#the same excuses. the same horrific actions. the same fucking thing over and over.

[codaynamics]

i really dont get this idea that there's a difference between the two fuckheads, they keep lauding about this change that happened but in my experience nothing has changed in any way in the past two fucking decades, except the weather's getting worse and the economy more so.

and they keep saying things will get better with the one, but she's in office right fucking now, and nothing's changing, so?????? where is it?????

or did they forget that lesser evil is still fucking evil?

where is this support for the country's marginalized when a black muslim man was executed for a crime he didnt commit?

where is the support for your LGBTQ+ siblings when, more than ever, discrimination against us has escalated dangerously?

most importantly, where is this action on Harris's behalf to solve any of these problems when the govt is more focused on killing its neighbors and stealing their land?

can someone show me ANYTHING that something good is being done about these issues on the govt behalf that doesnt boil down to an excuse?

[shipping-isnt-morality]

I don’t feel like I have anything to say to Zionists anymore except “this is what it sounds like to defend genocide.”

I just - can you hear yourself? I know many of you have studied fascism and the rise of genocidal attitudes. Do you think you’re immune? Do you think being Jewish, or educated, or the descendant of genocide survivors makes you immune? You know better.

My god, if the 20th century can teach us one thing, let it be that humans are great at justifying genocide to themselves and each other when motivated to. No education can inoculate against it. Every excuse had been used before. Every feeling of righteous justification for slaughter has already been invoked.

It is undeniable that there are tens of thousands of dead. So many thousands upon tens upon hundreds of thousands of children dead maimed orphaned traumatized by bombs that Israel dropped, shells that Israel fired, targets chosen by software Israel made.

This is undeniable; I can see it with my own eyes. You can say, this is the reality of war, and I will say: this is the reality of your choices. How Israel wages “war” is a choice. How they go about statecraft is a choice. We cannot and should never accept their justifications that some action of the enemy necessitated this response; they still chose the response.

There was a euphemism in some death camps in Poland: “dirty work”. It was often literally true - there’s horrific stories about the smell and texture of industrial amounts of human ash - but also figuratively; the work of mass executions is more often seen as a necessary evil for the accomplishment of a greater good. It’s rarely celebrated or acknowledged openly for what it is at the time. All of this is very normal in genocide.

I look at my timeline in the past months, at the choices Israel has made for its “greater good”, I have listened to the justifications. What I see is Israelis making the same old tired weak excuses for their own dirty work.

And all I have to say anymore is: this is what it sounds like when you defend genocide. You have not invented a new thought in all of it. “They’re not a real group, they’re monsters, we don’t want to kill them but we have to, we just want them to leave before they kill us all and they’ll try to exterminate us the second we stop killing them” - save it.

Do some fucking reading on other genocides - the Armenian one is particularly relevant - and read arguments from genocide deniers and you will quickly see it is all the same shit. Check out Facebook posts from Myanmar during the genocide and it’s basically indistinguishable from tweets from Zionists today. It’s the same shit, over and over and over again.

Literally billions of people with eyes can see what Israel is doing and call it what it is, because it’s been done before, and all the defensive answers and excuses have been done before too.

This is what it looks like when people defend genocide. Always just like this.

[otakuvampyre]

I completely understand why you don't condone Luigi Mangione's murder of Brian Thompson. I do, I promise--I just want to say that in my opinion, as someone who has been on United Healthcare for years--it is designed to squeeze money out of citizen's pockets, and the murder of Brian Thompson is being celebrated because it is a symbol of fighting back against a corrupt system. the act itself is despicable, and the morality of it are up to personal interpretation.

I believe that if someone has influence over the lives of thousands upon thousands of people's lives (1), and they knowingly choose to let them die in order to make money, they have committed murders of negligence. If murder is awful, then Brian Thompson was horrifically evil. Just my opinion!

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/06/business/insurance-claim-denials-unitedhealthcare-ceo/index.html

Oh, I agree. I'm not gonna cry cuz Brian's dead. My only sympathy in that regard is towards his family. Which is another thing that disgusts me about people cheering this on, they have no sympathy for his fucking family.

But the problem with the murder, other than it being murder and thus wrong cuz someone doesn't deserve to die just cuz you hate insurance companies, is the fact is it's utterly meaningless. It did nothing to stop corruption, or influence united heathcare's policies. It was literally just a murder of a quickly replaced cog in the machine. One that didn't even do a whole lot for the company to begin with, as this subsidiary has a board of directors.

Not to mention, if we allow or excuse a murder in the streets, we are giving permission for vigilantism. Something that has always claimed innocent lives. Violence has never resulted in long-lasting positive change. History has so many examples of it resulting in just more of the same or worse than what you were trying to replace.

There is no excuse for this action. And I will not condone the clowns cheering it on. Killing him was wrong. Due Process needs to be upheld, because whether we like it or not, political violence breeds political violence. And if you think the only people getting violent are going to be on your side, you need to read up on history. Cuz that has never been the case.

[cdroloisms]

forgive me my demons but i see this take so much and it drives me a little crazy . c!Sam is stupid, obviously. He has no self-awareness, he somehow completely misses on the fact that his actions have social ramifications, he has a sense of entitlement a mile high and thinks that everyone automatically should fall in line and agree with his authority just because he decides that he has it. he navigates conversations with the grace of a wrecking ball because he assumes that everyone will agree with him being In The Right and therefore doesn't actually go for much more convincing half the time than "do what i say or you'll end up locked up in an inescapable prison." his moral compass is a roulette wheel and his justifications incomprehensible.

but at the same time, c!Sam is far from unintelligent. like, not just anyone was going to CREATE and then RUN pandora's fucking vault. he made a world eater ?? if there's like anyone on the server that could reasonably create shit to cause mass destruction across the server other than like the literal fucking nukes, then yeah it'd be him, see the world eater again. sure, he makes the craziest fucking assumptions off the fact that he's Right And Justified And The Ultimate Authority And Everyone Should Agree With That, but he's also able to lie and manipulate and gaslight and coerce and threaten pretty much without breaking a sweat if he ever deems doing so necessary for his own goals, and it's not like the methods by which he does so are like, all that clumsy either. like people absolutely bought his whole deal early on in the prison arc, believing him to be a well-meaning, burdened Warden doing Whatever It Takes for the good of the server, which did in large part have to do with how his character talked about the prison to others and such, etc. just because c!sam is crazy bonkers and expects his ex to forgive him chopping their arm off doesn't mean that he's completely incapable of being pretty damn convincing at some points.

and like, even more importantly, his being dumb really didn't make him ANY less intimidating. i'd argue that it made him A LOT WORSE, honestly! just because his moral bullshit is twisted up in knots doesn't mean that he's any less dangerous for it. c!sam is, honestly, from the top of my head, one of the most casual about being violent on the server, purely because he believes he has a Right to it. he believes that people owe him obedience by virtue of who he is. he threw several people into pandora's vault WITHOUT LIKE, ANYONE KNOWING just because he decided that they deserved to be put in prison. he kidnaps a toddler??? c!Sam really doesn't bend himself in half trying to justify things according to someone else's moral system; as he literally does in that one scene with c!Bad during the stream where they investigated Sam Bucket, he literally just. is the epitome of the guy that lets himself do shit because he has a self-written permit that says i do what i want. the only thing getting in the way of c!sam's bullshit is c!sam, and i think that people honestly chronically overestimate how much he holds himself back from horrific violence. he stabbed a teenager to Make A Point about his authority? he repeatedly threatens hannah, one of his own employees, because of things she did while being mind controlled--and then like, uses this to excuse himself of? workplace harassment? in the stream after techno escapes with dream, he literally MAKES UP A REASON to be really fucking angry at dream and then threatens TO TORTURE HIM over it. when new people joined the server he would threaten them with a sword for asking questions about the prison in a way that seemed too 'dream sympathetic.' and he regularly tells people that he would commit all the atrocities again, including ponk, because he's entirely 100% convinced that everything he does is justified?

and a lot of the stuff people hold against him, like. sure, his plan to contain technoblade didnt work, but it SURE DID WORK BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE THAT TRIED, DIDNT IT? like techno would've been decently screwed if he didn't have a statis chamber set up. and well, the situation with dream speaks for itself--he was stuck in there for ten months. a lot of what people attribute to c!Sam's stupidity really does very little if anything to make him less scary--less effective, maybe, but for every time his moral bullshit gets in the way of him getting something that he wants there's probably a few other times you can find where his ability to justify himself out of anything makes him do something fucking ridiculous . anyway i dont even have a point to all of this except c!sam is scary as fuck bro

[anavatazes]

They found Abby TLOU2

https://www.ign.com/articles/hbos-the-last-of-us-season-2-finds-its-abby-in-kaitlyn-dever

Now, can all the ASSHOLES that hate Abby LEAVE the actress the FUCK ALONE! After the immense hatred that poor Laura Bailey received for playing a fictional character in a video game, I am fearful how poorly Kaitlyn Dever will be treated, in particular concerning her connection to Pedro's Joel.

⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️SEASON 2 SPOLIERS⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️

You are warned. If you don't wanna know what happens, don't go any further.

⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️

Ok. Now, for that already know what knows what happens in Part 2, Abby kills Joel in a very horrific manner. Not rehashing it, nor do I really want to turn this into another Abby bashing post. Not my favorite character, but I don't outright hate her, and won't tolerate that shit right now. Time and places, people.

