#maybe genocide has points I don’t know

[frecklenog]

i want you all to understand this.

insulin pens are very often used by diabetic children (or their parents, but they were very easy to use during the short time i was prescribed them when i was a child myself). they’re less cumbersome, produce less waste, and are far easier than pulling insulin from a vial with a single use syringe, as syringes are much more susceptible to air bubbles, which result in the diabetic not getting enough medication. i’m explaining this part because i know that some diabetic adults do also use them, and i’m sure that that’s true of diabetic adults in palestine with such scarce resources. when it’s life or death, you can’t really be picky.

the israeli occupation is now banning insulin pens from entering gaza.

lack of insulin results in diabetic ketoacidosis — essentially a very, very dangerous version of the effects of the keto diet. insulin is a key for the sugar from one’s food (both slow and fast acting, since all food has some carbohydrates, from nuts to potatoes to table sugar) to get from their bloodstream into their cells. without insulin, the body resorts to eating through its own fat stores rather than the sugar it cannot access and tries to flush the excess glucose that is in the blood through the urine. this results in weight loss, headaches, nausea, dehydration, blurred vision, abdominal pain, impaired mental faculties, and, if left untreated, will result in a coma, and eventually death within a matter of weeks. not “can.” it will kill you if not treated, and was largely considered a lethal diagnosis until insulin was discovered in the early 1900s and made readily available in 1922.

i’ve been in dka. admittedly, i was very young and have blocked much of it out. but i do remember that it fucking sucked. i couldn’t focus on anything, i was ravenous no matter how much i ate, and the room spinning to the point i felt like i was going to throw up became an increasingly regular occurrence. i was seven years old and wasting away like i was starved. i was dying. a few more days, and i likely would’ve gone into a coma and might not be here now.

to inflict that, willingly and knowingly, on innocent people, is nothing short of a crime against humanity, and violates the geneva conventions (item 2.a.ii. torture or inhumane treatment, including biological experiments and item 2.a.iii. willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health). not that the israeli occupation cares, of course, as south african prosecutors have already extensively detailed their crimes in the icj, and this one in particular has already been committed near-countless times.

this entire occupation is a genocide, and this is only one more nail in that coffin. but, as a diabetic — as a human being who has been in that state and was lucky enough to have the resources to live almost another fifteen years (with the anniversary of my own diagnosis about halfway through next month), i can’t find the words to express my disgust and rage anymore. maybe it’s selfish to be so deeply impacted by this particular blow. i don’t know. but these people have done nothing wrong but be disabled in gaza, and as someone with the same disability, i know that no one deserves this, even if they have committed a crime (which, again, these civilians, largely children, have not). i will not fucking stand for it.

we need a ceasefire. we need an end to the occupation. we need a free palestine. now.

here’s a masterpost of how you can help.

EDIT: here’s a post on how to help diabetics in gaza specifically

#free palestine #free gaza #israeli war crimes #actuallydiabetic #actually diabetic #actuallydisabled #actually disabled #shut up emrys

[edenfenixblogs]

Oh wow. This is really antisemitic, @iblewrichardspeck

You are deeply antisemitic person.

And guess what? Having a Jewish grandfather doesn’t change that.

Your knowledge of Jewish history and culture is nonexistent to the point that I won’t even bother to confront most of it.

I encourage my allies to step in and address your nonsense with reason and links to credible sources.

Two huge standout points of your lack of knowledge that I want to point out though:

Most Jews in Israel are NOT in fact European or Ashkenazi. Do literally one Google search.

“Jews have always had a right to safety in their homeland.” I want you to know that I am pretty well regarded as a person who keeps their cool in situations like this. So I want to be explicit that my ability to stay calm right now is an act of superhuman will. I want to scream at you and cry because of the amount of death and pain you are erasing with this outright, easily disproven lie. Jews do not and have not ever had safety in their homeland of ISRAEL. Nor have Jews ever had safety in any of the locations where we have made a home. Judaism and jewish life has never “thrived” anywhere, at least not for the last 2000+ years. We have always been a target of attack and displacement and genocide. Always. Without exception. The idea that Israel somehow took all the Jews of the Middle East away from their homes where they were peacefully chilling out is nonsense. The middle eastern (who are the majority btw) Jews in Israel came to Israel after being expelled from their nations of origin or murdered for refusing to leave. Poland? Yeah. It had a swell Jewish community about 1200 years ago. It’s a shame about the centuries of ghettoization and you know that pesky genocide you might have heard about. Ethiopia? You mean the place where Jews had to be smuggled out of by Israeli covert forces because of the danger they were in there?

I don’t know if I believe that your grandfather was Jewish. Maybe he was. Maybe you made him up to legitimize your own antisemitic views.

But if he was really Jewish, I’m sure he’s wildly disappointed in you.

I won’t be blocking you because I want you to see this and change your views in a deeply fundamental way. And I want you to apologize. I’m 99.99999999% sure you won’t. You’re too steeped in your hatred. But who knows. People can change. I hope you do. Because right now, your attitude, beliefs, and behavior are rancid. I will not be responding to further messages from you.

Allies or fellow Jews with bandwidth can take it from here. Adios. Shalom.

#antisemites to remember #leftist antisemitism #historical revisionism #erasure of Jewish suffering

[jewelleria]

I don’t usually talk about politics on here, if ever. But it’s been almost six months since the conflict in the Middle East flared up again, and I’m finally ready to start. Here are some of my thoughts.

I say ‘flared up’ because this has happened before and it’ll happen again. Because, even though what's currently going on is absolutely unprecedented, those of us who live in this part of the world are used to it. Let that sink in: we are used to this. And we shouldn’t have to be. 

But I use that term for another reason: I don't want to accidentally call it the wrong thing lest I come under fire for being a genocidal maniac or a terrorist or a propaganda machine, etc., etc.—so let’s just call it ‘the war’ or ‘the conflict.’ Because that’s what it is. Doesn’t matter which side you’re on, who you love, or who you hate. 

This post will, in all likelihood, sit in my drafts forever. If it does get posted, it certainly won’t be on my main, because I'm scared of being harassed (spoiler: she posted it on her main). I hate admitting that, but honestly? I’m fucking terrified. 

I also feel like in order for anything I say on here (i.e. the hellscape of the internet) to be taken seriously, I have to somehow prove that a) I’m “educated” enough to talk about the conflict, and b) that my opinion lines up with what has been deemed the correct one. So, tedious and unnecessary though it is, I will tell you about my experience, because I have a feeling most of the people reading this post are not nearly as close to what’s happening as I am.

How do I explain where I live without actually explaining where I live? How do I say “I live in the Red Zone of international conflicts” without saying what I actually think? How do I convey the fear that grips me when I try to decide between saying “I live in Palestine” and “I live in Israel”? I don't really know. But I do know that names are important. I also know that, due to the various clickbaity monikers ascribed to the conflict, it would probably just be easier to point to a map. 

I haven't always lived in the Middle East. I've lived in various places along America’s east coast, and traveled all over the world. But in short, I now live somewhere inside the crudely-drawn purple circle. 

If you know anything about these borders you probably blanched a bit in sympathy, or maybe condolence. But in truth, it’s a shockingly normal existence. I don't feel like I've lived through the shifting of international relations or a war or anything. I just kind of feel like I did when COVID hit, that dull sameness as I wondered if this would be the only world-altering event to shape my life, or if there would be more. 

I've been told that, in order for my brain to process all the horrific details of the past six months, there needs to be some element of cognitive dissonance—that falling into a sort of dissociative mindset is the only way to not go insane under the weight of it all. I think in some ways that’s true. I have been terrifyingly close to bus stop shootings when my commute wasn’t over; I have felt my apartment building shake with the reverberations of a missile strike; I have spent hours in underground shelters waiting for air raid sirens to stop. 

But. I have also gone grocery shopping, and skipped class, and stayed up too late watching TV, and fed the cats on the street corner, and cried over a boy, and got myself AirPods just because, and taken out the trash, and done laundry on a delicate cycle, and bought overpriced lattes one too many days a week. I have looked at pretty things and taken out my phone because, despite it all, I still think that life is too short not to freeze the small moments. 

So I'd say, all things considered, I live an incredibly privileged life—compared, of course, to those suffering in Gaza—one filled with sunsets and over-sweetened knafeh and every different color of sand. One that allows me to throw myself into a fandom-induced hyperfixation (or, alternatively, escape method) as I sit on the couch and crack open my laptop to write the next chapter of the fic I'm working on. 

But there are bits of not-normalness that wheedle their way through the cracks. I pretend these moments are avoidable, even if they’re not. 

They look like this: reading the news and seeing another idiotic, careless choice on Netanyahu’s part and groaning into my morning coffee. Watching Palestinian and Jewish children’s needless suffering posted on Instagram reels and feeling helpless. Opening my Tumblr DMs to find a message telling me to exterminate myself for reblogging a post that only seems like it’s about the war if you squint and tilt your head sideways. 

These moments look like all the tiny ways I am reminded that I'm living in a post-October seventh world, where hearing a car backfire makes me jump out of my skin and the sound of a suitcase on pavement makes me look up at the sky and search for the war planes. They look like the heavy grief that is, and also isn’t, mine. 

Here's the thing, though. I know you’re wondering when the ball will drop and my true opinion will be revealed. I know you’re waiting for me to reveal what demographic I'm a part of so that you, dear reader, can neatly slap a label on my head and sort me into some oversimplified category that lets you continue to think you understand this war. 

No one wants to sit and ruminate on the difficult questions, the ones that make you wonder if maybe you’ve been tinkered with by the propaganda machine, if you might need to go back on what you’ve said or change your mind. We all strive for our perception of complicated issues to be a comfortable one.

