mdzs is life

Kei | 20+ | 1/2 of the Dapper Duo 👗 My langblr is @alanguageaday. You can find me on AO3 and Twitter as Itabane. Prompts are currently open!

[busket]

important that you never forgive ice agents, ever. even years after all this is over (and I do believe we will make it out on the other side, alive and for the better,) they live in shame and disgrace forever. no excuses, no forgiveness. they ruined their own lives when they decided that human freedom and liberty was an acceptable sacrifice for a paycheck

[brightlotusmoon]

[assumptionprime]

[plushdablush]

Random thing for people to consider is that since Laika is the saint of one way trips should Felicette be known as the saint of safe landings since she did make it back to the ground safely

[somefishycat]

tu LANCES félicette ? tu lances son corps comme la fusée ? oh ! oh ! prison pour les scientifiques ! prison pour les scientifiques pendant Un Mille Ans !

[bug-yogurt]

You can understand the French perfectly fine with only context but the English translation I got still had me floored

[david-talks-sw]

George Lucas & Karen Traviss' visions of Star Wars are NOT the same...

So whenever I come across this image:

I keep in mind that it's from a book written by Karen Traviss, who is a brilliant author (I adored Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines and Sacrifice) but whose stance on Anakin, Yoda & the Jedi and Star Wars morality is this:

As opposed to George Lucas' stance on Anakin, Yoda & the Jedi and Star Wars' morality, which is this:

In a children's story about Light and Dark, good and evil, selflessness vs selfishness, George Lucas marks the Empire as absolutely evil and the Rebels as absolutely good, in the Original Trilogy.

In the Prequels, the situation is more complex (the Jedi are drafted into a war and forced to do things they know they shouldn't be doing, but have to for the greater good; the Sith bring about order to a corrupt government) but the morality stays the same... the selfish, greedy Sith are absolutely evil and the selfless, compassionate Jedi are absolutely good.

That's George's thesis.

And, as a character, Yoda's function is to deliver that thesis. It's no wonder why Lucas treats Yoda's words as absolutely correct:

Yoda is Lucas' mouthpiece in the Prequels, his self-insert.

George Lucas' narrative frames Yoda as objectively right.

So when Karen Traviss questions the Jedi, particularly Yoda's character and wisdom, she's disagreeing with George Lucas' thesis.

Which is fair. Traviss, is a different person than Lucas, she's an ex-journalist with a more "grey" view of the world and a different philosophy re: fiction aimed at children. "Death of the author" and all that. Again, fair enough.

And if you like Travis' interpretation and philosophy more than George's, if her read resonates with you more... also fair enough.

But the EU is not a reliable source on Lucas' vision.

I've talked about this in MUCH more detail here, but if you do care about George Lucas' vision, then maybe don't draw from the Expanded Universe, which includes content written by authors who expressly disagree with him, like Traviss.

Sounds logical, but for some reason people will read the above-posted Dooku quote and treat it as reflective of Lucas' vision, when it's not the case.

George Lucas' Dooku doesn't have an issue with Yoda or the Jedi (at least not openly, as Darth Tyranus, the Sith Lord he wants them all dead). Dooku's issue is with the Senate and the Republic.

George Lucas specifically added that most Jedi share Dooku's concerns. Before he's revealed to be a mass-murdering, Sith who enslaves neutral systems, the Jedi think he makes a good point and are even reluctant to consider him a murder suspect.

But let's not start saying that Lucas' Prequels are meant to be about "the Jedi's failure" and "Dooku being right that the Jedi are corrupt.

Because that's not the case.

If that's how you see them, great. It's certainly how Traviss saw them. To each their own, authorial intent be damned.

But it's not what they were about, to Lucas. Stating the contrary is... I dunno, lying? Rewriting history?

It's as if I got hired to write a Lord of the Rings prequel seen from Gandalf's POV. And y'know what, maybe I don't like Gandalf. So I write him as a scheming asshole going “myahahahah, fuck hobbits! I’m gonna let them keep the One Ring so a bunch Nazgûl will swoop through the Shire and murder them!” and suddenly, everyone starts writing posts about the notion that “Growing up is realizing that Tolkien always intended for Gandalf to be the secret villain of LOTR!” as if that had always been the case and I didn't just reframe him that way retroactively.

Finally, I'd also encourage you to read @rendar-writes' well-made point here about the fact that, while claiming she "doesn't give the answers", Traviss nonetheless shows a clear anti-Jedi bias.

