#I'm not bothered by the review

[hrokkall]

HOW TO PIN YOUR INSECTS:

Position limbs into desired arrangement and pin in place

Maintain eye contact

Pin should pass through the center of the thorax

Move slowly; lest the divine light leak out along with the ichor

Wait for the embers to die.

Wait for the embers to reignite.

[fantasticalleigh]

🖤🖤🖤🖤Another one for The Education of a Lady 🖤🖤🖤🖤

used this Pin as a reference

[certifiedmaidenlessblog]

Trying so hard not to be a detestable human to my project partner

[ripclaudia]

i know that jesse armstrong is more than capable of knowing when to end a series but the way it was announced that season 4 is going to be the last one kind of made me feel like the whole process behind it is a bit sketchy. they only revealed that s4 is the last one only a month before the premiere, even after posting teaser trailers that never even hinted at the season being the last, and even the cast got the news only during the table read for the final episode. the promotion of season 4 has been disappointing especially when compared to season three. while the actors are not the ones writing the show, most of them have been very clear that they could have seen the show go on for another season and their disappointment over the show ending has been clear as day. while an ambiguous ending will be a very fitting end to succession and i am not against it, i am definitely wondering if the decision to finish with season 4 was something that developed during the filming process instead of it being a clear guideline throughout the creative process of season 4.

[undercat-overdog]

I poked desultorily at a Rings of Power review and never got around to writing it out. But the showrunners talking about how they wrote a better story than Tolkien brought a black anger to my heart, so.

I don’t think the show is very good and the problem is them. A day ago I would have said that the Hobbit movies were worse than RoP and objectively that’s probably still true. But to my knowledge, PJ never said that Tolkien’s story was stupid. Payne and McKay did.

I didn’t come in as a hater; if anything I came in expecting to reluctantly like the show and my primary worry was that it would affect my interpretations of the world and characters. I was expecting bad Tolkien and good television; I was expecting to be entertained. (Well, I was entertained, thanks to my brilliant and funny cowatchers <3)

And I don’t think the show was terrible; I’d call it the bad side of mediocre. The actual audiovisual part was competent. Some things were done very well (very pretty!) and some things weren’t (the sound mixing). I feel something was off with the moment-to-moment editing but the lack of proper establishing shots that fit the dialogue in some scenes were the faults of others (e.g., Tar-Miriel saying the Numenoreans will sail with the tide as she and Elendil stand in the middle of a field with no water nearby; were they actually by a shore I’m sure the cinematographer would have gotten shots showing it, so it’s hardly their fault or the editor’s). It was ok-ish! All that was mostly good even, though not $465 million dollars good.(1)

But the script sucked, story and dialogue both. Spoilers below.

The pacing went from far too slow to incredibly rushed (the making of the Three in the final episode, smushed into maybe 20 minutes in one episode. We spent more time watching Galadriel get on and off boats). The lack of build-up and tension. The astonishing plot holes and inconsistencies. The strange worldbuilding that seems to assume that the viewer knows the lore except the show changes the lore. (Or doesn’t explain it - Elrond being half-elven comes up multiple times but it’s never actually explained what that means. Oh, and apparently Earendil was a mortal?) The mystery boxes and obvious twists and cliffhangers that aren’t. The usual fantasy problems of teleportation, food, travel, how the stars change as you go west to east rather than north to south, etc (super annoying, because that is not a problem Jirt shares.)

And my god, the dialogue. “Why does a boat float?” “I am Groot good.” “The sea is always right.” And those are the memorable lines; the first two are lines the show treats as profound. Listen to some of the pre-battle speeches that Bronwyn or Arondir give and compare them to Theoden or Aragorn in the Return of the King movie. Yes, PJ was cribbing or rearranging Tolkien’s dialogue and you can tell when he’s writing his own; he has  some awful clunkers. But he got a lot closer. RoP’s decent lines are taken from either Tolkien or the movies. (The show even takes one of Cate Blanchett’s lines from the movie Elizabeth, the one about a tempest inside her, and gives that, slightly modified, to Galadriel. Which is pretty unfair to Morfydd Clark, asking her to match that.)

