#undead apocalypse podcast

[joncronshawauthor]

Listen to Punks Versus Zombies (1-24) - FREE zombie survival audiobook

🎸 Punk’s Not Dead…But The World Is! 🧟‍♂️ Join Tommy’s Thrilling Fight for Survival! 🎤 Brace yourself for an adrenaline-fueled, gore-soaked adventure as Tommy and his punk band battles hordes of undead while on tour! 💀 When a zombie apocalypse strikes, Tommy, Laila, and Micky must navigate a crumbling world fraught with danger at every turn. Can they make it back home to Philly alive? 🌎💥 This…

[kaz-foxsen]

Movie Theater Time Machine podcast continues Post-Apocalypse month with a review of "Fido".

For more episodes and information, visit our website at: movietheatertimemachine.com

[merelyroleplayers]

Next up in the Studio:

The Queen's Dead

an apocalyptic political tragedy in 3 acts

Act 1: One year before the Dawn prophesied to end the reign of death, the Lich Queen’s dread courtiers make plans to prevent it – even though it might mean working together.

Act 2: Tension builds between the Lich Queen’s dread courtiers as their realms crumble around them. The Wraithlight Dominion proposes a quest.

Act 3: The day of the prophesied Dawn is at hand. As light and life threaten the Lich Queen’s dominion, her dread courtiers must stand together – or fall apart.

Representing the Draugr Earldom: Naomi Clarke (@thekilda, @realmspod, Who Lives Who Dice)

Representing the Skeletal Duchy: Fiona Howat (What Am I Rolling?, The DM's Book Club)

Representing the Wraithlight Dominion: @merelymatt (@merelyroleplayers)

Game: Court of the Lich Queen (beta) by Ursidice

The house opens on Tuesday 13 June

Take your seat at www.merelyroleplayers.com

[dailyadventureprompts]

Tableskills: Creating Dread

I've often had a lot of problems telling scary stories at my table, whether it be in d&d or other horror focused games. I personally don't get scared easily, especially around "traditionally horrifying" things so it's hard for me to recreate that experience in others. Likewise, you can't just port horror movie iconography into tabletop and expect it to evoke genuine fear: I've already spoken of being bored out of my mind during the zombie apocalypse, and my few trips into ravenloft have all been filled with similar levels of limp and derivative grimdark.

It took me a long time (and a lot of video essays about films I'd never watched) to realize that in terms of an experience fear is a lot like a joke, in that it requires multiple steps of setup and payoff. Dread is that setup, it's the rising tension in a scene that makes the revelation worth it, the slow and literal rising of a rollercoaster before the drop. It's way easier to inspire dread in your party than it is to scare them apropos of nothing, which has the added flexibility of letting you choose just the right time to deliver the frights.

TLDR: You start with one of the basic human fears (guide to that below) to emotionally prime your players and introduce it to your party in a initially non-threataning manor. Then you introduce a more severe version of it in a way that has stakes but is not overwhelmingly scary just yet. You wait until they're neck deep in this second scenario before throwing in some kind of twist that forces them to confront their discomfort head on.

More advice (and spoilers for The Magnus Archives) below the cut.

Before we go any farther it's vitally important that you learn your party's limits and triggers before a game begins. A lot of ttrpg content can be downright horrifying without even trying to be, so it's critical you know how everyone in your party is going to react to something before you go into it. Whether or not you're running an actual horror game or just wanting to add some tension to an otherwise heroic romp, you and your group need to be on the same page about this, and discuss safety systems from session 0 onwards.

The Fundamental Fears: It may seem a bit basic but one of the greatest tools to help me understand different aspects of horror was the taxonomy invented by Jonathan Sims of The Magnus Archives podcast. He breaks down fear into different thematic and emotional through lines, each given a snappy name and iconography that's so memorable that I often joke it's the queer-horror version of pokemon types or hogwarts houses. If we start with a basic understanding of WHY people find things scary we learn just what dials we need turn in order to build dread in our players.

Implementation: Each of these examples is like a colour we can paint a scene or encounter with, flavouring it just so to tickle a particular, primal part of our party's brains. You don't have to do much, just something along the lines of "the upcoming cave tunnel is getting a little too close for comfort" or "the all-too thin walkway creaks under your weight ", or "what you don't see is the movement at the edge of the room". Once the seed is planted your party's' minds will do most of the work: humans are social, pattern seeking creatures, and the hint of danger to one member of the group will lay the groundwork of fear in all the rest.

The trick here is not to over commit, which is the mistake most ttrpgs make with horror: actually showing the monster, putting the party into a dangerous situation, that’s the finisher, the  punchline of the joke. It’s also a release valve on all the pressure you’ve been hard at work building.

There’s nothing all that scary about fighting a level-appropriate number of skeletons, but forcing your party to creep through a series of dark, cobweb infested catacombs with the THREAT of being attacked by undead? That’s going to have them climbing the walls.

Let narration and bad dice rolls be your main tools here, driving home the discomfort, the risk, the looming threat.

Surprise: Now that you’ve got your party marinating in dread, what you want to do to really scare them is to throw a curve ball. Go back to that list and find another fear which either compliments or contrasts the original one you set up, and have it lurking juuuust out of reach ready to pop up at a moment of perfect tension like a jack in the box. The party is climbing down a slick interior of an underdark cavern, bottom nowhere in sight? They expect to to fall, but what they couldn't possibly expect is for a giant arm to reach out of the darkness and pull one of them down. Have the party figured out that there's a shapeshifter that's infiltrated the rebel meeting and is killing their allies? They suspect suspicion and lies but what they don't expect is for the rebel base to suddenly be on FIRE forcing them to run.

My expert advice is to lightly tease this second threat LONG before you introduce the initial scare. Your players will think you're a genius for doing what amounts to a little extra work, and curse themselves for not paying more attention.

Restraint: Less is more when it comes to scares, as if you do this trick too often your players are going to be inured to it. Try to do it maybe once an adventure, or dungeon level. Scares hit so much harder when the party isn't expecting them. If you're specifically playing in a "horror" game, it's a good idea to introduce a few false scares, or make multiple encounters part of the same bait and switch scare tactic: If we're going into the filthy gross sewer with mould and rot and rats and the like, you'll get more punch if the final challenge isn't corruption based, but is instead some new threat that we could have never prepared for.

