#the kind of thing that's not teaching you anything based in theory but it's presented as objective fact that makes any piece good or bad

[alteredbeast]

in the context of "learn the rules before you break them" and seeing people get really mad about it i just always think of the online art tutorial/advice industrial complex and how since you get taught the short version First you don't actually learn the theory behind it and they're at best incomplete at worst straight up Wrong

[glisten-inthedark]

Mike and Will x Mike and El on Giving and Taking

Ok, so I want to preface this by saying anthropology is not my wheelhouse. I understand enough about the subject because my dad has a P.hD on Anthropology and has been teaching me it since I was old enough to understand it, but I'm by no means well versed enough on the subject.

Second point, this is not meant to be read as conclusive evidence on anything, it is merely an interpretation of what has been provided by the show and therefore something I decided to take the liberty of analyzing from the lens of something I'm familiar with but that again, is not what I graduated and specialized on.

If you're not interested in reading it, I'd suggest you skip because it might get a little bit deep and some words will be used that I will explain so they make sense.

This is not a necessary read per se, is more like an interesting one.

Firstly, I want to start by introducing Marcel Mauss – one of the most important names in Anthropology and the person that inspired some of Levi Strauss' most important work.

Marcel Mauss developed what we call the theory of reciprocity or the theory of giving.

Said theory was based on the observational studies he did on native cultures where he noticed how indigenous tribes would often exchange things of no value with one another - for example bones or stones -. And he started a process of trying to comprehend why they were behaving in such a way, especially because what was being given had no actual value as we understand as a society.

After studying multiple indigenous tribes, he realized the true value lied within the act of giving and he postulated that the reason they would do so was because these cultures believed that by giving someone something - whether it wa s bone, or a stone or an artifact - it was implied that a part of their souls was being given as well.

The inherent value was in the act of giving, but that value couldn't exist on itself. Mauss also established that what has been giving, must be returned - reciprocity. Many cultures believe if they get something, another thing must be given in return as a way of saying a part of their own soul was given as well.

He believed that gifts are asynchronous - meaning there's a time period between given them and receiving something in return - and in kind - meaning that they aren't measured in monetary terms.

So the gifts you get and you give back during holiday season? That's the reason why. The more you know.

But why I am talking about this, you may ask?

For this reason.

This is the monologue Mike shares with Will:

"It was the first day of kindergarten.

I knew nobody, I had no friends – and I just felt so alone and so scared. But I saw you on the swings and you were alone too.

And I just walked up to you and I asked –. I asked it if you wanted to be my friend. And you said yes.

You said yes.

It was the best thing I ever done".

Now, when we talk about this scene is important to note a few things. Mauss' theory wasn't limited to objects, but rather to bonds.

So Mike asked Will to be his friend (he offered him something, a literal chance to form a bond), and Will had the chance of saying no - to deny this attempt of forming that bond and therefore to deny a part of Mike's soul - and yet he said yes (he accepted the offer and in turn gave him something back, his friendship). From that moment on, something sacred was forged.

When Mike tells Will that, he is also offering again a part of himself. A knowledge he has kept hiden up until that point, an information he presents as new and doesn't expect anyone return, but gets a hand being tapped against wood.

When Will presents Mike with the painting, he claims it belongs to El.

So here, we are working with a physical representation- with an actual gift -, that was always meant to be Will's but that he'd later assign to El.

But the thing about Mauss' theory applied to this scenario. Firstly, El isn't there, she's not the one giving that proclamation nor was the one who actually feels those things.

The painting isn't her, the words aren't hers, she didn't commission.

So yet again, is not a part of El's soul Mike possesses, but rather a part of Will's. He tried to assign it to El, but that's not how it works. There's a transactional aspect to this, the symbol of giving can only represent is true meaning if it comes from the person who is actually giving them.

So had she commissioned, had she actually said those words, had she given the painting herself, that's a part of her Mike will always get to keep – something sacred and that is just her. But those weren't her words, nor was the painting hers as well.

If Mike truly believes they came from her - especially after what Will says when El was choking -, what he has holds no meaning if he assumes it comes from Eleven. Because what he assumes doesn't matter, what is the truth does.

But more importantly than that, Mike has absolutely nothing of El's. There's a clear distinction between the walls covered with Will's art, the binder full of his drawings, and Mike having absolutely nothing of hers.

We can't know for sure why, but Mike seems to make no effort into keeping parts of El soul with him, seems to make no effort in exchanging with her - his words of love and everything else.

Why is Will's art - parts his soul - the things that he keeps and why can't he seem to be able to do the same with El when he supposedly loves her so much?

[soaps-mohawk]

The amount of power you hold by making this series is INSANE LIKE I HAVE SO MANY QUESTION AND THEORIES

Like the institute, was it a bad experience? A good one? A mix? Does Omega! Reader have any specific memories that don't seem to leave? Maybe the omega's who had behavioral issues were punished but no one spoke of the punishments? I HAVE SO MANH THOUGHTS

That's what I love about reading fic series is that the readers talk to the writers and I feel like yall just sit and laugh like 'these guys have no idea how much pain I'm about to cause them' LMFAO like your the person behind the slaughter

No but really y'all have no idea what's coming. Even here very soon...y'all have no idea lmaooo

(please don't hate me I promise it has a happy ending 😬)

Institutes are not good places. I'll just clear that up right now, even though that's going to be kind of brought up here in a couple chapters. They are not good places and they never really have been. They were started in the late 19th century as a place to send omegas that had behavioral issues, health issues, all sorts of issues or perhaps were unwanted by families that couldn't support them or didn't want to have to deal with the work that goes into omegas. So think like mental institutions. They were run by "doctors and professionals" that "understood omegas" and could cure/fix/care for them.

Of course as the years went on people started to realize maybe not everything that goes on in them is so good and after some investigations and such there was a huge reform on institutes and they became more like they are in the present day in the fic. Actual institutes that "care for omegas and prepare them for pack life." Originally omegas didn't leave institutes after they were handed over, but then people realized there was money in institutes so naturally, they started dumping money into them to train omegas and then pretty much sell them off. Not directly like selling humans, but most institutes require application payments and then there's fees for all sorts of things like testing, files, anything they can legally charge for, they will.

Obviously we're beginning to realize a bit at this point that not everything the reader learned at the institute is...right. What omegas are taught and how they're taught varies institute to institute, usually based on the types of alphas that are seeking omegas from the institute. So institutes that have higher standing, more funding, tend to teach more subservience and obedience because that's where you have the rich alphas and the politicians and government looking at omegas. Lower level institutes might teach more how to serve and keep a pack since they might have the upper middle class, future family pack omegas. The lowest level institutes might also teach subservience and obedience less in an "I have an appearance to uphold" type of way and more of a "these are not good alphas picking up these omeags and we know that" type of way.

So, the reader didn't have a good experience because there is no real good experience at an institute. They're very strict, controlling, almost abusive in some instances (kneeling for two hours anyone?) Not every omega gets sent to an institute either. Some omegas live with their families until they're old enough to start seeking an alpha themselves. I think I did touch on that briefly in a chapter somewhere.

There's so much I could talk about on institutes omg. This is probably way more than you expected 😅 I just love this stuff so much.

[thepersonperson]

Ngl your post summarises so well why i love sukugo and why im so insane about them

Like of fucking course those two would work together when Sukuna deeply does not care about any social rules to ever exist. Of course they do when Gojo is confronted with someone gay for him and not hiding behind anything. This is not survivable and i love them and care them. I even had written in the notes for my fic about Gojo being the person who generally prefers to keep things as they are but i couldnt actually formulate why i think that. You are so smart your analysis is so wonderful

This is also why I like Sukugo a lot. It's not just that Sukuna matches Gojo's freak, he enables it. Encourages it even. Makes it worse. Sukuna's existence is a twisted opposition to Jujutsu Society. It's very hedonistic, sadistic, and selfish but by golly it is rebellion.

The flattery is also appreciated, but please understand that I am very stupid and am capable of making mistakes. Alternate perspectives like yours are just as valuable. Which is why I'm shoehorning your tags on this post into this ask. (They are great tags and everyone should see them. Also I don't know how to respond to them otherwise.)

