Isopod revolution is soon

Ohhh it makes me so mad how John treated Mercymorn. How almost everyone treated Mercymorn, by the sounds of it. Mercy who did not live up to her name, unloveable, unfeeling Mercy — G1deon was literally trying to murder Harrow, he was driving her crazy, and no one suggested he was incapable of empathy. Augustine was just as uncaring most of the time, but no one commented on his callousness. Mercy was labeled defective because she failed to meet expectations of femininity, she failed to be maternal and sympathetic and quiet. Cytherea —before, well, you know — was able to fool John and the other lyctors because she made herself fit the mould, she was gentle and caring and delicate. But the real Cytherea is the one we see after Palamedes’s confrontation: cold and bitter after many centuries of pain. John was fooled by Cytherea because he believed her facade of femininity, and he was fooled by Mercy because e believed her too defective to ever fool him. Ohhh John Gaius when I get my hands on you

now THIS is a baroque painting. mannerist even.

They make me physically ill

I think given how long Duke went without a name in between Robin & Signal + how he never adopts a nickname in the WAR group chat that he takes names and nicknames very seriously. Which makes sense since he cares a lot about honesty/image. Names for Duke have power and he doesn't take them lightly, so I can see him being a bit cautious about nicknames and stuff, not that he'll shut someone down but he's very attuned to the nuances of what people call him. It's serious business!!!! I think that's why he mocks Bruce for calling him "Mr. Thomas" in Batman Rebirth and why he doesn't have a lot of nicknames in general - besides, of course, from Elaine who is the only person who can call him whatever she wants <3

you can talk about the horrible sexualization of female heroes (specially teen ones) on comics and someone will be like "but batman gets drawn shirtless "

there's this ridiculously soulmatey line in the phm book when grace is just kinda idly wondering aloud about why human and eridian technology are at such similar phases of development, and without thinking about it much rocky responds "has to be, or you and I would not meet." which he goes on to explain as (paraphrasing here) "if either planet were less advanced then we couldn't have built interstellar ships, but if either were more advanced then we could have dealt with the astrophage problem from home, so we'd have to be at around the same level to both be here, that's the only way it would make sense." what it sounds like though is "oh, that's easy: the two of us had to meet so the history of both of our entire species lined up in preparation to make it possible." what kind of tau-ceti-crossed red-petrova-line-of-fate nonsense is this.

So like, the Vietnam War

I think in modern America, we kinda idealize and romanticize it, in both noticeable and subtle ways. The whole focus on the trauma of the soldiers rather than the human harm of the war on Vietnam, the myth of the spat on veteran, the fucking memorial to the Americans who died which ignores the 3 million civilians, the tendency to focus on the tactics of the Viet Cong rather than the North Vietnamese Regular Army, the fact the anti war protests are covered more than the war, the framing of it as a just war, the way we pretend we didn't lose it, like every fucking thing you learn about that war makes you hate America more

Hell even the very existence of South Vietnam was a fabrication held up by the Americans in violation of international law. We knew nothing about Vietnam and forcibly imposed our will onto another nation, creating a military dictatorship in the process, for what, the pride and appearance of the American state

I've been thinking a lot about Vietnam as of recent