#c: garie

[mebssann]

average yuri/ yaoi couple

[turtletoads]

hating you won't make you suck any less

[anghraine]

One of the highlights of the description of younger Kirk as a bookish and severe Academy instructor is that Gary Mitchell, the friend describing him that way, seems to have been his student back in the day and was trying to pass his notoriously difficult "think or sink" class at the Academy.

Present-day Mitchell mentions reading "that longhair stuff you like" to Kirk (now that he's acquired godly powers that include being able to read Spinoza) and there's this random lore drop about how Mitchell helped a lab technician with a crush on Kirk orchestrate her dating campaign, in hopes that it'd distract Kirk enough for Mitchell to survive his class.

It seems pretty widely accepted that Kirk had a romance with Mitchell himself at the time, which is not my take at all, BUT honestly it's hilarious to me that there's this whole Clueless-style "student matchmaking plot to get a strict teacher a girlfriend so he'll chill enough that you can pass the class" history established almost immediately about Kirk. Comedy gold, especially since Kirk and the lab technician ended up in a long-term relationship and he nearly married her.

Bonus: Kirk and Mitchell became close friends but Kirk is still incredulous at the idea of Mitchell voluntarily reading Spinoza in the episode. And when Mitchell flips into obnoxious god mode and describes Spinoza as simple and childish, Kirk is pretty evidently affronted and alarmed. It's not surprising that Kirk has big philosophy opinions given that futuristic humanism is half his personality, but the idea of him as a former philosophy instructor with Spinoza feelings who goes to space and still can't escape Bad Philosophy Takes is incredible. Even by Season 3, it's just like:

KIRK: Dr. McCoy saved your life. PARMEN: I am losing patience, captain. KIRK: And you consider yourself a disciple of Plato?!

[punkeropercyjackson]

There's certain male characters who aren't canonically transmasc but the tboy swag and how fitting it is to his writing makes it weird to not headcanon him as tmasc.There's also certain characters who were intended as men but it turned out to be a bug and not a feature and it's your job to undoom her from the narrative by convincing her to transition.They overlap sometimes but we ain't talking about that rn

[atomic-chronoscaph]

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

[dammjamboy]

not part of the madness

[derpycatsu]

i cant even think of a caption for this one. spilled my autisms all over the floor again. Post

[daybreaklynx]

they're on a date!! 🥹🤏🏽

pose ref

alt versions and chibi below

[twilightofthesandwiches]

It is actually super thematically important that the Gumlee Subplot is, like, the Fluffiest Fluffy Coffeeshop AU in existence.

Because the whole universe-ending danger Fionnaworld faces is, like, to me it reads very much as a metaphor for the value of art and creative works that are self-indulgent?

Like, the whole Problem is that Prismo is not supposed to use his powers of Creation for his own personal enjoyment - he’s only supposed to use it to grant Ironic Wishes for others. Metaphorically, I think this is like a Creative making art for a studio or some other kind or employer, or for the sake of some specific audience or something. 

And while Prismo found some creative fulfillment in his job, he also wanted to make something for himself, something private, something self-indulgent. And thus Fionnaworld was born. A personal creative project made with no other consideration but the artist’s own sense of fun and pleasure.

Which is very appropriate considering how in the real world Fionna and Cake, while it grew into more than that, it was originally just the personal lil’ creative doodles of Natasha Allegri did for fun while she was working as part of the AT Crew.

In the eyes of the Scarab, and apparently the greater cosmological laws that he enforces - the existence of Fionnaworld is an ‘abomination’. Prismo shouldn’t be allowed to use his powers of creation for anything but his designated role of creating for the sake of others. 

And it seems like the resolution of the whole Scarab and Prismo plot thread is going to be on some level a reinforcement of the value and importance of creative projects - or whole universes - that are born out of self-indulgence and a desire to have fun and nothing more. You know, maybe it's not the worst thing in the world for Prismo to do something for fun, Fionnaworld clearly grew into something more than just God's self-indulgent doodles... something like that...

So it seems only appropriate that our main representation of Fionnaworld once the plot kicks into gear, the thing that gives the viewers a face and a personal angle to the unfathomably monumental task of saving a whole universe - is a Fluff-tastic Coffeeshop AU. 

In many ways the icon of silly indulgent fiction that exists just for personal pleasure. 

Especially as it contrasts against the generally much darker and grimmer ‘Authorized Universes’ we’ve seen.

Of course, not everyone creating silly fanfics for just their own sake is gonna create peaceful low-conflict Modern AUs. I bet there’s tons of AT fans creating fanstuff for their own sakes that are going to make stuff that’s just as heavy and dark as Vampireworld or even Extinctworld. Sometimes self-indulgence looks like angst and pain.

Buuuutt, the Fluff-heavy fanfiction and Coffeeshop AUs are still associated with wish-fulfillment and self-indulgent fiction in a way that really feels thematically important. 

[ven-finn]

I believe in a more ottery Gary than twink. Cmon, he’s a baker!

These two are so fun to draw

[icedmochasi]

Gary immediately smiling fondly when he realized Marshall had nothing but good intentions when he got the Lemoncarbs to come. That could have very easily ended in a big misunderstanding and I'm glad it didn't.

[blenselche]

just throwing shit at a wall here but AT treats Finn's crush on Marcy as a cringy joke while Fionna and Marshall's reciprocal... flirtationship? is handled with genuine sincerity (especially in the comics, him playing that song he wrote for her while she lays in bed is fanfic level fluff) right?

makes me think it's probably IK's buried subconscious Simon wanting Marceline to be with someone who will treat her right, and the best/most upstanding person he knows is Finn. Like he doesn't want them to date but he's using Fionna as a stand-in for someone of similar quality.

I've always wondered why those two parallel ships are treated so differently by their own source material and now I'm sad lmao

[lonisaiou]

trans gumlee be upon ye (its a mix between newer and older doodles)

[pepperediris]

ko-fi/tips

[zushwood]

[contemplatingoutlander]

Trump Is an Open Book for Closed Minds

The mystery of 2024: How is it possible that Donald Trump has a reasonable chance of winning the presidency despite all that voters now know about him? Why hasn’t a decisive majority risen up to deny a second term to a man in line to be judged the worst president in American history?

This opinion column by Thomas B. Edsall is well worth reading because it describes many theories by experts about why so many Americans are still devoted to Trump despite all the harm he has done and could do to this country. This is a gift🎁link, so you can read the entire article.

"Motivated Ignorance"

I'd like to highlight one of the column's theories by Gary C. Jacobson, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego. Edsall quotes Jacobson regarding his belief that "motivated ignorance" plays an important role in keeping Trump supporters in the MAGA fold.

Motivated ignorance differs from the more familiar concept of rational ignorance in that ‘ignorance is motivated by the anticipated costs of possessing knowledge, not acquiring it.’ That is, it is not simply that the benefits of accurate political knowledge may be less than the cost of attaining it and thus not worth pursuing, but that the costs of having accurate information exceed the benefits. When expressed opinions and beliefs signal identification with a group, it is rational to stay ignorant of contradictory facts that, if acknowledged, would threaten to impose personal and social identity costs for the uncertain benefits of accurate knowledge. Only by remaining ignorant of such facts as those can Trump supporters avoid facing the painful possibility that they might have been wrong about him and their despised enemies, right. Such a realization could unsettle their self and social identities, estranging them from family and friends who remain within the MAGA fold. As Michael Patrick Lynch, a philosopher who studies political beliefs put it, “To be blunt, Trump supporters aren’t changing their minds because that change would require changing who they are, and they want to be that person.” Staying ignorant, deliberately or unconsciously, is thus rational.