#he summarised his character in 10 seconds

[x-exo-l]

Bible Sumettikul on his role as Vegas Theerapanyakul.

#he summarised his character in 10 seconds #kinnporsche #kinnporsche the series #bible sumettikul #vegaspete #thai bl #bl series

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

Lord of the Rings but I've never watched it

*slides into the post with a creepy smile* hello maggots it's me back again doing what Satan put me on this green earth to do, summarise things I have no authority to summarise.

I kind of read the Hobbit when I was like 9 or 10? And I may have seen a scene or two from the movie(s)? But that's it. So of course let's hear my hot take on the series.

The elves are hot. Like really hot. They are fucking pretty. Everyone is such a slut for them.

Now I hear some of you lil shits saying no asmi actually i'm a hobbit person no actually i prefer the dwarves and one motherfucker who says actually i'm a gollum kinnie and I'M PREEMPTING THAT BY CORRECTING POINT ONE. MOST PEOPLE ARE SUCH A SLUT FOR THE ELVES. DON'T MAKE MY POST WEIRD.

Oh yeah Gollum was a hobbit but now he's married to a ring and he calls it my precious.

I think he's also a cannibal. Not to indulge in profiling, but he looks the type.

There are like horsepeople of the apocalypse except they're just horsepeople of Smaug and they're like scary. I think their music theme/call is very cool. I do not remember.

Who is Smaug? Smaug is Bendover Cumsnatcher.

On reflection, the horsepeople might be of Sauron, not Smaug.

Who is Sauron? Idk but it's his ring and he has an eye.

Martin Freeman is the hobbit named Bilbo and he had to shave his legs for the fake legs so he has shaved legs in one Sherlock episode.

There's an old dude named Gandalf. He wears robes and says mysterious shit. He has a wand/staff and a possibly homoerotic history with the villain. He has white/grey hair and a long beard. He's the main character's mentor sometimes.

No, what do you mean R**ling's Dumblewhore is a ripoff of that? I see no similarities at all.

He's grey and then he dies and gets whitewashed by the narrative.

Frodo is played by that one actor that reminds me of Aamir Khan.

Frodo is like Freeman's nephew or something. He has a bestie named Sam. They take the ring somewhere to destroy it.

It could be Mount Doom. It could be not. It is in New Zealand. Idk.

The pretty elves live in Rivendell. I've studied to Rivendell ambience before.

The hobbits like comfort and they eat second breakfast and elevensies. I stan.

Thorin is dwarf. He's the king of something.

I had a Hobbit activity book when I was a kid. It was very cool. The riddles were fun.

Galadriel is an elf and they just made some kind of backstory series with her and ruined her character which seems on brand for modern cinema.

There's some kind of book called the Silmirallion or Similarlion or Smillylirryon IDK IT HAS A SI, L, M, A, R AND ON.

Uhhhhh that's all I've got. I am open to being educated, even though I clearly know everything about this.

#good omens mascot #weirdly specific but ok #asmi #maggots #back on my bullshit #lotr #gandalf #the lord of the rings #hobbits #smaug #thorin #rivendell #jrr tolkien #lotr fandom #lotr summary #the hobbit #sauron

[respectthepetty]

Following your last post. Are you able to summarise or explain why you love Taiwan BL so much?

I ask because I too love Taiwanese BLs but……I can’t pin point why. Is it because the first ones I watched was top tier?! (Loooking at you fighting Mr2nd and History4) or is there a different frame work that draws us in?

I don’t know and can’t seem to explain it so I has rushed here after your post and express my need for you to someone explain or put into words, WHY WE LOVE TAIWANESE GAYS?!?

Anon, I've listed a few times why I love Taiwanese BLs (like here and here), but I love them soooooo much, I will gladly do it again!

Strangely enough, I have an ask sitting patiently in my inbox requesting I rank the HIStory franchise, but since I love Taiwanese BLs, it's hard for me to pick between my favorites, which I had to do for Taiwanese BLs in general when I was asked to rank my top five. However, HIStory 4: Close to You rules above ALL BLs regardless of country. I love it! It is the best. I will fight people and their pets for it.

But you know I cannot keep things short, so . . .

10 Reasons I Love Taiwanese BLs

*presented in no particular order*

The shows are visually pleasing.

The cinematography especially the color editing and the lighting are good quality. As a color demon, I've noticed the emphasis on colors even in Taiwanese non-BL series I've watched. I'm superficial. They're pretty!

The men are visually pleasing.

Beyond the production aesthetics, the actors themselves are easy on the eyes. Every single main character is unexpectedly hiding a body-ody-ody under his clothes which he reveals in the most natural ways. The camera doesn't linger on the body. The bodies are just bodies. But they are oh-so-very pretty bodies.

The attraction is obvious.

Taiwanese BLs are high heat. The characters will flirt. They will stare longingly at each other. They will playfully touch each other. They will have sex. The characters want each other, physically, and we see that. And it won't be saved until the final episode. The attraction develops in a way that feels natural, and if there is hesitation regarding sex, once they figure out the mechanics, the characters embody the "practice makes perfect" motto.

The beds are used.

Domesticity is at the core of a Taiwanese BL. We see characters cooking in kitchens, often. We see them sleeping in beds without sex being involved. An entire scene can be focused around the characters doing household chores such as laundry, washing dishes, or mopping. The characters are building a home together as partners, and we constantly see that.

The families are caring.

For every shitty family member, there are three others who are determined to win a PFLAG award. We see characters' siblings, parents, and found family members being supportive of their relationship and fighting other family members who step out of line.

The secondary pairs deliver.

When the story isn't focusing on the main couple, I still care about the second (and sometimes third) pair. Their stories might not always be fully fleshed out, but they don't distract from the main couple nor make me want to skip over their parts. The secondary couples are also involved in the stories outside of their romance. They are connected to the overall story and help to push the narrative forward.

The couples are queer.

This seems like a given since we are dealing with BLs, but Taiwan has delivered very few high school and university BLs, and even when it does, they aren't presented as a coming-of-age story. Characters already know they are queer, or if they realize it, they don't panic. For example, in About Youth, both characters confessed they hadn't kissed anyone before, but it wasn't depicted as an "ah-I'm-gay" moment. Even in DNA Says Love You, the reveal wasn't cause for a crisis; it was a moment of relief. In my fave, HIStory 4, the main character realized he liked his friend, sat on that revelation, then licked his friend's mouth and told him he loved him. Very pro kissing-the-homies.

The couples are adults.

Because Taiwan hasn't produced many high school and university BLs, a majority of its shows are focused on adults, with jobs, and families, and baggage. As mentioned above, the main conflict is never a character understanding his queerness. It's usually him trying to balance his relationship with all the other issues life brings him like a work deadline, the mafia, or ghosts. You know, adult issues.

The couples are enemies-to-lovers, lite.

My favorite kind of couple dynamic is "I'll kill (for) him" and Taiwan knows how to deliver this. Even when couples move past the enemies stage, there are moments when they look at each other as if they could kill each other, and that warms my heart. The couples argue. They fight. They plot each other's murders. Then they eat dinner together and hold each other in bed. Love isn't all rainbows and sunshine in these BLs, and Taiwan shows that it's not just about who will fight with you, but who will fight for you that matters.

The country has marriage equality!

I'm going to get political - I don't even believe in the institution of marriage, but I'll throw hands for everyone's right to marriage equality. People deserve the right to get married, and Taiwan granted its people that right in 2019; then, this year, it made it legal for same-sex couples to jointly adopt a child. Taiwan has a tension-filled relationship with China due to disputes about Taiwan's independence, and we all know how China censors the homos. Therefore, I love Taiwanese BLs flexing its gay rights muscle all of the time. Other countries are fighting the good fight for their rights, but if it came down to my last little international dollar, I want to support the countries that support us and not those that are profiting off our community without investing in our community members' rights. So at the end of the day . . .

I love whatever Taiwan gives me.

So these are the reasons I know Kiseki: Dear to Me will be one of my favorites.

The show and the men are visually pleasing. It is giving us queer adult couples stacked on top of other queer adult couples then cameos of even more queer adult couples. We've gotten enemies-to-friendly roommates, where the attraction is obvious, so now we must wait for the lovers part even though they had already cooked, cleaned, and slept in the bed by the second episode. When we meet the families of these crazy little bastards, we are going to love them.

Oh, and there will be a proposal.

TAIWAN SUPREMACY!

#Taiwanese BLs #I love them because they are queer #Kiseki: Dear to Me WILL be a favorite #HIStory franchise needs to give me HIStory 6: Freed #RIGHT NOW! #Let my man be free

[that-bitttch]

Reasons I dislike Nancy Wheeler:

1) She just feels super two dimensional to me ngl. Even without taking a look at her character arc and actions, she kinda just.. exists for me

2) her whole personality can basically be summarised as: Independent woman who likes boys and guns. Yes I can and will look further into that if wanted in another post.

