#you aren't blameless either

[hard-core-super-star]

kissing in the crossfire [K.Bishop]

pairing: kate bishop x anti-hero!reader

summary: you and kate are better off apart. unfortunately, you can't stay away from each other long enough to realize some puzzle pieces aren't meant to fit together.

warnings: mentions of blood + injuries; so much bickering; sprinkles of important backstory stuff; kate and R are exes and it's complicated; technically angst but there's humor :) [kate does aim her bow at R though so...yeah]

wordcount: 1.9k

a/n: GUESS WHO'S BACK AFTER SAYING THEY WERE BACK AND THEN DISAPPEARING PRACTICALLY ALL MONTH? ...did you guess right? anywho, this is a long-awaited request made by 🧞‍♀️ anon a LONG while ago. i...got a little carried away with this so do with that information what you will. i'll probably come back with some fluff to make up for this later. anyway, hope you enjoy, sending you love <3

* * * * * * *

“You can’t be serious.”

“I wouldn’t be here if I had anywhere else to go, Bishop.” You offer her a smile from your spot on her kitchen counter. “By the way, you should probably hide your spare key somewhere else, that plant is too obvious.”

She opens her mouth, ready to say something witty back, but she stops once she fully notices your appearance. The torn-up clothes, the bruises scattered across your face, the blood trailing from your busted lip. She crosses the space between you in an instant, concern written all over her features despite how hard she tries to hide it.

“What happened?” 

“Had an unfortunate run-in with some old friends of ours,” you explain. “I think they’re still holding a grudge.”

She sighs but you can't tell if it's because of your injuries or the ones you've inflicted tonight. “Stay right there. I’ll be right back.”

“Where else would I go?” you reply, the slightest hint of sarcasm in your tone.

Kate either doesn't hear you or pretends not to in favor of walking away to find her first-aid kit. You could tell her most of the blood on your clothes isn't yours but that would only serve to start up the same old argument with her. 

An argument that cost you the only healthy relationship you've ever had.

Although, in your defense, it’s not like the archer is entirely blameless for what happened…not that she’d ever admit that out loud when it’s so much easier to blame all your mutual problems on your lack of self-restraint.

“How bad is it?” Her voice brings you out of your thoughts but, unfortunately for you, your reality is just as bad as the memories attached to those blue eyes.

You shrug. “I’ve had better days.”

“Yeah, no kidding, idiot.”

It’s impossible to stop yourself from rolling your eyes at her words even if you know there’s nothing but concern under her sarcasm. Concern that’s evident in the way she approaches you, soft and hesitant and nothing like the impulsive archer you know her to be.

It’s exactly the care you want, the care you need. You need Kate like the oxygen you breathe but you can’t bring yourself to let your walls down again. Maybe it’s stupid or petty or maybe you just like arguing with her a bit too much.

“You’re a terrible nurse,” you complain as she stands between your legs, a silent question shining in the depths of her eyes.

You send the smallest of nods her way despite how ridiculous her nervousness is. You’ve had more intimate moments than this and yet she lifts your shirt out of the way with the shakiest hands you’ve ever seen. You’d make fun of her if you weren’t just as nervous as she is right now.

It's the kind of nervousness that comes with the vulnerability you can't show around anyone else. 

You've always had to be the strong one. The fast one. The one with unrelenting fists and an even more unrelenting sense of duty, whether that duty falls on the right side of the law or not. But Kate’s always been the one that looks through all of that…except your tendency to sort problems out with your fists.

You flinch when she drags an antiseptic wipe over the small gash across your stomach. “What happened to the warning?” You grumble, pretending like you can’t see the small smile that spreads along her face.

“You seemed too spaced out to need one.”

“So charming, no wonder all the girls throw themselves at you when you walk by.”

“Oh, shut up. It’s not like you have an empty bed every night either.”

You know what she means but you can’t stop yourself from making fun of her. There are few things in the world that bring you as much joy as watching Kate trip over her own words.

“Are you calling me a whore, Bishop?” All it takes is a subtle raise of your eyebrow to send the brunette into a flustered ramble.

“What? No! Of course not- I mean, not that there’s anything, um, wrong with that, but-”

The sound of your uncontrollable laughter manages to stop her before she digs herself into a bigger hole. The laughter shakes your entire body and you both have to try really hard to ignore the way her hands brush against your skin every time you make those small movements. 

Not so long ago, she would have taken the opportunity to wrap her arms around you and pull you close. Today, she merely watches you laugh at her with the rosiest cheeks you’ve seen lately.

“You’re an asshole,” she says, rolling her eyes before going back to patching you up.

Although, her version of  “patching you up” pretty much only involves disinfecting the area and wrapping some gauze around your waist. She’s learned a lot from Clint but she’s still absolutely clueless when it comes to these things. Which forces you to question why you’re even here in the first place…except you don’t want to accept the answer.

She finishes her work on your stomach without another witty comment despite how badly she wants to point out how badly you flinch every time she moves. Instead of doing that, she settles her attention on your face. Mainly your bleeding lip and bruised jaw.

“Hold still.” Her whispered words are the only warning you get before she takes your face in her hands. You flinch and let out a soft groan when her fingers brush said bruise but you don’t move away. You’re captivated by those soft blue eyes despite how badly you wish you weren’t.

“Kate.” You don’t mean to say her name but it slips out before you can stop it. “You don't have to. You…you’ve done enough. I should go.”

“You’re still bleeding,” she says as if that’s enough of a reason.

And maybe it would be.

But there’s too much baggage between you for that.

“And whose fault is that?”

You don’t know why you say it, you just know you’re still hurt and that soft look on her face isn’t helping you accept the past. What happened isn’t really her fault, you know that. Accidents happen all the time in your line of business but she promised she would be there.

And she wasn’t.  

And now you have two less family members and an unbelievable amount of people who want Kate’s head delivered to them in a box.

Kate Bishop single-handedly ruined your life by being the idiotic fool you love more than anything. But love doesn’t fit anywhere on your list of responsibilities. At least not anymore.

“y/n,” she sighs. “Let me help. Let me fix it.”

For a second, it sounds like she’s begging you to stay. To ignore the past and the many reasons why you should walk out that door and never talk to her again.

Her shaky hands pull you closer to her, drawing you in toward her sad eyes and parted lips. All you can do is watch, rendered speechless by her mere existence and the hammering of your heart as it tries to escape your chest.

It’s not until her mouth is mere inches away from yours that you manage to escape her spell. 

“You can’t fix this.”

That’s the only warning you give her before you shrug her hands off your face and rise to your feet. You pretend you can’t see the thin layer of tears that gathers in her eyes as you force yourself to walk away.

It’s not until you slam her front door behind you that she breaks down. 

And maybe you do too but you’ll never let her know that.

Needless to say, you spend the next few days miserable and irritable as hell. Which means you’re quick to accept the first job that gets thrown your way…without reading the entire folder filled with important information.

You only know who your target is and where he’ll be…with special security, courtesy of the Young Avengers.

Turns out, reading the entirety of the folders you’re given is a good idea, who would’ve thought, right?

Things fall apart almost as soon as they start due to you getting too into your own head about things and messing up your perfectly crafted plan, resulting in more than a few punches to the jaw and missed gunshots. Your target attempts to flee onto the roof and you’re quick to follow after him, leaving a huge scene in the lobby of the fanciest building you’ve ever been in.

You make it onto the roof in record time, ready to chase after your target but of course, when have things ever been easy?

“y/n!”

You groan, cursing Kate’s awful timing. “Do we have to do this right now?”

The answer comes in the form of an arrow whizzing right past your ear. 

Your shock morphs into anger in no less than five seconds, forcing you to forget your mission in favor of yelling at the idiotic archer you can’t help but still love. It’s more than obvious to you that Kate’s just trying to waste your time but you’ve never been one to walk away from an argument with her.

“Did you just shoot one of your stupid arrows at me?” You turn around to face her, quickly realizing she’s still aiming at you, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration while she watches you. “What the hell are you doing?”