I am concerned because of the absolute hate STILL felt for the character, that it will seep over to the actor in full force, much like it did for LB. Many can't seem to be able to separate the actor and character from each other. They still body shame Abby to no end. I've already seen a bunch of comments where they began body shamming the live action actor before she was even cast.

The misogynistic idiots can be ignored to a degree. But what really worries me are the Pedro fans, similar to the Joel fans, are gonna be so pissed when they see Abby kill Joel. And they didn't know it was coming. Some people can remain oblivious, somehow, in this day and age. How feral are they gonna be? How reactionary are they gonna be? Are they gonna be able to separate the actor from the character? And, more importantly, are the rest of us Pedro fans gonna be mature enough to help guide them to a safe place to get their emotions out where it won't be a complete nightmare for KD AND Pedro?!

Because, c'mon, you can't tell me, that when Pedro sees any fan of his hurt anyone that it doesn't hurt him? The big smush pillow that he is? I see so many people passing around videos and memes about how they're not responsible for your reactions to their actions. That may be so, but you do need to be held accountable if those actions are causing harm. A point that is sorely missed those. The Pedro Fandom is overall protective of our Pedro.

So, I want to kindly ask the Fandom, with love, that when we see this shit happening, and especially when it happens when the show airs, (picture lots of mom/grandma finger pointing here, because that's me), to be nice, be mature, ask them to remember what our Squish Pillow would do (even if he is more chiseled and less squishy right now 😉)? Are we adding to his anxiety? We don't need to do that. The man has more than enough for all of us and don't need no more. Nor does he need another fucking excuse to shrink more away from social media!

Besides, I don't know Kaitlyn Dever. I've never heard of her. I look forward to learning more about her, and seeing what she brings to Abby. Do she and Craig make me see what Neil wanted me to all along? Or is it the same old? But I know this. I won't hate her. She's a human being. Very few things on this planet could make me hate her, and her playing Abby is not one of them.

[mdhwrites]

I don't know if you've watched Gravity Falls or been deep in the fandom but I just realized how similar Luz and Mabel kinda are. They're both young quirky girls whose selfish actions helped the main villain achieve their goal (supposedly, in Luz's case) and learn the lesson of facing reality instead of being stuck in a fantasy world where they get everything they want (although Luz doesn't really learn this even though it was kinda set-up for her in s1) (they also have a girl rival with shit parents that the fandom ships them with but anyway-)

I'm not saying this to shit on Luz though, I like Luz. But it mind boggles me how Mabel gets shitted on way more than her does despite being younger, actually learning her lesson, and apologizing for it. It might because they're different shows but I know a lot of TOH fans were/are GF fans because of the creators' relationship so the fandoms aren't that different from one another. It MIGHT be because Mabel trusted Blendin so easily despite the situation being shady as hell (while Luz just thought Philip was a normal human in the demon realm) but to be fair, Mabel was cornered in a moment of vulnerability and she literally didn't even know what she was giving him. Abandoning her friends and family for her own fantasy land while an apocalypse going on was really horrible, I won't deny that, but Luz also pretty much did the same when she chose the demon realm (place she doesn't know anything about with STRANGERS) over her own world in the first episode. Sure there wasn't anything horrific going on in the human realm so her ignorance of it wasn't as bad as Mabel's– BUT THEN in TTT she thinks of leaving everyone behind by staying in the human realm while the Collector was doing who knows what???

I don't know, this might be kinda petty, I haven't rewatched GF in ages, but I just think it's unfair Mabel gets more hate than Luz. I feel she's had more character progression compared to the latter and at least she always got called out when she did something wrong and learned from it.

So take all of this with a grain of salt because while I've heard a little of this discourse, I haven't watched a lot of Gravity Falls (recently tried again and found myself not loving the first episode if I'm honest) and have never been a part of its fandom. However, this is a chance to talk about why Luz is so liked and 'relatable' to so many because it is not hard to figure out why people like Luz. Why? Well... A lot of it comes down to framing and how the two shows see the two girls.

Gravity Falls sees Mabel as a tweenage girl.

The Owl House sees Luz as the embodiment of what a teenage nerd wishes they were/could be.

Those are VERY different goals and framing.

One, Mabel, is going to be INCREDIBLY fallible. Neither her or Dipper are anywhere close to perfect people because... Well, they're teenagers. They get way too into certain things. They're awkward when it comes to those obsessions. They're awkward about how to deal with change, consequences, etc. like that because that's just the age they are. They're figuring out the world and are going to run face first into it and that will be awkward, clumsy and often destructive without any sort of excuse besides they didn't think the consequences through. That's kids for you.

The other is... More idealistic. Luz doesn't face real consequences for testing her boundaries and is always bailed out. When she fucks up, she always does it with the best intentions and/or no one actually gets hurt. People coddle her and always make concessions to her desires with minimal push back and always end up on her side unless they're just a REALLY big meanie head. She always makes peoples' lives better, she never gets real criticism or ridicule for her interests and is always accepted by the right people for those interests. Always given more and more for being her quirky self!

A lot of this for Luz is because she's an audience surrogate and TOH wants the audience to feel good about themselves. It knows that a lot of nerds will be the ones watching it and leans in. This is actually contrasted by the fact that, well, Mabel isn't the audience surrogate or the absolute primary character of Gravity Falls. Her role is more complicated versus Dipper who IS the nerdy one who's closer to being the audience surrogate.

Just to really drive this home: People on my Discord have talked about this and one of the biggest 'crimes' as seen by a lot of the fandom is that Mabel causes Dipper to lose out on his dream of researching with Ford and staying in Gravity Falls. I could even see some arguments of things like "He's planning a future!" or "He's making the world better!"

But... Let's shift the framing for a moment from "Mabel caused Dipper to give up on his dream" to "Mabel made sure Dipper chose reality over fantasy." After all, his desire was to throw away his friends, his family, EVERYTHING to just continue hanging out with this one old dude and studying the weird phenomenon of the world, an inherently isolating job. He gets to go on this big adventure and follow his intellectual drive... At the cost of reality and everything he has known.

So why don't people get upset at Dipper for trying to do this? Well, there's a lot of potential reasons that I can't really narrow down without watching the show. It may have just been framed as a positive while Mabel's is framed as negative. It could be that while Mabel's is just a generic, girly fantasy that not much of the core audience actually wants, Dipper's is the cool, smart fantasy that is totally not just a fantasy, but a CAREER. Or it could go back to the root problem: Because Dipper is closer to the audience surrogate, closer to the main character, there is a bias to inherently see his actions as good. We could literally watch two characters do the same thing and we will root for the main character simply because that is who we are trained to root for.

A great example of this from TOH is how Luz is allowed to get mad at people for lying to her but not the other way around. She literally attacks Eda and gets the two captured in Titan, Where Art Thou? because Eda lied to her and she is supposed to feel justified in this anger to make the tragedy angle work. Meanwhile, there is ONE time when anyone gets mad at Luz for lying and honestly, the framing and reactions cause it to end up feeling much more like it was just for a prettier scene change during Reaching Out. After all, Amity still wants to fix Luz's pain before Luz even apologizes for breaking her word by lying. So why doesn't anyone call out the hypocrisy here? Why is NO ONE allowed to get upset with Luz about this?

Because she's the main character. Because we are trained to root for her and, well, Luz also is the one we are told to want to be. She is the every nerd. She is meant to connect to a very wide net of outcasts who feel like they don't belong and wish things were different. Wishes people weren't mean to them or didn't get mad at them when they made mistakes. That just let them be the hero of their own story.

So of course, they don't want Luz to be yelled at, even when that is the actually human and reasonable thing for someone to do. They don't want to question what she does so when the show gives them an excuse, or they have to go to reality if the show itself doesn't give an excuse (This is why people emphasize Luz's age and nuerodivergence to excuse her while bluntly ignoring Mabel's age when it comes to her actions), so that they don't have to recognize that Luz does some REALLY shitty things, especially in the back half of the show. It is simply more convenient for the narrative they want out of the show for Luz to be this way.

And that is okay from a casual standpoint. A lot of fiction is escapist. There's nothing wrong with wanting to jump into a world where you're never actually wrong and never in trouble. Where your angst is always met with hugs and understanding rather than actual human emotion. That's how media works. Most mass appeal products are escapist. It's part of why the Isekai genre is SO prevalent right now because it is one of the purest forms of escapist fiction out there, especially due to modern isekai tropes.

But if you're going to talk critically about something, escapism is very rarely a good jumping off point for it. It will make you ignore a LOT about the work because it's uncomfortable for you to ask questions about it. I'm not talking about "Why does this world have magic" sort of things mind you. I'm talking about, say, "Why does this character get so many power ups, so easily, and with little effort in earning them?" When you want escapism, the pacing won't bother you. If you're actually looking at themes and payoffs, it will bother you a LOT. And yes, this does tie into TOH because if you want to be Luz, getting the glyphs feels great! If you actually interrogate the story, you go "Wait, they hadn't actually done like... ANYTHING with her not having magic in a magical world and she already gets a spell? And two of these spells she does literally nothing for. Arguably three since she is put into timeout as a punishment and gets the glyph I guess for being a bad person." That TOTALLY is good storytelling and makes sense with positive themes and proper explorations of its own ideas.

