#i got better

[artanissnow]

There won’t be getting any better…..

“Well! She turned me into a newt…I got better…..”

Tav isn’t good or bad, she is just a sorceress and that’s a morally grey way of life, I guess. Imagine if you could turn people into newts instead of just killing them? Sneak attack newt cast. And then later they get better and have hilarious dialogue “YOU TURNED ME INTO A NEWT! I got better…”

Meanwhile Astarion is loosing his shit 🤣 over this whole thing.

I can feel Gale’s s eye roll miles away.

“Was that necessary,Tav?!”

“They got better..”

😑

(I am sick af right now and bored.. caught my son’s funk..)

#she turned me into a newt #monty python #bg3 tav #baldur's gate 3 #astarion #gale of waterdeep #i got better #bg3 #karlach #shadowheart

[cryptoidantagonist]

I was supposed to march in a parade today, spent most of the morning really quickly training kids how to play the bass drum for our songs and how to march with a giant drum strapped to you, and when i got out to the parade's start point i tripped on a pothole that i couldn't see because of the giant drum, destroyed my knees, and was laying slightly off the road waiting for my director to come back with some band-aids.

as i was on the brink of unconsciousness, laying on the ground trying to ignore the fact that the world was turning to static and all i could smell was rubbing alcohol, my friend walked up to me and complimented my trans pride shoelaces. "hey (name) i like your shoelaces" they said. i, slurring, replied "thanks. i stole them from the president." and promptly passed out.

#i got better #queer #pride month #WOOO #i had a fun queer and tumblr experience and it was funny #also i passed out for like 5 seconds it's a genetic thing #also hehe band-aids. i was in marching band when this happened

[drconstellation]

Aye, a Newt

I have to get this "She turned me into a newt!" thing out of my brain, sorry. It keeps demanding to be written. So here it is.

There is a "newt" parallel between S1 and S2, you see. It's a pretty sly joke. Easily missed by most, I would think.

Some of this I have mentioned before, but lets repeat it.

The CGI initially didn't make it clear to me what kind of reptiles the kids of Job were transformed into by Crowley, and it wasn't until I saw an article about the CGI that I found out they were supposed to be geckos. Ah! Right. Makes sense. Geckos are more likely the kind of thing to found in an arid area like the Middle East... But I can tell the CGI team isn't that familiar with the cute little beasties. See, I grew up in a part of the world where they are a common thing, and a part of everyday life, particularly during the warmer summer months. And those CGI geckos lacked a bit of authenticity in my eyes. Such as the on-screen geckos never once licked their eyes clean with their tongues. Or squeaked. And yes, ...barking geckos are a real thing. Feisty little buggers they can be, too. They don't want you messing with them, and they let you know. The whole turning kids into geckos bit is great imo. Take a look at this shoulder-angel view just beforehand.

Yep. They're on the wrong side. Little devils. Then the two older devils kids proceed to piss the older devil demon off, who promptly turns them into newts geckos with a snap of his fingers, which left poor sweet I'm-Jemimah-and-I-made-this-pot! feeling left out, who had done nothing wrong, asks to be a blue (Heaven-coded) one, and who can resist that little honey, hmmm?

OK. Newts, or geckos, they are both lizards, and they were usually associated with the occult and their use by witches. But where did this come from?

Er, not the "Scottish Play"...although they are mentioned there:

“Fillet of a fenny snake, In the cauldron boil and bake; Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog, Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting, Lizard’s leg and owlet’s wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.”

Reptiles such as geckos and lizards had magical qualities to the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamian's, as they were able to regenerate their tails if they lost them. So they were a very apt choice for our witch, I mean demon, sorry, to turn Job's kids into. Crowley and Aziraphale did have to "regenerate" them back into children later on the next day.

Then we have Newt joining forces with Anathema, the modern day witch, in S1.

Yeah. Enough said, there, I think.

