#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.

[feral-ass-raccoon]

green cousins headcanon bc i haven't done ninjago in a while and i miss them:

lloyd and morro are both hypermobile. morro never knew [because he's OOOOLD lmao !!! jk it's bc it wasn't really recognized back when he was alive] but lloyd did

so when morro was possessing lloyd, he didn't think anything felt wrong bc he was used to it, so he just moved on. what's a little extra flexibility and some aches when he thought it was normal??? [and also had more important things to worry about lol]

now we throw some revived-and-living-with-the-ninja-for-[insert reason] au morro in, and he walks in on lloyd doing some stretches to help with the hypermobility and just kinda. stands there. bc wtf are you doing??? and lloyd explains. morro just about cries bc wHAT DO YOU MEAN ALWAYS HURTING WASN'T NORMAL. HE COULD'VE BEEN LIVING W/O BACK PAIN THAT WHOLE TIME???? [shhhh i'm not projecting stfu]

anyways. lloyd gets it from misako bc it's genetic, but since it's not from his dad's side wu wouldn't have known it was a thing when morro was a kid

[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.

[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?

[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?

[merinnan]

DMBJ Explore with the Note Ep 3

Okay! Recap post for DMBJ season 2 (Explore with the Note), Ep 3!

Current counts:

Season 2 Xiaoge Rescue Count: 2 for Wu Xie, 2 for protagonists, 3 for everyone

Season 2 Wu Xie Swoon Count: 0 

Season 2 Evil Hair Count: 2 

 Cumulative Xiaoge Rescue Count: 12 for Wu Xie, 17 for protagonists, 18 for everyone 

Cumulative Wu Xie Swoon Count: 6

- Hopefully this ep has less snorkelling scenes 

- But to be honest 

- It would be hard to have MORE snorkelling scenes than ep 2 and still have plot

- Oh yeah, they've just had the first switcheroo of the side chambers and Wu Xie is Very Confused

- And Xiaoge just realised he's been here before, and is admitting he has memory problems 

- You are still such a bad liar at this point, Wu Xie. 

- Oh my god, Pangzi, you can't just ask people if they inject Botox or have a radiation-caused genetic mutation

- Also, yes, I am already on my bullshit with the soft looks Xiaoge gives Wu Xie 

- Well. The looks. Because this Xiaoge looks at people who are not Wu Xie about the same amount as Yang Yang's Xiaoge did

- It is very convenient how the flashbacks in this one are colour coded with that soft yellow lighting 

- It's taken these guys from 20 years ago a lot longer to get out here than it's taken Wu Xie and co. in the present time

- Like. I'm kinda wondering if this past Xiaoge was just straight up watching the idiot Xie accidentally kill himself. 

- I mean, I wouldn't blame him, tbh

- Going out diving by yourself without telling anyone is borderline suicidal without adding sneaking into an underwater tomb without adequate preparation to it 

- It's nice to have better lighting in the flashbacks, though 

- There's a snek-browed fishy, and past!Xiaoge is shook

- Also, that Xie guy looks like he was boiled or roasted down there 

- Oh, is past!Xiaoge remembering something about snek-fishies?

- Wu Xie coming in with some epic side-eye as Xiaoge tells the story

- Why does the flashback get a much more clear and visible snorkelling scene?! 

- You can actually see things! - Are they trying to make a low-key accidental statement about water pollution?

- Okay, this episode's snorkelling scene starts 6 minutes in 

- Let's see how long it goes for 

- Hopefully it will end before the 17 minute mark 

- That's the bar it has to beat here 

- Surely it can't be that hard 

- Oh, I spoke too soon on the water clarity

- Hey, if Sanshu and Wenjin could properly communicate underwater without arm notepads and without pulling out their fucking snorkles to try to literally talk underwater, WU XIE AND PANGZI, then why couldn't people in the present timeline do the same?

- Not looking at anyone in particular 

- At all 

- Especially not ones named Wu Xie and Pangzi

- The sea monkey that Sanshu chased off looks like baby compared to the one on the ghost ship

- Wow. Snorkelling took less than a minute and a half, with almost twice the number of people 

- Obviously A-Ning needed more people on her expedition 

- Then they wouldn't have had to swim around aimlessly for eleven fucking minutes before getting into the tomb

- Hahah, a perfume tomb 

- Sure it is 

- Don't you think that should make you suspicious, Sanshu? 

- There's always gotta be a big, interesting mural. Let's see what exposition this one will trigger.

