#you can say common sense all you like

[13eyond13]

love it when a character that's hard to read intuitively for you has like a dedicated fandom interpreter who can just glance at their blank face in a panel and then give you a 3k word essay on their innermost thoughts & desires & fears and neatly tie it back into the themes & whatnot as if it's the most obvious thing in the world

#im talking about griffith btw #guts i feel i get intuitively - maybe because i have some personality traits in common with him #and we get more about his life concretely told to us in canon. so he is a bit easier to pin down as a character and feel attached to for me #but whenever i was reading the manga i just kept wanting more insight about griffith's actions and feelings #like ok yeah its fun to have mysterious antagonists and suspense /tension etc but its also fun to feel like you deeply understand them too #and i felt like that was a bit missing from him for me in canon #so reading about him in analysis and fics is the most fun for me rn #he always felt kinda half unreal to me- which maybe was the point of him - but i wanted a bit more about his childhood or something? #and wished we had more stuff explicitly from his pov in the story to read or explanation about his transformation or wtv #and now he's so much more closed off to me even than he was in the golden age. i keep waiting for him to explain stuff and he does not #ANYWAYS all this rambling to say some people out there are very good at interpreting him and making his like. insecurities #more obvious to me bc i didnt really get that side of him from canon intuitively well #also im really enjoying reading the first few berserk fics ive read #there may not be a ton of them out there but there is def writing talent in the fandom #i'll share some recs once i'm done sifting through most of what's out there to read #also (not to tie everything back to death note but it IS my home fandom after all) #i feel griffith is obvs the more light-like character here and L maybe a bit guts-like? but unlike berserk in death note #light is the one you get to know best and L is the mysterious / unreal one you don't get a lot of concrete insight into #and in the DN fandom I can read the more mysterious character intuitively but had to warm up to the less mysterious one instead #and the mystery of L makes sense to me and doesnt bug me as much due to like - he HAS to hide a lot about himself or else he will die lol #so some similarities there but also some opposite feels as well #berserk spoilers #p

[ssaalexblake]

People get weird about calling the doctor either smart or stupid under the tenuous logic of either 'they're a genius, of course they're not stupid look at the things they do!' or 'look at this stupid brain-dead thing the doctor did! they have no brain cells whatsoever' and manage to avoid realising that the smartest people in the world are also the stupidest and the stupidest people in the world also can be pretty damn smart as well.

The doctor is a moron, totally devoid of brain cells. Also a genius. It depends on what metric of intelligence you're using. They can be both of these things at once without it being even slightly contradictory.

#remembering when i had to walk through a guy how to make a cake stand #it took three steps #it had instructions that he was looking at #this man is by intelligence metric an actual genuine genius #he's also so fucking stupid i swear #it's like people saying ofc the doctor could cool well they can do chemistry #for real that plot in house where he can cook bc he knows chemistry ruined all of you #you need Way more skills in the kitchen than just chemistry #like common sense and many other things #the doctor has none of that

[aalghul]

I don’t think it makes sense to assume that Jason was mocking Mia’s past. At all. The thing that got jason painted as violent back in the 80s was his anger against rapists…how does that turn into mocking a victim? and that entire story was written by winick. Do we honestly think winick intended to communicate that? The same writer who made Jason’s first kill a man who was trafficking children? Who had Jason pause in his mission of madness to make sure those kids were found by the right people so they wouldn’t be in further danger?

#let’s knock on our skulls and kick our brains back into gear okay? #you can maintain that it wasn’t well executed or that the role mia played here bothers you #but you can’t say jason was mocking her for that or even seriously trying to hurt her physically #he was bsing like 90% of the story with his constant ‘we should all kill anyone who inconveniences us! speedy and GA should try to kill me #if they want to win’ like we understand that yes? #but that last part of his convo with Mia was the one serious part #he was wrong! of course he was wrong about ollie. but this was also Jason’s first time meeting ollie #it was ridiculous and unnecessary on his end and it put mia thru the emotional wringer for nothing #but that wasn’t the Intention. it was a stupid thing done by someone who never expected anything to come of it but still said what *to him* #was a way of offering advice #and as for the ppl who go ‘stop reaching abt jason being a victim and just read Mia instead’ #a) there’s more to Mia’s character than her past. anyone who thinks that fits Jason’s past wouldn’t necessarily like mia bc they’re not the #same character #it’s the same way that if jason was confirmed to have been a victim of SA as a kid then all of Mia’s fans wouldn’t love him like they love #her? this is common sense. anyways stop being assholes online and just recommend characters too ppl nicely #b) more than one character can have experienced a similar form of abuse. also common sense #c) it’s not an unreasonable hc #d) it doesn’t hurt you personally. none of this killed your grandma #once again: hate whoever you like but choosing the interpretation that doesn’t make sense just to make up a #‘valid’ reason is serious loser behaviour

[uncanny-tranny]

I think if we are to do marginalized communities good, it'll help to remember that often, marginalized people who seem to be "forgotten about" in the mind of bigots aren't being treated well by them either - so many marginalized people are forcibly erased and made invisible. That is not a neutral action; it is a form of violence. Not all violence will present itself in the extreme of facing physical violence. The core of any violence against marginalized peoples will often come from a similar level of hatred for them. That's why it's so important to combat all violence, even the forms of violence you don't perceive "as harmful" as other forms.

