#Continuous Exploration

[maithamhamed77]

Galaxy Celestial Framed Posters

About product

Galaxy Celestial Posters add a touch of cosmic beauty to any space. Vibrant colors and high-quality materials make them a stunning wall decor choice for astrology enthusiasts and stargazers. Perfect for decorating bedrooms, living rooms, or home offices. Ideal for space-themed parties, birthdays, and dorm room decorations.

Product features - Vibrant colors with crisp printing - Ready to hang with included kit - 200 gem semi-gloss coated paper - 18 sizes to choose from - Visits Our Store from Here

[liteee]

Dragon Qipao

[turiyatitta]

The Unending Ascent

Embracing Continuous Learning and Growth Amidst Peaks of Consciousness In the intricate tapestry of spiritual exploration, there exists a profound truth that often goes unspoken: the journey does not culminate at the peaks of consciousness but continues to weave through the valleys of continuous learning and growth. During my dialogue with Steve James on Guru Viking, I delved into this aspect,…

[ofswordsandpens]

thinking about a world in which RR actually committed to the path he set Percy on in hoo (wherein Percy has become jaded, angry, and resentful at the gods for breaking their sworn promises, is frequently sympathizing with Luke, is getting more and more powerful, and frequently losing himself to wrath) and instead of the subsequent Percy Jackson books being about getting recommendation letters, we could have gotten a trilogy exploring a fallen hero arc for Percy (that would ultimately have a positive resolution to it.)

[nerdinsandals]

He is not one of us🎵

He has never been one of us~🎶

Have Amethio without all the lighting and effects too! Just because I'm pretty happy with how the hair turned out and you can't really appreciate it in the final version haha

[teshiee]

i cant think of a funny caption. but Minecraft vs Roblox oppo what do we think

[orb-weaving]

Recognition

[ooooo-mcyt]

Scott Smajor (cc) is such a good story teller actually and the common themes he uses in his storylines captivate me. I think we should talk about how good he is at Themes more often. If I wasn't so tired I'd write essays.

[lastofgallifrey]

twelve spending 4.5 billion years punching through a 20ft thick wall of azbantium, a material apparently 400x harder than diamond, dying repeatedly in the process, all so he could get clara back... like whether you see them as platonic or romantic you cannot deny that he quite literally loved her to death

[saturnniidae]

HTTYD 2 is ten years old today, it was my first exposure to the franchise and despite its many glaring flaws i can't help but love it and hold it so close to my heart.

This scene is a great example of why.

I love it so much. It's a heart-wrenchingly beautiful reminder that as good as he is, Hiccup is not some perfect hero. He is still just a person, a flawed human being who has cracked under the pressure of his circumstances and is barely given time to grieve his fathers' death.

(I adore scenes like this — It humanizes characters so much more, and just adds to that layer of perceived realism.)

And you can see the regret on his face as soon as he says it. But in that moment he doesn't do anything about it; he's still processing Stoick's death, and he only snaps out of it when he sees Toothless is under the Bewilderbeast's control again and Valka has to hold him back from attempting to go after him.

What he said and did to Toothless there was a momentary lapse in judgment fueled by grief. And later, as he breaks Toothless out of the Alpha's control, you can see he feels terrible about it. About how, even if it was brief, he pushed away his best friend. And he loves Toothless so much.

The way he talks to him literally breaks me every time I rewatch it.

"It wasn't your fault, you'd never hurt him, you'd never hurt me."

"Please, you... are my best friend, bud. My best friend."

And when Toothless comes back he just looks so elated to see Hiccup.

Though, Something that's even crazier to me is the fact all this takes place over less than a week. Once he gets toothless back and Drago is defeated, he is immediately made chief. And with the state berk is in, he is given presumably no time to properly mourn Stoick, or to fully adjust to the presence of his mother.

(though I feel his and Valka's relationship will never be what it could've been. He knows she chose not to come back, and that is a blow to their newly formed and fragile bond that, as much as they love each other, is not something she can ever fully make up for.)

But at least through everything, since the beginning, the one real constant he's had has been Toothless.

They're friendship was built off a mutual feeling of out-of-placeness, then unconditional trust and unwavering loyalty.

they love each other so much it makes me wanna throw up

[blackkatdraws2]

I have a lot of leftover drawings in my gallery. [Blank Scripts AU]

[Content Warning: Images below contain Gore, Death, and Disturbing/Uncomfortable Imagery]

I find it a bit cute knowing they start out as crazy and then slowly settle into something calmer and relatively healthier after learning to adapt to each other's lust-turned-love. [Stanley did it first but hey :3]

[hellostraycat]

Continue? Night Quests.

[casscainmainly]

Some Thoughts on Lady Shiva and Cass

(This post is me hashing out my feelings on modern-day Shiva + Cass, it's not complete or definitive or even particularly good. Also absolutely no hate towards any writers, but a warning that this post will be critical of/contain spoilers for Batgirl (2024)).