#yeah youre right # sorry i got time to think about it #and im kind of writing gojo rhe same but a vit more influenced by sukuna lmao #tbh as the person coming from a post soviet country #i honestly cant like #fully agree with everything due to just #like i understand that what people want from socialism isnt what was in soviet union #but its still very much hard to accept that anyone could want what we went through lol #when i tell you that socialism actually pitted everyone against each other isnt not a joke #but i understand what you lead into and yeah yeah true

#tbf to gojo he really tried even if his method ultimately failed #like he had genuinely tried to do better for the kids that came after him despite the desperate lack of empathy of understanding of others #and himself #like i can appreciate the desperate desire to make change for the better

#and yeah geto was so horribly jealous its insane #of anything really #i also kinda really think geto has the mentality that after toji gojo is different? #that the boy he knew died and this is someone else #and what he does it ultimately for the boy he loved and for the boy who survived through changing #it also may be a bit of a fucked up coping mechanism how to deal with it all and differentiate what gojo was to him and is

#but yeah i was thinkinf about it and talking a lot #they were so badly exploited as children #we know its better with gojo than it was before #but then also if gojo takes on the hardest missions for the students that means he’s not present to teach its a fucked up circle #he doesnt understand enough to be a full leader to make a rebellion but he is trying god damn #but yeah the only way he could articulate what he’s actually feeling is through battle which is sad

#i take the way he stopped looking for exciting battles growing up is him growing up #like sending yuuta for cursed tools. he made his peace that he cant just chase men while he needs to take care of the kids #idk its all deeplt fucked up and im very sad for them

That's a fair criticism and even better commentary. I understand the aversion to some of the words I'm using to describe this. It's just that I don't know how else to effectively communicate what I think is the main issue. I do appreciate you're willing to hear me out on this though! (You're applying Umineko's "Without love, it cannot be seen." which makes me very happy.)

I'm US based which is a hypercapitalist hellscape, so when I talk about socialism it doesn't mean "do exactly what the Soviet Union did" (that would be very bad) but instead some of the ideas behind workers rights are good and desperately needed to curb stomp the type of labor exploitation they're experiencing. (Like unions for better pay, hours, and working conditions.)

Theory is useful because it give you the words to describe exactly what's wrong and the ideas that can guide you towards productive solutions. I can say Jujutsu Society is bad because of labor exploitation from the higher ups and therefore unions would help mitigate their power because I learned about those things.

Gojo and Geto don't have those words or background so they see part of the problem but have no name for it. And because they don't understand why it's happening, their solutions are surface-level treatments that don't address the real source of their suffering.

Toji was a symptom of the problem. Geto saw Toji as the entire problem so he thinks eradicating anything like Toji is the solution. Gojo saw Toji as a symptom and a potential solution to the real problem—Jujutsu Society. He recognized that Toji being strong is what helped him escape this problem so he laser focused on it. If he and his students are strong, they can change things. What things exactly? Gojo doesn't have the knowledge or time to dwell deeper on it. To him strength=revolution. He neglects the need for mutual aid, addressing overwork, and limiting child labor because the words and framework to deal with that are missing.

Gojo can't really do anything other than keep things the sameish because he doesn't know how the better world he's seeking works. (Similar to how you recognized this flaw of his, but couldn't put it into words since you didn't have them.) He both does things better for his students and screws them up in whole new different ways as a result of this. It's very tragic.

And everything wrong with Jujutsu Society is still just a microcosm of Japanese work culture that leads to this exploitation in the first place. Nanami is the only character that makes this connection and he has no idea what to do about it other than work where he feels less bad about it.

It's kind of like knowing a grease fire is dangerous but not knowing how to put it out.

>Gojo throws water on the grease fire trying to put it out and makes it worse before he starts suffocating it with his body instead of a blanket.

>Geto tries to eradicate grease from existence not knowing that other types of fire exist.

>Nanami realizes oxygen and fuel are the source of fires but he has none of the tools to put them out or prevent them.

>Sukuna understands that letting the fire burn everything to ash means there will never be fire again. ...While ignoring this also means there will be nothing left in the aftermath.

If any of these people were taught fire safety (labor theory), their methods of dealing with the fire (labor exploitation) and preventing it in the future would be so much better.

Japan has some of the lowest union memberships and the worst working conditions amongst rich countries. JJK has a lot to say on the topic so I'm being very annoying about it because I don't see others talking about it this way.

[yanderes-galore]

Yay! The request is open! :D

Could you do the request I ask you other day? The one with Meenah having pitch feeling for human or Gamzee?

I don't have much practice on writing pitch so I hope you still like it!

Yandere! Meenah Peixes feeling pitched for a Human

Pairing: Pitch/Kismesis ♠️

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Human/Troll relationship, Manipulation, Entitlement, Culture shock, Black romance courting, Kissing/Biting mention, Isolation mentioned, Forced relationship.

The whole thing is certainly confusing for you.

Humans have no real counterpart for black romances like Trolls

Meenah doesn't quite understand it herself at first.

Supposedly signs of a black crush include hating someone but not really understanding why.

Meenah, for some reason, harbors a special kind of hate for you… one she can't seem to get rid of.

She doesn't get it either, it's not like you did anything.

You're just a human she met-

Despite this Meenah finds herself picking up on your traits, especially your flaws.

You're already on edge around Meenah.

Her base personality is aggressive, rude, sarcastic, and mean to generally everyone.

Her trying to pursue black romance with you just feels like her… except very condescending and probably worse.

Meenah's black feelings probably just feel like bullying to you as a human.

Or some odd attempt to start a rivalry.

It's like Meenah is trying to coax out the same reaction from you.

The point of a Kismesis is supposedly to have both parties better each other by recognizing their flaws, similar to other quadrants.

However this romance is much more volatile, even with the right pairs.

Meenah already feels a bit weird trying to teach a human such a thing.

Yet not enough to stop pursuing you.

Yeah, poor thing, you're confused and she is too.

That is until someone tells her what these feelings are coming from.

Aranea may tell Meenah she feels pitch for you, for some reason she feels she'd love this human if not for their flaws… making her pitch for them.

Meenah's confusion lessens when she has her theories confirmed, your confusion is still rather present.

Even when you have someone like Karkat try to explain the caliginous black romance quadrant, you just grow concerned.

As a human you want nothing to do with such a thing.

To you it probably sounds like some sort of alien hate mating thing and it doesn't appeal to you.

This may result in you trying to distance yourself from Meenah, which only fuels her black hate.

In fact… a lot of what you do fuels her feelings, that's the frustrating part.

If you attempt to be friends, if you try to avoid her, if you express annoyance or hate towards her…

It all feeds the obsession.

It only makes Meenah want to pursue you more, even if you don't understand how troll romance works.

If anything, she can take the hate you're festering for her as the start of black romance.

Even if you don't mean to do that….

What's worse is Meenah is an entitled troll.

She feels she deserves you and shows aggression towards others with you.

If anyone doesn't like you she'll take it as them taking her spot.

Then there's the issue that black romance can affect other relationships, which may drive her to isolate you.

In her eyes she feels she's the only one you deserve, flaws and all.

Only she can pick you apart all while kissing your face and nipping your lips until you bleed.

If this makes you hate her, then she's only winning.

Making you hate her will make her quadrant feel complete.

Meenah already knows she'll have you as her Kismesis… it's just a matter of when.

[ramshacklefey]

Not to be outdone by Florida for long, the Ohio State Senate just passed this monstrosity of a bill to assure "intellectual freedom and diversity" in state universities. Among other things, it suggests:

Forbidding any kind of required DEI training;

Forbidding any form of affirmative action or scholarships based on race, gender, sexuality, etc (the official wording is that no one is to be "advantaged or disadvantaged" based on these things, but I'm sure you can see that this is the logical fallout from that);

Forbidding "training" about any kind of systemic oppression or privilege;

Forbidding anything in the university that would group students by sex, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender presentation. This includes extracurricular activities. The intention is pretty obviously to get rid of clubs, fraternities, and sororities for queer students or students of color, or events like Queer Proms, or graduation ceremonies for students of color. (Somewhat hilariously, it would also require co-ed dorms, and I sincerely hope that if this passes someone has the balls to turn all restrooms on a campus gender-neutral);

Requiring that all course syllabi be made publicly available on the University website, including a description of every single lecture or discussion, to be made available by the first day of the term;

Requiring that all faculty allow students to draw their own conclusions about "controversial matters" and not attempt to inculcate any particular belief about them in students. Controversial matters, btw, explicitly includes climate change. But this also means that an instructor is not allowed to tell students that systemic racism or sexism is real or a problem, and could easily be stretched to include things like vaccines or conspiracy theories. Additionally, considering the fact that many people consider any discussion of LGBT topics to be "indoctrination"... I'm sure you can see where this might go;

Requiring that all student evals for courses include the question, "Does the faculty member create a classroom atmosphere free of political, racial, gender, and religious bias?" Honestly, this could go a number of ways, but given the rest of the bill, it's pretty clear why they included it;

Requiring all students to take a course in American history. Seems legit, but combine that with the fact that we're not allowed to talk about any kind of systemic oppression;

Forbidding any state university employees from striking;

Requiring post-tenure reviews for faculty every three years, submitted to the university chancellor. At least 50% of faculty members' teaching evaluation is to be based on student evals; and

Forbidding any relationships with the Chinese government or Chinese universities (including exchange or study abroad programs).

If you live, teach, or attend a university in Ohio, please contact your state house rep.

[yukidragon]

Hello~ So I think there's a flaw with swwsdj actually..... Everyone says, Jack can't do anything the MC wants right? Thaaaats not entirely true, I don't think anyways...

Example: Jack starting to disappear when MC says No when Nick asks about dating....

Why? Why does he Suddenly start to disappear? The demo starts Months after meeting Jack, if MC doesn't truly like him to that point, then how is Jack still around to begin with??

