#what about the “two cakes” ideology?

[esteebarnes94]

I never really got the whole complaining about something being made that's already been done a bunch of times. Like, tropes and themes and aesthetics and all that. Because as long as it's being done respectfully and whatnot, what's the problem? Like, yeah, you're under no obligation to like, like, a 1980s-set slasher film or whatever, but I don't get all the mocking and stuff.

[mahoutoons]

i'm feeling controversial today so here's another hot take. and before you type away at your keyboards, know that this is all coming from a south asian.

white leftists have got to stop acting like christianity is the only religion that deserves to be criticized and you cannot touch any other religion because that'd be racist and bigoted. because as an indian who's watching my country progress towards hindu nationalism, this attitude doesn't help at all.

white people see hinduism as this exotic brown religion that's so much more progressive but don't know the violence of the caste system, how it others a large portion of the population on the basis of caste, literally branding them as "untouchables". they teach us in school that this problem is a thing of the past but the caste system is still alive and shows itself in violent ways. and that's not even covering how non hindus are treated in the country. muslims especially are being killed, have their houses bulldozed, businesses destroyed, and are being denied housing, our fucking prime minister called them infiltrators and there's this fear among hindu extremists that they'll outnumber the hindus in the country. portraying hinduism as this exotic religion does a disservice to all those oppressed by the hindutva ideology

similarly, white people see buddhism as this hippie religion that's all about peace but have no idea how extremist buddhists in myanmar have been persecuting the rohingya muslims for years and drive them out of the country.

if anything portraying these religions as exotic hippie brown religions is a type of orientalism itself.

and also y'all have got to realize that just because christianity has institutional power in america doesn't mean there aren't parts of the world where they are persecuted on the basis of religion. yes karen from florida who cries christophobia because she sees rainbow sprinkles on a cake is stupid but christian oppression DOES exist in non western countries where they're a minority. pakistani christians get lynched almost on a daily basis over blasphemy accusations. just look up the case of asia bibi, a pakistani christian woman who was sentenced to death on blasphemy charges because of something she said when she was being denied water because it was "forbidden" for a christian and a muslim to drink from the same utensil and she'd made it unclean just by touching it (which is ALSO rooted in casteism and part of pakistani christians' oppression also comes from the fact that a lot of them are dalit but that's a whole other discussion). and that's just one christian group, this isn't even going into what copts, assyrians, armenians etc have faced and continue to face. saying that christians everywhere are privileged because of american christianity actually harms christian minorites in non western countries.

and one last thing because this post is getting too long: someone being anti america doesn't automatically mean they're the good guys. too many times i've been seeing westerners on twitter dot com praise the fucking taliban just because they hate america. yes, the same taliban who banned education for women, thinks women should be imprisomed at home, and consistently oppresses religious and ethnic minorities in afghanistan. yes, america's war on afghanistan was bad and they SHOULD be called out for their war crimes there. no, the taliban are still not the good guys. BOTH of them are bad. you cannot pretend to care about muslims and brown people if you praise the taliban. because guess what? most of their victims are BROWN MUSLIM WOMEN. but of course white libs who praise them don't rub their two braincells together to make that conclusion.

this post has gotten too long and i've just been rambling so the point of this post is: white "leftists" whose politics are primarily america centric should stop acting like criticism of ideologies like hindutva, buddhist extremism, and islamic extremism BY people affected by these ideologies is the same as racism or religious intolerance because that helps literally no one except the extremist bigots. also america is not the centre of the world, just because something isn't happening in america doesn't mean it isn't happening elsewhere

[chaoticladyfire]

Things I screamed about in ATSV (spoilers)

-Got to rewatch the film so I’m just going to add the colours changing to warmer tones when Gwen hugs her father. Not even ten minutes in and I was already crying.

-Realised that we missed the Gwen-Vulture fight BUT got to see Jessica Drew enter the scene like a bad ass in her bad ass bike and hearing the audience collectively say ‘me too’ when Gwen asked if Jessica could adopt her. 

-Screaming OSCAR ISAAC when Miguel spoke

-Lyla. Just Lyla.

- ‘Do you say anything other than no?’ ‘No-YES!’ more of miguel and jessica pls

-The Spot’s introduction. I didn’t see any promotional stuff, teasers or even trailers before watching this film so I had no idea who or what the The Spot was which was great because he really went from villain of the week to villain of the movie. And they clearly had a great time choreographing the fight scenes with him

-Miles’ heating up the beef patty while the spot and the convenience store man argue

-Miles patting the spot’s with a ‘good cow’ text

-Gwen and Miles both having to deepen their voices to avoid being recognised by their respective cop dads

-Miles saying that he can get two cakes when the counsellor says you can’t have your cake and eat it too and then bringing two cakes for his father’s party and neither of them saying what he wanted to convey. 

-Rio and Jeff scolding an annoyed miles but instantly smiling when a relative hugs them what an universal experience 

-Gwen teasing Miles for drawing her in his notebook almost obsessively but also breaking the biggest rule to spend time with him knowing the consequences. 

-As they went to talk, my friend leaned over and said ‘yeah I bet they will talk’ and when they only talked he groaned very loudly at which point I had to remind him Miles was only 15 

-Watching Jeff talk to Spiderman about his son not knowing his son is spiderman

-The DJ increasing the volume when Miles’ parents started scolding him in the middle of the party (the real mvp of the movie actually) 

-JK Simmons cameo that no one seems to be talking about??? Embarrassingly enough I had to literally scream into my friend’s ear for most of the people to realise it was indeed JK Simmons

-Just the entire Mumbattan scene. It was so exciting to see my city be represented like that, still a bit cliched in my opinion but not like Slumdog so obviously they have updated their views. Everything from the traffic gag to Pav’s rant about chai tea had the theatre howling. Also the detail of the thought boxes (?) and sounds being written in Hindi 

-Screaming DANIEL KALUUYA

-My friend and I are huge fans of the UK punk scene (her for the ideologies and myself for the music and fashion) so Hobie was a dream come true. He was already super cool with his guitar and mohawk costume but when he revealed his face it was just so amazing

-Gayatri is every indian’s dream girl with her modern shirt-flannel and jeans combo mixed with bangles and piercings I really wish we get to see more of her in the next movie. Anyway there was a lot of wolf-whistling and hooting for her and Pav

-Also Pavitr literally means pure I don’t know if they did that on purpose or not but I love it

-His pet name being Pav cured my soul

-’This is the most emotional I have seen him’ and Captain Singh has no emotions at all

-I want to see how they came up with so many spider designs because each was so unique and immediately endearing. My friend who is also a big dinosaur fan screamed DINOSAUR 

-Kind of obsessed with how detailed Ben Reilly’s arms are they did not need to go that hard with it

-Tom Holland’s Spider-Man being referred to as ‘the little nerd’ by Miguel

-When everyone was making puns about the Spot my friend leaned over and said ‘i wonder which hole the spot prefers’ it is a miracle we are still friends actually

-The Donald Grover cameo!!!