Oh, and it was devoid of humor. And horniness.

I could go on (and on and on) but I want to talk about something in the final episode that both bothered me a lot and that I feel exemplifies some of the issues: Sauron tempting Galadriel by saying her “you would have a queen” monologue at her.

Quick background with spoilers: Halbrand is one of the main characters and the one who interacts with Galadriel the most; we find out in the last episode that Halbrand is Sauron. The two of them meet when she’s swimming across the Belegaer and he’s on a raft. After some episodes on Numenor, they go to Middle-earth, fight a battle, and somehow survive being engulfed by a pyroclastic flow when Mount Doom erupts. Halbrand is injured somehow (iirc we don’t see the injury, but Galadriel takes one look at him and declares he needs elvish medicine. After which he stands up, gets on a horse, and they go to an elvish realm, galloping for six days on the same horses with no saddlebags for food, no spare horses, Halbrand with sepsis and Galadriel in full armor. Ok, that digression is completely besides the point but I felt sorry for the poor horses!) In Eregion, Halbrand is cured, gives Celebrimbor the information needed to make magic items that will stop the Elves from fading (how the fading plot is done is very stupid imo), and Galadriel reads a paper that tells her that Halbrand isn’t who he says he is. She confronts him, learns he’s Sauron, and he proposes that she join him in ruling Middle-earth, a proposal complete with gaslighting and emotional manipulation. (Is that the plot of a silvergifting fic? I’ll get to that.)

Show!Galadriel is not the character seen in canon. The show swaps around character stories and traits (Elrond is the one with the Dwarvish connection; Celebrimbor seems only vaguely aware of their existence). It’s Galadriel, not Celebrimbor, who has a relationship with Sauron, bonds with him, and is tempted by him. She’s the character Sauron tutors (albeit in ‘don’t be a dick’ rather than deep lore); she’s the character taken in by him. Gone is her insight into people and her suspicion of Annatar and gone is Celebrimbor’s plot.

(Honestly, I’m not sure why Shreev Palpatine no really he looks like him Celebrimbor is in the story at all. The part where he wants to build a massive forge goes nowhere, his canon plot was taken from him, and it’s not even his idea to make the Three Rings! Nor does he make them by his own hand, since the scene where they’re made has a number of unnamed smiths in the background working on them. He’s also an idiot: Saubrand teaches the Master Smith about alloys. He could have been cut - have Gil-galad send Elrond directly to Moria, have Halbrand tell Galadriel about alloys, and have unnamed smiths make all the Three, not just two of them - and nothing would have changed.)

One of book Galadriel’s defining traits is ambition, the desire to have political power. In the Second Age, she is a political leader. There’s none of that in the show.  Honestly, the show’s version isn’t recognizable to me as Galadriel. But she is the show’s best characterized, err, character. We know as much about her as any other person and more than most, and we never once see her display any hint of political ambition. She’s also devoid of political skill and acumen and devoid of insight into other people, nor kind nor wise. Everything that characterizes Tolkien’s Galadriel...

I have a big problem with taking away Galadriel’s ambitions. Not just because it’s such a big part of who she is but because it’s rare that women are allowed to be ambitious. This is especially true since her motivation was changed to her wanting revenge upon Sauron for the murder of her brother (changing her focus from herself to a male relative).

(Incidentally, I think casting an actor who’s 5’3 to play her and visually framing her as noticeably shorter than all the men she interacts with doesn’t help at all. Elendil even says she reminds him of one of his children as he physically looks down on her.)

But the lack of ambition also causes a problem within the show’s story: when she finds out who Sauron is, Sauron proposes to her. (It is a proposal: he’s asking her to rule beside him as his queen. That’s a marriage alliance.) And he tempts her by offering political power, telling her: I would make you a queen, fair as the sea and the Sun, stronger than the foundations of the Earth.

(Even if that monologue weren’t famous and even if you have a better opinion of the (bland, banal) dialogue than I do, it would be obvious that the writers didn’t write that. It’s a far cry from Finrod saying that “rocks can't float because they look down into the darkness.” Let me introduce you to specific gravity, Finrod. Or pumice.)

