#not the royal family stuff

[cienie-isengardu]

A bit about The Mandalorian s03′s take on mandalorian culture

As much as I like the concept of Living Waters, I do not like how the third season of The Mandalorian presents Mandalorian culture overall. I wasn’t happy with the characterization in the previous two, but the current take is even worse. Major reason for my disdain  stems from the too medieval climate - Bo’s castle, throne, the royal family and its subjects, the baptism-like ceremony, all of this is opposite to Legends!Mandalorian for whom personal skills stood above any blood-connection in regard to their rulers thus no aristocracy was ever needed. The New Mandalorians’ royalty was a good concept in The Clone Wars as it stood in clear contrast to Death Watch’s old warrior faith and added an interesting edge to the destruction of Mandalore and following Republic occupation (that may have never truly ended by the ~700 years). In The Clone Wars, Death Watch was Bo-Katan’s major tie, but since Rebels, the focus is put on her sisterhood with Satine and the royal family status and The Mandalorian season three expand this even more - she lived in castle, sit on throne, had ceremonial “baptism” as princess and so on. At this point I really miss the “barbarian” feeling of Death Watch even more since Bo’s own Mandalorian warriors were removed from the story, leaving us with one lone Bo-Katan, Boba Fett on Tatooine or whatever he is as I don’t follow his TV series and cult-ish Children of the Watch. Which is pretty irritating, I won’t lie, especially since later seasons of TCW, Rebels and now the TV series don’t bother to even mention Pre Vizsla or Bo’s criminal past - and mind you, this is no “Bo shouldn’t have her redemption arc” - which she arguable already had as freedom fighter against Empire and more complain that Disney/New Canon on purpose erase problematic or nuanced elements of its own worldbuilding. Like, mentioned Bo’s past and her part in the fall of Mandalore or how she was elected/accepted by clans because now Darksaber can be only passed through the fight? And why? Because Mandalorians can’t make a sensible choice about whom they should follow? Because they can’t stick to an ideological case that was important in the previous season but now Bo has no darksaber so her own clan abandoned her to be mercenary? Like, seriously? What happened to the Mandalorian loyalty to the family? Bo may have lost the status of Mandalore, yet Din did not make a claim to be new sole leader so why Koska - described in Character Encyclopedia as “loyal member of Bo’s Mandalorian gang” ditched her companion? 

Seriously, at this point I admire Bo-Katan’s loyalty to Pre Vizsla as she threw away the ancient laws out of window the moment Maul killed her leader / friend and sure, she came with the no outsider is allowed to be Mandalore argument (something that from historical perspective is not true, as in ancient times Ulic Qel-Droma dueled with Mandalore and his success was accepted by warriors) but The Clone Wars made it pretty clear Pre’s death was an emotionally wrecking moment in her life. Arguably more than Satine’s death yet the newest animations and TV series mentions only her sister in passing but not a man that clearly meant something to her. Which is, again, an irritating aspect of Disney’s New Canon. 

There is also no mention of Satine as pacifist / New Mandalorian leader, no mention of Pre Vizsla (who in contrast to Din was capable of using darksaber which is pretty hilarious side-effect of switching lore about this weapon from “ancient item passed in Clan Vizsla” to “well known Mandalorian attribute of power” ) or Death Watch in general. Instead we have this cult-ish Children of the Watch with the weird rule forbidding members to remove the helmet even in presence of their own family and who seem to care more about if the helmet was removed than about Creed itself as was seen with Bo accidentally joining this group. A rule that A) feels to be a rip-off from Sand People’s culture (except Tuskens are allowed to see the face of their spouse) B) has no sense because it is not the armor that makes anyone a Mandalorian but personal deeds. And sure, beskar’gam always played an important role in Mandalorian culture yet at this point I’m truly tired of putting so much focus on armor rather than the soul of a Mandalorian warrior. Armor can be destroyed and rebuilt after all but what counts are the people who wear it, not the other way.

For me, Children of the Watch worked in the previous season because we still had Bo’s clan and Boba Fett (loner) to somehow balance the overview of Mandalorian culture yet in the third season the different types of Mandalorians were removed from the story. Boba is out of the picture, Bo was abandoned by her own people and so there is only Din and Armorer’s tribe  that is too frustrating for my taste. I like the religious aspect it brings to the show but it is hard to take seriously this group as representative of Mandalorian people with their silly rule about not removing helmets (how do they even take care of their personal hygiene then? How do they cut their hair? What about deaf members? How can they learn to read from lips or read anything from facial expression if other members can’t show their face? I know Din communicated with Tusken via hand signals but since children grew up around masked adults how does the communication work exactly? What about an intimate relationship? Or growing up and not having a clue how your mother’s face looks under the helmet? Or father, older sibling, other clan (family) members? What about providing medical assistance in the event of a head injury?). Not to mention the whole weird deal with Armorer who has such great knowledge about Mandalorian lore but doesn’t teach it unless the situation requires her to give a proper explanation? Mind you I did not rewatch the previous seasons so my memory may be a bit rusty but Din did not even know who the Jedi were even though they have special place in Mandalorian history (usually negative in the sense they are the enemy hard to defeat in fair fight) and it was pretty common thing for “normal” Mandalorian to teach their kids about the danger coming from force-sensitive people? And sure, Jedi were supposed to be dead but if Din was a bounty hunter how he has never heard about them with the Rebellion having this one special Jedi in their rank who also happened to be the most wanted man by the Empire?

