OH MY GOD SO NO FUCKIN BULLSHIT I SWEAR To GOD. I reblogged this an hour ago and IM NOT Lying My Tax Refund which I did in late march popped into my Bank Account, and it was a Decent sized amount……
WHAT THE FUCK Is THIS MAGIC!??!?!?! Im trying this again IM NOT BSing hahahaha thats actually pretty cool xD
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hi!!!!! i’m an actual librarian who has encountered this very situation before!!!!! and while i commend & admire op’s willingness to help another patron, this is why you really really should have a library worker, not another patron whom you don’t know, assist you with tech & information related issues in the library!!! because we are trained in how to handle this exact sort of thing
tl;dr: use proton mail. i’m not gonna gatekeep this info. it does not require a cell phone number, so it’s my go to for patrons in this situation!!! while i am acutely aware of the harm done by the digital divide & how many people are getting left behind as our world gets increasingly tech dependent, the situation is not hopeless. there ARE provisions in place to help the people most affected, and those provisions are usually wearing glasses & cardigans & sitting behind the circulation desk
librarians are not glorified bookworms!!!! we are information professionals who are highly trained in how to handle these sorts of seemingly impossible binds!!!! ask us for help!!!!!! as i always tell my patrons, that’s what i get paid the big bucks for
fyi the point of fucking up your data patterns isnt to avoid suspicion. it’s to make EVERYONE suspicious. same logic as the bloc, pals. protect your comrades, be suspicious. ESPECIALLY if you aren’t doing anything likely to get you arrested.
the state is less omniscient and significantly more incompetent than you’d think. overextend their resources at every possible opportunity. make them cry wolf repeatedly. run their data analysis agents fucking ragged. and strike. attack.
YES
i’m a postgrad statistics researcher and i can tell you that the state honestly has NO IDEA what to do with the data it collects, it has an obsession with big data but it’s almost impossible to work with in practice. the traditional statistical approaches that are used can’t be scaled up, the adapted approaches are substantially weakened, and the machine learning approaches have the same problems and often tell them nothing. data scientists are only just coming around to these issues too, most still just push on with it anyway - incompetence is the word.
above all this though, like you say, the biggest issue for the state is at the point of data collection. they will NEVER get anything useful if they’re collecting shitty messy data. they will eventually figure out that the real solution is working how to collect accurate and meaningful data, we should make it as difficult as possible for them to do that
Ad Nauseum is an adblocker that stores the ads it blocks and continuously generates fake clicks, fucking with analytics and costing the ad companies money
TrackMeNot automatically does randomly generated searches on a variety of search engines to obscure your real searches and fuck with analytics, and you can set it up to work with anything that has a search bar (including facebook, twitter, amazon, youtube, etc)
WhatCampaign replaces analytics parameters in links with the string “FuckOff”. I thought there was a similar extension that used random strings, but I can’t seem to find it
Privacy Possum is a fork of Privacy Badger with a focus on costing tracking companies as much money as possible, and idk if my limited tech knowledge is enough to understand what it does but the description does say it falsifies some data so that’s good enough for me
Can everyone who reads this PLEASE reblog it?!?!? Libraries literally saved my life as a child!
Being abused at home, bullied at school and lost in the world, the library and all the books I could escape to the most amazing worlds, kept me alive!
I would walk to the library, and spend all day, from 10 am to 9 pm reading there!! I got special awards for how many books I read, I wrote little blurbs on why i loved the books (probably why I love to BETA and do ARCs)
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE Just hit the green arrows and the reblog!!!
As a 50 year old woman, the library offers me so much. Digital art pads to borrow, 3D printing, book clubs that are face to face (yeah, the introvert likes face to face because a moderator will stomp on anyone getting snarky)
New books in LARGE PRINT! I’m visually challenged and as much as I love my kindle, The feel of a real book in my hands will always be a beloved feeling!
Our library also has quarterly books sales of almost free books!! For 5$USD we get in a day early and can buy as many as we want. Anyone else has to wait and there is a limit for the first 2 days.
