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bicth-and-in-that-order · 7 months

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Rambling thoughts of various Yuri manga I’ve read

1. Kase-San and Yamada (Morning Glories sequel series) by Hiromi Takashima

notice how Kase’s name is first, which is representative of her being the main one to cause problems in their relationship

If you asked me what my favorite yuri manga was like 2-3 years ago, I’d say Morning Glories and Kase San everytime. Every avid yuri fan has either read or watched Morning Glories because, at the time in 2010, it was groundbreaking, and I stand by the fact that the original series still holds up to this day. It was cute, sweet, wholesome and only had a few obligatory “we love each other but we’re giRLs😳😳😳” moments. Most of all it wasn’t a pseudo-incest-straight-male-porn-pandering-garbage-fest—also known as “Citrus”. Was it cliche at times? Yes, but they all are lol. Did they add to the dumb ass “blonde femme and dark hair masc” trope? Also yes. But it was adorable and it was my first ever yuri so it holds a special place in my heart.

And it SEEMED like it was only going to get better in Kase San and Yamada, the sequel. The girls would be heading to college and the story could theoretically focus on more mature topics while they navigate their new relationship. Keyword: theoretically. Unfortunately, instead of exploring interesting relationship dynamics and storylines, the plot of each story arc boils down to: Kase is insecure because a man breathed next to Yamada or Kase is being completely insensitive to Yamada’s feelings…again…—> ✨miscommunication drama ✨—>big over dramatic apology scene—>boring makeup sex or other romantic gesture.

Literally that’s how every single plotline goes. Kase is so goddamn dumb and insensitive to Yamada’s feelings and Yamada’s a complete doormat who can only stay mad for 0.2 seconds before getting pussy whipped like a spineless ass bitch. And for all that Yamada sacrifices for Kase; her hometown, her dreams, her apartment, what does she get in return from Kase? Oh that’s right; bare minimum romantic gestures and a neglectful partner who can’t even call her “girlfriend” in front of others:

Like I thought we were over this shit. It’s been THREE years of them together, a whole anime production, and god knows how many irl years and we’re going back to “we love each other but we’re giRLs😳😳😳” WHY???

And then Kase later goes onto bet her entire three year relationship over the ugly bitch in the next panel, so now I’m questioning whether or not Kase even loves Yamada with the amount of bullshit she’s put her through. Which COULD be an interesting plot point, but Kase never gets any consequences for her actions and the creator genuinely thinks this is romantic and full of tension so I’m 10000% positive that this arc, just like all the others, will end with some makeup sex and we’ll be right back to step 1. Sigh.

2. Tamen De Gushi by Tan Jiu

Tamen De Gushi’s problems are interesting but it’s NOT because of the Chinese government💀

So today’s dark haired masc and blonde femme of the day are Sun Jing and Qiu Tong, respectively. Their personalities aren’t anything to write home about, if you read ANY high school yuri romance, then you know exactly what happens in this story beat for beat. But, BUT, however derivative it is, I find their dynamic very endearing and down to earth. Idk maybe it’s just the translation, but other yuri stories often have this very inauthentic “anime” vibe to it. Which is to say the characters act very cutesy, overly dramatic, and have this stilted, caricature-esque acting of how the creator thinks teenage girls are supposed act.

However, I’m happy to report that Tamen De Gushi is a breath of fresh air in this regard. The characters and interactions they have are grounded and feel organic, which makes them feel like real people, not aliens pretending to be human. This really elevates the humor in turn, oh did I mention that Tamen De Gushi is super funny? Because Tamen De Gushi is super funny, here’s one of my favorite panels and it’s all because of Sun Jing’s goofy ahh expression:

Like go girl give us nothing

If you’re wondering why I haven’t spoke much about the actual romantic relationship between the girls, that’s because there isn’t one💀 Which, okay, that’s not a fair assessment, they have a ton of romantic tension and they flirt a lot. It’s certainly building to a great romantic relationship, but it can’t quite get there due to legal/political reasons sadly. 😔

Edit: I received new information in regards to what happened to Tamen De Gushi. While I reached my limit for posting pictures, I want to point out that the Chinese government had nothing to do with Tamen De Gushi getting censored, rather it was a dispute between the author and the publishing company. The prior information I received was false and I prob should’ve looked it up more so sorrrry. The fact still remains though that after their big lesbian kiss towards the middle of the story and maybe a few other moments, that’s just kind of it. You’re stuck waiting for something to develop, but nothing really happens. The comic very quickly becomes a collection of slice of life segments and cute pictures that imply a relationship between the girls, but not really ;) ;). Now things are just kind of left in purgatory for the foreseeable future and, well, that’s Tamen De Gushi y’all.

Compared to Kase San and Yamada, the characters were much better, which is not saying much, but without an actual romantic storyline, there’s just not a lot for me to comment on to be honest. It’s really pretty though, look at this art :

3. Beauty and the Beast Girl by Neji

my personal favorite and the BEST yuri I ever read

So next on the list is Beauty and the Beast Girl (I’m going to abbreviate to BatBG from here on) , which I already spoiled my feelings on the matter so this will basically be me gushing about this story for several paragraphs straight, enjoy.

