#this would definitely be racist

[brazilian-whalien52]

One thing that I don't like when live actions come out is how people can't differ the original content from the live action one. These are two medium and two different ways to tell a story.

[qqchurch]

you know you're in a cishet male gamer discord when you see stuff like this without pushback in comment to people being mad or baffled by a gacha girl having a complete joke of proportions 🫡🫡🫡

[jewreallythinkthat]

I don't know who needs to hear this but:

The British Mandate of Palestine =/= the State of Palestine.

There has never been a Palestinian state. That's not trying to justify anything or whatever, it's just the fucking history. The area now known as Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories was once "Judea" the homeland of the Jewish People, a self governing region/country/area. It was then colonised by multiple empires, the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Arab Caliphate, the Ottoman Empire the British, Empire. None of these are a Palestinian states; these are all the result of imperialist colonising ideologies.

There could have been a self determined state in 1948 but instead there was a war because proto-Israel was attacked and defended herself.

If you need to rewrite history to justify your hate, maybe you're not as progressive as you want to think you are.

Edit: as I've said many times, I'm very pro 2-state solution. This post is not about that but I will not have this being used by other people to straw man me and lie about my beliefs

[cuddlytogas]

there was some Twitter madness recently where someone left a comment on someone's art to the effect of, "Ed shouldn't wear a dress, he's a man!" which I do disagree with on principle, but unfortunately, it brought out one of my least favourite trends in the fandom

so, naturally, I had to write a twitter essay about it. and I already largely argued this in a post here, but the thread is clearer and better structured, so I thought I'd cross-post for those not on the Hellsite (derogatory). edited for formatting/structure's sake, since I no longer have to keep to tweet lengths, and incorporating a couple of points other people brought up in the replies

so

I want to point out that the wedding cake toppers in OFMD s2 aren't evidence that Ed wants to wear dresses. Gender is fake, men can wear skirts, play with these dolls how you like, but it's not canon, and that scene especially Doesn't Mean That.

People cite it often: 'He put himself in a dress by painting the bride as himself! It's what he wants!' But that fundamentally misunderstands the scene, and the series' framing of weddings as a whole. I'd argue that Ed paints the figure not from desire, but from self-hatred; it's not what he wants, but what he thinks he should, and has failed to, be.

(Yes, I am slightly biased by my rampant anti-marriage opinions, but bear with me here, because it is relevant to the interpretation of the scene, and season two as a whole.)

The show is not subtle. It keeps telling us that the institution of marriage is a prison that suffocates everyone involved. Ed's parents' cycle of abuse is passed to their son in both the violence he witnesses then enacts on his father, and the self-repression his mother teaches, despite her good intentions ("It's not up to us, is it? It's up to God. ... We're just not those kind of people. We never will be."). Stede and Mary are both oppressed by their arranged marriage, with 1x04 blunty titled Discomfort in a Married State. The Barbados widows revel in their freedom ("We're alive. They're dead. Now is your time").

But even without this context, the particular wedding crashed in 2x01 is COMICALLY evil. The scene is introduced with this speech from the priest:

"The natural condition of humanity is base and vile. It is the obligation of people of standing ... to elevate the common human rabble through the sacred transaction of matrimony."

It's upper class, all-white, and religiously sanctioned. "Vile natural conditions" include queerness, sexual freedom, and family structures outside the cisheteropatriarchal capitalist unit. "The obligation of people of standing" invokes ideas like the white man's burden, innate class hierarchy, religious missions, and conversion therapy. Matrimony is presented as both "sacred" (endorsed by the ruling religious body), and a "transaction" (business performed to transfer property and people-as-property, regardless of their desires), a tool of the oppressive society that pirates escape and destroy. That is where the figurines come from.

When Ed, in a drunk, depressive spiral, paints himself onto the bride, he's not yearning for a pretty dress. He's sort of yearning for a wedding, but that's not framed as positive. What he's doing is projecting himself into an 'ideal' image of marriage because he believes that: a) that's what Stede (and everyone) wants; b) he can never live up to that ideal because he's unlovable and broken (brown, queer, lower-class, violent, abused, etc); c) that's why Stede left. He tries to make himself fit into the social ideal by painting himself onto the closest match - long-haired, partner to Stede/groom, but a demure, white woman, a frozen, porcelain miniature - because, if he could just shrink himself down and squeeze into that box, maybe Stede would love him and he'd live happily ever after. But he can't. So he won't.

The fantasy fails: Ed is morose, turns away from the figurines, then tips them into the sea, a lost cause. He knows he won't ever fulfil that bride's role, but he sees that as a failure in himself, not the role. It's not just that "Stede left, so Ed will never have a dream wedding and might as well die." Stede left when Ed was honest and vulnerable, "proving" what his trauma and depression tell him: there's one image of love (of personhood), and he'll never live up to it because he's fundamentally deficient. So he might as well die.

