#that's all thanks for coming to my ted talk

[loveyourownsmiilee]

Like honestly as a Buddie shipper, what the fuck are we supposed to focus on??? What does all of this mean if not Buddie canon???

We get closer than ever this season. There’s a lot of changes in the relationship and how we interact. We’re trying to give the audience what they want.

Well, there’s something brand new for both of us. I can only say that much.

Outside of Christopher, Buck would be the second closest thing that he can have as a relationship.

And then go to Buck and say, 'I trust you with my child, and I see how much you put in for my son; this goes beyond friendship, and I love you to the core. To have that sense of vulnerability is a sense of strength that has been shown.

And the way Eddie navigates that is just kind of a no, that's just who he is. And nothing ruffles my feathers. Even if you break my ankle or maim me, it's fine. That's who he is, and I love him either way. And there's no competition for Eddie.

I don't think that the Buddie fans are wrong.

There is a chemistry there that exists just naturally, so we don't have to try and lean into that or lean away from that. We just let it flow.

Oh, 100%. 100%. I watch certain edits and I think 'Am I Team Buddie?' because there are really talented editors out there. And you know how it is.

Obviously Eddie and Ryan who plays him is obviously an attractive man.

I think with this season 7, we got a lot in store for the audience. You give them what they’ve known and a lot of what they don’t.

There’s a scene in the first episode, where Eddie reveals that he's going — or he mentions a first date, and it in fact ends up being Christopher's first date. And Buck has this moment of "Oh. I thought things were going great with Marisol...' So little moments where I felt like, 'Is there scope to play with Buck?'

They've both become quite embedded in each other's lives. "I think they've kind of bonded and connected on so many levels, whether it be work, their personal lives and then add in that kind of fun dynamic where they clearly do just get on well. I think it's just a nice recipe for a good relationship, however you choose to see it.

There's some really beautiful stuff between him and Eddie and kind of them being open and sharing things with each other that they may have been reluctant to share with—I know how that's going to be taken. But it's true. [They're] there for each other in a very kind of open and nonjudgmental way.

They get to show up for each other in different ways. Moving forward there’s almost like potential for things to come up in a not so great light. But we get to see their friendship persevering, and them being there in ways they didn’t necessarily expect for each other. And I just, it’s a really lovely journey for them this season.

Eddie doesn't really have a sense of direction, so he reaches out for the closest person, and that closest person is Buck.

And Eddie was a mess. I think at that moment, the friendship had a turning point and now has allowed Buck and Eddie to really share as much or whatever they'd want, the scariest things in the world they could share with each other. And we're going to be seeing more of that this season.

As far as [Eddie's] sexuality, I think it's pretty clear that he's tried to fill in this motherly, this wife type role—that's all he knows…"And he's a man [that] first off, he's Catholic. Second off, he's from the military. So those are very straight-edge kind of lifestyles that don't offer too much of exploring. But through the 118, he's had this epiphany each year, like, 'Well, maybe I don't know as much as I thought I did. And maybe I should be exploring a little bit more and maybe I should understand myself a little bit more and even seek a therapist, which is something new for Eddie.

He is actually starting to figure out who he is outside of 'I am an Army man who has a silver badge! ... He's way more than that. He's starting to live in that [feeling] a little bit more, and I think that's freeing to him.

At this point we can’t be reading between the lines or coming to random conclusions when every thing said is so blatantly obvious.

[thatoneluckybee]

sbg textpost (just one)

all the screenshots are of the same post. I felt like many textposts. I want to torment my mutuals. :3

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. It's a seal.

[thealexandriaarchives]

I can't stop staring at Feyd-Rautha's walk here and what it implies about his fight with Paul now that I'm able to stop just comparing it to Timothy's killer body work matching it (or vice versa).

Villeneuve takes the book canon, that the Harkonnens took the Atredies's morbid heirlooms of an oil painting of grandfather's death and the bull's head with his blood still dried on his horns to hang above the arena as trophies to the next level: making Feyd-Rautha the victorious young matador with the guards dressed as bull-minotaurs, circling to play banderillos and sink banderillas into the backs of the Atredies bull if it gets too close before the final faena has Feyd-Rautha pulling his opponent past him in the close, intimate passes that show off his athleticism and skill before his false blade is exchanged for the one that will be used for the killing blow and oh my god there are whole schools of thought on coming forward to meet your opponent vs waiting for them and killing with a single blow to the heart and honoring the fight and if anyone who knows how to make gifsets wants make one about this to I'd LOVE to rant more about the breakdown of these two fights and how Feyd is 1001% Matador Machismo but my point to all of this is:

Look at that Sand.