-Peter B Parker having a cute little baby with the love of his life is what he deserves

-Miguel O Hara is one step away from becoming a Batman-Spiderman 

-Hobie’s admiration for Mayday being the avatar of chaos Spider-baby

-Screaming ANDY SAMBERG

-I think they saw the appreciation for the art style in the previous film and then trebled it for this film and I cannot thank them enough for it

-Peter complaining about how Miguel breaks the Spiderman tradition of being funny and witty and Miguel being the first anomaly 

-Every scene with the Spot is very unnerving because as I said, you watch him transform from this joker to a literal void of vengeance and it is every bit of terrifying

-Miguel is a man suffering from the destruction of an entire universe because of his selfish actions and forcing that anomaly narrative on a fifteen year old boy who became a spiderman on accident and doesn’t want his father to die because of that. Unlike the Spot, who isn’t even human anymore, Miguel is drowning in grief and guilt and trying to ignore it by holding the weight of the spider-verse on his shoulder. I hated him so much for making a boy go through that but then I just couldn’t in the end. 

-Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire cameo!!! Hopefully we’ll get a fun Tom Holland one too in the next movie.

-’Let me guess, he died?’ being a therapist for Spider Men must be a fairly boring job after a few patients.

-I just loved the absolute of wrongness of the scene where Miles returns ‘home’. The rain and darkness. I didn’t really think about Rio asking Miles what happened to his hair because I thought she was referring to the rain (although of course she wouldn’t ask him why his hair was wet when it was obviously raining outside) but realised something was wrong when he didn’t know about comic con but she did because in the first film there’s a joke about Peter B Parker explaining the concept to Miles. 

- This movie is not good for my father related issues

-The glaring neon welcome sign when the gang end up in Earth 42

-How did Uncle Aaron get even scarier? 

-Miles being the Prowler is honestly a great twist I saw it coming but still felt the shock of the reveal

-Prowler Miles having an accented voice meaning his father probably died when he was young and he only had his mom growing up

-Can’t wait for the original spider team to return for the third film seeing as they brought back Spider-Man Noir and Spider Ham and Peni Parker

-Screaming WHAT when the ‘to be continued’ appeared because that cliffhanger is absolutely destructive. All that adrenaline and excitement just popped. I’m still oscillating between being impressed and being disappointed. 

I probably skipped over a lot of other scenes because these were the most memorable and I only watched the film once (unfortunate) but I can’t wait for the movie to hit streaming services and watch it again and again for all the other details I missed. Ill probably keep adding things as I remember

[yoursweetwife]

Rivals to lovers with Ruan Mei

Warning: gn reader, fluff, cheeky reader, headcannons

Your relationship with Ruan Mei can only be described as passive-aggressive.

At first glance, it can't be said that there is a mutual dislike between you and Ruan. You study and conduct various experiments together, but your motives are completely different from hers. Very often, these disagreements lead to severe conflicts, where both of you continue to push each other, continuing to defend your own ideologies. At this point, it is completely useless to try to stop you.

Nevertheless, you keep coming back to each other. No one but you two understands why this is happening.

Ruan Mei will always remember the day you angered her. She wrote down your words in her notebook, which she uses for important notes. Although even the scientist himself does not know why she recorded your birthday and some facts about you.

Over the years of working together, she's gotten used to your presence, arguments, and cheeky comments on your part. Without this, her day can hardly be called full-fledged, on the other hand, your desire to learn more about the phlegmatic scientist and her hidden past did not let you leave.

Mutual interest does not prevent you two from acting a little childish.

Harmless dirty tricks have become almost a tradition. It all started with the fact that you decided to treat her to a cake, which was, to put it mildly, terrible. You couldn't stop laughing. Of course, then you got a reply from her, but Ruan Mei's shocked look was worth several hours of cleaning the office of various plants. This went on for a while, until what she was neutral about soon began to give her pleasure.

Maintaining a long, awkward silence is not uncommon. Ruan Mei is very rarely the initiator of a wordless battle, but due to her ability to quickly lose interest, she almost always remains the winner. The next day, Ruan may come up to you as if nothing had happened and talk about a new study, or he may not talk to you for several days until you come up to her.

Ruan Mei is not someone who likes to tease, but even she enjoys seeing your emotional side. She remembers every awkward situation that happened to you and uses it to her advantage. Usually, May doesn't even need an excuse, she says what comes to her mind and watches with a grin as your face turns red.

[ghelgheli]

Recognizing this central ambivalence in regard to so-called Western values—whereby they are cast out as “postmodern authoritarianism” only to be embraced as the “true spirit” of societies to come—is essential to understanding the strategic significance of the anti-gender misappropriation of postcolonial language. This ambivalence sheds light on the fact that the superficial takeover frames the “gender ideology” colonizer not simply as the “West as such but [rather as] the West whose healthy (Christian) core had already been destroyed by neo-Marxism and feminism in the 1960s” (Korolczuk and Graff 2018: 812). Very often, the anti-gender misappropriation takes on a decidedly Islamophobic hue; for all their catering to anticolonial sentiments, anti-gender thinkers often claim that “gender ideology,” with its historical roots in anti-European “neo-Marxism and feminism,” goes hand in hand with the threat of (Muslim) immigration. A blatant example of this can be found in former Cardinal Sarah’s proclamation against the two unexpected threats of our times:

On the one hand, the idolatry of Western freedom; on the other, Islamic fundamentalism: atheistic secularism versus religious fanaticism. To use a slogan, we find ourselves between “gender ideology and ISIS.” . . . From these two radicalizations arise the two major threats to the family: its subjectivist disintegration in the secularized West [and] the pseudo-family of ideologized Islam which legitimizes polygamy [and] female subservience. (Sarah 2015)

Sarah aggressively draws up a dual picture of the true enemy—the biopolitical survival of the family is threatened on the one hand by excessive secularization and sexual freedom, and on the other by “ideologized Islam’s pseudo-family,” which marks the degraded and uncivilized counterpart to Christianity’s proper tradition. This discursive construction of “terrorist look-alikes” as possessing an excessive, uncultivated, and dangerous sexuality yet again plays into the same fundamental racialized mapping of progress that colonial gender undergirded (Puar 2007). This rhetoric is mirrored by Norwegian right-wing politician Per-Willy Amundsen (2021) when he writes that:

