#the world has never seen such a martyr | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

msmargaretmurry · 9 months

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It's me again. Sadly, my first kiss was in Ottawa not GTA :( but you know, some province at least.

But this is where my headcanon forms: against his will and better judgment, and thanks to adulthood and occasionally listening to Connor that you can't claim "German" as a personality trait every time you insist on holding a grudge for no GOOD reason, Leon has to admit that Matthew is actually a really nice person OFF ICE and perhaps a good hockey player not just useful for being a rat.

Also, maybe, Matthew is a good kind of competitive where he pushes himself and everyone around him, but when he doesn't win (which he usually doesn't), he just smiles or laughs and slaps winners on the back and it. It hurts Leon. But he maybe has to admit he was POSSIBLY wrong about Matthew Tkachuk. Inside. He'll never say it outside.

As for Matthew, he's never been the asshole in this situation. He's always thought Leon was talented and deserving (and hot as the goddamn sun in July).

hahaha, i don't know, i think ottawa beats brampton, in terms of vibes at least if not geography. 😂❤

anyway, yes. i have been really into lately the idea of their post-rivalry relationship — obviously still into the hot grudgey rivals-to-lovers bit as well, but here in the era of florida!matthew a whole new world of possibilities has opened up. i love the idea of them having to interact as adults with no real reason for animus between them and accidently enjoying it. like, @hopetorun and i have discussed EXTENSIVELY the concept where they accidentally end up on vacation together, which has a really similar vibe imo.

i especially love the idea of leon being confronted with the full force of matthew "great guy" tkachuk off the ice and just… not being able to dislike him. he's nice! and funny! he laughs at leon's jokes! he loves to buy a round of beers for the boys when they go out at the end of a hard week or training! horrible!! meanwhile matthew has to witness leon being his dorky affectionate self with his buddies in the gym and, oh no, he's hot when he's being nice, too. there's such a good possibility for a slow burn here, too, with them mostly only really interacting while they're training in the summer but somehow they keep getting weirder about each other anyway.

i have always maintained that if they were on the same team (or possibly even just not direct rivals) that they'd get along great. and, once again, obviously i love the rivalry but i also really love the concept of them getting over it and learning to be normal about each other. which turns into not being normal about each other. which turns into fucking nasty in scary gary's gym after everyone else has left. obviously.

#ask #matthew and leon #the person who suffers the most in this scenario is connor mcdavid tbh #he has to bear witness to all of this?#AND live with the knowledge that his favorite teammate and his kinda-sorta-buddy fucked nasty in HIS summer training gym??#the world has never seen such a martyr

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chaiaurchaandni · 6 months

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Palestinian reporter in Gaza throws away his press jacket, because it provides no protection, as he reports on the murder of his colleague. israel has killed 34 journalists in less than a month

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sscarletvenus · 6 months

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i do not pity israel. never have, and never will.

each night that gaza experiences is deadlier than the last, as idf soldiers record propaganda tiktoks, make rave parties and grwms and fit checks, gloat over having food and water, and film themselves deriving sadistic pleasure from torturing their hostages and victims and desecrating the dead.

Palestinians have to display their martyred before the camera for you to believe the atrocities that the zionist entity has subjected them to. they cannot even mourn in private. the apartheid entity murders them in cold blood, and you deliver the killing blow by doubting them.

babies whose families have been killed will never get to know their own name.

i can't reshare a tenth of the videos and photos that cross my timeline. i have seen more dead children in the past month than i have known death my entire life.

israeli settlers burn olive trees, bomb bakeries and fishing boats, shower white phosphorus and earthquake bombs on the captive civilians of gaza. you already know about the disastrous effects of white phosphorus, but earthquake bombs were last used during ww2 to wipe out entire cities.

how holy is the land that seeks to be built over the mass graves of thousands of children? is it holier than the miracle of a child being born in this hypocritical world?

all 11 universities in gaza have been bombed. academics should be agitating right now, especially those who call themselves "decolonial thinkers." destruction of universities is a sinisterly deliberate act to sabotage the Palestinians who will survive this great catastrophe.

the act of cleansing your hands before prayer is extremely important to muslims. no part of us can remotely comprehend the grief of the mother who refused to wash her hands from the blood of her children after losing them in a zionist airstrike over gaza. "I swear I won't wash them, I won't wash my hands, how else am I supposed to sleep near my kids."

it is only both moral and right when one side defends itself. the other side are the price of war, no better than insects and cattle and sheep left to die within the four walls of the slaughterhouse.

this situation should not be up for debate, but let me finish with one final thing : do your research about Palestine. HOWEVER. you do not need a degree in middle east studies to object to an ongoing genocide. if someone outwits you in a debate about historical details and every nuance of a subject, you were and will remain entirely correct in objecting to a genocide.

may those martyred rest in peace and be reunited again with their loved ones in heaven's eternal vastness.

DO NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT PALESTINE.

glory to Palestinian resistance. from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

#free palestine #palestine #gaza #free gaza #gaza under attack #gaza genocide #genocide #decolonisation #gaza strip #from the river to the sea palestine will be free

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jimmythejiver · 3 months

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So Ang aka Recapkid aka Handsome Hugs aka whatever the fuck they calling themselves now* poisoning the discourse while doing exactly in rl what his art portrayed (allegedly) is why we don't get to have nice shit in ZADR fandom anymore, huh.

*My knowledge of Rek/Recapkid saga ended initially when they first made their first dramatic exit in fandom. Everything after is what I had to track down to verify tonight.

#there'll always be wolves among the sheep and obviously fuck your fandom if it hurts people yada yada #idk what to believe but it is apparent something is not right with ang beyond drawing sick cartoons #i've seen them get harassed and bullied years ago and they were toted as a fandom martyr #but i don't have a reason anymore to think the alleged abuse accusations about them is false anymore #and perhaps their victims did retaliate in such a way to ruin their life and have them lose their job health insurence #but by not taking the end of life care and persist to taunt them and play victim ang has made their case look worse and indefensible #that no matter how you slice it no matter what ang has went through and what they did or didn't do to these people they created bad optics #i predict we're going to get another monster ballooned into a bigger monster here and no apology or accountability #this person is like if chris chan had gotten nearly as far as john k. in terms of legitimacy and cult of personality #i'm not being glib if the full story is true #they were exposed time after time but kept muddying the waters like an abuser does by calling their victims the abusers #and people eat it up as lies spread around the world before the truth can put its shoes on #and then leave truth freezing in the rain when it's already not welcomed as lies makes itself at home with your hot cocoa and blanket #i was never invested in rek as i knew od rhen as a person like i saw so many in fandom were #but i see what looks like a bullying campaign and condemned that #but now i have to question if they staged the bullying and exit for sympathy points to fit a narrative #because no former child turned adult would doggedly follow around their abuser from account to account #because they stumbled upon or hacked their adult account and were traumatized to vengeance and decided they need to ruin lives #no it is because ang or rek or whatever couldn't fucking disappear for real and stop bothering these people and prey upon some new ones #again allegedly and just my opinion #idk the real facts than the they said she said of it all

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slutt4lovee · 3 months

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friends (b.b.)

𝚗𝚊𝚟𝚒 - 𝚛𝚞𝚕𝚎𝚜 - 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚛𝚞𝚕𝚎𝚜 - 𝚖𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝

pairing: bucky barnes x fem!reader

word count: 2356

warnings: NO SMUT, just cutesy fluff, maybe just a tiny bit of angst but not really, nothing really to warn about. might be some typos and shit but at this point y'all should be expecting this from my dyslexic ass.

summary: After being friends with Bucky for years, you finally get the confession you've been dreaming of.

Being Bucky's friend isn't really as great as Steve made it seem. Sure, Bucky is caring and funny and fiercely protective of the things and people that he loves. Yes, he's funny and charming and everything good in the world, but he is also arrogant and cocky and so emotionally repressed that you're not even sure he knows what feelings are anymore.

