#government and politics are literally connected to everything

[bonafidehero]

Just thinking about my wealthy, pseudo politician uncle and aunt who, directly after my mothers death, unfriended me on facebook because I didn’t vote for his reelection in a state I didn’t even live in anymore, because of some old beef they had with my, poor, unemployed, disabled mother, that they had never treated kindly and thought was a disgrace and embarrassment to their perfect image, all while not reaching out or sending any condolences to her one (1) child who had officially lost both her parents before the age of 30. :)

#this is what happens when i check facebook #i am reminded how horrible most my family is #they're still friends with everyone else #all my aunts and uncles #all the cousins #even an old friend of mine who has no connection to my family #and i know hes only friends with my uncle because he supported him politically #its fine #everything's fine #im not bitter #🥴😬 #also i say pseudo politician because it was for sheriff and like... not really a political position #but its a government position with power #and my home state makes it really political #and they literally acted like they were way more important than they were #high on power ya know #like i actually think he didn't do bad at his position but like... #get over yourself #this is why i only really talk to my dads side of the family nowadays #they give love unconditionally #you know like families should

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Hi! Big fan :) You're an environmental lecturer, right? I recently got into a debate with someone about rewilding in the UK, and the clash with farmers and agriculture. To me, this is a no-brainer - I absolutely do feel for farmers losing their livelihoods, and I think there needs to be a system to help them transition to something else, but also, the planet is dying. But you explain things well, so I wondered if you have thoughts? Particularly on the Welsh side of things. Thank you in advance!

Hah. I literally have a lecture on this. Or, well, a chunk of a lecture, anyway; so yes! I have thoughts. I'll use those notes, and stick a big reference at the end in case you want to read more

I'll talk about this specifically from the Welsh perspective, okay so:

The rewilding project in Wales is the Cambrian Wildwood, launched in 2004ish by a guy who bought an abandoned farm in the northern end of Mid Wales with the express intention of rewilding it. The aim is to convert some 7000 acres, and the initial mission statement said they'd reintroduce wolves and lynx. That's the project I'm going to talk about, because it's a great case study for how to spectacularly fuck something up (and eventually realise you've spectacularly fucked up, and do something about it.)

These are the Cambrian Mountains:

When looking at that, there are two competing viewpoints that are relevant here:

The Cambrians are ecologically depleted. Their biodiversity has crashed since the Second World War, when modern farming methods were introduced. Environmentally, there is a perception of emptiness and degradation.

The landscape is a glorious one that has been shaped by the human actions taken on it for generations, as we are a shepherding culture – culture and land are inextricably intertwined.

That's a big fundamental difference! Two people can look at that same photo, and see something diametrically opposed. But there's more lying on it, so you also need to understand the socio-political background.

Socio-Political Background

(I know! Headings! So professional)

A lot of rewilding – Cambrian Wildwood included – is taking place in areas where farming is declining for various political/socio-economic reasons, so this can be ENTIRELY FAIRLY seen as yet another threat. This goes hand in hand with rural migration and community decline, too.

In Wales, we’re mostly rural, and characterised by extensive upland livestock farming (sheep in particular). Most farms are small to medium family-run setups. ON TOP OF THAT, the vast majority of Welsh farmers are Welsh-speaking, and the right to operate a farm the ‘traditional’ way without UK government oversight is seen by Welsh Nationalists as an important post-colonial act.

Many of them didn’t even like the National Parks being set up, as they were seen as an English outsider imposition that ignored the working nature and cultural history of the land. Remember: the farmed uplands are often seen as a heartland of Welsh identity, and those have historically been intentionally destroyed by UK central government land management decisions (e.g. Tryweryn, Elan, Claerwen, etc)

“Over the past half century we have witnessed the arrival of countless environmental fundamentalists… seemingly oblivious to the fact that their new-found paradise is already occupied by people whose connection with the land is deep rooted, dates back thousands of years, and is embedded in their language and culture.” (Nick Fenwick [Farmers’ Union of Wales] 2013)

SO IT’S CULTURALLY DICEY

(And in my opinion an incredibly stupid idea to go and give it a primarily English name with a Welsh translation as an afterthought but that is Elanor’s Opinion and not Scientific Fact)

(But fr fr if you ever have to get involved in these sorts of projects you will go a long way if you have the basic respect of learning the Welsh names and pronouncing them right rather than lazily expecting everything to be in English sorry sorry I digress)

From the Cambrian Wildwood’s Mission Statement on their website, their objective is:

“To rewild or restore land to a wilder state to create a functioning ecosystem where natural processes dominate by carrying out habitat restoration, removing domestic livestock, and introducing missing native species as far as feasible.”

Can you see the controversial bit of the statement

Can you see the bit where they directly say they want to remove domestic livestock

Jesus Christ

Cultural Differences

AND THEN HERE'S THE BIGGER PROBLEM

‘Culture’ in Welsh is diwylliant – literally, a ‘lack of wildness’. There is no direct translation into Welsh for the term ‘rewilding’ – the closest you can get is anialwch or diffeithwch, which mean ‘wilderness’ in the sense of ‘desert’ or ‘wasteland’. So right off the bat, if you tell a Welsh-speaking farmer that you want to rewild the place, what they hear is "We want to make it dangerous and empty and degraded."

A related concept is cynefin - knowing one’s ‘patch’ and the feeling of belonging associated. The term has its roots as a description of the way grazing animals know their area of mountain land, but it is also used to describe how people come to form an intimate experiential knowledge of place - and specifically, a Welsh farmer's cultural attitude.

Basically, Welsh literature and oral traditions speak of a relationship with the land, not a separation and longing for an untouched wilderness. Farmers feel this especially keenly. Culturally, this is a big part of why they do it – they’re rooted to the land, and therefore to their identities.

“Interviewees conveyed this by referring to areas proposed for rewilding as being comprised of “a quilt of cynefinoedd: interwoven stories, the layered and collective place-making of families and individuals over-generations, co-constituted with the physical landscape” (Wynne-Jones, Holmes and Strouts, 2018)

So, to them, rewilding is erasing and disregarding these stories. To them, this is not just a land-use change, but the latest colonial attack. They've known the family who lived on that farm for generations - every birth, marriage, death, joy, triumph, loss, everything. You are saying that you are going to strip that family, all those stories, all those people out of that land, to be forgotten.

…

However. There is a counterpoint to this.

Many farmers taking this view have therefore identified themselves as the only “truly Welsh” people in the debate, accusing environmentalists as being outsiders. The problem with this being, most of the environmentalists involved with the project are also Welsh; so who the fuck are they to say who is or is not Truly Welsh? It's what we on the internet would recognise as gatekeeping, with a big side order of No True Scotsman fallacy.

Also this quote sums it up well:

“Sheep farming in this country goes back a few hundred years. I think if you go deep enough into our culture and ancestry, we have a really deep native relationship with wild forest areas and with the wild animals that are native to this country…I just don’t agree that sheep farming is really part of our traditional culture.” (WWLF Interview [15] 2016) (Wynne-Jones, Holmes and Strouts, 2018)

This is also a fair point. It is true that upland sheep farming, the way we now practice it, is only a few hundred years old, and at the current intensity only a few decades (since WW2).

On top of which, there has been plenty of exploration over the years of farmers as being a government-subsidised landed gentry, which I won't go into here, but it also contains some fair points.

In truth, all of it and none of it is true. It’s far more complex and nuanced than either side might want to believe.

Solutions So Far

This is an ongoing project and they're still learning and changing new things and stuff, but a big thing they did was get someone in to basically be a mediator and listen to both sides, because Jesus, those sides were not listening to each other.

