#but simultaneously dehumanized etc etc

[comradekatara]

sokka, katara, and the paradox of “the gifted child”

something i’ve noticed is a tendency to (mis)characterize sokka as someone who is dismissed due to being a nonbender, when that’s only partially true. sokka is certainly dismissed by some for not being a bender (namely, by benders), but i think there’s a key difference between being dismissed and not being valued in one specific way. katara was valued by her tribe for being a waterbender for the very crucial reason that she was the last one left. had she been a dime a dozen in her tribe, which would have been the case were it not for the systemic extermination of her people, she would not be valued as highly for possessing this skill. that said, while sokka clearly does hold some resentment over his lack of bending ability, calling himself “the guy in the group who’s regular,” i think it’s folly to assume that this means that sokka was dismissed and discarded as “average” while katara was put on a pedestal for being special. because while katara obviously was considered special, sokka is also clearly considered special by his family, merely in different ways. and if anything, sokka embodies the archetypal struggle of the so-called "gifted child” far more than katara does.

while sokka clearly believes himself to be disposable and intrinsically worthless, i don’t think that he was actively neglected by his family. even if katara was clearly marked by her bending as embodying the last hope of their tribe, that doesn’t mean that she was seen as more gifted than he was or was designated as her family’s obvious favorite. for example, the way hakoda talks about sokka (saying he trusted him with leading and protecting the tribe when he was thirteen, calling him a genius, and other such insanely high praises to heap on a child) shows that he clearly views his son as particularly exceptional and has never been shy about showing that. sokka is distinctly insecure around his father for assumptions he makes regarding hakoda's faith in his abilities and his insecurities when it comes to his perceived failure in not measuring up as a man, but from the second we meet hakoda, it's evident that these insecurities are entirely internal and completely unfounded, at least in terms of his father's perception of him. hakoda is nothing but incredibly proud of sokka, constantly emphasizing just how capable and brilliant he believes him to be. whether or not sokka is capable of internalizing it is another story, but it's clear that hakoda is not stingy in his praise and affection, not even a little bit.

moreover, while katara is clearly kanna’s favorite on an emotional level, she nonetheless affords sokka far more respect. she admonishes katara and tells her to do her chores, and notably, she also impresses the importance of “listening to her brother,” and backs up sokka’s decision to banish aang from the village. you can claim that sexism plays a factor in how sokka views his own supposed position of authority, but kanna is a woman who traveled the entire globe as a teenager because she wanted to escape patriarchal impositions dictating her life. she’s simply far too smart to treat sokka as any sort of authority within their village if she did not fully entrust him with that responsibility. she treats sokka almost like a peer, as if she is legitimately co-running the village with a fifteen year old boy.

katara is only a couple years younger than sokka at most, but her dynamic with kanna is very different. on one hand, kanna clearly sees more of herself in katara, can identify with her sense of adventure and rebellious spirit, but on the other hand, it means that she views katara as a child to be taken care of, who needs to be reminded to do her chores and bailed out when she gets herself into trouble. sokka doesn't want to be viewed as a child, and so he does everything in his power to position himself as kanna's equal rather than her grandson. he takes his duties and responsibilities very seriously, and is obedient to a fault whenever he is submitting to any authority he actually respects, especially his father and grandmother. to be honest, a lot of what katara considers coddling is probably just sokka never being bossed around by their grandmother because she never actually has to tell him to do his chores. because despite katara's claim that he simply faffs about "playing soldier," sokka's problem is actually that he takes himself too seriously for her liking. and with the exception of kanna saying "be nice to your sister," which is the kind of teasing a parent says to their child, she clearly respects sokka's position in the village. when katara tries to run away with aang, kanna takes sokka's side and forbids her from acting impulsively, but when sokka is the one who packs supplies and plans to save aang, kanna gives them both her blessing.

katara is the only person who takes umbrage with the notion of sokka running the village and telling her what to do all day. and those frustrations have likely accumulated up from a lifetime of being told to “do as her brother says” and “why can’t she be smarter and more responsible and levelheaded blah blah blah.” she clearly thinks that she’s punching up when she yells at or mocks him, which may seem crazy to anyone who understands that sokka’s entire identity and existence revolves around being katara’s protector, but katara doesn’t actually know this. in her mind sokka is merely the perfect child who has always represented this impossible standard of “genius.” and what's more, he's absolutely insufferable about it.

and to be clear, this isn’t to say that katara herself isn’t highly intelligent, capable, competent, and skilled. she’s not only an incredibly talented waterbender, but also clever, quick, witty, creative, resourceful, practical, mature, and thoughtful in other ways. at one point, toph calls her a genius (“a stinky, sweaty genius”). and she is, indeed, an extremely powerful and innovative waterbender, both due to her hard work, but also because she is genuinely brilliant. that said, she’s smart in the realistic way that a kid is smart; she works hard to be good at what she cares about (and she has an existentially devastating reason to care about being a good waterbender, mind you), and she’s also good at thinking on the fly when she needs to. however, unlike sokka, or even toph, her intellect may be impressive, but it isn’t astonishing. sokka’s mind functions completely anomalously. i wouldn't say he's unrealistically intelligent, because i do know some people in real life who are similarly adept at processing all kinds of different information with the ability to deftly apply it near-immediately, but it is certainly abnormal, both for real world standards and within his universe.

i normally bristle at this term and its applications (for multiple reasons), but since it is explicitly stated multiple times across the show, it is important to acknowledge that sokka is referred to as a genius multiple times, including by his father. katara is referred to as being a genius by toph for using her own sweat to waterbend (which, as hama points out an episode later, isn't even that clever because you can literally bend water from the air around you); conversely, sokka is referred to as a genius for helping to invent hot air balloons and for figuring out multiple escape routes from the world's most secure prison in less than a day. we don't know the exact timeframe under which katara trained with pakku and earned the title of master, but she clearly worked incredibly hard to earn that title, not only as a master, but as the greatest waterbender in the entire world. i assume it was any time between a few weeks and a little over a month in which zhao would organize a fleet to arrive at the north pole, which is, of course, extremely impressive in itself and a testament to her passion and determination. however, on the other hand, piandao claims that sokka has basically mastered the sword and is ready to make his own within less than a day. it's important to remember that katara is also brilliant in her own way, and possesses great skills that sokka lacks: not only bending, but also midwifery, and an ability to locate her own emotions and allow herself to be vulnerable with others, two skills which should never be looked down upon for their association with womanhood and femininity, and are also particularly impressive considering just how young katara is. she is brilliant in her own right, and in any other family, katara would easily have been "the smart one." and yet, sokka is simply in a league of his own.

so, yeah, he can stand to get thrown around and yelled at; everyone her entire childhood just kept on impressing how special and perfect and brilliant he is, he can handle it. she has no idea that he is depressed, depersonalizes, loathes himself, and thinks he’ll never be good enough, because he never actually communicates any of that to her. the closest he ever comes is admitting that he’s jealous due to not having bending abilities, and even that shocks katara, even though it’s such a small and obvious admission in the scheme of things. she has no idea what’s going on with him psychologically, how he views himself in relation to others, and specifically in relation to her, so she kind of just assumes he’s entitled because surely he must know how special he is and thus feels owed accolades by the world at every turn. he deserves to be humbled, and she is in fact righteous for humbling him.

when she makes fun of him for being stupid or miserable or paranoid or cynical, she thinks she’s owning him the way a righteous underdog fights against an oppressor. it's similar to how zuko wants to "put azula in her place." in katara and zuko's minds, they are both the valiant underdog siblings who had to fight and struggle against the siblings for whom everything came so easily. and in katara’s mind especially, she is always punching up, and she always has a moral justification in lashing out at anyone she pleases. so she couldn’t fathom that the reason sokka puts up with her antagonism without complaint isn’t because he’s so above her that he can simply ignore her taunts and gibes without a care (if that were the case, he wouldn't bother to taunt and gibe in return), but rather that he feels so detached from his own personhood that he would never think to actually explain his feelings to the person whom he has defined himself through since childhood. and if he did ever, somehow, communicate that to her, she’d have to reevaluate their whole entire lives and dynamic. but he never will communicate that to her, so she’ll never actually have to do that.

