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So it’s some kind of weird cult where they wear vegetable costumes and dance around a big thing. They seem nice enough.

Over the Garden Wall (2014) 🍁🎃🍂

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So it’s some kind of weird cult where they wear vegetable costumes and dance around a big thing. They seem nice enough.

Over the Garden Wall (2014) 🍁🎃🍂

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parallels.

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And even if things go wrong you'll still have Avonlea in your heart.

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well I thought it was hilarious

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Anne/Gilbert + dancing in slow motion

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Gawain, on Gringalet, fares lonely thro’ the glade / Thro’ many a miry marsh, at heart full sore afraid

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my favorite stories from Pete’s book about the absolute menace that John was throughout their friendship

john persuading pete & his posse to use their allotted church donation money to buy to candy instead

spending sunday school by loudly chewing gum & popping bubbles to upset their group leader but she was too nice to throw it away so she confiscated the gum instead, promising to “give it back”

“all of us, and john most especially, used to derive enormous pleasure from pressing the remnants of gum into Mrs. Clark’s large, tender hands.”

john not knowing or caring what the words to the church hymns were and making up his own

they got banned…

from the church

playing chicken by swinging from a tree on a rope IN FRONT OF A DOUBLE DECKER BUS

trying to fight Pete for calling him “Winnie”

deciding they would solidify their friendship by cutting their arms and becoming blood brothers

john brought a fucking butter knife

john and his one brain cell convincing pete & co. to set ablaze a 20 ft pile of rubbish reserved for the celebration of a national holiday prematurely.

 ppl were so upset they were using their URINE to try and put out the fire

trespassing on a housing development only to be chased by a security guard who was sick of their shenanigans but he couldn’t catch up

when the guard finally corralled them into one of the houses, they hid in the attic and john scared the man off with ghost noises

later on they caught the guard using the bathroom which was basically a trench with a board over it and proceeded to drop clumps of grass on his head to scare him and it made him fall…into the poop ditch.

convincing their classmate to hide in a hollow pillar in their classroom to prank the teacher

the student passed out, literally fell out of the wall and then the teacher yelled at the student to stop fooling around and get in his seat

turning in his religious paper with this enthralling excerpt: “on the road to Damascus a burning pie flew out of the sky and hit St. Paul right between the eyes,” in a contest to see who could turn in the most preposterous work without getting caught cause their teacher didn’t pay attention

convincing their entire class to wear white collars they made out of strips of cereals boxes so they looked like a class full of vicars

like they legit collected cereal boxes and sat their asses down to cut out all these collars like plz the dedication to tomfoolery

pete finding a treasure trove of lunch meal tickets in the school’s trash to which he and john started peddling them to schoolmates for money on the DL

using their profit to buy candy and john sharing it w/ Pete & others like ok win my heart you generous little fuck

signed up to host a booth at the school’s fundraising festival but the booth was actually a dart stall with caricatures of teachers for kids to throw darts at and the school had no idea :-)

at the school assembly that followed, the headmaster announced…to the entire school & staff…that the festival had been a “resounding success and had raised an unprecedented amount of revenue for Quarry Bank,” thanks to “the two boys whose stall had broken all previous records”

“on any given afternoon throughout that summer holiday, each of us could count on finding most if not all of the others […] chatting, smoking, and sunbathing at The Bank. Not least of the attractions was the steady stream of female visitors, often there for the express purpose of flirting with John Lennon.” same, honestly

john nobly deciding to go in first to be caned by the headmaster and still finding a way to fuck w Pete by emerging “from his ordeal on his hands and knees, moaning and groaning as if maimed for his life. […] Yet even as he crawled whimpering away on all fours, John couldn’t help but crack a smile”

john literally pissing himself and blaming it on a roof leak

when john outwitted some bullies who were chasing them when he “suddenly executed a spectacular leap and disappeared down the stairwell” from the top of the double decker bus and fooled them into thinking he hopped off when in reality he jumped down to the first level and hid between two old ladies as a shield. thanks grandmas

being such troublemakers that they had to stay after school several days a week and were in a “virtually permanent state of detention” until the school was so done w their shit that john & pete basically invented getting expelled bcuz they literally didn’t know what to do w them anymore

years later when Pete was graduating from police school and “he glanced up to see John, Paul, and George with buckets on their heads and mops over their shoulders, parodying our parade from Paul’s roof. Needless to say, it was all I could do to keep a straight face and remain in step with my fellow cadets”

and to sum it all up:

all the times he made Pete laugh so hard he couldn’t breathe: “‘squeaking’ was John’s word for this last phenomenon - the high pitched noises I’d make while gasping for air. ‘Let’s hear you squeak, then, Pete,’ John would say, deliberately winding me up yet more, until I’d not only writhe helplessly on the floor, but would actually develop excruciating stomach cramps and a temporary blindness brought on by my uncontrollable tears of laughter. Thanks to John, I almost died laughing at least a thousand times” ofc he did that :’)

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Get yourself a fabric store that will light your fabric on fire for you

No but legit I asked what the fiber content of something was and the guy didn’t know so he cut a chunk off and lit it on fire and felt the ashes and was like. Yeah this is mostly cotton with a lil bit of silk. And that was the moment I knew. This is it. This is the fabric store for me. Also that guy is marriage material. Not for me but damn some person is gonna be so happy with him.

