Around tumblr lately I’ve seen people with the opinion that not only are free roaming cats bad (correct) but also supervised cats in catios or on leashes (????). I assume it must stem from that “ecology of fear” post from a few months ago, but to me the sudden appearance of these kinds of posts just strikes me as odd. I’ve seen multiple posts like the below one in just this week.
—
—
If your cat is contained to your yard/catio/the sidewalk, then it still allows for predator-free safe places in your neighbourhood for wildlife, and creates predictability for them too. That’s one of the reasons why hiking trails ask people to stay on the trail— so you (and your dog, horse, cat, etc) can safely enjoy nature while still giving it space. It is possible to exist outdoors in natural spaces like that while maintaining wildlife comfort. If it wasn’t possible to do that, dog-friendly or (even just hiking trails in general, since humans are predators too) simply wouldn’t exist.
The problem with free roaming cats is that they break boundaries between human area (ie. trail, back porch) and wildlife area (foliage, etc) and there is nowhere the wildlife can go to exist that is safe from predators.
Idk, this is just my opinion but I just think there can be more nuance to the outdoor/free roaming cat issue than “never let your cat step outside under any circumstance”.
4K notes
·
View notes
The Exorcists’ Masks of Virtue
The vast majority of Exorcists in Hazbin Hotel have a notable design element that other angels don’t: their masks are missing an eye. Specifically, the right eye.
I believe this is a reference to the Bible, Matthew 5:29. Jesus says, “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”
He’s being hyperbolic. Mr Free Healthcare was not pro-mutilation. What he means is that you have to be willing to make sacrifices to prevent sin. The context of the eye metaphor is him condemning adultery and warning that even something as easy, casual and small as a look full of lustful intent can lead to further, worse sin if you don’t notice your sin, hold yourself accountable for it and do the work to not let it influence your decisions. This will probably be hard. It could be very, very painful. Changing your perspective can feel as horrible as plucking out your eye, so many people can’t bring themselves to do it. But although it won’t feel that way in the moment, it’s healthier for our general wellbeing in the long run to abandon traits and behaviours that damage ourselves and/or others.
(You may notice that Jesus’s teaching that you can have sinned, redeem yourself by giving up sin and thus escape damnation is the founding principle of the Hazbin Hotel. You may also notice that it contradicts everything the Exorcists believe.)
The Exorcists seem to follow this idea of painfully excising badness for the sake of the greater good devoutly to the point of placing it above teachings like ‘Thou shalt not kill’, with their job being to remove sin, in the form of sinners, to protect Heaven. Hence the missing right eyes. They’re a declaration of moral righteousness and inability to stumble.
But the truth is that the Exorcists all have their right eyes. Their flawlessness is a facade. Underneath, they are untouched, think themselves morally untouchable and, as shown by their horror and outrage when even one of them is killed, would much rather be physically untouchable too. This perfectly represents their complete unwillingness to acknowledge their own faults, let alone improve. They are never the ones who sacrifice. They force the sinners to sacrifice and don’t compensate it with any salvation. They metaphorically rip out the sinners’ eyes, but still condemn their entire bodies as inherently, permanently sinful. So they’ll just have to do another Extermination to get the other eyes! And another one to cut off their right hands! And so on until there’s nothing left.
The only exception to the rule is Vaggie, both in appearance and character. Her mask has the left eye crossed out instead. Even before her expulsion, she’s set apart to the audience as an Exorcist who has the capacity to, shall we say, see a different side of things. Her mask having its ‘sinful’ right eye reflects her understanding that the Exorcist worldview is wrong.
When she almost kills a demon child, her hateful vision clears. She discards the part of herself that’s an unquestioning, merciless agent of death, terror and grief… and as punishment for what Lute perceives as treacherous weakness, gets her eye plucked out.
Of course Lute leaves her with only the ‘sinful’ eye. It brands Vaggie forever as the inversion, a perversion, of what the Exorcists are meant to be.
You know, all this talk of eye removal in the Bible reminds of another line - ‘an eye for an eye’. Adam directly quotes it in “Hell is Forever”. He uses it to frame the Exterminations as Old Testament-style punitive justice; the sinners did harm and so they receive it. But putting aside the debate about how ethical the concept of revenge is, the entire point of taking an eye for an eye is that it’s proportional. The punishment fits the crime. If someone cuts your eye out, you shouldn’t murder their whole family in front of them and then slowly disembowel them to death. That would be the sin of wrath. You should just make them pay without excessive pain or collateral damage. This is the fairest form of revenge.
The Exorcists don’t do that! The Exterminations aren’t proportional to the wrongs of all they hurt, nor was Vaggie’s brutal punishment equivalent to her extremely mild insubordination. Lute literally takes Vaggie’s eye, and more, after Vaggie does nothing to her! That’s the opposite of the phrase! Adam and his soldiers are wrathful and cruel, deriving satisfaction from others’ suffering. But they just can’t stop going on and on about how disgustingly evil the sinners are, in total hypocrisy… despite some of the sinners being far better people than the genocidal Exorcists are… it’s like they’re obsessed with specks of dust in the sinners’ eyes when they have massive logs stuck in their own. Oh hey, that’s in the Bible too!
