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rip captain you would have loved The Observer's Book of Tanks and other Armoured Vehicles

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rewatched yonderland recently

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gosh but like we spent hundreds of years looking up at the stars and wondering “is there anybody out there” and hoping and guessing and imagining

because we as a species were so lonely and we wanted friends so bad, we wanted to meet other species and we wanted to talk to them and we wanted to learn from them and to stop being the only people in the universe

and we started realizing that things were maybe not going so good for us– we got scared that we were going to blow each other up, we got scared that we were going to break our planet permanently, we got scared that in a hundred years we were all going to be dead and gone and even if there were other people out there, we’d never get to meet them

and then

we built robots?

and we gave them names and we gave them brains made out of silicon and we pretended they were people and we told them hey you wanna go exploring, and of course they did, because we had made them in our own image

and maybe in a hundred years we won’t be around any more, maybe yeah the planet will be a mess and we’ll all be dead, and if other people come from the stars we won’t be around to meet them and say hi! how are you! we’re people, too! you’re not alone any more!, maybe we’ll be gone

but we built robots, who have beat-up hulls and metal brains, and who have names; and if the other people come and say, who were these people? what were they like?

the robots can say, when they made us, they called us discovery; they called us curiosity; they called us explorer; they called us spirit. they must have thought that was important.

and they told us to tell you hello.

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something about the captain's backstory that always struck me was that, taking into account how overall weird and bad at his job cap was, havers was likely not just his sort-of-lover but also his only friend. i honestly can't imagine him hanging out with anyone else. you know he was loitering around saying shit like Weather's looking rather dull is it not lads. good lord that cloud looks just like a Mk IV Churchill ha ha fascinating! the other soldiers there did NOT appreciate his whimsy (autism). havers leaving deprived him both of a partner , a second in command, and literally anyone to talk to. He Left Me, alison. i mean he left Us.

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fandom is really cool actually sometimes you meet people that just fuckin rule and it's because you both want the same two fictional women to kiss on the mouth

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Tumblr is the reason why I have something I call the cashier test which is, if i told this to a random cashier at the grocery store, would they think you're crazy at best or at worst would they be warranted in leaping over the counter and beating the shit out of you. Karl Marx mpreg is crazy, but not beating the shit out of you crazy. The cashier will probably talk about you to their coworkers and it might even make their day. Telling someone they're complicit in their own oppression by working a minimum wage job at a grocery store makes them warranted in leaping over the counter to beat the shit out of you.

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thinking abt how every scene with havers always ends with him leaving. like, the creators didn't have to do that. havers is only in three flashbacks and they could have ended each of those three recordings right then and there because we all know what we’re seeing is a flashback; havers is long gone from button house.

but no. the creators insisted on showing havers leaving. he walks in and walks out of every single scene that he's in.

and yet the captain stays in his place. in each flashback that he and havers share, the captain never moves from where he. he doesn’t take a step. he’s frozen in place. he refuses to quite literally 'move on' and accept change.

and havers leaves. he chooses to walk away, to move; to exit. and the captain is left alone, each and every time.

it ultimately reflects the difference between the two: havers is open to change and is willing to trying new experiences even if it may cost him. whereas the captain is highly resistant to change and the loss of control and predictability that comes with it. when WW2 broke out the captain repressed everything about himself to appear ‘in control’ as a ranking officer and soldier. as such, he has a limited sense of identity other than his role in the war.

but as resistant to change the captain may be, he lets havers leave because he knows that’s what havers WANTS to do. havers WANTS to leave for the front. and the captain WANTS havers to be happy. and while the captain was clearly upset by the swift exit of his trusted lieutenant, he didn’t show it. he never allowed himself to. he’d buried his secrets, after all.

and the creators of Ghosts did that and for what. to break my heart? what the heck. what are they planning for season five what the heck

and now i’m sad. i need to sit in an empty bathtub and cry while listening to to Also Sprach Zarathustra

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Ghosts pirate AU

Captain - the captain of the ship, obviously. There is a small mutiny in the equivalent of the episode "Getting Out" but they make him Captain again when they realise they're useless without him. He's a good and fair captain and once they get past the initial intimidation, he's actually very loveable.

Thomas - the ship's (very dramatic) scribe. He's very in love with Alison and he tries to add poetry to the ship's notes. It doesn't work out well. He had a sweetheart back on land at one point, but after receiving the news that she had married his cousin in his absence, he first tried to walk the plank and then swiftly moved on to Alison.

Kitty - stowed away on the ship as a young child and is now an essential member of the crew for moral support. Her own family were bad to her and as such the Captain treats her as his daughter. She takes in injured animals, meaning that the ship now has a small zoo in its hold. Nobody knows how she finds them, but they would die for her.

Pat - the first mate. He seconds Captain's points but would never actually want to lead the ship on his own. He has a pet parrot called Goldie who overheard Carol and Daley mocking him and now occasionally mocks him too (allowing for a Season 4 Christmas Special arc). He frequently teaches the other crew members important life lessons, and his sunny outlook brightens everyone's day. He gets seasick sometimes.

Robin - the ship's navigator. He was the original owner of the ship and nobody quite knows how long he's been around, but he's surprisingly wise. He navigates using the stars and even though they frequently get lost, he says the resulting adventure makes up for it. Everyone agrees.

