#and do the wu kids have a genetic thing??

[bridgeportbritt]

Gianni's Residence | Del Sol Valley, Simerica

Gianni: Alright, be honest, Elle. How is mom doing really?

Ella sighs: She actually seems to be doing a lot better here. Honestly, I'm a little worried about going back home because she was an absolute wreck. I've never seen her look so... sad and hopeless.

Gianni: Jeez, that's rough. Whoever's idea it was to ship her off here was smart.

Ella: Why, thank you. It was mine. Figured family time would cheer her up and just getting away from the Palace, in general.

Gianni: This KBE shit sucks. They can't take that away from Mom!

Ella: It seems like they can and they will. I don't think Mom even wants to do anything about it.

Gianni: There must be something that can be done. Mom or Emmitt or somebody will come through.

Ella: Yeah, maybe.

Gianni: Well, how are you? Still dating that what's-his-face?

Ella annoyed: You know his name is Luka. And, yes, we're still dating.

Gianni: Yeah, yeah, whatever. How's you and Lucas?

Ella sighs: Fine, I guess.

Gianni: Hey, if you want me to spill about my love life, you gotta do the same... unless, there are details that I seriously don't want to hear. Please tell me there are no details.

Ella: Gianni, shut up! There are no details. We're fine. I just... I don't know. Luka is really into me and I do like him... but...

Gianni: You don't like him as much as he likes you.

Ella: Yeah.

Gianni laughs: Figures. I swear it's in our genes or something to attract those types. Must be a Wu thing.

Ella: But, it's not just that. There's kind of... someone else.

Gianni: Another one? Oh, Watcher! Wow, didn't take my little sister for a playa!

Ella: Ugh, seriously shut up! I'm not. They just both kind of happened to like me and... I don't know. The whole thing just makes me confused. Another reason I'd like to just stay here.

Gianni: Oh, stop worrying so much! You're young, you're a Wu, you're a freaking royal! You don't have to choose either of 'em if you don't want. In fact, I'd prefer it if you didn't.

Ella: Gee, thanks. So just be a spinster for the rest of my life. Great advice, Gianni.

Gianni: Relax. I'm just saying. Don't think you have to tie yourself down to anyone right now. You're graduating and going to college soon. The perfect time to do and be who you want. Make sense?

Ella: Yeah, I guess. Thanks, G... But, you're still the worst.

Gianni: Yeah, you too, Elle, you too.

Bria: We should probably get going. We've got a long flight ahead of us tonight.

Gianni: Aw, man. I'm going to miss you guys.

Bria: I'm sure we'll see you sooner rather than later.

Ella: Nah, later works for me.

Gianni: Okay, her I won't miss as much. You can take her.

Laughter

[swan2swan]

The biggest problem with Dominion is the dichotomy of Maisie's plotline with regards to motherhood, and the way both plots revolve around it from wholly opposite perspectives while never actually clashing.

Her plot starts off simply enough: she's angsting about not being a real person, Claire's trying to protect her, and Maisie spits at her with the "You're not my mother!" line right before she's kidnapped.

This is a classic Finding Nemo setup, which Claire takes to with gusto: she calls on favors, slips into seedy markets, fights a crime boss, eludes raptors, jumps out of a plane, and crawls through a forest to get the girl she calls her daughter back. Most stories would show this as a trial: ye olde "GASP! My parents love me!" story.

But the fact that Claire has no obligation to bring Maisie back is never challenged. Soyona doesn't bother with asking or playing the role of the tempting serpent instilling doubt; the closest the movie comes to that is Franklin giving her the "I told you this would happen" speech. It's all taken for granted, which is...okay, because we have already established who Claire is, but that's not the problem.

The problem comes with the other half of the story: Maisie mopes to Wu about how she's just a close, and Wu immediately points out how no, she was conceived and carried in a human womb just like everyone else! And he calls Charlotte "your mother".

And Maisie goes "Is that my mother?"

And when she meets Ellie, Dr. Sattler is somehow fully aware of who Maisie's REAL MOTHER, the one who created her and who she looks like, is, and gushes about how great of a eugen--person she was. Every single time Maisie talks about "her mother" with the people around her, the word is referring to Charlotte Lockwood, the woman who birthed her.

Meanwhile, that Claire woman is crawling into a slimy pond to get away from a twenty-foot-tall Kreugersaurus because she wants to get Maisie away from kidnappers.

Of course, Maisie runs back to her and yells "Those are my parents!", but there's still something missing there. Claire's side of the story is all about her powering through, risking her life time and time again to track down her daughter...but there's never really a moment between them later. Maisie even posits the "So I was just an experiment to her..." plotline that has been seen before, but even that's immediately refuted.

The movie's not wrong for avoiding the cliches and the oft-used tropes of foster motherhood, but it doesn't really break any new ground, either. Obviously, people can have more than one mom, but there's something of an imbalanced focus on Charlotte as Maisie's mother in the Maisie and Jurassic Park plotline, while Claire in the Jurassic World plotline is doing all the expected Mom Stuff.

I can't wholly express what's bothering me about it, maybe I'm overthinking it, but it...doesn't quite sit right with me.

[quitealotofsodapop]

Some Tang-y asks;

Both asks referencing; this previous about Tang realising his buddies are the Monkey King and the Six Eared Macaque + he's the godfather to their upcoming baby.

Tang is freaking tf out after the shock/fainting wears off. His academic career has revolved around the Journey to the West and connected mythology. Even as a lowly libarian who does mythology talks on the side, even he recognises that this is historical Iridium. He has *The People Who Were There* in his apartment (eating his chips)!!

Afterwards he has a moment of; "Oh gods, I've pretty much adopted the Monkey King." since he's been helping the monkeys learn how to read/write in modern chinese and generally giving Wukong life advice in the manner of a father-figure (all mid-twenty years of him).

And although he def shares all his secret wuxia and isekai fantasies with Macaque (fantasy nerd to theatre nerd communication); he certainly didn't expect to end up like This.

Tang knows he at least has a genetic link to the historical Tang dynasty - something he isn't really proud of since he's been kicked out by his parents. But with all the Monkey King stuff starting to pile up, he wonders...

Then he gets kidnapped by a firey toddler calling him "The Tang Monk", and is told to help out in a super specific ritual that requires the skill of an enlightened sage. Tang faints in the backseat of Red Son's mini-car when the penny drops. His frantic call to Pigsy straight afterwards is a babbling info-dump that sounds more like a cicada screaming.

Bonus ask!: Did Wukong *know* that Pigsy and Tang were reincarnations of his friends?

Sort of.

You see, after the Harbringer accidentally got sealed in Macaque (and the shadow monkey was still passed out); Wukong asked Guanyin to help him seek guidance from his old master - since he isn't exactly able to contact the Pure Lands himself. Guanyin tries calling up the Golden Cicada and... she appears to a confused, bleary-eyed Tang in the noodle shop at like 11pm. Even the bodhisattva is confused. Tang Sanzang/Tripitaka was supposed to be the last Golden Cicada incarnation. Tf is he hanging out on earth for?

