#like if i send a message or make a post its just preserved like that... forever.. actually i recently looked at emails from my childhood | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

subuthetitan · 2 years

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Alright, i know this isn’t the kinda post one would expect on my page, but hear me out.

The poster right here is of the Tamil movie that’s releasing tomorrow, “Ponniyin Selvan”. Ponniyin selvan loosely translates to ‘River Cauvery’s son’, and this film is based on the 70 year old, 5 volume novel of Kalki.

Let me explain why this story is so dear to Tamil people, and why Indians should celebrate it just as much as they do the epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharat;

The author of this novel, Ramaswamy Krishnamurthy alias Kalki, was an Indian freedom fighter, who went to jail a few times. This novel, according to him, was a way of reminding Indians that they have a history of their own. Mind you, this is after 200 years of colonialism.

This spectacular novel is based on the Kingdom of the Cholas, and is set in the 9th century which was the peak of the Chola Empire. The story can be classified as a historic fiction, as some of the main characters are fictionalised or even completely made up in order to appease the “outsiders” that is us.

‘Ponniyin selvan’, or the Son of cauvery, is the name given to King Raja Raja Chola I. He has two siblings, Aditya Karikalan, who is the Crown Prince, and his elder sister, Kunthavai (Koon-da-vy) who is the princess of the Chola Empire and basically controlled everything. Their dad, Sundara Chola is the emperor of the Chola Empire but is bed ridden during the time of the story. All the characters I mentioned till now are real people, who have been mentioned in carvings and historic artifacts preserved till this day, but the characters I’m about to write about next are fictionalised characters by Kalki. One might think, since the title of the novel is “Ponniyin Selvan”, it only makes sense that Raja Raja Chola is the main character, but NOH. The main character, the character who travels and whom we travel with, is Vanthiyathevan (Vun-diya-devan). It is important to know that Vanthiyathevan isn’t entirely fictionalised, he is also mentioned in history, but not till the extent of the description given in the novel. Last but not the Least, my personal favourite, Nandini. She invented the word supervillain. I’m serious, the more you read about her, the more you grow to hate and like her at the same time. She’s such an incredibly written character that at times it’s so unbelievable that she’s not actually real. Her thirst for vengeance and power is what sets the course of this entire story.

Now let me give you a brief intro to this story (and try not to spoil anything eee)

Aditya Karikalan (The Crown Prince) sends his good friend and trusted messenger, Vanthiyathevan, to deliver two letters to two members of his family. His father Sundara Chola, and his sister Kunthavai. He also sends him on a mission, to find out what and who is conspiring against him in his homeland, while he’s fighting wars up north.

This journey of Vanthiyathevan, is met with a lot of hurdles and he also meets a lot of people who help him with his tasks such as his old friend Kandhamara, whom Vanthiyathevan previously fought in a battle with, Nambi, who is a staunch believer of Vaishnavism and an absolute mastermind, often wears metaphorical masks around certain people, Chendan Amudhan, who is…an interesting character (that feeling when u really wanna say something but don’t wanna spoil). What forms the plot of the story is How Vanthiyathevan delivers these messages? What is conspiring against Aditya Karikalan? Who is Nandini, and why does she want revenge?

Ok i know that was a bad summary, but i literally could not say anything without spoiling stuff.

So the main reason why I wanted to post about this was because I feel every Indian should know about the rich history of our country and the Chola Empire, which ruled the entirety of India at one point. So I urge all of you to read some background in wikipedia and watch the movie cuz its a pretty damn good story.

Fin.

#ponniyin selvan #aditya karikalan #vanthiyathevan #nandini #ps 1 release #rajaraja chola #ponniyin selvan cholas are coming #aishwariya rai bachchan #mani ratnam #kalki #tamil

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nonexistent-triangle · 7 months

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OK A TUMBLR MILESTONE SOMEONE SENT ME HATE FOR THE FIRST TIME

now this may not be the classical anon hate you've come to expect from a tumblr inbox, no this is something far more novel.

ten out of ten hate attempt i love their choice of phrases. the "why are you mentally challenged" definitely sounded real strong in their brain, all like "oh this is gonna trigger them" (and yes i guarantee you hed think of it in those terms). the writer, deep in their vision of Really sticking it to me for whatever perceived offense i've supposedly committed failed to realize that saying "why are you mentally challenged" makes them sound like an a self described anti sjw blog from the depths of 2012, but the thing in messages shifts that timeframe a bit. "you need an education and some logic" girl are you aware you sound like you just emerged from a time capsule designed to preserve what right wing teenage boys from 2018 looked like. bro is sounding like he watches "ben shapiro destroys liberals with facts and logic compilation 32" for nostalgia. i love the minion gif too, its the perfect thing that cap off this up this clown car crash of trying to send me hate. can you imagine him, out there on a brisk 30 minutes after midnight, in bed on a smartphone, having just finished up setting up his new tumblr account, having just written the ask and the message being like. "hm. you know what will make this even more devastating. if i share a post of a minions laughing gif posted online by an a self proclaimed 1970 born war veteran alpha male." (not joking i clicked on it to find where he got the post from and it was . that fucking thing. lol.) in the end this is hilarious, and welcome, in the sense that i got a good laugh out of it. i might print it off and frame it as the first time someones had a good go at sending me hate on tumblr.

#words #sorry for the long post

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laxmiree · 2 months

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[CN] MLQC Lucien's Lyric Poetry Event Translation (Day 7-9)

⚠️ SPOILER ALERT ⚠️

This post contains a HEAVY SPOILER for the event that has not been released in EN yet! Feel free to notify me if there are any mistakes in the translation~

Lyric Poetry Free SSR Event | Prologue+Day 1-3 | Day 4-6 | Day 7-9 | Day 10-12 | Day 13 (Ice Flowers Date)

Translation under the cut!

✧ [Day 7] ✧

When Lucien arrives home, the moonlight is already spilling onto the windowsill, forming something akin to white clear pond.

MC: You've been working hard overtime. Have you encountered any difficult research problems?

Lucien: While there is indeed a difficult problem, it's not directly related to the project.

Lucien: It just took some extra time to solve.

As he speaks, Lucien takes out a small, delicate gift box from his arms.

Curiously, I unwrap the packaging, and a handful of cotton clouds dyed in shades of crimson and orange greets my eyes.

Lucien: When I left the Bioultima Research Institute today, I could already see stratocumulus clouds forming on the distant horizon.

Lucien: I want to share it with you, but unfortunately, I can't make it into a specimen.

Lucien: However, on the way home, I remembered seeing various glass artworks that mimic clouds.

Lucien: Although it doesn't quite fit the definition of 'specimen,' I still hope you can loosen the standards a bit and include this 'treasure' in our scope of collection.

Lucien’s note: Besides through photographs, sunset can be shared in many other ways.

✂———————–

✧ [Day 8] ✧

I can't help but smile as I look at Lucien's Moments on the screen.

Lucien's post: Making preserved fruit specimens turned out to be a tad trickier than expected, but the results are also slightly better than imagined.

MC: Now I kinda regret picking the biggest and prettiest loquat... Every time I look at them, I just can't help but crave them.

Lucien replied to MC: How about this, besides bringing back the specimens, I'll grab an extra bag of loquats on my way back too.

Lately, whenever we’re fruit shopping, those loquats at the stalls keep stealing my attention. Figured since it's spring and all, it's the perfect time for munching on loquats. So, we grabbed a bag to take them home.

The unanimously delicious and sweet fruit earned our seal of approval, and it got me thinking about turning them into specimens.

I heard the sound of keys being inserted into the lock at the door, and I smiled as I went to greet him.

Lucien carefully carries a glass jar in one hand and true to his word, he holds a bag of juicy loquats in the other.

MC: Thanks for helping out with making the specimens and bringing the fruit home, Professor Lucien~

I take the bag from him and don't forget to tiptoe and gently plant a kiss on his cheek as a "reward."

Lucien: Making preserved specimens in the lab is safer as many reagents aren't suitable for home storage.

MC: Hmm? Come to think of it, do you have any reagents secretly stashed away at home?

MC: Just like in movies or TV shows, the mysterious scientist’s home has its own hidden secrets~

Lucien: Well, shouldn't this classmate who helped me clean up the house last week know the answer to that question the best?

(there's none, because, besides he doesn't hide any secret from her, as he said, they're too dangerous to be put at home)

Lucien’s note: I heard that you can also add loquats to pear soup and stew them together. Maybe we could make this the topic of our next kitchen experiment?

