tumblrs being transphobic, with the ceo himself starting an actual harassment campaign against a transfem & also banning transfems who post abt it.
Oh shit, I had not heard about that.
I would like to say I don’t understand why this shit keeps happening, but I actually do understand it way too well. It just makes me so sad and angry. Especially on a site where people find and make their communities.
So much of this is about ego, and the people with power wielding that power to protect themselves and failing to protect others with it. A mere hint of negative sentiment towards them is harassment that is dealt with immediately and harshly, but a dozen complaints about discrimination or threats or bullying take ages to process and frequently come to unsatisfactory moderation decisions.
Whatever the sentiments of the people running this hellsite, you are always welcome in my corner of the internet, wherever you find it. You are all wonderful, and we all deserve to feel that part of this space belongs to us and those to whom we can connect.
Transphobia has no place on tumblr, period. Or anywhere else in society for that matter. It is that which should be being rooted out.
French TV journalist having a hard time trying to get woman in the street to comment on Macron's latest speech yesterday
Protesters organised casserolades (aka banging on pots and pans) in front of city halls across the country at 8pm, when Macron was speaking, to symbolically drown out his voice. Later that evening, Macron was filmed singing a song with some 'random people' in a street in Paris, trying to show he can go out and meet people and have fun because protesters don't exist. The people he was singing with (members of a choir, some of whom are 'alt-right-leaning') were using a folk song app created by far-right activists that was criticised a few months ago for hosting a Spanish fascist anthem & Third Reich military marches.
The government's response was that the President "couldn't know the background of the people he met that night." Maybe if he wants to avoid being associated with the far-right (that's a big if, I know), Macron should keep in mind that with the kinds of strategies and positioning his government has adopted lately, people in the street who welcome him with open arms and are proud to be filmed with him have a higher than average likelihood of supporting fascism.
Thinking about "your weakness is how you always want to be the hero" and how the series returns to this at the end
Li Lianhua hated how he acted as Li Xiangyi and spent years trying to distance himself from it, but ultimately he still fell back into the similar patterns, for all his added experience
His main priority was always to "do the right thing" regardless of how that would impact on those around him. And it *did* impact those around him. From Qiao Wanmian and Shan Gudao as Li Xiangyi to Fang Duobing and Di Feisheng as Li Lianhua
Giving the Styx flower to the emperor so he could use it as leverage to guarantee Fang Duobing and his family's safety. Using the last of his power to save Yun Biqiu. Constantly putting others above himself whilst actively refusing to recognise that his self-sacrificial nature would hurt those he cared about most
And sure, he thinks he's going to die anyway. They're going to be hurt regardless and he can't do anything about that. His odds are low of the Styx flower even working. But ultimately, he refuses to even consider trying. Li Xiangyi has been dead a long time and Li Lianhua is just there to tide things over. What value is the life of a ghost
To the end, he lives and dies a hero. To the end, he refuses to live for himself.
"i'm teaching a monkey yao a forbidden method of immortality!!!" girl... what were YOU doing knowing a forbidden method of immortality
[ID: A three page comic done in white and shades of purple. Characters are uncolored, but have shading.
First panel has Patriarch Puti and Sun Wukong walking in an enclosed back garden, with Sun Wukong looking up at Patriarch Puti seriously as his sifu speaks. Patriarch Puti says, "These techniques, although effective, are dangerous. They are teachings outside of known doctrine. What you have done is stolen the creative powers of Heaven and Earth, intruded on the dark machinations of the moon and sun."
Second panel has Sun Wukong considering this somberly. He says, "Sifu... That's..." He processes for a moment, and says "Wait-"
In the third panel, Sun Wukong looks up at Patriarch Puti with a knowing mischievous grin, while Patriarch Puti looks very tired, as if he already knows what SWK is about to say. Sun Wukong asks, "If they're so unknown and forbidden, how do you know them then?"
Fourth panel has Patriarch Puti simply stating, "Wukong, as the next generation, your responsibility is to learn from the mistakes of your elders." Sun Wukong responds, "ha okay." In the background, with the caption "Several hundred years ago," there is a flashback of a young Patriarch Puti running away as a strike of lightning barely misses his feet.
there's this moment that no one talks about and that cleo and etho BOTH cut out of their episodes, which is when all the green and yellow names are gathered around spawn looting the gear after plan bubblevate. cleo picks up a pair of diamond pants and holds onto them for a while trying to decide what to do with them, before eventually offering them to etho (even though pearl, her own ally, was also in iron). its such a subtle thing and it doesn't seem that important, really—it's just some discarded armor that she didn't even need herself. but like, someone who isn't even really your ally, that you've barely spent any time at all with together over the series, deliberately offering you an invaluable gift that would be much more useful to keep within their alliance as some kind of silent nod of understanding that, despite everything, you're looking out for each other.
and despite his general lack of sentimentality, etho remembered it as well and saw the gesture for exactly what it was, which was mercy. in a world where every exchange had a very What Can You Do For Me feel to it, cleo gave him those pants for no reason at all. later on when ren was trying to get the reds to go after cleo, etho said he doesn't want to hurt cleo, because she was nice to him and gave him diamond pants. they had barely any history together and were on pretty rocky terms up until that point (between etho betting for her death and stealing her brewing stand), but that moment was enough to cement the implicit understanding between them and turned cleo from someone etho barely knew to the only person he trusted to look out for him for the rest of the series. its just so. EXPLODES
I've embraced that I'm cynical. I've embraced that I don't have any trust towards strangers. But any fandom space that is focused, obsessed over the attention of the people who made the thing you're a fan of is not going to be one where I can see myself making any friends in. It's literally just as much of a red flag as a fandom space that is obsessed, completely and thoroughly, with wallowing in its hatred of literally anything.
