#(hi. subhuman anyone? yes.)

[undefeatablesin]

Dealing with the tail end of another artblock by brainstorming feral Good Hunter Aloysha looks. Because she was not already feral enough for me I guess lmao ✨️

#sin scribbles #(her bad vibes are so intense even my artblock runs away from her.) #(currently experimenting with giving her a jaw guard as part of her gear as u can see 😂) #(probably more darkbeast bones why not she has the claw already!!!) #(and yes i finally remembered she has the beast hide garb bc rly nothing else scratches the same feral itch. NOTHING!!!!) #(i might give her a custom version of the hood for that set tho bc. well. she needs smth for when it rains!!!) #(so sorry i just been like dead lately and this is all i got ive been quite unwell 😂) #(my entire eye was swollen up today????? cool i guess...) #(well whatever. have my nasty girl) #(its all that damn dmc music i been listening to!!!!!) #(hi. subhuman anyone? yes.) #(i want her to just be completely unhinged. we MUST go deeper.)

[hadesoftheladies]

men will be adamant that they are the ones who suffer the most above any given demographic. they will cite wars, torture in wars, gangs, murder and suicide statistics as proof. women must respect that they suffer more because more is expected of them (by other men). they have to provide and protect, so in danger, they will always be collateral damage for their family or for their country.

yet

all these are examples of how men treat men. all this, in spite of the fact that men respect men more than anyone else. so if this is how men have treated/treat people they respect, how do you think life has fared for people men hate: women?

all of a sudden, the data changes. women attempt suicide more. in wars, women aren't killed because they are kept alive for use, which is rape, which is torture. every war has women and girls tortured rather than killed, because women have use. just because they are not killed doesn't mean they are spared. to be killed in war is a privilege to women in warzones. one they covet. women face the most torture in war. women are collateral damage on the street. women are raped then killed, or just raped, that is, tortured, and they don't have to be in a gang to experience this. women and girls get tortured in their homes, by their fathers, brothers, brothers' friends. mothers, a good percent of which are minors, are left to fend for themselves and their babies, becoming the sole provider. it is more likely that a father would abandon his child than a mother. in history, fathers and brothers were protectors of their property, not their loved ones (those were sons), which was what wives and daughters were, assets that were part of his estate. protecting them was protecting his wealth, since he could trade and barter his daughter for more economic advantages or get a wife and have a free laborer on his estate. he could beat her, rape her, buy another wife. impregnate them so many times, so much, until they died early or in birth, or just stopped looking attractive enough. this is still the case in plenty of places all over the world.

the truth is that men do have it better and have always had it better under patriarchy, because that system doesn't hate them. it believes in their humanity. which is why it keeps pardoning the worst of men of the worst of crimes. just because men find men more disposable than women, since women can always be in use, doesn't mean women are privileged or spared.

men know women suffer more, both in number and in quality. historically, as well. because men would never want to be women. they are terrified of being women, let alone, being seen as women. they cannot bear the thought of being treated like women. because men know that men see women as subhuman and treat them subhumanly. they know that being seen as a woman, let alone being a woman, being seen to be woman-like, means they are up for the chopping block, whether economically or literally.

that's why they will bond over rape jokes and derogatory conversations surrounding women. in male relationships, men need to keep their distance from women in order to survive other men. men need to other women. being loyal to them or standing up for them risks them being seen as "womanly" or "woman-like" since only women are loyal to women.

if you ask a man if he'd like to be treated like a woman, he might say yes. but if you ask a man if he'd like to be treated like a woman by a man, that answer will change! ask him if he wants to be gang raped by dirty men until he bleeds or dies. ask him if he wants to be forced to give birth to his perpetrator's baby, his body tearing, breaking, bending so it can come out. ask him if he wants to be abandoned to taking care of that baby. would he prefer that risk to the risk of getting shot? robbed? men think how women treat women is the default of women's experiences. but how men treat women? no man would opt for that.

men assume that the dignity of dignified work is not in the interest of women, who are subhuman, and thus, don't have ambitions or dreams or longing to establish themselves and have wealth. that's why they get upset that women don't want to be housewives or prostitutes. yet, suggest being a house-husband or "sex worker" to a man, and they'll recoil in horror! men don't think women crave dignity! or need it!

women on the other hand, would rather be treated in nearly every situation as men are treated. men, despite their suffering, cannot fathom trading places with women.

so no. men do not suffer more under patriarchy or capitalism. not even they truly believe that.

#radblr #feminism #capitalism

[daenerysies]

It absolutely gets me that the whole thing about Rhaneyra putting her siblings to the sword was made up by Otto, Rhaenyra did nothing to indicate that she would; Alicent just fixated on it like- how do they forget that they literally pulled that crock of shit out of thin air? 😭

it gets me too, especially show-wise. the only time rhaenyra shows any bit of fire against her siblings is during the driftmark incident, where it is blatantly obvious to anyone with a brain that she was bluffing when asking for aemond to be sharply questioned. granted, should she have done it? no. is she also a mother trying her best to protect her kids? and not being a super uber-perfect person in the process? yes to both. this is yet another change from the book i don't like, considering alicent demands luke's eye in retribution first, and rhaenyra retaliates against that rather than starting it.

i'm also adding some significant points that make no sense in the greater context if alicent truly thought her children's lives were endangered; which is how she actively antagonizes rhaenyra. in both medias. she raises her children to hate rhaenyra, to view their nephews as inferior and subhuman to them due to their blood, she instills fear for their lives as a part of their everyday activities, she tells her children that aegon will be king no matter what (which is treason, so she doesn't seem to care that badly about her children being found out as participants of those efforts). she does not act like someone who believes her children are going to be murdered once rhaenyra ascends the throne. it's why i can't take her stans seriously. none of her actions make sense in the grand scheme of things. she purposefully makes an enemy that is (TO HER) capable of cold-blooded murder. what terrified mother would do that?

there's also this fetish for infantilizing and victimizing alicent and co. otto manipulated her when she was a teen, which is a fair take. otto was also ostracized from court for TEN years. ten years with minimal to no contact with alicent. she is no longer a child during that time, she is a grown woman with four children to raise and a perfectly good brain to use. we're not shown or told once that rhaenyra *ever* showed an ounce of violence towards her siblings, and at most, she was indifferent to them. it is stated, however, that during that time skip alicent bullied and harassed rhaenyra, to the point where she abandoned the capital to have peace of mind and safety for her own children. still not the actions of a terrified mother (she also wasn't manipulated into doing any of that; it was all of her own accord because she hated that rhaenyra was afforded more freedom and leeway than she was).

what's more, there is minimal, if any, precedent that rhaenyra would be forced to kill her siblings to secure the throne. viserys was only the fifth targaryen king, not exactly enough time to really establish any killing family as a basis. maegor is the only one to have done so, and he's reviled for it even up to the current timeline. it is even thought that his death was the consequence of kinslaying. it's not normal. there has technically been some sort of succession crisis for almost all the rulers up to this time: aegon the uncrowned and maegor, rhaena and jaehaerys, baelon and rhaenys, viserys and rhaenys/laenor. there are, once again, many ways for aegon, aemond, and daeron to renounce their claim to the throne (night's watch, kingsguard, maester); but that would take away the power alicent and otto wanted to have, so not an option.

i wouldn't even consider daemon that much of a threat if rhaenyra had ascended peacefully. they've changed his character significantly in the show, but daemon explicitly states in fire and blood that they need to find a peaceful way to end this dispute, and not resort to fighting dragons versus dragons (a line they gave to rhaenys in the show) because it would only end in disaster. he doesn't resort to any brutality until after the first blood is drawn by the green's.

basically, it's just another ploy, a 'red herring' if you will, to distract from the true reason why rhaenyra was usurped (and hook, line, sinker; it's working fantastically for some in the fandom).

#hotd #hotd critical #f&b #rhaenyra targaryen #pro rhaenyra #team black #anti team green #anti team green stans #anti alicent hightower #anti alicent stans #faye answers #anonymous

[cordeliawhohung]

Your pet au is deliciously disturbing and I love it <3

I can’t wait to read more of it in the future :)

Did I understand it correctly that Simon doesn’t regard others as human but animals? It’s be really intriguing if he does and where that came from.

i am going on day two of a migraine so sorry if this isn't the most well written response but i've been thinking about this ask since you sent it and wanna talk about the lore a;ldskjf

the answer is yes; sort of. obviously Simon recognizes that humans aren't like other animals. not like an actual dog or anything like that. rather, just subhuman. anyone weaker than him, someone who lacks authority, is just a pet. some silly little animal that doesn't know what they're doing on their own, like Johnny. pets, these weak creatures, shouldn't dare to look at him wrong, talk back, etc etc because he sees himself as superior. there's a pecking order and he's at the very top.

which is why we see him get agitated by the cashier in the most recent work. that man is nothing but a bug to him, and he ought to learn his place.

however, not everyone is a pet to him. he recognizes there are others that hold similar weight that he does. John Price, for example, is more of the "owner" type like Simon. always respected the man when he worked with him. to him, there are very, very few people in the world who even come close to the authority he holds.

as for where these thoughts came from, well - secret :3

anyway hope this makes sense. feel free to send more asks if not or if i need to elaborate more because i'm always down to talk about these freaks.

#core responds #pet!au

[ultimatefartwizard]

EARTHSPARK MESSAGES AND SUBTEXT THATS NOT EVEN SUBTEXT

It's been a while since I have posted as I've been busy with finals, but I saw a post that absolutely made me spur a headache with just how utterly fatuous of a take I saw on Transformers Earthspark and the messages it sends.

DISCLAIMER: DO NOT USE THIS POST TO ATTACK OR HARASS ANYONE, THIS IS ONLINE DISCUSSION OF A WORK OF MEDIA.

THIS ALSO COVERS SPOILERS FOR SEASON 1 OF EARTHSPARK, IF YOU WISH TO AVOID SUCH A TOPIC PLEASE REDIRECT YOURSELF.

@monocle-teacup Won't repost your post as the way tumblr reposts works would have everything funnel onto your account, but I'll be pinging you and I did screenshot your post for viewer's context:

I have ALOT to talk about here, while also being completely in shock and disbelief how you end up BELEIVING THE SIDE THAT IS A GENOCIDAL LUNATIC WHO SEES THE TRANSFORMERS AS SUBHUMAN AND A DISEASE ON THE EARTH??? AND IS WILLING TO FULL ASS MURDER AND MUTILATE PEOPLE? From here any * you may see is likely a footnote mark to check details I put at the end for clarity. If I miss something, let me know and I will clarify.

