#preaching to the choir here lol

[knuckleblaster]

ULTRAKILL IS 25% OFF UNTIL OCT 5

treat someone (or yourself) to a stylish, ultraviolent character action FPS with cool robots (and faceless characters), an incredible drum-and-bass soundtrack, the destruction of oppressive cruelty, and a ton of accessibility options

[diamondcitydarlin]

'time for round two of making teenagers uncomfortable on the internet'

Listen. No one is shipping beetlebabes for the sole purpose of 'making teenagers uncomfortable on the internet'. Unless the adults in question are your parents/guardians, none of them are responsible for the stuff you might see while being 'on the internet'. None of them are responsible for your discomfort from what you might see. None of them are obligated to stop having fun in their own fandom spaces simply because a teenager exists 'on the internet' who doesn't like it (who is also perfectly capable of staying out of places they don't want to see, I PRESUME) no more than adults at a bar are obligated to not drink because there are people under the age who can't (fittingly, most bars in the US don't admit people under the age at all). You know who is responsible? Depending on your age of teenagedom, it's either to some extent your parents/guardians, but also you. Yeah, sweetie, you. I've been on the internet since the late 90's when I was NINE and I'm here to tell you right now that learning how to cultivate your own experience online is an extremely important tool. If you don't learn now how to keep your nose out of things that you don't like, you're going to have a very hard time filled with round-about arguments and constant drama and maybe worse when you could just be having fun with the things you do like and ignoring the stuff you don't. You see, my sweet summer child, feeling 'discomfort' about something benign does not inherently give you the right to shit all over whatever it is that made you uncomfortable or make up insinuations about the consenting adults participating in it. Unless there are people dropping shipping art into your inbox against your will or something (there aren't) it actually is none of your business at all, and doesn't concern you in the least. Like my goodness, you kids have ALL kinds of protections you can use to weed out things you don't want to see that we didn't have back when I was a 'teenager on the internet', blocking, blacklisting, browser extensions that can help with that, etc, and yet somehow we seem to have better understood back then how to mind our own business and stay out of fandom spaces we didn't want to be in. Nowadays all I see are children running into the devil's sacrament uninvited and claiming to be personally affected by said sacrament when all of us are wondering what the fuck they're doing there in the first place when there are clear signs denoting what sacrament this is. You don't have to see the movie, you don't have to see shipping content, you don't have to be 'exposed' to any of this at all; in this day and age, you choose to be, which makes any discomfort you feel as a result of that your own responsibility. The only person making 'teenagers uncomfortable on the internet' in this specific instance are the teens themselves.

And again, a little crash course in history here since the education system probably failed you, but using simply the existence of children as an excuse for why adults can't do consenting adult activities with each other has historically been used as a way to demonize and weaponize violence against marginalized groups. Yall are literally just stealing pages from homophobic/misogynistic/racist/transphobic conservative playbooks. That may not be your ultimate goal in coming after fandom spaces, but it's where that kind of behavior and thinking always ends up in the end. If you think alt-right entities won't harness that sense of youthful moral outrage for their own ends then I have a bridge to sell you.

Anyway, point being, no random adult on the internet or IRL is responsible for you. Random adults on the internet or IRL are not your parents/guardians. They have no obligation to eschew their own interests just because kids are wandering into places where they shouldn't. I honestly worry for any child on the internet who thinks this way, because there are absolutely predators out there that will abuse this sense of 'every adult is responsible for my comfort'. They aren't, and I'm sorry the adults in your life that actually are responsible for you failed you so much as to not teach you otherwise. Unlearn this now before you get hurt, please.

[omgzephyrsims]

10 Reasons Why I Still Play The Sims 2 in 2024

This video is basically my love letter to The Sims 2. Happy 20th birthday to my favorite game of all time. 🎂

[ro-botany]

The Risen King and his Tactician

In my previous post about Risen King Chrom, I talked largely about who and what he is. What I didn’t touch on was questions of why and how; the reasons for his existence and the means by which he’s controlled. So that’s what I’m tackling today.

Naturally, this means an examination of Grima’s thoughts on the matter. It's not a purely tactical decision on their part.

---

The first reason I could think of for why Grima would make a Risen out of Chrom was that it was an act of tactical cruelty aimed at their enemies. Nothing kills hope and morale in the enemy troops quite like making the shambling corpse of their exalt attack them! But while that’s almost certainly part of the point... It doesn’t explain why RK Chrom’s mind is intact. You can get that effect for a lot cheaper by bringing him back as a garden variety Risen with no sentience to speak of.

