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hero-israel · 5 months

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Let me tell you being a former Christian this shit goes so much deeper than a lot of born Jews realize. The Christian worldview (specifically Calvinist/Puritan) seeping into and pervading all of modern leftism is honestly frightening. But also it's very funny.

They believe that there are Good people and Bad people, and that any mistake or lapse in judgment or instance of not being educated is a Mask Off moment, showing who is a member of the Elect and who is not. If you fuck up, that's not just a fuck up, it's Revealing. You are damned, were always damned, you were just good at hiding it, and now we know the truth and are doubly angry because not only are you evil, you lied about it. The only recourse is to shun you, and if that leads to your death, so be it. Anyone who's seen any micro celebrity get canceled saw this in action.

And the only way you can prove you're a member of the Elect is to operate as if you have nothing to hide. You have to loudly and proudly proclaim your righteousness. If you don't have anything to hide why would you be worried? Privacy is suspicious. You Must Speak on everything they deem important or else you obviously agree with the Bad People. There is no room for discussion or healthy debate. There are no loopholes or subclauses or other points of view to consider. You're with us or against us. If you don't constantly go around saying you're with us, you're probably secretly against us. The only way to convince your neighbors, whom you inherently distrust, that you're one of the Good Ones, is to perform righteousness, parrot righteous words. The only way to redeem yourself is by grandiose acts of self flagellation, perhaps being the right demographic, or by accusing others of Heresy.

The goal is not to bring good into the world, it's to recruit more people into the same thought patterns (that's kind of all Christian denominations though). Because if you can convince your community that you're one of the Elect, that means G-d preselected you for Heaven, and you're golden. No repercussions or consequences baby. The only material benefit for you is that you "get" to proclaim you're going to Heaven and everyone has to agree with you. If anyone doesn't they're probably going to Hell anyway. You're on the right side (of history), so why should you ever self reflect or grow? Why should you question anything? Why should nuance or empathy exist? This is about Right and Wrong. We know where we stand, where do you stand?

Every single aspect of American culture and politics, right and "left" alike, was planted by the pilgrims, and it is so fundamentally antithetical to true Leftist thought. Remember all the actually successful Western Leftist movements were started in Europe (and Israel cough cough)... because they kicked all their fucking psychotic Calvinists out. Those people went to America and that's a big big big reason why we don't have any near as much of a robust Leftist movement as even socially conservative European countries (and Israel cough cough). And what's funny is I still find myself slipping into these thought patterns, which is so not compatible with Jewish philosophy or theology. It's been years and I'm still not done.

It's a hell of a drug to kick, so I definitely don't trust white goysiche college kids who've been antitheists for about 6 months since they left their Republican parents' homes to have any great success in unlearning and unprogramming from this. Which is kind of obvious in that I see them acting just like their conservative Christian parents every day on every social media platform, swap out a gun toting white Jesus with some noble savage idea of Palestine, absolving the West of its sins against the Global South.

It is a cult structured around spiritual isolation, antisocial behavior, and it is inherently against any kind of political movement that centers and celebrates the Community. It is designed to tear communities apart and foster obedience to whatever authority can force itself on them. And this has been going on for almost 500 years, there is nothing we can do about it.

Thank you for the insightful look. Their "purity culture" approach definitely had to come from somewhere.

#Leftist antisemitism #Christian antisemitism

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chuplayswithfire · 6 months

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Im sorry about this i need to rant. I thought things were getting better but Izzy stan Twitter is at it again with their whining, truth bending and self-victimising.

'Do you like OMFD but wish the queer disabled hero didnt die?' IZZY IS NOT THE HERO OF THIS SHOW!!!!! He is at best a reformed antagonist. What an insult to the other disabled characters, and what about the actual heroes of the show??

'We've been betrayed by straight man writing queer stories'. First of all, way to dismiss the other writers. Also, its not his fault you project your personal traumas and mental health on a fictional character on a show with death in the title.

'GB's ending is comphet (?????) because 'we only need eachother' and theyre breaking away from their queer community' ED HAS BEEN WANTING TO LEAVE PIRACY SINCE LAST SEASON!!! also, its progress that Stede was able to resist basic flattery. And David made it clear that they still have work to do. This one truly broke my brain.

Im just sick of all this. Izzy stans have been coddled for the past week, being told its ok to grieve, but theyve crossed multiple lines. I do wish some things had been more explicit in this finale, only because David overestimated the maturity and media literacy of some people.

Sorry for this but i needed to talk to people here. Its beyond annoyance at this point. Im angry and sick of petty crybabies actively working to poison what we've built.

go off anon my inbox is open to your ranting let the rage flow through you [insert palpatine dot gif] but ngl the best thing you can do is just block liberally. block everyone. block left, right, center. do not be merciful. do not hold back. block until the ceiling comes down!!

because like, some of these fans have spent the last 18 months convincing themselves that their little guy was of equal importance to the main characters, the secret third protagonist, and he just got put in a box.

🎶izzy's in a box 🎶izzy's in a box🎶izzy's in a box🎶

izzy was never a hero of this show. he was a villain and then a side character on a rushed arc to redemption for the specific purpose of making him into the kind of man who could apologize to ed for being a shit. but that's hard to swallow for people who were convinced he was always right, so. also let's be honest: they don't give a shit about the other disabled people on this show. a bunch of them were trying to figure out a way for it to be wee john who was killed, and kristian is actually a queer disabled actor. they're just mad it was their little guy who they latched onto.

also yeah like four of the writers are nonbinary people of color, and there's definitely more queer writers on the team, but somehow this was totally the decision of a straight white guy. alright folks come on now to quote your idol pack it in.

gentlebeard's ending is them deciding to give their relationship a go in a more relaxed and sedate environment than the high stress locale of a pirate ship. their friends ARE going to come see them again. just because they don't all live together in the same frat house i mean ship doesn't mean they're suddenly forever alone. also there is nothing comphet about shacking up with your gay lover in a soon to be literal loveshack.

but like you can't expect these folks to care about ed or stede or gentlebeard or anything that doesn't center their white man of choice. the only thing you can do is block because anyone still throwing a fit a week later is simply not worth it.

no need to apologize anon. return to my inbox whenever.

#the izcourse #izzy critical #fandom fuckery #this one is getting those tags to filter out bc i have to tag this with fandom tags to avoid my friends seeing it and getting spoiled lol #ofmd #ofmd s2 spoilers

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adobe-outdesign · 5 months

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happiny/chansey/blissey review? (what do you think they look like? i think chansey looks like an axolotl)

Happiny is one of those baby Pokemon that just kind of... exist. It's got one or two little conceptual things going on with it to play into the egg theme—namely, it kind of looks like a boiled egg in a cup—but I don't really feel like it adds a ton to this line, especially when Blissey exists.

That said, Happiny isn't terrible or anything. It's at least visually distinct from the rest of the line, sporting a ponytail, blush cheeks, and a wrap-around pouch. I also think that it's kind of cute that it carries the oval stone it needs for evolution around because it thinks its an egg, even if it's a bit weird that a baby Pokemon would already be displaying broody behaviors.

However, I don't like the pouch that much, mostly because it sticks out from the body in a weird way that makes it look like it's wearing pants or something. I get the egg cup idea, but it doesn't quite work biologically. It's the one part of the design that really throws it for me. It's also strangely complex for a baby Pokemon—maybe if it had less hair or something.

On the plus side, the Happiny design we got is still a massive improvement over its beta design, which has a lot of bizarre elements like two egg pouches (shouldn't it have less instead of more) and a heart on its head that only looks like a heart and absolutely nothing else at all, no siree. I do kind of like how it keeps Chansey's frills and makes them bigger, and the face was a bit cuter, but nothing else about this design was working.

Chansey itself, however, is pretty decent. The idea of a Pokemon carrying around eggs to help cheer up other Pokemon is pretty sweet, and it carrying an egg in its pouch feels fairly natural, even though pouches and eggs usually don't go together.

