#western storyline

[thewizardofrp]

@govannas "𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘯 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘢 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘰𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘨𝘶𝘯." - 𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘴𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘯

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 262

Pondering Ghosts are Dragons, and just rotating each design in my head I have for them. That is the ghosts we see in the show more than just once or twice lol. Just pondering each of them and potential types and descriptions and how the people of Amity see them, as they’re used to the dragons around, vs say someone from Outside, crossover or no, who are Not used to the maybe slightly eldritch undeath interdimensional dragons around everywhere. 

That is not normal for other people. 

To the Amity Parkers? Boxy is simply a chonky dragon with small boxy wings and covered in blue scales. To people just coming into the city, it’s like seeing a giant komodo dragon when you’re just walking home- not something you exactly want to see and something that is dangerous. 

Kitty’s and Johnny’s weekly relationship tussle? Par for the course really. But to visitors? Two giant wyverns tearing into each other, shimmering greens that could be scales, could be tendrils, and shadows lengthening and thrashing like a living beast all its own. 

And this is just the small dragonlings, not even beginning with larger ones like Pandora and Fright Knight, chill as they may be. 

Outsiders don’t understand that they’re more than just animals. Amity is used to this, but people who have no clue what’s going on? They don’t.

They call the police, the heroes, the government, for help, for answers. And that? That the GIW can use. 

[danwhobrowses]

Just to make a point

It is very possible to like both Mandalorian and Andor by the way. I see a lot of people shitting on one to praise the other, they are both Star Wars but in different ways, and they're both great for it.

[harurio]

guardian ep5

@oneiro-nautical i hope you are having a lovely day

shades of the distinctly green bathwater in secret of the valet

'move out of the staff dormitories' 1) the staff live in dorms? 2) i sense an opportunity for cohabitation/forced proximity..........

lin jing is so funny i love him

oh okay shen wei has a house. that uni must pay him real good

this is just like on supernatural

the butler did it.

get that old man's ass shen wei!!! (nonsexual)

phone convo! in spirit they are both lying in bed kicking their feet twirling their hair. i can tell. i miss having a landline my parents had one in our old apartment and i still know its number by heart

two babies in this photo plus one grumpy old man

okay i will not laugh, i won't, but the kid turning from a poorly animated water figure into just some dude and the old guy whooshing around like the flash is kinda getting me

i'm sorry i know and respect that they're trying to hit these emotional beats but something about it just isn't working for me this ep i'm struggling so hard idk why it's so funny

YES almighty zhao yunlan step in and save us from the rest of this fight scene

hiiiiiii shen wei we have not seen you in foreverrrrr

ooh cool first glimpse of the underworld. looks kinda like the burial mounds in the untamed except lower budget. love the color scheme

zhao yunlan shuffle-jogging along is kinda cute

shen wei your sleeve garters are KILLING ME you're such a fucking nerd (salivating) (who said that)

(zhao yunlan said it that's who)

now look at this.

a baby

hmmm a locked room mystery! exciting! i like how they're overlapping mysteries in each episode, keeps us on our toes

i have romance on the brain, i keep seeing opportunities that a bl would take and run with (caretaking, cohabitation, etc) and that's not what this story is primarily about, it's a supernatural/crime drama with a homoerotic subplot. so i gotta be patient to see more weilan interactions. i'm excited to see how the pieces of the big story start coming together though!

[uzukibeans]

dr stone being one of my fav animes ive seen recently is pretty crazy given how turned off i was by senku's character design + the weed man memes + i thought based on the visuals it was going to be some type of seinen/shounen overloaded w tropes im not a fan of...and it kinda is LMFAO the way women are drawn compared to men terrifies me

but it completely blew me out of the water wrt expectations on the story. the science niche it fills is genuinely so enjoyable. the scene where they remade the "edison" lightbulb is so unforgettable. and i loved the reinventing glasses arc

ofc i am also watching this w a critical lens and do notice a lot of questionable tropes/ideological commentary that make me go ?!?!?!?!?. but dr stone being an anime ive rewatched was not something i was expecting

[duckapus]

Finally figured out an idea for why exactly Mr. L went through all the trouble of inciting a revolution just to get at the Adminspace Archives.

