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I can't properly put into words the amount of disgust that I feel seeing someone who looks like she could be my cousin fight for a genocidal occupational force like Israel but I will say this.

If you are Chinese, Korean, Japanese or any one of these Asian ethnicities that the West deem "acceptable" and you align yourselves with western-backed racial supremacy, you are making fools of yourselves. You have fallen prey to the myth of the "model minority" and you are suckers for it.

The premise of racial supremacy is based on exclusivity. And here's a dose of reality - the myth of the "model minority" is nothing but a tactic to placate you. To sow divide in the ranks of people of colour. To artificially manufacture another realm of racial supremacy in minorities so that you're distracted from how we all suffer under colonialism.

Did we all forget about the skyrocketing of sinophobia in the wake of the first COVID outbreak? The transformation of Chinese people into fiends with barbaric eating customs, poor hygiene, and mass conspiracy to infect the world with biological weapons?

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What about the hate-crimes? The attacks in the street against anyone visibly asian? The rampant discrimination and ostracisation from society?

In 2020, Donald Trump referred to COVID-19 as "The Chinese Virus", "Kung-flu" at a campaign rally to raucous applause, a chilling echo of the times where fears of the "Yellow Peril" had the western world in a stranglehold.

For all that Chinese people have been lauded as "prodigies" and "well-mannered workers", the moment our existence was incovenient, were were nothing more than another target. And although Chinese suffering then wasn't close to the scale of suffering that Palestinians now endure, we all received a reminder on what it was like to be in the world's crosshairs.

Now, in 2023, Biden dismisses death tolls as unreliable and remains proudly Zionist even after Netanyahu described the genocide Israel is inflicting upon Palestine as the "struggle between the children of light and the children of darkness, between humanity and the law of the jungle." At the same time, Palestinians are being compared to fleeing rats in a gesture of dehumanisation that mirrors how the Nazis portrayed Jews during the Holocaust.

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And let's not think Abigail's Jewishness will save her, not when it's been proven that Israel has administered contraceptives to Ethiopian Jewish immigrants without their consent. Racial supremacy is an exclusive club that never stops getting smaller, and there is nothing that you, as a minority, will ever be able to do to fit in. One day, you too will be a target and there'll be nothing you can do but blame yourself. After all - it's already happened.

So shame on Abigail. Truly. With the memory of knowing what it's like to be targeted for factors out of your control fresh in her mind, she happily fights to do the same to others. And that says more about her than I ever will be able to.

ok but why did rockstar give charles the slayest outfit ever for the saint denis robbery like that little bow around his neck actually keeps me awake at night

Before any of y'all could begin to dunk on Olly, may I remind you all that Israel once urged the BBC to pull out Olly Alexander for petitioning against Israel's participation in Eurovision since last year.

I get what Queers for Palestine is urging him to do but to put him in the pedestal ALONE like that and not call out for all the other artists (or at least the other LGBTQ artist) is just so infuriating. And the worst part of it is, whatever he does will not be enough for them. He already release a statement and it wasn't enough for them (it had likely gone through many revisions in order to get past the BBC). Had he remained silent, people would start accusing of of being complicit despite the fact he's been vocally pro-Palestine from the beginning.

Also, I feel like people are not getting the financial and legal consequences of him or any of the other artist just withdrawing all willy-nilly especially since they are all under contract with the broadcasters*. Like, some of them might be working part-time job, some like Silia are still in High School, some literally have music as their only source of income and we all know that's not enough to cover the legal fees and potential lawsuits that would entail. Also, there's a huge risk of being blacklisted, not only in the broadcaster from ever returning to the song contest, but also in the entire music industry, which is already hard to enter/make it. On top that, poorer countries like Albania or Moldova just couldn't afford to do that and jeopardize everything.

It's literally just impossible to win.

This whole mess is a lose-lose situation where nobody but Israel wins. Like, if they do withdraw, that's exactly what Israel wants because less competition for them. But if they compete, that's also what Israel wants because it meant validation of them being there even thought everyone wanted them gone.