moreover, even though katara often does tease sokka and cast doubt upon his competence and abilities in low-stakes situations constantly, whenever they are actually facing a real problem that requires an immediate solution, katara seems to forget that sokka is supposedly an unhelpful, lazy, immature idiot because she immediately turns to him to fix all their issues. and then once that issue is resolved, katara goes back to finding his existence bothersome. sokka, on the other hand, falls into this role of problem solver instinctually, with the one exception that when they actually name him as the idea guy, he jokingly complains that it’s a lot of pressure to be one who is always expected to come up with solutions. and while he is joking during that conversation in “the drill,” he’s being honest to an extent, because his perfectionism and fear of failure is truly dire.

when katara is faced with failure, whether as the consequences for her own actions or otherwise, she simply gets back up and tries again. she can’t be knocked down, she can’t be deterred from achieving her goals. she has a very healthy approach to making mistakes, and while she doesn’t always learn from them in the longterm, she does always try her best to fix them and amend the situation as immediately as possible. katara is someone who is incredibly resilient and is constantly demonstrating the sheer magnitude of her inner strength, especially in particularly difficult moments. she has the ability to fail as many times as it takes without letting that failure affect her own self-esteem or desire to keep striving for what she believes in.

sokka, on the other hand, is very physically resilient (he gets beat up a lot), but his emotional resilience is actually quite pathetic. he has no tools for coping with failure. from even the slightest mistake, like not actually being able to open the doors at the fire temple with his makeshift explosives, to a catastrophic one, like his failed invasion, sokka immediately retreats inward. in “the boiling rock,” sokka demonstrates how his first ever real failure that rests squarely on his own shoulders is so devastating to him that he becomes totally irrational and suicidal in an attempt to “rectify” the situation. he does not know how to cope with failure, because he expects himself to be perfect at all times. and it’s not because sokka is overly proud, but rather that his guilt complex is so profound that he blames himself for every single thing that goes awry at all times, even when it isn’t actually his fault whatsoever. so that guilt and shame is magnified a thousand fold when sokka is actually culpable for those losses.

one of many ways in which it is evident that sokka is the older sibling is that he clearly lives with the mentality that if katara messes up or gets herself in danger due to her own impulsive inclinations, it’s always actually sokka’s fault for not being a better, more attentive brother. when she sets off the booby trap in the banned ship, sokka banishes aang from the village so as to protect katara from herself. when katara experiences the consequences of heedlessly blowing up a factory, sokka gets mad at her for her recklessness, but also immediately finds a way to help her fix this situation, because that’s his job, and in fact, his primary purpose on this earth. this is a dynamic sokka has probably internalized even before he was assigned the role of her sworn protector, because that’s just how being the eldest is.

sokka’s tendency to take responsibility for everyone else’s mistakes and his desire to shoulder everyone else’s pain at all times, coupled with his implicit belief that he, uniquely, cannot afford to mess up ever (if other people make mistakes it’s fine and he can help them fix it, but if he makes mistakes he no longer has a purpose on this planet, goodbye cruel world), definitely indicates that he was held to an incredibly high standard all his life. he expects himself to be able to handle a lot of responsibility with perfect ease because he always has. he isn’t used to making mistakes of any kind. if he puts his mind into learning a new skill, he always masters it within a couple of days, whatever that skill happens to be. unlike katara, sokka is used to things coming easily to him, and what he isn’t used to is failure.

katara and sokka are both exceptional, of course, but in very different ways, and for very different reasons. katara grew up with a lot of external pressure to excel as a waterbender, because she needs to embody her cultural legacy and prove that her mother’s sacrifice was not in vain. it’s an unfathomable burden to place on a child, and the rate at which she improves her waterbending once she is actually given the resources to hone her skills is a testament to her perseverance and untiring dedication. katara becomes the greatest waterbender in the world not because she is a natural prodigy (which is something she bristles at when aang does display prodigious skill), but because she is incredibly determined and no one can outmatch the strength of her heart and unshakable commitment when she is pursuing a goal. as pakku even says, raw talent isn’t everything, and katara’s abilities prove that despite not being “naturally gifted,” hard work and determination is far more important when it comes to excelling in any given domain.

however, if katara’s motivation to be excellent is externally imposed by the tragic circumstances of her life, sokka’s motivations are, at the very least, internally maintained. as aforementioned, i have no doubt that he received a lot of external validation and praise from the adults in his life as a child with a dazzling, brilliant mind. as has been established, sokka is constantly displaying an ability to synthesize new information at a staggering rate, which likely means that before katara had even discovered her ability to waterbend, sokka was probably being fawned over for the impressive rate at which he was picking up new skills as a baby. since pretty much everything (cerebral, at least) comes easily to sokka, i can only imagine that hakoda, who never hesitates to express to his children how proud he is of them, would constantly affirm sokka’s intellect. and by boasting that sokka takes after himself (hakoda also refers to himself as a genius, completely sincerely), he unwittingly plants the first seeds in fostering sokka’s belief that he must be exactly like his father in every way, and that any deviation from hakoda’s image would prove him unworthy. but he will never be the spitting image of hakoda the way that katara is "the spitting image of kanna" because sokka is already the spitting image of kya, if not – perish the thought – his own person entirely.

unlike katara, who spent her whole childhood trying to waterbend by herself with little success (beyond, of course, isolated instances demonstrating her sheer raw power when her bending was being influenced by her incredibly strong and passionate emotions), sokka always felt like he could handle the amount of responsibility he was given, because everything came easily to him. until the day that his life changed forever, and suddenly the stakes were no longer abstract, but tangible and personally devastating. sokka had never learned that it was okay to fail as a child because he never had a reason to, and then suddenly, he could not afford to fail under any circumstances. failure of any kind went from being a (purely hypothetical) blow to the ego, to being something that could directly endanger the lives of his loved ones. and so sokka decides that the only way to not be culpable for his potential failures is to be a martyr.

of course, there are instances in which sokka is proven to be inept, such as on kyoshi island or with piandao, wherein his humility and open-mindedness are put on display and sokka puts aside his own standards of perfection to learn from a master, but i don't think these instances qualify as failures. for one thing, sokka happens to master the forms he is being taught in less than a day, at an unprecedented rate, and thus these initially humiliating blindspots in his knowledge become victories as sokka absorbs new knowledge. sokka is always eager to learn, and willing to acknowledge his lack of expertise in area, humbling himself to learn from others any chance he gets. no, what i mean by "failure" as it relates to sokka's self-perception and ego is not a lack of knowledge, but an inability to protect another. to sokka, his existence is defined by his ability to provide and protect, and thus, a failure is, specifically, when someone gets hurt under his watch. that is what it means to not be able to afford to fail. he is not overly proud (if anything he is overly insecure), but he also understands that the stakes of failure – real failure – are tangible.

so when it comes to failure that carries grave consequences, he would rather be dead than fallible (or, responsible for not adequately protecting his loved ones), one million times over. and so every time someone makes a sacrifice for him, he feels as if he has failed on a fundamental level, because simply being exceptional is not enough, he must also bear the entire world’s suffering alone – as (in his mind) hakoda instructed him to when he left him behind to protect and provide for the village. otherwise he has failed in his promise to be needed, which is his raison d’être. sokka’s complex is very obviously not informed solely by his upbringing as a “gifted kid,” and in fact largely informed by the dehumanizing logic of war as it necessitates sacrifice, but his inability to accept his own fallibility as a product of his self-dehumanization is, at the very least, compounded by his debilitating perfectionism.

thus, katara and sokka's dynamic within their family isn’t “gifted kid and neglected kid,” but rather “two gifted kids who are gifted in different ways, one of those ways being valued more on a cultural level due to its scarcity as a byproduct of genocide.” while katara was put on a pedestal her entire life due to her ability to waterbend, it doesn’t mean that sokka wasn’t put on a pedestal in other ways. if anything, the reason hakoda entrusted a child with the burdens he did was specifically because he put his son on a pedestal. sokka assumes that hakoda didn't think he was capable enough to join his army, but that couldn't be further from the truth. hakoda trusted his thirteen year old son so much that he genuinely thought it best to leave him alone with this duty to defend his village and protect katara at all costs. he didn't leave a single man behind, not even the other teenage boys, because that's how much faith he had in a child to take his responsibilities seriously and perform them competently. and if that decision gave sokka one million different complexes and fucked him up for life, it wasn’t because he wasn’t valued for his abilities, it’s because he was overvalued and given too much responsibility at too young an age.

both he and katara struggled to live up to the expectations placed on them, forced to fulfill the roles of their parents instead of being allowed to exist as children. but crucially, katara sees the injustice in that, and clings to her childhood even as she strives for greatness, and sokka simply doesn't. he's long accepted that injustice, and in fact feels guilty that he cannot better live up to the impossible portrait of an idolized father, an idealized masculinity, an illusory model of the infallible, unshakeable warrior. despite all his achievements and natural giftedness, he nonetheless feels totally inadequate, deeply flawed, and ontologically worthless. perhaps, in a world beyond the pressures of war and its dehumanizing logic, sokka would have internalized the praise he was constantly receiving his whole life for his gifts. but since he was only ever a prodigy in ways that didn’t matter (within that colonized paradigm), he doesn’t actually care about how clever and brilliant and creative and talented and unique and special he is, because that would first require him to see himself as fully human, and he can’t even do that.