Contrary to what the title suggests, it really has nothing to do with Beauty and the Beast’s story except in name. The main girls are Lily Blind, who is actually fucking blind 💀 and Heath the monster girl. Already I’m happy because instead of blonde femme and dark hair butch, it’s blonde femme and of-course-you-have-purple-hair-and-pronouns masc. Lol, all jokes aside, Lily, unlike her blonde femme counterparts is quite assertive and voices her opinions all the time. In fact, she’s the one who pushes Heath to be more open and communicate with her rather than the other way around. This is, in part, due to the story BatBG is trying to tell. I say BatBG is in name only to Beauty and the Beast because Lily isn’t trying to find the “beauty” within Heath or learning to love a beast or whatever, she’s fine just the way she is and her love for Heath is unconditional. Plus the only thing beastly about Heath is her appearance…which I’ll harp on later, but her behavior is in no way different from a regular human except in very rare, specific moments.

At its heart, BatBG is a story about forgiveness (the creator literally says as much) , but it’s also about the cycle of violence that results from being outcasted and deprived of love. BatBG is set in a world of humans and monsters, where the monsters are outcasted and either have to stay away from human society like Heath or assimilate themselves by hiding away their monster like traits, which is a really queer narrative on top of an already queer story. I don’t want to go into too much spoilers, but sometime before the beginning of the story, Heath in-directly hurts Lily before they ever meet. However, it’s not about Lily needing to forgive Heath, or trying to get over the pain she inflicted upon her, rather its Heath learning to forgive herself and in effect, learning to love herself as much as Lily loves her.

Another big aspect of BatBG is disabilities, Lily Blind is in fact Blind lol and while there are times she struggles with her blindness, she never views her disability as something she needs to be ashamed of and never, ever, blames Heath for it or holds it against her unlike what many, many, many, many other stories end up doing. Her blindness isn’t treated like a super power either, it’s a legitimate disability. She just accepts that it’s a part of her and goes onto say that if not for her blindness, she would’ve never met the love of her life, which I found to be an incredibly profound thing to say.

Now that I’ve gotten this far, I suppose I can add a bit of a disclaimer. So BatBG is waaaaay more explicit about the physical affection between the girls than in any of the previous stories I talked about. Heath and Lily are constantly kissing on, hugging, and almost always flirting with each other, and make no mistake, these girls do be fucking. The sex scenes are never perverted or gross, but genuinely super sweet and romantic, which makes it way hotter imo (huh imagine that🤔). And aside from being hot, it also serves a purpose! Lily’s pretty damn horny underneath all her nice girl antics and while it’s not a major part of her character, it does give a slight edge to her personality and, most importantly, balances out the dynamic between Heath and Lily. It would’ve been very easy to fall into that boring trope where Heath is aggressively horny and Lily is the submissive blind girl, but by making Lily be the one to initiate the sexual encounters, it not only compliments Heath’s more reserved nature, but breaks the stereotype that people with disabilities are pure precious being who couldn’t possibly have sex, which is ableist af btw. Many people think the existence of any sex scenes at all is superfluous, but in BatBG, it truly elevates the story, the characters, and the romance in ways that wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying without it.

Now, with as much praise I gave BatBG, there is one criticism I have, but it’s a quibble really, and it can be explained in a single image:

There is a dissonance between the story and the art, the story says: “Heath is a big, ugly scary monster”

The art says:

And like yes, it can be argued that Heath is simply regurgitating the things bigoted people have said to her, but at no point in the story is this ever challenged or brought up in any meaningful way. Lily is blind so she doesn’t know what the hell she looks like and the other characters aren’t any help either. It’s not a big deal or anything, it just would’ve elevated the story if Heath was actually kinda ugly/more monstrous and not incredibly beautiful because right now it’s giving skinny girl who calls herself fat all the time, and it’s like, babe, who tf are you fooling? 😭

Other than that, BatBG is incredibly profound despite its premise being so deceptively simple and I love it to pieces so …yeah! READ IT.

4. Superwomen in Love! Honey Trap and Rapid Rabbit by sometime

Well, at least there are no blondes

So imma just abbreviate to SiL btw

Alright, let’s get started. The premise is that a villainess falls for the super hero girl and then that plotline is dropped in about 16 pages. I’m not even joking, the villainess falls for the hero, loses her job as a villain and then joins the hero all in one chapter. The REAL plot is actually about a council of evil alien-humans who want to destroy humanity because of generic super villain reason #434: the leader of the aliens is sad and misunderstood :( I’m not even going to lie, I had 0 interest in “X” (the generic ass name of the main villain) and her band of useless lesbians. They did literally nothing in the story except be a nuisance and contribute to X’s incel breakdown at the end. Their inclusion actively made SiL worse because the story has this weird tonal problem where in one breath the villains are portrayed as complete jokes and then you turn the page and now they’re shooting children like girl what💀 And these useless lesbians hog sooooo much of SiL that desperately needed to be given to Honey trap and Hayate to develop their relationship.

