally said 'oh i knew this was coming, we all kinda knew secretly they were together :)' and i'm like…. how did you know that?? was a certain someone telling you this super secret information, possiblly in a gc??? …just out of curiousity.

also… obviously stas wrote that caption. she clearly asked colby to film her dancing, which he did, and then she took his phone and added the malishka part. like, you really think the man that doesn't even know what the word 'gaudy' or 'ostentatious' means would know a completely different language, in particular pet names in that language??? and that language just so happens to be the one that stas knows how to speak???? SURE.

now that amber/mlp story, i did not know about. but that is really funny.

that fandom of hers just can't compute that maybe, just maybe, he only sees mlp as a friend and nothing more. no matter how cuddly or cute they are together, he doesn't want her in that way.

what's even funnier, and ties in, is when him and mlp made their last AB video, the one in late 2020, so many of her fans were coming out of the woodwork to say that they were finally getting together, that they were getting back together (bc they can't come up with a straight story line), they were gonna finally address the rumors about them and come clean, ect. and in reality, that man was hooking up with an entirely different girl. he had a whole other girl he was getting with. but again, WEIRDLY, for some reason mlp's fans believed him and mlp were getting together….. i wonder why that's the case, and i wonder if that had anythin to do with a gc as well…

and yes, the inability to use context clues, or just reading comprehension in general, is a pressing issue in this fandom.

[enderwalking]

ok here's my comprehensive post about it based on what we currently know and how i'm currently feeling.

about dream: even in the very best case scenario here, he's a massive idiot who has hugely violated the acceptable boundaries between creator and fan, and he has demonstrated repeated disrespect for his community with the way he has brushed things off in addressing them. and that's the BEST case scenario based on what he's readily admitted; i don't think i have to detail how vile the worst case is. i've stood in dream's corner through a lot of bullshit, and i don't even really consider myself to have been wrong in those instances, but again, even giving the most benefit of the doubt imaginable and assuming that all the more explicit allegations are entirely false, this is still not a guy i can continue to invest any sort of positive energy towards. like this is where i have to pump on the parasocial brakes and put a stop to things.

about the dsmp: i'm a lorehead, this much is obvious. i honestly don't know how my investment in the story that is so intrinsically tied to dream is going to continue. obviously, plans have been made, and speaking selfishly, i do want to see the characters i love round off their arcs. but this isn't like a movie or a show where you can clearly partition character vs creator. and well, it's not the first time that lore has been used in a blatant attempt to sweep serious issues under the rug; dreamxd and c!dteam lore has always been some of my favorite, and yet to this day i have not been able to look back at that stream without contempt. unfortunately, the promise of upcoming lore leaves the same sour taste. part of me hopes that tommy and ranboo and whoever else who was planning on rounding off their arcs just decide to drop their google docs and be done with it. i don't know. perhaps eventually i'll be able to reapproach the story and characters with a healthy separation in mind, but that time is definitely not going to be in the immediate future.

about other dsmp ccs in general: i think that it's too early yet to make any judgments on how other ccs in dream's circle are handling things. i'll definitely have to wait and see how things unfold before determining who else i feel the need to cut ties with. i highly doubt sapnap or george would ever speak up against dream or ever continue content creation without his involvement; that very much feels like a "if they go down they go down together" situation. as for others, well. again, selfishly speaking, i want to hold out hope for the ccs who have distinct enough communities that they could feasibly distance their content from dream. i am tentatively considering sbi and co? i guess safe? for the time being? but it's definitely like. idk, i will probably keep my distance and wait to see how things get handled.

about the future of this blog: i think it's been pretty obvious that this blog has become more heavily hermit/trafficlife focused as of late, so if nothing else i'll probably just lean into that more? though being completely honest, i made this sideblog in the first place because i was returning to tumblr after like a solid 3-4 years of inactivity, where i knew that i had long-standing mutualships with fervent dsmp antis and didn't want my every post to be judged lmao. i don't especially mind being cringe about other mcyts on main, which is why i was saying that i might transition more to posting over at @strifetxt in the future? i'm not certain about that though, i like the categorization i've established here, so who knows. i'm definitely not deactivating this blog; even if i do transition fully to main, i'd want to keep this blog as an archive.

regardless of anything, i don't regret the fun i had in this community, and i certainly could never regret getting to meet and spend time with all the amazing people i've come to know in my time here <3

[sasquapossum]

I've been thinking a lot about the overlap between far-right authoritarianism ("MAGA") and evangelical Christianity. Most people can probably see that there is a high degree of overlap, but are a lot murkier on its origin or nature. It's not one side driving the other, as many seem to think. It's more of a synergy between two beliefs, which I'll try to explain.

