#this movie doesn't have me THAT strongly lol

[bylertruther]

when will said it was "strange knowing who it was this whole time" and "he's hurt, he's hurting, but he's still alive" was he not talking about henry? am i insane? did i misinterpret that scene? why are we acting like will is connected to anyone other than henry bro what is Happening 😭

that was henry that shaped the mind flayer into that spider-like form and it was henry that used it to possess will and it was henry's thoughts that will was experiencing against his will and it's henry that he's still feeling because the connection/"vecna's curse" hasn't been broken. they physically extracted the mind flayer from will's body, yes, but his connection to henry was never broken. henry can't exercise complete and total control over people without the mind flayer's power, which is why will has free will over his body but his mind remains connected to henry.

the characters, and by extension the viewers, thought it was the mind flayer behind everything, because they didn't know what season four revealed to us.

henry wanted to control will's mind and body—a complete and entire violation of everything will is. that was Not the mind flayer, and they tell us that more than once. with all love and respect what are some of you on about because you're starting to make me feel like my memory is genuinely broken or something lmao like i thought.... the big reveal was that it's always been henry? they literally say that? eleven, henry, and will all confirm it? the mind flayer was not a separate entity acting alone... thus will has beef with henry most of all because henry's violation of his mind and body is still ongoing... Where Are You Guys Getting Your Information From 😭 hELP

will's rape—because that's what possession is, he never consented to having his mind and body controlled by anyone else—is an important part of stranger things; both to the general plot and will's character. to say that will only has beef with the mind flayer and not henry is reducing what henry did to him and reassigning blame that very much falls on henry's shoulders. henry was controlling the mind flayer and henry is the one still in will's mind. henry used the mind flayer to have control over will. henry and will are connected. the show literally tells us that over and over again. when you decide to needlessly reassign blame, not only are you misunderstanding and misconstruing the plot, but you're also... not understanding what happened to will at all. like, what really happened to him and how that's used in the show.

henry very likely was the one that kidnapped will. henry is the one that will has a psychic connection to. henry is the one that raped will / possessed him if you prefer that term instead and used the mind flayer to do it. henry is the one that will still knows like the back of his hand, because henry is the one that's still in his head. it's not the mind flayer. it's henry. please stop saying that will doesn't have more than enough reason to want to kill his ass. please!!!

[msfbgraves]

So, I love to watch videos of people reacting for the first time to movies. Almost every time I’ve watched people reacting to The Godfather movies, I’ve noticed that a large chunk of people (especially men, true, but surprisingly a LOT of women) all hate or strongly dislike Kay. Even growing up, both my parents disliked Kay lol, I remember.

It’s surprising to me, as I like all the women in the trilogy (yes, even Mary! Her character is sweet and affectionate, and I love how close she is with her dad!), and I always did like Kay…though I admit, I simply don’t like her with Michael after he decides to join the family business. Apollonia would have been the best fit. Besides, in Part 3, Michael sobs when Anthony sings the love song and thinks of Apollonia and their wedding even years later. And he chooses to return to Sicily to sit and brood/die in the place where they spent time together. That says it all, for me.

I can't say I've spent a lot of time on whether or not I liked Kay or Apollonia or both or neither in relation to these films. I remember watching the second film with my mother, and when the dancing scene between Michael and Kay came up, she said: "Hm. She's frightened."

I do find it surprising how many people make it about liking or not liking either or both of Michael's wives, when discussing the films as a whole. Kay doesn't fit into the mob world, that's the whole point of her, that's why Michael chose her initially, and that's why the audience may not like her - she sticks out like a sore thumb. She shouldn't be there. She agrees! That has nothing to do with how good she would have been for Michael. I do like Kay, the girl has guts. And I think that Apollonia and Michael would have made a fantastic mob marriage.

Michael ghosted Kay, and that is a shit way to break up whatever the circumstances, and by rights, they should have stayed broken up. Michael would have been nothing but a cad boyfriend who turned into a criminal, so people would have said she dodged a bullet.

Ah, but it isn't that simple, is it. If you share your time and love with someone, there will always be some form of bond. Whether or not you act on it is a completely different matter, and I feel Michael should have started fresh, and left Kay the hell alone. He could have written to break up, thank her and tell her to build a life without her. Or simply let her be one of those sacrifices you make, the same he later asks of Vincent. This life isn't good for Kay.

Would it have been good for Apollonia? I think she might have been more familiar with the codes of mob life, I think both Vito and Carmella would have adored her, I think it could have worked out beautifully. She probably wouldn't have felt the need to escape, or that the American life was better than what she left, she wouldn't feel so torn because she knew her roots. Maybe her children may have felt less at ease, but their father would have grown up completely American and helped them.

But it was not to be. Michael already gave up Kay for the life, and I believe him when he says he thought of her. And I believe in love at first sight with Apollonia, and he lost her, and I feel that if Apollonia is gone completely, maybe he can rekindle the love bond with Kay? And he does, under force, and they spend more time as husband and wife, and of course this strengthens that bond as well. But Kay is unhappy, so she breaks it off this time, and yet Michael refuses to let go of that bond (who do you think Mary gets it from)?

Apollonia and Michael is more romantic, less stressful - the fairytale his mob life cannot be. Kay is more realistic. They share a strong young love, and later, at Michael's absolute insistence, a very painful marriage, and Michael loves her and he loves Apollonia because I think that this is something that can happen. You can love two different people, if you want -widowed people do love again, and that doesn't negate the love they lost. Now of course, there may be sexism going on. A woman should simply be pretty and quiet, huh? Do we know a single of Apollonia's opinions other than her wanting to drive and not wanting to bother with English? Whereas Kay actually challenges Michael the way a wife has a right to challenge her spouse! And some people don't want to challenge their spouse and that is fine too! The point is that a marriage should work between two people and Michael's and Kay's didn't and Kay was the one calling that long before Michael, if she does love him. And Michael does not want to give it up. It's tragic, but it isn't Kay's sole fault. Again, she did move on. She rejeced his proposal, or tried to, he didn't want to hear no, she left him, he won't let her be, because he can't let go of emotional bonds apparently.

And who is to say who Apollonia might have become? These films are so very rarely interested in the world of these women, only looking at them in how they affect the men. And that's fine, the films are about Michael. But it's unfair to reduce all the other characters as people to how they relate to Michael. I promise you, if anyone ever made a biopic of my father, you wouldn't get to know everything there is to know about me simply by watching how I relate to him, or vice versa. People are allowed to exist however good they are, or not, for other people.

[maria-rayro]

johnshi hc (part one?)

- Johnny likes to call Kenshi Ken, Ken-doll, Ken-boy, Kenny, Babe, Honey, Kitten, Greatest Swordsman (special cases), Sexy (and Sexy Face), Sunshine (especially when he's acting grumpy), Love, Tattoo and some other things, he's just really into pet-names okay, Kenshi thinks about starting making a list now lol

- Kenshi is not really used to pet names, so usually he just calls him "Cage" or "Johnny". Is really shy to use anything else, literally makes him blush to try. In his culture, when you call your loved one by the first name is already kinda intimate, so whenever he wants to emphasize his tenderness towards the man he just calls him Johnny. But secretly likes it when Johnny calls him something cute.

- When Kenshi introduces Johnny to his family, they're both really worried, but at some point Cage starts talking to the older generation of the Takahashi family about the history of their clan, the Sento, and Japanese history in general, and because of this he wins their respect and affection (well, because of this among other things of course; some had seen movies with him, so it was easier with them).

