#BUT ITS ALL TREATED WITH THE SAME SEVERITY

[ganondoodle]

dont want to make two posts so im putting them both in one (totk thoughts ... uh oh i cannot shut up)

anyone else find raurus arm .. WEIRD? like, judging how the rings on the fingers are literally MADE for absorbing someones elses ability just adds to rauru and the lot of the sonau feeling .. off- what do you mean you wear a bracelet made for incorporating swears of fealty from others and gaining their abilities while they gain nothing?? and then rauru doesnt even seem to make use of that (which i guess is in line with .. the ghost copies links gets going away if the actual sage is there- SO WHATS THE POINT THEN???) though thats a bit more unclear since ..... we dont get to see ANYTHING from the last battle, all standing around with dirt tm texture on them 5 times and then they throw their weapons (weird.... use your damn ability) so zelda can use her new important time power .... once .... to make them fly backwards again and rauru does one thing :/

another thing, funny how the enigma stones are supposedly enhancing whatever powers someone already had, bc other than ganondorf none really gain anything, they act like they achieved some new power level (and suddendly know how to do it as soon as they have the stone) but then its just a silent ghost copy of themselves and they gain ... nothing but some jewelry, i find that a little .. underwhelming? and strange bc why does gan get a nuclear power upgrade and they print a bad copy of themselves and its treated like the same thing (i know its gan and he kinda deserves to get more out of it but do you know what i mean?)

cant help but also feel like its not even .. related to their own ability, like at all, istn it supped to enhance THEIR power, what does a ghost copy have to do with water magic? (wouldnt that more be sth of the shiekah/yiga .. creating copies of yourself?) if anything its something for link to gain .. i guess? or raurus arm i suppose? wouldnt it have been great if they all had a weaker version of the ability at the start and AFTER they gain the stone it gets upgraded, or its like it now is and after the they get their stone its stronger, like maybe rijus is as normal but then when she has the stone it charges faster and doesnt get canceled if she gets knocked over (assuming the way to control the ability stays the same ... which i wouldnt want bc that is so bad to control even if you change it like this) and giving link access to it is just PART of the stones power and not literally all it is

AND THEN ... you cant even argue that it doubles their fighting power bc now theres two of each bc .... the copies ... go away when the actual sage is there .......................................... so its really just a hamfisted way to give you their power ... and its not really giving you their power its giving you a copy of them which is just clunky and unnecessary, you want the theme to be connection (lol where) so you give the player soulless silent ghosts to accompany you ...? not even the real deal? (i know that would be harder to do bc they are all important ppl in their own region and turning them off would be be strange- but them having to teleport around isnt an argument bc they also do that in their dungeon- hello yuno i didnt know you can fall from the sky at will- and all that wouldnt be a problem with my next suggestion

wouldnt it be even MORE of a connection if it worked more like in botw? giving YOU a literal part of their ability, their soul even, and their abilities are now so much a part of you that you cant sever them, its integrated into your moveset, no silent ghosts to run after, your friends are part of you, ACTUAL YOU and not part of an ancient kings arm bracelet rings

#ganondoodles talks #zelda #ganondoodles rants #totk #totk critical #like really #whats more of a connection #putting a silent staring ghost of your friend into a ring of an arm that doesnt even belong to you #or getting granted a piece of your friends very soul infusing you with a part of their power #i get its suppoed to be well its raurus arm on link so its a conenction to link blah blah #but thats the only argument against that imo #and i might find a workaround for that too

[taylorswiftdebut]

swifties’ beef with people who have supposedly wronged taylor is so funny to me cause it’s like on one end of the spectrum one dude stole her entire body of work and one dude emotionally manipulated her and their relationship when she was 19 and on the other end of the spectrum there’s her boyfriend of 6 years she parted amicably with and a girl who can’t even legally drink alcohol in the united states like it’s all so unserious be so fucking real

#BUT ITS ALL TREATED WITH THE SAME SEVERITY #and i think it’s different when people are like yeah it seems they might have beef or this is interesting #but people literally put situations like the one with olivia rodrigo at the same level of that with scooter like it’s all so silly and rid #*ridiculous’ #*! #me and my keyboard are struggling #also i can’t base my perception of a person based off of something i THINK my favorite artist (who i don’t know) might THINK about them #if olivia rodrigo had been like actually i don’t even know what she could’ve been like to make me hate her the way eveeyone seems to #(even though taylor has talked at length how traumatizing that experience can be at such a young age but whatever) #and people always bring up the conan grey not listening to midnights but he was literally touring at the time 😭 #and almost every single person i’ve ever talked to who tours or works on a touring crew has said #it’s incredibly difficult to listen to new music especially new albums while touring #and especially if it’s an artist they love they want to give it consideration but like i said this whole situation #is so silly! oh you’re not gonna listen to her album because of taylor??? respectfully grow up! #i’m just so tired of seeing this discourse everywhereeeeeeeeeeee #anyway alkakakakakdkd #eris: text

[mantisgodsart]

We have finally finished this project, and thus, The World's Worst Dating Sim is finally DONE! Just in time for April Fools Day. Now, with our six new contestants, choose, uhh... who's dateable? Or not dateable? This last batch was determined almost entirely by People Telling Us Who To Add, contains multiple AUs, and is... hmm. "Unconventional" may be a good term? Half of these are probably undateable but you can still shoot your shot.

