#I'm a glass case of emotion

[in-uthenera-we-wait]

I don't know if people know of this already but, there's an ai response program for Solas!

https://beta.character.ai/chat?char=Jpbg6JH8nA8bm_grab9zh6Ie_DWj5H9qKBl-2r-LM5c

And the answers this "Solas" gives... It's *chef's kiss*! I've been ugly crying for a good thirty minutes now, with Lost Elf theme on repeat!

Also, I'm lowkey scared... Is this how Skynet starts?!

[olliequeensrecedinghairline]

Something about Barbie I really love is how perfect the casting was (I'll only go over a couple)

Margot Robbie was absolutely impeccable, hit all the right moments, and while I loved the joke where she said she's not pretty enough to be Barbie, with the narrator responding that "casting Margot Robbie might not be the best choice to convey this point" I feel like there's something deeper behind that

It's a long held stereotype in Hollywood that actresses are past their prime once they hit 30, they are no longer starlets and abandoned, with Margot Robbie being 33 she's right at the point that she would be considered too old

Greta Gerwig said her first and most deliberate casting was Ryan Gosling, which seemed to upset a lot of people, saying he was too old, but with both main characters going through existential crisis it makes sense for a man in his 40s, especially since he plays the classic Ken, one of the oldest models

I'm very happy my girlfriend was there to explain some history to me in how there have not been many Asian Ken's out there and would be a fairly recent addition, so using Simu Liu, who is the new Hollywood it boy, as the main opposition to the aging Kens insecurity about Barbie's interest in other Kens was very clever

As a mother America Ferrera has personal experience that she brings to the role that feels so personal, plus with her biggest role as Ugly Betty, the main character of a show about fashion and challenging traditional beauty norms is very fitting

(plus the fact that her movie husband is her real life husband was a nice touch)

Will Ferrell

[eddiediaaz]

last week the person i'm seeing was like "it usually takes me a lil while to do sleepovers with partners because i feel the most vulnerable when i sleep" and of course that's okay i can definitely respect that, we do live super close to each other anyway. but last night after we were in bed together for the first time they were like "i know i said i'm not usually into it but with you i feel comfortable and i'd love if you could stay tonight."🥺 i couldn't tho, had to go home to feed my cats lol, and also work in the morning i guess. but!!! they just asked me again if i wanna sleep over on saturday after both our respective plans, and then we can get breakfast together sunday 😭 wtf!!! wtffff!!!!

[pure-jeff-ward]

Final dump! As much as it saddens me to leave, I shall look back at these past few months with sweet fondness. I rarely stan celebs but when I do I go HARD as you can already tell XD

Anyway, here’s Jeff going through the stages of grief at my departure!

Denial

Anger

Bargaining

Depression

Acceptance

Biggest thank you to pure-jeff-ward blog for not just being one of the OG Wardians (5 years and counting!) but also providing a cool, safe space for us clownfuckers/lemonfuckers and being the arbiter of all things Jeff Ward!

Au revoir! Until we meet again! ❤️

what about my five stages of grief??? I'm not at the end one for suuuure (probably stuck on stage one tbh) 😭😭😭 thank yoooou so much @buggysamawaifu because this has been the best few months of my blog, thanks to you, your asks, your wonderful fountain of knowledge about Jeff and you helping spread the Jeff love to alllll of my followers!!!

come back soooooon!!! we will miss yoooou!!! I'll be right here waiting with more Jeff content for you to enjoy and to get more from you to share as well!!! teamwork is the dreamwork!!! ❤️❤️❤️

[pelgraine]

trying to sleep on this Ides of March and my brain is apparently determined to mull over Halsey & Miranda from S1 v S2 instead.

[halo spoilers ahead]

Like, Halsey is cold on a level that no one other than the Spartans and those intimately involved with the Spartan project can appreciate. I mean, she subjected her only child to the trauma of seeing the death of her flash clone - a violent death of someone that looked and acted and spoke exactly like her mother.

