Magic: The Girlbossing: The Final Showdown

Over the course of the past two months, the girlbosses of the multiverse have battled it down for ultimate girlpower supremacy. We've seen some fierce competition throughout this battle, with some surprise upsets along the way! That being said, the time has come for us to end this battle and decide: who is the most girlboss?

Link to Semifinals Masterpost

Let's get a brief summary of our contestants' feats going into the finals: On the left side of the bracket, we have Khan Alesha of the Mardu! A fearsome warrior from the distant past of Tarkir, and Magic's only canonical transgender woman! In her life, she lead the Mardu Horde, a warrior clan built on three edicts: "to conquer is to eat," "to rule is to bleed," "victory or death." Ancient tales of her exploits tell of her facing battle, leading her horde, and felling dragons all with a smile on her face. While she ultimately threw her banners aside to cooperate with Kolaghan's brood, her legacy is still unforgotten, with a clan of transgender warriors still battling in her honor today.

In her ascension to the top of her side of the bracket, she has slain many a challenging foe, such as: Marit Lage, the eldritch horror trapped beneath the ice of Dominaria, cutthroat queen of Fiora and schemer beyond equal, and Liliana, the demon-pact necromancer who once defined what it meant to be a Magic Girlboss.

On the right side, we have the gorgon-planeswalker assassin turned Golgari queen, Vraska! In her work as an assassin, she held one creed: "A person should die the death they deserve." Through her dramatic, ironic assassinations which called back to the way the victims lived their lives, she amassed a following by which she dispensed her own version of justice across the Ravnican Undercity. When she was forced out of the shadows by Jace, she responded by inciting revolution within the Golgari, rallying her followers to allow her ascension to the throne. On Ixalan, she became a pirate captain, sailing to find a highly sought-after treasure and ultimately succeeding in her mission. At this point she also fell in love with Jace, beginning Magic's most iconic Girlboss/Failguy relationship. As of the end of War of the Spark, Vraska stood as undisputed queen of the Golgari Swarm, with most who would stand as obstacles to her power eliminated.

Vraska, too, has faced many a foe. These include Beckett Brass, the admiral of a vast coalition of pirate crews, Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar, whose demonic dishes were to die for, Emrakul, whose interplanar influence and destruction knows only the bounds of Innistrad's ancient moon, and Teysa Karlov, a fellow guild-leader who somehow combines banking and priesthood while making it look sexy.

Beginning on Monday, May 15th at 12:00 PM EST, witness the conclusion of a story arc that honestly is better than anything MTG has actually had in the past half-decade. Will the Mardu Khan reign supreme, or will the Golgari queen cut her way to the top? That is for all of you to decide.

finally at that age where i'm thinking i should get a tattoo. not bc i feel strongly about it, just seems like a waste not to. i've got so much skin i'm not using

FNAF movie Vanessa questions the power of remnant

Sometimes I think about how Adrien, throughout the series, constantly grapples with his fear of abandonment. Gabriel conditioned him to believe that any love he receives is purely transactional, and that to earn affection he has to prove his utility. Adrien is constantly trying to prove his worth to his father for scraps of affection, and Chat Noir infamously crumbles on-screen any time he feels as though he is replaceable to Ladybug. It's a constant insecurity of his, like everyone will just dump him like a sack of potatoes the moment they find out how useless he is.

Meanwhile, all Marinette wants to is ensure that Adrien is happy. Because she loves him. She doesn't give two shits about how """useful""" he is. She holds him and tells him that she will never abandon him (both as Ladynoir and as Adrienette), and her fantasies are about saving him, not about him being "useful" to her. Throughout their relationship, Adrien is forced to disappoint Marinette constantly for reasons outside of his control (amok commands), and yet Marinette is still there for him.

At Adrien's lowest point, when he is forcibly torn away from everyone who had ever showed him genuine care, locked away in an all-white room and at his most "useless", right after disappointing Marinette and unable to even join the final battle or contribute in any way, she still saves him. She still loves him. Because he doesn't have to prove anything to her. Because he is loved and cherished for who he is, not for what he does, and that love is not conditional. Adrien's "happy ending" at the end of the first arc wasn't about him finally proving how useful he can be, because he never actually cared about being useful — he just saw it as the only means to feel loved and needed. Instead, in the end, he found out that he was loved and needed no matter what.

give her a spin

I just remembered that up until 5th grade, all of the sports teams I was in weren't separated by gender. I played basketball and baseball with boys. And we did just fine.

It wasn't until 6th grade when they segregated it by gender. It didn't make sense to me. I was now in softball because of baseball, because "softball is for girls" and "baseball is for boys" (which confused me bc my dad was on an adult softball team).

