#if I existed in that world and also went to the UK for some reason

[rainedroptalks]

If I lived in the Good Omens world, I think I would lose my mind over that fucking book shop. Like, the weird posh guy who runs it has never sold a single book ever. How are they still in business?? Does he even pay taxes?

Okay he’s a landlord maybe that’s how he gets his mo- nope he doesn’t even care when Maggie’s months behind on rent. Okay. Also he doesn’t have any identification??? Is he even real?? Also his husband(?) is seconds away from catching a case every time he drives, yet he still has a license somehow.

Alright, let’s take a look around the bookshop… is that a book signed by Jane fucking Austen??? Dedicated to the owner of the bookshop?? Okay, he’s old, but not THAT old. What the fuck is happening here?? Where are these people from??

And that’s not even mentioning the weird events that happen around them. What was up with that one shopkeeper’s association meeting?? Who knows at this point.

And THEN the book shop owner vanishes after a falling out with his husband (did he lose the bookshop in the divorce??) and the new owner swears that they’re human. They really want you to know that. What is happening. Does it even matter

[a-court-of-moonlight-and-ire]

Not to be overly morbid, but do yall ever think about suicide in prythian? Personally, i think killing yourself would be pretty common. I mean, it has to be given how few old people seem to exist in this world even though fae (or atleast high-fae) seem to insanely powerful and difficult to kill

And I dont think its because living in prythian sucks THAT much or even because being immortal is THAT bad, i mean arguably the biggest issue with immortality would be to watch all your loved ones die and thats not something that sjm's fae have to deal with. I think its moreso a thing of people just kinda getting tired of living after a few centuries and being like "welp. ive experienced pretty much everything, time to explore the world beyond" yknow. Thats why I think Velaris would have a pretty high suicide rate, because if youre stuck in a city thats presumably completely stagnant and never changes because its already perfect, youre going to run out of new enjoyable things to do wayyyy more quickly and get tired of your existence. It would also explain how this city full of immortals that can never leave but can reproduce hasnt already collapsed under the weight of overpopulation after over 5000 years

One idea that i like because it could make for some poignant commentary is that suicide rates are really high among faeries because theyre a lot more likely to live in poverty and its really hard to escape poverty and its really fucking miserable so after a few decades most of them decide they dont wanna live like that, and its gotten to the point where the high fae think they just naturally have shorter lifespans for some biological reason when they can actually live just as long as high fae, its just that they take poison or some shit to die in their sleep or something idk. Maybe thats a little very dark for acotar, but then again, sjm is constantly throwing around domestic violence and abuse and rape in this series so

I think suicide rates among high lords would be pretty high as well because I imagine their lives are pretty monotonous and tiring because of their responsibilities and because its not like they can leave prythian for an extended period of time to experience some new things or have some fun adventures, theyre tied to their court geographically. And god, can you imagine what would happen if theres a crisis. Yknow how a while ago the UK went through like 5 prime ministers in two weeks because of some bullshit that was happening? Imagine that but its just all these newly-chosen high lords killing themselves because they cant handle their court for some reason. I actually have a theory that thats what happened in the night court because theres this weird little throaway line where they say like, Mor's family used to be the ruling family but then the highlord power somehow got transferred to Rhys' family and its been driving me insane because WHAT do mean by that??? So basically, I think there was a time when Mor's highlord-chosen ancestors kept killing themselves for one reason or another, none of them wanted to be highlord and the magic of the land kept reaching out further and further until it landed on like, Rhysand's great-granddad who was only distantly related to Mor's ancestors and the ruling line just continued from there

Anyway, Id like to end this post on a more positive note and talk about the demographic that I think is the least likely to kill themselves, and thats the youngest children of noble families with multiple children. As ive said, im mostly basing this off of any given fae's ability to have a lot of new experiences to keep their lives from becoming monotonous and tiresome (combined with their material circumstances) and I think the youngest children of nobles hit the sweet spot of being pretty wealthy and not needing to do a lot of hard labour that would take up their time while also not being tied down by responsibilities that would force them to stay in one place. (Unless its a family of all girls and the youngest is their only son ig because as of acomaf, prythian is super patriarchal but i try not to think abt that ngl)

[aquadestinyswriting]

Ayyyy, Aqua! :D Happy STS! So I'm making my way through Titan Modern AU, and . . . actually, take two questions on it. 8)

I have legitimately looked everywhere, and I am severely curious. :') Have you thought of a title for this one, or is its title literally just Titan Modern AU?

More importantly, tho, how much did you have to change to make the world of Fangthane's Folly fit the modern day? (And what did you end up keeping? I notice there's magic and dwarves, but how different are these bits compared to their DnD roots?)

Hope this ask finds you well! :D o/

Hi Jax, this is technically a day late, but not really because time zones are a thing :P. I am very well, thank you. I am enjoying the fact that the words seem to be flowing quite easily for the time being and taking advantage of that to write a lot for all my ongoing series and creating new ones. Thanks very much for the questions, I have a lot to talk about with this AU :D. Answers are under a cut because the second one is going to get quite long.

Question 1

I don't currently have an actual title for this one yet. I have a tendency to title WIPs towards the end of writing them and this one is no exception. I have some vague ideas, but I'm not too concerned about it just yet. Especially since there's a high possibility that this one is going to throw some major curveballs my way once I get into the thick of the plot that might well change the kind of title I want to give it.

Question 2

Ah, the dwarves are technically not a thing for this one. Everyone is more or less human, unless it's directly stated otherwise. The reason Fangthanian women can have beards at all is down to a slight genetic quirk which means they are pre-disposed to much higher testosterone levels than average. The Throffite community, in particular, is very insular and tend to inter-marry within themselves due to a history of discrimination against them.

As to how I changed the setting to fit with the modern aesthetic:

I've modelled Fangthane city a little bit after towns like Fort William, since the location of Fangthane in Allansia has a relatively similar geography to that of the Scottish Highlands. So Fangthane city is no longer built into the mountain, but is a city that was built very close to the mountain (which is now called Ben Oir). Extrapolating from there, and taking into account the maps that exist of Allansia, it was a a matter of figuring out how and why there would be outposts for the kingdom that are so far away from the capital. In that case, an old empire made a lot of sense, and taking into account the relative time period this AU is set in (roughly the 90s to early 2000s), it also made sense that said empire had been disbanded, but that communities deriving from it still exist (hence why Stonebridge and Firetop are still mainly natively Fangthanian). So, yeah, culturally speaking Fangthane is basically the UK transplanted into Allansia at this point.

I wanted some of the history of Toreguarde to remain intact because there are plot things related to that that will pop up later in the story. The city was almost destroyed, officially, by what is considered to have been a terrorist organisation that was working on behalf of another state and/or one of the ruling council of Toreguarde of the time who went just teeny bit mad with power (Greydown was an absolute ass in canon, and is in this AU too).

As the setting, rather purposefully, appears to be lacking in magic, no mentions are made of demons, portals or the breaking of reality, even by those who were present at the time. The remaining Heroes still exist, but I'm working out what their exact roles in all that were. Egrim is still a priest, so that's him covered. Alexis, upon talking to Dru about it, was probably a sniper that was a part of the military forces of Toreguarde at the time, while Selene was probably some sort of science-y nerd person brought in to help explain some of the weirder stuff that went on that was kind of acknowledged and then later given plausible and sensible scientific explanations. She just happened to be somewhat decent at this diplomacy lark when communication with the reinforcements from Fangthane started going south, hence her current role in the story. She probably worked quite closely with Ivan, who I have yet to figure out the details of, with regards to that. I also need to figure out what Fai did and what happened to him...

I am doing a lot of this worldbuilding and adjusting Fantasy canon on the fly, to be quite honest, so not a lot of it is set in stone just yet. However, I have given some thought to the Throffite community both in Fangthane and in Toreguarde and some of their history and culture, drawing a lot on what I established about Throffism in the fantasy canon and doing some major research into the irl history of such things to make sure that anything I write about it is handled as sensitively as possible. I have also written copious notes on the hows and whys of the fractious relationship between Fangthane and Toreguarde that would fit in with more modern (Western, as that is what I'm familiar with) political norms.

[gillianthecat]

I have got to get over my grudge against face filters or face-tuning or whatever it's called when they blur the actor's face so their skin is completely smooth and texture free and very pale and has no dimensionality.

I'm watching Light On Me, and I'm charmed by all the characters, but I keep getting distracted by the fact that none of them look like human beings. grrr. Like, it kind of fits the comic book tropey-ness of the story, but I still would prefer to see their god danged faces.

(Fun fact: Shin Woo's actor's face is the reason I started watching Light On Me in the first place. Kang Yoo Soek has a small part in Beyond Evil, and within a minute of his appearance on screen I was like, who is THAT???👀, and immediately went to MDL to see what else he was in. Turns out he was in a BL! so I decided it was finally time to check this one out. Maybe I'm just resentful about them hiding his face from me. On the other hand, Beyond Evil and Light On Me are from the same year, and he looks a decade younger in the latter, so I guess the filtering helps with that? idk, I'd prefer everyone's real faces. But I realize that with this, as in many things, I am not the target audience.)

My thoughts on Light On Me so far (im on episode 3 oops, actually it was 4): It feels like a high school romance comic book aimed at 12 year olds come to life. Which is not at all a criticism! But the aesthetic—bright, flat lighting, wide open spaces, saturated pastels and primary colors, the aforementioned face filtering—along with the trope filled, bare bones nature of the story give it this artificial feel. I don't read comic books, manga or manwha of any genre, so I could be wrong in this comparison, but it does tell like it exists outside of the real world in the same way that Disney Channel kids shows do (though not in the same world.) The characters, so far, don't feel like they exist outside of the story, not shallow, exactly, just that the rest of their lives and relationships are a vague blur, and the initial conflict—Shin Woo doesn't want Tae Kyung to join the student council!—feels like the sort of artificially induced high stakes of a kid's show. The—gasp—pratfall with a dildo.