It’s not just dialogue that’s poorly lifted but it’s not appropriate to the characters as they are in the show. Saubrand knows Galadriel well by this point in the season and there’s no been previous indication that she wants to rule, or even that she’s interested in political power. So he tempts her with a dialogue about ruling? 

The “you would have a queen” monologue in Fellowship is the pivotal moment in Galadriel’s arc. Giving her speech to Sauron removes her later agency and moral ambiguity. She’s not tempted by her own desire to rule as a queen ruling in her own right in place of Sauron; she’s tempted by him to be a king’s wife at the side of Sauron. It’s no longer a want that comes from inside herself but something that a man told her.

(Men tell show!Galadriel a lot of things. They’re right much of the time, too - Halbrand/Sauron is entirely correct when he tells her that insulting a ruler and then demanding something of them isn’t the best way to get what you want. She is not a tactful character.)

And… I debated whether or not to include this, because I absolutely do not think Celebrimbor/Sauron is canon any more than Fingon/Maedhros is canon (2). But there is a queer reading of Annatar and Celebrimbor’s relationship. It’s not the only reading, but it’s a very valid one, “seduction” and all. And I’m not bothered in the slightest that the show didn’t do Annatar/Celebrimbor, though I am very bothered by portraying Celebrimbor as an idiot.

Except... the show did do silvergifting: I have read this fic. (Lol ok I’ve read better fics; I don’t think it was particularly well executed here.) Sauron’s in a relationship with an elf in which he teaches them things and tempts them. His actor might say otherwise, but it’s all but explicitly romantic; there’s even a trailer centered on the two of them that’s edited like a romcom. He essentially proposes to that elf. Except now the elf is Galadriel and now it’s m/f rather than m/m. It was a choice and it’s done in a way that diminishes Galadriel’s character.

There’s more things I could say about Sauron and Galadriel in the final episode and essays to be written on other choices made; this is just one particular example (I also have many geology and geography rants lol). But I’ve already written more than enough, and if I’m going to write about RoP, I’d rather it be an anonymous porn parody.

(1) Rings of Power had a bigger budget and spent more money per minute of screentime than the LotR movies did: $465 million for RoP, $281 million for LotR, the equivalent of $457 million in 2021 dollars, numbers from wiki. Is it fair to compare the LotR movies with RoP? Yes. RoP itself references the movies again and again and again. And comparing budgets is incredibly fair and RoP has a blockbuster movie budget (or three blockbuster movie budgets, rather).

(2) Though silvergifting isn’t any less canon. More, even, what’s a green jewel next to seduction and making rings together and Sauron talking about Celebrimbor’s booty. (Of Dwarves and Men, bless.) Tbh after having seen the show, I’m glad my OTP wasn’t on-screen and barely interacted, though I am a bit sad that there won’t be any silvergifting vid set to Blank Space.

[thtfailedartist]

Me pulling up to the function acting like nothing happened after watching the most toe curling, earth shattering, tear inducing movie I've ever seen

[mylittleredgirl]

that corporate jargon fandom post ruined me because i really can't think of another way to say this. i am experiencing scope creep for real on those ask prompt ficlets. blowing all my milestones. rip to my user engagement touchpoints. i just wanted to diversify my fic offerings. this was not in the strategic plan

[totalspiffage]

How am I finding places to go on my trip out to the Oregon coast? Searching for where we're most likely to see wild seals.

[enixamyram]

I really hate that people seem to be using "[name] Critical" instead of "Anti [name]" now.

Partly because I've noticed far too many people use that tag as a shield against others calling out their problematic claims. As in, if a fan tries to argue an incorrect or misleading comment, these particular people quickly claim the fan "just can't take criticism" as a way of dismissing their points.

And partly because you can be critical of something and still enjoy it. But of course it's only ever being used it a negative light, which is kinda confusing and not just to me. I've seen at least one person tell someone else off for tagging "Critical" because the end of their post stated something along the lines of the good outweighing the bad.

There's nothing wrong with being "anti" something. It's your own opinion and it doesn't always have to be positive. Using Anti tags is a nice clear system and I just really prefer it.

