#Success Meet stills

[solarpunkani]

Late night wishful thinking but like

I think planting funky things around retention ponds should be more normalized!!

Like okay I get it retention ponds are meant to hold the runoff water from parking lots and drive throughs and the like so they aren’t exactly the cleanest water around. But like!!! Maybe this is different in other areas, but the only plants I ever see grow around retention ponds are cattails!! Which, like, are fine and great and dandy lets go cattails, but like

Where’s the whimsy?? Where are the flowers?? If I’ve got to see retention ponds whenever I go to a store or drive down the highway or pick up food for my mom, at least bring in some flowers!!

And it’ll benefit so much! A wider variety of plants can make it a more welcoming home to wildlife! Maybe the plants will filter some of the runoff stuff and the water can then be nicer for even more wildlife! Maybe the flowers can be a nice food source for butterflies and bees on their journeys and day trips!! And humans like seeing things be pretty!

Maybe its easier said than done! Maybe most places already do this and its just my city or state that doesn’t really I’d be willing to believe that! But lets get some color in these goddamn retention ponds!!

Swamp milkweed! Aquatic milkweed! Pickerelweed! Water lilies! Irises! Cardinalflower! Fuck it, put some goddamn duckweed in there!! Get some color in those things or so help me!!

[greenerteacups]

oooh please someday tell us what you think of GOT

oh, no, it's my fatal weakness! it's [checks notes] literally just the bare modicum of temptation! okay you got me.

SO. in order to tell what's wrong with game of thrones you kind of have to have read the books, because the books are the reason the show goes off the rails. i actually blame the showrunners relatively little in proportion to GRRM for how bad the show was (which I'm not gonna rehash here because if you're interested in GOT in any capacity you've already seen that horse flogged to death). people debate when GOT "got bad" in terms of writing, but regardless of when you think it dropped off, everyone agrees the quality declined sharply in season 8, and to a certain extent, season 7. these are the seasons that are more or less entirely spun from whole cloth, because season 7 marks the beginning of what will, if we ever see it, be the Winds of Winter storyline. it's the first part that isn't based on a book by George R.R. Martin. it's said that he gave the showrunners plot outlines, but we don't know how detailed they were, or how much the writers diverged from the blueprint — and honestly, considering the cumulative changes made to the story by that point, some stark divergence would have been required. (there's a reason for this. i'll get there in a sec.)

so far, i'm not saying anything all that original. a lot of people recognized how bad the show got as soon as they ran out of Book to adapt. (I think it's kind of weird that they agreed to make a show about an unfinished series in the first place — did GRRM figure that this was his one shot at a really good HBO adaptation, and forego misgivings about his ability to write two full books in however many years it took to adapt? did he think they would wait for him? did he not care that the series would eventually spoil his magnum opus, which he's spent the last three decades of his life writing? perplexing.) but the more interesting question is why the show got bad once it ran out of Book, because in my mind, that's not a given. a lot of great shows depart from the books they were based on. fanfiction does exactly that, all the time! if you have good writers who understand the characters they're working with, departure means a different story, not a worse one. now, the natural reply would be to say that the writers of GOT just aren't good, or at least aren't good at the things that make for great television, and that's why they needed the books as a structure, but I don't think that's true or fair, either. books and television are very different things. the pacing of a book is totally different from the pacing of a television show, and even an episodic book like ASOIAF is going to need a lot of work before it's remotely watchable as a series. bad writers cannot make great series of television, regardless of how good their source material is. sure, they didn't invent the characters of tyrion lannister and daenerys targaryen, but they sure as hell understood story structure well enough to write a damn compelling season of TV about them!

so but then: what gives? i actually do think it's a problem with the books! the show starts out as very faithful to the early books (namely, A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings) to the point that most plotlines are copied beat-for-beat. the story is constructed a little differently, and it's definitely condensed, but the meat is still there. and not surprisingly, the early books in ASOIAF are very tightly written. for how long they are, you wouldn't expect it, but on every page of those books, the plot is racing. you can practically watch george trying to beat the fucking clock. and he does! useful context here is that he originally thought GOT was going to be a trilogy, and so the scope of most threads in the first book or two would have been much smaller. it also helps that the first three books are in some respects self-contained stories. the first book is a mystery, the second and third are espionage and war dramas — and they're kept tight in order to serve those respective plots.

