#i suspect he might be

[seamsterspell]

⚠️ ACROSS THE SPIDER VERSE SPOILER ⚠️

I just realised that in the first movie, the spider that bit Miles WAS GLITCHING!!! Hinting that yes, it’s a spider from another dimension

[windcarvedlyre]

This started as a tag tangent but I'm making it its own post.

Have we had any more information to resolve the discrepancy between Venti and Nahida regarding how archons gain power: control or worship?

We know worship/faith gives gods power regardless, including Venti himself when he was a wisp, so at minimum Venti lied by omission. He has more than one reason to pretend to be weaker than he is, as he very clearly did in the La Signora fight even if we accept that he's not at his prime. We still have two possibilities:

Both are correct. Worship is a source of power for gods. Suppressing people's free will through other means is also a power source for gods (or archons specifically). This could allow archons' power to scale with how heavily they control their people but have faith remain as a semi-independent factor.

Only Nahida is correct. Or Venti was referring to faith too, just through a lens of being a god inherently being tyrannical (being fully aware we wouldn't interpret him this way lol). If you worship a god you're going to, to some extent, a) align your actions with what you believe they desire or embody and b) become emotionally and/or materially reliant on them. Both limit your freedom, potentially without you feeling like you're caged at all. On top of this, worship doesn't have to stem from love. It can be motivated by fear, and fear will always have a part in it even for the most benevolent gods.

Thoughts?

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

SO. TO KICK OFF THE WEEK OF SPECULATION BEFORE THE UPDATE DROPS.

last night i had a bit of a Revelation. literally. i borderline woke up in a cold sweat with this realization. the way i lunged for my laptop to scream at friends... ough. lets get into it

so. i do believe I've made a couple of theory posts about Barnaby not being quite as receptive to his and Wally's "forced" best friendship as Wally - since the show wrote them to be friends instead of it happening naturally. i thought it might be a point of tension for Barn. i thought a lot.

YES SO I'M TOSSING (almost) ALL OF THAT OUT THE WINDOW!

the bios state Barnaby as Wally's best friend multiple times over. it had to be regularly reinforced. their colors were chosen to mark them as friends.

but Barnaby - presumably - can't see the bios, he wouldn't know the scripts. the friendship would be natural from his perspective. how would he know otherwise? even if the relationship started out synthetic, i don't doubt that it became genuine. in the context of their world and perceptions, realistically speaking Barnaby probably wouldn't sense anything wrong.

the reminders to be best friends weren't for Barnaby.

they were for Wally.

i'm starting to suspect that Wally is Barnaby's best friend, but Barnaby isn't Wally's. i think that Wally's "best friend" is Home - or at least Wally has a closer connection to them / Home is more important to Wally than anyone else is.

i remember reading this livestream trivia (from theneighborhoodwatch's doc, if you haven't their resources yet what are you even doing?):

and i assumed it was for Barnaby's side of the relationship. but it's not, is it? it's Wally's? and it makes too much fucking Sense! it fits! i can see it perfectly! i can feel things slotting together in my mind due to this shift in perspective, and i'm scared

Barnaby probably thinks the relationship is natural, just like how he thinks he's a real person in a real world. Wally probably knows that the relationship is a role, just like how he knows he's a puppet in a false reality.

that leaves me wondering how much of it is genuine on Wally's side. i don't doubt that they really are friends, but how deep does that connection go? in the interview, Wally sounded excited/proud about having a best friend, but how much came from a place of feeling, and how much came from a place of Fulfilling The Role? how much of it is performative? how much of it is a mask?

i've been seeing everything differently. Barnaby poses for Wally the most because he has good balance and is good at staying still, not because of favoritism or because he's Wally's best friend. in the 14 (15 including the hidden halloween) audios, Barnaby consistently seeks out Wally and checks in on him. Wally seems more casual about their relationship than Barnaby is.

i'm worried that Wally values Home & You/Us over Barnaby. that Barnaby is second or third place in Wally's heart. that Wally means more to Barnaby than he means to Wally. after all, only one of them needed their relationship to be reinforced on a seemingly regular basis.

i'm confident that Wally cares about / loves Barnaby, but the question is how much? to what extent?

