#commentary: i'm back! my computer was dead on and off for like a month and a half lol

[nochi-quinn]

I've been reading Time to Orbit: Unknown at a friend's suggestion and just got caught up. I started off just making notes of stuff I wanted to post once I was done so I wouldn't get accidentally spoiled in possible notes or that just wouldn't be relevant later, but quickly became a liveblog just because of the kind of person I am. it makes very little sense in places and sometimes there are multiple chapters in between any commentary, but here it is:

it is remarkably easy to procure an axe on colony ship Courageous

kudzu is inevitable

“In your medical opinion, doctor,” I ask, “what in the everloving fuck?”

no dogs on luna. they just run right off the damn thing.

tinera. you agree.

“You would be truly amazed just how often ‘serving humanity’ and ‘obeying the law’ are, in fact, diametrically opposed concepts.”

“Sure, we’ll make sure to be better liars next time,” Tinera says. “That’s all I ask.”

Okay I can't quote this entire conversation about the kill switch but let it be known I really want to

“If you go to jail, should be for something cool.”

Crew bonding by making fun of the captain for their cringe childhood interests

“Do you guys remember that factory in Sengki?” Adin asks. “Where the AI to the apartment building that housed most of its workforce noticed that all its residents were sleep deprived and added two hours to the clocks, throwing production into chaos for a month?” comrade Sengki AI

they're Vaults. they're Vaults in Space.

“Everything is wrong with everything" if that's not a fucking mood

countdown to throwing Sands out an airlock

tal. you agree.

I deeply love every time they talk about "pre-Neocambrian" anything, it feels so accurate to how we talk about ancient socities now, just reading so much into everything based on far too little data to be so sure of ourselves

"Captain Sands rubs his temples" welcome to the Courageous

you can't kill MOVIE NIGHT, you absolute monster

can we PLEASE throw Sands out an airlock

"That’s how science works, right? (I’m not a scientist.)"

found the cannibalism

before going to the next chapter, I don't believe Sands figured out shit about shit, he just wants to Solve A Problem so he looks like A Good Captain

If Sands Has No Haters I Am Dead

“Are you asking how many this Friend killed, or how many it was convicted for?” “Which is the bigger number?” “Guess,” it says, with a little smile.

I'm going to shove Sands in a locker and then throw the locker out an airlock

fuck yeah adin, get his ass

FUCK YEAH ASPEN GET HIS ASS

aspen no

(I don't know what I expected honestly)

“I still want to try violence, actually,”

FUCK YEAH ADIN GET HIS JOB

“You’re both utterly terrible examples of humanity that the universe would be better off without! It’s not a competition.”

just saw No Mercy Percy in the Patreon box

(it's weirdly heartwarming to see the patreon box grow over time)

ohh, I like the Texan paper flower custom, that's really sweet

Truly fascinating how the instant Sands is in the ground I'm back to smiling at every other line

like this will obviously change but I feel like it's important to note

you KICK meringue

you CANNOT, 118 chapters in, casually drop that aspen is colorblind. like.

I knew shit was going too well

would it be weird to have one eye be colorblind and the other not? what would that even look like?

"minor injuries" YOU LOST AN EYE

aspen is going to burn every copy of every single one of their books

("they're probably digital" they will burn the computers)

BEE MOVIE SURVIVED

“It says ‘This product was manufactured in a facility that processes peanuts.’” oh adin bb

"It’s not eavesdropping. It’s sociological research."

oh, they's cannibals

that's cannibal behavior

Aspen talking like Dinesh now that they're trying to speak Texan is my favorite

"when you change your mind" is just the most casually gross thing to say about tinera not wanting to get her hand fixed

if the eyeball starts talking to them uchikoshi is gonna sue

“Aspen,” Tinera says, “has anyone ever told you that you’re a nerd?” “Not so much, these days. You’re usually distracted by Tal being a much bigger nerd. Like light pollution.”

the Hylaran politics in general and regarding the colonists specifically is reminding me of old stargate episodes and I'm here for it

aspen is obviously daniel

okay teleportation was not on my bingo card

oh, they've got meningitis. that's not great.

"The problem with talking to an AI is that I can’t punch it."

okay so they've DON'T got meningitis. not sure this is better.

