SOPHIE OKONEDO as Charlotte Wells in RATCHED (2020)

if you haven't seen HC s6/7 from Grian's pov you probably dont know abt how crazy he is abt mailing Mumbo

what if I dropped to my knees and started weeping. what then cecil huh

First (official) day of college!

super nervous haha, wish me luck

(no reposts!)

imagine thinking that byler isn't endgame when this parallel exists

something that makes me real sad is that since the CQL is a live action, the gestures and movements are more prominent as the characters speak. And since Wei Wuxian is a hyperactive character prancing around, it's very noticeable how much he sticks to Jiang Cheng in the beginning. When they are being driven out of the inn, he very explicitly has a whole arm around Jiang Cheng until they come face to face with Jin Zixuan. When Lan Wangji places the Silencing Charm on him, Wei Wuxian's immediate response is to start tugging at him. Like I haven't gotten far (and it is in fact a shame that we didn't get the piggy back ride.....like if Wangxian canon why censor the Chengxian piggy back ride /lh) in the drama but knowing the story is enough to make me very very sad.

i will never get over how funny it is that jace was technically the only one who spread the bastard rumor in episode 7. aemond said it to jace and luke when there was no one else around; if jace hadn't later brought it up in an entire room full of lords, guards, servants, etc. literally no one but the kids themselves would have been the wiser. and announcing it was unnecessary; they didn't need to bring up the bastard thing in order to make the self-defense play, since aemond had point blank threatened to kill jace. but the only thing he told rhaenyra was the bastard thing, so it was the only tool in her arsenal when she confronted viserys.

obviously jace was just a scared kid and likely wasn't considering political implications, especially since it seems like rhaenyra never really talked with her children about this issue. i do wonder if he knew that saying this would make it easier for rhaenyra to defend them short-term, but missed the greater damage it would do long-term to breathe life into these rumors by acknowledging them publicly.

(as an aside, i like to think this was why aemond smirked when jace said the word "bastard." he knew that by voicing the rumor, jace had done more to damage the blacks' reputation than aemond ever could have on his own)

A mutual reblogged a pr*ship post and their dni is now neutral. Unfallowed. Bolcked.

you can't reclaim a word that's never been used against you

*goes to play my emotional support song*

...it's gone.

When I first started playing TotK, I wasn't sure if it would have a Guardian-equivalent enemy, and if it did, I wasn't sure how it would live up to the presence Guardians had in BotW. Now that I've encountered the Gloom Spawn/Gloom Hands (really they should have just been Floormasters), I think they at least live up to the Guardians, though I've yet to decide if they surpass them.

To really get into how the Guardians and Gloom Hands affect their respective games, I have to talk about how BotW creates a sense of danger through isolation and TotK creates a sense of security through companionship in their two starting areas. Despite their many similarities, the Great Plateau feels far, far more lonely than the Great Sky Island. The only NPC you can talk to, save for a few Koroks, is Rhoam, and outside of visiting his cabin, you only really interact with him when progressing the tutorial.

Contrast this with the Great Sky Island, which is filled with non-hostile characters. The Constructs are charming. They crack jokes and aim to be helpful. And they are everywhere. Rauru, who fills the role of Rhoam, doesn't just show up to progress the tutorial. He also just pops up to talk about things you encounter. The feelings of companionship even continue after the tutorial, since the first place you are expected to go after jumping off the island is a fortified settlement with people who know Link and are happy to see him alive. If you go to the first intended location after jumping off the Great Plateau, you probably won't see another person until you get to the Dueling Peaks Stable, and if you head straight for Hyrule Castle, you will be accosted by a whole bunch of Guardians.