The other thing I like about Chansey is that it has a tail. It's a minor thing, but I like that unexpected anatomical detail—makes it feel a bit more like a living creature. It helps that the tail shape is mimicked by some "hair" on the head that looks a bit like axolotl gills or something. Granted, it's a bit weird that it has no tail, gains a tail, and then looses it again (Blissey loosing the tail is justified because it becomes more egg-like as it evolves, but Happiny not having a tail is a bit odder), but either way, it's fun.

Unfortunately, Chansey's one of those Pokemon who's design has shifted over the years, and not in a good way. The above RB art shows it with A) more frills, which I like a lot, and B) a very different face. It's kind of a subtle change, but modern Chansey having a chin, smaller eyes, and a bigger mouth is kind off off-putting in a way. It's just a smidge too much detail, given the lack of definition anywhere else in the design.

I think I might be one of the few people out there that prefers Blissey to Chansey. Like I said, I like Chansey's tail and it's fine conceptually, but I don't know, something about Blissey's design feels a bit better. It might be that the colors are better (more white in the design is contrasted with a much bolder pink), but I also like the additions of a color split halfway down the body—basically making it an inverse of its egg pouch.

I also like how it has the little feathery accents, which basically serve as an extension of Blissey's frills. These also come together to look very vaguely like a nurses' uniform, which is a nice detail conceptually, given that they often are used in Pokemon centers and their whole thing, aside from the egg, is caring for others.

Also, Blissey's face is a bit less uncanny, so that helps.

There's also beta Blissey, which was orange(?) and had a more distinct apron, as well as keeping the tail. I do like the head frills on this design a bit more, but the apron shape is weird (the pouch is really far up, and the deep cute makes it look like it's not wearing a "shirt"), those frills on the side don't really look like frills at all, and the oval shape is odd as it makes it less egg-like. The design we got is a much better, cleaned-up version of this.

Overall, I'm not a big fan of Happiny, but Chansey is a fun concept and Blissey does a good job expanding on it both visually and thematically. Good stuff.

#happiny #chansey #blissey #pokemon #pokemon reviews

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mamaangiwine · 9 months

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Hey about your post on the Barbie movie. Totally open to you still disagreeing and hearing why but as someone who saw the movie I just wanted to give perspective.

Obviously the consequences in Barbieland are just cute and funny but ultimately bad but I'm having a hard time seeing how comparing smallpox blankets (a tool of imperialism used to kill people) to infecting a place with patriarchy (another system of oppression that also kills people in real life) is a harmful metaphor.

I agree in a lot of ways the movie completely fails to actually address things like race and class to solely focus on sexism and it has been heavily criticized for being libfem. However, is it not analogous to compare two systems of oppression that obviously work differently but are both very bad?

I appreciate you reading my ask and hearing me out. I look forward to understanding your perspective better.

Thank you for being respectful.

So firstly, as you said the movie has been widely criticized for not touching on racism or classism- which is honestly something I expected. It's The Barbie Movie, after all. I wasn't expecting a particularly in depth exploration of that kind of intersectional feminism. No... Barbie's "intersectionality" lies in its optics. There is a trans Barbie, disabled Barbie, and various woc Barbies. Which begs the question- in a movie that wishes to show case its inclusivity and celebrate that inclusivity via the diversity of it's Barbies...in a movie that wishes to suggest "intersectionality" through the diversity of its Barbies...who then is missing in this film?

There were no Native Barbies.

Honestly, that's not unusual for me as a Native. I didn't expect to see Native Barbie. I don't expect to see Natives in much of anything that doesn't take place in "the old west" or some kind of historical drama (that is, if it isn't being written and/or made by Ndns). Up until recently, people didn't even question why we hardly got to play indigenous roles in films (Johnny Depp as Tonto comes to mind).

Which is why it's so sad that the only representation we get in a film that is trying to tout its "inclusivity" is a throw-away line that references our suffering and the genocide we endured...and are still feeling the effects of to this day.

Tragedy is not one for one. Oppression is not one for one either. I don't agree that small pox was a "tool" of imperialism. Small pox, once colonizers realized they could weaponize it, was a failed "means to an end". It was just genocide. Plain and simple. Also, "patriarchy" is a broad concept that affects multiple people differently (going back to intersectionality) whereas Native genocide only affects Natives. Including the imposition of western, white patriarchy on both Native women and men. If one is going to make comparisons, they need to be prepared to take responsibility for ALL of what that comparison implies.

Let's not forget though, this wasn't just a "comparison". This was a part of a joke. Granted the joke didn't center around smallpox, but it was still placed within an exchange of dialog in which, yes, they are discussing patriarchy, but still funny-silly-goofy things are happening. For one thing, even if you could make the argument that there is an analogy to be made, there is a time and place for things- and it certainly isn't in a comedy centering around two white actors.

There isnt an analogy to be made though. The truth is, this "joke" is apart of a long problematic history of white women (like Greta Gerwig) using the history of minorities as a means to compare their own oppression to atrocities that they were also historically complicit in. White men were not the only one who stood to gain from Native Genocide. It's also a way for white feminists to wiggle their way out of discussions of their own privelege and take accountability for a system that they benefit from.

I would like to posit a question here, if I may... Would you have felt comfortable with a reference about the Holocaust in the Barbie movie? Would you have felt comfortable with a reference about Jim Crow in the Barbie movie? Particularly refenced via a line that had no bearing to the plot or any real attatchment to a character's world view or identity? That could have gone unmissed from the final product as a whole? If the thought made you pause or cringe, that's understandable. That's how it should be.

Personally, I feel Greta Gerwig felt she could make this comparison because Natives are not always treated as a living group of people suffering under colonialism, racism, and patriarchy- it's for the same reasons we are only seen in movies set in the "old west"- we are often thought of as something from the past. As though we are already gone. This makes it so Ndns have to work especially hard for our voices to be heard sometimes, because the genocide we experienced wasn't just about exterminating us but convincing people we had already been exterminated.

For all these reasons, Native voices should be elevated, Native actors should be hired, and Native History should be respected.

#ndn #native americans #barbie

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fandomfluffandfuck · 10 months

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That picture of Sebastian in the bathroom with the perfectly popped nip… I bet he pinched and pulled himself to get ready for the photo. He KNOWS what we like.

This picture

from Michael Fisher on Instagram stories

Sebastian takes a moment to prepare himself before taking snapping the picture. First, he reties his hair back into its slicked back bun, smoothing the flyaways. Then, he centers the pendant on his necklace. And, yeah, right before he poses himself for the camera, he's careful to touch his chest through his tight, ribbed, sleeveless undershirt. Both to make sure that his nipples are nice and present, teasing, in his photo but also to give his hands something to do, flexing his fingers and temping his veins to pop a little more than they already do with the warm weather.

It feels nice enough to sigh. Sebastian lets his eyes drift shut, continuing to touch his chest for longer than necessary to get his nipple to harden. With a breathy laugh, Seb notices as he flicks open his eyes--remembering what he's here to do--that he's getting a little too into the feeling. So, improvising, Sebastian shoves his other hand into his pocket, hiding what else is getting hard. And he's not even touching himself there 👀 (Chris has just trained him too well, appreciating how sensitive Sebastian's nipples are)

Once he's ready, Seb takes enough until he's got something he's happy with. Then, he sends the best shot to Chris. He doesn't bother with a caption because he knows his man will appreciate it, no explanation needed. But, also because he wants Chris to catch on without Sebastian having to say anything. It's more fun that way.

Catch onto what exactly?

Oh, just to the little fact that when Chris showered at Sebastian'a NYC apartment the night before Sebastian flew to Paris and Chris went back to Boston, Seb snatched his necklace--swiping it from the bathroom counter as the water ran, providing the perfect amount of white noise to cover Seb's plans.

After he finished in the bathroom, Chris was so distracted by Sebastian spreading him out on the bed--face down and going to town on his ass, rimming him until he was cumming with a bitten off shout--that he didn't notice his missing necklace. He couldn't think. Who can blame him?

