If You Ignore Me, My Sister 😭

THIS IS SO REAL THATS WHAT IM SAYING

Just remembered another thing that I find irksome about the comic outside of the obvious, so apologies for this second rant!

There are so many actually interesting plot points that Rusty has written within Leasebound, and then proceeded to do absolutely nothing with. And that really bothers me. I think what makes it so bothersome in that Rusty has gone on record to say that her story is meant to be about "interesting female characters" and like-

They aren't. Because you don't actually write about them outside of making them deal with the horrors of women who have more body hair than outside of their legs.

It generally prickles my pruddles the amount of times that Rusty has actually written parts of the lore that have substance, and then cooked them into nothing burgers.

Jaden having immense guilt over her fathers death, both because there was nothing she could do about it, and because she eventually dropped and gave up on her objective of going to medical school and becoming a doctor in his memory?

Nothing burger. I don't think we've literally ever come back to this plot point since it was introduced

Riley and her turbulant relationship with her family, specifically hinting to the idea that they flat out disowned her/don't associate with her anymore?

Nothing burger. I don't believe we've ever circled back to this plot point either. It was hinted at in the first few chapters and in behind the scenes of the original story, but I haven't seen it mentioned outside of that

The turbulent relationship with Karrisa and how she feels unwelcomed with her relationship with her boyfriend, because of her family's past traumas and distrust of men due to said trauma?

I'm taking a wild shot in the dark that they're likely never going to come back to this. And if they do, it's not gonna come back in a particularly satisfying or good way.

Nothing burger. And that sucks! Because this should be the shit that should actually be expanded upon! These are good avenues in a story to explore, and she just does nothing with them!

The saddest part about Leasebound as a concept and comic is that it actually has so much potential to get really interesting, but Rusty does nothing with what ACTUALLY makes it interesting in favor of acting like she's stuck in the 2016 anti-SJW era.

New chapter sigmas

https://archiveofourown.org/works/59330176/chapters/160420612#workskin

Help my family rebuild their lives🙏😭

‼️WE NEED YOU‼️

Hello, I'm Wasim, from Gaza. I'm 20 years old. My family consists of 6 members: my mother, father, 1 sister, and 2 brothers. We were displaced from Rafah to Al-Mawasi in Khan Yunis, under severe bombardment and destruction, without anything, in a small tent that can not accommodate 5 people without the necessities of life.😞💔😭

As was supposed, I was studying at a university in the month of October in which the war broke out, but my university was destroyed, and the universities in the entire sector were destroyed.

Help us and donate to us. Make a difference in our lives. We need you. We are without work and without home😭😞🙏

Link campaign ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

https://gofund.me/ed62ded5

Actual psycho behaviour, holy shit.

the hidden secret about alexis

alexis is actually a demigod daughter of apollo.

proof:

gay

dentist

greek

also rusty confirmed shes not a demigod of zeus

so she must be apollo daughter

follow fo r more less binded cont tent

Parniya would do great as Sniper TF2 hear me out

Save My Family from the War Nightmare in Gaza🚨🚨

،🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

Hello I am Mohammad Tayseer, 34 years old, Palestinian living in Gaza. I am married to Basma Ramez, and we have two children: Jude, who is 4 years old, and yazan, who is 2 and a half years old.

Our life was normal and full of optimism, and we had big ambitions.I worked in smartphone programming at City Phone. I was happy with my job, and our dreams were focused on building a bright and beautiful future for our children. We had a large, beautiful home that sheltered us, full of many wonderful memories.

But suddenly, without any warning, war destroyed everything beautiful in our lives. Our home was demolished by a missile, leaving nothing behind, and my company was also damaged. I lost my job, and we became homeless and without income.

Pictures of a house when it is partially destroyed

Pictures of the house after it was hit by a missile and completely destroyed

We tried to flee more than five times to safer areas in search of security, but safety in Gaza has become nearly impossible. Death and destruction are everywhere, and our children live in a constant nightmare. Opportunities for education and entertainment have vanished, and basic necessities are scarce. We live in poverty and despair.

gofundme.com

Donate to Save My Family from the War Nightmare in Gaza, organized by Mohammed Alanqar

Hello, I am Mohammad Taysir, 34 years old, a Palestinian living in Gaz… Mohammed Alanqar needs your support for Save My Family from the War

We are now seeking a chance to live in a safe place outside of Gaza. However, our only hope now is to escape this ongoing hell and find a safe haven for our family. This requires significant financial costs, as border crossing fees amount to $5,000 per adult and $2,500 per child, a sum I cannot afford on my own.

Every donation, no matter the amount, whether $10 or $20, will have a significant impact on our lives. Your contributions will help cover the costs of travel and living in a safe country. We hope to start a new life away from fear and destruction and give our children a new opportunity to dream and hope. Our children deserve to live in safety

gofundme.com

Donate to Save My Family from the War Nightmare in Gaza, organized by Mohammed Alanqar

Hello, I am Mohammad Taysir, 34 years old, a Palestinian living in Gaz… Mohammed Alanqar needs your support for Save My Family from the War

My Campaign was Reblog by some and Vetted

vetted by @lonniemachin 🌹link🌹

vetted by @northgazaupdates2🌹link🌹

Vetted by @mushroomjar 🌹link🌹

Thank you to everyone who supported us❤

Meriam is not a well-written mother, sorry.

It's not a surprise, either. Meriam isn't the saint of a mother constantly portrayed in Leasebound, and I argue that the narrative does her injustice several times by not letting her be a person.

