#i just think it speaks volumes

[beatcroc]

peppino "never tell the health inspector" spaghetti

hey! it's a series! fake peppino world tour: [noise] [noisette] [peppino] [gustavo]<- u are here [gerome] [noisette again]

[drac-kool-aid]

Seward's bone deep desire to run away from the asylum is not exactly surprising. There have been a lot of really good meta posts about how the return of Van Helsing into his life is the turning point where we see the caring and good side of him and how we can interpret his life as a student in Amersterdam as one of freedom and happiness. How he is part of the tragedy of manners, how strict social expectations allow Dracula to persist, and how they only exacerbate the unhappiness of the characters.

And I think the tragedy of Seward is that, really, he should not be the head of an asylum. It's a job that brings him no joy, and he's BAD at it. We can all recognize that if your first reaction to going back to work is "What if I just leave it all." That isn't a healthy work environment.

Now, in the modern day, the ability to pick and choose a work environment, even to leave one that is damaging your mental health, is a privilege. (IT SHOULDNT BE, but it is). And, although it is definitely reaching crisis levels in modern times, major changes in your career have almost always been difficult (unless you are really rich, or a particular brand of academic in the 17th-18th century, or both).

Seward can't just leave and become a surgeon. To give up the lofty position of "Head of an Asylum" would be unthinkable in the 1890s, especially for a reason like "Being here is basically turning me into the Joker." Like, how would Seward explain that in polite society? Would they accept that reasoning? Would they create salacious gossip if they didn't? Can Seward leave his position without losing a great amount of social capital?

Probably not.

His rise to head of an asylum, as many have pointed out, was meteoric, to say the least. It has afforded him status and respect and also left him deeply, deeply fucked up. And he can't leave!

I think his desperate attempts to quantify Renfield's behaviors into a new mental illness are telling in this regard. Maybe he is too used to having to meet some sort of expectation, and now he thinks this is the logical next step (It's NOT, but I digress). The feeling of having to keep performing above expectations, grasping at straws to do so, and subsequently burning oneself out (as well as others around you) and engaging in unethical practices? Idk. It sounds like something that would happen today. (tbh there are probably a ton of Sewards out there today, as there are still systemic problems within the mental health system that allow for the dehumanizing and abuse of patients).

It doesn't excuse his behavior. Nothing he does to Renfield is excusable, but I think it does explain some of the *why*. He isn't just cruel for cruelty's sake.

So, tldr I guess: I think reading Seward as someone who got stuck on a career path that he realized was unfufilling and that he ends up hating. Social conventions restrict him from just quitting without and a (socially acceptable) good reason to do so, and a lifetime of being regarded as one of the smartest people in the room means he can not allow himself to fail. Unfortunately, this also means he can not admit when his actions or his ideas are wrong when it comes to his job.

(But he can show that uncertainty FOR Lucy, and TO Arthur and Van Helsing, which speaks his trust and love for them)

[canisalbus]

Hello I made you some more art!! IDK Why your little guys have just stuck in my brain as of late but yeah I'm just on a roll I guess!

This piece was inspired by wondering who was present around Machete's assassination, and how people around him would react to his downfall. So I had the idea for a portrait of a final lover's embrace, as Vasco holds his dying beloved in bloodsoaked arms.

I tried my best with the clothing -- especially the shoes -- and I think I did a pretty good job but BOY were they hard! XD Anyways, I hope you like this one, it was a blast to draw! I love machete sm istg <3

.

[chirpsythismorning]

This is everything

cr: @hellfiresbyers

[darlingod]

Jude in QoN: “Of course it was a trick” That’s what you said.

Cardan:

[basu-shokikita]

Obsessed with the fact that we got a throwback to the iconic Vallhaska moment in the Army of the Doomstar movie.

