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twig-tea · 4 months

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Lately I’ve been feeling like Thai bl is truly all over the place with so many shows airing at once and some of the best ones flying under the radar while discourse is focused on a couple of the big messy ones. I think you’re the only person I know who is actually watching ALL of them and has been here for the whole evolution of the genre, so I’m curious what stands out to you about this current moment. Do the shows feel different to you? Is the way fandom is interacting with them changing? And what are your current favs?

I ended up writing a thesis, sorry friend lol To be fair to me there are 3 questions in there, all of them meaty! I've done my best to give a sense of where I'm at with Thai BL and how it feels like it's changed over time.

Caveating all of this: I am just one fan who I'm sure has had specific experiences that will colour my opinion, also a lot of this is just vibes so I'm open to being told I've forgotten something major or misremembered what it was like! If you are reading this and your opinion or experience is different please share, with stuff like this I'm always interested in hearing about differing opinions because the fandom experience will depend at least partly on where you hang out. For years, my main fandom space for BL was the YouTube comments section (RIP me).

Overall feel

Honestly, things overall don't feel all that different to me in Thai BL in particular, even though I'm about to talk about a lot of changes and ways it actuallyd does feel very different below lol And after reflecting about it, I think it's because these things still feel very much in flux, in a way that they've felt in flux this entire time. Producers are still figuring out the best funding and distribution models and merch models to make money; creators are still calibrating how queer these shows can be and still be popular; actors are still figuring out how to do BGP (business gay performances) without having fans interfere in their private lives off the clock. Writers are still trying to figure out how to write 12-episode arcs that don't drag in the middle or fumble the ending (which is also not new). The tension between established ships, fan expectations, and genre requirements has honestly been there almost the whole time, though the reverberations of missteps is louder now because of the larger fanbase that is (comparatively) more plugged in to live viewing. The core question in BL has always been 'how do we make this marketable', and that unsurprisingly hasn't changed, though the answer to that question has over time, if that makes sense?

Shows

Do the shows feel different? As a whole, I'd say yes. The biggest differences are of course total quantity and overall quality, but the actual distribution of % of shows that have high(er) production values (i.e. quality) feels close to the same--it was close to 50/50 in the late 2010s and now is maybe more like 40/60 with a higher percentage coming from more smaller production companies. But the numbers we're talking about are something like 15 shows in e.g. 2018 and something more like 50 shows in 2023 (being vague because there are shows that people could argue over whether they should count). The quality overall has increased, even the pulps look better, sound better, and tend to feel a little bit more put together than the pulps of even 2020 (please note that these are all relative qualifiers, most of these shows are still not objectively good). 2020 in particular was a watershed moment for high production value BLs; we get colorists and special effects artists, and sometimes decent sound production now!

There has also been an improvement in terms of what is depicted and how certain subject matter is treated very generally, though I think that's still in flux. Things like evil ex girlfriends are less common than they were and the women in BL are more likely (in general, still not always) to be treated as realized characters. We've gotten more and better femme representation in ensemble shows, and the "gay for you" trope is much less common. Consent is now considered sexy and is much more common than it was; non-consent as "sexy" has eroded and is much less common. Things that used to happen in almost every BL now happen in a much lower percentage. I also feel a little bit less worried about some of the actors on pulp sets because there is more general scrutiny about things like minor actors, intimacy coordination, BGP (business gay performance) expectations, and sexual exploitation. Overall, show recommendations these days come with fewer caveats.

The assumption that if you worked with someone on a BL once you would stay with them as an established pairing was surprisingly early in BL; I don't know if it's just because there were a few shows that had side pairings then get main shows, so the actors did work together on a few shows in a row, which made them feel established, or whether it's because the BGP started early to build hype both before and after shows aired, or whether audiences just made homophobic assumptions about how if two actors had chemistry they had to be gay for each other, and otherwise nobody would want to "play gay" more than once, or would want to have to kiss too many other men....in any case, there were huge scandals and blow-ups around this in BL on even the earliest shows, and some early shows were snubbed because of the pairing alone. Similarly, it was established very early in BL (i.e. 2016-17) that an unhappy ending for a pair would result in your show being panned; cheating was also a guaranteed flop in BL circles (though some ensemble shows that had gay relationships in them such as Friend Zone did fine with cheating plots and unhappy endings). Overall it feels like some things were only depicted in early Thai BL and creators have avoided them since due to the audience reception at the time. I will say, generally, that there have now been enough examples of people in a "branded pair" moving on to a new pair or multiple shows, that it feels less like a death knell to a BL career if one of the actors says they no longer wanted to make BLs, or if they switched companies.

I pay a lot of attention to queerness in BL, and that has changed a little bit too, though not in the way I expected. I had been expecting a more clear and steady trajectory in BL, but we've instead had real swings, and I've realized there will just always be shows that feel more or less actually gay or queer than others, and that's ok. Early Thai shows really spoiled us for good queer content, GayOK Bangkok and Diary of Tootsies are still shows by which i measure what we get now, and both of those are from 2016. I would say that more "mainstream" BL (i.e. by one of the major production companies) hit what turned out to be queer saturation around 2020 and that's where I was most surprised not see a more clear trajectory; rather than things getting more queer from there, I'd say a greater percentage of shows overall feel more queer, but we haven't (and I now suspect won't) reach the queerness we had in Thai tv in 2016. That being said, my secret running list of things I want to see in BL gets shorter every year as entries get crossed off, so I would say the range of queer experience is slowly getting captured as more content continues to be made by a wider range of production houses (PrEP being mentioned in a mainstream show is my white whale).

I know some people assume that shows are higher heat now overall, but I don't think that's true. I do think Thai television producers and directors have overalll gotten better at capturing sensuality, and acting workshops have improved chemistry-building overall too. But from what I can tell the ratio of high head and low heat content is still pretty similar to what it's always been, maybe slightly higher (e.g. at a quick glance I'd guesstimate 30% of shows had a sex scene in 2018 vs 40% in 2023).

Fandom

The main differences in fandom from the really early days and now are the ways we, as international fans, are able to engage with each other, with thai audiences at the same time, and with content creators, and the entitlement that comes with that. In the 2010s we were almost always watching after Thai airing, with either fansubs or, later, official subs, trailing online releases by days or weeks, which themselves may have trailed the Thailand airing date by days or weeks or sometimes even months. That became less true around 2019ish, and especially in 2020 when I think Thai producers were desperate to reach audiences during the start of the pandemic (and when audiences were desperate for something to distract us from what was happening in real life).

As a fan in the mid-late 2010s, watching something was either unofficial via a fansubber, or you were wading through hundreds of Thai comments to find anyone else writing about the shows in English. Now, it's actually rare we don't have immediate international distribution, though it may be paid. If the subs are not up at the same time as the official upload, even on free sites, fans get furious. It's a bit surreal to see people complain about waiting a few hours for subtitles, especially on YouTube, when we sometimes waited months for a series to finish being subbed (not to say people didn't complain back then too, because they sure did! But there were fewer international fans overall, and it wasn't an expectation that there would be subs, so fewer people complained when it happened). This meant that a lot of people only watched shows when they were complete, and people were not watching with any kind of synchronicity.

With international fans moving into simultaneous watching with Thai audiences, we suddenly had the chance to talk about shows as they were airing and affect the conversations about them and even, sometimes, the decisions. Folks seem to have differing opinions about what makes a BL, and what makes a BL good, and they are vocal about when a show doesn't meet their standard. This has always been true, but the strong opinions have more of an effect on the discourse when they're expressed in real-time to the show being aired. Also, when we have literally 3x the number of Thai shows being aired (nevermind other countries which have also increased), it seems so much more egregious to me to complain if a single show doesn't meet your particular taste. Just go watch something else! That was less possible in 2016, but now nobody has any excuse lol Please note here that I'm not saying shows should not be criticized. But when you have one loud faction saying shows should have nothing but innocent kisses if any skinship at all and showing more is distasteful and possibly homophobic, and another faction saying a show should be panned if they don't have at least one sex scene and if there is no good kiss it's homophobic, I don't know where that leaves content creators but I see the tension and how it sometimes results in my least favourite tropes like "blushing maiden" even after a couple has canonically had sex. These factions have always existed in BL fandom, this is not new, they just both seem particularly silly now with so much content to choose from.

The shows that get attention and the shows that get snubbed feel the same too, in all honesty. You can ask yourself the following questions:

Is the show a little slower paced?

Are the story beats less melodramatic?

Do its characters feel more human?

Do they feel more queer?

Is it a comedy?

Is there any risk of an unhappy ending?

Do people not think one of the lead actors is hot?

Do people ship one of the lead actors with someone who isn't his costar?

Do people have to do anything other than go to YouTube to watch it?

If the answer is yes to any of those questions, and especially to the last one, fewer people will be watching, even if the show is good. That's always been true. [Shows I'm thinking about when I say that: Make it Right, He's Coming to Me, My Ride, You're My Sky, Oxygen (though the sides in this one are also at fault), YYY, Something in my Room, Ghost Host Ghost House, Dear Doctor I'm Coming for Soul, Cooking Crush.] All this is to say, there have always been shows that have been ignored, though I agree with you OP that with more shows airing, more are being ignored at any given time.

