the-confused-muse

[the-confused-muse]

genuinely if you're incapable of letting people like characters for being amazingly written and for the sake of them being.. characters, I think you need to get off your high horse that someone likes a character that you hate. of course, it should be obviously stated that liking a character doesn't always mean endorsing them or whatever, but to constantly have to make every post ever with that disclaimer gets very tiring.

jimmy is a terrible, terrible person, but he is also an amazingly written character and an even better villain, and there's quite literally nothing wrong with liking that or his character because of that.... and my disclaimer personally is this; please don't go into my replies or mentions thinking every mention of him that isn't negative in any regards is me praising or forgiving his actions, no if I had a say I would put him feet first in a wood chipper, but also he's a character, in a video game, have a little nuance please

[the-confused-muse]

taking this one step further:

using the medium of a choice-based point-and-click game, letting the player control a character they ultimately come to hate, and making them realize they have no choice, as much as they might want one- they HAVE to kill, to commit heinous crimes, or the game does not progress- mouthwashing forces the player to become someone robbed of their autonomy, as well. like a worker at this damned company, like anya was by jimmy- it's an excellent way to show their message.

i need everyone to understand the poetry of curly turning a blind eye to anya’s suffering only to be robbed of his autonomy and voice as she was and then forced to observe jimmy’s crimes and the abuse of his own body

[the-confused-muse]

i forget the exact post where i saw this phrasing. but it was along the lines of curly cared for the crew & overall had good intentions and to say he is as much of a monster as jimmy is less compelling. which generally i do agree with. but i would take it a step further and say that considering jimmy a monster as opposed to human is also missing the point.

jimmy's actions are deplorable. jimmy is also human. the severe hurt he causes is not beyond human capacity. it can be comforting to draw a clear line between "monsters inflicting horrific abuse" and "regular human people trying their best". but all that does is make it harder to acknowledge and call out abuse as it happens. or to recognise it in yourself. if only an abject monster could do such a thing and i am not a monster then it must be fine.

to quote a post by @/transhitman, "it's almost like the point of the game is to force you to empathize with an abuser in order to make you reflect on your own capacity for harm and your relationship to misogyny and rape culture in real life."

[the-confused-muse]

[the-confused-muse]

me drowning in a lake while my friend, 11th century french rabbi and prolific scriptural commentator Schlomo "Rashi" Yitzchaki (zy"a) stands nearby: help im drowing help me rashi

Schlomo "Rashi" Yitzchaki (zy"a): "drowing" is likely a scribal error for "drowning." "im drow[n]ing" is to say: my lungs have become filled with water, and i am struggling to breathe. "help" once followed by "help me" a second time: the first [help] is directed to the Holy One, blessed be He, and means: "may He help us by swiftly delivering the World to Come;" the second (i.e., "help me") is to invoke direct assistance in this world, spoken as if to a personal friend. the meaning of "rashi" here is unclear.

[the-confused-muse]

[the-confused-muse]

Americas addiction to caffeine belies a much deeper desire for potions and tinctures

[the-confused-muse]

Unreachable

Wandering mind, full of creation

Meandering lines, lost in elation 

Each stroke, I broke a little inside

Each fate, I hate. My will defied

I painted this in Feb 2022 about what it's like to be an artist with repetitive strain injury. In 2008, When I was 18, I made my first comic titled 1000 Words, it was about an artist helping a little girl with a broken family similar to my own. It received such positive feedback that I changed my Environmental Science major at UCBerkeley to Art major. Ever since then, my goal has been to tell stories with my art. Stories that are important to me. My next comic, Knite, was about a boy who wants to put the stars back into the polluted skies of China, my homeland. The comic after that, Fisheye Placebo, is a cyberpunk story about living in the age of technology, about fighting censorship and propaganda.

Unfortunately, I never got to finish Knite nor Fisheye Placebo. By the time I was 24, I was drawing day and night with no regards to my health. Not only did I get repetitive strain injury in my drawing hand, but my entire health suffered. My roommates had to rush me to the ER after fainting one night. I remember looking at my swollen right hand, my fingers like sausages, not even able to hold a pen, and just cry.

I've gone to the doctors and physical therapists. One told me I have Lupus (I do not), and another told me to put ice on it. More recently, I met a friend who happens to an amazing physical therapist and he was able to help me regain a lot of use of my hand. At my worst, I could only draw an hour a week, but now I am able to draw 2 hours a day. My hand is unlikely to fully heal, but I'm so grateful to regain what I have.

To my fellow artists who suffers the same, please know you're not alone. I can't promise that it'll get better, and it's cliche to say don't give up, but I want to keep hoping that no matter what the world throws at us, we will continue to make art.

[the-confused-muse]

reading fear and trembling is so funny because like. kierkegaard is so confused and i'm also so confused. it's the most relatable philosophy treatise ever. we're in this together buddy!!

[the-confused-muse]

I want more people to know that while the Palestine Olympic team consists of only 8 athletes, at least 69 Palestinian Olympic athletes have been killed since October 2023. This includes athletes who were going to compete in these games and retired athletes such as Majed Abu Maraheel, the first Palestinian Olympian, who died of kidney failure in a refugee camp product of lack of medical treatment.

Remember them during these games.

[the-confused-muse]

before blaming others, think: whats the 1 constant in all your failed relationships? its that cursed egyptian amulet why do u even have that

[the-confused-muse]

This is for the support of Gaza's Municipality Services - which help ensure clean drinking water, waste collection, debri removal and sanitation services - life saving services to run a state - reader I imagine wherever you are or how lacking the municipality services in your city is, it's not worse than Ghazza.

Currently it's only at 11% - please donate -

[the-confused-muse]

There is no safe place left. The Israeli army is merciless and does not know humanity. Save us from certain death through support via PayPal wallet.

[the-confused-muse]

Throughout the first five months of the war, both my big sister and my sister in law had been pregnant. They had to endure constant displacement and unspeakable horrors on top of pregnancy discomforts. The few times I was able to reach my sister, she would keep praying not to go into labor before that nightmarish reality ended.

Sadly, things did not go her way. The war was raging when she gave birth to beautiful baby Ossama, and it still is ongoing. Almost at the same time my brother and his wife had sweet baby twin girls, Ritaj and Rital. The three little angels are rocked to sleep by the sound of bombs and buzzing drones instead of lullabies. Due to the unsanitary conditions in their tent and formula scarcity, the newborns have been constantly suffering from acute respiratory infections as well as slow weight gain. The only medical care they were getting was that of an overcrowded field hospital with limited resources, and even that is now denied to them as my family has been forcibly evacuated again from Rafah to Khan Yunis where nothing is left but rubble.

As you may well know, many babies in Gaza are lost while waiting for consideration. The doctors previously insisted that the little ones would fail to thrive and fully recover if they stayed in the same unhealthy environment.

Despite everything, these babies are a source of hope and strength for us. Please don't let them fade away. My family is barely holding on for their sake and that of their older brothers and sisters.

We would be forever grateful for any kind of support.

Please donate if possible and reblog as often as you can 🙏

[the-confused-muse]

GORGEOUS

[the-confused-muse]

(guy who makes more money than youll ever see via reading wikipedia pages on history and overlaying this to mspaint doodles of the persons involved voice): whoa im not even going to TRY to pronounce that name

[the-confused-muse]

authors really don't make their audience sick enough. i want my protagonists buckling under the power given to them by a magic that hurts and blesses in equal measure.

the most important question you can ask yourself when designing a magic system in fiction is "wouldn't it be fucked up if this happened"