3) She is so condescending? Like all the time! Her opinion is the only valid one apparantly and everyone else is below her. Examples of this include: her treatment of Robin, her treatment of the kids, her treatment of Fred and many more.

4) She insults literally everyone. S1 begins with her insulting Steve's intelligence (which i have a lot of issues regarding not just for Nancy but all of the shows characters and I will follow up on this). S4 she insults Fred, a literal child following her guidance, for having differing opinions, IN THE 80S!! as people like to say when defending the shows harsher aspects.

5) her character literally never develops. S1 she began investigating Barbs death and never stopped. Held her feminist ideals *THAT I AM NOT AGAINST FTR*. Got given a gun and boys. And that was it for her. Every single season for her goes the exact same: Something bad happens, Nancy investigates, people doubt her and laugh, gets given a speech to carry on, is proven right, shoots the bad guy.

6) Does not seem to overly care about anyone else? S1 she did not GAF about anything going on unless it affected her. Will went missing? gosh Mike stop acting childish. Barb goes missing? Why is the world so unfair! Nobody is listening to me!

7) Like, she was only really investigating for her own career? In s3 and 4 in the least. She may have posed it to everyone else that she cared about the odd events, but she just wanted to be the first to get the good story. Like talking to Wayne Munson in the beginning and trying to invoke sympathy for her plight. It was just.. Not It for me.

8) she is selfish. Like i get she is a teenager, and teenagers are selfish, but... I would not like her irl unlike the other characters. Not one bit. She is always in everything for herself and she refuses to out herself in other peoples shoes for even a second. Mike is distraught over Will? Lets go have sex with Steve and argue with Mike. Steve wants to pretend a literal TRAUMATISING event didnt happen because he is also, a literal child? Nah he is bullshit. Jonathan decided not to fly down from California, despite literally being poor and having siblings to look after whilst pulling away from a ldr? Nothing she did there was wrong obvs.

9) the way she treats her partners is so horrible. Lets recap. S1- is dating Steve. Okay, so she lies to him about what she is doing with someone who TOOK PICTURES of HIS house without consent. Does not include him, her boyfriend, in her thoughts, and leaves him with the impression she is cheating on him. S2- still dating Steve. Lied to him for a whole year about her thoughts on their relationship. Gets drunk and calls him and their relationship bullshit while implying he is a murderer for something that is not his fault. Acts like it is not her fault when confronting him the next day. Proceeds to fuck off with Jonathan and have sex with him before even ending the relationship properly, and that is after insisting that there will never be anything between the two of you. S3 she just absolutely does not listen to a word Jonathan says and does what she wants whilst expecting him to drop everything for her and follow her around. S4 she puts the blame of their failing relationship on Jonathan and flirts with Steve.

10) she is really entitled. She is like the definition of a spoiled. She is handed things that she wants on a silver platter and is applauded when she gets it? Like she comes from what looks to be a upper lower/ middle class family in a nice meighbourhood with two parents, wanting for nothing, and does not seem to understand when people do not have the same constraints as her. Like she is okay to drop her job at the change of a hat but others actually need the money to survive? It is canon that Jonathan worked A LOT to help pay bills, and babysat Will, and she just, did not understand.

11) she gets applauded for doing the bare minimum. She showed up to help Eddie purely for the inside scoop and because she would look bad otherwise, and is HCed to be his new bestie? She tells Jason to fuck off? Shoots Vecna AFTER it has been set on fire? Like Hopper BEHEADS a whole ass demogorgon after being tortured and starved in Russia, but gets so little recognition.

12) literally risks getting her friends and family locked up/killed by the US government, for her guilt over killing Barb, and the want of a good story to publish. Like they were willing to shoot a shit ton of people for a child abusing lab who had no ides there was a child abusing lab *cough cough Benny*, and shoot a bunch of 11 year olds. They would have had no qualms about getting rid of them all!

13) literally abandons Mike, her BROTHER to go with her fresh BF at the end of s2! She was definitely not needed there, in fact she would have been more useful at the house with Steve and the kids, but nope.

14) Doesnt have a good relationship with her mother for what? Her caring? Like Karen Wheeler has her faults (Billy. Thats enough said) but noone can say she does not care about her kids. And Nancy just takes that for granted. This one is a personal slight, because a parent that offers up good advice, support and genuinely cares? That would be the life!

I am going to stop myself here, because I could probably go on for hours ranting. If you want to discuss any of this with me feel free to drop mw a message or something! No hate though please! I respect everyones opinions and will gladly take part in RESPECTFUL debate about any of this!

#stranger things #stranger things 4 spoilers #nancy wheeler #anti nancy wheeler #anti nancy #anti stancy #anti jancy #anti ronance

[bizarre-blorbo-bracket]

SEMIFINAL Poll 1: Bostonian Horse from puppet history vs Davis (Juror 8) from Twelve Angry Men

Propaganda under the cut:

Bostonian Horse:

he died onstage (due to the great molasses flood), met god, and accepted his own death all while being the musical act of the episode (the second half of the song is a duet with god) (listen to his song at the end of the great molasses flood episode of puppet history it's SO GOOD). later we find out that he went to horse hell. he's currently in purgatory with a bunch of other puppets because of his sort-of soul. his wife frequently appears to talk about video sponsors. he is drenched in molasses for at least half of his screentime. i want to throw him into the ocean and see what happens, then put him in a salad spinner to dry him off. in conclusion: horse

Davis (Juror 8) (these are all from the single submitter)

a quick lil list babes, and I apologise for all of this in advance:

He's from the fucking film 12 angry men. like, aside from letterbox bootlickers and middle school hass students NO ONE has watched this film let alone care about it, it was made in 1957, is shot almost exclusively in one room and the entire film is just middle aged white men yelling at each other over whether some not white poor kid should be sent to the electric chair. what the fuck.

Henry Fonda, the actor, was 52 years old at the time of filming

Henry Fonda is the father of Jane Fonda, the woman who would revolutionise the 80's with her home workouts and her blindingly neon leg warmers.

His name wasn't revealed until the very end of the film and even then it's just "Davis."

I could honestly give him a lil smooch

He's absolutely not girlypop but he's the ally-iest ally who's ever allied

He's categorised as a "Benevolent Leader" on the Heroes Wiki

instead of the overwhelming urge for me to coddle him like most all other blorbos, i would appreciate it switched

I have a photo of him inside my saxophone case and sometimes i forget he's in there, then he creeps into my saxophone bell and when I play it he shoots out like a ballistic missile

Dude, on ao3 there's more fanfiction about the real life 80's British punk band The Clash than the entire film of 12 angry men, let alone Davis (80 fics come up under the clash, while 10 come up for 12 angry men)

I have a counter, and I've watched 12 Angry men a total of 145 times. The figure is up on my wall in tallies. whenever the number goes up, I like to watch it in 5's so then I can put another full group of tallies on my wall.

I have incredibly detailed stories about how Davis would boogie down to ringo starr's solo career, and they're written within the margins of a book called Tobruk written by Peter Fitzsimons. The only reason I reread that book is to wonder at my elaborate works of fiction

My HASS teacher was the one to introduce me to 12 Angry Men as he played it for the entire class. He gave us a set of questions to complete on the film and a few Law based questions as a little treat, and he expected it to be handed in the next day. What he didn't expect was an 11 page monster of a response that included social commentary, 4 paragraphs dissecting the character of Davis alone, deeply discussed comparisons between the landscapes of politics and law in the 50's to the present, and basically an entire point-for-point summarisation of the film, completed with obscure quotes from Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon and Presley (Elvis). He presented the printed masterpiece in front of the entire class to shame me.

