#an alien sideplot

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Just saw the like 5th person referring to my Animorphs fic series Eleutherophobia as "the zombieverse," which TBH I like better than the original name. It's easier to spell, more descriptive... but also potentially misleading, since there are no literal zombies anywhere in the story. So... poll?

[theoriginalriffles]

Fic/AU idea guys wait-

Adam is able to convince Shiro to sit out the Kerberos mission (or it never happens?). Meaning, Keith never gets kicked out, Pidge would probably join the Garrison under her own name, and Lance would stay in cargo class. All is going swell, until Shiro’s disease starts to get worse. This fucks Keith up, who starts verbally and physically lashing out- but only to the extent of a suspension or less, not an expulsion. Lance, being the kind-hearted boy he is, decides to set aside his rivalry and reach out to his classmate who’s obviously hurting. Over time, Keith let's him in and they become friends. After Lance has humanized Keith in his mind, his inferiority complex is no more and he's able to graduate to pilot class. There, they loop in Hunk and Pidge and become a tight-knit group.

Still, Shiro is getting worse and worse. After a bad bout that ends him in the hospital, Keith starts feeling something pulling him- the blue lion. He takes the gang with him to investigate ("wow my best friends are all conspiracy theorists" - Lance, probably) and they find the blue lion, and they're taken to the castle like in show. now it's time to form voltron but... there's no Shiro. Keith goes for Red, Pidge Green, Hunk Yellow, and now that Lance has been able to really settle in as a pilot in the Garrison without the need to compare himself to others, he's able to step into Black. Allura takes Blue. From here, Voltron continues pretty much as normal, but the found family trope is Founding More Family (basically it's better, they're more connected, etc). Lance gets to be the great leader I know he can be, no crazy lion swapping needs occur, galra ass gets kicked, and of course, Klance gets to be canon king.

and okay i'm not killing Shiro off I just don't know how to solve that whole Problem. maybe some alien tech/magic can help him (that could be a whole keith sideplot? trying to find one thing in the galaxy that could save his brother?). Also adashi stays together!

basically. i'm a mastermind

[mummer]

now that i know theres time travel involved if the four detectives dont all get to meet up and hang out via time machine by the end of this im going to call in a bomb threat to netflix hq i dont care if it doesnt make sense. They should be pals. Commit to your premise

are u guys watching bodies. Cyril from andor is crazy and gay in it

[heytemporary]

Oh goodness gracious

Tumblr please understand that just because I post critics of bnha does not mean I want to see posts about the show UNLESS its about slandering them.

I switch to For You for one second thinking I was going to get a fresh feed of media I genuinely care about. But no its flooded with shows I’ve slandered being praised one way or another.

Quite frankly idgaf about the general census fandoms portrayal about the show. Not the inside jokes, fanart, fanfic, headcanons, fanon portrayal, ships or controversial discourses surrounding themes like (allegations for) marginalised identities & oppression because who are we kidding thinking Horikoshi did a great job at it when he himself never even faced such things.

For example there’s no point of me caring about ships like togachoko when the canon itself couldn’t even handle it right. Because from what I could tell it didn’t know if it wanted to be portrayed as positive or toxic. Don’t care about its fandom discourses like if Oochako is suffering from comphet, if Oochako deserved Toga from Izuku, if Oochako’s bisexual, if this and thats the fourth.

And I’m saying this as a (Asexual) Lesbian who does genuinely care about representation. Same thing can be said for other aspects but I don’t want to get too ahead of myself and possibly alienate myself.

If you genuinely believe Horikoshi did a good job at portraying lesbians like that then 🤷‍♀️ All I’m saying is theres no point emotionally exhausting yourself in those fandom discourse if the creator themselves has shown time again to fumble even their own canon representation. You honestly deserve better than that.

Heck, I don’t even want to see fanart /fanon from my supposed favourite character Hitoshi Shinsou. Only canon screencap/manga panels and slander off him. Miserable fucker is not even getting a smile from me.

And I also do not care to emotionally invest myself with the canon anymore. Cba to care about the vigilante, movies, sideplots or whatever. Don’t want to actively see that unless its just canon posting without any bias comments.

The only thing I want to see from the mha tags is criticism, slander, and better reimagines.

