thinking about how the hunger games were designed to prove that without society, order, government, someone to rule, we devolve into little more than animals, and how the games themselves prove over and over again that this is not true. We see it in every single game we witness.

Katniss placing flowers around Rue's body in the arena. Thresh sparing Katniss because she was kind to Rue, even though he was making it that much harder for himself to win.

Haymitch going back for Maysilee after hearing her scream even though their alliance had been broken. Haymitch holding her as she dies the same way Katniss did Rue.

Coral's "I can't have killed them all for nothing" when she realizes she's not going home. Lamina cutting down Marcus at great personal risk. And, my favorite moment in tbosas, Reaper collecting the bodies of his fellow tributes, his peers, even the ones who tried to kill him, into a pile. Taking the weapons from their hands. Closing their eyes and crossing their arms in the best approximation of a proper burial he can manage, covering them with the Capitol flag as a makeshift shroud.

The Games bring out the worst in people, yes. But despite the extreme circumstances, despite the exterior pressure of the Capitol, despite the fact that it could mean pain and heartbreak and death, it also shows that people have an enormous capacity for goodness. That even in a situation purposefully designed to make empathy impossible, people can't help but have it anyway.

Snow looks at the Games and all he can see is what's inside himself-- this pure animalistic drive to conquer and defeat. He kills and it feels good and he thinks that everyone else must feel that way too. He doesn't realize (maybe can't realize) that he is the exception, not the rule. He cannot see outside himself, outside his own warped perspective, to realize that the fact that people do show humanity in the games proves his entire worldview wrong.

moments before disaster

I think it's very funny that people have cropped William-Adolphe Bouguereau's "Dante and Virgil" from 1850 for the sexy detail so much that it's possible people think Dante and Virgil ARE these subjects.

When in fact, Dante and Virgil are THESE guys standing to the side looking like a couple of scandalized queens. I love how he's got his robe over his mouth. "Oh my god. They are just Going at it over there."

Anyway this is the full painting!

There is a LOT of great little details in it. It's definitely a huge favourite of mine and not just for the homo eroticism.

They’re out of time (cancelled)

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Hmmm just gonna spit this headcanon out in text post form since A. I don't think I could exposit it well enough in image form and B. It's not actually textually/thematically substantiated and I don't like actually staking my stuff on just vibes alone*

But anyway. I'd say it's pretty evident that all the islanders forgot their names, right? King obviously. Because why the hell else would he do that, but also Siffrin No Middle Names No Last Name.

They're 'pretty sure' they've 'always' been 'Just Siffrin' 'as long as they can remember'. It's a pretty cruel twist of the knife to say that they don't even get to keep their birth name as a memento, which is why I'm saying as such.

My utterly unsubstantiated claim is I think it'd be cute to say that Sisyphus *is* the name Siffrin initially picked, assuming the myth of King Sisyphus is recontextualised as idk, just a play or something in the setting. But I like the idea of Siffrin going 'oh shit 🫵 he's just like me fr' at a tortured fictional character long before the irony kicks in.

As for how Sisyphus -> Siffrin. I think that chronic mumbler and emotional doormat Sif just did not correct people who misheard the name during their time travelling, and went through enough places with incompatible phonologies (pronounceable sounds in the language) without ever really writing it down that it just got kinda. Changed until it was unrecognisable, and Siffrin just went with it until the earlier pronunciations slipped out of their swiss-cheese brain. And they just kinda don't remember any of that.

Also, something something the horrid realisation that Siffrin also named themselves after a King. Just not as blatantly.

*(though I think there's something here about Siffrin, a guy from a belief system that seems to thoroughly disincentivise autonomy and self-motivated choice continuously having their hand forced to make changes/choices they don't want but have no choice but to... It's not solid enough to really back this up tbh, but it informs it.)

Anyway.

Anyway I'm still happy to have seen Hrid in FEH recently. Thank you for asking.

I think that the Thing that gets people about btvs when they talk about 'bad' characters and forgiving characters for their evil misdeeds is that the show is fundamentally about being a human... in completely unhuman conditions. Like especially when we talk about Spike and spuffy, there's always people asking 'but how can you excuse ___' and the thing is, its not about excusing certain behaviors, but rather giving them context that wouldn't exist in our world. Like spuffy s6 is super toxic- they hit each other, use each other, generally are abusive, and while that behavior is not excusable or forgivable, the context is that we have two characters who are literally mortal enemies trying to sort out complex human feelings for each other.