Basically, he's trying to create his own game multiverse, one separate from the Admins' influence, as a way to return to his roots, since the villains' plan in his debut game was to create their own Perfect World...or at least that was what they were told even though the whole thing was actually Count Bleck's "Suicide-by-Apocalypse."

But even with the information and special Dev Tools he got from the Archives, he's ultimately just one little digital man (and two killer robots who know very little about programming). His Vision could take decades to bring to life on his own, assuming he can even get the funds for it. What he needs is a dedicated Development Team.

And wouldn't you know it, there's a game development company who's already In-The-Know about the Digital World right there. He manages to get in touch with Jayin, who initially thinks it's some kind of prank before he proves that he really is who he says he is. His pitch of the game is an MMORPG that takes place in an interconnected Multiverse that's facing...some sort of eldritch cosmic threat (he would have that figured out but I don't). While the starting cluster of universes would likely be their own original creations to give the game time to create its own following and identity, future updates might include crossovers with existing CCC properties (possibly the Living versions if she decides to make a move and exert her authority). It would be her very own real Connected Cosmos, the worlds and their characters fully under her control, and all he asks is to be allowed to live there and operate unimpeded.

She's hooked, but very reasonably points out that even with a full team it'll still take years to make a game on that scale, at which point he reveals the Admin-Level Dev Tools he took. These babies are what's used to turn basic Servers into the various cityscapes, facilities, and other such Program-Level areas that make up the bulk of the Digital Multiverse, and at this point they're so advanced that they'll easily cut the average time and effort needed for human game development in half, maybe even more. All with the possible patents and copyright claims completely up for Jayin to grab for herself, of course.

And so development begins on the game that will be known as Connected Cosmos, appropriately codenamed Project Thunder.

[hiyari8]

No, like. It is so funny cuz even if you are only talking about the show... yeah, man. The show that has Juri Arisugawa is very subtextual.

Like I said, RGU is not subtextual! It might not be explicit or have the characters say: "I am gay/bisexual." but they act or express it in multiple ways. It is shown directly or even said.

no lich rally!!! you can't even say that it's buried under some layers of symbolism or allegories bc of how blunt and direct some of it is

[sanstropfremir]

ohhh a new gg debuted called Kiss of life and their song is so good!! plus theyre all over eighteen thank you god

[lazzledazzler]

Hello. I wanted to ask ? Did you married Inigo in your Awakening file ? if so you accidentally made a KMLZ file and was accidentally shipping them the entire time since Robin is Corrin's reincarnation in Fates jpn dub.

yes i’ve played fates in jp~ it’s implied in one of rhajat’s supports.

Intsys did this because they knew i felt uncomfortable marrying a 2nd gen unit in awakening so they were like ‘no, no you see? it’s been kmlz this whole time!’ facts

[anarchoarchie]

top five once upon a time christ figure moments <3

OH HOW TO CHOOSE... i will definitely need to update this list once i rewatch the show but off the top of my head(most of these are early on because i haven't watched the later seasons in quite a while):

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

okay the read more thing is getting fucked up so im adding this paragraph in hopes that it will get it to work. tumblr why are you like this

henry getting poisoned from the apple turnover and coming back to life at the end of s1. he goes oh you don't believe? well what if i die and you have to bring me back to life through the power of love and magic. double emma and henry christ figure moment there. also that scene where henry bites the turnover and passes out is SO iconic

just everything with emma's birth. literal baby who everyone is trying to kill and who represents hope and love and is predestined to save the world!!!

neal/baelfire is very jesuscoded to me. gentle nice kid with a scary powerful dad; dies to save emma and henry et cetera. neal and emma are kind of a jesus4jesus power couple if you think about it

snow white!!! special princess who is badass and kind and all the animals love and who everyone is trying to kill. when she eats the poison apple knowing what's going to happen. and then essentially gets resurrected. (bonus: that scene with the huntsman where he spares her life and then later gets martyred for it) sidenote maybe there's some kind of genetic component here actually because snow, emma, henry, and lucy are all some level of jesuscoded. pretty neat of them

henry having the heart of the truest believer!! also his little speech in new york where he tells everyone to believe and make a wish and its like that moment in a covertly religious hallmark movie where the christ figure character gets everyone to believe in the magic of christmas. does that make any sense

anyways i really need to rewatch this show because i know there are so many more that i'm forgetting especially in the later seasons.

