#this is up there with only europeans can colonise

[shotofstress]

"#bffr#You can't corrupt something that has always been corrupt#Quit trying to absolve Europeans of their bloodthirsty history" "#Did this all happen by magic?????"

No one forgets that usa is the child of the british empire and europe, but is stupid to think that usa is still part of europe. USA is now not the same as Europe in regards of cultural power specially.

Don't even speak about South America, we have suffer under the colonialism from all the wordl, not just western colonialism. And yet the colonial countries now don't have the power that USA has here. Don't dare to speak about us with ur "but usa is not the worst :C" shit.

You know how we call the 70s? the lost decade of South America bc USA DID GLADIO HERE WITH OPERATION CONDOR and destroyed our territories and cultures to a point in which its poison can't be eliminated. So shut the fuck up.

The western world has work together always even to this day to keep its supremacy over Global South and its own western territories, but GLADIO is a thing, you know. An the champion of patriarchy, capitalism, neoliberalism, and all the components of the imperialism is USA. The Empire is everywhere thaks to GLADIO and that you want to come here to say "but but usa is not worst than the british empire" is just ignorant and sounds like an attempt to portrait usa under this typical usa washing of "there is worst ppl than us u know".

Even the europeans see in their countries the damage that usa has done and keeps doing. Usa believes is a goddess and that every person that lives in usa thinks that they are the embodiment of that divinity they call America, even the so called leftist speak like a disgusting usa imperialist at their core.

The Empire has no limits and everyone under it has become and agent of usa imperialism. That u think ppl "forget" about european countries or other to "only" remember usa is so on brand with usa centric view of the world. U can even not be a gringo yet u speak like one.

Usa and its american civil religion is so usa that some years ago, for example, when fascist italians tried to make a branch of the KKK there it didn't work bc usa is a special type of poison. But now the world, even the europeans, has seen their countries be changed by USA imperialism and they reacted to it. USA is the one that explicitly for the last 100 years have tried to integrate even europe to it and it has succeded bc thats how the Empire works.

So the only one insulting the ones that all over the world has been killed and still are being kill by imperialism its you by being an ignorant of the delicate operations that have woven the current state of the world and of how the empire operates.

And while u try to say "but but The european colonialism..." (like asian imperialism or other hasn't or still doen't exist btw) USA is the one making Operation Condor in South America (and we can say that never stopped really). Evey time usa is in crisis and the so called leftists of the world say shit like "now its gonna fall" they of course forget how every single time usa has come to take everything from us and recover again. An all over again comes and asshole and say "u see, usa is not so bad have u see the europeans/south america/asia/africa?" like we don't fucking know what europe is capable of. But RIGHT NOW is about usa and its cultural power that even the europeans feel bc even they see how usa is trying to colonise it.

So when a fucking teen brings a gun to kill its classmates in a country that has no loving gun culture in any form unlike usa that even has kid size guns, who the fuck do u think is that culture huh? is us suffering from usa crap. This crap is not just happening in Global South and we all that doesn't have a yankee living in it brain can see is part of the usa imperialism and how has put in motion the rise of far right shit as well all over the world exploiting the countries own fears and hates.

"But- but weapons are not unique to usa" SHUT THE FUCK UP

the united states has been the only regime that has dropped atomic bombs, it is the only one that has dropped the most atomic bombs in all of history, it is the one that has caused the most radiation because of it, and yet usa continues to do what they want with their weapons, from their military to their ordinary citizens. No other country/regime in the world has mass murders perpetrated by civilians on a monthly basis like you do, no one else has school shootings like you do, no one else has serial killers, it's like it's a sport to you people. So shut up, yankee.

usa culture and its country must die.

americans are the most bloodthirsty, rabid, sick, depraved, disgusting, murderous, cancerous tumor on the planet. an 18 year old kid was murdered for ringing a doorbell and nearly every comment is like this. anyone pointing out you shouldn’t murder someone for ringing your doorbell regardless of the time of day are being shut down and called stupid. i hate this fucking timeline. everyone has turned into a fucking miserable monster who doesn’t even flinch at death.

[softness-and-shattering]

.

[elodieunderglass]

Horses are often referred to as prey animals, but what are their natural predators?

Any large grassland predator in the biome, including humans! This is an interesting question, though, because it takes in the axes of time and space. "Wild" horses, the ancestor of domestic horses, are currently extremely rare. The only existing ones in a wild state are Przewalski's horses, also called the Takhi or Mongolian Wild Horses, which live on the Mongolian steppe. Their "natural predators" in that environment would include wolves and snow leopards (which are themselves endangered). However, it isn't an entirely natural setup; they were reintroduced to their native habitat after becoming essentially extinct, through an incredibly complex and fascinating recovery project. In the spacetime pocket in which Earth has wild horses, that's the current state of play: wild horses live in Mongolia and are occasionally eaten by wolves, but are being preserved fiercely for the benefit of humanity.

Meanwhile, we do have things like Dartmoor ponies in England and mustangs in North America and Brumbies in Australia. Dartmoor ponies aren't eaten by anything and are considered feral in the sense that they're domestic animals that live wild, but more or less on purpose, with the moor being treated as a common for keeping ponies on, and the nominal owners can just grab one if they want one at any time. Mustangs are accidental colonists of the American West. They are preyed on by wolves, cougars, and other local large predators, but are not wild. they are feral because they're all descendants of European horses and honestly, if we aren't being sentimental about it, they're invasive.

North America has not had a native population of horses since humans arrived on the continent. The facts are often associated. It is commonly held that humans, upon arriving in America, ate the native horses all up. The typical line goes that "when the first humans populated North America, they were so greedy and invasive that they overhunted most of the local large mammals to extinction". but I personally - and in an unhinged I'm-allowed-to-randomly-hold-ONE-fringe-belief-that-I-Made-up-Myself way - don't like that narrative, and there might be evidence in oral myths indicating that First Nations people at least remembered contact with horses prior to European colonisation. At any rate, there aren't wild horses on that side of the planet any more. The mustang - the most classic "wild horse" in imagination - is not wild, but is currently preyed on by everything that WOULD have eaten the OG native horses of America, minus the large predators that have gone extinct since then (sabre-toothed tigers). Whether mustangs are a nice reintroduction that adds a missing element of Horf to the landscape, or agents of ecological devastation, is kind of up in the air. But they are regularly and routinely preyed upon by the same "natural predators" as the wild cousins would have been, albeit in lower numbers. Take-home message: to visualise how interactions of wild horses with predators and the environment would have looked, mustangs are a very good model.

Going back to the "time" element, human interaction has really decreased a lot of the "natural predators" of horses; they were once preyed on by a larger variety, diversity, and number of animals. In the pocket of spacetime when wild horses were common and had a large range, there also used to be a lot more things like hyenas in Europe and Asia. Here's a diagram showing the "prey animals" and "predators" of Pleistocene Europe. Horses are on the bottom shelf on the far right, at a lower opacity, to show they're "prey animals". You can see that there was a greater diversity of predator types, while today there are usually just Your Local Wolf and Your Local Big Cat.

But this diagram puts "people" as "prey animals" - and humans are traditionally The Natural Predators of horses. Looking at that diagram, you can see that the common, smallish-but-not-too-small herd animal, whose defenses are Having Friends and Being Fast, is a delicious-looking proposition. The spectacular depictions of cave horses in Lascaux are showing our kin, but they're also showing our food.

There is a very important Middle Pleistocene site at a lake in Germany called Schöningen 13II-4, with hominin remains dating back to 300,000 years ago (!!!!!) and it's called the Spear Horizon (for the incredibly well-preserved evidence of spears) but a common nickname is the Horse Butchery Site. One of the most ancient preservations of hominin behaviour, culture, skill, tool-making - their/our priorities, their/our methodology, their/our view of the world - is a narrative of eating horse meat. And the hominins at the Horse Butchery Site did it in a way that seems quite rapacious. Entire family groups of horses, coming to the lake to drink, would be butchered at once: Persistent predators: Zooarchaeological evidence for specialized horse hunting at Schöningen 13II-4 - ScienceDirect It seems like the hominins were killing a lot of horses and not using a lot of the meat, because they wanted fat, and horses don't have much of that.

At any rate, human-shaped people and horse-shaped horses have a very, VERY long history of us eating them. WE are their natural predators. And it makes sense. Humans and Equines are all social animals of relatively small sizes and have interacted with each other for an extremely long time. We have observed them, we know them, we grew up together. For quite a lot of that history, we had a simple relationship; we ate them. Now we much prefer to ride them.

Horses have not entirely forgotten this, but appear to have largely forgiven it.

[communistkenobi]

I’m also really enjoying Saw in this season of Andor because it feels like he’s the only character that isn’t just ripped from European accounts of revolutions and fascism. Like probably a broader critique of Andor is that for all its sophistication it is still doing the thing of like “Europe is the only place fascism happened” style engagement with history. Like Ghorman is clearly being positioned as the Empire scapegoating them as Jews (anti-Ghormanism is even used as a term in the show - pretty explicit!) despite the context being a colonial endeavour of resource extraction as opposed to domestic eradication programs of “internal foreigners,” which is what structures the ‘logic’ of modern antisemitism. And that is pretty different from colonial logics of dehumanising colonised peoples for the purposes of slavery/land clearing/ethnic cleansing etc to secure land and resources.

and like I’m not saying it’s bad to go that route automatically and it still works fine for the story, but there are many fascist forms of dehumanisation outside of antisemitism and you can easily find them by looking to the many histories of European colonies where fascist concentration camps were set up and dehumanising propaganda was the norm (such as what fascist Italy did in Libya). But Saw feels more like a mix of non-European revolutionary figures such as Castro and Black anti-colonial revolutionaries like Cabral so he particularly stands out in my opinion. And maybe this is an unfair level of expectation but I do remember Gilroy saying he drew inspiration from the bank robbery Stalin did as a young man for the Aldhani heist in S1, so I feel like I have heightened (and not entirely unwarranted) expectations re: the political content in the show. And there’s even precedent for this in SW anyway given that George Lucas said he based the rebels in the OT on the Vietcong

[vigilskept]

gnashing my teeth thinking about how veilguard talks about the gods only as a joke when they could've gone somewhere truly crazy.... you're so right.

Yeah... you get it. It's just such a missed opportunity!

I don't even mind the jokey tone they use a lot of the time, because we all joke about things we struggle to understand/cope with.

Except Veilguard refuses to let you even try to broach the subject beyond that surface level. In fact, when it does let you engage with it at all, it manages to make things even less nuanced!

I'm just going to talk about Bellara's quest here since it's the most directly linked with the elven gods, and it's already a lot. Fundamentally, her companion quest is asking us two things:

Should elves be blamed for the actions of the Evanuris?

Should they preserve any of their past at all?

The first one is absurd to even begin with. It's not even a good or interesting take on the (very christian!) question: "Are we responsible for the sins of our ancestors?"

The Evanuris are not the ancestors of modern elves. Dalish religion implies that modern elves descend from those who the rebels never freed from slavery to the Evanuris.

This setup is already awful without looking at any of the parallels Bioware has (intentionally) drawn between the elves of Thedas and Jewish/Indigenous people. I have to put the rest of this under the cut because I genuinely don't think it can be shortened without making it sound flippant. In the context of the coding of the elves, the theological/social implications of all of this are so much worse.

TLDR: the indigenous/jewish coding of the elves makes bioware's treatment of elven religion in veilguard thoughtless at best, cruel at worst. they did not have to write themselves into this corner. there was a way of handling this lore reveal without the implication of elven religion (again, jewish/indigenous coded) being obsolete

So, the religion of the Dalish was part of their enslavement. It's the belief they were forced into by the cruel gods they are still devoted to. That's already pretty bad. How could it get worse, you might wonder?

Whether Bioware deviated from their initial inspirations for the elves or not, the implications for these lore reveals in light of those parallels are particularly cruel. Those two core questions in Bellara's quest? Yeah. Those have both been levied against the oppressed groups that Bioware chose to draw inspiration from. Both historically and presently. To justify atrocities against them.

And to be clear, Bioware does not deviate from or subvert the usual indigeous and jewish-coding of the elves in their writing here. If anything, they end up actively endorsing a very significant element of antisemitic and anti-indigenous sentiment.