On the religious side, a lot of this comes down to an obsession with John 3:16.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

In common interpretation, this is taken to mean that as long as you "give your heart" to Jesus that alone ensures your salvation. Nothing else is required. This belief comes from the five solas (especially sola fide with a side of sola gratia) that literally define all of Protestant Christianity but have been taken to an extreme in US evangelical sects. Notably absent is the idea of salvation through acts. Words and feelings alone suffice, which is why so much of evangelicals' behavior seems to performative. Unlike most religions - including Catholic or Orthodox Christianity - their doctrine does not require them to do anything.

In broader terms, this is a variant of the idea that who you are determines righteousness and the rewards that flow from it, rather than what you do. As long as you make loud noises about being part of the in-group, anything you do can not be wrong. By contrast, if you don't make such noises you can and will be judged harshly even for actions that are harmless. The idea of infinite grace necessarily sets up a division between those who supposedly have it and those who don't.

On the secular side, there's a common belief (in the US) that "freedom" means only lack of legal (or other socially enforced) prohibition - "freedom to" in common parlance. "Freedom from" (need, fear, suffering) is given relatively less attention. Anyone with a shred of reading comprehension or intellectual honesty can see that "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" in the Declaration of Independence meant both, but they still only see one.

According to this view, ensuring "freedom to" also ensures "freedom from" and therefore the latter doesn't need to be addressed separately. Never mind that their conclusion is manifestly not true in the real world. Maybe it even can't be true. It's mathematically impossible for everyone to be above average, to live in the nicest houses and attend the best schools. If your "need" is to perpetuate a fundamentally inequitable system - and for these people it most definitely is - then that's not compatible with satisfying other people's real needs ... so they don't. Instead they tell themselves that if someone else is poor it's their own fault. They had nothing to do with it. Not their problem to solve. Again, all empirically false, but it's what they tell themselves to feel better.

So, from the religious side we have the idea that identity matters more than actions (but don't call that "identity politics" for some reason). From the secular side we have "freedom to" as the only kind of freedom. It shouldn't be hard to see how these ideas reinforce each other. These ideas appeal to the same people. A lot of them just want to do whatever they want, without guilt or consequence. That's the "freedom to" part, but that's a problem because their freedom obviously comes at others' expense and they should feel guilty about that.

Here's where nominal Christianity comes in. They think it gives them a free pass. Not only will all be forgiven (for them only) but it also gives them an excuse for any inequity they help create. Whereas a laissez-faire capitalist might say poor people are poor because they don't work hard enough, an evangelical Christian will say they're poor because they haven't accepted Jesus. Either way, it's their fault and therefore not a moral issue for anyone else (Matthew 25:35-40 notwithstanding).

In conclusion, the two sets of ideas go together because they both satisfy the urge to "punch down" on the less fortunate within an inequitable system. Alone they each leave room for moral doubt. Together they cover each others' gaps, creating a "guilt free zone" where it's OK to do anything while simultaneously denying others even the basic right to live. Both beliefs are fundamentally supremacist, requiring the existence (and therefore oppression of) an underclass to sustain themselves, and we can all see where that has led historically.

[clatexam]

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[qqueenofhades]

Okay, I’ve read Joe Biden’s plans.

I’ve just sat down and spent several hours actually reading all the damn plans on his website, the whole thing, so you don’t have to. And here’s the conclusion:

They’re pretty good.

Are they absolutely everything we want immediately? Maybe not. Are they a solid Democratic agenda anyway? Yes they are. Are they better than Trump?

Light years!

His Violence Against Women plan is lengthy, detailed, and pays specific attention to violence against Native, lesbian and bisexual, low-income, disabled, rural, transgender (especially trans women of color) immigrant, domestic abuse victims, and other vulnerable women. He calls for replacing and expanding Obama-era policies and funding for campus sexual assault programs that DeVos trashed, and for providing money for culturally specific services that are sensitive to the diverse backgrounds of survivors. He also notes that sexual assault, while it predominantly affects women and girls, needs to be taken seriously and addressed for people of all gender identities.

His gun safety plan is forceful and lays out several steps for banning assault weapons, taking existing weapons from offenders, closing gun purchase background check and other legal loopholes, addressing the intersection between domestic violence and weapons ownership, and reducing or eliminating weapons and ammunition stockpiling.

His plan for tackling climate change and creating green jobs is also lengthy. He makes the connection between economic, environmental, and racial justice. He pledges to immediately rejoin the Paris Agreement and restore American leadership on the issue in pushing for even stronger climate standards, make climate change a central part of our trade, international, and justice goals, demand a worldwide ban on fossil fuel subsidies and tax breaks (!!!) and if the Green New Deal is passed, to sign it, as well as for the U.S. to achieve 100% clean energy and zero percent net emissions by 2050.

