This Is Nice…

I thank God for Baeli's existence tbh.

don't go Nanamin don't go

But can we imagine Harry turning all of Draco’s insults into something sexual just to piss him off.

“Doesn’t Harry Potter just fucking suck?” “Sucks dick, but not yours Malfoy, don’t take it too hard”

“Fucking Potter with his fucking-” “I have to stop you there Malfoy, any talk of fucking and I seem to become irritable.”

“I swear to god if Potter says one more thing” “Trust me Malfoy, a night with me and you’ll only be able to moan one thing”

“Nope noPe nOPe NOpE fuck you Potter”

“Gladly"

sometimes you need dialogue tags and don't want to use the same four

has anyone else noticed that the writers were absolutely reluctant to fully commit to the darker implications of piltover's actions? like the gas attack on zaun? but tbh the writers' self-sabotaging of arcane's potential as social commentary is not what's really frustrating, it's that it's not just a missed opportunity, it’s a deliberate avoidance. the writers couldn't make piltover that bad, at least not through the characters we have to follow.

with the gas attack, what we get are scattered hints: a single man coughing, kids praying to janna in a song (in a way that’s super easy to miss), and worship of a painting of janna. but the show never fully depicts the suffering caused by the gas. it never commits to the atrocity and by refusing to depict the actual impact, the show softens piltover’s culpability and allows a big part of the audience to either overlook or justify it.

but the gas attack aside, the writers had two opportunities to make an explicit statement about systemic oppression, environmental racism, and the true cost of unchecked industrial power but they avoided doing so. and those two clearest instances of this avoidance are in how the show handles viktor and orianna:

in season 2, viktor’s story is literally warped to avoid blaming piltover. viktor, a character who should represent the suffering zaunites endure because of piltover’s neglect, is instead pushed into the role of an irredeemable villain for a marvelesque shit show. his transformation discards his humanity so blatantly that the audience is distracted from the actual injustice: he was dying because of piltover.

his ending is framed around jayce’s “beauty in imperfection” speech as if he should have just accepted his disability rather than seeking a cure, when the reality is, he wasn’t just disabled, he was dying because of the system piltover built. that was his entire struggle in season 1, but by season 2’s end, the narrative no longer engages with it to protect piltover.

as for orianna, she is reduced to an easter egg as a gift to league of legends fans (which is funny because the show ruined her lore for them), but more importantly, to avoid critiquing piltover.

her lore was an explicit condemnation of piltover’s disregard for zaunite lives. she was a little girl who helped zaunites, got sick due to piltover’s pollution, and had to slowly replace her own body with machinery until she lost all humanity. but arcane erases this. she’s barely a cameo, and the audience isn’t even told how she died. the show doesn’t just sideline her suffering, it removes it entirely, sanitizing piltover’s guilt in the process.

more importantly, all of this lets a big part of the audience defend piltover. for instance, by never showing the gas’s impact, the show gives certain viewers the option to ignore it: no bodies, no long-term sickness, no undeniable, inescapable horror. and i'm sure we've all seen how this allows for interpretations that justify piltover’s actions in the fandom, whether that means erasing the gas attack’s consequences or framing it as acceptable because the victims are zaunites (who are often conveniently portrayed as violent criminals).

also, ekko’s line about rescuing more people because of gang fighting is a perfect example of how the show subtly misdirects the audience. yes, gang violence is an issue, but it’s not the only crisis. the gas remains, it spreads, it poisons the people, especially the children working in factories. those are also people the firelights must have rescued. but the show chooses to highlight one crisis over another, and we know why ...

anyway, it's sad that the writers had no balls. they let so many people feel comfortable not thinking too hard about piltover’s crimes, and comfortable enough to insult anyone who criticizes characters participating in those crimes, especially caitlyn and her squad.

Changes- 8th year

Hello all!

So I thought I’d share with you this little piece that I’ve put together, this is my first time writing something of this length so I apologise if it’s not that good. Also I’ve seen lots of pierced!Harry things circulating on Tumblr so credit to anyone else who has written something along these lines.  

Leading up to his return to Hogwarts for his eighth year, Draco had prepared himself. He’d been prepared for the endless taunts, for the bullying, for the physical assaults but what he hadn’t prepared himself for was the change Harry Potter had gone through. You’d assume that saving the Wizarding World would be enough fun for a lifetime right? Oh no. The Saviour returned with his messy hair tied into a bun, tattoos covering his arms, piercings and an incredibly fit body. Draco knew he was fucked. The tattoos seemed to tell a story whilst oozing confidence and the piercings, well to Draco they made his mind run in many places it shouldn’t. On anybody else these would be intolerable but on Harry Potter they were divine. Draco believed that the endless bullying was probably less of an impact than Potter.

