They're Good Dogs Brent!

I left several comments on the post which I think encapsulate many of my thoughts:

I also have some scattered other thoughts about the arc, though, that aren't quite as relevant to the discussions in the comments so I'm posting them here.

Overarching idea: Fantasy Racism (or: what D&D tried to avoid)

Compleation is unique from many other fictional body mod depictions because it not only changes your body, it changes your species, what fantasy often calls "race", to another type of sapient person. Phyrexians are people who can either be compleated into the ranks, or born that way. Many do not choose their membership in this group, whether through birth or forced compleation. They have unique traits and are united by a common biological characteristic. They are a fantasy "race."

Lately, D&D has tried stepping away from the fantasy racism and biological essentialism that drove a lot of its history, removing alignment from player races and changing the language around creatures like goblins and kobolds to be less cruel and demeaning. That's because those creature types have been established as reasoning sapient beings, as people, and it's not a great storytelling move to then reduce them to one-dimensional villains or laughingstocks. That should apply to Phyrexians, too, right? ...Right?

Now, fantasy (and real!) racism very much can (and perhaps should) be portrayed in works of fiction, but with a critical eye. This is not present in the Phyrexian arc. Protagonists and heroes consistently denigrate Phyrexians, claim them to be less than people, and justify their killing as a moral necessity. This is applauded by the narrative. We are expected to side with these shining heroes, who eliminate twisted, unsightly bodies to purify their world.

More under the cut.

Aim the throat.

The Ocean Hunter (Sega - arcade - 1998)  

the autistic view of the world has insight and beauty in it, and we’re taught that there’s something wrong with it.

What’s fascinating is that the parents who didn’t know it was the work of an autistic kid praised it as well.

A brief intro to stamp making!

These are regular pink erasers from the supermarket. I'm going to make a flower. First, I trace the eraser itself to get a feel for the size.

I trace the design for each color of ink on separate pieces of tracing paper, then tape them onto the erasers and rub the graphite side down to transfer the image. Any paper that holds graphite will work for this.

Since I'm using red, blue, and yellow ink, I'm layering the stamps over top of one another to produce secondary colors like green and purple. I use a V-shaped carving tool most of the time, just a cheap one I got in a kit at Michael's. Almost anything sharp will work.

I got these Ranger ink pads also at Michael's, they're working for me so far. Slightly nicer ink pad brands usually also sell bottles of refill ink, so you don't need to buy a whole new pad when one runs dry.

Most of the time involved is spent carving the rubber and testing the print as you go. Be careful to carve in the direction away from your hands.

I think these worked out pretty well! Thanks for reading, and have fun!

Ok gotta talk about it.

As a Jewish historian, I fucking hate Israel in ways most probably will never be able to comprehend. I'm going to try and explain it anyways. The central creation myth of Israel is that it is Jewish, and then consequently, that Israel is a part of Jewishness. Its easy to simply state this is false, but fully comprehending this and putting it into practice in thought and deed seems rare to me.

The evil at the heart of this violence predates the recent acceleration of genocide. Israel is a colony, and more than that, an antisemitic fraud itself. After WW2, when Israel was being founded, the Jews of Europe generally did not wave goodbye to their neighbors and head to the promised land. Many were expelled from their homes. Zionism itself, as an action, was a false choice at the time. A mere excuse to place an ally in the middle east, and an excuse to complete the expulsion and destruction of the European Jew. The Zionist Jew is more than complicit in this, they actively seek the destruction and assimilation of all other Jews.

Many fail to realize, and largely because of Israel, that Jews are not inherently white, Ashkenazi, European-descended people. Our faith and culture has an immense variety that is spread all across the globe. Jewishness, in population and volume of culture, exists more so outside of Israel than within it. Israel is for a very specific kind of Jew. The kind that lets Yiddish die, that attaches themselves to European things, that makes themselves and their practices as white as possible.

And they have the nerve, the fucking belligerent GALL, to frame themselves as the necessary saviors of our people. To the Zionist, questioning Israel is to question Jewishness itself. They bake adoration for the colonial machine into their very prayers, and push them on us even as children. To *not* oppress, to *not* kill, to *not* genocide, is to invite death. This is the core of fascistic thought, of course. "Kill them before they kill us." And they KNOW this too, they really do. The truth of that irony does not matter, because as is true for all fascists, the truth itself does not matter to them. They wanted this, they wanted this even before the British saw it in their best interest to give them the land. Any excuse to RETVRN, as the neo-nazis say of Rome, or the German Empire, or whatever the fuck stupid country they want to poorly animate the corpse of. Some select Zionists even *sided with the fucking Nazis* in agreement they should abandon Europe to colonize Palestine. (Haavara Agreement)

My people have proved time and time and time again you don't need a nation state to have an enduring culture. We have protected ourselves for thousands of years without the help of these spiteful, doom-saying maniacs. I was going to post something like this on Passover, but that would be hypocritical. The state of Israel doesn't actually have shit to do with Jewishness. שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְה Vi tsu derleb ikh im shoyn tsu bagrobn. [my best translation] Hear Israel (beginning of a prayer in Hebrew) I should outlive him long enough to bury him. (an old Yiddish curse)

Free Palestine. Donate what you can, they need it right now.

I love the crocodile

remember all those people who were always going "noo! don't ne mean to the cute doggo! the little pupper!"?

...yeah... we were telling you.

The Free Comic Book Day preview of BARDA!

Have another fake preview…

You guys are just encouraging me with these notes. 👀

I promised Twitter that if my tweet about this gets 300 retweets I’ll post another fake page. 👀

So, for anyone who remembers this old comic that started it all… I’ve made a GAME inspired by it!

🖤My free-to-play visual novel, “Phantom of the Black Rose Revue,” is now available!🖤 This nostalgic yuri game features 19 animated CGs, 13 original music tracks, and an introduction to the world, mysteries, and love interests of the Revue! 🖤

Signal boosts greatly appreciated, especially as this game is entered in the Spooktober Game Jam!

The whole tadc fandom right now

🎉After a while, crocodile 🤠🐊

dadchuck is everything to me

i love everything about this troll stuff though

"i'm literally looking at one right now dude"

(via @rlyehtaxidermist)

hard to describe the feeling of finishing inside

honestly all i can say is you gotta try it for yourself

Gray was once the Sixth ActiRanger but was captured by the Gambit Gang and transformed into the Rival Knight.

COLLECT, CHOKE, AND EAT THEM ALL

high effort canon shitposting