A Human!

She/Her pronouns, please. Call me Comma! Sometimes there are words in my head, and they don’t leave, so I write them down! Feel free to make a story or whatever of your own out of them, but do share it with me. I’m in a lot of fandoms, some of which I’ve even seen the source material of, but right now I really like Girl Genius.

[artbyblastweave]

Nerevarine who very distinctly does not remember the Tribunal doing any of that to him on the first go round (Dumac got him or something) but crucially the Tribunal themselves Very Much Remember Doing All That To Him

[artbyblastweave]

Nerevarine who nods along agreeably while reading Vivec's account of Red Mountain during the meeting in the palace, yep, exactly how I remember it beat for beat, while Vivec looks on analyzing their every microexpression looking for the head game

[artbyblastweave]

Nerevarine who's kind of mildly annoyed that they went back on their oaths and exploited the power of the heart for their own ends but at the end of the day he gets what they were going for, a lot of good seems to have come out of it for the Dunmer people on balance and anyway it's not like they had to kill him in order to do it or anything

[artbyblastweave]

Nerevarine who's genuinely real excited to head over to Mournhold now that the Dagoth thing is resolved and catch up with their estranged-by-circumstance wife and confidante Almelexia and then Some Other Stuff Happens Instead

[chimaerakitten]

I have just enough knowledge about archaeologists working for the American federal government to write the most boring stargate: SG1 fanfiction ever put to page. Everyone be thankful I have not inflicted it upon you.

[chimaerakitten]

It would also be a good opportunity to set the fanon record straight a bit. Nobody in the archaeology world would be shocked about an archaeologist working for the Air Force. Working for the federal government is one of the most normal career trajectories for archaeologists in the United States. If you search “archeologist” (note, the federal spelling omits the second ‘a’ for some bureaucratic reason) on USAJobs right now, 5 open positions come up. Two of them for the army.

Granted, Daniel’s a bit of an odd case since he got run out of academic archaeology first instead of coming up via the CRM track, but still.

“Why would the Air Force hire an archaeologist?” Is the wrong question. They (and every other branch of the military) have dozens of others for completely normal non-aliens reasons. (And no, im not talking about contractors. People performing Inherently Governmental Activities are gonna be civilian GS employees.) Some of them attend SAA events every year perfectly normally. Better question: why has nobody from the Colorado State Historic Preservation Office, the Office of the State Archaeologist, or the Ute tribe met this guy?

[specialagentartemis]

#basically there are a lot of people out there who think they know what Daniel’s job is #and also think he’s terrible at it #‘What do you mean Cheyenne mountain has had an archaeologist for TEN YEARS and he’s never emailed us once?’ #<- statements overheard at SHPO

[chimaerakitten]

#pffft#oh so not only do they think he's racist they also think he's completely phoning in his job#but also this is making me think about#Daniel Jackson Has To Actually Do CRM At Cheyenne Mountain Because SGC Wants To Build A New Hangar For Their Alien Spacecraft fic#Daniel Jackson Does Tribal Consultation and the Ute THPO doesn't actually /want/ to meet with him due to the Ancient Aliens thing#Stargate

(tags via specialagentartemis)

The really excellent thing is that even after he does [what everyone thinks is] his job publicly where they can see, they’re still gonna think he’s been phoning it in this whole time because it’s so obvious from the way he goes about it that it’s not what he regularly does.

“What do you think he normally does with his time?” Says the person who just got their first ever in ten years email from Dr. Jackson. It’s awkwardly phrased and missing about half the necessary information.

“While on the clock? Probably pitching to the history channel or something,” says their coworker. “2 Ancient 2 Aliens.”

“I don’t know if that’s better or worse than him writing—“ she pauses to do air quotes. “—‘Pyramids of the Gods’ on the taxpayer dime. This whole project is gonna be torture.”

[CUT TO DANIEL who is, at that very moment, actively being tortured]

[mzminola]

The bit of fandom I stuck my toe into recently seems to pretty much agree that King Jonathan’s concession to Wyldon, to have Keladry on a probationary year when she began page training was hypocritical & unfair, but also likely politically necessary, that as king he has to make unsavory political choices, that you have to make concessions to advance other parts of a given cause, etc.