Yes ik I sound miserable. No I would not go out of my way to deliberately shit in the fandoms tags and ruin it for everyone. Yes I get some ppl are emotionally invested in this series. No I don’t want to see any positive praises on my feed especially if its bias driven.

I’ve got to start actively cultivating my feed. I didn’t want to block bnha / mha tags because thats just doing too much. But now you leave me no choice Tumblr

((Tbh this can be said for other shows I once used to be a fan of that I’ve grown to hate. i.e Miraculous, Doctor Who))

[narrativeabducted]

Interest check! Discord RP Group based around alien abduction plots as well as sideplots for the alien group currently abducting and experimenting on humans!

[zalisok]

TUA Rant #2: Pacing

Spoilers ahead:

I also want to talk about the pacing of the show: it was odd.

The first episode was already a bit odd for me: they took quite a long time to introduce the characters, but it didn't seem like enough. A bit contradictory, but still. 5 years passed snice the last season and some changes seemed pretty sudden. I want to know more about Diego and Lila's budding tension, Viktor being bad at dating, Klaus becoming a germaphobe (which lasted for, like, 2 episodes. I get that it's linked to his powers but it was still a bit disorientating), Luther becoming a stripper professional dancer. But with 6 episodes I think they did try to do the best they could, and I'm not going to give them any more shit about it, I do understand that it's hard.

There were scenes that didn't need to be there. The scene where they were puking in the van. It went on for a long time (in my mind it was, but it was probably a minute or two). And the Five and Lila scenes oh my god that plot point took up so much time and went absolutely nowhere except hinder the main plot. Like what was the point.

Klaus' (and Allison's) sideplot went absolutely nowhere. It was interesting to watch and I was invested, but it didn't help push the main plot like Klaus' sideplots usually do. It was just there.

Diego and Luther's sideplot did link back to the main plot, but only for a bit. At least their dynamic was fun to watch (Maybe I'll do a post for all the characters a bit later).

I was cool with the first four episodes. I was genuinely interested in a plot and there was a feeling of suspense, a mystery to be solved. I thought the plot points above would link back to the apocalypse somehow. But they mostly didn't, and that was a bit of a letdown. There were so many parts that were just irrelevant, and when you have limited runtime, that's not ideal.

And in turn I feel like a lot of plot points that needed to be expanded upon just WEREN'T. And a lot of it had so much potential and were genuinely interesting to me.

For Jennifer: why was she in a squid? Why did she have durango in her body instead of Marigold? What happened to her family? I want to know more about what the Cleanse actually is. Why does it appear the way it does? Why does it get bigger and bigger? Why did the reaction of two particles create a Lovecraftian horror-esque creature? Why is it named "The Cleanse"??

For Abigail and Reginald: what exactly happened when she synthesized the particles? Why did she synthesize the particles? i want to know more about her and Reginald. Is she an alien as well? Why can she change skins? And why is Reginald an alien? How did he manage to get a whole village under his control? What was his school for wayward boys? And why did that memory machine ever exist, what kind of technology is he cooking in his basement?

For the Umbrellas: Why did their powers return the way that they did? Some of them changed a bit, some of them didn't, some of them got extra powers. Was there any explanation for that? I feel like I have a lot of questions that weren't answered.

And the subway! The idea of it is so cool and it has so much potential. I wish it was explained more.

The ending was really hasty to me. The death scene was way too sudden. The Five deli scene was out of place (to me), though it was interesting to watch. It was like BOOM i guess we all have to die now. It didn't land well.

I do feel like the pacing would have been done better if there were 10 episodes. Some aspects of the show would have been made better. I also think some of the show's plot was sacrificed for comedic scenes. I always enjoy a fun scene but personally, I don't think that should have been the main point of the season. If they didn't have the time to really expand upon the new plot points to make a complete narrative they shouldn't have added so much in.

[transformers-bold-bright-brisk]

AHH JUST FUCK IT—ART/LORE-ISH DUMP!!

Literally my last three recently finished(enough) pieces of 2023

Just for a recap—aka officially telling y’all what’s been up with me—

You see, along side my RBA-esque storyline will be other separate stories that kind of take place at the same time. Sort of, maybe, has a Trollhunters kinda timeline, or something? Let me just break it down into the main drafting titles(pending) I decided to give each sideplot:

- Roll Call Rescue Recruits: Some young transforming individuals attend Rescue Bots Academy, stationed on Griffin Rock and get up to some waaakcy hijinks with their new classmates while training to become Rescue Bots.