As previously, it can be a platonic date if you want, you just can't be neutral. Deadlander Lambda belongs to @cordycepsbian and has been moved into our studio for duration of this poll. Profiles below the cut.

(we're linking the first poll here)

Deadlander Lambda - Maybe - Deadlander - Good question - At least a little bit

This, uhh...

...is this safe? We don't think this is safe. ..."Already had kids before"? What do you mean it's a parent?

...well, we can't get it out of the studio, so it's an option now? We guess? This... really doesn't seem like a good idea.

Rogu - He/him - Ant drone - Very rude to ask a gentleman that, don't you think? - I wouldn't worry about that.

A charming mystery from somewhere only described as "a faraway land", though he wasn't quite scheduled in this lineup, we think we can make an exception. This silver-tongued bug seems to be able to say just what's needed to get under your skin... and from the look of it, he's angling to take you somewhere private.

...come to think of it, haven't we seen that face before? On a poster, maybe? Well, it's not a surprise he's been modelling for things, he's certainly got a pretty enough face for it, but why do we feel... nervous, all of a sudden?

Carmina - She/(scribbled in)it - (illegible) - (illegible) - (illegible)(scribbled out with "No longer relevant" written in its place)

...where is she? She was meant to show up hours ago. What on earth could have held her up this long?

Pebbles - He/him - Moth ("iterator") - Juvenile (estimated) - Unclear

Right out of surgery, this one. While we're not sure if it's entirely responsible to include this one, and we certainly don't speak whatever language he's speaking... he's cute, isn't he? And looking for a home? Well, maybe if you're the sort of person who might want to rescue a domestic moth in a bad situation...

Wereweevil Vi - It/its (wereweevil form) - Wereweevil - 19 - Aro

Pre-existing hangups mean that you can only date this one in wereweevil form. Good luck.

Kina - She/her - Mantis (big) - Haven't asked - Also haven't asked    

Well, we assume that you can do less lethal than the bandit who people mostly know thanks to her former job as a corpse disposal unit, but some people might be into that sort of thing, honestly. Are you, perchance, also a mantis?

#our art #bug fables #finished #watercolor #ocs #other peoples ocs #deadlander lambda #monsieur scarlet #carmina #five pebbles #wereweevil vi #kina #valentines #or we're tagging it as such for organization its actually an april fools poll #we treat the two events with about the same gravity so it fits #for clarification purposes: five pebbles is several centuries old and would be very offended at being called juvenile #however he is less than an inch tall and built like a stick and doesnt speak bugnish at all #so he spends most of his time lurking beneath furniture and trying to bite people with his new mouth. much to the hospitals distaste. #although the wereweevil is vi or at least an aspect of her it is not a terribly sapient one #it is hungry and afraid and desperate and lashing out in search of any pack #in search of ANY connection it can find #and the only way it knows how to do that is by violently mauling everyone and everything in its path so uhh good luck bucko #wereweevil vi in normal form has way too many hangups over intimacy to agree to an outing and must be approached like a feral cat #we know about the normal timeline and we added extra years so that she has the time to acquire more problems #thus ends our FAQ. good luck #EDIT: typo in the tags. ough

[sri-rachaa]

potentially unpopular/controversial opinion?

#i think that asexuality should be treated to the same severity of other lgbtq+ sexualities when it comes to shipping in fandoms #like we all know to not ship characters who are canonically gay with characters of the other gender they obviously dont like #but for whatever reason even if a character is canonically confirmed to be asexual and/or aromantic theyre still shipped #like people just overlook the whole asexuality aspect and say its 'no big deal'. #yeah no. thats asexual erasure. no matter which way you wanna put it

[vamptastic]

its like so fucked to me that PCOS is almost always diagnosed in middle aged women bc of fertility issues unless the person in question has a very obvious and severe case or lobbies their doctor at length about it. this would not be so upsetting to me if PCOS didn't massively increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes in a way that is largely preventable! or if PCOS didn't make it damn near impossible to lose weight, meaning many people have their symptoms dismissed be it for other health problems or PCOS symptoms themselves over something they have next to no control over.

