#this is completely subjective by the way

[desperatecheesecubes]

All righty y’all! As a celebration of passing 3K comics read and the new year here’s a list of comics I personally think are Worth Your Time. I only included runs I’ve read at least a good chunk of so if you’re personal favorites aren’t here I might not’ve read em yet, or just haven’t read enough to pull of my favorites in the case of longer runs

In (mostly) alphabetical order:

Another Castle by Andrew Wheeler and Paulina Ganucheau : A fun cast of characters, a princess who kicks ass what more could you want, really.

Aquicorn Cove by Katie O’Neill: in fact just go ahead and read everything Katie has written. It’s all lovely and heartwarming, full of diversity and genuine characters. I could not recommend enough. Great for all ages!

Avatar Katara and the Pirates Silver/ Suki Alone/Toph Beifongs Metal Bending Academy: These standalone stories have been excellent. They really fit in with the tone and pacing of the show. I can’t wait for Azula’s solo to release.

Avatar The Lost Adventures: On the sillier side of what ATLA was (mostly) but a good fun time over all.

Avatar Free Comic Book Day Issues: they’re free!

Batgirl (2000): Cass’s batgirl run is phenomenal actually. Really, for real, you should try it.

Batgirl (2009): Stephs batgirl run is shorter and you can pick up the entire thing in TPB form easily. This era of Batfam comics also has a special place in my heart, I feel like a lot of writers found their stride here. There’s room for hope and all that.

Batgirl (2011- the Gail Simone half): if you’re on Tumblr im sure you know the problems with this run. I just really love Babs, this was one of the first comic series I ever read, my introduction to Babs, and also Gail is an excellent writer and some of the stories in this run are just phenomenal all around- looking at you issue 30.

Batgirl Special (1988): you want some QUALITY BabsGirl content?? This is an excellent start!

Batgirl The Greatest Stories Ever Told: collects a number of classic BabsGirl stories from the pre-crisis Batman comics. As well as some post crisis comics I’ll be putting on this list on their own anyway.

Batgirl Year One: The definitive post crisis Batgirl origin story! I loved all the nods to what Babs goes on to do (work with black canary, become oracle etc etc) and the art is very fun.

Batgirls: Can you tell I like the batgirls? The art is fun, the stories are low stress. It’s a fun run to just pull up and have a good time with. The earlier runs definitely dealt with heavier narratives but not everything has to be doom and gloom to be good.

Batman Cataclysm and No Man’s Land: You’ve probably heard people talk this arc up before. They’re not lying to you! It’s long, and there’s a lot of batfam members active in it but it’s absolutely worth reading if you enjoy the bats

Batman Second Chances: collecting Jason’s post crisis origin (issues 408-416) plus a few other stories this is definitely worth the read if, again, you like the bats.

Batman Death in the Family: the one Jason dies in and Tim’s pre N52 origin!

Batman Knightfall: Bane comes in and absolutely wrecks Bruce’s shit what’s not to enjoy

Batman Court of Owls/Night of Owls/City of Owls: man the Court is such a cool enemy concept for Bruce. Some of the only good things N52 gave us IMO

Batman Death of the family: I just really enjoyed the whole family having to come together I won’t lie

Batman Fear State: this was an absolute mess but it was a FUN mess

Batman and Robin (2011): alright don’t murder me but I though this run had more depth of writing than the 2009 run did…. Like both are good but I kinda think this one’s better…. In fact just go ahead and read the whole Robin Requiem arc

The Batman Chronicles 5 and 10: some absolutely stellar Babs stories!!!

Batman Eternal: look at the whole batfam (at the time) go! Makes my brain go BRRRR

Batman Incorporated (2012): also known as the one Damian dies in and the one where Jason pisses himself and it becomes a plot point for some reason! Fun!

Batman Batgirl: More good Babs content!!

Batman Battle for the Cowl: All hell breaks loose in the batfam. Good chaotic fun really

Batman One Bad Day Two Face: I think Two Face is the best Batman villain and I’m tired of pretending otherwise

Batman Urban Legends 1-6: Jason almost adopts a son, Tim comes out as bi, Grifter gets up to some stuff

Batman Wayne Family Adventures: literally all fluff!! Everyone can use some fluff now and then

Birds of Prey (1999) I’m a black canary Stan I don’t know what you expected

Black Canary (1993): the best stand alone ack Canary solo. Dick and Helena steal a tank in this run, there’s a story that talks about Dinah putting on her mom’s uniform for the first time it’s all good stuff

Black Canary (2007): this is less stand alone and needs some arrowfam knowledge to truly enjoy but I want more people to love Sin (I still want her to be red canary)

Black Canary and Zatanna Bloodspell: a BC/ZZ graphic novel what more do you really need to know?

The Brave and the Bold (2007) issue 33: I will never emotionally recover. Another good Babs story!

Christmas With the Superheroes (1988): a collection of stories that are holiday inspired! Some great moments in here and a nice variety

Convergence Batgirl: I really enjoyed stepping back into Stephs batgirl run. A nice what if scenario

Convergence Superboy: Kingdom Comes Supes pleading with 90s Kon just got to me OK?

DC Festival of Heroes/DC Pride: more short story collections

DC First batgirl/joker: another Babgirl story recommendation? It’s more likely than you think

Earth Prime 4: this is a fun stand alone Stargirl story. You don’t have to watch the tv show to follow it (I say this with certainty because I myself don’t watch the show)

Extraordinary by V.E. Schwab (if you’ve read Vicious the novel first): hard to talk about this without spoiling the plot of the novel but if you read and enjoyed that this is also good yes

The Final Night: the 90s had some real bangers didn’t they? Also known for the time Hal died (for realsies)

The Flash (2011): flash fans will probably passionately inform me there’s better flash stories prior to N52 but I haven’t read em and *I* think this run is damn enjoyable. And this is my list and I can put whatever I want in it

Gotham Academy: zany wacky hijinks ensue

Green Arrow by Mike Grell: Grell knows his shit

Green Arrow (2001): look at the Arrowfam get together!!!