But I know that no matter what I do, there will always be assumptions. So, while I shudder to reveal this information online, I think that maybe my most significant contribution to this meta-discussion spanning every facet of the internet is this: 

I am a Jew. 

Or, alternatively, I am: Jewish, יהודית, يَهُودِيٌّ, etc. Point is, I come from Jews. And, like any given person, I am a product of generation after generation of love. 

I'm not going to take time to explain my heritage to you, or to prove that before all the expulsions and pogroms, there was an origin point. If you don’t believe that, perhaps it’s less of a factual problem and more of an ‘I don’t give weight to the beliefs of indigenous people’ problem. But, in case you want to spend time uselessly refuting this tiny point in a larger argument, you can inspect the photos below (it’s just a small chunk of my DNA test results). Alternatively, you can remember that interrogating someone in an attempt to make their indigeneity match your arbitrary criteria is generally not seen as good manners. 

Now, let’s go back to thathateful message (read: poorly disguised death threat) I received in my Tumblr DMs. I think it was like two or three weeks ago. I had recently gained a new follower whose blog’s primary focus was the fandom I contribute to, so I followed them back. I saw in my notes that they were going through my posts and liking them—as one does when gaining a new mutual. Yippee! 

Then they sent me this: 

I tried to explain that hate speech is not a way to go about participating in political discourse, but the person had already blocked me immediately after sending that message. Then, assured by the fact that I surely would never see them complaining about me on their blog (because, as I said, they blocked me), they posted a shouting rant accusing me of sympathizing with colonizing settlers and declaring me a “racist Zionist fuck.” Oh, the wonders of incognito tabs.

Where this person drew these conclusions after reading my (reblogged) post about antisemitism…. I'm not actually sure. But I greatly sympathize with them, and hope that they weren’t too personally offended by my desire to not die. 

For a while I contemplated this experience in my righteous anger, and tried to figure out a way to message this person. I wanted to explain that a) seeing a post about being Jewish and choosing to harass the creator about Israel is literally the definition of antisemitism and b) that sending a hateful DM and refusing to be held accountable is just childish and immature. But I gave up soon after—because, honestly, I knew it wasn’t worth my effort or energy. And I knew that I wouldn't be able to change their mind. 

But I still remember staring at that rather unfortunate meme, accompanied by an all-caps message demanding for me to Free Palestine, and thinking: the post didn’t even have any buzzwords. I remember the swoop of dread and guilt and fear. I remember wondering why this kind of antisemitism felt worse, in that moment, than the kind that leaves bodies in its wake. 

I remember thinking, I don’t have the power to free anyone.

I remember thinking, I’m so fucking tired. 

And before you tell me that this conflict isn’t about religion—let me ask you some questions. Why is it that Israel is even called Israel? (Here’s why.) Why do Jews even want it? (Here’s why.) But also, if you actually read the charters of Islamist terrorist organizations like ISIS, Hamas, and Hezbollah (among others), they equate the modern state of Israel with the Jewish people, and they use the two entities interchangeably. So of course this conflict is religious. It’s never been anything but that.

But I do wonder, when faced with those who deny this fact: how do I prove, through an endless slew of what-about-isms and victim blaming, that I too am hurting? How do I show that empathy is dialectical, that I can care deeply for Palestinians and Gazans while also grieving my own people? 

There's this thing that humans do, when we’re frustrated about politics and need to howl our opinions about it into the void until we feel better. We find like-minded souls, usually our friends and neighbors, and fret about the state of the world to each other until we’ve gone around in a satisfactory amount of circles. But these conversations never truly accomplish anything. They’re just a substitute, a stand-in catharsis, for what we really wish we could do: find someone who embodies the spirit of every Jew-hating internet troll, every ignorant justifier of terrorism, and scream ourselves hoarse at them until we change their mind.

But, of course, minds cannot be changed when they are determined to live in a state of irrational dislike. In Judaism, this way of thinking has a name: שנאת חינם (sinat hinam), or baseless hatred. It's a parasite with no definite cure, and it makes people bend over backwards to justify things like the massacre on October seventh, simply because the blame always needs to be placed on the Jews. 

So when a Jew is faced with this unsolvable problem, there is only one response to be had, only one feeling to be felt: anger. And we are angry. Carrying around rage with nowhere to put it is exhausting. It's like a weight at the base of our neck that pushes down on our spine, bending it until we will inevitably snap under the pressure. I’m still waiting to break, even now.

I wish I could explain to someone who needs to hear it that terrorism against Israelis happens every single day here, and that we are never more than one degree of separation away from the brutal slaughter of a friend, lover, parent, sibling. I wish it would be enough to say that the majority of Israelis (which includes Arab-Israeli citizens who have the exact same rights as Jewish-Israelis) wish for peace every day without ever having seen what it looks like. 

I wish I could show the world that Israel was founded as a socialist state, that it was built on communal values and born from a cluster of kibbutzim (small farming communities based on collective responsibility), and that what it is now isn’t what its people stand for. 

I wish the world could open their eyes to what we Israelis have seen since the beginning: that Hamas is the enemy, Hamas is the one starving Palestinians and denying them aid, Hamas is the one who keeps rejecting ceasefire terms and denying their citizens basic human rights. Hamas is the governing body of Gaza, not Israel. Hamas is responsible for the wellbeing of the Palestinian people. And Hamas are the ones who are more determined to murder Jews—over and over and over again, in the most animalistic ways possible—than to look inwards and see the suffering they’ve inflicted on their own people. I wish it was easier to see that.

But the wishing, the asking how can people be so blind, is never enough. I can never just say, I promise I don't want war. 

When I bear witness to this baseless hatred, I think of the victims of October seventh. I think of the women and girls who were raped and then murdered, forever unable to tell their stories. I think of the hostages, trapped underneath Gaza in dark tunnels, wondering if anyone will come for them. I think of Ori Ansbacher, of Ezra Schwartz, of Eyal, Gilad, and Naftali, of Lucy, Rina, and Maia Dee, of the Paley boys, of Ari Fuld and of Nachshon Wachsman. I think of all the innocent blood spilled because of terror-fueled hatred and the virus of antisemitism. I think of all the thousands of people who were brutally murdered in Israel, Jews and Muslims and Christians and humans, who will never see peace.

My ties to this land are knotted a thousand times over. Even when I leave, a part of me is left behind, waiting for me to claim it when I return. But when I see the grit it takes to live through this pain, when I see the suffering that paints the world the color of blood, I look to the heavens and I wonder why. 

I ask God: is it worth all this? He doesn't answer. So I am the one, in the end, to answer my own question. I say, it has to be. 

Feel free to send any genuine, respectful, and clarifying questions you may have to my inbox!

EDIT: just coming on here to say that I'm really touched & grateful for the love on this post. When I wrote it, I felt hopeless; I logged off of Tumblr for Shabbat, dreading the moment I would turn off my phone to find more hate in my inbox. Granted, I did find some, and responding to it was exhausting, but it wasn’t all hate. I read every kind reblog and comment, and the love was so much louder. Thank you, thank you, thank you. 🤍

Source Reading

The Whispered in Gaza Project by The Center for Peace Communications

Why Jews Cannot Stop Shaking Right Now by Dara Horn

Hamas Kidnapped My Father for Refusing to Be Their Puppet by Ala Mohammed Mushtaha

I Hope Someone Somewhere Is Being Kind to My Boy by Rachel Goldberg

The Struggle for Black Freedom Has Nothing to Do with Israel by Coleman Hughes

Israel Can Defend Itself and Uphold Its Values by The New York Times Editorial Board

There Is a Jewish Hope for Palestinian Liberation. It Must Survive by Peter Beinart

The Long Wait of the Hostages’ Families by Ruth Margalit

“By Any Means Necessary”: Hamas, Iran, and the Left by Armin Navabi

When People Tell You Who They Are, Believe Them by Bari Weiss

Hunger in Gaza: Blame Hamas, Not Israel by Yvette Miller

Benjamin Netanyahu Is Israel’s Worst Prime Minister Ever by Anshel Pfeffer

What Palestinians Really Think of Hamas by Amaney A. Jamal and Michael Robbins

The Decolonization Narrative Is Dangerous and False by Simon Sebag Montefiore

Understanding Hamas’s Genocidal Ideology by Bruce Hoffman

The Wisdom of Hamas by Matti Friedman

How the UN Discriminates Against Israel by Dina Rovner

This Muslim Israeli Woman Is the Future of the Middle East by The Free Press

Why Are Feminists Silent on Rape and Murder? by Bari Weiss

#palestine #israel hamas war #israel hamas conflict #hamas #on war #essay writing #personal essay #rant post #stop terrorism #israel #writing #palestinian lives matter #jewish lives matter #jewish and proud #jewish identity #jewish muslim solidarity #on grief #on religion #antisemitism #anti zionisim #purim 2024 #chag purim sameach #judaism #israeli palestinian conflict #am yisrael chai #kvetching #jumblr #mims on middle east #המצב

[altf4d3lete]

So are we gonna talk about how wenclair also makes the most sense in terms of Wednesday’s morals?

Wednesday is shown to be someone who cares greatly about outcasts and about their place in the world. She nearly sacrifices herself to fight Joseph Crackstone and save the school, she seems to be upset at the notion of being the reason people at the school are hurt. She’s very clearly enraged by the way Goody is treated and by the outcasts being executed in the barn.

Tyler: Tyler was raised with a very negative view on outcasts, and that was only fueled by Thornhill. He already hated them before Thornhill even came along, and now he hates them even more, to the point of willingly going along with a genocide plot. While we don’t know his true intentions, as of now they don’t make much sense together, given that Wednesday seems to hold the treatment of outcasts fairly high on her list of things she’s upset about.