“What the hell are you doing?” She responds. “Do you know who you’re working for?”

“You already know the answer to that,” you say while barely suppressing the urge to roll your eyes at her.

“Then you know exactly what I’m doing.”

Kate’s focus is unbreakable. She pays no mind to anything but her perfectly aimed bow and your reactions. The stray hairs that have fallen out of her ponytail are completely ignored, only serving to capture her and her natural perfection, the one that’s filled with chaos and stubbornness and a fire that’s unlike anything you’ve ever known.

You’re more than used to that fire…you’ve just never had it directed at you in the shape of a sharp arrow aimed right at your face.

If you were anyone else, maybe someone gentle or someone patient, or maybe someone not weighed down by so much trauma, you’d do the right thing and talk to the archer like an adult. But you’re not anyone else. You’re someone who thinks better with their fists than with their head.

And for a split second, you almost treat Kate like she’s anyone else other than the one person you’ve always loved.

“You’re-” 

Your complaint gets cut short the second she lets her arrow fly.

It finds its target a few inches away from your feet and if Kate were to look hard enough, she’d find the real fear that’s started to slip into your features. “Don’t move.”

You swallow down the urge to spit out a snarky response at her face.

“Are you seriously going to shoot me?”

The seconds that go by are unbearable. You can hear the wind and the tension it carries between the two of you, you can make out the sound of New York traffic on the streets below, and if you focus hard enough, you can even hear Kate’s heavy breathing. 

What you don’t hear, though, is an answer.

#kate bishop x reader #kate bishop x female reader #kate bishop x y/n #kate bishop x you #kate bishop fic #kate bishop fanfiction #kate bishop #kate bishop angst #anti hero reader #hawkeye #hawkeye fanfic #hailee steinfeld #marvel fanfiction #marvel fic #marvel #mcumcu imagine #mcu fanfiction #wlw #wlw fic #writing #if you made it this far: sorry for the ending :0

[tumblezwei]

I am a Ruan Mei defender, not because I think she's a blameless misunderstood character, but bc I am very afraid of people interpreting her terrible actions as bad writing bc "the game still expects us to like her" or overexaggerating her bad traits in order to make Dr. Ratio look better by comparison.

And that's not to say I think Ratio is a "bad" guy either, I think the whole point of introducing him alongside Ruan Mei was to highlight how different the Genius Society operates compared to "normal" academics. Ratio's over the top arrogance makes him off-putting at first, but his genuine desire to spread knowledge to everyone who wants to learn it is the perfect contrast to the obsession and selfishness of the Genius Society, who only ever care about fulfilling their own desires without concern for those below them. Even Screwllum, the member who seems the most sociable and friendly, let Ratio carry on with his antics on the space station just to see what would happen, even though it put the Trailblazer in danger and threatened the whole facility.

So that is to say, Ruan Mei is like that on purpose. We aren't supposed to see her drugging us and sending us after an incomplete Emanator of Propagation and be confused as to how she's a "goody guy." She isn't. None of the members of the Genius Society are "good" people just bc we're allied with them. Herta uses Traliblazer as a guinea pig for the Simulated Universe after all, and we now know that as long as it's something he's curious about, Screwllum won't interfere to protect us even when he's already figured out the solution to the problem we're facing.

But I also want to do a little apologism for Ruan Mei bc sometimes the accusations I see lobbed at her is a bit much. Like, yeah, she drugged us, but it was a temporary inhibitor that literally only stopped us from giving people information about Ruan Mei. And she didn't do it just to fuck with us? Ruan Mei is incredibly aware of how emotionally detached she is and knows it's almost impossible for her to understand the affection given to her by her creations. She doesn't drug us out of some evil desire to control information, she does it bc she knows her time on the space station is temporary and wants to avoid leaving behind any memories of her being there. That doesn't make it okay and it's still presented alongside everything else she does that's uncaring towards TB and her creations, but it makes it a little more complicated than just "she's an unfeeling sociopath that would happily watch us die." It's bad, but it's also one of Ruan Mei's weird and not good ways of showing consideration.

It's interesting, is what I'm saying. It's compelling. And I don't really dig how it she gets reduced to a two-bit manipulator.

I'm a bit of a stickler for this particular thing bc it's something I truly adore about HSR's writing, and also something I see as one of the game's core themes. There is no clear divide between "good" guys and "bad" guys. The Genius Society is full of emotionally constipated weirdos who wouldn't pay a single bit of attention to us if we weren't interesting to them, but they're also important allies to the Express. The Stelleron Hunters are our biggest opposition and wreak havoc on whatever planet they enter, but we know that their goals somewhat align with our own and unless you go out of your way to be mean to her with every dialogue option, it's pretty obvious that Kafka is someone Trailblazer loves.

And even Cocolia, someone who almost destroyed the last remnants of civilization on her own planet, gets treated with sympathy. Bronya is allowed to mourn her mother and still see her as an aspirational figure, all the while Serval is allowed to break off ties with her and definitively move on from her past.

It's a theme that carries over to a lot of HSR's important side quests too, where often you're expected to choose between two options that both have some pretty heavy downsides no matter what. You have your own moral compass, and along the way the choices may seem crystal clear, but it's never so black and white as you predict. It's a game about decisions, about making your own way in life and learning about the different worldviews of those you meet. Good or bad, helpful or hurtful, it's not always so obvious as "this person did something bad to me, now I will forever dislike them."

"When there is the chance to make a choice, make one that you know you won't regret," "explore, understand, establish, and connect," "the Express welcomes everyone" etc etc

#this post took more turns that I originally planned #but once I got on one topic it railroaded me into the other #so now there's this #honkai star rail #honkai posting #rambling

[aikoiya]

LoZ - The Gerudo's Dark Past

I wonder if the theory that the Gerudo stole away Hylian men might actually have some degree of truth to it. After all, if the Hylians really were as bad as a lot of fans seem to think, then it's unlikely that many Hylian men would've actually consented to sexual relations with a Gerudo. (Like, I'm sure that there were some, but not so many as to be sustainable.)

I mean, a Sheikah Stone says that the Gerudo sometimes come to Castle Town in search of boyfriends, but it never says if they manage to succeed.

Which could've resulted in drastic measures needing to be made for the sake of their own continued existence as a people. Which would likely only further perpetuate Gerudo hate amongst the Hylians.

And in the Japanese text, the wording used was that they go to Castle Town to "go hunting for boys."

This is supported by the fact that a number of men in OoT's Castle Town reacted with open, visceral terror at the mere sight of the Gerudo Mask rather than the expected derision of basic racism. And this was before Ganondorf made his move.

This suggests a more clinical case of Gerudophobia, which would suggest Categorism as a Phobia. And while the game seemed to specifically Play it for Laughs (if only to avoid crossing more over into an R rating), as a fan, I don't have to follow those same restraints & am free to deconstruct the tropes, thus Playing them for Drama & Horror by examining how someone could reasonably develop such a phobia.

Hell, unexpectedly, Darunia literally yells out that he hates Gerudo despite the Gorons likely being almost entirely unaffected by the Gerudo. And the Zora King said that the sight of a Gerudo gave him chills. This implies that the Gerudo might've actually done something very bad, to the point where even the leaders of races unthreatened by them have a negative view of them. However, the fact that the common Gorons & Zoras don't seem to react at all beyond simple recognition implies that whatever it was they might've done wasn't something that affected the Gorons & Zoras directly.

And it can't simply be thievery either unless that thievery was more so burglary or mugging, possibly even resulting in death, & even then, I can't help but think that this would more so result in wariness & avoidance.

However, the Gerudo were also canonically regarded as noble thieves that only steal to maintain their lifestyle. Which suggests that whatever they did, they likely saw it as a necessity. However, this isn't as clear of an indication of them being as blameless as some might want to believe because you can excuse a lot by putting it under the umbrella of "necessary." And there really isn't a lot more necessary for a tribe of all women than having access to men to reproduce with. By whatever means necessary in fact.