His healthcare plan is decent. It offers an immediate public option for all Americans regardless of private, employer, or no coverage, and generous new tax credits to put toward the cost of coverage. It strongly protects abortion rights and federal funding for Planned Parenthood, as well as rescinding the “gag rule” that prevents U.S. federal aid money from being used to provide or even talk about abortions in NGOs abroad. It attacks generic and drug price gouging. It calls for doubling the capital gains tax on the super-wealthy (from 20% to 39.5% paid on capital gains by anyone making over $1 million) to help fund healthcare reform. He also has a separate plan on the opioid crisis in America, and on older Americans and retirement, including the protection and re-funding of Medicare and Social Security.

His immigration plan is lengthy and detailed. He apologizes for and acknowledges the excessive deportation that occured during the Obama-Biden administrations, pledges to do better, and attacks Trump’s current inhumane acitivities on every front. The policy of children in cages, indefinite detention, the metered asylum system, and the Muslim Ban are gone on day one. In this and his LGBTQ plan, he notes the vulnerability of LGBTQ refugees, incuding LGBTQ refugees of color. He proposes streamlining of visa applications and prioritizing the immediate reunification of families. It also specifically states that ICE and CBP agents will be held directly accountable for inhumane treatment.

Speaking of which, his LGBTQ plan is comprehensive. It pays attention to multiple intersectional issues, down to the high rates of incarceration among trans people of color. (He also notes the rates of violence against trans women of color particularly.) He calls for a complete ban on conversion therapy and the discrimination against HIV-status individuals, as well as removing the ban on blood donation from gay and bisexual men. He will remove the transgender military ban immediately. He calls for funding for mental health and suicide prevention among LGBTQ populations.

His plan to empower workers calls for raising the federal minimum wage to $15, as well as indexing this to median hourly wages to ensure that working-class and middle-class wages grow closer to parity, and implementing strong legal protections for unions. He expresses support for striking workers and to empower the National Labor Relations Board in workplace advocacy. Farmworkers, domestic workers, gig economy workers, and other non-traditional labor groups are included in this. He will restore all Obama-Biden policies related to workplace safety and regulation.

His plan to restore American dignity and leadership in the world calls for immediately investing in election security and reform, restoration of the Voting Rights Act, immediately restoring White House press briefings and other Trump refusals of information, tackling criminal justice reform and systematic racial discrimination, calling for campaign finance reform, and basically blowing up all the stupid things the Trump administration does on a daily basis. It also calls for an end to all ongoing wars in the Middle East, restoring the Iran nuclear deal, and new arms control treaties with Russia, among general repairing of international alliances.

His plans for K-12 education and post-high school education call for greatly expanded funding across all levels of 2-year, 4-year, and other educational options. There will be no student loan payments for anyone making under $25,000 a year; everyone else will pay a capped amount and be completely forgiven after a certain period. Public servants qualify for up to $50,000 in loan forgiveness. This is not total loan forgiveness for everyone, which is obviously important for me and many of us, but it’s acceptable to start with. Additionally, his wife is a teacher and has a proven track record of calling for education investment and supporting public school funding.

His plan for housing addresses the needs of formerly incarcerated, LGBTQ, veteran, low-income, sexual assault survivor, black and Hispanic, and other vulnerable populations at risk of losing housing. It calls for a tax on companies and corporations with in excess of $50 billion in assets to fund comprehensive new housing initiatives, including $100 billion in accessible and low-income housing development. It includes extensive investment in public transportation and a high-speed rail system. This ties into his plan to repair infrastructure and invest in new technologies across the country.

His plan for criminal justice reform calls for the end of mass incarceration, the decriminalization of marijuana, the automatic expunging of all cannabis convictions, and an end on jail sentences for drug use. It highlights systematic institutional racism and the impact on black and brown people particularly. It calls for an end on all profiteering and private prisons. It focuses on reintegrating offenders into society and funding the needs of people released from prison. It proposes to “expand and use the power of the U.S. Justice Department to address systemic misconduct in police departments and prosecutors’ offices.” It broadens funding for social services and other programs for people who are otherwise placed into the prison pipeline.

There are more plans, which you can find here. These are the ones I read top to bottom. I am not by any means a Joe Biden fangirl; he was not my first choice, my second choice, or really anywhere on my list. However, having carefully read through his policy documents, I can say that:

He has at the least a good team of advisors who are keenly aware of the political climate, and is willing to both restore Obama-era standards and to improve on them where necessary. Obviously, all politicians’ promises are politicians’ promises, but this is a solid Democratic platform with obvious awareness of the progressive wing of the party.

If progressive legislation is passed in the House and Senate, he will sign it, including the Green New Deal.

He represents a clear and definite improvement over Donald Trump.

Is he everything we want? No. Are his policies better than I was expecting? Yes. I advise you to read through them for yourself. It has made me at least feel better about the likelihood of voting for him.

I realize it’s an unsexy position, especially on tumblr, to advocate for an old centrist white man. I’m not thrilled about having to do it. However, speaking as someone who was very resistant to Biden and still doesn’t agree with all of his previous legislative track record, that’s my consensus. He is a candidate who broadly aligns with values that I care about. His policies represent a concrete end to the damage of the Trump administration and gets us on the right track again.

