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regina-del-cielo · 7 months

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Maybe it's a 'study finds water is wet' type of thought, but

considering it's an action movie whose overall plot is "immortal warriors Fuck Shit Up™️", I think it's significant that in The Old Guard the thing that makes Copley pull red strings through his Murder Conspiracy Board and say "[Merrick] doesn't care what [Andy]'s done with [her immortality]" is the people they save, not the ones they kill

Most of the Conspiracy Board is him circling random newspaper headlines and faces on old photographs to (more or less realistically) follow the immortals' treck through the world and big historical events. Which is, in-canon, not much different than putting portraits from different centuries next to a picture of Keanu Reeves and saying "they look the same, clearly Reeves is an immortal!"

But then there are the connections. A little girl holding Joe's hand in WW1 becoming the youngest (and first) woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize for Medicine (suck it, Kozak). Or the grandchild of a family that Andy saved from [something] helping people escape from the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia.

They are warriors. They have fought and been in the midst of countless wars, major or minor, throughout history. They must have killed as many people as they saved... and yet.

It's not them taking out a random warlord or dictator or rabidly hateful politician that has tangible repercussions in history. It's the children and families they get out of war zones, save from accidents, protect from natural disasters. People to whom they give a second chance at life, and grow to change the world (or even just their own world), like a mysterious stranger once changed theirs just by holding out a hand or patching a wound.

I don't know I just think it's particularly neat

#my ponderings #the old guard #I know we all love to play the 'if you could go back in time and kill One Person who would it be' game #but I think a movie that makes it EXTREMELY SATISFYING to see the Bad Guys die -#- having 'actually the best and greatest changes happen when people help each other' as its underlying message...#it means something #I also think it connects to Andy feeling like nothing she does changes anything at the start of the movie #for 80% of her life you could Solve A Problem by Taking Out The Guy Causing The Problem #especially in battle! you kill the general and you win. if you win the Problem Is Solved #but then everything becomes More Complex. the Problems™️ are globalized and/or systemic.#and Winning a Battle means just killing people. it doesn't Stop The Problem (nor really end a war)#so it feels useless #and even when they save people... they can’t stay in people's lives for long because immortality #which means they can never know what happens to the people they save #they don't (and can't) have the full picture

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poorly-drawn-mdzs · 8 months

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End of Empathy (time for violence)

[First] Prev <–-> Next

#poorly drawn mdzs #mdzs #wei wuxian #lan jingyi #jin ling #lan sizhui #We are back to the present! Honestly I think I'm going to try and truncate the rest of this arc.#I LOVE yi-city and I really appreciate all of the support the yi-city lovers have given me. And the patience of those who aren't.#But it's been two months. And I need to move this along </3 #Anyways; I love the start of ep 3 so much. The worried concern of the juniors is so cute #but the crown jewel by far is wwx responding like a parent that's very hungover but trying so hard to be nice about it #like 'shhh shhhh guys hi I'm up now. Can you keep the volume down. Can you get me some water and my sunglasses from the glovebox.'#and of course the incredible wham line of 'Xue Yang Must Die.'#'Is YX irredeemable? I'm pro 'everyone is capable of change and deserves a chance.' So Im of the camp of 'if he had the opportunity...maybe #The issue is that this setting has no structure to provide those opportunities. You are perceived as a threat therefor you must die #XY is a very interesting parallel to the YLLZ because they both meet the same fate: outsiders determining that they need to be killed #plus both did war crimes. I know it's easy to forget the YLLZ actually did do some of the things he was accused of (most wrong)#but wwx also has blood on his hands. He also sought revenge in pretty twisted ways. Both were given opportunities to step away and refused #The difference is that we empathize with and like XXC & SL and A-Qing. The Narrative says they were wronged and that is an injustice.'

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cloudabserk · 1 month

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idk why people act like gaara and sasuke are mortal enemies… like yeah they don’t like each other but even at the kage summit gaara was STILL being way better to sasuke than any of the konoha kids. his classmates (including sakura) were fully ready to murder sasuke even before the summit, when his only crime was allegedly kidnapping killer B. gaara watched sasuke show up to the summit, murder a bunch of people in cold blood, and STILL tried to make an appeal.