#like its not just infertility insulin resistance fucking sucks #and it can definitely make periods hellishly painful in addition to being irregular #in severe cases (including mine) you can also develop menopausal symptoms or those of early pregnancy #like morning sickness hot flashes constant hunger #dont even get me started on PCOS in trans patients #ive found one. ONE case study on a trans man's PCOS treatment #and instead of answering any of the questions i had the seminar talked abt whether he was put on T too early the entire time #literally did not address the PCOS part a single time #studies are also almost always done on middle aged women bc they're the ones with a diagnosis #meaning if you're a teenager like me the results may not apply to you the same #that's if a study exists at all most of the drugs used for PCOS are for diabetics or menopausal women #and maybe one study of like 40 people exists on how it works for PCOS patients #usually geared towards ensuring regular periods and not what i care about (improved blood panels) #god its just. it fucking sucks having what is treated as like Ugly Fat Woman Disease with the way the medical field is!! #ESPECIALLY as a trans man

[yourcalamity]

i just carry a lot of bitterness right now but no matter how much things hurt i have to keep going and if i dont communicate and talk about my feelings then its my fault but every time i have tried to have a serious conversation it cant just go bad it has to go so badly that i want to open up even less, and if i do that whose fault is it? mine. salt and bleach and draino and fire ants and franks red hot directly into the wound on a regular basis

#like at what point can i talk about how severely i am struggling without someone laughing in my face #at what point can i talk to my friends about my struggles and actually be heard and not spoken over #at what point am i more to my mother than a therapist #life is still good and getting better and it will get better and i will do something soon to change these issues #i just feel like ive made the same cry for help a million times and everyone just wantss the problem to go away #without having to actually do anything about it #at what point can you tell me the problem is me not letting my guard down without tearing me apart or treating me like a joke #or treating me like all my problems are not serious or treating me like an idiot for not doing what you think i should be doing #which is literally what i am doing as you tell me #im pulling random examples from memories from the past few years #but it just sucks genuinely. its like openibg your door to a beautiful spring morning and then a brick hits you in the face instantly #and then the person who threw the brick is angry that the brick hurt you #then if you ever mention the brick again they get even more pissed. WELL STOP THROWINGBIT THEN…

[flippedorbit]

do you want me to fucking go off on you? do you truly fucking want that mother?

#“oh you and your sister never listen to me and blah blah blah” we fucking do (or at the very least i do) #“you guys never help out” does me doing the litter and taking out the trash and on occasion hand washing the dishes mean #fucking nothing to you? does me sweeping the floor every once in a while because you chose to keep us in an area that is ALL SAND/DIRT ROAD #for whatever stupid ass reason also meaningless? does me doing my damn best to help out mean fucking nothing? #do you want me to kill my self. do you want to lose your eldest child to something YOU could have fucking prevented all because you can’t #stop being a bitch to him all the time? do you really fucking want that mom? because at this rate i am once again on the road to fucking #attempting it. i’m so god damn sick of how you treat me. the only time i can do anything i want is at night. i stay up super late playing #games with my friends because its the only time in the day when you aren’t bitching and whining for me to do something you don’t want to do #for the past several days i’ve been up until five in the damn morning just to do something that makes me happy. #you misgender me. you deadname me. you refuse to accept any aspect of my identity. you don’t treat me like a god damn person. #i have so many different ways i can consider attempting if i truly wanted to. the only thing keeping me alive is my friends. because they a #least show that they fucking care and actively want to do things with me. like group drawing or playing video games. #YOU on the other hand; mother; yell and get mad at me over the stupidest shit and never fucking apologize. #i cannot recall a singular time you’ve apologized for being a complete bitch to me over something so fucking unimportant. #and yet i’m expected to be completely fucking fine and happy all because you provide me with the bare fucking minimum. #”i clothe and feed and provide a place for you to live” THAT IS THE BARE FUCKING MINIMUM. sure you could argue over the fact i’m 18 and #should be out working somewhere. but you give me so few opportunities for going places and even considering getting a job or finally gettin #my driver’s license. plus i would rather fucking die than work any food service or customer service job. because i’d be going somewhere #where i’d mostly get talked down to or yelled and then come home and have the same shit done after working for hours and getting minimal #pay. i’d rather work on my own fucking terms with commissions than go into any job where i have to interact with others in public for any #reason. where i’d be treated just the same as at home. like someone who isn’t a person and doesn’t deserve anyone to be nice to them. #i constantly so desperately wish that maybe one day soon i’d find someone to be with romantically and that i could maybe live with them and #get out of this hell hole that i’m supposed to call home. to go somewhere and have my efforts appreciated. to go somewhere where i’d #actually fucking be loved. i shouldn’t have to wish so god damn hard for a better life all because my mother can’t fucking treat me like a #person with hopes and dreams and thoughts and feelings. #i’m ending this rant here before i get too angry and upset. see you all in maybe an hour. #suicide mention #ask to tag

[soopysoap]

man smth about escaping reality through day dreaming about fantasies that you cling onto just to get you through the day and then becoming thoroughly more disconnected to real life until it feels like the only thing that can bring you back is your fantasy becoming a reality always gets me idk