Before I get into the meat of dissecting your clearly ill-informed and definitely not thoroughly thought out post, I need to get something out of the way because I believe you'll use this as a means of shielding yourself from incoming critique: It's okay to like and enjoy characters who are clearly bad people. There is a CLEAR difference between enjoying a fictional character and agreeing with whatever they might do or say. I enjoy many bad and morally reprehensible characters, including Mandroid/Doctor Meridian, but that doesn't mean I agree with them or don't find their actions and ideas deplorable. If you find yourself agreeing with someone who sees another group of people* as being subhuman or a danger to society you need to reconsider your ideologies and thought processes. Like ASAP.

Okay onto the actual deconstruction of your statements, why they are blatantly lacking a thorough reading of the messages in Earthspark, or even lead into uncomfortably ignorant territories both with Transformers and very real-life, human related things.

As a first point, you state that you hope this show re-examines the fact that hatred towards another group of people (even if they are fictional) automatically makes them a terrible person, and bring up the statement that the show makes GHOST's detainment of transformers look "cartoonishly evil" but does absolutely nothing to address Dr.Meridian's statements of transformers being dangerous.

Yes. Yes it ABSOLUTELY DOES address that throughout the entire show. In fact, the whole season is literally about deconstructing the notion that BOTH Dr.Meridian's and GHOST's ideals and methods are harmful if not downright discriminatory towards transformers as a whole.

GHOST's method of control is a guise under the US government by detaining any transformer they deem as "a threat", this can even mean autobots or non-aligned transformers who don't want to join their organization or are just doing their own thing. They will willingly classify them all as "Decepticons" to justify their inhumane treatment of them. This is paralleling how humans will stereotype and conflate other groups of people, as being all associated with one singular event or organization of people that is seen as bad or a danger to society* and use that stereotyped ideal to weaponize it against them and justify harming them in multiple ways; which is what Dr.Meridian ALSO DOES THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE SHOW. Dr.Meridian is a scientist that literally works with and is a huge provider of technology to GHOST, he literally works with them and experiments on the detained transformers. You can't say "oh GHOST bad Dr.Mer not so bad" when he's LITERALLY PART OF GHOST AND YOU CANNOT SEPARATE THEM. HE IS EXTREME AND OUTSPOKEN ABOUT HIS HATRED THROUGHOUT THE SHOW AND ACTIVELY IS SHOWN TO BE ENTIRLEY IN THE WRONG BOTH IDEOLOGICALLY AND ACTION WISE. You clearly have not watched with a critical eye if you think they never address his points or somehow he is right about something. He never is and it shows just how harmful his mentality is. You don't even need words spoken out loud to know he's ALREADY HEINOUSLY WRONG AND BIGOTED.

Why should the show, one that shows transformers having to battle against racist and xenophobic hatred towards them from humans, re-examine that relationship? People are being discriminatory to people they don't like, and to them it doesn't matter if they are decepticon or not; they're all the same and dangerous in their eyes. Yes, there was a war brought onto earth's soil from pure happenstance of where the Ark and members of the two named groups had landed, and yes it was bloody and many lives were lost like any war is. Should the war, as well as atrocious acts of violence by a few and the circumstance that which the birth and type of being transformers are deem all transformers as dangerous? OBVIOUSLY FUCKING NOT. That's literally stereotyping. That's what Dr.Meridian is doing. He's literally grouped them all into one conglomerate in his head and sees them all as pests to be exterminated.

The transformers are both immigrants and refugees of war that had lasted thousands of millions of years and a desperate attempt to find any source of energon because they would STARVE TO DEATH IF THEY DIDN'T AND RESOURCES WERE DANGEROUSLY SCARCE ON CYBERTRON. They are thousands of lightyears away from home in a place that doesn't have the cultures they are familiar with and structures built for them which accommodates their needs. And to add onto it, most were never originally outfitted with guns and shit. They had to ARM THEMSELVES TO PROTECT AGAINST ATTACKS. JUST BECAUSE YOU SEE A GUN POP OUT OF THEIR BODY DOESN'T MEAN THEY ARE BUILT LIKE THAT NOR DOES IT MEAN THEY ARE AUTOMATICALLY ALL DANGEROUS. The only ones who are theoretically "built for war/violence" are war-frames like seekers, but they didn't even CHOOSE THAT LIFE OR WANT IT! THEY ARE COLD CONSTRUCTED* AND LITERALLY ENSLAVED INTO BEING CANON FODDER FOR WHATEVER SKERMISH THEY ARE DEEMED NEEDED FOR. Starscream wasn't even a warrior before this, he was just some nerd ass scientist. Cold constructed bots and War-frames are already deemed subhuman by other transformers. The entire war that you see is a continual millions of years struggle which the origins are in a fight against their own horrible systematic oppressions to try and bring freedom and put an end to the horrible reign back on Cybertron. How does them being robot organisms displaced by ongoing war, a continual brutal and bloody struggle for freedom back at home, and dangerous resource scarcity make them any more dangerous than your average person? And the "they are robots/walking death machines" argument doesn't count because you're only seeing them from a nonhuman lense in that case. Take off those nuts and bolts covered glasses and think of how this would be if they were all humans instead. The visuals of only seeing them for their robotics are blocking your ability to view this group as simply a mirroring of humans in nonhuman bodies. Humans are just as dangerous and ostracizing as them. Literally humans slaughter other humans frequently; bring upon hatred and obscene actions onto one another with or without robotic attachments and aid of machines. Just because the transformers are robotic extraterrestrials who are "different biologically/mechanically" makes it no different from the dehumanization and other forms of racism and xenophobia. Transformers are literally just... humans in a robot shell. You can't argue against this at all because most if not all have human forms, ALL of them have human minds, and just happen to come from a planet they need to be insanely large sized on, as well as already pre-armed due to conflict that they have escaped from.

The whole story of Earthspark is LITERALLY about the experiences of the Terrans; first generation descendants of immigrant refugees navigating the struggles that come with being just that. They make whole episodes surrounding their feelings of alienation and their struggle to have a place in the world, their culture and history and who they are. They want to feel they belong and feel they have a place in this world and be seen just as human and belonging as their human family. Their government and the world around them alienates them and treats them sub-humanly despite them being just as human, flaws and all, as us. Since I'm praddling on about this topic, did you even ABSORB ANY OF THE EPISODES HOME PART 1 AND 2???? IT'S ABOUT THIS TOPIC AND TEACHES HOW THIS MENTALITY OF TREATING THE TRANSFORMERS AS SUBHUMAN ALIENS THAT NEED TO GO AWAY OR NEED TO BE CLASSIFIED AS DANGEROUS/A INVASIVE "SPECIES" THAT NEEDS TO BE REMOVED IS BAD. IT SHOWS THE RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA THAT ESPECIALLY COMES WITH BEING CHILDREN OF IMMIGRANTS AND THE ISOLATION THEY FACE.

Please, I heavily implore you to go back and watch them. You somehow miss the entire point of the show and ESPECIALLY this episode. Many episodes cover different points of their existence as first gen children and the reality that the transformers have to face in general while being refugees on a planet with others being hostile and degrading to them but this particular episode is the one that tackles the points I make in this post the most. It may not go super deep into it due to forced time constraints and other executive nonsense that makes it harder to go into more detail but it still covers the topic very well.

Humans getting nipped at the heels for being bigoted towards transformers isn't some "ouugh you can't think the decepticons did bad things" type of nonsense and I absolutely hate the "oh because you can't be bigoted towards a group of people it means you suddenly can't criticize the actions of someone who happens to be someone of that group" mentality you seem to be concocting out of thin air. It's them associating the entire race of transformers as all bad, unbelonging or worthy of being seen as dangerous and to be wary around them or like they need to not be on earth and "go back where they came from". You go between "decepticons" and "transformers" interchangeably and seem to do exactly as the show heeds against heavily; conglomerating the actions of a FEW to encompass the overall worthiness of a WHOLE POPULATION OF PEOPLE.

Doctor Meridian is wrong and genuinely evil and disturbing with how he treats them and him seeing them as dangerous and a pest needing to be eradicated nor should any of his views be agreed upon, no matter how much you may try to defend him. There's more I could add but for simplicity's sake but that's what I mainly will state. The rest of clarity can be discussed in the comments.

I'm not sure whether your lack of understanding of the show and its messaging you are discussing or your love for one of the major villains is clouding your judgement, but please read EVERYTHING here to its fullest extent. Nothing here is intended as an attack on your character (if you're somehow seeing it that way) but as a heavy critique of your views on this show and how you are analyzing things. I might sound like I'm yapping to yap or "it's not that deep", but it literally is. The show and it's writing make it a big point and I will refuse to accept any iteration of "you're making a mountain out of a molehill" type statements. If you have any questions or comments you're free to bring them up.

-With confusion and annoyance, Wizard.

-Footnotes- *By group of people, I refer to sapient (human minded) beings who are grouped by either race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexuality, disability, etc. By this classification, Transformers are considered a group of people; even if they are "nonhuman" *If you are somehow seriously confused or appalled by me pointing out real world racism and xenophobia as parallels to what is being done by GHOST, Dr. Meridian, and your average run of the mill civilian, you need to reread absolutely everything. Racism and xenophobia are a huge talking point in the show and I refuse to retract this statement. *Cold Constructed means the transformer was made in a factory, more often than not to be a worker slave for whoever is demanding they be produced. Two characters off the top of my head who are cold constructed is Starscream and Megatron.

#transformers #transformers earthspark #ultimatefartwizard #maccadams #tf earthspark #discussion #terrans #transformers hashtag #transformers twitch #transformers nightshade #transformers thrash #transformers jawbreaker #transformers starscream #transformers megatron #genuinely how the hell did you end up at the conclusion you did #I had to discuss this the second I saw your post while scrolling #wizardyaps #ignore the tags #i will defend these robot aliens with my whole soul #I'm sorry I hate it when people miss the entire plot of a show #wizardrants #tired of the lack of critical thinking #transformers GHOST #dr meridian #mandroid #tf GHOST #Why are you defending a man's ideals that end up with him almost wiping out the population of transformers in like an evil genocide ray? #if they were human you'd definitely not be saying this.... I hope? Like I really hope you don't think this about irl people

[silvergeek]

I had no idea that Tolkien fans were so nasty and racist.