#only THEN did he go to naruto and be like naruto we may have to kill this guy #i’m honestly shocked sasukes peers were just totally down to kill him when they had no proof of his crimes…#naruto

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july-19th-club · 10 months

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house md wildest show on earth. a main character outright assassinates a known dictator, a moment that would be the very beginning or the mid-series crisis in any other show - an act which creates a power vacuum in a foreign nation already filled with child soldiers and genocide, and it's literally only brought up again throughout the season because that guy's wife divorces him over it. and occasionally to explore his relationship with who he is as a person and a catholic after having deliberately taken a life for what he calculates as the greater good, but mostly it's about his divorce

#i no longer think wilson is the most divorced guy ever #sure he's been divorced more TIMES than chase #but the things he's been divorced OVER are way more normal #it is so nuts like . chase. bobbie. rob. bobert. what happened next. in the country i mean #like the president is dead. does his regime crack down extra hard on the ethnic cleansing?#does the power vacuum give the opposition a chance to step in?#how much of what the president said about the people he's wiping out having been in a similar dictatorship in the past is true?#does the nation descend into civil war? is the president's death the excuse the us or england or whoever is waiting for to step in #and assume ad hoc governance thus destabilizing the region even more?#all because one guy in one hospital decided the math was in favor of his killing a guy if that guy was going to order more killings?#absolutely NEVER explored. yeah do no harm and the morals we share with our partners are important #but christ alive. the aftermath of the assassination could be a whole show in and of itself and im pretty sure it just never comes up #house is a show #house md #q

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gaypiratepropaganda · 4 months

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Izzy's apology in the finale seems to have taken some people by surprise. During the break between seasons, I tried a few times to politely bring up the fact that Izzy was technically abusing Ed. Not because I wanted anyone to stop liking him (you can like a character who's doing abuse! it's not real. who cares), but because I was worried about the reaction when season two came out. I love this show very much and I know how tumblr can get. Most importantly, I love fucked up fictional relationships and cannot abide people making these two boring. So here we go. (I also love lists)

First. Emotional abuse can occur in intimate relationships, family relationships like father and son, or in the workplace (Ed/Izzy triple threat!). Second, it has to be an ongoing thing. Someone doing one of these things once is not abuse. Abuse is a pattern of cruel and frightening behavior in order to control the victim.

(Don't feel bad if you didn't notice this stuff! It's relatively subtle and we're kind of trained to ignore and forgive it, especially from characters like Izzy. I wasn't 100% sure I was right about this either until season two confirmed it. I think a lot of people don't even know what emotional abuse is, at least where I live.)

Below are some pretty solid warning signs (this said "criteria" before but I changed it to be more accurate) for emotional abuse, followed by examples:

•Monitoring and controlling a person’s behavior, such as who they spend time with or how they spend money.

One of Izzy's main motivations in season one was trying to force Ed to act more like his image of Blackbeard. To achieve that, he bullied, belittled, and threatened Ed. He attempted to kill Stede because Ed was spending too much time with him and he felt that Stede was a bad influence.

• Threats to a person’s safety, property, or loved ones

He tried to kill Stede (Ed's loved one) or get him killed several times. Once trying to get Ed to do it himself with the doggy heaven situation, once directly with the duel, and once by calling in the navy.

He didn't directly threaten Ed's safety until episode ten, but he did seem to have Ed convinced that the crew would kill him if Izzy wasn't there to protect him and then when Ed did things he didn't like, Izzy threatened to leave. It's indirect, but has the same result: Ed felt he was unsafe unless he did what Izzy wanted.

• Isolating a person from family, friends, and acquaintances

Izzy seemed to keep Ed isolated from the crew, act as a go-between, and control their perceptions of each other to a certain extent. In the first few episodes, Ed was always shown alone in his goth cabin with Izzy as his only contact. When he started to make new friends Izzy tried to make him kill them.

After Izzy was banished, he secretly sent Ed's ex in to manipulate him and get him away from his new community. Then he got them all arrested, culminating in the deal he made with the English that would have made Ed his prisoner. Not sure that was on purpose, but it was so fucked up I had to mention it.

The bit that really got me, for some reason, was when Frenchie asked after Ed and Izzy told the crew he was sick.

• Demeaning, shaming, or humiliating a person

Izzy is often shown berating Ed and yelling at him. The way Ed reacts suggests to me that he may be used to this kind of treatment from people in general, or from Izzy in particular. He never leaves or asks him to stop, he just takes it.

• Extreme jealousy, accusations, and paranoia

He was so jealous of Ed's relationship with Stede that he got the literal military involved. His explanation to for why Ed enjoys spending time with Stede was that he has "done something to [Ed's] brain." Like, what magic powers do you think he has, Izzy?

• Making acceptance or care conditional on a person’s choices

Izzy made it very clear that he would only support Ed if he conformed to the Blackbeard persona. He also seemed to have Ed convinced that there was no way he could survive without Izzy's support.