#analysis #sokka #katara #katara&sokka #hakoda #kanna #kya #hakoda&sokka #kanna&sokka #kya&sokka #kanna&katara #whew...! 20+ paragraphs about sokka and katara’s childhood. it’s more likely than u think (highly likely at all times) #see but this is why sokka is so clearly a mirror to azula to me #like not just in terms of crippling perfectionism and devastating fear of failure and being a child prodigy who is put on a pedestal #but simultaneously dehumanized etc etc #but also the fact that like. zuko treats her the same way katara treats sokka #he clearly thinks his immediate hostility and aggression towards her is like. him nobly fighting the battle against his tormentor #when that is literally his little sister and she is struggling so much and desperate for support from LITERALLY ANYONE #katara and zuko are like ‘let’s put azula in her place’ and high five #and that’s just so fucking apt because they truly do believe that it’s their duty to put their perfect prodigy siblings ‘in their place’ #but those are truly two of the most miserable people on the planet #so to any outside observers it’s just like………. why are you being mean to them they’re literally suicidal and shaking like a leaf #but also everyone already knows that azula is the prodigious gifted sibling bc zuko says it like one million times #so there’s rly no need to argue that #whereas katara loves calling sokka an idiot so i do believe that some clarification is in order #but like. yeah there’s no way sokka was dismissed or neglected as a child #he’s dismissed and neglected by the world at large #but within his tribe he’s like a mini celebrity . he’s their young sheldon (sorry) #anyway im running out of room to write tags but um. perfectionism is a disease get well soon xoxo bye

[mysaintkitten]

Related to that Tommy gif, we absolutely need a drabble where the reader appreciates and just body worships Tommy's build like, *goddamn!!*

i got a little .. carried away i suppose .. id definitely want to make this longer if you guys would Want a longer version of this haha

(made a continuation of this! it can be found here !)

WARNINGS: 18+ minors DNI, dom!tommy kind of, pet names (puppy is used a LOT im sorry, baby, etc), daddy kink, degradation, oral (m receiving), overall sloppy and so horny

“missed you .. so so much, tommy ..” you hum as you kiss down his body, slowly sinking down to your knees. you kiss his navel, between his hips, his thighs, whining with arousal as your hand sneaks down to grip his calf gently.

tommy chuckles darkly and runs his fingers through your hair as he leans himself back in his seat, “did you?”

“yes, mh-“ you moan as you shift your hips forward, placing your clothed cunt on top of his boot. the much needed friction combined with how degrading and dehumanizing it felt made your mind spin. “missed you so much, daddy ..”

tommy begins to notice you rutting against his foot while digging your nails into his leg, he hums at the sight beneath him. seeing you so pathetic, so desperate, he felt his cock beginning to harden in his pants.

“look at that ..” he groans as he tightens his grip in your hair and forces you to look up at him, “filthy little puppy, aren’t you?”

you whine as your cheeks flush, glancing up at him with blown out pupils and heavy lids as your mouth hangs open, “can’t help it .. every part of you makes me so fuckin’ needy ..”

“every part?” he teases with a light laugh, you whimper and nod against him.

you lift your hips off his boot and sit up on your knees, resuming your kisses on his thighs while running your hands up his body.

“i love being between your thighs .. ‘n i love it when you have me ride them until i’m shaking and begging.” you giggle, reminiscing on the nights where tommy would force you to grind on his thigh until you were physically incapable of doing it anymore. at that point, he’d start moving your hips for you, continuing to stimulate you as you huffed and cried.

tommy swallows, feeling himself becoming harder. he subconsciously spreads his thighs apart further for you.

you notice this, and you bite your lip gently, batting your lashes as you move your hands to his torso while avoiding his crotch, trailing your fingers along his abs and pecs.

“mf-“ you mewl quietly, finding it hard to focus when you feel yourself becoming even more wet. “i love when your pecs flex while you’re fucking me ..” your hands begin to move to his arms, gently squeezing the relaxed muscle. “and how these big, strong arms hold me so tightly when you’re pounding into me.”

tommy tips his head back and licks his lips with a lustful expression mixed with a slight grin, “is that so, my love?”

you nod weakly while exhaling softly, your mind beginning to go blank as your hands slowly trail back to your favourite part of tommy, “yes, daddy.”

“what else does my puppy like, hm?” tommy pries, placing his hand on top of yours and slowly guiding it between his legs. you allow it, your eyes switch between his face and his crotch, gasping quietly as your palm made contact with his warm bulge.

without his guidance, you begin to apply some pressure and friction to his cock, watching as tommy’s shoulders slowly begin to relax and his breathing become more laboured.

“this ..” you moan as you lean forward to plant sloppy kisses on his restricted cock, hearing tommy mumble a few curse words mixed with some praise. “is my favourite part of daddy.”

you continue to kiss his bulge while palming him, running your free hand along his inner thigh. you’re pressing the lower half of your face against him, teasing him with hot open mouth moans between wet kisses.

tommy’s has never seen you act like this, he’s in disbelief at how whorish you’re acting, while simultaneously being the hardest he’s ever been. he needs to feel you without all this fabric in the way.

“i think my girl wants daddy’s cock in her mouth .. doesn’t she?” tommy growls as he tugs your hair up again, this time leaning his body forward slightly so he can use his free hand to toy with your lips, watching them recoil as he presses his fingers and thumb against them.

pushing his thumb into your mouth, you eagerly accept it and begin to suck on it, nodding feverishly as you feel yourself finally slipping into your most submissive and sluttiest headspace.

“i knew it .. i can read my baby so well ..” he chuckles as he slides his thumb out of your mouth, he cups your face and runs his damp thumb along your cheek. he takes both his hands off you and begins to unzip his pants.

“are you wet, puppy?” tommy purrs as he tugs his pants down, almost immediately palming himself once he’s in his boxers. you whimper and nod, sneaking your fingers into tommy’s waistband to fully unleash his cock. tommy smirks at your eagerness, “pretty little thing .. hole all wet and needy .. yet you want my cock in your mouth, hm?”

to be honest, you want tommy in your cunt just as badly, but in this headspace all you’re thinking about is tommy’s cock and his pleasure. plus, you partially get off on having him fuck your mouth, anyway.

despite that, you nod again, eyes going wide as tommy’s cock springs out. wasting no time and without using your hands, you place his tip into your mouth, licking his slit before proceeding to take more of him. you nearly take him all, gagging as you almost reach his base. tommy groans loudly and pushes your head down, forcing you to take those few extra inches as your eyes welt with tears.

tommy begins to lessen his force and you pull off, gasping loudly while bringing your hand up between his legs to pump him. the lewd sound of you stroking his wet cock combined with his deep breathy groans sent a new wave of arousal throughout your body. you’ve undeniably soaked through your panties at this point.

with tommy’s, more gentler, guidance, you bring your mouth back down to him. placing wet, messy kisses on the underside of his cock while teasing his tip. once at his balls, you lick them and suckle on them gently, continuing to pump tommy as you whine between his legs.

“jesus ..” tommy breathes as pre come spills from his tip, “when did my baby become such a cock hungry whore?”

you detach your mouth from his balls and rest your head on his inner thigh, continuing to pump him as you bite your lip.“jus’ love your cock .. love being a warm ‘n wet hole for you to use whenever you like.”

more pre come dribbles out of him your degrading words, he chuckles and swallows harshly.

“like a toy? you like being a toy for daddy, baby?”

you nod and whimper, clenching your thighs together as your arousal as become unbearable.

tommy laughs breathily and soothingly runs his fingers through your hair, “my perfect little toy. now, let me fuck your face, puppy.