Art

[aimmyarrowshigh]

Preparing for AUgust

I'm still determined to salvage 2024 in terms of getting writing done, so I'm prepping for AUgust already. It occurred to me that someone else might be interested in a list of 100 AUs, so here you go!

Accidental Marriage AU

Alien AU

Android AU

Angel/Demon AU

Apocalypse AU

Archaeology AU

Artist AU

Assassin AU

Bakery AU

Ballet AU

Band AU

BDSM AU

Book Store AU

Bounty Hunter AU

Camp Counselor AU

Castaway AU

Chef AU

Child AU

Circus AU

Coffee Shop AU

College AU

Conductor AU

Choreographer AU

Coworker AU

Criminal AU

Cult AU

Dancer AU

Death AU

Demigod AU

Detective AU

Dimension Hopping AU

Deejay AU

Doctor AU

Domestic AU

Fake Dating AU

Fashion Designer AU

Firefighter AU

Florist/Tattooist AU

Gardening AU

Ghost AU

Haunted House AU

High School AU

High School Reunion AU

Historical AU

Horror AU

Hunger Games AU

Immortal AU

Jury Duty AU

Lawyer AU

Library AU

Magic AU

Mechanic AU

Medieval AU

Mermaid AU

Model AU

Modern AU

Murder Mystery AU

Musical AU

Musician AU

Neighbor AU

Office AU

Omegaverse AU

Paranormal Investigator AU

Parent AU

Photographer AU

Pirate AU

Podcaster AU

Porn Star AU

Restaurant AU

Road Trip AU

Role Reversal AU

Roommate AU

Scientist AU

Soulmate AU

Spy AU

Star Wars AU

Student AU

Teacher AU

Theater AU

Thief AU

Time Travel AU

TVA AU

Undead AU

Vacation AU

Vampire AU

Veterinarian AU

Victorian AU

Waiter AU

Wedding Planner AU

Werewolf AU

Western AU

Wings AU

Witch AU

Wizard AU

‘90s AU

‘80s AU

‘70s AU

‘60s AU

‘50s AU

‘40s AU

[ribbibbledibbles]

I am a massive fan of zombie media. Have been for years now. I binge watch zombie shows/movies all the time, having exhausted Netflix' UK cataloge. I listen to any zombie-flavoured podcast that comes along, read any undead based books I can get my hands on, hell I even did the whole Zombies! RUN! thing for a little while. All of this to say, it's a big part of my life.

And I think I've figured out the root of it.

I'm the youngest in my household, meaning my mother was rather lax with rules, and I has unrestricted access to the internet. Which included such delights as BBC iPlayer, the driving force behind my, now crippling, zombie media addiction.

I was scrolling through iPlayer one day, hoping to find something to watch. I was a big fan of game shows, regularly watching the Challenge channel on TV, so I was perusing the game shows on hand.

Then it showed itself.

I Survived A Zombie Apocalypse.

A definitely rigged (in hindsight, not to my 12 year old mind) game show in which contestants had to survive several days and challenges in a zombie infested shopping center. Think Zombieverse but British and about a decade earlier. It was due to be taken off iPlayer soon, so I watched it over and over again. It wasn't overly gorey, but gorey enough that I knew my mother wouldn't let me watch it if she knew, so I have kept it a secret for the last 9 years.

I wanted more, though. Game shows wouldn't cut it anymore, I needed zombies to scratch that little itch in my brain. Not long after ISAZA was taken off iPlayer, I began my search. That's when I found the masterpiece that would kick my zombie obsession into overdrive.

Dead Set.

A limited zombie series aired on E4 in 2008, made specially to run after episodes of Big Brother in the run up to Halloween. In the work of fiction, the zombie apocalypse breaks out during an eviction night on big brother. The housemates face tricky dilemmas and life or death situations.

If you have not watched Dead Set, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO SO. It's such a great show and holds such a special place in my heart. I've watched it countless times, and it'd utterly brilliant. There's funny bits, thrilling bits, and the overall craftsmanship of the show is just gorgeous for the time.

It also has zombie Divina Mcall. What more do you want from a zombie show?

I, again, watched that in secret for years Finding new shows along the way. That was it, two shows and my zombie mad self was changed forever.

What show started your zombie fever?

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Saturday, December 21

FRED: Are you okay? LORNE: I was feeling seasick when we were still on dry land. Do I look greener than usual? FRED: A little.

~~AtS 3x12 “Provider”~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Dead to Rights (Faith, Dexter, T) by Aadler

Role-Playing (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by veronyxk84

A Kiss to Build a Dream On (Buffy/Giles, M) by LonesomeSundown

Material Pleasures (Illyria/Wesley, E) by purple_mechanicalpencils

Chained Up for Christmas (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Maxine Eden, ClowniestLivEver

Gifts from the (Undead) Heart (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by Grief Counseling

Uncommon Scenery (Buffy/Spike, T) by veronyxk84

[Chaptered Fiction]

The Greatest Gift: A Fuffy Christmas Carol, Chapter 1/4 (Buffy/Faith, G) by user1013

Return Of The Soulless Vampire, Chapters 1-50/50 (Buffy/Spike, Willow/Tara, Xander/Anya, M) COMPLETE! by Hoomanbeans (Frednymph)

The Queen's daughter, Chapter 68/? (Buffy/Faith, Cordelia, OUAT xover, not rated) by Dragonprincess19961

I Love You (and The Horizon Hides You in Vain), Chapter 3/? (Buffy & Dawn, Buffy/Spike, canon ships, M) by ConcernedReader

A Slayer in the Senate, Chapter 11/12 (Buffy/Faith, Buffy/Tara, E) by storiwr

Half And Half Girl, Chapters 2-27/27 COMPLETE! (Angel/Cordelia, Fred/Wesley, M) by Hoomanbeans (Frednymph)

Where are you?, Chapter 2/16 (Buffy/Riley, Xander/Anya, T) by RotBlau

Whiplash, Chapter 16 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Ninereeds

Open Your Heart & Close Your Eyes, Chapter 5 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Melme1325

Rude Awakenings, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Melme1325

Take Me to Prom, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Spikelover4ever