I theory that he's kiiiinda lying to that extent! Cause MC feels Horrible for saying No, but why? If they don't like Jack, why would they Suddenly feel bad, and why would Jack only then start disappearing? See I think Jack has more control over us then we are lead to fully believe, warping our minds so we struggle to hate him and rethink our No options.

That’s just it, MC doesn’t want Jack to leave. We see it in their desperation to keep him after they can’t touch him.

However, that doesn’t mean that MC’s need for them didn’t weaken in that moment.

Jack is an actor, and a good one at that. It can easily be argued that he faked the incident to teach MC a lesson for that reason alone. However, there’s very strong pieces of evidence to indicate that it wasn’t faked.

For one thing, Jack’s expression and reaction, dark and traumatized, is similar to his reaction to the bad choice in the yogurt mini game. There’s no reason for him to fake that negative reaction, so this seems to be how he looks when he’s genuinely haunted.

However, the bigger piece of evidence is the monologue Jack has afterwards.

...That was close. Too close. ... Haha...I thought I was doing everything right. ... Wasn’t all this what you wanted? ... Or was I meant to be giving you more? ... I can do better. ...I WILL do better. ... You’ll see how good I am for you. ... I can make you whole. You’ve just got to trust me.

The red text that results from the “yes” or “no” choice doesn’t seem to be a direct conversation with MC. Rather, this seems more like Jack talking at them, or perhaps thinking.

Jack expresses fear, frustration, and confusion. This is in direct contrast to his quiet, sad reassurance to MC when he was directly speaking with them. Saying that he just had a close call is the opposite of what he implied, that he was still there and he wasn’t disappearing. It kind of makes him out to be a liar if he suddenly switches like this, doesn’t it? That’s something he certainly wouldn’t want his sunshine to believe him to be after all...

I think that the red text here is us, as the players, hearing what Jack is thinking about MC. Maybe they subconsciously hear it, but it’s not on a level where they are aware of it. This suggests that anything said here isn’t meant to be a direct manipulation tactic.

Speaking of his manipulation tactics, Jack’s tactics aren’t threat based, at least when it comes to MC. He does his best to present a gentle, supportive persona for his sunshine. He doesn’t lie directly, but rather he misleads through lies of omission. While he does make it clear that what’s happened to him is because of them not wanting him there, he doesn’t condemn them for it. He is reassuring, trying to be cheerful and supportive of them despite being sad. Yes, his sadness can be a manipulation tactic, but given his shocked stammering for words earlier and his red text thoughts after, I doubt it would entirely be for show.

I think what happened was that Jack started to lose his grasp on being real because MC was pulling away from him. They didn’t need him as an excuse to say no to some random guy hitting on them at work. They’re deciding not to get closer to Jack. They don’t need him in their life to do things, to stand on their own.

Wants and needs can be different. MC might want Jack, but it could be that unless they need him too, he goes away.

Hell, for all we know, Jack might even be on a time limit. Similar to the Little Mermaid needing the love of her prince before a deadline, if he doesn’t get his sunshine’s love in time or loses it to another, then maybe this big yandere clown ghost(?) will turn back into a lost memory in static...

It can take a while to trust someone. It takes time to develop a relationship and a strong bond where you feel that you need a person. Love needs time to grow, and that’s what Jack wants ultimately - he wants his sunshine’s love.

Jack is patient though, as we’ve seen. He’s gently doing his best to coax MC into choosing him. He can’t force it, and he won’t do anything they don’t want.

MC was scarred by love before. Ian betrayed them in the worst way. Someone they grew up with who they loved and wanted to spend forever with cheated on them. That’s a deep scar that takes time to heal. It takes time to trust anyone, especially if they are as suspicious as a ghost(?) clown suddenly appearing one day.

I think, for as strange as the situation is, for whatever it might say about their mental state, Jack’s presence has brought MC a twisted sense of comfort. They’re not alone when he’s around. He makes them feel good, and it’s hard to want to give that up after they’ve felt bad for so long.

However, wanting to feel good isn’t the same as needing someone, let alone forever. That’s not love.

That’s where our choices come in, and where Jack is going to be desperate to guide those choices towards loving him.

That’s what make Jack’s tactics scary. He’s not taking control, he’s convincing others to make the choices he wants. He’s making the idea of surrendering control too attractive to refuse. He does it to MC, and he does it to the unknown people in those teaser pictures Sauce drew when he convinces them to use a knife on themselves...

There are a lot of people out there who convince people into surrendering control through words alone, including with technical truths that lie by omission. Reality gets twisted around until the victim feels as though it was something they wanted all along. They are lured into the cage and lock the door behind themselves willingly. Jack is that type of antagonist in this horror game, and those type of people can be just as scary as axe wielding maniacs.

Is a few months enough time for MC to start to fall in love with Jack? Well, that’s up to us, the player. If it’s not, then, well... this colorful little mermaid is at risk of turning into seafoam, isn’t he?

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore @okamiliqueur  

[starcrossed-sky]

No, see, this makes perfect fucking sense.

Because how Fox and QAnon and Ancient Aliens and all of these conspiracy people Get You is because they target people who have nothing better. People who are isolated and have both nothing to talk about and nothing to do with their days except absorbing whatever's put in front of their eyeballs.

Both of these cases? The conspiracy-theorizing was stopped in its tracks because they had better things to do. Things that were actively engaging them and allowing them to connect with other humans in some way that was based in joy, rather than hate.

That's what it takes. You can't just tell them that the conspiracy they've gotten into is garbage. You need to give them something to replace it with, otherwise as soon as you're not physically present anymore, they're going right back down the hole, because the hole is the only thing that gives them the "you matter and what you're doing matters" brain chemicals that we all need to be functional human beings.

(It's really easy to get those brain chemicals from watching conspiracy theory videos. They get your brain to attach that reward to the nebulous "be informed" (about the conspiracy) and "spread the truth" (talk about the conspiracy and convince other people to believe it) goals. It's the same kind of braintrick as convincing yourself that fighting with other queer people online is actually advancing queer rights - because it's something you can do that's concrete and immediate in reward.)

So yeah. Get grandma into Wordle. Get really into painting minis with grandpa. Teach Uncle Tom to play a tabletop game. Literally anything that gives them something that 1) fills the time 2) gives them a sense of achievement 3) gives them some way to connect with other people. That's what they go looking for, when they find QAnon instead.

wordle and bts may seem like they have nothing in common but both have been cited by redditors as the reason why their elderly relative quit watching fox news and started acting normal again

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

Faced with the acutely disturbing reality of the Unification Movement…

Why people follow Hyung Jin

Especially for the first generation, witnessing what is happening with the movement we once joined is, at the very least, disappointing. More likely disheartening, or even traumatic. It seems that everything we taught and believed in is being knocked down, disassembled. The very pillars of our faith, the True Parents, are being exposed as much less than perfect. Our belief in the importance of chastity suffered a big blow since Hyo Jin’s confession in 1988, followed ten years later by Nansook’s book revealing all kinds of abuse in the heart of East Garden. We heard of the Six Marys, of children outside marriage… We saw power struggles; lawsuits for hundreds of millions of dollars; persecution campaigns; money stealing, you name it. More recently we heard of the True Mother coming with a new understanding of her position and lineage and making some little changes here and there, stirring the outcry of some rigid believers. There are memos and open letters from the leaders accusing, excommunicating… Our belief in the importance of unity went out the window with Preston, Sean and Justin; our faith in ancestor liberation ended up being a lucrative business for a phony shaman… while the sacredness of marriage was stepped on by Tatiana… All of it challenging our very sanity.

What’s a person who was faithful for thirty, forty years to do with this reality? I know what that person does NOT want to do: face that reality. It’s too painful to come to terms with the high possibility that our worldview was based on a fantasy; that our dear and adored True Parents may have been two delusional people; that the True Family, a.k.a. the foundation for the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, is a bunch of spoiled, bad-tempered bullies or phony personalities. It hurts. For THAT we left our family and friends, our country? For THAT we put aside our personal goals and desires, and gave our lives? It’s painful; it’s embarrassing.

Faced with the acutely disturbing reality of the Unification Movement, some people would rather hold on to a fantasy which now Hyung Jin is trying to embody. It’s a way to create hope from hopelessness. Not having enough guts to leave the asylum altogether, they remain under the wing of the “heir,” just in case… It doesn’t matter to them how he behaved during his chairmanship… Yes, he did a few weird things, he believes in conspiracy theories and other questionable stuff; yes, he’s trying to build a church financed by his gun-making brother… but hey! following him keeps their eyes in a future that will be better (or so they want to believe) – anything but facing what is. Afraid of being their God-given selves, they’d rather follow someone; they need “the lineage” to feel safe, to feel their value. They dug for some words of the Rev. Moon that support their present fantasy (while ignoring a whole lot that point in a different direction) and they’re ready to pledge absolute obedience to the new king! Personally, I’m among the ones who decided to look at reality right in the face, lower my head, and admit that I have made a mistake; that I committed the crime of ignoring God – that compass within me – to follow someone in the name of the Principle of Restoration. I was young then… Today I see that such Principle is the perfect tool to control the minds and hearts of good, idealistic people like me.