Joe Biden, if he is the Democratic nominee, will receive my vote on November 3, 2020. I urge you to consider what I’ve laid out above and join me.

[khentkawes]

Tony Stark-antis need to learn some chill and basic narrative comprehension skills. Like really? Again with this bullshit?

Dude, we are ONE episode into Falcon and the Winter Solider and people are already using it as an excuse to resurrect anti-Tony Stark bad takes. Like... WTF fandom? Do we really have to go through this with every single post-Endgame mcu project? Really? When are ya all gonna learn some comprehension skills and actually pick up on what the narrative is trying to say?

Say it with me: the bank loan scene was a not-very-subtle jab at systemic racism and the way black veterans have been treated in American for decades. It’s not an excuse to anti on about how “tOnY sTaRk DiDnT pAy ThE aVeNgErS CuZ hE’s A eVIL bILLIonAiRe!”

Are you all so afraid of talking about systemic racism that you have to blame Tony Stark for Sam not getting a bank loan? Really? After a year of BLM protests and extensive awareness-raising for systemic racism, and y’all still don’t get it?

That’s the real world issue that the narrative was trying to lay out, and it’s the in-universe explanation for that scene, which is trying to address out-of-universe real-world issues. But now let me be petty and go back to the in-universe issues of whether Sam got paid... because this whole take is just pissing me off and I have to rant. So...

Sam hasn’t had a paying job in seven years, and he chose to leave the Avengers when he defied the Sokovia Accords because he blindly follows everything Cap says without ever thinking for himself. He’s been badly written ever since he showed up at the end of Age of Ultron. And that bad writing means he’s just been playing as Cap’s lackey, and in doing so, he CHOSE to leave the Avengers, to reject a government paycheck, and take his chances on the run for two years as a fugitive. So yeah. Two years, no job, no pay. And as far as we can tell, he didn’t do a whole lot of awesome saving-the-world in those two years either. He was just hiding out with Cap and maybe punching a couple of low-level terrorists or something .There certainly weren’t any alien invasions that he stopped in that time. And after that, he was dust for five years. That’s not his fault, obviously, but no one can expect to collect a paycheck while they don’t exist. That’s why the post-Blip economy is probably a bit wonky at the moment. So in total... seven years. No job. No paycheck. Part of that is consequences of Sam’s actions and part of it was through no fault of his own. But yeah, after seven years with no paycheck, there’s a good chance he’s got money issues. Did banks seize assets of those who were blipped? Totally possible.

But now, in-universe, let’s remember that all this bullshit that antis are spewing about “Tony Stark should have set aside money for his friends and teammates” and “Sam saved the world from aliens so many times, so he deserves a pension” and “Tony could set up a trust fund for all of the avengers because they’re his friends!” Yeah. That’s all 100% BS.

First off, Sam Wilson and Tony Stark are not friends in the MCU. Never have been. In Civil War, Tony said, “I know we don’t know each other very well” because they don’t! They’ve NEVER FOUGHT TOGETHER ON THE SAME TEAM! Think about that. Tony wasn’t an active duty avenger between Age of Ultron and Civil War, and that’s the only time period where Sam was an active avenger. So they were never really “teammates” and they weren't friends. They were, at best, acquaintances or coworkers who never worked closely together.

And during that time, when Tony appears to have had little contact with the avengers, he was bankrolling the team. He says, “what, am I doing here? Running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?” He made the compound and supplied all of the avengers’ tech. He gave them free room and board. It sure looks like they had everything they needed, so it’s entirely possible (even likely) that Tony was paying the Avengers during this time. But that’s all it was. Two years when Sam was an active avenger, Tony wasn’t, but Tony was still bankrolling the team. After that... Sam was a fugitive and then he was dust. So he spent 7 years with no job, and two of those years were by choice, because of Sam’s rejection of being an avenger and refusal to accept a government paycheck. He chose to be a vigilante with Cap, and vigilantism doesn’t supply a paycheck on its own.

And finally... Sam has never saved the world! And he’s only fought aliens during Infinity War and Endgame. So where are people getting this whole, “but Sam should be paid because hE sAvEd tHe wOrLd!”? Uh, no. Not really. He helped in Endgame. He tried to help in Infinity War. And that’s good. That’s important. It’s not nothing. But it’s also not saving the world. In this first episode of TFATWS, Sam literally accepted thanks from a guy who said “you brought my wife back,” when Sam had nothing to do with that. Bruce snapped and brought back all the dusted. Sam had no role in helping for that. Now I get that Sam was probably just being polite. But it’s contributing to this narrative that Sam did more then he actually did. Naw, man. Marvel never cared about Sam Wilson until five minutes ago. So they’ve never actually shown him doing anything that was, well, important. And that’s a fail on Marvel, but if we’re looking at it from a purely in-universe perspective... Sam Wilson doesn’t deserve any more or less than any other government/military contractor. Because that’s what he is now (he’s not an Avengers because the Avengers no longer exist), and that’s what he was up until the last scene of Age of Ultron. Most of his existence, he’s been a solider. He’s a military guy. So if he’s not been getting paid, that’s on the military. Tony, at most, would have paid him for two years of his time and work. The rest is all on the military, including Sam’s current finances.