Some You Lose, Chapter 22 (Buffy, Stargate xover, FR13) by lyapunov

Out of Time: 1942, Chapter 61 (Buffy/Tom Riddle, Harry Potter xover, FR18) by Jonayla

Agape, Chapter 4 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Lilacsandorangeblossoms

The Science of Being Yours, Chapters 9-12 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Maxine Eden, ClowniestLivEver

Indecent Proposal, Chapter 27 (Buffy/William/Xander, Adults Only) by harrisxander2

[Images, Audio & Video]

Gifset: ANGEL THE SERIES | 1.19 “Sanctuary” requested by juanabaloo (Faith, Angel, worksafe) by elizadushkudaily

Artwork: Probably not gonna finish these in time so have a couple of festive Faith wips (worksafe) by sideartblog999

Artwork: [Drawings of Buffy Summers] (worksafe) by psicheanima

Gifset: Every Tara look: S5E13 Blood Ties (worksafe) by lovebvffys

Artwork: 5 Seconds (Buffy, Faith, worksafe) by takenabackbytuesdays

Gifset: - hymn to virgil hozier (Buffy/Spike with lyrics overlay, worksafe) by theveryunlikelywonderland

Artwork: Just Spuffy enjoying their winter weekend and trying not to catch another apocalypse (worksafe) by flyora

Gif: I don’t need a guy right now. I need me. I need to get comfortable being alone with… Buffy (worksafe) by buffysource, andremichaux

Manip: Hustler (Buffy/Spike, G) by honeygirl51885

Manips: Snapshots From My Idiot, Chapters 1-3 COMPLETE! (Buffy/Spike, G) by cd85

Manip: Chasing Away Insanity (Buffy/Spike, G) by honeygirl51885

Artwork: [FANART] Fuck, Marry, Kill, Trio Edition (Warren, Andrew, Jonathan, T) by GarsCrucible

[Reviews & Recaps]

PODCAST: Season 4 Recap by Investigating Angel

PODCAST: A Love Like Troy and Gabriela (S5E11) by It Stakes Two

[In Search Of]

ISO: Can anyone please link that great meta on the Buffy episode “Who Are You” that talks about the Faith and Buffy fight? requested by thewarlocknerd

[Fandom Discussions]

If ATS never happened… by annarowyn

Since I was little kid, I always imagine there’s spinoff about well adjusted Connor after Angel tv show by kingsaint

“Drive My Soul” by LIGHTS is so Spuffy coded by lilyginnyblackv2

doing a BTVS 3x10 Amends rewatch for the holidays. and damn if the (unintentional?) Fuffy isn’t hilarious by juanabaloo

The conversation between Buffy and Angel in Gingerbread always struck me as so poignant by initiumseries

[anon ask] Do you have any cents on the idea that the narrative let's angel get off easier than spike for his Angelus crimes and its a cop out that angel and Angelus are considered separate people? answered by firelxdykatara

sometimes I think about dawn being like. she IS it takes a village child by camellcat

we really do not talk enough about how just a TASTE of buffy’s blood snaps spike out of the first’s mind control by raisedbythetv89

Spike is so funny, it never even occurred to him to angst about being in a vampire/human relationship by messedupdoilies

The Conflicts of BTVS continued by hoponlilmama

If Liam's father saw Angel would he be proud of him? by The Whirlwind, multiple posters

Angel and Darla - Reprise by jogaforacont

Lack of Merch by Better-Mud2595

Buffy's Baby Bangs: A Christmas Essay by _ineffective_

Ever notice buffy wears white when she fight the big bad by Silver_Storm_1

Why didn’t the Watchers send someone to capture or kill Faith whilst she was in a coma? by Scopeburger

Christmas Buffy by TwistedLogic81

Holden is one of the best short lived characters by beans_the_fruit182

What's the difference between the Willow & Buffy dynamic and the Xander & Buffy dynamic (excluding his unrequited crush on her) by Cailly_Brard7

Why do you think a good portion of the audience struggles to connect with some of these Buffy characters? by PristineSituation498

Which are your favorite lines from the show....that you've actually used in your day-to-day life? by Jdobbs626

Buffy and D&D crossover by starbucksmetalhead

Catherine Madison (S1E3) was a really cool villain by TheSekretGarden

[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]

PODCAST-Interviews: An Oral History of Buffy's "Hush": A 25th Anniversary Special by Slayerfest 98

CONVENTION: James Marsters to Attend Comic Con France 12-13 April 2025 by dontkillspike

CONVENTION: James Marsters Upcoming Events by dontkillspike

PUBLICATION: Buffy the Vampire Slayer's 10 Most Insidious Villains, Ranked by CBR.com

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

Join the editor team :)

[horizon-verizon]

Image Credit: PlayStation

The Not So Hidden Israeli Politics of 'The Last of Us Part II'

A past Israeli wrote this 2020 article and got into how The Last of Us: Part II to "both sides" its story into a fatalist, status-quo-preserving ideology that nevertheless supports Israeli/Zionist actions in the Mid East by revealing the Israeli military infrastructure AND its stereotypes/racist mindset towards Palestinians. It also mentions the twisting of Judaism, the Holocaust, and how Israelis view themselves.

The article (all of this is the entire thing, not mine!):

The real horror in zombie fiction is usually not the legions of undead, but the frailties and cruelties that they expose in the living. The differences between stories in the genre come from the specific fears and frustrations that they render into their metaphors. The Last of Us Part II fits perfectly within these genre conventions, but what's different here is its sources of inspiration.

The Last of Us Part II focuses on what has been broadly defined by some of its creators as a "cycle of violence." While some zombie fiction shows human depravity in response to fear or scarcity in the immediate aftermath of an outbreak, The Last of Us Part II takes place in a more stabilized post apocalypse, decades after societal collapse, where individuals and communities choose to hurt each other as opposed to taking heinous actions out of desperation.

More specifically, the cycle of violence in The Last of Us Part II appears to be largely modeled after the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I suspect that some players, if they consciously clock the parallels at all, will think The Last of Us Part II is taking a balanced and fair perspective on that conflict, humanizing and exposing flaws in both sides of its in-game analogues. But as someone who grew up in Israel, I recognized a familiar, firmly Israeli way of seeing and explaining the conflict which tries to appear evenhanded and even enlightened, but in practice marginalizes Palestinian experience in a manner that perpetuates a horrific status quo.