So, Chris didn't notice his beloved necklace was gone until he was more than half to Massachusetts. A little sad to find it nowhere in his bags (he checked when he pulled over for a bathroom break), Chris had texted Sebastian about it. But Seb was in the air--it wasn't like he was going to search his apartment, and Chris would get the answer right away. Nor was Chris going to drive all the way back to New York just to let himself in with his keys and turn his boyfriend's apartment upside down to find it, so... he'd have to do without it for a little while.

Sebastian gave that to him! Chris didn't want to lose it, but it'd be fine.

I'll be fine, Chris reminded himself.

Now--

There is it!

His necklace has appeared around Sebastian's throat, the pendant resting against his chest. Teasingly hidden behind the placement of Seb's phone and hand. But. Chris knows.

Chris also knows that in the other photos that have already come out and he has already very unshyly drooled over--it's not so hidden.

Everyone can see it.

Sebastian might be wearing a ring engraved with SS--his initials, Sebastian Stan, but he might as well also be wearing something stamped with CE, too. Chris Evans. There is it. Hanging around his neck. More than enough tangible evidence.

Sebastian is wearing his necklace.

Sebastian wearing something of his should proclaim that Sebastian is owned. But...

Here Chris is, sitting at home, his eyes glued to his phone, constantly readjusting his glasses, pushing them up his nose while his jaw is on the floor. His thoughts racing about how he feels like the kept boy. Not the other way around. He feels like the owned one.

Seb is showing off. He's at a fashion show--class and money and fame is attached to his attendance. But he's showing off more than that, he's showing off that he has someone. Someone he buys expensive gifts of jewelry for, someone he can tear to pieces with just his tongue, and someone he can tease with suggestive photos that should be innocent if not for the tension between them. If not for Chris' intense attraction to his... everything. Hands. Arms. Hair. Chest. Face. Everything.

All at once, contining to stare at the insane collection of pixels on his phone screen, Chris wants nothing more than to be pinned to their bed by Sebastian's bulk. He had him just yesterday, but he wants him again. Now.

Chris feels in in his whole body--his legs tense, itching to wrap around his waist and feel the jolt of each and every mean thrust of his hips; his fingers twitch, holding his phone but wanting to hold Sebastian's head instead with his fingers in Seb's thick, silky hair as it falls around their faces, curtaining them into their own little world; his mind urges him that he wants to have his own necklace dangle in his face as he lays back under Sebastian, being broken apart with the way Sebastian gives it to him. Hard and good. Making him forget his name.

He could never forget Sebastian's name. He wouldn't. Never. Not even if Sebastian weren't fucking him while still wearing that stupid fucking ring stamped with his initials. SS.

Sebastian. Stan.

Chris is gonna scream his name when he gets home. He swears it. Right then and there. Christ. He groans behind clenched teeth. He doesn't know how to respond with anything civil, he might as well go to the bathroom and take his own much less "innocent" photo. What else is he supposed to do?

Also, here's your reminder of what Chris exists with this Sebastian:

How's he look so young and puppy? Why does Seb look so daddy? What the fuck is going on?!

#asks #sebastian stan #chris evans #evanstan #rpf #real person fanfiction #bottom chris #top sebastian #fandomfluffandfuck

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vertheler · 3 months

Text

Halloween Together

Summary: A bit tired after trick or treating, you lay down at the park.

You grabbed your hat, pulling it onto your head with your white-gloved hands. You grinned, excited to get out of the house finally, and show off your costume. Your wig was a bit itchy, but it calmed down after a minute. Adjusting your Mad Hatter coat, you walked out of the bathroom and outside the house.

"Woah" I stared at you for a moment.

I was waiting outside your house because my costume was real easy to get into. The costume I was wearin g was from my newest phase, Hamilton. The coat was dark blue velvet, and the lace around my throat seemed extremely itchy, and you wondered how I wasn't scratching.

"You look amazing- How'd you get the costume to look so well made?" My jaw was still down as I turned, leading you down the stairs.

"What house do you start with?"

"mhmm" You mumble.

"Fine, if you insist on being indecisive, we can go back in."

"Okayyy." You slouch a bit as we turn to the house on the left, knocking, getting candy, leaving, etc.

It starts to get a bit repetitive after a while, so we go to a park in the neighborhood.

The park is obviously made for kids, being less than 3 feet off the ground, and is less like a playground, and more like a single slide and climbing toy. The plastic is extremely bleached from the sun, with a bit of graffiti. All around and under the park are woodchips, and a little further away, grass surrounds the whole thing.

We flop down on the grass, and you spring up almost immediately.

"Ew, it's wet." You attempted to wipe your coat, eventually giving up, setting it on the wood chips to prevent it from getting any wetter.

I took off my lace neck tie, giving my burning neck a well deserved scratch.

The stars are glistening above us, but it's a bit hard to see with all the lamp posts around the park. The barking of a dog could be heard nearby, but as it was getting late the owner most likely took them inside, since barking stopped.

I turned to face you on the grass, stretching my arms. I had overestimated the space between us, because my hands accidentally hit your side.

"Hugh-" You made a small squeak.

"What was that? Are you alright?" I grabbed your side, looking to see if something had happened.

"Stop-" You attempted to move my hand, but instead of falling down, it moved toward the center of your stomach.

"O-Okay, now you definitely know what you're doing-"

It was a bit hard to see my grin with the yellowish lighting from the lamps.

"You're a bit more sensitive tonight? Maybe because you're tired. Go ahead, you can try to sleep."

You obviously didn't believe me, so you scooted a bit farther away.

"Aww, come on." I followed, going a bit behind you.

There was a feather-light touch on your shoulder, slowly reaching down toward your armpits. A couple giggles were reaching your throat now, but you fought the urge, not willing to reward me.

"Doesn't the giggle bank already own enough already? Can't I just have a few?" I said. The grass wasn't helping at all, basically acting like way too many extra fingers to help my cause. Everywhere you touched the grass was a bit tingly.

My fingers dragged down your sides, and you tensed up immediately, sticking your stomach out and away from me, trying to avoid my fingers.

An invisible wall in your throat crumbled, and my fingers suddenly reached your stomach. There were no rocks in your stomach anymore, and a ton of laughter broke out.

"There's that precious smile!" I pinpointed your worst spots, and you couldn't hold back anymore.

You felt like you both didn't want to stop, but also that it was unbearable at the same time. The more you struggled the worse of a spot you seemed to be in.

Another attack, this time with something else? What was it? You couldn't look at the moment, but you could tell it was definitely doing its job.

Finally you caught a glimpse of a bit of white and curled cloth. The lace I had been wearing moments ago was following my fingers on your stomach.

Having this moment to think made you forget what situation you were in, and the lace made contact again.

"Stop! Stop!!" It felt like you couldn't breathe, but you were definitely breathing fine.

Again the grass and lace and fingers overwhelmed you, attacking from all directions. You were breathing hard enough to be able to see your breath, but you definitely did not get a breather.

Little squeals of joy and silent laughter among other things made my smug smile wider each time.

Your arms finally had the bright idea to cover your stomach, and they did so as soon as you had the smallest amount of control.

"Finally had enough?"

You blushed and mumbled something.

"What was that?" I forced you to look at me.

"N-no..." You were quieter than a mouse, but I grabbed your arms right off your chest, and behind your back.

I slowly dotted my finger down your neck, and it reached your side. A small touch at your side turned into a full on bomb, making your side hotter than the sun, as if your face wasn't already on fire.

Finally getting my so-called well deserved and not stolen reward, I gave a few more random squiggles on your stomach, helping you up off the grass. I picked up your coat and my neck-lace, half-leading, half-carrying you down the neighborhood. You had lost most of your directionality, and all of your balance, relying on me to give a soft ride home.

You rested your eyes a bit, relaxing a bit, but you definitely did not trust me enough to relax completely. A tiny smile made its way onto your lips. A night well spent.