Green Lantern/Green Arrow Hard Traveling Heroes: politics in comics can be good actually

Green Lantern Legacy/Alliance: some of the DC graphic novels are excellent really

Identity Crisis: this story made me insane I love it

Injustice Gods Among Us: it’s not a ‘what if Superman were evil’ story so much as a ‘what if Superman lost his way and broke everyone’s hearts and then also the world’ story

Legends of the DC Universe #6-11: some great stories of Dick Grayson, Clark Kent, Hal Jordan, Oliver queen and Barbara Gordon!

Let them live! Unpublished Tales from the DC Vault! #2 and #5: great Dick and Ollie content

Marvel Adventures Superheroes #1: Spidey, Hulk and Ironman have to dog sit, what could go wrong!

Nimona by N.D. Stevenson: I would die for literally every character you don’t understand

Nubia and the Justice League Special: Nubia has a really long day and we get to vibe with the Justice league gang circa 2021/2022 I’m certainly not complaining

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang: very cute. Family friendly!!!

Robin Year One: Dick Grayson as a young Robin!

Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman/ Sensational Wonder Woman: Wonder Woman stories can be something so personal actually

Shadow of the batgirl: CASS!!!

Showcase ‘94 #12: more Babs!!

Starfire (2015): Kory deserves more on goings I’m not kidding

Stargirl/ Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E./Stargirl spring break special : I love Courtney she’s such a good character

Supersons: I will mourn the loss of Jon forever

Superman the death of Superman and all its subsequent parts: yeah this is a certified banger storyline. Plus it gave us Kon-the boy of all time

Superman the wedding special: whoops Clark got kidnapped and Lois has to save him!

Superman/Shazam first thunder: and then Clark adopted Billy…. Right?

Superman smashes the Klan: yeah I see why this is called required reading

Task force Z: I am willing to die on this hill

Teen Titians by Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo: they’re not the TTs of main comic continuity and that’s OK

Teen Titans year one: who gave the artist to draw all the kids so small and remind me that oh my god they’re just children

Thor (2014) and The Mighty Thor (2015): I love Jane

Truth and Justice (2021) #4 and #6: more batfam stories

W.I.T.C.H.: nostalgia isn’t blinding me this is good comics

Wonder girl (2021): we deserve Brazilian characters actually reflecting the culture correctly but I also really enjoy Yara.

Wonder Woman (1987) #90-100, 160-161, 206-213: definitely not the ONLY good WW stories but some very good Wonder Woman stories

Wonder Woman agent of peace/Wonder Woman black and gold/Wonder Woman come back to me/Wonder Woman Hiketeia: More Wonder Woman stories!

Worlds finest (2009): 2009-10 batfam my beloved

#mine #this is completely subjective by the way #comic recs

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

the fact that shakespeare was a playwright is sometimes so funny to me. just the concept of the "greatest writer of the English language" being a random 450-year-old entertainer, a 16th cent pop cultural sensation (thanks in large part to puns & dirty jokes & verbiage & a long-running appeal to commoners). and his work was made to be watched not read, but in the classroom teachers just hand us his scripts and say "that's literature"

just...imagine it's 2450 A.D. and English Lit students are regularly going into 100k debt writing postdoc theses on The Simpsons screenplays. the original animation hasn't even been preserved, it's literally just scripts and the occasional SDH subtitles.txt. they've been republished more times than the Bible

#due to the Great Data Decay academics write viciously argumentative articles on which episodes aired in what order #at conferences professors have known to engage in physically violent altercations whilst debating the air date number of household viewers #90% of the couch gags have been lost and there is a billion dollar trade in counterfeit “lost copies” #serious note: i'll be honest i always assumed it was english imperialism that made shakespeare so inescapable in the 19th/20th cent #like his writing should have become obscure at the same level of his contemporaries #but british imperialists needed an ENGLISH LANGUAGE (and BRITISH) writer to venerate #and shakespeare wrote so many damn things that there was a humongous body of work just sitting there waiting to be culturally exploited... #i know it didn't happen like this but i imagine a English Parliament House Committee Member For The Education Of The Masses or something #cartoonishly stumbling over a dusty cobwebbed crate labelled the Complete Works of Shakespeare #and going 'Eureka! this shall make excellent propoganda for fabricating a national identity in a time of great social unrest. #it will be a cornerstone of our elitist educational institutions for centuries to come! long live our decaying empire!' #'what good fortune that this used to be accessible and entertaining to mainstream illiterate audience members... #..but now we can strip that away and make it a difficult & alienating foundation of a Classical Education! just like the latin language :)' #anyway maybe there's no such thing as the 'greatest writer of x language' in ANY language? #maybe there are just different styles and yes levels of expertise and skill but also a high degree of subjectivity #and variance in the way that we as individuals and members of different cultures/time periods experience any work of media #and that's okay! and should be acknowledged!!! and allow us to give ourselves permission to broaden our horizons #and explore the stories of marginalized/underappreciated creators #instead of worshiping the List of Top 10 Best (aka Most Famous) Whatevers Of All Time/A Certain Time Period #anyways things are famous for a reason and that reason has little to do with innate “value” #and much more to do with how it plays into the interests of powerful institutions motivated to influence our shared cultural narratives #so i'm not saying 'stop teaching shakespeare'. but like...maybe classrooms should stop using it as busy work that (by accident or designs) #happens to alienate a large number of students who could otherwise be engaging critically with works that feel more relevant to their world #(by merit of not being 4 centuries old or lacking necessary historical context or requiring untaught translation skills) #and yeah...MAYBE our educational institutions could spend less time/money on shakespeare critical analysis and more on... #...any of thousands of underfunded areas of literary research i literally (pun!) don't know where to begin #oh and p.s. the modern publishing world is in shambles and it would be neat if schoolwork could include modern works? #beautiful complicated socially relevant works of literature are published every year. it's not just the 'classics' that have value #and actually modern publications are probably an easier way for students to learn the basics. since lesson plans don't have to include the #important historical/cultural context many teens need for 20+ year old media (which is older than their entire lived experience fyi)