*sigh*

It's a rough push and pull and it can make it so people, even if they like the show, who disagree with the popular opinion, the one that usually lifts up the audience flattering elements the most, are just in a rough position where they hear the same opinions over and over again. All while knowing that if they speak up, they'll be stomped on.

Just like Mabel was while Dipper was raised into the spotlight. At least by the fandom.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[garyfischy]

Oyasumi Punpun: a Rant

Oyasumi Punpun is like the Elliot Rodger manifesto for weeaboos. Boy that thinks he's the only person that's had anything bad happen to him gets raped and beaten, goes around raping and beating and murdering women. And it's all justified because of the horrible life he led. If you read any of Inio Asano's other mangas you can tell this is not a flaw or an oversight in Punpun's writing- Asano is a bitter misogynist and it shows in everything he writes. Bullies, abusive mothers, are all bitchy, unlovable hags. The only good women in the world of his manga are underage prepubescent girls.

Throughout Downfall, Goodnight Punpun, Dead Dead Demon's DEDEDEDEstruction (yes i read all of those. i wanted to give him a chance so bad.) women are always positioned as mindless foils to the protagonist. women that crave sex are disgusting whores. prostitutes are ugly, but the protagonist still sleeps with them. Fat women are disgusting. Mean women are ugly caricatured beasts, and kind women are perfectly molded, underage girls. Characters that proudly self-identify as pedophiles (Punpun's uncle, the otaku in DEDEDEDEstruction) are positioned as the rationalists, the Reddit Atheists, the ones too smart for the idiocy of the normies. The breath of "reason" in an insane world. The most obvious example of this isn't even in Oyasumi Punpun with the pedo uncle;

it's in DOWNFALL, which is about an 'intellectual' manga artist that hates the braindead 'normies' that like his manga. he only makes it for bottom feeders like them. he's above those human scum. The self insert protagonist rapes a woman too because she pissed him off. That's life! C'est la Vie! Men just do that kind of thing sometimes!

I am fucking sick of indie scenes treating punpun like the most deep, meaningful manga ever and jacking off about how smart they are for "understanding" it. what is there to understand? asano themself said punpun isn't supposed to have a coherent plot or meaning, that it's just supposed to be nonsense because real life murders are nonsense. it's just an excuse to write a sloppy, disheveled story, with little care put into the world that the protagonist inhabits.

this isnt very organized. im just full of hate for inio asano, and i cannot believe this bilge is touted as some of the most 'intellectual' manga of our time.

here's some quotes from an interview about punpun

and here's an incident where a teenager killed a young girl and wrote punpun quotes all over the wall at the site. **AT NO POINT AM I IMPLYING DIRECT CORRELATION OF A HORRIFIC CRIME AND A FICTIONAL COMIC. You've seen that kind of thinking with, say, the boy that killed himself after playing Doki Doki Literature club- it's more likely someone willing to do that was drawn to media that discussed those themes rather than yknow, being directly inspired

..However, it is still interesting to note similarities in ideology/motive. In the same way the religious beliefs of killers often come into discussion (ie the Dena Schlosser murders- how did the ideology/community she was surrounded by influence her already declining mental state? Noone would argue christianity itself caused the murders.) , I think it's interesting to note Punpun's influence on the killer. ***I AM NOT SAYING PUNPUN WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MURDER. the person involved in the killing was already suicidal and mentally ill, thus they probably gravitated towards manga with those themes.

but if the manga influenced his actions that much, I think it's interesting to look into the ideology of the manga itself and what ideals it promotes. ***I AM NOT FUCKING SAYING PUNPUN CAUSED THE MURDER BEFORE I GET ANY COMMENTS ALONG THOSE LINES

note to self if i clean this up; make it more structured with my gripes about his manga; ie separate sections for misogynistic depictions of women, why i dont think the nihilism works, and bad writing with clear favoritism for certain characters and author self inserts (Platinum End also does this!)

[idohistorysometimes]

A reminder for people regarding current events

(source: I am a political science and history major specializing in extremism, radicalism, and conflict and Ive also worked at museums for many years)

You can support Palestine WITHOUT being anti-Semitic. Not only do Palestinian Jews exist, but Israel also isn't Judaism, its a country. Judaism isn't a massive monolith and not all Jewish people are connected with Israel. Critiquing the actions of a government and military does not mean targeting random Jewish people in the name of the Palestinian people. Being angry at and harassing random people does not help solve the issue. In fact, it compromises the cause because this isn't a "Muslim good Jew bad" issue.

Do not just blindly support every single thing relating to Palestine you see. Make sure what you are donating to and who you are following are truthful. At the moment not only have Neo-Nazis hijacked the "free Palestine" movement simply to have an excuse to harass Jewish people more openly, but a lot of those donation links being posted are NOT going to aid people in Gaza or being displaced by the shellings. They are scams. That money is going to a scammer's bank account The same thing happened when the war in Ukraine kicked into full swing and when the protests in Iran broke out. VERIFY WHO YOU ARE DONATING TO AND WHO YOU ARE FOLLOWING. MAKE SURE WHO YOU ARE SUPPORTING IS BEING HONEST WITH THEIR INTENTIONS. PEOPLE LIE. Nazis only care about Palestine because they want an excuse to be anti-Semitic. As soon as this is over they will go back to being Islamophobic. Palestine is a means to an end for them. And scammers will always scam no matter how tasteless it is.

It is ok to take a break from the doomscrolling. I am specifically talking to those from Western countries who have gotten extremely invested in this conflict despite having no personal or cultural ties to it whatsoever. This is a complex conflict that has been going on for longer than some of your parents have been alive. Does this make it good? Hell no. And yes, people are suffering. They will be even when you turn your phone off. But doomscrolling and driving yourself to the point of crippling depression watching war footage and reading what is going on will not help them or you. You alone cannot and will not fix this. Support how you can, but remember that it is not up to you to fight all of the worlds battles and shoulder that weight. You do not have to constantly be engaging with this subject in order to help.

Do not talk over people living in these areas because you feel passionate about what is going on. You are not them. You do not know more than a Palestinian person about what is going on in Gaza. It is not up to you to constantly be inserting yourself in the conversation and saying what should or should not be done.

Do not shame people for saying they don't know enough to comment on what is going on right now. Not everyone is a terrorism expert. Not everyone is proficient in Middle Eastern studies or the history of Israel and Palestine as nations. You probably are not either if your only real engagement with this topic comes from the last month or so. Its ok not to know what is going on. Its ok not to fully understand. Not having a comment does not equate to lack of support or empathy.

None of those other news worthy social issues have stopped. The protests in Iran are still going on, the Uyghurs are still being oppressed, Ukraine is still being shelled and invaded, those at the US border with Mexico are still being horrifically mistreated. What is going on in Palestine does not replace those issues. And when the next event comes along, whats going on in Palestine wont magically just stop. All social issues are important. This isn't a game of which group is being shat upon worse.

Tiktok is also, just universally, a horrible place to be getting info from. It is brain rot the app.

This issue has been so greatly bastardized in the West its fucking exhausting. None of this slacktivism on behalf of photo edits and really stupid discourse is helpful or healthy for those engaging in it. Palestine needs freed, but a 13 year old from Wyoming isn't going to do that by calling a random Jewish person a slur or by spamming comment sections. This isn't a simple issue. People simply living in an area are not inherently evil. State actors are. Governments are. Support how you can and listen, I mean truly listen, to Palestinian people when they tell you how they are feeling and what they need.

And for the love of all that is holy and just in this world: put down your phone and stop doomscrolling.

You cannot be an effective agent of change if you spend more hours a day engaging with internet discourse on a subject you know little about and or watching horrifying war footage and making yourself severely depressed than you do sleeping or conducting your own personal responsibilities you have. Yeah, you are privileged by the fact you are not in that situation. Yes, those people are suffering. But making yourself suffer in kind isn't being productive or helping them. Comparative suffering is stupid and not helpful either.

Thank you.

[2q5b]

VAYAKHEL

By Ezra

March 7th, 2024

In five parts.

א

In my early teens I wore a gold star of David necklace at all times, which my grandfather gave me. It wasn’t an heirloom. It was new and shiny. For me, it was a symbol of my connection to my grandfather and to Judaism. It was also, on one level, a symbol of the state of Israel, and that was fine with me. Throughout my teenage years I subscribed to a fairly uncomplicated Zionism. I understood the state of Israel to be necessary for Jewish survival, and I didn’t look much into the details. The concept of Israel was just one of the notes in the stately concerto of American Jewish life. My necklace was very dear to me. My grandfather was old, and had narrowly escaped the Holocaust.

I no longer have the necklace. I misplaced it at some point in my teens. My shame and dismay at losing the necklace was overwhelming. I didn’t mention it to anyone. I just privately carried my sense of myself as a fuck-up who loses important things, who didn’t deserve jewelry. Instead of the necklace, I wore the shame of having lost the necklace, under my shirt, over my heart.

But I also knew that it was just a piece of gold jewelry, nothing more.

ב

Our parasha this week is largely a description of the building of the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary in which God has promised to dwell, the ritual center of the first Jewish community, the group of escaped slaves walking through the wilderness on their way to a promised land. The meticulous instructions were already given in a previous parsha, weeks ago. But now they are carried out, in just as meticulous detail, every necessary action reiterated, but this time in the past tense instead of the future tense.

