The Home of the Unpopular Opinions

Illustration Grand Prix: Darkrai (2019)

Artist: AKI

Rediscover the radiance of the Hoenn, Kalos, and Paldea regions in the Pokémon TCG: First Partner Collection—Series 3 collection!

Forbidding the iranian team coaches from entering the country and forcing them to direct the game from MEXICO through a tv

Players from non european countries being stopped and searched like criminals with dogs

Deporting african referees just because of their nationality

Forbidding interviews from being spoken i'm languages other than English and forbidding journalists and players from speaking their native languages

México City was "modernized" to be appealing to tourists, not functional to people living on it. We have a housing crisis, gentrification issues, several problems with public transportation, and the government has tiptoed around those to prioritize appearances.

Madres Buscadoras, groups of mothers that search for their missing family members, have been ignored and criminalized by the president, attacked by cops guarding the stadium, alongside other protesters like farmers, teachers and students. Students and reporters were arrested without explanation, threatened with violence (women with sexual violence) and then released.

Adding to this, the number of missing people in the country is 133,000. Twice the capacity of the Azteca Stadium. Families tried to raise awareness by pasting posters with the faces of their missing people around the stadium. The governor of Ciudad de México sent workers to take them down.

To avoid "showing a bad picture of the country" streets around the stadium are being closed, hours before the games, in order to deter protestors. People living in this area (like myself) are unable to move freely.

Our president, Claudia Sheimbaum, on one of the morning reports, said México is happiness, said we don't have issues, criminalized the protestors and said they want to show a bad picture of México. Avatar fans actually compared the report to this same scene, the "There's no war in Ba Sing Se" scene.

As the last of his kind in a gryfon pride ruled by the conquering Red Kings, Shard has always known his destiny is merely to survive. He must strive to keep up with larger, stronger, crueler gryfons in order to earn his place as a warrior, or face exile. While on the dangerous initiation hunt that will either make or ruin him, Shard desperately takes the unexpected advice of a strange she-wolf who seeks him out, and hints that Shard’s past is not all that it seems.

Drawn to learn more, Shard risks the future he wants by making allies of creatures most gryfons call enemies, and learning ancient skills forbidden by the conquering kings. Secrets of his family, the Conquering, and perhaps even his own destiny begin to reveal themselves.

When the gryfon king declares open war on the wolves Shard has befriended, it throws his past and uncertain future into the turmoil between. Now with battle lines drawn, Shard must decide whether to fight beside his own king . . . or against him.

[Goodreads]

Watercolour fanart of Okami made for a previous GDQ.