#the rest is commentary

[notaplaceofhonour]

my posts about antisemitism are NOT an invitation to crawl into my mentions to be islamophobic

[jdsquared]

I don’t like the term “religious Jew.” The ethics of the Prophets is no less a part of Judaism than the ritual laws of the Torah. Hillel said one’s moral obligation to others is the fundamental lesson of Torah. Being good to widows and strangers is no less religious than keeping kosher or Shabbos.

I prefer the term “traditionally observant” for a person who keeps an Orthodox observance. But a Jew who focuses on our ethical teachings is no less “religious.”

Shoutout to "prehistoric dinosaurs" and "microscopic plankton" and "religious Jews" and other phrases that aren't as redundant as people think

[spiraling-trap]

boys and their toys

[lightnersdream]

i've been thinking about exactly why people portraying one of the other crew members successfully killing Jimmy as a "for what you did to Anya" kind of thing rubs me the wrong way a bit and it's because like..... this is just another form of taking agency away from Anya, in a way. it's kind of framing her as some meek, shivery woman-thing who's entirely at the mercy of the men around her, either to hurt her or save her.

(i understand these are mostly for wish fulfillment on the audience's behalf because everyone would like to see Jimmy pay for his crimes. whether or not this is the intention of the person writing it isn't really relevant, characterization happens with or without intent. i feel like it misses the point by portraying it as an 'ideal ending'.)

because... Anya is a capable person. she takes things into her own hands when she can. it was partially(?) her idea to get into the cargo,

(before he interrupts her.. remember when she interrupted Curly in the dead pixel segment?)

it was her idea to get the code scanner from the cockpit,

it was her idea to get the medication from behind the foam.

(the chance to do these things herself is not given to her.)

she'd been keeping Curly alive for months in a critical state somehow, her psych evaluations at the start are only so useless because Jimmy refuses to take it/her seriously and Curly is obviously biased when he puts it into his own hands. he's known him a long time, like he said. "I'll just put good for that one."

there's not a lot of material to work with because of how the game is framed, but it's there. we are working with two very biased perspectives and neither one lends Anya what she deserves

there's significant changes in how she speaks post- and pre- crash, and depending on who she happens to be talking to. i recommend re-reading her dialogue, because the difference is drastic

she acts the way she does around Jimmy because he has tangibly done horrible things to her, is actively hostile, and physically could not escape him by any means. she can't take away Curly's agency herself, in my eyes. you have to remember that Especially in the post-crash segments of the game, it's entirely from Jimmy's POV, and he obviously does not (and has never) thought very highly of her or treated her with a shred of respect

i've seen a general idea that she can't bear to hurt other people for any reason, but that doesn't really track to me. this is the real point of the post by the way

it seems based on the parts where she says she struggles to give Curly medication. "It just hurts him so much, I can't stand the noise." "It makes me nauseous."

it's not really the same thing as, say, hurting someone in self defense

this sounds like she did want the gun itself. this never felt worded like someone who would refuse to, at very least, threaten Jimmy with a gun, with violence. if she had been given the agency to make that decision on her own. she wasn't though

she still tries to reclaim some of it even as she's denied it

by the end she's still trying to keep that gun out of his hands

i think some people overly soften her, for similar reasons the game itself is trying to comment on. she's not a tender victim who couldn't cause pain to another out of the softness of her soul, she's a person who's had every last bit of agency ripped from her repeatedly until she couldn't take it anymore. that's the point. that's why framing her that way, "needing" someone to save her, is odd to me

she didn't need Curly to save her, she needed him to take responsibility

she didn't want to escalate things, but she's not an idiot. self defense was absolutely on her mind

but who knows im just saying shit *smiles serenely*

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Now I need a lab safety wizard! U

se your PPE, do not microwave food or eat food. Specially in the Ethidium bromide area. Stop touching things with gloves that touched contaminated areas pLEAse!

You can see I'm frustrated lol

I have sent a helpful Lab Safety Gnome your way. May he guide you, and any students in your proximity to respect the Lab Safety Rules.