#politics #like for example in some spaces people think that because transphobes tend to 'forget' about trans men* that means we face no violence... #...when we are often forcibly erased and the other forms of violence we face tends to also be erased - like... #...seeing people who go 'lel trans men are going to be forced in women's bathrooms if we go by ASAB' as if... #...we don't face violence for using said bathrooms. that's what i mean by the violence is still there but it's made invisible #and that's a common tactic i think. because if you MAKE people invisible then it's easier to dehumanize them and pretend they don't EXIST #it's just weird when people see that and don't perceive it as violence because it doesn't 'look that bad' #not all violence is fire and brimstone levels of brutality and indeed most violence done unto marginalized people won't look that way #to present violence as ONLY being the extremes we are permitting other forms of violence to exist and be carried out onto people #this ISN'T to say that extreme forms of violence are not atrocities and that they shouldn't be recognized for being brutal but that... #...we cannot narrow our view of violence so much that we still permit it so long as it isn't 'the most extreme' #just like physical abuse is not the only form of abuse one can face - it is analogous in this situation to recognize other violences #i hope this makes sense - i'm writing this with a time crunch and it's a bad habit

[sonknuxadow]

everyone is always making sonic a pegasus or a unicorn in their sonic characters as mlp characters art. but im an earth pony sonic believer forever i don't care what anyone says

#its because sonic is just some guy. whos super powerful for seemingly no reason #so i think its fitting that hes the most ''basic'' species #id argue that hedgehogs are the most basic species in sonic too #like yeah most of the hedgehogs we see are like ridiculously powerful or are special for some reason #but . theyre just such a common species across the cast #not saying every hedgehog character would be an earth pony though. i think sonic and amy make sense as earth ponies #but silver would be a unicorn for sure #and shadow i think should probably be an alicorn since hes the ultimate lifeform and all #maybe in mlp universe he can still be artificially created #like isnt the way it works that youre either born an alicorn because one of your parents is one (like flurry heart) #or one of the existing alicorns decided that you deserve to be made into one or whatever (like twilight and cadance) #maybe some people decided they wanted to figure out how to make alicorns on their own #and thats how shadow was created #idk. im just throwing ideas around

[astranauticus]

the rwd season 4 qna inspired me to start thinking about college au headcanons except a lot of these are gonna be really specific to my school and y'all are just gonna have to deal with that <3

Kyana feeds some of the school cats. she would feed all of them if she could

Dani smuggled Plug (the scrawniest black cat you've ever seen) into her dorm room illegally and somehow management hasn't caught her yet (based on a true story) (Kyana visits to see Plug all the time)

Finbar keeps an updated tier list of every canteen in the school with breakdowns of the best stalls/dishes for each

A senior from the school of engineering once said to me 'all the engineering people dress like rats cuz our classrooms don't have aircon' (context: tropics) anyway that's Dani

Kyana would probably be involved in a lot of freshman orientation events from second year onwards. she just likes talking to the new kids and giving them advice like she would be the kind of orientation group leader who'd get messages from her freshies asking about all kinds of random nonsense because she's made sure they know they can always contact her with questions

VR-LA is The Guy you go to for textbook pirating resources

(this is more of a 'wouldn't that be funny' but VR-LA is just Veerle's discord handle)

Docent is the name of VR-LA's old laptop that broke down so he gave it to Cassimere (computer engineering major he met once at a networking event) to fix except Cassimere got everything off the hard drive and then somehow managed to fuck it up Even More so he had to get a new laptop (and named it Emi)

Roy has gotten food poisoning from his dorm meal plan at least once (based on at least one true story)

The heap trio + Mandy would be those friends constantly playing majong in the dorm lounge and if all the majong tables are taken they just play in one of their dorm rooms on a towel to dampen the tile shuffling noises (it was Mandy's idea)

Every morning Dani goes to the drinks stall at her faculty and orders one iced coffee to the point where the stall owner starts preparing an iced coffee whenever they see her approach (based on my true story)

Roy would be one of those people who goes clubbing every other week and every time he tries to drag the rest of the heap trio and Egan almost always goes and Dani would go if she didn't have a good excuse but always begrudgingly. anyway Roy would always be the only one having a good time until Egan gets drunk enough to start having fun

Finbar actually uses the dorm kitchens instead of just buying canteen food and it always makes the hallways smell really good

Vhas also uses the dorm kitchen sometimes but like. one time i walked into the pantry on my floor and someone had left cut sweet potatoes and 2 eggs in an inch of water in a pan on the stove. that's Vhas

Kyana's constantly applying for overseas exchanges and international summer/winter school programmes. the world is large and she wants to see it!

