#thereby controlling their lives and fucking them over

[vagueiish]

what exactly is one supposed to do about accepting things you can't control when the thing you can't control is a person who is actively fucking over many people, including children?

[celaenaeiln]

thinking about some quotes i’ve read and i wanna hear your thoughts on them because i have a lot and i don’t know what to do with them.

“the day Dick Grayson turns evil is the day the universe ends, not because that day will never come but because the boy will make it come”

“Dick Grayson isn’t the universal constant of good. Dick Grayson is the universal constant of competence”

“So, having said all that, it is a few but definitely significant words that fill the contingency plan on Nightwing in case the hero of Bludhaven ever turns to the dark side. Let's hope that never happens.”

YESSSSS

“the day Dick Grayson turns evil is the day the universe ends, not because that day will never come but because the boy will make it come”

This is the truest fact I've ever heard because this is really canon.

Word for word this happened.

In one of the canon timelines Clark laser blasted Bruce under mind control.

And oh how Dick took over. You know what Luthor says?

"After all, as I've heard your father [Dick] so often quoted, 'we make the hardest decisions for those we care about the most.' Well, in his case...that has meant remaking the world."

This man has the power to single-handedly control the fate of the world.

Whatever he wants, he will make it happen.

The entirety of the justice league, all the metas, heroes, and villains too stood no chance against him.

DC vs Vampires

“Dick Grayson isn’t the universal constant of good. Dick Grayson is the universal constant of competence”

I think it's true.

Nightwing is one of the most formidable figures in DC, without fail consistently coming out on top, so if Superman is iterating that Dick's personality and essence of being is the same, then there's really no room for disagreement.

But more truly, I think he is a Nexus.

By Marvel's definition, "Nexus Beings are rare individual entities with the ability to affect probability and thus the future, thereby altering the flow of the Universal Time Stream. These beings, each referred to as a nexus, act as the keystones of the Multiverse and are crucial to its ultimate coherence and stability."

That means that the universe hinges on the actions of Dick Grayson.

Not only does he control the fate of the world but his mere existence determines what will become of it by other people:

I'd like to reiterate that Neux Beings are "the keystones of the Multiverse and are crucial to its ultimate coherence and stability."

You can still be a nexus if you turn dark. For example Lore was a dark version of Wanda Maximoff but she is still considered a nexus. So you're right in saying that Dick Grayson is a multiuniversal constant of competence.

“So, having said all that, it is a few but definitely significant words that fill the contingency plan on Nightwing in case the hero of Bludhaven ever turns to the dark side. Let's hope that never happens.”

In the easiest terms as someone put it, "hope he fucks up" is Bruce's only contingency plan against Nightwing. The man doesn't have a clear plan how to neutralize Nightwing.

His exact words are: "As a result of overanalyzing any situation, this allows Dick Grayson to overconfident and misdirected. This will make himself open to a second attack."

So the plan is basically 'Dick is too smart for his own good so we'll have to go with a lucky surprise attack.' He's literally saying 'yupppp. Let's just hope he messed up because there's nothing we can do on ouR end.' Note that Bruce doesn't even have a back up like 'the second attack didn't work? we're fucked.'

For everyone else he actually has a coherent plan in mind- do this and they will fall. But for Dick? 'I hope he messes up enough for a second attack to actually stick. Otherwise we're shit out of luck. And lives. Fingers crossed he doesn't jump to the bad side.'

Tim also confirmed he would never make a contingency plan for Dick. The only person in the world he wouldn't do one for.

He's just that formidable of a man. Even now he can easily take down the Justice League if he wanted to.

And we know that Dick has one of the strongest wills on the planet.

"I have my enhancements. I have powers. Dick Grayson...what do you have?"

A world where Dick loses his emotions is a world that would not survive.

[kikitakite]

I saw your callout in the Gale tag for that one user (no comment on them, tho ty for the callout bc i'd seen them in the notes of my fics) and was curious if you could elaborate on some of the Mystra incidents you described towards the end of the post? I'm new to the lore of the setting and find it hard to research (which makes sense given its importance to dnd), so I've heard a lot of conflicting things about Mystra's portrayal in the wider series. No pressure, obviously!

No problem! And yea, I've seen her arguing in the posts of a few people I follow or just Gale-related posts I find interesting. Usually I don't get involved in stuff like this, but I noticed a constant pattern and then all the homophobic shit so I went off a little.

Unfortunately it's hard to find exact examples of the Mystra lore because certain modules aren't very popular or even free to access, but if you're interested the best way to learn about her is by reading the Elminster novels. There's twelve total, dating all the way back to 1994, and they detail Elminster's adventures. I'll be honest though, some of them are a hard read and written through the lens of a man who's admitted very creative, but also has a lot of problematic ideas.

In the first book Elminster is a child. His entire town gets wiped out by mages, thereby making him hostile toward magic. He sneaks into Mystra's temple to deface her statue one night, but she appears before him and basically gaslights him into learning magic and becoming her rare Chosen. He becomes a wizard and cleric basically overnight, until eventually he multiclasses into pretty much every class type in DnD. As you can imagine a lot of players aren't too fond of Elminster, as he's a well known self-insert of the author and pretty annoying to run into during campaigns. None of my dungeon masters like him anyway.

He also becomes one of Mystra's most loyal followers, but she fucks with him over and over, turning him into a woman to teach him a lesson and SLEEPING with him in that form, berating him when he struggles with the torture he endures when he gets stuck in the hells, making him reproduce without his knowledge and getting jealous when he gives his partners more attention. Because she's a very jealous goddess, which I think the game vaguely touches on but not really.

I wish I had the time to flip through all the novels and give exact citations but the best I can do is suggest them, because they're so eye opening. She's considered a neutral good goddess, but neutral gods often do terrible things for the sake of their domain. I think it needs to be noted that Mystra, as with all gods in the pantheon, only cares about her portfolio. She isn't wrong for that, but it doesn't mean she's blameless when she messes with people's lives. She's done a lot of good but she's also made horrible decisions, especially where her followers are concerned.

For example, Elminster having children he doesn't know about. He has a daughter named Narnra. Her conception was... pretty fucked up. Basically a song dragon named Ammaratha Cyndusk was an occasional lover of Elminster's (he has a lot of those because of course he does) and she wanted to bear his child, but since he's a Chosen of Mystra he can control his fertility. Magic birth control, basically. He didn't want a kid so Ammaratha went behind his back to learn a counterspell that would make him fertile during sex. The man she asked refused to teach her because...duh that's messed up, but then Mystra intervened and told him to teach her the spell because she wanted Elminster's "seed to spread". Ammaratha never told him and neither did Mystra. No matter what the reasons, that was NOT consensual on Elminster's part, and it happened two more times, resulting in two more daughters with different women. If I remember correctly Elminster did eventually find out waaaaay later when they were all adults, but it never amounted to anything.

The sisters I was taking about are the Seven Sisters, Mystra's "daughters". And I put "daughters" in quotations because Mystra possessed the body of a woman named Elué and impregnated her without her consent. She slept with the woman's husband (again, while possessing her body) and made them sire seven children. This of course lead to Elué's death because the constant flow of magic in her body was too much for her to handle. Her grieving husband broke after she died and eventually left, abandoning his daughters and earning Mystra's scorn...as if he was in the wrong. The sisters were then orphaned and raised by foster families.

