#which is great for complexity

[silver-horse]

this is why George R.R. Martin can't finish A Song of Ice and Fire

What they don't tell you about writing is that as you write, you discover scenes and entire plots that you hadn't accounted for that need to be written. So you can spend two hours writing and editing only to realise you're further away from the finish line than you thought you were when you started

[sparrowlucero]

Hello sorry I am being shy and anon but do you have any advice for someone who wants to get into Doctor Who again after briefly dabbling (and enjoying it very much) in like the early, early 2010s? I know this is mostly your art blog but you were the only person I could think of to ask you're like the Doctor Who authority of blogs I follow

Oh yeah of course! People can be really confusing about this so I'll try not to be.

So first, the majority of doctor who episodes are self contained stories that you could just watch and understand perfectly without any further context. even when there is some overarching context it's usually written in a way that's either pretty easy to glean and/or just doesn't impact your understanding of the story. 99% of the episodes don't even care if you know the premise and are just like "what if some people were on a spaceship and the devil was there? wouldn't that be fucked up or what??". Don't feel like you have to binge a 60 years long show to watch it. Some standalone episodes I think are fun if you (or anyone else) just want to check out one or two:

The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances (A supposed-to-be-dead boy in a gas mask haunts a young woman in world war 2)

Blink (A woman gets wrapped up in a mystery involving statues that make people disappear. This one is especially good if you flat out know nothing about the show. Has some really great time travel stuff.)

A Christmas Carol (A christmas carol pastiche (of course) where the doctor tries to rewrite the past of a cruel man who's going to let a lot of people die. very sad and sweet. I love the "wintery planet with sky fish" setting of this one)

Vincent and the Doctor (The famous Vincent Van Gogh Episode™)

The Rings of Akhatan (A pretty lowkey little adventure story about an alien festival. has supreme autumn vibes)

Flatline (A species from a 2 dimensional world tries to break into our 3 dimensional one. really fun special effects)

Midnight (A tour bus breaks down on a diamond planet where nothing can survive. Something knocks at the door.)

Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead (The Doctor and friend go to a library that covers an entire planet and finds that everyone has disappeared. Has a lot of really great, interesting concepts baked into it that I won't spoil)

It Takes You Away (A girl is left alone in a cabin in the woods when her dad disappears through the mirror. Has a famously goofy ending that I really love)

73 Yards (A character is steps on a fairy circle and is followed by an old woman who always stands exactly 73 yards away)

The Devil's Chord (This doesn't really have, you know, a plot, but it does have jinkx monsoon as an evil music god)

Boom (The doctor steps on a landmine on an alien planet and cannot move)

Wild Blue Yonder (A two hander where the Doctor and co are trapped on a dilapidated spaceship at the edge of the universe. really atmospheric with some fun/strange visuals.)

That being said, it does add a lot to watch it in order; there's a lot of plot twists, character dynamics, and general payoff you get if you marathon it. I would personally recommend starting with either the first episode of the 2005 show ("Rose") or the first episode of the 2010 season ("The Eleventh Hour") and just watching in order from there. I think you could also start with "The Snowmen", "The Pilot", or "The Woman Who Fell To Earth" if you wanted, but the first two (especially rose) are the better jumping on points.

some other little notes of advice I don't often see people mention:

it's stupid sometimes just roll with it

once in a while the show sort of "reboots" with different writers, actors, directors, and a new tone. it's much more like watching several small shows than one long show, so don't be too put off by the length!

IMPORTANT: pretty much all streaming services will separate holiday/anniversary specials from the show proper and you have to deliberately search them up on the same service to find them. It's really necessary to be aware of this because many of these specials are the first or last episodes for characters/whole eras of the show and are genuinely unskippable. I strongly recommend looking up a list of the episodes and checking it after finales just to make sure you don't skip anything on accident.

