A lonely little fish-creature meets a goblin. Not that young Ahab knew what a goblin was at the time, but they became good friends nonetheless. The goblin’s name is Checkermint, or “Checkers”.

↪︎ endless gifs of lena “babygirl” luthor ♡

masculinity is 99.9% grooming boys to be the bestest toy soldiers ever. the violence it is characterized by, so that oligarchs can always have bodies to throw at the territory they want from their competitors. “you are savage” “a meat-eater” “such a strong little boy” “buy another shooting video game” you are being bred for a war that will never end because the greed of your overlords has no limits. war wouldn’t happen if men didn’t start them and hinge the global economy on them. they want men to identify with the role they want them to play. and it’s worked so brilliantly. they really think they’re heroes. male identity is so steeped in violence on a peer and societal level. and it’s been happening for ages.

SPENCER REID in RED LIGHT CRIMINAL MINDS (2005-)

👆what is this thing⁉️

So you want to watch Fionna and Cake…

Without having watched Adventure Time?

Or maybe you watched up to like season 3 when you were twelve, or caught a few episodes while high in college. Regardless, you've seen images of that wet meow meow old man or the the cute sword chick or the gay vamp/sugar queen pair and you're curious. You want in, and you don't wanna slog through 10 seasons of TV first.

Absolutely valid. That said, I do think that Fionna and Cake is… nearly impenetrable if you don't have at least some grounding in the original series.

So here you go: a curated list of 19 episodes to get you more-or-less up to speed. Most AT eps are only 11 min long so it shouldn't take long to get through! And while you'll definitely still be confused about some elements in the series, i think sitting there going 'huh, wha?' is an important part of the Adventure Time experience.

Enjoy!

S3, E10: What Was Missing Establishes key character dynamics

S3, E9: Fionna and Cake The first gender swap episode

S3, E19+20: Holly Jolly Secrets What's up with the Ice King's VHS tapes?

S4, E25: I Remember You Why is Marceline hanging out with the villainous Ice King?

S4, E26: The Lich Finn's idol tasks him with defeating an ancient evil.

S5, E1: Finn the Human Finn struggles to fight off some raiders.

S5, E2: Jake the Dog Jake makes a wish.

S5, E11: Bad Little Boy The second gender swap episode

S5, E14: Simon and Marcy Flashback!

S5, E48: Betty Simon tries to fix a past mistake

S7, E6-13: The Stakes Miniseries Technically optional, but great backstory and character development.

S7, E23: Crossover Can Finn help another version of himself?

S9, E12: Fionna & Cake & Fionna Finn meets a mysterious woman claiming to be THE Fionna.

S10, E13-16: Come Along With Me The series finale, which sets up where the sequels move on from.

Distant Lands: Obsidian Marceline and Bubblegum set off on a quest which brings up unpleasant memories of their youth.

See, I personally find this quest to find pagan/pre-Christian elements in Welsh/Irish literature quite unnerving - I don't know about anyone else.

There's something to be said about genuinely discovering pre-Christian elements in a narrative or story and that being where evidence and study has led you. But I see some people on this fruitless quest to find pagan elements in very Christian texts and sometimes it feels like if no pagan elements can be found, people start making stuff up out of whole cloth - and that can be very dangerous for already not-well known texts in minoritised languages!

There's already so much misinformation out there about Irish/Welsh texts and literature in general - so it hurts to see people carelessly adding to the misinformation either out of ignorance or lack of respect for the source material.

I promise you the source material being Christian doesn't ruin it - you can in fact, enjoy these myths without making them into something they're not!

haven't even watched DW, but my fave popcultural blogger wrote that the recap of previous events from the new episode of Doctor Who looked like a loading screen from Skyrim and

I had to make it.

(trivia bit x)

Incorrect quotes generator u star

gay shots from The Karate Kid (1984)

it's always kinda been a headcanon of mine that the way hera operates the hephaestus - how she thinks, how she keeps track of and organizes and prioritizes tasks, how she executes those tasks, the way she files information, etc. - is highly unusual and would be impossible to parse for another AI. the equivalent of an 'organized chaos' workspace where it looks like a complete mess, and a lot of the steps she takes are convoluted and unintuitive, but she knows where it all is and can't find it if it's even slightly rearranged.

like, the fact she's deemed "flighty and mercurial [with] poor impulse control" while also having "record response times, unique problem-solving abilities, and highly original thought patterns" is such an interesting and significant part of her character. hera is smart, and she's creative, but she isn't smart in a way that can be standardized and made useful by goddard. and that's why she wouldn't have survived, if cutter hadn't needed to put together a functionally disposable crew. with regards to neurodivergence, i think there's something to be said about differing types of intelligence in a society that only values a certain kind of productivity and compliance.

it is a little bit wild that by virtue of ats s5 being the last canon tv installment of the buffyverse, spike and angel's arcs culminate in... each other. like spike isn't allowed to rest after his sacrifice because the network needs to pull more viewers his new hero status has to be put to the test against angel. angel can't comfortably rest on his laurels as the vampire with the soul because spike is there. their arcs with buffy shape them into the people they eventually become, but canon deliberately leaves the future of those relationships ambiguous! ats is where they go to figure out how to lead lives without buffy but with the other vampire-with-a-soul in them. and i don't even mean this in the way where spike/angel is somehow more meaningful or romantically endgame than their other relationships, i just mean like... those two old dudes are never gonna escape each other, for better or for worse. like there's literally a whole prophecy to that effect. wild stuff.