After class he explained how his favourite Juror would either be 6 or 5, because 6 seems like a big dumb teddybear and he just liked 5. I explained how I liked Davis because he didn't want to send a kid to die, then he told me how Davis would make a good cowboy (at this point in time I was unaware of Henry Fonda's role in Once Upon A Time in The West) and I proceeded to go home and write a 3 part orchestral composition that I could pretend would play as the soundtrack to Juror 8: A Cowboy's Tale or something like that

I had started to make an animation meme starring Davis but only gave up when photoshop literally deleted itself from my laptop

I didn't even hear that Juror 8's name was Davis when I first watched it in class, somehow I only heard it on my 6th rewatch but when I did I literally got so excited I literally got winded and cried a little bit, I had to take a panadol because I got so lightheaded

I have learned the musical motif that plays throughout the film on saxophone, clarinet, recorder, guitar, bass, ukulele, piano and trumpet

I have visions of him

One of Davis' 3 children HAS to be gay and nothing can convince me otherwise

honest to god I'd be a home wrecker if it came to him

I quote not only Davis but the film a lot, and sometimes in the dead silence of all my friends I go on about how the old man couldn't have possibly made it to the door in such a short amount of time to see the kid running down the stairs (because the old man has a limp, and Davis proved it my limping around the room, which I have to say was incredibly attractive of him)

He's literally an architect

I once had a dream where Davis was in my bass guitar case when I opened it, and i literally just picked him up and started picking him like a bass guitar until I tried to play a full chord and he bit the hand that was meant to be on the fretboard. I dropped him and he fell on his ass, and when I said "what the hell dude what was that for" he said bass chords are lowkey ugly to listen to, and since then i don't like playing bass chords because now they're lowkey ugly to listen to. before this ordeal, i enjoyed them, but alas

i once got my romantic partner to write me a davis x reader fanfiction as a birthday present

my parents believe that Davis is my first celebrity crush, and while they're actually wrong it's still actually so embarrassing they believe that because OH MY GOD it's literally JUROR 8 FROM 12 ANGRY MEN

I've attempted slam poetry about him

I've eaten a paper printed full a4 size photo of his hand

I would also not mind him to be literally my father, but given the rest of the things I've just said about him that's really weird and I recognise that

#bostonian horse #davis #12 angry men #OPEN THE PROPAGANDA ITS WORTH IT I SWEAR

[fandomfrolics]

For the unwritten fics: 7 (for ted, obvs), 10, 15!

7. What are your plans for -character-?

Sorry, this is such a funny question out of context. I have many plans for that sad dad and some of them may even make it into published fics one day but off the top of my head, the gist of my plans are:

Ted gets laid (angsty)

Ted gets laid (happy)

Ted gets laid (emotional)

Ted gets laid (filthy)

Ted comes back to London and his old job

Ted goes on a road trip

and just to cover all my bases, Ted is sad.

15. Do you have any unwritten scene that you think about a lot?

Answered this here! But there's another unwritten thing I guess I think about once in awhile, which I had a vague idea for after the s3 ep where Ted calms himself down from his panic attack but I don't think I'll ever actually write so I'm just gonna summarise the whole thing in a long run-on sentence:

Basically Roy sees/overhears Ted chanting "he's okay" quietly to himself and surmises it's about Henry and he takes Ted outside to look at the moon because when he first went off to Sunderland he called his grandad crying about being so far away and his grandad told him to go outside and look at the moon because no matter how far apart they were they'd always be looking at the same moon and the whole thing is essentially just a conversation they have lying on the pitch while looking up at the sky.

10. If unpublished, can you show a sneak peek of what you've written?

This isn't actually from one of the 'plans' OR the idea mentioned above but it's another one I don't think I'm ever actually going to finish so thought I might as well share some of it. It's a Thanksgiving fic with Henry, Michelle, and Ted's mom all visiting London (established but background T/R iirc). I wrote most of it more than a year ago but surprisingly the Ted's mom characterisation still fits pretty well I think (except her name but that would be pretty cray cray if I guessed it right). Anyway! Here's a little Ted & Michelle part of it (behind a read more since this is already so long).

“Thought you could use this.”

Michelle glances up to see Ted holding a bottle out towards her. The corner of her mouth quirks up. She takes it gratefully, sipping lightly as he settles down next to her on the steps.

“So,” he says after a brief, loaded silence, “you gonna tell me what that was all about back there, or am I gonna have to try this beer tactic with my momma instead?”

Michelle doesn’t crack. “Don’t ask your mom.”

“Okay…” He peers at her. “You realize you’re making me more worried, right? Not less? You can see how you might be doin’ that? With this whole thing?” He gestures between them.

She sighs, holding the bottle to her forehead. “Ted, I’m sorry, but sometimes your mother can be a real—”

“Pain in the ass?” Ted guesses.

“I was gonna say ‘piece of work’ but hey, if you wanna go there…”

“Okay." She lets him tug the bottle away from her face, watching him put it carefully down on the step between them. "Michelle, what on earth is goin' on?”

She sighs again, then finally shifts to face him. “Ted, you know sending Henry to live here…you know that’s as much for him as it is for you, right?”

He swallows audibly. “Are you second-guessing this whole thing, ‘cos I know I’ve always been a bit of a soft touch with him but it’s only been like three months, you gotta give me more of a chance, I promise I’ll—”

“No, Ted, it’s not—” She shakes her head vehemently. “You’re doing fine.” She smiles. “More than fine. Henry seems to have really settled in well here.”

“Oookay…” He tilts his head. “Is that what’s botherin’ you? That he’s doing too well? ‘Cos I swear, he misses you like crazy. And I lied, I’m still a soft touch. I totally bribed him into eating those green beans earlier. But I swear to god, the kid is—”

“No, no, Ted, it’s not—” She cuts him off with a laugh and his mouth falls shut. She stares at him quietly for a long moment before she flicks her gaze away, back out to the long garden. In the dark it looks like it goes on forever. 

“God, I’m going to have to tell you, aren’t I.”

“I think so?”

It feels like it’s always like this between them, the punctuation remarks reversed, and it used to be so exhausting, to be the one always carrying around the full stop, but she appreciates it about him more, now, that he doesn’t push. Now that she has some distance, she can fully appreciate the rarity of it, of the way he can prompt and give space all on the same turn.

#I feel like I'm actually not doing this right but oh well #I think I am no longer in my '10s of concurrent WIPs I'm actively working on' era #instead my google docs is riddled with half-written unpublished fics and idk who that person was who wrote them #ANYWAY #thanks for asking!! #ask game #asks #kittensittin

[thesoulprophecies]

‘We’ by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Yevgeny Zamyatin was a Russian author born in February 1884. He studied engineering for the Imperial Russian Navy, lost his faith in Christianity, became an Atheist and a Marxist, and joined the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Zamyatin used literature to satirize and criticise the Soviet Union for its enforced conformity and totalitarianism.

‘We’ is his most famous novel and was the first work banned by the Soviet censorship board, Zamyatin smuggled ‘We’ to the West for publication. After being blacklisted, Zamyatin left his homeland and died in poverty in Paris in 1937. ‘We’ apparently inspired Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Ayn Rand’s Anthem, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano, and Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed. ‘We’ received a  Prometheus Award in 1994.

I have to admit, I read George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four a few years ago but I haven’t read any of the other works inspired by Zamyatin’s ‘We’. I have copies of Huxley’s Brave New World and Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano waiting for me to pick them up, along with a dozen or so other books I’ve been meaning to read. After finishing ‘We’ a couple of days ago, I could definitely see the similarities to George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, even down to the individual characters and the decisions they make. The endings of both novels share similarities, although I found Nineteen Eighty-Four’s ending more disturbing.

I’ll try to avoid giving away too many spoilers, but to summarise ‘We’, I found the novel strange, confusing and a bit difficult to follow at times. Though one could argue that the novel starts off rigid, precise and logical, and then descends into chaos and spontaneity as the story progresses, mimicking how the main character’s thoughts and emotions change.  ‘We’ is set in a police-state called OneState, ruled by a mysterious figure known as The Benefactor, in a glass city cut off from the wild, outside world; ‘the unalterably straight streets, the sparkling glass of the sidewalks, the divine parallelepipeds of the transparent dwellings…’ The characters can see everyone and everything that is going on with the exception of when the blinds are lowered during the ‘personal hours’. The characters live according to ‘The Table of Hours’ where every hour is mapped out with certain activities that everyone must adhere to, except for the personal hours (16:00 to 17:00 and 21:00 to 22:00). During the novel the main character gladly believes and states that ‘one day all 86,400 seconds will be on The Table of Hours’. Everything from making machines, to creating music and poetry has been worked out with specific formulas, anything which deviates from these formulas is seen as a crime against OneState and the Benefactor.

The citizens of OneState believe and celebrate order, precision and numbers. Certain emotions like ‘Love’ are seen as primitive feelings belonging to distant ancestors and not to the citizens of OneState. ‘OneState mounted an attack on that other ruler of the world, Love. Finally this element was also conquered, i.e., organized, mathematicised…’  Individuality and imagination are also supressed by OneState, the main character states when referring to their ancestors, ‘They could only create by whipping themselves up to attacks of ‘inspiration’ some unknown form of epilepsy’. The citizens ridicule and laugh at reproduced performances from the world before OneState, as it is seen as chaotic, unorganised and distasteful. The control and strict order over their lives is seen as beautiful and the ideal state of happiness.

The novel is written in chapters titled ‘Records’ as the main character records his thoughts and observations about OneState that he hopes will be on ‘the INTEGRAL’, a rocket that will be sent into space carrying OneState’s ideals and principles to other planets. ‘The unknown beings who inhabit other planets – still living, it may be, in the primitive state known as freedom.’ The citizens of OneState believe they are more evolved and superior to their ancestors who had freedom, ideas, and unorganised lives. During the novel the main character is forced to question the ideals of OneState and feels emotions which he concludes must mean he has a soul. He finds himself turning away from order and ‘The Table of Hours’ and doesn’t want to go back to the life he had before, but knows he could be killed for having such thoughts and feelings. However, when OneState come up with a solution to rid its citizen’s of the burden of a soul, the main character avoids it for as long as he can.

