im so mad that Noticing/Noticing Patterns is an alt right dogwhistle bc i really haven't found a better word for when i see interesting patterns in medias i like (i.e. tmnt 2012's Weirdness with black people, or ppl in gravity falls dunking on dipper for screaming/throwing/being "like a girl") and am uncomfortable with them but also recognize that they are part of greater patterns. am i making sense here

It's always, like, mildly annoying when people see a het trans couple and go "all that work just to be straight?" like... one, you don't know if they're straight and two, trans people don't owe you a queer sexuality to "make up" for the fact we're trans. Transhet people aren't a subtype of trans people, they're members of the trans community, and the queer one if they so desire!

Pharma's place in a Functionist society (headcanon)

So I've talked in some previous posts about all the reasons that Pharma isn't a functionist because canon never showed him espousing functionist ideals + he's actually in a place to be a victim of functionism. And I've been working on a Pharma-centric oneshot that made me put into words the best metaphor I can think of for Pharma's relationship with Functionism:

He doesn't support Functionism, but is simultaneously a beneficiary of it and also marginalized by it, because his position of being forged both a doctor and a jet basically turns him into a "token minority" of sorts.

I know that sounds kind of silly or maybe like a clumsy political allegory, but hear me out. There are a couple facts about Pharma and the circumstances of his forging that put him at the crossroads between privilege and marginalization within Functionism:

Tyrest says that Pharma was "famous for being forged." Not famous for being a forged medic-- otherwise surely Ratchet would be just as noteworthy-- but famous for being FORGED. But also, note that this is an opinion that SOCIETY had about Pharma, not something that Pharma espouses about himself. (For the sake of an example, Pharma isn't Starscream, who has an explicit, deep-seated need for others' love and approval. Pharma himself doesn't express any opinions on his own popularity or convey that fame/adoration is something he wants.)

Functionism on Cybertron held that if someone was born with a certain alt-mode, they can/should only have certain jobs. For people born with flight alt-modes, those people were almost always regulated to military or transportation/courier jobs

SIMULTANEOUSLY, Pharma was forged with medic hands, which under a Functionist society were viewed as the peak of medical care and all the best doctors were forged or at least had a "special something" that non-forged hands lacked (according to Ratchet).

So taken in combination, this means that from the moment of Pharma's birth, he straddled a line of Functionism between two different "predestined" paths for him, where he was simultaneously forged to be a doctor and also forged to fly, fitting into BOTH of these categories despite norms of Functionism which say you're one or the other. And I speculate that the reason Pharma is "famous for being forged" is precisely because of those lines he straddles: his very existence is a contradiction, but he was also FORGED that way. The same creed that dictated the two different functions of "hands" and "alt-mode" also says that Pharma should be what he was born to be. What he was born to be was a forged medic jet.

In my opinion, I think that being "famous for being forged" is sort of like a token-minority situation for Pharma, where perhaps Pharma was seen as a curiosity or even something exotic, not just as a person. Maybe because he was a jet and people assumed jets were only soldiers/transportation, a lot of his achievements were put in the light of "Oh, he's a really amazing doctor, for a jet" or "It's crazy that he's a doctor AND a jet at the same time". The attention Pharma received for the unique circumstances of his birth WAS positive, but it would've likely been framed in a bit of a condescending way, as if Pharma is noteworthy and famous not for being a good doctor, but for being a good doctor despite being born a jet.

So I would say that as far as Pharma's personal experience with Functionism, he simultaneously experienced privilege and marginalization. He enjoyed the privileges of being a medic while avoiding the restrictions of being a flight frame. However, a lot of the idolization and attention he received would have also come from a place of tokenizing Pharma: he's "famous for being forged," because in this society he's defying expectations merely for existing as himself. That is to say, Pharma in a Functionist society wasn't treated as remarkable because of who he is as a person and how hard he worked to be a good doctor; he was treated as remarkable for the circumstances of his forging, something he had no control over and can't change, and apparently Pharma being a forged medic jet is such a noteworthy origin that he's "famous" for it.

The above paragraph is purely headcanon, of course, but I like to imagine that part of Pharma's reason for having a big ego isn't out of simple vanity or insecurity, but because of a sort of "gifted student" syndrome, in a sense. From the moment he was forged he was treated as a rarity and an incredible phenomenon, and he would have had to work incredibly hard to be seen as "an incredible doctor" in his own right rather than just "that forged medic jet." Maybe, as a jet, he also had something to prove; he had to show to a Functionist society that being a jet doesn't make him an inferior doctor and that his alt-mode has nothing to do with his skills at his profession.