I just realized that if you subscribe to the headcanon that Izzy acts as a sort of caretaker to Ed (I do not) then all of this is way more fucked up.

• Constant criticism, ridicule, or teasing.

In season one he criticized everything Ed did, all his plans, even while telling him to come up with more plans. He ridiculed Ed and called him names pretty often: "twat, namby-pamby, insane." Even in season two when he's doing better, most of their interactions consist of Izzy teasing and making fun of Ed for being mopey or in love.

• Refusing to allow a person to spend time alone

I didn't think of this until now, but Izzy is often around when Ed thinks he's alone. He knows about things that happen in scenes he isn't in. Izzy's always sort of lurking, though? And he does it to everyone. So I'm not sure if we should count this one.

• Thwarting a person’s professional or personal goals

He's ok about piracy related goals, but as soon as Ed tried to do something other than that he got so weird about it. "This crew is so talented, why are we even being pirates?" is what got Izzy to threaten Ed. Which is interesting because he was fine with the retirement idea before, when he thought he'd get to be captain.

• Instilling feelings of self-doubt and worthlessness

"insane unpleasant shell of a man merely posing as blackbeard." "I should have let the English kill you. This... whatever it is you've become is a fate worse than death."

• Gaslighting: making a person question their competence and even their basic perceptual experiences.

He called Ed insane and implied that the crew would mutiny if he wasn't there to stop them. This is clearly untrue, as we were already shown that his method of "massaging the crew" consisted of calling Ed half insane and pulling Fang's beard even though Fang hates that. The fact that he calls Ed insane more than once while at the same time trying to get him to act more insane seems like basic gaslighting to me. Then again, Izzy's definition of "insanity" may be like, depression, crying, showing emotions, loneliness, and enjoying softness.

[can't find a gif of this so just imagine Ed in the gravy basket with Hornigold saying "you're worried you're insane."]

Something that wasn't on this specific list but is generally considered part of emotional abuse is manipulation: the use of indirect tactics to change someone's thoughts, feelings, or behaviors in an attempt to influence them for personal gain.

I think Izzy often tries to be manipulative. He's not the greatest at it, but it's the thought that counts. He manages to be surprisingly successful through persistence and repetition.

He's got Ed convinced from the first time we see them that he is useless as a captain without Izzy. That's why Ed feels like he needs him. He tells him that the only thing standing between Ed and a crew constantly on the brink of mutiny is Izzy. Then he tells him that he will leave if he can't live up to his expectations.

He has a pattern of lying to Ed or not telling him the whole truth. He threatens him directly and indirectly in an attempt to influence him and control his behavior. He wants power, whether he gets it by becoming a captain when Ed retires or by making sure Ed remains powerful by any means necessary.

this is what he was apologizing for, along with the years of being terrible to Ed before Stede came into the picture. I never expected him to admit it so clearly like that. He fed Ed's "darkness," poked at his trauma for so long because he needed Blackbeard. It was something they did together, and he enjoyed Blackbeard's dominance and cruelty.

Of course there are other things that can be part of this kind of abuse, like infantilization, silence, and harassment. There are more examples of abusive behavior from Izzy at the start of season two, especially in the scene where Ed's asking Izzy to kill him. but I am not ready to get into that right now.

Anyway, Ed and Izzy's storylines in season two only make sense to me with this in mind. Ed is recovering from not only the suicide attempts but also this fucked up situation he was in, whether he realizes it or not. Izzy learns to stop being such a shitboy and admits he was wrong. ~growth~

if you interpret their relationship differently that's obviously fine. but I think this is the most interesting interpretation, as well as what was intended. It's no fun for me when people make them both equally awful to each other. I like it better as it is in the show: Ed fighting back against Izzy's emotional abuse with physical violence, which only ends up traumatizing him further. It's such a unique and fascinating story.

#our flag means death #Ed Teach #izzy hands #ed/izzy #blackbeard #ed/stede #tw abuse #abuse cw #@piratecaptainscaptainpirates #I should have posted this a long time ago but #I was kind of afraid you guys would kill me lmao #I think we're good now #we can talk about this #if you think of anything else I'll add it #one more thing I didn't know how to fit in here #is the way Izzy really wants Ed to be violent #to other people but also to him #when Ed doesn't want to do that #and is specifically triggered by being violent #also the first thing that really made me go #hey wait a minute #about Izzy was when he apologized to Ed for calling him a 'shell of a man' while he was 'leaving'#Ed said 'no. you were right. about all of it.'#and then Izzy immediately went back to being a dick to him two episodes later #reminds me so much of what one of my friends went through #wow this is so long

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mmelolabelle · 5 months

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Obi-Wan Kenobi: You need to kill Darth Vader! The very fate of the galaxy depends on it! He is pure evil. The source of all that is wrong in universe. Every bad thing that has ever happened ever is his fault - like on a personal level.