The other thing is that when a show is good, it doesn't necessarily invite discourse. The messes are often what encourage people to dig in, fill in gaps, linger in the adrenaline. The part that does feel different is also related to the increase in genre BLs; genre stuff in general tends to get more attention in fandom spaces, and the way people are functioning as fans feels different in that they're bringing the way they interact with genre content to BL as BL has started having larger and better funded genre content. I'm thinking about those early genre BLs like He She It, My Dream, Love Poison, Golden Blood, So Much In Love, Why R U....we started getting genre shows in BL in I think 2017 and basically had 1-2 a year until 2020ish and then it increased from there; and the ones that had funding and decent distribution got engagement until they started going off the rails, and then they had even more engagement and then fell off. I don't think it's a coincidence that the shows last year that got people to write meta were La Pluie, Be My Favorite, and I Feel You Linger in the Air. When a show is building a world, there's more to say and interrogate about it, and when a genre show fails, it can fail more spectacularly than a regular romance story. The most popular BL shows used to all be straight-up BL bubble romances, but I think genre shows really started to take over a greater percentage of the popular spots in 2022 and 2023. Again, the main difference here is that there used to be 1-2 stand-out shows per year, and now there are closer to 6+ per year, and as we got more stand-out shows the variety of what type of show stood out as popular has expanded. I do think the overall percentage of shows that are more standard romance plots has reduced, partly because Thai production companies are running out of popular y-novels to adapt. So I'm anticipating we'll continue to get more genre content going forward, and maybe a higher percentage of original works too.

Shows I'm Enjoying Right Now

Right now, the Thai shows airing that I'm watching are:

Cooking Crush

Dead Friend Forever

Cherry Magic Thailand

City of Stars

The Sign

Playboyy

PitBabe

7 Days before Valentine

For Him

Of those, I'd currently most recommend Cooking Crush as a generic BL recommendation. Dead Friend Forever is very good, but is not a romance and is difficult for some to watch (there are a lot of dark themes in addition to the gore and scary bits).

Cooking Crush is doing so many things I love. I've written about the way it's set up its major conflict to be amongst the friend group here, and way the show is depicting communication between the two main characters and how they improve their communication with one another as they get closer here. Two of my biggest BL pet peeves are a conflict for the sake of a dramatic penultimate episode that ignores or retcons a character's growth or the building of trust that a couple has already gone through in the series, so the fact that this show is working so hard to establish strong communication between its leads and then setting up the significant drama to actually about friendship rather than romance is something I cannot overstate my excitement about. To tie this back into what I wrote above, this reminds me of Diary of Tootsies and I mean that in the best possible way.

Dead Friend Foreever is, like I mentioned above, not a romance; it's a slasher horror melodrama with a very well established mystery, an ensemble cast of mostly hateable characters (which I admit isn't usually my thing, but since they're likely all going to die as a result of the genre they're in I'm finding that more tolerable than usual, and there is at least one character I like). DFF did a great job of structuring the story for the ultimate payoff of information reveals. There are a lot of shows that have been messing with non-linear storytelling recently, Cooking Crush being one of the ones that actually does this poorly in my opinion, but Dead Friend Forever effectively uses non-linear storytelling so that we find out important pieces of information about particular characters at a time when that information will have the most emotional impact on what is happening in the "present" of the storyline. Every time there is a reveal, it informs what we've already seen, recontextualizes it, and means we understand some of the character motivations and actions differently from when we saw them the first time. I mentioned above that there are dark themes in this show; one of the things that I really like about this show is that the impact of class is not glossed over, and that the consequences of these events feel very real for the characters; people do terrible things in this show, but these actions are not treated lightly by the show itself.

You'd think these two shows would have nothing in common, but there are things that they share that put them both in my top category. Generally, in both of these shows, the character arcs are clear and logical; when a character does something, even if I don't like the action itself, I can understand exactly why they that and can see how it matches where they are in their arc at the time. The shows show change in characters as a result of what they experience, and the relationships in this show really matter. When characters start acting in ways that feel out of character or against their own arc because they have to in order to drive the plot forward, I struggle to remain invested; that's not happening with either of these shows. Both of these shows also treat serious topics with seriousness, and consequences for actions are real and felt by the characters in the show (and if someone gets away with something, the show is clear that this is not just). Nothing has happened that hasn't been signalled or implied earlier. Both shows also have clear class consciousness and represent the disparity caused by classism in a critical/harsh light.

Whew! I think I got to everything you asked. Thanks again for the extremely interesting question!

#ask game #bl meta #long post #typed so that I can stop thinking it #fandom meta #multi bl #thank you for the ask!

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zagreuses-toast · 10 months

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I come from a place of sheer curiousity and I just wanna ask genuinely- you say that you're a fan of 13s/ the chibnall era. Why? Doctor who is my favourite show and I've connected with every incarnation deeply and immediately, but have never been able to "click" with 13, despite my best efforts. What is it that you like about her? What is it that you like about chibnalls writing? I want to know and I want to like her/it too, but as of right now, I just... don't. Obviously you're not obligated to, but can you explain why?

Ok so this ended up being a Long Post, so I'm putting my response under the read more. Also I'm assuming you've actually watched the Chibnall era up to The Power of The Doctor, if you haven't then heads up for spoilers and stuff that might not make much sense without context.

Oh and I'm gonna @ @rearranging-deck-chairs and @ssaalexblake because I see their DW opinions all the time and they're really good and they can probably give more nuanced answers on some things. (Idk how well I did on explaining why I liked some of them, and it really is up to personal preference on some things)

Thirteen herself:

There are a lot of reasons I like Chibnalls era, but one of the biggest ones out the gate is definitely Jodie and her acting in the role of the Doctor. I think the way she balances bouncy gregariousness with the colder more angry and mean aspects of the Doctor is great. She does this thing where she can just make her eyes go dead and then smile like it's a threat, like she's gonna bite, especially when going up against villains. It's great. And Jodie herself is a delightful person.

Beyond just physical acting choices, I find the thirteenth Doctors struggle between her anger and secrecy, vs her desire to connect and her joy at life very very compelling. She keeps this distance that's really interesting I think, where she's genuinely attached to and trying to be a friend to the Fam, but still trying to keep her whole past out of the deal, which doesn't work that well, as we see in s12 and Flux. She's surrounded by death and haunted by the knowledge of how little time she has with her friends, (Grace, and she just came back from bill) but she still wants and needs that connection, and she learns to live in the present a bit. I made a whole post about her final regeneration speech here. I love her arc a lot even if it hurts. Also she's such a horrible hypocrite about so many things, which also makes her a fun character to rotate in my head and study like a bug. I do see it as being on purpose, some people seem to think it's just bad writing that she contradicts herself but imo that's a big part of her character.

Chibnalls writing:

I personally like the timeless child plot because :

There are a lot of stories and ideas in the Chibnall era I like, and a lot more I find very compelling. Whatever your opinions on the writing (and I definitely have had a lot of critique for some bits), there were a lot of ideas introduced that were fun and interesting. One of the weaker points of the era IMO is having so much fun stuff set up, but only shallowly or quickly exploring it, and then adding more stuff on top.

A lot of things didn't get the exploration/screen time I thought they deserved (especially characterization and interaction/dialogue wise). But that just gives my brain more to chew on at the end of the day, and I do love what was done during the seasons itself, not just all the potential stuff.

1) I can connect with it, I know Chibnall was coming at it from a place of being an adoptee, but as a native person the story of a kid taken and raised into an imperial/colonial society, who had their history stolen and their body exploited to further that societies ends, hits very close to home.

And 2) I have a "everything is true at once" approach to canon and I think the more origin stories we make for the Doctor the funnier it is.

This era had a lot of repeating themes, ideas that showed up and we're explored in a lot of different circumstances, often with a rule of 3 aspect to it. One is themes of Empire and Exploitation. Particularly through the stenza in s11 (empire using up planets, introduced to us basically doing foxhunts for clout, but with People instead of foxes), the dalek specials, the Cybermen in s12, and Division/the timelords in flux (as well as the sontarans &co).

Within that there's the repeating motif of how by exploiting people or their beliefs for power the imperial power/bad guys sew the seeds of their destruction. From Tzim Sha using the Ux and them turning against him, to the Division being destroyed by the Ravagers, who they tried to use to get rid of the Doctor/the old universe (and the doctor and even the master going rogue in the first place). Hell even Kerblam! (I know I know) Has a version, where the AI system being used to do terrible things is the one to call the doctor for help!

Another standout are themes of breaking cycles, Ryan is estranged from his dad and was distancing himself from Graham, but they both put in the work and grow extremely close over their two seasons. He also chooses to leave the TARDIS when he realizes he's absent from his friend's lives and wants to be present. And the Doctor gets to break the cycle of exploitation that Tecteun started, when she meets a vulnerable being with mysterious power (the energy being from TPOTD) she helps it free itself, on a way she wasn't helped.

