#we're being lazy

[eddis-not-eeddis]

If you deeply desire something and it doesn't come into conflict with God's will and his word, don't give up on praying for it. Pray without ceasing for it, ask your friends and your family members to pray for it. Write it down so you can remember when you started praying for it. PRAY!

Last year I started seeing answers to prayers I began praying five years ago. This year hundreds of prayers have been answered. Prayers I forgot about were answered, and I see God's hand as he works to answer even more.

Don't stop praying because you don't see God's hand in your life immediately. God works in a lot of subtle and mysterious ways, and years down the road you'll discover how he has been working behind the scenes. He is not slow in the way we as humans understand slowness, but he sees the bigger picture and knows what will bring about his glory. His timing is perfect, and I can see that in my life.

[inkskinned]

love when men cry about body hair bc "it's hygiene" and yet 15% of cis men leave the bathroom without washing their hands at all and an additional 35% only just wet their hands without using soap. that is nearly half of all men. that means statistically you have probably shaken hands with or been in direct contact with one of these people.

love when men say that women "only want money" when it turns out that even in equal-earning homes, women are actually adding caregiver burdens and housework from previous years, whereas men have been expanding leisure time and hobbies. in equal-earning households, men spend an average of 3.5 hours extra in leisure time per week, which is 182 hours per year - a little over a week of paid vacation time that the other partner does not receive. kinda sounds like he wants her money.

love that men have decided women are frail and weak and annoying when we scream in surprise but it turns out it's actually women who are more reliable in an emergency because men need to be convinced to actually take action and respond to the threat. like, actually, for-real: men experience such a strong sense of pride about their pre-supposed abilities that it gets them and their families killed. they are so used to dismissing women that it literally kills them.

love it. told my father this and he said there's lies, damned lies, and statistics. a year ago i tried to get him to evacuate the house during a flash flood. he ignored me and got injured. he has told me, laughing, that he never washes his hands. he has said in the last week that women are just happier when we're cooking or cleaning.

maybe i'm overly nostalgic. but it didn't used to feel so fucking bleak. it used to feel like at least a little shameful to consider women to be sheep. it just feels like the earth is round and we are still having conversations about it being flat - except these conversations are about the most obvious forms of patriarchy. like, we know about this stuff. we've known since well before the 50's.

recently andrew tate tried to justify cheating on his partner as being the "male prerogative." i don't know what the prerogative for the rest of us would be. just sitting at home, watching the slow erosion of our humanity.

[poomphuripan]

So about your character walking into that scene of Ming and Joe kissing each other?

Mek Jirakit in My Stand-In: Behind the Scenes Episode 3 (2024)

[jesncin]

caped crusader's take on race largely confused me and i was also kinda confused by how homosexuality is seen in the universe. it felt very half-assed.

I agree! It's frustrating seeing superhero fandom brush away legitimate criticism with how gay couples are depicted in CC (notice how the person QRT-ing OP's tweet made up a whole new sentence to be mad at)- by saying "oh you just want to see marginalized characters suffer! This is superhero media, it's escapism!" (many of the QRTs to that person's post say this).

CC explicitly shows classicism and sexism (with like a pinch of racism) existing in their universe, but suddenly homophobia just magically doesn't exist and it's okay for two women of color to smooch in public? Systemic bigotry is connected. If sexism exists, then surely a sapphic couple would be a little worried about how they're perceived in this world.

It's more than fair to criticize CC's selective nature in depicting what kind of bigotry exists in their world. Classicism is discussed but they don't talk about how that intersects with race (by whitewashing Firebug), Hollywood beauty privilege exists but not how that intersects with race AND gender (ignoring Miss Francis as a WOC in tinsel town), police corruption and brutality is a thing but we're not going to talk about how the police violently target and oppress queer and people of color (especially Black people)- in fact! We'll just make the cops queer women of color. What a diversity win. At what point is this just erasure?

