#i've been having a lot of feelings about hunter as a leader/older brother this time 'round

[voidartisan]

One thing I've noticed on this rewatch of tbb is the contrast between hunter and crosshair's lines of reasoning, and i find it intriguing. crosshair takes a very cold, purely rational stance on things. he joins the empire as a self-preservation move (or so he leads us to believe). "there's a new power in the galaxy and i'm going to join it because it seems like the best thing for me." hunter's reasoning is more moral/emotional. even when he's trying to appeal to crosshair, he argues that "you're nothing but a number to them." he opposes the empire primarily because it doesn't care about people.

what i find really interesting is crosshair's appeal to hunter at the end of S1: "you can have a purpose in the empire." which has a certain emotional undercurrent to it, and then in S2, crosshair kind of succumbs to hunter's more emotional line of reasoning as he watches it play out with mayday, and cody, and governor ames, and himself.

i know this isn't like. anything original for media in general; it's a pretty standard set-up for a redemption arc. i just noticed the consistency of it this time around and it's related to some other thoughts I have that are still forming

[nerdlingmerchling]

So, I've watched Out of Darkness (2022) starring Mr Kit Young himself. 🎬 🎞

Full disclaimer, I hate horror movies, but I watched it anyway cause Kit (yes, it's a good reason). My verdict is that it's more of a thriller than a horror movie, and to my delight, it didn't rely heavily on jump scares.

It's rare to see movies set in the paleolithic era, and I think that's where the true originality of this movie lies. The costumes and props look overall pretty authentic, up to the stitching of the clothes, which I was happy about. It shows that there had been some anthropological research done beforehand.

The made-up Tola language was such an interesting, fascinating aspect to the movie, and all of the actors sounded exactly as if they had spoken it all their lives. They adopted such unique intonation that I even had a hard time recognizing Kit's voice at first. Acting was incredible, from everyone, and from start to finish.

Also, very glad to see an ethnically diverse group of prehistoric humans. Some recent studies tend to show that paleolithic groups were more complex in terms of origins than we might think.  So, props to the casting direction for that.

I also loved how this movie was much more than a slasher and had a true reflexion on what it is, and what it means to be human.  The movie was efficient in presenting the characters and their individual motivations. Each of the six main characters represented different angles of human nature : ego, ruthlessness, innocence, kindness, religious zeal, and determination/weakness. I thought it was such a great way to explore that theme.

It's also a beautifully-shot movie, which shows its Scottish Highlands setting in all its gloomy glory : making it both breathtaking and menacing. No green screen in sight, and you can feel the harshness of the elements piercing through the screen.

Overall, I had a good time, but I'm a sensitive creature, and I was still affected by the movie hours after I was done watching it. Much of it has to do with the character played by Kit.

Character analysis and SPOILERS under the cut :

Kit plays Geirr, a young hunter and the most sympathetic character overall. To no one's surprise, Kit plays him with a lot of nuance.

Geirr is a hunter and a warrior by necessity. He's a gentle, sensitive, artistic soul and the stark opposite to his older brother Adem, the leader of the group, who's proud, selfish, and prone to violent outbursts.

Geirr has a special bond with Beyah, a teenage girl the group picked up "en route". The others still treat her as a stray and an outsider. Geirr, though, accepts her and sees her as being part of their little tribe. He vows to protect and take care of her.

Very few people smile in that movie, but when someone does, it's usually Geirr, and he's smiling at Beyah.

You might think at first that their attachment is a brother-sister or friends type of bond, but something happens that make the viewer understand Geirr's feelings for her extend further than that. While the group is resting after a day of walking the treacherous terrain, Geirr realizes his friend's pants are stained in blood, and he looks alarmed. She's having her first periods ; she's a woman now, and that means leader Adem can get to have a claim on her as he pleases.

Well aware of that fact, Geirr is devastated, and you understand at once that he was hoping to make Beyah his own companion.

You also understand that he's not going to fight for her. He's going to suffer in silence, accept the situation and accept his brother's authority. Because that's the thing with Geirr ; he's not a fighter. And throughout the movie, Beyah is going to prove that she has a lot more fight in her than he does.

Geirr is someone who has principles, and he's going to follow those principles even when it leads him to suffering or even be at risk of dying. He refuses to kill someone, even out of mercy, or to resort to cannibalism, even when it's the sole way to survive.

By the end of the movie, he has given up, and it becomes clear he's not destined to make it. It makes his death even more devastating, because you're still hoping against hope that he's going to live.

I'm still mourning that sweet prehistoric cinnamon bun, and I blame Kit's acting (and his face) for my emotional turmoil.