[icewindandboringhorror]

I know this is just a silly bad quality random screencap of a screencap that I found on facebook lol, BUT it's a succinct enough image to easily describe the concept in a quick/accessible way hopefully :

-

(and of course, feel free to elaborate in tags, etc.! (especially elaborating about other senses as well.. can you "hear" in your mind just as well as you can "see"? taste? etc.) It's an interesting topic to me, as someone who's like a 4.5 at MOST lol. I'm curious what option will be the most common :0c )

#tumblr polls #hrmm... a little poll perhaps.. about a subject I find interesting.. since this image came across my facebook today #still really not feeling that well. no longer shaking violently and such but I still feel weird and weak much more than usual #They did say my markers for like infection or inflammation were elevated but that they werent sure of the cause so hopefully #it's nothing too serious. they did also say a lot of different things can cause that thing to be higher than normal but didn't go into spec #fics of what. maybe some of them are relatively benign or something. I still havent felt much back to normal since #I got really sick that one time though. I feel fine on and off but then little bouts of feeling weird and sick happen. hrmmm #ANYWAY.. looking for small ways to be productive. such as little doodles on evil ipad or editing game videos #or posting polls or cat pictures or some other like not very labor intensive things #I WISH I COULD FOCUS on writing HHRGGhh... I need to finish my game.. it would be so freeing.. a project that's been looming #over my head for like 5 years even though througouht that 5yrs I've probably spent a total of 3 months working on it lo.. ANYWAY #I still partially really cannot beleive that people CAN see stuff in their heads. There's always part of me that's thinking like. well mayb #e everyone DOES see the same exact thing but we just describe/conceptualize it so differently that we think we're talking about #different things when we're really not. But I have been assured by people I've talked to about it that they can GENUINELY really see #stuff in their heads like as vivid as an actual picture in real life or something. And the other senses are neat too. Like for exmaple I #can hear in my head much better than I can see imagery. I still CANNOT hear vividly like as if I were listening to actual music out loud.. #but I think it's developed more than my sight. AND interesting how this varies the creative process. a friend I was talking to on the phone #said they write by literally just watching stuff play before them like a movie. where my process is COMPLETELY different. AND that affects #the content/what details we focus on as well as our individual styles of writing have differences that can be traced back to that.. hrmm

[lord-squiggletits]

I think the key component to my personal reading of post-Delphi Pharma is that he's trying to be a horrible person on purpose. Not "on purpose" in the way that people have free will to exercise their own choices, but in that Pharma's "mad doctor" persona is a performance he puts on to deliberately embrace how much everyone else hates him. Basically, if people already think you're a "bad Autobot" and a horrible doctor who just kills his patients for fun, why try to prove otherwise to people who have already made up their minds about you? Just fully embrace the fact that people see you as an asshole. Don't try to change their minds. Don't plead for their forgiveness or understanding. Just stop caring. If you're going to be remembered as a monster, you might as well be a memorable monster, and eke as much pleasure and hedonism as you can out of it before karma catches up to you and you inevitably crash and burn.

I mean, I guess you could just go the route of "Oh, Pharma was always a fucked up creepy guy and Delphi was just him taking the mask off," but I really don't like that interpretation because, for one, it feels really wrong to take a character like Pharma becoming evil under duress and going, "Oh well clearly he did the things he did because he was evil all along," as if somehow Pharma breaking under blackmail/torture/threat of horrible death was a sign of him having poor moral character. As opposed to, you know, suffering under the very real threat of horrible death for himself and everyone he cares about while being manipulated by a guy who specializes in psychological torture.

The second reason is that it just doesn't make sense to write Pharma as having been evil all along. I mean...

Occam's Razor says that the best argument is the one with the simplest explanation. Doesn't it make way more sense to take Pharma's appearances in flashbacks, his friendship with Ratchet, his stunning medical accomplishments, and the few we see of him speaking kindly/sympathetically (or in the least charitable interpretation, at least professionally) towards his patients and conclude "This guy was just a normal person, if exceptionally talented." Taking all of these flashback appearances at face value and assuming Pharma was being genuine/honest is a way simpler and more logical explanation than trying to argue that Pharma for the past 4 million years was just faking being a good doctor/person. I mean, it's possible within the realm of headcanon, but the fact is Pharma's appearances in the story are so brief that there simply wasn't room in the story for there to be some sort of secret conspiracy/hidden manipulation behind why Pharma acted the way he did in the past.

I just can't help but look at things like Pharma's friendship with Ratchet (himself a good person and usually a fine judge of character) and the fact that even post-Delphi, pretty much every single mention of Pharma comes with some mention of "He was a good doctor for most of his life" or "He was making major headways in research [before he started killing patients]" which implies that even the Autobots themselves see Pharma's villainy as a recent turn in his life compared to how for "most of his life" he "used to be" a good doctor.

And although Pharma doesn't know this, we as the readers (and even other characters like Rung) know about Aequitas technology and the fact that it actually works, so... if Pharma really was an unrepentant murderer, why couldn't he get through the forcefield too? The Aequitas forcefield doesn't require that a person be completely morally pure and free of wrongdoing or else how could Tyrest get through, just that they feel a sense of inner peace and lack feelings of guilt. Pharma has murdered and tortured people by this point, and put on quite a campy and theatrical show of how much he sees it as a fun game, so why then can he not get through?