Look at his feet dig deep and kick it up as he strides out into the heart of that arena. Is it a rhythmic walk? Oh yes. Confident. Powerful. In the book this will be his 100th arena kill as he comes of age. This is his natural habitat. Where he learned his skills, for us to parallel with what we saw for Paul in Part 1.

This matters, because it's one of the main premises for why the Fremen are so Good At Fighting. When everyone is trained to fight with shields (stun then slow) and bulky armor, and on flat, solid ground with lots of cover, it's easy to be fast and silent and terrifyingly effective against them. Gurney Halleck is shown to be one of the best fighters in the franchise and the film makes a point of showing how his (recognizable) footsteps are not suited to move quickly, lightly, and with stability on sand like they are on solid ground.

Only... Bullfighting rings aren't sandy. They're fairly hardpacked. Earth for the bull and Matador to maneuver in quickly. There is a layer of albero traditionally layered on top, a chunky yellow clay dirt that serves aesthetics but also absorbs blood quickly. The idea the sand may not be white because... With Giedi Prime who knows?! Is Fantastic.

Paul Muad'Dib became the only Atredies to be recognized as Fremen, to see his father's dream of Desert Power recognized, to fight as Fedaykin, to be recognized as the Mahdi, the One Who Points The Way, and it is made clear to us from the opening words of a Child's History of Muad'Dib that Arrakis was his Home, and yet every major one-on-one duel he had from Jamis to Feyd-Rautha was on solid ground, giving him an advantage that made him respected as a fighter among the Fedaykin right away as part of his training.

Feyd-Rautha was the one Harkonnen who may have learned combat primarily or even exclusively with sand beneath his feet, and he died on Arrakis on the polished stone floors of a palatial residence, still trying to play by Matador rules.

thank u for coming to my Ted Talk

[professionally-bewildered]

“Buck misunderstood the assignment”

“Buck should have kissed Eddie”

“Tommy is getting in the way of Buddie”

“Buddie should happen at the bachelor party”

NO!

NO!!

NO!!!

Let Buck have his turn with Tommy, they clearly care about each order and want to see where things go. Obviously, you can’t deny that Eddie & Buck have chemistry, but Eddie needs to have his own journey, apart from Buck, nothing can happen between them until they both are ready. And the people that are coming for Lou and Oliver, for “ruining Buddie”, need to SHUT UPPPP!!! And must I remind y’all, that Buck is IN A RELATIONSHIP right now. A happy one, so let him and Tommy have their time, and let Eddie have his own separate journey. Eddie is also dating someone as well (🤮🤮🤮). If and when Buddie happens, it needs to make sense for the characters and audience, if it just happens out of the blue, it will kinda defeat the slow burn of it all, and will be messy and thrown together. If we want Buddie, give it time, so that it works, and stays true to the story. Let BuckTommy have their time, let Eddie have his journey, and LEAVE THE ACTORS ALONE!

Thank you for coming to my ted talk 🙏

[lady-raziel]

just seen your post re monica lewkinsky &... I totally agree with you. Her Ted Talk is amazing & how she is living her life is.... I'm actually in awe of her. So thank you, sincerely, for your beautiful words.

to speak genuinely, for real: i cannot even put into words how much respect i have for monica lewinsky. i will never, ever, forget the slow realization of learning more and more of what happened as i grew up and coming to the sobering discovery that this was the story of how a whole country decided to place the blame on one young woman and then slutshame and destroy her life instead of really question what role those in power, including the president of the united states, had played in events. everyone had decided to sacrifice one woman, regardless of the role she played or bad decisions she'd made, and string her up so everyone could point their fingers in shame, and to laugh. it was despicable. and it's made worse by the realization that in the end, any of us could be monica lewinsky. not just other young women in politics, but any of us who could find ourselves in a situation where because of the power and privilege of the other party and because the societal stereotypes everyone will jump to reinforce, we could be the one laid out at the altar to die.

after all of that, and everything monica was put through, it would have been totally reasonable for her to hide away in a fishing village on a remote island somewhere and never speak to anyone ever again. but instead, despite it being hard, despite people still judging her when they hear her name, despite the fact that we as a country don't deserve it, monica lewinsky has chosen to devote her life to speaking out against the very things that were weaponized against her. to choose to help people who had tried to destroy you and change the system in order to create a world where it won't happen to others, instead of becoming solely bitter and angry forever-- that is a testament to strength. so many people preach in favor of a better world when they are the ones suffering, but choose to enact vengeance when their voice is finally the one being listened to. to do the opposite is the most radical act of all.

and if that wasn't enough, monica is able to speak honestly and even make jokes of her own about her whole situation. after all those 1990s TV talk show hosts beat her over and over with sticks, practically on a daily basis, she is finally able to look them in the eyes and say, "you've had your fun. now it's my turn."

