#i might have some details wrong

[bookofmirth]

I’m not an elriel, but I strongly disagree w your post suggesting that Elain isn’t tied to any ACOTAR and CC connections (and thus won’t be featured in HOFAS). I’m also a lil confused as to how being a Valkyrie, or having connections to Ramiel, indicates that a character will have a part to play in HOFAS.

But as for Elain, there is substantial evidence to suggest that she is a mystic. In SJM’s old Pinterest board, there was a plethora of imagery that tied Elain to Sleeping Beauty - the mystics ‘travel’ to different worlds via sleep and dreaming. There was even an image in SJM’s Pinterest board of a girl with her eyes closed, but you could see a galaxy with different planets whirling underneath her eyelids - an image that SJM labelled as Elain.

Additionally, there are three sister peaks in Prythian; the mountain that Amrantha ruled from (UTM), Ramiel, and the Prison Island mountain. Feyre’s story featured UTM, Nesta’s story featured Ramiel… which leaves the third sister mountain - the Prison Island mountain - to Elain. As I assume you’re already aware, the Prison Island is the Dusk Court - an area that hosts the most pivotal connection between ACOTAR and CC (and the broader multiverse). It’s also the area that most strongly connects to Bryce, considering that she is the heir to the Starborn fae, and Queen Theia’s direct descendant (Bryce’s scent is even of dusk!)

Elain is also Cauldron-made. She too is connected to the Dread Trove (and ACOSF hinted that Elain is more than willing to be involved in this narrative). This is significant, as the Horn on Bryce’s back is heavily theorised to be the fourth Dread Trove item.

Although nothing is a guarantee (especially knowing SJM!), I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss Elain’s importance to the story. Given that SJM has said multiple times that she has plans for Elain’s book… I’d assume that SJM intends on tying Elain to the upcoming multiverse in some way - perhaps more than any other Archeron sister! :)

I've said in a few posts that I don't think Elain will feature, so I'm not sure which one you are referring to. I suspect it is this one, since it's been going around? It was written over a year ago and there is some context for it - namely the post that was linked within it. That might answer some of your questions. Either way, I'm definitely not quick to dismiss Elain's role. I've put way more thought into it than I should have, considering I'm not even a CC stan haha.

Sorry my response got quite long, it's just that I don't think I've articulated a lot of this before!

Your third paragraph answers your question about Carynthian/Valkyries/Ramiel! Because that mountain is probably going to be important at some point; this post that I had linked within the other also talked specifically about why the Illyrians are important, as well as Ramiel. The Blood Rite is a Rite to get to the top of Ramiel and touch the stone. There seems to be some connection between Illyrians, Ramiel, the daglan/Asteri, and the Blood Rite, perhaps Enalius? I don't think I have a full post about Ramiel and the Illyrians post-hosab. I did write this one before hosab came out, and I should probably update it. I might have somewhere, but I can't remember. But basically I absolutely agree with that third paragraph, and that's why I think it's important that certain characters have made it to the top and touched the stone. There is something there, and the characters who already have a connection to Ramiel seem the most likely to continue being connected. The Blood Rite/being Carynthian is just one way that some of them are connected.

Also, fwiw, I think that it's important that Bryce learned this information just before going to Prythian. There is a difference between what we, the readers, know, and what the individual characters know. That's going to bring me to a point about Elain being a seer in a minute. But before I get there, Byrce learned a lot of this information about the land of dusk, about the Asteri experiments, about them creating what we presume are the Illyrians before the Illyrians rebelled, she learned about the Starborn fae coming from Prythian. All of that was basically dumped in her lap before she ended up in the land in question, which to me, makes all of that information incredibly important in what's to come.

I don't think we know that the prison is where the land of dusk was? (Not to be picky, but it's not the Dusk Court - the land of dusk existed before the courts were established.) People have theories, but we don't know yet. All we know is that it's an island off Prythian. I asked bookclub to be sure and @yazthebookish thinks that it could be the island that is to the west of Prythian, in between the Night and Day Courts - because dusk.

