So I follow N. D. Stevenson (comics writer and animator, most famous for Nimona and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power) and his husband Lee Ostertag (also a comics writer and animator) on Instagram. When I started following them, they were both publicly presenting as women, and then a few years ago N. D. came out as transmasc nonbinary, and then earlier this year Lee also came out as transmasc. Anyway this is all setup to say that Lee had the chance to make the funniest post of all time and he took it:
I want to throw in that part of the context behind this meme was N.D. talking about how he sometimes gets hatemail for marrying a man as a former lesbian, and how many people seem to think he divorced his wife.
I have not managed to find anyone who thinks that in the wild, but it is so damn funny.
Also noting that this line has a lot of clothing that works for people who need easy chest access or have limited upper body mobility, like if you are recovering from surgery or doing chemo
I will never shy away from the word goon. goon is the only way to describe a particular type of henchman, lackey, or thug. look at these guys. they're goons.
Jasmine Fenton goes down a different path in her attempt to care for her brother. Unfortunately, she could not stop her parents from taking her brother apart. Now, his core is slowly rebuilding his body from infancy, and someone has to pay for letting the Anti-Ecto Acts exist. When she bites off more than she can chew, she learns how to grow bigger teeth, and hunts down bigger prey.
Hi, Catholic here—the only part of the holy trinity with a human body is the Son (Jesus) so yes, but also God the Father doesn’t have a human body so no, but the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all the same being as well so yes, but all humans including women are created in the image of God so hypothetically He has everything else too. Hope this helps.
You know what? Fuck it I'm adding more context. Sesame Street has talked about the topic of death more than once and it's done with such gentle carefulness without watering down or censoring the heaviness of the situations. It treats heavy subject matter with respect and dignity and has been for DECADES.
From the early 1980s:
To 2025:
Hell, they even cover the devastating heaviness of MASS SHOOTINGS without censoring or watering anything down.
They've been doing this for YEARS, and it's ALWAYS handled with dignity, respect, seriousness, understanding, and love.
Whenever I see people censoring words because it "might offend" someone or the big ad companies that are currently trying to run everything? I just want to say to them: "What? Is Sesame Street too mature for you?" Because really...what the hell are we doing.
I'm back with even more examples! Sesame Street once again to this day is out here handling extremely difficult subject matter with incredible care and respect. "We can't let kids learn about uncomfortable things!" Oh, really now? Even though they're things that happen in everyday life that they'll face one day at some point anyway? Interesting. Let's see what else this show has covered that people (for some reason) think should be avoided and hidden. Here's more on death of loved ones and greif:
Or how about when someone is put into the foster care system because their home isn't safe anymore and their needs aren't being met?
Maybe some discussions about group therapy/getting help and support?
Hey look! Here's a segment about gender expression vs taught expectation, including unlearning harmful biases and what to do when you hurt someone on accident because you didn't know it was wrong!
Look! The topic of race and diversity! The importance of unity and equity!
They even also have a more allegorical take on discrimination and being looked down on for who you are, featuring Big Bird. The conflict is about how he's not being let into a club because the one bird running the club personally decided he didn't want someone like Big Bird there.
Big Bird goes out of his way to keep changing parts of himself in order to "prove" he can fit into this club if he just changed enough. The truth comes out though, and there's nothing he can do to gain the approval of that bird. He will never be good enough in his eyes, and Big Bird starts to hate himself. His real friends see this finally put their feet down, emphasizing that you should never change yourself just to fit into one singular narrow idea someone else has.
There's A LOT of different situations this can be an allegory for. Racism, sexism, homophobia, basically ANY form of exclusion is put on full blast in this 15 minute clip. Sesame Street can be both blunt and allegorical when approaching difficult topics, and it NEVER misses or looses the point.
It does an exceptional job in both styles of representation WITHOUT watering anything down. The more sanitized everything gets, the more radical Sesame Street is suddenly considered, hence why so many "particular groups" want it gone. Hmmm! I can only imagine why that could be, in this current political climate! (I'm being sarcastic)
When Sesame Street is suddenly labeled as "questionable" or "politically/agenda motivated" content...it says A LOT about where we currently are and who gets to decide what's "best" for kids or not. Don't fall for the censorship and topic-dodging excuses that are covered by the "But think of the children!!!" movement. Never fall for it, because you know which side you're on if you do.
Sesame Street proves kids can be taught and trusted with learning about these topics when it's handled with the right amount of understanding and care. It shows what all this "controversy" is all really about. What it's always been about, actually.