Maxim's the definition of a hall phantom. you know he lives on your dorm floor because you pass him by in the hallways sometimes and literally nowhere else. sometimes you're not convinced that he actually exists

VR-LA and Maxim's friendship stems from them being from wildly different faculties (VR-LA's in STEM, Maxim's doing anthropology so arts/social sciences) but also having lots of weird interests they cant really bug anyone in their home faculties about

Elyse is in student government and every once in a while Finbar receives a series of angry texts about the newest idiocy she's had to put up with

MR-SN and AS-TR start a stargazing club together. other notable members include AS-TR's girlfriend E-DN, MR-SN's friend C-RA (the one who always volunteers to carry the heavy ass telescopes) and MR-SN's friend K-LB who he pestered into coming to fix one of the wonky scopes even though K-LB's actually in electrical engineering but he's the only engineering person MR-SN (an arts student) knows

oh and of course VR-LA joins because he genuinely just likes space (developing a crush on his club chairperson was not on his bingo card)

Kyana and E-DN were MMA sparring buddies at one point which is how she found out about the stargazing and joined immediately

honestly i can probably think of more but this post is fuckin long LMAO

#rolling with difficulty #'do not let the internet turn you into an american' i say as i make posts that can be understood by me and me only #i mean im not sorry about it this is my house #like my experiences are just gonna be extra incomprehensible because my countrys fuckin tiny so the target audience really is me and me onl #too bad! you think its hard to read my posts? i gotta live like this! #if i sound extra confrontational i got 5 hours of sleep for the whole week unfortunately so just know its all /lh more or less #really tempted to make some kind of business major joke for roy even though obviously the heap trio would all be in engineering #bc its just common knowledge in my school that business majors are the ones with the most free time to go clubbing all the damn time #and *also* theyre the faculty that dresses the best which also tracks?? #didnt really nail down specific majors for everyone (besides the obvious ones like food science for finbar and mech eng for dani) #but i kinda like the idea of cs for VR-LA because of that 'programmers are real world wizards' joke and also.. projecting #cs with focus area in AI would even make sense bc of docent and emi. if i want to make the projecting Even Worse! #also if i ever do human designs for the old crew (doubtful cuz i find drawing robots more fun than drawing humans) #look up sally hansen hypnautical nail polish bc i wanna give human AS-TR that as a nod to her original design #didnt really get into the fashion of it all bc again i live in the tropics so nobody really dresses well here #the goal is to dress to not sweat more often than it is dress to look good #hands down my favourite line in the cqna was noir's i thermoregulate through my forearms #so in the middle of summer i still wear all black and just roll up my sleeves #like thats ME. except its summer ALL YEAR ROUND #walao #asto speaks

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

my favourite iberian indigenous names have to be burrus and reburrus. they never fail to make me giggle everytime i come across them

#they were quite popular as well. like so popular roman authors tended to use burrus to talk about iberians in general #kinda like using juan to talk about hispanics or idk pierre for french people #for non-hispanics #burro means donkey #it also means stupid #and we use 'reburro' to say someone is extra stupid #also this proves burro the word comes from prerroman times which <3 #in my experience #almost all spanish words that don't have a clear origin and have a lot of 'rr' and other hard sounds are probably prerroman #(and most likely iberian tho it could be celtic) #arroyo and berrocal are two common examples as well #burro arroyo berrocal. you can see the similarities #also except burro they tend to be natural features and stuff which makes sense #an arroyo is a stream. a berrocal is a particular rock formation #this also proves at least for me the connection between ancient iberian languages as euskera #euskera is also characterized by a lot of hard sounds and if i didn't know them already #i'd think arroyo or berrocal were basque words

[lord-squiggletits]

Something I keep seeing when I speak to others about MTMTE Megatron is basically the idea that he's going on a personal journey to become a better person, that the point isn't for him to be "redeemed" but for him to get a chance to do good and die as a person he can live with again. That MTMTE presents a unique take on this because being away from Cybertron gives Megatron a chance to be a person rather than a political figure and this is how it gives him more depth as a character. Or just generally pointing out in a narrative sense that Megatron being in MTMTE limits his story options so of course his story is going to be more focused on a personal journey than on politics of him dealing with the Decepticons/Earth/etc and that just because JRO made a choice to take that path with Megatron doesn't mean that it's inherently bad.

And I'm just, mmm like I understand all of those points and acknowledge that they all contributed to the MTMTE Megatron we got. I even think that without JRO writing Megatron we wouldn't have had his lore be as fleshed out and 3D as it ended up becoming.

(Post starts out as a sort of meta analysis or at least me giving a reasoned explanation for my interpretation of the story, ends up being petty bitching in the last 1-2 paragraphs)

I just..... I just personally don't agree with the "he's becoming a better person by getting a chance to relax and experience happiness and trust after a life of trauma" as being the best choice for his character? Because the problem is that maybe if he were a random Decepticon foot soldier that would be appropriate, but he was literally the leader of the Decepticons that made them Like That and has political/cultural/societal responsibility for why things are the way they are? To be completely frank, I don't care about him going on a personal journey for self-peace, I think that he should become a better person by helping to un-fuck all the things he actually screwed up???

