IS MY SMILE TOO SHARP OR JUST MY TEETH ?

[usersquidgame]

PARK SUNG-HOON as Cho Hyun-ju (120) in SQUID GAME s02e05 'One More Game'

[desolationlesbian]

Using QR codes to link things in circumstances where it would be inconvenient to laboriously type in a url by hand are all well and good, practical, I see it. But now I get emails like "Here's our event! Scan the qr code to register!" with a jpeg of a flyer and no url in the email or on the image. Oh you want me to...hold up my phone to a computer screen to scan a jpeg email attachment to get to a website? Instead of you just linking it to me, in the email you have already sent me, that I am already looking at on my computer? That's what you want me to do? Are you sure?

[qvert]

Prints

Some peace and quiet… maybe a movie night ?

But most importantly I wanted to give them their siblings back :)

[tcustodisart]

Happy Pride Month!

Faust is back for the 5th time! If you want to use the flag of your choice as an avatar, they're under the cut. They're free to use as long as it's for personal use only.

[kilgarraara]

fixing things

[revenge-of-the-shit]

No actually I need to add on more to this. Arcane very unfortunately suffers the same issue that a lot of "progressive" shows suffer in Western media, where they go like "here are some real, systemic issues that exist and look at the consequences of these issues", and then either (1) forget to continue with the theme, and/or (2) don't do anything about it beyond slap on a half-hearted Band-Aid solution that never addresses it.

Caitlyn gassing civilians; lack of accessibility for Viktor which created barriers for him due to his disability; enforcers as oppressors, going hand in hand with Noxian imperialism; Jayce weaponzing hextech, and him already having killed a child because of it; not a single moment is really spent on any of these in S2. If anything, the enforcers are really flattened at the end of this season with little nuance, the complexity that shone in characters like Marcus and Grayson disappearing. Many Piltovan characters do not get even a single second of introspection as to how their actions actively contribute to the oppression of Zaun.

[spicyycarrot]

TLDR: the writers fundamentally don't understand the story they wrote because they don't understand the real world it's meant to reflect.

long version:

I saw someone on twitter make an interesting observation about the s1 prologue opening where vi & powder are on the bridge - only one enforcer has the evil hallucination scribbles on their face, likely the one who killed the sisters' parents. to me this just speaks volumes about the fact that the writers only utilize police brutality & systemic oppression as a tool for some traumatic character backstories and not to actually make any intelligent social commentary. the writers recognize that police brutality is obviously bad but the way they make their characters talk about the oppression they face makes it clear the writers aren't interested in exploring larger systemic issues in Piltover/Zaun. it's extremely surface-level stuff.

especially after s1 act 1, Vi only negatively talks about enforcers relating to how they killed her parents. the failed uprising that resulted the death of Vi & Powder's parents is portrayed like a naive decision on the Zaunites' part that led to "senseless" slaughter rather than the inevitable result of decades of oppression on Piltover's part. the root cause ofclass inequality between the cities never gets properly addressed, let alone resolved, it's there for set dressing.

Ekko gives Caitlyn shit for being a piltie but doesnt have the same attitude toward Heimerdinger who, as a councilor, is directly responsible for the poverty in Zaun.

a scene that's always particularly irked me is in S1 where Vi and Jayce attack one of the shimmer factories and Jayce accidentally kills a kid, Vi says something along the lines of "that kid knew what he was getting into when he took that job" which is fucking CRAZY? Vi of all people should KNOW that Zaunites don't have the luxury to choose "good" jobs. also the fact that it's a CHILD working in a factory (irrespective of the fact that his mom is a chembaron??) should tell you how truly desperate these people are for any damn money. if you have to send your CHILD to work that means YOU'RE REALLY FUCKING POOR! I'm not even mad at Vi for saying this, I'm mad at the writers for throwing that out there, making a character who should be able to empathize with this kid more than anyone say something so idiotic and tone-deaf. the narrative NEVER challenges this notion. the writers clearly don't fucking understand class struggle AT ALL and it shows whenever the class inequality in question is part of the world and not just directly related to one character's trauma.

