#also finals which. sucks

[azzimations]

mind cookie design might or might not be done :)

I'm too tired rn tho to think of a cool way to post it so uh y'all get that tomorrow ok byeee

[taffywabbit]

I finally watched breaking bad (all within the past week or so while I worked, finished it and watched el camino last night) and I'm confident this isn't a new thought I'm expressing or anything but genuinely how DID an entire generation of dudes convince themselves Walter White was cool and admirable and intended to be sympathetic. I know ppl just lack media literacy sometimes but I'm still so confused

I don't think I've EVER watched a piece of media that so blatantly depicts a guy making the worst possible decisions at every turn and having his life ruined for it and not being redeemed or made sympathetic in any significant or lasting way. the kinds of justifications villains USUALLY give that make people consider them "morally grey" or "tragic" or whatever (everything I did was for my loved ones, I did what I had to to survive, once I was in this I couldn't get out, I just needed you to trust me so I could keep you safe, etc etc) is ALWAYS framed as complete self-serving bullshit when Walt says it, and one of the only shreds of personal growth he ever exhibits in the whole series is when he finally fucking admits that. every time he does something even remotely cool or drops a quotable one-liner, something terrible immediately happens that makes everything worse and makes him look like an unreasonable idiot asshole again. by the end of the series the ONLY characters they can still contrast as being morally "worse" than him are literally a bunch of bloodthirsty neonazis who kept a guy in a cage for several months. this show is practically SCREAMING at you the entire time not to admire Walt. why did every dude I knew in highschool have his face on tshirts and Facebook pfps.

I just don't get it. at least with The Dark Knight's Joker it was like, a feature-length movie and that's it. you spend a lot less time with the Joker and it has a lot less time to delve into his motivations, so there's way more room for flanderization and misinterpretation as people extrapolate the few cool/interesting/sad things they saw into a whole nuanced misunderstood guy in their heads and online. Walter White has 5 seasons' worth of 45min episodes to convince you beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is a miserable fucking loser who ruins everything he touches because of greed and selfishness. if you weren't watching it for that, what WERE you getting out of this. what DID you think this show was about. am I just missing some key piece of context from 2012 or whatever that would help me understand this

[abrahamvanhelsings]

the terror (2018) requires a rewatch not only bc it is so good it will settle in the core of your brain and grow and spread there like a fungus until you die but also bc it is a show about a hundred something bearded victorian white men on a ship in the same clothes and by the time you start figuring out what name is attached to which guy half of them are already dead

[umblrspectrum]

like half of a frame redraw

[icewindandboringhorror]

Little bright colored outfit with a fun vest ~

(shoes from ebay like 10 years ago. everything else is thrifted)

[noxious-fennec]

A redraw of an old thing because exam season is the only time i get creative energy ig

[good-advice-ganondorf]

[art-is-kayos]

Sight of a Star - Blue-ish Star Ryōshū and Don Quixote

[sforzesco]

CAESAR AUGUSTUS AND MARCUS LICINIUS CRASSUS

this is about the spolia opima that crassus was robbed of lmao. like, yeah okay octavian could've asked him not to claim it, but nevertheless. a kind of theft happened there.

Fact and Fiction: Crassus, Augustus, and the Spolia Opima, Catherine McPherson

[nanihirunkits]

hi.

[warriorofthesky]

interesting tidbits from the trailer and my probably wrong interpretation of them

zavala is shown (?) the traveler leaving the percussor planet here i think.

see a bit later:

comparing to the season of the deep cutscene:

maybe the witness is showing zavala how the traveler left it (playing on zavala's fears, like when he began questioning the traveler for supposedly giving the hive the light back in witch queen)??? not sure

then it seems like he is in the same place where he meets veiled lady:

with cayde saying "you said it spoke to you?" as in the witness, right? the witness showed him the traveler leaving, then showed him... this?

so the million dollar question is: who is this?

idk but

veiled lady holding a shard of glass (???? im not sure what that is) right after the traveler leaves the precursor planet? smells like first knife to me!

no really. kind of.