Its about taking flawed humans and putting them in fucked up situations AND THEN also taking away their soul, giving them a soul, giving them superhuman strength, giving them trauma that a human in the real world could never ever have because the supernatural conditions that perfectly aligned to fuck them over simply don't exist in reality. And in doing all of this, the show stretches the limits of the human condition, asks what ifs that we can't pretend to know the real answers to. Thats whats so great about the show, but also kinda hard to wrap your mind around, especially as a first time viewer

that fucking baby ate someone. okay!

it's so funny and so fucked up (and not just in the most immediately obvious way) but it's even funnier and more fucked up that THAT was chuck harm's first suggestion when VAL insisted it had to be something terrible. he's spent one day interning for her and he's already outperforming her.

some viktors in czech and polish folk costume and a less specific miscellany from the past few months :-) i have to draw very very small with this pen which feels appropriate for him

[id: two pages of digital drawings done with a fine pixel brush. the first image is a series of coloured drawings of viktor standing in a variety of costumes. common articles across the outfits are puffy white shirts, colourful breeches, embroidered waistcoats, and decorative flowers. in each drawing viktor is smiling and leaning on his cane. the second image is a selection of drawings of viktor standing and sitting in various poses, looking generally cheerful. in one he is sitting next to barbie, who is smiling at him. the text beside it reads ‘Barbie (they are friends)’. end id.]

OK but have we considered the possibility that kipperlilly didn't want to come back but only did because she didn't want to leave Lucy and then Lucy didn't do the same for her

Like I dont want to pledge to this rage god but I'll do anything if it's for you but you won't do the same for me

The boypussy art is having an small peak. Heres an remake i made some time ago so just i can throw this somewhere

everything about house md is a tragedy huh. everyone lies, everyone dies, and the world turns on. maybe the subtle horror in the show is irony. the misanthrope lives for one person. the oncologist develops terminal cancer. the prodigal son becomes the second coming of his godlike father figure. the dean of medicine defends her wild dog from harm only to get bit by him. no one at the hospital is healthy; they're all sick in their own ways.

in which family is complicated

saw this on twitter and decided its too wholesome to not be posted here

Some Tim stans r fucking crazy wtf

pearl is a really interesting case study to me of what low self esteem & self loathing does to a woman. she had literally every opportunity required for a successful life-wealthy parents who could have easily gotten her a 6 figure nepo position right out of college with very minimal effort on her part. and what did she decide to do instead? publicly humiliate herself every day for a (ever dwindling) audience of men who absolutely fucking despise her. it is quite literally the most pathetic thing I've ever seen. zero self respect. all young woman should see her as a warning against prioritizing and pandering to men.

people call her a failed grifter, and she is-but I do think she genuinely buys into the redpill drivel. she was never desperate enough for money that she would have to sell her soul and spout rhetoric she doesn't believe in. she's visibly near tears defending "mens rights" in some videos and unless she's secretly a naturally great actress I don't buy it all being manufactured for money & notoriety (what money lol, & the only notoriety she has is being a laughing stock amongst normal people AND the manosphere. she has literally ruined her reputation worse than any onlyfans girl, at least they hide behind a paywall and a fake name usually). with her view counts she's not making more than she would be at the cozy corporate job she COULD have had if she hadn't burned her bridges with her own mother, who now wants nothing to do with her on a professional level because she's the very "girlboss feminist breadwinner" that pearl claims is causing the downfall of humanity.

and that's not the only possible future she has assassinated for herself. she thinks a woman's role is to be barefoot in the kitchen birthing children & homemaking, but she's ruining her chance of doing that too bc the men she panders to do not want a woman who argues on the internet all day, even if it's in favor of things they approve of like taking away all of women's rights and blaming every problem in society on us. aside from parroting their beliefs she is literally everything they hate-a money & attention hungry, assertive, masculine, physically unattractive (in their eyes, certainly) unmarried woman over 25 with a history of sleeping around (and dating black men, how dare she date outside of her race?!?), who claims she has "high standards" as an excuse for why she isn't already married. they want an attractive, submissive, soft spoken and feminine young woman who is a virgin and has zero standards.

when I first encountered her I was furious, but that's faded. no point wasting anger on someone who has already secured her demise. she's the prime example of what internalized pandering to males at the expense of your self respect and pickmeism gets you as a woman. absolutely fucking nothing beyond a ruined reputation and the scorn of men and women alike. the most ironic part of all is that most of the "evil feminazi" women (usually not even feminists, just normie women who are not literally drowning in internalized misogyny) she debates are so far ahead of her in every possible life metric-they have actual careers, friends, self respect, confidence and usually are in stable relationships with men who wouldn't look twice at a pathetic sadsack like pearl. tragic, but I have no sympathy for her. this is entirely the result of her attempting to humiliate other women and it backfiring spectacularly.