WILLOW l S01E05 - “Wildwood” 

Jade… all I care about is you. And if you wanna come here, after we find Airk, to live, I would tag along. If that’s okay. ‘Cause I don’t wanna have any adventures unless they’re with you. I should’ve told you that sooner, you know? And for that, for everything, I’m so sorry. Alright, uh, what did you wanna say?

okay so....

i am slowly deconstructing my outdated, riddled with internal misogyny etc opinion of "boy-bands are stupid why would i listen to their music"

so i arrive to you my friend, please educate me on 5sos, like essential songs and hidden gems etc. because i know nothing but it seems like they might be cool.

aj when i'm done you'll know everything there is to know about 5sos — beneath the cut though since i will ramble

Okay, technically 5sos is a band of 4 boys with a primarily female audience, but imo there are a few differences between them and your typical The Wanted or 1d.

First, 5sos is primarily a live band, and they're incredible at it. They play their instruments live, both in studio recordings and on stage. Additionally, I would describe the music they make as progressive rock — the harmonies, drum kits, etc. don't make it sound like typical boy band music.

This was them in 2019? I believe. From left to right: Michael (lead guitar), Ashton (drums), Calum (bass), Luke (Lead Vocals), though they all sing.

Okay, now onto their albums.

5 Seconds of Summer: 'Self titled' was their first album. This one is more pop-y and more for the nostalgia than the quality of its music. My favs — End Up Here, Heartache On the Big Screen, Long Way Home, and Amnesia

Sounds Good Feels Good: This album is very pop-punk. They wrote it in two months. It's still a banger. My favs — Waste the Night, Vapor, Castaway, and Outer Space/Carry On

Youngblood: This is the one I recommend you listen to first. It's more what their current sound is like, and it's their best album. Honestly the entire album is my fav, but if I had to choose — Want You Back, Moving Along, If These Walls Could Talk, Babylon, and Ghost of You

Insert Killer Queen cover here. It's not on any album, but they did it for the Queen biopic and it's incredible.

CALM: This is their 4th studio album that came out in March 2020. Imo it was slightly rushed and not as good as it could have been, but it's still a great album. My favs — Teeth, Old Me, Best Years, and Wildflower

Bonus (Solo Albums): I'll admit, I've listened to Ashton's solo album maybe once. It's not bad, but it's pure rock, which isn't really my vibe. I can vouch for Luke's solo album When Facing the Things We Turn Away From though (He's my #2 artist on Spotify). It ranks right under Youngblood for me, so I recommend you give that a listen as well!

Okay okay this was a lot but hopefully you enjoy their music!

EDIT: I forgot to put my literal favorite song on here bc it’s off the album, but Story of Another Us is lyrically GOD tier

Leopardstar is holding Fireheart close, as if he was still a tiny kit that slept at her side and not the cat who'd just killed Scourge. Featherpaw and Stonepaw walk beside Mistyfoot as she comes closer, and he can feel Misty stop beside him.

"Mudfur says he's going to be okay. He's just exhausted and a bit scared. Scourge said some things about Leopardstar never coming back and well after what happened to Tigerstar..."

Leopardstar looks up, dazed from the numerous poppy seeds Mudfur had given her, before she spoke. "I'm sorry Stonefur...he made me choose. My son...or you. He said he'd kill Fireheart...but that he'd give you a chance...I...he's my son, Stone. My only kit...."

[au where leopardfur is firekit's mother]

oh god i have No Idea what happens in tigerclan during this au. i have Not gotten very far with this one LMAO.

anyway no statements of what it'll look like when i get around to Writing It, but rolling with this for now bc i like the character moment provides...

mudfur's den is very crowded. it's been a long time. fireheart is...probably pretty injured, actually. he doesn't have nine lives and scourge is not an easy fight. so like. you know everyone is worried about him. and leopardstar missed stonefur terribly much and mistyfoot and featherpaw and stormpaw and...

poor mudfur. he does not have space for this.