Okay so back to the Elain issue - of course it's possible that she will play some role in hofas. I just don't think it's likely. A lot of things are possible, but that doesn't mean they will happen, and based on what facts we know - not speculation - other characters have a much clearer, solid connection to what is going to happen in hofas.

The thing with her being a seer could be a potential link, but I have a few counterpoints:

What Bryce knows about the mystics is not positive, and she may not connect that practice with Elain's seer powers. When I mentioned before that Bryce's knowledge going into Prythian is important, this is part of it. The way that Elain is living and using her powers is a far cry from what is happening with the mystics as they create their map and wander through the worlds all drugged up and having given up their autonomy in exchange for financial security. Plus, we don't know for sure that seer powers and mystics are a one-to-one correlation. Which leads me to my next point:

Elain hasn't been using her powers. Not only that, but the IC has been very reticent to letting her help them in any way. IMO her story is going to require breaking away from the way that they coddle her, and that's not going to happen in another series.

We don't know that seer powers in Prythian would have anything to do with traveling between worlds, and that's the main goal right now - Bryce needs to get out of Prythian and to Hel, or back to Midgard. Is it possible that Elain's seer powers could help? Yeah, it is. But just because things work one way in Midgard doesn't mean they are going to work the same way in Prythian. And let's be honest, sjm does the absolute bare minimum explaining the magic in acotar. It seems much more likely that the people who have already been researching other worlds, explicitly, in Prythian, would hold those keys to answering Bryce's main challenge right now, which is getting the eff out of Prythian.

Regarding Elain being Made, there is the second point I made above about people not allowing her to help, but there is no reason that Elain would be required to use her Made status to find the fourth trove object when, as you mentioned, it likely doesn't really need to be found. It fell into their laps. Plus, Nesta and Feyre are still Made. Nesta is in a bonus. Nesta also has the tattoo. Nesta is still a more likely candidate to work with any trove-related things.

My thinking that Elain won't be very present in hofas is based on the things we know for sure: she wasn't present at the end of hosab, she isn't present in a bonus (that we know of yet), she hasn't been using her powers, she hasn't been allowed to help, and there are other characters who already have a much clearer connection to what is happening in CC.

If we were to do this in a mathy way, I think that we could give each character a point for how many things they have that potentially connect them to the hofas plot, but I would give more points to facts we are already sure about, over speculation. And while Elain wouldn't have zero points, other characters would have far, far more.

I am aware that sjm has said she's working on Elain's book. I think most of us are, and it would be pretty poor planning if sjm hadn't been thinking about how Elain will fit into all of this, but I just don't think that we have reason to believe it has anything to do with other worlds, not when the visions we know she's had thus far are related to the current acotar conflict. Is it possible? Yes!

But sjm has also said that she came up with the crossover where the characters would interact with each other to this extent while she was writing hosab, not before! Which means that if she does connect Elain to other worlds in the ways you are suggesting, it's a retcon. It wasn't planned ahead of time. She literally changed acosf to make space for the crossover in hosab (e.g., Rhys worrying about someone else coming through à la Aelin in the feysand chapter), and yet nothing happened with Elain in acosf to make her connection to CC seem more likely. It would have been the perfect opportunity to have done so, and yet if you remove Elain from the acosf plot, nothing would be different.

fwiw, I don't really care who you ship! As long as you aren't rude, and you weren't!

[crunchchute]

my attempt at a bunch of my fav artists styles :] idea by sootnuki!!

i would love to do more but this was already a huge challenge

if any artist here dislikes this/is uncomfortable with it/any reason i can take it down or turn off reblogs etc. otherwise i hope its ok 🫡 im not gonna tag anyone just gonna let it do its thing in the wild lol

[luna-lovegreat]

A concept:

This is their entire relationship

"I grew up in a cave and my motto is I DONT KNOW THE MEANING OF GIVING UP!!!"

And

"I was raised in a forest but am older with a wife and somehow (?) can act responsible"

They love each other. I feel like that panel is just how they interact ya know? Magic Cave Boy is excited and Disturbed Forest Boy is. somehow still acting responsible.

Also going through the comics and?? Like every frame with them is like this

More of their goofy little dynamic:

Art and odd little dudes from Jojo @linkeduniverse au

[nightwonder7]

Tried redrawing a scene from the recent IDV stageplay.