The very philosophy of Hyung Jin is: to become a Zero in front of Christ. Those words may sound lofty and true, but in the practice they mean you have to put aside who you are. That is seen as a merit – and a necessity. However, I’m convinced that mindset is an aberration of God’s design. Beware, people! I hold the Reverend Moon in spirit world to his own word – his single, most truthful teaching, “Follow your conscience,” as I do just that and move on.

YR

Adam and Eve were not real

Reflections on a very Korean “messiah”

Reflections on the significance of lineage and of Jesus

[suvarnarekha]

I was studying my History book - Themes in Indian History - 1 for Revision. And I came across small interesting things that mostly escape our attention.

"It is likely that social relations were more complicated." Alright. They might be. But why should I believe that? Who said that? Your leaned opinions on Historical instances?

"We're going to teach these highschool kids this kind of history."

"But, shouldn't it be based on facts? What's 'probably used by ordinary people'?"

"Ah, but where's the fun in that? Besides, It's just a book! They're gonna mug anything up anyway right? Lol."

Again, Who hotly debated? Are we gonna be presented with your conspiracy theories as itihas now?

Let me guess. By "some" you mean your UwU fantasy characters? Or the Sahebs you suppose are incarnated by god as they can speak nothing but the truth?

Or should I say, Your truth?

Sure. "1st millennium BCE is the turning point in history" sounds plausible to me. Um, but I'm afraid-

"Tch tch tch. Mug them up, will you? Who cares about facts in History anyway?"

[dandansposts]

trans did vergil wrt nero below cut baybey!!!!!!!

tl;dr vergil knows he has a kid but hasnt seen that kid since he was a newborn by dmc5. v feels like theyre more entitled to being nero's parent than anyone else in the system for reasons

let us get some basics out of the way. vergil is trans, he's asexual, and he has DID according to me. i also think he's autistic. also according to me, eva was a witch and while she did teach both her sons how to use magic as a sort of companion activity to sparda training them in combat, vergil was the one who really took to it; dante for the most part didn't have the attention span for the kind of book learning needed to learn the ins and outs of magic. he can do some basics, has taught himself some things as he's aged, but doesn't really consider himself to be a witch. (witch being a gender neutral term here)

vergil, on the other hand, hyperfixated on it even after eva died, though from there it would have become more v's thing than anyone else's. v considers themself as well as the system as a whole to be a witch, but there's some discrepancies between alters based on opinions on eva and degree of attachment to her memory. (v's a total mama's boy (gender neutral) and i wont be argued w about it. source of strife btwn them and vergil. delicious)

i'm going off my headcanons so i will be including nelo angelo in this, as well as altered pronouns from canon, so

pronoun list:

v: they/them

vergil: he/him

griffon: he/him

shadow: she/her

nightmare: it/its

nelo angelo: he/him

nero: he/they

dante: he/him

vergil system collective pronouns: they/he

yeah im an enby nero truther as well and what of it.

basic summary of events leading up to nero's conception is this:

vergil is in his late teens. he is attempting to transition via magic though this is entirely homebrewed, entirely a spell of his/v's own making, and entirely untested

this backfires horrifically, almost killing them in the process. the ramifications of this leave them physically weak and as we all know this is unacceptable.

prior to this the plan to raise the temen ni gru is already in the works but this just spurs them on. weak, recovering slowly bc as previously stated they nearly killed themself, they head to fortuna looking for information; if you're gonna find anything on ancient demon towers and hell gates its gonna be in the dusty church basement libraries of thee sparda cult id think.

i have 2 branching theories here but the end result is pretty much the same and results in them getting pregnant and carrying baby nero to term. theory one is Unpleasant and i'm going to leave it at that but theory 2 is a sex for information type dealie. makes more sense to me for vergil to view sex as a largely transactional thing and not really have a problem with using it to get info. given that he kinda, y'know, is an orphan and i imagine hasnt had any sex ed, i'm really operating under the assumption that he doesnt really know where babies come from? or at the very least isnt fully aware that this is a risk.

demon baby proceeds to wreak havoc upon an already very weak vergil; abortion attempts are made but are unfruitful. information quest continues despite this.

to make a long story short v is the alter who's most present at nero's birth; they're the one who first lays eyes on this baby, they're the one who holds him, who cleans him, who has a horrible little panic attack wherever the fuck this happens bc what in the fuck tbh. i imagine here, vulnerable and tired and extremely weak, they see Baby and theyre like oh.... youre small and defenseless and yet you have caused me so many problems.... my baby now

power quest takes precedent, nero is abandoned in fortuna days after being born. v later claims to have been against this but at the time would have agreed that power comes first; how else are you going to protect yourself or your baby when you're a heavily traumatized half demon teen dad

raising the temen ni gru becomes a pretty much suicidal endevour from here. it's stupid and dangerous and will probably end with them dying awful and bloody but they've just experienced true weakness; it's power and therefore safety and stability or death. canon pretty much happens from here.

now. i have done a lot of world building on witches in my dmc headcanons and am SO willing to talk about it but the necessary information here is the ability to practice witchcraft is generally inherited mother to daughter (strictly in the biological sense) as it was a gift bestowed upon human priestesses by demons prior to sparda cutting the human and demon worlds off from each other. eva's family goes waaaaaay the fuck back as the original priestesses of sparda's family line. vergil and dante both inherit this ability but crucially so does nero, despite the fact that according to me he is for all intents and purposes amab. chalk this up to either nero being intersex or vergils fuckshit genetics messing with things. either way, nero inherits this ability. or if you are taking my ideas and running with it, which by all means please do, and you decide he's a trans man, that literally works lkke i dont care all that you need to know here is nero inherits the ability to preform witchcraft from vergil.

a very good friend of mine has allowed me to bounce ideas off him and has given me many ideas so should i talk about neros witchcraft at any point, a lot of the credit for the ideas goes to him.

and if he is reading this and would like me to credit him for his baller ideas he should dm me on discord but ANYWAY.

i am now going to breakdown how each alter relates to nero. i feel its worth it to note that no matter what happened in fortuna to create nero, the whole pregnancy was probably pretty traumatic and dysphoria enducing.

as i'm sure most DID havers and systems can tell you, interpersonal relationships when you are like this can get wildly complicated. you're balancing differing opinions and outlooks and gut reactions and it can be really difficult! so it follows, to me at least, that vergil & co have a very complicated relationship w/ their kid post DMC5 and just. super complicated feelings about nero In General.

vergil

now, vergil has extremely limited experience with people and a very narrow, very warped view of what family means. he also has a massively warped moral compass and tends to put self preservation above all else. this is really obvious when he doesnt have the other alters holding him back; he would have killed both dante and nero if they weren't so durable just because they got in his way. that said, it's not like he doesn't care about them. dante's his twin brother, the one thing he wants more than anything is for dante to join him and i imagine it's similar with nero.

(unfortunately nero's a little too much like his uncle to join vergil's crazy power quests but y'know.)

he absolutely would not have been a good dad to a small child but with nero grown up and not dependent upon him for anyrhing, i can see vergil really being the one who tells nero about their family, about where they come from, and just all of the history there, which like... nero's an ophan, i can see that being very important to him.

i also think the whole arm thing like... in vergils mind, thats a mercy. he didn't try to kill him, just ripped off his arm bc he Needed the yamato for self preservation reasons. like, you get in his way, vergil will kill you. he didnt kill nero, to him that is almost positively a mercy and i imagine he has significant difficulty understanding why nero might hold that against him- vergil's been torn apart and remade and just destroyed more times than he probably remembers, like... this isn't anything to him.

as for interactions with infant nero, i can see vergil having a similar Oh... My Baby initial reaction as v, but this is Vergil- he needs to be strong, and if he can't protect himself, how's he supposed to protect a baby? i think he's fully aware that the temen ni gru quest is almost certainly a suicide mission, but in his mind, he has no choice.

in summary, i think he tries. i think he is a terrible father but i think every decision he's ever made has just been him Trying in his own fucked up way. whether or not he ever has much of a relationship with nero is entirely up to nero.

v

v is really interesting to me wrt nero. i see them as viewing themself as being somehow more entitled to being nero's parent than anyone else. on top of that, v is manipulative, they're cagey, they're the first alter who actually talks to adult nero, they're the kind of person who'll tell you only what you need to know to the point where it's basically a lie of omission.

this is all self defense, but it's still something that makes them wildly unpleasant to be arnd. couple that with feeling like nero Belongs to them, they actively sabotage other alters attempts to get to know their kid (until confronted about it). the non-humans are just "familiars", vergil and nelo angelo are "dangerous", etc. they honestly probably dont even really tell nero that they're All Vergil, Technically. this is probably something nero finds out from either dante (thinking nero already knew) or griffon (just telling him bc vergil doesnt think it's relevant information and v is actively keeping that from him)

that all said, v cares very deeply about nero and about what he thinks of them. they love him Dearly, would do anything for him, and genuinely just want what's best for him, though their idea of what's best for him doesn't always match up with reality.

they'd delight in sharing their witchcraft with him, in sharing the history of that, sharing everything they know, just... Teaching him like eva did them.

as with vergil they are just doing their fucking best. they just kind of happen to be an asshole. they also just happen to be emotionally unavailable. these things make interpersonal relationships difficult. i imaginr they also make connecting with your long lost son extremely difficult as well.

griffon

as v's kinda direct protector, griffon's heavily entwined with their bullshit but that does Not mean he puts up with it. post dmc5 and post hell, griffon? he is not pulling punches. nero wants Truth, in all its gory details? he should talk to griffon.

out of all of them, griffon's the most... mentally sound, shall we say. he's generally levelheaded, he's very silly, and is the most openly affectionate aside from shadow.

he very much considers nero to be Their son, rather than His son; nero's as much his as he is any other alters, they're all nero's dad, full stop.

how he shows affection, however, is by relentlessly bullying and he Definitely takes it too far and nero Definitely does not always understand that he's joking.

what v won't admit and what griffon has given up trying to tell them is that he was just about as present during nero's birth as They were, they are Very closely tied as alters, but . well. u try telling that to a wildly unstable witch.

shadow and nightmare

to be honest, i don't have a whole hell of a lot to say about them. they love nero, they both consider him the system's kid, etc, but they don't tend to front unless there's some.kind of imminent danger be that psychological or physical.

