#anyways this was long and off topic

[abd-illustrates]

I might’ve spoiled the plot of Natlan | Genshin Impact THEORY

In which I read so much lore that I gained the power to see the future (maybe) This ended up being a real challenge to make - but it was also really fun! Please do lemme know what you reckon of these ideas, and whether y’all wanna see me pattern-recognition my way into several corkboards worth of theories about any other topics sometime down the line! (^^)/

(also: HAPPY NEW YEAR! 🥳🎉 Here's wishing y'all every good thing for 2024)

[rockethorse]

The basegame wedding dress has a pregnancy morph??

[mossy-paws]

some doodles! (PHIGHTING!)

A collection of recent subspace and Medkit doodles! The final thing is actually a remake of a really silly meme I made like. God how long back in August of 2023? Geez I’ve been in the fandom for awhile,,, it’s crazy how my art has evolved since then for real!

also… these, no, no I am not giving ANY sort of explanation for them

[thewardenisonthecase]

btw tw for talking about abuse

I've seen a lot online about how the game never mentions Caterina's abuse of Lucanis while he was growing up (being beaten and starved, which is mentioned in the Wigmaker Job) and I think there's a small mention to it if you're a crow (when asked, he says it was torture training under the first talon and that he resented her for a long time)

And while I do think part of the reason why this isn't brought up is just due to how sanitized this game is when it comes to the crows, I think I do understand why in world wise it's not possible to just be like hey lucanis, fuck your grandma.

It's really hard, loving someone who hurts you. Because you know they're hurting you and yet, you still love them. It's even harder when they're family.

Because its not like Lucanis doesn't know that she hurt him. He says so himself - he hated her, he resented her, and althought I do think him 'justifying' it by saying that at least it prepared him for the life of a crow, at least he still admits that it happened.

But the thing is that despite all this shit, she's still his grandmother. And like, yes, blood shouldn't excuse justifing this behaviour, I feel like it's cultural. Idk how spain or italy works when it comes to family, but here in brazil, you'll hear so many stories of physical abuse happening in families, and its still a situation like Lucanis - i hate them, i resent them, i love them, they're my family.

It's a...complicated situation and I think Lucanis's situation is made worst by the fact that he only has two family members alive and that he cannot let go of.

She beat him, she starved him, he hated and resented her, and he was afraid of dissapointing her, even if in her eyes, i don't think he could. I mean, he comes back an abomination and she still tenderly says 'my poor boy' when you rescue her in the Villa.

All in all...it's tought and I think that it would not be Rook's place to suddenly make Lucanis want to kill his grandma bc he wouldn't. Sorting out those feelings is something he has to do himself, and i'l almost glad the game doesn't make rook do a therapy session with him to talk about it.

[celestial-letters]

bestfriend! asmodeus, who begs you to tell him who you have a crush on. hes just curious!!

bestfriend! asmodeus, who upon finding out who you like, has frown on his face. but before you realize, he smiles, as if the disappointment was never there.

bestfriend! asmodeus, who will wingman for you, giving you confession ideas and drawing hearts on fogged up windows with yours and your crushs first initial just to fluster you.

bestfriend! asmodeus, who helps you write a confession letter and quietly watches as you slip it on your crushs seat, wishing it was him.

bestfriend! asmodeus, who painfully watches as your crush accepts your letter.

bestfriend! asmodeus, who slowly begins to distance himself from you, unsure of what to do.

[xxplastic-cubexx]

i miss charles so bad why do they keep separating my already divorced parents.

I miss charles so bad why do they keep killing him

[singingcicadas]

The main thing I have against Spotlight: Hot Rod is that it portrays him as being constantly weighed down by past losses and guilt, to the extent that he even limits himself for fear of facing the potential negative consequences that his misjudgement might inflict onto others - the "prefer to go solo" line - when it contradicts the very essence of his character as established in MTMTE and the main comics (even Autocracy), which specifically presents him as the type of person who is unburdened by the past and for the most part consciously remains unaffected by the consequences of his actions. It's why he has a perpetual Peter Pan thing going on, because he moves on from one day to the next, one crisis to the next, for four million years without letting the experiences change him - which includes the experiences of deaths and sufferings of both himself and others - and maturity and growth cannot be achieved without change.

