#wars and we should make it a fucking priority to not have wars doesn't mean ppl already in a decision-making role in the field should do

[skrunksthatwunk]

kinda drives me up a wall when people go "hey i think x action in a war/combat scenario is inhumane and cruel and shitty" and someone responds with "oh but within the laws of war it's allowed or there's procedure for it etc etc". it doesn't have to be a war crime to be unforgivable man it's a shitty rulebook anyway

[7thcirclebaker]

Alright, so since we don't know who's the lead for season 4, and we mostly think Eloise needs someone who will actually call her out on stuff, and clearly the canon relationships at this point are up for grabs, I propose a Theloise potential storyline.

In this season there was the focus on heirs and family inheritance and how surprise titles just are like a thing. From Season 2, we know the Sheffields don't have a male heir, or at least we can assume so, as we never see or hear of one. As Edwina has made a good match on the continent, likely her first born son would inherit whatever title is there, assuming there's only one. And she doesn't seem to have gotten pregnant yet either. This means the Sheffields would need to hold out another couple of years to have an heir, even from the daughter they basically disinherited. But clearly, it's also possible for families to go searching for the nearest male next of kin who would inherit which we saw in the Mondrich plotline this season.

Enter Theo, a like 4th cousin of the Sheffields. They find him, and quite forcefully don't let him out if it, because well he can actually read and is young, fit, and healthy. But he's really not a fan of this, doesn't want it really, is always talking about workers rights etc. in an attempt to tire him out, and for him to be more palatable to the Ton, they buy him a commission, because there's very much a war on. It's a cushy one that's unlikely to see too much battle so he's not at major risk but it should alter his life priorities or something.

Danbury hears that the Sheffields are sending this poor lad of to war, doesn't connect Theo Heir to be Sheffields, to Eloise's printer apprentice Theo and tells Kate about him. They decide to invite him to the next ball as he's kind of her cousin and she wants to do some fence mending. Eloise bumps into him there and they're both just an absolute mess, but like defensively angry at the other. Still people don't connect them to the scandal from season 2, and the only one Eloise would tell is Pen, who won't be writing about this.

They cool off after a little bit and send an apology letter, I wanna say Eloise apologizes first because Pen calls her out faster, and also Theo might die like, is that what you really want the last things you've said to him to be. Thus we get the letters over several months.

Boom! Combat! Things actually go pretty okay, and Theo gets a commendation and a shiny medal. He's horribly wounded though, like weren't sure he'd survive wounded. He does, and gets sent to the country for air from the military hospital only no one told Eloise. So she's thinking he's ignoring her or dead, he thinks she's ignoring him because he's now somewhat fucked up (I wanna say in a way that means being a professional printer is no longer viable because of the work, so he has to accept that he's the Heir now). Someone tells Eloise that he's not dead and is in fact at the Sheffields. She storms herself up there all abluster and yells at him for letting her think he was dead and after that last letter was somewhat touching and like maybe he proposed in it. They argue, they make up, they make out.

Eloise was of course unchaperoned, as we'll say the Sheffields died or were in the city lauding how great their heir was in battle. We get three angry Bridgerton Brothers battle ready for their baby sister. They agree to get married and the family slowly come around once they see how in love they actually are. Also because he's like actually maybe willing to ask for help about how to do the estate management and also how he can implement some reforms and it makes his brother's in law think about the estates they manage and do some reform as well. Everyone wins.

[ninewheels]

So I just saw a montage video on YouTube of Amazing Shots in Furiosa, and yeah are A+ (Furiosa is an A+ looking movie) but the priority of this video is clearly on the shots that look amazing in the desktop background or tumblr gifset sense. Which is fine, I love those, and that channel can do whatever it wants, but there are many different kinds of amazing shots, and this just inspired me to talk about my personal favorite shot in the film.

First of all, this is what I think of as an Alfonso Cuarón oner (although Miller's been around longer, were the 80s Mad Maxes like this and should he have dibs?) which is to say a oner that doesn't draw attention to itself, but uses the uncut nature to create a particular feeling, and also because if your blocking set-up means you can transition smoothly from one great angle into another without cutting, why not do it?

We see Furiosa and Jack being dragged out of the V8...

And laid on the ground in front of Dementus...

Who starts making with the villainous grandstanding that is his specialty. This whole scene is about simultaneously conveying how powerful he is, but at the same time how powerful he isn't. Notice how the harsh sunlight backlighting him and his droogs amplifies the melodramatic menace; notice also how much of his monologizing is quite nihilistic, and puts more emphasis on how Furiosa and Jack fucked things up than how good it's gonna be when they punish them.

He moves camera right, and the camera keeps him in frame, but it doesn't move away from Furiosa and Jack either. They're also in the foreground here, and a little closer to center than Dementus is. (The center point is right in between Jack/Davidson and the background biker nearest to them.) Not only are they pulling the audience's focus from Dementus, they are pulling each other's focus as well. They share this tender moment ("My Jack" "My Fury"), not giving a flying fuck about whatever this asshole is saying.

(Also, pay attention to Harley's grip on Furiosa, and how he releases it to let her nuzzle up to Jack.)

"I'm chewing the bloody scenery over here, pay attention to me!"

This specific section of the shot--the camera and the characters refusing to focus on him, and then him getting pissy about it in a fourth-wall nudging fashion--was the part that I was thinking of when I decided to make this post. I'd forgotten how long the shot in its entirety was, and it's all good.

It's harder to tell with Jack, but Furiosa definitely never once looks at Dementus in this entire scene. Most of them time she's looking at Jack, but even when she isn't, she deliberately keeps her eyes off of Dementus. She knows how much he loves being looked at, and decides to not give him the satisfaction. (There's a parallel to "Witness me!", one that increased for me in Dementus's final scene with the line "Do you have it in you to make it epic?" which has strong War Boy energy to it.)

Up to this point, movement was limited, both for the characters and the camera. While the angles shifted, the camera would linger in place for longer sections, or move slowly from one to the next. And after our heroes are dragged away from the car, Dementus is the only character who crosses any distance.

Now the time for talking is over (in a tonal sense, obviously there's still more dialogue) and the time for action is here: specifically, enacting punishments for these two. All the characters are in motion now, and the camera is too, and it stays active until the end of the shot.

In a shot that is physically tracking Furiosa the whole time, these couple of seconds following Jack as he's being forced to run behind the bike are the only part where she's not in frame, not even in the background. It enforces the finality of this physical separation of the two of them. He's alone now (in the way that matters) and when the camera moves back to her, she is too.

And a more blatant follow-up to Harley's body language from earlier. He's like the camera and the audience in a way--he's been paying more attention to our heroes than to his lunatic boss's nihilist proclamations. (I've heard someone assert that he's the one who let Furiosa go, which might emotionally match what's happening, but there's no actual evidence for it, and it's so much more in-character for her to single-handedly find a way to straight-up tear her arm off at the mangled joint.*

And we end on this: Dementus is staring intently at Furiosa, and Furiosa is not looking at him, which in this case is because it'd be physically impossible for her, but the imagery is telling the story it's telling. A different film with different characters could use still this exact same blocking and framing, but create a different story by having the prisoner crane their neck to the side in vain to make some attempt to address their captor, whether to beg for mercy or tell them to go fuck themselves. Furiosa may be defeated, fully aware she's living the second worst day of her life, but she can still deny Dementus the thing he wants: her attention.