But to date:

They actually worked with a first-language Welsh speaker (WHY DID THEY NOT DO THIS FIRST I'm sorry I'm fine). Originally the Welsh translation of the project was Tir Gwyllt – wild land. But given that Welsh connotations with gwyllt are something out of control or dangerous, Coetir Anian has been chosen – anian refers to a sense of natural order and creation, a sense of health and vitality. Similarly, ‘rewilding’ is being translated as ‘di-ddofi’ – ‘de-taming’. This acknowledges the labour and culture taken to tame it, and just suggests an avenue for discussing some relaxation of farming practice in appropriate locations rather than, you know, releasing packs of wolves directly into sheep pens

In online materials and in community engagement events where traditional storytellers and musicians have performed to celebrate the Wildwood, the trustees have drawn heavily from Welsh myth in the form of the Mabinogion. Enormous amounts of the Mab lovingly and respectfully feature wild woods and wild animals. The emphasis is therefore on how wilderness is also part of Welsh identity – and arguably a much older part, going back to the Celts. (This is clever, in my view, but something to approach with care - it's rarely a good idea to play the game of "What's the most Welsh". But so far it's been done sensitively)

Land purchased for the project has so far been wholly limited to that available in the public domain. The main site, Bwlch Corog, was empty and unfarmed for six years before purchase, which has been stressed in all media interviews and releases; this is important, because farmers do have a sense of "Productive land is being stolen by environmentalists".

Large predator reintroductions have largely been abandoned. Lynx and wolves are no longer on the agenda. It’s possible they’ll be included in the future, but it is acknowledged as currently impractical (both from clashes with farmers and lack of habitat).

Instead, they’ve supported smaller species reintroductions, such as the Vincent Wildlife Trust’s pine marten translocations, and some proposed red squirrel ones.

Bwlch Corog is to be managed as an experimental plot that farmers are encouraged to engage with.

Assessing the potential for new income streams (from improved tourism and educational activities) rather than just the ecological benefits – this has become central to the project, and the emphasis is on how this might benefit farming communities and keep them together. This has been huge, and has also been successful in rewilding schemes in Europe.

Tensions are a lot lower now than they were ten years ago, but ultimately the problem was a bunch of outsiders came in and decided they knew best without listening to anyone else's point of view, and that meant both sides really dug their heels in. Much better now.

Ultimately... yes, I am in favour of rewilding, in a general sense. But I think it needs to go hand in hand with supplying farmers with the necessary subsidies to transition back to more traditional and sustainable farming methods, and the two elements run side by side. You can't do one without the other, not if you want them to succeed. The Pontbren Project is a great case study for how a farmer-led scheme can successfully aid them economically while also improving environmental outcomes, and we need to learn and incorporate more lessons from it when discussing this kind of landscape-level management.

Also, with land management in general, I think you're a fucking idiot and dangerously arrogant if you think you can get anything done without all stakeholders being on board. And potentially wandering down the ecofascism path, circumstances dependent.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Source:

Wynne-Jones, S, Holmes, G & Strouts, G (2018), 'Abandoning or Reimagining a Cultural Heartland? Understanding and Responding to Rewilding Conflicts in Wales - the case of the Cambrian Wildwood.' Environmental Values, vol. 27, no. 4.

#asks #environment! #long post

[qqueenofhades]

The thing that confuses me about the "don't vote" left (not the "I don't want to vote", I'm talking explicitly the "don't vote" left. I don't agree with the "I don't want to vote" left either but I can understand their logic) is they lose me at the final step of the logic. I've tried to connect the logic here, even if I don't agree with a political position I do try to understand where people are coming from (empathy for someones situation is not the same as cosigning it), but I just can't connect the dots here in a way that isn't deeply cruel. Does United States politics prioritize the lives of those in the US (and often white) over those in the Global South? Yes, it's a fucking atrocity. We should continue to make noise about it, cus Biden has used less drones and that shows progress, even if it's not enough. The part where I lose the plot is where the conclusion to this injustice is to let even more people die? Cus that's kinda how I see the idea of not voting: I can pick between shit and more shit, and at the end of the day, I'm picking whoever allows the most people to make it to the next day. Given Trumps stance on everything but specifically climate change, I feel like Biden is pretty significant harm reduction.

I don't think both things can't be true: that every life lost is a travesty we should not forget AND the more people we can save is worth fighting for.

The thing is, I have seen nothing among the "don't vote" far left (and I am talking here specifically about the people who both loudly announce their intention not to vote and try to convince others to do the same) to convince me that they actually care about harm reduction or stopping genocide. They only care about what makes them look the most Correct and/or superior to the Democrats. They yelled bloody murder about Obama using drones, they went dead quiet about Trump using them even more (even when he nearly started WWIII by assassinating the Iranian general Soleimani with one), and then said nothing at all when Biden reduced the drone program to almost nothing and withdrew the US from a failed war in Afghanistan it had long ago lost. Now they will yell all day about Israel/Hamas (something that Biden did not start and has had no direct military role in responding to) but they don't care about Russian genocide of Ukraine and Syria, Chinese threats to invade Taiwan, etc, because those governments are "anti-western/anti-American" and therefore should be defended. Their opposition to human suffering is extremely conditional and rests on whether they can look good out of it, and they never interrogate the hypocrisies of their own ideology.

Likewise: every country in the world prizes its own citizens above those of other countries. It's just a basic fact. Yes, the US has a grim history of intervening in other countries and causing untold civilian damage (especially during the Cold War and then in post-9/11 War on Terrorism). Yes, that legacy is complex and needs to be acknowledged. But literally none of that will be fixed, not to mention all the vulnerable people in America itself who will be punished, by Trump getting into power again. Biden is not just a grudging "lesser evil," but has done a lot of truly good and helpful things, regardless of the Online Leftists' constant lies, misinformation, and misrepresentation. If you spend all your time announcing what a champion you are for non-American marginalised people and/or those undergoing terrible suffering, and then deliberately and knowingly adhere to a course of action that will increase that suffering tenfold not only for those people but your own neighbors, friends, and family, then no, I don't believe you are a brave champion of social justice. You just want to know what categories of people you can gleefully and righteously punish and make to suffer for not believing the same things as you, that makes you just as dangerous as the right-wing fascists, and I can and will call out your ass accordingly.

#anonymous #ask #politics for ts

[determinate-negation]

im not jewish myself so i could be very wrong, but the current situation in palestine and gaza and israel seems like itll be bad for jewish people and antisemitism the world over. it seems like a lot of antisemites could use the world's response to israel as an excuse for antisemitism/"proof" that jews control the world or something. furthermore, israel calling anti-israel/anti-zionism stuff antisemetic i think could confuse well meaning but ignorant people on what is or isnt antisemetic. also, it seems that some people (mainly tumblr bloggers cause thats the only social media site i use (unless youtube is social media)) are using it as an excuse to be antisemitic while pretending to be propalestine.

wanted to hear your thoughts on it cause afaik your jewish and im like 90 percent sure youve talked about something like this before, if you dont mind.

ive been making and reblogging a few posts about this that generally sum up what i think because yeah

this is just actually so awful. we do not need to ontologically define our safety and identity and very existence in relation to a genocidal ethno nationalist state that is being propped up by the forces of american imperialism. it is so morally wrong and were choosing to side with an oppressor that doesnt actually have any commitment to us and supports israel for political economic and strategic reasons, rather than siding with oppressed people. also israel and pro israel organizations puts a lot of effort into redefining criticism of israel as antisemitism, and you can see reflected in everything the ADL puts out (more info here) and also the IRHA working definition of antisemitism that has been critiqued for this. i havent seen any antisemitism on tumblr in particular, but i think thats just bc of who i follow. in general the the radical right always is quick to capitalize off of how tightly controlled news on israel is and the left needs to have the real analysis. i also have seen instances of increased antisemitic attacks, in tunisia, france, and germany, and its really terrible but im glad at least to see a lot of organizations and popular pro palestine people denounce it and tell people that jews arent equivalent with zionists and this isnt a religious conflict, SOMETHING THAT ISRAEL IS ESSENTIALLY ARGUING THE OPPOSITE OF by the way. the us government and us media's relationship with israel is literally dangerous to us. but also, israeli politicians have connections to european neo nazis and shit. they benefit from jews in the diaspora feeling unsafe and being persecuted because it means people are more likely to settle in israel

[somenerdfromwhatever]

Nex didn't deserve to die.