[fluffypotatey]

To be honest I am a huge Nalu shipper. But the thing is I want to know the difference between the way Natsu cares about his guildmates and Lucy. Like what is the obvious difference since that boy sees every as Nakama so how can we say that the wag he cares about Lucy is different?

Like even when Erza passed away? (All the way back in first season there was a segment where the guild was gathered at her grave and all) Natsu was still very reactive. Plus he was also said to be depressed even when Lisanna passed.

What's the difference between all of them and Lucy?

the fact that he stayed. the fact that before he met Lucy, Natsu wasn't one to stay in a group or even want to work with anyone besides Happy at the start of the story. hell, he was ready to just file Lucy down as "New Guildmate" once they reached Fairy Tail

but then, Lucy doesn't leave. she follows him on his mission to save Macao despite her not needing to or even really understanding everything about it. she stays and then fights with him and saves him. it's no secret that Natsu is strong and can take care of himself really well. he's been going on solo missions for years now, and no one has really stopped him, but that means he's been in a lot of sticky situations where he and Happy are on their own and have no backup. and yet, without asking, Lucy offers it

and i think this is the moment when Natsu considers that maybe it's okay to have someone there to have his back (sans Happy)

"but Natsu only needed Lucy for the next quest because of the requirements," well, Natsu also wouldn't have taken or even considered that quest if it weren't for Lucy, yeah? he was not a team player (in the picking job's sense) or really wanted other people to help him on his quests sans Happy. and then he goes and picks a job that caters to their team whilst ensuring that Lucy can't say no

or maybe i'm reading too much into it 🤷🏻‍♀️

or maybe Natsu's got horrible abandonment issues that he will latch onto people so fast (Igneel & Lisanna) but also cause him to distance himself so far when left behind (his 1st time at the guild, Lisanna's death). Erza and Gray are Natsu's closet friends after Lisanna and yet they cannot reach him when he closes himself off. and then we have Lucy, who stuck by and had his back, so who is to say Natsu didn't make some contingencies to ensure whether or not she'd join him?

but maybe it's the rose, colored ship glasses i have on

because yeah, Natsu cares for all of his guildmates. the power of friendship is his biggest motivator. when we meet Natsu, our first introductions of him is defending his guild's reputation from Bora (who was using it as a guise for human trafficking) and saving Macao. and our 1st big arc (Galuna Island), where Natsu adamantly refuses to allow Gray to use Ice Shell and sacrifice himself despite how antagonistic they've been to each other. we get Natsu 100% at Erza's defense throughout the Tower of Heaven and he is even ready to defend Wendy though they only met hours ago

Natsu is a character with a bleeding heart and cannot help but wear it on his sleeve, but we don't really see him allow others to fight his battles or have his back until Lucy comes in. to be honest, i don't even think he had his heart on his sleeve until Lucy. he still has a bleeding heart (i don't think anything could stop that), but he was not ready to be open in receiving company because he was so used to it being ripped away from him

that being said: of all the characters he interacts with, he finds Lucy to be someone compatible enough for him to start going on team missions and inviting her on them (for example, his 1st S-class mission, which he stole, he went to her house to show it to her. the fact that part of the reward was a celestial key might be a coincidence, but i wouldn't doubt it as Natsu and Happy's trump card in case she refused)

but yeah, the difference is that he stayed and didn't push her away at the beginning, but instead continued to invite her along with him to the point that doing a mission without Lucy wasn't his regular anymore. compared to the rest of the guild, of whom he spent most of his childhood with, even if he spoke to no one, they would still be around and talk to him anyway. he might not invite them on job and only challenge them to fights, but the guild is his home and a constant in his life, a constant he needs (bc heavy abandonment issues).