I will never celebrate pride. First of all, there are only two sexes: man and woman, not three—that is in contradiction with all biological science. Even worse, they are allowed access to our kids to influence them with their radical ideology. This has to be stopped. If FRI [the national LGBT organization] really cared about gay rights, they would get involved in what is happening in Muslim countries, rather than construct fake problems here in Norway. But it is probably easier to speak about “diversity” as long as it doesn’t cost anything. (Amundsen 2021; translation by author) Here Amundsen draws on the well-known trope of trans* and queer people “preying on our kids” while at the same time reinforcing the homonationalist notion that Europe, and in particular Norway, is a safe h(e)aven for queer people—perhaps a bit too much so. In his response to Amundsen, Thee-Yezen Al-Obaide, the leader of SALAM, the organization for queer Muslims in Norway, aptly diagnoses Amundsen’s rhetoric as “transphobia wrapped in Islamophobia” (as quoted in Berg 2021). Amundsen mirrors a central tenet of TERF rhetoric by claiming to be the voice of science, biology, and reason in order to distinguish his own resistance to “gender ideology” from the repressive, regressive one of Muslims. In this way, his argumentation, which basically claims that trans* people don’t exist and certainly shouldn’t be recognized legally, attempts to come off as benign, while Muslim opposition to “gender ideology” is painted as destructive and anti-modern. This double gesture, which allows Amundsen to have his cake and eat it too, is a central trope in different European iterations of anti-gender rhetoric. In France, for example, such discourse claims that, “while ‘gender ideology’ goes too far on the one hand, the patriarchal control of Islam threatens to pull us back into an excessive past. Here of course, ‘Frenchness’ is always already neither Muslim, nor queer (and certainly not both)” (Hemmings 2020: 30). Therefore the French anti-gender movement sees itself as the defender of true Western civilization, both from Western “gender ideology” and from uncivilized “primitives” who are nevertheless themselves victims of “gender ideology.” A similar dynamic plays out in Britain: “Reading Muslims as dangerous heteroactivists and Christians as benign points to how racialization and religion create specific forms of heteroactivism. . . . Even where ‘Muslim parents’ are supported by Christian heteroactivists, they remain other to the nation, and not central to its defence” (Nash and Browne 2020: 145). In the British example, it is clear that white anti-gender actors represent themselves as moderate, reasonable, and caring—often claiming that their resistance to the “politicization” of the classroom has nothing to do with transphobia and homophobia.

Is “Gender Ideology” Western Colonialism? Jenny Andrine Madsen Evang

[napakmahal]

Anon because I feel like I’m about to say smth cringe lol but how about a fic with a (possibly Psych major) reader that’s got a holistic view of the world with Tadashi? Would be interesting to see what that information brings concerning Baymax’s plan of care and how a relationship would form with Tadashi like dat ya dig

Idk mostly inspired by Natalia Lafourcade’s song María La Curandera (it’s in Spanish, you’ll have to search up the translation if you’re curious!) also growing up in an immigrant household with care alternatives to things maybe a doctor would not take seriously/ not being able to connect with a patient due to beliefs and or language barriers.

Can I just you’re actually so real for this. This is NOT cringe pookie okay. First of all, love my psych classes but also second of all my family is so holistic. We’re from the Philippines and the hospital is reserved special for if you’re dying. (Btw that’s bad, go to the doctors please)

You don’t fight with your boyfriend…like ever. You don’t like fighting and he thinks fighting i childish. But that’s not to say you two agree on everything. Exhibit A:

“At least with my remedies I know I won’t be overdosing on cough syrup.”

“Baby, with all due respect I’m not using herbs to get rid of a respiratory infection.”

Another thing, you love Baymax. You really do. You were there to help build him, he knows you personally but he has nothing to do with your health. And that irritated Tadashi to no end. Flu season had come around and it seemed like everyone was getting sick. Including you. The basic fever, cough, headaches, and disgusting amounts of phlegm hacking out of your throat. Yet, you denied any help from your boyfriend’s healthcare robot.

It made him upset because you could get better so much faster if you let him use his extensive medical knowledge on you, and yet you still said no. But nothing about your ideologies had created such tension until recently. When he caught you doing something he deemed unfathomable.

Almost a week into you being sick, he’d seen you chopping onions late into the night after making his lemon tea.

“What are you doing?” Tadashi looked over at you after coughing up a chunk of bloody phlegm from his own throat.

You sniffed, clearly congested. “Cutting onions.”

“For what?”

“My socks.”

“I’m sorry?”

Surely he must have misheard you. You and him had been together for years and he knew all about your home remedies. There was a stained food processor in your house from when he had joint pain in his wrist and you had him eat turmeric paste. When Hiro had unknowingly given him stomach flu you went out and bought efficascent oil and rubbed it on his stomach. He’s seen you gargle salt water, chew on peppermint, put baking soda on bee stings, eat raw garlic, and drink cranberry juice for your menstrual problems but that one took the cake.

“Do you want some?” You’d asked it so innocently but your tone could have changed if you’d seen the look of utter disbelief on his face.

The both of you had been sick for a week in an endless cycle of eating strawberries, and oranges, taking magnesium, and eating spoonfuls of grainy raw honey. All of that to him seemed fine. Even he understood to a certain extent you couldn’t just take medicine all the time. But when he offered to buy cough syrup, ibuprofen for throat pain, Tylenol for cough headaches, and other flu medications you shut it down. He was free to take all of those things to make himself feel better and he swore it did.

But you were in so much pain and it seemed like whatever you were doing wasn’t helping. Just that morning, Tadashi rubbed your back while you had a 10-minute coughing fit that was so bad there were streaks of blood in your spit. You’d cried when a pounding headache hadn’t left and he felt so helpless knowing there was nothing he could do about it.

Tadashi stuttered. “W-Why are we cutting onions for our socks?”

“You put them in your socks and then you sleep with them on, my mom swears by it. But if you have like sensory problems that’s okay, you don’t have to.”

“Baby don’t you think- maybe you should just take something for it?”

You scoffed because you already knew where this was going. “You’re not funny.”

“I’m not trying to be funny. It’s just you’re so sick.” His voice dripped with concern.

Just as he’d said it you dug your face into your elbow and started coughing. The loud, raspy, crunchy kind of cough. Almost like the universe was on his side. Then came the cough headaches. The one thing you had allowed Baymax to scan you for and nothing else. A build-up of pressure from consistent coughing and sneezing in your head could cause pounding headaches.

The second he saw the grimace on your face, Tadashi jumped up from his study table and ran over to you. Pulling you in for a hug and gently pushing his fingers through your head. But that was also the time he decided he couldn’t take this anymore. His girl was in pain and crying over a sickness he could use his brain and his bot to figure out how to cure.

“I can’t take this anymore.” He confessed still holding you. “Please, will you let me give you a Tylenol?”

“T, no.”

“Why not? It’s so obvious you’re hurting. I know you don’t like taking medicine. I get that, but you just aren’t getting any better.”

You gently lifted your head off Tadashi’s chest and looked up at him. “So are you and you’ve been taking medicine.”

“But I feel like I’m getting better.”

“Hunny, you threw up an hour ago.” You deadpanned.

He racked his brain for a positive way to spin the horrible retching experience. “O-okay but that’s-um, that’s the body’s way of making itself feel better.”

You two were going in circles. But Tadashi was not backing down. He was adamant that you get better if it was the last thing he did and you knew it. Last year Hiro got sick with a particularly horrible kidney infection. So bad that when he’d tried to walk to the restroom he collapsed on the floor physically unable to move. After that none of your friends ever really saw Tadashi for almost two weeks. Right after school, he’d sprint home just to take care of him. That was his thing. Your boyfriend lived to take care of people.

Some people in the world don’t care about anything you’ve ever done and something you will do. Like doctors. Doctors don’t need to know how good or bad of a person your friends think you are in order to take care of you. Finding people like that is rare. Tadashi is one of those people.

