#anyway rambling into the void that is tumblr

[clockwork-krow]

I've been thinking a lot about Kai and Morro again, and specifically their parallels (dangerous thing, I know) and I just really wanted to ramble about what I've taken to calling the inferno of destiny parallel.

As a beginner ninja, both Morro and Kai dealt with arrogance, recklessness, and anger. We see this in how Morro took extremely dangerous risks to get Wu to save him, with how he assumed he was to be the green ninja when Wu told him he believed Morro was to wear green, and how Morro reacted when the weapons didn't react to him (ripping off the sliding door). We see this in how younger Kai jumps into situations without a genuine plan, how he gets angry and often (literally) explodes with fire when something frustrates him, and how he kind of defaults to the coolest person on the team/the hot one/the center of attention/etc when that's just really the immature persona he's thrown up to try and be the best.

Both Morro and Kai want to be the best at what they can do, and when they heard about a chance to be even better than their original concepts of the best (becoming the Green Ninja), both of them jumped at it.

Morro trained so hard he ended up hurting the kids he was training against and worrying Wu

Kai tried so hard to be the green ninja he ended up placing unnecessary strain on his relationships and even went so far as to risk letting people get hurt/die because he was prioritizing what he thought might get him closer to being the Green Ninja (a competitive line of thinking that Kai's been known to buy into in addition to his constant needs to try to be the best in the situation before he matures) (btw I'm talking about him originally trying to get the fang blade instead of. yknow. the CHILD about to burn lol.)

So, where do we see the shift from heroic to villanous in these two suspiciously similar characters? Well, it's when both of them are placed in an inferno scenario where they have to choose between pursuing their perceived destiny and their true destiny; hence, the inferno of destiny parallel.

Morro

When Morro searches so long to try and find a way to become the Legendary Green Ninja and rewrite destiny, he eventually finds himself in the Caves of Despair. We don't have the details of what happened, but we see the ninja try to escape Morro's fate in season 5 episode 7 titled "The Crooked Path". Here we see them encounter geysers that are releasing poisonous gases at an alarming rate, and they also spray boiling water/steam out in addition to rising the temperature to an unbearable level in the cave. It's reasonable to assume that Morro experienced a cave-in due to the caves' lack of structural integrity (also experienced by the ninja)* and then was killed either from burns from the hot steam and/or due to inhaling too much of the dangerous gasses.

The point of Morro's inferno: Morro couldn't accept the fact that he was not destined to be the Green Ninja, so he wasn't willing to turn away from his perceived destiny to save his own life. He wouldn't leave the cave because he couldn't let go of the fact that his perceived destiny wasn't his true destiny.

Kai

When Kai trains and practices to become the Green Ninja, making rash decisions (like jumping down for the Fang Blade again) and reckless choices that hurt his relationships (like barricading himself into a room to fight Garmadon for… literally no reason other than his desire to be the Green Ninja), he eventually finds himself in a similar inferno: The Fire Temple. An ancient temple constructed inside a volcano that once held the Sword of Fire, this is where the fourth and final Fang Blade is located and where the ninja must fight against Pythor and the other Serpentine generals for it. The volcano begins to erupt and collapse in on itself, and Kai ends up with a choice: save young Lloyd from his inevitable death in the erupting volcano, or try to reach the Fang Blade before it ends up in the hands of Pythor. This is the critical moment* for Kai, as he has to choose between his percieved destiny (becoming the Green Ninja and getting the Fang Blade) or his true destiny (protecting Lloyd in the hopes of saving both of their lives). In the end, he chooses to give up the thing he'd been working towards for most likely months now to try and be the best in the favor of saving a kid that used to be a massive pain in the ass (no offense, little Lloyd).

The point of Kai's inferno: Kai gave up his perceived destiny in the end, and only then was he able to unlock his True Potential in addition to being able to escape the Fire Temple safely with Lloyd and himself still alive. He was able to save himself and Lloyd because he gave up something that had felt like such a core part of his being, that he believed was his destiny, even though it turned out not to be.

He even says this himself to Sensei Wu: "I knew when I had to make a choice. I wanted the Fangblade so badly, to prove I was good enough to become the Green Ninja. But then I figured it out. All of my training to become the best ninja wasn't in preparation to become the Green Ninja. It was… to protect him." (s1e10, titled "The Green Ninja")

Kai and Morro both experience infernos that threaten their lives and rely on their ability to relinquish their percieved goals in favor of the objectively best choice in the moment. Morro was unable to give up what he truly believed was his destiny, and he ended up dead and sent to the Cursed Realm as a result. Kai was able to give up what he had been working towards for so long, and was able to save his life and Lloyd's life (especially entertaining when you remember that Kai had to give up trying to be the Green Ninja to… save the Green Ninja, lmao)

The critical moment I noted with a * for both Kai and Morro is that this point is the moment where each of them have to decide what's more important to them: what they believe is their destiny, or what would save their life. Morro tried to push through to his "destiny" and became too hurt or sick from the fumes to escape, and eventually died there. Kai gave up his "destiny" and just barely managed to escape with his life and Lloyd's.