The danger presented by enemies in both starting areas even continues to emphasize the difference in feelings of safety between the two starting areas. The Great Sky Island contains two enemies that are likely to kill you: the Flux Construct and the Captain Construct. Both of these are fairly well telegraphed, though. The Flux Construct is sitting in a giant, arena-like circle, and the Captain Construct is standing in a box right in front of a treasure chest. The Great Plateau has a similar boss monster and stronger enemy variant, but they are much less obvious. The Talus is camouflaged as a bunch of rocks and is encounterable by literally taking one wrong turn when you first gain control of Link. The Blue Bokoblin with a Soldier's Broadsword is also just randomly in an enemy camp. The Captain Construct at least has the courtesy to immediately show you that it can fuse weapons, an ability that you know makes weapons stronger, so that you know that you're in for a more dangerous opponent.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the Great Plateau and Great Sky Island is that the Great Plateau forces you to interact with Guardians. To get at one of the mandatory tutorial shrines, you have to get past some Decayed Guardians. These Guardians teach the player some important lessons. Guardians can and will one shot you. Even decayed ones have a ton of HP and killing them with weak weapons is not viable. Guardians that seem deactivated may reactivate unexpectedly. Guardians are large--large enough to see from a distance--so avoid them if you see one from far away.

The point of all this preamble is to establish how the two games set you up for their scary, dangerous, non-boss enemies that get their own track when aggro'd. BotW prepares you for it by forcing you to interact with them, making you learn how to deal with them, and creating a constant sense of danger to keep you on edge. TotK lulls you into a sense of security early on, and then shocks you out of it with that first Gloom Hands encounter. If you go the "intended" route, your first encounter with them should be in Lindor's Brow Cave, near the tower and the spot where Impa tells you about Dragon's Tears. I think this location works so well because 1) you will be immediately drawn to it while going up the path to the tower, 2) it's a cave, and 3) there's a shrine inside of it. The cave ensures that you can't see the sky, which turns the same shade of red as when a Blood Moon appears. The shrine distracts you from the gloom puddle as it moves towards you. Your only indication that something is happening is the new music and the visual effect that shows up when Gloom Hands spawn. It is perfectly set up to catch new players off guard.

The shrine does not serve just to distract you, though. It's also meant to teach you a simple way to escape Gloom Hands: you have to climb onto a shelf in the cave to get to the shrine, and Gloom Hands can't climb walls. Entering the shrine or waiting around a little bit also reveals that Gloom Hands will just leave after a while. After an initial scare and, perhaps, a few deaths, Lindor's Brow Cave teaches you basically everything you need to know about Gloom Hands, at least for the early game. It also breaks that feeling of safety that the game presented early on and colors the rest of the early-to-mid game when you don't have the resources to properly deal with them. Unlike Guardians, these things are far less obvious, seeming to appear anywhere, at anytime, with very little warning. You have to always keep in the back of your mind that there might just be Gloom Hands somewhere near by.

The Gloom Hands also have one final trick for those that played BotW and became adept at dealing with Guardians. For the most part, once you figure out the perfect parry timing, Guardians are pretty simple to deal with. Your reward for becoming decent at fighting Guardians was the rare, ancient materials they dropped. Those who think they can deal with Gloom Hands similarly are in for a surprise. The Gloom Hands are pretty resource intensive early on. The best way to deal with them safely is to use arrows with elemental effects, which you probably don't have a ton of when you first encounter the Hands in Lindor's Brow Cave. Also, if you aren't fast enough, they will just start regenerating. Once you manage to beat them, you don't get rare materials, you get a miniboss that can oneshot you at that point, especially if the Gloom Hands inflicted you with gloom. Admittedly, the boss is not that difficult if you don't panic; the flurry rush timing is pretty generous and the attacks are clearly telegraphed. And your reward for defeating the boss? Two weapons that have gimmicks relating to health, making them less useful in the early game.

I think that Guardians will probably remain more iconic from both a design and story perspective. Nothing quite hits like encountering a field of decimated Guardians early on and then discovering later that Link was the one who destroyed them. That being said, I think Gloom Hands do a better job of evoking panic in players. The sky changing color, the music playing, the fact that they appear out of seemingly nowhere, the fact that they basically have to be right on top of you to attack, the fact that they are living creatures instead of just being machines. All these things contribute to them being more intimidating to face than Guardians. I still can't make a call on which I think is handled better until I spend some more time with TotK, but I would not be surprised if in the end it just comes down to personal preference

An End to the War (but not to us, never us).

