archaotype - Tumblr blog

[archaotype]

Gatekeeping is so good and important

[archaotype]

 i am having Emotions about kilgarragh from bbc merlin because he was as much an antagonist as uther, in his own way and if merlin hadn’t listened to him, i am firmly convinced the series could have ended better.

 It just. it really fascinates me, you know? the dichotomy and constrasting character traits between him (wise, ancient  teacher) and merlin (young warlock full of potential). kilgarragh could have been been a dues ex machina (immensely powerful, capable of glimpsing the future) but it wasn’t going to happen, because he was so fucking flawed.  kilgarragh had turned bitter and jaded. and i get that, i do — balinor, a dragonlord, had trapped him under the castle of the man he hated for decades. but! it meant that all the advice kilgarragh gave merlin was ruthless, focused on conquering enemies with force rather than love. instead of reaching out to morgana, he encouraged merlin to kill her. instead of helping mordred, he told merlin to do nothing. so merlin ignored his own instinct, which was to offer compassion, and Then Everything Got Steadily Worse

and ultimately kilgarragh and merlin’s relationship presents a chilling warning against blindly accepting the teachings of those you consider greater or more knowledgeable than yourself. 

[archaotype]

Bigots not welcome in the Bigot Party, says Bigot McBigot, leader of the Bigot Party

[archaotype]

----- .---- ----- .---- ----- ----- ----- .---- / ----- .---- .---- .---- ----- .---- ----- .---- / ----- .---- .---- ----- ----- .---- ----- .---- / ----- .---- .---- ----- ----- .---- ----- .---- / ----- .---- .---- ----- .---- .---- .---- ----- / ----- ----- .---- ----- ----- .---- .---- .---- / ----- .---- .---- .---- ----- ----- .---- .---- / ----- ----- .---- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- / ----- ----- .---- .---- .---- ----- ----- ----- / ----- .---- .---- .---- ----- .---- ----- ----- / ----- .---- .---- ----- .---- ----- ----- ----- / ----- ----- .---- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- / ----- .---- .---- ----- ----- ----- ----- .---- / ----- .---- .---- ----- .---- .---- ----- ----- / ----- .---- .---- ----- ----- ----- .---- ----- / ----- .---- .---- .---- ----- .---- ----- .---- / ----- .---- .---- ----- .---- .---- ----- .----

[archaotype]

For those curious:

Our lowest 3 smash are

2.4 for the Elon Musk poll

2.7 for the charles III

4.6 dor Ellen Degeneres

Our highest 3 smash are

95.5 for the second Sigourney Weaver poll

93 for the Appalachian Moutains

92 for the type 30 rotary phone

[archaotype]

Rereading the Lord of the Rings series recently, and it's so fascinating to me how much the series is a denial of the typical juvenile power-fantasy that is associated with the fantasy genre.

Like, the power-fantasy is the temptation the Ring uses against people It tempts Boromir with becoming the "one true king" that could save his people with fantastic power. It tempts Sam with being the savior of Middle Earth and turning the ruin that is Mordor into a great garden. It tempts Gandalf and Galadriel with being the messianic figure of legend who brings salvation to Middle Earth and great glory to herself.

The things the Ring tempts people with are becoming the typical protagonists of fantasy stories that we expect to see. and over and over we see that accepting that role, that fantasy of being the benevolent all-powerful hero, is a bad thing. LotR is about how power, even power wielded with benevolent intent, is corrupting.

And its so fascinating how so much of modern fantasy buys into the very fantasy LotR denies. Most modern fantasy is about being that Heroic power-fantasy. About good amassing power to rival evil. But LotR dares not to. It dares to be honest that there is no world where anyone amasses that power and remains good.

I guess that's one of the reasons its so compelling.

[archaotype]

I saw a post saying that Boromir looked too scruffy in FotR for a Captain of Gondor, and I tried to move on, but I’m hyperfixating. Has anyone ever solo backpacked? I have. By the end, not only did I look like shit, but by day two I was talking to myself. On another occasion I did fourteen days’ backcountry as the lone woman in a group of twelve men, no showers, no deodorant, and brother, by the end of that we were all EXTREMELY feral. You think we looked like heirs to the throne of anywhere? We were thirteen wolverines in ripstop.

My boy Boromir? Spent FOUR MONTHS in the wilderness! Alone! No roads! High floods! His horse died! I’m amazed he showed up to Imladris wearing clothes, let alone with a decent haircut. I’m fully convinced that he left Gondor looking like Richard Sharpe being presented to the Prince Regent in 1813

*electric guitar riff*

And then rocked up to Imladris a hundred ten days later like

[archaotype]

mary winchester becomes a grandmother at age 30 when her sons, ages 38 and 34, adopt their dead 400 million-year-old best friend’s 22-year-old newborn son

[archaotype]

I'm watching supernatural for the first time, on season 4 rn

i understand now why people went so nuts for these boys

it's not because they look like supermodels

it's because they look like supermodels who are absolutely pathetic sopping wet losers with no friends or social skills

[archaotype]

Saw these tags in a reblog of my Chinese museum posts, and thought I have to make a response just so everyone is clear on how archaeological studies are carried out in China:

^Well, the Shaanxi Archaeology Museum is a Chinese museum displaying artifacts found in China, it's not the British Museum lol.

