Fandom Geek

A complete and utter mess of fandoms and politics - please enjoy! Pro-ace/aro inclusion (see my lgbtq, asexuality, and/or aromanticism tags)!

[dandylyonsolarium]

Angrons fatal wound he gave sanguinius is in his side so… obvious I have to do pieces inspired by ecstatic Jesus visions

Drink the blood and white fluid from his wound this pride

[thinkingabout-girls]

the funniest moment in dungeon meshi is when marcille is having her nightmare and brings up her dead bird while also talking about her dead dad, saying “papa and pipi” and laios automatically assumes pipi is marcilles third nonbinary parent on top of her mom and dad

[ouppygirlcity]

[finnglas]

when i was a tiny baby queer (aka a 24-year-old), i went to my first pride festival probably three months after i kicked ex-gay therapy to the curb and came out to my parents. being the people they are, my parents came with me. they weren’t really sure about this whole gay thing, but they loved me and wanted me to be safe and happy and wanted to be involved in what was important to me, so they came along. (i also think my mother still might have thought i might get drugged or murdered or beaten by a protester of which there were plenty.)

anyway i wanted a memento of my first pride, you know, and this one vendor was selling keyrings, and i liked it, so i bought one. do you remember those italian charm bracelets that were all the rage like 10-15 years ago? it was a keychain like that, and it had a rainbow rooster, a rainbow cat, and then just a rainbow, and so I bought it.

i run into my mom a couple of vendors over and she goes oh you bought something? what’d you get? so i showed her, and i was like, “I’m not sure why it’s a rooster and a cat. Seems kind of random. But I liked the rainbows.”

and my mom, who was some form of minister’s wife for most of my childhood and teenagerhood, stares at me like she thinks i’m joking.

“What?” i say.

“…it’s a cock and a pussy, Jules,” she says flatly, and that is the story of how i died at the age of 24 while attending my first pride festival.

[finnglas]

I love how every June this one gets dug up and passed around again, lmao.

[finnglas]

oh no is this what we’re doing now

[finnglas]

…relic…

*crumbles and blows away on the wind*

[cursed-40k-thoughts]

Rest in peace, John Blanche. You had a truly monolithic, formative impact on both Warhammer as an IP, and the lives of countless fans and artists around the world.

[moociao-after-dark]

Rest in peace, John Blanche

The father of Warhammer 40k art direction and the man that has inspired me as an artist, down to inspiring my current artstyle (and I am sure will continue to inspire me, even in death). 40k just wouldn't be 40k had it not been for the foundation of grimdark sci-fi that he laid.

Farewell, you absolute legend.

[cursed-40k-thoughts]

If Curze got his little bitch tendencies from his daddy, does that mean Emps had a phase where he whined incessantly about how the future sucked and he he just *had* to be a mass murdering serial killer? While doi bf war crimes, of course, but it’s Emps, that goes without saying

I mean, the Emperor did in fact decide the future sucked, gave multiple long and self-important speeches about how much the future would suck without his intervention, and became a mass-murdering lunatic driven by visions and his own hypocritical sense of morals

You can see exactly where Konnie got it

[inprnt]

“Self-aware” by Sergio Vallés on INPRNT

[theminotaursmanual]

by Laerte Coutinho

[las-lus]

btw this is laerte. She is 73 now! Making art and being happy! It's never too late to transition

[fandom-geek]

new cutscenes from dune awakening - console announcement story trailer

[fandom-geek]

@kirstenly, zantara's eyebrows definitely look similar in the first screenshot to the man we see in the trailer... i am so on board the copium train

[fandom-geek]

WAIT ONE FUCKING SECOND-

(@vaultsixtynine @kirstenly do not look until you've watched the new trailer)

am i going fucking insane or like. could this possibly be.

(bottom is him with his original eye colour in the files, top has him with blue eyes so i could compare it against his in-game model more easily)

is he. are we finally seeing him. the only possible discrepancy is the freckles but you can see them very faintly in the trailer. and the eyebrow/nose shape is identical to his in-game model. i am screaming incoherently oh my fucking goddddd

edit: but also elara's line implies that's us and i mean we are half siblings so like. lkjahrkdsahflakjhafopisdj this is going to be killing me for the next 3.5 months

[fandom-geek]

funcom just announced that the ps5/xbox versions of dune awakening, and single-player, are coming along with "the final chapter of Dune: Awakening's Book One story" on 22nd september!!!

