I won't pretend I like all pokemon gens equally but the concept of gen 1ers always confused me. Like bro. You're really gonna stick with gen 1 pokemon exclusively? They don't even have Scizor yet

My reminder to put out that Toki's not poorly written and that the way he behaves in Army of the Doomstar and the way he behaved post season two wasn't the creators of the show thinking "if he talks more femme and acts like a kid it's funny" it was literally the progression of a character with canonical bipolar disorder and severe PTSD.

Toki was as a lot of people point out "normal" or close to it when season one and some of season two aired, but that's also total bull shit. Toki acted "normal" as people like to say during season one, but only until the episode featuring their parents which involved Toki not speaking at all the entire episode, he just fucking shuts down and goes completely catatonic and looks terrified like a nightmare followed him into his real life.

The shit with the little girl dying happened which further traumatized him, his guitar teacher died, both ending up with pictures on his bedroom wall to remember them by due to their deaths impacting him heavily because he blames himself for them dying.

Then his abusive father gets sick and Toki forgives him because it's the mature thing to do, not the right thing to do by any means, but he has been made to feel by society that he should forgive his dad because it's what he's supposed to do. Despite the fact his father never voices regret for abusing Toki and even has the balls to ask his son to take him to his childhood home one last time.

Then Toki pretends he's fine and it's okay, but then at the Snakes N' Barrels concert sees a trigger and goes off beating a man possibly to death in a fit of rage.

After that the finale features him getting totally drunk all day long so that he doesn't have to cope with anything that's happened in the past couple of months.

Then Offdensen dies.

Then season three we see him doing okay in some episodes while in others he's more petulant and depressive and angry or acts more immature than other times, then Dethzazz happens and we get a very full view of the sort of physical abuse he endured through his childhood especially at the hands of his father. He never calls it abuse, he claims he deserved the punishments for making mistakes despite the fact nobody deserves the horrific shit his dad did to him.

After that, again Toki worsens and regresses more often than he was before, he clings more to Rockzo and tries to cling to his friends but often they distance from him.

Season four he clings to Magnus and we see Toki regress the most, then the funeral happened and Doomstar happened and now we have Army of the Doomstar where he is just completely fucking shattered which makes sense.

His kidnapping and torture just happened, he barely has had time to recover before the world is actively ending and the sky is falling and the world is burning down around them. He's had no time for therapy or counseling or medication etc so his friends, Pickles specifically are just coping with this situation the best they can while not being able to actively help him at all, because they can't. Plus again the world is a burning pile of broken satellites and collapsing buildings so that is an additional stressor on top of everything else Toki has been through very very recently.

So just want to put this out there before anybody says it's cringe or weird or bad writing that somebody with very severe PTSD is not handling life well or handling it at all.

Introducing someone to your religion when they are at the darkest and lowest point in their life is inherently coercive and I’m never going to change my mind on that. It is a cult tactic to find people who are struggling and try to convert them, and the Christian church doing it instead of Scientology or something does not make that practice any less fucked up. Christianity can be a normal and healthy part of someone’s life, but if you have to introduce it to them in a coercive and predatory way, it’s probably not going to be that.

Yeah guys let's listen to the jew lover blog about what Christians ought to do with their religion 😂 fucking dork

Sir u cannot be calling me a dork while this is on ur blog for the world to see

It is my genuine pleasure to introduce you to the mensch, the myth, the legend,

Jewish Wolfwood was a regular sight at anime cons throughout the 2000s.

Elon Musk and Hank Green were having an argument over how Elon Musk is burying Twitter and then this guy cut in:

top 10 screenshots taken right before a Twitter ban

what the fuck is a typhoon

Yes.

"i hate kids!" "i hate babies!"wow youre so cool should we throw a party would you like that

You can hear the sob in his voice. This man strikes exactly zero fears into me. This is a malewife. I'm finally beginning to understand why the fandom treats him this way.

“shadow is a tough stoic guy who doesn’t need anyone but himself” shadow’s a little guy who needs to be hugged and held

The biggest male privilege I have so far encountered is going to the doctor.

I lived as a woman for 35 years. I have a lifetime of chronic health issues including chronic pain, chronic fatigue, respiratory issues, and neurodivergence (autistic + ADHD). There's so much wrong with my body and brain that I have never dared to make a single list of it to show a doctor because I was so sure I would be sent directly to a psychologist specializing in hypochondria (sorry, "anxiety") without getting a single test done.

And I was right. Anytime I ever tried to bring up even one of my health issues, every doctor's initial reaction was, at best, to look at me with doubt. A raised eyebrow. A seemingly casual, offhand question about whether I'd ever been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Even female doctors!

We're not talking about super rare symptoms here either. Joint pain. Chronic joint pain since I was about 19 years old. Back pain. Trouble breathing. Allergy-like reactions to things that aren't typically allergens. Headaches. Brain fog. Severe insomnia. Sensitivity to cold and heat.

There's a lot more going on than that, but those were the things I thought I might be able to at least get some acknowledgement of. Some tests, at least. But 90% of the time I was told to go home, rest, take a few days off work, take some benzos (which they'd throw at me without hesitation), just chill out a bit, you'll be fine. Anxiety can cause all kinds of odd symptoms.

Anyone female-presenting reading this is surely nodding along. Yup, that's just how doctors are.

Except...