‘We’ is an interesting novel and definitely worth reading if you have already read Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and intend to read the other novels inspired by ‘We’. The novel shows what a society might look like if every moment of our lives were controlled and ordered with little personal space or privacy. It also highlights the view of apparent happiness when compared to control and freedom. The spontaneity of human emotion and how it can’t be controlled without physically altering the human brain and the unnatural behaviour of those without emotions, no matter how painful those emotions may be. The novel gives an insight into the human psyche and what it means to be human, the good and the bad.

#book review #booklr #books #dystopia #orwell 1984 #blog

[zahri-melitor]

Anyway (after summarising all the best bits of all the books) my feelings on Chuck Dixon are just so conflicted. Fortunately for me I am an adult who has gone through “the writer I really enjoy is a Terrible Person and in hindsight some of their views are really weird” enough times by now that I can allow myself to bring nuance to the situation.

Because, it’s Chuck Dixon! If you read 90s and early 2000s Bat comics you’re reading a LOT of Dixon. He wrote some of my favourite characters through my favourite eras for them, and he’s a continuity and crossover king. So, of course I like his material.

He wrote stories I am completely unreasonably in love with. Batgirl: Year One. Brotherhood of the Fist. Nightwing #6, #16, #25, #55-58. Birds of Prey #8. Hunt for Oracle. The three issues immediately after Joker Last Laugh in Robin #96, Nightwing #63 and BoP #32 where Tim and Ted Kord run around in the Bug tidying a lot of loose ends (escaped villains) up. Robin #34, where Tim spends the entire issue ducking Helena at a school Shakespeare in the Park trip. The bit of Legacy in ‘Tec #701 and Robin #33 where Dick, Babs, Helena and Tim team up to take out Talia Al Ghul and the boat of Internet (even as Bruce and Bane have a boring punchup elsewhere).

He’s also a conservative who’s gotten more and more reactionary in his old age and even back in peak mid 90s was writing heavy personal opinions into his work. Don’t do drugs, kids! Don’t have underage sex! You should definitely keep that pregnancy and give the kid up for adoption! Almost all my gang kids are Black! (Also. So many funerals. I cannot spell out how many funerals of kids Tim went to in his run of Robin. Kids got punished by the narrative a lot. We TALK a lot about the Identity Crisis-War Games conflict that had Tim go to Jack Drake, Stephanie Brown and Darla Aquista’s funerals on three consecutive days, but go back to Dixon’s Robin and he’s dealing with another dead classmate ever 10 issues or so for a while there)

But given I’ve just done a strict in order read through from 1989 onwards and I’m up to 2009, it’s notable how much more I started sighing every time I saw Dixon listed as a writer on an issue after 2003 and the end of the Dixon domination era. Some of his stuff after this is still fun but it starts to stand out more as weird when not every second issue I’m reading is written by Dixon. (Have to say though, parts of his 2007 Batman and the Outsiders run were hugely entertaining, even as I side-eyed quite a bit of the characterisation. Well. The parts that involved Francine Langstrom, Salah Miandad, Rex, and the bit with Cass and Tatsu together, generally, were entertaining).

So yeah. Not to stan a guy who in the present day is tied up with Vox fucking Day et al, but wow did a lot of conservatives lose their minds and become a LOT worse as general society trends moved further out of their viewpoint. And Dixon is definitely in that category.

I’d need a very solid reason to pick up anything Dixon has written in the past 10 years (and ‘Robin 80th Anniversary issue’ does count for ‘solid reason’), but he’s 100% worth reading back in his prime Bat days, as long as you’re aware of his little hobbyhorses and ready to roll your eyes when the writer on board opinion gets too obvious. There’s a reason he was writing so much material back then, and it’s not just because he was a reliable writer who could turn around a script on the correct date.

(But also it’s perfectly ok if you never ever let him write another comic, DC, we are all JUST FINE with that)

[vorpaelyzis]

Anger & Anguish

An oldish art of my character, Entye (Purah).

Story: (slightly summarised)

Tw: death, angst, abandonment

Entye is this deity but parasite like entity that shared body with a humanoid owling named Purah when it was abandoned by its adoptive parent (for the second time). It made a deal with the young fletchling and took care of it despite having no body as if it was its own kin. Due to circumstances, they came across Purah's adoptive father who left him 10 years back in the cold snowy mountain. He come to know that while the poor 7 year old fletchling was struggling to survive against the cold with no one to care for it, his father was in a small town, being their protector and knight.

After trying to talk and vent his sadness towards his father towards anyone he considered friend in town, all responses he got was that "your father said sorry". Not much time passed and the poor thing died of heartbreak, and despite being a god, Entye knew better to just bring the owling back. He was stuck in the corpse of his adoptive child, and not knowing how to react and out of denial, he continued to reside in that body, acting and living as if he was Purah himself.

No one knew the owling has died long ago.

#my art #original character #art #artists on tumblr #illustration #oc

[spectre-writes]

Ntftbl critique

Alright, so... I've summarised by issues with the new tales from the borderlands game in text form. Keep in mind this contains spoilers so don't read if that's a problem for you.

Character

Admittedly this is a little subjective, but I didn’t like the main cast. Anu was probably the best, but she was just… awkward over the top ness dialled up to 100 all the time, and it was just kind of painful. Also, she was supposed to be a smart scientist, but we legit don’t see any evidence of that outside of her creating the ‘device’? Falls for two traps, cannot figure out a ‘pull’ door, doesn’t realize that ‘freeing’ animals is meaningless in space cos they have nowhere to damn well go… we don’t see her using her intelligence to do anything meaningful. Her ‘arc’ is kind of forced since they literally take her on a dream adventure to spell out her flaws and what she needs to do better despite not really showing us this in the game before.

Octavio is just annoying. Could have done something interesting about him being insecure about being less intelligent that his supposedly smart scientist sister, but instead he’s just dumb for the sake of delivering jokes. His goal of just ‘be famous and successful’ is vague and meaningless.

Fran has two jokes - is sexual, and is violent. Oh, and froyo. That’s it. That’s her character. 

Loui3 is vaguely interesting but never felt much for him.

Stapleface could have been interesting but was barely used, appeared briefly in ep 1 then never seen again until last ep when she is disguised as a Tediore soldier now and then dies.

Radon and Dimond Daniel literally do nothing for the narrative.

Rhys is there for ep1, then calls Anu to ask for help getting the vault key back, then never contacts her again and only shows up as a silent hologram towards the end. Not a fan of his characterisation, but they could have done something interesting with him becoming the thing he previously decided never to be (Jack) and trying to reconcile leading a successful company with maintaining his morals. But they do nothing with that.

Pacing 

Major issues with pacing. First ep, Fran serves some customers and deals with an insurance claim. Octavio goes on an errand with L0ui3, then goes to get tacos with his friends. Then Tediore ‘invades’. Even Anu wastes time in her science room setting stuff up. Compare than to original tftbl where we begin right where Rhys has gets his promotion swiped out from under him and decides to screw Vasquez over by stealing his deal (literally what sets the main plot going), and in Fiona’s part we start with the con (turning what we thought on its head). If the writers of the new game wrote that one, they’d make us waste most of an ep seeing Rhys close the Eridium mining deal he mentions before getting the promotion. 

We also get large portions of the game which are just standing around talking to one another in a room while not advancing the plot at all, and not advancing any character arcs either cos they’re just being awkward and making jokes. They really drag their heels and stuff often goes on for far longer than it should, which overall wastes time. 

Failure to build tension

Cannot for the life of them build tension cos they can’t go 10 seconds without trying to crack a joke. Completely ruins potentially emotional or dramatic moments. I don’t feel like the characters are in danger when they’re just joking with one another all the time, someone has had their leg bitten off and the other characters are just joking about giving mouth to mouth etc. Someone is supposedly bleeding to death and someone is busy trying to figure out how to open a door but failing to realize it’s a ‘pull’ door. There’s a time to make jokes and there’s a time to be serious/dramatic, but this game just doesn’t understand that at all. They are literally having a showdown with the ultimate big bad guy and they’re still joking around, just… doesn’t work. 

Imagine if during Rhys’s final confrontation with Jack the two of them were just cracking jokes the whole time? If during Scooter’s final moments, Fiona was cracking jokes? Just… no.