Individual character stuff:

Going again into more individual character stuff I love, I've gotta give it to Sacha Dhawan for being a fucking superb Master. His acting is bonkers amazing and he does a great job portraying the sorta huge personal crisis the master is going through, and externalizing via evil schemes. At the end of Twelves run we saw Missy try to be like the doctor, to get her friend back (and even succeed a bit) but end up dying for it. Now we come back to a master who died trying to be like the person they see as their only equal, and has discovered (wrongly) that they were never equal to begin with, that the doctor is so much more than them. So he tries to make her like him instead, and If she won't become like him and kill them both along with the rest of gallifrey, then he will become her properly this time (by body snatching), ruin her legacy, and die with her eventually (overtaking her in the same way his whole existance has now been caused/overtaken by the doctor in his eyes, because of her being the source of regeneration)

Also can we talk about the Yaz?? I've been dying to talk about Yaz!!! I love her a lot and I find her fascinating, shes probably my favorite companion based on just sheer amount of time spent Thinking about her. Her doctorification/character arc is so good

Yaz is into the travelling and saving the day lifestyle the Doctor gives her for the responsibility of it all, for feeling useful and capable and good. Her early characterization Monet's include her complaining about not having more interesting jobs as a cop because she wants responsibility, she wanted to be important and helpful (that's the entire reason she became a cop, to help people like she was helped when she was in a dark place, and she finds a better way of doing that with the Doctor). And she GETS THERE, narratively and on a character level, she spends three years on earth with her own companions! She co-pilots the TARDIS and can fly her herself! She saves the day when the master steals the doctors body! And most of all SHES EXTREMELY SAD AT THE END BECAUSE THE PERSON SHE LOVES DIED BEFORE HER!! JUST LIKE THE DOCTOR !! (ugly crying) (I could write a whole other post about thasmin, good and bad, but a lot of people have put it better than me)

Also, I'm a big TARDIS girlie, she has somehow ended up being one of my favorite characters in doctor who, and the chinball era does so much fun stuff with the TARDIS!! Different writers take different approaches to the TARDIS, and how alive vs inanimate, or how active vs passive she is. I think the Chinball era had something special in terms of the way the TARDIS was depicted, and I loved it a lot. We never really get to see past the control room but it's a gorgeous control room! And throughout the era the TARDIS just feels so alive, it's always humming and beeping and chirping, I especially love the moments when the lights change color to match the doctors mood (mostly to blue, for sadness, sometimes red to yell at that dalek that one time). And speaking of the doctor, starting with ghost monument thirteen has a bunch of sweet moments of banter or just ~emotions~ with the TARDIS. I genuinely teared up a bit when she entrusted the timeless child memories to the TARDIS,and before her regeneration speech when she asked the TARDIS to look after her. Because who can she trust with her past AND her future except her oldest truest friend.

I could add a lot more of specific things from the era I love (solitract my beloved) but I think this is getting long enough as is lol.

#doctor who #thirteenth doctor #chibnall #jodie whittaker #flux #timeless child #dw #also sorry about answeing so late i forgot this in my drafts lol

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coycorry · 4 months

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sinedd’s redesign tw: HUGE OOC (bc canon sucks)

we all should agree that he’s character is just a large waste of potential and, oh lord, I have so much to say that I don’t even know where to begin…

first of all why his writing is so poor? almost random I must say. he’s a person who just happens to be in all places at all times, making a conflicts happen for no particular reason EVEN WHEN THEY DOES NOT MAKE SENSE FOR HIS CHARACTER. for example in season 2 he runs “the sphere” himself (even if he obviously doesn’t have a basic knowledge of how to do that, I mean why should he) and writers saying that his interest in it is money?.. like wtf why should he care? why should he wants a dirty money like that, if he’s a freaking football SUPERSTAR. he have reputation, you know what I mean? and he never actually appeared to care that much about his finances, even in 1st season when he steals m-ice’s football tickets they never let us know why he does that. if he wanted some easy cash, why wouldn’t steal some cash? so this thing must’ve been something personal, isn’t it? instead he steals those tickets, that are obviously shit and everybody knows that. sinedd could never manage to sold them, because even m-ice couldn’t, so he promises to return them next morning. my point is that sinedd could never risk that much doing something obviously illegal like running a freaking fight club without strong motivation. and even if he needs money THAT bad, why they didn’t show us WHY.

all his 3rd season arc is a complete nonsense: why they ended up with mei? how did they started to date? for what reason? hating d’jok? is that even a reason? I wish I could forget this poorly written “family reunion arc” who just happened to not know that their son is a freaking football SUPERSTAR. and then he all suddenly changes for the “good guys” and makes up with d’jok who was bullying him for years. unbelievable. and, can you remind me why they became enemies in the first place? ah, you can’t! because they never showed us WHY.

I would absolutely love if he just makes a bit more sense in the show, and stop being stupid for now reason and explanation. I LOVE the part when he’s having a break down because his parents died in a war, and it’s still painful for him, even after so many years. this is very important message that writers could put in this character: some things just can’t be undone, but you need to let it go, so YOU can move on yourself. but sinned can’t, and this is his real conflict, not that he just needs some stupid money. he can’t live with his past, can’t accept that and as a result he can’t accept himself and how great he’s doing. he’s an orphan that become a football freaking SUPERSTAR. he’s a talented player, a genius in some way, that have mastered 2 fluxes in record time. he made it to final and semi-final of GF. but no matter what he achieved when he still hates himself so much. he’s worst than d’jock. he have no family or friends. he can’t get this freakin cup. and he can’t even destroy it, because he’s a coward and he loses his flux…

I wish we could see this side of him in the show.

2nd season was the perfect time to show us his lowest point of life. he was destroyed by his loss in 1st season so now he’s depressed. maybe he meets a bad company, and he starts to run “the sphere” with someone who claims to be his friend. they obviously using him, but he’s following them anyway, because he can’t stay alone with his thoughts anymore. he trying to fill this emptiness in a different ways, and that’s doesn’t help. obviously. and that’s when he meets rokket. not like they never met before, but in a new context, where they started spending lots of time together, both depressed and having good/bad time together. they get to know each other and open from a new side. they gain some sort of connection because they are compatible, they understand each others trauma and for the first time in his life, sinedd faces true understanding. then rokket quits, and it feels like betrayal, but the true betrayal only comes when he realises the truth about his “new friend” and “the sphere”

and then he loses cup again. guys this is the real drama here, he should’ve been perished by that…

but.

instead he understands that he NEEDS to change. he NEEDS to get some help, because he can’t live like this anymore, and really, he don’t want to. that’s why he’s coming back to rokket after final, to congratulate him with his victory and apologise. for the first time in his entire life. if he can change it, it means that sinedd can too! (and rokket is literally the best person to help him with that, because how much empathy and patience he has). and then all the 3rd season sinedd, step by step, trying to change from what he was, but not everyone believes in that, because how much bad he did. but he will do it, by working hard on himself, and not just suddenly getting what he wanted for all of his life (actually that was only mentioned once)

I changed his hair colour not only because it looks more cyber-y2k-ish, but to the show how unnatural he is in the beginning, and how he’s doing all this way to who he really is, accepting himself. no friendship with d’jok tho, NOW ROKKET IS OUR BEST FRIEND. I don’t want him to make up with d’jok, I want him to let go this childish rivalry and understand that he’s not worse or better, he’s just another. that’s it.

also new uniform for “the shadows”

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wildstar25 · 2 months

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I would love to see the breakdown of Arsay’s timeline through the expansions!!!

WEEEEELLLL if you insist... My basic timeline break down is as follows: Keep in mind a few things are still kinda in flux, and if I ever contradict myself in the future literally don't worry about it

1.0 -> Calamity 6 months End point in the 4th umbral moon lining up with what is now the rising event (calamity memorial). Now that I’ve switched up arsay’s birthday, she turns 22 during the 1.0 campaign.

Calamity -> ARR 5 Years Arsay is stuck in the lifestream with the mother crystal for that 5 year period. Her memories of 1.0 and everyone's memories of her are largely erased. Arsay wakes up on a boat to Limsa Lominsa believing it is still her first voyage to Eorzea.

ARR->HVW ~6 months The base story including job quests take 3 months in total. The next three months are dedicated to the patches: Primal Trial series -> Coils of Bahamut -> 2.1. ~3 weeks Crystal Tower Raids, LoTA -> Syrcus Tower ~1 month 2.2-2.3 -> Crystal Tower Raid WoD ~2 weeks 2.4->2.55 ~3 weeks

HVW->STB ~4 months Main story starts a day or two after 2.55 and takes ~1 month total Patches take ~3 Months: 3.1->3.2->Void Arc ~1 month ->Arsay gets really into pvp and does nothing but frontlines and CC for a week -> 3.3->Alexander Raids->3.4 ~3 weeks Warring Triad->3.5->3.56 ~1 month

STB->SHB ~6 months Main story picks up a week after 3.56 and takes ~3 months time. (The first trip to Kugane takes 3 weeks off screen, after that travel time is reduced to a few days to a week using the East Aldenard Trading company boats (it would make sense that lolorito has better boat tech imo)) Next 3 month period is all the patches: Ivalice raids->Omega raids->4.1-4.2 ~1 month Eureka exploration->4.3->4 lords ~1.5 months 4.4->4.56 ~2 weeks

I know the ARR to Shadowbringers lead up is a mad dash but if it happened any slower, I don't believe Arsay would have be the character she is by that point. It is incredibly vital that she has almost 0 down time for herself. Her days and nights are PACKED full by choice. Job Quests, Hildebrand stuff,PvP, Hunts all get squeezed in throughout.