Don't fall for it, always side with Sesame Street.
grace, rocky & simon bored on the trip to erid and exploring the extensively pirated hail mary database can be something so important to me. what im saying is that grace definitely shows simon studio ghibli movies BUT also. they all play minecraft together
this got long so my headcanons are under the cut of shame
rocky is Immediately trying to figure out redstone to build machines and noteblock chords to play music/eridian language. but to do that he has to go mining for the redstone and he gets a little obsessed with collecting everything and ends up SO deep in the caves he's literally lost forever grace help help help
meanwhile grace is trying to build them a humble abode on the surface in a nice meadow. he has simon following him around at first while he finds sheep and cows to lead into his fenced pens with wheat and breed for a little farm. simon is wary of going anywhere or touching anything in-game and just wants to watch grace do it for a while until he feels comfortable. he's all wide-eyed curiosity at the earth animals depicted on screen and grace is Absolutely giving him teacher rambles about each one and why they're collecting them for the base
then simon gets bored of watching and starts to wander and he goes off into the nearest forest without any tools whatsoever. he's captivated by all the nature and refuses to break any trees until grace whines and begs him enough about bringing back different woods for the house he's making. simon then embarks on an obsessive quest of his own making to find Every single wood type and give it to grace
i want to be so clear that simon is picking flowers and sugar cane and jumping headfirst off cliffs and slowly starving to death as he treks like 30,000 blocks away with Nothing but the wooden axe grace made for him at the start. he's constantly on like 2 hearts without realising because he's so invested in the limitless natural world around him
then night falls and grace is like "oh yeah i forgot to mention there's monsters that come out"
rocky is in the depths of a pitch black ravine fighting for his LIFE not to lose all the materials he's collected like "grace grace grace rocky is aware STATEMENT. why not help question!?? grace come into rocky cave urgent request"
and simon, in the middle of fucking nowhere, is like "there's what." he's somehow so vigilant that he manages to fend for himself against the sudden flood of mobs. he kills enough skeletons and accidentally discovers the wolves in this spruce forest like bones so now he's got a guard dog buddy
when simon first sees a spider he's so horrified he's like "grace you didn't tell me they were this big how the fuck did these things get into your houses on earth" and grace is too busy Dying of laughter to answer him
basically just simon & rocky both going through hell while grace is happily decorating their cosy house and figuring out what colour he's going to make everyone's beds
eventually simon gets back (surviving on raw meat and rotten flesh, btw. he hasn't discovered crafting tables or furnaces) and he gets really into redstone with rocky. they make So many automatic farms and simon gets into the building creativity side of things through buildstone. he makes a working windmill for grace's farm and only dies to fall damage like 8 times
at one point rocky accidentally punches simon (reading constantly moving screens with his texture transmitter is hard, okay!?) and simon refuses to call off his wolf when it chases him down for vengeance. this devolves into a pvp fistfight that they both lose because they end up in the river and are so focused on the fight they forget they need air
grace has to call a timeout when simon & rocky start tussling in real life
By popular vote among 65, beating out "Cade" by a mere 3%!
I know this fandom is starving for "canon-based" characters to play with in their fanfiction, so please allow me to humbly introduce my fan-rendition of Wires Guy. This is less-so an "AU" and moreso a big extrapolation paper on missing details. The canon events of the movie are completely untouched.
His Timeline
Michael was sent to Eden during its glory days as an agricultural center, arriving there days before the Quiet Rapture to become an understudy. He barely had time to settle before the planet Mars—along with his family—disappeared.
He was thrust directly into a mass psychosis event at a young age, all alone, as the station devolved into a death cult. He became a child soldier alongside Simon. Bought into the Last Tree as a god quite heavily. It was all he had left.
Michael grew up to be an incredible mind, despite the circumstances (having been smart enough to know how to jerry-rig the SM-13's computer to play a secret message with no prior knowledge of how it worked). The Simon-Michael dynamic is:
Michael and Simon were on a small raiding crew together after they became old enough to start participating directly in the resource-related fighting between them and the COI, both egging each other on to do worse and worse crimes. He taught Simon everything he knew about starspeeders, and in return, Simon taught him to fight dirty. Taught him it was safe to emote the way he wanted to. He didn't have to "stonewall" people all the time to keep it together. Simon's all about expression and speaking his mind.
It is in the midst of this, that an unspoken rivalry forms. It's brotherly competition to get the Father's good graces. This guy is family to Simon despite their differences.
Simon begins to doubt the Last Tree, making the mistake of opening up about it to Michael, who full-stop freaks the fuck out on the inside. This ends their friendship, but they are still Brothers. Michael thinks he can "save" Simon from straying the path if he tries hard enough. Michael doesn't want to lose the only family he has.
They get sent to Filament Station together as young men. It is their first "real" battle deployment. Leaps above being shitty space pirates on their beater little shuttle. Simon is at his angriest, and Michael is barely tethered to the present second and depressed (they reflect different aspects of the way a human mind might try to cope with such horrors). They are both looking to prove themselves to the Father. Michael knew about and had a hand in causing the explosion, having been the one most capable of understanding the station's reactor core as smart as he is. Michael deemed it justified. Simon did not.
Their hesitant "Brothers in Arms" thing between one another shatters. Filament is destroyed, and they are both captured. They hate each other.