- Ofc Pangzi goes sniffing for perfume after hearing about it being there 20 years ago 

- In a different room in the tomb 

- After people had traipsed through it with their stinky diving equipment

- And ofc he doesn't smell it and then complains that it can't have been there in the first place 

- Xiaoge's expression just says everything

- See, Wu Xie is the smart boy with the logical suggestions of why that might be, Pangzi 

- This guy who wants to leave is like the only genre-savvy one of the lot of them 

- Smart suggestions from past!Sanshu that yes, everyone should listen to 

- They're not gonna listen to him

- Yep, taking a nap is never a good idea in these situations 

- Which is why he's gonna do it 

- After DMBJ 1 Pangzi, it's so nice to have a Pangzi who's smart and competent straight off the bat, instead of having to take like 4/5 of the season to get to that point

- And ofc you were a hooligan as a kid, Pangzi. I am totally unsurprised by this news 

- I'd wondered why he jumped straight to aroma hypnosis, but him having come across it before when he was younger explains it

- This Wu Xie has some fantastic facial expressions 

- For instance, this one is wondering if Pangzi is bullshitting him 

- He doesn't even need to say it. It's right there on his face

- Oh yeah, Xiaoge recognises that

- And I was wondering how they'd intro that in without Wu Xie's disreputable antique store contacts telling him about it 

- Pangzi is ofc the logical choice for it 

- Hahah, yes, Wu Xie, you're right and you should say it

- Wu Xie: There's no such thing as ghosts 

- Xiaoge's expression: You might want to reconsider that 

- Oooh, Wu Xie has heard about it, too.

- Like almost 20 years ago, judging by how young he is in these flashbacks. And that this one looks like it takes place not long after Sanshu got into trouble from Grandpa Wu 

- But like, Sanshu, why are you telling a five year old about this? Or maybe he's six. BUT STILL

- Sanshu, do not recommend evil, possibly-ghosty, nightmare-inducing perfumed bone to your baby nephew as a sleep aid 

- Who tf let you near children?

- Ah, now time for the Sanshu-POV flashback. Which is happening within Wu Xie's flashback 

- Flashback-ception! 

- See, Sanshu, told you sleeping was a bad idea 

- None of them listened to you 

- Because you fell asleep and couldn't tell them no

- He can see surprisingly well for a man left in a sideroom of an underwater tomb with no light sources 

- It looks like they took all his diving gear as well as their own 

- How rude of them 

- OH GOOD, it's not just me who was thinking that this room looked really empty

- I thought I was imagining things, or mixing up the room they were in earlier with the room that Wu Xie and the rest were in last ep 

- Are those...claw marks where the mural used to be?

- OH WAIT NOW I REMEMBER WHAT'S HAPPENED TO HIM 

- If this is following the book as closely as it seems for this bit, anyway 

- I am less confused now

- Weird flash of light and sudden coffin appears 

- Which Sanshu can still see without a light source 

- Remember, kids, eat all your carrots like Sanshu obviously does!

- Do they just paint the same mural in every side chamber that has a mural? Because that looks just like the one from the other room. 

- Oh no, I can see some differences in it now 

- Yeah, that's not a good sign

- WTF Sanshu don't touch the creepy coffin that's suddenly pouring dark liquid out of it 

- Is that another sea monkey?

- Apparently diving equipment is only necessary to get down to the tomb, not to get back up. You won't even swallow much water, you'll get back perfectly safely, just a bit out of breath 

- And tired enough to pass out on the beach, but that might be from fighting a sea monkey first

- JFC, Sanshu, why are you telling all this to a five year old? 

- You really think this is gonna dissuade him from this when he grows up? No. You are planting the early seeds of encouragement. 

- Also the early seeds of lifelong nightmares

- You know, I still haven't worked out how Sanshu didn't recognise Xiaoge in DMBJ 1 - both drama and book. I mean, drama can be explained by them only adapting the first book that time, but book? Unless it gets explained later on

- Or I somehow skipped the explanation, which is also possible - I'll go back and reread them another time 

- lol, Pangzi 

- And look, more spiderwebs 

- The undersea spider colony here really works hard 

- Aaaah, Wu Xie's figuring it out already

- Pangzi seems to be serving the purpose of giving all the hints and little plot points that book Wu Xie already had before he stepped foot in the tomb 

- Hahahah, 'can you please speak human'

- Pangzi with the major concerns. Who cares about running out of oxygen if the food is gone?! Not Pangzi! 