Indigenous-Coding

Advocates of colonisation have always justified it by arguing they were 'saving' groups of people who were stuck in the past. They had been ‘left in the dark’ through ignorance of Christianity. In the more secular sense, this was framed as Europeans having journeyed through history to reach enlightenment, while the rest of the world was still in an ‘uncivilized’ state.

Christianity and progress had to be brought to these people to save their souls and bring them into the future with everyone else. Their Gods? There were only two possible ways to frame those. Either they were not real at all, or they were evil. Either way, they were obsolete.

In the Americas, these arguments were still used when corralling indigenous children into residential schools or tearing them from communities through the adoption system. Governments pushed the idea that they had to be forced to assimilate because they were 'backward' in their practices and beliefs.

In the settler-colonial state Canada, where Bioware is based, it's still common enough to hear people justify all of this as having been done "for their own good." Even those who admit that the ways colonization was perpetuated were cruel will still try to defend it by telling you, "it was bad, but their ancestors weren't saints either."

Sounding painfully familiar yet? A little uncomfortable in the context of Bellara's questline?

Jewish-Coding

Since the dawn of Christian Church, Jewish people have had a very fraught place in Christian theology. Christianity claims that that the coming of the messiah in the person of Jesus Christ makes the religion of Judaism obsolete. Christians believed the obvious answer to this problem was that Jewish people should convert.

When many did not, they were labeled as ignorant, obstinate, stuck in the past. They were so focused on their history that they couldn't see the truth which had been revealed in the present. There’s a significant legacy of this idea in Christian artwork with depictions of Synagoga blindfolded next to the clear eyed Ecclesia. You still hear echoes of this sentiment in antisemitic language today.

As for the nature of the Jewish God... there is some deviation here. For some Christians, He is God the Father, and He is good. For others — and this idea has been around from early Christianity till now — He is the Creator of the material world, but He is evil.

There are innumerable variations of Christian gnosticism that probably wouldn't be productive to get into on a Dragon Age Blog. What I need to underline here though, is that the idea of the Old Testament God as the devil/the demiurge/fundamentally evil, has been used to justify atrocity towards Jewish people for over a thousand years.

Should elves be blamed then? For the sundering of the Titans? For the Veil? For the Blight? For the evils of this world, created by their Gods?

Implications for Veilguard

Not only is religion in Dragon Age: The Veilguard often devoid of nuance or ignored outright, when the game does engage with it at all, it does so in a way that quite literally draws on these incredibly harmful antisemitic and anti-indigenous sentiments that have been (and still are) used to perpetuate real harm.

To be clear, I don't think the writing here intends to endorse the idea that elves should be blamed for any of what's going on. Bellara's anxieties are being projected onto her people as a whole while she grapples with what this all means for her, I get that. In fact, you could be generous and read some of this as a critique of this particular kind of anti-indigenous/jewish bigotry.

However, I don't think that absolves the writers of any of the implications they've created by confirming that the elven pantheon did exist and was canonically evil.

Elements of Dalish/elven culture might be preserved after all this, but the conclusion the game railroads you into is that their religion is obsolete. Just like Judaism. Just like the many Indigenous religions around the world. Except in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, it’s no longer just the bigotry of outsiders claiming that to be the case. It’s now the objective truth of the setting.

Going forward, the elves of Thedas can keep their culture, but they can’t practice their religion. If they continued to practice, they would be framed the way the Venatori are: evil and stuck in the past. This really can’t be overstated: this is the exact rhetoric that has justified centuries of violence and oppression of Jewish and Indigenous people. This rhetoric is still around and still weaponized.

It’s so cruel to create an in world ‘lineage’ that draws so heavily from their cultures and histories, then validate the rhetoric that has been used to hurt them. At best, it’s thoughtless. But as a company based in a settler-colonial state, this is something they should’ve put thought into, given that they chose to code their elves and Jewish and Indigenous. That was their responsibility, actually.

What gets me about all this is that they actually didn't need to force that conclusion at all. They could have kept the Evanuris as cruel tyrants without demonising the Creators and their worship at the same time.

The Evanuris weren't always Gods. They weren't even always rulers.

In Trespasser, when asked how they became Gods, Solas tells Lavellan that they did so slowly. That it started with a war. That fear bred a desire for simplicity. For right and wrong. For chains of command. That generals became respected elders, then kings, and finally gods.

Veilguard confirms all of this. The addition it makes is that before all this, the first elves were spirits who made their bodies out of the Titans. This all occurred over the course of thousands of years.

None of this needs to be retconned in order to allow for a respectful yet nuanced portrayal of religion!

TLDR pt2: bioware, u could’ve avoided literally ALL of this by making the evanuris part of a priestly class who seized power after the war with the titans. it wouldn’t even have undermined ur lore! u could’ve kept dalish religion alive! u could’ve implied complex political dynamics for your ancient elves without even having to write it! why didn’t you even try?

Trying to Fix This Mess

Say the elves took their bodies from the Titans and settled the lands of Thedas. Say the Titans even allowed this for a time. The dwarves were made from their own bodies after all.

Yet the elves didn't have the same connection with the Titans as the dwarves did. They had no stone-sense, so they couldn't understand the Titans' song.

Generations down the line, some of them took too much from the Titans. More than they were willing to give. That was when the Titans lashed out, making the earth tremble so that all the elves had built crumbled beneath them.

And what if the firstborn among the elves had taken up priesthood to guide the younger ones. They were closer to spirits than the elves that were born into this world, and so the younger ones looked to them for guidance. Maybe they were the ones who were trusted to reach out to the more powerful of the spirits who chosen stay in the Fade, their old kin who preferred to keep their distance from the physical world to preserve the essence of what they were. The spirits of Justice, of Benevolence, of Craft. Those who the elven people paid homage to, and trusted to preserve them in turn.

So when everything seemed to fall apart, the elves turned to their Keepers, their priests, and asked of them what they ought to do. How could they make the earth stop shaking? What would they have to do to be at peace again?

Whatever the spirits themselves may have responded, many of the Keepers (among them the Evanuris) took up arms and chose war. They saw it could be won so they fought, sundering Titans from their dreams and stilling the land.

And yet there was no peace.

Some Keepers sought to hold on to their power as generals, and wanted to wage war on new shores to keep it. Some Keepers thought they had already gone too far, claiming they had acted without the guidance of the spirits who hadn't wanted war.

These Keepers could've caused chaos and endless bloodshed, so the Evanuris formed their alliance to suppress the others. Likely, they thought they were doing so for the benefit of all the elven people. More war meant more death, and it was needless now that the land was still. And even if what they did to the Titans was wrong, it was done and they could not fix it. Better to silence those who meant to stir up fear among the people.

The Evanuris fought until they were the last faction left, naming the few holdouts the Forgotten Ones. They were praised for bringing peace to Elvhenan, and trusting in their guidance their people crowned them as rulers.

Yet some dissent always remained. None of them were infallible. They were no longer spirits, they hadn't been for thousands of years. They were now more accustomed to command than to priesthood after all that war. They had drawn on the power they had stolen from the Titans to gain the advantage over their enemies, and the corruption of the Blight was starting creep in, ever-so-slowly.

Maybe some of the people, unhappy with their rule, started to voice the thought that was expressed by their rival Keepers once more: that the Evanuris had grown distant from the spirits. That Elgar'nan didn't serve Justice anymore. That Mythal had strayed from Benevolence.

So Evanuris took the mantle of godhood for themselves. It was only for peace and stability.

It would be too dangerous if anyone could claim they were deviating from the will of the spirits, so they would claim they were those great spirits. Elgar'nan was Justice, Mythal was Benevolence. They would use their rule only for the benefit of the people, not abuse their power.

And there you go. None of what I've written above can't be neatly incorporated into the existing lore of Veilguard. It leaves the elves of Thedas precisely where they started in Dragon Age: Origins. Distant from their ancient Gods, trying to pick up the pieces of their forgotten past.

[dailykafka]

I would just like to point out that defending Kafka for going to the zionist Congress with the argument that classical Zionism is different from modern Zionism is total nonsense. Firstly, people in the past and in the present are complicated. It's possible to acknowledge Kafka's writing means a lot to you and many other people while understanding he was also a flawed individual (not only by modern standards but also in his own time).

Secondly, classical Zionism was still colonialism. Facing a genocide doesn't entitle European Jews to settle and colonise the middle east. If they wanted to seek refuge there they could've done so and integrated with the local population. But Zionism was a settler colonial project. Britain and its allies formed the state of Israel and gave it to Jewish settlers because they wanted to maintain control over the area and they didn't want to have Jewish refugees in Britain.

It's also worth noting that homosexual and Roma people were also persecuted by the Nazi regime. But there is no gay or Romani homeland. Modern Zionism couldn't have existed without the settler-colonial dreams of so-called classical Zionism. No European government before ww2 wanted to dismantle their anti-Semitism. Even after ww2 they just wanted the question of their own anti-Semitism to be hushed up. You can see it in how there is a rise of néo-nazi and neo-fascist political parties in Italy and Germany again.

First, Kafka wasn't a zionist.

Second, acknowledging how extreme ideologies form, often out of desperation to survive, does not mean that I support that ideology. You can acknowledge the extreme violence experienced by Jewish people in Europe, how this violence pushed them to the extreme ideology and still not agree with how it developed.

Third, I didn't create this blog to reassure people in the correctness of their opinions, I also didn't create this blog so people could "teach" me history. I've been trying to be polite and answer these asks the best I can. If I wanted to talk about my political opinions on the internet, or if I wanted to listen to strangers about their political opinions, I would have created another blog.

I am not here to assure you of Kafka's goodness or his purity. Not every jew was a zionist but every jew was involved in the conversation because it was a conversation about their survival. The fact is that Kafka attended some lectures and meetings because that's what was happening during his time and he was involved in the conversation, just like any other jew.

It is up to you what you do with these facts. It is up to you to form an opinion about Kafka, or about myself. It's not my business. But please, stop reading lectures in my inbox as if you have something to prove to me or to yourself. This is not the place for that.

[atopvisenyashill]

Not to act like a child snitching to a parent, but I just saw the take 'People throw the word coloniser when it comes to the Targaryens but the Starks are right there, Martin is clearly playing with the themes of European colonialism and supremacy way more with them and their relationship with the Wildlings.' in the year of our lord 2025, and like, man... idk. No one in this fandom has a grasp on anything anymore, and I'm kinda starting to doubt that we ever did.

On second thought, maybe I shouldn't be so pressed about this because I think I might have seen this same person say that it's racist to depict the Starks as non-white, because 'Northerners are described, on text, as savages that look ugly and unruly' before and I just fundementally disagree with them on a lot of levels

Yeah okay, the thing about the "starks are european colonizers of the cotf" stuff is that

this is part of the ongoing trend with Those Types who will completely deny the actual canon people of color that exist as being people of color, like in dorne and essos, while insisting that the little green people are the only "true" indigenous or "of color" representation in the series

will completely ignore the very real way dany is stomping her way through essos on a rationalization that is very similar to a lot of the rationalizations people have used when it comes to colonization and imperialism like ~saving the savages from themselves~ and dany's very unkind and superior feelings about the cultures she is ruling over goes hand in hand with that

i cannot stress this enough but the us government, the canadian government, the spanish, the british, the french, and every single other group you can name that came to the americas did not honor their treaties with the natives. even in places like greenland, where genocide became not possible simply bc of how hard it is to live in greenland so it is the only nation in the americas that has a majority indigenous population, treaties were broken as inuit language, culture, and history was suppressed by Denmark. Do you know what the first men did? they honored their treaties. they stopped cutting down weirwoods and they stopped warring with the cotf, and (as far as we know - i am not opposed to bran finding out more context here that makes the first men look bad tbc!) kept those promises until the andals showed up and chased the first men north. with the information we have about the cotf and the first men - even if you include the idea that the cotf invented the others as a way to stop the fighting with the first men and force a pact - i think it is ludicrous and also, insulting to me as an Indigenous person, to say that these things are similar when the entire reason I live in Chicago and not on Menominee land is because the us government broke every treaty they made with us!

i think it's so funny that in their quest to scream at everyone who reads the First Men as some sort of Indigenous group they wind up regurgitating the exact sort of anti-Northern fantasy racism that Northerners experience in the books. Truly, truly, life imitates art.