That said, most of the awful things anyone can say about Mystra were the doings of her previous incarnations so ultimately it doesn't apply to the Mystra of BG3. In fact, this third Mystra is supposed to be a new and improved goddess who's nicer to her followers. So her portrayal in BG3 annoyed a lot of DnD fans. I should also point out that Mystra has two types of fans: ones who will defend everything she does, even when it's fucked up beyond all comprehension, and the ones who will tell you she's a true neutral goddess capable of good and bad. I'm the latter. There are plenty examples of Mystra sticking her neck out for innocents, but there's also examples of her doing the most horrendous shit imaginable.

A lot of veteran players, at least the ones I know, are upset with the portrayal of Mystra in BG3 because her plan to end the Absolute is, quite frankly, stupid. Your party is the best chance anyone has of ending the threat, but she asks Gale to nuke himself and possibly tens of thousands, which makes no sense because she could've just sent her mages/clerics to deal with the problem. And there was no guarantee the bomb would've worked anyway. She put all the responsibility on one man and it DEFINITELY comes off as vindictive. That isn't out if character for her but she's not SUPPOSED to be that bad anymore. For a lot of DnD players it felt like she was reverting back to her old habits.

I think there's also a part in the game where you can directly ask Gale why she doesn't just blip the Absolute out of existence and he says something like, "She could but Ao won't allow it." That was also really strange for a lot of veteran players to hear because Gale drops Ao's name like it's nothing. Most people (especially if they're new to the franchise) wouldn't know this but most people in Faerûn don't know who Ao is! Because he wiped people's memories of his existence! I suppose it does make sense for Gale to know that name, since Mystra probably explained the pantheon to him, but it's VERY unlikely tav would know it. So during that conversation all I could picture was tav tilting their head like, "Huh? Who? Whaaa?"

And on top of that......Ao absolutely WOULD allow it because the Absolute effects the Weave and every other god! It had the potential to ruin the balance of the universe, which makes Ao a very angry boy. Balance is one of the ONLY things he cares about. The Dead Three were stealing souls and worshippers, which gods needs to survive, and dying gods disrupts the balance. It's a whole circle of chaos. So the only conclusion left for me to extrapolate is this: Mystra just really, really wanted Gale to kill himself to prove his devotion to her. Which...isn't great. Bad look for her.

It's kind of like how Raphael thinks the Crown of Karsus is going to help him end the Blood War and take over the hells. DnD players laughed during his epilogue because...no it won't lol. He doesn't stand a chance even with the crown. He's arrogant and he's gonna get slapped by his daddy and all the other archdevils, the same way Gale gets slapped by Mystra if he ascends. Even the Absolute ending of the game wouldn't last long because the gods would go to war with the Dead Three, wipe them out and rebuild Faerûn, which has happened many times in past DnD campaigns. Mystra alone has torn worlds apart and glued them back together. The main crisis of BG3 is saving the world you live in or everybody dies. For the gods it's just a Tuesday. I mean look at how Withers owns the Dead Three with a wave of his hand at the end of the game. Mystra COULD'VE killed the Absolute, just as she could've removed the orb from Gale's chest the moment it happened. She just didn't WANT to. She wanted him to die. She wanted him to chastise himself. She wanted him to suffer and come crawling back to her as an obedient follower. She wanted him to learn a harsh and honestly unfair lesson, which is a terrible throwback to her previous incarnations.

[nalyra-dreaming]

Louis said he killed ~7000 people,do you think that's a lot even for a vampire knowing he stopped around the year 2000?

I'm wondering if we will ever see why he stopped killing and if he will go back to his instinct after the Loumand divorce.

It's so funny because Lestat and Claudia were begging him to kill but he really started killing after her death and stops when he will probably go back with Lestat.

So both of them will never witness in his full glory the hunting-machine-killer-Louis

... Louis didn't kill 7000 people. He killed way more. He killed 7000 people THEN. In that time frame he refers to. In the time of NOLA and being in Romania.

Let's do the math.

Happy/good/mediocre years in NOLA: at least 1 per night, until Louis tries to feed on rats: roughly 3000-4000, would be my estimate.

The time laying low, feeding on rats, then feeding again after Claudia came back: Another 1000 at least.

Now as per Europe: They say the blood was bad, and not satisfying. They're cold, and malnourished. They probably had to kill more to sate the hunger. They were in Europe, traveling, for roughly 5 years. We are shown how they kill the soldiers at the street check - at least 5 soldiers, and the way they looked at each other makes me believe that wasn't a singular occurrence. They had to feed a lot when they could, too, so my guess would be at least 2 per night, so another 3000 at least.

That brings us to that 7000 (or more).

In Paris Louis tries to live of pigeons, until the trial is over. Then he goes on a killing spree. We hear he regularly goes off and "fucks and kills" from Armand later.

Between 1949 and 2000: 51 years. Even by keeping it low, keeping the killing sprees out of this, that's roughly 20000.

Young vampires (as Louis is still) need more blood, not less, so the number is likely way higher, even with him withholding and trying to control his hunger.

So the number we're looking at is likely more like 30000 to 40000, imho.

---

All this said^^: I do not think he will go back to killing just yet. He will though, book canonically. Because by accepting himself he accepts his vampiric self as well, and thereby accepts the hunger.

Lestat and Louis go hunting together in the books when they're back together. As this is where we're headed for, ultimately, I do expect Louis to hunt again, eventually.

And they will revel in it then, I bet.

[fan-a-tink]

Wille & his family

If you think about it, Young royals is a story of many journeys, but one of the most central ones has been Wille’s journal away from his family. 

He starts the series with his family deciding that he will change schools. He tells them he doesn’t want to but is ignored. When Erik dies he spends what feels like two days with his family, trying to grieve together, but his mother immediately tries to get him involved in his role as crown prince. After all the shit with the video been leaked, his mother makes Wille apologize for it (still think this is one of the most fucked up things to happen in this show) and forces him to make a statement denying (himself) that it was him in the video, thereby betraying Simon, hiding his queerness and ruining his relationship. But Wille does this because this is his family and he has trusted them his whole life, and he doesn’t dare to take the leap and rely on Simon whom he’s only known for a few weeks/months at this point. And then he is betrayed by his family, when he finds out that Kristina knew it was August and didn’t tell him and is also still actively protecting August by deciding not to prosecute him. This is a key moment, because Wille learns that the foundations of his life, his family, was ultimately completely fine with betraying him and forcing him to do the speech. 

In season 2, we see the fallout of that betrayal, the aftermath. With Wille shutting out his mother, refusing to talk with anyone from the court etc. They try to take him from the school, to regain some control over his actions, but he manages to make a fragile peace with his mother by agreeing to see a therapist. His mother seriously believes that she doesn’t need to address her son’s struggles personally in any way, as a mother, and instead just makes Wille someone else’s responsibility. This is another important step, because the queen’s plan backfires and Boris is actually helping Wille realise that he doesn’t have to be defined by his family’s rules and it is possible for him to go after what he wants. At the end of season 2, when he makes that speech, he takes his first definite step away from his family, signaling to them that he will try to live his life on his own terms. 