Like idc about the debate of whether he can be "redeemed" or if he should've been killed/imprisoned/etc at the ending. It just comes down to the fact that for me personally, I feel that since Megatron's wrongdoings were at a social level, him "being a better person" would've been better shown by him engaging with those people who he wronged instead of just going on a frigging personal journey for his legacy and self-peace???

Especially since in other series (exRID, possibly Windblade) we literally got plots like "the neutrals hate Autobots but they hate Decepticons even more" and "the Decepticons have been taken over by Galvatron and are now invading earth 2 electric boogaloo" and "yeah the Decepticons are literally living in slums because people hate them so much and won't give them any work." It just leaves me wondering why in the hell people are like, "oh Megatron got to be happy and have a chance to be a normal person." I don't want him to be normal! I want him to repay his debts to the people he actually wronged! Like if you want to cast Megatron as a hero of the people so badly (which so many of his stans do as if he actually cared about the Cons) then how do you reconcile the fact that Megatron just fucked off and left the Decepticons to suffer on Cybertron? Including some of them attacking during his trial and getting killed and Megatron is basically like "sorry, I'm not coming with you and this isn't going to work." And then Megatron complains about "toxic Decepticon loyalty" as if he didn't literally make them that way? Like I get that MTMTE Megatron is still an asshole but if you've read something besides MTMTE and know what the Decepticons are going through, it just ends up being really grating.

I just don't see Megatron as being a particularly good hero or having a particularly fulfilling story if he's completely isolated from all the bad things he did on Cybertron/the way the Decepticons are suffering until LL#25 where it's like "ah damn I'm going to trial now, well this is what I deserve so it's fine." Why could we not have seen something like Megatron trying to deradicalize the Decepticons or change their public image so they could integrate into normal Cybertron again? They were living in SLUMS and getting gunned down by Starscream's badgeless enforcers!

The best we got was the Functionist Universe but like.... I'm sorry, but JRO inventing a whole alternate universe for Megatron to save doesn't do jack shit to save or fix the people he left behind in this one. It was especially grating to read because JRO literally wrote in someone saying "you saved billions of lives from the Functionists" as if he was trying really hard to show how good Megatron is because he saved people (and also if not for Megatron existing Cybertron would be even worse and half of your faves would be enslaved or dead, also the Functionist Council was going to genocide organics too so technically they're WORSE than Megatron since they hate organics AND want to enslave their own race).

I read Barber's, JRO's, and MScott's series concurrently using the omnibus + a release order list for phase 3, and after all that I'm kind of puzzled why the fandom seems to ardently love MTMTE Megatron and think he's so well written but then also shit on Optimus for things that he did during the same points in the story? Because, and I know this is a blazing hot take, I honestly think that Optimus makes a better hero of his story than Megatron does for his, and Optimus' personal journey combines his personal and political identities into a narrative that's a lot more gruelling and questioning of his goodness than we got for Megatron in MTMTE. Which is fucking saying something considering Megatron committed crimes against sapient species and Optimus is the guy who tried to stop him from doing that and has always been pro-equal rights for all beings. But people pretty much just cherrypick things like Optimus annexing Earth or beating up Prowl and go "he's bad" and I'm like no??? IDW OP isn't a bad person or a bad character??? It's just that unlike MTMTE Megatron he's placed in a narrative that actually suits the nature of his actions and has themes that match. To the point that IMO sometimes Barber's narrative shits on Optimus excessively or paints him mainly in the most unflattering ways.

But like. It's just funny to me because Optimus spent his entire part of the story doing things like trying to stop Earth from being invaded/colonized yet again. Grappling with his identity as Prime and dealing with the fact that people literally worship him vs. the fact that his upbringing made him see the Primacy as nothing more than a facade of authority/leadership. Having people get mad at him for prioritizing politics over friendship/relationships with other people. Even getting shit on for being a cop a decent amount so people can STFU about IDW OP being "copaganda" or "not held responsible for his actions". The problems that Optimus dealt with were personal because they had to do with his self-doubt, culpability for the war as a leader of one of the armies, distance from his soldiers, etc. But all of these are also POLITICAL struggles. Because Optimus gave up on the chance to just be a normal person having personal struggles when he chose to become a LEADER, which also means that he's held to extremely high standards that he regularly fails at in the eyes of others.

That's why, to me, MTMTE Megatron falls flat in comparison and really as a "hero" or heel-face character in general? Because he also made a decision to be a leader, and IMO once you do things like become the commander of an army and start your own galactic empire, you lose the right to prioritize your personal problems and instead are obligated by the power you've chosen to wield to focus on your POLITICAL problems. If Megatron's power, influence, and crimes are of a social-political nature, then his heel-face turn arc and ways of showing that he's a better person/helping to heal what little damage he possibly can should have been shown with actions that help on a social-political LEVEL. That's why I'm not particularly impressed with his character arc and feel as if it was overhyped by other people in this fandom: sure, the extra character depth and emotion is nice, but I'm not really going to see him as extraordinary or even particularly good when the extent of him "becoming a better person" happens entirely on a random road trip to fuck-off nowhere. Especially not when the ending of LL tried to sell me a "they lived happily ever after" ending while basically leaving the freaking MUTINY as just Rodimus going "oh it's okay you're forgiven, we're all together again" and I guess everyone was fine with Megatron and wanted to spend an eternity on a ship with him just because Getaway died.

