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cocoreallylovesraiden · 2 months

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How MK1 characters sleep with their S/O (liu kang, bi han, kung lao, raiden, shang tsung)

This is very casual and nonsensical but pointless useless headcanons give me life sorry; I might do this for other characters but idk which oops

Liu Kang

- I am in-between the idea of him needing sleep at all (being a god and all), but either way I think he would be in bed with them to spend time together.

- Mattress hard like a rock, so you’d be better off laying on top of him for any kind of soft squishy comfort.

- Likes the physical pressure on being laid on, would secure you in place with a hand on the small of your back, or cradling you closer if you lay your head in his chest.

- During the summer months he would be too hot to comfortably lay on, so either he just longingly stares at you back (rip) or holds your hand in the middle of the bed.

- Wakes up/ gets out of bed at the asscrack of dawn and folds the spare blanket next to you so its like he’s still there… and then becomes annoyed that you’d rather cuddle the blanket than wake up and see him.

- Laughs at you when you want to buy more western soft pillows or fluffy blankets, but he gets them anyways and then now HE can’t sleep bc it’s weirdly soft.

- Will read as you sleep in his arms, and has resorted to using your unconscious elbows to flip the page bc his hands are being held hostage.

- Likes to watch you as you sleep and tries not to smile when you twitch from a dream, even when you drool onto the pillows; is content to do so until sunrise.

- Sometimes tho in the middle of the night when you roll over you just see two military grade flashlight beacons glowing in the dark staring at you like an eldritch monster.

- “Hello, dearest 😊.”

- He says, like you didn’t almost piss the bed in fear.

Bi Han

- Has a meticulous string of tasks and duties he must fulfil before he can even think of getting into bed, and he still manages to be under the covers same time every night.

- Becomes VERY cranky if you are not in bed with him within 15 minutes and when you eventually settle into bed, his back is turned towards you and he huffs like a dramatic housewife.

- Self-assigned big spoon (non-negotiable) and loves resting his face in the crook of your neck, his favourite way to rest after a long day. He isn’t the best with words (in terms of emotional vulnerability) and uses little actions to let you know how he feels.

- His hair gets EVERYWHERE. It’s in his mouth. It’s in YOUR mouth. If you have long hair, have fun waking up 20 minutes earlier to sleepily untangle your newfound spiderweb of human hair.

- Doesn’t toss and turn and is a very light sleeper- it’s required of his job. At the smallest sound his eyes are open, and he cannot rest until he’s gone and checked the locks and such.

- You know when Asian dads wake up at 4am and just go hack and cough in the bathroom yeah that’s him… that’s how YOU wake up.

- You both look like hot fucking garbage in the morning it constantly looks you both are two struggling new parents who had a metaphorical baby keeping them up all night.

- Debates smothering you with a pillow if you snore and keep him up before a busy day.

Kung Lao

- I hope you’re a heavy sleeper.

- His snoring sounds like sails ripping, it’s so loud he scares himself awake sometimes.

- “BABE WHAT WAS THAT?”

- You girl….

- Doesn’t matter what season it is, what temperate, you two are always still too hot and on the verge of breaking into sweat, even after you’re dressed down to just underwear.

- Maybe you fall asleep a safe distance away from him, but halfway through the night its like looking an abstract painting of human limbs, his foot is on your stomach and your face is smashed against his knees. Chiropractors are scared of you two.

- You both complain about how annoying the other person is to sleep next to, but can’t sleep alone at night- the bed feels too big or too cold.

- It’s like when you wake up from a nap not knowing what country you’re in, drenched in sweat and covered in those red lines but every morning.

- Talks in his sleep and you have several videos in your camera roll having incoherent conversations with sleepy Lao.

- “Hey baby… Are you asleep?” “Not now babe imgndh tm running for presdidentnt”

- Yeah king you do that!

- He SWEARS that he’s a big spoon but likes being the little tiny eeny weeny teaspoon looks at you with the ugly goo goo gaga eyes until you relent and wrap your arms around his waist.

Raiden

- I don’t care unless it’s past a certain time in your relationship he will sleep on the couch or DIE

- He is traditional to an almost irritating extent YOU WILL NOT DIE IF YOU SEE MY UPPER THIGH OH MY GOD

- But let me tell you once y’all do share a sleeping space its over for you… He uses that farmer strength to squeeze the life out of you. Like Kung Lao where you fall asleep laying next to him and wake up in the alligator death roll fighting to breathe.

- Death by beefy man arms sounds great until you need to pee and have to scrap at 6am against an unconscious man (he is winning).

- Likes it when you nuzzle under his chin, but when he’s really tired, he really just wants to lay on your chest and have you smooth his hair.

- Feels a certain need to be the Bigger Strong Man but secretly wants to be cuddled and babied a little, just doesn’t want to ask for it.

- Doesn’t matter because however you sleep, you’re waking up to that child-holding-their-favourite-teddy-bear GRIP.

- Likes to chat about both your days before falling asleep, and will verbally ask like “are you asleep?” And then stop moving, breathing, thinking because he’s scared to wake you up. You have to smack his face half-awake like RAIDEN YOU CAN BREATHE before he relaxes.

Shang Tsung

- Idgaf if he’s a man and if you’re a woman, he is the girlfriend.

- Wants you to kiss the top of his head and stroke his hair, you can feel his ugly ass smug smile against your skin the entire time.

- Even if he does love you, I can see him being unable to sleep with his back turned to you; he has to be acutely away of what you’re doing (sleeping. Your tired ass is sleeping.)

- Unless of course he’s being the little spoon. Rolling eyes emoji.

- Another very light sleeper, but when he’s deep in sleep he has reoccurring night terrors, and maybe even sleep paralysis, so he clutches you tightly like he’s scared you’ll up and leave him.

- When he wakes up he’s probably frozen, so he grounds himself by listening to your heartbeat or readjusting your hold so it’s tighter and more compressing.

- Doesn’t matter if it’s a big ass bed or stack of pelts on the forest floor, you are not allowed to move a SINGLE INCH away from him. You two occupy 25% of this bed’s real estate.

- If he wakes up first, he is slipping out without a word. If you wake up first and god forbid, try to let him go, his eyes are snapping open and looking at you so judgementally.

- Throws your boots at you if you oversleep like. Wake up you Lug. We have things to do.

- Looks amazing the moment he wakes up and makes fun of you for having bed hair and overall being uglier than he is.

- Pokes your cheek and makes your head loll about if he wakes up first and chuckles at how cute he finds it, catches himself being mushy, then pinches your nose so you wake up.

#mk1 #mortal kombat x reader #mk1 x reader #liu kang #liu kang x reader #mk1 bi han #sub zero #bi han #bi han x reader #kung lao #kung lao x reader #raiden #Raiden x reader #shang tsung #Shang tsung x reader #mk1 2023 #no offence kung lao i would suplex you #shang tsung is like a stray cat are you gonna kill me or rub against my leg

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mywitchcultblr · 2 years

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I'm done with your purity

I'm fucking done with all of you westerners fucks who take your freedom for granted. AO3 was banned in china because pissy fans reporting RPF TO THE GOVERNMENT UNDER FALSE REPORT OF PEDO OR WHATEVER thus making life a living hell for Chinese writers and fans. ALSO LET ME TELL YOU that fanfic and AO3 is a safe space for many oppressed LGBT people outside of the west

I can't fucking say that I'm trans and bi without having people beating the shit out of me, but I can fuckin' write that I'm gay as fuck in fanfic or writing gay shit about my fave with fanfic

Imagine some people defending state wide censorship over fanfic, because they don't like icky fanfic, that's a sign that either you are brainwashed or fucking privileged and taking your freedom for granted. You know why Asian and other non western USA-European are more chill with fanfic and fandom?

Why we are less prone to make some stupid callout over fanworks?

Because most of us doesn't have the same information and expression privilege like the west, we take any freedom that we can have

That's in 2017... There's probably more than one million websites being censored rn. I cannot even buy pride pin here because NO ONE outside of internet selling it! The censorship always begin from "banning information to protect children and moral from nsfw" down to censoring Spongebob Squarepants

You don't like something? Just don't fucking read it, it wouldn't stop the author to write and when they do stop writing usually after they are harassed so bad to the point of mental break down or suicide. What the actual fuck...

Defending and supporting state wide censorship because you want to feel superior on the internet is beyond stupid and it showing your privilege... Also yah fuck you who defend china aggressive state wide censorship because adult x adult RPF icky or whatever, I like reading Tom Hiddleston x Reader, because I'm lonely and it's fun. Don't lie that you never thinking of marrying your favorite celebrities or dreaming about dating Gerard Way.

What the fuck you gonna do about it? Crucify my ass? So long you are not shoving it to the person's face, who give a fuck? It's not a justifiable ground to cheer for government mandated national wide censorship. A lot of westerners are so privileged and terminally online to the point their mind revolve around online discourse 24/7 I'm not saying discourse has no damn merits but you get what I said...

Some people particularly white westerners are so privileged they have the chance to goes back 180° and agreeing with conservative mindset they claim to hate so much... Also your kink critical bullshit and your bullshit crusading over dark stories? Yeah. Heavily influenced by TERF and conservatism. Newsflash...

I'm not a person who agree with all ship or stories, i don't claim any moral high ground. I was so scared of getting cancelled due to the hostile neo puritan fandom culture, but seeing people defending China great firewall and aggressive censorship finally broke something inside of me and I cannot stay quiet

I don't give a fuck about your fanfic discourse, If i don't like something i just wouldn't fucking engage with it and wouldn't read...

I'm done, I'm tired. Fucking tagging this shit as anti vs pro because i need to get the message out there and LET THE CHAOS begin

( When you want to escape your country censorship to the internet but then you see the supposed liberated westerners people wanting censorship because they want to feel moral. Yes there are even westerners who don't want to see anything even remotely 'problematic' example: they will attack Zutara or fuckin' Reylo shipper whatever. See? You are terminally online and so privileged... Congratulations... Here's your fucking medal and gold star)

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respectthepetty · 6 days

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I recently entered asian qls, and I've been hearing a lot about gmmtv in thai bl. what's the deal with that? do they make good bls or something?

What's the deal with GMMTV?

I (and a few other people) have given GMMTV the nickname of Disney BL because

It has the budget

It has stylish shows

Most are plot-by-numbers (meaning formula style plots that are predictable)

And it's all about branding

Good and bad are subjective, so does GMMTV make "good" BLs is not a question that can be answered, especially by me, but GMMTV does make BLs. A lot of BLs.

In 2022 and 2023, half of its shows were BLs. And a few others were BL-lite (Midnight Museum and Home School, I'm looking at you). Out of the 16 shows announced in GMMTV 2024 Part 1 (Part 2 is coming tomorrow), 10 of those shows were BLs/GLs/QLs. Over half of their shows are focused on queer relationships. [Photos from Boys Love Hub]

So regardless if I think they are good or not, the company is doing some heavy lifting in regards to queer representation since all of their shows have 1) a queer character, 2) a queer director, or 3) a queer producer.

As much shit as I want to give GMMTV, and DO, the company makes being queer palatable for mass distribution, and that's mainly because of its branding and reach since all shows, at one point, were free on YouTube for most countries.

Take right now for example, BrightWin fans are up in arms because Bright has a girlfriend. BrightWin haven't had a series since 2021's 2gether movie. THREE YEARS AND PEOPLE STILL SHIP 'EM! *eye roll* And that's because GMMTV doesn't just make BLs. It makes a brand of each and every one of its actors. If an actor is put into a pair, there will be a mascot, fanclubs, fan meets, tours, light sticks, y todo.

Someone wrote a good post, which I cannot find now, about the idolifacation of GMMTV actors, and it's accurate. These aren't only actors. They must sing. They must dance. They must host Live House. They must participate in Safe House. They must have a vlog and do live streams every week. They must go on GMMTV's little outing events and have a spin-off show where they travel around with their paired partner and eat food or drink some cocktail or do something because Lord forbid these people do nothing.

And this isn't just a GMMTV thing, but only GMMTV does it on this scale, so what's the deal with GMMTV is that it is a company doing company stuff.

I'm sure others can chime in and give more in-depth points, but I'm exhausted even thinking about it!