And in season 3, we learn that this lead to the Queen having a breakdown. I know she always says it’s all about Erik, but she was dealing with that before and the only thing that has changed is that Wille has started standing up for himself. Now throughout season 3 Wille and his family are in a tricky situation: Wille collaborates with the royal court for his work as a prince and for his and Simon's safety, but he is completely on his own in his family. He receives help and support from Farima, not his parents. The Queen’s illness puts pressure on him to be ready for the crown, and at the same time no one in his family wants to really speak about it and when he meets his mother she pretends that everything is fine. Then even his belief in Erik is shattered, and he has to question the only thing he really held on to with his family: his brother and the ideal he represented, the responsibility he felt to continue Erik's legacy. All of this leads to the confrontation in episode 5, where he rightfully calls out his family for never supporting him throughout any of it. He literally yells at his father „I am your only son now. Can you see me?“ and tells Kristina that she is doing a shit job of both being a mother and the Queen. And they prove him absolutely right by just refusing to engage with him, and just leaving the room because they can’t handle the situation. 

So at the point we’re at now, Wille is the furthest away from his family he has ever been. He starts out sitting in between them when he gives his first speech after the fight at the club in episode 1. And he has become completely isolated from all of them by the end of episode 5 of season 3. Does that mean he will go one step further and turn down the responsibility of being crown prince and abdicate? I don’t know. But his journey throughout three seasons has definitely been going in that direction. He becomes more and more estranged from his family and has realised more and more that he can’t rely on them for emotional support, or rely on them to even just consider him in the decisions they make that affect his life. A part of me wants him to just get away from them and make his own way in the world. But another part also wants Kristina and Ludvig to step up and become the parents that Wille deserves and needs. 

[thebroadstreetdarling]

If you die, I’ll kill you.

So I was thinking about this line and you know that has some sort of significance for Yuji and Megumi, other than a cute comedic relief element to their relationship.

Which also made me think of -

“Start by saving me Itadori.” And the significance of that.

What if, Yuji does save Megumi and once again trades places with Sukuna in order for Megumi’s soul to be saved.

Yuji saves Megumi, in exchange for Sukuna finally getting full control and therefore Yuji actually dies because of his sacrifice.

It’s interesting to note that Kenjaku also makes mention of the cycle of Yuji living alongside Sukuna, which makes me think that Sukuna probably would just take over Yuji’s body again if desperate means called for desperate measures especially given that Yuji is so determined to save Megumi.

And then in that quiet moment, where Yuji is slowly drifting away as Sukuna takes over, Megumi does what he promised to always do and kills them both thereby making sure Sukuna doesn’t ever get full control of Yuji’s body, killing the king of curses and kills Yuji at the same time.

Gege, you fuck prove me wrong.

[happyk44]

Thoughts on poseidon children with siren powers?

I actually wrote a post featuring that! I think I may have mentioned it a couple other times? But, lol, that may have just been in my head.

But ultimately, yeah!! I think it would be really cool if the Big Three kids all had manipulating people's minds powers - partly to represent the fact that their dads are kings, and have a bunch of people/creatures tied to them/at their disposal and son. And also because I think it just makes them more OP. And also because I have endless ideas of many things and it's fun to fantasize.

With Hades's children, the ability to manipulate someone lies in the soul. Compared to Charmspeak, it irreversibly changes a person because it's not just a "suggestion" that people follow through on. It's literally taking their soul and changing it. There's no waking up and thinking "why did I do that?"

I actually came up with this concept years ago (like. over a decade. christ. the passage of time). It happened in a. Very convoluted daydream I've been writing and rewriting in my head since I was 12 - essentially one of Nico's older siblings from the wayback times protects him from an enemy by telling them, "You want to walk into the ocean and not stop."

And they do. They stop and walk away. This is their soul's greatest wish. So they walk into the ocean, they drown, and at no point, not as they walk across sand, not as they inhale water, not as they land in the waiting room of the Underworld, does that want change.

However, children of Hades typically do not like using this power because a) free will, b) they disagree with the idea of changing a formed soul, it would be different if they were desiccated/severely splintered and faded, and lacked any sense of consciousness, but forcibly editing someone's living soul is essentially rewriting someone's story and it fucks up their history, and personhood, and so on, and etc, and c) living souls are gross and they don't really like touching them if they don't have to.

I've written a couple things on it before - just flick through my PJO tag and I'm sure they'll pop up eventually 😂

With Zeus's children, the ability to manipulate someone lies in the concept that Zeus is a) king of Olympus, and b) the god of law and order, and justice. It works best in battle - giving orders to enemies to make them turn on their friends, forcing comrades at arms to become more efficient, to follow through instead of veering off course.

In casual, everyday stuff, it's more influential - sort of forcing their beliefs, their rules, their "law" on other people. Jason believes wholeheartedly in the laws of New Rome, and when he sees someone who isn't following a law to the letter, he can just be like, "Don't you think following your assigned patrol route is really great?" and other people will be like "yeah! it is great" and bing bang boom, suddenly they're following the patrol rouote and refusing to deviate no matter how much others may try to convince them to.

People who are more suggestible are more likely to fall under it faster. They may even by their internal rules completely rearranged by it, thereby unable to wake up/snap out of the control. I think this depends on intensity as well and it's probably far more exhausting to really force a permanent change, whether the person in question is super susceptible to suggestion. People who embody chaos are harder to control and more likely to snap out of it when they do fall under. I like to think children of Poseidon fall under that type because the ocean is chaotic. Dionysus's kids are likely the same way 😂

(Lol, imagine Zeus giving all his kids different orders and Dionysus just squints at him, fully "Father, I cannot express how hungover I am. Also I have this cocaine party I need to attend, so sorry, here's some bitching wine to make up for it" and Zeus is just pinching the bridge of his nose and counting to ten slowly because he does not have the energy for this rn)

The kids can also push their idea of justice on other people. Jason, aware that someone else in the cohort won't do execute the correct punishment, can simply harness that belief that this punishment is the correct thing to do (according to New Rome's laws, or even Jason's own beliefs), and say, "Cut off his hand", and that person will comply. They may awaken from it afterwards and be horrified, or, if they're not as suggestible, may even be aware that they're under Jason's control, but in the moment (even if they're aware), all they'll think is "this is the right thing to do".

Also, for me anyway, children of Hades and Thanatos are basically immune to it because laws and justice differ between life and death. This is something I adapted into my OG story, so ofc I'm happy to keep it in line w/ my PJO headcanons - but everyone else can play with these concepts as they want, don't worry.

I have also talked about this before - again, flick through the PJO tag and you will likely fall across something eventually

Now! Children of Poseidon, my beloved ocean, the clingiest bastard in the world, lol, (ofc including non-clingy Neptune in this as well, all of this is equivalent to the Romans). I think siren powers only work when they're in water. Typically they need some kind of body of water: river; lake; ocean; puddle if they're desperate, but it probably won't be as effective

The more skilled kids can utilize the water in the air to use this power, but most of them can't, and need something far more concrete, something they can plant their feet in, something they can feel.

The most basic and common use of the power, ofc, is the siren song - a melody, humming, singing actually lyrics to lure or distract the people in range. Most use this in order to distract enemies away from their friends, or to lull them into a stupor for an easier kill.