It circles back to my headcanon at the start of this post that the "mad doctor" persona is just that-- a persona. Delphi/post-Delphi Pharma's laughing madman personality is just so far removed from every flashback we saw of him and everything we can infer based on how other people see/saw him before that, to me, the mad doctor act is (at least in large part, if not fully) a persona that Pharma puts on to put his villainy in the forefront.

To avoid an overly simplistic/ableist take, I don't think Tarn tortured Pharma into turning crazy. To me, it's more like the constant pressure of death by horrific torture, the feeling of martyrdom as Pharma kept secret that he was the only one standing between Delphi and annihilation, the physical isolation of Messatine as well as the emotional separation from Ratchet, being forced to violate his medical oaths (pretty much the only thing Pharma's entire life has been about), etc. All of that combined traumatized Pharma to the point that the only way he could avoid cracking was to just stop caring about all of it. Because at least then, even if he's still murdering patients to save Delphi from a group of sadistic freaks, Pharma doesn't have to feel guilty and sick about doing it. As opposed to the alternatives, which were probably either going off the deep end and killing himself to escape, or confessing to what he did and getting jailed for it.

In that light, Pharma becoming a mad doctor makes sense. It avoids the bad writing tropes of "oh this character who was good his entire life was actually just evil and really good at hiding it" as well as "oh he got tortured and went crazy that's why he's so random and silly and killing people, he's crazy" and instead frames Pharma's evil as something he was forced into, to the point where in order to avoid a full psychological breakdown and keep defending Delphi, he just had to stop caring about the sanctity of life or about what other people might think of him.

Then, of course, the actual Delphi episode happens, and Pharma's own lifelong best friend Ratchet basically spits in his face and sees him as nothing more than a crazy murderer who went rogue from being a good Autobot. Then Pharma gets his hands cut off and left to die on Messatine. At that point, Pharma has not only been mentally/emotionally broken into losing his feelings of compassion, he's received the message loud and clear: He is alone. Everyone hates him. Not even his own best friend likes him any more. No one even cared enough about him to check if he actually died or not. He will only ever be remembered as a doctor who went insane and killed his patients.

So in the light of 1. Having all of your redeeming qualities be squeezed out of you one by one for the sake of survival and 2. Having your reputation and all of your positive relationships be destroyed and 3. People only know/care about you as "that doctor who became evil and killed his patients" rather than the millions of years of good service that came before.

What else is there to do but internalize the fact that you'll forever be seen as a monster and a freak, and embrace it? People already see you as a murderer for that blackmail deal you did, so why not become an actual murderer and just start killing people on a whim? People already see you as an irredeemable monster who puts a stain on the Autobot name, so why beg for their forgiveness when you could just shun them back? You've already become a murderer, a traitor, and a horrible doctor, so what's a few more evil acts added to the pile? It's not like anyone will ever forgive you or love you ever again.

Why care? Why try to hold on to your principles of compassion, kindness, medical ethics, when an entire lifetime of being a good person did nothing to save you from blackmail and then abandonment? Why put yourself through the emotional agony of feeling lonely, guilty, miserable, when you could just... stop caring, and not hurt any more?

#squiggposting #pharma apologism #i'm sure the doylist reason for the writing is just that pharma was a designated villain #so since he's a villain and 'crazy' it's fine for everyone even the good guys to treat him like complete trash #i just think from a watsonian perspective taking a sympathetic approach is way more interesting and logically consistent #what i mean is like. from a meta perspective one of the best ways to show that a character is super evil and not worth saving #is when even the good guy heroes. the ones who are supposed to be kind and compassionate and wise. see him as dirt #and this is also kind of a necessity in most plots bc TF is the kind of series that just needs action villains and long-term antagonists #so not every villain is written or has a plot to be made redeemable. and pharma is one of these bc he's not important or a legacy character #so from a doylist (meta) perspective you could read the autobots' disregard of pharma as a sign of #'this guy is not meant to have your sympathy as a reader. pay no attention to him' #but from a watsonian (in universe) perspective it paints a miserable picture of pharma being utterly forsaken by the ppl he served alongsid #and like yeah i'm super autistic about pharma so of course i view him with sympathy but like #the idea of being a loyal and good person for years only to be subjected to a Torment Nexus of #being blackmailed into breaking all of the oaths you held sacred. under threat of you and all your comrades dying horrible torturous deaths #then when your comrades find out about it they focus solely on the 'harvesting organs' and not on the 'blackmail' part #and then you get literally left for dead by your comrades and best friend hating your guts #and then you get rescued by a guy who uses you as a test subject for his evil machine #this is a fucking nightmare scenario like pharma could hardly be suffering more if the author TRIED to make him suffer #and for me it's like. the evil pharma did can't be decontextualized to what drove him to that. as well as the question of like #how easily ppl can write someone off as evil and turn a blind eye to (or even find satisfaction in) their suffering bc theyre evil #and either brought it on themselves or it's just karma paying a visit #like. i feel like if pharma WERE a shitty doctor and a terrible person his whole life then the delphi situation would feel like karma #but the way it's written and the lore retroactively put in makes it feel more pharma getting thrown in a torture carousel #and THEN becoming evil. but then being treated as if he was always evil or was some sort of bad apple #bc like i'm not opposed to LOLing when a villain gets a karmic torture/death related to the wrongs they committed #but in pharma's case it feels less like karma and more like endless torture + being abandoned by ppl who should have been more loyal

[uncanny-tranny]

This might be controversial to some, but you cannot "tough love" your way to preventing suicide. You cannot have the attitude that people who complete suicide are selfish or are ungrateful or immature. If your mindset about suicide isn't coming from compassion rather than judgment, it won't help suicidal people. You will never help us with a slap on the wrist and a lecture about how we're awful for even thinking about completing suicide.

Suicide intervention starts with compassion and care.

