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Tolkien is 1000% done.

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"people show their true colours in life threatening situations" no, they show you what they act like when they're mortally terrified, an emotion notorious for literally turning your entire brain off to the point where people who go into those situations as a profession need to be literally trained on how to not have that happen

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I love a character raised to be a weapon as much as the next guy. But what really gets me is a character raised to be a shield. Who can’t fathom being needed—or even being wanted— beyond keeping others safe. Who believe they are alive only to insure someone doesn’t die. no matter the cost. Characters who self-sacrifice not because they think they deserve it, but because no one else does deserve it, and it’s their job to protect.

Characters who’ve been told that’s why your important. Your worth something because this other person/ thing is important, and you are here solely to keep them safe.

Bonus points if it’s not a legitimate job they’ve been given. Maybe at one point it was, but now that they are free from it, they haven’t given up that mentality. No one is forcing or asking them to do this, but they need to. They need to in order to be deserving.

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I think in the same way there's a 90/10 rule with horror and comedy (horror works best when it's 90% horror and 10% comedy and vice versa) there's a 90/10 rule for some relationships in fiction that's like. Wholesome and fucked up. A good friendship is at its most compelling when it's also 10% a bit fucked up. Fucked up relationship is at its most compelling when there's at least 10% of something actually sweet and substantive within. Do you get me

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Tiger-swallowtail dragon butterflies! Meant to have a kite appearance🦋🪁🐯 

Funny story, the náhuatl world papalotl/papalote (butterfly) is used in México as the term for kites! 

(Also my Ko-fi if anyone wants to send support!)

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this meme is so niche

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Antique sewing kit circa 1870

Photographer unknown - found on Pinterest. Please dm me if you know who to credit 🤍

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completely unserious, but since I’m sick and my neighbour’s phone woke me up four times today...

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Something I found surprising when revisiting the prequel trilogy is how much the clones aren't full characters in the movies. They're props. They're devices. The films give them the same weight and attention as they give the Separatist droids, really. The only two clone troopers I can easily name off the top of my head who get "named" in any way are Oddball and Cody, who are both just barely in "Revenge of the Sith", and interchangeable in their roles with any other background clone.

It's interesting when held up against "The Clone Wars" and other extension material, which had the time and inclination to say more directly, "Hey, these are people and what's happening to them is wrong." Like, obviously what's happening in Ep2&3 is wrong, the audience can draw that conclusion on their own, growing people as cannon fodder is a clear part of the greater tragedy if you take about five seconds to think about the situation here. Even without the element of the entire war being constructed and controlled by the main villain, the clones are a tragedy.

But, oh man, the movies themselves don't really care to focus on that. It's SUCH a background element. I had a "oh, yeah, Order 66 being programmed into a control chip was a later addition to / clarification of canon" moment while watching, because as far as Ep3 actually shows us (as was the initial intention by some, I know), Cody apparently knew the entire time that he might be called to fire on Obi-Wan Kenobi and was just waiting on the call. The "homogenous evil army" trope is... very much present and even more identical than usual here.

When the various Clone Wars shows turn the clones into individual characters and even protagonists, many of whom become friendly with the Jedi through years of life-or-death situations, Order 66 becomes really weird. "Wait, why would the majority of clones (all the clones we see in the movies, at least) just go along with this?" You have to assume that the clone troopers had no love for any of the Jedi (whom we're meant to believe are relatively decent people) whatsoever for a variety of reasons (the training that allows them to go through with the Jedi Temple massacre must have been... awful)... or that the clones were forced to do it somehow.

I get why SW canon settled on the latter option and I find it interesting enough. The tragedy of it all makes me want to lie facedown on the floor. Darth Sidious is really winning at sheer evilness here.