They both end up in prison together for an undefined amount of time. Could have been months. Could have been years. We really do not know. They spend this time together watching their fellow captured Brothers either die to suicide or be dragged out of their cells, never to return again. It's a massacre on the COI's part. Despite being locked in a cage, Simon tries to spend the time off in his own head, daydreaming of better times, hoping for a better future.
Michael haaates it. Simon has his head in the clouds too much and it's bothersome.
But, then, one day, it's Michael's turn. They march him out.
From Simon's perspective, he disappears completely since then. Not a trace. Not a word about him. Simon makes up a story in his head to self-soothe. That maybe Michael made it out.
Michael's pissed. He's tired. He's had enough, nor is he one to let himself be humiliated by the hands of the COI. So, after they drop him in the SM-13, he refuses to move. Refuses orders. Just sits.
Then, with anger flitting into some twisted kind of determined certainty, he records a message for the next one down, leaving his pendant in a safe place and a note to cross the wires. Michael has a very fatal flaw that sets him apart from Simon the most.
Knowing when to quit.
Little headcanon splurge here, since we're in the trenches already: Eden Brothers can identify exactly who these pendants belong to by their leaves. Each one is unique, like a fingerprint. They are akin to military call-signs. If it weren't for the clear voice over the speaker, I think Simon would've known who this was, regardless. This isn't just an Eden pendant. This is Michael's pendant; it couldn't possibly be anyone else's. They are irreplaceable.
Simon's doing the equivalent of taking the baton from him and running with it. The SM-13 was supposed to be Michael's ship.
Simon is reacting this way not because of the fact that a random guy died here. He's reacting this way because he is remembering who this was. Simon knew this guy, and remembers him as that little boy in his head because what is Simon's biggest vice? Remembering the better times. Nostalgia.
Of course he's going to only entertain memories of a time when they got along. They were kids together.
Characterization
Very patriotic about Mars even though it no longer exists. He's a yearner for Mars. It rubbed off on Simon a little bit.
He had to raise himself. The Father was too busy raising Simon after his mother died.
The anger issues are just as bad as Simon's, except Michael antagonizes to feel something, anything, and Simon likes to punch for the same reasons. They're not healthy for each other. Toxic family stuff.
Always played "runner up" to God's Favorite War Dog (Simon). Despite this, Michael is just as dangerous.
In a spar, Michael can easily hold his own against Simon. He is taller and faster, yet has the flaw of refusing to fight dirty like Simon does. It just feels wrong to him.
Resting bitch face. Has a hard time emoting, dead eyes, glazed over, the whole nine yards. Full-stop opposite of Simon being so expressive, even when he is masking.
He finds solace among technology despite being surrounded by agrarians and being one himself. Michael is not a mechanic, he simply appreciates the art of a good machine and enjoys the study (he's totally not self-projecting). He craves the strength certainty of steel, or something like that. Something something, keeping control is better than letting his grief get the better of him and relating with machines.
He's an academic, multi-disciplinary problem solver more than anything. In his free time, he writes. Has a poetic air about the way he speaks. Very straightforward yet with great prose. Simon's always appreciated it.
He's fluent in Edenic Creole (my fanon Far-Future English dialect). Michael uses formal phrasing and often.
He has trained himself out of hesitating much like Simon. Simon was not good for his impulse control.
Michael is methodical and a planner. Simon is also a planner, but a spur-of-the-moment one. Something about Markiplier being a sporadic creative. You can imagine the bullshittery that ensues.
"SIMON NO" "SIMON YES" -> "dude..." "yeah... I knew that was stupid. Still fun, though." "... true, true."
They both have enough ego to fill two stadium-sized swimming pools. They fight because they both believe they are right about their own values. Michael is just as stubborn about the Tree returning to life as Simon is about the stars coming back. It's two sides of the same hopeful coin.
Bonus crackpost: Michael's a would-be stoner. Simon's a would-be alcoholic, if he could get his hands on enough (they were pillaging for supplies!!! Simon's been the Butcher long before Filament Station. THEY WERE ROBBING PEOPLE. What else would Simon be doing? They definitely stole shit from Eden's "supply" runs). Together, they are Substance Abuse Squared: You're in for a Scare!
*Takes a bow*
Thank you for coming to my TED talk. I'm so excited to present this guy to the Council. Please enjoy Michael's character, and tag me if you make any content for him!!!
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Personally I hate AI because it uses slave labor, is killing the planet and is making people stupid, but that's just me. The soulless art aspect is just one little piece of my grander disdain.
wait how does AI use slave labor? Do you mean the human works that are stolen and not credited or compensated? Because technically under capitalism everything is exploited but there are varying degrees
Aside from the scraping, AI tech companies, including openAI/chatGPT, have outsourced training their models to countries in the global south, specifically Kenya in openAI's case. These workers are working in sweatshop conditions for less than 2 bucks USD per hour. I'm on mobile, but if you search 'openAI Kenya slave labor' and related keywords, you can find multiple articles about it.
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