Any time I try to look up any information about Rings of Power, comment sections are overwhelmed by racist freaks. I swear to fucking god, these people don't have anything worse going on in their lives other than a film studio hiring a Puerto Rican to portray an elf or a black English woman to play a dwarf. (Even Isildur is too ethnic for some of these fans. Like jfc, so sorry he's not a WASP.)

What blows my mind is the sheer number of complaints, just about each one of them starting with, "I'm not racist but..." and ending with this rant insisting that Tolkien wanted all of his fictional little magic characters to be white. (Ok. Fair enough. He probably DID envision them all as white. He's a dead guy who was born in the fucking 1800's.)

Lol. "I'm not racist but I can't stop obsessing over the hobbits' skin color!" Jesus christ.

1. I'm currently re-reading the Silmarillion and nowhere does it explicitly state that everyone must be Caucasian.

2. There are numerous citations about some people actually having darker skin (e.g. harfoots).

3. The people who are screaming, "But this is OUR contemporary European mythology! Stop shoehorning black people into it!" Newsflash: there are black Europeans, assholes. Born and raised in your fucking countries. They know no other culture aside from --whichever country they gotta put up with your shit in. (Yes, my grammar sucks. Fuck off.) Why the hell do you act like these people do not exist?

I can't say the USA is any better with these attitudes, but I thank the fucking stars for having visibly outspoken, politically active African American women to keep our bullshit in line.

Imagine being a woman or a POC (or both) and anytime you apply for a job, audition for a role, or enter into any sort of competition and actually win based on your talents/skills, just around the corner there's a legion of assholes screaming that you were only picked because of tokenism. Imagine going through life being told over and over that your effort means nothing and that anytime you succeed at any given thing, you're just being pandered to. And imagine that the people saying this shit to you are pretending to be on YOUR side. And imagine, just for a moment, that these same people happily watch white guy after white guy walk into success and never ever question if whether or not their white guy peers are playing favorites -- because surely those people are impartial in all of their decision making. (Did they pick a white guy? It's an impartial choice! Did they pick a black lady? WOKE BULLSHIT PANDERING::blood erupts from esophagus::)

Imagine all of that, then go take a nice big shit in your garage.

Also, this uruk hai is totally gonna eat this little boy. Off topic, really. The pic is just there to get your attention.

Between the nasty backlash of Sandman and Rings of Power, complete with death threats and everything, I have to say this takes me back to the uprising of Gamergate.

They performed all of these same hate rituals, but aimed squarely at women in gaming. Zoey Quinn caught the brunt of it -- people even figured out her father's home phone number and made threatening calls to him.

I remember Anita Sarkeesian would have to cancel expos due to bomb threats.

These are typically the actions of some subhuman demographic, mostly male, aged 20's to 50's, typically white (not always) and either straight or profoundly closeted. Politically... they tend to think of themselves as freedom lovers, but at the root of their ideologies, you'll find stagnant traditionalism dancing in rhythm with contemporary neo-conservatism. Freedom for them, not for anyone else.

These are the people who don't want women to design video games, they don't want black/hispanic/Indian folks in their TV shows except as forgettable side characters, and they don't want the gays. Never ever with the gays. (And anything beyond "gay" doesn't exist in their minds. It's made up.)

I remember all this back in 2014. They review bombed games, in fact. They were a bunch of keyboard warriors for the most part. They eventually lost, because now we have a more diverse gaming industry. Most of them can only find their male gaze fixations with the big-tittied anime girls in obscure JRPG's pumped out by Japan, China, and Korea -- at best.

They're just scum. They really are. And they hate change. And they're cowards.

#rings of power #lord of the rings #lotr fandom #lotr #rop #the hobbit #neil gaiman sandman #sandman #neil gaiman #black feminism #african american #feminism #feminist #blm blacklivesmatter #hispanic #india #bipoc #women #video games #gamergate #gaming

[bigblueoctoling]

Thoughts on the antagonists of Splatoon

A twitter post (or more accurately, the responses to it) pissed me off and I have to give my thoughts.

I'm going to give my thoughts and spoiler alert Mr. Grizz is the only bad one so I'm going to talk about him last

Octavio

So, the thing that irks me about people's opinions on Octavio is, as is probably obvious if you read my last post, people who think that Octavio is redeemable, or god forgive, an "anti-hero" as I saw someone say.

On one hand, yes, Octavio inherently has some good reasons behind his actions; Octarians are a very disadvantaged people who are struggling through an energy crisis- frankly inkopolis seems to have an entirely unnecessary overabundance of energy that could easily be shared with Octarians, but isn't.

On the other hand, it generally becomes clear as we learn more about him and octarians as a whole that his motives aren't entirely just- similar to Cuttlefish. Cuttlefish is much more evidently presented as an old war vet who still holds a heavy prejudice against not just all Octarians but Octolings in general. Octavio is much the same way- while he's not morally in the wrong from stealing from the severely energy-abundant Inkopolis, it's quite clear from his actions that he's not a good leader. His actual amount of political power is vague, but either way, as the head of the Octarian Military at the very least, he surely would have some power over the heavily militarized Octarian people who are seemingly raised for the sole purpose of being soldiers. A part of the reason why the Octarian people are so disadvantaged is because the Octarian government is corrupt.

All in all, this makes Octavio a very in-depth villain, but it absolutely doesn't make him the anti-hero. He's a part of the problem, and he very clearly has an enormous bias for self-aggrandizing, propaganda, and revenge.

Commander Tartar

Tartar is a perfect representation of humanity; his entire execution is flawless. He's very directly involved in the story, directly manipulating Eight with cult-like language of escape into the promised land. He has a very direct impact on the entire story- he created the levels to filter out the most skilled test subjects for use in his cause. His cause, despite him being an AI, is decently reasoned with flawed human logic- he simply does not consider the sea life that developed into Earth's sapient species to be an adequate target to pass the torch of humanity's knowledge to, because, from his uninvolved, impersonal observation, they seem to repeat the same mistakes of mankind. He dehumanizes the people he's subjugating toward contributing towards his cause, committing genocide upon those he views as subhuman. He is the perfect encapsulation of humanity.

The idea of anyone seeing any flaw in his execution is baffling to me. Frankly I just do not think you're smart enough to have a say in the quality of a game's writing if you think that tartar is a poorly written villain.

Smollusk

So, I'm going to be frank- I feel like the people who think that Smollusk is a generic evil "take over the world!!" villain simply did not finish playing Side Order, or just didn't bother thinking about the story of Side Order enough to have a say on the matter. To be fair, I thought the same thing when I beat Smollusk the first time, but as you keep beating smollusk, they keep revealing more and more of the story.

It's one thing to just not prefer this method of storytelling, I can't say it's as perfect as, say, Tartar's execution, but even people who actually finished Side Order will say that "all the extra story is just dumped after the ending", as if for some reason that doesn't count. Like, honestly, the execution of Side Order isn't perfect, but acting like anything said after the credits just doesn't exist is simply silly.

And just for the sake of completing this analysis: Smollusk seems very much like a manifestation of a part of Marina's subconscious, and the subconscious of many Octarians who helped produce this project. Smollusk's depth comes from the way the things it says reflect the inner feelings of those who produced the game, especially Marina.

And frankly anyone who says it's "just a generic supervillain who wants to take over the world" just plain didn't read the text in the game. It was never about "taking over" the world, it was to bring everything to a state of complete stasis. I won't say Order was perfectly executed but this is objectively a very different goal from Taking Over The World Because I Am The Evil Super Genius!!!

Mr. Grizz

Mr. Grizz is objectively just a very lazy and rushed attempt to mimic Tartar. He has no relevance to the story until the very end, at which point he just exposits his ideology, which is just "fish are bad and mammals are good" surrounded by an obnoxious amount of Business Lingo which is meant to be funny. His only motive just has no meaningful depth behind it, on top of blatantly just being Tartar's goal again (humans good fish bad). He has zero relation to Alterna- the dude was shot into space, he's pretty much only in Alterna to nab their extra rocket. The levels in Alterna just arbitrarily resemble Octo Expansion's for zero reason; there's absolutely no attempt to explain why this human facility has tests for inkfish, nor is there really any reason why Mammalians are there to defend it.

For a campaign entitled "Rise of the Mammalians", Mammalians are given literally zero elaboration- not only are they very blatantly just an excuse to reuse Octarians for the fourth time, but there's no in-universe reason for them even being here. At no point is Mr. Grizz seemingly actively trying to stop you, nevermind that Alternia's entire layout doesn't really seem designed to stop you, nor does Mr. Grizz seem particularly interested in trying to stop you. The only bosses are Deep Cut, who are just kind of There on their own accord for Ambiguous Things That Have No Actual Explanation And Are Just There To Be The Thing That Lets You Get To The Final Boss.

Deep Cut are done so dirty by Splatoon 3, for the record. Unrelated to this post but expect a post on that at some point.

Ultimately, Mr. Grizz has absolutely zero meaningful impact on the entirety of Splatoon's lore. He... "dries out?" Cuttlefish for absolutely no logical reason, he just says ambiguous shit about Needing Him for his Plan but what exactly that means is left entirely vague. Nothing about his plan is really personal to Salmonids- like, Tartar specifically thinks that sea folk are undeserving of being considered on par with humans, but Mr. Grizz doesn't really elaborate on why he thinks Fish Bad, they just Are. It's not that he thinks Salmonid deserve to be subjugated, hunted, and treated like animals, he just needs golden fish eggs for power because yeah. And ultimately, killing Mr. Grizz does nothing to impact the story, it just arbitrarily completes it- we learn literally nothing of the Mammalians, Salmonids are still being subjugated to being hunted and having their young harvested, and nothing in particular becomes of Alterna. It's nothing but pure arbitration.

In conclusion, frankly, if you think Mr. Grizz is at all an interesting character, let alone better than any other antagonist, I'd LOVE to hear an explanation because the opinion genuinely makes no sense to me beyond headcanons.

#bluetext #splatoon #splatoon headcanon

[spiderlegsmusic]

Future generations will look back on this time period like we do the dark ages. Religion, in its death throes, is fighting to make a comeback in relevance by banning women’s healthcare because they want more babies born whose health and well being they won’t contribute to.

And fuck you if you were raped and molested by a stranger or family member resulting in pregnancy. Even if you’re 12. You have to carry your rape baby, especially in Texas where we lead the nation in rape babies doubling the next highest state.