- Radiance In Disguise: A spoiled brat has to live with a rustic antique collector and his son, ever since her mother was arrested, and now her mother’s old enemies would have to go through giant alien robots if they even want to lay a finger on her.

- Reach Out To Reassemble: There’s a new Delinquent Rehabilitation Program in succession, and now it’s up to two bots to coach two young Decepticon criminals out of their violent habits; or else it’s prison for them.

None of these are in particular order by the way.

At least I think they aren’t.

[marabarl-and-marlbara]

hi Mara, i reread your old A:N fanfic the other day (the hatecorp one), its really interesting and i liked it!! i just wanted to tell you that + im looking forward to the next A:N fic you write ^^

hey anonymous, i appreciate that--really: i don:t think my readership is particularly high and for most of my writing i wholly expect its reception to be little more different than tossing it into a bin, so i:m always pretty happy to hear someone read/liked something i wrote (like someone snuck it out of the bin and read it);

the hatecorp fanfic is a weird one because it was my first 'clash' with going against autofiction and feeling of friction from writing simulacrum of experiences that are not my own--although i:ve been to Clearwater and talked to Scientologists and bought the books and read the books and visited teeny tiny little orgs and been yelled at by protestors and watched the Sea Org march about stony faced before entering shuttles that scuttle around the roads--i had not paid for any courses and my attempts to join the Sea Org were waved off; the hatecorp as it exists for me would stop at the org and with telling the receptionist that i want to join the org, and going home after.

i think it was part ~2 of that fanfic where i felt like i had no idea what i was writing except that i did not like the feeling i had while writing it, "i:m just regurgitating knowledge i know"--it was a fanfiction i couldn:t write with any real heart, so it only had the simulacrum of anothers heart; parts 1, 3, 4 were mostly from me (i still write about the founding sister; there are several unfinished stories about her), but it also wasn:t coincidence that immediately after writing that fanfic i decided to value my own experiences more highly and became fixated upon the Adventists and Ellen White and started re-attending my local church where i had gone for schooling and rehabilitation, and that basically all my writing after became a murk of Adventism and chirality, because, after-all: i am haunted by a ghost of adventism and christianity.

the latest fanfic i:d been working on ('which you can read as a draft on my substack on the monthly paywall posts >:-))' feels like dirt advertising a clunky draft, but i do put all my drafts in those posts) is focused on viva because, lately, i:d been wanting to reconnect with 'old mystiques,' spoon-bending, silvery flying saucers, cattle mutilation, almond-eyed aliens, crop circles, ESP, telekinesis, gangstalking, and of course: 5G, though mostly grafted onto john keel's superspectrum stuff from eighth tower--a move away from Love Corp, and a move away from a childhood in scientology that was not my childhood; i wanted to write about those blue cars i keep seeing, because i keep seeing them; just yesterday they pulled up on the shoulder and far into the grass and nudged up against the sidewalk as soon as i approached and waited for me and idled. there was that anonymous question about "what i would like to tell someone," which i still think is a silly question because as i view myself i have become stuck on a single paranoia and religion that has threaded itself through every single thing i have written and every single thing i have drawn, and every-thing is a desperate attempt to seed that singular rotten datum into everything else in different weathers and soils--and this fanfic is no different, because i can only write from the hauntings of my own experience.

fifth linebreak,

sixth,

seventh,

take care anonymous, thank you very kindly for your readership; unrelated note: i was thinking about "daydream season 3 castle rock" and what i would want to see is "protagonist is a Christine possessed teen who is starting to see the 'shitters' that are befouled by his car, and his attempt to survive the very real infection of the outer-space saucer filled with dead Tommyknockers that are haunting the town from a mile down inside the earth--sideplot is the advertising firm from Cujo is trying to establish itself within the infected town but is facing John Carpenter They Live style opposition"

[the-holo]