There are definite shortcomings with this screenplay, but the direction, the cinematography, and the general moment-to-moment storytelling are fucking good.

[ifyouseekmyllie]

✰ ⸻ Kelsea Ballerini " Patterns " starters.

Patterns

I've got patterns.

I've got questions, I've got whys

It's in my constellations

I'm coming apart at the seams

Maybe more than I like healing I like the feeling of the feeling that leaves me staring at the ceiling the morning after.

Maybe I'm the one to blame.

Maybe I'm the one to blame for doing the same old same.

Hey, what can I say?

Is this a battle that I'll ever win?

Will I outgrow all these patterns?

Sorry Mom

Sorry mom.

You know that I had sex

You know that I had sex before I bought the white dress.

I know you're not impressed

I know you're not impressed with my lack of sticking to the bible.

Yeah, I got regrets

I turned out alright

We got into a few fights

I know it took a little tough love.

My priorities were out of balance

I wished I was home

Baggage

My heart ain't up in the air

If you want me clear out a drawer, clear out a shelf

I wouldn't want to do this with anybody else

I've got baggage, but I'm moving in

I know the weight and gravity of key chains with same keys.

Home is when you're with me

First Rodeo

I like the feeling runnin' with the wind

Damn, that showdown was embarrassing

It doesn't scare or bother you, at least it seems

Take my heart, but take it slow

This ain't my first rodeo

Love's the wild, wild, west, ain't gotta tell me that.

You make me forget about the last time.

Tell me that it's gonna be alright

Tell me that it's gonna be alright, even though we never know.

When it comes to me and you, I can't not try.

Don't let me go.

Nothing Really Matters

I get existential

I get overwhelmed

Am I caught up in the wrong things?

Am I cool enough?

Nothing really matters, we're a rock in space

Nothing really matters when I'm seeing your face

I should sleep more hours

If it makes you happy why are we so sad?

I was just thinking today

It's kind of all about the love that you get and you give away.

Leave the rest to fate

That's what really matters , anyway

How Much Do You Love Me ?

What am I in for?

If a meteor hit would you get in your car and drive to me ?

If I went insane and didn't know my name would you stay beside me?

If my jokes weren't funny, would you laugh?

How much do you love me?

I gotta ask, how much do you love me?

Do I sound needy and dramatic?

Yeah, I know that it's love but sue me for asking 'how much?'.

Two Things

We said that it's over.

Two things can be true

Two things can be true, I love and hate you

I love and hate you

I'll be your best and your worst day

I'll be your blessing and curse

You're nothing and everything I got to lose

Did you make it home?

Are you feeling alone?

Are we turning into people that we used to know?

I wish it was that easy when it comes to me and you.

We Broke Up

We met, we vibed, we jumped in

God, we were really something

Almost made it all the way, but we didn't and you know what? That's okay

Almost made it all the way but we didn't.

When it's over, it's over.

I could cry 'til I throw up

It's as simple as 'we broke up'.

Tale as old as time, don't gotta wrap my head around it.

We both could point our fingers, we'd both have one pointing back.

WAIT !

I have a nasty habit, leaving before I get left.

I'll stonewall my emotions even when I wanna cry tears as wide as the ocean.

This is just a conversation, baby, what the fuck?

I'm screaming out 'goodbye' out like it means 'I love you'

I'm better on my own.

Wait!

Wait! Don't go!

It's all I've ever known

I'm codependent with my independence through and through.

When I said, ' Just leave then,' I was only fishin'.

My head and heart are at war.

I'm a girl/boy, I'm afraid

Feelings ain't facts.

Feelings ain't facts , just the patterns of my past.

Beg for Your Love

Let me own my shit and not overshadow it

Let me own my shit

I'd follow you to the moon

You know I'm ride-or-die

If you want a chase, I won't run

I ain't gonna beg for your love

I'm trying, are you trying?

If you want 'sorry' on my knees, babe, that can't be me.

God, you can be so mean!

God, you can be so mean when I'm cryin'

Is this just way too tough?

Are you not strong enough?

You're all I want

You're all I want but not like this.

Deep

You could save me, maybe I could save myself.

What's a girl to do lookin' at you ?

If lovin' you is an ocean, then I'm in deep

Cowboys Cry Too

I've talked him down from getting in a fight or two

He's as stubborn as the weeds in the backyard

He hides his heart and hurt 'cause he kinda had to

Cowboys cry too

I grew up wishing I could close off the way my dad did

That man never felt a damn thing he didn't wanna feel

You can't outdrive pain

You can't outdrive pain, someday it's gonna take the wheel

Can't be alone but don't wanna get close to anybody

I don't wanna bare teeth but I don't wanna look weak.

I'm afraid you'll walk away when the tears start running but I hope not

I'm afraid you'll walk away when the tears start running.

I Would, Would You

I wanna be the one that you're callin' when you're drunk

That's what you do when you love someone

That's the choice you choose when you love someone

Can't you see I'm true blue?

Life is short, life is long, but it's better with you here.

If somebody does you wrong, hold my beer

when we're 95 years old divorced and newlyweds, yeah I'd still die for you and haunt you when I'm dead.

I'd still die for you and haunt you when I'm dead

We lost count of all the 'that's what friends are for'.

This Time Last Year

I was learning' all the harder ways

Hittin' the town didn't hit the spot

I gave hell a piece of my mind , it gave me a hit to my pride

I gave hell a piece of my mind

I came out on the other side

I lost a couple good friends

The heartbreak was undeniable

People thinkin' that I've changed

Thank God I've changed

Did You Make It Home ? ( Outro )

Are you safe on the road you chose?

Did you make it home?

Is it where prayers go when you pray 'em?

I'm thinking of you as you go.

[aleksanderscult]

Hello!! I love your analysis sm 🖤🖤

Also happy birthday!!

I was wondering if you could analysis the scene in the first book when Alina and the darkling are in the queen's sitting room? Also, in the second book the scene where the darkling impersonates Mal through the tether? I am curious to know your opinions on these scenes!! Thank you!!

Hello!! And thank you so much, anon, for the birthday wishes!💛💛😍

And I'm so glad that you like my analyses. Really you can interpret the Darkling's scenes and his scenes with Alina in one million ways. He's such an interesting character. And the fact that you enjoy this too makes me so happy🥰🥹

Anyway, back to business. Another anon commissioned me to analyse the tether scene where the Darkling impersonates Mal and kisses Alina, so here I'm gonna analyse their winter fete make out. (Everybody in this fandom have such good taste and it's 🤌👌)

(random but, in the beginning, I thought you wanted me to analyze the scene where Alina and the Darkling talk after the former had her first audience with the Queen. And at the last minute I realized you mean their make out in that room. I'm stupid💀. If you mean the other, former scene tell me 😊)

I already feel this is gonna take two parts as well🥲 (I hope the people that follow this page don't mind me overanalyzing things)

(Part 2 here 🖤)

I'm gonna start from here because this is the moment where the Darkling gives up his hundred of years well-thought-out plan and gives in to desire. After what happened to the lake and realized that his feelings for Alina have taken an unexpected romantic turn, he left. Vanished. Firstly, because he's the Darkling and he has duties to fulfill and secondly because he tried to ignore them, push them out by staying away from her. But, apparently, it was impossible for him and in that moment we see him giving in to his feelings.