- lol, looking at each other when they think Pangzi's being silly or unreasonable is already their go-to response

- lol, and Xiaoge doesn't agree until Wu Xie nods 

- Ah, first thing they come across is the coffin from one of the other rooms, and Pangzi is showing off that this time around he actually knows things! Yay!

- Okay, this little smile and nod from Xiaoge to Wu Xie is just too adorable for words

- And in they go to investigate the coffin 

- I do have to say that it's a very pretty coffin, though 

- Yes, Xiaoge, that look is the appropriate look to give to Pangzi for saying that XD

- WTF is that 

- lol, I like this troll Wu Xie 

- Well. That was dramatic. 

- IDK how the coffin lid when flying off like that though, there doesn't seem to be a sea monkey hiding in there this time 

- Ew, that's a little gruesome 

- Wu Xie is appropriately horrified by this

- It does still amuse me how Pangzi isn't even pretending not to be a tomb robber this time. He's so refreshingly honest about it. 

- Hahaha. "Are you a Virgo? You're so picky" because Wu Xie is more interested in looking at the vases than in just grabbing a few to bail water with

- But hey, Wu Xie is a Pisces, nice to know 

- You're just gonna walk over the top of that coffin lid like that, huh, Pangzi? Weren't you the one talking about how valuable the coffin was? And how you needed to do the proper rituals to show respect before opening it?

- And Wu Xie is back in the other room happily playing with vases and looking at the stories painted on them 

- Alone 

- Nothing bad could possibly come of this 

- It's not like Wu Xie has a tendency to get into danger without even realising it 

- Not at all

- But he's so happy! Like a cute little puppy 

- lol, you really were so wrapped up in the vases that you didn't notice him leaving, huh, Wu Xie? 

- Oops, looks like you stayed there a bit too long, Wu Xie. The entrance to the other room isn't there anymore

- Hahah, Xiaoge is so delicately scooping out water with the bowl compared to Pangzi just fucking going for it with that huge vase 

- Aww, Xiaoge is worried about Wu Xie. 

- But, y'know, guys, maybe you should turn around and realise that there's no entrance anymore

- Although that body is pretty creepy and attention-grabbing 

- Yeah, I don't think that's gonna help, Wu Xie 

- You're so adorable, though 

- WTF how is there a live cat there 

- Yeah, I don't blame you for pulling a gun, Pangzi

- Now back to poor, worried Wu Xie 

- WTF does the theory of relativity have to do with the current situation? 

- Awww, he's talking himself down from panic again. And it seems to be working. 

- ...or not

- Ooh, the cat corpse is gone 

- Xiaoge doesn't seem that concerned. More interested in the human corpse 

- And they STILL haven't noticed that the entrance is gone I thought you had better situational awareness than this, Xiaoge 

- Oh, that's not a good sign

- Ah, finally, NOW you notice 

- As always, Xiaoge takes this the most calmly out of all of them 

- I think it's a little late for not getting anxious, Wu Xie, when you were practically panicking earlier 

- Uh-oh

- Here's the sea monkey, and Xiaoge is trapped in another room with no way of knowing 

- Even though he does seem to have a sixth sense solely dedicated to Wu Xie being in trouble

- Run, Wu Xie, run! 

- Lose your balance on those arrows! Throw those priceless vases as ineffective weapons! 

- Ah, a side chamber which conveniently as a door that closes and locks

- GDI, Wu Xie, don't taunt the monster that's chasing you 

- lol, his, 'wait, did that actually work' face

- Oh, so it's just gonna...dig through those stones. Fantastic. 

- Why is there no blood on his knife? There really should be blood on his knife after stabbing that deeply. 

- Hahah, Pangzi says that Wu Xie's guess was wrong, and Xiaoge just gives this lovely 'bitch please' look

- That's a hairy hairy hand right there 

- I don't think Xiaoge so much as flinched 

- Even when Pangzi's dart almost hit him 

- Oh, okay, he seems vaguely concerned about the mark on his wrist now

- Oh, and now he's worried 

- Yeah, when Xiaoge is worried and yells at you to run, it's time to fucking book it 

- Guess he's a bit too distracted for his Wu Xie Is In Danger sense to be tingling right now

- That's a weird looking coffin 

- And on Wu Xie considering anachronistic elements of this tomb that he's now noticing, Ep 3 comes to an end. 

- And with no updates to the Rescue Count, the Swoon Count, or the Evil Hair Count. 

