#smart people saying smart things

[paulsebert]

#Twitter #the madness of king Elon #the anti social network #smart people saying smart things

[windy-apple]

How do you folks do these thoughtful analysis so quick? My brain is literally scrambled after each episode airs. Holy shit. 

#they are much appreciated though #better call saul #smart people saying smart things

[goatsandgangsters]

succession has always been genre-defying and convention breaking, but killing the main character 15 minutes into only the 3rd episode of the season throws all television convention out the window

which is not only a bold choice, but it’s what makes the episode so effective. almost everyone watching has said they experienced a prolonged disbelief. there’s no way. no way. and it’s not just the denial that comes with loss and death, but denial because this isn’t when you kill a character, this isn’t how you kill a character. it flies in the face of everything we know about storytelling convention. we don’t believe it. is tom joking. is logan manipulating them. where’s the body, we need to see the body. is he going to make a miraculous recovery at the end of the episode? 

and like the denial and the slow-dawning horror of realization that the kids are experiencing, we the audience experience it too. not as spectators, but as participants. because we had the rug pulled out from our Audience Expectations, just as the kids had the rug pulled out from them by The Random Suddenness of Tragedy. 

if this had been the cliffhanger at the end of an episode or a season finale—the times when you’re Allowed to kill a main character—we would have only been spectators. but by tipping storytelling convention on its head and breaking all the rules, they brought us along on that same journey of denial and disbelief. the same impossibility of it. the same confused “wait, like this?” 

it took logan’s death outside the bounds of storytelling and the safety of well-known plot beats. instead, it made us sit with the uncertainty and denial and confusion and raw grief of the random mundanity of death. 

#succession #succession spoilers #logan roy #I'm about to go to bed and I am VERY tired #in no small part because that was ONE HELL OF A RIDE #but I had to get my thoughts out Now #lots of people saying lots of smart things rn but #EXTREMELY effective way to break convention

[writing-dilemmas]

hey girl sorry um, they found out your favorite character is neurodivergent. yeah, the fandom is infantilizing them, ignoring their intelligence, and reducing them to comic relief. yeah there’s nothing we can do about that. I’m so sorry

#robin buckley #it’s true and I should say it #people forget how smart she is she literally solved a secret russian code in one day and speaks multiple languages #ronance #stranger things

[slymanner]

this was smart <'3

#fionna and cake #adventure time #fionna and cake spoilers #simon petrikov #fionna campbell #i love this turn around for fionna's thought's on the ice king its so smart... #at the beginning she saw ice king as just a funny and goofy guy side to simon. not really knowing the depths of what he truly represented. #and at that time she barley KNEW him #so of course she'd say ice king seemed happier then simon #but now that she KNOWS things about him #his love life with betty #his research into magic #his humor. his heart. his dedication to help her and cake as much as he can. #seeing how bad a ice king CAN be with the winter king. #and seeing those tapes. #that's not him. #that guy...who he was for thousands of year's... that's not the TRUE simon. #ice king IS sad #on the outside he looks happy. to people who dont know hes just a goofy guy having fun with his penguin's! #but now with fionna knowing context... #simon is the happier one out of the two. #the less insane. #the one who sure isnt in a great moment in his life right now. but he's HIMSELF. #not ice king. he's simon. #simon petrikov. the true version.

[turtledotjpeg]

dumb.......but it appeared in my brain and i had to do it (ﾉ •_•)ﾉ

bonus: wip ft. even less hinged kurapika

#if i were smart i would have made this pixel art 540px wide from the start but alas. i must ask you to click for less blurry #...it's a good thing melody is nice because #ability to infer people's psychological state + power that affects your mind and emotions is a bit ಠ_ಠ ;; #this is admittedly not the best example of kurapika mansplaining i just wanted to redraw the panel of him looking unhinged #but for evidence refer to almost any scene where he talks #hunter x hunter #hxh #kurapika #leorio paladiknight #senritsu #melody hxh #(when i say “pixel art” i feel like i need to qualify that by adding #some parts were cleaned up but a lot of this was just me scribbling around like i normally do but with a pixel brush #and i'm not sure that's quite the same thing lol)

[sappy-detective]

i think it’s a really funny idea that shuichi is probably a really pretty boy, i mean son of a actress? and just.. look at him. he’s rich and gorgeous and then there’s .. ouma.

shuichi: “what do i do kaede? he’s out of my league..”

kaedes: *side eyeing him while ouma is squinting water guns full of soda at other students* “um…”