'i dont want a relationship but i'll be in one bc partnered people have more privileges' so instead of going out and finding a business partner or platonic friend to combine expenses with you go out and get into a relationship....you don't want.....in hopes that a man will take care of you.....in the age where men aren't providing?

feyre 'stans' (*cough* feysand stans) have such an interesting relationship with feyre - where, they can't decide whether to view feyre as a full-fledged adult or little more than a child. bc its like - if you always view feyre as a victim of her circumstances, then she's not an active, morally ambiguous character. or - they don't actually view her as an actual character, rather, an easy extension of rhys that can be projected into. im inspired by this video again, and specifically the discussions about rhysand's ability to see feyre as an equal - or even just an individual person.

like in the case of silver flames, feyre 'stans' often try to validate rhysand's actions, by affirming that he's 'just standing up for feyre..'

and you could argue that - but feyre has already established on multiple occasions that she feels uncomfortable with the way rhys decides to 'stand-up' for her in regards to her sisters. and when confronted with this - rhysand immediately assumes that feyre will (1) forgive him and (2) have sex with him. its a moment of complete insanity - where rhysand doesn't even believe that his constant lack of boundary actually entails serious consequences. thats not a man whose actually concerned abt feyre's opinions, or actually hurting feyre. he'd rather openly trigger feyre at that dinner table, then actually respect and take a step back. but to argue that rhysand's behavior is okay even when feyre doesn't believe means that you guys don't actually view her decisions to be confidently her own. bc the emphasis is always geared towards validating the actions rhysand takes, and not feyre's opinions on the matter. there's a difference between giving feyre this 'power' and giving feyre the tools and information needed to actually wield that power. there's a difference between rhys disliking nesta or elain treating them as he sees fit v. rhys disliking nesta, but giving feyre the space she needs to deal with them, and respecting the boundary she has clearly reiterated in regards to how he should treat and interact with them.

and its like these are the moments where we see parallels with what the story argues about tamlin - where his way of 'protecting' was uncomfortable towards feyre, and she establishes that she doesn't want to be protected in that way. and we get something similar in maf where feyre literally gets into an argument with rhys bc she established that his behavior with keir was unacceptable. but even when feyre stans see that - they still rush to validate rhysand's behavior. and its like we get multiple instances where rhys will often just take measures within his own hands, and the argument is never about how wrong it is that he does - but that his intentions trump feyre's opinion; specifically when rhysand goes behind feyre's back to make a diplomatic decision with keir and eris and does not tell feyre (and mor) bc he knows they will disagree. that is not the decision of a man who actually values the existence of a co-ruler. or even the decision to tell another high lord the complications of feyre's pregnancy but NOT THE WOMEN GIVING BIRTH to said child. even when faced with the absolute certainty of her death (feyre is almost guaranteed to die) he still doesn't even loop her in. and its important bc feyre is going to die. there's no argument, so the idea of 'stress' makes no sense bc she's going to die. the story is very blunt about it.

but AGAIN feyre established 'no more secrets.' she also established that she wants to always be kept in the loop (even if someone deems xyz dangerous; that was literally the entire point of feyre's mental breakdown. she didn't care that going with tamlin could cause her harm, she wants to make the decision). you see how even though tamlin believes its unsafe (and ig it is) its not his decision, and the emphasis is put on feyre's opinion and not tamlin's intentions? why aren't we keeping this same energy, like ever.

and that's the ick part - even if rhys hates nesta. even if we argue that nesta 'was abusive' - feyre has established that she (1) doesn't want rhysand to speak about them or to them disrespectfully (2) that she does not approve of his behavior. (3) that she always wants to be informed on everything. she also laments that her worst fear being deemed 'not enough' or 'not useful' which one of the leading reason she decides to go with tamlin at the end of maf - she didn't believe she was useful. that rhysand can consistently prove that he doesn't believe feyre to be unworthy of information regarding her own body, court and family should be a slap in the face to be people who claim to 'love only her.'

and yet - when confronted with rhysand's behavior (both in previous books and the last) the race is to validate his behavior and not feyre's opinions. so everytime time 'feyre stans' present an argument thats geared toward validating rhysand's actions and not the boundaries that feyre established. side eye.

either feyre is an adult, who is old enough to rule a nation, have a child, and have her own opnions. or she's little more than a child who needs certain decisions made for her bc y'all disagree with them. or she's person capable of making mistakes, having flaws, and actually making conscious (morally ambiguous) decisions that we the audience can agree or disagree with. we can't argue that she an eternal victim of every circumstance, while denying her agency in moments where she's actually the victim. or argue that she morally grey and complex and then justify the behavior and combat when people might have differing opinions. as is the point of being a morally grey character.

i think we need to do away with 'morally-grey' as a descriptor. or it needs to be expounded on in a meaningful way. being morally ambiguous means we should look closer into the actions of the character, because often how they chose to solve their problems says something about them. im just tired of 'morally-grey' used as the justification of an action, instead of a conversation starter.