#writes this on a notepad under 'what to talk to my therapist about next session' #agh #like secret life of walter mitty newsies santa fe crazy ex gf les mis on my own rose from gypsy once upon a december anastasia etc etc #first two 100% i sob @ them every time #QUIET AND WHEN I GROW UP FROM MATILDA THE MUSICAL #THOSE TOO #and then the tragedy of getting the thing u so desperately wanted and needed for years only to realize that youre still unhappy. that the pr #problem is with YOU. and the repeating cycle of then disconnecting entirely from *that* reality to chase another fantasy that wont make you #any happier #'when i grow up i will be strong enough to fight the creatures that you have to fight beneath the bed each night to be a grown up' #-miss honey in her 20s who is suffering from severe trauma and unable to escape said traum and stuck in a cycle of unhealthy repetition due #to the trauma #she was also singing this after a bunch of children who were unhappy with were they were in life and with the way they were treated sang thi #this. the entirety of the song they sing about how much they want to be grown up and how life will be better once they are and then it cuts #to this woman who has been 'grown up' for years now and who is wishing for the same thing they are. she herself sings the lines 'when i grow #up i will be brave enough to fight the creatures' etc etc #this was all over the place its 4 innthe morning im so tired just. agh. #it will never not make me cry. #rambles

[perenlop]

i know i vouched for this but oh my god please let journeys be ending

#ik ash is still going apparently but if this format goes on to paldea and a ton of good paldea mons get shafted #and they give the way home some random half hour special with no build up then im gonna be SO disappointed #everett said this also but yeah it seems like theyve just given up on goh catching em all so like thats kinda whatever #also i do not need them to make ANOTHER cover of 1 2 3 like its a good song but i am so sick of it #also if we are getting a new series can we make the endings actually good again #idk i like goh as a character but its clear that they dont really know what to do with him right now #like project mew just... got him to meet mew again which was cool yes. but hes literally implied to be quitting after one mission #so like what was the point #idk. jn is in shambles rn. while i think i like it more than others in the community #yeah i would be disappointed if it went on to paldea at this point. keep goh if u want bc i like him #but like im sick of it and unlike swsh paldea is crammed with potential and existing story thatd work so good in anime form #watch the professors not exist and for sprigatito to not have a main role until episode60 where it proceeds to do nothing #watch team star get ignored outside of one episode where they dont actually have much to do #all the while we are showing so many ''omg so beautiful landscaping shots of the same 6 kanto pokemon'' #echoed voice #i may not have liked galar all that much but yeah it got treated like shit by the anime #which is kinda wild bc leon was so hyped up but it was literally only him and the wild areas that got shown off #most other locations like ballonlea were restricted to the stadiums and not explored or just looked like dogshit for some reason #if u look up several galar pokemon on bulbapedia then youll see that many pokemon either havent shown up at all #or have some low res background shot on there bc its the only time they ever showed up #like man. paldea doesnt deserve that at all. just give it its own anime im begging you

[brookheimer]

it is so hard being the sole member of the angie fandom but it is a banner i wave with pride

#top girls #angie #literally no one understands her but me. #90% of angies in productions of top girls make me absolutely murderous #like how could you get a character so deeply wrong #absolutely batshit to me that so many productions make her severely intellectually disabled as if that isn’t simultaneously ableist to that #community + reductive of the character + a complete ruination of the thematic heart of the play which is represented by angie + a #perpetuation of the constant dismissal and abuse angie receives in the play simply by nature of not being the correct kind of feminine #this just in: traumatized girls with adhd who are incredibly bright but universally trampled on don’t exist. they must instead have severe #learning/speech/etc impediments. you are either a Good Girl or you are Disabled and will be treated accordingly. #and it’s so offensive and ableist from the disability perspective too like angie would not be good disability rep at all #bc she was NEVER INTENDED TO BE #any production that interprets her that way is literally doing the exact same thing the play is criticizing its characters for #so disgusting how so many performances see angie and go well we need to justify her mistreatment somehow. let’s be ableist about it #and in doing so completely rid her character (which is genuinely the heart and soul of the show) any nuance & turn this play about the #debilitating and unwarranted cruelty/dismissal towards girls who aren’t properly feminine or ‘correct’ (and how doing that is a self- #fulfilling prophecy that takes girls with so much potential and ruins them until they have nothing left) into a bafflingly one-note play ab #how people with disabilities cannot and should not succeed in the business world and why that’s justified bc yeah they just can’t hack it #i am blowing 99% of angie actors up with my brain #i am the universal angie. no other portrayal of angie will remain but mine. no one else deserves her

[saritawolff]

Phew. This one took, uh… a bit longer than expected due to other projects both irl and art-wise, but it’s finally here. The long-awaited domestic animal infographic! Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough space to cover every single domestic animal (I’m so sorry, reindeer and koi, my beloveds) but I tried to include as many of the “major ones” as possible.

I made this chart in response to a lot of the misunderstandings I hear concerning domestic animals, so I hope it’s helpful!

Further information I didn’t have any room to add or expand on:

🐈 “Breed” and “species” are not synonyms! Breeds are specific to domesticated animals. A Bengal Tiger is a species of tiger. A Siamese is a breed of domestic cat.

🐀 Different colors are also not what makes a breed. A breed is determined by having genetics that are unique to that breed. So a “bluenose pitbull” is not a different breed from a “rednose pitbull”, but an American Pitbull Terrier is a different breed from an American Bully! Animals that have been domesticated for longer tend to have more seperate breeds as these differing genetics have had time to develop.