especially because we get this later:

aka tons of veiled ladies dying/going puff. which makes it seem like veiled lady might be a representation of the precursors? like, they are all melting into smoke bc they united to become the witness. and the witness is asking zavala to join them/it. it also sounds like one of the veiled ladies is the one who whispers "suffering" to zavala, sooooo

i do feel like the first knife bit might be a stretch buuuut back in season of the deep (cutscene) we were told the precursors desired a "winnower to shape the garden". veiled lady with shard of glass might just be indicating that the precursors wanted to influence the traveler, which caused it to nope the fuck out and eventually led to the witness forming itself. idk.

it might be the ffxiv fan in me, but veiled lady representing the precursors sounds reasonable bc the precursors stripped themselves of individuality (literally!), as in, without faces, recognizable characteristics, etc, with the precursor faction (penitent, i think?) that led the idea of "cutting off" unwanted aspects of the precursor race, everyone becoming one aka the witness, with one single objective and motivation, blah blah blah. it is implied (both in the vidoc and in game, imo) that they didn't succeed in cutting off said unwanted aspects, tho (which is one of the reasons veiled lady whispering stuff to zavala sounds so fucking angry i guess). not all of the veiled ladies/precursors who are contained within the witness are happy about it, is the thing

(also the witness seems to be in front of the veil at this point, which imo just makes it more likely that veiled lady = precursors + quite literally the power of the veil, AS IN VEILED PRECURSORS)

but who knows!!! certainly not me

[kirby-the-gorb]

[transingthoseformers]

Meltdown 🤝 Mandroid

Becoming Not Quite Human through their own experiments and being cool antagonists

[m1d-45]

-Pari Anon

Pari!Reader gets sad when their leaf mask gets torn. Whether they were playing too rough or Wei (the cat in the inn lobby) tore it, they lost their mask. They have those sad anime eyes (the cutely exaggerated ones). They want to fix it, but no one else knew about that leaf mask.

They stay gloomy for the rest of the day until Xiao comes back.

The next day, they see a little replica of Xiao’s mask made from wood. It was sitting near their nest. When they tried it in, it was light but sturdy. Who could have gotten it for them? How was it so detailed? Who could have known? Oh well. Time to play, little Pari thinks.

Xiao didn’t have the heart to just leave them after he heard them crying when the leaf mask was ripped. He might have put a charm on this one so it wouldn’t break as easily.

[ previous post ]

xiao was better than this. the last yaksha, conqueror of demons, the bane of all evil himself.. searching the plains of liyue well into the night for a suitable piece of wood to carve. it wasn’t for an offering, it wouldn’t be turned into an incense bowl or statue, it was neither for a critical repair or somehow enchanted to be a danger. no, this wood would be used for a far more frivolous purpose: you.

you, who he’d been watching from the roof as you played on the balcony below. you with your mock spear and wei with his paws, uselessly batting at each other in a play fight. he thought it was ridiculous, really—your thin wings would surely bleed beneath any monster’s claws, better you learn to run away from danger—but had watched. it was harmless fun. you ducked behind the potted bonsai for protection, racing around the trunk and likely making the poor cat dizzy, when a harsh rip echoed into the night. you stopped, looking behind you as the two halves of your ‘mask’ fluttered to the floor, torn by one of the branches of the tree. his only thought was that you weren’t hurt, watching as wei tackled you off the pot and onto the floor, but you squirmed free quickly, floating over to the remains… sadly? wei followed, sniffing the leaves, but you didn’t seem interested in playing anymore. you sat by the leaves for far too long, not even moving when wei curled up beside you.

it was nothing. it was a leaf tied around your head with another’s stem, bound to rot and flake away anyway, but you were sulking the next day. he never thought he’d return to his makeshift room and have you not fly up to him with a cloud of chirps, and he quickly decided he didn’t like it. if you were sad you lost your mask, then he’d just have to get you a new one.

he kicked at the remains of a campfire, stomping out the remaining embers. an abandoned adventurer’s camp of some sort, the air free of any malicious warnings. besides the remains of the campfire were a few stray logs, likely spare firewood. he dug through the measly pile, pulling out a log. there was no rot, water damage, no sign of bugs or anything else that would ruin the wood. without another thought, he tucked it under his arm, turning and vanishing into the wind.

he had left when you were already asleep, so he could go straight to his room, but he made a stop first. yanxiao hardly jumped when he turned from the stove, though he did eye the log in his hands strangely.

