empress-violetlight

[empress-violetlight]

The upshot of people demanding others put their age in their bio is. Frustrating. And annoying. "What if you're a minor" what if I'm old enough that I was raised not to put my goddamn personal information on the internet. What if that.

[empress-violetlight]

From "Spock Amok". Enterprise Bingo is a real, in-universe thing now. Strange New Worlds writers must be on Tumblr😂

From Timothy Peel on Twitter

[empress-violetlight]

petition to rename the usa ‘south canada’

[empress-violetlight]

Remember your first steps into a galaxy far, far beyond the movies....

Come home to an Expanded Universe big enough for everyone at LEGACY EXPO - September 13th-14th, 2025 at the Burbank Airport Marriott Convention Center in Los Angeles, CA.

Get your tickets today: https://legacyexpo.org/

[Legacy Expo is a fan-run convention celebrating the original Expanded Universe books, comics, games, and other media that are now known as Legends. We seek to create an event that brings together fans in an environment that fosters positivity and inclusivity while we celebrate our love of Legends material]

Credits under the cut:

Written and directed by rd.mio (IG)

Very Special Thanks to outpost_77 (IG)

Cast (in order of appearance):

(IG)

Hero Girl: bekahsoka

Jedi: jaaaaaked

Sith: kristy.morris.50

Gonk: Himself

Darth Zannah: interstellar_engineer

Rebel Commando: jwdanperci

Scout Trooper: nox.noctem

Bastila Shan: emily_ann_17

Dark Jedi/Luke Skywalker: starforgestudios

Mandalorian: fragowump

Czerka Corporation Employee: sam_asalways

Rebel Captain/Stormtrooper: kalanster

Imperial Codemaster/HK-47 (Puppeteer): the_imperial_communique

Ooryl Qrygg/Darth Venamis: icknaybob

Mara Jade: cloneprincess99

Obi-Wan Kenobi/Cedral Gend: obishawnc

Blue Max: Himself

HK-47 (Voice): rd.mio

Darth Revan: dairyboy117

Annileen Calwell: mock_aphra

Twi’lek: the_mandaloriean

[empress-violetlight]

💫🪐Sparkle on Wednesday!🪐💫

[empress-violetlight]

Just thinking about how the behavior of the aliens in Animorphs makes so much sense in the context of their biology.

Andalites are boastful, misogynistic, abilist, and unnecessarily secretive. They're like that because they're a species of herd animals that grew up on a planet of predators. Everything about the Andalites tells us that they are apex prey animals. They have natural camouflage (for the blue foliage of their planet) because if you get seen you get eaten. They have full 360° vision, because if you don't see the predator, you get eaten. They communicate psychically, because if you make noise, you get eaten. They eat from their feet while running because if you slow down to eat, you get eaten. They have a tail blade because IF a predator can see you and IF they can sneak up on you and IF you can't run away, your best hope is to convince them that they will have to bleed for every bite of your flesh.

That last one is important. So many prey animals survive by just looking like they're too much trouble to eat. Don't eat me, I'm too tough. Eat the guy next to me.

Generations of living like that has hardwired their brains into thinking that ANY show of vulnerability is a threat to your life. If you're smaller than the next guy, you get eaten. If your hooves are duller, you get eaten. If you look less experienced, you get eaten, etc. etc. etc.

Then you have the Yeerks. Little slugs with HUGE egos. And of course they need those massive egos. When you're trying to control a creature a hundred times bigger you have to act like you're a thousand times bigger than it. On top of that Yeerks are basically just self sufficient brains. Essentially no sensory organs, they eat though what is more or less photosynthesis. And since they're only brains, no bodies, they're prone to addiction. Not just oatmeal, but the addiction of sensation. A brain craves new experiences and rewards itself when it finds them. So the yeerks will strap themselves into a skull for days at a time, starving themselves of their limitless food supply, just for another hit of those sweet endorphins. They'll take whatever they can get be it cannibalistic taxxon or clumsy nearly useless gedd.