After reading the Forging Bonds supports, I initially thought part of the point was to be cruel to Chrom. They’re being sarcastic. They’re taunting him with his dead friends and torturing him by making him slaughter his people. That motivation would explain why he’s still mentally present—if the aim is to torture a foolish idealist son of Naga, it would hardly be satisfying if he weren’t actually there to be tortured.

But I think the main reason I read things that way is due to Heroes’ visual limitation of only having one portrait per character. They can’t adjust a character’s facial expression to better convey tone, which means that wherever tone is ambiguous in the text, the words are coloured by the expression of that one portrait. Since m!Grima’s portrait has that malevolent little smile, we interpret him as sarcastic or taunting and ignore the possibility that maybe, just maybe, the words are genuine.

Read those supports again, and this time ignore the portrait art.

Grima’s phrasing is never blunt. They couch all these hard truths about the situation in these long, indirect statements that soften them. They never bring up a point unless Chrom, in his panic and denial, brings it up first. They even play along with his delirium at first! None of the content of what they’re saying, absolutely none of it, is actually comforting; but the intent to comfort is there in the phrasing. It’s not “Robin is dead”; it’s “Robin is gone, lost, but I am here.” It’s not “Your friends are dead, and now they’re my pawns”; it’s “I know your friends are precious to you; don’t worry, I can bring them back, and you can lead them just like before.”

And they also lie about who killed Chrom. “Who stole your life, you might ask? It was I, with none other than the Fell Dragon Grima, within me.” It’s a bit convoluted, but it sounds like they’re trying to avoid implying it was Robin. But these supports aren’t a timeline where the details of Chrom’s death are unknown; we know he died at the Dragon’s Table fighting Validar, and his very obvious fatal wound is the same spot Robin stabs him at the Dragon’s Table in the premonition from Awakening. The spot that Robin stabs him, under Validar's control. If I were to speculate, I’d say it sounds like Grima is trying to preserve the memory of who Robin was. Spare Chrom the reality that it was his other half that killed him.

And the thing is, Grima has no reason to attempt to speak kindly to Chrom or to absolve Robin of blame... unless Grima remembers enough about being Robin to still care about Chrom. Regardless of how you interpret the nature of the connection between Robin and Grima, it’s not unreasonable to assume that Robin’s memories and emotions are part of Grima in some way, and influence their actions.

Why does Grima bring Chrom back from the dead? Because Grima never chose to kill the man they loved, and now that they’re a god again, they have the power to undo it.

But! We know that Grima is capable of true resurrection. They bring Validar completely back to life in the main timeline, living body and intact soul, when they aren’t even at full power. So if Grima cares that much, why not bring Chrom back as a living person?

The answer to that one is simple: because there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that Chrom would ever willingly participate in their apocalypse. What good would it do to bring him back only to have to kill him again? The fact that they don’t want to bear him being gone is what has them raising him in the first damned place. Grima needs him to be on their side... So they force him to be. They remake him as a Risen; a being bound to as dark a role as they are, and by definition, something they can control.

And here’s where we get to that how question. While Risen are naturally controllable through dark magic, there’s never been a Risen with a will before, and certainly not one with the blood of a different divine dragon. And given Validar’s actions, Grima is acutely aware of the fact that holy blood creates the possibility of control by another. Which means Naga might try something. They needed to counter that possibility.

Look at Risen King Chrom again and count the holy brands. It’s not just Naga’s anymore; he bears the brand of the defile too. At first I thought it might be attached to his sword, but I enlisted the help of a much healthier Chrom to check, and...

...no, the brand is absolutely attached to RK Chrom’s hand.

Grima covered all their bases. They minimized any chance that Chrom’s willpower or Naga’s meddling could interfere by making a blood pact with him as a second means of control.

Channelled dear old dad a little with that one.

---

So why does Risen King Chrom exist? Because Grima still loves Chrom. Or to be more precise... he exists because Grima loves what Chrom represents.

He’s the idea of companionship. A symbol of the brief moment that Grima was Robin, and was happy. And they love that idea so dearly that they can’t let it die. They bring Chrom back—but they don’t bring him back as he was, they remove his ability to choose and then force him into something that has the shape of their former relationship and none of the heart of it. Grima is still the tactician, and Chrom is still the exalt, and they’re marching to war with the Shepherds like they always do. They’re together like they always were. Right? Grima is acting out a hollow facsimile of a different life, and Chrom is trapped in a nightmare he can’t escape from.

What’s worse is I think Grima knows it’s cruel to keep him around like this. But they’re too rigid in their own beliefs to stop what they’re doing, and too selfish and lonely to let him go. And I think some part of them takes comfort in the fact that they’ve broken Chrom of his ability to hope, too. If even he can’t keep fighting the tide of fate, there really was nothing they could do to avoid this. (Nevermind the fact that they rigged the game so he couldn’t fight even if he wanted to.)