SHB->EDW ~8 months Main story picks up a few days after 4.56 and takes only 1.5 months to complete. Its a non stop emotional roller coaster for Arsay to be completely fine and normal about the whole time. Patches take 6.5 months, notably there is more downtime between patches: Chill relaxing after 5.0->Eden I->5.1->Neir raid I ->5.2-> role quest/shadowkeeper->Eden II-> 5.3 ->chill relaxing/recovery time for scions->Eden III->Neir raids II & III->Werlyt->Bozjia->5.4-5.55

EDW->DWT ~1 year (time spent in Elpis is not counted) ->Main story up to credit roll ~1 month ->Recovery time for injuries sustained in Ultima Thul ~4 months ->After credits - Scions Disband, everyone goes their separate ways - 1 day 🙃 ->Rest of the roll quests now that Arsay can mostly fight again(she can't cast mudras😞 ) ~1 month (casting>healing>tanking>aiming>bonus all role cap off) -> 1 month of nothing to do, Arsay still can't cast mudras, character development dictates she can no longer repress every bad emotion she feels, she has no proper coping mechanisms and quickly spirals into a mental breakdown over feeling like she's worthless and that no one will need her anymore now that the world isnt ending constantly and that she's worried without the scions being the scions everyone she cares about will slowly forget her and she'll be all alone again. Y'shtola and G'raha manage to get Arsay talking after a bit of self destructive lashing out. Things are sorta resolved?? Y'shtola and G'raha reassure her of a lot, and do their best to get it in her little kittycat head that she's not a burden on them even when she's sad. Not an automatic fix but Arsay does make the commitment to better her mental health and to work on her self image issues and communication skills! It'll be a process for her. ->5 days round trip to her home island in the southern seas to visit her Aunt and catch up ->6.1 starts when Arsay gets back from that ->Endwalker patch content takes up the final 5 months of that year period. Things are mostly interspersed with how they are released except for pandae which happens all in one go for Arsay between 6.3 and 6.4. Arsay has done all the variant dungeons, Tataru's grand endeavours, completed Island Sanctuary, and Myths of the Realm. ->The gap between 6.55 and 7.0 will probably only be about a week? Maybe 2? It depends how much it seems like the early arrivals to Tural have been there compared to Arsay and her crew.

That's my timeline! Thank you for asking and reading 🙇 hopefully that all made sense haha ^^

Have a picture of them for the road <3

#ffxiv #WOL posting #Arsay Nun #Arsay Nun Lore

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intuitive-revelations · 6 months

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One major implication I don't think that episode really took the time to settle on is the implication that the Toymaker has already massively messed up the universe?

Toymaker: I came to this universe with such delight. And I played them all, Doctor. I toyed with supernovas, turned galaxies into spin tops. I gambled with God and made him a jack-in-the-box. Toymaker: I made a jigsaw out of your history... did you like it? Toymaker: The Master was dying and begged for his life with one final game, and when he lost, I sealed him for all eternity within my gold tooth.

And later:

Toymaker: Do you think a grand total of two can cause me to shiver when I've played against the Guardians of Time and Space and shrank them into voodoo dolls?

So to summarise:

It's implied the universe is now even more destroyed by the Toymaker's reality warping. Granted we don't know what the scale of this is, unlike the Flux, but it's possibly proportionally quite big considering how little of the universe is left already? That being said, he could have done this in history before the Flux, since it was a linear event, in which case this is far less of an issue.

That being said, it's likely this was reversed by the Toymaker being banished - so we're probably not going to see galaxy-sized spin-tops in the future. How many people died, and if they come back however, is less clear.

The Master (presumably dying after POTD), and the Black and White Guardians (at least - possibly the other 3 guardians too, excluding the Toymaker - though they're the main ones, and it's "order and chaos" specifically which are mentioned in the episode) have all gamed with the Toymaker and lost. The tooth!Master is at least left in our universe, and may possibly be secure with UNIT. The fate of the Guardians is a bit less clear, as is the implications for the balance of the universe.

But perhaps the biggest thing, and the one the episode actually took the time to give us a confused 14 reaction shot to:

The Toymaker has a made a 'jigsaw' out of the Doctor's history (or maybe history in general, although he does say 'your').

So what does that mean?

The hint is that the Doctor has already experienced whatever it is... so what was it that he caused with his interference?

To me there's perhaps three possible options:

The Star Beast - this would be an oddly minor thing to refer to, but arguably makes the most sense in the 'arc' of the specials. Perhaps he's referring to the Doctor encountering Beep the Meep for the first time again? ie. taken one jigsaw piece and exchanged its position in his timeline. For now this might be my headcanon regarding it, but would be really odd to be the intention, especially since we're already disregarding most of the other appearances of the Toymaker in the EU? It's also of course not the first time we've had an adaptation of an EU story in the main show without referencing the original (the no. 1 example being Human Nature - there are others like The Lodger and Dalek, but they're different enough that they can co-exist in a continuity with their source material).

The Timeless Child / Fugitive Doctor - RTD has said he's not going retcon the arc, but this arguably makes the most sense as a 'puzzle' being made out of the Doctor's history? Especially with regards to the Fugitive Doctor anyway, given there's the additional complications of her a) being the "Doctor", b) having a Police Box TARDIS, yet c) seemingly being from around the time of the Anchoring of the Thread.

The Toymaker's being time-wimey, it hasn't happened yet / it's nothing in particular - While it would be a bit confusing to contradict the one detail we got in the episode, this is always a possibility too. After all, there was a lot of sequel hooking all across these specials, so it might be something RTD will come back to, especially if we are going to be seeing more of the past Doctors in future series? Hopefully not by the biregeneration theory he gave about them all being split retroactively, because that is literally insane and doesn't even make the little sense the 14-15 one does....wtf.

So overall, what do I think?

Well I think I can be somewhat forgiving with the damage to the rest of the universe, just because it's implied that it might be reset, and the scale/lethality was never established. Plus like I said, there is some justification to the proportional issue not being too bad when combined with the Flux.

The Black and White Guardians implication is... interesting. We are gradually building up more and more of those 'Great Old One' / pre-universe elements in (New)NewWho, so there's a good chance this could come back in the future. It probably won't have immediate effects on the universe, as the Guardians seemed to be more concerned with specific dangers like the Key to Time. It could perhaps lead to more Eternals popping up across the universe, given the Guardians were the only force they really answered to. RTD I think is also quite aware of some of the Eternal-type lore too, since he played around with it quite a bit in those Series 1 articles talking about the Time War.

The Master's obviously coming back and as silly as this was, it does at least justify him being alive after POTD. It actually opens up the possibility of seeing Dhawan himself again too, which would be great! The nail-polished hand picking it up felt like a bit of a trolling moment, after how underwelming all the theories of who did it were when the End of Time came along. Someone pointed out that Kate actually has the same nail-polish, which would be interesting. Perhaps when we next see the Master, they'll be in UNIT captivity, Delgado style?

Finally, the jigsaw line, which is possibly the most interesting. Originally I was going to lean towards this being nothing / a vague setup for future past-Doctor stuff, since that seems to be the default, but now that I've laid it out... I think this could be a setup for more Fugitive!Doctor appearances. It makes the most sense from a story perspective anyway, given what the Toymaker said and some of the questions surrounding her not being answered, whether or not it's the direction the franchise would actually want to go.

After all, as controversial as the Timeless Child lore was, as far as I'm aware Jo Martin was pretty well recieved, and I'm sure RTD would love to look for opportunities to do more with her somehow. Whether he'd want something so continuity dependent from a showrunning perspective, however, is a bit more questionable.

#Doctor Who #The Giggle #The Toymaker #The Timeless Child #Martin!Doctor #Fugitive Doctor #The Master #Dhawan!Master #DW Meta #DW Spoilers #Doctor Who Spoilers #again I think this does kinda reinforce my complaint that we didn't get enough of the Toymaker messing with the outside universe #cause this was largely told not shown #can you imagine if we got scenes of him warping space #destroying galaxies #galactus style etc.?#maybe even a Dhawan cameo of him losing to the Toymaker?

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brilliantfantasticgeronimo · 7 months

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dw rewatch - takes from "rose"

companion watch:

Rose kinda plays the role of Ian in this episode. Action man. Etc

When Nine exits the frame in the Famous Walking Single Shot and Rose is left befuddled, after a second, she runs back- but it’s too late. The TARDIS is gone. It’s OK though because she’ll get a second chance. This moment is then repeated again at the end, giving us an expectation for Rose’s choices and specially, their timing. And... Rose takes a while to take the plunge… but gets there in the end. This is the emotional arc of the episode. If there’s an "appeal" to this story, beyond aliens, comedy, and its weight.. on its own, the pull of "Rose" is inspiring bravery. As Rose will say later, it’s not about the adventures or the aliens or the wonder... “it’s about taking a stance and doing what’s right, when everyone else just runs away”.

And it’s true: no one wants to solve the issues at hand: Jackie is more concerned with compensation, Mickey says “leave him!” when Nine is about to be slurped in physchic plastic lava, and no one on earth seems to know what is going on. But Rose is there to show that we all have a part to play in history, we all have a call at some point to do what’s right and to act. Even if we’re afraid or widely out of our depths. This is what makes the first adventure click, it's a universal story.

- “I got the bronze” even at "most condecorated" stage, Rose's archivement are very mundane and down-to-earth.