Being Bucky's friend means that you're also the Winter Soldier's best friend and that is a horrible feeling. Not because of the fact that he is the Winter Soldier but more so because the Winter Soldier has a fucking martyr complex. Despite the fact that Bucky is an amazing person who you think encompasses every good aspect of the world, he's an incredible dumbass. Not just a regular dumbass, the kind of fucking idiot that thinks everyone else, everything else is more important than him. The kind of idiotic person that thinks everyone but him is worth saving, the kind who runs head first into danger because he genuinely doesn't care if he lives or dies as long as he saves someone. Bucky is the type of imbecile that would run into a building, knowing it was rigged with explosives just to save a cat.

Bucky may be one of the best people you've ever met, but being his friend is horrible.

It's caring so intensely for someone who doesn't even care about himself. It's not being able to see or even speak to him for weeks or months because he's off on some insanely stupid mission to save the fucking world or something stupid like that. It's him constantly thinking he's some kind of invincible god and you having to remind him over and over and over that he's not. No matter how much he might look like one. It's trying to convince someone that hates his entire fucking existence that he deserves every soft, sappy thing in the world no matter how much he thinks he doesn't.

But worst of all it's being in love with a complete fucking idiot who doesn't even think he's worthy of love. You'd take all the anxiety, the panic, the dread, the crying and worry a million times over if you could just not be in love with that complete fucking dumbass. Or if you could maybe convince him that he deserves all the love in the fucking world.

—

You can't sleep, never can when he's gone. Some stupid romance movie you've seen about a hundred times plays on your tv—a feeble attempt to keep your mind off Bucky. To keep your mind from imagining what he's doing on his mission and all the ways it could go horribly wrong.

It doesn't really work.

It's almost impossible to keep him out of your mind. When you're not worrying about all the ways he could be killed, you're pining after him in the worst fucking way.

Just staring mindlessly at the screen daydreaming about him and the way his clothes always fit just right, just enough to give you a good view of his muscles without being too tight. And the way he looks in his stupidly attractive one armed outfits he wears on missions—which shouldn't be so fucking hot, but it is, it really fucking is. And his lips, just everything about them, their shape, their pretty pink color, the way they look so fucking soft all the god damned time. And that boyish, way too endearing, smirk of his that makes your heart feel like it's about to burst out of your chest. And his hands and the way they feel against your skin, rough calloused fingers with a touch so soft it sends chills down your spine. And—and, God you're so fucking fucked about him.

He's your best friend, really one of your only friends, and yet you can't stop thinking about him doing filthy things—that he would probably never do—to you. It's horrible and dirty and disrespectful but you just can't stop, thinking about Bucky's mouth and if it's really as soft as it looks.

You smell him before you even hear him, woody smoke, and honey, mixed with sweat. You smile softly to yourself as he drops his bag to the ground with a little grunt. Your mind moves slowly, struggling through your lack of sleep to put pieces together. You're clumsily climbing over the back of the couch the second you realize he's really there.

"Bucky," You start to say, stumbling a little at the ungraceful way you dismount from the back of the couch. "What the fuck?" You ask, waving your hands up and down in his general direction.

He's not sure if you're questioning his appearance or his presence...maybe both. You're not really sure either.

"I just got back," He mutters, words dripping with exhaustion as his arms slip lazily around your waist, making you trip over your own feet as he pulls you into his chest.

"You didn't text," You whisper, matching the soft tone of his voice as you slide your arms around his neck, resting your chin on his shoulder.

He doesn't respond right away, he pulls you closer instead, grabbing onto your shirt to keep you there as if you had any plans on letting go. He makes a soft, barely audible noise, as he hides his face in the crook of your neck. His arms are tight around your waist, holding you to him like he's scared you're just gonna disappear and the thought makes your chest ache. You tilt your head, squeezing your eyes shut as your nose presses into the top of his shoulder, your lips just barely touching the leather on his jacket. Your nose floods with his scent, and you find yourself wishing you could capture it and keep it forever. He smells like camping in the summer, like searching for bugs and plants and pretty rocks in the woods, like staring up at the sky and pointing out the prettiest ones.

He smells likehome, warm and cozy and safe.

Slowly it feels like every ounce of worry and dread is leached out of your body. He's home, he's safe, he's here in your arms and nothing else fucking matters. This is the good part, this right here, all the worrying and sleepless nights are worth it just for this feeling. This happy sort of peaceful relief you get every time he comes back safe.

"M'sorry," He mutters after a few seconds, his words muffled in the crook of your neck. "Jus' wanted to get home."

Your stomach twists at that, a giddy sort of feeling floating around in your stomach at his words. He came straight from his mission to you. Didn't stop at his place, didn't go to the compound, he came straight to you. Straight home to you.

"Took ya long enough." You whisper against his shoulder, voice light and teasing as his grip on your shirt tightens.

He doesn't say anything, but you can tell this one must've been rough on him. It's obvious from the way he's clutching your shirt like a lifeline. Holding you to his chest like he thought he'd never see you again, like he's scared to let go. You don't ask him about it, he'll talk when he's ready, but you do hold him just as tight as he holds you. Rub your hands along his back, over his shoulder, up the back of his neck, lingering the softest touches everywhere you can reach because you know it calms him down.

"S'good you came home, you were gone so long I was about to come lookin' for you." You tell him, smiling softly against his neck at the little snort he lets out.

He's quiet for a bit longer, just standing there with his arms around your waist, his hands clutching at your shirt like he's terrifiedyou're going to vanish. After a while he relinquishes your shirt and before you can even think about pulling away, not that you would, his hands are running down to the backs of your thighs.

"M'sorry," He murmurs into your neck, lifting you up and wrapping your legs around his waist like you weigh absolutely nothing. "Came as quick as I could, darlin', didn't even get to shower or anything."

"Did you eat?" You ask softly, holding onto him a little tighter as he hooks his arms back around your waist.

He shakes his head and you start to offer to cook him something while he showers but he's walking in the direction of your bedroom before you can get a single word out. He nudges your bedroom door open with the toe of his boot without saying a word and it makes you frown because Bucky is never silent around you. Talks so damn much you started to think he just liked the sound of his own voice (really he just loved the sound of yours but he's not about to admit something that sappy).

"Do you want to eat?" You ask, voice all soft and sweet in a way that makes his head spin.

He shakes his head again and without even letting go of you, he falls forward onto your bed, sandwiching you between him and your mattress. He's heavy, dense, thick muscle directly on top of you, but you don't complain. You wouldn't dare tell him that he's crushing your fucking chest because then he'd let go and you don't want that.

He settles with his head on your chest, his ear pressed up against the center of it. Listening closely to the sound of your heart like he didn't believe it was real. His hand slips a little under the hem of your shirt but stays resting on your hip as if all he wanted was just to feel your skin.

He's silent for a while, laying so still that you almost think he's fallen asleep. You don't say anything either because what could you possibly say? You could tell him about work or something but you're almost certain he doesn't want to hear that.

"Thought you were dead..." He whispers as he nuzzles his face against the center of your chest. His hands squeeze at your hips and you can't shake the feeling that he's trying to make sure you're real.

You don't really know what to say to that either. You stroke your fingers through his hair and you swear you feel your heart break a little at the pain in his voice.

"God, I thought you were fucking dead..." His voice cracks a little this time and his arms wrap around your waist tight, too tight but you don't say a thing. You're happy to just let him squeeze the life out of you if it makes him feel even a little bit better. "They...they got in my head, made me see things...and all I could think about was that I never got the chance to tell you."

"Tell me what?" You ask and you think your voice comes out a bit strained because he immediately loosens his grip.

"That I'm fucking in love with you," He forces out, voice rough with emotion as he shifts a little so that he's looking down at you.

