#i think my hyperfixation on dinosaurs has returned | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

evilmskitty · 8 months ago

Text

Jurassic World Chaos Theory and communication

Season 2 spoilers, be warned: long post ahead~

(Now that I’ve simmered down from my high horse, and can look back at the opinions from fresh out of the oven)

Communication is a big theme throughout season 2 (and 1 really), often highlighting major points in certain episodes.

Miscommunication and lack of communication, were often intertwined with different characters. Just to be clear, I am not a big fan of the miscommunication trope because it gets me pissed off. Mostly because it can be very realistic, which hits close to home sometimes. Brooklyn’s character and story line are majorly in this trope.

Brooklyn spends time working on shady shit to get a story and put an end to the shady shit. In doing so, we see her neglect maintaining her friendships/relationship because she’s using it to cope. Then said shady shit comes back to wreck her life up, which she knows can harm her friends. Brooklyn does try to include Darius in last minute but then it gets skewed after the awkward confession. She gets attacked, not expecting to be alone, in a trap set for her. She entertains the idea of staying dead when it’s presented to her. Vetoes it. Andddd then is shown that it’s still very dangerous for her to return and tell her friends. So back to staying dead, because it’s safer for everyone.

Brooklyn continues to be radio silent and in doing so misses a lot of what happens in season 1. I don’t think she knows the group was hunted down or why they were all in Africa other than tracking the Broker there. What she knows is glimpsed from the news, the Broker, and Ben. Her conversation with Ben does irritate me, however it shows how difficult both their situations are. Brooklyn is trying to keep them safe and Ben is trying to find proof she is alive/what happened/what they’re dealing with, neither are in a good spot to really reach out and actually break down what’s happening.

Ben is left to either keep his promise not to say anything or tell the group. We watch it cause him such a visceral reaction he has a panic attack. Once he calms down, he thinks it over. Ben makes the decision to tell the group, and is immediately thwarted for plot reasons the rest of the episode and those following. Which causes more doubt and the desperate scramble for more proof. It builds up and he reaches out to the most levelheaded person he trusts to talk him through it. Yaz. Once again is thwarted by plot and because the doubt is eating at him but so is the guilt. Yet that scene also shows the build of up different communication issues.

We’re seeing Kenji having self sacrificing tendencies (borderline suicidal which is another topic altogether) to avoid feeling the heavy burden of emotions, worrying the group. Darius is wandering off to hyperfixate on dinosaurs to avoid having to discuss his feelings (as one does) or make sure Zayna is okay (if I see anyone shipping them I will cringe into dust). Sammy is also mostly making sure Zayna’s okay but is actually dealing with her emotions (improving from season 1) along with Yaz.

Darius is tasked with talking to Kenji, who Yaz has tried to get through to, both of them getting nothing but the mask he puts up. It isn’t until Ben is stuck in the position of telling them about Brooklyn or keeping quiet does anyone get through to Kenji. Also due to Darius wanting to avoid talking about his emotions again. Ben gets through to Kenji, but Kenji doesn’t get to what’s eating at Ben.

All of these come together during the last 3 episodes. Brooklyn who is unaware that the phone was eaten by a hippo, thinks Ben went out of his way to find her there. Ben who is overly baffled that his friend is here in person and not dead doesn’t really know what to say, much less willing to argue anything. Kenji who is an outsider watching the exchange, festering emotions explode. The rest of the group watch in horror as their supposedly dead friend works with the Broker. When they all meet back up, Ben is confronted with trying to explain his side and there’s a lot being thrown at him. Darius takes lead because he knows this won’t help anyone (in the moment) and they need to get out of the facility. But also because he’s still reeling from everything as well. (Someone pointed out he’s due for his breakdown next season which is very likely that boy is going through it).

In the end, the very thing Brooklyn had gone quiet for, didn’t really matter. The group was still targeted even after her death. They still ended up in Africa at the research facility. Still experienced danger and possible death many times. But she doesn’t know the whole scale and is desperate to keep them safe. So she continues to shut them out, continuing to get as much evidence as she can without involving them just she doesn’t know which is less she’ll have to lie and so they don’t know so they won’t be in harm’s way.

(There’s also my whole thoughts on the confession scene which is another unreliable narrator/miscommunication trope. Darius acts as if he made a huge confession to Brooklyn, likely due to the guilt of not being there during the attack, when in reality it wasn’t. Brooklyn fresh off a break up with their mutual friend catches the slip of tongue to mean exactly what it actually means for Darius. Love, in love, and she reacts to it. Which fair, but it shows how both sides dealt with it. Brooklyn brushes it off, Darius can’t stop feeling ashamed for it.)

(The recent posts I made were hot flash opinionated and fresh from watching the show in full bc I’m a certified slacker and knew I would hyper-fixate if I watched it when I had shit to do)

28 notes · View notes

giffyworldhyperfixations · 1 month ago

Text

hyperfixations, interests, and the like

special interest: paleontology, more specifically dinosaurs from the jurassic and cretaceous periods. this has been and will always be my one and only special interest.

current hyperfixations | as of 25.5.2025

animals. canines, felines, mammals, marine life, aquatic, terrestrial, avian, I DON'T CARE WHAT IT IS, IT'S PROBABLY FASCINATING :]

my little pony, friendship is magic. i'm obsessed with it. i'm too broke to own much merchandise, but one day it'll fill my entire bedroom, i promise. (disclaimer: i don't think i identify as a brony, but i won't complain if that's what i'm called.)

equestrianism. was my childhood main hyperfixation till i had a shitty horse incident and went away from it. IT HAS RETURNED!!!

fortnite. no comment.

