#just my own thoughts

[starsha-k-luna]

OK, hear me out Tumblr.

Imagine this song, but it’s John Dory singing Lucifer’s part & Ablaze from Kismet singing Alastor’s part, with Boom playing Niffty.

It would be “Troll’s Best Brother!”

And of course Branch would be Charlie in this.

Oh, and Viva could be Mimcy!!!

Just a small idea I wanted to put out here on Tumblr.

[inastarlesssky]

Okay, folks. Another essay. (Not a character analysis, folks.)

How I feel about Ron. Under the cut bc it might not be very Ron-friendly (but no Ron-bashing here (okay maybe a little) , just my honest thoughts)

Just gonna start off by saying what follows is my opinion. I haven't read the books, and I don't really plan to. Anything I write, my fics, my meta, you name it, is taken from the movies. That being said, it's just that. Sure, it might not be completely informed bc I haven't read the books. And I'd also like to clarify (my fault for not mentioning this before) this is not a character analysis of Ron Weasley, this is my opinion concerning him from what I've seen in the movies. My opinion is most certainly not law and it's definitely not fully informed bc I haven't read the books, but it's just me putting my thoughts out there.

Alright, so maybe I misunderstand things sometimes. Maybe it's been a few years since I've seen the movies. But the thing is, I don't quite like Ron as a character. Why?

In the first few movies, it's endearing how scared silly he can be, and it's sweet to see he's such good friends with Harry and Hermione. But what really got me was in Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire. Yes, there was the tension between Ron and Harry, but what called my attention was Ron's behaviour towards Hermione. Specifically "You're a girl. Come to the ball with me?" As if she was his last option--she who over the span of a few movies was a good friend and you'd think he might care a little bit more. But then again, they're teenagers, he's probably not thinking as well as he should. It just seemed very un-gentlemanly like to me the way that he asked her about it. If I were here, I wouldn't have appreciated that.

Then, at the actual Ball itself, he was jealous. That's understandable, happens to the best of us. But she was happy and practically beaming that evening. When he accused her of 'fraternizing with the enemy', that was kind of a last straw it seemed to me. Like 1) as she points out, the other schools aren't to be thought of as enemies. It's a competition, but the idea of the Ball was to have everyone together 2) I really don't think he's in a position to speak down to her when he asked her in a less-than-noble way to be his date for the ball.

Thus far my thoughts on Ron. Now bringing up Draco. Now being a Dramione shipper, myself, I will say that of course, I prefer her with Draco rather than with Ron. Why is that? Well, I can't speak for others--but for my part, the Draco that I like and that I ship with Hermione, is one that sees the error of his ways, that apologizes to her and determines (and actually makes efforts to) to be a better man. Basically this is solely in fanfics bc of course, in canon, the closest thing to redemption that we see for Draco is 1) the Manor scene when he refuses to identify Harry and 2) the deleted scene where he throws Harry his wand.

It's true that Draco also was an asshole when he called her mudblood and spoke down to her. He also mistreated her to a certain degree. But the difference I'm making is that in the fanfics I've read, I've seen a progression from 12-year old arrogant Slytherin to a man who will set fire to the world around him but never let them touch Hermione, a man who would move heaven and earth for her. A man who knows he's flawed and knows that he's hurt the woman he loves but he makes every effort to amend that and be better.

If there are Ron/Hermione fics that show him turning around from that moment at the Ball and being a better man, please feel free to hit me up with those, and I'd love to take a look. But it just seems funny to me that that's kind of swept under the rug. Like yes, Hermione forgives. But--if both Draco and Ron insulted Hermione in one way or another--why should there be more work for Draco to redeem himself in Hermione's eyes than Ron? You'd think (so I think) it would have hurt her more to be so treated by Ron, her friend, bc of their history.

To clarify, I am not trying to make a point here that one ship is better than the other. No. Ship and let ship, that's my theme. I just wanted to get my thoughts out bc I was considering and thought I might share it.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

[galedekarios]

i wanted to let myself think about gale’s redesign a bit and now that i’ve speedrun the game up to a certain point, here are my thoughts on it since larian asked for feedback:

what i like

the new hair looks very good. i like the slightly tousled, dishevelled look. i can see gale being stressed over his condition, worrying, running a hand through his hair, thinking, so that makes sense to me. another thing i like are the greying strands. i’ve been trying to put them into my art whenever i draw this character and it always has been a personal favourite headcanon of mine.