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War and Peace (miniseries, 2016

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Nova: I love knitting needles. I can make a scarf. I can make a hat. I can stab someone's eye out. I can make mittens.

Adrian: What was that middle part?

Nova: I can make a hat.

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In regards to the language talk in the fandom recently, it's good to note that the dialogue is written in English for the sake of readership, but the characters may not being speaking English.

Marissa says that universal language is a mix of English, Spanish and Chinese, probably because they're the most common languages. But in the case of dialects, Cinder and Kai could very well be speaking in a Mandarin dialect, Scarlet and Émilie in French, etc. etc.

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Rant number one

Albus Dumbledore is a manipulative, cheating bastard. He not only left harry to be abused by his relatives (which he could have handled better, for fucks sake) but he managed to create an army of soldiers with 17 year olds, sometimes 16 and even 15. In the marauders era I´m certain that he chose the marauders as his to be part of the order at some point between their 5th year to their 7th year. We know Sirius ran away in 1975 to the Potters and honestly, I think as a fandom we decided that the Blacks were way more abusive than they were portraited as, even if mentioned at all. Am I the only one curious as fuck to know if Bellatrix was as insane before Azkaban, if it rooted in what her family could have done to her to indoctrinate her? Nobody can discuss that Bellatrix was one hell of a dueler, there´s a reason besides her blood lust of why she was Voldemort´s second on command. She was insane, yes but she was also smart as fuck, there was no reason for her to live as long as she did without getting arrested before 1981 if she wasn’t clever.

A lot of people think Bellatrix should be in hufflepuff and it´s not that I exactly disagree, it´s just that I think being a hufflepuff is so much more than the loyalty mentioned in the books.

One of the things I´m ranting about here and why tf not, is the sorting. How does that damn hat works?? It just looks inside your soul and then is like “well, you are a ravenclaw” like honestly wtf. Every time a do a test it appears either Ravenclaw or SLytherin, depending on the questions so how does it exactly works? There is a lot more to each house than the stereotypes given by Rowling (who, I must say, can very much go and fuck herself, thank you) but the point is that, beyond the ships that may be the base of a fanfic, the resorting trope makes a lot of sense if you think about it.

I mean, you spend 7 years in a house that may become very well your friends for the rest of your life if you know how to work those friendships into becoming that, friendships. I don´t know if I´m the only one who thinks that a basic example of personalities and how a house may influence them are the Black brothers. Sirius was sorted in Gryffindor when he was eleven and I genuinely don´t think the hat was mistaken with him, I just think that he took his rebellious straw to a next level namely to get a reaction out of his parents while Regulus, who canonically is described by Sirius as “soft enough to believe them” was the perfect son, the preferred one. Also Said by Sirius.

Please tell me what you think but I really think Sirius wasn´t loud and brash since he was a kid. He wasn´t a “slytherin” and really, how could you know what house is a six year old gonna sort? Childhoods can and will change people. But anyway, I think being in Gryffindor didn´t necessarily meant he stopped talking with Regulus or left him behind that exact moment or changed his whole personality from night to day but I do think it changed how he view behaved. I don´t think he was the perfect heir but I think he was responsible enough to know that rebellion would just get him punishment (and please share what you think about the blacks being physically abusive to him, I don´t think they were extreme at the point of Crucios but they were more towards emotional and psychological abuse, in the Order of the Phoenix it is clear that although Sirius hated his parents when he ran away he also kind of found solace on Walburga´s bedroom and why Is that if she was such a bitch?) so, once sorted a lion, I think Sirius needed an outlet and he found It bullying slytherins, Severus Snape, to be specific (who in the marauders era could be redeemable enough but in the golden trio era was just plain abusive, and I´d like to get into that too in another post, maybe) Snape wasn´t a known name, he was a penniless halfblood with no status and Sirius, eventhough never became a death eater, was cruel but smart. A parallel to Bellatrix, if you will.

Sirius became rebellious and his outlet to his fear of rejection and the constant disappointment he was made by his parents (and that Is what I´m talking about when I say psychologically abusive) was Snape, he was portrayed as a bully who messed with the slytherins and while I do not think it was a lie, I don´t think he messed with other, more important slytherins. The pureblooded ones, the ones who came from an old family and had resources. Again, Sirius could be cruel, as proved by the prank (and that is a whole another matter) but he was smart. Gryffindor influenced him to look for freedom because it became a synonym to him of rebelliousness and therefore, of being different to the rest of his family, the death eathers and blood purists.

Now Regulus, I´ve read a lot of fanfiction so I´m biased, I totally accept it but I don´t think it really was easy for him when Sirius became loud, brash and started acting impulsive, specially if they grew up together and him knowing Sirius before Hogwarts and Gryffindor. He was a slytherin and please don´t come at me I don´t say it as something bad or anything but reading Harry Potter as a raverin was so fucking stressing. They were kids, yes and that makes it worse but there was so much more that could have been explored regarding Harry´s personality beyond trying to frame him into the reincarnation one James Potter.

