#Complexity of Choices

[crazysodomite]

the thing about "i could do that" is that what people mean is that they can copy the finished product because the work of coming up with something and making it has already been done for them. every little creative decision has already been made and put into creating something, so "doing the same thing" is only doing the work of physically making something. but art doesn't just appear out of thin air. every little decision someone makes is part of the creative process. if you "can just do that" you would be doing it instead of just saying it. because the most essential part of making a piece of art is actually making it. you have to come up with it, decide to make it, and make it, for it to even exist. you can look at someone's works and think that on a technical level you can Do The Same Thing but that's not really true. because the work of unique creative choices for a particular piece you're looking at has already been done. some pieces are hard to make because they're very complex on a technical level, but every single piece that's created requires the essential work of coming up with it, making choices that are unique to you as an artist, and actually making the piece

[josephsaturn]

I think that “Anakin was a slave child who was groomed by Palpatine and raised by someone who wasn’t ready to take on a child, thereby leaving him in a social limbo state where he’s surrounded by people but only has a few close confidants, with the one he trusts the most actively trying to take advantage of him”

and

“Anakin was taught right from wrong from a young age, first by his mother and then by Kenobi, but any time he was presented with a choice, actively CHOSE WRONG EVERY SINGLE TIME”

are two sentences that can, should, and MUST coexist to fully understand Anakin Skywalker as a character

Edit: PART 2 of this post here

[meticulousmaker]

another random thing that stands out to me rewatching Steven Universe as an adult:

throughout the show there's this clear Vibe that Steven has inherited some big magical destiny, right? and it makes sense narratively: he's the son of Rose Quartz, leader of the rebellion, now being raised by her friends who were the last remaining survivors of an interstellar war. he's like a human child in most ways, except he has magical powers that start to become more obvious as he's getting older. no one like him has ever existed before. it's a big deal. raising him and figuring out how he's going to grow is its own unique challenge, because nobody knows what to expect. so of course there's this magical destiny vibe, given all that.

What's interesting to me, though, is that this magical destiny is in no way literally, physically present in the story, it's just something everyone kinda feels. Like, there's not some ancient prophecy about a half-gem, half-human savior. He's not the Chosen One in any literal sense, he just happens to give off Chosen One vibes. And I say that's interesting because it means that the fact he was kinda raised with this Chosen One vibe is completely a decision everyone around him made, for better or for worse. And the show is aware of this, because the weight of Rose's legacy and everyone's expectations of him is a constant theme, and as Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl all grow and develop, they also realize the downsides of them putting those expectations on a child. Like, Steven spends his whole childhood being told about how great Rose was, and how because he's inherited her gem he will probably inherit her powers - and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Imagine how awful things could have been if Steven had no exposure to the Gems and no knowledge of what they were or how they worked, and then his powers started coming in? It was hard enough even when he was surrounded by the most qualified Gem Experts on Earth. But being primed for all of this "you're going to have your mother's magical powers" stuff put a heavy weight on his shoulders, and then the fact that nobody else quite knew how his abilities worked meant he was constantly faced with the adults in his life looking to him with concern because they didn't know what was happening with him. That's gotta leave an impression on a kid - and, well, throughout the show and especially in SU Future we definitely see that it does.

I like the way the show handles the pressure that's put on him, and the fact that everyone is just... trying their best in a completely unprecedented situation. Nobody knows what to do or how to raise this kid, and that inevitably causes problems but everyone is trying. And Steven can feel that everyone is trying without knowing what to do and he just wants to help and not be a burden and none of his caretakers have said that he's a burden but he can feel everyone's confusion and concern and the expectations he's not living up to and he cares so much, about everyone, about everything. He's in an extremely unique position that grants him opportunities to help that nobody else has, and he feels like he's failing everyone if he can't fulfill that, and in the end it never should have been his job to fix things but somebody had to try. Somebody had to try, and he was one of the only people with the ability to stop the Diamonds, stop the war, stop the lies, stop his world and everyone on it from being destroyed... and he was just a kid.

[theartofangirling]

the world was truly not ready in 2014 for eleanor guthrie as representation for girlfail bisexuals. terrible taste in men, fumbles the most beautiful woman in the world, makes the worst possible decisions at every turn. #progressive

[zomb13s]

The Undying Wish of Alfons Scholing: A Journey of Love and Self-Discovery

Part 1: The Quest for Love and Family In the heart of a bustling studio where creativity flows, Alfons Scholing, a man of passion and purpose, serves as an inspiration to many. His unwavering dedication to the youth and his deep-rooted desire for a family have shaped not only his life but also the lives of those who have had the privilege of knowing him. Alfons’s journey is one marked by love,…

[mothzi]

act 3 verso is so quiet and every time he speaks his voice gets softer and weaker until at the very end in Alicia’s ending he’s whimpering and pleading and I’m

[triaelf9]

"how do you enjoy *insert fandom here* I hear they're the worst"

Find the ppl who enjoy the thing you like the way you do. Ignore, mute or block the ppl who don't.