[justanotherwriter140]

Kung Fu Panda 4 - The Movie

The last really, really long discussion post (for now).

Major spoilers ahead!

This review is full of spoilers, so please refrain from reading through it until you've watched KFP4. I would highly suggest doing so, as I want everyone to form their own opinions without my influence. The movie has its flaws (some of which admittedly being a bit distracting), but it's a fun film that has things to offer.

Kung Fu Panda 4 is a fun movie (take that as you will) that takes its audience on an action-packed, surprisingly funny, yet relatively contained adventure on which Po doesn't really do much. It's an inconsequential, safe sequel that doesn't really hurt the franchise but adds close to nothing.

I had a good time watching the movie. It was obviously produced with its theater experience in mind and the action scenes especially reflected that priority. The humor was actually funny sometimes and I enjoyed Po and Zhen's dynamic. During the film, I was able to put most (most!) of my grievances aside and take the movie for what it is. I've discovered that the best way to watch KFP4 is with low expectations and an open mind.

I have a lot of things to say about KFP4, both complaints and compliments (though the former might be taking the forefront in this review), and I hope this review can help those of you who have seen the movie organize your thoughts. I've been having a lot of trouble with that specific aspect of things myself. Those who get it get it.

With that said, let's get into my full review of KFP4! I've been waiting for nearly 2 years to write this and I'm so excited to share every single thought.

I'm going to follow the format of my first discussion post and curate a bulleted list of my thoughts, followed by an analysis of each of these points. Keep in mind that everything I say is IMO and this is more of a rant post than anything else.

Here are my main points:

The Furious Five's role is comically minuscule in the context of the film. Their actions are inconsequential and add nothing to the plot (a confirmed last-minute add), and they have 30~ seconds of screen time. Shifu is also largely irrelevant.

Mr. Ping and Li's presence has little to no effect on the movie (though I won't complain too much because they were pretty fun to watch and this movie has bigger problems). In almost any scenario, I am adamantly against having characters present that don't add anything to the narrative; however, Mr. Ping is an exception. I love Mr. Ping. James Hong is a gem.

Zhen's screen time is not utilized well and her character is underdeveloped. She definitely wasn't annoying, but I didn't find her either compelling or funny enough to warrant the screen time she was given, especially considering it wasn't used to establish a backstory/strong motives. This makes me feel bad for the character because the movie kind of screwed her out of any substantial development.

The Chameleon, while complimented greatly by Viola Davis, is an underwhelming villain. Viola Davis is amazing in this film and I would suggest watching it for her performance if for nothing else, but the Chameleon is underwhelming considering the super cool concept behind the character.

The film feels very rushed. Apologies to those who disagree, but I think the pacing is atrocious and the final fight is anticlimactic. The movie felt like a word-vomit with no discernible intermissions that stops abruptly when the film ends.

I felt as though Po didn't change/grow as a person and the audience never had a chance to either bond with or relate to his character. His internal struggle is kept to a minimum and we don't spend a moment alone with him as an audience, which is disorienting and distracting. Watching the film felt like running into an old friend at the store who's too in a rush to have a real conversation.

The action scenes were strong with few exceptions. Creative art direction was utilized and I thought the martial arts choreography was entertaining and dynamic. I love the color palette of the film and many scenes were very impressive visually.

With my main points established, I do believe it's ranting time. Strap in, folks.

Let's start strong with the Furious Five: I'm gutted. Chagrined, despondent, crestfallen, etc.

The lack of the Furious Five negatively affects KFP4 so much, because not only does their absence hurt the atmospheric integrity of KFP as a franchise, it also forces KFP4 to bring in a slew of different characters—all while still noncommittally including the FF at the very end because I believe the marketing team required it—that clog up the cast a bit. It all goes to show how important strong, established side characters are.

The Furious Five are side characters, but the role of "side character" does not equate to being irrelevant, expendable, or exchangeable. I recognize that the Furious Five aren't super developed as characters beyond a handful of lines that allude to traits sprinkled sparingly among the members; however, I believe that the tiny bits of development we have been given have proved impactful in the past. Tigress's development in KFP2 is a prime example of how much narratively conscious changes (however small they may be) can positively affect these movies.