So yes, I love the inferno of destiny parallel quite a bit! All three of these characters are very near and dear to my heart and they're rotating in my brain like a rotisserie chicken lmao

[hastalavistabyebye]

Canon mandalorian art and the Murals of Sundari

There's a very interesting thing about canon mandalorian art. Outside of Sabine's graffitis and armor paint, the only canon mando figurative art (that I have found) are the statue of Tarre Vizla -which go perfectly in star wars' long tradition of dead historical figures' statues, especially for Jedi- and the three murals of Mandalore. I said figurative because there is also the Memorial Shrine on Sundari that was bombed by death watch during the clone wars that is definitely not figurative. But that's another subject.

Of those two exemples of mandalorian sculptures that we know of, we have an old, historical, imposing rendition of a past Mand'alor (and in both medium and subject, what I personally headcanon as the favored type of art by Mandalorians) and a series of murals depicting one of the victories of the Mandalorians over the Jedi, during one of their war. And that mural is the only major art we see in Sundari, the New Mandalorians' Capital.

And that's what I'm going to talk about.

Those three murals have obviously been inspired by Picasso's Guernica. I'm absolutely not a Picasso specialist nor do I wish to be (he was an asshole first category, thank you very much but ew). But. What I do know is that Guernica was commanded to Picasso to illustrate the city Guernica's bombing and denounce fascism, and later on was a symbol of the horror of the war (especially the world war 2 which started two years after the realisation of this imposing painting). The blatant difference with Guernica in those murals is that the violence isn't denounced at all. It's highlighted. The Mandalorians Crusaders have halos, they're bigger, standing, orderly, majestic. Opposed to that are the Jedi, distorted, chaotic, small, at the feet of the Mandalorians. This is obvious propaganda in favor of the victors of the battle. (Of the battle only because it's the Jedi who won that war.)

Using Guernica was an interesting and easy way to show "A War" even if the soul of it is completely reversed (which is really interesting too) but yeah, that's a smart and quick way to send a mood to the person watching those episodes of clone war, without needing to focus on the art. You see the style, you understand roughly what's the meaning of it. End of the parenthesis.

What is interesting is that this is the only figurative art I've found for the New Mandalorians. More than that, that last mural was right under the speaking balcony, above the royal platform of Sundari's palace. Satine Kryze talked about her ideals just over the graphic depiction of Jedi being decapitated. This, added to the cultural genocide the New Mandalorians were making, paint one hell of a picture.

For that last part on the New Mandalorians, @/fox-trot made an amazing explanation of it, in some of their tags once but I can't find the post again :( roughly, they were highlighting how, notably in Legends, the Mandalorians used to be a vastly diverse people, different colors of skin, different species.... But with the arrival of the New Mandalorians, not only we can't see any art but those ones, not only do they want to erase entire parts of their traditions and culture (armor doesn't mean war, you could change the warrior and blood culture without taking the armor out, cue Jedi and their weapons lightsaber), but they also are all human, white and rich. Boba and Jango Fett aren't seen as Mandalorians at all. The Wren are Death Watch so traitors and terrorists. The New Mandalorians are good and safe and refuse any way of protection, are more passive than neutral in that regard, and are a white, human elite.

That elite have hid/erased/we-can't-even-know-because-it-can-only-be-seen-in-it's-obvious-absence all of their traditional art but those murals, depicting the massacre that was one of their victorious battles in a war they ultimately lost. This is one hell of a propaganda and rewriting of History.

You can read it in many ways, two I can think of are :

-the New Mandalorians Government want to send the message "See how bloody and terrible and not-good mandalorian culture is. We need to be pacifists to not-be-like-that"

-but what it can look like is the symbolic reality of what they're doing : a cultural genocide painted in glorious light.

Anyway you want to look at it, with such a critical light of the new mandalorians or not, that those murals are the only art display in Sundari's palace still send one hell of a message.

[lady-lauren]

.

[breakingdownsomebarriers]

Meet one of the first members of Shatter Squad: Bombshell!

If his name didn't already give it away, he is the demolitions expert of his squad. Which is kind of funny, given that he is blue-yellow colorblind and he sucks at remembering which color is which.

He can disarm bombs pretty easily even with his visual impairment. Though, there have been times where he arms one of his bombs for training with his squad but forgets which wire is which because he (for some reason) uses blue and yellow wires to arm it.

Also, when he was first painting his armor, he accidentally painted it the 212st yellow instead of the 501st blue. Rex was over it, Cody was unimpressed, and his squad will never let him live it down.

Personality wise, he's pretty snarky and playful, but he'll quickly drop that to be completely serious when he needs to be. Deadly serious. The switch left his squad speechless the first time they were out in the field.

Text on Screen Reads:

*Attempting to disarm a bomb* "Which wire do I cut?"