Speaking of Gedds, let's talk about those parasites. Now you're probably thinking "no, Gedds aren't the parasites, Yeerks are!" Are you sure? One defining characteristic of the Gedd is that one leg is shorter than the other. I see this as an evolutionary stroke of genius. Imagine, you are a Gedd, born with a malformed foot. Because of this you're far more clumsy than the rest of your species, so you fall down, stumble, and trip all the time. One day, you fall into a lake. When you get out of the lake, something has changed. You have a genius brain in your skull. This genius brain craves experience. It wants to eat, breed, see, feel, everything. Because it's a genius it can get you food, it can get you mates, it makes you king of your tribe. All because you had that one freak gene that gave you a wonky foot. So of course some of your offspring end up with the wonky foot gene, they fall into lakes and get free genius brains. Their lives are improved. They have more wonky footed children and so on and so forth. Your survival is all but guaranteed because these genius brains need you. You are their drug. They give you everything and in return you give them practically nothing.

Taxxons are in the same boat. Parasites to the yeerks, when you look at what their evolutionary path must have been. They were bugs under a queen. The queen gave them commands, dig here, forage there, care for the larvae. We know from the Animorphs adventures in ant land how overpoweringly distracting those kind of orders can be. A lot can fall by the way side when you're under the thrall of your queen, such as eating. So a simple solution is evolved: eat whatever you can whenever you can. Always be hungry, even if your body doesn't actually need food right now. You don't notice the hunger much because you have more important things to think about, the queen needs a tunnel here, better dig it now you'll just swallow anything that gets in tongue's reach. Of course, all that food, all that nutrition, eventually your species will develop bigger brains. You have more independent thoughts, better problem-solving, that's great for the whole species right? Except... Now that you can reason, you reason out that maybe the queen isn't always right. So you start experimenting with other approaches. Approaches that work! Great! Fantastic! You don't need a queen anymore! But...now there's nothing to distract you from that instinctive drive to eat what you can when you can. You're hungry all the time, no matter how much you eat, you feel like you're starving. If only you could turn off that part of your brain! Then one day a wonderful answer comes out of the sky. A species of genius brains who want bodies shows up. You have bodies and they can turn off you hunger. Easy solution. We read about how taxxon controllers are constantly struggling to keep their host body's hunger in check, I theorized that they're downplaying the severity of the effort. I think it takes nearly all a yeerk's focus just to manage the hunger, the taxxon remains in control of its own actions. No yeerk will ever admit it, though. They're junkies and getting half an experience high while fighting off the irrational pain of starvation is better than nothing. The taxxons get far more than they give up. As soon as they have an option to get rid of the hunger without giving anything to the yeerks, they take it.

And then we have humans. Illogical, impractical, unpredictable humans. What sets humans apart in the Animorphs world is that they have a left brain and a right brain and those two halves are always fighting. So many of the human characters are walking contradictions. Cassie, the pacifist who rips out her enemies throats with her teeth. Rachel, the killer who became a monster to stop the ones she loves from becoming monsters. Marco, who's always laughing while being deadly serious. Jake, the leader who always follows his team. Humans are always contradicting themselves because, in reality, they aren't. They're always arguing with the other side of their brain. Boldness vs caution. Violence vs peace. Fight vs flight. Sometimes one side wins, sometimes the other one does. That's what makes humans so unpredictable to other species, every choice they make is the result of an unknowable battle within.

Lest I forget, Hork-bajir. The only ones who have the benefit of evolutionary planning. They're smart enough to solve problems, but not curious enough to look for problems to solve. Equipped with the dangerous tools needed for their work, but not the drive to use them against their masters. Hork-bajir are seen to be a hardy species, able to heal from injury quickly, that, plus the face that they generally don't have any predators gives them that manatee/ capybara mindset. They may not know what you are, but they'll probably assume you're a friend because what else is there? They trust because they have never had a scenario where trusting another was the wrong move. They grew up in a Garden of Eden that didn't even have a snake. They are perhaps one of the few species that is actually a complete victim of the yeerks.