✂———————–

✧ [Day 9] ✧

When I went out this morning, Lucien told me he'd be back later than usual, so I didn't have to wait for him.

The twilight sets in, and just as I'm about to send a message reminding him not to forget to eat, an email pops up.

[Desire to Share]

From: Lucien To: MC Date: March 6, 2024 (Wednesday) 22:58

Although I can’t come back on time today, I've asked someone to bring you the bits of my life that I want to preserve today.

Remember to sign for it.

[T/N: you can write a reply to his email!]

After waiting for a little, I received a document envelope.

The unfamiliar chart was carefully laminated and stored in a bag, with a note attached by Lucien.

"Today, there are several particularly beautiful flow cytometry results. Let's commemorate some of them as today's memory."

MC: This person is really...

I couldn't help but chuckle as I looked at the chart in my hand, my mind filled with images of Lucien, slightly worn out from intense work but with eyes shining brightly.

I open my phone and send him a reply. "Don't forget to rest in between creating those charts! And make sure to eat on time!"

Lucien’s note: Although there are still certain issues with the experiment itself and many parameters that need adjustment, this chart is indeed very good.

[Trivia: Annexin V-FITC is a flow cytometry reagent used for detecting apoptotic cells programmed cell death. Annexin V-FITC is utilized in flow cytometry in clinical settings for detecting apoptosis in various cells, including lymphocytes, for radiation toxicity assessment. It is utilized in cancer research and treatment for various purposes, which kinda makes me wonder if it has something to do with his cancer in the main story :"D]

✂———————–

#mlqc lucien #mr love queen's choice #mlqc cn #mlqc spoiler #mlqc #mlqc translation #mr. love queen's choice #mr love lucien #mlqc xu mo #mlqc spoilers

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phoenix-flamed · 3 months

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Okay, so while I'm going on tangent after tangent about Thoughts on Stuff and Things, I want to real quick talk about my thoughts and views on the Northern Territories, and the stark contrast between how Elwin + Rosaria treated them compared to Sylvestre and Anabella + Sanbreque.

As always, these are just my thoughts, so please take them with a grain of salt, and don't worry if you don't agree! (But like always, I'm happy to hear other opinions/perspectives/etc., and if I have any information wrong, please also feel free to correct me!)

Without further ado, here we go! (I'll put this under a Read More in case it gets too long.)

So Rosaria's conflicts with The Northern Territories date back quite a while, to no one's surprise. This'll become relevant later, I promise. The tribes of the north have always been rowdy and aggressive, by the sounds of it -- at least as far as the in-game lore notes regarding them. Several years into Elwin's reign as Archduke, the Northern Territories pushed an advance upon Rosarian soil. I tend to speculate it's because of desperation; with the Blight creeping across more and more of their land, and their Mothercrystal dead, it's no wonder they'd be growing more restless. Elwin and his soldiers pushed back against them, drove them back up north, and it was Elwin himself who dealt the "decisive blow" against Silvermane.

But that blow wasn't really a blow at all, comparatively speaking.

Elwin didn't force Silvermane and their tribes to submit to Rosarian rule. He didn't kill Silvermane to send a message to everyone not to mess with Rosaria, and he certainly didn't decimate the tribes in order to end their threat to Rosaria once and for all. The in-game lore describes Elwin's actions as having "pacified" the tribes, and "unified" them. This, to me, sounds like he strove to seek a peaceable solution to the problem, rather than an aggressive one. He calmed them down, and he brought the different tribes together so that they might work as one, and it's my personal speculation that he did that with the intention of helping them with their plight, rather than subjugating them.

His decision to take Jill to Rosalith with him is nonetheless, to me, an asshole move, but from a political and military standpoint, I can see why he would go that route, especially if he's trying for peaceable solutions. But while I understand the potential logic of why he might have done it, I don't personally agree with it.

Rosaria, at the game's start, has been aiding the north with their ever-growing problem of the Blight's spread. Not only have they been offering resources to them, but they've been taking in refugees as well, both of which have started putting strain upon Rosaria itself. Especially with the Blight creeping ever closer to the duchy as well. But this post isn't meant to be about whether or not aiding other nations in crisis is a good or bad move -- so back on track we go! Elwin may have been dedicated to preserving and defending what Rosaria already had in terms of land(excluding the attempts at finally taking Drake's Breath back from the Iron Kingdom), and prioritized their people over the territory itself, he also seemed to believe in helping others in need as well. Despite the long-standing history of fighting with the Northern Territories, Elwin chose to help them, rather than abandon them.

Now, on the other side of the fence, you have Sanbreque. Sylvestre makes it clear early on that he prioritizes a nation's land over its people, because people can easily be replaced. This is a sentiment that Anabella, during the scene where Clive and Jill confront her, reveals that she shares with Sylvestre, and one of the reasons why she and Elwin were so drastically at odds. Their views on how the duchy should be ruled and what should be prioritized were, essentially, opposites, and by being opposites, they opposed one-another.

After Rosaria was taken over by Sanbreque, Sanbreque decided to leave the Northern Territories to rot. This is pure speculation, but I tend to think it's because of that sentiment regarding land versus people; considering the north has all but completely been consumed by the Blight, their land is of no use to the Holy Empire, and thus are the tribes there completely and utterly useless in their eyes. Now, the second lore tidbit in-game, as far as I recall, states that the north was indeed abandoned by Sanbreque. But we find out through one of the sidequests that Gav is from the Northern Territories. Through him, we find out that the Imperials went into the north and slaughtered its inhabitants. Gav's family was victim to one of these purgings, including his little sibling that had been born just the day before. Gav was the only survivor of this.

Doubling back to the purpose of this post, the difference between how Elwin and Rosaria viewed and treated the north, and how Sylvestre + Anabella and Sabreque seemed to view and treat the north, is staggering in my opinion. It also, again in my opinion, demonstrates well their different styles of ruling. And unfortunately, it's the people of places like the Northern Territories and the Crystalline Dominion that get caught in the crossfire of the resulting power struggles of places like Sanbreque. Conversely, it's the people of Rosaria that end up in need when it comes to rulers like Elwin, who, despite prioritizing the people over the land, overextend their hand in terms of aid, to the detriment of their own people.

Hello, my name is Vonny. I have a lot of feelings about stuff, and in this essay I will --

#Headcanons #So about that tag dedicated to analysis posts...

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darkcloud-kcalifornia · 1 month

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Alrighty, I have now finished The Hero of Ages. I can’t help but wonder if the books God Sazed created would be considered scripture in the future. There isn’t really much there in the way of moral teachings or such, though certainly there’s plenty of mythology-like events. Well, I suppose I should say there’s no moral teachings from him. Plenty from just about every other religion in there. And then there’s his relationship to the Terris/Kandra religion to make things even more complicated. Come to think of it will the Church of the Survivor be a rival sect, or will it incorporate belief in Sazed into its currently formative and simple teachings? I mean, Sazed’s tomes were given to one of Kelsier’s prophets. Also, apparently Kelsier is around in some form as apparently that was him telling Spook to send his message, and he even made a request to post-ascension Sazed. Then there’s the question of where Vin is going to fit into the mythology of either sect, given that she was Preservation for a little while, and the one to slay the embodiment of Ruin as her last act as a goddess.

And yes, I know there’s a sequel series that might answer some of these questions. Never you mind that, I’m having fun here and not likely to get to those for a while anyway.

#book banter #the cosmere #mistborn #the hero of ages

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samasmith23 · 1 year

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Mystique and the Theories of Relativity

A little over half a year ago, I marathoned the entirety of both the 90s X-Men crossover event, Age of Apocalypse, as well as its direct prequel Legionquest in giant-sized hardcover format. One issue from the Legionquest omnibus in particular which greatly stood out to me was Theories of Relativity from X-Men Unlimited (1993) #4 by Scott Lobdell & Richard Bennett, due to how it heavily fleshes out one my personal favorite supervillain in comics, Raven Darkhölme, aka Mystique!