Obviously I think everyone throws colonizer and imperialist around way too much which is why I've mostly stopped doing it. But I think something everyone really forgets when getting defensive about the valyrian and targaryen critiques is that like. it's about the extractive relationship between the valyrians/targaryens and the people they conquer, the imbalance of technology which allows for further destruction, the superiority complex (and westerosi people aren't above this, i mean when you look at how absolutely superior they act compared to the essosi, there's a pretty clear western view being explored and critiqued through all of them, not just the targaryens and valyria) and expansionist behavior, and the diffusion of ideological, religious, and political beliefs. like, it's the dragons. it's the incest. and especially imo people will talk about the roman inspiration for valyria and then conveniently ignore that one of the first genocides ever committed was by rome against carthage - and another important note here (to me) is that carthage existed in what is now modern day tunisia, which is part of north africa aka one of regions that dorne is inspired by. there's a reason dorne is is so nervous about the dragons during the conquests and when you look at the carnage of the dragon's wroth and daeron's war and doran's comment that dornish population never recovered from that, i do in fact think we are meant to draw some parallels between the way rome conquered and destroyed their enemies and the way dorne is treated by both the targaryens and the rest of Westeros.

But again, I've pulled back on that a lot, I think this topic is very complex and I also think the one-to-one parallels can be confusing. I think you can, for example, compare a lot of Scottish Independence stuff with Northern Independence, and just like in the real world, that is a fraught and complex topic. There's, firstly, a real gap when it comes to the treatment of lowland Scots and highland Scots, not to mention the far ranging issues when it comes to the assimilation of upper class Scottish peoples into British society at the expense of highlanders, the religious wars that exist all over that area, the fact that Scottish people experienced both a repression of their culture at home but also perpetuated the repression of Indigenous cultures in the Americas and were in fact intimately involved as some of the first settler-colonists in what is now known as North America. I think this tracks really well with the Starks and the Northerners in general, as both perpetrators of politically motivated violence towards the wildlings and victims of it from their southern neighbors, and in fact I would argue this happens frequently throughout history, that A People will act as both perpetrator and victim, because no people are a monolith. But like, trying to get this across when a) i feel like i'm just stupid and too goofy and b) there's clearly people who don't want to listen they just want to say "WELL ACTUALLY YOUR FAVORITE HOUSE IS A COLONIZER HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT" as if this is a stan war and not me trying to have an actual in depth conversation about the way the various cultures in this series interact with each other.

And finally - I have in fact seen people get Real Weird about the wildlings (similar to point 4, people will be like "these are a savage people" just kind of uncritically regurgitating the shit bowen marsh is saying about the wildlings despite the fact that we get an entire book where jon is learning that no, actually, these aren't just mindless savages but a society with its own rules, its own culture, that is very similar to his own and just happened to be very unlucky in where they were born) but like, the northerners being weird and fantasy racist (ethnist? can it be called xenophobia in this case, initially i felt that was imprecise but i think maybe that's the correct word here) towards the wildlings does not negate the fact that valyria colonized like 80% of the known world, that the targaryens are weird and fantasy racist towards dorne, and that dany herself is deeply weird and racist towards the dothraki, lhazareen, and ghiscari. two things can be true at once!

[irithnova]

About my Siberia ocs...

So I think it's important to balance their characterisation in a way in which they are distinctive characters with interesting personalities and backstories but also acknowledges the challenges they face without making their entire character essentially "They're sad all the time because of Russia" or "Stop talking about their struggles under Russia I don't like politics."

I think both are problematic however I find the latter to be far more distasteful because well. This is a nation personification OC we're talking about and not only that, they're essentially nations within a nation (Russia) by virtue of colonisation and so are minority groups within the larger nation. Hell - because of displacement and immigration from European Russia , a lot of these groups are minorities within their own lands. It's a special case when dealing with minority groups/occupied people personifications and it's particularly egregious when someone wants to forgo any kind of acknowledgement of these power imbalances yet still insists that their interpretation is sensitive.

I've seen some pretty bad OCs of Siberian groups which are the product of the creator going "I hate politics stop talking about politics!" or, an almost direct quote, "I hate when people shove politics into historical hetalia." Which... Is an interesting take to say the least considering how history feeds into politics and vice versa. Historical hetalia is a beast in an of itself and is one of the only hetalia communities/bubbles in which "no politics" will get you laughed out the door from what I've seen considering *gestures to my previous statement*. If you've ever taken a history course - you'll know how much history and politics are intertwined.

This is how you get interps which consists of the likes of "Russia was wandering around the empty lands of Siberia" which not only blatantly disregards the brutality of the Russian colonisation of Siberia but also promotes the concept of "Terra Nullius" or "Virgin Land". I'm quoting myself from an even bigger post I have in store which focuses on anti Mongolian sentiment however stereotypes about Mongolians and Siberian groups often overlap because of their placement in Northern Asia, hence why it applies to both,

"In addition, to hone in on Mongolia being an "untouched, pristine" land - this is also a common trope that is launched towards traditionally nomadic "unsettled groups” (such as Siberian and Native American groups). The concept of "Terra Nullius", a Latin word meaning "nobody's land". It completely disregards the presence and rights of the people who inhabit the land and has been historically used to justify the colonisation and displacement of such groups - their land belonged to "nobody" so it was essentially up for grabs...It divorces the people from their landscape and paves the way for dangerous misconceptions and justifications to blossom.

Here is an example of "Terra Nullius" in action in a Russian propaganda poster, encouraging Russians to move to Kazakhstan."

Or interps such as "[Siberian group] has forgiven Russia for everything he did/most things he did and is in love with him" which implies that the mistreatment of the Siberian groups is merely something in the past when it is in fact ongoing. The mistreatment of Siberian groups such as the Sakha, Buryats, Chukchi and Tuvans has been all the more highlighted in their disproportionate mobilisation in the invasion of Ukraine - and the heaps of scapegoating that was subsequently shovelled onto them.

That's not to say ethnic minority soldiers in the Russian army shouldn't be held accountable for their crimes - however that and the fact that they themselves are victims of Russian imperialism can both exist as true statements. The scapegoating is so bad that even Pope Francis joined in, blaming the brunt of the war crimes committed onto "Non Russians" such as Buryats and Chechens, as they do not come from "Russian culture."

Back to my main point... I think the resistance to do research on and publicly acknowledge how these groups live under Russia and what kind of struggles they face in some kind of bid to "not paint them as victims!!11" is sorely misinformed and ignorant. Because well. They are victims.

Not in the sense that you should portray them as sad, pitiful, weak little meow meows but in the sense that yes they are living under Russian occupation and are an occupied people who's been subjected to centuries of Russification, and so compared to making an OC of Mongolia who is an independent nation state at least I think there is far less room to be hauling around "leave politics out of historical hetalia!" "don't talk to me about politics!" "stop victimising them!!" because then it leads to tone deaf interpretations such as "They've forgiven Russia for everything and is in love with him ♥️💖", "Russia is actually [Siberia groups] father", "Here is my singular Siberia OC who represents ALL Siberian groups and by the way Russia is their father" (yes these are all real interpretations I've seen and I've made a separate really strongly worded post ranting about it) and worse. I mean I've literally seen an "aph Siberia oc" who was Russia and France's love child. Terra Nullius executed Hetalia-style.

I don't really think I need to elaborate on why a singular Siberia OC is problematic - Siberia is filled with a myriad of different groups who speak different languages, have different origins and ways of lives and practices, different religions, who've experienced eras of peace and conflict with each other, etc and yeah to shove them all into one personification is an erasure of the sheer diversity that is in Siberia. I definitely don't need to elaborate on why making Russia a father to any of these groups is problematic, to say very the least.

On the point of "don't only portray them in a victimising lense", I think making Siberian groups all depressed all the time is also a Russia-centric perspective. Of course it's ignorant at best to not acknowledge their shared suffering because of Russia however when this point and this point alone is central to their character I believe in a way that it strips them of their autonomy and ability to feel things and do things outside of Russia's gaze. There is absolutely a lot of joy to be had despite their current situation, perhaps even in spite of their current situation. It's ok to give them odd quirks and put them in funny situations as well as acknowledge that they are an occupied people and approach that territory carefully when need be.

For example, I made my Buryatia bubbly and loud but made my Tuva a bit more deadpan because I see them as a pair who often associate with each other and I think the dynamic is funny. I also made Buryatia an overbearing "husband" to Soyot who is perpetually tired™ from all the se- .

I made a crack dynamic between Sakha, Evenkia and Dolgan where Evenkia was Sakha's teacher at first but then became a deadbeat dad leaving Sakha to primarily raise Dolgan, thus Dolgan takes after Sakha and is uh lawyermaxxing👍. Yukaghir is the little old lady of the group who is often forgetful but very nifty and Chukotka acts like a big sister to people which Koryak (who I see as her brother) always finds annoying and they often bicker. Ket is on the slightly edgy side and is extremely particular about his routines and Nganasan terrifies Nenet because he eats reindeer whereas Nenet doesn't.

All of these quirks/ more lighthearted interpretations and "they are an occupied people under Russia" can coexist. One should not be thrown out for the sake of the other.

I think there's also problem - though I've seen this far less, in making Siberia ocs purely as a middle finger at Russia. As in, you made the OC because you wanted to say loud and proud FUCK RUSSIA which well yeah, fuck Russia, but I highly doubt your interest in this group lies outside of wanting to #own the Russians which is dehumanising in and of itself. At least pretend to care about the history and culture instead of using an entire group of people to make a virtue-signally oc purely to try and upset some Russians.

Anyways yeah Siberia 👍

[shoegazingmonad]

Bunch of Mummy and Egypt HS2 talk bundled together:

Reread the Influencer's segments a few weeks ago and now that I'm aware mummy references are something worth looking for I'm noticing a ton of these damn things. The 'recently widowed heir' is the newly emptied tomb (jelly jar) that contained the mummy (company) and #unwokemoms... Hehe

Once again, houses are heads, and it seems like there's a link between wealth and the head being made here? She calls Tavvy 'the sort of fella you hang around when your mom drags you to a fundraiser', and back when Europeans were obsessed with consuming mummies sometimes graverobbers would steal freshly hung bodies, embalm them (shittily) and claim they were actual mummies. So I'm thinking if money = relating to the head then fund = the head and raiser could be act of hanging. It can also be read as lifting the lid off a tomb, which feels a liiiittle more plausible since it seems the fundraiser itself is a meeting of colonisers / graverobbers.

Though they do unlock the tower Dirk hung himself at before this, so hanging is definitely on topic. Avril says they have to get their gossip (private personal information) the old fashioned way, on line (rope) and then questions the others on why they're pretending 'that shit with the witch and the seer didnt go down' so yeah, lots of hanging talk.

Another line that sticks out to me is Silas pointing out that they're the 'only folks of the human persuasion' before telling them to hold their horses, likely referencing Dirk's 'FLORA OF THE SUCCULENT PERSUASION' (plants that hold water due to strong conviction). If Silas is calling humans succulent and therefore something that holds water, then trolls are the opposite, dehydrated and mummified. So Ruthie coming up to them and telling them they should leave if they don't want to die despite not visibly making any effort to leave herself comes across as implying she has no need to run for it because she's a troll (mummy) and therefore already dead.

Mummy stuff explains the food choices too. Avril orders a #normal burger (regular corpse), which comes alongside some fries and a slice of lime(?), which Silas takes when he isn't looking. Silas has a cup of black coffee (mummia is a black resin-like exudate) alongside some cups of creamer (canopic jars), which Imode steals and starts stacking, and Imode themselves has a stack of pancakes with butter and syrup (mummified corpse).

Food tangents aside, the Mothergrub should fit into this somehow. Mummification is thought of as ensuring the soul travels to the afterlife, and that death was a transition stage. The soul would stay alive outside of the body as long as it was kept intact. In Candy 8, during Vrissy's birth, there's a mention of 'birthing jelly' (jelly is consistently used to describe the Mothergrub's fluids in the epilogues) and that the egg's 'mottled and rough, like a rock on the outside, but has a layer beneath like mulched flesh'. Kanaya helps her exit the egg, prying open Vriska's tomb and (presumably) finding her mummified corpse, which is Vrissy.