Before I start this, I'm pretty new to comics, but from what little (and I mean LITTLE I got into the game late 😔) I HAVE read, I do like IDWs Transformers run. All the cool cybertronian lore, cultural things, social hangups things like that? THAT is what's interesting to me about stories based around aliens. Whats their culture? What is typical for them that would be so wild here? What is considered tradition? What is taboo? (Fighting is also REALLY cool but without some sort of emotional backdrop it kinda just turns into taking ur action figures and smashing then together randomly for me.) So since I missed the IDW arc, I thought I'd try the reboot. (Rest below the read more)

ALRIGHT, SO THE MEAT AND POTATOES OF THE POST: I've been debating on getting the skybound TF comics. I don't want to miss out if later on they reach more...interesting, to me, plot beats but I really really don't care about the "oooh back on Eaaaaarth" plot...AGAIN. I care even LESS about the forced G.I. Joe on the horizon. Hasbro. Let it GO. No one cares about the random American military propaganda franchise that literally never does well in ur crossovers.

I'm reading Transformers FOR Transformers, not "you too can help fight evil IRL, join the military!"

Furthermore the art style is uuuuh...not bad just definitely not for me. The random WWE moves are just kinda awkward, especially when paired with the art style (I understand its trying to emulate the G1 style but no). I get some people like em and that's fine but...yeah.

And so far, emotionally I don't really feel anything? From what people have tried to tell me is "good" about it, Its just "starscream is a menace". Which would be perfect as a sideplot, if anything else interesting was going on, but after getting an overview of the first 3 issues, it just seems like its: "fight fight fight", starscream does a war crime, "fight fight fight", the humans get in the way, "fight fight", Starscream is being very naughty, also the humans don't understand anything as usual and have decided the best course of action us to get in the way AGAIN (please ur are the size of this guy's EYE. MOVE)

I dunno, again my interest in the reboot has more to do with POSSIBLE on Cybertron plots that may or may not even happen, so is it even worth it?

If anyone has anything more to say on the Skybound reboot (in favor or against) please feel free to comment or anything, I wanna be more informed before investing in a series I'm just not gonna like or something.

I want something that has...feeling I guess it boils down to. Im not getting that from it so far from what people are trying to use to sell it to me.

[sarnakhwritesthings]

God, just

part of my frustration with season 2 is that it has this KNOCKOUT cast (mostly), and the writers are wasting all of them.

Bentley’s and Danny’s characters? Dead, along with a host of other minority characters (including a one-episode-later bury your gays moment which, good fucking job Paramount). Tasha? Sidelined after admittedly some decent character development in earlier episodes. Points for this, at least, but I’d have preferred they not fracture Silver team like so much glass.

Jen? Barely there this season, and she’s not the one in mocap anymore, and I don’t intend to watch enough of season 2 to get familiar with her body double.

Bokeem is being wasted on a ‘black man ignores and is a jerk to his son and wife’ subplot that a) really doesn’t make any sense since Halsey’s apparently been in fucking custody this whole time despite apparently getting away during Transcendence and b) is a REALLY bad look when I compare him to The Sisko Men and when a Declassified segment dedicated to a panel on the show’s diversity praised Soren’s season 1 depiction of black fatherhood.

Charlie is busting her language chops on convincing Arby’s (stealing this Zita, sorry) that he’s Special with very little prior buildup. Makee’s scene with Cortana in Aleria was GOOD, and credit goes to her and Jen for making that work (and I do wonder if Jen was in on set for running through things so Charlie would know where to look, to get a general sense for the mocap actress, or whether she was just recorded in a booth), but… there were so many interesting directions they could have taken Makee and we got a ‘oops shes not actually dead lmao’ story instead.

Kai’s lone-wolfing makes sense in what they’re doing with the story, and Kate is doing her best with it, but… see above wrt shattering Silver Team.

As of this writing I STILL haven’t seen Miranda anywhere (holding off on Onyx until i finish A Regiment of Wolves).

So what are we left with? Pablo, who is a fine actor but I am more and more convinced that his main redeeming quality here is his looks, because he’s not putting the effort in to either adjust to life in the helmet OR recognize that the whole Shouting Thing is not chief At All, and Natascha, who NAILS the ‘love to hate her’ vibes that Louise Fletcher lent to Kai Winn, but FUNDAMENTALLY does not understand the differences between what Halsey is supposed to be like, and what she’s playing.

Perez’s actress is fine, and Ackerson is… Ackerson.

