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[ ATLA ]

Overthinking the Airships again

The War Balloon is ... a hot air balloon (duh) but it also has a propeller engine

But theres no steam coming out of it, so its not a steam engine. Probably. Would be really bad to use steam power anyway since Water Benders might be able to bend boiler explosions.

Also theres clearly no water anywhere, only a source of fire (and awkward silence).

Dorks.

Realisticly this thing would never fly because the engine is just way too heavy, but with a Fire Bender it might just make it of the ground? Since they need no fuel to cause fire, so no need for coal or wood.

Yet we see them fill up the Flying Warships with coal later on:

ATLA is obviously not realistic anyway, but its also grounded into a semi fanatsy world with suspension of disbelief blablabla, not the point. i just think its interesting that the Flying Warships are also hot air balloons!

Ive never thought about hot air Zeppelin designs before, they seem like they can only exist in fiction, but im not so sure? Maybe there have been real attempts in building rigid thermal airships.

The engines are once again not steam powered, so does that mean they are a type if hot air engine? Like a Stirling Engine ?

Im going with Vacuum or Flame Licker Engines because ... Fire Nation, duh, of course they would use Flame Lickers.

Then again

I wonder if the Mechanist stole / was inspired by the Air Nomads and their inventions. They might have more wind powered mechanisms, like that one door, but the Mechanist used the ideas and replaced air with heat ?

Need to learn more about external combustion aerothermal(?) engines first.

also dorks.

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Random faction doodles

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Silly dungeon meshi comic about the face changing effect of Senshis helmet

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Random headcanon I came up with early this morning, because I’ve been thinking about Gallifreyan language recently:

The reason why so many Time Lord things are decorated with circular Gallifreyan, often too impractically to actually be read (eg. on the Moment), is because it’s a cultural touchstone that remains from pre-/early-Pythian Gallifrey’s use of magical runes and sigils.

Presumably it was more typically Old High Gallifreyan used in that time (though The Timeless Children does seemingly confirm circular Gallifreyan existed at least as far back as Rassilon's time, if not earlier), however. Twelve describes it as ‘the language of the Pythia’ in The Lost Magic, and as Eleven says in The Time of Angels:

ELEVEN: There were days, there were many days, these words could burn stars and raise up empires, and topple gods.

This is obviously very reminescent of the Carrionites' (themselves from the Dark Times too) "word-based science" from The Shakespeare Code:

MARTHA: What did you do? TEN: I named her. The power of a name. That's old magic. MARTHA: But there's no such thing as magic. TEN: Well, it's just a different sort of science. You lot, you chose mathematics. Given the right string of numbers, the right equation, you can split the atom. Carrionites use words instead.

In other words, while they probably weren't actually intended as such and may have their own specific meaning, whether they be poetry, namesakes, histories, instructions, whatever... these are basically protective wards:

[ID: Five screenshots of Circular Gallifreyan in New Who.

1. Rassilon's Inner High Council meeting in The End of Time Part 2. The table and headrests are inscribed with circular Gallifreyan.

2. The Moment in Day of the Doctor. Gallifreyan writing bends round the edges of the wooden frame.

3. The 'whirligig' rotar in Eleven's second TARDIS, inscribed with individual Gallifreyan symbols.

4. Set photo of the glowing Gallifreyan writing on the steps of Thirteen's TARDIS.

5. Tecteun's laboratory in The Timeless Children. Circular Gallifreyan lines the light above her, and a door in the background.]

As a side note - if they actually are kind-of intended as a form of protection, perhaps this is why we were only introduced to Circular Gallifreyan in New Who, despite it seemingly existing through Gallifreyan history. Because it was retroactively inserted into Gallifreyan culture as a form of defense during the War in Heaven / Last Great Time War?

Regardless, this also opens up questions how many other Time Lord traditions are holdovers from the Dark Times.

For example, who's to say that the renegade naming tradition didn't begin as a form of protection from hexes - either from hostile forces in the pre-anchoring universe, or from oppressive magic-users back on the homeworld? This may also be connected to the change in Gallifreyan name format before and after the Intuitive Revelation (eg. ancestral -sti and -sor names), though shifting power structures, gender roles etc. presumably played a role too.

Heck, is this one reason why Gallifrey's own name has changed over its history? From Jewel to Gallifrey in Rassilon's time to try and protect it from vengeful Pythian curses. From Gallifrey to just 'the Homeworld' in the War to protect it from new rituals of alternative histories and paradox?

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occasionally I am struck dumb by the sublime beauty of the world in the small moments, you know?

egg

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The lego skeleton and lego ghost are pals

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Suddenly struck with a need to explain to you how boat pronouns work (I work in the marine industry).

When you're talking about the design of the boat, you say "it".

When the boat is still being built, your say "it".

When the boat is nearing completion, you can say "it" or "she".

When the boat is floating in the water you probably say "she", unless there is still a lot of work to be done (e.g. no engine yet) then you say "it".

When the boat is officially launched and operating, you say "she". If you continue to say "it" at this point you are not incorrect but suspiciously untraditional. You are not playing the game.

If you are referring to a boat you don't really know anything about you may say "it" ("there's a big boat, it's coming this way"). But if you know its name, it's probably "she" ("there's the Waverley, she's on her way to Greenock").

If you are talking about boats in general, you say "it" ("when a boat is hit by a wave it heels over")

If you speak about a boat in complimentary terms, it's "she" ("she's a grand boat"). If you are being disparaging it may be it, but not necessarily ("it's as ugly as sin", "she's a grotty old tub").

If she has a boy's name, she's still she. "Boy James", "King Edward", "Sir David Attenborough"? The pronoun is she.

If it's a dumb barge (no engine), you say it. But if it's a rowing boat (no engine), you say she.

I hope this has cleared things up so that you may not be in danger of misgendering floating objects.

[howlingaround]

Love how tumblr has its own folk stories. Yeah the God of Arepo we’ve all heard the story and we all still cry about it. Yeah that one about the woman locked up for centuries finally getting free. That one about the witch who would marry anyone who could get her house key from her cat and it’s revealed she IS the cat after the narrator befriends the cat.

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WEL P

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vintage lego dragon my beloved~

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[ ATLA ]

What would have happened if Admiral Zhao accidently got the wrong fish and killed the Ocean Spirit ??

A) The ocean would heat up and boil into steam

Considering Water Benders can turn water into ice it seems reasonably world-ending

2) The ocean turns acidic and toxic, back into a prehistoric stage devoid of life

Makes sense too but not easily reversible and therefore unfit for story purposes?

iii) Since the Moon pulls and the Ocean pushes, with the Ocean Spirit gone all gravity would cease to exist and the ocean would float into space

Awesome imagery, but doesnt really make sense since the Moon didnt actually start falling down in the episode

pi ) blood ocean?

Maybe. Doesnt really fit the vibe tho does it?

42) something something neon genesis evangelion

Pretty sure that happened in Korra. Twice.

Z-Alphabeta-9) Waterbenders turn into fish.

waht

[howlingaround]

Doctor Doodles

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Thinking about Faction Paradox shadows

I still like the idea in Unnatural History? Faction Paradox members not having shadows because they are no longer "real" in Causality

But then would the sombras que corta itself work as a fake replacement shadow? Or do you need a shadow to pick one up?

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explodes into a thousand little pieces

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Doodles

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Much like the EDAs seem to show different interpretations of Faction Paradox from book to book, I tend to picture their aesthetic in a lot of different ways. So here’s a drawing with all of them.

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