Xavier: I have a feeling that because Xavier is a psychic and his father is rich/famous, he doesn’t have to worry about things that other outcasts have to worry about. Maybe this is just a writer thing, because I find it weird he wouldn’t be more fired up about it given that he was literally hatecrimed, but when Wednesday opens up to him about what she saw and is clearly upset about it, his response is essentially “so?”. He very clearly doesn’t care about things like the unfair treatment of outcasts unless it directly affects him.

Enid: Then you have Enid. A werewolf. She can’t shift, but she has claws that make it hard for her to visually hide that she’s an outcast. She’s one of the outcasts directly affected by the fact that she can’t hide who she is, one of the most likely to be hunted and/or hatecrimed as well, since werewolves would be viewed as violent creatures (probably why they have the Lupin cages). She’s more similar to Wednesday. Untrusting of normies, likely stemming from a fear of being hatecrimed or the dislike of them knowing that they have hatecrimed people in the past.

In terms of morals and senses of political justice, Enid aligns the most with Wednesday. Of course hate can be unlearned and a sense of justice can be taught, but as the three love interests stand, Enid makes the most sense.

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk 🙏

#wenclair #wednesday #wednesday addams #enid sinclair #netflix #wednesday x enid #enid x wednesday #wlw #lgbtq #tyler galpin #xavier thorpe #wednesday netflix #character analysis #analysis #media analysis #morals

[historic-meme]

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. This whole week l have been thinking alot about the Holocaust. So last night I re-read maus. One panel really stuck out to me during this reading. For context this is in Maus 2 when Art is talking to his therapist, a Holocaust survivor, about how he feels he could never measure up to his father who survived Auschwitz. At this point in the story his father had already past. May his memory be a blessing.

The dialogue, “but you weren’t in Auschwitz. You were in Rego Park,” hit me like a punch to the chest. I have no better way to explain the paradoxical guilt I felt and continue to feel as the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor. I did not live during the Holocaust. It had ended before my grandmother reached eighteen years old. And yet, the Shoah seems to loom over me. Forever a reminder, that I am alive by sheer luck. My great grandfather’s parents as well as two of his brothers were murdered in Auschwitz. My great grandmother’s twin sister was also murdered in the Holocaust. Despite hours of research, I still have no idea where exactly she died.

Using the term guilty for what I feel doesn’t seem exactly right but there is no better word in the English language. Maybe if I was smarter or more articulate I could find better words.

A key theme of this chapter is intergenerational trauma. This is the same chapter that has this iconic image.

On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, I simply want to acknowledge the real and extremely painful intergenerational trauma and inherited survivors guilt felt by descendants of Jewish survivors. I know I struggled in the past with feeling like I even have any right to feel this way considering I am three generations removed from any of my family that were murdered in the Holocaust. If any other Jews struggle with thoughts like this, I want to assure you that your feelings are valid and real. Intergenerational trauma is complicated and the feelings that come with it don’t simply disappear once a certain number of generations from the event pass.

This post is specifically about the Holocaust and jewish intergenerational trauma stemming from our persecution and genocide. If this post resonates with you as a non-Jew who has intergenerational trauma I am glad, but please do not derail this post.

#history #holocaust remembrance day #holocaust #shoah #intergenerational trauma #jumblr #jewish history #shoah mention #tw shoah #holocaust mention #tw holocaust #judaism #maus #antisemitism #jewish trauma #survivors guilt #mental health

[songofthenightingale19]

I don’t know if anyone's mentioned this before, but Raine's titan badge after the time skip looks a bit different than the others:

They have this red piece of cloth attached to their badge that I haven't seen on anybody else.

Now, theorising time: I think they might be part of the new government, maybe even the president of the Boiling Isles. Hear me out, I have good reasons to believe so (and it's not just because they're my favourite character and I'm biased, shush):

1) As the former head of the Bard Coven, they'd certainly be qualified for the job: Raine has been part of the government before (as much as you can be when you're not the monarch in a monarchy lol) and knows how to lead.

2) They're probably more respected/trusted by the population of the Boiling Isles than most other public figures at this point - working together with the wannabe genocidal former emperor tends to ruin your reputation, so someone who led a rebellion against Belos (and fought against him personally in the final fight, though the question is if anyone except the people who were there knows about that) and has ties to other known rebels aka Eda should be quite well-liked.

3) They have already proven that they're able to make sacrifices for the sake of the whole Isles (for example: risking their own life and that of the woman they love to stop the Day of Unity in Eda's Requiem). Most of the other characters, like Eda and Luz, in comparison, have proven again and again that they would never be able to sacrifice someone they care about - which is an admirable trait, don't get me wrong, but you want a political leader to be able to consider what choices are best for everyone and compromise, if necessary.

4) It would be a great conclusion to their character arc: Raine spent half of their life trying to destroy the coven system from the inside and has witnessed its worst sides first-hand, let them be the one to build something new and better for the future of the Boiling Isled.

So in conclusion: Raine has the potential to be a great president....... as long as nobody forces them to make public speeches regularly.

Them being a member of the government would also explain why they are present when that coven sigil was removed: Why would someone who specialises in Bard magic be needed for something that seems to be based on Healing and Abomination magic? Because they're a representative of the government/the Boiling Isles!

Also...........

Give me power couple Raeda as president of the Boiling Isles and Headmistress of the University of Wild Magic!!

#the owl house #toh #raine whispers #eda clawthorne #raeda #toh spoilers #just to be on the safe side #toh theory #belos #toh headcanon #bards against the throne #covens against the throne

[dn-838]

In defence of Undertale Yellow, how it can work with Undertale’s canon

So, I have seen a lot of debating recently on Undertale Yellow and whether or not it fits what we know already about the lore in Undertale. Of course Flowey’s presence in the mod is the primary thing that has sparked this debate, with many believing that he can’t have existed at the same time as the Justice Soul and that it is a major hole that breaks the continuity of Undertale. I however, as someone who has spent way too much time with Undertale and has vast knowledge about even the most obscure of details in the game, disagree. I believe that Undertale Yellow fits the original games canon well… maybe a bit too well, and I am here to give my own arguments against the things that I commonly see people say doesn’t fit the original game’s continuity. This may contain a few spoilers for Undertale Yellow, so unless you’ve already seen all 3 routes or for whatever reason don’t care about having the game spoiled, don’t read further until you are done.

Argument 1: all the Souls were already collected by the creation of Flowey and the amalgamates

Okay so this one I don’t really have much to say about. Yes Flowey and the Amalgamates were created using the SOULs of some of the collected humans, however it’s never specified that it was from 6 humans, all that’s made clear is that Asgore did have human SOULs (in plural) that were used in the experiment.

Argument 2: the timeline doesn’t match up

The timeline has always been a confusing topic among the Undertale community. While the most likely estimate of the gap between Chara and Frisk falling is 100 years due to what Sans tells us during his date.

There are a few reasons for us to believe that the gap is much smaller, especially considering the weird nature of the Deltarune timeline and the supposed grudge Chara seems to have against Snowdrake in Genocide (who is stated to only be a teenager).

However, no matter how you view the timeline, unless you have specific dates in mind for things like when Gaster was the Royal Scientist and when the fall of Integrity-Justice happened, or think the gap was REALLY short, Undertale Yellow doesn’t really contradict it too much. The game itself is meant to take place just a year before Undertale, with all the same characters existing in similar positions to how they do by the time of Undertale, however we never encounter them due to being on a completely different path that takes us to very different parts of the underground, being why they don’t behave like they encountered a human before in Undertale.

Integrity is a bit more interesting, because it can vary massively depending on how you view the lifespans of the Ketsukane’s, Starlo (Starlo won’t be important to this, but I mention him since he was childhood friends with Ceroba) and Dalv. It is strongly implied that as a kid, Dalv was best friends with Kanako, and was attacked by the Integrity human some point before the games events. At first you’d assume that this was all not meant to be long before the events of the game, however, Integrity was killed by Axis in UTY, a robot that was being worked on by Chujin back when the Steamworks were still in operation, which we can assume was long before the events of the game due to the state of the Steamworks itself and the fact it is stated to have been used as the source of all power in the underground, which would mean it would likely have shut down around the period that the CORE was first put into operation, so all the way back when Gaster was still the Royal Scientist, whenever you think that was (Axis wasn’t sent to kill the human until after Chujin was fired from his position, however due to the way Axis is locked up and deactivated before we wake up the Steamworks, we can assume he was shut down with the rest of the facility). On top of all this Dalv is shown to be a lot older than he presumably would have been when he was attacked by Integrity, and with him being a Vampire, you could say that he aged that much at a slower rate than a human would, with the Ketsukane’s also aging slow, 2 of them being Boss Monsters and one of them being a 9 tailed fox. We know that some monsters do likely age at very different rates due to monsters like Gerson who lived through the war.

So to give the whole timeline, basically, Chujin worked in the Steamworks and made Axis back before or during Gaster’s time as the royal scientist. After several failed prototypes that eventually got Chujin fired, Axis was sent to chase down and kill Integrity. He managed and Chujin kept the Soul hidden and over the span of years recorded a few tapes for what he had planning, meanwhile Dalv, who was previously attacked by Integrity, went into hiding, locking himself into a mostly dark and unknown part of the ruins. At some point when Alphy’s became the Royal Scientist, Chujin started to mentor Martlet, which led Martlet to enter the True Lab and get some strange serum. Eventually Chujin died around a year or two before UTY, revealing his hidden tapes to Ceroba, which Kanako overheard. This led to Ceroba attempting to inject Kanako with the Integrity soul, leading to Kanako falling and being donated to Alphy’s, and her of course then becoming an amalgamate.