From the way he abruptly takes her hand, pushes her fast through the crowd and makes them invisible so no one can see them or interrupt them we can see how much he wanted to do this and for how long. He's like: "Fuck it. I'm going to do it now 'cause I've held myself back a looong time".

I want to comment two things here.

1) I think he brought her to the Queen's sitting room because it was the first room available. The closest one and since he was in a hurry to get it on, it was the first room he thought of. And because he knew that no one else would be there or get there since everybody were too busy crying, laughing and partying *insert screaming remembering how they interrupted them afterwards*

2) He really didn't miss not even one second 😭The moment the door closed he let out his bottled desire. Seriously, for how many months he was holding himself back??😭

Well, my dear Alina, it was nothing like any kiss before because the man you have before you has had centuries of practice. Really his life has been full of this as the author has said.😌

And it's very interesting to notice that even before Alina wore Morozova's collar, she and the Darkling had already a deep connection. "Like calls to like" had already applied to them long before the stag was killed.

See what I mean?

Alina could feel his emotions even though no one else could. So there was already a type of bond, a connection that united them. Their powers and emotions were already entwined before even Alina got the amplifiers.😏

In case you want to know my opinion in this, I believe he's honest here. Morozova's herd was found after so many years of search and the Darkling is in a dark room making out with Alina. His priority, people😏😏

On one hand, he enjoys what he's doing right now because he can finally express his desire after so many months of avoiding her. But, on the other hand, he doesn't like it AT ALL. He even hates saying that line. Because he admits something that he wishes wasn't true. He should desire to go to the war room but instead he's here pinning Alina to the wall.

(Also the GROWLING! He wants to eat her, guys😭. But also he's angry with himself)

Alina, girl, you got it right 👍

Btw, what is it with him and his throat fetish??😭

(Not that we, the fandom, mind)

It's kind of interesting how honest he tries to be. In the beginning of their meeting he wasn't that much but here, I think, he wants to be truthful to her. He tries to open up a little. But still not completely. This is a moment of weakness for him. And he's torn between making her his and going after the stag. Between opening himself up to her and closing off. (He's struggling for real🥲)

Alina can you please shut up with the questions and let him do his job we're dying here😭😭

No hate to Alina, really. But for God's sake just continue smooching without talking.😩

The Darkling taking his time exploring that black kefta. A gift from him to her, a sign that he already feels possessive of her. And here in one of the greatest celebrations of the year, he wanted to show everyone who she belongs to.

No lies detected here, my dear people.😊

But there's something he mentions here that is very interesting.

"I should be planning our trip north".

That says a lot. He planned to take Alina with him to the north and then he would give her Morozova's collar as a gift. With joy and willingness from Alina's part. That was his plan.

But then everything fucked up.

Alina easily believed Baghra's words and run away, so that proved to the Darkling that she's not to be trusted. Add to this that Alina reunited with Mal and started a romance with him and we have the Darkling going feral and forcing Alina to wear the collar and control her powers without her permission.

Back in the tent scene we can see how this analysis is confirmed since the Darkling:

A) doesn't celebrate the fact that he found Morozova's stag after centuries of searching and took its antlers. Instead he sat sulking in a chair and drinking kvas silently.

B) he said to Alina "that was never my intention" when she accused him of making her his slave.

Conclusion: he wanted the both of them to go north together, kill the stag, Alina wearing the antlers happily and then, I think, he would reveal piece by piece his true plans to her.

You know what? I'm about to say it.

I'm about to say it.

Aleksander Morozova has a throat fetish and is a butt guy.

There. I said it.🙂

And it's canon (at least for me🤷).

Also, this moment alone is ten times sexier and more sensual than the Malina sex scene. Change my mind.

The way he wants to dominate her.🫠

One line. One thousand meanings. One iconic moment.

Translation No 1: "The problem with wanting you, is that it makes me weak" a.k.a. she makes him weak and Alina is his weakness.

Translation No 2 is kind of intriguing (and random) 'cause Aleksander always wanted a safe haven for the Grisha. Prestige and respect. So that made him kinda weak too. Vulnerable to the wars he fought and risks he took in order to provide that haven to them. And in the end it killed him (twice).

After this he lets out all his emotions through the next kiss and makes it more intense. He just let go (rip my feels).

Guess what? I need a second part again. 🥲

It's gonna be the last one I promise ❤️

[saintsenara]

#9 and/or #29 for Severus x Sirius?

thanks for the ask, anon!

[ship ask game here]

9. baths or showers together? do they like elaborate ones with bubbles and flower petals?

[our scene opens in number twelve, grimmauld place, in the marble shower enclosure in the master bathroom]

"sirius, get your hands off me! do you have any idea how many people die from falling over in the shower?"

"i'm not trying to fuck you, severus, I'm trying to get you to wash your awful hair."

"very witty. and to think i was going to offer to put a sticking charm on you so you wouldn't lose your balance. but i suppose i'll just have to leave you to sort yourself out..."

"you are the most evil man in the world."

-

[later, we find our heroes jammed at either end of a magnificent, claw-footed bathtub, filled with a mountain of pink bubbles. sirius is wearing a deep-cleansing mud-mask.]

"this is ridiculous."

"stop complaining, severus, i'm the one with the tap poking into my back."

"if you must insist on us taking ridiculous bubble baths together - sirius, is that a water lily? - then we should at least use a bath that can actually fit two people into it."

"i always wanted to have sex in the prefects' bathroom..."

"you and half the school. it's why we had to seal it off."

"but surely you can still get in there..."

"there are many advantages to being headmaster, sirius."

29. what is something they can never agree on? how do they meet in the middle?

harry.

severus mellows, of course, after the end of the war, but all that means is that he likes watching voldemort's death scene over and over again in a pensieve. he still think harry is reckless, foolish, stupid, terrible at potions, lazy, arrogant, profligate, and obsessed with his own celebrity. sirius points out that he's also brave, merciful, kind, talented, and surprisingly willing to suffer through weekly brunches with them both.

they agree to disagree, and instead work on outdoing each other in how they dote on their namesakes and godsons.

james sirius is exactly as ruthless and quick-thinking as both the men who gave him his names. sirius buys him his first toy broom and endures a week of shouting from molly when he falls off it and breaks his collarbone [both harry and ginny agree he was actually pretty close to executing a perfect wronski feint]; he helps him through the animagus transformation and assures james that it isn't funny that his form is a pygmy puff; he buys him exclusively scarlet and gold items for a full eighteen years of birthdays, until james tells him he's now in a cottage-core pastel-boy era and he needs to get on board; and he breaks down in tears of pride when james is hauled out of the wizengamot for interrupting a session on crime to demand they make it an urgent priority to defund azkaban.

albus severus, in contrast, is subtle and sly. severus teaches him all the requisite techniques not only to be a good potioneer but also a magnificent cook and al is molly's favourite grandchild as a result; he adores all the shared in-jokes they have as the only two slytherins in an extended family of gryffindor idiots; he teaches him how to lie fluently and shield his mind from intrusion, which works on everyone except professor mcgonagall [a fact he sees fit to mention with glee to the headstone in little hangleton cemetery reading tom marvolo riddle: woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him]; and, when lucius malfoy tries to forbid the relationship between al and scorpius, because he's not simply content with being a terrorist, he's a homophobe as well, severus punches his old friend in the face, never speaks to him again, and goes off for dinner with the potters. which he doesn't actually hate doing.

lily luna's godfather is hagrid. it's chaos.