This hit me from my very first viewing. The scene is devastating, because Ed is wrong, and we know it! He doesn't need to change or reduce himself to fit an image and be accepted (as, eg, Izzy demanded). Stede knows and loves him exactly as he is; it's the main thread and theme of season two!

(@/everyonegetcake suggested that Ed's yearning in these scenes includes his broader desire for the vulnerability and safety Stede offered, literalised through unattainable "fine" things like the status of gentleman in s1, or the figurine's blue dress. I'd argue, though, that these scenes don't incorporate this beyond a general knowledge of Ed's character. Ed is always pining for both literal and emotional softness, but the significance of the figurines specifically, to both Ed and the audience, is poisoned by their origin and context: there is no positive fantasy in the bride figure, only Ed's perceived deficiency.

Further, assuming that a desire for vulnerability necessarily corresponds with an explicit desire for femininity, dresses, etc, kind of contradicts the major themes of the show. OFMD asserts that there is nothing wrong with men assuming femininity (through drag, self-care, nurturing, emotional vulnerability, etc), but also that many of these traits are, in fact, genderless, and should be available to men without affecting their perceived or actual masculinity. It thematically invokes the potential for cross-gender expression in Ed's desires, especially through the transgender echoes in his relieved disposal, then comfortable reincorporation, of the Blackbeard leathers/identity. It's a rich, valuable area of analysis and exploration. But it remains a suggestion, not a canon or on-screen trait.)

Importantly, the groom figure doesn't fit Stede, either. Not just in dress: it's stiff and formal, and marriage nearly killed him. He's shabbier now, yes, but also shedding his privilege and property, embracing his queerness, and trying to take responsibility for his community. In a s1 flashback, Stede hesitantly says, "I thought that, when I did marry, it could be for love," but he would never find love in marriage. Not just because he's gay, but because marriage in OFMD is an oppressive, transactional institution that precludes love altogether. All formal marriages in OFMD are loveless.

So, he becomes a pirate, where they reject society altogether and have matelotages instead. Lucius and Pete's "mateys" ceremony is shot and framed not like a wedding, but as an honest, personal bond, willingly conducted in community (in a circle; no presiding authority, procession, or transaction).

That is how Stede and Ed can find love, companionship, and happiness: by rejecting those figurines and their oppressive exchange of property, overseen by a church that enables colonialism and abuse. Ed is loved, and deserves happiness, as he is, no paint or projection required.

ALL OF THIS IS TO SAY: draw Ed in dresses! Write him getting gender euphoria in skirts! Write trans/nb Ed, draw men being feminine! Gender is fake, the show invites exploration, that's what 'transformative works' means! But please, stop citing the cake toppers as evidence it's canon. Stop citing a scene where a depressed Māori man gets drunk and projects himself onto a rich, white, silent bride because he thinks he's innately unlovable and only people like her can find happiness, shortly before deciding to kill himself, as canon evidence it's what he wants.

(Also, please don't come in here with "lmao we're just having fun," I know, I get it. Unfortunately, I'm an academiapilled researchmaxxer, and some of youse need to remember that the word "canon" has meaning. NOW GO HAVE FUN PUTTING THAT MAN IN A PRETTY DRESS!! 💖💖)

[communistkenobi]

I’m thinking about how administrative leave requests would work in starfleet and it’s gotta be a huge pain in the ass right. vulcans would probably need a special expedited leave request process for pon-farr, because they become violent/die if they don’t excuse themselves to have sex asap, but this is probably a narrow accommodation only granted to vulcans, so if they were dating a non-vulcan who had to go through normal, slower leave request procedures that would cause logistical issues cuz emergency pon farr admin leave only works if both parties can do it at the same time, so if you’re a non-vulcan dating a vulcan you would have to probably apply to get that accommodation extended to you, and because I’m assuming starfleet operates on the same punitive logics as contemporary bureaucracies do, they’d be paranoid about non-vulcans “cheating the system” by falsely claiming they were dating a vulcan to get their leave request expedited, so they’d probably require proof of marriage or long-term cohabitation with a vulcan in order for a non-vulcan to get approved for that kind of thing, meaning casual or otherwise non-normative vulcan/non-vulcan couples in starfleet would be administratively marginalised and (re)produce a culture deriding interspecies dating, especially because humans seem to be kinda default racist towards vulcans in star trek in general, so they would probably view a human dating a vulcan as getting “special privileges” for administrative leave even though it’s just a basic accommodation. this is a classic example of how administrative apparatuses operating on a liberal conception of equity can reproduce systems of racial discrimination