Argument 3: Asgore killed all 6 of the other humans

Okay so this one is interesting, because Undyne does imply that humans before Frisk did make it to Asgore, with her saying that “no human has ever made it PAST Asgore” rather than “no human has ever made it TO Asgore”

The thing is, that other humans reached Asgore is all this really does imply, it doesn’t necessarily mean all humans made it to Asgore. You could argue that most of them died to Asgore, with Integrity and Justice being the only exceptions. If you really want to stretch you could even say that this line was actually just another attempt from Undyne to make Asgore sound like a powerful and threatening force (since she tries to make him out like that quite a bit in her fight, such as by saying that killing us is an act of mercy right after this), although I find this unlikely.

There is another line of dialogue that I sometimes see used to try and prove that Asgore killed all 6, and while it’s not used close to as much, I’ll still just quickly clear it up.

This doesn’t really mean that much, all it’s saying is that all the humans that leave the ruins inevitably die. She likely wouldn’t know any details on their deaths do to her isolation, and even if she had some knowledge she would probably still place the blame on Asgore due to his part in waging war and coming up with the plan to kill 7 humans in the first place.

Argument 4: The introduction of new incredibly powerful characters makes no sense

Okay, so this is a weird one, however the explanation for it is fairly simple. Nobody in UTY compares to the original Undertale cast when it comes to how “powerful” they are. We struggle so much against the opponents we face as Clover because well… Clover is much weaker than Frisk, bosses like Ceroba and Axis pale in comparison to Undyne and Mettaton, they just seem much harder since we are playing as a human with much less determination than Frisk. In Pacifist Clover fights a depressed fox lady, meanwhile Frisk fights a literal god; in Neutral Clover goes through a struggle fighting through Flowey’s mind after having his Soul absorbed, meanwhile Frisk holds on against Flowey with 6 Souls until those Souls rebel; and in Genocide Clover takes some time to finally destroy Axis, the failed prototype that got Chujin fired, meanwhile Frisk atomised Mettaton NEO, The greatest invention of the Scientist who was selected to replace Gaster, in a single blow.

The only Undertale Yellow character that I’d say surpasses any character in Undertale would of course be Zenith Martlet, but even then LV 19 Frisk would mop the floor with her, while LV 19 Clover had to go through a lot of effort to beat her, only ever managing to surpass Flowey in Determination after doing so. At LV 20 both Clover and Frisk have massive boosts from LV 19, however Frisk is far stronger, having awakened Chara and caused the destruction of everything, while Clover just destroys Asgore with a super laser blast directly from their Soul and leaves.

Argument 5: miscellaneous

Just to clear up any further confusion, I’ll give quick explanations for some more minor points that I have encountered

Nobody in the original Undertale apart from Flowey, Toriel and Asgore meets Clover, so the other monsters in Undertale acting like they had never met one makes sense.

Flowey not just stealing Clovers Soul is explained well by the game itself. He plans to, however he doesn’t get the chance in Pacifist; sees that we couldn’t surpass Asgore in Flawed Pacifist; steals our soul but is unsatisfied with the outcome and resets in Neutral, and gets gunned down in Genocide.

Toriel believing that it’s been a long time since a previous human fell when she sees Frisk in Undertale doesn’t mean much, she mostly lives isolated in the Ruins, with the other monsters being too afraid to speak with her, considering this and just generally how much seemed to have happened within that year, time could have felt much slower. Alternatively you could argue that the 6 humans all fell within months of each other, and that a years gap is a long time in comparison to the rate the first 6 fell (or 5, since she says the exact same thing to Clover).

Both Flowey and Clover using file 1 at the end of Genocide doesn’t fit what we know about save files no, however I feel it is a little nit-picky to use it as a definitive reason to discredit how well UTY fits into canon, after all the only thing you’d need to do is change the numbers and this would be fixed.

The Gunsmith having been born a week before the Human Vs Monster war doesn’t go against anything we already know. As stated before, we know that at least some monsters like Gerson do live for a very long time.

Flowey having more determination than Clover also doesn’t break anything. Flowey was injected with DT from 5 human Souls. The thing is that Frisk was special when it came to the amount of determination they had.

Unlike with most of the other cast, nobody in Undertale actually indicates that Flowey never met a human prior to Frisk.

Chujin being a boss Monster doesn’t contradict what we know about Boss Monsters. We know that the Dreemurrs are boss monsters, but nothing tells us that they are the only boss monsters.

Argument 6: the nature of the SAVE files contradicts Undertale Yellow

Here we go, the penultimate argument I shall argue against. Never did I expect for this obscure piece of Undertale lore to be the bane of my existence but here we are. For a short time I thought that this could not be countered, only after I had walked away from a discussion completely defeated did the pieces finally start to come together, and now finally… I have an explanation.

First things first, let’s look at the 10 save files. The files go from file 0 to file 9. We know that File 0 likely belongs to Chara due to it being the one that we save with in Undertale, and that file 9 belongs to Frisk since it works as the games Autosave/Checkpoint system. File 8 would then of course belong to Flowey, not just because it’s the one just before Frisks but because File 8 appears in your files after you beat Omega Flowey to mark your completion of a Neutral run, likely implying that his previous SAVE was of course when he was Omega Flowey. Flowey also uses files 2, 3 and 6 throughout the Omega Flowey battle, and since Toriel implies that other humans who fell were also able to save and reset, we can assume that 2-6 likely belonged to previously fallen humans.

Now the only files that need an explanation are file 1 and file 7, and I’ve seen 2 interesting theories for this. The first is that file 1 belongs to Asriel after he took Chara’s Soul, and the other is that file 7 belongs to Lemon Bread since they know what a SAVE point looks like and tries to trick us with it; but the thing is, which one of these are true? Surely it can’t be both since we know one needs to belong to the 6th… okay I’ll cut that out you already know I’m going to say they are both true.

So for Asriel having file 1, he absorbed Chara’s Soul so should have all of their determination and therefore should also have overtaken their ability to SAVE. Of course it’s unlikely that Asriel would have made anything out of it since the idea of saving and loading was fairly alien to Flowey, however that doesn’t necessarily rule out the possibility that Asriel didn’t SAVE or at least have a file created.

Lemon Bread is a bit more complicated, and we are gonna need to look into the order of events within the True Lab to try and work this out. Firstly, we need to look at some of the true lab entries.

ASGORE asked everyone outside the city for monsters that had "fallen down."

Their bodies came in today.

They're still comatose... And soon, they'll all turn into dust.

But what happens if I inject "determination" into them?

If their SOULS persist after they perish, then...

Freedom might be closer than we all thought.

This is entry 6, when the fallen down monsters are given to Alphy’s and have Determination injected into them.

I've chosen a candidate.

I haven't told ASGORE yet, because I want to surprise him with it...

In the center of his garden, there's something special.

The first golden flower, that grew before all the others.

The flower from the outside world.

It appeared just before the queen left.

I wonder...

What happens when something without a SOUL gains the will to live?

This is entry 8, Alphy’s gets a hold of a golden flower that she injects Determination into.

“One of the bodies opened its eyes.

This is entry 13, when the fallen monsters started to regain consciousness, 7 entries after they were first delivered.

Seems like this research was a dead end...

But at least we got a happy ending out of it...?

I sent the SOULS back to ASGORE, returned the vessel to his garden....

And I called all of the families and told them everyone's alive.

I'll send everyone back tomorrow. :)

This is entry 15, by this point all the monsters that had fallen down were awake, and the still not conscious Golden Flower was still just a Flower, being returned alongside the human Souls.

no No NO NO NO NO NO

This is entry 16, the fallen down monsters started to melt together and create the amalgamates.

the flower's gone.

Finally, we have entry 18, when Alphy’s noticed that the Flower seems to have disappeared from the garden, 10 entries after she first selected it.

So, why are these entries so important? Well we know that to have ever held the ability to SAVE, Lemon Bread would have to had held the right amount of Determination before Flowey first became conscious in the garden, and did they? Yes, yes they did. Flowey could have awakened anywhere in the timeframe between entry 15 when he was returned to entry 18 when Alphy’s noticed him gone, however all the fallen down monsters that were injected with Determination were already awake by this point, and therefore prior to Flowey waking up, they would have been the most determined beings in the underground, perhaps with enough determination that whichever monster happened to have the most was able to SAVE. The time that they would have had with the ability would also have at least been for longer than Asriel had it since Flowey can’t have awoken until after a couple entries later at the bare minimum. Of course since this follows the idea that Lemon Bread had the SAVE ability since they knew what a SAVE point looks like, we can assume that the monster in question would have been Shyren’s sister, since I doubt that the Moldbygg and Aaron that also make up Lemon Bread would hold such a role.

Argument 7: Flowey’s backstory

I really thought I was done with this infuriating Flower, but it appears not. For there is a single hole I need to clear up… Flowey’s Genocide speech. Of course this should be fairly simple to clear up-

Ah… well okay this makes things interesting. If Flowey didn’t know where the Souls were stored then that would make it very hard to believe that Flowey ever encountered a human before Frisk since if that were the case then Flowey would definitely have an opportunity to sneak by and see where they are hiding, however this is not what the dialogue actually means. Flowey knew where the Souls were, he sneaks in to steal them in Neutral while we are talking to a defeated Asgore, his only issue was that he wasn’t able to get them out without Asgore. In repeated Neutral runs he still just waits until we are distracted with Asgore to take the Souls, and in Pacifist he takes them while the main cast are all distracted which again is when the canisters are open and available.

On a last note, here’s some dialogue that actually helps the idea that Flowey encountered another human.

It’s made clear all throughout the underground that humans have far greater Determination than monsters, and while you could argue that Flowey was just overconfident in his abilities, it’s still fairly strange that Flowey would still find a human having the DT to overwrite his abilities something special, unless of course he’d encountered a human previously who wasn’t able to do as much.