Guanyin mentions this fact to SWK, and Wukong has a heart-stopping second of "Oh sweet buddha, Master is alive!!", before the goddess confirms otherwise. Wukong is super-confused, and a little disappointed, but really wants to seek out this new version of the GC even if for his own comfort. He's given a vague direction of where his master's soul is now residing, and the bodhisattva doesn't discourage him from following it. Wukong does hide his main reason for hiding in the city when Mac wakes up.

Eventually as the duo are ducking the sight of curious local demons/human (the meteorite and battle on the mountain def drew attention), Mac and Wukong bump into a strangely famililar face...

You see, after Tang literally glimpsed at the Goddess of Mercy, he became super-awake and rambled to Pigsy about his vision. Pigsy, despite being dismissive of most magic talk, thought that his suspicions of the meteor shower being a "sign" could be correct. The two went downstairs to eat/talk about what Tang's vision of Guanyin could mean.

Ironically, it's Pigsy who catches the monkeys walking down the street. He'd gone out to grab something from the convenience store and saw the two young, kinda skinny-looking, monkey demons arguing and trying to dodge the rain. The ginger-haired of the two shielding the darker-furred one with an old cape.

Pigsy has a moment of "No. No no no no. Good samaritan sh*t only gets you hurt." before he recognises something off about the two "kids" words. And with Tang's talk about having a vision of the Goddess of Mercy...

"Mihou": "This is all your fault!" "Wu": "How is it all my fault?!" "Mihou": "You put this... this thing in me! Now we've got no money, our magic isn't working, we can't go home, and we don't even have shelter for the night! I'm so..." *crying* "I have no idea what to do Wu..." "Wu", holding the other's face: "Hey, hey, it's ok Mihou. We'll figure this out." *presses foreheads together* "I won't let anything happen to you or the ki... guess it's too early at the moment. Egg, I guess?" *goofy, hopeful smile* "Mihou", sniffling: "You're so dumb."

They hear a cough beside them and turn. Wukong looks at the face illuminated by the neon of the storefront like its wearing a halo. It can't be!

Pigsy, holding grocery bags: "Hey... you kids sound like you're in a tough spot right now. If you need a roof over your head 'til the rain eases off, my restaurant is around the corner. Door's opened either way."

Wukong happily jumps at the offer, seeing the familiar glow of his pilgrim brother's soul resting warmly in the cook's body. Macaque is super sus of the situation; he kinda recognises the face infront of him but he just knows it isn't Zhu Bajie. The tired, sincere look on the demon's face is far too unalike the greedy gluttonous fool he'd seen getting his King into so much trouble. Just for now will he trust only his instincts - which at the moment wish for him to get dry.

Wukong sees it as a sign from the Buddha. Clearly someone is looking out for them. Even if this isn't Zhu Bajie, and the man inside the noodle shop isn't his master, then something in the Pure Lands or Diyu has shifted to allow them to reunite in this life - just in time for the King's heir responsibility to be brought into the world.

And then Pigsy ruffles his hair? Calls him "kid"? And then Tang is helping him with his writing? And telling him all the stories he's heard a million times in a way thats never boring?

Wukong feels queasy in a good way. He doesn't know how to describe it. He cries when he sees the silly mock shop logo he drew pinned to the corkboard by the kitchen - pinned amongst the pig-chef's most prized moments in his cooking journey. He doesn't know why he's crying but it feels like something he's been left out of for so long... thats the moment he decides that Pigsy and Tang (+Sandy) would be the godparents of the Egg. He just knows they'd all be great parents cus they already are.

[kingwuko]

*opens the door menacingly and stands there in the dark* Give me Wuko kids.

AAAHH you scared me!!

But yesss Wuko kids lets see....

First of all I firmly believe Mako and Wu adopt, and that they adopt when they are late-30s early 40s. I feel really strongly about this for Mako's sake, because he was parentified at the age of EIGHT and spent his childhood and adolescence taking care of Bolin. Mako lost his parents, grew up too fast, and raised Bolin (And listen here. Mako did a GREAT job. seriously. Bolin turned out great all things considered!) But he neglected himself for too long because of it.

SO Mako should get to spend his twenties and thirties being selfish. Figuring out who he is outside of a caregiver role. Very important that he does that before raising kids. Otherwise he's going to fall back into that same pattern of self-neglect and ignore his own needs. Nope I don't want that for Mako and neither does Wu.

So @creampuffqueen converted me to the Wuko GirlDads agenda, and I'm pretty much all in with that. and I'm not gonna lie, I have been thinking about those girls, who they are, their personalities, etc. Thing is I don't have anything fully fleshed out in my brain. But here's where my idle brainstorming is so far.

There are four girls, ranging in age from 13 to 5.

I cannot tell if this idea is weird or not, but I was thinking it could be pretty interesting if the each of the girls were benders from each element. I was trying to figure out the best way to do this. As far as I know there's no hard rules about how bending is inherited in mixed heritage families, and I don't know enough about genetics to make up rules that make sense. So I guess either they come from a very mixed heritage of Fire, Earth and Water nations, or maybe one or more of them are half sisters having a different parent. I kind of like the idea that the oldest had a different father than her younger sisters, and that he died when she was very young, and her mother met someone else of different heritage and had the other three.

I also kind of think it would be interesting if they were from another city in the United Nations, like Yu Dao maybe. Perhaps at this time Repubic City has a better program for child protective services, but Yu Dao lags behinds?

So I like the idea that the oldest is an earthbender, and the next two sisters are water and firebenders. And their parents died when the youngest was about one or two. So the girls have been on their own for three or four years. And it was kind of working okay, they were managing, looking out for each other and especially the youngest.

UNTIL. The youngest starts airbending.

So the girls have no idea what to do, but decide maybe they should take their chances, leave Yu Dao, and go to republic city to air temple island because they genuinely don't know how to help their sister learn her bending.

So they cobble together enough money for train tickets and make the journey, I'm sure they encounter many obstacles along the way, but eventually they make it to air temple island. And Mako and Wu (whom I have no idea if they are both earth kings or if Wu has managed to abdicate or what. I haven't thought this out enough lol) are visiting air temple island and these four scrawny orphans show up with a teeny five year old who keeps unexpectedly making tornadoes and both Mako and Wu are just immediately invested.

then idk they adopt and they are awesome dads and it's obviously a huge adjustment for everyone but they all live happily ever after the end.

Maybe the girls get into recreational probending and Wuko are sports dads.

[galaxybooper]

Ninjago Ramblings

Cracks knuckles.

Let's do this. I did post this on my server already but I wanted to expand it after a whole day of drinking coffee.

Lloyd for a while can wield all four elements of creation. I think regardless of whether he's the golden ninja or not doesn't matter. Besides his "green" energy still resembles a lot like the elements of fire and lightning. Which goes into the title of his element discussion too. The title Master of Energy works. Why? Because the elements of creation are essentially a kind of energy.