This is why I like (the concept/themes of) exRID/OP and the way Optimus' character arc was handled a lot more. Because for Optimus, the personal and the political were as one. He was held accountable for his actions towards others and the disruptive effects they had on a social level, sometimes to a ridiculous extent (the fucking "oh Megatron is an Autobot so now that makes the Autobots colonizers" plot and that stupid colonist screaming about how Optimus is "literally fascist" my beloathed). Even his very personal issues like his relationship with Zeta were still cast in a wider lens of, yeah this is a personal struggle that Orion faced, but he was still part of a Society TM and his actions were sometimes ill-informed or harmful to others. Even if I had a lot of problems with the way Optimus' story was written by Barber (plot holes, little meaningful character interaction, forced conflicts), at least the BASELINE of it was way better than Megatron's in MTMTE. Especially since Optimus' struggle was explictly about things like struggling with responsibility and how he feels he HAS to intervene in political affairs because has to save people/make up for his past mistakes. That's something that a good leader/good person actually does, so I found Optimus to be a better hero (even if his actions weren't all "good") because he was trying to be a good person by actually getting involved with Cybertron/Earth and subjecting himself to something he hates (leadership, war) and dealing with a shitload of criticism instead of just going on a fuckin "personal journey" lksdlkfsd.

Which just makes me extra salty that people hold up MTMTE Megatron as the pinnacle of Megatrons and literally the best Transformers writing evar! while turning up their nose and ignoring or outright despising IDW Optimus. Like okay. I guess since Megatron got handled with silk gloves on while Optimus got put through the wringer of being shit on by every other person in the story, it's easier for you to pretend that Megatron is a poor uwu boy who just needs friendship and love while Optimus is literally the worst bastard to ever exist. Or maybe it's just that since Optimus' story involves him sometimes fucking up, being criticized, or making things worse, that makes him morally bad. As opposed to Megatron who disrupted a lot of other characters' stories in MTMTE, had to have an entire alternate universe invented so that he could "save lives," and got to sail off on a quantum Lost Light happily ever after, so since he's happy and the story says he saved people that means he's a good hero.

#squiggposting #it started out sort of analytical but ended up bitchy #i also feel like for some reason my understanding of what a redemption arc is is different from others? #when i talk to people about it they keep saying 'well M can't make up for what he did' #and i'm like. no that's not what i mean by redemption arc #to me redemption arc literally just means 'a character goes from bad to good over the course of a story' #whether they're forgiven or if they can 'make up for it' objectively is irrelevant like #redemption arc is literally a common label used for the general trope so idk where this confusion is coming from? #also hot take when i say a character should be redeemed i'm literally not talking about wether they're forgiven or pardoned in universe #i just mean. as a reader. do i read their story arc and see them go from bad to good and progress in meaningful ways #do they do something. anything. to address or apologize or fix what they did #is there some sort of symbolic or literal sacrifice or act of service or any Good Thing even if it's only one single moment #then to me they've been redeemed in a narrative sense. it has nothing to do with whether they can literally compensate for hteir crimes #anyways. the tldr of this is that i don't hate mt/mte at all and i also don't hate idw M. i love them in fact #it's just i feel like i was severely let down by how much this fandom hyped and continues to hype mt/mte meg #(peg/gy the pirate spongebob meme voice) that's it? that's the M redemption arc? #that's just a guy going on a space road trip and being emo #mfs tried to tell me it was one of the best tf stories ever written and i'm like. yeah thanks but no #worse still ppl came out of m/tmte going 'actually M was right about everything' #and i'm like. shit take and you are spreading this nonsense everywhere including shitting on my faves w your bad takes #mfs wanna call M a hero of the ppl who at least cared about the cons when he literally left them for broke on cybertron #i don't think idw M had a good heel-face turn arc bc he didn't really like do anything meaningful in the wider scope of things #what if idw M achieved inner peace by protecting the cons and making sure they had rights post war. how about that #i mean for various reasons the story would've been more complicated than that due to editorial and company mandate bullshit #i just feel as if talking about the story narrative itself IDW M's redemption arc is far from remarkable #except for the fact that JRO dared to do it at all perhaps #(vine voice) that's my OPINION!!!!!