Your heart fucking stops at his words and all you can do is just stare up at him like a complete fool. Cheeks flushing bright red and eyes wide as you stammer and choke on 16 different failed attempts at speech.

He loves you. No. He's in love with you.

"I thought you were dead and all I could think about was that you didn't know I loved you." He tells you, voice softening some as his eyes scan over your face. "All I wanted to fucking do was hold you and kiss you and just fucking touch you again and I know that's so fucking selfish of me but...fuck."

"You...love me?" Your voice comes out all meek and unsure as you look up at him. You're not even sure if your heart has started beating again because it feels like you could, very well, drop dead at any fucking second.

"Of course I do you fucking idiot." Bucky laughs and the sound is utterly heart wrenching to you. He tries to smile but it just looks so fucking sad that you want to cry.

And maybe he's right and you are a fucking idiot because you can't think of anything to say. You want to tell him you love him too but the words won't come up, they stick in the back of your throat and make you choke. All you can manage is to reach out, grab his face, and pull it down to yours in a pathetic excuse for a kiss.

He kisses you back instantly, taking control of the kiss, somehow calmer than you. His lips are soft and sweet against yours and nowhere near as clunky and uncoordinated as you but he doesn't seem to mind in the slightest. He smiles a little against your near frantic lips, one hand coming up to cradle the side of your face.

It's not your first kiss, not even close, but you're so clumsy with it that it damn near feels like it. He hums against your lips like it's the best damn kiss he's ever had, strokes his thumb over your cheek and laughs when your teeth hit his.

You think he'll pull away, you would if you were him, but he doesn't. If anything he kisses you a bit harder, trying to take control of the kiss and guide your lips to work with his and it works wonders, you practically melt into it. He makes a soft, pleased sound in the back of his throat when you finally relax and then his tongue slides over your bottom lip and you melt all over again.

You've never been the biggest fan of tongue kissing, it's always just so wet and slimy and forceful. But there's something about the way Bucky's tongue slides so so softly across your bottom lip that has you parting your lips without a second thought. And you don't fucking regret it at all.

It doesn't feel all slimy and gross like you're used to. His tongue is soft and wet and there's a faint hint of sweet mint as he kisses you. One of his hands squeezes at your waist under your shirt and he fucking groans like kissing you is the best thing he's ever experienced.

He kisses you until you're both breathless, until your lips are raw and swollen and slick with spit.

His forehead presses against yours and his voice comes out all hoarse and raspy as he says, "Fuck, I could kiss you for fucking ever,"

You laugh at that and the noise is so soft and sweet that it makes his breath hitch. You flutter your eyes open, thumbs stroking at the side of his neck as you look up at his flushed face.

"I love you too," You whisper and God, the way he smiles sends a jolt of warm heat through your body. "I didn't say it earlier, but I do. I really fucking do."

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #bucky fic #bucky x y/n #bucky x female reader #bucky x you #bucky x reader #fluff #bucky fluff #light angst #james bucky barnes #bucky barnes imagines #bucky fanfic #the winter soldier

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disco-tea · 13 days

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Not but I don’t think I’ll ever be over the way they wrote Mother Gothel’s manipulation . The way it’s woven into everything she does. The way you can tell by watching her with Repunzel that this is years and years and layers and layers of manipulation. This is a whole little world Gothel had built around her and Repunzel with nobody to stop her. The way it’s apparent from the first scene. The way she insults repunzel and puts her down and tries to work on her self esteem but hides its behind “oh I’m just teasing. Don’t be so sensitive.” The way Mother Knows Best is a masterclass in narcissistic manipulation. The way she gaslights Repunzel by calling the floating lights “stars” even though Repunzel is smart enough to figure out that’s not what they are. The way Gothel has to have all the power, even in small ways like her having a door and Repunzel having a curtain. The way even their little game of “I love you” is a narcissistic play for power because Gothel’s line is always “I love you most” because she’s SUCH a good mother, you see. She’s sacrificed SO MUCH. She’s basically a martyr. She takes SUCH good care of Repunzel. Nobody could EVER love as much as her.

The way Gothel and Repunzel have an ‘argument’ which is actually just Repunzel having a reasonable request and Gothel giving a whole big manipulative spiel followed by a harsh rebuff. Then she immediately leaves, which is also another play for power. She controls when she and Repunzel can have a conversation and they’re not having it right now. She comes back a tries to pretend it never happened, except it did and they both know it, so Gothel is like “oh I’m making your favorite soup! Isn’t it wonderful? Doesn’t it make up for the fact I’ve ruined your whole life and I told you you can NEVER EVER have a life outside the toxic bubble I’ve created for us? Why would you ever want to leave??” Which is exactly how abusive relationships work, the way they offer the bare minimum and act like its might as well be a gift from God. And the worst part is, many people who are abused take it and DO feel like it really is a special thing because they’re not used to getting even the bare minimum. Another really good detail too is the after Gothel’s blow up (“now I’M the bad guy. Oh poor me”) Repunzel DOES want to drop the subject so she tells Gothel she just wants paint instead and calls the floating lights “stars,” thus making a subtle concession and making Gothel feel like she’s won, which I’m sure exactly how all their ‘aruguments’ in the past have ended: with Repunzel having yield and Gothel making sure she’s knows she’s the one in control. Overall it’s just so well written and one of the best representations of real manipulations that I’ve seen

#tangled #repunzel #mother gothel

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comradekatara · 26 days

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Started watching lok and they spent so much time making mako fumble beautiful women they forgot to make non-benders oppressed

LMFAO yeah book 1 is such a mess. I think they were trying to illustrate that amon is a charlatan who used the plight of the people to disguise his rise to power through framing it as a genuine social movement for equality, but it doesn’t actually make any sense because “non-benders” and “benders” broadly speaking do not constitute coherent classes. the class dynamics in republic city operate along axes of neocolonialism and neoliberalism, so it’s not a matter of non-benders or benders having more power, it’s a matter of 1) who stands to benefit from living in a fire nation neocolony on earth kingdom land (descendants of original fire nation settlers) 2) who controls the means of production (hiroshi ford, primarily!). the sato family are not benders, but they are shown to be far more powerful than mako and bolin, who are literally professional benders, because they are industrialists who control most of the technology in/of the city. in fact, we constantly see mako and bolin’s bending-labor being exploited, whether in dangerous athletic arenas, doing dangerous work for gangs, dangerous factory work, etc. just due to the concrete examples we are shown, if anything, non-benders largely live in wealth, while benders largely live in poverty.

but this evidence, too, is anecdotal, and i don’t believe it, because again, “non-bender” is not a coherent class marker/identity. king kuei is the monarch of the world’s largest nation who has spent his entire life so sheltered that he wasn’t even aware that the world had been devastated by a century of fire nation imperialism. sokka is a colonized subject who spent his entire childhood internalizing the notion that it was his duty to die as a martyr to save his sister who has been valorized due to her unique position as the last waterbender of the southern tribe (which, if you couldn’t tell, is the result of a targeted genocide, not some inherently distinguished qualia that designates benders as ontologically superior). the fact that neither of these characters are benders does not align them socially or politically.

moreover, the reason that katara’s waterbending was valorized within her tribe was due to the scarcity of waterbenders as a result of their systemic elimination. waterbending represents a unique cultural artform to their people (it’s actually one of the first things the show establishes) and only katara possesses the unique capability to continue that legacy. due to the fire nation imperialist project, katara being a waterbender puts a target on her back; yes, it empowers her personally and culturally, but materially it constitutes another facet of her oppression — much like haru as an earthbender in occupied territory, and much like aang as the last airbender. meanwhile, firebenders are materially empowered due to their imperialist dogma that establishes firepower as the inherently superior form of bending / technology of conquest. as atla establishes, bending is political due to its spiritual and cultural value, but is politicized primarily with regards to colonial power dynamics, and thus not all benders constitute a coherent class, certainly not as they would either function to oppress or be oppressed by non-benders.