That is to say, I don't think Pharma would have been openly anti-Functionist, or had many opinions about it at all. I actually lean towards the interpretation that Pharma basically saw himself as getting lucky with the way he was forged and being content with the fact that he'd managed to carve out a reputation for himself as being incredibly skilled. However, Pharma not getting involved politically in Functionism doesn't change the fact that he WOULD have had a very complicated relationship with Functionism, in that alt-mode discrimination would have had an effect on him even though he was in the scientific/medical class and supposedly privileged.

didn't want to put this rant in the tags of that last post but honestly i feel like a lot of people hate toshiro disproportionately compared to what he actually did in-story. and if we're being real it's most likely because of racism

tiziano experiences a microaggression

note: that is not squalo ( you probably didn't assume it was but idk. nobody knows this character yet. anyways this is virginia. She is tizianos lesbian best friend (and housemate in this au) and of course she is an OC )

emilia's speech to desdemona in act 4 scene 3 is so fucking good. othello is such a good fucking play. what the fuck

Me, during Al Haitham’s world quest: *Sigh*. I miss my wife, Al Haitham. I miss her a lot. 

Al Haitham: *Laughs* 

Me, going back to the Tanit camp halfway through his quest to stand next to Jeht and pretend that I’m her girlfriend now: I’ll be back. 

.

also like. what makes me want to leave this fandom even more, besides taylor’s blatant disregard for the root cause of our gripe with her boyfriend problematty healy (saw someone use that on an anon ask lol that is brilliant btw), is the way some swifties have been slowly coming out of their racist woodworks to give us shit just for being upset. y’all love to preach that this fandom is about love and acceptance but it’s only within your terms. god forbid we treat taylor like an actual human and don’t sit quiet when she is openly associating herself with someone who has a pattern of making racist and misogynistic comments, comments that go against values she claimed to have in miss americana. don’t forget she’s letting that man perform in sold out stadiums (as is phoebe bridgers, who is certainly not off the hook for me either) for thousands of her poc fans like me that paid good money to see her. even if they weren’t dating, she is still giving him a massive public platform, despite having seen the things he’s said and done when given such a platform.

and more importantly it’s not just taylor’s complacence that’s making it so much more exhausting and painful to be in this fandom, it’s the select swifties that are amplifying that complacence just because they can’t handle seeing their fave get slandered even when it’s 100% valid. seeing y’all stoop so low that you’re saying we need to “consider the context” when this man says he gets off on the brutalization of black women, or that it’s “just satirical” when he does a nazi salute, is my last fucking straw. these swifties wanna jump on the enabling racism train with taylor and still expect this fandom to stay a safe space for poc fans? yeah no i’m done. i’ve had enough.

eventually i'll clean this up and paint it properly and make it my custom portrait in game, but just wanted to try and figure out what this guy looks like

Lark (he/him), my wrath of the righteous character. rogue knife master, urchin, tiefling of uncertain heritage, chaotic neutral at the moment but will probably head in the good direction

anime fans prove for the 1000th time they are incapable of not being racist for 2 seconds

oh yeah i forgot to talk about probably the most bizarre part of the concert. so im with my friend at the merch table and im looking at the stickers that are 2 for 5 dollars and my friend without a beat starts saying "2 for 5 dollar" in like. THE most offensive asian caricature voice and i was so stunned that i spent like 2 minutes holding up the line to argue with him as to why he cannot do a voice like that as a non-asian especially around someone like ME and i think he felt so bad about it by the end that he wordlessly payed for all the merch i was going to buy

it’s just weird to see so many people constantly bring up the fact that edwina is 1/4 white whenever they compare edwina and kate in anyway. there is definitely the underlying implication that edwina is not brown enough or something. and this insistence to label and quantify how brown a person is not only weird, it is very much based on american-centric race discourse. 

@lykaiia​

“So, do you get dog treat cravings, or—” Luke blurts out, glancing at the form changer from the other side of a campfire. He’s less bothered by this than he should be, probably. But it was hard to phase someone who’d already died once. Besides, she didn’t seem like she wanted to eat him, or anything. Then again, maybe replicas weren’t edible? They tended to just fade into nothing after they died, so they’d probably just...

Luke makes a face at the thought, drawing his leg up a little to rest his arm on it.

your bio just says "I have no friends or life outside the internet. also my dad left me"

don't worry you'll grow out of it and cringe about this phase looking back

normally i dont answer direct hate anons but this is really funny to me to so ill give a genuine response. just for you bby <3 anyways are you. are you aware that you literally just told a black girl that youre deciding her dad must have left her based on her bio 😭😭 yeah let me grow out of my melanin real quick LMAOOOOO. anon the tsa just had all of their racism and xenophobia leaked out to the public, xenophobia that resulted in ACTUAL CHILDREN being considered TERRORISTS for being born into certain ethinicity and religious groups, and youre busy pulling the "i bet you dont have a dad" card on some mixed girl running a minecraft roleplay analysis blog because she thinks people should stop being mean to some catgirl THAT HACKED THE TSA bc its queer in a way they dont approve of.

im really, so truly, definitely not lying, very sorry, but that is extremely immature of you and youre the one who needs to grow up if you think that your behavior is okay. being mean and hateful to people because youre upset that they dont agree that the queer community should be full of infighting and minorities oppressing each other when there are bigger things to worry about is.. fucked up! youre literally sending hate anons over this! thats really sad! imagine sending anon hate telling someone else theyll grow out of showing basic respect and kindness. lol. lmao

what is it called when people hold principles in large, sweeping ideas but not in small, everyday actions