#sfw tk blog #sfw tk community #sfw twords #sfw tickle fic #sfw tickle blog #sfw tickling community #sfw interaction only #tickle sfw #sfw tickle community #tickle fic #tickle content #tword blog #tword community #tword content #tword post #tk fic #tickle story

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cyberdragoninfinity · 4 months

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👀 would you care to talk about the symbolism of the other yugioh rivals

SMILES. i would love to. i cant speak for revolver or the bridge rivals yet and i havent seen enough arc-v to have a solid grasp on declan's symbolism yet but i will talk a little about the spinoff rivals i do know pretty well

as a sidenote, like. ok so Kaiba's main motifs and 'symbolism' is...well. centered around Blue-Eyes and dragons in general mostly, of course. And he kind of has those weird disease/virus and mild clown motifs that show up a little in his cards, and those are all plenty cool and they work for what seto kaiba needs to be! but imo that doesn't really get nearly as expanded upon either in the show itself or otherwise in official yugioh What Have You, compared to the guys who came later. i didnt have a good spot to say this otherwise so it's going here lol of course thats just my opinion on the matter

Chazz: anyway, so something I notice is explored a bit more with the spinoff rivals is that they'll have these motifs that actually get extended into their archetypes in the actual tcg, and it's so SO cool to see. Chazz/Manjoume has his whole iconic thunder motif of course, and he also gets that little s2 stint with the Society of Light giving him a brief Bright Distressing White motif and BOTH OF THOSE. HAVE BEEN INVOKED WITH ARMED DRAGON LV 10 CARDS

i really especially love Armed Dragon Thunder Lv. 10-- its whole effect is the Manjoume Thunder chant!!! IT'S DOING THE POSE. IT'S SO FUN.

and of course also Chazz is a character very tied to the symbolism of "weak" duel monsters, of "weak" decks, one-star monsters and the Ojamas especially, and that in general is such a fun spin on a yugioh rival. we do a complete 180 from Guy Tied Almost Exclusively to Very Powerful Dragon to Guy So Symbolically Correlated With Weak Monsters He Dresses Up as One in His Last (and one of his best) Duels. peace and love on planet finding strength in the unremarkable

Jack: ok so Jack is an interesting one. He's very symbolically tied to being the 'King' and to underworldly draconic hellfire imagery [which in of itself is really cool, and I think there's some very interesting dichotomy in there with how Jack's tied with a fiery hellish dragon motif but Yusei's tied to a cosmic heavenly dragon motif...i really love Jack and Yusei as narrative counterparts.] But the thing is, in the same vein Jack's tied deeply to Burning Soul-- the issue is 5D's also very clearly puts forward that the Burning Soul iconography is also tied (and in large part originated) with the Legendary Signer...who is. an indigenous brown South American guy.

And they. gave it to one of the arguably whitest Yugioh characters. Erm. 🥴 classic yugioh racially questionable moments !This is what I mean when I say the spinoff rivals have far more interesting symbolism to me--sometimes the interest is out of uhhhh not great narrative handling!! Gives even more to chew on.

Shark: yeah Shark is the one that makes me insane. There's no way to talk about him and his symbolism without getting into deep Zexal Spoilers, so. Be mindful of that. I'm gonna talk about him and Kite under the cut

ok so Shark is like the goddamn yugioh rival symbolism rivalry gold rush. You trip into the Reginald Ryoga "Shark" Kamishiro Kastle motifs and symbolism well and youre falling for ten thousand years. You cant talk about him without having to get into him also being Nasch, and then you have to talk about the Barian Emperors, and that second you get into that is the second you get sandblasted with some of the most insane symbolism yugioh writers have every cooked up.

There is so much goddamn demonology imagery and motif and symbolism jammed into the Barians I will be here all day getting into it. NOT EVEN GETTING INTO THE BUDDHISM INFLUENCE TOO. You cannot convince me that the Barian Emperors aren't supposed to correlate with the Seven Princes of Hell, alongside their deeply implied Seven Deadly Sin symbolism (and the Ursa Major symbolism too of course--it's what they get their names from!) To me I think Nasch is supposed to be tied to Leviathan especially, being an aquatic-based monster, but he could also correlate to Lucifer, playing on the pop cultural idea of Lucifer being the leader of Hell (and in demonology, typically associated with pride...pretty big trait of Shark's!)

That's just me barely scratching the surface with him. He's got the demonology symbolism, and Ursa Major motif, and seven deadly sins symbolism, and the sea predator symbolism and motif, and the royalty symbolism (good god his DUB SURNAME IS FUCKING KASTLE. THE PALER PART OF HIS HAIR LOOKS LIKE A CROWN.) And also all the insane numerology symbolism Zexal is leaking out the ears with. he's the fucking best. Why did they make this 14 year old so jampacked with this shit. it RULES.

Kite: it's so neat that Zexal has two rivals effectively. ANYWAY. Kite doesn't have as much 'oh my god it keeps going. it keeps going. oh holy shit' tier symbolism as whatever going on with Shark but he's got some stuff going on; I think it's especially cool that he and Mizar/Mizael have this "light vs. time" motif going on with their dragons, a Galaxy-Eyes arms race based on the speed of light. In general Kite's really associated with light, in the the very scientific sense, be it the way his jacket turns white when he duels, his Photon-filled deck, HELL even literally the way his eyes get damaged and his vision suffers is arguably tied to it, and it rocks. I feel like Kite is (esp since Zexal is supposed to parallel DM in a lot of ways) really the rival meant to parallel Kaiba the most, even down to having a dragon ace monster based around something bright (white dragon, photon dragon,) but I think they really took the time to expand on that inherent symbolism and show it off in even more ways narratively than we see with Kaiba. it's just cool the more i think about it the more i really like what they did with kite.

#THIS GOT LONG. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE !!!!!!!!!!!! HERE ARE WORDS #ygo posting #asks #anonymous #when i know about declan i will have things to say i am sure. for now im rotating these four guys around #dana's ygo bible study

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tumblezwei · 3 months

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Hold on I'm about to go crazy again

during the warp jump to Penacony, scenes from the quest flash briefly on screen. We're first shown Acheron after our first encounter with her

then the moment right before Firefly's death where she turns to look at Trailblazer

a chessboard for some reason, the first image rattling around along with the turbulence of the Express

Stelle...looking at something? Outside of the Express? The angle looks like she's on the left side of the couch, near where the memokeeper for MoC stands. Or maybe on the other side. Either way this isn't a shot of her sitting on the couch like she is during the warp jump.

after that is Robin from after we crash land in the Golden Hour

then Acheron again from the same scene but played in reverse, interrupted by TV static.

I think the most base level theory we can craft with this involved Acheron and her multiple red dialogue options. Something about time loops, or multiple iterations of the same story happening at once. Personally, I don't have enough ammo in my arsenal to argue one way or another, but some things here interest me.

The first is the chessboard. I don't remember this being shown in the story quest at all, and as far as I know there isn't a chessboard on the Express. I mean, even if there is that doesn't mean anything to me atm. What does is the positions of the pieces.

We first get a close up shot of the black rook, and then a wider shot showing the state of the game board. My average knowledge of chess just tells me this looks like a stalemate. Both opponents have the same pieces left on the board, protecting their kings in the exact same way. There's potentially a trap being set up by the black rook to capture the white rook, and the white king has moves outside of its shield of pawns.

Since we haven't seen the chessboard or that shot of Stelle in the quest, my guess is that they're from future events we have yet to see. But I also think the order in which these shots appear mean something, or else why would they be included? Maybe we can view Firefly as the black pawn and the Trailblazer as the white rook. An intentional sacrifice to draw someone into a trap. After all, Sam and Firefly were working together until he abandoned her for some unknown reason, and then attacked us after we spent time finding Firefly's traces.

But using that interpretation would put us as the Trailblazer on the white side, with the king moving out of position. And I'll admit right here I don't know what that would mean. Unseen allies, maybe? Or an implication that we're entering into dangerous territory at a disadvantage? I Dunno.