And you, one of the people he loved and cared for most in the entire world wouldn’t let his extensive knowledge on healthcare help you feel better. And no matter how many times you reassured him, he couldn’t help but feel like you being sick was his fault.

“How about this,” He suggested, moving his hand from your head to your face. “I will do your onion-sock thing if you let me give you cough syrup. Just one spoonful and then we’ll drop it. Sound fair?”

A small smile tugged at the corners of your lips as you slowly nodded your head. Out of relief, you were going to let him do something about how you felt, Tadashi leaned down and kissed you right then and there. It was extremely counterproductive and he couldn’t have cared less.

That night, you let your boyfriend spoon artificial cherry-flavored Robitussin into your mouth. And he let you put loosely chopped pieces of white onion in his socks while he slept. For the record, neither of your immune systems ever really recovered in that one night. And yet-somehow, you woke up feeling the best you had in over a week.

[b33zlebubz]

RIGOR MORTIS | CHAPTER THREE

SIMON RILEY X AFAB READER | MASTERLIST | AO3 PREV CHAPTER | NEXT CHAPTER TAGS: reader uses she/her pronouns, blood violence & death, suicidal ideology, slow burn, enemies to lovers, forced proximity, toxic workplace environment “Abandoned in a battlefield with the one person you thought you would never see again; you're forced to come to terms with the ghosts of your past."

MONDAY APRIL 22ND 2024  MEXICO, 2200 HOURS

Your camp is the cabin of a wrecked SUV.

You're not sure what did it, yet; what wrecked the car and left the side of it charred.  Air strike, landmine, a very high-quality grenade launcher…you don’t really care what specifically, you just know that it's supplies and shelter.  It's lodged into the mud on the side of a dug-out, having crashed some time after the battle turned sour.  The rain has cooled the metal over the course of the past day leaving the back somewhat intact.  One of two of what must be the soldiers that drove it are now laying in the ditch; shot from the front window during the wreck, you imagine, charred and dead.  Their uniforms and helmets suggest they’re part of your battalion, but you try not to think about it.

It makes a decent shelter; dry and shielded from the rain that still pelts against your helmet.  The inside stinks of gunpowder and ash as you usher Ghost into the back and he collapses against a supply crate pressed in a corner.  He grunts, breath quick and heavy against the soaked cloth of his mask as his head falls back against the container.  First aid training kicks in and you’re listening for any sign of a punctured lung or liquid in his lungs.  

"We gotta get that mask off," you huff, helping him fumble with the straps to his helmet.  With the adrenaline fading, your own voice sounds muffled to you, the product of damaged eardrums.  "You're waterboarding yourself."

He lets out something that might be a humorless chuckle, his eyes closed as he juts his chin up.  His hands are clumsy and useless as they pull at the strap.   "Wouldn't be my first time, sergeant."

"Colonel."

You lift his helmet off and he blinks at you blearily, "what?"

"It's Colonel, now," you say, taking off your own helmet and tossing it aside.  Your hair free from the heavy armor, it sticks to your face in wet clumps.  "A lot can change in eight years."

You could be imagining it, but you swear you see a flicker of hurt in his eyes before he grimaces, his neck lulling before you catch his head.

Ghost strains, his breathing growing labored.  Still, he finds the energy to smile through the rip in his mask, and a rivulet of blood flows from the side of his cheek and into his mouth.  

"Knew you could do it, love," he slurs.

You hate how your heart twists with fondness that still lingers, and it tastes like copper and bile when you swallow it back.

"Never doubted it," you say, words softer.  You pat the side of his face and he grunts.  "Stay awake.  I don't know how bad you're hurt yet."

Your hands grasp at the torn edge of his soaked balaclava.

You watch his eyes flicker through water and blood.  Dark brown irises with uneven pupils glance down at your hands through lazy eyelids, and then up at you—but he doesn't resist like you imagined he would.  Instead, he can only manage a heavy swallow and a resigned nod.

He hisses as you lift the fabric away from his head as carefully as you can.  A five o'clock shadow crisscrossed with scars greets you before a broken nose on a ghostly-pale, angular face.  Sandy hair is cropped short, dark with blood that cakes high on his temple.  

If it were another situation—another time—you think, maybe, you would've stopped to marvel at him.  Commit the facial features you had once wondered about so much to memory while you traced the sharp curves of his face with a gentle finger.  Instead, you can only focus on how your injured hand fumbles with the first-aid kit on your vest—pulling out a sterile cloth that you press to his injury.

"Fuck," you hiss.

"I'll live," he breathes, closing his eyes again.  He places a hand over yours, applying more pressure that's weak, but still more than you can manage at the moment.  "Looks worse than it is.  Head wounds always do.  Just keep your hand there."

"Yes, sir," you mutter, falling back on old formalities as your bloody hand quivers against his face.  He squeezes it before his grip loosens, and his head lulls again.  You grab him by the chin.

"Ghost.  Don't."

His eyes flicker open again briefly before they sink shut once more.  When he doesn't reply, a flicker of panic sparks in your chest.

"Stay with me, Lieutenant," you pat his face again, trying to keep him awake.  "Ghost?"

"You," he whispers, his voice barely a breath against your face.  “We’ve met before…yeah?"

You swallow thickly.

"Angel," you tell him.  "It's…it’s Angel, Ghost.  It's me."

"Angel," he repeats with all the softness eight years of distance, blood, war, and anger can muster—and the idiot is still smiling as his hand slides off of yours, leaving a bloody handprint in its wake.  "'Missed you."

Panic ebbs at your mind, and you grab his arm as you get in his face.

"Ghost don't fucking fall asleep, you hear me?"  Disparity makes your voice crack, "Don't fucking leave me here."

No response.  You shake his shoulder.

"Ghost," you beg.  "Simon!"

His head lulls against his chest as his eyes sink shut, and your breath catches in your throat.  Slowly, you remove your hands, backing up against the side of the van.  You sink against the opposite wall.  Unable to catch your breath, your heartbeat thuds in your ears.  The sound is backed with the static of rain that still pours down around you and Ghost's unconscious breathing while thunder rumbles distantly across the sky above, mocking you.

You're left, once again, with only the corpses of your dead squad outside to keep you company.

[megumimania]

A BIRTHDAY — suguru geto

summary: geto’s birthday doesn’t come without a period of reflection.

content/warnings: geto x black fem reader, set a couple years after hidden inventory arc, established relationship, semi angsty, suggestive, italics are used to signify past conversations,am i late to the party yes but who cares! i fought tooth and nail for this not to have a happu ending

“so what do you say?” suguru’s hand reached out for yours with a charming smile that made it hard for you to say no to. “i’d say that this is the most insane idea you’ve ever had, but im in.”

you really don’t know why you took up his offer that day.

yes, you could argue that you were foolish. caught up in the fantasy of running away from all your responsibilities as a sorcerer or maybe it was because you were curious to see how his plan of eradicating all the non sorcerers in japan would play out.

the sounds of birdsong resounded throughout the grand estate. acting as background noise whilst you laid against one of the pillars out back as you lit up a cigarette—a habit that you picked up in high school. a time in your life that ended just as quickly as it began.

however that didn’t stop you from reminiscing about the memories. never did you indulge in them for too long though, afraid that you would be clinging on to a life that was no longer yours.

besides you lived a different life now.

you were older and now responsible for two adorable little girls mimiko and nanako. they were your entire world and you made sure they knew of that spoiling them rotten with a bunch of toys and cute outfits.

aside from the girls, you and suguru’s relationship was pretty rocky to say the least—years of built up emotions and unspoken words drove a wedge between you both. for you it grew harder and harder to turn a blind eye to what he was doing.

the constant killing of non sorcerers and consuming of curses changed him as a whole. his goals became more lofty and vague rather than being practical and tangible.this often lead to hushed arguments between you both that caused you both to bring your ideologies into focus, making you question if losing everything was worth it at all.