I see these points, and now I’m going to list out all the ways I can think of that it was a bad political decision too:

1. Alienated his long-standing allies (was there anyone who trained with Alanna when they were all kids that wasn’t pissed about this choice?).

2. Undermined the other progressive policies; he made the decree that girls could openly try for their shields ten years before First Test begins, the training master at the time agreed to it, and Wyldon accepted the decision when he took the job. Stepping backward as soon as it’s put to the test invites other such decrees and programs to be attacked as well.

3. Insulted the Mindelans, who are valuable diplomats, quite badly.

4. Potentially undermined Alanna in her job as King’s Champion; yes, she acknowledges that people often credit her success to her Gift and being god-touched, but she did go through the same official training as all her peers. To make the next woman knight leap more official hurdles is to throw Alanna’s qualifications into question.

5. Nearly lost them Keladry as a knight. She almost makes the decision to wait a few years and apply to the Queen’s Riders instead, because a probationary year for only her was blatantly unfair.

6. Potentially lost them other knights as well. We don’t hear of any other girls starting page training during the rest of Protector of the Small, which spans over eight years. How many other girls, or their parents, looked at that probationary year, and refused to let themselves be so insulted? How many wondered, if the year was lifted for future applicants, if some other humiliation would be sprung on them instead?

Jonathan could have mitigated some of these problems by having Wyldon place all incoming pages under a probationary year, by officially declaring that this was simply yet another change to the training program they were making. Even if rumor went that this change was because of Kel, without it being officially so, it would be less insulting to her & her politically important family, leave less room for open attacks on the other progressive policies, and not raise the stakes so high for future girl applicants.

But he didn’t. The probationary year was a political mistake, as well as being hypocritical and unfair.

[justabrowncoatedwench]

RE: point 6. Not making the probationary year mandatory for all pages was also proven to be a mistake, by Wyldon’s own admission, as he mentions re: Garvey’s trial & Joren’s death in the Chamber that he should’ve been paying more attention and that had those boys been on probation they could’ve legitimately been kicked out of training long before they became Problems/failed so badly the broke instead of bent when put to challenges that the Chamber throws at squires.

[terulakimban]

A-fucking-men! And also! He undermines the basic authority of the crown, which is especially risky given 1) the extent to which his father did the same about his grandfather and 2) the undeniable fact that Roald will be in a weaker position with multiple Tortallan factions when he takes the crown. 

Keep reading

[mzminola]

The bit of fandom I stuck my toe into recently seems to pretty much agree that King Jonathan’s concession to Wyldon, to have Keladry on a probationary year when she began page training was hypocritical & unfair, but also likely politically necessary, that as king he has to make unsavory political choices, that you have to make concessions to advance other parts of a given cause, etc.

I see these points, and now I’m going to list out all the ways I can think of that it was a bad political decision too:

1. Alienated his long-standing allies (was there anyone who trained with Alanna when they were all kids that wasn’t pissed about this choice?).

2. Undermined the other progressive policies; he made the decree that girls could openly try for their shields ten years before First Test begins, the training master at the time agreed to it, and Wyldon accepted the decision when he took the job. Stepping backward as soon as it’s put to the test invites other such decrees and programs to be attacked as well.

3. Insulted the Mindelans, who are valuable diplomats, quite badly.

4. Potentially undermined Alanna in her job as King’s Champion; yes, she acknowledges that people often credit her success to her Gift and being god-touched, but she did go through the same official training as all her peers. To make the next woman knight leap more official hurdles is to throw Alanna’s qualifications into question.

5. Nearly lost them Keladry as a knight. She almost makes the decision to wait a few years and apply to the Queen’s Riders instead, because a probationary year for only her was blatantly unfair.

6. Potentially lost them other knights as well. We don’t hear of any other girls starting page training during the rest of Protector of the Small, which spans over eight years. How many other girls, or their parents, looked at that probationary year, and refused to let themselves be so insulted? How many wondered, if the year was lifted for future applicants, if some other humiliation would be sprung on them instead?