there's two spin offs (Torchwood, a more adult (read: gay sex) show about a mysterious agency that solves sci fi crimes, and the Sarah Jane Adventures, a pretty good monster of the week kids show) that ran concurrently with season 1-4. You don't have to watch them to understand anything happening in doctor who, but sometimes they cross over with the show in fun ways, Ex. the first season finale of Torchwood continues directly into season 3 of Doctor Who. My friend and I got a kick out of watching them at the same time so maybe you will too. (either way I recommend watching "Children of Earth", the torchwood miniseries, if you want to see a weird dark sci fi show about the government making contact with aliens. It's a bit like arrival (2016) if it was way nastier.)

alternatively, you can inject fast acting brain poison into yourself with this

anyways I hope this all reads as, you know, more approachable than the way dudes on quora recommend this show:

[bogkeep]

my friends: no you really read as A Guy imo

my cousin's 5 year old daughter right after meeting me: mommy, how can a girl have a girl have a beard??

[cripplepunkbarbarian]

I am so glad that the kid spectrals have such normal and caring spirits who will definitely not physically endanger and/or cruelly betray them in the midst of their lives already being destroyed by cults, monsters, and interpersonal drama. It’s so cool and nice 👍

[heyclickadee]

Crosshair is fun because, on the one hand, in some ways, he’s probably the smartest member of clone force 99. And in some other ways he’s so, so dumb. Head so full of math, angles, and weaponry that there was no room left for things like how to make life choices or why inviting your family to the apocalypse to sell them on joining your evil empire is a bad idea.

[breesperez139]

Dc x Dp Prompt #5

Demon Twin AU only Damian never had a blood son phase and has “biological siblings” (how absurd):

Damian would like to start by saying he is not at fault for this… miscommunication. Truly, how was he to know sharing the same blood as Jasmine and Danyal would make them “siblings”? Not once has anyone mentioned such absurd claims. He has never and will never treat either of the two the way he would Richard or any of his other siblings, but apparently sharing the same donors when being created automatically makes people siblings.

Worse, father is upset at him and mother for “hiding away” two of his “children” from him. Richard and Thomas will not stop staring at him. Todd, Brown, and Drake will not stop laughing. Cassandra has not stopped looking at his body language since this whole encounter started. Alfred is giving him his patented disappointed face he oh so hates but what is he to do?

Damian was not hiding anything or anyone. Jasmine and Danyal have not nor will they ever be his siblings. They are the children of Jack and Maddie Fenton just as Richard and the rest of them are Bruce’s children. Blood has nothing to do with family. They are at best “god-siblings” or “cousins” if father refuses to believe they are simply childhood companions.

There is barely a hint of emotion as father purses his lips while his siblings continue looking on at him in disbelief. Damian is not understanding why they are having trouble comprehending such simple logic. It is common sense to know that siblings are the children at least one of your parents have raised other than yourself. Parents are the people who raise you. Talia raised him therefore she is his mother. He lives with Bruce who is now raising him and therefore he is his father.

Neither Talia nor Bruce raised Jasmine or Danyal, therefore they are not siblings. It is merely coincidence that he shared blood with both Bruce and Talia. After all, every time he’s visited Amity Park, most children look nothing like their parents. How can it not be coincidence when it is clearly far more normal to raise children who don’t share an ounce of blood with you, than those who do.

How can it not be normal when Jack Fenton took Jasmine in so easily knowing he didn’t share any dna with her? Even more so with Danyal who doesn’t share even a drop of blood with either Jack or Maddie. Look at yourself father. Out of all your children, only one shares your dna. Do not try and pin this on Damian for being the only sensible person in this family. Blood siblings, ha, don’t make him laugh.

[rexonalapis]

it is very telling that average genshin players cannot comprehend seeing an actual mature, qualified leader that is actually good at taking her job seriously after meeting archons who either is still childish, clowning whimsically, or straight up incompetent.

[shannonsketches]

Why is the anime so weird, it's not even the same series dude?? It's like,

Anime:

GOKU: I have a great idea to bring peace to the universe, and my leadership and compassion alone will unite us all. I have No Flaws and am A True Relatable Everyman :)

VEGETA: NO! I AM THE BEST AND I WILL CAUSE PROBLEMS UNTIL I AM RECOGNIZED AS SUCH!!!!

Manga:

GOKU: Vegeta what's cornmeal made of? I know it's what the corn eats, but what's it made of? VEGETA: Hey Kakarot let's play the quiet game until one of us dies.

