#the erasure of Simon

[kruemel8]

A new picture of The Gang™️ only to be deleted moments later. 😔

[ornateorchid]

i was just minding my own on when i saw an ad for call of duty warzone mobile. i then went and watched every trailer for it to see if there were any gaz cameos. there weren't any, but i wasn't surprised. then i went to look for promotional photos to see if he was in any and i found this one...

anybody see gaz here? nope, neither do i! he's not in ANY promotional photos or videos that i could find. i don't even know if he's in the GAME. you have all these characters lined up yet you don't have one of the MAIN characters from THREE OF YOUR GAMES! and i know he's not the only modern warfare character missing, but he's also the one missing from almost everything. last time i checked task force 141 included price, gaz, ghost, and soap. GAZ! GAZZZZZ!!!!!!! not some operator who is never mentioned in any campaign. i have no idea why activision hates him so much, yet here we are :/

[jajatoc]

Oneirotects (mea culpa)

[simonrileytaylorsversion]

Let me get up on my soapbox rq.

STOP ERASING BLACK CHARACTERS FROM FANDOMS 👏👏👏👏

I see those goddamn writers replacing Gaz with Konig and I swear my blood turns hotter than the equator in July. KONIG AINT EVEN IN THE DAMN CAMPAIGN?!?! How ironic, the only black character gets erased and replaced with a white one. Also all the Gaz fics I’ve read always has him cheating or being a druggie. I smell stereotypes. Why do we as a society feel the need to erase black people from our culture? Not to mention, erasure of all POC’s. For example, in law and order SVU, every one of the damn Latino/latina characters get their fucking lives destroyed and go to jail and whatever, but the white girls commit felonies on girls trips and get their wrists slapped and go back to “desk duty”. How fucking blind are we as a society?? The erasure is actually wild to me.

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk

[sheepgirl3]

I’m falling deeper and deeper down the CoD rabbit hole and I’ve noticed something that has driven me bonkers.

TW: talk of canonical SA

+++

So I’ve read the Ghost comics, which for one thing show how incredibly fucked up basically every area of Simon’s life is and was. He never had a chance and honestly, it’s amazing he’s not more off the rails.

But before I read the Ghost comics, I had extensively studied the wikis for Simon and you know what they never mention?

The sexual assault he’s routinely put through.

Even the wiki for the comic where Pilar is named doesn’t put a name to it or mention the horror around her presence. Nor does it touch on the man who we see buttoning up his pants in the cell with Simon beyond the fact that he licked his (Simon’s) lips.

I barely see it mentioned anywhere and it’s sparsely mentioned by the fandom, from what I can tell. I’ve seen it in fanfics before, but sometimes I’m decently sure writers don’t know that it’s actually a canonical event.

And I feel so bad for Simon, ya know? But I also hate the general lack of acknowledgement of that area of his trauma.

There’s very little point to this post other than expressing frustration. I also wonder if others in the fandom feel the same way and how widely Simon’s canonical trauma is known. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was not super widely; I’ve not been able to find the physical copies of the Ghost comics anywhere and only read them online.

Anyhow, yes, this has in fact prompted me to start writing another Ghost fic. Nevermind that I have like three in the works already.

[boypussydilf]

“Nova was basically OBSESSED with Casper.” HATE. HATE. HATE. HATE. HATE. THERE IS HATRED IN MY SOUL AND IN MY BODY. ANGER

[svvy2003]

Rod Reyes- DJATS. (found on Pinterest) Also,that second to last photo is so funny somehow. Reaction pic material.

[rainparadefromhell]

haven't said anything about un professore after that horrible finale. the character assassination of almost all characters (especially manuel) is even hard to believe. s1 wasn't some masterpiece but at least it made some sense. really sad that two amazing characters such as manuel and simone (who are too good for this show) were used as doormats to secondary characters. i'll still love them and simone holds a really special place in my heart but wow just awful awful writing. if you want to help spread the word of bisexual erasure (remember that pol rubio, the character who manuel is based on is a canon bisexual) in un professore join us on twitter on the 26th !!

(i've also included the english version down below for international fans)

[heartbeatkitty]

As someone just getting into Simon & Garfunkel, the fact that my two favourite synth duos have discussed the "were they lovers" rumour is hilarious to me.

Image 1: Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys commenting on the rumour. Image 2: Vince Clarke of Erasure chiming in.

[lurkingforthesakeoflurking]

Yall drops your fav GhostRoach fics please because everytime I go through that tag it's just GhostSoap with Roach being dead

[unfortunate17]

I can’t believe Pernilla August birthed & raised both of the top 2 characters of all time 😳

[magnetothemagnificent]

Can you explain the Jewish sidekicks post?

So. We all know (I hope) that Jews invented the superhero comic book medium. One of the most famous sidekick-hero duo, Batman and Robin, was created by Jews (Bill Finger and Bob Kane), as was Captain America and Bucky (Jack Kirby and Joe Simon). Sidekicks have become a staple of the superhero genre (although unfortunately in modern comics they've been in decline).

In Jewish storytelling and theology, the idea of the lone hero is a foreign one. All of the most notable Jewish heroes in Tanakh did not act alone- Avraham had Eliezer. Moshe had his brother Aharon to act as his interpretor, Yehoshua to act as his right-hand man and apprentice, Aharon and Chur to hold his hands up in the battle with Amalek, and when leading the Jewish people alone became too taxing for Moshe, he set up a system of delegates to ease his load on his father-in-law Yitro's advice. Eliyahu had Elisha. Devorah had Barak. While the relationship types between these people varied from siblings to master-and-apprentice to a married couple, the running theme is that all these great leaders had assistance.