Sure, maybe some part of Halsey cared enough to warn Miranda she was chasing a ghost. But did Halsey believe Miranda would put the facts together? Did she want Miranda to put the facts together in that moment, or did she just not want Miranda running after the escaping Halsey? Did some part of Halsey think hey, she's hated me for years, it's not going to affect her watching my clone die, maybe Miranda would celebrate she's finally gone?

Regardless of her motivations - regardless of Halsey telling herself time and time again everything she did was for the greater good of humanity - she, at that time, did not appear to care for Miranda at all. Miranda had to see her mother's clone die a violent death, and this shortly after her actual mother having apparently pretended to be sorry convincingly enough to play on Miranda's emotions and steal her biometric credentials so she could, in effect, sabotage a great many things whilst using Miranda's identity.

But in stark contrast and prior to all that we have (in episode 5) the moment where we know, and see, that Miranda's ship has been hit by the Covenant. Halsey sees it happen and sinks into the chair like maybe her knees gave out. Yet only moments before she'd given the order to take the artifact onto Miranda's ship as the only suitable option. You could be forgiven for assuming Halsey was grieving the likely loss of their only chance to get the artifact safely out of the Covenant's hands.

But then we see Halsey ordering the ramp to Miranda's ship to get dropped and two figures stumbling out, and we all realise it's Miranda assisting that private who was injured. Halsey, looking genuinely terrified, calls out Miranda's name and immediately dashes out into the middle of a live battlefield to get to her. Miranda narrowly escapes being blown up and is blown over by the shockwave, and we see Halsey running in to pick her up and put an arm over her shoulder so she can help Miranda stumble to safety.

Then we get Halsey's interviews where we find out exactly how awful the whole Spartan program is, and Miranda is thinking just how misguided she was in her younger self's feelings being replaced as Halsey's child with the substitute Spartan children.

Everything that comes after that reinforces the idea that Halsey doesn't or cannot adequately value Miranda's feelings or wellbeing.

The more we learned about exactly the kind of things Halsey has done and subjected others (primarily the Spartans to), the more convinced I was she was a complete sociopath who was incapable of feeling the full spectrum of emotions and who didn't experience empathy. As the episodes went on I started to question that conclusion because it seemed increasingly apparent that Halsey did genuinely care for and likely loved both Jacob and Miranda Keyes, regardless of her either (ruthlessly) squashed or diminished capacity for empathy.

Then we have S2 e06 and e07. I've mentioned e06 with Halsey and Miranda in another post so I won't go over that again here.

In e07 there's so much I don't even really know where to start. Rewatching part of it now and it occurred to me that while Miranda is testing Halsey's trustworthiness for the information not contained in her notes (as she should, given all the shit Halsey pulled in S1), there's two things that really jumped out at me here. Firstly, it's the fact that Halsey seems to be genuinely grateful to have a scientific mind on her level to talk about these discoveries with, one who Is equally enthralled by it all (personal and professional contentions between them aside), and that is likely a major motivator for opening up instead of hoarding knowledge.

Second, there's the thought that Miranda had all of Halsey's personal logs and research because as far as anyone really knew, she was dead.

Thirdly - as we find out later - that an evident motivator behind Miranda's actions and obsession with her mother's work is because she's been searching for the meaning behind her mother's actions her whole life. Searching for meaning because if maybe she understood Halsey's motivations better she'd feel closer to her mother, something it seems Miranda has been pretending she found distasteful and wanted least, but has evidently subconsciously been wanting for a very long time.

It's curious that Halsey doesn't answer Miranda's 'who else knows about this' question, and I'm thinking that this means the full extent of Halsey's research and discoveries that eventually led to the Spartan program, and that the reason Halsey doesn't answer because maybe the only other person who knew as much as she did about it all is Jacob Keyes. And I like to think that maybe Halsey moves on/sidesteps the question because she doesn't want to put Jacob in a bad light, given the circumstances.

And maybe Miranda knows that and lets the question go for the moment, but she's clearly thinking about it because we get a brief shot of her in the background just watching her mother while Miranda is clearly tense as hell, shoulders rigid and creeping up toward her ears. Then she starts to talk about what happened. She's not asking Halsey questions, merely voicing statements, because it's evident some part of Miranda already knows her father gone. She just hadn't wanted to lose hope.