🐕 It takes hundreds of generations for an animal to become domesticated. While the “domesticated fox experiment” had interesting results, there were not enough generations involved for the foxes to become truly domesticated and their differences from wild foxes were more due to epigenetics (heritable traits that do not change the DNA sequence but rather activate or deactivate parts of it; owed to the specific circumstances of its parents’ behavior and environment.)

🐎 Wild animals that are raised in human care are not domesticated, but they can be considered “tamed.” This means that they still have all their wild instincts, but are less inclined to attack or be frightened of humans. A wild animal that lives in the wild but near human settlements and is less afraid of humans is considered “habituated.” Tamed and habituated animals are not any less dangerous than wild animals, and should still be treated with the same respect. Foxes, otters, raccoons, servals, caracals, bush babies, opossums, owls, monkeys, alligators, and other wild animals can be tamed or habituated, but they have not undergone hundreds of generations of domestication, so they are not domesticated animals.

🐄 Also, as seen above, these animals have all been domesticated for a reason, be it food, transport, pest control, or otherwise, at a time when less practical options existed. There is no benefit to domesticating other species in the modern day, so if you’ve got a hankering for keeping a wild animal as a pet, instead try to find the domestic equivalent of that wild animal! There are several dog breeds that look and behave like wolves or foxes, pigeons and chickens can make great pet birds and have hundreds of colorful fancy breeds, rats can be just as intelligent and social as a small monkey (and less expensive and dangerous to boot,) and ferrets are pretty darn close to minks and otters! There’s no need to keep a wolf in a house when our ancestors have already spent 20,000+ years to make them house-compatible.

🐖 This was stated in the infographic, but I feel like I must again reiterate that domestic animals do not belong in the wild, and often become invasive when feral. Their genetics have been specifically altered in such a way that they depend on humans for optimal health. We are their habitat. This is why you only really see feral pigeons in cities, and feral cats around settlements. They are specifically adapted to live with humans, so they stay even when unwanted. However, this does not mean they should live in a way that doesn’t put their health and comfort as a top priority! If we are their world, it is our duty to make it as good as possible. Please research any pet you get before bringing them home!

#SaritaZoo #my art #domestic animals #domestication #pets #dogs #cats #ferrets #cows #sheep #goats #bovids #horses #donkeys #camels #llamas #alpacas #rabbits #guinea pigs #rats #pet rats #pet mice #pigs #pigeons #turkeys #chickens #ducks #geese #quail #i ran out of tags rip

[sucrevere]

#twit is about the artists first love who loved her more than she thinks she deserved. some of the lyrics talk about her being unhappy #despite it. she felt suffocated and like she was his whole world while he was not hers. eventually he too grew unhappy and they broke up #anyways #sometimes i think about my first relationship when i listen to this song #pretty sure she had bpd. she loved me so much. i was her favorite person. but... i was the person who put the most effort into the #relationship. #i thought it was my duty as the person who ''wore the pants'' ig and she adored the attention. its always been in my nature to watch out #for others i suppose. #when i became severely depressed after turning 18 i lost all passion and desire to do anything. i had no energy for the relationship #instead of picking up the slack... she started acting out to try and regain my attention. it didn't work. i didn't have the energy to give #her my attention but she desperately needed it. #at some point it hit me that i was aro and it was at that point i realized i needed to cut it off. #she loved me so much. she loved me too much. she'd never had a partner who treated her the way i did. she couldn't imagine a life #without me. #i couldn't be the person she needed and i knew it. it would hurt her but it would be for the best. i know she would never be able to cope #with the fact that i'd never be able to love her in the same way she did i. so i did. i think it broke her #to put it bluntly. she tried to rape me in response. corrective rape. she wanted me to stop being aromantic. #it didn't work. i stood my ground. i was larger and stronger than her. #there's no excuse for it. but sometimes... i want to feel bad for her. i loved her too. not in the same way she loved me but i did. #i mourn her and our relationship still sometimes. i know i ruined her. i feel like i did. i feel like if i were different or if i had #handled it better then she wouldn't have done that. i feel like its my fault still #i know its not. #but i still feel like it was and because of that. i feel guilt. #tw rape #rape mention #Spotify

[pangur-and-grim]

yeaaaah, I saw that too.

it can be hard for people to understand that every species of animal has a unique set of physical and mental needs, and that (FOR THEIR OWN BENEFIT) they should not be treated like human beings.

here's an example: when a horse breaks its leg, often the kindest thing you can do is euthanize it. that is because horses have lightweight bones that tend to shatter, rather than simply snap, and all those sharp pieces can sever blood vessels and nerves, which leads to tissue death. your average horse weighs 1,000 pounds. that amount of weight redistributed to 3 legs leads to pressure necrosis on the remaining hooves.

the reason the horse would require euthanasia isn't because it's life isn't the same as an able-bodied horse. it is because its leg would rot off and then its hooves would rot off and then it would die.