Although the 4-part Wolverine: Get Mystique arc by Jason Aaron & Ron Garney’s still stands as my personal favorite Mystique storyline, Theories of Relativity is easily a very close contender! If you want to hear more about my praise for Get Mystique, here's a link to the essay "The dualistic rivalry of Wolverine & Mystique" which I posted here a few weeks ago:

Theories of Relativity is quite notable in that it not only reveals for the first time in-continuity that the X-Men member Nightcrawler (aka, Kurt Wagner) is indeed the biological son of Mystique, but it also showcases the long-awaited family reunion between Mystique and Kurt along with the latter's adopted sister/fellow X-Man Rogue (aka, Anna Marie), and half-brother/anti-mutant bigot Graydon Creed. The issue's plot centers around Nightcrawler & Rogue investigating the assassination of a US general who sold weapons to the anti-mutant hate-group "the Friends of Humanity" and its leader Graydon Creed. They soon discover that Mystique killed the general in order to send a message that she's out for Graydon Creed’s blood after he hired his father Sabretooth (aka, Victor Creed) to assassinate Raven in a previous miniseries. Nightcrawler & Rogue are then cryptically sent to the latter's old Mississippi hometown where she was adopted by Mystique. However, the two are then intercepted by Creed who reveals that he is not only Nightcrawler's step-brother, but that they are both Mystique's biological sons. She had abandoned Creed when she discovered that he was not born as a mutant, and she threw an infant Nightcrawler off a waterfall whilst fleeing from an angry mob that perceived them both to be demons (Nightcrawler's was born with his blue-fur, while Mystique accidentally reverted back to her true appearance due to the pain of childbirth).

While X-Men Unlimited #4 is not a perfect issue by any means since some aspects like Mystique's foresight about Nightcrawler & Rogue specifically showing up to prevent her from killing Creed felt rather contrived, overall this was an emotionally powerful narrative which shines a spotlight on one of my favorite characters in not just the X-Men franchise, but in comic books as a whole!

Theories of Relativity effectively illustrates what makes Mystique such a complex and multilayered villain! True to her nature as a shapeshifter, Mystique is a woman of contradictions. On the one hand she's perfectly willing to sacrifice the lives of other people if it either means preserving her own life, or if said-person fails to fulfill her own agendas. But on the other hand Raven is portrayed as being capable of showing genuine love and affection towards individuals that she see parts of herself reflected in.

This dichotomy is most effectively demonstrated through the contrasting relationships between her two biological sons and her adoptive daughter. While Mystique expresses zero regrets regarding her cold mistreatment and abandonment of Graydon Creed & Nightcrawler, she conversely shows legitimate love towards an abandoned and orphaned Rogue, with Raven stating that she could relate to Rogue’s inability to physically touch others due to her own history of utilizing her shape-shifting powers to prevent others from touching her. Raven even goes as far as to claim states that both Rogue and her then-late wife Destiny (aka, Irene Adler) were the only people she ever felt genuine feelings for.

These conflicting aspects of Mystique’s personality are elements of the character which have always made her such a nuanced and compelling villain to me. Elements which have carried over into the modern era, such as with Wolverine: Get Mystique emphasizing Raven's duplicity and willingness to unashamedly sacrifice others in order to fulfill her own interests, while it’s direct prequel X-Men: Messiah Complex emphasized said-villainous traits as simultaneously being derived from Mystique's selective love for individuals like Rogue & Destiny.

In a broad sense, one could interpret Mystique’s hardened exterior and boastful pride of seemingly only caring about for herself as yet just another contradictory facade. A metaphorical form of shape-shifting that Raven's developed over the past century she's been alive for as a self-preservation mechanism which allows her to prevent others from hurting her, consequently hiding elements of her true self from the rest of the world in the process.

This is an interpretation which Theories of Relativity supports through its climax, wherein Mystique surprisingly sacrifices herself so that Rogue can save Nightcrawler from death despite referring to her son as "unwanted" earlier in the issue. Yet another contradiction in Mystique's facade, one which heavily reminded me of the plot twist from the Wolverine Goes To Hell storyline wherein Raven betrayed the Red Right Hand after helping them banish Logan's soul to Hell upon discovering the organization's plans to manipulate Wolverine into unknowingly slaughtering his own children. And Raven did this simply out of respect Logan's friendship for her then-deceased son Nightcrawler, putting aside her own selfish hatred for the sake of someone she genuinely loved.

Overall, X-Men Unlimited #4 is a prime testament to what makes Mystique one of my all-time favorite comic book villains. Additionally, there's a lot of fascinating queer themes which the reader can derive from this issue. These can include themes found-family through Rogue & Mystique's relationship, as well as Graydon Creed's status as a normal human who hates his two mutant parents being reflective of real-life instances of familial rejection occurring between cis-het adults and their queer parents.

The latter example is a theme which transgender YouTuber Vera Wylde from Council of Geeks mentioned in her brilliant "Mystique - Queer Icon!" video:

youtube

Plus, the issue also contains some truly hilarious scenes like Mystique shape-shifting into Abraham Lincoln whilst calling out the U.S. general's dishonesty before assassinating him!

And as a fun bit of trivia, I love how the dust-jacket of the Legionquest Omnibus which reprints this issue also refers to Destiny being as Mystique's "lover," even though this story came out in the 90s before it was confirmed that the two were a lesbian couple!

But yeah, overall, Lobdell & Bennett's work on X-Men Unlimited #4 definitely ranks highly among the quintessential Mystique stories IMO!

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devnmon · 1 year

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hi followers & mutuals...

so i've since gotten a bunch of new followers and mutuals on here it's great, but i feel like i don't know you all very well.

mainly speaking, i want to be friends :)

i haven't messaged any people (other than one) on here for none other than friendly conversation, and i think this platform is missing that. if you're a mutual of mine that sees my posts or interacts with me, i would like to tell you that my dms are open if you'd like to chat!

i'm not good at making friends, but it's a new year, and i want to change that aspect about myself.

if you want to get to know me better and are afraid to dm me, or i don't follow you, just send me an ask, anon or not! i will read and respond to it <3

basically i am standing with open arms to you all.

as a (somewhat) shy person, i know that it's downright terrifying to get out of your comfort zone, especially when it comes to talking to new people on social media.

which to this i say, fuck social media and its way of making people look like they're better, cooler, funnier, more popular than the rest of us. i've been there, and it's not fun.

truth is, none of it is real, especially the popular part. sometimes it gets so bad that it feels like high school all over again, cliquey and unfriendly. if someone seems like that, they're probably hiding behind a mask to preserve their image, and those are not people you should be surrounding yourself with, especially if you're trying to protect yourself while doing so.

all that aside, i'm just trying to tell you guys, those of you that are taking the time to read this post and have gotten thus far, to step out of your comfort zones and be friends with new people.

me personally, i would like some friends on tumblr, so hi, i'm rye, but i also go by riley :)

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bopinion · 11 months

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2023 / 24 (Short Holiday Edition)

Aperçu of the Week:

"There are many paths to happiness. One of them is to stop complaining."

(Albert Einstein)

Bad News of the Week:

The mountains have always been there, it feels - there for millennia, imposing, immovable, unimpressed by man. But now this parasite, which normally only walks over the mountains like ants, has made it. Its irresponsible behavior of the last centuries - actually only a blink of an eye in the history of the earth - shows consequences. Last week, there were landslides in the Alps of Switzerland and Austria that can be attributed to climate change. The seemingly eternal ice that holds the rock masses in the high mountains together like glue has disappeared in some places. Even though no people were harmed - experts had predicted the development - the images are shocking: Thousands of cubic meters of rock, tons of kinetic energy have stopped just a few meters from (evacuated) houses. One could almost say that nature is sending us a message: Stop torturing me at last. This is a final warning before I fight back.

Good News of the Week:

Switzerland doesn't really have a reputation for social innovation. "Status quo preservation" is certainly a term invented by the Confederates. Only a few years ago, a referendum - Switzerland has a very direct democratic system - decided that there should be no immigration, except for millionaires and asylum exceptions. But now, with 58% approval, the Swiss have opted for a climate and innovation law. This not only provides for an accelerated expansion of renewable energies, but also (drum roll please!) tax increases to finance the plan. So our neighbors have apparently understood what is necessary: without renunciation, we will not be able to effectively counter climate change. Bravo!

Personal happy moment of the week:

"The sea of stone" - that doesn't really sound like a place of longing. But it is. And also very green. Because this morning I woke up in this beautiful region of the Austrian High Alps around the Hochkönig. And thus start into a week of vacation. The sun is shining. Only for me.

I couldn't care less...

...that many are upset about NATO's large-scale maneuver "Air Defender 2023". The biggest since the alliance was founded, over two weeks, with over 10,000 participants, all over Germany. It's funny that it's taken for granted that firefighters, for example, train their missions, but eyebrows are raised when it comes to soldiers. And when a fighter jet whizzes by, it makes a little more noise than an e-scooter. We live in times of military flare-ups and a destabilized security situation. To be honest - and I say this as a pacifist! - I have no objection to those who are supposed to defend us in the event of war knowing what they are doing.

As I write this...

