#people turning into snakes

[pngheavy]

[cupcakeshakesnake]

Listen. Do you see my vision

[chiropteracupola]

"Are you finished with my portrait yet? Show me!" "Cipacton, I can't draw you if you keep moving!"

[samaspic31]

"Fandom is just for fun/escapism" means there's no quality threshold to meet to be allowed to contribute, and it is generally a space to share a common love for something rather than spend time hating.

It does NOT mean "everyone gets to publicly say, write and draw absolutely anything and be free from criticism, nothing can possibly have ties to real life harmful ideas and reinforce them, nothing should be taken seriously, everyone turns their brain off and analyzing fan content is pointless", especially since that attitude will automatically allow bigoted content to flourish and will push marginalized people out of fan spaces, or at the very least make those spaces hostile and put them in a position where they have to argue with the bigots empowered by that attitude. If it’s escapism, then make it an escapism that’s accessible to most people, which means being mindful of the consequences of the content put out, or else you’re just creating more spaces minorities are excluded from

[laniidae-passerine]

I made my post about Dean Highbottom and then as I was writing my tags realised that his Hunger Games counterpart is Haymitch. and now my head is in my hands and I don’t think I’ll ever recover

[trampled-and-melting]

reading the ballad of songbirds and snakes is so funny like. buddy boy i cannot stress to you how much i don't care if you lose your penthouse. oh so you know how that feels. k great. that was so not the takeaway from that situation but go off. have you ever had a nice thought about anyone that wasn't in some way related to yourself. have you ever done anything in your life that was genuinely selfless. stop being a bitch about tigris. stop being a bitch about sejanus. stop being a bitch about mrs. plinth. that was really creepy to say. if you use the word "mine" one more time i am going to strangle you with my bare hands. do you even like her. name one thing you like about lucy gray as a person. as a PERSON i said. you're not a monster yet but you sure are obnoxious. that innocuous comment was really just incredibly disturbing when considered in context. oh so you know how that feels also. k great. that was kinda racist. i can't tell if you know that you're a misogynist or not. why are you so mean all the time. stop talking like that it's so fake and weird. but also maybe improve your authentic self. do you know how many people in the districts would kill for a lifetime supply of lima beans.

[medichamcham]

nobody:

me: hey what if rose was a gorgon and his hair noodle was a fucking snake. lol

[solazu1]

For everyone asking how tall Jay is in his angel form, he's 7’4 exactly :]

Also Jessica reveal ^_^

[theribbajack]

Just finished G.I. Joe: Renegades for the first time and hoo boy. It's been a long time since I was down this bad for a ship.

Lineart below the cut:

[bugwolfsstuff]

Rick if you were going to have Percy trash Ares for his entire chapter in the Percy Jackson's Greek gods book then WHY out of all the myths would you CHOOSE TO TELL THE MYTH OF ACLIPPE???

RICK DO YOU SEE HOW BAD THAT LOOKS????

NO PERCY IT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN SWEET FOR POSEIDON TO FIGHT ARES IN THIS CONTEXT

Also even worse fact: THIS IS THE FIRST TIME RAPE IS ACTUALLY SAID IN THE BOOK. THE REST HAVE BEEN FLUFFY EUPHEMISMS OR CHANGING THE MYTHS

[klaxonsynth]

when the snake is solid‼️

[nostalgia-tblr]

right so u know that bit in thor: ragnarok when thor tells us about when him and his wee bro were the exact same age and his tiny brother turned into a snake and then stabbed him, having brutally exploited tiny thor's love of snakes?

and u know how in the wider thorverse context this story doesn't really make sense (how were they both eight. go back to that thor. explain it to us.) but the story being told is funny to me so i don't really care?

that is my attitude to the whole film really. and indeed to the rest of the thor films. they often make no fukcing sense. but i laughed so it's fine. (was i supposed to laugh? well that's a different question and one we can discuss at a later date when i can make myself care enough.)

[mswyrr]

lucy gray baird's philosophy

I want to "yes, and" this great meta post by @burst-of-iridescent​. Specifically this part:

by the end of the book, coriolanus gives in fully to dr gaul’s way of thinking simply because it excuses him from accepting blame for his actions. if he killed sejanus, it’s because he had no choice. if he betrayed lucy gray, it’s because she would’ve betrayed him first. coriolanus refuses to believe in the goodness of humanity because that would have meant accepting the goodness that existed within him, and with that came the potential for making a different, better choice - potential that he knew, deep down, he had wasted. attributing his crimes to an innate evil that no one can overcome means that he can’t be held accountable, because it’s out of his control.