When the story DOES actually focus on Honey Trap and Hayate, it’s pretty good, even cute at times, there just wasn’t enough time given to them to flesh their relationship out. As it stands, Honey Trap and Hayate don’t have much of a dynamic, or personality for that matter. Honey Trap’s main gimmick is that she’s extremely horny for Hayate and delulu:

Aside from that, she’s a great value version of Heath, but even a watered down character is better than, like, nothing. All I really know about Hayate is that she’s nice, heroic, likes wearing tacky clothes and ….that’s it. She loves Honey Trap because…………they fought together a few times so why not🤷‍♀️ I’d say at least that’s better than Tamen De Gushi, but actually it’s not because these grown ass women don’t even kiss , all we get is a love confession and their gremlin love child and that’s supposed to be satisfying I guess.

And the worst part is that SiL has the audacity to pretend the romance was something that it clearly wasn’t:

Girl…yall were “””enemies””” for 10 panels.

Now, it’s stated they have been rivals for a while, but I guess Honey Trap forgot all of that because the moment she sees Hayate’s face, my good sis is pussy whipped for life. And that’s in spite of apparently being the evilest one out of the evil group because Honey Trap has no grudge or baggage toward Hayate. She immediately turns good with no issues and Hayate is only distrustful of Honey Trap for 1 or 2 speech bubbles and then she’s not. Anything else that happened was off screen, which means it didn’t happen. Ironically, the very next entry on this list will do a MUCH better job at an ex-villain love story, but for SiL, there’s just not much going on.

Another reading of this story is to call it a “parody” but…no, it isn’t. SiL isn’t a comedy, yes there are comedic moments that poke fun of the genre, but the rest of the story genuinely wants you to take it seriously. Except it can’t. X and her league of dimwits are boring as piss and they oscillate between Saturday morning cartoon villains and child murderers seemingly on a whim. So I can neither be endeared to them nor take them as a serious threat. Honey Trap and Hayate are there, but I lament on all the potential lost from what could’ve been an amazing relationship.

5. Yamujiburo/Kianamaiart’s Hanamusa webcomic

This one is kind of cheating, but I also don’t care let me talk about hot MILFs💀

So the final entry on this list is a webcomic series by one of my fave artist: kianamaiart! And it’s right here on tumblr so check it out!

I stumbled upon this webcomic a few weeks ago, fell in love and now I want to talk about it. This yuri pair thankfully has no blonde femme in sight and instead features two popular Pokémon characters: Jessie from Team Rocket and Delia Ketchum, Ash Ketchum’s mom. What I love about this ship and the world Kiana creates around them is that it’s a very unconventional pairing. There’s just not many romances where a single mom falls in love with an ex gang member and the best part is, Delia being a mom is a big part of her character and she doesn’t ignore Ash in favor of her new relationship with Jessie. She has time for both and doesn’t prioritize one over the other, which many ppl fail to do even irl so good on you Delia!

Now, as for the romance it self, Jessie and Delia are a unique pair. Jessie’s overconfident, brash, drama queen personality doesn’t automatically put her in the “dominant” role and Delia’s sweet, motherly personality doesn’t automatically put her in the “submissive” role. Their dynamic in the webcomic actually plays out in the reverse, Jessie is the one who gets easily flustered and Delia’s…intense, to say the least:

(But Tbf if Delia looked at me like that I’d be at her beck and call too💀)

This subversion of these tropes creates a fun dynamic for the couple and it’s super adorable to see how their energies bounce off each other in each new situation Kiana puts them in. I also love how both Jessie and Delia inspire each other to live out their dreams and they become better versions of themselves by being together.

And one last thing, I don’t have any smart commentary to go along with this, I just really like this drawing of Jessie:

no thoughts, head empty

Final Thoughts

Soooo yeah, that’s the end of my dissertation on yuri comics. I know I ended up dragging a lot of popular yuri, but it wasn’t my intention to make you guys hate any of things I talked about. These were just my thoughts as an avid yuri fan, so let me know your thoughts as well, especially if you read any of the yuri I talked about. And even though I’m super picky about the type of yuri I read, I’d still love to hear any recommendations. Who knows, it might dethrone the undefeated champ that is Beauty and the Beast Girl.

#Yuri #yuri manga #long post #Anime #manga #lgbt #lgbtq+#wlw post #kase san and morning glories #tamen de gushi #beauty and the beast girl #superwomen in love #hanamusashipping

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acti-veg · 4 months

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According to one analysis of wool production in Australia, by far the world’s top exporter, the wool required to make one knit sweater is responsible for 27 times more greenhouse gases than a comparable Australian cotton sweater, and requires 247 times more land. Sheep farming threatens native species around the world, from koalas in Australia to sage grouse in the US.

Domesticated sheep in the American West have, as my colleague Paige Vega has reported, been implicated in mass die-offs of their wild cousins, Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, through the spread of the lethal pathogen Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae.