[stark-lord]

Constantly plagued with thoughts of Edwin now knowing he enjoys being courted and Charles (compulsive charmer) with a whole new arsenal up his sleeve (laser focus on Monty’s whole deal)

“I mean, my smile is prett-y convincing” yeah yeah okay I can see where this is heading. Outlook not so good (for me)

[hajihiko]

look on the bright side!

[notsocooljess]

i know this conversation comes up every now and then, but i am again thinking about the lack of organized religion and other preexisting culture in panem outside of the mentioned traditions in each district.

this is really in my mind today because at the start of chapter 5 in catching fire when haymitch brings katniss and peeta through the hallways in the justice building in district 11, she mentions the room prepared for their use has “double doors,” “the ceiling must be twenty feet high,” there are “designs of fruit and flowers cut into the molding, and small, fat children with wings look down at [them] from every angle.”

this passage is strongly reminiscent of a church with cathedral ceilings that are adorned with cherubs, and it also implies that katniss does not know what cherubs are (or really the idea of angels at all for that matter).

considering district 11 is placed in the bible belt, i think this is a really interesting detail, and given katniss’s earlier details about how the justice building is worn and smells of mildew, it highlights how panem is likely using structures that existed before the country itself and how little they know about the world that existed before their country did.

it also shows how heavily united states ideals still influence panem, since though it is said to have “separation of church and state,” our country is very influenced by christian ideals, and these ideals are still somewhat looming over the people of panem.

[blablablabla-ur-mom]

hundred and forty or so pages into City of Ashes and I am loving Magnus and Alecs flirting. Well Magnus flirting with Alec and Alec blushing on every page he's in

[autisticandroids]

CASTIEL: Stop. What's the point if you don't mean it? You fear me - not love, not respect, just fear.

[youtube with closed captions]

a godstiel pity party. i'd like to thank an anon i got way back in february of 2021.

[arson-09]

not all male mcyts but somehow always a male mcyt

[imaginita-est-omnibus]

Okay, given everything we learned about Sutekh in Empire of Death, and how much 73 Yards simultaneously did and didn't matter to the plot, I have formulated what I think is a pretty good theory as to the identity of the figure in 73 Yards:

I believe it is the TARDIS.

What I think was happening in that episode was that the fairy circle the Doctor stepped on was somehow a fixed point, and by breaking it, he broke that fixed point, breaking the universe and creating a branching, doomed timeline, a la Turn Left. In Turn Left, of course, the Doctor doesn't just disappear, but the TARDIS does go wonky because of the temporal weirdness of breaking a fixed point. In this case, the TARDIS broke down, the box becoming an unopenable husk, and the soul of the TARDIS was shunted out of it and into a temporally/spatially weird form. Whether this was a conscious decision on the TARDIS' part or just a result of the timeline breaking, I don't know, and it doesn't matter to this theory. What does matter is what happened to Sutekh.

With the TARDIS broken down, Sutekh couldn't stay attached to it, so it instead attached itself to Ruby, most likely hoping to use her as he had originally planned to use Susan T. as his anchor to the world. The TARDIS would want to prevent this, and so would reveal Sutekh clinging to Ruby, thus causing people to run away from Ruby and preventing her from making the connections Sutekh needed (and Susan T and the other creations were able to achieve) to spread his death. Both Sutekh and the TARDIS were able to cling on to remnants of the perception filter, which is why the TARDIS stayed 73 yards away, so that people standing by it would be outside that range and able to see Sutekh.