Vrissy gets a couple of mummy references because of this. She's frustrated that Kanaya won't get off her case! Until now - which might imply that this sequence is Vrissy "leaving the case"? The prison does look a little similar to the Mothergrub. But Shit Becoming Real synonymous with leaving the case (tomb) probably ties in with Vrissy's age-related themes. The adult self is pregnant with the child self / true self, and the tomb is pregnant with the mummy?

This makes more sense when compared to another case of Mummy metaphors. In 194 Harry talking about his dad 'flipping his lid' is interspersed with Tavvy saying they're 'in a bit of a fudging pickle', and pickling is the process of proserving food by containing it within SALT water. Jars and tombs both have lids, so the jar itself the body / case and the pickle (or whatever is being held within the jar) is the child. Like how in Ult Dirk's room he has Dave's brain in a jar (which was made via a fetus in a jar) next to one of Roxy's glass-encased mutant kittens (cats are a symbol of babies).

And speaking of 194, Vrissy also says she gets this 'frustr8ed feeling in my Chest' when she sees Vriska talking to Harry. She isn't bothered by her child / true self's imprisonment in the tomb until she's met with a physical reminder of the limitations placed upon herself, and her inability to escape them leaves her frustrated. This adds to the prison segment and the follow-up. After she realises Vriska wants her to stay as a 'imitation' of her rather than something of her own, she ditches her and leaves the prison (egg / tomb). She then goes on to excitedly tell Harry she's '8roke out of Prison'. And also complains that Vriska was 'grilling' her, lol? Harry even says he hopes 'vriska didn't manage to get you smoked'. tfw when you don't get to eat the mummy...

Returning to the influencers - their quirks are also related to mummification / Egypt. Avril refers to their hashtags as 'ancient archival systems', and Imode uses 'text-based art' to communicate, like heiroglyphs! Avril's ever so helpful #hashtags make me think that #jealous (jelly) and #stuff (something stuffed inside another thing, like a mummy in a coffin) may be used for mummy puns too.

Their hobbies likely fit into this as well. Imode talks about Guys and Trolls, a pun on Guys and Dolls, whilst they're shown in a fully black outfit Harry's making them wear, suggesting they're the Doll / Troll. Avril's knack for photography functions as another form of 'preservation'. And now that I'm thinking about it the entire plot of the bonus stems from that 'preservation', and everything following that is the three trying to get the others 'out of the situation [they] have helped to put them in', which is done by unlocking Dirk's site of death. Wowzers

Besides the fact that every character is technically a mummy due to the adult self / child self comparisons they seem to have assigned roles. For now I'll assume that Ruthie is just a mummy. Avril's a bodysnatcher + "embalmer" since he's the one getting the gossip (personal information) and archiving. Imode says his use of #'s is inauthentic, he doesn't consistently use them the same way, and that he doesn't know it's history. As though he sucks at mummification, don't even know how it's actually done and just want it for the clout (money). He even gets pissed when Imode calls him a snitch (thief).

Imode's probably mummy-kin / identifies with the child self. They're the doll / troll, the only one in their group who isn't at least a little xenophobic, go to the troll diner often, and upon getting a taste of 'honesty' they leave through the window (tomb) first. Roxy talking to them about gender makes me suspect 'coming out' is also about leaving the coffin. Which, I guess is what makes them the '#wokemom' to Jane's '#unwokemom', leaving the coffin / becoming the authentic self means waking up? Cherub stuff going on here. But if they think Imode has 'gendery vibes' then she's assuming they've 'came out', adding onto the idea that they're mummy-kin.

Why the kids are even being so heavily associated with mummies in the first place is likely because they're "reincarnations" of other people. I say this mainly because of Silas' comments; when talking about Tavvy, they say 'Bless his heart', and the only organ left in a mummy's body after the process is complete is the heart, believed to contain the person's identity and character. She then gives respect to Gamzee, and says 'May he rest in the dark bosom of the mirthful messiahs'. It's as though Tavvy has Gamzee's heart / soul, and this is backed up by a few other things.

(Though there's also the funny implication that Silas is calling Tavvy one of the Mirthful Messiahs both here and right after, '[Tavvy] doesn't even GO here' is followed by her internally cursing herself for 'speaking disrespectfully of the messiah she's supposed to care about')

On page 79 Tavvy mistakes a door creaking for 'a honk, or the beating of his own heart', and back in Candy 32 when Vriska is beating up Gamzee she delivers a 'double axe handle right off the hook', causing his nose to break and blood to spill out. A hook was used to pull the brain out but in some cases the embalmer would break the nose to get at it more easily. And whilst I'm on this topic; Redemption is also mummification.

'Redemption' functions as a form of resurrection. And seeing as Gamzee already calls Tavvy his 'redemption arc', a second chance at life for him, then this can be compared to mummification as another a way for the soul to continue on after death. The fridge Gamzee is released is literally referred to as a 'would-be sarcophagus', and upon exiting he starts spouting on about his redemption arc (Tavvy). In Candy 20, when Karkat is being used as a substitute for Tavvy, Gamzee tells him that the rule of redemption means you can't get salty with your homie no more, and he provides an even more straightforward description to Vriska;

Redemption is getting your moral compromisations locked all tight in where your hearts at, inside the mummy. So I think what they're trying to get at here is that a 'redemption arc' is another body functioning as a mummy for someone else. Tavvy is Gamzee's "mummy", storing his heart so that Gamzee's soul can move on - and he's trapped in the tomb so that Gamzee can leave it. (On another small note, Gamzee's followers are called 'brainless clown worshippers', redemptionists are mummies).

That might add another layer to Gamzee's milk addiction though. Gamzee directly compares his breastmilk addiction to his 'struggles with the wicked green substances', which is sopor but as his vague wording here also suggests there's the interpretation of sopor slime as ecto slime at play. Since Tavvy is a mummy and Gamzee is constantly drinking from the bottle of milk that represents him, he's also drinking mummia (which explains Meenah calling him 'jellybulge', he keeps the milk in his codpiece). Wack. But as I said before, mummia is an exudate - and 'exudate' comes from the latin word exudare/exsudare "ooze out like sweat" and Tavvy's sweating Gamzee's blood, which now looks to be mummia / exudate. This might explain why his sweat is 'sticky', exudate also refers to sap, a colourless sugary liquid secreted when a tree is put under stress. This may open up a possibility for tree / mummy comparisons though? Even wackier, but not exactly out of the question. Osiris' coffin ends up inside a tree trunk and later made into a pillar named the Djed (a symbol of stability and his spine), and y'know now that I think about it - I'm pretty sure that's what the belltower is supposed to be?

Ult Dirk's outfit is largely based on Kamina's. But for some odd reason he has additional wrapping around his legs - which Kamina doesn't have - but Osiris does. And Candy Dirk's death involves a noose, which comes across as completely unneccessary when considering he could just cut his own head off like he usually does. However, Dirk isn't tying the loop to guarantee his death, it's to guarantee his resurrection; because what he was really tying was an Ankh - another loop symbol thought to revive souls in the afterlife. It stays attached to his head as his spine splits, and his body pools in a sea of blood, similar to how Osiris' body was tossed into the Nile and eventually ended up in the Ocean. Dirk's coffin is filled with swords (commonly found along other items within tombs thought to be necessary in the afterlife), is made out of the 'finest-quality timber on the planet', the door to the tower is made of oak and the tower itself is also amidst a bunch of trees as if it were one. Osiris' death and renewal was believed to coincide with the flooding of the Nile (and the fertilization of Egypt, the excess water representative of either Isis' tears or Osiris' bodily fluids, the latter the more likely case seeing as Dirk's body sprays blood all over the tower and the funeral's rain is 'like being sprayed with a plant mister' too.

Ankh's are also the 'key of life', and Dirk's tomb being unlocked is followed by Imode shouting '👼💩' like a baby angel has just been shit out, so this suggests some kind of resurrection. But whilst I'm still on the topic of Dirk - Harry says they hang a Dirk effigy from the belltower every year, which kind of feels like a reference to the Ritual of Overthrowing Apophis, another annual effigy destruction. Apothis was thought to contain all the darkness and disorder in Egypt, and was burnt to protect everyone from his evil, but mmm I don't know if that fits all that well.

Upon going through other Egyptian mythology I also found out that Gamzee's milk 'baptisms' might also be an egyptian healing ritual replicating Isis' healing of Horus by pouring water over a cippus (tombstone) and then drinking it. Like him pouring milk over the troll ghosts / redeemed (the dead) gives it the healing properties he claims it to have, which he uses for himself as he takes a swig of it after using it on Eridan and Feferi. Though on the topic of baptisms and mummies, there's a cup of coffee adjacent to two pieces of bread in the cafe. Mummia is the blood of christ and the mummy itself the body (bread). Jane directly calls the troll blood Gamzee gave her 'the holy sacrament', and that her first memory of him was of his 'robust codpiece' which is a child grafted onto the body, Tavvy, a mummy. One coffee equated to two bodies also makes some sense. The heart is being considered the organ shared amongst Gamzee and Tavvy, and it's the organ pumping the blood (mummia) around the body.

But the redemption / mummification theme applies to the other kids too. Later Silas reuses the previous blessing for Dirk, saying 'Bless his soul', but they only say 'Bless' when it comes to Harry, lacking the heart / soul of the two previous statements. Harry isn't a 'redemption arc' for anyone in the same way Vrissy, Tavvy and Yiffy are since nobody imposes that role upon him - but he seems to view himself as John's, which is affirmed by Gamzee's claims that getting him with Roxy would 'romantically redeem' his sorry ass. Harry calls his car ride with his dad a 'heart to heart', and him being absent from his own room (head) can be read as him being momentarily brainless. He later tells Vrissy he 'put [his] heart and soul' into his costumes, so he might make up for his lack of assigned role by helping people fit into theirs the best they can. Mummy stuff might be where 'Sheriff Dry Hops' gets it's name too. Hops is a fruiting plant body dried to make beer, similar to a mummy being dehydrated to make mummia. (There's also Faygo (another mummia) compared to alcohol via Terezi and Rose's addictions and Kurloz' calling Faygo 'ELIXIR FORTIES' like a 40oz pack of beer). It's let out of the closet by Vriska, who Harry complains 'has no respect for other people's belongings'. He's a mummy sheriff, encouraging and even policing other people into staying as their assigned roles. No wonder he's with Vrissy.

Yiffy is likely a parallel to Ruthie - Ruthie's an authentic mummy, and Yiffy's a (symbolic) child. Silence is perfect yet infantile communication, and Yiffy says nothing. Tavvy says he's busy with an aforementioned pickle, Vrissy's Mother's and Aunt Jade, suggesting Yiffy is the 'pickle', which was established as another symbol of the child trapped in containment. And their most prominent scene as of yet starts with Jade breathing life onto Yiffy (Receive Finishing Blow), and stating that they're her future, establishing them as Jade's 'redemption arc'. Yet unlike Tavvy (child-as-adult, in the tomb) and Gamzee (adult-as-child, out the tomb), it's the opposite; Yiffy is child-as-child and Jade is adult-as-adult, with this panel of Jade within a shadowed room holding Yiffy outside a rectangular window (which I'm now realizing is a parallel to Tavvy now since this comes up after he says had his window removed), affirming her status as the one stuck inside whilst Yiffy is free from containment.

Speaking of Ruthie, her 'eee' translated to heiroglyphs is 3 feathers, which represents three souls, presumably Imode, Silas and Avril. When the deceased had completed their journey through the underworld, they arrived at Maat, which was where it would be decided whether they would move onto the Kingdom of Osiris. The first task given was to address the 42 Assessors of Maat by name (which is why Vrissy says they had to memorize the names of every player at school) and every sin they didn't commit in their lifetime. The deceased would then have their heart weighed against a feather, and would be allowed to move on if the scales balanced. And If the heart was heavier they'd be eaten, and the soul permanently destroyed.

Though the explanation for the source of Imode and Avril's 'souls' are made obvious as they're just their names, Shigetaka Kurita and Avril Lavigne, I don't really know who Silas is supposed to be, or what her role is. Silas says she hangs around Tavvy at fundraisers whilst the panel shows her pulling at the loop around her neck, which is a noose, ankh or alternatively, a tyet? Which was something mummies were buried with under the wrapping for protection. Tavvy has a blood red cup too, which is next to a fountain of chocolate, so like Silas' black coffee he's probably drinking mummia. As per usual. Anyway If I'm to compare her situation to Tavvy's, them being 'the only people our age' signifies them as mummies too. Neither of them are out the tomb though, since they don't talk about gender (no coming out), and Silas' doesn't do any 'introspecting' on the regular.