[kirnet]

🔥 👀

Kreia is one of the best Star Wars characters ever written. This is not a hot take it it’s just a fact. The take is that barring her, visas and atris are actually the most compelling, heartbreaking, and interesting characters of k2, and I don’t think all 3 get enough appreciation or attention simply because they can be unlikeable women

[tendercoretroglodyke]

having to go through the process to request "workplace accommodations" just so I can (MAYBE) be allowed to wear fucking earbuds while I'm reshelving library books so the Noises don't fucking KILL me is so fucking bleak . where's the humanity. why do I have to disclose so much personal info and beg my employer for understanding and chance getting reassigned if they deem my request isnt ""reasonable"" enough ALL just so I can have the privilege of not getting insanely burnt out halfway through work by trying to white-knuckle thru the sensory overload and/or overwhelming grief i have no distraction from while doing mindless tasks???

[rattled-shadow]

at first i didn't understand how one could be so infatuated with one of the palace rulers. why would we like these guys when they suck so bad. and then i wrote about suguru kamoshida ~493059045834059345 times and thought "hm. i kinda get it actually" so can we hang out in the same boat

"Infatuated" is putting it mildly sjdbdid

Shido's the reason I learnt what brainrot is like

Of course we can hang out in the same boat. In fact, I feel like we already are

[weaverlings]

so i am reading at least some drizzt books. mainly bc things r stressful atm i want something i don't Have to think too hard about but which does have something to think about when i feel like it. even if at least some of that is "what the fuck"

however this is just funny to me like

whiny losers: waaaa no politics in our games >:(

popular forgotten realms protagonist Drizzt Do'urden: rich landowners are threatened by change

[itspileofgoodthings]

Collins just seems sad and pathetic in here.

[songs-from-the-basement]

even if you don't plan on getting medicated/seeing a specialist over it, being aware of your own neurodivergence and tentatively self-diagnosing can be a Really Good Thing

yes, there's something to be said about the community that may come with it, but I think the most important thing that comes from self-diagnosis is being able to understand your own reactions better

for example, I am 99% sure I have rejection-sensitive dysphoria and misophonia (frustrated to the point of tears at certain noises). I don't have a professional diagnosis for either of these, but just knowing that I have them helps a lot with my mindset

When I fail at something (even minorly), am told I've upset someone, or get gently criticized, all things that can trigger my RSD, I know the sudden rush of negativity that comes with it is something that will fade by the end of the day (or even in a few hours!)

Instead of dwelling on whatever happened, or trying to punish myself for it like I would do as a teenager, I now know it's just a Brain Chemistry thing and that I need to take a breather and maybe distract myself for a bit. Then I can go back and actually gain something from the event

And for misophonia, I now know to be aware of my aggravation levels when it comes to certain sounds, so that I can put on headphones or just completely remove myself before I end up overly distressed

These are just two, relatively small examples, but especially after seeing "tiktok diagnoses" and an onslaught of supposed faked disorders on the rise, I just wanted to throw in that self-diagnosis isn't always bad

Professional diagnosis can be necessary in some cases, and I'd definitely recommend seeking it out, but in cases where you just can't, it helps a lot to do some of your own research in order to better understand your own brain :)

[gloriousxdarkness]

// Not my usual kind of post but 

Supporting the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike is important to me.

If you can, please show your support to these unions. Their continued strike puts pressure on the studios to make deals that favor the industry in the long run, because the improved working conditions will favor the real creators of the very TV shows and films we enjoy. 

Otherwise the shows and films we receive will be AI-generated imitations fed on existing media. Straight up cheap derivatives with no human heart behind the art, if not just more sequels and nostalgia-mining remakes the studios love, because they’re a safer bet for their shareholders.

[coffeeteaitsallfine]

I’ve seen some tweets where people act like the writers strike won’t be successful because people will just catch up on older shows they’d been meaning to get to. And yeah they might not lose subscribers but capitalism 101 is literally growth growth growth. No new shows can’t draw in new subscribers.

The won’t be convenient for streamers since there’s already so many services trying to compete with Netflix and Disney. What I’m nervous about is what happens when services shut down and less popular shows don’t get sent to other platforms they just get deleted 😶 I sincerely hope some intern out there is triple checking files and archives of some of these shows and movies 🫡 because we know they’re not physically available

[wonderwafles]

🔥!