[thatsparrow]

(alan grant/ellie sattler • post-fallen kingdom • read on ao3)

"Goddamn Hammond," Alan says when he sees the push alert from the New York Times. Then, "Ellie, wake up." It's somewhere near 2 A.M. but Nublar and Sorna had turned him into a light sleeper and that particular nervous habit has proved harder to kill than a genetically engineered raptor. His glasses are still sitting on the nightstand and so he has to squint a little at the screen to read it properly—Ellie and the kids gave him hell for weeks when he finally caved and increased the font size—but his eyes aren't so bad that he can't recognize the earth-shaking magnitude of the situation spelled out by the headline.  

LIVE: Seven different species of dinosaurs have been spotted in and around the Northern California town of Mendocino. They are believed to have originated from the closed Costa Rican theme park, Jurassic World.

"Alan?" Ellie asks, half asleep and eyes blinking shut against the light off the screen. "What is it?" He offers the phone in lieu of an answer, waits as her vision adjusts enough for her to read it, knows she's finished when her whole body goes fossil-still.

"Goddamn Hammond," Alan says again, pressing his fingers against the bridge of his nose. "I don't care that he's dead. Damn him for his recklessness, damn him for the parks, and damn him for every act of foolishness that's followed." He lets out a slow sigh, rubs at his eyes. "I'd never admit it to the bastard, but Ian was right. It was only a matter of time until something like this happened."

Ellie has the full article open now, but it's no more than a short paragraph, this story is developing at the bottom. "We don't know what this is, yet. Maybe it's just another San Diego."

"A half-dozen people dead plus some kid's labrador?"

"Short term," Ellie says. "Containable. It sounds like whatever species have been seen so far are all herbivorous."

"You trust the people of Mendocino to know the difference?"

"I trust them to recognize sharp teeth." She sighs, pulls her thumb across the screen to refresh the article even though it's been no more than a minute. "What a mess. What an absolute mess." She hands the phone back to him, lets out a tired exhale. "What I wouldn't give to put Hammond's genie back in the bottle."

"What should we do?"

"Sell any remaining stock in InGen?" He raises an eyebrow at her and she smiles a little, but there's no humor in it. "That was a joke. I don't know, Alan—what can we do? We're academics, not dinosaur hunters. Our only relevant experience here is not having died twenty-five years ago. We could offer ourselves up in an advisory capacity, I guess, but even then, there are plenty of people out there who have done hands-on work with them. Whatever insight we may have had is outdated by over a decade at this point. Comparatively, we're like—"

"Dinosaurs?"

"Exactly."

Alan exhales, considering. "You're right, I know that, but I just—" he breaks off, turning over the phone in his hand. There's a video embedded in the article, a grainy thumbnail of what looks like the back of a Stegosaurus. The way the image is frozen, it looks like the Stego's tail is in mid-motion, suspended on an arc that would take it through the wall of a garden shed. With any luck, Ellie is right, and all the theropods were killed by the eruption on Nublar. Then again, if luck was playing any role here, Hammond's experiments should have failed at the start. "It feels like we should be doing something, doesn't it?"

"It does."

"What if we drove up there?"

"To Mendocino?" Ellie asks, and he nods. "Tonight?"

"I was thinking first thing in the morning, maybe. Wait until more reports come in. Who knows—maybe this will all have been cleared up by then, anyway."

"You think?"

"No, but I've never tried being an optimist before."

Alan refreshes the article again and sees a new paragraph of text, bare bones information that mentions three additional species—including a suspected Allosaurus—have been spotted near I-20 heading east. Life finding a way. Goddamn Malcolm. Goddamn Hammond. Goddamn it all.

—

The next day does bring more news, and none of it good. The current theory is that Hammond's former partner, Benjamin Lockwood, funded some sort of rescue operation to Nublar, retrieved an unknown number of species that were brought to his Northern California estate for a black market auction, and at some point during this process—predictably, Alan thinks—the dinosaurs escaped and bedlam ensued. Further details include: Lockwood's body in an upstairs bedroom, his death attributed (surprisingly) to natural causes; correspondence between Lockwood's assistant, Eli Mills, and an auctioneer, both of whom are still missing, though suspected dead (and, Alan presumes, suspected eaten); and an unknown theropod body in Lockwood's front hall, impaled on the horns of an Agujaceratops skull. Most of the servers in the lab below the estate were blown skyward, but of the data that's been recovered, it seems to be another genetic experiment, a cross-breeding of the Indominus with a Velociraptor.

