#like. deservedly so!

[beatriceeagle]

An ouch moment from the most recent NMTDaily email that I missed the first time around:

But also, HERO IS THE ONE WRITING THOSE TWEETS. This is why I fell so deep into these series. The fucking layers, man. The layers.

[chrliekclly]

[sysig]

Blind side (Patreon)

[jacarandaaaas]

does anyone else remember when the oscars was hyping up “the first live performance of we dont talk about bruno with the original cast of encanto” and we got 40 seconds of the original cast and they brought in the despacito guy and turned it into a WE LOVE THE OSCARS remix💀

[minniegraced]

recently read ‘eight days of luke’ for the first time and was so surprised and delighted by how queer it reads.

the slow and sensible change between astrid and david, and how her story parallels his. the care with which he describes luke’s appearance. and then the care with which both he and luke look out for each other.

the way dwj so artfully entwines the mundane with her magic. also really enjoyed working out the mystery/what mythology she was drawing from as it went along.

[cementcornfield]

I don't know that I've seen a quarterback exerting that kind of pressure on the organization....Joe Burrow has been incredibly consistent and vocal about wanting to keep Tee Higgins around...

Burrow's contract has already forced Cincinnati to start doing some things that they don't normally do. He has already broken rules that the Bengals have typically had in terms of how they handle their contracts. Like his deal is the type of deal that they don't sign previously. So they've already made exceptions...started to modernize...started to act the way the rest of the NFL does, because Burrow is so special...so if he was able to make them do that for his own contract, is he able to make them do that to keep Tee Higgins in the building? To go in a different direction than they would normally do?

[carnobot]

We get a Ratchet flashback scene in chapter 8, folks. Strap in, it’s gonna be rough

[aboutiroh]

I'm not sure if this is something that has been discussed before, but the pacing of book 3 has always bothered me a little (not enough to consider the writing as less than phenomenal, but still). There's actually a few things that I think could have been handled better and I just grouped them under 'pacing issues' as an umbrella term, even though it's not always the most fitting term. Most of these aren't even really issues, but just my personal preference.

For instance, I always thought it's a pity we didn't get more episodes with the Gaang after Zuko joined the team. I love the fieldtrip episodes, but we barely got to see team avatar travelling together (and Toph didn't even get a fieldtrip!). There's a lot of untapped potential there and we're free to explore that ourselves of course, but having more canon storylines would've been nice and I think it wasn't impossible. (This is a segue into issue nr. 1):

Book 3 spends too much time preparing for the invasion.

The Gaang spends half a season to prepare for the invasion (they mostly just travel to the meeting point). This makes no sense to me as we, the viewers, know that Azula knows all about it (as King Kuei so nicely tells her about those plans in 2x19 "The Guru"). (Which btw, he could have mentioned to the Gaang after learning that Azula was not a Kyoshi warrior, but I'll let that slide as Kuei is canonically a useless person).

They build up towards a fight that we know is doomed to fail and that on itself is okay, but that moment could've happened earlier in the season (not so early that Zuko doesn't have the time to finally understand what his destiny truly is). If the invasion failed earlier in the season, Zuko (and Suki) would have joined earlier. Many episodes in early book 3 could easily take place after the invasion (thinking of "The painted lady" or "The puppetmaster", maybe(?) "Sokka's master" and "The runaway", though some elements would have needed altering, e.g. the Sparky Sparky Boom Man subplot (I say we get rid of it entirely)).

Conversely, there's one episode, or rather conflict, that should have occurred before the invasion. (Segue to issue nr. 2!):

2. What even was the invasion plan, really?

After the invasion fails, we learn during a beach party that the Fire Lord is planning to literally burn the entire world when the comet arrives, so the Gaang's new plan of discretely hiding and training until the comet passes turns out to be pretty pointless. Aang suddenly has to face the Fire Lord much earlier and more importantly, when Ozai's at his most powerful, which is less than ideal. So the combat training recommences. It is at this point that Aang suddenly realizes he's not willing to kill Ozai. He's of course right to feel conflicted about it, and it's understandable that his friends don't completely understand just how important this is for him. It's a necessary and significant moment in the show, but it's just strange that they haven't had the discussion before.