“what can i get you?”

“i need to borrow a knife.”

“…” he laughed, propping his hands on the table in front of him, and xiao grit his teeth. an adepti, reduced to this… “what, did you lose your spear?”

“of course i didn’t,” he snapped, “but i’m not foolish enough to think i can use a spear to carve wood.”

yanxiao nodded in understanding, reaching into his pocket for a small flip knife. it was barely as long as one of his fingers, the handle a dark wood. “this should do, i think.” he threw the knife underhand, and xiao caught it with ease. the blade flicked out easily, sharp to the touch. “remember to cut away from you, yeah?”

his grip tightened on the knife, leaving without thanks.

safely in the shadow of his room, xiao finally relaxed. one by one, he removed his guards and charms, quietly setting them in their respective places. you were curled up in your bed as always, none the wiser as he stepped out onto the balcony. he sat facing the moon, setting his mask on the floor beside him. again drawing the small knife, he braced the wood in his lap and began to carve.

yanxiao was many things, but a fool he was not. he had heard from verr about your mask tearing yesterday, about how you sat quietly on xiao’s terrace for the rest of the day in a pout. you were a strange guest, certainly, but you were xiao’s. he kept very limited company, and those he lingered around felt his affections quietly.

when flowers had blown off their tables prior to the reception of an important guest, a mysterious bundle of qingxin had found it’s way onto the reception desk to replace them. when the eccentric xianyun had stopped by for a ‘surprise lunch,’ a small note in familiar writing on his table told him her tastes. when your small, flimsy mask tore in two… well, he couldn’t wait to find out.

he worked as usual, trading guesses with verr as he helped ferry plates back and forth. would he fetch you new leaves in perpetuity? fetch new ones from your home nation of sumeru? find a new toy to distract you? neither of them had ever met a pari before, didn’t know what you wanted or needed to thrive, but they entertained themselves with nonsense speculation nontheless.

xiao showing up in his kitchen without warning was nothing out of the ordinary. yanxiao had learned to pick out the shift in air pressure that signaled his arrival, wiping off his hands and putting the washed vegetables aside. the flat expression on his face was also routine, but the log he held most certainly wasn’t. handcarved offerings weren’t all too uncommon in liyue, especially from an adeptus, but he had a feeling it wasn’t for rex lapis or another adepti.

the next question, of course, was what he would carve. verr suggests a wooden mimic of the leaf mask and he can’t hide the way that makes him laugh, his smile wider than usual as he greets customers.

that night, if you stood just quietly enough beneath the upper balcony and the wind blew the right way, you would hear the quiet scrape of wood and metal. and the next morning, if you were anywhere near the inn, you would likely see a bright pari weaving through the levels, eager to show off their brand new mask carved by the hero of dihua marsh himself.

[deoidesign]

.

[iamsonormalaboutninjago]

TW: Heavy talk about death

I think the reason why Kai and Cole had such a radical emotional change after March of the Oni was because Lloyd died

We’ve had plenty of characters die in Ninjago, and it always had a horrific affect on the ninja emotionally. Despite all their adventures and godlike powers they’re still older teenagers and young adults- of course when their sibling or lover dies in the fight they’re gonna want to avoid the fight itself

I think it was different for Lloyd tho- Lloyd despite losing the golden power is still the most powerful ninja. He’s not meant to lose, out of all of the ninja he’s the one who’s least likely to die and I think they know that.

So when he died facing down the Oni, even briefly, that would make the ninja doubtful and even afraid of their own mortality-

Kai’s hotheadedness and desire for the fury of battle dies when he see’s his little brother unresponsive on the floor. If he can die, so can Kai

Coles stubborn facade and die hard attitude gets a reality check when the kid who defeated the incarnate of evil lies dead in front of him

It would just be a reality check for them. Both have had to look death in the eyes many times before, but experiencing death is something that they themselves wouldn’t often think about.

Just a theory