#That's my opinion

[dingoskidneys]

I enjoy when people redesign Tuunbaq to be more bear-like but I do think there's something to its original design looking half-person half-beast. And not only half person but half blue-eyed white person! Sure Tuunbaq symbolizes the dangers of the Arctic but so much of what kills the men of the expedition is their own colonizer behavior. Tuunbaq looking human holds up a mirror to the men and how they manufacture their own doom... The bit where Goodsir realizes that Tuunbaq has HANDS by comparing his own grip to the claw marks on a body is so important here. They can try to blame it all on the inhospitable nature of the Arctic but we know from the Inuit cultures that have BEEN living there that it's not inherently hostile to human life. You can thrive there if you keep a careful eye on how you interact with the land! And of course Tuunbaq isn't exclusively dangerous to the white men, a big part of Silna coming into her role as shaman too early is that she's worried Tuunbaq won't listen to her - ie if she fails to connect with Tuunbaq it could turn on her just as violently. Much of her duty as shaman is to keep nature in balance, and we know that even before the Franklin expedition arrived, colonizers were already throwing off the balance of the Arctic by overusing resources, creating a scarcity of food for the Inuit that led them to a state of starvation. People talk about how the Inuit in the show are living easy but remember they're in a famine right now! BECAUSE of the actions of the colonizers! And when Silna is stuck living among the men she is unable to continue her work, because European colonization throws a massive wrench into Indigenous people's ability to care for the land. Even the death of her father is symbolic of this - they didn't specifically mean to shoot him, but their reaction to a large animal being "kill it immediately" is what creates the circumstances for his death. It's the way the colonizers interact with nature! And not only that, but their intrusion on Silna and her father's life prevents a full exchange of knowledge between the two. Her father was teaching her how to be shaman, but Silna doesn't have all the information she needs because the colonizers interrupted the generational learning that's so important to land stewardship. I feel like Tuunbaq's violence represents the collective monster that is created by the attempt to colonize the Arctic - when colonizers shove themselves in with no respect for the land or the people (or the people's knowledge!), the fragile ecosystem is thrown into chaos and becomes dangerous for everyone

[nondelphic]

literary fiction writers be like: “and here’s a 5-page description of an empty room. why? because it’s symbolic. of what? idk, but that’s for you to figure out.”

[lesbians-4-riovidal]

you expect me to believe that inbreeding is abundant in the targaryen family when the targaryen women are objectively some of the most beautiful i've ever seen

[wearevillaneve]

We 2 R 1: Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer

[headache12]

[chiaraislost]

As a form of entertainment and escapism I overanalyze fictional characters, used to do it on the dumpster fire social, now I'm here and it's the turn of Penelope Featherington (and the possibility of a friendship with Sophie Baek).

Much has been said about the character and I agree with the takes from people that dislike her show version (why the writers had to butcher like this a character that was lovely in the book? Why?). For my contribution, I would like to add two additional people that are not discussed as being impacted by LW's pen (and I admit it's a little bit of a stretch). This two characters are Amanda and Oliver Crane.

The thing is we've been told various time, especially through Lady Mary, that the ton has a long memory (spanning more than 20 years) and that it has the tendency to look down upon those of lower birth, we've seen it with the comments about Edwina and Kate's father in S2 E1.

If the "shame" of her elopement followed Lady Mary for so long, then the scandal of their illegitimacy will follow Oliver and Amanda just as much. Thanks to Penelope publicly shaming their mother because she was jealous of Colin, they will always have the mark of not being fully part of the ton. And while this may not be that much of a problem for Oliver because he will inherit the estate, it will definitely make Amanda's life more difficult.

Now, I'm aware that this is kind of a stretch but I've been thinking about it in the context of the relationship that may exist between Penelope and my beloved Sophie Baek. FROM THIS MOMENT, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FROM BOOK 3, BE WARNED. Sophie is an illegitimate child, her status as a bastard daughter brings immense suffering upon her and immense dangers (I would argue she is the Bton character that suffered the most), she is extremely aware about how illegitimacy, especially for girls, can be a sentence to a life of suffering because she lived it and she would have done everything to avoid the same fate for her own children. Another trait of Sophie's (definitely one of the least important traits to the character) is that she enjoys reading the book version of LW because it gives her a glimpse into the life she could have had had the circumstances of her life been different. Now I've seen people inflate this trait by saying that Sophie was a LW's stan, that she should go to the ball because she wants to meet LW or work for P as she is her greatest fan and I cannot stress enough how much I hope they won't create a friendship between Sophie and Penelope.