Because of limited runtimes, the Furious Five often operate as more of a singular unit than five individuals. Even so, I don't think discarding them is valid. They're so important to the KFP universe (to Po's universe!) and not having them with him feels so wrong. The Furious Five are fully integral to the heart of Kung Fu Panda, which is why I believe a lot of those who have seen the new movie have expressed something feeling "off" or something being missing.

I agree with this sentiment. To me, KFP4 didn't feel like a KFP movie. I don't need a Furious Five spin-off movie and I can be fully content with a KFP5 centered around Po's journey as an individual as was intended from the beginning, but he can't carry an entire movie on his back. As strong as he is in every sense of the word, he is only one character. He's the centerpiece of the franchise, but a centerpiece can only go so far without the rest of the design, so to speak.

For me, the Furious Five's absence is one of this film's biggest faults. It's huge and glaring. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way, either, because the friends with whom I saw the film refused to talk about any other aspect of the movie after seeing it. Seeing them at the end was better than nothing, of course, but it was a disappointing culmination after eight years of waiting.

That all is to say I feel robbed. Despite all of this, though, I understand that there were reasons why the Furious Five weren't included in the movie. I don't believe the production team would exclude the Furious Five unless they weren't given a choice.

Shifu and Po's dynamic continues to be thoroughly delightful but their interactions are short and simplified. I would have loved to see more of them in this film, especially considering the extreme relevance of teacher-student relationships in KFP4. I (somewhat) digress, though, because the idea of Shifu having to live at the Jade Palace with only Po for an extended period of time is hilarious enough on its own. Maybe that's what the short film is about!

The comedy is odd but has some jokes that stand out. Po maintains a healthy relationship with his inner sass, which I think makes him more fun to watch and kind of eradicates the man-child verdict. Some jokes don't land, of course, but I genuinely thought KFP4 had some funny moments. Mr. Ping was consistently awesome and Po had some good lines sprinkled throughout the film.

As for Mr. Ping, he and Li Shan are the subjects of the film's B-plot as they follow Po to Juniper City out of shared concern for their son's safety. In my mind, they don't add anything to the story that couldn't have been brought about by other characters, but they had their moments of being entertaining. I enjoyed their silliness and thought they had a cute dynamic if nothing else.

Speaking of other characters, I want to discuss KFP4's deuteragonist and why I genuinely feel bad about the way her character was treated.

I want to let it be known that I'm still not on board with Po passing the Dragon Warrior torch to another character. While I agree that his arc is now calling for him to have a student, I disagree with the notion of him retiring from his DW role.

As I stated in my first discussion post:

Didn’t the initial significance and nuance of the title come from the fact that there is only one person who can be the Dragon Warrior, because the concept of the “Dragon Warrior” isn’t so much a title as it is Po himself? The universe (Oogway) must choose the Dragon Warrior because they are a singular being of legend. It is one person, and that person is Po. Wasn’t the point of the first film that the title ultimately doesn’t really matter because there is no “secret ingredient,” so to speak? The title doesn’t actually give Po anything. “It’s just you,” Po says, and that was the resolution.

When it comes to Zhen as a character, contrary to what I predicted I would think of her, I thought she was okay. While I was still a bit distracted by how out-of-place her design looks, I wasn't truly annoyed by her at any point and she and Po had some cute moments. Even so, I think their relationship could have been a bit more refined and developed.

While it's evident that Po and Zhen are meant to have a teacher-student/mentor-apprentice dynamic, I think their relationship feels half-baked. There were parallels that contradicted one another and ended up being confusing come the film's conclusion, and the nature of their relationship seems to vacillate depending on the scene. Additionally, the strength of their bond goes from zero to one hundred within thirty-ish minutes and left me with a bit of whiplash.

We're shown that Po and Zhen care about one another, but we're never shown why. They have a brief conversation during which they bond over being orphans, and Zhen says at one point, "You're actually a good guy," but that's it. This obvious lack of development is a bit disorienting because we're later led to believe that Zhen and Po care very deeply for one another when there's almost nothing to back it up.

