#Practice 1: Media

[arcanegifs]

ARCANE LEAGUE OF LEGENDS: 1x04 - “Happy Progress Day!”

[mxmorel]

i just think she should get to kill

**i am only up to s02e07, please don’t spoil things for me!**

[ahsokalegend]

Kpop Demon Hunters is everything I ever wanted in a movie. Quite literally everything I love: kpop, animation, an underlying Catholic moral theme about the nature of sin, shame, and how only love can overcome hate, did I mention it’s a musical?

[hyacinthsdiamonds]

Ted saying that no driver has had this level of attention on them since Michael Schumacher...

Gentlemen, a short view into the past; Max's debut season, his Red Bull debut, the literal rule changed as a result of his debut in the sport... oh and everyone and their mother calling Kimi Max 2.0 and Toto's second chance at signing debut!Max since he failed the first time around...

[a-vibing-potato]

ELIJAH! EEEEEEEELIIIIIIJAHHHH!! ELIJAH ELIJAH ELIJAH ELIJAH ELIJAH ELIJAH-

[theriverbeyond]

i have to admit the beginning episodes of the pitt were almost too intense for me but the last few episodes really locked me in like i looked up and suddenly it's 2am

[petit-papillion]

The wording of this tweet though..

[underwaterspaghetti314]

Jeez Louise I want to see the Abbot get redeemed actually. I didn’t at first. I wanted that man to have a most unfortunate end because he’s yet another person using God to justify hate-driven atrocities. But Mizrak showing up and saying “Even moments from the end, a thief repented and was forgiven” has made me want this redemption so bad.

Just once I want to see a narrative talk about an all-forgiving God and actually pull through with it. God can forgive everything if you are truly repentant. I feel like if the Abbot can put in the work to undo his actions and fight back against Erzebet, he could be forgiven. I don’t need him to get everything he wanted. As far as I can tell his relationship with Maria and Tara are beyond over. If he could look with his special eyes he could see that those are dead and rotting at the bottom of a lake. I don’t even need him to live to the end of it (as much as I’d like that. Some redemption arcs love to just be “oh they’re good now but now they’re dead so we don’t need to worry about how that works!” and I’d prefer if that didn’t happen here, but if it does oh well). I just want to see someone fall into Hell’s trap in this show and find a way to escape it.

I also think his redemption arc could be very interesting story wise. In that discussion with Mizrak he said that he could hear the quiet laughter of Hell waiting for him in the shadows, and he’s already resigned himself to damnation when he dies. I think that kind of sad resignation is one of Hell’s greatest weapons. They make you sort of sunk-cost your way into more evil by making you think you’re already a bad person, so it’s no use trying to improve. And combine this with a similar arc going on with the Abbot’s night creatures (literal creatures from Hell who choose good anyway, rejecting Hell with whatever actions they can), and I think we’ve got an interesting arc here. We got the Abbot, a supposedly holy man who believes himself firmly in Hell’s clutches, and the night creatures, quite literally born from Hell but choosing to fight against it anyway.

Everyone surrounding the Abbot has something to teach him about being better if he’s just willing to listen. Mizrak seems more devoted to God (teachings-wise at least), Tara knows more about love than he does, Maria knows more about justice than he does, and the night creatures know more about never resigning yourself to evil than he does. He just needs to get out of his despair and learn from these people already!

Anyway time to watch the second half of this season and see if I’m horribly wrong or not.

[the-physicality]

https://thehockeynews.com/womens/pwhl/watch-montreals-full-pwhl-free-agent-signing-press-conference

i hope this is as new and wonderful to you as it was to me :)

[loonfull-sonnetzz]

Would anyone be interest in like. Maybe a character analysis of seb armesto's character in BBC's 'Gold Digger'?

[four-white-trees]

you didn't just equate fatness with immorality, did you? you really implied fatness is tied to decadence and evil?

[keeps-ache]

been telling my siblings 'you would NOT make it in vulcan academy' when they do smth goofy recently and nobody's been able to refute lol

[iamthepulta]

All of today was me staring at the ocean of Anthopo-Country RP drama and watching massive shapes move underneath me, deciding I'm actually Not going to hop in and I'll just finish up Nyo!Ukraine, even if I have half a dozen things that are a better use of my time and my enthusiasm isn't in it.