The game's co-director and co-writer Neil Druckmann, an Israeli who was born and raised in the West Bank before his family moved to the U.S., told the Washington Post that the game's themes of revenge can be traced back to the 2000 killing of two Israeli soldiers by a mob in Ramallah. Some of the gruesome details of the incident were captured on video, which Druckmann viewed. In his interview, he recounted the anger and desire for vengeance he felt when he saw the video—and how he later reconsidered and regretted those impulses, saying they made him feel “gross and guilty.” But it gave him the kernel of a story.

“I landed on this emotional idea of, can we, over the course of the game, make you feel this intense hate that is universal in the same way that unconditional love is universal?” Druckmann told the Post. “This hate that people feel has the same kind of universality. You hate someone so much that you want them to suffer in the way they’ve made someone you love suffer.”

Druckmann drew parallels between The Last of Us and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict again on the official The Last of Us podcast. When discussing the first time Joel kills another man to protect his daughter and the extraordinary measures people will take to protect the ones they love, Druckmann said he follows "a lot of Israeli politics," and compared the incident to Israel's release of hundreds of Palestinians prisoners in exchange for the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011. He said that his father thought that the exchange was overall bad for Israel, but that his father would release every prisoner in every prison to free his own son.

"That's what this story is about, do the ends justify the means, and it's so much about perspective. If it was to save a strange kid maybe Joel would have made a very different decision, but when it was his tribe, his daughter, there was no question about what he was going to do," Druckmann said.

Naughty Dog and PlayStation have presented Druckmann as The Last of Us Part II's creative lead and public face. Game development is a highly collaborative practice that demands the backbreaking labor of literally hundreds of programmers, testers, writers, and artists, all of whom make creative contributions and without whom a game of this size and scope would not exist. So while it's impossible to pin a big budget video game's themes and inspirations to one person, parallels between The Last of Us Part II and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict manifest in the final product, not just in what Druckmann has said in interviews.

Besides the familiar zombie fiction aesthetics of an overgrown and decomposing metropolis, The Last of Us Part II's main setting of Seattle is visually and functionally defined by a series of checkpoints, security walls, and barriers. There are many ways to build and depict structures that separate and keep people out. Just Google "U.S.-Mexico border wall" to see the variety of structures on the southern border of the United States alone. The Last of Us Part II's Seattle doesn't look like any of these. Instead, it looks almost exactly like the tall, precast concrete barriers and watch towers Israel started building through the West Bank in 2000.

The history and power dynamics of The Last of Us Part II's Seattle map to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well, if viewed from an Israeli perspective.

The main faction in Seattle is the Washington Liberation Front (WLF), known as the Wolves. The broad strokes are that after the outbreak, FEDRA, an emergency militaristic government agency, took over the city. With food shortages, constant fear of infection, and FEDRA's increasingly brutal measures of keeping order, an insurgency rose: the Wolves. They were outmatched, but prevailed with a series of hit-and-run attacks, assassinations of FEDRA officers, and other guerilla tactics. Eventually, FEDRA abandoned the city and ceded control to the Wolves, who in turn implemented an equally harsh (or harsher) regime.

In one in-game note, a FEDRA commander in Seattle writes to Central Command to explain that he has lost the city to the Wolves, which he describes as terrorists. Here, there are parallels to early Zionist organisations that fought British rule in the region. These organizations were also described as terrorists, and leaders of those organizations later became leaders in Israel, much like how Isaac, the leader of the Wolves, came to control Seattle. Other in-game notes, scenes of urban ambushes, and the bodies of executed FEDRA officers laboriously walk the player through the cliche "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter."

Once Isaac and the Wolves seized control of Seattle by violent means, however, the same means were used against them by another group—one that uncomfortably matches Israeli caricatures of Palestinians.

Most of the Wolves regime's restrictions are directed at a post-apocalyptic religious sect called the Seraphites (the Wolves call them "Scars" after the ritualistic scarring of their faces). These Scars vexed FEDRA as well when it was in control. The dynamic in the city when the game begins is one of conflict, escalation, and a broken truce. The Wolves, like FEDRA, leverage more resources and raw power, while the Scars rely on surprise strikes against Wolf patrols, and a zealous willingness to die for the cause.

To run through just a few key ways in which the Scars uncomfortably reflect some Israeli stereotypes about Palestinians:

The same note from the Seattle FEDRA commander that bitterly says the Wolves are in charge explains that it's now their responsibility to not only feed and shelter the people of Seattle, but deal with the "religious fanatics," referring to the Scars.

Later in the game, Ellie finds a location called "Martyr Gate," where the Scars' spiritual leader apparently died, indicating a religious significance of a specific and disputed location, and emphasizing the notion of martyrdom as central to their culture.

The Scars are able to get around Wolf patrols and various barriers around the city via an elaborate, secret system of bridges between skyscrapers. These function as a kind of flipped version of the underground tunnels Palestinians use to bypass Israeli blockades and other means of limiting free movement in order to get supplies and carry out attacks on Israel.

The Last of Us Part II goes to great pains to impress that it sees no innocent players in this conflict. It's not just that Isaac and the Wolves seized control of the city by vicious (but necessary) means—the society they've built, prosperous and protected by the walls of Seattle's CenturyLink Field, is buttressed by fascism and cruelty to an outgroup. The Wolves' bountiful crops exist to feed an army that ventures far beyond its territory to punish the Scars. Its kennels of adorable dogs are just disposable weapons. Isaac leads from a forward operating base that sits atop torture chambers. After a truce fails, the only way he can imagine peace is through the total annihilation of his enemies.

It is not a peaceful or just society, or even a sustainable one in the long run, despite its perseverance and resourcefulness. It is one that is doomed to collapse because of an inability, or unwillingness, to resolve a perfectly resolvable conflict.

This conflict comes to a head when Isaac decides to push deep into the Scars' land to finish them once and for all. We don't get to see how the battle ends or who comes out on top, but we see Isaac die in the fighting, and get the sense that the battle is so brutal and bloody, whatever survives is not worth keeping.