—

hellooo so this request asked for a drabble so i tried to keep this as short as i could Lol but again if you guys would like a longer version please let me know !! and there is a Bunch of fics in the works i prooooooomise please just be patient

#cillian murphy #cillian murphy smut #cillian murphy x reader #cillian x fem!reader #tommy shelby #tommy shelby x reader #peaky blinders #hope y’all like this #:)

[raayllum]

Re these prior musings / promises but speculation regarding the secret scene possibly being Claudia murdering Sir Sparklepuff got me wondering, so... let's talk about Rayla, Claudia, and symbolic to non symbolic notions of suicide.

Tw because this will mention / does talk about cannibalism, suicidal ideation, and suicide in passing. If you're not comfortable reading about those things in more detail but you still want the gist of this meta, scroll down to the TLDR that will have a couple sentence summary of the idea.

With that out of the way, let's get into it.

For a while now, I've been interested in the metaphorical mechanics regarding Rayla murdering Viren in 3x09. As we all know (even if Aaravos 'pretends' otherwise in 4x04), Rayla did successfully kill the man, retroactively achieving her earlier mission of killing a king of Katolis because he was responsible for both the death of the Dragon King and because he'd killed Zym (which Viren was in the process of doing).

However, Rayla kills Viren in the most Rayla-y of ways, as she does so without her assassin blades, while acting as the Last Dragonguard, and in a way that means killing Viren is not just an act of protection or revenge, but also something that meant sacrificing (killing) herself.

And this felt notable to me, since unlike either of the brothers, Rayla hasn't killed anyone else. Ezran would've burned people alive with dragon fire if not for immunity spell, and Callum blasted plenty of people off the side of the mountain and presumably to the Storm Spire. But Viren was the sole blood on Rayla's hands, even if the narrative has Claudia (and we'll get to her in a minute) resurrect him. Her one act of murder being something that also, as stated, required her to sacrifice her whole person, and is also in line with her assassin training: "I am already dead."

When Rayla rebuttals Ezran's assertion that "[You spared him] because you knew he was a person, just like you," you can read Rayla's assertion of "That shouldn't have mattered, I had a job to do," solely as her talking about the guard's personhood... but you can also read it, I think, as her dehumanizing her own personhood. She is a weapon and he is the target and that's all that should've mattered.

We can tether this thread all the way up to season four with Rayla's refusal to murder Callum, but put a pin in that, cause now I want to talk about Claudia.

Much like we can read Rayla's attempted dehumanization as twofold, I also think we can read Sir Sparklepuff's mimicry of Claudia as something with multiple layers. The first and likely most obvious one of course is that Sir Sparklepuff mimicking Claudia in earlier episodes is to setup later that he is her (magical, technical?) half-brother and one of Viren's children. Kind of like how we had Ezran and Zym mimicking each other in mid-S2 to set up their mental/emotional bond later that season.

And this implied connection likewise loops back around in the finale when Viren simultaneously refuses to sacrifice Sir Sparklepuff for his own survival while also lamenting that he's led (sacrificed?) his own daughter down a dark path (and perhaps regret that he sacrificed his son once, too).

Arc 2 has also ramped up Claudia's willingness to destroy herself further for the "good of her family" (and her own desires that often steamroll over theirs) in having her take on more and more animalistic forms when doing dark magic, blurring the lines between her de-personalization of magical creatures and also herself.

This reflects dark magic's cannibalism motif quite well, as Claudia carries on metaphorically cannibalizing her own body throughout most of s4 and especially s5: refusing to rest from Terry, using her own blood in spells, etc.

This all reinforces that while dehumanization was something Rayla struggled with for both her target(s) and to a lesser degree herself, it's something that Claudia has only continually excelled at. And we know, thanks to S4 with Rayla walking away from the drake in the woods ("We can't save everyone") that she's gotten better at it as well.

But what does this all have to do with symbolic suicide? Well...

If the secret scene is what a good deal of us have been speculating / that Claudia is covered in Sir Sparklepuff's blood in the teaser trailer, then: if Sir Sparklepuff is a stand in for Viren's innocent, made to be an asset, processing learned behaviour child - if he is a stand in for Claudia - then through killing him, Claudia is symbolically killing herself.

Now, there's no doubt in my mind that Claudia isn't viewing things that way, but we also know just how much she's willing to ruin herself for the people around her first hand, and how persistent that characterization has been: "Are you okay?" "You're going to be better now. That's all that matters." While Claudia also has some selfish, twisted self-preservation in there as well (she cannot or will not cope with the fracturing of her family, even when she really probably should), the self-destructive tendency that's led to her S6 spiral is well established.

This attitude of "it doesn't matter what happens to me, so long as other people are okay/safe" is something we see for many characters, of course, but I think is best embodied in Rayla's continual, emphasized thread of sacrifice / her tendency towards subtle but consistent passive suicidal ideation regarding her own safety and her own wants/desires.

R: Don't worry about my hand. The egg is all that matters. / It doesn't matter what happens to me. / I have to go after [Viren]. / It's agonizing, but I know our mission comes first.

This is important regarding her and Callum in regards to the possession plot line. As long as Callum is Callum (not possessed, or she has reason to believe he's still in there), Rayla likely won't be able to bring herself to kill him. This is from an emotional / characterization standpoint, of course, but from a thematic standpoint, we can see where it stems from Callum and Rayla continually being each other's main connection to their sense of identity.

As long as Callum is Callum ("you're the destiny is a book you write yourself guy"), he's worth saving. As long as Callum is Callum, she can be Rayla ("Rayla's brave. She saves people" / "Rayla. My name is Rayla, and I'm going home"). As long as she's Rayla, he can be Callum. Because if Callum isn't Callum, then he's dead, and if he's dead, she can kill him. And if Rayla kills him, if Callum is dead, then she won't be Rayla anymore. Because to literally kill Callum would be to simultaneously symbolically/emotionally kill herself.

Now of course, some of this is already differing wildly.

If Claudia is going to kill Sir Sparklepuff, it makes the most sense for it to have already come to pass in 6x01, whereas Callum and Rayla's plot line would only come later on in the season. Claudia will presumably succeed at her symbolic suicide, but that doesn't mean she's not still worth saving / unable to be saved in the future (perhaps by her family). Rayla will probably fail at her symbolic suicide and succeed at sparing herself through sparing/saving Callum.

However, it's an interesting symbolic thread and potential foil contrast, and I thought it was worth pointing out. I hope you think so too!

TLDR below:

Due to Claudia's parallels to Sir Sparklepuff, if she kills him it holds a layer of her symbolically killing herself. In contrast, Rayla's symbolic suicide would be in killing Callum, as that would destroy her own sense of identity/life. For Claudia, this means likely being saved later by her family, and for Rayla, this means likely sparing Callum and herself simultaneously, thereby saving and sparing both of them.

#tdp meta #the dragon prince #tdp #tdp claudia #tdp rayla #raydia #tw suicide mention #analysis series #parallels #s6 speculation #claudia #rayla #analysis #multi #arc 1 #arc 2 #theme: identity #this is why im like rayllum has to be quarantined away with each other y'know?

[system-of-a-feather]

Ignoring the discourse, I just wanted to ramble on parts language and our feelings to it as someone who mainly uses it - but honestly "parts" is our preferred term by a long way save for alter when we are talking about things in a more clinical sense.

Personally for us, headmate, sysmate, and similar "roommate" kind of terms actually feel diminishing to the dynamic we have with one another. Headmate and similar terms draw parallels to roommates housemates, aka someone you share a space with - and I totally understand the draw to those terms for those that like to emphasize the individuality of the parts, but personally to call our relationship to one another something similar to people who just share a body / brain / mind / system etc really feels a bit... downplaying the importance we have to one another and the unique dynamic that comes from being parts of a whole.

XIV, Ray, Lucille, Aderis, all the parts in our system feel far more intimate, personal, and tighter bonds than anything like a housemate or a roommate or "someone I am sharing X with" could possibly reach. By nature we all compliment each other and were literally created to support, bolster, accentuate, and cover for one another.

/Separate people in different bodies are not so genuinely and thoroughly made to exist in synergy with one another the same way alters and parts are. Separate people in different bodies, no matter how close and how far back they go, are never going to be as deeply tied with one another the same way parts are / can be - and if they DO - 9/10 times it is likely super codependent and unhealthy where as with alters that tends to be an ideal.

Of course this depends on how you define "separate people" and all so its not a "well I am RIGHT" cause its how we perceive things and the main point in our perception is that to draw parallels to existences of two 'separate people' sharing a space together honestly just... extremely downplays how intrinsically made for one another we are. My relationship with my parts goes deeper than any two people who share a space could ever go because we were literally MADE for one another. It's impossible to compliment me and support me more than the parts in my system because they ARE LITERALLY my other halves.