i’ve seen a lot of people claim that amon represents communism, or more specifically, maoism, which is bogus for many reasons, but most principally is the fact that he quite literally never addresses the issues that are actually oppressing certain people of republic city: namely, capitalism. “oh but he knows he’s bullshitting, he’s just telling people what they want to hear because he’s a populist dictator who just wants to seize power over republic city!” okay, so in the most generous reading of amon, he’s trump (I know lok is an obama era text, but just go with me here): he’s a member of an “oppressive” class disguising himself as a man of the people to appeal to a broad demographic by scapegoating an arbitrary group of people through tactics of fearmongering (“benders will kill you and your family…for reasons”) because he’s simply a power-hungry conman. he knows that neither non-benders nor benders are materially oppressed, and is simply exploiting the intuitive logic that it must suck to be a non-bender in a world full of people with literal superpowers for his own benefit.

and he’s doing all this …. because he had an abusive father??? or something???? nothing about his motivations or ideology is coherent. when jet manipulates katara and aang into helping them fill the reservoir, it’s with the explicit intention to flood an occupied village as a mode of anticolonial resistance. when long feng manipulates kuei into being his malleable puppet, it’s with the express purpose of controlling the entire earth kingdom from the shadows. amon wants power…because? maybe i’m just remembering key details from his tragic backstory (granted, it’s been a while since i’ve rewatched lok), but i can’t remember amon ever expressing a coherent ideology or motivation besides maybe spite? and either way, his role as a populist dictator villain who employs the signifiers of the chinese cultural revolution is pretty obviously in poor taste when the blatantly pressing issues of capitalist and neocolonial exploitation are never actually addressed and critiqued beyond the bogeyman anarchist terrorists and the fascist ethnonationalist pointing out that the status quo is bad, maybe? to which they must all ultimately be made to surrender to the effusive, all-powerful glory of impotent liberalism. whatever. at least we have korrasami.

#bakedbeanchan #asks #lok crit #amon #analysis #but at least……. we have korrasami……. and korra alone……… and uhh…..ming hua’s wet ass pussy

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calliesmemes · 2 months

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DARKNESS HAUNTS YOUR NARRATIVE

UNSETTLING SENTENCE STARTERS FROM VARIOUS SOURCES THAT WILL SEND SHIVERS DOWN YOUR SPINE AND LEAVE AN OMINOUS FEELING LINGERING IN THE ROOM.

CHANGE gendered words and in-universe phrases as needed.

SPECIFY muse for multimuses.

“ I’m deep inside your mind. There is no escape for you. ”

“ You save everyone, but who saves you? ”

“ The power inside of me — it’s terrifying. ”

“ Power belongs to those who take it. ”

“ You’ll be the ruin of me, won’t you? ”

“ You weren’t meant to save the world — you were meant to destroy it. ”

“ You didn’t break me; you built me. All you did was make me ruthless. ”

“ You have no power over me. ”

“ I am terrified by this dark thing that sleeps in me. ”

“ All the greatest loves end in violence. ”

“ I don’t think you’re truly mean. You have sad eyes. ”

“ In theory the prophecy could still come true. ”

“ One day, your empathy is going to get you killed. ”

“ We are masters of our own destiny. ”

“ Never trust a survivor until you find out what they did to survive. ”

“ The horror that you have seen is not who you are. ”

“ A little too much anger, too often or at the wrong time, can destroy more than you would ever imagine. ”

“ Your scars are not your shame; they are your story. ”

“ I will never turn my back on people who need me. ”

“ Isn’t it scary to be ready to die at such a young age? ”

“ Your mind is a weapon. Keep it loaded. ”

“ Are you hearing those voices again? ”

“ It scares me sometimes. The emptiness I see in your eyes. ”

“ You may not be interested in the war, but the war is interested in you. ”

“ Haven’t you taken enough from me? ”

“ You collect scars because you want proof that you are paying for whatever sins you have committed. ”

“ It is okay to be angry. It is never okay to be cruel. ”

“ I hope that what you did to me haunts you. ”

“ The price of freedom is high. It always has been. ”

“ When you talk, I can hear the revolution. ”

“ Do not pretend that you are some meek, pathetic little girl when I can see that vicious mind working behind your eyes. ”

“ Your new life will cost you your old one. ”

“ Watching someone you love suffer can teach you even more than suffering yourself can. ”

“ Some people are in your life to test you ”

“ Fear makes men more dangerous than magic ever could. ”

“ At what point do you think i'll become the wound itself and not simply the bearer? ”

“ We are made of all those who have built and broken us. ”

“ All power demands sacrifice and pain. ”

“ Some things buried deep need to stay that way. ”

“ You and I are going to change the world. ”

“ I wonder which will get you killed faster — your loyalty, or your stubbornness? ”

“ Something’s made your eyes go cold. ”

“ If I am not a weapon, then what am I? ”

“ Your chains are broken, but are you truly free? ”

“ You were alone before they left you. ”

“ You can love a monster, it can even love you back, but that doesn’t change its nature. ”

“ It’s awful not to be loved. It’s the worst thing in the world … it makes you mean, and violent, and cruel ”

“ We can simultaneously be both human and monster. ”

“ I have this strange feeling that I’m not myself anymore. ”

“ You laugh like a little girl and think like a martyr. ”

“ Grief taught me inhumane things. ”

“ You will always be a monster. There is no turning back from it. ”

“ I know there’s a villain, and I’m worried it’s me. ”

“ I can’t stand the bitter thing that I’ve become. ”

“ People will never bleed enough to fulfill your vision of justice. ”

“ What if I told you the truth about what happened that night? ”

“ Part of me died in order to survive. ”

“ We are cursed with a tendency for violence. ”

“ I speak in verses, prophecies, and curses. ”

“ I see no use quarrelling with fate. ”

“ Nobody smart plays fair. ”

“ Fine, make me your villain. ”

“ They should be terrified of me. ”

“ I gave you devotion, blood, and my life. ”

“ How disappointing, when people succumb to what is expected of them. ”

“ Perhaps that was why I had to endure pain — because true transformation can only happen in the crucible of suffering. ”

“ Morality, too, is a question of time. ”

“ Memories destroy us. ”

“ My entire life, I’ve been fighting a war. ”

“ Fair is foul, and foul is fair. ”

“ Are you becoming what you’ve always hated? ”

“ I have found it takes a lot of strength to endure myself. ”

“ Loving any of us is a death sentence, isn’t it? ”

“ You long to be bandaged before you have been cut. ”

“ I feel so lost among these entirely strange people. ”

“ Remembering is like an open wound. ”

“ The wounded recognize the wounded. ”

“ I am alone and am suffocating because I cannot give voice to my emotions. ”

“ I’ve lived through entire tragedies in silence. ”

“ The more you love, the more you suffer. ”

“ The crowd that applauds a ruler’s coronation is the same crowd that will applaud a tyrant’s beheading. People like a show. ”

“ You are a better knife than you are a person. ”

“ Life goes more smoothly without a heart. ”

“ People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar. ”

“ I’m nostalgic for the anger I once had. ”

“ The pain I didn’t tell you about has built a home inside of me. ”

“ My greatest regret was how much I believed in my own future. ”

“ All I ever do is grieve. ”

“ Do not mock a pain you haven’t endured. ”

“ I control the shadows. They do not control me. ”

“ Turn the pain into power. ”

“ Sometimes, we survive by forgetting. ”

“ I am now the most miserable man living. ”

“ To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better, it appears to me. ”

“ In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and, to the young, it comes with bitterest agony. ”

“ I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me. ”

“ Memories do not always soften with time; some grow edges like knives. ”

“ Maybe everything that you thought was breaking you was actually leading you towards yourself. ”

“ Sometimes, not being in control is the most beautiful thing in the world. ”

#askbox meme #askbox prompt #rp ask meme #ask box #roleplay sentence meme #sentence starters #roleplay prompts #roleplay sentence starters #* sentence meme #rpc help

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nerdylilpeebee · 1 month

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So i been seeing your post recently and...well.....do you not think whats hapening in palestine is a genocide?

