lookingkindofdumb

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Iris says in Rapport that ART never speaks impulsively or says anything it doesn't mean to, which... Doesn't super gel with what we've seen of it in the rest of the series. It seems like its more honest than it intends to be a few times in network effect at least. And part of that may be because it's just been through something very traumatic and may be acting in a way that would normally be out of character for it, but i also wonder if Iris may be assuming something is inherently part of its personality which is actually a side effect of her humanity.

Like, when it's talking to humans it has to wait to respond to them. Iris describes it as speaking in basically a normal human conversational pattern, which means it has to be delaying its responses .5 seconds or whatever. It would be really jarring for a human to have a conversation with someone whose reply appears instantly as soon as you hit enter. So regardless of how long it actually takes to formulate a response, it is in the habit of waiting before it speaks. And then it has to wait for the humans to read the message. And then it has to wait for them to respond. Human conversation must be an unbelievably slow process for ART.

And then there's Murderbot. Who isn't quite as fast as ART, but can still keep up with it in conversation at ARTs native, digital speeds. MB mentions being able to clock hundredth-of-a-second hesitations in ART's speech, which means it and ART must be talking INCREDIBLY fast. And I think it's entirely possible that some of Iris's perception of ART as levelheaded and icy in its rage comes from the fact it is essentially communicating with her via snail mail. It has SUCH a long time to think about what it says to her or the rest of the crew. In comparison, its conversations with Murderbot are suddenly happening in real-time. And so it says things that are a little bit crazy sometimes, because despite what Iris believes it isn't actually more levelheaded than a human, its just /faster./

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🎶Doo bee doo bee do bah🎶

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I think the best part of Murderbot is its staunch belief that it’s average at its job, and it only does better because it doesn’t have a working governor module

It’s always like, I’m just a SecUnit, the only reason I’m better is because humans somehow have worse judgement than me in my very narrow field of expertise, and I have the ability to process multiple things at once, and I don’t die when I get my shit wrecked. None of these are advantages over other bots, so I’m actually just average as far as skills go.

Meanwhile, Murderbot’s track record is something like ‘regularly takes out other SecUnits, regularly hacks fairly complicated systems, takes out multiple hostiles while saving and protecting clients/hostages, beat two Combat Bots in succession, and went toe to toe with a Combat SecBot while taking out two other SecUnits, rounding it off with inhabiting spaceships and crushing the incredibly difficult and malicious killware infecting them.’

That’s not even counting the guts, skill, and determination it takes to hack your own hardware/code which is fully capable of frying your brain in the first place

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Apple TV Murderbot + Text posts

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Lakan, Lahan and Maomao in a nutshell: (spoilers if you haven't read volume 13!!)

Volume 13 Part 2:

This. This is this trio of families entire dynamic.

I love it.

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Maomao's internal dialogue:

Volume 1 Part 6.

Maomao...you ate poison intended for the top concubine, announced that fact so calmly that a minister didn't believe you and actually ate some to check, then you disappeared.

People are going to talk about that for years.

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Maomao will take the less saccharine option please

Okay, I love this section of Volume 1 part 5, i think it explains a lot. (Plus Maomao's internal voice is a riot.)

Jinshi drops his mask, he's not acting charming or smooth, he's dragging her about and nagging her about her habit of eating poison and Maomao specifically thinks that she'd always rather deal with this Jinshi over any other.

She prefers when he acts childish, not necessarily because of the childish actions but because he drops his mask and thus he's far more real to her in those moments.

It's a side of him very few people get to see and there's no dead bug on the ground look here.

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Today I found out that yarners think crocheting socks is subversive and controversial and I just…on one hand, why the fuck not, I guess yarners are allowed to have their controversies, but on the other, how much time do you have in your FUCKIN DAY??

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Maomao's internal thoughts:

I was just rereading The Apothecary Diaries and in the beginning of the very first volume (part 3) we have this gem:

Not to make everything shippy because there is a lot to love about everything about the entire series. But.

Who else is called expressionless and unapproachable?

Sweet and pickled, huh Maomao.

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Subtitles and Dubbing and one reason for differences in the text to audio

This is probably something very obvious to most people but i think it is interesting so posting on main :)

I often prefer watching an anime with subtitles to watching a dubbed version, i find the subtitles are usually closer to the main text meanings and vibes. (Not dissing Dubs btw, i often watch them when i'm crafting and can't read at the same time. And I do love them.)

One reason for this difference is that the voice actors dubbing the show have to time their speech with the mouth flaps on show. And with the subtitles this often does not work with the visual to audio. So the actual text has to change, often loosing just a bit of nuance.

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boys will be like "haha of course I have my pistols" and it will be a bottled dormouse and a teratoma

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Stephen: someone drank the alcohol I was preserving a venomous snake in

Jack: will it kill him?!?!

Stephen: no >:(

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12.02 Mamma Mia

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SUPERNATURAL ✙ 4.01 LAZARUS RISING    – aired on September 18th, 2008

» best viewed in dark mode!