His impulsiveness and headstrong obstinacy is in part a compensation mechanism for insecurity and subconscious self-doubt but is also an intrinstic aspect of who he is, someone who plows onward while refusing to look back. He can feel sorry but he does not do regret, much less mire himself in it like his spotlight appears to suggest. As a matter of fact he doesn't mire himself in anything at all - be it politics, responsibility, or guilt. He doesn't regret Nyon, nor Ironhide, nor Optimus' resignation, nor leaving Cybertron, nor trusting Megatron. Not even the Overlord incident, since although he does feel bad for his poor decision getting a bunch of people killed, in the end the biggest issue that he has with it is the 89/101 voting result (which isn't even solely about Overlord).

It's obvious that he wants - expects - to stay as captain in spite of everything and having the vote cut so close got him hard because it's a blow to his ego. He practically admits to this when Optimus calles him out, which again is in direct contradiction to his spotlight monologue.

If he's willing to apply this kind of introspection for a failed mission that can’t even be attributed to his fault, then a lot of his later screwups would never have happened.

Choosing to return the Matrix to Optimus is supposed to be a landmark incident of Rodimus' character growth, yet he regresses right back in MTMTE, in which he develops a recursive pattern of messing up, trying to do better by making amends, then returning to his old ways because he can't fully commit. There's no fundamental change going on. I would argue that the true pivotal moment of change to his character took place during his talk with the guiding hand in Mederi, when he first learns to look past himself to accept what's best for other people, how his decisions might affect them etc. - even if it clashes with his own desires.

And then he chooses to save Getaway, and the speech that gave everyone the confidence to open their matrices. There's change and growth and maturity, he learns to fully empathize and appreciate the people around him. But with this growth comes a double-edged sword: by opening himself to connect with other people he leaves himself open to be affected as well - he is irrevocably changed by his experiences aboard the Lost Light, by the people around him he's grown to care about, so that when the Lost Light lands for its inevitable end and everyone departs to pursue their own lives, he alone remains mired in place, with nothing but the past to cling to. After a lifetime of moving on and brushing horrors off without lasting issue he's suddenly unable to move on. The remainder of his life becomes defined by the weight of memories and loss (and the empty comfort of a parallel universe of which its existence he'll never know).

[the-bi-space-ace]

There’s been some discussion recently about the subplot of bullying in The Bad Batch and I had some thoughts so I decided to write them out to discuss them.

I wanted to bring up some things that maybe can put together this disconnect we seem to see between the show The Bad Batch and the show The Clone Wars and maybe explains a bit about this whole bullied versus bully concept.

To me The Clone Wars paints a very different picture than The Bad Batch in a way that only serves to make the lines blurry and make the viewer think (perhaps not their intention but I think maybe they fell into this more on accident). The Clone Wars batch rolls in with a reputation that’s already not too great. Jesse even says it: it’s not that they win. It’s how they win. The batch is known for dangerous stunts that put other people at risk. They don’t always think through their decisions outside of themselves. Then we get this scene of them walking off of the ship and they are very arrogant. They show off, they talk big, they don’t exactly give off ‘approachable’.

We get into the mission and Jesse, in particular, is not a fan but it isn’t very aggressive yet. Crosshair is being confrontational - staring Jesse down, making snippy comments, and being an overall ass (I love Crosshair, don’t get me wrong, I’m just talking about what I observe in this introduction). I think it’s because he senses Jesse’s dislike of them and wants to poke at it.

We’re not off to a good start.

Where I think the batch fails in this episode is letting Crosshair insult Rex and further goad Jesse. Crosshair shouldn’t have said half the stuff he did and Jesse (and later, Rex) are justified in hitting back at him.

They’re soldiers. They’re going to get in each other’s faces if someone starts talking shit.

When Jesse scolds Crosshair - I think Kix is somewhere standing in the background but not directly involved- Wrecker steps in and turns things violent.