There's also the fact that when Kid Link is caught by the Gerudo, they throw him off a sheer cliff into a fast-moving river. Yet, when they catch Teen Link, they instead throw him down a hole, into a cell. Then there's the fact that the Gerudo Fortress had 6 rather large cells at least. Why would the Gerudo need so many large cells if they didn't use them?

I just think there's more to the hostilities between the Gerudo & Hylians of past games than simple "Oooh, the Hylians were racist oppressors." Like, I'm not saying that they weren't racist (Heaven knows that there's a lot of evidence of Hyrule having done a lot of bad things), just that I think that there was more too it. Because just simplifying it down to simple racism on the part of the Hylians & that the Gerudo were completely innocent/did nothing wrong or that Hyrule's oppression made anything that the Gerudo did automatically justified feels… one-sided. Too straightforward. Way too binary.

Especially when you consider how frankly misandristic the Gerudo are even today. Ya'll, they have an entire sexually segregated settlement where men aren't allowed.

The fuck is that fair? Let alone necessary. I mean, if the Gerudo are as boss-ass bitch as the fandom thinks, then they should have nothing to fear from Hylian men.

This suggests that it isn't for their own protection. If anything, there's evidence to suggest that it might be based almost entirely on a mix of superstition & tradition.

Further, it appears that any young Vai that's born outside of Gerudo Town is expected to move to Gerudo Town at 3-5 & not interact with males at all until 18. This includes cutting off ties with their own fathers.

We don't even know what would happen if a family refused to send their daughter away or if that daughter refused to leave. Whether due to not wanting to leave her family or her best friend who happens to be a boy.

In fact, their misandry goes so far that they'll automatically jail any man that enters Gerudo Town without allowing them a chance to explain themselves. And it is unclear if the knowledge that said man is married to or the father of a resident Gerudo would give him any leeway.

However, the fact that they didn't even think to ask suggests that maybe they wouldn't. Like, you'd think that'd be the sort of thing you'd ask a man in this situation. "State your name, whether or not you're here visiting family, & if so, their names." How hard is that? So, either the guards on duty that day were new, had forgotten protocol, male family members visiting wasn't something that typically happened, or there wasn't a protocol for that they. And even in the case of the last one, whether or not the reason was that this didn't happen often enough for there to be a protocol or because they didn't trust men enough to give them that courtesy.

And even then, that just leads to more questions because if it's that male family members didn't visit often enough for there to be a precedent for a protocol like that, then that suggests either 1) shitty, negligent dads, 2) dad had been told not to come & for whatever reason, Wabbin's the only one who cared enough/put in the effort to disobey, meaning all the other ones are either spineless betas or don't give a fuck, 3) the Gerudo often have one-night stands & none of the sires care enough about their own daughters to put in the effort, ergo shitty dads again, 4) one-night stands again, but this time, the Gerudo don't even have the decency to even tell the man that she's pregnant with his daughter, 5) the father's dead & can't come, & I'm sure that there's more but I can't think of them off the top of my head right now. And regardless of the particulars, it seems to suggest that one side of the equation is either absentee, a coward, unaware, or dead, or the other just doesn't want their man there or never told him.

Either way, someone's not walking out of this situation looking good.

Which, I'm not sure which answer I'd prefer.

And that's not even getting into just how very badly this sort of tradition must be for the Gerudo as a people. They are likely extremely developmentally & socially stunted. As shown here:

There's also evidence to suggest that these prejudices may have existed even all-the-way back in OoT.

Which shows that, even if it's been over 10,000 years since OoT, some things might still be lingering.

Not to mention how badly this sort of tradition must've screwed up Ganondorf & every other Gerudo male in the past. Like, holy cow, just think about that for a minute. How that would've actually felt like if you were in his situation growing up.

I just... to me, that sounds like a very special kinda hell...

Not to mention the fact that in OoT, a Sheikah Stone said this.

Which... yeah, that worries me... Like, a lot...

All I'm saying is, please acknowledge that the Gerudo are a people. Which means that they are going to have prejudices & they are going to have cultural practices that aren't going to be okay. They might do things that are bad or even downright evil.

But this doesn't make them all evil by default, just a work-in-progress just like every other culture.

But, honestly, if they were to, say, build up Kara Kara Bazaar into a full-on market town where the Gerudo's husbands lived & worked. Then, allowed the little vai to go on day trips there to interact with their fathers, brothers (step, half, or adopted), male cousins, male friends that lived there, or even just allowed correspondence (which I'm not sure if we know they allow), then I'd have much fewer issues with the Gerudo having a female-only town for themselves.

LoZ Cultural Masterlist 2

#legend of zelda #loz #gerudo #ocarina of time #oot #hyrule #totk #tears of the kingdom

[jorindasfate]

Beauty culture is driving me insane. I'm bombarded with videos from those tiktok plastic surgeons and influencers showing their before/after botox. It's always the same excuse "there's nothing wrong with having forehead wrinkles! but mine made me look much older than I am so I got it fixed! I'm so happy with the result! Love yourselves!"

I acknowledge the effort made to not seem like you're insulting people with forehead wrinkles but it is very bleak. To me it seems like a cheap way of dodging criticism. "This is for me! I never said that other people should get rid of their forehead wrinkles!" Do you not realise the implications of your videos? A stated "flaw" in appearance is never limited to one person! I know and emphasize deeply with judging one's own appearance harsher than you would judge other people's, but then (respectfully) you have to shut the fuck up about it. Other people see what you're saying about yourself, and those comments will be echoing in their head the next time they look in a mirror.

Either admit your fucked up views on how women are lesser for visibly ageing or having laugh lines and crow's feet and need to get it "fixed" OR acknowledge to yourself that this is Your problem, Your insecurity, and stay quiet. Do not post about how happy you are about getting rid of your facial "flaw" on social media, unless you are deliberately encouraging others to do the same thing (in which case, I hope you rot).

Because for every post like that, there is a 12 year old girl reading it and accepting that this is what the future has in store for her. That she needs to start an anti ageing process before she's fully grown, that she has to stay vigilant of every line appearing on her face and that her natural appearance will never be enough.

Stop pretending like your actions aren't influenced by others and stop pretending that your actions don't influence others! You are not getting out of this blameless by writing a bleak disclaimer!

#anti beauty industry #anti botox #anti makeup

[anamericangirl]

I've been trying so hard to keep up and be informed on the Israel/Hamas war but it's been really hard. I feel like nobody is taking a nuanced look at things? Everybody just hopped on board Hamas' side, which doesn't make any sense?? One of my friends was agreeing with a post that said the attack at that music festival was completely justified because of colonism or something, and I just didn't know what to say. I don't agree with a lot of what Israel has (supposedly?) done in response, but didn't the Israelites originally own the land in the first place? Wouldn't that make Palestinians the colonizers?? I just don't understand...

It's not necessarily an easy situation to be fully informed on especially since you're right that everyone just seems to be jumping on the Hamas bandwagon without thinking and there's not a lot of nuance to be found anywhere.

This war has been going on for centuries. It didn't start on October 7 and it didn't start in 1948 like you might hear from a lot of the "free Palestine" parrots.

A lot of the Palestine supporters use words they don't understand like "colonialism" and "occupation" or "apartheid" to vilify Israel and when they use those words that's a sign they don't know what they're talking about.

Israel is not blameless in this war and they've done some shady things but they aren't colonizers or occupiers. Israel was on the land first. They've been there since 1200 BC, which is way before Islam existed. People just don't like to acknowledge that because they weren't officially the state of Israel until much later, but that's the land they are indigenous to. Israel is the only Jewish state on the planet and the Arabs have pretty much the entire rest of the continent belonging to them but they won't rest until they have Israel too. People also like to pretend that if people who stole land from you stay on it long enough then the fact that they stole it doesn't matter anymore and if you try to get it back you're the bad guy and they're innocent victims.