the trouble begins with A Feast for Crows, and arguably A Storm of Swords, because GRRM starts multiplying plotlines and treating the series as a story, rather than each individual book. he also massively underestimated the number of pages it would take him to get through certain plot beats — an assumption whose foundation is unclear, because from a reader's standpoint, there is a fucke tonne of shit in Feast and Dance that's spurious. I'm not talking about Brienne's Riverlands storyline (which I adore thematically but speaking honestly should have been its own novella, not a part of Feast proper). I'm talking about whole chapters where Tyrion is sitting on his ass in the river, just talking to people. (will I eat crow about this if these pay off in hugely satisfying ways in Winds or Dream? oh, totally. my brothers, i will gorge myself on sweet sweet corvid. i will wear a dunce cap in the square, and gleefully, if these turn out to not have been wastes of time. the fact that i am writing this means i am willing to stake a non-negligible amount of pride on the prediction that that will not happen). I'm talking about scenes where the characters stare at each other and talk idly about things that have already happened while the author describes things we already have seen in excruciating detail. i'm talking about threads that, while forgivable in a different novel, are unforgivable in this one, because you are neglecting your main characters and their story. and don't tell me you think that a day-by-day account tyrion's river cruise is necessary to telling his story, because in the count of monte cristo, the main guy disappears for nine years and comes hurtling back into the story as a vengeful aristocrat! and while time jumps like that don't work for everything, they certainly do work if what you're talking about isn't a major story thread!

now put aside whether or not all these meandering, unconcluded threads are enjoyable to read (as, in fairness, they often are!). think about them as if you're a tv showrunner. these bad boys are your worst nightmare. because while you know the author put them in for a reason, you haven't read the conclusion to the arc, so you don't know what that reason is. and even if the author tells you in broad strokes how things are going to end for any particular character (and this is a big "if," because GRRM's whole style is that he lets plots "develop as he goes," so I'm not actually convinced that he does have endings written out for most major characters), that still doesn't help you get them from point A (meandering storyline) to point B (actual conclusion). oh, and by the way, you have under a year to write this full season of television, while GRRM has been thinking about how to end the books for at least 10. all of this means you have to basically call an audible on whether or not certain arcs are going to pay off, and, if they are, whether they make for good television, and hence are worth writing. and you have to do that for every. single. unfinished. story. in the books.

here's an example: in the books, Quentin Martell goes on a quest to marry Daenerys and gain a dragon. many chapters are spent detailing this quest. spoiler alert: he fails, and he gets charbroiled by dragons. GRRM includes this plot to set up the actions of House Martell in Winds, but the problem is that we don't know what House Martell does in Winds, because (see above) the book DNE. So, although we can reliably bet that the showrunners understand (1) Daenerys is coming to Westeros with her 3 fantasy nukes, and (2) at some point they're gonna have to deal with the invasion of frozombies from Canada, that DOESN'T mean they necessarily know exactly what's going to happen to Dorne, or House Martell. i mean, fuck! we don't even know if Martin knows what's going to happen to Dorne or House Martell, because he's said he's the kind of writer who doesn't set shit out beforehand! so for every "Cersei defaults on millions of dragons in loans from the notorious Bank of Nobody Fucks With Us, assumes this will have no repercussions for her reign or Westerosi politics in general" plotline — which might as well have a big glaring THIS WILL BE IMPORTANT stamp on top of the chapter heading — you have Arianne Martell trying to do a coup/parent trap switcheroo with Myrcella, or Euron the Goffick Antichrist, or Faegon Targaryen and JonCon preparing a Blackfyre restoration, or anything else that might pan out — but might not! And while that uncertainty about what's important to the "overall story" might be a realistic way of depicting human beings in a world ruled by chance and not Destiny, it makes for much better reading than viewing, because Game of Thrones as a fantasy television series was based on the first three books, which are much more traditional "there is a plot and main characters and you can generally tell who they are" kind of book. I see Feast and Dance as a kind of soft reboot for the series in this respect, because they recenter the story around a much larger cast and cast a much broader net in terms of which characters "deserve" narrative attention.

but if you're making a season of television, you can't do that, because you've already set up the basic premise and pacing of your story, and you can't suddenly pivot into a long-form tone poem about the horrors of war. so you have to cut something. but what are you gonna cut? bear in mind that you can't just Forget About Dorne, or the Iron Islands, or the Vale, or the North, or pretty much any region of the story, because it's all interconnected, but to fit in everything from the books would require pacing of the sort that no reasonable audience would ever tolerate. and bear in mind that the later books sprout a lot more of these baby-plots that could go somewhere, but also might end up being secondary or tertiary to the "main story," which, at the end of the day, is about dragons and ice zombies and the rot at the heart of the feudal power system glorified in classical fantasy. that's the story that you as the showrunner absolutely must give them an end to, and that's the story that should be your priority 1.