244 notes
·
View notes
Introducing a very important side character and the big bad villain in the EAH au!!!!
Nicky being a bunny rabbit is ABSOLUTELY a running gag in the story btw Lark is fucking fuming and beefing with what appears to be just a normal ass bnuuy and its so funny. its SO funny.
Willy does play the role of the previous Evil Queen before Scary so here he is imprisoned his Magic (Doodler) Mirror that he will totaaaallly stay trapped in. mhm. definitely will not trick someone into breaking him out. (I am lying he definitely gets out)
A small section of the Nicky Bunny Rabbit Saga btw:
Also new Wonderlandian development lead to this
(AU by @rindomness, @kaseyskat, & I!)
Image description under the cut !!
[ID: Image 1: Ever After High AU Nicky Close posed with one hand up holding a pocket watch and the other hand hesitantly raised by his waist. He is labeled with the text ‘The White Rabbit’ and there is a word bubble that says ‘can transform into a bunny!’ And an arrow pointing to a white bunny in the bottom left of the image. The bunny has a pink bow and two piercing on an ear that match the piercings on Nicky’s bunny ears on his humanoid form. His humanoid form is wearing a light blue striped tailcoat with a white shirt underneath with the sleeves rolled up and a pink bow. He has large white gloves with pink toe beans on them and dirty white pants with various white belts and buckles and pink and blue knee patches and a pink sash belt with a bow on the left side. The pants are tucked into blue and pink buckled boots with white rabbit feet sticking out at the ends. He has three extra pocket watches on a belt loop and the pocket watch in his hand is open to show the time and a locket picture on the other side of Sparrow Oak dressed as Snow White.
Image 2: An ornate mirror is in the center of the image. The frame of the mirror is made up of intricate black swirls reflecting purple, blue, and red light from around it. The mirror has four eye shaped gems, the biggest one being a red eye at the top and the other gems being smaller and about the same size on the left, right, and bottom of the mirror. The gems are emitting a glow corresponding to their color. The glass of the mirror is shattered and is giving off a purple glow. Willy Stampler dressed as the Evil Queen is smirking and is trapped inside the mirror with his eyes glowing purple. The mirror is surrounded by purple particles and sparkles.
Image 3: A discord screenshot of messages in a server between ‘rin (doodler gender)’, ‘hero enthusiast (cal)’, ‘sparrow enjoyer’, and ‘hermie apologist (silver)’. Rin says ‘POTENTIALLY WEEKS!’ And ‘lark at some point going is this actually nicky. Is this actually nicky or am I legitimately just beefing with a real rabbit this wonderland kid picked up. did i fool myself’ then Cal and Nyx (who is ‘sparrow enjoyer’) both send keysmashes and Cal says ‘is this nicky or is this some random bunny who hates me specifically’ then Rin sends 'EXACTLY' and Silver sends ‘LMAO’ and Rin sends ‘did i piss off some other bunny-related person. what is this. what is happening. The exact opposite of nicky forgetting he could go rabbit mode when he first started keeping an eye on the kids for sparrow is him staying bunny mode MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH LONGER THAN IS NECESSARY OR REALLY USEFUL’
Image 4: A doodle of EAH AU Taylor ‘s head with bunny ears and an excited smile in red next to EAH AU Hermie’s head with a mischievous sharp teeth grin and cat ears in pink. The top of the image says ‘Update:’ while under the sketches Taylor is labeled ‘half white rabbit’ and Hermie is labeled ‘half cheshire cat’. /end ID]
177 notes
·
View notes
I keep seeing posts where people are saying "Valentines doesn't effect asexuals!" "romantic relationships have nothing to do with asexuality!"
And while i understand the point they are making is to stop conflating Aromanticism with Asexuality, it is still extremely annoying to find people don't understand the nuance that comes with asexualities connection to romance - because it DOES have a connection to it. It DOES have problems in relation to romance. To say it doesn't is ignoring a huge set is experiences that ace people face.
One of the most common experiences for asexuals is the struggle to be in romantic relationships because they are asexual. a lot of romantic relationships expect you to have sex. if you're someone who doesn't have sex then unfortunately that causes a lot of people to lose interest in you romantically as well.
There's also non-sam aces, and let me tell you it's so very strange to hear someone bring up non-sam aros but then ignore the existence of non-sam aces in order to prove some point of it somehow being ace peoples fault that aro and ace are viewed as the same. Some non-sam aces do not date either. they are still ace and they can still face similar problems to aromantic people because of that. they are still effected my amatonormativity.
Aces DO have connection to romance. Asexual DID have a reason to trend on valentines day along with Aro and Aroace. Asexuality is effected my romance and amatonormativity. Sop acting like it isn't. stop acting like aros and aces have absolutely nothing in common. We can work together and have similar experiences and still be seen as separate identities. there is overlap. stop treating this as black and white where one identity can only be effected by one kind of problem. It's naive at best and down right hateful at worse.
91 notes
·
View notes