A scene that sticks out to me when discussing this is when Zhen attack-hugs Po in a way that explicitly mirrors Tigress's hug from KFP2. This happens around the beginning of the third act, and while it had the potential to be an endearing moment, I think it fell flat.

The impact of Tigress's hug was brought on by her character's hardcore nature and reputation of being heartless, further strengthened with the knowledge that she was hugging Po (which was obviously way outside her comfort zone) as a show of companionship and fundamental understanding. Tigress hugged Po because he needed someone to recognize his strive for closure.

Zhen's hug had little to no impact because she had no reason to do it and it didn't indicate growth. She hugs Po because she's sorry for betraying him and doesn't want him to be killed by the Chameleon, but neither of these things are newly-established via this hug; we have already gathered by now that Zhen regrets betraying Po and doesn't want him to get hurt.

The hug is far from the movie's weakest point, but I think it's unnecessary given the context. I'm big on hugs in movies (an underutilized form of platonic affection, in my opinion), but it didn't fit here. I don't hate it, and I see it as an honest effort to bring emotionality to Po and Zhen's relationship, but it seems arbitrary.

Zhen and Po's relationship has a lot of potential and I'd be open to seeing more of them in the future, but I think some more thoughtful development needs to occur before I can humor it further. Even so, I can see myself featuring Zhen in some future post-KFP4 one-shots—sparingly, of course, because we have a lot of Furious Five content to compensate for.

Overall, they had a cute dynamic and some sweet moments but I'm not attached. I'm on board with Po having a student but I think their relationship needs a lot more development, something that this film unfortunately didn't give them time to either accomplish or earn.

Now, onto the Chameleon!

The concept of the Chameleon's character is admittedly super interesting. She's the deuteragonist's fastidious mother figure who feels that Zhen owes her a debt and as a result holds her to an impossible standard. That dynamic had the potential to be so interesting but I didn't think it was explored at all. There is no indication of Zhen having any internal conflict about fighting the Chameleon, no emotional complexity between them at all; it's disappointing because I think it would've added a bit of earnestness to the film.

Additionally, the idea of a shape-shifting villain is versatile. A shape-shifting villain gives those telling the story a lot of room to experiment with the protagonist and different ways in which the main character can be challenged and tested. It's yet another good idea utilized poorly. Just one idea: the Chameleon could have disguised herself as one (or several) of Po's family, friends, etc. and brought to fruition a new arc with his character (seeing as he arguably doesn't have one in this film), but she only disguises herself as Zhen very briefly in the movie.

Furthermore, the Chameleon completely relies on the powers of previous villains to pose any sort of threat to the main characters. She summons Po's former nemeses from the Spirit Realm (despite there being little logic in doing so considering Kai's literal evisceration) and takes their kung fu abilities for herself.

An excerpt from my first KFP4 discussion post that I think is relevant to the point I'm trying to make:

I don’t think it would be in the best interest of anyone if the past villains were to come back in any way that’s not a flashback (even then, I’m not sure I’d see the point). In all honesty, I thought that the whole point of the villains was that they died and stayed dead. They were defeated by Po once and for all as a testament to the idea of establishing Po's character growth and journey as a person through the bad things he’s able to overcome. It’d be highly contradictory to the messages of the other films if these villains were to suddenly come back.

While there was an honest effort made to portray the Chameleon as intimidating, I never felt as though any of the characters were endangered by either her or her army of lizard henchman. She's a visually appealing character (aside from her eyes, which I thought more resembled those of a gecko than a chameleon) and I greatly enjoyed Davis's performance, but overall I don't see the Chameleon as a notable villain.

The return of Tai Lung (had he been on his own) had the makings to be an excellent story, especially considering the importance of teacher-student dynamics in KFP4. To see him interacting with Shifu would have been incredible and could have led to further closure on Tai Lung's end (because I think that's kind of what the team was going for anyway), but it didn't happen.

