also if i see one more post hating on one mdzs character because “they’re irredeemable” i’m going to light myself on fucking fire

To the temple in the woods

the thing about variety describing warner bros discovery making "unsuccessful attempts to sell the unprofitable fandom" is that this shifts all the blame on the audience. how are you gonna try that with a fandom that crowdfunded films on a record-breaking scale, raised millions for extra life for years and years, and spawned their own fucking convention because RT was so goddamn popular?? insane that poor business restructuring and shitty company practices from WBD is being spun into "our audience didn't give us enough money so unfortunately, we have to sell RWBY (a western show that enjoys enormous popularity in japan despite not being a homegrown anime) and RvB (a show which pioneered machinima as both a genre and medium)"

this is such a negligible detail in the scheme of things but ever since my friend pointed it out i haven’t been able to stop thinking about how in natla aang just like. has his bison whistle. from the start. whereas aang finding the bison whistle in “the waterbending scroll” is such a subtle yet crucial moment because it reflects how even though sky bison are thought to be extinct, there are still traces and relics of air nomad culture existing in the world. just like the central object of that episode, katara’s waterbending scroll, is rightfully returned to her as a crucial part of her heritage that has been systematically exterminated, the bison whistle is yet another object that has been paraded around and reduced to a trinket on the market, rather than a meaningful cultural artefact. and the fact that aang is able to recognize and repatriate it for its original intended purpose is microcosmic of the show’s themes overall, of preserving one’s heritage in the face of cultural erasure and genocide. it’s central to aang’s arc, as well as katara’s, that they have an obligation to preserve their cultures at all costs in a world that is so intent on eradicating them. to cling to those traces with all they have and assert their practical value as they embody their unique cultural ideals through its practice rather than merely existing as a curiosity or exotic decoration within a hegemonic paradigm. aang in particular actively functions as a living testament to counter the imperialist assertion that his culture has no place in this world. and he does that through asserting his values, but also through practicing his culture in mundane, quotidian ways, such being able to properly make use of a bison whistle due to actually having a bison, or being able to learn off of the scroll due to being an actual waterbender. and so aang finding the bison whistle at that specific point in time is specifically significant as it concerns the central theme of the episode, and how that reflects the show’s themes as a whole.

something. about. the horror of being sent on an impossible (death) quest and obligations and hospitality politics. the trauma of not having a home, and then the trauma of being in a house that becomes actively hostile to you, one that would swallow you whole and spit out your bones if you step out of line. all of this is conditional, your existence continues to be something men want gone.

it's about going back as far as I can with the perseus narrative because there's always a version of a myth that exists behind the one that survives. the missing pieces are clearly defined, but the oldest recorded version of it isn't there! and there's probably something older before that!! but it's doomed to forever be an unfilled space, clearly defined by an outline of something that was there and continues to be there in it's absence.

and love. it's also about love. even when you had nothing, you had love.

on the opposite side of the spectrum, this is Not About Ovid Or Roman-Renaissance Reception, Depictions And Discourses On The Perseus Narrative.

edit: to add to the above, while it's not about Ovid, because I'm specifically trying to peel things back to the oldest version of this story, Ovid is fine. alterations on the Perseus myth that give more attention Medusa predate Ovid by several centuries. this comic is also not about those, either! there are many versions of this story from the ancient world. there is not one singular True or Better version, they're all saying something.

Perseus, Daniel Ogden

Anthology of Classical Myth: Primary Sources in Translation, edited & translated by Stephen M Trzaskoma, R. Scott Smith, Stephen Brunet

starting off with an amuse-bouche of some of my initial favorite bits! y'all, this update was WILD.

Maaaaan, that was close...

The defintion of hell is knowing a show is incredibly well-received in its first season, but if people don’t become machines churning out tweets, content, and rewatching 24/7, there’s no likelihood it’ll get a chance to tell its whole story. This shit is madness. Shows in different genres shouldn’t have to pit-battle for dominance. First seasons are MEANT to be baselines establishing worlds and characters, not complete storylines. The idea that this golden age of television has turned into “get it done in one or get out” is revolting.

DPx DC AU: Danny learns that he can change his summoning ritual and decides to go chaos mode with it i.e. A viral tiktok trend.

Danny ascends the throne and it's honestly pretty alright as far as new jobs go. He states a few opinions, makes sure no one goes to war and is slowly integrating a community service sentence to Walker's prison. It's not a bad gig, and considering the troves of gold he's now owner of, it doesn't pay too shabby either.

His main problem with the job isn't even his constituents (he likes to think they would vote for him over pariah), it's all these loony death cults! They keep summoning him with Pariah's old cold sign and it's driving him insane- After a very unhelpful smirk by CW, a long study session in GW's library and some help from Ember (she knows drama like no one else) Danny finally has a new summoning ritual.

Of course he swapped out the blood and bone for like, sour gummies and random shit he had in his backpack at the time. A TI-84. And yes, the Latin chant is that one super-fast bit of Rap God preformed to a BTS dance at speed.

But rather than keep this to himself, he gets Sam (who has a thriving plant and protest community following) to record her completing this ritual and Danny being summoned. Why? Cause it was a very specific to Sam skill that they didn't know if people could replicate and it gives Danny some plausible deniability that he tried to make it difficult when CW asks.

Posting it makes it very quickly go viral as people attempt to call it fraudulent but sure enough, Danny is now traveling the world at a moments notice.

Which is great cause it's summer and he's bored in Amity anyway (He's going to change it before he starts university in September, duh), and its even better because the second a lame ass death cult brings him forward to, like, destroy the planet, a slumber party or influencer has already summoned him away. Shit, he even met a few celebrities this way! Plus, turns out that most death cultists aren't able to rap!