Like we view the dark ages

We have a depraved degenerate piece of shit subhuman claiming to be ordained by god, confirming that yes, religion is bullshit and just a way to control the superstitious masses. If god existed, it would in no way want to be associated with trump and would actively distance itself.

The fact that that traitor insurrectionist piece of shit is allowed to run for president after trying to overthrow the govt by force (jan6), bureaucratically(fake electors scam), and by extortion (the Georgia find me more votes scam), is beyond me.

The whole country saw what he did. It’s just that republicans have gotten sick of losing elections so now they embrace fascism. They will support trumps authoritarian autocratic dictatorship because it means they won’t lose anymore elections.

And we will just let him.

See, this election isn’t Trump vs Biden. The democratic challenger could be a flaming bag of shit, it wouldn’t change the stakes. Every year, people say this election is so important and they’ve been wrong. But this year they are correct. This isn’t Trump vs Biden. It’s dictatorship vs democracy. Trump wins and he’ll crown himself king for life. Anyone who opposes him will be thrown in prison. Listen to his speeches, he says the quiet part out loud. Everyone in his campaign is saying trump’s next term will be all about retribution. RETRIBUTION against those who wouldn’t allow him to steal the last election.

There is no love, no goodness in Trump. He’s an asshole to everyone. He quotes Hitler and counts Putin, Kim, and the Hungarian dictator Orbàn as friends. He’s a scumbag using religion to solidify his cult status over the simpleminded racists who support him. He’s not a christian, he’s not friendly and he thinks Hitler did good things

Even if you hate Biden, it’s not him you are voting for by voting for him. You’re voting for a continuation of democracy, which may be battered by things like horrible Supreme Court rulings (citizens united, repealing Roe v Wade, corporate personhood) but it’s better than a Trump led dictatorship. Once democracy is gone, it’s never coming back without war and death. Is this what you want? Do you think you will survive bombs hitting your neighborhood, your apartment building? Ask people in Ukraine what that’s like.

It’s not Biden vs Trump. It’s dictatorship vs democracy. It’s black and white, no shades of gray. If trump wins, you will never vote in a meaningful election again. And if you or anyone you know complains, they will disappear. Those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it. And history is repeating itself. Hitler won by one vote. Trump won in 2016 despite getting fewer votes because of the electoral college. And if he loses again, he’ll pull the same shit as in 2020, but more forceful.

Keep trump out of the White House.

For fucks sake!

#trump #Biden #democracy #dictatorship #republicans #authoritarian #autocracy

[dystopicjumpsuit]

Stars Beyond Number - Chapter 13

As the Wind

Rating: T (rating varies by chapter; mature content will be tagged; regardless of rating, minors DNI)

Pairings: Echo x Riyo Chuchi; Gregor x OFC Cerra Kilian

Wordcount: 3.6k

Warnings and tags: suspense, some action, temporary hearing loss, Star Wars swearing

Suggested Listening:

Summary: The team undertakes an extraction mission, and Cerra sees a familiar face.

A/N: This story shares continuity with Martyrs and Kings and "Do It Again," but all three fics can be read as stand-alones.

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Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves in a field

Behaving as the wind behaves

—T. S. Eliot, “The Hollow Men”

Cerra’s contact network finally came through with a ship that satisfied all of their requirements for the Balmorra mission: an old mining vessel with an auxiliary leech. It didn’t have the speed or firepower they needed, but retrofitting it with upgraded thrusters and weapons would be fairly straightforward. 

In a stroke of pure, unadulterated bad luck, the ship’s availability coincided with Cerra’s mission to Raada, which meant that Gregor and Rex were unable to provide backup on the operation. Gregor had been distant since their ill-fated excursion to the market, apparently unreconciled to Cerra’s decision to go ahead with the mission. Fireball and Echo accompanied her instead. 

En route to Imperial military HQ, she changed into the scratchy wool officer’s uniform she’d “requisitioned.” Rex had taken a single look at it and declared that he didn’t want to know how she got it, which was probably for the best. The captain was willing to do whatever it took to get the job done, but he still balked at some of Cerra’s shadier dealings.

“Eyes front, trooper,” Echo barked.

Cerra turned in time to see Fireball snap to attention and stare fixedly out the front viewport with a guilty expression. She finished dressing quickly and went to stand behind Fireball’s seat.

“You need to get out more, buddy,” she said, punching his armored shoulder lightly. 

“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir,” he replied stiffly.

She laughed, and he relaxed as his expression turned sheepish. “Been a while, has it, soldier?”

Fireball mumbled something about entire life under his breath, but Cerra opted not to torment him any further. The plan was for Echo to drop her off far enough from HQ that she wouldn’t be spotted leaving the ship. She would walk the rest of the way to the base and pass through security with a forged chain code that Echo had provided. Once inside, she would make her way to the Raada transport. Echo had also created a set of fake orders in case anyone questioned her presence.

She had spent the past week practicing a supercilious glare. Fireball had coached her on it, reminding her to treat the clones as subhuman if she wanted to escape detection. She hated it as much as she hated the kriffing itchy wool uniform.

“Tell me one more time what his armor looks like?” Cerra asked Fireball.

“You can’t miss it,” he grinned. “I painted it myself.”

He launched into a detailed description of Nemec’s exuberant armor paint job, complete with the story about how he convinced Nemec to let him do it in the first place.

“I’m surprised your armor isn’t flashier,” she said.

Fireball shrugged. “It was better camouflage on Kashyyyk. And then… I didn’t want to paint over it. Not when it reminded me of the commander.”

Cerra squeezed his shoulder in consolation, and they lapsed into silence. As they approached the drop zone, she felt a swirl of nervous anticipation in her stomach.

“Comms will be jammed as soon as you pass through security, so you won’t be able to call for help if anything goes wrong,” Echo said. “We’ll be monitoring chatter, but we can’t hear everything.”

“Let’s hope nothing goes wrong, then,” Cerra said. “I guess I’ll see you boys on Raada in three standard rotations. Wish me luck.”

Echo grunted, and Fireball just stared at her with wide eyes. She snapped to attention and gave them a textbook salute.

“How do I look?” she asked.

“Like you never left,” Echo said.

Cerra pulled a face, then turned and headed for the back hatch of the ship. Before she could reach it, a hand closed around her elbow, and Fireball spun her around into a crushing hug.

“Thanks, Cerra,” he whispered. 

She hugged him back and kissed his cheek. “I’m going to get your brother back, Fireball. I promise you.”

He gave her one last tight squeeze, then lowered the ramp. She walked out of the ship and immediately ducked down an alleyway, following it to the opposite side of the block, and then turned and walked briskly toward HQ. She passed the First Battle Memorial and joined the security queue at the main entrance. 

Her heart began to pound as the queue slowly advanced. She kept her face carefully neutral and focused on controlling her breathing. By the time she reached the front of the queue, her hands were sweating inside her gloves, but they were steady enough as she presented her counterfeit chain code for inspection.

The TK trooper at the gate barely glanced at the code before waving her through. She walked calmly through the entrance, trying not to think that she was about to lose all contact with her squad. She fought the urge to gawk at the changes to the base since she had last been there. At that point, it had still been the Republic Center for Military Operations. Still, not so much had changed that she couldn’t find her way around, and she headed straight for the airfield.

“Lieutenant Kilian?” an unmistakably clone voice asked.

Cerra nearly turned, but she caught herself just in time and kept walking, not acknowledging the question. Her mouth went dry, and her pulse hammered in her ears. Just keep walking, just keep walking.

A hand grabbed her by the elbow, exactly where Fireball had caught her only moments before. She spun around to face her assailant, and her stomach dropped with dread as she recognized his 501st-blue painted armor.

“Cerra Kilian?” the clone repeated.

Nax, she realized. She would recognize that hairstyle anywhere.

“You’re mistaken, trooper,” she said, meeting his eyes and blatantly lying. “I’m Lieutenant Marchon.”

Nax froze, his hand still gripping her elbow. He knows. I’m going to die. She could feel the tide of panic rising in her chest, and she fought it down, remembering at the last moment to assume that haughty expression that Fireball had taught her.

“My mistake,” Nax said, releasing her arm. “Sorry, lieutenant. I thought you were someone else.”

Cerra straightened her uniform and tried to think of a response. What would a scughole Imp say right now? Something condescending and awful. Think!

“You can go about your business, lieutenant,” Nax said. “If you see Lieutenant Kilian, tell her I said hello.”

“Quite,” Cerra stammered. “Thank you, trooper.”

He nodded shortly, then turned on his heel and left. Cerra continued her rapid journey to the airfield, lightheaded with relief. She didn’t know why Nax hadn’t reported her, but she wasn’t going to stick around and find out. She hurried down the row of transports until she located the one she needed, keenly aware that at any moment she could be apprehended, and she would have no way of contacting Echo to let him know. If it happened, she would likely be dead before they ever discovered she’d been caught.

She showed her forged orders to the trooper guarding the transport, and he waved her through. Inside, she found a mixed force of clones and TK troopers. She appeared to be the only officer on board, which only made her stand out more. She kept waiting for the soldiers to turn their weapons on her, but it never happened. The last few troopers boarded, the ramp closed, and the transport launched. 

Nax never called it in.

The troopers were eerily silent as the transport jumped into hyperspace with a shudder. There was no banter, no laughter, no speculation about their assignment. Just soundless, blank helmets, devoid of color or individuality. The clone troopers sat separately from the TK troopers, as though an invisible ray shield prevented them from commingling. It was going to be a long three days.

The Imperial base on Raada bustled with activity. More transports arrived each day, and though the buildings were prefabricated and lowered into place from a Star Destroyer, a huge amount of work still needed to be done to get the base fully supplied. Cerra had been in dozens of bases with this exact layout, so at least she didn’t have to worry about getting lost.

In fact, the commotion around the base could work to her advantage, as Nemec’s absence would be less noticeable amid the throngs of new arrivals. All she had to do now was locate him, convince him that she wasn’t an Imperial spy, and get him out. The first step shouldn’t be too difficult; Nemec’s flamboyant armor paint job would definitely stand out in the crowd of shiny TK troopers.

She headed for the mess hall, figuring it was as good a place to start as any. He wasn’t there, so next she checked the barracks, only to come up empty again. She fabricated an excuse to inspect the walker bay, and didn’t find him—though that had been a long shot. It occurred to her that she could be missing him by mere moments, but she couldn’t very well start asking random troopers if they’d spotted a clone in stunning green armor wandering around the base.