It was nice to see Ian McShane reprise his role, but I wish Tai Lung's characterization had been more reminiscent of the way he was in the first film and more complimentary of his overall character arc. Tai Lung isn't a one-dimensional villain with a singular goal and motivation, and I couldn't help but feel as though the complexity of his character was simplified for the sake of KFP4's narrative.

Tai Lung's presence in KFP4 may be odd, but Shen and Kai's appearances are even more so. Kai, if I remember correctly, was fully obliterated by Po, reduced to literal particles on screen (which is kind of wild now that I think about it). Shen being in the Spirit Realm makes sense all things considered; however, Po and Li had no visible reaction to his presence, which seemed a bit unlikely considering Shen's deeds. This plot hole can likely be attributed to the fact that Shen and Kai's cameos (to my knowledge) were last-minute additions to the movie.

I have to talk about the pacing. I have to. I'm sorry, bear with me.

To me, the film's pacing is erratic and disconcerting. While I can appreciate a quick-moving narrative that doesn't dawdle on storylines that aren't interesting/important, KFP4 kind of flings itself too far in the opposite direction and ends up being frighteningly fast-paced. Once the credits began, I felt like I had been holding my breath for the entire movie.

KFP4 is confusing because while the runtime is standard for a KFP movie, it feels incredibly short. At the same time, the film's story moves at a breakneck speed and leaves little time for heart and development. These things culminate into a barreling boulder of a movie that simply doesn't have time to let its characters, story, or audience take a breath.

A fast pace is not inherently negative, but I don't think it worked in the favor of KFP4. The KFP franchise has always been very emotionally grounded (and just very grounded in general), so to see a film in which emotion/heart takes an aggressive backseat in comparison to action and comedy is jarring. While I think it's unreasonable for fans to expect the same emotional integrity as the original films to be present in the current and upcoming ones, I still think there's room for Po to grow and I felt as though the notion of him developing further was brushed aside in this film.

As for Po's growth, I felt it was nearly nonexistent. The previous trilogy wrapped up his character's journey beautifully and I know that KFP4 was bound to struggle with this particular aspect of making another KFP film; however, just because the strongest pillars of Po's character are established doesn't serve as a valid excuse to reverse his development and repeat what he learned in KFP3.

In KFP3, Po learned firsthand that he is capable of spreading wisdom and teaching kung fu. He also learns that he is constantly growing and that change is inevitable; there is always something more to learn.

"If you only do what you can do, you will never be more than you are now."

"I don't want to be anything more, I like who I am!"

In KFP4, Po pushes against this narrative despite fully accepting it in KFP3, actively reversing crucial parts of his character development achieved in the latter. KFP3 was non-ambiguously about learning to cope with change and responsibility, and I can't help but feel like KFP4 is simply copying this message while not adding anything to it.

Additionally, I felt that KFP4's Po generally felt less personal than he has in the past. In every KFP movie up to the franchise's most recent addition, I felt very connected to Po as an audience member. I felt like I was truly seeing the world of KFP through his eyes. I consider this to be one of the franchise's most impressive feats; it's incredibly difficult to build a universe around a character without making the audience feel limited to one perspective and one part of the world.

With KFP4, I felt both limited and disconnected. The world didn't feel as vast and all-encompassing as it has in the past and Po didn't seem fully like himself. This could be me nitpicking (as I'm prone to do), but I can't recall a single moment in the movie in which Po was alone on screen. Scenes like these are crucial for me because I see them as a meet-cute between the character and the audience, a moment for us to cross the bridge into their world in a way that's silent and intuitive. These little bonding moments are absolutely integral to feeling connected to a character.

Po's dream sequence in the first KFP movie is one of the best examples of this. It presents his aspirations, alludes to his way of life up to the point of the movie, and showcases his personality. During Po's dream sequence, the audience is quite literally inside Po's mind; we're there with him, seeing what he sees, subsequently feeling what he feels. Po is a dreamer at heart and makes the audience feel like dreamers, too.

In KFP4, I felt like I little to no point of reference when it comes to how Po was feeling. I didn't feel immersed in him and his world.

I know I've been very "doom and gloom" throughout this post, which is an exhausting mindset for everyone involved. I want to end my critique with something positive because I think some praise is deserved. Let's just say the movie could have been a lot worse, the details of which I'm sure you're all well aware.