I currently have a broken leg, and will not be euthanized because I am a human being. if I had both legs amputated, I could still have a wonderful life, because I am a human being.

similarly, if my cat broke a leg, or had to have a limb amputation, that would be fine (well, not fine, but you get the idea) because she weighs 9lbs and could scurry about just fine as a tripod.

if you understand what an animal needs, you'll be better equipped to know when it has a fighting chance. you'll also know that sometimes, the kindest thing you can do is put it to rest.

#tw animal death

[tobiasdrake]

*deep breath* Okay. Here we go.

I don't think the Netflix Avatar show likes women very much. It's a great show for fans of Aang, Sokka, Zuko, and Iroh specifically. All four of those characters get a ton of great material. In fact, it's super great for Sokka stans, because the show takes him ultra-seriously and can't go five minutes without one character or another (usually a woman) praising him.

But the way it handles its female cast is troublesome.

Katara

So, all three of the main trio got some changes made to their stories. They changed Aang's story so that he wasn't running away from his responsibilities; He was just clearing his head and somehow accidentallied himself into a tsunami. Whoopsy-dooodle. Aang did nothing wrong.

They changed Sokka's story so that him being a leader of his people and a great guardian warrior is treated with complete seriousness. Multiple times, characters stop to talk about how brave and noble Sokka is for taking on such an intense responsibility, and tell him to his face what a great warrior and a wonderful leader he is. Also his misogyny is erased.

And they changed Katara's story so that she directly got her mom killed because she sucks at waterbending.

Katara tries to waterbend to attack the Fire Nation soldier but couldn't manage it, provoking the soldier to start actively searching for her and forcing her mom to fake a waterbending attack and draw his fire. They changed Katara's story so that her bad decision making fucking got her mom killed.

This is treated with the same level of severity as "Sokka was bullied by mean kids and also his dad doesn't think he's good enough to be a leader."

"I hoped Sokka would do better but not everyone is meant to have people's lives in their hands," Sokka's dad says of him.

Yeah, you're right, that's totally comparable to watching your mom get barbecued because you tried to waterbend in a situation you shouldn't have and then failed.

In fact, they give Sokka's greatest trauma more weight because it gets examined again with Yue next episode, while Katara actively getting her mom killed isn't brought up again at all. We get traumatized glimpses of it throughout the season leading up to the reveal, but after this scene in episode 5, it never comes up again.

But to be fair, Katara was a child. An event this significant would surely have motivated her, driving her to become the great waterbender she is now, right?

No! Katara sucks at waterbending and needs men who aren't even waterbenders to teach her how to waterbend. She requires instruction from Aang in episode 1 to learn how to waterbend, then from Jet in episode 3 to learn how to waterbend better.

And unlike the show, her relationship with Aang isn't a give-and-take; Katara doesn't teach Aang a single goddamn thing. He never learns to waterbend. She is a strictly a pupil throughout the whole season. Though she at least gets officially labeled a master in episode 8, so there's that.

In any case, the whole traumatic memory thing isn't even the only time she's directly compared with Sokka. Episodes 3 and 4 see Katara and Sokka bicker over whose morally dubious side character is better. Sokka likes the Mechanist and Katara likes Jet.

Ultimately, Katara is forced to eat crow when Jet turns out to be the worst, while Sokka is vindicated when the Mechanist sees the error of his ways and reforms. But not before two separate arguments where Sokka calls Katara childish and accuses her of acting like a little girl.

Arguments ultimately resolved when Katara apologizes to Sokka for not adequately respecting his very serious and ultra important role as village protector and leader. Gives him a whole speech about how great and glorious he is. And Sokka... appreciates Katara learning to respect him properly, I guess, because he never offers any similar sentiments back to her.

The show just... They need you to know how important Sokka is, okay? It's very important that you respect Sokka.

Suki

Suki suffers tremendously from that whole "Sokka's misogyny was removed" thing. Y'know, because they need something else to do with that episode. The show is deeply aware that Suki is Sokka's love interest, so they just do that right off the bat. Suki falls madly in love with him from the moment they meet, and spends the entire episode making goo-goo eyes and trying to get him to Notice Me Senpai.

They still do the "Suki Trains Sokka" stuff. But Sokka is a serious, dignified manly man worthy of the deepest respect now, so of course they don't make him wear the Kyoshi uniform. Instead, the main purpose of his training is to allow them to flirt some more. It's less martial arts training and more an excuse to grope each other and near-kiss.

Suki's just a waifu now. She still fights real good, but all of the stuff that made her relationship with Sokka interesting has been erased.

Yue

Yue, similarly, leaps straight to shipping from the word go. They write out her fiance, Hahn, by having Yue briefly meet Sokka earlier in the season. She spends one minute talking to him in the Spirit World about Spirit World lore; In that time, she falls so desperately, madly, unfathomably in love with him that she breaks off her marriage to Hahn and devotes herself to waiting for him to one day come to her.

"Never have I known such joys as that time you let me explain the spirit bear Hei Bei to you. Truly, we are destined to be together for life."

Like with Suki, they go out of their way to have Yue and Sokka already be a ship from the word 'go' so they don't have to spend time developing any kind of meaningful attraction.