- Jimmy Stone / The Doctor parallels? Perhaps...? She definitely swore off pursuing her A-levels after this adventure.

- With just a few pointed lines, we learn that Rose’s relationship with her mom has some friction. It’s not a day after she almost died and Jackie is already pushing Rose to look for another job. She won’t coddle her and will make that loud and clear. There’s also a bit of… resentment? envy? In how she says it’s good Rose lost her job at the shop because it was giving her “airs and graces” (!!). It seems she wants her succeed but not in a way that makes her leaver her (oh hello, Jackie’s arc, nice to meet you). Also this line: “ Honestly, it's aged her. Skin like an old bible. Walking in now you'd think I was her daughter.”

- At the same time, we get from this episode’s climax (with Rose’s moment being intercut with Jackie’s almost dying, almost as if the editing is suggesting she can feel her mom’s in danger) that... at this moment, she’s the most important person for Rose. Which is sweet, it's a complicated, real relationship.

Themes: - Bodies used and discarded, separation of physical bodies and consciousness. The Doctor inspiring people to do brave actions. Mundanity and the extraordinary. Internet Culture and Fandom. Environmental crisis (blink and you'll miss it). London as a cosmo-politan city. Diplomacy vs violence. - vigilante justice and underground wars. conspiracies. "Well, who else is there? I mean, you lot, all you do is eat chips, go to bed, and watch telly, while all the time, underneath you, there's a war going on." A clear tension between the (relatively) comfy lives the Tylers live and the "world out there" that's burning in flames.

- Nine rumages over Rose’s living room, and this is how he finds her last name. Is this awkwardness? Or is this trying to “figure her out” in advance like Auton mystery? How much of this adventure was The Doctor inadvertly trying to impress her?. The Doctor as the maligned “shoot the messenger” trope.

Timeless Child Retroactive Continuity Bonus:

- Nine answers Rose by saying what he can do, not really who he is… or does he? what is the doctor but a title for someone whose entire identity is built around what they do (and not their memories, personalities or physicalities, as these are in constant flux)? Axiom 2 from this: the doctor's sense of self is only defined in the present moment. their sense of identity holds no permanence.

- The closest we get in the answer is the “I’m in despair” with a “if we let go…” what does it mean? We fall into the vacuum? We fall to existential despair, like Nine is right now after the Time War? Or perhaps that, like in Torchwood… “we’re moths clinging to the flame”, in the cosmic scale, all life is really, really small and really, really fragile.

- Could this space/time sixth-sens be a unique ability of the Doctor’s OG species? The mythology used to be that all time lords developed this sensibility to time, and that’s what allowed them to time travel. However, all other time lord characters dont seem to care very much about the universe around them. We know now that The Doctor has a special relationship to “Time”. Maybe, The Doctor’s gone so long assuming this is something every TL could do, when really is just something they could do.

Blorbos:

- Nine’s little “ok” when Rose’s turns him down TOT. Imagine taking a chance of being attached and vulnerable after being so traumatized and war-scarred and then. REJECTION. headcanon that that little eu gap is mostly him just processing this and getting the urge to ask the girl out again lol

- Nine and Rose hold hands so much here omg - Nine says he knew Mickey could survive but doesn’t confide this information to Rose. Was he trying to protect her feelings, in case it turned out Mickey was indeed dead? / - “Oh, I didn’t think about that”

Colonialism / Hegemony:

- The doctor shows a lot of prejudice to humans in this. And honestly, this gives me a lot of conflicting feelings. One thing I'm trying to do in this rewatch is keep a firm eye on the "white savior/colonialist fiction aesthetic/neoliberal power fantasy" spectrum of things and see what sort of things pop out. I think Nine's immediate "I'm so much Smarter and Intellectual THEREFORE I know what's best in Every situation" is a very good (bad) fuel to this strand of critique.

- but, it is narrative effective. it’s effective at showing us he’s quite full of himself, and humbling the viewer by telling them that hey, you don’t know everything that will happen in this show! - It also makes sense for Nine in particular to be this cynical, given what we know he's lived. But there’s also something a bit … grossly Victorian Intellectual about it. It feels like the pulpy DNA ethos, the one that comes from white “humanists” and “rationalists”, is very loud in those moments.

- In Dramatic Justice terms, The Doctor’s decision to seek a diplomatic solution comes at the cost Clive his life. Although we’re clearly meant to admire 9’s diplomacy, it is ultimately proven useless materially. But although there's an interest in reading the moment as virtuous, there's an ambiguity by Clive’s meta that in some ways The Doctor is a cause of destruction (which is a beat the series has never quite connected and I'll get to in s2... the timelords, and by extension, the doctor, were the cause of all these messes, but much like irl brittish imperialism and usa neoimperialism, the narrative is blind to their responsibility on the current mess).

- We learn the Nestene consciousness has high tech but not as high as the Time Lord’s (it gets scared by the TARDIS).

You cannot reason with an Invading force. That Nine attempts to do so without offering the Nastene any kind of deal, when he’s aware that they’re doing out of a need for Survival, for basic resources, seems almost like self-sabotage.

- Obviously, the implication is that humanity has caused this by being so damn contaminating. But The Nastene could’ve just eaten all the plastic and toxins honestly, would’ve done us a favor. Possibility for a symbiotic episode one day in the future?

#60threwatch #dw #dw meta #nvmd me just trying to get through my backlog of previous takes that i didnt post skdlfj #idk why the formatting bullet points dont work in most of the thing #sorry tumblr is really weird with bullet points

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betweenlands · 2 years

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hi i want to know your opinions about lalnable hector. this is graded /j

fuck i didn't think anyone would understand what i meant by ship of theseus. ok. ok. obligatory disclaimer i am late to yogs fandom and also have pretty much only watched flux buddies. under cut just in case (i take a couple potshots at various fanon things including ech/oble, sorry)

i don't think we have fully sufficient proof for him being a cannibal specifically of the enjoys it variety. while i'm sure he got the name Lalnable Hector from somewhere i think it's a lot more interesting to explore avenues other than just "oh yeah he loves eating people he does it all the time"

i don't know exactly how to characterize him and five's dynamic but i feel pretty confident in saying that "fucked up evil codependent romance" is NOT the right vibe. maybe it's just weirdness from "he literally made five from a tube" but i've always seen them as more. weird uncle and your equally weird cousin once removed that are the same age even though one of them is a full generation "younger"

everyone forgets lalnable has canon voice dysphoria. why does everyone forget this. he uses a voice changer because he is uncomfortable with the way his voice is pitched. he is SO trans coded. yes this also means that every lalna is trans by proxy i know what im about

i feel like people need to do more with the fact that he was locked in a box in yoglabs for [unspecified period of time] after helping with the cloning project. he finished being useful. he saw what was happening and tried to stop it. he was erased from history and disgraced for it and LOCKED IN A BOX--

much like every lalna. yes he's a himbo. yes he's also incredibly smart and intelligent please give him more credit than "dumbass"

really lalnable is like. i think he's a more nuanced character than he seems to have been given credit for. i'm not saying he doesn't have aspects of "insane murderhobo mad scientist" to him but i think those mannerisms may be a little bit more deliberate and intentional than people give them credit for. this also obviously means he's not just Pure Evil that part is yoglabs propaganda

lalnable is doing a Bit. he's doing the Evil Bit because it's the only unique sense of identity he has remaining in a world where he has been wholly replaced by countless doppelgangers from a project he helped run, working for people he thought he could trust. he clings to the things that make him unique even if they're traits that were leveraged to villainize him because at least then that proves he was an individual to begin with.

and the number one opinion:

lalnable hector is absolutely the original i cannot stress this enough not only does he literally say it in the 2.0 finale but the entire arc of flux buddies as a series and anything meaningful it would have to say about identity and self-idealization is fully kneecapped if you think lalnable is a clone. he is not a clone he is the original lalna. that's the entire point of his character in a meta sense he is a question of identity he is the brand new ship of theseus he is the first simon jarett he is the shape echoed in the funhouse mirror distortions of all the lalna clones. he may not have always been lalnable hector, but he was the original lalna.

#yt #ask #orig #anonymous #yogs #did i get a good grade in lalnable hector anon #i wont change my opinions either way but you said it would be graded so i expect a grade now

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groovesnjams · 5 months

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youtube

3 / 50

"She's On My Mind" by Romy

DV:

When Robyn released her Body Talk project in 2010, she set the template for almost a decade of dance pop that followed, an impossible feat for anyone to follow. Including Robyn. 2018's Honey is five years old, her best album yet, and almost imperceptible in the modern pop landscape. Unless, that is, you heard Romy's solo debut this year, and found a dance album with a variety of pop singles mixed into a coherent whole and an idiosyncratic guest spot and a narrative arc that traces a vague line from a disconnected beginning to a triumphant, love-struck ending. Romy's making post-Honey pop in the best possible way; "She's On My Mind" takes an emotional core and a beat and builds a story around it, just like Robyn might. But Romy could never be mistaken for Robyn: her vocal is too calm, the production too warm. And unlike Robyn, Romy is writing an explicitly queer narrative into her dance pop. As we move further into a reactionary backlash against the delicate progress queer people have made in recent decades, it's worth noting the complicated way that the climactic punchline of "Think I'm in love/ With you" lands here. It wasn't that long ago that gay marriage was illegal in Romy's UK (and our US); that particular, limited right is younger than Body Talk. There's a sense where "She's On My Mind" ends as simply as any friends-to-lovers romance - which could be climax enough! - but also a sense where it's the story of two people coming out, to themselves and to the world, and that remains as relevant and powerful an occurrence now as it has been in decades past. We all deserve an ending as carefree and glorious as Romy's repeated, cathartic, "Don't care anymore."