Bobby Tables mentioned

Bobby Tables plot device!

hey. hey aspen. whatcha doin buddy

HEY ASPEN???

and a little child will lead them

oh god kim's gonna try to fix tinera's hand isn't she

oh god kim tried to fix tinera's hand AND the friend's brain didn't she

I knew my immortal was gonna show up in here at some point

fascinated by how hylaran society is pretty much literally a big kindergarten class bc it simply makes so much fucking sense

tal doing complex flower crown math

"As your captain, I order you to enjoy pancake dinner with me.”

DANDELION I'm gonna cry

pretty sure their "repair indefinitely" plan is how you get the space station from outer worlds

or, how dandelion's explaining it, the quarian fleet

my reaction to the "they'll see how right we are eventually" thing is so strong and I do not know why

noooo greyed-out "next" button my behated

[toradesigns]

OOOH icon requests? could u do bi aroace bugeater? :)

hi briar :3

[therangerofthenorthernlands]

Tolkien Update #2! (24 June 2021)

SPOILER WARNING FOR LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING

Hey everyone! If you're reading this thanks for visiting my page again. My journey with Tolkien continues! I'm still reading through Chapter 7 of The Two Towers "Helm's Deep" so that update will come soon!

Last night, I decided to watch the first part of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). OH. MY. GOD. This is the first time I've ever watched The Return of the King, although I've watched The Two Towers and The Fellowship of the Ring before (fun fact, watching the theatrical version of The Fellowship of the Ring was actually what first interested me in Tolkien!). So, as you can probably tell at this point, this update will be about my experience and first impressions watching:

Part 1 of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

I would like to start off this update by saying that I finally know where all (most) of my favorite LOTR GIFs are from, LOL! I collect GIFs of Aragorn (one of my favorite characters) in a folder on my computer, and I honestly did not know what scenes of the movies some of them came from. Now I do! If I can figure out how to do it, I'll link them and talk about my favorite ones in this post :) (I'll try to go somewhat chronologically, so as to be as little confusing as possible lol). I would also like to start off this post by saying "FOOL OF A TOOK!" and also stating (and I will die on this hill) that although I was only nine months old, I was indeed alive when ROTK was released so therefore I was alive when the LOTR movies were coming out.

Now that we've got those disclaimers out of the way (COUGH I LOVE EOWYN COUGH) I will now begin my commentary :D

To begin with, everytime I'm watching a LOTR movie and this motherfucker shows up:

I FLIP MY SHIT. EVERY SINGLE TIME. BECAUSE I JUST LOVE IT SO MUCH. I love how the logo looks and what it represents, I love what it means and what it promises. It's also just a really fucking cool piece of art in and of itself. Masterpiece.

AND IF YOU CAN IMAGINE ME FLIPPING MY SHIT AT THAT LOGO, YOU CAN IMAGINE HOW I FELT WHEN I SAW THIS:

Also, I would like to present to the reader a portrait of Howard Shore circa 1999:

I didn't take notes while I was watching, so I'm trying to think of things that really struck me. One thing was definitely the shot where Deagol grabs the ring from the bottom of the river. LOTR really takes things full circle, and I appreciate it. It's the same shot from the prologue in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)! I thought that was really cool. Also, my man Andy Serkis finally got some human screen time!

Continuing on, I would like to express my resentment toward Gollum and the seeds of resentment that he sows between Frodo and Sam (All my love to poor Smeagol, though :( ). Sam is literally giving his everything to Frodo and because of Gollum Frodo begins to distrust the wrong person. It broke my fucking heart when Frodo told Sam to leave as they were climbing the mountain above the City of the Dead. Like, bro, think rationally for like half a second. YOU GUYS ARE IN MORDOR. YOU DON'T HAVE ANY FOOD OR WATER. SAM BARELY MADE IT HERE WITH EIGHT OTHER PEOPLE YOU REALLY THINK HE CAN GET ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE SHIRE ON HIS OWN?? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU >:( . I'm very angry at both Gollum and Frodo, although I understand that Frodo is under the influence of the One Ring and is not completely himself.