No, I don't.

Firstly, the numbers of how many have died comes from Hamas. And I refuse to believe they can name every dead kid but can't name how many hostages are alive. And even if we humor the idea they're telling the truth, 30k is an INCREDIBLY small number in terms of conflicts like this and most likely includes Hamas fighters, who are dressed as civilians and of whom Hamas does not differentiate when counting these numbers, so the civilian death toll is far more likely to be around 15k, and that's a generous high-roll. It's also not really possible they'd mostly be women and children. Cuz if they were, this would mean either every man in Gaza is a Hamas fighter (unlikely) or most men in Gaza has somehow avoided death. An incredibly unlikely option, especially given Pro-Pals insistence that Israel is "carpet bombing" Gaza. If you're carpet bombing an area, it's not possible that adult men could almost all avoid death. XD that's just not possible.

Secondly, Hamas has been proven to be lying. They lied about Israel bombing a hospital pretty early (they claimed Israel bombed the hospital and 500 people died, but in truth, one of their missile misfired and hit the parking lot of the hospital they claim was hit), and ever since I have either seen multiple lies from Hamas or Pro-Pals claiming this building or that was destroyed, but a quick Google search of the building either provided oodles of proof it was not destroyed or that it wasn't even in fucking Gaza. I refuse to believe the side lying their asses off will be accurate when calling something a genocide. This doesn't mean I think Israel has never lied, but they have not engaged in nearly the same level of manipulation that Hamas and the Pro-Pal side have.

Thirdly, Hamas has been launching unguided missiles into Israel for over 20 years. This necessitated the Iron Dome, and Israel in the areas that were bombed even has alarms in every neighborhood and a bomb shelter in every house. Even so they have killed thousands over the years in this campaign of slaughter. They then capped this off with October 7th, a terror attack that claimed almost exclusively civilian lives. They raped, butchered, and even recorded themselves doing these things (which is of course ignored by Pro-Pals). They had journalists involved who warned no one and even posed with Hamas leaders and took pictures of themselves with grenades. Apparently there were even members of the UNRWA involved, tho I haven't seen full proof of that bit yet. This was a terror attack that killed 1400 people, innocent people who were just taking part in a music festival. Then they kidnapped over 230 more innocent people, all civilians, many of which weren't even Israeli's, and while yes they gave SOME back during the ceasefire for hostage exchange, they kept a lot of infants (yes, INFANTS) they took, separating them from their mothers, and didn't give back all the hostages, rejecting the offer to keep the ceasefire going in exchange for them all. And now, they won't even name how many as still alive!

And after this terror attack they retreated to Gaza, even taking some corpses of the people they killed, and went into underground tunnels so any reprise against them would hit innocent civilians. They even said on live TV that they view Gaza as a country of martyrs they're happy to sacrifice. And yet despite all of that, we get to point 4.

Fourthly, Israel warns people before attacking. This is unprecedented. Militaries the world over call it a stupid move, cuz tactics-wise, it is very fucking stupid since inevitably Hamas gets the warnings too. But Israel does it anyway in an attempt to prevent civilian deaths, with Hamas refusing to let a lot of the civilians evacuate so they don't die. And the ones that did? They followed them to Rafah, bringing hostages with them, making Rafah, by law, a military target.

Fifthly, Hamas steals the aid that gets in, Palestinians have even testified to this, forcing Gazan civilians to starve and get desperate. The most recent consequence of this is the "flour massacre" in which starving Gazans swarmed an aid truck, and the aid workers inside ran a lot of them over in a bid to escape. Pro-Pals of course spread the lie that Israel butchered them all.

And finally point 6, having to do with the hostages: Hamas lies about the hostages. They claim they're treated well, even forged a thank you letter. But one interview with a released hostage demonstrates that this is a blatant lie, the family of the hostage the letter was from even said it was a lie!

I refuse to believe a genocide is happening when all of this is true. People facing genocide don't engage in this level of manipulation. They don't take innocents hostage, rape them and kill their families and neighbors.

Yeah, Gaza military-wise is weak compared to Israel. And their government has no interest in protecting them whatsoever. But one side being weak does not make a war a genocide. One side's government choosing to hide in underground tunnels, launch missiles from civilian buildings, hide weapons and hostages in hospitals, schools, and children's bedrooms does not make it a genocide.

What is happening is awful and it needs to stop. but it's a war, not a genocide.

#tvp discourse #long post #israel #arab israeli conflict #hamas #gaza

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she-posts-nerdy-stuff · 4 months

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I’ve been thinking a lot recently about Jesper Fahey and religion.

Whilst we know that Matthias follows Djel, Inej follows the Saints, Nina was raised with the Saints but is atheist because of her understanding about Grisha, and that Kaz and Wylan adopted atheism based on their childhood experiences, we don’t get a lot of information about how Jesper feels about religion. We know he was raised with the Saints and that when he swears he says “Saints”, as does Nina, where Wylan says “Ghezen”. It’s notable to me that Matthias and Inej either rarely or never invoke a name in vain; I think Inej may say “Saints” in that context the odd time I can’t remember, but I’d argue in that case it’s probably because she isn’t specifically naming them to do so whereas Matthias would have to but I’m working off memory there so please feel free to correct me. But Jesper’s actual relationship with the Saints is arguably quite ambiguous, with no particular passages that point us in either direction. (Show!Jesper is highly implied to be atheistic in season 1 when Inej asks him what he thinks about Alina and he says he doesn’t care whether she’s real or not so long as they get paid, but there isn’t really anything like this in the books to my recollection) I think that might be because he has a far more complex and painful relationship with religion than we see on the surface level, and this has particular links to Nina’s belief that the Saints were possibly real people but were simply powerful Grisha not religious saviours/martyrs.

When Jesper was a child, his father would read him bedtime stories “from his Kaelish book of Saints”. At the same time, Colm was unintentionally damaging Jesper’s view of Grisha power and of himself by forcing him to hide it and telling him “that’s what killed your mother. That’s what took her away from us”. Alongside the self-hatred this cultivates in Jesper, seen mostly in Crooked Kingdom since he’s most open about it in the beautiful, heartbreaking chapter 24, I think it may have also impacted his relationship with religion. To be told as a child that these people are worshipped and valued for the things they could do, the same kind of things he saw his mother do and that he could be capable of, but that his power is a curse and a shameful secret that has to be hidden from the world is so damaging. It effectively raises the question: If it’s different for me than it is for them, what’s wrong with me? Why am I less worthy of love?

When Jesper already had these feelings growing inside him, feelings that went on to massively impact all the relationships in his life (most notably his relationships with Kaz and Wylan but I would also argue his relationship with Inej is affected by this as well) and actively endanger him when he began to try and fill the void he felt with gambling, to emphasise these emotions with something that could have been so beautiful and given him so much comfort by turning it into something that can be used against him by labelling him as less than others is so heartbreaking and honestly painful.

Obviously this is just an interpretation or a theory but this is how I feel about it when I reread, if anyone else has thought about this please feel free to add anything or contradict it with your own interpretation I’d love to read it.