(also if anyone is curious about the new divider it's because it looks pretty in the font on my blog on a browser. not to promote the nice version of my blog but u should look at it it's pretty.)

*** *** ***

"two of you can stay," he says, "you've all said hello, everyone get out."

there's no question about who's going to stay.

fireheart is too big for leopardstar to curl around, but she's done the best she can, his head tucked at her side. stonefur bunts her softly, and she blinks at him, her eyes glassy and dazed. he purrs, lying against fireheart's back and pressing his forehead against hers.

"mudfur thinks he'll be okay. says it's more shock than anything." she licks fireheart's shoulder.

he would ask if she was okay, but he knows the answer.

"stonefur, i'm -- sorry about everything." she presses her nose to his chest. "i didn't...i should have fought harder, fought sooner for you."

she should have, but what's done is done. whatever mudfur has said, and whatever leopardstar has heard him say, fireheart's life is still teetering dangerously, a leaf floating down the river. he doesn't need to make her feel worse.

"he was going to...he told me..." leopardstar taeks a breath. "i shoudl have done more," she repeats.

"it's alright, leopardstar."

"it's not." she pulls back, resting her chin against fireheart's spine. "I should have known he wouldn't keep his word. i know better than that."

stonefur shifts, turning his head to look straight at her. "what do you mean?"

"he knew about fireheart," she says. "he said i could keep my deputy or my son."

the tip of her tail flicks against the ground.

"i was a fool, stonefur. i know better than that."

"you're not -- tigerstar had two clans underneath him, leopardstar, and windclan wasn't coming to help us. i wouldn't..." he licks the top of her head. "i'm not angry that you chose your son over me."

"i shouldn't have chosen either of you."

he knows her well enough to know she is thinking, if i killed him then, i could have killed him before.

"we're all alright now. that's what matters."

Content warning: Animal neglect

Hi fishblr 👋 I don't have a fish blog so I'm not sure how many people this will reach who can help, but this is Roosevelt as you can tell he's missing his fins. Him and three other goldfish are technically mine but I've never cared for them before I just didn't know how and my dad was keeping them for me so I figured he knew what he was doing. Even if you don't know anything about fish you can very probably guess that is not true considering: no fins. To make a long story short my dad isn't cleaning the tank or doing water changes and I didn't realize that until now. I'm not blaming it all on him I should have been more responsible and done more research before getting fish but unfortunately 13 year old me didn't think about that. About two weeks ago I realized Roosevelt developed finrot again he actually did a year ago when I was at school so I hadn't noticed until I came back home and saw him in his current finless state. He's still getting around okay and can get food so I figured he's not good but at least okay. I noticed the tip of his tail turning white and I asked a petco employee what to do abt that, they pointed out some medicine and told me to set up a quarantine tank so I did that but I definitely need some advice on this whole situation.

Hes the only one in the tank who's fins have turned white but another one has fins that are kind of frayed looking but I didn't see that until after I moved Roosevelt into this tank. I know 10 gallons is way too small for a goldfish but I was told thats okay for a quarantine tank. I've been doing a lot of research into fin rot and keeping goldfish and the number one thing I want to do is get them a bigger tank, but I can't do that for awhile because I have no job about about 8 dollars in my bank account (my mom bought the small tank and filter and everything else I'm using now for me but she draws the line at spending money for a 55 gallon tank which is I think the minimum for three goldfish I'm not sure I saw some ppl saying bigger) so until then I'm really wondering the best things I can do. I saw conflicting stuff on the medication really helping fin rot and a lot more positive stuff for aquarium salt helping so I've put that in both tanks (I put the carbon filter back in the quarantine tank and waited two days for the medicine to be filtered out first bc I figured that'd be the best thing to do). I'm doing water changes in both tanks twice a week. I've been doing 25% water changes in the 20 gallon one with the two goldfish which I know isn't a lot but considering my dad hasn't changed the water in about three years I thought doing more than that might be too much for them right now. Since the 10 gallon tank I moved Roosevelt too is uncycled I've been doing 50% water changes twice a week. I got an ammonia test kit and unfortunately the levels are about 0.25-0.5 ppm right now I'm not sure what the ph of the water is. The tips of his fins look kind of black which some googling said was a sign of ammonia in the tank. So I know thats a lot of background but these are my questions