Moving on I'm interested in the last sequence with Acheron. The TV static can quickly be connected to the pile of TVs we see in the primal dreamscape where we fight Something Unto Death. And the scene being played backwards brings to mind a tape being rewound. I swear to god I saw some text saying something like "you're not watching the TV, the TV is watching you" but I can't fucking remember where I saw it. So take that bit with a massive grain of salt until I can recall where I read it from, but I'm keeping it in mind.

I also think this sequence being bookended by our first encounter with Acheron is important. Is it evidence for some sort of time loop? Who knows.

Also also, that shot of Firefly is similar to the shot we get of Robin. Centered in their chests (where Firefly was pierced, and Robin has her wound) and obscuring their faces. This could have just been foreshadowing their shared fates as victims of Something Unto Death. But maybe, if my chess interpretation holds any water, could be foreshadowing Robin and Aventurine acting in similar roles as Firefly and Sam, i.e., bait for the Trailblazer.

anyways, I'm going nuts.

#honkai posting #honkai star rail #hsr spoilers #honkai star rail spoilers #2.0 spoilers #penacony spoilers

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let-us-cultivate-our-garden · 1 year

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How do you feel about the representation ( or lack thereof) in TOH?

I'm not sure to which representation you're referring to but I will try to be comprehensive. Just a note: representation in media is highly subjective; one person may feel seen by a show's representation, another may not. For example, as an ace person, I don't feel like Lilith is good ace rep because it is never even mentioned in the show. It's only in supplemental materials. If your show is going to tout itself as being diverse then the bare minimum you should do is put that diversity front and center so that even the most casual fan can see it.

If you like Lilith's representation or any other character from the show, then I will not take that from you.

The rest will be under the cut.

The biggest draw the show has is its queer representation; we've come a long way from Korrasami, now we have our main character in a sapphic romance that forms a key part of both characters. We have pride flags as a casual part of the background, non-binary characters, and no one angsts over being queer, it's just a normal state of being. I feel like this is the strongest aspect of the show in terms of representation and I'm glad people are feeling seen as a result of it.

Where I feel the show needed more work on was racial/ethnic diversity. TOH is a rather white show; despite Luz being biracial and having poc friends, most other significant characters are white-coded. Eda, Lilith, Amity, Belos, and Hunter are all white or white-coded characters and they take up significant portions of the overall story while Gus, Willow, Raine, and Darius are in supporting roles. This is especially egregious with Gus and Willow since they're the first witches that Luz befriends but they don't have as much focus in the later seasons, especially once Hunter is introduced. It's also worth noting that any kind of character development the non-white characters have is nearly always in relation to white characters: Willow and Amity, Gus and Hunter, Raine and Eda, and Darius and Hunter/the previous Golden Guard.

Another thing that others have pointed out is that despite the number of poc in key roles, the overall aesthetic of the Boiling Isles is very Euro-centric, even in the Deadwardian Era (its name a pun on an English monarch). It's such a missed opportunity to not play around with the overall aesthetic of your show and have it be more unique looking, maybe take influence from real world cultures and apply that to how magic is used based on a character's background.

The show is also touted for its disability representation and neurodivergent characters; however the former is more of a metaphor and the latter wasn't intentional. Fans noticed that Luz displays signs of ADHD and Dana admitted that she wasn't written that way but approves of the interpretation. It's great that fans can project their own head canons and for the creator to be fine with it, but it would have been even better if she was written that way from the start; really show how people perceive her as different because of how she is. We got some of this with how she struggled in school and how she loves learning but not about what the boring topics in school but by then, it's rather late. I feel like the show had a missed opportunity showing how isolated Luz was in the human realm; we got her high jinks and school pranks but nothing really that would make her an outcast and thus want to leave Earth.

Eda's curse as a metaphor for disability has been well-received but it makes me wonder what a disabled witch would look like in the show? Someone who was born with weak magic (Willow doesn't count she was in the wrong track). How would they navigate the track system? What aid would they need to perform basic magic? What prejudice would they face?

We get that in the form of Hunter, who while technically not a witch, functions as a disabled witch. And we get how he had to work twice as hard to earn any decent respect but it's not really because he lacks magic, it's more due to the fact that the coven heads perceive favoritism as the emperor's nephew.

We get some more challenges a disabled witch would face when Eda loses her magic but it doesn't really go anywhere and she utilizes her harpy form and seems to get along fine.

When I think about how disabilities are usually represented as just metaphors in popular media, I think of Toph. In Avatar, Toph is literally blind, there's no metaphor here. But the show is extremely clever depicting how she navigates the world using earth bending and justifies why she is the master of her craft because she was taught by the original earth benders and uses it ALL the time.

TOH could have done something similar by having a character with a real world disability and think of a creative way to show how they utilize the magic in their universe.

Basically, the show is very good at depicting queerness, but could have been better in its disability representation, and definitely dropped the ball on its poc characters.

#the owl house #toh critical #toh criticism #diversity #representation in media #long post #luz noceda #emperor belos #lilith clawthorne #toh hunter #eda clawthorne #amity blight #willow park #gus porter

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mastersoftheair · 1 month

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Sorry but am I the only one that thought that episode…sucked? Like it was straight up bad. Horrible pacing, no wrap up of all the random characters and plot lines they’ve thrown around all season (the tuskegee airmen, Westgates spying, literally all the guys beside like the main 4). (Seriously it makes me so mad that the three redtails got all of 5 seconds of screen time, almost no lines. Literally what was the point of introducing them other than to pretend the show was iNcLuSiVe) Even at the end of BoB and the Pacific you get a much better idea of what happened to all the remaining guys. In this they’re like what happened to DeMarco or Hambone or Brady or (insert character here) we don’t know! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The concentration camp scene felt shoehorned in compared to how it was done in BoB. Unless that actually happened to Rosie (which i haven’t heard anything about) but it was just like.. ok? It all felt so rushed and emotionless to me. Maybe I’ve just fallen out of love with MoTA but it’s been downhill for me since episode 6 or so.

i already made a little (read: long) post-finale write-up here, where i talk about the use of the tuskegee airmen, l'sandra, and overall editing/pacing issues i felt the show had. but i don't agree with the notion that adding the redtails was in any way insincere or trying to halfass being "iNcLuSiVe", i just think they suffer from this show's obvious time constraints. and to summarize what i wrote in my linked post, there's a limit to what white writers/directors/producers can do when creating a story about black people. there are some stories i'd feel uncomfortable with them telling on their own, truth be told. dee rees wasn't the sole nonwhite director, but she Was the only black one. i think she did her job well given the limitations and i appreciate that they let her direct those episodes, rather than leaving it up to a team of white people trying their best to tell a black story.

the worst i can say about the finale is that it didn't feel like That strong of finale, tho i wouldn't go as far to say it "sucked" or call it "straight up bad". i liked it plenty, it's just the weakest of the hbo war finales imo.

as for the concentration camp scene, artistic license was taken with both shows. unlike what's seen in the BoB, easy company wasn't the first to arrive at kaufering, and there's 0 mention of the all-japanese american 552nd who helped them liberate it). similarly, rosie rosenthal did assist in liberating those camps, though it would've been after the events shown this episode. idk if he saw one in that up-close way seen in this episode, but he could've (i should research this when i have time). plus, it would've felt weird Not having him acknowledge them at all. "shoe-horned" is an odd term to use here imo, as both scenes more-or-less center a jewish character (BoB's liebgott and MotA's rosie). the former show has survivors the characters can help, the latter shows no one left to help. the former has all of easy company there, the latter has rosie there all alone. rosie's scene felt deeply personal in that way. at the end of the day, both scenes are communicating different things. that doesn't make one better than the other when they aren't trying to be identical. (disclaimer, i'm not jewish, so i'd be interesting hearing from the perspective of someone who wrt whether or not they felt it was "shoe-horned")

i can understand if you've disliked the show post-episode 6 (and episode 6 was a very strong episode i'm ngl). eps 7 and 8 were weaker in many ways, even to me, so i get it. everyone's entitled to their own opinion (i'd be a hypocrite saying otherwise). just understand that this blog is run by someone who overall enjoys this show despite its flaws! basically, i encourage you to take this energy and make your own posts.

