#ruben morales

[tozierstache]

i started a club where we have a presentation night every month and i made these for the one i'm giving tonight. if you'd like to join the club hit me up

[mssunshiney03]

Let us not forget O'Halloran, shall we??

You know the episode is going to be fire when these dudes show up 🔥🔥🔥

[lesbianaelwen]

I was wondering who kipperlily was reminding me of, and I finally remembered last night—ocean from ride the cyclone. as in, yes, these morals are fucked but also this is a child. it is the moral duty of the adults around her to foster better morals and traits like compassion and empathy. I can’t blame her for being so primed to be taken advantage of; that being said, if/when that influence is removed and if she is given a chance to change, that is on her.

in a meta sense, brennan has established that there is a difference in the teenage villains he creates, and the vast majority of them are not pure irredeemable evil—they were influenced/groomed into their role and given external support/the ability to be free from that and change, they take it. how I’m seeing it, that’s being set up for at least a few of the rat grinders.

[ratfc]

I hope Ruben one day finds out he has a bunch of chronically online sports obsessed people craving him

[critical-skeptic]

Plástico

Rubén Blades is an artist whose work transcends time, geography, and language. To call him merely a salsa musician is to miss the profound depth of his message, a message that critiques the human condition with unflinching precision. His 1978 masterpiece Plástico, a standout track on the seminal album Siembra, co-created with Willie Colón, is more than a song; it is a mirror held up to society, reflecting the superficiality, materialism, and moral decay that have come to define entire generations. I was born in 1979, so the song is a year older than I am and still today is as relevant as the few years later when I first heard it in the early 1980s—a song I’m proud to say was one of many influences in my childhood. With biting yet poetic lyricism, Blades dismantles a plastic world of false values and hollow appearances—a critique that resonates just as urgently today as it did nearly half a century ago.

And therein lies the tragedy.

The Timeless Tragedy

The timelessness of Plástico is not a testament to the genius of its creator alone, though Blades deserves every accolade for his clarity of vision. It is also a damning indictment of a society that refuses to change. How is it that this song, written decades ago, could have been released today and still feel painfully relevant? The answer lies in the perpetuation of the very values Blades so eloquently dismantled: superficiality, selfishness, and a pathological obsession with instant gratification. The “pareja plástica” of his lyrics, the couple consumed by appearances and devoid of substance, may have been archetypes of their time, but they are not relics. They are the forebears of a culture that has metastasized, infecting every corner of modern life.

Blades’ critique wasn’t just about individuals—it was about systems, ideologies, and the forces that drive society toward emptiness. The young, plastic couple of Plástico came of age in the era of booming consumerism, when the Baby Boomer generation was rewriting the rules of society. And what did they write? A manifesto of entitlement, wastefulness, and anti-intellectualism. They were the torchbearers of an era that took humanity’s fringe tendencies—superficiality, waste, self-interest—and turned them into the dominant culture. They didn’t just ignore Blades’ warnings; they became the very embodiment of his critique.

A Generation's Legacy of Waste

This is where the timeline becomes especially grim. The Boomers were young when Blades wrote Plástico. They were the ones dancing to his music, oblivious or indifferent to the fact that they were the very people he was describing. Today, many of them remain firmly entrenched in positions of power—political, economic, and cultural. The selfish values they championed in their youth have only calcified with age, shaping institutions and systems that perpetuate the same superficiality, materialism, and indifference.

They are, quite literally, the same people. The same generation that consumed recklessly in the '70s and '80s, ignoring warnings about environmental collapse and societal decay, now clings to their entitlements with a death grip. They have built systems of consumption that replicate their values across generations, ensuring that their mindset continues to dominate long after they are gone. Social media, influencer culture, and the relentless churn of consumerism are not new phenomena; they are the logical evolution of a world molded by their values.

The Death of Accountability

And what of their legacy? Look around. The planet is groaning under the weight of their waste, both literal and metaphorical. Democracies teeter on the brink of collapse, eroded by the very anti-intellectualism that Carl Sagan warned about decades ago. Sagan’s voice, much like Blades’, went largely unheard, his poetic warnings about the fragility of civilization dismissed by a culture too busy chasing instant gratification to care about its own survival. Neil deGrasse Tyson and others have tried to carry his torch, but the message remains the same, as if humanity is caught in an endless loop of willful ignorance.

