#arbitrary complexity

[corellianhounds]

Idk why everyone thinks Crosshair was the chaotic misbehaving brother as a cadet. Mr. “Good soldiers follow orders” even without the chip? Mr. “Loyal to the Empire” even after they destroyed all Kaminoan cities and facilities and didn’t care enough to come back and see if there were any survivors? Mr. “Not immediately swayed by emotional convictions” even when they belong to those closest to him who he should trust above unseen authorities?

Even if you think obedience and compliance was hammered into him by those in charge and he had to learn to keep his head down or face the consequences, that doesn’t explain why it takes him so long to eventually accept the truth, despite the mounting empirical evidence he receives after the most dire possible circumstances that should show him that those in charge are wrong. It isn’t until Mayday’s death that Crosshair finally accepts the truth because it’s then that he’s being directly told by the people in charge that he and everyone like him is expendable and unnecessary.

Somebody with a rebellious youth is much more critical of authority figures even if they’re presently obeying them, and they’re much more ready to drop said authorities the second it’s a viable option and they physically can. Crosshair doesn’t behave like a dog that’s been beaten its whole life, he’s constantly making active decisions not only to follow the Empire but to enforce what the Empire dictates, even when he’s the one reaping the direct consequences of pushback on the ground for it. Because that’s what good soldiers do.

This guy was the kid following the rules by choice and getting mad at the others for finding loopholes or accomplishing things the ‘wrong’ way, especially if and when it got all of them in trouble (because they were kids and wouldn’t have always been right). Rules and structure are there for a reason. We’ve been here less than ten years, what on earth makes you think we know more than the people in charge? Why do I have to be punished because you guys couldn’t do as you were told?

To me the four of them (and Echo later) are a sliding scale when it comes to decision-making based on head vs heart. Crosshair and Tech are on one side, using logic and reason over emotion as their basis for decision-making and how they see the world, and Echo and Wrecker are more on the heart/instinct side of reasoning, putting people and ideals ahead of simply accomplishing objectives despite what the odds might be against them. Hunter’s the balance in the middle, being able to see both sides and weigh what the best option is based on the evidence and the context within which it’s being given. All of them have different fluctuating percentages of what’s going to motivate or drive them day by day, just based on the context of their circumstances, but that’s the general scale.

I think Hunter as a kid probably realized if he could get all of them to learn the rules as quickly as they could, then they’d know how to break them effectively with the least amount of repercussions and collateral damage. They were an experimental group for a reason and were likely given a modicum of wiggle room when it came to problem-solving, the Kaminoans not just allowing but pushing them to be more creative, flexible, and adaptable. They all know the hard rules of structure, chain of command, and behavioral compliance, but after that they’re given more freedom of choice. Their personal convictions inform both the why and how of following orders.

Wrecker is easier to figure out because he wears every thought and emotion on his sleeve and sees no reason not to. He’s more of a follower— Thinking is for other people, he’s a busy guy and man of action, give him something concrete with actionable directions and he’ll accomplish it with aplomb.

Tech, as a kid, likely knew both the spirit and letter of the law, which means he could see problems and solutions objectively regardless of his personal feelings/opinions and knew that rules are there to be guidelines: No structure is perfect and always following rules exactly was never going to always be the right decision. He would choose whichever seemed like the most logical, obvious route to success, finding loopholes and workarounds where he could as a means of balancing the consequences or fallout of said decision.

Hunter also knew both the spirit and letter of the law, but he was able to read situations and people better than Tech was, relying more on his gut instinct to tell him what the best course of action would be, even if that choice wasn’t the most logical. He’s a mediator and the best choice of leader because of his ability to get people working together by knowing how to convince each of them in their own way that this plan will accomplish their objective AND lead to the most amount of people being satisfied/happy in the end, them included. Despite the fact Hunter’s more reserved, he’s still a people person. It just happens to come from empathy, observation, and instinct, the latter two being qualities he was designed to specialize in.

Crosshair obeyed the letter of the law because structure exists for a reason and if that structure has yielded the best results and most success for the longest amount of time, then it’s obvious it must be the right one in place. Loopholes can be taken advantage of, but only when there isn’t an explicit wording against it or there is clear and mounting evidence that the rule doesn’t apply to him. To deviate from the majority in matters of how something is achieved is acceptable; to do so in matters of why is not.