rdr-rdr2. great game franchise. still relevant somehow. love the gay cowboys. 10/10

pokemon. my babby. my precious babby

past/inactive/passive hyperfixations

warrior cats (leave me alone.)

detroit: become human. i hate u david cage. but that game is fire. i don't play it much (still lose my sh!t over clancy brown and bryan dechart tho)

bojack horseman. goddamnit bojack you ruined me

she-ra and the princesses of power. this one old af. i never even rewatched it ;;

beastars. i have a lot of the expensive ass manga too. love it. but the show is something else lmfaoo

arcane. i honestly wasn't too obsessed with it but s2 consumed my soul

i'll think of more later

thanks for tuning in :]

#special interest #hyperfixation #adhd #pinned post #intro post #not gifs #this is probably the only thing i'll ever post that isn't a gif #paleo #fandoms

0 notes

biscuits-of-bagend · 10 months ago

Text

DnDoc, The Mushroom Planet #3 - Fast Movers

Part 1 Part 2

Previous stories: DnDoc, Coming Home DnDoc, Space Band DnDoc,A Man's a Man DnDoc, The God of Rock 'n' Roll DnDoc, The Loch o' the Lowes

---

The three travellers managed to claw their way back up the leaderboard to a respectable third (the Doctor) and joint-fourth (Rogue and Ruby), and returned to the dealership energised from the sheer speed at which they'd ridden the four races of the cup. As they dismounted from their karts, a slightly taller Shy Guy sent the karts back into the 'pixellation zone' where they would lose their form. Their measurements were kept on file for next time though.

"And feel free to keep the costumes on until the end of the day," said Shy Guy.

The Doctor twirled, the long skirt of his dress whooshing around in a wide circle. Rogue grinned and put his hand on the Doctor's back. The Doctor slid into a deep backwards bend as they kissed through Rogue's Drybones helmet.

Rogue chuckled as he righted them both. "I was not at all sure that would work."

The Doctor laughed too. "In all my centuries I think I can safely say that was my first time snogging a dinosaur skeleton. How about you, Ruby? You keeping your costume?"

"Hell yeah! My dress has pockets." Ruby grinned.

The three of them thanked the new Shy Guy, then headed back out of the Dealership tent towards the main entrance of the stadium. All around them people bustled to and fro as if they were still in karts, and crossing their paths was a matter that required keen dexterity and high courage. But eventually they found themselves some seats in the stands for the next race.

Next to them, there was someone dressed as Birdo, just as there had been when Ruby was starting the first race. Birdo, Ruby remembered, had come first overall in the cup. She'd beaten the Doctor. It was probably a different Birdo, but just in case, Ruby introduced herself.

"Hey, you didn't by any chance just wreck the three of us, did you? I'm Ruby and this is Rogue and the Doctor," said Ruby.

Birdo wound the material of her mask up so that her face poked through the tube of Birdo's mouth.

"Hey, it's me! Did you say Doctor?" said a young girl with light brown skin.

"Rose!" the Doctor screamed, his hands flying to his face in giddiness.

Rose smiled. "Hey, almost-uncle. Nice to see you again."

The Doctor leaned across Rogue and Ruby and took both of Rose's hands in his. He kissed them then hugged them, then released them and sat back up.

"Rose, this is Rogue, my boyfriend. And you've met my best friend, Ruby, y'know, Sutekh's hyperfixation," said the Doctor.

"Nice to see you again, Ruby," said Rose. Then she raised an eyebrow and said, "Mum's not your best friend?"

"Mum's your uncle's best friend," said the Doctor. "And where is your uncle?"

"He's getting drinks," said Rose. "He'll be here in a sec."

Rogue had been frowning, clearly trying to keep track of the conversation, but eventually he put his hands up in surrender and said, "Hang on, can I have a refresher course? Rose here - nice to meet you, by the way - is your niece? And her mum is… Donna Noble?"

"Woah, Mum's famous?" said Rose.

"Most important human in the world," said Rogue, flashing her the sort of grin Ruby only ever saw him use around new people. Ruby suppressed a giggle. Rogue was meeting the in-laws. Ruby was a little nervous too, actually. The Doctor had explained how rare bi-generation was, so there weren't even any of his other friends who could understand the experience of meeting one of his previous selves. Would she be instant best friends with him? What if she didn't even like him?

"'Scuse me, coming through," shouted a voice, a friendly sounding voice, Ruby thought.

She looked up and saw a huge white shape floating towards them, with little triangular white arms poking out the sides, each holding a sealed cup of fizzy juice. The other Doctor was dressed as Boo! Ruby could see through the translucent white inflatable material that the man - maybe about fifty-or-so in appearance, and very tall and skinny - was sitting on a little square seat with his legs dangling in the air. He settled down on the seat next to Rose and handed her one of the juice cups.

"Hello, Doctor," said Ruby's Doctor.

The other Doctor poked his head out a hole in the top of the costume.

"Huh?" He looked around to get his bearings, until his eyes locked onto Ruby's Doctor.

He gasped. "Hello, stranger! How the bloody hell are you?"

He popped his head back inside the costume, then shoogled the whole thing off. He squeezed past Ruby and Rogue to stand in front of Ruby's Doctor, who stood up and gave him a huge hug.

As he shimmied back to his chair, Ruby looked to her Doctor. "Isn't this going to cause a paradox?"

"Ooh, a paradox is it?" said the other Doctor as he got settled.

Ruby's Doctor grinned. "Doctor, this is our best mate, Ruby."

"Donna's our best mate."

"And our boyfriend, Rogue."

The other Doctor's jaw dropped open. "We have a boyfriend? We're ready to have a boyfriend? The therapy worked that well?"

"Well, he's still a bit of a mess," said Rogue, taking his Doctor's hand. "But so am I, so that works out for the best."

