🦇~Thirst of the Father~🦇

i have this fic series i'm still working on where mihawk sort of becomes rayleigh's kid and spends ages 11-17ish on the oro jackson.

shanks and buggy imprint on him (bugs considers him a sort of older brother figure/sparring inspiration and shanks has a crush that eventually turns into full-blown love) and this is how i imagine they're like on the day mihawk sets off on his own haha.

quite simply character of all time to me i keep coming back to doing screenshot redraws of Shiro in fall of the castle of lions & tears of the balmera. episodes of all time to me no notes.

Oct 13 &

Oct 14 - Chreon Aquarium Date (prompt from @cerul-skyefrost ‘s ask to @thebrandywine 😛)

No I’m SO sorry but it’s truly so funny to me that a lot of dudes going to see challengers for the idea that they’ll see a hot naked Zendaya and what they actually get treated to is tasteful and delicate aspects of the male form from the visionary that is Luca Guadagnino (and of course very very explicitly homoerotic imagery.) And there is a healthy amount of sexualization for both forms. But the fact that there is full frontal male nudity in this movie, the only true nudity in this movie is of the male form, marketed the way it is is just so good. Like I work in a theater and the amount of dudes coming out lambasting that this movie sucks is so fucking delicious. The way straight guys have to sit and accept the queerness of this movie that it EXISTS, that it’s beautiful and tender and gentle, and intimate, but also loud, and brash, and seeped into every conceivable corner adds another 10 on top of this already 10/10 movie.

SPOILERS for 2.2 and Aventurine's message

So his stone was completely destroyed, and the IPC knows about it. I've also got the feeling that he wanted to free himself from the IPC. So why, at the end of 2.2, does he act as if most of 2.1 didn't happen? I mean, why would he expect a rise from Diamond? He clearly still has full support of the IPC too.

Can you even be Aventurine the Stoneheart without aventurine the stone? Is Diamond going to give him a new one? 

I hope he's up to something. Otherwise, it doesn't make much sense.

I'm also a bit confused about this. Didn't it all happen exactly according to his plan? How was it foiled?

contrast of touch

No, but all the implications!!!

Gortash starting to treat Durge's wounds as a mere way of ensuring his ally doesn't die while he still needs them.

Durge begrudgingly allowing it bc fighting against it is more trouble than it's worth, though they're a little peeved by the idea first. Letting others treat their wounds feels too vulnerable, too...intimate.

Gortash slowly establishing that as the means of control because well-treated dog is a loyal dog and he needs Durge loyal to him.

Durge getting used to that because for the first time ever they're offered comfort, for the first time ever their pain eases, even if only the physical one. Learning they don't have to bear pain, what they can simply go to Gortash and he'll make the best healers take it away. Or better yet, would bandage their cuts himself, almost as if he cares.

This gradually turning into routine to the point where Durge once gets hurt Badly, blacks out and drags their uncooperative body to Gortash's house bc subconscious is a bitch and connected Gortash = comfort/relief/no pain/etc.

Gortash being met with the bloody unconscious body of his ally on the floor of his bedroom and being both annoyed and, strangely, relieved, because his plan of leashing Bhaalspawn is working and because he'd prefer to know if Durge is hurt and be in control of their healing.

Iroh's "I looked away"

“The Storm” [s01e12] provided us a great insight into Zuko’s character, one that undoubtedly helps to understand his motives and anger but also how Ozai’s physical and psychological abuse influenced the banished prince. There are plenty of things to talk about, many little details that build layers of a complicated relationship between Zuko and his father, uncle, or even his crew and how perception of Zuko changes once we learn the truth behind the scar. But the episode also shows us a great deal of insight into Iroh’s character and though I do love how “The Storm” challenged our perception of those characters, rewatching ALTA makes Iroh’s “I looked away” much more devastating to me. 

Because it is not just about his guilt over abuse Zuko was forced to endure. A guilt that won’t disappear no matter if he could or couldn’t do anything to prevent it, but… Iroh truly looked away from Fire Nation as a whole, didn’t he? Understandably, he was grief-struck after Lu Ten’s death and he did not fight back Ozai for the throne, as I suspect he either did not care anymore for it or did not want a civil war to destroy Fire Nation from inside. But he still was The Dragon of West, a very respected general and powerful political figure that others weren’t willing to openly challenge, including Ozai himself.

And no, I’m not wondering why Iroh did not interference with Agni Kai before Zuko’s face was burned to “teach him respect” but about the fact that he did not say anything at all against using the division of new recruits as a bait - and from the episode alone, we know he agreed with Zuko on that matter. It wasn't the right strategy - even if it has merit from a military standpoint, it definitely wasn’t moral or good for Fire Nation’s wellbeing. Beside Zuko, who openly challenged the strategy and called it betrayal, the only person that questioned it at all was an old unnamed general (“But the 41st is entirely new recruits. How do you expect them to defeat a powerful Earth Kingdom battalion?) while Iroh simply kept quiet and this detail makes me think the “I looked away” is as much about Iroh looking away from Ozai’s cruel abuse toward Zuko as about Iroh’s passivity during the war meeting, and in greater scheme, Fire Nation’s politics. I doubt Iroh could change Ozai’s mind and sure, I do not have an idea how the relationship between Fire Lord and ex-Crown Prince looked like, but the point is, Iroh did not even try to question the strategy and choose to sit quietly and dunno, it makes me wonder, did Iroh give up at this point of his life? Was he so afraid of the consequences for speaking his mind that he allowed Ozai and Fire Lord’s court to subdue him so much? Because if he did, his words to Zuko “[...] But you must promise not to speak. Those old folks are a bit sensitive, you know?” is as much warning to Zuko as to himself. 