But anyway just so everyone knows, modern Chinese archaeology has a rule, which is that unless it's absolutely necessary, an ancient tomb/mausoleum should not be disturbed. This means that many of these artifacts in the museums are found in a few main ways:

Tombs that absolutely had to be excavated because there were clear signs of grave robbing present, for example when tunnels left by grave robbers were found near a known tomb. This is called "excavating to rescue" (抢救性发掘), it's done by teams of archaeologists, the artifacts found will then be studied and eventually find a home in museums in China. In comparison, actual grave robbers would steal artifacts and sell them for money; many stolen artifacts would end up in auctions, mostly outside of mainland China. This is why there is no "general positive sense" in the phrase "grave robbing with grant money" when it comes to archaeology in China. Modern Chinese archaeology and grave robbing are simply not comparable in any way whatsoever.

Tombs that absolutely had to be excavated because new infrastructure will be built in that location. Such exacavations are also included in excavating to rescue. Examples include tombs in Xi'an city that had to be excavated because a metro was being built. Since Chinese people and Chinese culture are native to China, there are no ethical problems whatsoever, this simply a question of what matters more, the welfare of living Chinese people or the abstract afterlives of ancient Chinese people. Obviously, the welfare of living Chinese people is a more important matter. As for the argument of "but this goes against traditional culture", first, a culture is only alive if the people of that culture is alive and doing well, otherwise that culture is as good as dead; second, a major part of traditional Chinese culture IS focused on the welfare of descendants (ex: the belief that the spirits of ancestors will protect their descendants), so I'm sure our ancestors would be proud to see us doing well.

Tombs that were excavated because archaeologists were absolutely sure that artifacts discovered within would make major contributions to the study of Chinese history. This is pretty much the only exception to the rule of "excavating to rescue", and it is very rarely allowed. An example is the Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project (夏商周断代工程), where the main focus is to gain a clearer picture of the timeline of ancient Chinese history, when dynasties began/ended, when major events may have happened, etc.

Artifacts that were found when arresting grave robbers. These are called "recovered artifacts" (追回文物).

Artifacts that returned to China from foreign countries, these are called "returned artifacts" (回归文物). A big portion of these artifacts ended up in foreign countries precisely because of grave robbers, and another big portion were and are still lost for the same reason as why the British Museum has so many artifacts from around the world.

Artifacts that were discovered scattered throughout China. There are three facts to consider here: 1) China has a long history and as a result, there are vast amounts of existing artifacts; 2) tombs are material things and thus are subject to the elements; 3) not everyone is an archaeologist. Combine these, and you have situations were valuable artifacts were found in places like the chicken coop of a farmer (this is how the eagle-shaped pottery ding was found).

Donations. Some artifacts were family heirlooms that were donated to museums.

[archaotype]

Did you know a wild hog can be so hearty that it can take multiple high-powered rifle shots to bring it down? Did you know hogs can breed at such a rate to be so pervasive and omnipresent in an environment that they can threaten entire ecosystems? Did you know that bad code can act in a similar way— Causing problems down the line that are hard to identify the root cause of, and once you do, debugging that bad code can take hours, if not days of work? Did you know that, when asked by my boss what I was doing that had been taking up so much of my time these past few days, ‘wrangling my hog’ was a really bad answer?

[archaotype]

[archaotype]

changes and trends in horror-genre films are linked to the anxieties of the culture in its time and place. Vampires are the manifestation of grappling with sexuality; aliens, of foreign influence. Horror from the Cold War is about apathy and annihilation; classic Japanese horror is characterised by “nature’s revenge”; psychological horror plays with anxieties that absorbed its audience, like pregnancy/abortion, mental illness, femininity. Some horror presses on the bruise of being trapped in a situation with upsetting tasks to complete, especially ones that compromise you as a person - reflecting the horrors and anxieties of capitalism etc etc etc. Cosmic horror is slightly out of fashion because our culture is more comfortable with, even wistful for, “the unknown.” Monster horror now has to be aware of itself, as a contingent of people now live in the freedom and comfort of saying “I would willingly, gladly, even preferentially fuck that monster.” But I don’t know much about films or genres: that ground has been covered by cleverer people.

I don’t actually like horror or movies. What interests me at the moment is how horror of the 2020s has an element of perception and paying attention.

Multiple movies in one year discussed monsters that killed you if you perceived them. There are monsters you can’t look at; monsters that kill you instantly if you get their attention. Monsters where you have to be silent, look down, hold still: pray that they pass over you. M Zombies have changed from a hand-waved virus that covers extras in splashy gore, to insidious spores. A disaster film is called Don’t Look Up, a horror film is called Nope. Even trashy nun horror sets up strange premises of keeping your eyes fixed on something as the devil GETS you.

No idea if this is anything. (I haven’t seen any of these things because, unfortunately, I hate them.) Someone who understands better than me could say something clever here, and I hope they do.

But the thing I’m thinking about is what this will look like to the future, as the Victorian sex vampires and Cold War anxieties look to us. I think they’ll have a little sympathy, but they probably won’t. You poor little prey animals, the kids will say, you were awfully afraid of facing up to things, weren’t you?

[archaotype]

∞

[archaotype]

THE UNTAMED episode 20

[archaotype]

bingpup from twitter

[archaotype]

me throwing the canterbury tales across the room: flying chaucer