[porcelain-rob0t]

the european mind cannot comprehend the 48 oz dunkin bucket

[derryderrydown]

Excuse me while I look something up...

1.4 litres????

[politenotice]

[interestingmistakes]

[wholeheartedsuggestions]

late night reminder to self: your depressive episode will not last forever. it will have an end. tonight will not be the end of you.

[burgundy-forest-deactivated2024]

Hey guess what i saw this a few days ago when i was in an absolutely scary slump and then i spoke to my counsellors and did what they told me to do and now i feel so much better. So this is true. Reblogging for more good luck

[shamwowxl]

[i-like-reblog-maps]

[wholeheartedsuggestions]

why is this so beautiful in like a space way

[kassil]

Because the essence of humanity and life as a whole is a constellation of connections with one another. We are all here in this cosmos together, from the tiniest creatures to the distant stars.

You're not alone.

[twigsofmanyfaces]

you got lots of company, and you're gonna be okay 🫂

[neros-w]

why we should get rid of 'mom-hida'

Okay, I pestered Alina ( @nomoraamongfivearchons ) into helping me co-write this, so, here we are.

We hashed out some things and I think we need to really talk about this and give it the seriousness it deserves.

So. "Mom-hida." That is, people seeing Nahida as Wanderer's new mom, now that he has Sumeru citizenship.

Let’s talk about that. And why that evokes such a negative emotion in me whenever I think about it.

!! SPOILERS ABOUND !! Read at your own risk. If you haven't done everything up to the Sumeru Archon Quest or past the Inversion of Genesis, this is gonna be... a lot.

“Model ≠ Maturity.”

The main argument made in favor of Nahida's maternal role is the model one. At least, that's the one I see most often.

Nahida's character model had some clashing responses upon release due to... allegations of whitewashing and Orientalism. Fair enough.

But in this case, people are using Nahida's role as Archon and God of Wisdom and commonly known shrinking powers as an argument that just because she looks like a little girl does not mean she has to be. As a god, she has more than warranted the respect of her people and should be treated as a figure of authority.

The highest seat of authority most people can give her is Mother. Put a pin on that.

Her characterization demands that you acknowledge her immaturity

The biggest problem with the character model ≠ character maturity argument is that her immaturity is ingrained in her character, coming in from the Archon Quest and right up and past her second Story Quest.

It's not an emotional maturity, per se, but more of a warranted ignorance.

For the past 500 years, the only people whose dreams she can visit and the only people she can communicate with at length are children. The only knowledge she could accumulate are through snippets of conversations and interactions whenever she decided to possess Katheryne, practically stealing knowledge.

Her vast amount of accumulated knowledge is not backed up with practical use, meaning that she has never acted upon what she knows. This is exemplified by the delight she takes with trying to trick the Traveler into pranking scholars with a poem in the middle of an academic conference.

There are multiple instances of this in her first Story Quest, where her lack of emotional maturity and experience leads her to fumbling with people's insecurities and problems about their dreams.

In her second Story Quest, the actions she tries to take is exemplified by her lack of prior experience. She tries to do what her long-forgotten predecessor once did-- sacrifice herself in service of Sumeru. She doesn't know how to ask for help, and she doesn't know that her power and presence in Sumeru is vital to Sumeru's current political climate.

These are just instances of her fumbling actions signaling towards not necessarily pubescent immaturity but a lack of experience that the expectation of a highest seat of authority in all the land should have.

But that doesn't necessarily warrant not calling her a Mother, would it? What about Wanderer's actual mother? In comparison to her, she seems much more emotionally mature!

“Ei and Nahida are both Archons, Wanderer is just a creation.”

The second most popular argument is this: Ei and Nahida hold similar seats of authority. Ei and Nahida are both Archons who have been isolated for the past 500 years.

Wanderer, by all means, is their junior.

Wrong, go replay the Archon Quest

Wanderer has the depth of knowledge neither Ei nor Nahida have-- extensive human interaction.

Wanderer has gone through heartbreaks, tragedies, losses, and ugly bouts of grief and self-destruction. Though both Nahida and Ei themselves have experienced loss and grief, they do not have the experience to internalize those experiences and move past them.

This is especially evident with Ei's response-- self-isolation.

Nahida, on the other hand, handles grief well not because she is much more mature than both Raidens. No, it's because she doesn't remember what caused her grief, and she doesn't see the 500 years she lost in her cage as a loss to begin with. You cannot miss what you do not have.