Reality hit him pretty hard when he got summoned to an office space that is clearly a base of operations and the summoning spell locked him in. Literally, he has no idea how to get out of this binding spell- Danny definitely hadn't realized that was an option. Taking in the Justice League members in front of him, plus one trench coated menace, Danny groaned for a moment before thinking to ask:

"Wait- Which one of you was able to do Rap God? And the dance? Please tell me someone thought to film that!!"

pedro pascal doesn’t owe you shit.

it is absolutely fine to be disappointed by his absence at cannes. i am too. but he does not have to be there.

for whatever reason he’s pulling away from the attention. the esquire article talked about how guarded he is and his socials have really slowed down. maybe he’s unprepared or overwhelmed by all the tlou hype. i mean his follower count went up by the tens of thousands the day after the premiere. that’s insane.

but some of you have lost the plot. the ones wearing d*ddy’s little girl shirts in fucking public and yelling d*ddy at him at events and trying to convince everyone whether he’s queer or not and complaining there isn’t an explicit scene of him fucking in the strange way of life. it’s not a gay porn made for your fetish. ‘oh but narcos!!’ that’s called characterization. read literally any article from almodovar and understand why sex isn’t the point.

interacting with paparazzi content and making cute little edits - jfc. that’s creating demand and supply and paparazzi know no fucking boundaries. man’s got anxiety and no doubt the paps and fans watching his every move are probably making that worse.

let him make movies and rotate through his four shirts in peace. pedro pascal doesn’t owe anyone shit.

Prompt in Memes 5

Once more, have a prompt entirely in memes because I'm too lazy to properly write one right now lol.

This Twitter MLP human redesign drama is a mess, leave me the fuck out of it.

Spike absolutely haunts Riley I fucking know it

Nico and Percy's dynamic through the series is eternally funny to me, because it's just. like.

Percy's having a constant mental struggle between his fatal flaw of loyalty with a promise he made to Bianca to protect Nico, versus his Big 3 kid desire to maim other Big 3 kids / Poseidon descendant urge to totally maim Nico specifically. He hates Nico so so much. He thinks Nico's annoying and weird at best, and creepy/sketchy when he's older. The only positive thoughts Percy has towards Nico are "He's Bianca's brother and Bianca was my friend and I owe her/He's Hazel's brother and Hazel is my friend and would kill me if I was mean to him," "He's a powerful asset and useful ally (if questionable)," and "He's kinda pathetic and I feel maybe a little bad about it." Percy has multiple occasions throughout the series where he strongly considers - and on one occasionally actually goes through with - throttling Nico.

Meanwhile, Nico is following around Percy like a lost puppy. He explicitly can never bring himself to even dislike anything about Percy no matter how hard he tries. He has a whole bit in BoO where he's mentally going "UGH he's so stupid BUT IT'S ENDEARING HOW DARE HE." He's totally smitten. He's making deals with his dad for Percy. He's making convoluted plans to help Percy stand a chance against Kronos. During the entirety of BoTL it's like he's playing tsundere - "I'm helping NOT PERCY SPECIFICALLY with this quest! Me helping Percy would be SILLY because I DEFINITELY HATE HIM." Then he proceeds to show up to Percy's birthday party to basically ask him on a weird date and spend the entire next book scrambling around trying to help him or protect him or impress him. And Percy could not give less of a shit.

Just. That dynamic is so funny to me. Percy is the founder of the Nico Protection Club in that he's the one they're all protecting Nico from and meanwhile Nico is throwing himself at Percy to the point where the literal god of gay love calls him out on it.

I'm sorry but if you still think Ncuti was "overshadowed" by Tennant in that episode I really think you're just seeing what you expected to see. Confirmation bias is a hell of thing.

We have NEVER had a doctor appear earlier than the last 1-2 minutes of an episode that wasn't their official introduction. We got 20 more minutes of Ncuti than any doctor has had before.

The ENTIRE POINT of his being in those 20 minutes was to get people excited about Ncuti's doctor. It's not a secret viewership has been down, it's also not a secret people fucking love David and Catherine. They brought Ncuti in early compared to other regenerations and let his personality shine.

What other doctor has immeaditely known who they are after regeneration the way 15 did? He didn't spend half an episode lying in bed and the other half asking "what sort of man am I?" he was sure of himself from the word go and it's beautiful to see.

The whole thesis of these three episodes was from a production stand point was 1. Bring back David + Catherine to get people watching again 2. Remind them why they used to love Who with a classic creepy monster episode and then a Classic villain. 3. Get them to fall in love with Ncuti so they keep watching him.

If you think "overshadowing" Ncuti fits into that plan at all then you really don't understand what's going on here.

An Unsexy Post About Censorship

Sooo...gumroad is shutting down NSFW content sales because of Stripe and Paypal. This is also why Wishtender has been down as well, if you weren't aware. And why Patreon is also cracking down on anything remotely kinky.

(If you're wondering why your favorite FICTIONAL sexual content isn't allowed on most platforms, it's payment processors.)

Please be extra kind to anyone who works with NSFW content right now, whether it be art, writing, audio, photos or video. Whether it be tasteful erotica, or the kinkiest BDSM porn you can think of, we're all in the crosshairs right now.

And, judging by trends from these past few years, this is only going to get worse.

Support NSFW creators where you can, whether by tipping or buying our content (where you still can) or just helping boost content on sites where algorithms want to drown us out.

Call representatives where you can and complain about payment processors acting as arbiters of what YOU are and aren't allowed to pay for and enjoy.

This may be about porn right now, but censorship of this caliber doesn't just stop with porn. Any transgressive (read: non-conservative) media is fair game.

Fight against it where you can. Support creators where you can.

Art is important. Reflections of our sexuality are important. We don't want a world where people aren't free to make or see the things they love and enjoy.