#balance point

[bornitereads]

Balance Point - Kathy Tyers

Star Wars: The New Jedi Order book 6

Reread: Nov 2023

This one is focused on the planet Duro. Everyone is there! Although why considering the Duros turned it into a industrial wasteland. Anyways the cast is assembled for a fun time (lying). Jaina is on leave from Rogue Squadron recovering so she's sent to her family (all on Duro). She's pretty annoying because she's pissed she can't be piloting. And her twin, Jacen, who has been so annoying this whole time finally kind of gets his head out of his ass and does some bad ass Force shit.

One of my favourite things that happens is the whole Solo family gets shaved bald. No hair left on any body. It's all part of a decontamination effort in a refugee camp. Leia, bald! Han, bald! Jaina, bald! Jacen, bald! Anakin missed the fun on Coruscant. But speaking of Coruscant, Mara gets knocked up! Congrats Luke on getting your wife pregnant. His kid will be crazy strong in the Force. Only 9 months of stressful, wartime pregnancy for Mara. Should be a total breeze right? These are my fun facts haha. Leia bald still kills me though. So funny.

Info: Del Rey; 2001

[zytes]

this manatee looks like it’s in a skyrim loading screen

[a-contemplative-soul]

“Everything has a balance point”

Author: Me

[ilions-end]

i'm listening to the elizabeth vandiver great courses lectures (my comfort audios <3) and i'm currently on her series on the odyssey. i love whenever she points out assumptions a modern reader might unknowingly bring with them when engaging with ancient texts.

one of her examples is how challenging it is in modernity to fully grasp how impossible penelope's position is. she's a good, dutiful woman with a husband who is M.I.A, but has no way of knowing odysseus' status, or which duties she's obligated to pursue. if her husband is currently alive, she has an absolute duty to preserve his household and herself until he returns. if odysseus is dead, she has an equally absolute duty to swiftly remarry and dedicate herself to a new household. she doesn't live in a society where she can live alone as a widow (or potential widow), only as a wife of someone living.

and i'm thinking about how our perception of her situation is also shaped by how we know odysseus is alive and will return. there's also the fact that the suitors are rude and dangerous -- we certainly don't want her to end up with any of them. so the trickery with the weaving of the shroud comes across as ingenious and morally justified to us... but penelope can't be sure. if odysseus had been dead, the shroud trick would be doubly damning on a societal and moral level -- both for delaying her sacred obligation to form a new family, and for using her feminine skills and resources on her "previous" family (since the shroud was made for laertes).

penelope is trapped in moral limbo throughout most of the odyssey, where every action she takes (or doesn't take) is either absolutely correct and conscientious OR horrifically immoral and shameful, and the key piece that determines which is which is lost at sea somewhere.

[pinacoladamatata]

blink and you'll miss it moments around skyhold....

[quantumshade]

can anyone explain to me at what point rose tyler was "unbelievably stupid". was it when she was inventing transdimensional travel

[chloesimaginationthings]

I ADORE your design for Charlie. It’s so adorable!!!!!!

I’m so glad y’all loved her design!!

[biggest-bara-tiddies]

I feel like one of the themes the writers of Kevin Can F Himself are going for is that sitcom-style presentation softens clear abuse to the point that it becomes hard to notice. Like as long as there is a laugh track, most people would struggle to clock Kevin as being abusive. But honestly I could tell from the first episode just by how he treated the coffee table in the living room. Allison got that coffee table on major discount from pottery barn and she is proud of it. Getting a table that nice for cheap is an achievement and it's clearly the nicest thing she owns, but none of this matters to Kevin, in fact, the very reason of her valuing the table is openly mocked by Kevin. He goes on to put drinks without coasters on it, puts his feet up on it, and stands on it eventually breaking it only crudely fixing it with duct tape to restore it's basic function as a coffee table and to lower it to his level. Kevin treats it with such disdain and abandon it's honestly instantly clear that nothing Allison values matters to him and that it's essentially open season on everything that makes Allison herself and not just Mrs. McRoberts or Mrs. Worcester Wild Dude. I love that you can analyze something as mundane as a coffee table in this show and see it as a microcosm of Allison and Kevin's marriage and a representation of Kevin's abusive treatment of Allison