All and all, this is literally the EBU's fault by allowing Israel compete in the first place. They literally created a impossible situation where, one way or another, the artist will be thrown under the bus.

Tl:dr... BLAME THE EBU, NOT OLLY!

Edit: * I just really need to put the one out there.

every so often i get possessed by my childhood friends dead on main au and i turn to danny like a specter and froth at the mouth over him, and i get weirdly poetic. Like oh? Oh? Did crime alley do a number on you, kid? Did it turn you into something that bites? Something cruel, that claws? And kicks? Are you something full of grief, tainted and smeared with the oilsin of Gotham? You're not getting that off, scrub all you like Macbeth, it's not coming off. Oh, you're submissive? No, no, you're submissive like a dog on a chain is, are you wearing your muzzle? Oh, you took it off? Are you going to bite? Better make it hurt then. You better make them bleed. Better clamp on so tight they have to pry you off. You better take some skin with you. You're not the gun, guns don't hurt people. The bullet does, are you the bullet? You better be, if anything, Crime Alley raised you to be nothing else. What's your trigger, my friend? Whose gun are you in?

Idk if I ever said this out loud, but I’m from Maryland (well the DMV) and a chunk of my childhood was spent in the suburbs of Maryland. I remember seeing the cicadas episode of COTC for the first time and it felt like I was going back in time to when I was a kid.

Although my childhood was very different from a lot of kids in the show, I think it’s one of the few shows where I feel like I truly see myself in it. Especially as a black girl and I know that if I was still a kid I would still love it as much as I do now.

So yea…seeing this Warner Bros. situation really fuckin hurts to see.

Like idk how else to put it. It’s just heartbreaking. I hate seeing people lose their jobs, their shows, their fuckin work, for some dudes at the top to make a quick buck. It absolutely enrages me and it’s something I’ve ranted and cried about to my sister. And I’ve seen many people around my age and younger say that they might step away from the animation industry for something more stable. And sometimes I wonder myself if I’m going the right path, and if pursuing the animation industry is worth the risk. And y’know what…I do think it’s worth the risk. Art and more specifically animation is quite frankly the love of my life. It’s helped me get through life in so many ways and I just don’t know where the hell I’d be if I didn’t have it. There’s so much love put into these shows and shorts and movies. From writing to concepts and characters, to sound design and effects, like I love it all, and it’s my dream to be a part of it all, no matter how small the role is. My sister told me that moments like this (where corporations try to fuck over craftsmen and they care more about a product than people) never end well for those mfs, especially in art, because artist won’t take that shit sitting down. And I’d like to think she’s right. That we won’t take this shit sitting down, that whether your a causal viewer or someone who wants to make a career in animation, we’re gonna be like “man fuck this shit you gonna respect me” and actually square up with these companies that think they can just throw ppl away and fuck people over. Animation isn’t nothing, creators aren’t nothing. I know it’s a hard fight to go up against but I don’t think it’s impossible to fight, and it’s something I wanna help fight in. I think the animation industry and the workers involved are worth fighting for and I know I’m definitely not alone in this thought.

I don’t know of any of this makin any sense but honestly I just wanted to speak from the heart.

If you’re reading this and you worked on Craig of the Creek or were a part of the creative teams under Warner Bros. or Netflix or whichever big animation studio (miraculously lol but you never know whos reading i guess) and you were laid off, from the bottom of my fuckin heart, thank you and I’m sorry. Y’all put so much hard work and creativity and love and dedication into the shows you worked on and I have so much respect for y’all for doin what you do. Y’all aren’t nothing, y’all aren’t garbage to be tossed away and you shouldn’t be treated as such. And I know y’all have a big and bright future ahead.

Keep supporting animation

Keep watching and loving animation

Keep fighting for animation

Redrew the cover for the magical turnabout <3

og and timelapse under the cut

Is this what Happiness is?