Conclusion

So, that’s about all I have to say, honestly I’m just glad to be done with it. This was a lot of work, and I’m excited to see this post which I’ve been working on for 3 days get completely dismantled almost immediately. Anyways, wish everyone reading a good day and goodbye!

#undertale #undertale theory #undertale yellow #undertale fangame #indie games #ut yellow #uty

[vodika-vibes]

Another request. Physical Romantic gestures that make me weak prompt. Wait for it… with Captain Howzer. He’s super sexy too.

kissing you against a wall/door, legs intertwined around their waist.

Only if you find time to write.

Thank you. 😊

Take a Break

Summary: You're working late, and Howzer has a suggestion that might help you relax.

Pairing: Captain Howzer x Reader

Word Count: 1184

Warnings: Uh...spicy? Not smut but only just not smut. A side effect of the prompt, I think.

A/N: Hm...I'm not sure I'm happy with this one, but I think it's about as done as it's going to be. Honestly, I got distracted while writing this, cause my cat is ripping her fur out.

Divider by Saradika

You stare at your datapad blankly. More specifically at the cursor that’s blinking, tauntingly, at the top of the blank document. 

Join the GAR, your family said. Fight for the Republic, they prodded. It’ll give you something to do, they cajoled.

You really, really need to learn how to say no.

Because if you had said no, you wouldn’t be here, in some backwater base on Ryloth, hours away from the nearest city, staring at a blank document, trying to come up with a professional way to say that the situation’s fucked.

Hell, you’re not even sure you work for the GAR anymore. You’re pretty sure you’re not an employee of the Imperial Army.

You rest your elbows on your desk, and your hands slide into your hair.

“Think. Think. Think.” You mutter under your breath, “You’ve written reports before. You know how to be professional.”

You drop your hands to the keyboard, and nothing comes to mind.

How do you write a report listing the loss of half of your base's munitions because the manufacturer decided to skimp on the weather protection, and they were exposed to extreme weather before anyone knew there was a problem?

There’s a knock on your office door, and you look up as it opens and Captain Howzer steps into your office, a mug of caf in one of his hands, “Captain,” You greet with a tired smile, “You’re working late.”

“So are you,” He replies as he sets the mug in front of you, “You still working on that report for the higher ups?” Howzer sits in one of the chairs across from you, and stretches his legs out.

“I’ve written a grand total of zero words,” You reply with a sigh, “I have all of the information to pass on, but-” You shake your head with a sigh.

Howzer frowns, “Are you okay?”

You sigh and bury your hands in your hair again, “I never wanted to join the GAR, Howzer, I was pressured into it. And now I can leave even less than I could before.”

“It’s not all bad, mesh’la.” Howzer offers quietly.

“How? The Jedi are dead. And the Imperial Army is committing genocide across the galaxy-” You stop and your lips press together in a thin line, “You didn’t hear that.”

Howzer folds his arms, “Didn’t hear what?”

You smile at him, “Good man.” To pick up the mug he brought you and take a sip of the warm caf. It’s not good, but it’s caf, so you’ll take it. “Thank you for the caf. Maybe it’ll wake up my brain enough to let me write this report.”

“Or…maybe you need to take a break.” Howzer offers.

“And do what?”

“Well, there is a club not far from here,” Howzer points out.

“I’m not really dressed for a club, Howzer,” You counter as you motion to the regulation pants and blouse you’re wearing.

“You look fine,” He gets to his feet and offers you his hand, “Come on. You need a break.”

“Howzer, I’m not going to a club just to watch other people dance.”

“Of course not, you’ll dance with me.”

You pause and look up at him, there’s a glimmer of hope on his face, and mischief glitters in his eyes, and you sigh and take his hand, “Fine. But only for a little bit. I need to finish this.”

“Oh, yeah. Of course.” He agrees, unconvincingly.

You don’t even have time to grab your jacket before he’s propelling you out of your office, and then the office building. 

The club is Nameless, which is a rather depressing name all things considered, but the music is loud, the lights are dim, and it’s packed with people. 

And Howzer, immediately, drags you onto the dance floor and pulls you flush against him. One of his hands settles heavily on your lower back, while the other cups the back of your neck.

“You seem rather eager to dance with me, captain.” You breathe into his ear.

“Guilty as charged,” He replies against your ear and then his lips attach to a spot just below your ear and you release a quiet moan, which makes him grin against your skin, “You seem just as eager,” He teases.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had someone to dance with,” You admit, as you roll your hips against his.

There’s a glimmer of something on his face as his hand slides from your back to your hip, and he holds you tight enough that you’ll have bruises, “Good,” He purrs out.

You shoot him a surprised look, but he doesn’t clarify. Instead he pulls you closer and angles your head so he’s able to catch your lips with his own. You reach up and wrap your arms around his neck, absently tracing random shapes against the back of his neck.

He groans into the kiss, and pulls away, which pulls a needy little whine from your lips. And he laughs under his breath. His gaze is heated, and you watch as he comes to a decision. 

Howzer walks you through the crowd, and into a hallway, where he presses you against the wall, and crashes his lips against yours again. It’s not private, not at all, people are passing behind him, though you don’t care. 

And judging by the way his hands are burning a path down your body, neither does he.

You let out a breathless moan as his lips attach to a spot on your neck and he bites down. One of your hands slides up into his hair and you grab a fistful, trying to ground yourself, but all that accomplishes is pulling a broken moan from his throat.

He pulls away from you, his gaze heavy. He lightly pulls your hand out of his hair, and he guides you further down the hall. He pushes the door to the storage room open, makes sure that it’s empty with a glance, and then he drags you into the dark room.

Howzer locks the door with a touch of the door panel, and then he has you pressed against the door. He kisses you deeply, and helps you wrap your legs around his hips, and he presses himself firmly against you.

A moan falls from you and he laughs breathlessly, as he breaks the kiss and brushes a strand of hair out of your eyes, “Are you feeling relaxed yet?” He breathes out.

“I feel like there’s a million bees under my skin, Howzer,” You reply, breathlessly.

He laughs, “Well, I suppose I better help you with that.” He kisses you slowly, sweetly, “And then I’d like to take you to dinner.”

“Aren’t you kind of going backwards?” You ask.

“Makes it interesting.” Howzer replies as his lips move to your neck again, “Unless you have a problem with it?”

“I don’t,” You reply quickly, another moan falling from you as he presses hot kisses over the mark on your neck.

“Good.” Howzer grins against your neck, “I have plans for tonight, mesh’la. Don’t worry, I’m going to take good care of you.”

#star wars #tcw #captain howzer x reader #howzer x reader #star wars fanfiction #x reader fanfiction #answered asks

[comradekatara]

you know what, I don’t like seeing ppl call katara “selfless.” it feels like such a misreading of her character in such a fundamental way. yes, katara will do anything she can to help others, but she has never once put herself second. everything she does is in her own interest first and foremost, including when she is actively being compassionate. being kind and helpful is not inherently a selfless act!

katara has never in the show chosen to make a sacrifice for the sake of the greater good. the closest she gets is telling aang that his training under pakku is more important than protesting the north’s traditions, and even then that lasts all of half a day before she snaps. and the thing is, katara shouldn’t be expected to be selfless. katara should not feel the need to give up more than has already been taken from her.

it is well within her right to act in her own best interest at all times. she’s literally a genocide survivor. so is aang. they should be putting themselves first. so maybe it was “selfish” of aang to not kill ozai. so what? is that somehow a bad thing? they deserve to be selfish.

katara is not selfless, and you know what? good for her. her brother is selfless to the point that he can’t even conceive of himself having worth or deserving to live if he is not serving his role of helping others, and you’re telling me that’s healthy??? that anyone who grew up around such a hollow shell of a boy would ever want to emulate that??? fuck no!!!!!!!!

katara knows her worth, and that is fundamental to what makes her so amazing and admirable, what makes her such a great role model to both viewers and the characters within the show, such as aang, who see themselves in her, and learn from her never to compromise who they are in the process of being a hero.

#katara #hot takes #aang #sokka #it’s such xtian martyr bullshit to assume that selflessness > putting yourself & your needs first #what makes katara amazing is that she ISNT selfless and still manages to be a compassionate revolutionary regardless! #that’s rly important actually!!!!!!!! #pls read some nietszche or smth before equating compassion w self-negation again dear god

[omarera]

Below is a long text. The reason I share this is that I think the article below gives a great insight into Swedish culture and debate climate and views of celebrities taking stands in political issues. I think it is a good to read for those who demand the Swedish cast to actively speak out on different political issues.

It also touches upon Sigge and Alex podcast. I am frustrated to see the polarization and cancel culture and also the narrative of Sigge as a Zionist based on that he followed some Insta accounts. And also Edvin and Felicia being labeled Zionists by association. Maybe the article can give some perspectives.

Sigge Eklund is a provocative person, and his and Alex Schulman’s pod is both popular and controversial. You kind of either love them or hate them, or both. They are both authors, both outspoken what I would call leftists, Alex for example write columns that are very leftist. They are also quite full of themselves and can be very condescending to others and also take ideas and concepts to extremes to prove points. Their takes are often debated. There is a bit of irony in that they have received criticism for not standing up for Israel and stated they were against Hamas attack and now Sigge also being accused of being a Zionists. Sigge is criticized from both sides.

With that said, below is a translation of an article from SvD, one of Swedens large morning papers. It discusses Swedes silence. It shows how celebrities that do speak up are treated in Sweden. Let’s just say they are shot down. Swedes don’t have a tradition of appreciating celebrities to speak up on subjects they are not fully educated on. It’s so easy to get lost. But also that we need to talk about but it’s so damn difficult.

The article below is from Nov 25th 2023. It’s also important to consider when reading it. I still think it showcase Swedish culture really well and our debate climate and view on celebs speaking up and how polarized and infected and hard the long ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict (now genocide) is for us to discuss.

link to article it’s probably locked for non-subscribers.