1. Is the amount of water changing I'm doing okay? Or should I do more? Less even?

2. Is it okay to have decorations in a quarantine tank? Bc I've heard conflicting things and right now its empty but I feel bad because he's already alone and I knew goldfish should be social but him having no decorations makes me afraid he'll get stressed and bored from the super open space. I was thinking I could put a clean terracotta pot in there as a cave or something from the other tank to give some cover

3. How can I lower the ammonia levels in the ten gallon tank? I took the filter from the 20 gallon one thats already been cycled (I tested the waters ammonia is at zero in that one) and kind of swished it around in the water bc someone said that can help. I'm doing those water changes and I aerated the tank when I was giving him medicine bc I watched a video where someone said medicating can take some of the oxygen out of the tank but I read that doing that can also help lower the ammonia levels. What else should I do?

4. If I can get his fin rot to clear up should I move him back into the 20 gallon with the other two fish or is it better to keep him in the 10 gal? Like I said I'm hoping to get a bigger tank but until then I feel like the 20 gal one will be so overcrowded. I also saw the other fish chasing him from time to time I never saw them attacking him but that could be a possibility I'm just not in my dads room more than to occasionally check on the fish so I haven't been able to observe them that much. Is he better off alone in a smaller tank for now?

If you read this far thank you if you could give me advice I'd really appreciate that so much. Please don't tell me I'm taking bad care of these fish I'm fully aware I have not cared for them correctly but I truly am just trying to do the best that I can for them now. If your advice involves buying something please still give it to me because I might be able to convince my mom to help me a little bit more.

I'm the Warrior Code anon, and if you had the chance to improve any two codes (disregarding the last one bc no), which would it be and what would the improvements look like?

The thing is, when I say I like the code, what I’m saying is that I wouldn’t want to “improve” any of them! That’s not to say that “improvement” isn’t possible–it’s more saying that “improvement” of the code would be worse for the narrative and for the storyworld. Perfection is stagnant. It has no room to grow, change, or adapt. It is also without conflict, and therefore without tension. 

Conflict is variance: when two or more things don’t fit together neatly but coexist in the same space, and have to be worked around or changed in order to fit together better–or at all. Conflict is incompatibility: when two characters have individual goals and worldviews that cannot (or will not) coexist, and require one character to concede to the other–or for both to compromise. Not every conflict is an outright or overt argument where one side is right and the other is wrong. Often, conflicts of these above kinds occur whenever one way of life rubs up against another, such as when the clans’ separate needs, beliefs, and traditions are not shared or in harmony with each other. 

Conflicts also arise internally, within characters, when one way of life (the life a character is living–i.e., following the way of the warrior code) rubs up against the way of life a character believes they should be living (according to their ego and/or their moral code and/or their sense of tradition and/or their sense of self and identity–i.e., the warrior code is “wrong”). I believe the warrior code is the most necessary component of Warriors world-building, not only because it is the structure that literally shapes clan life and makes clans possible and mostly functional, but also because it is not a perfect system. Perfection is deeply boring to us as readers. Perfection is the counteragent to tension, and tension is the lifeblood of stories. 

That’s what the warrior code is: fifteen points of tension. Fifteen starting places for conflict to arise. While these rules give sensible, practical guidelines for survival, their other use is to escalate the tension of the entire storyworld. When Mufasa says to Simba, “That is the elephant graveyard: you must never go there,” he is creating a boundary. A boundary in-world provides characters with something to be curious about, or to question, or to rebel against, or an obstacle to overcome or outsmart, or an opportunity to do character development and personality exploration–i.e., what does this character think/do about the boundary and what does this reveal about them as a person?, or any/all of the above. 