Which means, you want to blame someone for Sam’s finances and his inability to get a loan? Well, there are three reasons. 1. Sam chose to leave the Avengers to become a fugitive with Cap, which means he had no job and no paycheck for two years. That’s the consequences of his actions. 2. the military either stopped paying him at some point, or hasn’t been paying him enough/quick enough in the past six months since the Blip. Military pay for veterans and veterans’ access to benefits is a real problem, but it’s a military problem. And it’s possible that any back-pay or pension that Sam is owed is tied up in red tape, which is probably only exacerbated by his time as a fugitive (which might mean he was made ineligible for any pension). And finally 3. systemic racism. His sister was pretty clear on the fact that “people like us” are the ones who always seems to be denied loans. She was saying that there is money available for loans, but it always go to white folks first. Maybe try listening to the black character explain why they believe they aren’t getting paid. Sam (when not on the run or blipped) was living a pretty cushy life as a supporting avenger for two years. He apparently didn’t have to think about how systemic racism could affect his family because he was temporarily insulated from it. Now that layer of protection is gone because he’s not living in a cushy compound away from the real world (which, for the record, is probably a good thing. I think the Avengers being so isolated from the real world is probably partially what led to the problems in Civil War). So now Sam is going to be confronted with the reality that systemic racism is real and can affect anybody, regardless of your fame or your job. And after the past year of discussions on race, the fandom shouldn’t be surprised by this narrative.

I am so sick of every single MCU project post-Endgame being twisted by antis who just want to use it to hate Tony Stark. I mean, seriously. Give it a rest, people! Try reading the narrative the way it was intended and stop twisting it for your hate-Tony-Stark obsession.

[in-tua-deep]

Ok I totally want to hear more about this survivors au/Delores is real! How do the siblings handle having this different version of Five? Five may be better adjusted but he still has to heard his family around like a bunch of stray cats. What happens when Hazel and Cha Cha show up? How do they find out that Vanya causes the apocalypse and how does Five handle that revelation?!

here is the thing, i think the survivors au has the potential to be HILARIOUS

no one knows how to handle a well-adjusted five, and this absolutely includes the commission

So you mentioned Hazel and Cha-Cha?? Five in this au was not nearly as absolutely feral as he is in the show bc he knows how to interact with people - he was raised by a competent adult and a weird best friend and they occasionally saw other survivors as well

please picture old Five hanging around the water cooler and chatting with Hazel

the other funny thing is that Five is competent passing - he is well adjusted emotionally but functionally?? Hazel is out there complaining about dental being cut and office parties and budgets and Five is there sipping his drink having never filed taxes in his life. Five doesn't know what the fuck a dental plan is, he was a child soldier and then lived in an apocalypse.

So please picture for me Hazel being like "okay I know corporate wants us to keep what we're being paid to ourselves but fuck that, workers unite, what do you get paid as a legend old timer?"

and five is like "you're getting paid? i get to not get tossed back into the apocalypse, I think"

"but what about expense forms? what about medical care?"

"I'm like 80% sure i'm being experimented on, actually." Five says nonchalantly, "Don't get me wrong, my idea of medical care is fucked by being a child soldier but I'm pretty sure regular people don't have electrodes attached to their heads every time they get a checkup. Could be wrong though! My ex-dad used to monitor my brainwaves while I slept so like, my idea of appropriate shit is fucked, you know?"

This is a Five who was raised by Rick, he is polite to his coworkers. If Dot asked him if he wanted to grab lunch, Five would have gone and grabbed lunch with her or politely said that he couldn't.

Cha Cha only ever talks to Five when she wants to talk shop, so they've had a couple of conversations about weapons but not much else tbh, Hazel just tends to be more personable

So when they're sent after Five, Hazel is much more hesitant to kill who he perceives as a "work friend" and also is definitely thinking about all the times Five casually revealed a way the commission was being highkey shady about him, such as the potential experimentation, no pay, working under duress etc. He's much more easily turned against the commission because he's even more primed to say "fuck the commission" than he is in canon

Hazel out here like "how did Five break his contract when Five wasn't even being paid? I kind of want to read it."