#masters of the air #hbo war #e9 #asks #long post #masters of the air spoilers #mota spoilers #all the hbo war finales are different. i don't think MotA's is as strong but like #my fav hbo war show is still BoB and even Then i don't think it has a better finale than TP. and i dislike a lot of TP! like A Lot!#and Even Then we don't get a good idea about what happens to a lot of the minor-er characters in TP once they leave #anyone who isn't sledge or leckie (rip basilone) is hand-waved-'they went home'-away #not every show needs a sandlot ending w/ a voiceover going:#'[NAME] got really into the [INSERT DECADE] and no one ever saw him again' like they did to webster (rip webster)#and again! i'm mixed about the redtails. but i can Very Clearly See this show getting released without including them #which wouldve left many people (justifiably!) upset that they weren't shown when they were Literally there in the same pow camp #i'll give the hbo war team a lot of shit about a lot of things (despite the enduringly positive energy i try to keep up here)#but i Have to give MotA props for Trying. i don't see faux inclusion i just see it as not quite hitting the mark but an attempt was made #and i think that's worth Something given neither BoB or TP bothered trying #(like i think there was a missed opportunity in TP not mentioning what's happening to japanese americans on the home front)#this got away from me (i'm also opinionated) but while i can agree with you about how the show feels rushed #i do take issue with the idea that they were pretending to be inclusive. i'll blame money time and covid19 before i blame bad intention #maybe that's controversial here but it Is my blog. so.

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mdzs-owns-my-ass-i-guess · 1 year

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Gambling man

When Nie Huaisang all but dragged him out of his bed and away from his sappy, romantic K-drama marathon, Wei Wuxian had expected to be taken to some cafe, bar, night club or something down-to-earth like that - not the highest end casino in town in a limo that Nie Huaisang definitely shouldn't have been able to afford. Not after his older brother cut off his allowance due to his abysmal grades, that is.

"A-Sang, how did you even pay for this? Did you start selling drugs or something?"

Huaisang opened his fan in offense. He had dressed in his fanciest clothes and looked every bit as elegant as he did androgynous. "I'd never step on Xue Yang's turf like that, and he's my best dealer anyway, it would be a breach of trust."

Before Wei Wuxian could say anything (since when was Huaisang buying drugs, let alone from Xue Yang of all people? There was no way he didn't know of the massive scandal that broke out at their university over him), Huaisang continued, "And anyway, I only spent half of my allowance on this, it was a bargain!"

"A-Sang, half of your allowance is like 400$."

"Exactly! So cheap! Plus, we can't just show up to the Cloud Recesses in a taxi or something, it's bad taste and we're not poor!"

Wei Wuxian sent him a pointed look. "We are, though. I mean, I am."

A shrug. "Yeah but at least you're finally no contact with that terrible woman! And you have me! I'm also poor but not as poor as you - no offense."

"None taken, it's the truth. But since we're both basically broke, why are we going to a casino?"

Huaisang waved his fan closed. "To get rich, of course! Like hell am I going to live off 800$ every month! That's not even enough for makeup, do you know how much some good foundation costs nowadays?!"

"Uhh, no, not really..."

The fan was pointed so close in his face that Wei Wuxian felt Nie Huaisang might poke his eyes out with it. "Of course not, you people with good skin just don't get it! Da-Ge didn't even want to hear it! And all because old teacher Lan has it out for me!"

"He doesn't, A-Sang, you just only showed up to his class once and slept through it... never turned in an assignment, never showed up for the exam-"

"Who wakes up at 6 am to attend his lectures?"

"Me, Lan Zhan-"

"Okay, let me rephrase that: who in their right mind wakes up at 6 am to attend his lectures?"

The limo stopped in front of the large, lit up establishment. It looked every bit as luxurious and grandiose at night as it did during the day, white marble and light blue accents, the family crest serving as the logo on its large glass doors.

"What if we lose the money we do have?"

"Ridiculous! I never lose! Especially not when I'm wearing my tightest pair of pants. Have a little faith in me, A-Ying, I've been doing this for a long time! Come on in, and try to look as if you belong here!"

Wei Wuxian ran a hand through his hair, trying to tame it. "And how do I even do that?"

Huaisang opened his fan and undid the front two buttons of his silk shirt. "I don't know, just be self-centered and entitled I guess."

"So like Jin Zixuan."

"Exactly like Jin Zixuan!"

---

Nie Huaisang hadn't been kidding, he really was a pro - of course, he was surprisingly skilled playing all sorts of games, from the roulette to blackjack and poker, but if he just so happened to have a losing hand, he knew how to bat his eyelashes or wiggle his assets enough to still win something in the end.

"Men are easiest to distract." Huaisang instructed as he pocketed yet another win to claim at the exit. "Women are a bit more... subtle, and we're not in a position to play the long game right now. Anyway, you try it too, your ass is fatter than mine."

"Let's get a drink first, I'm too sober for this."

But just as they're about to order, Wei Wuxian noticed Nie Huaisang paling, as if he'd just seen a ghost (or their monthly expenses).

"What is- Lan Zhan?!"

Stone-faced, academic extraordinaire, rule-enthusiast Lan Wangji was just... standing there, glaring Nie Huaisang down. And he looked so good doing it, in a white suit so perfectly tailored on his body, and a loose side ponytail styled in such an elegant, subtle manner, a white ribbon woven through the-

"A-Ying, you're staring." Huaisang whispered in his ear as he hid behind him. "But he's staring too. I told you the tight shirt was a good idea."

Snapping out of it, Wei Wuxian let out an awkward laugh. "Uh, what a surprise to meet you here, Lan Zhan, I never took you as a gambling guy."

Nie Huaisang sighed in Wei Wuxian's ear. "His family literally owns the place, how do you not know?"

With a half mouth, Wei Wuxian replied, "I don't frequent the casino world like you rich people, I have a retail job!"

"Wei Ying. What brings you here?"

"Oh just..." he felt Huaisang glare at him subtly, "...just curious, I guess? I've always been good at poker and stuff and I was bored on this Saturday night so I decided to just... drop by!"

"Mn. Have you been successful?"

"Oh, I haven't really played yet... I'm, uh, trying to get used to the... atmosphere..."

"I could accompany you if you wish."

"I-"

"HE DOES!" Nie Huaisang all but shouted, emerging from Wei Wuxian's back and pushing him ever so slightly towards Lan Wangji. "He does want your company. More than you know. But, say, Wangji-xiong, is-is your brother here tonight?"

Lan Wangji gave Huaisang a long, judgemental stare. "Yes."

"Is my brother also with him?"

"Obviously."

You could see the cold sweat form on Nie Huaisang's temples, a wide, pleading smile on his lips. "Say, why don't you go ahead and spend some quality time with A-Ying and you pretend you never saw me?"

Wei Wuxian turned slightly towards Nie Huaisang, and whispered. "Why do I feel like I'm being traded right now?"

"You are." Huaisang whispered back. "Now be a good war prize so Da-Ge doesn't behead me and I'll give you half my winnings, alright?"

Lan Wangji didn't seem to react, but he did place a very respectful hand on Wei Wuxian's lower back, pointedly refusing to look at Nie Huaisang. "Follow me."

"Where are we going?"

"The VIP."

"The VIP?!"

"Mn. I do not like playing with an audience."

"Playing cards, right?"

"..."

"Lan Zhan, that's what we'll play, right?"

"Mn."

Nie Huaisang sighed, relieved, and downed both his and Wei Wuxian's drink in one go. Then, he reapplied his Chanel lipstick and sashayed towards one of the poker tables, where he had already seen someone checking him out from afar.

He had severely miscalculated when he saw who else was among the players.

"Ah, Wen-guniang... fancy meeting you here... haha..."

Wen Qing shot him a bored look. "Drop the act, Nie Huaisang, it's embarrassing."