"All the best people are at least a little bit of a mess," said Rose.

"Agreed," said Ruby.

"Well, thank you to Rogue and Ruby for taking care of me in my dotage," said the other Doctor. "And no, Ruby, good thinking but I don't think this will cause a paradox. I've been reading and listening to all the old stories I can find about bi-generation and it is fascinating."

Just at that moment, Ruby caught a whiff of popcorn going by as a seller walked down the steps with boxes strung up around her waist.

"Ooh, anyone want snacks?" said Ruby. "I'm suddenly starving."

"Yes, please," said Rose. "That smells amazing."

"I'll come help," said Rogue.

"Sounds good," said Ruby.

Rogue and Ruby pushed along to the end of the row and looked around to locate the popcorn seller.

"Gods above, people around here move fast," said Rogue, pointing down to the very bottom of the flight of concrete stairs, where the popcorn seller was already starting to move along to the next block.

"Let's get speedy again, I guess," said Ruby.

"Well not too fast," said Rogue, though he did start jogging down the stairs. "I wanted a break from small-talk after all, so I don't want to get back too quickly."

Eventually they managed to catch the popcorn seller, though they were panting and bent double by the time they'd accomplished their mission.

As they walked back up the stairs, Rogue's communicator refused to stop beeping, like it was trying to run somewhere too.

"Do you want to get that?" Ruby said.

Rogue shook his head. "The messages have been coming in so fast, I can't reply to one without the next one coming in. It's that stupid guy from the Dealership trying to buy my ship."

"Oh," said Ruby. It occurred to her that only the TARDIS had been placed explicitly off-limits. "What are you going to say?"

"Probably nothing," said Rogue. "Can't get a word in edgewise!"

---

Part 4

Just want to credit a line I borrowed, which was Catherine Whitaker from The Tennis Podcast saying of Jelena Ostapenko "all the best people aren't unambiguously good, because those people are REALLY annoying." 😂 For context Ostapenko has a reputation for being a bit of a brat but in an ultimately harmless way and seems like a delight off the court. Anyways I decided to tweak this a little for my "all the best people are a bit of a mess line" so just wanted to reference that.

Also the incident with the Cybermen in New Milan I mention is this UncleDoc story I wrote about Rose and Fourteen going to a fashion show. Content warning for some explicit transphobia right at the start, and then some insecurities throughout.

@off-traveling-in-the-stars @casavanse @monster-donut @randomwholocker (let me know at any point if you no longer wish to be tagged in each post)

#doctor who #fanfic #fanfiction #doctor who rogue #timerogue #uncledoc

1 note · View note

doeblossom · 3 years ago

Note

well, now that my mlp question has been answered, what was the episode of mlpfim that stuck with you the most? for me it was most of the season openings/finales and then the want it need it have to have it episode or whatever that one was

bestie you know it's definitely not just one. i get why those stuck with you though! those were definitely bonkers episodes

Obviously, the first two episodes. they're the pilot!

look before you sleep, because for some reason i hyperfixated on the sleep song they made for rarity. it was hilarious and i think about it every time i rewatch the episode

sonic rainboom. i think about the guitar riff when rainbow was close to performing the boom quite a lot. i'll rewatch the episode just to hear it again! it's so awesome and good

season 2 openings, because discord is fun. why didn't he just forcefully discord them all. forever. silly discord

luna eclipsed. i wish we saw more of the bat ponies! also luna's redesign was pretty cool, no matter how much i loved the beta design. just assuming that luna's return left her completely powerless, hence the non-flowy hair and small stature. also holiday interpretations are fun!

sweet and elite, just for the iconic rarity song

hurricane fluttershy, because shes relatable! i was always a little self conscious about my own physical abilities but this episode (and joking around about it) made me feel a lot better

canterlot wedding. cadence my beloved. changelings are so very interesting. i also remember waking up on the couch in my mom's office since they put it on the tv, and my mom joked about mlp being the thing that got me to wake up

crystal empire kinda came out of nowhere but i LOOOOVE the magic implications. i wish they did more with sombra because he seems so interesting as a villain. also i remember being very proud of remembering that the square root of 546 is 23.36664289109

too many pinkie pies; i remember watching this episode the day it aired (it was a reupload on youtube) and my sister and i watched it on our old dinosaur computer, loaded up with good ol' windows 7 and internet explorer

magical mystery cure. i also remember watching this one specifically, sitting in my old bunk bed watching it on my pink disney princess tiara tv and crying at twilight becoming an alicorn because i was so very proud of her (and thought the show was ending)

the season 4 opening, very obviously a huge upgrade in animation. i remember watching leaks of luna's transformation into nightmare moon from a convention and being so excited to see it! im just a big fan of history in shows like this. it gives the world such depth

bats. bats. bats. freaked me the heck out

pinkie's pride because i knew weird al before he showed up on mlp (and always flexed it to my friends in elementary school lol) ALSO i really liked pinkie's lament in it

from whom the sweetie belle toils. ah, siblings. my sister and i never had THESE kinds of issues but i always relate to their sisterly dynamic the most

testing testing 123. probably one of my favorite episodes to rewatch. dash is just neurodivergent!!! it also helped me when i was transitioning from elementary school to junior high (i went to that 6 year college prep school) and the learning curve of "not being as gifted anymore." i still struggle with studying and have not found any great learning methods! well, aside from pretending to be interested, for some reason.

twilight's kingdom. first luna song, AND a laser battle, AND super powerful twilight??? it was pretty awesome. i still want the library back tho pl0x thanks

the cutie map. communism, ok thx byeee. also one of the first villains to be a where's waldo! its fun to look back and spot her and know it WASNT a lazy animators choice

do princesses dream of magic sheep becaues it discusses self harm???? to a target audience of young girls entering a period in their lives where self harm is pretty prominent? man.

