#but like didn't touch on it at all

[ganonfan1995]

Okay talking about ToTK for a hot second, THEN I gotta do some work.

The woes of WFH means I'm compelled to post at all hours of the day, and sometimes I need to indulge!!!

Personally speaking, I really loved the little details and snippets you get throughout the game, detailing Rauru and Sonia's relationship. I particularly found it interesting that they founded Hyrule, in part, through the combined effort to protect its people from monsters, long before Ganondorf rose to his position as the demon king.

I was hoping the game would elaborate on this; there was so much subtext in the depths that would insinuate that the Zonai, in their pursuit of Zonaite, opened the original chasms to hell, allowing the spirits from below to manifest above. I love that, especially with the little tidbits from the Spirit Temple and the bargainer statues; I got a very dark image of who the Zonai were and what their goals were...But subtext remained subtext, and nothing was set in stone.

I have so many lingering questions, like...What is Zonaite? Why does it grow back, and why does it only form in the depths, the place where the dead seem to roam aimlessly? What was the design intention of making Zonaite visually connect to luminous stone? Was the original myth of souls being contained in luminous an originating myth from Zonaite....ARE THERE HUMAN SOULS IN THE ZONAITE?? ARE THERE MONSTER SOULS IN THE ZONAITE?? WHY DOES THE ZONAITE ENERGY VISUALLY LOOK THE EXACT SAME AS THE SPIRITS!!! NINTENDO....PLEASE I BEG YOU!!!

WHY DID THEY BLIND THE DEITY OF THE DEPTHS AND WHY IS IT ONE IN THE SAME WITH THE HYLIA STATUES......

I'm done yelling, but you get the point.

Even if their intentions for the establishment of the kingdom were good, which I have no doubt about — Rauru is a bit of an ignorant man, but he doesn't have a greedy heart, nor is his goal one of dominance over the land. The fact remains that I still feel, in part, guilt is what drives him to see himself suited to the position of king.

From the minute you meet him and he donates his arm to Link, to the last minute you see him, sacrificing himself to seal Ganondorf away until the present. There's a guilt that runs so deeply through him as a character, that is never elaborated on.

I guess you could argue that his guilt stems from his inability to protect Sonia, the land, etc...But I feel like that guilt is older.

I feel like that guilt stems from his personal guilt he gained from his people. His shame, his embarrassment. He and his sister remain as the last standing Zonai, and we never learn why...Only that he, and his wife, a former priestess, formed a union to establish a kingdom, under the insurance that a long standing protection would be in place to safe guard it's people from monsters.

Monsters that only appeared after the chasms were opened.

Chasms which were opened to mine Zonaite.

An energy source only used to power Zonai technology.

And there was no B plot. There was no explanation. There was only that, and a game mechanic...

I've gotten to the point that I've just sort of let this be just that: a game mechanic. They only needed some shallow lore to tie in the building mechanic in to the game so we could build cars, whatever...

But it felt so unsatisfying as someone who is genuinely interested in the lore.

On the surface the game probably hit really hard to people who were more invested in Zelda and Link's relationship to one another post botw, and to their friends and The Kingdom TM...But I'm left here blinking in disbelief that they literally laid down some insane ideas only to have it tossed by the wayside.

I want context, I want history! Nintendo.....please!!! I'm begging!

Also I think they should have let Josha cook.

[polararts]

It's a period piece~

[deadmomjokes]

PSA: tomatoes are not spicy. Tomatoes and tomato products should not be spicy. Pizza sauce isn't inherently spicy. Tomato-based pasta sauce is not spicy. Ketchup is NOT spicy.

If tomatoes are spicy, you have an allergy to tomatoes.

This announcement brought to you by my almost 29-year-old husband learning for the first time in his 2.8 decades of putting food products into his mouth that spaghetti and saucy pizza aren't spicy foods

[inkskinned]

the thing is there's like, a point of oversaturation for everything, and it's why so many things get dropped after a few minutes. and we act like millennials or gen z kids "have short attention spans" but... that's not quite it. it's more like - we did like it. you just ruined it.

capitalism sees product A having moderate success, and then everything has to come out with their "own version" of product A (which is often exactly the same). and they dump extreme amounts of money and environmental waste into each horrible simulacrum they trot out each season.

now it's not just tiktokkers making videos; it's that instagram and even fucking tumblr both think you want live feeds and video-first programming. and it helps them, because videos are easier to sneak native ads into. the books coming out all have to have 78 buzzwords in them for SEO, or otherwise they don't get published. they are making a live-action remake of moana. i haven't googled it, but there's probably another marvel or starwars something coming out, no matter when you're reading this post.