[moxie-girl]

DRDT SPOILERS

WAIT. WHAT IF EDEN GRABBED THE TAPE FOR A NON MURDER REASON N GAVE IT TO SOMEONE ELSE BC THEY ASKED HER FOR HELP? and now she’s realizing she might have helped Arei’s killer unwillingly, maybe why she kept repeating that line about friends helping each other?

[androids-insides]

There’s a caption behind the image on the background that says “Oh! This is much better than what I had in mind!” Yaknow, in case you’re curious.

Based on this image:

(Yes, I found it on TikTok. Maia:3 looks to be the possessor of this image originally, so thank you for allowing me to indulge in reckless endangerment)

Dirt

[irlmumrik]

leyendecker redraw for school w/ crayons 🌷🖍️

[canisalbus]

I've always wanted to ask how you can draw an oc that you know has a bad end/dies in their story. You are stronger than me and I'd love to know what motivates you

I know I'm in a minority on this and most OC creators don't think about their characters' deaths, but it's never bothered me much honestly. The way I see it, if I know how their life starts and how it ends, it's much easier to figure out what happens in the middle.

[99thpercentile]

the signs as out-of-context Cabin Pressure quotes

Aries: I am your mystery perpetrator of gross professional misconduct. Hello. Taurus: And I said I wouldn’t, and she said I must, and I said I wouldn’t, and she said I must, and I said I wouldn’t, and she said I must — Gemini: Lesbians are great! Cancer: A man who can imitate a Spanish squirrel helping forty-eight men mow a meadow is capable of anything. Leo: I have two fluffy dressing gowns in case one of them goes wrong, Virgo: Is he awake? Is he drunk? Does he suspect? Libra: We probably shouldn’t let the CAA examiner know we use vital safety equipment as oven gloves. Scorpio: BEES, CAROLYN, A-LOT-A-LOT-A-LOT OF BEES! Saggitarius: Died 2008 in the sky...definitely. Non-vegetarian option. Capricorn: Goodbye — a grizzly bear can strip a deer’s carcass in six minutes. Aquarius: NEVER AM I SEPARATED FROM MY BASSOON. Pisces: As it turns out, that’s as many cigarettes as you can stick in a fishcake.

[aro-culture-is]

Not an Aro-culture-is thing but I do have a question you might be able to answer? Is there an aromantic/asexual term for this: AroAce but if I wasn’t I would be gay? It might just be homoplatonic or homoaesthetic but idk if there was a term for it that relates to being AroAce. Thanks! <3

possibly you might vibe with oriented aroace labels, like gay aroace? i'll put this out there for other folks to consider as well, but I feel like oriented terminology sounds the most applicable from my POV.

[mylittleredgirl]

much more context with an episode list below the poll!

more info below by episode (forgive me in advance if i forgot your favorite doctor-evolution episode) (also forgive me for all the mistakes i will immediately see once i hit post but will be unable to fix because we can't edit poll posts):

season one: "i wasn't programmed for any of this!"

"eye of the needle": after kes starts advocating for him, janeway offers him the power to turn himself off, and he asks for a name.

"heroes and demons": he leaves sickbay for the first time and has his first non-medical mission. he's emotionally affected by freya's death at the end.

season two: "before you, i was just a projection of photons held together by forcefields [...] just a profession, not a life."

"projections": he hallucinates an existential crisis about whether he's a human or a hologram.

"twisted": the doctor spends time recreationally with the crew on the holodeck for the first time (though it's not clear if he enjoys it).

"lifesigns": he falls in love with vidiian doctor danara pel. at first he says his program is malfunctioning, but later believes his programming is adapting instead. he also records his first personal log.

season three: "i'm footloose and fancy-free."

"the swarm": his program starts to degrade because he has been expanding it for hobbies like opera and friendships with the crew. he says his program should be rebooted so he can serve his "primary responsibility," but kes and the others convince him that his memories are important to keep. (factoid: we learn his maximum runtime was supposed to be 1500 hours.)

"future's end": mobile emitter time!!! and his first time off the ship.

"darkling": he starts editing his own program (and it doesn't go well).

"real life": he creates a holo-family for himself.

according to the stardate mentioned in "latent image" (see season five), the flashback part of that episode happens at the very end of season three.

season four: "i believe i've earned the respect of the crew as an equal."