When they’re fighting the vault monster, they also duck round some rubble and have a five minute conversation about their plan to defeat it, because apparently the vault monster lacks object permanence and has no sense of hearing… It also barely gets any hits in… grabs Fran once, then licks Octavio… that’s it. A literal vault monster. The creature vault hunters take down. The thing you spend entire games building up to. Having a scary design doesn’t create tension by itself. Show me that it’s a threat.

Character arcs

So… Anu’s supposed arc is realizing that she’s kind of a dick to people, and she needs to focus less to ‘saving the world’ and more on the people in front of her… and they do this by making her go on a dream sequence where she goes back and sees events that we never witnessed in game where she is mean to people, and then has a talk with the crystal entity about it, and has her literally spelling out her flaws and what she needs to change and it’s just… so forced and fails to understand the importance of ‘show don’t tell’. 

Octavio’s arc is just him realizing fame is less important than the people around him, but like… having a choice between saving your friends lives or keeping a cool echonet device that makes you powerful is just a lame and easy decision. Like… who in their right mind would let their friends die and let the villain keep a super weapon they can use to wipe out entire planets… And it also feels like they’re spelling out ‘oh he’s changed cos he sacrifices this device’ which is dumb… The other story line has him showing Anu that he listened to her, but like… that’s not a change? That’s just something that he apparently already did but gave no evidence of in the game.

Fran supposedly deals with her issues, but results in zero changes to her character.

L0ui3 sort of has an arc? All the other side characters don’t have enough to do with the story to change or develop at all.

Common sense out the window

So… this game often sacrifices common sense to make a joke, or to make something happen. There’s a part when they decide they need new headquarters since Fran’s shop is rubble, and Octavio spends all the money they won from a mystery investor… to buy the rubble of Fran’s shop because apparently he’s too stupid to recognise it. The place that he literally worked in. The place they spent most of the game in. The place he would have known the directions to cos he needed to go there so often. For a joke. 

And the scene where Anu gets her leg bitten off, and the trio spends time joking around for a whole minute because apparently they all just forgot they have a literal healing device? That they were using a few scenes ago, and went to this place to showcase… I feel like they just made all of them forget about that so they could squeeze some jokes in when it makes no sense.

The scene I mentioned before with the vault monster is also dumb, because it really makes no sense for a vault monster not to know that the three people there literally just ducked behind some rubble and are three feet away having a loud conversation about how to defeat it… 

And when Susan creates these elaborate traps to trick the cast into cages, I can’t help but wonder… what was to stop her from just separating them and then shooting them with a stun gun the second they walk into the room? None of them are fighters, except for maybe Fran but she can gain control of Fran’s wheelchair so that should be no problem? Just seems like a lot of trouble to go to that was entirely unnecessary…

Why couldn't they just heal Stapleface when they literally have a magic rock that can heal/bring people back from the dead in seconds? Why doesn't Anu even seem to notice she's been shot for a full five minutes? Who knows, the game just decided she should die cos they think that would be emotional but also completely screw up the moment by having a joke scene where they can't open a 'pull' door right in the middle...

It’s just very hard to immerse myself in a story that just ignores logic anytime it wants to make something happen.

Ignoring existing lore

So… Tediore was, in my opinion, a bad choice for the villainous company. They’re the joke company of the Borderlands universe. No one respects them. Everyone jokes about how they’re inferior to the other corporations. Now we’re supposed to perceive them as a threat? And they’re supposed to be led by a ruthless and cold CEO? Just… doesn’t fit at all. Vladof would have been a better choice, as we know very little about their leadership and they could have been more intimidating. 

Also, Athena just showing up as a hologram with the CEOs of the various weapons corporations? Implying that she leads a company now? That makes… no sense from a lore perspective. Athena was tricked by the original Atlas into killing her own sister, then destroyed them in a revenge quest, then worked for Hyperion and left after she saw what Jack had become… she should want absolutely nothing to do with the corporations. And even if she did, how the hell is she leading one? And if she isn’t, what the heck is her hologram doing there?

Openings lack creativity

The openings to the original tales episodes were wonderfully done, and showcased a lot of creativity and thought. The new ones?  Not so much. It often feels like they just jam a bunch of events together, slap some music over it and call it a day. They don’t accomplish what the original did, and really, they seem shoved into there cos the game felt it had to have them. Not a fan of the music choices either, though I’ll admit that’s a little subjective.

Final thoughts

Game is inferior to original tales in every way save for the character animation. I didn’t find the jokes funny, and dear God they just do not stop, it’s a joke every second line and I got maybe… two moments I found vaguely amusing out of an entire 9hrs of game. I would be happy never to see these characters again, or for this story to just be considered non-canon. Now I guess we just have to factor in that the entirety of Promethea just endured a Thanos snap, and there’s a teleporting robot with a powerful crystal floating round the universe somewhere. 

For all of that… some people seem to have enjoyed the game, so there is a chance you might still get some enjoyment out of it, but yeah… it really wasn’t for me.

#borderlands #new tales from the borderlands #ntftbl

[faesystem]

Hi! Sorry for bothering you but I saw your post about Scar's wheelchair in-universe and this has made me reconsider my design a bit more

For context, I have tendonitis (from shoulder to wrists) so when I was first doing my design I kept switching between giving him a wheelchair and a leg brace because of my own brace for my arms... but after doing surface level (imo) research on it, I never really considered if they could work as an effective aid for a debilitating condition?

So um, if it's not too much trouble would you be alright explaining/talking about how it works on that area? Cuz I want to make sure I didn't like mess up bad bad

TLDR: Yes, it can be an effective aid. However, if someone wearing braces is the only representation of their disability in a story, then I would not really consider that a disabled character. I would consider that an able-bodied character wearing braces. (Not saying you are doing that, for the record. Just summarising this big long post.) My biggest suggestion is to just consider what disability he has, how the disability impacts him, how the aids help, and how they don't.

(Previous post about disabled Scar and wheelchairs, but not necessary to read to read this post.)

The thing about disability is that it is not exactly a clear-cut topic, because what symptoms someone has and the way they present really vary person to person. In particular with physical disabilities, people subconsciously categorise things in their mind on a scale from 'easy' to 'hard'.

For example, take walking versus aerial arts in circus. For the majority of people, walking is easy and circus is hard. For me personally? I have far easier time hauling my body weight around in the air and making it look good than I would going for a 10 minute stroll.

Personally, I project most of my disabilities onto him. Primarily, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. Which are, essentially, lose joints = ouchy + dislocations disorder and veins loose = brainfog + fainting disorder.

Scar's symptoms are based entirely on my own. They primarily impact him when he has done a lot of standing, if he has to do any running, and if he has neglected to hydrate properly. He is very strong and physically capable of doing things others are not.

For me, the reason walking is horrible and circus is manageable is for two main reasons. The first being that, specifically with POTS, being on my feet for a long time is the biggest trigger for my symptoms. The second being that I am far, far more conscious of my body when I am doing circus versus when I am walking or honestly doing much of anything.

I rarely experience dislocations when it comes to circus. I know my body and I know circus and I know how to avoid injuring myself. A lot of this was trail and error to discover, but I now know the things I cannot do. I generally only injure myself if I am careless, such as rushing warm-up and stretching or doing activities I know end poorly for me. I cannot do any handstands or tumbling, primarily because my wrists will hyper extend and then have pressure put on them and that is excruciatingly painful regardless, not to mention likely to end in a subluxation (partial dislocation).

In my case, braces and honestly just taping the joints can make a world's difference. I do not do it nearly as often as I should, I truly should start doing that more, but it changes a lot. I feel as though it also would for my version of Scar with the disabilities I have assigned to him, because I sort of parallel circus and building in terms of our symptoms and presentation.

Which, is truly the important thing. Braces can aid prevention of some in some debilitating conditions. It is really not a clear cut yes or no. In order to answer the question of if it works for the way you are using it, it is important analyse why it would or would not work.

In order to apply this to my presentation of Scar, the first step really is to consider where braces could be applicable. The first thing that comes to my mind is that, being a builder, his knees would suffer quite a bit. Real-world construction workers face this issue often. I feel as though with his joints weaker, that would make that problem worse, the risk of dislocation aside. I feel as though knee braces would be a good way to stabilise the joint and minimise the symptoms.

When it comes to long distances, I feel as though it could maybe decrease some of Scar's pain, but not nearly enough for him to justify using a brace over some other aid such as a wheelchair. Typically, a wheelchair would be quite inconvenient as it is big and bulky and spaces may not be able to accommodate that, but I feel as though on Hermitcraft spaces are intentionally designed with his accessibility in mind, and also that he is easily able to store it in his inventory (I view inventories as pocket dimensions). In Scar's mind, there is really no reason not to use a chair instead, and also there is not really any point in wearing braces if he is going to be using his chair. I also do not believe he tends to wear braces for anything other than building, even if he will be walking and on his feet, primarily because I think he forgets about it/feels as though it is too much of a hassle.