[1tbls]

i love the way disco elysium deconstructs both the detective genre and RPG games. i wanna see the same done to other formats. like:

prequel of harry's child/teenhood in the format of a fighting game. brawling through friends and foes and his own psyche alike. maybe you build relationships with characters through teaming up with them, or social interludes, like fire emblem or persona. you get to learn about the people in harry's life, and also get a special combo move if you max out their social meter :p but also sometimes in the midst of building a relationship with a person, they simply just die in the course of their lives. and their little unfilled meter sits on your relationships page, forever.

prequel of kim's early years in the RCM in the format of 🤔 a puzzle platformer? or a strategy game like suzerainty civilization? where you are managing constantly diminishing "resources" like monthly budget, respect from your colleagues, kim's will to keep going, physical energy. energy+will -> actions at work -> respect+$. kim has a massive well of will, which allows and incentivizes working overtime to increase $ and respect, which costs energy. mechanically, you are incentivized to burn as much energy as possible, to always be at dregs.

[dieinct]

my most unpopular grouchy christmas opinion is that krampusposting is more cringe and irritating than sincere christmas love by like a factor of 50

[namisweatheria]

Huh.. kinda shocked I haven't seen a single negative reaction to the Robin casting. Am I the only person who was hoping they'd backtrack on all these years of whitewashing her and cast a brown woman? Honestly I wasn't even hoping anymore so much as expecting it, which was really stupid I guess. I'm really sad about it honestly. I thought her being a woman of color made her ennies lobby arc even more powerful and was hoping we'd get there one day with opla. She does really look like Robin though, just, you know, white.

I know Oda once said Robin would be from Russia, and I know that a lot of people consider pre-ts Robin's skin tone "an animation mistake" or "just a tan from living in the desert" but I find those explanations both laughable and irritating. Who even cares if it was the original intention or not? She was beautiful and it added a positive and meaningful dimension to her character.

(And I don't put a lot of weight on his sbs answers in general, especially that one. I mean. We all remember where he said Usopp would be from right.)

I saw someone being excited for positive Slav representation, which is nice. From that angle I'm glad. But I'm still disappointed, and really, really surprised that I haven't seen anyone else expressing theirs. I guess I was the only one actually expecting it lol

[thealogie]

This violently racist take being in MY algorithm simply because I like London theatre? Like sorry it’s not like I don’t realize young people on TikTok are just as racist as old white guys but I didn’t realize we were doing this type of boomer style masks off racism. And then trying to bring Tom Holland into your racism and misogyny because you can’t conceive of a man not being like that. God

[arson-09]

its very interesting to me how Tamlin is the character and High Lord that is heavily vilified (I would almost say even more than Beron strangely) when he is the only High Lord to have talked about d how he has gone about removing slavery within his court, protecting lower fae in general, and his court was open to immigration from other courts (i cant remember if its mentioned again in acomaf but in acotar fae from other courts are free to move to the spring court. example, Alis) and how overall he is a great leader. Especially when you compare him and Rhysand as High Lords.

The Court of Nightmares is well, a nightmare. Its existence is extremely strange and makes Rhysand look very odd. as well as its unclear how Rhysand gets his wealth. Velaris was a hidden city until acomaf-ish, which means it was locked (so no immigration or emigration which isn't bad per-say but does bring up how it works economically) and Rhysands inability or unwillingness to protect his citizens (not enforcing the wing clipping ban and allowing people to be abused in the CoN. and before anyone starts about him not being able to control the illyrians, why did he make it a law in the first place? It just makes him look bad) makes him look like a shitty ruler. His supposed "feminism" and friendship with the people of velaris doesnt answer these very important questions or justify the strange shit he does. Versus Tamlin, which you can refer to my opening statement for the comparison. Also to note, his rule only came into question and stability after Feyre broke into people minds (which I do feel is extremely gross and a huge violation of ones autonomy and privacy) and had to sabotage him. I won't comment how I feel about this in this post, but it says a lot that she had to go through such lengths to break him down. Especially after it was revealed he was in fact a double agent and never actually siding with Hybern.

The only time Tamlin is an arguably bad high lord is in acofas and acosf where he is in a severe mental crisis and not in a position to properly rule. But even then, it's not clear if this is actually causing harm to the land and people. It's probably not good because they don't have a proper leader but I can't believe it's a severe issue.

Its definitely a strange choice, isn't it? Cause I think anyone in their right mind would choose the anti-tyranny, anti-slavery leader who does his best for his people... and its somehow not our supposed 'hero'

"I once told you I would fight against tyranny, against that sort of evil. Did you think you were enough to turn me from that?"