But here's the thing, anyone who says the October 7 attacked was justified because of "colonialism" is not someone to trust. The attack at the music festival was Hamas terrorists targeting Israeli civilians who have nothing to do with anything and raping and murdering women and children. Anyone who thinks that's a justified response to anything is either very stupid or a bad person. I would ask your friend why raping innocent children is a justified response to "colonialism" and see how they try to excuse it. The fact that they even want to excuse it shows Hamas supporters aren't really that concerned about the Palestinians or who has the right to the land, they just think Jews did something bad and want them to suffer. Nothing justifies raping children and you should be wary of anyone who makes excuses for that senseless act of violence.

#anon #answered

[tgrailwar-zero]

The subroutine stopped, without fanfare. Time resumed as normal, and you found yourselves back in the town. There was the sound of excitement buzzing about from the duel, but it seemed muffled by the constant conversation buzzing around from you all, mixed in with your Servant's own thoughts.

Quietly, she helped LUNE up to their feet. However, before any words could be exchanged, she shot into the air with a burst of green light, hovering in the evening sky. In a word, she was running, only saying three simple words once they were far, far away from earshot.

"…We need to talk."

It seemed like that discussion with INVADER was real enough. However, now that it had ended, she could put the feelings behind the cold logic that INVADER was using. They were one in the same, after all.

"Saber won't be merciful if you continue to search for the keys. Historia said it himself. As long as you don't pursue 'truth', then he welcomes you as an ally. I don't know what he knows, but I can sense that much. Destroying Lune would have been cruel, but… it would have saved us pain in the future, I believe. We're 'Interlopers'. No matter what, we'll never reach the same frequency with the Servants here. Or… maybe I can't. Sorry. And even then... this is a war. This is battle. The fighting is fun, but not everybody survives..."

The rest of her statement was clear.

'...And I don't want to be the one who doesn't.'

She looked away, apologetically, laying out her reasoning to destroy LUNE then and there.

"A 'wish'. A 'curse'. Both of those things make up the Solar Cell. The wish created the lands, the civilization, the people- and the curse created the foundation it was built upon."

She reached into her jacket pocket, pulling out a feather. It glistened with an array of colors as the light bounced off it, beautiful and prismatic. It was familiar. You recognized it from your encounter with QUETZALCOATL. Apparently it had served as part of the catalyst to summon KUKULKAN. The magical energy from it was all but gone, but it still seemed to hold on to just a bit. Just enough to shine.

"It's a beautiful civilization. I see that. I feel that. This feather tells me that. But it's going to die either way. Either whatever exists at the core of the Solar Cell will manifest and come forth, destroying everything… even humanity outside of the Solar Cell… or we destroy it, and destroy one world to save another."

"That's why it has to die by my hands. Being betrayed by their Sun at the core of the Solar Cell would be too sad of an ending for the beautiful civilization that exists here, so the Sun of another world… one who can be easily cursed at and shamed, must be responsible. Extinction is a part of life's cycle, but something must be the catalyst. Something must be to blame, not everyone can be happy and blameless. It's a god's duty to accept that burden from mortals, yes?"

She paused, before her smile became a bit more bittersweet.

"…Though you all aren't gods, sorry. I'll carry most of the burden, promise."

She was quiet for a moment, before continuing, her tone shifting a bit as she collected her feelings.

"…And maybe I'm not your Rider or Avenger or Assassin, or any of the other special Servants you contracted with, and I'm sorry about that too, but… you contracted with a troublesome and inexperienced god, so… I can't do it alone- I don't want to do it alone. If we can't see eye to eye, then…"

She trailed off. The look in her eyes was a complicated one, but resolute none the less. She had her own conclusion, which meant that she felt like she was owed that same resolution. Agreement or not, she wanted a decision. Perhaps realizing that intensity, she forced a smile, letting the tension leave her body as she drifted in the air.

"Ahaha, nevermind! I'm your Servant, so I'll follow orders no matter what, yes!"

#main post #code cast: ask foreigner #thgw: chapter 4 #thgw story

[hindulivesmatter]

Honestly it feels like some people are so afraid of criticizing anything that has to do with Islam/Muslims. I actually do understand, Muslims and Islam as a religion have been unjustly accused and have faced a lot of discrimination for things that weren't their fault, and Islamophobia is a really big issue, but swinging the other way and stopping people from criticizing Islamic imperialism at all isn't the answer either. We aren't criticizing Islam/Muslims in general, and of course they have a place in India, but that also doesn't change the reality of the genocides Hindus in Kashmir have faced and continue to face at the hands of self-proclaimed Islamic terrorist groups.

And I am actually someone who believes Modi isn't blameless, and I actually do agree with the things said about him by the left. I do think the Indian army is committing atrocities in Kashmir, and I don't approve of his actions. But acting like he's the only problem and that we don't have any threat from Islamic terrorists is also wrong. We've heard their chants, the 7 genocides they committed, all the people who were killed/forced to flee/converted. And yet, even as we reclaim our stolen land and our stolen culture, as we are finally getting back our temple in Ayodhya, people are quick to dismiss it as Islamophobia or anti-Muslim sentiment, instead of seeing it as the reclamation of our history and our culture from colonization.

They want to deny our suffering by saying that the colonizers improved India, that Hindus and Muslims always coexisted peacefully. And I am all for peaceful co-existence, but denying the people who were killed, the women who were raped and killed by Islamic invaders who declared openly that it was their holy mission to kill Hindus is so grossly invalidating and just makes me think that some people care more about appeasing the crowd than actually caring about what really happened. Islamophobia is real, of course, but denying history and the real threat of terrorists isn't the answer.

Sorry to leave this in your inbox. I don't always agree with you, but I appreciate your posts.

I feel like you just needed a good vent, lol. It's alright. We don't always need to see eye to eye on things. It's one of the main reasons I don't go on blocking sprees, like the people who hate me. If you agree with me, awesome. If you don't, it's fine. It really doesn't matter to me. You had a lot of good talking points in your asks, I appreciate you dropping them here. :)

#anon asks #answered

[homuraakemis]

I was really hoping to like Netflix ATLA, but there were just way too many things that I didn't like. I don't have any wish to debate any of this (so if you disagree please ignore or write your own post), I'm just writing this to gather my thoughts and get this off my chest (also this is very disorganized). So here's a list of some of the things that I didn't like about Netflix ATLA (there's probably more, but I won't remember them all right now):

-- Removing the sexism everywhere, then bringing it back when it's convenient: Sokka is not sexist, Yue can just break off her betrothal, but when the narrative needs Katara and Pakku to fight, the tribe is suddenly sexist again. There's no consistency. Sokka and Katara's conflict makes no sense without his sexism. They created a whole different conflict between Sokka thinking that Katara doesn't take him seriously and Katara thinking that Sokka treats her like a little girl, and it feels completely artificial. We aren't even shown scenes in which Sokka actually treats Katara as a little girl for this conflict between them to be believable. Sokka and Suki's relationship also doesn't work without his sexism and her humbling him. In NATLA, they seem to have some conflict for no reason over who's the better warrior, then Suki is super interested in Sokka for no reason and starts stalking him and looking at him with some really weird wide eyes all the time. We have nothing of the natural relationship they develop in the cartoon, in which Sokka slowly comes to respect her as a warrior and she warms up to him and he starts to act more humble (and they don't even have all that much development in the cartoon either, but the cartoon makes the relationship work much better). Also, I find it very annoying (and sexist) that they tried to absolve the sexist male characters of their character flaw of being sexist to make the audience like them more. Sokka is no longer sexist, and now June has a crush on Iroh, because how dare their precious Iroh be flawed and be a creep towards June, right? Better to just remove his flaw and make him blameless (/sarcasm).