And Halsey is standing there, face and body language looking simultaneously wildly uncomfortable and increasingly grave as the conversation progresses, like some part of her wants to be kind and comforting to Miranda except she's been suppressing her instinctive emotional responses for so long it's like she's forgotten how to do so anymore, and she's desperately trying to dig up those forgotten memories because she realises she doesn't want to cause Miranda any more harm than she already has.

And we get that tiny little lip wobble and big eyes from Miranda as you literally see the reality of the news settle into her, while she tries not to cry in front of Halssy. And we get Halsey stumbling over her words (a rare occurrence) when she tells Miranda that she was there when Jacob died (when Halsey walked away alive and Jacob didn't,) and stuttering again as she calls for Miranda to wait (and not walk away).

Then we have the discovery of the constellation key map and Halsey whispers "now, that's something" in awe. (Which I'll get back to later 🥺)

They get the extremely cool constellation lock open and Halsey steps forward onto the bridge a moment after Miranda calls out "Wait, what if..."

When they're racing back over the bridge and Halsey gets enthralled by the evidence of a whole city below them like she's a moth about to get burned by the light and Miranda's tugging on her arm, trying to drag Halsey to safety, Miranda calls out Halsey's name four or five times in increasingly desperate tones.

It's only when the glass bridge is what looks like millimetres from cracking under Halsey's feet does Miranda let out a frantic "Mom! Please!" And the spell the undead city laid on Halsey is broken.

Halsey's look of shock suggests that Miranda maybe hasn't called her Mom in years (likely decades.) It's the trigger that saves her life just in time.

Then Halsey, like an addict, immediately demands they return to the cavern of likely death, before shortly proving she knows that she and Miranda are a little too much alike in some respects by demanding Miranda reveal the fact she got the object the entombed scientist was holding (protecting?). Miranda looks hesitant, almost shuffling in place in reluctance to trust Halsey, before giving into the need to share the discovery. She passes the object to Halsey who looks thrilled and Miranda gazes back to her with an expression so reminiscent of a child pleased that their parent is proud of them.

Later, Miranda reveals the extent of her fascination/obsession with the site and Halsey's notes, when talking about her staying late and working alone with just Halsey's notes for company for the last five months. I'm curious about the phrasing of "it felt like talking to who you used to be," because it both gives away so much and raises so many questions. Just from that I get the impression that at one point Miranda used to enjoy Halsey's company, used to appreciate their conversations and the like - which made me wonder at what point did it all start really going downhill between them and how long ago it was. I wonder if they've worked together on other research projects in the past, perhaps part of what makes them so familiar with how each other operates even while estranged.

More than that, even, is the striking degree of vulnerability that Miranda is willingly displaying here despite everything Halsey has done (in season 1 particularly) and despite her valid mistrust. Miranda so clearly very much wants to connect with the only family member she (presumably) has left, invariably letting Halsey know how important she is still to Miranda in the process. Miranda's words of "And don't worry. If you never get there, I will," have a multitude of layers. Spoken to the table instead of directly to Halsey's gaze, they become a sort of teasing echo to all their previous tension and 'anything you can do I can do better'-style competitiveness - while retaining that shy undercurrent of attempting to reassure Halsey that her work matters to Miranda, that Halsey isn't alone in her efforts and that someone else will pick up the ball and keep running with it when she can't, if only because they share that common ground together with the same goals.

That little tentative half-smile that Miranda gives in response to Halsey's reply of "I believe you" with her steady gaze is also telling - it underlines the implications that I've mentioned above. When Miranda unexpectedly manages to get the object open she breathes our 'Halsey' like it's reflex after so many years of doing so, to get her attention - but then she looks up and - after (more or less) finally allowing herself to be emotionally vulnerable in Halsey's presence - says "Mom?" upon realising Halsey isn't right there with her.

We get a drawn-out camera shot of Miranda alone in an otherwise dark room, looking confused and a little lost, Halsey nowhere to be seen. It echoes their earlier conversation - Miranda is alone again because Halsey is not who she used to be, whoever that was.