[marthefrozenfan]

Since 2020, when this beautiful series called The Owl House started, at first it didn't attract my attention, I saw promotions for the series on Disney Channel, but I wasn't interested, until some time later I got grom dance spoilers, and the news on Google that Luz is openly bisexual, well... from there I became curious, but not so much to watch the series, until 2021 arrived, before the second season premiered... I was very bored at home, So I turned on the television to see what was on and suddenly The Owl House came on, I don't remember very well what episode it was, but since I had nothing better to do I started to watch the episode, and when I finished it I said: oh wow, what Such an incredible series, what a pity I didn't give it a chance at first.

From that moment on, I became a fan of TOH, I joined groups that like the series, I saw different opinions about each chapter that happened, I loved the fanarts they shared, the odd theory smoked, seeing Toh's edits, it was great ,and I am grateful to have known this beautiful series, full of magic, mystery, love, action and other genres, with very nice characters who taught me great things

Luz taught me not to be perfect, because humans make mistakes and we know how to repair them, to get out of my comfort zone, and to achieve my goals no matter what, never give up on what I set out to do, to be happy as I am, not to judging people for what they are and that we weirdos should be united❤️✨🥺, and the truth is, I've been through something similar as Luz, that's why it has taught me a lot.

Eda, she taught me that I don't have to be anyone's chosen one, if I have a dream, I am the only one who can fulfill it, to accept my inner beast, because at the end of the day we have to accept ourselves with everything and flaws❤️✨🥰

King, taught me that dreams are not always going to satisfy us or it is not really what we wanted, King has always wanted to be the authority and when he already had that power... he felt empty, but remember that he has people who love him for being who he is and that is his true dream ❤️✨

Willow taught me not to let envious or annoying people prevent you from being yourself, prevent you from achieving things and make you believe that you are useless when we are not, we are capable of doing the things we want and achieving them step by step, nothing or nobody stops us ❤️✨

Gus taught me not to try to fit in with a certain group of people, not to be carried away by what others expect of one, to show that we can be better and not give up on what we set out to do ✨❤️

Amity, taught me that people can change, she was the best in her class, she felt superior...just like her mother wanted, but it all ended when a person opposite her arrived, who makes mistakes and doesn't there is perfection ❤️✨

Hunter taught me not to let ourselves be controlled, to do what people expect me to be, to go our own way, to make our own decisions to have a different life, to know that some people really value what you do and not to feel you useless ✨❤️

Each character gave me some teachings, but you know what? Even the bad guys give you lessons so you don't commit their steps

Belos, full of envy, hate, seeing that his older brother fell in love with a witch and that's why he...💀💀, since then he has sought power, to be the leader of all witches and deceive an entire city pretending to be the good guy, well, at least he taught me not to hate certain people as such

Odalia, uff almost following the same footsteps as Belos, but more than anything she wanted to be superior to others and to put aside those "useless" and "inferior" people, she made a family for them to follow in her same footsteps, and in the end of accounts, his actions affected him being the slave of someone else, no matter how much money I have, I will never feel superior to others.

Boscha, bothering willow, because she's a loser, she's almost a witch, and unlike Amity... she didn't have any past that made her a bad person, she's just bad, she's going to hurt you no matter what No matter who you are, I learned that you don't have to be a bad person without teaching me that

On the romantic side:

Luz and Amity taught me to trust your partner, to support them in those moments of defeat, to love a person as they are, to protect them, to help them in whatever they need, without a doubt, they are a beautiful couple and one of the healthiest I've seen in the animation, I loved every moment they spent together ❤️✨

Raine and Eda, I learned about not lying, if I really have a concern, that I have the confidence to tell it without fear, about mutual support, to solve things and support each other ✨✨❤️

And this series was not possible without the great Dana Terrace, who has created with her team this wonderful series full of magic and fun, full of traumas and teachings, but sadly every beginning of an adventure has its end, and so is the life, somehow we too are going to end, being born on earth to discover it, to create our own life, to make mistakes and repair them, to be happy as we are, to help people, to fulfill our goals and dreams and never give up and this series has taught us all of that

Thank you very much to this series for being a part of my life and thank you Dana for creating it, it will always be in my heart and I will always remember it ❤️🥺✨🥰

And if in the future there is a TOH book, movie, comic or whatever, I'll gladly see it ❤️✨

The Owl House 01/10/2020- 04/08/2023

[lone-wolf-nergiganos]

World War H: Part One {Genshin Impact X Monster Hunter Crossover}

A/N: This crossover of Genshin Impact and Monster Hunter will focus on Y/N along with his friends and his older brother, B/N, finding themselves in an unexpected battle against Hilichurls in their new home, Teyvat. Also, I should thank @lyra-the-astalos-gaurdian for helping me write this, now without further ado, enjoy reading 💙☺️.