All of this in service to a soft reboot that won’t bring the fans they alienated back, and is driving others away. It swerved too far in season one to course correct back to the games, and they shouldn’t have tried.

I also read an article today that basically went ‘yeah Paramount execs slashed some sideplot stuff in Picard season two because they felt they were ‘too star trek’’ like bitch this IS a star trek show get with the fucking program!!!

[fandomwe1rd0]

the heck even happens in Rick and morty

Just gonna infodump on you cause you asked for it! Spoilers ahead! Infodump under the cut

So there is the Smith family, they are the main characters, you have Beth Smith, the alcoholic mother, Jerry Smith, the bumbling unemployed dad, Summer Smith, the badass sister, and of course Morty Smith, the 14-year-old anxiety-ridden poor boy, and the main character, Rick Sanchez, he's around 70 and is Morty's grandfather, and he has A LOT of issues. He's an alcoholic, definitely depressed, hates himself, and loves Morty more than he loves himself (Which isn't saying much since he hates himself, but still, he loves the kid a whole lot)

Ok, now we got them, I'll just quickfire everything that happens in season one, Rick has Morty shove megaseeds up his butt so they cam go through interdimensional customs with the megaseeds, and he almost gets kicked out due to pulling Mourt out of school, but the megaseeds dissolve just in time giving Morty temporary superintellgence, leading Beth and Jerry to believe that Morty spending time with Rick is making him smarter, when it's not, they leave and that opens to the first garage rant and brings up the iconic quote "100 years Rick and Morty!" Which will come back. Next Rick incepts Morty's math teacher to give Morty As in math, Scary Terry follows them, but they end up becoming his friend after Rick and Morty stop him from having a bad dream, and they get Morty's math teacher to get him an A. Next Morty goes inside a human body and tries to save anatomy park, a park inside of a human body, it breaks down at the end though soooo. Next up Rick gets trapped inside a simulation that aliens trapped him in so they can get his recipe for concetrated dark matter, the fuel for accelerated space travel. Nothing much of note, but we do get a cute protective Rick moment, when he finds out Morty was simulated, his first response was "You simulated my grandson's genitalia!? You diabolical sons of bitches!" He even tries to attack them, but is held back. Next up in a personal favorite of mine, Rick and Morty make a bet that Morty can have a simpe, fun adventure. It starts off rocky, and gets even rockier when we get to that infamous Mr. Jellybean scene, I assume I don't have to talk about it, you already know it probably. Thankfully, Rick is super sweet and understand, not only does he throw the bet so Morty will be happy, but he also kills Mr. Jellybean which has me CACKLING!

Next up is a plot important episode, Morty asks Rick for a love potion to make Jessica fall in love with him, for context Jessica is Morty's crush, Rick at first says no, but eventually relents, but since Jessica has the fuel, it spreads to the entire school, Rick comes to get Morty since he isn't affected by it, since the love potion doesn't work on any related to Morty gentically.A VERY tasteful choice in my opinion, Rick tries to fix it, but just makes a bad situation worse. Rick travels to another dimension where they died, Morty understandably freaks out, but then Rick explains the plan, they just slip into the places of their dead selves, and continue as if nothing happen. Morty is understandably traumatized from this experience, and then we move to the next episode.

Next up is a pretty meh episode, Morty gets an uhm robot, but it was actually a birthing machine, and because of this Morty gets a chld, he tries to be a good father, but fails since well, he's 14, and the baby was naturally very aggressive from the day he was born. There is a sideplot with Rick and Summer, but it's mostly just Rick being a sexist asshole

Next up is an episode I admittably really like, basically it just resolves around Rick and Morty watching interdimensional cable, and it's just nice to see them bonding, there is a pretty good side plot with the rest of their family seeing what their life could've been. Eventually Beth and Jerry divorce but get back together when they realized that they would've gotten back together in a nother dimeson. It's a very sweet scene

Next up Rick drives Summer to work and meets the devil, where his store sells cursed items, eventually he beats the devil by setting up a store that uncurses his items for cash, yeah, he's petty, and I love him. There's a side plot where Jerry goes to Pluto, but there's nothing of note there, we do however gets a sweet moment where Rick is happy to see Morty but hides it, he sees Morty and says while smiling "Hey!" then clears his throat, frowns and says "Hey." very slick Rick.