- After that, they have a conversation about Johnny's family, and he reveals that he was never on good terms with his brother or father, and his mom, the only family member dear to him (but who was away at work most of the time), died in service a long time ago. He mentions that he sometimes visits her grave, but he always gets very sad there because it makes him feel his loneliness more strongly. After this conversation, the next time it's time for Johnny to visit his mother's grave, Kenshi goes with him, keeping a hand on his shoulder because he wants him to know that he is not alone now. "You've done a lot, Johnny. She would have been proud of you"; "She would have liked you" Cage replies and feels like crying, immediately laughing because of how stupid it is. Kenshi strokes his back, silently helping him calm down.

- Kenshi has nightmares about his time as a Yakuza; losing his eyes wasn't as mentally traumatizing to him as the time before he decided to leave the Yakuza. Blames himself for all the pain he's caused people. Almost never talks about it, even to Johnny, but does say a couple things once, ending it with something like "Why did you ever think it would be a good idea to date someone like me?" Done a lot of things, including having some problems with alcohol, taking pills to make it easier to deal with the trauma after all the horrors he's inflicted on others or experienced himself. Cage responds by talking about how he got into rehab when he was at the beginning of his career.

- Johnny had an alcoholic father, so after going through a similar experience himself and going through rehab, he matured and began to take these things seriously. He starts drinking less himself to make it easier for Kenshi not to drink at all.

- Johnny has nightmares about Kenshi losing his eyes again or dying. He doesn't wake up screaming, but sweats from the stress of sleep and wakes up abruptly as if he's been doused with cold water. He then checks on Kenshi sleeping next to him, who, since he sleeps quite sensitively, wakes up as well. Seeing Takahashi immediately, frowning adorably, trying to fumble for the man's warm body next to him, Johnny's heart melts. "I'm here, kitten" he says quietly, lying down closer, and Kenshi, sleepily muttering something under his breath, pulls him to himself, taking the role of a big spoon now.

[aihoshiino]

The advice Hikaru gave to Ruby "God won't give you answer and you have to struggle on it on your own and accept it" just seems so personal to him, especially with his face expressions. Because he was so broken by his environment and circumstances and everytime he thought someone might love him, they just leave him. He has given up on believing that he could be loved and turned so twisted because it doesn't matter to him at all. He seem to easily accept his end.

Hikaru and Ruby are quite similar. But the thing is he lost all his hopes while she still has hopes. Maybe the reason he is killing is to feel something as he was told he is empty?

THE RUBY AND KAMIKI PARALLELS.....!!!! I've honestly felt pretty strongly that Aqua and Ruby specifically parallel Ai and Hikaru respectively, rather than what you might initially assume. Because of their genders & the notes about which parent they physically resemble, I see a lot of people defaulting to assuming the parallel pairs are Aqua/Hikaru and Ruby/Ai. I think if you really sit down and start picking at what the manga lays out about them tho, I think it becomes clearer that Aqua mostly parallels his mom where Ruby mostly parallels their dad, and they primarily contrast the other parent.

Honestly this was one of the main reasons the Movie Arc came off as so weird and inconsistent with regards to Ruby's character lol. it kept trying to force all these parallels between her and Ai and like... don't get me wrong, I loved 136-137 and that incredible moment of empathy she had with Ai's memory, but the story trying to act like Ruby "not being like Mama" was some big step forward and moment of growth for her was so bizarre lol. But that's a rant for another day...!!

I do think the parallels between Ruby and Hikaru as laid out are intentional, though - on top of everything else, it's Ruby specifically that he seeks out when meeting on of the twins for the first time and I still think we're going to get an 'I can't love you' parallel moment given how much weight was placed on that line back during the script reading.

but at this point, who even knows really LOL. the inner machinations of aka akasaka's mind are a mystery......

[tamelee]

Hi! I wanted to Say that I love your art and your naruto analisys!! And i wanted to ask You, how You think an alternate universe where naruto's parents and the uchiha massacre didnt happen? I have Seen the anime, other fans and movies try to come with what it might be but i wonder what You think on how it would be. I personally think that the anime and the movie are a bit too exaggerated on the what if when it comes to the teams

Thankyou! 💕

Ah, there are so many things to consider. We'd sorta have to... ignore why the bad stuff happened? Or deal with the consequences differently? (Like, as in, fixing the system, that would be nice.) I'm not sure about the anime, but I do remember seeing it in that one movie where they're all the opposite of their true selves. Where Sasuke is suddenly straight, lol!

If Naruto's parents survived, I'd like to think that Minato as Hokage could've changed things.

What would he do? Would Minato have been able to mediate fairly? Unlike Tobirama or Hiruzen?

How would Minato handle Danzo? Would Danzo still be free to make his own decisions "for the greater good of Konoha, excluding the Uchiha" because Hiruzen took the easy route and let someone else deal with things? And if Minato knew about his plans regarding the Uchiha, would he stop Danzo? 

I'd like to believe he would. I mean, he'd definitely needed to step up way more than the 3'rd "voicing out disagreement" that was weak af. In fact, going soft on Danzo with his flabby-ass, incompetent bs and proving how little power a Hokage has in general is pathetic. 

No, you know what? I think things would've definitely been so very different had Naruto's parents been alive. Minato also had that fight with "the masked man." Had he survived, he could've teleported to Tobito later, no? Actually… the more I think about it, the more I realize how much could've easily been avoided ;-;

What if the Uchiha took leadership over ANBU? Because it seems to me that the villagers view the ANBU as protectors, while the police are more strongly associated with being the ones who will punish you for wrongdoing. That may 'help' a village, but it certainly doesn't help a clan you're singling out. Like Orochimaru said, this authority did nothing to unite the clans or demolish certain boundaries.

Anyway...

Naruto would learn more about the Uzumaki. Imagine Naruto as the second flash junior with his Uzumaki adamatine sealing chain Jutsu's listennnn. In an instant, any enemy would be chained.

He also could've made a barrier rasengan or something, or Sasuke could target thunder or amaratsu from within it as a combi-jutsu and no one would be able to escape. It would color black and white like the yin/yang symbol.

"Is that—"

"Ah.. It's the great, unstoppable dome of death!"

"Oh."

But it would also sprout life because of the yin & yang. Look, what if Itachi trained Sasuke to use his hawk more like he had with his crow, and then he'd be able to send Naruto little memories while he's traveling? Not notes, genjutsu memoriessss. Things he'd like to share. And he'd wear Naruto's teleportation mark so they could always meet up instantly. 

Mikoto and Naruto would create a frog-pond in the garden; this is not negociable. Sasuke would pretend he couldn't understand, but he would sneak off to feed and talk with the frogs while taking advantage of the peace to meditate, and Naruto pretends not to notice, taking food with him anyway and complaining that they won't take it. 

Naruto and Sasuke would always challenge each other during festivals where you could play games. They'd visit other places to play different ones, and they'd be known as rivels through that. Both gaining their own fan clubs, and entire competition days would be held so people can come watch as they go at each other while they toss rings, mold candy, or scoop balls out of water and then think of punishments for the loser. 

Ah yeah Sasuke would definitely play some type of flute, Naruto would play Taiko drums.

Oh stop me now I could go on forever tbh.

[crimson-mage-02]

Thoughts on Kingdom of the Planet of The Apes!

It's been a while since I posted something on Tumblr. So here it is! I am so stoked to watch the new film! Which is coming soon in 2 months. Cannot wait.

First impressions, I love Noa so much. He is going to be a true and caring leader in the making. As far as we know he's going to have an coming of age ceremony, earning his place in the Eagle Clan. Which I love! I am also so curious to see where his journey may lead to. Which made me be so curious about his origins. I had theories that he might have come from another ape clan before joining the Eagle Clan. Hence why he doesn't know much about his past. I was also thinking and believing that Proximus Caesar knew that Noa was a direct descendant of Caesar. So maybe, Noa's old family protected him from the other bad apes and that was the reason why the Eagle Clan was distant from other apes.