Definitions of energy:

the strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity. "changes in the levels of vitamins can affect energy and well-being"

a person's physical and mental powers. "an alternative is to devote your energies to voluntary work"

power derived from the utilization of physical or chemical resources, especially to provide light and heat or to work machines. "nuclear energy"

the property of matter and radiation which is manifest as a capacity to perform work (such as causing motion or the interaction of molecules). "a collision in which no energy is transferred" a degree or level of energy possessed by something or required by a process.

The FSM used the elements to create Ninjago and the other realms. He couldn't do it without the elements of creation and especially when they were embedded into the golden weapons of spinjitzu. It was an energy the FSM couldn't obtain/use. Now besides the creation of Ninjago and several other realms, why were the golden weapons still important? The FSM seems to be able to wield all four golden weapons and Garmadon was able too. AND the weapons are used to identify Lloyd as the green ninja. This can't be a mistake. Perhaps there was always meant to be one who would wield all four elements without bursting from the intensity of the powers. Like it had to genetically be passed down to "create" the vessel aka Lloyd. Ergo the golden weapons were used to identify the green ninja. The green ninja who would wield all four elements without needing the golden weapons. Ergo the legend of the green ninja was important. Because not only can the green ninja defeat the overlord BUT also to have a master of energy. The energy comes from the four elements of creation. I think the Golden Ninja thing was more like a power boost if anything. Sort of like with Riyu and Sora in DR. The ability was always inside Lloyd, he just needed help to find it himself.

This also goes into why the Overlord needed Lloyd in S3. He needed that extra power Lloyd had to regenerate a physical body. But think about it. That golden energy the Overlord took needed time to create a body and even at 99% it wasn't complete! Because the Overlord himself can't handle the immense power of all four elements of creation. He wasn't build/made to handle that power easily. He couldn't just take it all in seconds, he needed time to process the intense energy and withstand it. That's why in S3, no one could touch the blob of the melted together golden weapons. Because again, the power was far too great for anyone to handle.

Although the FSM and Garmadon were able to handle the four golden weapons, it's not the same as wielding all elements within you. In S2, Garmadon had the Mega Weapon but everytime he used it, it drained him of his powers for probably hours. And this was AFTER he obtained four arms by spending time in the Realm of Madness. The FSM couldn't handle the power, Garmadon, his son, couldn't handle it, but Lloyd seems to be able to.

The point of this ramble was to theorize. Maybe the FSM wanted kids to obtain someone who could handle all four elements after he passed away and when he noticed Garmadon and Wu not having that elemental power, maybe he hoped that his lineage would. Maybe he foresaw the realms needing the Master of Energy. Just maybe...

[sketchy-the-changeling]

Spoilers for Mortal Kombat 1’s ending.

One thing I really appreciate about the ending to MK1 in that it was just a happy ending with no MAJOR catches. Like, look at the endings of the other MK games from the Netherrealm Era.

MK9 – Raiden defeats Shao Khan… but all the heroes save for Johnny and Sonya are killed, and during the timeskip between this game and the next, they’re all turned into Revenants. Only Jax, Scorpion, and Sub-Zero got to become human again. The rest of em? Nah.

MKX – Cassie and the Kombat Kids save the day, but Raiden is evil now and, as said above, everyone except Jax, Scorpion, and Sub-Zero are still revenants. Liu Kang and Kitana (again, still Revenants) finally get together, but as King and Queen of the Netherrealm.

MK11 – Kronika (and later Shang Tsung) are finally defeated, and Liu kang ascends to godhood, but he has to start the whole universe over.

None of these are bad games or bad stories, but I think it’s a nice change of pace to just have a good ending for the heroes.

While Sub-Zero may have entered his Bad Boy phase, Scorpion and Smoke have made their own clan in take the place of the Lin Kuei.

-Mileena steps up as empress while working to find a cure for Tarkat, working with Baraka to improve the living conditions of those afflicted by the disease, and abolished the rule that prevented her and Tanya from officially getting together.

-Kung Lao and Raiden are now teachers at the Wu Shi Academy.

-Reptile is now appointed by Mileena as an emissary to his people, thus earning their respect, and he finds out that his “genetic mutation” that allowed him to transform into a human was actually a common trait in the past, and he sets out to find out who was responsible for nearly eradicating the trait. (While this realization is obviously horrifying, with Reptile now being hailed as a hero and has plenty of allies, his goal of learning what happened is tangible and therefore makes me optimistic)

-Ashrah continues her quest to cleanse herself of her demon traits. She was already most of the way there by the time we’re introduced to her so

-Li Mei is no longer held responsible for letting Jerrod die.

-Jerrod technically comes back to life via Ermac’s body, and while Sindel has died, her soul lives on in Ermac’s body as well.

-Johnny Cage decides to transition from acting to writing/directing rather than chasing his old stardom. His adventures served as inspiration for a whole cinematic universe.

-Kenshi’s achieving his goal of getting his clan out of the Yakuza

-Liu Kang is content knowing that Earthrealm is in good hands

All this has me just looking forward to what their next adventure will be rather than “yooooo where do they go from here after this major bittersweet ending???” And we really haven’t had that from the Mortal Kombat games in over a decade. It’s nice.

[strangermask]

Ninjago Post

Specifically Golden Associations au

Okay so since I’m following my FEM timeline with Sai being Kai’s great grandfather, I get to play around with the curse

And let me say that the reason I made for Kai and Nya to not have their serpentine traits was because the genetic was locked away by an elemental master of reality (who locked the genetic up for Ray when he was a kid, but thats for another post). And with that, the curse that Sai had gets restricted. It can’t manifest itself physically, just forever stuck in Ray’s and Kai’s mind.

However, when the core four be dumdum teen boys (/aff) do the thing with golden weapons, Kai ends up unlocking the hidden genetics and allows the curse to manifest again! And let me tell you, it will get sassy with Garm and Wu like god damn

[brainsforbabyjesus]

The Jurassic World Dominion movie that lives in my head:

Dinosaurs invade an Ambiguous National Park. Owen has been hired on to help the park rangers adjust to this/keep people and dinosaur altercations to a minimum. Owen can go be the Dinosaur Cowboy Man we all know he wants to be.

Meanwhile, Claire has rebranded the Dinosaur Protection Group to basically be the dinosaur version of Bear Aware. They still advocate for dinosaur protection but their more public face is teaching people how to live alongside dinosaurs. Claire goes to Maisie’s school and does a Get To Know Your Dinosaurs presentation.

We get a few glimpses of Blue from a distance. She is in the park.

The ambiguous national park is surrounded by farm land, privately owned forest land, and several small towns ranging in size from blink and you miss it to very small.

A Bad Thing Happens that causes conflict between the dinosaurs and humans. Whatever it is Owen blames himself for not having prevented it because he missed some Obvious Detail that led to the bad thing.

Conflict ensues.