and we are like "hi, this clone of project A completely misses the point of the original. it is soulless and colorless and miserable." and the company nods and says "yes totally. here is a different clone, but special." and we look at clone 2 and we say "nope, this one is still flat and bad, y'all" and they're like "no, totally, we hear you," and then they make another clone but this time it's, like, a joyless prequel. and by the time they've successfully rolled out "clone 89", the market is incredibly oversaturated, and the consumer is blamed because the company isn't turning a profit.

and like - take even something digital like the tumblr "live streaming" function i just mentioned. that has to take up server space and some amount of carbon footprint; just so this brokenass blue hellsite can roll out a feature that literally none of its userbase actually wants. the thing that's the kicker here: even something that doesn't have a physical production plant still impacts the environment.

and it all just feels like it's rolling out of control because like, you watch companies pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into a remake of a remake of something nobody wants anymore and you're like, not able to afford eggs anymore. and you tell the company that really what you want is a good story about survival and they say "okay so you mean a YA white protagonist has some kind of 'spicy' love triangle" and you're like - hey man i think you're misunderstanding the point of storytelling but they've already printed 76 versions of "city of blood and magic" and "queen of diamond rule" and spent literally millions of dollars on the movie "Candy Crush Killer: Coming to Eat You".

it's like being stuck in a room with a clown that keeps telling the same joke over and over but it's worse every time. and that would be fine but he keeps fucking charging you 6.99. and you keep being like "no, i know it made me laugh the first time, but that's because it was different and new" and the clown is just aggressively sitting there saying "well! plenty of people like my jokes! the reason you're bored of this is because maybe there's something wrong with you!"

[birdmenmanga]

I think there's no greater indication that disco elysium is sympathetic towards communism when it literally says "communism is failure" and then the literal gameplay itself rewards trying and failing. The most obvious one being the Shivers check at the FELD mural, which is an Impossible 20 check BUT opens itself up again and again the longer you spend in the world doing things, but even just looking at sheer probabilities, for any given white check, rolling first and THEN putting a point into that skill upon failure is more likely to grant you success than putting a point first and then rolling, but that would require failing first.

Other things too: Precarious world saying you'll 100% fail red checks no matter what (not necessarily a bad thing, btw!! throwing the boule into the sea is a success but like. in some other ways one would want a perfect petanque throw instead. but people wouldn't typically assume that failure is desirable sometimes from the start) persuading you to accept that you'll fail some things that is irrevocable, for a world where everything is just a tiny bit easier.

The faux game over screen when you faint after reading Dora's letter— emulating a sense of failure on the scale of the entire game. When it rolls up most people go "What?? Game over?? No way, what did I do wrong!!" and waking up after that, with no huge or lasting impact on Harry's health or morale really tells the player, "Sometimes things will seem so bad that it all seems like it's coming to an end, but it's not the end, it's really not the end, go drink so water, you can still go on despite this failure"

I'm sure there are other things as well that are eluding me but like. The literal gameplay rewards failing and succeeding far more so than simply succeeding every single time, and I think you get a fuller experience of Elysium that way too

[critter-covenant]

"ooooh thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!"

They'd be good friends I like to thinmk

[mayasaura]

So I noticed something in Harrow the Ninth. In chapter two, when John is trying to console Harrow over having lost Gideon, he puts his hands on her shoulders, and he says "Gideon Nav did not die for nothing."

Harrow feels "a hot whistle of pain run down [her] temporal bone," which is, we know now, Harrow having a stroke as her skull alters her brain so that she hears him say 'Ortus Nigenad' instead. And she replies to him in kind, using Ortus' name. So the interesting bit is John's reaction, look:

He had his hands on her shoulders the whole time. Physical touch negates lyctoral blindness, and she had a stroke while he was touching her. That look on his face. Is he working out an emotionally taxing anagram, or is he taking a good look at her and working out what the hell just happened? Then he says Gideon's name again, like he's running a test, and Harrow has another stroke. That's exactly the same test Mercy performed to figure out what Harrow did to her brain in chapter twenty-nine.

He knows. He's known about the lobotomy since chapter two. He thinks she did it to forget her grief and guilt, and he thinks he understands.

Which means when he 'notices' the lobotomy in this scene:

He's not really noticing it for the first time at all. He's calling attention to it. He's just told Harrow that she didn't open the Tomb, that she's wrong about the events of her own life, and then he deliberately 'discovers' and points out her brain damage to seal the deal.

John Gaius uses: Gaslight! It's super effective.