Maybe that was the reason why the Elders didn't tell Noa everything until his coming-of-age ceremony with his friends. He started to doubt his existence. His place in the clan and in the world. Seems like a journey to the past. Heh get it, lol. Okay moving on.

Let's talk about Mae. At first glance, I thought she is going to be the character that stands out the most as she is a mysterious human who is smarter than most as Raka mentioned in the trailer.

I love how she's there to help Noa but also have an agenda of her own. There's not much known about Mae but im truly curious to see where her character lead to. I'm also so excited to see the friendship between Noa and Mae.

As it was shown in the trailer, Noa was seen shy and cautious around Mae. It was seen when he handed the blue shirt to keep her warm. And throughout the rest of the trailer, it looked like they have a created a way to trust each other by saving each other. As it was discussed in discord with @bookishdaze.

As their relationship with each other, I can't wait to see how it expands and develops through the trilogy. Noa and Mae are each others anchors and are the future of apes and humans co-existing.

I also got this ridiculous thought about Noa's 'birthmark', seems like he is depicted as the sun.

Well, it means it symbolizes his firmness, strength and power. Those traits alone depict Noa strongly. That's who he is. Though he might grow into a mighty leader to the apes by the end of the movie.

As for the moon, well, represents calmness, beauty, and nurturing. Those traits qualifies to Mae. Despite her being mute, she's still a woman with a mission and she's not going to stop at nothing. She also cares about others around her, especially Noa. Their relationship is one the most important key moments for the film.

Both balance out so well yet so distant. That might show Mae and Noa's relationship well in the beginning of the film, maybe.

That's my thoughts on the film and on Noa and Mae. Not saying I ship them or not. I just find their friendship really wholesome! 🙈🙈 I just can't wait to watch the film when it comes out.

[bobbydagen24]

comparing Brother Bear with TBT since their Both movies about Brotherhood and also Brother Bear just Randomly popped into my head again today.

I've loved Brother Bear for years I think its a very underrated Disney movie with nice songs cute characters and a cute story.

and I randomly started thinking about it earlier and then started comparing it to TBT since their both strongly focused on Brotherhood.

and I realised that for some reason Brother Bear doesn't bother me as much as TBT does even tho it technically has many of the same faults.

it Rushes over the interesting character Drama and it Rushes a conclusion to said Drama between the Brothers at the end.

like the scene in the main film of Kenai confessing to Koda is still fairly sad but its massively undercut by having the song play over it.

the deleted version of that scene where the song doesn't play and we get to hear the full version of Kenai's confession and Koda's reaction is available on youtube and its way more heart-breaking imo.

which I guess is why they didn't go with that version since it would have maybe been a bit too much for young kids.

but the movie also employs the gimmick of having the brothers come back together in the end to fight off a life threatening enemy and all is seemingly forgiven between them straight away afterwards.

I guess one reason why BB doesn't bother me as much as TBT is that Kenai actually grows throughout the film despite wronging Koda in a massive way.

and Koda forgiving him too quickly in the ending is not as bothersome because we didn't see Kenai mistreat him the entire film up until the point he found out.

and he didn't then proceed to hurt him again in arguably just as bad a way as he did before like Bro zone did.

instead Kenai did grow in the film and he and Koda already had a healthy relationship prior to the reveal and later confession.

plus what they had throughout the film was genuine sibling banter it wasn't one sided like Bro zone's interactions were with Branch where it was basically just them treating him like a kid and not taking his Valid feelings seriously.

and when Kenai confesses to Koda he's a lot more openly remorseful and tries to go after him to make things right Bro zone just get a brief 4 second shot of them feeling bad and then the movie moves on.

not to mention the climax of BB involves Kenai making a sacrifice for Koda first off he puts his own life in danger in order to save him from his Brother Denahi. and at the very end he makes a big sacrifice ( staying as a Bear so he can stay with him even tho it means leaving behind his human life and not being able to openly communicate with his family )

which somewhat works as an act of love and redemption whereas the climax of TBT involves Bro zone being forced to work together in order to save their own lives as well as the life of the Bro who none of them wronged all that much tbh.

it doesn't really work as a first step towards them redeeming themselves and fixing their family because its kinda selfish and it didn't involve them really making any sort of personal sacrifice or even that much effort.

ya know its funny I just thought I'd make this post as a Random little thought since that's all this was I didn't actually expect to talk in depth and compare the movies stories this much lol.

I just started typing and got carried away 😂😂😂😂😂😂

anyway in short I love Brother Bear its a very adorable film and while its far from perfect in how it handles its story its flaws don't stop me from enjoying it.

since it still handled the more important parts of the story well enough.

unlike with Trolls 3 best thing I can say about it is that the movie version of "" Better Place "" is a legit great little song and frankly its too good for this film.

the story didn't earn such an emotional music piece in my opinion.

[antianakin]

what are your opinions on the sequels? specifically how luke (and his new jedi order) is portrayed. but also like just the jedi stuff in general, the training and everyone becoming force ghosts and somehow palpatine

Oh gosh, it has been a MINUTE since I've even watched the Sequels. I'm planning on rewatching them sometime early next year for Reasons, but for both episodes 8 and 9, it'll be the first time I've seen them since I saw them in the theaters. I MIGHT have seen episode 7 after its theater release, but not often. I can definitely say I haven't watched a single one of them since 2019 lol.

All of that to say, I don't remember them super well. I liked episode 7, but didn't care AT ALL for TLJ and was ho hum on TROS. My overall opinion is that it's too bad these characters didn't have anyone writing for them who seemed to actually CARE about them at any point and that nobody bothered to create a fucking blueprint for the entire trilogy and then stick to it. Say what you will about the execution of the Prequels, but Lucas had a damn vision in mind and a clear end goal for the story and the characters and he STUCK TO IT. You can go back to those films and rewatch them and find that story and see the arc he was trying to take the characters on. You may not LIKE what he chose to do or feel like it worked very well, but it's clearly THERE. The same cannot be said for the Sequels. The characters change personalities in basically every film, the primary motivations and intended end goals for them are never consistent, the relationships aren't built up well, and the theme and message of the Sequels is so muddied with all of these changes that they may as well not exist.

All of that is very broad, though, and doesn't touch much on your specific question about the Jedi and Luke and how they were portrayed in the Sequels. To be honest, I don't remember it very well, and when I saw these films, I was a pretty casual Star Wars fan who was still what I would now consider Jedi critical. I didn't hate them by any means, but I had absorbed the fandom osmosis of the Jedi having been too repressive/old-fashioned and how they caused their own doom. So I haven't watched them from a more pro Jedi lens yet in order to comment on it with any level of authority.

What I DO remember feeling was that making Luke bitter was a bad choice. There's undoing a character a little in order to allow them to develop somewhere, and then there's complete and utter character assassination and TLJ's characterization of Luke falls closer to the latter for me. The biggest thing anyone remembers about Luke is that he chose not to kill Anakin in ROTJ. That's his big climactic triumph. He goes on an entire journey towards understanding Anakin and having to accept that Anakin was a person making evil choices so that he could believe in Anakin's ability to be BETTER. That's kind-of the core of Luke's WHOLE JOURNEY. So I don't really get the entire concept of Luke reacting so violently to "feeling some darkness" in his teenaged nephew. He's already sort-of worked through that particular flaw of his and overcome it, why is he suddenly reacting this way? What's the point of that? And why would Luke just completely lose himself to cynicism and bitterness in the aftermath of that kind of failure? What was the point of leaving a piece of map behind or whatever? None of it really seems to make any sense to me and you can just FEEL Rian Johnson sort-of tossing things in the trash as he wrote this so that he could do his own thing.