Though the introspecting she does do gets her a step she can't backtrack as she 'pushes' to 'catch up' with Avril so leaving the tomb seems to be another way of falling. Since Imode shouts 'holy shit' with a baby angel in place of the 'holy' I'm also getting the idea that leaving the tomb is being shit out as well. Both are realness leaving the body... Back to Silas though - the colour she uses is supposed to be lime, as proven by the lime on Avril's plate (which she eats), which is the same colour as her outfit. She's also wary of trolls, and has freckles in a circle on their cheeks. She insists on justice for Gamzee and says 'my stars!' when Avril shows off their skeleton key which is equivalent to 'my kids!' since Avril puts #childstar together later. With all that and the old-american thing they have going on, they kinda remind me of calamity???? I'm still not sure that's right though.

Since I'm getting nowhere with Silas it's back to the Omega kids. Avril has the lime before Silas eats it, which is the same colour as her and therefore makes the act come across as eating herself. The lime juice is left behind on Avril's plate, so she's ate the body, but not the mummia, she has the coffee for that? Tavvy leaves a bag of trail-mix and a letter which tells Harry and Vrissy to eat the raisins (dehydrated corpses, mummies) because they're healthy. Then Vrissy and Harry run out of the ship (which not only resembles the Mothergrub but in this panel looks an awful lot like a pyramid) and Harry is munching, presumably eating the mummy, though the panels shown depict him eating m&m's (or whatever that is) the same colour as him and Vrissy, so we're back to eating the (child) self. Probably worth adding Harry's zebra cakes onto this, more commonly known as icebox cakes, a cake kept in the fridge overnight, another reference to eating child eating.

Harry's reluctance to leave the Mothergrub-Pyramid ship and trying to get Vrissy to go back in with him is related to his desire to be a mummy despite the lack of expectations to be so by Vrissy saying staying back in there would make him like his 'like [his] shitty parents', which he only refutes with a 'they aren't shitty'. Though that's ironically followed up by Rose calling Vrissy 'honey', covering their eyes and keeping them in the dark (in the tomb) before her and Harry get put back in the ship and shut in. Next panel we get of her she's clinging to Kanaya, head buried in her torso like she wants to crawl back in the womb whilst Vriska runs free.

On Harry eating the mummy / child though - back on 172 Vrissy tells Harry they're in the janitor closet near what Harry calls the 'Good Water Fountain', and closets seem to be another tomb substitute. Sheriff Dry Hops is kept in a closet, Jake's sat on the 'sticky floor of a custodial closet' before the camera shifts over to Tavvy 2 pages after, and the previous school closet scene where Tavvy, Gamzee Vrissy and Vriska are stuck in one with their redemption arcs whilst Harry is outside all suggest that, even though it's not as overt as the fridge comparisons. The Good Water Fountain is the fountain of youth, and with it's proximity to the closet the water is presumably sourced from it, making it mummia (though really at this point every liquid is mummia; pretty sure the only meaningful difference between liquids is the 'healing properties' they're being designated). Harry eating his child self / wanting to return to his youth fits with his desire to be John's 'redemption arc' / mummy like he was as a kid and is also incredibly in line with Roxy's habit of drinking cats (mummia) that mmmmalo talked about (oh hey no wonder Roxy drinks coffee now).

Though alternatively if the m&m's viewed as Vrissy (since it is both of their colours) their already established age-play dynamic is, on Harry's part, a desire to access the child self via Vrissy? Bluh

On note of Tavvy providing the trail mix and endorsing the mummy-eating, Imode says Silas knows Tavvy, but she says "Know" is pushin' it. Understanding is the child self being birthed and the mummy leaving the tomb. Literally under-standing (falling) comes up when Harry and Vrissy try to leave the ship too. She talks about how he refuses to verbally disclose what he really means or wants (nothing being spoken, no baby being birthed, no mummy leaving the tomb, no falling yadda yadda), specifically that he 'he wouldn't ask for a thing if he wanted it', which leads into a joke about how he expects to be beaten round the head upon asking for salt, and Avril (resident embalmer) adds onto it by saying they'd be scared to ask for the salt if Jane was their #unwokemom.

Tavvy explicitly disagrees with the whole 'redemption arc' stuff Gamzee totes around, so the idea that he wants to be the embalmer (guy putting people in tombs, locking away authenticity) feels a little out of place, since it's not something he ever explicitly expresses, but pretty understandable. Though it's tripping me up a little imagining how locking away someone's 'child self' would even be done on a literal level. Getting to be the embalmer comes with the implication of not being the mummy though, so it's more like he wants a role-reversal; he wants to be the child-like oppressor rather than the adult-like oppressed. Once again expressing a desire to be Gamzee again are we now. Though I still dunno what that makes of the raisins. This coincides with him going to help Yiffy with the rebellion so it should function as another form of 'rebellion', which it kinda is as he's the one providing the mummies, momentarily aligning him with the embalmer I guuuuuuess? I feel like I need a little more to work with here

[motsimages]

I am stuck with this here and the longer I look, the more questions I have. I will make this post here because OP is quite young and it is a silly post after all.

First, it assumes that "your country" now is the same as it was when "great-great grandparents" and the same as "farther back than that". When the reality of most countries is that they've been changing borders.

I am not going further than the 19th Century (great-grandparents time) because things get really interesting before that, amongst other things because Nationalism was a big thing then and it's when governments really tried to make a statement about This Is My Country and when many colonies gained independence. Before the 19th Century, the world as we know it now was completely different and the further back into the past you go, the stranger it gets.

Without leaving Europe, which is what I know better, Germany and Italy had what is called "the unification" in the second half of the 19th Century, which means that before that they weren't what they are now. In recent years, Germany also had the Federal Republic of Germany, which was technically another country which disappeard in 1987. And Yugoslavia became separate countries in 1992. So Yugoslav born singer Zdravko Colic is now Bosnian-Serbian. How would he answer to this? He didn't move. His country changed around him. And he is old, but think of all the 30-35 year-old people who were born in a different country. All the people who never left their native city and who have children born in a different country.

Africa has the before and after Western colonisation to thank for borders and countries and to also complicate this reply. Again, just in the 20th Century, because of colonies, some countries were what is now France, Portugal, UK or Spain. Maybe the status wasn't the same as being born in Europe, but still, a different country.

I don't know how Asia has been in this regard but I bet similar things apply with colonisation between them and then Europeans. Even America (understood as the whole continent, North and South, not just the US) was changing borders up until the 19th Century.

If you go to before the 16th Century, which is when Western colonisation really began to change the shape of the world, it gets even more fun. This would be between" "farther back but I do know when" and "too far back to remember". Without getting into colonies, Spain as a country was formed in the 16th Century. Before Christopher Columbus (and even during his lifetime), it was two separate kingdoms united by the mariage of the king and queen who agreed to send Columbus to America. And that was more or less the looks of everywhere around the time.

And now we reach the difference between "too far back to remember" and "indigenous". Polynesian people remember when they went to certain places, when they reached mainland here and there for thousands of years. Europeans do not. Polynesians are indigenous and Europeans aren't. However, even Europe has indigenous people (because of all the mess with countries and borders).

Many people can actually answer to both of these. The poll assumes that, unless you are indigenous, you are an inmigrant, except indigenous people also travel and migrate and non-indigenous people also stay in the same place. Indigenous is a thing completely unrelated to migration.

There is also the succint assumption (bias, if you will) that people only migrate willingly. Sure, it can be a choice you make for the sake of your family, for a job, for safety and whatnot (how "willingly" that is, it's up to the person), but there is a moment in history when many people were migrated forcibly, so to say, as they were kidnapped and made into slaves.

In short... it's one of those post that feels a bit too white US.

[ripplespate]

Hello lm hamdi ,I humbly ask for your support by reblogging this post on your account to help me and my family. As newcomers to Tumblr and GoFundMe, we are in desperate need of your kindness and support. 🙏🇵🇸🍉😔Please donate 🙏🏼Let's reach the goal as soon as possible .

Vetted by association! Hamdi is a cousin of @/mohammedyasers (shared by 90-ghost).

Not a problem, my friend, and while I'm at it I'll take the time to give some information about the history of Palestine for those interested, especially with how the annexation of the land and displacement succeeded despite the countably many obstacles the left wing Jewish working class posed to it at the time.

This kind of information is buried and not often addressed even in left wing circles- it was only until recently that other sections of the left have come around to support Palestinian liberation, previously it was only us socialists and the Arab community at least in my country because other activists wouldn't touch such a topic even a 10 foot pole.

So the British mandate of Palestine was set up right after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the Middle East being carved up by the winners, mostly Britain and France taking sections and drawing arbitrary lines across the desert. No care for culture, history, language, or ethnic differences, but its not like those harsh divisions that exist today were are prevalent then either.

It was around this time that the Zionist movement was also looking for a territory to host a settler-colonial state, especially following the pogroms that were tearing through Russia from before the Tsarist regime fell. The Zionist movement founders formed their doctrine on the state based on the shadow of the slaughter and anti semitism that was stoked by European leaders, even well into the massacres of World War 2. It's quite literally built off of the foundation idea that non-Jewish people have an inherent anti-semetic bias, which is of course, not the case!

In the words of Abram Leon in his book, "The Jewish tavern owner or “farmer” of sixteenth-century Poland thought as little of “returning” to Palestine as does the Jewish millionaire in America today." The question of solving the problem of bigotry through a racially segregated homeland was such a new and honestly unpopular concept amongst the Jewish diaspora at the time too.

The figures, even within WW2 times, were as high as 50% of Jewish refugees migrating to the Soviet Union over Israel's settlements. These mostly working class Jewish refugees very well knew that going to Russia meant internment camps, that much was obvious even from those leaving the Allied forces countries, being forcibly deporting and them closing the borders to Jewish citizens. The reality then was that, despite being faced with torture in Soviet Russia, the Jewish population wanted nothing to do with a colonisation project like the settlements in Palestine.

The Jewish working class wasn't radicalised against their neighbours at the time, but actually against the imperialist countries that began the pogroms to stamp out the question of revolution after the first world war. These citizens, who took part in liberation struggles in countries like Russia or Germany (the two major revolutions that ended WW1), were self identified socialists, so how exactly did the colonial state get people on board with a very clearly expansionist and genocidal state?

Stay tuned I guess for when I get another to reblog! Please if you can, donate to this person, or any other that is vetted by an organisation, or share too ofc!

[godeaterazathoth]

Issues I have with ikevamp

That I’m venting here because they won’t leave my skull

*Content warning, we’re talking about men in the past, they did some bad stuff*

Part 1, historical inaccuracies

I’m I history nut so this really gets to me, since I know the deep details of these peoples lives.

The timeline, ok so the game takes place in 18th France, correct me if I’m wrong but I think it is in the second empire (1852-1870) considered there is a noble class, yet you can clearly see the Eiffel Tower which was completed in 1889, there is no mention of the 1889 exposition, so it must be after the tower had become permanent, by then the 3rd republic was around, if we are in the republic the Count wouldn’t be called that by the npcs at all the parties he goes to, no matter which we’re in, NOBODY mentions Napoleon III at, NOT EVAN HIS UNCLE (WHOSE SOMEHOW BECAME CASS CONSCIOUS!)

How does the time travel work, example, Dazai died in 1948, his plan was seemingly to wait until he’s born in 1909 then kill himself as a baby, but then he decides to use the magic door, what are the consequences of 2 Dazais existing at once or him erasing himself from history, he’s a pretty important literary figure, does someone else replace him or does the space time continuum collapse?? Is the future Vlad sees set in stone or can it be changed, just copy someone else’s time travel bit!!!