Ta-Da~

[lets-try-to-be-normal-otakus]

Give me O!Steve in his freshman year fooling around with A!Eddie. Maybe they both thought it was a summer fling or Steve was looking for it to turn into a relationship but Eddie wasn't. Give me Eddie 'oh shit I'm catching feelings' Munson start to pull away from this amazing and funny and lovely omega he's seeing.

Give me heartbroken Steve who, after skipping a heat, finds out he's pregnant with his the alpha's pup(s). Give me steve freaking out cause holy shit he's too young to be a dame and his alpha doesn't even want him.

Give me steve crying and making a decision that's too heavy for a young mom- or person- to make. He makes the difficult decision to terminate the pregnancy. He's just too young. He wants kids but not at this point in his life.

Give me 4 years of steve avoiding Eddie and Eddie forever regretting leaving the omega. Both because he's still afraid of the love he saw and steve always scents so sad around him.

Give me steve borderline depressed and wanting kids, having to live with the what-ifs of his life. Of how big their kids would be now. Of how they'd be talking and probably have Eddie's eyes and hair. Of trying to brush and tame the wild frizzy locks while they tell him about their day. Give me steve in mourning because of a difficult decision he was forced to make. Give me reserved steve because of how, regardless of what decision he made, he still marred his youth and had to grow up too fast.

Give me him being a surrogate mom for dustin, and when Ms Henderson comments on what a lovely parent he'd be, he cries himself to sleep alone in his bed.

[allysketches]

in his primadonna girl* era 😌✨

(*playing the damsel in distress and getting locked in a tower in the middle of the french revolution so his boyfriend can rescue him from being beheaded 😏)

[mythalism]

call me crazy but there is a difference between treating your adult players like they are new to the world and treating your adult players like they have the memory of a goldfish and the vocabulary of a 9 year old

[simpforsolas]

solas dragon age is like what if there was a man who kept running into the trolley problem over and over again except the stakes are thousands of lives no matter what choice is made. and instead of focusing on the lives saved through action, he and everyone else instead decide to focus on the people he actively killed through making his choices and villainize him for it until he and everyone else sees only that narrative.

and then rook dragon age is like if someone else was presented with the trolley problem and you think they're going to learn the same lessons and gain the same pains and regret as the first man except instead they a) end up putting the blame on solas for their decision to switch trolley tracks at the beginning and then after that b) god descends from heaven and tells them "it's ok you're perfect let's make this issue easy for you so there's a clear right answer" and uses magic to teleport away the people on one path of the trolley so they don't have to make any meaningful sacrifice.

and then rook turns to solas and goes "see you're such a stupid bad guy, i was in the same situation as you and i made Good Choices because i'm a Good Guy" and in the end solas and everyone else are basically like "yeah that's true time for solas to give up his silly little plans that had no merit and let's not even bother seeing if we can address the problems he was trying to fix in different ways" and rook gets to end the game pretending like they faced the same difficult decisions as solas but rose above when he couldn't.

[babyjaans]

Research question: I can’t seem to remember anytime jared interfered with sam’s storyline or made specific acting choices. Are there any such instances that I’m unaware of?

[milkywayes]

none of the me3 endings are clean or easy, which is a good thing because if there was some miracle solution that ended without sacrifice or loss or unpleasantness, it would take away from the weight of the narrative. but the destroy ending is the only one that doesn't feel like a trap or morally repugnant to the point where it's unjustifiable. you're forced to take up the mantle of butcher to achieve victory and peace, but at least you're not acting out of naïvety, you don't turn into the very thing you vowed to destroy—or god forbid, bend the whole galaxy to your will at the atomic level.

[nilgans]

My piece for the counter-pale resistance zine :D You can download it here, it turned out amazing! Many, many thanks to @de-fanzine-cpr-pale for organizing and assembling the zine 💖💖💖

[outromoony]

What's a Marauders headcanon that you personally don't like?

For me, it's the idea that Regulus took the Mark the night Sirius left. First of all, Sirius was 16 when he left, and Regulus got his Mark at 16, so it’s literally not even possible. Second, it feels like people are somehow blaming Sirius for Regulus's choices (or even if not directly), they're just piling more blame and guilt onto this poor kid's shoulders when all he did was leave his abusive household.

[into-fiction]

i’m ngl I think my heart hurts just a little every time I see a new fan leave their first Wicked show ranting about how evil and awful glinda is and then i have to sit there and try and figure out if im just very biased or if they actually didn’t get it….