- hey so I haven't seen an interpretation of the bar scenes in Half that I fully agree with, so I wanted to throw my own two cents out there into the void and pray that it makes sense !!!

so, in the bar scenes in Half we see what I interpret as a hangout with old friends (or, hangout with old friend + his wife.) These scenes used to be the biggest piece of evidence for the cheater theory, but now that that's been debunked by the man himself, I have a new way of looking at them

~ before I go any further, I just wanted to say that I'll be calling the brown-haired woman whiskey for simplicity's sake

In this scene, Kazui turns to look at Whiskey, saying the lyrics:

"laughing together, side by side, this distance in our relationship is misleading me, is this what happiness is?"

With my guess (cuz that's really what it is there's no evidence for it) that Whiskey is the Bartender's wife i think this scene is Kazui being conflicted with what he's been told is true, that marrying Hinako is "true love", versus what he feels is true, that marrying Hinako has brought distance into their relationship.

He looks at Whiskey, a woman happily married, and wonders why his relationship with Hinako isn't like that.

~ shout out to @prisoner-000 for the following screenshot

in this post he points out that Hinako and Kazui's rings are silver in Cat, not gold like they were in Half, yet Bartender's ring colour stays the same.

For the sake of this writing I'm going to go with the first meaning they put out, that Bartender's ring is gold because his marriage is genuine.

But wait!! I hear you ask. This is Half and Kazui's ring is still gold in Half!! EXACTLY MY FRIEND!!

Kazui's ring IS still gold in Half because at the time of these scenes he's still fooling himself that this relationship is good, that he will eventually garner real romantic feelings for Hianko.

"laughing together, side by side, this distance in our relationship is misleading me, is this what happiness is?"

Remember this lyric that plays during the Whiskey -> Hinako scene. You know what other scene in Half this lyric reminds me of?

laughing together, side by side,

this distance in our relationship is misleading me,

is this what happiness is?

He's beginning to doubt if what he believes is true, he's beginning to believe the feelings telling him something's wrong (and remember, the scene right after this one is when he confesses (?) his secret to Hinako) ARE infact true, and that maybe the logic he's been following for so long has a couple holes in it.

I think these scenes are meant to show Kazui gradually realising that his relationship with Hinako will not work out. It just won't, no matter how hard he tries.

He's able to laugh together and talk with Whiskey because she's his friend, yet he can't do the same with his own wife? Even though, according to his gold ring, their relationship is supposed to be real and true and genuine?

WHY CYBERPUNK DEADBOY IS ACTUALLY RELEVENT TO RUI'S EVENT (to stop misinformation)

Ok I'm doing this cause I fell for it too and like I know 99 pourcent of the pjsk fandom is on twitter but I don't want this misinformation to spread here.

Especially when Becoming Potatoes got hit with the same "it doesn't fit the event or character !!" beam

CYBERPUNK DEADBOY IS ACTUALLY RELEVENT TO RUI'S EVENT and that's for one big reason that everyone has missed.

Oohara is confirmed in the story to be basically exploiting younger talents for his works, the only reason why everyone missed is that it's only revealed in one scene and they don't actually adress this issue in the actual event

Here is the scene in question :

In that same chapter it's pointed how poorly managed the whole thing is with Tsukasa even getting mad at Rui for not checking earlier on.

There is also the obvious fact the younger people ended up quitting probably due to poor treatment.

And if this doesn't convince you somehow, the story pretty much hands this "twist" to you on a silver plate with the scene of Rin watching the movie.

So no the event isn't "oh Rui is just learning from a movie director" it's setting up how corrupt the industry is.

The main reason why it wasn't addressed in the event is probably because we'll get this issue shown through Sakaki who is now interested by Rui and is friend with Oohara meaning he probably adopts the same corrupt beliefs.

I understand some people skip through stories one time and it is literally one scene which if you kinda skim through it, it is possible to kinda miss the red flags.