(honorable mentions: whatever was going on with lily's whole judas (and/or antichrist??) thing with emma. pinnochio/august booth. lucy mills. everything about the final battle. many more things that i simply don't remember off the top of my head)

[thewizardofrp]

@govannas

"Sorry I moaned when you threatened to kill me."

[silkchiffon]

and the silver screen is a bonkers episode of television

[100layersofdaddyissues]

I’m angry about ofmd so spoilers in the tags ignore me

[networkunsupported]

OHHHHHHHH

^ his own oc storyline that he's literally writing and in full total control of just started suddenly making sense

[jonathanrogersartist]

How 'The Acolyte' Disappointed Me, and Why the Themes of 'Star Wars' Matter

Someone recently commented on my 'On the Dark Side, the Jedi and the Moral Decay of Star Wars' essay with these words: 

"A lot of words for saying 'I don't like the newer media, but I won't get into specifics as to why.'"

Okay! I shall then finally clarify those specifics....

That first essay has, so far, been my biggest success on this blog, and it's attracted a number of interesting responses. Full disclosure: I wrote that fresh off the heels of feeling depressed over how the Acolyte ended, and after reading/listening to several of Leslye Headland's interviews, where she went into great detail about her ideas behind the show's choices, the themes she's trying to get across, and what personal baggage she brings to Star Wars. 

Why was I depressed?

Because the show's finale ended with the deeply problematic implication that Osha, by killing Sol and joining Qimir, has achieved true self-actualization. As Leslye herself put it, it's a 'positive corruption arc.' Interesting way to phrase it. 

Furthermore, Vernestra's actions that frame Sol for several murders, all to protect her own reputation, and to avoid oversight by the Senate, confirmed one of the things that I was really worried this show would do as soon as we began learning plot details, which is that it's leaning into this very persistent edgelord take that the Jedi are actually big ol' bastards not worth seeing as heroes. 

It's the Dave Filoni gospel of the Jedi Order as a morally broken and fundamentally hypocritical institution, a decaying monument to religious hubris, who brought about their own destruction with their arrogance and so-called rejection of emotion making them lack empathy. 

This is, as many of my followers know already, a giant misreading of George's storyline in the prequels, and what he was actually telling us about the Jedi's philosophy and code. And in my experience, it gets us some vicious pushback when we try to inform fans of it, even if we back it up with proof of George's words. 

George really did intend the Jedi to be the ultimate example of what a brave, wise, and all-loving hero should be, and are very specifically inspired by Buddhist monks. They do not 'repress emotions': they learn to regulate their emotions, so as to not let the negative ones feed the Dark Side, and they have the moral fortitude to focus on their spiritual duty. They're professionals that have dedicated themselves to a higher calling, and who still feel and display the same emotions we all feel, unless I watched very different movies from everyone else. We see that Jedi characters can still crack jokes, cry when they are sad, become scared or anxious, feel strong love and loyalty to their peers, and can even be righteously angry in some situations BUT always knowing when to pull back.

The Jedi of the prequels were victims of manipulation by Palpatine, and were caught in between a rock-and-a-hard-place with the Clone War, and they were ultimately destroyed not by their own actions, but by the treachery of Anakin Skywalker, who failed to overcome his own flaws because he refused to really follow the Jedi teachings, and was gaslit by Palpatine for decades on top of that. 

Leslye's take on Star Wars, based on how she wrote the story of the Acolyte, is that "yup, the Jedi were doomed to destroy themselves by being hypocritical and tone-deaf space cops," and she also outright compared them to the Catholic Church (this reeks of Western bias and misunderstanding of Eastern religions). The one that really stunned me, was when she said she designed Qimir to be her own mouthpiece for the experience of being queer and suppressed, who isn't allowed to just be her authentic self in a restrictive world. Which, to me, implies that Leslye wanted to depict the Dark Side as actually a misunderstood path to self-actualization that the Jedi, in keeping with their dogma of repressing emotions, only smear as 'evil.' 