"okay, but he still pushed her away after he watched Igneel die right in front of him. and he left the guild for a whole year, too. so what's the difference there?" you may ask.

so 1) Natsu never thought the guild would disband. he returns to Fiore after a year and is the last to know that they disbanded. he assumed, like all the other times before and while he and others were sealed for 7 years, that Fairy Tail would still be there when he returned. he assumed that his disappearance would not impact so hard because the guild would still be around and Lucy would have the others with her

which, did not happen :)

and like, so many guild members go off on jobs, quests, or even just leave for an indiscriminate amount of time (which i, personally, believe was his rationality for leaving), so him being gone for a year was nothing! right? no harm, eh? his plan was never to be gone forever :))))

2) he just watched his father die and lose any chance of having some semblance of a long term reunion with Igneel. he literally lost one of his main driving motivations for getting stronger and taking jobs. before Fairy Tail, before anyone, it was Igneel. and to learn that a) Igneel was always with him to begin with and b) he only got to see him for less than a day after 14 years of nothing......i would feel lost too ngl

man's needed space from everybody. and he also needed comfort, but Natsu has been shown not to really be the character who asks to receive comfort (and when he does receive it, it's usually when he's already emotionally compromised). he is in the habit of shutting people out after being abandoned or losing someone close to him, with his next rationale being to "get stronger" in order to prevent what happened in the past to ever happen in the future.

anyway

what makes this different? well for one, he sent the letter only to Lucy (or it's implied since no one else is shown getting one) because of how the two spend most of their time together. even the line that goes with the panel makes it sound like Natsu is unsure on how the note will be received (maybe even hesitant? but that could be my own hopes)

and one of the 1st people he reunites with after a year is Lucy and we get such a similar parallel to the first chapter of Fairy Tail between the two as if the narrative itself is slotting them together to say "ah yes, now everything is back to normal and new journeys can begin"

but yeah, this is just a long way of saying, that Natsu does love his friends and guildmates but even when he is close to them, he kept to himself (and Happy) and sort of stayed in their orbit but always with some emotional distance because of his fear of abandonment. and then you have Lucy where he will stay for and allow her to orbit around him and he will invite to new adventures no questions asked

that's the difference

[mithrilhearts]

I keep going through these off and on bouts of motivation to write, and it annoys me. Someone send me the motivation to finish this fic pleaseeee 🙏

[ahollowgrave]

Day 18: Escape

Odette would call herself a "reformed" pick pocket. But sometimes she just can't help herself.

She has yet to be officially caught.

[meanya]

With Indie Animation Day just having passed and a really meh-looking Megamind sequel on the horizon, I'd like to gently remind people of the power of ignorance.

(TL;DR in blue) Your attention is valuable. Like it or not, your attention alone is worth money. When you give a show or project your attention, you are supporting it. So if you're as disgruntled as I am knowing another amazing movie's timeline is about to be tarnished with a lazy sequel, please for the love of god, ignore it.

"Don't feed the troll" "They just want attention, ignore them." these are tales as old as time... But what we're dealing with in entertainment and animation today is much more insidious than attention-seeking randos online. We're dealing with attention-seeking multi-billion dollar companies.

We are living in the age of soulless nostalgia-bait and purposefully-infuriating content. They are putting this content out because it is MAKING THEM MONEY, and it is making them money because we are giving them attention! The most POWERFUL WEAPON you have to wield against them right now is your ignorance.

I know it's infuriating. I know. But the fact is: Just like a troll, every interaction you give this media feeds it, good or bad. Especially bad.

Talking about this movie is spreading the word for them. Posting about them gives them free advertising. Watching people review and dunk on them will push more people to review and talk about it. Even if you go online and say, "I hate this movie, it's gonna suck." that is STILL advertising for them!

Hate-watching is worth the same amount of money as love-watching. Remember what hate-watching did for projects like Velma?

Don't let this new Megamind sequel or any dead-horse-beating project succeed financially just because we were too angry to stop talking about it. DON'T reward them for their half-assed cash-grabs with your ire. They don't deserve your fury.

I beg of you, don't hate-watch it when it comes out. Don't post about them. Don't take to Twitter and Tumblr flooding the #notmymegamind tag. Don't do their dirty work for them. Don't allow them rent-free space on your page or in your mind. Don't give this project the time of day. Ignore it. There is power in your ignorance, just as there is in your attention.