As the putative supply officer, she’d been allocated a small office, so she holed up inside it while she planned her next move. It would make the most sense to stake out either the barracks or the mess; at some point, Nemec would need to go to both of them. Her stomach rumbled, making the decision for her, and she headed to the mess hall.

There were a few officers inside, as well as several troopers. Once again, she noted that the clones sat apart from the TKs. She picked up a tray and moved through the line, feeling an odd sense of nostalgia as she ladled the unidentifiable beige sludge onto her tray. She found a seat with a clear view of the mess hall entrance. She sat alone, knowing that she would draw attention if she were the only natborn to sit with the clones.

As she ate, Cerra observed the strange dynamics of the room. Obviously, the clones had their own territory. The TK troopers had claimed a sizable chunk of the room as well. But what surprised her was that none of the officers sat with the TK troopers. They either clustered in small cliques or sat on their own as she did. It seemed that the Imperial hierarchy was much more rigidly enforced than it had been under the Republic.

She ate as slowly as possible, prolonging her surveillance of the mess, but at last, she could delay no longer. She dropped her tray at the bussing station and headed back to the hangar. If it took her much longer to locate Nemec, she would need to get her office set up to maintain her cover. 

She rounded a corner and nearly collided with a group of troopers. As she stumbled backward, one of them reached out to steady her.

“Sorry, sir. I didn’t see you there,” he said in a familiar voice.

Clones, she realized as she took in their armor. This group all had painted armor instead of the shiny white plastoid she’d mostly seen so far. She scanned the group for one in green, but didn’t see the unmistakable design Fireball had described to her.

“It was my fault,” she said. “I wonder if you could help me find someone, though?”

“Depends on who you’re looking for,” the trooper said. 

“I’m trying to get my office set up, and I was told to ask for help from a clone trooper in green armor with a yellow—”

“That’d be Nemec,” a second trooper offered. “I think I saw him headed out for a patrol, but I can comm him for you.”

“Unless you’d prefer my help,” a third trooper said in a flirtatious tone as he shouldered his way to the front of the group. “I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”

Cerra bit back a laugh. “I’m flattered, but I think it would be best if I just go with the trooper assigned to me. I don’t want to risk scugging off the base commander the day I arrive.”

“Too bad,” the trooper replied. “If you change your mind—oof!”

The first trooper elbowed him in the ribs, hard. “She’s not interested, Crusher. Take a hint.”

“Nemec is on his way, sir,” the second clone said. “Where would you like him to meet you?”

“The hangar, please,” Cerra said, knowing that she was failing miserably at impersonating the cold, arrogant Imperials that Fireball had described.

“Do you need an escort?”

“I can find my way, but thank you for the offer, and for your help,” Cerra said, excusing herself.

She continued toward the hangar, keenly aware of the clones’ eyes following her. She forced herself to maintain a steady pace, though she wanted to break into a run. Finally, she turned another corner and was out of their view. She hurried the rest of the way to the hangar and arrived just as Nemec pulled in on a BARC speeder. Troopers milled about, unloading and stacking crates from the transport. She spotted a small bank of V-wings and hoped they wouldn’t be an issue during the extraction.

“Are you the supply officer?” Nemec asked as he dismounted.

“Yes, and you must be Nemec,” she said.

He nodded shortly. “Show me what you need.”

He did not sound thrilled to meet her, and she couldn’t blame him. He was an elite warrior, reduced to running menial errands for pampered officers. She showed him the crates with “her” gear, then led him to the office she’d been assigned. Once inside, she closed and locked the door.

Nemec whipped around, startled. Cerra raised her hands to show she meant him no harm.

“What kind of game are you playing?” he demanded, looming over her.

“Fireball sent me,” she said quietly.

Nemec went unnaturally still. “Who’s Fireball?” he asked cautiously.

“He said to tell you that the netcasters weren’t the worst thing about Kashyyyk.”

“It was the mud,” Nemec replied. “Who are you?”

“My name is Cerra Kilian,” she said. “I’m here to get you out.”

“Kilian?” Nemec asked, tilting his head to the side. “I don’t suppose you know—”

“He’s my uncle,” Cerra said. “When can you be ready to leave?”

“Now,” Nemec said immediately. “What’s the plan?”

“We need to get away from the base and meet up with Fireball and the rest of my squad at these coordinates,” Cerra said, displaying the rendezvous point on a small holoprojector. “Do you think you can get a BARC speeder without being noticed? It took longer to find you than I’d hoped, and we’re on a tight timeline. We’ll stand a better chance of making the rendezvous if we don’t have to go on foot.”

“I can get the bike, but it’ll be trickier to get away from the base without being spotted. They’ll notice a passenger. Unless you can come up with a convincing explanation, they’ll shoot us down.”

Cerra pondered the conundrum. “What is the Empire even doing on Raada?”

“Growing some kind of engineered plants for rations,” Nemec said. 

“I can work with that,” she said. “I’ll say that as supply officer, I have been ordered to supplement the base’s rations with the local produce, and I’m conducting an inspection.”

“Which you’ve ordered me to assist,” Nemec said. “It could work. I hope you’re good at banthashitting.”

“I don’t have to banthashit; I was a supply officer for thirteen years,” Cerra said. “I can throw so much technical jargon at them that they won’t know if I’m even speaking Basic.”

“If you say so,” Nemec said doubtfully.

“I do,” Cerra said. “And one more thing: as far as the Empire knows, I’m Lieutenant Marchon. Let’s get going.”

They returned quickly to the hangar, and Nemec mounted the speeder as Cerra climbed into the sidecar. As he had predicted, the guards at the main entrance of the base ordered them to halt.

“Where are you taking this officer?” a TK trooper demanded.

“I’ve been ordered to take Lieutenant Marchon to the settlement to inspect the farms,” Nemec said.

“Under whose authority?” the trooper asked.

“Admiral Coburn,” Cerra replied in the most condescending Coruscanti drawl she could summon. “When he assigned me to Raada, he ordered me to supplement the base’s rations with the produce we grow locally. Would you care to ask him yourself?”

“No, ma’am. Proceed.” He waved them through the gate.

“Not bad,” Nemec said once they were safely out of earshot.

“It wouldn’t have worked on a clone,” Cerra said. “Lucky break.”

Nemec steered them toward the settlement until they were out of view of the base, then brought the bike to a halt.

“The speeder has a tracking beacon,” Nemec said. “We’ll need to take it off, or they’ll be able to follow us to the rendezvous.” 

Cerra checked her chronometer. It was going to be close, but they would make it in time, assuming nothing went wrong. She hopped out of the sidecar and searched for the transmitter.

“Kriff, it’s hardwired in with a kill switch,” she said. “If I take it off, the bike won’t start.”

“What are we going to do, then?” he asked.

“Head toward the settlement. We’ll ditch the bike there and go the rest of the way on foot.”

“Won’t that put the farmers at risk once the Empire discovers we’re missing?” Nemec asked.

“Fine,” Cerra sighed. “We’ll get closer to the village, then I’ll sabotage the bike. It’ll look like an accident. Hopefully, the explosion will be big enough to explain the lack of bodies.”

“Oh, I can help with that,” Nemec chuckled, handing her a thermal detonator.

“That’ll do it,” she said.

They remounted the bike and sped toward the settlement. When they were about three klicks away, they stopped again, and Cerra quickly yanked a few wires. She set the detonator on a timer and started the bike.

“Start running,” she said, jamming the accelerator.

The bike zoomed away, shuddering violently. She sprinted after Nemec, and within seconds, the speeder engine sparked violently and exploded. The detonator went off immediately after, and the shock wave knocked her to the ground. Her ears rang as she struggled to get up. Nemec doubled back and yanked her to her feet. He shouted something, but she couldn’t make it out over the high-pitched shriek in her head. Without waiting for a response, he took off running, dragging her behind him as she stumbled.

“—have to move!” 

His voice was muffled, and she shook her head to try to clear it. It didn’t work, but she jogged after him regardless. Nausea rose in her belly, but she tamped it down. Her breath was harsh, and her lungs ached. Run, Cerra. One foot in front of the other. Keep going.

They ran until they reached an outcropping of rocks that provided some cover, and Nemec finally slowed.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

She nodded, breathing hard. At least she could hear again.

“Good,” he said. “We still have a long way to go, so we need to keep walking.”

“I am walking,” she said irritably. 

“Walk faster,” Nemec said.

As much as she wanted to snap back at him, he had a point, so she picked up the pace. “We can still make it,” she said. “The bike bought us some time.”

They walked for hours, carefully rationing the small amount of water in Nemec’s canteen. Cerra stripped off the stifling wool uniform jacket and tied it around her waist. Her undershirt was soaked with sweat from the hot sun, and soon she was covered in a fine film of dust that clung to her damp skin. Silently, she cursed her karking uncomfortable boots. They were made for sitting at a desk, not trekking across rocky terrain.

She checked her chronometer. We can still make it.

“Will they scramble the V-wings if a ship enters the atmosphere?” she asked.

Nemec shook his head. “I don’t think their surveillance is that advanced. That’s why they picked this system; nobody comes here.”

“Security was pretty tight at the base,” Cerra observed.

“We’ve had a little trouble with the locals. Some of them objected to the Empire ordering them to torch their own crops and grow ration plants instead. Can’t imagine why,” Nemec said drily.

His voice sounded deeper than Fireball’s, more like Rex, and Cerra wondered how old he was.

“Were you and Fireball batchmates?” she asked curiously.

He turned his head to study her before he answered. He still hadn’t removed his helmet.

“No,” he said. “We met when I was serving under your uncle. Fireball was just a shiny. Didn’t even have a name yet. His whole batch got wiped out by a vulture droid in his first battle. Poor kids never saw it coming. Fireball ran toward the explosion to try to save them, but they were already gone.”

“Is that how he got his name?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “How’d you get mixed up in all this?”

“Just lucky, I guess,” she said.

“You said you’d been a supply officer for thirteen years,” he pressed.

“Corellian military defense force,” she said. “Then GAR.”

“Not Imperial army?”

“Not so far,” she said.

“I knew you were too nice to be one of them,” Nemec said.

“Fireball will be disappointed to hear that. He spent the last week coaching me on how to be a scughole to clones.”

“Your mistake was treating us like humans,” Nemec said. “Wouldn’t want anyone to see you doing that.”