The Mandalorian TV series creates a long list of question I have about its worldbuilding around Mandalorian culture that somehow switched from Legends “only the best can be Mandalore” and “Mandalorians believe in loyalty” to Disney’s “royal families” and “let’s ditch our leader and our cause just because someone’s else has darksaber yet makes no claim about leadership”. Or let's use a cool looking darksaber as a haunted item that for no real reason is also a symbol of leadership because the Jedi weapon is the most Mandalorian symbol of all possible choices apparently.

And you know what was great about Fenn Shysa and his protectors who fought against the Empire in the older source material? That the fight against imperial enslavement truly united Mandalorians to the point that even former Death Watchmen joined his group. As much as I like Bo-Katan’s comment about how Mandalorian fight against each other often for weird reasons, it truly saddens me that in Disney’s canon even the common enemy like Empire did not manage to unite Mandalorians. Because it is better drama when everyone bothers with some random mystic item than actually working together to take your freedom back and rebuild your world. But sure, whatever.

I seriously miss Legends Mandalorians because Disney’s take on them is so frustrating.

[canadiancryptid]

Its 2022. Sans won a tumblr sexyman poll over on twitter. Toby Fox himself wrote a Sans x Reigen fanfic. Queen Elizabeth II died.

Its 2024. Sans won a "who is the UT/DR community the most down bad for" poll over on twitter. Toby Fox made a Sans x Reigen valentine sketch. King Charles III has cancer.

Its 2026-

[princessanneftw]

An exceptional photobomb here from a very good boy (or girl) 🐶

[samijey]

Bianca Belair & Jade Cargill Royal Rumble 2024

[cits-cookie-brainrot]

BIG BRAIN TIME!!

The WHOLE red dragon crew is now parents/family to lil baby Snapdragon. The little rascals was just born and is already collecting their found family like Pokémon cards.

Pitaya is their dragon parent.

Hollyberry is the cool mom.

Tarte Tatin is the cooler mom.

Royal Margarine is the funny uncle.

Wildberry is their big brother.

And Buttercream? Well…

[somedudewithantlers]

just tumblr things

[dootznbootz]

The fact that Diomedes gets kicked out after getting home in four days only to basically meet up with Aeneas and fuck around in Italy is so much fun. He gets CULTS :D

[thiziri]

Princess Anne and her husband, Sir Tim Laurence, attending the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo performance at Edinburgh Castle, on 05 August 2024.

[noirandchocolate]

Age of Calamity is such a funny game when you think about it because most of the characters go through Events and use their strengths and suffer hardships and stuff, but honestly they mostly end the game the same as they started it. It’s not “bad storytelling” or anything to have most of the main characters (Link, the Champions, Impa, etc) not change very much character-growth wise, I’m not insinuating that. They’re heroes and it’s fun to watch them BE heroes and in some cases have nice heartfelt moments together, etc.

But it’s just hilarious to me that the characters in the game who DO get some form of character development arc are:

3. King Rhoam (a distant third place but he does realize his kid’s interests were helpful not frivolous and he apologizes and lets her continue leading the army and fights by her side)

2. Zelda (expected, she is the main character after all, and she gets to grow from doubting herself based on her father’s words and how special and talented everyone around her seems to be in comparison, and being upset at not being able to help more, to realizing her worth as a capable leader whose love and passions were what saved everyone)

1. MASTER FUCKIN KOHGA (goes from trying to peace out and let his lackeys take care of every fight, to desperately NOT wanting to leave Sooga and the others behind (poorly and obviously hiding it behind “come on stick together so you can protect me!” while he as the PC for your first play of that mission is clearly doing all the work to protect them); ends up not only joining Zelda’s faction to protect/get revenge for his Clan despite his hereditary beef with the royal family, but PERSONALLY taking to the battlefield including in the final deadly dangerous missions; declares during that final battle that HE is gonna “send that giant menace packing,” ie the very same monstrous entity he previously served)

Like. It’s not even close. Master “Top Banana” “Kill You All To Death” Kohga. Has THE most character development in the game.

And it’s just. So unexpected and therefore great and entertaining to me.

[radishprincesss]

princess diana

[rileys-battlecats]

girl help I started writing down oc thoughts and have started contemplating the logistics of how a city carved into the walls of a ravine would have access to fresh water

[leonisandmurex]

William & Catherine April 29th 2011

[elenorasweet]

No O-66 AU where Fox marries the Organas because why the fuck not this is a great ship

Post-war there will be a last line of tubies who need adopting

Clones are hesitant to allow Natborns to adopt their tubies and cadets the trust has not been earned

Breha cannot have children naturally and needs to adopt

Listen these two things line up wonderfully

Fox and his partners adopt tiny clone baby now prince of Alderaan

at some point prince of Alderaan needs to complete a set of challenges to prove their worth and Fox will train them so good they will be r e a d y

Breha at the end of RotS but she's holding a clone baby

little clone baby Organa

that is all

[princessanneftw]

HRH Princess Royal visited Team GB in the Olympic sailing city of Marseille yesterday 🇬🇧🇫🇷

@worldsailing | 2 August 2024

[imperialfire]

Side by side comparison of Izumi to Azula in the Spirit Temple comic because it had to be done.

[rwrbmovie]

THE FIRST FAMILY