Why I hope so? Because Sophie's greatest characteristics are her unshakable morals and her kindness, she is what one would call a girl's girl. And I cannot fathom her wanting to strike a friendship with someone that shamed a woman (Marina) for being in a situation not dissimilar to her own mother and attached a mark of shame and ridicule to two children that is the same as her own. Amanda and Oliver, much like Sophie, will always have to deal with the fact that they are sinners of a crime for which they have no fault.

Now, I know that I shouldn't hype this hope too much because this show's tagline should be "everyone must kiss Penelope's arse and we don't care about how out of character that is" so they'll probably overinflate Penelope's importance once again and force the friendship to happen but a girl can hope (and when canon doesn't deliver, fanon always does).

PS: seeing the discourse I've seen going on I need to make a disclaimer, I have absolutely nothing against Nicola, quite the opposite I like her and I think she is a really good actress. I just don't like the show version of Penelope, a fictional character.

[lorithescrump]

Forget the gorgeous heavily modded self insert tiefling girl Dark Urges, I'm bouta make my Durge a grizzled middle aged man from Texas who's been dragged through hell backwards his ankles then put through a dishwasher on the wrong setting idgad

He'll also have ram horns because those are peak character design and I like those

[several-ravens]

my friend says elias's theme song is "the fine print" by the stupendium and yeah but also, "evil eye" by franz ferdinand???

[alicentsultana]

The way we see mothers in fiction reflects our relationship with our own mothers.

Unless we're going mommy dearest and similar works that show narcissistic mothers and problematic/toxic relationships and portrayals, those are undeniably horrible and bad.

However, when we talk about general mothers portraiture we're going to immediately judge also through what we live and experienced.

I have a wonderful relationship with my mom, though she had me hours after she turned 18, and of course, have committed errors, she still succeeded in parenting and raised me with the best of her abilities. Therefore, I tend to see mother-sons/daughters relationships in a good light, as as depth and development goes by, I can change and adapt my initial opinion.

Therapist and Psychology Professors oftenly remarks that mothers, in a way or another, have some parcel of guilt over how her kids will develop and turn out, some more, some less. Relapse mother? Troubled kids. Distant mother? Insensitive kids. Overbearing/Overprotective? Kids learn to lie, omit, rebel. So on and so forth.

Mothers do have a hand on how you deal with your life. But a loving mother, a zealous mother, a young mother, an older mother, a religious mother, a free spirit mother... All of them doesn't have to justify themselves beyond maybe acknowledging where they went wrong, because, after all, aren't all of them also bound by expectations, morals, time and beliefs? And weren't all of them doing what they thought was right? Weren't all of them dealing with motherhood differently and in their particular ways? With or without support, they did what they could.

But take a look at these mothers:

They made mistakes, do they have to justify themselves and ask for forgiveness? Because they did what they have to? To survive, to attend demands, to protect, to ensure their safety and success...

There are mistakes, and there is also another even greater problem: you have to grow up and learn how to deal with this pain yourself, talk, digest, transform it, but no one but yourself will have to learn how to deal with it, even when it was done with such toxic and cruel behaviors, you will have to deal with it. To love or to hate.

Now, let's focus on the love part.

Mary, Elizabeth, Isabel, Januaria, the Bennets girls, Khadija, Alicent, Hürrem and Rhaenyra's children, all of them wouldn't even ask for their justification, ask why they did what they did, because they all know their mother loves them no matter what, they did what they had to do. Distant or not, overbearing, hysterical, insensitive, and doomed by the narrative. They know, and eventually recognize that those actions were done by love.

So yeah, go on, ask your loving mother to justify herself, I dare you all. Ask your grandma and aunt too. Ask that one mother who pissed you off online too.