Every generation of this book’s readers asks the same question: why this repetition? It is almost comical. The most detailed and, let’s be honest, boring description of anything in the Bible, and it’s all repeated a second time. But Gertrude Stein comes to mind. “There is no such thing as repetition,” she wrote. “Only insistence.” And each insistence is its own. Each insistence comes at a different time, in an altered context.

The contextual change between the instructions for the Mishkan in parashat Trumah and the building of the Mishkan in parashat Vayakhel is earth-shattering. In between the two, the Israelites build and worship an idol, the Golden Calf. The people’s first collective sin. Moses intercedes with our infuriated God and obtains communal divine forgiveness. He goes back up the mountain and encounters God even more intimately and intensely. Some new relationship between God and the people has been established, but the Israelites are reeling from shame. Can the national spiritual mission really just continue as if nothing has happened?

Our parasha is not a repetition of the details of the Mishkan, but an insistence. We have failed tremendously, in some ways irreparably. And yet the work we have to do is still not done: the work of building a home for God in the physical world

ג

Never in my life have I seen the Jewish people so deeply morally degraded as we are now. Israel has responded to the horrific October Hamas attacks with months of overwhelming violence and destruction, killing tens of thousands of people with no clear positive result. Opportunities to bring hostages home safely in exchange for a cease-fire have been repeatedly refused. I do not absolve Hamas for the atrocities they’ve committed. Neither can I excuse Israel’s atrocities, far greater in scope and human impact. We are watching some of the most terrible humanitarian crimes ever committed by Jews in Jewish history.

This is a spiritual crisis for the Jewish people. It involves us all whether we like it or not. The monstrous acts in Gaza are grievous sins of the Jewish collective.

But these sins are being committed by the state of Israel. Jews are not the same entity as the state of Israel. The distinction is crucial and it must be crystal clear. The tendency to equate all Jews with the state of Israel can and does cause deadly anti-Semitism. And there has been an enormous uprising of Jewish dissent against the state of Israel’s ongoing moral travesties. 

         And yet the symbol I wore on a gold chain over my heart as a teenager is also on the tanks that roll through Gaza, killing civilians and destroying their homes.

ד

Jewelry is a mysteriously persistent motif in this part of the book of Exodus. The Golden Calf is built with contributions of jewelry, gold earrings are melted down to build the idol. After the people are punished, jewelry appears again. God tells Moses that the Israelites will still go to the Promised Land, but God will not go there with them. This is when the enormity of their sin really seems to register with the people.

וַיִּשְׁמַ֣ע הָעָ֗ם אֶת־הַדָּבָ֥ר הָרָ֛ע הַזֶּ֖ה וַיִּתְאַבָּ֑לוּ וְלֹא־שָׁ֛תוּ אִ֥ישׁ עֶדְי֖וֹ עָלָֽיו׃

When the people heard this terrible thing

they went into mourning,

and no one wore his jewelry.

Jewelry is emphasized in three successive verses. Next God commands them not to wear the jewelry, though they’ve already removed it. And then the situation is grimly, insistently summarized: the children of Israel stripped themselves, vayitnatzlu, of their jewelry. This is the same word that was repeatedly used to describe the Israelites’ acquisition of the wealth of their enslavers in Egypt.

Some legitimate splendor has been lost. The jewelry they once deserved and triumphantly wore has become unacceptable. They’ve given up any claim to splendor, to a narrative of beauty and victory. They’ve chosen the path of disgrace, and now they can see it. They feel like fuck-ups who don’t deserve jewelry.

There is a well-known midrashic tradition that women did not participate in the Golden Calf. It is based on two verses in the Golden Calf narrative: first Aaron asks the people to give him the gold earrings in the ears of their wives and children, but the next verse says that they “broke off the gold rings that were in their own ears and brought them to Aaron.” Aaron addressed only the men, and they gave the rings from their own ears, not their wives’. The midrash hears this as female refusal to participate.

In contrast, this week’s parsha has an unusual emphasis on female participation. In the narrative of the communal contribution to building the Mishkan, women are specifically mentioned four times. And the first thing they contribute is their jewelry.

וַיָּבֹ֥אוּ הָאֲנָשִׁ֖ים עַל־הַנָּשִׁ֑ים כֹּ֣ל ׀ נְדִ֣יב לֵ֗ב הֵ֠בִ֠יאוּ חָ֣ח וָנֶ֜זֶם וְטַבַּ֤עַת וְכוּמָז֙ כׇּל־כְּלִ֣י זָהָ֔ב

“The men came in addition to the women; anyone whose heart moved them brought brooches, earrings, rings, and pendants —gold objects of all kinds…”

Rashi, commenting on this verse, cites the Talmud, which identifies the last item, “pendants,” chumaz, as referring to gold jewelry women wore on their private parts. They even gave their clit rings to make a home for God.

It’s not the jewelry, then, that God rejects. Not the gold. It’s that you can’t decorate yourself in gold if you’re going to spit in God’s face. It is an insult to wear a Star of David while you’re murdering the poor. Such a symbol becomes a disgrace. 

In contrast, the clit ring of a righteous woman is welcomed as part of the glorification of the Holy One on earth.

ה

It is my practice to pray once a day. There are three daily prayer services, but I pray just one each day, whichever one I am able to. I talk to God, the infinity that causes existence, as if we knew each other.

Weekday prayer always includes prayers for forgiveness for sin, most of which are spoken in the first person plural. “Slach lanu avinu ki chatanu,” we say. “Forgive us, our father, because we have sinned.” No matter how much the state of Israel is on my mind these days when I think of Jewish sins, the prayer is not “they have sinned.” It is “we have sinned.” Praying for forgiveness collectively, as a unified people, means that I can’t ignore the worst actions of my fellow Jews. I cannot dissociate from those actions or fully disown them. The consequences of those actions implicate me. They demand some response.         After the Golden Calf crisis, Moses’ first act of leadership, the first verb ascribed to him, is the name of our parasha, “Vayakhel.”

וַיַּקְהֵ֣ל מֹשֶׁ֗ה אֶֽת־כׇּל־עֲדַ֛ת בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֲלֵהֶ֑ם אֵ֚לֶּה הַדְּבָרִ֔ים אֲשֶׁר־צִוָּ֥ה ה’ לַעֲשֹׂ֥ת אֹתָֽם׃ 

Moses then congregated the whole Israelite community and said to them: These are the things that Hashem has commanded you to do.

Vayakhel, he congregated them. The word is from “kahal,” community. He treated the people as a single entity. He didn’t divide the Israelites into those who sinned and those who abstained. What they needed to move forward after a disastrous national failure was to think of themselves as one group, with important work ahead of them. They are told to observe Shabbat, and then they are asked to contribute gifts to the building of the Mishkan.

Not everyone committed the sin. But everyone is called on to heal it. 

Living my comfortable American life, reading the news, seeing the images of mass starvation, bodies blown apart, neighborhoods turned to rubble, I have felt so powerless to respond. But this is incorrect. Being powerless to prevent destruction is very different than being powerless to respond to it.

The Jewish people have the work of rebuilding ahead of us, the work of healing the damage we have done. Everyone is invited to contribute to that healing. Anyone whose heart moves them.

[cajunroe]

victorians ascribed the petunia with two conflicting meanings. it was said to represent anger or deep resentment or it could convey the message, “your presence soothes me.” a conflicting message for those perhaps not secure or aware enough in a relationship to know the difference. they could also be used as an intentional deceit by the giver to imply one meaning or another. though usually meaning would be designated by color, the intention could remain hidden if the giver chose to do so. a wise warning, maybe, that even if we think we know others’ intentions, not everything may be as it seems. sometimes the most devastating things can be hidden behind the glamour of something nice.

[clouds-rambles]

hey bestie i was hoping to request xiao, venti, childe and zhongli where the the reader and the character have just had an argument + the reader needs time to calm down from the argument. omg maybe the reader comes back with a gift to apologise

Ask and ye shall receive <3. I’m the kind of person who needs time to relax and process the situation after an argument. I’m always too worked up (read angry) to kiss and make up straight after an argument.

Pairings; (Separate) Xiao, Venti, Childe, Zhongli x reader

Warning(s); breif mention of a wound, alcoholism, swearing

Keep reading under the cut!

Xiao

You’re probably being too harsh on the guy

You had just come back from a tough mission with a few more scrapes than you normally come back, a nasty cut in particular situated on your shoulder was what caused the argument to kick off in the first place

In hindsight the argument started from Xiao’s concern of you getting hurt worse but you were too tired from the commission to really read it as concern

But boy now do you feel bad. You both went your separate ways for the evening and in the morning you still haven’t caught sight of your partner. You eventually go around Wangshu Inn and ask if they’ve seen Xiao.

You get told that he’s out for the day, apparently he caught wind of something manifesting in the mountains. So, you suppose that it’s high time to make an apology gift

And what’s a better apology gift than your partners favourite food? Because your arguments are often few and far between you don’t mind making Xiao almond tofu since it’s not something you’ve associated with apologising

Though you’re aware that the sweet snack means nothing if you’re not sincere with your apology. 

So what’s more sincere than sitting at the highest balcony of Wangshu Inn and wait for Xiao. You don’t mind how long it takes for him to come back just as long as you get to apologise

He comes back just after dusk and you pour your apologise profusely and tell him you understand that he was coming from a place of concern

Xiao is a little distant a short while after the apology but soon you’re reassured that he accepts it when he places his hand on the table for you to take hold of

The two of you sit in silence sat hand in hand while Xiao eats his tofu

You watch him eat with a grin on your face, sometimes just watching the Yaksha sit still and do his thing is enough to keep you in a trance for the evening

-

Venti

Maybe you got into an argument because you’re concerned over Venti’s drinking habits, sure he’s an immortal god but doesn’t he worry about his liver?