So headmate and sysmate just.... always feel really downplaying to what we are.

Alters we are okay and chill with, but it honestly feels both sensationalized and very.... artificial for a lack of better words. Using the word "alter" tends to draw my mind to the more fictional media depictions OR solely to minimizing parts to the clinical expression to which it feels a bit dehumanizing - so unless its for convenient shared language or for clinical / just factual references - we tend to prefer parts.

Parts on the other hand really acknowledges just how intrinsically connected and made for one another we are. We really don't think it diminishes our individuality at all (though that might just be because we are decently far in our healing journey that we can simultaneously hold the idea of 'we are parts of a whole' and 'we are valid as individuals with our experiences and can exist and acknowledge ourselves and one another like individuals' very easily together at the same time) or imply anything about us being broken or shattered or anything.

If anything, parts language reminds me that there IS others out there that are there to fill in the gaps in life that I can't do. It reminds me that I am not in this alone and that I'm not SUPPOSED to be in this alone. I am a whole person, but I am not the whole picture and I don't have to try to be the whole picture because one puzzle piece while beautiful on its own - often works many times better when connected with the others.

I dunno, parts language is just a really really positive and healing thing for us. We love it and while we understand it not being for everyone, it means A LOT to us and really nothing negative.

My parts are made FOR me just as I am made FOR my parts. We are literally MADE for one another because we are PARTS of a whole that are MEANT to work with one another and I think that is really beautiful honestly.

#alter: riku #syscourse #syscourse tw #<- even though I dont mean this to be syscourse #I hesitated on posting it cause I dont wanna add more to the discourse cause its dumb shit #but I think it is better to put my thoughts out on it than ya know #not #anyways #parts language #actuallydid #dissociative identity disorder

[hold-him-down]

1, 2, 17

from this ask game

What are your favorite whump tropes?

noncon, med whump, noncon drugging, medical restraints, whipping, relief after prolonged suffering, lab/experiment whump, dehumanization (whumper wearing gloves and talking about the whumpee like they're not right there kind of dehumanization, not so much turning whumpee into dog dehumanization), forced to watch, tube feeding/intubation/etc (loss of autonomy over basic bodily functions).

2. Do you prefer illness whump or injury whump?

It's like choosing between my children. Gun to my head, I'll say injury whump, but I fucking love both (I LOVE sickfic and caretaking sick whumpees) and if you can fenangle a world where they happen simultaneously, it is a world I want to live in.

17. When was the last time you got the whumperflies?

my head/imagination is a constant source of whumperflies, during waking hours I'd say at least 70% of the time I'm thinking about characters in generally whumpy scenarios. Doing this AFTG reread one of the guys just got absolutely wrecked and while his scene didn't give me 'whumperflies' thinking about the scenes that happened after that weren't on page did.

Truly though I think being so deep in the tumblr whump community has made it hard for me to parse apart things that I used to easily be able to identify, like what hits the spot for me for whump in media. Maybe reading the sunshine court last week, but even still, it's usually in my imagination, the scenes that I expand upon, that hit perfectly on my brand of whump.

#whump asks #thank you!! #my awareness of the fact that i previously definitely did this ask game continues to grow

[theminecraftbox]

/dsmp rp

Let's talk about these exchanges:

Daedalus 4: Sam: So, you don’t think I deserve to be in here? Dream: No. I don’t think you deserve to be in here. I don’t think I deserve to be in here. I don’t think I deserved to be in here. I don’t think I deserved to be tortured. I mean, do you think that Quackity deserves to be tortured, Sam? Finale 4: Tommy: I thought this whole time, you were the villain. […] Dream: Because I have. Because I am. Tommy, I tortured you. Tommy: I could never piece together why. How could you do that to yourself? How could you live with yourself? […] Dream: Yeah, because you deserved it, Tommy. Daedalus 2: Dream: I think that you are me if you were a lying pussy.

I'm fascinated by the language Dream uses to Tommy in the genuine finale, and specifically, by the intersection with and contrast to similar sentiments expressed in Daedalus.

I've spoken at length before about the curious way that Dream de-emphasized exile to Sam during Daedalus.

It's also curious, then, that Dream over-emphasizes its weight to Tommy, especially because it's in the context of Punz, his partner-in-crime, basically laughing in Tommy's face about it. There's a silence there, a silence that I think speaks to discomfort.

I don’t think that Dream's necessarily uncomfortable with exile in the context of like, all the other shit he’s done. Certainly it’s not much compared to his revive book experiments, and certainly it was a long time ago by now, nearly two years, two long, long years which must have felt much longer to Dream.

But I think Dream IS uncomfortable with how much personal venom/complicated emotions he has about Tommy in this scene. There's the spite he holds for Tommy's role in toppling his paradise, for the subsequent conflicts. There's the defensive fear and indignation he has for someone who has just snuck into his home and killed him when he wasn't expecting it. And there's another component, possibly the most important: how Dream is defending himself against an emotional assault. Dream is defending himself against kindness.

Tommy is attempting to shatter the protective context that Dream is keeping him wrapped in; it's a horrible, harmful, dehumanizing context, but Dream thinks it's keeping him safe even when it's the thing killing him. It is, in essence, the prison.

Exile, like the abuse he suffered in prison, is something that I think falls clear victim to Dream's discomfort with the intersection of personal and professional motivations. But in the genuine finale, it's in such a different context than it was with Sam: exile, and Tommy in general, were one of the motivations for Sam's abuse of him. Exile, his killing of Tommy in prison, etc, is also the motivation for Tommy sneaking in to kill him.

In Daedalus, he is trying to break the dehumanizing view that Sam has of him... even as he simultaneously rebuilds and reinforces that view as he prepares the prison to be his home. Here, Dream is clinging for dear life to that last vestige of the thing that keeps him safe. He is protected from Tommy for as long as Tommy thinks he's an uncomplicated monster. He is protected from the assault that threatens to tear apart what he's sacrificed and killed and been tortured and died for.

So he uses, very specifically, the word torture: torture begets torture; Dream was tortured, and the punishment must have fit the crime, yes? Dream was tortured; ergo, he must have tortured Tommy. Dream must make himself terrifying; ergo, he must have committed the most terrifying crime he can think of.

#c!dream and c!tommy #c!dream and c!sam #exile #genuine finale #daedalus arc

[irlkisukeurahara]

"singlets dehumanize fictives a lot" yes true. But imma be real I've seen so many more fictives dehumanize fictives than singlets. Because you 14 y/o body having systems who are obsessed with your TikTok and Discord communities have cultivated a toxic environment where your only personality trait is your disorder. And so therefore you refuse to make any form of recovery because some 20+ year old child groomer system convinced you that you would be somehow "lesser" if your DID was manageable. As you take such an obsession with your DID/OSDD/etc, you'll preach "Fictives aren't their source!!!" from the fucking rooftops all day every day while simultaneously only valuing yourselves as fictives and not people, because admitting that your a person will alienate you from the anti recovery "community" in that stupid discord server you joined. You're even more toxic towards fictives than "singlets" ever will be, but you think that systok is the only way to have DID so you think it's suddenly acceptable just because you're a system. But you are, in fact, destroying the community more than any confused singlet ever will. You're pathetic and self centered and should go to therapy before you ever go into online faux "safe spaces" ever again.

#rambles with miles #system #did system #osdd system #did osdd #osdd #osddid #osdd 1b #fictive rant #fictive #fictive alter #did alter #dissociative identity disorder #actually plural #actually disabled #actually did #rant post #mini rant #syscourse

[igniting-quill]

6 10 and 16 for the oc ask game! any character

Great Questions! I’m going to switch up the characters for this one because some of them will be boring if I just stick with one.

6. Is there any significance behind their eye color?

I answer this question with Émilie Eye, my D&D character for @silly-goofy-mood‘s survival campaign.

For Émilie, not necessarily? She’s got brown eyes naturally, but because blue contacts exist, she wears those and presents as someone as blue eyes. So there’s a part of me being like NEARSIGHTEDNESS IN FANTASY MEDIA LETS GOOO, and c’mon Émilie, you really had to do us brown eyed people like that huh.

The Orange eye is that way because it’s the colors of her Patron, Chegg, which is based on the “educational” company behind many a college (and high school) plagiarism/cheating scandal LOL. I don’t think it’s orange most of the time,  just when she casts spells and uses aspects of her Warlock power.

I have yet to play this character. We’ll see if anything changes about this!