Also many, many libraries have inter library loan(it may be called something different). This means if they don’t have the item you want, they can get it for you. This may include photocopy/pdf of articles. This can also include along with books and DVDs, microfilm/fiche which is also a huge resource. Check around for libraries that are listed as depositories if you want to look at government documents.
Remember that many colleges and universities have open stacks for the public. You will likely have to pay a membership fee but you will get to stuff.
The library was one of my favorite places to go as a kid and I still live to go and just. Sit and read. Or do homework. The university I’m at has a massive 8-story one I love to just wonder around in~ Great places
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Also From Microsoft’s own FAQ: "Note that Recall does not perform content moderation. It will not hide information such as passwords or financial account numbers. 🤡
Because this has mostly been talked about with Windows 11, heads-up that this installed itself on every Windows 10 computer in our house with this week's update.
Okay I’m currently furious that migraines are often so blindly easy to treat and I had to find this out myself at the age of 26 when I’ve been to a neurologist since I was 11 lol so I’m about to teach you two neat and fast little tricks to deal with pain!
The first is the sternocleidomastoid muscle, or the SCM muscle.
This big red section is responsible for pain around the eye, cheekbone, and jaw, as well as some temple pain. Literally all you have to do is angle your head down a little, angle it away from the side that hurts, and then you can gently pinch and rub that muscle. I find it best to start at the bottom and travel upwards. The relief is so immediate! You can increase pressure as you feel comfortable doing so.
Here is a short and easy video showing this in action
The second is a fast and easy stretch that soothes your vagus nerve, which is the nerve responsible for calming you down. The vagus nerve, for those unfamiliar, is stimulated by deep breathing such as yawning, sighing, singing, or taking a deep breath to calm your anger in a tense situation.
You can stretch this out by sitting up as straight as possible (this does not have to be perfect to work) and interlacing your fingers. Put your hands on the back of your head with your thumbs going down the sides of your neck and, while keeping your face forward, look all the way to one side with just your eyes. Hold that until you feel the urge to breathe deeply or yawn, or until you can tell there’s a change. Then do the same thing on the other side. When you put your arms down, you should clearly be able to turn your head farther in both directions. If the first session doesn’t get rid of your migraine, rest and repeat as many times as necessary. I even get a little fancy with it and roll my eyes up and down along the outer edge sometimes to stretch as much as I can.
If you need a visual here’s a good video on it. I know some of the language they use seems questionable but this is real and simple science and should not be discarded because it’s been adopted by the trendy wellness crowd!
I seriously cannot believe I didn’t hear a word of this from any doctor in my life. Additionally, if you get frequent recurring migraines, you may want to see a dietician. Migraines can be caused by foods containing histamines, lectin, etc. and can also be caused by high blood pressure in specific situations such as exercise, stress, and even sex.
If any of this information helps you I’d love to hear it btw! It’s so so fast and easy to do. Good luck!
Shout-out to @ms-demeanor for putting these on my dash again, I’d like to add this exceptional interview question “answer guide” that explains traps and “the best” way to answer over 64 common questions. I don’t know who to attribute it to, but here it is: PDF from tri valley one-stop career center.
This is a great resource! I’m an interviewer (UK) and I would like to add my top tips.
1. Never be afraid to ask for a moment to collect your thoughts before answering a question. I want your true answer, I don’t want you to blurt out something on the spur of the moment and then worry about it later.
2. Try to ask a memorable question. When I got hired for my current position, one of the questions I asked was about the mental health support and practices at the company. Once I had been hired, they told me that they’d never had that question before and it made me stick in their mind - plus mental health support is something that’s very important to me.
3. Brag! Please brag about your accomplishments! I want to know about the things you’ve done and I have no way of knowing them unless you tell me. I need to know what you can bring to my team. Interviews are NOT the time to be modest or reticent. If you’ve done something relevant/ important/interesting, say it! This will also make you more memorable, even if it’s not directly relevant to the job. Tell me about your hobbies and show me your dedication to learning. The last question I always ask my interviewees is “is there anything you want to brag about that we’ve not already discussed?” (or some variation on the wording) because I know people will be reticent.