his colour palette is warmer again, the extreme darkness in him from patch 7 is gone. i always thought he looked much too cold and dark in patch 7: his hair, his eyes, the beard, the extreme dark circkles. returning to his warmer colour palette is a welcome change. gale, to me, is a kind and gregarious character so to see that reflected in the colours again in patch 8 is great.

the addition of the tattoo is a nice touch. i can only imagine that it’s possibly something magical to keep the netherese orb at bay. it’s a neat detail and i love the design of it.

the overall facial tweaks are something i can live with if larian is working on trying to adjust them. the face looks quite different in the screenshot, yet when i played the game and saw it animated, it still looked very much like gale. i can see it being a bridge between gale’s original model in the game and his key concept art.

what i don’t like

the beard looks awful. it changes too much of his overall face shape from a more rounded face to a more square one. it looks extremely unrealisted in-game, almost as if it were painted on. it also deviates too much for me, personally, from the key concept art and what gale used to look like while also leaning too much into generic male video game character-looks for me. 

the earring feels extremely out of character for gale to me. even putting aside his backstory, i can very much see him as a mystrian wanting to have a symbol of his goddess with him, yet it has too much of a rogue-ish zevran or awakening anders vibe to me in a way that gale just doesn’t have. again, this is just my opinion, but i feel like a nice ring or amulet would make more sense for him. 

the removal of his moles and lessening the intensity of his scars is another thing that i, personally, don’t like. they gave his face a lot more character. i don’t understand why this was something that had to be changed. i liked how imperfect gale’s skin was, fine lines, blemishes, moles, scars and all.

in the end, after nearly two years of getting know and becoming attached to a character, i find it very jarring to change his appearance so profoundly. i realise the game is in early access, but i think a change like this should have happened earlier if it need to happen at all.

[atoasttotheendoftheworld]

Things we do for love...

Like lots of people, I saw "Avatar: The Way of Water." Now, putting aside my personal opinion of J. Cameron's work (with the exception of Aliens) I had many issues, upon the end of the movie, with the movie itself. Definitely congratulations to the work of all those involved, undoubtedly there was plenty of effort and it certainly has to be acknowledged. However, the plot left me with tedium and bitterness. And, no, it's not about the end.

SPOILER!

What annoyed me most, in terms of the narrative itself, is that the story would (in my opinion) appear to be based on a variety of events that have happened in human history. Like the atrociously unfair actions of the Colonizers against Natives from different parts of the world (specifically I think Natives from the areas of current USA and New Zealand & Australia) as well as the War of Vietnam. A good setting, for sure, to have a narrative in which Humans are represented as Aliens, thus a reversal of the standard "aliens invade earth." Interesting. Except that then, throughout the film, the plot itself is just a slightly different copy of the first film, with the one major difference that the main characters have moved from forest to water and the bad guy isn't physically human anymore but has assumed the appearance of the Na'vi.

However, it all remained centered on the one-on-one fight between Jake Sully and Colonel Miles Quaritch. As in the first film. Only, while in the first film it did make sense and was more than all right for laying the groundwork of the narrative, in this second chapter it is (in my opinion) redundant.

The whole first part of the film has been completely ignored, that gory fire sequence that destroyed Pandora's ecosystem and threatened the lives of the Na'vi. Completely ignored the fact that the United States (yes, because I refuse to consider it a representation of the whole Earth) has established, without any logical connection other than that of the self-centered colonizer, that the Na'vi are the enemy to be put down and destroyed, to invade and subdue in order to steal the whole planet. Fully ignored also that, possibly, "earthlings" might be pushed by a sense of desperation for their own salvation, becoming selfishness of actions. It has been totally dismissed that it doesn't even matter whether Sully is here or not, the Pandora forest and the folk living there will still be in danger of death. It's not Sully that draws the war, it's the U.S. Military that brings it to Pandora; to all of Pandora, regardless of Sully.

Sully alone is uniquely able to understand (besides scientists genuinely interested in Pandora's biodiversity and ecosystem, thus peaceful observers and researchers) the humans' line of reasoning and their potential actions, as he was. He was a U.S. Military. Yet he isn't the reason for war, he isn't the one putting Pandora and its people in danger.

The film's narrative, though, seems to concentrate on that. On the one-on-one confrontation of Sully and Colonel Miles. Ignoring that it's just a battle, but there, someplace in all of Pandora, there is a whole war. War of which we no longer are informed, of which we no longer hear. That Sully himself doesn't appear to comprehend is there. It focused on personal struggle, on family, on a desire to protect it, and that's fine, it may be a metaphor to convey the will to stand up for all the Pandora folk and the peaceful life they live closely with nature and environment.