Next I would like to say, PIPPIN. As the youngest member of the Fellowship he can sometimes be a little foolhardy through no fault of his own (hence, "Fool of a Took!" as is Gandalf's choice phrase when referring to Pippin). At the same time, however, he is mature and courageous. When accompanying Gandalf in the confrontation of Denethor about the lighting of the beacons of Minas Tirith and on realizing that Denethor has received news of the death of Boromir, he pledges his service to Denethor--a stubborn, greedy, idiotic, unloving, and cruel man who serves as the Steward of Gondor. While in some ways misguided, this action by Pippin is a show of his loyalty and raw courage as well as his growing maturity. Also he looks really dapper in the uniform (later revealed to have been that of Faramir in his youth). Also I love how he's still wearing his elven cloak from the forests of Lorien!

Love my boy Peregrin Took. Representing the Shire, and all of Eriador for that matter! His singing in the hall of Denethor--fun fact, in the books, the poem he sings appears in The Fellowship of the Ring!--while Faramir rides out at Denethor's behest to attempt to retake Osgiliath from the orcs of Mordor makes me cry every single time. Incredibly moving. See above portrait of Howard Shore.

AND SINCE WE'RE TALKING ABOUT THE HOUSE OF DENETHOR, I WOULD LIKE TO ADDRESS THE ISSUE OF FARAMIR. Poor Faramir, justice for Faramir :( . I HOPE DENETHOR FALLS DOWN A DEEP HOLE AND CAN'T GET OUT. I FEEL SO BAD FOR FARAMIR. EVERY TIME HE APPEARS I JUST WANT TO GIVE HIM A BIG HUG AND TELL HIM THAT HE'S DOING A GOOD JOB. HE TRIES SO HARD. HE DOES EVERYTHING TO TRY TO PLEASE HIS FATHER AND EMERGE FROM THE SHADOW OF HIS OLDER BROTHER, TO NO AVAIL. AND DENETHOR HAD THE UTTER NERVE TO SAY TO FARAMIR'S FACE--TO HIS FACE--THAT HE WISHED FARAMIR HAD DIED INSTEAD OF BOROMIR. I MEAN COME ON, MAN. Faramir has been camped out at Osgiliath--LITERALLY SAURON'S DOOR--holding the lines, protecting Minas Tirith and therefore all of Gondor, while you have been sitting on your ass doing NOTHING yet for some reason you think that it's okay to talk that way to him??? Okay, please exit the room sir you are not welcome anymore. NOT TO MENTION THAT WHEN FARAMIR COMES BACK FROM TRYING TO RETAKE OSGILIATH WOUNDED DENETHOR ANNOUNCES SIMPLY THAT HE HAS DIED EVEN THOUGH THIS IS CLEARLY UNTRUE. DENETHOR JUST WANTED HIM DEAD. HE'S A HORRIBLE FATHER. THANKFULLY, HOWEVER--AND MAY I SAY VERY ASTUTELY--GANDALF GIVES HIM A GOOD KNOCKING AROUND THE HEAD WITH HIS STAFF SHORTLY AFTERWARD. If I never hear of Denethor again in my life I will have heard too much. BYE.

Okay, time to address the matter of Aragorn and Eowyn. Given my utter love and devotion to each of them respectively (and my wish to be them), I would like to formally state that I actually like how things have turned out so far. When I first watched Two Towers and saw what was developing I was firmly against it. I also didn't like Eowyn. But since I have now read halfway through The Two Towers and watched the first part of ROTK and all of Two Towers, I have changed my mind. Eowyn is a fucking badass (as I have said before) and I love her. I want to be her. I feel the same way about Aragorn. It would be wonderful if they were together, if Aragorn was not previously committed to someone else. I believe that the bond that Aragorn and Arwen made between themselves is unbreakable, especially since Arwen gave up her immortality to be with Aragorn and bestowed him the gift of her Evenstar. I now understand, however, that Aragorn believed that Arwen was leaving Middle Earth via the Grey Havens, along with an envoy of elves, never to return again. Given that context, I understand the nuances of the relationship between Eowyn and Aragorn. Once Elrond informed Aragorn that Arwen had stayed, he very quickly and clearly communicated to Eowyn that nothing could ever happen between them. I respect that, but I also feel bad for Eowyn. I love her. I love him. The look on her face when he leaves to summon the Army of the Dead... Heartbreaking.