Warning: This is a massive rant that deals with heavy topics. It's long, it's blunt, but I want to share this because quite frankly, it's sickening and I want to use my platform for good.

On February 19th 2024, I heard something that really drove me and others up a wall:

Nex was brutally murdered by 3 female bullies in their school all because they are human. With no help from their own school system to save them, it's no surprise why they deserve the criticism for their inaction.

Now why did I say, because "they are human" instead of "they are non-binary"? I'm not denying they are non-binary, as a non-binary myself it is disturbing to hear such awful news. I am not ignoring this critical information. They are valid.

Truth is, I want to highlight their HUMANITY because the LGBT community are humans like you.

I never met Nex personally, but I feel a deep connection with them as a fellow non-binary person. I know what it's like to face bullying, harassment, and discrimination for being who I am. Even before I came out as non-binary, growing up with autism, I know the pain. Middle School was a pain for me because of it, it led me to hate myself. I know what it's like to live in fear and pain, to struggle with self-acceptance and self-love. I'm happy that their family accepted them for who they are and I feel sorry for their loss as well. This shouldn't have happened.

The more I think about this, the worse it gets. If Nex was not non-binary, if they were just another student that day, how would the public react? Everyone would be outraged and demand justice! But because Nex was non-binary, I have seen a lot of people, a lot of DISGUSTING people, say that they deserved it and that they were NOT HUMAN. In fact, that is why I hooked y'all's attention by saying that they are murdered because "they are human". I want to make this clear: Regardless of gender identity, Nex's inherent humanity is first and foremost.

As I see those countless comments pile up minute after minute, hour after hour... all I can mutter is "why?"

How can anyone promote and celebrate a death of another human being for just being themselves? How can anyone love to deny the humanity of others because they expressed their souls for who they are? How can anyone celebrate deaths of others who love the same gender, who become trans, or non-binary? Even after everything is set and stone, literally how?

And if these "people" who hate them do believe in some god or religion, why would they be hypocrites to their own god? Didn't their god say "Love thy neighbor", and "Don't bear false witness"? How can they claim to follow their faith, when they violate its most basic principles? I have a dad who practices religion sometimes but not a lot, I told him about this and the hypocritical nature of some of these people. The best way he worded it is this: "they can't claim to love god if they bastardize their teachings. God will roll their eyes and send them straight to hell."

Is this what humanity is now? Celebrating the death of innocents who their "crime" is living their best life?

There is no political two-sided debate on this issue. In fact, THERE NEVER WAS.

We are human, just like everyone else. We are human, and we matter.

And if I can for a moment, I notice a common theme here when it comes to these horrendous acts:

For a lot of these people that hate the LGBT community but love freedoms like free speech, it is pretty telling how much these people care about themselves and not practicing what the constitution preaches. It's hilarious yet baffling. Remember the book bans? They love to say it's to protect the kids but their ulterior motives prove otherwise. They targeted government public libraries all across the country claiming that books who celebrate being different are a "cancer". It wouldn't be surprising if they cheered for KOSA, a sweeping censorship law masquerading as child protection, but in reality, aimed at tightening control over Americans like myself to limit our expression. They want to censor and silence our stories, our voices, our experiences. They want to erase and deny our existence, our diversity, our humanity. They want to ban books that feature stories that say it's ok to be different. They want to forbid us from wearing clothes that express our gender identity or challenge gender stereotypes, even if they are harmless and comfortable. They are afraid of "drag", which is just fabric and makeup, which is hilarious how they managed to get so worked up on that.

Even more hilarious is the fact that they "claim" to hate China, Russia, and other authoritarian countries for their censorship, but they are damn eager to emulate it here in the "land of the free". Passing laws that blatantly violate our rights and our constitution every day. How do they not see the irony? It's pretty god damn telling right? Almost as if their version of "freedom" is not free for the people, but free for themselves. Freedom of expression is not selective, it is universal. If you respect the right of others to have different political views, you should also respect the right of others to have different identities.

"Land of the free" am I right? By expressing these statements, you really are no different from the countries you claim to hate.

This world is a cruel place, and the people that are cruel are the most pathetic people of all. Especially those that:

Be afraid of people using rooms with toilets all because they are different.

Be hateful and violent towards people who are different from them.

Be ignorant and arrogant about the diversity and complexity of human nature.

Be offended over people wearing fabric and clothing that is different from the norm that promotes their expression.

I’m not taking this post down. Say what you want on what I think, but we tried explaining this to you many times, the facts are all there clear as day and clear as crystal.

We are human.

Rest in Peace Nex. May justice come to those that wronged you.

#nex benedict #lgbt pride #lgbtq #lgbt #lgbtq community #lgbtqia #queer #queer community #queer pride #nonbinary #genderfluid #enby #genderqueer #trans #gnc #transgender #transfem #trans pride #trans woman #trans femme #trans man #justice for nex benedict #justice for nex

[a-doll-that-got-lost]

This is a post about Sylvester Lambsbridge from Web Serial Twig by Wildbow. He's Plural Btw.

(Warning: Major Spoilers for LITERALLY ALL of Twig. I can't talk about this without covering the entire story and talking very explicitly about the ending.) This is really a take I haven't seen anyone make about him ever before I don't think (not that many people are out here making takes about Sy, but) so here I am to loudly shout to twigblr that Sylvester Lambsbridge is plural and he makes factives of all the people important to him and he's a fucked up little freak about it. Now obviously Wildbow didn't write him to be plural. I think if he'd *tried* to write Sy that way he would've done a dogshit bad awful job, because he's Wildbow. That said, Sy's hallucinations of the Lambs (and later a number of other notable figures) that he conjures, who act with varying degrees of independence (especially later on in the story as he gets more unstable), match pretty closely with a lot of my experiences with being plural. The ways that each of his alters are interconnected and how they're tied into deep-rooted concepts (Duncan is Politics and Social Engineering, the Infante representing Power, etc) matches a lot with how things are structured with us. Also a lot of him is tied up in his fucked up relationships! Sylvester cultivates the people around him into the shapes that best please him. He does this because he is a very very traumatized, scared individual who was sold to or seized by the government and made into a child assassin when he was a toddler. They inject his brain full of neuroplasticity drugs which cause excruciating agony on the regular. This has, naturally, leads to him having an somewhat skewed worldview from someone from a more reasonable world. He views people as either Threats or Allies, and neither can be trusted fully, ever. Both can be manipulated, though for different purposes. For the Lambs of course he'd say that he was trying to help them thrive, help them get everything they want (and genuinely he does). But he still manipulates them actively, willingly, consciously, and deliberately. This means that fundamentally, no one can ever trust him (except Jessie but this post is long enough without getting into their relationship) and so he can't get the kind of human connection that he craves. This is where his alters supplement that human need for connection. All of Sy's alters are factives of real people (and monsters), both allies and enemies. The most powerful and concrete of them are the Lambs of course, as they're the closest thing he has to people he can trust and be vulnerable with. His alters serve to help him understand and predict them, since they will never trust him and open up to him in the way he craves (because A) he's Sy and B) they're all also sooooooooooooooo fucked up in their own ways :3). Sy's deteriorating memory also fits really really well through this lens because, well, dissociative amnesia! During the time that he was on his own and his mental state got worse and worse, more and more alters started forming. He starts losing more and more memories. This is just kinda stuff that can happen when you go through a big period of trauma and you're plural. It really just Fits. And the ending of Twig, well. The alter that was Sylvester is gone. Now the host is Lord Simon. Lord Simon is a somewhat more integrated person; a lot of the crowds and voices that built up alongside Sylvester got woven in. Fusion of alters is also a thing that happens, especially during big crises. A major headspace restructuring is also not particularly weird! This man is literally just part of a system. I think I've kind of finished what I was trying to say. No clue if this is coherent or if the people will care to read it, but here it is! Maybe I'll post more Twig thoughts in the future, who knows :3

#twig web serial #twig wildbow #wildbow #twigblr #plurality #plural system

[snarky-art]

im sorry but where does the whole solarian/lunarian thing come from? i see a lot of people put that in their rewrites but i have no recollection of that in the show? is it from the comics or something?? im admittedly not the biggest fan of it but i straight up dont know where it came from

I actually dunno tbh

I just think a lot of us don’t like empires and see the fact that there’s a separation in how Radius and Luna’s positions are talked about and ran with it

For me personally (this could be how others view it too, I just don’t know because I haven’t asked anyone else really), I also know Stella is a huge daddy’s girl in the show and has a stronger connection to him and by proxy her sun stuff, and given the way the show phased out her moon powers and in the Nick rewrite, completely erased them, I took that and ran with it to mean there’s more shame or discouragement associated with moon based magic on Solaria. Given it’s literally called Solaria,, as in, Sun shit, and there’s no mention of the moon in their royal court stuff or in general, I felt like that only made the idea for the discussion surrounding Lunarian stuff as lesser even juicier given the implied context.