It's one of the most goddamn inspiring and compelling things I've ever heard. She's incredible.

[vintagepresley]

I don’t want to be this person. But I feel like that new Elvis confessions account on here is just a gateway for people to start drama and spew their hate for people in this fandom and how others choose to love Elvis or how they write about Elvis and to basically shove down our throats how to be an Elvis fan “the right way”.

I just saw one of their recent posts about basically the fandom not being the same and how people don’t care about him and how people used to talk about his music and movies. Now people in the fandom only care about writing smut about him and don’t even know his songs or movies. Then saying how calling him “big daddy” is disgusting.

Huh? What? I don’t know what part of the fandom this person is on but we are constantly talking about his music and movies. I feel like most of the people in this fandom have seen all of his movies. But also some can’t depending on where they live in the world so it could be harder for them to watch them. He’s got so much music to listen like you can’t be mad if EVERYONE hasn’t heard every single fucking song. There’s actually some people who just joined and are still learning. It’s not that serious. Stop acting like you weren’t once new to being an Elvis fan.

Why are we acting like people haven’t been writing so much smut stories about him since 2022? Before I even joined the fandom here I was literally reading soooo many smut stories about him around that time. I don’t think that’s changed. There’s so many different stories besides smut. If you don’t like smut guess what? DON’T READ IT BABE. Keep scrolling. There’s so much variety when it comes to Elvis fanfics. It’s not just smut.

Then onto the big daddy thing. That didn’t just become a thing. It’s been a thing for the past two years. How is it disgusting? Lmao. It’s never that serious and honestly no one is being disrespectful when they use that term. That man has big daddy energy. That is never a bad thing, lol.

I swear. People don’t know how to just enjoy things and not taking things so seriously and constantly complaining about literally everything. Why can’t people just enjoy things? I feel like I constantly speak up about this because I’m so tired of people telling people how they should love Elvis or how there’s a wrong and right way. I’m so tired of people making others feel like they don’t belong here. We all love and respect Elvis. We all love learning about him in every aspect of his life. So many of us do so much research and constantly read books on him because we DO see him more than just a “pretty face” more than just an “aesthetic”. He’s a huge part of our lives and we all in some way have a story about how he’s impacted us or what he’s done for us. Doesn’t mean we can’t joke about things or like make unhinged posts. Life doesn’t always have to be taken so seriously.

Lighten up. Elvis would be bothered by how uptight some of you are.

Thank you for coming to my Elvis ted talk. ☺️

[tirralirralirra]

something I love about having read/watched frieren and dungeon meshi concurrently is getting to see that, despite their similar broad genres (fantasy, DND-esque settings, failure op elf girls /lh), they are two very distinct stories that ultimately achieve the same* thematic goal through different narrative means.

like you have frieren's contemplative, almost slice-of-life style storytelling that focuses on how the connections between people make an impact, and how it's beautiful to cherish the memories of those we love, even the small ones (especially the small ones), and that being alive is so, so beautiful because of those things. Then juxtaposing this with the overall narrative of a literal journey to a land beyond in order to meet with the dead, while not losing focus on those that are alive. Frieren as a story takes time to explore the small things that make life beautiful (fields of flowers, the beauty and not the power of magic, stargazing and sunsets with your friends).

and then you have dunmeshi's tight narrative arcs that are built around urgency (saving falin, first from digestion, then from...chimera-ization), but also continually return to the same concept as a core tenet to both the literal narrative structure around meals and the overall story: to eat is a privilege of the living. That there is joy to be found in eating because it means you are alive, that you survived. That taking time to take care of yourself is honoring your life. That death is a part of life through the acts of killing monsters to eat, and that the dungeon's condition where a soul remains tethered to the body is unnatural.

For that last bit, I love how we're just introduced to the concept in the beginning as a bit of world building, something you might just take at face value of, "oh, I guess this is how this works in this story", and over the course of the story the characters start to interrogate that reality, culminating in Marcille's realization at the end that they took death for granted because of the dungeon's condition:

[ID: Manga panel of Marcille looking down in thought and saying "Look, this might sound a little weird, but...I think the entire point of this journey we went on....was learning how to accept death.]