“don’t you think this is all getting out of hand?” you asked one night, wrapping up your hair for bed. too tired to even start an argument.

“it’s extreme yes but it’s necessary.” he replied with a chilling coldness that was unlike him. it was obvious he’d thought this was the absolute truth and you couldn’t convince him otherwise.

he was too far gone.

“necessary? are you hearing yourself?” you felt your blood run cold. the man you once knew now stood before you a stranger.

“i understand it may not be to your tastes but this is the only way.” he replied curtly, signalling the end of the conversation.

he never apologised. leaving you both in the constant cycle of fighting, fucking and making up with each other. some days you’d be playing happy families, taking the girls to school or the park which made you forget about all the chaos that loomed around you.

other days were spent meeting with potential clients who sought out geto as a last resort; using up most of their life savings or last pay-check in hopes that master geto could cure them of their ails or bad luck. you pitied them the most. they were usually the elderly who rarely never made it out alive unless they paid on time.

with a man like suguru the carnage bled into all avenues of his life; his blood splatters in the hallway, the blood on the walls, even on his robes. the metallic scent of blood still lingered when he buried himself in you. no matter how many times you scrubbed yourself clean, you still felt tainted by him.

however you couldn’t dwell on these thoughts for any longer, you had a birthday to celebrate.

you stubbed out the remainders of your cigarette and headed back inside, plastering a false smile on your face as you greeted the kitchen staff. you were presented with suguru’s cake—a rich chocolate cake that had the girls scribbly hand writing in red icing making you smile.

you and the girls carried the cake and his gifts to his room being sure to knock thrice. he opened the door his usual neat top knot now spilling across his shoulders, his robes quite disheveled—yet he still looked handsome as ever.

“happy birthday papa geto!” the girls said in unison holding out their gifts for him to take. suguru’s eyes crinkled as he smiled at them, taking the gifts and setting them down on his desk.

he locked eyes with the cake and you saw a glimpse of his former self peeking through. “you did all this for me?” he looked at the girls with disbelief, feigning surprise knowing damn well he heard you and the girls causing a ruckus in the kitchen.

“yes we did papa do you like it?” nanako the more outspoken of the duo asks but nonetheless their eyes sparkle in anticipation, eagerly waiting for their dad’s approval. suguru lifts them up into his arms and looks at them with such a rare softness that they only got to see.

“i love it more than anything girls, thank you.” he peppered the girls faces with kisses making them break out into a fit of giggles as they tried to break free from his grasp.

it was a picturesque sight of domesticity that you wanted to capture and relive over and over again until it was ingrained into your mind. until you could live and breathe this moment again.

once he blew the candles and the tendrils of smoke dissipated into the morning sun. mimiko was eager to ask what he wished for but in true suguru fashion he was tight lipped about it, standing firm even after all their pestering.

mimiko and nanako eventually gave up and left to play outside, their burning curiosity fizzling out. you and suguru were left alone and it seemed like the celebratory mood died as soon the girls left the room.

“what did you wish for?” you asked into the echo chamber of the bedroom. the silence was driving you mad. “you.” he replied not missing a beat as he inched closer to you. the way he said it with such conviction almost fooled you into believing him.

your treacherous heart betrayed you once again exposing how much you missed him, how much you needed him.

“you already have me.” you said matter of factly, clearing your throat as if it would quell the conflicting feelings of desire and resentment you had towards him.

suguru picked up on your conflicting wave of emotions and paused. “sorry.” he muttered before continuing “I shouldn’t have—I should go.”

and just like that the axis between you both tilted from growing tension to mild tolerance .

you wondered if you should’ve just caved in and enjoyed the fleeting moment of pleasure he offered, knowing how good his touch felt but you knew it was for the best not to fall for it again.

maybe one day you’ll both come to an agreement that this was no longer working. but you were just fine with dancing around the topic until one of you finally had the guts to end things.

[flowerbloom-arts]

What *would* you say is good sniff rep in the official media?

In the context of the Snufkin game I would've deeply preferred it if they made him just a little feistier when it came to the Giant Crab confrontation (making him chase the crab to get Cedric back, as an example) or if he was a little more pissy about the crab sitting on his treasure and not being able to keep his cake and eat it too, that's the one minor scene change I would've appreciated.

Another change that would've helped his character immensely is him and Snufkin having some actual friendly conversation rather than acting like people who simply know the other exists, we could have some minor disagreements or banter between them (not in the way Snufkin would have with Little My), likely surrounding Sniff's attachment to Cedric. It would've really helped give a sense that Sniff and Snufkin have been friends since little childhood and while they have ideological disagreements when it comes to material possession it's not a deal breaker for the two of them, the writers could've also used this banter to exposit about the Park Keeper if they so choose, or even foreshadow the conflict Snufkin will have with the PK.

In general I feel like Sniff's character in modern Moomin media is very hindered by this assumption that he is a simple child who is much younger than the rest of the cast and doesn't fully understand what he's doing in his goal to get money, or that his goal of accumulating wealth is outright stupid/silly and superficial. I feel like a more sympathetic look into the reasons he wants money, because he does have those, and allowing him to be treated as an equal among his peers, aswell as having a special child-adoptive parent bond with Moominmamma like he does in the books would benefit the depiction of his character immensely.

[raayllum]

At the Same Time

So I was thinking about S4, specifically two of the three main arcs, as Ezran’s speech in 4x03 sets the stage, thematically, for the entire season. It’s not hard to see how it connects to how Janai has to deal with lingering human vs elf sentiments or in her impatient brother who refuses to see the wisdom in Ezran’s ideology. It’s also not hard to see how it connects to Callum’s feelings towards Rayla, given that, “We have to acknowledge the weight of the pain and loss, but open up our eyes and allow ourselves to hope and maybe forgive and love again.” 

However, I was thinking about my post in which I claim the Soren-Claudia reunion scene in 4x07 and the two cakes Janaya scene in 4x08 operate as a Mouthpiece for what Rayllum isn’t saying overtly to one another (for more reason than one) and realizes that applies doubly in Janai and Amaya’s case not necessarily for Callum, but also for Rayla.

Because we can view Ezran’s speech as it is straightforwardly, and it is very thematically rich. But if we connect it further to Ezran and Janai’s similarities throughout the season, something a little bit deeper takes shape.