The main reason why the comm is the way that it is, is because the event is actually pointing at how corrupt the industry is, it's just doing it very subtly and in the background.

But yeah, I keep seeing people saying how unrelated the event is but like it's very much not the case but I understand why people misunderstand.

heehee (pepstavo under the cut)

and lemme touch y’all’s hand when I say this…when I say you are not special, I mean that. Meaning I don’t write or reblog with ur feelings in mind. This is my blog where every insane, intrusive and inappropriate thought can come spewing out at any given moment. Where my stories are a love letter to myself and the other blk women I write for. I am not a machine meant to constantly pump fics out for your enjoyment. I am a regular girl who uses this as my lil safe space of the hellscape we call the internet. Some of y’all got the game fucked up in thinking that being a writer is who we are and not just something we do. If you don’t like the way I or someone else uses this space, then leave the same way you came. I suffer from ADHD burnout horribly and I may go for days at a time without posting actual work bc my brain is in a fog and I can’t focus. When it begins to feel like a chore, I back out for a few days and if that’s not acceptable, then I truly don’t know what to tell you. Not apologizing for that shit.

Everyone is always like "we can always fangirl together" and then if I mention any of my faves it's "who?" Or straight up "him?!" And asking me to talk about someone else 😐

Alina didn’t choose to have her powers taken from her and she didn’t intend for them to be lost. You can’t say Alina chose her ending when the ending was deliberately forced on her without her consent, and she is actively upset by this.

It has been said before and I will say it again:

Alina explicitly wants her power in the books. She has conflicting feelings on it, which is normal, but does on multiple occasions admit to herself as well as others that she likes the power, that she wants it, and that she does not wish to lose it.

This is not due to a lack of conceptualizing Alina liking her powers and Alina’s greed for power as separate things. This has nothing to do with Alina’s greed. Outside of Alina’s greed for power, she comes to love this part of herself she neglected all her life because she was raised by people who could not understand her and who taught her to be wary of her own people and culture, so much so that she subconsciously avoided dealing with who she actually was.

Equating Alina’s power with her greed is exactly what those oppressing grisha do in justification for their hate crimes. You are using the same logic as a cast of people set on genocide and oppression. Not to mention the direct connection between grisha being based on jewish persecution and how the thing that defines grisha is equated with greed, which is a highly common antisemitic depiction of jewish people.

Alina is the ethnic jew raised by goyim. She is the repressed queer child of homophobic parents. She is everybody who only got to realize and express themselves after finding and connecting with their community late in life.

A story about a persecuted minority hunted because of what makes them different ending with your main character, who is a part of that minority, losing that piece of themselves and being forced to assimilate, is incredibly problematic. And anybody who makes this criticism about “Alina choosing” forgets that Alina is a character who’s only choices are those made for her by the person who wrote her.

Another thing that people constantly misrepresent is that Alina is not happy to be stripped of her powers at the end, and explicitly expresses sadness, grief, rage, and anger about the loss of her powers. This is separate from her finding happiness despite her grief, but the grief never goes away. Which means that anybody saying she was happy to lose her powers or chose to do so is factually incorrect. Her agency is stripped from her in the end.

She doesn’t get to choose the peaceful life because the peaceful life is chosen for her. This is not a natural ending to a meaningful character arc of self realization. This is the regressive and brutal shafting of a character who’s arc was abused at every turn, and who’s actual development was walked backwards. Not because of her powers but because she is prevented from ever finding peace with her powers by the narrative.

She doesn’t have to fight a war ‘because of her powers’. She has to fight a war because her people are fucking oppressed. Laying the blame on what makes her different instead of the people who have singled her out because she is different indicates a severe lack of understanding in regards to racism, persecution, and oppression.

Her powers didn’t become so corrupt that they failed her in the end. She didn’t see the consequences and choose peace to avoid them because she wasn’t allowed to see anything at all. Her path was decided for her before she could even look down the other.

People focus on Alina and her powers because that is the story. It is a story about realizing something crucial about yourself that has been kept from you and repressed your whole life. It is an incredibly important story to tell. It is a coming of age story about self realization and self actualization and finding agency after a life where you realize you had none.

Blaming Alina being grisha for why she is stripped of her grishaness is fundamentally flawed argument. If the greed for power was what was supposed to be punished, then she would only have lost that which she sought in her greed. And if a balance needed to be reached, then there would be just as many sun summoners as shadow summoners in the world. Because she lost more than that and because of the discordance in thematic symbolism, the message becomes a punishment not for “greed” (which shouldn’t have even been the message in the first place for a plot and setting like this), but for something else. It becomes a punishment for her being grisha and coming to love and accept herself for it. It becomes a punishment of reveling in one’s difference. It becomes a statement about living outside of the boxes society tries to place people in. It becomes a message about oppression and assimilation on the side of oppression and assimilation.

The most important criticism about the ending will always be about the framing of Alina losing her powers. Alina choosing peace and love over power as a message would only have been able to work if Alina had been able to choose it. And to do so she would have had to choose it when she still had her powers. That is the only progression her developmental arc of “choosing peace and love” could have taken if it didn’t want to become regressive and strip her completely of her agency.

Self-indulgent vent art (tw/cw for abandonment talk)

Ah, the reason why I got so attached to specifically Ink when I was first getting into UTMV (or at least one of the reasons)

I might end up deleting this later

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okay, aaron hotchner scenario bc i missed him <3

arranged marriage/period au?

one day your parents announce you that you are going to get married to a man named aaron hotchner, who you know nothing about (lmfao i know this sounds like the ‘my mom sold me to one direction’ trope 💀). anyway. you have never met him so you imagine him as an ugly old man who you will feel disgusted to even look at.

but theeeen when it’s time to be introduced to husband-to-be you’re met with a gorgeous 😩😩 tall dark haired man and your heart starts beating sooooo fast immediately <3

and he’s such a gentleman, treats you with respect and has great manners 🦋🦋

but you keep acting as if you don’t like him 🙄 bc you didn’t have a say in this marriage and you’re still upset about it.

okay now to the main thought ❤️ it’s your wedding night and you’re sooooooo nervous. you’re literally about to pass out and aaron notices. when you’re alone for the first time in your new bedroom he gets closer to you and brushes his fingers against your cheek and makes you look at him 🫠 and he asks if you’re scared. so you say that you’re terrified but you don’t mean it like that. it’s just because you’re already madly in love with him when you don’t want to be.

and he says “what kind of man do you take me for? do you think i’d ever touch you without your consent?” and pulls away…and you’re just standing there like wait come back here rn

so you tell him “but i’m your wife. i agreed to it.”

and he comes closer again and grabs your chin softly (😩🦋) and says “if i ever touch you, it will be because you want me to. if you’re not trembling with desire for me, then i have no interest in going to bed with you”

What Libraries look like for Mike Schmidt

When his parents were still around he loved to take Abby to the library. She doesn't remember - she was too small then - but he definitely does.

Lot's of his time after school and on weekends involved taking her to group readings and activities for toddlers (babies?).

He gets lot's of unprompted advice from other parents.

It doesn't hit him that they thought he was a teen dad until much later. But he's appreciative of it anyway since he is the one raising Abby.

Carrying Abby in his arms about to leave when he spots the little section of books in the corner about planes. He can't help but stare at it a little longer. Wonder why that is!

It's definitely about Garrett.

He feels guilty at times when he's having fun with Abby, a part of him thinks that these moments should have been with Garrett. How maybe if Abby wasn't around then just maybe-

He knows these thoughts aren't healthy and he loves his sister to death, so into the vault that thought goes!

When Mike starts to work and live on his own with Abby, library visits slow down to an extremely slow pace.

No time to go but on the rare occasion that they do he enjoys to see how Abby's taste in literature changes as she grows into her own person. Gives him bouts of nostalgia and hope for their future.