“I guess I’m just not cut out to be an Imperial officer,” Cerra said. “There goes Plan Besh.”

“I’d say don’t quit your day job, but I don’t know what that is,” he said.

“Is treason a day job?” she asked. “It doesn’t pay much, but I get a lot of satisfaction out of it.”

Nemec laughed, the sound harsh and distorted by his helmet. “You’re not so bad, Lieutenant Traitor.”

---

Next chapter

#tbb echo #captain gregor #captain rex #riyo chuchi #oc: cerra kilian #echo x riyo chuchi #gregor x oc #the bad batch #star wars #sw tbb #bad batch fanfic #star wars fanfic #stars beyond number #dystopicjumpsuit writes #Spotify

[veliseraptor]

Headcanon ask - Song Lan and touch aversion? (Specifically, if you want, how this might interact with Xue Yang and being used to being seen as dirty)

oooh yes. I don't think there's necessarily something that "made" Song Lan touch-averse (and I do like touch-averse specifically, not just generally mysophobic though that's probably at least part of the problem and also true); it adds in a fun way to the perception of him as cold and aloof and gives me fun and spicy opportunities for my headcanons about his relationship with Xiao Xingchen.

but yeah, not just about the germs/feeling of uncleanliness, but also just the specific feeling of skin-touch is hard. not impossible, and he'll make exceptions particularly when it feels important, and clothes make a big difference (much easier to touch someone's clothed arm than their hand, for instance). I think it's always been true for him, though it took a while to articulate, and growing up in a temple that I don't think was particularly physically affectionate (affectionate in other ways!) shielded him from it really being an issue for a while.

but it is also fun to think about the way that Song Lan's air of untouchability (figurative) is partly a cultivated way of (literally) making himself untouchable, so that people will not cross his boundaries in that way, but that also results in the aforementioned cold-and-aloof relationship that, paired with the fact that I think Song Lan is just generally not all that good with people/very inclined to be social, gives him a reputation for...not hostility, because he's too righteous to be hostile, but definitely not warmth. and this is in direct contrast to Xiao Xingchen who ends up with an aura of untouchability entirely against his own will and he would really like to be touched. but in both instances it results in a certain loneliness and isolation from others.

and then how that plays with Xue Yang...the intensity of Xue Yang's reaction to Song Lan's reaction to being touched (which, admittedly, is pretty harsh; I don't think it was really thought through, though, necessarily) has always been interesting to me. like, yes, Xue Yang takes things personally, he offends easily and reacts to that offense with extreme measures, but the sheer immediate loathing he expresses toward Song Lan specifically for his reaction, even after Jin Guangyao explains it's not about him specifically...

Xue Yang has a history of being perceived as, yes, dirty, subhuman, beastly, and I think that bothers him more than he'd want to admit to anyone. the implication of "Song Zichen is mysophobic and that's why he lashed out when you touched him" doesn't read to him as "this is a general issue with touch and not about you specifically"; it reads as "this guy thinks you're dirty and can contaminate him with it just by touching him" and that sets off a big blaring angry alarm in Xue Yang's brain.

I think there's also something there about...an awareness that the perception of him as dirty/low is something that makes him acutely vulnerable and therefore something he's particularly sensitive to. somewhere in the back of Xue Yang's mind it's a precursor to being targeted in a more dangerous way and he's going to get out ahead of it.

it's something about Xiao Xingchen's condemnation of him as "disgusting" that finally triggers Xue Yang's nuclear bomb detonation in their last conversation, and I don't think that's incidental, in the same way that it's Song Lan's response to being touched by Xue Yang that specifically and directly sparks Xue Yang's anger at him (as opposed to Xiao Xingchen). I went back to look at the text and it is indeed Song Lan specifically who Xue Yang threatens in the Villainous Friends extra, though he expresses contempt and dislike for them both, to be sure:

"I find such fake, conceited people to be the absolute most disgusting. That Xiao Xingchen clearly wasn't much older than me, but still poking his nose into other people's business - annoying. And then he started lecturing me. And that Song one." He sneered. "I only brushed his arm, so what was with that look he gave me? Sooner or later, I'll dig out his eyes and shatter his heart. Let's see what he'll do once that happens." (trans. Exiled Rebels, emphasis mine)

it's only after his arrest that Xiao Xingchen himself becomes a target of Xue Yang's rage.

Song Lan didn't mean to press a berserk button when he lashed out at Xue Yang; I think it honestly is something where he would react, if not the same exactly, with the same discomfort and unhappiness to anybody touching him, often including Xiao Xingchen.

#conversating #woobifiedvillain #song lan #xue yang #the sad queer cultivators show #aggressively headcanons

[dmc-questions-anon]

prototypelq:

"Looks like I`m back again with some new Subhuman agenda!

Subhuman is 100% perfect thematically for Dantes arc in dmc5. 5 Loves its parallels to 3, and it doesn`t end with the same general level structure, shot-to-shot perfectly copied cinematics but also continues into the character arcs! One twin climbs the tree (=tower), giving into his hurt/hate and this makes him tap into his demonic side (which the series associates with these emotions), and the other follows, all the while his interaction with other characters lets him appreciate humanity (as in, kindness and morals) which allows him to grow as a character. But, this particular parallel is reversed - as in Dante is the twin to loose himself to hurt this time, and V(ergil) has to grow and learn, and Subhuman and BTL respectively, perfectly capture this.

BTL is loved and praised (righfully), especially for all the emotion it conveys, but Subhuman is... not appreciated as much. I'm not here to judge anyone's music taste (I didn't think I was able of liking somehting so heavy before playing the game, and tbh, without the gameplay to accompany the song, I don't think I'd enjoy it as much on it's own), but I think Subhuman deserves more credit for being a banger fun song, AND for perfectly translating the emotionsof the character behind it (= Dante running straightforwardly, abandoning his allies and friends in a vulnerable state behind, for the kill on Vergil, basically consciously agreeing to commit his greatest regret that haunted him for decades a second time with no remorse).

tldr Subhuman is great"

(Song Interpretation)

Subhuman (Dante's Theme from DMC 5)

First off, yes, Subhuman is an absolute banger. Though it did honestly take multiple listens before the song grew on me.

I'd have to disagree with you that Dante was going to kill Vergil with no remorse though. The fact that he doesn't want to kill Vergil is the reason he, as you said, runs straightforward for the kill on Vergil. I'd say that if he actually genuinely wanted to kill Vergil he wouldn't have been so laser focused on doing so. He's trying to get it done and over with. It's like ripping off a band-aid, the slower you do it the more it'll hurt, the faster you do it, the quicker the pain will be done and over with, I think that's Dante's thought process here. I also think it's worth noting that Dante does try and reason with Vergil while he's Urizen, right before he eats the Qliphoth Fruit.

I have a lot more thoughts on Dante in DMC 5 that I was going to type out here, but I've ultimately decided to put my Dante in DMC 5 analysis in a separate post because I think I'll have an easier time transitioning to new subjects in a post that's meant to be an analysis and not just a response to this.

#Here's to hoping that putting the analysis in it's own post + an outline that's more than just in my head will help me word things #because part of my issue I think was transitioning from my response into the analysis #It just felt out of left field and I think the new post will fix that #Devil May Cry #DMC #DMC 5 #Dante DMC #Song Interpretation

[mothman-clarice]

Ok so I watched american psycho for the first time last night and I got a great idea for a cool crossover/thought experiment.

What if Patrick Bateman met Hannibal Lecter?

Quick note: I haven't read the book american psycho but I have done a little research about it. Also I'm aware that theres a lot of debate on whether or not patrick actually kills anybody since he is a very unreliable narrator. For the sake of this analysis we will assume all of his murders are real since I dont feel like opening up that complicated can of worms lol.

So first I'd like to do a little character analysis/compare and contrast with both of them cus I think these characters are very interesting to compare.

Let's see what they have in common first. They both are serial killers and cannibals who are lethally efficient and prolific. They are both very successful with Bateman being a millionaire wall street investor and hannibal being Lithuanian royalty and a successful psychiatrist. They are characterized as having some sort of mental illness/disorder, bateman obviously being a stereotypical psychopath plus possibly antisocial personality disorder and hannibal having several which I cant name off the top of my head. They are both known for having "high class" taste and deeply emerse themselves in fine culture.

Now let's talk about their differences...

While yes they both share one key character trait (being murderers) they are still vastly different in terms of personality and behavior. Let's start with their attitude/tendencies towards murder.

Hannibal may be a prolific vicious murderer but if you look closely enough you will see he actually has some form of moral compass. He never hurts children, only adults over the age of 20. He rarely if ever kills women (at least to my knowledge, I haven't read all the books or seen all the movies) which is very likely rooted in his chivalrous nature. He never kills out of the blue, he always has some reason for it, be it his victim making a rude remark or doing something hannibal finds reprehensible. No matter what, he always has some reasoning behind his killings. So while yes he is a vicious murderer, he does actually have a moral compass if you look hard enough.

And then there's Patrick Bateman.

Patrick's murderous behavior is completely different from hannibal. He is erratic and random, killing whoever just so happens to be closest whenever he gets the urge. He has compulsions to kill whereas hannibal pretty much has full self control and only kills of his own free will. Patrick never has any clear reasoning for his murders beyond very vague rationalizations which mostly boil down to "they are different from me" or they said something he perceived as a personal insult. Unlike hannibal, bateman has absolutely no moral compass since he completely lacks empathy. He despises anyone who is higher or lower class than him (especially the lower class), he despises women and views them as objects made for his sexual pleasure and nothing else. Women, especially sex workers, are actually his primary targets since he already views them as subhuman and knows he has great power over them physically and often financially. To him humans are tools he uses to achieve his desires. He completely lacks any emotion, even saying his only emotions are greed and disgust.

He is the purest example of the Id you could possibly think of. His brain is controlled by the most base primal instincts: hoard resources to preserve your own survival, fight and kill anyone you see as a threat or as different from you, and have sex as much as possible. His ultimate goal in life is to fit in with the rest of the white cishet male wall street yuppies, his "tribe" if you want to continue with the primitive themes.

In regards to emotion hannibal does very much feel. Yes his perception of emotion may be different from most people but he still absolutely has the capacity to feel sadness, love, joy, and more alongside anger and disgust. He may be violent but he is not devoid of empathy. We all know he falls deeply in love with clarice because he empathizes with her trauma and struggle. He recognizes her frustration with trying to get the male dominated world to notice her capability and strength. He marvels at her brilliance and adores her independence, he loves her, so so much.