Rather than step back, cooperate, and seek truth and reconciliation, the Wolves and Scars keep seeking revenge for past grievances in a cycle of violence that eventually ends them both in literal fires sparked by hate. The game's message seems to be: "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind," another cliche that The Last of Us Part II indulges in by taking away Tommy's eye at the end of the game for seeking revenge for his brother Joel.

A "cycle of violence" is a tempting way to interpret this conflict, or any conflict, because it signals careful nuance while quietly squashing more difficult conversations. By suggesting that since both Wolves and Scars are equally implicated and equally in pain, we are free to stop thinking about the problem. All parties include both good and bad actors. We're all human. Both sides.

This common, centrist position on violent conflict, while better than absolute dehumanization, is not coincidentally a world view that allows conflicts to drag on forever. Suggesting moral equivalence and a symmetry in ability between sides also invites us to throw up our hands and give up on better solutions because of implied and unexamined perceptions about "human nature." Indeed, the game is unrelentingly cynical, and this cynicism animates most of the 30-odd hour experience. Whereas Abby and Ellie find interpersonal resolution at the end, the game seems content to leave the question of community-scale cycles of violence as a regrettable fact of human existence. Even if the Wolves and Scars meet their mutual end, the game leaves us with the knowledge that a resistance group from the first game, the Fireflies, and other groups, are regrouping and gaining strength. The cycle continues.

Despite the lengths it goes to, The Last of Us Part II can't help but reveal that its perspective is firmly rooted in one side and not the other.

Seattle is so clearly inspired by Israel and Palestine without naming either, but it does notably spend time presenting Jewish identity. One of the first things Ellie and Dina do when they arrive in Seattle is explore a former synagogue. It's a short scene, maybe 20 minutes out of a 30-plus hour game, and it serves as a kind of a Jewish experience amusement park ride, bombarding the player with references and history as Dina and Ellie walk around a bimah, find a Torah, and so on. Almost the entirety of this section is spent explaining Jewish identity as that of survivors in the face of other groups that want to destroy them. In the span of those 20 minutes, there are three separate references to the Holocaust.

Survival in the face of persecution is a pillar of Jewish identity for good reason, and has been since before the Holocaust. It's also one that is relevant to the characters in the game, all of whom are survivors of a zombie apocalypse. But this is only one aspect of Jewish identity. The Last of Us Part II doesn't spend any time exploring, for example, Talmudic traditions which define so much of Jewish notions of justice and scholarship. Instead, in a non-optional section of the game, it spends a significant amount of time telling the player that Jews are always persecuted and fighting for survival. This is not wrong, but it is serving a specific purpose in the ham-fisted allegory about Israel and Palestine that is The Last of Us Part II, much like the Holocaust is cynically leveraged by some to justify Israel's actions.

This sermon is notably delivered by Dina, who is Jewish and serves as the game's moral compass. Dina is pregnant, dreams of a life of peace, and tries to turn Ellie back from her murderous quest. When Ellie chooses to pursue it anyway, the heaviest price she pays is that Dina leaves her.

The more moral characters in The Last of Us Part II all want to escape cycles of violence rather than reckon with them. Lev and Yara want to escape their cult. Owen and Mel want to get on a boat and sail away from Seattle. Dina wants to walk away from the mess and live on a farm secluded from the rest of society. Even our main characters, Ellie and Abby, after far too much suffering, essentially end their emotional journey when they decide to walk away from revenge.

It's certainly true that individual lives get wrapped up in larger conflicts in horrible ways. Cycles of violence exist in practice as escalations and retributions. A defining feature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the macabre bargaining over which violence is worse. Images of exploded public buses are presented next to collapsed buildings and children being pulled from the rubble. Armed factions swear to deliver retaliation over specific incidents, and do.

But "cycles of violence" are a poor way to understand a conflict in a meaningful way, especially if one is interested in finding a solution. The United States, for example, hasn't been at war in Afghanistan for almost 20 years because it's trapped in a "cycle of violence" with the Taliban. It is deliberately choosing to engage with a problem in a way that perpetuates a conflict. Just as the fantasy of escaping violence by simply walking away from it is one that only those with the means to do so can entertain, the myth of the "cycle of violence" is one that benefits the side that can survive the status quo.

In The Last of Us Part II's Seattle, Scars and Wolves hurt each other terribly, and the same can be said about Israel and Palestine. The difference is that when flashes of violence abate and the smoke clears, one side continues to live freely and prosper, while the other goes back to a life of occupation and humiliation. One side continues to expand while the other continues to lose the land it needs to live. Imagining this process as some kind of symmetric cycle benefits one side more than the other, and allows it to continue.

As a result, The Last of Us Part II never quite justifies its fatalism. As Rob Zacny wrote in his review and again in his closer examination of The Last of Us Part II's ending, at the end of the day Ellie's journey of revenge seems especially cruel, even idiotic, because we are never given a good reason for why she keeps recommitting to it. Acts of cruelty along the way, like Ellie's torturing another character to get information, are presented as inevitable. This seems to be The Last of Us Part II's thesis: humans experience a kind of "intense hate that is universal," as Druckmann told The Post, which keep us trapped in these cycles.

But is intense hate really a universal feeling? It's certainly not one that I share. I, too, have seen the video of the 2000 mob killing of the Israeli soldiers in Ramallah, and it's horrific. Yet, my immediate response wasn't "Oh, man, if I could just push a button and kill all these people that committed this horrible act, I would make them feel the same pain that they inflicted on these people," as Druckmann said.

This is not a universal feeling as much as it's a learned way of seeing the world. There are many other ways to react to that video: compassion for the victims, compassion for the killers, questioning why these soldiers had to drive into the West Bank in the first place, questioning what would drive a mob to this kind of violence. Revenge and hate is just one option.

The Last of Us Part II is an incredible journey that provides not only one of the most mesmerizing spectacles that we've seen from big budget video games, but one that manages to ask difficult questions along the way. It's clearly coming from an emotionally authentic and self-examining place. The trouble with it, and the reason that Ellie's journey ultimately feels nonsensical, is that it begins from a place that accepts "intense hate that is universal" as a fact of life, rather than examining where and why this behavior is learned.

Critically, by not asking these questions, and by masking its point of view as being evenhanded, it perpetuates the very cycles of violence it's supposedly so troubled by.