[shenyaanigans]

maaaan it's a weird vibe when a youtuber with the conceit that they're a licensed clinical therapist actively talks about how they don't accept sponsorships they don't put their full backing behind, and then that same youtuber accepts a supplement sponsorship repackaged as "bedtime hot chocolate"

[nightshadedumplings]

It's a little frustrating getting 100+ notes on something you worked hard on, only for all of those notes to be 90 likes and 10 reblogs, only 2 of which have tags, which just say "preg" or "text". If you enjoyed it enough to reblog it, you probably enjoyed it enough to think or feel something about it, so why not let the person who made it know? It could be something as simple as "love this" or even "fave".

[lit-in-thy-heart]

people leaving not glowing reviews in ao3 bookmarks my unbeloved

[friendofthecrows]

I wish platforms that either 1. give recommendations or 2. display a lot of aggregate data/products/posts based on "relevance" or "featured" would discuss how their algorithm works. I need to know what factors actually go into this calculation and how it is actually weighted.

[ingravinoveritas]

I mean no disrespect, but I wonder if you realise that probably all the main plot points of Staged are scripted? Including acting cues like David and Michael touching, comforting, asking who is the big spoon etc. “Georgia says we’re like a married couple” doesn’t actually mean Georgia said it, it means Simon Evans wrote this line for David.

I see in your profile that you’re on the spectrum, and I am not sure if that’s one of the reasons it’s hard for you to discern the difference maybe? (Again, no intended disrespect. Please take this as a well meaning message from a well wisher. My brother is on the spectrum and he has a tendency to do this). The show is so meta at this point, it’s understandable if it felt confusing and hopeful maybe.

But we have to keep in mind that they’re simply actors with amazing chemistry, and the entire show dynamic is playing on that. In reality, their friendship may be very different to how it is portrayed. Not to mention, the romantic components are just for show. They can play so much on it mainly because David and Michael are both men in committed heterosexual relationships. This is not coming from a homophobic place either, considering (like the rest of tumblr) I definitely ship Aziraphale and Crowley romantically. But the actors themselves, well, I don’t think it’s healthy to go there?

Anyway sorry this was very long. Please take care of yourself.

Hello, Anon.

There are a lot of things I’d like to say in response to this. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the concept of “benevolent ableism.” I’d like to explain it, but first it might help if I give an example of malevolent ableism.

Four years ago, I was interviewed for a movie about the first person ever officially diagnosed with autism, which is based on the best-selling book of the same name. The movie is set to premiere nationally in the U.S. on PBS next week, and they’ve begun doing promotion on social media ahead of it. In the post PBS made on Facebook the other day, someone left a comment calling autistic people “feeble-minded vermin” and insisted on the “complete and total extermination” of autistic people “on a global basis.”

This is something that we would immediately recognize as ableism. It’s hateful, it’s angry, and it calls for actual genocide against autistic people. Because in this world, this is the mentality that some people actually have toward people on the spectrum--that we are different, less, inferior. “Other.” And they are making their feelings about that difference very clear, and in no uncertain terms. Of course, this is an extreme example, and not necessarily something most of us are likely to encounter in our day to day lives.

Which, then, is where “benevolent ableism” comes into the picture. What this term tends to refer to is when neurotypical people speak or behave in ways that are hurtful and demeaning to autistic/neurodivergent people while under the pretense of being “helpful,” “kind,” or even “well-meaning.”

It’s things like telling someone “Oh, you’re too pretty to be autistic.” It’s deciding a place/situation is “too much” for an autistic person and convincing them to leave because you think you know “what’s best” for them. And in this case, it’s assuming that I must not know the difference between fiction and reality because of my autism and writing in to tell me that I am “wrong” about Staged because of it.

The common thread in all of these is something called “infantilization.” This happens when autistic adults are treated as children in big bodies and believed to not have the capacity to understand things solely on the basis of being autistic--regardless of chronological age, developmental level, or any other factors.

This is what I feel you have done here, Anon. You are talking down to me, but I am not a teenager, and I’m certainly not a child. I’m an adult woman, and if you’d spent more than five minutes on my blog, you would know that I have shipped Michael and David since 2019, long before Staged was even close to being a thing. My reasons for shipping them have nothing to do with the show or a script...but I get the sense that that doesn’t make much of a difference to you.