Jonathan could have mitigated some of these problems by having Wyldon place all incoming pages under a probationary year, by officially declaring that this was simply yet another change to the training program they were making. Even if rumor went that this change was because of Kel, without it being officially so, it would be less insulting to her & her politically important family, leave less room for open attacks on the other progressive policies, and not raise the stakes so high for future girl applicants.

But he didn’t. The probationary year was a political mistake, as well as being hypocritical and unfair.

[hugintheraven]

I’ll go further and say that the actual problem is that Wyldon as training master is a costly political decision that, while we don’t know what Jonathan got for it, was probably a mistake. Training Master means that every heir in the kingdom passes through Wyldon’s hands. Wyldon has exceptional ability to influence those children for 4 years, both through his own teaching and that of the people under him who he hires to likely-lucrative palace jobs. 4 years of Wyldon encouraging pages to exercise power against those weaker than them, to value the appearance of fairness over actual equity, likely did uncountable damage to Jonathan’s future plans and policies, that crucially won’t be able to be traced back to Wyldon. There is almost no position where it is as vital to have someone who agrees with you politically as Training Master.

[mzminola]

The bit of fandom I stuck my toe into recently seems to pretty much agree that King Jonathan’s concession to Wyldon, to have Keladry on a probationary year when she began page training was hypocritical & unfair, but also likely politically necessary, that as king he has to make unsavory political choices, that you have to make concessions to advance other parts of a given cause, etc.

I see these points, and now I’m going to list out all the ways I can think of that it was a bad political decision too:

1. Alienated his long-standing allies (was there anyone who trained with Alanna when they were all kids that wasn’t pissed about this choice?).

2. Undermined the other progressive policies; he made the decree that girls could openly try for their shields ten years before First Test begins, the training master at the time agreed to it, and Wyldon accepted the decision when he took the job. Stepping backward as soon as it’s put to the test invites other such decrees and programs to be attacked as well.

3. Insulted the Mindelans, who are valuable diplomats, quite badly.

4. Potentially undermined Alanna in her job as King’s Champion; yes, she acknowledges that people often credit her success to her Gift and being god-touched, but she did go through the same official training as all her peers. To make the next woman knight leap more official hurdles is to throw Alanna’s qualifications into question.

5. Nearly lost them Keladry as a knight. She almost makes the decision to wait a few years and apply to the Queen’s Riders instead, because a probationary year for only her was blatantly unfair.

6. Potentially lost them other knights as well. We don’t hear of any other girls starting page training during the rest of Protector of the Small, which spans over eight years. How many other girls, or their parents, looked at that probationary year, and refused to let themselves be so insulted? How many wondered, if the year was lifted for future applicants, if some other humiliation would be sprung on them instead?

Jonathan could have mitigated some of these problems by having Wyldon place all incoming pages under a probationary year, by officially declaring that this was simply yet another change to the training program they were making. Even if rumor went that this change was because of Kel, without it being officially so, it would be less insulting to her & her politically important family, leave less room for open attacks on the other progressive policies, and not raise the stakes so high for future girl applicants.

But he didn’t. The probationary year was a political mistake, as well as being hypocritical and unfair.

[kingedmundsroyalmurder]

I think adult Jon relies on his personal networks and friendships very much the same way he did as a child. He is personal friends with many of the people who would most strongly disagree with the probation (Alanna and George, Raoul, Gareth father and son, Myles, Thayet, etc.) and trusts that his personal friendship with them will be stronger than their anger at his decision. In this, he is ultimately proven right - all of these people are furious but ultimately come to forgive him and he doesn’t lose any permanent political capital with them. Because these people are also the ones who run his country, that means that even if he loses standing with other progressive families (the Mindelans, the Queenscoves (although Baird may also be someone with whom Jon has a personal relationship), etc.) he still has the allies he needs to do what he wants.