The Boomers’ failure to heed these warnings is not just a matter of indifference—it is active resistance. Acknowledging the truths laid bare by Blades, Sagan, and others would require confronting their own culpability. It would mean admitting that the American Dream (and its global counterparts) was built on unsustainable exploitation: of resources, of people, of truth itself. But instead of reckoning with this reality, they’ve chosen denial, doubling down on the very systems that created the mess we’re in.

Exporting the Virus

What makes this denial even more grotesque is how it has been exported. The Boomers’ consumerist ethos has gone global, infecting cultures far removed from the suburban sprawl where it was born. The “plastic couple” now exists in every corner of the world, a testament to the viral nature of their values. And yet, for all their moralizing about “personal responsibility,” this generation has shown a remarkable inability to take any responsibility for the world they’ve left behind.

Their entitlement knows no bounds. They’ve taken every last drop of the planet, metaphorically and literally, and still feel justified in demanding more. They balk at the idea of climate action, not because they don’t understand it, but because they know it would mean sacrificing the comforts they feel entitled to. They cling to archaic mentalities, not out of ignorance, but because these mentalities serve their interests.

The Breaking Point

The result? 2024 may very well be remembered as the year democracy and the environment reached their breaking points. The Boomers’ refusal to change—or even acknowledge their role in perpetuating this crisis—has pushed the world to the brink. They are the architects of a system that prioritizes short-term gains over long-term survival, and they show no signs of relinquishing their grip.

Plástico remains timeless not because humanity has failed to progress, but because one particular generation has refused to let it. Rubén Blades, Carl Sagan, and countless others have shouted into the void, their voices as clear and poetic as ever, but their warnings have gone unheeded. The plastic world Blades described in 1978 has not just endured—it has metastasized.

And so we find ourselves here, in a world built on waste and ruled by denial, staring down the collapse of everything Blades warned us about. The tragedy is not just that he was right—it’s that he still is.

[unlikablefemaleprotagonist]

realizing now that the ratgrinders probably DIDN'T kill lucy frostblade at all. likely, they were all killed by the same entity (jace or some other proxy of the rage goddess) at the same time and lucy was just the only one with the integrity to stay dead, instead of becoming a puppet. that's why ruben was so sad when he said she "stuck to her guns." because he wishes he had been able to be that brave instead of living with a constant anger inside him that overshadows every other part of his life! their grief is, on some level, probably genuine

but now they've passed the moral event horizon and killed buddy almost as a sort of "initiation" ritual. a messed-up version of hazing. "you can't be one of us until you die and come back wrong too"

[shortmeteor]

The Square (2017)

What a dumb and boring movie. What even was this? What was the meaning?(because, clearly, there was some deep and important meaning going on here) Why piss on art? Why make “satire” about this? It wasn’t even satire, that would imply some intelligence and wit. This was some little morality play, by smug morons.

Sure there’s a lot of stupid shallow nonsense in the art world. Is that particularly important nowadays, when art, and literature and philosophy etc., are being pushed as far as possible out of reach?

The worst part was the reporter. This was made by/for people who actively hate art in general. How could people like this, or even take it seriously?? I mean, what next? A movie “making fun” of rich people?... What fucking nonsense. And people think this guy is good? The fuck?

[onlylovrs]

tries to appear indifferent to the news, but knows damn well the slight quirk to brow gives him away. it's hard not to show a reaction when she's here with him when she could've been with noah. but of course, the role of an ever supporting friend never takes a break. " why did you cancel? you should go see him, " no ─ she really shouldn't. in fact, those words leaving his mouth leaves behind the feeling of razor blades in his throat. normally so easy to be honest with femme, yet now the idea of vocalizing his thoughts has an unsettling sensation at the pit of his stomach. oh, boy. " i'm not trying to gaslight you, i'm sorry, " timbre is softer, shoulders deflating, " i just don't want to fight with you, okay? i've been running around the city every night with atlas, so that's catching up to me. i'm just out of it. " concerns him how effortless lie spews from brims. & even then, can tell he did a half-assed job. sure, he's tired ─ exhausted, even ─ but not from syndicate duties. no, over being pushed to the sidelines. again. unfortunately for homme, seems to be the only spot she finds suitable for him ... & now, uncertain if that's enough anymore.

irritation grows with each passing moment, his nonchalance only grinding her nerves more. for two people who are usually able to talk through their issues, she's struggling to understand where the disconnect is coming from. picks up on the change in his tone at the mention of other, prompting a roll of eyes. what is his problem? " well, i cancelled on him. " because she was worried about her best friend. and now she's regretting that decision. " why am i bugging? you're seriously asking me that? " repeats incredulously, a scoff following quickly in suit. " you're sitting here gaslighting me into believing everything's fine when it's clearly not. that's why i'm fucking bugging, ruben. " disgruntled undertone is prevalent, anger bubbling to the surface.