rarity investigate is a very fun episode. man i like rarity a lot

scare master validating my fears and acknowledging fluttershy's anxiety around the holiday!! it did a decent job at communicating that what may seem trivial to some is a very real issue for others. i love love love how fluttershy is treated in this episode; her boundaries are validated and accommodated for. (i dont like that sometimes they portrayed her as a party pooper. however! this is a very real feeling some people have! and i think it would be worse not to include a little bit of tension surrounding it)

a hearth's warming tale stuck with me well and good since im a huge christmas buff. also, more luna songs. luna songs were always huge in the fandom

all bottled up! starlight glimmer, my beloved. bottling up feelings is a pretty real thing for me, and instead of disregarding my emotions, it taught me that its healthy to vent in a consensual environment and tell people they're bugging you if they are.

parental glideance. actually, any episode introducing parents. omg, theyre (mostly) not orphans!

a royal problem. daybreaker is cool and awesome, and the lroe behind what she COULDVE been is amazing, but i miss the days of nightmare star

THE PERFECT PEAR. WAHHHHHH

once upon a zepplin was so real for me. confounded people pleasing leading to you having an awful time and missing out on everything.

sounds of silence, because kirins are so cool and they were a very cool thought but i would like to see them speak more than in one episode please thanks

the beginning of the end p2 with twilight's super awesome speech while fighting sombra. man shes so cool. the hair flip animation was cool. twilight is so cool.

she talks to angel, because ive always very badly wanted to know what the heck is going on in that little bunny's mind. and it was hilarious

AND NOW, A LOVELY COMPILATION OF EVERY EPISODE THAT HAS MADE ME CRY AT LEAST ONCE (the anecdotes of a massive crybaby) ~

Hurricane Fluttershy, S2

A Canterlot Wedding Part 2, S2

The Crystal Empire Part 2, S3

Sleepless in Ponyville, S3

Magical Mystery Cure, S3

Princess Twilight Sparkle Part 2, S4

Pinkie's Pride, S4

Filli Vanilli, S4

From Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils, S4

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3, S4

Twilight's Kingdom Part 1, S4

Twilight's Kingdom Part 2, S4

Amending Fences, S5

Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?, S5

The Cutie Re-Mark Part 2, S5

Celestial Advice, S7

The Perfect Pear, S7

Once Upon a Zepplin, S7

The Beginning of the End Part 2, S9

Sparkle's Seven, S9

The Last Laugh, S9

The Last Crusade, S9

The Big Mac Question, S9

The Ending of the End Part 1, S9

The Ending of the End Part 2, S9

The Last Problem, S9

if i gave a tally of how many times certain episodes made me cry we would be here all day

#doe's rambles #answered #briarborealisart #ask blog #ask doeblossom

20 notes · View notes

eldritch-elrics · 4 years ago

Text

i rewatched the entire ice age series and i have opinions

after rewatching some of the madagascar movies, me and @calocybe decided to embark on a quest to watch more animated series from our childhood. an obvious choice was ice age! so, i present to you: finn’s comprehensive ice age opinions masterpost.

read on for an in-depth review of each movie, my opinions on what the series does well (good animation, really fun chase scenes) and what it does not so well (manny is an awful protagonist), and some other things too (like my analysis of queerness in ice age)

first of all, a ranking of the five movies from best to worst:

ice age

dawn of the dinosaurs

collision course

the meltdown

continental drift

first movie

definitely the best

accidental baby acquisition…

it’s just a really good premise. three bros with completely different personalities are forced to work together towards a common goal that doesn’t even benefit any of them personally!

it’s silly and charming and well-written

diego’s arc is especially well-done and it’s easy to follow the way his personality and opinions change

my theory is that they made this movie because they wanted to show off how good they were at animating ice. most of the models and stuff are not very realistically rendered but the ice is honestly pretty impressive

honestly hilarious, has really good visual gags

one of my favorite parts is where they go into the ice cave and find like the ufo and stuff

also the baby does the vulcan hand sign at the ufo which was so subtle and REALLY funny

the ice slide scene. incredible

and then it transitions to the cave painting part with a fantastic depiction of manny’s backstory in a way that’s honestly heart-wrenching??

i wonder if the death of his own family is the cause of his annoying clinginess in later movies, especially with regards to peaches. unfortunately this never comes up again

there are some genuinely emotionally affecting moments in this movie, especially with the humans (when the human woman gives away her baby, when they return the baby to the group) - plus, kudos for conveying all that emotion with no dialogue

this is the only movie where manny’s emotional stuntedness is actually somewhat endearing rather than aggravating

this is also the movie with the most interesting villains - they feel like an especially relevant threat to the protags, and putting diego in with manny and sid creates both good tension and good humor

i wonder why the humans never came back. i think subsequent movies could have benefited from their presence, though i have no idea in what ways. not sure how they would’ve pulled it off but having the baby they rescued in the first movie appear as an adult in a later movie is a plot point that i think would have had the potential to be really powerful

second movie (the meltdown)

pretty underwhelming after the first movie

plot feels disjointed and the climax is weak

i feel like they were trying to go for this sort of found family vs nuclear family / reproductive futurism bent but didn’t entirely succeed and instead made the themes feel muddled. especially after the first movie which was all about rejecting heteronormative standards of family, having manny suddenly go “oop i’m the last mammoth better Reproduce” was a bit jarring

even if he isn’t actually the last mammoth, it feels like the wrong way to start a romance

in general the romance between ellie and manny isn’t very well-done in my opinion.