#grishaverse #six of crows #crooked kingdom #leigh bardugo #inej ghafa #kaz brekker #jesper fahey #wylan van eck #nina zenik #matthias helvar #Wesper #jesper my beloved #soc jesper #jesper #six of crows jesper #jesper and inej #jesper and wylan #jesper x wylan

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wrishwrosh · 3 months

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hey, i find your posts about historical fiction pretty interesting, do you have any recs?

anon this is the most beautiful and validating ask i have ever received. absolutely of COURSE I have recs. not gonna be a lot of deep cuts on this list but i love all of these books and occasionally books do receive awards and acclaim because they are good. in no particular order:

the cromwell trilogy by hilary mantel. of course i gotta start with the og. it’s 40 million pages on the tudor court and the english reformation and it will fundamentally change you as a person and a reader

(sub rec: the giant, o’brien by hilary mantel. in many ways a much shorter thematic companion to the cromwell trilogy imo. about stories and death and embodiment and the historical record and 18th century ireland. if you loved the trilogy, read this to experience hils playing with her own theories about historical fiction. if you are intimidated by the trilogy, read this first to get a taste of her prose style and her approach to the genre. either way please read all four novels ok thanks)

lincoln in the bardo by george saunders. the book that got me back into historical fiction as an adult. american history as narrated by a bunch of weird ghosts and abraham lincoln. chaotic and lovely and morbid.

the everlasting by katy simpson smith. rome through the ages as seen by a medici princess, a gay death-obsessed monk, and an early christian martyr. really historically grounded writing about religion and power, and also narrated with interjections from god’s ex boyfriend satan. smith is a trained historian and her prose slaps

(sub rec: free men by katy simpson smith. only a sub rec bc i read it a long time ago and my memory of it is imperfect but i loved it in 2017ish. about three men in the woods in the post revolutionary american south and by virtue of being about masculinity is actually about women. smith did her phd in antebellum southern femininity and motherhood iirc so this book is LOCKED IN to those perspectives)

a mercy by toni morrison. explores the dissolution of a household in 17th century new york. very different place and time than a lot of morrison’s bigger novels but just as mean and beautiful

(sub rec: beloved by toni morrison. a sub rec bc im pretty sure everyone has already read beloved but perhaps consider reading it again? histfic ghost story abt how the past is always here and will never go away and loves you and hates you and is trying to kill you)

an artist of the floating world by kazuo ishiguro. my bestie sir kazuo likes to explore the past through characters who, for one reason or another (amnesia, dementia, being a little baby robot who was just born yesterday, etc), are unable to fully comprehend their surroundings. this one is about post-wwii japan as understood by an elderly supporter of the imperial regime

(sub rec: remains of the day by kazuo ishiguro. same conceit as above except this time the elderly collaborator is incapable of reckoning with the slow collapse of the system that sheltered him due to britishness.)

the pull of the stars by emma donoghue. donoghue is a strong researcher and all of her novels are super grounded in their place and time without getting so caught up in it they turn into textbooks. i picked this one bc it is a wwi lesbian love story about childbirth that made me cry so hard i almost threw up on a plane but i recommend all her histfic published after 2010. before that she was still finding her stride.

days without end by sebastian barry. this one is hard to read and to rec bc it is about the us army’s policy of genocide against native americans in the 19th century west as told by an irish cavalry soldier. it is grim and violent and miserable and also so beautiful it makes me cry about every three pages. first time i read it i was genuinely inconsolable for two days afterwards.

this post is long as hell so HONORABLE MENTIONS: the amazing adventures of kavalier & clay by michael chabon, the western wind by samantha harvey, golden hill by frances spufford, barkskins by annie proulx, postcards by annie proulx, most things annie proulx has written but i feel like i talk about her too much, the view from castle rock by alice munro, the name of the rose by umberto eco, tracks by louise erdrich

#honestly will probably be coming back with additions bc this is just based on whats currently on my bookshelf #made this post while staring at the copy of mirror & the light i keep on my desk as some kind of hilary mantalisman #send me your address so i can explain my passions etc etc #histfic

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angelstate · 4 months

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Husband!Price x Wife!reader

Captain Price isn’t a good man, he never claimed to be one and barely fills the requirements to be considered a moral being in the most mundane aspect of questioning life scenarios he is put to experience over and over again as he grows consciously older.

He knows just how tarnished he is, how dirty his hands are with blood, and how the closest he’ll ever get to heaven is by your side, and in all honesty, he wasn’t a man who craved a peaceful afterlife, nor did he crave for the existence of the promised afterlife his religious mother talked to him about every night to be true.

Your existence is the only thing that soothes his aching heart, the only person who makes him feel better and unconsciously worse for being the man he is. Because you hold him so gently, speak so softly, and mutter praises for putting his life on the line, for losing morals so the entirety of the world didn’t lose theirs.

He feels as if it’s rotten work to love him, a tortuous action you keep because of the high morals he was never able to develop or comprehend. He sees you as a Martyr for staying with him when he continuously leaves you, disappearing to fight the evils of the world he knows won’t be eradicated anytime soon.

Aren’t you the kindest of angels for guarding him everywhere he goes, a photo of you hidden in a small pocket on his hat, the smell of your sweet perfume on his suitcase “so you don’t forget my smell” you explained while saying goodbye to him at the door of your home. Oh, sweet angel, he will never forget you.

He usually doesn’t make promises he can't keep, not wanting to feed false hope to the people he cares for, but when you stare at him with teary doe eyes and a pretty smile on your lips because you refuse to cry in front of him, refuse to that be the last expression he sees on your face if the inevitable thing that is death happens to him in the battlefield and not in your arms, of old age with a peaceful mind, he feels compelled to promise his return, to ease your mind and take away the crushing pressure on his chest.

he would die for his teammates, but he would live for you.

“Try and return to me” you whisper in his ear, kissing him on the cheek before pulling away, you have no idea what he would do to ensure he finds his way into your arms one more time before perishing. “Of course, love” he replies, voice gruff yet holding an endearment he only has for you.

And he remembers your last conversation with pain because Captain Price isn’t a good man, but Jonathan Price is, your Johny is a good man, one who holds you close to his chest at night despite his aching bones from War and violence, who opens the door for you and buys you flower every Sunday after church.

But tonight the night sky has a dooming dark he has never seen before, and the stars above him as he bleeds out on the soil are too blurry to stargaze the way he does with you back home, there is no grass on the floor to soothe the ache of his sore bones the way the backyard of your home does.

He knows he has never been a religious person, never been one to have a relationship with God, but you do, he knows you pray for him to return safe every day he is away from you, so tonight, knowing he isn’t returning to you, he prays for you. he prays for God to be kind to your soul and guide a new lover your way, one who won’t die thousands of miles away from you, one with a body to bury when death catches up to them.

He prays for nothing more than for God to allow you to live peacefully the rest of your time while his time reaches an end in a secluded place on earth, looking at your picture for one last time before pressing it close to his heart with the hand that has his wedding band, feeling his skin slowly match the temperature of the cold material, his last heartbeats only known by the picture of you and him, a last secret to share with you.

Husband!Price prays for the afterlife to be real, so he can have a chance of seeing you again someday.

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burr-ell · 1 year

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I'll preface this by saying that I don't by any means begrudge anyone their own personal headcanons or interpretations, but I kinda have to get it off my chest that I'm personally not very comfortable with significant deviations from canon character design on CR, and I really tend to side-eye people who have declared their fanart to be "better".

And sure, some of that is because i'm a cranky old bastard. But some of that is that I also have an animation degree and have studied character design. Creators generally give artists a fair amount of input as to how they want their designs to connote the characters' personalities—not just in terms of clothing or hairstyle, but in the overall shape of the silhouettes and body structures. And in the case of CR in particular, that's coming from a place of much closer familiarity with the characters because the creator is actually going to be embodying them for a fairly long period of time, so when the fan response is heavy deviation from that, I think it can feed into some unhealthy fanon perceptions and projections.

Like, for example, it's not so much that I think fanartists are "disrespecting the creators" or whatever when they keep giving Imogen a sweet little round face and big hips/breasts and cute circular glasses, but I've also studied shape language in art. You're communicating something when you design her this way; if a character's silhouette has a lot of circles, visually that connotes being friendly, sweet, and cute. The person who first suggested drawing her with glasses explicitly said they thought it would look cute—and no shade to them! They can like whatever they want!