[omgsomeonesomewhereonearth]

No because honestly in the first few episodes of them being introduced a lot more people were sympathetic to the rat grinders and I genuinely couldn't being myself to like them or care on any level.

And in hindsight it was honestly because it felt so much like the rat grinders didn't even like eachother?

Some things that caused my fondness for them to grow:

- Ivy and Oisin's banter at the party (yeah this was early on, they were the only characters I liked bc they were besties)

- Mary Ann seeming completely nonplussed that someone thinks she "can do so much better".

- Ruben talking about Lucy so earnestly

- Oisin coralling all his friends during the stand off against the Bad Kids (big brother energy)

- Ruben specifically voting against the team name to annoy Kipperlilly (little brother energy)

- (controversial) Oisin's hand on Kipperlilly's shoulder ready to remove her from the arena safely

- the recent revelation that they had a clubhouse

- Ivy and Oisin's bitchy little text thread

Truthfully what I'm learning about myself is that in a DnD setting, the morality of the party means nothing to me and the cohesion means everything. I don't care what they're working towards, as long as they work effectively and together, and the more we see the Rat Grinders doing those things the mroe I like them even if what they're doing is pure evil. Fight me.

[foreverrandomwritings]

I’ve been watching Law and Order SVU. I have a couple things to say. I’m on season 11 episode 15.

1.I hate Elliot Stabler with every fiber of my being.

2.Olivia needs to fucking get away from Elliot Stabler he like suffocates her with his toxic masculinity.

3.Alex Cabot makes me irate I really really really don’t fucking like her.

4.Odafin Tutuola can fucking get it. I’m a slut for that man.

5.The only reason I’m watching this show is to get to Dominick “Sonny” Carisi and Rafael Barba. But by god waiting for them is like waiting for rain in a drought. I’ve seen edits of them and read a lot of fanfic about them before I even started watching this show. I need them so bad.

6.I once again really hate Elliot Stabler and he makes me want to punch him.

7.Munch is hilarious and I love him.

8.I think they took Chester Lake from us too soon, I wanted more of him.

9.Does Olivia Benson really need to be romantically involved with like every man that comes on the damn screen🙄

10.Just about every single A.D.A has made me have such an ick. Hopefully Barba redeems the title when he shows up.

11.I love Olivia when she isn’t hanging around Stabler.

12.I get that Olivia and Stabler are supposed to be a big bad iconic duo but they are just getting annoying as fuck.

13.I want more Olivia and Fin! They are so good together.

14.Why has Cragen not fired Elliot? Like he’s a constant fucking problem, he’s not even that great of a detective, just drop his ass.

15.Melinda Warner is a slay. I’d be between her legs for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

16.Give me more Ruben Morales! He’s very interesting to me.

17.O’Halloran deserved better. I wish he’d remained alive. I miss him😩

18.Trevor Langan is hot as hell and I wanna take him for a ride.

19.I am fully in love with George Huang in like a completely platonic I look up to him kinda way. I want him to be my bestie.

20.I didn’t mind Novak but hated that they reused an actress that was arrested and convicted just like a season prior or whatever.

21.I wish Dean Winters was still around, I think him and Fin would have a blast fucking with Munch.

22.Why Kathy hasn’t left Stabler and stayed away is beyond me.

Added:

23.I love Ken, if anything happens to Ken I’ll riot. Ken deserves to be protected at all costs.

24.If Fin told me to sit down l, I’d be sat. There’s just something about him🤤

25.Has Elliot slept with like every partner other than Olivia?

26.I do not ship Olivia and Elliot. Sue me. I don’t care.

[pmamtraveller]

GASPAR DE CRAYER - THE JUDGEMENT OF SALOMON, 1620

The painting shows the biblical tale in which King Solomon settles a conflict between two women who both claim they are the mother of a child. The tension and emotional stakes of the moment are vividly conveyed in the scene. A Solomonic ruling indicates a wise choice in a challenging conflict.

King Solomon suggests splitting the baby in half so both women can have a share. In order to save her child's life, the biological mother is willing to hand the baby over to her competitor. She now discloses her actual identity as the mother and triumphs in the argument. This narrative resonates with any viewer highlighting the emotional stakes involved in motherhood and the lengths one would go to protect her child.