#gmmtv #what's its deal?#that it'll make every deal is its deal

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probablyasocialecologist · 11 months

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The far right aren’t the only ones showing up armed. Across the country, marginalized individuals are forming groups like the John Brown Gun Club and Socialist Rifle Association that claim to be devoted to the idea of community defense. Their rationale is informed by the massacres at Colorado’s Club Q and Florida’s Pulse nightclub, and tempered by a long cultural distrust of the police, who they say have repeatedly failed to protect them from — and in some cases even perpetuated — right-wing hate.

Many sources interviewed for this story — particularly those who conceal their identities at protests — asked to use pseudonyms, in fear of being targeted or doxxed by the far right. Others were happy to share their names, judging that their public presence — or concealed-carry permits — shield them from harm. All of them, however, agree on one thing: The other side has guns and is willing to use them. The only answer is to be prepared to shoot back.

[...]

“My community, the South Asian community, has been dealing with this shit for 30 years,” Azad says. “Every year, some dude throws a Molotov into a temple, or spray-paints swastikas on our houses.”

Gato chimes in. “I don’t want to own guns and do this,” he says. “But I also don’t want someone coming after my wife because she’s a person of color.”

But in Texas, Azad and Gato say, guns are a necessity — the right wing has them, the law allows them, and being armed is the only way to stay safe.

“This is the Wild fuckin’ West, man,” Azad says. “We kinda do what we gotta do.”

#guns #gun control #militia #fascism #lgbt

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edenfenixblogs · 5 months

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Goyim non Muslim/Arab/Palestinians who are trying to help with the situation have to understand this:

Reading one book. Reading 3 news articles. Reading even three scholarly articles. Watching the news every day. Even doing ALL OF THESE THINGS EVERY DAY since 10/7—this is nothing more than a drop in the bucket of the work you need to be doing to contribute to conversations about this conflict, let alone leading any kind of charge.

I have been intimately aware of the conflict and it’s intricacies since I was seven years old. I have been learning and unlearning things my whole life. I am Jewish and pro-Palestine and have spent my adult life learning about Palestinian needs as well as combatting pervasive propaganda from extremists on BOTH SIDES meant to confuse newcomers to the situation like most of you are.

It is, honestly, entitlement that makes you think you can’t waltz into a complex situation involving a 2,000+ year old conflict, multiple identities of non-western origin, multiple cycles of extremism and expulsion and ethnic cleansing and wars from all sides—and take the lead on any of this. You can’t. You don’t know enough. You don’t even know enough to know what you don’t know or how to tell if what you know is wrong.

That doesn’t mean you aren’t necessary for helping to solve this conflict. It means a lot of people are being more vocal than they have any right to be about a situation they know almost nothing about. And they’re doing it so they can feel morally righteous and on the right side and like they’re helping.

But if you actually want to help rather than just looking or feeling like you’re helping, then you need to listen to affected groups when they are speaking. You need to not declare either side right or wrong. You need to learn the difference between terrorism and activism. You need to understand the impact of your words on Muslim, Palestinian, Arab, Jewish, Israeli, and even south Asian communities who are constantly roped into the conflict by racists who just hate all brown people.

You need to learn about the foundations and warning signs of antisemitism. You need to learn about the same about Islamophobia. You need to be open to being wrong. A LOT. Because you will be. Because this conflict is complicated and even those of us who have been in it forever learn things and have to revise our opinions and stances. You need to not assume you are correct about anything and you should have reliable sources for anything you add to this conversation.

You outnumber ALL OF US. You outnumber everyone who is actually affected by the conflict by A SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT. And your job should be to focus your efforts on FINDING A PATH TO PEACE. Move the conversation away from the personally fulfilling but globally damaging good guys v bad guys narrative. Move it towards a mutually beneficial peace agreement that keeps both Jews and Palestinians safe and protected and equal in their shared homeland.

This is not a Western European-American Christo-centric conflict. Stop applying your principles to it. Start considering that marching, calling senators, and calling for more or less bombs to happen to the “right” people isn’t helping. It’s not helping. You’re not helping.

What will help is listening to people who are actively working to achieve peace. Listening to concerns about ongoing attacks against Israeli civilians during ceasefire. Listening to ongoing segregation of Palestinians and depravation of essential resources from Palestinian Territories. Learn about the official political history of the international community with Israel and Palestine and what the motivations of EACH NON-I/P COUNTRY might have been over the course of Palestine’s 2000yo history. Learn how that might still influence modern western nations today. Learn about Jewish diaspora. Read about counterterrorism and propose or spread awareness of methods and means that can both protect Israeli and Palestinian civilians and defang or eliminate antisemitic or Islamophobic extremists and terrorists. Look for organizations devoted to SHARED PROSPERITY FOR PALESTINIANS AND ISRAELIS.

Furthermore, anyone who tells you that the conflict is simple or repeating a phrase over and over is simple or tells you there is an obvious good answer is at best uninformed but is most likely operating in bad faith. Their “simple” answer isn’t something every world leader ever has magically overlooked. It is one of the routine, recurring “solutions” that depend upon the disenfranchisement, death, or displacement of an affected population that they deem unworthy of consideration.

Israelis aren’t going anywhere. Palestinians aren’t going anywhere. Both populations deserve safety. Both populations’ religions and cultures deserve equality and, yes, explicit constitutional guarantees that they will have their religious and cultural practices respected and protected from violence or suppression. That may not fit with your modern secular ideas that having any guarantees for any religion in a constitution is inherently evil.

But we are dealing with two groups who have been brutalized to near extinction on the grounds of their religion and culture for millennia so consider that asking for guaranteed safety in writing is a pretty reasonable thing to want for everyone, actually.

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lemonfreshlysqueezed · 15 days

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I know in some asian countries you’re expected to face away from an elder when you drink, as a sign of respect. Qian does not face away when he drinks with Le, he does not even look away. He has his guard up because he does not trust him. And Qian wants to keep an eye on him at all times.

We talk a lot about Qian and his habit of looking away.

For someone like Qian that has grown up the way he has. To have learned to always be warry and have your guard up, it means so much that he now has people surrounding him he feels safe enough with to look away, to lower his guard.

#qian x yuan #taiwan bl #thai bl #taiwanese drama #taiwanese bl #taiwanese series #unknown series #unknown the series #bl drama

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ohsalome · 7 months

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Let's talk about "liberal russians"

Meet Ilya Varlamov. He is a popular russian blogger currently living in Europe. I used to watch him years ago for his urbanism content and architectural preservation/restoration projects.

Ilya has fked from russia because he doesn't agree with putin's politics. He doesn't feel safe and free in russia and he wants to live in a cultured and democratic society.

A perfect recipe for an anti-war "good russian", right? Wrong.

Instead of raising money for Ukrainian army, helping out Ukrainian refugees, participating in pro-Ukrainian demonstrations, raising awareness about russian war crimes - basically, doing anything morally correct in a situation when a country you're a citizen of is commiting a genocide - Ilya spends his time whining about how unfair and "russophobic" the world is.

Recently he has been spotted in London by a ukrainian journalist, who has asked him a very simple question - is putin a war criminal? For a supposed "anti-war opposition", this couldn't be easier to answer, no? Well, Ilya answered the question by running away from the journalist

You might remember this character from the last-year scandal involving his Instagram post about Kyrgyzstan. While staying there as a "war refugee", he has defended his entitlement of insulting the country that sheltered, compared Kyrgyzstan to a giant restaurant and said that Kyrgiz people should be grateful that he has blessed them with his presence and must aim to please him. Never deleted that post, btw. Probably still thinks there was nothing wrong with it.

(Cultural context: Kyrgyzstan is a Cetral Asian country, so his speech reads very much as "natives, come kiss the feet of a white man")

Ilya has video series where he explores various "post-Soviet" countries, and a year ago he has made one about Ukraine as well. Only unlike with other countries, his entry about Ukraine was full of lies and pro-Kremlin propaganda. There is a very thorough examination of that "film" by a ukrainian journalist Roman Tsymbalyk, whom he has interviewed for his film and then edited out 99% of the interview and totally misrepresented Roman. Unfortunately, the video is in russian, but you might play around with automatically generated subtitles.

youtube

I am talking about this man not because he is some kind of rando. This is a very popular blogger (1,3 million subs on Instagram, 4,56 million subscribers on Youtube). This is the voice the "young, progressive, anti-authoritarian russian youth" listens to. This illustrates the truth all ukrainians know very well - russian liberalism ends on the "ukrainian question".

#russia #war in ukraine #russian invasion of ukraine #politics #russo ukrainian war #russian invasion in ukraine #russian liberals #ilya varlamov #not all russians #russophobia #Youtube

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lets-try-some-writing · 2 years

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Irrational Fears

Earth is absolutely terrifying, a fact that both Autobots and Decepticons can attest to.

Megatron

Despite being so big and tough, there is one thing about the earth that just scares the scrap out of Megatron.

He does not really fear what lurks within earth's biggest bodies of water, no, he fears the bodies of water themselves.

He never needed to learn to swim since Cybertron didn't exactly have huge bodies of anything resembling liquid near the surface beside the occasional acid pool.

And the safe liquids that existed on Cybertron were far denser than earth's liquids, often being thick enough to almost be a paste, posing little issues for those who got stuck in them besides some sticky residue being left on their armor afterward.

As such arriving on earth and falling into the ocean for the first time was rather traumatizing.

His usual method of handling being in liquid did absolutely nothing for him since water is not nearly as dense as what Megatron is familiar with.

He sank like a rock and was left at the bottom of the fragging ocean in the dark with no clear way to get out besides walking to the surface since transforming or ground bridging out would cause more trouble than it was worth.

He was irritated but fine with it at first, after all, no organic thing in the waters could really do him any harm.

But the ominous noises, the random currents which threw his sensors into overdrive, the extreme water pressure, and the rather freaky things passing by him as he traveled back to land just... traumatized him in a way he couldn't really describe.

The ocean threw Megatron off, and since then he has sworn off going near the Unmaker-cursed liquid pools when possible.

Optimus

Surprisingly Optimus's worst fear that originated on earth was not of natural disasters or anything of the sort, no, his fear is of the roads, or more specifically, the people driving on the roads.

Optimus is a textbook driver and obeys every road law to the letter, as such most human drivers scare him half to death.

American drivers are a melting pot of every form of insanity, with customs from all over the world resulting in the most confusing road culture imaginable.

Poor Optimus can't make heads or tails of it and often finds himself bewildered when other drivers honk or scream obscenities at him for following the rules.

Not only that but Americans are freaking crazy drivers.

Optimus has gotten hit, crashed into, pushed off the road, and forced to swerve to save some poor idiotic soul far more times than he will ever be comfortable admitting.

When it happens he panics. After all, the human vehicles have humans in them, and humans are squishy and easily damaged, unlike Cybertronians.

It isn't much better in other countries.

The Europeans are agonizingly slow drivers and park where ever their car will fit, trying to travel through British towns and cities on their tiny roads is an absolute nightmare.

For a vehicle of Optimus's size Europe, as a general rule, is one of the worst places to drive.

But oh boy, Europe has nothing on the Asian and middle eastern countries.

Driving there induces some of the worst anxiety Optimus has ever had since the war began, and that is saying something.

Random cattle on the roads, junk cars sputtering along looking like they are going to explode at any moment, the absurd amount of potholes, the fearless jaywalkers, and the maze-like structure of most roads make Optimus nearly have a panic attack every time he is forced to go driving in such areas.

He doesn't even want to get started on the state of the roads in Canada or the terrifying scrap he has seen while driving in Australia.

Starscream

Fragging Pigeons, Starscream simultaneously hates and fears them with a passion.

The mixed hatred and fear of the stupid birds began shortly after his arrival on earth when he flew through a flock of them.

The end result left him floundering as found himself covered in feathers, gore, and droppings.

Of course, it didn't end there.

The one time he fell into recharge out in the open he awoke to find himself covered in pigeons.

Even after they flew away his armor was still stained by lots of little gifts from the feathery fraggers.

The birds have also caused him to crash numerous times as he just isn't used to maneuvering around the organic things.

Trying to avoid the birds just causes him to lose his senses and flying through them is just messy.

On Cybertron, he could just fly straight through most small mech animals that had flight capabilities and both parties would be fine.

It is, of course, a completely different story on earth.

