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reasonsforhope · 22 days

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Sometimes you just have one of those moments where the progress we've made as a culture get thrown into stark relief. You look at something and go "Holy shit, that would never have happened when I was a kid."

Today, I had one of those moments when I realized that the teenage boys I'm working with are just. genuinely, openly enthusiastic about going to Build-a-Bear for their outing.

These are sixteen and seventeen year old boys! They just had a whole conversation about what to name their "cute", mostly new squishmallows! They're genuinely excited that they're going to Build-a-Bear this weekend and asking other kids to pick up specific accessories for them!!

Holy shit, that never would've happened when I was 16. None of the boys would have dared to be visibly interested - and neither would most of the girls! There would have been a million gay jokes and "Haha, you're a girl" jokes and "What are you, a baby?" jokes. Teenagers weren't even supposed to care about anything back then!

Less than 15 years later, and I'm watching three 17 year old boys treat all that as not even worthy of comment.

So let's call that a reason for hope. Even when the kids aren't alright, in some ways apparently they are alright. Go Gen Z, honestly. It's so lovely to watch you guys just openly doing and saying stuff that, when I was a teen, would've been a social death sentence.

#obligatory disclaimer that this really really obviously is not universal #I do live in a major progressive city #there's definitely a level of a liberal bubble effect here #but it's still really powerful to see it #because even in a major liberal enclave there were so many limits on the gender roles and homophobia etc. etc. fronts #and also the limits of the oppressive weight of obligatory teen apathy lol #seriously go gen z. so glad you guys decided cringe is dead. I love you for that so much #and I love it for you #not news #life #hope #homophobia #sexism #teens #teenagers #progress #gen z #btw if it wasn't clear I'm a #millennial #plush toy #plushie #squishmallows #build a bear #stuffed animal #like the idea of almost any teenager much less teenage boys #saying IN FRONT OF THEIR PEERS #that they are excited about their STUFFED ANIMALS #when I was a teenager #?????#cannot imagine that ever happening.

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young-astro · 7 months

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Meditation by Yoong Bae

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inbarfink · 8 months

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Okay, with the 2010’s era of cartoons now firmly in the rear view, I’m curious…

If I missed your favorite 2010’s cartoon, feel free to add them in the tags. If I get enough ‘what about X’ comments I’ll probably do a second poll with all of the write-in answers. Please just note that I’m talking about cartoons that started between 2010 and 2019 (and preferably ended before 2020, that's less mandatory but I want to prioritize cartoons that did all or at least the majority of their run during the New Tens), there’s a reason why ‘Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts’ or ‘The Owl House’ are not on the list.

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stellas-and-tonitruses · 2 months

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Everything we know about Project Apple (and, by extension, Anya's past) thus far

thought i'd compile all of that now while endo's on break Just In Case the next chapter happens to start anya's backstory (i don't Think it will but endo likes surprising us LSDFKLFS)

important disclaimer that project apple and the organization in charge of anya's experiments have not been confirmed to be related! there's evidence that they have things in common, in particular employees, but that's our only real connection between the two thus far. still! worth looking into

more under the cut!

so, starting very strongly with the very first mention of anything related to the project: anya's introduction in chapter 1

despite her being a main character, we know very little about her past at the moment, and this little blurb at the beginning makes up a very big portion of what we know.

things to note here:

as an experiment, her name was "Test Subject 007". important to note that the notation differs between her and bond: she was Test Subject 007, bond was Subject 8, no zeroes in there;

she had been made thus by accident, the phrasing itself implying quite heavily that she was just a normal child before said accident (but this is the translation! i don't know japanese so i can't cross-reference with the raws to clarify if the phrasing changes anything, but the fanbook uses the word "gained" to describe her powers too);

because her mind-reading is an unintended consequence, that means the scientists were presumably not, at least initially, trying to achieve cognitive enhancements in humans, and were instead trying to achieve something else, whatever that might've been;

she escaped from the facility and then moved from institution to institution, looking for a family.