Where I think he fails is in the same way his father failed and in the same way we see people fail in our world: he thought compromising would get the conservatives on his side, and it just straight up didn’t. Wyldon changes his mind, sure, but do we see any of the other conservatives actually change their opinions about either lady knights specifically or Jon’s political program more generally? Kel doesn’t play politics so it’s hard to say for sure, but the impression I got was very much that her probation and subsequent success don’t actually change anyone’s mind, and that Jon allowing her to be put on probation doesn’t actually give him good will from the conservatives to accomplish other goals instead. The conservatives are just mad that she’s there at all - putting her on probation doesn’t change that, it just upsets his allies and teaches his opponents that he can be bullied.

Which reminds me of how Roald governs, the few times we see evidence of that. He tries to compromise with his enemies and just makes everyone mad. During the war with Tusaine, his orders that the Tortallan forces not cross the river don’t make Tusaine more willing to come to the table and make a peace treaty, they just piss off all the Tortallan soldiers and leave them vulnerable to Roger’s plotting. Even without Roger, it would have been an obvious gambit for the Tusainis to capture some high ranking nobles and hold them for ransom, knowing that the Tortallans have orders not to pursue them across the river and so have to come to the table on Tusaini terms.

I think Jon is someone who sees in himself the risk of tyranny and overcorrects against it. He knows that he has a penchant for just taking what he wants and forcing others to go along with it because he’s king and his friends are powerful and personally loyal to him. He absolutely could be a despot monarch - we sort of see him in that role when he’s a page, throwing his weight around and expecting all the others boys to fall in line. I think he really does not want to be that kind of a king, and in correcting against that, reaches for his father’s example instead. And Roald - who was in turn overcorrecting in reaction to his father’s decisions - was someone who reached for compromise and pacification at all times, including when it didn’t serve him or his country to do so.

tl;dr I totally agree that putting Kel on probation is a bad political decision, but it absolutely makes sense as the kind of bad political decision Jon would make.

[mzminola]

The bit of fandom I stuck my toe into recently seems to pretty much agree that King Jonathan’s concession to Wyldon, to have Keladry on a probationary year when she began page training was hypocritical & unfair, but also likely politically necessary, that as king he has to make unsavory political choices, that you have to make concessions to advance other parts of a given cause, etc.

I see these points, and now I’m going to list out all the ways I can think of that it was a bad political decision too:

1. Alienated his long-standing allies (was there anyone who trained with Alanna when they were all kids that wasn’t pissed about this choice?).

2. Undermined the other progressive policies; he made the decree that girls could openly try for their shields ten years before First Test begins, the training master at the time agreed to it, and Wyldon accepted the decision when he took the job. Stepping backward as soon as it’s put to the test invites other such decrees and programs to be attacked as well.

3. Insulted the Mindelans, who are valuable diplomats, quite badly.

4. Potentially undermined Alanna in her job as King’s Champion; yes, she acknowledges that people often credit her success to her Gift and being god-touched, but she did go through the same official training as all her peers. To make the next woman knight leap more official hurdles is to throw Alanna’s qualifications into question.

5. Nearly lost them Keladry as a knight. She almost makes the decision to wait a few years and apply to the Queen’s Riders instead, because a probationary year for only her was blatantly unfair.

6. Potentially lost them other knights as well. We don’t hear of any other girls starting page training during the rest of Protector of the Small, which spans over eight years. How many other girls, or their parents, looked at that probationary year, and refused to let themselves be so insulted? How many wondered, if the year was lifted for future applicants, if some other humiliation would be sprung on them instead?

Jonathan could have mitigated some of these problems by having Wyldon place all incoming pages under a probationary year, by officially declaring that this was simply yet another change to the training program they were making. Even if rumor went that this change was because of Kel, without it being officially so, it would be less insulting to her & her politically important family, leave less room for open attacks on the other progressive policies, and not raise the stakes so high for future girl applicants.

But he didn’t. The probationary year was a political mistake, as well as being hypocritical and unfair.

[pawthorn]

Absolutely.

This decision also highlights one of the main themes of the series—systemic vs. individual bigotry and how individuals can uphold or work against the status quo.

Wyldon takes Jonathan’s compromise as permission to continue his bigotry. In turn, Joren and the other pages take Wyldon’s treatment of Kel as endorsement of their own bullying.