#mental health #mental health advocacy #suicide #suicide tw #suicide mention tw #death tw #ask to tag (genuine) #since i have a foreboding feeling about this: please do not clown on this post thank you #my dad and i had a discussion about this and some of his stories made me sick... #...like he took a course on assisting and intervening those who are about to or are thinking of completing suicide... #...and they asked everybody in the class what they thought about suicide... #...and he said SO many people were saying how awful and selfish it was and holy fuck i was so angry hearing that... #...and i'm glad he talked about how he said his answer was that he can't say if it's bad or not... #i tried to include as many tags as i could but let me know if there are any i ought to include #genuinely i despise the way a lot of people talk about this subject. makes me sick to my stomach #i feel déjà vu writing about this so i may well have made a post like this. oh well though. too important to me

[quirkle2]

i liked the part when he

#qkdraws #i was gonna finish the caption but . i felt that conveyed enough #spoilers for pkmn sv from here on out in the tags -> #i have yet to rechallenge the gyms but i've done everything else and like . FUCK i rly enjoyed this game #rly close to completing the dex as well . just have a handful of pokemon only available through trades to get #pokemon #pokemon sv #pkmn #pkmn sv #pokemon scarlet and violet #arven pokemon #pokemon arven #i rly rly loved the story in this game. one of the best pkmn stories imo #and i ?? rly liked that they kinda went different routes w cliches #like . everybody assumed director clavell would be the twist villain but he's actually Really good and caring #went out of his way and above and beyond to figure out why students joined team star or dropped out of school #even Disguising himself as a student (poorly .) to see Why instead of just . scolding them uselessly #idk i thought the subject of bullying was handled rly nicely . Surprisingly nicely for the franchise this is from #AND the fact that the ''evil ai'' wasn't ''evil'' at all . it was trying to help and break through its programming to preserve the region #im sure that's not the first time that's been done but !! it's refreshing to see the robot Not be evil GVEIYAGV #and ARVEN ??I . I I III. I .what do ieven say #he'sso good #wails abt him for hours

[koshercosplay]

one of the (many) things that resonated with me after reading the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers (if you haven't read them yet, GO READ THEM) is Ouloo's opinion on the exhaustion of political activism vs taking the easy way out and letting others do the work for you.

she wants to live a quiet life, and she wants people to stop killing each other. that's the extent of her politics. she doesn't know the complexities of the political landscape of the galactic commons in which she lives, nor is she obligated to become an expert in it: fundamentally, she wants people to get along, and she wants to serve them cake, and she does her best to live her life in exactly those terms. when she's confronted with her own biases, she works doubly hard on herself to overcome them, because her existence is dominated by that one, very very simple thing: be kind to others. some of the other characters look down at her for it, saying it's naive, that the world can't be made better with cake, that if she really cared she'd do something more tangible about it.

but I think there's something really valuable in that mindset. I want to be kind to others, and I want others to get along. I don't have the answers to all of the political questions in our society. but also, I don't have to. not everyone is capable of being loud and angry. I go through so much anxiety and stress, worrying that I'm not doing enough, I'm not loud enough, I'm not doing my part to change the world we live in, what if I'm just being lazy?

sometimes living your own life gently and with kindness and interacting with others from a place of love is enough. we need both kinds of people in the world. and sometimes gentle people get loud, and sometimes loud people need gentleness.

not having all the answers all the time is okay. worrying is not activism. anxiety is not activism. you are allowed to take care of your body and mind.

#this series also singlehandedly made me do a complete 180 on the subject of sex work #but thats another post #thoughts #rambling #feel free to reblog but dont clown #wayfarers #becky chambers #the long way to a small angry planet #a closed and common orbit #the galaxy and the ground within #record of a spaceborn few

[seventh-fantasy]

okay... idk at all if this has been discussed or that I'm just stating the obvious. I'm posting any way to get more feedback.

so. can we be sure that the last boat scene even happened (in the way we saw it at least)

yeah the letter was delivered to the intended recipients. the letter also did say 李相夷绝笔 lit. the final writing by li xiangyi. there's a brief exchange between him and the assumed "boatman" asking him where he was going. and we see he spat blood while writing yeah but:

llh/lxy's eyesight had been failing for some time.

Professional Letter Writers are a thing in the past in service to people who can't write their own letters (idk enough to verify the historical accuracy in this specific context though)

what has been bugging me since forever is the manner of speech of the letter. yeah it's different from their everyday speech, but that's actually perfectly fine since this is A Letter so I'm good with it being more formal. but... there's something I just can't quite pinpoint. especially with the use of the 君 jun pronoun by llh/lxy to refer to dfs when there could be other pronouns with less connotations of intimacy (and scholarly/imperial court system) implied and still conveyed cordiality, marking a shift in their relationship. (I'm not well versed with wuxia as a genre enough to know what are the conventions. someone else who does can say something though.)

whatever these put together means (eg. he may not have written the letter personally, or he wrote it in a different situation from what we saw, etc etc.) alongside:

this scene existed only as part of a visualisation as the letter content is revealed to the audience (or assumed to be fdb reading the letter to dfs & guests of the wedding spectators of the duel)

the boat lxy/llh jumped on is not the same as the one he was writing the letter on - the boatman is also not on it despite the conversation at the beginning, but lxy/llh's dressing and hairpin are the same as the ones before he jumped. (the boatman delivered the letter so he's real though.)

also as @wonderfulnonsense happened to have just pointed out in the tags left in my other post: it's in fact the same boat he took to go fight dfs at donghai 10 years ago. (edit: or maybe it isn't? as pointed out by anon.)

if we viewed whatever we perceived in this scene as imaginary (not what actually happened), then the reading of it being a metaphor for lxy/llh being on his way to enlightenment just makes sense. (the boat being a carrier on his spiritual transformations.) especially when you consider that 彼岸 the other shore is another concept in buddhism to represent enlightenment, alongside the motif of lotuses. (credits to @markiafc for the buddhism reading - edit: mark's meta here) and then, consider the beach ending... yeah.