[bijoumikhawal]

got reminded of the "saying Arabs conquered and colonized North Africa is Zionist because obviously no one saying that coulx possibly draw a distinction between North African Arabs and Palestinian Arabs, and even drawing a distinction between Arabs and Imazighen is colonizer shit" school of thought

#cipher talk #I have seem Zionists co-opt the language of MENA Indigenous groups but MF that doesn't mean we're WRONG #It means they're stealing our talking points to appeal to more left leaning people #How is it you can recognize that they've co-opted the language of social justice and that that doesn't mean social justice is bad #Until the people YOU dispossess are mentioned and suddenly you're doing step 8 of the 8 steps of white settler colonial denial #Just like the Israelis do! #And yeah like. Some people don't draw the distinction. That's a product of intergenerational trauma and how our communities #Get manipulated by the US and shit. I've also met Arabs not from North Africa that refuse to draw a distinction #And see a discussion of how Arabs have hurt Indigenous Africans as an attack on them when it doesn't make sense to do so #I've also met a lot of people who DO clearly draw a distinction because the material conditions of Palestinians are that of Indigenity #Are your material conditions as a postcolonial North African with an Arab name and a mosque and skin that isn't black that of Indigenity? #Do you not have people with your face in the government (regardless of how shifty it is)? Did someone take your land or your churches land? #Do you struggle with employment? Is your tongue not the most common one? Are your cultural clothes looked at with distaste? #Are your girls targeted for kidnapping and rape to force them to not be of your culture? Are your women called whores who WANT rape? #Are you harassed by cops? Does the government try to take your kids because they have bullshit adoption laws? #Do your kids get arrested at 12 or 13 and almost sent a thousand miles away from home before pressure stays the order? #Is your language called feudal? Do people tell you they hope it dies soon? Is your name a barrier in your life? #Did they drown your fucking village? #Because all of these are things Copts and Nubians can say yes to #Before I even start on the shit done in the Maghreb or the fuckery about how Egypt defines 'Amazigh territory' (which is very complicated)

[fizzingwizard]

"My brother had no regard for her; his pleasures were not what they ought to have been, and from the first he treated her unkindly. The consequence of this, upon a mind so young, so lively, so inexperienced as Mrs. Brandon’s, was but too natural. She resigned herself at first to all the misery of her situation; and happy had it been if she had not lived to overcome those regrets which the remembrance of me occasioned. But can we wonder that, with such a husband to provoke inconstancy, and without a friend to advise or restrain her[...] she should fall?" - Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

#jane austen #sense and sensibility #literature #the level of sympathy and compassion and understanding of the human heart #we think of historical eras as either moral and right or depraved always one or the other #and that the morality of the first was upheld by the stern treatment of anyone who acted out #and by extension that depravity is brought on by a lack of rigidity #but the struggles and paradoxes that are part of being human were just as real and just as common and people DID understand them #its only the base and unimaginative who think everyone can be fit into one righteous box if they just try hard enough #never acknowledging times they failed their own standards or maybe without ever having been tested at all #its easy for someone who is happy to judge someone who is unhappy #and we have always known this and it's always been true but we're still dealing with the same unbending personalities who are so loud #just the other day i was in an internet fight where multiple people were claiming that if someone says no to regular sex they are cheating #the possibility that they just have a low sex drive or are going through something was called an exception too rare to matter #the possibility that people are different and not everyone wants the same amount of sex and sex is really very awful when you dont want it #was laughed and sneered at. whats more a partner who accepts their partners sex drive for what it is was called a beta lol #being compassionate and understanding of people you love = beta behavior LOL LOL #this is why we cant have nice things. relationships should be based on support and communication and openness #to the reality that people change sometimes in ways we like and sometimes in ways we dont. nothing is forever. #my two thoughts that entire thread: i hope the men who read this arent intimidated out of standing up for their female partners. and #i hope the women reading this understand you have to believe in yourself despite all of it. despite everything the world throws at you. #of course women can be mean and selfish just as much as men and of course mens needs and feelings matter and so does keeping commitments #but no one has a crystal ball and if you enter a relationship expecting things will always be A Certain Way you're in for a rude awakening #especially if all you do to promote what you want is to badger and pressure and shame your partner for being an imperfect human #tangent but its just these things are so timeless. we should know better now. there's got to be something wrong with us that we don't

[5a-alf]

As of late I've been obsessed with two fandoms: Les mis and Merlin (yes I'm ten years late on everything) so rightfully I decided to mash the two and this is the result

A Les Mis Merlin!AU,

starring Enjolras as Arthur and Les amis as the knights, bar grantaire that is gonna be Merlin.

Enjolras is a prat in a different way from Arthur, he tends to fail to see from others' prospective and is quite oblivious to feelings and emotional nuance. As a noble he would lack the ability to understand _why_ poor people/sorcerers _don't_ fight for better treatment. He expects them to. He doesn't understand having too much on your plate to do that, nor fearing for your life

Grantaire as Merlin would be a much more reclutant Emrys. He is a cynic, but it'd stem from being constantly scared of death. He'd bring Enj down a notch and make him see the reality of being a commoner, or of having magic. He is so strong he is afraid of his own power, and he doesn't want the weight of the responsability; every magic person is counting of him and he is convinced that he would fail them if he tried.

In this AU magic would be banned in Camelot by the king (role that would fit Javert to a T, ignoring the familiar relations) but Arthur!Enjolras would be pro magic from the start, AND somewhat open about that position. He is the head the knights and has a inner circle made of Les amis that are also pro magic.

I think it would make the most sense for grantaire to keep the magic to himself, even after knowing their stance on it. Maybe it could be revealed that he is a magic user early on, but he would keep being Emrys under wraps. Destiny is shit anyway.