That Said, shadow can be VERY snuggly if you catch her fronting outside Danger Time. she's extremely sweet and loving to anyone she likes, and she Likes nero, that's her BABY.

angelo

and finally we come to the one that is entirely headcanoned. i'm gonna keep this relatively brief bc im running out of steam anf patience to keep.typung this but angelo's intial gut reaction to nero is about the same as it is to dante, which is just . sheer, gut wrenching terror followed by the worlds most aggressive fight response. consequently i Do think he's gutted nero once or twice.

as he begins to recover, begins to get out of the mundus brainwashing and starts to really just. be a person, if nero is willing to let him in he is the most fatherly. he's gentle but firm, he's patient, he's the kind of person who will do little things for you just because he wants you to be happy. i also don't see him pulling a v; he's very honest, very humble, and *very* willing to apologize and admit to wrongdoing- for fuckssake, he gutted his son, who he really does want a relationship with. gotta start somewhere, u know.

i can talk more about system interpersonal relations but as a tldr v Does Not Like Angelo Whatsoever; angelo represents the single worst time in their life, and he's also just everything v isnt.

anyway. thank you all for reading if youve gotten this far. if you wanna hear about anything else i may have mentioned in passing i am ABSOLUTELY willing to babble about my dmc headcanons.

[grison-in-space]

yes and: the social dominance subtext thing is something that we, coming out of a culture that likes to think it is egalitarian, tend to try to shove out of conscious awareness. that's why people will sometimes be offended at the idea they're not treating you like an equal, particularly if you're interacting because you're in an organization where at least in theory you have the same "rank": they shouldn't be treating you like an inferior [in theory] and probably don't consciously realize that they're doing so, especially if they have internally labeled you with an inferior social role based on anything related to a marginalizing status (including: gender, age, race, ethnicity, orientation, etc). Consciously drawing attention to behaviors that indicate that they are treating you like a lower-ranked person, again especially if any marginalizing factor is involved, is likely to trigger a state called "moral dissonance" where you're effectively forcing them to notice that their actions are not in line with their consciously held values.

this is a thing that sucks hard ass to experience, and most people really hate it and will immediately cast around to find a reason that no actually they're not doing that thing at ALL. This is where the defensive offended behavior comes from: it's an activated attempt to justify to both you and, importantly, themself that they definitely haven't been acting outside their conscious moral values. Because most people's internal assessment of social hierarchies is internal and implicit, they might or might not be aware of how they're thinking about you, and they might exclaim in frustration that they're not treating you like an inferior at all.

and: here's the kicker--they might be right. Social hierarchical posturing in humans is extremely contextual and usually cloaked in enough plausible deniability to not read as a direct insult, especially in a social context that values egalitarianism. It is also pretty much always present, whether or not the people in the group want it to be. There is no such thing as a human culture devoid of social hierarchical maneuvering. Nor is there any such thing as a human person who does not sometimes participate in this kind of interaction. It's not always antagonistic or bad, either: sometimes people will do things like posture in order to be reassured that they are still valued and respected by the group, and it is very possible and common for humans to make ploys for high status using affiliative tactics like: complimenting others, facilitating connections between other people, offering to teach other people, doing favors, etc. Most of our language for talking about this stuff is couched in a really antagonistic context, where interactions and hierarchies are framed as zero-sum conflicts, but that's not necessarily true.

Basically, human social maneuvering is often unconscious and usually hidden, especially in groups that value egalitarian interactions. Because it's all stuff that is happening under the surface, and because people are also often distracted and not paying attention, it's also totally possible for people to perceive shit as social posturing that isn't intended that way at all. Happens all the time. Humans are messy! Perception is messy! People aren't straightforward to interpret and sometimes there are a lot of mistakes!

but this is why "mansplaining" is a thing: men are much more likely to internally assume that they are higher on a social hierarchy than women, which means that they get more talking time. Sometimes an excited autistic infodumping reads to other people as fitting this pattern, even if the behavior has a different root cause. Figuring out how to navigate this as a human being is always going to be hard, and you're never going to pull it off with success 100% of the time because, well, no one does that either.

Btw I was talking to Kiddo about social rules because we're both autistic and it doesn't come naturally to either of us but I have 25 years experience on them so I have some useful tips

And as proof of that: in that conversation I realised what neurotypicals mean when they say we "make everything about us"

When they're talking and we interject "fun facts" or start talking about something related to what they're saying we mean:

"I am showing interest in you and your interests by engaging with them and showing I'm listening by adding information"

From their perspective we are stomping over their turn to talk and making it our turn and therefore making it about us

Conversation example:

NT: my favourite animal is sharks

Autistic person: with some sharks species the shark pup that hatches first hunts the others and eats them while being incubated inside the mother

Autistic person perspective: I have shown interest in you by giving you information about a topic you have shown interest in

NT person's perspective: wow they made my favourite animal a time for them to show off instead of letting me talk when it was my turn

It's doesn't matter if it's "on topic" or "relevant to the person" if it's when it's their turn to be the focus of the conversation

Like I know there is a bit more to it but this is the first time in 39 years I have understood the accusation "you're making this all about yourself"

[mandareeboo]

SU Music Rankings

Bc I can and I wanna start some Disk Horse rip. These are all in order of preference, with explanations, etc. It’s a long bitch. That said, I’m not counting little short jingles or small joke songs like Little Butler. This is the meat and potatoes of SU music- just under 30 songs. I might do the rest if people like my takes lol.

I scored it mostly on three bases- how dear it was to my heart, how much/often I relisten to it, and also what it means to the plot. That said, little fun songs don’t automatically go farther down than big, plot-heavy songs either! It’s a strange little balance.

Special Note: I don’t dislike any of this music! I love SU and that includes its bumps and glitches. I just pick favorite children lol.

1.) Change

Was there ever a more Steven moment than when he wiped the blood off his face and kissed it into sparkles? I think not. 

If “Be Wherever You Are” is an ode to young Steven, then this is teen Steven’s. Talking about change, and how much and how little it can do. How he holds his arms up for Spinel to hug him, so trusting. How he seems able to just. Break into soft tears at will, and not to be manipulative- it’s just his kind nature. The warmth in his voice. Fuck yesssss.

2.) Change Your Mind

This song is only fifty five seconds and it’s EVERYTHING to me. It really felt like someone was speaking the words I’d always held deep inside of me, unsure of how to say. It feels like a goodbye to someone who never really loved me. 

As much as I enjoyed Future, if this was the finale of SU, I would’ve been perfectly okay with that.

3.) Drift Away

This song gave me legitimate shivers the first time I heard it, and it still haunts me to this day. Spinel stayed, and waited, and all she got was a transmission thousands of years later. Fuck.

4.) Here We Are In The Future

THE MOVIE IS SU AS ITS BEST AND I WON’T BE SWAYED ON IT. Steven being a teen who loves his weird family but is growing just a bit sarcastic to their drama. The adorable love he and Connie share. His slow realization that he will always be working, always have things to do, is both somber and real. The Crystal Gems won’t be safe with one epic battle. They’ll be safe with years of hard work and love. HIS LITTLE HANDSHAKE WITH AMETHYST.

This is a helluva bop and a great way to summarize the main character’s backstories.

5.) Let’s Only Think About Love

Did ya’ll know that Zach Callison killed his throat with that last note? He gave his all for this performance in a vocal range he no longer comfortably do and by god did it SHINE. The FLAIR. The FORESHADOWING. All of the Gems all being awkward about Rose and Steven trying to bring them to the present. Peridot having a mini-existential crisis in a cute yellow dress. I love Zach Callison’s normal singing voice but man is that a fucking bop. Nothing will ever beat it.