I probably sound judgmental, but that's partly because super fluffy shows aren't my thing in general, and partly because I'm in a weird mood right now where even the real world doesn't feel all that real to me, but I reiterate, this is not a criticism. The show is creating a certain feel to tell a certain story, and (so far at least) it's doing it effectively.

And I am intrigued by the story, and the characters! Tae Kyung who has been convinced by the wise teacher to try making friends. Da On, the student president who is so kind and can't say no to anyone. Shiwoon, the class clown who can see what's happening but won't get involved. So Hee, the girl from the sister school, persistent in her three year (!) crush. And of course tsundere Shin Woo, possibly with some internalized homophobia, and who we know, based on Shiwoon's hints and the laws of Romance Tropes, must have a crush on the new boy and can't handle it.

The taundere seme is a trope I love when it works well, and loathe when it's bad, and I think it's working here for me because Tae Kyung is such a weirdo. He's no blushing maiden uke, he's blunt and doesn't care that's he's awkward, and still not sure if he wants to even bother with other human beings. It makes Shin Woo's attraction to him more specific and real, and makes me curious to see how their dynamic develops.

So even though the character don't feel anchored to any reality outside of what we see on screen, in the small slice of a tv world they do exist in they seem complex and worth getting to know.

(They also intrigue me enough that part of me wants to see these same characters and conflicts, but framed in more gritty realism style, like that of Weak Hero Class One. I think there's enough there to make it work! But that's more about my personal taste than anything else.)

edit: not that Weak Hero Class One is exactly realistic. But it's a different kind of fairy tale atmosphere. One that sometimes gets called "gritty realism."

[thesorcerersapprentice]

10.02.2024

Worldbuilding: Worked on a post on the geography, flora & fauna of The Sorcerer's Apprentice universe which I meant to publish last week, but was unable to finish due to life circumstances (my favourite aunt went to intensive care, and I caught a nasty stomach bug while visiting her). At any rate, it's almost done, so it should go up sometime next week.

Continued Researching Colonialism, Neocolonialism, Coloniality as a Concept and Decolonial Practices: I've been reading Edward W. Said's Culture and Imperialism for the last few weeks and I'm making slow but steady progress. My plan is to pick up Said's Orientalism next, which I've heard is also a go-to text on colonialism. In addition, I also read A Decolonial Feminism by Francoise Verges, which I found quite eye-opening and will be incorporating into Altaluna's storyline (namely, I'll be showcasing how some forms of feminism are used to further colonial aims through interactions between Altaluna and her supposedly 'transgressive' peers); The Good Die Young: The Verdict on Henry Kissinger, a compilation of essays on how Kissinger (who I met in his declining years) used and abused human rights discourse to further US economic control (capitalism with US supremacy incorporated) over so-called 'third-world' regions, and how this is the standard practice for US foreign policy to this day (I'm borrowing this two-pronged approach for interactions between the Empire and it's subordinate 'independent' states); and Toussaint L'Ouverture: The Haitian Revolution, a compilation of Toussaint's (and a couple others, including Napoleon's) correspondence during Toussaint's fight for independence. The book features an outstanding introduction by Jean-Bertrand Aristide and offers a stark contrast to Kissinger's views on Human Rights; in Toussaint's letters and speeches, these rights come with no strings attached and are pursued on principle, out of the genuine belief that they are inalienable to all (at one point the British offered to 'make him' King of Haiti and he refused, which I have to admit, I was pretty impressed by). I also did quite a lot of follow-up reading on Haiti, as an example of the colonialism-to-neocolonialism pipeline. Given that The Sorcerer's Apprentice is set in a neo-colonial world, reading up on Haiti's history helps me better portray the continuity between these two systems and indirectly criticize the idea that today both my readers and I live in a post-colonial world. BTW, if you're unfamiliar with the horrors visited upon the Haitian people (did you know that up until 2015, when France 'forgave' them their debt, the government of Haiti had been paying the French compensation for their loss of slave labour?), check out this article. Likewise, if you're unfamiliar with the difference between colonialism and neo-colonialism (as I was for 99.9% of my life lol), take a look at the iconographic below.

Researched Fiction Genres in 'Post-colonial' Literature: The various iterations of The Sorcerer's Apprentice I've written so far have experimented with two main genres, fantasy and horror. The first iterations were straight-up typical high fantasies with Kings and Queens and dragons in a UK-style setting; the second were more realistic but much more eerie psychological horror stories set in modern-day New York City (if you scroll back far enough on this blog, you'll find evidence of both). Although I like some elements/scenes from both genre adaptations of The Sorcerer's Apprentice and, indeed, although I intend to incorporate some of these in the current draft, ultimately I abandoned the aforementioned versions because, at their core, they failed. Why? Because, while they nailed the interpersonal struggle between Valeriano and Altaluna, they did so without addressing the reason that struggle even exists in the first place. Namely, they failed to go beyond the personal relationship, to its systemic causes. The truth is that a person like Valeriano doesn't exist in a vacuum. He's a product and embodiment of a world with certain values. Yes, Altaluna may have defeated him in a high-fantasy royal skirmish for power or its modern-day equivalent inheritance drama, but engaging (even embracing) the system that produced him (royalty, birthright, etc.), undermines her victory. What was she in these earlier versions of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, but another shade of Valeriano? What did she represent, in her victory if not the desire to be the oppressor? The deep self-depreciation of the oppressed? Even the aesthetics of these earlier versions glorified Valeriano's world, with little mention of Altaluna's. This was my fault. I did not understand that these things were in me. I am beginning to. In any case, I don't intend to make the same mistake twice, so I'm doing a little research into how different literary genres have been used to tell stories about colonialism/neocolonialism/post-colonialism. I read a pretty good article from Globalization, Utopia, and Postcolonial Science Fiction: New Maps of Hope by E. Smith entitled "Third-World Punks, or, Watch out for the Worlds Behind You," and I'm trying to look into Afrofuturism and Latinfuturism.

REMINDERS:

Answer pending asks. Yes, I am bad. I admit it, I am very bad. (why am I so bad *sobs*)

Publish that promised worldbuilding post on the geography, flora & fauna of The Sorcerer's Apprentice universe.

Survive this stomach bug.

TAG LIST: (ask to be + or - ) @the-finch-address @fearofahumanplanet @winterninja-fr  @avrablake @outpost51 @d3mon-ology @hippiewrites @threeking @lexiklecksi @achilleanmafia

© 2024 The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. All rights reserved.

[cctinsleybaxter]

2023 in Books

I need to stop bragging that I’ve got this reading thing all figured out, because man if 2023 wasn’t a year of terrible books. I liked less than half of the 37 I read and nothing quite gripped me in the way it has in years past… but to put it more optimistically I liked a full third of what I read, and the ones I liked best were a fascinating and unexpected silver lining. Without further ado:

Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand, trans. Brian Hooker

Tell this all to the world- and then to me. Say very softly that… she loves you not.

I read a couple of plays this year for the first time since college and liked them fine, but there’s a reason this has been adapted five million times. Everyone go watch Megamind right now.

Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand

Of all the found footage-inspired horror fiction I’ve read this one makes the best case for existing in its chosen medium, as a 70s UK folk rock band are interviewed about the summer they spent recording what would become their final album [thunder crashes.] It reminded me of a Tana French mystery in its language and ability to make space feel lived-in; the character writing is so strong I realized that at some point I had stopped checking the interview headings to know who was speaking. Hand unfortunately distrusts her audience to read between the lines at a few crucial moments (and ruins what would have been a perfect ending and a deeply affecting scare by gilding the lily, or, in this case, photograph), but I love that she went from seemingly by-the-numbers American YA fiction to a meticulously-researched and truly unique horror novella. Puts other writers working in the genre to shame.

A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin

Reminiscent of the best kind of TCM suspense thriller (and was adapted into one), but could only exist as a book for the kind of narrative tactics it employs. Levin is brilliant at setting and character; I think any one of his contemporaries would have leaned into archetypes for this sort of story, and he instead distinguishes his proper nouns in subtle, clever ways that lend them the weight a noir needs. Can’t wait to read more of his stuff!

All the Names They Used for God by Anjali Sachdeva

I’d like to know why this anthology got hit with what a friend has termed a pottery barn throw pillow cover + a ‘the tiny things we know to be small’ title, because the eponymous story isn’t even called that! It’s just The Names They Used for God, and is, appropriately, about two women kidnapped by a religious extremist group. High risk-high reward; I think taken at their base premise the stories could have been insufferable and are instead strange, compelling, and fantastical. There’s a methodicalness and, I don't know, lack of whimsy? to them that’s unusual for fantasy, but also an absence of any one goal or moral in the way Le Guin speaks so highly of. It made me feel the way I did reading and adoring Kelly Link in middle school, and Sachdeva has a much different style that I guess works all the better on adults. My favorite was Robert Greenman and the Mermaid.

Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Lauren Hillenbrand

Someone recommended this to me via Tumblr anon over five years ago, so let me start by saying if that was you I’d like to thank you properly! This book rules! It was written in ‘99 so falls prey to a very specific kind of jingoism, but the mechanics of that are interesting in and of themself. Seabiscuit the animal is a lens through which to view turn-of-the-20th-century America written from the precipice of the 21st; his story told through the expertly-researched biographies of his owner, trainer, and jockey. Hillenbrand is not only a good pop nonfiction historian, but has been a sports writer since the 80s and I never imagined the genre could be so thrilling as I did reading her work. Horse racing is insane and no one should be riding these things btw.