MG:

I am not sure if this is so much a triumphant ending as it is a hopeful gesture, an optimistic smile. The album, after all, is called Mid Air, so I read “She’s On My Mind” as less of an ending of any kind and more of a snapshot, a moment in time, surrounded by past and future. But it absolutely strikes a buoyant contrast to the subdued anguish of album opener “Loveher,” a classically sad coming out ballad (here, with a beat) that does care who is watching. I don’t hear a straightforward this, then this, and finally that narrative on this album, it’s all jumbled up and in flux, in a really lovely and honest way. Despite that, the opener and closer are undeniable bookends, taking the same experience of dancing with the woman she loves and looking at it through very different lenses. So, I have to begrudgingly admire Romy’s decision to release the sadder of the two as the lead single. “She’s On My Mind” is so much more fun – the joy of all involved, including Fred Again.., Avalon Emerson, and Stuart Price, touches every aspect of this song – but you have to earn that fun, you have to bum out first. Unless it's a dreary late December day in a dreary but unusually warm winter and your back hurts and you think the plant on your desk might be dying (or something like that, you know) then you can cut right to the chase, pop this song on and chase bliss.

#gnjsoty2k23 #romy #she's on my mind #music #robyn

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nebulouscoffee · 5 months

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10, 15, 35, 43 for the Trek ask game?

Thank youuuu and sorry for the late answer! Love these questions <3

10. Which alien pet would you most want for your own?

Honestly I have always been very charmed by Worf's childhood pet domesticated targ (portrayed by Russian wild boar Emmy-Lou😂) - but I would happily adopt a Bajoran hara cat, Cardassian vole, or that cute lizard who climbs over Jadzia on the jungle planet

Anyway look at this lil guy!!!

15. Top 3 favorite alien crewmembers?

Oooh, this is tough. Am I choosing my favs overall, or based on how much I like their alien-ness specifically? If it's the former, then Kira, B'Elanna, and Dax - if it's the latter, then Odo, Worf, and Saru (Discovery). (Deanna and Kes leaving you out Hurt Me but they didn't write you alien enough for the latter list!! Still top 5 favs though <3)

35. A minor character you wish had become a main character?

Okay let's talk about the long-form arc potential both Seska and Suder had. Literally my favourite thing about the Suder episodes is the questions about restorative justice they raise- is there any point in locking a man up after he's sincerely reformed and no longer dangerous? Is it possible to be? Is it fair to the victim's loved ones to give him the right to roam around like nothing happened? What sort of thing could count as "reparations" in Voyager's situation? What if they really had been stranded with him for 75 years? Would he ever have been able to move on from what he did? What sort of hobbies might he take up in his new life? What would it take to win Janeway's trust? Would the victim's friends ever forgive him? Would he rather disembark the ship and start anew somewhere, or remain with his own people? Would he have been able to make new friends? Are you reading this string of questions in Jonathan Frakes's voice too? Would our main characters all have been able to get past his actions? Would it cause disagreements? How would his relationship with Tuvok have progressed? What issues would their getting back to Earth early raise for him? ... Aaaaand then the show decided to give us none of that😂 (well. except for Jonathan Frakes in a brief cameo that is :D) As for Seska I really don't know what they were thinking with her lol. She starts off as such a promising villain- literally the "reveal" in 'State of Flux' gives me chills! And you can actually understand her actions, her unexpected attachments to Chakotay and the crew. Instead of the whole pregnancy subplot (which made no sense) I would've loved to have seen her grow increasingly afraid she'd made a mistake in teaming up with the Kazon, and try to defect back to Voyager - the questions that would raise would be similar to Suder's, though in this case a bit more personal for characters like Chakotay and B'Elanna. Is she for real? Is she just doing this to trick them again? How do the Bajoran crew members feel about this? What would it take for her to win back people's trust? Say she does something messed up again, does she get a third chance? Would she make friends with Seven of Nine; someone she never personally betrayed who is also seeking redemption for past actions? Society if we'd gotten her as a regular character all the way till S7 - like an actually great redemption arc, where she ends up on good terms with a lot of them by the end (sort of like what they did with Garak on DS9) - ahhh the possibilities!!!

43. Order of shows from most to least favorite?

This is hard😅 okay I'm going to tier rank them that's easier!

Fav tier: DS9 (It's the best <3) Second tier: TNG (I can't not put it here this show literally changed my life) & VOY (has wonderful characters and has also become very important to me) Third tier: TOS movies (love them), Discovery (I have developed a nostalgia for it by now. Plus Michael is blorbo!) Fourth tier: TOS, SNW, Enterprise, Lower Decks (shows I've enjoyed but only really seen once so far) and I guess the AOS movies lol (imo 'Beyond' is the best one) Fifth tier: Picard (if it was just the first season it would've been higher! I actually liked that one) & the TNG movies (ugh) (I am yet to see TAS and Prodigy)

#thanks again for the ask friend <3 #nothing like tier ranking the Starred Trek shows to distract you from feeling sick :)#(nothing serious everyone's just been a bit ill due to water contaminations lol)#also yes. I am aware that we never actually got to see a hara cat on screen #but it is a cat! so #it stands to reason I would like one :)#ask game

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denimbex1986 · 6 months

Text

'*****

Isaac Newton had Indian heritage and the Doctor is gay and fancies him.

Yes, the returning showrunner Russell T Davies’ second episode back continues to gleefully rub the faces of the haters in a big pile of steaming Woke. In fact, ‘Wild Blue Yonder’, which Davies also wrote, has a false start purely to do that – ok not purely, also to set up a brilliantly silly running joke - with a little stop off in 1666 when the Tardis crash lands into the tree under which Newton had just had the apple drop on his head, before toddling off again to the location of the episode proper. It’s a highly amusing little flourish, since Newton is played by the excellent British-Indian actor Nathanial Curtis from It’s a Sin, and it causes Catherine Tate's Donna to reflect later, "Wasn’t Isaac Newton hot?", and for David Tennant’s Doctor to concur: “He was, so hot…oh! Is that who I am now?” slightly taken aback at this apparent change of sexuality in his new incarnation. “Well it was never far from the surface,” Donna deadpans.

"Wait, the Doctor isn't gay!...and…and I think you’ll find Sir Isaac was very much white!’ splutter a thousand GB News trolls in their front rooms, before hurling their toad-in-the-holes at the flat screen.

Come now, chaps, sit back down. Of course the Doctor has to be a bit gay - knowing the flux of genders he’s been through by this stage, it makes perfect sense for him to be bisexual at the very least. As for the Newton stuff, well, who really cares about the details, he's supposed to be sexy in this and Curtis most certainly is that. More to the point, this is the kind of freewheeling, nod-and-a-wink, devil-may-care attitude that embodies Tennant’s and Davies’ Doctor Who, which, after a joyous return last week in 'The Star Beast', is now fully in the groove with this five-star instant-classic episode.

At the end of the last one, Donna spilt her coffee into the console of the spanking new Tardis, so it’s now in flames and crashing around time and space. After the bit of Newton ogling, the pair find themselves on board a massive spaceship (Donna: “I’d hate to be the cleaner.”). No one else is around apart from a rusty old robot which takes one step about every half an hour. The ship keeps on reconfiguring in some way. And, actually the ship is not space, they realise, it’s in a dark void beyond the edge of the universe, “absolute nothing”. The ship’s computer reveals an air lock opened and closed again three years ago to let something in. Worrying. The best thing to do would be to get back into the Tardis and get the hell out of there, but the Tardis does a runner on them – the Doctor stuck his sonic screwdriver in its keyhole to regenerate it after the fire, but in its recovering state it left because it senses danger.

“There’s something so bad on board this ship that the Tardis ran away...”

As in 'The Star Beast', this represents Davies leaving behind previous showrunner Chris Chibnall’s multiverse and taking things back to basics, as the very best science fiction tends to do. After the Newton escapade, the episode is just a two-header, with the Doctor and Donna in isolation on the ship. It is reminiscent of Alien, of Silent Running, and, given (bit late to give a spoiler alert, but: spoiler alert) the fact doppelgangers of the Doctor and Donna turn up, Solaris. Of course, it’s not at all pretentious, with huge dollops of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy thrown in too – the way the doppelgangers can’t “get the arms right” is a giggle for the kids watching. There’s a delightful puzzle to the episode that works as a satisfying mini-movie, while also delivering some intriguing lore tidbits and tease Davies’ overall new arc.