Day in and day out Draco found himself letting his gaze wonder back to the one and only Mr Potter. Draco wasn’t an idiot, he knew that Potter must have been aware that he’d been ogling him for the past week. But who wouldn’t? Harry practically had the whole Hogwarts population simply falling at his feet. Draco, however, refused to be another one of Potters “fans”. He was just simply appreciating him. That was bollocks and even Draco knew it, he would happily do anything Potter said if it meant he could stare at him for a second longer. Not that that was all Draco wanted to do mind you. Who was he kidding? He wanted Potter, he wanted to feel the icy metal of Potter’s lip ring in his mouth, he wanted to trace every inch of Potter’s tattoos. It was sinful, but after all Draco is no Saint. 

Keep reading

at this point nothing we ever say will change op’s mind if they think that stripping anyone, regardless of status, off their basic human rights just because they break the law is justifiable.

when i made a point in the comments about how criminality is not absolute and can be manipulated to fit the agenda of whoever is capable of changing the law, therefore “criminals” can include some of the most vunerable marginalized communities, thus taking basic rights away from “criminals” could also mean taking away those rights from the people who need them the most, it just flew over their head and i got called a weirdo immediately.

honestly, it’s so frustrating to engage in good-faith arguments with people who resort to personal insults the moment they are disagreed with.

^^^———

It is WILD that you say “selling drugs and engaging in gang turf war does not make you not a citizen” as if that changes the fact that they’re still CRIMES.

I mean, if your logic is that Zaun is technically part of Piltover and thus falls under Piltover’s jurisdiction… committing a CRIME under their jurisdiction means you can suffer consequences from your actions. No? It doesn’t MATTER if you’re a citizen or not. Being a citizen doesn’t give you free rein to do whatever you want! You have to obey laws!

If I’m a citizen of a city in America, and I do a crime, the police of that city are allowed to take away my rights as a citizen. That’s what being a citizen in a functional society MEANS!

WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT YOU WEIRD ASS MOTHER FUCKERS????

Art by catbox

Posted with Permission

She-Ra PoP vs Arcane S2

Physically disabled character considered inferior by his society, abandoned instead of being helped

Technological genius who benefits from having a partner

Uses technology to improve his health and quality of life

Becomes fundamentally altered by a force outside his control (with Christian and cult references)

And now here's where She-Ra and Arcane's messages diverge: Hordak is consistently supported and loved by his partner throughout his journey. She doesn't let up when he tries to hide his pain from her.

She does NOT tell him that he is wrong to try to "fix" himself and actively helps him do so. She recognizes the validity of how he choses to deal with his condition, which was caused by genetic "imperfections" during the cloning process. But she impresses upon him that he does not deserve the physical pain or mental torment of being a "failure".

Her message was that his imperfections do not limit him or define him. They are a part of life, part of the world, and a part of him, and he is not a failure for having them.

Meanwhile in Arcane, Jayce criticizes Viktor for "wanting to cure what he thought were weaknesses" and specifically mentions his leg and disease. The two things that brought him chronic pain, progressively deteriorating quality of life, and one would ultimately kill him. Also, Viktor never actually expressed that he was ashamed of them. We as the audience are left to assume that's how he feels, because why wouldn't he? What else would a disabled person feel? Not that he is perfectly aware that Piltover's oppression and exploitation of his people likely directly contributed to both those issues. Not that he values himself for his intellect and contributions to Hextech even though society constantly prioritized Jayce. Nope, obviously he feels so bad about it that he tries to turn all of humanity into robots. On top of that, Christian Linke has explicitly said the Hexcore corrupted him and Sky was a manifestation of it manipulating him. So even if he did feel that way before, he's still not at fault for what's been going on.

And I think a key part of this is the mindset of the team who created this show. Was this simply a poorly executed but positive sentiment, or a symptom of ableist bias from a team of 3 able-bodied people? We can harp on Jayce all we want, but ultimately someone designed him this way, and THIS is what I take issue with. Christian also says in the art book explicitly that Viktor fixing his leg and spine make him lose part of his humanity. If this is the logic behind Jayce's monologue, it is NOT positivity. It is a direct shaming of a disabled person's right to choose how they take care of themselves, said by a character who has already violated Viktor's autonomy and wishes, written by a team that equates self-improvement with inferior humanity.

Amanda Overton has repeatedly mentioned she was inspired by She-Ra, which is pretty obvious here. Unfortunately, this isn't the unequivocally positive message she thinks it is, and she missed all the nuance of Entrapta and Hordak's conversations about it. A huge component of why it works in She-Ra is because Entrapta's wisdom comes from her understanding of her own "failures" and "imperfections" due to her autism, and Hordak reciprocates support throughout the show. One of the key members of her development team is an autistic person who provided a realistic view of what an autistic person can be like.

This is two people who understand each other's pain uplifting each other, NOT Entrapta being Hordak's miraculous savior at the 11th hour. Having Jayce need a leg brace for like 5 minutes does not give him ability to understand Viktor's lifelong struggles that were also killing him.

For future seasons, I hope they bring on staff who actually have any idea what they are fucking talking about.

The empires "sustainable/unlimited" energy initiative is exactly like imperial nations using cobalt and other materials to build their electric "environmentally friendly" vehicles and tools. So many local indigenous people are going to suffer IMMENSENSELY from this massive resource extraction effort.