This artwork portrays the historical context of the Counter-Reformation in Flanders. In this era, the Catholic Church focused on moral stories to support its doctrines, with art playing a key role in communicating these messages. De Crayer, a well-known Flemish artist at the time, was heavily engaged in creating altarpieces and religious artworks that expressed ethical and spiritual teachings consistent with Catholic beliefs.

De Crayer's artistic approach changed over the years, starting off with Rubens' vigor in his early works and transitioning to Van Dyck's emotional intensity in his later pieces. This development is clearly seen in the gentler, more emotional characters in his later pieces, which stand out from the commanding demeanor of Solomon in this specific artwork. Commissioned for a courtroom in Ghent, the artwork served both a decorative and didactic purpose, reinforcing the ideals of wise governance and divine justice during a time when the Church sought to reaffirm its influence in society.

[thespoonisvictory]

I'm maintaining that drawing a line about "'real" and "true" friendship that the bad kids have vs the rat grinders kind of defeats the point of them for me. What if two of them hadn't died in that gym, bonding them irreversibly as a group? What if Riz had shrunk inwards as a result of being bullied because he didn't have such a kick-ass, encouraging mom? What if Adaine didn't have a panic attack and got into Hudol? What if Fabian didn't grow out of some of the worse aspects of his behavior? What if Fig's horns never came in? What if Kristen's parents had a slightly tighter grip on her?

The rat grinders are not "lesser" inherently than the bad kids. Even some of the things heralded as bad signs, to be honest, are things that the bad kids do/did. I'm not saying they're as close, and I'm not saying they're on equally moral sides of the argument. I'm saying that they would have had inside jokes, and silly sleepovers, and clearly don't sit around treating their adventuring party like a business interaction (they made stupid codes for all their allies). I'm saying that there's many versions of these two groups that are much more similar. I'm saying that Ruben's House is their Mordred Manor, wizard tower and all.

I'm saying, above all else, maybe, fuck Porter. Because he was one of the adults in the situation here, and he led them to be sacrificed so he could be a god. The rat grinders didn't get Jawbone, or Sandra Lynn, or Sklonda, or Garthy, or Ayda, or even Aguefort himself, really. They put their trust in adults who showed them a way to catch up to their school rivals (who they, at this point, had not directly antagonized in anyway other than petty, one-sided rivalry), and they abused that.

[impulsivesuperrobin]

in regards to this post (semi rant-y stuff incoming; tw for mentions of abuse, abuse not specified)

i’m so not joking when i say the bad kids deserve to do everything they are doing to the rat grinders. like, they were tormented the entirety of their most stressful year bc the leader of this group of kids they never even interacted with before was jealous of the trauma they endured.

in my time at high school i had to deal with people like the rat grinders. someone who was jealous of the fact that my life was “harder” than theirs and they took it out on me. i tried my best not to engage when they got petty, and even to help them bc they were indeed going through things, but they refused bc they would rather wallow than accept any advice or help from me. they even took steps to enable my abuser and claim our traumas bc of that as linked. they also tormented my friends the entirety of our time at high school, even after we had cut ties with them.

and remember the bad kids are (mostly) 16! you think you, oh great and objective moral compass holder that you are, would have not gone absolutely apeshit on your high school bullies if you were given a free pass at 16? or even, as this situation is more like, the people who made your friends lives a living hell? ivy got the insult she said to mazey thrown back at her, and ruben got sent to the tamest version of hell ever (he’s a roadie instead of a musician forever). and actually, the bad kids gave them multiple chances to switch sides and they didn’t bc they’re beyond redemption in their current state. for a person to redeem themselves they have to want redemption.

sure, from a narrative standpoint it’s disappointing if you look at it totally detached from the pov of the series. but this is the bad kids’ story. it’s the logical conclusion to the arc of the season AND if the rat grinders were one dimensional they wouldn’t be formidable foes and good foils to our heroes, they would be combat cronies that could’ve been done away with in the first few episodes.

[figaydarights]

Do you think the Ratgrinders are evil? Possessed? Both? Neither?

OMG ITS SUNNY! HOWDY! thank you for the ask 🫶🫶 (AAA ITS NICE TO MEET YOU, I said so in the tags hours ago but I'ma say it again : 3)

Honestly this is a good fucking question, I feel like they were kinda just fucked up high schoolers who became even more morally fucked up by adult/maybe a gods manipulation, or maybe that's just me wanting to hope there's good in them. (Especially Ruben, what's his deal? Could an emo teen boy be good at heart? I say yes.)