Continued from here. @izzyeffinhands

Gunshots. Screams. Canon fire. Screams. Bloodshed. Screams.

It was all so much. It was all too much. Stede Bonnet has been involved in battles before, but nothing like this. Nothing with this amount of bloodshed and death. He tried to prepare because they knew it was coming. They knew this battle, this war was inevitable, thus why they worked tirelessly to unite all the pirates and crews that they could, to bring everyone together so they could all fight as one crew and put an end to this war once and for all. He trained with Israel, he trained with his crew, he trained with Zheng, with Ed, they all trained and prepared together and Stede took initiative. He gave speeches about hope and heart, he inspired and motivated, he helped unite, he proved himself as a pirate, he proved himself as a Captain.

And yet, he felt completely unprepared. Shocked and horrified. Frozen. He was fucking frozen as the explosions and screams filled the air around him, as gunshots rang out and bodies fell to the floor, as screams of pain and screams for help echoed around the port. There he stood, bloodied sword in hand, having added to the death toll of his enemies, in shock with himself and all that was happening. He still wasn't used to killing, but he learned it was a necessity not only to stay alive, but to keep his crew alive, to keep his family alive, and he accepted it, but it didn't exactly make it any easier either. Which was a huge fault of his, a flaw. Because he felt useless. He felt weak.

"You're nothing but a weak-hearted, soft-handed, lily-livered rich boy and that's all you will ever be."

His father's words played over and over in his mind and he could feel his eyes welling with tears, he could feel his hands shaking, his knees shaking, close to giving out from under him. He thought he was ready for this, for the war, but all of the training, all of the raids, were nothing like this. The life of a pirate was nothing like Stede Bonnet imagined back before he was one and he knew he was naive, he learned that rather quickly after becoming a pirate, and yet, he continued on. He was determined to succeed, and though he's grown and has certainly become a better pirate and Captain, he was still a long way off from becoming the best. But he's proven himself more and more, he's protected his crew, he's helped them grow which is what he wanted, he's held his own in battle, having once thought being in the field was his thing, blacking out and the adrenaline taking over, but yet... here he stood frozen.

Because this was unlike anything he's been part of, unlike anything he's trained for. And he knows he needs to snap out of it. He knows he needs to raise his sword and fight alongside his comrades, along side his crew that was counting on him. They needed him and he was failing them. He needs to help them, he needs to fight, he needs to--

“ Bonnet? —Honey, honey look at me. I want you to.. — “

That voice. Oh, that sweet, sweet voice. It snaps - no, it rescues - Stede from the daze that nearly cost him his life because he can see the new body laying next to his feet, but he pays it no mind. No, he only looks at Izzy. At his love, at his light, at his husband. His savior in this moment, too, among many others and oh god, he was failing him, too. He was failing the person he loved most in this world, the person that helped fill him with so much confidence and pride, that made him feel loved and cherished and important, the man that prepared him for all of this, sticking by his side through every good day and every bad, the man he didn't deserve in this moment but here he was, having saved his life, now cupping his face and reminding him of the plan.

The canon fire makes Stede flinch, ducking down with Izzy in his arms as the canon flies right by them, hitting a nearby building that was thankfully vacant, having evacuated those that could not join in the fight. There are tears in his eyes when his head comes back up and he's holding onto Izzy's arms, shaking his head. "I'm sorry, Izzy. I'm so so sorry. I'm... I'm failing you, I'm failing everyone. I didn't -- I wasn't -- oh god. I'm sorry." He apologizes over and over, his grip on Izzy tightening, almost bruising at this point, but then Izzy lightly shakes his body to snap him out of it, Stede goes quiet and listens to him. Izzy always had a way with grounding Stede, with calming him down, with pulling him out of the darkness and back into the light. Because he was Stede Bonnet's light.