Julian - the ship drunk. He was once a high ranking nobleman, but ran away from his family and responsibilities for a life on the sea. He spends most of his time drinking and playing chess with Robin, although he has his occasional moments of depth. He teaches the parrot to swear.

Humphrey - the lookout. He's afraid of heights but doesn't mention it because he doesn't want to be a bother. He was taken into custody due to the actions of his wife, the pirate queen, and was saved from imminent execution by Captain and his crew.

Mary - the cook. She burns all of the food but nobody ever complains because they don't want to upset her. She writes a lot of letters to an old friend back on land, but the friend doesn't seem to know that she's a pirate. It's implied that she was chased out of her hometown and ended up on the ship, but nobody knows why.

Fanny - the disgruntled hostage. She was taken from a cruise ship by the pirates, and they were planning on leaving her on a desert island because of all her complaining. However, their ship was almost hijacked by rival pirates, and through some combination of extreme complaining and entitlement, she scared them away. They keep her around just in case.

Annie - Mary's childhood friend. They grew up together and were incredibly close, with Annie helping Mary find her voice. However, when Mary had to leave her hometown, she also had to leave Annie, and so Annie waits at a cliff edge to watch the incoming ships, hoping one of them will bring Mary back. Most of the people in her town think she's waiting for the return of some lover or husband.

Havers - once Captain's first mate. The crew speculates about the precise nature of their relationship, but Captain is private enough that he would never tell anyone. However, Havers left the pirate life to join the British Navy in a clemency programme. After he left, Captain was heartbroken. He still hopes that Havers will return some day, and often crew members catch him staring off across the sea as if he'll see Havers' ship coming towards him across the horizon.

Plague Ghosts - the lesser crew. They mainly keep to themselves in the hold of the ship, and most of the main crew try and avoid them because they have scurvy. They all stick together, though, and they keep the ship running, although they get little recognition for it.

Jemima - the child of one of the lesser crew. She was raised on the ship and will one day make a strong pirate - possibly even a pirate queen. She isn't seen around the ship much, but she can sometimes be heard singing haunting old sea shanties from the stern of the ship. Other passing ships assume she's a siren.

Humphrey's wife - the pirate queen. She's wanted in at least 10 countries for extreme piracy, and her actions almost got Humphrey killed. There was always a barrier between them, of both language and culture, and yet Humphrey still tried to take the fall for her treachery. It's unknown how she feels about him, but every so often the ship gets a delivery of a large number of coins. They assume this is a thank you.

Alison and Mike - new hostages. The crew jokes about Alison being related to Fanny because they're both hostages, but due to her far nicer temperament and friendly nature, she soon becomes a staple of the ship. Mike does handiwork around the ship, and although still very unnerved by the pirates, tries his best to live with them. Alison makes negotiations when the ship makes landfall because her social skills are far better than the rest of the crew, and she's probably the only one who wouldn't be arrested on sight. Alison knows full well about Thomas's affections but refutes them at every turn.

The boat - The Button. It used to be called The Rogue Rider when Robin owned it, but when Kitty joined the crew, she would only call it the Button (for reasons unknown), and the name stuck. The ship has been around for who knows how long, and carries secrets that few could even guess at. Sometimes it even seems to have its own sentience, although nobody understands how. What they do know is that when a new crew member comes aboard, there's already a room waiting for them, and sometimes they'll enter their room only to find it has rearranged itself. The ship always seems to know what the crew need at any given time.

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pov: you’ve lost all hope to find out what the Captain was doing at Button House from the show itself

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thinking about how most (but not all) birds in the uk migrate to north Africa for the winters, including the song thrush and the reed warbler, anyways alexa play a pearl by mitski

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Modern Capvers bags and inventory (I’ll polish it when i have the time)

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i saw this capvers edit to the song 'epitaph for my heart' by the magnetic fields a few days ago and it was so so good and now i cAN'T FIND IT

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The way that Rebecca Sugar writes plot twists and handles mysteries is really, really good. In this essay i will… actually explain

See, Rebecca picks reasonable, almost obvious answers to a plot mysteries. Example: Is Steven Pink Diamond? Answer: No, he’s himself. Pink is gone. It’s seems clear and makes sense and that’s the point. On top of that, it’s the most thematically powerful answer.

But it’s step two that’s the important part. She makes the viewer doubt themselves. Steven’s dreams leading up to this point, every homeworld gem telling calling him rose quartz/pink over and over.. It’s not objective evidence, but it gets to you, just like it got to Steven. And when it’s objectively proven that steven is his own person, you feel like you’ve been through that journey with him, because he’s been having the same thoughts as you. 

It makes you feel so good to be right

People get angry at Rebecca because they theorise completely contrived, rediculous answers to her mysteries. They’re so obsessed with the answer being ‘unpredictable’ that they forget to make the answer have narrative and thematic sense. Apparently it’s her fault when their theories aren’t proven.

But she’s not phased. Rebecca picks the most elegant and fitting answers and doesn’t care how ‘predictable’ they are. Then she tries very hard to hide them. Hiding something obvious like that is an art. That’s what makes it so good

It’s how you write a good plot mystery fite me