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

It was one of the great livery-stableman’s most masterly intuitions to have discovered that Americans want to get away from amusement even more quickly than they want to get to it.

Wharton came from old money New York*, was deeply disillusioned with it and pined for rational (i.e., even more insane) social and political scenes, had myriad thoughts about women and gender relations, and held a love for interior design. I learned all of this after reading but it’s apparent on every page; deeply funny and perceptive, fantastic use of language, the moments where it lost me completely nothing if not interesting. What sticks with me the most are a flair for the operatic and an ability to voice both the feeling and consequences of losing oneself to imagined scenarios. Read the pink parasol scene.

*Ancient Money New York; the saying ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ is apocryphally attributed to her father’s side of the family

Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl by Jonathan S. Slaght

We’d return to our camp to huddle in the freezing tent and wait for our owls in silence, like suitors agonizing over a phone that never rings.

One of the better pieces of science writing I’ve read in a long time, as Slaght frames rural communities as a quintessential part of ecology rather than a barrier to it. His style is amiable and matter-of-fact (sometimes overly so; the amount of metric GIS directions, help), but he's super engaging and clearly holds just as much compassion for people and history as he does animals and natural landscapes. The Blakiston’s fish owls he’s studying are described as unreal, with hoots so low and quiet it sounds like someone has thrown them under a blanket. You can listen to them here.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Took my breath away and surprised me in a way a book hasn’t in years. I'd read Clarke’s 2004 novel when I was maybe fourteen and had vaguely positive but mostly neutral memories of it, and Piranesi being sci-fi-fantasy that came recommended by Tiktok had me very dubious. I ended up devouring it in the way I haven’t read books since I was fourteen; more of a mystery than the suspected high fantasy, with characters I would do disservice to in trying to describe in brief. While the mystery isn’t difficult to ‘solve’ (I’d argue the book also skews young!), the story ends in a way that’s both deeply unexpected and in the only way it could have.

Honorable mentions

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, trans. Peter Washington

[Jigsaw voice] Every man has a devouring passion in his heart as every fruit has its worm.

I spent so much time running my mouth about this one on Tumblr there’s really not much left to say. I think it’s a work of genius that was physically exhausting to read, and I’m sticking it with the honorable mentions mostly because I remember The Three Musketeers being the better book. If you want to read Dumas- and you should- start with that one.

Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead

I would’ve liked this more had I read it in my late teens/early 20s, but I still think it’s pretty good and would absolutely recommend to anyone in that age bracket. Things that normally annoy me about philosophical first-person lit fic didn’t matter under the weight of Jon’s narratorial voice. He reminded me a little of Lynda Barry’s Maybonne in his understanding and depictions of community and family; his stream of consciousness letting contradictions sit rather than trying to explain them away (Whitehead also makes sex very prosaic and pretty-sounding while still being frank and gross about it, which is a rare talent!)

The Seeds of Life: From Aristotle to da Vinci, from Sharks' Teeth to Frogs' Pants, the Long and Strange Quest to Discover Where Babies Come From by Edward Dolnik

This one fell in the rankings because the writing isn’t my favorite (think early days Vulture article rather than NYT), but I cannot stop referencing it in conversation. I want to read the whole thing to people and make them understand how truly unfathomable it is not only that every one of us is the product of 1 sperm and 1 egg, but that anyone ever figured out how that process works. When Western Europeans first started using microscopes they studied water; there were gross little bugs in there to watch and enjoy, so when semen was revealed to have its own bugs no one was shocked, but they also weren’t impressed. We would not see one enter an egg until EIGHTEEN SEVENTY-FIVE.  

Killer Dolphin by Ngaio Marsh

The Malaise of First Night Nerves had gripped Peregrine, not tragically and aesthetically by the throat but, as is its habit, shamefully in the guts.

Has made it into my top 5 favorite Inspector Alleyn mysteries. I’m not keen on Marsh’s theater settings (and there are a LOT of them), but a convoluted setup made this one all the more rewarding. The final revelation as to a point of blackmail is visceral and bizarre in a way I haven’t seen from her before.

The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon

We all have dirty hands; we are all soiling them in the swamps of our country and in the terrifying emptiness of our brains. Every onlooker is either a coward or a traitor.

Best read in conversation with other writers, I wouldn’t recommend Fanon as the end-all-be-all introduction to communist and socialist thinking (the fact that he inadvertently describes what was going wrong with the USSR at time of writing is fascinating), but he explicitly invites that conversation and the value and impact of his work really can’t be overstated. Our points of disagreement tend to be in regard to nationalism, not his condonation of violence.

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Fascinating to see how Austen was thinking about relationships near the end of her short life. I laughed to see the idea of preferring your brother-in-law’s family to your own was back in full force from my own favorite Emma, as well as an eleventh-hour ‘maybe I should ship the villains??’ My biggest issue is that, like Emma, Persuasion is written in third person limited narration, but Anne is fundamentally Good™ so doesn’t need to learn anything about herself or the world; critic Bob Irvine points out that she and her dashing, misogynistic sailor are beset rather than changed by it. That said I love a people being beset by people (concussed temptresses) places (Bath) and things (cars), and Austen's writing style is really firing on all cylinders here.

[intergalactic-garbage]

i see you've chosen to be into red dwarf today, which i've never heard of, so i'm currently working out from your posts what it even is at all

my guess went from fiction podcast to musical (a la starkid) to somewhat low budget tv show (made no later than 2007 and likely in the 80s)

it seems fun! and i'm also having fun with my lack of understanding of what it is so it's your call whether you want to tell me or just laugh at my guesses :)

hiiii monarch! i love the phrasing "whats this mf gonna reblog today *spins wheel*" :D <3

red dwarf is a sci-fi comedy sitcom from the uk, which aired some time ago. it's something i used to watch with my dad (still do sometimes) - we have all the series on dvd in czech, and the dub holds a special place in my heart.

as do the characters! the cast features dave lister, last human whos accidentally survived an accident that killed everyone else on the spaceship, wakes up 3mil yrs later, and is only accompanied by rimmer, his former insuffrable roommate (now in the form of a hologram), cat (guy who is from a race that evolved from lister's cat which he sneaked on the spaceship (and the reason why he got sent to stasis for 3mil yrs)), totally flamboyant and very stupid mf (i love him), holly (the ships sarcastic ai interface) and kryten (servant robot who learns to be more human and rebel against his programming).

the cast all have their insufferable qualities that make them so very human. lister is just a guy. hes very punk subculture guy who just views the world through very common sense, likes to poke fun at rimmer, and is gross at times :D but very much is the one to be the voice of humanity and just. empathy. real. rimmer is a horrible know-it-all whos a terrible coward and loves to pesk everyone around him (and drop the blame for things he did to himself on everyone else). he has 97 illnesses and isnt allowed in most public spaces

(this is a hannibal meme but applies to rimmer too well.) hes very autistic coded, his parents hated him, is obsessed with becoming a great world ruler/hero/whatever, and terribly in denial of the fact that hes just sabotaging himself in becoming that. also frequently made fun of for not having a lot of sex with women, but it all just comes of as him being gay and horribly horribly in denial about it.

basically, rimmer was only revived as a hologram to be a companion to lister, and was picked to be the person who was best fit to be listers companion for an eternity in space from every person on the ship of red dwarf (which is said to be big like a small city). which idk but if you ask me thats pretty gay.

the sort of core of the show is the banter of them two, and them being polar opposites in a way, but also, despite how annoyed they are by each other, clearly caring about each other.

the third character is holly, the ships ai with iq in the thousands, who exists to provide info on the ship and have sarcastic remarks. sometime in s2 he switches gender and becomes a woman. dont remember why or how. but then she has this horrible haircut

the fourth character is cat. hes stupid, cares about himself, dresses in flamboyant suits (my personal fashion icon), but never to such an extent that hed become actually unlikable. theyre all kinda annoying but that makes it so good :D the fifth character, who joins the cast sometime in s2 is kryten, android who is their maid. hes very kind and caring and they slowly actively try to disrupt this programming, so he can lie and rebel and just. im soft abt it

the entire show is enjoyable bc of the characters and the fact they all share a single braincell, and the setting allows fun sci-fi shenanigans to happen. like a manifestation of their worst aspects in the form of a planet, a version of earth where time is in reverse, and all that jazz - but it all really serves as a setting for the characters and the bits :D despite all that, often theres a deeper thought underlying the eps, like theyre often on the verge of death, or discussing the morality of something. it's all just very british.

and ahhhh i just love them all they have zero braincells and the humour is so special to me<33 and thank you for asking!!! im literally so happy someone asked me about this :3 also please if theres anything that didnt make sense to you or want to ask further about please do <3

[rwrbmovie]

RE: Red, White & Royal Blue

Quotes from interviews on #RWRBMovie about the book & film's story

This post will be updated as content is released

Click here for the other roundups

Notice something missing? Here's my inbox

Last updated: August 7

From Glamour

Says Galitzine, “We were all aware that we wanted to make one a classic rom-com but with a sort of new spin. Matthew's a very sensitive, very feeling person, and we obviously wanted to inject our movie with that kind of emotionality. He had a great balance in being able to facilitate both lightness and emotion within his work.”

Zakhar Perez tells Glamour he knew the movie “could be something special” as he read the book—a feeling that only amplified after seeing the script.