so you do a hack and slash job, and you mortar over whatever you cut out with storylines that you cook up yourself, but you can't go too far afield, because you still need all the characters more or less in place for the final showdown. so you pinch here and push credulity there, and you do your best to put the characters in more or less the same place they would have been if you kept the original, but on a shorter timeframe. and is it as good as the first seasons? of course not! because the material that you have is not suited to TV like the first seasons are. and not only that, but you are now working with source material that is actively fighting your attempt to constrain a linear and well-paced narrative on it. the text that you're working with changed structure when you weren't looking, and now you have to find some way to shanghai this new sprawling behemoth of a Thing into a television show. oh, and by the way, don't think that the (living) author of the source material will be any help with this, because even though he's got years of experience working in television writing, he doesn't actually know how all of these threads will tie together, which is possibly the reason that the next book has taken over 8 years (now 13 and counting) to write. oh and also, your showrunners are sick of this (in fairness, very difficult) job and they want to go write for star wars instead, so they've refused the extra time the studio offered them for pre-production and pushed through a bunch of first-draft scripts, creating a crunch culture of the type that spawns entirely avoidable mistakes, like, say, some poor set designer leaving a starbucks cup in frame.

anyway, that's what I think went wrong with game of thrones.

[aprilblossomgirl]

favorite genre: hurt/comfort a.k.a. soundwin

bonus: that we should've had.

[sweetmilkbread]

4.07 / 4.08 / 4.10

Out of the dog cage. Free to be haunted forever.

[hampterguts]

forever amazed and confused at how often transformers franchise just straight up depicts suicide attempts. like not even considering the superhero trope of "i have to save everyone!!! by choosing to die!!!!!" thing. like. non-allow-yourself-to-die-to-stop-a-thing-from-killing-everyone-immediately type situations. which tbh i wish more ppl talked about but not the point here

like. sure mtmte, a comic abt mentall illness and war, i expected it to be aware of the concept. but its not handled well and mostly used for shock value or "im better now i swear! i have a husband and everything" BUT ITS IN THE KIDS SHOWS TOO??? MY BESTIE G1 RODIMUS?? BEAST WARS DINOBOT???

[sforzesco]

Could we get more thoughts on the possessiveness of your version of Pompey please?

a lot of it has to do with wanting everything sulla had and more, and crassus is at that very fun intersection of something sulla had and more. so naturally. he wants crassus in every way sulla had him, and in every way sulla did not. and he'll never get crassus coming to him (like crassus went to sulla) but he can get something else that is more valuable on this stage of politics: a partner.

crassus' own attitude is complementary to pompey's, since he decided to be co consuls with pompey! more than once! in a way, crassus bet his life on pompey. wow.

[nicoscheer]

[itsashowtime]

( 雨猩 / UkuShou )

There are 3 truths to this world: Beauty, Numbers and...

[rexcaliburechoes]

does anyone else find it fucked up that moon's friends protect themselves from her with the skyfire at the end of moon rising?

[redgearsmovin]

peggy and nina are rotating in my brain now ohh wowie here we go again

[marsbotz]

not going to lie i do find it quite upsetting that so many ppl think that animals that arent immediately relatable to humans are completely incapable of thought or feeling. and thats the only thing that matters when it comes to animal rights arguments a lot of the time

[pynkhues]

Oh cool, what are you coming to the US for, if I can ask? :)

Of course! I'm actually going for @foxmagpie's wedding, which is something very delightful and magical given we met on tumblr.com, haha. While we've been really close friends now for years, we've only ever spoken via WhatsApp, Zoom or over the phone, so I'm going a week early to have a little hang-out time before she says I Do.

I have a few other friends / acquaintances in the area too, so am looking forward to catching up with them as well.

[l8tof1]

snowboarder jamie lynn describes lewis landing his first backflip in the golden rays of sunset

[lovvecherrymotion]

For the AU ask thing - how about Jance in a spy setting 👀

this got WILDLY out of hand 😭😭 i hope you enjoy it

i know you were probably expecting me to make them both spies but how about nace being the spy and he's assigned a new mission, which involves getting very close to jan. jan isn’t his main target – that would be his best friend’s dad, who’s a former diplomat turned politician – but jan seems to be their best bet at getting close enough and finding information

nace is a great spy exactly because no one tends to find him suspicious. he’s charming and sweet and seems as non-threatening as possible and people just… tend to trust him. he’s very well aware of what his job entails and he never lets himself get more involved than he has to. it’s surprisingly easy not to get attached when you’ve been trained your entire adult life for this (the missions start to blur together and sometimes the only memories he has are the postcards he collects from different locations around the world)

so he figures the jan mission will go just like any other one

his cover story wasn’t particularly complex this time – his great grandparents had been from around that area and had moved to a different country to find a better life from themselves, and nace had always been fascinated and wanted to know more. life had finally found a way to take him back to the region and nace was sticking around for a little while, to figure out more about his origins and give something back to the country he had grown to love, just from hearing stories about his family’s past