But canonically, Imogen is a woman in her 20s who's been dealing with unanswered questions, abandonment, loneliness, and sheer exhaustion from trying to hold back and control powers that she never asked for—and who simultaneously uses those powers even when it isn't necessary if she thinks it'll help her achieve a goal or prove a point. She isn't unfriendly, and she wants to do the right thing, but she's also someone who's consciously chosen to keep to herself for most of her life, and yet simultaneously she's quite adept at persuading and deceiving people. I think we're meant to pick up that sense of world-weariness and cynicism from her angular facial features and thin frame. That's...kind of just how character design works.

I think the trend of disregarding the official art and giving her softer features has had an impact on the perception of Imogen as a character. I see a lot of views of her that really remove a lot of her agency, treating her like she's only ever been a victim of circumstance who's never put a foot wrong. Some fans got pushback for pointing out that it really wasn't cool for Imogen to openly contemplate whether or not the Ruby Vanguard might be right in front of three people who were killed by Otohan, insisting that imogen was just dealing with a lot right then. And yes, she was, but that doesn't mean that the way she was dealing with it doesn't say something about her as a character. I don't know if I'd call it coddling, necessarily (even though perhaps there are some very coddling takes I just haven't seen), but there seems to be some resistance, in some circles, to the idea that Imogen isn't a put-upon martyr. And in those same circles, round friendly-looking glasses-wearing Imogen abounds, to the point of editing the official art itself to "fix it".

Truth be told I'd be willing to bet that the rounder cuter Imogen actually came about because of the initial impression of her, given how much fanon at the start of c3 revolved around poor baby Imogen with her scary nightmares needing the wiser, worldlier Laudna to comfort her and kiss it better, but those visuals also proliferated rather quickly and well beyond past the point where that fanon was feasible anymore, and I think both aspects of that fanon ended up informing each other. It's not lost on me that the rounder and cuter-looking Imogen performs the literal function of sanding down her harder edges.

And like I said, I'm not here to be needlessly negative toward what other people want to do. If you want to draw the characters differently to their official art, I don't think either the cast or the artist are especially offended by it. But I personally dislike it, in part because I think some of these trends are a way for fans to claim a certain amount of ownership over the characters, whether they intend it or not. And the ultimate outcome of that is that when creators inevitably assert their ownership over a deeply personal story in a way that fans don't like, the backlash is much stronger than it reasonably should be, which is something I think the CR fandom has seen often enough not to continue doing as often as it does.

#cr meta #critical role #cr discourse #cr wank #i think chubby jester vs skinny jester also falls into this #and don't get me wrong i 100% support representation of body types and the cast does too #but there's a certain amount of overlap between chubby jester and weird fanwanky c2 stans #it's. usually the folks who cling to fanon art interpretations who get the most angry at the cast when things don't go their way #like i don't have StatsTM or whatever to prove it but i've noticed some trends #also it's always the female characters and particularly laura bailey's characters who get hit with this attitude the most #like! just say you don't like a call laura made! i promise you no one's gonna call 911!

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dailyadventureprompts · 6 months

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Deity: Heironeous, The Vindicator

Let our hands never falter, sparing evil the sword Let our hearts never waiver, letting weakness take root Let our march never end, lest the task be left undone

Champions, zealots, fools. All these words describe the followers of Heironeous; patron god of those blinded by duty and self righteousness. From the guards who rough up vagrants for the sake of social order, to the patriotic songs sung by soldiers on the way to invade a land they've never seen, to the teacher who’s convinced they can instruct through pain, because sparing the rod really does spoil the child.

It is a terrifying thing after all to be in the wrong, to have no easy answers, to be filled with doubt, and so the Archpaladin and his clergy intercede to provide the fearful populace with direction, with easy answers, and with scapegoats when necessary.

Adventure Hooks:

The party are asked by some troubled parents to look in on the local chapterhouse of the Invincible Vanguard, who took over for the town's royal garrison some years ago. A number of youths, bored of life in their sleepy little town decided to sign up with the Vanguard a few months past and have not been seen since. The Heironeian are cagey to say the least, but through their investigation the party might stumble across the same awful secret the kids did during their initiation, as well as their ultimate fate.

A beast rampages through the countryside, sowing fear, destruction, and rumour wherever it goes. Defeating it is no easy task, but one of the local lords is willing to pay a high price should the party bring him its head as proof. Imagine their surprise when a few days later a group of Heironeian paladins are paraded through the street carrying THEIR trophy aloft, claiming all the credit and with that same lord backing their claims. It seems the party has been part of a cruel PR stunt, however will they make this right?

A series of inexplicable mishaps and borderline disasters that plague a frontier village have come to a head with one of the Vindicator's itinerant preachers convinces the locals that devilry is the source of their woes, pointing the blacksmith's tiefling apprentice. It's up to the party to prevent the kid from getting strung up, and make the villagers see reason before there's an out and out witchhunt on their hands.

Setup: From the outside, with the perspective of history, it’s easy enough to see that there’s something wrong with faith of Heironeous, how their temples and icons venerate violence, whether it be martial glory or the suffering of martyrs that needed to be avenged. How their liturgy teaches the faithful that sympathy to outsiders, questions to authority, even the smallest of doubts are weaknesses to be overcome.

But the Heironeans are the ones fighting off the monsters encroaching on your village when the baron won’t pay for garrisons or adventurers, and it’s their priests who come to hand out food to the hungry and say there’s work the town over building their new fortress, and it’s their inquisitors who stand in the market square telling the crowd that all the awful things that happened these past few years is the fault of sinful, faithless rulers, and if only they could be led by righteous men (and it is always men) and expel the social parasites then truly this realm could be one beloved by the gods.

That’s the grift, the Heironeans seize on a crisis or a fear and offer to put your life on a better track, nevermind that it’s a permanent war footing where you and your family and neighbours are conscripted to roles based on how you’d be most useful, and disagreement amounts to insubordination.

Heironeans say they’re justified of course because evil is always out there, the one true evil, Hextor, the grotesque, six armed lord of bloodshed and suffering who wishes to make slaves or corpses of all the world and the heavens besides. He is jealous of Heironeous you see, his twin brother, who is propheciesed to be the only one who can defeat him. Hextor never rests, always spawning more evil in the world, and anyone could be his follower without even knowing it... all they’d need to do is work to subvert the will of the archpaladin and they’d be abetting the scourge. You don’t want to be an agent of evil do you? Then tithe to the church, enlist in the vanguard, obey your betters, marry early and within your kind and have more children to carry on the fight when you are too week, raise them up right, kneel when you are told, submit. Do all these things and the Vindicator will know you are good, and worth fighting for, and will forgive your mortal failings.

There is a deeper lore, behind even what the faithful or even most of their leaders know: that Heironeous and Hextor are the same being. Sometimes it is the monster wearing the golden hero like a mask, sometimes it is the bright and radiant warrior casting a most wicked shadow, sometimes it is simply that the god of war and slaughter has two faces, fair and foul, both righteous, both tyrannical, both hungering for blood.

The cult of Hextor is a secret order within the faith, membership offered only to those chosen by their god or those that see the worship of the archpaladin for what it really is: Violence for the sake of power, power for the sake of violence. They are secretive, deflecting rumours of their existence onto puppets and figureheads that they manipulate, going so far as to create false-cults to the Scourge to draw the faithful’s attention and ire. Any fault in the church can be blamed on Hextorian infiltration, any opponent that challenges them is but an agent of the Scourge.

Titles: The invincible, the vindicator, the archpaladin / the scourge, the herald of hells

Signs: Oddly serene visions of violence and pain, wounds or blood on the image or relics of martyrs or weapons of champions, prophetic nightmares about the victory of Hextor.

Symbols: A white hand or clapsed around a silver lightning bolt/ a black gauntlet clutched around six red arrows

Inspiration: Cruelty cloaked in the guise of righteousness is not an original concept but after writing about how d&d has weird habit of using a frankly childlike view of morality in order to justify its violence the same way that IRL hategroups do, I wanted to play around with the concept.