Galitzine continues, “It's a really heartwarming story. Not a lot of films like this are made, and I hope it's important for the LGBTQ+ community because there needs to be more films like this. I hope it resonates with everyone. I've been really touched to hear how widespread the book became and affected many people from many different backgrounds. I hope our movie can do the same because a lot of love went into it.”

From Entertainment Weekly

"I first read the book in early 2020 and I decided I wanted to make the movie by page 100," he tells EW. "I fell madly in love with the characters and I wanted to bring them to life on the screen. I also was excited at the prospect of filming scenes set in the world of the presidency and the British Royal Family. I shamelessly harassed [producers] Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schecter into backing me with the studio to direct it. The idea that someone else might make this movie filled me with unbearable jealousy."

But now Lopez gets to turn his eye to a happier gay love story. "[I found] in the book something I had rarely seen on screen: a love story between two young men that is hopeful, funny, and deeply romantic," he adds.

From People

Perez, 31, tells PEOPLE it's "a classic fairy tale with a twist for all generations," adding that he hopes viewers take away "joy" after watching it.

Shahi, 43, says it was a "no-brainer" to sign up, as she "fell in love with" the screenplay for the film, in which she plays Zahra, President Claremont's deputy chief of staff and right-hand woman. "I was floored by the dialogue," she says. "It didn’t matter that it was a gay love story — it was a bottomless well of relatability. Love has made a fool of us all at one point or another, and it was nice to see myself in both characters."

From What to Watch

"I mean, it’s a fairytale, right? It’s just an absolute fairytale, there’s something aspirational about it, and when I read the books, it just felt like a wonderful bit of escapism. I think the reason people love these characters so much, in the book, and hopefully when they see Taylor and Nick in the film, is that these two people can only exist together in fiction, right? The rarefied world that they live in, that these two rarefied worlds would collide like this, can only happen in fiction — that’s what makes it so delicious. For me, there’s something so beautifully ludicrous about how sort of unattainable their lives are, and it allows us actually to go full circle with them and deeply humanise them in some ways. That’s the other thing too, they live these extraordinary privileged and sort of high-flung lives, but what I’ve always loved about the book and what was really important to us in creating the movie was that there are two beating hearts at the centre of this book. At the end of the day, you actually end up forgetting that they’re two princes, basically, and you really do, in the novel, and I hope in the film, just fall in love with these two people."

From Vanity Fair

“I read the novel back in early 2020, and I fell madly in love with Henry and Alex,” López says from his home in the UK. “There are a lot of projects that have come and gone in my career that I have had the ability to let go of,” he continues, “but if I wasn’t able to make this movie, it would’ve cost me something. It was really a very, very irresistible passion.”

From Out Smart Magazine

With the film’s highly-anticipated release approaching, López reflects on the imaginary world that his cast and crew created in this film, and how this story of queer love can impact people of all ages who yearn to see more representation on screen. “It’s aspirational. We knew we were very consciously making a fairy tale. But I think it’s within fairy tales that we we express our truest desires in some way. I think that, for me, seeing this kid living this life is something that, if this book had been around when I was 18, 19, 20, or maybe even younger, it might have helped me. I’m hoping that the movie can do that, as well.”

From TV Times

'Beyond the LGBT love story itself, this is about two people who are trapped by circumstance and responsibility, and how that can get in the way of love,' says Nicholas. 'I think that's a very universal feeling.'

From BroadwayWorld

I read the book in early 2020 and I fell madly in love with Alex and Henry. It was the two characters. Everything else I loved as well, but those two people, that love affair that they have, it just turned all of my imagination on. I really wanted to make this movie in order to tell their story.

This movie isn't designed to address the issues that you mentioned. It isn't designed to fix the problems. That was never what this book was intended to be and this film isn't. What I hope is that this film does in some ways give solace, in some ways bring joy. I think at the end of the day, bringing joy to people who are under siege is a very valuable, valuable tool in the arsenal. I think Alex being someone who sort of sets a goal for himself and his family politically and that in the fairy tale version of it, he pulls it off. That these two people, through their queerness, can change the world. I think the other thing that you learn from this story is that like the best way to challenge the preconceived notions or to challenge authority is to be yourself. I think that you see that happening in America where in response to these draconian laws, it's like, instead of don't say gay, we're gonna scream it. I think that defiance, which has always been a hallmark of the queer community, is going to serve us well. In a very rom-com fairy tale sort of way, Alex and Henry do the same thing.

From The Queer Review

“I actually discovered the book a long time before most other people did because I was sent it pretty early on. I fell madly in love with it and I knew very quickly that I wanted to make this movie. I started lobbying for this job very soon after the book was published. When I started working on it I didn’t really pay attention to what the book was doing in the world because I was already focused on the movie. It wasn’t until September 2021, when it was finally announced that I was directing it, that I noticed something. Overnight I got about 15,000 new Instagram followers. It was right after the Tonys, so initially I thought that maybe it was because I had just won a Tony. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of new Instagram followers for the Tonys!’ Then it started to dawn on me that it was down to Red, White & Royal Blue. I remember saying to Casey McQuiston at one point, ‘You know your book is really popular, right?’ She was was like, ‘Yeah, I know. Thanks for telling me that!’ I think I needed to work in that place of ignorance because if I had understood just how popular the book was I probably would have frozen up.”

From Tatler

'I read it – like most people in America – and fell madly in love with it,' says the film's director, Matthew López. 'There was something very hopeful, romantic, funny and sexy about it. And I thought, "Well, if I can't turn this into a movie, then I should just stop doing anything productive with my life."'

[mikem-dawnm-japan]

Wednesday 15th May - Day 9

Another moving on day today, so off to breakfast to fuel up for the day. Before leaving the UK I thought that I might loose weight on this holiday. That’s not happening! The food is plentiful and tempting and as for exercise it is almost non-existent .. most of our moving around is done by coach. Lots of the locals come to breakfast in the pyjamas provided by the hotel, each hotel seems to provide these, but in some they are just to use for the Onsen, whilst in others they can be used in all communal areas. In previous hotels they have been more stylish, here they are navy blue and look like a communist uniform!

A new bus driver today and we head off towards the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Shirakawa-go. The village, mostly cut off until as recently as the 1960’s, is today famous for their traditional style of housing, the Gassho-Zukuri, which means ‘like praying hands’. The reason for the design of the properties is to withstand the weight of heavy snow that is common in the area. There were two properties open that we could look around, we visited the Wada family home, the house has been passed down through the generations since 1573, the family made their wealth in the potassium nitrate business and one of their family became the first Mayor of the village in 1888. The house is the largest property in the village and has 3 floors inside. The lower floor being used for general living and sleeping. A mezzanine floor above is where we could see them cultivating silk worms.

The houses are made without using nails as they would rust so the beams are roped together, this also allows a bit of movement in the high winds. The local government have become involved in the running of the village as it has become more of a tourist attraction since its elevation to World Heritage status by UNESCO in 1990. The roofs of the remaining 55 houses (originally 300 homes)must be reroofed with thatch which is very expensive, it costs between ¥ 1-3million so the villagers work together when the buildings need reroofing. There are no hotels in the village just some home stay opportunities or boarding houses which have paper screen doors .. so next to no privacy.

Next we moved on to Kanazawa, where we will be staying for the next two nights. Before heading to the hotel we went to the Omicho Market, unfortunately a lot of stalls were closed but we got to see some unusual seafood for sale. No photos though as the stall holders are extremely keen to stop any photos being taken! We went for lunch in a small Japanese restaurant in the market, which was recommended by Myumi. Shrimp tempura for Mike, an eel dish for both Bianca & Tracy (a Parkinson’s Lead Nurse from Hertfordshire!) and a Pork dish for me as I was concerned that some shell fish might slip into the dish and leave me bed-bound!

Todays last visit was to the ancient site of a samurai house, a historic house and garden in the Nagamachi district, this area has cobbled streets and canals and is situated in a wealthy district. The house belonged to the wealthy Nomura family who served the Maeda family between the 16-19th centuries. When the social class system came to an end many of these houses were destroyed. This home was saved as it was purchased by a wealthy businessman and is now owned by the city.

After checking in we decided to have a relaxing evening, popped to the seven eleven for a few bits to stop our stomachs rumbling overnight and got the blog up to date.

[royaltyspeaking]

Ok I have some confusion and you seem like someone who could clear it up. So ppl always bring up Meghan's american-ness and California-ness as reasons why brits didn't like her, and I saw a tiktok where someone recommended smiling more often like Meghan to look approachable and black british lady said if she did that in the UK ppl would call her uppity. Here's the thing... I'm american but... british people aren't aliens from the moon... and it's not like Americans invented smiling and positivity. So... how much of the Meghan hate can be chalked up to culture clash? Bc methinks it's just poorly disguised antiblackness. As a royal watcher can you tell me how well Meg fit into the world back then?

There is definitely a lot that can be chalked up to a culture clash. There's a British makeup artist I follow on Instagram who posted her reaction after the Oprah interview and she defended Meghan by bringing up her own experience. She went to Starbucks with some other makeup artists who happened to be American. She said that when they ordered their drinks, they went up to the batista and rather directly just said "I'll take a small latte" then paid and moved on. This British woman said she thought wow that was rude then she went up and ordered by saying "hello yes may I please have a small latte, please. Thank you". Then she realized that the Americans weren't being rude or anything, they were just more direct which definitely isn't a British thing. So while Meghan definitely wasn't trying to be rude to anyone, she could see how people might think she was if she was direct.