#i mean ouma is definitely pretty cute but people look past how much of a cutie he is because how much of a demon he can be #just saying! #shuichi is pretty nice and smart! #ouma is those things too but… he’s ouma #dangonronpa #kokichi ouma #shuichi saihara #drv3 #danganronpa #killing harmony #danganronpa v3 killing harmony #saiouma #saioma #oumasai #omasai #danganronpa drv3 #danganronpa v3 #danganronpa v3: killing harmony #danganronpa incorrect quotes #sapy incorrect quotes

[utilitycaster]

Anyway returning to Lore Stuff but: feels really likely The Crush was due to Ludinus's attempt to contact Ruidus in the late 500s, which is what led to the fall of Molaesmyr. I wonder if he even realized until centuries later, since I don't think he was able to communicate with Ruidus until he started working with Ruidusborn which feels comparatively recent. Imagine unwittingly setting into motion a natural disaster that permitted the final stages of complete imperial takeover on an entirely different celestial body and then finding out 200-odd years later that this is extremely beneficial to your lifelong dreams.

#i really do understand the depths of his hubris because he keeps...not failing upward he is too smart to fail #but he keeps stabbing in the dark and hitting precisely the right thing. i do wonder if he orchestrated the eve of crimson midnight #timeline gets a bit wonky there due to Writers Doing Math #or if he was just a clever opportunist #critical role spoilers #critical role #we really need to get more info about ludinus like. the choice to fixate on ruidus is in fact brilliant. #he could have taught liliana or two a thing given that he basically saw priests saying RUN and was like. bet. #but like...his notes in molaesmyr don't mention the people on the moon #just a sealed alien entity. did he know? did he think the moon was only a prison? #we ALSO need the actual history of ruidus. can chet just. touch the ground. can fcg cast legend lore

[menalez]

u can’t even have political or intellectual discussions with men because they’ll only hear the imaginary stupid woman in their head and argue against her instead of addressing anything you’ve actually said

#truly i try to only argue with women bc they’re the only ones actually arguing with something SLIGHTLY resembling my arguments at least #if u say ‘poor people deserve support’ men might hear ‘did u just say poor people should go to court? there’s a wise man named karl marx and #actually unlike you cunts he argued that class inequality is wrong! let me explain basic irrelevant things to sound smart now’

[ganondoodle]

said this on tiwtter too but im seriously at my limit, people go and be all like "oh my god young people have no idea of basic internet security omggggg" and the same person will immediately make an account on t/hreads that is stealing so much data from you its basically one step away from straight up kidnapping

i get we are all desperate, i really do, but i WILL judge you if you go and sign up for the literally shittiest app on earth thats really just a flimsy disguise of a bunch of data suckers in a trench coat

use tumblr, cohost, pillowfort, (the latter two also allow nsfw) ANYTHING but that suckerberg leech i am BEGGING you

idk how accurate it is but i saw the numbers of 75 MILLION sign ups for the threads bs, what the hell are you doing, i feel like im in one of those old anti technology comics were young people just walk off a cliff en masse bc they only look at their phone and nothing else while im the old guy in a chair watching them do it

#ganondoodles talks #are people seriously this blindly signing up for anything new a big -KNOWN SHITTY AF- corporation is putting out #isnt it literally just like insta but worse #like #if you dont like tumblrs layout or whatever theres also cohost #its basically like twitter but also has features of timblr #like having multiple blogs to on account #idk man i actually feel like im going crazy #what is this #this has made me feel more old than the knowledge that lil kids are doing a flat hand gesture for phones bc all they know are smart phones #if people are ACTUALLY making that thing be the next giant “”social media“” i will not forgive them #you will not peer pressure me there #-when i say at my limit im at my limit of desperate confusion watching people do the dumbest shit but going uwu the entire time doing it-

[paulsebert]

#smart people saying smart things #blazing saddles

[teamfortresstwo]

To be honest I think a lot of the horror of Elias comes from just how unlikely it is for someone to notice he’s missing

#He doesn’t have anyone close to him and the few people who do know him are only exposed to the casual smiling mask he puts #One that Elias could easily mimic or hell might even be close to the way Elias normally acts given that he has a similar propensity for #masking. Plus ogElias was never stupid. In fact he was known to be very smart. he just didn’t try to reach his full potential. also he didnt #even get high THAT often. he tried to be respectable and put some effort into preparing for an interview with James Wright #In fact the way he yearns for respect. the way he says he’s afraid of spiders. the way he is marked by the eye. hell even the implied #neglectful parent makes me read him as a parallel to Jon. #Which as we know acts pretty similarly to Elias #all things considered #Also Elias was ambitious. Sure he didn’t have the motivation to grab life by the horns as it were but he always thought he was meant for #something better. bigger. and that’s also part of what made his body snatching feel so cruel. #and o feel like a lot of these little tragic details are often ignored by the fandom #Elias Bouchard #original Elias Bouchard #TMA #the Magnus archives

[starsundertheceiling]

I’m probably a little late to the party (heh) but there’s something I’ve noticed concerning color theory and Max, and Max in general

When she is introduced to us as MADMAX, her situation with Billy makes her feel lonely and angry. She’s wearing red clothes (with a white stripe!) and her hair is down (letting her rage roam free).

