#and half are over 40

[eukrasiancrisis]

[boomposhpow]

stanley pines the man you are

a better son/daughter by Rilo Kiley

[wombywoo]

I find myself once again romanticizing the notion of quitting all of my creative pursuits, throwing my laptop in a bonfire, and finding a nice burrow where I can never be heard from again ✌️

[oifaaa]

Do you own your place? I thought you rented.

Nope brought a house last year after saving up since I was 16 - saying you own your own home is impressive until your boiler breaks and you remember all your savings went to your down payment last year

[maplethedarkshine]

The true chaos

Crack theory/headcanon/Somewhat of an au(?)/insane rambling/character analysis

Ok so I WILL do a crackshit theory about how Sonic is actually just the positive manifestation of chaos and this the same being

First one to say "so this is just the Kirby lore" will be sent to the guillotine /j

This is barely a theory, I'll basically be 10% making actual points and 90% just saying stuff because it sounds narratively cool

Obligatory "English isn't my first language don't give me shit if something is written poorly"

OK SO CHAOS AND SONIC PARALLELS

Letting Sonic speak for himself for a moment, the game itself brings to life the parallels this is not something I'm pulling out of my ass

They're both one in the same as the song says, forces of chaos (literally) that do what they think is right, the only difference is that Chaos' heart is tinted with pain, and as the song itself says, evil, while Sonic is devoid of it, and in a way, pure

Also line from the song that always stuck up to me:

"I'm not gonna think this way nor will I count on others"

Which is such an odd thing for Sonic to say, right? Why wouldn't he count on others? In the game the other characters are who gathered the chaos emeralds and the people cheering him up is what got him to transform into super sonic

Except that's wrong, because what Sonic's doing there is appealing to his feelings, because he understands Chaos' reasoning

That first part, "I'm not gonna think this way", because he can't say he gets how he feels. Again, he's devoid of that pain that's been tormenting Chaos for thousands of years by this point. He's not delusional, he know there's no way he can say with a straight face that he gets it.

What he does understand is that narrow-mindness, because he's like that too.

Just like the game itself says, both are using the same power, just one the negative energy of the emeralds and the other the positive

Two sides of the same coin

What's the difference between the two then? That Chaos has closed himself out from the world and let himself be consumed by pain, while Sonic has... His heart opened.

The entire Song is Sonic trying to appeal to Chaos to "Open his heart". Because he knows that trapping him back on the master emerald would only make it all worse, because such a free spirit like he knows that the worst thing you can do to another is removing that freedom to them, and because what got Chaos to be so corrupted is exactly being trapped- not only in a physical sense, but in a phycological way

He trapped himself. And while on the boss battle the only thing that happened was Sonic beating the shit out of him until he got it, the song tells another story

To make first point short: Open your heart itself makes parallels from the two and directly says they're in a way one in the same, both set on their ways, and Sonic gets Chaos to a point, and that's why he can't let him have his way, because he's trapped, and he needs to be set free from that hatred to be able to make a decision. And once he is, his decision is to stop the destruction leave peacefully

For a so claimed "God of destruction", destruction isn't his natural way if being, it got imposed to him; chaos is neither a good or a bad force of nature, it just is. And for a being literally named by it, he seemed to only embody the negative parts of it...

So where is the positive part of chaos?

On Sonic.

Sonic is Chaos. Sonic is the good of Chaos, the good that got banished from him the day the echidnas got too greedy with power

Ever thought how curious is that SA1 was the first game were Sonic has green eyes? Green as in the same color of Chaos' eyes? Green as in "they're both blue and green they have almost the same color palette"? Or green as in the color of the master emerald, mainly notorious for its connections to Chaos?

Also outside of the things Open your heart already implies, there's so more parrales between the two...

I mean, being of water vs guy infamous for not going well with water can't get more obvious than that

Sonic is, as a character, meant to be the representation of freedom, that's where the comparison to wind comes from... And what's more free than chaos? No direction, doing whenever you want as you wish, isn't that what Sonic is? He's notorious for never calling himself a hero, one of his more iconic phrases "what you see is what you get, just a guy who loves adventure"

Sonic is chaos (the concept) on the way that he's freedom, doing as he pleases, liberating, never changing his ways

Chaos (the character) is chaos (the concept) on the way that he's directionless, he's destructive, and never changing his ways

Sonic is Chaos (the character), because they represent the same concept on different ways

Sonic already has a villain to present the danger of order (Dr. Eggman, aka: mr control freak), so Chaos presents the dangers of chaos. "Do as you please" and "Keep your convictions straight" sounds good on paper until those convictions leeds you to hurt people and doing whenever you want leads you to causing pain and suffering.