“That's why I keep quiet about the war"

During a dinner Björn Werner (the author of the article) was at recently, the question came up. The one that not only cuts through the public debate but is strong enough to tear apart friendships and social nets and relationships.

Alex Schulman's voice chokes with anxiety. He stabs himself. And stakes himself again.

"It freezes me now when I hear you're going to talk about it."

Now it must be done. Sigge Eklund has taken the plunge. They will talk about the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

It's fast. Just a few minutes. A gentle ripple in a podcast of over an hour. Like few others in public Sweden, the two men are otherwise always carefree open with what they think and feel. Bridges to important colleagues, friends and acquaintances are burned in every other episode. They do everything for the content. But not now.

It is at the very beginning of the war. Barely a week since Hamas kidnapped women, children and the elderly and brutally murdered 1,200 Israelis. Israel's intense bombing campaign has only been going on for a few days. Nevertheless, the Swedish debate about the Israel-Palestine conflict is so feverish that the two seasoned authors and media men prefer not to talk about it.

"I hardly think it can be done without arousing so much hatred that in the end it won't be worth it," Schulman continues.

Eklund basically agrees:

"I've really felt at a loss for words," he replies and goes on to explain that it's not because he doesn't have anything to say, but that he himself doesn't know exactly what he's going to say once he starts. The feelings are too strong.

It is, of course, easy to call the podduo cowards. That they want to wriggle out of this deeply polarized conflict without clashing with anyone – whether listeners or advertisers. But in that case they are not alone.

There are many who, for social and understandable reasons, avoid the question. The price of taking a stand can be very high. For one thing, what one says can be taken out of one's mouth and reshaped into something grotesque and ugly. For one thing, the risk of losing control over one's own emotions is great. Then it is easy to end up wrong. To say wrong.

An abyss you like to avoid thinking about and talking about, if you can.

During a dinner I attended recently, the question came up. Someone admitted that he "sympathizes with Israel's cause here." Another then raised his hand: "I don't agree with that, and I think we should leave it like that, so it will be nicer." The entire table nodded in agreement. Everyone exhaled. A similar dynamic exists in the group chats I'm in, which have morphed from lively, fun conversations to cautious, polite flirting. Everyone sees the dark clouds towering. Nobody wants to see the rain fall.

A lot of this depends, I think, on the complexity of the situation. The vast majority of people outside the Israel-Palestine conflict are touchingly in agreement that it is terrible for all innocent people to die, regardless of nationality. It is all the more difficult to navigate beyond this single, self-evident opinion. Because one needs to have one after all. In everything else it is more difficult. They are looking for a scapegoat. The violence can't just happen? It must be someone's fault. Demanding a ceasefire also leads to the natural follow-up question: and then?

In both the issue of guilt and in the conversation about the future, dangers lurk wherever you turn: those who rush forward without a map and compass risk quickly running into both anti-Semitic and Islamophobic cuts.

Not that it is necessarily easier for those who actually take the time to read up on the issue. Is it about a multi-thousand-year European oppression of Jews? That Arab leaders have consistently refused to accept Israel's existence since the UN proclaimed the state in 1948? Is it the fault of the many Jewish settlers who drove Palestinians from their homes? Arab countries that in turn expelled Jews from theirs? That Palestinians by both Israel and Arab countries are used as a real political playing cards? Netanyahu? Hamas? It's just a matter of choosing. Everything is right – at the same time.

Whatever you think, however educated you are, there is always a weighty opinion that speaks for the opposite of what you have come to.

The situation is bizarre. Despite the fact that there is a terrible conflict going on where innocent children are killed daily, it is therefore a socially viable, perhaps even wise, strategy to just keep quiet.

the public also has results on how it goes for those who speak first and think later. When 160 celebrities signed a petition to stop the bombing of Gaza, they came under fire for not showing the same commitment during Hamas' massacre of Israelis. Artist Stina Wollter's star now appears to be falling after she mixed up her commitment to Palestinian children with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. And the competence of the Green Party's Märta Stenevis is being questioned because she liked Stina Wollter's (not entirely clear) apology.

It is quite unusual for external events to cut so deeply into interpersonal relationships. Not least in the consensus-seeking country Sweden, which is otherwise known for its lukewarm political temperament. While the 1968 movement in Paris led to street battles between students and police, the student movement in Stockholm occupied its own union building. When Sweden, after 200 years of non-alignment, joins NATO, everyone just sighs amicably. The war in Ukraine has, if anything, acted as a unifying force, where people from left to right could confidently state that the world in this particular case really is black and white.

But there is a force in the Israel-Palestine conflict that is strong enough to tear apart the social net and relationships. Partly because of the horrific images we are all exposed to, but also because of the historically deeply infected nature of the issue. It's all starting to resemble the climate of debate in Britain about Brexit, which went to such levels that the prestigious British etiquette magazine Tatler raised the topic as one of twelve things you absolutely should not talk about at the dinner table.

Anyone who puts their faith in the ability of public discourse to unravel complex events also has nothing to gain from the issue of Israel-Palestine. The ongoing debate has quickly degenerated into a hopeless meta-debate about who thinks the most "wrong". The amount of constructive, well-read and nuanced posts that have been put forward since Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7 and Israel's subsequent bombing of Gaza can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Expressen's Per Wirtén succeeds, through a combination of solid humanism and understanding of the matter, to tackle the subject in a dignified way. Another is SvD's Elaf Ali, who from his personal perspective testifies to the polarization in the Swedish debate.

But - the more texts are about things that could just as easily take place at a dinner with a lost footing. There and in social media, the waves are high. Are leftists anti-Semitic because they react more strongly to Israel's attacks than to Hamas? Are right-wing debaters really Islamophobes, because they so fervently defend Israel while at the same time advocating cooperation with the newly anti-Semitic SD?

Who is foolish enough to stick their head into this hornet's nest willingly?

Maybe Alex and Sigge are doing the only reasonable thing. Despite one's instincts screaming to react when news of dead children sweeps by, there is not much to say – because hardly anything can be said without being taken as revenue for something else. But the question is whether it is even possible to be silent. According to today's twisted logic, there is also something to be said.

Shortly after "Alex and Sigge's podcast" was published, the right-wing comedian Aron Flam responded to X (recently on Twitter): "So Alex Schulman cannot condemn murder, torture and rape? Hard to say anything about murdering women, young, old, pregnant, babies? Speaking. He who is otherwise so full of goodness.”

And it hasn't stopped there. In a later episode, both podcasts return to the consequences of not taking a stand. Their social media inboxes are overflowing with anger.

Swedes are one of the world's most educated peoples, and at least until very recently formally non-aligned. The majority have few personal connections to either the millennial suffering of Jews or the Palestinian people's quest for their own state formation.

If even a remote, frostbitten nation of newly urbanized farmers can't pull themselves together, who can? If even we can't talk to each other, then who can?

#don’t know how to tag this #Swedish. culture ? #why Swedish celebrities are silent? #edvin ryding #felicia truedsson #Sigge Eklund #and also #omar rudberg #yr cast

[atthebell]

/discourse

Yeah I come from twitter and like, it’s so disheartening tbh. People are demanding things out of people who don’t normally talk about politics. For example, they are demanding things out of Roier, Iron Mouse and Quackity. And they say it’s “oh it’s because we are concerned for them, if they use their platform more people will know!!” Well yes, that is true but there’s a slippery slope between asking for help and harassing CC’s so you can have a morality high ground. People are already shitting on Roier because he commented on fanart instead of rting. Like dude, give him a moment he probably doesn’t know anything that’s happening. And when people try to say this, to give CC’s space to learn, your called a Zionist and get immediately blasted. “It’s a genocide! They should use their platform, their silence is deafening” <<<<legit words I’ve seen. I’ve seen people immediately drop CC’s and said that anyone who likes said CC’s is a horrible person.

yes it's ridiculous to demand every single cc talk about this or that they need to use their platforms to raise awareness about the issue-- this genocide has been the biggest news and politics conversation topic for the last several months since october. awareness has been made, there is no one on the internet rn unaware of the conflict (which, yes, it is a conflict, that does not make it not also a genocide). it is completely unavoidable, so unless you live under a literal rock there is no way you're gonna learn about it from some twitch streamer. and so roier or whoever tweeting about it does not make anyone more aware than they were before. also roier is sick, as is mouse, and quackity does not talk about politics, never has, and never will, so expecting that is ridiculous.

it's ridiculous regardless-- like doc brought up, this shit is blatant virtue signalling and i'm tired of it. it is not every single cc's responsibility to tell you how to feel about an issue or to speak out every time something terrible happens, and frankly it is not your business what they do in support of it or not in private so long as they don't act like a shithead. any of these creators could be donating a ton of money behind the scenes and just not speaking about it because that's not necessary, or they could not be and frankly i don't care either way. content creators do not exist to be twitter users' perfect idols of morality and expecting that of them is ridiculous and clearly all about you (not you specifically anon, the general you of stupid twitter users) and how you desperately need every creator you watch to have the exact morally agreed upon beliefs or else they're morally bereft and so are you.

if a cc acts shitty or says something off, sure, kindly point out where they've gone wrong or, if you don't feel like watching them anymore, don't, but don't act like their head belongs on a guillotine because they haven't talked about/aren't aware of every tragedy going on in the world right now. like you said, people are treating it like a moral high ground rather than the serious political issue that it is. and if you want a cc who's super informed about politics and is raising money for palestine and talking about it a bunch, go watch hasan ffs. maybe you'll actually learn something for once.

anyway everyone stay the fuck off twitter and stop engaging in this kind of guilt trippy bullshit.