I love a good commentary on how empires and monarchs are evil too and political intrigue is a huge part of my rewrite. It’s super present in my everyday life and it only made sense to me to include it in this stuff because, yeah, politics are everywhere, and it’s going to be EXTRA loud if the girls are doing realm saving stuff that effects literally every planet and group out there as a result and a few of them are literally government figures.

@charmixpower has pretty much everything from the comics memorized so I’ll ask er if there’s anything in particular from those that made it happen for people or you can send er an ask, but I have no idea tbh I’ve only skimmed some of them and they were mainly Bloom centric in plot because I’m basic lol

Anyway tho it’s fair if you don’t like it obviously. To each their own! And you are more than welcome to make your own version if you aren’t already that doesn’t include that! I’m always excited to see more people’s takes on Winx Club I am not normal about this show clearly and I never will be lol

Edit: was just talking to one of my friends about this and they pointed out that their rewrite doesn’t really have this dynamic if you wanna check theirs out! Their blog is @kitrewritestheinx:)

#winx club #winx #asks #ask #lore #world building #winx club rewrite #winx rewrite #winx redo #winx club redo #winx club remake #winx remake #winx club reboot #winx reboot #yeah I have no idea really #could also be all of us coming in and reinforcing it with each others stuff too lol #make that shit cyclical

[best-underrated-anime]

Best Underrated Anime Group E Round 1: #E8 vs #E1

#E8: Lesbian vampire & human go on road trip to escape the horrors

In a bleak world where music is banned and Vampires have emerged at the top of the food chain, a girl named Momo breaks past the barrier and connects with Fine, queen of the Vampires, and the two journey to find a safe haven where their races can co-exist.

#E1: Modern people transmigrate* to ancient Chinese fantasy world (BL)

People from the modern world transmigrating into the ancient fantasy world has become a common and everyday occurrence that the royal court in the latter has decided to moderate them. If you’re a transmigrator, you must report your existence to Lou Zhu, the master of Best Tower. Once you pass his test and prove that you are indeed a modern person, you can then be assigned to work in different areas of the government and be given a high salary.

Because of this promised benefit, many impostors have showed up before Lou Zhu. And one day, Zuo Yunqi shows up for this test. Is he an impostor, or is he an actual modern person?

But some transmigrators also choose to hide their existence out of distrust in the government. Where are they? And with their knowledge of science and technology, what are they planning in the dark?

*Transmigration = similar to isekai, but the world where the characters get isekai’d to is not always a western fantasy type.

Titles, propagandas, trailers, and poll under the cut!

#E8: Vampire in the Garden

Propaganda:

This anime came out a year ago, but I literally never heard of it until earlier this summer because Netflix had it. You guys are SLEEPING on such a good series—it’s 6 episodes so it’s short, but it feels like a whole single film. The voice acting is so fun, the music slaps, the animation goes HARD during fight scenes, and it’s just so so good. The art style is pretty, and the scenery makes me lose my mind, it’s SO pretty. I need to write an essay one day about how VitG uses music to carry the story because wow that is 🛐🛐🛐 Also there’s a goofy looking dog named Connie that continuously appears and serves no purpose in the plot. Love that

Trigger Warnings: Child Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Graphic Depictions of Cruelty/Violence/Gore, Racism, Self-Harm.

Child abuse & emotional abuse for Momo’s complicated relationship with her mother. Also emotional abuse for Fine’s past traumas and current strained relationship with other vampires.

This is a vampire anime, so there’s a lot of blood and fighting. There’s also a drug introduced in ep1 that mutates a vampire horribly.

Racism is human-versus-vampire shenanigans.

Self-harm for a scene where a human attempts to feed a vampire and for drug usage as mentioned above.

#E1: Are You Ok (You Yao)

[Admin: I could not find a single trailer of season 1 w/ English subs, and its OP seems to have been taken down on YouTube since Iqiyi, its producer (?), started their own channel. As such, I’ve cut a small portion of S1E01 instead, featuring the test the transmigrators have to take.]

Propaganda:

This donghua (Chinese anime) is based on a comedy novel with the same title, and the adaptation is just stellar. Instead of showing each character’s story separately like in the novel, the donghua combined everything. Because of this, there’s more focus on the plotty and political mystery aspect—but without losing the heart of the original. The entire show is still just as hilarious.

And for an adaptation with several original characters, for once I actually don’t mind it. I usually find such additions annoying, but in this show they really serve a purpose and also add to the enjoyment.

I also like the choice of animating it in 3D, like the one in video games. It fits the “transmigrate into a fantasy world” setting well. The donghua also plays around a lot. In one episode, they had one character sing and dance like in a musical, with the beginning of the song sounding like “Do you wanna build a snowman?” from Frozen 😂

Moreover, this is a Boys Love story, and with more than one couple, too! The secondary couple (Zhou Rongqi and Li Ke) even gets a very gay ending song that’s all about them. But since this show is from China, where censorship rules are strict, don’t expect anything explicit. Just think of it as another shounen with homoerotic undertones, except the homo is actually canon.

All in all, it’s a very fun show that doesn’t lack in depth. If you’re in the mood for something light but don’t want to miss out on plot, you should definitely watch this. And if you’ve never watched a donghua before, then you’ll definitely find this fresh and intriguing.

Trigger Warnings: None.

If you’re reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

#anime #donghua #best underrated anime #polls #poll tournament #tournament #anime tournament #animation #animated show #group stage #group stage round 1 #tournament polls #chinese anime #vampire in the garden #are you ok #you yao #group e

[exilley]

may i hear about ivy the oc

I will gladly tell you about her :3

Ivy Aroid is the daughter of a fallen clan of nobles in a monarchical aristocracy. The world this character exists within is one domineered by gods, or more plainly and literally, immortals in charge of governing the metaphysical wellbeing of the universe, but that’s its own lore dump. In short, the world is split into nation-like factions that hundreds of different gods have individual claim over. The citizens of each faction are bound by social expectation to follow their patron god’s doctrine and organize themselves according to the ideals of said god. In Ivy’s case, that doctrine and those ideals entail a social structure that splits a so-called Burden of Coexistence that splits the population into two classes of people: Aristocrats who may become either a Scholar or a Warrior, and Tradesmen who can become a Healer or Artisan (these four categories are a universal standard, but how a god interprets which kinds of work fall under which label is completely up to their whim, as is the manner in which the classes are implemented in society).

Ivy’s family was one of many who fell off politically following a long and complicated ordeal with what was functionally the ruling clan of monarchs of a few generations past. The clan’s rule has left the country (ahem faction) in economic and social disarray, and Aristocrats are all vying to gain power in the midst of a power vacuum opening up. The Aroids are particularly aggressive in their pursuit and the family heads have abused their children to that end, Ivy included. But she’s intelligent and, in her adolescence, grows to become keenly aware of her situation. So she starts to play a character— that of a cunning, manipulative, unfeeling agent who would do everything in her power to climb the ranks. It’s a bid to reclaim what she’s been through; convincing herself she chose to be a bad person and reclaiming autonomy over her survival response, which was to distance herself from people and become the perfect pawn for her clan’s re-ascension. To this end she did a lot of reprehensible things, including but not limited to, blackmail, sexual exploitation, stealing, lying, cheating, and making threats of emotional or physical violence to her interpersonal circle. She lives in a society that is cruel by nature and she embodies that cruelty perfectly, as a medley of tragedy and hurt that can only exist alongside one another. She does what she must to climb the ranks for both herself and her clan, but the line between what she must do and what she wants to do are blurry and indefinite.