Ruminant farming’s hunger for land has made it a prime engine for colonial expansion around the world; we see this in Brazil, for example, where cattle ranching is driving illegal seizures of Indigenous land. Sheep brought by colonists to Australia “immediately trampled and destroyed all of the native yams and edible vegetables that Aboriginal people had.

The land that Aboriginal people never ceded was taken for pastoral practices,” said Emma Hakansson, the Australia-based founding director of Collective Fashion Justice, which advocates for what she calls a “total ethics” fashion system: one that’s fair to people, animals, and the planet. “Animal-derived materials in particular are a focus for us because it’s in those supply chains that all three of those groups are consistently harmed.”

#thanks anon for sending me this #wool #sheep #vegan #articles #to add #indigenous issues #environment

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candied-boys · 5 months

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OMG DID YOU GUYS SEE THE NEW JP UPDATE?! THERE ARE CHIBIS JUST LIKE VAMP BETWEEN LOADING 🥹🥹🥹🥹

Translations below

It is rumored that...

Clavis was suffering from cowlicks, and so developed his own hair oil. He showed it off town and it flew off the shelves. It's a popular product even today...

It is rumored that...

When Luke often takes naps in the garden, the animals gather around him and begin to nap together. Sometimes there are so many that you can't even get within a 10m/30ft radius of him...

It is rumored that...

Yves sometimes shares the sweets he makes with the animals that live in the royal court...

It is rumored that...

His beloved horse, Maron, loves Licht so much that she won't let go of him, and Licht even sleeps with Maron in the stable...

It is rumored that...

While Nokto generally spends his nights seducing women, he occasionally visits the library late at night to study. When he ends up bumping into Clavis, it creates a very awkward atmosphere...

It is rumored that...

The first time Keith compounded a truth-telling agent to try it out for himself, his butler desperately tried to stop him...

It is rumored that...

If you pass by Rio's room, you can sometimes hear passionate confessions like "I adore you!" and "I love you!"

It is rumored that...

One can often see servants lining up in hopes of being picked to serve Silvio so they can get a reward later...

It is rumored that...

On days when Jin discovers a delicious drink*, you can hear him humming/whistling in the bathroom...

* Note i think this means more like "a new cocktail recipe" or a new drink on a menu at a bar or something

It is rumored that...

During his stay at Rhodolite Castle, Gilbert was often seen going to the kitchen, and after he left, a large amount of food would have disappeared completely...

It is rumored that...

Leon, being a popular man, has been confessed to by girls as young as 5 years old and as old as grandmothers in their 60s...

It is rumored that...

The name Chevalier is derived from the fact that the Michele family has been a family of knights for generations...*

*Note that "knight" in French is literally chevalier.

It is rumored that...

The bureaucrats who respect Sariel all seem to own Sariel's favorite quill, and it is said that you can tell if someone is a Sariel fan by looking at the quill they use...

#ikemen prince #ikepri #clavis lelouch #luke randolph #yves kloss #jin grandet #chevalier michel #rio ortiz #sariel noir #nokto klein #licht klein

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skaldish · 1 year

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What is Norse Heathenry?

Norse Heathenry is a contemporary pagan spirituality derived from the beliefs, customs, superstitions, and folklore of the pre-Christian Norse people. It is one of a few different kinds of Heathenries, which include Slavic Heathenry and Teutonic (Germanic) Heathenry.

The word "heathen" means "of the heaths." However, it's not a word the Old norse people themselves used. They didn't have a word for their spiritual belief system, as they didn't distinguish this from all other aspects of their lives. Rather, "Heathen" was coined by Christian writers to refer to Scandinavian pagans (this is also why it's sometimes used interchangeably with the word "heretic").

Nowadays, Norse Heathenry is referred to by many names, which reflects different developing iterations of it. Amongst these names are Norse Paganism, Asatru, and Forn Sidr / Forn Sed.

Where does Norse Heathenry come from?

Norse Heathenry comes from the Nordic countries of Europe: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands. These places are also known as the homelands of the vikings. But despite their shared origins, Norse Heathenry is not the religion of the vikings. This very large misconception has a very long, complex history behind it, owed to a combination of commercialization and fascist tampering. The Heathenry we see in America is extremely muddied from these influences. Fortunately, we now have the means to disambiguate it, thanks to increasingly accessible cultural exchange.

The following explanation is a product of ongoing anthropological, theological, and cultural research, in combination with what we know about the historical.

Norse Heathen Beliefs

Unlike organized religions, Norse Heathenry is (and has always been) a decentralized belief system. This means it has no universal doctrines, no orthopraxy or orthodoxy, no holy texts, and no religious figurehead governing it. When you hear people say "There's no 'right' way to practice Heathenry," this is generally what they're referring to.

However, Norse Heathenry does have a distinct way of thinking about and viewing the world, and it's very different from what we usually see here in the US. If you're feeling stuck trying to figure out how to "do Heathenry," this would be why.

Animism

A staple of Norse Heathen epistemology is Animism.

Usually, Animism is defined as the belief that all things have a spirit or vital essence to them. But this is only one definition of many, and not the definition that applies here.