(Panel is from the ehscans version, will update with official eng when the final volume releases)

I also love that the story takes the time to say, look, you can be in a hurry, but you still need to take care of yourself. Eat well, sleep well, What will you achieve in the service of yourself or others if you don't take care of the most basic qualities to survive first? The most recent episode is a good example of that with the focus on shuro vs. laios, and then there's this reinforcement of the idea by the end:

[ID: Dungeon meshi manga page showing Laios, Chilchuck, and Senshi shouting "A balanced diet!!" "R-regulating our daily rhythms!!" "And moderate exercise!!" respectively, followed by the three in various poses in front of the word "VICTORY" and Laios saying "If we watch these three points...we'll naturally work our way to strong bodies!!"]

Anyways this is all very disorganized and I have other things I need to do and I could write a more cohesive, actually organized thought piece on all of this with like, coherent points, but I don't really like to delve into literary analysis on my fandom account. it just lives in my head, rent free. thank you for coming to my ted talk tumblr. don't expect to see more of this, lol.

*I say same goal, which is not to say the only goal. stories can have more than one theme, it's ok if you disagree with me on this, but please bear in mind that I'm speaking very, very broadly.

[morningstargirl666]

WIP WEDNESDAY

This is your daily reminder that there should be more Bonnie & Caroline friendship in fics, thank you for coming to my ted talk.

“God, I’m so excited for Tyler to finally be able to come home.”

“He won’t have to take orders from Klaus when he’s dead, that’s for sure,” Bonnie muttered. She glanced up when Caroline remained quiet, frowning slightly. “Elena mentioned he invited you to the ball? Why would Klaus do that?”

Caroline scowled up at the ceiling, annoyed by the direction the conversation had taken. “I have no idea.”

Bonnie stopped looking through the grimoire. “Well, what did he want last night?”

“I don’t know.” Caroline shrugged, a little lost, throwing a hand up. “He asked me to dance, we talked, he showed me his artwork-”

“Artwork?” Bonnie echoed.

Caroline frowned slightly, worrying her lip.

“Yeah, he’s an artist, I guess,” she tried to shrug off, like it wasn’t a big deal. Even serial killers had hobbies, right? She didn’t mention the drawing he’d done of her - nope, not happening. She scoffed, shaking her head. “I’m pretty sure interpol has half his art collection listed as stolen or missing - like the feds would have a field day if they raided that place.”

“So he asked you to dance, spent time with you, showed you his personal art collection…” Her best friend paused, slowly closing the grimoire, eyeing Caroline critically. “...like a date?”

Caroline shot up into a sitting position, glaring at Bonnie. 

“It was NOT a date,” she hissed, slicing her hands through the air, as if to ward the accusation off. “There was no ‘dating’ of any kind.”

Bonnie’s eyes widened a fraction and she deliberately turned her gaze back to the grimoire. 

“Sounds like a date to me,” she muttered under her breath, opening the book back up.

Caroline tried to push the memory of Klaus admitting he fancied her out of her head, something fluttering in her stomach. 

“He was just cozying up to me to get to Elena,” she tried to excuse. Her eyes shot to Bonnie, pleading with her to agree. “Right?”

Bonnie sighed, regarding her sadly. “Is it really that impossible to consider that a guy may actually like you?”

“Bonnie,” Caroline carefully enunciated, “It’s Klaus.”

Her friend rolled her eyes, closing the grimoire again and throwing it to the side. “Yeah, obviously I’m not saying you should date him, Caroline. I’m just saying you’re,” she shrugged, gesturing to all of her, “you know, a catch. Any guy would be lucky to have you.” 

Bonnie leaned forward, grasping Caroline’s hands in hers as she smiled softly. Touched, Caroline couldn’t help but smile back.

“Hell,” Bonnie continued, “Tyler doesn’t even deserve you after he left you for dead in the woods and then ghosted you.”

“He’s trying to break the sire bond for me, Bonnie,” Caroline pointed out, her glare half-hearted. Secretly, her friend’s fierce protectiveness warmed her heart.

“Even so,” Bonnie conceded, letting go of Caroline’s hands, “it was a dick move, one he made on your birthday of all days. You don’t have to excuse him all the time.”

Caroline sighed - Bonnie was right. She let her head fall into her hands, running her fingers anxiously through her hair. Biting her lip, she looked back up at Bonnie.

“And if Klaus does actually…like me?” she asked quietly.

Sheepishly, Bonnie smiled, the expression halfway to a wince. “Start growing wolfsbane in the garden?”

“Would that even work on a hybrid?”

“He’s part werewolf, right?” Bonnie shrugged, picking up her grimoire again. A wicked smile curled around the corners of her face. “You’d assume so.”

Caroline shook her head, grinning too as she pulled out her phone. “Guess I need to google where I can get wolfsbane from, then,” she said, like it was a great chore.