Sure the argument started because you’re worried about the archon but boy does he make you angry with his non-sensical thought processes

Venti is the kind of guy who wouldn’t let you leave without settling the argument

Even if the happy medium isn’t actually going to bring any change into the questionable drinking habits

But this argument just feels a little different, you’ve had the same conversation form months but nothing seems to change

You’re not even sure if Venti has actually listened to anything you have said to him about it

So you tell him “Do what you want, but you’re sleeping on the sofa tonight” yeah you just resigned him to sofa treatment. As much as you hate it you’re far too heated to just kiss and make up right now

So the night passes and you wake up with the cold space beside you, you’re confused until you remember the previous nights events

Though your unusual silence in the room doesn’t last long, you presume Venti sensed that you’re awake because you hear a knock at your bedroom door, you’re surprised that Venti is actually here and that he hadn’t sulked off to Windrise where you had originally planned to apologise to him

As you open the door you notice your partner stood before you with a bunch of hand picked cecelia's and dandelions and an apologetic look on his face

You’ve never known Venti to speak so fast he apologises profusely for causing you such worry and promises that he’ll try to drink less, he mentions that he doesn’t wish to give up his Friday and Saturday drinking nights but he’s willing to tone it down during the week if it stops you worrying 

You thank him sincerely and find a vase to put the flowers in

You hug Venti and apologise yourself for being such a worry wart and causing such a big argument

“I’m glad I have someone to worry about me, I don’t know what I’d do without you” You can’t help but swoon at his flowery words and grin at him before the two of you start off the day

-

Childe

It’s a bad habit he has, when you try and talk about something serious with him he constantly cracks jokes at the situation. Which in its self isn’t the worse thing in the world, even you crack jokes to lighten the situation but at some points it goes too far

And today is too far, what started off as a disagreement about where you were going to eat lunch ended up in a full scale (mostly one sided) argument in Childes office about how he can’t take things seriously

You, of course, know this to be false. You’ve seen him in action against his foes and bank business but just in this moment when you are so angry about the situation those rational thoughts go out the window

And what does the bastard do? He cracks another fucking joke

“Is this what I am?” you ask finally reaching the catalyst of your temper “A fucking joke?” 

And boy does the exclamation comes to a surprise to him. No matter how frequent your use of curse words you’ve never directed them at him so it catches Childe by even more surprise

“[name] I’m sorry I didn’-” he tries to apologise

“You didn’t fucking what Tartaglia? Want to make me feel like a joke? Cause you’ve been going down that road at every fucking disagreement we have” you cut him off in a fit of rage “Sleep in your own fucking bed tonight” you add before storming out his office

He tried to follow you out the bank before he was stopped by a fatui agent about some urgent debt collection, so he never got to apologise immediately

And that’s how the next couple of days go, you’ve taken most of the time to cool off and avoid anywhere Childe might be hanging about, your plan works better considering said harbinger was out of Liyue Harbour for a couple of days

Though on the third night Childe appears at your door, he doesn’t bring any gifts, just himself. Childe enjoys gifting things to you so he doesn’t want you or him to associate gift giving with apologies. You’re more than thankful for this

Childe apologises before you even have the chance to invite him in and takes your hand and wholeheartedly promises to try and not make jokes when you have a disagreement

You also apologise and agree that, in hindsight, you blew things out of proportion. You reassure him that he’s a hardworking man and that a few out of place jests make everything more bearable to him.

You invite him inside for some tea, your bed isn’t as cold as it was tonight

-

Zhongli

Disagreements with Zhongli never seem to get any further than that. The archon likes to listen to you vent your frustrations over a cup of herbal tea and usually that calms you down and everything is settled before supper

But every once in a while you’re a little high strung. For instance this time you’re running on a total of 5 hours sleep over the last 4 days. Sleep deprivation could possibly be your middle name at this point 

The only thing you want to do when you get back from your restless trip from Mondstat back home is to just sleep the next few years 

But the sweetie that Zhongli is he quizzes you about your great to horrific trip

Zhongli pulls all the stops he readys some dinner for you and draws a bath when you get back. He even gives you a small lecture about how you’ll feel terrible not washing before going to bed

But with your tired ears, eyes and brain it feels like a personal attack in your entire self “I’ve had it up to here with bloody hillichurls for 4 horrific days, all I want to do is pass the living hell out thank you”

Replace the bloodys with fucks and that’s probably more accurate to what you said

Zhongli is taken a little aback, being an older traditional man it’s unbecoming of anyone to use such sailor language. And thus the male lectures you about it

You take that as about as well as you expect, you don’t respond to him and favour walking out the room, barely getting undressed and collapsing on your shared bed

You wake up the next morning (though when you peek outside it seems like it’s after noon) disorientated. You don’t actually remember coming home the previous day 

Then the memory resurfaces of you yelling at your spouse and regret washes over you

Surely the gift you had prepared for Zhongli would be good enough as repercussions of yesterdays outburst

You see Zhongli in the dining room, to the untrained eye he looks like he’s in a normal mood but to you, you can see his brooding emanating off of him. If you dare point it out Zhongli will deny that he even broods in the first place

He’s the first to greet you without turning around. Rightfully so, he’s still in a mood. So you just profusely apologise for your outburst

You explain that you were running on next to no sleep and while that doesn’t excuse your outburst it certainly explains it. If your spouse so wishes to ask how your trip was you would comply much more now since you’ve had a good sleep behind you. 

You then change the subject to the gift in your hands, some rose tea. Something Zhongli had mentioned when you were courting all that time ago. 

The man sits you on his lap and explains to you about how it was out of place of him to assume you’d be in a talking mood immediately after your travels. You reassure him that under normal circumstances you wouldn’t mind talking about it, you promise that you will do everything in your power to not let the previous night repeat

You then bring out his gift, rose tea, which he had mentioned wanting to taste a little while back, and before long you’re back in the cycle of Zhongli profusely explaining to you some random subject (in this instance rose tea) before you go off to make dinner where you finally share the details of your travels

Hope this is okay! <3 I kind of went a little ham with the Childe and Zhongli one in comparison to the other two hope you don’t mind lmao <3

[itsclydebitches]

I kinda wonder, what could bakugou do (hori write bakugou to do) to make him less popular with the "anti" crowd. Like He was a horrid child no doubt and people who try to put blame on Deku or lessen the terrible shit bakugou did aren't great. But as we don't rly see it, we have to assume bakugous behaviour wasn't stopped, we only ever saw his mum "punishing" him when he was being rude after getting kiddnapped. Nothing will excuse what bakugou did, but he has stopped? He's overall a harsh person but he's not harrassing and bullying people anymore, specifically not deku, he's trying to attone for what he did to deku and has now apologised for it. His behaviour was never viewed as justified or good in the series, he's a scary figure in middle school, we're not meant to like his behaviour, so the series itself hasn't justified his actions.

As someone who relate to both bakugou and deku more than I'd like to admit (never told someone to jump tho, that's fucked lol) so I can 100% understand not liking or even hating bakugou but as someone who's not 15 anymore, looking back I also made a lot of really shitty decisions and like bakugou have tried to make up for it, and like deku I was 'friends' with people who hurt me.

Is there anything he can do for the "antis" to just dislike him rather that be "anti"?

(I'm very sorry if you've talked about this somewhere, you can just tell me to look for it if you have, I'll continue to look for your posts on the subject)

Hey there, anon! I think I’ve spoken about this only tangentially and/or in my main Bakugo meta, which is too big for anyone sane to read. So yeah, let’s chat here!

For me personally—and that’s all I can ever do: speak personally. I think it’s important to keep in mind that there is no single solution to please the “anti” crowd. Each fan will be looking for something slightly different in Bakugo’s character, much of which might contradict what a “stan” is currently enjoying. Given how charged a character he is, I'm not sure it's possible to get the entire fandom to like him—what I’m looking for hinges on having a different reading of the story than you seem to. Meaning, I think the series does justify his behavior. Not in any overt, super obvious way like having all the characters go, “Wow, Bakugo! I sure do love how you threaten people all the time. That’s super cool and heroic!” Things are rarely that straightforward. Rather, it’s in a more subtle, but consistent manner that paints a rather conclusive picture across hundreds of chapters.

Simply put, Bakugo is continually rewarded for his actions. Or, if not outright rewarded, his actions are ignored in a way that implies silent acceptance. Characters may not always like what he does... but they're willing to let it slide because Bakugo's heroism was always treated as a given, not something he had to earn and prove.

With the ever necessary disclaimer that I’m not fully caught up yet, here’s a list of some of the things that stood out to me in the first half of the series:

Bakugo’s bullying made him the most popular kid in school.

Bakugo’s bullying was ignored by/outright supported by the teachers.

Bakugo’s bullying did not hinder him from getting into U.A., one of the most prestigious hero schools around.

Despite acting horribly throughout his time at U.A. too, this behavior was continually ignored by the teachers and other authority figures around him.

Bakugo’s struggle to realize that other people aren’t “trash” doesn’t hurt his achievements in any way. He still gets top scores, still wins the tournament, etc.