I started transitioning about 2.5 years ago. At this point I have a beard, male pattern baldness, a deep voice, and a flat chest. All of my doctors know that I'm trans because I still haven't managed to get all the paperwork legally changed, but when they look at me, even if they knew me as female at first, they see a man.

I knew men didn't face the same hurdles when it came to health care, but I had no idea it was this different.

The last time I saw my GP (a man, fairly young, 30s or so), I mentioned chronic pain, and he was concerned to see that it wasn't represented in my file. Previous doctors hadn't even bothered to write it down. He pushed his next appointment back to spend nearly an hour with me going through my entire body while I described every type of chronic pain I had, how long I'd had it, what causes I was aware of. He asked me if I had any theories as to why I had so much pain and looked at me with concerned expectation, hoping I might have a starting point for him. He immediately drew up referrals for pain specialists (a profession I didn't even know existed till that moment) and physical therapy. He said depending on how it goes, he may need to help me get on some degree of disability assistance from the government, since I obviously shouldn't be trying to work full-time under these circumstances.

Never a glimmer of doubt in his eye. Never did he so much as mention the word "anxiety".

There's also my psychiatrist. He diagnosed me with ADHD last year (meeting me as a man from the start, though he knew I was trans). He never doubted my symptoms or medical history. He also took my pain and sleep issues seriously from the start and has been trying to help me find medications to help both those things while I go through the long process of seeing other specialists. I've had bad reactions to almost everything I've tried, because that's what always happens. Sometimes it seems like I'm allergic to the whole world.

And then, just a few days ago, the most shocking thing happened. I'd been wondering for a while if I might have a mast cell condition like MCAS, having read a lot of informative posts by @thebibliosphere which sounded a little too relatable. Another friend suggested it might explain some of my problems, so I decided to mention it to the psychiatrist, fully prepared to laugh it off. Yeah, a friend thinks I might have it, I'm not convinced though.

His response? That's an interesting theory. It would be difficult to test for especially in this country, but that's no reason not to try treatments and see if they are helpful. He adjusted his medication recommendations immediately based on this suggestion. He's researching an elimination diet to diagnose my food sensitivities.

I casually mentioned MCAS, something routinely dismissed by doctors with female patients, and he instantly took the possibility seriously.

That's it. I've reached peak male privilege. There is nothing else that could happen that could be more insane than that.

I literally keep having to hold myself back from apologizing or hedging or trying to frame my theories as someone else's idea lest I be dismissed as a hypochondriac. I told the doctor I'd like to make a big list of every health issue I have, diagnosed and undiagnosed, every theory I've been given or come up with myself, and every medication I've tried and my reactions to it - something I've never done because I knew for a fact no doctor would take me seriously if they saw such a list all at once. He said it was a good idea and could be very helpful.

Female-presenting people are of course not going to be surprised by any of this, but in my experience, male-presenting people often are. When you've never had a doctor scoff at you, laugh at you, literally say "I won't consider that possibility until you've been cleared by a psychologist" for the most mundane of health problems, it might be hard to imagine just how demoralizing it is. How scary it becomes going to the doctor. How you can internalize the idea that you're just imagining things, making a big deal out of nothing.

Now that I'm visibly a man, all of my doctors are suddenly very concerned about the fact that I've been simply living like this for nearly four decades with no help. And I know how many women will have to go their whole lives never getting that help simply because of sexism in the medical field.

If you know a doctor, show them this story. Even if they are female. Even if they consider themselves leftists and feminists and allies. Ask them to really, truly, deep down, consider whether they really treat their male and female patients the same. Suggest that the next time they hear a valid complaint from a male patient, imagine they were a woman and consider whether you'd take it seriously. The next time they hear a frivolous-sounding complaint from a female patient, imagine they were a man and consider whether it would sound more credible.

It's hard to unlearn these biases. But it simply has to be done. I've lived both sides of this issue. And every doctor insists they treat their male and female patients the same. But some of the doctors astonished that I didn't get better care in the past are the same doctors who dismissed me before.

I'm glad I'm getting the care I need, even if it is several decades late. And I'm angry that it took so long. And I'm furious that most female-presenting people will never have this chance.

As an aside, if a doctor refuses to run tests or take it seriously, always ask them to document in your chart that they refused to investigate. Then ask for a copy of the chart.

If something ever happens and that doctor didn't do anything, congratulations! You have a record and you can easily file a complaint with whoever you want. If it's bad enough, you can file a lawsuit.

Documentation is key. If the doctor refuses to listen, make sure they write down that they refused and give you a copy.

Doctors tend to be a lot more willing to listen when you want a copy of their notes.

happy what fucking day is it now friday

Hang in there!

Leonardo has no idea how to handle something so tiny

Luckily, Splinter is around

big fan of marriages of convenience. marry your best friend for tax benefits. marry your roommate for college tuition breaks. "marry" your love interest for plot-contrived reasons at a fake wedding, then accidentally fall in love & get married for real in the epilogue. so many possibilities!

#get married to further the joke#your commitment is not to each other but rather to the bit

blood is basically the most normal thing for a sword to hunger for. if a sword gained sentience and started asking me for blood i'd be like yeah i thought you might say that

Well, you know, some bathroom graffiti offers insight.

Red marker handwriting on a bathroom wall. Text reads:

“Boss made a dollar Granddad made a dime But that was a poem From a simpler time.

Boss made a thousand Gave pa a cent But that penny paid the mortgage Or at least it paid the rent

Now Boss makes a million And gives us jack Smugly blames the workers For the labor that he lacks.”

And the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls.