ADB's Purple Meme Zone

if you hit 'em back with a very genuine, "yeah, she's really disappointed i won't let her use me like a broodmare," then EVERYONE gets to be uncomfortable about someone else being mad they can't use your body for their own wants <3

it did take a few repetitions until i finally progressed to, "yeah, she's really sad i won't let her pimp me out as a broodmare," but it did eventually make her stop completely

so y'know

If I found out my nice neighbor who helped me jumpstart my car at the god awful hour of 5am was Superman? NOBODY'S GETTING SHIT FROM ME I KNOW NOTHING!

a) bro can shoot lazer eyes

b) bro is minding his own business, I can do the same

c) The moment I start blabbing I get involved and I DO NOT want to be involved with the day to day life of a fuckin superhero. So I don't know shit, okay?

My lawyer's some vigilante. Sounds like a conflict of interest but what do I look like? A cop? My trash collector is a superhero? Anyway, thanks buddy, have a great one, say hi to the kids for me. I watched my waiter at McDonalds absolutely throw hands with a supervillain. That's crazy, anyway here's a 30% tip in cash. Good luck with those student loans.

And instead of just outright saying "we don't wanna hear you talk about it at all because we don't care/we benefit" (because that wouldn't fit the Good Person Image) it's always treated as bad timing or bad expression.

So when is the time. When will be a good time to talk about the increasingly overt and growing presence of the antiblackness in the room. Or is the enforced policing of Black voices the preferred state of things here, to maintain nonblack comfort at all costs. Bc I wish y'all would just say that instead of all this other shenaniganery.

you understand how the two scions you're introduced to in the gridania start are important for at most two expansions, one of which they barely appear in, before disappearing from the story forever aside from cameos? as opposed to the scions you meet in limsa and ul'dah, who remain important for the rest of the game up til today???

I'd also love to have the story take us to a Duskwight settlement/ whatever remains of Gelmorra because like...the reality is that the origins of a lot of the issues they deal with in Gridania are sorta self inflicted. They don't live in caves and resort to banditry (hence the distrust in Duskwightes that Gridanians have) because they were ostracized and had no choice; when everyone else left Gelmorra to found Gridania, the ancestors of the Duskwights refused to leave and insisted on *continuing* to live in caves and refused to integrate into society, to the point where they'd rather resort to banditry rather than live in Gridania.

This is the context in which Valdeaulin (Gaius's duskwight companion) referred to the people of Gridania as "city dwellers" as a derogatory term in the Werlyt quests, which is the only glimps of that side of the dynamic that we really get.

But again, because Gridania gets so horribly shafted in MSQ, most people won't know any of this and because they only see the Gridanian side of things (which yes, is problematic; completely innocent people are being punished for the actions of their ancestors/ other people within their cultures which is completely wrong), and we never see the prejudice from duskwights that lead to that whole dynamic, and MSQ doesn't touch on the fact that in the past Ala Mhigo instigated a war with Gridania, and we never see what could happen if the Elementals really got pissed off at people, people just kinda see how the Gridanians treat Duskwights, Ala Mhigans, etc and brush them off as Evil Racists when the reality is way more nuanced than that.

I get a lot of versions of this question, and I answer it seriously every time, because it’s both important and not important at all. Anyone who asks respectfully gets my whole ass answer.

It’s just not really about that. My job isn’t about defending the idea of hurting someone else. It’s about stopping the state from inflicting further hurt, torture, pain. It’s about pushing back for some fairness against a monumentally stacked system. And it’s about stuff that’s normal human stuff that counts as crime for some reason.

Yeah, it’s hard to do a sex abuse case. Sometimes the images stick around and it bothers me. But honestly? Mostly those cases have real plausible theories of innocence or they’re cases that I will lose because the evidence is there, and the question is not whether the perpetrator will go to jail but how long.

Those cases are so rare, though. I get so much pointless bullshit. Felony of a teen taking mom’s car without permission. Two kids that try to break into a car and get so scared by the alarm that they run away. Trespassing on dad’s house because his new girlfriend wants you to stop coming around. It’s just human stuff, and the violence of the state is not necessary or helpful.

I also reject the idea of punishment completely. The state has a responsibility to stop people from hurting other people again. But inflicting pain doesn’t do it, we know this by now. So I argue for mercy and for real solutions to real problems. I’m here to build a future, not get caught up with doing violence to someone because of the past.

So yeah, sometimes it’s hard, but mostly my conscience is dead clear: I’m not responsible for the crime. The damage has been done. I want to start the healing process, and I want it for everyone involved. When that’s not possible, I just want to tell the authorities they don’t get to just Do What They Want.

The more I do this job, the more I am a genuine pacifist who is against violence in all forms, and actually I don’t see a contradiction between that and what I do for a living. State violence is a pervasive evil that tears apart families, communities, and countries, and it’s far more damaging and awful than any individual crime. The average prosecutor has more blood on their hands than a serial killer, but it’s invisible: people who died in jail, who froze to death on the street, who were shot in a drug deal. Their violence begets violence.

When I get blood on my hands, it’s because I put my hands over the wounds and try to stop the flow. I’m okay with it.