#unrealized-potential

[quotelr]

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things..

Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience and Other Essays

[halfhoursonearth-writes]

I try not to read anti-Zutara takes because like, help, I'm literally here to escape the dark divisive real world. But one point that I see over and over is that there's no time between when Katara forgives Zuko and the end of the series for the dynamic to shift between them.

I always found this kind of a surprising argument (leaving aside all the narrative and thematic groundwork already laid between these two characters, and also the in-show precedent for compressed romantic timelines like Sokka and Yue) because of the Ember Island of it all.

Between the scene where Katara forgives Zuko and the scene when he jumps in front of lightning to save her (both romance-coded visuals), they're living for weeks as unsupervised teenagers in beautiful beach house, emotions running higher than ever as they face down the end of the world as they know it, in a location the story has already told us "has a special way of smoothing even the most ragged edges."

It's kind of hard to imagine a setting or situation with more romantic potential. Except maybe the moment after Katara saves Zuko after he risked his life to save her.

I'm not saying the show cashed in on that potential, obviously. I just mean that one scene with the two of them having a heart-to-heart on the beach late at night or flirting in the surf would have been pretty much all it took.

[metropolitankei]

[You look at your reflection in the Clocktower's mirror. You don't know how much longer you can handle these loops. How much longer until you won't even recognize your own face?]

[basketcat]

finally some good news

[soaqrudyz]

soap who continuously ignores any medical professional’s warnings that the next concussion he gets could cause serious damage until ghost brings up one of their more recent inside jokes and he can’t remember why it was supposed to be funny

[starryluminary]

I think there’s something to be said about how Sierra in world tour has the living breathing Cody at her fingertips, but still manages to ignore him at points where she has a fake version of him. Like the Meat Cody in the alps or the guard in London with a paper mask of Cody’s face.

She literally throws the living breathing Cody to the side and runs to the guard with the mask on. I can’t tell you *exactly* what should be said about that but I know there’s something there to think about

[riondisease]

shitty aspd moodboard

[nonbinaryned]

thinking about how messed up it would be to be nightmare ned in the wreck it ralph universe. like to not only be lost in an endless nightmare dimension designed to torture you specifically but for your amount of suffering to be directly linked to the whims of whoever’s piloting you around…. which, given that the game was aimed at an audience of mostly children, the skill level of the average nightmare ned player in 1997 definitely would’ve left something to be desired

i feel like most neds would either go turbo or get so used to it that it’d just become like. a really crummy job. ned gets tied to the high speed gurney in the evil hospital level and thinks ‘oh boy i wonder how many organs im gonna lose this time. jimmy i swear if you dont press W within the next two seconds im softlocking both of us’

[veggiesaur]

You know what would be funny?

A movie where instead of a neurotypical family trying to figure out how to deal with an autistic kid, a family consisting of entirely autistic/neurodivergant people trying to figure out what to do with a neurotypical kid.

[howlsofbloodhounds]

i think it’d be interesting to explore the effects having his wounds and scars repeatedly erased with resets effect killer. Easy to dismiss what happened or is happening as not real if there’s no proof

[softantlers]

hiya! i know that you're a lottienat enthusiast, but i was wondering if you had any headcanons n' thoughts about tailot? i absolutely love their potential. i think it was really neat in season 1 when tai was trying to be gentle with lottie (when they first discovered the cabin) and switched to a tougher approach when it wasn't working... i think she knows how lottie's brains works. perhaps!

hey! honestly, i'm kind of obsessed with tailot. i am not quite sure if i ship them romantically just because i am so invested in lottienat and taivan but i see the romantic possibility of them, even though they don't get a lot of time together on screen. (especially not past season 1, which is a fucking bummer.)

i might grind some gears here in saying that i actually think tai would have been a better partner to lottie's descent into the wilderness this season than either akilah or shauna. not that what we got wasn't good, but let's take akilah for example. lottie is pushing her toward cave huffing, having visions, all that jazz. when i sub in tai for this, it becomes more of a mutually manipulative affair that rides the line on "who" is at fault in a more satisfying way imo--like it is so fucking tasty. because we know that lottie's prayer circles somehow gave tai the tools to beat other tai into remission. at the same time, we also know that s3 tai (as little screentime as she gets) is interested in better understanding other tai and how she operates.