On that note I would like to once again express my love for Eowyn and her badassery, and my disdain at Eomer for that "war is the province of men" comment! Was that honestly necessary? Same thing with Merry. You have to willing and able soldiers who want to fight to protect the things they love, but because of the provenance of their stature or gender they are somehow unworthy to fight just like every other soldier of Rohan or Gondor? Good on Eowyn for saying fucking that, finding some armor that fit her, hoisting Merry onto her horse, and riding into battle with the rest of them. I would give my life for this woman.

NOW TO DISCUSS SOME OF THE PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED GIFS!

Okay so it was really just one GIF. I can't find the rest of the GIFs.... TBD... ANYWAY I didn't realize until last night that this GIF takes place during the scene where Aragorn believes that he has failed in summoning the Army of the Dead and exits the mountain to see the forces of Mordor congregating on the Anduin next to Gondor. Heartbreaking :(

Another scene that brought tears to my eyes and sent shivers down my spine was the one where Aragorn receives Anduril from Elrond (as well as news of Arwen). There are no good GIFs of it that I can find on Google but I do have this (which really doesn't do it justice, I highly suggest searching the clip up on YouTube):

This whole scene was just utterly empowering. You can see Aragorn coming into his own as heir to the throne of Gondor, you can feel his growing power and the shot where he pull Anduril out of the scabbard is masterfully shot and choreographed. Although in the books Aragorn does receive Anduril in The Fellowship of the Ring and not in the Return of the King, I believe this rewrite was perfectly written, planned, and implemented. The whole sequence of the reforging of Anduril, Arwen's recitation of the famous poem that we first encounter at the beginning of the first book,

From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be the blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.

and Aragorn receiving it from his mentor Elrond and pulling it out of its sheath is awe-inspiring. The poem itself, every time I encounter it, brings tears to my eyes. This scene gives me hope. It makes me strong. Everyday I try to be like Aragorn. He is one of my foremost role models. I know that if I'm acting like Aragorn would act, I am doing the right thing.

Professor Tolkien's writings, and the thousands of subsequent artists who adapted his work so wonderfully and perfectly, hold a very special place in my heart. I think that they will for the rest of my life.

I believe we've come to the end of this update. I'm ending on a more somber and serious note this time. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading. As you can probably see, Tolkien is a topic I am always willing to discuss at length. I'm really excited to watch the second part of ROTK (the last part of the entire LOTR trilogy!!) and I will make sure to post an update on here when I do. Hoping to see an epic conclusion! Until then, "Forth Eorlingas!" my friends! Take care of yourselves and stick around. I hope to talk to you all again soon! :)

[littlx-songbxrd]

Ok I meant to answer you're question about what I thought of the show ages ago but I forgot.

I LOVED IT OMGGGG! I got so many kitty vibes from Wilhelm and Simon! The touching! The softness! It's those vibes exactly! I want that energy in TWP.

COMRADE SIMON!! We stan! That speech he made at the very beginning about the differences in attitudes towards "tax evasion" vs. "Welfare fraud." Legend behavior.

Sara!!!! My girl!!!!!! An autistic/adhd character PLAYED BY AN AUTISTIC ACTRESS!!!! THIS IS SO HUGE!!! I would die for my problematic queen. I made an entire post on her but the gist is, I get where she's coming from and understand why she feels the way she feels but dear God girl make better choices and stay the hell away from August.

Speaking of.... I wanna run August over several times. Vroom vroom motherfucker. The fact that he

- filmed MINORS HAVING SEX AND TGE POSTED IT ONLINE

-kissed Sara behind Felice's back when they were still dating WITHOUT HER CONSENT BTW

- Wanted to blame Simon for the drugs because he knew it would be easy because Simon's family is lower class and doesnt have the same social standing as one of the "members of the society"

- Also it didn't escape my notice that the cult like faternety type group with all the rich, mainly white boys is called The Society. This shows commentary on class is vv interesting. Especially the little things like two girls just randomly advocating for THE DEATH PENALTY. The rich people audacity.

-Anyways back to August, when he tried to excuse his actions with Wilhelm and get all teary like no bitch you can't manipulate your way out of this one. And again with Sara! When he said "Wilhelm has everything" I wanted to scream! Like he's fucking closeted and clearly suffering from panic attacks and extreme anxiety you moron.

-Anyways!! I also think that Wilhem might be autistic because he just feels autistic. Like the vibes are there.

- The girl group is so sweet? And to have the popular girl be a Black girl who isn't "stereotypically attractive" with a more medium sized body and bad acne. As someone who has really bad skin I needed that. Felice is kinda awesome imo.