Other uses of the power: mind-control (similar to Charmspeak, the more suggestible the person, the longer it lasts after the user has left the body of water), empathic manipulation (being able to manipulate someone's feelings through the use of your voice), sonic scream (Zeus's kids can probably do this too, but it's not part of their version of a manipulation power). There are probably other uses but I'm blanking rn. All I can think of is the fourth PotC movie with the mermaids and how nice that song was 😊 🎶 "my jolly sailor bold" 🎶

I think kids, like Percy, who are naturally tone deaf tend to have a far harder time using this power, much less mastering this. Daughters have an easier time mastering it (since sirens are typically depicted as woman - there were male sirens according to Wikipedia, but they faded out of art around 5BC).

And yeah! I think that's it. Oh, actually, I wrote something a long while ago (you will have to scroll quite a bit to find it, or check out my blog's archive? It's probably in 2021 or 2020?), where Nico does a similar thing, singing softly to entice souls that have fallen to the ocean to come to him. In the story, it's implied that the intensity of his song hits Percy's living soul, causing him to want to go with Nico. I think this is something for all the Hades's kids, Nico is just best at it because - in my headcanons anyway - he is most attuned to souls.

Emerged from the idea of Hades walking through a forest in the early days after the war, singing the lullabies he used to sing to his younger siblings, and souls emerging from wherever they've hidden themselves - in the dirt, in caves, in the trees, behind bushes, refusing death - to take his hand and let him walk them home.

Aaaaaaand that should be it! :) Thanks for the ask! This was fun to ramble about 😂

[talkethtothehandeth]

In Mormonism when a Black person (who automatically has “the mark of Cain” to show that they are being punished for their father’s sins; part of that punishment is having dark skin) is considered unholy and will only be pure when they die, and when they die they will turn white and their curse will be lifted because they’re finally free from their sins (after they repent in spirit purgatory). And they were banned from the priesthood and marriage sealings (if you get married in the temple you and your spouse will be bound by the holy spirit to live with your forever family; if you have kids they will be baptized to ensure they are part of the Forever Family, and if you never ever stray from the Iron Rod throughout your life that is heavily controlled by a book written by a man who had literal child brides and was perpetuated and enforced by Brigham Young) who later spread to the prophets, you know, the guys who have a phone with god on speed dial and can talk directly to him and relay what he said to do and encourage enforce these commandments otherwise were either going to hell or spirit prison, then you should be fine.

I need you to understand I am not joking when I say something outlandish like that when it comes to the cult— if you know anything about LDS especially FLDS you’d understand why I’m not saying religion

Alma 3:6-9

6 And the skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a acurse upon them because of their transgression and their rebellion against their brethren

7 And their brethren sought to destroy them, therefore they were cursed; and the Lord God set a amark upon them

8) And this was done that their seed might be distinguished from the seed of their brethren, that thereby the Lord God might preserve his people, that they might not amix and believe in incorrect traditions which would prove their destruction.

9) And it came to pass that whosoever did mingle his seed with that of the Lamanites did bring the same curse upon his seed.

So if y’all are gonna search up this cult, don’t do it just based on the website that is meant to be welcoming to bring people in. You’re literally put on two year missions to talk about god and bring people to convert. You’re expected to be married young and have many children, the wife is the subordinate and submissive to the husband (which we had classes about) and the young women are set to babysit the leader’s children and learn how to be a mom, while the young men get to go outside and do things the ladies weren’t meant to do.

Research the dirty things that the church my name still unfortunately sits with, read the part of where disabled people are wrong and unholy, read the part where slavery is encouraged, read the fucking book of mormon that states blatantly how to be the perfect person who is ultimately confined to a set of rules that isn’t just “obey god and love one another”

“But just because you had a personal experience doesn’t mean all Mormons are bad” I’m not saying that. What I am saying is that the Mormon church was built, founded and run by horrible people and their beliefs that they wrote and still being followed by people now. The Mormon church isn’t the sole cause of these actions that are spread in religion, but as a collective? The church proves itself over and over that you’re meant to be obedient or else. You are never good enough for god, you have to prove it every day that you are worthy. There are different levels for heaven, three levels, depending on how good you are. It isn’t just a religion. The foundations of the LDS church were built surrounding these ideas and it needs to be talked about and not in the watered down way either.

[hellomisst]

I'm never moving on from The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

The angst. The yearning. Incredible.

Adeline LaRue was a young girl from a small town dreaming of a world bigger than what she sees. Then, out of desperation, she made a deal with the devil.

Or is he the devil?

“I am not some genie, bound to your whim." He pushes off the tree. "Nor am I some petty forest spirit, content with granting favors for mortal trinkets. I am stronger than your god and older than your devil. I am the darkness between stars, and the roots beneath the earth. I am promise, and potential, and when it comes to playing games, I divine the rules, I set the pieces, and I choose when to play. And tonight, I say no.”

And so her wish of freedom was granted... with a price. She has all the time in the world to enjoy life and to not be bound by anything. Being unbound, then, means no one would remember her. Such is the price when you make a deal with the gods that answer after dark but you do not know what you want and you do not clear up your own conditions, rules, and limitations.

Spoilers past this line.

Addie named Luc, and by doing so, she humanized him.

I CANNOT MOVE ON from their dynamic. For years, decades, centuries, no one can remember her. No one can mention her name, not even Addie herself. Only Luc who has been taunting her, pushing her to give up her life.

Now, let me clear this up: I DO acknowledge that the power dynamics between them play a huge role in their relationship. Her craving love and attention stemmed from the fact that no one else can know her deeply enough to create a legitimate human connection, affection, and relationship. Thus, her growing feelings for Luc became inevitable. Luc had full control over her and her life, while all she wanted was freedom to live. With this, let me expressly say that I fully understand and support Addie's scheme in the end (...but I cannot deny that I'm rooting for Luc once and for all admitting defeat, and Addie and Luc having a healthy relationship 😭).

OKAY. So. WHEN THEY STARTED FLIRTING??? I KEPT WANTING TO THROW THE BOOK TO THE WALL!!! Like, DAMN!!! WHY CAN'T Y'ALL JUST BE TOGETHER???? Luc's rizz is undeniable as fuck. And Addie's stubbornness mixes well with his smoothness, thereby successfully intoxicating me.

Luc lifts his glass. "Happy anniversary, my Adeline." She looks at him, lips parting with their usual retort, but then stops short. If she is his—then by now he must be hers as well. "Happy anniversary, my Luc," she answers, just to see the face he'll make. She is rewarded with a raised brow, the crooked upturn of his mouth, the green of his eyes shifting in surprise.

Now, I know that when she was with Henry, they were really healthy. Sure, even Addie does not know if it was love or if it was all just because he was the first human to ever see her as she is. I thought they would be together and overcome Luc's deals. But no.

Even then, Luc can really sweep you off your feet. One thing I hate is how they blame Luc for everything. He is the darkness. In our current world, he is what we call the devil. Of course he is an opportunist. Of course he would always take the upper hand. The bad side of their deal came up because they would not look into the intricacies of the deals they are making. I also acknowledge that Luc always comes in times when one would not really be in the right mind to make a serious deal... so there's that.

BUT. The angst really comes in to take over you. It was chapters in the making. It's a slow burn you wouldn't notice

"You told me once that we were alike," he says, almost to himself. "Both of us... lonely. I loathed you for saying it. But I suppose in some ways you were right. I suppose," he goes on slowly, "there is something to the idea of company." It is the closest he has ever come to sounding human. "Do you miss me," she asks, "when you are not here?" Those green eyes drift up, the emerald even in the dark. "I am here, with you, more often than you think." "Of course," she says, "you come and go whenever you want. I have no choice but to wait." His eyes darken with pleasure. "Do you wait for me?" And now it is Addie who looks away. "You said it yourself. We all crave company." "And if you could call on me, as I call on you?" Her heart quickens a little. She does not look up, and that is why she sees it, rolling toward her on the table. A slim band, carved of pale ash wood. It is a ring. It is her ring. ... "Put it on, and I will come." Luc leans back in his chair, the night breeze blowing through those raven curls. "There," he says, "Now we are even."

