#and how beautiful the sea is

[sotc]

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve really tried to make my birthday special for myself and I’m really, really glad I did. I went to the beach for the first time in over a decade and a half (and the first time really treating myself to go out like this esp during the pandemic). I enjoyed the waves, the sunshine on my skin and the tan I got, the good food and the time spent with my partner <3. My friends online and off, along with my family have spoiled me so much with their birthday wishes and kindness, I feel SO incredibly blessed and grateful for all of them. All of you!!!! Thank you guys for making me feel special on the one day of the year I can truly call my own. 💞

[plesiosaurys]

getting emotional over footage of an amateur scuba diver interacting with a coelacanth. they are hunted by large deepwater predators, and here comes a large creature bearing the brightest lights it's ever seen, making strange noises, but it does not shy away. it hovers, calmly, as the diver reaches out and trails a hand down its back. im strongly against the anthropomorphizing of real life animals but the stupid emotional part of me loudly insists this is because it recognizes us, the alternating movements of its four paired limbs matching the diver's four paired limbs, & it is thinking, "hello, cousins, we missed you these 66 million years, it's so good to see you again. welcome back, welcome home."

[chaiaurchaandni]

4 year old Ahmad Shabat - an israeli airstrike hit him, his parents & 4 siblings; he survived, they didn't - then they hit him & his father's relatives; he survived, they didn't - then they hit him & his uncle; he survived, his uncle didn't - both of Ahmed's legs have been amputated because of injuries. He survives.

i hope Ahmad gets to live. i hope he has a beautiful and fulfilling life. i hope he finds love and safety and comfort and success. i hope he finds happiness. i hope he heals. i hope he continues to survive. in spite of the violence, in spite of the trauma, in spite of the horror. in spite of the world.

[taliawinters]

I don't like mountains. Everything I need is at sea level.

[xx-sketchy-xx]

“we are so close to opposites, we must be the same!”

@sketchquill I love your oc so much actually though. They are so wonderful

[imperiuswrecked]

Dorma, will you be no longer my Lady... and become instead, my Bride? No sands need flow, Namor, while I weigh my answer. It is... yes!

Emperor Namor & Empress Dorma Namor Week 2024 - Day 2 - Emperor @namorweek

My eternal gratitude to @ecairnsart who created this beautiful royal portrait of Namor & Dorma for me. Thank you for my art commission, it's so pretty!!!

[legendarypicklesoulsludge]

Song of the Sea Full Movie

So I just recently learned that my favorite movie of all time was uploaded to YouTube for free.

It's an Irish film with beautiful music, visuals, and characters. A truly awe-inspiring work of art.

If your thing is thematically beautiful stories about grief, folklore, and family I Strongly recommend you watch this movie.

It is visually stunning and heart wrenching to watch and near brings me to tears every time. I just cannot express how much I love this film this film. If you've never seen it please put it on your watch list it is so worth it.

[vampirepunks]

I really love all the DS2 theories I've seen so far but one thing I'm picking up is a lot of people expecting Higgs to still be on the same trajectory/goal set as he was in the first game and y'know....... I don't think that's the case.

The overall theme of DS2 from what we've seen so far + Kojima's comments seems to be the concept of opposites, inverses, and dualities, as though it's saying, "take the entire idea and turn it inside out and upside down." It appears to challenge the viewer to subvert whatever expectation/understanding they have based on the first game. It's eternal recurrence as seen through a mirror. The first game was themed around blue and black, this one is red and white. Connection becomes disconnection. Hope becomes despair. Age becomes youth. Repetition becomes change.

Buckle up, I've got thoughts.

(This pattern of contrasts illustrates a theory I've had since DS1 based on Nietzsche's "Thus Spake Zarathustra" and the three-stage journey of metamorphoses--camel -> lion -> child--required to become the overman, but that'll be a separate post. If you're already familiar with the book, just know that in this context DS1 would be the camel and thus DS2 encompasses the lion.)

So, in DS1, Higgs is a hyper-fatalist obsessed with extinction. It's easy to assume that hasn't changed, that he's still dedicated to Amelie and wants to end the world... Too easy, right? Has anything Kojima has written ever been that simple?

I raise you this: In the vein of eternal recurrence, Sam becomes Cliff and Higgs becomes Amelie/Bridget... but this is not a literal retelling, rather, a metaphorical one. A dark mirror to the stories we already know.

So if the theme is opposition, what's the opposite of extinction? Creation. What's the first thing we learn about Higgs in the DS2 trailers? He's a musician now. He sings and he plays guitar. And, arguably, music is the very essence and lifeblood of creation itself, one of the very first things mankind created when our species was in its infancy. Further, Higgs uses his own umbilical cord (yes, it's an umbilical cord), as a guitar jack, channeling his ties to life, death, and his own soul in his performance, highlighting that he has an intimate connection to this core act of creativity. More about that in this post.

Now, DS1 already has a lot of themes and motifs surrounding duality, most notably the concept of chirality: two things that are each other's opposite, two hands imperfectly overlapping, two objects that act as one another's mirror. Powerful things happen when they collide--anything ranging from drug interactions to voidouts to the very birth of the universe.

If I'm reading this right, Sam is set to become the chiral counterpart to his father's tragedy and Higgs is set to become the chiral counterpart to the extinction entity. The same narratives we know, recurring once more, but flipped to become something entirely new at the same time. A rope that becomes a stick and a stick that becomes a rope. Humanity will always need both; the stick is not evil for serving its purpose, nor is the rope inherently good for doing its job. "Whatever is done for love always occurs beyond good and evil."

I'm calling it now: Higgs is not serving Amelie, not seeking to bring her back, not trying to become her. He is rebelling against the idea of her, unshackling himself from the role she placed him in, taking back the autonomy he lost and acting to avenge the abandonment and manipulation he suffered. He's claiming her image as his own to make a mockery of what she represents, painting himself up to look like her decaying corpse, all in an effort to prove she no longer controls him, defiantly asserting, "The queen is dead... long live the king." And so, what is there left for him to do but throw himself into reckless acts of creation? Life from death. Extinction Entity? Cute. Try this on for size: Creation Entity.

[linktube]

damien's three celebrity crushes! x

[luck-of-the-drawings]

ohhh niklaus, how he enamors me!!

i DO love a good morally grey Antagonist, not just a grand villain, but another person, with such a rich life and history and power that we dont even know where to start fathoming yet.

[stingrayextraordinaire]

Aesthetic Moodboards // “How I Became the Sea” by Owl City

I brought the oceanside to its rusty knees as I felt the even tide deep in my shallow dreams.

[homolobotomized]

hello jinbin nation 💪💪💪

[missmungoe]

If you have a moment, you should go check out TricksterMelon on Twitter :) I hope you like it <3

I am speechless

[algaeful]

diatom art created by klaus kemp

[oceanwithouthermoon]

once again thinking about mermaid saiki !!

him having bad days and just wanting to get in the damn ocean and swim with the fishies !! fish have thoughts but they r so simple minded that its just a gentle murmur and its so lovely for him !!

the ocean is so beautiful to him !! its one of the few things he allows himself to take comfort in !! my boy can literally make friends with sharks and he does !!

IMAGINE any of his friends being scared of the ocean and wanting to get over their fear and saiki is like. i can literally show you the beauties of the world. the wonders of the earth. let me show you.

cuz he probably gets to be a really REALLY good swimmer because of his mer shenanigans.. he takes his friends diving (not very far/deep) and holds their hands and shows them beautiful things..

they watch him pet sea creatures that they wouldnt have even thought to get near and are just like.. huh..

[velvetjune]

the chapter songs in Alan Wake 2,, flawless