#莲花楼 #mysterious lotus casebook #my posts #lhl #lhlmeta #断剑又绝笔...... #this was a question / discussion brought up internally but i wanted more feedback / ideas so. and also for the record #but ofc...if there are details missed out that completely prove this wrong then pretend i never wrote this #pls blame it on the brainrot #lhl discussion of the day is buddhism meta. #taoism and buddhism readings loving hand in loving hand. #honestly i did not think of the story specifically as a path of enlightenment until i was writing the meta #and then it was a downward spiral there on. #it makes a lot of sense given how it's a story about cultivation of the personage (and the struggles of it) #which is the goal of all chinese ideologies. not just taoism and buddhism. they just have different answers #mark is gonna come back with a massive buddhism meta. i'm excited and afraid #also the detail i am sitting on is what is the significance of him signing off as lxy. on top of his r/s with dfs being from lxy's pov. #considering the way he has been identifying with lxy ever since he took over llh as an identity. #PLUS when i first heard lxy thanking dfs for the wangchuan flower. the chinese didn't include the subject of flower #i thought he was talking about 忘川 METAPHORICALLY bc i forgot that was the name of the flower HJBJHHJBJHB #yeah so like this is the river of oblivion he's on or wtv (i'm just babbling now) #also i said INTENDED RECIPIENTS. but the envelope cover is also interestingly empty. though boatman knew who it was meant for

[anistarrose]

what I mean when I say I'm tired of people making found families into nuclear families:

among other things, it's kind of annoying when people act like the romantic couple are automatically the "most obvious" candidates to adopt a kid; or act like a pair of people in a romantic relationship can't happily co-parent a kid with people outside of that romance

what I don't mean when I say I'm tired of people making found families into nuclear families:

people using "siblings" or "parent and child" as a shorthand (or even non-shorthand) for characters' relationships sometimes

#like yeah i've personally encountered instances of “these characters are siblings” that i feel are slight oversimplifications #but there's also not a great concise alternative word #and sometimes? characters CAN just be adopted siblings! #and also if i can be completely honest #sometimes i want a way to gently clarify that i'm interpreting the relationship of two characters in a non-shippy way #without having to put a big aggro “don't tag as ship!!!” disclaimer up #i actually we believe we need to decouple “i'd like to avoid mentions of this ship” from the implication of moral judgment #(or even like “i am judging you but only for your subjective taste and you don't deserve harassment”) #but in the meantime some people probably *will* interpret “don't tag as ship” as moral judgment #so i need a concise little way to bring up organically that i'm not into a ship!

[dragon-spaghetti]

BOOM. M&M FANCHILD BE UPON YE

Started chatting w @/meandtheyeehaws and we made ourselves Soft I had to scribble out a design

#drag's art #helluva boss #helluva boss moxxie #helluva boss millie #design is subject to change but I think she's cute 😭💖 #also I'm not fixing those sketches they can stay that way lmfao #sorry that they're a complete State but I'm lazy 💖

[mittensmorgul]

There’s another post going around about this, but tumblr won’t let me reblog it but...

When I read a story written by a human being, I’m not just reading it because I want to read a coffee shop AU with a specific plot description. I’m reading it because it’s making a connection to another human storyteller and seeing a piece of them carved into the words. Storytelling is a human act of sharing joy, angst, tension, resolution, satisfaction. It’s an act of love.

Writing and reading a story isn’t just an act of creation and consumption. I hate that commercialism and AI are reducing it to that sort of transaction. Like oh, you need words on this subject and that’s the end of it. Like what we really needed was just a vending machine we can push buttons on to get a fix, as if the human creating the story wasn’t a factor. That the author’s life experience and views and feelings haven’t infused the words with their own unique touches.

I’ve read hundreds of coffee shop AU’s over the years (and thousands of fics in general). I’ve seen many similar tropes reused across stories, and just like an AI would, I’ve learned things about writing them that I will always carry with me. But unlike an AI, a human author is not just the sum total of coffee shop AU’s we’ve consumed. Even if we used the same prompt, the same sets of tropes, the same characters. I will always choose the human-crafted story over the computer generated one.

Because again, I’m not just looking for a very specific fix via a series of words. I’m looking for a human connection through story.

Unlike an AI, I have BEEN to a coffee shop. I’ve had experiences in coffee shops. I’ve had funny little meet-cutes with people. I’ve accidentally spilled coffee on myself and knocked heads with someone as we both rushed to wipe it up. I know what it FEELS like. The machine doesn’t.

I’ve also read millions of things that aren’t fanfic, or coffee shop AU’s. I’ve experienced things OTHER than going to coffee shops and having meet-cutes. And I know what all those things feel like when processed through my personal human lens of experience, which is different from every other personal human lens of experience.

All the machine can do is spit out what it THINKS a human experience is, and I honestly don’t care about that at all. Fic is not a “product” to be “generated.” It’s an art form that connects us to other people who share the same love of a thing that we do.

People who, even when all writing the same characters in the same setting to the exact same prompt, will all add something or have a viewpoint about something or bring a completely different personality and life experience to the story that no one else on the planet could. That’s what I’m actually reading.

#ai shit #adventures in fanfic #i detest this commodification of art being accelerated by ai tech #as if art was nothing more than a consumer product #i want to engage with art made by people who were driven by a passion to make something and share it with us #not working to an algorithm to generate specific 'content' (and can we agree that reducing art to 'content' is part of the problem here) #and this whole concept of 'death of the author' that has been warped so far beyond what it actually means >.> #it just... makes me incredibly sad to see so many people arguing FOR the use of ai in the arts #like way to miss the whole entire point of what the arts even are #but this reminds me of the fic writer challenge i did one summer... #same prompt same set of tropes and every week a dozen completely different stories from a dozen different authors #because we all took our own unique spin on the subject because that's what PEOPLE do... #i just lament what will happen to that vast well of creativity and humanity that will be lost if everything just gets replaced #by a machine that just keeps spitting out the 'content' it believes the 'consumer' wants... it's just... depressing af

[bloobluebloo]

Here I am back at it again with the dreaded “I” word aka “Imperialism”.