So straight up these guys aren’t who they say they are, we’ll go through 1 by 1

Napoleon- doesn’t mention he left the love of his life to marry a girl 20 years his junior (like think how interesting it would be if he’s conflicted about love cuz he had to give it up for political reasons) -that scene where MC talks about all the ‘good’ that he did in Europe, like committing war crimes against the Spanish and Portuguese and Eastern Europeans, being a coloniser, killing the slaves he freed when they asked for more rights, killing thousands of men in a meaningless war (ligit H*tler vibes)

Arthur- goofy irl, literally believed in fairies, had 5 children and married twice but he never mentions any of this, he cheated on his first wife while she was dying of TB, he was a liberal unionist (tldr didn’t like Irish people) he was anti-immigration, might have committed fraud. We’ll get to the other issues I have with him.

Leonardo- fruity as hell, vegetarian

Mozart- they got his character completely wrong, the guy was a complete man child, vain, broke, by the end of his life his career fell off (Beethoven better composer), in love with his cousin 🤢, had a s*at fetish 🤢🤢🤢. The hole Salieri thing didn’t happen.

Vincent- they made him too mentally stable, I’m all for him being meek, but the guy had serious issues that they ignore, he ate paint thinner, was rejected by his both crushes, WHY DOES HE HAVE BOTH EARS, DID IT GROW BACK, THEY SHOULD HAVE LEFT HIM WITH ONLY ONE, also he should be ginger smh. Oh yeah and they never mentioned the s*ecide attempt.

Theo- doesn’t mention his wife, or son, WHO HE NAMED AFTER VINCENT, his wife is the person responsible for Vincent’s work not being completely forgotten, was way nicer irl.

Issac- tbh hotter irl, low key ace, maybe a fruit, kinda mean, the only thing they got right was the major virgin vibes.

Jean- WHY MAN!??!! Even if the didn’t want a lesbian route, they could have gone with any other guy from the 100 years war, Edward black prince, idk WHY GENDER BEND ONE OF THE MOST PROMINENT WOMEN IN HISTORY, I’m fine with the delusional trans dude lie, but they say that he was a guy all along, THEN WHAT WAS THE POINT OF HIM BEING BURNT AT THE STAKE IF HE WASN’T CROSS DRESSING???!!! was he double cross dressing??? This is the worst of them all, give me the girl boss we deserve (revers fate)

Dazai- not depressed enough imo, he was a leftist, again missing wife, their were two su*ecide attempts, guy lived through fire bombing, had a few children that he is fine to erase from existence.

Shakespeare- probably a fruit, again never mentioned his wife and kids, btw the way he talks is annoying, some people don’t think he’s real.

Faust- NOT A REAL PERSON.

Sanson- too young, this guys is 67, really liked the guillotine, just saw execution as his job didn’t really care, had a wife and kids.

Vlad- Ok is he supposed to be Vlad THE impaler? Cuz he’s not evil enough, or is he a Dracula reference, cuz he can’t dance that dance either, why did they call him Vlad if he isn’t a blood thirsty war criminal.

Count- not enough history to work with.

Part 2, problematic moments

So I ha have seen some posts on the low key misogynistic way the MC is written and treated and there are a lot of issues wit white washing history so another trigger warning ⚠️

Misogyny- the MC of this game is not the best, I know she’s a self insert but she has no backbone at all. She lacks agency I’m most of the routes, like the MC getting kidnapped is a troupe in all these games, but Emma can escape on her own, Kate has ⚽️, even Alice had more depth to her, seems the only thing MC can do is cry and wait to be saved, I swear she gets kidnapped once in every route, I think they could have given her more character to work with. Another thing, but Jean being a man is bad, really bad, she’s a feminist icon but they made her a man, it’s sought of saying that women aren’t capable of this so she had to have actually been a man.

Handling of SA, important one here, I’m ok with the flirty guy, but I really hate Arthur, he doesn’t just flirt with her in chapter 1 he assaults her and acts like he did her a service, and she just forgives him!?! I’m fine with a guy that sleeps around, I like Jin and Nokto fine, but the way Arthur talks about women, always calling them Birds (if they were going for English slang it doesn’t work cuz he doesn’t have a cockney accent) or worse Skirts, it’s dehumanising, and shows that to him women are vehicles for sexual pleasure and aren’t on an equal level of understanding. There are smaller parts to, Leo kisses her without consent, the Count hides the truth from her, idk but Theo calling her a ‘hound’ sounds like he’s calling her something else…

Minor points on classism, I’m not expecting the communist manifesto, but all these games aren’t very good at dealing with class deviation. In Vlad’s route, the orphan boy thinks he can impress the rich girl, this is the 19th century, capitalism is on the rise, but there’s no comment about how it’s impossible. The little school Napoleons runs is strange, considering he was in a position where benefited from poor people existing and staying poor, ( side note, he’s teaching them swordsmanship when ww1 is right around the corner, just saying they won’t need it in the military) called MC out as a social climber, these games sought of depict the past through rosé tinted glasses, there’s only passing reference to how fucked people were in the past, Also all the historical inaccuracies above tie to this.

Anyway love to hear some other opinions, (I started playing this game before my transition and have always thought it it was wired, it’s my personal least favourite just cuz I couldn’t really get into any of the guys, my OC ended up as a Carmilla reference so….)

I have seen a post talking about some of the issues before so that’s what got me to write this out, if you disagree or want to add anything I’m all ears 👂

Thanks for reading 💗💖💖💕💓💝💗🥰🥰🥰❤️✨✨✨✨❤️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[jesuis-melodrama]

Comprehensive Retort on Shakespeare in the Original Klingon: Star Trek and the End of History by Professor Paul A. Cantor

The article criticised can be found here.

Professor Cantor is a racist, a white supremacist, religious and most likely a Christian, and possibly goes around proudly telling his dinner party guests that he's descended from this or that European king. Cantor argues for aristocracy and theocracy. He argues for the natural Order of Things. He argues that slavery and war should be an accepted alternative to life. He hates that democracy means he can't beat his wife (this article does not mention feminism in the slightest but I'm going to go out on a limb here and deduce that he's also a misogynist and categorises women below himself due to his conservative beliefs). He started watching Star Trek because he approved of what he thought Kirk would've been as a hero, the wrong representation of a noble American man, an imperialistic, domineering, colonising, and sexually abusive white man. When he realised that Kirk is not only kind, good, anti-tyranny, anti-slavery, and feminist, Professor Cantor decided to get nasty and write the most ridiculous and self-serving academic argument for slavery that I have ever read.

Professor Cantor starts off his article with a rather innocuous and almost tragic point: that the beginning of peace would mean the end of the adventures of the crew of the USS Enterprise as they would be degraded to antiques of a time previous, obsolete. What he fails to realise, and what proves his misinterpretation of Star Trek, is that he has transformed the Enterprise into a crew of soldiers, whose job is to forcibly spread human, democratic values. The Enterprise is a team of scientists and explorers first and foremost, while they have been show to enforce law and order and, on occasion, raised their phasers at signs of violence and the suggestions of a threat, their mission is to explore the galaxy. In his imperialistic mind, Cantor takes 'exploration' to mean forcibly spreading values. The Enterprise has not once, in the episodes I viewed, taken over another planet and aggressively spread their ideals.

Cantor also decided to be smug and superior and uses Shakespeare as a metaphor for the end of peace. He called Shakespeare 'high art', and argued that the end of the age of heroes (tyrants like Julius Caesar and self-crowning monarchs such as Napoléon) would be an end to 'necessary' heroic literature. This is a smokescreen for his racism, as like most white supremacists believe, only the Anglo-Saxon race is capable of crafting quality art and the adoption of Shakespeare by the Klingons is acceptable to Cantor only because the Klingons' warmongering and oppressive values correlate with his own expectations on how human society should be governed. He did not comprehend even for a second – despite explicitly referring to himself as a professor of literature in the article – that Shakespeare did not represent a point of contention but a summit of peace between the two races. Both humans' and Klingons' enjoyment of Shakespeare signify that they are equally intelligent, sentient, and aesthetically-appreciative people, able to find enjoyment in each other's creations.

Cantor is right to say that the only direction that history moves in is one that legitimises and amplifies the power of liberty. He opposes this greatly, which is why he is sub-textually wagging his finger at Captain Kirk's actions throughout his article. 

"Communism froze...progress until its failure became too much for even its defenders to bear." First of all, what was happening in the Soviet Union was not communism, it was totalitarianism masquerading as communism. What halted human progress was not the idea that production should be the property of those who produced it, but the restriction and ban of human rights and autonomy. Professor Cantor may be an English professor but he certainly had not brushed up on his history. He did not understand what he was talking about and does not bother to expand his knowledge beyond what supported his eugenics values.

Similarly, former President Bush was not a Hegelian. Perhaps he superficially supported Hegelianism in order to remain popular and appeal to the universal ideals held by the (voting) American population, but after his wonderful speech about the triumph of democracy, he immediately brought up a Cuban dictator as an enemy of such democracy and fed the idea that using this man as a convenient enemy would be beneficial for the state. A year after this article was published, he presided over 9/11 and used the act of terrorism as an excuse to invade Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, along with several other Middle Eastern countries under the guise of spreading democracy when in reality he simply wanted geographical control of the area (we're not even going to venture into the landmine of circumstantial yet strong evidence that suggested President Bush supported and allowed 9/11 to happen to validate his invasion). President Bush is a tyrant, a racist, and an imperialist. When he said he wanted democracy and freedom, he meant the people who lived on the same land as him and looked like him. Not those with brown skin an ocean away whom he can simply turn the other way and pretend they didn't exist.

There may be a well-established principle of the separation of Church and State, but there certainly isn't a well-established practice, not when God is in the American Parliament. Not when each trial starts with a mandatory swear upon the Bible. Not when God is the symbol of authority literally every single American senator pledge to. 

"Democracy claims to be intolerant and to welcome diversity, but it has always had difficulty tolerating anti-democratic principles and forces." This is the first line that made me realise something was off about Professor Cantor. I laughed when I came across this line, sure that it's a tongue-in-cheek remark, but the further I read into this article the more I realised Professor Cantor is not joking. This is genuinely an argument that he presented, that democracy is 'intolerant' to anti-democratic values. Cantor personalised democracy as if it's a solid institution with set definitions and values which could be attacked. It couldn't be further from the truth, democracy is an invisible concept whose clauses and definitions can be taken, smudged, erased, redefined by anyone who claims it. What kind of 'undemocratic values' was Professor Cantor talking about even? According to the rest of the article, he mourns the fact that democracy is intolerant of slavery.

"How do you encourage democratic values without encouraging a particular form of government, namely democracy?" Cantor accuses Captain Kirk of being an imperialist, the very selfsame thing that he is guilty of, except that he turns the spotlight on Captain Kirk because Captain Kirk's freedom-loving values intrude on his right to oppress minority populations. Is it possible that so-called democratic values are capable of standing on their own and does not need an institution of government to support them? Is it possible that liberty and justice and freedom exist beyond the confines of a form of government and exceed humanity as a whole? Is it possible that freedom and liberty are even non-human and applies to non-sentient concepts such as spirit and environment? Not according to Professor Cantor who is adamant that the very idea of spreading the right to self-determination and self-authority is tyrannical. Professor Cantor is the type of person who would happily take half-cast children away from their Indigenous parents under the idea of security. Professor Cantor is the type of person who would vote for the criminalisation of the homeless on the foundation that their uselessness as employees is personally affrontive to him and their existence could be more productive by serving as slaves.

Several times throughout the article, Professor Cantor used the excuse of multiculturalism and diversity to mask his antagonistic, supremacist ideals. He uses the alien species that Captain Kirk subdued to submission as proof that he is unaccepting of difference. He conveniently forgoes mentioning that these alien species that Captain Kirk cannot tolerate also happened to be raising slaves, mind-controlling populations, or affecting cruelty. To turn a blind eye to such atrocities is to willingly become a by-standing villain, the most mundane and common type of evil.

Here's a list of all the things democracy is intolerant of: the binary of genders, unlawful oppression of minorities, the removal of the right to vote, the eradication of choice. By arguing that democracy is intolerant of these things, Cantor has inexplicably admitted that he is for all of those possibilities. Arguing that democracy is intolerant of 'undemocratic' ideals is similar to the argument that 'love is love. So why can't a 34 years old be in a romantic relationship with a 12 years old?' It's such a juvenile, foolish, and ridiculously elementary argument that it doesn't need to be defended. We all know why such a thing isn't allow. Cantor is like a brash, private school boy, pointing out unfairness that only he sees. That only restrict his ability to rule. Captain Kirk's refusal to grant genocidal maniacs a second chance, his refusal to ignore the plight of enslaved people, counts as intolerance and interference to Professor Cantor. This is because Captain Kirk is uncomfortably reminding Professor Cantor that should he have existed as the tyrant he wishes to be in the universe of Star Trek, he would not have gotten away with it, because heroic Captain Kirk would ensure that he would never escape rightful punishment for his crimes. 