A.J Pollard’s biography on Edward IV was so cringe lol (generic; minor but frustrating inaccuracies; intensely judgmental at times and oddly dismissive at others while never considering the broader context; entirely diminished and trivialized Elizabeth Woodville as both queen and wife of his main subject in the name of "defending" her; created a false dichotomy between Edward and Henry VII’s styles of ruling and lauded the latter at the former’s expense even though Henry literally followed Edward’s example for the very things Pollard was criticizing Edward for; had a downright nonsensical and thoroughly misleading conclusion about Edward’s legacy & Richard’s usurpation that was based entirely on hindsight, Pollard's own assumptions, and the complete downplaying Richard’s agency and actions to emphasize what Pollard wrongly and misleadingly claimed were Edward's so-called 'failings', etc, etc)
I wanted to buy his book on Henry V but after reading this shitshow and the synopsis of that book, im guessing it's going to be 10x worse, so...no thanks
-Once they’re grown, Damien has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders, since he’s the King of Hell & must oversee everything that goes on there. He does some of the torturing and preaching damnation upon new arrivals everyday, but there’s also a lot of paperwork to be done behind the scenes for all sorts of things.
-Pip has insisted many a time that he help with some of it, hating to see his husband so stressed out & ran completely ragged by the end of the day (usually around 3-4am), but Damien refuses, saying that “it’s my responsibility, angel, I wouldn’t want to burden you with it”, or something along those lines.
-Frustrated that Damien won’t let him help, and crestfallen at seeing the demon get so stressed out, Pip eventually comes up with a way he can help, & in such a way that Damien might not notice at first.
-Studies have shown that, when in close proximity of someone you love, your heart rates & breathing will slowly get in sync, & when Pip discovers this while reading in their expansive library one evening, he decides to give it a try.
-It starts with him bringing tea or light food to Damien while he’s in his office, or going to quickly clean something in his office, and he lingers there for a moment. As soon as he hears that deep intake of breath followed by a harsh exhale (the telltale “breath of stress”), he knows to linger for a few minutes, and slows his breathing down, inhailing just loud enough for Damien to hear, yet not be concerned about anything (Pip would never want to add to the already built-up stress).
-On days where the bottle of stress tips over, Pip will bring a raging & highly distressed Damien anywhere comfortable, whether that be a chair, a couch, or their bed, and will lay the demon’s head on his chest while hugging him, matching the breathing of his husband and then slowly bringing it down to a more normal rate. (If Damien let’s some tears silently roll down his cheeks, Pip doesn’t mention it, knowing to just let Damien let it out. He may also pet his hair during this & whisper quiet reassurances).
-As time passes, Damien eventually figures out what Pip is doing & he’s impressed that his angel figured out something that helped him, & even more so that it took so long for him to realize he’d been doing it at all. He never says anything about it though, just allowing Pip to work his magic.
-…Until one night.
-Pip had been gone for the majority of the day, up in heaven on business, as they requested to speak with him over Damien. Pip agrees to this, if only to keep the war between the two at peace, and for Damien’s sake, as he knows how much the demon hates the place, & hates dealing with the people there even more.
-When Pip comes home that night, Damien doesn’t pick up on his mood immediately (he’s not the most emotionally intelligent person), but as soon as he hears the “breath of stress” from his husband as they’re laying down to bed, he immediately pulls the Brit to him & holds him, running his claws through his hair while matching his breathing, then slowly bringing it down.
-Whether Pip picks up on this he doesn’t know, but he talks about his day & expresses how some of the people up there still detest him for being with Damien, & saying the rudest of things within earshot. Talking about it does help, & Damien keeps his breathing technique up until Pip has fallen asleep in his arms.
-I feel that Pip would never realize that Damien had figured out what he was doing, & that he doesn’t realize that Damien does it for him too.
i got the kind of autism where I make theme songs and leitmotifs for my characters that I haven’t written anything about but have a complete fuzzy image of in my head
Your Avendurer! Zenos comics are always so good, and I love how you write him. The touch about him being functionally doomed to immortality is the perfect level of extra spice on top, too. Imo it's the perfect motivation for him to genuinely try to better himself as a person.
Thank you! Tbh the concept has had a hold on my brain since the end of Endwalker, and I'm glad you really enjoy it ^-^
It’s the subtle character development he’s gotten over the course of the story and the potential he has that makes me adore writing Adventurer!Zenos and the journey he has in turn of following the WoL's (Meteor, in my cases) footsteps.
Making himself immortal is actually the main inspiration behind it too, it's a consequence that self-sabotaged his original goal. Maybe eventually becoming a wake up for him that Alisaie was absolutely right and that he may still have an opportunity to not doom himself to being alone forever.
It's actually why I also made him a tank too, having him turn away from being "the man who was willing to destroy the world for his own chase of his desires" to him being willing to throw himself in and to help and protect others even at the cost of himself for a time, a thought that has stuck with me since the theory of him saving WoL with the remote crossed my mind.
I was reading a list of female characters clearly written by men and this is about X-Files but yes yes yes this is EXACTLY what replaying Layton games (particularly Unwound Future) is like!