#Galactic Connections

[rock-n-roll-martian]

[euphorictruths]

In The Beginning- Rob Schouten

[greentrickster]

One the things that I think makes Cyrus so engaging a character for so many people is that he’s extremely nihilistic, and likely has severe depression, but his core motivation is to make the world a better place, to remove what he sees as the key cause of all strife and suffering.

And that is what makes him so unique. Because, while many nihilistic/depressed/both characters - both protagonists and antagonists - often come to find hope or goodness in the world again, it’s extremely rare to see a character portrayed as Cyrus is who is so determined to fix the perceived problem. It’s much more common for these characters to land somewhere between utter apathy and deciding to just end it all for everyone, just destroy the world. Nihilistic and/or depressed characters don’t usually get to have hope.

Not like Cyrus does.

He is inflexible and quite selfish in his methods, and he definitely has an ego on him, but he truly believes that, for all the pain he’s seen, and all the emotional struggles it’s implied he’s gone through, he can make this world a better place. And if that means destroying what we currently have and remaking it from scratch, so be it. It would be infinitely easier to shut himself away from humanity and leave the world to rot, or even to try and destroy it all, but he decides to take probably the hardest route there is, because he believes it will be worth it.

And, as someone who has and does struggle with depression, that kind of “I will not give up” attitude in the face of a pain that I’m intimately familiar with... how can I not be absolutely taken with this man? When, as someone with depression who has fought my way through some very dark places, he is the only character in media I have ever seen who in any way reflects that truth of “the world hurts, my life hurts, but I have this one thing I can hold onto to get me through this, so I’m going to grab it with both hands and not give up“?

[uniforestchan]

Sketches idk

DON`T TOUCH MY TAIL!

[chambersevidence]

Idiot devices spasming and reacting without reasonable analysis should not be trusted, should not be emulated, and should not be followed after in actions.

Cascade effects related to chains of devices spasming and reacting to the tiniest frown or negative perception relate to criminal strategies and effects these times.

Do not reduce appropriate analysis time, effort, expenditures or resources. And do not act if more analysis is needed.

I have been protected, like this whole globe, since birth, by transporter inhibitors, as well as temporal change inhibitors erected by my robots who resurrected me after having been killed in the womb and having been dead for 250000 years. There is no more criminal time travel (time travel the duplicates living or dead beings) possible, and there never will be.

[paradoxesofgalaxies]

It's day two of cold rain and it's miserable. I'm so achy and bleh. And tomorrow's supposed to be more of the same

[pochapal-pokespe]

previous post redacted this is even more compelling. forcibly seizing the most powerful entities in the region and using them as footsoldiers in order to breach and colonize an untouched distant realm is so perfectly tied in with all the dangling thematic threads that i'm going insane. cyrus's decimation of the historic sites on the mainland, the entitlement to the sinnoh region leading to the notion that he should wipe and rebuild the universe, charon's greed being filtered through this "steal from the known world and use its assets to claim ownership of the unknown world". it's all tying together.

[kirbyddd]

kirby right back at ya is so cool

the premise of an ancient cosmic evil finding conquering worlds by force no longer feasible in a modernizing intergalactic civilization, so he starts a corporation and shifts to seeding his influence through products and services is an absolutely killer concept

[the-galactic-hunters]

Will you and zim have any children

Weird question because @explosions-and-chill is literally one of them XD

I consider Cap from @saves-from-stars as my son too :D

[dailycharacteroption]

Class Feature Friday: First World Connection (Mystic Connection)

(art by greendragon-gecko on DeviantArt)

 In a sci-fi setting, it’s often easy to assume that the fey are an obsolete creature type, being too “fantasy” to coexist in a galaxy full of laser guns, robots and the like. But that’s where you’d be wrong.

After all, there are plenty of fey creatures adapted to embody various trappings of civilization or just living alongside mortals, while the galaxy is still full of wild, magical places where more “traditional” (if such a word could be used) fey still reside. In fact, several of the new fey in Starfinder embody concepts on a cosmic scale that Pathfinder typically lacked the scope to cover.

