It is day 25 now btw. There is a massacre happening right now in Gabaliya (populated area in the north) and in Al Nonsayat (in the south filled with refugees from the north).
They are now bombing the north and the south heavily. And officially the amount of explosives dropped on Gaza (18,000 tons) has surpassed the nuclear on Hiroshima in 1945 (12,000 tons).
I refuse to celebrate the fascist nation that continues to let down its POC, queer, trans, disabled, and indigenous citizens to this day.
Also I have good news. I finally got hired again and started yesterday. I will try to get the commissions done as soon as possible despite no longer having unlimited free time.
(also yes I know she's British lmfao do you have any idea how much fan art of anything in general on the internet breaks canon? It's more common than you think, so who cares )
One thing I’ve yet to see talked about with Nimona, but that I really really liked, is how it tackles the mythology of war and valor. Specifically, when we first see Gloreth during the intro book sequence, she’s depicted as a full grown adult, this divine, messianic figure heroically battling threats to her nation and people. The city’s equivalent of “good god” is even “good Gloreth”. But then when we actually get to see when all this started through Nimona’s flashback by the well, Gloreth is *very much* a whole ass six year old, maybe eight or nine if we’re stretching it. The mythical hero driving back the “evil darkness” is a few inches shy of a toddler. We don’t know much about the intervening conflict between Nimona and the people of the city, other than that it probably lasted longer than that one mob burning down their own village, and Gloreth abandoning Nimona. But one thing we do see when we pick back up 1000 years later is that the “elite force of knights” who Gloreth (supposedly) put in place whose “descendants would protect the kingdom for generations to come” are being succeeded by a whole new batch of child soldiers. The footage of Ballister breaking into the training grounds as a child isn’t him running to meet adult heroes honing their skills, it’s of him as a seven or eight year old trying to go train with the other child soldiers. This whole movie is a commentary on how media likes to portray soldiers as mature adults who go to war for honor, glory, and patriotism instead of a pack of kids being pushed into the line of fire because it’s what the adults in power tell them is right. It’s certainly something that stood out to me as someone who’s grown up in the hyper nationalism of the US, has seen who society *claims* is sacrificing their lives in military service, and has also seen who *actually* is recruited (the fact that Ballister is a homeless street kid who tries to use the military to get a decent life is not an accident.) And I think that’s neat and important.
the fact that multiple nations cut off funding for UNRWA for 12 people's alleged involvement in the Oct 7 rebellion (no further details on that, btw, and they've already been fired) but senators won't even vote to put conditions on the weapons sent to the Occupation Forces says a hell of a lot about the U.S. and its allies
Thinking about parallels between Israel and the US and how our cops are trained by their military programs. How the police violence is learned from their disgusting military policies. How we gave them so much money and they are now known as one of the most technologically advanced militaries in the whole world. With one of the most technologically sophisticated defense systems in the world.
Also thinking about the parallels between US veterans and Israeli holocaust survivors.
Israel talks some big shit about how they HAVE to exist because look how Jews were treated and they need a place all their own, just look at these poor holocaust survivors they need us!!! Except when you actually look, you find that most of the holocaust survivors in Israel are living in poverty, homeless, unable to afford food so they’re picking up literal scraps off the ground after markets end for the day. Israel wants you to think they’re doing this for the holocaust victims, but they’re not actually helping those survivors at all.
Like how in the US we have tons of programming about needing new soldiers, about thanking service members for our freedom, about celebrating holidays that uplift veterans and wars and political leaders. But the actual veteran population is largely neglected. They’re homeless, living in poverty, living with crippling medical debt because of injuries received in the field, or any number of other things. Programs set up to supposedly help them (like Wounded Warrior) are total scams that don’t help anyone.
Our governments use these people as scapegoats and toss them to the side like trash once no one is looking. It’s easy to say “how can you hate the military? look at what our veterans won for us!” while pushing a veteran out onto the street and using that money to pay more cops. It’s easy to say “we need a place for holocaust victims to feel safe!” while refusing to pay for the healthcare these people desperately need and instead funneling money into paying people to come live in Israel so you can grow your population and continue colonizing.
Colonialist governments will never adequately care for the people they supposedly represent. It is an ideal built entirely on greed, and a government built on greed will never fork over the money to actually make positive change in the world. All they care about is power and money and land, more and more and more. They don’t give a shit about us.