Despite Ei creating Wanderer in order to use him as a proxy god, that does not mean she should be interpreted as a mother. A mother nurtures, a mother intends to have her child grow, a mother actively participates in her creation's life.

She not only "set him free" and eventually forgot about him through Wanderer's own actions, she also does not see herself as a mother. She barely sees herself as a person-- if you were playing all throughout 5.X, you will know this. Ei saw herself primarily as a weapon and now only a God with a dominion. She is not a creator, she is not a mother, she is Inazuma’s Raiden Shogun.

Point being: the mother aspect is something Wanderer read into her, not something she claimed herself. Interpreting her that way would rob Ei of her power and agency because she never chose to be seen that way, she just created this puppet as a prototype.

If you want to get bogged down in the semantics, compare Ei and Nahida to actual adoptive parents in the game– Professor Cyrus, Cloud Retainer/Xianyun, Neuvillette. Adoptive and parental roles are chosen and claimed, never assigned.

In acknowledging Wanderer incorrect interpretation in Ei’s alleged motherhood, remember that he clearly does not read the role into Nahida. Because Nahida did not create him and, even if she is an active part of his life, she is not nurturing him. Nor is she choosing to be the one to guide him to his fullest potential.

So, if not mother, what is she?

“Wanderer as the older brother is Not Feminist.”

Here's the real discourse. Mom-hida truthers do not like Sister-hida as an interpretation because, primarily, of the previous two reasons. The issue gets much worse when we brush up on this next one.

People seem to think that denying Nahida the role of Mother robs her of agency and power. As already discussed, it does not work that way.

But here’s the argument: if in the LoDish dynamic, Wanderer was the older brother, then Nahida would be seen as the immature girl that needs his guidance or relies on him (none of these people have siblings IRL, methinks). If, on the inverse, Nahida was the older sister and Wanderer the younger brother, then, well, that's a thematic dissonance because- because-

I genuinely can't see a downside to this specific interpretation but that could just be me. But, let me give you the actual details here.

He is not Nahida's brother, she is Wanderer's God

You can see this in any language you play the game in. No localization ever, and I mean ever, makes Wanderer call Nahida ‘Buer,’ or ‘Nahida.’ It is always “Lesser Lord Kusanali.”

Even further, if you play in either CN, JP, or KR, Wanderer is never frank or speaking casually whenever they interact with each other. Almost always he uses polite speech when speaking to her.

They talk about this at length literally before the epilogue of Inversion of Genesis, Nahida is neither his warden nor his debtor, he has become-- from then on-- her confidant, her vanguard. He interprets this as her employing the cream of the crop, the best of the best, in order to further her own agendas. Because he wants to be instrumental to her goals, he wants to be of use to her, because he owes her a debt of gratitude for letting him remember his past lives and he wants a purpose.

Nahida is not a little girl or little sister or mother or anything of the sort to him, not explicitly. Lesser Lord Kusanali is his God and he is her little follower. She demands respect just by existing, she should be afforded nothing less than his best as thanks.

Hell, she literally initiates a moment between him and the Traveler to give him a name, life's first gift. She did not create this puppet, she did not shape this man from the ashes of his own self-immolation. He chose to reform himself after she extended him the choice, and he was so grateful he is actively trying to please her.

The Twins and Archon Quests

This is more or less my last point in this entire bit. You can interpret this as me walking back my previous points however you want but.

All Archon Quests have a central dynamic that is a direct parallel to the Traveler and their Twin. This has been a fact since the very beginning. Dvalin, Venti, and Mondstadt; Zhongli, the Adepti, and Liyue; Ei, Miko, and Inazuma; Nahida, Wanderer, and the Akademiya; Neuvillette, Furina, and Fontaine; Mavuika, Capitano, and Natlan.

These are all symbolic to Lumine, Aether, and Khaenri'ah. It has been this way since the start of the story, it will remain that way all throughout Nod-Krai as well, and I suspect Snezhnaya won't even be the end of it.

Point being: Wanderer and Nahida are primed to be sibling-adjacent because they're the central characters of Sumeru's Archon Quest. Wanderer is a misguided, bitter thing wanting nothing but destruction for the world, but Nahida is hopeful for both Sumeru and him, knowing that he will eventually realize that catastrophizing will only make life moving forward worse for him and everyone around him.

Whoever your Traveler is, it doesn't matter. It's always been about them since the start. And if you still believe that Nahida is his adoptive mother after everything I just said, after you've read through every single one of these, then that's your prerogative.