And then comes around the congregational season, where all aristocrats are invited to the oldest temple in the nation faction for a ball commemorating a celestial event in which the two moons are both visible and full at the same time— something that only occurs once every other year. It’s at this event that Ivy meets Yeonzhun, the person who would change the trajectory of her life forever. They hit it off really well, since they shared a lot of similar views on politics and had a lot of commonalities outside of their politics as well. Mostly, Ivy was drawn to him/her (Yeon is markedly a transgressor of the binary so regardless of the spiritual canon I use both she/he for her) for reasons that vaguely border on attraction but ultimately I have elected never to clarify. They continue to exchange letters with each other as they lived their lives, Yeon wrapping up military academy and Ivy acting as a subordinate diplomat for another, more powerful clan.

At this point, I should mention that Ivy has established many connections all over, but her primary contacts are illicit: the coven of rebels who seek to overthrow the regime of the gods and overturn the world order so that mortals have complete self-determinative capacity. This coven extends worldwide and is comprised of a mix of Rogues (a fifth category of person, who, loosely defined, are those who have abandoned their faction’s subservience to their patron and were exiled as punishment), descendants of a “cursed” bloodline (heavy quotes there because whether the bloodline is actually cursed or not is up for interpretation), and those with status in their respective factions who secretly wish to abolish the status quo. This may initially seem at conflict with Ivy’s character, since it goes against the grain of her intended to be a symbol of the cycle the people are trapped within, but consider that she is foremost contextualized by her desire to have control over her role in society. That she wants tangible authority and power to mitigate her internalized anxieties of being deprived of control is not necessarily at odds with the idea that she contends with guilt and shame over having done bad things in the name of a poorly justified cause. She doesn’t enjoy being trapped in the cave any more than the next guy.

After several exchanges with Yeon over letters, she one day asks if Yeon would be interested in joining the rebel forces with her. Of course, she was aware of the implications of roping Yeonzhun, an aristocrat who by far outranked her and had her own slew of baggage, into something like the rebellion, but there was just too much she admired and loved about him that she felt it would be disingenuous to not reveal this side of herself to her. Yeonzhun accepted in a heartbeat, and after receiving the reply, Ivy basically swore a vow of servitude to Yeonzhun, to help her achieve what she herself had suffered through years of agony for. Yeonzhun was not just a genuine companion to Ivy; he began to epitomize the concept of hope and strength for her. There was so much that she lamented or regretted doing and Yeonzhun was the outlet for that self-hatred. Symbolically, and literally, Yeonzhun became Ivy’s new patron god.

It’s the kind of romanticism you’d write a line like “If the heavens were a tree, I would grab the trunk and shake the branches to fell the fruits of my sins for you” for.

And uh… commit sins she does! Because once Yeonzhun comes out of the military academy and Ivy found an opportunity to resign from her position, the two become a pretty infamous duo. And the closer they grew in person and the older they aged together, Ivy came to realize the one thing that kept Yeonzhun from snapping was her stubborn belief in the goodness of people. Ivy did not ever once think less of her for this in spite of her experiences. Rather, it was a trait that she considered to be one of Yeonzhun’s most admirable qualities. But Yeonzhun is not a politican like Ivy, she’s a fighter. A Warrior. It’s a point where their similarities dissipate into differences. And Ivy, with all of her jaded optimism, who at this point truly only desired for Yeonzhun’s ideals to become a reality as it represented the best possible version of Ivy’s (at least, in Ivy’s perspective), came to the conclusion that the best way to help Yeonzhun realize his goals was to betray him and face the consequence of certain vengeance/death by his hands.

So that’s exactly what Ivy did. She betrayed him by leaking to some of the brass she was connected to that Yeonzhun was part of the rebellion, and should thusly be exiled from the Aristocrat class as punishment. In the months after Yeon’s exile, Ivy mostly retreated into herself and spent the days contemplating what she’d done with her life and how she ended up here. In the end, she did exactly as her parents wanted: to rise up the ranks and bring the Aroid clan back into prominence. She basically set that motion into stone with her betrayal of Yeonzhun, since it earned her a lot of respect, awe, and fear. But she also accomplished the complete opposite of her efforts to defy that initial compulsion, which was to play the game for herself and herself only, by tying her whole being to Yeonzhun. And, of course, when Yeonzhun makes a return leading a group of rebels driven by the shared anger of being sold out by who they all thought was a close comrade, Ivy’s throat is cut by Yeonzhun himself.

Such is the entire story summed up neatly. You will notice that it’s long, so I had to cut out basically every detail related to Yeonzhun to keep it a somewhat reasonable length. But knowing Yeon’s deal makes Ivy’s fascination and infatuation with her very clear I promise. It all makes sense

#jin responds #oc tag #btw i took ivy’s name from the devil’s ivy plant #they are distinguished by their ‘’shy flowering nature’’ (so titled by wikipedia) #due to the fact that they have the genes of a flowering plant or angiosperm but are genetically wired not to be able to express that trait #smiles at you

[9800sblog]

hybe tarot reading

public perception vs people involved

public's perception

3 of pentacles reversed, 8 of pentacles reversed, ace of pentacles reversed, the hanged man reversed, 7 of cups reversed

talk about tainted perception, all cards reversed screams volumes about how ignorant and illiterate most people are about their rights. the public has all the information, they know everything that is happening but keep not wanting to connect one thing with the other, they're just trying to feel important and like they matter in a grand scheme. they see the world as a bunch of isolated things and people, with no connection, the justice system doesn't work, nobody is really doing their jobs and no industry, organization or system really works. trying to push a classic tale of "rich vs poor", instead of "people vs life", they see hybe as old money and creating narratives to control people. they think most people, all artists and others involved are simply dumb, and can't see they're being controlled. just flip the script, like the hanged man reversed looks kinda dumb reversed in this spread, flip it to it's right position and "damn how does he balance himself like that? is he playing with the punishment he received? how is none of his clothes falling off? that rewuires a lot of physical strength, knowledge of anatomy, physics, astronomy, wow this is an impressive ugly man" etc.

perception of people involved

the world reversed, 7 of pentacles reversed, ace of cups reversed, 9 of pentacles, the fool

literally screaming to the public "shut the fuck up!!!!!" they see how the perception is all damaged, and people are trying to use the perceived bad situation to prey on them, which is ironic since their poor vision is what lacks them see how protected these people, systems and organizations actually are. like law works 😐. nothing new under the sun, but they're definitely taking advantage of this situation to fix things that are actually broken, literally universally involved, like this spread literally screams climate change. public is really trying to not connect one thing with the other, not use logic and pretend they're the village in "it takes a village to raise a child". people are literally ignoring the fact that you need to pass the police system to be hired, get a contract, this whole thing is not about min heejin, did yall forget kpop is a public part of korean government? [politicians: "this is how we want the world to see our country", kpop industry: "yes, sir! 🫡"] did yall forget kpop is literally anti censorship and control? did yall forget how much horror, science, ancient cultures, spirituality/religion/witchcraft references they make on a DAILY? something I often say fits perfectly with this spread, "it's better to ask offensive questions than stay ignorant". public is playing detective while actual detectives are at work, chill.

what it's actually like

3 of swords, king of swords, judgement, 9 of cups, 2 of cups

this needs no explanation, it's literally what I just said. if this was a matter of pedophilia against people that are seen universally, it would have been fixed already, it's not hard to put someone in jail. all cards are connected, and yall pretend to know nothing about daily life. like when I say universally, I mean, songs play on your phone and you post things on social media through satellites, like stop playing dumb, this isn't an isolated situation, if you feel unsafe in front of this "feud", you're already screwed, fear is almost useless towards human evolution, what could actually kill us these days? this does involve science, politics, astronomy, everything kpop talks about. again, stop acting dumb. yall think aespa songs sound grainy why? they're breaking sound barriers like these people are smart as fuck