Hazel out here like "I would unionize if I didn't think the commission was anti-union enough to send literal assassins after me if I suggested it :/"

meanwhile with the siblings

Five just. talks over them a lot and makes so much sense that it's actually really hard to argue with him, and he's weirdly considerate of his family's obligations

Like Diego is like "i have to go see Patch" then Five is like "that's great I'm proud of you buddy, it would actually be really handy to have some law enforcement read into the situation if you think she's up to the task. that goes for everyone by the way! If y'all have people you trust, more bodies would be super helpful I think"

the entire family, collectively, who have like zero trusted social links: uhhhhhhhh

Diego, with this weird permission, probably?? Does? Awkwardly attempt to read Patch into the situation? Patch is, obviously, like "what the fuck, Diego" but probably goes with him to the mansion (????????) because she's concerned and then meets his fucking whacko family with their superpowers and suddenly everything is 100% more realistic

Five is just like "yes hello I'm aware I look like a child, i'm actually in my late 50s or early 60s (apocalypse time amiright) because of time travel stuff. Yes I am Five Hargreeves who went missing in like 2002 or whatever. anyway it's lovely to meet you, i'm so glad diego has someone he trusts, and considering my sibling's shifty looks when i told them to invite anyone they trusted this genuinely makes me concerned that Diego is the most socially well-adjusted of them."

"That cannot be possible." Patch says, like someone who has met Diego Hargreeves.

"You haven't met the rest." Five says sympathetically, "In our defense we were raised in isolation as child soldiers."

"That... explains so much." Is all Patch can say to that, "But you seem..."

"I'm adopted." Five waves away.

"We're ALL adopted." Diego grits out, very aggrieved by this and also not sure if he likes the fact that Patch seems friendly with Five, or at least is listening to him?

"I'm double adopted."

However! With the recruitment of Patch, herding Diego becomes like 90% easier.

Honestly the worst to herd are probably Luther and Allison? Luther because he's Number One and resents Five taking charge and also resents Five's casual dismissal of Reginald and also suspects that Five (or at least the commission) has something to do with Reginald's death?

Allison because she is torn between following Luther and helping him and helping Five but also calling Patrick and Claire at every possible moment while ALSO trying to repair her relationship with Vanya. She's flighty - she'd bail on a Five-apocalypse-assignment if Vanya mentioned being hungry or if Luther called or anything like that

Vanya likes to be included and, if asked, would probably drop as many current obligations as she can. Like she would probably cancel her teaching if Five genuinely and sincerely asked her for her help, which he does because he's 100% sure Dolores would manifest in front of him and smack him if he dared even imply someone without powers wouldn't be helpful

Vanya is like "I'm not sure if i'll be helpful - I don't have powers ):" and Patch is like "wtf are you talking about - my superpowers are Gun, Backup, and Reading Comprehension and i am like the most useful member of this team right now"

Vanya gets a confidence boost just from hanging out with Patch honestly, I think they should be friends

Klaus is thrilled to be included are you kidding?? He says he does it for money but he's just happy to be there and also as one of the most emotionally intelligent siblings he is mildly concerned about the fact that Five looks like he's about to cry and also emotes

Five also gives Klaus positive reinforcement, hugs, and Five absolutely weaponizes the I'm not mad, but I believe that you can do better and I'm going to give you more chances because I love you and fully believe that next time you'll be amazing way that Rick used on him.

I feel like Five ends up saying something along the lines of "I understand that x is really important, and we're definitely going to look into it. Is it something that needs to be addressed right now, or is it something that can wait until after April 1st? If it can wait, I can write it down here on this list so we don't forget. If it can't wait then we can figure out a time to address it and help you" a lot

Like Grace malfunctioning and potentially killing Reginald?

"We don't have to make this decision right now." Five says patiently, "Because Grace is a robot, we have some options. Living with a robot who is potentially malfunctioning and homicidal is dangerous, but Luther saying that means admitting that Reginald might have made a mistake or error with Grace's programming or upkeep. I haven't been here for a long time, but I remember Reginald being very precise. Regardless, this isn't a choice between permanently shutting her off or not. We can shut her down temporarily until we can fully address the issue. We can ask and see if there is a 'system reboot' option or some sort of system check that Grace can undergo. We can try find and hire an expert to take a look at her programming to find the issue."

Five gives this speech while like, organizing the weaponry in the house on a table very nonchalantly

Five out here making buzzer noises at his siblings arguments like "yeah no that's a false dichotomy and a strawman's argument, want to try again?"

(Look apocalypse nights were long and they had games that were literally about arguing pointless shit like ranking types of chairs or the best way to break out of a prison without powers and things could get heated)

"Who died and made you boss?" Luther demands.

"Uh, the world? Were you not listening?" Five asks, looking very purposefully confused.

It gets even MORE delightful when Five reads Rick into the situation because a) he promised and b) his siblings really have like, no connections jeeze

Rick fully believes that this is his son from the future, like Five introduced himself, but Five skipped out on a few key details. Such as being adopted.