so, crucially, through this little introduction we learn that there is an organization, government-funded or otherwise, that is or was conducting human experiments for unknown purposes. we also learn that whatever family anya had prior to being involved in the experiments is more than likely unreachable, at least as far as she knows, and so she has settled for finding a new family to take care of her instead.

in terms of the facility itself, here we see they clearly drilled it into her that she can't ever reveal her secret (and the darn plush is there too -- in the anime it's even more emphasized, as you can see in the gif i made)

through her reminiscing though, we get our very first look at the scientists that were in charge of her! they're in the gif above but here they are in the manga too. it's so interesting that the anime actually shows their eyes behind the glasses though, fascinating choice.

the insistence on world peace is important, as it explains her own personal obsession with it and shows that it's not just because of twilight's own focus on preserving the peace. i also don't think twilight ever really talks about "world peace," only about "preserving the current peace between westalis and ostania" -- anya seems to be the only one talking about WORLD peace (even in the very first scene where either of them mention it in proximity to each other in ch 1, loid says "understanding the other party is the first step towards peace" and anya's interpretation is "understanding me makes world peace?") but take this with a grain of salt because i might be wrong! going through every single mention of peace in the story just to fact check this one little trivia fact is a bit much i think so i'm not doing it JSDFKLSD

but yes

remember mr hair strand and baldy, we'll see them again. not her though, ig she wasn't in charge of bond

now, fast-forwarding to chapter 19, we finally get a name and a premise for the experiments:

"but oana," you might say, "this is talking about animals only! how do we know it's the same project as anya's, which involved human experimentation?"

i don't think it is, is the thing! i think it's related to the experiments anya was a part of, which is evidenced by the same scientists being featured in project apple too, but there's more going on that we don't know about. there wouldn't be such adamancy on keeping the two separate in every official mention of them if they were just the same thing, imo!

back to the evidence, we learn that the project, conducted and funded by the previous ostanian regime (meaning donovan's related to it one way or another, since he was prime minister), was marked by franticness and desperation -- a prime place for accidents like anya's telepathy and bond's future vision.

we also learn that the project was sacked by the new administration and that the former test subjects ended up on the black market.

(this makes it very important, imo, to learn when anya escaped the facility vs. when the project was sacked. it's clearly no longer in function, but while we've heard nothing from them thus far, i'm willing to bet the shady dealings around the desmond group are NOT related to the war, as W.I.S.E. has been led to believe, but rather to reignite project apple. that is speculation however so i'm going to refrain from theorising much on why the desmond group is focused on acquiring pharmaceutical companies!!)

ok speculation tangent over, back on track

so, that's already a decent amount of info! but moving to chapter 22, when bond is finally home, and we finally see some familiar faces

behold! baldy and mr hair strand!

and 2 other guys we don't know but will see again in another bond flashback!

that's 2 out of the 3 scientists we've seen thus far from anya's own time as subject 007, confirming that there IS a connection between anya and bond's experiments, regardless of whatever the project anya was a part of might've been named.

this is also the chapter in which we learn that bond himself was subject 8 (or, if we take it from the fanbook, subject #8. still, diff notation from anya!)

in chapter 31, we learn an interesting tiny piece of trivia. we don't get any further info on it, but it IS mentioned as something that is known by W.I.S.E.:

ostania is rumoured to have done human experimentation! and W.I.S.E., and by extension loid, are aware of that.

do i know how them knowing may be important later? not really!

the next droplet of info we get is in chapter 40. we see that project apple had collaborators that are still functioning unhindered.

of course, born industries is only rumoured to have been involved with project apple, but regardless of whether or not they actually were, the rumour itself implies that the project likely pulled scientists from various other companies' R&D departments.