Iroh said to the crew that Zuko was right but it wasn’t his place to criticize the strategy, but who else was supposed to speak against this plan, if Iroh himself chose to stay quiet on the matter? If all generals - then and three years later - didn’t have any respect for life, whatever for their own subjects or civilians of other nations? And I think this is what truly kills me about this situation, that 13 years old boy had courage to speak against this dehumanization of Fire Nation’s citizens when Iroh, our good uncle Iroh, kept quiet and looked away again and again from what was happening until he couldn’t do that anymore because too great damage was already done.

(And isn’t it ironic that Iroh gave little Zuko a knife with the description never give up without a fight - words Zuko adapted as his life motto - but Iroh himself gave up? First at Ba Sing Sai, after Lu Ten’s death, now here during a war meeting and maybe, just maybe it is Zuko that unexpectedly pushed him back on the right track to actually do something, to make a choice and fight for what he believed was right instead of passively watching all the abuse done to an innocent child and young soldiers serving loyalty to their country. Was Iroh already a White Lotus then or did the travel with Zuko give him an opportunity to join it because he couldn’t anymore look away from how messed up Fire Nation became?)

i desperately need infinite wealth kazumaji ooouuu

they could be so girlypop about it

I NEEEEED TO

I just did the jima^3 fight and I wanna throw rocks sdkalgjsdg

I gotta make more copium... change the canon...

I was kinda Jesting about it a little bit ago, but Killian and Shaun just have the potential to have SUCH a fucked up relationship. Shaun, the guy who considers the death of his mother to be collateral damage, who was going to free Killian as a social experiment, who finds out his dad takes off into a grief induced drug haze and becomes a raider overlord for a little bit. VS Killian, the guy who straight up tells him to his face "I love you, but I never should have been your father, and the parent who could have saved you is dead". Killian who realized he couldn't be the kind of father a child deserves wayy too late, but having a wife and kid was kind of all he had. Shaun who has to contend with the realization that his dad thought it was a blessing that Shaun and Nora were "dead". Killian who realizes he's done the exact same thing his parents did to him. DELICIOUS.

*Trigger warning for eating disorder talk*

I hate how whenever I eat anything my brain is like "You should kill yourself. Now." Like what's your fucking problem

hi! in regards to your dilemma about what oil to use, the rule of thumb i've found is to avoid using seed oil unless its wood-pressed and/or cold-pressed, which unfortunately is more expensive. usually olive oils is a safe one, since it comes from the 'fruit' for a lack of a better word.

also ghee is great as a cooking medium, if you're not vegan! a lot of indian stores usuallly sell them at better prices than mainstream supermarkets.

good luck for healthy eating!

Thanks! Yeah I've always used a ton of olive oil in cold preparation & low heat cooking, but I only recently read that all seed oils are bad. I used to use canola oil in cooking quite a lot but now I use butter, ghee, olive oil & occasionally avocado oil. The main problem is that seed oils are in sooo much store bought stuff that I didn't even realize was unhealthy and ultraprocessed. They really add it to fucking everything it's so annoying! Even a lot of plant based milks which I thought were healthy are full of disgusting crap so I'm sticking to dairy milk now.

What gets me about certain people being so fucking pissy about Bob not writing much about Eilistraee (until the last fucking trilogy where EIlistraeans featured heavily) is that

a) Bob basically built drow culture up from almost nothing, and Eilistraee came after he started writing Drizzt

b) no you guys really don't understand. I own the first 4 modules drow appeared in. There's... not much there. And it hasn't aged well.

c) and the Big One: he has a specific vision for his specific characters when it comes to the narrative he wants to explore, from sexual abuse to religious trauma, both of which are fucking complicated and for most people just switching deities isn't enough to fix that.

I have religious trauma that I still struggle with to this day and probably will for the rest of my life to some extent, and it's fundamentally different in nature from what most people would probably expect, and the thing is even though I am happily polytheistic and very enthusiastically into it, I still struggle a lot with certain things because every time I get into my religious practice I have to actively force myself into (or out of) certain things because my whole relationship to religion and spirituality is complicated and messy.

It would be easy and frankly incredibly superficial for Bob to decide to just have them all convert to half-assed Neowiccan ~woo~ drow Jesus Eilistraee to *~*save their souls*~* and call it a day

BUT HE DIDN'T DO THAT

Partly because she wasn't his creation and other authors were writing her at the time so he really couldn't, and partly because it's a shitty message to send.

Sometimes people benefit from converting to a new religion or following a new deity. Sometimes people don't.

I benefited from gradually converting to my religion, but it's come with a whole different set of complications and hasn't been a smooth journey for me.

Just going from extensive religious trauma to switching deities does not fix your problems, and for a lot of people it realistically can make them much worse.

but also

you don't have to be saved by a deity in order to have value as a person

can't believe T*ylor dropped that f*cking album and Spotify decided ok no more lyrics for anyone

smth smth fawn’s self rivalry in the siblings!au