In here, she’s clearly annoyed. She’s just left Billy’s car, Mr. Clarke made her stand before the class and named her Maxine when she just wanted to melt into the background and get over her first day at an unfamiliar school, still not thrilled about having to move from California.

Still, she’s zipped down, since those people didn’t do anything especially hurtful towards her and maybe she’s a little hopeful about them. 

When she’s mad after an interaction with Billy she’s wearing red:

Darker red! She’s at school where she won’t have to deal with Billy for a while. She’s cooling like lava but there’s still one streak of the anger in the back of her head.

When the boys approach her, her zip-up sweatshirt is unzipped to show some of the color underneath. She’s happy! She will not let her guard down completely but she won’t hiss at them immediately! Still, she’s ready for disappointment and snapping right back to being fully red.

Yellow is not a lighter shade of red, but it’s definitely close on the color wheel. Closer to white, too! She is showing she’s not only mad, there also is softness inside her! It’s still a shade connected to red (anger) but yellow by itself is more of a happiness color. She wants to make friends but is still scared because of the new environment and Billy.

In the car with Billy (the scene where he wants to run over the party), the entire scene is shot in a way that’s barely letting us see her clothes. It’s mostly covered by hair, too, but we can see it’s still at least a little unzipped as there’s a bit of the yellow collar visible.

In the scene, she’s defending Hawkins saying, that it’s not that bad and that she can’t see any cows (yellow). She’s scared of Billy, so she’s trying to cover up her sympathy towards Hawkins and towards the boys (with red and her hair, Billy saw her get out of the car with the sweatshirt zipped up and hair down, now she’s covering her softness with what is familiar to Billy, so that he doesn’t see anything has changed, notice that softness and hurt her. That’s exactly what she does when she says she doesn’t know the boys trying to protect them from getting ran over).

Yellow! Fully yellow :) She’s happy to be shown weird pollywog-like creatures with the rest of the Party!

Right after Will gets possessed, her question as to what “true sight” means gets brushed off by all of the boys. She’s hurt and feels excluded, but her hurt makes her angry again. Next time we see her, she’s all red again.

“Party members only! This is non-negotiable.”

“I thought you guys wanted me in your Party!”

At the arcade! She’s already acclimated to Hawkins, and the arcade is her favorite place. 

Alright, I’m getting tired and my third eye is slowly closing, so I’m going to wrap this up quickly, since I think I presented what the gist of the idea is.

In season 3, yellow, patterns, colors! She is now fully a member of the party! She has friends, she knows the secrets, El is back. This is the happiest she’s been.

Clothes are important in both of the girl’s characters! (El changes from murky colors to vivid patterns when she finds herself and there’s a post about El shedding layers of blue in season 4. I’d link it but can’t find it, I’m sorry!) There being a scene like this, with them fooling around with their clothes is basically the peak of happiness :)

Here Max gets really worried because of Billy. She’s feeling a bit guilty ‘cause that’s her step-brother that’s sowing chaos and hurting her friends. El is straining herself. The situation is looking BAD. Blue!

Beginning of season 4

Blue - she’s grieving and feeling guilty, Black coat - she’s hiding herself in a shell. She’s not particularly hiding her grief but she can close off at any moment.

(Btw Lucas is also wearing a blue shirt with some coats. I’d say he is sad because Max dumped him and doesn’t want to tell him things but the coats have a couple of colors because he’s hiding away his nerdiness in order to be cool :) 

Now, the overcoat is blue with yellow elements - Max is being honest about her grief. She’s targeted by Vecna, the Hawkins gang knows she is SAD. It’s her last day, she can unfurl. The sweatshirt is unzipped and showing red and white underneath, the same colors we’ve seen her wear when we first met her. The girl that slammed the door of Billy’s car. The one that was scared of him. That girl is still inside Max. 

Sometimes, she’s wearing this. Grief covered up with brownish-reddish... Red. She’s going back to her previous self, she is talking to Lucas again and he SEES her... But to get that shade of red you go more towards black on the color wheel. She’s not that vivid, fiery red anymore. There are bits of that girl deep inside her, but she’s too tired to make it her entire self. She’s tired. 