So Rick spends a solid chunk of time just staring at Five, who looks basically nothing like him, trying to think like, who is his mother ???? if we save the world will Five stop existing? why would I name my child 'Five'? Does everyone have powers in the future? was there like... a radioactive apocalypse? would radiation give future humans superpowers? when did my life turn into a comic book? am i even allowed to ask these questions? will knowledge of the future fuck things up?

and then when Five comes back and is like "what is up everyone this is my dad Rick who will be joining us, he doesn't have any memories of me thanks to time travel but if anyone is mean to him i WILL kneecap them"

"Your DAD?"

Five does kidney punch Klaus for saying that Rick is a DILF but otherwise everyone just is like, warily looking at this Normal Dad Man in confusion because?? This is the dude who raised Five, who they watched take out like an entire commission team by himself yesterday? He looks so. Normal.

Rick is very confused and like, wonders if he's supposed to be the team mascot? But Five keeps involving him and asking his opinion and in return Rick enforces snack breaks and makes everyone sandwiches and has gentle talks with everyone

Every time Five notices someone about to blow he just lovingly makes sure that that person is alone in a room with Rick

Luther ends up crying on the sofa with Rick gently patting his back as Rick calmly states that Luther seems like he's put a lot of time and effort into his family and making his father proud and that since Reginald isn't here to say it, Rick will have to be the one to say that he's proud and that they've been dropped into a difficult and stressful situation - so soon after Reginald's death when they're still grieving! - and he's doing so well

Luther, experiencing unconditional positive paternal regard for the first time in his life: i don't know why i'm crying so much

honestly this is just a comedy of juggling the gang, having impromptu therapy sessions and discussions, investigating the apocalypse and the eye, leonard trying to meet vanya continuously and failing because she's constantly surrounding by family or rick/patch, the commission trying their best to bust up the dream team/isolate Vanya/kill or remove Five, while Hazel lives out his romcom dreams with Agnes and also says "fuck the commission"

[shewhotellsstories]

Your hatred for Su is pretty pathetic actually, have you ever thought about droping it?

1. Su apologized to Lin several times, but Lin didn't want anything to do with her, pretty childish if you ask me

2. Su is no longer a 16-year-old kid and has obviously changed, if Lin doesn't realize that, that's actually her problem

3. Su did not intentionally injure Lin, it was an ACCIDENT and accidents happen, especially among siblings

4. Toph is the one to blame for the whole situation, had she been a better mother, Su would not have tried to get her attention by robbery

5. Someone, who can hold grudges against their own little sister for 30 years is quite selfish and heartless

6. And then taking out your self-frustration on your niece, who has nothing to do with it, is just rude and mean

7. Lin's problem is simply that she is lonely, bitter, miserable and full of self-loathing and cannot have it, when others around her have a happy live

You should perhaps stop hating Su for no reason and start looking at Lin a little bit more critically, because she is far from perfect and should be held accountible for her mistakes as well

Pathetic? Says the coward hiding behind anon. Do you feel big and bad? Do you feel like you’re shaking tables by sending this to me? Beloved, I tag thoroughly, so if you don’t want to see my opinions about your garbage fave you don’t have to. Take some accountability, unlike your precious Suyin who consistently fails to. 

To address this whitewashed dumpster fire, a couple of points:

1) If you think��“I gave you hard a time,” “you made sure our family stayed apart” and “I wasn’t a perfect kid,” are apologies proportional to scarring someone’s face when they were trying to stop you from assisting in a robbery then that’s just sad anon. There’s a saying that the apology must be as loud as the disrespect was. Suyin’s “apologies” were half-baked and she was just bored of Lin being angry as opposed sincerely sorry for her behavior.    

2) Suyin is at her core a careless person. It could’ve been forgivable if she’d truly changed but adorable things like working with people like Varrick who helped orchestrate a civil war for his own selfish gain and sending a group of teenagers out into the city to help her settle an old score told me that she was every bit as irresponsible as an adult as she was as a teenager. 

3)Yes, her highness didn’t wake up that day and have a master plan to scar Lin but she did. SHE. SCARRED. LIN. She scarred her when she was *checks notes* trying to stop her from participating in a robbery. You make it sound like an innocent training mishap, it’s been said before but Suyin was just expecting Lin to let her walk away from her bad behavior like Toph did.  

4)You seem to have a real issue with reading comprehension but I’ve said multiple times when I’ve gotten asks and submissions about Suyin that I know Suyin was acting out because she wanted Toph’s attention. I’ve said that I know Toph bares a lot of responsibility for the mess between her daughters. She was trying not to be like her parents and she caused damage in a different way. Check the my tags and enlighten yourself. 

5)You act like the “little sister” in question promised to return library books for Lin and forgot. This wasn’t a small transgression, she scarred her. Most people would cut ties under those circumstances. It seems like Lin tried to guide Suyin for years and what Suyin did to her was probably the last straw. And understandably so. 