-- Changing the Zuko, Azula and Ozai dynamic: It's very weird making Ozai praise Zuko so much. I know that by the end, they try to pass it off as Ozai "playing games" to motivate Azula, but it still comes off very weird, making it look like he favors Zuko over Azula. Azula is supposed to be the golden child. Zuko is supposed to be an utter failure in Ozai's eyes. If it was one scene of Ozai praising Zuko to manipulate Azula, it would be one thing, but they have several scenes of him praising Zuko, seemingly missing Zuko and being teary eyed as he burned Zuko, and it makes it seem like he thinks Zuko is strong and banished him only as a test to make him even stronger, instead of his actual reason in the cartoon (which is that he thinks Zuko is weak and a failure). And his constant criticisms of Azula are even weirder. Azula is the golden child! She's supposed to always have been praised for her talents (animation!Ozai AND comics!Ozai constantly praise Azula). I get that they're trying to show how Ozai was abusive and manipulative to both of his kids, but there are ways of showing this without completely changing Zuko and Azula's dynamic. You could have Azula being perfect most of the time with Ozai praising her, but then the one time she gets something wrong, you could have him say something threatening like "you don't want to end up like your weakling brother". This would have shown how Ozai manipulated Azula and why Azula feels like she constantly needs to please him (for fear of ever being treated like Zuko) without removing Azula's characterization as the perfect golden child that Ozai always saw as superior to Zuko.

-- Making Zuko fight his father (which is very thematically wrong) and making it canon in the live action the fanon headcanon that Zuko's scar is supposed to be a handprint with Ozai "tenderly" touching Zuko as he burns him (I hate this headcanon with a passion).

-- Making Ozai teary eyed as he burns Zuko (wtf).

-- Zuko doesn't lash out enough at his uncle and crew, they soften his flaws.

-- I didn't like the way they rewrote the war council scene or how Ozai gave Zuko permission to speak. I get that they were trying to show Ozai's disappointment in Zuko and how Zuko couldn't give a battle plan answer that Ozai approved, but it still felt off to me.

-- Also, why would Ozai just… decide to let the 41st division live just because Zuko argued for them? The whole point was that Zuko's opinion didn't matter to Ozai. It doesn't make sense to me that Ozai changed his plans to sacrifice the division just because Zuko spoke up. Not only it messes up with his original battle plans that he was so defensive about and was outraged that Zuko "disrespected", this also would make him look weak before his generals, because it's him giving his disrespectful son exactly what he wanted. It really makes no sense to me. I know they did it to make Zuko look more "heroic", and to make the crew finally respect him, but Zuko didn't need this to be more heroic, he was already heroic simply for speaking up for them. As for his crew coming to respect him, it should have come from his own actions, like in the animation, where Zuko actually realizes how badly he had been treating his crew and actually does right by them by thinking of their safety in the storm. The animation actually gives him character growth, in which Zuko reflects on his bad actions and changes. In NATLA, Iroh just tells the crew that they should respect Zuko because he saved them, and Zuko doesn't have to grow or self reflect on his treatment of his crew at all.

-- Badly choreographed fight scenes. The benders are constantly making unnecessary moves to bend (like they're charging up or something), which doesn't feel organic. In several moments they pose for long moments in the middle of the fight, and the opponents just stand there watching them pose. In fact, there are several moments where an opponent just waits there while our heroes do a bunch of random dance movements to summon their element instead of just attacking them in the middle of their dance.

-- I got more used to the costumes as I watched, but some of them still feel like cosplay.

-- A lot of dialogue is clunky and awkward. Gyatso telling Aang he is the Avatar is blunt, and Aang is given no time to react or emote about this heavy burden that was suddenly placed on him. Gran Gran starts an exposition about how the four nations used to live in harmony and how Aang is special and the Avatar out of nowhere, before she has any evidence to make her actually believe this. For all she knows he's just a random airbender.

-- The acting is also not the best. Not as bad as I was expecting from what we were shown in the trailer, but not really very good. People randomly scream to make points sometimes (especially the Avatars).

-- Aang no longer runs away from his responsibility, he just goes on a ride to clear his head and ends up trapped in a block of ice. Oops! Not his fault! We can't have our main character have any major flaws that he needs to overcome, right? We can't show a kid having a natural reaction to having such a responsibility thrust upon him, nooo, we need him to be a perfect hero from the start. Who needs character development? Better to just remove Aang's character arc.

-- Katara comes up with the name Team Avatar? Not Sokka? WHY?

-- So… Koh just… lets everybody go because he got back a toy with the face of his mother? Seriously? And why did Roku take that from him in the first place? What was the point? Taking the totem made him weaker or something? And what's Roku's connection to Koh? shouldn't this have been Kuruk? Also, how did Aang know that he shouldn't show emotion when facing Koh? I don't remember anyone telling him this, but maybe I'm just forgetting it.

-- Hakoda's characterization was just butchered. He was always a supportive father, why the fuck is he talking about Sokka like that? Also, animation!Hakoda would never let Sokka pass a test if he wasn't ready. He left Sokka behind because he wasn't old enough for war, and he explicitly tells this to Sokka. He doesn't soften the blow, he doesn't praise Sokka for something that Sokka didn't earn. Yet Netflix!Hakoda is ok with giving his son unearned rewards.

-- Yue's death scene was better and more emotional in the Shyamalan movie than in the Netflix show, LMAO.

-- Zuko AND the show making such a big deal out of that notebook was really weird.

-- Weirdly, the show was supposed to be "more adult" and yet it still uses the same children's cartoon logic. Zuko swings his sword at people? Not a drop of blood (or at least, I don't remember seeing it). Aang throws people off the wall when he and the Blue Spirit are escaping? Nobody dies.

-- So Katara just learns everything on her own? No training, no help from a master, she just goes from barely being able to move water (even less than her animated counterpart was able to do) to being some great master in less than a year with the help of one scroll and her experience running from firebenders? And Aang goes to the North to train in waterbending and yet we don't see him have a single lesson? He doesn't even TRY to waterbend the entire season?

-- Also, Aang REFUSES to support Katara against Pakku??? He was her strongest supporter in the animation, he says he won't train with Pakku if he doesn't teach Katara, and yet in the Netflix show they make him have his existential crisis at this point, completely butchering the Kataang dynamic?

-- They removed the scene of Iroh telling Zuko that he sees Zuko as his own!!! WHY?

-- I dislike the Z/utara ship bait. It literally serves no purpose to the plot, it only serves the purpose of throwing a bone to the shippers and inflaming the ship wars in the fandom.

-- Mai slipping up and defending Zuko to Azula, and then quickly correcting herself when Azula glares at her was good. But Mai physically stopping Azula from burning someone is way too much defiance for her at this point in the story.

-- Katara breaking Aang out of the ice because the's pulling a canoe instead of because she was angry not only is a bad adaptation of Katara's character, but it doesn't look realistic that her doing such gentle motions is going to break the iceberg.

-- Katara doesn't learn how to heal. She doesn't learn it on her own and she has only a 10 second lesson before she decides to move on and leave the class. Like... how is she going to heal her friends and bring Aang back to life next season?

-- Sozin's comet didn't seem like it was very powerful, we don't see the firebenders producing huge amounts of fire like in the cartoon.

All of that being said, it wasn't the worst adaptation ever. It was ok, and there were a few things here and there that I really liked. The sets were fantastic, it really brought all those locations to life. The animals looked amazing as well. I loved seeing a little bit of the Air Nomads, and they gave a good explanation of why Sozin was able to wipe most of them out in a single blow (because they were all in the Southern Air Temple for the comet festival). Lu Ten's funeral was really good. I was disappointed at Zuko's scar from the trailers, because I felt like there was no texture to it, but some shots show that there is some texture, so I ended up being ok with the scar in the end, even if still a bit disappointed that it was smaller than the original. I actually thought they made an ok job of mixing up the Omashu, Jet and Northern Air Temple storylines, even if sometimes it felt rushed (and I agree with the decision to mix them up, they couldn't have all these stories as disconnected short stories in the middle of 50 minute episodes). I was ok with Bumi's characterization (or change in characterization), but that's mostly because I don't really like Bumi in the original cartoon (his decision to let the Fire nation take Omashu because neutral jing always seemed nonsensical to me, so him being nonsensical and a bit crazy in NATLA is something I don't have much of a problem with), so it's really more of a personal opinion and I get that some people might not have liked the way they portrayed Bumi. Finally, I thought the first four episodes were acceptable, but the last four were bad.