Give your attention to one of these independent animators instead. The media giants don't need it.

If we can all band together and ignore the media we don't like, they will no longer be profitable or a safe investment and they will eventually stop. But we have to agree to ignore it together.

[bloggingboutburgers]

Hey wait just a goshdarn minute... THIS BLOG ISNT ABOUT BURGERS ITS ABOUT ASEXUALITY (me too)

We are charging you with 92 counts of fraud

...In my defense it used to be about burgers, Bob's Burgers specifically

But then uh, something

[neonsix67]

I am re-obsessed with this show (specifically it's Gummigoo and Caine that have me in a chokehold). But just when I thought I could escape unscathed, I realised I was in quicksand....so here ya go!

[championsandheroes]

You can argue that Shepard is lugging around a lot of gear when they run, but I think we should all expect a bit more from them all the same.

There is no running being done over at Patreon and society6, so even Shepard can be excused for having a seat.

[itz-pandora]

Huh. If my life was a quote, it'd be "one of those sad ones with a deceptively happy tune"

[atopvisenyashill]

In a Rhaenys as queen, given that her cousins would have permanent places at court due to them being dragon riders, do you think l think Aemma would be encouraged to try her hand at one? Dreamfyre is in Arryn colors.

Great question.

I think especially after Balerion has died, Rhaenys would approach Aemma about having her own dragon. It would be a way of reaching out emotionally to her cousins and depending on how Rhaenys comes to her throne, that would be needed; even in a perfect scenario where Aemon outlives his father and passes the throne to Rhaenys in peace, I think Rhaenys would still want to reach out to her cousins. It's not just that they're family that was raised together (before Jaehaerys completely cleaves this relationship in two) but making sure that a competing branch feels loyal to you is important; there's a reason why Alysanne attempts to get Aerea back to court and why Jaehaerys refuses to give Rhaena her own seat after all! I can see Rhaenys looking at how Aerea specifically was handled and decide that Jae and Aly misstepped there and that the key to getting Viserys, Aemma, and whatever children they have loyal to her is if she gives them just enough freedom that they don't chafe under Rhaenys' rule the way Aerea and Rhaena did. All three of them - Viserys, Aemma, and Rhaenyra - having dragons is risky as hell (it's where Viserys as King imo missteps compared to Jaehaerys the most - not having such an iron hand over who gets to ride a dragon so that there aren't so many riding around who don't like your heir is such a silly mistake) but with Balerion dead and Syrax/Rhaenyra so young, it's not a terrible idea to offer it to Aemma. Especially since neither Rhaenys nor Aemma have very many children to grab up the dragons.

[I know in book canon it's Laenor who would technically be ruling but I feel fairly certain here that Rhaenys would be Queen Regent for a while, and Corlys would be Hand, kind of similar to Alyssa/Rogar/Jaehaerys or the way I think Cersei wanted things to go with her/Jaime/Joffrey&Tommen].

I don't know that Aemma would take the opportunity but I do think the offer of it would go a long way to make her feel both loyal to Rhaenys and to encourage a kinship between Laena, Laenor, and Rhaenyra. Aemma has Targaryen blood and I think the offer despite her not being a born Targaryen would really touch her, perhaps make her feel emotionally close to her mother. I can see, for example, after several years, that Aemma has had so many miscarriages, hasn't been able to have a son, is so incredibly young yet creeping up on 30 and feels like she's old because her child bearing years are passing her by, that Aemma might take her up on the offer as a way of feeling better about her own "deficiencies." Maybe she can't birth a son, maybe most of her daughters die in the cradle, maybe her husband couldn't win the throne, but SHE can be a dragon rider and HIS dragon is long dead now. Dreamfyre would be such a great choice too, with Rhaena's status as being the widow queen of Maegor, the wife of poor dead Aegon the Uncrowned; a gentle sort of dragon that has already bonded with a widow and mother, bonding again with another mother but this one sickly, unsure of herself, but ready to figure out who she can be outside of child birth.