Next up is a really really good episode, its the first canon episode and it is amazing. We get to meet two iconic characters, Doofus Rick who is a precious cinnamon roll, and Evil Morty who is an evil boy. The council of Ricks think Rick is killing other Ricks, but Rick found out it was evil Morty, we also find out an important detail, Rick hangs around Morty because he uses his brainwaves as camoflague. And we also get a sweet moment where Rick cries from his memories of Morty as a baby

The last episode of season one is eh, it's not great, but it's not bad. We get to meet Rick's friends Squanchy and Birdperson but they don't do much, basically Rick just throws a house party when Beth and Jerry are out of town on their titanic themed getaway. We also get a sweet bonding moment between Rick, Summer, and Morty which is cute.

So that's season one, there are 6 more seasons, go watch it, it's great!

[lord-radish]

The Chibnall run of Doctor Who really bums me out because I really liked what it was trying to do, but something always seemed to bring the show down.

The new monsters - fine at worst. I remember speculating with a mutual about whether other Stenza take other body parts of their victims as battle trophies. I liked the P'Ting, and I LOVED the dudes from Demons of the Punjab. The giant spider was mid and the time-travelling racist was a cardboard cutout, but I felt like the earnest attempt at trying something new in series 11 was good and they could have done more than just a P'Ting cameo later in the run.

I like that they tried to have a larger crew of companions, even if the writers seemingly couldn't write four main characters and decided to sideline one of them every episode. I feel like Mandip Gill put a lot of character into her performance in series 11, even though Yaz was the most sidelined character in favor of Ryan and Graham's "granddad" arc. I was disappointed that Ryan got sidelined for most of series 12 while Graham seemed to mourn Ryan's nan more than he did. Then Dan came and went.

I can appreciate that they tried to up the ante with the Flux season, but it was such a precarious watch where one episode would be one of my favourites since like 2008, and the next one would be underbaked in that Chibnall sort of way and frustrate things. Boring invincible villains, a whole sideplot starring new characters that barely ties into the season's arc, and mangling the Timeless Child plotline - but also the one Weeping Angel episode that I was genuinely entertained and gripped by, and a fantastic Sontaran episode too. If it stuck the landing, I would have forgiven the bad stuff - but it didn't! The season just ends with a thud!!

And at the centre of it all, like glue holding the entire thing together, was Jodie Whittaker's Doctor. She's my favourite Doctor since Tennant, and she elevated the material that she worked with. But the material just... wasn't there. Demons of the Punjab is a GOATed episode, but Orphan 55 might be my least favourite episode of the revival series. I didn't like most of Moffat's run, period - at best, Orphan 55 ties with Sleep No More as my least favourite episode - it depends on whether you prefer dull, uninspired storytelling in the former or a cynical attempt to cash in on trendy, creepypasta-esque horror storytelling in the latter.

But none of this is in a vacuum. Chibnall tried - I genuinely liked the Timeless Child stuff at the end of series 12. The script writers and episode directors tried - Demons of the Punjab and Village of the Angels are fantastic episodes of the show, period. The VFX crew tried - the first episode of the run looked great, the title sequence was fantastic and the effects in that final season were outstanding. The actors tried - Jodie Whittaker, Mandip Gill and Bradley Walsh were high points of this series, while I felt like Tosin Cole got totally shafted. And fuckin Sasha Dhawan? Seriously? Dude owned.

And I liked the approach that the show was taking after the overly self-serious and self-aggrandizing vibe of Moffat's run. I thought searching for the TARDIS was a fun little arc to start the run. I liked the whole "ancient pre-Time Lord alien races" thing that Chibnall does, even in The Power of Three (despite that villain sucking). The security drone Daleks were lightyears better than the New Paradigm Daleks. The Doctor felt like she was sharing the experience with her companions, instead of portraying herself in this loud, egomaniacal way where she has to assert how awesome she is. But the run STILL fell below expectations.

