The Enemy of Mine... Isn't He of Your Kind?

tragedy enjoyers when a character perpetuates the cycle of violence they themselves were a victim of

pumpkin in the rain

The fact that this is completely incomprehensible to me makes it funnier than if I could understand it

skill issue. i understand it completely

— TOM CLARK

Yellowflowers for @alienducky 💛💛💛

No but EVERY TIME I go back to the umbara arc Appo is just. There. You're quiet and unassuming and your usual commanding officers kind of ignore you and you're probably OK with that given the chaos they drag the captain into. And then you have a new temporary general who visibly hates your people but keeps you at his side, safe and out of the fighting even when you prompt him to send you and your people down as reinforcements, and this general calls everyone by number EXCEPT you. He knows your name. He uses it frequently, as an example to other clones, and you can see the anger stewing on their faces but what can you do? You're a clone. You follow orders. And at least when it's all over and you turn on the general as a unit, you don't have to be there for the execution. Maybe nobody trusts you but you hope it's because they're back to not thinking about you. Umbara is over and you go back to obscurity and you can't tell who still thinks about it, about the role you played, about how the silent backup who never has to go out in front is still who you are but this time nobody is playing favorites about it.

And then you're promoted at the end of the war, as your captain goes off to lead his own unit, and you're probably thrilled. You probably think "maybe i can earn this, make it up to the clones who I hurt before. I'll do this right."

And then your orders come down, and your first major act as a leader is to massacre children, and before you felt like you had no choice but now - now you don't even have the option of wondering if you have a choice, because these orders are telling you this is what you wanted all along.

H-hey now.

self-destruct

Nobody's ever been there for me, except for you. And I can't lose that. I cannot lose my family.

if you love downloading pdfs you are likely to never use again you have GOT to get into knitting

if you like opening tabs and downloading files. by god is ravelry the website for you

The troopers deserve 70s era short shorts

AFFIRMATIONS

STAR WARS: EPISODE II - ATTACK OF THE CLONES (2002) dir. George Lucas

Missing you already Pencil, pen, scissors & elmer glue inspired by across the open blue sky (Fox/Cody)

First art I've done in over 10 years, and in a style I've never tried before, but I think it came out nice

I've acquired a creature that stares at you no matter which direction you look at it from

I’m hypnotized 

it drives me bonkers the way people don’t know how to read classic books in context anymore. i just read a review of the picture of dorian gray that said “it pains me that the homosexual subtext is just that, a subtext, rather than a fully explored part of the narrative.” and now i fully want to put my head through a table. first of all, we are so lucky in the 21st century to have an entire category of books that are able to loudly and lovingly declare their queerness that we’ve become blind to the idea that queerness can exist in a different language than our contemporary mode of communication. second it IS a fully explored part of the narrative! dorian gray IS a textually queer story, even removed from the context of its writing. it’s the story of toxic queer relationships and attraction and dangerous scandals and the intertwining of late 19th century “uranianism” and misogyny. second of all, i’m sorry that oscar wilde didn’t include 15k words of graphic gay sex with ao3-style tags in his 1890 novel that was literally used to convict him of indecent behaviour. get well soon, i guess…

I saw a review of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall that said ‘I can’t believe people think this was a feminist book’.

Like, do you know how swooningly, outrage-causingly shocking it was that the main character slammed her bedroom door in her abusive husband’s face? Do you have any idea how unthinkable it was that she denied him access to her space and her person? She was supposed to submissively look away while he turned their son into an alcoholic for his own amusement and seduced innocent young women! It was revolutionary in 1848; when Bronte (Anne) wrote it, she had to do so under a male psuedonym because publishers wouldn’t accept works by women unless they were harmless pap, which was all that was thought suitable for women to read lest their mild and gentle minds be corrupted.

The reason these groundbreaking books of history seem to tame and understated now is because they worked. They raised the bar, pushed the agenda forwards, cleared the path for the next writer. They did exactly what they were supposed to. Time is linear. History moves forward. We make progress.

When you are old, if things happen as they ought, a future generation of teenagers will read The Hate U Give and Simon and the Homo Sapiens’ Agenda and Speak and think to themselves ‘why did anybody ever think this was contraversial? Why did they ban them? These are just things we talk about, these are things we deal with like normal people. What was the past like, and how do we stop from backsliding into a place where these things are considered shocking again?“

I really hope that’s how it goes.

First rule of literary analysis: the analyst cannot judge a past work by modern standards or ethics. Doing so leads to faulty comprehension, straw man fallacies, and lazy logic and analysis. We must always consider the work within the broader frameworks of the history, culture, and events that shaped it.

I had a roommate in college that hated Jane Austen because the protagonists always ended up marrying men and it was such a wrong signal to send to young women that marriage is the only goal. I stared at her for a full minute before screaming WHAT IN THE BUTTERFLY BISCUIT F—?

What’s hilarious is that the entire year I knew her she would vehemently deny that she was a feminist. Because feminists were man-hating harpies! She just believed in equality. So…. there’s that.

Still, it surprised me to hear her say that about Austen’s books given the era they were written in. I even tried to explain this to the roommate but she wouldn’t have it. Apparently Jane should have written about them all getting jobs to live independently.

Historical context is important, children.

Honestly I should talk about the ace experience more. I don’t see enough. Like–obviously it’s dehumanizing to be repeatedly compared to robots or aliens but uh…sometimes it feels like that?? 

My husband will get all horny while I’m, I don’t know, changing out of sweaty gardening clothes. And I’ll be like, “But we have to make lunch?? I stink? Now is not a good time?? Logic?” And clearly it’s not about logic to him. He is experiencing the entire scenario very differently. And I’m here like, 

Or the times where you realize that like, having an actual physiological reaction to attractive people is not some enculturated metaphor, and people are actually doing that all around you all the time, and you’re like, Ah, clearly my studies of human culture have been incomplete. I have missed a critical psychosocial component. Many things now appear in a different light. *takes notes on holopad*

The notes on this post are just a shitload of aces going…I don’t get it. Or sometimes for a bit under very special circumstances I get it, or almost get it, and then I’m like “Wow this is a huge energy drain; you guys live like this?” Or just, “Totally baffling truly an alien species why would you lick someone?” And I am feeling the kinship in this here post.

a friend of mine once said “Wow! You must get so much done!”

to which i replied “No, no, I still have depression.”

I made this post two years ago and this is maybe the funniest addition in all that time.

Life path unlocked. He’s a scientist now.

If your dad is telling you in great detail about something he’s passionate about, you’re going to be hooked even if you don’t understand a word.

He tells us more…

So now I have to deliver a quiet lecture on the Standard Model every night. He loves lists of things, like all the streets home from daycare, or the train stations between here and Central, so he loves hearing the list of leptons and quarks and bosons.

Anyway, I made this poster for him, based on the CPEP ones we used to have at uni . 

Alas I ran out of room for antimatter, colour charge and confinement, but hey, maybe there can be a second poster later.

It’s funny though — on the surface of it, it seems like it must be far too advanced for a 3yo. But when you think about it, quarks and leptons are no more or less real to him than, say, dinosaurs or planets, and he loves those too. And he recognises the letters on the particles.

I am absolutely overwhelmed by the kind and sweet things people are saying about this, thanks everyone ❤️

Addendum: he has really grasped onto the “everything is made of atoms” part of this, so tonight he listed just about every object he could think of and asked if it was made of atoms.

“And my bed?” Yes, and your bed. “And that wall?” Yep. “And the armchair?” Yes, the armchair too. … … “And… the book case?” Y—

“And my home?” Yep, the whole apartment block. “And your home? Oh wait, your home is my home.” Haha, it is. … … “But is it made of atoms?” Yep. “And… [best friend]’s home?” Yes, it is. And [other friend]’s home, and [third friend]’s home.

“Is [yet another friend]’s home?”

Update from the other night:

“Is my… is… [extremely long pause] is my atoms poster made up of atoms?” —Yes! Yes it is.

I have never heard such a contemplative silence. I think the next poster will have to be on the philosophy of referential language.

Update from this morning: after listing everything in sight (mummy? daddy? fridge? milk? cereal? table? etc.) he asks “is [baby sister] made up of atoms?”

yep!

*runs over to her on the floor* *puts face up real close to hers* “HI! YOU’RE MADE UP OF LOTS OF ATOMS! DID YOU KNOW?”

@radioactivepeasant @themagdalenwriting @iusedtohaveanaccount

“HI! YOU’RE MADE UP OF LOTS OF ATOMS! DID YOU KNOW?”