General friendliness is also not a British thing. It's common in the US to smile at someone or acknowledge them when you walk down the street, meanwhile I've heard from a lot of people that you wouldn't dare to do that shit in the UK. Brits are notoriously grumpy. There's a great stand up joke by Jack Whitehall where he talks about walking into the Apple store in the US, I highly recommend looking it up because I think it highlights some of those differences really well.

There are a lot of regional culture clashes in the US too. I'm from Minnesota and last time I was in Chicago, I famously held the door open while leaving a building and about 30 people walked out while I waited for someone to grab the door from me. I realized it wasn't going to happen so I ended up letting it slam in somebody's face lol (if you don't know,it's courteous to look over your shoulder as you walk out a door and keep it open for the next person and pass it to them). Furthermore, my aggressively Midwestern mother thinks thst my friends mom is kind of a bitch. She's not a bitch, she's just a New Yorker. So if these culture clashes exist in the US, I have no doubt that they would exist between Americans and Brits.

[srijellyfishtempura]

Vanessaverse Timeline

ok so i was watching the strange aeons vanessaverse video and because I have a passing interest in alternate history i wanted to challenge myself to come up with a scenario where the Vanessaverse world exists

Here are the facts we know:

In eastern europe and the caucasus, there are three new nations:

Belgravia and Aldovia are both absolute monarchies run by white people with British accents. Penglia is run by an absolute monarchy by East Asian people (the writing on the treaty looks like Kanji to me?). We also know that, in this world, absolute monarchies are commonly accepted, and involve various arranged political marriages, as well as the appearances of the monarchs and royal families having significant impact on the country.

There is also the small possibility that every month in this world is December, and they are in a constant state of winter. This is relevant I promise.

I have three possible scenarios, each one going back a bit further in time, although all of them have one thing in common and that is Penglia, because I can't think of a way to get East Asian people into the Caucasus except this:

In the time of Alexander the great, Greek kingdoms extended through a massive part of the known world, all the way to Afghanistan. Due to this, the Chinese dynasty at the time (Han), interacted with Greeks in BCE times, fighting a war with them over horses. To get them into Eastern Europe, I propose that the Han dynasty was so invested in this war that their military forces went over the mountains to Afghanistan and eventually got to the Caspian Sea. They took complete control of the sea, greatly advancing contact between the Caucasus and East Asia, but they do it in like the Byzantine empire way, staying remarkably constant even as Eastern China breaks apart. They eventually rename themselves Penglia, and due to their relatively non-confrontational nature with the rest of Europe, they never get fully conquered. The entire Caucasus region, as well as the Caspian sea, is isolated from the rest of the world, as well as completely Sinicised.

Ok time for Europe

First up, Napoleon.

Due to the eternal winter of this world's Europe, all armies are very used to fighting in bitter cold conditions, so Russia does not have as significant of a home team advantage as they did in our timeline. For some miscellaneous reason (let's say he doesn't get a scholarship), Napoleon Bonaparte never goes to France, instead going to England and becoming a force in the English military. Thus, when the French Revolution happens, and Robespierre declares war on the rest of the world, because they don't have Napoleon, they lose. France is completely conquered, and the revolutionary democratic ideas proposed are quashed, leading to monarchies staying constant throughout the rest of history. Napoleon, now in the British military, helped to defeat France, the nation that rejected him, leading to England taking a majority of France in the treaty that ends the war of the coalition. Napoleon continues rising through the ranks of the British military, eventually invading and conquering Germany, then Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus (and the Balkans, making an agreement with the Ottoman empire to share trade routes). These protectorates eventually built into Belgravia and Aldovia (with Montenaro somewhere in France). Much like the rest of the British empire, the UK held a vast amount of control over these nations, taxing them to hell, as well as Napoleon's fun trait of giving his own families monarch positions in the countries he conquered. Once modern ideas of nation states arises (assuming it still does due to the 1848 revolutions in Switzerland, Italy, and Germany), Belgravia and Aldovia declare independence, but keep their monarchies due to the increased relevance of royal families in this world. Europe is dominated by British countries, the English language, and absolute monarchies spawned from the Bonaparte family.

The main issue with this is that in The Christmas Prince 3, Aldovia and Penglia have been signing this treaty for 600 years, but my next proposal solves that problem.

Second! The Black Death.

Basically, the Black Death is significantly worse in this world, with all of Northern and Eastern Europe, as well as Western Asia being pretty much wiped out (this also provides a way for Penglia to be East Asian, as China would expand into the free territory). Anglo-Norman settlers would expand from England and France into the newly freed-up territory, creating new nations that are absolute monarchies, as was customary at the time. By complete happenstance, two of them, Belgravia and Aldovia, survive into the 21st century, with Aldovia having excellent relations maintained with Penglia, just across the Black Sea.

Third! The Roman Empire.

idk this is much less thought-out, but the romans steal all the land from the germanic tribes, then they split off from southern europe, creating 3 roman empires (northern, western, and eastern), with Britannia incorporated into the North due to their cultural similarities. When the northern romans fall (I'm guessing around 860 CE), instead of Germania being a disaster, they quickly reorganise into smaller kingdoms, with much less loss of knowledge than occurred in our timeline. This timeline I'm imagining involves much faster technological development, while absolute monarchies remain into modern times, due to the relatively high standards of living that they have presided over. Feudalism never exists, and Europe is much better overall. The films take place in about 1700 because they explored so much earlier and the technological development was so much faster.

Also, Scotland. In A Castle For Christmas, a Vanessaverse movie, it's confirmed that the Vanessaverse version of Scotland is just normal Scotland, which I've incorporated here by making the island of Britain relatively unchanged in all of these scenarios (except the last one but idk im tred its almost midnight here Ive spent like 30 minutes writing this post)

@strange-aeons please notice me this is all your fault

[kyidyl]

I was reading this article and was wondering if you had just...rando boxes of bones that you were taught with. Were they labeled at all? Did you wonder where they came from? This is stemming from an article at MSNBC about a Berkley's professor's hesitation to return Native American remains because basically the bone collection (majority unlabeled) they have is a small percentage of donations and the rest were admittedly stolen.

Congrats, you have secretly unlocked something I have Thoughts (TM) on, lol.

Firstly, if anyone is wondering, here's the article. I actually saw it right before coming to Tumblr when I got up bc someone had posted it in one of the bioanth groups I'm in.

The short answer here is: for undergrad, no, I didn't because most colleges in the US don't have collections of human remains. We just used bone clones. And in grad school yes, I did, but I went to grad school in the UK and we knew where they came from bc we'd (and previous classes) excavated them ourselves from the Poulton churchyard. You can read more about the dig here. The UK obviously is a much different set of circumstances than the US.

Bone collections are not just random assemblages of bones. They're meticulously sorted, labeled, and categorized whenever that is possible. And when the remains are comingled (mixed together), the reason is that we don't know whose bones are whose and we don't want to like....put one person's humerus with another person's femur. Unless the bones are articulated (joined in the position they exist in the skeleton), it's exceedingly difficult to tell which bones go to which individual without a DNA test. DNA tests are difficult to do on historical remains in the post cranial skeleton, they're expensive, and most tribes don't like it when we do them. It isn't feasible for a university to DNA test every one of hundreds of comingled bones, so they leave them together. It's better to have more than one person in a box together than it is to have the wrong parts to an actual, human person stuck together as if they're the same person. That's incredibly disrespectful. And, yes, they're often stored in cardboard but like...it's not because that's what was laying around, it's because it's a good storage method and it's cheap. Like they make special boxes.

Bone collections across the world are a very, very thorny subject. I can tell you that as a student handling human bone was an absolutely vital part of my education and without it I'd have a MUCH harder time sorting human from animal. Bone collections are an important teaching tool, but I also think those skills aren't skills undergrads need to have because most of them aren't going to be digging up human remains.

In the US a lot of bone collections are actually not Native American. A lot of them are, but a good deal of them aren't. Not that they're necessarily more ethically sourced - I'll get to that in a bit - but they're not Native American. But we're talking about Berkley and theirs are NA.

If you read the article (general you to anyone reading this, not you nonny.), it mentioned that when NAGPRA came into effect a few decades ago any institution that takes gov't money - which is basically all of them - was required to disclose and notify the tribes that they had remains. From there it was on the tribes to decide what they wanted to do with them.

And this is where tumblr would say "that's not good enough, just give them back". Thing is guys, some groups don't want them back. I know it sounds wrong, but I want you to know that not every culture is as attached to their ancestor's remains, and they're not just pretending they don't want them bc they're afraid of consequences from colonizers. Let me give you an example. This is an article about a set of remains found in Ethiopia that was excavated by two of my professors in undergrad. The optics of this are: a bunch of white people went to Ethiopia, dug up a skeleton, and took it home to start testing it for stuff. What that surface read doesn't tell you is that those two professors - John Arthur and Kathy Weedman-Arthur - have been working with the local Gamo people for almost 30 years at this point. They have friends there, they speak the language fluently, Dr. Kathy has been spending years helping them create a written version of their language so that they can tell their own stories in their own language to the world. They *want* to do this. And they also don't consider anyone not in their burial forest to be Gamo. It doesn't matter if they clearly are from an outside genetic look, they aren't Gamo if they're not in the forest and they don't care what happens to the remains. And in the US, some native groups don't care what happens to the mortal remains of their ancestors. You (general) don't get to decide that for them how they feel about it, even if you think it's wrong. And I can tell you 100% if no one cares, scientists are going to keep the remains. There are also often issues with figuring out who to repatriate the remains TO. Colonizers re-burying them with the wrong funeral rites is, IMO, just as bad. Plus the natives like to re-inter them in places that aren't told to outsiders so they can't be retrieved.