[originalartblog]

tiny cuddling skk for the soul

Dazai's clingy/tactile nature set free, and Chuuya who's still learning how to accept and reciprocate

[odetojupiter]

uhhh so the number four is associated with death in certain cultures, including japanese, which is fitting for the butcher’s son, yes but just remember neil was supposed to be number three and jean was supposed to be number four ,and in every draft but one jean dies. he is symbolically saved from that fate by dodging the number four (being given, instead, the number three which represents REBIRTH of all things - i made a whole post about that if ur curious) because it means he was never marked for death. so in this draft, where he’s number three, but was supposed to be number four, he comes so close to death - to the point where renee doesn’t know how he’s still alive - because he was supposed to die, doomed by the narrative, but that number three saves him. that number three represents resurrection, and so he doesn’t die like he was supposed to. because he’s not number four, he’s number three. he comes back. he transforms, he heals. he becomes number 29 (i will eventually make a post about jean and the 29)

neil, though, was marked for death. he had the number four tattooed on him, and he goes through his own narrative believing he will die by the end of it. his survival, however, is foreshadowed in the very moment neil thinks he’s about to die - when he is kidnapped. lola burns the number four - the signifier of death - off his face, leaving him scarred, yes, but not marked for death anymore. and so he lives. and guess what: the number 10 represents the start of a new chapter, that one cycle is coming to an end and a new life is starting, one that you’ve worked hard for. so for the number four to be burned off of neil, that tells us neil is going to live. and when neil becomes neil legally, he settles into the number 10 properly. and his new life begins.

[flickering-nightfall]

How long do you think they would last if a pink lizard walked in here? 10 seconds? 20, maybe,

[magpiedraws]

So I started watching Once Upon A Witchlight-

[bame-the-3d]

„I think so highly of you, I didn’t realize you thought so low of me“

Oh my god SHUT UP

[vivitalks]

i'm sure this post has been made before but the "the list of people i trust and things i believe is down to no one and nothing" to "i trust angus mcdonald entirely" journey that taako takes in the span of roughly one in-fiction hour during lunar interlude reunion tour is so important to me. adventuring partners and friends who have saved his bacon more times than he can count? nah fuck em. organization that has protected him and given him a purpose and fresh start? new stone of farspeech who dis. this nerdy ass boy detective? "angus i trust you implicitly and here's the 100% exact truth as we understand it"

[casualavocados]

Learn from who? Learn from you?

Chen Bowen as CHEN YI & Chiang Tien as AI DI KISEKI: DEAR TO ME (2023)

[the-golden-weapons]

I’d like to think Jay and Nya are very funny because they are both mechanics, but in entirely opposite ways:

Nya has all her tools in proper order. In her workshop, there is never any scrap part going unused. Any notes and blueprints since the ripe age of 12 have been carefully stored and saved, no matter how much she cringes when looking back on them. The Samurai X designs and revisions have their own file cabinet as well as digital backups. Her measurements are double and triple checked, even though she probably had it right the first time. Every choice she makes is calculated and buffed out, from the interlocking gears to the paint job. She prides on her work on being practical and aesthetic, thank you very much.

Jay, meanwhile, is the definition of fuck around and find out. Blueprints? Who needs em, anyways? The only thing vaguely resembling “notes” in his work area are scrap pieces of paper with the most round-about mathematics ever (complete with indecipherable short-hand and a stick figure drawing of Jay holding a blowtorch, naturally.) He will change up plans on the fly and casually stick his hands in very sharp moving parts like there is no tomorrow. Safety equipment? He grew up in a junkyard. He had a wrench in his hand before he could walk. Yeah, no, he’s pretty sure he’s fine, thanks.