Let me remind you all: Qimir is officially referred to as a Sith Lord, by Manny Jacinto, by Leslye, etc. And what are the Sith, exactly? 

Space fascists. Intergalactic superpowered terrorists. Dark wizard Nazi-coded wannabe dictators, whose ideology is of might-makes-right, survival of the fittest, and the pursuit of power for power's sake. To depict followers of this creed as an analogy for marginalized people who have literally been targeted and murdered throughout history BY the real-life inspirations for the Sith.... I find revolting and tone-deaf by Leslye. 

SO.... seeing how that show ended, and reading up on how Leslye intended it to be interpreted (Osha's 'triumph' over the 'toxic paternalism' of Sol/the Jedi in general), really put me in a funk, because deep down, I could just sense that this was not at all compatible with the ethos of Star Wars. It made me go on a deep-dive into the BTS of the writing of the prequels and George's ideas about the Jedi, and it's how I discovered the truth that Dave Filoni has been pretty egregiously misrepresenting George's themes for several years now, usurping George's words with his own personal fanfic about the motivations of characters like Anakin, or Qui-Gon, or the Jedi Council, etc. 

His influence on the franchise has caused this completely baseless take on the Jedi to become so widespread as to rewrite history for modern fans. Who are utterly convinced now that this anti-Jedi messaging WAS George's vision all along, and they get real mad at you if you show them actual proof of that being a lie. 

And the Acolyte is perpetuating this twisting of the very core of Star Wars. This is what I meant by the 'moral decay of Star Wars.' 

The Star Wars saga was made by George Lucas in 1977 to accomplish these specific tasks: 

To remind people of what it really means to be good.

What evil actually looks like, and how it comes from our fears and greed.

To teach kids how to grow up and choose the right path that will make them loving, brave, honest people that stand up to tyrants.

To give the world a story that returns to classic mythological motifs and is fundamentally idealistic, to defy the uptick in cynical and nihilistic storytelling after the scandals of Vietnam and Watergate broke Americans' belief in there being such a thing as actual heroes anymore. 

THAT is the soul of Star Wars. That is what George meant for this remarkably creative universe to say with its storytelling. But I sincerely think that what the Acolyte told, was that morality is relative, the heroes of this saga are actually bastards, the fascist death-cult is misunderstood, and a young woman being gaslit into joining said death-cult is a triumphant girlboss moment. When it actually comes across as the tragedy of a broken person choosing the wrong path that will only make her miserable, full of hatred and powerlust, and hurt innocent people along the way. 

The Acolyte betrayed one of George's most critical lessons: that the Dark Side ruins people, and if you want to truly become your best self, you must choose the path of Light, and the Jedi are the ones who have best mastered that path. So if the future of Star Wars is to continue framing the Jedi and their teachings as some corrupt and immoral system that is making the galaxy worse, then I would rather stick to rewatching the classic scripture of Episode 1-6. George wrote a complete and satisfying story, that is thematically consistent, and in my opinion should have been allowed to rest. 

I will not hate on new fans that love the new material, but I will pity them if they really think any of this is actually faithful to George's vision (they may very well simply not care, either, which troubles me too), and I am afraid of a show like Acolyte teaching young people to see the Jedi's philosophy as wrong, and the Sith as having a point. 

(P.S. I have a moral duty to clarify this, given the discourse around the show: No, this is not a problem with 'wokeness,' or diversity, or representation; that side of the fandom is very sick in the head and not to be taken seriously. 

It's a problem with Leslye's themes and tastes as a storyteller, being fundamentally against the ethos of Star Wars and how it soured the entire show in hindsight for me... a show that I was actually really liking, before the finale dropped its thematic nuke.)

[hiveswap]

"Dude with DID beefs with a trans woman" sounds like it should be the tumblr drama that gets half your mutuals to block each other and yet it's a storyline that takes up like half a volume of the christian space western manga