The never-ending harassment from the birds has led him to begin fearing them.

Where ever he goes there are pigeons.

America? Pigeons. Asia? More Pigeons. Africa? Yep, Pigeons there too. Europe? You guessed it, Pigeons.

They haunt his existence to the point where anything that remotely looks like a pigeon sends him in the opposite direction lest he gets turned into a perch, a fate almost as bad as death in his book.

Ratchet

Normally Ratchet would not consider himself the squeamish type, his particular line of work does not afford him that luxury.

However when it comes to dealing with the mess that is human anatomy he can't help but be a little hesitant.

Everything about them is just so screwed up.

Cybertronain biology while complex, is orderly and only requires energon to function.

Humans though, they are a whole different mess, one that Ratchet tends to find himself feeling a little dizzy when handling.

Their bodies need so much to work right, and the delicate balance sustaining them is so unnerving to him with the children hanging around.

How can humans teeter on the edge of rolling over and dying from nearly everything at any moment and still live so comfortably?

But their squishiness isn't the most traumatizing part for him, no, its the way human bodies fix themselves.

Blood is the most vital part of a human, but the way it is replaced bothers Ratchet on a spiritual level.

Humans make their blood themselves, all the organics do.

But instead of mining or consuming more when they run low like Cybertronians, they go and consume the matter of other creatures instead.

The whole process is somewhat terrifying when looked at too deeply and now Ratchet can only look at the humans in slight fear when they eat a burger or something similar.

How they can casually consume other creatures is beyond him, on Cybertron such behavior would make one a ghoul, mech animal, or Predacon.

#transformers #transformers prime #optimus prime #ratchet #tfp #megatron #starscream #transformers headcanon #just a little thought experiment #I may or may not continue rolling with this idea #earth if terrifying #and the bots know it

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sandytree1 · 5 months

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Criticism of Blue Eyed Samurai

Well, I just watched Blue Eyed Samurai. Been spotting several positive clickbait thumbnails of it, so even though I didn't have high expectations based on the trailer, I gave it a go. And well, it was what I feared it was. I still enjoyed it though! And it's an engaging story, just not what I wish it was. Anyways, I wrote a comment on Reddit about it, which I thought I'd repost here.

Edit: I ended up going in and reordering some paragraphs under headings, as people on Reddit replied to by comment. Noticing people are nitpicking the historical accuracy of my commentary, which wasn't really what I was concerned about. It's more that certain cues in these stories make me expect certain things.

The main point of much of this text is to look into what makes Blue Eyed Samurai a noticeably American story, by comparing it to other jidaigeki stories with a similar setting made for and by Asian people, and stories set in Asia made by Americans (for Americans).

🚧 NB! I'm still working on the text. Text marked in cursive are just notes, so please ignore them for now! 🚧

Overall verdict

I did also think of Ghost of Tsushima while watching, but in the sense that Blue Eyed Samurai lacks what I liked about it. Ghost of Tsushima did a great job with its Japanese localization, and referenced actual bushido conduct, although a little bit off still. Blue Eyed Samurai throws around words like samurai and honor, but doesn't appear to actually understand what these words entails, and only focuses on the superficial badassery of it (...)

But overall, great choreography and compositing, engaging story and characters ... Blue Eyed Samurai is good, but does veer into the uncanny valley for me, which I know was an issue Asians had with ATLA. Guess I felt it a little bit more with Blue Eyed Samurai due how much (unrealistic) violence and (meaningless) sex is glorified, and made me question what exactly the overall moral message of the story was supposed to be beyond simply "revenge plots are cool but also destructive." As somebody else said, it's giving "guts and tits for the people."

Glorification of the badassery of revenge

So, somebody replied that they thought we should be careful about romanticizing bushido, and provided examples of samurai being deceitful. This is my reply.

You missed my point. I did not want Blue Eyed Samurai to romanticize bushido, I wanted it to discuss and explore it, exactly because it throws around words like honor and samurai. A first step towards this is to acknowledge that Mizu is not a samurai.

What is Mizu?

We could argue that she is a ronin, but then she'd technically must've been serving a lord as a samurai in the past, and should be at least be a tiny bit concerned with chivalry (at least enough to discuss or talk about it), which we know isn't the case. Mizu is closer to being a shinobi/ninja, since her goal is to assassinate her 4 maybe fathers. Another thing Mizu shares with shinobi is that both are often criticised by samurai because of their penchant for ambushes and lack of concern for bushido / warriors code. Yet she breaks the mold of being a shinobi, since she doesn't really sneak around in (civilian) disguise and will openly brawl her way through a dojo and into a fort.

Mizu has a lot in common with the titular protagonis of the manga Azumi. Both are female assassins with foreign blood (bluish eyes) fighting during the Sakoku policy. While Mizu's motivation is simply revenge for the injustice she and her mother suffered at the hands of the gaijin faction, in Azumi the motivation is to prune the country like a bonsai tree off individuals which may threathen a new age of peace, and prevent the country from slipping back into the Sengoku period of civil war.

But where characters in Blue Eyed Samurai is heavily protected by plot armor, allowing Mizu to be an almost invincible pin cushion, no one is safe in Azumi and injured characters requires months to recover and heal from cuts.

While writing this, I recalled that in episode 5, they interjected a story about a samurai marrying and fathering a child with a woman who descended from an enemy clan. He kills both her and their son, which turns her into a onryō. Mizu being an Onryō works, but I am left questioning how this fits into the story beyond its symbolism, as there's been no explicit supernatural elements in the story. Mizu is bullied for being the (devil) spawn of a quote "white devil" in childhood, I think it would be more interesting if they called her a "white ghost," since onryos (which could represent Mizu) are a type of vengeful female ghost. Furthermore, Taigen often compares Mizu to a dog, esp. when she does not live up to the samurai standards he holds her to. Not sure where that fits in either..

Orientalism

So the statement about samurai criticising shinobi was called out as orientalist. This was my reply:

As for orientalism, I guess Blue Eye Samurai is being orientalist then, which I was kinda feeling while watching but didn't really put into words. It's pretty stereotypical to connect Japanese with honor and samurai after all, contributing to why I felt the show was very American.

In the sense of samurai simply meaning warrior, then we can consider Mizu a samurai. But Taigen (and Akemi) connects being a samurai with honor and complains about fair play. By making this connection, he invokes bushido/chivalry and excludes people who ambush others like assassins from the definition of being a samurai, and by extension criticises assassins like ninjas for not shying away from "dishonorable" ambushes. To restore his honor, Taigen wants to arrange a formal duel and even writes up a challenge letter (hatashijou), which makes sense in terms of the dojo trope. But well, the series does contradict itself a lot in favor of cool one liners, and what it means to be a samurai or knight has changed throughout history.

"Glory" in Azumi

As I said, the manga Azumi is what I was hoping Blue Eyed Samurai would be. Azumi is a gritty look into (among other things) both shinobi and samurai that does not romanticize either, and has won an award for its exploration of these concepts in relation to buddhism. In fact, everyone in Azumi suffers. The only one who is perhaps glorified is Azumi, who many critics compare to a boddhisattva.

Throughout the story, Azumi works to not become too attached to earthly comforts, but still suffers because of her attachment to her companions. As Azumi completes her pruning missions for her boss (the Buddhist monk Tenkai), she accumulates a lot of bad karma in the form of endless waves of people pursuing her for either revenge, the bounty on her head, the thrill of defeating a master swordswoman, etc. Because of it, 90% of her closest companions SPOILER die, and many of her friends are raped or permanently maimed, and has to deal with the trauma and practical inconveniences of it. Often because they are caught in the crossfire between Azumi's targets or those who pursue her.

By the end of the story, Azumi still ends up making new companions like usual and her boss continues wanting to send her on pruning missions. But she decides to leave them all behind, so that those she cares about will not be affected by her bad karma again. She knows she will have to stay on the road indefinitely and will never really be able to enjoy the comforts of settling down, because of her pursuers. The series makes the buddhist argument that earthly attachment in general causes suffering, and Azumi is enlightened by abandoning those attachments and by facing her karma, although that does not mean she will not end up with a violent death. The story ends openly with Azumi wandering off into obscurity.

Time period

Some people began nitpicking the historical accuracy of my commentary, which wasn't really what I was concerned about. I am open to artistic liberty. However, with BES it was a little bit harder, since they made so many historical references and leaned into the jidaigeki genre, but then broke it in ways that came off as uncanny to me. Looking back, I guess this uncanny feeling was the orientalism letting itself be known, though I couldn't put it into words back then.

As jidaigeki is a subgenre of historical stories, certain cues does make me expect certain things. Like when I see an English-speaking gaijin as the antagonist, I would make the connection that this story is probably set sometime after the Americans forced Japan to open up for trade in the 1800s. Yet this expectation is then contradicted when I learn that no foreigners are allowed in Japan yet due to the Sakoku policy, which makes me wonder what this Irishman is doing here all alone centuries too early and how he even managed to climb to such a powerful position while being so isolated.

Gaijins as antagonists

Why an Irishman as the gaijin antagonist? It'd make more sense if it was a portuguese or dutch. If Blue Eyed Samurai is set in 17th century Edo Japan, it's a long time off when the Americans forced Japan to put down the sakoku policy, and even then, why Britain/London? If anything, Japan and Britain liked each other enough to form an alliance for their shared fear of Russia.

Why not other colonial powers who were actually active in Japan and Asia overall at the time (the Dutch) or the ones who caused Christianity to be banned during the sakoku (the Portuguese).

My first thought of a precedent goes to Konishi Shizune, the Christian revolutionary leader in Azumi who's also mixed race like Azumi, which is based on the historical Amakusa Shiro.

(Depictions of Gaijins: Americans during postwar Japan in Hajime no Ippo. Senator Armstrong in Metal Gear Solid)

Japanese in Europe

With Mizu heading to Europe, I came across people discussing the plot armor and how Mizu wouldn't stand a chance against the guns nor London police. It came off as kind of white supremacist, and the entire thread was locked because of unsolicited opinions from outsiders.

To be fair, Japan had guns too at the time. According to Netflix themselves, Blue Eye Samurai takes place in the 1600s. If that's the case, it means that the guns were mostly muskets, rifles and pistols which took time to load, so people did still use swords even in Europe. And only a century earlier in the 1500s, when Dreamwork's El Dorado is set, people would still use firearms and crossbows side by side, and Oda Nobunaga also used firearms in his own warfare during the sengoku period.

Also, the police didn't exist yet, since the UK police were created in the late 1700s. As for the London battalion or royal guards storming her, it'd either amount to when she was stormed by the hand claw guys. The plot armor in the first season was a lot imo even then though. But sneaking up on them depends on the terrain and context, so I can see it happening.

Furthermore, it's not unrealistic for Japanese people to travel to Europe, because there's historical precedence for this. In 1613, Hasekura Tsunenaga was sent on a diplomatic mission to negotiate with the pope and the king of Spain, and some of his men even stayed behind to form the Japon clan in Spain. The expedition took 7 years, and ironically enough, once he returned, christianity had already been banned in Japan. The people who still kept the Christian faith in spite of this came to be known as kakure kirishitan.

Debauchery means it's for adults ..

The way characters (esp. Mizu) will throw out badass oneliners as if on a treadmill, only to contradict exactly what she said as short as 5 seconds later does mess with my suspension of disbelief.

The story also goes into protitution and patriarchy, though it also felt superficial to me. If anything it feels like an excuse for fan service, similar to Game of Thrones in a sense. Like they know that sex sells, and that's what "the audience really wants." That said, again I enjoyed both GOT and Blue Eye Samurai, even though some may laconically break the former down to "dragons and tits" and the latter to "guts and tits".

Token representation

Mizu's apprentice was born without hands, which could have brought about an interesting exploration of disability. But instead, he's relegated to being a quirky sidekick and comedic relief..

BES is an American story

Blue Eyed Samurai has all the visual motifs of a Japanese samurai story (jidaigeki), but the tropes and logic is extremely American. It does get the artifacts and set dressing of a jidaigeki story right (surprisingly accurate at some points), which is why it triggered the uncanny valley for me sometimes. When certain artifacts and set ups appeared, I expected it to follow certain tropes I'm used to from jidaigeki, but it didn't really do that.