Which is to say: how you maintain two forces and desires that seem utterly opposing? Just have 

Two Cakes

Amaya argues that Janai’s two paths are not mutually exclusive to each other. Unlike what Karim believes, Amaya posits that Janai should, “Forget Karim: this is not about him. What life do you want?” Forget about the nerves and anxieties in your heart or even about pleasing people (even her as Janai’s fiancee) to determine what does Janai want. She wants her love but also to follow what she feels is her duty, and Amaya reaffirms that Janai can have both. She does not have to sacrifice one for the other (even if it means risking her life in the following episode in order to hold onto the crown).

Janai’s views these two paths and desires as things that cannot be reconciled at first. This is why when she turns to Amaya after the fight in 4x09 and states the future will be beautiful while looking at her future, it’s meaningful and full circle. But the tribunal verdict also proves that while Janai is determined to at first reconcile justice and compassion, she is also aware that having both her place as queen and her place at Amaya’s side will be difficult - not impossible - to likewise reconcile.

This mirrors what Ezran says in his speech about having to acknowledge the weigh of the pain and loss, but to also push forward. To not forget how you have suffered, but to not let yourself be defined by it as well. To realize that pain and love are not mutually exclusive, but largely two sides of the same coin, and you cannot lose sight of either if you want to move forward in a way that will actually heal you. You cannot move forward through denial, but you also cannot move forward if you do not acknowledge your grief. 

On the one hand, we do see this with Callum’s side of Rayla and Callum’s reconciliation (part 1) arc this season. But I think if we keep this idea of opposition in mind, we get a peek into why the 4x09 scene exists for Rayla, after everything. 

In one of the few scenes where she gets to talk about her own feelings, we know Rayla has come to realize or reaffirm that her paranoia and mission to kill Viren made her “risk losing the best thing she ever had: [Callum].” She’s spent the season dealing with the fallout, whether it’s Callum being almost unable to look at her, not wanting to speak with her, still having walls up and not discussing their relationship even as he begins to heavily thaw throughout 4x06-4x08. 

Then rather than paranoia, Rayla is confronted with absolute proof, when she also knows Viren’s plans are deadly and dangerous and would put Callum in the most absolute danger possible (re: Aaravos’ possession). Still, she holds back. She lingers.

Are these two paths, two desires, her mission and the love of her life, doomed to be mutually exclusive, or to have the former tear apart the latter? Can she go after him and still have Callum’s love? 

And Callum, through his own journey that I wanna talk more about, says (in spite of everything), “Yes.”

She can have two cakes (even if it hurts).

[supremechancellorrex]

I've been hearing a lot of people say that Ozai in the Avatar: the Last Airbender cartoon isn't supposed to be "developed" because he's a "symbol". My problem with this is that a character can both be well-developed and a symbol at the same time, so why choose otherwise? "It makes sense because he's supposed to represent" doesn't justify leaving the writing a little loose.

In the cartoon, Ozai is hardly a character to sink your teeth into. You can surmise and speculate things about him, but ultimately every discussion was more about Zuko or another character overcoming him and how satisfying that was than any character depth of Ozai himself. On the Day of Black Sun, Zuko and Ozai's confrontation is less an argument and ideological battle with layers between two human beings and more an extremely developed character yelling at an evil cardboard cutout.

The Problem With Ozai

Zuko: "It was cruel and it was wrong."

Ozai: "Lol."

Zuko: "We need to replace this era with an era of peace and kindness."

Ozai: "Lame." (*scowls in annoyance, tries to leave*)

Zuko: "Stay or I'll cut you." (*waves swords*)

Ozai: "Fine. Whatever. Go on" (*proceeds to sit back down and wonder if he's having spiced fire rice cakes for dinner*)

The way the cartoon presents it, Ozai just was a bit too a moustache-twirling villain and that's even considering his actions. It's not even him being morally bankrupt or sadistic, but that his entire character only exists on the surface level. Him being "superficial" and "ruthless" isn't even a character trait because he has no real character beyond "I'm arrogant, selfish and evil". Even some of the worst dictators in human history from Hitler and Stalin to Mussolini and Mao have more complex 'psychological depth' than Ozai, despite committing the most evil and awful acts against other human beings.

I got they want to reflect the toxicity of the Fire Nation with him as a symbol, "fear" and "ruthlessness", but these are symptoms and the result of an ideology, and Ozai and this ideology need a bit more than "The Fire Nation's ideology is that they're superior, share the greatness and just kill people". We never see Ozai really talk about this ideology, how he is *civilising* the other nations (well, besides, setting them on fire). Why does he think Fire is superior? Why does the Fire Nation? We can speculate it's the unity of the Fire Nation and its industrialisation, that maybe the Fire Nation thinks they have better tea ceremonies and cleaner cities, but none of the Fire Nation characters really talk about this. Sharing their 'greatness', how?

And, of course, we know and the show know their 'greatness' is a lie and farce really, but for their citizens to buy into this farce realistically for 100 years, sending sons and even daughters to die for it, presumably working in factories endless hours to keep up war production like that giant drill, one would think the smokescreen would be a little more convincing than a couple lines. Yes, in the Headband, they show the kids are taught a warped version history with the Air Nomad army, but what is the unifying ideology of the Fire Nation exactly? And how does this reflect Ozai? Beyond ruthlessness and being a smarmy jerk?

And this brings me to a scene I have quite a problem with. The War Meeting flashback in Sozin's Comet Part 1, essentially Ozai just goes from 'How do we quell rebellion?' to 'We will destroy their hope by killing them all with fire'. Hehe, well, I mean, why even talk about "destroying hope" when they'll be too dead to despair? Of course, Sokka says after hearing that literally "I always knew the Fire Lord was a bad guy, but his plan is just pure evil". Then they throw in an Ozai baby picture to pretend they have some nuance, and then blah, blah, Energybending turtle appears out of near nowhere.

A Better Ozai

(I want it noted how hard it was to get a decent gif of cartoon Ozai, especially in his Pheonix King regalia. That is how little people care about or are interested in him. There is more Daniel Dae Kim gifs from the live-action than the cartoon version)

The funny thing is Ozai burning the Earth Kingdom could have worked if they actually gave him character arc in the cartoon. Have Ozai start out believing he can civilise the Earth Kingdom, who he views as inferior and needing to be kept in check. We see in the show Earthbending is banned in Fire Nation colonies and annexed territory, but they should also show him introducing policies to ban certain styles of Earth Kingdom dress, specifically their green national colour dress, and customs, forcibly *civilising* these territory with authoritarian laws. Earth Kingdom children have to go to Fire Nation school to be indoctrinated in how their cultures and homes are inferior, and told to report on their parents.

However, as time goes on, Ozai becomes increasingly disenfranchised with the war, as colonised Earth Kingdom citizens continue to resist, Earthbend and continue banned cultural practices in secret. He feels rising disgust at these people's Earthbender stubbornness and 'backwards' practices, resisting engaging in and conforming to Fire Nation's 'superior' cultural practices, science, and education. How dirty they are, so unFire-Nation, he thinks more and more. He begins to unravel in his hate and think to himself things like how "You just can't take the root edge out of people, so I should burn the root to the ground. Make the world clean, pure and Fire Nation".