Now, my brother's all-male team didn't win a single game. My all-girls team won every single one.

They presented the boys' team with this HUGE trophy, and if you wanted replicas of it, they were $30 each.

My team was presented with a very small trophy. Extras were $5.

That's when I decided gender-segregated sports were bullshit.

What's often interesting to me, is Dream spells it out in the finale and people often still don't get it, so I thought it'd be interesting to see what he was actually referencing here. To see where it all started.

[24:27] Tommy: “That first war, me and Tubbo versus you–how it should have ended–why’d you take it?” Dream: “Tommy, you ambushed me and killed me. You stole all my shit! You tried ambushing me in a little cave–you don’t remember that? I feel like you just–your memory is just–gone.”

So here is the ambush Dream is talking about, where Sapnap and Tommy basically decide to just kill Dream and then kept all of his shit. [Death 1]

He gets killed again when he tries to take back his stuff. [Death 2]

Tommy kills him for fun right after he respawns with nothing. [Death 3]

Then after Dream gets his stuff back (via our boy Punz) and he takes the discs to get Tommy to stop, he gives Tommy back his items. But unsatisfied, Tommy goes after Dream, gets one of his discs back and hides it in the little cave. Dream tries to find it, while Sapnap and Tommy try to stop him. They are unsuccessful until, Tubbo brings them axes and they sneak up and corner Dream in the little cave, ambushing and killing him. Once again, taking all of his shit, (including, yes, the other disc.) [Death 4]

[27:58] Tommy: “Think about that, we could’ve been friends but no because you have to figure out the reason you have to get–”  Dream: “Yeah we could’ve but you–you ruined the chance of that long ago. It was you.” Tommy: “I ruined it?” Dream: “You ruined it!”

And I don’t think it’s unfair for Dream to say that in the finale, because for Dream it’s this stream early on, these moments that started it all. It’s these instances of of Dream getting murdered and robbed and made fun of over and over. Him, trying to not just make peace for everyone, but also reclaim respect and peace for himself. It’s Tommy chasing after Dream when he has nothing to kill him and rub it in his face. It’s Dream, even after all of that, giving back their items. It’s these instances of violence taken too far to the point they clearly pissed Dream off and didn’t care or follow his very simple request of just giving an apology and his belongings back that shape my distaste for Tommy and sympathy for Dream. It’s these moments that I feel like are gone from Tommy’s and our memory that highlight a different story.

[28:34] Dream: “Yeah, we could have been friends if you weren’t a little shit.”

Pix I am filled with angst ideas for my au now , ghost Gregory existencial crisis arc , VAMOOOOOOS

-Haru

Here’s a silly of your au in these angsty times

I find little Machete being happy over bread baking to be so endearing, especially because I can imagine a world in which helping with baking was one of the few childhood joys he had (due to the lack of art of him happy as a pup), and then remembering the art you did months back of modern Machete making a souffle, I can see reincarnated Machete being drawn towards baking in his free time due to those residual feelings from his past life.

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hi ya'll! quick interest check ->

i'm thinking about hosting an mcyt-focused "art study month" in january, where each week there's a new "theme" for art studies/exercises to do, and you can compile them up at the end of each week and share how you've improved/what you've learned and we can all do it together!

i think it'd be really fun as a kickoff to the new year, where a lot of people are really focused on improving from last year but maybe are a bit directionless in how to do so.

i also wouldn't do daily prompts, simply a suggestion of different studies/things you can focus on each week and you get the freedom to adapt that to what you would like to do!

v funny that one of the various side effects of the pre-taped episodes is that previously we got the occasional live tweets and reactions from the cast, knowing they were directly experiencing (and reeling from) the shock and drama we were witnessing. vs now where they can't live tweet it anymore, but they HAVE been gifted the ability to rattle all of us to our core with a single tweet, having already had some time to process it and perhaps even know what happens after.

what im saying is. i respect this shift in power but also marisha what do you MEAN DDDD:

There are SIX SONGS in the season finale?? Let's goooo

I feel like if Dipper were ever reincarnated as a demon, he wouldn't fit in super well with the others. Yes, he's been raised to vie for power and step on everyone in his way using whatever means is necessary - it's the same toxic bizz as when he was a human, appealing to gender norms. He's tougher, scarier, more powerful (than ordinary humans, that is), but when it comes to asserting control - being Evil - he doesn't have it in him. Given enough time, I think he'd grow pretty vocal about leaving living things alone. NOT torturing organisms for the hell of it, or stealing people's souls, or conquering planets. Sure, he's a demon. That's no excuse to be a MONSTER.