("They never fucking learn," Alan says when he gets to that section of the report, hands white-knuckled around his coffee cup. "This has Wu's fingerprints all over it. Not enough to put raptor and rex DNA in a blender with whatever else they could get their hands on—no, he had to scale it down and make it twice as clever. If this wasn't intended for military application, I'll eat my hat, then buy another one and eat that, too.")

Though the article leaves a good number of questions unanswered, it does make clear that Hammond's follies have again found their way to the mainland, and with a sense of permanency this time. New sightings are reported with alarming frequency as the morning goes on, increasing in both the number of different species and the distance they've traveled from Lockwood's estate. Tracking efforts have been mobilized, but it's all too little, too late—not to mention the public debate that sparks up again over the question of recapturing or killing.

"Okay," Ellie says once they've read through the reports, putting her phone face-down on the kitchen table and burying her face in her hands. "It's a mess. Officially. This makes what happened in San Diego look like an incident at a petting zoo. We've got at least twenty species running loose—including, so far, a T. rex, a Baryonyx, and an Allosaurus—that are all spreading further apart by the moment, and as of now, the best method of tracking them is to wait for someone standing by to post about it to Twitter."  

"I hate Twitter," Alan says, reflexive.

"I know you do." Ellie smiles at him a little, then lets out a slow breath. "So what should we do? We know more than we did last night, but really it's just enough to tell us that this situation is worse than we could have imagined. I'm ready to jump in the car and start driving if you are, but at this point, I'm not sure what good that would do."

"Might feel better than just sitting here," Alan says, lacing his hands behind his neck to keep them from reaching for his phone again. "But no, you're right, I'm not sure what it would actually accomplish."

Ellie's quiet for a moment, fingers drumming an absent rhythm on the table. They weren't exactly young when Hammond first brought them to Nublar, but looking now at the ridged veins on the back of her hands—thinking of the new wrinkles across his own forehead and his hair that's gone grey-white in recent years—it strikes Alan how much older they've both become. Maybe too old to be playing games like this.

"Can I ask you something?" Ellie says.

"Always."

"Imagine that we did have a plan, and we knew exactly what was needed to make a difference here—what side of the debate would we be on?"

"What do you mean?"

Her hands are still restless, index finger tapping lightly against the wood. "Half the world seems to think they should be shot down as they're spotted, and the other wants to see them safely rounded up and brought to some sort of preserve. We never talked about it much when it was a question of the eruption on Nublar, but now I'm curious"

Alan frowns a little, brows pulling together. "They're dangerous, Ellie. That's more true than ever with no fences or open ocean between them and the rest of the world."

"The sauropods aren't."

"They're megafauna that belong to a different age. They can still do damage on a scale that society isn't ready for." He looks at Ellie, a little surprised. "You think they should be kept alive? After everything that's happened?"

"Don't get me wrong, I'll be the first to agree that everyone would be better off if all of the raptors had died before they'd hatched, but—" she breaks off, smiling at him a little helplessly. "I don't know, Alan. I think back to when Hammond first drove us around in that Jeep and you turned my head to look out the window and it—it was all of my childhood dreams come to life. Nothing could compare to seeing the bones that I'd spent my life studying brought to life in front of me and standing sixty feet tall, and I know you felt that, too. Look, say what you will about Hammond—and God knows that I have—but whatever may have been the end result, you can't deny that there was something noble in his intentions."

"I seem to remember another saying that has to do with 'good intentions'."

"Alan—"

"They're not real, Ellie. You know that. They are, at best, distantly removed cousins of the dinosaurs that really lived, and probably more closely resemble whatever amphibian DNA that Wu mixed into the fossilized blood. Whatever you felt—whatever we felt—on Nublar after seeing them for the first time, it was just a fantasy."

Ellie's smile turns a little sad. "It was a pretty spectacular fantasy." She pauses, then reaches out to take one of Alan's hands, both of them weathered and older, palms still a little callused from years spent in the field. Ellie's thumb runs a gentle pattern over his skin. "I'm going to ask you for a favor now, alright? For me, and for the sake of your younger self, I want you to imagine a world where it's not all or nothing. Where kids can grow up learning that raptors actually had feathers, and where they can visit a preserve and see the drawings from their picture books come to life. You don't have to remind me of all the bad that's come from the parks and Hammond's efforts, but you can't lie to me and pretend that there wasn't some good in there, too."