Bakugo’s behavior gets him special attention from All Might, the greatest hero and Bakugo’s personal idol.

His behavior doesn’t make others dislike him in any manner that’s taken seriously. Everybody is still willing to not just put up with Bakugo, but—in time—start treating his behavior as a quirk (no pun intended lol) that they’re secretly fond of, rather than something he should legitimately be striving to change. Kirishima is the most overt example of this.

This is compounded by his behavior constantly being framed as humorous. Much like with Mineta’s perverted actions, characters might superficially go, “No, that’s bad!” but the story never demands any significant development because then we’d lose the “joke” of Bakugo screaming in rage at the slightest inconvenience, threatening to murder someone over nothing, constantly belittling everyone around him in a “funny” manner, etc. When fans talk about development of a manga character as archetypal and extreme as Bakugo, most don’t really want to see significant change to his base personality. Because then that would result in someone who doesn’t look like the “real” Bakugo: someone nicer, more even-tempered, more mature, etc. But for those of us who were never drawn to that personality in the first place, the continued acceptance of his rude, egotistical, and violent behavior is discomforting. The easiest comparison I can draw is between this and Bakugo’s mother slapping him. That slap is meant to be another “joke”—we see it constantly in shonen anime, something "humorous" you shouldn’t take too seriously because haha, it's just an overprotective mother—but many fans do take it seriously, using it as the basis for a whole “Bakugo was abused and this explains his behavior” reading. Well, I take the “joke” of Bakugo’s threats and insults seriously, especially in a story that starts with something like telling Izuku to jump off the roof. In the same way that many fans want others to treat Bakugo’s mother as a serious topic that has had a negative influence on his development, I want the series to take Bakugo’s everyday actions seriously as a negative influence on… well, everyone around him. But it doesn’t. His base personality is grudgingly adored.

The above two points are seen most overtly in Izuku, who never wavers in his respect for Bakugo despite how Bakugo treats him. Not just prior to U.A., but during their training too. Izuku, as the protagonist, is the emotional heart of this tale, so when he talks about how inspiring Bakugo is, it encourages the reader to see his behavior as inspiring too. Rather than, as said, something that needs to change. Izuku's continued friendship with Bakugo, his adoration of him, and his acceptance of the way he's treated has severely warped how the entire story sees Bakugo's actions. After all, if #pure Izuku can see the good in Bakugo, why can't everyone else? He must not be that bad after all.

I could get into detailed analyses of all the above—like how Bakugo was the one comforted after attacking Izuku outside the dorms at night and how the messed up relationship he has with Izuku is upheld as something to nurture; how the remedial courses he had to take were made to be rather silly, thereby undermining their supposed importance to his development; how Bakugo’s kidnapping had nothing to do with his flaws, but much of the fandom uses it as a way to dismiss any appropriate consequences because, “Hasn’t he suffered enough?” etc.—but in the interest of keeping this within a readable length, I’ll leave it at that. The point is that Bakugo has always been privileged when it comes to his behavior, resulting in others either outright praising it, ignoring it, or demanding that he change a miniscule bit, which always keeps him far below the standards of both his peers and the expectations of a hero. Everyone in 1-A must learn to be even better than the good people they already are... Bakugo needs to learn that other people aren't dirt at the bottom of his shoes. It's never been a particularly impressive development when pit against the rest of the class. All of which can make something like an apology feel pretty hollow. Yes, he’s apologized and I say with all seriousness that that’s great! But how does that apology stack up against 300+ chapters of content? As Bakugo’s words highlight, he's been a really awful person up "until now": he was consumed by Izuku being “miles ahead of [him],” he “looked down on [him]” because he didn’t have a quirk, he “didn’t want to recognize that,” he “hated that,” “grew distant,” “tried to beat you down,” “opposed you and tried to show my superiority over you,” and ends it all with, “it probably doesn’t mean anything telling you all this” before finally getting to the “I’m sorry.” This is basically a laundry list of how horrible a person Bakugo has been for the entire series, with an acknowledgement that this apology is coming really, really late. This is the moment where I could START to like Bakugo, depending on how he acts form here on out, but that pivotal moment arrived after six years of content and in the final arc of the story. It’s too late. Bakugo needed this kind of self-reflection and positive action 250+ chapters ago so he could (hopefully) grow into a better person across the story, not at the story's end. What we got instead is 322 chapters of him being a really horrible person, but the story going out of its way to excuse or even praise that behavior the majority of the time.

As a quick comparison to end on, I think what Bakugo needed was what Soo Jin got in True Beauty. You don’t need to have seen the drama to follow along. The tl;dr is that she has a lot of the core qualities of Bakugo: an all-consuming drive to win that was created due to abusive parents with high expectations, resulting in her bullying a peer to a pretty horrific extent. The difference between them is how the story frames their actions. When Soo Jin becomes the bully she loses everything. Rather than succeeding academically, her grades plummet, making it clear that this anxiety and self-doubt (things the fandom keeps insisting Bakugo is struggling with, but that rarely ever show up in the text) is actually impacting her day-to-day life. Her best friend drops her because she’s not going to support her choices. The boy she likes rejects her. She’s eventually forced to start over somewhere new - which importantly separates her from the girl she was bullying - and get some distance from her parents, resulting in the growth needed to become a healthier, happier, good person again. So when Soo Jin apologizes to the girl she hurt, it feels earned. The story continually recognized how horrific her actions were and put her into a place where she either had to change, or continue losing at everything else that was important to her. Bakugo? Bakugo doesn’t lose. Oh, he claims he does because he’s comparing himself to Izuku constantly, but that’s just him thinking in extremes. He still wins academically. Still wins many battles. Still wins at having friends. Still wins by maintaining the prestige of being a U.A. student. Still wins by getting All Might’s attention. Still wins by receiving Izuku’s respect and an agreement to maintain this rivalry that Bakugo is so obsessed with. Bakugo comes out well 99% of the time, he just thinks he's "lost" because he can't stand not being the absolute best.

For me, the story needed to have Bakugo face consequences for his behavior, not receive rewards and/or have others ignore it, and that revelation/apology needed to come way, way sooner. For me the issue is not a specific action that Horikoshi can have Bakugo do in the next chapter and them bam, I like him now. The problem is Bakugo’s entire concept, how he’s received by the entire cast, and his run across this entire series. "Entire" is the key word there. Which is why the “But he’s apologized. What more do you antis want?” reactions don’t sit well. What we wanted is a better written redemption arc across those 300+ chapters, not a single scene that’s meant to have us forget all the other problems inherent in the story. At this point it’s a far more complicated situation than, “Bakugo just needs to do X, Y, and Z and then we’re golden.” At the end of the day, Horikoshi failed to make me like him as a person and I’m pretty sure he isn’t going to change Bakugo enough to make him likable to me. Bakugo was never the sort of character I’d be inclined towards without a serious, nuanced redemption arc, but sadly, a core, crucial part of that redemption arc took six years to arrive. At this point there’s no way to change the problems in Bakugo’s writing for that huge chunk of the series and not enough time left in the series, it seems, to do the work we should have seen across the entire run. Honestly, idk if the Bakugo we'll get going forward is someone I can just dislike as opposed to being really uncomfortable with, but my money is on there being too little story left and too much investment in upholding Bakugo's base personality for that to happen. I could absolutely be proven wrong! But I think the problems are structural and needed to be better dealt with from page one, not hastily patched over in the final hour.

[tinky-dinky]

Your takes on Lyanna are objectively correct and her actions did set up what would be the eventual War of the Five Kings lol. The fact that there is pushback on this from those Lyanna apologists is hilarious to me as it is objectively what happened. She gets treated with such kid gloves by fandom it drives me crazy. The only characterization we have of her is her bitching how she doesn't want to marry Robert because he can't 'stick to one bed' and has a bastard child already and then she runs off with the married crown prince who has a true wife and two trueborn children at home. The fact that she died as a result of giving birth to her bastard affair baby after bitching about Robert's bastard is one of the more hilarious examples of karmic justice in the books lol.

100% agreed with you, my dear nonnie.

The fandom doesn’t hold Lyanna accountable for her decisions and actions because she’s a child….and yet the Stark children are all held accountable for their actions, despite all being younger than Lyanna.

I haven’t seen a single person say Robb isn’t to blame for the consequences of his decision to marry Jeyne because he’s a child. He’s a year, maybe two, younger than Lyanna.

I see a lot of people demonise Robert pre-Rebellion, and it seriously irritates me. Before the rebellion- so when Lyanna was complaining about him sleeping around and fathering bastards- he had one bastard, Mya Stone. Who was born somewhere around a year after Robert watched his parents die. If you factor in travel time from the Stormlands to the Vale, it seems Robert left the Stormlands as soon as he could and almost immediately fathered Mya. Given he later takes to drinking and whoring to bury his pain and grief over Lyanna, is it not possible he was doing the same with his pain and grief for his parents?

Another insane thing about the fandom I’ve seen is people excusing that show!Lyanna named her son Aegon, seemingly to replace Rhaegar’s literally just brutally murdered baby of the same name. Rhaegar gets blamed for this, even though he was dead. And had been dead for some time. There was no reason for Lyanna to stick with his name choice unless she agreed with it. Which, given she also agreed to marry Rhaegar in and hide out in the kingdom his wife was from (jesus christ poor Elia could these two have been bigger assholes?!), does not seem out of character. But that is show!Lyanna of course.