[valyrfia]

im afraid the brocedes brainrot has taken me. childhood friends who banded together because no one else liked them who spent years growing up together and helped each other to set up their karts and went on holiday together then ended up at a team (bought for them) before getting to f1 and living their childhood dreams and becoming teammates and outright saying that nothing could get in the way of their friendship only to be proven wrong in the most slow, agonising and horrific way possible and suddenly all those childhood secrets that you share become important weapons in a war against your arch nemesis as you turn an entire team against itself and you can’t eat can’t sleep all you can think about is beating your enemy, your rival, your best friend, your closest confidante and the fallout of the civil war that raged inside your team, inside your friendship, and inside your own head is so toxic and absolute that you can barely say each other’s names years later all you can manage is thinly veiled apologies on TV or declarations of love and remorse to the entire world except the one person you hurt the most and you’re adamant that even though the world whispers in quiet remembrance at the destructive nature of this war they have no idea what really went down or how completely you destroyed each other.

oh and also throughout all this you lived in the same apartment complex and take the same elevator and you do still.

[stardustizuku]

I love that the Book of Mestionora appears differently to Ferdinand and Rozemyne due to their personalities.

Specifically the search function. Like obviously Ferdinand would only open the Bible when he wanted to know something in specific, or to get an answer - so whenever he opens it, it opens in whatever he needs. He’s so practical. It also speaks of how he only got the pieces of the Bible that he wanted. Whatever information he doesn’t deem necessary gets thrown out. He just wants the answers.

Rozemyne, on the other hand, definitely needs the search function. She would read the entire Bible if she could. “Opening it in whatever part she needs” would be good in life or death situations, but if she had the leasure to use it at her own pace - why would she? She’d rather take her time and read. Besides, she wants to be a librarian. Isn’t it obvious for her to read the entire contents and THEN help search the answer?

[idlesuperstar]

The My-Eyeballs-Are-So-Happy Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Bluray Watch

Episode 5: Tinker Tailor

- You don't break exactly, you just run out of stories to tell.

[peony-pearl]

JKFAJSKDJSA I’ve got brainrot thinking about Iroh and Zuko making it to Ba Sing Se and Iroh has such a breath of relief about them being safe now, and now they’re going to be able to make money and support themselves and now they’re completely independent of their family (and safe from the Azula/the bounty on their heads; not to mention their wanted poster gives permission to kill them on sight), and with this money and safety, Iroh’s hoping Zuko can start assimilating into the life of a (somewhat) normal teenager. Not only does Iroh mourn his only child, but Zuko’s relationship with his father was already tenuous - thus this could be the perfect scenario in that Iroh could sidle into a true fatherhood role for Zuko.

Iroh’s so eager to see Zuko become happy, pushing him on that date with Jin, doing his hair, hoping he’ll let go of Ozai’s expectations. With the new tea shop in the upper ring, I can only imagine Iroh began planning to set aside funds so Zuko could attend Ba Sing Se University eventually, or for Zuko to get his own place one day; maybe he’ll meet a nice girl and Iroh can ensure they have a good financial start and fund the wedding; he has so many ideas and hopes that have been transplanted from his dreams for Lu Ten’s future and are now given to Zuko. It’s the life he couldn’t give Lu Ten, and he hopes his love is what Zuko needs after everything Ozai has put him through. After realizing that being part of the Fire Nation Royal Family has caused his pain (and his nephew’s) he’s more than happy to leave it all behind to discover what he wants out of the rest of his life; and he hope to encourage the same for Zuko. He can be a father again to a boy who needs one.

But Zuko... wants to go home. And Uncle is Uncle, not his father. He wants to make Ozai proud. Living in Ba Sing Se is a shadow of the life he wants.

As much as Iroh and Zuko mean to each other, the different levels they’re living on are so far away that they can’t understand why the other would want the life they want so badly. Their difference in age and experiences and traumas is so vast, and yet they’re all each other has until Azula comes to collect and offers Zuko everything he’s ever wanted.