(Why didn't people further than 73 yards see Sutekh? Why don't people further than 73 yards take note of the Tardis? The perception filter works past that distance, but it's not actively affecting peoples' perception -- within that range, if the producer of that perception field doesn't want you to see it, you can't take note of it, but outside that range, someone can point it out to you and the filter will be broken for you)

Once Ruby reached the end of her life and died, the TARDIS was finally able to approach her safely, and they essentially merged somehow. The TARDIS in that temporally broken form most likely existed across all of time at once, which is why when Ruby merged with it, she was able to return back down her personal timeline and stop the paradox. However, in merging with the TARDIS, Ruby would bring along Sutekh as well, and if Sutekh was able to exist across all of time at once, well life would be done for, wouldn't it? It was only once Ruby was dead, and therefore Sutekh lost his connection to the living world, that the TARDIS could safely take her back down her own timeline. I think that, if Sutekh hadn't been there, the TARDIS would've somehow gotten Ruby to fix the timeline much sooner, likely with help from UNIT, similar to what happened in Turn Left.

So as one story: Doctor stepped on fixed-point fairy circle, causing the Doctor to disappear, the timeline to shatter, and the TARDIS to break. The TARDIS and Sutekh were both shunted out of the now inoperable box, the TARDIS taking up a form that exists across all of time (or at least all up and down Ruby's timeline) and Sutekh attaching itself to Ruby as his connection to the living world. Both the TARDIS and Sutekh are clinging on to remnants of the perception filter. Sutekh wants to enter into the world through Ruby, and the TARDIS prevents this by revealing to people Sutekh's presence and driving them away from Ruby so that she cannot gain enough influence for Sutekh to enact his plans. Once Ruby dies of old age, the TARDIS absorbs her consciousness (and Sutekh) and brings her back down her timeline to prevent the Doctor from breaking the fairy circle, thus fixing time.

Now, you may ask, where did the Doctor go in all of this? Barbieland, of course.

[dragonsongmakhali]

【ＮＡＭＥＤＡＹ】 -> <a moment's rest>

When I cleverly placed multiple personal holidays in January (including my birth) so that I wouldn't have to remember a bunch of different dates, I failed to foresee that I would end up working at a company that deals with corporate taxes. Being that it's the busiest time of the year, I find myself exhausted for both my dating and wedding anniversaries (1 day apart, 6 years apart) and my birthday (today). So instead of doing something grand like I would like to do to celebrate these events, I ended up just doing something simple. Peaceful. The way I feel at the end of a long day when I can curl up with my husband and our dog and forget the stress. That is what I wanted for my birthday when I asked myself.

Makhali ages with her mun, so the both of us are turning 34 this year (❁´◡`❁)

[youssefguedira]

I wish you would write a fic about irreconcilable artistic differences on a movie set between Joe and Nicky.

not really irreconciliable as in not solvable at all but you know i had fun with this

Joe squeezes his eyes shut, covering his face with both hands, and leans forward. His shoulders tremble uncontrollably. He takes a short, sharp breath, and another, and another, but he can’t quite seem to get enough into his lungs. There’s a lump in his throat and a weight in his stomach. He leans forward with a low, wounded sound and–

“Cut,” Nicky says softly. Then, because it takes Joe a second to hear him: “Joe, stop.”

Slowly, Joe raises his head. Wipes at his eyes and takes a few deep breaths to steady himself. Nicky’s already up, frowning ever so slightly as he looks at the camera. 

“What is it this time?” Joe manages. His voice is hoarse; he has to clear his throat once or twice. Nicky doesn’t look up. The clock on the nightstand reads 01.34, but Nicky’s changed it a few times over the course of the shoot. He has no clue what time it really is, only that it’s dark outside.

It’s just the two of them in the room. Nicky had wanted to keep this one small, just him and Joe and the camera. The apartment they’re in is nice, if a little empty, though Joe supposes that’s the point. They’re in the bedroom, Joe sitting cross-legged on the bed, shirtless, sheets bunched up over his lap, a phone lying on the nightstand behind him. One entire wall of the room is taken up by a floor-to-ceiling window which lets the moonlight in, though there’s a few low lights set up behind Nicky to send bars of silver light across the bed, because the natural light hadn’t quite been strong enough for the effect Nicky wanted. It’s otherworldly; it’s beautiful. 