A boundary to readers creates tension, because as soon as a character gets close to the boundary or steps over the boundary, they are put into danger (bodily, socially, etc.) and other conflicts often immediately arise as consequences for exploring beyond the boundary. Without tension, there is no story. By having fifteen rules that govern clan life, there are (at least) fifteen boundaries that every clan cat must observe at all times, and the fact the rules are limiting--or flawed--is what will at times make it difficult, or inconvenient, or impossible to avoid crossing those boundaries--and thus, creates conflict. 

Take, for example, the fifteenth rule: a warrior rejects the soft life of a kittypet. When times are good, this is an easy rule to follow! Clan cats believe they are superior to non-clan cats, and their ability to live without relying on humans in any way confirms their belief. However, when bad seasons come, this rule becomes a source of tension for every character: do they follow the warrior code (and starve, or watch their family starve, or weaken and watch another clan take over their territory, etc.) or do they break the code in order to stay alive and protect their clan (which links to rule one of the code) but undermine their whole claim to being a “true” warrior by living “like a kittypet”? If they do eat, do they keep it a secret so no-one knows they’re breaking two rules--fifteen and three (elders, queens, and kits must be fed first)? Or do they speak out--perhaps against the leader (breaking rule thirteen: leader’s word is law)--to recommend that everyone break the rule and possibly face consequences for that, as well as possibly lose the clan’s respect if they disagree with the idea? It’s only one rule, but it provides a million cascading points of conflict!

If you "improved” the rule to be “a warrior rejects the soft life of a kittypet, unless they’re starving to death,” you lose that tension entirely. That’s what I meant when I said that “improvement” of a feature can actually be worse for the narrative and the storyworld. The only greater source of tension in the whole Warriors world is, in my opinion, the threat of extinction: each clan is constantly battling against the threat of their way of life/their literal lives being extinguished--by bad leadership, by bad luck, by the harshness of their lifestyle, by the other clans, by the possibly corroding and corrupting influences of other cultures/bad judgement, by divine intentions, by betrayal or weakness of spirit or lack of faith from its own members, and other threats. 

This is why I believe the sixteenth rule is such a mistake. It is an (I would argue, successful) attempt to reduce all tension from the rest of the warrior code and, frankly, the Warriors world overall. The clans are separate because they are unable to live together. That’s the premise of the series. That is the tension on which the most basic concepts of Warriors are built. The greatest stake of the entire series–survival, the thing that all clans individually strive for, often in competition with each other--is most effective as a source of tension when it’s allowed to carry genuine weight as a threat and act as a catalyst of conflicts. The warrior code--the code formed to guide cats not only in the right way to behave, but also as guidelines for how to interact with other clans--becomes largely meaningless when the final rule is, “Protect your clan, patrol your borders, be loyal to your clan only, whatever--but when things are really bad, you have to help the other clans survive.Each clan must help the others so that no clan will fall.” Why, though? This is tonally dissonant from the rest of the series in a way that’s jarring, artificial, and sort of ridiculous. It has author’s fingerprints all over it. 

So, essentially, I find the sixteenth rule a poor addition to an otherwise really useful, fun piece of world-building, and it’s disappointing to me that Erin Hunter couldn’t just... not. I know this isn’t the answer you were asking for, but the fact is, I’m fundamentally not interested in tailoring the warrior code! I think for some people there is an urge to world-build in a way that solves all problems before the story even starts, but this is not fruitful. 

To give a (painfully simplistic) summary of my personal feelings on the matter: if things start whole, the story should break them, and if they start broken, the story should attempt to mend them or at least see what can be made with the bits leftover. It’s the process from broken-to-mended/whole-to-broken that makes a story into a story, and not just a description of a world. After all, if everything is perfect from the start and your story doesn’t break that in some way, what does your story do? Does it do anything at all?