it's a shame they didn't give Jinx a proper revolutionary symbol arc. I know people have been saying "oh but she was never interested in becoming one!" but honestly that feels to me more like a failure on the writers' part rather than a natural continuation of Jinx's story. in the finale of season 1, Jinx correctly identifies the council as the source of all her past and current pain and trauma. then she gets declared a terrorist and she goes into hiding. despite all the imagery from the les miserables-ass intro shot of her waving a flag to the trailers that made it look like she was really connecting with the Jinxers, the blatant abuse of state power against them shown for split-seconds in montages and music videos - they just sorta put it out there. it doesnt cause any real uprising, it doesn't give Jinx the power and motivation to fight against her people's oppression, there's no real lasting tension between her and her class traitor of a sister - it all goes out the window because they have to fight a "common enemy". we see Jinxers & other Zaunites lose their lives fighting for the people that starved and gassed them, what reward to they get once the war is over? Sevika gets a seat on the council? that's the most blatantly obvious lib shit I've ever fucking seen. I can barely put into words how much this season pissed me off. honestly, it makes sense with all the centrist word salad the showrunners have been throwing out there that they have 0 understanding of politics or socioeconomics or anything important for that matter.

I wish they'd given Vi any agency at all this season. I wish Cait's horrifying actions hadnt gotten glossed over and excused as "she's grieving and getting manipulated🥺🥺", I needed to see the oppressors face real consequences.

IMHO Ekko & Jinx should've gotten to lead their people into an uprising against Piltover's politicians & the Firelights should've become the leaders of an independent Zaun, none of that "put one Zaunite on the council and call it a day" bullshit.

honestly this all speaks to the fact that the writers fundamentally don't understand the story they wrote because they don't understand the real world it's meant to reflect. I think this is the fatal flaw of Arcane's writing. it makes observations about real issues but draws entirely false conclusions from them.

they fail to identify the cause of real world issues and misattribute them to individual personal failures. e.g. they acknowledge that the cycle of killing/violence started before Jinx & Vi or even Slico & Vander but STILL have Jinx leave because "the cycle only ends when you find the will to walk away"?

I have many, many more things to say about how disappointed I am with the writing this season & how it soured my view on what I thought was a near perfect S1 but this post is long enough as is and Idek if anyone cares😭😭 but yeah Arcane has always been better at telling very personal stories of trauma & troubled relationships etc. and really suffers when this individualistic perspective is applied to larger political & systemic issues since again, the writers lack the education, insight & understanding needed to handle big topics like that. I'm hardly saying I'm a better writer than anyone on the team but just my thoughts

[spicyycarrot]

back in S1 I really gave the writers the benefit of the doubt, choosing to believe they weren't libs or centrists. that they didn't really think Vander collaborating with cops was good for Zaun, that they knew characters like Jinx aren't fundamentally broken and irredeemable but a result of trauma caused by systemic oppression.

I believed they knew about and understood real life systems of oppression but very cleverly and subtly told their story, trying not to spoon-feed the audience & shove political messages down anyone's throats.

but then season 2 being so rushed and fast-paced really showed me where their priorities lied, what they chose to focus on and it wasn't insightful social commentary or exploration of any character's psyche or whatnot (aside from ep 7 which was peak) - it felt like they were trying to elicit emotional responses out of the audience more than anything. Isha gets introduced and oh I'm sure they'll subvert expectations and keep her alive & give Jinx hope that she can change for the better and isn't a Jinx to the people she lov- oh nvm Isha's dead. oh Vi has a mental breakdown after betraying everything she once stood for, becoming an enforcer and subsequently falling into a depression & self-harming for possibly months, I'm sure they'll explore this inner conflict in more detail after this montage- nvm it's LITERALLY JUST THE ONE MONTAGE? ok this Maddie girl is sleeping with Caitlyn but she doesn't seem to have any logical reason or motivation to betray he- never fucking mind??? I guess there was just no reason?????

whenever I thought they'd subvert expectations, they just kept doing the most. fucking. obvious. thing. it felt like the writers were constantly really insecurely asking me "are you crying yet????🥺🥺🥺 isn't this sad omg🥺🥺😭💔💔 ARE YOU CRYING??? OMG THE ANGST🥺 TRAUMA🥺🥺🥺"

it felt like they were very trying way too hard and trying intentionally to replicate S1's organic feeling of loss, longing for "what could've been", palpable and relatable pain, empathy for fleshed-out and human characters.

and also, whenever something kinda obvious would've made SENSE, they didn't do it. e.g. Vi & Jinx reconciling in the end would've made for such a beautiful finale where the story comes full-circle, but they chose not to do that because framing their relationship as "doomed" is more tragic😔💔 I guess? despite the fact that we see them getting along like they used to and Jinx saying "I'm always with you, sis", they still make her (supposedly) stand between Vi and her happiness so they make Jinx, the suicidal character, fucking FAKE HER DEATH??