Wyldon barely allows Kel to stay, despite her exemplary performance, and openly treats her poorly— pages take their cues from him. Many are openly misogynistic and sexually harass Kel. Vinson takes it to the point of committing serial rape and assault of other women in the castle and city. Joren holds onto his own bigotry so tightly that he can’t survive his Ordeal. They make their own choices, but they were certainly influenced by Wyldon.

In addition to reinforcing misogyny, Wyldon mistreats other pages who don’t fit his ideals of knighthood—Neal in particular. Once again, Joren and his crew respond to this, bullying young pages as they please. Had Kel not stepped in and rallied her friends against it, how many other young pages would have been bullied out of knighthood or turned into bullies themselves?

There’s a great moment at Joren’s trial, where Joren basically says he was dojng Wyldon a favor in trying to get rid of Kel. Wyldon objects—he didn’t want that. But it’s too late. It doesn’t matter what he says. His mistreatment of Kel set the tone, and Joren and many other pages followed.

The same holds true for King Jonathan. His treatment of Kel—and his own daughter, for that matter—sets the tone for how women are treated in general. He is in the wrong.

And Pierce doesn’t really give Jon and Wyldon of them a chance at redemption, or any credit for Kel’s success.

Wyldon retires in shame. He is—quite explicitly—a failure at his post. Though he learns and grows, his failure remains.

Jon doesn’t win Kel’s sincere loyalty, which Raoul rightly points out as a major loss. In fact, when choosing between allegiance between King Jonathan and Kel, Alanna, Raoul, the King’s Own, almost an entire generation of knights, Wyldon’s squire, and Jon’s own son all choose Kel, some to the point of treason.

Kel succeeds in spite of them, mostly due to mutual support with other people/ creatures rejected by the system, and the steadfast support of other women. And it’s through that solidarity that Kel effects change in the system from below, unlike the men that maintain it from above.

[enter-the-bogman]

Reading through the Tortall books in publication order is funny because you start with Alanna “the village healing woman taught me all she knew” going off to become a knight, and end with Numair “world’s most powerful mage” as young Arram Draper first learning magic at the Carthaki university. Because of the 40 intervening years and five(?) different series further developing the Tortall universe, the magic system is now SO much more complex.  Arram is learning an elementally-based, heavily theory-dependent form of magic where conceptual power is applied to physical objects or energy constructs. His teachers make him develop skills in non-magical areas like juggling, jewelry making, and gardening so eventually they can safely guide him through complicated applications of magic. In comparison, Alanna complains that Duke Roger is spending too much time on theory in order to prevent her and her peers from learning “actual magic” and becoming his rivals. And then she throws purple light at things until they explode or she passes out! We also learn from Arram’s misadventures that most of “magic” is creating methods of applying, storing, and accessing power so the user doesn’t drain their own life force and pass out or die. Alanna uses NONE of these techniques; instead, she pulls her magic directly out of her own life force, thinks about what she wants it to do, and hopes she reaches that goal before draining herself. She even (sometimes) factors in the impact of magically draining herself of energy while attempting tasks that require both magical and physical endurance (such as when deciding how much magic to spend warming herself when making her blizzard hike to claim the Dominion Jewel.)

For one thing, this makes Alanna insanely powerful. In In the Hand of The Goddess, she breaks open Roger’s magically locked door (presumably designed by Roger himself– an immensely strong and well-trained sorcerer) by shoving her own magic into it until it MELTS. This builds an Alanna who decided magical theory was useless at age 12 because she has an immense access to magical potential energy, and who never learns the basic life-preserving models of magic usage that are taught in intro-level classes. She doesn’t have an interest in learning more sophisticated forms of magic, except in healing, which she cared about enough to learn non-magically. So when she heals, she uses magic as a guide or a supplement, rather than depending on it and then draining herself.  Since she isn’t attempting complex magic, most of the time the limitations of drawing directly from her own life force doesn’t impact her that much. The things she does magically all have much more efficient alternatives, but they require an understanding of magical theory and ability to store energy that Alanna never learned! If she wants to do larger spells, she just keeps feeding energy into it until it breaks or she does. 