[empress-violetlight]

I sometimes think about the letter KA Applegate posted for her fans who were disappointed by the ending of her series, and while I understand simply not liking how a story ends, I really respect her reasoning.

Like you can dislike the ending, that's fine.

But her reasoning is very interesting to read. And I really enjoy the framing of the anti war message.

[empress-violetlight]

About Krujobi :)

              Krujobi stood straight at 8”2 at all times, determined to keep gravity from bowing him before his time. He was only 30 cycles when he’d met Grievous, after all. His arms were absurdly long, even for a kaleesh. A trait that came from descendants of rig lizards (kaleesh that manned the sails & ropes). With his hands hanging near his knees, his perfectly parallel tusks, & the sailor’s reference to the horizon, Straight Line was his primary title. He represented the Hiil branch Der, which encompassed darkness & water. His jovial, courageous personality seems antithetical to the perception of those traits.

His crew had been known as the Straight-Arm clan. Before their abduction by the yam’rii they were seen as one of the topmost up & coming flotillas by the merpiinji community. The crew had been large. He’d lost 2 wives, 3 children, 2 sisters & their families, the rig lizards, the artisans, fisherfolk & even the cook. As most merpiinj families are considered to have common ancestors, Krujobi was most likely related to Ronderu’s family (not that anyone knew this).

Khan Krujobi Brinka’miir earned the Izvoshra the respect & spears of Kalee’s ocean-faring peoples. Attacking yam’rii installations from the water was always the most effective where it was applicable. The bugs didn’t bother with manning the waterways: they had space cruisers & weren’t very capable on the water. Many water kaleesh, being disciples of the abyss, were the most eager when the time came to take their crusade into space.

Grievous did a lot of thinking on chasing the bugs back to their home. He wasn’t sure how the prospect of going into space would be received by his fellow kaleesh, the bulk of whom were staunchly traditionalists. Hell, half the population didn’t even know that was a place you could go. He would have done it alone if he had to. But the Izvoshra were very enthusiastic about it & their loyalty to Grievous’ ideas proved infectious.

Krujobi’s cartographic contributions tripled the effectiveness of Kedjat & Daakalidae’s supply lines. Routes they created would continue to be used well after the war. When Grievous introduced Krujobi to holomaps he was incredibly excited. Grievous figured if anyone would take to flying it would be someone who is already used to driving ships. He was correct. He & Krujobi readily took to branching routes to nearby systems. They didn’t have quite so many stolen ships to make a navy, but they weren’t looking to get into large space battles. They were focused on moving kaleesh around to ground targets & making the yam’rii regret being born.

Over the course of the war, calling for any merpiinj in each pen of slaves they freed did lead to uniting Krujobi with one of his wives & daughters. The rest of the Straight-Arm clan had been killed or sold to Zygerria. After the war Krujobi would split his time between sailing & hiding away on a secret sacred island known only to merpiinj, where he was still mapping out all of Kalee. His daughter married into the Surf-Soothed, one of Mertenzi’s brothers.

Krujobi boarded the Martyr with the hope of establishing more routes near the kaleesh colony on Oben after thoroughly discouraging the yam’rii. The shuttle crash at least returned him to the ocean. He had left his magnum opus behind. The most complete holomap of Kalee remains lost on a secret island.

[empress-violetlight]

[empress-violetlight]

If there's one thing that Star Wars is a master at doing, then it's creating an incredible and interesting concept on paper and then fucking fumbling it horribly in its execution

[empress-violetlight]

[empress-violetlight]

[empress-violetlight]

Ronderu lurkin for August Kaleeaboos banner

[empress-violetlight]

[empress-violetlight]

[empress-violetlight]

Star Wars Insider #73

[empress-violetlight]

La'an Noonien-Singh and Spock + the childhood books that helped them during troubled times

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - s03e04 A Space Adventure Hour Star Trek: Discovery - s02e07 Light and Shadows