The Norse concept of Animism is "the awareness that all things are part of an interdependent ecosystem." This changes how we engage with everything around us. We understand that when we interact with the forces of this world, they will interact back on their own merit. Our relationship with all things is a social one, and we're not spectators in our environment, but active participants at all times.

This stands is stark contrast to the way the USAmericans typically view the world: As a landscape to either test or be tested by, with the forces of the world acting as the means through which this is done.

Additionally, there's no separation between the sacred and the profane.

Immanence

Faiths that focus on spiritual ascension, enlightenment, or attaining a good afterlife are known as transcendent faiths.

While Norse Heathenry has some transcendent elements, it's ultimately an immanent belief system, which means its focus is on living life for the sake of living, as opposed to living life to receive a good afterlife. A good afterlife is already guaranteed.

(Some Heathens may strive for a specific kind of afterlife, however, which do have certain conditions for accessing. But these are elective rather than required, and different as opposed to superior. It's all a matter of preference, at the end of the day.)

The Norse Gods

Many people are already familiar with the Norse gods, such as Thor, Odin, Loki, and Freyja, but not many people are familiar with how they operate as gods.

In Hellenism and Religio Romano, the gods are divine lords who preside over different domains of society. It's a reflection of what the ancient Greeks and Romans highly valued in their civilizations: Law and political/civic involvement.

In Norse Heathenry, however, gods don't operate in a lordship capacity. Instead, they're more like celebrities in that they're celebrated figures everyone knows about.

While they don't rule over one thing or another, the Norse gods often act as allegorical representations of worldly phenomena. Thor is to thunderstorms as Loki is to "random-chance odds." SIf is to wheat-fields as Odin is to the old wandering beggar. Frey and Freyja represent masculine and feminine principles, Skadi the driven snow and foggy winter, and so on. The gods exist as worldly experiences inasmuch as they exist as ideas.

Lastly, but importantly, the Norse gods don't distribute rewards or punishments in accordance with on one's actions or deeds, nor do they tell us how we ought to live our lives. The way they interact with us depends on our individual relationships with them, which can be just as diverse as the ones we have with each other.

Myths & Folklore

What people often refer to as the "Norse Myths" are stories found in two old Icelandic texts called the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda. These texts are special because they're the oldest and largest collection of tales featuring the Norse deities.

However, these texts represent just one region's period-specific interpretation of Norse folklore. They also only represent a fraction of the tales that still circulate within Nordic oral traditions, so not only are they not "canon" in the usual sense of the word, they're also just a sample.

This is all to say that Norse Heathenry doesn't have a hard body of mythology. It certainly has a defined one, but its definition is built from local legends, fairy tale humor, songs, customs, superstitions, and family folklore in addition to what survives on runestones and parchment. The corpus of Heathenry is very much a living, breathing thing.

Spirits

Norse Heathenry recognizes a wide variety of different beings, the likes of which can be found all around us. Some of these beings are like how we typically imagine spirits, in that they're incorporeal or otherwordly, while others are physical but may play tricks on you so you can't see them.

Like many things pertaining to Heathenry, there isn't a universally-shared classification system for Norse beings. But generally-speaking, beings are defined by their natures and the manner in which they relate to the rest of the world, rather than their morphology. For example, Trolls can take the appearance of rocks, trees, and also living people, but they can also be incorporeal spirits. This is all, however, the same kind of Troll, rather than being different types of trolls.

This is also why the lines between "spirit", "god," and "ancestor" can become very blurry at times. In English use, these are all typically labeled under the category "vaetter." Sometimes "wight" is used to refer to spirits of various types, but isn't often used to refer to gods.

Typically, the way people interact with spirits entirely depends on what kind of spirit they're dealing with, as well as their disposition towards human beings. Some spirits may enjoy a personal relationship, while others are best when left unbothered.

Values & Morality

Because Norse Heathenry has no doctrine and is immanent in nature, it has no fixed value system. Just like the stories were decentralized, so were the Norse people's values.

This is a feature as opposed to a flaw, and a fact as opposed to a theory. But it also has a habit of making Americans very uncomfortable.

For this reason, Heathens sometimes choose to construct their own value system to observe as part of their practice. But what those values are is up to each individual, and individual community, if applicable.

Anyone claiming Norse Heathenry has a universal value system is either new to Heathenry, or selling something.

Veneration

Heathen veneration is not just limited to gods, but also includes ancestors and even certain kinds of spirits, such as nisse/tomte.

Like most things in Norse Heathenry, what, who, and how a Heathen chooses to venerate is their choice to make. One popular observance across the globe is to craft altars, shrines, or similar sacred spaces for the entities one venerates. If a Heathen lives in a house that has a nisse (similar to a gnome), they might leave porridge (with butter) by the hearth for him, and he'll in turn bless the house with good luck and fortune.

Oftentimes, relationships with entities are very interpersonal. Heathenry's animistic and immanent nature means entities are rarely cold and distant, including the gods.

Misconceptions!