Y/N's Pov

I was sitting on my bed for a bit while reminiscing about the times I had back in my world before I'd arrived in Teyvat, It's been over a year since me and my older brother, B/N along with our friends, Alwin, Avinia, Cheval, Kayna and Kyle and Reverto, and lots of various types of Monster Hunters and Riders arrived in the very beautiful yet strange world. Despite all of us being in Teyvat for over a year, we still aren't fully familiar with the world, but besides all that we'd became best friends with the people of Teyvat, and those people are Amber, Diluc, Jean, Kaeya, Lisa, Aether and Venti and many more. We be helping them out on tasks called commissions, and to return the favor they've helped us set up a new village for both Monster Hunters and Riders, I am a Rider while B/N is a Monster Hunter, and back in our world people looked up to us as heroes and leaders despite our differences.

Before I could reminisce more I heard a knock at my door, "come in," after I said that the person opened the door which was B/N, "hey Y/N, how's my little brother doing?" B/N asked before sitting on my bed, I got up before saying, "I'm doing good, I'm just thinking about the times we had back in our world before arriving here," B/N sighed before saying, "me too Y/N, but at least we aren't the only ones here, we got Avinia, Alwin, Cheval, Kyle, and Kayna and Reverto with us. So as long as our friends are with us, we'll be okay," B/N said assuredly, "you're right, thank you B/N," I replied before hugging him. He hugged me back before saying, "your welcome Y/N, now get some rest, it's getting late" "okay, good night B/N," I replied, "good night Y/N," he said before closing the door behind him while making his way to his room. Feeling my eyes getting heavy, I slowly laid my head on my pillow before I instantly fell asleep.

B/N's Pov

After I'd closed Y/N's door, I've made my way to my room to get me some rest as well, I got on my bed and laid down to get some sleep, I slowly closed my eyelids but before I could fully close them I heard a loud knock at the front door. I quickly got up and ran out my room to go see who it was, I opened the door only to see it was Kyle and Reverto at the doorstep. "Guys, do you have any idea how late it is?" I asked in a whisper, trying not to wake Y/N up, "B/N, there's no time to explain, we have to go, now," Reverto said urgently. "W-Why?" I asked him, but before he could answer multiple Hilichurls started to appear behind them, "behind you!" I yelled, Kyle and Reverto quickly turned around before they tried to make their way in my house. "B/N quick, get Y/N out of here," Reverto said while fending off the Hilichurls, I did what I was told and quickly made my way to Y/N's room, I opened the door only to see him asleep, oblivious to what's happening outside. I quickly got to him before nudging his shoulder, he slowly opened his eyes, "B/N, what's the matter?" Y/N asked tiredly, "no time to explain Y/N, get your weapon ready and whistle for your Nergigante monstie, don't ask why," I said before running to my room to put on my armor and getting my heavy bowgun before joining Kyle and Reverto to fight the Hilichurls.

Y/N's Pov

Despite being completely oblivious to what's happening, I did what B/N told me to do, I quickly got up from my bed and went to get my longsword but before I could get it I heard loud banging at my door before it tumbled down in front of me, revealing a Hilichurl. Without wasting another second, I quickly got my longsword while preparing to attack the Hilichurl, it then came at me but before it got closer to me I easily cut it's head off. I then made my way to where B/N was at, he was outside with Kyle and Reverto, "Y/N, whistle for your Nergigante monstie, now," B/N said, I did what I was told before I looked around to see what was happening. I couldn't believe my eyes, the village is being invaded by Hilichurls, Monster Hunters and Riders tried to fend them off but there were too many of them. I quickly whistled for my Nergigante monstie, I knew it would take a while for my monstie to come so me and the rest were on our own, "guys look," Kyle said before pointing at something, we look to see what he was pointing at, which was a massive horde of Hilichurls coming at us. "You've got to be kidding me," B/N said before my Nergigante monstie appeared unexpectedly, it came in as it done a Nergi Bomb Attack which killed most of the Hilichurls, it then started to come to me before I hopped on its back. "Y/N, I need you to go find the others," B/N said, "but what about you?" I asked, "don't worry about us Y/N, me and Kyle and Reverto will deal with them, now go," he replied, "okay," I said before my Nergigante monstie started flying to find them.

To be continued.