Obi-Wan Kenobi: You want me to kill him? Me? The master swordsman? The battle-hardened general? Arguably one of the greatest Jedi of all time? Oh no, I couldn’t possibly!

Obi-Wan Kenobi: No you don’t understand - I love him. Mind your fucking business.

#the sum total of every conversation obi wan had 19BBY-4ABY #master yoda YOU should totally go fight anakin #padme WE need to kill- uh I mean ‘find’ anakin!#reva I’m going to give you an opportunity to kill anakin!#luke how do you feel about patricide???#(this along with many problems in the se universe could have been solved by asking Leia To Do The Thing)#obi really acting like he hadn’t had several wide open opportunities #as if my guy did not have vader lying on the ground in front of him #LIMBLESS AND ON FIRE #and couldn’t seal the deal #‘but he thought he was dead!’ the fuck he did #denial is not just a river in egypt #kenobi is the biggest lovesick idiot in the galaxy #obi wan kenobi #obiwan kenobi #anakin skywalker #darth vader #obikin #vaderkin

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thebramblewood · 5 months

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Julia Zhao in The Mystery of the Copperdale Creep

Previous / Next

Julia's Playlist: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Location and music overlays by @pxltown

Julia: [lowers headphones] Double scoop of strawberry, please.

Elli: Dude, have you even read past the headlines? There's no way that thing's human!

Guy: Yes, I can read, and it doesn't sound like any animal I've ever heard of.

Elli: What is it then, some sort of eldritch creature of the dark?

Alma: Does it matter? The lesson, burnouts, is stop getting high as fuck in the woods at night.

Elli: Well, then where are we supposed to do it?

Julia: What the heck are you guys talking about?

Alma: Oh, hey, Jules!

Guy: We figured you were too cool for us lowly pier-dwellers.

Elli: Yeah, now that you're a style icon and all. [snickers]

Julia: Shut up! I'm never going to live that down, am I?

Elli, Guy, and Alma in unison: NOOOOOPE.

Julia: It was an online exclusive. Hardly anyone even saw it!

Alma: Your Social Bunny follower count says otherwise.

Julia: Whatever. So are the tourists making Sasquatch claims again?

Elli: Aren't they always?

Alma: It's the terminal brain rot, I fear.

Guy: Joke about the out-of-towners all you want, but I take the word of locals like gospel.

Alma: Especially when it's your druggie friends rambling about their bad trips.

Guy: It's not just them, okay? It's in the papers! Something is attacking people in the woods after dark. It comes from out of

nowhere. All anyone recalls is being tackled by a flying black blur then pinned to the ground with inhuman force and fucking pierced

by needle-sharp teeth. This thing takes enough blood to leave them just barely alive, and the crazy part is it seems sorry after, like it just can't help itself. It dumps them by the roadside where they'll be seen

so they don’t bleed out. They call it the Copperdale Creep.

Julia: [scoffs in disbelief] This town is nuts. And you guys have been watching too many scary movies.

Guy: If you don't believe me, just check the front page of the Courier!

Elli: Skate solo at your own peril, Jules!

Alma: It's broad daylight, cowards. She'll be fine.

Julia: Banjo, we’d better run inside before the Copperdale Creep snatches us up! Wait till Helena gets a load of this, huh, boy?

[knocking vigorously] Helena, open up! You'll never believe what I just heard. There’s some sort of violent maniac on the loose!

Banjo: [scratching and whining]

Julia: Helena, are you okay? [wiggles doorknob] You've been locked in there since last night.

Banjo: [aggressive barking]

Julia: Can't you hear how much Banjo wants to see you? Helena?...

Helena: Go away, Julia!

Julia: But-

Helena: Leave me alone. I'm fine.

#ts4 #sims 4 #sims 4 story #ts4 story #simblr #story: hzid #blood tw #julia zhao #helena zhao #helena is not fine #not fine at all #how did she make it to copperdale without going on a cross-country killing spree?#good question but you're going to have to answer it yourself #i'm so nervous about this one ahhhhhh #i don't fully know where i'm going but it's OKAY we will FIGURE IT OUT!!!#alma nishidake #guy aoki #elli ball

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