A list of misconceptions off the top of my head:

The practice known as 'Odinism' is an invention of the Germanic Volkish movement, which was the social precursor to Nazi Germany. This is also, unfortunately, the first kind of "heathenry" to be brought to the US, back in the 1970's. It was spread through the country via one of the fastest-moving networks at the time: The US prison system.

The Black Sun is a Nazi symbol, not a Heathen one.

No, Norse Heathenry is not a closed practice.

No, you don't have to have Scandinavian heritage to practice Norse Heathenry. Blood quantum is not a thing.

The rune alphabets are old, but the method of runecasting is new.

So is the use of magical bindrunes.

Bindrunes are also different from Galdrastafir. The latter is actually a form of Jewish-Christian-Norse syncretism and needs to be taught orally since it's a mystery tradition. You can still slap the Helm of Awe on things and look cool about it though.

Norse Heathenry is not the same as being a viking, and Norse Heathens are not vikings. However, some Heathens partake in viking reenactment as an extension of their practice.

There's no good or bad gods in Norse Heathenry. All the gods are capable of great good and great bad, just like people. They're fallible, and that's what makes them relatable.

Odin and Loki aren't at odds with one another.

You don't need to wait for a god to pick you to start venerating them.

If you're interested in learning more about any of these in-depth, check out the website I've built on Norse Heathenry, located in my pinned post!

#norse heathenry #norse paganism #asatru #heathenism #norse polytheism #heathenry

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aloeverawrites · 9 months

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I've been seeing this idea that veganism isn't accessible to people with disabilities or who are lower income and I want to say something.

It really depends on how you define veganism.

If you define it as a diet then I get how it would be really difficult or inassible for some people.

But if you see it as the ideology then everyone who wants to be a vegan, can be.

"Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals."

We all have a limit on how vegan we can be, what we can possibly do. Most vegans are still getting life-saving medication that was tested on animals, or driving cars with leather seats. And if you're disabled or lower income you have extra limits that other people don't have.

But if you're do everything "practicable and possible" for you to avoid animal exploitation, you're practicing veganism. Even if you have severe dietary restrictions, you can still avoid buying leather, wool and most animal tested products. When you have a choice, choice being the important word here.

So I just want to say, don't count yourself out or feel like there isn't a place for you in veganism, there is. This is an ideology that everyone can and should have and you're absolutely welcome to it.

#disability #actually autistic #animal rights #vegan for the animals #veganism

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amerricanartwork · 1 month

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hey, just wanted to say you’re a huge inspo for me and i adore your work! your arts so nostalgic and comforting for me, reminds me so much of older animated movies and cartoons… if someone were to make an animated rain world cartoon i would immediately think you as the perfect fit for it tbh

Awww, thank you so much! you don't know how happy I was to read this!

Seriously, it's so good to hear that my art reminds you of old animated content! I take tons of inspiration from older films — particularly the first set of Disney's feature-length films — in everything from the concept art and sketches to model sheets and production art, to their methods of storytelling and the themes and messages they express. It's not just fun and entertaining, but oftentimes masterfully beautiful in ways that I feel few artists have captured since. I've said this before, but I do hope to work on published animated stories someday, and every time I hear feedback like this it makes me feel as though that dream of making art just as beautiful is actually coming into reach more and more!

And, funny you mention an "animated rain world cartoon", because I don't just take inspiration from these older works, but I actually have gotten in the habit of imagining my ideas in similar ways! I love that slightly exaggerated, or even cliche expressiveness of cartoon characters and love depicting the ones I draw like that too, I enjoy drawing in simple comic-esque format as well as paintings to better sell that cartoon vibe, most of my current voice headcanons for the RW cast are derived from cartoon characters, and in general I tend to imagine scenes as if they're actually animated and playing out on a screen.

So what I'm trying to say is that this is far from the first time I've imagined hypothetical animated Rain World cartoons, so that's probably another reason why my art comes off that way. And if anyone's thinking about making legitimate RW cartoons, I certainly would love to be a part of one should I get the chance, at least as a concept artist!

#inbox #ask #inspiration #art #rain world #quetzalli answers #oc: quetzalli

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gallusrostromegalus · 2 years

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Do individual vampires have favorite blood types? Does it vary across the different types of vampires?

Some vampires will CLAIM they have a preferred blood type but bland taste tests reveal that no known strain of vampirism can cause the afflicted person to be able to taste the difference in blood types.

What many types of vampires CAN taste is:

Differences in acidity and dissolved oxygen. Most vampires have a marked preference for arterial blood because venous blood is loaded with cellular waste products, on their way to the liver.

The presence of lactic acid and cortisone. Turns out, fear makes blood taste AWFUL. Especially if someone was running right before they were tapped. Horniness, on the other hand, lowers stress levels and cuts the acidity significantly.

Dietary differences. Vegans humans and heribvorous animals tend to have the best-tasting blood. People and animals who eat a lot of red meat can have satisfyingly iron-rich but bitter blood, and for some reason people who consume a lot of dairy taste rancid. Diabetic people have notably sweet blood, but it's so sweet it tends to nauseate rather than entice.