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this is the exact halfway point in 1.20 dead man's blood. it's also the first time we see dean stand up to john in any capacity. from here on, too, dean continues to hold his ground against his dad, and his defiance grows more confident and definitive.

the first half of this episode therefore represents the "status quo" of their family dynamic: sam is angry and defiant, dean is blindly loyal, and john is domineering. we get a sense of what life was like for them before the series began and how the family functioned. the second half, then, represents sam and dean's development. sam and dean are working more as a unit, and they demand to be treated as equals not only among each other but to their father as well. this half shows sam seeming to get meeker in a way now that dean is defending him (sam deflates falls back into a comfortable routine with john, his yessirs a vast contrast to dean calling him out and an even vaster contrast to his own shouting matches with john in the first half of the episode)—this is the dynamic they're working toward and have been working toward this whole season.

but this halfway point is so cool. because right after this moment, dean is left helplessly torn between two options:

sam gets in the impala, and john gets in his truck. the two vehicles become physical manifestations of the choice dean now has to make: john or sam? status quo or development?

he gets in the impala. he chooses sam.

but the cool thing about it is that the impala is dean's car. of course he was going to get in his own car. it's a no-brainer. but at the same time, this doesn't stop the impala from representing sam in this moment. what this means, then, is that dean never had a choice in the matter: he was always going to choose sam.

dean lacks narrative agency for the majority of season 1. he constantly defers to sam's decisions, and even when he does make decisions that would lead to significant development for himself (see 1.11 scarecrow, where he chooses to let sam have his independence instead of clinging onto him, signifying a massive step forward for his own sense of self and independence), sam inevitably shapes the outcome of those decisions, leaving dean in a position where he isn't actually choosing things for himself (and sam returns at the end of the episode, preventing the possibility of his growth and keeping him defined by his place in his family).

this moment in dead man's blood is symbolic of that lack of agency. dean is tied to his brother, doomed to choose him because it's the only real option presented to him. this isn't to say that's a bad thing by any means obviously, just that it's an interesting setup for his narrative arc. dean is set to spiral straight into sam's orbit, helpless to stop it or escape, and frankly he doesn't want to, either. sam is the center of his universe, after all, and choosing sam was what he was raised to do. sam is his everything—including the master of his story.

so when dean chooses sam and gets into the impala, there was never any other option for him. dean was always going to choose his brother, was always going to stand up to john and defend sam and himself, was always going to get into his own car. unlike sam, whose season 1 conflict is between his fate and his family, dean's fate in many ways is his family, and he has nothing to convince him off that path (indeed, the one time he does falter in this during season 1 is because he's again deferring to sam's decision to leave him).

and the best part about all of the whole metaphor, to me, is this:

sam is the one driving the car.

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i feel like the boys’ representation in “it’s a terrible life” is a really accurate and insightful look into how they work on an Instinctual level.

at first it seems like just a funny bit for dean to be the one dismissing the ghost thing, but dean wesson actually fits perfectly into dean’s personality. i mean, think about it. hunter dean is OBSESSED with the job. he lives breathes and sleeps hunting. he’s proud of who he is and what he does, and he enjoys being a part of something. this episode shows how that’s part of dean’s intrinsic personality. he needs order. structure. discipline.

sam is mischaracterized as ‘the emotional one’, but i think dean’s a lot more of a romantic than him. he likes the idea of a stable life, whether that’s hunting or a cushy corporate job. he wakes up at 6am everyday, has a distinct routine and a circle of friends. he does herbal detoxes and drinks frothy rice milk lattes.

life is a package for him. dean likes fitting in. he doesn’t like breaking status quo. he instinctively looks to blend in, whether that’s in a corporate environment or with his father and other hunters. dean likes the idea of family. connection. he needs people, people who are familiar and trustworthy. he’s very community/family oriented. he’s not a lone wolf.

but sam on the other hand, he’s intrinsically in tune with weird frequencies. he’s strange and he picks up strange things. he cares about people and appreciates connection but he values himself and his gut instinct more. he loves sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong. he doesn’t give a fuck about blending in. he didn’t as a hunter so he sure as hell doesn’t in a goddamn tech support cubicle.

sam straight up tells dean that everything about this feels wrong. and you can TELL that dean feels it as well. sam tells him that he thinks he should be doing more, it’s in his blood, he hates everything about this fake life. but dean deflects. no matter how uncomfortable he seems he pushes it down in favour of predictably and routine. even if deep down, he knows its wrong, it takes him a lot more time than sam to admit it.

this shows that sam is more than ‘hunting bad’ and dean is more than ‘hunting good’. it was never about hunting. sam refuses to turn a blind eye. he WANTS to rebel. it’s his nature. he instinctively looks for things that don’t line up and he calls that out. he doesn’t care about the backlash. dean needs stability. he needs people. he needs to feel like he’s a part of something. it’s why he brushes off that feeling of wrongness so quickly at the beginning of the episode, because he’s willing to overlook some of the bad for the benefits.

it’s just like how hunter dean is willing to defend john, defend the grisly violence of hunting, and convince himself into thinking this is his only choice. sam refuses to do that. he instead latches onto that feeling of otherness and rebels even though it costs him family and familiarity.

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That scene in 1x20 Dead Man’s Blood was so insane.

Sam and John are butting heads like crazy since the instant they meet up and Deans just there in the background rolling his eyes and weakly protesting, “that’s enough you two”…”come on, knock it off”…”stop it, both of you.”

Until the second John puts his hands on Sam.

Sam and John are face to face, yelling, and Dean doesn’t even flinch–clearly this kind of confrontation is routine for them–until John grabs Sam by the front of his jacket. That’s all it takes and Dean is shouldering his way between them, shoving them apart. He places himself right in front of Sam and stares John down. Big brother has gone from calm to bristling in a second.

Before that moment, Dean’s protests have either been about both of them stopping, or about Sam needing to stow his attitude (“alright, you made your point, tough guy…Sammy, I mean it, come on”). He never singles out John’s behavior as the problem. Until he is forced to.

“That means you too” he growls at his father, leaning forward just a bit as he speaks and staring him down in a clear challenge. You want to touch him, you'll have to get through me.

Dean, who has spent the whole episode kowtowing to John, doing whatever it took to keep the friction down and the family together, suddenly loses patience. And it’s all to protect Sammy.

[Can't stop thinking about this..........]