The way my stomach erupted with butterflies! The slow confession. The subtle dropping of hints of their feelings here and there. Everything keeps you on your toes. "Will they or will they not? Is there something or not?"

"At least he keeps me company." Those emerald eyes trail over her skin. "So would I," he says, "if you wanted it."

And so I was kept thinking. Will Luc ever confess? Will Addie ever... agree to it? Accept it? Forgive him?

What's been keeping them apart is the fact that Addie sees Luc as the devil. As the one who made her life miserable. Which is true, to be fair. So I won't ever blame her. Trauma is there and they are bonding.

Like I said, I understand Addie and I understand that there's power play here. Her walls are up, she keeps her guards up, she's hostile towards him, and she's very suspicious because he does not play fair. He never did. But then he started to open up. He started equalizing their position and power.

From what I understand, throughout time, Addie became less and less human, and she learned to hate more and more because the only one who became constant in her life is Luc. On the other hand, Luc became more and more human, and he learned to love and understand more and more because (probably) the only person he has ever spent time with constantly is Addie.

THEN.

"Even if everyone you met remembered," Luc says, "I would still know you best." She searches his face. "Do I know you?" He bows his head over hers. "You are the only one who does." ... His voice, molded to the hollow places in her as he says, "I want you." And then, again, "I have always wanted you." Luc looks down at her, those green eyes dark with pleasure, and Addie fights to hold her ground. "You want me as a prize," she says. "You want me as a meal, or a glass of wine. Just another thing to be consumed." He dips his head, presses his lips to her collarbone. "Is that so wrong?" She fights back a shiver as he kisses her throat. "Is it such a bad thing..." His mouth trails along her jaw. "...to be savored?" His breath brushes her ear. "To be relished?"

I SCREAMED. Internally. BUT IF I WAS LIVING ALONE, I SWEAR TO GOD. If I didn't care about the book and if it wasn't so expensive (fuck inflation), I WOULD'VE THROWN THIS TO THE WALL SCREAMING.

Anyway, Addie's stronger than me because I would've fallen for him and his tactics over and over again...

"I love you." They are in New Orleans when he says it, dining in a hidden bar in the French Quarter, one of his many installations. Addie shakes her head, amazed the words do not turn to ash in his mouth. "Do not pretend that this is love." Annoyance flashes across Luc's face. "What is love, then? Tell me. Tell me your heart does not flutter when you hear my voice. That it doesn't ache when you hear your name in my lips." "It is my own name I ache for, not your lips." The edge of his mouth curls up, his eyes now emerald. A brightness born of pleasure. "Once, perhaps," he says. "But now it's more." She is afraid that he is right.

I TOLD YOU????? BUT. Does that mean... that is how Luc feels when Addie says his name... when he hears Addie's voice...?

BUT. It also means Addie already feels something. Again, it might be because he's the only constant thing in her life. He's the only one who remembers and that's because he made it that way. But, he did offer to change the terms... Only that there was a misunderstanding because of everything that has happened and how she understands he, and his actions, works.

In the end, Addie's suspicions are justified. Sad for Luc, yes, but Addie has been suffering and it's because of him. If he can change—if he's willing to change—and he grants Addie's freedom with no consequences, no strings attached, and Addie gets to choose her own life in her own terms and who she wants to be with, then maybe when she chooses Luc, it can be healthy...

"I will give you what you want," he says. "If you will do one thing." "What?" she asks. Luc holds out his hand. "Dance with me," he says.

This part was very sad for me. It was clear that Luc has real feelings for her, yet Addie can no longer trust. Damage has been done. Their lines intersected, and from here, they'll only grow apart... Not physically, but emotionally.

But I think it's fitting. Luc is not human, though he is growing more human. Addie is human, but she is becoming more scheming... less human. They really cannot be together because Luc will always hold power and Luc is (or was?) manipulative. And Addie cannot find it in her to trust him again. Though Luc might change, to Addie, he is only the devil. And that is justified (though sad).

"What a hard lesson it must be for you," she says. "That you can't have everything you want." "Want?" he sneers. "Want is for children. If this were want, I would be rid of you by now. I would have forgotten you centuries ago," he says, a bitter loathing in his voice. "This is need. And need is painful but patient. Do you hear me, Adeline? I need you. As you need me. I love you, as you love me." She hears the pain in his voice.

Before we continue, may I just say one thing. LUC ALWAYS CALLS HER "ADELINE". Not "Addie" but "Adeline". And I think that means something.

Addie has always wanted to be "Addie", the name Estelle gave her. Since before, she did not want to be "Adeline". But, as she lived her immortal life, she kept wanting to go back to her old life. She yearned to be remembered again, even if it meant being tied down... But then she kept remembering she never wanted to be married and to just stay there forever. So even if she kept yearning for her life as "Adeline", she would still always want to be "Addie".

And Luc... calls her "Adeline". Easy explanation: Luc always says that she's always been his. That's because she traded her soul for freedom. This means she is really his, her whole being and life, whether as "Adeline" or "Addie"; but her birth name is "Adeline", and so her real, purest, and barest being is "Adeline". "Addie" came from "Adeline", whether it's just her name or her being.

But in my head: Being "Adeline" is being home, and Luc offered her just that :))

Another interpretation in my head (sad): Luc only sees her and/ or he keeps her as her former self, when Addie wants to be "Addie" aka free. He keeps her as "Adeline", the person who was desperate and in need, when she wants and needs to be "Addie", a person who is free. Thus, Luc is the shackles that hold her back from being free; they had a deal and she is still bound to him. As long as she is kept within a deal, she can never be free. Addie has to be free from Luc to be truly free.

"They can have the story," he says. "So long as I have you."

The ending. Henry did not have a happy ending with Addie because Addie is now with Luc. Yet, in the book's ending, Addie is scheming to make Luc hate her so that he would (unintentionally?) set her free, based on the new deal they had.

Should her plan work, then it will be true to her character: stubborn as a rock, and only wanting freedom. By extension, it highlights her true freedom as no man will ever own her or have her; fitting as she wanted to escape marriage long ago.

However, let us remember that The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, in the book, was written by Henry... and he never knew the true ending. Of what happened to Addie. Where she is. How she is now with Luc. How she and Luc treat each other. So we can also interpret that as Henry attempting to make a good and open ending for Addie :))

For me, I'll try to think and think about this because I'm clearly never moving on!! Maybe Luc can change and Addie can accept that. Maybe not. Maybe she will be free but Luc will still try to pursue her. Maybe after a long time, she can realize that he really has changed. Maybe they can be together. Maybe not because they have been toxic.