Nonetheless, I didn't find it well-structured and it annoyed me. For I could have enjoyed three hours of more elaborate metaphors about the triviality of evil and the differences between defensive aggression and dominative violence. Of storytelling about humans as invaders of a planet. Of many other potentially interesting things that, instead, are being ignored in favor of a philosophy about family and sea as metaphors of life and death, of hate and love. Nice, admissibly, yet a bit too mild for a second film.

That's all, I just wanted to say it. As I had this opinion about it and wished to get rid of it, since in daily life I can't engage in dialogue about the movie. (I doubt my cousin will follow it).

Ah…by the way. I firmly reject considering the humans portrayed in the film as a representation of all human beings. At most, they are representations of the U.S. Military system and the U.S. government. I don't see, on Pandora, military/scientific bases of other Nations. So, if I don't see and it's not hinted either with visuals (even hasty ones) or with a few hints in casual dialogues, I cannot assume that all humankind on earth knows what is going on on Pandora and agrees. Neither can I assume that other Nations are cooperating with the US. Therefore, for me, the humans portrayed in the film are U.S. military and that's all. Not the representation of "Earthlings." Although, ultimately, there could be a complex and long conversation about this as well.

[radiance1]

So I have this little idea thingy.

So y’know how (we) the player. Is basically this all powerful, time manipulating, death defying, and basically god like being?(while being in a game world ofc)

So wouldn’t it be funny that the only way to limit us, is to limit the options of who we’re controlling? 

Like it’s just something I’ve been thinking about. How basically anyone(even the host themself) could limit the player is they just. Limit.Our.Options.

Even if we can control the body, the only way to interact with the world is through the options given to us, so if people where to limit those options to just specific ones. 

They could basically force us to anything they would want.

Like if we were the host to a murderer or something of the like. They could tell us that the only way to get through this world is to fight and kill anyone before they kill us, and only give us options to kill or attack.

And we would believe it. Since there is quite literally no other option other than what is given to us. This would also fall in line with, if we didn’t attack, and out current host(a murderer but we might not know that) dies as a result of our inaction. Meaning that what we were told is true.

The only way to get through this world is kill others before they kill us. Therefore sending us on a murder spree.

Because we would only have access to limited information(i.e the murderer our host) we wouldn’t think much of it and continue with the options given to us.

And if no matter what we do ends with our death and no new options available other than killing. 

We would do the only thing we can do.

Kill

So here is what I propose to you people of the undertale and delta rune fandom.

Where what if frisk escaped the underground(either through killing asgore and leaving or saving asriel and the monster race) and because of this. People could come after frisk. Not because of frisk themself. But what they are carrying around.

Us

Because you cannot tell me that at least SOME people know that they could limit our choices and basically use us for their own gain.

So then it would be up to us to not let frisk die and us be taken.

or maybe if that does happen, we wouldn’t do anything because this is new.

Or we would do something because we don’t want frisk to die.

And in Delta Rune

Where people would try to steal us from kris for out god like power.

Either for evil or good. I dunno.

and if the vessel we were making wasn’t discarded.

Along with our main quest to seal the dark fountains.

We would have to evade the capture of people trying to the soul(us) in the vessel.

As that would hinder our main quest and ofc we would think this is just part of the game and the like.

Because (we) the player are confined to a strict set of rules and options given to us in games(unless your a hacker then you could manipulate anything to your will)

So what’s stopping the people from the game world from limiting us by only giving us certain options and choices to align with what they want us to do.

And seeing as how kris could take out his soul(either for a limited time or not) what’s stopping the same person who stole us and gave us limited options.

From just taking us out of their chest and stopping us from interacting with the world completely?

(We) The player are seen as this puppeteer within the delta rune fandom(from what I’ve seen) 

But we aren’t.

We are just people who are playing what we think is a game and interacting with the world from options that are given to us.

We could be manipulated to do whatever someone wants if they only tell us certain information and we would be none the wiser until someone gives us more information that go against the information given to us previously.

Because we think it’s just a game. And that therefore this was supposed to happen.

(We) The player is basically this god like being in the game world that can be tricked into doing what someone wants because we think it’s just a game and that therefore, this was meant to happen for plot.

[ghostoftheyear]

I think about Mink a lot.

Of all the DMMd love interests, he is the most challenging, and because of his route I think it’s possible he’s the most disliked as well. Which is a shame, because he’s got a lot going on under the surface that isn’t easily seen or casually revealed. You have to spend some time thinking about it, or at least I did. Because he’s deliberately keeping himself shut off from Aoba (and anyone else), that means we as observers also don’t get to see his true self.