"revulsion": we meet our first delta quadrant hologram (and it doesn't go well). this is the first time we hear about holograms being subjugated by "organics."

"message in a bottle": the doctor meets the EMH-2 and reveals that at some point he programmed himself a dick and had sex.

"living witness": we learn that the doctor has a backup module who seems to have the same emotions and self-awareness as the doctor himself (which i take to mean that whatever sentience is now in his program can be duplicated by copying).

season five: "we gave him a soul. do we have any right to take it away now?"

"latent image": we learn the doctor had a holo-breakdown (off-screen in late season 3) after his ethical subroutines could not reconcile his decision to save harry's life over another patient's. at the time, they determined that erasing some of his memories was the only way to repair him. at the end of the episode, after the doctor and seven both argue for his individual rights, janeway decides to let him work through his guilt rather than deleting his memories again. assuming this ultimately works after the episode ends, it means that he was able to overcome a critical programming conflict through introspection and social support instead of altering his programming.

season six: "haven't I earned the right to self-determination?"

"tinker, tenor, doctor, spy": the doctor formally complains that his sentience is not being acknowledged and argues that he should be allowed to grow his abilities beyond his role as doctor. he also wants his potential to be evaluated based on his holographic nature rather than humanoid limits ("my program can be expanded indefinitely. i don't have limits!").

"blink of an eye": he lives for three years on the time dilation planet and even has a son ("it's a long story").

"virtuoso": he tries to leave the ship to become an opera star, choosing his passion (and his ego) over his originally programmed purpose.

side note: "fair haven" and "spirit folk" are both in season six, and that's the first time that anyone (including the doctor) seems to consider the concept that regular holodeck characters might also have some kind of feelings, personhood, or right to continued existence (unlike in season three, when in "alter ego" it's both a joke and a problem that harry falls in love with a hologram, or in "real life" when the doctor is fine with b'elanna reprogramming his family without consulting them).

season seven: "the doctor exhibits many of the traits we associate with a person [...] but are these traits real, or is the doctor merely programmed to simulate them?"

"critical care": the doctor violates the hippocratic oath in his programming by harming a patient to save others, and it does not trigger the ethical subroutine breakdown he experienced in season 5.

"body and soul": delta quadrant holograms are in revolt. the doctor experiences humanoid pleasures and enjoys them.

"flesh and blood": he betrays voyager to save the hirogen-programmed holograms and (temporarily) leaves the ship to join them, "because i'm one of you."

"author, author": a federation arbiter decides that he's not legally a person, but is "no ordinary hologram" and has some limited rights.

[in-the-glow-of-a-silmaril]

A humble concept for your consideration: feanor time travel fic (or, alternatively, fic where his "glimmer of foresight" gave him rather more to work with) in which he sets each silmaril into a setting he thinks will most protect his loved ones and wound his enemies.

The first is made into a lantern and given to Nerdanel, so that she may never be left in the dark.

The second is built into a suit of armor and given to Finwë, so that he may be safe from all harm.

The third is made into a sword and given to Nõlofinwë, so that they may discover the mortality of a Vala.

[characterssaythedarnestthings]

The poll was ages ago but Edgeworth won so... here he is, getting his much-needed therapy.

[scoobydoodean]

My unpopular opinion is that I think Sam should have supported Dean when Cas was being bitchy and Dean was being bitchy back instead of giving Dean vague disapproving looks where is the brotherly loyalty and protectiveness huh

[avatarofextinction]

Needles would have immediately been drawn as a twink in a suit ten years ago.

[koifsssh]

LISTEN. LISTEN TO ME. I WATCHED THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS AND I HAD A VISION.

npc rainy...

he is supposed to be friend shaped, acts as a sort of friendly face to make the place less empty and lonely! someone you can talk to whenever you want!

of course such ai has to come from somewhere! let's just say he's "recycled"!

err... don't let him learn that though!

[hedonistbyheart]

Just watched a (super interesting) interview with the director of episode 7 and he calls Charles straight in it too! Are George and Jayden really the only ones on board with bi Charles? Director guy is all "we've all been rejected by a friend" and meanwhile Jayden and George are out here going "I left it open" "you did".

It's just the fandom and the guys themselves out here in payneland I guess.