To continue building my confidence by actually talking about things that can be disagreed with on this blog...

I feel like the US set an obnoxious precedent with flags by smacking its own flag across *absolutely everything.* It sort of...trivialized allegiance to ideas in a way that was consumer friendly and has led to endless variations of flags across all kinds of different communities. I'm most familiar with lgbt+ flag drama because those are the people I spend most of my time around, but it extends to other groups, too.

For example, I don't like the blue-green color gay flag. I feel like it entirely misses the point of the original flag, which was a list of qualities in gay men that could be celebrated across the board. It didn't need to be masculine coded because being gay was, in itself, subversive to the overarching cultural idea of masculinity.

Another example to do with that is the skin colors addition to the gay flag - I would argue that it should be the goal of people within the gay community to make a point of saying "people of color are included hands down" and take a stand against racism in the community, rather than adding the colors. This creates a sense of wariness. If someone *just* has the rainbow flag up--are they older, are they a gay white supremacist, or do they have a reason like mine not to use it?

To be fair to the other side... I understand the criticisms of the gay men's flag representing everyone, and wanting to find an answer to that by making a new pride flag for gay men specifically. My dislike of certain flags does have an anchor in time: the older a flag is, the more likely I am to be okay with it. I must admit to myself that the only way to build a history around something is to have it exist in the first place. I'm sure gay men were bitching about the rainbow flag's existence for similar reasons back when it was first created.

Beyond that, a lot of my discomfort most likely stems further back to a distaste for modern microidentity politics - I don't feel like there needs to be a label for every sexual and romantic variation on earth because I don't feel like people need to be privy to that information about me from the moment we meet. If I like them well enough and the topic goes there, I'll tell them.

In the long run...I think these flags were supposed to be a declaration of allegiance to community. 'Hey, you who was kicked out from your family for being gay, you who are closeted for fear of rejection...if you see this flag you will find people who will love and hold you as their own.' However, flags have become an allegiance to identity, which I don't believe is as sustainable in the same way.

And I think that was on the US, who portrayed patriotism as the number of flags in your yard and how you defined yourself as a loyal US citizen to be the most important identity one could have.

cry all you want but at the end of the day I am forever and always a slut for "the confession comes from the seemingly less emotional one of the two" trope and I will watch it again and again to devour it properly

leave the door ajar

mayhaps i have dug too far into history but i noticed a lot of posts from around a decade ago had the tag "the history peeps" or "thp"? anyone have any insight into what this means? i'm on my archeology shit.

Weirdly enough, I’m with Twilight on this, not necessarily on the setup possibility, but on the idea that Melinda’s fishy and that, maybe, she figured out who Yor was (Anya’s mom/Loid’s wife) as she initially invited her to come along. 

After all, the main theme of this story is about fake identities, lies and deceiving others. Since the Desmonds and the Forgers are clearly mirroring each other narratively speaking, as the antagonists vs main characters, it just wouldn’t surprise me if Donovan and Melinda were as untraditional, as a married couple, as Loid and Yor are. 

Let me explain: until two weeks ago, almost no reader really thought Melinda would appear any time soon nor that she would be as relevant as she’s turning out to be. Why is that? Because Sensei had a lot of fun so far writing a story in which Berlint’s high society is depicted as very traditional (with the men having the important jobs while women... idk, take care of the house or go shopping?).

Of course, that’s something the made-up family of Loid, Yor and Anya only pretends to live up to, as they subvert all these tropes with pride. For example, Loid is the one who cooks and sews, Yor is the strongest character in the whole series and Anya’s on a whole other level of "gifted”. 

That’s why I just wouldn’t be surprised if the Desmond family only pretended to be on the same level of “traditional” that the rest of their peers expect them to be, only for Melinda to weigh as heavily in the plot as her husband (if not more!). 

In other words, sure, Donovan Desmond is the head of an ultra nationalist conservative party, but does this mean Melinda was just introduced to play the dutiful wife act?

maybe (after all, WISE has nothing on her and she does sound lonely, with most of her friends being from before she was First Lady)

but maybe not because that’s only a cover that she deceives others with, as she plays a big part in her husband’s war plans or in an entirely different business

TL;DR

If the ladies are actually stronger and scarier than their husband in this series, then Melinda is a real foe we’ll have to watch out for, as a good match up for Yor.

Stay tuned, this chapter was insane lmao.