[tobiasdrake]

Entering the Restricted Area. Not that Restricted Area, but the other Restricted Area. But also maybe that Restricted Area? I dunno. It's ambiguous.

But it has its own dedicated elevator with a glowing neon sign that reads SECRETS HERE so it's not like you're trying that hard to conceal it. Like I said in the penthouse, this doesn't meet the criteria of "secret" lab. This is a classified lab. Everyone knows it's there; They just don't have clearance to enter.

Is there a reason it needs to be so deep?

Oh, sweet. Shinigami's got a backup plan for delivering intel after Makoto has me killed. Good on you, Shinigami.

Going to make explaining my IOU letter to Halara super awkward though.

I feel like back at the penthouse was probably a better time to go full interrogation-mode but sure, we can do this now.

Okay but this isn't secret. It's classified. Try again.

I can feel him giving me the run-around. These are 100% "playing dumb" non-answers to the question, to go along with the not-the-secret-lab he's about to show me.

Of course they make guns here. An isolated city-state can't exactly buy all of its guns from the Unified Government, after all. If they want to defend their sovereignty, they'll need weapons to do that with. Which means turning at least a portion of their manufacturing to engines of war.

That's assuming they weren't already doing it. After all, before Kanai Ward was an independent city-state, they were already doing shady UG projects here.

OH. COOL. I'm sure that's nothing to worry about. The lead person in charge of making high-tech machines that kill is conspiring against Makoto. Seems fairly low on the priorities list.

That sounds suspiciously like appropriation, my guy. I'm gonna need to know more about your relationship to the Bora Bora, especially since you keep indicating that you have the blood of ancient royalty?

Makoto's rise to power coincided with the advent of the Forever Rain. That's suspicious as hell, no lie. Makoto, did you drown Dohya in the perpetual rains of an endless weather phenomenon?

That took me by surprise. Makoto isn't a Kanai Ward native. I figured from the way he talked about the city that he'd lived here all his life, but no. He came here from outside. And then probably fucked it up with Forever Rain.

What accomplishment, Makoto? Was it the Forever Rain?

That sounds real convenient, Makoto.

I mean, no, I wasn't expecting you to say shit. Obviously you won't talk about it, especially if you did create the Forever Rain. But I'm onto you, man. I'm onto you and your Forever Rain.

On a scale of 1 to Fuck, how arrested are we about to be?

So about a 3 or 4, is what you're saying. Alright. As long as we act like we belong and stay close to Makoto, we should get by with minimal fuss. Until Makoto turns on us, anyway.

This explains a lot about Makoto and Yomi's complex relationship. Yomi isn't just some upstart; He's the disgraced prince case aside in favor of the selected heir. The bitter rival meant to inherit the dojo but then the master favored this other kid instead. No wonder he has such a chip on his shoulder.

You and Yakou are both playing this cryptic card. You wouldn't happen to be brothers or some shit, would you? :P

He fell down some stairs.

Onto a pile of bullets.

That looks to be all we're getting out of Makoto. Some interesting background information. Makoto being an outsider threw me for a loop given his fondness for platitudes.

Something's going to happen to this guy. Either killer or victim.

[smile-files]

i'm not going to fucking tell you which mutual i am but if you think the israeli hostages deserve to be free as well then i'm breaking the mutual. this is your warning

um i'm sorry, i don't mean to be rude, but...

i am entirely against israel on every front and i believe everything they're doing is absolutely disgusting, cruel, and repulsive.

but that doesn't mean i think civilians deserve to be separated from their families...

i'm not saying that what the israeli hostages have gone through is any way comparable to what palestinian hostages have gone through... i was just very briefly noting that israelis/jews are allowed to be happy that they're safe/their loved ones are safe, but that they should still be aware that their country is still doing horrendous things to palestinians and that their hearts should still be with the palestinian hostages, no matter what happiness/relief they themselves are currently feeling.

i'm genuinely sorry if i made you think i was on israel's side in any way. by no means am i on their side. but if i'm being honest i'm kinda icked out that you think that innocent civilians (in any context) deserve to be held hostage... nobody should have to go through anything like that. nobody deserves that. um.

and honestly i'm kinda bothered how you're making it seem as if i'm suddenly being zionist, when i'm not? i really hope it doesn't make me a subscriber to a certain cause to think that people are allowed to be happy when they're allowed to go back to their families? is that not the most basic sort of sympathy we're supposed to have?

anyway, without a doubt, from the river to the sea, palestine will be free. i have tried to make a statement to my jewish peers that we should not just be caring about ourselves and our family members, that the atrocities happening to palestine should be our heart's top priority -- that is what i was trying to get at in that reblog. i'm sorry if i have not made my stance clear. brief sympathy towards the everyday people who have been mildly hurt is in no way trumping my resounding sympathy towards the everyday people who have been and still are horribly hurt. because i am jewish and unfortunately surrounded by zionists, a lot of what i say will inevitably fall into the camp of "trying to make my fellow jews sympathize with palestinians and stop being so self-centered"; i am by no means trying to validate their cruel, callous self-centeredness, either in acknowledging their happiness regarding the freedom israeli hostages (who may well be their loved ones -- why, i have relatives in israel) or otherwise. i am trying to break down their self-centeredness, and that will never happen if i invalidate the emotions they justifiably feel

(and none of this is to say that gaza isn't allowed to retaliate, either -- it's just that those who end up getting caught up in that don't deserve the situation they've been brought into more than anyone else. i know, it isn't a war, and the power imbalance is massive, but in any event this sort of conflict necessarily harms innocent people on both sides. i'm not trying to pull a card of "why is nobody thinking of the israelis, wah wah", because i know israel has done far worse to palestinians. but we must recognize that these israelis are people, and people's loved ones, and it does us no good to make those people think we want them all dead. that certainly won't change their minds, if they are indeed zionists.)

i'm incredibly sorry for upsetting you. if you feel like breaking the mutual, it is your right. i'm sure you've been a lovely mutual to have, and i hope you have a great day/night, anon

[statementlou]

I'm not gonna lie, Louis referring to his queer fans or the fact the he has them as "weird" would be pretty disheartening. one thing was to do that in 2014 around the great gay war, with so many indicators that they were actively fighting. another is to do this now, in 2023. and even a straight artist not for one second to consider his lyrics could resonate with queer fans regardless of larry would be a bit shitty. I'm just saying that whatever he says is gonna be VERY hard to believe he was forced to. And if he openly shits on Harry it's safe to say his career - as the chance of 1D ever reunite even for a quick photo - is over.

well I absolutely agree that he will not have been 'forced' to say anything that he says in this movie. And I hear where you are coming from, but I just think the catastrophizing is unnecessary. First of all, we have ONE (1) almost certainly made up and definitely purposefully shit stirring anon (and a slow news day) to thank for all this discourse, we have no idea yet what will be in the movie, and it is always weird to me that people are so ready to believe the worst when I, personally, feel like Louis always comes through for me and gives me the BEST. Have FAITH in LOUIS!! WHEN does he let us down like literally WHEN???? (Unless all you care about is him coming out/ ending it/ confirming larry, in which case, IDK, get your priorities right and appreciate what's in front of you? Cause those things are not happening.) But anyway...