"If anyone claims a natural or divine right to rule over anyone else in the galaxy, Kirk automatically reaches for his phaser." This is problematic for Professor Cantor only, he believes in a natural or divine right to true. He believes that some people are more superior than others. He believes in eugenics and slavery. Professor Cantor has this deranged line: "Deep bias against the notion of aristocracy." He says this to imply that aristocracy is a legitimate form of rule and anyone who rebels against it is 'imposing'. Aristocracy and monarchy, at its heart, is a form of government that relies on terrorising and the oppression of the major 'peasant' population. Saying Captain Kirk has a deep bias against aristocracy is like saying a slave has 'deep bias' against being enslaved.

Giving people the right to choose what they should or should not do is an immeasurable offence against Professor Cantor's sensibilities, enough that he had brought it up multiple times in his article as among Captain Kirk's graver offences. "Through he [Captain Kirk] claims to be peace-loving, he behaves violently when peace seem to require any surrender of autonomy." Professor Cantor would happily be a resident of Omelas. Professor Cantor would tut and shake his head about the 'violence' of BLM protestors. Professor Cantor would be the idiot who asks why the French are so aggressive in their uproar against President Macron. Professor Cantor never understood what it's like to have a basic dignity taken away from him for the convenience and comfort of a 'superior' race. I do not want this man anywhere near my children.

Through his extensive review of the episode Who Mourns For Adonais?, Professor Cantor has proven that he is in favour of theocracy, autocracy, and racial supremacy. He believes that those with 'superior genetics' should be given the right to rule and what Captain Kirk should've done when encountering Apollo is bowed his head and accepted chains of enslavement. Professor Cantor has placed God above himself but himself above all other Earth citizens. I cannot emphasis this enough, according to this article, Professor Cantor genuinely seems to believe some people are genetically superior than others. "This episode teaches a basic truth about Kirk, as it does Star Trek IV. He is willing to save whales but he feels compelled to kill gods." Translation: how could Captain Kirk, a comfortable white man like me, be willing to save lower races but reject the existence of superior races? Perhaps because Captain Kirk does not share your imperialistic, supremacist values, Professor Cantor. Cantor argues that whales should not be saved. Professor Cantor argues in favour of Nazism and Nordicism.

"Kirk does not wait to face the implications of Apollo's claim: There's an order of things in the universe. Your species has denied it." On the contrary, Professor Cantor, I believe it is you who is cowardly and ignorant. I believe that Captain Kirk has throughly considered Apollo's claim for the Divine Right of Kings as it is in his accepting and compassionate character to greet new beings as his equal and receive their perspectives without judgement. Except that Apollo's opinion is that Kirk and his crew are destined to be nothing more than his worshippers, shallow footnotes in the great tome of his existence, and he should be proud and happily to be reduced to such a role. Kirk rejected Apollo's claim with great disgust and revulsion. Kirk then mourned Apollo, not because he is remorseful of his decision but because he has slain a magnificent and illustrious living being. 

War is not a cultural identity, motherf**ker.

When Captain Kirk says to Spock: "Everyone is human", he does not mean that humans are the highest being of the universe as Professor Cantor continues to misinterpret in his desperate struggle to paint Captain Kirk as a dim, aggressive villain. He means that he considers every race as his kin, his family, and will fight for them as strongly as he would for any human. He means that all races possess sentiment, sentience, and intelligence, and he will not stand for the reduction of any race to any second-class citizens. When Spock replies: "I take offence to that", Spock is attempting a joke. Spock is reaching out to meet Captain Kirk, an alien not of his species, half-way. Professor Cantor seizes onto Spock as a vessel for his supremacist ideals, like Ben Shapiro arrogantly and obnoxiously pronounces facts as "more important than your feelings".

Furthermore, as I previously argued, there is nothing uniquely human about the right to self-determination. Animals have the right to be free and unencumbered from the burden of human employment and enslavement. The only reason why pets are acceptable is due to the wide-spread and popular belief that the only pets legally permitted are those whose every need is catered to and whose body and mind are well looked after. Freedom is not an artificial made-up human institution. It is a truth of the universe and applies to cosmic bodies as well as it does land. As Indigenous people have tried and tried to tell their colonisers throughout history, lands are alive and should be treated with the honour and the respect they deserve. And despite Elon Musk's repeated attempts, space does not belong to him. Mars is free in a way he never will be of his own self-sabotaging, desperate need to be liked by the people whose rights he deny and mock. 

In the same manner where Professor Cantor paints all of Kirk's perspective in a villainising, poor light, he has claimed Spock as his voice of reason, repeatedly presenting him as the sole source of ration among the more base Enterprise members. He fails to realise that Dr McCoy's argument for the right to self-determine is the mother of Spock's argument, that the people have a right to choose a system that works for them. Professor Cantor thought that Spock is arguing for the right of people to be slaves. Spock is not f**king doing that. 

"...however contented creatures such as the Klingon may appear to be with their non-democratic way of life"??? First of all, the idea that contentment is a measure of peace is dangerous. So many Confederates have argued that enslaved black people were very happy serving under the benign patronage of their white masters. Second of all, the Klingons are explicitly democratic. Professor Cantor seems to forget that they were represented by an elected official, and that their military command posts are assigned on the virtues of experience and relevancy, not primogeniture or blue blood. The Klingons had a court, where even criminals such as Captain Kirk and Doctor McCoy suspected of the high-profile and barbaric assassination of a major political figure, were given adequate, if underwhelming, legal representation. This adds further proof that Professor Cantor is a horrible English professor despite his pride in his career as he continually fails to interpret Star Trek in any manner that does not serve his own agenda.

"What if another culture has a different attitude towards life? What if it is willing to enslave or even exterminate other beings?" What the f**k is your argument here? That we should let them, Cantor? That it should be permitted without interference? I find it very curious that those who argue in favour of slavery never imagine themselves as the slaves, only the masters. And, of course, this is because in a right and true world, people like Professional Cantor – with his DNA, skin colour, and race of origin – would never be slaves. They are genetically superior. They would always only be the masters. 

Captain Hikaru Sulu's segment is the most ominous remark in the article: "Does it mean anything that the last person we see in charge of a commissioned starship is Captain Sulu, the one Japanese character? Sulu was once subordinate to Kirk, but now he commands his own starship, a technologically more advanced one. The film seems to be making a strange suggestion: If the Klingons are Russians and the Federation is the United States, have the two fought each other for years only to leave the world in the hands of the Japanese?" It's handled by Professor Cantor in a nearly hostile, off-hand reference to the influence of Asian people. This is because Professor Cantor is furious that Captain Sulu was given command of his own ship and a crew of white crewmen to rule over. Such an occurrence would never be tolerated or aired in Professor Cantor's dream view of what Star Trek should've looked like. The Russians may be the enemies of the American people, but at least they are white. Sulu's Asian representation suggests an impossible future to Professor Cantor, one where the Caucasian race is not at the pinnacle of the human pyramid.

I am repulsed that such blatant support of white supremacy and slavery had been published in an academic journal.

[0pixiepoppy6]

Why an Australian want’s you to vote for Kamala Harris! A Rant

Listen I know you probably don’t want to hear some girl across the sea telling you who your president should or shouldn’t be, but considering that your country has a military base on my country’s soil - I’m going to do it anyway.

Australia is very similar to the USA in a multitude of ways; the massacre and colonisation of the native people (Native Americans and the Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders), forced assimilation of the native people/ killing of native culture (for us it’s called the Lost Generation, look it up), a multicultural country that has treated non-European settlers with prejudice, racism, and abuse (USA: African-Americans, Chinese immigrants, Mexican immigrants (they are your sister country wth), etc. AUS: Chinese immigrants, Mediterranean immigrants, etc.), been fucked over by the governing parties for YEARS (fuck you Tony Abbott, Julia Gillard, Scot Morison, etc), and the fact that we are only first-world countries through pillaging, killing, and stealing from others across the world.

I am an Australian telling you that the USA, UK, AUS, CA have all been the bullies of the modern world, stealing from other countries while praying around in the luxurious that we stole.

Only recently have we gotten an actually competent leader, Anthony Albanese, who has advocated for the voice of the Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander People. The Voice was a bill that would allow the native people of the land I live on to have a say in the way our country is run after 200 years of being forced into silence by white settlers. It did not win, because my country was too afraid of what they would hear from the native people of our land. It did not win and as a result of that the non-native people of Australia (European, Mediterranean, African, American, Asian, and Pacific immigrants/ descendants of immigrants) have broken a promise that we made to them in 1967 (the Uluṟu Statement). Now you can probably tell how much this pisses me off, but don’t let my country’s failure to listen become yours. Please vote for Kamala, the rest of the world if affected by who you vote for, many other countries in the world have USA military bases on their soil that I can guarantee you they DO NOT WANT THERE! We were affected when your country ruled abortion as a state issue, the women of the rest of the world believed that we would have that right taken from us because of something YOUR government decided.

I know Harris isn’t a saint, she isn’t perfect, she has a history of incarcerating African-Americans and using them as Labourers in California, but, for fucks sake, she’s better than Trump. And if you elect her as president, you the people of the USA, can hold her accountable for her past actions. Trump will not allow that, you’ve seen what Trump will make his supporters do once given a hint of power, you know what flag his people fly, the flag of hate, the Confederate Flag is what they hold. A flag that only lasted for 4 fucking years, from a war that is gone. SpongeBob has outlasted the Confederacy, fucking SpongeBob, it’s 25 years old the Confederacy was 4! Trump will become a dictator, that I can guarantee you. Look at the people he surrounds himself with, look at his supporters, and look at yourself.

In conclusion, I can’t vote for who your president is, the rest of the world can only look on in fear as to who your choice will be. We pray that you vote for Harris because we fear a future under Trump.

[thekrows-nest]

Huge wall of speculation incoming.

I have no idea if the OG! - Vamp! connection hinting at the mantra relates to stuff I’ve guessed at but hasn’t been publicly confirmed, or if it’s stuff that even I haven’t touched on.

Let’s see… let’s first go over what I do know.

The hunger is obvious. 

OG Krow is notoriously food insecure and that’s where his organ harvesting side hustle comes in. His thirst for fluids… if you know you know. He’s also metaphorically ‘empty’ because he’s been so emotionally neglected and lonely. Also his job and the dog eat dog survival growing up may have desensitised him to a lot of emotions like guilt, empathy (for those who give a reason) or fear.

As well as being a really striking visual it makes sense with all of this for Vampire Krow to have a gaping void at his core, a ravening hunger and thirst, an empty belly and no heart. Traditional vetala also prefer to feed on intestines so there’s that too.

OG Krow is an artist, and creativity is his entire drive outside Dove. (It could be argued that as a muse who broke his art block, Dove is even an extension of that.) Maybe there is some of that remaining.

OG Krow loves music and has sensitive hearing.

OG Krow is clever and sneaky, easily underestimated.

OG Krow loves birds. Perhaps that can be used in some way.

OG Krow was/is homeless, hypervigilant, stealthy, has wonky sleep schedule but great physical stamina. 

Vampire Krow may be tethered to one place or haunting abandoned places, but if he may have travelled to America he may have been cursed to wander. Or just have free will like most vamps. Or is being forced to move around to avoid being killed, or endlessly chase more prey. I don’t know.

I do know he doesn’t have an opulent mansion and probably doesn’t have a safe secure resting place. Vampire Krow doesn’t tire because he has nowhere safe to rest with other monsters hunting him and is always seeking the next meal. He can possibly be active night or day but might use stealth/night for easy meals if he still has enough sanity to not just charge in.

OG Krow is Bengali/Indian. 

In the subcontinent it would reallllly suck for him if he was weak to the sun. Or garlic. Or superstition. Too easy.