[coffin-flop]

Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements is a fantastic collection of short scifi stories written by a variety of social justice activists

Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson is so intricately plotted, I really enjoyed the world building in it, the back of book blurb says "The rich and privileged have fled the city, barricaded it behind roadblocks, and left it to crumble. The inner city has had to rediscover old ways — farming, barter, herb lore. But now the monied need a harvest of bodies, and so they prey upon the helpless of the streets. With nowhere to turn, a young woman must open herself to ancient truths, eternal powers, and the tragic mystery surrounding her mother and grandmother. She must bargain with gods, and give birth to new legends."

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland is a YA alternative historical fiction zombie novel in which the American Civil War is interrupted by a zombie apocalypse, and a young Black woman must find her way in a world where the living may be more dangerous than the undead. (it's the first of a duology)

Everfair by Nisi Shawl is a steampunk alternative history, which explores the question of what might have come of Belgium's disastrous colonization of the Congo if the native populations had adopted steam technology as their own. (also part of a series)

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline is a great ya dystopian book about a world where people have lost the ability to dream and the dreamlessness has led to widespread madness. The only people still able to dream are North America's Indigenous people, and it is their marrow that holds the cure for the rest of the world. But getting the marrow, and dreams, means death for the unwilling donors.

The Getaway by Lamar Giles is a very intense YA dystopian horror that takes place in the future, in which a teen boy and his family work and live at a Disney-esque resort, which provides safety from the upheaval in the outside world.... until the trouble in the outside world gets worse and the most rich members of the board and up moving in and locking the resort down, leaving the families who live & work on the resort at the mercy of the wealthy board owners who control it.

Not a book and not exactly scifi (although some of the stories are scifi) and not always anti-colonial (but a lot of the stories have anti-colonial themes) , I really love the Nightlight Podcast hosted by Tonia Ransom, which is a podcast of horror stories by Black writers and performed by Black actors

not fiction, but semi-related nonfiction I'd rec is Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women's Speculative Fiction by Sami Schalk

PLEASE for the love of the universe read anti-colonial science fiction and fantasy written from marginalized perspectives. Y’all (you know who you are) are killing me. To see people praise books about empire written exclusively by white women and then turn around and say you don’t know who Octavia Butler is or that you haven’t read any NK Jemisin or that Babel was too heavy-handed just kills me! I’m not saying you HAVE to enjoy specific books but there is such an obvious pattern here

Some of y’all love marginalized stories but you don’t give a fuck about marginalized creators and characters, and it shows. Like damn

[sloppilyeatinggrapes]

Tried out first episode of Camlann, an audiodrama about the post apocalypse with arthurian themes.

After first ep... seems like the end of the world woke up an undead king arthur who knighted people to be inheritors for the roles of his previous knights, and now they are all trying to survive as society collapse under.... dragons?

I really liked the soundscape and acting, it felt really natural! And the fact that we just got THROWN into the action, that the setting is not immediately clearly given to us but merely hinted at I really appreciate. I have high hopes for this one!

If you are the creator of the podcast please do not read this thread, I don't know if I'll end up liking your show yet u_u

[joncronshawauthor]

🧟‍♂️🎸 Listen to Punks Versus Zombies - A Post-Apocalyptic Survival FREE Audiobook (Episodes 1-32) 🎸🧟‍♀️

🧟‍♂️ Survive the Zombie Outbreak with Tommy and His Punk Rock Band 🎸Join Tommy and his bandmates as they fight their way from Berkeley, California, to Philadelphia in a desperate attempt to reunite with his family. But zombies aren’t the only danger lurking in this terrifying new world. As they journey across the ruins of America, they’ll face unimaginable challenges and discover the true power…

[monstersoutofthecloset]

When life fades away and death is too shy to step forward, the ROT creeps in...

Featuring “Deathless” written by Emma Johnson-Rivard and performed by Lucille Valentine, Tal Minear, and Shriya Venkatesh; and “After” written by Nicole Calande and performed by Dallas Wheatley (credited as Sarah Wheatley), Kim E., Taara Rangan, Max George of Scream Kings, Cole Burkhardt, Maxx Fidalgo, and VXN.

Featured music included “Hazy Darkness” “Castle Lost,” and “Drafty Places” by Eric Matyas; “Chantier Navals” by LJ Kruzer. Additional sounds were created by Jay_You, nixeno, and frankum. Sound design by Mariel Calande and Cameron Seagraves.

Monsters Out of the Closet is a podcast that features horror and horror-adjacent fiction and art created by LGBTQ+ artists.

Subscribe at Apple iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, or wherever you get podcasts. You can also follow us on Twitter and Tumblr, and you can support us (and our artists) through Patreon!

[daysincetheindefinatehiatus]

Ok ok ok I gotta pitch Hello From the Hallowoods or else I will throw up. Do you understand?

If you like, horror, and are queer, this is honestly a great podcast for you.

The story is told to you by a god, who’s partner made humanity and is now dead. His heart is somewhere up north in the ice caps essentially bringing humanity closer to their own doom than they were naturally bringing themselves. The world is ending but this god, called Nikignik doesn’t want the world to end because as insignificant as humans might be to his kind, they were the last thing his partner made. A good part of the overall story, while not about Nikignik is also still tied into him deciding to not just be a passive observer of what’s going on, into someone who takes action to get what he wants. He essentially goes from someone documenting human existence to in small ways, trying to preserve it.

Every night, Nikignik tells us dreamers 3 stories from the perspective of a large scoop of characters. As well as an interruption from your friendly neighborhood evil corporation trying to hasten the end of the world for profit.This is where things get complicated, especially in the beginning, because although; everyone’s story is connected in the big picture, thats not immediately obvious in the first few episodes. Also each characters has their own personalities, goals and motivations. Even the characters you think are just one off tend to be expanded on later. In the beginning I really do just recommend choosing like one character to pay special attention too (tm).

This is the aspect though that also provides a whole hell of a lot of diversity, and you can tell that Mx. Wellmen notices a gap in said diversity, they tend to try to remedy it as best they can in realistic ways that don’t hinder the show in any way. A lot of the shows diversity is also intersectional too, which is always good to see.