Because thinking of it, Chaos had good intentions- he was protecting the chao from the echidna tribe that were hurting them for selfish reasons- he was protecting them, but after that? After that it was simply rage for the sake of rage- he flooded a city full of people that weren't even born when the incident happened and have nothing to do with it- people DIED, yet he wasn't changing his ways- his convictions never changed, and since he still thought the Chao were endangered he did what he did last time: protect

Those are, in paper, the same principles as Sonic on Sonic and the black night: do what you think is right, no matter if that will make some see you as the villain... Except what Chaos did is CLEARLY different and wrong

Because, as much as they're both selfish (selfish as in "most Decisions they make are purely based on what they want"), Sonic is coming from love and Chaos from hatred. On paper maybe Sonic could be seen as selfish (example: leaves station square as soon as Chaos is defeated because the rebuilding is no longer his problem) yet his heart is always on the right place. And maybe he just does whenever he wants, but what he wants is what's good for the people, so his selfishness turns him into a selfless being. Chaos is "doing whenever he wants" from a misguided place: he thinks he's doing what's the best for the Chao, just like Sonic does what's best for the people, when in reality the Chao don't even need him to do allat. Even if he's running by instinct, he's not achieving what he's trying to get, and his selfishness is just that- selfish, even if it came from a selfless core

Sonic's motto is basically to help the world only when it can no longer help itself, while Chaos "helps" it when the help is not only no longer needed, but actively just making it all difficult to the ones he's trying to protect, THAT'S were they differ

That's why, while both "selfish", one his presented as clearly right and the other clearly wrong. Because Sonic knows what he's doing, while Chaos is too blinded to see the truth. But once he gets some sense to him and sees that the chao are ok he does the exact same thing as Sonic: he simply leaves. Doesn't stay to try to fix what he did, because he knows that at this point the world can help itself, and he won't do the same mistake he did of trying to help at a point where is no longer needed

Sonic got him to open his heart (I'm so sorry for bringing it up so much I just love the song-)

Ok, so we got to how Sonic and Chaos are the same in a thematic way. Cool. That's nice

Now here's why Sonic and Chaos are literally the same person

Now this part I don't have as solid as an argument so take is as more lf a fun AU thing

Early jp classic Sonic was very much treated like a fairy-tale character. A mystical creature that would appear and disappeared when the adventure is over, and even in more modern games he's sort of like that (come on guys he's literally summoned from the sky in SatBk how more obvious can it get...?)

He's, in most game characterizations, a flat character. He doesn't grow because he doesn't NEED to grow. He seems to be inmune to corruption (Examples: In unleashed he's unaffected by dark gaia's influence outside of becoming more furry. On frontiers he smiles through the pain to the point Sage questions him what the hell he's doing) He's unable to be corrupted, as he's usually not the one to learn something from the story, rather the one delivering the lesson to another character (ak: Sonic 2 him indirectly giving confidence to Tails by just being there. Sonic and the secret rings he being what brought Sara our of her toxic relationship. The one SatBK monolog everyone already knows)

Sonic is a lot of things, a lot of them bad: impatient, a bit of a brat, annoying, but on top of everything he's pure. Sonic is incapable of evil. And thus him not changing his ways ever is GOOD

Chaos IS corruption, as in that's what defines the his character and character arc- because he's, unlike Sonic, NOT a flat character, in fact he's the one that receives the lesson by Sonic in Sa1

He's also treated as this mystical being, except that instead of being a fairly-tale it's a prophecy of a disaster. Chaos is not only capable of evil, but rather he IS evil itself for a good part of the story, and thus him not changing his ways is BAD, even if it goes under the same core premise as Sonic's motto of freedom- a decision made from blinded pain is not a decision made in your full freedom after all

That evil is not inherent to him; once again, it was imposed- forced onto him. And when he got purified... What is his role on the next time he happens to appear in the story, when he's given the freedom of actually choosing without being tied down by the chains of old wounds? To only make himself known when the master emerald is in danger (said in Sonic battle and the sonic forces comic prequel)

On other words, he only helps when the world can't help itself

He literally turned into Sonic the moment his heart was devoid of evil

Sonic was not only reaching out to Chaos, he was reaching out to himself- a part of him he never got to terms with, as "hate" is not something he's capable of, not in this form. He not only helped Chaos, but he also processed that hate- a hate that he never got to experience, but it's indirectly "his"

... Except it's not his and never was his

Because of course, realistically, IF this theory/headcanon was right, Sonic would see himself and Chaos as different beings. Because who cares of what was before? Yeah, what IF he came from the guy? He's no longer that person, and be will not get tied by boring concepts as the strings of the past

This is a kind of Solaris Mephiles-iblis situation, except while Mephiles is obsessed with being "one in the same" and "complete" again, Sonic will give the autonomy to Chaos to decide to be his own being. Sonic is Sonic and Chaos is Chaos, he will not do any attempt to go back to being "complete", because he already IS completely, and then he helped Chaos be complete to... Why change what's not broken?

Chaos is happy being a guardian of the master emerald and Sonic himself is happy just being some guy who loves adventure. To make them go back to what was before would be to force a sense of order on two beings of chaos, which is counterproductive. I'm sure none of the two would agree with it

If, as Open your heart says, the fundamental difference between Sonic and Chaos is one being trapped by hatred and the other devoid from it, and then the moment Chaos is set free from that feeling he takes an almost identical fairy-tale like creature role Sonic also has... Then what does that mean?

Perfect Chaos is a fake god because he's not truly "perfect", the resentment is what's keeping him from it, and the moment he lets go of it he truly reaches the perfect state of chaos... And basically turns to Sonic

Sonic is perfect chaos, as he's the good of it

Ever wondered where he comes from? Game Sonic never ever had an origin story, at best an "He comes from Christmas island, no we will not tell you or show you ever where or what Christmas Island is"

He doesn't seem to have parents or an origin story. As far as the world is concerned there's been this blue hedgehog wandering around and randomly helping people then disappearing to never be seen ever again. Ever since that Dr. Robotnik guy has been causing trouble the hedgehog has always been there to stop him, as if he came out of nowhere... As if he spawned thin air

And perhaps that's the easiest reasoning. Perhaps he DID come out of nowhere. Because you can't keep trapped chaos (the concept). It WILL find a way to get out, and it won't listen to you, and it's only agenda is to oppose order

And what happens when a destructive force comes and imposes order on the world? In a way Eggman created his worst enemy... Sa1 was not the first time he liberated Chaos

Because when the world needed him the most it brought back his ashes to life into a form devoid from the hatred and pain that caused his perish on the first place. Made the good that was vanished from his heart and the kindness forced out of him into a being of flesh and bone. And from his wounds of the past there'll be something beautiful for the present. The pureness that the echidnas took away from him so many years ago will be reborn

There'll be brought chaos

They'll ne brought freedom

There'll be Sonic, Sonic the hedgehog

[shyravenns]

Joining this Fandom was a shock to the senses because why was everyone calling this 37 year old man "old" 😭

[helielune]

powder keg (full under the cut)

[thanks-obillma]

updated vito hc

he's very open about being an ally. except he gets pissy when people refer to him as non-queer, like come on, he shares his brain and body with a bunch of queer people, he's at least adjacent? or grandfathered in? or something?

and he knows he shouldn't be upset because he knows he's straight, he's not actually queer himself and he doesn't want to appropriate anything or whatever, but he still can't quite shake it. is he ace? no, no, he has some mixed feelings about sex but the attraction is still there. maybe he actually does like guys? nope, that's not it either. maybe it's just the others getting their emotions mixed in with his and they're actually the ones not liking the idea being excluded. yeah, that must be it. brain's done weirder things.

he's well into his 40s when he finally realizes he's transfem.

[tj-crochets]

Hey y'all! Weird question time again, this time for my fellow dysautonomia havers*: Do y'all ever find that when salt and water aren't working to fix a POTS/low blood pressure and tachycardia flareup, having a bunch of sugar will help fix it? Like, not completely, but when the salt and rehydration aren't working do you ever add sugar and then they start working? *there's certainly a better way to word that but I can't come up with it right now lol

[kaythefloppa]

RE: The 200th Episode + S7

So a while back I made this post, which analyzed an interview with Martin Kratt around Season 7, which at the time, had just premiered on PBS Kids. In that interview, Martin said that Season 7 will air Episode 200 of Wild Kratts. Pretty exciting shit, right?

Turns out that may be outdated.... like, VERY outdated.

An article by current.org that I found a while ago described Season 7 having 20 episodes, with there being 16 left following the season's four-episode premiere.

"Some shows in the 20-episode season are devoted to animal classification. Others focus on the different roles of animals in the wild, such as predators versus prey. One looks at the boundary-breaking mudskipper, a fish that actually spends much of its time on land. " With 16 more episodes left to air in Wild Kratts’ seventh season — including the series’ 200th — there are plenty more creature adventures to come. New episodes will premiere on PBS Kids through 2025, according to DeWitt, who adds, “We do not have an update on season 8 at this time.” 

Now yes, that article does mention that the series 200th will air in Season 7, but there is no mathematical way for a 20 episode season to add up to 200.

Because as of this week, there have been 16 episodes of Season 7 released: Bringing the show to 174 episodes. Episode 20 of the season will bring the series to 178 episodes of the overall season. It would take 22 episodes afterwards to get to the 200th episode.

I'm not entirely sure what exactly is the case here, whether Martin was incorrect, making assumptions, or there was some change in the amount of episodes ordered for the season, but it does not look like we'll be getting the 200th episode this season.

This leads to my next point: We are actually way closer to the end of Season 7 than we think.

One-hour specials in the show are classified as two episodes, since they're double the length of regular episodes, and thus double the production thereof.

Season 4 was commissioned 26 episodes, with Animals Who Live To Be 100 Years Old as the 100th of the series - for those numbers to add up, A Creature Christmas and Creatures of the Deep Sea would need to be two episodes each (otherwise S4 would have only 24 eps and AWLTB100YO would be episode 98). Similarly, Season 5 had a 20 episode order that would bring the overall number count to 138: Meaning the season premiere "Alaska: Hero's Journey" and the Halloween special "Creepy Creatures" would have to be counted as two episodes each (4 episodes, plus the 16 regular length episodes).

If we apply this to the other one-hour specials (including Our Blue and Green World and Activate Kid Power) then that means that we are currently 16 episodes into Season 7 as of this week. And if the current.org article is correct, then that means that only 4 episodes remain.

And seeing as how 4 new episodes often air in one batch, (whether it's a double-length episode and 3 regulars, or 4 individual episodes airing daily), and with how a modern WK season takes 2 years to finish (added with the article saying the season will premiere through 2025) this indicates that the next batch of episodes following this week will be the last of the season, and that one of these episodes will be the Season 7 finale.

Yup, Season 7 is most likely ending this year.

Now I could, on some level, be wrong, (and frankly I hope I am because it's kinda shitty that all of that hype around Ep. 200 could've possibly been for nothing). But so far, so many signs point to Season 7 having 20 episodes and not a minimum of 40 as we initially thought. I've seen bootlegs of Wild Kratts live where the new episodes are announced and the number of episodes they announce in future is not the amount that would give the season enough episodes to break the 200 milestone. Hopefully more information will come out (likely in an interview with the Kratts as a tie-in to the next batch of episodes) but all signs point to the end of Season 7 being upon us:

[rapha-reads]

To those of you wondering (aka no one), I finished both The Vampire Armand and Merrick and I have a lot of thoughts and feels. I'm skipping Blood and Gold for now to go directly to Blackwood Farm (I'll read B&G later), but first I'm going to read something else, just to take a break.

TVA thoughts: man, Armand is messed up. And extremely compelling. But so messed up. As always, the theme of faith crisis, which seriously reaches new heights with these bitchy vampires, is not something I can fully immerse myself in, but it was fascinating to see his numerous metamorphosis. I liked how he bridges Western and Eastern Christianisme, especially through art. Now I'm thinking that if Rolin Jones makes him originally Muslim in the show, that could expand even more the conversation on how faith, and especially Abrahamic faith, has been in conversation for thousands of years and could be such a rich, diverse and spiritual, intellectual and artistic theme. I can already imagine some fascinating discussions comparing (not in a superior way but in a complementary way) coming from Muslim faith to Roman Catholic faith, the way book!Armand talks about the richness of his life in Kiev Rus despite the poverty and ascetism, and the richness of his life in Venecia despite the luxury and abundance.

As for Benamin and Sybille... I don't have much thoughts about them. Sybille is one of those female characters AR seemingly favors, not so much human as a nymph or a dryad, "perfectly splendid". And Benji is a caricature of an Arab child. Nuance? 401 not found.