#asks #anons #discourse #also not to put you on blast but putting '/discourse' at the start of your ask was an immediate flag you came from twitter lol

[thatsheetyghost]

I don’t know how else to say it, and you can criticize him as much as you want (and to be fair, a lot of it is probably very accurate), but BIDEN IS THE ONLY VIABLE CANDIDATE TO STAVE OFF FASCISM IN THE US.

Could he do more? Maybe. Has he done nothing? Absolutely not; he’s been far more supportive of unions in the US. The past year we have had major labor victories in the US, and such victories would probably not have been able to happen under a GOP administration.

So to say you won’t vote for him under a single (albeit very bad) misstep in international politicking is absolutely fucking delusional and insane; you don’t give a shit about the Palestinians, you just want to stick it to Sleepy Man and allow even worse people in to not only give Israel funding forever, but to also enable genocides to happen IN THE US.

I don’t think the Palestinians being murdered by the Israel war machine would think highly of people who would throw their minority friends/neighbors/family into a fucking woodchipper to “”protest vote””. It’s a fucking pathetic virtue signal for Internet brownie points that works against pragmatic progressive policies.

I’m not requiring anyone to love Biden, he’s not great, there are a lot of valid issues with his administration, but look at his opposition next year: the GOP, lead by a fucking rapist criminal who want to genocide anyone non-white, non-straight, and non-Christian; they want to enact a cultural fucking genocide in my country, and I won’t just bend the knee to weirdo Marxist-Leninists screeching at me to start a revolution against one of the most powerful militaries in the world.

Fucking use your brain, vote Biden 2024.

#politics #2024 election #joe biden #isreal #palestine #gop #fascism #y’all need to think pragmatic and stop thinking you live in the fucking hunger games #revolution won’t work

[thrashersasuke]

i rlly do think i’m fully entering back to my 2018-2019 naruto extreme hyperfixation phase where i am on the point of being like a little crazy about it maybe a lil delusional (fr) but it actually makes me shake with anger when ppl completely don’t understand wtf i’m saying especially about sasuke. like the whole post was about how the land of the waves arc was a SET UP to SHOW LATER ON how sasuke is a character who is COMPLETELY ABOUT LOVE. the love for his clan and family drives him to orochimaru, not hate. it’s the entire point why he leaves to kill itachi. because he Loves his family and clan, and itachi implemented that in order to get revenge on him would to live in hatred. maybe he hated his brother (valid obviously) but the whole reason he is suffering from such tremendous sadness and loneliness and grief and why he Feels So much about itachi is because of the love he HAS for family clan etc (even itachi..) love as a central point of his character is shown when he doesn’t kill naruto in vote1. sasuke knows that the one way (according to itachi) to get the power to kill him is to kill his best friend and sasuke Doesnt. he Can’t and actively tries not to. leaving in the middle of the night, trying to make naruto go away at the very beginning. he doesn’t want to leave the leaf he doesn’t want to leave naruto specifically but he feels like he has to. and this carries into the other point being besties with orochimaru…? WHEN?????????? he is manipulated from the very first time orochimaru sees him. he gives him the curse mark because he knows he wants to kill itachi. when orochimaru and kabuto say that they have to separate naruto and sasuke cuz “the nine tails boy is changing sasukes heart and mind”. when he sends his sound ninja after sasuke in the end of naruto. sasuke is so distraught about leaving team 7 and the last push is when the sound ninja like beat him up and are basically like “u want power right? to kill YOUR BROTHER right???” and he goes. he’s manipulated by powers outside of his control, he’s 13!!!! and even then. LIKE SHIPPUDEN?? WHEN HE LITERALLY TELLS OROCHIMARU HE DOESNT NEED HIM ANYMORE and that what orochimaru does to ppl and what he was going to do to him DISGUSTS HIM “i don’t like your style, you sicken me” ?!?!? HOW IS THAT BESTIES he KILLS orochimaru. ig they team up later on, but that’s only when orochimaru is “different” (i hate orochimaru still but whatever) and sasuke doesn’t gaf because his goal is to see if he should really destroy the leaf village because uhhhhhh like. well they committed a genocide against his entire people and have actively ostracizing them and oppressing them basically since tobiramas term as hokage so like. do i even need to explain how sasuke was completely right in his hatred for the leaf? for the “peace” everyone was so blissfully (and ignorantly) living in was from the massacre of an entire group of ppl SASUKES PEOPLE. like DO I NEED TO REALLY TALK ABOUT HOW ALL HIS FEELINGS AND THOUGHTS ABOUT THAT ARE 100% JUSTIFIED? i won’t cuz it’ll make this post super long (more than it already is) but yeah. OMFG. DONT SPEAK ABOUT SASUKE IF YOU DONT UNDERSTAND HIM especially not on my posts IDGAF IM CRAZY

#anyway. #my post

[wri0thesley]

omg nat this game looks so fun! how about geto with E?

E - Evening primrose (fickleness): “Now, you know it’s cruel to play with other people’s feelings, don’t you?”

cw: not sfw, dub-con/non-con, breeding mention

Suguru's voice only pretends to be casual; much like the long fingers on your thigh, the ones that have pushed up the fabric of the robe you wear so that he touches bare skin. The other cult members who are here, party to your humiliation and discipline, do not say anything at all. Suguru has not bid them to, and they are loyal to a fault.

"You know it's cruel to play with other people's feelings, don't you?" He repeats, his voice like black silk. His fingers inch higher, tantalisingly close to the space between your thighs, and you have to force yourself to breathe through the painful spasm of want that your body presses upon you. "You know how much you mean to us, hmm?"

You know, partly, what you mean to Suguru. You know that you mean a face pressed into cool pillows and a firm hand on your head and a purr about how well you're doing, how when all of this is over he will ensure that you help populate the world anew with only sorcerers. You mean a toy to him; a game, a distraction, and a plan when he has finished his delusions of grandeur and genocide.

Too, you mean a game won.

"I don't want this anymore," you hear yourself saying. "I think-- I think Satoru was right, Suguru--"

It's a slap; harsh, against the soft skin of your cheek. Suguru's teeth grit.

"You promised me," he whispers, an insidious hiss. "You chose me. You chose this." To punctuate his point, his fingers slide all the way up; resting over the seat of your underwear. One finger slides into the space between, pressing the fabric against wet slit with a pleased exhale. "You had your choice and you made it."

Your body pounds with want for him. You try and think about Satoru again - the cause of this argument. He almost always is. You try and imagine being somewhere else.

There's a murmur of disquiet around from the spectators, and Suguru seems to remember they're there.

"Out," he says, a firm command that is followed to the letter - the crowd disperse, and you are left with Suguru and the ghost of your past glimmering betwen you. The choices that either one of you could have made.

(When Satoru had kissed you, you could have kissed him back and shoved down your crush on Suguru. You could have let yourself love Satoru Gojo. Maybe then--)

"You're not leaving me," Suguru says, as much a threat as it is a statement. "Not now, darling. Not when we have a whole world to put back to rights."

Your throat is dry.

"And what if I do?" You whisper. "What if I don't love you?"

He barks out laughter. The hand that slapped you grabs your chin, yanking it roughly at the same time as he pries fingers beneath the gusset of your underwear and a calloused index finger finds the pulsing pearl of your clit. Traitorous; you're wet for him just from the briefest of touches.

"Your body already knows what you were made to do," he murmurs. "Loving me hardly matters, darling."

But you'd seen the steely flint in his eyes when Satoru's name had dropped from your lips; heard the ice in his tone when he realised that some of his underlings were about to see you despoiled. He cannot keep himself entirely under wraps.

Maybe he does love you.

In his way.

#ask game #jjk posting #yandere for ts #not sfw text #dub con for ts #breeding for ts

[disciple-of-owen]

The Southern Raiders: Some Thoughts

Ah, The Southern Raiders: that pivotal episode in which Zuko and Katara bury the hatchet, allowing our favorite Fire Prince to finally become a full-fledged Gaangster. Fans have expressed wildly different takes regarding this episode over the years, so I thought I’d toss in my two cents.

An important disclaimer before beginning: I am NOT anti-Zuko, and it is not my intention for this to be an anti-Zuko post. Having said that, I think it’s important to accept that Zuko’s redemption, magnificent as it is, does not expunge his character of defects. He remains a flawed person to the end of series, and I think much of his behavior in this particular episode is deserving of criticism.

Anyway, let’s start with the moment when Zuko announces to the Gaang that he and Katara are planning to track down her mother’s killer. Anything in quotes is from the show’s transcript, which belongs to Bryke, Nickelodeon, Paramount, and whoever the hell else has their hooks in Avatar at this point.

Aang: “Um… and what exactly do you think this is going to accomplish?”

An important thing to note here: Aang is not starting this conversation with an ‘I’ statement (I think, I feel, etc.). Instead, he is keeping the focus on Katara by asking her to elaborate on her thought process.

Katara: “Ugh. I knew you wouldn’t understand.”

A bit harsh, but Katara is experiencing a huge amount of emotional pain with the reopening of this wound. She is in no mood to be questioned (which is not to say that she shouldn’t be questioned) and that is valid.

Aang: “Wait, stop! I do understand. You’re feeling unbelievable pain and rage. How do you think I felt about the sandbenders when they stole Appa? How do you think I felt about the Fire Nation when I found out what happened to my people?”

Of all the moments that anti-Aang people disingenuously twist out of context, this is one of the most common. These individuals claim that Aang is belittling and dismissing Katara’s feelings by comparing the loss of her mother to the loss of Appa. This is a braindead take for three reasons:

Aang’s rage at the sandbenders wasn’t just about ‘losing Appa’. It was about being the sole survivor of a horrific genocide and losing the last piece he had of his people.

He puts Katara’s pain on the same level as the pain he feels regarding said genocide. If that isn’t taking her feelings seriously, I don’t know what the fuck is.