...I am already very excited: tomorrow I will sit on an e-bike for the first time in my life. We have reserved two bikes and tomorrow we will ride a mountain trail - which I certainly wouldn't be able to do without the support of a motor. Bodacious!

Post Scriptum

Silvio Berlusconi is dead. Normally I have no problems to respect the life work of a personality even if I don't like him. And what a personality he is: sales genius, building contractor, media mogul and the longest acting prime minister of Italy after Mussolini. But Berlusconi has also been criminal, corrupt, sexist, greedy, racist, encroaching and mendacious - all proven. Above all, however, he has established populism in Europe and made the right-wing acceptable in his homeland. As I said, number two after Mussolini. And his life's work continues to have an impact. Giorgia Meloni, current prime minister of the extremist Fratelli d'Italia, became the youngest minister in Italian history under him at the age of 31. Unlike plastic surgery and the Mafia, I won't miss this guy.

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jo-harrington · 1 year

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Hiiii!! Just sending a message about the nazi symbols.

the first symbol there is called Algiz. Which is from one of the oldest runic alphabet. Its classified as a protective rune, and its symbol is often interpreted as a elk or deer antler. In rune magic, algiz is used as protection and defense.

This one and along with a few other Rune symbols are used by neopagans. So a reminder also that not every neopagan is racist.

#fuck nazis

Hey babe thanks for reaching out! Yes what you’re saying is true. I wanted to add a little something in the tags but I was between meetings yesterday and just hit reblog.

First thing is 100% fuck nazis. They can go straight to hell. Even Satan is like “are you fucking kidding with this shit.” The point of posts like this is to make people aware of symbols and signals and dogwhistles because where there’s one, there are usually many. I’m a very observant person and I have called people out irl (I have no sense of self preservation istg) when I notice those things. Not one, a pattern, or things being said or done in context. Because it’s important and everyone’s responsibility to be aware and recognize it in order to protect friends and neighbors, especially those in targeted demographics.

That being said, you are right. I’m a little magic girlie myself (Italian folk magic sort of, I do my own funky thing) and I am familiar with runes! And it’s awful that these symbols that mean protection and things—peoples genuine beliefs and culture—have been perverted for hate and evil. But just like I mentioned it’s in context.

So yes just because someone might have a rune, doesn’t mean they’re racist or evil. But it also is worth seeing posts like that and/or educating yourself in other contextual signs and signals so that you don’t go up to some and say “hey bro nice rune tattoo” and it ends up being on some piece of shit person with a bunch of other bad ones.

(I just woke up and have a migraine. TLDR. Don’t make assumptions. Some neopagans are good. Familiarize yourself to protect your community. Punch nazis.)

#Seriously it’s tiring to have to look at shit and listen #But it’s life threatening for those who are affected #Take the time to familiarize yourself

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saturniandragon · 1 year

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I really wish to know more about your characters, I took the time to read your post about their specie and ngl I've wanted to draw one of your dragons for a really long time now (but alas real life happens. Not saying I don't want to draw them). So if you don't have some more drawings or photos to share, could you share some more information about them 👀 any will do

??? Anon?? You want to draw my dragons?? IM FLATTERED

Official ref sheet for Adra, Mira, and Jesse.

I actually do have some more images to share although they may be a bit outdated. Frankly real life also happens to me (thesis) and I'm not able to draw frequently. I won't lie, the design for my Saturnian dragons are based on Spyro. The first video game I've played pretty much, back on my old PS1.

Anyway here are some old images

Adra and Jesse, last updated 2020.

Ditto, in Skyrim's ebony armor. This is an eternal WIP in my drive, too lazy to finish it with armor reflections and shading and stuff. Last updated 2020.

Adra in spec ops outfit, last updated 2017.

Feral/European dragon form (not quite WOF, I haven't discovered WOF by this time) of Jesse, last updated 2018.

There are also some uhh... ehem... adult-oriented drawings. I can send them through private message if you want to.

--------

Earlier today I also shared the Saturnian lore with my best friend, and he asked me some worldbuilding questions about them. I'll paste some of them here, prepare for massive infodump.

Is this like written by the Saturnians pov or Humans? Since its like an exstensive look on Saturnians

Human observation, yes. Saturnians are very secretive on what data they want to share. Except basic census data, that is still fine for them.

Does the inter space travel from earth and satun back and forth exists?

It does exist. Their space travel enables Earth-Saturn travel in 3-4 months depending on orbit position of the two planets.

For comparison, Pioneer 11, the first Saturn space probe, reached the ringed planet after about 6 years (1973-1979)

also interplanetary space travel is now common? Like earth residents can afford tour to Saturn or is it still closed off to general public?

They use Saturnian ships to transfer people back and forth. Frankly no one really wants to wait 6 years to reach the ringed planet when it can be done within 4 months.

The agreement that the two races had to make to get permission to board Saturnian ships was lengthy. Even then human passengers are closely supervised to make sure they don't "steal" technology.

its interesting that if Saturn itself is 'alive', does the Saturnian revere every land that they built upon and try not to damage or relentlessly build on them and have lenghty process to learn if the soil should be preserved and everything like that?

They try to build… what's the word… respectfully? Responsibly? One of the two. Minimizing altering the landscape and build on whatever is there for them to use.

They claim to be able to "speak" or "hear" from the planet itself, a concept that's truly out of human comprehension. Whether it's actual extrasensory perception, a form of indirect communication with other individuals, or simply just a belief is anyone's guess. They have words for things that humans can't define. And the fact that their life expectancy is 5 to 7 times longer than an average human is already well beyond human comprehension.

They've been around for more than 1.5 million years. Modern humans (that is, homo sapiens) have only been around for 200,000.

whats saturnians blood color? Do they have the same blood types like humans

It's black, nearly void black. Blood types, I haven't done that far on worldbuilding. I may just left it out for simplicity.

also what they were look like in their tribal stage before being one of the most advanced race in the universe? Also if we ever venture outside Saturnia, will we ever find other settlements or civillizations or maybe ruins of Saturnians past?

They've conserved their history completely in digital media through augmented reality in almost perfect detail. This allows anyone in Saturn to access it for research purposes with minimal need to travel. Any leftovers of past civilization have been repurposed for building and manufacturing.

Currently they're experimenting with copying consciousness into digital media although the ethics for that is still debatable among various cultures and subcultures.

if Saturnia inspired from solarpunk aesthetics, does communal events exist? Like maybe a massive festival dedicated to Saturn or 'nature' in our sense or a national potluck day or smth like that, just wholesome communal events that connect with nature and everything

They still do in less populated areas. A bit difficult to do in large dense settlements, where instead it's done through virtual reality.

Saturnian "virtual reality" has successfully replicated senses like touch and smell, alongside visual and audio, by directly and wirelessly interacting with the brain stem and providing "fake" senses. Which means this has also allowed the disabled to partake in virtual reality events.

I don't have ideas for Saturn-specific social events right now, but once I do, I'll tell you.

did they ever harness nuclear power?

Fusion reactors, in extremely limited numbers and in very specific use cases. Majority of power is still harvested from wind farms.

i mean if saturnians are technologically advanced, they must've created a technology that can replace or repair limbs?

Prosthetics? They're not super advanced in medicine. They still haven't solved their low healthy birth rate issue. 1.5 million years and they haven't figured out why only 7 out of 10 to 11 of their eggs are able to successfully hatch.

Some cultures believe it's the way Saturn intended and they shouldn't try to figure it out, like why would one question how nature works. Some other cultures believe it's a hidden genetic code waiting to be unlocked, and then some other cultures also believe that doing so will just cause disaster.

If it was an alien utopia, they wouldn't need weapons like railguns. But here they are, still having internal issues waiting to be solved.

#ask #oc: adrastea (saturn)#oc: jesse

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kittystargen3 · 9 months

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Alternate Universe- What if Anakin's mother survived and Anakin never went dark side. Padme has the twins on Tatooine and survives. Anakin tries to help the surviving Jedi, while still keeping his family secret. Meanwhile Darth Sidious has been crowned emperor and is going after the remaining Jedi. Rumors have it he's looking for a new apprentice. Anakin gets to be a daddy.

I've posted another chapter to Return of the Survivors. Below is a small selection. Please go to the links above to read more:

Chapter 96 - Arrangements

Ahsoka Tano was on a Waystation in the Gordian Reach. Even though the Rebellion no longer had its main station in the sector, Anakin thought that the station was worth preserving. It was useful for sending messages back and forth, certainly. He thought it would be strategic to keep its location secret, and it was her job to keep up a sort of shield around it with the Force. That way any imperialists who came into the system would barely give it a second thought. It was a boring job, but one that was crucial. Her experience in war taught her that if you can’t get messages where you need them, having the best army was pointless.