But, obviously, the groups dealing with Berkley DO care and so the remains should be repatriated if they are Native American. It's pretty easy to tell if a, you know where they came from bc you dug them up (like Berkley) or b, the markers on the skeleton and the context are Native American. And here's where we come up against another problem: a lot of medical specimens in the US come from grave robbers in India and other Asian countries. It was, for awhile, a huge industry over there. People would sell their relatives remains, or grave rob and sell them to companies that will sell them overseas. There are still ethical complications here, and if anyone tries to sell you "ethically sourced" human remains they're lying *coughjonsbonescough*. It's impossible for an individual in the US to have an ethically sourced set of remains unless those remains were directly gifted to them from the family of the deceased. That definitely happens on the medical or university level - people leave their bodies to science - but not on the individual level. Thing is though that Asians have the same skeletal markers as Native Americans. East Asians, South Asians, doesn't matter. I'm using the generalized Asia on purpose. You will find shovel incisors or extra cranial sutures on the vast majority of Asians and Native Americans bc they're related. So if you've got a collection of bones of uncertain origin it's impossible to tell the source without DNA tests, and even if you did those tests it would be impossible to repatriate the Asian ones bc Asia is huge.

But again, that's not the case with Berkley. They know that most of those bones were excavated and that professor doesn't want to give them back. I can tell you know he's going to lose that fight. Because a, the article says they've removed him as the liaison and person responsible for the bones and b, Kennewick man. There is now legal, genetic precedent for remains in a given area to be directly related to the natives living in that area. So I'm like 99% sure Berkley will be giving up all of the bones that they know are Native American. And the vast majority of archaeologists and anthropologists agree with the repatriation of those remains. A lot of people have native remains that were grandfathered in for one reason or another, and they still don't keep them because it's more than clear that a good relationship with the natives leads to us doing better science.

Some people feel that bone collections are unethical in and of themselves, but I disagree. I think that, especially in places like Europe where the remains are more likely to belong to the community they exist in, there are ethical ways to build bone collections. The truth of it is that there's orders of magnitude more dead people than live ones, and if the community doesn't care, why NOT use them for education? Honestly I'd like to be donated to science and I'd be sad if my bones *weren't* used to teach other students to do the thing I love. Like that seems like an awesome use of something that would otherwise go to waste. Human remains are only as holy as the culture they belong to believes they are. Otherwise, they're biological material same as any other animal.

Anyway yeah...hope that gave you more of an insight into what's going on there, and I love answering these types of questions, lol.

[v-arbellanaris]

Your da meta is amazing and very eye opening. All about Justina/magic/chantry really got me. And I had a thought, this belief that mages are devil like figures/are always vunerable to demons stems from the Chantry. I get it. But why the qunari believe the same thing? (The Qunari - Saarebas codex) It bugs me that people of a completely different culture with no previous contact to the Chantry went to same conclusion. They only conquered Par Vollen during 6th age. Part 1/2

2/3 During the Exalted Marched they lost possibly because of lack of magic on their side. Is it possible that they created Saarebas later? Also I always wondered if Tamasarans are not simply lying about many things just so people they raise follow orders. Like -magic must be tightly controled because its a tool of war (they borrow a chantry tale to justify it), Or: metal and swords are precious resource (lets tell soldiers that its their soul they cannot loose) Or sell, to make the thought of

3/3 becoming a Tal Vashoth mercenary so much unthinkable. They also lost the tome of Koslun in 7th age so they have to make up new wisdom instead of following it by the book? Not to mention the cutting out the tounges thing. Because mouth-sewing is even more of a nonsense. I mean, how would they eat? Did Koslun really write all of this? Wasn't he a philosopher and a poet?(qun being based a bit of plato's republic)Sorry this is so chaotic. Qunari-magic lore is giving me a headache. Any thoughts?

hello! thank you so much, i'm glad you're liking my meta!!!

it's not chaotic at all! i definitely get what you mean. this is gonna get a bit long so im going to tuck most of this under a cut!

from an outside perspective, i think the qunari are intended to draw a lot of parallels to the ottoman empire (especially pertinent considering real world templars), except there is - perhaps unsurprising, considering how much of qunari canon is established during da2, and world events that were happening on the time e.g. bush's war on terror etc - a lot of inherently islamophobic tropes built into bioware's conceptualisation of the qunari, which they later tried to backtrack on in DAI to some extent. but islamophobia is endemic to bioware's concept of the qun and qunari, and the reason that's so important to establish and understand is because it sheds light on what they intended the qun to represent. there was (and still is, in many circles) arguments around how things like sharia law and islam-majority countries are "backwards" and "barbaric" on many different issues, which are often used 1) to justify discriminatory laws, invasions, wars, political assassinations etc (by conflating islam with extremism etc) and 2) to detract from how the same problems also still exist in the west and are not "solved" or "over" by any means. homophobia, sexism, ableism, transphobia, anti-migrant sentiments, anti-native sentiments, antisemitic attitudes, antiblackness, colourism, fatphobia, etc are as present in countries like the u.s., the uk, as anywhere else, even if its dressed up differently. so understanding that sort of explains why bioware did what they did with the qunari - the qunari exist as a narrative tool to tell you: it could be worse. sure, the chantry locks up their mages in the circle - but it could be worse! they could sew their mouths shut and lead the mages around on a leash. sure, the templars kill civilians seeming to aid mages - but it could be worse! the ben-hassrath exist. etc etc. the qunari exist as an ideological bogeyman; the islamophobic and orientalist tropes it draws on reflect the time most of this canon was written in, and are therefore essential to the narrative purpose the qun is supposed to embody, as far as bioware is concerned.

i do agree the way bioware written them is just… very aggravating. i think essentially, you can play it a lot of different ways, including the way you've suggested, though i would need to think through the potential implications more considering the tropes & cultures the qunari draw on, to make sure im not feeding into the racist & islamophobic narrative that bioware uses for them since at this point, the parallels can't be avoided unless you're writing the qunari from scratch. for example, in your above suggestion, my immediate thought was abt the tome of koslun. the tome of koslun's contents may be based on plato, but the reverence it's treated with and the general... everything else about it reminds me of the qur'an. the qur'an can be memorised & recited from memory by people (google tahfeez for an explanation, but most muslims know a handful of the shorter chapters) and a lot of care is taken when copying the qur'an; copies of the qur'an are supposed to be identical, and those that are not cannot be used for recitation. so i would hesitate to say that the qunari simply made up a bunch stuff and claimed it was from the tome of koslun, because it's a big religious taboo to do similar things with the qur'an.

and there's actually a fantastic thing here, which i've reblogged before, suggesting a rewrite for the qunari which is written by a muslim, which ive always liked! and it's certainly more thought through than anything i've got atm lol

like ive been tossing up a few ideas myself, to try and... rather than rewrite the qunari, to reframe them. i think da2 offers a lot of opportunities to go "well varric lied" and i admit, im not above taking advantage of the narrative style to suit my own purposes. like of course there's all this weird islamophobic bullshit with the qunari; varric is talking to cassandra, the right hand of the divine. ofc he's going to appeal to stereotypes the chantry has about the qun in his story. i'm still trying to piece together how i would do that, though, and where/why i would make changes.

specifically wrt to the saarebas, i had wondered whether i could make it something they do specifically to thedosian mages - tevinter mages caught in battle with seheron, for example. bull, after all, makes it a point to note that qunari can also be elven or human or even dwarven, but in da2, every saarebas we see is as non-human as the arishok. southern mages (circle mages at least) go their entire lives terrified of who and what they are, which makes them dangerous to themselves and also to others, because they're more susceptible to demonic influences (which! not true! but i think it would be interesting to have the argument from the qunari that the circles & chantry propaganda are breeding grounds for abominations because they're prisons, rather than mages themselves being the issue) (compared to, maybe, a qunari mage - mage being a dedicated position just like ben-hassrath or sten, treated without any stigma). tevinter mages are outright dangerous to them, actively wanting to harm them, and so "typical" saarebas treatment - though, i'd also omit the mouth sewn shut thing for similar reasons - is more like... prisoner of war treatment (which is not MUCH better tbf)? especially considering the qunari use "bas" for people outside the qun but qunari mages are called saarebas, it's always struck me as a bit weird since qunari mages are still... part of the qun? so. dangerous thing, for mages existing outside the qun, like circle mages or apostates or tevinter mages, but not their own mages? idk tho, im not committed to anything yet lol

[goongiveusnothing]

The thing with Louis is that, he has no radio play. The only times his songs get played are when fans request them. Why is it like that? The bands that support him have radio plays and they are way more Indie than he is, one of them is like proper punk. When his album reached number 1 in the UK, bbc (jack Saunders) made the customary phone call, where louis tells him that he got that without radio support and it is thanks only to his fans. Guess what, they edited this part out before putting it on YouTube. Why would they do that? When his first single was released, and there was no radio play, some of his fans from the UK wrote a written complaint to the officials in BBC and the song was added to the c playlist, which they play at 2am. Even that they wouldn't do for more than a week. There was a q&a he did two weeks ago in London, where he again talked about the lack of radio play.

He cannot reach new audiences without that. He is the only one from ot4 who hasn't played bbc live launge or similar stuff. The next thing he can do is play festivals. Again he himself said that he doesn't get invitations to festivals. It is evident that he can pull in a crowd, then why wouldn't he get booked? He made a festival by himself and even that would hardly get any media coverage.