Also I feel like in this season specifically but also sophomore and freshman year there's an overarching theme of adults letting down the kids around them, it could be a story where the rat grinders have just the worst adults surrounding them that have just influenced them or put them in a situation where they have to do these evil things.

(barking at the cage door ask me more about overarching themes and morals regarding d20 it's my favorite topic I get to let my inner English kid out.)

That or wouldn't it be funny if kitchenpot coppercat was just full on evil?

I hope its either one of Brennan's famous poetically philosophical moments or just "yeah they're just fucking assholes, for fun!"

All I know is next Wednesday is going to go crazy, Kipperlily must either have crazy manipulation skills for a 17 year old OR has some crazy connections to get Aelwyn (forgive me if i misspell elf names are really hard) to work for her

Thank you for asking : 3

[dontmixpaintinyourcoffee]

Alright, just to write down my thoughts on this, because I knew it was gonna happen but I looked anyway and now I'm kinda mad-

1. Killing the Rat Grinders is not unprecedented for the show, or even that remarkable. This has always been a very violent show, and it takes place in a high school. Stuff happens. Stuff has been happening since literally day one

2. This show is primarily a comedy. Not everything that is messed up will be addressed right away, and sometimes they won't ever be addressed, because they are pieces of improv and people forget details they made up on the fly. This isn't a show about perfectly heroic characters making morally just choices, it's a show about a bunch of messy teenagers in a fun setting doing messed up shit in an attempt to do some good.

3. Death does not mean the same thing in this world. You can't swing a cat in Elmville without hitting a random 16 year old with resurrection magic. It's very very common in this setting. Kristen alone has fully died twice, and Gorgug fully died once. In their first ever conflict!! The Bad Kids fully murdered Ragh, pretty brutally, and now he's one of their best friends. Zayn Darkshadow fully died, but he became a ghost and seems to be living his best unlife.

The thing that made the Rat Grinders so scary in the first place was that they managed to block resurrection magic. Once Ankarna and Cassandra are back and Porter and Jace are dead, there's no reason to believe that the sigil that stopped revivify will still hold. Literally nothing indicates that these deaths will be permanent. Not even Ruben's, Fig is literally in charge of the place where his soul is hanging out, she can pull him out no sweat. And if she can't Arthur Aguefort certainly can (and can probably get his body back too). You really think being dead with the capacity to be revivified excuses you from mandatory attendance??? Besides, anything is possible with chronomancy!!!

Anyways, if the angry reactions to this episode made you feel upset and confused like they made me... I mean you can think on it and consider why you disagree and re-evaluate your opinion, which is cool and good. But you can also just go outside and remember that it's a TV show and it doesn't really matter all that much that some strangers on the internet say it's bad. Which is also cool and good I think

[velvetvexations]

Re: Aabria. I agree. And also, I've never in my life felt worse for a creator than I did watching Aabria try and fail to get her players to consider The First Stoats as nuanced characters in that one AP. It ruined the season for me. I feel like she had such cool ambitious ideas around politics and morality and the players (although I feel like Erika and Jasper were game if they had had more support) just didn't bite

Yeah all of Last Bast was fucking crazy.

There's nothing wrong from a friends-at-the-table perspective with Brennan's style of DMing where it feels like the number one goal is to maximize the Fun meter, but Aabria's DMing seems more focused on challenging the players from a storytelling perspective, and one of those styles is much more fun to watch unless the parasocial has consumed you so thoroughly that the heroes getting the hi-score at Dungeons & Dragoning is all you care about as well. Which is like, most of this fandom.

But even saying that, Brennan's campaigns are usually amazing even from the perspective of the audience. I think the reason it went so wrong here is that he was trying really hard to make this season focus on a lot of real world issues and providing opportunities to explore them but the Intrepid Heroes remained solidly goal-oriented.

Like, maybe I'm being biased because my own parasocial with BLeeM specifically is very deep and I'm just throwing everyone else under the bus, but I do truly believe he always meant the Rat Grinders to be sympathetic, because like:

"She's not a bad kid."

Eugenia emphasizing Kipperlilly and Riz are not too different

literally what would be the point to Henry even being Ruben's uncle otherwise? like, at best he was maybe a brief red herring when Gorgug found out he was the one who made Grix, but that was like, immediately dropped and never brought up again

Kipperlilly having "a tremendous fondness" for Lucy (again, why did that even come up otherwise?)

But the IHs just did not give a fuck and Brennan's inclination is to just roll with whatever vibe they're riding.