hey remember in S1 Act1 that one scene where Vi & Powder look at the skyline and Vi says "one day, this city's gonna respect us" and in that moment it feels hugely impactful and like it's setting up something important for later down the line and then NOTHING EVER COMES OF IT? by the end of S2, the former GOAT Vi is washed and a lapdog to her oppressors and Jinx is branded an irredeemable terrorist and as far as anyone knows, she died as such.

the creators/writers have always said they knew from the beginning how they wanted the story to end but I find it hard to believe this is the exact outcome they wanted. Arcane was always the story of two sisters in conflict, framed by a larger conflict between the Sister Cities. neither of those stories felt like they came to a satisfying resolution or natural conclusion. S2 abandoned the heart of the story in favor of the eponymous "Arcane" storyline and you can really tell that it made this season weaker.

what makes this all particularly upsetting to me is that I expected better of Arcane of all shows. I guess it's on me for having such high expectations but I wish season 2 hadn't been as disappointing as it was.

[arcanegifs]

ARCANE LEAGUE OF LEGENDS: 1x08 - "Oil and Water"

[k-wame]

🗣️📢 L O U D E R

[qvert]

Prints

Someone wrap her in a blanket please

[sourdough-seal]

getting inspired to create stuff is honestly the meaning of life. like i found a great story and now i wanna make a cool story too. literally could there be any better feeling

[sylairaa-commsopen]

color study but make it caitvi wedding !!

[thisliminalspacedaydreams]

Fanfic is a free hobby.

It's one of the last few things we can have as a society that's free. You can engage, for free. People give you things (art, stories, etc), for free.

Don't buy into the consummerism just because it's everywhere else.

You don't have to consume everything you interact with. You don't have to use things, just because they exist.

You're allowed (still, for now), to have things that are enjoyable for free.

Do you realise how insane the world is? We don't have many places where we can just be, for free anymore, but ao3 is. Did you notice we don't have ads in ao3? We don't have pop ups? Where ELSE do we not have that?

Where else can you just go and not have to wait for a commercial to be over or for ads to be on the sidelines?

I don't think the younger people understand, but the whole of internet used to be like this. YouTubers would do Youtube for free, just because. You couldn't monetise your internet presence before.

Ao3 is like a little preserved corner of the internet where the old internet used to be, and it's being attacked by people who do not understand that free things are allowed to exist without judgment.

Please don't ruin this for us.

Some of us need it.

[marzipelle]

my favourite dysfunctional sisters

[evalineart]

Я это сделала! Безумно горжусь своей работой, их так быстро раскупили, что я в шоке! Буду печатать новые тиражи и экспериментировать с бумагой ✨

[allyoucanscream]

I'm in love 😻

[zeezeepearl]

ok im going to #seriouspost for a second here. I don't think Harry Potter is a manifesto. I think it was a flawed passion project that millennials latched onto because of the fantasy of sticking it to their mean teachers and arbitrarily categorizing themselves (hogwarts houses; it's the thinking millennial's astrology). I think the fact that the series got popular when and how it did was very much a product of its time.

I don't think Harry Potter is the biggest symbol of JKR's bigotry. I think the most flagrant sign of that was how she responded to critics. I watched her become radicalized in real time. I watched how she doubled down on her racism when she was called out for the ways she promoted her tragically mid fantastic beasts movies. I watched her chase marginalized teenagers with a double digit follower count off of twitter for daring to criticize her thought process, and no one with any kind of power standing against her because she was the one who was paying them. This isn't to say Harry Potter is without flaws. This is to say she really didn't give a shit about that. Getting rich and powerful is a hell of a drug, and she had enough sycophants that she had no reason to care about what her critics were saying.

She was convinced that she was a martyr; a voice for the unheard; a leader for the ages, so of course her detractors were the bad guys. And I think we should take this to heart. We should see this as an example of how easy it is to get radicalized; if you think of yourself as a paragon of virtue, you are going to think that whatever you see as good and right is an objective fact. Most people don't know this, but the majority of terfs start out as trans allies. You are not immune to propaganda! You are not immune to falling into dangerous ideologies!!!

This is why the most important thing you can do as an activist is to listen. Do NOT think you're above being wrong; do NOT develop a god complex; do NOT form an identity out of being right all the time. Involve yourselves in the groups you claim to speak for. Listen to trans women; share resources that help trans women; familiarize yourself with the diversity of experiences that trans people have and the struggles they face.

No, none of you are as bad as JKR because you don't have her money or her power. You will likely never have the capacity for harm she does. But check yourselves. Do not affirm yourselves into thinking you always have the moral high ground. Watch yourselves; humble yourselves; check yourselves for signs of cult behavior and internalized prejudice. You are always learning. You will always be learning. Do not allow yourselves to get a power trip from brushing off marginalized voices.