[unusual-ly]

I am Thinking About The Implications regarding Ted’s love interests

With Jenny, they were best friends, there was genuine affection and mutual feelings for each other but neither of them acted on it because they both assumed they didn’t have a chance, and then it was too late

With Charlotte, Ted was in love with her but she didn’t reciprocate, he was just one of the men she was having an affair with behind her husband’s back. He never lets himself be too vulnerable and open with her about his feelings, resorting to either yelling at her or just deflecting whenever she starts to talk about Sam. He’ll just take whatever he can get with her

With Lucy, he can actually express his feelings and be affectionate, but only because he’s playing the role of Konk. He has something to hide behind instead of being truly vulnerable. Even when he’s only talking to Hidgens, at least later in the episode, he stays in character, he falls into Konk’s speech patterns because he’d rather be him, in part because Lucy likes Konk. He even asks that she let him die as Konk just so he can feel loved by her

And then, before he’s approached by Sheila, we learn he does actually want to someday start a family, get married and have kids

After the misunderstanding with Jenny, Ted no longer feels he can be open and vulnerable about his feelings, puts up this front of only being interested in sex when he really does want a relationship beyond that, and only feels safe expressing himself truthfully to others when he’s someone else

Ted please for the love of god learn how to express your feelings in a healthy way I am begging you

[daily-odile]

FINALLY FINALLY HAPPY (VERY LATE) BIRTHDAY ODILE AAAAAAAA

[iwasbored777]

The fact that all Gwen knows about her variants in other universes is that they're dead is so sad. Like imagine you want to know what happens to you in other dimensions and it turns out that wherever you look you mean nothing, you're so unimportant that there's no bigger role for you other than dying.

And I've seen you guys pointing this out, where she's looking at what looks like her own death and even if it's not this is not just a "love interest" Gwen, this is a superhero who is supposed to mean something, but she doesn't. She's only here to die. And so far this (our) Gwen doesn't have any reason to believe that she won't die very soon just like other Gwens.

I think that one of the main reasons why she's rejecting Miles is not just her trauma and all shit she's been through and the fear of dying like other Gwens when they're involved with Spider-Man, but also because if they start something and she dies this will hurt him too.

It's easy to say "canon events aren't true she shouldn't believe in that" but this isn't just a regular risk, this is her life we're talking about.

[stbot]

tanthamore + small touches

(bonus bc kit is totally reaching out for jade’s arm but they cut away 😩)

[the-purest]

early deathduo makes me so sad bc q!phil, despite the mocking title of "greedy crow", refused to allow himself to miss or be upset at q!missa.

to him, it was selfish to expect or even want qmissa to be there. the last thing qphil wanted was to limit qmissas freedom

they were so so unhealthy for each other dude. complete devotion to one another, they refuse to acknowledge any flaws the other may have. the only way we knew qphil missed qmissa is because of how cagey he'd get at seing other happy families. it made him bitter

this isn't even covering qmissas side of things, being paired with qphil only makes him more self conscious of his own parenting skills to the point that he saw himself as a burden who would only get in the way. and q!phil hardly got the chance to tell him otherwise

and as a final note, just the sheer amount of time qphil spends staring at qmissa. almost as if the man will disappear without a warning if he were to look away. it's like anytime spent with qmissa could easily be yet another of his delusions, just another dream to wake up from.

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

[sysig]

You keep underestimating others and it’ll come back to bite you (Patreon)

[inkerii]

So I couldn't help but browse the THG tag bc those books own my whole heart. I actually check it now and again, and it's been interesting see how opinions have changed over the years, especially in regards to Gale and Peeta. Going through the evolution of them as just potential love interests to being far more complex than I could have expected has been a wild ride. Crazy how this reads different than from when I was a preteen.

That said, I wanted to give my unsolicited two cents on my boys, because though I have been enjoying the discussion on Peeta and Gale and what they mean to the story, I also feel like reducing them to Peeta = peace and Gale = war is far too simplistic... and oftentimes unfair to one or both of them.

See, I don't think Peeta and Gale are peace and war/destruction. They're compassion and indignation.

Peeta worries about the other tributes, or their families, or how to repay people like Rue and Thresh for what they did.

Gale is indignation at how the Capitol treats its citizens, it's anger at the injustice of inequality and brutality.

Both are needed in a story like THG. You can't have people like even Peeta not say something like "maybe we're wrong about keeping things quiet in the districts", you can't have him not drop the baby bomb, you can't start a revolution without Gale's indignation at the status quo. At deserving a better life but being denied it, at having your kids be mercilessly killed for literal sport.

However, if you start a rebellion and loose sight of your compassion, you end up no better than the people you're fighting against. Gale wasn't a bad person, imo. His heart was in the right place. He was flawed, yes, but so is everyone in this series. Gale, most importantly, lost sight of the line between fighting for the people he cared about and fighting against the people who hurt him.