[a-most-beloved-fool]

Here's your periodic reminder that the reason Kirk (tos-flavor) got a commendation for his solution to the Kobayashi Maru is because his "cheating" was his answer. Kirk's answer to the question of, "What do you do in a no-win scenario?" is "I break the rules until it isn't a no-win scenario. I don't give up on my crew, and I do whatever I can to save as many lives as possible."

[computer-voiced-by-majel-barrett]

And here's your periodic reminder—or first-time FYI, depending—that according to certain apocrypha, Nog similarly "beat" the Kobayashi Maru by relentlessly demanding to barter with the enemy until the simulation crashed. Like a true Ferengi, his answer to "What would you do in a no-win scenario?" is "Renegotiate the terms of the scenario. Rule of Acquisition #98: Everyone has their price."

[capriceandwhimsy]

THIS IS WHY I HATED HOW THE KOBAYASHI MARU TEST WAS PORTRAYED IN STAR TREK 2009.

Kirk cheating on the Kobayashi Maru wasn't him thumbing the nose at the test, it was him giving his answer to the impossible scenario. And unlike Star Trek 2009, which uses it as a way to prove how cool and rebellious Kirk is, the original context for the Kobayashi Maru was so much deeper.

Spoilers for Star Trek II by the way:

We first run into the test when Saavik is taking it. She ends up getting the Enterprise captured by the Klingons. Later on, she complains to Kirk (Vulcan-style) that there was no way to win, at which point Kirk gives the official answer: the scenario is meant to be "No Win," and the point is to determine how the candidate deals with an unwinnable scenario: how to carry on in the face of death and failure.

This is Layer 1.

We run into the test a second time when Kirk is "marooned" on the Genesis asteroid. At this point, Saavik (and the audience) believes that Kirk is stranded and the Enterprise is too badly damaged to fight: a No Win Scenario. She asks Kirk how he handled the test, at which point McCoy amusedly claims that Kirk is the only one to beat the Kobayashi Maru test: Kirk changed the parameters of the test to win (he cheated). At which point he reveals his trick: the Enterprise is NOT badly damaged, he is NOT marooned, the parameters of this situation are NOT a No Win Scenario, and he smirks confidently as he tells Saavik, "I don't like to lose," and bites into an apple.

This is Layer 2.

The test gets mentioned a third time at the end of the film. The Enterprise is unable to escape the Genesis blast, due to damage to the ship's engine core. The radiation level inside Engineering is so high that no human can survive it. As Kirk watches the clock run down, he suddenly gets word that the engines are back online. "Bless you, Scotty!" Because, of course Scotty would get the engines back online! He's Captain Kirk! He doesn't lo-- where's Spock?

Spock replies to Kirk with his answer to the Kobayashi Maru: Failure can't be cheated, but it can be mitigated. Logic dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one. In the face of that logic, one's own death is not to be feared.

This is Layer 3.

Later on, while speaking to his son, Kirk admits what he's always known: he's never really taken the Kobayashi Maru test. He's always cheated or outsmarted failure and thought himself clever for it. This is his Kobayashi Maru test, where he has to carry on in the face of death and failure.

And so he does. Despite the loss he has suffered, he carries on. He reconnects with his family. Comes to terms with the loss of his friend. Acknowledges that new life comes in the wake of death. And although sorrowful, he moves on.

This is Layer 4.

And then we reach Star Trek III.

Kirk suddenly has a chance to cheat the Kobayashi Maru test again. He can outsmart the consequences of the No Win Scenario and get Spock back. After all, he's Captain Kirk, he doesn't lose. One quick trip to the Genesis Planet to retrieve Spock, and he can dodge the consequences of his failure again. . .

The end results of that decision make up Layer 5.

[zmpl]

it’s funny how we’re getting to the point in the AI lifespan where you can feel the desperation from tech companies to have you use their AI features. instagram has moved their AI effects to the top of the menu when you’re creating a post for your story, exactly where the draw/edit button used to be. gmail is creating one-click AI-generated replies right before you open up the text box. spotify put a beta AI playlist generator on the front page that looks just like a search bar so all of their users accidentally click on it when they go to search for a song.

tech companies are shaking in their boots trying to prove to shareholders that their investment in AI is worth it, to the point where they’re tricking their users into using the AI features even for a split second in order to fudge the numbers. like awww is your little environment-destroying toy not wielding the results you hoped for? so sad!

[nariarts]

Longtime readers may be aware of how much I relish an excuse to bully a company, so I'm sharing the wealth;

Clothing company Patagonia is currently sueing drag queen Pattie Gonia for "irreparable” harm to their brand.