I can completely imagine a scenario in which Louis says he thinks it's weird that so many queers feel inspired by him and it makes me want to hug him forever- because I think he does find it weird and remarkable. It makes me think of that one 1D days receipt where someone said they met him on the street and told him he inspired them as a gay and he was like "I don't see how with the way things are but that means a lot." I think that was probably made up, but also it rings true to me, I feel like he does find it wild that with the public face of everything we still are here and love him so much and see what we do in him and think he's brave. As for the Harry thing, anything he says about him will be taken wrong and distorted and picked on by everyone, if he says anything at all less than "he's my husband and has never done anything wrong in his entire life he is perfect" people will say he's "shitting on Harry"; but that said, Louis is an intelligent media trained person, why are people seriously debating whether he's gonna get on screen and talk shit about Harry Styles?! also literally when in Louis' entire life has he ever said one single bad thing about Harry come on It's not fucking realistic and that alone should tell you that that anon either made all that up or it's just a really bad interpretation of whatever was actually said because the person, like everyone else around here, was so busy expecting the worst that they couldn't just chill and listen to Louis. Like, worst case scenario, let's say he does say that Harry was being offered some really incredible opportunities and he wanted to take them and Louis hadn't really thought about what he would do after the band and so when that happened he felt blindsided and adrift by suddenly not having his ever waking moment scheduled and accounted for (as Liam has also talked about experiencing), would that be so horrible??? That sounds like real life stuff and I don't personally think anyone is the bad guy there or it's horrible to say, but also I BET HE DOESN'T SAY THAT. IDK man, I just think we should all calm down and wait and see, but I'm REALLY not worried that the bombshell of this movie will be Louis coming out as being against Harry or talking shit about his fans, you know?! Come ON. I expect that with the premieres before the release we're going to get a whole lot more overwrought interpretations of things but I don't buy it; I look forward to hearing what Louis has to say and I will be real surprised if it isn't reasonable and interesting and probably mostly NOT THAT BIG A DEAL

[system-of-a-feather]

I'm sure I've said this before but just day 458 of me being really tired of how much gender dysphoria / trans help and advice / trans therapy / passing discussion centers around "what other people think" and the internalized idea of what a (insert gender) is and dismantling it or whatever cause like fair that fits a lot of people's issues and helps them but literally so little of my dysphoria comes from wanting to match some image of a man or a nonbinary or literally anything. I don't want to be like anything and quite frankly I don't care if other people don't see it - I just want to fucking be an honest version of myself and this fucking garbage body (I'm redirecting shit to aggression, don't correct me on this) just is a chronic fucking lie and I hate it. Like I'm just so tired of this shit and I'm on burn out break for most aspects of this other than my responsibility to never bend on our needs which is easy enough considering I'm still plagued with this shit and bending on it would just make shit worse

But I'm so fucking tired of working on this shit. It's been number one - maybe two at certain points in time - on my list of goals and priorities to work on and break down for three years and the bodys and brain have been at war about this for like 5 years and I'm tired and just so fucking tired.

I'm glad we are making great progress and I'll grit my teeth and keep biting my way to where we need to be and Riku will make their tortoise yet productive crawl carrying my ass on a wagon when I'm just sitting here biting at anything that gets in our way - but god its exhausting.

We got the hysterectomy and thats honestly great, but I think our brain said thats one source of dysphoria taken off the list, time to make room for *checks list* Other Dysphoria We Havent Had In 3 Years and Actaully Until Now Were Confidently Proud of Being OK With and now we have to consider top surgery which with the history of complications we had when considering it before means a lot more system talking and navigating if this is dysmorphia, OCD, or dysphoria before taking a direction and then all the fucking medical crap and work crap and relationship crap

And Riku and Ray have said and set them to divide the two out so I can get a break from the fucking headache all this has been, but 1) it doesn't keep me from looking and seeing how fucking exhausting everything ahead of me is because I can see it and 2) from still trying to plan and plot my way around all my issues because I do it withoout thinking due to how I - as a part was raised - and I can't really turn it off so I can't really properly take a break until I'm satisfied that I did my due diligence.

As a part I'm garbage at accepting help or letting anyone give me a break or anything and while I'm A LOT better with it in general with Riku and some parts of the system, often when I get like this I get a lot worse which is the catch 22 of hell cause the more I need support and need a break, the less likely I'll accept either so

Great moods and great feeling

Lowkey maybe I should drive to Florida and do shit I can't say cause it'd be a good distraction and relief and be possibly a little productive (JOKING)

But god am I tired.

Anyways I'm gonna go get shit to help Riku and Ray make progress on their ends cause I really can't sit by and not be actively involved in solving my issues, even if "I" am.

-XIV

[norcalbruja]

Short but off-putting interaction while dishwashing

Today I was washing the dishes and asking someone to please help me with my art-career and general life again. I also decided to tell the spirits to PLEASE stop dragging up my whole "people say my writing and blog are blasphemous" deal and asking me so many questions about it, because it's exhausting. I can't spend all day thinking about how like ten people in the Filipino Discord told me that my writing and my blog are so disrespectful that they've offended the gods into just leaving me to the wilderness.

And I told them, "Look, spirits, I understand that my situation with the anito sounds messy and only half-believable, but stop asking ME about it. Please ask the Water-Spirit or like, someone else who's been with me for a while. They all know what's been happening, too."

Then a Filipino woman who called herself Kulalaying (a Tagalog moon-goddess) showed up as well. I don't think she's really Kulalaying. Honestly? She sounds like an older tita who just demands to know my business, and even her good intentions aren't coming across well AT ALL.

--

First, she IMMEDIATELY started asking me concerned questions about who told me my writing is blasphemous, and what's happening to me right now, and I was like "please ask the Water-Spirit or Lola Buwaya, I literally just told you that I'm tired of talking about it."

Second, she got upset when various spirits trickled in and told her she should probably stop talking about... the thing that I told her not to talk about. One of them was my patron the Morrigan, who is an Irish war-goddess and actually tends to spend most of her time booting spirits out of my headspace. Aside from Loki, who is somewhat tolerable now and used to get booted out by THOR when he wasn't.

Lola Buwaya was irritated and said, "Just leave her to die already, like people say you have!"

Possible-Kulalaying went, "Why would we do that?!"

Lola told her, "You took years to even talk to her! I think you're only doing it now because you don't want her to make you look bad! And now you're asking her questions about her mess of a life, when she told you a few minutes ago to ask someone ELSE about it! Have you abandoned her or not?! It's kinder to leave her to die!"

The Morrigan was initially polite and told her, "Please leave, ma'am. You are asking her questions and doing the exact thing she asked you not to do, and she's upset."

Possible-Kulalaying went, "Susmarijosef! Is this how you treat people who are trying to help?!"