He clicked his fan closed and sighed. "You're really going to leave me penniless, aren't you?"

"I've already shaken Jin Zixun off half his fortune, I'll go easy on you."

"Delightful."

---

(By the end of the night, Nie Huaisang managed to win some 5K back after a debilitating loss to Wen Qing, but at least Da-Ge never found out he'd been gambling a few rooms away from him. As the saying goes, a win is a win.

Anyway, Wei Wuxian didn't come home that night, but Nie Huaisang had expected that. After all, it was high time he and Lan Wangji confessed their feelings and fucked about it - it was getting insufferable to see them both pine like some cliche romcom.

Nie Huaisang would be more than happy to take the credit for finally pushing them in the right direction (AKA towards each other and a private room), and if it just so happened to have saved his ass in the process - well, that was just his quick wit at work.

Serves you right, old teacher Lan, I'm not as much of an idiot as you think I am!)

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #writing attempts #wangxian #nhs #this was so fun to write

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mihai-florescu · 1 year

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You shouldn't approach enstars with a black and white mentality (you shouldn't approach any media like this, without nuance, but that's a conversation for another day)

I do think Akira's main skill as a writer lays in making every character appear both as a protagonist and antagonist, a duality that comes through the more you read. Which is why reading the stories that center around a certain character before making assumptions is imperative, you can't form a proper assessment when they're just background characters in other stories. (And you cannot get to know these characters just with random out of context trivia, you're gonna have to read for yourself)

I think this duality Akira puts in all the characters is also why the new antagonists in !! just feel off. Gatekeeper was supposed to be the big bad guy that not even Eichi had control over, but then the more the story progressed, the more Gatekeeper was also humanized, to the point where, as of the end of 1.5, I can't see him as a villain anymore. So then we get Priest, who doesn't even have a canon design (much like GFK, to show that we're really not supposed to sympathize with them or get attached). But this form of writing leads way to wackier plotlines in order to keep the villains, well, vile.

I personally enjoy shock writing, but you can't deny that it cheapens the impact the ! stories had. It frustrates me when people say Enstars doesn't have good writing because I genuinely think the war era stories and the repayment festival ones are brilliant. It's just that the highs are very high and the lows are very low with this game. I do think that if you're genuinely always disappointed, it's best to just distance yourself from the media altogether. But if you do wish to treat the story and its characters with empathy and care, to not reduce them to one trait, you're going to get a more fulfilling experience out of this game.

#anyway #it ends kinda abruptly cuz my plane had landed and people were beginning to get up and stuff #enstars

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adamshallperish · 8 months

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my rating of supernatural season 2

1 - in my time of dying

literally they were insane for starting a season off like this. it had everything. i appreciate in hindsight how well it set up the themes for the entire rest of the season, as well as genuinely threw me off and astonished me. i have such complicated feelings on john winchester, but jeffrey dean morgan infuses him with such sympathy that i couldn't help but feel for him. fredric lehene as azazel is also a highlight, i genuinely think he gave us one of the best performances of the season, and i wonder if we'll be seeing him back. emotionally i think this was my most evocative post of the liveblog. 10/10

2 - everybody loves a clown

while the monster in this didn't hit as hard for me, i think it did a great job of setting up the roadhouse as a central location for the show, as well as introducing us to ellen, jo, and ash (my beloved, may his memory be a fucking blessing). it was also really impactful to see sam and dean's separate ways of grieving john, as well as giving us a really interesting role reversal. showing dean as the one disillusioned with their father while sam is eager to carry on his work is very compelling, especially because it's evident (at least to me) that sam is far more like his father than dean is. i'm glad they resolved my stress about the impala because jesus christ. 8/10

3 - bloodlust

MAN this episode fucks. it has a lot of supernatural all time hits, like dean's coping mechanisms (bad), classic winchester codependency, wondering about the morality of judging all supernatural creatures as "monsters" to be exterminated, and starts setting up the tension of dean potentially having to kill his brother. unfortunately, it also introduces another kind of supernatural standard, which is its constant crimes against black people. gordon is an interesting and compelling character, but you can really tell he was the product of white writers and casting directors, because his complexities are not treated well. it's also worth noting that in this season, the majority of the recurring antagonists are black men, and the implications of that just. doesn't really sit well with me. beyond that though, the premise of the episode is really interesting. 7/10

4 - children shouldn't play with dead things

we have another like. weirdly sexually charged episode. which is par for the course in this show but it's always funny to witness wincest in its natural tongue-in-cheek habitat. i thought the monster in this was fun, and it sets up the revelation dean has about john dying for him very very well. the one sin is that y'all did not have an episode set in lawrence kansas without having the boys go visit missouri mosely? really? the disrespect. 8/10

5 - simon said

this episode did NOT have to go as hard as it did. this is like. peak supernatural. i really enjoyed andy as a character, and the further setup of the chosen children and their abilities is sick as hell. the parallels between sam & dean and andy & his brother were... appropriately bonkers. this is supernatural. we can't have a normal brotherly relationship. we got fell on black days. 10/10

6 - no exit

i have to admit that i really love jo and was glad to see her centered more in an episode, though i am begging her and dean just to get it over with and make out already. i also thought that making h. h. holmes the ghost was pretty badass. this season does a lot more with actual american folklore and history instead of just having generic monster of the week episodes, and as a huge nerd i thought that was great. the ellen and john backstory reveal was also particularly tragic. i had fun here. 7/10

7 - the usual suspects

okay this one was so much fun. this was one of the first episodes where they really shook up the formula and turned our expectations of it on its head. i also thought highlighting how in sync sam and dean are with each other through a prisoner's dilemma scenario was really clever. this show never really commits to an acab stance in a way i would have preferred, but this was the early aughts so like. it's whatever. they get close enough to it. 8/10

8 - crossroad blues

this episode excels in that it takes one of the most classic american folktales (selling your soul to the devil at the crossroads) and uses it as a fun monster premise as well as setting up the denouement. it also has a fun tribute to robert johnson, which i found pretty cool. demons seal deals with a kiss so i demand to know why the hell azazel and john didn't kiss. you know. for scientific purposes. 8/10

9 - croatoan

insane that this show managed to make a zombie apocalypse style episode without zombies or the apocalypse. it was pretty inventive, especially because i'm kind of tired of the white western idea of zombies. the conspiracies around the word croatoan are kind of funny to me because like. overwhelmingly the evidence points to the lost roanoke colony assimilating with the local american indian nations, but i'm here for a fun time not a technical time. this episode also sets up some insane lore for the end of the season with sam, as well as some classic winchester agonizing. 9/10

10 - hunted

gonna put a quick trigger warning for discussion of racism here.

this episode could have been perfect and then they dropped the ball so hard at the end that it was physically painful. it had two incredible soundtrack choices (white rabbit and supermassive black hole), what was maybe a twin peaks reference???, it girl katherine isabelle, and some really well done suspense where dean is essentially a trap baited for sam. however, the righteous justice for gordon being sam calling the cops on him so a bunch of cops roll up on a black man wildly shooting a gun into the night made me feel sick to my stomach. there's no real way to look at that as anything but racist and tone deaf. they could have handled gordon's character far better. at the time, i said that i was glad that the show didn't show its white protagonists shooting a black man in cold blood, but the last episode really negated that. ugh. i don't know if i feel good about rating this episode quite honestly, because it was really the best and worst of supernatural.