And admittedly what we do see is pretty bad. Mink behaves like a soldier, or maybe more appropriately like a mercenary. He sees Aoba as a tool, part of his arsenal of weapons to be used against Toue. When Aoba doesn’t fall in line, he hurts him -- physically and sexually assaults him, seemingly doing whatever it takes to make Aoba behave as he wants.

But is it really Aoba he’s punishing? After all, the first incident occurs at the club after Aoba’s consciousness has been altered with photonarcotics; Desire, or Sly, surfaced and used Scrap to essentially force Mink to assault him. There are a lot of nuances in this route, and seeing it all from Aoba’s perspective when Aoba isn’t even in control for much of it makes him, at best, an unreliable narrator. Mink is justly scared of Desire/Sly when he surfaces again. He changes his mind about using Aoba in his plans.

The fact that Mink is utterly different in Re:Connect, and even what we see of him at the end of his route’s good ending, really speaks to who he was, who he could have been -- the man he would have been had his tribe not been wiped out by Toue’s greed. In R:C and his drama CD, we see him taking care of Aoba, accepting that someone wants to be a part of his life again. He’s the man we want him to be at last.

Mink’s route isn’t easy to go through, and to me it’s difficult to watch -- and I’m not even a SA survivor. I don’t pretend to understand why it was written as it was. But what I’m coming to understand is that his route isn’t about logic or the need to be understood. It shines a light on the fact that Aoba is broken too -- though it isn’t addressed much in the main game, he has emotional trauma from his parents abandoning him, which led to him lashing out, playing Rhyme or getting in fights in an effort to feel anything but despair. He hurt people, broke their minds, through his uncontrolled use of Scrap. When he was finally reined in, his memories were altered (not unlike a natural suppression of the memory of traumatic events). It all comes back out again when he’s subjected to the photonarcotics, and he hurts Mink too -- or Sly does, anyway. Does that absolve Aoba of the blame?

I wrote about it a bit in a fic, but ultimately what it feels like for me is that reason and logic don’t really apply in Mink’s route. (Which makes sense, given that the actual avatar of Reason Restraint in the game is still locked away in a little blue dog. Oh, huh. That could be a whole essay in itself, how Aoba doesn’t use reason much because, well, he can’t.) But I feel like Mink’s route, and the choices Aoba makes in it, can’t be understood, because it’s all about emotion, not logic. Mink isn’t emotionally available at all during the main game; he’s not someone whom a person could fall in love with, because he’s waiting to die, a walking corpse. He’s sealed all his feelings away because he intends to be gone at the end of it. But Aoba pries that seal loose and finds the man beneath, and I think that while love isn’t something that occurs during the game, it blooms later, in a mountain cabin built by hand, over time and with healing.

[chat-no-r]

Lila is just an uncompelling villain. She's not even someone i love to hate she's just frustrating. I don't know what it is she just makes me seeth.

[spyglassrealms]

had a fucking hilarious dream that tumblr replaced the "block" function with the far funnier "glock" function, which did the exact same thing except whenever anyone blocked you a random bullet hole, like a png of a bullet hole, would appear on your blog. discourse blogs were unreadable bc you'd go to the page and the sheer amount of bullet hole pngs stacked over the blogs obscured everything. I woke myself up laughing

[canisalbus]

Today's tumblr experience.

[xekstrin]

RE: talking to conservative parents, I’ve found a good method to de-worming their brains is to not get riled up, just act a little bored and remind them “the news cycle only shows salacious stuff. They want you to be mad and scared because it makes you easier to control. Think about it for a second. Do you REALLY believe everything they have to say?” Or “you can’t believe everything you read or see on the internet. Remember, they earn money every time you click on their video.”

And especially when my dad starts getting huffy about Prices or Artists He Doesn’t Like, I tell him “that’s the beauty of capitalism. they have a product to sell and the freedom of expression if you don’t like it you don’t have to buy it.”

Might not work for everyone but dad’s KRYPTONITE especially is saying “but dad that’s capitalism! You LOVE capitalism!” And he either has to stop complaining or admit capitalism is bad and so far I haven’t lost

[uncanny-tranny]

I think so many people are so deeply alienated from themselves that they have no clue how to exercise their free will and autonomy. For some, this alienation runs so deep that they are afraid of their own autonomy and humanity. It is completely understandable why one would have those feelings, but it can be worrisome.