In fact, for Noach, while he was considered a righteous man in his time, one of his main criticisms is that he acted alone, that he didn't make enough of an effort to reach out to others. In the very beginning of the Torah, G-d says "It is not good for Man (humans) to be alone, I will make him a counterpart" (Bereishit 2:18).

The idea of a lone hero getting all the credit and responsibility is present in various European mythologies, and subsequently Christian theology with Jesus as the singular Messiah and saviour. In contrast, while the idea of Mashiach is bit more fluid in Jewish theology, even Mashiach is thought to not act alone, with two counterparts to Mashiach, a Mashiach ben David and a Mashiach ben Yosef being recognized, as well as Eliyahu HaNavi to usher in Mashiach. This also intersects with Jewish ideals of masculinity contrasting with Western ideals. The ideal Jewish man is not characterized by brute strength and the lone wolf persona, but rather by a gentle, intellectual man with close bonds and loyalty to his family and community. (I highly recommend reading the essay by Jonathan Sexton in Chapter 5 of 'Jews in Popular Science Fiction' for more about superheroes and Jewish masculinity, especially with regards to Batman).

Sadly, there has been a noted decline in the popularity of and depiction of sidekicks in superhero media, which coincides with the increasing erasure of Judaism and Jewish influence in the field. Sidekicks are integral to the superhero medium, and it's a shame more people don't recognize their significance.

[leadmetothegardenbetty]

OKAY I AM ON THE TRAIN SO HERE IS THE BREAKDOWN MY FRIENDS:

• I got there late bc I didn’t plan well enough and thought I’d be okay time wise and it was Not Okay and I fully almost had a panic attack complete with crying and hyperventilating bc I knew I was gonna be at least five minutes late

• Since I got there late I’m not sure if they did like an intro to the film but in attendance was: Kyle, Emily, Adam (director), JP (director of cinematography), Ross (producer)

• They talked a lot about things we’ve already gathered from interviews when the movie initially came out (i.e., they got time to spend together before they first started shooting, all the music was written first before shooting started — mentioned how Watermelon came to fruition through Emily journaling in character as Patty and that Adam played all the music for Watermelon, also mentioned how Kyle blew out his voice twice during the process of recording for PSYOPS (he apparently tried to prep by singing along to the tracks in his car which as a Bad Idea))

• I did not actually know/do not know if this has been shared before but Kyle and Emily flew out to the shoot together and Adam booked it so their seats would be next to each other, they talked about how much time they spent together and how they would grill steaks, have dinner together,

• There was a Pumpkin mention (the pitbull Kyle got from his neighbor that he bought off of him bc he could see the dog needed a better home), also apparently Kyle found out at 5:30 AM during the shoot of the PSYOPS show that the former owner of Pumpkin was willing to sell her to him and there were a bunch of problems with the dog (she had her period, had to wear diapers, etc, etc))

• Emily talked about how playing Patty healed her inner child and she talked about how Kyle and her really just played versions of themselves in Patty and Simon. Kyle mentioned how he’s always loved punk/pop punk and he grew up in mosh pits and he loved getting to be a musician for this movie (I was tempted to yell out FINGERS ERASURE at one point because Adam and Kyle both talked about how Kyle had “never been in a band before” but alas I am a coward and idk if it would’ve been appreciated lmao)

• A couple people asked Adam for writing/creative advice, he told them to just kind of go for it!

• Kyle and Emily touched on how important it was for the film to go to those crazy/more vulgar places to really show what Patty was going through

• There was A LOT of Patty/Emily love!! I think pretty much every audience question was either aimed at Emily or Adam and 9 times out of 10 Kyle or Adam directed the question back to Emily

• Someone did ask when we could expect the PSYOPS tracks to be released and they said they were “working on it”

Overall guys it was an absolute BLAST to see this film with a crowd, I think like half the audience was seeing it for the first time which was fun in itself. There was no singing along and some people laughed at odd parts (I thought) but ultimately getting to watch with Kyle and Emily in the audience and seeing how much love they were getting—especially Emily, was so so incredibly wonderful!!

I am still kind of soaking everything in so if I remember anything else I will reblog and add!!

[kostektyw]

[hachama]

Daaaayuuum

(Image description: Twitter post by David Simon @AoDespair quoting Stephen Miller @StephenM

Stephen Miller: "Speaking as a Jew: ADL is NOT a Jewish organization. It is an ultra-left activist org that pushes radical transgenderism, border erasure, police dismantlement, and the demolition of free speech-deploying rank...."

David Simon: "Speaking as another Jew: you're a fucking shande and if there were only nine of us gathered and it was the morning of my father's yahrzeit and you stumbled in and promised to just sit in the corner and shut up, I'd say sorry, no, we don't have a minyan."

[sailorblossoms-snowbaz]

Those long detailed posts are not quick to write so sometimes I gotta ask myself “what’s the point of this rant? What is it going to achieve? Are you going to change anyone’s mind? Probably not” especially if I already posted about it before, so I’m just gonna keep it short with ��this is a bullet point on the list of ‘Simon doesn’t identify as bisexual at any point nor is he ever working towards getting there and thus is wrong to write off the trilogy as bi-erasure or to say him being unlabeled is a cop out’” and “it drives me insane that, even though he’s confused, this guy goes as far as to say he has never wanted anyone who isn’t Baz sexually or romantically, and it’s not getting picked up on – he even has a scene when in a place where is impossible to not notice a very attractive part of the female body, his thoughts are ‘nice, but mayhaps I’m just into Baz’ (he invents a goddamn sexuality to express how only into Baz he’s beginning to figure out he is) and this is somehow still not picked up on.”

He thinks this in the context of having sex mind you