Who knows :))

[sir-adamus]

Across the Spider-Verse is doing something interesting with its challenging of destiny or ‘the way things are supposed to be’

Miguel is insistent on these ‘canon events’ being immutable constants in the multiverse, but also these ‘events’ are portrayed in an incredibly vague way so they can be applicable to every Spider (and even then, Maguire Spidey never had a connection with a captain or a meaningful relationship with Gwen Stacy) and it seems like the fear of losing is what has been used to browbeat the Spider Society into following his mindset - but that’s the thing, the fear of the apparently inevitable is what made it inevitable (and as we saw in the ‘verses visited in this film, ‘canon’ events can be disrupted and the universes won’t collapse - Miles’s has been going for over a year after him becoming Spider-Man, Pavitr’s universe doesn’t collapse in on itself after Miles saves Inspector Singh, a building just falls into a rift that was already consuming it because the Spot made that rift by activating the collider. and Gwen’s dad quits being a cop, thereby saving his life and yet, Earth-65 still spins on. hell, Earth-42 never got its Spider-Man and is still going, even if it is a dark edgy dystopia. hell, Miles’s influence is outright stated to be the reason Mayday was even born and yet Miguel doesn’t treat her like an anomaly despite the fact that she by definition has to be a disruption of Peter B’s canon)

Miguel’s mindset is inherently flawed (if there’s a way things are supposed to be, then nothing would ever happen in a way it shouldn’t - Ohnn should never have been able to yoink the spider out of Earth-42 into 1610 for it to bite Miles in the first place) and is likely a result of him projecting, he’s trying to conflate replacing a dead alternate version of himself and inserting himself into that alternate version’s life and family (on a metatextual level, trying to stick himself in a position where his story can’t continue because he’s happy and fulfilled, by stealing someone else's happy ending, which is also really fucked up) and that reality then collapsing, with anyone trying to deviate from what he sees as the set ‘path’ (because if he can frame it as an undeniable fact of reality then the only thing he’s guilty of is ignorance - it’s not entirely his fault that that universe collapsed, it’s just the way reality works)

and then he creates a society of Spider-people who he convinces that these ‘canon’ events are inevitable, undeniable and have to happen - they’re railroaded on a set path and are too scared of what might happen, what else they might lose, to challenge it, but what you end up with is an angry authoritarian control freak at the top of the ladder deciding who lives and who dies, imprisoning people for challenging him, and forcing everyone to live by the rules he’s arbitrated (as a result of a sunk cost fallacy he outright admits to right before he meets Miles "I've come too far"). which all presents a couple themes:

1) ‘you can’t save everyone’ - true, they’re not gods. but just because they can’t doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try. they’re supposed to be heroes, they’re supposed to be the good guys - if they’re not trying to save everyone then why are they even wearing the mask? what’s the point of being Spider-Man if they’re not trying? they shouldn’t get to pick and choose who to save, especially when someone’s telling them to. Spider-Man is supposed to be the friendly neighborhood hero who protects the people, not an arbitrator of the status quo for the multiverse at large

Miles was embodying Spider-Man more than anyone else in the Spider Society when he ran away to try and get back to 1610 and save his dad, and his constant challenging of Miguel’s mindset is what leads to the others - Gwen and Peter B especially - questioning what they’re doing and some eventually defecting

2) ‘X is supposed to die’ is a really big slippery slope. that mentality devolves into ‘we only save the ‘right’ people’ - again, they’re not supposed to be making the call on who lives and dies. and Hobie clearly saw that before anybody else did (and was trying to stealthily teach the younger Spiders that), which is why he shows exactly zero respect to Miguel’s authority and quits

there's a reason Miles' entry to the Spider Society has him riding the ascending elevator upside down - mirroring his rising in the first film, here he's descending into hell itself. and the place looks like a supervillain lair after the fight and the veneer has come off. Hobie was just the first to see it, but no one took him seriously

"We're supposed to be the good guys."

but back on the destiny thing - Miles refuses to resign himself to the seeming inevitable, challenging both Miguel’s mindset and the Spiders who have bought into it, and on a meta level, the idea that every adaptation of Spider-Man has to follow the same general story beats note for note, and is instead determined to do his own thing, tell his own story, and the film has laid the foundations (retroactively from even ITSV) to show that Miles is right; all the things he’s blamed for by Miguel are the result of the actions of others (Ohnn and Octavius), with the only actual impact Miles has had on the multiverse at large has been a net positive overall (Gwen would’ve likely stayed closed off forever until her dad died, Peter B would’ve never reconciled with MJ and had Mayday, and Miles’ defiance of Miguel causes the formation of a group of Spiders that are determined to do the right thing - Miles makes the lives he touches better) while also shaking the foundations of the ‘canon’ Miguel ascribes to because there is no predestined order of things

the fact that any of this has happened at all is proof of that

[nikkiitalks]

The Reason why porn bots follow you

“Oh I got a new follower... oh no, wait, it’s just another fucking porn bot”

 Does this sound familiar? Let’s take a look at this world of annoying porn bots and why they are so prevalent and what’s the point of them? For this post I found an interview of someone who ran some of these bots and explains why it happens, how, and why they probably won’t be going anywhere soon.

The first thing you may be wondering is... what is the point of a porn bot to begin with? The answer... Clicks. They post links, be it to a website full of ads, video or live sex work chat services, products, and on the rare occasion, viruses. Do people actually click the link from the porn blogs? The answer? Yes. Yes they do. Not nearly as much as years past, but they do still click on them and these people are the reason we still see so many bots here, and why we’ll continue to see them. Why do those clicks matter? They make the bot owner money, of course. 

Back in the magical years before people were spammed constantly by bots, actual users of tumblr in their thousands would be driven to these blogs by automatic follows, building up the bots followers and leading to more clicks on the links they’d usually post under their pictures. The owners of these bots usually have several across Tumblr with the entire goal of getting attention. If they follow, like posts and DM users then there is a chance that their profile will be seen and their links will catch someone’s interest.  

“I think I had about 200 tumblrs under my control at the time. I bought a popular bot that was marketed, plugged the account in, and the bot did the rest. It posted, followed, liked and reblogged. I can’t remember the exact number but I followed around 200 blogs a day per account and pretty quickly, and pretty quickly I started seeing activity on my account. At least that the peak I had over 70k followers on my biggest account. Why did I stop doing it? Well it got too crowded. It was good while it lasted.”

This guy didn’t even think he was the biggest bot manager on the platform, either. There’s every chance there was people running thousands of accounts with millions of followers back in the day. We’ve all seen their posts with the links beneath or in a post, but that wasn’t necessarily their main goal back then. Some time ago, Google changed some things to help their search rankings, using how often a specific webpage is mentioned by others to improve their rankings. So, every time someone liked or reblogged a porn bot’s posts it created a new link back to the porn bot manager’s website and thereby boosting their Google search rankings. 

Both Google and Tumblr got smart to this and changed things and now this is no longer the go to for these bot managers. Nowadays it’s all about those links, and the clicks they can get on them and it’s now DMs getting targeted the most, as it’s a much more personal way of interacting with blogs and baiting users for those sweet, sweet clicks. Usually to a porn site filled with ads. 

Why do they want clicks? Moola of course. Those dollar dollar bills. That cold, hard. cash. How they make that green depends on where their links lead back to.

If it’s a porn site just painted with annoying ads, the owner of that site generally makes a cut (talking fractions of a cent) whenever someone visits their shady site. Now take that fraction of a cent and multiply it by thousands of clicks and the bot/site manager could really rake it in. And that’s not even counting if they have pay-to-view content that actually gets paid for. We’re talking porn, cam girls, etc. 