This got me thinking about how much Lucy Gray's worldview rejects of this way of thinking (and of a Calvinist*/ableist "some people are just born evil" pov people try to impose on the text, which people think is condemning him but actually... accidentally agrees with him that he was born evil and therefore can't help it??????). The book begins with several quotes chosen by the author, but I believe the one that represents Lucy Gray's worldview is Rousseau, who believed people were born with fundamental goodness.

Here's a source on him:

(Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

And here's the quote Collins opens with:

“Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.” — Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, 1762

That's Lucy Gray's pov she's come to through living and reflecting as an artist; someone can disagree with it (of course, all of these questions are open for endless debate; they have been debated endlessly!) however, it's important to respect that is where she's coming from, not being foolish or naive. It is a worthy pov that should be respected, even if you disagree. And that she came to this pov through a hard life and from much thinking and she expresses it beautifully in her art.

Here's the key exchange from the book, after Coriolanus has taken on the idea that people are just awful and her articulating her philosophy in response:

(Ballad, 495)

She's not naive. She recognizes the nuance that Rousseau does, that society shapes us. And Panem is pretty clearly a society led by people applying all the pressures they can think of on people toward evil. (And, after his heel turn, Coriolanus' is going to innovate some new pressures...) Clearly there are situations and circumstances that form us before we have much say in it, but that's not the same as being born evil.

The difference between inherent goodness and a corrupt society is, for Lucy Gray, a lot of hard work. It's a struggle. This repudiates both the version of "born evil" Coriolanus himself takes on, which relieves him of responsibility, and the self-righteous, Calvinist and/or ableist pov people keep arguing for, which makes "normal" people feel like they can be sure they're good (and ignore how we are all complicit in evil to some degree or another) because they have a "good" normal brain or they were just born so pure as a soul predestined for heaven. No, for her, everyone has to do the work. To her it's everyone's "life's challenge to try and stay on the right side of that line."

Even more pointedly, the love song she wrote him before his betrayal, "Pure as the Driven Snow," articulates her philosophy in the opening lines:

(Ballad, 481)

Again, we have her personal focus on the work of "staying on the right side" of good and evil after being born good into evil circumstances. She knows it hurts; she's led a hard life herself. "It's rough as a bair" to do that work, it's "like walkin' through fire." But it is doable.

Lucy Gray meant it as a love song but IMO "Pure as the Driven Snow" ends up a lament for the boy Coriolanus was and her love that he betrayed when he betrayed himself. And it is a direct rejection of his excuses, it is inadvertently reading him for filth for the lies he tells himself that all the world is the Games arena, all people are selfish and bad, and he isn't to blame for what he's done because he just wants to come out on top/be the victor of this "natural" "war of all against all" that is Gaul's philosophy (related to the Hobbes quote Collins begins with; I wrote a meta on that here) that he adopts.

I see her demeaned as a foolish girl who just "like bad boys" and I get so frustrated. I also get frustrated by the view that she must not have ever been sincere in loving or trusting him because IF SHE WAS then she would be a fool and his betrayal would somehow be her fault. And she'd reject the idea that she's "good" just because she's so pure or that anyone can claim we're good without doing a lot of hard work.

(Ballad, 482)

She is so thoughtful and interesting as a character. And she didn't just "like bad boys" - Coriolanus showed only his good side to her until the very end, once he'd decided to kill that part of himself. She had no way of knowing. Sometimes you trust someone and they betray you, it doesn't make you wrong, the shame is all theirs.

*Strict Calvinist predestination is some people are just predetermined to be bound for heaven and some for hell, some people are just born good and others are born bad. A lot of people in fandom seem to love Calvinism idk why. The ableism bit of this should be self-evident: there is no such thing as a "bad" brain type completely incapable of morality or a "good" brain and neurodivergence is not the source of all evil!

[chaiichait]

Stressed out Jude for the soul

[threefeline]

Hmmm....

[meyhew]

watching cariolanus devolve as a person knowing he is fully capable of love and compassion but craves control and comfort above all else and will ultimately choose the option that will optimize his chances of being in control and living the most comfortable life, even if that means consciously and deliberately giving up on love so that there is no chance he will ever falter again. cut out that emotion from the root, even though at that point in time he has no real desire to seek out the highest position of power. he mostly just wants to be in control of his life  

watching the brainwashing run soooo deep that even being out in the districts doesn’t help him see the rebels as people. if anything, it reinforces his fascist upbringing that everyone outside of the capitol is subhuman and must be controlled—and that too only by the capitol. every attempt at appealing to his humanity fails because he needs order in the world, and he’s been taught from a very young age what order should look like. he only has one understanding of the way things should be

all of it being a social commentary and critique of the american government and watching the state of the world currently as people dance around the fascist ideas they have and are currently being bombarded with, many of them even knowing to some extent that it is happening but they’d rather not do anything to disturb their complacency so going along with the status quo it is. suzanne collins you never miss a beat