Acowar, chapter 44

[erik-christine]

I swear to god there are people who are just BEGGING to hate the show like fr making essays about how problematic it is cutting parts of a character that shows up FOR LITERALLY A PARAGRAPH and how the writing is shit just because its different and they’re incapable of learning what the hell an adaptation is

whenever something deviates even slightly from the book yall start clutching fire and blood like its your sacred holy text and the new converts are desecrating it. like sorry but the general audience does not care about characters that are little more than footnotes in the story when already they barely know the difference between baela, rhaena, and rhaenys

[traegorn]

You may be asking yourself "Is that one unhinged anon still in Trae's inbox ranting because Trae said 'maybe don't work with Lilith'?"

The answer is yes. Yes that person is. I'm just not answering them right now until they actually give me something I can be funny in the responses to.

[ressq]

instead of arguing about the morality of depicting billy boy as a nazi in official garb, we should be talking about him being injured.

his outfit is dorky as fuck you cannot tell me that he would even understand anything about nazism. i bet he stole that shit and is wearing it because he thinks it looks cool 😭 he wouldn't know how to draw a swastika...

also has anyone tried drawing him as an officer yet? because it's canon in the book and i like to think he talks shit about alex with georgie and dim (GEORGIE IS ALIVE FUCK YOU)

[naivety]

very weird to frame your abuse apologia as being aware that the writers intended to illustrate a mutually harmful dynamic and not an abusive one. when the writers in question also wrote the line 'once you put it out there, they [the audience] decide what it is' because nothing you ever create has any innate definition. when the writers in question decided to racebend major characters and then showcase them being harmed by white or nonblack characters in a repeatedly racialized pattern when they Did Not Have To Do That and then genuinely or disingenuously decide to dialogue about their directly or indirectly illustrated racialized dynamic of intimate partner violence within and outside the narrative. like to be quite honest it does not matter what they intended because this is what they made and this is how it Looks to a notably large amount of people. who just happen to be interpreting it wrong? according to what metric? the very metric they say Doesn't Work in their own fictional creation? ok

[lurafita]

The wish was granted many years before prompt

Okay, give my brain a Minute to formulate its latest spitball. So, if I got this right, while the wish that Raziel promised to the shadowhunters could have been used for anything, it was kind of universally understood as a failsafe in case of demonic overrun. Like: "Okay peeps, so here is the tea. If you mess up and can’t do what I hired you to do and take care of pest control, you can ring me up and I will do you a solid. As in a one time spring clean deal, got it? If the critters get too much, I will come down and sweep them off the mundane plane. But after that, I expect you to keep the invasion levels to a minimum. Cool? Cool."

Like that, right? No talk about closing the rifts permanently. No talk about destroying all greater demons and hell realms (which I honestly don’t buy that Raziel could, even if he is the head honcho feather thing. That would make him far too op) One time deal, will make all demonic blood disappear, and give the shadowhunters the opportunity to gather back together to then continue their work without getting overrun. So the demons will, in time, get back to earth, just not in such overwhelming numbers. And the shadowhunters will fight them again. Just now, if the wish has been granted, there are no downworld allies. No warlocks to close rifts or ward institutes or heal wounds. No vampires or werewolves who might have taken care of some stray demons on their turf before. No seelies to ask for assistance on any matter.

Okay, now lets pretend that the wish was used by a shadowhunter like Valentine, without true cause and for asshole reasons, decades or even centuries before the show's start. Now you have a generation of shadowhunters cursing the very name of the bigoted asshole that robbed them of any downworld support, wasted the wish, and left them to deal with facing being overrun by demons for real. The few downworlders that have come into existence since the wish are treasured allies, but they are no where near the numbers or power/experience needed. And then one day, a warlock fights his way out of the hell dimension that his father has kept him in for the far too fucking long!!!

That is the day that Magnus Bane comes back into a world that has drastically changed.

[grassbreads]

So there's this story about a person who was born and raised to despise each and every human being ever born into the world. The entire reason for his existence—the reasons for all of his ancestors' existences throughout history—is to enact vengeance on humanity for their crimes.

Then that vengeful being, despite his best attempts not to, befriends a human man. He finds himself caring for one human and that human's younger brother, finds himself becoming part of their family, even though it goes against everything he is and is supposed to be. He finds himself loving these two people so deeply that it rewrites his whole worldview—changes him from a vengeful monster into something that hopes dearly for humanity's redemption and begs his father not to let them be destroyed.

It's a story about the power of understanding and connection, a story about learning to believe in the human potential to be good. And that story starts with one remarkable man who unknowingly manages to win the love of the personification of nature's vengeance in human skin.

The kicker is—that one man that befriends the monster? Who rewrites the vengeful being's whole worldview just by being beside him? He kinda fucking sucks, actually.