You get elder crossbow wielding lesbians, a hijabiwoman who also does magic, witches who are various flavors of queer including but not limited to gender-fluid, aromantic and werewolf (?). There’s a non-binary Frankenstein’s monster and a transmasc ghost too (they’re my favorites) as well as an absolutely lovely amount of found family. You also get the undead learning how to read!

The villains also tend to be compelling in really personal ways. You get a lot of religious zealots thinking that the end times are near and God is testing his creations so they must do their best to rid the world of sinners, and monsters, even at the expense of their own children. You also get evil corporations motivated to greed. This also means that when the bad guys are defeated, it’s extremely cathartic. Mx. Wellmen also does a great job writing religious trauma, and extremism.

Death, even of evil characters doesn’t get written off as trivial either. It’s never just a way to move the plot along. It does deeply effect the other character’s emotions, actions and goals. You really can see the way it affects them throughout the rest of the show.

You can also normally expect for horror podcasts to lean rather hard into the doom and gloom aspect of the end of the world, and while that does happen for sure, there’s also this sorta underlying twinge of hope to it. Like yeah, things as they are currently are certainly are ending, but that doesn’t mean that humanity can’t rebuild and make things better on a systemic level.

For a horror podcast it is just remarkably hopeful in a way that is super amazing for my dumbass brain to make the stupid happy chemicals instead of wanting to die and feeling like the world is gonna end all the time. There is a good deal of social commentary in it, but never in a way that makes the dreamers feel like nothing we do, in the pre apocalypse world matters.

Beyond the plethora of amazing representation for LGBT, poc, and disabled communities. There’s also just cool stuff for your avid horror fans. We’ve got references to classic literature out the wazoo. We got Frankenstein, we got Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: we got the Monday’s child reference. We get eerie twins and ghosts. It’s just… amazing.

To top it all off, the podcast doesn’t have ads. Every now and then Mx. Wellmen will shout out other podcasts, usually when their cast voices for hallowoods show as a treat, but those aren’t payed for slots. Mx. Wellmen is entirely funded by their fans, and they create the entire show from writing to producing. It’s truly amazing that the quality of this show is as good as it is, when it’s being made in its entirety by 1 person, and funded by the audience.

I just love this show so much. Go listen to it before I cry about it.

My favourite way of choosing podcast to listen to is seeing people being batshit crazy, extremely enthusiastic, writing serious interpretations and silly posts about it, posting fanart, etc.

So, audio drama folks, please reblog this and write me some amazing stuff about your favourite podcasts. It can be honest recommendation! Maybe some blorbo thoughts about your fav character! Or deep reflection about themes and motifs! Whatever you would like to share with someone but didn’t have a chance to. Don’t worry about me knowing what you talking about, just pure your little podcast heart for me, pretty please. (And of course as always official podcast accounts are welcome to join!)

[virusinfected-memes]

AU PROMPTS FOR AU AUGUST ;

It’s August, that means it’s time for more AUs. Send a number for an AU, dynamic, or trope that will be used to write either a drabble or starter. Send 💫 for a random number instead. You’re welcome to send multiple in one ask to combine them.

POPULAR PROMPTS.

001. aristocrat au  002. assassin au  003. bakery au  004. band / musician au 005. coffee shop au 006. college au 007. cyberpunk au 008. dark fantasy / grimdark au 009. dystopian au 010. high fantasy au 011. historical au 012. monster (vampire, werewolf, etc.) au 013. murder mystery au 014. paranormal au 015. pirate au 016. roommate au 017. royalty au 018. superhero / supervillain au 019. time travel au 020. zombie / undead apocalypse au

LESS POPULAR PROMPTS.

021. alien invasion au 022. circus / performer au 023. deserted island au 024. host (alien, parasite, etc.) au 025. host club au 026. imaginary friend au 027. mad scientist au 028. mmorpg / virtual world au 029. no humans au 030. penpal au 031. podcaster au 032. private investigator au 033. role reversal au 034. influencer / streamer au 035. space opera au 036. street racing au 037. treasure hunter au 038. underground fighting au 039. urban fantasy au 040. writer au

FANDOM CROSSOVER PROMPTS.

041. Alice in Wonderland 042. Among Us 043. Animal Crossing 044. Assassin’s Creed 045. Avatar: the Last Airbender 046. Battle Royale / Squid Game 047. Beauty and the Beast 048. Dead By Daylight 049. Dragon Age 050. Dungeons and Dragons 051. Mass Effect 052. Peter Pan 053. Phantom of the Opera 054. Pokémon 055. Scooby Doo 056. Silent Hill 057. Stardew Valley 058. Stranger Things 059. Studio Ghibli (any film) 060. The Lost Boys

POPULAR TROPES.

061. bad guy won’t die 062. break the cutie 063. conjuring evil 064. dead cell phone 065. deal with the devil 066. everything is a simulation 067. false friend 068. final boy / girl 069. fire-forged friends 070. found family 071. found footage 072. hidden in plain sight 073. idealist vs. pragmatist 074. library full of secret knowledge 075. nightmare on Halloween 076. secret heir to the throne 077. the chosen one 078. the powerful artifact 079. the reluctant hero 080. the world that never progresses

LESS POPULAR TROPES.

081. aw, look! they really do love each other! 082. awesome, but impractical 083. bad guys doing good things 084. blessed with suck 085. condensation clue 086. dark is not always evil 087. dead all along 088. eviler than thou 089. false chosen one 090. genius bruiser 091. genius ditz 092. golden hero to anti-hero 093. good people with evil powers 094. light is not always good 095. mood whiplash 096. nature’s revenge 097. really 700 years old 098. villain is actually the hero 099. you are number six 100. you can’t fight fate

SHIP TROPES.

101. afraid to commit 102. bet / dared to date 103. dating app 104. drunk / Vegas wedding 105. enemies to lovers 106. fairytale retelling 107. fake relationship 108. fated mates / soulmates 109. forbidden love 110. friends to lovers 111. grumpy person with sunny person 112. holiday fling 113. love at first sight 114. marriage before romance 115. marriage pact 116. playboy / girl in love 117. right person, wrong time 118. secret admirer / unrequited love 119. there’s only one bed 120. work rivals

[princessgemma12]

AU List

Okay, so this is just an editable copy of @alternateuniverseotp ‘s A-Z AU List. I’ll probably add to it, and whatever AU I complete will be struck out and a link to the fic post will be added next to it. I’ll put links to older fics that use a listed AU, too, ‘cause I can, but only if/once completed. I’m also gonna add iteration-specific AUs if requested, so, if you wanna see something send me an ask! Anons open.