And actually, it even manages to not cast aside Chibnall’s work, but to humanise it a little more. Chibnall worked it so that the Doctor is not actually a Time Lord at all but the ‘Timeless Child’, a kind of Patient Zero for Time Lords, who’s from another universe entirely. Anyway, Jodie Whittaker had to deal with the shock of that, but Tennant does great work here in tugging some heartstrings to show how haunted the Doctor is by this new knowledge. After being riled up about the fact he doesn't know who he truly is by the spooky space doppelgangers, Tennant kicks at the ship in a rage, and generally demonstrates in his Hamlet-meets-Ace Ventura way that he is very tortured indeed, but still a laugh. (Incidentally, are his suits getting tighter? Is another lore-busting sub-plot here that the Tardis is actually some kind of intergalactic spin dryer slowing shrinking the clothes on the Doctor until he loses his mind? Just putting it out there)

‘Wild Blue Yonder’ has a tremendous sleight-of-hand climax, and ends on a particularly emotional moment with a returning cast member. It's pretty much as perfect a piece of televisual entertainment you could hope for in the year of our Time Lord 2023. Truly, we’re all watching way too much TV, but this returning Doctor Who makes you think that actually this is a worthwhile thing to do with our lives.

Oh, and ‘Wild Blue Yonder’, they explain, is a war song, so another question was why the Tardis was playing while it was on fire? What’s coming? Spooky space stuff, no doubt. Roll on episode three...'

#Doctor Who #60th Anniversary #The Star Beast #Wild Blue Yonder #Russell T. Davies #David Tennant #Catherine Tate #Donna Noble #Jodie Whittaker #Chris Chibnall #Timeless Child #Bernard Cribbins #Wilfred Mott

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timedthirteen · 6 months

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* concerning the flux.

there's a lot i take issue with in the flux arc. there are bits and pieces i really enjoy - mainly jericho and claire, both of whom i love with my entire heart and soul, actually. however, my version of events is incredibly canon divergent, as you may have grown to expect by now. i am treating the idea of the flux itself as a functional fixed point, but its circumstances and how the doctor responds to them are treated as fair game.

first of all, i don't like division, conceptually, and i pretend i do not see it. the idea of a prominent sect of time lords meddling in the affairs of the universe seems to me to go against their core ethos as a people. rather, in my canon, death is behind the flux. she is finished with this universe and seeks to bring it to ruin - her ultimate masterpiece of destruction. azure and swarm are her worshipers in this version of things, positioned in direct conflict with the doctor, time's champion, in what amounts to a feud between siblings at the cosmic scale.

the setup for village of the angels remains mostly the same. however, the angels ultimately send the doctor to a place between time, where she meets death for the first time since her childhood. there is no fobwatch to contend with because she had no prior lives to the first one she recalls, but if there were, she absolutely would not think twice about destroying it.

she does not send jericho and claire to infiltrate the sontarans without psychic protection, because what the fuck. at the very least, she plants safeguards in their minds before they go.

she does not have a crush on herself, thank you. i really enjoyed the rest of her characterisation in that scene, but i'm "lalala"ing that bit, thanks. i get it for the master but for the doctor it makes no sense to me when every other time they've met other versions of themselves it's been more akin to a sibling bond with a very short fuse.

lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the doctor does not lay the groundwork for three simultaneous genocides. rather, she waits just long enough for evidence of the sontarans' betrayal to present itself, then summons the passenger form to consume the flux - if they really do contain infinite matter, that solution works no matter how much flux there is. (after which point, she leaves the three armies to fight amongst themselves.)

oh, death doesn't like that, though - and i'm keeping time's warning verbatim. her champion will be called, very soon, and it's up to the doctor to stop that spiralling out of control before it's too late.

#* meta.#finally watched it all again and OH BOY #DID I HAVE OPINIONS AND FEELINGS

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siflshonen · 2 years

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How do you think Deku will change?

Will his savior complex and sacrifice tendencies go away?

I think Izuku will always have that as a permanent fixture of his personality, but he is going to learn to rely on others to accomplish his goals and to help him manage those tendencies. I actually think his arc has more to do with connecting him with others and a larger community to accomplish greater goals than it does with his core values changing to make him an individual “best hero” who is independently perfect in all ways.

But mostly, I think he’ll have a more flux view of what is “good” and “right” and “admirable” depending on the situation. It may not help his actions, but it may help him be more mindful in the actions he does take. I think he will also be more mindful of what others may think or feel and quicker to express his own thoughts and emotions before they become a problem down the road. He’s weaving his web of obligation by both giving and taking. Does that make sense?

#bnha #Izuku midoriya #Deku

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duran-duran-less-official · 2 years

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The Power of The Doctor First impressions: (SPOILERS)

The Power of The Doctor is 50% moment-to-moment happenings that make absolutely no sense if you pause to think about them for 1 second. I mean it's absolutely dire. How anyone could write this and go "yes this is cohesive and needs absolutely nothing trimmed out of it for sanity's sake" is beyond me.

It is also 50% some of the best fanservice I ever could have imagined, and taken on that merit alone it is surely the best episode of Chibnall's entire run. Yasmin Khan's incredibly overwrought tears at the prospect of... not being able to travel with The Doctor again for absolutely no reason (see? Moment-to-moment nonsensicality) are outweighed by the sheer joy of getting to see Ace and Tegan talk to Seven and Five again, respectively. Or seeing Ace take a baseball bat to the Daleks, again!! Or seeing a Doctor Companions Club featuring Ian freaking Chesterton, the First Doctor's companion from all the way back in An Unearthly Child, played by the same freaking actor.

I really deeply wish I could just ignore things like Tegan falling down a shaft of unspecified height to her apparent doom, before being absolutely fine the next time we see her.

Or the fact that The Master's plan for himself is the only one of the three (between himself, the Daleks, and the Cybermen) which makes any goddamn sense. It is an extremely clever plan, to be fair, and Sacha Dawan carries the episode, but every other element of the much hyped triple threat is stretching suspension of disbelief to make it happen. Why are the Daleks using volcanoes to do anything? Even if their mutual hate for The Doctor outweighs their hate for each other, as soon as The Doctor is out of commission the Daleks and Cybermen should be fighting each other for who gets custody of planet Earth, certainly not waiting around patiently in the same room as each other for The Master to return from whatever he was doing.

Or the fact that locking down the building so the Cybermen can't escape into the wider world is not helpful when your building has windows made of glass that the Cybermen can (and do) easily shoot through, Kate.

Or the fact that Vinder doesn't need to exist in this story, and Graham somehow being inside an active volcano already by the time Ace gets there is ... egregiously inexplicable.

But I can't ignore them. So the episode gets a solid 5/10 from me.

Congrats Chibnall. You set yourself up with the boring and ultimately meaningless Timeless Child arc, plus the confusing and also ultimately meaningless Flux arc, and yet you still managed to find a way to tie it all together so you went out on a high note. I admit I didn't think it was possible. I thought it would crash and burn. But for all its faults it just about works, in ways that make me rue what Whittaker's tenure as The Doctor could have been if you'd done things a little more like this from the start.

P.S. The highlight was The Master, who was impersonating Rasputin for some reason (the need for the 1600s St Petersburg setting isn't entirely clear?) Ok look it doesn't make a lot of sense, but he does take the opportunity to dance to Ra-Ra-Rasputin by Boney M and that's all you can ask for really.

#Doctor Who #The Power of The Doctor #spoilers

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dazaiapologism · 2 years

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do we know which definition of gravity chuuya manipulates. gravity is basically a force between two objects so, id assume it'd work on any two objects even if we put chuuya in space given that fact UNLESS it's specifically about the earth's gravity in which case earth is one of the two objects always which seems to be the case with how his powers work ? am i making sense

yes! you are right, gravity is a force between two objects and chuuya's ability seems to work a hell of a lot easier when dealing with the physical earth. There is definitely a reason for that and I was cursed by a wizard in my youth to constantly try to understand that reason as best I can and I’m still not very good at it I dont think but let me try to sketch out the parts I do understand here:

In classical physics, the more nuanced definition is that both objects always exert gravitational force on each other (newtons 1st law), and the magnitude of that force is directly dependent on the mass of the objects involved, while also inversely dependent on the squared distance between the two objects. in other words, the strength of natural gravity between two bodies is determined by the product of each of their masses, and that strength will drop off as the bodies get further apart (read about the inverse square law to learn more about that effect).

There is another constant, G, that we use to “quantify the relation between the geometry of spacetime and the stress-energy tensor”. Now I’m not going to pretend to be a physicist here I have an electrical engineering bs and I failed concepts of mathematics four times BUT! as I understand it: the stress-energy tensor is where the “information” about energy and momentum of a particular system (ie two bodies with gravitational attraction) is stored. You can use it to calculate things like gravitational flux, which is the derivative of gravitational force exerted on space-time.

Without getting too deep into relativity and frames of reference and multivariable calculus shit that honestly goes over my head too, I would say that we can think of this tensor as the magic sauce - it dictates the strength and direction of gravitational force based on fundamental mechanics of the universe that we are able to model without actually totally understanding what is “driving” it.

So I would also posit that this is what Chuuya’s ability is modifying. I think the strength of the change he is able to make is dependent on his emotional state and more specifically, I think his ability to distort it gets exponentially stronger relative to how pissed he is. That said, he’s not just able to freely push things in any random direction, it is much much easier to work with the natural flow of gravity than to craft brand new arcs of motion.

bsd gives us a lot of practical examples of this:

when he absorbs bullet impacts, he does not shoot them all back right along their path of motion, they float loosely around him for a moment before being repelled, rather than being perfectly reversed or anything like that. Note that bullets travel with a lot of stabilizing rotational momentum so it would actually be pretty difficult to just “send it back”. Repelling the relatively still bullets out in every direction is a much more intuitive manipulation of the force relationship between him and each bullet.

in fifteen, when someone shoots dead on at him, he diverts the path perpendicularly and then uses the force relationship between himself and the bullet to slingshot it back around his body along the trajectory it came from, which is very very different that stopping it and shooting it back

later, as an adult, we see that he IS now capable of firing bullets directly, though he’s doing it from a very high angle which suggests that he’s more just pushing the bullet past its usual terminal velocity on the way down and would still have to aim it manually before cutting it loose.