Anyway, Regulus was a slytherin and one thing to notice throughout the series is that in war, a fight is a noble way to die. Which is pretty and all but really, not all react to it the same way. I think he didn´t want to die by being tortured or kidnapped by neither side so he died in his own way, which as a fellow snake, I can understand and respect but also see through. He indeed was the unspoken hero of slytherin but he also went to the cave knowing he was gonna die and nobody can convince me otherwise. He wasn´t and didn´t want to fight anymore if he even fought at all, he was just 18 when he died and that hits hard. Do I think he should have been a ravenclaw? Nah, absolutely no. I think it was a possibility for him but not his choice; Hence, slytherin. Being smart isn´t a synonym of ravenclaw, that´s a stereotype and if you look at it, Regulus retrieved the locket in a most slytherin way. I think ravenclaws and slytherins can be confused because of principles and morals in each one. Is the way of living what decided each one, not a sorting being an eleven year old kid.

I think Slytherin trained more profusely in matters of learning how to survive and cope at the same time, it trained in a way that even if you noticed it became useful to him later in life to learn and be quiet and honestly? Understandable. If I had a brother who liked to argue thinking if they didn´t they weren´t enough of a lion I would like to present myself as soft enough to believe in bulllshit and still keep my image with whoever necessary. Let´s debate this, the guy found out about horocruxes when he was probably 17 if a timeline is to be followed, with what I believe were nor enough meetings with one dark lord. Just Bellatrix fancy on him and random clues from Voldemort´s boasting. He was clever in a quiet way, I do not think he was the blood purist Sirius believed him to be but I am not saying he wasn´t prejudiced. He was indoctrinated at home and school, that is basically 24/7 and even then, he turned without anyone knowing. I believe he wanted to protect his family, Sirius included, when he went alone for the horcrux and it actually worked, which, woah.

IF you disccover a horcrux based on casual boasting and Bellatrix fan case, I refuse to believe he was stupid enough to believe in blood purism any more than he believed his parents were a justified case of parental love. Like, come on.

Back to my first point tho, I think sorting and leaving everyone 7 years in a house is really, really unhealthy for kids in development. Nobody is the same when they were eleven to when they are 14-15 which is why I think a resorting would have made sense in either the marauder or the golden trio era (tell me which house do you think they would be. Hermione is hufflepuff for me, Harry slytherin and Ron would have stayed in Gryffindor. Sirius would have sorted Gryffindor or hufflepuff, James canon Gryffindor, james fanon too but with the chance of hufflepuff, Remus Lupin I have a conflict of emotions regarding him but I´d say Ravenclaw, didn´t see Gryffindor anywhere tbh and Peter was a goddamn Gryffindor too, I´ll explain if you want me to?)

Just imagine the world of possibilities, please imagine the quality content.

Thank you for coming to my ted Talk :D

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Silly girl, you cannot kiss life into the lips of death himself

based off The Huguenot by Millais

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Winternight Trilogy - Katherine Arden

I loved this series, it was so ethereal and magical and felt like a story book. It got more personal as the books went on and I was really happy with the way the story progressed. It had a similar feel to The Wrath and The Dawn by Renée Ahdieh, less like your typical book and more like a legend or myth. It was so beautiful and I absolutely recommend it, it helped get me out of a massive reading slump where every book I was reading just fell completely flat. Also Vasya is a feminist icon who doesn’t care what you think a woman’s place is because she will do whatever the heck she wants and be whoever the heck she wants and she doesn’t care at all. Love that. This book is filled with mythical and magical creatures, history, badassery, human nature and all its down falls, and just so much more.

Who I recommend this book to: anyone who loves a good story that really thinks about the psychology of why people do the things they do and is filled with beautiful creatures with dubious morals

I give this series 5/5 roses because I loved it and it broke my slump 💖

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why don’t people ever talk about vasya’s siblings??? like yes the winter-king is a fascinating character, but for me, the tension and loyalty and resentment and undying love between vasya and sasha and olya (and alyosha bless his heart. irina too i suppose) is what made this trilogy. it’s a young girl’s story, a wild, brave, foolish girl who chases the winter wind, makes deals with the devil, loves a horse with all her heart and seeks understanding and acceptance and from siblings who left her far too early and i just have so many feelings.

(i’m still so heartbroken over why sasha tho, arden really lulled me into a false sense of security with the intense foreshadowing and the whole water of life business. him and vasya were going to raise horses by the lake with masha, they were going visit lesnaya zemlya bc sasha never even got to meet irina and he never got to know the man that aloysha became and he was olya’s only comfort in moscow besides vervara and poor olya’s already suffered so much and it’s just not fair)

anyway i’m really glad people are starting to do something about the woeful dearth of russian/slavic folklore-inspired ya lit. and katherine arden is such a gifted writer the prose is bewitching, the dialogue poetic, the narrative arc so wholly satisfying that i’m not going stop waxing lyrical about it for a very long time.