[the-barefoot-hatter]

#copied from prev:#harry potter was not a covert attempt to brainwash children into fascism#they're very milquetoast 1990s british liberal#she used to fucking hate the tories#and yes there WERE some tells in her books that she had ye olde unexamined biases

#but in the wake of her going off the deep end people have twisted that into#''she was always a hateful bigot and hp was actually a nefarious attempt to corrupt children into sharing her bigotry''

#and like#no#she was once a well-meaning fairly progressive normie who just didn't think too hard about her own background assumptions about the world#and then she got famous and then she got older and she got radicalized by people who targeted her on purpose because she had#enough money and cultural caché to turn into real influence

#and she was completely unprepared to defend her worldview from people who were telling her that her knee-jerk reaction was always right#and anyone who said otherwise was not only a jerk but also a dangerous villain who wanted to hurt her and other innocent women and girls

#and y'all are not nearly as immune to those tactics as a lot of you think you are

#fuck the ghoul that jkr has become but the story of how she got here is not the story of a crypto-fascist who made it into mainstream#it is the cautionary tale of a normal decent person who fell down a bad rabbithole and got swallowed up by a hate movement

#re-writing history so you can pretend she was always evil won't protect you from sharing her fate

#you have to put in the effort to interrogate your own biases and your own knee-jerk disgust reactions#you have to take a minute every so often to step back and CHECK if you have ended up in an echo chamber bubble and touch grass a little

#because radicalization doesn't happen overnight and it can happen to any of us#it's very easy to let yourself believe that you're Correct and anyone who disagrees with you is Obviously Evil

#you have to force yourself to double-check that notion from time to time and to hang onto EXACTLY what it is that makes the other side wron#you can't just say ''well they're conservatives so obviously they're evil'' because that is how you wind up at ''these men are hurting youn#''girls by PRETENDING to be women in order to take advantage of the protections feminists have spent decades fighting for! and we shouldn't#''even be surprised really - men are awful after all. all they do is TAKE from women and PREY ON young girls. we all know this from our own#''bad experiences with men. and we were right to hate them for it! you see!!'' and whoops now you're a fucking terf

#it's easy it's so easy it's so fucking easy and i promise you i PROMISE you there is a hate group out there who has your fucking number#no matter how good and progressive and leftist you think you are there is SOMETHING that could radicalize you into hate if you let it#there is an argument about how certain people are Just Fundamentally Evil that would appeal to you and make sense to you

[khashanakalashtar]

the woman once said, on twitter, something to the effect of "I would march with trans people if your rights were threatened."

this was the precursor to something like "so why can't you just ----" but like. she didn't always hate us. she was milquetoast white liberal about us once.

[meliorn]

Magnus Bane’s S2 Wardrobe: a Study | Coats & Jackets (part 2) ↳ Most statement pieces in Magnus’ wardrobe are coats and jackets. Whether they’re short and tailored or long and sweeping, they never fail to make an impression. Since the end of season 1, Magnus’ style has become consistently grittier and darker. In most of season 1, he tried out different looks and aesthetics as he navigated the early stages of getting to know Alec and finding out what he liked (x), but as of season 2 he seems to have transitioned back to what we can assume is his usual style, with studded shoulder straps and a dark color palette at the heart of it. A lot of his jackets are truly statement pieces, as every other one has some variety of shoulder strap embellishment that makes it hard, if not impossible, to look away. He doesn’t shy away from accessorizing a long studded coat with a spiked chain hanging off his hip and a long flowy scarf draped around his neck, but he also shows off some more balanced looks; like a form-fitting velvet jacket with statement buttons down the front and rows of silver chainmail across the shoulder being paired with a sensible black pant.

[meliorn]

Magnus Bane’s S2 Wardrobe: a Study | Coats & Jackets (part 1) ↳ While a lot of his coats and jackets are on the grittier side with chunky chains and studs, Magnus also has a repertoire of softer garments; his several black velvet jackets are a literal example of this. In his collection there’s also a number of toned down jackets without much embellishment or flair to them. These are usually worn to make other statement pieces pop; like a simple black jacket worn with a boldly colored/patterned shirt, or a bundle of silver necklaces that stand out against an otherwise black outfit. The red thread that weaves through all his outerwear is the dark color palette that mostly consists of dark blue and black. The exception to the rule is the black jacket with a red pattern, which was appropriately worn during the body switch with Valentine and can be interpreted as a visual cue that something is wrong.