6.) Here Comes A Thought

This bad boy helped me out a LOT with some mental issues I was dealing with in high school. I was unmedicated, unsupervised, and full of anxiety. I’d have break downs when I tried to speak about certain things. I couldn’t function. This song inspired me. It helped me feel okay with my intrusive thoughts.

And the episode! -chef’s kiss-. Once again bringing up the morally gray area of training child soldiers. Connie expanding her social group. Steven’s trauma hauling ass in that second half. The ANIMATION. Stevonnie’s gorgeous singing voice. GOD yes.

7.) It’s Over Isn’t It?

Just barely squeaking above Stronger Than You, this ballad is everything gorgeous. The whole episode is. I think Mr. Greg stands in the top five of my episodes for the entire show. It even got nominated!

There’s just so much about this song that I love. The gentle melancholy of Pearl’s voice. How the crew had to redo the shots for this bit bc Deedee went so fucking hard. The hard cuts between Pearl, remembering the love of her life, and Steven, who has begun to feel like he took her away. I’d recommend this song to anyone, regardless of what they do or don’t know about SU, simply bc it tugs so many heartstrings of love, loss, and responsibility.

8.) Stronger Than You

Did you realize this episode aired SEVEN years ago? This bitch was what got me into SU! Hearing about Ruby and Sapphire made my little gay heart so happy inside, and then getting a whole song confirming that they were a couple, that their love powered the strongest Gem on the team? Aaaaaaaaa

To this DAY I get excited when I hear Estelle start singing. This song is timeless. This song will live in media history. God I fucking love this song.

9.) Other Friends

I’m not the biggest musical person, so I hadn’t heard of Sarah Stiles before her casting as Spinel, but JESUS CHRIST the lady went hard. She went SO fucking hard. Sarah Stiles started on 100 and somehow just kept CLIMBING. You can just hear the sheer manic energy building in her voice, the anger and resentment. 10/10 Sarah Stiles is a queen.

10.) Independent Together

This made the list entirely bc the crew was like “you’re gonna get a himbo ass Steven-Greg fusion singing with Opal while Garnet flies across the moon on Lion while floating” and I am forever thankful to them for it

11.) Who We Are

Bismuth deserved more songs. ‘Nuff said.

12.) Peace and Love (On the Planet Earth)

It Could’ve been Great is EASILY one of my favorite s2 episodes. I love the entire concept of this song. Of Steven making music to reflect how much Earth means to him and his family. Of him teaching Peridot some self-care. Also Peridot’s singing voice is really cute and squeaky. 

I know it’s silly, but I would’ve really enjoyed a flip around of this in Future! Like Peridot reminding Steven how much he loves music, that he needs to take time to relax for himself, maybe with a new verse or just a remix of the original song!

13.) Something Entirely New

I watched this episode as it aired, and I legitimately almost cried. I love Charlyne Yi’s voice so much ya’ll- her raspy, not perfect singing voice against Sapphire’s deep soothing lull is great.

And to have Ruby and Sapphire’s meeting be the way it was- for Ruby to bemoan Sapphire losing Homeworld, to being stuck with a single Ruby, while Sapphire is a noble who has always been taught everyone in her “caste” is vitally important (and has, in her own mind, taken that to mean every Gem, as she should) and how they come together and make each other happy. Good shit good shit.

14.) I’m Just a Comet

The fact that Greg’s music career never really blasted off pisses me off to this day bc Tom Scharpling’s voice is fucking BUTTER. Also the song really feels like a jab at his parents now that we know the kind of dynamic he had growing up. “This life in the stars if all I’ve ever known” is definitely him wiping away their existence after reminding them (and himself) the things they used to say about him.

15.) Do It For Her

This episode. This fucking episode. This episode got me permanently hooked on SU. I’d just binged season 1 and was kinda meh about it overall after the bop of Stronger Than You. “Oh,” I thought to myself, foolishly, “I’ll probably just casually watch this from time to time.”

Like three days later Sworn to the Sword aired and that was it. I was hooked! Pearl’s gentle training song turning darker and darker, Connie’s accompaniment from nervous to determined to fully into such a toxic mindset. The fact that SU had the BALLS to discuss the repercussions of training child soldiers, now and later. This episode was everything to me, STILL is everything to me.

Six years and well over 100 fanfics written later, I think it’s safe to say this show swallowed me whole and never let go.

16.) System/Boot.pearl_final(3)

I debated putting this on the list because it’s not anything crazy important, just a way to show things are Wrong, but I had to do it entirely bc Pearl is so damn SALTY.

Like telling us about the Gems makes sense, she felt like she was given a duty, but she went so damn petty. WHY is that Ruby alone. Gross. This Amethyst is a trash dump. Wtf are you people.

17.) Full Disclosure

This episode really feels like a turning point for SU. Before, the show had its dark moments- but now we’re in the thick of it, and it’s not going away. Full Disclosure felt like an rebuff to the idea of returning to any normal we’d established in season 1. Gems are actually a giant species now. Gems tried to kill us now. There’s this Yellow Diamond bitch who got namedropped. Something about a Cluster. 

The song itself is BALLER, with its ingenious use of Steven’s ringtone and photos as he tries to decide whether to clue in Connie on all this nonsense. Meanwhile we, the audience, already know damn well Connie about to yeet some common sense into him.

18.) What’s the Use of Feeling Blue?

I’mma admit it- I’m a Yellow Diamond stan. I’ve always loved her- her anger, her poise, her hardworking nature. I actively argued against the “Yellow Shattered Pink” theories back in the day. But, man, when this arc leaked? I got so overexcited I was too jittery to watch it for like two days. It’s easily my favorite arc of the series. The sheer alien nature of the zoo, the Famethyst, and absolutely Patti Lupone’s beautiful ballad. Goddamn. Yellow singing to Blue to try and help her regain her old status, the warble in her voice as she reminds Blue she misses Pink too, the movement of the bubbles as she talks about attack. It gives me shivers to this day. FUCK.

19.) Tower of Mistakes

This is, fun fact, that only SU song I have completely memorized. The story itself is kinda funny! See, we lost internet at my house for a solid 5 to 6 months when these episodes aired, so I only got a very brief window to view them all. But this was the first Amethyst song in a long while, and I didn’t want to forget it! So I keep replaying it in my head for ages. And that’s still definitely a thing.

Anyway will never not be sad that this entire song was about making it up to Garnet for Amethyst’s perceived slights with Sugilite (which was a two-way road), only for Garnet to pressure her into fusion later when pissed and never discuss it again bc Garnet probably never thought twice about it and Amethyst has the emotional openness of a clam that’s just been told its ugly. Helluva way to make someone feel like shit, G. Helluva way to bottle that shit, Ames.

20.) On the Run

I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: Amethyst! Needed! More! Songs! 

The dichotomy between Steven’s play and Amethyst’s honest desire to run away from home is so well-done, especially when you consider a lot of Steven and Amethyst’s actions are playing together. The song is also near and dear to me simply bc it’s my favorite Amethyst episode to exist (well, maybe second to What’s Your Problem, but not by much). Moments like these are all the proof I need that they were right to fuse first.

21.) Be Wherever You Are

This tune really just feels like an ode to who Steven was as a kid. Trapped on an island with no way home, and he’s just happy to be with his friends. The stars are beautiful and not oppressive. Also that one animatic with Lars and the Off Colors playing in the Homeworld Kindergarten to this music was iconic and made this song get stuck in my head for a solid month.

22.) Familiar

I ADORE how the crew use bright neon colors to show how alien Homeworld can be. And Steven recognizing that the Diamonds treat him how the CGs used to, and how prepared he is to “fix” a broken family. It’s a soft, gentle tune about melancholy. Also the Pebbles are beautiful.

23.) Let Me Drive My Van Into Your Heart

Such a cute little love ballad, but every time I listen to it now I just imagine the heart attack Rose must’ve had at the line “And if we look out of place/Well, baby, that's okay/I'll drive us into outer space.” like there’s a Vietnam war flashback if I ever heard one

24.) What Can I Do?

I’m kind of neutral on this one? Rose and Greg both have great voices, but the song itself lacks many lyrics. I think it was definitely a good way to show Rose’s flaws in thinking.

Also, I’m shocked they managed cram that much vaguely sexual innuendo into two minutes, followed by how Not Hetereo that dance between Rose and Pearl was, and not get their asses chewed by it. You go guys.

25.) Cookie Cat

I love a lot of the vibes this song has. The lyrics are so damn prophetic, but they also sound like the kind of weird 90s commercials I grew up on. It’s been like two decades since I saw the Shirley Temple commercial but I’ll be damned if I don’t remember “Animals crackers in my soup! Monkey and rabbits loop-de-loop.”

26.) Giant Woman

I am. NOT the biggest fan of Steven’s original singing voice. I feel bad saying that, since it was just Zach Callison as a kid, but he never jived well with me for some reason. So I wouldn’t listen to this on the fly. 

The song itself is still really good though, with all sorts of fun animation of Amethyst and Pearl being bitchy to each other. It’s a bit sad in hindsight to see tiny Steven trying to get his moms to get along. Ahh, season 1.