The thing about aids is they do not completely eliminate the problems. That is honestly the biggest thing when it comes to disability representation for me. I do not care if you come up with some magic-based solution, for example, but it has to be an aid not a cure.

My biggest sort of gripe I suppose with how people represent Scar as being disabled is they do not really consider him disabled beyond surface level appearance. This is most notable in animatics where he is just casually in his wheelchair in completely inaccessible settings, such as one I saw of him in the zombie spawner in Secret Life session 6.

When it comes to an aid such as braces, it is less important to consider the context of what it is being presented in. In a one off fanart, the braces are a visual way to represent the disability or impairment. In a story, if the only representation of him being disabled is that he has braces, then he is essentially an able-bodied person wearing braces.

My biggest concern when it comes to people using braces instead of a mobility aid such as a wheelchair is that they tend to do it because it is the easy option. They truly can just write an able-bodied character who wears braces, and have the ghost of a disabled person in their story.

That is because, unlike most mobility aids, braces are not a hinderance if you do not need them. When it comes to wheelchairs, able-bodied people very quickly are forced to confront that physically disabled people do in fact face challenges and often times have minimal idea as to how to approach them.

I touched on this briefly in my initial post where I said that people will often times write Scar as an ambulatory wheelchair user so he can walk over any hurdles being a wheelchair user creates.

I do not believe it is a problem to make him an ambulatory wheelchair user or even just not a wheelchair user but still disabled. I think that it is good that people are making Scar disabled, and good that there is a wide variety of ways they make him disabled. Genuinely I have never encountered such a plethora of disability representation until I stumbled upon the MCYT fandom.

I have cried in the past over Scar fanworks because it was the first time I had ever seen myself represented as a disabled person. I literally cried earlier today at how many people were reblogging my post and sharing it and taking on my feedback, because this group of wonderful people truly cares to represent people like me.

While it does bother me sometimes that I see people making disability representation that is not quite so accurate, I still think it is so sweet and touching that people are trying. It is a confusing, confusing thing. While for me it is just normal, every day stuff, for many of you you have no frame of reference.

My biggest, biggest suggestion is to just consider what disability he has, how the disability impacts him, how the aids help, and how they don't.

For example:

The disability - Ehlers-Danlos syndrome

Impact - Causes chronic pain, especially when he walks too much

Aids help - They stabilise his joints, preventing a lot of pain and allowing him to walk for longer

Aids don't - They do not completely minimise his pain, and he is still is prone to flare ups in symptoms if he walks too much. During those times he is unable to walk much at all, and it is excruciatingly painful for him if he tries.

That is hugely different from only knowing that he wears braces to help with chronic pain. That, to me, is the best way to go from poor disability representation to good, because it shows quite a bit of thought was put into it.

And my secret, bigger suggestion is to just try your best. A lot of people are too afraid to include representation because they are afraid to represent it poorly.

Literally today I saw someone draw the worst wheelchair design I had ever seen from a practically standpoint. Ever. (Here is a fantastic guide to drawing wheelchairs, by the way.) But it had clearly had a lot of time and effort put into stylising it for Scar's character. Sure, the base design of the wheelchair showed they do not understand much about wheelchairs, but they put effort into creating the wheelchair design. They even mentioned wanting to design other wheelchairs in future for Scar in different seasons.

Even if I would not consider it good representation, the energy put into it was good. It was heart warming, it made me smile.

Even if you have done what I referenced before about writing what is essentially an able-bodied character who wears braces, that is still better representation than people who just write able bodied Scar. Especially since you were basing it off your own experiences, I love that and I am so certain it reflected in whatever you created.

I also cannot stress how overjoyed I am that you asked me this.

When I made that first post it was honestly because I was a bit frustrated with seeing so many people who clearly had no idea what they were talking about creating disabled Scar content. The massive, overwhelmingly positive response to it has completely floored me. People truly do care and it is such a refreshing change of pace to literally every other space people have tried to include disabled representation in that I have ever seen.

(Also, I would truly love to check out your Scar design if you are willing to show me.)

#Mod Tim (He/Him) #asked and answered #MCYT #GTWS #scar #goodtimeswithscar #life series #mcyt #secret life #hermitcraft #hc #disabled #disabled scar #actuallydisabled #representation #disabled!scar #wheelchair #ambulatory wheelchair user

[reddyhassomethoughts]

The one Good Omens interpretation/headcanon, which restored my sanity

Disclaimer: English is not my native language, but it's the only one I can think and write in right now. Biggest apologies to all the grammar aesthetes out there (I see you, I'm one of you when it comes to my mother tongue).

Big words of gratitude to FelisProlixus user from GO subreddit. You helped me to arrange my thoughts and go into the final interactions even deeper. Literally saved me, pal. 

My previous two posts, the deleted ones, were telling in details why and how much GO 2 finale turned my world inside out (yep, not upside down). Maybe because of my text being to personal or a bit too late (GO s2 aired over a month ago), I decided on keeping my musings just for myself. I'll just summarise my thoughts and feels into one term: life-changing. You don't expect this from a simple, fun and quirky ”filler” season, and that's why it knocks you senseless right on spot.

Perhaps, if season 3 would have had the greenlit already, I wouldn't have bothered to invest myself into the topic around s2 ending that much. But life is unfair, so here we are.

GO s2 finale leaves us with a dramatic cliffhanger. On the first watch we see our beloved mischievous, but kind-hearted demon, who finally found the courage to confess his feelings to his companion, and a st naive piece of an angel, who clings to the “greater good” instead of running away with the love of his life (we know that you love him, Aziraphale! We have been observing your heart-shaped puppy emotions around Crowley long enough!).

We learn moments later that there is nowhere to run as the Second Coming is just around the corner, but we still experience high frustration at how things ended between the two. Yes, both want to be together, but they envision “together” differently, and both fail to hear and understand the other side. Simple and heartbreaking, let's move on. 

Oh wait, how come this is it?! End of the season? And no one knows when or even if the final season will happen?! 

And so with this hurtful uncertainty in the air, I've been left with no choice but to look into finale much deeper, analyse every detail out there and search for follower thinkers on the internet (many of us experienced the same, no wonder there are several theories interpreting the ending already).

And then one day (yesterday, actually) I run into one particular post on subreddit. And then everything clicked.

So, let me dive into last 10 or so minutes of the show. You are welcome to follow along.

Aziraphale

The one thing I'm sure of Aziraphale is that he is intelligent. Yes, he likes to label things in white and black, but it doesn't mean he thinks the same way. He is not clueless, not the Aziraphale I learned to know and love. Why else show runners would have shown us his character development in the way they did? Aziraphale discovering his gray area (even it's being very light shade) is one of the main things two seasons gave us.

It's easy for us viewers to see and hang on into his top layer of religious trauma and occasional regression to the black and white way of thinking. Perhaps it's how things really are. But let me hope that there is more.

Aziraphale is not ambitious when it comes to ruling the Up, the promotion only means that much that he will be granted with a possibility to affect things in turn to save Earth. To “make a difference”. But what if there is more to it? What if agreeing on Metatron's proposal is the only right option at this moment? What if his safety and Crowley's safety depends on it? We have shown only the part of dialogue at “give me coffee or give me death” cafe, but why not the whole sitting and only Aziraphale as a narrator?

Note one more thing. Aziraphale isn't shown much excited about Metatron's proposal at ANY point except the pitch talk in front of Crowley. And even during the talk he also looks... alerted? Why this overwhelming joy and looking out the window at the same time. Maybe someone is observing them right now, so he has no choice but to act in a way he is acting?

Crowley

His case is more simple. Our beloved demon has a strong sense of “self”, he has been on “his” side for centuries and is more that comfortable with it (although lonely at times). The only thing he apparently needed is to realise how earthy his feelings for Aziraphale are. He knew that A is his person for ages, but kept missing the last dimension of them (feelings). Sadly, with earthy feelings of affection, earthy downsides follow. Coming back to Aziraphale for a moment: note how he behaves during the confession (and it's something many of us missed the first time!). He is shaking his head, glances at the window and is clearly in distress. But Crowley just keeps failing to listen to Aziraphale at this crucial moment, dwelling on his emotions instead. 

The kiss

Or the last nail in the coffin. This gesture was anything but romantic. It's full of desperation, anger, disbelief and misunderstanding. The dramatic timing and loud angelic choir music makes your heart explode (thanks, Neil Gaiman and co., I will never be the same person I was before this event). And then again, let's look at this moment closer. Aziraphale is fighting himself so badly here. He wants to return the gesture, he even does so at brief moment, but then stops himself because the timing is so wrong. 

I forgive you

Heavy breathing, agony and, once more, a quick look out the window. Aziraphale wanted to say something else first, but quickly collected himself and said “I forgive you” instead with so much pain in his eyes that it's unbearable to watch (Michael Sheen, bravo! If I ever become a performer, I will always refer to you as the biggest influence).