Kung Fu Panda

In contrast, Kung Fu Panda is also in the same boat. It has the artefacts of a Chinese wuxia story, but it is ultimately based on Chinatown (a theme park-esque idea of China designed by and to cater to white people, as a Chinese American defense mechanism). However, where Kung Fu Panda is an American love letter to Chinese kung fu films, Blue Eye Samurai isn't really a love letter to jidaigeki, and caters rather to white people's idea of the stereotypical samurai.

My understanding is that Kung Fu Panda is pretty popular in China.

Yes, Kung Fu Panda is popular in China. I also enjoyed Kung Fu Panda, which is why I used it to compare what I felt was lacking in Blue Eyed Samurai. If I had to choose one to rewatch, I would rather watch Kung Fu Panda.

That said, Accented Cinema points out that although Kung Fu Panda is often used as an argument of successful orientalism, it's rather about China's own failure in representing themselves. In my opinion, Kung Fu Panda's perhaps saving grace was that it didn't take itself too seriously, yet still delivered on the serious bits when it needed to.

Patriarchy and gender roles

While I understand and appreciate your critique, I don't think the narrative is grounded in realism. It's more like expressing the need that women do have to see themselves in the shoes of a physically invincible protagonist. Also the motivation isn't simply revenge - what has happened to Mizu has convinced that her very existence is suffering. She's internalized the hate to an extent that it no longer matters whether she lives or dies. She will slowly change as a person and her motivations will also change, which I hope we get to see . All the characters are somewhere trying to rebel against their gender roles, and that I feel is the 'message'. Also as far as the right antagonist to show goes, Fowler seems an indictment of British colonialism a few centuries too soon, but his attitudes aren't unfamiliar. At all.

Blue Eyed Samurai doesn't explore the concepts it references or markets itself with, but seems to throw them around because samurai and honor sounds cool and is a stereotypically Japanese/Sinosphere thing. Instead it'd rather explore gender roles and patriarchy. And the character Blue Eyed Samurai primarily uses to explore these themes with isn't the titular protagonist, but rather Princess Akemi.

But Akemi's struggles with patriarchy, also comes off as more a Western suffragette story than a Sinosphere one.

The Princess as a Caged Bird

Other stories about gender roles and patriarchy in ancient Japan to which we can compare this to is probably Isao Takahata's Princess Kaguya, though this one is probably set long before BES in the Heian period.

Like in Kaguya, the ohaguro set is presented as a symbol of oppression for Akemi. However, instead of being explicitly oppressed by outside forces like Akemi, Kaguya is instead pressured by societies and her father's idea of what a princess should be to become happy. Throughout the film, Kaguya questions what it is all for and even counters against her governess that "a princess is not a human then!"

Princess Kaguya as a roadside flower. To be plucked in a moment of fancy, and neglected once savored and bored. Merely a trophy to be won and stowed away in a display cabinet.

The film explores what makes life worth living, by exploring the difference between humanity and moon people.

Filial piety. Fulfilling your own dreams through your offspring. Showing off achievements to relatives (accumulating merit).

Geisha and maiko in contrast to the Oiran of the red light district. Streetwalkers. Prostitution - the world's oldest profession.

Oda Nobunaga's younger sister in Nobunaga Concerto and Azumi.

Hypergamy. Tradition of men being adopted into the wife's household. The Fujiwara clan of the Heian period, who continuously married their women into the imperial family for generations. Attitudes around cheating and monogamy (Genji Monogatari).

The Fallacy of the Stereotypical Asian woman

Oshin - Resilience and endurance.

Asian women as firecrackers. There's a reason why the stereotype of Tiger Mom even came to be, because Asian women and people in general are not weak and strictly submissive, although they are often mistaken as doormats.

Honne and tatemae

Yamato Nadeshiko

While writing about this, I ended up going on a tangent about Asian women, which you can read here: The Fallacy of the Stereotypical Asian Woman.

Gender roles in Genderbender

Kaze Hikaru

Ryou

Torikaebaya Monogatari, where a brother and sister in the Heian period is gender mixed at birth, to fulfil gender roles they're more "suited" for according to societal expectations. Another Heian period text about a guy who crossdresses as a woman to get close to a woman he has a crush on.

Gender fluidity has been the norm throughout most of history.

A wolf in sheep's clothing

I guess the show is more concerned about gender roles and patriarchy. I'm actually not all that concerned with historical accuracy, but I couldn't help but be thrown off by how it felt like vastly different time periods (and thus different expectations in terms of jidaigeki tropes) were meshed together. I still stand by that the show is a very (overseas Asian/) (Asian) American narrative, which made it uncanny how accurate it still was in terms of getting the artefacts etc. of a jidaigeki right. Sort of like a "wolf in sheeps clothing," though that doesn't make it a bad thing. For example, Akemi feels more like a Western suffragette, rather than an Asian feminist. Yet the ohaguro set etc. may be a reference to Isao Takahata's Princess Kaguya, which is about feminism.

The story came off as stereotypical to me. Yet it does get the artifacts and set dressing of a jidaigeki story right (surprisingly accurate at some points). I did cringe at some points or feel the uncanny valley, but again overall the show was engaging and enjoyable.

I've enjoyed other orientalist stories before, such as Kung Fu Panda and Avatar the Last Airbender. I've also enjoyed occidentalist stories like mohuan and isekai. Yet something with Blue Eye Samurai made me cringe sometimes. Comparing it to the others I've mentioned, perhaps it's because it's set in a more non-fantastical setting as opposed to a jianghu of sorts idk. Blue Eye Samurai is still entertaining though, and may be the start of a new genre.

It's hard to explain what it feels like for people who don't have the same cultural references, so here's an example of occidentalism. I noticed that when Genshin Impact (a Chinese game) released the new Fontaine region where they decided to mix Britain, Italy, France etc., which people claimed is just plain weird haha. But Fontaine has still been well received regardless it seems. On the other hand, I still cringe every time I see Senator Armstrong in Metal Gear Solid.

Historical references

Random, but here's a list of different artifacts and set dressings that appeared in the show. The little theatre play about the ronin and his wife uses kurogo (black clad actors) to manipulate the dolls, which was novel to see. Previously I've mostly watched kurogo being used to manipulate perspective such as in this Matrix Ping Pong skit and the Tokyo 2020 pictogram opening ceremony. Traditionally, Kurogo is used in Kabuki to create special effects and are supposed to be invisible to the audience.

Mizu's husband uses a naginata, which is basically a spear. Although also used by warriors in general, it was often used by women.

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am-i-the-asshole-official · 6 months

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My IRL ex who lives abroad now is dating my online friend who also lives there and I am deceiving them, AITA?

All of us are Asian, 29. Fake names are used.

My ex (Fred) was my childhood best friend, we grew up together in the same conservative society, people expected to see us marry since we were kids, all that jazz. At 18, we both moved away and kept up LDR. Moving meant big changes of course, I was in a huge city and I had internet access for the first time. I became a BTS fan in 2013, I started creating and reading a lot. I joined tumblr, made friends from all over the world. I was being radicalized rapidly, and I figured out I was bi too. My world was suddenly a million times bigger.

He however, didn't change much. He was scientific minded unlike most people here and his friends were all STEM kids but they were still functionally right leaning. He was racist when it came to BTS or East Asians in general. He was ignorant and happy to ignore queer existence, he used to say things like queer people needed to be shown the right path. We were turning out to be quite the opposites. Eventually we broke up. He was heartbroken, he tried to drag me back in many times and I avoided him like plague. I managed to ditch him completely when we were about 23. He left for USA to study.

Around the same time I befriended one of my closest online friends, Daphne. We lived in the same state but she was always traveling so we never got to meet. We're both hellsite veterans and keep our identities under lock & key so we don't know our real names or exact place of work, but we know each other's deepest kinks and childhood traumas, and stories about our exes. We both had the same kind of interests, politics, and fandoms, we're both bisexual. I've also come out as a trans man a few years ago and I go by a masculine name online, can't transition IRL. Daphne's known me since my girl era. Daphne left for USA last year for her Masters.

Now the wild part, by some twist of fate, Daphne met Fred who's also working on his Masters in an adjacent field. It is by no means a niche subject and USA is the fourth largest country, they still found each other. He sang in our first language at some party, he's very hot, and... he's into BTS like her. Wild. So they're now dating.

They started following each other on twitter and he followed a bunch of her friends including Me! We have exchanged pleasantries and while on his account he has his real name and location, mine is a mixed bag account with my fake name and my (sfw) queer creations all over it.

I know who He is but he doesn't know who I am, he thinks I'm just one of Daphne's dudes, and Daphne doesn't know that she's dating my ex who she had promised to drop into the Challenger's Deep (joke). My reasoning for hiding the truth is-- It's still not safe for me to be out IRL and he can mess it up. I remember his bigotry, I hate him, I have every right to avoid him and here that means not revealing my identity. But it's been years so maybe he has changed, and Daphne is my friend. So, I feel like a massive ahole for not telling her at least. At the same time she really did hate my racist homophobic right leaning ex a lot, so knowing the truth will make things awkward and I don't want to lose my friend.

So, there you have it. AITA?

BTW, no I'm not into BTS ships or reader insert fantasies, that's not what I create. I know someone would ask about it so there. I'm also Not attracted to Daphne, if I was I'd have asked her out straight away, I don't play around about my crushes.

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

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autisticshadowthehedgehog · 2 years

Text

Sonic Character Cultural Coding

Despite the fact that a good chunk of Sonic characters are anthropomorphized animals, a large amount of them have been given explicit or implicit coding that aligns with cultures that we see on Earth! I’ve found it hard to find a detailed list of it all online, so... I made one!

Disclaimers:

I am going to say: some of these may seem pretty obvious, but at the same time I’ve seen people miss them, so I’ll be including both the “obvious” and “obscure” coding.

If I accidentally said anything offensive, please let me know so I can correct it!

We are going to start with Sonic himself, and then do the rest in alphabetical order! Let’s go!

Sonic the Hedgehog (+bio fam) – Egyptian

We’re gonna start with Sonic the Hedgehog himself– who is very much coded as Black, specifically of Egyptian descent.

In Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog 1x50, “Robotnik’s Pyramid Scheme,” Robotnik goes back in time to try and prevent Sonic from ever existing by keeping his ancestors from meeting. Sonic goes back in time to stop him and we meet Masonic and Penelope who are Sonic’s great-great+ grandparents and live in ancient Egypt. Masonic is specifically designed to look almost exactly like Sonic.

Later in the episode they end up inside a pyramid and meet yet another ancestor of theirs, who is an enchanted mummy hedgehog. He gives Sonic a chaos emerald to kick Robotnik’s ass. He also looks exactly like Sonic.

And SPEAKING OF enchanted mummy hedgehogs! In the Sonic Underground episode 1x22, “Mummy Dearest,” Sonic is AGAIN explicitly given ancient egyptian ancestry, when he and his siblings find a book talking about their family history. They use the book to find directions to a magic scroll which is protected by one of their ancestors, Aman-Rapi, who is again very clearly from Ancient Egypt and looks like Sonic.

In this pic, they can be seen posing in front of a wall containing heiroglyphs, with a mummy behind them, Amon-Rapi is literally dressed as a pharaoh wearing a variation on a Khepresh, his name is obviously a play on Amun-Ra… yeah, they’re Egyptian. So, in two different adaptations Sonic has been given explicit African ancestry.

@ifirestone also pointed out to me that Sonic Adventure 2 has a lot of hedgehogs all over the pyramid locations, and @nonbinarycharmybee pointed out that his shoes are based off of Michael Jackson’s shoes in the music video for “Bad;” Jackson is a very celebrated African-American musician. And @killer-squirtle pointed out that his design is most likely based on an African Pygmy Hedgehog, which live in “west, central and east Africa.”

Then in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022), there’s a scene where Sonic messes with his quillstyle and is seen experimenting with different styles. Before he settles on the mohawk (very much resembling his AoSTH-SatAM style), he tries out what looks like a Flat Top haircut and Natural Afro; in the latter, he specifically strikes a pose very reminiscent of the 60s Disco Era, which was suuuper associated with African-Americans.

Finally (so far), Sonic’s first english voice actor was Jaleel White for the first three television shows, who is Black; he set the standard for english!Sonic’s voice and what he should sound like. Sonic’s newest VA for Sonic Prime, Devon Mack, is also Black!