The intervening series and Numair’s story makes Alanna’s simultaneously more and less believable. It now makes sense why everyone with even a slight understanding of Alanna’s type of Gift gets angry at times and tells her she’s using magic irresponsibly. (Before, we only understood Alanna’s side of the argument: “Well, I didn’t die and it worked, so calm down.” !!!) The fact that she never actually dies and only rarely is seriously harmed through her own magic use now requires some suspension of disbelief!

[rain-sleet-snow]

I firmly believe that the general state of organised magical education in Tortall was so poor in Alanna’s youth that the Carthaki University spent decades leading up to the events of Emperor Mage saying among themselves, “and then there’s Tortall, only the gods know what the fuck they’re doing up there!” Some years - like the year with the crazed duke getting resurrected - this was said more loudly than other years. The year they finally got their hands on enough raw data and publications to prove that yes, King Jonathan did have the actual facts Dominion Jewel in his treasury and used it to stop an earthquake raised the roof.

After Daine’s ill-fated visit they gathered in silence and drank. 

[morphmaker]

Song of the Lioness #4: Gary was an option

[qm-vox]

The Many - (Evil) Gods in D&D

This post would not be possible without my long friendship with, and the research, expertise, and teaching of, Afroakuma. Hats off to you, ya weird hate demon.

There’s a lot of takes, theories, and interpretations of the various gods in D&D, especially for older and more popular settings like Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms. Go casting about and you’ll pick them up, framing the gods as abusers, runners of a spiritual protection racket, as absent. Some players (and authors for that matter) prefer gods to be distant, untouchable, unimpeachable, and feel that to depict them otherwise cheapens their divinity. Others prefer their gods as beings that can be dragged screaming from their thrones and held to a final account for how they treat their worshipers, one way or the other.

I’m not here to talk about that part, but it’s important context. What I don’t see a lot of when it comes to these interpretations is a nuanced understanding of what gods were written as in the first place in the context of D&D, but especially in the context of the Planescape (meta)setting that provides common context for so many of the classic worlds we know and love or hate.

To make it clear, I am not here to defend or expand on how religion is set up; Gygax’s understanding of polytheism was flawed at best, and Forgotten Realms (written by Ed Greenwood and later many others) would take all of the bad parts of that understanding and make them so much worse. If you wanna have that conversation we can have it, but we’re not having it right now. Instead this is about the nature of divinity as it exists in Planescape and how that nature helps inform and characterize the gods.

If that has your eye, join me below in the magical land of Full And Complete Context.

Keep reading

[qm-vox]

Let The World Never Falter - Playing Paladins in D&D

(Pictured: Anastasia Luxan, Knight of the Tainted Cup, one of only two people in her friend group that are not evil-aligned. Her wife Aisling is not the other good-aligned person. Characters are from my novel Mourners: Scum of Shatterdown; art credit goes to J.D)

Paladins are one of Dungeons and Dragons’ most striking, and most controversial, character classes. Few character classes and character concepts capture the imagination as quickly or start arguments of such ferocity. I’ve been in this game awhile - I remember when D&D 3e was released - and paladins have been one of my most loved and most hated parts of D&D and its legacy systems that entire time. So here I am again, about to write a long-ass article offerin’ my perspective on paladins through the ages (hopefully highlighting the strongest parts of each vision of them), talk about their pitfalls and problematic elements, and offer some advice on bringing your own paladin to life.

While this article draws on my long experience with D&D and will be citing specific sources, it would not be possible without the help of some other people in my life. I mention Afroakuma a lot in the context of D&D, and our friendship has once again been invaluable here. @a-world-unmasked , also one of my oldest friends, has long been a source of ethical discussion and debate, especially about thorny questions of justice & mercy, amends, redemption, and punishment, and provided information on D&D 4e’s paladins and paladin-like classes. SSG Jacob Karpel, United States Army, brought a Jewish perspective on paladins and their themes into my life and has borne questions of faith, dogma, and tradition with remarkable enthusiasm and patience. @swiftactionrecovery provided further perspective on D&D 4e, and her current paladin (”paladin”; it’s complicated), Aurora, is a great example of a non-traditional take that is at the same time very on-brand. Emerald has long provided the service of beating my ass when I start getting stupid about my own values and beliefs, and @ahr42p‘s fascination with fantasy ethics has informed a lot of my own thoughts on the same. None of this would be possible without you folks.