All of that being said, what I've seen other people comment on is that there's a lot of shit Luke says in TLJ that are pretty anti-Jedi, but that the whole point is that Luke is wrong. Luke is succumbing to despair and so he feels like he's defeated and there's no point to anything and he's WRONG. The movie does pretty strongly emphasize that he's WRONG to feel this way and act like this. So I think a lot of people take what Luke says in this film sort-of at face value without taking into account that context that you're not SUPPOSED to agree with him any more than Rey does. I'm interested to see how I feel about it when I do end up rewatching them in a few months, but it rings relatively true to what I can remember.

It doesn't seem wrong that Luke and Leia could end up being able to ghost, it doesn't make any sense that Han can ghost but we all know that that happened specifically because Carrie Fisher died mid-filming and they had to figure out how to work around that, so I'm willing to give a little bit of slack to TROS for that exact reason.

I don't remember much training even HAPPENING on screen. I remember Luke barely teaching Rey anything at all in the one week she spends with him and Leia sending Rey on an obstacle course at the beginning of TROS. I wish they'd chosen to spend more time really showcasing more of Rey's actual training (or, ya know, FINN training in Force abilities at all), but I don't have any strong feelings about it at this point.

And as for Palpatine, I think everybody knows it was a bad choice to make at this point. It was lazy, it was silly, and it doesn't work. It feels like a direct response to Snoke having been killed off too early and disagreements between the directors and the studio execs about whether Kylo Ren should be a villain or not. It doesn't work and nobody likes it.

So, yeah, my feelings are a little faded at this point because I disliked them enough that when I do my Star Wars marathons, I never include the Sequels in it and I just stop at ROTJ. I feel like that says enough on its own.

[hear-that-music-in-the-air]

Ada and Ian Headcanons (Rhythm Doctor)

this got Long As Hell i'm sorry lmao. headcanons under the cut!!

Ada:

- We know that Ian is a radiologist, but I think Ada is probably a general practitioner/primary care physician! If she's canonically a cardiologist (bc heart stuff) then that's my bad lmao. But based on what we see in the game, she doesn't really seem to specialize in anything. She instead seems to have a wide range of medical knowledge and we see her treating a variety of different illnesses/injuries, including Mr. Stevenson's broken leg and Lucky's torn rotator cuff. We know that she's been having to do pretty much everything around the hospital bc they're so understaffed, and primary care physicians usually have fairly extensive medical knowledge covering multiple fields, which I think is what allows her to do that.

- One of my biggest hcs about Ada is that she has a very strained relationship with her parents, and that her parents are also both doctors, though I imagine they're close to retirement by now. However, unlike Ada, they both specialize in highly specific fields like brain surgery or something (I actually do imagine her dad to be a neurosurgeon lmao), and because they're both so successful they have incredibly high expectations of her. They look down on her for choosing to be a GP/primary care physician because they think of that work as somehow less important/less worth her time. They're the kind of people who absolutely have a superiority complex about being doctors and ~saving lives~. Also definitely not the kind of people who should have had kids. They're distant at best and extremely judgmental and condescending at worst.

- Ada has one younger sister who's six years younger. Because their parents were always so busy with their careers, Ada basically grew up taking care of her sister, which definitely contributed to her mentality of feeling responsible for everyone all the time. Her sister moved out of their parents' house as soon as possible and is currently attending college somewhere far away, but she and Ada still keep in touch. Ada being an eldest daughter just makes too much sense to me lmao

- I like to think that Ada is an extremely affectionate person by nature. But because of growing up with emotionally distant parents, she doesn't ever really expect for that affection to be returned, especially from Ian who's not very outwardly affectionate most of the time. So when he does go out of his way to express affection it means a lot to her :)

- Because of the way her parents are, I think she kind of has an unconscious mentality of "no one is ever going to love me as much as I love them." She also struggles with people-pleasing tendencies (taking on more work than she can handle, having difficulty saying no to people) and self-esteem issues. So whenever someone goes out of their way to show her love, it kind of catches her off guard lol

- Ada's primary love languages are physical touch and words of affirmation (I'll explain this more below lol). She's REALLY big on physical touch—Ian generally does not like physical touch and one of the only people he tolerates/enjoys it from is Ada. Though I definitely think acts of service is one of her love languages too, as seen in Middlesea College Life. I simply think that she has so many love languages because she's FULL of love

- I imagine Ada as someone who feels her emotions very strongly, and who is generally just a highly emotional and empathetic person. Her empathy makes her good at connecting with the patients, but it also means that she feels everything so much all the time and it can be overwhelming for her sometimes. She’s undoubtedly very intelligent, but I think she’s still very much a heart over head type of person. She also cries pretty easily, though she has to try her best to keep it under wraps at work. The list of movies that make her cry is extensive, which Ian lovingly teases her for.

- Ada is extremely nearsighted and can't see much at all without her glasses. Because of this one of her favorite jokes is saying “I’ve seen enough” and taking her glasses off lmao

- Courtesy of @nightmun: Ada earnestly loves dad jokes, puns, and anything similar. Ian gets her a joke book as a gift once and regrets it immediately.

Ada, incredibly excited: IAN WHAT DOES A LEMON SAY WHEN IT PICKS UP THE PHONE

Ian: …what?

Ada: YELLOW!! *WHEEZE*

Ian: <:)

(this is the fifth one she’s told him today)

Ian:

- Ian’s mother is a single mom and his dad left when he was ten, hence why Ian is currently the only one taking care of her. Ian was also an only child. I imagine he and his mom are very close since it’s just been the two of them for so long, so her illness has really been taking a toll on him.

- Ian is bilingual and speaks Mandarin! I don’t think he has a canon ethnicity in-game (though please correct me if I’m wrong), but I’ve been thinking of him as Chinese Canadian, in line with @pokeblog123’s headcanon that Middlesea is in Canada. I imagine he and his mom speak Mandarin at home sometimes.

- I think Ian probably did robotics and/or coding as hobbies in high school and college! We know that he’s insanely tech-savvy, and he seems to have quite a talent for programming. In that same vein, another one of Ian's hobbies is buying old/vintage video game consoles from garage sales, on eBay, etc. and taking them apart to see how they work, sometimes also restoring them if he can.

- I know this is a pretty popular hc already but I think Ian is autistic/generally neurodivergent lol. I do try to write him with this in mind

- Related to that, Ian struggles with social cues to a certain degree, and subsequently has more trouble connecting with the patients than Ada. His little character card says he’s “better with computers than people” and I think this is probably because people are just difficult for him to read. Computers are much simpler; they’re predictable and generally do what they’re programmed to do. People are a lot more complicated. I do think he’s learned to read Ada fairly well simply because he’s known her for so long

- Ian's primary love language is acts of service/gift-giving. He struggles with physical touch and with verbalizing his feelings so he shows his love by doing things for people instead (which was part of the inspiration for my fic "Helping Hand"). If he goes out of his way to do something for you, that’s how you know he really cares. He's an actions over words type of guy :)

- Ian can be very blunt and straightforward, as we see in the game, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t care. We know from game dialogue that he regularly encourages Ada to take breaks and is generally concerned for her wellbeing, and we can also infer that he worries a great deal about his mother. He definitely cares, he just has different ways of showing it.

- Ian normally doesn’t cry very easily and he also doesn’t like to cry in front of other people, but my hc for why he cried at the Stevensons’ reunion is because it reminded him of his own sick mother, who’s been alone ever since his dad left. He’s usually not one to cry in public but that just got to him. I like to think that Ada checked up on him afterwards.