If they showed Ozai in the cartoon shifting from the standard position of his father Azulon to an even more extreme and horrifying position over time, reacting in all the worst ways to whatever the world throws at him increasingly and increasingly, his turn as the Pheonix King could have been far more chilling. Azula isn't the only one who has to go "crazy" due to the Fire Nation's twisted teachings. It would have further emphasised the cycle of toxicity in the Fire Nation that Sozin set in motion.

Imperialism and fascism is often driven by a number of things in conjunction, commonly economics, but also vain pride, fear and discomfort; pride of your own nation at the expense of others, as well as fear and discomfort of others, how 'different' they are, their 'weird illogical customs' diluting the 'pure culture of yours' that you understand, their 'strange appearances' changing the face of the culture you know, that you like and think is the greatest and should be eternal. They could be spies, enemy agents of chaos and degeneration. They need to be 'civilised' or 'exterminated' to silence conflict and bring order, this 'dark horde' of backwards people who just can't ever be allowed to be 'in charge'. I think a weakness here is that Ozai is never shown to show any discomfort, he's just so confident and evil about everything, but if he were to reflect the dark face of the Fire Nation, a people they say aren't wholly evil demons, he does a bad job showing the twisted human face of evil and it makes him irrelevant in a way as a character with the themes other than "Defeat evil guy".

Lessons Taught Improperly

Now some would try to defend Ozai in that Avatar: The Last Airbender is a kid's cartoon, but I would say that makes it more important when discussing real-life issues. What is the point of lesson if it is taught improperly? Sometimes that can do more harm than good.

Avatar includes a number of mature themes, including the genocide of Aang's entire people and Gyatso's skeleton. Judging by the Tibetan influences in Air Nomad culture, a real-life people who have also been genocided, I think it is necessary and good practice for even kid's shows to make sure the lessons on real-life evils like the concepts and systems of imperialism, colonialism and nationalism are taught well. Because otherwise you get an inaccurate picture of what it is and how it actually works, and what is the point of that?

Stories want to impart lessons on things being "bad" as a message, but often I think they fall short in getting to the point of why they happen. I wonder if that makes them a little pointless in a way, because the reasons why characters/people and nations do things is both important to good writing and real life. If you aren't taught it properly, how well can you recognise it in your own country? And if you can't, then hasn't the lesson failed to be imparted?

[nooremahtab]

What's up with Indians and their support for Isr@el?

we all know what is happening in P@lestine and it absolutely boils my blood to see people not only staying silent about a gen0cide, but also literally supporting it! it makes history a lot clearer, and now we all understand that how things like the hol0caust, c0lonisation, sl@very came to be around so easily in the past. we all might have wondered in our history lessons that how could the majority let this happen to the marginalised communities. but now the answers are all in front of us. lack of awareness/education, propoganda, white supremacy, political-economic power, media manipulation all work together to justify heinous things like gen0cide and common people eat it all up like cake.

seeing the west support it is nothing new or surprising, but what has absolutely broken me is seeing indians trying to lick the boots of isr@el. there is always indians under the pro-p@lestine posts laughing, scoffing, mocking or even celebrating the p@lestinian suffering. why? i just wanna know why? half of these uneducated pricks do not even know what's happening there and why it's happening. we have literally been at the recieving end of white colonial supremacy in the past and rn we are supporting it? why?

because the people here have also been fed the same bullshit that the isr@eli settler civilians have been fed. they have made it all about religion and fed so much hate to people that they can't see anything clearly. there are so many similarities i can see between current political and social conditions of india and isr@el that it's scary. the biggest one being zi0nism=hindutva/hindu rashtra. the tactics that they have adopted to bring it about are very similar and I don't think i need to elaborate it much.

in 2021-22 when the communal violence was at it's literal peak in india many people were "smelling a gen0cide" here. the things is, stuff like gen0cide doesn't happen overnight, the people in power slowly and gradually build up to it over the years. i understood that the political condition in india is bad but i didn't know it was this bad. seeing them support a genocide for no reason at all except hate for a certain community makes me lose all hope. I don't wanna say it but I hope people understand what I am trying to insinuate here.

what's ironic is that some right extremists indians (yes the ones supporting isr@el) are literal h!tler apologists. they look up to him to justify their hindu rashtra ideology. on the other hand, isr@eli zi0nists believe that idol worshippers do not have the right to live. the only thing bringing these two together is just pure hate for musl!ms.

I never make such political posts and this whole thing may even seem far fetched but it's been on my mind lately and i need to get it out. tumblr is the safest place where i can talk about it.

[oraclekleo]

Stumbled on your tiny tarot game and it looks fun ~ What do I bring to the world? 💕

initials: BL, pisces sun, gemini moon & taurus rising

thank you & hope u have a good day ahead :))

Hello!

Thank you so much for participating in my tiny game!

Haha! What a lucky stumble! 🤭

Question: What do you give to the world?

Deck: Everyday Witch Tarot

Card: XIV Temperance

(Feedback is highly appreciated but not mandatory)

Balance is the name of the game for you. You come, you see and you mix'n'match the opposites, be them ideas, people or flavours. You have the ability to find where two things entertwine. You know we are all different but you see where people click and bring those invisible connections to the light. You could make for an excellent diplomat. You don't believe in extremes, be it in ideology, sports or diet. You surely like your veggies but there's nothing wrong about a cake or ice cream. For some reason I get an impression that you really like to hold people's hands but that's pretty specific and I might be wrong about it - lacing fingers with them. Your eyes are wide open and see the world around but at the same time, you have your inner sight which can see way beyond.

[butwhatifidothis]

You know, i've long wondered whether or not Fodlan being left in a miserable state after CF was intentional on IS's part or not; the fact that shit like “Edelgard ordered a historical play to be shut down just because she didn't like how it portrayed her” is pretty clearly meant to be seen as a “cute girl getting embarassed lol” moment instead of the blatant and horrific abuse of power that it is, along with the information that Edelgard installed a secret police and orders her henchmen to spy on her citizens only being revealed in a throwaway line in a random paired ending, with no acknowledgement of how fucked all that is, leads me to think this might have been unintentional.