It’s not a moment I’m most proud of them. It’s actually one of the moments I’m least proud of them. Crosshair and Kix get into it when Crosshair shoves him for trying to help Jesse and Rex is attempting to get Wrecker to let Jesse go. This escalated quickly and I’m not sure I can say that this was justified. It seems like a big jump to me (but maybe someone disagrees, feel free to, I’d like to know someone else’s thoughts).

In this episode we’re really led down one path that says the batch and other clones don’t get along and from this limited perspective in this episode it seems like the batch are instigators. They roll in, avoid consequences for themselves, and roll out without giving anyone else a second thought.

The Bad Batch tv show paints an entirely different picture and it is definitely to make them more likable and relatable to a young audience. Every kids show has the character that’s an underdog, it’s who we want to root for. It makes the people in The Bad Batch’s age range connect with them more and I can’t exactly blame them for writing it this way - although after seeing the batch in the clone wars it does make me sigh a bit, I won’t lie.

I was bullied as a child. Quite severely, actually, so I find myself justifying the disconnect with a few things. Perhaps the batch puts up a front so they push other clones away before it can happen to them. I’ve done this. I put on a really abrasive attitude to keep people away when I was in high school and I regret it. However, I got over myself as I got older and worked through my own issues rather than blaming other people. Because you have to. It’s not alright to continue to hurt other people because you were hurt and I remind myself of that every single day. It’s the only way to move forward. I never have to forgive people who have hurt me but I can’t start using it as an excuse.

I mention this only to say that maybe their behavior in The Clone Wars was a mask built from past hurt and that could make sense to me. You build up walls when you’ve been hurt and you create behaviors based on experience. However, I still don’t think their behavior should be excused. I still think they escalated that situation far before anyone else did. In the same way I think Jesse made a lot of snap judgements about the batch and just kept finding ways to reinforce that judgement based on what he’d heard about them prior. And this snap judgment isn’t the best way to go about working with new people. It’s not an excuse, just an explanation.

I even think the batch’s behavior in episode 1 of their own show kind of contradicts some of their behavior in TCW. Particularly Crosshair. Crosshair doesn’t engage in the cafeteria until he absolutely has to while in TCW he is the primary instigator. We can try to explain this by saying it’s because his chip activated and his personality shifted. I just think it’s something worth pointing out.

I’d also like to add that of course the batch are the primary instigators in The Clone Wars because the clones we knew and loved in that show are technically the heroes of the episode. Of course they’re portrayed in a better light. It’s the same as the batch in episode one of their own show. Of course they’re portrayed as the ‘good guys’. It’s their show. To me it’s less of a character moment and more of a way to get the viewers of the show to root for somebody, whoever they want us to root for in the moment. The Bad Batch is told from their perspective so they are going to be the underdogs while The Clone Wars brings the batch in as outsiders to the group and gives them a more aggressive interaction to further our already beloved character’s narratives.

This was a very long way to say, I’ve always been kinda meh about the whole ‘the batch is bullied’ subplot and I tend to avoid writing it in my own fics because I think there is inconsistency with the writing between the clone wars and the bad batch and this can possibly be boiled down to a few things like different writers on the creative teams, an uncertain future, and wanting to paint certain characters in certain lights because of the show they are on. Rather than actually being a truly defining character arc it is a tool, as most writing is, it’s just not a tool I particularly care for in this story. And while I do think there are inconsistencies I can piece together some things to explain it if I really want to. I don’t think one side is right and one side is wrong. I think there are a million explanations for hurt on both sides and we decide it for ourselves because neither show truly made it clear enough for me to draw any lines in the sand. (And if you’ve been reading my stories at all you know I love a good grey area so I probably wouldn’t draw lines at all.)

I always try to be fair to everyone when I write stuff like this so I hope I’ve covered all of my points well enough. There are plenty of things to say about this topic and it has been talked about a few times recently in other posts that you can read. Tagging 1 by @laughhardrunfastbekindsblog and 2 by @gars-technician because these two posts inspired me to write this.