[future-crab]

I had a dream that people started using the 🪷 emoji as a reaction and it was universally understood to mean “kill [] and you will be reincarnated as a lotus blossom.” Like someone would talk about going to the White House and people would spam 🪷🪷🪷 in the replies, and everyone just knew without having to be told that that meant “hey you should assassinate the president.”

[monkeyislandtwo]

i think "[sic]" is one of the funniest things of literature. like yeah this guy really wrote it out like that

[legendaryvermin]

For the uninitiated, you write [sic]—literally "this" or "so" in latin—to indicate that you haven't altered the wording or spelling. While it can be used to preserve a joke misspelling (aminals) or indicate that you know it looks weird (the Toronto Maple Leafs), it is also the most biting three letters that you can throw at a motherfucker who should know better.

[marlynnofmany]

Somebody made an error here and it sure wasn't me (derogatory)

[charlesoberonn]

Middle-aged magical girl.

She's been defending the Earth since the early 90s and she's very tired.

[charlesoberonn]

My name is Tominaga Haruka. I was chosen by a magical talking animal, and for the last 29 years I've been Earth's one and only... Wonder-Sparkle Princess.

[gropeable-boychest]

she's been fighting the same villains for three decades and they are also tired of it. Most of them aren't giving it their all. Half of them are in a groupchat they've added her to where they schedule their evil plans to make sure they don't interfere with each other, or more importantly, with *her* Xalkrax the space demon from outer space decided to attack the city when she was taking her vacation time once, and now he's dead, because even the power of friendship and redemption can't save you if you interrupt her rare vacations

[charlesoberonn]

Demon Queen Eluria: Gonna fill the city people's hearts with hatred on thursday to cause mayhem and discord.

Wonder-Sparkle Princess: Can't, got a PTA meeting.

Demon Queen Eluria: Friday?

Wonder-Sparkle Princess: A birthday party.

Demon Queen Eluria: Damn. How about I fill just the mayor's heart with hatred then?

Wonder-Sparkle Princess: That'd be redundant, lol. Maybe fill his heart with a desire to fix the fucking potholes?!

Demon Queen Eluria: LMFAO love you, bitch. Stay strong.

Wonder-Sparkle Princess: You too, gurl. How's the husband? Still dead?

Demon Queen Eluria: Yep. Thanks for that, btw.

Wonder-Sparkle Princess: Don't mess with my time off :p

[charlesoberonn]

Why are people tagging this '#wonder sparkle princess' like that's a thing and not a name I made up exclusively for this post?

[ardinwriter]

Congratulations on inventing a new tumblr deity!!

[charlesoberonn]

She isn't 29 years old. She's been a magical girl for 29 years. If she started at 14 (typical magical girl protagonist age) then she'd be 43.

[a-sentient-cup]

Assigned magic girl at birth

[squeakitties]

"do it scared" gets exhausting when you're The Fearful Afraider and everything is scary even when you're in your 30s

[annabelle--cane]

stop. analyse that text through the lens of its author's intentions and original historical context. okay now take the author out back and kill them dead and analyse that text as though it were published by your mutual yesterday and is in direct conversation with the contemporary discourse that's most relevant to your life. okay now pick your favorite angle of interpretation and come up with the strongest possible argument against it. now imagine that the text is your best friend and that it means you well and that you naturally give it every benefit of the doubt because you're on its side and you want the best for it. now imagine that the text wants you dead and it'll eat you if you don't eat it first. now pretend that you found this text locked away in a cave with no evidence of when or where it came from and you have to divine its meaning solely through its internal coherence and nothing else. okay now address the elephant in the room aspect of the text you've been ignoring because you find it boring or confusing or uncomfortable and become the number one expert on it. now spend forty minutes assigning all the characters dnd classes with at least three sentences of reasoning each. okay now do the cha cha slide.

[penandinkprincess]

listen i'm not advocating for exotic animals as pets, but i really just feel like cheetahs are probably different

i feel like we need to give them another shot as housebeasts

[penandinkprincess]

this is a critter who wants greenies and then to take a nap on the couch next to me, and i KNOW it

[penandinkprincess]

cheetah in House perfec t size for put inside! inside very Soft and Comfort cheetah sleep soundly put cheetah in House. Put Cheetah In House. no problems ever in cheetah in ho use because good Happy and Satisfy for human where sleep. House yes a place for a cheetah put cheetah in house can trust cheetah for giveing good love to humans in house. friend cheetah

[justasmidgx]

I mean, as someone who as worked in a zoo, this is fairly true.