[genshins1mpact]

I've always had interesting dreams but last night's was very interesting 👀 to sum it up briefly, Xiao had a half adepti spirit baby 🤭

World building/oc lore:

Now for the long story, and bear with me cause I'll probably have to explain my oc and hc and try to tldr the world building behind this dream, bc it's far from the first time I've had a dream either as myself or as my oc hahaha. But anyway, so my oc Aerin kind of just showed up in Teyvat sort of how the Traveler does (Aether in this case), and she and Aether bond over missing their siblings/family. She has jobs in both Mondstadt and Liyue atm, depending on where she's staying or doing commissions and the like; either helps out at Good Hunter/Angel's Share when they get too busy, or helps out with paperwork at the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. Uhh did I forget to mention she's one of 3 demigod(?) kids? Well yeah, it's her older brother (dendro), then there's Aerin (hydro/pyro), then her little sister (electro); they're Hades/Persephone's kids btw.

Aerin sort of got dragged along the incidents of the story, so she got to know the main characters pretty well, and is especially close to Venti, Xiao, the Liyue kids (including Hu Tao), etc. Basically, since she's one of Hades' kids, she can see spirits and they often come to her for help and she tries to help them get stuff done so that they can cross over to the spirit realm and all that stuff, hence why she's good friends with Chongyun and Hu Tao specifically. The archons being gods themselves get along with her and they all trust one another in this sort of wine book club tea-time kind of way, and even others like Ganyu show up sometimes. As Xiao comes to trust Aerin and they start to bond, the other adepti (like Cloud Retainer) start to kind of watch over them more, and even have an ongoing joke as to when either one of them will notice they like one another.

The dream itself:

And now as to how this all ties into the dream, which has a lot of technicalities in and of itself, I'll try my best to describe it without getting... too lengthy haha. Like I mentioned previously, Xiao and Aerin bonded, but in this case it seemed to work in an almost like a werewolf mate kind of way? Xiao essentially became so attached he imprinted on Aerin and some sort of mark appears at the back of her neck (it's Xiao's constellation lol), and so they kind of have to come to terms with the fact that they're unofficially officially together now. Xiao gets embarrassed and spends a lot of time "protecting Liyue" and so they're in this odd state of not communicating, until Aerin gets sick and then Xiao runs over to check up on her, and they sort of fall asleep huddled up together, that being the sort of catalyst of them really starting to get together. Aerin is very patient with Xiao, as neither one of them really have any relationship experience, but she knows he's been fighting for millennia on end and isn't exactly going to suddenly change overnight or anything. Hence a bit of a slowburn tinged with angst as they got closer (lots of timeskips in my dream), until they received some shocking news. Xiao's away for work that week and when Aerin goes in to work at the WSFP, Zhongli congratulates her (but she has no idea why). Later when she runs into Ganyu, the same thing happens, and it isn't until she visits the table to speak to Cloud Retainer that she finds out why. (This part is where it gets sort of weird, I know lol). But basically CR tells Aerin that the two have bonded so strongly that it basically created enough adeptal energy that was transforming into its own being; i.e. rather than pregnancy, it was like a spirit baby born from them... yeah. Anyway, she speaks to Xiao about this and of course they have to kind of deal with things all over again, they'd just barely become affectionate and all of a sudden there's a kid thrown into the mix. Some months later (might've just been a month idk, time skips yk), said spirit baby kind of just shows up one day when they're all at that table with seats for Morax, Cloud Retainer, Guizhong, yknow the one. And so yeah, Zhongli, Ganyu, Xiao and even the other 3 (Retainer, Shaper, & Carver) all showed up to congratulate the uhh happy couple. They sort of had to get used to taking care of their daughter, but she was "born" looking sort of like she was already months old or smth and grew up fairly quickly, like I guess that mix of yaksha adepti and demigoddess just made for one hell of a tough kid. SO she looked a lot like Xiao when she was born but when her hair grew out she looked more like that red beta Xiao design (in homage to Aerin's black/red scheme I guess?) And they had no idea what to name her until one day Aerin kind of looks at Xiao and goes "well, how about Mingxiao, like the lantern in lantern rite? that way you'll both be Xiao and Mingxiao like the lanterns?" and Xiao wasn't entirely on board at first but then remembering when they went to the festival together and everything the idea grew on him. Aerin always felt like the odd one out since she's an Outlander™️ and not a Liyue native, but everyone else treats her like family and she and Xiao became very close, and once Mingxiao's training began, the three were an unstoppable force to protect Liyue. Though somewhere at the back of her mind, this feeling that just as mysteriously as Aerin appeared in Teyvat she could always dissappear just as fleetingly... so Xiao wasn't the only one fighting off his own demons 🤧

tl;dr: my oc aerin and xiao basically had an imprint/bond mating thing happen and then that bond created a spirit baby that looked like beta (red) xiao and they named her mingxiao (bc of lantern rite) and they became "new liyue™️'s official future protection squad", with hopes that mingxiao would be a leader for the next generation of liyue/adepti in general.

(beta xiao design, for reference to mingxiao)

˗ˏˋ  The end...  ˎˊ˗