The color palette of the movie is beautiful and somewhat reminiscent of the first film. While the animation style of KFP4 is far more simplistic than its predecessors, I was very impressed with its use of shadow and light. Po's many faces were also hysterical, props to those who helped make him as expressive as he is.

Additionally, the movie's action sequences were clearly thought out and discussed in great detail. The experimentation with camera angles was really fun to watch and I enjoyed the majority of the film's fight scenes. They were fun, bouncy, and entertaining, and quite likely reinstated audiences's love of watching a cuddly panda kick butt.

Congratulations, you've reached the end! Thank you so much to all of you who took the time to read this unnecessarily long and detailed review. As long as I help someone translate their conflicted feelings into coherent thoughts, I'll call it a win.

I want to reiterate that I don't hate Kung Fu Panda 4 and I had fun while watching the film. It has its flaws and there are a lot of aspects that I dislike, but the effort of the crew is obvious and I greatly admire and respect the hard work put into the film by those who worked on it. This does not at all excuse my issues with the movie, but it's worth saying.

As for the future of the series, I only hope that the next installment is more considerate of the franchise's origins and why Po's story is being told in the first place. I fully believe that another sequel could be good given a strong, passionate crew with a great understanding of the characters and world (and I wouldn't be averse to some previous directors returning, just to put it out there).

Thanks again to those who took the time to read this crazy excuse for a movie review. Feel free to either disagree with me or add things in the replies/reblogs, I'm always looking for more thoughts to think.

Until next time!

[tinderbox210]

La’an Noonien-Singh and Spock + in sync

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - season 1 & season 2

[gaytobymeres]

People are kind of mean about Morse and how his relationship with Monica ended. Did he treat her well when it ended? No, and I don’t dispute that and she certainly did not deserve that. But he was framed and put in prison for something he didn’t commit, had to accept the cover up of massive really horrific corruption/crimes, saw his father figure shot in front of him- no wonder he was not as kind or considerate as he should have been he was going through a lot! He was hurting, traumatised, angry

[companion-showdown]

Most Likely to Wander Off - Nominations

a penchant for wandering off is a core trait of practically every companion, but who is first out of the starting blocks even when its incredibly dangerous, who cannot stay put no matter how imperative, who can the doctor not afford to let out of their sights?

no specific rules for this one, just the general guidelines of preferably no alternate versions of the same character unless they are very different eg through regeneration, and limited nominations from franchises other than doctor who and only if their universes are incredibly intertwined with Doctor Who (ie more than a small handful of crossovers)

all tv companions, along with some of the better known eu companions, are automatically included and so don't need nominating. full list here

Nominations:

Antranak

Missy

Wolsey

Rose the Cat

K9 mk 5

K9 from K9 Australia

John and Gillian Who

The TARDIS

Cousin Eliza

Delgado!Master

Ainley!Master

Miss Evangelista

proper Dave

other Dave

Anita

guy played by steve pemberton whose name i will look up in a minute: Strackman (??! - what) Lux

Death's Head

Thomas Brewster

Lulubelle

Mels Zucker

Rose Noble

this list will be whittled down to 8 during the round 1 group stage

Nominations will be open for at least 24 hours, until 14:00 BST (GMT/UTC + 1) 30/08

after that no guarantees, but always worth a try if the tournament isn't yet underway

[sea-buns]

Holy fuck, man. What a trip Fearne has been on, huh?

You tell her how grateful you are to have her in your life, you flatter her, you tell her you need her, that you have to do this together. You have her make a promise that has this woman, born of chaos and fey, agreeing through shaking hands and a trembling voice.

You make her deceive your friends; you make her follow where they cannot know; you make her help you into this contraption; you make her feed this thing into you despite the fact that you both have been warned extensively of the risks. You make her watch you crumble and splinter and shatter and fracture and burst and implode. You make her watch you die, over and over and over and over, for a minute in agonizing bullet time.

You make her do all these things, because when she tries to back out, when she tries to not be the one who let you do this—how could you do this—

you tell her, "YOU PROMISED."