I’ve seen suggestions that Lyanna will name Jon a northern name (begging the question of why, then, Ned would change it?). Like Brandon, to honour her brother. The one who died a horrific death directly because of her choice to run off with the married prince. Delightful.

As for the subject of the War of the Five Kings, I feel the need to clarify as one idiot did claim I blamed Lyanna directly for it, when I did not and do not. I do blame her (and Rhaegar) for the Rebellion, the ramifications of which led to the WOFK, those being:

- No ‘kidnapping’, no dead Rickard and Brandon, meaning either Rickard or Brandon would be Lord of Winterfell and Brandon would be married to Catelyn, not Ned. This, of course, changes things dramatically.

- No Rebellion, no King Robert, no forced marriage to Cersei. Robert doesn’t father a billion bastards and isn’t murdered. Cersei…may well still have twincest bastards but wouldn’t be queen, wouldn’t put one of said twincest bastards on the throne, no execution of Ned.

- No Rebellion, no dead Elbert and Denys Arryn, no marriage between Jon Arryn and Lysa Tully, no manipulations via Baelish. Without Lysa to convince Jon to elevate Petyr to higher positions, Baelish can’t kickstart wars or fuck people over so much.

- No Rebellion, no exiled Targaryens, no dragons, no tyrannical pyromaniacal dragon queen and potentially a sane Viserys.

- No Rebellion, no dead Elia, Rhaenys and Aegon. No rebelling from Dorne.

- No Rebellion, no death of Quellon Greyjoy, likely no Ironborn rebellion, hopefully less messed up Theon.

I could go on. The ramifications of Lyanna and Rhaegar’s selfishness and stupidity run deep. But I think I’ve made my point.

[cosmicjoke]

Ah, chapters 113 & 114 of AoT, and I’ve only got one thing to say.

Zeke, am I supposed to be feel sorry for the bitch?  Well I DON’T.

No, seriously, fuck this guuuuuuuuy, I know I keep saying it again and again, but God damn, if these two chapters didn’t just solidify my hatred for the bastard.

First of all, he is just... the most whiny, delusional, self-pitying pathetic loser, just... he really is.  I feel like a character in a Peanuts comic strip every time he opens his mouth.  All I hear is “whaa, whaa, whaa”.  And his delusions of grandeur would almost be funny if they weren’t so pathetic.  

Here’s the thing, alright, and I’m sorry if I’m going to offend any Zeke fans with what I’m about to say, but too bad, I guess.  

Everything out of this shitheads mouth is a lie.  And just because he’s convinced himself of his own bullshit doesn’t make the lies coming out of his mouth any more true.

He turns Levi’s fellow soldiers into Titans.  He does this without remorse.  Don’t try to tell me Zeke felt bad about it.  He didn’t.  You know how I know he didn’t?  Because in his private moments in the immediate aftermath, he mocks Levi over having done it, gloating about his supposed master plan of using Levi’s compassion against him and utilizing it to ensure Levi’s own demise.  Zeke’s entire attitude here is sickeningly unbothered, unburdened, uncaring, and smug in the EXTREME.  He mocks Levi’s compassion, literally makes fun of it and lambasts it as a pathetic sign of weakness when he says “I know you’re a caring leader.  Your soldiers haven’t done anything wrong.  They’ve just grown a little bigger.  You wouldn’t, say, slice them to pieces over that, would you?”.  This is Zeke making fun of the fact, finding AMUSEMENT in the fact that he’s just murdered 30 people who have never done a single thing to him, and reveling in what he thinks is a victory that will lead to Levi’s own death, reveling in having taken advantage of and weaponizing a better man’s kindness and compassion.  Zeke is ENJOYING this moment.  Just like he enjoyed killing all those soldiers in Shinganshina.  And then, the kicker, and this is a particular point about Zeke that just makes me absolutely sick, he pretends to himself as if he didn’t want to do it.  He PLAYS at his own regret, saying, “I didn’t want do this either,” and yet in the very next breath, continues to treat what he’s done with grotesque flippancy, saying “Still, how sad... There wasn’t even a battle or skirmish.”  Gloating over how easily he’s bested Levi and his men, before going on to sink further into his insane delusions of grandeur, blaming their inability to trust one another on Levi’s inability to “understand”.  I’m sorry, Zeke, but no.  You didn’t even TRY to help Levi understand, too wrapped up in your own egotistical god-complex to consider it a possibility.  ‘Oh, only I could possibly understand, along with Eren, the great task we two special beings have been burdened with.  He makes assumptions about Levi’s life, about the kinds of things he’s seen and experienced, and convinces himself that they couldn’t be anything like what Zeke has (which, hilariously, is all wrong, since out of everyone, Levi knows better than anyone else in the SC what it’s like to be treated as a second class citizen).  Zeke just assumes Levi couldn’t possibly ever grasp the complexities of the outside world, and so that’s why Zeke didn’t even bother trying to talk to him.  Blah, blah, blah.  No, Zeke, you didn’t share your stupid ass plan because you wanted to continue to feel special, like you’re the chosen one who gets to decide the fate of an entire race of people.  The most hilarious part of this entire sequence is when Zeke is thinking Levi couldn’t ever understand the concept of all the world’s militaries bearing down on Paradis at once, and what that means, couldn’t grasp the urgency of the situation, as if ZEKE HIMSELF isn’t completely fucking responsible for that situation in the first place.  Zeke literally engineered it.  He created the problem, and now wants to position himself as the savior.  He’s just such a loser man.  The God damned definition.  

And as if all of that wasn’t bad enough, when it turns out Zeke’s plan to take Levi out failed miserably, and Levi comes after his sorry ass like a bat out of hell, Zeke continues to mock Levi, to laugh at what Levi’s just had to do in order to survive and pursue Zeke.  He says “Where’d your adorable little men go!?  Don’t tell me you killed them all!  The poor things!”.  Are you fucking serious?  Zeke’s behavior here is one of the most sickening things in the entire story, bar none.  The way he laughs at Levi here for having to cut down 30 of his friends and comrades, the absolute display of sociopathic glee and disregard for the severe, horrific trauma he’s just caused this man, is honestly shocking.  Man, I’m sorry, but anyone who sympathizes with Zeke over Levi after this display maybe needs to reevaluate their moral compass, because it’s damned broken.  And just as an aside, Zeke’s cowardly fear of Levi is also pretty damned funny.  He’s just such a bitch./

We go from this perverse display of psychopathic megalomania into Zeke’s backstory, and again, I’m sorry if I’m gonna offend any Zeke fans here, but to all of that, I ask, so effing what?  Oh, boohoo, Zeke’s mommy and daddy didn’t shower him with praise or spend any time playing catch with him, and somehow, I guess, this is meant to excuse his attempts later in life to commit mass genocide.  Poor, poor Zeke.  Yes, his childhood was sad, he experienced neglect from his parents for two whole years, was used by them as a pawn for their idiotic plans, and ended up disappointing his father when it turned out he had no real talent.  And again I ask, so what?  This sort of experience isn’t exactly what one would call unique, or even extreme.  There are countless children in the world who go through the exact same thing in various forms.  Parents who put too much pressure on their kids to succeed, parents who try living vicariously through their children, parents who make their disappointment known and even punish their children for failing to live up to their expectations (something Zeke’s parents never did, by the way).  The point is, this isn’t even what one would classify as extreme hardship.  It’s a sad story of a child being neglected and not receiving enough love from his parents.  This isn’t to undermine the very real pain one experiences from those things.  Not at all.  That pain is real and legitimate.  But it’s also fairly common and pedestrian, as far as childhood trauma is concerned, and it doesn’t even remotely begin to justify the extreme lengths of megalomaniacal, sociopathic, genocidal tendencies he later displays.  Also, Zeke also had his grandparents, who did love him and spent lots of time with him.  He had Mr. Ksaver, who played with him and acted as a mentor to him.  It wasn’t like Zeke had no one and grew up with zero connections.  That’s BS.  

Levi calls this bitch on his shit later in chapter 114, as Zeke’s muttering away in his delusions about how he’s “saving everyone”.  He asks Zeke “That was your plan?  Mercy killings?”.  Levi’s asking Zeke here who the hell gave him the right to decide who lives and who dies?  Who gave him the right to decide who’s life is WORTH living?  When Levi says him getting to die by being eaten by a Titan is pretty merciful, considering he stole the lives of so many of his comrades, Zeke’s reply speaks volumes about just how warped and demented his thinking is, when he says “I stole nothing.  I... saved them.  Them and the children they would have... I saved them all... from this cruel world.”.  He’s literally justifying murdering countless people by trying to redefine that murder as “saving” them.  It’s not murder because it saved them from ever having to suffer again!  He’s absolving himself here of his sins by casting his actions in not just a favorable light, but trying to sell them as heroic and admirable.  He takes no, actual responsibility for what he’s done.  He removes himself from that responsibility by pretending he was doing a good thing, an honorable, noble thing, by murdering a whole bunch of people who’d never done jack shit to him.  Yippee for Zeke, I guess.  He’s the very definition of an ego-maniac, of someone suffering from a messiah complex.  He’s insane, and morally depraved.  The very fact that he’s the one who comes up with the idea of eradicating the Eldian race by rendering them infertile is only further proof of this.  What teenager comes up with a plan to exterminate an entire race of people and thinks it’s a good idea?