(ACT 5 SPOILERS)

- Although he doesn't really show it, I think Ian probably feels a certain amount of guilt for everything that's happened with Connectifia Abortus, especially now that it's been revealed that the virus originated from the system he created. He knows that the rhythm defibrillator system could put the patients in danger if the virus keeps getting worse, and he's been working day and night to try to fix it. Of course, Edega's demand for a "miracle cure" at the expense of caution and safety certainly isn't helping matters. Given that Ada also needs treatment on occasion, one of Ian's biggest fears is that Ada will get hurt because of the virus (and, he thinks, because of him).

BOFA THEM:

- I think Ada was Ian's first, and possibly only, good friend at college. I imagine they met through their shared classes and Ada was one of the only people who made a point to talk to him. After that she sort of just stuck around, much to Ian’s initial surprise. He had always struggled with making friends and he was hesitant to open up to her at first, but her persistence and genuine sincerity eventually won him over. Now they’re best friends :)

- I've seen other people say that they were probably roommates at some point in college/med school and I definitely think so too. I'm sure they pulled a lot of all-nighters together lol

- Once Ada and Ian became close friends, I like to imagine that she also got to know Ian's mother. She's always gotten along with her very well, and because her own parents were so distant, Ada came to think of her as somewhat of a parental figure. When Ian's mom first got sick and started requiring intensive care, Ada insisted on helping out with anything they needed.

- What I was referencing above about Ada and physical affection: I think Ada might be somewhat touch-starved because of my headcanon that her parents aren't very affectionate people. She craves physical touch and words of affirmation because she never got much of that from her parents. Once Ian figures this out, he tries his best to do those things for her even though it doesn't come as naturally to him (as in like, he’s normally not one to initiate hugs but he’ll give Ada a hug if he can tell that she needs it).

- Ian’s pragmatism balances out Ada’s bleeding-heart altruism, and vice versa. I think over years of friendship they’ve learned to appreciate the other’s perspective and find a middle ground, though of course that’s not always possible in high-stress medical situations.

- Ada doesn’t really understand anything about the online games that Ian plays, but she probably uses gamer lingo incorrectly on purpose just to annoy him lmao

- Unrelated to anything but I think one of their favorite pastimes is hate-watching Grey's Anatomy together and making fun of all the medical inaccuracies (I’ve never watched Grey’s Anatomy but I’ve heard there are many). Despite this they’re both low-key invested but neither of them wants to admit it lol

Anyway I love them. In my mind they are besties who get married for tax benefits. Thank you for your time if you read this far lmao

[chatter-crow]

please do. personally went off about the soundtrack the first time i heard it.... it's's . not good (about mean girls)

alright this is a whole lot because holy SHIT i think about this more than I should

! ! This is all my opinion ! !

If you liked it, good for you ig just dont attack me lol

They took every bit of musical theater out of the soundtrack and made it sound like generic pop. Theater kids pay WELL for good stuff, they could have made a lot of money.

Also, the complete lack of emotion is awful. Stupid With Love is meant to be Cady being absolutely thrilled, on the fucking moon with joy, but she sounds completely apathetic about her feelings for Aaron. Plus, the way they used autotune (esp on Cady) makes it feel like Disney Channel in the worst way possible.

There are some lyrics changes that really bother me. In the orignal Sexy, Karen has a line of 'I expect to run the world in shoes I cannot walk in,' while in the new line is 'Watch me as I run the world in shoes I cannot walk in', which chnages the entire meaning of the lyric from 'Karen thinks its #feminist to assert control over people because she's priveleged' to 'Karen is a girlboss who can do anything cause women are cool and smart' , which in the most respectful is *not* who Karen is as a character. There are more, but I can't name them off the top of my head so,, whatever lol

On casting, I think just about everybody but Cady were cast extremely well. Renee Rapp does such a fantastic job as Regina, really suits the character and knows how to play her. (Makes sense, she played Regina on Broadway).

Auli'i Cravalho pulls off Janis's character pretty well, but I don't think she fully captured the essence of the character. She doesn't really have the bitterness/jadedness that the orginal Janis has and I don't feel like she has the fact the Janis is in fact a mean girl down. This is no shade to her, I feel like it's more the way they rewrote Janis rather than her acting. I do like that they changed Janis's last name to reflect Auli'i's culture though. Nice detail.

Avantika and Jaquel both pulled off their characters perfectly. Avantika really has the right face for Karen, with big doe eyes and whatnot, she can really pull off the effect of being as stupid as Karen is. (That sounds mean, it's really not.) Jaquel did Damien good, and I don't really have a lot to say on his performance other than his voice is fantastic and he has Damien's character down. I do think he got type-cast a *bit* just due to how I've seen him act off screen, but he still did good. He knows his type.

Cady. Hoo boy. She is.. a look.

Angourie Rice is a fine actress on her own, but her vocals just aren't strong enough to keep up when she's surronded by people like Auli'i Cravalho and Renee Rapp, whose careers have been strongly focused on the muscial side of things, with Auli'i playing Moana for Disney and Renee having a music and broadway career alongside her movie career. Angourie just isn't able to compete with them. I'm sure she's a lovely actress on her own but she just doesn't have the muscial expiernce to be leading in a movie-musical.

Also, with representation, I appreciate that they made the cast more diverse, but it bothers me that four of the biggest MAIN CHARACTERS are still white. I can understand keeping Regina blonde because of the constant references to her blonde-ness in the musical, but Gretchen or Aaron absolutely could have been changed.

Hell, I would have loved to see Gretchen played by an asian actress, reconnecting with her culture at the end, since in the original she began to learn japanese or chinese (I don't remember which rn) as a way to connect with her new circle of friends.

On costumes, I don't think they did Janis justice, but I do like the gradual shift they have for Cady in her style and the Plastics are accurate.

I think keeping Janis emo like she was in the orignal movie and the musical would have been better. Artsy styles like hers are more widely excepted by teenagers while emos are mocked and harrassed extremely often, so keeping her emo would have added to her status as a social outcast.

I enjoy how they used social media to change the plot to be more modern, even if it isn't entirely accurate to how teenagers nowadays act. I think they were trying their best and did what they could with what knowledge they had.

I'm mad that they cut Stop, More is Better, Where Do You Belong? and Do This Thing. Stop is a fantastic chance to put the spotlight on Damian (since he has almost no solos COUGH COUGH) in and it could have absolutely been spun to have a more modern take on internet safety.

The plot. Oh my god, the plot. I HATE how they changed Regina being homophobic to Janis to 'oOOOooo Regina made it seem like Janis was an arsonist', which is.. litterally not the point. Homophobia still exists, Tina Fey, and sapphics/lesbians often do face discrimination from other women who claim to be allies. Plus, with calling Regina a lesbian and trying to set up Rejanis in the end? No! That is just not it! Regina is a fucking homophobe. Fight me y'all.

Okay I'm running out of time rn BUT i will be back later to add more onto this ,, thanks for reading through all of this if you did kudos to you

so long yall

[robinico]

The Lost Hero, Tristan and Piper McLean, and Native Americans and Palestinians.

TL;DR: An essay/vent about Rick Riordan writing offensive stereotypes about Native Americans and Arabs while including a positive throw-away line about Israel and the connotations of this in young adult fiction. And insight into the relationship between Native Americans and Palestinians.

So, I'm rereading The Lost Hero as Rick Riordan's several mythological series are comfort books for me that I reread every so often. Some quick background that I'm sure is a common sentiment among readers: when I was younger and first read The Heroes of Olympus books as they were published, I never really questioned the writing or characterizations. I was too young and too caught up in eagerly eating up more of the Percy Jackson world that I loved. As I got older, learned more about the real world, reread and actually analyzed the books, I found a lot of flaws that has made the quality of The HoO series incredibly incomparable to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Every time I've reread the PJO series, I've gained further appreciation for the writing (which has its own flaws, of course), whereas my frustration has grown with The HoO series, lol. Again, I know this is not an unpopular opinion.