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

why does everything have to be a hecking issue with my sister

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

Okay, so I went looking for the Sonic 2 game manual last night for...reasons, and I decided I needed to share this page

So as I've said before, it's not as if I've consumed even half of the Sonic media out there. So my idea of the origins of Sonic and Tails I gathered through a tiny bit of Osmosis, tidbits from different tv shows (namely Sonic's depiction of how he met Tails in Sonic prime), and different origin stories via tv shows and comics. This is all to say that I was more than a bit uneducated, so I was under the impression for a while that Sonic saves Tails from the bullies who pick on him, and then he decides to take him with him (and so begins Sonic 2)

But given what a friend of mine described as implications that Sonic 1 (the game) is not the first time Sonic and Eggman have fought in addition to this page, my friend pointed out that this page from the manual may imply that Sonic and Tails were crafted originally as childhood friends. And that both blew my mind (!) and caused a couple puzzle pieces to click into place in my brain.

Despite Sega getting rid of the canon character ages, we at least know from the past that Sega/Sonic Team has had no problem depicting younger (and often very young) characters as fighters in battles against Robotnik or other villains (and this isn't even to mention this in various comic or tv show continuities). Back then (at least with just this game manual as context), there is not only a non zero chance that Sonic has been fending off danger (and potentially even Robotnik) since he was very young, but also the implication that he and Tails have known each other the longest. Since there are no ages mentioned at this point (for the record, I have no access to magazines or reporting on the game at the time of release, so you can take this with a grain of salt), to me it's possible to interpret Sonic and Tails originally being only a couple to a few years apart in age. To me it's possible to interpret their backstory as this:

Before Sonic would fight Robotnik and come to be known as a hero, he'd fight off these bullies picking on this little fox kit. The fox kit himself, known to the animals as "Tails" came to regard the hedgehog as his hero, so he came to follow Sonic around and try to catch up with him. Eventually, Sonic would officially begin to travel with Tails and look out for him, but he had a tendency to leave Tails behind when going on adventures focused on fighting off villains such as Robotnik, who would threaten the natural land and its inhabitants. But the young fox, determined to be like his hero (the young hedgehog) and to not be left behind (both when it came to fighting and because Sonic tended to get a laugh out of speeding ahead while Tails struggled to catch up), would practice flying until he could keep up and learn how to fight (partly by trying to use his Tails to his advantage, and partly by watching Sonic).

And to me, this sets up an interesting dynamic with them. Sonic is a bit of a jerk, but he ultimately cares about Tails' well-being. Tails deals with his hero acting like a bit of a jerk and leaving him behind by trying so hard to be able to join/catch up with him (and later be able to stand on his own too). This also sets them up as younger, likely orphaned, children who travel together and take care of each other. With all of this in mind too, it also makes more sense to me as to why the original Sonic Movie (currently known as "the ova") depicted Sonic and Tails having their own personal home base they live at together.

And this is more of a side thing, but after reading that excerpt from the manual my friend and I just couldn't help but think about Sora and Riku (Kingdom Hearts). While I have for a while found my brain drawing many lines/parallels between these pairs (although compiling all of these would be an essay for another time), this excerpt sort of set it in stone for me. I'll explain under the cut.

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So, in case you're not a Kingdom Hearts fan or entrenched in the part of Soriku fandom doing deep dive analysis and theory making and making fan translations, I'll set up Sora and Riku for a moment.

Sora and Riku are two young boys who live on Destiny Islands. They've known each other since they were very young, and, although they had other friends, the two have always considered each other best friends. They also often went out to a small island (dubbed "the play island") to play together, where they had a "secret place" to play. This "secret place" was a place where the two played together and was to be a secret between only the two of them. The two would play and dream of adventure, and Riku would dream of leaving the islands one day. At the young age of 5, he was given proof of the existence of other worlds in the form of Terra (a stranger from another world—a keyblade wielder) who would ask him why he wants to see "the outside world".

"To protect the things that matter" is a desire that lasts even until Kingdom Hearts 3 (11 years later), and (as fan translators have found out) takes a progression over time in the original Japanese from "the precious things" to "the precious people" to "precious person" (or person I cherish). The "person I cherish" in question, is highly implied to be Sora. I don't have the space to throw evidence here unfortunately, but there is a good amount (I'd suggest checking blogs such as @/blowingoffsteam2 and looking into the necklace theory and the sleeping realms theory as a start, as these will lead you to other blogs. Or you can dm me I suppose. I have a store of screenshots and kh media to draw from, just know...it's a lot).