Also, don't forget that maybe, that parenting style was all they came to know about. And unless one breaks a very long and, shockingly, difficult to recognize cycle, they will unknowingly perpetuate it.

Anyway. That's how I see it. Because oh boy, I wouldn't even ask my mom to explain herself to me, no matter my grievances. But that's a me thing. How do you see it?

[mothekko]

Why is Vi's happiness is tied to Caitlyn? All season she has made Caitlyn so miserable. This is how I know they did not think through the relationship and rushed to fanservice.

Vi and Caitlyn were rushed and didn't have enough development. The two may have even had some kind of greater involvement "off camera", but they never made it exactly explicit. CaitVi is aesthetically beautiful, canonically MISERABLE.

People who still try to defend it with some kind of "argument" are just people who are crazy for fanservice.

[yikesforever]

What do y'all know about the fall of Ed Sheeran he got too famous and his music went to shit tbh. + and x are amazing and then it just kept getting worse

[xceanlynx]

I've seen some people react negatively on sandray hookup last episode as in "Ray hasn't broken up with Mew yet" babe did you miss Mew accepting the advances of some random in a bar? Nothing happened just because Top showed up and ruined the interaction...

[mechazushi]

Ear Buds Review!

So, first off I should say that I'm a (wired only) headphones diehard. I've always been, it's what I prefer, I don't trust anything that's bluetooth for no reason other than I can't see the physical connection my headphones make to my phone. That being said, If there was another way to hear Kafka say in a disappointed manner " Aw, looks like it can't connect" I would have bought it. It also didn't fully hit me until it arrived in my hands that Everything Kafka will be telling me about the connections to my phone the ear buds are making... will be in Japanese.

I don't know Japanese...

But that doesn't matter anymore <3

Anyway, On to the Review! (Pictures under the cut)

First, I just wanna say I think its cute that they put the instruction booklet in its own little package. It's not supposed to speak anything about quality, I just think it's nice. (By the way, it does come with a little slip of paper where you can get a warranty on them. Both the instructions and the warranty paper are in Japanese though...)

Good news, It doesn't solely need a wireless charging pad to charge. It came with a USB-C cable so all I had to do was plug it in. It feels good in the hands, has a nice weight to it, all around a good size. It came with an extra set of ear plugs in small and large, with medium already on there. (I had to switch to small because God cursed me with tiny ear holes.) The four little dots along the front are the charging indicator lights.

I don't know if you can tell, but they do light up a little. It's actually half of how they work. They indicate things like pairing fail and other stuff. They cycle through white, orange, and red. The white and the orange are for pairing indications and I think the red is to just show that they're on.

PRAISE BE TO THE THE MACHINE SPIRIT, BECAUSE I GOT THEM TO PAIR!!!! I got them synced to my phone and I thoroughly christened them in the Kn8 intro, outro, several OST clips, AND the first and second to last/last episode. I did pair them to my laptop as well, but that was because I tried to get an audio recording of Kafka's voice coming through the earbuds, but my mic didn't pick it up. Sincere apologies, @kafkahibinomybeloved I tried for you. 😔

To those that do buy it, a little heads up, put the ear buds in BEFORE you try to pair. Otherwise you end up missing out on the voice. (I know, it should sound incredibly obvious, but hey. Not everyone works on the same operating speed.)

As far as fit goes, I can't really say. They did feel like they were slipping out of my ears a little, but that may be due to my small ear holes to begin with. Outside of that, they held up pretty well to some mild headbanging when I rocked out to Warcry.

First impressions leave me to say that this is a good product so far. Time will tell if they hold up (and I sincerely hope they do. These little sh*ts were expensive. Damn yen-to-dollar conversion rates. Not to mention overseas shipping.)

Will proceeded to use these to watch Apothecary diaries and My Happy Marrage. (Because I wasn't aware they were releasing this early in the year.)

[hello911]

Rob Lowe ruins Lone Star and I honestly can't bring myself to care more that it's being cancelled because then I don't have to get annoyed that half of every episode of a multi-POV show is solely about one stupid ass man.

[feydrauthazdarkheart]

My only criticism of 'Nosferatu' is not NEARLY enough female perversion. My girl Ellen was horny and I mean FIENDING for some sausage