10. If they have an LI, how much of their character is tailored to be compatible to that person?

I answer this question with Luxury Quartz, my D&D character for @theccrowsnest‘s WAAX college campaign.

Lux had not just one, but two love interests in this campaign. One was the toxic abusive boyfriend, Vaughn Morelli, and one was the true end game lover, Angel.

I thought mostly about Lux’s relationship with Vaughn, so yes, she was incredibly tailored to Vaughn. The incredible emphasis Lux puts on looks/appearance (especially as someone who works and theater and wants to be a performer) and finding Vaughn hella attractive for example. Also, Lux kinda going hand in hand with being a performer as Vaughn’s significant other.

Also! I wanted to make a thing about beauty causing you to be doomed (especially if you’re fem presenting). I was watching D20′s Neverafter when I was creating Lux’s concept, and that was a huge thing that got me thinking about fairytales and how oftentimes the “pretty woman” is the one everyone is jealous of, pursued without concent, etc. etc.

Additionally, I researched a bit into some toxic couples in media so I based Lux a little off of Maddy from Euphoria: someone who seemingly has a lot of power and control while simultaneously being powerless to a toxic partner.

There’s more that’s all I remember off the top of my head.

16. What is something about your OC can make you cry?

This is gonna be weird, but I’m going to choose Damien Wang from the masks campaign. This character is heavily based off of Damian Wayne from DC, which I have never consumed any canon media of! I already pinged crow, same DM from the prev question.

I’m still crafting this characters backstory, but I have things I want to talk about!

The first thing: what does it mean to be a child assassin and brought out into the real world? You have been used to dehumanizing people your whole life, trusting only yourself and your crew. Now, you’re a kid that has to... socialize? Make friends? Behave “normally” while making references to things you’ve never known about until now? I had this idea for a fic I have yet to write of just... Damien playing Animal Crossing and learning about what it means to have neighbors and a community, especially in a scenario where those no game mechanic to kill any of them. Some people annoy him sure. But also, he’s just, sobbing when someone moves out for the first time.

The second thing, I wanted to talk about a story of loss: losing your heritage, losing your friends, and losing your purpose? These are things that happen when he leaves the cult, also known as the Assassin’s Secret Society.

Heritage: is on Damien losing his language, his culture, and his Chinese mother (who is still part of the cult-like society). Friends: is losing on all the fellow child assassins and members of this society. And finally purpose: when you’re in that mindset you have a goal, get the most kills. Now, what can Damien do? Homework? School? Games maybe, but it all feels aimless.

And maybe that’s why he’s so goddamn angry all the time, you little gremlin.

#waax #d&d #oc #ocs #my oc #my ocs #ask game #dnd #masks #Émilie Eye #Luxury Quartz #I would tag this Damien Wang but there's some poor kid named that for sure considering that the Wang name is just the Smith of Chinese folk #Willowtide Arcane Academy

[ilynpilled]

what do u think is jaime’s biggest flaw

oh he has a bunch

Biggest one: his fear of truly confronting things. his cowardice (the brave knight is deconstructed)

Arrogance is a given. His obsession with perception and his ego. His destructive dissociative tendencies and forced detachment. His self delusion and cynicism he uses to enable acts that his conscience knows are wrong. He also often falls into the trap of cynicism when he expects quick results and does not get them. When he makes choices to become better and people keep dehumanizing him and expect the worst from him he gets super frustrated and petty (less so atp, just compare his behavior to Brienne’s reaction when he gives her Oathkeeper and she misreads his intensions vs the gate not being opened for him in ADwD) His misogynistic and classist blindspots. Him weighing his values wrong even when his conscience is screaming at him (multiple examples of this, e.g Jeyne Poole: “her eyes were sad and wary”, “then why do you sound so frightened?”: vows from so many vows speech in conflict: obey your father vs protect the innocent. He obviously chooses wrong. George was telling us the way he changed by the end of ASoS is not enough he is not where he needs to be yet) His desperate want to make his “so many vows” compromise instead of making the correct choice and drawing the hard line he already did at 17. His desire to become Goldenhand the Just (just a mess frankly, gold tends to have negative symbolism in his story, his goldenhand also is associated with violence and is his desperate attempt to recreate his old self, his phantom fingers — again, has to be addressed in a dream.) While we are here also his need for his subconscious to literally repeatedly slap sense into him (his dreams addressing things he refuses to consciously address because it would hurt to do so). His tendency to repeat his father’s dogma when he is viscerally aware that that man is the worst man oat (Lannister sibling parallels! uwu!), unwittingly contradicting it in every way, then trying again. His desire to pursue glory as well as honor (and whatever they mean in the subtext) when the symbolism is very clearly established that the two cannot be achieved simultaneously for him, he cannot ride two horses at once. It might be that both get turn down at the end in some form. The honor related to the KG, and the glory related to duty to house Lannister. I think that conflict is getting picked apart right now with the choice he makes in ADwD to abandon his position/hunting down the brotherhood any kind of glory tying to house lannister pursuit etc to follow an injured and suspicious Brienne alone (mind you he was also riding Honor in that chapter, ntm the half moon). I think both honor and glory are very abstract and are rooted in some form in his desire for love as well (honor and glory paid their parts but in the end it was for cersei is something he reflects on) but “the things we do for love” has to be something not destructive and prejudiced. He is disillusioned by both honor and glory, especially after aerys. “What is honor?” A horse. Like deep down he knows. His arc in AFfC-ADwD was about about taking apart and looking at all of these flaws imo, put him in a spot to make his choice in adwd. and all that matters are choices. He is also an asshole.

#ask #jaime lannister #valyrianscrolls #this is another reason i love his arc so much bc changing is really not simple at all #to ​what and why you are changing has to be thoroughly examined #and all your flaws have to be brought to the surface #and also how our self concept plays into our choices and what altruism even means #or what becoming better even means #i also think ppl take vows a bit too literally like they also represent something more abstract in terms of his values #and he does this too like he fixates on it bc its easier to just be like yeah im just keeping this vow nothing else haha #like his self proclaimed ‘’im doing this for the bit’’ is so easy to pick apart #trying to keep that oath to a dead lady like #cat is dead. she couldnt be kicking piles of doodoo at him #like what’s he got to prove? #it is something deep rooted for him and him only #‘’let them see the cripple. i wont show them a golden lie’’ and the return to that ‘’one hand. only one. no golden one’’ #alright then lets keep going anyway #when it comes to analysis of jaime the subtext is so important #the show whitewashed him and kept him stagnant #george explores his flaws and forces him to start addressing them #and constantly presents him with dichotomies #i hope then his trajectory will be now actually confronting his sins directly #the lady stoneheart confrontation will have to be a key pivot point #especially as per her symbolism as the monster that is the product of the lannister regime #and its her family that he caused the most harm to #his biggest sins relate to her

[qweerhet]

Please stop calling paraphilias disorders and mental health issues. Signed, a mentally ill paraphiliac.

i mean. i subscribe heavily to antipsychiatry; i only reference paraphilic disorders insofar as i reference any artificially constructed category of existence enumerated by the DSM.

those artificially constructed categories do, in fact, have a real, material effect on the world; they form the structure for the mass incarceration and dehumanization of those whose identities and behavior can, conceivably, be categorized within them by a psychiatric authority. i feel that paraphilic disorders are just as important to address in this realm as BPD and schizophrenia.

simultaneously, i do recognize that, just as there are those who hear voices while escaping categorization as schizophrenic, and there are those who are plural systems while escaping categorization as DID, and there are those who display splitting behavior and extreme fear of abandonment while escaping categorization as BPD--there are also those who experience paraphilic attraction while escaping categorization with paraphilic disorders. sometimes this is due to the categories being explicitly constructed so as to not include them--the "severe distress and/or deficit in daily function" criteria in most diagnoses often excludes a large variety of people who otherwise meet all DSM criteria, for many different diagnoses--and sometimes it is due to individual luck of the draw, having psychiatrists who accede to overlooking certain criteria, avoiding contact with the psychiatric system in totality, etc.

anyway. i mean. i can see where you're coming from, but i think there's a lot of utility to referencing artificially constructed categories of marginalized people simply on the basis of the details of their marginalization being relevant to their daily existence. and from a psych survivor lens, i don't think "we're not like those other groups of people who get slapped with diagnoses, their diagnoses are real and relevant whereas ours is just made up to oppress us" is, like, useful. we band around psych labels somewhat even though they're the language of our oppressors because we don't have wholly alternative language to reference our marginalization. it's all bullshit innit.