To be clear; Pattie named herself after the region in South America.

So Pattie is asking people to politely ask Patagonia to drop the lawsuit.

I'm extending the invitation to all of you, because sueing a drag queen for 'infringement' in the current political cultural landscape is vile. Especially a drag queen who has raised millions of dollars for non-profits, uses her platform to raise awareness for climate activism, and fully aligns with Patagonia's apparent climate-conscious mission statement.

They're claiming they're sueing for $1. They're actually asking her to stop using her name, and pay over $1 million in legal fees. They're straight up harassing her.

In contrast, drag queen Jan Sport has a Jansport bag line. It's that easy to just... work with a queen.

Anyway. Be respectful(ish), but feel free to be annoying on Patagnoia's socials, asking them to 'DROP THE LAWSUIT'

I think they have a twitter and tiktok too!

[carriesthewind]

Unfortunately, Pattie is lying.

"Pattie named herself after the region in South America." Come the fuck on. https://www.self.com/story/pattie-gonia-backpacking-drag-q

Patagonia is not trying to "take away her name." Patagonia has no problem with her calling herself Pattie Gonia or performing as such, or using it for activism, or whatever. They are suing her to stop her from directly competing with them with a substantially similar trademark in clothing sales.

You can read the complaint here.

The relevant prayer for relief is on page 34-36. It asks the court to stop Pattie from selling, distributing, or advertising, "any goods or services that display any words or symbols that so resemble the PATAGONIA trademarks as to be likely to cause confusion, mistake, or deception;" destroy the merch she was selling that would so cause confusion; and to not do it again in the future. It doesn't ask for damages more than $1 and for attorneys fees (aka pay us back for making us have to file this stupid lawsuit).

It also asks the court to stop Pattie from trying to register her drag name as a trademark specifically to sell branded apparel that says "PATTIEGONIA" - aka the same market, to an overlapping sales base.

2. Yeah this is 100% a "brand conflict." Patagonia had no issues with her existence, her drag name, her activism. (According to facts in the complaint, which she has not denied) it had no issue with even her partnering with competing brands, as long as

When Pattie started selling her own branded merch, Patagonia tried to reach out to her to resolve things informally. They were not able to do so. (And in my opinion, the email from Pattie in response looks really really bad - as I read it, it is essentially a threat to try to use her fanbase and progressive credentials to attack and harm Patagonia's brand if they try to enforce their trademark. And to be clear - if she has issues with Patagonia's actions as a brand, using those as a private threat against the company to advance her commercial interests while continuing to publicly directly associate herself with the brand - examples both in the lawsuit and in this thread: https://bsky.app/profile/kathryntewson.bsky.social/post/3mnbadc2egk2e - is. Well, I don't think it's behavior that looks good for Pattie.)

They filed this lawsuit b/c she filed to trademark the "Pattie Gonia" brand to directly compete with Patagonia in the same market. This is 100% a brand conflict. She's just lying to people.

Two other quick comments:

OP above used scare quotes around "irreparable" harm. This happens every time there is a lawsuit for injunctive relief and the person posting about it wants to make the plaintiff sound unreasonable and absurd. Irreparable harm is just literally the legal standard for injunctive relief.

I think OP's comment that, "In contrast, drag queen Jan Sport has a Jansport bag line. It's that easy to just... work with a queen," is ironically a good demonstration about the potential for brand confusion. Based on this comment, OP is demonstrating that their assumption, should they see "Pattie Gonia" branded clothing, is that it would be a collaboration. But Pattie Gonia wasn't trying to work with Patagonia. She specifically said she did not want to do so. She wants sell her own merch.

On Pattie's website, she says about this lawsuit,

I agree with Pattie on this point. But right now, while there are so many attacks on both the climate and on queer people, especially trans people? To lie about a (legally speaking, entirely reasonable, lawsuit from a brand that was - as far as any actual legal analysis I have seen ) and to use people's fears and concerns in the - as OP says - "current political landscape" - to try to sell you her own merch? (Because that is what the lawsuit is about. She is telling you to harass Patagonia so she can sell you branded merch instead.)

I have a lot of feelings about someone taking the energy - our fears, our need to protect each other, our love - of our community, and redirecting it toward their own commercial benefit. It's really hard for me to see what Pattie is doing in any other light.

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

The Perch by Brom

[giovannadeltoro]

“one of us had to accept the agony. and he was always the stronger.”

commissions / ig