#pyro's thoughts

[pyromaniac-cyndaquil]

Concept I thought of recently and I really like: the relic fragment as a protective ward.

Originating from the hidden land (somewhere we've seen contains lots of paintings and imagery of a lot of different legendaries) and having some kind of canon magical properties to it (it chooses who it deems worthy and seems to present itself to them as seen with Partner), I think it'd be neat if it also had ways of protecting its chosen bearer, to guarantee them the best possible chance of achieving their mission.

Therefore: the relic fragment working as a protective charm against the powers of most legendaries.

This could work as a good excuse for why Uxie's Groudon illusion is so easy to beat despite being hyped up, and why it seems to fizzle out so quickly on defeat.

More importantly though, it could be used as a fun justification for why Darkrai doesn't intervene until the post-game (and potentially how Palkia was able to break in so easily around the same time) - the partner has given up the relic fragment by this point, with it taking its place in the rainbow stoneship. Hero's proximity to the partner (and therefore the relic fragment) meant Darkrai couldn't do anything before now unless he wanted to show his face and act directly - which he's very averse to doing.

It doesn't work against primal dialga tracking them for one of two reasons - either its power is useless in the future because the hidden land is in ruins, or because the protection isn't designed to protect from Dialga. After all, what happens if the owner of the fragment goes rogue? Dialga needs a way to put a stop to that, of course.

[pyrocortex]

Having just completed the barbenheimer double bill I have some initial thoughts

The first is that the experience is peak cinema. The rest are mildly spoilery so they're below the cut.

My near immediate thoughts on Oppenheimer is that alot of my almost critisms are kinda muted (for lack of a better word) by the fact the film was called Oppenheimer. It didn't delve nearly as much into the more board strokes of the Manhattan project (like Los Alamos itself, or the bombings, or the people who suffered and died due to the three bombs he directly oversaw, or the long term impact of mass nuclear proliferation) but also... The film wasn't called the Manhattan Project, or Los Alamos, or Trinity, or Little boy and Fat man, or Nuclear Fallout or any other number of titles that would indicate a focus on the nuclear aspect of the second world war. It's Oppenheimer, a complicated biopic about a complicated man that begins some time in the 1920s and ends some time in the 1960s and is alot more about the man than the war he "won".

Not that this renders the movie free from criticisms on that front. Honestly I feel the movie is maybe too gentle on the man and his apocalyptic body count, and is probably not as strongly anti-war as the movie thinks it is, especially without any examination of whether Japan would have surrendered without the bombs. Plus the additional angle of "making a biopic about Oppenheimer that glosses over the real people his invention hurt" is, while a choice that makes sense on paper for the sake of keeping the movie right and focused, does take away the weight of what he did.

Then again, as a friend pointed out, having the only presence of Japanese people in the movie be nuclear irradiated corpses would be in poor taste at best and probably qualifies as exploitative at minimum. Plus, as Truman (or at least, Oppenheimer's Truman) points out, Oppenheimer and his team may have built the bombs, but he (Truman) ordered them dropped. Raises the question who deserves more blame, the man who builds the gun, or the one that shoots it?

Honestly I think the movie did an impressive thing in making me both sympathize with Oppenheimer's reasoning for building the bomb (once Fission was achieved, the obvious application for the energy output being a bomb, the Einstein-Szilard letter only doubling down on this fact, it being viewed in 1942 not as a question of whether nuclear bombs would be built, but who would build them first the Americans or the Nazis (Oppenheimer, a Jew, really understandably would rather it not be the fucking Nazis)) and also have me lose that sympathy as the Trinity test neared (once Germany surrendered, it felt like the "arms race" excuse was lost and the reason Oppenheimer kept going was just pure momentum, especially as the humanitarian concerns built and built and built). And in the end, Strauss was probably right about Oppenheimer, he was a man trying to put the genie back in the bottle without regretting having let the genie out in the first place. Complicated man, not necessarily a good one, but one that maybe I understand after watching the movie.

But that end scene... It gave me fucking chills make no mistake. Even if the rest of the movie probably didn't quite have the strength of that scene's conviction.

As for Barbie... She's everything.

No seriously, while with Oppenheimer I'm having complicated thoughts about whether it's possible for that movie to be truly anti-war if it never shows war, or anti nuclear proliferation if it never show a single victim, with Barbie I'm just like... Hell yeah this is cinema.

It probably also shares some of Oppenheimer's flaws, not quite going all the way when it comes to its themes but also shares the fact it was made with buckets of talent, buckets of money, and with an infectious love of movies as an art form.

Possibly I'd have more thoughts about Barbie if that had been the movie I'd seen first, and had more time to stew on it, but as it is trying to understand a Nolan film might have fried my brain for the day.

Broad strokes though: loved the camp, loved the singing and dancing, loved the humour, loved the heart, loved the examination of gender and society, wish it was more queer, wish it had more bitting critiques of corporations, Barbie is everything.