But tonight would not be a boring night. Galen Merek would be there as well. If there’s anything two lineage-mates could be trusted to do, it's to compare stories about their shared master. And it’s a good thing Anakin wasn’t going to be around, because she had some embarrassing stories to tell. It was going to be fun.

Ahsoka checked on the stash of snacks she’d stored away for their evening watch, then she finished the meditation to build up the shield with the Force again. Keeping the shield running was a simple task. The only complication is that it must be redone every so many hours, especially during the night hours, where the Force seems to decide to unwind every shield on its own. Ahsoka would be questioning why this was, but in her experience, sometimes the Force was just odd.

After this was finished, she bounced down to the three main quarters this station possessed. When Galen arrived earlier, he had been tired and grumpy. Like Obi-Wan without meditation. She had supposed that must be the reason why. He just needed a nap and a good meditation, and he’d be back to normal.

“Ga-aaa-len,” she called.

“Wha- oh, Soka?” Galen appeared at the door. He still looked a little tired, though less grumpy, as he returned her smile.

“You said you’d do the night shift with me.”

Galen nodded, and he reached back to get a coat. “I did say that, didn’t I?”

“You don’t have to, if you still need to rest.” Ahsoka offered, hiding her disappointment.

“No, I said I’d help you. It’s what I’m gonna do.” Galen stepped out and started walking down the hallway.

Ahsoka smiled and followed him. He just needed a little something to make him laugh, she figured. “You know there was this time when Sky-Guy had this idea on how to improve the range of one of the cannons. But we didn’t have anything to test it with. And it would’ve been a very bad idea to test the canon with real artillery. But we did have Muja Fruit seized from some counterfeit traders in the outer rim…”

Galen smiled, anticipating the ending to the story. Ahsoka took it as a good sign, and she went on.

“Juice got everywhere! Almost every ship in that hangar went from white to pink. Then Rex came in to give Anakin a message from the battlefront, and he suddenly went all gungho on cleaning. He usually didn’t care about Master Obi-Wan’s opinion that much, but the Master was on his way. We scrubbed the ships for hours. You know, on reflection, Padme was with Obi-Wan when he arrived… So that probably had something to do with it.” Ahsoka laughed at it to herself. “It’s hard to remember, but apparently they were married at the time.”

She shrugged her shoulders, making light of it, until Galen groaned.

“What’s wrong?” She decided to ask.

“Please, I don’t need this now. I just got off the comm with my Dad, and he’s got the whole Council on his side apparently.”

“Hmm?” Ahsoka’s brow furrowed with confusion. She didn’t understand the family thing. Though to her, Plo, Anakin and Obi-Wan were like her family. She barely remembered her own real family.

“Marriage,” he filled in. “Apparently, I’ve been dating Juno for long enough that he thinks we should get married.”

“Oh.” This was one of those awkward conversations she was not ready for. “Well, you two are cute together.” Which was apparently the wrong answer because he groaned again. “But it’s none of my business.”

Galen sighed. “Thanks. I do want to, you know. I want to marry her one day. It’s just that with the war going on, it doesn’t feel like the right time. How am I supposed to split my attention between fighting and a homelife? And as soon as we get married, he’s going to be asking us about having children. I am not ready to be a father!”

“Hmm.” Ahsoka hummed. “It might be because I remember a time when Jedi who fell in love had to either leave the order, like your parents, or love in secret, like Anakin and Padme. But I don’t think you have to worry about being ready to marry her. You love her, you’d make it work. But don’t feel rushed into anything either. Especially not into having kids.”

“Can I quote you on that? It might help if my father really does get the council on his side.”

“I don’t know how my opinion would stand up against the council, but sure. Why not?”

Galen stared, mouth agape at her. “You know your opinion matters a lot to them. Especially to Master Anakin.” Ahsoka blushed. “There wasn’t a time when I didn’t hear ‘Soka would do it this way.’ I used to feel very intimidated by you.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Ahsoka didn’t know what to say. She did not expect him to tell her that.

“Don’t worry about it. Luke had it worse. His Master’s old Padawan was his father!”

“That’s true.” Ahsoka nodded along. “Say, do you want to hear a really embarrassing tale about Master Sky-Guy?” She offered.

His mouth opened with the biggest smile. “Do I ever?”

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mask131 · 9 months

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Fantasy authors I WILL NOT buy: Orson Scott Card

Or of the full title of this series: Fantasy authors I WILL NOT buy - I will maybe read them at my local library, because this is what libraries are for, allowing us to read books we don't want at home or authors we do not want to support, but I won't take any copy from a bookshop (unless it is one of those third-hand thrift bookshops)

I know that Orson Scott Card is one of these "great authors" that was heavily praised and talked about until very recently. He notably left a deep mark in science-fiction, but I heard about him due to the presence of his works among some of the "classics" of fantasy. Given he received numerous awards for it, keeps appearing in reference lists and everybody talks about his works, I'll probably take a look at it one day to understand what the fuss is about - and being a bad person doesn't prevent one from being a good writer, so maybe I will end up praising his books even though I dislike the man! But I will certainly never spend my money on his books, at least in any way that would be significant (aka - not from first-hand bookshops).

For one of two reasons.

He is an unapologetic and assumed, public homophobe. This is no secret and this is why Card has come under controversy these recent years. He is officially agains gay marriage and the legalization of gay unions, and he supports anti-gay couple laws. He refuses and condemns the criminalization of the homosexual acts and of homosexuality itself (thanks the gods!), but he considers that if a government streats treating homosexual couples the same way heterosexual couples are treated, "the heterosexual will rebel against the government and destroy it to preserve the sanctity of marriage". He doesn't support the systematic use of anti-homosexuality laws - but he does advise people to use it sparingly, but to send a "strong message" to homosexuals to make them understand they're somehow "violating" society. And of course, he puts in doubt the idea that homosexuality is something we are born with - he is one of these believers of "environment causes homosexuality - especially abuse". I think this is clear enough why I won't support the guy.

This is not as bad as the reason above, but the second reason explains why he is such a proud homophobe - he is a fervent, devout and proud Mormon. Even was a Mormon missionary in his younger years. And I do not like Mormons. For a long time I didn't have any interest or care for Mormons, and I thought of it basically as much as I think about any other little religion current like that... But then I discovered the whole "baptism of the dead " things. How Mormons literaly take over archives just so they can baptize people without they knowing, against their will, so that they would join the Mormon Church that they want it or not - how they go as far as to baptize dead people. There was a whole scandal at one point when they tried (did they succeed?) to baptize Anne Frank to make her a Mormon post-mortem. I will not back down from this: this is a vile practice, that gives so-called "religious" people the power to somehow ignore and erase a lifetime of personal choices and personal fights in the name of a "greater good" that clearlyexists only in their mind - it is an insidious form of religious tyrany and intolerance that literaly resurrects in its foulest form the "Christian savior" mindset that Catholics and protestants enforced onto the world for so many years, perverting their own rite of baptism by removing one of the key elements of humanity by their own definition, "free will". People fought for their religion, people died for their religion, people battled for their religion - and that you accept it or not, no matter what they picked, it is their religion. When they're dead, deciding the religion they chose or dedicated themselves to or sacrificed themselves for is not the one they should be remembered as a part of is not just dishonoring the dead - it is insulting them, pissing on their grave, showing in bright light how completely cut off from human decency and morals you are, or to be more precise how religiously fanatical you are. Anne Frank, come on!

I have to admit I do not know if Card personally supports the "baptism of the dead" thing, but given he has shown support for all parts of the Mormon practices and hasn't criticized it, I guess he also stands for this miserable practice - which is the main reason why I do not like Mormons as a religious organization.

#fantasy #fantasy authors #fantasy authors i will not buy #orson scott card #why i don't like mormons #mormons #homophobia #homophobes

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dzpenumbra · 1 year

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4/30/23

Last night was difficult.

I don't think I mentioned it in my journal, maybe I did and I don't remember, idk, I'm going to tell the story anyway. I was watching a Red Dead stream last night and a girl who had been a subscriber in that channel for 7 consecutive years accidentally wrote a private message into the Twitch chat. And I mean really private.

(side note - ctrl+b, which is used for bold is right between ctrl+v [paste] and ctrl+n [new window in chrome]. And the undo on Tumblr is fucked. So... just... gonna point out how frustrating and inconvenient that is if you just slightly miss the b key and suddenly you either have a new window pop up or a paragraph of text just appears.)