On the other hand, there are some really fun and interesting "Order 66 was taught, not programmed" AUs to revisit here. Especially when some of the other (Legends canon now) orders include what to do if the Supreme Chancellor is incapacitated or declared unfit, or getting rid of the Supreme Chancellor and assuming control by lethal force if necessary. Presumably as a back-up in case Palpatine wasn't elected to the seat in time for the war or didn't manage to get rid of term limits and was replaced as Chancellor at any point.

That really sounds like Palpatine's evil army of ruthless Jedi-Killers (unchipped) could have easily backfired on him if they'd ever decided all of these non-clones were unfit and organized to take power for themselves. I love any scenario where Palpatine's arrogant and overly complicated plans get him in trouble. The "homogenous evil army" often gets treated as a mindless mob, but while the clones may have some degree of emotional suppression, they're clearly very capable and not unintelligent, and they're not given many (if any) reasons to be loyal to the Republic. And it is FUNNY to imagine any Dark Lord's created army deciding that he fucking sucks at war (there's obviously a leak, why the FUCK are they losing so much ground to fucking droids) and they're overthrowing him for better benefits, so that they can create and run a more efficient Evil Empire themselves.

You could make this angsty as hell or a comedy, or both. I'm imagining the clones at the eleventh hour murdering Chancellor Palpatine with such brutal efficiency that it feels like its own kind of prejudice. And he gets revealed as a Sith Lord in the process (this was taken into account as a potential problem when planning the assassination), so there's an initial moment of: "I can't believe it! He was the Sith Lord in the Senate all along! How did you know?"

Cody: "Didn't."

Obi-Wan: "...Pardon?"

Cody: "This is a coup, sir."

Like, if we're going by what's shown in the movies alone, there's a clear Emperor Cody AU to be had here. Which can be played as a temporary (years long) measure to reinstall a Republic with proper checks and balances, while a bemused Jedi Order and Senate are held hostage, or the First Galactic Empire is established as per canon just with the clones running it and reaping the benefits. I'm currently enjoying thinking about the latter scenario as a dark comedy, in which Future Emperor Cody (or the clone of your choice) has to negotiate in his spare time with the various demands of his fellow clones. (Who are, let us remember due to the horror that is the accelerated aging, a bunch of teenagers at the oldest here.)

Rex: "I want Tatooine."

Cody: "The whole planet?"

Rex: "Yeah."

Cody: "It's a shithole."

Rex: "Yeah, but it'll make Skywalker so kriffing mad, so I'm calling dibs."

Cody: "Noted."

And if you want to write shipfic, there's always the AU of various Evil Army Clones meeting their love interest and then going, "Not evil anymore! Sorry, guys." Which could be angsty or another dark-ish comedy.

Cody @ the clone commander group chat: "WE'RE NOT GIVING UP ON THE 3-YEAR IMPERIAL COUP PLAN JUST BECAUSE YOU HORNY ASSHOLES WANT TO FUCK JEDI!!! STOP TALKING ABOUT THE POWER OF LOVE!!! STOP IT!!!"

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beloved

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kaeya moodboard

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My most popular post. The Life of Sal Vindagnyr: An Analysis Through Archaeology. Looks at the governance, economic, and religious structures of Sal Vindagnyr within the context of the ruins and contemporary text we are given.

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it's really easy to write young!Kaeya as abused before Crepus took him in, I have read and enjoyed those fics, but I honestly enjoy much more the concept that a lot of his reactions at first just look like the way people expect an abused kid to act (being unfamiliar with the sky and hence agoraphobic and fearful outdoors, quiet and retiring at first because he's still adapting to the language and customs and doesn't want to be found out through a mistake, flinchy around adult strangers because. they're adult strangers and he's a malnourished little kid, with the aforementioned fear of exposing himself only magnified by the Adult Strangers part, etc.), and once he realizes that this is making Crepus concerned about him, he feels obliged to play it up because it's getting him more care and attention and thus securing his place with the Ragnvindrs. but it leads to really awful presumptions about his original father and he hates that. that part is awful and he never really gets over it.