[hellsitegenetics]

You always find the nicest pictures of creatures and plants and I love you 4 that

String identified: aa t ct ct cat a at a tat

Closest match: Hippocampus hippocampus genome assembly, chromosome: 21 Common name: Short-Snouted Seahorse

(image source)

[boredgrace23]

Out of the entire cast, Scout is, funnily enough, the one who reacts the least to anything scary or traumatizing.

A lot of people depict him as this guy who's the scaredy cat, asshole, angsty one of the team, when a lot of the time? He's... actually a really cool dude (if a bit energetic).

In "Jungle Inferno", it's Spy who runs when there's an odd noise, and it's Scout who continues forward. While it could've been because Spy's voice actor didn't make an appearance, it's oddly symbolic to their characters.

In "MvM - The Sound of Medicine", when Heavy, Soldier, Scout, and Pyro are surrounded by Demobots, as Heavy and everyone else are blown up and Heavy's head lands on Scout's stomach, he doesn't even react. He just... looks at Heavy's head and let's his own head fall back in defeat.

Even in the comics as he's being choked out by everyone on the team, he kinda just accepts it without being nervous or anxious, he doesn't even flinch when it happens, just a sort of, "aw man, this shit again? Sod off!" reaction.

He acts immaturely, sure, but he's never like, a kid about anything? He's acts like an immature adult, but it's never immature-immature, even when he moves on from Pauling, it's both out of respect for both her and himself.

He's really respectful about it, actually, and Pauling isn't disgruntled or even annoyed, even she knows he never meant any harm, only that he was a hopeless romantic. And even in the duration of his crush, he actually respects her a lot, even if he doesn't go through with his plans to hang out with her.

If we're assuming here, the guy grew up with his mom. He's been respecting women since day one, he knows just how much of a charmer he can be because he grew up under his mom's care. Scout's awkward as hell, but he knows not to push it with women.

A lot of people want Scout angst or try to make him out to be the asshole but like, he really just does not give a shit. In fact, he's likely the only one out of the entire cast who copes with his problems like any normal human being.

Conclusion: Scout isn't angsty, a scaredy-cat, or an asshole, he's just a really, really complicated and paradoxical character who is, unfortunately, extremely bastardized by everyone in the TF2 community. It's a shame too, he has such a unique personality.

[eggsyumyum]

firebug's solo snow mission ❄️

[homkamiro]

Someone suggested making an infection AU with my tf2/mlp crossover and you know I can't resist when stuff's about gore

Forgot to mention! Demo's body is so intoxicated with alcohol that infected don't want to attack him at all!

[malzykins]

she is like an idiot bug 💔

[littlelunababi]

Riding soap and he’s got his arms wrapped tight around your waist, fucking up into you as he begs you to take his cum as if you even have a choice

Luna thoughts 😌💭

[paper-mario-wiki]

ya know. my pyro obsession is definitely a gender thing for me. im 100% sure ive been consciously aware of that since i was like 16 while never in any way that i was willing to acknowledge to myself, but like. it makes so much sense thinking about it.

[pydrasplatling]

Toxic yuri

[pyromaniac-cyndaquil]

Another thing I really like about explorers of the spirit is the tonal changes. It starts out feeling relatively normal, albeit a little unsettling and gets more and more bleak the more nightmares occur and the more the attitudes of everyone around hero start to lean towards distrust - and even the partner appears kinda concerned and at times downright uncomfortable with every situation the two of them get into.

Once hero hits their breaking point from all of this especially it begins feeling EXTREMELY bleak and depressing, with no end in sight, especially in the aurascape.

But then once they start getting things out of their system about how they feel and what's been bothering them, things start to look up. Grovyle and Breloom's presence starts to make things feel more hopeful. Breloom's heartfelt speech to hero is exactly what they need.

They refuse to fight Shaymin because despite their instincts, they don't really want to. They let Chatot help them and finally fess up about Cresselia. I feel like the game starts to feel... Warmer? Returning to the guild almost feels just like explorers of sky again, and the world stops feeling so hostile. The guild becomes a place of support and the townspeople wanna help instead of fighting, too. It's... Nice.

This game just does a really good job of walking you through what hero feels, y'know?

[weevmo]

R.I.P. Scout : Thought His Co-workers Were His Friends -

[wadeassgrabberwilson]

monsert

[mbumblebug]

helloooooooooo bushfire nation how are we all today

[here-comes-astro]

*those* tf2 players complaining about 'new fandom' & 'woke stuff' will never make sense to me cause in this game you already have:

1- a black/non-white person in the main character cast who isn't the butt of constant racist jokes

2- women in positions of power + ones that are very important to the story

3- a character whose gender is unconfirmed

4- various disabled characters [though one in particular is debatable, i guess]

5- a̶c̶c̶u̶r̶a̶t̶e̶ m̶e̶n̶t̶a̶l̶ i̶l̶l̶n̶e̶s̶s̶ r̶e̶p̶r̶e̶s̶e̶n̶t̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶

6- an implied to be/canonically lesbian character

[cartoonguy08]

Bonus from “You Won”

Pyro’s always watching Spy, now you gotta watch your back 😌👍