You know what? Both Krows have freckles and OG Krow curls up in bed to stay warm (maybe that’s just his substandard accommodation). I headcanon that if Vampire Krow  ever gets a moment of peace or if prey is unavailable he's sitting in the sun to get nice and dark or just not caring about it, he can barely feel the warmth but imagines it’s still a source of energy (prana) and maybe it warms his cold dead body. He tries to remember it from when he was alive. 

Maybe he even uproots and crushes cloves of garlic into his mouth because the strong acrid flavour is the only thing that still registers, or eats it like a starving human eats grass. 

Whoaaa… In some religious contexts Hindus may consider the strong odor of onions and garlic ‘impure’ and avoid them during sacred occasions or religious rituals. It is veg food though.

However like OG Krow he may not have been allowed to learn about Hindu beliefs. Despite having memories of life, having Hindu roots and being traumatized by colonization, I still don’t know what garlic means for Vampire Krow either way. If it’s good or bad. I’m going to say it’s not effective because it’s so well known against European vampires.

I don’t think Vampire Krow gives a single crap about crosses, or (if OG Krow had the religious upbringing I have brought up as a Krack theory) they may just make him angrier. This is a fairly traditional weakness anyway. 

Krack theory… OG Krow as orphan or in foster care?

Part of living Vampire Krow’s trauma under occupation may have been being orphaned or taken from his parents for colonisers to raise. 

I don’t think this is it as OG Krow is Bengali/Indian but there were also cases of British men siring children and returning overseas, abandoning mother and child to fend for themselves. Not a great position to be in in poverty, war, and famine… may have led to the loss of his mother or their separation.

This doesn’t square with him being turned as an adult unless there’s some device like slowly aging or he was just reaching age. But abuse of children of colour in ‘children’s homes’ was rife, mortality was high and covered up, and children were the favourite prey of traditional vetala. I actually have no idea how or why he was turned.

So. This is all I have so far.

Blind unreasoning hunger (greed), (bloodlust?) or rage may lead Vampire Krow into traps or destruction/capture by another monster. (Either Vishnu or Krishna said downfall comes through greed, lust or rage.)

Appeals to any remaining humanity may be somewhat helpful.

He may be bribed with… liquids. Or mangoes?

Water from the Ganges seems to be the equivalent of holy water.

Offers to braid his hair did seemed to give him pause. And marriage proposals? In Indian culture it can be inauspicious to have open (untied) hair and the attention and sensation of braiding might remind him of life. Or lust.

Perhaps Vampire Krow may be mesmerized by art or beauty. Perhaps he can be distracted by looking at or making mehndi.

Maybe he can be enthralled by music or given pause by loud sounds.

Maybe you have to be wary of him pretending to be trapped or enthralled, only to suddenly lunge.

He may pause to look at released birds, or stop to collect strewn feathers.

You cannot sneak up on him or outrun him as you will be taken unaware or tire before he does. I believe the term is persistence predator.

Krow mayyyy be weak to intense cold? Or at least not really like it.

Turmeric is an auspicious spice and to be avoided during mourning so maybe he’s weak to that? He may still be given momentary pause by Hindu taboos from when he was alive? Assuming he was allowed to learn about it.

He may have trauma from life around young ones being taken or hurt, and might be persuaded to spare babies or children.

As to the specific mantra relevant to OG Krow, I still don’t know. There may have to be some more lore drops before I even have the faintest hunch.

But I did look for mantras for abandoned babies and came up with another chant to Narasimha - then randomly stumbled on something interesting.

There was once a deva named Hiranyakashipu who sought the boon of invulnerability against most weapons and causes of death, and to become so strong that only Lord Vishnu could kill him. Beast, deva and man could not kill him, he could be killed neither at night or in the day, not inside nor outside, on the earth or in the sky, by weapons either living nor nonliving… 

Then one day Hiranyakasipu had a grievance and sought to kill Narasimha (the fourth avatar of Vishnu). Hiranyakasipu was then attacked by Narasimha under the perfect conditions to circumvent it all.

Narasimha took a form that was part human and part animal, attacked Hiranyakasipu at twilight, and did it at the threshold to his house. Narasimha laid the deva on his own thighs (off the ground but not in the sky) and killed him by disembowelment with his claws.

Probably not why Vampire Krow is gutted but an interesting coincidence all the same. 

So I’m guessing that Krow has a number of conditions under which he can’t be killed or at least things that won’t work, and so there may have to be some creative thinking, riddling and loophole abuse.

Vishnu/Narasimha also does seem to be the one to pray to for defense from demons or evil spirits.

Took a bit to get to this because my god what a novel that is this ask. /pos

I appreciate that you make me much more of a genius in character design than I really am Krowspiracy. /silly I guess it's one of those things that even if the creator didn't consciously go into a design with certain thoughts, it still subconsciously bleeds (ha) through. Maybe I still am a genius?

...New canon for Vampire Krow. He absolutely lounges in the sun whenever he does have a moment's peace. He probably doesn't really warm up any more, or really feel it, but, it's a moment to try and reflect back on when he was alive. To try and desperately still cling to what humanity he has left.

And no garlic isn't really effective one way or the other to Vampire Krow. The main thing for him is I wanted to get away from "traditional" (western) vampire weaknesses for him. He's not western, so why would those weaknesses apply to him? So someone trying to eat garlic or something as a means to ward him off are in for a nasty shock.

Crosses might not be a magical weakness to him, but they could still infuriate him as a possible reminder of British colonization. So in one sense, is a weakness, but not like how you'd think for a vampire.

I do like the idea that enthralling him with things of beauty is a means to at least give him pause (or even confuse him with unexpected kindness). There's so many stories of terrible beasts being tamed or thwarted or whatever when showing compassion to them instead of aggression. And that is a neat idea to have with Vampire Krow.

As for the specific mantra... I'll give a slight hint. It is to a specific deity but likely not who most would think of. And it does have to do with OG Krow lore. However, that lore hasn't been publicly revealed yet. (For you though, Krowspiracy, as a treat, I'll say you did pretty much nail what the lore was, more or less, in one of your theories.)

Pretty much for a mortal to kill him would require specific conditions I think (or well... basically nuke him sdfnmbdlf). A fellow supernatural would have an easier time killing him, albeit that doesn't necessarily mean they can accomplish the task.

[lightofthedarkdarkofthelight]

# the nature of what it is to be trans is just that: natural

It’s been around for as long as us human animals have been around.

We need to be careful in acknowledging it as inherently queer not cis mandated it should adhere to the queer spirit for queer bodies not the cis hets perspective that was born from brutal colonisation

An issue I don’t see getting the light it deserves is how the cis normative world, propagated by colonialism, and by this I mean how colonialism was excused and executed under the title of ‘the civilisation mission’. A mission that was to forcibly indoctrinate the entire globe to take on the culture of Europe aka Eurocentric values. Such values included their two way gender system.

With that being said, as a gnc brown skin individual, right from as early as pre school I’ve been subject to how this European cultural view of gender confuses the cis.

Are you a boy or a girl? What are you? A child I would think to myself, but the aggression of their confusion made my little empathetic self unable to speak up.

Since growing up and finding my way into the trans community in my early teens I have also experienced cis strangers telling me it is obvious I was born male and trying to be female when I never could. I have also been told by cis strangers it’s obvious I was born female and trying to be male when I never could.

What I have learnt from this is:

Cis hets: we are allowed to tell you in an array of ways how you do not fit our two way gender system, but don’t you dare ever declare this yourself, do not find your own label to be defined as, as we will tell you it does not exist.

To the cis I cannot exist as their female nor their male but I MUST try to and accept their criticism as never being able to. To them it is obvious I can not fit in either box but I am not allowed to declare this I am not allowed to make my own space I just have to be victim to their standards and European ideologies harming my body and identity.

It is frustrating how their own self admitted confusion to them is not confusion but proof of their own egotistical righteousness over all the bodies that do not fit what they feel theirs do.

I have learned that a large body of the medical community related to the care of trans bodies will push for you to fit into the European two way gender system. Creating guidelines such as presenting as one particular gender a year before being prescribed hrt or obtaining surgery. To have surgeries that fall in line with how a cis body would look. That to fight these things means being pushed back, being labelled as not ready or mentally able and so on.

I have found that in contrast to the history of the what it meant to be transgender now the focus more revolves around the ability or at least intent to pass as a cis body to cis eyes. To pass in the Eurocentric ideals of a gender identity. This has been one of the hardest realisations (don’t get me wrong there’s been many) to know that for the longest time the state that is being transgender was about acknowledging the vast array of NATURAL states that exist outside of the Eurocentric two way gender ideals. To know that I missed out on that and came to be in a time where it was catered to the Eurocentric gender ideals. Sort of feels like “fine fine, we acknowledge this trans thing but only if it adheres to Eurocentric gender ideals as much as possible and we will mercifully push for this as much as possible”. It’s sad. It makes me mourn for the little me, being heavily attacked by the eyes of Eurocentric ideals (in virtually all ways) and having my birth right (humans as social animals are communal animals, the first of us lived nomadic lifestyles in ‘family-bands’ aka little communities and I believe we are all born to have this as is our birth right) - my community being invaded and remoulded by Eurocentric values before I even had a chance to take my first steps within it.

I believe it wasted a lot of my time and created unnecessary amounts of confusion which makes it so much more infuriating when they accuse the state of being trans as WHY there is confusion. It also blocked me from learning and honouring my natural states (always more than one state to every body I won’t argue on this) for far too long when it existed to be the opposite. Our communities exist as natural formations of natural connections to natural states of being that align and harmonise in ways that become a safe space and type of home.

I think it’s exciting now in my late twenties seeing more of my community using terms such as ‘he him lesbian’ ‘girl cock’ ‘dick clit’ ‘girlfriendboyfriend’ ‘butch boys’ and the like. The queer and trans community stem from the space that existed to permit those terms. The space that existed to acknowledge and provide a home and voice to the incredible amounts of variance within any one body. So make up words if you find yourself indoctrinated into a language that does not describe you enough to be able to speak your truths. Remember that one thing colonisation left us with is European languages dominate the globe still. Remember that in order for this to happen many languages were brutally changed and eradicated (books and educational spaces burnt to ash). It makes sense to have to create your own language to survive in the post colonial world. Remember that although once the USA was colonised it successfully and lawfully divorced itself from Europe so whites could be recognised as American only, they still all come from Europe and so mainly speak English (most successfully globalised European language) .

So don’t be embarrassed and don’t sweat how much the Eurocentric world will throw fits at your neo pronouns or how you rearrange and reconstruct and disable and reinvent the words they assign to you with languages that our ancestors were beaten into submission of. Of course it will rattle them. It’s living breathing proof that despite how well colonisation globalised European culture to take over ALL cultures and their beliefs/languages/paradigms aka sense of reality, bodies, souls, minds, hormones, biology continue to grow unable to fit their space. It’s proof that having one culture dominate ALL cultures is what is actually unnatural. That even with generations and generations of nations swearing to raise everyone to submit into European culture, it still cannot hold us all. That there are still an immeasurable amount of us that can not, that will not, that would rather die, that those who well fit european culture even acknowledge- we can not be held by - their cultural ideals. That there are natural forces that can not be reckoned with no matter how many generations you try to beat it from us.

I cuddle younger me with this knowledge and by seeing all of you exist as yourselves even when having to fight daily to be able to do so because the world around you continually tries to reconstruct what your words, feelings, bodies, minds and souls natural states are.

Please keep fighting. Be unapologetic. Keep showing up as you. Even though I’m not a little butch gnc child anymore I still benefit wholeheartedly from seeing it just as you do. We all do. Our community has existed for eons, expressed in all cultures. Remember that it was only one culture that has had so much self hate for who we are and that it was through the brutalities of colonialism and globalising their culture that we even have to fight to be seen or heard. Do not give up. The only weird thing is telling a whole globe of souls to adhere to one culture that was so out of sync with all the other cultures. It is weird to see a thing and say it does not exist and weird still to see another of that thing and another and another and deny it’s existence and weirder still to see it go further back than whoever first said it does not exist and still persist IT DOES NOT EXIST. That’s weird. Not you. Thank you for existing in a world that constantly tried to erase, you, your community and our rich history. Remember that those against you are slaves to a culture that harmed their own people too, there’s no real power in that but there ir is sadness and sickness and they will try to project this onto you. Don’t let them.

-Tahari Spirt