The park rangers, the townsfolk, the farmers, the hunters, the park goers, and the rebranded DPG, all draw various lines in the sand. There are three main groups:

All Dinosaurs Must Go

Some Dinosaurs Must Go

The Dinosaurs Should Stay

Each group has various sub factions within, and they are not always what you think they might be. All Dinosaurs Must Go ranges from they are an invasive species to be removed to they are a danger to humans and/or livestock. Some Dinosaurs Must Go mostly doesn’t want predators that may attack humans/livestock but some herbivores are also on the must go list depending on who you ask. The Dinosaurs Should Stay ranges from they should be a protected species to hunting tourism would go through the roof.

Anyway, everyone has their reasons for what they want. Claire and Owen have to deal with the problem that if they win the dinosaurs should stay fight they may have to live with the dinosaurs can stay and be hunted.

There are more glimpses of Blue in the park. This time we find out that our glimpses are via Owen’s binoculars. He knows she’s in the park but keeps it quiet because he knows telling people a raptor is in the park is just going to make people scared. He hasn’t sited her anywhere near people anyway so no big deal, right?

The Ambiguous National Park becomes the iconic symbol of what the fuck do we do with the dinosaurs? A media circus ensues.

For reasons Alan, Ellie, and Ian can come and be expert witnesses who come down on various sides of the debate. Also, Dr. Wu shows up because I want him to.

Maisie mostly does kid stuff without the whole genetic disease storyline, she’s just a regular clone girl doing regular clone girl stuff, like taking care of injured dinosaurs. Also, she goes to school and makes friends and enemies and campaigns for dinosaur rights.

There are a bunch of town hall style debates scattered throughout various lowkey action sequences which are mostly Owen and the townsfolk deal with dinosaurs in unusual places. Once it is Maisie and the school children deal with dinosaurs in unusual places.

We find out that the Bad Thing happened because of Evil Dinosaur Poachers! People then change some of their arguments to see? the dinosaurs didn’t do the bad thing while others point out that if they have dinosaurs here more Evil Poachers will come.

Evil Poachers are arrested but in the chaos of their arrest it becomes publicly known that a) Blue is in the park and b) that Owen knew and never told anyone. The Evil Poachers are not super relevant to the plot after this. No insane global kidnapping plot happens. What becomes relevant to the plot is that Owen’s expert status is called into question since he was hiding information about a dangerous dinosaur. He’s promptly uninvited to the debates though he keeps his job by virtue of being Dinosaur Cowboy Man. Although he loses the trust of some of the townsfolk.

Claire has an awkward conversation with him about how he should have said something because now her expert status is also being called into question. They kind of really/fake break up for a bit so that Claire’s reputation and by extension the Dinosaur Protection Group don’t go down in flames with Owen.

They don’t really break up.

They still have a dramatic getting back together sequence.

The story ends with the Dinosaurs Should Stay side winning but with some stipulations about safety and a promise of a multi year study on whether hunting is an option. There is a sizable chunk of townsfolk who are not happy about this for a variety of reasons. Owen and Claire have to get ready to start a new fight for dinosaur safety in the long term. The dinosaurs go on doing dinosaur things in the Ambiguous National Park.

[animationismycomfort]

my main gripe is with Lloyd honestly how does he know anything about his parents when did misako abandon him to remember enough about his family especially his dad or uncle when was garmadon sent to that realm or whatever to the point where Lloyd would even know his dad did misako drop him off when he was like 4 which I severely doubt because he sounds like he’s 7 at most and it’s implied he’s been at darkleys and on the streets for a long while because of how wu acts when we first meet Lloyd so he coudnt have been no older then 2 or 1 unless we wanna say he ages slower then a normal human which I would a 100% believe because of the weird oni dragon genetics but why do I have to guess that and if that is true that would make the whole age tea thing make sense as well because of his slow aging there’s no way he’d be ready enough for the final battle if he aged normally but I don’t think that’s true because that’s just a personal theory I made up FOR THE SEER F-CKERY THAT IS THE NINJAGO TIMELINE

I honestly think they aged up Lloyd cause they didn’t want to deal with a kid green ninja and if so WHY TF DID THEY MAKE HIM A KID TO BEGIN WITH CAUSE ITS CLEAR THEY COUDNT MAKE HIM BEING A YOUNG CHILD MAKE SENSE EITHER

I only watched season 1 of ninjago and I’m already confused about the timeline

[readingforsanity]

Jurrasic Park & The Lost World | Michael Chrichton | Published

Jurassic Park is a science-fiction thriller novel written by American author Michael Crichton and first published in 1990. It chronicles the story of an eccentric genetics CEO who builds an amusement park containing live dinosaurs cloned from ancient DNA. The book was followed by a sequel in 1995, The Lost World. Jurassic Park has been adapted into one of the most successful movie franchises of all time, with the first movie released in 1993 and the entire franchise grossing over $5 billion worldwide as of 2022. 

The book follows a ton of complex characters, the majority of which you find within the film adaptation: Dr. Alan Grant, Dr. Ellie Sattler and Dr. Ian Malcolm. All of them play important roles in the story, however, the novel has major differences. It’s also incredinly long, almost too long to perform a synopsis. However, much of the novel is the same as the movie, with minor changes: Alan and Ellie are not together in the story; in fact, she’s engaged to an MD who lives and works in Chicago. Grant was previously married, but we learn that his wife died and he is now a widower. Ian’s back story isn’t talked about, like in the films where it’s mentioned that he has been married quite a few times and has a few kids as well. 

The story discusses the science behind the making of the dinosaurs, which the films only touch on. However, the majority of the novel and the film are the same, so I feel no need to go into big depth here. 

Discussion Questions 

1. Describe the dinosaur incidents that occurred before the major destruction. What should have occurred in light of these incidents to prevent what happened toward the end? I’m not sure there is anything they could have done. In theory, the park was an amazing idea: a zoo for dinosaurs. Mr. Hammond was going to be an even more popular man with what he was trying to accomplish. Only Henry Wu and Dr. Ian Malcolm found that these dinosaurs weren’t of the best idea as they were previously extinct, and haven’t been on earth in over 65 billion years. Anyone living today has no idea how to care for these animals, let alone know their behaviors in the wild. Everything Malcolm predicted through his chaos theory actually was correct. Therefore, I don’t believe that any extra precautions could have been taken to avoid this. Especially since Mr. Hammond had a very shady bunch of men working for him. 

2. What is cloning? Do you think cloning made the dinosaurs more susceptible to violence? Explain. How do you feel about cloning people and animals in today’s time? I don’t think cloning made them more susceptible to violence. A lot of dinosaurs, we presume, were avid hunters and predators, like the T-rex. But, cloning takes the DNA of an animal, like an extinct one, and reproduces it in a lab for it to be reborn. Cloning people today, or cloning animals today, is much more widely accepted. However, we all watched the movie and read the book; let’s not get ahead of ourselves. 