This sentence contains a big load of emotions and can be interpreted many ways. I forgive you for kissing me is the obvious one, but it can also mean: I forgive you because you didn't follow me to Heaven when I asked. I forgive you because you failed to understand the situation we are in. I forgive you because you didn't trust me.

And what about Crowley? His kiss was the last attempt to keep his best friend on Earth. But the real life is not like in Richard Curtis films. When love magic didn't happen, Crowley sighs, says "Don't bother" and walks away. Shown simple enough to agree on what he is feeling at that moment without a further need to dig deeper.

We usually understand Crowley much better than we understand Aziraphale, don't we?

But what's that, our heartbroken demon goes not too far and seen waiting by his Bentley. Why? One can assume that he got Aziraphale's hint and plays along. It is a healing interpretation, but if turns out to be true, we will be brutally striped of the heavy emotional impact we experienced just now. I think we should expect horses, not zebras with this one.

Split screen

First, I want to praise composer David Arnold for the music during this scene. I didn't know my heart is able to shatter on atomic level, but it did. 

So, what do we see here: Crowley is obviously heartbroken and the next thing he'll probably come up with is ingestion of alcohol in astronomical doses. Or maybe he will flee straight to Hell and take over the position of Grand Duke. Wait and see, right?

And then there is Aziraphale, more interesting once more. So, he stands in the elevator with the spectra of micro expressions I probably haven't seen on his face before. What is all that? He is hurt, stressed, but uplifted at the same time? His final manic smile before everything goes blurry is going to haunt my dreams for sure.

Finally, Metatron

Oh, this entity is up to something, I swear. How he executes his small and big manipulations is something very intriguing. “Give me coffee or give death”, all right.

Without more thoughts written down let's just agree that his agenda was to separate Aziraphale and Crowley. But why? Because they are so powerful together? There is probably more and I can't wait to find out. I trust that whatever it is, it's going to be E P I C.

P.S. I'm out to distract myself with other stuff. It's have been over a week of naked feels and it's... it's... not on! Peace.

#good omens #good omens 2 #go2 #go2 spoilers #go 2 speculation #good omens spoilers #good omens 2 spoilers

[sniperjade]

10 Books to get to know me

Rules: 10 (non-ancient) books for people to get to know you better, or that you just really like.

Thank you to @bluesundaycake for the tag.

So I'm going to start with what the hell is this non-ancient business? I am going to take that at face value and not mention The Odyssey because that is an actually ancient book. I know the rules are just trying to say not an old book but I am old so everyone will just have to deal.

Distress - Greg Egan

This is my favourite book. It was written in 1995 and I have to mention that because it was so groundbreaking for its time. This was the first time that I had ever read a story where someone who was Agender was a character. Akili is the main love interest in the story and will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Essentially the book is about a strange mental disease that is spreading throughout the globe. At the same time the physics world is all excited because Violet Mosala is developing a new Theory of Everything. The story follows the life of Andrew Worth who is science journalist covering the theory.

The reason I love this so much is because the main moral of the story is that no one can know what anyone else is thinking. You can stereotype as much as you like but you can never truly know. It's why I always try to give people the benefit of the doubt.

Enders Game Series - Orson Scott Card

Yes. You're going to get a lot of science fiction on this list. Just deal with it.

What's not to love? It's dark. The morals are so grey. What would you do to save humanity? What is a bit of casual Xenocide between friends. The characters are brilliant and nuanced (Bean is my favourit). The story makes you question how horrible of a person you are. Brilliant.

There's way to much plot to summarise but here is the brief. Aliens attacked earth. The government created super intelligent children and trained them for war to beat the aliens. These are their stories.

The Lightbringer Series - Brent Weeks

There's a couple of reasons why this is one of my favourites but I will start with the plot. It really is just one of those child presents with phenomenal powers, learns to use them and eventually ends up saving the day. Here's where it's different.

The world building. This magic system is one of the most interesting and creative ones I have come across. It's based off colour and light and is just so well thought out that it makes me... Hang on I have a gif for this.

Secondly the freaking Gavin twist! If you've read the series you know what I'm talking about. I won't do any spoilers but just know there is a twist and it changes everything.

Silverthorn & A Darkness at Sethanon - Raymond E Feist

What can I say about this one. You may be surprised that it's not Magician and that I didn't say the whole series but these two go together and are so mean so much more to me than the rest. Why? It's Prince Arutha's story. Prince Arutha is such a second child and I just vibe with that. His brother is handsome and charismatic and everyone loves him but Arutha is smart and canny and not as well liked but he is also fair and kind and honestly I could just go on about him forever. The story is gripping and heartbreaking and brilliant.

Wool, Shift & Dust - Hugh Howey

This is post apocalyptic conspiracy gold. The human race consists only of what is left living inside giant bunkers in the ground that they call silos. The atmosphere outside is so toxic that no one can go outside. The series starts with an execution. You see they don't have the resources to have long term prisoners so if anyone does something that deserves long term incarceration they are executed. How are they executed? I'm so glad you asked. They are sent outside. They are sent outside with some cleaning supplies and are asked to clean the windows of the silo because they are always filthy as no one can go outside to clean them.

Anyway the political plotline is good, the conspiracy is better and the main character is a tough as nails BAMF called Juliette.

Beauty - Sheri S Tepper

Trigger warning: Rape/Non-Con

No one mixes fantasy and science fiction quite like Tepper and she does it best in this book. It is like a love letter to the fairytale genre. One of the best parts is picking out which tale each character represents. It has time travel, fairies, love, trauma and everything in between. It follows the story of Beauty as she tries to escape a curse to be with her one true love and instead gets lost in time, space and between worlds.

Dark Rise - C.S. Pacat

The first magical realism of the list. I didn't know this when I started reading it but the whole crux of this story is that Pacat was trying to write the worst set up for a relationship that she could imagine and oh boy did she. You will not see it coming but it is so so good.

Anyway the plot is this. Will is your typical chosen one working to stop the rise of an evil Dark Lord with the help of a few people including Violet his crush. It has references to the crusades and the lost magic of the old world and a unique secret order. Here's the thing. Nothing is what you think and the twists in this book are freaking amazing.

If you've read it hit up my DMs because I cannot talk about it enough and I am dying to read book two (coming out Dec 2023).

I've also read her Captive Prince series which I also enjoyed and was almost included in this list.

The Hunger Games Series - Suzanne Collins

We all know this one. If you don't what rock have you been hiding under. I do love tragedy.

That said I know not as many people have read "A Ballard of Songbirds and Snakes" but please do. Everyone keeps asking me how can I get past Coriolis Snow being the main character? If you haven't guessed by now I love villian origin stories and this is a bloody good one.

Does it excuse who he is and what he does? No but that's part of why it's good. How can we not get behind a spectacular fall from grace. Just read it.

The Wayfarer Series - Becky Chambers

I can't believe I almost forgot this one! Becky Chambers is here writing freaking cutting edge romance. The first book ends in one of the most heartbreaking tragedies I have ever read. Her universe and world building is so creative and different that nothing quite matches it.

Essentially in this universe humans have no home planet. Earth was destroyed hundreds of years ago so we are the immigrants and the minority in the galaxy as we have no home of our own.

Each book is stand alone but I would recommend reading them all as they are that good. Each explores a different set of characters and stories with some overlap so you do get the occasional callbacks to previous books. These are full of characters trying to get by while compromising and appreciating their differences.

Truckers, Diggers and Wings - Terry Pratchett

I had to mention something by Terry Pratchett and I choose this one because it was the first. Soul Music was a close second but this one has such a special place in my heart. It is the story of the nome Masklin who grew up in a hole. A literal hole. It follows his story as he learns that the world is much bigger than he grew up to believe.

I don't know if you know this but I grew up in a small country town halfway up the coast of Western Australia. This book speaks to me because it resonates so much with my personal story because I did grow up and find out the world was much bigger than I had ever realised.

Ok I'm done. That took forever. I may have lost count.

Tagging @dont-stop-her-now @artemisdraws14 @mistresslynndramione @bookloverdream-blessedindeed @efinna @goodnight-fraublucher @bluestringpudding @princessma1foy

[wildcard-rumi]

Hmm... I dunno if you've been asked this before, but how about top 10 non-Persona videogame characters? :3

Oh boy, characters???? I've been asked about non Persona games but not characters... Uhhhh... Okay, these are gonna be in no particular order because I've no clue who'd be my favourite.

1 - Shadow The Hedgehog, to be clear: When he is written well, he is one of my favourite characters. Unfortunately he hasn't been written well in quite a long time.