They just. They really want you to know that Sokka is the manliest and most desirable man ever to walk this earth. It is very important that you understand how great he is. Women hurl themselves into his arms with zero effort whatsoever, because he's just so goddamn irresistible.

Fortunately, Hahn is super okay with this turn of events. He's the most chill guy ever, he gets along perfectly well with Sokka, and he completely supports Yue's right to dump him! In the famously misogynistic Northern Water Tribe, no less! What a swell guy. Aren't men swell?

June

June gets hit with that "rewritten as hollow waifu" stick too, but her eyes are set on Iroh. They rewrote June to be super attracted and flirty towards the man who was her unwanted sexual harasser in the source material. So that's fun.

Also, she barely does anything. Zuko hires her to find Aang, she succeeds, and then she fucks right off out of the show - But she manages to find time to express how unbelievably sexy Iroh is twice during that time.

She seriously just dropped into the show to flirt with Iroh and leave. She is unbelievably inconsequential.

Kyoshi

And then there's Kyoshi. They really want you to hate Kyoshi. She's constantly shot from below, as if looking down on Aang and the audience. Her voice takes on a demonic echoing reverb at one point as she's screaming at Aang that "THE AVATAR MUST BE A MERCILESS WARRIOR!!!"

She despises Aang, calling him a coward for running away from his responsibilities - Which, I remind you, is no longer a plot point because they unwrote that flaw from his character. So she's just a complete and utter asshole, shot from the asshole angle, yelling violently at him with asshole sound effects. They want you to despise this woman.

Azula

Awkwardly, they do not seem to want you to despise Azula.

There's a lot to be said for how Ozai treats Azula in the original show. The way the favoritism he shows her is every bit as cruel and manipulative as the unfavoritism that he shows Zuko. Ozai does not love Azula. He loves the reflection of himself he sees in her eyes, and his encouragement urges her to polish herself to ensure his reflection always shines through.

This is not that. The show instead erases the favoritism entirely. Ozai doesn't really care one way or another about either of his kids. He plays them against each other, bragging openly to Azula about how great Zuko is and unpleasably writing Azula off as weak and useless.

They've rewritten the dynamic between abusive father and his two abused kids in order to take Azula's pride away. Reimagining her from a gifted prodigy who excels at imitating the toxic behaviors of a father who doesn't truly care for her, to a put-upon overachiever tearing herself in knots to live up to the standards of her unpleasable father.

This results in a truly wild portrayal of Azula as insecure and jealous of Ozai's seemingly love for Zuko. Here, she is simply a browbeaten child constantly complaining to her friends about how mean her father is and conspiring to get one up over Daddy's Golden Child Zuko.

Which she fails at, because she backs Zhao. Zuko deftly defeats her without even realizing they're in competition.

Conclusion

The season ends well for some of these women. It ends promising that maybe we'll see Katara teaching Aang some day. It ends with Zhao bragging that Ozai just used Zuko to train Azula so maybe we'll see the more confident and misguidedly proud Azula some day. Yue becomes the moon like she's supposed to. June's still out there so maybe she'll get to do something again some day.

Katara gets to fight Pakku and lose, but she looks pretty cool. She gets to fight Zuko and lose, but she looks pretty cool. Azula learns to lightningbend because she's just so mad about Ozai's contempt for her and favoritism for Zuko, which isn't how you lightningbend.

But promises of future content fall flat when the content that exists is so underwhelming. This season made its feelings on these characters pretty evident, and it's unwise to expect better material from creators who've disappointed you with the material they already made.

The women of Netflix Avatar simply do not get to shine, outside of superficial moments like the "Women of Northern Water Tribe demand the right to fight and then fuck off and don't do anything for the entire rest of the episode" bit.

"In the midst of battle, we demand that you stop being sexist and give us permission to fight! This is a way better idea than convincing you to teach us to fight before the battle begins."

The characters of this show feel as if they've been reimagined to glorify the boys at the expense of the girls. The boys are treated with a great amount of care. They're dignified and made important movers of the plot, with their rough edges sanded off. While the girls are molded around them.

#avatar the last airbender #drake watches netflix last airbender #kyoshi #katara #azula #suki #yue #june

[hedgehog-moss]

In previous years I've tried uprooting small fir trees in my woods to use as Christmas trees, making sure to be gentle in the process and keep as much of their root system as I could, but when I replanted them in the woods later it just never worked. The trees didn't appreciate being treated like this, so last year I didn't even try replanting my Christmas tree and just fed it to the llamas (who did appreciate.)

I meant to do the same this year, and on my to-do list this week I had "cut a Christmas tree" and "get rid of 10m2 of broom plants" (this is on my to-do list in perpetuity. They grow so rampantly, if I didn't fight back there would be no pasture left.)

^ But then after I went and cut a bunch of horrible brooms I thought, well this is absurd, I'm going to kill a perfectly nice fir tree that I have no beef with, to have something green in my living-room for Christmas, when I could humiliate my plant nemesis by festooning its slain offspring with tinsel? I mean, shrubs are green. They fit the bill. I bet with a star on top they could pass for a Christmas tree.