Alan makes a noncommittal sound in the back of his throat—which is as close as he's willing to get to a yes—but then he does let his mouth twitch towards a smile, lifts their joined hands and presses a kiss to her knuckles. As if he could ever say no to anything she asked of him.

Ellie gets up and moves to take their emptied mugs to the sink, and as she starts to run the water, Alan does as she's requested, allowing himself to remember the bright moments among the bad. Weighs the terror he'd felt at seeing the T. rex chewing through the Jeep's roof towards Lex and Tim against the moment of resting his palm against the gentle curve of the Brachiosaur's nose. Watching the Spino's hungry jaws carve through the hull of the Kirbys' chartered plane with all the ease of crushing a soda can. Leaning his body on the belly of the Triceratops and feeling its breath thrumming all the way through his chest.

No, Ellie's not wrong—for all his flaws and his arrogance, Hammond had managed to build something beautiful. Still, it's just as much a lie to pretend that the near-death experiences shouldn't weigh heavier than the rest. Were those brief moments of splendor really worth Muldoon or Arnold or any of the others who'd lost their lives for the sake of Hammond's hubris? Not to mention whatever poor civilians might now stumble into the path of the wandering Allosaurus or Baryonyx or any other not-yet-identified theropods who have found their way to the mainland. It's too much cost with not enough reward. Would it be worth it if the carnivores were gone? You can't play that game when the technology is already there; someone is always going to get ambitious and want something with more teeth.

It's a question that keeps him up at night, even after he and Ellie have decided that there's nothing for them to do at the moment—other than keep an eye on their phones and wait for a call from the government or InGen. So they wait, and Alan wonders, and meanwhile news reports still surface with regular frequency of sightings. It's a disaster with no obvious answer, and he's no closer to coming up with any sort of solution—but at least if there's a decision to be made, it won't be coming from him.

And then the presumed-dead Claire Dearing calls Ellie about a potential rescue mission for the last remaining Velociraptor and the whole question suddenly stops being so theoretical.

Goddamn it.

[evcryopeneye]

@spelllbound​ asked:  if feng wu/wen qing had a kid 👀

Name:  Fèng XiánShen  凤咸深  (Healing wind for all)

Gender: Female

General appearance: Generally, XianShen dislikes excess. She also has her rebellious stage in her late teens, not wanting to dress like a girl. Feng Wu can sympathise, she felt much the same way. Judged on appearance, and not taken seriously. Feng Wu too prefers simple robes with cuffed sleeves - they are easier to work in, and XianShen has picked it up.

Personality: Feng XianShen is the mum friend, she doesn’t have time for the dumb nonsense her friends pull but she will also bail them out of it. Loyal, kind, and wanting to be a healer like her parents, Feng Wu works hard. She is aware, that unlike her parents, she isn’t exactly of Cultivator blood, but she tries. XianShen has been brought up to simply attempt to be the best her she can be, she is in competition with who she was yesterday, not anyone else in the Cultivation world. While her Cultivation is weak, and she uses it rarely in the world outside of their home, she’s unbothered by it. Smart, diligent, and intelligent, XianShen can problem solve, think on her feet, and deal with stressful situations without panicking. She knows her talents, but knows her limitations, and training under her parents has provided her with the basis to continue the daily business one day. 

Special Talents: Photographic memory. XianShen remembers things well. Very well. It’s useful for studying, but it often means that things she would rather forget, she remembers in vivid and accurate detail. 

Who they like better: Once they are out of their rebellious teenage years, Wen Qing, XianShen has a deep appreciation for her wisdom and her knowledge. When she is younger, Feng Wu is the push over. XianShen knows how to get what she wants, which is mostly playing them off against each other. Cooking? Well mum said I could have it. The candy while in the market? Look at Feng Wu with those big eyes and ask, knowing that she wants it too. XianShen adores them both, but, she also knows how to get them to do what she wants.

Who they take after more: A bit of both, given that Feng XianShen was adopted, there’s not much genetic traits shared in the normal blood line sense. However, Wen Qing’s and Feng Wu’s hard work and ethics have brushed off on her. XianShen tries hard, she studies hard, she wants to follow in the steps of the two women who adopted her and loved her. She has in return adopted Wen Qing’s no nonsense for peoples bullshit, melded with Feng Wu’s sass. 

Personal headcanon: Feng XianShen plays the flute, for herself more than anyone else. She doesn’t like other people hearing her playing. She will often go up the hill at the back of the town to quiet forest and play.  Face Claim: Sheng Hui Zi