manny should’ve apologized for getting so offended when ellie freaked out about the pressure to save their species, but instead ellie apologized for “overreacting” for some reason???

number of biblical parallels: a surprising amount??

you’ve got. sid as a jesus figure to the sloth tribe, the ark saving them from the flood, scrat as moses??

the villains in this one were super boring they were just like… evil fish…

ok i’ve said too many mean things about this movie. to atone let me present this opinion: the scene where the vultures sing a parody of “food, glorious food” from oliver completely unprompted is one of the best moments in the series

also the possum brothers are wonderful

third movie (dawn of the dinosaurs)

this was my favorite as a kid!!

it’s still really good

it doesn’t take itself seriously and that’s wonderful. like… dinosaurs? in the ice age? objectively stupid plot. who cares

buck is the best character ever he’s so much fun

buck’s entire thing is also being a VERY cliche kooky adventurer but the way that they play with it and are self-aware about it makes it good

also i legitimately get chills at the scene where he explains his tragic backstory with rudy

god the romance with the female scrat is SO stupid but at least they’re clearly making fun of romantic tropes here

good team-building shenanigans, like the laughing gas sequence

there’s probably something to be said about the ways that family is portrayed in this movie but sorry i’m too busy looking at the scene where they get swallowed by a giant plant and buck has to like cut its veins like he’s diffusing a bomb

also i do need to mention that the scene where they find the carnage of sid’s attempt at feeding vegetables to the dino babies and buck goes off on his whole silly detective-shtick about what must’ve happened (“leaving broccoli… a vegetable!!!”) was my favorite scene in the series as a kid. it’s so wonderfully absurd!

there are a surprising amount of dick jokes in this movie? and by that i mean like 2 but. it’s really funny rewatching this and going “holy shit”

there’s also a joke about a butterfly dude that i’m pretty sure is a trans joke (“i knew that guy as a caterpillar! yknow, before he came out”) so that was also pretty funny

this movie parallels the first 2 by 1. having sid take care of kids and 2. having a group of creatures who copy all of sid’s wacky movements. i don’t have anything more to say i just think that’s funny

buck and rudy are kismeses send tweet

fourth movie (continental drift)

yeah okay this one’s the worst

it takes itself too seriously and that is its downfall

feels tonally off from the other ones

i saw this movie during the height of my hyperfixation on plate tectonics and i remember being very offended at the fact that they made such a mockery of the way it actually worked… :pensive:

(granted, poorly-done science is a cornerstone of ice age, so i can’t really say shit)

anyway this one really felt like a jumble of cliches. the enemies-to-lovers thing with diego! peaches’ teenager problems! manny’s troubles of raising a teenager! all the mean girls! evil pirates! sirens! woooo!

it just didn’t feel all that original and it didn’t play with the tropes like 3 did

what is it in this series with guys not apologizing for their sexism and then getting the girl anyway

also wow. damsels in distress much

sheera’s design is also such a generic “female animal” look

the ape dude was a boring villain and too much of the movie focused on the pirates

okay BUT the sea shanty scene slapped. had some good rhythm and clever lyrics

lewis was good and i’m glad he stayed friends with peaches

the water was well-animated! maybe they made this movie so they could show off how good they were at rendering water

the chipmunk creatures on the island are like knockoff minions/ewoks

in general this movie felt way less funny than the others. less punchy dialogue

fifth movie (collision course)

solidly in the middle of my movie ranking. not as good as 1 or 3, better than 2 and 4

this was my first time seeing this movie! which means that my view of it isn’t colored by nostalgia, and also that i have a lot more to say about it i guess

first of all it’s wild to see how much the animation has progressed… this one was so well-rendered wow

i liked this one a lot more than i expected to! it was a good time, and, like 3, didn’t take itself seriously, which is always great

the whole thing is built off a lot of bullshit science which offends my inner scifi nerd BUT i think they pulled it off quite well

the fact that they got neil degrasse tyson to do voiceovers is just so funny

they’ve firmly established by now that the ice age universe can fully ignore the laws of science when it wants to, especially with regards to scrat and his butterfly-effect influence on the world

okay buckle up because i have a lot to say about scrat actually.

scrat’s ability to influence the universe has been steadily increasing as the series goes on, so it made sense that he would be the catalyst for the apocalypse in this one

and also the catalyst for the creation of the solar system i guess?? which was very stupid. i say that in an endearing way. that beginning scene was super fun & wacky

absolutely brilliant way to bring the ufo from movie 1 back btw

ok so the prophecy tablet thing that buck brings back? he finds it by pressing a button with the outline of an acorn on it and that’s very interesting to me

at that point in the movie i was really invested because i thought that scrat and the protagonists were finally going to be forced to confront each other on the same level. the idea that ice age might finally break its unwritten rule of “the protags can never know scrat as the force of global change that he really is” was legitimately exciting to me, and it seemed appropriate for the last movie in the franchise

unfortunately this did not happen. scrat just keeps doing his silly scrat shenanigans

um anyway let’s talk about some of the other characters!

manny continues to suck. more on this in the “low points as a franchise” section

peaches was actually really good in this one! she’s grown out of her “teenage stereotype” phase and into a character with a believable narrative about growing up and moving out.

her boyfriend is adorable and i was surprised to discover i actually liked their relationship!

sid did not need to be paired off though. neither did diego. what is up with kids’ movies and their shallow heterosexual romances

buck is back and he is fruitier than ever

man i really like buck. he’s so silly and irreverent and flamboyant and it’s like kind of embarrassing to watch sometimes but it’s ok he’s just doing his own thing

the villains were pretty good in this one. i liked how the female dino didn’t have a stereotypically feminine design

on an entirely different topic: let’s talk about the aesthetic direction!