Edit 07/15/2022: @birdsareblooming noticed that in Sonic and the Secret Rings, Sonic is reading the Arabian Nights in Arabic, which is the official language of Egypt as well as several other African and Southwest Asian countries!

As we’ve established Sonic is Egyptian, I think we can also safely assume that his bio fam is as well– Sonia and Manic were in that Underground episode after all, and as Underground doesn’t seem to give them a father I think we can safely assume that the royal lineage is through Aleena. Metal Sonic is a robot but as he’s supposed to be near identical to Sonic, I think we can put Metal under the same coding (no pun intended).

Antoine Depardieu/D’Coolette the Coyote – French

Antoine is very very obviously coded as French, first in the SatAM television show he debuted in and then in the Archie comics. His original surname, Depardieu, is a French surname– I don’t believe D’Coolette is a real surname but it is supposed to sound French with the “d’[x]” structure.

Antoine speaks in an exaggerated French accent, which is spelled phonetically in the comics so that it can still come across. He often (at least in SatAM– I’m not as knowledgeable on Archie canon) needs help understanding English words and asks for translations or butchers pronunciation. He also uses the French phrases “qui” and “sacre bleu.” Unfortunately, in SatAM he also falls into the French Coward Stereotype, which seems to have begun in the 40s and shot into prominence in the United States in the early 2000s.

Babylon Rogues (Jet/Wave/Storm) – Iraqi

The Babylon Rogues are ABSOLUTELY Iraqi. How do we know this? They are literally called the Babylon Rogues.

In case u didn't know, Babylon was an ancient empire that was p powerful in the BC years. Its capitol town– named, you know, Babylon– was an independent city-state and for a while the largest city in the world. They also had one of the seven wonders of the world, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon The city of Babylon, whose remains are now a world heritage site, is now what is currently Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq.

The Babylon Rogues are clearly named after the Babylonian empire. Their home base is also literally named the Babylon Garden, a reference to the Hanging Gardens. I’m not super knowledgeable on architecture, but the design of the Garden seems to be similar to the Umayyad or Abbasid architectural movements of Iraq.

This all very much codes the Rogues as being descendants of the Babylonian empire, ie: Iraqi.

Bark the Polar Bear – Russian

This is gonna be one of the shorter ones, but a 1996 interview with Hiroshi Kataoka, head of SEGA AM2, says that Bark is “a Polar Bear who lives in Russia.”

I don’t believe Bark is given any specific Russian coding following that, but it should be noted that that was the original intention.

Blaze the Cat – Southern Asian

Blaze’s concept designs can be pretty South Asian-coded first off; in the middle bottom row in the pic above, you can see her wearing Shalwar, (maybe shalwar kameez? it's hard to tell what kinda top she has) which is a popular Southern and Central Asian fashion.

Her final design includes a straight-up bindi– listed as such on the Sonic wiki. Bindi are a mark on the forehead worn by women in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, and occasionally Islam (notably in Pakistan during Eid). While obviously anyone of any race can be of any religion, as the bindi originated in Southern Asia, it’s highly associated with that area and is worn by, well, a crapton of people in South and Southeast Asia, for both cultural and religious reasons.

Also, her kingdom: we don’t see it much in the games (in Rush Adventure, they’re mostly traveling through outlying islands and ruins), but we do see it in the IDW comics.

It seems very inspired by Mughal architecture, an Indo-Islamic style developed from Indian, Islamic, Iranian and Central Asian traditions.

In the mobile game Sonic Forces: Speed Battle, Blaze is given a costume for Lunar New Year, as is Silver (see Elise’s section for more Silver info). Lunar New Year is associated mainly with China, but is celebrated in several other Asian countries, including Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam.

We also got THIS tweet from the official Sonic account in November 2020, showing her having tea in her palace. @penosh-wom pointed out to me that the patterns in the room are “VERY reminiscent of India,” and that the scenery outside looks very much like the Asian coast.

The caption is in Japanese, but translating it to English shows that the descriptive is literally “Indian summer with calm waves.” An Indian summer is a term for unusually long hot weather in autumn, but like. Come on.

With that, I would say Blaze is most likely Indian, though the coding is a little vague. She is at the very least Asian, likely South or Southeast.

Bunnie Rabbot – Southern American

Bunnie seems to be coded as coming from the Southern United States (or at least the Mobius equivalent); she has a Southern US accent, for instance, and similar to Antoine in written media it is spelled phonetically so that it continues to come across; using “ah” instead of “I,” often cutting off the “g” in words ending in “-ing,” etc. Many of her sayings– such as “oh my stars”– are distinctly Southern US as well. This was all established in her SatAM appearances and continued into the Archie comics.

Should be noted that also, very unfortunately, one early Archie comic had her say several things to reference support for the Confederacy as a way of tying into her Southern heritage. Thankfully, as far as I’m aware this has only appeared in this issue and has never occurred again.

Princess Elise (+Soleanna, possibly Silver) – Italian

Soleanna as a country is incredibly inspired by the city of Venice, Italy, to the point where Silver’s original name was Venice. The city is known for being built on 118 small islands connected by canals and bridges, with it often being called the “floating city.”

The amount of canals and bridges in Soleanna is definitely an intentional reference, as well as the very Venetian Architecture of the buildings.

Now, Silver– While it’s unclear if Silver is from his timeline’s Soleanna, he does have a bit of Italian coding as well!

Firstly, his original design was literally named Venice. (design in the pic, bottom left.) And there’s one other little detail– in Sonic and the Black Knight, when you play as Silver (Sir Galahad), his sword looks a LOT like a Cinquedea– an Italian dagger.

Silver being Italian is a bit less certain than the rest of Soleanna, though– the original name and dagger are the only implications and he hasn’t had much since. In Sonic Forces: Speed Battle he is given a Lunar New Year outfit, which could imply he is of Asian descent (see: Blaze); of course he could be mixed, or simply celebrating with Blaze (who also had a Lunar New Year outfit release at the same time). So while Silver isn’t certain, I will say the inclusion of the Cinquedea interested me enough to note him here.

Espio the Chameleon – Japanese

Espio is definitely coded as Japanese throughout his appearances. Firstly, and most obviously, his special interest in being a Ninja; ninjas were mercenaries or covert agents in feudal Japan, incredibly skilled in martial arts and ninjutsu, and they were often used as spies or bodyguards. Japanese legend would also often associate the ninja with invisibility, a major part of Espio’s powerset. Espio’s favor for the shuriken stars as a weapon also tie into this, as well as the fact that in the Japanese script he uses the old-fashioned formal pronouns “ware” and “onushi.”

That’s not all, though, of course: Espio has been stated in the Sonic City character profiles to be “a lover of traditional ways,” specifically referencing his ability to play the shamisen, a traditional Japanese instrument. He is seen playing this instrument in the Chaotix’s Sonic Heroes Team Blast.

@nonbinarycharmybee also pointed out that in THIS official artwork from Sonic Channel in 2021, Espio is seen writing with an ink brush used in Japanese calligraphy.

Gold the Tenrec – Indian

Gold is specifically stated by creator Evan Stanley to be from “whatever the Sonic World equivalent” of India is. This is shown in her design as well: her outfit consists of a brown sari, which is a very popular and traditional style in India, as well as nearby Southern Asian countries.

Knuckles the Echidna (+Clan) – Jamaican + Mesoamerican

Oooh Knuckles is interesting, strap in everyone!

According to Sonic Advance 2: Prima's Official Strategy Guide, Knuckles was originally intended to speak with a Jamaican accent. As well as this, the green/yellow/red color scheme of his shoes was intended to reference the Rastafari flag, Rastafarianism being a religion developed in Jamaica. This heritage can also be seen reflected in his dreadlocks– his quill-style is referred to as such in many canon places. In real life, dreadlocks are a Black hairstyle; the 2011 official census of Jamaica listed 92.1% of the population as Black, and dreadlocks are often associated with the Rastafari movement, as Rastas regard them as a symbol of strength and it emerged as a traditional religious style in the 1940s.

This isn’t the only coding Knuckles gets, though; he is known to be descended from the Knuckles Clan, which are heavily inspired by Mesoamerican cultures.

The Sonic Adventure team traveled through Central and South America to get inspiration for Knuckles’s clan’s culture, which can be seen in basically every aspect of the Clan lore. For instance, clothing worn by the echidnas is very similar to the traditional styles of the Aztecs and Mayas. This includes the decorative feathers seen on Pachacamac and the filmverse!Clan, as feathers were popular and prized materials in pre-colonial Mesoamerca.

Their architecture is almost identical to the step-pyramid temples of the Aztecs, Mayas and Toltecs. The same architecture and clothing style can also be seen in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022), with most of the echidna warriors seen with spears, including baby Knuckles. Throwing spears were used extensively in pre-colonial Mesoamerican battles.

There is also a large serpent that lives near the Mystic Ruins of the Clan, likely a reference to the Aztecs’ Quetzalcoatl and the Mayas’ Kukulkan.

Also, most obviously, the names: Pachacamac is named after a Peruvian archeological site, which itself was named after the Ichma creator god Pacha Kamaq. Tikal, meanwhile, was named after the archeological ruins of a Maya city, consisting of multiple pyramids.

As a sidenote, it should be noted that Ken Penders’ echidnas in the Archie Comics were definitely supposed to be English: @thankskenpenders laid it out very well in this post, but they were written to come from “Mobius’s equivalent of England,” named after the earliest name for Great Britain, and he wrote the species to be “seafaring colonizers.” Penders did write this before the release of Sonic Adventure, but obviously after Knuckles’s initial release with Jamaican-coding, so can we call this whitewashing? I don’t know enough to speak on the subject, but with the reset of Archie comics and its later cancellation, and the games’ Knuckles Clan being represented in several other mediums (such as Sonic X, Sonic the Comic, etc.) I think we can safely say that the Mesoamerican coding is a bit more canon.

Lupe the Wolf (+pack) – Indigenous American

Lupe the Wolf first appeared in the second season of Sonic SatAM, and from her first appearance was incredibly indigenous-coded, as was her wolf pack. This coding continued through the Archie comics. This will mostly focus on the SatAM coding, as Archie pulled from that and, once again, I don’t know a ton about Archie!Canon, but SatAM is pretty damn obvious with its coding.

Lupe’s pack is described as being a native tribe to the Great Unknown region, who live in “harmony with nature.” Their land was captured and culture destroyed by the invading Robotnik, with the survivors retreating into their civilization’s ruins. In order to keep themselves safe, they set up inscriptions near their cave threatening to curse anyone who wanted to come in; Lupe later readily admits this to Sonic, Sally and Antoine, the latter of whom was scared shitless by the idea of getting cursed.

So, for starters, Indigenous American culture is, in general, built a lot upon a reverence for nature, believing that humans are not masters of nature but merely a part of it and acting accordingly. The capture of their land is obviously intended to be reminiscent of American colonization by the Europeans, which was devastating to the Native tribes, with entire cultures and languages being wiped out and Indigenous people still facing serious oppression in modern times.

Much like the Knuckles Clan, the Wolf Pack’s ruins are reminiscent of many indigenous archeological sites, such as Mesa Verde, which is also built into a cliffside. The brief glimpse we have of the Wolf Pack’s pre-colonized land also shows them living in huts reminiscent of many indigenous tribes.

The room Lupe gives exposition in also has them all sitting around a smoking fire pit; many indigenous cultures will gather around fires for meetings and discussions.

Lastly, many people (mainly white people) hold the superstition that Indigenous people have the ability to curse them; just think about how much the “this place is haunted because it was built on a Native burial ground” trope is used. The “Magical Native American” trope tends to say that Natives are magical because of their closeness with nature and “lack of civilization.” This very much falls into the Noble Savage trope, making them appear exotic or inhuman to outsiders and trivializes their connection to the natural world.

SatAM does a pretty decent job subverting this trope, with Lupe very clearly stating there is no curse and they use it to make small-minded intruders keep out; this shifts the ridiculousness of the situation onto the non-Native-coded characters.

Sonic: Ant! Forget the curse. There is no stupid curse! Lupe: He's right, Antoine. We use the threat of a curse to keep out intruders. Antoine: No curses? Oh. Phew and phew again. I am so happy to hear that.