And the worst part is that because the run was so heavily politicised and so much of the hate came in the form of review-bombing and ideological "culture war" horseshit, it was next to impossible to have a productive conversation about Chibnall's run for ages. It's like the right-wing shitheads who poisoned the well with The Last of Us Part II; I couldn't have a productive conversation about that game for years because the haters were doing shit like analysing in-game cafeteria menus and using them to disprove the possibility of a buff woman in a zombie apocalypse, despite thinking the game was like a low-range 7/10 at worst.

So much of the backlash was ideological and political that people would rather blame a shitty episode on the fact that the Doctor transformed into a woman than the fact that it felt like a rejected SyFy Original Movie script with a single rubber costume.

It's just so disappointing in hindsight. At least they broached the topic of Thasmin with some tact, even if they didn't go through with it. Honestly, I stan Yaz forever.

[virag-creations]

Digital diary 2025.06.11. Part 5/6

I went shopping with my mum. I finally have The catcher in the rye. At home I organised my books and rewatched parts of Submarine.

|| The boys find a mask in the attic. Roxy says it's evil. Rio tries to cheer up Millie with the mask. Rio screamed because, RIO BEWAR MY POWER is written on the wall. Rio says Rebecca's right, Millie's got superhuman strength. She pushed me right over. He and Rebecca both say she is evil, then Justine poured maggots on Rebecca's head while Rio was hugging her. Roxy wrote on the wall. || Rio and Roxy are not in this episode. || Rio dresses up as a woman. Blonde hair does not suit him. Marco calls him too small. Rio helps the boys and Bouncer with passing Bouncer as Marco's mum. Rio gets an inflatable alien, too. The sideplot with Elaine changing was interesting. || Rio is not in this episode, but I still liked it. || Rio is scared he will be grounded. The Wellards try to get close to Wolfie to get the money. Rio says that their favourite thing is hunting for toads too. 1000 pounds will be rolling in it. Rio was searching for a toad, but found none. Wolfie says his parents always buy him off with presents and thought the other kids cared about him. Wolfie buys the Plakovas a pinball machine. || Rio put the bins out through the bedroom window. He meets Shelley Appleton. Now he is grounded for 5 hours with the other kids.

[wearethekat]

February Book Reviews: Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio

Picked this book up based on a goodreads recommendation. In Empire of Silence, the notorious Hadrian Marlowe recounts his youth, starting from when he fled his aristocratic father's plans for him to enlist as a cleric. Now an outcast, Hadrian must survive the streets of an unfamiliar planet, the gladiatorial arenas, and the always treacherous imperial noble politics.

Empire of Silence has a framing story similar to Name of the Wind, of a legendary character reminiscing on his exploits, with a setting that's clearly borrowing heavily from the aristocratic space opera setting of Dune. Despite its nearly eight hundred page length, it's a compelling and readable book. I've always been fond of gladiator sideplots myself.

However! It's pretty obvious that, how shall I say it, I am not the audience the author intended for this book. While Ruocchio seems to be attempting to depict a space future with little to no homophobia or sexism, the way we see the worldbuilding is structured doesn't support that. Yes, there's a token mention of soldiers including both men and women. But all the traditional character archetypes that are usually occupied by men--the stern and autocratic parent, the wise mentor, the best friend--are still all men. Out of the women depicted on page, all of the major characters are either Hadrian's mother or women romantically involved with him. The main gay character is defined by the other characters degrading him for his sexuality. And you can forget passing the Bechdel test.

I've enjoyed books with similar flaws before--Red Rising, The Will of the Many. I think where Empire of Silence falls a little flat for me is that most of the titles I've mentioned have particularly competent protagonists who "level up" over the course of the story after starting from nothing. I enjoy reading a Cinderella narrative every once in a while. But Hadrian, in contrast, is not very competent in much aside from dueling, and lacks the strategy and drive that might make him a compelling character. He's a teenager who grows his hair unfashionable long, is addicted to wearing dramatic trenchcoats even when they're unsuitable for the climate, and tends to passively flail his way through his many troubles.

The worldbuilding was engaging, although as I mentioned earlier, it's clearly been heavily cribbed from Dune. Hadrian's father is one of the aristocrats who control the Empire's hundreds of thousands of families, distinguished by his control of precious uranium and close ties to the imperial family. All of the nobles are heavily genetically modified to live for centuries, resist disease, and to be unnaturally tall and strong, to the degree that they cannot have safely children except through vat wombs. The Empire is locked in a years-long war with a group of aliens and bound by an autocratic priesthood that severely punishes anyone who strays from orthodoxy. And so on and so forth. Fun stuff, although not particularly original. Dune, after all, was written over fifty years ago.