the scifi thing was super fun. like, absolutely wild for a series about the ice age, but whatever. i like scifi

like the whole superpower magnetism shit, especially the scene in the forest? great! especially reminiscent of the climax of the guardians of ga’hoole movie

however the whole dive into the crystal cave environment was a lil tonally dissonant and i think it should have been cut (introduced an entire new world/characters way too late in the plot and didn’t have time to develop them enough, went too far down the rabbit hole of magic healing crystals jokes and all that stuff which didn’t seem to relate to the rest of the story at all, introduced a fun but unnecessary girlfriend for sid, the time could have been better spent making fun of more scifi tropes and developing the villains)

brooke the sloth girl is just miranda from the tempest change my mind also that climax is on a similar level of stupid as that one episode from hoshi no kaabii where they deflect an an entire asteroid using uhhhh cannons i think

but it’s like. whatever. they’ve fucked around with science enough that they deserve this

also i just realized there were no chase scenes in this movie which is so sad??

so there are my thoughts on the individual movies. let’s talk about it as a whole!

high points as a franchise

this series consistently has VERY good chase scenes

just top-tier chase scenes with excellent comedic timing and general pacing

3 is so good because it has a chase as the climax, and that’s what ice age is good at

4 is bad because it doesn’t have a proper chase anywhere!

the animation is really good. by that i mean less like the models are realistic and more that they’re great at conveying emotion and body language through animation

like this is especially true in 1 if you look at the difference between the sort of smooth, not very realistic animation of the humans vs… scrat

like they’ve got the way scrat moves down so well it’s delightful

the movies are, generally, funny

there are good messages about found family, especially in the first couple

low points as a franchise

alright i had a bunch of these written out as universal truths about the series and then 5 actually improved on many of them! so here are some criticisms that apply to the first four movies only:

just… every single female character? they deserve better

too many damsels in distress

all the fat jokes about manny are so unnecessary

the romances are really boring and not very well-written or believable

okay with those out of the way here’s the real biggest issue with the series: manny is an awful protagonist

heterosexual “no fun allowed” man

they keep him sucky so he can have a fresh new character flaw to be worked on in the next movie but that seems like a bad formula for character development, especially how many of his character flaws seem to be related to mistreating the women in his life

the man’s got a major possessiveness issue

he is just the archetypical slightly shitty husband/dad who forgets the anniversary and doesn’t let his daughter see boys and calls women hysterical and yes he does get better at each of the individual problems and he does love his family but that development feels so shallow!

manny is absolutely making AITA posts and getting labeled the asshole

it also feels like he never truly learns from his mistakes. he needs to be learning to apologize properly and most importantly to communicate properly! there’s so little emotional reality to his development and the script always seems to give him the benefit of the doubt when he doesn’t deserve it.

plus, this series is meant for kids and i just don’t think manny is an appropriate or relatable protagonist for that audience?

on a mostly unrelated note, yes i do like the found family themes but when it starts pairing up every single character and implying that all of them are gonna be monogamous het couples and have kids and conform to the nuclear family model. that’s pretty sad

some more random thoughts

my dad once said that ice age fails as a franchise because the premise of the first movie was not strong enough to support sequels. i think i kind of agree - you can see in 2 they’re trying to worldbuild off what little they established in the first movie, and also set up a bigger cast of characters, while still keeping up the “man vs nature” theme that’s such a cornerstone of the series.

i’m not sure they completely succeed. the worldbuilding of ice age isn’t necessarily weak but i do think they could have done more to round out the world and make it feel less like just a prehistoric clone of ours

there’s something about the first movie that makes it feel like a moment suspended in time. we don’t learn very much about the pasts of the characters and they get enough development in one movie that we (or at least i) don’t feel any desperate need to know their futures. it feels complete!

so in all the other movies are working with a set of characters who have ostensibly completed their development. so in each new movie, they need to give the characters more problems. usually this comes from external factors, like new characters. a couple times they do a pretty good job introducing new internal problems for the characters - diego’s quest to get over his fear of water was a pretty good one i thought.

but after a while the main trio just stagnates. diego, once the most compelling character, becomes pretty boring. he doesn’t have anything to do anymore. i’ve already talked about manny - each movie he reverts back into an asshole and it gets old so fast. sid’s a little better; he’s got issues with his family and a desire for a family of his own and all that, but more often than not the conclusions to his arcs are unsatisfying

sid plays the role of the character who’s doomed to never get exactly what he wants, except, like, in a way that’s supposed to be funny. we pity him!

i think he has some archetype parallels with escargon from hoshi no kaabii (why do i keep mentioning hoshi no kaabii) but i am not going into that here oh boy

i feel like i’m juggling a lot in my head right now, but sid’s position as the comedic scapegoat is interesting. i’m sure there’s more to unpack here but i’ve already gone way too deep into this series

there’s also more to unpack when you consider his queercoding hmm

anyway, on that note…

additional thesis: sid the sloth is queer-coded

complicated relationship with family (they hate him and think he’s useless)

lispy voice

cares about “fem” things like children. takes care of kids in both movies 1 and 3. calls himself “mama”

gets pushed into the role of caring for the kid in 1

makes vaguely gay comments at his male friends, like “you have beautiful eyes” to manny

there are literally so many jokes in the first movie like. diego’s “you guys are an odd couple” to manny and sid

that whole part in 4 where he’s trying to kiss the sirens and kisses diego instead and is like “wow romantic”

not interested in the idea of a nuclear/traditional family. see his shenanigans with the dino babies

he is interested in women throughout the series though (bi rights)

5 especially tunes down the queercoding and tunes up the “awkward guy who can’t get girls” angle

so. ice age. is it fun? yes! i definitely enjoyed rewatching the series with my friend. and kids will probably get a kick out of the slapstick and silly dialogue. but if you’re not a kid and looking to (re)watch any of them, i’d probably just stick to the first one.