#anonymous #ask

[bloodyscott]

the racism in the medical community is astounding.

being black and poc in general often means being treated like your untrustworthy and lying, and they start to dehumanize you. especially with afabs and women, this intersects with misogyny but also a weird brand of misandry where there less than a woman if they identify or are seen as such, but with amabs and men, they are seen as a bigger than life threat. im not even getting into transphobia and intersexism either, along with sanism because we get treated as if we’re “deranged” for complaining about our symptoms. fat poc are treated doubly horribly and face racism and dehumanization ontop of fatphobia. and in general we get infantilized and adultified simultaneously a lot

the change starts with feminism, disability justice, trans rights, intersex justice, fat liberation, poc justice, youth liberation, etc

#fatphobia #antiblackness #racism #ableism #sanism #infantilization #adultification #intersexism #transphobia

[vergess]

Jesus they don't even care that people like me and others who have self harm disorders holy hell there disgusting

https://www.tumblr.com/ahe-bby/716113818711883776

Link CWs: Murder, suicide, death, etc threats.

Yeah, the thing is, part of being in a cult like this is you dehumanize the other.

Now, "dehumanize the other" is kind of a gibberish technical statement, so let me break that down.

By "dehumanize," I mean that members of the antiship cult are taught to see anyone who disagrees with them as unworthy of basic human rights, including the right to life itself. But also unworthy of things like being treated with respect, or having basic needs such as food and shelter, etc. This is justified by claiming that anyone who "does the evil thing" has given up their humanity and with it their human rights.

In this case, "the evil thing" is "read about fictional characters kissing." Comparable in a lot of ways to the extreme christian cults that consider Disney movies to be sexually predatory.

By "the other," I mean, "anyone outside of the cult."

That includes people like me, who engage with dark media as a hobby. But it also includes people like you, who just aren't interested in being violent towards "bad people" as defined by the cult.

As a result, this cult encourages its members to self-isolate, which helps speed up the time needed to indoctrinate new members, and simultaneously makes it harder for members of the cult to seek help escaping.

After all, in their minds as warpped by cult logic, they've "done great violence" already, just in their harassment campaigns. All the worse if they were led by the cult to engage in actual violence, such as rape and assault, both of which are common within the cult.

It is only the cult's reassurance that their targets are sub-human monsters that the guilt can be held at bay. Which effectively traps the member in the cult, and encourages them to engage in more and more violent rhetoric and actions.

#Asks #Answered asks #star-rug-64 #antishipping #antishippers

[astral-actias]

I'm not not fae, but fuck if I don't really feel it lately at all. I'm too busy enjoying being a reploid to worry about magic and it's kind of nice actually. I think it's partly because the way I understand this identity is entirely different...I concluded that I must be fae based on a lot of factors that felt essentially external (how I use magic, how spirits react to me, etc) but I concluded I must be a reploid because This Feels Like Euphoria And I Don't Give A Shit About Proving It. Like yeah I've got some ???-life memories about it but also, I'm completely fine with it if those are fake.

Just like, completely ontopunk about it. Who cares why. I only care how. Why is not my problem. I have nothing to prove and everything to enjoy, here. I will even fully admit that I've come to understand that a lot of it is reclaiming having been dehumanized to fuck by being put on a pedestal as a "gifted child" and simultaneously treated as less than human by both peers and some authorities because I was a deeply traumatized child Going The Fuck Through It with undiagnosed autism and ADHD. I didn't feel like I had a real age until I was about 16. I was not allowed to form a single sense of self and now I contain two of me plus this random fucking dollar store elf-version Hermes (affectionate) plus whoever else happens to split under stress. Like, yeah, I know why and I'm moving on from that. I can be whatever I want now, I spent fucking 23 years being what other people wanted and I'm done.

Voidpunk resonates pretty hard lately too. It's not specifically about being nonhuman but it is about reclaiming your dehumanization and for me that heavily involves going, yeah I AM what you said, and it's great. I AM a weird fucking robot that doesn't relate to humans normally. I DO think of things in mechanical terms like input and output and processing. I have people who love me exactly as I am and I'm one of those people.

Not really going anywhere with this, there's no thesis statement, just shit I've been thinking. I don't relate to the need to justify why I call myself any given thing or find ways to make myself fit to a community standard and I am currently having a fantastic time just being a reploid off by myself and that's great. I kinda miss all the astral and magical stuff, but it'll be waiting for me when I get around to it because that's also still part of who I am.

In the meantime my friends have decided to call me a robot and they have no idea how validating they're being but fuck if I don't love them for it, lol. They are pros at detecting when someone is Doing A Bit and absolutely will not leave you hanging if they see it and honestly even if they knew The Bit was serious I think they'd still be chill about it. Squad goals y'all.

[girlactionfigure]

By: Hussein Aboubakr Mansour

Underneath the positions of pro-Palestinian progressive Westerners lies a conglomerate of presuppositions and assumptions that are rarely openly discussed or mentioned. One of such major presuppositions is that Palestinian terrorism, the indiscriminate murderous violence /1

targeting mostly defenseless Jewish civilians, is a core part of the Palestinian identity and a normative Palestinian behavior to be expected. As such, this behavior can not be blamed on Palestinian society or institutions but on Israel and Israeli action, which controls the /2

structure of power from which the Palestinian identity emerged. In this position, highly intelligent people discover the most troubling aspect of the conflict but only to dismiss it. This form of humanistic bigotry against the Palestinians came to justify their worst /3

inclination and disregard the lives of Israeli Jews, ending up being one of the most dehumanizing positions towards Israelis and Palestinians. This position is not new but has become a core intellectual habit of the international left since the canonization of the works of /4

Frantz Fanon as a Bible of decolonization. According to Fanon, the murderous rampage of the colonized man against the colonizer is the quintessential act of self-liberation. The blaze of wrath and anger that ends in murder is nothing but the birth pains of freedom. In other /5

words, the struggle, no matter how violent or extreme, is an existential condition and an ontological urgency. These ideas, which started in the circles of the French Left in the 1950s to justify Algerian acts of extreme violence against the French colony, became a solid part /6

of the international left, taught in the most prestigious academic institutions to generations of leftist activists, journalists, professors, politicians, and others. These ideas, the epitome of dehumanization and pathological misanthropy, were not born yesterday and are /7

parts of the major intellectual edifice of leftists' social and political thought. The proliferation of such intellectual pathologies is what ultimately enables armies of American and European journalists, diplomats, aid workers, NGO officials, and others to totally accept /8

the prevalence of violence, icons of death, and the valorization of cruelty in Palestinian culture, both popular and high, and in education. This leads to the interesting simultaneous recognition and dismissal of the most central problem of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, /9

the absolute and final negation of Zionism, by any means necessary, as the central ideological content of the Palestinian identity and its symbols. The final result is an international behemoth made of international institutional structures established and financed to /10

purportedly solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict while, in effect, ignoring its core issue. Palestinian media, religious, political, and educational institutions are left to daily indoctrinate members of the Palestinian society into believing that the meaning of their /11

identity is existential victimhood which could be exited only through the total and complete destruction of Israel done by way of blood, death, and sacrifice. Anyone who dares to examine Palestinian education, media, literature, poetry, music, etc., would not be able to ignore/12

the unsubtle presence of such violent ideas in Palestinian national symbolism and Palestinian self-image. This is ultimately the root cause of the total insolubility of the conflict. Until this conversation becomes a central component of any efforts seeking peace and /13

stability, the problems of terror, violence, the loss of innocent Jewish lives, and the indoctrination of Palestinian youth will continue.

I also would not be honest if I don't address the other side of the coin, the people with whom I stand on most issues, the pro-Israel camp. Many in that camp do see with clearer vision the problem with Palestinian identity and its content of terrorism. Yet, they refuse to make /

any distinction between the Palestinians as humans and the Palestinians as Palestinians. That is, they accept to see the Palestinians exactly the way Palestinian radicalism insists on seeing the Palestinians, walking landmines waiting to explode to totally erase Jewish existence.

They accept the Palestinian self-dehumanization as the ontological truth of the Palestinians: final, exclusive, and irreversible, and not as humans who are trapped into a terrible story made up by generations of mad intellectuals and sadistic tyrants. This leaves nothing but a

a security problem against which Israel must remain strong. No will, no wish, no effort, and no thought are spent about the possibility of helping the Palestinians wake up from their self-imposed nightmare and discover a different way to be Palestinian. Just to reiterate,

I'm not talking here of people who think, feel and talk only in leftist cliches. Those don't see or understand such complex problems anyways. I'm talking about the non-cliche ones who despite understanding the monumental weight of culture and identity refuse to deal with

them seriously.