3. Describe the harrowing moments of the island tour to observe the dinosaurs. Discuss how you would have perceived the tour? What actions would you have taken afterwards? In the beginning, or even as a child, I would have been thrilled to see dinosaurs. Like any child, I was obsessed with dinosaurs when I was younger. You couldn’t not be. These huge, extinct animals were a thing of fantasy, and someone brought them to life. However, as an adult, I’d probably be more like Malcolm. Anything could go wrong, and unfortunately it did and people had to lose their lives, including Mr. Hammond, for everyone to realize that the idea of this park was not a great idea. 

4. Discuss how the dinosaurs escaped. If you were on Hammond’s scientific security team, what processes would you create to prevent the dinosaurs from escaping? Now, I wouldn’t have been involved in the discovery of dinosaurs. They are too unknown, especially during the time period of the book and the film. There is no way to properly predict what measures needed to be taken to ensure that the procedures they had in place would have worked. 

5. List the types of dinosaurs identified in the book. Based on the book’s description, which do you think are the most dangerous? Why? The T-rex, because of its large size and speed and agility despite that size. Also, the raptors. Raptors we have learned were incredibly intelligent animals, like humans or chimps. 

6. Explain how the main tragedy occurred. Be specific and use quotes from the book to support your response. Nedry specifically designed his computer system so that only he could manipulate it. He was butthurt about everything, and ended up being under the influence of Lewis Dodgson at Biosyn, and ultimately he decided to take the security systems in place and stop them while he could steal embryos for them to recreate on their own. However, this failed because he didn’t get to the dock quickly enough or at all. Nobody knew the system as well as he did, and even though they thought they were on the right track, it didn’t come on fast enough and all of the animals had the ability to escape. 

7. Discuss how the Costa Rican government intervened and helped the islanders. They were able to get them off the island, and completely destroy it. Which isn’t something we ultimately wanted to happen, but was necessary. 

Michael Crichton was an amazing author and had a knack for the sciences. I give this one 5/5 stars. 

Six years after the death of John Hammond and the mysterious destruction of his Jurassic Park island of Isla Nubla, mathematician Ian Malcolm discovers a second island off Costa Rica, where Hammond created his genetically bred dinosaurs. He travels there with a scientific research team inclduing paleobiologist Richard Levine, Sarah Harding and two stowaway kids, kelly and Arby, both 11 years old. 

Once on the island, they find themselves on the run for thier lives from some of the killer dinosaurs with whom Ian has already crossed paths, along with some new killers. The group not only has to content with the dinosaurs, but with murderious rival scientist Lewis Dodgson and his cronies, who are out to steal the dinosaur eggs for thmeselves, as well. 

[kassycreations]

One of the many, many Ninjago concepts that exist in my head while I was brainstorming ideas for Same New Whip is the idea of there being multiple Green Ninja before Lloyd and each of them suffering the same fate.

Unlike Elemental Masters where the power is passed down genetically or the previous EM giving their power to someone they thing is worthy enough to handle that power, the Green Ninja is selected by the Writers of Destiny. They search for what they believe would be the perfect candidate by looking at what kind of fates newborn babies would have and completely rewriting their story by adding “And they were the Green Ninja.”

Green Ninjas go through the standard “OMG I HAVE POWERS!!!” phase when they realized they’re part of something greater than life. They meet new friends, learn how control their powers and become the greatest hero in Ninjago history. However, that never happened. At least, at first.

The first Green Ninjas were basically just tests. They slap the label onto a random kid and send them off to defeat the first big bad of Ninjago. But, they all kept dying. So much so that it ended up giving the big bad an advantage and it ended up plunging Ninjago into an age without light.

When the Writers of Destiny finally managed to create a Green Ninja that defeated the big bad, the Green Ninja was hailed as a hero and the Writer's of Destiny decided to base the next ones after the one that actually succeeded. But, that doesn't change the fact that these Ninjas dropped like flies.

Eventually, after a while, the Green Ninjas found out that their fate was basically just die and get replaced and they try to do everything in their power to stop this but, nothing worked. And nobody knew what their fate was. Wu, Garmadon and the previous EMs found out the hard way.

The only Green Ninjas who avoided this fate was Lloyd and the Green Ninja before him. Nobody knows what happened to the Green Ninja after Lloyd. They just know that they vanished after lashing out.

[blutunesninja]

Explanations below (I spent sooooo long on them holy hell)

Just thought this was a fun thing to put together, I’m definitely missing a few things but I got as much in as I can, and I tried to explain most of these as best as possible.

Above iceberg/sky:

Kai is the green ninja: Rumors in the season 1 era, it was very built up.

S1-2 voice errors: Many ninja talk with the wrong voices in season 1 and 2.

Zane in the fridge vs. a note: In Season 1 Episode 2, Home, Zane is shown sitting in the fridge in the UK version. In the U.S version, there is just a note.

S1Ep1 video game: On the television release in the U.S for the first ever episode, the ninja are seen playing a custom made video game which is foreshadowing them in the fight for the golden scythe. In the Netflix version, they are playing the Ninjago DS game.

Wu is Lloyd's dad: Wu and Lloyd both have blonde hair, and Wu used to have a thing for Misako.

Jay using wind powers: In the episode The Green Ninja, Jay uses wind powers in the volcano to blow away fire.

Seliel: An original character in the Ninjago Comics, Phantom Ninja

Animejago: Anime style Ninjago in Season 11 “The Absolute Worst”

Zane = Ice Emperor: Before the reveal many people theorized that Zane would be the Ice Emperor.

Iceberg: 

Echo Zane is Mr. E: A scrapped idea by the writers which shows Harumi finding the old lighthouse and rebuilding Echo Zane into Mr. E. Still plausible.

Cole had depression as a ghost: In a canon Ninjago book, The Book of Spinjitzu, it’s confirmed that Cole went through a depressive episode during his time a ghost because of his failure to contribute to the team in the same way he used to.

Sorla is Garmadon and Wu's mother: Sorla has lots of knowlegde about elemental masters, but it’s unknown where she got this information as she lives in the Never-Realm. Also this

Jay has ADHD/Anxiety: He talks quickly, has bad reactions to loud sounds, understands social cues, scared in tense situations, and many other things (this is very plausible)

Lar the water ninja: A self proclaimed “water ninja” named Lar

Merjitzu: An odd rumor back then about mermaid spinjitzu...?

Zane's visions: Zane has many visions throughout the show, and they all seem to come true/seem accurate

Cole's mother: Many theories spawned around the identity of Cole’s mother before season 13, mainly because she was rarely mentioned and never seen until then.

Below iceberg:

Zane and Nya are murderers: they have the highest kill count in the show by far

The SoG massacred tons of people: Self explanatory, while the SoG were taking over Ninjago and running the streets in Season 9, of course they harrassed people.

Cole is colorblind: Cole frequently refers to things as the wrong color in the show, leading to this theory/headcanon

EM age slower than regular people: A prime example of this is Ray and Maya. They don’t appear old at all even after many years. The same can be said about Wu’s whole family.