(this makes the desmond group's acquisition of glooman pharmaceuticals shadier, but anyway)

as a side note, twilight is emoting so much at just his wrong assumption that bond is seeking revenge against the scientists. imagine how he's going to react when he finds out about anya JKSDFKLFSD

and now aaaaall the way in chapter 58, we see the bald guy who anya also knows, the two scientists from bond's previous flashback, and one whole new guy!

and thus ends our current knowledge of it all!

the only other thing worth discussing is anya's knowledge of classical language

but plenty people have already discussed these scenes, especially recently, so here are some links: 1 | 2 | 3

the only thing i can add is that i'm fairly certain that classical language is a lot more likely to be latin than old english, because it's a very common language to learn in school (in europe at least, and ostania is based on east germany so it makes sense to me. i learned mandatory latin in school for a few good years too, even if i wasn't that good at it lol) and because one of the most common modern usages of latin are in medicine and science, it would make sense that she'd be better at it due to exposure.

a possibility is also that the scientists would think in latin to conceal their thoughts from her, and that's how she ended up learning so much. she's not fluent in latin, she's just well acquainted and that cicumstance would explain the how.

BUT THAT'S SPECULATIONNN

also i don't think "ANIA" is an acronym, nor do i think anya's been misspelling her own name out of lack of knowledge. "ania" is a polish diminutive of anna and an alternate transcription of Аня, so i think it's far more likely that anya isn't ostanian or westalian than it is that her name comes from an acronym.

now,

TL;DR!

what we know about project apple (and the "mysterious organization"):

project apple was funded and conducted by what appears to have been donovan's regime and, from what W.I.S.E. knows, aimed to create highly intelligent animals for military purposes;

W.I.S.E. is aware that ostania is at the very least rumoured to have dabbled in human experimentation;

the project is presumably no longer on-going, though it is likely there are efforts behind the scenes to revive it;

it is rumoured but not confirmed that project apple had collaborating companies that are still functioning perfectly fine;

the same scientists who were in charge of bond were also in charge of anya, signalling that there is a very significant connection between project apple and the "mysterious organization;"

based on what they were telling anya, they were/are very focused on "world peace";

their experimentation methods include but likely aren't limited to electrocution.

and what we (vaguely) know about anya that relates to this:

she is at the youngest, 4 years old, and at the oldest, 5 nearing 6. we don't know her real age, all we know is she definitely lied about being 6;

she is very fixated on specifically world peace while twilight is focused on peace between ostania and westalis. the scientists are the very first we see talking about this, so it's likely their fault;

she is unreasonably well acquainted with classical language;

she has escaped the facility at LEAST 1 year ago;

and, one tidbit from the fanbook (page 29): "Anya has been reading minds for as long as she can remember," implying that her memory of a life before the lab is muddy at best and absent at worst.

that's all we know that i know of!!

if you got this far, thank you for reading :D hope any of this was interesting or sparked any theories >:] have a good day!

#sxf #spy x family #manga spoilers #project apple #anya forger #bond forger #sxf manga #spy x family manga #sxf manga spoilers #spy x family manga spoilers #analysis #meta #I DIDN'T OWN THE FANBOOK WHEN I FIRST MADE THE DRAFT FOR THIS BUT THEN I BOUGHT IT well my brother bought it for me #bless his heart #AND SO I WANTED TO READ THE ENTIRE THING BEFORE CONTINUING ON!!! didn't find much out in relation to this post specifically but #there's quite a lot to infer on how anya's powers work #and there's a distinction between what she reads (internal voices vs mind reading which would be digging into someone's subconscious)#so that would be super interesting to talk about but uh not in this post KLSDFJSDKL since it has little bearing on the project itself

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king-k-ripple · 27 days

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yashley · 3 months

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laura in critical role one-shots* (part 2)

#critical role #ygifs #laura #these oneshots had Everything: werewolf. raccoon. headmistress dm. sexy french bear. hot irish monk. MANCUBUS. hot hot evil druid.her power #they need to stop playing and give me farriwen back actually......

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lumism · 10 months

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in some au situation i really do believe that if will needed a fake boyfriend, the first friend he'd go to is dustin. and it'd prove to be an entirely well based decision because dustin would approach the theoretical part with all the same thought through preparation he'd put into a science project, and the practical part with all the ardor of an oscar winning acting performance

#dustin: alright pookie bear here's s concise 30 slide power point on our backstory #will (who was for the most part only joking about the whole fake boyfriend thing): ... pookie bear?#dustin: yes that's your code name. it's on slide ten #🌟🌷#txt

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bird-inacage · 7 months

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A First x Khao Gifset | The Friendship Water Works: A Series

I will never forget seeing that clip of First and Khao workshopping for The Eclipse. Just that alone had me so completely transfixed by their chemistry. And it just makes a tonne more sense once you see their interviews. There was so much of them in there.