And I'd finished washing the dishes, so I started on getting the rice cooker ready, but I also got irritated and went, "WHY IS AN ANITO USING CATHOLIC OATHS?! This is not helping me think you're one of the Tagalog gods!"

And she told me "But anak! It doesn't mean I believe in them, they're just words!"

I told her, "Please don't talk about Catholicism with me, I want to get away from it as much as I can. I can't even talk to Makiling very well. Or... whoever calls herself Makiling, I guess."

So the Morrigan just yelled at her this time: "GET! OUT! NOW!"

Possible-Kulalaying got flustered because... the rice was about to get cooked and she was hoping to help me with it. I find that a really skewed priority, considering her whole conversation with me started badly, so the Morrigan was like, "FINE! JUST WATCH THE RICE AND PAY SOME FUCKING ATTENTION TO WHAT SHE SAYS NEXT TIME! If you're pretending to be a god, you're not nearly as good as the Water-Spirit."

So yeah, that didn't go well.

I don't know how many other fucking Tagalogs are going to show up and like... pretend to be concerned, when they really just seem to want some gossip.

[procrastinatingfeminist]

Hmmm... it is, of course, one way to de-escalate the Jedi Apprentice series and make the Order look less like a bunch of callous assholes, but there is enough of a disconnect to not be able to save their face.

If Bandomeer 'just happened, but was supervised by QGJ', then what the hell was Obi Wan doing there in the first place? He wasn't his padawan at that time, which means that the Order still very pointedly uses joining the various corps as a punishment, which... not great! They do some of the most quintessentially Jedi tasks on a big scale and the order routinely treats those who joined the corps as second-class members and failures??? How is that in any way good?

Why was a not-master affiliated youngling sent to a planet that asked for an intervention by a fully-grown Jedi master? One who specializes in conflict resolution? QGJ was requested by name. What sort of supervision could he realistically provide to a child who is not his padawan while also being able to concentrate on his mission? Either the practice to throw unprotected younglings without a dedicated escort into potentially dangerous situations so ingrained the order, that they don't give a damn about losing some force-sensitive children (who supposedly valued as slaves, or why was Anakin hiding his abilities?), or they routinely disregard the basic safety parameters for their missions (which we already know they do, this is the whole plot point of the Sith master plan in overwhelming the order with missions and bad intel, so that they are stretched thin and get even easier to be picked off). Which --- still not great! Either way, the order doesn't show that it cares all that much about the safety and well-being of their members, be they children or adults.

And let's get into the conundrum of the whole 'being sent away to an AgriCorps outpost alone'. Is this something that happened only to Obi-wan or is this something that happens routinely? (I don't remember exactly whether it was explicitly stated that it was Yoda's machinations or if it was just implied in the books). If this is sth that happened only to him, then why did no one even blink an eye at those orders sounding sus? Why didn't it make a splash on the council afterwards because of the callous breach of procedures? Supervision or not, there was still a real danger there! There was a fucking darksider running around! If this is something that happens regularly - that's even worse. How many children have the Jedi lost or misplaced on their way to their corps postings, like they are week old newspapers? And this is the order that parents are supposed to entrust their force-sensitive children to?

The only way you can defuse the content of the JA books is by how SW currently treats all EU canon - by completely ignoring it. And even then - the way that QGJ immediately zeroes in on Anakin as the choses one, completely disregarding that he still has a freaking padawan. The way he disregards Obi-wans vision of the Naboo fight, even though he presumably spent several years teaching him one on one and should know better than anyone besides Obi-wan himself the extent of his abilities. Have Obi-wans visions never panned out? Is it normal for them to backfire? Is that what the movie canon is trying to tell me? The way he had absolutely no backup plan in case the council wouldn't take Anakin into their care, beyond taking a freaking child into a war-zone! Where he would have neither time nor attention span to look after him! A child who already proved that they will find the most trouble they can!

And the less said about what it tells me about the Jedi Order and their priorities when they tell the child who had spent their whole life as a slave and has absolutely no one to go back to 'Nope, we are not taking you in, you are not good enough for us!' and offer no reassurances or alternatives, and the that they don't even spend a sliver of a second on whether or not they should at least try to free the only reliable adult the child had known their whole existence...

I love Star Wars and I think the Jedi Order as an idea is great. But the Jedi Order as what is shown in canon, whether you go by movie canon or include Legends too, is .... significantly less so. Which is okay, you can do a great lot with exploring the grey areas, the ways in which ideals come into conflict with harsh realities, but viewing it solely through rose-colored glasses skews your perception.

something something everything that happens in jedi apprentice is just the rumors that periodically get circulated around the crèche about Obi-Wan by all the younglings

All of Obi-Wan's incredibly dangerous adventures did... sort of happen? Bandomeer happened! But Qui-Gon was supervising for most of it. Melida/Daan happened! But it didn't last quite as long as the creche says it did, and Obi-Wan got to keep his lightsaber, and Qui-Gon did in fact come back after Tahl was stabilized.

Etcetera

[llycaons]

ep24 (pt 1): jgs stopppp for real stoppp

the first 1/3rd of this episode dragged a bit but the rest had such juicy character conversations between wwx and important people to him that it was a really good time

see! he can be tactful! he's very polite in addressing this overstep, and he doesn't even give jgs an answer. he just says 'we should leave it up to my sister, who's actually the one getting married'

*sprays water on him* YOU'RE NOTHING

why did jc look at wwx while saying this. it was deliberate. I've never noticed before. wtf

this was kind of funny. jgy says some vague pleasantries about how all the clans are struggling and everyone's like 'oh fuck...this guy is on to something' and lxc is looking all pleased

jgy looks so intense all the time it freaks me out. also. HIS GRANDMA?? jgs's mom??!!! damn I don't remember this

they love this angle

ohhh wwx remembering jfm teaching him to shoot arrows so kindly...he breaks in a big smile immediately after this. it all hurts

this is jc, destroying the herald of the wens above the door of lotus pier's entrance hall. it might be the first time we see him use zidian, and he is SEETHING in anger. that means something!

it's so pretty in there and there is so much space! I have this sense of it as very minimalist but it's really not, it's just restrained and reserved, like it's inhabitant. and very spacious

lwj's first stab at defiance. he doesn't want to copy the rules, he wants to help wwx. but lqr seems to see him as a lost cause, or near enough to be dangerous to lwj. lxc is sent instead, the more objective one, the politician

to his credit, I can see this speech inspiring people who lose a lot to the wens. wwx is looking a little dead-eyed to me, but jyl is proud!

ohh background jumpscare

I like how his turmoil is expressed here. and his dark brown eyes are so beautiful