Ninjago manga: More information on it here, but it’s basically a gag manga series with only 8 pages.

Original S7 ending: The original ending was written to be a finale of Ninjago. It would end with Acronix and Krux locked up in Kryptarium Prison 2.0, forty years in the future, while Lloyd and Kai reminisced about the adventures they had in the past decades and no sign of Cole. [SCRIPT]

Ronin has a wife and kids: Tommy Andreasen stated that in his head, he imagines Ronin has three children and a demanding wife. [tweet]

Nelson and the mailman are related: ???? I don’t even know...

Deeper iceberg:

Zane is a transmale: Stemming from this wiki page because of their visual similarities.

Vex killing prisoners: There are many prison cells in the Ice Emperors palace, but all are empty, leading many to believe they’ve been killed/frozen.

Cole is an oni: Cole survived the fall into the darkness that only oni can survive, like Garmadon and Lloyd. There is no explanation for this, and with little origin story to Cole’s family, one can only assume.

Mistaké is still alive: Many believe Mistaké is still alive, as she’s seen here in season 10.

Harumi playing with a green ninja doll during Great Devourer attack: This doesn't make any sense since Lloyd was not known to be the green ninja around this time, and some could say his first debut as a ninja was in the Great Devourer attack. Harumi seemed to be obsessed with the green ninja around this time, however.

Cole and Jay are related: A probably-debunked theory since not much is known about either of their families. Jay is adopted and Cole only has his father. Some believe their families are connected, as half brothers or even cousins..

the mailman is an Oni: I’m.. not sure about this one either..

Skylor’s original design: [Shown here]

Bottom of iceberg:

Nadakhan is shapeshifting as Clutch Powers/Nadakhan killed Clutch inside the lamp:

Cole is gay coded: The Royal Blacksmiths. Enough said.

The Formlings are a murdering cult: In their animal forms, do they kill animals and or other people?

The ultradragon was hunted and killed: The remains of their bones were used for Iron Barons throne, shown here.

How did Lloyd take his father’s robe from him?: Garmadon was chained up, but Lloyd later returns to the realm of Ninjago wearing his father’s robes.

Fetish art: Many pieces of fetish art have been created for this show, including inflation, feet, vore, tickling, macro, blueberry inflation, and more

Deep waters:

Omega is Clutch's dad: N/A

Jay kills Cliff Gordon in S6: When Jay wishes to Nadakhan for wealth and fortune, and quickly a letter conveniently comes to him about the passing of his father Cliff Gordon, and how he now owns all of his property.

Onceler Morro: tumblr meme

Skylor is genetically engineered: With no mention of her mother, it’s all up to the imagination.

Garmadon x Lloyd: The absolute worst side of the fandom, and yes it does exist/has existed.

incest/r//pe fics: The most disgusting things ever created.

[ace-disgrace-from-space]

E750 Survival Skills (Potentially?)

Soooo, season three is a thing that’s happening now. Yay! Anyway, if any of you remember my absolute CRIME of a post about E750, then my deepest condolences because I’m BACK WITH MORE.

So, as you’re all aware, I’m a fool who has decided sleep is completely irrelevant to living my best life. I need only Netflix and some crazy theories. Speaking of crazy theories, let’s get into it.

So, if you had the great misfortune of reading my last CC theory and you remember it, you’ll know I talked about the potential of E750 being a new breed of Indominous, something very different, or even a fucked up horse. However, that’s not something to worry about at the moment. These were all just theories from before. But NOW, I wanna give y’all something new because I’m bored and I should actually post on my Tumblr blog. Now, one of the things we got from this trailer was a different perspective on the E750 containment unit. As in, we see it from a different POV. In season 2, the perspectives we got made it look pretty large, which in turn, gives the idea that this creature itself is large.

However, when we see Sammy and Brooklyn discover the tube in the trailer, the actual containment portion might be as tall as them, give or take. Meaning, it’s potentially around 5′7-5′3 if I’m judging it right which I might not be because... I’m kinda dumb. Still, that means that our dino friend here is not as large as we originally thought, possibly standing shorter than some of our main cast. I’m not saying it won’t get bigger. It could. However, what I am saying is that this dinosaur isn’t what we thought it was going to be.

As far as we know, this dinosaur is small and most likely not as strong as some of the other predators we’ve experienced in this series. Which begs the question, what makes it special. Obviously,  it was being made and also being held in cryogenic stasis, which means, it was created for a purpose. For a REASON. Every other dinosaur we’ve seen is either big and scary, strong as hell, or strongest in numbers. E750 doesn’t have any of that as it’s small, alone, and slender. How will it survive and threaten our main trio?

Well, I have a few ideas, some of which were also supplied by my partner-in-crime @baguette-whet . Obviously, this creature is predatory and based on it’s current size, quite slim. Meaning it can track these kids places other predators can’t, making it a danger to them even when they think they’re safe. Which limits their options from run and hide to just run.

Now, the other idea was the very first one I had. We know that to complete the I-Rex’s DNA, Wu had to use the genes of other animals. So, why not E750 as well? It’s very much possible that this creature has been genetically engineered with dangerous animal DNA or dangerous animal DNA was used to fill the gaps. The specific thought I had, that could really push this over the top? Venom. If it had venom that would make this creature much more dangerous than we originally thought, especially if the venom comes from a creature like a Komodo Dragon or some form of cobra. (Just had this thought RIGHT now but like, E750 SPITTING VENOM? CORROSIVE VENOM? Iconic.) 

These are just ideas I have and I don’t know if anyone else has wondered about this question as well but I would love other ideas. How do YOU think E750 is going to be a threat here in season 3?

[sepialunaris]

Besides the crazy stupid plot twist and dumb character actions I think the big problen why Jurassic World is a failure of a narrative is that it constantly confuses its own tone and what idea it wants to convey. And as a whole it just sounds like singing praises to capitalism and pinning problems on other aspects instead of the root of the problem.

So JW is said to have been open for 15 years, and its said people are bored with classic InGen retrosaurs hence initiating the creation of Indominus, and yet from the other perspective people are enjoying the retrosaurs just fine? It is not even hinted a bit that they did not not enjoy them besides that bit of exposition.

And our audience perspective character doesn't work. Gray and Zach seems to come from a middle-upper class family and yet they never visited the park for years despite having a family member as a high level staff? Knowing their son is obsessed with dinosaurs? And the only reason they were sent there was because it was an excuse to cover up their parent's divorce? In the case of Darius Bowman from CC it makes sense, but this is weird. It's kind of nitpicky, but okay my point is, what makes them ineffective is that they are new eyes to the park and Zach cannot represent "ahh ppl who already seen this many times get inspired to see the beauty of ugly 1993 retrosaurs" because he has never been there either. So its just weird to include their POV when it deosnt complement the Indominus narrative and if it does it feels forced and loose.