This chick posted about like... really bad medical news. Like organ disease news. That she got that day. And she immediately asked mods to delete it, because she couldn't. And no one did. And there were like over 1000 people in there. And then these assholes started copying and pasting her message. At first just one. Then one who spent "channel points" to actually highlight the copied message. Then like 5 more. It... was really disturbing. Like... I struggle to see any humor in it, and I have a pretty open mind about humor. It really felt like someone saying "haha look, this chick has cancer!" As though... anyone is going to laugh about that...

Now... I know a thing or two about humor. Humor used to be my primary coping mechanism. And most humor is just that, it's a way of diffusing something incredibly uncomfortable or painful, and transforming it into something funny, something palatable. Something positive, even. And sometimes that can be a... compulsion for some people, a reflex, that they're not even really conscious of. But there's a skill to doing that. It takes effort, it takes practice, it takes skill. And there is nothing... buckle the fuck up, I'm going loud here... THERE IS NOTHING FUCKING LAZIER THAN COPYING AND PASTING SOMETHING AND CALLING IT FUNNY. <catches breath> Okay, just had to get that out. People man, I just don't understand. Do these fucking imbeciles really lack the brain cells to understand that making a joke about a serious medical condition should... I dunno... maybe be handled a little more tactfully than treating it like retweeting a fucking meme or something?

Again, I am not against jokes that test the line, and even outright cross it. At all. Pushing those boundaries is important, in its own way. But there's a goddamn reason why we only had one Don Rickles. There's a reason we had one South Park. One Jackass. There is an art to pushing boundaries, and it requires skill, charisma and confidence. And these people had none of the above. They were just... schoolyard bullies, trying to impress other schoolyard bullies. They were literally grown-ass schoolyard bullies, likely piss drunk at 4AM, watching a 38 year old man pretend to be a cowboy in a video game, and stumbled across what was pretty obviously a private message between a long-standing paying community member and likely a family member... and they decided they wanted to pants her in front of class. Like... this is a fucking cartoon of schoolyard bully behavior. And people were fucking laughing! People were like... chuckling and going along with it

I... I pulled up a private message to her. And I typed out "hey, what they're doing is really not cool and I'm really sorry all this is happening to you. It's really fucked up." And... I didn't send it. Any other lifetime, I would have sent it. But I didn't. And I don't even know why I don't anymore. I definitely didn't stand up for her in chat. I didn't even support her behind closed doors. But when she put a message in chat saying it was fucked up? I immediately tagged her and sent a heart emoji, like... lightning speed, to show she has my support. I just... I feel bad. It's self preservation, it has to be. Like... I don't want this mob turning on me... So I don't stick up for the grown adult that's being bullied by grown adults. Because there are people there whose job it's supposed to be to moderate that, and they were asleep at the wheel, and... I didn't want to overstep, and they sure as shit won't respect my opinion if I don't have a sword icon next to my name.

And the streamer, when he noticed? He chuckled. And was like, "come on guys, knock it off..." Like... it was a bunch of kids playing in the backyard by throwing knives at the dog or something, and that's his response. It made me super uncomfortable. That and the shit that went down in his Discord? Blatantly saying "we're mob-mentality around here, okay?" And the Native American character he made, and how... really insensitive he was with it... and how he pretty obviously got reported several times on it but straight up lied to his audience about it and has doubled-down so many times I can't even count. "Nah nah nah, Moondance isn't going anywhere guys, I'll play him whenever I want, I just don't feel like it tonight..." RIIIGHHHTTT... I just... I'm really turned off by it.

Fuck the internet, man. The internet is very blatantly advertising directly to children, who are the most profitable demographic on the internet, if you weren't aware... and Twitch specifically has developed a wagering system with fake internet points that you accumulate by spending time watching a streamer (more time = more ads = more $$ for Twitch = more fake points for the kids). And they call them. Get this. Tell me this isn't disgustingly corporate Amazon cliché. They call them "Predictions". It's not gambling marketed towards children to keep them on a website that makes money off of feeding them ads, no no no, it's placing a wager on a "Prediction". I'm not gambling on what the outcome is, with a payout ratio identical to a fucking horse track, nope, I'm just predicting what the outcome is going to be and if I get it right I get a neat prize! They specifically market their site to children. How have they not gotten this shut down yet?!

Okay, got a bit of that out of my system. Why the fuck am I telling this story from last night? Well... I had a night terror. I got about 4-5 hours of sleep, and I had a super intense nightmare. It was very vivid, but I didn't remember much except for the last bit. And... it took me a bit of journaling (I did dream journal, so yay on that) to really start to understand what it was about. I might as well paint a picture for you, it was super vivid and deeply meaningful for me.

I was in a location that represented my parents' basement. I grew up in that house from the ages of 11-18, very formative years. My parents are closeted hoarders, they hide it well. The basement was where everything went. I was down there with someone else, I don't remember who it was. I had found a book that was for me, that I felt bad I hadn't read because, when I was down there and started reading it, it was really interesting. It was part of a series, and it was an exploration and interpretation of the Bible through historical record, plausible science and comparison with other cultural ideologies/mythologies. It was... really cool, and right up my alley. Almost like something I would write, if I felt qualified. I read the part about Genesis I and as I was reading... I got that thing I get sometimes where the mental imagery gets really vivid. And this moment was really disorienting in a dream, and is even disorienting just trying to process how it even happened, because I was... dreaming... which is my imagination, my subconscious mind... and then within that dream I was reading a text and... my subconscious in the dream was conceptualizing the text visually. It was like a Russian Nesting Doll of subconscious visualization, it's absolutely mind-boggling that that's even possible. And this visualization was... essentially an early proto-Earth colliding with a very water-dense celestial object. My brain interpreted this very metaphorically, like big blob of water. And then the combination of these two qualities ended up nurturing an environment like hydrated and nutrient enriched soil. Again, a metaphor, like... water and collision were huge components in setting off the chain reaction that resulted in... life. And... there was some part in the text that was referring... where either that water-dense body or the proto-Earth likely came from. I don't really remember the details on that.

And then... after that... I remember the person I was with upsetting the streamer (who was there with a bunch of his friends in-character), and they left. And after I read and visualized all of that, as though I had read it out loud... he kinda knew. Honestly, I'm struggling to remember it, I'm going to get the journal real quick to refresh.

Okay, it looks like even in the journal right after I woke up I wasn't sure what had upset the streamer and the people he was with. I was reading that passage in the book in the moments leading up to him getting upset and leaving. The book had this section in it that was like MadLibs... like a simple mini-test to sorta... jog and concretize your memory of what the previous passage was about, so you could sorta... use your own brain to make the connections rather than just reading his wording. So, like... I wasn't sure if I upset him, or he witnessed the surreal visual experience I had and it upset him (because it was super vivid, like panic attack vivid, and very emotional), or maybe he knew what I read and that upset him? Maybe I accidentally read out loud and didn't realize? Or... maybe the person I was with upset him... Which, with this much time between me and the dream, seems like the most likely factor... But, either way, he got upset and left. Then... I could sorta... sense through the ceiling and walls in an almost x-ray kinda way that he was like... glaring at me. In a... judgmental, suspicious, skeptical way. In a "I'm on to you..." way. In a witch-hunty Inquisition kinda way. And that set off a massive panic response that immediately woke me up.

You know what? I reflected on this when I woke up, and it's actually really well put for 4 hours of sleep coming out of a panic attack. <pats self on back> So I'm just gonna transcribe it. Fuck it.

"I felt like I needed to impress him, and like I fucked up... which was embarrassing but passed quickly... but that turned into... genuine concern that I was in danger. Like lynching kinda danger, mob violence danger. And that's because I witnessed that last night. And the chick who was being bullied? She was like me. This crowd? These streamers? I keep gravitating towards confident bullies. Andrew Santino types. They're very talented, but their skill is a coping mechanism developed through trauma and conflict. Unprocessed trauma, typically. Because the coping mechanism is their greatest gift, and really their whole life and identity are built on it. I gravitate towards that talent. Being this aware of how these people think (because I was one of them) and how much influence they have, how followers will blindly obey them and they have thousands, made me scared of... as that guy so poetically said in my Twitch chat "(being) thrown in a river with a mill stone tied to (me)." For learning, and exploring ideas that they may consider heretical. But, more specifically, sharing them and being associated with them."