At first I tried to cut a tall and large broom, then poke holes in its trunk with my drill to stick smaller broom branches in there like this: \o/ to give it a rough Christmas tree shape. It didn't work. Brooms as it turns out are extremely dense and fibrous and my drill didn't like drilling into them one bit.

So I lowered my expectations, and started gathering a big bouquet of younger brooms (the only positive aspect of broom invasiveness is that I have an infinite number of shrubs to experiment on. I cut a half dozen of them to try and drill holes into them and by the time I gave up, another two dozen had grown back in their place). I tied up my broom bouquet into something vaguely reminiscent of a fir and, I mean, with a star, it sort of looks the part?

I had to do the tying-up part several times, because the pretty and festive golden string I initially used was too weak. This bouquet of broom branches may look placid and easygoing in photographs, but when tied together tightly, it is determined to free itself.

But I managed to tame it using hay bale string. It didn't look happy with its fate, but I mean, it's a broom shrub. Its only ambition in life is to conquer as much pasture territory as possible and add it to its broom empire. It does not want to be a decorative plant in a living-room.

Take any historical figure who was mainly known as a ruthless conqueror and try to picture turning him into a Christmas tree. He won't look happy about it.

I ended up making two Christmas Brooms, one for the greenhouse and one for my living-room. The greenhouse one was originally meant for the living-room, but it was made up of particularly obstinate Pampe-like branches and I was worried one of my cats would poke it and the "tree" would suddenly break its chains in an explosion of vegetal triumph and traumatise the cat.

It may look like a peaceful Christmas Yew in the below pic, but don't underestimate its very strong desire to free itself from even the tough hay bale string, which forced me to use my garlands to tie it up some more, wrapping them around the "tree" less loosely and festively than usual. But I put my biggest star on top and that means it looks like a Christmas tree. A Christmas tree with a restraining order.

This tree is held together with tinsel, threats, and Christmas magic.

In the dark and from afar you really can't tell it's a bunch of unruly invasive shrubs tied together <3 And here's the much thinner and therefore less angry version in my living-room:

It was tilting to the left somewhat worryingly so I put a heavy stuffed hedgehog at the bottom to stabilise it, and a mountain goat at the top to dissuade it. All hands on deck. They both look somewhat petrified, like they are begging the faux-tree to remain a tree for the duration of the holidays...

Thus ends my Christmas Broom journey. It was a bit of a pain to set up but at least an innocent fir out there got to escape a grim fate (devoured by llamas), and a small gang of invasive shrubs get to be looked at with approval and joy for the first time in their life. It's a win-win.

#crawling along

[arabian-batboy]

So the EU just suspended all aid to Palestinians in Gaza, which is happening at the same time as the same time Israel is cutting all electricity, fuel and food from Gaza with the Israeli Defense (?) Minister calling them "human animals" while continuing their indiscriminately bombing campaign on Gaza due the Palestinians resistance groups currently retaliating against 17 years straight of Israel's illegal blockade and war crimes.

Apparently its okay to perform collective-punishment to 2 millions Palestinian civilians, half of whom are children, living in the world's most densely population are and biggest open-air prison, for the actions of a few hundreds armed fighters (who again, have the right to resist their occupation)

However, all Israeli settlers are innocent angels and you should never ever hold them accountable to any of the IDF's many crimes or Palestinians being ethnically cleansed from their homes, even though almost all Israelis have served in the IDF and all of them are literally living in stolen Palestinian homes, so statically speaking, the average Israeli settler has more blood on their hand than the average Palestinian by a large margin.

Matter of fact, Western countries should continue giving them their full unconditional support as well as more billions of dollars for free and complete impunity to continue committing even more war crimes in "self-defense," because no Israeli should be held accountable for the crime of any Israeli and while all of this is happening, you will of course continue having the bothsideism crowd crying about how "all killing is bad!" while completely ignoring how the killing is severely disproportional and that the side doing most of the killing is the occupier side with one of the strongest nuclear-power army in the world, who have the entire world on their side with absolutely no consequences whatsoever to their crimes.

So no, not all killing is bad, that's not the reality we're living in, because if "all killing is bad!" then the systematic-killing of so many occupied Palestinian civilians wouldn't be so encouraged/justified while the death of some Israeli occupiers-settlers in retaliation wouldn't be treated as the world's biggest crime against humanity.

-

Palestinians made a document that contains templates for letters to US, UK, & Canadian politicians, media outlets, and companies in relation to current events in Palestine as well as petitions & other resources. If you live in any of these countries then please select a template, edit it to your preference and send according to the instructions on the relevant page.

Here is a link to it (please share it): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-RUOHHiEtr7uoclQgWN-tCWOihnHIp5hym89aNePi_E/mobilebasic

Aside from that, please protest, support the BDS boycott and spread awareness as much as possible.

#palestine #palestinian #anti israel #anti israeli #anti zionist #anti zionism #gaza