#kpop tarot #hybe labels #kpop #tarot

[soaricarus]

how do you imagine ancients like governments worked? how was society divided?

i think it was divided in three main groups in general - higher, middle and lower circles.

the higher circles usually held the most important (being involved in iterator projects, holding power over decisions of what's made, etc) and safe (shit that isn't hella risky and could end up killing you in a freak accident 95% of the time) jobs and had more power. there's a certain pearl that mentions "pure braid heritage" (voids i need to keep sorting all the lore pearls into categories so i can go through my own notes instead of cross-referencing the wiki constantly), so i could imagine having pure heritage from a house would also generally give you more political power and importance. they'd have the most political power and have a say in everything, especially iterator projects and other important projects. certain houses would most likely hold more power than others, too. i also like to think their masks were very detailed! here's an excerpt from what i have written on that in my notes:

higher circles have very detailed masks that can resemble birds of prey, mythical creatures or apex predators - but most don't resemble anything at all. they commonly had thin headpieces, either short or long, or tubes connected to their mask (most were cosmetic, but some were quite literally feeding tubes). many - generally the masks of the 'most important' higher circle members (though it doesn't matter much; even the 'less important' higher circle members are included.) had extra accessories such as embedded gems, pearls (think the chieftan scavenger's mask or the scavenger toll skulls), pieces of fabric that imitate banners tied to headpieces and stained glass planted in to carved-in details (though much more too; these are just simple examples). it was also not uncommon to their masks going down their neck. some had colorful patterns painted or carved in and then painted on their masks. most would always wear their masks in public and even in private (hence some having feeding tubes), and even partial masks for higher circles were very close to being full masks.

it's not all of it (i'm still working on writing it down- and it may be a little incoherent, it's just my thoughts), but it is most.

middle circles were pretty average, middle of the line. had the most jobs to pick from and weren't that important politically or socially, just your average citizens, but could vote to sway the opinion a little if allowed/asked by the higher circles. they were treated fairly, but regarded as lower than the higher circles. some were probably treated nearly the same as higher circles, dependant on who it was. probably had some of the more riskier jobs, but not the "will outright kill you if something goes wrong" yknow. i also have notes on their masks! they'd probably wear partial masks most of the time and only wear full masks whenever something important is happening. i doubt any middle circles would have full masks with feeding tubes, hah!

lower circles were either outright ignored, given little chance to state opinions, or just treated poorly. clear power imbalance bjust etween lower circles and middle circles. usually they'd be the ones handling crops and the like, generally "important" things, though they could definently be automated. it's just to have them do something, probably. they'd also be handling more of the way dangerous things, though there would be a few cases were lower circle members were mechanics for iterators 'n the like out of sheer luck or just because they actually have the skill for it.

i'd imagine some certain communities are outta the norm and have it split up in how important the work you did instead of the whole higher, middle and lower circles! author/creator in an iterator project, head bio-engineer, chief mechanic, etc - such come to mind. everyone would be pretty equal though! as long as you didn't outright kill someone unprompted, because Void Forbid you don't allow them to ascend and have them Reincarnated as a Mindless Beast!

hope that makes sense, sometimes i do ramble a lot and start to get a little incoherent

#words on the wind #[hc rambles] #[ancients] #rw ancients #ill tag it just because #i like rambling

[hello-nichya-here]

it's funny how you're an anti-communist pig when atla itself literally has communist undertones. lmfao.

Everyone, this right here is why you don't "learn" about political movements and government systems from Tumblr and TikTok.

In what world does Avatar have "communist undertones"? Because people were starving?

Because it has kind main characters that go around helping people? Said main characters are a messiah, two children of tribal chieftan that are only not living a good and comfortable life because their home was cosnstantly attacked and raided during the war, an obscenely rich girl that clearly has no problem using her family's money to get what she wants, the prince that would one day become an absolute monarchist, and a bonus a warrior that lives in an island that only exist because another messiah's solution to a conflict that threatened their way of living was CREATING A BORDER BETWEEN THEIR NATION AND THE REST OF THE CONTINENT BY PHYSICALLY SEPARATING FROM THE MAIN LAND and they avoided being dragged into the war for years because they stayed took a "each nation should deal with their own damn problems" approach until their messiah returned.

HOW does that scream "communism"? How does a show that repeatedly said "Drifting away from spirituality had horrible consequences for the world as a whole" fit with communism? Just because they also said "everything is connected to everything else" while STILL showing some level of hierarchy as positive, hence one of the good guys being a monarch and the others having zero issue with it? Saying "the lower classes shouldn't starve" is not the same as "We don't believe society should be split into any class system" and it sure as hell is no "LET'S KILL THE CZAR AND HIS FAMILY SO WE CAN FINALLY HAVE SOME GODDAMN SAY IN WHAT HAPPENS TO US!"

Even the divide between nations was kept in the end - they were co-existing peacefully again, sure, but that shows the lines like "We are really one people, but we live as if divided" is not saying "They should be one huge nation made up of four smaller ones that are ruled by the same system/people" but rather "humans, even with all their differences, are still one large group with no one being better or worse than the rest."

Not to mention, THE main promise of socialism and communism, the main things Marx and Lenin would go on about, THE thing that is actually interesting/has potential about it and that people always use to try and get people to think that "living under communism would be great actually" is COMPLETELY ABSENT in the world of Avatar: the promise of workers not only being treated fairly, but having the control of...

THE CAPITAL

You know, the thing Marx was so invested in he wrote a whole damn book about it and that's why anyone alive today even knows he existed?

Avatar NEVER gets into that. Ever. "Worker's rights" wasn't a matter of discussion EVEN WHEN THE TWO MOST POPULAR CHARACTERS IN THE SHOW WERE WORKING TO SURVIVE!

THE closest Avatar ever got to maybe, possibly, mayhaps referencing stuff that happened in communist nations, was with things like those ships that were essentially goulags - and not only is that a bit of stretch since MANY nations through human history, with radically different systems, had some element of forced labor for the "inferior" people and/or criminals, that would also be the show casting a NEGATIVE light on communism.

"Oh, but the Fire Nation is the evil nation and Bryke has said they used to criticize american imperialism!"

1 - "I don't like the way the US does things" is not the same as "I think the communists were 100% right." That false dichotomy of "If you dislike one, you support the other" is literally just propaganda both sides spread to frighten people into silence so they wouldn't have to deal with the consequences of "supporting" the enemy.

2 - The Fire Nation is also heavily based on Imperial Japan which is WAY older than communism. Once again, this is not a Captalism VS Communism deal

3 - Again, the happy ending of the show has the Fire Nation remain an absolute monarchy, they just changed the monarch.

4 - Bryke also created The Legend Of Korra, and "republic city", the symbol of all the progress the world has supposedly made, is literally just a New York city knock off. These guys literally picked the face of capitalism as a symbol of the main message of the show - they're not your comrades.

You can support whatever the fuck you think is right, but Avatar is not a show that said "communism is good actually", stop projecting just because you like the show or because you're pissed off that a random person online disagrees with you and you want some kind of "gotcha" to say "AH HA, YOU LIKE THIS THING AND THIS THING IS A METAPHORE FOR COMMUNISM! YOU HAVE TO BE A COMMUNIST NOW!"

#asks #dumb people #stupid fucking people

[golbrocklovely]

Opinion on the fact Sam and Colby have not unfollowed Wilbur Soot? I'm seeing multiple people very angry and disappointed in them for that.