Because if there's one thing you know, it's that the fey do not break a promise.

[thingstrumperssay]

So JK Rowling is apparently trying to get arrested or something so she can be some martyr for bigots and the Scottish police are like "Shut the fuck up, Joanne. We're not arresting you over some Tweets" and other bigots are celebrating her not being arrested.

Edit: I just realize that she's trying to be Scotland's Jordan Peterson, meaning that she might go into some drug induced coma at some point and come back to yell at a puppet.

[pardonmydelays]

unpopular opinion but i really miss those days when it was all about the music in taylor swift fandom

[which-qsmp-egg-would]

What does Mg. mean /gen

The only gender neutral honorary I know is Mx.

There's been a post going around that I got it from. It explained that Mr. and Ms./Mrs. come from the word "magister", and so following that logic, the gender neutral honerific should be Mg. for "mage" :] It rolls off the tongue better than Mx. does in my opinion, so I prefer to use it. Plus, look at Mg. Capybara. Tell me that doesn't fit them lol.

[pepperpixel]

Some art of Tori from @misfitmccoward ‘s Naruto fic Plasticity! Because!! It’s such a good fucking fic…! I had to do fanart for it!! honestly after I first read it I was so fucking hype about it that I was almost like “omg.. I have to do an animatic or something for this. it’s SO GOOD” but. My ability to do animatics has kinda flushed down the drain recently ghghg- But! Still!! I had to at least draw some fanart for it…!

[bumblingest-bee]

hi i’m sorry what the FUCK is the mermaid hamilton rpf what hello

oh my GOD where do i start. this whole incident is my roman empire. i think about it constantly. now the thing is the mermaid rpf isn't even the biggest part of the drama. the big thing was the hivliving scandal. so buckle up and keep your arms inside the vehicle at all times bc this is going to be a ride.

back in like 2016 when the hamilton fandom was at its peak, there was a popular fanfiction author in the fandom named israa. she was kind of known for harassing other people in the fandom and being annoying and self-righteous, but she was mostly known for having written a fic called "to scale the blue sky," which was (and im so sorry you have to read these words) a high school au fic set in the 1980s in which alexander hamilton contracts hiv.

now you may be thinking "why did nobody point out that was deranged on so many levels?" well 1. because it was the hamilton fandom in 2016, and 2. because israa was an activist for hiv+ people and also ran a decently well-known blog called hivliving where she talked about her own experiences as a lesbian woman of color and sex trafficking survivor living with hiv in india.

here's the thing. israa was not actually any of those things. she was secretly a wealthy white teenage college student named alix who very much did not have hiv. she had made up at least two other fake identities (her alleged wife, and her co-mod of hivliving respectively) to basically dodge any criticism of the fact that she was WRITING FANFICTION ABOUT THE HIV CRISIS. oh yeah, and she was receiving donations from her followers to allegedly cover for medical expenses. this wasn't just insane fandom drama, she was literally scamming people out of money.

so NOW you might be wondering "wait, wasn't this meant to be about cannibal mermaid rpf?" well, that's where digoxin-purpurea comes in. they noticed that the money transfer service that "israa" was using to get donations didn't work in india, where israa/alix claimed to be living. from there they unraveled this whole web of lies and confronted alix in tumblr dms, who eventually broke down and admitted to everything (but not before trying to get out of it with more increasingly outlandish excuses). and then digoxin-purpurea, who could have been the hero of the whole story, ruined it by publicly doxxing alix and generally turning out to be kind of a dick.

so the cherry on top of this utterly batshit flaming garbage pile that somehow manages to perfectly encapsulate what being in the hamilton fandom was like in 2016? digoxin-purpurea then got exposed for having written fucking. cannibal mermaid rpf about the cast of hamilton. hence the reference i made in the tags of that other post. and now you have to live with this knowledge forever. im so sorry.

[bandzboy]

very much this... cr.

[cinnamon-flame]

Idk why but in my head the boop wars look like this

( sorry this is very silly)

This is so cuteeeee Oh my gosh that's adorable, it's a literal cat fight I kinda thought that maybe the paws were supposed to be like those foam bats they give you at summer camp