- SatAM S2e10, “Cry of the Wolf”

There have been a few other instances of Indigenous-coding with Sonicverse characters, unfortunately not all of them represented as well. The inhabitants of Speedster Island in the Sonic Underground episode “Head Games” are just as indigenous-coded in their appearance, the episode very much falls into the “Native people need the outsiders to come save them” stereotype, as well as the “Native people mistake outsiders for gods” stereotype. The Gogobas in Sonic Boom are also given indigenous-coding with their chief’s headgear, village huts, and jokes made referencing the “cursed burial grounds” trope and them replacing the captured indigenous children in the parody of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The Gogobas are not exactly shown in a positive light, though to be fair, neither is anyone in the show; specifically, the Gogobas’ “tradition” is to guilt trip everyone into doing what they want.

For other indigenous coding in major characters, see Knuckles and Rotor sections.

Marine the Raccoon (+Coconut Crew) – Australian

Marine is very obviously coded as Australian; throughout all of her dialogue, she uses Australian slang, most obviously calling her friends “mate.” She also uses the exclamation “strewth,” which is used often in Australia and Aotearoa. Other slang includes “sheila” (woman), “no drama” (no worries) and “ya mug” (friendly insult, usually for a gullible person). The other koalas on her island, who raised her, also use the same language.

Marine is also given pigtails shaped like boomerangs, a tool heavily associated with Australia, specifically Aboriginal Australian hunting. Koalas are also a species that is native to Australia– I believe only Australia but I can’t be sure.

I don’t know enough about the coding of their architecture/etc to say if they’re coded as generally Australian or Aboriginal specifically, though I will say they definitely seem to be native to islands, which may imply they are of a Polynesian tribe near Australia or Aotearoa, such as Māori or Tahitian people.

Should be noted though that Marine appears to be adopted; she was raised by the Coconut Crew, who are all koalas. She does have some serious tanuki coding that may additionally code her as Japanese; for more, see Tails’s section.

Mina Mongoose – Chinese

As far as I’m aware, Mina’s Chinese-coding isn’t super explicit. However, she is seen wearing a red qipao for formal occasions, designed by Jeff Axer.

The qipao, also known as a cheongsam, is a traditional Chinese dress inspired by the Manchu people (founders of the Qing Dynasty). In modern times, the cheongsam is very popular for festivities such as weddings and holidays (especially Lunar New Year), as well as school and work uniforms.

Mina’s qipao is also specifically given a green dragon design very reminiscent of the Chinese dragon as well as many other Asian dragon species. She also is given ornamental earrings and hair pieces that are very clearly inspired by Chinese fashion.

Nocturnus Clan + Voxai Aliens – Roman/Greek

Honestly, these clans seem to have coding in name only– they both have specific cultures of their own, with the Voxai architecture specifically being based mainly on the rock and plants of their home planet, and the Nocturnus clan being very futuristic. But it is interesting to note!

The Nocturnus clan army ranks are very similar to Imperial Roman ones, with titles such as hastatus and praetorian. Ix being called the “Imperator” is also a Latin word from which the word “Emperor” is derived, and referred to an army commander. Ix’s Gizoid prefects are also named Scylla and Charyb, a reference to Scylla and Charybdis, two sea monsters in Greek mythology which appeared in the Odyssey. The historian character Nestor the Wise is named after King Nestor of Gerenia, also from the Odyssey as well as the Iliad.

The Voxai names are also derived from Greek and Roman mythology: their name likely comes from the Latin noun “vox,” which refers to a voice and would reference the aliens’ telepathic powers. Most of the named Voxai are given Greek names as well: Thebes is an important city in Greek mythology, Croesus was the last king of Lydia, and Riadne, Leucosia and Ligaia are names of mythological Sirens.

Rotor the Walrus – Inuk

Rotor is not given any specific cultural coding in SatAM or Pre-Super Genesis Wave Archie; however, in Post-SGW Archie, he and his family are given Inuit coding.

In the post-SGW comics, Rotor is from Artika, a region covered in snow and ice, and we see that the residents live in igluit, traditional homes for inuit in the Central Arctic Canadian area, and the Qaanaaq in Greenland.

Rotor’s community also has an enemy named Akhlut the Orca– in Inuit mythology, the akh’lut is a wolf-orca creature that is known to be aggressive towards humans.

Surge the Tenrec – Japanese

Surge is a relatively new character to the IDW Comics, so we still have more time to learn about her past/potential culture; for the most part, at this point, her coding comes mainly in her appearance. Surge was designed by Mauro Fonseca and Evan Stanley, with Fonseca listing Japanese delinquents, specifically sukeban, as one of the inspirations for her design.

Sukeban are Japanese delinquent girls, the word usually referring to either an entire gang or the leader herself; they were gangs in the 60s-70s, and now the term tends to refer mainly to fashion inspired by them. Many “common signifiers” of this trend are bright hair and modified school uniforms (cut, decorated, etc).

Many fictional Japanese delinquents share design similarities with Surge, such as “excessive piercings and jewellery” and spiked hair.

Tails the Fox – Japanese(?) / Kitsune

I put a question mark here because Tails’s coding isn’t specifically on Japanese culture, but on a very specific aspect of its mythology. Tails is very clearly based upon a Kitsune.

Kitsune are mythological foxes with the ability to shapeshift; they have been portrayed in different myths as tricksters and/or guardians. The kitsune are noted for having multiple tails; they are said grow a tail every hundred years, growing up to nine tails. When they reach a thousand years of age, instead of growing a new tail, they ascend to the heavens. The kitsune are notable for their shapeshifting and ability to create illusions.

Tails’s second tail is clearly a reference to the kitsune legend, but while he relies more on technology than magic, there are some suspicious magical incidents around Tails; in Sonic Battle, his attack consists of summoning a giant hand to hit you with. @birdsareblooming pointed out to me that in Sonic: Lost World, when Tails stops pretending to be roboticized, his eye color literally shifts from gray to blue, possibly as a reference to the shapeshifting.

In Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022), the illusion power is referenced with Tails’s “Miles Multiplier,” which he uses to summon holographic copies of himself and others.

If you look on Tails’s desktop, you can also see something entitled “Kitsune” is running– @khamomile-kitty has informed me that it says Arms.Kitsune as a reference to Tyson Hesse’s early parody comic, Hedgehog the Sonic. You can see the file on the bottom left of his screen, though this isn’t a great pic lol.

There’s also the fact he shares many parallels with Infinite, who has the regular kitsune powers of illusion. Jackals are also very close on the family tree to foxes.

Another interesting thing is Marine– her being Blaze’s dimension’s Tails is interesting, as she is likely not a raccoon but a tanuki. She looks much more similar to a real tanuki, and in mythology tanuki and kitsune tend to be enemies with similar powersets. Speaking of Tanuki– Tails is also the first to be suspicious of Dodon Pa, a canon tanuki. He says specifically, “There’s something about this Tanuki I just don’t trust.”

Is he a kitsune in canon or is this just a reference to Japanese mythology? Pre-SGW Archie Comics gives Tails regular fox parents, so his tail seems to be a canon mutation there. However, every other canon has Tails completely oblivious to his past, seeming to not know his parents and likely having been abandoned. In Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, for example, he has no memory of his parents and just says he’s “been alone for a long time” and is confused at the fact not everyone has two tails. So honestly, it’s completely unknown whether he’s a canon kitsune or simply coded.

Whisper the Wolf – Japanese

Whisper’s coding is very specific: her mask and her eyes. Whisper’s mask was chosen from a character customization option in Sonic Forces, and was specifically inspired by Japanese Kabuki masks. (Kabuki is a traditional Japanese dance-drama form known for its elaborate costuming, makeup, and masks.)

Whisper’s eyes being almost always closed is partially inspired by traditional depictions of kitsunes with “those iconic squinty-closed eyes.” (See Tails’s section for more kitsune information.) Sega of Japan approved her design as wolves serve the same roles as kitsune in older Japanese folklore.

Vector the Crocodile – Black American

Vector has had quite a bit of black coding over the years, in both positive and negative ways.

Vector is given an appearance shared with/stereotypical of a lot of Black American musicians, particularly in the rapper and hip-hop categories– specifically, his gold chain jewelry, leather clothing, and wireless headphones, esp their positioning in his models. As Vector is a musician, they definitely chose this specific musican-attire for him for a reason. Also, right now, his current English voice actor is Keith Silverstein, a black man.

A lot of Vector’s personality could be read as stereotypical, and at the same time those personality traits could be seen as inverted depending on the source material: he could fall into the “bossy overconfident” stereotype, or that could be seen as subverted due to the fact he is actually competent at his job. He could fall into the “money-hungry” and/or “always poor” trope, or this trait could be seen as relatable due to all of us hating landlords and rent with a passion. He could be “will do anything for money” or he could be presented as someone with strong morals who will always do what is right.

In some media he is seen as hotheaded and aggressive (”Angry Black Man”), while in others he keeps a cool head in times of danger and takes care of his team. You could see him as a “massive flirt” or as just someone who happens to be head-over-heels in love with Vanilla. Hell, his loud music interest could be seen as joking about Black music being “too loud,” or it could be seen as him, you know, just enjoying music!

All this depends on the medium. I don’t feel educated enough on the subject to make a call as to whether he’s a positive or negative stereotype overall, though I think I can say with certainty that Penders’ writing of him in the Archie comics was racist as hell. As @thankskenpenders explained in her article, “Vector was the jive-talking comic relief character. He was obnoxious, he was dim-witted, he was crude, he’d randomly bring up rap music. One time he started singing ‘Dem Bones’ to himself while held captive by the Dark Legion. He was also extremely misogynistic.” Thank God Penders is out...

Master Zik the Zeti – Chinese

Zik’s appearance and characterization are based upon early Chinese poets, who are given a lot of respect in their society, as Zik is given respect among the Zeti.

Zik can definitely fall into the Inscrutable Oriental trope, with his “reserved and stoic” personality. He is also part of the Old Master trope (though he is a villainous rather than heroic character, as is traditional), which tends to intersect with the Magical Asian trope in martial arts stories, most famously in America in The Karate Kid; this inspiration can be seen in most of Zik’s calm dialogue and past as Zavok’s mentor, and the emphasis on his position as a powerful master. His hair is likely a reference to the stereotypical Fu Manchu moustache, and his entrance music is stylized after traditional Chinese music.

Zik also spends his semi-retirement in the garden he tends; this could potentially be a reference to Chinese gardens, which are very important in Chinese literature and philosophy. His game profile also mentions he likes to water his Bonsai tree; while the Bonsai is Japanese, it is derived from traditional Chinese penjing art.

#sonic squad #sonic the hedgehog #sth #sonic meta #meta #mine #cultural coding #coding

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fatphobiabusters · 2 months

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hello!! i love seeing your fatshion and fat art posts on my dash :]) they really brighten my day! how do you find these posts? I've gone back to the original source of them and they aren't often tagged with "plus size" or anything :o

Hi, I'm glad you enjoy the posts. I've created many strategies to find fat positive content on this website since, sadly, fat representation is very difficult to find.

The easiest strategy is to search popular fat positive tags, like "fatshion" or "fat positive." However, most people don't tag fat representation, and many fat-related tags are overrun by thinspo blogs, fat fetishists, and fatphobes.

Sometimes I search "plus size" and another word to try to find specific posts. For example, I queued posts with a Valentine's Day theme for Valentine's Day. One of the strategies I used for that was to search "plus size pink," "plus size red," "plus size lovecore," "plus size valentines day," etc. I have to get creative like this when trying to find content of specific groups of fat people. As another example, when I want to find content for fat Asian people, I may search "plus size hanfu," "plus size jfashion," "Vietnamese fatshion," and any combination of words involving fatness and usually either a specific cultural clothing or country. If I just use normal search terms, I likely won't find anything.

Sometimes I look at popular tags like "artists on tumblr" and scroll through hundreds of posts to find a single drawing of a fat person. Usually said drawing didn't use any tags for the fat representation. This strategy is extremely based on luck and will involve spending way more time before seeing any posts of fat people, but this is one of the few ways to find posts of fat representation that weren't tagged with words related to fatness. What I would give just to get people to tag their posts of fat representation, you have no idea. Even if no one else started drawing fat people, there would be a mountain of more fat positive posts to reblog if those posts were simply tagged in a way to make them possible for fat positive blogs to find.