6)Opal didn’t deserve being yelled at. Suyin shouldn’t be held against her and it was wrong of Lin to yell at her. But I’d point out that Lin didn’t want to see Suyin and her family anyway. She tried not to be there and got strong-armed into spending time with someone she’d excommunicated from her life. Maybe if Suyin had been more honest about why she and Lin were estranged Korra and Opal would’ve understood this wasn’t something they should get involved in and she wouldn’t have gotten her feelings hurt. And Lin does apologize and make it up to her by giving her good advice later. 

7)Yes that’s Lin’s problem. You’re so perceptive. The issue isn’t that she frequently puts her own hurt and pain aside to protect the people around her while getting next to nothing in return. Nor, that she was betrayed by the people she loved the most and instead of validation was told to just get over it. What was I thinking?

Lin was not perfect but she didn’t deserve to be used as an emotional punching bag by nearly everyone around her.

Last but not least, I wouldn’t have talked about this as much if people didn’t keep sending me asks and submissions about how uncomfortable they were with the way Lin was treated and how horrible they found Suyin’s behavior. You don’t get to hurt someone like that and be mad that they don’t forgive you on the time table you set. Well you can, it just makes you an asshole. People don’t need to stan a spoiled brat who breaks things and hurts people only to shrug it off and act oblivious in the aftermath. If you like Suyin that’s your prerogative. Live your life, but accept that your trash fave gave people reasons to dislike her every single time she opened her entitled mouth.

One final note:

[the-pen-pot]

[Transcript of image at end of post under a read more.]

So, in my efforts to deal with tumblr's shitty linking problem wherin it doesn't like linking to tumblr posts., it looks like I accidentally violated AO3's terms of service. My bad.

From what I have understood of previous email conversations with AO3 staff addressing this issue, linking to socials where you mention patreon and ko-fi is fine, as long as you're not linking to patreon and ko-fi directly from your author's notes.

The a/ns on my work used to say Want to find out how to support me? Clcik here! And led to a specific tumblr page with details.

However, I changed the links to point to my personal webpage http://bdstrike.co.uk, and that seems to have been a breach of AO3s policies.

I've obviously removed the offending text from my author's notes (because DUH) and have asked for further clarification on what *would* be acceptable - if anything. I'm not sure if it's the text in conjunction with that specific link to that particular domain or what. Clarity can only be a good thing to all involved 😁

My fics are all still up, obviously. AO3 are good when it comes to this kind of thing and gives you time to act. They don't just rip stuff down or anything.

[transcript begins]

Hi,

The AO3 Policy & Abuse committee has received a complaint regarding a number of your works and the text in your profile, alleging that they contain unauthorized advertising material.

Section IV.B. of our Terms of Service states: "Promotion of commercial products or activities is not allowed." The Terms of Service FAQ further explains: "We want the Archive to remain a non-commercial space. That means that it isn't the right place for offering merchandise, even fan-related merchandise. Linking to your personal page (not, for example, an Amazon author page) is fine, even if the personal page includes some items for sale, but the Archive is not advertising space."

Solicitations for direct or indirect commercial advantage are not permitted on the Archive. This includes all links or references to commercial sites such as Amazon, Patreon, or Ko-fi; any mention of collecting donations, offering paid commissions, or selling published works; previews for paywalled content; and any other language which one might interpret as requesting or having requested financial contributions, whether for yourself or others.

After investigation, we have determined that the following text is in violation of the Archive's non-commercialization policy:

"Want to find out how to support me as an author? Visit this blog post for more info!", in combination with a link to your professional website where you advertise your Ko-Fi and Patreon.

However, this wording is not necessarily comprehensive. As a user of the Archive, it is your responsibility to ensure that your account and the works posted on it are in compliance with our Terms of Service.

Accordingly, we require you to edit out all instances of commercial promotion from your account within 7 days. This includes anything that might be in any of your works (including all tags, notes, and comments) and in your profile.

If you don't edit or remove the violating content from your works or your profile by the given deadline, we will hide any violating works from public view. You will be able to access the hidden works via the direct links provided through the automatic emails you will receive when the works are hidden. If the works and your profile are not edited within a week of being hidden, an Archive administrator will delete the works.

When you created your account, you agreed to comply with our Terms of Service. Section I.D. of our Terms of Service states: "You agree not to […] make available any Content or work that violates the Content Policy." Violations of the Terms of Service occur when the content is uploaded to the Archive.

As a consequence of this infringement, a formal warning has been placed on your account. Although your account will not be affected by this decision now, failure to comply with the terms of this letter may be considered an additional violation of the Terms of Service. Further violations of the Terms of Service may result in the temporary or permanent suspension of your account.

For more information about content and behaviors that are not permitted on the Archive, as well as the penalties (such as warnings and suspensions) incurred as a result of any violations, please refer to our Terms of Service and Terms of Service FAQ:

https://archiveofourown.org/tos#content

https://archiveofourown.org/tos_faq#content_faq

If you wish to appeal against our decision, or if you have any questions, please feel free to reply to this email.

Eliette

AO3 Policy & Abuse

[transcript ends]