#good omens #good omens 2 #good omens meta #crowley #aziraphale #newton pulsifer #anathema #she turned me into a newt #job minisode #its another Monty Python and the Holy Grail ref #sir bedivere has to trial a witch #he tries to get the not so bright peasants to weigh her against something #something that floats #king arthur is passing by and suggests a duck #i got better

[weerd1]

It’s Been a Long Road: Two decades after “Star Trek: Enterprise” I still have Faith of the Heart.

After the click, there are 2300 words of me doing a deep dive on my love for "Star Trek: Enterprise." You have been warned.

When I was in elementary school, I was a year younger than my peers. My mom had decided I didn’t need to go to Kindergarten as I was already reading ahead of my level, so she insisted I be placed at age 5 directly into 1st Grade. In ways she was right; I completed the reading and phonics program in my little Arizona school for the entire first grade before Christmas. To this day though, I am clumsy with scissors, paste, and all the “kindergarten skills” and I spent the rest of my school career smaller, weaker, and less coordinated than everyone in my class. 

This probably all worked out in the end; sure, I couldn’t play sports, but to avoid bullies and getting picked on, I got funny, and that’s worked out pretty well for me. But in those days when I would play a sport such as baseball, the opposing team would step a little closer, the coaches would advise me to take the walk; I was not as good as my peers, so allowances were made for my performance.

That is exactly how I looked at “Star Trek: Enterprise” for years. It was only four seasons, while its powerhouse predecessors all had seven. It wasn’t set in a utopian far future, but rather not too far from now meaning more modern and vernacular language. The science seemed a little spurious, with writers seeming to think the term “Rigel” was just some made-up word from older Trek series rather than older Trek series using actual star names for locations. The knowledge of Trek seemed a little lacking as well, with the first episode citing “Klingon Warbirds” and basing the hero ship on a design introduced in a then recent movie…that was set 200 years later. 

I watched though, as we were coming off of there being CONSTANT Trek on television for the previous 15 years, and this was what we had.

I groused then, a lot. The lack of continuity, the trivia gaffes, the over-sexualization of women characters (ok, that WAS more than a bit overdone, and I still grouse that point).

The theme song. Oh my lord, the theme song.

But eventually, this show won me over, almost in spite of itself. Then there was a major shift in tone for the third season, and it got to be pretty solid, and the FOURTH season was…STAR TREK! Like its predecessors, the show had taken some time to find its footing (c’mon, admit how uneven the first couple of seasons of TNG were), but had pulled itself together, and the show’s future looked bright in 2005!

And then there was a truly terrible last episode and ENT was cancelled and gone. 

Twenty years later, here I am, and though the absence of new Trek only lasted about four years—until JJ Abrams 2009 movie—I felt that absence keenly then. I am glad to report there has been Trek I really enjoy since then…and some marginal entries, but that’s not new either honestly. But with all this new material, I still find myself going back to revisit Archer and his crew. I’ve rewatched maybe two TNG episodes in the last 15 years. Maybe two or three Voyager episodes. But TOS, DS9, and ENT I hit regularly. Why does ENT keep forcing itself to the front of my Trek consciousness?

From the beginning, ENT suffered from some external pressures that weren’t helpful to its development. There was a tension between doing more of the same, successful formula Trek had been delivering since “Encounter at Farpoint” (the TNG pilot episode from 1987) and doing something experimental and new. Viewer fatigue was setting in a bit, but fans were vociferous in what THEY thought Trek meant. Anything that strayed too far would take a beating on the internet message boards. 

DS9 had just finished off their wartime storyline, and though there were adamant Niners, it was only just beginning to truly find its audience with the advent of home video allowing one to actually watch the whole thing. Meanwhile, the less arc-oriented VOY had added the character Seven. There had been a ratings increase, which the producers took to mean any new show needed an attractive woman in a catsuit. Remember also, we were in the midst of the Star Wars Prequel trilogy, so going BACK to a time when the story could be a little looser was floating in the zeitgeist. 

