https://toyhou.se/22103568.mythic-tier-liuhn-myo-f2e I am holding a mythic tier raffle for the relaunch of my Li'uhn species! Check it out! If you don’t have a Toyhouse account and wanna enter, hit me up cuz I have plenty of codes! Now there is a raffle so I am advertising that too!
The Camouflaged Looper: these caterpillars fashion their own camouflage by collecting flower petals/vegetation and using silk to “glue” the pieces onto their bodies
Though they’re often referred to as “camouflaged loopers,” these caterpillars are the larvae of the wavy-lined emerald moth (Synchlora aerata).
Camouflaged loopers deploy a unique form of self-defense – they snip off tiny pieces of the flowers upon which they feed, then use bits of silk to attach the vegetation to their backs. This provides them with a kind of camouflage, enabling them to blend in with the plants that they eat.
Some of them create little tufts that run along their backs, while others fashion a thicker camouflage that covers their backs completely. In some cases, the camouflaged loopers will even build much larger bundles that surround their entire bodies.
Their range includes most of North America (from southern Canada down through Texas) and they can feed upon an enormous variety of plants – so the disguises that these caterpillars build can come in countless colors, shapes, and sizes, incorporating many different flowers and other bits of vegetation.
And this is what the fully-developed moth looks like:
“don’t eat honey because it exploits the bees and they can’t consent!!!” bees are literally unionized and will walk out if they don’t like being in the beekeeper’s hives
It’s true.
I worked with a beekeeper (not at beekeeping, guy had a day job as a machinist and kept bees as a side thing). One day there was a swarm in the parking lot and people were freaking out because, y'know, BEES EVERYWHERE. Beekeeper guy went to his truck. Pulled a swarm-catching box out. Put it on the ground and walked away.
Bees went in the box after a while. Guy put the box back in his truck and drove home with them.
You cannot prevent bees from leaving a hive they don’t like the conditions of, without also preventing them from being able to make honey. The latter is dependent on them being able to come and go as they please. If they don’t like their hive THEY WILL LEAVE.
Beekeeping is probably the single most non-exploitative animal agriculture in the entirety of human history. I don’t know how it’s even possible to exploit bees. They answer only to their queen.
Some rando: This character should not have the chance to become a better person
Me: Why
Same person: Because they are a bad person!
Me: But what if that character was allowed to become a better person so that they are no longer a bad person?
Same person: You’re an abuse apologist
I would love for every bad person to become a good person. I’d think most humans think that it’d be a cool and great thing if all bad people became good.
A cool and great thing, which we can play pretend with in fiction, knowing it’s not realistic, just to feel a little better about the shitty real world we live in.
tbh, I think the problem is that people confuse “getting a redemption arc” with “being rewarded with what comes after a redemption arc”
like, redeemed villains are generally friends with the heroes. they get to experience love and The Power of Friendship for the first time, if they haven’t already. they generally get to experience forgiveness. if their motives are based off of some kind of trauma or pain (like a lot of redeemed villains) then they will probably have that resolved and get some sense of closure or inner peace from whatever is hurting them.
so when they say that “this character doesn’t deserve a redemption arc” what they mean is “this character doesn’t deserve to be loved. they don’t deserve happiness, peace, or companionship”. the alternatives I have seen are:
“I hope that this character realizes how awful they are and they kill themselves”
“I hope this character is redeemed by a heroic sacrifice” (meaning they would be redeemed but wouldn’t be alive to experience the “reward” afterwards)
“I hope this character begs and pleads for forgiveness over and over again, but is never forgiven”
it’s pretty disturbing tbh, to treat basic things that every human needs (like being loved) as a “reward” that you get for good behavior. or more accurately: never being bad in the first place. that once you fall from grace you’re damned for eternity.
I think this post exposes a really gross underbelly to purity culture bullshit that I don’t think I examined quite this way before.
If redemption is unacceptable, if bad behavior can never be forgiven, what is the alternative?
Because it sure seems like the alternative is “Indefinate suffering = justice.”
BINGO.
I once saw a post that insisted that “abusers getting redeemed is toxic for their victims” which… no?? I can’t comprehend how anyone could think that—I would LOVE for the people who hurt me to become better people!! That would mean they would stop hurting people!!
“It depends on what they did” no it doesn’t. Do you want them to realize they were wrong and stop doing the bad thing, or do you want them to keep doing the bad thing?