Hey everyone, I know it's going to be a busy day for a lot of people, but Google enrolled everyone over 18 into their AI program automatically.
If you have a google account, first go to gemini.google.com/extensions and turn everything off.
Then you need to go to myactivity.google.com/product/gemini and turn off all Gemini activity tracking. You do have to do them in that order to make sure it works.
Honestly, I'm not sure how long this will last, but this should keep Gemini off your projects for a bit.
I saw this over on bluesky and figured it would be good to spread on here. It only takes a few minutes to do.
Because this isn't mentioned above, also go to google.com/drive/settings and turn off all the annoying bits that interface directly with docs there.
This is all in the "privacy" tab of your settings. How fun that everything is hidden two layers deep. 🙄 This DOESN'T get rid of the stupid little star constantly asking you to use it, unfortunately, but that's what the picker in ublock is for. 😉
More detail instructions for OP's post for those who are confused. This is done from the browser on my laptop, I don't know what they look like on phones.
When you click the first link gemini.google.com/extensions, you need to click on the setting icon at the bottom, then choose "Extension", like this:
Scroll down a bit, you will see the options, turn them all off.
Then, you click on the second link myactivity.google.com/product/gemini, you'll see it tells you that it's already "turn off". NO! IT'S NOT! You have to click on that "Turn off" option, it'll drop down a menu like this:
Turn that thing off. Until that button shows you have to click to turn it back on like this:
And then, click on the delete button down there too, even if it says there's nothing to delete, just do it as a caution.
After you's done with those two. You go to your Drive, find the Setting button.
Click on the "Privacy" tab, choose the button "Manage Workspace smart feature setting"
Tick both of those off, then click Save. Or if you still want to use Google AI assistant for some reasons, please read the fine lines very very carefully.
Only then, you can feel safe enough with this force AI assistant bullshit. FOR NOW 🤡 All these steps still can't get rid of that Gemini blinkblink icon though >:(((((
I hate when I say things like "oh I want an ipod classic but with bluetooth so I can use wireless headphones" and some peanut comes in and replies with "so a smartphone with spotify?" No. I want a 160GB+ rectangular monstrosity where I can download every version of every song I want to it and it does nothing except play music and I don't need a data connection and don't have to pay a subscription to not have ads and don't have popups suggesting terrible AI playlists all over the menus.
Gimme the clicky wheel and song titles like "My Chemical Romance- The Black Parade- Blood (Bonus Track)- secret track- album rip- high quality"
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Reblog this post :) Especially if you’re on mobile, you’ll lose the post if you click the link without thinking. Take a note from your elders before you
Interesting note: It definitely uses whoever you're following now, not at that date. Even the 2020 one includes a lot of people I was absolutely not following yet in Feb 2020, which is actually kind of cool, I can see what they were reblogging from this fandom before I got into it.
I think she used a Compatibility Relationship Spread.
Compatibility Relationship Spread
This tarot spread focuses completely on the dynamics between two partners and analyzes different aspects of your relationship that might be points of contention or unification.
Your wants - What are you looking for in a relationship? What do you need from the relationship to consider it successful?
Partner's wants - What does your partner want in a relationship? What would they need for it to be successful?
Differences - In what parts of life do you two find differences? What are possible points of disagreement?
Similarities - Where in life do you find similarities? What brings you together?
Emotional Compatibility - How compatible are you emotionally?
Physical Compatibility - How compatible are you physically? How would you characterize your physical relationship?
Mental Compatibility - How compatible are you mentally? Do you find similar things to be intellectually stimulating?
Anya’s Wants- Reverse 4 of Cups
Choosing happiness
Sudden awareness
Acceptance
This card symbolizes being withdrawn and closed off. What she wants to be more open and honest in her relationship with Damian. This could refer to her telepathy and having to keep that a secret. She does want to share that with him (even though she did, and he didn’t believe her). So, order for her to be successful in her relationship with Damian, she needs acceptance. Telepathy and all. “You maybe convinced that there is only one way to solve your problems” (i.e. When Anya keeps asking to go to his house.)
2. Damian’s Wants- Reverse 3 of Swords
Recovery
Forgiveness
Moving on
So, the reverse meaning for the reverse 3 of swords is forgiving one another, moving on after pain, and separation. Now this could mean many things. This could be Damian wanting to asking forgiveness for bullying her, and the way he treats her. Alternatively, this could also mean a future event. Where Damian finds out that Anya has just been using him to get to his father. Their reconciliation may come after a time of separation, maybe years after the end of Operation Strix. What is essential for Damian in their relationship is forgiveness and moving on, that is what he needs. I think most of this indicates a period of separation. He needs time to recover from the hurt. If this is what Endo is implying for the future, I am going to be so cross.
3. Differences- Reverse 10 of Pentacles
Fleeting success
Lack of stability
Lack of resources
Now, we obviously know that there is a difference in their status. Though, it can also serve as a warning for future financial status. What this may imply is that an investment that they put a lot of time an effort into is faulty. What I think this represents is the fickle nature of Damian’s relationship with his father, how he always sought to please him. That’s a huge difference in their relationship. In terms of love, the meaning turns to “conflict between love and family” and “outside opinions about love”. Damian is overly concerned about what his family and others would think if he were to have a relationship with Anya. Which is the true tragedy.
4. Similarities- Reversed Death
Fear of change
Holding on
Stagnation
The Death Tarot is about change, whether it is reversed or not. When it is reversed, the subject is resistant to change. They may have trouble with letting go of the past. The big question is, “What are you afraid of? What are you holding onto?” Since this card represents their similarities, it is easy to see that they are resistant to change and cling to negative thought patterns and behaviors. Listen, Anya keeps believing that if she is not useful for the mission then her Twilight would get rid of her. She wants to keep this life. Damian doesn’t know what would happen if he disregarded his status and station, and if people would like him as a person, rather than jus a status symbol. They’re terrified of what could happen if anything about their situation changes. Of how they might be perceived (Damian). Of being abandoned (Anya). Both need to trust that things will be okay, even if things change.
5. Emotional Compatibility- Upright 3 of Wands
Looking ahead
Expansion
Rapid growth
The three of Wands gives us all the good things, meaning, momentum, confidence, expansion, growth, foresight, and looking ahead. This card represents planning the future and creating a stable foundation for yourself. It about thinking in the long term. In terms of love, it can mean heading towards the next phase. Mostly, it’s about creating a long-lasting foundation for a committed relationship. This can also be able travelling the world together. Basically, all the good stuff for people who love the Damian and Anya pairing.
6. Physical Compatibility- Upright the Star
Hope
Faith
Rejuvenation
This is nice too, the keywords for this card are hope, inspiration, positivity, faith, renewal, healing, and rejuvenation.
Honestly, I found the actual entry so touching, I’ll just copy and paste it.
“To receive the Star in your reading means that you have gone and passed through a terrible life challenge. You have managed to go through this without losing your hope. While you suffered, you perhaps were not aware of your own strength, but you are now perhaps recognizing that the loss helped you discover your own resilience and inner power. It is only now that you can really appreciate all that you have.”
Doesn’t this represent our Starlight Anya so well? In love, the star is about hope and optimism. Healing from past wounds. It says, as long as you remain communicative and honest, you’ll be fine.
"When all is lost, my hope still shines like a guiding star. I will follow it."
7. Mental Compatibility- Upright Ace of Cups
New Feelings
Spirituality
Intuition
The ace of cups represents new beginnings.
“Getting the Ace of Cups upright shows that it's time to let loose of whatever emotional baggage you have and start living your life to the fullest.”
This is about release, about letting go of old baggage, and moving on and forwards. This is one of the happiest cards to get in a love tarot reading. It represents an opportunity for growth, and it could mean awakening of new feelings.
"I'm ready to experience all the emotions that life presents me with."
tl;dr
Summary
They used a compatibility spread for Anya and Damian. Anya wants to be honest with Damian, she wants to be able to express herself without having to hide anything. She wants to be accepted for who she is. Damian wants forgiveness or to forgive, depending on your interpretation, but it can only happen after a period of separation. Their differences are obviously their social status and how Damian cares about his appearance and how others perceive him. Their similarities stem from a fear of change, of abandonment. Holding on to things that no longer serve you, or help you grow. Emotional compatibility is creating a stable foundation in which to build a future together. Physical compatibility is about hope and optimism for the future. Mental compatibility is new beginnings and the awakening of new feelings. Learning to live life again and moving forward.
Yeah I getcha. I was once like you. Pure and naive. Great news. I AM STILL PURE AND NAIVE, GAME DEV IS FUN! But where to start?
To start, here are a couple of entry level softwares you can use! source: I just made a game called In Stars and Time and people are asking me how to start making vidy gaems. Now, without further ado:
SOFTWARES AND ENGINES FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW HOW TO CODE!!!
Ren'py (and also a link to it if you click here do it):
THE visual novel software. Comic artists, look no further
✨Pros: It's free! It's simple! It has great documentation! It has a bunch of plugins and UI stuff and assets for you to buy! It can be used even if you have LITERALLY no programming experience! (You'll just need to read the doc a bunch) You can also port your game to a BUNCH of consoles!
✨Cons: None really <3
Some games to look at: Doki Doki Literature Club, Bad End Theater, Butterfly Soup
Twine:
Great for text-based games! GREAT FOR WRITERS WHO DONT WANNA DRAW!!!!!!!!! (but you can draw if you want)
✨Pros: It's free! It's simple! It's versatile! It has great documentation! It can be used even if you have LITERALLY no programming experience! (You'll just need to read the doc a bunch)
✨Cons: You can add pictures, but it's a pain.
Some games to look at: The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo, Queers In love At The End of The World, Escape Velocity
Bitsy:
Little topdown games!
✨Pros: It's free! It's simple! It's (somewhat) intuitive! It has great documentation! It can be used even if you have LITERALLY no programming experience! You can make everything in it, from text to sprites to code! Those games sure are small!
✨Cons: Those games sure are small. This is to make THE simplest game. Barely any animation for your sprites, can barely fit a line of text in there. But honestly, the restrictions are refreshing!
Some games to look at: honestly I haven't played that many bitsy games because i am a fake gamer. The picture above is from Under A Star Called Sun though and that looks so pretty
RPGMaker:
To make RPGs! LIKE ME!!!!!
NOTE: I recommend getting the latest version if you can, but all have their pros and cons. You can get a better idea by looking at this post.
✨Pros: Literally everything you need to make an RPG. Has a tutorial inside the software itself that will teach you the basics. Pretty simple to understand, even if you have no coding experience! Also I made a post helping you out with RPGMaker right here!
✨Cons: Some stuff can be hard to figure out. Also, the latest version is expensive. Get it on sale!
Some games to look at: Ib, Hylics, In Stars and Time (hehe. I made it)
engine.lol:
collage worlds! it is relatively new so I don't know much about it, but it seems fascinating. picture is from Garden!
NOTE: There's a bunch of smaller engines to find out there. Just yesterday I found out there's an Idle Game Maker made by the Cookie Clicker creator. Isn't life wonderful?
✨more advice under the cut. this is Long ok✨
ENGINES I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT AND THEY SEEM HARD BUT ALSO GIVE IT A TRY I GUESS!!!! :
Unity and Unreal: I don't know anything about those! That looks hard to learn! But indie devs use them! It seems expensive! Follow your dreams though! Don't ask me how!
GameMaker: Wuh I just don't know anything about it either! I just know it's now free if your game is non-commercial (aka, you're not selling it), and Undertale was made on it! It seems good! You probably need some coding experience though!!!
Godot: Man I know even less about this one. Heard good things though!
BUNCHA RANDOM ADVICE!!!!
-Make something small first! Try making simple: a character is in a room, and exits the room. The character can look around, decide to take an item with them, can leave, and maybe the door is locked and you have to find the key. Figuring out how to code something like that, whether it is as a fully text-based game or as an RPGMaker map, should be a good start to figure out how your software of choice works!