Merrick thoughts: David for the love if everything, shut. The. Fuck. Up. Holy moly. I like David, I do, but damn the entire recollection of his history with Merrick was looooooong. I'm here to see Louis haunted by Claudia and haunting Lestat's coma, not how hard you're pining for the kid you practically raised! Also. ALSO. You're just going to leave that whole thing with the Olmec or possibly another more ancient Mesoamerican civilisation without ever giving us more? That was the most interesting part of it all! The vodoo history, the connection between Louisiana and Caribbean vodoo and old Native South-American religions! More about this, less about Merrick's perfect breasts, I am begging you. (It is at this point that the reader of this post realises OP is 100% definitely ace and more interested in books and witchcraft than breasts and whether a 70yo man can still get it up - also, hey, Anne Rice's vampires are practically asexual and their lust and pleasure is mostly derivated from blood, with some notable exceptions like Armand and Marius, and a love relationship between two vampires is then based on romantic love and blood sharing, so can I hear a hell yeah for some ace representation or are we still conflating eroticism with sex)

Another thing I kept thinking about throughout the book is how Louis is perceived by his fellow vampires. Since basically the second book, since we've lost his own POV, everybody who's ever said anything about him (so Lestat, Armand and David) have insisted on two points: how very weak and meek Louis is, and also how irresistible, beautiful and charming. Granted, I've known Louis first through his portrayal on the show (hi Jacob you're so fiiiiiiine), and then through his own narration in the first book, but I've never had the impression that he was weak. Beautiful and seductive, yes. Weak? I see a human man going through tragedies and still enduring, going through vampiric transformation and then suffering for decades the loss of his humanity, struggling with reconciliating both sides of himself, but mostly I see a vampire who rebuilt himself after losing everything without sacrificing his sense of self. I see Louis as very strong actually (up to the point where resilience breaks, because resilience cannot be sustained on a long term, but that's another debate). He knows who he is, and don't you know how hard that is? He doesn't cling to faith or pride. He knows he's doomed, he knows he's monstrous, he knows there's nothing he can do to change that, and instead of railing against his fate, he goes on about his undead life. He gets his books and he reads them, he surrounds himself with literature and what little comforts he thinks in his shattered self-esteem he deserves (his ragged sweaters and soft trousers); let's not lie to ourselves tho, Louis doesn't like himself, or more exactly he doesn't care about his corporeal body - what matters to him is his mind, and once again, this author is extremely ace and also very aro and very nonbinary, so Louis to me is very much ace and agender coded, though really not aro, because his love for Lestat (and sometimes his fondness, shall we say, for Armand) is the only thing that can rouse him up from his literary slumber.

...

Oh, man, I have a lot to say about Louis, for how little he appears in the books so far. Still have BF, BC and the PL trilogy to devour. So I guess you can say, for as much as Lestat is occupying my entire brain, very much like him, my favorite is Louis? Yeah, that tracks. Melancholy, quiet, dark-haired green-eyed monster with more humanity than humans, preferring his solitude and the company of books to anyone else, hopelessly and helplessly devoted to one person, expert in brooding and grieving, literature specialist, not very attached to his physical self. Yeah. I'm not surprised.

[softstarsabove]

Dan Heng is my relic holder again (*^ω^)

[gu6chan]

will say about the dnd party im part of one of the characters is, according to their player, inspired off nifty from hazbin hotel and it shows (negative)

[meezer]

no, one of the richest western countries does not have "the slowest, least reliable" rail system in europe. get fucking real

yaaaaay look at those beautiful brand new romanian trains that run at light speed and definitely aren't fucking filthy and dilapidated inside ^_^

[immobiliter]

anyone who can answer all of their inbox memes/asks and/or reply to all of their drafts always have my complete and utter admiration because i don't think, in the decade i've been on tumblr, i've ever completely emptied either on any blog i've ever written on lmao

[airysthinkingbox]

got curious as to why people were so desperately requesting stuff on my wemm-centric fic and realized that MOST of the duos requested have LESS THAN TEN FICS... flamebu's not even canonized.. wemmpear has 3.... wemmvit has 2.... fraud duo has 2..... nuke trio has 6..... watobu has 2-3.......

LIKE I FELT LIKE I WAS LOOKING AT A SMALL, STARVING, STRAY KITTEN/PUPPY..... MY FELLOW WEMMLINGS???? ARE HUNGRY!!!!! I NEED TO FEED THEM!!!!