This includes Piper McLean's characterization and the representation of her Cherokee ethnicity. I've read some insightful posts in the past explaining how Rick Riordan really messed up with Piper and while he's gained brownie points for diversity and trying, it does not absolve him of the specific choices he made with representing her Cherokee culture and how his writing is insulting to the broader Native American identity.

Throughout Piper's chapters, readers learn several things. Piper is Cherokee through her father, Tristan McLean. They are from Oklahoma and her grandfather Grandpa Tom had a home that Tristan still owns despite being a famous actor because it is the physical link to his ancestry. Grandpa Tom and Tristan taught Piper a lot about her Cherokee heritage including their beliefs and folk tales which Tristan has denied believing in them the way his father did. He still obviously feels strongly about his identity and the pain of historical discrimination and oppression against his people and this trauma passes onto Piper. It is the reason why he never plays any Native American role.

Specifically, I want to highlight this excerpt from Chapter XXI, in which Piper recalls a conversation with her father about the movie roles he's accepted.

"He'd played all kinds of roles— a Latino teacher in a tough L.A. school, a dashing Israeli spy in an action-adventure blockbuster, even a Syrian terrorist in a James Bond movie."

She then follows by asking her father why he never accepts Native American roles.

"'Doesn't that get old? Aren't you ever tempted, like, if you found the perfect part that could change people's opinions?'

'If there's a part like that, Pipes," he said sadly, "I haven't found it.'"

When I first read this, I remember being deeply uncomfortable with the Syrian terrorist example. Yeah, as a Muslim, I'm very familiar with the stereotypical Middle Eastern terrorists in media. I know the reason it exists and why it will continue to exist. Riordan could've and should've chosen any other example of a different character role.

However, rereading this today has made me so upset on another level because I did not remember the prior example and Riordan's connotations until now.

"A dashing Israeli spy." I cannot describe the disgust I felt reading this. No, my disgust is not because it's a "trendy" opinion to hate anything Israeli. I am disgusted because in the three examples Riordan gives, only one has a positive adjective (dashing) attached to the stated role (Israeli spy). The other two roles are minority identities (Latino, Syrian) that have no positive connotation attached. In fact, the latter has a negative attachment (terrorist). It's almost laughable how Riordan decided to write "dashing Israeli spy" and "a Syrian terrorist" in the same sentence and thought that was okay. This is what Americans are led to believe. The narrative that "Israel is good and the Middle East is bad" is so ingrained in American culture, that it is so casually placed in young adult fiction.

And even more disrespectfully, this is about a Cherokee man. A man whose ancestry is tainted by several lifetimes worth of oppression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and censorship. It should be common information now that the injustice and horrors Indigenous Americans faced (and are still experiencing less publicly and obviously) is aligned with the very same injustice and horrors the Palestinian people have been experiencing for 75 years. The relationship several Native American tribes and Palestine is strong. There is a shared history and solidarity between these oppressed groups. I strongly recommend learning more about their relationship if you haven't already. The Palestine Pod, a podcast that aims to educate the public about Palestinian history, culture and resistance, did an episode with Dr. Steve Salaita, author of Inter/Nationalism: Decolonizing Native America and Palestine (p. 2016) in May 2021. Several reviews have described the writing in the book as heavy on academic language so I believe the podcast will be more digestible.

There is absolutely no way a character like Tristan McLean would ever accept an Israeli role. The man who rejects any Native role because there is no perfect part that is written well and respectful enough for his standard would play the role of an oppressor? What the fuck Rick Riordan? And let's not forget that he is a brown man. He is not white-passing, which is why he can fit different minority identities and the Spartan king role. So of course, Israeli spy is just perfect isn't it? Even if someone wanted to argue that Israel's actions as a colonizing state were not as well-known in 2010 and Riordan's writing is unfortunate ignorance, that argument does not hold up when you remember that he clearly compliments the Israeli role (dashing) which highlights his personal bias. Oh, but maybe he's grown and learned more in the past 13 years and has changed his opinion? Except, remember when he released a really detailed neutral statement on the "conflict"? I will acknowledge that he said, "genocidal proportions" regarding the attacks in Gaza, but he also calls for support and security for Israeli. Whatever, I don't care for dissecting neutrality. I'm not exactly shocked by Riordan's position.

Maybe most young readers would pass over the excerpt as a whole like I first did. But for others, it lingers. The connotations are clear and pervasive despite being a small insight into a tertiary character in the grand scheme of such a large series. Riordan's attempts at representation mean nothing when his writing is flawed, contradictory, and insulting regarding his characters of color.

I am glad that I am rereading TLH. It's reminded me the importance of reading old and new material. I channeled the anger I felt reading this excerpt into writing this post and finding a new informative source on Palestinian and Native American oppression. It is important that we continue to challenge ourselves, our nostalgia, our biases, our understanding of the world. It is important to grow from there and continue learning. Especially for Americans and Canadians, we must understand the systemic censorship against Native Americans in order to unravel the problems caused by these very systems.

Continue fighting. Fight for the oppressed. Fight for Palestine.

And do your daily click!

[iantimony]

tuesday line go up (derogatory)

hello from the end of my workday. writing this on my office computer as i watch my simulation crash in real time in the background. convergence line go up :(

listening: astonishing legends the body on the moor part 1, for some reason astonishing legends is such good Cleaning And Organizing noise to my brain. i've raised my eyebrow at some of their conclusions sometimes but i love a good unsolved mystery that doesn't focus on true crime what i can say

more 00s, just whatever shit the spotify algorithm spits out basically..."hard and heavy headbanging tuesday afternoon". i think for brevity i am going to focus on posting only the things that stuck out to me or are ear worms at the moment, which for this week is miss murder by afi, the kill by 30 seconds to mars, and out of control by hoobastank, especially the line in the latter after the chorus that goes 'and i may never know the answer to this endless mystery' that for some reason tickles my brain.

reading: Bring Back Those Pumped Italian Sodas (Anna Hezel): i LOVE italian sodas. the candy shop on main street near me does italian sodas and it is my favorite little treat to do a hot girl walk downtown and get a little bevvy to come with me. they whip so hard. bring them back everywhere!!!!!!!!!!!!

elitism is the enemy of the people (Mina Le) and the linked The machine in the garden. (Emily Sundberg) ... discourse(tm) about What Substack Is For, which means nothing to me as a non-substack user. i use a rss reader to follow a few specific substacks but i do not use the platform even a little bit. sundberg seems to disparage the list format (shoutout to miss deb perelmen who i saw in there as an example of things that are pushed on the platform now) (deb's newsletter is one of the ones i follow with my rss feed lol) slash the concept of "list of content I’m consuming" which. looks at my weekly roundup posts. lol. i do understand to an extent, though - does my weekly roundup post make me a Writer(tm)?? i would kinda agree that no not really.

this zine that i think i reblogged yesterday is very cute.