It doesn't inherently butterfly effect away her death but Viserys probably isn't impregnating her so often because Rhaenys has two children, Rhaenyra and Laenor are probably betrothed from a young age, I'm sure everyone's being picky about Laena's husband specifically because if Laenor dies/can't have kids there's precedent for Laena to become Queen Regent for her own son instead of the line of succession going straight to Viserys, so there's not a huge need to have their own son, because Rhaenyra will be Queen Consort one day. To be honest, I think it's even possible that if she's not having as many miscarriages, she gets some freedom and stability from not worrying about the line of succession, and then Rhaenyra & Laenor are betrothed and Aemma is perhaps feeling herself a bit in her bond with Dreamfyre, she might even get healthier, perhaps healthy enough to carry a child to term. We do see that the dragon bond can help settle someone who is a bit unsure of themselves - Quicksilver and Aenys, for example, but even Rhaena and Dreamfyre have a similar type of ~growing into their own together~ thing that may apply to Aemma. And there's a lot of reasons for why Rhaenys would want Aemma to be confident, the same way she'd want Rhaenyra to be (and I do mean confident and not like, hiding behind extreme violence to make up for feeling unsafe and unstable) - having a strong, educated, compassionate Queen Consort is just a good thing, as we see from Alysanne. Plus this helps head off potentially fertility problems with Rhaenyra/Laenor - if Rhaenyra feels close enough to Rhaenys that she can go to her good mother or her still living actual mother and say "I don't know how to get Laenor into my bed" or even "Laenor comes to my bed but nothing is happening, we keep having problems, are we even doing this right" that makes their marriage and Laenor's ascension so much easier to handle.

There is one little risk with this and it's Aemma's son. If she manages to have a son that lives, she may expect him to be given the chance to claim a dragon and that could become a problem. It might not! Especially if, idk, he's young enough that he can marry one of Laena's kids or one of Rhaenyra and Laenor's kids, or born early enough that he can just marry Laena, and they can keep that dragon in the family. But as we see with Daemon, with Aemond, even with Maegor, and what Jaehaerys (erroneously) believed could happen with Dreamfyre/Rhaena and Aerea, a second son having a dragon can be dangerous if he's not kept close and under control.

[hazard-and-friends]

fave alternate verbal cues for sit & down?

[quixot1sm]

i think, and this may just be my zekrom bias speaking, that if someone wants to experience the full value of bw's story it's better to play through white first. black has the issue of coming off as very dismissive towards plasma's legitimate and well-founded claims that pokemon abuse DOES occur (and it does! from the kanto games' marowak to bw2's liepard there's instances where it's put in the spotlight, so it certainly does happen)... by assigning the protagonist to truth, it feels pretty evident that n's beliefs are "wrong", and the game just seems to brush any questioning aside.

on the other hand, white giving n the hero of truth role means we're basically forced to think about what that means for the relationship of people and pokemon at large. to translate a point n makes in chargestone cave: if you allow people to coexist with pokemon, even if the majority of trainers treat them well, there will always be someone somewhere out there who abuses or neglects them instead. are we okay with that? should those pokemon still be allowed to suffer, just because what they experience is an outlier to the general rule? while not outright stated, zekrom's association with hope and the strive for the ideal suggests that we don't brush off these facts, but instead take them into consideration, and aim to change the world based off of them... like how in bw2 society in unova puts a lot more emphasis on the bond between people and pokemon, and on pokemon as equals (see: iris's dialogue before entering your team info the hall of fame).

i think black version has its own unique avenues to explore, but on the surface level, it's a much more cut and dry, "no, you're just wrong", type of story that kind of makes you work harder to fit it into bw's overall theming of "the world's not black and white, there's not a singular objective right or wrong perspective."

[queers4years]

Indigenous Hawaiians really had a good system going: wake up reaaally early and do most of the days work while it's cool and by the time the sun was up and it got hot the work was done and you're free to surf and socialize. I wish the white people realized they themselves could work smarter and not harder and get time to relax. Instead of calling Hawaiians lazy (and being genocidal about it)