So... you can imagine how hard writing a journal entry like this can be sometimes. It feels really serious and risky, and really silly at the same time. It's not like the context I'm referring to is even... heretical, really... if anything it's trying to prove the Bible's validity! But... I've just seen a lot of dark shit in my study of humanity. A lot of dark, ignorant, zealous things that people do. And seeing that mob mentality last night? It just brought me back to that same old familiar fear. And that shit sticks, and can be hard to shake.

I'm getting really tired, so I want to kinda wrap up, so let me get to the crux of all of this.

Besides the obvious, this journal and this post, why would I be so anxious about sharing my personal beliefs publicly? 1). Family-induced trauma, let's just get that out of the way, so that explains the life-shattering severity. But the focus - I made my desire path project public today. I posted it. It was my only goal for the day. And I did it.

I put it on YouTube. It currently has 3 views and no one has watched it all the way through. I fucking hate analytics and I don't want to watch them anymore. So fucking stupid, as though you have any control over whether people give a fuck about your work. Yikes.

Then, I went into this whole pros and cons list of posting the full project on Instagram. Insta won't let you link shit, and I wanted to keep my videos all on YT because... habit, I guess? Maybe because my Rimworld series is still over there and I was hoping someone might actually give a fuck about that again someday. But after a long time going over it, I decided instead of trying to direct people to go to my profile, then go to my YT link... fuck that. I'm just going to post it there in full, too. And I did. And the grand reception? I got 2 likes. And a comment from my former "best friend", my former goddaughter's mother. And I do appreciate the sentiment. It's just been hard to process those memories.

I always wanted to be a dad. And in my 20's, I got to be her nanny for most of the week when she was around 1 year old. I was working nights and inverting my sleep schedule to drive up an hour each way to watch her during the week. I still have a picture from when I got there one day and comedically, melodramatically collapsed onto the couch in exhaustion and actually fell asleep with my legs hanging in the air off the couch and shit, right next to my goddaughter who was also passed out. And she fired me. Because I didn't "take her outside enough", which she never instructed me to do or taught me how to do. Not to mention the fact that she never paid me once, and I just... didn't ask for money? Because I was trying to be nice? Because both her and her husband were like... not parenting their infant child and just going and working jobs instead, while I watched their kid for them.

Meh, enough about that. See what it does to my head though? Nostalgia is nice... sometimes... but it can be bitter, and if you have an especially dicey past, it can turn sour real quick. So... I do appreciate her sentiment, she left a really kind compliment that seems sincere. And the emotional processing from the past? That's my job, I gotta just remember... that's in the past. I just... I feel bad for my goddaughter, and I miss her. She was the closest thing to a daughter I've ever had, besides my dog and cat, of course. The closest thing to a human daughter I've ever had. And she may not have a great role model for like... healthy emotional regulation. And I worry about her. And I do kinda feel like... that's kinda part of the godfather thing, to step up and like... be there. But at this point? I was envisioning this when I was making dinner. I feel like if I ever even do that, I'm going to be the uncle or aunt figure at the family dinner that they haven't seen in 10 years and pulls the teenage kid aside and goes "you know, I used to change your diapers, do you remember me? No? It's okay, well... if you ever need to like... talk or anything, I'm always here for you." And they'll wince through the awkwardness and then go off and play something on their phone and sigh and mutter "weirdo". But like... is it worse to not even try?

That's a quandary for another day, I just went down that line of thought because I was kinda imaginatively strategizing what might happen if my former friend messaged me. To... prepare myself.

So yeah, lots of ups and downs today. Sleep deprivation, panic, nap, social media strategy, posted the video, made dinner, watched streams, Risk of Rain, journal, and off to bed we go.

Gonna try to sneak a quick shower in before bed, screw it, see if that helps with more relaxing sleep.

To end on a more uplifted note... The Path was one of the more ambitious projects I've taken on. It was very new, super conceptual, very "risky" regarding whether anyone would "get it", also very tedious and demanding. I did the 100 runs in Minecraft, with 3 screenshots per run. I hand-drew each path, twice. I animated each path individually. I composed, played and recorded 12 minutes of original music for 4 guitars, bass and drums. I wrote the script, I recorded the voiceover (on Easter day!). I hand-drew and animated the parts of the voiceover that I couldn't really figure out what to put under, as though they were being drawn on a whiteboard. I shot cinematic B-roll in Minecraft, Google StreetView and a real life National Park. I edited it all together.

And now... it's done.

Fuck crowd reception, this was months in the making. I am goddamn proud of myself.

#diary #journal #online journal #stream of consciousness #stream of thoughts

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quantumboogaloo · 2 years

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Fixing the sequel trilogy

*Spoilers for Star Wars Episodes VII-IX, if you care.*

Honestly, I think the sequel trilogy could be fixed with some reltively minor changes. I think The Force Awakens is good. A few tweaks, maybe, but overall its solid. The only change I would make is that Finn should go with Rey to the Island to find Luke.

The Last Jedi is where I would change some stuff. I think that Luke becoming jaded and isolated could work, but I think we need some changes to his reasoning. The main thing is that I would ADD more about his reasoning in there. When he goes in to kill Ben, and then doesn't, I think he should be scared of turning to the Dark Side. I don't think Ben should go and destroy the School then and there. I think Luke should have taken some time to think and consult his father and Obi-Wan and Yoda, and come to the conclustion that perhaps the Jedi ways need to die with him, and that he needs to isolate himself so as not to hurt anyone else. I think this would also make the title of the movie much more fitting, also. At first, Luke thinks he needs to be the last Jedi, and then realizes that isn't so. Rey is honestly fine in this movie, too, I think she gets a bit too much hate. I think she's bland, but I don't hate her like so many people seem to. I think she could have similar interactions with Kylo Ren, but then having Finn on the Island with her, she can voice her hesitations and we can have some more of that lovely Finn and Rey chemistry (should be platonic, imo). They worked with each other so well in TFA, and I think that should be preserved. The fight in the throne room can be basically the same, but PLEASE better choreography. The way they fight in the movie would be so ineffective.

The big change to TLJ is eliminating the stupid casino planet subplot. It's just stupid. If you want Poe to have gone too far and need to get in trouble, he can try to mutiny earlier, becasue Holdo won't share her plan, then she can send him to the brig. I think it would be good to have a nice conversation between him and Holdo, where we get an actually good reason for her not initially telling her the plan, then he accepts that, grows, and supports her actions. (I'm not a huge Poe fan, so I can't come up with as good of ideas for him). This could show significant character growth from when he wouldn't listen to authority, (which is definitely shown to be a flaw in the movie, Leia knew better than him) to being a bit skeptical, but ultimately a better soldier.

Finally, The Rise of Skywalker. TROS needs the most changes. First off, the real Palpatine isn't back. What we see is a messed up clone of him. He needs Rey, because this rotten, horrid version of his body is failing. Kylo needs to start questioning the First Order. In the actual movie, he is deeper in than ever, and basically unredeemable, in order to get that big SHOCK later on, but I think that at this point he would actively be questioning his own actions, and might be redeemable. The plot as a whole would need a rewrite, in ways I can't even summarize properly for this post, but basically, Rey can find out she's a Palpatine, or start to accidentally use the Dark Side, or both, early on in the movie, leading her to start isolating herself more and more from everyone. Leia, Chewie, Poe, Finn, etc. The other characters can be worried about her, and THEN we get the huge drop of "holy shit is Palpatine alive?!" via a video message or something. It is LAME to not see that happen on screen.

I actually quite like several aspects of the end of the movie, particularly Ben finally renouncing Kylo and coming to help Rey, fighting his own men on the way. I will say, I think we need one of two things for the ending. 1: completely get rid of the "if you kill a Sith, they posess you" or whatever. It really doesn't line up with established canon, imo, or 2: ONLY Palpatine can do the posession thing, and its because he's just such an evil powerful Sith or whatever. We get that final bit, where Rey has to decide whether to kill Palpatine or let everyone die. She makes up her mind, turns to Palpatine with determination in her eyes, and he grins. He's won. She raises her lightsaber to strike him, and he cackles. She kills him. Ben climbs up out of that pit, seeing Rey with her lightsaber turned towards herself. "No!" he shouts, running towards her. She throws her hand in the air, force-throwing him away from her, tears in her eyes, as she ignites her blade. She falls to the ground, dead, Palpatine, Darth Sidious, the Emperor, finally, FINALLY defeated, as Ben runs towards her. At that point, he can either revive her, or (since that's not really something it is established is possible, healing and resurrection are very different), he holds her and cries over her body, and he then emerges to the surface, to help the Resistance.

Whichever of the two of them isn't dead starts the Jedi Order anew, but with improvements. The end.