Shez's backstory is far from a shounen hero arc. It's sad, and it's a prime example of Rusty not capitalising on potentially great story arcs for her characters.

To begin, Meriam's story starts when her first husband abandons her in Austalia. She gets a job as a cleaner (and takes off her hijab), as well as takes care of Shez until Chris comes along and acts super creepy until he convinces her to marry him. And then chapter 12 happens.

Chris-era Meriam I will not call a bad mother. She was a young woman stuck in a horrible situation, and had to do what she could to help her daughters and her to survive the conflict.

My biggest gripe with chapter twelve is that Rusty calls it a "shounen" arc. Her portrayal of Meriam and her situation accurately does not look like a shounen arc; it's a serious abusive relationship that they need to escape. Meriam, I'd argue, was treated as 'motivation' for Shez and her backstory at best and a figurehead for why women shouldn't partner with men at worst. Rather than treating Meriam as a character, she's often portrayed as a sobbing mess at the mercy of her husband and then later a poor victim who finally got the life she deserved after escaping.

Since the story is a recollection from Shez, you could argue that's why Meriam is portrayed this way. Shez sees her mother as someone in constant need of saving- it's why she thinks that Meriam never had a life outside her kids and her abuse.

But I doubt rusty would write that. The narrative shows Shez as a great hero who inspired her mother to take action because her mother can't defend herself without her daughter - HER FOURTEEN YEAR OLD DAUGHTER- having to step in for her.

(This moment is particularly apalling; how could anyone see this as a power fantasy?!)

There are almost no healthy mother-daughter relationships in Lease Bound, which is really weird for a so-called feminist comic. Josephine and Jaden. Alexis and HER mother. And yes, Shez and Meriam.

Meriam is a deeply flawed mother. Meriam was married at a young age, had to take care of Shez alone in a foreign country, and then got abused. She will make mistakes, and she's made many, because she had no support from the outside and ultimately all she had were her daughters. That could make a strong, protective, fierce Mama bear....

...but she isn't. She's a **victim**. She's hurt, and she needs Shez to save her. She begs her ten year old daughter to help her after her daughter fights a battle for her. She needs her daughter to train to fight Chris for her. That's not something admiring, that's not a power fantasy. That is fucked up.

And that doesn't mean she needs to be rewritten! This can be good! This can be amazing, even! Meriam could be an actually interesting character, going in-depth on how her abuse didn't MAKE HER A STRONG PERSON! HER ABUSE WAS ABUSE! ABUSE DOESNT MAKE YOU STRONGER! IT TRAUMATIZES YOU! IT MAKES YOU NEED SUPPORT, AND THERAPY, AND YOU ARE HUMAN AND- GOOD GOD!

Why is she portrayed as the mother who can do no wrong because she got abused?! Why isn't she treated with a sliver of more nuance than "the victim"?! Why isn't Meriam seriously challenged, deconstructed, analysed, as anything other than "Shez's mom who got abused and made her hate men?"

That is bad writing! Framing abuse as a continuation of your political agenda instead of seriously exploring abuse and a person's psyche and how it affects someone!

And...well...that's how Meriam is written. That's how Rusty wants us to see her. And it's frustrating because sometimes- sometimes- Rusty gets it right.

This moment is poignant. It's my favourite Meriam moment because she's self- aware, and challenged by Shez. Rusty can do it- she just abandons it in favour of five hundred more pages of "trans bad men bad".

So...we explored all that. We tackled the surface of my feelings towards Meriam. What now?

I can't say more, because I feel like a broken record. In fact, go read up several other posts by incredibly talented Leasebound content creators who have made several dissertations on the story, and they will tell you that Lease Bound is, in fact, badly written, and that Rusty Hearts needs to do more with her story.

Thanks for reading! More about Meriam and Shez is coming soon, and I'll update this post when I finish writing it!

what I wish people would understand about fundraising for gaza is that while everyone is desperate and I would never say not to fundraise for or donate to individual families-- I currently fundraise to support multiple friends' families-- the overwhelming narrative I see on Tumblr that the best and most ethical thing you can do is send money to individuals and there is no option for anything else is so so incredibly damaging and inadvertently lends support to the marginalization and distrust of any remaining communal social infrastructure. the sameer project, which you should donate to, talks about this in a recent video they put out. the situation in gaza is unimaginable and everyone is in need of a huge level of support, and yet this fundraising discourse by well-meaning people in the west that donating money to individuals is the only moral way reproduces societal divides wherein resources are directed to people who speak English, who have relationships with people outside of gaza, and who have internet access while hundreds of thousands are left behind.

there ARE non-ngo locally based grassroots initiatives working to meet those needs however they can, and your small donation goes a lot further with them because they are able to buy food/water/supplies in bulk at a reduced price and reach more people with less money. again I'm not saying people shouldn't fundraise for individuals because these initiatives are so limited and many people cannot access them -- but as an example, the group I fundraise with is currently serving people fleeing north gaza who are starving and have nothing, and when we fundraise enough to do cash aid distribution there's so much need that our partners can only distribute 100-200 per large family. and then I go online and see people who have absolutely no understanding of this context at all exclusively working towards raising tens of thousands for just a few people when evacuations haven't been possible for months. it's good to do whatever you can but please consider how this narrative being reproduced among westerners trying to help that there are no other options has the potential to damage groups working towards equity and wider reach however is still possible

Tina and Jacob should have a scene like this