Bico's Place

(Not meant to be a criticism, artistic liberty and all that, I just thought it was cool.)

okay i can accept a lot but i'm supposed to believe adult toph shaves her armpit hair?

while i do agree that it makes more sense for her to have it than not, lots of characters in this movie dont have armpit hair? im not entirely sure its the norm for this movies' characters to have armpit hair at all

i could easily see aang and the dark one(?) being the type to regularly shave but tagah was not in a situation where hygiene would be the 1st thing on his mind and sokka was at the south pole, there'd be no real reason for him to shave.

One thing I think people overlook when they say "the Jedi should have listened to Dooku on Geonosis" is that Dooku had already betrayed the Jedi Order. Regardless of whether or not you think his disillusionment with the Jedi Order was valid, he quite literally betrayed all of them in the worst way possible.

Dooku could have just walked away, but instead he decided to weaponize the compassion of the people who had trusted him for years, and he fell to the dark side. Dooku became cruel, unmoved by the plight of others, used his own powers to oppress, and killed without mercy.

What reason did the Jedi have to even trust Dooku on Geonosis? Why would the Jedi suddenly take Dooku at his word after he had already demonstrated that he was willing to deceive, manipulate, and kill? "Well Dooku was right and the Jedi were too arrogant to believe him" when he fully betrayed their trust. Obi-Wan rejected what Dooku was offering because he refused the dark side, but he still reported everything that Dooku said to him back to the Jedi Council afterwards.

The Jedi address this at the end of Attack of the Clones. They make it a point to keep a closer eye on the Senate, which becomes increasingly difficult for them to do because the war is keeping them occupied. It's almost like Dooku telling Obi-Wan about Darth Sidious but not telling him that Darth Sidious was Supreme Chancellor Palpatine was all part of the whole game. He revealed just enough to make the Jedi suspicious, but that still wasn't much to go on. Even if they had suspected Palpatine was the Sith Lord, they had no proof.

It's not an accident this was revealed to them just as the Clone Wars began. It wasn't like the Jedi were standing around doing nothing while Darth Sidious gained more and more power. They were dying in a war they actively tried to avoid. A war that was orchestrated by two Sith Lords whose ultimate goal was the destruction of the Jedi Order and, eventually, unlimited power.

do...do people not know being star-crossed is bad?

hullo hullo o/ thank you for a very relatable ask

unfortunately, i don't have some "one fit all" solution for this, but there are some methods, each a bit more time consuming than the last

Check their blog. See "ru" in there? Become sus. If it's stated first, i just block and move on to not waste my time. if it's stated later on - up to you; i'd block still, but if you have time/nerves/energy you can dig deeper and see if it's just a language someone knows or ruzzian who doesn't want to be called out

Example:

2. Check if there are links to other soc.med or other things. Most of the time, you'll either see places somewhere: x, bluesky, insta, wherever. Youtube is a good test if they have it, you can check the country there. If it's not stated, become sus and check the oldest videos. See/hear ru? Block.

Example:

Translation from ru:

3. Speaking of links you may see. See boosty? Block. It's ru parteon, in essense.

4. Same for vk aka vkontakte. Ru attempt of facebook, afaik. Block.

5. Same for yandex email. Block and move on.

6. Another more niche thing is ficbook. Aka "ru try to steal ao3 as well". Block and move on.

7. Check if there are things in pinned posts. Maybe they mention where they are from (people are insane like that nowadays because internet security knowledge is shit), and it can be useful. See a geographic name, check where it is. Ru? Block and move on

8. This one requires some time (and why i usually am so hesitant to like any new artists without checking and cross checking them...) but you can also check their art. Especially older art. They might have ru text in the art itself that you can spot and use to identify them, altho I understand that reading cursive can be challenging

Example:

This one is easier for me, as I know the language, but if you are relying only on google translate, check a few times as it loves lumping other languages into ru for some reason. ы, э (not є) and ё can be telling, tho - but again, they are used in other languages too, and it's better to double check if you're not sure.

9. If you see a combination of "Z" *and* russian language, congratulatons, you found a genocide supporter as Z is how ru soldiers mark themselves. Consider it nazi's swastika if you will, they're the same.

10. This one is more of an observation than a rule, but if you see someone who is a fan of Pathologic (or "Мор. Утопия" in ru) become suspicious. In my experience, 7 times out of 10, they do turn out to be ru. But this is more of a personal experience

Addendum to points 3-6: duckduckgo/google/search by other method of your preference their nickname. People usually reuse those, and you can see same people in vk or on boosty. If you're afraid of unrightfully blocking someone with the same nickname, you can try opening those and check if the same art/pfp/posts are there. I usually just block. But maybe you'll have more energy than me.

The artworks often lack bright colors and tend toward a darker palette. The coloring style frequently resembles painterly strokes. In some cases, there can also be many sharp angles, especially if it’s a sketch. Bright, strong highlights are relatively rare.

There is often a depressive tone, with a tendency to romanticize abuse and toxic relationships (everyone has their own preferences when it comes to shipping and character dynamics, but Russians often add heavier elements even where there isn’t much angst to begin with; there is even a general term for this tendency in their culture—chernukha, etc.). Overall, there is more despair than optimism or resilience, or a desire to overcome something.

There is little to no presence of non-white characters. At most, you might see ethnic minority groups within Russia itself depicted in national costumes; rarely Kazakhs as well (Kazakhstan also has a sad, complicated history with Russia, but is often seen as a “friendly” country toward Russia by Russians), though this is usually also tied to cultural elements. Outside of that, it is rare to see non-white characters portrayed as ordinary people. I would also add that characters who do not fit Eurocentric beauty standards are quite rare too.

Frequent use of the term “slavic”. Many other nations and cultures, which are already tired of fighting for proper representation, tend to specify who they are exactly and where they are from. It also comes from an unspoken pattern: anything labeled under the broad term “slavic” can later easily be absorbed as part of “russian culture,” as this has historically been one of the imperial practices of appropriating other cultures. Additionally, many people still perceive Russia as the primary or “default” representative of slavic identity, so the term often automatically brings Russia to mind. A similar issue exists with language: people often see cyrillic and assume it is Russian.

In addition to the word "Slavic" I have also seen them use "Eastern European" and even "Baltic" in very broad terms without mentioning a specific country. In my experience, that's a warning sign.

You refuse to even interact with or show the slightest bit of humanity towards somebody if they are Russian. You act as if the Russian people are subhuman and inherently evil.

You pick apart certain things that you notice Russian users online liking or saying or having or whatever and you use it to identify them and treat them as below you. You correlate being Russian with abuse and depression. Again, you act as if Russians are inherently bad and evil for being Russian.

“The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same.”