Likewise, I felt my campaigns needed a solid “badguy with the aesthetic of goodguy” villain and I was tired of using overzealous followers of the dawnfather or bahamut to fill out the roster. Specifically, rather than bad people in service to an ostensibly good god (who are objectively real in the setting and thus would try to oust the bad apples), I wanted to create an evil god that used the trappings of goodness to dupe average people into doing bad, the same way that has happened over and over again historically in our own world.

I ended up choosing Heironeous for this villain makeover because like a lot of other default d&d deities I find the base form of him painfully one note, he’s the paladin god of paladins and he has hero IN HIS NAME. That said, he has a twin brother Hextor, god of war and tyrants that serves as his dark mirror and there’s thematic meat in that... Merging the two into one god gives us this delicious setup where the theology of Heironeous creates the problem and sells the solution, benefiting no matter who wins in the supposed cosmic power struggle.

Art

#deity #divinity: war #heironeous #hextor #monsters reimagined #villain #villain cleric #Cultists #villain cult #paladin #fighter #Monk #Cleric

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dragonagecompanions · 8 months

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DAI: What is going through the minds of the Inquisition and the advisors, especially the romanced ones, upon realizing that they are going to lose the Inquisitor to the anchor?

Cassandra: Even the greatest fairy tales have an ending, but somehow Cassandra had always hoped that theirs would be happy. Their love was so unexpected, so sudden, and yet she had known from their first kiss that in him she had found a love for the ages.

Her uncle told her she was unlovable, her oath made her unlikable, but beneath it all her herald had seen the woman within the warrior--and still called her his own. He did not forsake her, even when she was unsure of herself with him. If these are to be their last hours together, she will not forsake him.

And she wishes now he had proposed.

Solas: He is not even sure he has the right to grieve, and yet he mourns every minute she is in pain and far from his side. This was always coming, of course-- he knew it from the first moment. And yet that cannot offset the suffering his Vhenan is undergoing.

It is another regret on his shoulders, but he must perservere.

Blackwall: Warden or wanderer, Blackwall or simply her Thom, the news brings him to his knees. How can a woman who has saved so many others be beyond salvation now? For all the power their inquisition has garnered, how can it fall short of saving their leader? How is that any kind of justice? Where is the Maker, when Andraste's herald needs him most?

There are no answers, of course, and in truth he does not wish to waste the time looking for them. As the mark sputters and sparks and threaten to consume her he rarely leaves her side. Through the eluvians or simply through politics he is her strong arm when pain makes her weak, a bulwark against a pain no man can truly fight.

And if he only leaves her side once while she fights for uneasy sleep, to seek out the dark alley shop with its nervous proprietor, no one else need know. The bottle of Quiet Death sits in secret in the bottom of his traveling pack, the most honest choice he has ever made. There is no world, for him, when she is gone. Let them accost the Maker together.

Sera: She knows.

She knows before anyone, knows when her honey tongue's hand starts burning like a green candle and she stops sleeping as well. When you grow up little, grow up afraid, you learn to expect the worst so that the worst doesn't surprise you. And so Skyhold's Red Jenny is braced for the blow for a long time, but it still hurts. Shite, it hurts to know it for real, to see it for real.

She never loved anyone, not like the Inquisitor. No one ever believed in her like the Herald, nowhere felt like home like the Inquisition. She can't do without it, without her, and part of Sera wants to leave before it hurts more. But even thinking about not being there hurts too, hurts like someone is stomping on her heart.

And so she stays. Stays to make her love laugh, stays to make the bad days better. Stays and impulsively drags her honey tongue off to get married, to promise to love each other for ever even if thats not very long anymore. But Sera isn't going to run, and if this is how it ends...she wants the world to know who her herald belonged to, and for her herald to know how much she was loved.

Dorian: It was supposed to be him. Maker's breathe, it was supposed to be him! It was supposed to be him that went first, a martyr to a better Tevinter, a beautiful profile cast forever in marble for his amatus to weep beautifully over and curse Dorian for ever leaving him behind. Even before his father's murder he expected such an eventual fate, and in truth had stayed so long in Skyhold so as to make those memories before Tevinter took her blood price for trying to change her.

But it was not supposed to be the Inquisitor fighting a losing battle with his own sodding arm, not Dorian left to only wring his hands and hold the man he loved close while he suffered. He is the product of a thousand years of careful breeding, graduate of the finest academies in Tevinter, a Maker's damned magister, but it's not enough. The anchor is taking its price, almost right before his eyes, and there is nothing he can do.

He'd always known the inquisitor would break his heart. But...kaffas, it was meant to be him.

The Iron Bull: Katoh.

#dragon age inquisition #solas #dorian pavus #blackwall #sera #varric tethras #cassandra #trespasser #dragon age #the iron bull

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jamiesshelves · 8 days

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Parts of TSC I can't stop thinking about (after my first read)

Jean having a few minutes before Riko got to him and using it to text Renee a warning. NOT asking her to help him. But warning her. Probably to protect Kevin and Neil more than himself.

Jean viewing himself as a captive with Wymack and Abby

Jean calling Neil Nathaniel until that sudden switch (just like when Neil thought of himself as Nathaniel)

Jean being the same age as Neil, so one of the youngest characters we know

Jean worshipping Thea and her calling him Paris

Jean throwing out Andrew's candy

Jean roasting Aaron for being unimportant even with a murder investigation going on

Renee giving Jean forehead kisses

"Right person, wrong time"

Jean taking Renee's picture and it being the only picture he has

The way the world perceives Riko as a martyr after his death

The way the world brushes aside that he almost killed Neil on live TV

"The only one close enough was andrew"

Jean reaching towards the TV as if he could save Neil and wanting him and Andrew to run

Jeremy being brunette through the events of TFC

The Trojans being okay with their plan for the foxes game because they knew they'd lose to the ravens eventually anyway

Jeremy living at home and having an estranged family situation

Jeremy having a butler he loves and trusts more than his family

BarkBark

Jean's promise to Kevin

Jean calling Kevin a "beautiful boy"

Both Jean and Jeremy trusting Kevin whole heartedly

Kevin giving truths about the nest to Jeremy

Kevin admitting to sticking to Andrew like glue because he didn't know how to be by himself after the nest

The coaches concern as they realize the way raven coaches treated Jean

The rumors about Jean and that Neil never thought of them

Jean being confirmed a bi king and simping over everyone except canon beautiful Neil

Jean probably not simping after Neil because he's the partner that could've been, aka a brother/safe space he never got

Jean not realizing why top surgery scars, and his abuse scars, would be seen differently

Jean not understanding why Trojans can pick their own clothes, food, majors, etc

Andrew letting Neil go to the FBI in California without him because he trusts his runaway to come back

Neil's immediate response to hearing about Greyson is hiring a hitman

Neil sassing the FBI

"I guess Drake wasn't a biter"

Neil telling Jean he can lock his door if it makes him feel safe but he doesn't have to worry anymore

Cat wanting to teach Jean to ride a motorcycle

"Kevin has earned the right to be"

Jean being afraid to ever teach anyone French again

Jeremy hiding from the police

Elodie

"That's putting it mildly." WHAT THE FUCK STUART.

Jean's list.

Jean still texting Renee

The reason the Trojans stay so positive

"I'm not safe with you anymore"

The parallels between Jean and Neil

Jean thinking he never got anything he didn't deserve

Jean only having a carry on bag like Neil

Wymack giving Jean money and his note

The Trojans giving Jean forehead kisses

Jeremy being into Jean but wanting to allow Jean to be able to heal first

Honestly more but this is enough for now lol

#books #booklr #book #bookish #bookblr #aftg #tsc #the sunshine court #all for the game #tsc spoilers #jean moreau #jeremy knox #neil josten #andrew minyard #renee walker #kevin day

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