#idk if this makes sense #i did not do research befor this i literally got this idea while changing clothes #and it works for the most part #maybe a bit delusional here and there #but i choose to choose being chill and just in awe of the costume department #i am also pretty sure you beautiful people have decoded this long ago #since the color theory makes a big part of the show #either way i love max #if she doesn't wear the prettiest colors in s5 then why should i live to see it #i hope SHE will be able to see it though #although blind max is beautiful; she doesn't deserve it :( #max mayfield #stranger things #lumax #elumax #elmax #not really color theory because i don't know the color theory :) literally just vibes #aaand i'm not gonna reread what i've written cuz i'm tired. hope it makes any sense. #but you're smart too so you can probably get the gist of what i was trying to say

[antianakin]

Satine fans: She would DIE for her beliefs.

Me: She'd also send innocent people to JAIL for her beliefs, so that doesn't really mean much, does it?

#star wars #anti satine #anti satine kryze #satine critical #satine kryze critical #no this isn't about the exiling thing #this is about threatening an innocent dockworker who had the audacity to suggest she not blow up a building full of evidence #in an investigation where they still didn't know who the main perpetrator was #and she responds to this very logical and reasonable suggestion by saying if he doesn't blow it up right now #then she's going to assume he's also guilty #despite the fact that he's actively been helping her and his suggestion would help her find the guilty party #wow what a kind and benevolent leader #she's SO smart and compassionate #this is definitely how a good leader would act towards their people #(keep in mind this is after she threatens a different dude with torture earlier. and he was guilty but still. torture.)

[zeroducks-2]

"Dick is so smart and cunning he can easily hurt the people he loves with just one sentence"

Yall do realize that this is like. Extremely easy. Hurting someone's feelings is a walk in the park once you get to know them, like even superficially. Talk to a tumblr mutual twice and you're likely going to know what to say to piss them off or make them upset. Your close loved ones? Yeah that's even easier since you hold the nuclear codes to their insecurities and most likely know a good chunk of their secrets. Even hurting them by accident is easy.

When Dick hurts people with his sharp tongue it's not a testament of how smart he is. I mean you can choose to see it like that I guess, but to me it only shows that he has been raised by Bruce and he's been taught that every bit of knowledge he has can be used as a weapon. He rarely ever does it anyway because he's a very good person, unlike his mentor.

#idk folks this feels like one of the classic 'mean behaviors are a symptom of intelligence' tropes which are pretty dumb if you ask me #hurting people doesn't require high level of smarts #sure witty comebacks tend to come from smart folks but being witty and emotionally intelligent are two very different things #'oh but he can easily hurt people because he's emotionally intelligent' that's not how it works #being emotionally intelligent is what allows him to UNDERSTAND people support them be a good leader #Bruce says things that hurt people ALL THE TIME and he's the emotionally dumbest person alive #anyways #Dick Grayson

[mokeonn]

Before I go to sleep I leave you all with this piece of advice: sometimes you don't actually have to answer big political questions, sometimes you can just say "I am not smart enough to know that, I just know the small things I do to help." Like you can often times completely avoid making a fool of yourself if you just say you don't know.

#simon says #to explain here and not in a reblog: #sometimes when you try to explain big picture solutions you're gonna sound dumb #you might not have done enough research #you might not have a rebuttal to a counter argument #you might not be articulate enough to explain why you think this #sometimes you gotta take a step back and give the simple solution. the one man solution #you do what you can to fight against the problem #you talk to people to help spread awareness and how to fight the bad problem #and you vote and invite others to vote for bigger steps towards solving the problem #like you can talk about theory and how you believe we need to do a huge drastic thing to solve and issue #but people will disagree and argue til you're blue in the face #they'll poke and prod until you mess up or lose your temper and use it against you #and you'll feel dumb and they'll learn nothing #sometimes the best thing to do is step away from the big picture and just say 'idk what the solution is I just know the things I can do“ #sometimes you gotta admit you're not a scientist/expert and you can't answer that #i used this while talking with my Dad tonight #he brought up our climate crisis and space travel as a possible solution #and I said I think that's just addressing the symptom and not the cause and we need to care for our Earth now #and he asked me what solutions I think would fix it #and knowing my incredibly smart Dad who is articulate and ready to throw rebuttles at a moments notice to play devils advocate #and my past experience in struggling in this topic with him before #i just told him I didn't know. all i knew is the little things I can and do do to help #and that hopefully by spreading the word and habits and encouraging others to vote for those bigger solutions I could help make a change #but all I really could do is the little things I have control over #and the topic became much less stressful about the little things we have control over #like planting native plants and recycling and adopting habits that are healthier to our planet #which was 100% more preferable to if I tried to give a big solution. because I would reveal i didn't have all the knowledge needed to argue #and my articulation would make me sound like a stupid kid who only thinks they know what's best #so yeah I basically suggest that if you dont wanna feel like shit after debating someone just step away from the big picture for a moment