Regardless, however, even in Starfinder, fey still hail from the First World, the metaphorical and literal “first draft” of material reality, a wild place full of everything that is, was, will be, and isn’t but might have been in an ever-changing and shifting storm of renewal, change, and whimsy.

It only makes sense, then, that there would be mystics that draw upon the First World as a source of power and focus. After all, everything in reality has it’s roots in the ideas the divine explored and abandoned in the First World.

In this way, these mystics reflect the powers of not just fey but also fey-themed mages of yesteryear, favoring magic that gives them all sorts of tricks and ways to befuddle, enchant, and play tricks upon their foes.

 The spells of these mystics also introduce us to an element of mystic spellcasting that crops up in some connections. When their list of connection spells includes one that can be undercast from 1st to 6th level, they typically gain the highest level version they can cast, since they can still undercast it, and as they learn each new version, they replace the old one with another connection spell. In the case of these First World adherents, they learn the art of transforming foes into increasingly lesser and weaker animal forms to make them less dangerous or take them out of the fight entirely. As they improve that spell, they also learn spells to change their appearance, entrance others with song, charm almost any being, cause erratic behavior, and even issue magical commands.

With a mighty puff or powerful gust, these mystics can unleash a haze of pixie dust from themselves to dazzle and warp the minds of their foes in a large area, and even potentially blind them at greater levels of mastery.

By focusing, they can also surround themselves in illusions to conceal their exact position, making them harder to hit with any accuracy.

They can also reflexively burn magic to teleport away when injured, getting them out further harm for a few moments.

With a mystical song that bends time, possibly taught by Shyka the Many, these mages can slow foes or speed up allies a few times per day.

More powerful individuals can use their telepathic link with allies to extend their protective illusions over them as well.

With a gesture and an expenditure of will, these mystics can briefly tear open a hole to the First World, unleashing a horde of fey pranksters, who leap out to do their mischief, then vanish back to their home after their disruptive antics have concluded.

Some of the most powerful among them are able to conjure up wild plant life, which seems to grow not just from the environment, but from the very bodies of their foes. These parasitic vines bind and crush their victims, and will immobilize and kill if given the chance.

As you can see, this connection boasts plenty of fun tricks to leave foes debilitated, though don’t forget the value of utility options. Whether you double down on their trickery with the rest of your spell selection or choose to diversify, there are plenty of fun ways to play with it.

 The connection to the fey and the First World likely means that these mystics have a much more lighthearted and whimsical side to them, which can lead to enjoyable characters, or you might take it to a more disturbing, “unseelie”, angle, having an odd ideal of “play”. Others may instead be more serious, but have a decidedly strange mindset for a member of their species.

  While few would consider the primal furnace of a star’s core to be a place where the fey can be found, the existence of hulsa and ravai prove that even in the brightest light there is primal fey energies. As such, some anassanoi who revere such beings from within their solar cities learn how to connect with the fey realms, drawing upon not only them, but some of the fiery power such fey hold through their other spells.

 An enclave of fey contacts the party with a desperate request. A corporation seeking control over their home forest have sent a particularly insidious exterminator class infiltration robot to slaughter them one by one. This machine not only has the capacity to mimic fey creatures, but it’s nanite composition heavily favors cold iron alloys, making it particularly lethal to them. In exchange, the faeries offer magical fey secrets to the party.

 Suspecting sabotage, the colonists are on the look out for some magical trickster that has been causing disruptions throughout the colony. None suspect, however, that the source of all this mischief is actually the administrator’s teenage daughter, who has awakened to strange fey powers which she has yet to learn to control.

[shepherd-tothestars]

Well nami gave me ideas for a meteion pokemon verse so I'm finally going to work on my ff14/xenoblade blog again (clown noises)

[alwaysbelieveinmiraclesuk]

https://www.alwaysbelieveinmiracles.com/product-page/starstone-tumbled-stone

https://www.alwaysbelieveinmiracles.com/product-page/starstone-palm-stone

[euphorictruths]

NGC 1466; Globular Star Cluster in Hydrus- ESA, Hubble & NASA

[justtumblerdesigns]

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[the-far-bright-center]

#people forget that the jedi failed for a reason#and that reason was that they decentered genuine human connection and empathy from their work#it’s not that they didn’t have the capacity for it#just that it’s expression was demonized and automatically assumed to be an inappropriate attachment#obi wan literally can’t say i love you until he’s actively trying to murder his brother#anakin is so terrified of losing access to the only open and honest love he has he Does a Few Murders#this was not a healthy organization folks (via @jew-flexive)

I think there’s something rather strange going on with all the folks who insist that the Jedi Order in the PT was right and didn’t forbid love and Anakin should just have followed their teachings when the whole point of the prequels is that they are prequels. They come before the OT, and the OT proves the Jedi wrong. They literally do not make sense if they don’t do that.