The most surprising were for people who’s goal was to actually start live conversations with people, either directly or through a link to a chat. These people fall in or near the category of romance scammers. Real people on the other side of the chat who’s sole purpose is to get money out of the victim who clicked the link. Often times building trust before they start asking for money. Needing help with rent, food, or even travel expenses to ‘come and see’ their victim. For cons like these, sometimes all it would take would be one click for the scammer to make significant money.

“These conversations were all psychological. We very specifically targeted people who looked like they had money. We didn’t want to hurt anybody or take money from anyone who really needed it. In some ways we were giving people companionship and nudes. The experience felt real. In retrospect, I do feel guilty.” 

The general consensus by those who had been interviewed, was that porn just wasn’t profitable on tumblr anymore and that people are much more educated on bots. So... why doesn’t tumblr just ban them?

Despite the previous porn ban, Many of tumblr’s most popular search terms are sexual, along with many of their most popular Google search terms. Banning the porn bots now that the nudity ban has been lifted, would mean less traffic to the site. Because, despite their annoying  and sometimes dangerous nature, they do bring in traffic, something Tumblr probably desperately needs these days. Bots look like real users to statistics until they’re flagged as bots. 

In my opinion, it’s a mixture of the overwhelming number and speed in which these bots are created, as well as the implied inflation to tumblr usership, is the reason we’re not seeing much done about them. 

If people, like EVERYONE, stopped clicking on their links, they’d probably start to fall off the site, though that seems like an unlikely thing to happen, so I’m not holding my breath any time soon. Keep flagging and keep reporting as much as you can. If you had twitter, tweet at Tumblr staff constantly, until they block you even. If we’re loud enough, maybe they’ll do something. Even if it’s just because we fucking annoyed them into doing it. 

I know it’s tempting just to say fuck it, and ignore them and their follows. I know it SUCKS having to report dozens of them a day, but in the end we’d be doing our part in helping to clean up the platform we all still know and are still attempting to love despite all the BS. Remind your followers NEVER to click a link sent by a blog you’re not 100% is a real person. Remind them often and loudly, because having no one click their links at all, may be the only way to truly get them to stop. 

Love you, Tumblr fam. Stay safe out there.

[dnangelic]

i had random tabs open and only just now looked over this dialogue again. manisumea dialogue lowkey fucked up. the way dnangel manga canon ends is by dark leaving daisuke and returning to the kokuyoku with krad, thereby lifting the niwa and hikari family's curses n allowing them to live normal lives. but this dialogue (happening surrounding the topic of the niwa's mortality + dark's immortality) suggests smth like immortality for daisuke instead??? by he n dark's merging which can be in a healthy(healthier) or completely unhealthy way. i don't doubt that what happened with krad is what dark could do with daisuke, making daisuke a 'part of him' by swallowing his body up entirely and controlling it entirely for himself. only, dark has always desired for coexistence, so it's not his style compared to goading and tempting the niwa (like a creep) to become one with him instead. likewise the 'healthiest' option for dark n daisuke 'becoming one' would be a proper merge- the two of them quite literally becoming just one person. one of the major plot points of the manga IS dark n daisuke's merging even being disrupted by satoshi and krad. there's a lot of moral n philosophical pondering anybody could put into this but what tha hell satoshi might have known it (or at least figured out the sense of it) and stopped daisuke from fucked up magical girl phantom thief immortality by shooting his ass that one time

[plaindangan]

Mistletoe [Makoto x Kyoko]

Naegi is preparing decorations for Holliday season and brought help from Kyoko, they have a great day decorating the house, and they both have a nice, slurpy & sexy kiss under the God-Killer plant, as they both strip naked to fuck in the living room like the horndogs they are~

Disclaimer: R18 material! If not to your liking then please do not view!

It was a nice day at Makoto's home. December was here and that meant working into making his little home fit the theme of the season~ Though, given how 'unlucky' he can be - he thought it'd be wise to get his close friend, and crush, Kyoko to help him. Thankfully, he had asked on a slow day of her's and she was quick to assist him (maybe because she also had a crush on him~).

They had a great time hanging his Christmas tree, putting lights all over his house (Kyoko also saving Makoto from falling off his roof), preparing gifts for their friends and just have a nice time being together.

They were at it all day, so by the time they were done, it was nightfall and Makoto was beginning to see Kyoko out of his home.

"This has been a great day!! Come by tomorrow for cookie baking?" With a cool smile, Kyoko nodded her head. "Why, of course...but aren't you forgetting something?"

Makoto looked suprised and looked about, though didn't seem to notice anything unusual or recall anything amiss. "A-am I?"

To that, Kyoko silently pointed up and Makoto followed her finger - thereby seeing a mistletoe hanging right above his door. When was this put up? Did Kyoko-!!!

Before Makoto knew it, Kyoko grabbed him by his hood and drew him in for a long passionate kiss that had his stomach fluttering. A passion for this forward, strong, beautiful, alluring detective overtaking him and having him join in bringing just as much passion into his kiss~ As they liplocked for control, Kyoko closed the door and backed Makoto onto the couch. No one is seeing what happens next besides her~ They spent a lot of time today on that couch: cutting up decorations, gift wrapping, watching TV, eating lunch and now? As Kyoko was bare ass naked and riding his ever so strong 'Hope', and he was calling out her name in euphoria?

Both of them could say they fucked each other nice and long on that couch as well~

[scrawnytreedemon]

Back on my FFXIII-Capital-G-God bullshit.

[ramblings below the cut!]

Went ahead and decided to watch the final battle in JP. Good lord... Look, I am no judge of Japanese voice-acting, but I feel so much of the jank is amended with just that. Lightning's voice-work is wonderful in both version's; Vel's, however... Dear lord does his English work feel generic and forced— WHICH honestly makes sense, considering the script-changes.

Yuki Kaji, who voices Hope, does an excellent job on this guy. Divinity, eagerness, and adolescence all executed brilliantly. You really get the sense that this is a being way over his head, who, in desiring to eventually walk among humanity in the new, flawless world he created, took on the body of a teenage boy— Volatile feelings and all.

I've spoken about this before, but Bhunivelze is just... Goodness, he is at once deeply well-meaning but also horrendously authoritarian. World's ending due to an overflow of Chaos, Bhunivelze seeks to create a new world for all the worthy, living souls, and destroy the Chaos— Issue is, Chaos is the collective souls of the dead: a Lifestream to use FFVII terms. You destroy that, you destroy all those souls awaiting rebirth, and destroy the memories of those deceased in their loved-ones— Vel considers this a positive, because as a demiurge with hitherto no prior experience with emotions(except endless paranoia after tossing his mother's body in the cosmic basement oop--), he considers grief a needless suffering to be washed away in his new world.

Having built her up to be the new goddess of death in the wake of Etro's death, Bhunivelze challenges Lightning to a last match after she rebels against him. Their dynamic, by the way, is extremely romantically-charged in the JP— Teenage boy feelings do that to you. After a longass, multi-phased fight, Lightning, inevitably, defeats him...

And he goes full:

This bitch, to the surprise of everyone in the arena including himself, starts sobbing his fucking eyes out. Realising he has lost control of the situation, and will have no part in the world he created, brother starts feeling it all— Sadness, grief, anger —The whole shebang.