The whole reason he is making this comparison is not to determine whose trauma is greater, but to establish that he and Katara have common emotional ground upon which they can build a dialogue.

Zuko: “She needs this, Aang. This is about closure and justice.”

Frankly, I think it’s a bit audacious of Zuko to claim he knows what Katara needs when he’s been on normal speaking terms with her for a total of, what, 30 minutes? Still, I believe his heart is in the right place here.

Aang: “I don’t think so. I think it’s about getting revenge.”

And now, Aang voices his concern. Given how well Aang knows Katara, coupled with Zuko’s use of the word ‘justice’ regarding her mother’s killer, it is not at all unreasonable for him to assume that violent revenge might be on the cards. Katara immediately validates this assumption.

Katara: “Fine, maybe it is! Maybe that’s what I need! Maybe that’s what he deserves!”

I actually love this line; it’s not often that heroes in YA fantasies get to shed all pretense of morality and openly admit that base revenge is what they’re after. It makes Katara intensely believable in this episode.

Aang: “Katara, you sound like Jet.”

Aang reminds us of a vital lesson here: while it’s important to support your friends, it’s equally important to challenge them when you see them going down a potentially self-destructive path. That is what separates being a ride-or-die from being an enabler.

Katara: “It’s not the same! Jet attacked the innocent. This man, he’s a monster.”

Every word here is true, but the Gaang didn’t encounter Jet until he was many years into his unique brand of ‘freedom fighting’. Who’s to say he didn’t start out with Katara’s reasoning? Sokka seems to be thinking along these lines…

Sokka: “Katara, she was my mother too, but I think Aang might be right.”

Katara: “Then you didn’t love her the way I did!”

I have mixed feelings about this line. On the one hand, Katara is a child who has undergone immense trauma, and she has every right to express that. On the other, having trauma does not give you license to be cruel to others. There aren’t any easy answers here, which, again, is what makes Katara’s character especially fascinating in this episode.

Sokka: “Katara!”

Aang: “The monks used to say that revenge is like a two-headed rat viper. While you watch your enemy go down, you’re being poisoned yourself.”

Some might say this line is a bit preachy. Myself, I think Aang is speaking the way the monks taught him to in moments of conflict. Metaphors can be powerful tools for conveying meaning when regular words aren’t cutting through.

Zuko: “That’s cute, but this isn’t Air Temple pre-school. It’s the real world.”

And here we have a deeply problematic comment from Zuko.

Now before the torches and pitchforks come out, let me clarify: I do not think Zuko is an active bigot. At all. It is indisputable, however, that he was brought up in a racist, imperialist society. Let’s take a closer look at what he says here:

“That’s cute, but this isn’t Air Temple pre-school.” What we have here is an example of infantilization; Zuko is essentially calling one of the pillars of Air Nomad culture childish nonsense.

“It’s the real world.” Implying that the Air Nomads’ worldview is simple-minded and incompatible with the world as it is.

Now let’s compare Zuko’s words to what Ozai says to Aang in their final struggle.

Ozai: “You are weak! Just like the rest of your people! They did not deserve to exist in this world!”

“That’s cute,”

“You are weak!”

“It’s the real world.”

“They did not deserve to exist in this world!”

I repeat, I don’t think Zuko is being consciously racist here, and I am certainly not comparing him as a person to his father. What I AM saying is that both Zuko and Ozai were raised on the same diet of Fire Nation propaganda, and that this propaganda still colours Zuko’s worldview to some extent.

Katara: “Now that I know he’s out there… now that I know we can find him, I feel like I have no choice.”

Katara is effectively and honestly communicating her feelings here.

Aang: “Katara, you do have a choice: forgiveness.”

And Aang is seriously engaging with those feelings. Note: he isn’t saying that Katara has to forgive (he is perfectly content with her decision not to forgive Yon Rha at the episode’s conclusion); he is simply pointing out that she does, in fact, have a choice.

Zuko: “That’s the same as doing nothing!”

Not gonna lie, not a fan of Zuko in this moment. And if we ever needed proof that Aang is the more emotionally mature of the two, it comes with the next line.

Aang: “No, it isn’t. It’s easy to do nothing… but it’s hard to forgive.”

Some excellent wisdom, spoken from a place of experience.

Katara: “It’s not just hard. It’s impossible.”

Again, Katara expressing her truth. Again, totally valid.

I’m gonna skip ahead just a bit to when Aang and Sokka find Zuko and Katara preparing to steal Appa, as this is an important moment.

Katara: “Don’t try to stop us.”

Aang: “I wasn’t planning to. This is a journey you need to take. You need to face this man. But when you do, please don’t choose revenge. Let your anger out, and then let it go. Forgive him.”

Aang has expressed his concerns, but he has also listened to Katara and recognizes that this is something she needs to do. He provides the use of Appa and offers some final words of wisdom, which have a huge impact on Katara later in the episode.

Zuko: “Okay, we’ll be sure to do that, guru goody-goody.”

Wow. Just… wow.

Katara: “Thank you for understanding.”

We all know how the story goes from here: Katara and Zuko go on their quest, Katara continues to spiral into darkness, and when the big moment finally comes, she chooses not to lower herself to Yon Rha’s level.

So, to conclude:

Thoughts on Katara: People should give Katara a break. Sure, she’s kind of a jerk in this episode, but she is also 14(15?) and dealing with a lot. We can be critical of some of the specific language she uses, but we shouldn’t be critical of her expressing her trauma.

Another point worth noting: while Aang’s advice does play a role in Katara’s ultimate decision not to murder Yon Rha (as per Bryke’s own words), she isn’t just blindly following his recommendations. She spares her mother’s killer, but she does it on her own terms. Which is excellent.

Thoughts on Zuko: As mentioned previously, I do think Zuko’s desire to help Katara in this episode is genuine. Having said that, I also think his judgement is being clouded both by his projected feelings towards Ozai (his own Yon Rha) and a desire to get what he wants (in this case, Katara’s approval). If Katara’s well-being were truly his ultimate motivator, I don’t believe he would have been so dismissive of Aang’s concerns.

Though, to his credit, Zuko does acknowledge in the end that Aang had been right all along.

Thoughts on Aang: In the DVD commentary for this episode, the creators talk about how, in many ways, The Southern Raiders is actually a story about Aang and Katara; that Aang’s words are present with Katara throughout the episode as her shoulder angel, not judging her or telling her what to do, but helping her find her way through the darkness. This is a beautiful (yet realistically imperfect) moment in their relationship, and I am here for it.

#avatar the last airbender #katara #zuko #aang #kataang

[cicadaknight]

okay i have more (critical) barbie thoughts under the cut.

i really did enjoy it overall. it was fun, cheeky, surreal. i loved the experience of watching it in an energetic theater. i even cried a couple times. but i’m baffled at how powerful it was for so many people when it fell so flat for me. honestly, maybe what i’m feeling is just because i’m trans and it didn’t resonate as strongly with my experience of womanhood or masculinity.

i keep coming across people using gloria’s monologue to dismiss criticism by saying “anyone saying barbie isn’t feminist enough are doing the exact thing gloria pointed out! women have to be perfect but it’s just never good enough!” Y’ALL. having issues with a high-budget, corporate funded movie that has the same milquetoast girl-power messaging you’d find in teen mags from the early 2000s… is not the same as oppressing women under patriarchy. you can critique media and still resonate with aspects of it. good grief.

another response i’ve seen to critiques (specifically of gloria’s monologue) is that the movie’s messages are meant for barbie herself! not for the audience! it had to be super tame and generic because otherwise barbie wouldn’t have understood! all those speeches and ideas are aimed solely at barbie who is learning about all of this for the first time! it’s not for you if you already get it! what?????? that’s not how media works and you know it.

also, the idea that it’s meant to be palatable for a “wider audience” so it couldn’t have included intersectionality without losing people. translation: “wider audience” means white suburbia? white men? cishet people? where the most “representation” they can tolerate is a 3 second clip of a voiceless barbie in a wheelchair dancing? or a black president barbie who mostly says one liners and disappears? a wider audience being the same audience every blockbuster is catered towards?

i’m just spit balling here, but i don’t think it would have been impossible to introduce some unironic nuances like:

america’s latinx character experiencing sexism differently from stereotypical barbie?

maybe not using mount rushmore repeatedly to symbolize who’s in power?

avoiding comparing bringing patriarchy to barbieland to indigenous genocide?

a harsher perspective on mattel’s role in all this? where the outcome isn’t just will farrell’s character griping that he doesn’t even want to be in charge, he just wants to be tickled? (wtf was that lmao)

making a more obvious statement that patriarchy isn’t just a symptom of men stumbling across power and relishing it but that it’s rooted in violent white supremacy and capitalism? i’m positive there’s a way to address that without going full blown academic feminist theory mode.

having the black, fat, and disabled characters speak more than 5 collective minutes? (but at least they had screentime at all, right? ✨representation✨)

explicitly queer characters instead of “weird barbie” and allan being coded as the outsiders to an otherwise regimented cishet universe?

but all those ideas are irrelevant, right? because the movie was just SOOO self aware and layered in irony and if i was smart enough and hadn’t missed the point, i’d know the writers were in on it all.

#barbie spoilers #barbie #barbie criticism #h #okay one last vent #it’s wild to me that people are like ‘no one picks apart movies made by men like this! it’s because everyone hates women!’ #creative work made by women is often more heavily scrutinized than work by men #so i think it's necessary to keep that idea of undue scrutiny in mind as we consume media #but at the same time it's not a reason to just avoid engaging with women's work critically #am i losing it? #i’m losing it #also specifically with movies like barbie #if they're going to very openly and specifically address patriarchy and misogyny to make a statement about them #would it not make sense that those themes would be at the front and center of criticism?