Dissolved fat and cholesterol: Most vampires can taste cholesterol and agree that it tastes, well. like fat. They are sharply divided on whether that is a good thing, with some arguing that it makes blood 'smooth and buttery' and others saying it tastes like 'drinking whipping cream'

That said, there's huge differences between the strains of vampirism in regards to if they need human blood specifically, or if animal blood is fine, if they can contract infections from feeding, how often they need to feed, how much they need, if they have specific nutrition requirements that can be derived from non-blood sources, if theiy have fangs, what those fangs are shaped like and if it's safe for them to bite a partner at all (There is very much an upper limit on "Bigger is Better". You know, like dicks!), if they need to feed from a live host or if bagged blood will work, and of course, how contagious their strain of vampirism is.

Dr. Integra Van Hellsing is one of the world's foremost researchers into the causes and effects of Vampirism, and runs a free clinic in Los Osaka, the current outbreak hub of the devastating strain known as "Sunnydale Syndrome".

#TPOFATGIF #The Power Of Friendship (And This Gun I Found!)#Yugioh #Yugioh fanfic

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grox-empire · 7 months

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A quick, Non-exhaustive Spec Bio post about Grox

I haven't finished their fully species sheet yet, But I figured I would share some info on Daybreak's Grox based on bits and pieces I have drawn overtime!!

The Grox are a species of sophont aliens who appear within the Daybreak universe, My own original hard sci-fi project derived heavily from the game Spore, In which the Grox originally come from. This is simply my own take on them for use in my own project, Although inspiration is more than welcome!!

They have colonized almost the entire area around the Galactic Core. They would be roughly a type II civilization on the kardshev scale.

In spite of being one of the most advanced species within the galaxy, Grox are rather physically frail, Being only around 3-4 feet tall on average. Although the individual here lacks them, Nearly every grox has some form of cybernetic modification. This is for a variety of reasons, Mainly due to the fact Grox rely on cloning for reproduction and the fact that they need them in order to survive extreme environments. They have reached a point of no return when it comes to technological advancement, And a cyberneticless grox simply cannot survive.

The planets they do best on are barren, highly radioactive and hot. They will often terraform colonized planets to meet these conditions.

Grox have a unique tooth configuration, Similar to earth carnivorans, With the addition of a pair of incisors designed for cutting into prey. However, Grox in the modern day subsist almost entirely off of radiation. If there isn't enough radiation available, A grox will go back to needing to eat food. They are Hypercarnivores, Mostly eating meat but supplementing their diet with plant matter as well.

Near their eye is a special radiosensory organ, Capable of sensing certain types of radiation similar to the heat pits on various earth animals.

Their eyes are very large and sensitive, Having color vision fairly similar to humans with slightly better sensitivity to UV. Their pupils have a very wide range of motion, Being able to go from very large, to slits, to pinpricks.

Their blood and flesh are purple.

Grox have three fingers and two toes, Each with retractable claws. The soles of their paws are padded.

Epsilon is an example of a fairly typical Grox created from stock fodder soldier DNA, Not really deviating too far from the base aside from having an overall darker fur color, A longer mane, A distinct dorsal stripe marking and an overall slimmer build.

The cybernetics being primarily on the left side of his body are a product of clone rot.

I think i'll leave the post off here for now, But please feel free to send asks!! I'll make more posts about Grox culture and biology eventually, And potentially some for the Other sophonts within the daybreak universe as well!

#my art #spore #spore 2008 #spec evo #spec bio #speculative biology #xenobiology #alien #aliens #grox #grox spore #spore grox #spec zoo #speculative zoology

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saint-ambrosef · 2 months

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PSA: the vast majority of commercial dog food is terrible for your dog, and you cannot feed a dog a "vegan" (or vegetarian) diet.

Dogs are what is called facultative carnivores, meaning they can and will eat food that is not part of their typical, ideal diet if circumstances call for it. This is why they are often called omnivores (the line between facultative carnivores and omnivores is debated). Comparatively, obligate carnivores, like cats, cannot process non-carnivorous food at all.

This means that although the primary and default diet of domesticated dogs is other animals, dogs' digestive systems are capable of digesting other food sources like plants if a carnivorous option is not available: in other words, if they're hungry enough, they can "get by" on less ideal food sources.

Although dogs' systems can tolerate some plant material in their diet, they will not thrive on a long-term diet high in carbohydrates. This is because while dogs' pancreases do produce amylase (the enzyme that breaks down carbs), it's not nearly as much as true omnivores like humans, and can even vary quite a bit from dog-to-dog. They also don't produce cellulase at all. So a diet high in plant material for too long can be hard on their systems and lead to long-term serious health affects that will shorten their lifespan, such as early organ failure and heart disease - yes, even if they "seem great" on the day-to-day.

Ideally, a dog's diet should not be more than 15% plant material. However, the vast majority of commercial dog food is only 30% animal-derived ingredients, because 30% is the industry required minimum in order to be commercially sold. Even a lot of brands that boast about having "high animal protein" are often only hitting the 60% benchmark. Why? Because plant foods like legumes, sweet potatoes, and grains are a much, much cheaper way to "bulk up" the dog food than using 85-95% animal products. And then they artificially add in a ton of vitamins and nutrients to make them "nutritionally complete" (because plant nutrients are less bioavailable to carnivores), whereas a dog would easily get them from a diet with correctly proportioned inclusions of organs and bones.