[jalluzas-ferney]

I don’t think this is an unpopular opinions but lowkey fannon kailor is sm better than cannon kailor.

(Read the tags)

[sieglinde-freud]

one thing i never realized bc i always either pair chrom with olivia or make him gay is that not every sibling calls lucina “luce” and its making me crazy. inigo and brady call her “luce” for short. cynthia calls her “lucy” (MY FAV), and kjelle and morgan just call her “lucina.” why did they make this change across supports. “to add personality” you say and to that i say YES obviously but also. potential of telling us more about how close lucina was with each potential sibling? maybe. what im getting at here is chrom!kjelle and lucina maybe suffering the most in terms of feelings of inadequacy and having that slight strain that keeps them from being close. this does not apply to morgan bc i chalk his up to memory loss BUT. you could also say that lucina never let him get close because she’s wary of him. hows that. and if you read closely what im actually saying is that i need an au where all six of them are siblings and not all of them have the brand of the exalt

[lgbtlunaverse]

So I watched A Silent Voice with some but minor knowledge of the story going in. And right at the beginning when Shoko's bullying started I had the nagging worry that while Ishida would be redeemed they'd leave Ueno and Kawai as one-dimensional bullies. Painting the girls as the "real villains" while the male protagonist got to have depth. Anyway I just finished the movie and I would like to formally apologize to Oima Yoshitoki and Yoshida Reiko I should never have doubted you.

[britneyshakespeare]

beatles poll, for research (reductive binary opinions only)

[kallistoriae]

yesterday i learned that my beloved latin professor has a physical copy of Roman Homosexuality and it just confirmed how much i adore this old cis white man. this was a beautiful thing to learn at 7:45am. but now i’m jealous because this book costs like 50€

[leliwardens]

haven't leliposted in AGES so i gotta make up for it.

SO

i do think it's a very underutilized part of leliana is how she idolizes those she cares about, often times in an exceptionally heavy manner. typically those people are dead so it can be better or worse to have an idolized version of that person in your head bc they're not alive to contradict anything. but see, while i do love that, i do also love living romanced warden since i can see leliana very much in her head considering her warden to always be the storybook hero and not just. a person. <3

[triglycercule]

Thoughts on mtt

they should travel the multiverse together and see and experience a more peaceful life than all of them ever have (⁎˃ᴗ˂⁎)

also they should get to gnaw at each other like rabies infected dogs 🧡🙏

[fideidefenswhore]

How do historians view Eustace Chapuys' description of Anne Boleyn? It is said that most people think he is exaggerating?Researchers at Anne Boleyn seem to have significant differences… The biographies of Mary I seem to fully agree with his records

I'd actually push back on the latter claim. Academic biographies > pop history biographies tend to give Chapuys, at best, a 'perhaps' re: his claims about Anne as a stepmother, at the least...

For example:

"Perhaps at Anne Boleyn's instigation, but certainly with the King's active support, Mary was several times pressured to acknowledge the illegality of her mother's second marriage, her own illegitimacy and the precedence now due to her infant sister."

(realize this is technically not an excerpt from a Mary I biography, but Judith M. Richards' on Mary I basically states the same, that at most Lady Shelton was there to "keep a particularly close eye" on Mary...and even that instruction, she attributes to Thomas Cromwell, not 'Queen Anne')

"For an illegitimate royal offspring, Mary enjoyed a level of household status that was generous and indicative of Henry's personal affection for her. Although her household was little more than a glorified Privy Chamber staff whose first loyalty was to the king, the fact that she had a Privy Chamber staff at all was indicative that she still enjoyed high status. Her household existed through the king's generosity, but that was fully consistent with her status as his natural daughter—something the king's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, was at pains to point out to Henry's critics. She was not, as Eustace Chapuys claimed at times, a servant in Elizabeth's household. She is not listed as part of the Privy Chamber staff of Elizabeth's household. Rather, Mary's household formed one half of a combined establishment funded by the crown. [...] this source must be treated with caution, as Chapuys habitually exaggerated the plight of Catherine and Mary probably in order to convince the Emperor to take stronger measures against Henry on their behalf."