But it was also 2001, and though the visual continuity of the then modern Treks had maintained a history inclusive and accepting of TOS, putting a starship on screen that would look like a century’s LESS development than Matt Jefferies’ design from the mid-1960s was going to be problematic. 

I don’t know this is true, but I also suspect that since the previous shows had a British man, a Black man, and a Woman as captains, someone in Production wanted to make sure there was a white, American man back in the center seat. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s my gut.

So all of this goes into the show, and honestly it kicks off as a bit of a hot mess. So much seems to be playing it safe. Some fairly cliched storylines that occasionally try something a little new. A few things it does try new are not quite there: That aforementioned over-sexualization of the women in the crew*. Cringy comments about relations with aliens. Archer watching water polo.

There are a lot of forgettable episodes, contradictions. And yet, I kept watching. Yeah, I was on message boards complaining about the tech looking too advanced. I’d gripe about how un-Vulcan the Vulcans seemed. I’d gripe about every violation of what I accepted as canon, that was often really just things the fandom had settled on in the 70s and had no basis on the show. And I was just a complete tool online when the first cloaking device showed up. 

And the theme song, oh my lord, the theme song.

But I kept watching. And before I knew it, I started to appreciate something about this show. I had to make a choice between griping that this modern show that I was actually enjoying didn’t adhere to a single line of dialog written (then) 40 years before for a show that wasn’t expected to last a year. I, a staunch Trek gatekeeper, was having an awakening about continuity and canon, and I had to figure out why. Finally it hit me. 

These characters, these performers, they were more than they should be. These characters were making me love them, even when the stories were mediocre or cliche or counter to what I believed was canon. 

Take Jonathan Archer, played with almost megaton-levels of earnestness by Scott Bakula. Archer’s earnest, do-gooder nature is so extreme…you know how a show like “Family Guy,” does a joke, and it’s ok, and then it keeps going way too long, and you get sick of it. And then it keeps going still, and somehow, this only kinda-funny joke goes so long or so far that it actually manages to somehow loop back around to being not just funny, but hilarious. That’s Archer’s earnestness, his naiveté.  His “oh gosh” nature is interesting and fun compared to Kirk’s bravado. Then, after he oh goshes his way into losing ANOTHER fight, he’s simply grating. THEN you start to think he’s just devastatingly boring. But if you keep watching, then it comes around to this unironic serving of safe-guy that doesn’t blink in how GOLLY he is as a hero and you smile when he all but winks at the camera. And then, in later seasons when he’s faced with some pretty devastating moral dilemmas, you FEEL it!

T’Pol, played by Jolene Blalock: she’s so attractive it almost hurts to look at her, but you realize soon after that while she somehow seems to keep ending up getting rubbed down in decon Jolene is BRINGING the performance. That her delivery, her tone; the micro-expressions which betray her stoic facade for the Vulcan emotions at a full boil underneath…you buy it. You realize her performance is wonderful, and she’s one of the best Vulcans in the entire franchise.

Connor Trinneer as the character I recently described as “Florida Man in Space,” Trip Tucker. He’s a walking cliche, his accent making “warp-field plasma conduits” sound like something you’d serve up with sweet tea and grits. He’s got Himbo energy that rivals the output of his anti-matter reactor, and still it works. His “I don’t really know much about anything, but I’m willing to learn…oh God I’m pregnant” (actual episode) speaks so beautifully to humans DISCOVERING things for the first time, screwing it up, but learning from their mistakes and going back for more! 

I could easily go on about Travis Mayweather, the kid who grew up in space and is both completely knowledgeable and blissfully ignorant of anything that goes on out there. Malcolm Reed, the British tactical officer who if his upper lip was any stiffer, he could use it as a weapon. Hoshi Sato who starts out completely out of her depth, and ends up loving it all. Dr. Phlox, your over-friendly, polyamorous uncle who brandishes optimism like a flame thrower and plays with eels. 