What I see creeping up in discussions about Imperialism, especially in the current world context, is that people seem to approach the concept with the idea that it’s a “white” thing. This is just demonstrably untrue when we look at history, some notable examples being the Ottoman Empire, Imperial Japan, the Persian Empire, and China to name a few. Imperialism is not something only white people inflict on others.

That being said, in the current world situation, Western Imperialism is the power that currently has a stranglehold on our world. America has the most well funded military by far. Apart from military power, the West also has control over major media outlets, international organizations, and even the entertainment industry. So, based on what we are currently living through, imperialism looks like a very white power.

When identifying an imperalist power, at the end of the day it is an entity that is greater in numbers, power, economics, and influence exerting its influence on a weaker entity. It’s a power imbalance, where the weaker entity is at the mercy and whims of the more powerful entity. There is very little choice left but to obey or suffer the consequences. It does not have to be violent as a requirement.

#admiral’s log #like people are talking as if onky white people have been imperialist #and like thats a dangerous way to approach the subject #I mean bringing it back to media #people argued that it was *racist* to call Rauru an imperialist because he is native coded #I think whats more interesting to argue in terms of rauru #is why none of his culture or his characteristics were preserved in the royal family’s lineage #the zonai were completely erased as an influence #and taken over by divinely favored Hylian characterstics #but to say its racist to call rauru an imperialist is such a funny argument

[cerus]

so was anybody going to tell me how beautiful gyala delve is?

#gw2 #guild wars 2 #screens #i fumbled my way through the meta for the anguish that festers and was just. astounded by how gorgeous it is while looting #couldnt even log out to re-enable reshade bc it wouldve booted me from the successful map w no toxic gunk #these are just raw screens w a couple photoshop layers #im SOOOOOOOO MAD the meta sucks complete ass. like genuinely one of the worst events ive ever subjected myself to #i would totally cruise around here doing it if a) it wasnt awful b) it gave even SLIGHTLY decent loot

[gibbearish]

btw its interesting the way james tries to imply that like. well the videos that have plagiarism are the ones our dumb stupid annoying patrons requested about bad topics that didnt deserve to have the effort put in to covering them well so basically its fine. like obv thats interesting on its own but moreso the fact that he doesnt actually /say/ it, or like. give a list of the videos hes referring to, just says "those videos are very clear on which ones they were" i think as a nod meaning like "yknow the ones everyones talking about". unless what hes meaning is that like they put a note in certain videos saying "this video was requested by a patron, we here at james somertom incorporated do not espouse these views" which seems unlikely to me. idk methinks maybe it's because there is indeed a lot more than people think and with all the buzz he's not sure which ones have been discovered yet or not, so putting down a solid list that missed some would look like he was still hiding things whereas putting down a fully sourced list would be admitting to wayyyy more than anyone's found yet

#which is ironic too bc if he genuinely did want to prove he understood what he did wrong and that hed changed thatd be the way to do it #yknow like a full list of every single source including ones no one has found on their own or /can/ find anymore would a) be taking full #responsibility and b) make people less likely to always be like 'youre still hiding something' #which in turn makes me super think hes still hiding a lot of somethings #also cant go without stating that the 'request a video topic' thing was only for $100/month patrons after 3 months on that tier #like fucker these people gave you THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS AT LEAST and youre trying to blame it on them?????? #no one forced you to make 'let patrons pick video topics' a reward dude like. hello???????? #shit dude even hbombs highest tier ($10 for anyone wondering bc he doesnt see his audience as a money machine lmao) #just says you can vote in polls about future topics #like that makes complete sense to me as a version of this‚ the most dedicated audience members get a say in the future of the #channel while the creator still gets overall control of the direction #also 'patrons who gave me fuckloads of money asked me to make videos on topics i didnt like so i plagiarized those' is i think uhhh #worse than just 'i plagiarize everything without remorse' frankly? #like at least with the second youre just a general shitbag but the first where youre a shitbag specifically to the people #majorly financially supporting you rather than just like. be an adult and say 'hm i dont feel like that topic really works for the channel‚ #do you have any other ideas?' #or dare i say even perhaps yknow. doing what other youtubers do in similar situations and find ways to tie that subject #to what they usually talk about is just. wild #course that last one would take actual creativity and aint that just the crux of the issue #james somerton #or i say cannot go without stating i should say cannot go without restating kwnrkabdkwbrn

[mysteryandnonstopfun]

SWANFIRE APPRECIATION WEEK 2023 (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

🦢🔥 Day 4: A headcanon [ Gold is a shipper ] The Queen is Dead Mr. Gold: I think the real reason you lied was to protect yourself. Emma: What's that supposed to mean? Mr. Gold: From getting hurt again. Emma: That's not happening. Second Star to the Right Neal: You know, you haven't changed one bit. For a second, I thought you might have. I started to think, maybe you were worth my time. I guess I was wrong. Mr. Gold: And yet, you're still here. Neal: For Henry. Not you. As far as I'm concerned, you can stay the hell away from both of us.

#swanfire #sfweek2023 #swanthief #snow is also a shipper but i'm going to use that next year heheh #Gold face to both of them is gold LOL #Can we talk about how gold approaches the subject in two completely different ways? #Neal stay for Henry but also for Emma #no you can't change my mind

[brittlebutch]

Desperately trying to make sense of Alex's motivations in Season Two and you know, I do eventually have to wonder if maybe Alex wasn't actually lying in the majority of those tapes.