27.) Strong in the Real Way

This song has SUCH a strong start. Pearl reflecting on Sugilite’s problems, but the show making sure to show us that Pearl’s lack of enthusiasm towards her also lends itself to jealousy as well as just general malaise. How much she cares about Steven, and wants him to grow up strong. 

And then Steven just kinda. Ruins it? I appreciate his enthusiasm for tryna bulk up but to take what was starting as such a rich, personal song and broadcasting it to random strangers just makes me a bit sad. Almost a bit angry on her behalf?

28.) That Distant Shore

I KNOW this is gonna create some discourse, but I’m just not the biggest Lapis stan. I love her voice. I love the visuals of the song. And I get why she felt afraid and needed to flee.

But Lapis never got to take responsibility for her own actions. And, in the end, the song feels hollow to me- because we all know she’ll never talk to anyone about it, know she’ll burst back in and destroy the barn, and no one will ever question it. I like Lapis a lot, but I feel like her arc never was fully finished. She never got help. She never learned to feel safe.

29.) Dear Old Dad

I’ve yet to meet a single human being who likes this episode tbh. There’s some great discussion about what kind of parent Greg is from it, and what kind of dynamic he has with the Gems that he felt he had to fake an injury to hang out with his son. Honestly the first half was fine and dandy. It’s just that then they Greg just went out of his way to drag Steven away from missions and such. It never jived well with his character before or after.

Also, is it just me, or does Zach himself sound like he hates the song as he sings it? There’s no passion or heart in his voice. It sounds like they told him to read off cue cards and he did. Tom Scharpling’s best attempts didn’t save this one for being a skipper. But the episode, unfortunately, isn’t, so it gets a spot on here.

[journey-to-the-attic]

since tomorrow is Christmas I wanted to ask, how would the JTTA cast celebrate the holidays?? :D

anyway happy christmas dear author <3 I really hope you are having an amazing day :DD

ahhh sorry i started writing a response and then saved it to my drafts and totally forgot about it

but anyway! thank you and merry (late) christmas to you too, and a happy new year!!! i'll put a couple of notes about a post-jtta christmas under the cut ^^

there's no lead up, ik just looks at her d.d.d. one day and goes 'oh hey it's christmas!'

and (in the jtta version of the devildom), none of the demons have a goddamn clue what christmas is, so ik has to explain it to them

and they are not very enthusiastic about the concept

i mean, xmas traditionally celebrates the birth of GOD'S son, and we all know those demons do not like god

at some point diavolo gets his hands on like this old-fashioned vhs video telling the nativity story - the sort of thing teachers would show to five year olds to 'teach them the meaning of christmas''

satan is intrigued by the history aspect of it and the logistics of a virgin getting pregnant, and asmo seems to have a crush on the guy playing joseph, but other than that everyone else hates the experience

but then ik's like: "the xmas story is weird but it'd be kind of nice to celebrate it, but if you guys don't— beel where are you doing"

beel, sprinting out of the house of lamentation: "I'M GOING TO FIND A CHRISTMAS TREE"

he ends up bringing back this eleven foot tall tree with leaves sort of resembling a pine, with the right sort of spread out branches for decorating

the purgatory hall folk come over to help decorate it and it takes literally two hours

diavolo enlists the help of the little ds and brings over like three full crates of various christmassy decorations they found in the castle, for some reason

(the theory is that a previous ruler of the devildom left them there)

luke and ik are sitting around the base while diavolo, beel and lucifer are in charge of the top levels, and everyone else just kind of has to find room in between

mephisto somehow hears about this decorating business and arrives at the house of lamentation to suggest hanging a giant ornament shaped like his face on the tree

ik agrees before anyone can stop her, with the further suggestion that bauble-mephisto should be hung above the dining table

mephisto LOVES this and goes to do this immediately

everyone else? not so much. but this is the hardest they've seen ik laugh at anything in a while, so in the end they just let it slide

so now bauble-mephisto is staring down at everyone as they tuck into the sort-of christmas dinner that luke, barbatos, ik and simeon have all hurriedly slapped together

it's not really a traditional christmas dinner - it's a mixture of celestial realm and devildom-style dishes, a range of signature sweets from barbatos and simeon, this GIANT chocolate cake that's taller than both of the beings that made it (ik and luke), and a mixture of human world cuisine that ik's just picked out at random

nearly nothing from a traditional western christmas dinner is here - apart from, inexplicably, a bowl of brussels sprouts

mephisto eats them all because no one else will touch them and he enjoys the 'respectfully, what the fuck' looks he gets from everyone else

(ik invited mephisto to stay for the celebration and he agreed immediately, because of course he did)

(several of the others disagreed with this decision but, since they're mainly doing this whole christmas for ik, they opt to let him stay. ik wouldn't invite him in the first place if she didn't enjoy his company, after all)

this whole mini christmas thing happened too short notice for anyone to get gifts ready, which solomon seems a little worried about

he hasn't been in close enough quarters to human society for so long that he hasn't really celebrated a modern christmas before, but what he does know is that there are meant to be presents

he brings this up, and the little exchange that ensues is so cliche but also so so so earnestly sweet (and heartbreaking) that several of the others straight up start crying

ik: "it's fine, you don't need to get anything for me."

solomon: "are you sure? i could run out and get something, it's a special occasion—"

ik: "i'm sure! i think everyone being here to celebrate is a good enough present already :)"

(the :) isn't just her expression, it's part of the WAY she says it)

anyway diavolo, luke, simeon and mammon are now in tears

but you know these jtta pals!!! can't be emotional for too long before devolving into crack

for example: satan and ik spend like forty minutes sitting by the fireplace and cackling furiously with each other, and at first everyone thinks they're planning some kind of trick, but then it turns out that they're just taking it in turns to compose the lines of a stupid christmas poem

here's the first verse:

'tis the night before christmas, and all through the house ten bombardier beetles are hunting a mouse hear the patter of his feet, but then a harsh SNAP oh no! his leg is caught in a mouse trap!

it only gets more ridiculous from there

at one point mephisto pulls this giant christmas cracker out of nowhere and gets diavolo and lucifer to pull it together

it comes apart with a caterwauling wooooooOOOOAOAOAOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, accompanied by a large cloud of purple smoke

then everyone realises that mephisto's the one going wooooooOOOOAOAOAOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA and making the smoke with magic

(the 'christmas cracker' is just a bunch of tinsel and colourful paper that mephisto stole and tied together)

okay i think there was something else i was going to mention but i've forgotten what it was

so i guess that's all ^^;

[derangedhyena-delphinidae]

numerous issues with “The Aftermath of Seaworld”

When I get time to do so (aka when I’m done with the documentary), I’m likely going to make a video version of this going into the details. 

But for right now, I’ve made this. Both as a guideline for me and so everyone can begin to get an idea of the severity of issues involved.

Researching things is time-consuming and can be very difficult - believe me, I know. But I’m of the mind that if you’re making content with the intent of educating people, you have a responsibility to perform a certain level of due diligence. It IS okay to express uncertainty or doubt if you have it. It is NOT okay to confidently assert things that you do not know with certainty.

The video has an anticap slant, and I’m obviously not disagreeing on that front. But again: if you’re gonna go through the trouble of teaching people something. Bare minimum... please make sure it’s actually correct. *** 1) x ‘founded in 1964 and based out of Florida’ -  ???? Seaworld definitively began on the west coast, in San Diego, CA. And given that the first park opened in early 1964… things came together before that. Uh? 2) x ‘four people founded Seaworld [...]’ For one… it wasn’t originally conceived as a restaurant, it was originally conceived as an underwater bar/lounge. Two… calling the four guys involved in founding the place “frat brothers” is fucking ridiculous and completely overlooks a) how each was actually involved and b) the overall significance of their contributions to the field as individuals. Hint: like it or not, they were important and did a lot! 

3) x If one is going to bring up SWBGCF/rescues while talking about the literal founding of SW, it gives the impression that it’s been around for that duration. It hasn’t.  It’s actually a bit unclear when SW started an organized rescue program, but the Fund itself and all that it did came about much later. The rescue information and how it’s presented is actually INCREDIBLY complex, nuanced, and has a fascinating history (from a “bad company behaving badly” perspective). Oversimplifying this, to this degree and in this misinformative way, does the facts of the situation an INCREDIBLE disservice.  

4) x [assertive statement about what the name Shamu means]  ….Uh actually there’s several explanations for the name Shamu, and the most likely one IMO seems to be the “she-namu” one, not the “friend of Namu” one(? What is this even based on.) 4b) It’s not quite clear if she’s saying “Namu was the first ever orca to be displayed and perform shows” or or Namu was the first to be displayed and, like Shamu, performed shows. Either way, Moby Doll was the first to truly be displayed to the public, not Namu.

5) x ‘Namu died after one year in captivity and you’d think that this might deter Seaworld from doing the same thing again…’ Seaworld truly had nothing to do with Namu. And they leased/took possession of Shamu before Namu died. ‘Again’? What?