I want to help others who feel this way, so here are small things I have done to exercise my free will:

Add "guilty pleasure" songs to playlists and actually listen to them (I have a ton of late 1990s-early 2000s music I listen to now proudly that I never listened to in the past out of shame)

Getting the décor item, bath set, bed spread, ect. in the patterns you like, even if it's "childish" (I got a dinosaur-themed wastebasket from the kids' décor section and I adore it)

Taking a new route to get to a place you go to often

Eat dessert first

Celebrate well, and often

Collect things that are "odd" or don't seem like an "acceptable" thing to collect (somebody on my "for you" page collects dandelion crayola crayons and it was so cool!!!!!!)

Incorporate one new piece in an outfit you wear frequently (e.g., a new chain, a necklace, ribbons, bracelets, ect.). Challenge yourself to add onto the outfits if you feel up for it.

Sing along to songs without worrying that you sound "good" or your intonation is completely accurate

Read a book from a genre you weren't allowed to read as a kid (comics, thrillers, mysteries, anything!)

Walk without having a specific destination or goal

Pick up a new craft without expecting yourself to master it or to ever be "good" enough. Get your hands messy.

I don't want to shame anybody for not feeling as though they have free will or that they are exempt from exercising it. However, I wanted to give ideas so that you might read this list and find your own ways to express your intrinsic autonomy and will. You deserve to be a person, to feel alive, not just living. That is what our lives are for.

[jondrettegirls]

[ID: A page of a play. It reads as follows, "Theseus: Stop. Give me your hand. I am your friend. / Herakles: I fear to stain your clothes with blood. / Theseus: Stain them, I don't care." End text.]

Herakles - Euripides (Tr. Anne Carson)

[verflares]

(click for higher quality!) draconified link concept ive been chipping away at this past week ..... here's my funny little compendium concept for him:

"A heroic spirit has taken the form of this bestial dragon. Unlike it's kin, this creature exhibits an extremely aggressive disposition. It appears highly territorial, and will relentlessly chase down those who disturb its skywide patrols - of which it seems to be endlessly searching for either a long-time vassal or foe. Unfortunately, it seems the spirit within has long since forgotten exactly who it was looking for…"

[aggold15hi01]

My own thoughts on the [WNBA] All Star Contest

Admin's note: This post is entirely based on my own views alone.

I never thought I say this but Allisha does deserve to be an all star this year along with everybody else as well.

Already; I had mentioned it on my Twitter: on Tash Cloud; Dijonai: Ty Harris; Marine J.: Monique "Mo" Billings: Marina Mabrey Michaela O.; Nia C.: Rhyne Howard; the list goes on: and so on and so forth in my own opinion.

After all, I still don't understand why would the "All Star" contest would sadly feels more like a "Popularity Contest" based on how they only choose the players based on how popular they are with the fans and it is so sad to truly say this but it does feel too much like a "popularity" contest sadly.

Honestly; I'd think there are so many different players whom they may not be very popular but they can be truthfully be very skilled and talented with their basketball skills and IQ based on how they are playing on the basketball court to be honest but only having to truly choose the "popular" players based on their popularity and their level of their personal "likeness" is just . . . I don't know what to truly say here; there & everywhere in general.

(*Sigh*) I know this post is very much based on what I had to truly say about the all star contest and how I'd think Allisha does deserve to be an all star player especially in the very beginning of this post; I did truthfully think the all star contest should also put more focus on the players who may not be as popular as flashy as some of the players but . . . they still have such amazing talents & skills.

Plus I'd really think that the players who although may not be as popular as some of the players yet they are both truthfully and equally talented and skilled does deserve to be an all star player.

This contest can't be just all just about the popularity; it is all about both the skills and the talents which many of the players does have both as well.

Anyway; I guess those are my own thoughts about the WNBA (Up and coming) All Star Contest though. (Just saying/ writing out my own thoughts out there as the admin for this personal Tumblr blog)

[slytherinslut0]

everyone wants to be fucked by tom riddle until that man has you pinned underneath him while fucking you so deep you’re feeling him in your stomach and he’s gripping you so tight you’re sure your skin is going to turn purple but he doesn’t even notice because he’s so fucking lost in the warmth of your cunt that he’s got his head buried in your neck and he’s growling something in parseltongue that makes you think hes trying to conjure the basilisk itself, singlehandedly ignoring every whimper and whine that effortlessly makes it past your lips as he sinks his teeth into the skin of your shoulder because salazar fucking sakes you just feel so fucking good he doesn’t know what to do with himself besides breed you as many fucking times as he can and mark you in every possible way he can think of.

[38sr]

young smallville meets young gotham