I’d definitely encourage open discussion here if anyone wants to chime in 😊 while I know we might all have different opinions I’m certainly willing to hear them as long as everyone is respectful.

[vanmarkus]

okay not to be rude but i need people in this fandom to learn to enter discussions in good faith, learn to read and differentiate between fiction and reality and stop crying about heated reactions to their own heated comments... i don't think that'd be too much to ask for and yet here we are

[madaqueue]

have i been on here long enough to warrant an “about me” post or have i been sufficiently perceived 😛😛😛😛

[jrueships]

zesty lowkey just another way for str8 ppl to say faggot / faggy and get away with it

[k-yujin]

read the tags !! // officially quit

[nellasbookplanet]

Okay finished my arcane season 1 rewatch (and I absolutely didn’t cry again) (I'm lying I'm still wiping the tears off) and god it really is a master class of storytelling, isn’t it.

The last episode being called 'the monster you made'. Silco condemning Vander for giving up fighting because it endangered those he loves, only to then himself being unable to obtain his goal because it would mean giving up the only person he loves and he finally understands. Zaun being inches from getting their independence and freedom only for a hurt child to blow it all up in the name of the father figure she killed to protect a sister who left her. Because that's the thing, isn’t it. Jinx and Silco are monsters and legitimate villains but only becaue Piltover created them. They made their own choices sure, but they were choices that would never have even been on the table if they didn't exist in the constant despair and desperation and loss that is living in oppression under a police state that fancies itself a utopia. Piltover and the council built their own monsters and were then shocked and horrified when they acted the part and bit back.

[icewindandboringhorror]

I've referenced before how I have a big google document to keep track of every media I've ever seen in my entire life (just for reference because I like to track everything possible lol… I am the Data Collector), but recently as I was updating it, I thought of actually evaluating them to find out random percentages (like for example, out of Total Shows Watched, what percentage did I finish vs. stop watching, what percentage did I like or dislike, etc.)...

Evaluating these things is made easier by the fact that I already place everything on each subsection of the list into 6 broad ranking categories, so I don't have to go back and guess to figure out how I feel about them or anything. The categories are: Ranking 5 - overall best* (despite some criticisms of course because I'm too much of an Analyzer to ever find anything Perfect lol) Ranking 4 - more positive than neutral, but not good enough to be 5 Ranking 3 - either the good + bad negate each other, OR it's just not memorable/interesting in any way enough to be ranked higher or lower (this is the Default category ALL things are placed in if no other rank applies) Ranking 2 - maybe a few redeemable elements but largely more negatives than positives Ranking 1 - So bad that it circles around to being fascinating to observe in some way (not necessarily Funny, or Good, but just interesting somehow) Ranking 0 - Bad in a genuinely frustrating or obnoxious manner

*("best" primarily defined here as most interesting, rather than most good in a technical sense, or some other measure. I tend to value more highly whether there's something novel or thoughtful about the worldbuilding, tone, writing, base premise, etc - than about whether it's actually executed perfectly.)

And here's the amount of shows that have so far been placed into each category -

TV shows ~ Rank 5 (highest) - 20 shows ~ Rank 4 (mid-high) - 28 shows ~ Rank 3 (neutral/default/meh) - 114 shows ~ Rank 2 (mid low) -33 shows ~ Rank 1 (low low but intriguingly so) - 14 shows ~ Rank 0 (iredeemably low) - 2 shows

This would make for a total of 211 TV shows overall. However, there are 57 shows within these list marked as "didn't finish" (typically meaning I quit on the very first or second episode - but log them still to keep a record that I at least had a brief view of them).

So my total of genuinely fully watched shows would be more 154. 211 Total, but a More Accurate Total of 154.

Counting them all and using the Total Number Of The List (211) -- that means roughly 9.5% of all total shows I have ever watched (or at least attempted to watch) have been Mostly Good, 13% have been Moderately Okay, 54% have been either entirely Forgettable or some mix of good + bad that lands them right in the Neutral Middle, 15.6% have been Mostly Bad, 6.6% have been Bad (but in an interesting way), and 0.9% have been Terribly Bad.

Additionally, I didn't even get past the first two episodes of about 27% of the total.