Some tags are more likely to include fat people, like tags for Mermay. Fat people are barely represented, but some artists are willing to be slightly inclusive when drawing mermaids. The likelihood of size inclusivity also goes up with events like Mermay since some of the artists who participate will draw a different mermaid design for every day of the month. It's hard to not draw a single fat mermaid design when a person is drawing 31 mermaids.

When I find an old fat positive or fatshion blog, I'll usually comb through the entire blog for posts. Not only do I find posts that way, but I also usually find other blogs with posts I can also queue. This ends up with me going through a chain of old blogs and why you'll see us post content that was made anywhere from 5 to a whopping 12 years ago. I usually keep at least one post from each of these blogs in my queue at all times to remind me to continue searching the blogs for fat positive content. I've had some posts in the queue of Fatphobia Busters for two years because I keep them as reminders for what blogs I need to search. For every post we share, I try to thoroughly look through the blog of the op for any other scraps of fat positivity I can queue. This is another reason why some posts stay in the queue for months or years. Since fat representation on this website is abysmal, I usually only put posts at the front of the queue that were either made by blogs I've already combed, blogs that still have posts in the queue so I can search those blogs a different day, or if the post was queued by Mod Squirrel. I don't have a lot of energy to search blogs, which is why those posts stay in the queue for so long. That's also why you may notice certain blogs being posted a lot for a period of time—they're blogs I'm safe to post without missing any content I could have queued.

Tumblr has a pretty terrible search function, and I've basically never been recommended a blog by Tumblr that actually posted fat representation. However, the one helpful function Tumblr has actually been good at is the similar posts section called "More like this," which looks like this on desktop:

It's to the right of whatever post you look at on a blog. On mobile, it looks like this:

I looked at the same post for both of these screenshots. In the "More like this" (or "More posts like this") section, Tumblr will usually include other posts by the user, posts by other blogs who interact with the user, posts with similar tags, etc. etc. For whatever reason, I'll sometimes be able to use this Tumblr function to find more fat representation. As an example, Tumblr showed me the same grayscale drawing of a fat person in both of these screenshots. That drawing was posted by an entirely different blog and with no tags related to fatness or fat positivity at all, but the "More like this" Tumblr function is the only time that Tumblr realizes "Oh, for the past five years of running and modding for fat positive blogs, you've actually wanted to see posts of fat people and not all of the posts of thin people I've suggested to you all this time?"

Sometimes I'll try my luck with certain fandoms when I know the media the fandom is for actually has a fat character or if I know that the fandom is somewhat size inclusive. There are times where an artist who draws the media's fat character also has fat OCs or draws other fat people. For instance, I'll probably have more luck finding artists who draw fat people in the Magnus Archives fandom than I will in a fandom for a media that's very fatphobic or pretends thinness is an art style, like Hazbin Hotel.

If I find a fat person who posts selfies or photography of themself, I'll look at their tags to try to decipher what tags they use for posting those photos. They may have a specific tag just for their photos, like "my face," or they may tag all of their photos with a tag like "ootd," "melanin," "cosplay," "black girl magic," "lolita," "jfashion," etc. It's also important to make sure not to share any posts that have tags like "do not reblog." If a post has the tag "personal," I'll usually either skip it or ask the user if they're okay with the post being reblogged. This is especially important for text posts about fatphobia since sometimes a person just wanted to vent and doesn't want their post to be shared. Whenever I'm in doubt, I write a reply on the post and ask the op if they're okay with me reblogging it.

On some occasions, I'll see the url or tags of someone on our posts that makes me think they may have more fat positive content. When that is the case, I'll queue posts that a follower made. Said posts are usually selfies or text posts. Sometimes this means queuing a post they made about a specific product they sell on Etsy that otherwise isn't accessible for fat people, or this could mean queueing a well-written rant that they've okayed for people to reblog.

That's basically the gist of most of my strategies I can think of. You can see that running and modding for fat positive blogs involves a lot of work and strategizing just to find content. But you can help make it easier. If you:

Tag your posts of fat representation with fat positive tags

Send posts you find of fat people to fat positive blogs

Tell artists who draw fat people to tag their art with fat positive tags

Ask artists who only draw thin people to make their art size inclusive

Make posts about fatphobia and tag those posts with tags like "fatphobia" to make them searchable

Or even just reblog posts from fat positive blogs to help spread them and encourage those OPs to keep representing fat people

By doing those things, you help us a lot and also help more fat people see themselves in the media they look at.

If you do tag your posts for this purpose, I strongly suggest using more than just tags like "body positivity." That tag on Tumblr is full of mostly porn, thin people, and celebrations of weight loss, so I've given up on looking at that tag at all and would assume many other fat positive blogs don't use that tag either.

-Mod Worthy

#fat representation #fat art #fat liberation #fat positive #fatphobia #Mod Worthy #ask #citricsinger76

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saintjosie · 9 months

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I'm gonna jump in the discourse lol, I don't pass as a trans woman and I don't think I'll care to. But demilypyro was advocating for living as your best self, she happens to be in a country that funded her transition? But other than that she's like poor too. Idk it feels like everyone's just looking for trouble because she was responding to hate with snark

okay people really don’t get this so i’m gonna tell y’all a story. my story.

i’m a trans woman with a fuckload of privilege. i’m pretty, i’m passing, and i have a platform, but most importantly, i had the privilege of starting my transition when i was financially stable on my own in largely supportive environments. and i recognize these things now but i didn’t always.

i started my transition in may of 2020, during the height of lockdown. and at that time, i was working a cushy corporate salaried desk job with full benefits which included both therapy and gender affirming care. i got on hrt quickly, and because of good genes, because masculine asian features are regarded as feminine in western beauty standards, because i’m really fucking good at makeup, and because i was working from home and there was no where to go, i was able to stop boymoding by october of 2020, about 6 months after i started hrt.

and then around that same time, i had another stroke of luck. i made a tiktok about coming out at work, which i did in the most extra way imaginable, and that tiktok went viral. it got 300k views and overnight i went from having 150 followers on tiktok to several thousand. and a less than a year later, that grew to 100k.

that year was rough as hell. i transitioned during a time where going out into the world to find community was impossible. and i lost my job. and i got divorced. and i cut out my family. and because of all of that, i felt like i was doing better than a lot of other trans people. cause i was facing hardships and still doing incredible.

but even so, i was longing for community that would validate and accept me the way that i was validated and accepted online. and so over the next year, i moved across the country three times, something i was able to do only because i was able to afford it

during that year i finally started to get out and meet queer people as the pandemic slowed down. and as i connected with queer and trans people in varying stages on their own journey, i realized the enormous privilege of being able to transition, afford therapy, afford my meds, afford moving to a place where i could find community. i wasn’t just “better at being trans”, i was just luckier than most.

being able to accept being trans is so dependent on having the support structure around you to process what you are feeling. being able to socially transition is dependent on having the people around you who will accept your identity and being in a place where you are able to do so safely. being able to medically transition is dependent on having the physical health and financial stability to do so.

privilege is something that needs to be constantly dismantled within our community because privilege is the main weapon that is used to oppress us.

the fact that this demily person made a snide sarcastic comment doesn’t change the fact that she sought out a person without a following to shit on someone without a following. the inherent privilege of saying something like, “i’m better at being trans” even if she didn’t mean it seriously, shows that she doesn’t recognize the privilege of being in a place where you can learn to accept yourself.

and on top of all that because she’s a person with a following and a platform, the danger of that kind of thinking compounds and is worth calling out.

i’m not misunderstanding her intentions or the context.

you are misunderstanding privilege.

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whenishipiluxurycruiseit · 29 days

Text

Song Inspiration - Kalam Eineh by Sherine

DCMK AU! Edogawa Conan did not take the antidote AU!

(Honestly im just typing it here so i couldnt forget my idea, i cant write well so its gon be a prompt or something)

Edogawa Conan did not take the antidote due to the chances of dying is greater than going back to Kudou Shinichi (15% Success rate only)

Kudou Shinichi proclaimed MIA/KIA in the operation destroy the alcoholics

Conan living his childhood the second time and making it better compared to his last, means he is more matured in this second childhood of his (like duh he like 17 yrs old inside HAHAHAH)

Ai was already planning not to go back to her old life and remain as Haibara Ai, so she spends it with Conan making this second childhood better (unlike Miyano Shiho who was bullied for being asian in america)

They make their dreams come true by being a menace child to everyone

Dw Conan and Ai are very happy (they are kinda depressed but they cope well now)(very strong poker face!!) they smile a lot and more carefree than before

Parters in crime frfr they treat each other as siblings

Edogawa Conan still lives with Ran and helps her cope through Kudou Shinichis proclaimed death

Conan and Ai graduate Highschool by the time they’re 15 yrs old

They did not go to college and instead just.. travel everywhere (they’re smarter than college kids anyway)

First they travel with Kudou Yuusaku and Kudou Yukiko bc well.. they minors and the Kudou couple is Conan’s guardians(parents) and became Ai’s guardians too

Though when they old enough they travel on their own both of them or each on their own

Conan being a freelance detective and Ai being a dunno, info broker

Conan is not really a law abiding citizen anymore, he just follows what he thinks is right thus sometimes help Lupin III when he meets them coincidentally during his solo or with Ai travels

Lupin III team as his second fam (or third??) frfr

“Papa!” “I told you not to call me papa!”

“Jigen the brats our nephew now *wipes tears*”

Conan occasionally visits Japan, like during one of the Tantei Shounen Dan’s bday or smthg or some case that needs his help

(Oh yea) Conan is Kudou Shinichi’s replacement (kind of) in MPD Division 1 golden boi

He is also divisions 2 golden boy (kid killer wahhaha)

Conan is also the FBI agents golden boy

When FBI found out Conan is not planning to go to college, they set their fangs on him and recruited him (no questions asked due to the number of recommendations from the FBI agents in Japan)

Not only FBI but also CIA (Conan’s the peacemaker between the rivalry of the two)

Also interpol (they like the smart kid who snucked(?) in before their base in Japan)(cute kid)

So no matter how many law Conan breaks in some country, they got his back and he knows it (that its kinda illegal but who cares they do the job they needed him to do anyways, use the privilege)

Also some of them knew about his situation the shrunked teen situation and his Edogawa Conan identity is alllll fake and is made through the power of position in the world (along with Haibara Ai)

Conan goes here and there to solve hard ass cases but now it’s not only centered around murder but also politics so he study a lot! (“Should’ve gone to college instead of this dang…”)

All expenses paid by his employers ofc

After like a few yrs, like when hes 19, Ai made a perfect antidote that will bring their old body back safely

Ai only made one pill cause she didnt need it, but she knows Conan might want it so its there waiting to be swallowed by Conan

Conan took it for funsies

He did not know it was permanent

He has now two identities, Edogawa Conan and the proclaimed KIA/MIA Kudou Shinichi

He thought he could use it to prank others

“Whoa so this is what I look like in ten years, haha i should prank them that I went back in time from the future haha”

“u are not going back to the future”

“what”

Thus he got stuck in swiss for nearly a month so he could make excuses with the help of Ai (“STOP LAUGHING AT ME U ASS, WHY DIDNT YOU SAY IT WAS PERMANENT” “what a dumbass 😂”)

He kinda uses both identities but mostly the Conan identity

“W-what is that Kudou Shinichi..? I thought he was-“ *wears the glasses* “oh its just you conan kun whew”

Conan feels like hes clark kent and wonders when will he die (of embarrassment cause srsly why did he make this more harder for himself? Though its fun watching people confuse me for me haha)

Those he did not tell about his secret in Japan are having an aneurysm bc what the heck is that kudou shinichi on international tv am i dreaming am i dead is he dead who is dead?… were they dead all along and life was just a simulation that they’re playing in the afterlife

The Kudou Couple are laughing, and Conan is also laughing at the chaos he caused (also he will not be clearing it up for the funsies, he got infected with his parents twisted sense of fun)

Ofc what kind of kaishin shipper am i if i dont include kaishin right?