#ice age #movies #analysis #my post #long post #please clap this is 3k words #i sure do love overanalyzing media that isn't that deep LMAO

25 notes · View notes

diamondzart · 2 years ago

Text

Yes I am slow af, sorry for that, but I remember that you tagged me!!! I think I’ll tag @annchanorsomethin OwO

Here go my bois (under the cut!)

First fictional crush (you can remember)

I think the very first one I really had a crush on was Bill from Gravity Falls. And I honestly think he was the first f/o for A LOT of people, lol. I liked his canon form, but of course the main interest was in his humanization, because, bruh, look at this ultra-edgy yellow skinny demon bastard, look at him! (Fandom totally yassified him, not gonna lie)

Most recent fictional crush

Maybe this is funny as hell, but in the list of all my crushes I have only two demons, and while one of them is my first crush, the other one is my most recent. Yes, this is the trash man himself, the ghost with the most, Beetlejuice! More precisely, musical a.k.a. Alex Brightman’s version of him. But I like the cartoon one too, though musical one is my absolute favorite (movie BJ is just a “no” to me, even though he is the original source of all other iterations). He is chubby, he is soft, he is an absolute striped disaster that smells like a pile of garbage and I absolutely love him.

Weirdest fictional crush

I really struggled with this one because I can’t really call him the weirdest, but… in 2014 I suddenly became a Sonic fan and I can’t even remember how it happened. That was fast, that was unexpected, and I literally devoured all seasons of “Sonic X” in two weeks or something. And I drew him everywhere. And I read weird uncanny fanfiction, upon remembering which I start cringing uncontrollably. Though I had my comeback to the Sonic fandom in early 2020 when the movie came out, there was no place for the fictional crush since he was portrayed as a kid, and I only wanted to treat him like a kid he is – lost, abandoned, seeking for love and attention and a family. So no f/o here anymore, just a lil baby hedgehog that needs a big hug.

Fictional crush you've had the longest

Oooh, this one will definitely be the robot orb, personality core named Wheatley from the game Portal 2. To be honest, he is still in my heart, even though I stopped making any content about him. Have hyperfixation on this guy since 2020. There is a high chance of me returning to my obsession with this small chatty moron who also has pretty cool human/android fan versions based on the appearance of his VA Stephen Merchant (and I had a crush on Stephen because of that of course). And a big role in my endless love and adoration for this character was played by the “Blue Sky” fanfic. I don’t even know if I can call this masterpiece a fanfic, I’d like to call it as a “fan book that can totally work as Portal 3 for me”. This fic has like its own fandom inside Portal 2 fandom. This is a wonderful unique phenomenon. It was written in 2011-2012 but it STILL has an active fanbase. At this point I can say that Portal’s fandom and Wheatley simp club are basically immortal things, especially on Tumblr.

Most obscure fictional crush + Most unexpected fictional crush

I simply couldn’t separate these two paragraphs because this is the literal definition of my crush on… younger version of doctor Nefario from “Minions: The Rise of Gru”. I said earlier that Bill Cipher got yassified my his fans, this lad got yassified by his own creators and I’m here for it. Who could. Even. Freaking. Imagine. That that ancient dinosaur that was working for Gru in “Despicable Me” movies was actually a hot stuff back in 70s? Give me the darn time machine, off I go. He had it all: fashion sense, cool hairstyle (ginger and with sideburns, are you kidding me, like, this is hot af), lively an enthusiastic character and SMUG SMILES. In two words, he got the drip. Sadly, he lost the drip to 2000s ;( I hope with all my heart that he’ll have a main character arc in the third “Minions” instalment if it will ever come out. Because he deserves it. After all those years.

Starting a F/O chain bc bored. you dont have to be tagged to make an addition!

@starleska @monsterbride99

In this order:

First fictional crush (you can remember)

Most recent fictional crush

Weirdest fictional crush

Fictional crush you've had the longest

Most obscure Fictional crush

Most unexpected fictional crush

Mine below cut!

1. Bowser is the first one I can remember. Dont ask why I was like, six

2. Inspector Gadget my most recent, and such a dork i love him

3. Phantom virus he's so babygirl

4. Rowan North since 2016 and going strong B)

5. Dr. Nazo I'll eat a boot if you know who this is without googling it

6. Fear the opposite of my regular type, he may live in Riley's head but hes renting in mine

#well that was fun lol #my f/os #thanks for the tag

59 notes · View notes

daes-of-august · 6 years ago

Text

How Cairo came to be

I have a lot of thoughts on my daemon, Cairo, and his origins. Figured I’d share them here. there’s a really long explanation under the read-more

I call Cairo my “daemon” for the sake of simplicity, but I use that term a bit loosely as he doesn’t seem to fit the usual description of daemons that I have seen. For one, his form has been mostly settled for as long as I remember, and I first met(?) him when I was very young. Another thing is that he doesn’t take the form of a real animal. I’ve seen some debate as to the legitimacy of “daemons” that aren’t real animals, but I have my own thoughts on how this applies to Cairo.

For one, Cairo originated as my version of the character Guilmon from the digimon tamers series. This was back when I was still in elementary school. Aside from the name, voice, and being vaguely dinosaur-like in shape (and waving psuedo wings for ears), my Guilmon’s character didn’t resemble the cartoon character at all. I used a t-rex beanie-baby to represent him physically (I still have him) He was intelligent (though we played that down when playing pretend with others), thoughtful, and more “real” than any other stuffed animal or character I’d developed thus far. He was my confidante and friend when I felt alone, and I think he was the only one of my stuffed animals/characters (they were the same thing back then) that I actually talked to with half an expectation of receiving an answer.