(someday I will finish the wingfic, in which this has become an unexpectedly significant part. but I enjoy it as a thing in general)

but the addendum to that line of thinking is that, depending on what other people know about the fight and about Diluc and Kaeya's relationship in general, it is possible to likewise take Kaeya's... ~everything~ as an adult and attribute that to abuse at the Dawn Winery. he used to be quiet and reserved and Diluc's shadow, but he's blossomed into a much more charismatic individual since Diluc left and he moved away from the Winery. he was injured in the fight, but refuses to say more than that he provoked it, and sometimes, in his cups (or during his first frantic refusal to let anyone investigate or press charges), that he deserved it. he tends to avoid going to the Winery and acts as if he has none of the family privileges. despite his friendly mask, some people can definitely catch glimpses behind it, and there's a wariness there about opening up to people and a whole fucking lot of trauma. he hates when people make these assumptions just as much as he did the ones about his original father, but they're pretty impossible to believably deny without peeling the lids off a lot of boxes he doesn't want anyone touching.

anyway, the specific upshot of that most often tends, for me, to be that Lisa, who didn't know Diluc but is very perceptive and, in my headcanon, rather older and more learned than Kaeya, comes back to Mondstadt to become Ordo Librarian, more-or-less befriends him (and/or ends up sharing Jean with him, which leads to the same result), learns all the information above in bits and pieces, and, in that manga scene where she's drinking tea with Diluc, is 100% contemplating whether she could get away with poisoning him. :>

(obviously her views have changed by the time of the Weinlesefest, if I'm lining this up with canon. but I have soft spots for both Lisa and Kaeya being friends and Lisa being vengefully protective and for dunking on Diluc, and sometimes I want to indulge that >> )

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Oh my god. I need to share another story of my new friend making today. So my friends husband says, very casually, as we’re about to leave for the ren faire, “Yeah, it’s like my story about fucking a chicken.”

And of the four people present I was the only one who was shocked. The others all nodded as if to say, yes yes, we know, the chicken fucking.

So he explained, when a progressive person is analyzing a behavior they will typically use the metric, Harm/No Harm. They may not like things in the No Harm category but they wouldn’t object.

Conversely, a more conservative mindset used something like eight metrics. Authority/No Authority Moral/Not Moral, things like that.

So, he posited if you want to sound out someone’s mindset (and you’re willing to live with the repercussions) you can ask: if a man buys a dead chicken from the store, cleans it thoroughly, then fucks it, and then eats it himself…?

I listened in dawning horror, both rapt and disgusted. But into the growing pause I whispered, “No harm…” because it really has no effect on me or anyone else if a man fucks a dead chicken. I don’t like it, I think he’s a weird dude, but like. That’s his dick. But a more conservative person will hear that and object on moral grounds despite not being harmed.

It’s been haunting me all day, so please enjoy.

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could you please elaborate on the confidence vs. entitlement thing? you said new people in the industry should “cultivate the entitlement and forget the confidence” which seems a bit backwards for me based on the connotations those words typically have, but i may have misunderstood entirely

Sure! This is something I was taught at drama school and it's been great advice for me both in acting and in life.

We were rehearsing a play and one of the actors was struggling a bit with a scene (it was Macbeth, I think). He said something like, "I'm just not very confident!" and our facilitator said, "Confidence is bullshit. It's bullshit used to sell self-help books. Do you know your lines? Have you done your preparation? Are you warmed up? Then you are entitled to go on stage and command the audience's time and attention. If you haven't done those things, then you're a professional actor - you know what you have to do to be ready - go do it! Whether you're confident or not simply isn't relevant." And the actor internalised that advice and he went out and gave an absolutely cracking turn as Macbeth!

I've always remembered that. I even remembered it when I was considering transitioning actually, I remember thinking, "Well I'm an adult, I know what this involves, I know the risks, I've done the prep; I'm allowed to bloody well do it if I want to!"