What does bateman love? Well he certainly loves money and power. But does he feel that way about anything else? No. The closest thing he feels to love is lust, primal carnal desire. He hates women, he only values them for sex and nothing else. (Sorry to break the essay emerson but I just need to say this. Why didnt this guy just get a fleshlight? A sex doll? Like if you hate women so much but wanna fuck just get a fuckin toy dude, I'm sure they existed in the 1980s 🙄)

Another thing I noticed they differed with is their attitude towards wealth and media. Patrick is obviously obsessed with both. Media permeates every moment of his existence, constantly listening to music every chance he gets, "watching" movies (mostly just playing them as background noise), obsessing over p0rnography, and so much more. His attitude towards porn is especially interesting to me as he doesnt seem to consume it in the way people normally do. The first scene that comes to mind is the one where hes on a phone call with Evelyn while a porn video plays on his tv. He doesnt even look at the screen, he seemingly shows zero interest. Theres nothing near him in the scene that would suggest he was "enjoying" it (tissues, lotion, y'know..). Its like he just put it on as background noise just like he does with movies. He has similar behavior when he brings in the escorts and rambles about music while instructing them to perform for him, despite the fact he spends most of the beginning walking around his apartment not even looking at the women. It's like he has no idea how human sexuality works, he obviously doesnt feel horny given those two examples, it's like he just has sex and looks at porn because it gives him some kind of status or maybe it just gives him something to do. Maybe he does it purely because it seems like something a "normal human" would do.

As for his obsession with wealth, bateman seems to have a similar attitude. He hates going out with people to diners since we know he hates people in general. He seems to only go out with his fellow yuppies to feel like hes part of something. He pretends to get along with them and says anything they like to hear, putting on a character as if he was playing out a fantasy in his head. He expects people to be impressed with his wealth and feels deeply insulted when they're not. He sees wealth as a necessity, he constantly needs to be richer and more extravagant than everyone else. He is the ultimate personification of greed, a gluttonous, jealous dragon whose hoard is never big enough.

As for hannibal? Having been raised in royalty he naturally grew accustomed to lavish living and views it as his normal. He feels most comfortable having gourmet meals regularly, his day clearly planned out with plenty of activities to do, and generally a life full of savoring the finer things and enjoying many of the pleasures of noble life. Unlike patrick who's idea of lavish is hoarding expensive things he doesn't need and parading them around to inflate his ego, hannibal's idea of lavish living is playing piano, watching Shakespeare plays, reading classical literature, admiring fine art both old and new. He has no need for parading around his wealth because it doesnt matter to him.

You see what I mean? Bateman views wealth as a tool to gain status and be part of a community. Hannibal does not really perceive wealth since it has always been a part of his life, he doesnt want more wealth since riches alone dont give him pleasure. To hannibal wealth is simply the norm and something he pays no mind to, whereas patrick is utterly and completely addicted to it.

I feel like I've rambled long enough and pinned down their primary differences. I honestly had a lot of fun writing this! I find both characters incredibly fascinating and I thoroughly enjoyed dissecting them both side by side. I hope you all liked it too of course.

Also, good news! I'm finally starting my week long vacation from work so I'll have a lot more free time to post. So look forward to more activity from me in the future :)

#clarice starling #hannibal #hannibal lecter #silence of the lambs #sotl #the silence of the lambs #thomas harris #hannibal the cannibal #patrick bateman #american psycho #slashers #movie icons #movie discussion #cult film

[cordeliawhohung]

okokkokokokok i have so many questions. I thought of like 12 last night but didnt write them down so lets see how many i can remember. Okay, so does Simon view everyone who isnt him as an animal? How does he view people who are ranked higher than him?

Is johnny/bonnie/everyone else ACTUALLY animal hybrids or somehting or is Simon just so fucked up that he genuinely views them as such and now john is so fucked that he also genuinely thinks so?

Also, does Johnny genuinely think he's a dog?? What?

If simon does think everyone is an animal, especially johnny, how does he reconcile fucking him? Or does he not think about it? Does simon ave any genuine affection towards Johnny?

soes simon have any genuine affection towards Bonnie?

If not, will he?

I have more but i forgor ill ask them later when i remember thnak you so much I LIVE LAUGH LOVE your work

answering under the cut as to not bog up timelines lmao

Okay, so does Simon view everyone who isnt him as an animal?

yes and no? here in part 4 we see him def seeing most people being below him. not EXACTLY animals. animals is more of a metaphor for him being a freak and not being able to form proper relationships.

Simon doubled down on his cold expression, eyes screaming to the man about the ten different ways he knew how to butcher a human. Neither man spoke a word to one another as the item was scanned, yet Simon wished he had grabbed his knife instead of cash when he was asked to pay for it. Animals shouldn’t look at owners like that.

he obviously recognizes people are actually humans, but still chooses to separate them from him at the same time. because he's fucked. in the head. there is little rhyme or reason to it.

How does he view people who are ranked higher than him?

i go into that a bit here in this ask

Is johnny/bonnie/everyone else ACTUALLY animal hybrids or somehting or is Simon just so fucked up that he genuinely views them as such and now john is so fucked that he also genuinely thinks so? Also, does Johnny genuinely think he's a dog?? What?

no one has ever been explained as being a hybrid, nor does simon see anyone as being a hybrid. again, the animal/pet/mutt/etc comments are just degradation and metaphors. no one thinks they are an animal, i don't think i've ever mentioned anything about hybrids/animal qualities like tails or ears or anything either. everyone is fully aware they're human lmao. that's what makes this a horror story. these are humans, and simon is still treating them this way. i explain a bit more here in this ask

If simon does think everyone is an animal, especially johnny, how does he reconcile fucking him? Or does he not think about it?

simon doesn't think johnny is an actual animal. just subhuman. a lesser. it's the natural cycle of things. dehumanized to fit his idea of how things should be.

soes simon have any genuine affection towards Bonnie? If not, will he?

no, and he never will. i've tried to make that very clear in previous asks because it's made people very upset but, it would be character assassination for simon to ever be affectionate toward anything lol. that's what makes this a horror story.

thank you for your questions! sorry if i sounded a little short, it's just a lot of them i've answered many times in previous asks! if you're curious about more pet!au stuff, feel free to check out the tag! i've answered a lot of questions there, but if there's something you can't find there, feel free to shoot me an ask about it (:

#core responds #pet!au

[beardedmrbean]

Okay thank you for liking my Jrpg idea. Actually during the launch of Diablo 4, a lot of og Diablo fans realize the age gaps between them and the new blood is that many new blood around their own kids ages.

Hell I knew about Diablo because my dad played the second game on the family computer.

Meh, dystopian Ya novels died in the mid 10’s. Also this

“Hey writers, maybe try writing and working out a solution occasionally, like, as said, patching up a familial relationship issue.”

Well Encanto did that, yes yes the running gag that the big fantasy is elder members apologizing.

Hmm given the abuse my stepmom put me through and my little sister, who was raised by her since the age of 6, develop depression so she can’t join the navy. And the bitch said my little sister said she faking it

Also keep in mind my stepmom is 14 years older than. So she a millenial, like yes she an incest survivor and came from a broken family. Sliver lining she isn’t a misandrist

But I can smell her toxic ass in modern “abuse survivor groups” like on tumblr

So when you see people on social media and the entertainment industry have the same toxicity and try to INFANTILIZE such garbage because they are women with a hard life.

You get pissed.

Oh sorry have to get it out, but the reason why say family healing from a mess is rare in modern media.

Welll a lot of modern writers have unresolved parental issues and treat the audience like their therapists. But feel hard when the writers still think they are the abused child with no power vs the insufferable manchildren that want to take away our human rights

And omg can we go back to HEALING abused children vs INFANTIZING them?

Like this idea that abused people need to be docile for the rest of their lives. Huh, explain a coworker of mine out of the kindness of his heart got me a GameStop gift card

Okay this anon is weird, but I often go

“Okay can we all stop acting like we are an abused character in a kids cartoon? Yes we don’t repeat the same cycle as our abusers. We still have toxicity we need to control…unless you believe you don’t have any.”

I send a better Jrpg, now I shouldn’t have been on here at that age…

I was EXTREMELY uncomfortable with the dehumanization and Nazis level stuff tumblr had towards white people. Like these was from fellow blacks and non whites. So them calling white people subhumans that need to be wipeout

Can for the love of god anyone explain to me why a 13 year old black child who just managed to make sure I never in the same house as my abuser (who never got punished. Enjoy your lonely death when your youngest daughter ditched you in a nursery cunt!) have more empathy and compassion to humans than people who were in their late teens or in COLLEGE?!

What the FUCK cause me to have better morals than the fuckers who grew up on BTAS and ATLA during it height of popularity?

Hell I knew about Diablo because my dad played the second game on the family computer.

I bought 2 a few months after moving back to CA from FL was the only video game I had for like 8.5 years till I got FF6 on steam a couple months back, love that game, both of them. Can't do 3 I get vertigo, never tried 4.

Meh, dystopian Ya novels died in the mid 10’s. Also this

I'm old things run together for me at times as a result, that and people keep bringing them up all the time.

“Hey writers, maybe try writing and working out a solution occasionally, like, as said, patching up a familial relationship issue.” Well Encanto did that, yes yes the running gag that the big fantasy is elder members apologizing.

Fantasy is that because young writers blame their elders for every problem in the world even the ones that predate them.

Hmm given the abuse my stepmom put me through and my little sister, who was raised by her since the age of 6, develop depression so she can’t join the navy. And the bitch said my little sister said she faking it

And here I thought white women were supposed to be more willing to accept mental illness as a thing others have.

But I can smell her toxic ass in modern “abuse survivor groups” like on tumblr

That's the other option ya, social media points

And omg can we go back to HEALING abused children vs INFANTIZING them?

Like this idea that abused people need to be docile for the rest of their lives. Huh, explain a coworker of mine out of the kindness of his heart got me a GameStop gift card

That's the therapy right there, it's different for different people, and genuine kindness, like learning about rome, or building a shed, or many other things can be therapy.

Reese Witherspoon did a movie called Wild, based on a memoir by Cheryl Strayed who afaik that's the only thing she wrote, apparently looking I'm wrong, but she did a 1100 mile hike up the pacific crest, and it was therapy, woman from my church who's husband just died of cancer recently is doing something similar in Europe except it's a pilgrimage walk and nowhere near as isolated, still 8 weeks and therapy.