Also, quick note, unless the iteration is specified otherwise, everything will be defaulted to the 2012 series.

[updated Apr. 10, 2022]

A

Accidental Marriage AU

Actor AU

Alien AU

Amnesia AU

Android AU

Angel/Demon AU

Animal AU

Apocalypse AU

Arranged Marriage AU

Artist AU

Art Student AU

Assassin AU

Athlete AU

Author AU

Avian (Bird People) AU

B

Babysitter AU

Bakery AU

Ballet AU

Band AU

Bartender/Bar AU

Bay!Turtles Crossover AU

Beach AU

Blind AU

Blind Date AU

Bodyguard AU

Book Store AU

Bounty Hunter AU

Brothel AU - WIP 1

C

Caterer AU

Candle Shop AU

Camp Counselor AU

Camping AU

Carnival AU

Castaway AU

Celebrity AU

CEO/Boss AU

Chef AU

Child AU

Choir AU

Circus AU

Clothing Shop AU

Club AU

Coffee Shop AU

College AU

Conductor AU

Choreographer AU

Coworker AU

Criminal AU

Cult AU

Cyborg AU

D

Dancer AU

Dead/Death AU

Deaf AU

Demigod AU

Demon Hunter AU

Detective AU

Dimension Hoping AU

Disney AU

DJ AU

Doctor AU

Domestic AU

Dragon AU

Drama Class AU

E

Enemies AU

Ex AU

F

Fairy AU

Fake Dating/Engagement/Marriage AU

Fashion/Fashion Designer AU

Fire Fighter AU

Foot!Turtle(s) AU

Forbidden Love AU

Fugitive AU

G

Gang AU

Gardener/Gardening AU

Ghost AU

H

Hairstylist AU

Haunted House AU

Hero/Villain AU

High School AU

High School Reunion AU

Historical AU

Horror AU

Hospital AU

Hunger Games AU

I

Immortal AU

J

Judge AU

Jury Duty AU

K

Kidnapper/Kidnapped AU

L

Lawyer AU

Library AU

Lifeguard AU

M

Mafia AU

Maid AU

Magician AU

Magic AU

Marriage AU

Mechanic AU

Medieval AU

Mermaid AU

Military AU

Model AU

Modern AU

Monster/Monster Hunter/Monster Tamer AU

Murder Mystery AU

Musical AU

Musician AU

Mutant-Friendly Society AU (pick a combo!)

Mutant-pocalypse AU

N

Neighbor AU

Non-Ninja AU

Nurse AU

O

Office AU

Officer (Police) AU

O/B/A AU

P

Parallel Universe AU

Parametric AU

Paranormal Investigator AU

Parent AU

Pen Pal AU

Pet Store AU

Photographer AU

Pirate AU

Podcast AU

Porn Star AU

Prisoner AU

Prank War AU

Prostitute AU

Q

—

R

Reality TV Show AU

Reporter AU

Restaurant AU

Resurrection AU

Road Trip AU

Roll Reversal AU

Room Mate AU

ROTTMNT Crossover AU

Rival AU

Royalty AU

S

SAINW AU

Scientist AU

Serial Killer AU

Servant AU

Sick AU

Social Media AU

Soulmate AU

Space AU

Spike Stays AU

Spy AU

Stalker AU

Stranger AU

Street Racing AU

Stripper AU

Student AU

Survival AU

T

Tattoo Shop AU

Teacher AU

Theater AU

Thief AU

Time Travel AU

TMNT 2003 Crossover AU

TMNT 2007 Crossover AU

TMNT 2012 AU Crossover AU (one or more AUs crossover, with another AU or with “canon”)

U

Undead AU (vampire? zombie? pick a combo!)

Undercover Cop AU

V

Vacation AU

Vampire/Vampire Hunter AU

Veterinarian AU

W

Waiter AU

War AU

Wedding Planner AU

Werewolf AU

Wild West AU - WIP 1

Witch AU

Wizard AU

X

—

Y

Yandere AU

Youtuber AU

Z

Zookeeper AU

Zombie AU - “Cadaver of Lust” (NR, TMNT Darkfic, tcest)

[rileysecretfox]

It's that time again, folks. The time where I've found a new podcast I love so much that I have to post about it.

Friends. Specifically fellow tma fans still recovering. Let me tell you about Hello From the Hallowood.

I cannot EVEN WORD PROPERLY about how much I love this. The writing is awesome. The characters are ao beautiful and so queer that my heart is packed full of them.

Hello From the Hallowoods is a horror podcast with fairy-tale, post-apocalypse, capitalist dystopia vibes and more. It follows a whole bunch of character, all of whom are either interesting, lovable or both.

Here's just a few random sellingpoints:

- Ghost dog/s named Dogsmell

- Badass teenage dyke with a bat

- Sage old lesbian wives

- Terrifying library

- Queers of ALL shapes and sizes

- Absolutely stunning relationship between undead nonbinary being and sad traumatized ghost boy

- The main evils are, in my interpritation, Capitalism and Bigoted Religious Man

- SO MANY GOOD DOGGOS

- Narrator has a delightful voice and also a whole lot of eyes (looks directly at tma fans)

JUST TO NAME A FEW!!!!!!

The show does feature some heavy cws including misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, abuse and a whole lot of misgendering, all from Very Specifically Terrible Characters and it's in no way excused, and for me the unpleasantness of that was worth all the great stuff I'm getting from this story.

Diggory Graves has a permanent place in my heart and I *need* more people to share my love for them.

Pleeeeease give this show a chance, it's so good and so satisfying and if nothing else, you *need* to learn about the invisible guy and his frog boyfriend. You don't know you need it in your life but YOU DO.

Go forth and enjoy.

(PS, to prove how much I love this show; they have an episode titled "Spiders". And I listened to it!!!! If you know me at all, you know how deep my phobia runs. And it was WORTH IT)