Fast-forward a few years (middle school/high school). For the most part, I no longer played with stuffed animals (with a few exceptions), but Guilmon still hung around. I didn’t talk to him as much, but he was still my partner, guardian, and companion. As I started writing stories that I actually want to publish one day, I changed Guilmon’s name to Blaze, seeing as I didn’t want to get hit with a copyright infringement. From there, Blaze followed my personas and other characters into their worlds. Here, he took on a lot of roles, though they all came back around to protector, companion, guardian, confidante. He’s only really interacted with characters that were my actual self-inserts or personas, and he was always more than a character. I could never write him as just another oc; he knows too much about me, the writer, and he’s been around for longer than any of my stories.

Fast-forward again to the summer of 2018. This was the first summer I spent on my own, living away from my family situation (which is an entire other conversation). This is also about the time I realized I was having a lot of issues with depression and anxiety. As a college student, I know I wasn’t alone in these issues, and yet, I was so alone. I only had one friend and she was busy all the time (not her fault, I don’t resent her for it). I wasn’t close to most of my family and was actively avoiding the handful of family members that I was close to. During this time, Blaze came back to me. My friend, my confidante, my shelter from the biting loneliness. We only interacted within the context of “stories” (not actively talking to each other) but these stories were ones that were never written and only played out in my head. Just small scenes where he told me that I wasn’t alone, that I still had him no matter how much I or my circumstances changed.

We’ve maintained that sort of relationship up to this point. I’m not physically alone anymore (I have a lot of people I can talk to or hang out with if I want, and I have a better relationship with my family) but I still feel like everything is slipping out of my hands and I don’t know why. I finally got into my major (I’m a junior now), I have a good relationship with my family, I’m taking classes that are on subjects that I actually enjoy, I’m finally on an anti-depressant/anti-anxiety medication. And yet, a combination of poor time-management, and persistent apathy toward my existence as a whole has brought me to another low point.

At first, I wanted to create a tulpa, a concept that I’d been interested in before but then forgot about. I wanted someone that would be with me all the time and would (hopefully) help me get my life in order. However, that didn’t seem fair since I tulpa is a being with its own separate existence. I didn’t want to force an ideal onto another being and then be resented for it. It’s also not fair to the being I intended to create. And there was the fact that I already had Blaze, and creating another being with the intent to act as my guardian and companion felt incredibly wrong. However, I couldn’t turn Blaze into a tulpa. He was already too real, and I was afraid the tulpa would resent me for forcing this persona onto it. I also didn’t think I could mentally withstand the idea of Blaze becoming anything other than the friend I’d had since childhood.

Then I learned about daemons. As someone with a “Christian” upbringing (another very long story) I was hesitant to look into anything like that. However, as I understand it, daemons (not demons) are your soul personified. That “voice” in the back of your mind that tells you to sleep before 3 am, or to eat when you haven’t for an entire day, that reminder that a failed test isn’t the end of the world, that conversation you have with yourself, debating the pros and cons of staying up late to study or going to bed early right before a test. For me, I think Blaze has always been that voice.

Which brings me to his current state. I started talking to Blaze again, just like I used to when I was a child. It felt strange at first since I’m now an adult that’s essentially talking to myself. And yet, it felt like I was calling up an old friend that I’d followed online but hadn’t actually spoken to in years. We talked about the idea of him being my daemon and returning to a more prominent role in my life. It’s hard to explain his feelings on the subject, but more or less, he’s happy about the decision. (more like... happy that I’m asking for help? Even if it’s just from my own soul?)

Yesterday, we decided on another name change. “Blaze” was never meant to be anything other than an alias for him to use when I wrote about him. His name had still been Guilmon, though as I wrote more about Blaze and spoke less to Guilmon, “Blaze” became the more common way for me to think of him. We played around with some sounds and spellings (he really didn’t want a name that started with “A”) we came up with Cairo (rhymes with “arrow”. Also, I only just now realized it’s also a place in Egypt and not just a word I made up...). This is partially from my synesthesia: “A’s” are bright red, “i’s” are yellow, and “o’s” are white. This combo is bright and warm, and the word itself is short, reminding me of a candle. I’ve always associated him with fire. “Cairo” also (vaguely) resembles “Hrairoo”, which is what Hazel occasionally calls his brother, Fiver, in the netflix adaptation of Watership Down (which, if I’m right about being ADD, is my current hyperfixation) Due to this, I occasionally call Cairo “Cairoo” because I think it sounds cute.

Cairo’s form is... difficult to explain. While he has changed from what I originally envisioned him as, his form hasn’t really changed from when we were kids. He is still vaguely dinosaur shaped, still brown with rust colored markings across his nose, a pale belly, and a sort of mane that runs from his head to his tail. The only big difference now is that his wing-like ears are shaped a bit more like rabbit ears and he can run on four legs as well as two. The closest real animal I can compare him to is a hare with a square snout and dinosaur tail. We tried to get him to shift into an actual hare, but that felt very... wrong and unnatural.

I’ve heard that daemons with fantasy forms aren’t daemons because they don’t mean anything, they don’t tell you anything about yourself. I’m not sure how to feel about that, but my opinions on daemons and their forms would be another conversation entirely. If the definition of a “daemon” truly excludes those with unnatural forms, then I am fine to say that Cairo is not a true daemon. Either way, those are just words to us. He is my friend, my companion, and my guardian. That has been true from the beginning, and I am beginning to believe it will be true to the end.

#august talks #daemon stuff #about cairo

0 notes