Plus a lot of people seem to think they should speak on Palestine for some reason? They're ghost hunters, don't force them to speak on something they know nothing about people.

i'm gonna have some unpopular takes, so just a heads up to a lot of ppl. if you don't agree, totally fine. but i'm not hear to argue on this bc this is just how i feel.

first off, fuck wilbur. he's a dick. that being said, i give literally no shits whatsoever if snc are following him. for one thing, it's not like snc are besties with the guy. they collabed once, and then almost literally never mentioned that collab again. not to mention, snc have never been one to follow the train of "unfollow this person right now" so idk why this fandom thinks things are gonna be different this time around.

i hope they eventually unfollow him, but i'm not gonna hold my breath or even care to remember if and when they do or don't. bc that's how little i think about this.

and as for palestine, i'm of the belief that if content creators want to use their voice, awesome. if not, idc. i'm not going to snc for political or world news updates. i would assume they don't like that a genocide is happening, but i don't care which way or the other they feel about it. they are not what's important here. palestinians are what's important. freeing palestine is what's important.

unless snc have some direct connection to the president, their word means nothing. it's not like israel's government is gonna go "oh, two random influencers from kansas said ceasefire now? well shit, i guess we gotta stop genociding."

ppl are upset at the wrong thing. be upset at your government not calling for a ceasefire. be upset that we keep giving money to the idf. respectfully, what the fuck are snc supposed to do about it??? they aren't that rich or powerful. not to mention you are making a genocide about yourself by centering this whole thing on "well snc, who are MY faves, aren't saying anything and I don't like that"

not everything is about you. hate to be the bear of bad news, but some ppl that you stan have opinions you don't agree with. have values you don't agree with. you will never find someone that is 100% on the same path as you. accepting that reality sooner rather than later will help you in the long run.

god this is the dumbest shit, i swear. ppl are literally dying, being slaughtered, and you're concerned about what snc think??????? LOG OFF. holy shit.

(also none of this was directed at you, anon. just using the general term of 'you')

#ask #personal #snc bs

[sassyfrassboss]

“The fact she hasn't set foot in DC since she has been in the US is telling.”

DC resident here (ok, technically it’s Northern VA resident who works in DC but we’re all considered DC by outsiders). I agree wholeheartedly.

She can make all the phone calls she wants but to be considered a “real” lobbyist or someone with real political ambition, you have to be physically present here. Yes, there’s a lot of attention paid to who you know, but that’s only half the battle. The other half is about “local” visibility. You need to be seen in and around DC. Now it doesn’t mean you need to be at all the protests or camping out in Congressional offices. It means you need to be seen at our local places otherwise you’re a carpetbagger just here for the attention. Especially if your platform ebbs and flows with the national bandwagon.

But it’s also more telling that these powerful people she’s connected too aren’t doing more. If Fitzgerald or the Clintons or the Obamas really believed she had serious potential, they’d be introducing her around to everyone. They’d be hooking her up with staffers and kingmakers, inviting her to their birthday parties, networking with her. They aren’t. The Obamas ghosted her and publicly debunked Meghan’s PR when she claimed they were advising her after Megxit. Hillary didn’t bring Meghan into her new female empowerment docuseries. Neither she, nor Chelsea, nor Michelle, participates in 40x40. Sunshine Sachs is doing all the work to connect Meghan with politics. Again, for the people in the back: a Hollywood media public relations firm is promoting Meghan’s political intent. Not the people who are already in the political arena. Not a DC-based PR firm. Not anyone who works on K Street. A Hollywood propaganda machine that became famous for being Harvey Weinstein’s bully.

That says everything. That real political insiders do not see any future prospects in the political babble she speaks at them. To them, she is just another celebrity wallet to open for donations and campaign promises. But of course Meghan doesn’t realize that. She thinks she’s the greatest thing since Jesus turned water into wine.

I literally have nothing to add to this because it is absolutely perfect!

I have family that work in DC government and when they talk about potential candidates Meghan's name never crosses their lips. I asked a few weeks ago and she was systematically taken down by people in the know.

100% agree with you.

[fumblingmusings]

I am an absolute and utter fucking SUCKER for Scotland ×England sibling dynamics of older and younger sibling shenanigans

I love the idea of Scotland being the older brother who England can rely on. Whilst i believe the fandom mostly prefers Wales and England sibling dynamics bc the way Scotty is in the manga (he is a bit of a dick to England, which i believe stems from how the Scottish and English relationship actually is) , i believe Scotland is the one who looked after and raised England when they were wee babys, and is the one England inevitably runs to for just ab anything

(this can also be my unhealthy obsession with ScotEng but this isn't relevant to the ask so ignore it)

I loved all the moments England/Evelyn and her siblings had in SPE.

I wonder what they felt seeing their little sister slowly losing herself, constantly falling ill, if they worried she would slowly fade out of existence at one point or if conflicts between their governments made then cold towards her and anticipating the day she was gone.

What was their relationship as baby nations? You mentioned in your fic that Eva didn't remember her mother much, and what little she did, she believed her mother didn't want her at all. Does that mean Ali and Wales were in charge of raising England as a child? What was that like for them? At what point did they teach Eva what she was and what the would mean for her and them.

I hope your future fics could have more UK sibling moments, whether as nations or as humans, bc i love them deeply and i literally live for any uk sibling content.

In other words, where do i send you the monies for more England and their brothers sharing a single braincell. Bc the car scene had me dying

This answer is so long I'm sorry I completely rambled sorry sorry...

Scotland is a dick in the manga towards England partly because he deserves to be a dick towards England and partly because us Scots are the most contrarian annoying bastards on the planet where everything has to be a goddamn battle and it's genuinely exhausting because most English and Welsh people would let it go out of fear of being rude or confrontational but Scots just get a kick out of being the devil's advocate in the most inopportune times. This is partly England's fault and partly just a leftover from how stubborn the Highland-Lowland conflicts have been over the years. That Simpsons joke by grounds-keeper Willy?

They're right.

Anyway!

I love the idea of Scotland being the older brother who England can rely on. Whilst i believe the fandom mostly prefers Wales and England sibling dynamics bc the way Scotty is in the manga (he is a bit of a dick to England, which i believe stems from how the Scottish and English relationship actually is) , i believe Scotland is the one who looked after and raised England when they were wee babys, and is the one England inevitably runs to for just ab anything

I like the idea of England Scotland and Wales really only having each other for about a thousand years, with Ireland always keeping its distance where necessary. And those early memories don't go away easily, that human connection cannot be forgotten even after a hundred armies and a dozen dead Kings say they should.

A lot of the time, all they had was each other, when England was split in seven Scotland in four, and Wales in god knows how many tiny kingdoms. They were real wanderers. And no matter what they do to each other, they still can't get that first millennium out of their memories. Scotland is and was far more likely to intercede in English politics when requested by the government versus the other neighbours. Because we're nosey buggers who like burning York.

I go with Wales being the oldest (which I think is not a popular choice but... meh), then Ireland, then Scotland, then England, and then obviously wee Northern Ireland a thousand years later. I know Hima has the Irelands in a sort of two Italies situation where they were babies together, but I think that's the biggest piece of canon where I'm like... no. I can maybe accept him popping up during the late 16th century, but not prior to the 1000s like the other four.

I think in the fic I have the kids born around the time of Rome's arrival. But they aren't Rome's kids. I don't know... haven't thought it through entirely, but Britannia was never a particularly good mother by modern standards, even more so when it hit home that the children, but particularly England, signalled her death. Evie went from being her mother's little apple to a cuckoo bird. And Eva liked Rome, he was funny and made her smile and brought her nice things. Her mother didn't, clearly, and made her and Ireland watch the destruction of Colchester and St Alban's and London. Ireland was like ooft. alrighty. Then went on with her day. But England took it... poorly.

But when they lose their mum, they are still kids themselves. None of them are a day over twelve when Britannia dies, so they know what it's like to rely on fickle humans for protection only to realise they really can't stay too long with any of them. They raise each other for a while until they all go their separate ways. I mentioned in the fic that England was a clingy, weepy little girl. Honestly, her siblings, who were just kids themselves, couldn’t cope with her, and one by one, they decided to go and live with their own people.