Reducing Gale's indignation to just revenge and hatred ignores so much of what he stands for. Who hasn't seen laws passed that dehumanize people, who hasn't been angry and furious when someone is elected who fundamentally hates everything you are, who doesn't think some people need to pay for the atrocities they committed? There's a little bit of Gale in every single one of us - and it's important that it's there, because that's what gives us strength to challenge the status quo and make life better for the future generations.

But. You can't let it take over. You can't loose sight of your compassion or your empathy.

That's where Peeta comes in. Peeta is the voice in your head that worries about how many good lives will be lost when they give themselves up for this cause. Peeta is the worry about the people caught in the crossfire. Peeta is rebuilding when it's over and believing that the next generation will have a better life than your own. Peeta is being kind, even to people who may not deserve it.

And Gale... Gale looses sight of his compassion, and he doesn't realize it until it smacks him in the face when the bombs go off and Prim is gone and he's too far gone. Meanwhile, Peeta advocates for the end of the war even though it means the status quo remains - and regardless of what he believes himself, I don't think Suzanne chose him to say those lines by chance. It means both mindsets have their flaws: too kind and things that shouldn't remain will never be challenged and changed, too angry and you may loose sight of what you're fighting for.

And that's just how Suzanne uses her characters, both of them, all of them. Just look at who is with Katniss depending on the situation:

- Katniss chooses to "rebel" after Gale is brutally whipped. She kisses him.

- Katniss realizes that in order for D12 to rebel, everyone would need to be in on it, and she realizes most of them are not like her, that they're scared and she understands, emphasises with them. Peeta walks by her side.

- Katniss finally does it though, shoots the arrow at the force field, and Peeta is taken from her, it's now Gale by her side.

(You can't start a rebellion without indignation, and sometimes you HAVE to do it or things will never change, regardless of the inevitable pain that will come along.)

- Katniss is righteously angry at the Capitol bombing a hospital full of innocents to make a point. Gale remains there.

- Coin twists people's compassion into an army to fight for her own personal gain. Peeta is hijacked and looses his sense of self.

- Katniss and Gale go to District 2 and even though she tries to be like Peeta, she's still shot- reinforcing Gale's views, the person who was with her during that sequence.

- Katniss is angry at Snow, Katniss goes to the Capitol to kill him. Gale is there.

- Katniss gets in way over her head and realizes she is responsible for the death of most of her squad. She shares the lamb stew with Peeta, and later cleans his wounds.

- Finnick dies and she's at her lowest up until that point and all she wants to do is give up and give in to the anger. She kisses Peeta and begs him to stay with her.

... Claiming that Gale is destruction ignores the fact that he's with Katniss through her own moments of strength. Her desire to change things, to fight back, is as important as her compassion. Mockingjay just brutally shows you what war does to your indignation, to your compassion. How easy it is to cross a line between righteous anger and revenge, or how your sense of empathy and compassion can be manipulated into something monstrous by others, or by all the terrible, brutal, painful things you see.

How easy it is to loose yourself- and that goes for both of them.

Peeta and Gale aren't static characters, they go from representations of sentiments regarding an injust government to what happens to those feelings when an extreme situation such as war breaks out. All of that, by the way, while dealing with this duality themselves, because they are still characters who think and feel and struggle and have flaws of their own- and while I love what they stand for, I've seen too many comments that pin everything into what they mean, that they forget that Peeta and Gale are still people, they aren't perfect metaphors. They're human.

Ultimately, Katniss doesn't really choose peace. She wants peace, yes. But what she chooses is compassion. empathy. hope. There's a time and place for anger at injustice. There's a time when fighting back is the right thing to do. There are even times when you wanna give in to your despair and lash out. But if you want peace, then you have to choose Peeta, because Peeta represents what you need to focus on to achieve that peace. You have to let go of the anger or you won't ever rest. So Gale leaves, and does not come back... And yet, Katniss still has her moments of indignation, of making a stand, even as he goes - she still casts her vote at that meeting, she still shoots Coin. Katniss does not abandon that part of who she is. It's just not her main drive anymore.

So then she goes on to make the choice, every single day, to be compassionate to others. To have hope. To rebuild. Of course she chooses Peeta.

... Idk, man. These boys are so much more than what I see them so often reduced to. They're in all of us. There will be times to stand and fight, and times to show mercy and be kind. We just need to find that balance, as Katniss eventually did.

[madphantom]

Had a divine experience this week when a very pretty man who has previously said he'd probably lose a fight against me randomly picked me up like I weighed literally nothing

[skrunksthatwunk]

landing

[ecoamerica]

Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!