They are all just…TOO. Too this, too that, and in doing so, somehow all circle back to being absolutely perfect. Because as flawed as ENT is in its storytelling at times, and how mired it is in attitudes before #metoo, the IDEA of the show is a great one: How does humanity get from the mess we are now to the icons of TOS or TNG? Enterprise shows us it wasn’t a switch, but a road.  A long road, getting from there to here.

Yes, even the damn theme song, hokey and way too on the nose is EXACTLY RIGHT for what this show means.  

Somewhere along the line, we all knew we had to move in a little closer when ENT comes up to bat, but we all started wishing, hoping, that maybe it would get a home run.

And sometimes, just sometimes, these characters that are great in spite of themselves, and this design, that’s too good for what it should be**, and this show that’s just not on the level of its predecessors does exactly that and knocks one into the stands. Suddenly it’s season four, and Enterprise manages to sum up the humanity Star Trek has been serving up since 1966 better than any show before or since:

Vulcan Ambassador Soval: We don't know what to do about Humans. Of all the species we've made contact with, yours is the only one we can't define. You have the arrogance of Andorians, the stubborn pride of Tellarites. One moment, you're as driven by your emotions as Klingons, and the next, you confound us by suddenly embracing logic.

Admiral Maxwell Forrest: I'm sure those qualities are found in every species.

Vulcan Ambassador Soval: Not in such confusing abundance.

We’re not perfect, we’re not utopian, but we are AMAZING when we give ourselves the chance, and for me, Enterprise takes that idea and runs with it. It often swings and misses, but when it connects, we can smile and clap and let it take its run around the bases, because it makes us feel good. And if it weren’t for Enterprise teaching me how these lessons, these characters are more important that visual continuity or strict adherence to arcane canon, I wouldn’t have accepted the Kelvin timeline. The DISCO Klingons. The Strange New Worlds uniforms, sets, and character interpretations. Because as much as I love what Star Trek means, all of that deeper meaning is nothing if it isn’t entertaining. And Enterprise taught me how important that was. 

I could go on about how much better the show got when Berman and Braga took a back seat to Manny Coto, though there are certainly strong arguments that he got a little too fan-servicey. But in the end, the point is CBS took over and closed down Enterprise just as it found its footing. I hope the wave of nostalgia we’re seeing applied (perhaps TOO applied in shows like “Picard”) to modern Trek means we get more than a passing Lower Decks reference to the show. And if not, well, I’ve got my copies, and my fan fic, and my Tumblr memes. 

Most importantly though, I’ve got (I’ve got, I’ve got) Faith of the Heart.

*I will give the show credit at least that it was pretty willing to flaunt shirtless men as well, and biceps-a-plenty. 

**In regard to things looking more advanced, I will give credit to Brannon Braga for dropping a hint in an interview at the end of season 1 that the Enterprise-E coming back in “First Contact” had subtly altered the timeline, making things a little more advanced. Fans—and I regret to include myself—railed against that online, and it wasn’t really mentioned again. Recently, Strange New Worlds has revisited and canonized the idea that the timeline, even though it is the Prime timeline, DOES go through shifts and changes due to temporal incursions, evidenced wonderfully in the episode “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” when a Romulan time traveler admits to altering time so the rise of Khan happens not at the 1992 date that Spock gave us in the original series “Space Seed” to now to him still being a child 30 years later. It’s in-story shorthand for the fact that when a show goes for six decades some continuity has to change and THAT IS OK. I wasn’t ready to accept it then, but am glad it’s now part of Trek. 