Like, we tend to assume that Alex's motivations have been a consistent throughline since the college years, but do we actually know that that's the case? Do we know for sure that Alex was acting in deliberate, calculated ways in 2006; or could it be that he's telling the Truth on those olds tapes when he says he's blacking out and can't remember what's happening to anyone? After all, if we're assuming that Season 2 Alex's motivations are the exact same as his motives in Season 3, then it doesn't make any sense at all that he spend months working with Jay to try to find Amy; Season 3 Alex would have attempted to kill Jay like, on sight just to get things over with as quickly as possible and contain the spread of contamination as best as he could.

But, maybe, if Alex really had been separated from Amy after the events of the 04-04-10 tape, and if he really doesn't know where she is, then maybe that could make things start to make more sense. Maybe he really had been watching Jay's channel, and seeing Jay start going through the same things he went through in college without things devolving into violence and disappearances, and wondered if things maybe could play out differently this time. Maybe he really did send that tape to Jay to ask him for help, maybe he really was just trying to find Amy.

But then, instead of actually being helpful, Jay makes it extremely clear that he's a lot more interested in stalking Alex than he is in finding Amy. Alex asked for help, and instead there's a bunch of masked dudes on Jay's heels that keep attacking him, Jay is breaking into his house, stealing his things, leading the Operator right to him all over again, keeps trying to get other people (namely: Jessica -- if Alex is being honest when he says that his call reassuring her that Amy had been found was an effort to make Sure she stayed away from everything that was happening) involved; and instead of anything getting better, instead of anyone finding Amy, things are just getting worse all over again.

It's not until after the incident at the tunnel that things seem to start rapidly devolving. Rather than a calculated attempt to finally follow through with his need to curb the spread of contamination, this is very clearly an outburst of rage and terror. Alex's "I told you not to follow me" line in conjunction with Jay speculating that Alex didn't know who that guy was, to me, pretty firmly seems to speak to Alex having mistaken that stranger for Jay. From his point of view, Alex knows that Jay and totheark know where he live, have broken in before, he suspects that Jay stole a key to make it easier to get into his house, and he's been followed on the daily for months -- Alex is sitting at the tunnel because he doesn't know where else he can go without being constantly surveilled, hunted, and assaulted. And instead of getting a moment by himself to breathe, Jay followed him out there all over again (it feels like Alex looks directly at the camera in Jay's footage of him from this day; he knew for a fact that Jay was there), and then to make matters worse now 'Jay' won't even keep his distance anymore.

So Alex lashes out. And it's not until afterwards that he looks down and finally recognizes that this wasn't Jay -- it was someone completely innocent. Things have finally reached the low point he was at in college all over again; maybe even worse this time. If Alex doesn't remember attacking anyone in college, but he was at least partially conscious of it this time, then things have reached an entirely new rock bottom, they've reached an absolute point of no return.

He has no idea what happened to Amy, and he's spent months trying to find her with no hint of where she could be; he doesn't know where Jay actually is or what additional trouble he could be causing at this point; he does know that now innocent people are getting caught in the crossfire (in regards to the stranger in the tunnel, and also Jessica now that Jay has her phone number, and the untold number of people Jay got involved when he started posting videos to the Marble Hornets channel); things are spiraling out of control and there's no one left to ask for help. The situation isn't getting better, it's getting worse; things aren't getting easier to handle, they're just getting more out of hand; the negative impact is spreading and who knows how much further it can still go?

So, Alex decides to go scorched earth. He disfigures the body with the rock either to hide evidence or to make sure the guy would actually stay dead and not just get back up to start his own cycle of contamination in a few years. He tries to give Jay one last chance to back off, and Jay instead admits he's been talking to Jessica, acts obstinate and lies about not having Alex's spare key, and then breaks into Alex's house a second time (minimum). If Alex doesn't stop him now, who will? Alex met with Jay planning to kill the others, and then himself, so he could put a stop to this once and for all and keep things from getting any worse than they already were.

Maybe it makes a lot more sense if, rather than being a strangely incomprehensible detour on what should have been a straight path, the events of Season Two were the breaking point that put Alex on that path to begin with.

#N posts stuff #idk!!! I've been thinking a lot lately about the tendency to take Characters at Face Value; when they tell us things we tend to #automatically believe them despite what evidence we might have to the contrary. & like when it comes to deciphering what #went down during the college film project it's mostly totheark that posits that Alex was Definitely Lying and Definitely Acting on Purpose #(even Jay is largely ambivalent - wondering which way it leans and basically saying it could go either way) #but. do we KNOW that they know that? Do we Know that they're Right when they claim that? Or are they just Assuming based off #of their own rage and animosity towards Alex due to what happened? Do we Know for Sure that Alex Was Lying in s1? #i don't know if we do!! And so without Knowing that for sure; how can we speak to Alex's motivations in season one OR season two? #now TO BE CLEAR: I am not saying this in an attempt to claim that Alex is somehow completely innocent of all guilt and that like. #Jay is the 'Real Antagonist' of the series - not at all my intention. this is just More of my usual 'look. Everyone in this series is #all kinds of Morally Grey; no recurring character in this series is free of guilt they ALL have unique fatal flaws & trends towards #antagonism that makes things worse and dooms them all' shtick - a la 'everyone Thinks they're doing the Right Thing but No One Is' #BUT i Am wondering if this Does help to like. clear up some of the ambiguity/uncertainty of Season Two - and even Season One - and #lets the series as a whole read a little bit clearer? idk i know that Jay does Claim to think that Alex was bullshitting him #the whole time & was Actually planning on tying up loose ends the whole time but AGAIN it doesn't make Sense he'd wait so long #idk - Am i making sense? does any of this track? i'm trying to figure it out; i am open to comments on the subject to help #i haven't rewatched season 3 yet today and so maybe there's stuff in there that contradicts this whole theory lmao but i'm taking a break #and just posting this anyway; we'll see what happens lol #marble hornets #mh lb