I headcanon that England and Scotland were the last to split because the overlap of what's now Lothian, the Borders, Cumbria, and Northumberland were grey areas in ownership for such a long time. Edinburgh was after all technically English from 680 to 970, and in the 940s, Strathclyde stretched through Cumbria and into Yorkshire, so England and Scotland have always been overlapping with their people.

I loved all the moments England/Evelyn and her siblings had in SPE. I wonder what they felt seeing their little sister slowly losing herself, constantly falling ill, if they worried she would slowly fade out of existence at one point or if conflicts between their governments made then cold towards her and anticipating the day she was gone. What was their relationship as baby nations? You mentioned in your fic that Eva didn't remember her mother much, and what little she did, she believed her mother didn't want her at all. Does that mean Ali and Wales were in charge of raising England as a child? What was that like for them? At what point did they teach Eva what she was and what the would mean for her and them.

The UK siblings for me are interesting during the 16th to 19th centuries because they all lack control one way or another, and the way they try to take it back for themselves is toxic. Scotland and Wales throw themselves into the army and navy respectively, and England completely shuts herself away with stolen children. Like they just disconnect from their own people. The whole point of Slow Paced Envy was to write about dissonance. Dissonance between the character's actions, what came out of their mouths, what they thought and what they knew to be true. Everyone in that fic runs on contradictions that are either flat out toxic and dangerous or - at best - delusional. England isn't the only one in the fic like that. I hope I portrayed it well...

So England is their baby sister at the end of the day. And she is - to be blunt - such an anomaly. She's so much weaker, she's got far less fire in her, she's way more passive. Scotland loves to travel and see the world (and do all kinds of heinous or drunken things) - it's what he lives for. Wales loves to fight. England wants to have a wee farmstead with barn cats and her witch cauldron. Her brother's flip between resenting her and pitying her.

But she's still their baby sister. I think that colours their relationship with her more than if it were Arthur, who is just another boy, albeit the youngest. Again, I think gender messes with the dynamic. Ireland deliberately extricates herself from the 'oldest sister = caretaker' role, but England falls into the 'baby' role, definitely. Not spoiled particularly, but she does receive the most attention. From everyone. Not that it ever made her happy.

There was no chance of them being on equal footing with each other. Scotland wanted it to be him. It was his royal family after all the pulled them all together. He has the better temperament for power, is more book smart, is a better tactician etc etc... And yet it's all on baby sister who by the 17th century is addicted to Opium and probably has had TB for the past three hundred years. It's laughable. It's a joke. God is mocking them. Make it make sense.

It's that conflict of "I know my sibling and they personally would never lay a hand on me but their people will and sometimes I cannot look at my sibling without thinking about what their people have done in their name and I hate them for it."

That saying that makes its round on the internet: the love was there, it didn't change anything, but it was there. That's really how I understand Scotland Wales and England's relationship. Love cannot overcome, nor should it necessarily. But it's still there. And that's something.

I hope your future fics could have more UK sibling moments, whether as nations or as humans, bc i love them deeply and i literally live for any uk sibling content. In other words, where do i send you the monies for more England and their brothers sharing a single braincell. Bc the car scene had me dying

Ha! This ask was payment enough. I'm glad you enjoyed the car scene. The one bit of levity that entire fic had...

Thank you for the ask! I'm sorry this reply is so scattered and long but ah! It made me happy. Thank you!

#q&a #fanfic ask #not entirely well composed or consistent thoughts below the cut #anglo-scottish relations pre 1300 *fascinate* me #hws england #hws scotland #headcanon #hetalia

[okayto]

Anime Micro-Reviews

Short reviews of 3 shows that have guns sometimes

The Millionaire Detective - Balance: UNLIMITED

The Modern Crimes Task Unit is where officers who have caused problems for the Metropolitan Police Department are sent. Haru Katou just wants to do his job, which is made infinitely harder when wealthy Daisuke Kambe—who uses money to fix everything—decides to become a detective and is assigned as Kato’s partner.

Buddy cop show! This 11-episode show takes the classic “two diametrically-opposed people who are stuck together” and crosses it over with a Tony Stark-level of wealth and access to godlike technology.

Haru is the good, solid character, forced into the Modern Crimes unit after some incident on the job that’s left the more “respectable” cops sneering at him, but he still does his best and is limited more by the strictures of the other departments than by his abilities. Daisuke is the aloof rich boy with literally unlimited money, which he uses to pay for anything and everything (fixing cars after he rams them aside, for instance), plus an AI assistant to coordinate said ridiculous uses of money.

Together, they make a good show, as long as you don’t think too much about the inherent ethical problems. Halfway through, though, we move from case-of-the-day to a longer look at an unsolved murder connected to Daisuke’s family. This leads to backstories for multiple characters and a longer/more detailed plot than could fit in the case-of-the-day episodes, but since I’m drawn to humor, I preferred the first half when the wealth absurdity and personality clashes were highlighted.

English Dub? Yes

Where to watch (USA, November 2023): Funimation (sub and dub); Crunchyroll (sub and dub)

Trinity Blood

900 years after an apocalyptic war between humans and vampires, there is an ongoing cold war between the human government in the Vatican, and the vampiric Methuselah in the east. Father Abel Nightroad, a traveling priest who acts as a Vatican representative, is also part of a special operations group that fights vampires to save human lives.

As part of my ongoing quest to watch the shows that seemed real cool when I was a youngster, I picked up Trinity Blood, which aired on Adult Swim in 2006. A sci fi-fantasy-political intrigue-y show, it features one of my favorite character types: a long-hair guy who is a hidden badass.

The setting is interesting--a very fantasy Vatican acts as the main human political entity, though the history of the war and vampires isn’t explained in depth, and the history of Abel and his abilities really doesn’t come out until the end. (I spoilered myself early on by reading background on various wikis out of curiosity.)

Unfortunately I found the show didn’t explain enough as it went on (sans my sought-out spoilers). I wanted more details, earlier. It felt mostly like a series of investigate - fight - discuss minor political fallout - repeat. The plot progressed irregularly, so there were times when I considered giving up.

It does, however, have some spiffy character designs, and a lot of fighting. If action and cool-looking characters are what you’re after more than story, give it a try.

English Dub? Yes

Where to watch (USA, November 2023): Funimation (sub and dub), Blu-ray/DVD

Cowboy Bebop

Scouring space for bounties, a ragtag crew--a former hitman, an ex-cop, a con artist, a hacker kid and a data dog--live paycheck to paycheck.

The classic. The first anime to be broadcast on Adult Swim, a series that received praise here and overseas for its story, themes, music, and voice acting. More than two decades after its premier, it’s still considered excellent, still listed as good for everyone from anime fans to those who’ve never watched any before. The show that transcends its medium, being not just “good anime,” but a good show. It still holds up more than two decades after its premier. Critics love it, fans love it.

...I thought it was okay.

It wasn’t bad! And I see why it garners such praise. The animation is good, the blues- and jazz-influenced music is great, the Chinese-influenced space western-type setting is fantastic. The English dub is great, the characters have depth, it’s all good. And I just...got kinda bored.

I really wanted to love it, because it’s universally acclaimed, but I have to conclude it’s just a personality issue. There’s nothing that could’ve changed to make it more appealing to me, specifically, I just have to conclude that I enjoy things with more humor built in, and so my feelings toward Cowboy Bebop don’t rise above “yeah, this is fine.”  It was nice. I don’t regret watching. I don’t plan on rewatching.

Despite my feelings, I can see why it’s so beloved, and think it’s worth a try by most people. The majority of watchers, after all, clearly have different opinions from me.

English Dub? Yes

Where to watch (USA, November 2023): Funimation (sub and dub), Hulu (sub and dub), Crunchyroll (sub and dub), Tubi (sub), BR/DVD

#Fun fact: Millionaire Detective has 2x as many works on AO3 as Bebop & 9x as many as Trinity Blood despite being 15+ years younger #Cowboy Bebop #Trinity Blood #fugou keiji balance unlimited #The Millionaire Detective Balance: Unlimited #anime #reviews