[eerna]

I think Inej's "I will have you without armor" scene is a good example of why you can't just randomly insert scenes from the source into an adaptation and call it a character arc. In the book, Kaz believes the only way to solve his issues is to brute force through them. When he tries to solve his touch repulsion, he does it by removing his gloves right away instead of dealing with the trauma that caused him to wear them in the first place, treating it as a physical failure instead of an emotional one. He isn't trying to solve his trauma, he wants to remove his "weakness". In fact, he is scared of letting go of the emotional damage done to him and reduces himself entirely to a "hurt guy looking for revenge who will destroy everything and everyone", since that's what has been keeping him going for years. Inej notices this, even if she doesn't have the full context. She witnesses him repeatedly trying to brute force his way through their relationship, opening up to her a bit only to shut her away the next second, because his only goal is to keep her by his side and not to actually heal himself. She understands his touch aversion is not just a physical thing, his gloves aren't just a way to cope with it, they are the symbol of everything that makes him a bad person - not his trauma, but the fact that he uses it as an excuse to hurt others. Inej herself has PTSD related to physical touch, but she doesn't let it define her, and she wants to heal and get over her past, so there is no way she could ever settle for a partner who is actively trying NOT to forget at the expense of hurting her and everyone around him. In the show, there is none of this buildup. We still don't know a single thing about Inej's trauma, except that one implied scene in s1 where she was scared of that dude touching her arm. She isn't even present for the wagon scene, which was supposed to be the first time Kaz was plainly suffering and in need of help. And Kaz is not running away from emotional responsibility - he has repeatedly told her how much she means to him, he tried to give her money to skip town, he got her indenture paid off, and all of that BEFORE this scene. So why is she saying it? What is the armor she is talking about?? It's word-for-word the same, but with none of the weight. It almost seems like it's literally just the gloves, just as all the bad-faith readers have been interpreting the scene for years, which makes me believe the writers went with that surface interpretation too and that's really sad

[crabussy]

the psychological horror created by Hasbro’s desire to sell more toys rather than honour the desires of the original creator resulting in an immortal alicorn princess of friendship doomed to watch her friends grow old and die without her is so interesting to me. by trying to cater to children more you have accidentally created a reality in which death of the main characters friends as she lives on for centuries is not just implied but confirmed. idk it’s fascinating to think about

[ingravinoveritas]

Okay but is it a good thing for people to look at your family Christmas photo and say that it looks photoshopped and edited? Just wondering since so many people have that same thought over on twitter who believe that Georgia and Anna were edited in

It's been so overwhelming to see the response to these new pics. I am sure probably everyone has seen them by now, but I will put up the visual just in case:

I think I would agree with you that, in the most general sense, saying that someone's family Christmas photo looks Photoshopped/edited is probably not a positive thing. In the interest of fairness, looking at the pictures of the other people who were photographed at the event, it does seem like it was a problem with the lighting or editing overall that is affecting every photo, not just these pictures.

One thing I want to be clear on is that I think it's absolutely precious that Michael and David did this outing together, and are spending so much time together overall while Michael is in London. We had an inkling of that up until this point, but we literally went from a blurry photo to Michael and David gazing at each other across a crowded room on press night for Macbeth, to...this...in the span of less than a month. And I am glad that their kids are getting to spend time together and enjoy all of these holiday festivities as well. It's all very sweet and lovely, and in no way is it my intention to diminish that.

Thinking about the matching sweaters (jumpers), this is where I start to feel slightly less enthusiastic. It seems that the jumpers were Georgia's idea, which makes sense, as she previously had everyone wearing matching sweaters for a viewing party for "The Star Beast" (the first DW 60th anniversary episode). But having sweaters for Michael, AL, Lyra, and Mabli isn't an accident, or something that happens on the fly--it has to be planned. So for me, that makes it seem less like "spontaneous family outing" and more like "planned photo op meant to garner publicity."

What particularly gets me is that the both the matching sweaters for DW and the matching sweaters here feels like a gimmick...but Michael and David have never needed a "gimmick." Because Michael and David just being themselves has always been enough to be memorable. I'm not sure if Georgia thought she needed a gimmick to make herself and Anna stand out or what, but to me it almost feels like the sweaters are a diversion. As if Georgia perhaps knew the four them in a photo together would look awkward, so what better way to deflect than to give everyone something else to talk about. (Perhaps the same could also be said for Michael's hat, which...why, Michael? Haha.)