Aang knows he has to defeat the Fire Lord pretty early on. Throughout book 1 and book 2 he's preoccupied with learning to bend the elements (when he's not riding animals or escaping imprisonment or facing whatever other problem the plot throws his way). It's too early to think about the technicalities of what that defeat exactly entails because priorities, I totally get it. But by book 3, they have a pretty elaborate plan to invade the Royal Palace. It's just never explained how they will defeat the Fire Lord. Hakoda explains the plan as follows:

The eclipse only lasts eight minutes, not enough time for the whole invasion. And the Royal Palace is heavily guarded by firebenders. So that's where we'll need the eclipse's advantage the most. When this is finished, the Avatar will have defeated the Fire Lord. We will have control of the Fire Nation capital, and this war will be over!

Assuming the plan was not to kill Ozai (because Aang would have felt conflicted about that), how exactly would Aang defeat the Fire Lord in those eight minutes? Was he just supposed to knock him unconscious and then immediately put him in a cooler cell? If that's the case, I didn't see them carry one around. Aang had thought about the possibility of not coming back from the battle (as he tells Katara just before leaving), so it would only make sense for him to consider the possibility that it could be Ozai who would not make it out alive because of him.

[sayheykid]

anyway captain mason mctavish. thoughts.

this is nothing i haven't said before. but. everyone thinks it's going to be zegras eventually but honestly i just don't think he's captain material? face of the franchise sure but he hasn't settled down enough to be someone who handles the locker room/other captain responsibilities. maybe eventually he'll prove me wrong.

but anyway the team is very young and has a focus on drafting and development at the moment. limited options, not as many veterans now as there were a few years ago. so what's the solution. young guy who plays and conducts himself like an old guy.

mctavish is what. 21. i expect to see him in the league for like 12-15 more years, that's not unreasonable. that's a guy you can build around. someone who's going to grow into the role but to me is already very capable. i think you could give him the C tomorrow and have no problem

there is a precedent for this, which is already being proven. first of all, he has set himself apart from his peers on numerous occasions. he made his nhl debut TWO MONTHS TO THE DAY after being drafted. (he was 17 btw) the ducks second pick in the 2021 draft, olen zellweger, made his debut this past season. no one else from that class has come up.

at the nhl level, mctavish, zegras and drysdale were the same cohort of like young guns/future of the team. let's revisit where they all are now. drysdale was done wrong by the ducks - never given the time or support to really develop and get healthy before getting shipped off but that's besides the point. zegras is the most well known of the three of them, doesn't really have anything to show for it either. mctavish is the one who got the A in just his second full season.

another cohort has now joined the team, newer rookies who are still figuring things out. mctavish is no longer the youngest one on the team, but it's not by a ton. he's perfectly positioned now where he's been around long enough that he's looked up to but doesn't necessarily seem like an Authority™ you know.

also the ducks have been without a captain since getzlaf, but were able to get by on the leadership of henrique, silfverberg and cam fowler. (they had five guys wear the A this past year though? that's too many) but losing henrique and silfverberg, while a hit to the veteran presence, really streamlines the leadership core if i'm being honest. it feels like as good a time as any to really commit to making this a defined era for the ducks. i really like this year's As too - cam fowler as the throughline for half a decade of ducks hockey, plus troy terry as another older guide, i think that's a really strong foundation and baseline for further development, not only for the team as a whole but specifically for mctavish as future captain.

i'm not necessarily saying give mctavish the C right now, though I think he's more than capable. we've seen young captains before (landeskog, crosby, mcdavid etc) who have done tremendous work, and I don't see why that list couldn't include mctavish

[sysig]

Okay but TSP/Portal crossover AU is such a cool concept, how have I never thought about that before?? I'd like to request Narra and GLaD hanging out watching their respective little guys go through tests like 'can you believe them they're so dumb <3'

Day 30 - They're absolute hellions

Bonus:

Noooo, my bucket!!

[demonlorddante]

Genuinely don’t know how much more of this shit I can take

[wiltking]

Wilt have u ever played red dead redemption 2? I may b wrong but it's got vibes u might vibe with

no i generally dont play games with heavy shooting mechanics (personal preference). watched a playthrough of it forever ago though! good story. fond, painful memories :)

[strangedisciple]

i love how everywhere's collectively lost their shit over the new hbomberguy video

[anyonghalimaw]

proportionally theyre quite goofy looking but conceptually. the giant azhdarchids are so fucking scary like what do you mean these fucking things were the size of planes and cld probably kill a person with one well aimed peck

[sysig]

Let him dad her!! (Patreon)

[goodassmotherliker]

Judging by the photos from twitter, Stephen Fry's just met with our swamp of standup comedians from Kyiv. Oh no. Not this. I bet he's not gonna praise Ukrainian sense of humor after that.