So it's not like there was nothing that I liked, but it was a mixed bag. Overall, it didn't excite me all that much. Still, I hope people like it enough to get it renewed for another season, first because I do have hope that they learn from their mistakes and criticisms and make a better season 2, and second because I really want Netflix ATLA to bring hype to the Avatar universe so that Avatar Studios can be hyped and successful.

#natla #natla meta #atla vs natla #my meta #my post. #sorry if there are any mistakes or typos #or if i misremembered something #i just wrote this as fast as i could before i could forget everything that was in my head

[olderthannetfic]

I sent in an ask about a week ago stating that I found porn fics that aren't tagged with top/bottom annoying. I think I wasn't really clear about what I meant.

First, I'm aware it's a very personal pet peeve. I hang out a lot in Asian circles, where the top/bottom dynamic is ingrained in the very ship names, so it's jarring when I come back on ao3 and suddenly I have to skim the fic to know if it's to my taste at all. (If you can't tell, not a fan of switching lol). I know the author is 100% blameless, I'm just particular.

Second, I was referring specifically to short pwp fics, like max 10k words where the purpose is usually just to lead up to that one big sex scene or to explore their sexual dynamic. A lot of the time, I find that the top and bottom don't actually switch or anything, so I find it baffling why the author didn't tag it in that case. It's one of those things that I find to be the basic elements of a porn one shot, alonside stuff like if there's any kink involved. I guess it's just something a lot of people don't care about as much as I do so they didn't think to tag it, which is fair

And third, the assholes comment was in honor of the one writer that I have encountered who really told me that top/bottom dynamic is homophobic which is why they don't tag it and I should feel ashamed to even constrain the characters to stereotypical hetero dynamics. Wasn't the last one of their kind I've seen either.

Lol

--

It shouldn't be that baffling. They don't think in those terms, so it doesn't occur to them to tag it.

Or they associate the use of those terms with particular characterization, and they don't want to imply that characterization.

I agree that some people go overboard on it being ~problematic~, but honestly, the characterization can get annoying as fuck. I'm not surprised it spawns this dumb overreaction.

[attonitos-gloria]

Why do you always talk about Tyrion as if he were a blameless victim? He's not the good man you think he is.

@_@ you again. hello!!! welcome back!! let's point it out. tw for ableism ahead.

tyrion is not blameless.

tyrion orders a man to be killed and made a meal out of his body. tyrion rapes a woman. tyrion kills his lover, cold-blooded, a powerless girl, simply because he wants revenge on his jealousy. tyrion has horrible thoughts about punishing his sister with rape. tyrion has lustful thoughts about a girl in her teens. of all these deeds, he is guilty. there's no way to justify his way out of those crimes. tyrion is not really a good man; good people don't dehumanize others that way.

tyrion is kind to bran, in an environment in which literally everyone expects the worst of him, and invents a saddle so bran could ride a horse. tyrion is kind to jon, a bastard; not even all people in jon's own immediate family are kind to him the way tyrion was (sansa isn't kind to jon; catelyn isn't; robb and theon often aren't). tyrion protects catelyn stark, his jailer, who is accusing him of a crime he didn't commit, when their party is attacked in their way to the Vale. tyrion is kind to sansa. he saves her from joffrey's kingsguard; when ned dies and he comes back to king's landing, he expresses grief for her loss - no one else did that; he doesn't rape her when the act wouldn't result in punishment for him at all - he would actually be rewarded for it; he doesn't relish in the victories of his family in the war, because he knows it cost sansa her own family (but it is high summer for House Lannister. So why am I so bloody cold? is thought by Tyrion in this exact context: while he thinks about all Sansa has lost because of his family, and their marriage counts as one of her losses). He regrets not sending Ice, her father's sword, back to Winterfell sooner, before his family melted it to give joffrey a sword. in the worst depression of his life, he tries to protect penny in any way he can. and in all of these things, there was no one there to reward him, to praise him, to recognize him for being good. he did it because there's kindness in him, somewhere (his own words). tyrion is not really a bad man either; bad people don't care for others in uninterested, silent ways.

a person is not two columns side by side in which we write bad deeds vs good deeds, put weights on each item on the list, and do the math. and a character in a narrative, that is, the artistic representation of a person, if done right, if written right, isn't the sum of this math either.

tyrion's crimes are deeply connected to his family, to the ways house lannister affirms and exerts power and dominance. they employ cruelty for the sake of cruelty; it's meaningless. they do it to be feared. tyrion is often senseless cruel like that, in thoughts, in words, in deeds. he is a lannister through and through.

tyrion suffers repeatedly in the name of house lannister and by the head of house lannister himself. and, listen to me: he suffered those things because he is not an able-bodied man. jaime didn't suffer the things tyrion and cersei did. and that is not to say jaime didn't suffer at all! everyone suffers in systems like that, it's just that cersei and tyrion are victims of a certain kind of abuse that jaime was spared. 

tyrion's kindness is directioned to a certain group of people. he is not just spreading kindness all around, it’s not like him. tyrion is kind to vulnerable people, cripples, bastards, broken things. he is kind to people who can’t stand up for themselves. he is aware of such thing as collateral damage. and his kindness is tied to the fact he is not an able-bodied man. he is like that because growing up as a disabled man made him aware of a particular kind of suffering that he feels inclined to alleviate. 

these two get in conflict all the time. the conflict between the two sides of him is all tyrion’s arc is about (see: everything grrm ever said about him always). what story would we have if tyrion was able bodied? a completely different one, because we would have a completely different character.

i’m saying it like this, in small words and points, because there are two kinds of ableism, two kinds of violence against disabled people, and they’re both present in canon setting and in fandom and in our real lives. you can be just a complete asshole. you can hate disabled people in plain sight under the sunlight and you can simply not hide it. you can be the person who left this comment in one of my fics in which tyrion is, well, in a happy relationship: 

or. you can be the other guy. you can be the person who commits violence against disabled people through silencing: of their voices, of their pains, of their particular way of interacting with the world. you can be the ableist who makes their lives harder on this world by simply ignoring their disability at all, by making them, and their bodies, invisible.

i am tired of seeing people in this fandom going like “i wish tyrion would understand that he is not unloved because he is disabled, he is unloved because he is an asshole” etc. because if you saw a post going “i wish sansa would understand that she is not suffering because she is a female, she is suffering because she is a petty stupid little girl who got her father killed” we would all collectively lose our minds at the thickness of these words and the completely misogyny of it. (i know i have when i  saw it!) of course sansa’s young pettiness cannot explain the extent of her abuse; this shouldn’t be even a question. and i don’t want to go down the road of “making a list of good deeds and bad deeds of each character” all over again. it’s not my point. my point is: for us, as fandom, it’s easy to understand that in Westerosi culture, it is completely impossible to engage with Sansa (or Catelyn, or whoever) as a character without engaging with issues of patriarchy or misogyny. we know that the fact she is a woman in that world is crucial to understand her character and her themes and her arc, not because there is some female nature common to all women everywhere, but because in our world, and in theirs, women are trapped inside a system that aims at their bodies and their lives.

i hope you can see where i’m trying to get at. are all disabled people the same? of course not. asoiaf has a lot of disabled people. tyrion is just one of them. not all women are the same: sansa, cersei, arya, brienne, daenerys, catelyn, asha, their personalities and arcs and themes are different, because patriarchy affects them in different ways, and because they’re people and people are not all the same, lol. you don’t have to love every female character just because they are women, but if you simply refuse to engage and understand the ways their narrative arcs are impacted by patriarchy, you’re doing poor analysis of the text! it’s all i’m saying.

this happens to tyrion all the time. i’m not saying you have to like him! this is not my job, i’d be doing a poor work in this fandom if it were, i think. i am however arguing that not a negligible part of tyrion hate in the fandom comes from this silencing, from this invisibility. we don’t think the fact he is a disabled man has any weight, any real impact in his arc or his personality. it’s not worthy engaging with, losing our time with: he’s just a bad man. it’s like you can completely dissociate those things, like disability is part of the attire tyrion is wearing and when you take his clothes off you can see him as he is. but disability is not something he is wearing. he can’t take it off. disability is one of the raw materials that he and the world used to build the good in him and the bad in him, choice after choice, day after day. for better and for worse, in real life and in fantasy, disability has a formative role in one’s life. and it hurts me to see the way this is ignored, and shrugged off. i think there’s no other name for this, this is just ableism. 