[tomstoast]

Some people really just should not be teachers. If your goal is anything other than facilitating student success/learning/growth what are u doing in this job

[payasita]

what is the "laugh rule"

if a post is funny enough that I make a real actual noise out loud, I have to reblog it

[tropiyas]

what evolutionary process decided to put Sense of Balance and Hearing in the same organ region that's so fucking interesting

[beneathsilverstars]

the only time i've ever been wrong about a character in my life is when i guessed that siffrin would like mashed potatoes bc i forgot that id5 loves giving characters complex preferences and made him hate potatoes even though malanga fritters look basically the same as these potato croquettes i had once

[lunarblazes]

also for the record i started my entire pjo/hoo binge to re-evaluate people’s opinions on jason grace. i was like surely he can’t be that bad we must just be mad at him because he’s not percy.

i’m on the lost hero now.

i’m joining the war on jason hate on the side of jason hate THIS BOY—

[poetryqueer]

planning document must be going well I just said the words “explaining the endurance of Platonism could be the life I’m living” to myself. Alone. At 2:30am. Because yeah. Could be.

[welcometogrouchland]

We talk a lot about the merits of pop culture vs 'high culture' on this website and anti-intellectualism and stuff but where's the appreciation for ppl who deeply enjoy both. Can we make some noise for people who's favorite movies are like. Ratatouille and Eraserhead? Or something?

[pipskippy]

speaking of common threads btwn favorite characters i keep thinking about the alluka/nanika and falin similarities mostly the being treated as dangerous and wrong as a young child and isolated yet still being so so kind and healing….and especially the kindness and acceptance of the parts of them that people treat as dangerous or evil…in terms of older brothers of course laios’s reaction to falin’s chimeraness and aptitude for magic is very different from killua’s initial mistrust/misunderstanding of nanika but. im so thinking about it

[real-espanadrid]

https://www.tumblr.com/real-espanadrid/758813916194308096/why-would-a-real-madrid-arsenal-fan-be-a-pedri-fan

Doesn’t sound very likely

idk what to say to this like it's just my lived experience 💀

[headspace-hotel]

I think sometimes people think eugenics is bad but its still true, like thinking that if people with certain traits have children it will change society for better or worse based upon what traits are promoted. I think its important to emphasize that eugenics is not only wrong morally it's also fake and stupid bullshit

Like eugenics was supposed to be based on the idea that "If it works with animals to select only the best ones to breed, why wouldn't it work with humans?"

well it doesn't work with animals, that's the thing. applying the eugenics ideas to domestic breeds of animals hasn't made better animals it's just made animals with more extreme expression of certain traits. turns out that when you decide which traits are the "best" and become obsessed with the genetic purity of the animals that have the "best" traits, you might well end up with some sad suffering creature like a Pug, or the Persian cats with the smashed faces that are in constant pain because their teeth and airways and brains are getting crushed by their skulls, or those meat chickens that grow so fast they can hardly even stand up after a few weeks old, or inbred race horses with tiny feet and fragile toothpick legs

like almost all traits are neither "good" or "bad" they're way more complex than that. a long tail or a long snout or a stubborn, independent personality can be good or bad depending on the situation. Who gets to decide what is a "good" trait or a "bad" trait? It's arbitrary and selecting for traits that are "good" in your opinion will often have both "good" and "bad" outcomes because the "good" and "bad" are part of each other and not separate its just part of being alive

Obviously oversimplifying everything but you get it. we did eugenics with dogs and how did that go? not very well

[detweilerboy]

Ok it literally drives me nuts that people throw around words like transmedicalism without any idea what "discourse" actually means or how many implied presuppositions there are to being or not being "a transmedicalist" vs the more queer theory oriented ways to look at being trans. Like. You cannot say youre a transsexual without evoking a medical paradigm and a medically defined criteria of diagnosis, or at least embodiment. Sure its now "cool edgy old word" but it is that for a reason thats like... The history of defining and pathologizing transness since idk the 19th century and the 70s which defined a lot of this shit and codified it into law. Mixed with the fact that you still kinda do need to work with medicine and law to be able to exist and transition as a trans person. I just dont think a word from the 70s used by doctors to decide who is or isnt trans is helpful. Even If those standards were partially defined by trans people at the time

[levaagrace]

Also. What gets me about the whole ✨ooh the entities are all the same they can’t be classified ooh whatever control they have over people is unknowable ooh avatars aren’t real ooh✨ is like. Then why bring a classification system up? Why even have that episode with Gerry? Why delineate human and nonhuman? What was the end goal?

[murphysiblings]

i rlly wish ppl werent so fucking judgemental over other ppls sex lives . someone is always getting shamed for having "too much" sex or for having sex in a "weird" way or for just not having sex at all . like why does this matter to u

[bugboy-behaviour]

i dont really believe in good or bad people. i mean theres exceptions but for the most part people are just people

[arathergrimreaper]

Nothing will make you feel like your time is being wasted and nothing is real like data entry for companies people rely heavily on and learning how to file your own taxes. Nothing.