I Love This Because Like 99% Of This Kind Of Paleoart Is Patriarchal Man The Hunter Type Fantasies But

FUCK silverfish

Happiness Will Come To You.

So this was a pre-planned (and likely paid for by the Kremlin) show: to invite Zelenskyy, scold him like a kindergartener in front of the press, present him with an unreasonable "deal" - an ultimatum - knowing full well he will refuse it (as anyone in this position would). And then tell the world: "Look, our mighty Orange King could've ended this horrible war in a day, but this poorly-dressed, warmongering, ungrateful twat just doesn't want peace! It's not our fault, we did what we could!"

The show is so cheap, so transparent, yet still effective for so many brainless people.

I think people in fandom have forgotten that the creators are allowed to have fun too. Do we really think the hellaverse team are unaware of the excessive swearing, or horny jokes, or random ships? The fandom should take notes. They're fictional characters made for us to play with and have fun. None of it is real. They're abstract dolls with no real, substantial meaning. Ship who you wanna ship, be nice to others, draw art, write fanfic, make friends with like minded nerds, ignore the rise of puritanism and people feeling entitled to tell you what to do or don't do based on their personal preferences, do whatever the hell you want because that's what fandom SHOULD be about. It's a space made for geeks and freaks who just want to have fun, it's not a government institution where we create laws or wtv

i forget where I got the idea from (might've been carter's Political Theory which is a terrible book otherwise), but something i haven't been able to get out of my mind is what I'm tentatively calling the ‘Anarchist Theory of Accountability’; which resolves itself into this cold assessment that both the logic and the individual are at fault.

I was so used to Marx and his way of talking about the abstract logic intoxicating the whole of society and how it's not the individual but the systems and logics that are responsible

Like Marx straight up tells you —doesn't warn you, but tells you— I should've taken it as a warning, that he deals with individuals only as personifications of class interests

Sure, he has his favorite punching bags, but for the most part he abstracts

So this whole other facet ran under my radar and was a rude awakening because ultimately it is still the real corporeal physical individual who carry out actions in their own interest at the expense of others, who sees and smells and architects the misery of others for their own gain

The logic may have wormed its way into their heart but they still plan and relish and act out on it

‘Don't hate the player hate the game’

No actually, I hate both, the game is rigged and the player constitutes and reconstitutes, produces and reproduces the game

The only way is not to play, as difficult as that is

‘I was only following orders’

But you still followed them, at the expense of everyone involved

(THE BOOK OF BILL SPOILERS!!)

Thinking about Bill’s appearance at the end of the book…

[ID: BIll when confronting the Axolotl. He is shown in white silhouette, hovering in space, hovering neutrally. Notably, he has a massive crack running through his body, splitting him into multiple pieces, some of which are coming apart. /end ID]

When confronting the Axolotl, Bill is broken. The Axolotl even notes this: "Shattered, broken, not yet dead."

(Which, side note, makes me think Bill might have been lying about having been "kicked out of Hell," if he didn't actually die in Stan's head.)

[ID: Three pictures of Bill in the Theraprism. The first one shows him holding his hand against the side of his head in a dazed expression, sitting in a chair in a white padded room between a wizard with a clock for a face and Saturn (taken directly from the painting Saturn Devouring His Son). The second is a camera recording of him wearing an orange jumpsuit and kneeling in a cell, surrounded by arts and crafts tools, holding a pair of scissors, and beaming his thoughts frantically into a book. The third shows a mugshot of him staring blankly into the camera, his own name written on coded text below him. In all three images, he has a glowing scar where the cracks were, and is in one piece. /end ID]

When he's shown in the Theraprism, we see a glowing, static-y scar where the cracks were. The scar crosses his entire body (and even crosses to the other side of his eye without affecting it!), but he's actually whole, keeping himself together.

But then...

[ID: Two pictures of Bill from the last pages of the book. In the first one he is facing forward and holding up one finger, his eye reddened, his entire form glitching, and his crack is notably worse than prior, cracking through his eye, multiple smaller pieces drifting away. In the second one he is staring blankly at the viewer, his arms hanging limply, his eye wide and blank, the crack worse than the previous image, with more pieces floating away. /end ID]

In the last few pages, we see the scar is gone and the cracks are back, and even more of him is breaking away, including parts of his eye. It's especially bad in the last image, with even more pieces of him breaking away.

Also noteworthy is that the static texture behind him seems to be the same as the blood sample the US government took from him in the 1940s. He's bleeding.

