Queen-azarath

Just finished rewatching Maleficent and damn I forgot revenge is bad narratives can be good.

Like, ultimately the formula they follow is person A gets hurt by person B (often scarred for life/grievously injured) -> person B moves on and starts a family - A becomes bitter and angry and gets back at B -> but eventually decides not to go through with it because B has a family/it would make them just as bad, or they do and then feel empty/it’s unfulfilling.

And I hate it. I hate that the implication is that if you hurt the person who hurt you, you are just as bad as them. I much prefer the Inigo Montoya route: revenge is my purpose because someone did something bad to me -> I get revenge and this is great, I have achieved my goal.

And I could never pinpoint why that was the case until I was rewatching Maleficent with my sib and realized that it’s because most “revenge is bad” narratives center around the harm it will cause to person B. It centers around the harm it causes to the bully, the abuser, the perpetrator. It centers around B’s family, B’s friends. It never centers around A.

Maleficent, though, does center around A in a way I don’t see too often. Maleficent got hurt by Stephen. Stephen moves on, while Maleficent can’t. Maleficent becomes bitter and angry, and gets back at Stephen via cursing Aurora. Then Maleficent decides not to go through with it/regrets it.

But Maleficent makes the choice after. After Aurora wakes up, Stephen attacks Maleficent. He burns her, he chains her. Maleficent escapes, and then she doesn’t continue attacking Stephen. She throws him on the ground, moves to leave, he grabs her near her wings(the main source of her trauma and mirroring when he hurt her) and she pins him up against the wall. She can choose to kill him.

She doesn’t. And it’s a culmination of her healing, that she moves on. She leaves Stephen behind. And he can’t accept that, so in the end, he causes his own death.

It’s beautiful because it’s clear Maleficent is a victim, it centers around her trauma and her healing. Maleficent choosing not to kill him isn’t that it’s bad to get back at Stephen, that he doesn’t deserve death, it’s about the fact that she doesn’t want anything to do with him. He’s irrelevant.

And there’s the fact that he suffers, which is nice to see. But his obsession is another post. As is the parallels between this movie because I could rave all night about that.

This goes for punks, too btw

The biggest pet peeve of mine are "goths" who excuse their shein amazon aliexpress hot topic hauls with "my thrifts only have granny clothes" as an excuse to why they can't thrift. 100% of the time, it's people who go to thrift shops and expect to find hot topic and killstar and overlook the 80s black clothing that looks shapeless or outdated when unstyled. All you have to do is add a belt, some pins, and maybe a chain, maybe distress it, and it will look 100 times better than the ugly ass shein clothing you are already buying. The visual parts of goth are built on those common 80s basics that you can find literally everywhere styled in unconventional ways. Granny thrift stores are the actual goldmines for dirt cheap goth clothing . You are just uncreative and lazy and refuse to put effort into your looks

you don't "hate kids," you hate being forced into a caretaking role.

you don't "hate kids," you hate censorship passed off as family values.

you don't "hate kids," you hate the constrictiveness of the nuclear family.

you don't "hate kids," you're just not used to occupying fully age diverse spaces so you're not used to the noise or the many different kinds of needs.

you don't "hate kids," most public spaces just aren't built for kids, and so the few kids you see are always uncomfortable and distressed.

you don't "hate kids," you hate the intense social rules assigned to kids and anyone who interacts with kids.

You don't "hate kids," you hate how society reproduces its most restrictive elements and how kids are powerless to resist it.

New Crow Time - When you drink from silly fountain you get cartoon powers.

If you love Crow Time, consider supporting our comics on Patreon! You can support all our comics for $5, or just Crow Time for $2! What a steal!

Solidarity ✊🏼

let's hear it for the nonbinary folks who:

don't present androgynously

use "binary" pronouns in any capacity

identify partially with a binary gender

have a "gendered" name

don't experience body dysmorphia

don't experience gender dysphoria

DO experience gender dysphoria/body dysmorphia but aren't sure what gender or body would suit them

just experience body/gender apathy instead

can't be open about their gender identity yet

you're all absolutely valid.

don't ever feel like you're "not nonbinary enough" because you absolutely are! 💖

We all making grandpa cry btw

It is absolutely amazing to see people joining together en masse to stick it to these big corporations.

As a punk who has boycotted Amazon for years, welcome to the movement everybody!! Great job

Being a "that movie looks cool, but I need to read the book first" type of person has caused me to be severely behind on pop culture.

Comparing the adaptation to the source material is cool and all, but alas. Lack of time and mental energy (read: Neurodivergent Adulthood)

There is one (1) exception to this rule, and that is me becoming hyper-fixated on the series.

Exhibit A: me re-watching the entirety of Avatar the Last Airbender. AND starting Legend of Korra. AND starting the ATLA comics.

At roughly the same time

As much as I want to support ethical farming practices I will be buying the cheapest bag of frozen chicken thighs as much as the next frugal/poor person which is why animal welfare needs to be legislated, not left up to the invisible hand of the free market or some bullshit. Invisible hand of the free market finds itself around a lot of throats.