And its more bizarre when the movie seems to be more obsessed with showing "oh my god look at this capitalist paradise! John Hammond's gentrification deeam fulfilled!" and panning on random buildings and starbucks with the Jurassic Park theme. Besides "do you have dinosaurs in your dinosaur park" it just wooshes the anti-capitalist social commentary of JP, more crazy when its loads of product placement. I know that they did plan a panning shot with dinosaurs which would've been effective and narratively fitting rather than *pan to giant building* so idk why they even did that. And so idk if this movie wants to criticize capitalism and consumerism combined with the privatizing of the genetics could give way to ethical and environmental issues or do they want to say "god powers are allowed for capitalists if they are nice" (ahh and based on leaks for JWD, its the latter. They made John Hammond a messiah for protecting his unethical business from the 'bad capitalists' omg)

There's also the issue of 'authentic' dinosaurs (hence why I keep mentioning retrosaurs from the start 😂, i want to talk about this too). The scene with Wu and Masrani works, but ultimately the whole movie fails it. It is lifted from one of the few good scenes from the oroginal movel with Wu and Hammond, and concerns about how ALL dinosaurs from this park are genetic hybrids from the start. And well it would've worked well to explore the ethics and capitalism approach but honestly with the whole movie as comparison it just sounds like "guys this is the reason why they are not realistic and feathered please dont ask us about it again." The fact that they are hybridized retrosaurs get ignored and thrown under the rug besides that one scene, and we never again explore how unnatural all of them are as the movie time to time again keeps promoting a division between "legit" dinosaurs and Indominus, the character Lowery keeps pushing. And the latter... aslo shows how much they want to praise the first park and John Hammond despite it being a metaphor of capitalism failing from wanting to conquer nature, despite it being the exact same thing as modern JW. "They didnt need these hybrids they only had real dinosaurs" is already an errornous statement since all of them were frog hybrids, so if its wrong... what was the point of bringing it up? JP didn't just fail because Dennis Nedry sabotaged it, it was bound to fail for its attempt to control nature as Ian said. However JW attributes the singular creation of Indominus as the reason for its failure (and by attribute hoo boy how many plotholes did they engineer to pin it the blame. Suddenly it knows its being thermally monitored? Or does it just releases electromagnetic energy to make ppl around it dumb or jam cellphones, god im rambling), and if they continued making retrosaurs it would've been fine? So what was the message? "Its okay to mix dinosaur dna with frogs but don't add to much to the mixture"? "Its okay to play god with capitalism but dont go too far"? Instead of mentioning both concepts as unethical and the concept of Indominus as an already flawed concept pushed even more unethically, the increasing level of tolerance for playing god already shows a shift of morals from the JP and JW. So once again its 'capitalism is actually good, its just the evil ppl thats the problem'

It honestly just erases the brilliant potential of how that narrative could be engaged. Of course its obvious the park would want to promote their retrosaurs as legit and Indominus as a different flavor despite both being hybrids but the latter being pushed to the max, so both of them are bound to have intersecting problems. However not everyone would've been fooled by such promotion. And yet from our POV only Wu was aware of it; the view of them as retrosaurs is treated as an understatement to be ignored as we are only allowed to see things and agree with opinions from the POV of Lowery or the kids against Hoskins' cartoony "lets convince our president to use dinos to steal oil" idea.

It could've honestly touched on many aspects of de-extinction or concepts like the Chickenosaurus, as well as the complex moral dillema around many genetic issues, but the movie just wants to shy away from it and impose a black and white morality of "Indominus bad unnatural" and "retrosaurs good natural." Not unnesary military commentary that doesn't work (dinosaur's effect in the environment would be more devastating than them acting as military weapons so pro-US imperialists can be proud (one bullet will kill them, I swear yeah ik this is a 'scifi' franchise, but the logic hoops you need to jump from that. One raptor died from getting hit by a rocket launcher as they should. So what US wants to use these bags of flesh as weapons to steal oil? There is nothing they can do that dogs or dolphins can't do better). The only time its kinda shown is when Indominus is killing Apatosaurus for fun, but... real animals like humans, dolphins, chimps do that too. And the movie treats this as something unnatural or makes it evil. Scorpios rex despite being ugly actually accomplishes the ecological horror of having an invasive creature invade an ecosystem (despite the ecosystem itself alr being flawed and superficially created) and being able to reproduce through parthenogenesis). And I doubt they would touch on this in JWD despite the variance of animals they will show, as even Atrociraptor is not going to be called out by name in that film, that they can change its name in post production.

[nightfoot]

One of the things that frustrates me the most with Jurassic World and the overall direction of the franchise is how revolutionary Jurassic Park was.  Jurassic Park triggered a cultural shift in how the general public views dinosaurs. 

When they first see the dinosaurs, Grant says “This doesn’t live in a swamp!” In the 80s, the idea that sauropods were so big and plodding that they had to live in water to support their weight was still the general idea.  Paleontologists were changing their views in the 80s, but the general public hadn’t caught on (I remember an educational ‘dinosaur adventure for kids’ cassette tape from the late 80s that reiterated this “fact” about sauropods).  In the early stop-motion tests for the raptors in the kitchen scene, their tongues flick out like snakes because even the people working on the movie couldn’t shake the idea of them being big lizards. 

Crichton’s book was one of the first mainstream depictions of dinosaurs as something that could be fast, dangerous, and intelligent.  The movie revolutionized how the general public perceived dinosaurs.  In the book, Hammond and Wu have a lengthy discussion about how Wu wanted to modify the DNA to make the dinosaurs easier to control, but Hammond wouldn’t let him and insisted on creating “real dinosaurs.”

And now, whenever anyone critiques the portrayal of dinosaurs in Jurassic World, either their wonky anatomy (did they even try to make a realistic baryonyx?) or especially their behaviour as monstrous killing machines, the response is always “oh well they aren’t really dinosaurs, they’re Theme Park Monsters.” 

Yeah, they are now.  The creators have made it very clear that they’re only interested in making Scary Dinosaur-Themed Monsters to chase Chris Pratt around. Grant didn’t make that statement until JPIII.

[And there’s a whole side conversation to be had about how earnest he was there.  He said it to deflect from the possibility of ever going to Isla Sorna.  Did he really think they’re just “theme park monsters”, or did he just want to shoot down any possibility of revisiting a traumatic experience? If he didn’t think the animals on Sorna had any relevance to actual dinosaurs, why did he assume using the raptor’s vocalizing chamber would work?]

Michael Crichton didn’t write a book about “theme park monsters” and Steven Spielberg didn’t make a movie about them, either.  The original Jurassic Park was based on the latest findings and attempts were made to depict dinosaurs as they may have been in real life.  The inaccurate size of the velociraptors is because at the time of writing, velociraptor was used as the name of the clade that contained deinonychus, and the raptors from the book and movie are very accurate to deinonychus. 