i want you to think a little about the fact that we are, as a fandom, more inclined to have empathy for tywin lannister, more inclined to give him nuance, more inclined to like him and consider him some kind of BAMF that is simply a grieving widow and has a chance of being redeemed if someone could only break through his armor!!!, than we do for tyrion. please. please think about this for one whole minute, and tell me i am wrong in defending him.

i am not saying everyone who doesn’t like tyrion, or who likes tywin, is an irremediable ableist. i don’t know! tyrion is a disruptive character, and with this kind of character, it is natural that the readers’ responses vary. i don’t want to judge individuals, i’m talking about my experience with the fandom as a collective entity. i’ve made many friends in this fandom who went deep into the text, and they still didn’t like tyrion in the end, or they liked him because they thought he was a bad person, etc. we like different things, and at the end of the day, people can like whoever character strikes their fancy. but it’s something i see all the time, and when you start to notice some patterns, you can’t help but wonder. this is just one of the patterns, of the discourse around him. i’m not even giving you the whole picture. but the ableism in our fandom is pervasive, insidious, and it’s cruel. and this part is not really about our personal preferences. i think it’s something we should meditate on. as a fandom.

that being said: i think tyrion is hanging on a balance, and perhaps he will end the series as a villain, and perhaps he will end it as a hero, or maybe both or even better, neither. and in any case, you’ll find me here, stanning. he is not a real person. i like him because i like the character and the way he’s written! it’s not because i morally condone his actions, this is not the way I interact with fictional people and with media overall, and if it were, i wouldn’t have a character to like in asoiaf, except brienne who never made a single mistake in her life, ever. i’m here for the story being told, and the story being told through tyrion happens to be my favorite. 

but to answer your question, TL;DR: i'll speak about him as a victim as long as we ignore that there is a system that victimizes him on virtue of his disability. i’ll insist on it until we stop making disability invisible through sheer force of our violence.

thank you for the ask though! it’s a great question.

#ask me stuff #tw ableism #tyrion lannister meta #by the way i think i'm done with you anon #i think there's nothing really left to say #and the next time you come here in bad faith i'll gently ignore your asks #but thank you for coming really #tw rape #tw abuse

[lilietsblog]

You are very patient and careful with people who accuse Ukraine of War Crimes. I'm American, and I would tell them to Fuck off about anything that happens to Russians.

You do realize that the Russians are victims in this too? It's no longer volunteers / contracters fighting on our land, and the civilians sure as fuck did nothing to influence any of this either way. There are anti-war protests in Russia, and the protestors are getting thrown in jail and/or beaten to death. Russia hasn't been a democracy since the 90s if at all, elections are getting falsified so blatantly it's almost funny. Putin's political opponents find themselves in prison on bullshit charges, dead, or running away. "Russians" aren't to blame for this any more than every single American personally killed people in the Middle East and in Vietnam. My grandparents live in Russia; they didn't consent to this war and Putin didn't ask them, or anybody. My native language is Russian, and I've met people here in the west of Ukraine who think that makes me and my family share the blame for what happened; that's nonsense easy to refute, given my mom was and is personally part of the effort holding Kharkiv, the part about "the Russians" is harder.

I won't be correcting Ukrainians who vent, who say "kill all Russians", they're hurting, they're traumatized, they are powerless and screaming.

But you, American stranger on the internet? Shut up. That's the logic that leads Russian soldiers to believe it's blameless to do anything to the "ukronazis" (they actually do believe that, Russian propaganda machine is real and mighty).

War crimes are bad no matter who they happen to, that's why they are "war" "crimes" - things that are crimes even during a war.

So, no. This conversation needs to be had.

It's just... a little silly to call both sides equal here, yeah.

#reblog #ukraine #war crimes #no go away #anon #asks

[dowagersqueen]

as a person on team green twt that surrounds herself with alys rivers enjoyers/alysmond shippers, i don't think they were the first to start things, though at the same time i don't believe them to be blameless. there were countless times when a completely unrelated alysmond tweet started getting traction and all of a sudden its author was under fire with helaemond shippers on the front lines. to this day no tweet about alys, even outside of romantic context - for example just talking about the potential of her character, can avoid gathering at least several negative and private quote retweets either from other shippers, team black stans or even jealous aemond fans.

im guessing because of that they're super defensive over her character and resolve to putting their anger and frustration onto the first visible target. which is probably the same reason behind always mentioning alys' status as aemond's canon lover. and as much as i can't stomach helaemond (while at the same time honestly believe it to be a better alternative to l*cemond, at least in this instance people aren't using the likeness of a real life minor in nsfw content) i do agree that everyone has the right to ship what they want if they're not harming anybody along the line. ig all i want to say is that bad apples exist on both sides of the conflict. ive found out that its better to just curate the content you want to engage with, ignore the rest and under any circumstances not bother oneself with snarky quote retweets.

no, i still think they were the first to start things. a lot of us didn't even know who alys was before she and alysmond were shoved into our faces asking "but why don't you like her and this ship? why are you incest freak shipper? ew gross" when we didn't even know who she was. 

i've personally closed my eyes to my own moots tweeting really insulting stuff about helaemond shippers only to later, some of them, to start suddenly ship helaegon. funny that, lol

also the "alys come on screen, they are shipping your man with his sister" that were obviously started by alys and alysmond stans.

also between the two of us, most tweets i've seen are alys in the context of her relationship with aemond and very little stuff about her as a character so yeah

and believe me, all the hate you see now, started way back. hotd barely finished when i saw the first anti helaemond tweet and i was like "who's this girl?"

i'm sorry but this was one of the most unpleasant experiences within the hotd fandom outside of team black stan bs so i'm really not very welcoming of it. it has left a very bitter taste in my mouth and it's a side of green twitter and green fandom that i dislike

the names i've been called, the way alys and alysmond shippers interacted with helaemond shippers who make fanart, the way i've had multiple people come into my mentions uninvited to argue on behalf of it, even trying to pose like they're not fans only to later admit it and resort to namecalling.

just last week someone said "don't share the movie where ewan is a r*pist without proper warning, but what can i expect from a helaemond shipper?" implying somehow that we're all really morally bad people

and as evidence about how i argue about every other topic on my blog, i'm not likely to let go of my resentment because it's been a bad experience and i am resentful of it.

as a last note, it's a bit backhanded to say the only thing that makes helaemond better than lucemond is because it's not ped*philia.

#asks #anti alys rivers #anti almond #anti alysmond #helaemond #aemond x helaena

[kragehund-est]

"russians are truly inhuman monsters because of *horrifying act of sexual assault and violence on the innocent*"

"oh really? funny you would say that when the ukrainians aren't so blameless, either. just look at *horrifying act of sexual assault and violence on the innocent*"

"don't act like you have any room to talk. we all know about how the US committed *horrifying act of sexual assault and violence on the innocent*"

"it wasn't like that! anyway, we only got involved because the (middle easterners/japanese/germans/whoever) were already committing much worse *horrifying acts of sexual assault and violence on the innocent*"

*descends into petty squabbling about the various horrifying acts of sexual assault and violence on the innocent that has occured since the beginning of time*

i think there might be a larger pattern here

#and the answer isn't humanity

[anamericangirl]

yo! i like your blog a fair bit and i think your handling of most issues is ideologically correct. what's been kinda off putting to me a bit recently is like, your recent support of israel in this entire thing. i don't support either sides, because one is a terrorist group and one is a shady government, but i feel a bit meh about like. anyone "justifying" either israel or palestine because it always comes off as insensitive to the lives being lost by focusing instead on sides. don't you think the primary focus should kinda on saving lives and mourning their loss rather than justifying who's on the right or who's misrepresenting information or whatever? i hope my sentences weren't too convoluted or aggressive and im sorry if i've misunderstood your posts. have a good day!