But it seems that Georgia's idea worked, because right after these pictures came out, an article was published about them in the Daily Mail. So all of this put together does give that feeling of being planned, especially because the four of them were so much the focal point of the DM article, more than any of the other celebrities at the event.

This brings me back to the aforementioned photos. Again, what seemed notable to me wasn't just what we did see, but what we didn't: No photo of Michael and Anna together, nor of David and Georgia, and not one of Georgia and AL, either. Instead, we have this group photo (where no one is actually touching and Georgia and AL's arms are awkwardly hanging side by side), and a photo of Michael and David where they are, with their arms around each other and Michael leaning into David, in contrast to his much stiffer posture in the group photo.

Looking at the Getty Images page, all of the other twosome photos are of couples, and none of them have the same unusual energy as Michael/David/Georgia/AL's group photo. So I do wonder if the fans pointing out the "Photoshopped" nature of the picture (and specifically that Georgia and AL appear to be edited in) have ever considered that maybe that is just how Georgia and AL look together. Because we're not talking about Staged, or social media posts. This is them, face to face, in real life, and the difference between Georgia and AL vs. Michael and David just seems pretty striking.

(I am also aware that there was another family photo that Georgia posted in an Insta story, and it is an incredibly cute picture, but I will say that what struck me is how Georgia and AL are pressed close together, but there is a very noticeable amount of space between Anna and David, and he seems to be giving off a lot of 'closed' body language (one hand in his lap, one folded behind him). Make of that what you will...)

So yes, those are my thoughts on the new pictures. I would love to hear any observations that anyone else has, of course, so feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. Thanks for writing in! x

[mxtxfanatic]

Just looked at the glossary, pronunciation guide, and terminology sections of 7seas tgcf and y’all were right, this shit is mad offensive lmao. (Not to say that I didn’t believe folks before, I’d just always skipped everything after the actual story content for the other mxtx books.)

[moonchild-in-blue]

I'm gonna be meta for a little bit, but huge shout out to George Lever (Sleep Token's previous producer).

Like, don't get me wrong, I love Carl Bown (he's worked with soo many of my favourite bands and killed it), and I love that Vessel himself got involved in the producing process of TMBTE. The album is amazing, everything sounds extremely clean and professional, and very, very concise.

But George Lever? That guy has a way with music that just... It's very innate. I think One was self-produced (although I'm not entirely sure), but everything else apart from TMBTE was produced by him - and you can tell.

There's this very raw and organic feeling to his work that I think it's quite rare to find nowadays. Especially the drums - I really wish he could've been the one mixing it for the last album because man, he just gets it.

When I first listened to Eden, I remember thinking "man, this drummer is insane". But then I went all the way back to One and slowly made my way to TPWBYT and ket me tell you, Jaws' drum line left me flabbergasted. I know that George and ii have been friends/working together for quite a while prior to ST, so maybe that's one reason why. But they just work so well together, everything sounds so clear and crisp, it feels almost impossible.

This is not to discredit the amazing, fenomenal work done on TMBTE - there's a reason why it's my favourite album and why it gained the traction it did - nor to downplay ii's insane skills (as if one could ever do that, he's just that good). But George's work with ST is just so, so brilliant, and I really needed to put it out there.

It's been a while since I've checked in on him, but it seems he's a bit inactive nowadays? Idk. Whatever the reason why he's no longer working with them, or why he's a bit mia (or was for a while), I wish him all the best, and I'm just so thankful for all his hard work.

[lessthanimpressedlesbian]

I still marvel at the fact that Imogen was even more afraid of sleeping after Laudna died, on the off chance she'd see her walking into the storm. The same storm that she was so scared of that she thought she'd die if it ever caught up to her. The thought of Laudna disappearing into the storm was more terrifying than the storm itself, and I think it makes perfect sense why she would call on Ruidus to help free Laudna from Delilah's grasp. How could calling on the cursed moon possibly compare to the fear of losing Laudna for good? Imogen would do anything to get Laudna back, even if it means harming herself in the process. Even if it means pulling power from the very entity that plagues her dreams and gave her powers she never asked for. She would do anything to bring Laudna back, and she did.