His number 1 album got four mainstream reviews that qualify for a meta critic score, just four. Out of which one is by an ex larrie, who wants to impregnate harry styles and fuck Zayn. He went private on twitter now. He has been abusing louis on twitter since 2017. Again if there is no review, good or bad, no new audience. Bruce Springsteen's album was released the day louis' album was released. This guy from official charts tweeted about the extreme level of promotion Springsteen has been doing and mentioned Columbia and one direction and BMG. Louis's uk promo was near to non-existent. No Graham norton, no tv performance, nothing. Again no new audience. All of this cannot be a coincidence. I hope Harry is not at least directly complicit in this( but I also hoped he had nothing to do with that whole euphoria mess, which he clearly had) . Sony 100% has involvement in this. Do the Azoffs have? I don't know, there is nothing to implicate them directly. But as you have mentioned they have a clear history of sabotaging artists. Afterall louis and harry share a fanbase. Larries like to tell that all this is happening because he left syco music. That is not true. This has been happening since his second single with bebe Rexa came out. At that time in 2017, there was this twitter conversation between her team and some rj's, where the rj's mention the lack of effort from his label's part as the reason for it not going viral. His next single just like you(which also mentions the Sony- George Michaels clash in the visuals). Was pulled off the radio within a week. And it has been like that ever since.He teased an album and world tour for 2018, instead he became a judge in x-factor. He said that he could not get people to write with him( even though he is the one with the most writing credentials in 1d), he said recently in Zach zang show that he contemplated leaking his album walls because it was going nowhere. He isn't even invited to events or after parties, since 2017. Absolute blacklisting!

Then there are larries, the bane of his existence. They have been writing essays on why he shouldn't be let to grow as an artist for the past many years, especially for the past two months. Spoiler alert: their theory is that louis is forced to make music, his life ambition is to get inside a suitcase and travel alongside harry styles and be a good loving house husband. Apparently he broke his arm, to not promote his album and go visit harry who had the flu. Now a large chunk of them are boycotting him, because he celebrated his birthday with his son. Some of these buffoons are cis white women who are senior citizens.

I am actually quite surprised that he got to make two albums. Honestly didn't expect even that.

Sorry didn't realise it became this long.

it's just that music is a gamble, and sometimes popular musicians don't even get the steam they need, and really talented ones are overlooked entirely. so it's hard to say well it's all because they're being blacklisted or whatever. it's just not a set in stone industry.

i have to say that with radio everybody knows it is a payola industry. it's pay to play. i've always assumed that because louis has real genuine convictions about pay to play and the machinations of the industry, that he's just never been willing to pay to get his music on the air. that he wants the success of his music to be organic and real, not a playlist payola or a radio payola scheme like harry styles.

with the other things like festivals and reviews, i've felt that's because the industry has decided because he's a former one d member, and because harry styles and maybe niall horan are the only ones you're "allowed" to like from one d, that they don't do these things for him. niall does more radio friendly music. louis doesn't and he knows that he doesn't. louis is trying to break into an area of music that is pretty tough because rock/indie music is very gatekeepy, so they don't want former boybanders to show up, as they think it's uncool. we've seen this already in random bands try and make fun of him. he has to really work hard to break into that scene.

we also know how the industry is all about connections. harry has masses of them, and they all cater to him. rolling stone interviews, vogue, another man, auditions to every movie in the world, MET gala, even louis has basically spoken about that. louis could try and spend his time in hollywood trying to schmooze people, but that isn't him. is louis willing to literally become a family member to some random powerful member of the industry just to get a career? do people think louis would be happy like that?

and while i also think showing up to events is something that would boost his profile, again these are things that louis has always said he's not interested in. he's always hated these PR event things, he even hated when in one d. they're very fake and everybody's posing and being full of it, it's exactly where louis would hate to be.

maybe i'm wrong about things. i can think of good promo ideas that don't involve these types of machinations. doing charity work, being seen at local charities or music for like impoverished kids type things, doing low key cheap gigs at small places, learning an instrument or showing how far along on the guitar he is.

personally, i would also change louis's sense of fashion, i think it's just boring to me to see a guy in hoodies onstage. but again, louis thinks wearing that stuff is authentic because it's him. but i personally think it's cool and fun for a musician to have a bit of flair and fun with fashion onstage, of course not clown costumes and maybe he has PTSD from thinking if you dress onstage you gotta dress like a clown like harry, but just something a bit fun. i remember the clash used to talk about how nobody would show up to a gig if you looked like shit, you had to dress cool in a way other dudes want to dress, i do think that does create a coolness and appeal and would be fun.

[whoiwanttoday]

Well guys, this is a post that has been brewing since I was 13 it turns out. Squeeze has announced some tour and for some reason Google and YouTube both really thought I needed to know about this. I mean, I say some reason, it's not entirely unheard of, I remember once responding over the loudspeaker at tower records to someone with, "I said please, my favorite band is Squeeze, I have all of their CDs except for Babylon and On". Not that they were actually my favorite band but you never want to pass up a decent rhyme scheme and a good obscure reference. But the tour is in the UK and while I do quite like Squeeze I can't imagine flying to England just to see them. Not now. Maybe in 1984. Hate to be too judgy but I do think nostalgia is the enemy of all art and as anti Rock n Roll as things get. So allow me to wax nostalgic here. I discovered Squeeze (not like discovered discovered but you know what Europe, turn about is fair play. I discovered your fucking band, deal with it) when I was 13 because the song Pulling Muscles (from the Shell) was a mainstay on radio and no one knew who they were. So I decided to figure it out and I bought Squeezes greatest hits. Greatest Hits are also anti Rock n Roll, it's why the Eagles greatest hits is like the 4th best selling album of all time. This was a good entry point though for an amazing bit of pop song craft that was almost unknown in the US, again on the account that no one had discovered them until I did. It did lead to me owning all of their records to this day (except for Babylon and On). Anyway, this is a long way of getting to the fact that Up the Junction was my favorite Squeeze song because it's absolutely heartbreaking. It's the story of a poor guy trying to rise above his station with a higher class woman and it all falls apart eventually. He stays poor, she moves on with his kid, he is drunk and alone and miserable. I was a depressed child and always gravitated to this kind of thing, especially for real adult problems with the thought of, "That's the life I want one day". Romantic misery. It is fucking stupid beyond belief but when you are depressed and your life sucks sometimes you just crave the visual signifiers that other people can see so they get it. No one has sympathy for, "I am sad because my brain doesn't work". Suck it up Buttercup, there are real problems out there. But man, if you can get one of those real problems? Like an actual cinematic one with what you assume to be some cool British slang about Junctions? Oh, that's the stuff, everyone will get it then. I mean, they don't, they won't, but it's part of the fantasy of misery porn. Anyway, the song describes a world that might as well have been the fucking moon to an American Teenager 20 years after the song was written but I latched onto it and it starts by saying, "I never thought it would happen/With me and a girl from Clapham". I didn't know what Clapham is and to my knowledge I have never met a girl from Clapham (I can't be sure, I have met many a woman from England but I always forget to ask) so I am way behind on my plan to meet, impregnate, fall apart, lose my job, lose my family, turn into a drunk and disappoint her. Look, it maybe was never my best thought out plan as a kid but I was always confident I could grow up to disappoint a woman, so I knew I could stick the landing. Anyway, that's a long way of saying I went to see what the fuck Up the Junction meant and that lead me to the wikipedia article about Clapham Junction and notable people from Clapham and guys, Holly Willoughby is from Clapham. Does this explain why I have always been attracted to her? Maybe. I mean, I haven't always been attracted to her. I didn't even discover her until like 2012 or something. Weird pictures of her exist from before then given she was undiscovered. Anyway, my point is this is the sort of convoluted experience that deamnds two things. One, a long post that exactly two people will read, the rest of you stopped after the first line. And two, that I post Holly Willoughby specifically. Today I want to fuck Holly Willoughby.

[whoslaurapalmer]

lulu watches doctor who; the doctor, the widow, and the wardrobe, pond life, asylum of the daleks 🥚

it’s clara time it’s clara time it’s clara time it’s clara time it’s clara timeeeeeeeeeee

-have to say that i. did not super care for. the doctor the widow and the wardrobe -like. it was fine????? but i wasn’t like. super invested in it. didn’t keep a great deal of my interest? -there’s probably some words i could put together about the mothership thing of it all/the way moffat writes women continues to be a strange thing but i’m like. eh -that being said i do have A FEW NOTES OTHERWISE

-oh shout out to the chakoteya transcripts yet again for having the prequel in the transcript so i got to read that -eleven calling the tardis and pretending to talk to amy :( -he misses her :( so much :(

-what bothers me is like..............like i said the ending of the god complex was perfect. but then the time shenanigans of the wedding of river song happened and i feel like, kind of overwrote pieces of the ending of the god complex????? especially bc it. left a lot up in the air about what timelines happened. of course amy remembers them all but still it was like -where are they all now?? -i didn’t want a REHASHING of the conversation at the end of god complex but i wanted.........something else about. where eleven is and where amy and rory are -some of it is like.......excused away with, the doctor let them think he’s dead too, to protect them, like he was doing when he brought them home, and didn’t know river told them the truth, and stayed away for two years because he was afraid to be a part of their lives again until convinced by the spirit of christmas, as one does (-matt smith did the, sad miserable agonized fidgeting of a being so alone and so desperate for companionship and not always willing to let it happen sooooooooooo well btw) -i just. wish there had been. a little more there, before he came back for christmas, besides the prequel thing, just, more room for establishing what their relationship going forward is, after he gives them up in the god complex, after the wedding dances all over a million things -i was given minor consequences for ‘letting the world, including amy and rory, to an extent, think he’s dead’ though so there’s that -idk it’s just about the execution of it all again