"..." *Trying to remember if it was blue or yellow*

[yearning-rambles]

take me home

i don’t know where but take me home

this isn’t home

i know my home was never this cold

i have no use

for this town

except maybe you

i’ll take you too

so hold my hand

you’re in for a ride

it’s a little ways from here

but you’ll be fine

we’ll be fine

take me home

i don’t care where but take me home

it’s too cold

i know my home was never this cold

i have no sympathy

for this town

it drags you out

or traps you in

so hold my hand

we’re in for a ride

it’s a little ways from here

but you’ll be fine

we’ll be fine

we’ll be fine

we’ll be home

[cryptic-queer-cryptid]

being a biologist by trade and also being autistic really warps my perception of what acceptable/normal behaviour is, and that’s totally fine most of the time because i study biology and i work as a biologist, but sometimes i’ll be walking through the science building carrying a dead bird (another victim of the windows, get bird safe windows please!!) to put it in the mailbox of my professor/friend who’s an ornithologist and people will look at me very strangely.

like… i have to explain myself?? you don’t just see it and understand that it’s a window strike and we’re doing a study on them?

[saessenach]

soo I am tentatively attempting to open an INPRNT shop (application still pending 🤞) - and I wanted to ask you guys what sort of art you would like to see over there!!

Which of my drawings would you like to have as prints? What other types of art would you like to see - individual character illustrations, tarot cards, sketches?? Other than prints, what do you think about bookmarks/postcards, other things like that?

[chocolate-cream-soldier]

//

[imdoingthings]

been playing around with my carrd page for a couple of days, renovating i guess (finally moved tos to a separate google doc for better readability hopefully) idk how i'm gonna do the commissions section yet

it also has a new icon but i'm embarrassed to say how long it took me to make

[rottingmossfilledskeletons]

Actually me thinks im not gonna be funny and tag someone in this because it gets all fucky but Sombra is really fun and clingy and ataches to like the first 5 people that show him basic human affection because up until Siddy found him in that snow shack he'd been living in fight or flight for a majority of his conscious existance and he keeps wrapping around them all clingy n attached because he is absolutely terrified that if he looks away they will fucking dissapear and never come back. so like by the time he gets yeeted into the wall by Donny because he keeps scenting everything and is unaware he's essentially initiated a war because don't scent another aredrul's things if you like living he just takes it. He doesn't register that he's done something bad until someone explains it to him later but he doesn't like, fght back or claw or anything he just takes the beating because he's learned if he rolls over and just takes it it'll end eventualy, he won't get thrown away and he won't be forcibly made docile.

he didn't learn that from the best place but in his mind this is just normal behavior, and somewhere along the line he just thought this was how you go initiated into a psuedo family dynamic. But by the time like, CE's boyfriends start fiighting del for the right to date him, Sombra's gotten used tto being around the castle by himself, if he spots family shaped objects he will cling onto them for the next couple of hours but he does not go into the aboslute panic mode he used to which is really sweet because he's registered he's really safe in the UW castle and that nothing can get to him and hey he's starting to experience genuine love and care that did not make him in debt to trafficers this is great.

he very much loves his family. @sage2mage2 vacate my blog after this post idk how the nsfw tags work here yet

[killerpancakeburger]

Just reblogged art of Astarion covering Tav's mouth to shut them up and now I have a mighty need to write about Astarion and Tav in Baldur's Gate, separated from the rest of the party for a reason or another, in a romantic relationship, coming across one of those person Astarion do NOT want to come across because of shit he did in the past, so he drags Tav into a nearby alley, pins them against the closest wall, covers their mouth with his hand and whispers, firmly: "Not. A sound."

And he's busy checking they don't get caught but Tav is just standing there, having no idea what's happening, but letting Astarion doing what he wants because they trusts him, and thinking to themselves: "Hm. That's hot actually."

[hastalavistabyebye]

Thought of the day : you know what's frustrating with (I think it was first USAmerican or social medias at least) censure habit ? Or whatever you want to call it. It's that by censoring every slur, every bad words every words you don't like, it has an annoying side effect. I have no fucking idea what you're talking about. Zero, nada, niet. Because English is not my native language and I don't know every slur (or just every words) and when you're talking about "random-letter word" it could be anything, even the most random thing ever, and I will have no idea. And I can't even educate myself and learn "ah, this word means that insult, copy", because I have no idea what word you're talking about !!!!

[s-ccaam-era-crepe]

if i made a brickwoods account for really obscure lore drops/rambles would yall follow it? joke question i made it alreadyy <3 @brickwoods-amusement-park :))

[eggmeralda]

job application for a library assistant asking me what I'd do to attract more people to the library. literally no idea? also it's not even my local library I live like an hour away from it so idk what they already do there. and it's 150 words what should I write lol

[the-irrelevant-trumpeter]

tumblr is the ideal social media for me because i’m truly just yelling into a void, which means i don’t have to be as worried about what people think. i’m not a part of actual conversations, i’m not (most of the time) creating content to be shared. it’s just me living in my own little world, which is exactly what i need.

[junkie-virus]

AAAAAA I LOVE FANFICTION !!!! I LOVE MUSIC !!!!! I LOVE FAN ART !!!!! I LOVE CREATION !!!!!!! I LOVE LIFE !!!!!