This article’s title is drawn from Maverick Hunter Quest, written by Cain Labs & Hunter Command. It appears as the motto of the 10th Urban Unit; dedicated soldiers whose specialty was preserving lives, preventing collateral damage, and steering disasters away from the innocent.

None of my articles are quite complete without Content Warnings; the following will contain mentions and descriptions of violence (including state-sanctioned violence such as executions), mentions of high crimes such as slavery and forced conversion, discussion of religion in both fictional and non-fictional contexts, and discussion of fascism and fascist ideology. It is also the end result of more than 20 years of both passionate love for paladins and equally passionate hatred of the same. If you’re wondering what some of that has to do with paladins…well, you’re in for a ride.

So, without further ado, let’s get into…

Keep reading

[maybeiwasjustjade]

I do find it absolutely hilarious that for someone who decimated potential Nescien (Nesta/Lucien) due to fear those two would rip each other apart, SJM’s grand plan was to introduce Nessian—a pairing so contrived and ill-matched that it takes the cake for Most Toxic Relationship, in a series filled with toxic relationships. Yet in the same breath, introduced the potential that is Neris, which is basically Nescien ramped up to a 1000, with none of the dreaded setbacks.

And yet, somehow, it’s Nessian I’m supposed to root for 💀.

[riggedbones-moving]

im a blorbo apologist but also they did every bad thing they did and i will get mad if u ignore that. complexities

I am not blorbo’s apologist, I’m blorbo’s defense attorney. And baby, we are going for a plea deal cause he absolutely did that shit.

[mandyseley]

This got me thinking, so here’s some messy sketches in defense of some of my favorite disaster characters.

[spocktheestallion]

“Why did the bright queen believe essek so easily how did he get away with so much shit before he was caught?” Buddy you would not believe what you can get away with if you’re Quiet and Get Good Grades

[ilikecommas]

#like that's it that's the character concept#'pleasure to have in class' privilege#and we cannot forget she is functionally his auntie lmao

[kyoshi-lesbians]

my controversial opinion is I don’t think Zuko was confused by “my first girlfriend turned into the moon”

[kyoshi-lesbians]

he was there during siege of the North. he infiltrated the spirit oasis. he has an uncle who studies spirits and the spirit world. he watched the sky go dark then the moon suddenly reappear like everyone else in the entire world did. and most importantly he watched zhao get eaten by a giant godzilla fish spirit.

[kyoshi-lesbians]

his entire life since he saw that beam of blue-white light in the south pole has been ‘this day has already been so goddamn weird’

[edgar-allan-possum]

The only really new information was that that was Sokka’s girlfriend

[library-graffiti]

Important opinion in the tags that I need to have be part of the post:

[clearascountryair]

Also, Iroh was there? He literally watched Sokka make out with the moon spirit. And you want to tell me that a romantic sap like him would not have immediately told Zuko about this romantic tragedy? Please, Zuko has known about this for ages, he just knows that this is not an acceptable situation in which to say “yeah, I know.”

[terriwriting]

Sokka: “My girlfriend turned into the moon.”

Zuko: “I know.” “Yes.” “She sure did.” “Uh huh.” “Tell me something new.” “Are we still talking about that?” “That’s rough, buddy.”

[alexseanchai]

[image: tags by samwisethebold: #it’s not that he doesn’t get what sokka means #it’s that how on earth do you respond to that]

[uberguber89]

When you put it like that, this is actually a legendary display of tact on Zuko’s part

[mclennonyaoi]

reading this deposition that just got dropped where someone sued musk and ohhhh my god it is this funniest thing ever . i can see why his lawyer tried to keep this confidential . they’re both maybe the biggest idiots . this is like ace attorney

[mclennonyaoi]

Elon Musk Didn’t Want His Latest Deposition Released. Here It Is.

Musk is being sued for falsely suggesting a 22-year-old Jewish man was part of a neo-Nazi brawl.