We know from context that these images are meant to be taken somewhat chronologically. After dying (or nearly dying), Bill seeks out the Axolotl, who sends him to the Theraprism. While there, he writes the journal that he's beaming to us. The staff at the Theraprism catch onto this, and allow him to write out the last few pages, meaning those last few pages are chronologically the last of Bill we see.

This means that, after the events of the show, Bill was shattered... and then, upon entering the Theraprism, started to heal, his body coming together and scars forming... but at some point afterward, he started breaking apart again.

I'd made a post previously about Bill's development, how he views himself as a monster after the Euclidian Disaster, and how he continues to act monstrous afterward (and winds up agonizingly lonely as a result). I didn't really touch on this in the post, but I feel like after inadvertently destroying his home dimension...

Bill never left the denial phase of grief.

I could be wrong on this, but I get the feeling that part of his reason for acting monstrous toward just about everybody is because he sees himself as a monster, because "this is just how I am" is easier to accept than "I really really screwed up."

Bringing this back to his shattering... It's interesting to me that after entering the Theraprism, his body is scarring, which means it is healing. But then, at the end, as he's signing off the book, he's shattered again, and looking even worse than he did when talking to the Axolotl. When talking this over with a friend, they pointed out something that struck me:

Bill does not want to heal.

Healing means having to actually think through what happened. It means having to confront his past, confront destroying his home dimension, confront the harm he caused to others, confront the fact that he did not have to be this way.

And he refuses to do that.

He refuses to heal.

just wanted to share the National Down Syndrome Society’s message for this year’s World Down Syndrome Day (21st March) 💛💙

people who dont experience it cannot comprehend how awful executive dysfunction is. I WANT to do the task, i have the resources TO do the task, i will feel better having DONE the task

but i cant fucking do the task

one of the more valuable things I’ve learned in life as a survivor of a mentally unstable parent is that it is likely that no one has thought through it as much as you have. 

no, your friend probably has not noticed they cut you off four times in this conversation. 

no, your brother didn’t realize his music was that loud while you were studying. 

no, your bff or S.O. doesn’t remember that you’re on a tight deadline right now.

no, no one else is paying attention to the four power dynamics at play in your friend group right now.  

a habit of abused kids, especially kids with unstable parents, is the tendency to notice every little detail. We magnify small nuances into major things, largely because small nuances quickly became breaking points for parents. Managing moods, reading the room, perceiving danger in the order of words, the shift of body weight….it’s all a natural outgrowth of trying to manage unstable parents from a young age. 

Here’s the thing: most people don’t do that. I’m not saying everyone else is oblivious, I’m saying the over analysis of minor nuances is a habit of abuse. 

I have a rule: I do not respond to subtext. This includes guilt tripping, silent treatments, passive aggressive behavior, etc. I see it. I notice it. I even sometimes have to analyze it and take a deep breath and CHOOSE not to respond. Because whether it’s really there or just me over-reading things that actually don’t mean anything, the habit of lending credence to the part of me that sees danger in the wrong shift of body weight…that’s toxic for me. And dangerous to my relationships. 

The best thing I ever did for myself and my relationships was insist upon frank communication and a categorical denial of subtext. For some people this is a moral stance. For survivors of mentally unstable parents this is a requirement of recovery. 

I love the very brief cut in the atla finale when Ozai, defeated, turns to look at Aang as he brings the water up to clear the fires around them

Ozai. An incredibly powerful fire bender. A man who was so arrogant and still managed to think that, moments prior, he could’ve caught the avatar off guard, even after being scared out of his mind as the kid chased him down with a solar system of elements around him

He fully got his ass handed to him. Not only was he beaten by the goodness in Aang’s heart and his decision to spare Ozai’s life, but his bending was taken away. In a world like that, it’s a fate worse than death. This little 12-year-old just touched his head and heart and fully evicted the one thing that made Ozai who he was.

You have the power to end it here and stop what you’re doing!

…I do have the power. I have all the power in the world!

I love that look that he gives Aang. He is exhausted. He just stared death in the face. His energy was bended. The strength and invincibility he felt when he was trying to break through the earth Aang hid himself in was replaced with an embarrassing shell of a man, and even more a leader

And to look at this child whom every avatar in existence, from Wan to Roku, spoke through and who chased him down and just selflessly saved the world. Who calmly breathes in, lights up, and slowly uses the first water bending move he was ever taught to cleanse the damage that Ozai caused

Forced to watch the goodness of this kid in full swing. This fully realized avatar, and a more powerful bender than Ozai could ever dream to be