Ehhh, I wouldn't say it's unintentional - there's a good bit more in 3H to show off how deliberately villainous Edelgard is. Off the top my head and not including what I already said regarding the endings, there's the facts that Edelgard:

is the only person to be readily okay with sacrificing her own citizens (with the only other people who do the same being TWS and a crazed Rhea who is visibly not mentally stable - a state which neither Edelgard nor TWS are ever in when they sacrifice innocents)

has her path be constantly riddled with direct links to the "need" for mass death ("the pool of blood at my feet," "the scarlet path" Hubert prepared for her to walk, "no matter how much blood flows at her feet" - yes, that is a completely different reference from the first link - etc.)

shares much of her motivation (destroying the Church and eradicating the Nabateans) with TWS

has her route be the only one where the story cuts to the other side so that you the player can see the effect your actions have placed onto the antagonists when you kill their close ones (Claude, Rhea, Dimitri)

is the only protagonist to be explicitly and violently racist

initiates extreme and mass violence for the explicit purpose of imperialism

Along with a myriad of other things, one being that she's, uh, literally called a villain by her creators lmao. And imo, 3H would have done a good job of writing her as such... if it weren't for what this other nonnie points out:

Man if you get rid of the uwu cutesy moments, Edelgard really is a sinister villain. The racism, the victim blaming, her desire for genocide, what you mentioned before about taking out anyone who opposes her and spying on her citizens, taking over a religion and remaking it your way i.e cultural erasure, getting rid of two countries' autonomy over revanchist nationalism. Like holy crap, how does anyone not see this and say "yeah that's definitely villainous". Oh right because she wanted to walk with you, isn't it sad ;_;? Seriously though, Intsys kinda dropped the ball here. Like we could've had a sinister villain and in bits and pieces we get that, but a lot of it is obscured by "I wanted to walk with you sensei~", and "I drew a sketch of you. Don't see it uwu." It's like having a cake with a great batter but you put all your effort on the hard frosting instead.

Her villainous behavior, methods, ideologies, etc. are all obfuscated by the ever-present need for her to still be a waifu that's marketable. Yeah, sure, she's realistically speaking a massive piece of shit to put it lightly, but she wants to walk with you :( and draw you :( isn't it cute when she screams at rats :) and she opens up to you that she's scared of rats actually she trusts you so much :) and she asks you if you're sure you wanna fight with her on CF she cares so much about giving you a choice ignore how choosing to NOT fight for her means getting murdered by her instead :) and look at how sad everyone is to fight her :( Doesn't that endear you, the player spending money on this game and its DLC and its gacha spinoff, to her, the cute waifu who's the main face of the game's marketing and who just cares about you the player oh so much?

It's not that her villainy is unintentional, it's that her marketability takes precedence over her character

[gynandromorph]

often a point of contention in the ideological belief system of one all-powerful, benevolent God is that this god cannot be benevolent if it can fix suffering as an all-powerful being and does not. this cognitive dissonance produces many Insane takes such as "children getting cancer is good because everything god does is good." the plethora of contradictions in an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-good god fascinates me, but the biggest contradiction is often provoked by the benevolence factor, because we are all so intimately aware of pain and suffering. i'd like to believe that the purported god sees itself as good, whatever that definition is, for it saw everything it had made and said it was good. regardless, because jessie is a person, trapped by the biases and desires of a person, i also knew that i wanted jessie to, for a large part of the story, at least, exhibit a sense of denial about being wrong or doing anything bad. i wanted to see her morph wildly immoral acts into "good" deeds, claiming that in HER story it's canonically a good thing, actually. i wanted her to try to have her cake by claiming that she decides what morality is in the scope of her story and eat it too by claiming that her actions and writing choices have no moral significance because it's all fictional. i wanted to see if i could connect these two threads of moral accountability, or a lack thereof, between God and an author. so that's why i have mostly written her to see herself as a hero

[platoniccereal]

ok, i don't know why i just glossed over this part earlier.

there are some inconsistencies in what the iron bull says about his background, here and there, e.g. in what bull says was his reason to reach out to the inquisition (krem says it was bull who reached out VS bull says it was krem while mimicking him VS bull says it was on his superiors' orders), but another detail i noticed is what he says about his merry trip into the re-educators' establishment.

bull says that one day he basically woke up and found himself unfit for his role:

one day i woke up and couldn't think of a damned reason to keep doing my job. turned myself in to the reeducators.

but what's told us as well is that he snapped and went on the killing spree, and then people were sent for him, and that's when he declared himself unfit:

which sent him in a berserk state. when his surviving soldiers later came back for him with reinforcements, they found him unmoving, covered in wounds and surrounded by the butchered corpses of the tal-vashoth warriors. he declared himself unfit for duty and too dangerous to be around civilians, submitting himself to the ben-hassrath re-educators.

which is not the “woke up with the realization” situation at all, not a boulder suddenly crushing one's shoulders, but a snapping moment.

now, i don't think bull lies. these may as well be parts of the same true story. he did wake up in that state some day, maybe even weeks prior to his breakdown. he could just ignore that, figures anyone on that island learns to ignore a thing or two. maybe it even scared him shitless, but he kept going as he always did, because one of his main traits is incredible stubbornness. maybe he said to himself, that it's alright, actually.

and then he snaps, kills people and turns himself in to the re-educators. because he understands that the matter is way more serious, and he's reached the end point.

for me there were some things that fell into place. nothing that wasn't said directly in the canon, just got some things consistency-wise, nice logical structure.

after bull becomes tal-vashoth he keeps talking about losing control due to straying away from the path of the qun. but it isn't just something he's been indoctrinated to, or what he deduced after fighting tal-vashoth. this isn't an idea bull is scared of because he’s just going through new experience.

that's something that actually happened to him, or at least he believes it did. he strayed away from his path, ignored it, kept fighting, and then lost control. it's suddenly not just a cautionary tale.

another thing is that hissrad kept fighting for 8 years because he believed he could change something, quoting gatt: “he thinks that if he does the right thing, then everything will work. he's been in seheron for ten years trying to make everything work.” certainly, he fought to make civilians' lives better. to protect and help. hissrad stopped when he couldn't see the end goal anymore. not just because he grew tired, or due to his grief, or because of horror he felt after the attack on the school. i'm pretty sure he would've kept fighting if he still had a goal, but this absence of aim was exactly a deal breaker.

even if one doesn't see worth in their own work, to which every part of the qun's common body strives, one can always hide in that hope for a change from their doubts. i can only imagine how many times bull and warriors on seheron would turn to “eventually the tides wear away the mountain”. especially when their own grief is so repetitive they need the goal so they won't break the cycle.

so, that's exactly what bull is cut off from when he becomes tal-vashoth. it would be easier for him to become disappointed in the ideology, but bull isn't that type of tal-vashoth.

iron bull: you mean getting exiled from my people and declared tal-vashoth? yeah, i should make a cake.

sera: you like drinking and singing and breaking beds. you’d already left.

from the outsider's perspective nothing changed in his life, save he got cut off of his own people. every companion pretty much gets it, some are happy for bull, some are sorry.

but it changes drastically for bull. he had an aim before, whether it was that he was making the world a better place from the qun's perspective, or that he wanted to prove himself to superiors and come back.

bull is a person used to devote himself, with great power and loyalty, and after he's declared tal-vashoth, he doesn't have a place to apply that might. maybe bull could find some peace in helping the inquisition with corypheus.

but after that..? in my case, the inquisitor lavellan gets it, he also had to invent the goal of helping elves and mages just to keep going, but the iron bull isn't quite invested in thedosian political games or ideologies for this trick to work.

chargers are living their best lives and doing their job well, but this hedonistic way of life is opposed to the qun's teachings. i guess earlier bull could make himself believe that even these little silly deeds helped the bigger picture somehow, this desire to help the whole society through every action being something the qun taught him. tal-vashoth bull is cut off from this bigger picture. this slot in his mind is empty.

this might be the biggest struggle for bull. he can keep moving forward, he's good at it, but that might be an aimless path for him.