The venom spat by the dilophosaurus is not meant to be an example of “mixed up DNA from lots of species! genetically engineered! not a real dinosaur, theme park monster!”  The point was that in bringing extinct creatures back to life, there are aspects of them we could never expect to prepare for because venom glands wouldn’t be fossilized.  That dinosaurs might be stranger and more interesting than we could ever know.  (And their inaccurately small size/the frill is purely Spielberg’s fault and done for visual interest in the film/to differentiate it from the raptors)

But instead of saying “This movie/book was created in the early 90s, and paleontology has progressed in the last 30 years and we know realize that what we thought was accurate then actually has errors,” the Jurassic World writers have gone with “actually it was never accurate, it was all just genetic engineering and you’re dumb if you ever thought of them as realistic dinosaurs.”

Jurassic World resurrecting the franchise after fifteen years could have been an opportunity to create another cultural shift in dinosaurs.  I’m not pushing for feathers on the raptors/rex because I realize those are staples of the franchise and their Look is deeply ingrained in the image of the franchise, but why not any of the new dinosaurs?  Why have two movies in a row focused on “one villainous dinosaur-themed genetically engineered monster” with actual dinosaurs in the background?  Why present the dinosaurs as dumb monstrous animals that just want to kill humans even at the expense of fleeing from an erupting volcano?

The series will just do whatever it wants to make a Cool Monster and pay no attention to actual paleontology, or animal behaviour, or implementing any of the super cool discoveries made about dinosaurs in the last 15 years.  “They’re not really dinosaurs, they’re genetically engineered them park monsters.”  Yes, they are, but they weren’t always, and I’m bitter that that’s the direction the series has gone and even more bitter at both creators and other fans trying to convince us that that’s how it’s always been. 

Obviously I’m still going to watch Dominion, because I am a simple man who takes great joy in monster movies, but Jurassic Park is my favourite movie because it’s not about monsters.  And I’d watch The Mist before either Jurassic World movie, because if I’m going to watch a movie that’s about made-up scary monsters eating people, at least The Mist has cooler monster design and a more tense story. 

[glowyjellyfish]

Theory on ATLA and Reincarnation

Been rewatching ATLA for the last week or so, hoping to be timed right to jump right into LOK when it comes out on Netflix. I watched all of LOK when it came out, but haven’t fully rewatched it much if at all since then, and there’s probably a lot I have forgotten. Just as a warning. I hope to refine this theory as I go along and have a fully polished headcanon for personal use by the time I’m done.

Starting from two basic premises:

1. Reincarnation is a thing in the ATLA world. That’s kind of a given.

2. Reincarnation cannot exist for only one person. If one person reincarnates, other people can, too. I find that other characters’ casual discussion of Aang’s past lives is enough indication that reincarnation is the generally accepted form of afterlife in the ATLA world. It would be a mistake to give an Asian-themed world western Christian notions of heaven and hell, and the spirit world is clearly inhospitable to most humans. I don’t remember much discussion of ghosts, but they aren’t incompatible with reincarnation anyway.

The avatar’s only an exception because a. Raava gives them access to all four elements, and b. Raava holds complete memories of all past lives and gives the avatar access to them as well, enabling both remembrance and direct communication as if their past lives are separate people. Regular people reincarnate, but do not experience anywhere near the volume and accessibility of part life memories as the avatar does. I’d say awareness of one’s past lives is, on average, nil in everyone except the avatar. 

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that a person’s level of spirituality that determines their ability to bend accumulates through multiple incarnations, and it doesn’t always apply well to a new element. Non-benders continue to incarnate as non-benders until they have enough spiritual training or experiences that bending is… let’s call it unlocked in their next life. Benders may become more naturally gifted if they reincarnate as a bender again, or they may become a non-bender if they had a traumatic experience or to go through a break or lesson, or may struggle with reincarnating as a bender of their natural opposite element, potentially making them a non-bender by default even if they technically have the right spirituality and genetics for it.

I’m also going to point out before I begin throwing past life ideas around that for most of these characters, I don’t know whether their status as living or dead is ever confirmed. I read three of the comics, basically. I’m just going by “everyone on LOK has to be a reincarnation of someone from ATLA” logic.

So here’s a few ideas on who could be reincarnations of whom:

Aang’s son Bumi is obviously the reincarnation of his friend King Bumi. I don’t think it even matters whether King Bumi lived long enough for the dates to line up; King Bumi would have waited around for Aang to start having kids. That’s why Bumi starts out as a non-bender--by genetics, Aang’s kids could only be airbenders or waterbenders. Bumi has everything lined up right to be an airbender, but cannot grasp it because King Bumi was so intensely an earthbender. That’s also why he got airbending later on in the show when--if i recall correctly--the spirit world opening up essentially forced a bunch of people around the world to be airbenders without any other requirements. Bumi already met all the requirements, everything else about him just gave airbending a big nope until it was forced upon him. He was basically first in line.

(side thought: or maybe when reincarnating all non-avatar benders have to take a lifetime off from bending in order to reset or something?)

(side note: I want to state for the record that Tenzin does not strike me as the reincarnation of Gyatso, nor does Kya strike me as the reincarnation of Katara and Sokka’s mother. It’s not just a namesake thing. Plus we all know that Gyatso reincarnated as Momo for a while, and whoever he is in LOK he’s probably having much more fun than Tenzin.)

Now let’s discuss Sokka, the only member of the main cast of ATLA who is probably dead by LOK; I’m not sure whether it’s 100% confirmed anywhere, but he’s really really not around and it’s a logical conclusion. The first thought to leap to about who he might have reincarnated as would be Bolin, as the goofy comic relief boy of the main cast of Korra, but I don’t think their personalities fit very well. (...I know that given the evidence of the Avatar’s personalities in succession incarnations, personality doesn’t have much to do with it, but it’s all I have to go on here). If the timeline fits right, I did have the much more entertaining notion of Sokka reincarnating as Prince Wu, but I’m also partial to Sokka being one of Tenzin’s younger kids… and I am not sure any of those fits his personality particularly better, either. I will probably have to think about it very thoroughly when I watch Korra. 

Honestly, it’s mostly because I had an idea I like way better for who Bolin might have been in a past life, and that’s Ty Lee. I… don’t know if she’s dead yet as of LOK, but I like this idea so much I don’t care. I mean, he’s awfully flakey for an earthbender, and he’s so into standing out and being an entertainer. I’m gonna test this theory out when I get up to LOK next week, but I want it to fit even if it doesn’t.

And I had some conflicting ideas about Mako’s possible past life, but so far I’ve concluded that the most interesting one is Jet. Certainly, if Jet reincarnated as Mako he’s been learning good, hard lessons about his past-life prejudices, something that doesn’t fit nearly so well for lots of other characters I could think up.

Anyway, that’s pretty much all I could think up without having watched LOK for quite some time, and I wanted to hurl my ideas into the void before I did something to make me gunshy like, idk, looking up whether any of these characters actually died or whatever. I could just point to the old people of ATLA for the past lives of LOK characters, but where’s the fun in that? Especially when the best old dude of ATLA is 100% not reincarnated yet and is just chilling in the spirit world being awesome?