“Okay can we all stop acting like we are an abused character in a kids cartoon? Yes we don’t repeat the same cycle as our abusers. We still have toxicity we need to control…unless you believe you don’t have any.”

Gaslight the trauma away, or maybe realize it's not so traumatic after all, or things in between too.

Can for the love of god anyone explain to me why a 13 year old black child who just managed to make sure I never in the same house as my abuser (who never got punished. Enjoy your lonely death when your youngest daughter ditched you in a nursery cunt!) have more empathy and compassion to humans than people who were in their late teens or in COLLEGE?!

You were less concerned with how people perceived you where as they felt the need to dehumanize other people and bring them down below their level in their minds so they could feel superior.

Short version even with all the trauma you had/have more self esteem than they do.

What the FUCK cause me to have better morals than the fuckers who grew up on BTAS and ATLA during it height of popularity?

For me it's Mr Rogers and Sesame Street, going with church upbringing that never made me feel lesser for being who I was is another primary one that ran longer than watching Mr Rogers, breaks my heart people got my saviour so wrong as to use him as a hammer to harm others, that ain't who he is.

Fundies may think they're getting the rules right but they forget that the greatest commandment is love, Jesus is the carpenter let him take care of the hammer.

For you it may be that you actually took what you learned from those shows to heart, lots of people did and lots of people got it right, lots of people loved Steven Universe too, and then they nearly bullied an artist to suicide and formed online hate mobs over other peoples opinions and interpretations.

#zoomer huey anon

[dangermousie]

I really really love Mo Xi. He is just so freaking righteous. But also, I like how  (and that is realistic), for Mo Xi like most people, everything is seen through a personal lens - he fell in love with Gu Mang, a slave (and then former slave) and so saw the humanity of his societal lessers - because Gu Mang was one and because Gu Mang cared about the other members of the slave caste. He would have never been an unhinged person gratuitously inflicting pain just because he can - that is not in his nature - but I don’t think he’d have ever been considerate and viewed “lessers” as humans if it wasn’t for Gu Mang. His very personal feelings led him to rejecting societal beliefs, as a gateway, and isn’t that always the case?

The way Mo Xi got up from his almost-deathbed, literally still bleeding from the wound inflicted by Gu Mang, and gave away a decade of his life to protect the lives and rights of strangers, and not just strangers but those their entire society sees as subhuman - because they mattered to Gu Mang, because they were all they had left of Gu Mang. I have no words.

The rest is spoilery so behind readmore, @aysekira stay away :)

And on reread, I hate the emperor even more, with a burning undying passion. Because he never meant to execute the army or yank the slaves’ right to cultivate as he needed that as goad and leash on Gu Mang, but he saw the opportunity to extract something else for the same thing, he sold the same thing twice - to both Gu Mang and Mo Xi’s extreme detriment; Mo Xi will never get a decade (!) back, Gu Mang will never get his own years of horror and torture back. And it was all for nothing, all for power cravings of a psychopath. 

It is all so much in keeping with Meatbun’s themes of seeming not being truth. Mo Xi IS cold and reserved and awkward. He has also done more for these men than anyone but Gu Mang. (It’s another side of the coin with JYX who is loved because he comes across as warm and humble but he is a monster.)

I loved this!

I love this confirmation that no, Gu Mang was never raped in that brothel or really not even abused as badly as he could have been due to the array. It’s a small bit of mercy in the whole thing.

I love the whole “they save each other’s lives but also souls” trope so much, over and over and over this happens. 

You know, that wild party in Murong Lian’s house reads SO differently on reread, it’s crazy.

Perhaps my favorite “aha!” moment is when Murong Lian looks at Gu Mang and loudly proclaims that slaves can only ever be slaves, their blood is always filthy - reading this while knowing that (a) both ML and GM know they are half-brothers and same blood flows through their veins and Gu Mang is actually blue-blooded by their societal standards is a TRIP! (b) at the end of the novel, Murong Lian’s ending is to run a school where anyone, slave or noble, can be taught for free to reach their potential, and to run it with Gu Mang is even more of a TRIP! Murong Lian’s masks have masks, but also, the school thing isn’t just a repudiation of their societal norms or his mother’s poison, it’s also (though I don’t think he ever thinks of it this way) in a way an atonement for his treatment and dehumanization of Gu Mang as a slave who should have no rights when they were children and teens. I think the reason I find ML so endlessly fascinating (he is probably my favorite supporting character in all of Meatbun) is because a lot of her characters are consistently good or bad (and the reveal or change is you thought they were bad/good but it turns out it’s the other way) but with ML it’s that, a bit, yes - he’s trying to save Gu Mang and get rid of monster emperor etc, but also Murong Lian was not ALWAYS good, he was a monster child and a twisted teen who actually grew up into a fucked up but heroic person and it’s basically a pretty rare arc.

Also, I was screaming at the throw-away line that Murong Lian was there when Mo Xi vowed ten years off his life to protect Gu Mang’s remnants and slave rights. He KNOWS how hardcore Mo Xi is for Gu Mang, he’s known for years.

#cnovel #yuwu

[messiahzzz]

So I came across your post for Wyll. And even though you did an update it really did shake me to see the silencing black voices and how they come off as “hostile.” As a black gamer myself and black character is treated (usually) like a subhuman. On pages where people calm them slurs and other vile things. And we’re told to essentially “get over it.” And in this regard when it comes to Wyll, we see that he has less content than the other 5 origin characters. Which is odd since he’s been around from the very beginning. Yes, he did have a rewrite due to white people saying “he’s not trustworthy/he’s to mean” like black people as a whole are supposed to fit into a nice little mold that suits them. Do I think Larian should have stood on business and kept EA Wyll as he was? Absolutely. Do I enjoy the Wyll we got at release? Absolutely. But hearing takes like yours when you, in the past, said that Wyll needs more content. It’s like you’re backpedaling to fit a narrative or be more palatable for a certain audience.

I don’t know man. It was just hurtful to read really.

“But hearing takes like yours when you, in the past, said that Wyll needs more content. It’s like you’re backpedaling to fit a narrative or be more palatable for a certain audience.”

this is going to be a long reply, but let me start it off by saying: i have always said so and i’ve never claimed anything different, even on the exact post you are currently referring to. i fully and wholeheartedly believe that wyll deserves more content until he has the exact same amount of scenes like everyone else. this includes the quality and any other aspect of his story that is in thorough need of improvement. this is something that won’t ever change.

for the sake of full transparency, these are all of the posts i’ve written that vaguely address this entire topic. [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]

the original post is — like i’ve said many, many times by now — a mere scene tally. meant to compare the amount of content (not the quality or substance thereof) wyll currently has in the game, taken in strict comparison to the other companions. not addressing the racial stereotypes and tropes present in wyll’s story in this specific post was a conscious choice i made.

i didn’t want this specific post to turn into a discussion about racism in media/fandom in the first place, because i fully believe that it is a complex and crucial topic that deserves to be addressed separately and with just as much consideration, respect, and care. as well as with actual, coherent references to back it up. however, i also recognize that these topics are inherently and inevitably interlinked. which is why i felt it unfair to refuse dialogue. i considered it my responsibility to explain my approach and also reiterate what the original purpose of said post was. …until it got out of hand.

i do think we’ve reached a point where a certain (loud minority) of the fandom is vehemently insistent on misunderstanding and misinterpreting anything i will say henceforth, no matter how many times i will repeat myself and explain my intentions. this is unfortunate, but ultimately how fandom as a whole works. branding a single person as “the problem”, while goading and egging each other on, on their respective discord servers until the next discourse pops up. and before anyone even goes in that direction: no, this is not me playing the victim, but merely an observation.

people that have been following my blog for a while now likely know that my posts are almost always accompanied by strict data & examples. i rarely derail from the topic at hand and prefer to make separate posts for each issue i want to address — not a justification, but an explanation. another example, to further illustrate what i’m referring to: if i made a post about the number of scenes gale has in comparison to the other characters and someone else asked me: why "i am not addressing the grooming and abuse he suffered through mystra as well?”. i would also tell them that: yes, while this is a crucial theme that stretches throughout his entire story and ultimately shaped his character, this is not the purpose of this specific post.

i genuinely love wyll as a character, he is one of my favorite companions in the entire game and it saddens me that there is so very little fan content of him. however, i do feel like that by effectively shutting down every discussion around him that isn’t centered on his personality and/or his romance it will inevitably leave fans burned out and even more discouraged from creating more content with him than they were in the first place. policing others on the topics that are acceptable/unacceptable to talk about (and in which manner they should be addressed) is only putting further restrictions on the little content wyll already has within fandom. it is counterproductive.

i can assure you that it was never my intention to be hurtful. neither to make poc players feel like i am silencing them nor urging them to “be quiet and get over it.” quite the contrary, in fact. i believe correction is necessary to ensure that the data (we give larian for review) is detailed, comprehensive, and factually correct. so it will be taken seriously and consistent, elaborate changes will be made. instead of merely receiving a few measly bug fixes to appease the masses.

i do hope you’ll respect my decision to remove myself from this discussion entirely and not send me any more asks regarding said topic in the future, nor reply to this post. respectful and civil dialogue is something i will never reject, but i’d also really like to let it rest and have us all focus on the aspects of fandom that genuinely bring us joy & allow for the pleasant kind of escapism.

now, since this was a lot of text, allow me to sum it up once more:

i fully believe that wyll deserves more content. until the quality, as well as the amount of his scene are exactly on par with the rest of the companions.

i have never urged anyone towards inaction or claimed that the fandom should simply “shut up and be content” with what they’re given.

what i have criticized is the methods of action that were taken by a small amount of fandom (i.e. petitions and demands directed at larian) my personal opinion being that it is not a long-term effective approach that will bring about the desired results (said petitions not even entering larian’s peripheral vision or being consciously ignored entirely). as well as being rather disrespectful to the developers and the people that continuously work on the game.

i have never claimed that you shouldn’t critique larian. in fact, i do this often myself. there are maaaaanyyyyy aspects to be critical of.

i personally believe that it is a much more efficacious approach to provide larian with direct feedback via their form. i have provided instructions, as well as examples of reports you could write on my posts (upon specific request) and also repeatedly linked to their website.

last but not least: please let it rest ✨

#asks #it speaks #racism mention #fandom discourse