He would gladly lay his life down for Enj and do anything for him tho, as we well know. He would bicker and fight and piss him off but his magic IS for Enj. He believes in the future of Albion just because he believes in Enjolras; destiny is shit and he won't be its bitch but one thing it got right, grantaire would not stop at anything to keep his king safe.

The other characters are more muddy:

I think Cosette could be a (good!)Morgana. Enj's half sibling, with powerful magic. BUT she could also be a good Gwen, with Marius as Lancelot and Jean Valjean as the town forger.

With Cosette as Morgana, Eponine could be her Gwen (and Cosette x Eponine x Marius would work so well here). Gwen!Eponine makes sense because it would keep her lower class status AND would put her in the position to be Grantaire first and best friend in Camelot.

I think that what would make the most sense about the line of succession would be for Enj and Cosette to be half siblings, children of a Duke who had an affair with Fantine (not that Fantine would...you can make this tragic); Fantine then married Jean Valjean (posing as a noble) to keep her honor and give Cosette a father (Valjean is perfectly aware of all of this. They made a patch). Tragedy struck and Enj parents die, so he is taken in by Javert (the king, enj's father brother) because he doesn't have any other descendant and Enj is now the second in line.

Fantine dies and Valjean is discovered to be an impostor posing as noble, and is forced to flee. Javert takes Cosette from him because he know the truth of her birth, so she is rightfully in line for the throne too.

I think most other roles could be shuffled around getting more distant from canon Merlin; we should have Joly as the court physician (or at least apprentice, as opposed to grantaire). Musichetta has her hands full running The Rising Sun, or another tavern/inn. Jehan is a druid in my heart, he could be Enj's contact with the old religion and its people.

Also Jean Valjean could be good not-related-to-Grantaire Balinor. It would give him a reason to be in hiding, and to be hated by Javert

Anyway this is all I have for now, but I'll probably add more later

#lets hear your thoughts on this yall #les Miserables fandom is quite dead but i have the cup of life in my hands so you better wake up #yeah i know enjolras would never want to be a king #he is for the Republique™ #but hey #once he is king he can always dismantle the monarchy #unite albion democratically #would Courfeyrac be Gawain? charming lovable emotionally intelligent and always in love #marius as Lancelot is perfect if it wasnt for the fact that marius is the one with like... #the richest background lol and lance is THE commoner #the round table makes perfect sense for them #also i didnt specify but obviously this is enjoltaire #grantaire would make so many Sun King references #spend hours thinking about enj in the crown #he would lay at his feet by the throne and worship the man and meanwhile anj is like “okay how can i Lose all this power and distribute it?” #their relationship is always unbalanced because there's SO much devotion coming from R #and i think that in this case it would come out as R being obsessed with the idea of Enj as a king #because thats the prophecy #thats what it says and out of all of it thats the only thing he can and will get behind #but E is so much more than the future king and is quite uncomfortable with being put on a pedestal #he believe is equality and justice and so until R sees him as a person he wouldnt get too close #he feels as is all that devotion puts distance between them #and its not kike the devotion is going to be to ed down as time goes on #but R would start to see his flaws and his humanity and would start to love more Him than the Idea of Him #and hey this is a merlin that actually IS at the tavern drinking when you cant find him #well most of the times at least #les amis de l'abc #EXR #eponine/marius/cosette #les mis Merlin!AU

[13eyond13]

Is it actually THAT hard to be polite and considerate to other people online... Like is it just the Canadian in me having unreasonable expectations or what

#just saying bc i feel like so many times a day people do things on here that make me go ??? #so im like #is it me expecting people to be way more polite than is reasonable or is it just people sucking at knowing manners and common sense #like if you just imagine yourself in someone else's shoes for 5 seconds i feel you can usually know what would be polite and what wouldnt #but maybe im wrong #and before you say its all due to neurodivergence etc #some of the politest people i know on this site are not neurotypical ok #p

[akkivee]

hitoya likes people who are bad at thinking and i assume that’s because it’s easier to steamroll over them to get his desired result and i wish we got to see that side of him more often lol

#vee queued to fill the void #this was a wild question he got asked btw lmao #the bat rep skit where he swindles kuukou and jyushi into his favour is peak grey hitoya lol we should get more #it doesn’t have to be as overt as rei’s general conman schtick or hitoya himself willing to fabricate evidence to get his way lol #just more situations where you see he’s a bit of an asshole too LOL #it would have also been fun to see more of his money grubbing personality too lol #like it’s connected to his high class taste and desire to have the best where the pay off is that he wants to share that with his team #but man he bragged he enjoys looking at his bank account for fun lol pls give us more of that #i like it when bat are visibly chaotic good lol!!!!!! #kuukou making a steam bath for temple patrons but then sabotaging it to show them if they can suffocating steam they can handle anything!!!! #hitoya lowkey shading this girl by saying this is common sense but come to my law firm and i’ll make sure you win!!!!! #and while i’m at it i wish jyushi was Slightly more narcissistic lol!!!!! #he likes looking in mirrors so that makes him narcissistic????? he lacks confidence he’s literally hyping himself up????? #i don’t need terra charisma house levels of narcissism lmao just let jyushi flex sometimes lol #some guy: wow that was amazing jyushi!!!!! jyushi: i know✨ #at least that!!!!!!!! confident jyushi in all aspects arc WHEN 😭😭😭😭😭😭

[unrestrainedbalderdash]

NOOO WHY'S THERE BI LESBIAN EXCLUSION IN THE ORIENTED AROACE TAG.