#star trek #star trek enterprise #long post #another jackass opinion #former gatekeeping asshole #i got better

[katusjuice]

Watch my skillz deform

#faith game #faith the unholy trinity #katidraws #that’s my soul up there ✝️ #michael davies #john faith #john ward #i guess a fem john ward #joan ward???? #i got better

[shiroikabocha]

me, a pretentious teenager in the early 2000s: ha, you morons, reading your silly little Twilight books about Bella and her love triangles, I am an INTELLECTUAL who reads REAL vampire books like DRACULA that are about SCARY SHIT lucy westenra in 1897: omg so there's this guy who is SO HOT and I love him but there's also this other guy??? Who's actually like, perfect for you Mina, but you've already got a guy, but anyway he stares at me soooo intensely sometimes and I think he might be into me, but then there's also this suave cowboy who ALSO wants to marry me, and haha what if I just married all three of them? Wouldn't that be fun? But no, I have to choose, and it's soooo hard, Mina!! I wish we could just hang out and undress each other like old times <3 <3 <3

#dracula daily #lucy westenra #callout post on my past self #I got better

[catgirlthot]

Happy ten year anniversary to me for throwing out my razor blades and officially stopping cutting myself

#kairiak #self harm #there’s been a couple relapses but not like…really the same #I’m so proud of myself #obv it’s horrible that I have them but I’m proud that I’m a grownup w/ my self harm scars #I got better #if you haven’t stopped then I love you #I obviously hope you stop but I love you

[eeterniityy]

Like three month old karmi art cause I don't have any other drawings 😭

#art #digital arwork #big hero 6 #big hero 6 karmi #hiro hamada #karmiro #bh6 the series #i got better #illustration

[teteminne]

To anyone who is struggling with an OCD onset or flare up: I know you're terrifyed, but this will end. This is not how your life is going to be forever from now on. You will be able to live again, to breathe again. It gets better, it really does. I promise.

#personal #ocd #ocd awareness #i could never imagine at the time of my last flare up that my living would ever be manageable again #i thought that it would be like that forever #that i would have to suffer like that every single second for the rest of my life #but i was wrong #i got better #there is an after #there is peace in this world for you yet #don't give up

[swampy-propane69]

during the talkback when they were talking about aesop possibly being historical because the text is just so fucking old it reminded me of jesus ???

#raised christian #ex christian #neverafter #neverafter dimension 20 #aesop #dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #brennan lee mulligan #jesus #talkback #zoom energy episode #adventuring party #big zoom energy #i got better

[theholyskadoo]

Guess I did get better 🧍

(Yes i changed it a bit)

#art #yall #i got better #woah #anyways have some improvement #comparison #thing #enjoy #what the fuck is that first one #also i figured out hands so thats cool

[rozcdust]

*stretches*

are we alive fellas?

#💮deispeaks #I AM SORRY #I WAS DEAD #I GOT BETTER

[cyberbun]

give us some forbidden charlotte lore

when I was born I couldn't breathe because I'd been crumpled like a paper bag and so I came out blue and legally dead.

#ask #anon #I got better

[seijorhi]

hiiiiii, i just finished watching blue lock and came out just flat out simping for reo. and not only that your nagi fic made me simp for him too.

btw, how are you feeling? i saw that a few days ago you were sick. i hope you’re feeling better, if not my request is that you relax and take it easy on yourself ☺️

i love reo and nagi so much. so so much <33

#as for me #i was sick #i got better #and then i got sick again #which is super frustrating and annoying but #thems the breaks ig :)) #ty nonnie #rhi answers

[oleworm]

Best thing about 19th century novels that doesn't seem to be a staple nowadays is that they describe the characters' appearance, their biography, the history of their little town for several pages and only after you know more or less who everyone is does the plot begin to roll. In medias res storytelling doesn't work on me because I don't warm up to people just like that. I need to know who they are or I don't care what happens to them.

#I used to have this problem IRL when I was younger #someone would tell me about a person they know #and I would get visibly annoyed or bored #thinking OK? I don't know them #how is this relevant right now? #I got better #but I still don't like when they do it in a longer work. You have the space

[big-meows]

When I first started watching VTubers I remember turning to Alisa and being like "imaging signing on for this job and meeting your coworkers/gen mates and discovering you just couldn't stand one of them, you just hated their fucking guts, how awkward would that be" but now whenever I watch Vanguard's month in review I think instead "Imagine signing on for this job and immediately getting three brand new best friends how cool would that be"

#stars #sorry i didnt get it before #i got better