watching: i saw the new alien movie with a friend! it was really good, i enjoyed it, i did look up the jumpscares beforehand because i do not do well with those in theaters especially the big imax ones, but it ended up not being necessary - the local theater here has no imax or any of the big surround sound gimmick things, which i actually prefer, and it also means the tickets were dirt cheap. 10/10 experience. the movie itself was fun, the correct amount of peen/vag imagery that one would expect from an alien movie. important to note that the dehumanization of an android character (who is also the only black character and strongly autism coded) is a big plot thing, it is not Good that he is treated that way and that is also a plot thing but it is important to know going in so it's not a surprise (thanks to someone in a server i'm in for pointing that out, i didn't clock it as being potentially triggering when i saw it but i was like ohh yeah that does make sense to warn people about). really good cast and plot overall, there was only like one point where i was like "whyyy nooo that makes no sense, why would you do that" (without too much spoiling, the gravity turns on and off in a portion and they were just. zooming up an elevator shaft using the lack of gravity. like why would you not be staying near the ladder. you KNOW it's going to turn off at some random point. anyways), but in general the decisions the characters made were really reasonable which made it very fun to watch the consequences of like, yeah, that is also the choice i would have made, shit. the ending made me go EUGH!! in a good way. lots of good easter eggs that i probably missed some of. made me weirdly nostalgic for my dad because when i was growing up he had a life-size hyper-realistic rubber facehugger model. he used to mime getting attacked by it. my mom hated that fucking thing. it must have gotten thrown out or given away at some point. anyways, as the kids would say: it's kino

thank u celestialtourguide for ur dropout login xoxo, i have been watching a lot of 'make some noise'. i love how sometimes you can hear the crew laughing in the background.

youtubesphere:

jimmy robins: The Fallout of Watcher's Betrayal, what sparked me looking more at dropout. also found out from the comments section that sam reich is son of robert reich ??? wild

finished the george r r martin problem. basically: yeagh

dangelo wallace: not gonna link em all but his videos on chapell roan, katy perry, blake lively, and starbucks. pop culture updates that mean nothing to me. good background noise tho

mina le: underconsumption-core, travel outfits, and Paul Mescal’s shorts, the luxury of privacy & the celebrity vs. influencer paradox. my boyfriend is a proponent of the tiny inseam shorts and i wholly encourage it. more of that, please, from everyone.

made in the moment: My Crafty Boston Apartment Tour. as someone who is also just moved into my own apartment alone for the first time and is in the process of making the space feel like mine, this hits interestingly.

playing: dnd as normal. i finally got to go mask-off, was replaced by a doppleganger like six months ago and finally got to pop off and kill some guys and beat the shit out of my friends lol >:b i have also moved the game that i run to biweekly instead of weekly. i just have too much fucking things happening and dm burnout real.

making: evil eye coasters! these made me very nervous because of how streaky the underglaze is! so i did the tedious task of re-coloring in around my sgraffito lines of my [redacted] coasters. clear coated them and crossing my fingers. these coasters are also too thin, two of them are too warped to use as coasters so ill have to figure out what to do with them. maybe drilling a hole (carefully...) so i can hang them up somewhere? the [redacted] coasters are like twice the thickness so i don't think they'll be warped as bad thankfully.

i also. made. mesopotamian foot bowl :) i did not have a reference image at the time because that happened to be when the t mobile towers went down for a few hours last saturday so i kinda just freeballed it but he looks. so silly i love him. i think im gonna have to modify him, i was chatting with the studio owner about it and she was like "if you threw that bowl on a wheel you should hollow the legs out, wheel pottery twists slightly as it dries and that plus the drying rates being different will make them just pop right off", which, i can always glue them back on! but i should give him the best odds possible. bonus lil tushy

i made a BIG BOWL !! it's not really clear from the image but it's the most clay i've ever thrown at once, i think it's like. 2.5 lb?? i didn't actually weigh it first oops i should weigh it. but it's like a foot across at the top. i put it on little ball feet to use as some sort of display bowl i think.

and there's one more bowl that is really unremarkable so no picture for now.

fiber art: made a fucking. magic the gathering card cozy for a friend that my local mtg group is putting together a care package for. it's so fucking stupid i love it. not gonna post a pic of the front, it's just a dark red border to hold the card in. i might outline the swamp symbol with matching embroidery floss (or maybe navy??) to make it pop more, might also sew a small square of fabric on the inside to hide the loose ends. colors were chosen to match his main commander which is braids

eating: FINALLY finished the gyudon. um . didn't cook many more recipes. i was going to do one pot chicken meatballs with greens and deb smittenkitchen's corn bacon and parmesan pasta last night but i spent two hours wandering walmart like my ancestors wandered the desert and came home and just had leftovers lol. the cooking will commence......today after i post this and go home.

misc: the midwest is hot this week! fml! on the plus side i don't think my average energy bill in my new place will be worse than my old one despite the worse insulation based on the mid-cycle energy report email i got, on the minus side now i am not splitting that cost so technically it feels more expensive :( thankfully i have finally been finishing the process of closing my dad's accounts so i will have a little padding in my bank account, plus i think i am supposed to get the fellowship i won deposited soon?? shrug. i booked some flights using credit card points that in retrospect i should have booked with Money because of that fellowship but oh well. i am still in the Everything Is So Expensive stage of moving as i finish getting furniture and miscellaneous home goods, hence the two hour walmart wander yesterday. i still need a couch. i think i am getting a frat house walmart futon for like $150 just because it's space efficient and won't break the bank and will be easy to sell when i move out. i should probably order that before i go visit home for 3 weeks ...... anyways. that's this tuesdaypost done and dusted.

[urgrossdaughter]

You haven’t watched the latest episodes of doctor who??? I’m disappointed :(( I watched them as soon as they came out, I can only hope it gets better :’) I’m enjoying this new season, it’s not as great as the early ones though. Who is your favourite doctor?

The last doctor who i watched was upto the last episode with peter capaldi, and that was 1-2 yrs ago :( i tried to watch the ones after that but its just like, it got too difficult 😭 even the ones with capaldi were difficult because it jhst became so modernised and obviously thats expected but still idk😭😭 i just like the cosy vibes of doctor who and then suddenly it felt like fluorescent lights. Yk?

I'll definitely watch the new seasons once i rewatch bbc version upto capaldi since u say u like them!!!

Fav doctor is like asking me my favourite book or movie😭😭 i love christopher eccleston and david tennant and matt smith those are my FAVVVVVS. I cannot choose between them. Ah no yeah no i cant choose. Can you choose? Id love to know ur favourite doctor and why!!!!! AND WHOS UR FAVOURITE COMPANION.

My favourite honestly id say sarah jane smith possibly purely because i knew her character from her spin off show and i thought she was such a badass and then seeing how she reminisces and continued her sci fi saving stuff WITHOUT the doctor- that was amazinf and brave!!

But if im looking at just the companions I've actually watched, cus i havent watched the old seasons, lol. I would sayyy Amy because shes so like multifaceted and i love that. She loves rhe doctor but she loves rory but he doesnt get her as much but she still loves him and she loves the doctor but shes so loyal to rory and she feels so strongly and she wants to be so MUCH and i know these traits are all in the other companions too but i love how it is expressed with amy! How she doesn't reallt get everything, and she gets a tragic but loving ending. And i mean, fish fingers and custard! A delicacy whicj couldn't have come about if the 11th doctor didnt have wrird cravinfs at her house. I love rose too. I also love clara but shes bottom of the list and i cant wrap my mind around why exactly. But yeah.

WAIT NO DONNA IS MY FAVOURITE. SHE DIDNT FALL IN LOVE WITH HIM AND WAS HIS ACTUAL BEST FRIEND AND THE DOCTOR DONNA SONG

Oh my god. Im reallt showing my nerd side rn why did i write a fucking essay🧍🏽‍♀️ im still posting it

[adobealmanac]

Hello! I am working through reading through the information on your blog. The search function on this app is notoriously horrible though. Might try to use my laptop. I would like to know if you have any thoughts on the term cryptid

Personally I believe, through experience, that beings that get put into the cryptid category or spirits or gods who would have been revered in antiquity by indigenous people, and still are, and I still do them

But that because of the lack of offerings or resources or praise or worship that they have become accustomed to, thanks to colonization, they are now in a reduced state with limited influence

Uhh. All of the beings who are Gods to me are put in this category. Wampus is a cat goddess. The other one doesn't like me to share his name as much I think but he is devil like. A psycho pomp, guardian of crossroads, teacher of witchcraft, Lord of the outcasts, etc. I would also like to know, genuinely. What you think about this. I want to pray to El chupacabra. Have the Jersey devil and the mothman. Lol. I don't need validation as such but I guess more specifically, what do you think of the term cryptid, and can El chupacabra potentially be honored or worked with, without the destructive aspect? I believe so, personally. Have a good one 🤍

Cryptids - Cultural appreciation or appropriation?