-i liked having a separate tap for lemonade until i remembered uk lemonade is like. sprite -no hate on sprite but real live lemon lemonade is one of my absolute favorite drinks -“science-y wience-y” the wibbley wobbley marches on -ahhhh here is the “because they’re going to be sad later” -i was going to say something about companions and the doctors but i think i literally did bring up this line back in nine and ten in big notes part 1 when i went absolutely off about, companions and the doctors

-“everything about home that you miss until you can’t bear it. until you almost burst.” “till it hurts. is that what you mean?” -once again eleven’s benchmark for ‘the most gorgeous human hope and experience’ is ‘THE ABSOLUTE PAIN IT CAUSES’ and that’s endlessly fascinating to me. that it’s something he encourages in other people until it hurts, for reasons (here) or he has to be told it’s not quite that (back in victory of the daleks) bc that’s the kind of thing he’s constantly running from as eleven, because of ten (not to push that but it’s absolutely bc of ten.). that’s eleven’s view of what happens when you get too close or when you love, that it hurts -and it hurts him!!!!! all the time!!!!! constantly!!!!!! and he can’t find a middle ground!!!!!!!! there is no middle ground where the doctor is happy and everyone else is safe -which does cover a lot of why eleven stays away for so long and just leaves messages on their answering machine, in pond life, but it’s still not like.........idk -it is attempting to find a middle ground that can’t exist, and just, missed opportunities to me

-speaking of pond life, if we had also seen, more than just one scene of amy and rory’s relationship breaking apart -i wondered if like. there were hints in there anyway. and i think you could MAYBE make a very slim case if you squinted but i’m not like. really committed to it -does it make more sense if we don’t see a reason right away, and we just see them broken up, or to have really seen them fall apart? like, is there an advantage, narratively, or is it fine either way -but also, like........................................... -the reason they do break up. -mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 

-on the one hand -- actual, legit consequences from demon’s run! -on the other hand!!!!! consequences we didn’t know about until they can conveniently be pulled out of nowhere for an angst reason!!!!! -i think you can also try and excuse away some of this by saying that amy and rory’s relationship had of course changed after demon’s run but also. again. we don’t see that changing. we can say, yeah, that’s probably why, but we don’t?? see it happen??? -I DON’T WANT IT TO COME ACROSS AS LIKE. I HAVE THIS OBSESSION WITH NEEDING THINGS TO BE VISUALLY SHOWN IN ORDER TO MATTER OR ANYTHING, -BECAUSE I DON’T, -IMPLICATION IS FINE, -BUT THAT’S THE THING, I DON’T THINK WE’RE GETTING IT IMPLIED EITHER, we can figure out a reason, but we don’t even get that reason IMPLIED anywhere, as actually existing in canon, and not just fandom going ‘that’s probably why’ -that’s what i mean about seeing things -i know i personally have an obsession with needing, in my own life, things to be talked out to death in order to understand myself and other people, and that that’s a thing that might sometimes enter my writing and i could write too on-point conversations instead of sometimes the more implied conversation vibes people do actually irl converse in too -but when i say ‘i wanted to see this’ i don’t mean i wanted to see them talk things to death!!! i do mean i wanted it implied!!!!!!!! somewhere!!!!! anywhere!!!!!!!!!!!!! in any way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -i want to see anger!! i want to see them taking things out on each other!! i want to see distance!!! -and pond life would’ve been great for that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-WE ALSO HAVE NO REASON TO THINK OR BELIEVE UNTIL IT’S EVEN MENTIONED THAT RORY ALWAYS WANTED KIDS. -that’s not a thing we know about rory at ALL until amy says so. -amy not being able to have children is a thing we don’t even know either, until now! (-i mean yes we get foreshadowing. but it’s also like. literally never discussed, until now) -and that’s the dissolution of their relationship????? just not being able to have kids???????????? -we have no idea that would’ve been a dealbreaker, or thought to be a dealbreaker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -i actually thought that amy and rory had like, matured to a point as well that they WOULD talk about that. that would be a thing amy would be able to talk about with rory -amy’s modus operandi (please read that in david lynch’s voice) is very much burying how much things mean to her and how much people mean to her and putting up walls between her and other people bc of her struggles in making connections and feeling alone but i also thought that she’d really, honestly connected with rory by this point, and that they had a vibe where they could talk about something like that, or, even just sort of talk about it -or that rory, as well, would be at a point where he wouldn’t think “i love her more than she loves me” anymore -but that’s also a lot of.........we do get relationship development with amy and rory i think but i don’t think their characters ever get stressed or developed as much as i personally want them to

-i do remember the absolute CHOKEHOLD asylum of the daleks had on tumblr when it aired, or at least it felt like that to me, with how my dashboard looked after it aired -also me, at a family baby shower in 2012: so yeah, that episode sure happened, didn’t it? and bbc sherlock, that happened too, back in january. my grandmother and my aunt, still watching new who and bbc sherlock, along with my uncle (although i think this might’ve been around when they all tapped out, of both shows): yep. -chokehold, though. i think the original gifs of that when everyone was screeching over souffle girl live rent-free in my head. i recognized many a gif finally watching this episode.

-AND IT’S CLARA TIME!!!!!! IT’S CLARA TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -it’s not so much that i’m interested in the impossible girl aspect of clara. that i think will in fact be something i will likely get bitchy about. count on it -it’s that i think clara looks fun and she’s adorable. -and not that i’m looking forward to face the raven particularly, down the line, but that i’m interested in how clara becomes more like the doctor than most other companions, even if a great deal of them become like the doctor in certain ways, it’s the way it happens with clara -also she seems spunky.

-and she delivered, in finally seeing the episode!! i thought she was really fun. -however yep the little look at the camera. that bothered me. that’s such a moffat wink wink nudge thing. yes that’ll become a Thing ~ don’t forget ~ isn’t that something to think about ~~~~~ -her being turned into a dalek was very heartbreaking though :( like genuinely sadder than i had pictured from again the gifs that have lived rent-free in my head for ten years (-oh i felt that way about doomsday, too. the gifs don’t do that wall justice.) -the insistence on her humanity, even as she’s having it taken away from her - “i was going through a phase.” a woman can love another woman without you making a joke out of it, moffat. without it being a phase. without this need to write bi and lesbian women who have an obsession with men and downplaying loving women

-the idea of being converted into a dalek is so interesting. like the partial conversion. the foreshadowing that they didn’t remember being converted -but does it like........make sense that the daleks would convert humans??? for their intelligence? -i mean, maybe? to make them into daleks, to be of use, to be the dalek’s idea of a superior being -but it also seems a little beneath them, to think of human intelligence as worthy to the point they would convert a human to keep it -/takes a moment to think not quite fondly but with enduring interest about dalek sec. daleks in manhattan/evolution of the daleks was such a time.

-you know eleven is very angry in this episode. the doctor is usually more angry than usual with the daleks, but idk i also thought it went deeper than that. like eleven’s anger is very dark and bitter and that’s clear here - “they say you can help.” “do they. i wish they’d stop.” - “what do we do?” “make them remember you.” - “who destroyed all the daleks?” “who do you think?” -not to mention, invoking the doctor as the oncoming storm! -the history!! the history that’s dead now!!!! -he’s alone a lot now. (well. APPARENTLY? MAYBE?? I DON’T KNOW) -and that’s why the doctor shouldn’t travel alone, bc of that unchecked rage, especially bc eleven is also. presumed dead -and it’s once again bc amy is threatened, and eleven will do anything if that happens

-i will give moffat this. the daleks were scary in this one - “the daleks have no concept of elegance.” vs “does it surprise you to know the daleks have a concept of beauty?” -well. quite frankly yeah. but ultimately i guess not. sure fine why not -i don’t think ‘asylum’ necessarily works but like i don’t have the energy to get into that. i’m sure other people have before me

- “not one of those things you can fix.” - “it’s just life. that thing that happens when you’re not there.” - :( -life happens with the doctor vs it also doesn’t because that is a shiny sparkly adventure life with one foot on a death rollerskate and nothing like what Life is vs what people think of as a life definitely happens more without the doctor vs the ongoing thought of the doctor could never have a normal life vs the “then what is the point of you?” of it all, if the doctor can’t fix things vs reaching the point where you know you can’t ask the doctor to fix things bc it’s not that kind of problem. it’s not fixable like that. vs but maybe it should have been, especially because it was for amy, amy needed him and she needed him to fix everything and he wasn’t there for her

- “doctor who?” ALL the daleks ever just forgetting about them bc clara wipes the doctor from the hivemind is honestly hilarious, but it’s also very much ‘the question is coming and don’t you forget it!’ but i guess. done in a better way than usual, i think. bc it is really funny

-can amy and rory and the doctor sit down and have a fucking conversation at the end of this episode???? why not, bc he still doesn’t want to involve them????? well it’s a little fucking late now, i think!!!!!!! -i mean i know they all get yoinked into this but like!! CAN WE JUST ESTABLISH THE NEW VIBE OR SOMETHING -i guess it’s whatever now but!!! yknow!!!!!!!

-poor amy almost gets turned into a weeping angel and now almost gets turned into a dalek -so were the images of the humans......1) a hallucination bc of amy turning into a dalek 2) a perception filter?? 3) an implication that the daleks there were humans too? 4) that daleks would want to be? 5) do i need to think about it that hard???? there’s just such an emphasis on that scene, and i just. remember seeing the gif of the ballet dancer soooooooooooo often and the scene is just treated so. elegantly 

-oh newish intro and colors and fonts!!! -that was fun. -it’s dinosaur time next!! (i get the feeling the dinosaur episode was not particularly popular??? idk dinosaurs sound like, at least a time, of some sort.)