Recommended if you enjoyed Red Rising or wished Rothfuss would finish Name of the Wind, as long as you can handle a book that clearly shows the mark of being written by a 22 year old man who works as an editor for Baen Books.

[pipsp]

first post on this blog, kinda nervy. im going to be watching every south park episode and doing a review? analysis? whatever it is i'll do.

S1 E1: CARTMAN GETS AN ANAL PROBE

First episode of the show, not the pilot or the numerous shorts made before this; the actual first episode. This will be slightly different than others I'll do, I think, considering it's the first first episode. I'm pretty sure in my reviews I'll go more into the analysis

The first scene sets up the boys dynamic in a perfectly serviceable way. Including our introduction to Kyle's little brother, Ike. Whom Kyle tells to leave, leading to Cartman calling him a dildo. Kyle gets mad. Basically the first glimpse of the Kyle and Cartman dynamic -- as well as a bit of Stan & Kyle's friendship after.

This first scene also shows a slight innocence to the boys, even if they're already talking about dildos. Showing that even if they're pretty crass, they're still kids.

We get our first Kick the Baby, too!

Cartman then explains his nightmare, which was actually real -- about his probing from the Visitors. Cartman doesn't believe his friends, doing his regular Cartman-isms. And then there is Chef.

Chef is just a really nice character. I'd go into detail, but there are coming episodes that likely will do a better service than my rambling on episode 1.

Kyle makes fun of Cartman being fat, which we see before Cartman makes fun of Kyle for being jewish. Which I think is both funny and surprising. The alien plotline continues with Chef's conversations with the children.

We also see the most forgettable character in South Park history; Mrs Crabtree! She's also one of the more annoying ones, too.

Ike gets abducted by visitors. While it's obviously stated in this episode, despite Kyle's annoyance with his younger brother and his running gag of doing 'kick the baby', he still genuinely loves his brother and wants him safe. His concern could also come from his parents wanting to blame it on him, but I think that's a cynical approach and goes against the previous dialogue between him and Cartman and Ike.

Some things I'll probably skip over in this episode, scenes that don't add anything to the analysis/meta of the characters or the review, and also the sideplot with the cows.

Mr Garrison and Mr Hat are in the scene, showing his incompetence as a teacher and his other things.

We also get a bit of Kyle's character, with his complaining about his father always putting pressure on him and blaming him for things. He's also pretty aggressive, lashing out at Mr Garrison not allowing him to go to save his brother. Aggression is a key part of Kyle's character, and it's already introduced in episode 1.

Pip's first appearance, as well as Clyde, Tolkien, Butters, and Wendy in the background. And he gets set on fire. Poor boy, lol.

We get an establishment of Stan's crush on Wendy, with an adorable frame. Wendy is basically not a character here. She's basically just a girl. A prop to add something to Stan's character and give him something to do, which is why I can't particularly comment on her.

Surprisingly, Stan is the one who gets fed up with Chef - rather than Kyle. Which is a pretty interesting choice, considering in this episode, both the aggresive outbursts and the concern for Ike comes from Kyle. Just an interesting note.

Half way point! And our first Kenny death. Make the Death Counter 1

Cartman's refusal of having been probed is very interesting - just like Cartman! Could it be that he doesn't want to seem emasculated, and thinks having an anal probe would do just that to him, so he denies it? Possibly. It could be linked with a relationship towards masculinity. Or I could be reading too deep. I'll go into Liane & Eric's relationship later, but I think the set up this episode gives us is nice and encapsulates their dynamic pretty well.

Stan/Wendy/Kyle's dynamic here could lend itself to a Style reading, as I do really enjoy them. It could be jealousy, annoyance, and concern for his little brother all piled up into one initially. Wendy is super cute in the early seasons though, and the Wendyle crumbs are there!

And while I didn't mention it here, this episode is funny. I enjoyed it. This is the awkward ending of the analysis here.

RATING: 7/10

STANDOUT: Kyle

[cocajimmycola]

(Dreamy sigh.) thinking about youtubers life 2. worst game i;ve ever played /silly