It's interesting to me that comics has trended away from the original David-Shiva-Cass set-up, where David is very emotionally involved with Cass (whether or not you label it 'love') and Shiva is the least emotionally involved - to Shiva being the most important figure in Cass' life, except maybe Bruce, and Cain completely gone. This isn't to criticise Batgirl (2024) (or Batman & The Outsiders, or Batgirls, or WFA...) but this phenomenon is genuinely like. Strange? Because even when Cass was reintroduced in the New 52, Cain was still the most important person in her life; she literally named herself after him. Then, when Detective Comics (2016) rolled around with its not-very-good Shiva writing, Shiva still didn't super care about Cass. But now we're at a point where newer people might think Shiva is her most important parental figure, which I honestly think shouldn't have happened.

The original David-Shiva-Cass dynamic is not only good because Shiva's uniqueness as a character shines through, but because it's a deliberate inversion of gendered and racial tropes. Here, the dad is more emotionally invested, and the mom is emotionally aloof - and she's not demonised for it, because she wasn't even originally Cass' mom. As soon as the Shiva mom revelation sets in, their relationship changes to centre that motherhood angle. This is reductive not only to their original relationship but to Shiva herself, who now cannot be adversary, ally, or anything else without it being filtered through 'Cass' mom'. I'm not saying this is problematic, because it's not the worst thing an Asian woman character has gone through, but it is disappointing when so much of the nuance Puckett built between Cass and Shiva has been lessened because of a bio connection.

To bring up the race angle - Cass and Shiva have always been connected through race. From Puckett's Shiva saying 'you and I are alike' to Brenda's mixed-race question prompting Cass to search for Shiva, Cass' understanding of her race has always been tied to Shiva. This is hard to articulate because a lot of Asian girls genuinely do have intergenerational trauma and tricky relationships with their mom, but like - this is a trope. The Asian girl with an all-consuming, contentious relationship to their Asian mom is kind of a trope at this point. What I found so refreshing about the original Cass parent set-up is that it's an exploration of different parental tropes than we usually get for Asian girls. Cass' struggle with a White dad paralleled Asian girls' experiences with the White patriarchy, and her struggles with Babs and Bruce were so realistic for two White people trying to care for, but not fully understanding, this Asian teenager that fell into their lap. But now that we've overemphasised Shiva, we've taken Cass' original struggles and moulded it into a much more typical Asian girl narrative. (I haven't even mentioned that her original set-up spotlights her biracial heritage much more than anything recent).

Brombal is clearly a Shiva fan, and has said that he aims to write a more nuanced Shiva. I'm not trying to call out Brombal - I think he genuinely loves Shiva - but why does 'a more nuanced Shiva' entail her caring/being invested in her daughter? Why should Shiva need that emotional/biological connection to be more fleshed out? Puckett's Shiva was nuanced without that. I'll even say Bryan Hill, in Batman & The Outsiders, walks that line - Shiva does love Cass, but she's not overly invested in her. In Outsiders, Shiva has her own morals, and the most emotional she gets is when her home village is destroyed. This isn't perfect writing, but Hill shows that Shiva has feelings outside of Cass, and motivations beyond motherhood.

Compare that to Batgirl (2024) - everything Shiva has done, and it's implied this extends to stealing the flowers, has been for/centered around Cass. The best Shiva bit was when she opened up about Carolyn, because that gives her something external! I know this is a story about Cass, but Shiva is at this point a deuteragonist - if Cass' connection to the Bats can be emphasised, Shiva can have something external too. Her connection to the Order of Shiva isn't even that fleshed out. Like, Jayesh straight up dies and Shiva has no reaction. (I do think this is a set-up for the resurrection of Jayesh, Shiva, etc. so this is not bad, but it does contribute to issue 6 feeling anticlimactic.).

(Also the Shiva/Bruce opposition was kinda done better in Outsiders too, whereas here the emphasis on 'motherhood' makes it feel like Shiva should be paralleling Babs. BUT I don't think this is Brombal's fault, most likely editorial shenanigans. It still does make the 'motherhood' monologues weird if Bruce is the parallel to Shiva).

All this to say modern-day Shiva and Cass flattens a lot of what I loved about the original Shiva-Cass dynamic. I do think this flattening is partially due to the reduction in Cass' parental figures - if Babs and David were here, it would be a lot more balanced, and we'd be able to see how they ping off each other. I also think Brombal will likely ameliorate or subvert a lot of the things I've said here, so this really isn't criticism against him or the series. But while Batgirl (2024) is far far better than other current portrayals, it also reduces Shiva to her relationship to Cass/motherhood/the 'Asian mother'. If Babs and David were here to offset this, I think Shiva's characterisation could potentially work. But as of right now, Shiva's over-importance isn't quite resonating with me, for either Cass or Shiva's sake.

(But I really am not a Shiva expert so take everything with a grain of salt, and I know many people do love Shiva-Cass in BG '24 so this is really my singular take!! It's not meant to invalidate anyone's enjoyment of anything.)

[purplepixel]

- Ch. 20 of Spiders Web With Strings Attached by @psychologicalwarclaire

GET HER MIKEY. GET HERRRR. JUSTICE SHALL BE SERVED!!!