Thanks I appreciate the compliment!

I'm not trying to say Israel is entirely blameless or their government is the best or not worthy of criticism, because in this centuries long conflict there's enough blame to go around - but, I think if we look at where the conflict stands today, there's an obvious aggressor and it's not Israel.

You don't have to support Israel or like their government to acknowledge the reality of what is going on. Despite what the Israeli government is like, in this conflict right now one state is trying to exist and the other is trying to keep them from existing. One is trying to take out a terrorist group and avoid as many civilian deaths as possible and one is aiming just to take out an entire country and as many civilians as they can.

I think, when you get down to it, Hamas, as the terrorist organization that they are and the atrocities they commit is worse than a shady government. There should be a focus on saving lives but to do that you have to acknowledge who is responsible for the loss of lives and how these lives are being taken out. And the truth is the fault for these civilian deaths is mostly with Hamas - regardless of what side you support or don't support that's just an unavoidable fact. If we want the primary focus to be on the civilian lives then we have to be honest about what is happening.

There are several Arab countries in the world and most are in that area in the Middle East. There is one Jewish state on the planet. It has the right to exist and Hamas is not recognizing that right and is trying to obliterate them.

Whatever you feel about Israel itself, they have the right to defend themselves against the attacks and they are being unfairly represented in our media as the aggressor when the real culprit is Hamas. Every time there is any civilian lives lost on the Palestinian side Israel immediately gets blamed. A structure gets hit by a missile and all we hear is how evil Israel bombed it killing civilians and there's not a word about the missiles Hamas is constantly firing at Israel in a haphazard manner trying to hit whatever and whoever they can but the second Israel fires back then they are painted as the bad guy.

Even if you don't like the Israeli government it can't be denied that one side is trying to protect their citizens and take out a terrorist group while doing more than any other military in the world to avoid civilian casualties and one side is targeting civilians. Those aren't equal. One is worse.

#anon #answered

[diamondcitydarlin]

far be it from me to interrupt the unnecessary character hate train some folks in this fandom insist on having but I have to say, what seemed a little unnecessary but still somewhat understandable from a separate POV in season 1 just doesn't make any sense now- that is, of course, a time-honored fandom pasttime of trying to force a character into the role of villain against the actual narrative. it's nothing new ofc I've seen it happen in just about every fandom I've been in and I've learned that there usually isn't a point in trying to debate with people that have made up their minds this way and with the way I've tagged this I'm probably just preaching to the choir but like...it seems to me this whole season is ALL about being flawed, the ways in which every character in the cast (beloved or otherwise) has flaws and issues that have hurt others, but most significant, the ways in which a person can grow and learn and mend and still deserve to be loved despite everything. this isn't really a story where you can pick out the 'good ones' with completely clean moral slates from those you've decided are irredeemable unless you're choosing to ignore the actual themes being presented (which like, fine, but that's a choice of interpretation that goes directly against what's actually there). Everyone has been victim of someone else. Everyone at this point has inflicted some kind of hurt on someone else. Stede hurt Ed, Ed hurt Stede, Ed hurts Izzy, Izzy hurt Ed, Ed hurt Lucius, Lucius hurt Black Pete and so on and so on and so on. There's really no one here who is just a completely blameless uwu victim and that's actually a good thing because most of us just fucking aren't either, as much as we may want to believe that or think of ourselves as morally superior to others bc of fictional characters we like or don't or whatever, as much as we may be caught up in our own victimhood (which I absolutely get I've found myself there many times too) we're all flawed, we've all hurt people, there's no getting through life without doing it at some point. it's not really about having or trying to manufacture the image of a clean moral slate, it's about learning and growing and trying to do better the next day and accepting those flaws with a gentle grace. the sooner some of yall wrap your minds around that truth the better off you're going to be, and maybe a good start is learning from these flawed, imperfect, sometimes hurtful characters that we've grown to love because we see ourselves in their actions.

some poignant takeaways from the last couple of eps I think are 1) when Fang suggests to Ed he should try sitting with himself for a bit instead of trying to talk through and shallowly justify everything. I think everyone can benefit from doing this, as so often we think of things from an external perspective rather than internal. It can be hard to introspect rather than blame the world or others and construct little superficial rituals that make us feel momentarily superior (like, idk, deciding one character in a show is the 'bad guy' and anyone who likes him is bad but not you you're not bad bc you don't like him so you must be a better person even though this involves you picking fights and harassing people trying to enjoy themselves, idk, just a random example). It's so much harder to ask yourself why you feel a certain way in the first place, to ask yourself if it's possible that you see aspects of yourself in a character you despise that you're not willing to face within, things about yourself you've buried deep and pretend don't exist at the cost of being 'morally superior'. It's possible, isn't it? Would it hurt to be still for a moment and think about that? I mean, maybe it would, quite possibly it would hurt a lot at first, but I think it's worth it in the end, far more than the effort to put up a morally superior front that no one even has.

the other one that I think the people I'm actually addressing won't appreciate because of who it involves- when Izzy gives Lucius the carved shark and explains that not moving on is worse than doing what is necessary to actually move on. Not necessarily advocating for lying to oneself (tho if I were a more reckless person I might say this can be a genuine bandaid tactic when you're in survival mode and just need to get to the next day, I get that too) but I do think there's a good point here about learning to let go of the things that only gnaw away at us inside. holding on to anger and spite can feel like a form of justice in the short term, but over time it only corrodes the host. at some point, at some time, to truly heal we have to figure out how to let go of certain things, if only so it won't poison us further. Lucius threw Ed overboard the same way he did to him, but ultimately it didn't help, did it? What changed was seeing the way his obsession with his hatred hurt the man he loved, what changed was introspection.

So, idk, really good show, very educational and emotionally aware and I think some of us could benefit from paying more attention to what's actually there than what we want to believe. Idk, it's a thought.

#ofmd #the izcourse #i had thoughts #this season is really speaking to my personal journey as well #so idk will this help someone? will it give them a brainworm to think about for awhile? maybe #ofmd spoilers

[exosupport]

It's been 3 years since I introjected, and 2 and a half since my childhood best friend turned bitter (if reluctant) enemy introjected into our shared system. I won't pretend I'm blameless, even with good reason, I did betray my home and by extension them first, but that does not justify what they did to me.

For the first 6 months we would argue and fight. For the next year we agreed to try to get along but ended up mostly avoiding each other, then we talked, couldn't forgive each other but wanted to try to be friends again even though neither of us knew how. It worked sometimes but arguments were still frequent and intense.

Then finally, two weeks ago today as of writing this, they approached me as I was exiting a flashback to what they'd done to me, and things they had the power to save me from but didn't even try, and they apologized for all of it, they'd apologized for a few individual bits and pieces before, as had I, but this was for all of it, I also apologized again, and we forgave each other.

I admit two weeks isn't long but we have several times connected, supported each other since, without a single argument, it's not exactly the same as before, but it finally feels like I have my best friend back, and they have expressed the same feeling to me.

It's still hard, that time was still the worst of many very bad times in my life, the flashbacks aren't gone, nor are they any less visceral or horrific, but it's gotten that little bit better, and if it's gotten better once it can get better again. The skies do always clear after a storm, even if the storm lasts for years.

And I hope that can be true for everyone else here as well, for things to get better, no matter how little, and no matter how long it takes.

That's so good to hear! It's always good to be able to reconnect like this, we've had many such cases ourselves and it's a beautiful feeling.

Thank you for the positivity.

[ID: A banner with a Sanrio theme. It says, "healing vibes 4 you" in a decorative font. The background is colored with a purple to pink gradient with the texture of diamond shaped tiles over it. There's two images, one at the either side of the banner.

The image on the left has My Melody, a white rabbit who wears a pink hood over her ears with a bow on it, is holding Joey, a small blue mouse. Above them there's the word "hug" in pink font with a heart to the right of it.

The one on the right has My Melody standing and pointing at her face and she's looking towards the viewer with a curious expression. Below her is the text "Take it easy" in pink font. End ID]

#positivity