My guy, in Peak Teenage Boy Angst, declares his intent to cast Lightning out. This, of course, proves ineffectual, and also One of the Most Video Game Divorces of All Time™! She wasn't even married to him! This is a trainwreck; I am obsessed with their dynamic; what is wrong with hiiiiiim????!?!

I bet £100 fucking bucks this guy was scribbling their initials together with hearts in some cheap pink spiral-bound notebook, kicking his non-existent legs back and forth as he imagines their wedding day. I bet he signed his diary entries with her surname. I can't. I'm fucking losing it. This is like Sephiroth if he was so much more desperate aND SEPHIROTH IS DESPERATE AS F U C K LMAOOO

Lightning is not having any of it. She signed up to get her sister back, not whatever the fuck this is. Did I mention he ripped the vestiges of Serah out of her heart, thereby emotionally crippling her? This fucking tool thought it'd be all fine once the plan went through. God. Dear God. He has no idea what he's toying with.

The fact that they toned all this down to Evil God Wants To Turn Humanity Into Mindless Slaves makes me so mad on so many levels, but I also wholly know why they did it.

The fact that Bhunivelze is an essentially all-powerful God who, to the best of his abilities, is genuinely sympathetic and loving, reiterating this time and time again, and yet not only despite but because of this fails in his role as a caretaker as he is unable, and unwilling to stoop down to humanity's level and engage with them on their own needs and terms, instead opting to follow his plan on crafting a utopia that would gut them of their memories and negative emotions struck a little too close for Western localisers.

Religion is a hot-button issue.

Far better to turn him into another cold, unrelatable Lucifer-like. Someone without love or care, who takes only to fuel his own arrogance.

I've talked before in another post similar to this written, god, what? A year ago? —About how this examination of a loving yet ultimately distant and detached god struck a chord with me. The romantic character especially— Within my old church, the relationship between God and the Church, you and He was always illustrated as akin to a groom and his bride.

I completely understand Lightning's drive to throw off that.

No love is worth being hollowed out. Even with the promise of being filled again.

[caffeineandsociety]

The problem is way too many people either think - or know better, but want you to think - that the Venn diagram of shitty policy is like this-

When in fact it's like this-

Full overlap. It's not "American deaths OR non-American deaths, pick one", it's "so, you're watching and sharing control of a bus that's hurtling over a cliff, you have 5 minutes to choose - will it be better to crash it into a busy campground? Or through a hospital that will collapse ONTO the campground, a busy shopping center, a load-bearing pillar holding up a huge chunk of the densely populated city you live in, then finally an oil refinery, which will explode and run off into the water supply and pollute the planet for decades to come? There are allegedly third options, but none of them are actually viable if you're being even remotely honest with yourself, and there are a LOT of people who really want to do the latter for some reason already tugging on the wheel."

This is what we mean when we say that voting is damage control. It is not the be-all and end-all. It is to societal improvement as breathing is to staying alive - FAR from all you need, but one of the fastest ways to fuck yourself if you stop doing it, or worse, lose the power to do so. Which is a risk this cycle! Voter disenfranchisement is a big deal battleground tool of the far right! I'm always hearing cynical takes about how "if voting worked they'd make it illegal", but the counterpoint to that - if voting DIDN'T work, they wouldn't be trying to do exactly that; why else would 2023 have seen a near record number of voter restrictions proposed and enacted? Hell, why would January 6 have happened?

I want everyone who SERIOUSLY thinks "oh, we SHOULDN'T vote because BOTH parties are bad, and anyone who says otherwise doesn't care how many people die as long as they get theirs" to ask themself, as seriously as possible - how likely do you think it is that we'll have a functioning alternative system in, at the time of this writing, 9 months? What are you doing to achieve that goal? What will you do if Trump gets reelected and ramps up police activity to make even your keyboard activism enforceably illegal? Your entire existence? Because that's a big part of what they're trying to do! Do you realize that the system doesn't void the results if turnout is too low? That a significant contingent of right-wingers religiously - literally - vote for ANYONE running with an R on the ticket? Do you think abstaining - and thereby allowing that contingent to go uncontested - will save a SINGLE non-American life?

It won't.

Voting against that won't save the world, no, just like breathing won't save you if you decide to never eat or drink or move from your bed again, but if you DON'T do it, then be honest with yourself - you're fucked no matter what else you do or don't do.

Voting is to buy time so we CAN dismantle the system and rebuild it better, because one side wants to kill us all preemptively to fortify it.

[ichayalovesyou]

SNW & The Prime Directive

You know what I think I just realized why Children of The Comet is my favorite episode of Strange New Worlds so far!

It’s a direct “actually, no, Fuck You.” to the way that the Prime Directive gets treated after the century jump and probably why I prefer 2200s Trek in general.

I hate how much the Prime Directive gets deified as some unalienable and unbreakable religious mandate type shit. No law should be immune to addendum or extenuating circumstance or nuanced discussion.

Like, especially when it’s a situation where they’ve already been exposed to extraterrestrial life even if they weren’t “ready” for it (also I think it’s pretty goddamn high and mighty of Starfleet to think it has the right to decide when that is, an old vestige of how Humans were treated by the Vulcan High Command I’m sure).

The minute the Prime Directive started being used to justify extremely preventable genocide (WITHOUT directly interfering with the species political internal affairs or exposing Starfleet to them without needing to) was the minute I stopped being on board with it. Like, epidemics and wars and things within species (where no other outworlder parties are in play) are one thing, cosmic disasters and species already “contaminated” by extraterrestrial knowledge is another in my opinion.

The whole point of Children of the Comet is that the Enterprise can prevent a planetary genocide without the native aliens ever even knowing they were there. Save their lives without causing them to see the ship or it’s crew as gods. Influencing their survival but not their culture. Absolute minimum interference that ultimately prevented catastrophic genocide that was neither necessary or preordained by some sort of ‘cosmic plan’ (whatever that means).

Yet the Shepherds act like the planet’s destruction is preordained and that they (and the Enterprise) are somehow outside of The Arbitors of Life/Mahanit’s plan because they’re technologically (and/or idealogically) superior. Which turned out not to be the case as Mahanit’s intention was to give life to the planet with Spock’s help as it so happened.

I also think Pike makes the right choice in the pilot because it WAS Starfleet’s fault they could build a genocidal super weapon at all. Discouraging them from using it by giving them hope instead of giving the other side a Warp Bomb too. Thereby preventing a genocide that would’ve been Starfleet’s fault, albeit indirectly. Like Pike says “when elephant’s fight it’s the grass that suffers”.

We can’t always control when another culture gets influenced by us, but we can prevent them from killing themselves at the very least, might even have a responsibility to!

Which is why I think A Private Little War was smart in that things aren’t always as simple as “they can’t know about us”. That said, it’s also stupidly short sighted in saying an arms race was the best way to handle that situation (Vietnam allegory be damned). It shows off why the Prime Directive is needed but also needs room for nuanced protocol for complex situations.

That way there’s an actual standard when things aren’t black and white so that every captain doesn’t end up making a choice that puts an insane amount of unnecessary blood and burden on an individual captain’s hands (and it does happen to pretty much EVERY captain in every series).

I guess what I’m trying to say is that The Prime Directive shouldn’t operate as a moral binary and should instead have clauses within it for each specific (but reoccurring) circumstance each Captain faces regarding it so they stop running into the same lethal problems over and over and over again.