-After that, if you have an idea, try first to make the simplest version of that idea. For my timeloop RPG, my simplest version was two rooms: first room you can walk in, second room with the King, where a cutscene automatically plays and the battle starts, you immediately die, and loop back to the first room, with the text from this point on reflecting this change. I think I also added a loop counter. This helped me figure out the most important thing: Can This Game Be Made? After that, the rest is just fun stuff.
So if you want to make a dating sim, try and figure out how to add choices, and how to have affection points go up and down depending on your choices! If you want to make a platformer, figure out how to make your character move and jump and how to create a simple level! If you just want to make a kinetic visual novel with no choices, figure out how to add text, and how to add portraits! You'll be surprised at how powerful you'll feel after having figured even those simple things out.
-If you have a programming problem or just get confused, never underestimate the power of asking Google! You most likely won't be the only person asking this question, and you will learn some useful tips! If you are powerful enough, you can even… Ask people??? On forums??? Not me though.
-Yeah I know you probably want to make Your Big Idea RIGHT NOW but please. Make a smaller prototype first. You need to get that experience. Trust me.
-If you are not a womanthing of many skills like me, you might realize you need help. Maybe you need an artist, or a programmer. So! Game jams on itch.io are a great way to get to work and meet other game devs that have different strengths! Or ask around! Maybe your artist friend secretly always wanted to draw for a game. Ask! Collaborate! Have fun!!!
I hope that was useful! If it was. Maybe. You'd like to buy me a coffee. Or maybe you could check out my comics and games. Or just my new critically acclaimed game In Stars and Time. If you want. Ok bye
Seriously cannot recommend GBStudio enough for beginners, it makes making a gb/gbc game pretty simple, it's also FOSS (free, open source software) and the devs in my experience are very responsive as is the community
A quick and easy to use drag and drop retro game creator for your favourite handheld video game system.
Worth noting that ren'py and gb studio will happily let you add whatever ridiculous code you want on top of their frameworks. GB Studio will straight up dump the entire engine as a CMake project if you want to work in assembler or C, so if you don't like the way something works you can change it.
A while ago, I made a doc filled with pretty much evwry cheap and free resource I could find for game dev, and Im still working on it. Highly reccommend checking it out.
If you want to read an academic article that's behind a paywall just email the author and ask politely if they will send you the article. Most academics will be thrilled that you want to read their work and will gladly send it to you.
I emailed to ask a Harvard researcher and advocate for intersex rights for access to one paper and she sent me seven plus additional resources and permission to stay in touch. Ask for papers!
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being an OG zaundads shipper is such a conflicting time right now. we've gone mainstream, but at what cost? the absolutely brutal silco & vander character assassinations of S2? that are how newbies are getting into the ship? genuinely tragic.
zaundads fandom needs you 👇to resist S2 propaganda
Zaundads isn't my ship, but I always found it interesting and fun to play with.
But I don't see how S1 Silco and Vanco shippers are happy with S2. Yeah, fans are debating whether it's fully canon or up to shipper interpretation and honestly I don't care either way. I like gay, bi and straight Silco and Vander. It doesn't have to be canon to be loved. It was loved before S2.
My problem is exactly as you stated: the character assassinations of Silco and Vander by the ridiculous crap in S2.
As much as I like Zaundads since it's inception years ago, I truly HATE the AU Silco/Vander. I detest that Silco was this softy who had a complete personality disorder to become S1 Silco. I don't like the inclusion of Felicia as the reason for the break between Silco and Vander and that they knew the kids prior to the battle.
All S2 was add unnecessary plotholes, questions and problems that didn't need to be there. It completely watered down the dynamic between Silco and Vander and why the drowning even happened, to everything after that.
same, like we got so little of them anyway but it was clearly pandering to the shippers so I think that hugely encouraged the ship within the larger fandom, to have canon confirmation of what we the shippers already knew, which is that Vander and Silco were very close in the past, closer to each other than anyone else, and in a better universe could have been dads together. but the execution of those ugh. pain.
I don't want Felicia, I want to see interactions between young Vander and Silco. I don't want happy AU, I want them to explore the possibility of what could have been in the text itself.