I've seen posts like 'it's not the lan clan rules' fault that the sects are corrupt' but I think it's disingenuous to act like they don't play ANY role in lwj's decisions or his mistakes. they're clearly source of internal conflict for him, and a significant amount of his character growth rests on elevating himself to a state in which he can make his own moral decisions based on his own judgement rather than obeying authority without question

okay I know he's doing his best to lead and improve his men but look at his face in the first expression. SO angry and contemptuous

he's stressed and alone, and jyl clearly is trying to pick up his slack, and it's not fair this happened to him, but. dude. you gotta be nicer to your guys. I can't believe more people didn't quit after this treatment

in fairness wwx did say he'd help and then left to go drinking without explaining why he's so tired and unmotivated and unable to help, and that obviously doesn't look very good to jc, but jc also handles it really immaturely too

while jyl extends compassion and understanding for the difficulties wwx is having, jc rejects any attempt to sympathize with wwx. when asked to consider his feelings, he instead insists that his are the priority. he's such a strict thinker, no flexibility or tolerance for nuance at all. he sees wwx as a spoiled kid who slacks off and leaves jc with all the work, which is pretty incredible (in a bad way) when you think about how dedicated wwx was to jyl and jc after the massacre and the war. it's a little more forgivable pre-sunshot when wwx goofed off a lot, but post sunshot? after ALL that? he may be struggling with a lot of responsibility, but like, dude

but yeah, SUCH a selfless character 🙄

edit: oh jgs and jgy had a really annoying conversation earlier on that I didn't screencap but it SUCKED. that's where the title comes from

[marunalu]

Okay one thing i really don't get it. Izuku was reckless to an extreme where he didn't take himself into account and many times including the villain hunt arc we have seen him not care about himself. Him not taking himself is due to his lack of self worth and for some reason All might is to be blamed for this ?. His lack of self worth was due to the bullying and being called worthless for 11yrs by Bakugou. All might is also blamed for Izuku pushing away his friends which i cannot agree. Izuku has a caring heart and he cares too much about his friends. It doesn't mean he looks down on them like Shoji asked. The kid has fear of putting some one in danger due to the effects of the war as well as watching Nagant explode which in-turn made him more desperate to find Shigi and AFO to a point where he didn't eat or sleep and all might is supposed to be blamed? All might has been looking out for his well being and telling him non stop to not be like him since the Kamino fight with AFO. All might was the one who suggested for Izuku's protection in UA in CH306. constantly prepared food for Izuku. i will say Izuku was stubborn to listen to all might in the villain arc but his stubbornness is also due to his underlying fear and Trauma of losing people he cares about which is clouding his judgement. I really can't stand Horikoshi's canon and how many blame All might for this.

Hori needed someone he could lay the blaime for izukus self destroying tendencies and zero self worth one and choose all might for that, because blaiming bakugou for it, would course an abroar in the fandom.

Everyone who pays at least a little bit attention should be able to realize that the reason izuku feels that way about himself, is because of the 10 years of abuse he had to endure and was told on a daily basis that he is worthless and useless trash. And izuku still believes that! He STILL calls himself by the insults bakugou used to call him! That alone makes clear that izuku is NOT over his past abuse by bakugous hands. He still suffers from trauma, he wasnt able to heal from!

Bakugou layed the blaime for izukus non existent self worth on all might, because at the time, he couldnt tell his classmates "oh by the way, the reason why deku gives a fuck about himself is because I used to call him worthless, useless trash and similar things on a daily basis since kindergarten and I also liked to use my quirk on him, destroyed his property and also liked to use him as my punching bag."

Pretty sure the rest of the class wouldnt have reacted very well to that. Maybe they even would have told him to stay in ua, while they search for izuku. I also think bakugou doesnt want to face the fact that HE is responsible for izukus fucked up mental wellbeing. In the latest two chapters we found out that bakugou wants to move on from the past. He believes with the apology everything is forgiven now and he has a white vest again! But its not that easy. Its not in the abusers right to decide, when its time to move on. Thats only the victims priority, espicially if the victim hasnt moved on yet and wasnt able to reflect over the bad things that happened to them and so far izuku still hasnt said anything about the apology nor accepted it! I really hope hori does all that with a purpose in mind and means bakugou will be called out later and izuku will be able to heal! And to be able to heal, bakugou needs to stay away from him.

All might is not at fault for the way izuku treats himself. Like you said, all might did everything he could to help izuku and was worried sick about him! Izuku was ALWAYS selfless. Already as a small child he did everything he could to help others, even standing up to his bullys to protect an other boy from bakugou and his minions. The self destroying and zero self worth came LATER, after the bulling startet! And izuku cant have copied that from all might, because back then they didnt know each other on a personal level. When izuku and all might met each other for the first time, izukus feeling of self worth was already long gone!

Bakugou simply needed someone to lay his own wrong doings on, because he doesnt want to face backlash from the people around him that could destroy his reputation and his chance to become the nr 1 hero. Nobody wants a nr 1 hero, who told an other person to kill himself! Bakugou is not dumb enough, not to get that. He is actually quite manipulative. It was all might he layed the blaime one, because to his luck neither all might nor izuku were there to contradict him and he choose a moment to apologize, when izuku was not in the right mind to process what bakugou was telling him.

[bestworstcase]

Honestly I love your salem meta and tbh it makes me think abt oz on the contrary (he's my favorite character lol)

In your words, salem knows she'll only ever be seen as a grimm; as nonhuman, as a monster, and she makes no move to say otherwise

But oz is kind of the opposite- oz has ALWAYS considered himself important, even in his first lifetime when he saved salem. Ultimately I think he thinks he's *not* human, and that he holds himself higher than everyone else, but not intentionally. He actively says that he's "just a man" but tbh oz says a lot of things. He absolutely thinks that on the surface, but oz has always thought himself as important. Which, Ultimately, makes him seem both very human and not at the same time to me. It's hard to explain since it's so early for me lol but ill try-

I think oz is used to being important (being a warrior, a leader, a king, etc), and at this point it's just been extremely embedded in his mindset by practically everyone except the main characters. The God of Light sure as shit didn't help, and honestly I think the pressure made oz make bad choices (lying to salem, lying to the main cast, the creation of Atlas, etc). He's clearly terrified of failure and the pressure and his view of himself doesn't help that.

Oz sees himself as important, but also as a bad person; a monster. He doesn't argue when people say so (ironically, like salem), and generally puts himself down ("I'm just a man, and not even a very good one."). He actively punishes himself (isolating himself in his own office (a TOWER), keeping others at arms distance, etc) and accepts it when people hate him. Oz blames himself unfairly for things out of his control (the fall of beacon, pyrrhas death) as well.

There's so many parallels between Oz and salem and it's painful tbh. They're both utterly human, they both see themselves and each other as evil, and other things I'm definitely forgetting.