11 - playthings

HOLY FUCK. WHAT CAN I EVEN SAY THAT HASN'T ALREADY BEEN SAID. it's a homage to the shining and also like. thee wincest episode? how am i supposed to be normal about this. 100/10

12 - night shifter

i'm so glad they brought the shapeshifter mechanic back, but i don't think it was done as effectively as in skins 1x06, but maybe i just have a fixation on the erotic. anyway. i kind of struggled with the setup for this, because while it is cool, it doesn't feel as classically supernatural to me. calling sam dean's bonnie to his clyde? insane. 7/10

13 - houses of the holy

i don't really have anything coherent to say here except sam winchester prays every day. amen. 8/10

14 - born under a bad sign

ohhhh the concept of this fucked so hard, but the pacing was just really off. it felt like simultaneously this episode should have had more time with this story, but on the other hand i don't know if it should have lasted two episodes. lost time is one of my favorite tropes, and the tension that comes with demon!sam is fantastic. i just wish that this episode had hit harder for me. 7/10

15 - tall tales

i said in my liveblog that this episode felt like that one episode of merlin where gaius is possessed by a goblin, and i stand by that. honestly i understand the need for there to be lighter episodes with less heavy stakes, and it was fun to see how the brothers saw the same events from different points of view, but this episode was kind of a low point for me. it was fun, but nothing extraordinary. i did really like the detail of the trickster getting away at the end. that was fun. 6/10

16 - roadkill

okay i did not expect this episode to tear my heart out. i really liked this, i thought it was startlingly sweet and sad. mike flanagan wishes he could make ghosts realizing they're dead this good quite honestly. 10/10

17 - heart

what the fuck! 10/10

18 - hollywood babylon

this was a lot of fun! this show likes to play around with meta a lot, and i think this was probably the most well done example of it thus far. it felt like the showrunners were poking fun at themselves more than anything, which i found pretty neat. 7/10

19 - folsom prison blues

first of all. you can't fucking name your episode folsom prison blues and not even play a johnny cash song. that's not how that works. it has some genuinely fun stakes and doesn't handle the prison aspect totally awfully. we also got an alice in chains needle drop! rooster was completely misplaced contextually, but aic's one of my favorite bands and i'm just glad we got it. 7/10

20 - what is and what should never be

what the fuck part two. dean winchester breaks my heart. 8/10

21 - all hell breaks loose (part 1)

HI UH THIS IS PEAK TELEVISION. I FEEL. HUUUUUGH. they really did it! they spent the entire season telling us that sam was going to die and then the crazy sons of bitches did it! i also really genuinely enjoyed the premise, as well as the ava reveal (katherine isabelle carried), and ash and andy made me so sad. fredric lehne is pure ice as azazel. delicious episode. 10/10

22 - all hell breaks loose (part 2)

this episode made me want to commit atrocities and i'm fine. dean winchester's constant willingness to sacrifice for the ones he loves because he's so deeply convinced that he's let them down makes me want to gnaw off all my fingers. sam's maybe come back wrong? incredible. JOHN WINCHESTER WITH A STEEL CHAIR. i'm addicted to this show. 10/10

#spn #spn liveblog #supernatural season review #spn season 2 #mine

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theliterarywolf · 1 year

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God it isn't even out yet and already people are on twitter like how dare vizzie portray a sexual abuse survivor in a way that I personally don't gel with

Oh, the 'Angel Dust is bad because he doesn't fit my idea of what an SA survivor should act like' discourse has been going on for a long while now.

No, the discourse that I'm surprised has popped up is everybody showing their asses in regards to the recent design reveal for Adam. A character, mind you, that we had NO IDEA was even going to be in the show. So this is the first 100% brand new design for the project so far (or, rather, brand new if you aren't subscribed to Vivzie's Patreon, which is currently its own kettle of fish because we have some clout-chasing assholes leaking Patreon stuff despite being legally told not to).

My favorite bad takes have been:

'This would be the one time that a skinny white twink would have made sense but they couldn't even do that right!' We all know that if Adam had been a more humanoid design, these people would have still bitched.

'Why couldn't he be more accurate to a biblical angel~? This is just Blitzo 2.0~!' I mean, technically speaking, Blitzo would be Adam 2.0 since HH's pilot came first. Especially since everybody has been pointing out that we saw Adam and Lute's silhouette's during Charlie's intro song from the pilot.

Also, something something -- since when has anything relating to the Hellaverse been biblically accurate?! Last time I checked, Lucifer wasn't a duck-obsessed amusement park tycoon, Asmodeus wasn't a slutty crooner, and cherubs weren't furries!

'Lol, every Hazbin character just looks like this *insert intentionally shitty drawing*' At least with this one, I've thankfully seen some people go 'Hey, wow! Thanks for sharing your Hazbin Hotel OC with everyone~! Your art was kind of rough though, so I drew them for you~!'

Again, there are so many IPs centering around Hell and demons. I wish that people would realize they don't have to negatively focus on the Hellaverse and just go follow one of those.

#INB4 'lol stop riding Spindlehorse's dick'#as if people don't know that I've had legitimate criticisms with this IP in regards to plot #no I just don't go REE at the sight of the characters like some people on Twitter seem to

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gobusto · 9 months

Text

a fun fact about me is that our house didn't have a PC until i was about 14 -- and even then, it was shared by the whole family, and didn't have internet access for a while. my dad eventually signed up for AOL around 2001, at which point we were able to surf the web™ via a 56k dial-up connection.

however, we did have internet access prior to that… via our TV:

source: https://web.archive.org/web/20190407175637/https://www.digitalspy.com/tech/cable/a3171/ntl-cr2-interactive/

this gave us a (single, shared) email address, and access to an extremely limited number of websites, such as leisuredistrict or everyoneswelcome.

(as an aside: you could unlock "full" web access by paying an extra £5 per month, which we eventually did… but not before discovering that if someone emailed us a clickable link, we could access that site without going through the "proper" menu option!)

anyway, to compose emails, enter your leisuredistrict password, or write an everyoneswelcome post, you had to use the remote control:

source: https://web.archive.org/web/20190407173228/https://www.digitalspy.com/tech/cable/a3231/ntlhome-digital-interactive-tv/

as you can imagine this was slow and awkward. however, as the image above indicates, you could buy a special keyboard to make things easier. since my dad used to play chess via email (using a physical chess set next to the television), he ended up getting one:

source: https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/hm5pfa/these_ntl_keyboards_i_think_im_on_an_ntl/

as you might have noticed, it has a somewhat strange layout, and doesn't have a wire coming out of the back. that's because this keyboard is actually just a really big remote control; you put 4 AA batteries in the back, and it communicates with the set top box via infrared signals, just like the standard remote control would.

of course, our set top box eventually outlived its usefulness, and all of this stuff went into a storage cupboard, whereupon it was promptly forgotten about… until a few months ago, when i rediscovered the keyboard whilst my dad was clearing out some old things. as you might expect, i saved it from being sent to silicon heaven (where all the calculators go) because i am a goblin who hoards old technology.

i put it to one side for a while, but a few days ago i decided to see if it was still working. it turns out that regular webcams can pick up infrared light, so i put some batteries in it and -- success! -- several white-ish lights were visible in my laptop's webcam app whenever i pressed a key.

as such, i think it would be cool to somehow get this thing working as an actual PC keyboard. i might need to write a custom program to do this, though it seems that it might Just Work.

of course, i'd need some kind of infrared receiver device to do that, and those can be surprisingly tricky to find:

there are plenty of "infrared extender" cables online, but their USB connector is only used to draw power; they don't actually show up as a "device" on your PC.

you can apparently get infrared-receiver-to-headphone jack cables, which you're supposed to plug into a special socket on certain set top boxes… though in theory you could plug them into the microphone input port of a PC and "manually" decode the data signal via software trickery. (disclaimer: i am not an expert on Hardware, so this might be A Bad Idea, but i think that the 5V output by the microphone port would be enough to power the IR receiver…?)

the thing i actually want (an IR-to-USB device) might as well not exist because it is no longer 2005 and no-one on the planet except me gives even half a shit about connecting an IR device to a PC. well, that's not entirely true -- but the things i did find cost £30-£50, which is way above what i'd want to spend on something like this.

eventually, though, i discovered that the magic phrase to search for is "Media Center IR receiver" (or, more simply, "MCE receiver"), whereupon i found someone selling an Acer MCEIR-210 on ebay for just over £10. its due to arrive here within the next few days, so hopefully i can make this somewhat-unusual device function again.

#infrared #old tech #keyboard #old web #please read this post like its a Cathode Ray Dude video for maximum effect

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