Let me see what else??

-Simon and his mom speaking Spanish consistently throughout the show. It sounded pretty natural to me? But I'm not a native speaker. (Or even fluent honestly lol.)

- Simon and Wilhelm are honestly so adorable and in love and it made my heart ache. (I am so touch starved I swear..)

-My only main beef is the outing plotline and the show using an outdated medical term for Sara, aspergers. It's literally just autism. Also it's kind of offensive because Hans Asperger was a n*zi who literally killed autistic children because they weren't useful to capitalism. SOOOO yeah.

As for the outing plotline, I feel like the cishets have like three plotlines that they use for queer stories. Outing/coming out, one of them dies, or one if them bullies the other until they both fall in love. It's tired.

But overall I really loved it.

HI SORRY I HADNT REPLIED

I wanted to correctly talk to you about this series so I logged in through my computer to make it easier for me :D

LOOK AT THIS POINT IVE RELATED THEM TO LITERALLY EVERY COMFORT SHIP I HAVE LIKE. I've compared this to kitty, I've compared this to Thomastair, I've compared this to my friends to ocs who she has obsessed me with (youd actually like them if you liked this tbh) IVE COMPARED ME TO MY OCS

BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY I JUST LOVE THEM

IF KITTY DOESNT HAVE THIS ENERGY IN TWP WHAT WAS THE POINT

what was the point cc??

S I M O N

OH GOD WHEN HE SAID THAT I WENT OMG YEAH

new favorite character

Great

SHES PLAYED BY AN AUTISTIC ACTRESS?? Sorry I hadn't known! Haven't actually gotten to obsessively look at the cast I've been trying to get over the last episode BUT THATS SO COOL. SARA IS AMAZING AND I ADORE HER. I'll read your post after this! But of course STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM AUGUST GIRL PLEASE

Tbh I understood where she was coming from with everything with Simons image falling apart and her having to suffer when she had just started having friends , just after finding he had been lying to her. But love, AUGUST?

A U G U S T ???

WHO JUST FOUND OUT OUTED YOUR BROTHER

Also random and stealing this from @marzzinaa i totally hc Sara as a demi girl for some reason

Im kinda sad we didnt see her speak spanish as much we did simon :(

But oh well I LOVE HER AND YEAH STAY AWAY FROM AUGUST GOD

FAE WE RUN HIM OVER TOGETHER BROOM BROOM

You already said it all, I just agree

Ok I'll bring a machete you bring whatever you wish and we kill him sound good?

ALSO YEAH I TOTALLY NOTICED HOW THE ECONOMIC DINAMICS CAME INTO PLAY AND HOW IT BASICALLY LET YOU KNOW HOW THE PRIVILEGED ELITES COULD GET AWAY WITH ANYTHING

meanwhile they wanted to pass off to Simon who came from a lower class family the blame

Also I'd like to mention how that would also play into the stereotype latinos are all drug dealers

Which I love how they didnt make his dead beat alcoholic man the latino parent, when I first read the description I thought they might do that, but im so glad they didnt

I think it might have been a comentary idk i liked that they DIDNT make the poc parent the dead beat

THE FRIEND GROUP WAS SO COOL AND I LOVED ALL OF THEM AND YES FELICE WAS JUST <3

I love how they didnt make her stereotypically perfect AND YES MID SIZED REP WAS AMAZING TO SEE

Also im so glad you got to see that represented!!

So I am a native speaker and him talking to his mom MADE ME CRY

it was WONDERFUL I WANT MORE OF IT

pls most her phrases reminded me to my own mom

Autistic wilhelm you say?? omg tell me more (if you want)

Oh thats awful, well I'll just refer to Sara as autistic and hope the showrunners fix that next season because if they dont-

Yikes

Oh yeah, thats valid critisism. But in my opinion they actually wrote it pretty well so I wont really be complaining about an overall media problem with queer stories rn. If so I'll be here all day. But yeah its an overall problem but it wasnt done bad in my opinion so!

I'll shut up, for now

IM SO GLAD YOU LIKED IT FEEL FREE TO KEEP TALKING ABOUT IT WITH ME PLS ITS MY OBSESSION NOW IM GONNA BE ANNOYING ABOUT IT ALL MONTH