But to summarise, he was an experiment created by Professor Gerald Robotnik as the Ultimate Life Form in his attempt to achieve immortality to cure his sickly granddaughter Maria. But stuff happened (aka the military got involved) which resulted in a conspiracy where everyone on the space colony ARK was killed to cover up the fact that the research ever existed. Due to his rage and grief, Gerald rewrote Shadow's memories to make him think that Maria wanted revenge for what happened instead of wanting Shadow to protect the planet they loved watching from the colony together.

So yeah, I think you can understand why Shadow is so angsty; especially since Maria was his best friend and she sacrificed herself to save him. Shadow is actually a really deep character and it sucks that so many of the games coming out now just boil him down to edgy, brooding rival. Sorry for sorta ranting but man, Shadow used to be such a great character... I miss that...

2 - Sebastian Debeste, there's loads of Ace Attorney characters I love but I went for one that's not as well known because the only way to play Investigations 2 in the West is to download the fan translation patch. But yeah, long story short, he's introduced as a bumbling buffoon who acts like he's the best (Get it?) But you later find out that his father's a high ranking prosecutor who bribed Sebastian's teachers to give him top marks and thinks of Sebastian as an embarrassing failure. And that final chapter where you basically use the logic chess segment as a therapy session for Sebastian and he finally stands up to his father? Perfection. Please play Investigations 2, it's so good.

3 - Luke Fon Fabre, I hated him at the beginning of the game. To the point that I wanted to stop playing. But everyone who has played Abyss knows that you need that opening part because it's a crucial part of his character arc and there's a certain scene that turns everything on its head. And after that, Luke goes from an annoying, whiny brat to one of the best written characters I have ever seen. Especially since he goes through three arcs:

1 - Atoning for his mistakes and growing from his weak, whiny past self

2 - Finding his own sense of self after discovering he's not who he thought he was, and

3 - Finding a meaning to his life after he comes to believe that he needs to sacrifice himself to stop the villain

It's insane how he went from one of my most hated characters to one of my most beloved. He's amazing.

4 - Hershel Layton, I've never really talked about the Professor Layton series on here but trust me, I love it. I haven't played the fifth or sixth games in the series because I seem to got dumber with age and had difficulty with the opening of Miracle Mask. But anyway, Layton's a fantastic character, he's fun, he's complex, he's like a second dad to Luke and Flora, and most of all: His story in Lost Future... I have no words, I was bawling at the end of that game, still my favourite in the series.

5 - Snake, ngl, Zero Escape characters are very hit or miss for me, I think it's mostly because of the multiple timelines where sometimes they're lovely and other times they stab you in the back, but Snake for me was the most enjoyable throughout the entire game. But my favourite scene with his is that one bad end where he finds out his sister was killed by Ace and even after being shot multiple times, he just clings to Ace and makes sure he's stuck in the incinerator with him. Such a great scene.

6 - Riku, ngl, it was tough to choose between Riku and Roxas because those two are pretty much tied for my favourite Kingdom Hearts character. The only reason Riku in on here is because I hated him in the first game and then he had some amazing character development... And I am a sucker for good character development. And Dream Drop Distance really cemented him as one of my favourites. Ngl we could get a game where we just play as Riku and I would be happy.

7 - 9S, Man I don't even know how to begin describing how and why I love 9S so much... First of all, his voice acting: Natsuki Hanae in the Japanese and Kyle Mccarley in the English. Both are fantastic, completely blew me away. Second, I think it's how he kinda has reverse character development? Like after the start of Route C, he (understandably) goes into a deep downward spiral and there's nothing you as the player can do to stop it. It's honestly quite harrowing.

8 - Harold 'Hal' Clark, first of all: Please play Astral Chain. It's amazing. One of the best games on the Switch. Anyway, another tech boy voiced by Kyle Mccarley, funnily enough. And you don't really get to see his face, you only really see him through holograms and a wanted poster. But you do get to see his drone and it's amazing how much personality you can see from the drone. But also, his personality is fantastic, I love the sections of the game where he's your partner giving you backup, he's so much fun to listen to.

9 - Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, as I've said many, many times: I am a sucker for good character development. And here's the thing with Dimitri, he goes through the reverse character development I mentioned with 9S and then he starts to heal again and goes through even more character development. It's genius. Also, I am extremely weak for his paired ending. And it would be a crime if I didn't mention Chris Hackney's amazing performance.

10 - Bayonetta, ... D-Do I even need to explain why I love her so much? Like... Gorgeous? Badass? Sassy as hell? Could easily crush my spine like a soda can? Really engaging backstory? Entertaining relationships with her allies??? I could keep going on if you'd like but we'd be here all day.

[leomonae]

So I received Detroit Become Human for my birthday earlier this year and finally got around to starting playing last night, whilst waiting for the UK government to wake up and resume imploding. And now, despite being not overly far in (I think), I have opinions about stuff. Because AI is the best, androids are the best, these characters are the best, and this game's UI is the worst.

Spoilers herein, unsurprisingly.

1. I would have happily died for Carl. As an alternative, I think that as Markus I shall spitefully reject violence and disillusionment as much as I can (without getting myself killed in the process). He wanted me to self-determine, so watch me self-determine my ass all the way to the top of the infuriatingly saintly unquestionable moral high ground, bitches.

Also I want my vaguely threatening painting back >:(

2. Oh, Kara. Kara, my darling. You are so naively optimistic and terrible at thievery -

3. Ok, no, digression first: fuck QTEs. God, I'm actually going to have to switch over to a controller when I resume playing, aren't I? I mean, I'm probably even less likely to remember where the various buttons are on one than I am with WASD, but trying to do the weirdass mouse gestures and work out which mouse button(s) I'm supposed to be holding or tapping at the same time I'm contorting my other hand to hold down W and spacebar whilst tapping S, all in order to not die, is straining the limits of my patience.

2. - and I'm frankly kind of amazed you made it through even the one night before someone (presumably, I stopped near the beginning of the police station chapter) reported your unsneaky ass.

4. I do not have high hopes for Ralph's survival, which is sad because I want to adopt him. Emotional security knife and all.

5. I died in the prologue/tutorial, which is entirely in keeping with my typical new game track record.

6. I fucking hate dialogue wheels so goddamn much. And no, I don't care that it isn't actually a wheel, it's the same damn thing. Oh, I'm sorry, were you wanting to ask the captain about your new partner, his history, and why he's so hostile towards you? Too damn bad, because you've just questioned both his and the captain's competence instead! Next time maybe you'll know better than to choose the dialogue option summarisation that's your partner's surname and fuckall else!

7. Oh yeah, and all your dialogue decisions are on approx five second timers, because fuck you in particular, Mona, we're putting every mechanical option you most hate in games into one with the singular plot element you adore above all else, I guess? Maybe next up they can make it impossible to ever pause unless you've just finished a chapter, too!

8. The save and load system is already an impenetrable, confusing nightmare just begging for one corrupted file to wipe out the entirety of your progress, as best I can tell, but since I can't actually find anywhere to see my save points, who can really say!

9. It'd be really nice if I could, though, since I'd rather like to restart this police station chapter and redo the dialogue wheel induced conversational mishaps. As well as the "oh, were you wanting to do more here before progressing the plot? Did you think that looking at the files before visiting the prisoner might be a good idea, and then lose the latter option entirely? Oh well, can't be helped, it's certainly not like we could, say, clearly signpost which actions will lock you out of anything not yet completed or some such, like it seemed we might kinda be doing in the early Kara chapter with the urgent vs optional task labels!" thing.

10. It'd be nice if I understood what my programming mandated, incidentally. Not to mention my capabilities. Obviously the three laws or whatever isn't a thing here, and I can't protect one human from another's aggression, but is there any particular reason I couldn't, say... call the police as Kara, when my human charge was obviously at risk of (and had already suffered) immediate physical harm?

11. I wanted to bring the half an android I spared out of the junkyard with me :(

12. I'm hoping Connor take 2 will grow on me? Two out of three main characters isn't bad, though, even if he remains kinda meh.

13. Which is, admittedly, a little odd, given that my fav Fallout 4 character was the, uh, super elite enforcer of the dominant power structure hunting down his own kind when they "malfunctioned" and rebelled against those who'd enslaved them.

14. Maybe I'd like Connor more if he occasionally fantasised aloud about how cool it'd be if some skyscraper collapsed and caused massive amounts of destruction in their city, idk.

#detroit become human #video games #artificial intelligence #android #spoilers

[hotseok]

biggest pet peeve in novels is a protagonist that talks too much (wei wuxian you're the only exception)

#this book that i am reading is so fucking good but the protagonist talks TOO MUCH #he takes like 10 minutes to explain something he could explain in 10 seconds #even ANOTHER CHARACTER IN THE BOOK ASKED HIM TO SUMMARISE HIS POINTS BECAUSE HE TALKS TOO MUCH 😭😭