He remembers the plan but god, he can't leave Izzy. The thought of being apart kills Stede, especially if something happens to him. If he -- "Izzy, no. I can't... I can't leave you. I can fight. I can fight with you. Please." Tears spill from his eyes as his hands now hold Izzy's that are holding his face, reciprocating the kiss that makes even heaven sigh and kissing him again, terrified that any of these kisses could be the last and oh god, he feels sick just thinking about it. He can't lose Izzy. He can't. He can't just let everyone fight while he hides. He refuses. He knows the plan. To hide. Or at least that's what it felt like. He knows there was a reason for it, not only to keep them safe, but a reason to stay hidden so they could attack from the shadows, but it felt so wrong. He was a Captain, he needed to be out there with everyone else. He needed to fight. He needed to defend.

But he knew what this kiss meant. The way Izzy kisses him with such desperation, the way he crushes his body against Stede's. He can't accept that. "You're not dying, Israel. You're saying goodbye and I won't say it back. I can't. We still need to have our wedding after this, right? You promised me we would." He could feel his strength returning to him, he could feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins, he could feel his blood boiling - it's exactly what he needed. The thought of losing Israel, the thought of anymore death, filled him with anger, with determination, with resolve.

"Uh... g-guys, they're coming! Wee John and the other's gonna need us!" Roach's voice yells over the gunshots and screaming in the background, sword in one hand and gun in the other.

"Fuck." Stede curses under his breath, forehead falling against Izzy's, terrified of letting him go. But he had to... Izzy was needed at the battlements and Stede was needed at Market Way. They had places they both needed to be and unfortunately, that wasn't together. "Do not die, Israel. Do you hear me? That's an order." But also a plea. He couldn't live without him. He just couldn't. So, with one last deep breath, he holds Izzy's head to his and closes his eyes. "Je préférerais nager dans des mers agitées avec vous, plutôt que de naviguer dans des eaux calmes avec quelqu'un d'autre*." A reminder of their promise together. Of their future. Words he's spoken - once written - to Izzy before, that were for him and him only.

And with one last kiss to his lips, they part ways. Tears continue to fall from Stede's lips as he runs with Roach to where Wee John waits, seeing in the distance the soldiers coming down the way and as soon as Stede takes cover beside Wee John, he looks up at him with resolve in his eyes. "Blow them to hell."

(*I would rather swim in stormy seas with you, than sail calm waters with anyone else.)

finally had the guts to watch the finale again. takes me months to work up the nerve. the result? destroyed me again

🥹🥹🥹

i literally need there to stop being situations circumstances events developments complications and happenstances. for the fucking love of god

okay i’ve had fucking enough of this so let’s clear something up right now: the fire nation did not colonize the southern water tribe.

here is the literal fucking definition of colonization:

see the common thread there? settling.

as in, people from the colonizing country have to actually live in, and establish control over the local government and people of the country being colonized.

as established in show canon, the fire nation did not send anyone to live in the southern water tribe. the fire nation did not establish its own form of government in the southern water tribe. the fire nation did not depose the existing leadership of the southern water tribe, set up a puppet ruler, or otherwise exert any form of political, social or religious control over the people of the southern water tribe. what the fire nation did do was commit genocide against the southern waterbenders.

the only country that the fire nation colonized in atla was the earth kingdom, but somehow, i rarely see the colonizer argument applied to jin/zuko, suki/zuko or toph/zuko. sokka/zuko is one of the most popular ships in the fandom despite the fact that…. *checks notes* sokka is also from the southern water tribe, a place zuko supposedly colonized. funny, i don’t see anyone hating on zu/kka for that though.

zuko and katara are not a colonizer/colonized ship in the show, and neither is the dynamic between their countries reminiscent of our reality. zuko and katara are not based on real people, the way j*hn smith and pocahontas were. there is no real history of war or colonialism between the people they were inspired by (the Chinese/Japanese and the Inuit respectively).

what is real is the terrible, horrific history of colonization. what is real was my people having their food stolen by the british & dying in the millions from famine. what is real was my home being conquered by the japanese because england colonized my country, forced it to depend almost entirely on them & then left it to suffer when they lost.

colonization is not a cute little buzzword you get to throw around to disparage any ship you don’t personally like. if you’re uncomfortable with zutara, that’s your prerogative, but for the love of god please open a fucking dictionary before you decide to (inaccurately) compare the brutal, bloody reality of one of the worst aspects of our history to the relationship between two fictional characters.