Though the word 'monster' hasn't always meant 'evil creature'. According to the original meaning of the word, monsters are both warnings and lighthouses. I think we should consider that when thinking abt oz and salem 👀

(This is just what I picked up from the show and a couple of meta posts and friend discussions lol)

Y E A H

tbh as i see it ozma is stuck in this all-or-nothing position wherein he has to either fully and completely accept the rightness of what the god of light told him—which is that humans 2.0 are broken shells of what humankind once was, innately unworthy of existence, and his purpose is to guide them to redemption and then call the gods back to pass judgment—or else reject it in its entirety, and he has so far not only chosen to accept it but consistently made it his foremost priority even as it eats him alive so: it follows that on some level ozma believes that modern humans are broken, are inferior as a consequence of not having the blessings of the gods, are intrinsically unworthy and in need of redemption.

but ozma is also—or at least was also a person whose core trait is the desire to do the right thing no matter the cost to himself, and even in the present his driving motivation is abject terror of humanity’s destruction and he is clearly aware of and devastated by his own moral compromises. and that’s on top of the fact that he by nature of his existence continually cannibalizes the lives of his hosts and there’s Fuck All he can do to change that,

with the end result being that oz has what is essentially a genteel god complex wrapped around a gigantic gaping pit of self-loathing and it’s often difficult to parse where the lying stops and the horrifically distorted self-perception begins gsjdjk

(see also: this post)

another thing that i think abt a lot is ozma’s fixation on salem and perception that she is solely personally responsible for ‘dividing’ humanity and the consequent slow corruption of his nominally heroic quest to redeem humankind into the Conscript Children Into War With My Ex-Wife conspiracy because—i mean salem herself spells it out in 3.12, if ozpin wanted to bring humanity together the most effective way to do so would be to reveal her existence and marshal them against her. that’s why every single person inducted into the conspiracy immediately asks WHY DON’T YOU TELL PEOPLE?!; the benefit to ozpin’s agenda of presenting humanity with an existentially threatening common enemy who can be rallied against is obvious, and his continual refusal to do so on the grounds of “not causing panic” bespeaks a complete lack of trust in the human capacity to pull together instead of apart in the face of danger.

(or else the thing he’s actually afraid of is giving salem even the smallest possibility of a platform from which to foment another rebellion against the gods he serves hfhdjs)

but—what strikes me abt his focus on salem is that it is also kind of a flinch away from the divine mandate he still can’t bring himself to embrace. by casting salem as the true threat and only obstacle standing between himself and humanity’s redemption ozma can avoid engaging honestly with what it means for humanity to require redemption at all—& by extension avoid reflection on his own role as the agent of that redemption and the unspoken egotism that role demands. it also puts him at the center of the conflict, makes it a war caused by his mistakes and failures and therefore something he alone is obligated to fix, rather than the significantly more awful reality that tyrannical gods fucked him over just as badly as salem and he’s wasted thousands of years acting as their obedient little enforcer.

like. he’s dug himself into SUCH a deep emotional hole that at this point all he can do is keep digging. being challenged on his authority and losing his status as the leader of his own cabal is the best thing that’s ever happened to him because the shovel has been forcibly removed from his hands and now he gets to sit in his well and have a chance to, for once, maybe actually think about what he’s doing and what the ongoing messy divorce with salem is masking.

[cardboard-aliens]

so, ryan KNEW jasmine had sold their baby to fontaine. he knew it was fontaine. he knew this. thats why he killed her

and he did NOTHING about it at the time,

and he has the fucking AUDACITY to victim-blame JACK for being BRAINWASHED

I KNOW RIGHT, I HATE HIM- I was actually going to make a post on this but we're doing it now anon.

I mean okay, if you look at the """"official"""" timeline Jasmine didn't die until an undefined date in 1959

So at that point, the riots had already happened, the war is going strong, Tenenbaum had already gone into hiding and Suchong had died in January so he's most likely dead by this point so it's not like Ryan had many outlets to actually go searching for information on the egg Jasmine sold. And he was pretty occupied with society crumbling beneath them all so granted it wouldn't be the highest priority.

This gets gunked up a bit in BioShock 2 where we have the audio log right after Ryan kills Jasmine and Sinclair was like "you should book a meeting with Lamb" as a sick burn- which implies Lamb wasn't in prison yet, but according to the timeline she got incarcerated in 1955- which was before Jack was even conceived so sdjfklsdfjsf

I feel like you could get away with pushing Jasmine's death back from '59 to 1957-58 and Ryan had the intention of following up the information to figure out exactly what happened but had to put it on the back burner with all the tragedies and problems stirring up and by the time the dust settles Tenebaum's already boogied and she was his main lead as being the one who handled the exchange with Jasmine.

(also not entirely relevant, but I go with the OG lore that Jasmine was bribed to get pregnant instead of it being an accidental pregnancy that Fontaine takes advantage of- the latter makes her feel more passive to me and I want her to be more active in her own life, though there are decent concepts you can pull out with either or. I also feel like the former makes more sense with the line of "promised it wasn't going to be a real pregnancy" because if it was an accident... then it was already a real pregnancy and "they'd just take the egg out once Mr. Ryan and I had" sound like it was more intentional).

SO you could argue he didn't really have the time or resource to actually launch a full investigation on the topic.

But let's put all of that to the side now because the audacity of this man I actually can NOT.

By the start of Hephaestus, Ryan knows who Jack is and he spends that time constantly belittling Jack and talking down to him for Jack not realizing he's a genetically modified 4-year old bastard son- Like that was your first guess, Mr. Ryan-

Like sir SHUT UP- I am going to strangle him with my own hands. He clearly has more than enough of an understanding of Jack's situation than Jack does, but uses that knowledge to lash out at Jack and put him down while still trying to kill him by proxy- and then followed up with Ryan telling Jack that he, his human trafficked abused and manipulated son, is his greatest disappointment when Ryan ran a city to the ground and pushed everyone who cared about him away??? That he hates a child that was taken and abused more than any of his mistakes??? He doesn't see Jack as an individual who's been insanely abused at the hands of his enemy- no instead he treats Jack as an unnatural feeble freak of a disappointment who spit in the face of his ideals- and is mad that an extension of himself could be so weak to be controlled so intensely by Fontaine.

It's really not surprising how poorly Ryan treats Jack- given how he either killed the people who were close to him (Jasmine, Bill) or ghosted them (Diane). Why would the way he treats people change just because him and Jack share blood.

The reveal feels very brutal and cold to me as it completely feels like Ryan is blaming Jack for what was done to him- I've seen people interpret the reveal seen as Ryan giving Jack a chance to break his conditioning- and I can see that. But that doesn't change that Ryan set it up as an ultimatum. It’s Ryan saying “you need to overcome this right now or I’m giving up on you”. There’s no help or assistance, he tells Jack to not be mind-controlled and set it up so that if it fails Ryan walks out of Jack’s life permanently- Giving Jack just one chance to “prove” his worth to Ryan.

And I feel like when talking about the reveal people often just gloss over the fact Ryan set the place to self-destruct beforehand??? Ryan's speech was half to have the last laugh- but it was also him stalling. His plan was: that if Jack killed him then the city would've self-destructed and killed everyone else- taking out Jack with him and making sure he never lost his city to anyone else. (And Ryan consciously turned off the vita chamber in his office, and since they were out of range of another he was making sure his and Jack's deaths would be permanent).

Ryan's ideal goal was a version of filicide-suicide. He just didn't monologue long enough.

(what he does in the reveal doesn't even help Jack- Fontaine did not care at all about Ryan's speech and makes no comment on it meaning he was always planning to drop Jack once he got Rapture. So what Ryan did, didn't make a difference, at that moment he had the power to actually help Jack and instead took that moment to spit in Jack's face and walk out of his life forever- the only person who helps Jack is Tenenbaum, by freeing him from what mind control she can regardless of where he is morally because she sees him as a person, not a tool and gives him the chance that they took from him)

Ryan never stopped trying to kill Jack. Even if he was too prideful to kill his biological kin with his own hands he never stopped trying to do it by proxy. He didn’t see Jack as a person, as his child that was bought, manipulated, and brainwashed- Just a tool he couldn’t stop, so Ryan adjusted things so he could have the last laugh and pretend he was still in control by giving the order for his own death.