6) x “Now, PETA paints a pretty disturbing picture…” [while showing Okura’s artwork] This video segment is, and this is putting it nicely, a pile of poorly-researched BULLSHIT.  -Yes, PETA talks about Shamu’s capture, re: the harpooning of her mother. This Youtuber cannot apparently be arsed to look more than 1 Google search into this, as she proceeds to dismiss the information as potentially fabricated. There are two detailed accounts of Shamu’s capture that I’m aware of - in books - and though they have some slight conflicts, it’s absolutely NOT in doubt that the female who was very likely Shamu’s mother was 1) harpooned, 2) died from her injuries and 3) this had been done to make her easier to catch/locate because there was a fucking buoy attached to the harpoon. Which she dragged around for at least 24 hours prior dying.  So maybe don’t dismiss that as PETA hysteria, maybe TRY to determine the truth of the matter, which would inform one that it is both true and completely horrifying.  -In addition, Okura is an awesome individual who has worked very hard to create a variety of informative artwork for our cause. Okura is NOT associated with PETA and it’s borderline libel in my eyes to use their artwork in this dismissive manner when the primary sources of it can be easily identified online, with full explanations and everything. Do I take special offense to this because of the misuse of artwork? Absolutely. Artists get disrespected enough online. I’m tired of it. This kind of laziness IS NOT acceptable.

7) x ‘timeline is fuzzy about when Shamu died’ …………… it’s…. It’s really not … newspapers are pretty clear about it…..

8) x [complete and utter oversimplification of the lifespan issue, which is not acceptable for anything published in 2020. It just isn’t. If you’re going to bring it up like this, either do the legwork and get into the weeds or stay out.] 8b) [same for reproductive ages. sigh]

9) x if we’re going to talk about when Cornell was involved with Seaworld it’s very important to specify when Cornell was involved with Seaworld and not make it seem like it’s present tense.

10) x “both were rescued by Seaworld” - uh? no. Zero orcas have been rescued by Seaworld. Literally none. The infected-jaw orca was Sandy, whose story is complex and certainly does not involve Seaworld until much later. And many of the orcas in that time period had bullet wounds, often only identified post-mortem because they didn’t seem to hurt the animals much. Also, unflinchingly blending 70s captivity ethics with modern ones is also complete nonsense? 

11) x [tilikum coming from sealand] inhales I am going to make an entire video centered on this fucking subject because it’s one of the single most profound arguments for Seaworld being garbage as assessed by US government agencies in the 90s yet everyone utterly fails to mention this. Why?!

12) x what on earth is this nonsense re: quoting a quote from Zimmerman’s article - which has already been removed from its original context, so the original context is not available - and then penalizing the quote for existing as if Zimmerman’s article were the context? That is offensively disingenuous. I honestly don’t know what the original context is, either - but it’s wildly inappropriate to act as if the Zimmerman article is.

13) x this is relatively minor but ‘Paul Sprong’? You literally have his name on the screen. And then mis-reading his age too? While asserting it from a static article published years ago? Effort? Where is it?

14) x ‘another trainer, Peter’ ….. Ken Peters…. 

15) [weirdly glossing over the widely-available list of orca-trainer injuries/aggressions, despite it being central to the point.] 16) x This pilot whale outrage certainly happened but it was pretty clearly Blackfish that started the cascade of woes for Seaworld. Who has ever asserted this?

17) if you’re gonna just rehash blackfish, tell people to go watch blackfish.

18) x I’ve already gone over the context issue with Seaworld calling out Howard’s statement in Blackfish here (point 23). Which is to say, IN CONTEXT in Blackfish it’s clear what Mr. Garrett is talking about but, divorced from that, it sounds incorrect. But this Youtuber AMPLIFIES the issue by doubling down on the assertion with “no record of a killer whale doing any harm to anyone in the wild.” The surfer event should always be mentioned. Yes, there’s absolutely room for doubt. But there’s also a clear demarcation between an accidental attack (eg mistaken identity, as was likely for the surfer) and intentional one (eg the incidents at marine parks.) Why do people kneecap themselves on this point 18b) please stop acting like Luna represents orcas in general.

19) x “Howard, for all of his research…” … while referring to David Duffus’ b-roll and statements. Uh. 20) x Apparently this Youtuber has single-handedly resolved the dorsal fin issue. You know, the thing that hasn’t been properly researched ever, that has been subject to a ton of debate, that isn’t 100% settled for a variety of reasons, and almost everyone talks about in terms of theories and likely possibilities.  21) x Alexis Martinez wasn’t “torn to shreds.” In a space where even moderate exaggerations are often penalized harshly by the opposition, this kind of blatant nonsense is not welcome. Plus, the reality’s bad enough… you don’t have to make anything up!

22) x *sighs. points at own webpage*

23) Talking about the shows stopping without acknowledging how that’s a bit of a farce is something else. In addition to apparently just flipping to buying what Seaworld’s selling re: its ‘improved image.’ 

*** Tl;dr video is so unrelentingly full of errors ranging from small to egregious it makes me seriously concerned for the veracity of the rest of this person’s content. The maker of the video provided a list of their sources in their video description, which I will have time to look through in detail later. The above is solely a response to the information they present IN THE VIDEO - which, is very important because let’s be real: a lot of people are not going to look at the list of sources. People don’t even do it when citing papers (no really, you’d be surprised, fml.) For anyone who wants to whinge that I haven’t linked or asserted any sources of my own for my claims… well, remember what I said about time-consuming and ‘I’m busy’? Yhea. Getting all of that together will be part of making a video. So if you want to shrug loudly at my list here… you can, that’s your prerogative, I’m happy to say I DGAF if that’s your takeaway. 

What I hope, is that if there’s anything I’ve made clear over the While of running this blog, it’s that I don’t fuck around when it comes to sources and information and do my best to provide what information exists, all of it, not just cherrypicked bits and bobs. Anyways. Here’s step 0 at least. Please don’t share that video. Pretty please.

[othercat2]

This is not in any way intended to say that there is no underlying antisemitism, nor to excuse ignorance of people questioning the historical presence of Jews in medieval Europe. In fact, I am attempting to emphasize the *amount* of ignorance and underlying antisemitism present. Because a lot of this insistence I think is based in writers simply...not bothering to include Jewish people in their historical fiction, and at least some part of the time it's not going to be out of overt malice. (Insert "cool motive still murder" gif here.)

I have a theory that their insistence about the "ahistorical presence of Jews in Medieval Europe" is because of a weird form of confirmation bias. Most books that cover various European historical periods tend to avoid mentions of Jews. (Or any other minority ethnic group.) So a person reading these books might retain a false impression of where Jews were living or not living at any particular point in time.

(I think in some cases this is not even malicious or due to incomplete research on the part of the writer. In some few cases I think the absence--at least in more modern novels--is because um. Your Protagonist is gonna look like an evil piece of shit if he/she holds Historically Accurate Opinions About Jewish People. Especially if they are not an OC but a historical figure who never changes their opinion and has done Shitty Things to Jewish People. It's still "cool motive still murder" though.)

You might argue that "they should already know better because history!" However! Given the underlying antisemitism that is definitely culturally present--is it even covered in history? Speaking as someone who grew up in the US and had public schooling...even if the history teacher covered "Jews and other minorities in Europe" they would get immense blow back from their students in the form of absolute denial or deep offense--because of overt or covert antisemitism learned at home.

In highschool (years and years ago) I noticed the teachers had to continually assure the (mostly Christian of one flavor or another) students that no one was challenging their beliefs or trying to convert them, or trying to insult their faith. Which the students would make continuous accusations of--because this is how they got out of doing history as a subject. It would be very difficult to teach fuck all in this kind of environment. (Of course you also have the history teachers who are actually overtly racist/antisemitic who are deliberately NOT including anything about other minorities/Jewish people.)

The dipshits going after A Thing of Vikings because of the Jewish plotline have been affected by possible confirmation bias, ignorance of history, or just plain antisemitism/racism. Which is very aggravating of them because the Jewish plotline and Jewish backstory is fucking brilliant.

The number two complaint* that I've gotten over the Judaism subplot in A Thing Of Vikings?

That having Jews in the story is "contrived" or a "self-insert" or "unrealistic", usually right before insisting that the reviewer isn't antisemitic.

But... how can it not be antisemitic? Sure, it's not "Nazi" levels of antisemitism, which is apparently what most people think of as the sole form of "real" antisemitism.

But saying that Jews didn't exist in medieval history? Saying that our presence in a historical story is a "self-insert"? When we have historical records and archeological evidence that we did live and die then and there... Saying that it's "contrived" for non-Jews to have ties and connections with the Jewish populace of Medieval Europe, as if we're some kind of fantasy elves whose bloodlines never cross with mortals, instead of, just... you know... people?

Or saying that a non-Christian group actually thinking positively about Jews is "unrealistic"? That one was particularly obnoxious.

But how is all of that not antisemitism? How is that not a bias against Jews as a people? How is that not saying, "I find your existence in these stories to be against my preconceived notions and assumptions, and rather than question those preconceptions, I'll just say that you shouldn't exist"?

~~~~

*I'm disregarding those complaints from Nazis and Alt-Righters finding that a piece of historical fiction featuring Vikings was written by a Jew, of course.