Luke, in the original trilogy, gains his ultimate triumph, his ultimate victory, because he loved in defiance of the teachings of the old Order. He quite literally had the ghosts of the past telling him, explicitly and without ambiguity, that he has to put his love for his father aside and kill him, as is the duty of a Jedi. Luke has the weight of millennia of teachings weighing down on his shoulders, telling him they knew and know better than a young, inexperienced man barely out of his teenager years. That he should follow their teachings or be destroyed. That is an immense weight to carry, and many people would and explicitly have given in to it in-universe. What are your feelings and ideals in the face of such immense legacy, after all?

But Luke doesn’t give in.

He doesn’t bend.

He says “I may be young, and I may be new, but I believe to my heart and soul that love matters more than this legacy. Matters more than your teachings.” And he says this to the ghosts of his mentors. That is such a powerful moment and one I can’t believe George Lucas didn’t create deliberately for even a second. This young man, being told he has to kill or die trying for a system that is dead or dying itself, that couldn’t survive itself, and refusing to do so. He is the living refusing to continue the violence of a dead generation. He is the young man refusing the draft into a war the old generation started, saying “peace and love matters more than you being right.” He is the embodiment of breaking the cycle.

And the movies vindicate him.

The main villain vindicates him with his last dying breath.

Darth Vader, dying, says “You were right.” and admits he and his were wrong. The main antagonist, Luke’s nemesis, in the face of his son’s immense, defiant love, gives way and does the impossible: he comes back to the light and dies a Jedi. The very thing the old Order says was impossible.

They were wrong. They have to be. The narrative demands it, the movies don’t make sense without it.

The solution was never to continue the cycle of the old Order, or Luke would have failed there, would have failed when he said “I am a Jedi, like my father before me.” And claimed that defiant, deviant, condemned definition of being a Jedi over the one presented to him by the Grandmaster of the old Order. If the old Order was right, Luke would have to be wrong. Be wrong about love, be wrong about laying down the sword, be wrong about refusing to fight. He would have to be wrong.

But the old Order is dead, explicitly killed by a monster, in some part, of their own making. It’s members only existing as bones in the ground or ghosts speaking from beyond the grave. They did not deserve it, it should not have been inflicted on them, but the narrative is clear on this: “The old way is dead, and was dying for a long time before that. Long live the new.”

Luke is that new. Luke is the breaking of the cycle, the reforging of swords into ploughs, the extended hand. Luke says “I don’t care how much I was hurt, I refuse to hurt you back, and you don’t need to hurt me either.”

“We can end this together and choose love instead.”

And Darth Vader, killer of the Jedi, End of the Order, lays down his arms as well, and reaches back as Anakin, saying “You were right.”

It wasn’t Obi-Wan, Yoda, Mace, Qui-Gon, or even Ahsoka who achieved the ultimate victory in the end, following the tenants of the old Order. It was Luke. Young, inexperienced Luke, who saw that the age of legacy handed to him was only history, that the sword handed to him as his life was only a tool, and that the decrees of the dead were only advice. And he took it all, said “thank you for your experience, but I’ve got it from here,” and laid it all down to instead extend an open hand towards his enemy.

And his victory, his ultimate triumph, his vindication, was that he was proven right when his enemy reached back and became just another person. Just another person, just like him.

The Jedi did not deserve what happened to them, and they did not deserve to die. But the story is clear on this: the Jedi of old were wrong, and the Jedi of new, the Last Jedi, was right. No sword or death will ever end the rule of the sword or end the bloodshed. But love?

Love can ignite the stars.