This is your reminder to go read this amazing fanfic. Am I spoiling a pretty big moment in this fic? Maybe. Only those whove read it would understand the amount of pure euphoria this chapter gave after words and words of having your heart shattered in a million pieces. Chapter 20 of swsa is iconic and remains one of the greatest moments in fanfiction I’ve ever read.

[the-artist-grimm]

one thing im very complexed about is what were baal and ayms rection to narinder after getting resurected. surely they would feel a lot of anger towards him because of what he did.

When Aym and Baal are revived they’re more concerned for Narinder than anything else. Like how can their master, their father go from agonizing for MONTHS over ways to spare the lamb, to in the span of a single week telling them he’s found a way but not elaborating, looking completely heartbroken the next few days after, then when the day of reckoning finally comes telling the lamb in this muted, emotionless tone to sacrifice themselves out of the blue? It didn’t make sense. 

While Aym and Baal are 11 year old kids but they’re not stupid-they know this isn’t how their father usually acts, and something’s wrong. It's why they intentionally get hurt (and accidentally) die fighting Anthea, they're trying to snap him out of it since they didn't know what else to do since he didn't want to talk.

From there it takes 4 months to revive the twins-during that time their souls are trapped inside the gateway by the remains of Narinder's metaphysical chain. Not quite awake, but not quite asleep either-only able to tell they were alone until the voices of their parents wake them up before being yanked into the mortal realm. They’re scared, they’re shaken, they put brave faces on while dying yeah but they can feel the phantom of blade and mana caught in their flesh all over again, but their twin is beside them, and before they know it their Baba has them in their embrace wailing, yet their father is nowhere to be seen. 

Cue them being seemingly ok-ish (read: in shock) while being fussed over by Anthea for the rest of the day (given warm meals, constant hugs and kisses to the head, warm bubbly baths then a long brushing, soft nightgowns that smell like lanolin, all while their comfort kitten plushies they'd given the lamb a day prior to the betrayal in preparation for the 'move' have been returned to their arms), and while they keep asking what happened, the Lamb doesn’t know how to answer them anymore. A month before they would've said Narinder betrayed them all, but they're no longer sure anymore.

(Narinder betrayed them. He betrayed them, but then why did he help them with the resurrection? Why did he stabilize them as they struggled to break the chain, why did he lose sleep the whole week leading up just to help? Following their every word, their every order perfectly, never getting upset when they got snappy?  Why did he the leave the chapel without greeting the boys he mourned over. Why hasn't he tried to take back the crown since his arrival? Why isn’t he fighting them, angry, bitter, anything? Why is he making it so hard to hate and ignore him?)

Anthea eventually has to take the twins over to Narinder later that night since the nightmares are setting in now that the shock's worn off and they both wake up crying for him (they can’t remember the 4 months but that isolation left both with intense separation anxiety from both each other and their parents, and not having seen Narinder was really messing with them), and while that first reunion is them just launching themselves at him to cling to his nightshirt crying, followed by them then refusing to let Anthea leave either and thus both parents are stuck trying to get the boys to fall asleep in Narinder’s room, come morning they’ve calmed down enough that Anthea can leave to do cult things and they can question their father.

They just want to know what happened, and is he ok-he scared them by acting so strange and they're worried. Which kinda breaks Narinder a little because he left the chapel expecting that they hated him. That they wouldn’t want to see him since he betrayed Anthea, is the reason they died, and that their Baba deserved them more than him but here they are worried for him, and it’s the first time in months someone’s said they’re worried about him and he actually believes it. So he tells them everything.

He heard something he wasn't meant to hear, took it out of context, and in his fear over being betrayed again made a mistake. A mistake he thinks he can NEVER fix, and was a mistake he thinks he should NEVER be forgiven for. 

(He didn't trust them. Why didn't he trust them? The Lamb was his friend why would they ever betray him he's terrible Shamura was right to 'hate' him why can't everyone just abandon him already he doesn't understand-)

He thinks that’ll do it, but rather than the twins getting mad, it just clears up what they had already assumed-that something went wrong, and their dad thought he had no choice. They're not angry because he made a mistake since why should they? That just means he has to apologize.

It's that childishly innocent idea that all mistakes can be fixed by talking things out, and while it's more complicated than that, it does hold weight. Aym and Baal are the breaking of the cycle of hiding your emotions, hiding your pain, assuming the worst and self-loathing and destroying yourself as a result. The cycle of not talking to the people in your life and just letting things boil over. Narinder may have held back in some ways when raising them by not telling them to call him ‘dad’, but he raised them as he wished he’d been-teaching the twins that it’s ok to be hurt, scared, to make mistakes, and that they can go to him for anything and he won’t get mad. Anthea’s presence reinforced that-that you gotta talk to people when something’s wrong or else they can’t help. 

The boys are very empathetic and emotionally aware, and thus if they can make mistakes and fix things, why can’t the adults? So no they're not mad at Narinder, they just don't understand why he thinks it's not worth trying to make amends.

[tagarilaghost]

Part 1 | Part 2 (You are here)

In the darkness even one candle can feel like it spends the light and warmth of a thousand.