Okay We know miles,Gwen, hobie and pav squad

But what about

Miguel,Peter b, Noir,Jess and Ben reily (insert kaine)

I call them the not un functional adults squad but I’ll brainstorm later

I know we've all been going insane about hari murder comeback of the century in envy of the entire wwe league but like. CAN WE FUCKING TALK ABOUT HARI "THE FUTURE IS WRITTEN EVERY SECOND! WRITE A BETTER ONE" ?!?!??!? CAN WE???? PLEASE????

in hindsight Buck Vernon is such a funny character. like his whole story starts off with his ass getting dumped but not even realizing it. he goes across the country searching for her and doesn't have any luck until he goes to a random fortune teller (who later admits to scamming him) and takes her vague bullshit to heart which leads him to get caught in the middle of a wild drug ring and he may have accidentally set off a war between said drug dealers and a gang of arsonists that was founded by an undead biker dude. he once bumped into said undead biker dude at a night club while running from the cops. he can see/talk to ghosts and it's never explained why and he doesnt even make a big deal of it. he ends up finding a corpse in the middle of the road and goes "well shit someone has to bury the guy". when said corpse gets up and asks for a smoke buck just. gives it to him and starts having a chat with him. he cant lie for shit and gets caught like every single time but still manages to get out of every situation alive. he once beat up a drug dealer in the back of an arcade. he got black brained which kills every other character it happened to and just. didnt die somehow?? he's killed at least two people and doesn't even blink. when he found his ex and got dumped a second time he just. got up and walked off with a bullet wound in his leg. he presumably lived and proceeds to write weird sad love songs for the rest of his life.

hes the most pathetic noir protagonist ive ever seen. there's something deeply wrong with him. i want to study him

zhuhou or jiankong food for the jttw requests please?

Oh mY GOD ANON ILYSM RN!!

My laptop died though and I couldn't find my charger so I had to draw them in trad 🤩 I might redraw some of these and make them better lawl 😭

Zhuhou doodles (the first one is like...very old lawl)

And jiankong <33

GMMM!!! now that u are a little bit into worm & have had the first instance of the word being used & such, im curious as to what u think the title means! why do u think it's called worm so far? :333

I DONT ACTUALLY KNOW. BUT THAT IS SOMETHING IVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT !!!!!!! i always think the "OUAHGH THEY SAID THE TITLE IN THE THING" type jokes are really funny so i locked onto the word right away LMAO. catch me keeping track of every use of the word worm in this million word long story . its a good word !!!!!!

ANYWAY. my first thought now is obv like... something to do with taylors powers??? but im not sure if she can actually control. worms. not to get too biology brained about it but the vague knowledge i have so far is that she can control BUGS but that is not specifically limited to *insects* . because she can also control spiders which are arachnids (though they are also usually lumped into "bugs" which is not a real classification it just kind of refers to things that people find creepy crawly) HOWEVER . the thing that arachnids and insects have in common are being *arthropods* which is like. the overall classification of Things With An Exoskeleton. WORMS are not arthropods they are . well it depends actually. worm is kind of like bug in the fact that its a general word for things that are kind of similar and not the name of a specific group. bc youve got earthworms which are annelids and . like. mealworms which ARE insects but still called worms. so maybe she can control worms also!!!! i really like this sort of . playing with the meaning of the word i guess. some people colloquially will call worms bugs as well even though theyre not. so it becomes a rhing like. are her powers based in LOGIC or science or whatever or are they based in. perception. i guess. because taylor is Bug there can also be Worms. does this make any sort of sense. this might be absolutely nothing bro is burning the food bro is not cooking the kitchen is empty 🔥🔥🔥

it could also be like... worm as a word not meaning the animal. like a cartoonishly evil guy referring to his minions as worms. or like the context in that sentence i posted like. worming your way in somewhere. which now that i think about it makes a lot of sense considering taylors whole plan to join a villain group undercover. wait. i may have just . rendered my whole biology paragraph useless. sad! well there are other insane things i could talk about i guess

all this to say i think shes gonna do something super fucked up with worms in the bug way. i hope <3

THIS IS A FUN QUESTION THOUGH because i know the other story is called ward. and i already have somewhat of an idea of what THAT means bc of armsmaster. so i can assume at least a little bit of what that story is about. but its cool that i dont have that same context for the one im CURRENTLY READING

i'm mourning the loss of purgatory's Government Assigned Team Dynamics (because i'm a sucker for shaking up dynamics and the forced interactions of people who may not otherwise have spoken) so please indulge me with your dream egg parenting group i'll start, bagi tina and rivers [i'm right]

The conversation master

how come you do post much about gaza?

assuming you meant don't*? because this makes no sense otherwise? anyway

that you don't see my activism doesn't mean it isn't happening. tumblr is a terrible platform for activism, so I don't use it for that

Unconditional

(Rant/Analysis in tags)

Joel is 11ft tall!

... In the measuring system of his Empire, the Stratos Imperial System (SIS).

Which, while using the exact same terms as the Empires Metric System (EMS) used by every other Empire, is still different.

1 inch in SIS is the equivalent of 0.53 inches in EMS.

So, while in SIS Joel is 132 inches tall, or 11ft...

In EMS, he is 70 inches tall. Or 5'8".

Essentially: all the other Empires are using metric system and Joel's Empire is the USA of the Server and using another system Just Because They Can.

:)

I hate working with men