Nicky still isn’t looking at him, so Joe says again, “What?” It comes out a little harsher than he means it to, but it gets Nicky’s attention.

Nicky runs one hand through his hair. Joe can’t see him well, not with the light behind him and the shadows in the room. “I don’t know,” Nicky says. “It’s missing something.”

Joe has worked with Nicky enough times before. It’s not that he doesn’t like working with him - they’re friends - but he can’t fucking read him, and so after the sixth take of the same scene he can’t help but take it a little personally. 

Joe reaches for the bottle of water hidden just under the bed and takes a long drink, mostly to keep himself from snapping. What time is it? “I can try again, but I can’t do this indefinitely, Nicky.”

“I know, I know,” Nicky says, fidgeting again with the camera, “it’s not you, it’s just–” 

“What else could it be?” Joe interrupts. He’s not stupid. This scene doesn’t work if he can’t get it right, which means the entire film doesn’t work if he can’t get it right. More than anything else, this one depends on him. No music, no camera movement, no dialogue, nothing but him and the camera. And he wants to do it right, he loves this project almost as much as Nicky does, but there’s a hollow feeling in his chest and he’s spent the last however-many-hours having a near-complete breakdown over and over again and it’s still not right. And Joe doesn’t know what it is he’s doing wrong.

“I don’t know,” Nicky says quietly. Now he is looking at Joe, and Joe can’t tell if he’s disappointed, or angry, or – or what. He’s perfectly expressionless, as always. 

Joe loves this job. And he wants to get this right. But it doesn’t mean it’s not one of the hardest things he’s ever had to do, and he’s tired.

“I don’t have much more left in me, Nicky,” he says, and this time he does snap. He wipes at his eyes again, can’t look at Nicky. He’s supposed to be making himself vulnerable, above all in this scene, but suddenly he can’t stand the way Nicky’s looking at him. “Pass me my hoodie.”

“Joe–”

“I can’t. I can’t keep doing this.” He kicks the sheets off and gets tangled trying to do it, grabs his hoodie when Nicky offers it, pulls it over his head in one fluid motion and gets out of there as soon as he can. Thankfully, there’s only Andy and Nile in the other room, Andy lying back on the couch with her feet up and Nile perched on the arm of it. They both look up at Joe as he enters, both look like they’re about to ask, and Joe can’t stand it, can’t be in here a second longer, can’t–

“We are done for the day, I think,” Nicky says behind him, startling Joe. He hadn’t realised Nicky was there.

Andy raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t argue. It’s already the second day of trying to shoot this scene: they’re running the risk of falling behind schedule. 

“We’ll find something else to do tomorrow,” Nicky says. “I’ll look over everything tonight. We will try this again on Monday.”

Andy and Nile look at each other. Nile shrugs. 

“Get some rest, Joe,” Nicky says. 

Joe shoves his hands in his pockets and doesn’t say a word.

–--------------------------------

He doesn’t get called in the next day at all, and he doesn’t interrogate it too closely. Takes the day off, pretty much, because they’ve only really got one scene left to film, and there’s not much more he can do for that. Nicky had wanted to leave it to the last, and Joe had agreed, at the time.

At about nine pm, someone knocks on his hotel room door, which is unusual on a day where they don’t have a night shoot to do. When he opens it, Nicky is on the other side. Joe lets him in without a word. 

“I wanted to apologise,” Nicky says, standing in the middle of the room and looking as uncomfortable as Joe’s ever seen him. “For last night. I was pushing you too hard, and I should not have done.”

Joe closes the door behind him. Nicky fidgets with the sleeve of his hoodie. 

“Sit down,” Joe says. 

Nicky does, settling himself on the edge of Joe’s bed, not quite looking him in the eye. Joe joins him, after a moment. 

“At the risk of sounding cliche,” Nicky says, “it’s not you, it’s me.”

Joe laughs, mostly because the phrase sounds so strange coming from Nicky and also because out of everything he’d thought Nicky might say, he hadn’t expected that. 