First always looks completely overwhelmed when he's touched. The boy is so openly vulnerable, he sits on the verge of full on bawling or weeping. Whereas Khao is sweetly fond, and tries to smile reassuringly at First through his own urge to cry. The love they have for each other is honestly extraordinary.

#firstkhao #khaofirst #first x khaotung #khaotung x first #first kanaphan #khaotung thanawat #the power of soulmates #men feeling their feels should be encouraged #UGH THE FEELS #they both feel things so hard and you feel it all with them #first getting so choked up he has to look away #DAMN 😢#they look at each other like they were separated in their past lives and they can't bear to be apart ever again - IM NOT OKAY

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fattyzadddy · 7 months

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Had to get back into my Large belt for the first time since last bulk !! Look at that belly hanging out

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ride-a-dromedary · 2 months

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[May I kiss you?] I was hoping you would ask.

#BG3 #Wyll Ravengard #Halsin #wyllsin #bg3edit #otheredits #my stuff #please ignore how crappy these gifs are i promise i will make good ones again i just had to get this done #because *screams into my hands*#they make me unwell they're so cute #them in their fancy attire makes this look like duke!wyll and his strange hermit wood elf suitor #who also happens to be a powerful archdruid wearing heavy finery like he only does once in a blue moon - but you wouldn't know #because he spends all his time praising Wyll and doting on him and talking about his orphanage #you think part of little wyll's fantasies of growing up and falling in love and fairytale romances involved a bear #sweeping him off his feet literally and figuratively?#i had to uninstall the mod for wyll's pointy ears and teeth a sad day

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dlartistanon · 9 months

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Maybe I want Lin to wear her father's coat once she becomes the Rat King

#arknights #lin yuhsia #swire #dlarts #her voiceline about him getting frailer every day...#soon she will have to bear that weight #what a dutiful daughter #swire is there because the only person with more power than a mob boss is a boss's wi--

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greencarnation · 5 months

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I went to an Ilan Pappé talk yesterdays - I really recommend his books if you've not checked them out already. He's arguably one of the worlds leading experts on Zionism and the "Israel"-Palestine conflict, so obviously everything he said was great, but what I want to highlight:

Someone asked him if he thought the protests and petitions and calling you reps and shit would work, and he said no, it never will. It's still important to do that but the powerful will never surrender their power to the powerless just because they ask for it. Asking the UK and the US to cut ties with their imperial outpost in the Middle East is like asking an animal to gnaw off it's own limb - it won't do it unless its only other choice is dying completely.

So who does have the power to put a stop to this, we asked. The working class of the imperial core. That's us, and we are the most powerful people in the world right now, because this war machine can't function without us. Movements like this can only be built from the ground up, so stop looking to the government and start looking to your community. We need to make it more unprofitable to support Israel than it is to cut ties with it.

This is a call to action. The people HAVE the power, and we have to use it. Yes, that's you. Contact your trade union, your workplace, your school, your church, your university. Your friends, family, any connections you have. As many people on board as possible, with one goal: shut it down. Take direct action now.

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communistkenobi · 1 year

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not sure if this was intentional or not but nemik saying in his manifesto “Remember this: Try.” is an interesting sentiment given that “do or do not, there is no try” is like one of the more famous lines from the original trilogy

#sw.txt #andor spoilers #andor #VERY INTERESTING IF THAT IS INTENTIONAL #maybe speaks to the disconnect between the jedi and the rebellion even after the order fell #the OT was written without the PT in mind but like the PT establishes yoda as a figurehead of the order #so like you could read that line as one being informed by a long familiarity with institutional power #and all the privileges that grants #there’s a similarly ‘heretical’ line from obiwan in uhhh wtf was that book called. planet something #the one by Greg bear #whatever it’s legends now but obiwan tells anakin that the force is not a nurse maid it will not protect you #which is a fairly radical thing for a Jedi to say #it’s understandable since it was shortly after he lost quigon #but I especially like when other sw media responds to established canon in a critical way #not necessarily to say it’s wrong but to present a perspective that frames the established canon as something you can contest

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skitskatdacat63 · 11 days

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Okay now where's the Seb teddy bear so I can make them kiss each other!?