Because I’ve gotten plenty of hater Anons due to shipping Michael and David in the past, but this? This is by far the worst. I would rather get Anons calling me the R-word or any other of the many names I’ve been called, because at least I know where they stand. But when you use the words “well meaning” and “no disrespect” and then proceed to talk to me the way you have here...I am truly at a loss.

There are so many things I could tell you. I could tell you that I have a Masters degree. I could tell you I’ve spoken at the United Nations twice. I could tell you I’ve given a TED talk. I could tell you that I completely and wholeheartedly disagree with nearly everything you’ve said about Staged and Michael/David’s dynamic and what was scripted, and provide multiple examples and thought-out, compelling arguments explaining my rationale.

But none of it would matter, because you took one look at my blog and all you saw was “autism.”

Not me. Not Amy. Just “autism,” and everything you believe that means. And in doing so, you have insulted not only my intelligence, but my humanity.

Yet I’m supposed to believe you “mean no disrespect” (I think you did) and that you are not homophobic (I think you are). Or at least biphobic, because even though Michael and David are in straight-passing relationships, it does not automatically mean they are straight.

(Nor does it mean that is the reason they felt comfortable playing up the romantic elements of Staged 3, an argument that absolutely makes no sense to me because--and you would also know this if you’d read my blog--the last thing I think Michael or David would ever do is queer-bait or specifically play something like that as a joke.)

If only one thing comes out of me answering your Anon, I hope it’s this: I am in a place of confidence now. I know who I am. But I also know that if another autistic or ND person had gotten this message, it could have destroyed them. Your words are the words we’ve heard before--from parents, from teachers, even lovers--and they are no less dehumanizing as we get older.

I know that I don’t know you, or your brother, Anon. But if I got this feeling from your attitude, I can almost guarantee that he has gotten it, too, and that it has affected the way he sees himself. He may not say it to you, may not express it, but the things you say and the way they make him feel live in a place deep inside, and that is something that never fully goes away.

So I hope you will take this as an opportunity. An opportunity to learn, and to do better. Because I deserve more than to be seen as the sum of my limitations. I deserve to be seen as Amy, as the woman I am, of whom part, but not all, is being autistic.

 I deserve better than this. And so do all autistic people.

[stormwaterwitch]

Tumblr dot Com

I have 10 blogs

Yes 10

Everyday I get on Tumblr the first thing I do is check my activity and what do i find

pornbots

I have to go and report pornbots every day on all of my accounts

which for the record is like two per blog

so I waste my time

clicking report > Spam

and still nothing gets done about it

I am so fucking

tired of all these god damn

pornbots on Tumblr

[letoscrawls]

I posted 666 times in 2022

That's 253 more posts than 2021!

264 posts created (40%)

402 posts reblogged (60%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@letoscrawls

@/irn-bru

@/sabertoothwalrus

@/nibeul

@/bobafettuccini

I tagged 547 of my posts in 2022

Only 18% of my posts had no tags

#ask - 89 posts

#my art - 65 posts

#dune - 49 posts

#star wars - 24 posts

#lotr - 22 posts

#dune art - 19 posts

#long post - 19 posts

#ahsoka tano - 15 posts

#star wars spoilers - 11 posts

#srb - 11 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#like they would have to come up with an excuse if they made him super pretty and with long hair etc and i can't really imaginr that shsjdjs

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

See the full post

3,231 notes - Posted May 4, 2022

#4

See the full post

3,653 notes - Posted May 15, 2022

#3

The next generation of Star Wars and it's all depressed people

5,344 notes - Posted May 22, 2022

#2

Ahsoka's graduation day 🌟

she's doing a peace sign bc this AU is all about peace 😔

Part of the Order 66-never-happened-AU

7,834 notes - Posted May 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

We all had a cringe fandom phase, but what's that piece of media you almost were a fan of, like you tip-toed on the edge of the hole but for some reason never fall into it

10,005 notes - Posted March 16, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →