Callum

After years of denying their reports and accusing them of inflating the scale of death and destruction in Gaza, this Thursday an Israeli army official told journalists that they accepted the death toll reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health. This is not progress, it is simply another stage of genocide denial.

Sultan Barakat, senior professor in public policy at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Doha, offered three key reasons why Israel might be accepting the death toll now:

To preserve institutional credibility with allies (US, UK, France, etc.)

To reframe the debate from whether mass death happened to whether they bear the responsibility for this mass death

gay miis, bi miis, pan miis, aromantic miis, NONBINARY miis (they didn't even say "other" or some shit they flat out used the word "nonbinary" which is huge)

allonormativity's been absolutely shattered, and heteronormativity is likely gonna be less prevalent as well

(SPOILERS for Brokeback Mountain, obviously)

Jack and Ennis had Brokeback Mountain, while Silco and Vander had The Mines

They both met through work, and shared a living space. (Possibly sharing a bed as well).

It was Jack's dream to run a ranch with Ennis, whereas Silco and Vander ran a tavern together before they fell apart.

Ennis is more aggressive, flying off the handle when he feels threatened like a wild dog and carries many regrets paralleling Vander as the Hound of Zaun.

Jack on the other hand is idealistic with a clear vision of the future he wants to share with Ennis, and becomes quite prosperous despite being largely unhappy with his life paralleling Silco as the Eye of Zaun.

Ennis is unable to stay with Jack because he is duty bound to his two daughters, as Vander is duty bound to Vi and Powder.

Though not by Ennis' hands, it is implied that Jack is violently assaulted and left for dead. Jack never receives Ennis' final letter to him, succumbing to his injuries.

Ennis discovers that Jack "stole" his bloody shirt decades ago, and tucked it in his closet underneath his own shirt.

Ennis lives in regret the rest of his life, tucking Jack's shirt underneath his bloody one to hang in his own closet. Vander presumably put Silco's jacket underneath his in The Mine Hideaway that they shared, showing his love for Silco despite what happened between them.

I know this was unintentional, but my god...

I haven't watched this movie in years precisely because it is hard to watch. It is a beautiful story, but it's one of those things where you watch it once and you're good.

Still, I recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it to watch and understand the complexity of queer relationships especially between older men in a world that is unkind to them.

The reason why I like Zaundads so much is in part because it explores this very difficult but realistic dynamic between older men, and I think those stories are important.

If you're still hung up on them being "like" brothers, I implore you to refrain from language that describes a romantic relationship between them as "gross" or "weird" or "problematic."

everyone obviously sees how armin became "the new erwin" and took up his mantle after his death. hange stepped in as commander while armin was still growing up and getting used to his new abilities, but it would always be him as commander one day; whether hange died or they chose to step down. this doesn't really need saying if you paid any attention at all while watching the show.

what i want to focus on is how jean was next in line to "replace" levi if that ever became necessary. where erwin and armin were incredible strategists, levi and jean were incredible captains. they follow their commander as men of action and know how to read the situation and adapt to unforseen circumstances.

not only do jean and armin individually mirror levi and erwin, but both pairs of commander and captain work incredibly well together. we sadly don't get to see many instances of jean and armin working together in this way, but season 3 part 2 makes it so clear i'm surprised not more people talk about it.

erwin is MIA and armin is left in charge of his peers. the pressure gets too much and he can't plan a way out of it in the middle of the chaos, so he turns to none other than jean, jean who immediately get a grasp of the situation and starts giving out commands. you'd think they did this for a living how naturally it came to them !

was inspired to finally write all this out when i saw this art:

Aspen Dancers