Sooo, discounting ones I didn't finish, my total TV shows ever watched in my life would be about 154 (maybe give or take a few, assuming I might have forgotten some from very long ago).

But instead of entire life, let's just say this is the total for 'About 20 Years' (so, not counting very early childhood when I likely wouldn't remember things I saw/have no detailed recollection of them (like for example, I'm sure at some point when I was like 4yrs old I must have seen an episode of Spongebob or something, but I have zero distinct memories of it, can't quote anything of it, and barely recall the premise - so I don't count it on the list, etc.)).

In that case, 154 divided by 20 would be roughly 7.7 shows a year.

Which is actually surprisingly low considering that I often have stuff on in the background for hours whilst I make sculptures and do costumes and stuff (maybe I should have also marked some distinction between 'things I fully paid attention to' and 'things I kind of half listened to whilst sculpting', but that would further split the categories too much probably lol), but I guess a lot of that is youtube videos or random documentaries, so .. eh.. maybe I get it being lower.

Now, doing the same thing for movies-

Movies ~ Rank 5 (highest) - 4 movies (3.4% of total) ~ Rank 4 (mid-high) - 12 movies (10.3% of total) ~ Rank 3 (neutral/default/meh) - 91 movies (78.4% of total) ~ Rank 2 (mid low) - 8 movies (6.8% of total) ~ Rank 1 (low but interesting) - 1 movie (0.8% of total) ~ Rank 0 (irredeemably low) - none in this category (0%)

That makes 116 for a Total (Actually Remembered) Movies Watched In Lifetime (Or At Least In 20 Years).

116 divided by 20 is roughly 5 or 6 movies a year (I feel this has probably been skewed though by adding everything since like elementary school onwards, as I remember a lot more movies from child/teen years.. Whereas, the past 3 years I feel like I've barely seen maybe even 5 movies?? lol). I also have "Didn't Finish" marked on 18 of them. Which means I quit halfway through about 15% of the total movies.

So, a for broader summary stuff..

I seem to be less forgiving to movies than tv shows, by far. Which makes sense to me, I guess, because I love elaboration and details, so "short form" things that only last an hour or two are often lost on me a bit. My biggest complaint with movies is indeed usually walking away just wishing there had been more exposition, more scenes where characters are doing nothing, more "mindless bantering" conversations, more Quiet Downtime and Lore Elaboration and so on lol, so... of course most 1-2hr films end up feeling a bit Not Enough To Draw My Interest/Nothingy to me.

If you count 5 and 4 as "like" and rankings 2 to 0 as "dislike", then for TV shows I at least somewhat liked 48 of them, and at least somewhat disliked 47 of them.. So it's almost exactly the same lol. I'm just about equally as likely to find something bad as I am to find something redeeming about it. But overall, the largest chance is that I just won't really care much for it at all and it will be tossed into the 'neutral' pile, forgotten forever. Movies have a bit better of a balance, "liking" 16 of them, and "disliking" only 9 of them. So I'm slightly more likely to enjoy a movie than to find it annoying - though still VASTLY more likely to just not find it anything in particular, possibly not even finishing it.

ANYWAY.. this is vague and literally pointless, but like I said, I just really find information fun. Like my document where I've rated every apple flavor I've ever tried (like 40 of them now?), or reviewed every oreo flavor (32?), or ranking data from my entire 10 years of Trying To Make Friends process (out of 100 people, roughly 8% chance of a moderate compatibility, 3% chance of high), or etc. etc.. I love to have random pointless things to analyze I suppose lol.

I doubt anyone tracks things in their life in this same exact way, but I'd be interested in hearing any at least somewhat similar data !!! (like, how many TV shows you watch a year on average, and what percentage of those you like vs. dislike (if you keep track of that sort of thing), etc.)). I guess it might be easier with movies, since I think some people use those websites where you curate a list of movies you've seen and you can rate them or something, so maybe the numbers are already available on those places. :0

[talesfromthecrypts]

When the fandom has more of a "only listens to pop music" vibe but the perfect song for a character is Savior by Rise Against