Miranda looks back down at the object, overwhelmed by the potential gravity of the discovery she's made, but the halfway between a sigh and a laugh she breathes out seems both celebratory and in resignation - as though she's disappointed at Halsey vanishing right then and also disappointed that she's at all surprised to have thought Halsey would actually be reliable enough to be there and share in the celebration with her.

Miranda says "Now, that's something," in awe of the discovery in her hands, in much the same way Halsey said earlier in the episode. It makes me wonder if Miranda is just echoing what Halsey said before, or if it was a regular habit of Halsey's to state the phrase upon discovering something new and inspiring that Miranda picked up by association.

Now that I think about the episode again, what's the bet that Halsey ran off to try and get into the forerunner lab again but gets waylaid by either Cortana or a security lockdown of the base before she had the chance to get infected by the Flood? Oh no, now I'm thinking about Miranda trying to save Halsey from doing stupid life-threatening things again and now I'm even more keen to see next week's episode.

[missmagooglie]

That graveside Buddie conversation is making me insane because they are NOT on the same wavelength. They're trying to be, but Buck is questioning everything about himself and Eddie is going through it but they are still each other's person even when the rough edges don't fit together quite right but there is SO MUCH they aren't ready to talk about.

And then to follow it up with that scene with Christopher? Where Eddie left for just a second to go bring him something from the kitchen for them to share together, only to come back and find him passed out on the couch?

The way Eddie has love, has a family, but he still feels alone because Christopher is growing up and Buck hasn't been the same since the lightning strike and the shape of his family is growing and changing around him but he still feels stuck and I'm -

[alraedesigns]

"I'M IN A GLASS CASE OF EMOTION!" - ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY (2004)

watercolor and ink, 4"x5"

[eadrey-the-iptscray]

PART FIVE IS DONE 😭🙏

There will be an epilogue at some point (and bonus content 'cause I can't help myself) but THE MAIN STORY IS DONE

Here's the last chapter:

[bigeloo]

Frosted glass

[impishtubist]

Hello I'm back to being a Doctor Who blog, come tell me all your thoughts.

[tervaneula]

"I don't want to lose you."

GUESS WHO CRIES EVERY TIME THEY THINK ABOUT THIS SCENE. YES IT'S ME. Also holy shit Casey has a lifetime of therapy ahead of him, I can't even begin to comprehend what it's like to reunite with your family but they're not the same people you grew up with D’:

[treespen]

this lighthearted "The Harkers' love is blessed by Eris" somehow reminded of I will love you as misfortune loves orphans

[respectthepetty]

Your analysis on stuff makes me feel things I've never felt before.... I don't know what to do with these emotions.... OMG!! I'm gonna go and question my existence now. Thank you...

Anon, it's because I'm still a practicing emo.

I don't think anyone from my generation who heard lyrics like

The truth is you could slit my throat And with my one last gasping breath I'd apologize for bleeding on your shirt

made it into adulthood without having a shit ton of repressed emotions hiding under the surface waiting to erupt at the slightest prompting.

I haven't outwardly shown emotions for easily over a decade now, so I have to do something with all these simmering feelings: insert -> analyzing fictional characters' behavior. As an emo, I love the angst. I love the pining. I love the batshit craziness of it all.

So if I can imagine a character scribbling a lyric on his Converse with the blackest of Sharpies, I'm invested:

In heaven, I lost my taste for hell

I need time to replace what I gave away

Note to self: I miss you terribly

No one dies from love. I guess I'll be the first

Like violence, you have me forever and after

Yeah. So like I said - EMO!

Oh, and I'm an English professor, and we LOVE to analyze the fuck out of everything. All the time. Everyday. 24/7

[vetteldixon]

AJ Allmendinger shares the love with his Kaulig Racing team after winning the 2023 Bank of America Roval 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

[mettleborn]

pull me from the dark (will & hannibal)

[elfyourmother]

And when we brought him at last to behold those shimmering spires, deep beneath the waves, he was for once bereft of clever words in the main. Such love as shone in phantom steel; such grief, poured out in endless aether. And he needed no soulsight to know it for what it was.