It's a VERY unpopular opinion amongst neighboring demons, and rumor spreads fast about the Goody Two-Shoed Activist imp raining on everyone's blood-splattered parade, so much so that it makes it to Bill, who's immediately intrigued. Call it intuition, but only one soul's capable of overriding goddamn demon nature for some preachy bullshit about "Doing Good." Lucky for him, demons occupy the same plane of existence, so all it really takes to verify the guy is a snap of his fingers, and POOF! He's floating right next to him. Sure enough, Dipper's fashioned himself a new and improved demonic form, and it is lovely!

No one likes Dipper's kumbaya "Can't We All Just Get Along" ideology, but Bill's almost instantly smitten with the guy, whoever he is, so he's gotta be at least somewhat powerful. Demons take notice when the all-powerful Bill Cipher starts lending his time (and magic?) to some low-leveler like Dipper. Is he being blackmailed? Are they working together? No. Not possible. Bill doesn't "work" with anyone, save for whatever human catches his eye every few decades. Doesn't look to be doing him any benefit, either. The opposite, even. Lending power to a saint like Dipper only makes it harder to cause chaos, after all. Why would he actively go against his OWN best interest to cater some imp's? It's almost like he's. He's.

A henchmen.

(Bill's also 30% more affectionate the first month they reunite, because he still can't believe that his adorable little human husband came back as the same SPECIES as him! He'd never complain over having a sweet human to squeeze, but one with teeth and claws and cute pointy ears doesn't hurt).

Massive 4.2 Genshin Impact archon quest spoilers concerning Furina and her identity ahoy, but I kind of like the idea that like. After everything is said and done, when Neuvilette goes to Furina to tell her everything he saw, at the end of it he holds out his cupped hands and water condenses in them into a bubble.

Neuvilette tells her this was a gift, from Focalors. She had wanted to apologize. She knows she asked Furina to do something horrible. She knows she put her through the worst levels of hell and never even got to personally thank her after it all. With her execution, Furina's curse is broken, but she was forced to play a role for 500 years. 500 years. And that's. Something that is going to take a very very long time to unravel and work through. Years, at least.

So now, Focalors wanted to make her an offer. Longevity, not as a curse this time, but a blessing. Furina will not be immortal. But she will be able to take back the 500 years she lost and then some. She'll have plenty of time to rest, and then to heal, and then to do whatever she'd like. She can wander all of Teyvat by foot if that's what she wants, she'll have the time. She can go see every stage opera ever made. She can leave Fontaine for a generation or two or three and come back when she can start anew, when none of the humans will personally remember her.

She will have time to figure out who she is and what she wants to do. She can finally unearth all the things she buried over the last five centuries.

It's her choice, though. Neuvilette supports her either way. They find a pretty little bottle to put the water bubble in together, because Furina doesn't want to drink it just yet, she wants to think about it first. She's still going to leave for a while. Neuvilette supports that, too. But she takes the bottle with her, carefully wrapped up in cloth, and that's enough for him, just to know that she has the freedom of choice in her own life for perhaps the first time ever.

Male Dwarf Gourami (Trichogaster lalius). Total time: 6:31:02

I’ve actually kept these guys before, they’ve got a lot of personality for such a tiny fish! Mine was a big fan of the filter for some reason.

Watcher fans sure are entitled and a little insane, ngl. "No one is going to sign up for your service! We're all poor! You've made the worst decision, and you'll be back in no time!" Saying this directly to the creators really reminds you of how low the respect for people you don't personally know has gone. I miss the forth wall between creator and audience.

I get and fully understand not having the money to support them, but... Watcher does have fans with money. A lot of them actually. They have merch sales. Their live tour sells out most venues. They have thousands of supporters on Patreon, where the cheapest tier is $5. They're able to gauge the rough finances of their staunchest supporters; that's how they landed on the subscription price. Yes, this move will reduce their viewership in sheer numbers, but to say all of their fans are broke and none will follow/support is factually incorrect.

It may not be a decision everyone agrees with, but severing the limitations of advertisers and youtube in favor of artistic freedom is a good thing. Yes, even if it comes with a loss of revenue. They understand that risk.

Also, I'm begging people to stop treating this like "another Netflix" or something and instead look at it as, "I am supporting a creator I like, similar to Patreon." They literally said in the video that they don't care if you share accounts. Get five friends, and you'll pay $1/mo.

I hate feeling compelled to rant in favor of their decision because I have my own reservations about whether it's the best move. However, I know it's not a choice they made lightly, and I like to think they understand that they'll need to branch out like crazy to entice subscribers.