so imagine lottie and tai working together to try and "control" other tai, pushing each other's boundaries as they take on more and more dangerous risks to bring her out. on the one hand, lottie sees this as a pathway to the wilderness; on the other, tai is exploiting lottie's connection & maybe she starts using other tai to weather horrors she wouldn't want to stomach on her own (like trying to sub her in for the ben execution). maybe all of this could focus around taissa's desire to understand what the fuck is going on with the no eye man and her connection to the symbol (both themes that kinda disappeared this season??? an ice cream commerical?? -takes a smoke-) and we could get lottie acquainted with these concepts and see how they factor into her own understanding of the wilderness too.

also, because other tai is such a source of tension in taivan's dynamic, this could bring up some really fucky feelings, where lottie becomes an intrusion on the relationship & its stability that would better foreshadow taissa's choice to stay behind than i think was already done? like, somehow tai--rational fucking tai!!--is bought into staying behind and participating in the hunt by the end of s3?? "it doesn't feel right"--i just feel like a better established connection with lottie would more believably bring her to that position.

also, going back to the shauna of it all. yes, yes, i know she's a baddie with no conscience this season. she's the pinnacle of "it" and all that. but like... i really think that her prioritization diminishes the possibility of other tai??? and more importantly, what other tai could mean for lottie??? (lottie has TWO HANDS.)

like what's more "it" and the wilderness than sneaking around at night, sniffing the trees, and eating handfuls of dirt???? like, other tai is fucking unhinged, animalistic--clearly brutal in her desires. she wants to consume, consume, consume--even to the point of biting van's lip in the kiss and drawing blood. eating jackie's fucking face??? to me, that could have been so reflective of the wilderness, and we could have had lottie "mad scientist" matthews wanting to fuck with the tiger, get her out of the cage, and see how she plays with everyone dkjfasljfdsfj. like oh my fucking god, think about them pumping each other up and howling at the fucking moon, my deranged shaylas <333 dskjfslafjk

also, imagine this-- lottie being the one whose prayer circles give tai the ability to subdue other tai; lottie whose encouragement gives her the ability to lean into other tai, to feel her out and exist as her and explore her. and then in the adult timeline when lottie dies? that being the prelude to taissa losing all control over other tai and being overcome??? i mean, it would have been a really fucking cool show of hand across timelines that would have slapped.

also, i just like the idea of this relationship foreshadowing an adult relationship that is seriously so soft. because taissa and lottie might come to understand they're sides of the same coin--women at war with their own minds and desires. i would have loved to see some vulnerability between them during s2, if we had thought they'd actually been given the chance to develop a relationship. like can you envision the softness of taissa explaining to lottie what has happened with simone and sammy and lottie bringing tai--strong tai, her warrior out in the wilderness--into a sweet, loving hug??? because she is intimately aware of what it's like to ruin things??? like oh my god, makes me GNAW MY FIST.

and fuck that's not even getting into what i imagine their soccer dynamic was, which i've written about here.

[bastard-coatedbastards]

"I knew a ''''system'''' who said *insert fairly common innerworld experience for DID patients especially polyfrag presentations*"

"OMG THAT'S SO CRAZY WHY DO THEY FAKE FOR ATTENTION???"

[metropolitankei]

Distorted houses and empty corridors no longer frighten us because there are no feelings of anxiety in a dream

[s1x-foot-deep]

kinito doodles i did tha other day or smthn . gave him a body in 1 of them sory

[ellipse-society]

This form of syscourse will end. Relatively soon.

Its days are numbered. In the triple digits.

I'm curious how you know and when or what will change then?/gen

This ask intrigues me.

[spiderman2099sleftnipplepiercing]

Dropping snippets of SpidermanAU! because I can…. Yes, I reuse poses sue me. Pose thief here 🫣

From Earth 1985

Johnny Lawrence is the Valley's one and only Spiderman. (I know it's cringe okay, but couldn't decide between Encino or Reseda.)

His biological Father split, but he continues to live with his Mother and ass hat step-dad.

Kreese is the one who gets shot when Johnny storms out the Cobra Kai dojo one night. (Uncle Ben styled canon event)

His boyfriend Daniel Larusso, whom he failed to save when he was thrown from the clock tower. By none other, then his ex-best friend, turned green goblin Tommy. (Cry about it- Gwen Stacy who?)

These are just notes. Please hath mercy.

(Waiting for YA'LL to say NO MERCY.)