Ephemeris @ephemeral-ephemeris - Tumblr Blog

palestine masterpost-masterpost

i've been trying my best to collect a bunch of links to other, more structured resources about the genocide in gaza, and what you, reading this, can do about it, that i'm going to compile here.

DON'T SCROLL PAST. LOOK THROUGH THE LINKS. REBLOG.

less and less people are talking about gaza every day, but it is still a very real crisis.

education, donations, speaking out, global links (masterpost)

links to contextual articles

for americans - state/congressional contacts

how you can help palestine - donations, petitions, campaigns, upcoming protests (masterpost)

non-politically motivated charity links

canary mission

petitions and congressional contact (masterpost)

education, current news, taking action, direct action and donations, current protests (masterpost)

small monetary actions

2700 ebooks on israel and palestine, available for free

thorough article by storiesfromgaza, dated 10/30/23

targeted boycott + bds

how to find state/congressional contacts, bds, email template, donation links

sudan and congo

egypt, us/uk/canada/europe congressional contacts

direct links to help palestine

educate yourself (twitter links)

translating gaza (instagram link)

bds/targeted boycott information

compilation of palestine info and how to support it (masterpost), dated 10/28/23

latest info as of 11/3/23 and large amounts of immediate action to take (masterpost)

history of palestine and israel - articles, books, films, social media (masterpost)

socials to follow

journalists in north gaza

btselem

crowander

things in kh1 that make me absolutely insane: sora finding a slide with an image of hollow bastion and it feeling oddly familiar to him. and how it's not revealed to the player yet that the familiarity is actually from kairi who has taken refuge in soras heart. meaning that despite radiant garden being changed beyond recognition in the image, despite the change she underwent losing her heart from her own body, with all that has changed the image alone still resonates with her even though she has forgotten it as her original home. and god thats just. so many layers so early on

goldensunset

riku is the healthiest of the destiny trio bc he Loses It so spectacularly he is kinda forced to confront that and work hard to get ‘it’ back. sora loses it a little at a time so he doesn’t quite realize how much of ‘it’ he has lost, and whenever he does realize he’s Lost It, he thinks he has eventually gotten it back every time (he never has). kairi is convinced she has always had It and has never been insane or unhappy before no sirree no darkness here in this princess’ heart that’s just uhhhhhh that burning hole? you know how light is really hot?

scraptonic

Tired of people grouping Xion with Naminé and Kairi when they think she's a Kairi. She's not, she's a Sora! She's arguably more a Sora than Roxas is. Roxas at every moment when confronted with the fact that he came out of Sora reinforces his own personhood or rejects being Sora. Whenever he sees Sora's memories he doesn't identify them with himself. Even at the end of the KH2 intro when he's accepted what's happening his final line isn't about returning to something, it's that his "summer vacation" (life) is over. Xion however immediately thinks that Sora's memories are her own. Additionally she acts more like Sora. Always throwing herself into things or rushing off before thinking them through because it 'feels' right, willing to sacrifice herself for her friends over and over and over again and not seeing any issue with it, never learning from it. She acts more like Sora so much that Riku (the person that knows Sora the best) thought something was wrong and that Xion was actually Sora's nobody and not Roxas, for a bit in the novelization. She's a Sora, and the fact that she's a Sora is so much more important than that she looks like Kairi. It's fine to group her with Kairi and Naminé because she's one of the girls, but you can sometimes tell when it's that versus 'the Kairi's'.

descendant-of-truth

Anyone else find it fascinating that whenever we're shown Roxas's feelings through Sora, it's just kind of melancholic and wistful, but the reverse scenario always feels like you just walked into a psychological horror?

Seriously, the way it's presented, it's like we're meant to see Roxas as an old friend that we miss talking to, but Sora - our original "old friend" that we would have reasons to miss - is hardly even shown as a person. The contents of his memories feel less important than the effect they're having on Roxas, which is usually Extreme Distress and/or physical pain.

And it's insane to me because KH1 was so whimsical! The memories that Roxas and Xion are experiencing are literal Disney magic! But the way they're shown, with the fuzzy filters and the glitch effects, sort of removes the emotions you associate with them and makes them come across as eerie and unsettling.

Not to mention, Sora's memories rarely prompt any feelings of happiness, the way Roxas's might make Sora extra fond of the Twilight Town crew... which might say more about how KH1 affected Sora's mental health than anything.

(I personally stand by the idea that the story revisits it so much as an analogy for how repeating events in your head over and over can alter your perception of them)

But like. how wild is it that this series found a way to take its cheerful protagonist, and without changing anything about him, turned him into this constant, unnerving presence that haunts the lives of two other characters?

And I think another reason Roxas doesn't feel like he haunts Sora in the same way is because no one really... treats Sora like a person while he's asleep. He's either a tool or an object of affection, and regardless of which you pick, his feelings are seen as secondary to the goal of waking him up. As a result, the narrative focuses entirely on Roxas and Xion's personhood, and unlike Sora, they never stop being treated like people once they're made inaccessible due to the plot.

It's probably a bit late in the story to bring it up by now, but I still wonder if we'll ever see Sora be upset with Riku for sacrificing people in his name. Sure, it worked out in the end, and I'm not sure if Sora's even aware of what happened (how likely is it that he's properly sifted through all of Roxas's memories at this point?) but there's a list of things he could still conceivably be mad at Riku about that he hasn't processed, and I want this to be one of them

yoroshiu

Legit THIS! I've had thoughts about the perception others had of Sora in-universe throughout the series, especially during this time period! It's the way he's portrayed as a distant almost divine being with barely any of his joy and down-to-earth whimsy, so looking at it from Xion and especially Roxas' POV, he comes across as colder.

So many characters and things in general seem to have a specific use and view of Sora, and on the surface, it's usually good and for the greater good, but KH has gone out of its way at multiple points to give the audience the notion that this has affected Sora negatively. As time passes, the consequences start making the scars more noticeable.

It always stuck with me how 3D brought up Sora being "next on the list" whether it be for the Organization (which initially went for Riku, then even Roxas (which in itself is interesting to think about), then finally Sora) and even the keyblade (Riku to Sora). Sometimes it feels like, even if unintentionally from the others most of the time, view Sora in a sense of "what he is capable of doing" rather than Sora as a person with his own opinions on things.

I'm reminded of the many times I've heard players refer to Sora as a reactionary character. Things tend to happen to him rather than him starting things in many cases. It reflects well with the personality he's introduced with in KH1, but interestingly, I feel it plays into how he keeps getting pulled into things whether he'd want to or not. Sora doesn't get a choice—he has to save the world, he has to be the one others are sacrificed for, he has to be the one. The universe banks on the fact that Sora is just so good and loving that it will ignore any potential damage that will be inflicted on him.

And what sucks even more is that Sora believes that all of his value and strength comes from everyone else. He feels that he can't do anything without them. Time and time again, Sora is never given the breathing room to properly process anything. It's one battle after another, and even if he does say something, there isn't enough time to linger on it.

(In a way (I can't stop saying it), I think this actively affects how people in-universe and in real life view Sora. How you usually don't see as many people talk about the more tragic aspects of him and his journey. If you ask others in the general fandom, you're much more likely to hear about Roxas and Aqua (for good reason!). But not often do we think about how Sora was being used in CoM-Days (or just throughout the series).)