Elon Musk Deposed In Lawsuit For Falsely Linking Jewish Man To Neo-Nazi Brawl

Elon Musk was deposed in a recent lawsuit for falsely linking a 22-year-old Jewish man to a neo-Nazi brawl. Musk, who attempted to keep the

PLEASE read this

[mclennonyaoi]

[mclennonyaoi]

[mclennonyaoi]

[mclennonyaoi]

bankston is my HERO he’s tearing these people apart

[mclennonyaoi]

damn

[mclennonyaoi]

HE LEFT

[mclennonyaoi]

????

[mclennonyaoi]

oh my god

[mclennonyaoi]

KILL HIM

[mclennonyaoi]

he is DONE.

[mclennonyaoi]

HELP ME .

[mclennonyaoi]

wow. ok.

[mclennonyaoi]

[mclennonyaoi]

genuinely first two pages he says that he thinks ben’s lawyer is the one who is actually suing him and admits he has no clue what the lawsuit is about .

[mclennonyaoi]

doing a reread now this is so cunty

[mclennonyaoi]

goddamn .

[cryptotheism]

fun fact: the Mr. Bankston here is Mark Bankston, the same lawyer who absolutely ruined Alex Jones during the Sandy Hook trial.

[ex-libris-craux]

how in the fuck did the muskrat's attorney pass the bar

[ruffboi-mags]

Mark Bankston is gonna make me fucking SWOON.

[bemusedlybespectacled]

I don't think Mark can ever top "INDEED, MR. JONES, INDEED" and "AND THAT IS HOW I KNOW YOU LIED TO ME" from the first Sandy Hook trial in Texas (not to be confused with Chris Mattei, the attorney in the Connecticut trial), but this part

MR. SPIRO: Do you give these lectures at all of your depositions? MR. BANKSTON: I do, and you can watch them.

is ESPECIALLY hilarious to me having listened to multiple depositions Mark has had to take in the Sandy Hook case, where he has needed to lecture EVERY. SINGLE. ATTORNEY. at some point in the case about how they're violating Texas Rule XYZ, because they all, to a one, did something seriously ethically questionable during the deposition.

like, YOU CAN WATCH/LISTEN TO HIS DEPOS. HE DOES HAVE TO GIVE THOSE LECTURES EVERY TIME. IT'S NOT EVEN A JOKE.

[osheamobile]

I am allowed to hold both the concepts of "my country is a nightmare for anyone who isn't rich and the world cup tourists will only see the good parts and that is by design" and "the world cup tourists coming away from this by genuinely falling in love with the good experiences they have here and how there is so much joy even for our weirdest most American shit" simultaneously.

Yes it's only the richest people with money to burn having a great time, yes our administration is still doing awful police state immigration shit to the visiting teams let alone the fans, yes this place is still a nightmare for everyone else

but there is still joy to be had and while that doesn't erase the bad, the bad does not erase the joy

The storm continues, but when there's a momentary break in the clouds we're allowed to bask in the sunlight

[elfgrove]

#alternate closer #yes the forest is haunted but the trees are gorgeous

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Humans are like "let me hold the thing. Let me pick it up. It's cute and I want to hold it, I want to wrap my weird elongated front feet around it, I want to encircle it with my freakishly long, oddly flexible front toes. I HAVE to hold things I HAVE to or I'll die."

[elisabethdeep-blog]

I know normal people can just pass their bill over and around an object and know most things worth knowing about it, but humans don't have electroreceptors At All. They only have mechanoreceptors. Which are most concentrated in the aforementioned 'hands'... and in their mouths.

They do also have eyes, and their vision is actually pretty acute. But their optic and mechanic sensory inputs aren't integrated together like electro-mechanic sense is. So they have these two fairly sophisticated sensory complexes that Barely talk to each other.

No wonder they try to bring the two inputs together in their environment then; picking things up and turning them around allows them to apply both their mechanical and optical senses to the object. They're just trying to make up for a deficiency of neural organisation.

And like. I mentioned the other concentration of mechanoreceptors is in their mouth... So just be glad they mostly grow out of constantly wrapping their viscera-looking tongue around everything.