@HusseinAboubak

#🧵 #Israel #Palestine #conflict

[intermundia]

Hello! I just recently joined the Star Wars fandom and I adore your writing and cannot thank you enough for creating and sharing such lovely worlds with us! As someone who just recently watched the prequels, I wanted to ask your opinion on something. The clones were essentially slaves, created to serve as disposable soldiers, with no autonomy, and, to make it worse than that, were CHILD soldiers with shortened life spans. How did the Jedi and the Republic justify feeding them through the meat grinder of war? I feel like there isn’t much discussion on the ethical implications of this in canon (unless I’m missing it!). For the Jedi and Republic to use child slaves as canon fodder really makes me question how just their claim of moral superiority was. Just wanted to hear your thoughts!

This is a difficult question, and I have a few thoughts!

The issue of the moral value of the use of clones is considered at length several times in the Clone Wars tv show, if you have only seen the prequels, I think you will enjoy and get value from the tv show. I think that there simply isn’t time inside the three prequel movies that are dedicated to telling the story of how Anakin fell to simultaneously focus on the plight of the clones at the same time. You can see that Obi-Wan is disturbed by them when he arrives and we are shown that the Council did not know about them or order them. The issue is perhaps with their use, how instead of refusing on principle to use the troopers (who the Republic military would use with or without the Jedi’s permission), Yoda brought them to save the lives of the handful of Jedi out of the hundreds that went to save Obi-Wan on Geonosis. If he hadn’t, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Padmé, Mace Windu, etc. would all be dead, and the story would be over. In a choice between using troopers grown for war, betraying your ideals about an ethical military, or losing your friends and family, betraying your ideals of saving and protecting the galaxy at large, what would you do?

The Republic is run by the Sith and has been for decades. Every time you see the word “Republic” replace it with “Proto-Empire” and it becomes easier to understand why they would have an army of clones. The Republic and the Senate as a governmental structure has no moral authority whatsoever. It was corrupted long before the war by the presence of non-state actors like the commerce guilds and the trade federation seizing the machine of government and using it to enrich themselves. Senators like Padmé and Bail are exceptions to the rule, and their courage is in short supply. The majority of the senate was presented with an easy answer to a difficult question (“how do we stop a flood of murderous machines led by a rival government from sweeping from planet to planet, killing civilians and conquering their governments?”). The clones are the easy answer because they require nobody to make sacrifices.

George Lucas is making a commentary about how expendable we (usamericans at least) consider our soldiers to be, how dehumanized they are, how we are content letting them die and suffer while we laugh and shop and keep living a normal life. Many soldiers at least in the US are barely 18, coerced by financial incentives into joining the military, and without those incentives would never choose to put themselves in a situation where they need to participate in the war machine. Grinding poverty and lack of opportunity funnels many young people into the military in real life, so they are not as free in their choice as it might seem.

If you watch the very first episode of the Clone Wars tv show with Yoda and the clones, it is very clear that he treats them unique individual people, worthy of dignity and respect, and tries to save their lives, valuing them higher than they did themselves. The clones would be under their command, or under the command of people who cared much less about their value. Jedi like Krell who use the clones as canon fodder are the exception that prove the rule, the Jedi are there to save as many lives as they can while fulfilling the objectives given to them by the Senate and the Chancellor. They are morally compromised by being a part of the war, but the alternative is to walk away and refuse to use their skills and effort to protect people. That’s not a choice they are willing to make.

It’s really important to remember the genre of the films, and to listen to what they show and tell about who is moral within the framework of the story. In his space adventure storytelling movies, Lucas has said explicitly that the Jedi are the moral authority for the galaxy, they are the good guys. He is showing How the Jedi fell, despite consistently trying their best to protect people and sacrifice themselves in service of civilization. It's just important to note that How they fell is not an explanation of Why their fall was morally justified and valid. The fact that they have been trapped into a no-win scenario by their adversaries that forces them to make a choice between two non-optimal choices, is not their fault. In order for the story of Anakin’s fall to happen, narratively there has to be a war. They are doomed to fight that war and die, all of them, by the opening of A New Hope. If you think of them as being morally compromised by fighting alongside the clones, then you can feel grief at the consequences of being morally compromised despite their commitment to the good. It’s just important to not say that this choice to fight made them “deserve” being exterminated like many do on here.

#ok i need coffee #this topic has been discussed a lot #yeah the clones are a fucked up concept!!! it is largely the point #the jedi were fighting an unethical fake war designed by the sith #they had no good options #many of them left! many refused #at least in legends etc #we just see the ones who made the internal calculus that saving people was more important. have you ever been forced to choose btn values #it's shitty #sw

[ethn11winter24]

The Silent Struggles of Asian American Women

By: Emily Diamante

Intro

Intersectionality is when two social identities intersect, making unique situations for an individual. Women in America are faced with various difficulties ranging from the wage gap to sexual harassment. Asians in America experience discrimination, stereotyping, etc. Asian American women in this country experience all of these dangers simultaneously. My name is Emily Diamante and this blog post will briefly cover examples in history where Asian women were stereotyped and discriminated against for being both a woman and Asian. 

Starting from the Beginning

In 1875, the Page Act was passed. This act restricted Asian women from immigrating to the U.S for prositutional purposes. This was one of the first instances of heavy stereotyping on Asian women. With the passing of this act, this wrongly profiles Asian women as prostitutes, dehumanizing them to an object. In addition, this act prevented Asian couples from starting families. It is important to note that the fourteenth amendment states, “all persons born or naturalized in the United States”. So due to the Page Act, the exclusion of Asian women in the country prevented these couples from starting a family. This stereotype was further portrayed when it came to the idea of a “military man”. The identity of a military man was just this macho, super masculine guy. So masculine that being called anything related to feminists was considered an insult. The stereotypical Asian woman at that time is the perfect opposite of a military man. Asian women are seen as submissive, seductive, only capable of serving men. 

Covid

With the COVID-19 pandemic, harmful acts of hate towards the Asian community has increased by 339% in some of the largest cities in the U.S. It is clear it is because of people’s fear, scapegoating, and misinformation that caused Asian hate to grow so much in such a short amount of time. It is also no coincidence that when President Donald Trump used phrases such as “Kung- Flu” or “China Virus” that the blame on Asian Americans got even worse. The AAPI have documented about 4,000 instances of hate with Asian women being targeted 2.3 times more than men. Asian American women have stated that they have experienced some of these situations: being called racial slurs, comments about racial stereotypes, being followed via car, accused of being dirty, and being accused of having the “China Virus”. Because of these experiences, it is no doubt that Asian Americans have felt hopeless and frustrated during this pandemic. They are disappointed with the American government for how they are being treated. Asian women fear their treatment so much to go as far as to shop in only Asian stores. 

Atlanta Shooting 

March 16, 2021. Robert Aaron Long attacks a massage parlor and two spas in Atlanta, Georgia. He shoots and kills eight people. All eight victims were Asian women. This tragic, targeted attack was a symbol that highlighted the intersection of racism and sexism. This act of violence represented the ongoing struggles of the objectification, fetishization, and dehumanizing experience of Asian women in America. This attack sheds light on urgent issues that need to be addressed.

Below I provide a variety of links that talk more on this issue if you were interested: 

https://www.apa.org/pubs/highlights/spotlight/issue-119

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.993396/full

https://www.asianwomenunited.org/ 

Works Cited

Lang, Cady, and Paulina Cachero. “How History Puts Asian Women in America at Risk.” Time, Time, 7 Apr. 2021, time.com/5952819/history-anti-asian-racism-misogyny/. 

“Prof. Hahm & Colleagues Share First-Hand Experiences of Asian American Women Survivors of Discrimination during COVID-19.” School of Social Work Prof Hahm Colleagues Share FirstHand Experiences of Asian American Women Survivors of Discrimination During COVID19 Comments, 1 Oct. 1969, www.bu.edu/ssw/prof-hahm-colleagues-share-first-hand-experiences-asian-american-women-survivors-discrimination-during-covid-19/. 

Where Sexism and Racism Meet: The Danger of Existing as an Asian ..., www.law.georgetown.edu/gender-journal/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/03/I.-Oishi_Where-racism-and-sexism-meet.pdf. Accessed 19 Jan. 2024.