Obviously, I'm no professional, but I think these or similar changes, would VASTLY improve the sequel trilogy.

#starwars #star wars #star wars episode vii #star wars episode viii #star wars episode ix #star wars sequels #star wars sequel trilogy #sw #rey #kylo ren #ben solo #the force awakens #the last jedi #the rise of skywalker #quantumboogaloo thoughts

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shkspr · 3 years

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hi. on your post where you may or may not have ended on 'moffat is either your angel or your devil' did you have maybe an elaboration on that somewhere that i could possibly hear about. i'm very much a capaldi era stan and i've never tried to defend the matt smith era even though it had delightful moments sometimes so i wonder where that puts me. i'd love to hear your perspective on moffat as a person with your political perspective. -nicole

hi ok sorry i took so long to respond to this but i dont think you know how LOADED this question is for me but i am so happy to elaborate on that for you. first a few grains of salt to flavor your understanding of the whole situation: a. im unfairly biased against moffat bc im a davies stan and a tennant stan; b. i still very much enjoy and appreciate moffat era who for many reasons; and c. i hate moffat on a personal level far more than i could ever hate his work.

the thing is that its all always gonna be a bit mixed up bc i have to say a bunch of seemingly contradictory things in a row. for instance, a few moffat episodes are some of my absolute favorites of the rtd era, AND the show went way downhill when moffat took over, AND the really good episodes he wrote during the rtd era contained the seeds of his destruction.

like i made that post about the empty child/the doctor dances and it holds true for blink and thats about it bc the girl in the fireplace and silence in the library/forest of the dead are good but not nearly on the same level, and despite the fact that i like them at least nominally, they are also great examples of everything i hate about moffat and how he approached dw as a whole.

basically. doctor who is about people. there are many things about moffats tenure as showrunner that i think are a step up from rtd era who! actual gay people, for one! but i think that can likely be attributed mostly to an evolving Society as opposed to something inherent to him and his work, seeing as rtd is literally gay, and the existence of queer characters in moffats work doesnt mean the existence of good queer characters (ill give him bill but thats it!)

i have a few Primary Grievances with moffat and how he ran dw. all of them are things that got better with capaldi, but didnt go away. they are as follows:

moffat projects his own god complex onto the doctor

rtd era who had a doctor with a god complex. you cant ever be the doctor and not have a god complex. the problem with moffats era specifically is that the god complex was constant and unrepentant and was seen as a fundamental personality trait of the doctor rather than a demon he has to fight. he has the Momence where you feel bad for him, the Momence where he shows his humility or whatever and youre reminded that he doesnt want to be the lonely god, but those are just. moments. in a story where the doctor thinks hes the main character. rtd era doctor was aware that he wasnt the main character. he had to be an authority sometimes and he had to be the loner and he had to be sad about it, but he ultimately understood that he was expendable in a narrative sense.

this is how you get lines like “were the thin fat gay married anglican marines, why would we need names as well?” from the same show that gave you the gut punch moment at the end of midnight when they realize that nobody asked the hostess for her name. and on the one hand, thats a small sticking point, but on the other hand, its just one small example of the simple disregard that moffat has for humanity.

incidentally, this is a huge part of why sherlock sucked so bad: moffats main characters are special bc theyre so much bigger and better than all the normal people, and thats his downfall as a showrunner. he thinks that his audience wants fucking sheldon cooper when what they want is people.

like, ok. think of how many fantastic rtd era eps are based in the scenario “what if the doctor wasnt there? what if he was just out of commission for a bit?” and how those eps are the heart of the show!! bc theyre about people being people!! the thing is that all of the rtd era companions would have died for the doctor but he understood and the story understood that it wasnt about him.

this is like. nine sending rose home to save her life and sacrifice his own vs clara literally metaphysically entwining her existence w the doctor. ten also sending rose with her family to save her life vs river being raised from infancy to be obsessed w the doctor and then falling in love w him. martha leaving bc she values herself enough to make that decision vs amy being treated like a piece of meat.

and this is simultaneously a great callback to when i said that moffats episodes during the rtd era sometimes had the same problems as his show running (bc girl in the fireplace reeks of this), and a great segue into the next grievance.

moffat hates women

he hates women so fucking much. g-d, does steven moffat ever hate women. holy shit, he hates women. especially normal human women who prioritize their normal human lives on an equal or higher level than the doctor. moffat hated rose bc she wasnt special by his standards. the empty child/the doctor dances is the nicest he ever treated her, and she really didnt do much in those eps beyond a fuck ton of flirting.

girl in the fireplace is another shining example of this. youve got rose (who once again has another man to keep her busy, bc moffat doesnt think shes good enough for the doctor) sidelined for no reason only to be saved by the doctor at the last second or whatever. and then youve got reinette, who is pretty and powerful and special!

its just. moffat thinks that the doctor is as shallow and selfish as he is. thats why he thinks the doctor would stay in one place with reinette and not with rose. bc moffat is shallow and sees himself in the doctor and doesnt think he should have to settle for someone boring and normal.

not to mention rose met the doctor as an adult and chose to stay with him whereas reinette is. hm. introduced to the doctor as a child and grows up obsessed with him.

does that sound familiar? it should! bc it is also true of amy and river. and all of them are treated as viable romantic pairings. bc the only women who deserve the doctor are the ones whose entire existence revolves around him. which includes clara as well.

genuinely i think that at least on some level, not even necessarily consciously, that bill was a lesbian in part bc capaldi was too old to appeal to mainstream shippers. like twelve/clara is still a thing but not as universally appealing as eleven/clara but i am just spitballing. but i think they weighed the pros and cons of appealing to the woke crowd over the het shippers and found that gay companion was more profitable. anyway the point is to segue into the next point, which is that moffat hates permanent consequences.

moffat hates permanent consequences

steven moffat does not know how to kill a character. honestly it feels like hes doing it on purpose after a certain point, like he knows he has this habit and hes trying to riff on it to meme his own shit, but it doesnt work. it isnt funny and it isnt harmless, its bad writing.

the end of the doctor dances is so poignant and so meaningful and so fucking good bc its just this once! everybody lives, just this once! and then he does p much the same thing in forest of the dead - this one i could forgive, bc i do think that preserving those peoples consciousnesses did something for the doctor as a character, it wasnt completely meaningless. but everything after that kinda was.

rory died so many times its like. get a hobby lol. amy died at least once iirc but it was all a dream or something. clara died and was erased from the doctors memory. river was in prison and also died. bill? died. all of them sugarcoated or undone or ignored by the narrative to the point of having effectively no impact on the story. the point of a major character death is that its supposed to have a point. and you could argue that a piece of art could be making a point with a pointless death, ie. to put perspective on it and remind you that bad shit just happens, but with moffat the underlying message is always “i can do whatever i want, nothing is permanent or has lasting impact ever.”

basically, with moffat, tragedy exists to be undone. and this was a really brilliant, really wonderful thing in the doctor dances specifically bc it was the doctor clearly having seen his fair share of tragedy that couldnt be helped, now looking on his One Win with pride and delight bc he doesnt get wins like this! and then moffat proceeded to give him the same win over and over and over and over. nobody is ever dead. nobody is ever unable to be saved. and if they are, really truly dead and/or gone, then thats okay bc moffat has decided that [insert mitigating factor here]*

*the mitigating factor is usually some sort of computerized database of souls.

i can hear the moffat stans falling over themselves to remind me that amy and rory definitely died, and they did - after a long and happy life together, they died of old age. i dont consider that a character death any more than any other character choosing to permanently leave the tardis.

and its not just character deaths either, its like, everything. the destruction of gallifrey? never mind lol! character development? scrapped! the same episode four times? lets give it a fifth try and hope nobody notices. bc he doesnt know how to not make the doctor either an omnipotent savior or a self-pitying failure.

it is in nature of doctor who, i believe, for the doctor to win most of the time. like, it wouldnt be a very good show if he didnt win most of the time. but it also wouldnt be a very good show if he won all of the time. my point is that moffats doctor wins too often, and when he doesnt win, it feels empty and hollow rather than genuinely humbling, and you know hes not gonna grow from it pretty much at all.

so like. again, i like all of doctor who i enjoy all of it very much. i just think that steven moffat is a bad show runner and a decent writer at times. and it is frustrating. and im not here to convince or convert anyone im just living my truth. thank you for listening.

#sorry if this is repetitive or makes no sense or if i got some details of the show wrong #i simply couldnt be bothered to put too much effort into this post #lest it become a research paper and take me several weeks to answer #anyway thats all my opinions #dw #ok to rb

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