“Check Petco, maybe you’ll find the dog version of catnip.”

Unable to keep straight faces, they giggled, both of them doubling over laughing.

[aclockworkfilmsnob]

While Dune is (still) often misread as a tale about a hero doing the right thing, to view it solely as a warning of charismatic leaders is also misleading.

At least for the films, Paul isn’t really a bad guy for most of the story. Sure, he acts on impulse and is sometimes selfish. But he’s a kid. He’s lived a sheltered existence his whole life. The only friends and family he’s ever known were taken away from him in one fell swoop.

He clearly knows that exploiting the fremen is wrong and is even critical of his father (easily the most morally-sound Atreides in the series) for what he interprets as manipulation. He resents what his mother and the Bene Gesserit did to manipulate them into waiting for a messiah and constantly makes it clear that he doesn’t believe in these things.

Yes, he fancies himself a leader and a hero. But it’s not because he wants to be a God. He wants to be like his father. Noble, kind, heroic and honorable. But he never received the proper training. He sat in on one meeting at a time when he wasn’t even sure he wanted to be Duke.

His biggest enemy, aside from the Harkonnens and the Bene Gesserit, is the ignorance that comes from his youth. The same thing happens to Chani. Paul tells her he can’t go South. He knows what will happen if he does. But she, despite being very intelligent in knowing the danger of an outsider like Paul, believes that the power of true love will get them through any conflict.

Like Jessica, Paul becomes corrupted by the water of life. Any selfish intention he had before is accentuated by the poison. By this point in the film he’s basically a supervillain. In many respects Paul is just as much a victim of exploitation as the fremen are. He had no choice in how Jessica raised him. He didn’t choose to become a target for the Reverend Mother, who purposefully turned the Harkonnens against the Atreides because he was deemed to dangerous.

Paul is a bad guy by the end of Dune Part 2. It’s scary that people don’t see that. His “lead them to paradise” line after he digs his army into a deeper hole than he could have ever imagined clearly demonstrates that he intends to use fear and promises of peace to motivate the fremen to do whatever he wants. But he doesn’t get to this place because he’s always been evil to the core. He got there because he too was a victim of circumstance.

Anyway, that’s all I have to say. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[nellylongarms]

just my personal and unserious opinion, but:

the English language got stuck with some major duds in the sexy words department. "dick?" "cock?" what is this, middle school? this is probably controversial but even "pussy" is kind of mid in my books. it needs some eloquent phrasing (or just a very confident delivery) to not sound goofy. and don't get me started about "creampie." I hope whoever came up with that one is well pleased with themselves, having made a mockery of the act. where's the sense of poetry? "breeding" sounds marginally better, but carries more specific connotations.

there are some bangers though. "clit?" gorgeous. really rolls off the tongue. "cunt?" yum. this word feels like spitting in someone's mouth. sidebar: "cunt" really needs to be more widely adopted as a term for transfem penis. "Let me suck your cunt" - damn that's hot. "I need your cunt inside me" - absolutely feral. and "fuck" is just such a classic, of course. it never gets old, despite being used to gratuitously in everyday speaking. that's the sign of a strong word - in one moment, you're thoughtlessly sprinkling it throughout casual conversation, then in another it's enough to give you chills.

in all seriousness, I think exploring your relationship to the verbal side of sex as a queer/trans person, be it through smut, sexting, or dirty talk, can be incredibly rewarding. figure out what works for you, what does and doesn't turn you on. play with language and make it up as you go. what's more gay than unconventional sexual metaphors and highly specific, idiosyncratic phrases?

anyway, uh, thanks for coming to my TED talk, I just think words are neat and interesting.

[antlerqueer]

i have a pet peeve of people calling taissa "the femme one" between her and van because i thought it was a given that taissa performs femininity specifically for her career.

[soulcluster-moved]

the part where he meets varania and danarius appears and his expression just falls

after the whole debacle with varania is over and he says he's alone and hawke says 'I'm heree' and he just stares so longingly at hawke, hand on their face, and doesn't say anything before turning away

[omegapheromone]

Listen I don't normally post anything not safe for work/tumblr but I apparently just. Am having a really strong heat for seemingly no reason and basically my brain isn't working right and it's like... my own skin feels uncomfortable and my body is just. A mess really.

[sadboybrigade]

if they don’t let Kirk and Spock hug in AOS 4 I will THROW UP

[hattersarts]

im already at the south downs cottage guys, catch up

[indimiart]

we would be together and have our books and at night be warm in bed together with the windows open and the stars bright

(-E Hemingway)

(full uncensored on patreon!)