Finally, there’s the question of activation. Visually, we get the red aura cue to indicate something is “under his control”. Verbally, I think it’s described as him being able to manipulate the gravity of anything he’s in contact with and this is able to chain through various objects (layers of clothes, the dirt directly under his feet) to some degree. The chaining also seems to work better when he’s angrier, so he could for example pull up larger chunks of rock if he were pissed than he could if he were just showing off for fun.

We can clear up a lot of ambiguity around what actually constitutes touching by defining contact as exchange of force between two bodies. This actually solves problems like why can he pull up dirt but not like, make projectiles out of bundles of atmosphere or something. Dirt is a solid, meaning that although he is only directly in contact with the uppermost layer of dirt molecules, that upper layer is also distributing that force downwards deeper into the earth. Therefore, through chaining, he is able to pull up large chunks of the earth, centered around where he was standing. Liquid also has strong enough intermolecular bonds to behave roughly like a solid would: think of how water behaves in space. This does not work the same way as gaseous air - in a gas, molecules are constantly bouncing off each other, sharing and distributing force wildly. Some of those molecules would bounce off him, which does technically count as an activating condition, but they’re gone again just as quickly so he could not really do anything meaningful with it. In the end, if he were able to chain to surrounding atmosphere, it would be wisping away like smoke before he could do anything interesting with it.

Defining contact as exchange of force also solves another neat trick - exploding the laser sight guns. Light behaves like a particle - which is to say it travels through space-time and exerts and experiences force when it encounters other bodies. This force is very weak and generally not something we experience as tactile sense, but it is definitely there and is the driving principle behind solar sails (japan successfully launched a spacecraft called IKAROS that traveled at least 110 million km using this technology!). We also know that gravity is very much capable of distorting the path of light (as this is what creates that reddish halo we see around real black holes).

Therefore, a red dot sight trained on Chuuya would indeed count as contact and he would be able to invert the direction of the gravitational attraction between him and the dense stream of light particles. Now, lasers use optical feedback loops to focus and amplify light emission, which means that the current output of the system is used to calculate the future state of output. Operating normally, optical gain will stabilize the beam and light will be emitted from the laser. I don’t know enough about optics to say what would happen if one were to reverse the direction of the laser output, but it would certainly cause something fucking weird to happen and not out of the realm of plausibility to say it would generate a lot of heat. Now the last thing you want on an automated turret stacked with high powered explosives is a sudden heat source - you know how gunpowder works. Gun get hot, powder go boom.

And I am at 1.2k words here so I’m going to shut the fuck up now. But please feel free to ask further questions or poke holes in this, as it is quite literally my single favorite thought experiment to roll around in my brain. I hope you were able to learn something about Chuuya physics from it and if not, thank you for reading all my shit anyways. Let me know if theres anything that needs further explaining.

#chuuya physics

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tangleweave · 1 month

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"I treasure every moment I spend wi' you," Beth answers his question. Not that he asked it but she's becoming familiar with his understated expressions. For weeks now there's been a mood to their days. Not quite tension but born of a similar sort of notions. Beth doesn't often discuss her feelings, preferring to show them in a multitude of ways. And maybe that's the problem. Though Vis is an entire entity unto himself, a man in nearly every sense of the word and better than the most basic definition, he's not the one he used to be. If she thinks about it too long, maybe he's more like his own son, which is a very odd thing to wrap one's head around but there it is. The things that might have been easy before his transformation might not be how he perceives things now. "An' while I know I've encouraged you to go out…see more of da world, I…" She falters. "I…want you to know you've always got a home here. Wi' me. You're my friend. You're mebbe more dan dat. An' I…I don't really wan you to go."

[ Tick Tock... / Accepting ]

Beth's pronouncement is, as with all things she has ever said to him or done with him, genuine and directly from the heart. From the moment she found him out on the street, through all the days, weeks, and now months they've spent together… him, hiding in her home while burning out the SWORD code and re-learning all the things he's needed to in order to achieve even a fraction of his former self-assurance… her, bearing with him when there was no Earthly reason she should have and taking time away from her work and her obligations to be the one person in all the world he could trust…

None of it has had the commitment of only half her heart.

He needs no further proof of it than her own physical corroboration. Even if she were of a mind to lie to him, her body never has. Her eyes stay steady on him and her pupils dilate; she speaks in a quiet, breathy tone that can carry nothing but the truth, for it will hold no other weight. Her heartbeat is as steady as her eyes, though its pace becomes more rapid as she approaches any subject of discomfort. And he knows that she applies tact not so much for him, but for herself. She's trained in the art of tact, of diplomatic restraint, and she would sooner throw herself in front of his arc beam than let her tongue escape the filters she applies to it.

Which makes it nigh unfathomable when she puts forward a supposition. 'Maybe' is a word she reserves solely for the social; she doesn't care to use it lightly around him. Precision has always been what she's hewn to, insofar as she could. But to say it now makes it a speculative matter. He is 'maybe' more than her friend.

Where lies the presumption? Is it with her, for perceiving their relationship to be dynamic and fluid? Or is it with him, for assuming it is not?

It must be the latter, because he should know better. All relationships are transitory. There is no permanence in their status. One does not instantly become an acquaintance of a peculiar status and remain so ad infinitum. Relationships, by their very nature, are anything but static. People are drawn together by commonality. Drawn apart by conflict. All relationships are in flux, constant motion, as varied and inevitable as the rise and ebb of the sea.

But as with so many things, it is easier to be an observer and to provide commentary on the matters of other people's lives… and to ignore those very same effects in one's own.

His emotional connections to his own past have been damaged, corrupted, and lost. There is little reason to believe they can be recovered. It has been enough of a struggle for him to reacquire control over what emotions he does have now. But Vision wonders if this new sensation rippling, cascading through his computational patterns and analyses, is the sensation of shame and guilt. He recalls neither from the shards of his prior existence. Shame and guilt, he knows, are sourced in regret.

What, then, does he regret, that he would experience these shades?

Perhaps it is the work he has put into overcoming his own misgivings about going out into the world on his own. All the encouragement Beth has offered him in the pursuit of that goal. His efforts to reacquire his humanoid appearance, which have now been fully realized into the same face and form he'd previously worn -- save for his stark white hair. Months of what has clearly been preparatory work to give him the agency and facility to re-enter the world on his own terms…

All now hovering in the air as a series of unspoken hypothetical equations, because Beth has chosen this moment to admit her truth to him. The truth that has been a profound and traumatic agony for her to experience, time and time again. No one has ever parted from her without leaving a grievous wound in their wake. Those she needed the most, those she trusted the most?

No matter what their circumstance was, no matter how she might understand it all in her mind… her heart tells her that they didn't just leave. They left her.

Vision's regret, then, is couched in all the equations that assume his departure from this place. His projections as to when he might see her next, how they would keep in regular communication. How their relationship might change, or how he might work to maintain its homeostasis despite his physical absence. Thinking forward… then looking backward along each of those hypotheticals, and seeing the straining smile on Beth's face while she struggles to hide away the pain in her eyes.

No matter how he might reassure her, no matter how she might reassure him, he knows that she will hurt, once again, when he goes. And some part of her will whisper to her that he did it because she is not worth staying for.

It isn't true. It never has been, and never will be. He knows it... just as he knows he can do nothing to silence that intrusive voice.

But he need not allow regret to seed itself in his future. He does not exist there. His existence is rooted in the here and now. This moment, which leads into the next. The question then becomes, as it always has been… how will he choose to conduct himself, from this moment to the next?

What decisions are before him?

What choices does he want to make?

His crystal-blue eyes slide down from her face to where their knees are rested against one another. Her hand is atop her kneecap, and history tells him that she would likely have placed it on his, instead, but for the seriousness of the conversation now… not wishing to sway him in an untoward way. Not wishing to presume that she means so much to him that he would stay, if only she asked.

His own hands are folded in his lap. But in this moment, that now seems the wrong place for them. If she is willing to go out on a fragile limb to explain… in her own way… what he means to her, then courtesy demands he consider what she means to him, as well.

That demand is met with a shifting of one of his hands -- to slide his fingers under her palm.

His gaze pans back up to her eyes, and he knows now that he must address everything she has said to him with tact, with compassion… and perhaps not with the greatest precision.

"We need not rush the arrival of that day." He lifts her hand up, bringing it to within their periphery while keeping his eyes trained on her expression. "And I have a great deal yet to learn. Not least of which… the regard in which we hold one another. For you have become my closest and dearest friend. And if we are, perhaps, more than that?"

He draws her hand forward again… and gently brushes his lips to her knuckles.

"Then it is incumbent upon us to discover the wonders of that world, as well."

#And So It Begins | answered prompts #brooklynislandgirl #beth riley #muse: white vision

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