Kaishin did not happen

Why? Well because conan suddenly left like a rat (and well he did not decide to take the antidote anymore)

Conan helped Kaitou KID defeat his enemy organization in the age of 8 (18) (he destroyed it after he decided he will not take the antidote, which was like i dunno a week after he took down the BO)

Kaito thought that was like the sweetest proposal ever (tantei kun i will say yes to heaven say yes to you)

Conan did not propose instead he told KID that Kudou Shinichi is KIA/MIA and will not be coming back while visiting KID in the hospital

Kaito was like wdym ure here, Conan’s like yea /conan/ is here but shinichi is gone (like the angsty grade schooler that he was)

Kaito was fine with that as long as he can see his tantei kun

His tantei kun was coping through Kaitos heist and he did not mind at all cause hey its fun! (Being chased by ur first love and everything- well other than those soccer balls, but hey as long as its from tantei kun ill take it)

Kaito told tantei kun to find out his real identity and said that he will reward him

The day after Kaito said that he got a text from tentei kun (“so whats the reward kuroba kaito nii chan”) (kaito just blushed “since when did u know” he texted back) (“from the moment u pissed me off”) (“yes sir im sorry”) (“so? What is my reward?”) (“do you know what date it is on monday?”) (“april 1st?”) (“i’ll be waiting tantei kun~”) (“whoa what a sap”)

Kaito confessed to Conan during april 1st on the rooftop of Haido Hotel that he liked (love, conan, shinichi was his first love. Aoko was a crush that died during eigth grade and became a sister to him instead) him and

And was rejected softly

It hurt

So much

But looking at tantei kuns sad smile and appreciating eyes, it kinda lessened a little bit (kinda, a little bit, hurts a lot though)

“I.. don’t want you to be placed in this weird situation. As I’ve said, I have no plans in going back as Kudou Shinichi, and I can’t destroy this life, as Edogawa Conan, for a 15% chance of living.. I’m still here, but as a child. An 9 yr old child.. Thank you and I’m sorry.” (I like you too, but I like to too much to grab on to you and make you wait for years, I don’t want that, you can only go through your teens once and I don’t want that to be wasted on me. I love you.)

“… I… I can wait for you..” “I know, but I don’t want you to.”

Because Kaito is a masochist, he asks for a request

“Can.. can you tell me you love me..? I don’t mind if its just a pretend but please, I won’t ask for anymore please Tantei-kun, Shinichi, I-“

“I love you, Kaito.” Conan says as he pulled the teenager’s shirt down and kissed him on the lips for the first and last time. “I love you, Kaitou KID.” /Conan/ says as he hugs Kaito and feels the tears that are beginning to wet his back.

“Thank you, for loving me, for falling in love with me.” Shinichi says as he looks to Kaito’s eyes, kissed both of his eyelids close, and left quietly. ‘May this be all a pleasant dream to you.’ Shinichi, Conan thought as he hears Kaito’s cries behind the rooftop door.

They did not meet for 2 weeks after that, Kaito KID announced a hiatus and Conan, Conan looked at Ran (nee chan, kind, understanding, lovable Ran nee chan. Who did not have the strength to get angry at him when he told her the truth, who still let him stay at the agency, cooked, took care of him even after all that was revealed. Who he started to look as a sister but it did not make him love her less) and decided to let them meet

Yes people kairan(i dont ship it btw, its just for plot reasons, also inspired by a fic like how the most of this idea came from) happened, but not in the romantic sense, in a I share your pain sense, lets dwell on it together and people misunderstands sense

They meet through Conan’s “Sonoko nee chan I heard that there was a magician who is as good as KID performing at the Beika Performing Hall!”

Sonoko the kind bff that she is “Ran lets go! Lets take your mind off Shi- uh the recent news and look at some magic trick yea? Its gonna be fine! Look I’ll even bring the kids-!” “Oh- I’m fine Sonoko nee chan, My parents will come home that time so you can go with the others without me!”

Kaito and Ran meet and Ran is like “Shinichi..? No, you’re! KI-“ “Shhh! Ojou-san, seriously you’re sharp as Metantei, does he train you?”

Why does Kaito not bother rebuking Ran’s guess is bc Ran saw him using Shinichi’s face a lot which means Ran saw him without disguise a lot of times to know that hes KID

Weird friendship acquired!

New knowledge acquired! (Seems like he was not the only one dumped by their first love, and also seems like they did not get over yet from their first love who is coincidentally the same person! Wow tantei kun if only you know)

(Kaito’s kinda jelly though cause Ran and Shinichi had a /label/ while He and Shinichi… hmph! At least Tantei Kun did not hide his real self from me!) (he’s coping so hard, he knows)

They spend a lot time together to the point people thought they were dating (they weren’t)

Conan is included in people. (He’s kind of relieved that they found solace in each other but also kind of sad cause of all the people he loved romantically (once with Ran and currently with Kaito), he could not date them properly (Ran) or couldn’t even try to date them (Kaito) thus them ending with each other… should he just like a lot of people so those people that he likes will like each other? Does that mean he becomes a match maker?… does he have to like Hattori and Kazuha-chan do they could confess to each other cause Hattori is kinda annoying currently..)

Kaito and Ran saw Conan (Shinichi) looking at them and smiling sadly, giving his blessings mentally (please give all the good luck that I have to both of the people I love) and ah.. fk.. should we.. make it real..?

They did, they officially dated, but just to be with the person they related the most (and also because how Shinichi (Conan) looked at them, like how he wanted that for himself but /just cant/ and gave up and ah if he wants us to be together so shall it be, its not a bad pair anyways.. cope cope) not romantically

Bc of their not so relationship relationship, they dated for 5 yrs and got married. (Just to make some of their friends shut up about when will you marry and oh! Still dating? Ran/Kaito I want to see my cute darling nephews/nieces! Ugh)

(After their marriage, Conan left for somewhere they can’t reach him, but he promised to update as much as he can so.. also Ai-chan is with him to help him remember his promise)

They have kids! Twins in fact (and they’re so glad its twins cause both of them dont think they can do /that/ again.. not when they both loved the same man, they still shudder when they remember the night they made the twins, it was when they both got drunk too, on.. Shinichi’s (Conan’s) supposed to be death anniversary)

They named them Shin (新) and Ichi (一), both boys!

“Why are you named one when theres two of you?” Asked their Uncle Conan during his sudden abrupt visit in Japan, Shin and Ichi are about three yrs old now! “Because Mom said she and dad thought that I was only one! Then surprise surprise there was a new (Shin) one behind me!” Explained Ichi, the youngest of the twins

(Apparently the oldest of the twins are the ones who are conceived last, because they were made in the womb first, they are hidden behind bc their twin will form in front of them, that’s according to my friend who has a twin HAHAH so dunno rlly)

Uncle Conan is laughing so hard he folded in half! “HAHAHAHA! Oh my Lord, they got Hakase’s bad pun jokes, gosh I’m sorry my cute nephews, you guys became a victim.” Uncle Conan said while laughing, wiping a tear from his face, “anyways.. for the million dollar question! Why are both of you on the rooftop of this building?”

Cause seriously, who left his nephews here on top of the building?! Theres no one with them too! Conan is positively sure that their parents are not that irresponsible to just leave them here alone! So who-!

“Papa said to stall time! So he could catch you before you leave again!”

Oh.. it.. it was one of the parents.. “.. and your mom allowed him..?”

“Yep! Because she said that uncle is so hard to catch these days! She said uncle is like a slimy fish!” Shin exclaimed, “Whoa, she said that word infront of your dad?” Conan asked worriedly, “No.. not really, Mama just said ‘slimy f!’” Shin answered bashfully

“Haha! Thought so! Anyways Uncle can’t really stall more time anymore so here! I’ll give you your favorite chocolates in exchange for letting me go!” Conan said cheerfully and like magic, poofs a bag of chocolates in his hand. He wasn’t tied up, but well, children must learn how to ask permission eh? (Also bribery but well what they dont know wont hurt them)

“Waahh! Really! Okay Uncle! Be careful!” Both boys replied readily and greedily takes the bag of chocolate from his hands, “Ha! Both of you really took after your father huh?” He commented softly, after placing some tracking and listening devices on their clothes he said his goodbyes, “see you my cute nephews! Share some to your dad too ok! Wait for him to get you here, bye bye! Love you!~” he said as he leapt from the rooftop.

“Bye uncle! Love you too!” Both said after getting five chocolates each for themselves because their mom is scary if she finds out that they ate more than required of them! And they dont want cavities!

“Shin! Ichi! Where is your Uncle Conan?” Kaito panted as he jumped down from his handglider(?) wearing his full Kaitou KID regalia, minutes after Conan left. “Papa!/Dad!” His twins exclaimed as they ran to hug him, “Uncle Conan just left a while ago!” “He gave us chocolates!” “He also placed some devices on us when he was about to go!” “Uncle told us to leave some chocolates for you!”

Just barely made it then.. Kaito sighs. Honestly his children are too much like him to be easily swayed by chocolate ‘Dang it Shinichi you won again.’ He thought as he picked both of his kids up, “Let’s go home shall we? Mom is waiting for us for sure!” “Miso soup!” “Karaage!” “Dearests its evening, don’t you think those are for breakfast foods?” “Miso is miso!” “Karaage is karaage!” “Just like chocolate is chocolate papa!/dad!” “I agree so much”

Conan laughs as he listens to their conversation, well it looks like its fine over there, he thought as he placed a box full of quality fruits at the kuroba-mouri doorstep.

…

That was a year ago, so pray tell, why Shinichi is on international TV CALLING HIMSELF CONAN?!?! The couple, Kaito and Ran, shrieked, along with their phones going off bc of numerous calls and texts of ‘DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE RAN?????’ ‘R WE DEAD??’ ‘ISTG WAS THE TEN YRS A DREAM AND HE WAS ALIVE ALL ALONG?!?!’

its a good thing that the kids are staying on their grandma Chikage for the night..

Theres actually more in my head.. like their reunion and stuff but well, its already 1:41 am and all i was planning to do was to read kaishin fanfic so gahdang why am i here HAGSHAGSH

Yes, endgame is kaishin, well for this one, in my head yea, i dunno with urs after u read those

No, i dont really like poly relationships that much, im more of a one to one person not three in one plus one happy happy happy kaarawan type of shipper

Yes, Timeskip Ran now sees shinichi like how shinichi sees her, a sibling type of love

No, even with their long relationship and marriage and kids, Kaito and Ran did not really fall in love with each other, they love each other yea but not how like Kaito loves Shinichi and how Ran used to loved Shinichi, its a love built on mutual understanding where they ‘ah, you too? Yea i feel you..’ they see each other as bffs that slept with eachother for one time and decided that yep, its not you, but the kids are here so lets raise them properly yea?

Yes, kaito is still deeply inlove with shinichi (conan), he follows shinichis trail closely or as close as he can get knowing how shinichi goes country to country every frikin time like cant you stay for fIVE MINUTES IN A COUNTRY SHINICHI?

Yes, shinichi (conan) is still in love with Kaito (so well i technically lied on the first bullet on the kaishin one cause they did happen.. just.. so.. soo.. much later

“What will happen to the twins then if kaishin is endgame?” While I don’t really support divorce, but due to how I made their, Kaito and Ran, relationship work, the kids will go to the custody of Ran, but Shinichi will make sure that only, and only when the kids are able to understand the schematics of their relationship will he allow the divorce to go through and let Kaito pursue him (i believe in marriage counseling first before marriage so you can have second thoughts about a lifelong choice, which I did not do to Kaito and Ran, sorry lovelies)

The twins when they got much older understood and was cool abt it, like wow we have like two cool dads (one their previous uncle now stepdad) and one cool mom what a cool family we are hehe, also they dig the ten yrs from now failed prank of Conan (Shinichi), cause when he, conan, picks them from school for who knows like family trip or something they like so yea this is our uncle ten yrs from now so cool right he time travelled for us were a cool and smart family

So yea feel free to ask questions! Though this is mostly what I have with this au really, i dont have much with the other characs but if you ask I can think of some or you can think of some Haha! Just comment below! Cause i dont know how to navigate the ask part of tumblr yet HAHA! Byeee

#detective conan #conan edogawa #edogawa conan #kudou shinichi #haibara ai #dcmk #dcmk au #kaishin #kaicon #miyano shiho

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