Obvious disclaimer that you shouldn't have wild animals as pets.

But like, cheetahs are the only large cats that keepers will do free contact with. Hell, even most small cats don't get free contact. (Because small cats can be VICIOUS. They'll have a baby pallas cat wearing thicker gloves than when handling an owl. Because small cats can just be vicious.)

Like I think the only other cat at our zoo where I've seen free contact with was servals? Because I know they've used servals in shows to demonstrate their natural jumping ability. But I know servals can sometimes have a mean temper as well. Meanwhile they'll do the cheetah run and afterwards put the mic by the cheetahs and it's just like an engine with them purring. It's fascinating to watch when the message in every other large animal is "no free contact because it's dangerous even when they're born in captivity".

Legit if any wild animal could be adapted to a pet it would be cheetahs lmao. Only problem is they can be skittish and very anxious and that's why they're often raised around dogs in zoos to gain confidence.

[penandinkprincess]

congrats, i award you funniest take on this post

[loveridden1999]

bring back shame

[loveridden1999]

peer reviewed tags

[fox-bright]

The worst person you could ever meet in your lifetime still has a favorite breakfast cereal.

I knew a rapist who was an absolute ride-or-die friend to his gamer bros. Like, give the last dollar from his pocket to a friend who got a flat tire, and then turn around and go rape a Freshman that evening.

I knew a vicious child abuser who wept like a baby when her dog died.

The nastiest human being on the planet nevertheless feels obscurely melancholy sometimes, or has high spirits when they step out doors on the first warm day of spring, or has opinions on their favorite TV show and which side the toilet paper should hang on and whether or not the room should be cold or warm when you go to sleep.

We're all still just people. Complex, with fully-realized interior worlds.

None of that will save you from becoming a monster, if you decide to do monstrous things.

None of it makes you exempt from the consequences of monstrosity.

[saltoncity]

im not a girlblogger im an ADULT. im a WOMANblogger this is WOMANblogging

[fawnpalmer]

quarterly reminder that if i reblog something ai-generated it is 110% and always an accident and for the love of god please tell me so i can delete it from my blog

[nonbinaryjudean]

made you some graphics to help you remember

[velvetvexations]

"Even cis men?" is the obvious response to my stance that practically anyone can be lesbians, and to answer with another question: are any cis men actually doing that to begin with? I mean, unironically, not as a joke? Because I don't think they are. Generally cis men aren't not going to sincerely identify with the term the way cis women and trans people will. Cis men essentially self-regulate themselves out of the definition without anyone needing to make that definition have concrete limits.

Whether it's WLW, transmascs who drove through Dykeville to get where they are now, or anyone else, you should assume someone calling themselves a lesbian has a good reason for doing so.

[cock-holliday]

The only “cis men” i knew to use the label are the ones who lamented “i wish i could be a lesbian but unfortunately im a cis man” approximately a month before Realizing something about themselves and I will always ALWAYS maintain that being gentle about what that could mean for them is the right answer and not “omg you’re trying to prey on lesbians”

The two types of people to “jokingly” identify as a label:

1. Asshole trying to be edgy. If youre mad they double down, if you go ok ill call you that, they freak out and distance themselves from the label

2. Someone trying to figure themselves out

In both scenarios, using what they insist they are brings out the best outcome, and assuming someone is a 1 when they are a 2 and being hostile will only (shockingly) make it harder for them to come to terms with their identity

[sylas-dove]

and of course, i've said this before, but: if a cis man genuinely identifies with the label "lesbian" and is NOT joking about it, who cares? if someone feels like their attraction to women is queer even if they are ostensibly cisgender, that's none of my business and it's weird that people think it's theirs. what happened to the era of not asking people invasive questions about their gender, genitals, and sexuality?

[paniknatari]

Additionally- cis is a spectrum just as much as the rest of it. A cis guy could be like (imagine a pinched fingers emoji here) this close to being nonbinary such that the distinction is meaningless. A cis guy could be bigender about it, or agender about it, and still consider themselves cis enough to count. A cis guy could be a system, with girls in it. A cis guy could have an unusual romantic attraction, or particular sexual preferences or something, that fall more in line with lesbians than anything else. A cis guy can be drag queen for drag queen or something, and tbh that's not *not* lesbian imo.