You stated this issue very well. Many creatures that are considered to be cryptids are often removed from their cultural contexts therefore limiting the extent of what their power is -- their origins and folk traditions are effectively lost due to this. One common one I consistently see being forced into the "cryptids" category is La Llorona. She is not a cryptid, but is a vengeful spirit from the Southwestern USA and Mexico. People often use the term cryptid with her.. which just sort of lumps her into a category in which she does not belong. You can't hunt her, for she is already dead. Nor can you spot her, since seeing her is essentially a death sentence.

Due to this "cryptidification" there have been numerous pieces of media that have been published by people outside of her culture that represent her inaccurately. I personally dislike many of the movies where she is the villain, as.. to me she is more-so a vengeful spirit that is easily avoided. She doesn't seek out people, but if they stumble into her territory, well, that's on them. Also, in the movie she is defeated. That is just inaccurate in my opinion, as she isn't exactly defeatable. She is avoidable, but you couldn't kill her even if you tried. I do not like these portrayals, as they misrepresent her and provide incorrect information according to her true story.

In essence, cryptid hunters or cryptozoologists should focus more on the cultural aspects of the beings they intend to hunt or research, as that is a key component to who these creatures are and what they represent. Instead of simply reading other crpto-fanatics own views on the beings. Stripping the cultural background from any entity is in essence only looking at them through a two dimensional lens. You simply cannot fully understand a "cryptid" without looking into the folkloric traditions and tales told by the people who grew up with said being. Essentially, they should try their best to learn from the culture rather than appropriate from it.

Onto this idea of worshipping more "harmful" or "evil" entities, such as El Chupacabra. I've touched on this idea for La Llorona in a blogpost before, however I do not believe all entities can be talked about in the same way. I urge people not to worship, invoke, or attempt to seek out La Llorona as she is intrinsically dangerous. However, I do believe you can work with aspects as her, or a more archetypal version of her, as it is not exactly sentient in the same way that she is. I think El Chupacabra could be worked with if you really wanted to, although I'd strongly urge you to protect any pets you live with prior to working with him... heh. As El Chupacabra does not harm humans, I think its plausible to work with him, so long as you are respectful and protected of course. To be frank, I could see him being immensely useful to work with for farmers, as they could potentially offer him things to keep him away from their farm. But, to each their own.

All in all cryptids are quite the interesting subject when it comes to anthropology and.. "cryptozoology". They provide an interesting accessibility to otherwise little-known folkloric beings, however that is not always good. I do believe that working with certain beings that are categorized as "cryptids" could be worthwhile.. however do stay away from La Llorona.. lol. I hope this provided some sort of insight for you, please do let me know if you have any further questions or comments! Thanks for asking this question, as I found writing this to be quite interesting.

[ariaterramoon]

Slug Fu Headcanon- Chi

So I rewatched Slugterra: Eastern Caverns a few weekends ago and there's one thing that still bothered me the most:

Chi.

The way that it is explained in the movie doesn't really... match up to the actual meaning of Chi???

Rant and headcanon below. Lmk your thoughts.

* = footnote at end of post

Decided to add a quick lil drawing. It's just what happens internally with their Slug Energy.

Like, from my understanding, chi is the life force/energy that flows through all living things.

But in the movie, it is said that it's a set of moral code, so essentially the Slugslinger code (that apparently the 99 Caverns have but was never explored truly. I wanna know what the code is explicitly xD cuz I have an idea by how Eli carries himself lol)

But anyways, if chi is just a set of moral code like the Slugslinger code, wouldn't all Eastern slingers follow it? If chi is so essential to Slug Fu, then if everyone follows it, wouldn't anyone and everyone be able to practice Slug Fu? Become a Master even?

If that's the case, then if someone (who isn't a Master) wears a wrist blaster, it would be frowned upon but it wouldn't be such a big insult and Junjie wouldn't feel so strongly about it.

So, I present you this:

Chi - Reworked

Chi —in Slugterra— refers to one's own Slug Energy*.

Slug Fu works by being able to tap into one's own Slug Energy and their slug's energy at the same time. This in turn, creates a connection between slinger and slug, thus allowing the slinger to guide their slug with Slug Fu art forms.

Although fairly simple to understand, applying the concept is difficult, incredibly more so to master. It is why becoming a Slug Fu Master is such an incredible and respectable feat, why it is such a huge deal, and why there are not many...

So if a slinger uses a wrist blaster and isn't a Slug Fu Master, it is an insult to tradition and to the Masters themselves.

Dark Slug Fu works the same way. Only difference is learning to corrupt your own chi, twisting it into something evil and dark... This in turn, allows a slinger to access the dark energy of ghouls. Does take a toll on a slinger's body, the corruption often showing up on their body...

Then, they have to will their chi to become stronger in order to overpower the energy of ghouls in order to, not guide them, but to control them...

NOTES:

The double sight Eli unlocks with Burpy, the way it works is that slinger's energy and slug's must be perfectly synced, thus allowing the slinger to see through their slug's eyes.

A Slug Fu Master is able to guide more than one slug at the same time by splitting their energy into X pieces and connecting each one to the respective slug. This does drain the slinger though and eats at their stamina and endurance.

Mastering Slug Fu takes up a lot of focus and concentration as just being able to be aware of one's own Slug Energy is tricky already.

* per "It Comes By Night, it is implied Slugterrans have Slug Energy, if not, the High Plains monster shouldn't have been able to affect the people.

TL;DR:

I reworked what Chi is in Slugterra. Chi is now the Slug Energy within all Slugterrans. Slug Fu works by connecting the slinger's chi to their slug's chi.

[aihoshiino]

Something about this new chapter feels off to me…im relieved to see that kana is finally getting to confess (with the title drop too again, wow) but it doesn't feel right…? Like something bad will happen. But also…things feel unresolved for some reason, yet we're still moving through the plot. Maybe i just feel unsatisfied with it, even if i knew that the confession will happen and i wanted it to happen. Everything feels all over the place and i can't remember what was true the goal of the story anymore

As cute as 151 was, I definitely agree on that front. It's sort of similar to 143 in that way in that like... if you like this ship this is going to be like ambrosia from heaven for you but if you were looking for something more concrete or resolute, it can be a little frustrating to see that this is technically still hanging. At the same time, I feel like that sense of unease is pretty intentional - we're sort of coasting on the calm before the storm right now and it's possible that we're being softened up by romcom antics so the drama hits extra hard.

After all, we've got a TON of hanging red flags rn: Kamiki is still at large with some pretty heavy handed hints setting up Kana or Ruby as a potential final target, the movie still needs to come out (and the editor's note in the JP raws specifically says it's happening next week) and it's strongly implied by the final panel of 151 that there's a B-Komachi fan VERY upset by Kana's graduation who could potentially be a threat to her. And that's just what I remember off the top of my head, without getting into individual character arcs lol.

So yeah, I definitely think this sense of unresolved tension is by design and for the purposes of building up to a greater catharsis down the line but. Man I don't blame you for being exhausted lol. When OnK is firing on all cylinders I do love it but between the Movie Arc being the Movie Arc and how weirdly this new arc has gotten started, it'd be nice to have SOMETHING resolve conclusively at this point.