(The usual disclaimer of Your Fanon is Not My Fanon (And That's Okay!) applies here, naturally)

So, okay. The thing is that I DO get the appeal of Kidnap Family. There's something fucked up and kind of beautiful to chase in that "love grew between them, as little as may be thought" (and also the vagueness of that line in how much love exactly was there is fun to me). For an exchange I even wrote a fic about it and it was kind of nice.

It's also my sincere belief (for my personal enjoyment) that if either of the twins calls Maglor "dad" then you have fucked up somewhere along the way. Something has gone terribly wrong and now the dynamic is on fire and we have to evacuate the AO3.

Kidnap Family is messed up! It's painful! It's the combination of adult pity for these murder elves who have ruined their own lives and the lives of everyone around them, and the attachment of a child to the adults who are protecting you (for however long a time) even though they took away everything from you!

I don't really mind if people want to write them as a wholesome fluff dynamic. It's not my business! But it does bother me a bit how widespread and endemic this version of canon is. Maglor will show up in fix it fics and post-canons and coffee shop aus as "Elrond's dad." No! Grr, hiss! Do Not Like!

In conclusion; Elrond letting Maglor stay in Rivendell because he feels sorry for him, and remembers the moment when Maglor could have killed him but didn't, and sincerely wants him to find healing someday despite his many complicated feelings about him... good! Elrond letting Maglor stay in Rivendell (and wearing the Star of Feänor?? As I have sometimes seen??) because "that's his dad"... bad

[foulfirerebel]

Amen!

I have decided that arguing politics on social media is an exercise in futility.

[iasirene]

Suzanne Collins is a white woman, so I know with this post that I’m preaching to the choir, but I will always believe that she was wrong for not making Katniss and the people of the Seam explicitly Indigenous. There’s so much to work with in that part of the country-some peoples from that region (Appalachia) include: the Cherokee, Choctaw, Monacans, Pamunkey, Oneida, Seneca, Haudenosaunee, and Shawnee- and that is a VERY brief overview. The Seam in the books is quite literally a reservation, with the same horrible conditions that exist on current day reservations. In the movies District 12 was filmed very close to the Eastern Cherokee reservation in North Carolina. There’s so many parallels and references and then Suzanne is like “lol nope no Natives here!” She was explicit with making District 11 Black, with the way they are brutalized by Peacekeepers, and the…. cotton picking (which we can get into another day bc wtf was that Suzanne 😭😭). Anyways, I think the story would have been more powerful if it explicitly showed an Indigenous girl being the one to piss off the fascist president.

[creatingblackcharacters]

Hi!

Firstly, thank you for everything you're doing, and all the resources. They're so interesting and useful. And I really appreciated the favourite Black character showcase, and not just so I could share my favourite characters with everyone lol.

Secondly, I have a question about my own worldbuilding. It's a fantasy, and the royal family of one of the kingdoms is Black. At the moment I have a tentative idea to have it as part of their culture for the king and queen specifically to cover part of their hair, to symbolise that they're ready to go and help the kingdom at a moment's notice, even at night. Even when they're woken up from sleep. My idea is that the king's hair kind of looks like a cross between these two photos (first for his hairstyle, second for his headwrap style):

It's only the ruling monarch/s that do this – their direct heir will at a certain age start wearing translucent partial head coverings on special occasions, but nothing opaque or at all times in public until they're the monarch. None of the other royals do. One of the main characters in my story is the second eldest princess, who's about 18-ish and doesn't cover her hair, and nor do either of her younger sisters (one of whom is in the story quite a lot) (the other main character is the white queen of another kingdom, about the same age, and they don't cover their hair there, if that's any useful context – there's a number of Black characters too who don't cover their hair).

I know there used to be laws forcing the covering of Black people's hair in some places, and with the discrimination surrounding Black hair too, I'm wondering whether it would be racist or anything inappropriate to have something like this? Or if I'm overthinking it?

(I'd also appreciate it if you could just give me a yes/hell no on the hairstyle itself too if you have a chance.)

(also I'm either terrible at searching or preaching to the choir here but it's so hard to find images of black men in headwraps on duckduckgo, seriously. And sorry for the long ask! I appreciate it if you answer this and dw if you don't want to/can't.)

You chose two fine ass men 😭 Oooh I love a man in a turban. Gorgeous. I love both styles. And head coverings and scarves are also a positive part of Black beauty cultures internationally! Nigerian women will wear the finest of head wraps for special events, I love seeing the styles. So ofc it wouldn't be an issue.

It's not that hair is being covered that was what made the Tignon laws (what you're talking about) racist, it was the reason why they were being forced to cover their hair. If that is not what you're depicting (without intent to show discrimination) then you're fine. You seem to be doing it as a sign of royalty and devotion to one's kingdom. That sounds honorable to me.