Nicky smiles slightly, too. Then he gets up and heads for the minibar. “Mind if I have a drink?”

Joe shakes his head. Nicky gets out a little bottle of wine, glances at the label, and takes a swig straight from the bottle without bothering to get a glass. 

“I can’t seem to get it right,” Nicky says. “You know I wrote almost fifteen different versions of that scene?”

The scene in the script itself is barely a page long. “No,” Joe says. 

Nicky nods. Rubs a hand over his face. “I wanted it to feel real. I thought if I could get it right, it would… help, somehow. I don’t know.”

It’s the exact same reason Joe said yes before he even read the script, when the whole thing was just an idea in Nicky’s head, when they were talking about it over drinks at Andy’s and Joe was in love with the idea almost immediately. He knew exactly why Nicky was writing it; he knows, now, exactly why it needs to be right. But at the same time – “I don’t know if that’s possible, Nicky.”

Nicky sighs. “I know.” He crosses back over to sit beside Joe again, takes another drink from the bottle. “But there is something missing, and I cannot seem to find it. And so it does not feel real. And I know this is not easy for you.”

“It’s not,” Joe says plainly. 

“But you know,” Nicky continues, “I could not have trusted anyone with this but you. If you had not said yes, I would not have done this.”

That, Joe didn’t know: he knows he’d been Nicky’s first choice, but he’d assumed that’s because they know each other well enough already. But it makes sense: the reason Nicky wrote the script is the same thing they’d bonded over. 

Even still, it’s a lot. “I don’t know if I can do it the way you want,” Joe says. 

Nicky looks up at him from where he’s been running his fingers over the label on the bottle absentmindedly. “If you want to stop, I can–”

“No,” Joe says quickly. “But I don’t think it’s ever going to be exactly the way you felt.”

Nicky looks away. “It is a lot to ask,” he says. “I know this.”

Joe doesn’t think; just reaches over and takes Nicky’s hand. “I know,” he says. “Trust me.”

Nicky takes a deep breath. Then he nods. "Okay."

[calcified-fluorited]

finally watched this video and it kinda tore into my nostalgia about s1. Plus all the things that bothered me about s2 well-articulated.

What a mess though! The fact that so many people believe that this show is leftist! Good video

[mmmmalo]

Hi,

I found your blog when searching for commentary on Homestuck's latent racism problem, and your analysis is some of the best ive found. Alongside that I see that you've taken care to acknowledge the sort of white replacement anxiety and "downfall of the west" in the wake of Obama's first term present in the text. I'm still on my first read-through but I'm curious about your take on this retroactive prediction from Dirk in Act 6, as well as the way he functions thematically in tandem with this overarching narrative.

-@hom3s1ckpyrop3

The initials in J.D. Vance stand for Jay and Dope. Stay woke.......

Nah but seriously. I mention this in Slurquest as the focus shifts from racism to homophobia, but as best I can tell, the whole reason that Guy Fieri becomes Supreme Justice of the US is that his name is kinda close to Gay Fairy -- Hussie had the courtesy to assert that Fieri was a mispronunciation of Feferi in some bonus materials, nudging the pun along. Imposing a gay (derogatory) figurehead of judicial authority is consistent with HIC's goal of turning Earth into Alternia, since His Honorable Tyranny was always a pun on tr*nny. There's a fearful narrative of gay takeover that goes hand-in-hand with the narrative of black takeover.

The racial angle is basically what I make of ICP's co-presidency, which I don't have a convenient pun for. As white rappers, they embody the sense of Whiteness Being Taken Over By Blackness that was projected onto the Obama presidency by racists. It is a little funny that Dirk is telling this story when he is himself gay and (if John is to be believed) a white rapper -- in fact Bro is responsible for one of the earliest gay interracial jokes in comic, when he handcuffed those half-naked Mr. T and Chuck Norris puppets together back in Act 2. I find this practice of making X characters the mouthpieces for X-phobic talking points consistent with the story's interest in self-loathing.