Anyhow, with all that in mind, I also offer up an excerpt of Riku's story from the KH character files (this is a fan translation of the Japanese version), which serves to tell us a bit about Riku, he and Sora's relationship, and his perpective of the Dark Margin scene from KH2.

Translation by keijithekit on twitter

After all, when you're a child, a year is a big age difference, so I played the older brother and took Sora around with me everywhere. When did that change?

Other fan translators have also interpreted the original japanese as saying that Riku not only played the "older brother" role, but tried (perhaps not very well) to play this role. This is a short story that gives implications of feelings (and even the roles you take in another's life) changing over time. This is to say that Riku had once tried to play older brother to Sora, protect him and play with him, but over time things...changed.

Sora and Riku, as young children and all the way through to KH2, were best friends and friendly rivals. The two would often race, spar, and start up contests, with Riku winning the most. This is an important part of their relationship—as friends who drive each other to become better through competition. As Sora would fight to catch up to Riku, to beat him just once (which would also start him down a path of proving he doesn't need to fully rely on Riku anymore), Riku would fight back, get stronger and run faster so he could still be better.

Riku in KH1 (like classic Sonic as implied by the earlier excerpt from the Sonic 2 manual) is a bit of a jerk, and he often enjoys proving that he's "better" than Sora (faster and stronger). Sonic values the idea of freedom, and Riku too wants to be free, wants to explore the outside world. And Tails is a bit like Sora, who tries until he can catch up to Riku, until he can beat him just once. When Riku tells Sora in kh1 that he can go home and he (Riku) can handle everything else, Sora proves that he has the fighting prowess to stand on his own feet now and doesn't need to leave it all to Riku. Of course, Tails is a bit like Riku too. He doesn't just want to be able to catch up to Sonic, to stand on his own two feet, he wants the kind of strength Sonic seems to have (to be able to fight on his own, and to be able to protect what he cares about). And likewise, while Sora isn't initially as driven to leave their home as Riku is (as he both wants to see the outside world with him and likes his home), he also comes to value the idea of freedom, of living your own life.

And this is all to say that the parallels aren't one to one for me (especially as I believe Sonic and Tails can each parallel both Sora and Riku), but I see them regardless.

Let's return back to the Sonic 2 manual and that excerpt from Riku's story in the character files and compare the the two possible interpretations of these different backstories.

"Two childhood best friends grew up together. The older one often took care of the younger one, and the elder would try to play the older brother role to the younger as they took the younger everywhere with them. Likewise, the younger idolized the older one. The two would often compete, which would drive each of them to become better as the older would try to stay on top and the younger would keep trying to catch up and win even once. One of them desires strength to protect the things that matter (such as their best friend). The other desires to be as strong and fast as the other, fighting to be able to rival them competitively. While the older would spend time protecting the other, the younger one day is able to prove that they can stand on their own, no longer needing the older as they once did, not allowing the older to make them stay behind."

"Once, a very young kid was saved by one just older. The younger started to idolize and admire the other as their hero and began to follow the older around. Eventually, the older would begin to take care of the younger, but the older would often show off their own speed and strength and leave the younger behind. The younger, determined to be able to catch up, to be able to stand with the older, flies and trains until they can (and desires too to be able to stand alone, to have the kind of strength the older possesses, to not need the older). As the two grow older, the younger eventually is able to catch up with and fight beside the older (and too develops their own ways to fight). The two, from this point forward stick beside each other as much as they can (to the point that if they aren't adventuring together, they are often in contact)."

ㅤ

Okay, I've kept you all here long enough. I mostly was hoping I could shed a bit of light as to why this excerpt from the Sonic 2 manual reminds me so much of Soriku. Food for thought, right?

[snowjosh]

y'all this article is satire. while it makes a valid point about the frankly abhorrent living standards in the US, when you google the article it's clearly labelled "humor" and starts with the disclaimer "the following content is purely satirical and entirely fictional." please i beg of everyone. Don't trust random screenshots that people put on the internet without verifying it yourself!!

"No one ever tries to flee capitalism."

Well, that was a lie.