Don't even get me started on ""vegan"" dog foods. A diet that is 100% plant based is straight up animal cruelty for a facultative carnivore like dogs and you cannot change my mind. You're literally taking years off your pet's lifespan in the name of your ideology. If you want a pet you can feed a completely plant-based diet without consequence, get a rabbit.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as an easy or cheap pet, and dogs aren't an exception. I understand that feeding a dog a proper diet is an expensive venture. The best dog food you can buy at the pet store will still be below the ideal, and it will cost $$$. Just do the best you can for your circumstances. Even occasionally swapping commercial food for a little raw animal supplementation can help. Avoid kibble with legumes or potatoes.

And if you're thinking of getting a dog... I mean this gently, but you need to seriously consider whether you can actually afford to feed them. Don't get pets unless you can afford all the care they require.

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mindblowingscience · 6 months

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Scientists at UNSW Sydney have created a new material that could change the way human tissue can be grown in the lab and used in medical procedures. The new material belongs to a family of substances called hydrogels, the essence of life's "squishy" substances found in all living things, such as cartilage in animals and in plants like seaweed. The properties of hydrogels make them very useful in biomedical research because they can mimic human tissue, allowing cells to grow in a laboratory. There are also human-made hydrogels that are used in a broad range of commodity products ranging from food and cosmetics to contact lenses and absorbent materials, and more recently in medical research to seal wounds and replace damaged tissue. While they might function adequately as space fillers that encourage tissue growth, synthetic hydrogels fall short in recreating the complex properties of real human tissue. But in a research paper published in Nature Communications, scientists from UNSW describe how a new lab-made hydrogel behaves like natural tissue, with a number of surprising qualities that have implications for medical, food and manufacturing technology.

#science #stem #chemistry #biochemistry #materials science #medicine #hydrogel

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video-killer · 5 months

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On Helluva Boss and crude humor.

Anyone who has watched Hazbin and Helluva can tell you that the shows are no stranger to foul language and sexual innuendo in their humor. This, of course, is a valid writing style: just look at South Park or It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. However, both these more professional shows do not solely rely on sex and crass vocabulary to get a laugh out of the viewer. South Park features lengthy social satire and absurd, over-the-top situations which escalate from the most seemingly inconsequential of events, while Always Sunny relies on the dark comedy and absurdity derived from it's cast being reprehensible people and, once again, clever satire.

Helluva Boss and Hazbin, however, largely lack these, and jokes not centered around fornication, genitalia, or uttering profanity are relatively few and far between. Hazbin is significantly better with this, however, as it does have quite a few quality gags that don't rely on this, some noteworthy ones being Sir Pentious' expression of pure rage and matchingly over-the-top animation coupled with simplified doodle-like stills of Angel Dust and Cherri Bomb, Charlie shutting the door in Alastor's face, and the door of the hotel being blown off before Alastor can finish his reprise.

The bigger culprit of this uncreative crass humor is Helluva Boss, which, interestingly enough, is more recent and boasts its creator's personal writing skills more prominently.

An example of this is how Helluva Boss's favorite gag seems to be putting replica genitalia in unusual places, as they have used the joke at least four times as of episode 2-7. The issue here is not the joke itself but the fact that they have used it or a variant of it four times expecting a laugh, and that none of these have a set up or pay off; it's simply showing the audience brightly colored phallic images and expecting a laugh.

This mirrors the spoken jokes: the show simply has characters casually yell profanity or make sexual references and calls it comedy. Chaz's song, Stolas making an obnoxious number of sex jokes whilst being tortured, and Mammon doing nothing but curse throughout his episode all are examples of these non-jokes. And with each, there's either no setup to pay off in the first place, or the subversion element of the payoff falls apart quickly as the joke is repeated again... and again... and again.

And as such, the issue is not the foul language or crass humor in and of itself. It's the lack of an actual joke structure and overuse of similar gags, marks of poor writing and implicators of a lack of ideas. And really, that is the root of the majority of Helluva Boss's issues: lazy writing. And the poorly constructed jokes aren't the only area plagued by it. The main couple's lack of arc, the lack of characters growing and changing, the lack of payoffs, the lack of culpability for Stolas, the lack of complexity in villain motivation. All of these empty voids all are the products of lazy writing.

The writers want payoff without setup. And as they want people to laugh at their jokes without putting in the effort to build the framework, they also want people to feel sympathy for their main characters without giving them any real reason to.

And really, as of now, that's the biggest potential threat to the quality of Helluva and by proxy Hazbin: the creator wanting to skip past any setup and steamroll the plot to attain a desired payoff, sacrificing quality and complexity due to impotence and laziness.

The flaw of the comedy lies in the writing, and the flaw of the writing lies in indolence.

#helluva boss critical #hazbin hotel critical #hazbin critical #vivziepop critical #writing criticism

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