they meet at a charity event organized by jan’s best friend – kris. it’s focused on gathering funds, allowing lower income students from the local high school to have access to music classes, and it’s very much something kris is doing for jan – by all accounts, despite his connections to kris’ family, jan seems to be a decent human and has seemingly convinced his childhood friend to invest in several causes he’s passionate about (science, music and animals)

their first meeting doesn’t go too well, but it’s exactly what nace expected. jan is reserved and a bit stand-offish and answers most of nace’s questions with just one or two words. however, as they start finding each other more often (with jan asking, at one point, “are you following me?” with a raised eyebrow, being met with genuine laughter from nace because jan is actually very amusing), jan seems to relax more around him and nace finds it surprisingly easy to talk to him

it gets to the point nace almost forgets about his mission, until he’s contacted again and he realizes he hasn’t made all that much progress. he could have because jan invites him along quite often and he’s even on friendly terms with kris now, but he’s genuinely enjoying his time with jan and he knows as soon as he gets information out of him (or kris), the mission will end and he’ll probably never see jan again

… this is a huge problem, nace realizes, because it’s the first time he has genuinely felt like his personal life is affecting his professional life. he knows he shouldn’t be stalling and trying to buy himself more time with jan, but he doesn’t know what else to do. he’s not ready to let go of jan and their conversations and coffee dates and, most of all, he doesn’t want to hurt jan

so he keeps pretending jan is simply being evasive about any questions he has. he’s been nothing but professional over the last decade and, while it’s uncommon for him to take so long to get information, he feeds them just enough crumbs to keep them occupied. he feels guilty every time jan shares something with him and he has to send that information right back because… he’s trusting him. and nace knows how hard it is for jan to trust new people and it’s making him feel like a terrible person

but there’s only so many excuses he can give and so much time he can gain. after months of dead ends and information that leads nowhere, he’s informed he’ll be moving on to a new mission and martin will be taking over from here. it’s not the first time he’s been changed from one assignment to the other, but it’s the first time it has caused him genuine distress (but he figures it was always meant to end this way)

he calls jan that night and they meet at nace’s apartment. most of his things are packed already and when jan gets there, nace can see how his expression shifts – his smile drops and he can almost hear all the questions jan wants to ask, but there’s just silence between them

“i’m sorry.” It’s the only thing nace can say and when he reaches to touch jan he expects jan to pull away and leave. instead, jan lets himself be embraced and nace lets himself do the one thing he’s been wanting to do for months – he kisses jan, with the knowledge it’s the first and the last time they’ll have a chance to do it

they spend the night together and nace feels desperate. he tries to memorize every line, every blemish, every mark of jan’s body. he takes his time, makes jan fall apart under his touch and enjoys how his body feels against his; how soft his lips are; how pretty jan looks under the moonlight, next to him in bed

and then, when nace thinks he’s already asleep, jan finally speaks: “i knew you were trying to get to kris’ family”. it’s unexpected because nace doesn’t think he’s ever given anything away, but he’s been sloppy and careless over the last few months, so he guesses whatever it is that exists between him and jan has been doomed since he’s figured it out. “i knew from that start, if that’s what you’re wondering. you’re not the first and you certainly won’t be the last. it comes with being kris’ friend and you just end up knowing when people have genuine interest in you or if they’re just trying to get to him”

“jan…”

“and i guess i expected you to stick around for a while and then get bored because i wasn’t giving you what you wanted, but you kept making an effort to get to know me and i knew it wasn’t completely genuine but it felt that way. and i couldn’t help it. i fell in love with you”

and nace wants nothing more than tell him he’s also in love with jan. that it wasn’t genuine at first, but it has turned into something real. he hopes jan knows that’s why he didn’t leave without saying goodbye

“you’re leaving, aren’t you?” nace simply nods and he can see how jan tries to give him a strained smile. “don’t worry, i haven’t told them and i won’t say a word. i’m pretty sure you haven’t given them much to work with, anyway. kris might want to kick your ass for breaking my heart, though”

“for what’s worth,” nace says. “i…” i love you. “i care a lot about you, jan. and i wish we’d met under different circumstances”

jan kisses him again and nace isn’t sure how he’ll be able to move on from it. he wants to take jan with him; run away somewhere no one knows them. he knows this is simply not possible for them, but that won’t stop him from hoping

Leave an AU and a pairing in my ask and I’ll give you the plot of the fic I won’t write for it

[itsseriouslyridiculous]

I really hate how my physical body looks so so so much. unfortunately there isn't much I can do about it.

[ai-higurashi]

You ever are just sitting there and suddenly are hit by an au you haven't thought about in months?

Anyways FOWL au my beloved, I'm so sorry I abandoned you. One day I shall write the ideas down, I promise.