I loathe the Felicia flashbacks and its implications, both for the entire motivations behind the betrayal, the various found family adoptions, etc., but also simply because S1 Silco clearly marinating in his post-betrayal obsession and planning for like 15 years before his return is infinitely superior to the mere 5 year gap suggested by S2. I don't hate that the betrayal was the result of a violent emotional lashing-out rather than a premeditated affair - that always felt like the case to me. But if we learned about it at all, I wanted it to be about Vander, not Felicia. Vander's hopes and fears and anxieties and flaws and vulnerabilities and the root of his savage temper; the source of that outburst of uncontrolled rage, and why he took it out on the person closest to him in the whole world.
I don't hate the letter, but I hate the idea that if Silco had simply found the letter, he would have just ✨forgiven✨ Vander without also requiring that Vander join the revolution once more. Because it's not just about him, and not just about them, but it's about Zaun. The dream. It's always about the dream.
I don't hate the Good Timeline AU in theory, but I hate that I have to fanwank theories about how Vi's death caused Vander to accept Silco's offer and take up the cause again in order for it to make sense for the characters. (See above re: ✨forgiveness✨ platitudes.)
I hate that the writers have low key glossed over how brutally violent the betrayal was. I hate how reductive the S2 characterisations are. Vander Good, Silco Bad (because he never forgave Vander, and if he had, he would have been Good again). I hate that they've memory-holed the fact that Vander was not just an uwu wholesome dad. He was a violent man, with a violent past; his hands were just as bloody as Silco's. Even in S1, he keeps those gauntlets hung above his bar as a reminder and a threat; gets more than one situation to go his way through the not-so-subtle implication of violence. He was the Hound of the Underground - and even years later, even abroad, his reputation in the criminal community precedes him. Even Marcus knows who he used to be. He was a complex, morally grey character, and a deeply complicated person. I hate the fact that they have Viktor wax poetic about Vander's beautiful dream of Zaun as it could be, when one of the most interesting things about Vander is that he sold that dream out for the safety of a slow, suffocating, stagnant status quo, burdened by his own shame and fear. When Silco was the one who held onto that dream, to the point of doing monstrous things to achieve it.
I hate how the writers have forgotten that one of the single most interesting things about S1 Silco's character is that he was already ready to forgive Vander. He yearned to have Vander by his side once again. He was ready to take him back, as messy and as thorny and as complicated as it would have been, but needed him to commit to the dream once more. Their dream, the one they dreamed up together. Because he needed Vander to show him he could believe in him again. Because he never saw Vander's betrayal of him as total and complete and irreversible until Vander betrayed Zaun, too.
but THIS. HONESTLY#im happy for more zaundads but i feel like ppl who only got into it once they got handed a wholesome au on a silver platter#won't really vibe with the folks who were here since all we had was subtext and homoerotic violence
Yeah, like. I'm happy, so happy actually, that we got confirmation that (whether romantically or platonically or fraternally) they loved each other. They loved each other so much. They could have changed the world together. Silco offers Vander's memory his understanding before he dies. Vander's first and last memories of Silco are of him young and hopeful and happy, and alive with possibility. They shaped each other, for better AND for worse. They made each other who they are. They loved each other so much that they had a little hideout deep under the earth where they hung their flag and hung their hats side by side and their mining jackets one inside the other and dreamed a big, impossible dream together. They wanted to make it real.
But it's also about the blood, and the betrayal, and the ferocity, and the complexity, and the brokenness, and the avoidable-inevitable tragedy. It's Vander wrapping his hand around Silco's neck for a second time, and seeing the man he loved - loves - staring back up at him, terrified, before spending his last breath slumped against Silco's body, exhausted. It's about Silco turning his head tenderly into the crook of Vander's neck, Vander's blood hot on his hand, and murmuring, "I knew you still had it in you," the one-last-time before giving him to the flames. It's about covering up scars, versus having to wear them on your face forever. It's about stealing Vander's knife under the water, and giving it back to him in his gut, and then keeping it for the rest of his life.
It's about how it could only ever have worked with two of them. But it's also about how, because things went the way they did, because they both broke the way they broke, and both made the choices they did, it would only ever end with one of them.