Right before he blows himself and Levi up, he screams “I’m hope you’re watching, Mr. Ksaver!”.  He’s indulging in his own, fanciful notions of himself as the “chosen one”, as a unique person who alone is capable of delivering humanity to salvation.  He’s showing off, asking Mr. Ksaver to watch him as he “saves the world”, because all he cares about, really, is making himself feel special, of fulfilling what he’s deluded himself into believing is his destiny, his right to decide the fate of the world. 

And then he almost kills Levi in the process.

I swear, I wish Levi had just chopped his shitty head off right then and there.  No one can blame Levi for chopping the bastards legs up like he did, for being so angry.  It wasn’t just that Zeke had killed so many of his fellow soldiers by turning them into Titans, or tried to kill Levi by turning them into Titans, it’s also how Zeke laughed about it, and laughed at the pain he’d caused Levi, treating all of it as if it was worth nothing, and then having the unmitigated gall to cast himself as the hero bestowing his benevolent mercy on all.  Give me a fucking break.

Fuck you Zeke.  I hope you rot in hell, you dumb shit.  

Also, fuck you to Floch too.  I hate that bastard almost as much.

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

I’m the anon who messaged you about nieyao. I completely agree with your take! I only really call JGY a sympathetic villain bc mxtx calls him and XY “scum but scum with feelings” & “scum with a bit of humanity”. I love the dark fucked up gothic horror/gothic romance of xuexiao & nieyao. But fandom is full of JGY stans who think he was in the right & gloss over his horrific deeds. Most of them hate NMJ & NHS with a burning passion & I’m just like…JGY was outmaneuvered by NHS. Please over it 🙄

I'm glad to hear from you again!

Yes I have to say parts of them are sympathetic, but I also think they are that warning to remember, that as awful as people may be, they also have very human feelings the same as everyone else, but do not let that also blind yourself to the harm they willingly committed against the people they were supposed to "love", or find those small actions that may be big for them, really any more empathetic than what would be "normal" really in life. Xue Yang with his soft spot for Xiao Xingchen's candy and kindness, and Jin Guangyao's indulgence with listening to Lan Xichen.

墨香铜臭：在……哪个人渣还没有、还没有感激过几个人对哇。

In... what ways have scumbags not been grateful and thankful to others?

From this of course the author herself says that analysis can be left up to the reader,

墨香铜臭：没事没事，没事，大家自己想怎么解读怎么解读，反正我……写是作者的事，怎么解读是读者的事。

It's fine, it's fine, it can be interpreted how you want to interpret it. Anyway, I... writing is the author's business, how to interpret is the reader's business.

What this has to do specifically with Jin Guangyao stans, is that hey it's fine to think of it as such, since they do have feelings and can be thankful, but do not think that alone makes them capable of good since they chose not to be when they had everything to choose better i story. They did not want to be when they had others who would have always been willing to accept them for the better change of heart.

Jin Guangyao made excuses for his wrong actions by saying he had no choice when he always did. He chose the "easy" way by sinking to the level of scum to have things, and claimed to be the better for it, which is what Nie Mingjue is angry about, Calling yourself above those of unfortunate background for using underhanded methods and claiming superiority is fucked up.

Nie Huaisang did the same for revenge in a way. But there is a fine line where revenge for another turns into personal satisfaction for the self. Jin Guangyao's was always only for himself. Despite his sob stories concerning his mother who he was still ashamed of regardless any love he had, you can't truly love someone without accepting who they are as a person.

[lochnessies]

I feel like 3H discourse gets fucked over a bit by people not taking into account that characters will say inaccurate information (without it having to be a plot hole). Perspective is a huge theme in Three Houses and characters are going to make, sometimes, dramatic actions based off that misinformation.

yeah

Like, Dmitri accuses Edelgard of being involved in the Tragedy of Duscur, but, she was like, 12 when that happened. It’s a lot more likely that Edelgard was being experimented on or recovering from experimentation during that point in time considering that the Tragedy happens not long after Edelgard and Dmitri last see each other.

do i think edelgard was involved? nah. it’s one of the few things i genuinely believe her on. however, it isn’t unreasonable for dimitri to think she was somehow involved. i mean, faerghast is pretty standard medieval when it comes down to fighting. was sent to quell rebellions at like 14. that’s really young. and in the middle ages the standard age that boys trained to be nights was at the very least seven (glenn was 15 when he was full on knighted). felix says he learned to fight before he could write his own name and dimitri was already swinging swords at nine. not to mention she was in the kingdom and then not long after she leaves the tragedy happened. so it could also look like she was a spy even if she didn’t set lambert on fire herself.

then there’s the whole shit of her saying nothing. a whole nation gets wiped out and she has no plans to ever vindicate them. hell, even dedue says that her being involved in any way is unacceptable and he’s fucking pissed. is he delusional? is he being irrational and unfair to edelgard? she isn’t the victim here, dedue, his people, the kingdom royals and co. are.

Likewise, Setheth accuses Edelgard of trying to become a false goddess when that’s not even remotely close to her goals.

ok this part right here is the reason that this fucking thing took forever to come out (sorry anon). i have so much to say and i wanted to write it all but i decided to put in my edelgard essay instead. i then waited to post this answer but sadly it’s taking longer to edit than i planned and i feel bad so you’re going to have to wait for this bit. so if you stick around i’ll talk about that in depth in the essay but just know that i disagree with the op very much.

Edelgard makes a ton of false accusations and misconceptions about Rhea. She accuses Rhea of being a power hungry inhumane tyrant who has no regard for life outside her own when that just isn’t remotely accurate.

And then there’s Claude, literally the only major faction leader that cares to uncover the truth and nuances of everyone’s decisions. He’s literally the only faction leader to not act like his version of events is the definitive truth. He acknowledges that he and Edelgard are fighting for similar things: a system overhaul of Fodlan. He also doesn’t oppose the Church because he’s learned enough about it to want to keep it’s institution in place. That’s why he’s the only faction leader that can survive in every route (I’d consider Seteth and Rhea to share the role as Church Leader since Seteth leads the Church Route but Rhea’s the one actually in charge of the Church). Claude is also the only leader that doesn’t make any false claims about other factions. I said a while ago that Claude would make the best ruler and this is why.

ok this is fine

But going back to what I said earlier about discourse, this impacts discourse drastically because people can just pick whichever version of events they prefer and there’s probably a character who claimed it went that way. The plot also doesn’t seek to clarify events one way or the other in any route. So even if you’ve played every route, it’s up to the player to make judgment calls on who’s speaking out of their ass.

except it’s literally not. we are told what routes have correct information from the devs themselves. and unreliable narrators can be proven and disproven when you put their words against everyone else, their actions, and the lore.

Between all the relevant character and plot details the game hides behind supports, endings, and other easily missable content and the fact that no two characters interpret the series of events that happen in the plot the same way (due to coming from various background, being present for some stuff but not others, having different priorities and biases that will cause them to interpret different things in different ways, etc.), no two players are likely going to interpret the events of 3 Houses the same either.

just because two characters interpret the events differently doesn’t mean they’re right. for example, the agarthans think the crest experiments are good but edelgard and lysithea would say otherwise. but you wouldn’t say that twsitd’s perspective is valid just bc they see things differently.

and when i see players trying to excuse some of the most horrific things bc they don’t want their fave war criminal to look bad yes i will judge them. you can like whoever but don’t excuse shit like imperialism and racism and we will be fine.

So, if you want to talk 3H, please acknowledge that none of the characters should be taken solely on their word, especially when describing major things. With the examples I gave earlier of misinformation in the game, it makes sense that Dmitri would place the blame of the Tragedy of Duscur almost entirely on Edelgard because he doesn’t know about the Agarthans or Edelgard’s history with them.

ok but she’s still complicate if nothing else. that’s still terrible. like if she was planning to clear duscur’s name that’s one thing but she isn’t. the only way to do that is to reveal twsitd and we know she doesn’t since it is a shadow war that the people don’t know about since that would reflect badly on her for working with them.

It makes sense that Edelgard has a lot of misconceptions about the Church because once you start completely rewriting and erasing history (and the Church does openly censor literature, which is shown in Claude’s route), any possible “true story” is more likely than the story you’re giving. Alongside that, Edelgard is getting most of her information from the Agarthans and a very private source only accessible to the Imperial Family.

fair but choosing war at like 13 is an extreme jump. maybe wait till your brain fully develops and you have a better picture of the world around you

It makes sense that Seteth might assume that Edelgard is trying to become a false god because he’s been helping lead a religion based on lies for centuries.

she is. also the religion isn’t based off of lies. sothis exists. she’s in your head. a few details were changed to hide nabateans from a red canyon massacre 2.0. however, the values are the same. also he came to the monastery 20 years ago not centuries.

When you’re trying to understand some part of Three Houses, you have to think about where that information came from, what factors might be biasing that information, and that there might be some detail that shines a new light on that information somewhere else in the game that you’re missing. And that’s generally a good philosophy to have when processing any information.

yeah

That’s something I like about Three Houses. I like how you have to sort through a ton of biases and misinformation within the game to understand the story. If you let your own biases get away from you too much, you’re going to miss the larger picture. The game let’s you know exactly where everyone is coming from in some way and (almost) everyone is given a sympathetic eye in at least one route. And (almost) everyone is viewed as irredeemable in at least one route.

the only people who are portrayed as irredeemable are edelgard and rhea (and maybe dimitri if you count edel’s contempt for him in cf).