#okay btw you can credit the last frame to suzuki #bcs she brought up the pig stuffed animal that seb kept as a good luck charm when he was karting #and suggested the same with fernando's bear :DDD #also feeling weirdly sappy abt the fact that theres pics of fernando in the ferrari garage w an almost identical pig like ??????#anyways please yes have this random vettonso comic 🥰🥰#im working on a bigger vettonso drawing rn so i made this quick in the meantime!#icl i saw the fernando teddy bear. and i made the eyebrow post and whatever #but there was also just this image in the back haunting me of him gifting one to seb #I AM DELUSIONAL!!!#its just so cute to imagine it as like 'heres a memento of me to keep you company' 🥺🥺🥺🥺#funny tho cause i had the same exact imagine for my ocs and i never drew a comic version for them yet drew this real quick #the power of vettonso takes hold of me sometimes.....#tfw you take a break from your vettonso painting youve been working on for a wk+ to go draw a vettonso comic #i have a problem.#ANYWAYS THIS IS SO CUTE WAAAHHHH #drew it as cope bcs in trying to restrain myself from buying the fernando teddy bear #if i cant have it ill make seb have it yknow 🤭🤭🤭#wah this reminded i should draw more little comics theyre not too hard tbh #f1 #formula 1 #sebastian vettel #fernando alonso #vettonso #catie.art

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jeeaark · 2 months

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I wish the emperor in bg3 was as cool ( and hunky ) as you make them out to be, how you portray the gang and greygold is all so sweet 😭😭😭 but after finding out what he did to Duke stelmane... I'll just pretend your version is canon instead. I love your art!

Right, so originally I wasn't gonna abroach that topic with a 13½ ft pole, because sensitive subject, but gonna have to roll up my sleeves and acknowledge it was very much indeed a topic that Greygold had to consider and formulate their own conclusions on. Sure even though Greygold didn't find out the be-hella-mean way, there were concerned friends with mindful observations that had Greygold confronting the possibility that the Emperor and Stelmane's secret underground business practices might've had some uh...Problems!

The conversation went a lil everywhere BUT in short-

Greygold's philosophy is to hope for the best, but always prepare for the worst.

Case in point: Greyg's team. Maybe not everyone did shitty things in their past, but they certainly had ample opportunity to do shitty things on this journey that Greygold had to veer them away from. As Greygold sees it, if their teammates can change for the better, hopefully the Emperor can and will too. Everybody is capable of being awful, but also being awesome kind, so gotta give the squid a chance.

#bg3 spoilers #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #wyll #the emperor bg3 #duke stelmane #greygold #bg3 fanart #Instead of “Wrath” and “Ruin” solving problems through orcish means #Greygold's new “Friendship” and “Intervention” fists lock you in a bear hug until you do the right thing #I will say finding dirt about Stelmane afterwards did ease MY mind a lil #but yeah I'm remaining neutral about Stel until I get some RESPECTFULLY acquired unbiased direct facts #but even gameplay-wise Greyg was hoping with enough time and energy and a positive influence in Emp's life #the morally-purple-grey squid would find itself enriched by some POSITIVELY HEALTHIER character development #I can't deny Astarion was a bad influence on Greyg at times though #The power of friendship is indeed a neutral power #that can be used for both evil and good #like love #I got a lil fervent with the stelmane thing but I do appreciate that you're enjoying Greygold's adventures!#But. Even silly (hunkyIguesstoothankyou???hfghfghsdfg) Emps is definitely. hrm. -Complicated-

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