#DUDE. YOU'RE LITERALLY IN THE ORIENTATION THAT IS MASSIVELY BUILT ON THE SPLIT ATTRACTION MODEL #AND YET YOU CAN'T EVEN COMPREHEND THAT ALLOS COULD HAVE THE SPLIT ATTRACTION MODEL????? #(not saying all the bi lesbians are alloallo just trying to point out op's foolishness) #(also there's probably people identifying as bi lesbian for reasons other than that which is also valid #but pointing this out because it's in the oriented aroace tag) #like. it won't cover all the nuances but i can think of an extremely simple explanation for bi lesbians existing #you can just have different attraction types to different genders. it's simple! #dw i'm not getting too angry at this i'm just baffled by their chopt logic #anyway. bi lesbians are extremely valid and if you don't agree get out #queer discourse #<- not looking for any debates here just tagging for filtering purposes. get gone if you disagree. or think and change your mind. #tw discourse #cw discourse #if anyone knows the specific tags people have filtered for mspec and bi lesbian discourse let me know #just hovered over their accounts to block them. the asker is a minor so i guess i can understand them being stupid #but the answerer is 24 you should have developed critical thinking and common sense by now #rancid takes #<- gonna use this as a general tag for filtering

[sonknuxadow]

ive seen a lot of people worried that sonic prime might get cancelled with netflix cancelling a bunch of animated shows right now and id be lying if i said i wasnt a little worried too but i still dont think its super likely to be honest. first of all its already confirmed that sonic prime will have 24 episodes. im not sure if its all counted as one season or if the first batch of episodes was considered the first season and the next will be season 2, but either way netflix has already agreed to let them make 24 episodes. this isnt a situation where they made one season and are waiting to be told if they can continue or not. secondly streaming services Love adaptations and reboots and remakes and all that right now and tend to prioritize them over original series. which sucks, im not saying this is a good thing, but its true. so theyd probably be less willing to cancel a show thats based on a popular game series and is guaranteed to have an audience than they would with a completely original series. so i really dont think its super likely for sonic prime to be cancelled

#sonic prime #< putting in the tag so hopefully this post can make people calm down lmao #also sonic prime is going to end eventually but theres a difference between a show ending and a show being cancelled #if they release all 24 episodes and wrap up the story there and dont make more after that then it wasnt cancelled it just ended #which is what i think is going to happen #i know that probably sounds like common sense to a lot of you but ive seen a lot of people #say that shows that just ended becuase the creator wanted them to end were cancelled. as if its the same thing

[gensokyogarden]

I found this Twitter thread discussing Reimu and Autistic traits quite interesting. As someone both with Autism and in the process of getting my master's degree in clinical psych, I both found it relatable and think the OP made a lot of good points in their analysis (though I will note that you can't really diagnosis a fictional character but it's all for fun). So I thought I'd share it.

#beyond the border ~ ooc #They mention later that some folks on Reddit accused them of cherry picking information but in my opinion with how Reimu has been depicted #Across over a dozen games and a dozen manga where ZUN ... tends to be (intentionally according to interviews) inconsistent with how he #Depicts Reimu you kind of have to look at specific instances if you want to assign Reimu much of any character at all #And really the stuff they highlight (such as Reimu seeming to have AP issues) are WAY more consistent than most other traits for Reimu #As someone with Autism I picked up on a lot of those littler traits as I iconned the different mangas but since that's been over a drawn #Out time it never really clicked all together until I saw it laid out in this thread #I'd notice things and be like 'wow that really feels like an Autistic life experience to me' but then just kinda move on but seeing it all #I would say it definitely fits (of course my interpretation of Reimu always has been Autistic but most of my muses kinda are because I am) #Honestly what I found most interesting was them pointing out Reimu's insistence on keeping her upper arms/shoulders uncovered in every #Outfit which is a feeling I can deeply relate to #I highly favor shorts even in inappropriate weather because I strongly dislike stuff touching my lower legs #Also the point about how much Reimu loves reading is something I had not caught before but it's honestly quite interesting #Though it makes me think. With how much interest she's shown in detective mysteries in FS and WaHH I'm shocked they didn't have her be more #Involved in the opening mystery of FDS. You'd think she would have been all over there. She and Satori could have even slightly bonded over #Having detective interests (and the fact that Satori is IMO probably the strongest Autistic coded character in the series) #Though honestly when you consider the idea that Reimu could be Autistic it makes sense why she seemingly uncharacteristically cries so much #At the thought of her shrine being threatened. Being very defensive of special places and getting more upset than would be warranted over #One being threatened is a very common trait and I find that quite interesting to think about