bitofanoddbird

[bitofanoddbird]

the thing about buffy summers is that you are not watching the same show as the rest of us if you dont spend the entire time wanting her to be happy and okay. so when her and spike get to the point in the show and their relationship where you realize thats all he wants too, (unlike angel and riley, i would argue) of course we want them to end up together. why wouldn't we. we see how happy she could be with him and how much he cares about dawn and she deserves all of that in her life!!!

[bitofanoddbird]

Mmmm... I just went to a museum and came across this painting from Ernest Ange Duez (Ange meaning Angel in french, as if the whole painting wasn't enough). On top of everything obvious, are those wings on Azir- hum, the blonde lady's hat?

[bitofanoddbird]

once again thinking about the drama and hilarity of giles and spike's petty rivalry/general dislike of one another

giles meets spike and just sees ripper. spike meets giles and just sees william. they're both ashamed of who they used to be and immediately project that shame onto each other. but like they have a mutual favorite woman (buffy) so they get forced into proximity frequently and deal with it by being bitchy about the whole thing despite having to keep things (relatively) civil for her sake. but like. how would YOU feel if your despised past self walked through the door and felt an equal amount of disdain for you too. dude. that would suck monumentally. the best part is they don't care enough to realize their first impressions were wrong so they're just kinda stuck like this

[bitofanoddbird]

Me, selecting filters on Ao3

[bitofanoddbird]

Sometimes you have to function in society while your head is full of The Characters.

[bitofanoddbird]

"these researchers published a paper on something that literally any of us could have told you 🙄" ok well my supervisors wont let me write something in my thesis unless I can back it up with a citation so maybe it's a good thing that they're amplifying your voice to the scientific community in a way that prevents people from writing off your experiences as annecdotal evidence

[bitofanoddbird]

Does anyone else suddenly realise they need a Gentlebeard grand slam tennis AU?

[bitofanoddbird]

When Buffy Summers said

" The hardest thing in this world is to live in it."

she sure af wasn't joking.

[bitofanoddbird]

“I told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil. I think I’ve come close to defining it: a lack of empathy. It’s the one characteristic that connects all the defendants. A genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow man. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.” - G.M. Gilbert

[bitofanoddbird]

okay

[bitofanoddbird]

What is or isn’t a slur can be highly contextual, y'all.

“Jonny Sims bummed a fag off my ma” doesn’t contain a slur, but “What are you, some kind of fag?” does.

“Queer studies��, “the queer community” and “I’m queer”? Not a slur. Some bigot calling you a “dirty queer”? Slur.

“Be gay, do crimes” and “He’s gay” ≠ slur, but “Ew, that’s so gay” = slur.

In conclusion, stop buying into this fucking “q slur” bullshit. Queer people talking about the queer community aren’t using it as a slur any more than a gay man calling himself gay is using that term as a slur.

[bitofanoddbird]

I didn't steal them! I just ... forgot to give them back!

[bitofanoddbird]

Kleya Marki, hero

🎥 @starwars IG

[bitofanoddbird]

#PBS teaches kindness and inclusion, which are threats to abusive paternalism.

[bitofanoddbird]

Saw someone on here the other day (genuinely don't remember who it was, sorry for the call-out if it was you) complaining about Cassian's decision in S2 to back out of the rebellion after Ghorman, saying it was bad character writing.

Which is wild to me bc it's actually perfectly in line with his character: he never committed to the rebellion the way most other characters in this did. In S1 when he said to Luthen, "it's better to live - eat, sleep, do what you want", that's been his core desire all along. He's a reluctant revolutionary. He doesn't want to be doing this; he wants to be living peacefully.

Also and maybe most importantly, the massacre on Ghorman didn't just showcase the brutality of the Empire; it showcased how Luthen was prepared to sacrifice those people for his cause. Cassian said from the start that they didn't have a chance there, and Luthen sent them backup anyway and pushed them to rebel and bring the fist down upon themselves. Cassian looked at that and said, I can't be part of this anymore. Was that an easy decision? Would any of us have chosen differently? Knowing that the plan was an "end-justifies-the-means" slaughter of some people on purpose in the effort to bring down the oppressive regime? I'm not surprised Cassian backed out. He's a person who cares about people.

Besides that, not all of us have unlimited energy to commit to a cause. Even if the massacre on Ghorman hadn't been at least partially Luthen's fault, retiring at that point would be completely valid. That's a lot to have lived through. Cassian is probably in his 30s at this point, which isn't old, but is old enough to feel it.

Cassian isn't a "perfect" protagonist - he wavers and falters in his commitment and sometimes has different priorities than we might want him to have since we already see him as a revolutionary. But I think that's what makes him a good protagonist.

Plus, there were a lot of people clearly doomed by the rebellion from the start. When Luthen died for the cause, it surprised exactly nobody, because that's the fate he sealed for himself. Cassian ran and ran from that fate though. He wanted so badly to just live. I think that makes it all the more moving when he decides to willingly place his life on the altar in Rogue One. He looks his death mission in the eye after years of running from it, and accepts it. He goes all in for the Rebellion on his own terms, in his own time, on a mission he believes in and not one he reluctantly accepted from Luthen or anyone else.

I think that's pretty good writing, myself.

[bitofanoddbird]

I'm sick and tired of assigned mother endings. Like I wanna say that I don't have a problem with characters being mothers, but lately having the leading female character's story end with "I guess I have a baby now" has just been so tiring.

I dunno! Maybe it's the fact that Andor and Doctor Who seemingly back to back had this ending for their female leads.

It's just boring seeing the same ending for woman over and over again. It can be different. It's 2025. There can and should be more diverse endings for woman in stories.

[bitofanoddbird]

michaelwilkinson: Dedra at home. For the first time ever in the Star Wars universe (to the best of our knowledge) we see an Imperial officer out of uniform - @denisegough1 was so excited! Concept art by @riabovitchev