#despite the fact he quickly learns to see trolls as people rather than 'creatures'

[saturnniidae]

'To Catch a Changeling' was the first episode where Jim actually kills someone (not counting goblins), and I've always wished there had been some kind of focus on the moral ramifications he experienced because of that.

Because there's no way he just went from being unable to kill a gnome, a creature considered a common pest, to killing a person with no afterthoughts other than: "oh man! I killed our only evidence of changelings in arcadia!"

Though I guess he could've just been doing a shit ton of compartmentalizing as well as justifying it to himself with the fact she was going to kill both him and Toby. But still, there's no way he didn't feel at least somewhat guilty.

[evolutionsvoid]

It is sad to see how many people have bad feelings towards trolls, including folks who have never even set foot near the habitat they dwell in. Tales and superstition have done everything they can to make these creatures seem like vicious monsters, despite the fact that they are rather peaceful when left alone. Valiant "heroes" seek to protect towns from these beasts (though I suspect most just use that as an excuse for a hunting trophy) and miners complain of how destructive and terrible these "pests" are (ignoring the fact that they were the ones doing the territory invading and home destroying). Hearing all this rubbish and seeing how wonderful these creatures actually are, I have kind of taken it as a personal mission to help their image and spread better information. One of the big things that I think would help people change their mind about trolls is telling them about their sociability and the strength of their family bonds. Though others like to pretend that trolls are destructive loners that seek only malice, they are actually incredibly sociable creatures. As they travel, eat, sleep and look for partners, trolls will always happily take the company of others. The grunts, snorts and bellows they let out to each other may sound crude, but it is a form of communication between them. Even competing bachelor males may take the time to size each other up and get a few playful pushes to see who is the toughest. If such a meeting escalates, they do not go into fisticuffs, rather they perform feats of strength to intimidate the other. The most common is picking up a large boulder and hoisting it high in the air, just like they do when trying to attract females. The one with the heaviest rock wins, and the winner can puff their chest out with pride and let out a cocky snort. Those who do not have families of their own will often travel in groups, both for extra protection and so that they have others to interact with. They may partake in social grooming or playfully bat around rocks with each other for amusement. If something curious is found, the whole group may gather round to check it out and give it inquisitive pokings. While this type of social interaction is leaps and bounds more than some other species, you haven't seen such a bond until you have watched a troll family. When trolls pick a partner during the breeding season, it is often for life. The male and female will rarely leave each others side. This can be seen when the female undergoes the birthing process, as the male will guard her rocky shell with every ounce of his strength. When it comes time for her and her trogling to emerge, he will help crack open the cocoon and protect them as they re-adapt to the outside world. Once one or more troglings are added to the family, they will become inseparable. Mom and Dad will watch over their young and help rear them until they are big and strong. The mother will be the one who provides food for the youngsters most of the time, vomiting up digested rocks into a mushy "slag" that the troglings can eat. The father may provide as well, especially if the female is sick or tired. Both parents will work to teach their young the ways of locating tasty rocks and smashing apart large boulders with their forearms. In some cases, they don't even need to try and form a lesson, as troglings tend to mimic their parents in an utterly adorable manner. When one of the parents is cracking open a chunk of stone with their arms, you can see the young try to copy them using much smaller stones. Lacking the strength of the adults, it becomes somewhat comedic when they try smashing their rock apart with little avail. It is kind of like watching a toddler with a toy hammer try to act like their blacksmith parents! If there is any part of trolls that could warm anyone's heart, it is the troglings. These young ones are absolutely bursting with energy and curiosity, so much so that it can tire me out just watching them! They absolutely love to play and run about, and they especially love to act like their big and strong parents! You should see them when the family is on the move, as the young ones try to imitate the big tough aura of their parents. They will hold their head high, puff their chest out and strut along with comically high steps. It is both hilarious and adorable to watch! When it isn't imitating mom and dad, it is time for play, as troglings never seem to stop moving. They are either knocking a bunch of rocks around, or scampering around their parents or finding something to chase and wrestle. I don't know how the folks keep up with them! Sooner or later they will tucker themselves out, and the folks will carry them on their backs, but it takes forever to reach that stage! When dinner time comes around, the mothers practically have to catch them and hold the squirming little ones until they realize they should eat. It is extra hard to get their attention when they come across another trogling. Be it a sibling or a child from another troll couple, troglings become friends almost instantly and will quickly get down to playing and wrestling. The two latch on to one another and go rolling about as they "fight," letting out playful snorts and barks. They tumble about with such speed and energy that you would be hard pressed to tell the two apart! While this playing is adorable to watch, it is not something I would suggest taking part in. Though they are babies, they are still incredibly strong compared to other species. I once got into a scenario where a trogling thought I was a playmate and it nearly snapped me in half. Their roughhousing and bear hugs are harmless to other troglings, but to the rest of us it is quite the opposite! I think the only species who could really play with a trogling without having their bones crushed would be demons, and even then it would have to be an adult one!

It is strange to say, but if there was any danger to be had from trolls it would come from the curious troglings. I am not saying that they are a menace, and don't you dare think this is fuel for your anti-troll crap! What I am saying is that despite their cuteness and playful nature, one should be mindful to keep their distance from troglings. I say this because adult trolls do not have the energy the young do, and they are not ones to go bounding off towards every little thing. If you were to stroll past a group of adult trolls, they may watch you but they will rarely give chase. The young, however, will go after every point of interest. A marmot dashing amongst the rocks will have troglings scrambling after them, eager to chase and play. Unfortunately, troglings are not accustomed to their strength, and the small critters they catch often wind up crushed. Once again, this is not done out of malice or hate, but it is just young ones not yet grasping the idea of delicacy. That is the reason why one should keep a safe distance from family groups that have troglings, as you have a chance of catching their curiosity and attention. This advice may sound weird, but I suggest you act as boring as possible when you encounter a nearby trogling. Do not run or make any fast movements. Do not show bright colors and make any weird sounds. Try to be slow and dull, so that they don't find you worth checking out. If you somehow do have a trogling bounding towards you, do not run. Instead, go limp and do not make any effort to fight back. They are in a playful mood, and any struggling or fighting will be interpreted as play and they will keep going. If you go prone and do not react, they will hopefully get bored and go back to mom. The one thing to NEVER do, and I mean NEVER, is try to harm or hurt the trogling. Some folk suggest jabbing or hitting them in the eyes or respiratory orifices to scare them off, and it is advice that will land you straight into the grave. The other reason not to tangle with troglings is because mom is incredibly protective of them. Even if she is laying back and chewing on a hunk of slate, her eyes and ears are constantly on her young. The second they get anywhere close to danger, she is bounding after them and scooping them up in her arms. If she hears even the slightest yip of actual pain, she will be on the warpath. You don't know fear until you see an angry troll mom barreling straight towards you! A colleague of mine got to see this protectiveness when he went to tour the mountains. He hired a "guide" (I say this because I am pretty sure this idiot was just looking for some easy coin) to take him out to the plateaus and vistas. When they spotted a troll family, my friend was eager to watch and learn. The "guide" coaxed him into getting closer, boasting about how knowledgeable he was in the field of trolls. As they approached, the young one noticed them and went bouncing over to investigate. My colleague was terrified, but the "guide" told him there was nothing to be afraid of. Mom and dad were busy crushing rocks, and the young ones could be easily scared off. When the trogling got too close for comfort, the man took his sheathed sword and used it to smack the young one right between the eyes. The poor thing let out a frightened yelp and went scrambling back to mom. The "guide" turned to my friend with a smug grin of "see? I know what I am doing" right before a boulder the size of a horse turned him into a red mist. From the story, it sounds like my colleague was inches away from the huge missile as it sailed past and wiped the fool from existence. Turned out mom was watching and she wasn't happy that someone hurt her baby. The tale ends with my friend running for his life as an angry mother pounded her fists against the ground and bellowed louder than the thunder. So if you don't want to be paste, leave the young ones alone and keep your distance! One last thing I wanted to mention is how all trolls interact with their young. While it is easy to see why the mother and father care and protect their troglings with their lives, it is not something they do alone. From what I and many other researchers have seen, it seems that all trolls show a level of kindness and protectiveness towards troglings, even those that do not belong to them. Trolls outside the family group will allow the young ones to run about and even clamber all over them with hardly a complaint. They will even share food with them if the young ones appear hungry. Slag is not something only females produce, as males can regurgitate it too if a trogling needs something to eat. If tragedy occurs and a trogling is orphaned, practically any troll they encounter will take them in and care for them. All females will immediately take a parentless young one, even if they have some of their own. Lone males will even allow them to hang around, feeding them and protecting them until they find a female to pass them off to. So while other species may hold grudges or dissent towards young ones that are not their own, trolls will not follow such rough ideals. No matter what happens, they will stand with one another and will do what they can to help out their kind. A heartwarming thing to think about, I say! Now bring that up the next time someone wants to talk ill about trolls! Chlora Myron Dryad Natural Historian --------------------------------------------------------------------- I love my trolls and have always wanted to draw up what young one would look like. It turned out adorable.    

[obijuan-cannoli]

Ok so I watched The Last Jedi sunday morning and like every SW fan out here I have A LOT of feelings about it. Even if I rather enjoyed it, there’s still quite a lot of problems in terms of plot and characterization that really bothered me and made me question whether or not Rian Johnson actually watched a SW movie before or if he just decided to change everything for the sake of originality and shock value (he did).

So here’s a list of everything I liked and hated about TLJ, because I need to vent for the sake of my sanity (also, it’s my blog so I do what I want). Spoilers under the cut.

What I liked :

- the cinematography. Probably the best thing about the movie tbh. I don’t remember everything but here’s some shots are really liked : basically all the scenes on Ahch-To, the battle of Crait, the Finn-Phasma fight, the long wide shot of the burning Jedi temple, Snoke’s red chamber...

- new amazing creatures. Porgs are useless but they’re cute so I don’t care, I love them anyway. The nathiers and the crystal foxes are beautiful. My favorites are probably the Ahch-to’s nuns - I hope they’re ok since Rey pretty much trashed the place.

- Finn. Every time he’s on screen I’m happy. That’s the power of John Boyega.

- BB8 being the real hero of this trilogy. Please someone give those droids a medal.

- Rey calling Kylo out on his bullshit at the beginning of the movie.

- the truth about Rey’s parents (at least what Kylo tells her about, he could be lying for all we know). I really thought she would be a Skywalker but I’m actually happy she isn’t. I don’t think I would have liked the thought of Luke abandoning her on Jakku. By the way I really like that scene at the beginning when she asks Kylo why he killed his father, how upset she is over Han’s death and can’t understand how Kylo could kill a father who loved him when her own parents willingly abandoned her. She never had that kind of love and doesn’t understand giving it up so easily.

- Rey turning Kylo down in the end.

- Leia understanding she can’t turn her son back to the light anymore.

- pretty much every scene in which Rey holds a lightsaber.

- though the best scene of the movie is probably the one where the Supremacy gets cut in half at lightspeed by vice admiral Holdo with nothing but the deafening silence of space in the background. TRUE CINEMA.

- that cute (but alas) short moment between Rey and Finn at the end.

- Luke being a troll and then slapping Rey’s hand with that leaf.

- Luke being tired™.

- Luke kissing Leia on the forehead with that lens flare.

- Luke winking at C3PO.

- Luke giving this force projection a whole new look like the fashion icon he is.

- and Kylo loosing his shit when Luke appeared on the battlefield.

- Hux’s “do you think you got him?”.

- I’m still in denial about Luke’s death but that last scene with Luke’s theme song and the two suns mirroring Luke’s introduction on Tatooine in ANH... I was crying real tears folks. I didn’t want Luke to die but at least he had a beautiful death.

- LUKE.

- to continue with the soundtrack, John Williams re-used a lot of music from the original trilogy but I loved it anyway and I’m always a sucker for Luke’s theme song (obviously).

- also seing that slave kid at the end using the force, looking at the sky in hope while holding the Rebellion sign just made me so emotional. It reminded me of young Anakin in TPM.

That’s all for the fun part. Now...

What I didn’t like :

- the character assassination. I’m not going to go into too many details about Luke because I know pretty much everyone agree with me. Luke is a symbol of hope, he believed in his father and managed to bring him back to the light. Darth Vader, the man who terrorized the galaxy, cut off Luke’s hand (among other things), tortured his sister, etc. It makes absolutely ZERO SENSE for him to try to kill Ben (who is his nephew, keep that in mind), especially since he hadn’t even really done anything really dark yet. Running like a coward and refusing to help the Resistance when it’s on the verge of extinction doesn’t make sense either.

- also can we talk about what they did with Poe’s character? They turned him into a complete f*ckboy. He doesn’t listen to any of his superiors, even Leia who’s literary the face of the Rebellion and has been doing this shit for forty years. He gets A LOT of people killed by being reckless and never apologize for it. So I know it’s a complicated situation, everyone is on edge and people will die to matter what decision is taken but still. I really didn’t like this Poe, please give us back the Poe Dameron we all love in the next movie.

- Holdo. I only like her last scene (and her hair).

- Finn. Not really any problem with Finn’s character but more like the lack of Finn in the movie. I don’t know, Finn and Rose’s interactions are cute but in the end they don’t get much done. No time with Rey except for that last scene. I don’t know I just feel like we didn’t see him all that much.

- also I love Kelly Marie Tran but the character she plays is so bland. Rose is cute and all but they should have given her better lines and a better personality in general. 

- the fight with Phasma, which lasted two minutes and which Finn won only because she was distracted. It could have been epic, but no, Phasma was almost even more underused that in TFA. Gwendoline Christie deserved better.

- pretty much all the bad guys deserved better, even if they’re a piece of sh*t. I don’t care about Hux but he was made into a joke during the whole movie (the humour at the beginning between Poe and Hux felt so forced, it was cringy honestly). I actually felt sorry for Domhnall Gleeson. The only good thing was how quick he was to aim his weapon at Kylo when he saw him down. Maybe he’ll get some form of revenge in the next movie? I hope so.

- and Snoke. Ugh. What the hell Rian? Basically Snoke was killed off just to add to Kylo’s character. No explanation on who he is, where does he come from, how is it possible for Kylo to kill him so easily when Snoke can literally hear his thoughts??? Nothing makes sense. I do agree with Kylo getting tired of being Snoke’s disciple and trying to kill him at some point, but that was way too easy. Snoke is supposed to be a very strong force-user, logically he should have wiped the floor with Rey and Kylo.

- Rey and Kylo’s interactions. I don’t know if it’s because of all the Reylo shippers out here or because of all the forced heterosexuality we’re used to see in movies since basically forever, but most of their scenes made me uncomfortable. There’s actually nothing romantic or sexual about it, but it was still weird to watch. It was mostly Rey’s attitude that bugged me. I get why she was so nice with him, she tried to do the right thing and, with Luke refusing to help, she thought turning him back to the light would help the Rebellion. She never thought herself a hero, so she tried to make a hero out of Kylo. Calling him Ben to appeal to his better nature. I just thought it was a big change compared to the last film. Even at the beginning she calls him a “murderous snake”. Her attitude changed too quickly. Kylo’s behavior though didn’t really surprise me. He was manipulating her. The whole time I though about his act with Han in TFA, so to me it was pretty in character. Also with Snoke gone they’re the two most powerful force-users in the trilogy so their connection is rather logical.

- the moment their hands touched though. Was that close-up really necessary? Stop adding fuel to that Reylo nonsense.

- and that shirtless scene. I can’t even, It was embarrassing and unnecessary (as are most shirtless scenes... I’m not here to criticize Adam Driver’s workout routine).

- by the way I’m sad Kylo destroyed his mask at the beginning of the film because I thought it was a pretty dope mask.

- another weird scene was Luke and that blue milk. Who thought it was a good idea? I understand wanting to show us Luke’s routine and how he survives on Ahch-to but... not this.

- Yoda. The puppet looks weird, straight out of TESB. They should have used CGI. Or chosen to bring back Obi-Wan or Anakin.

- Leia using the force in THAT scene (you know the one). I should have liked it but it was honestly too much for me. It gave me Guardians of the Galaxy flashbacks. I understand they wanted to remind us that Leia is also strong in the force even if she wasn’t trained but... how the f*ck do you survive being blasted into space?

- general Ackbar’s death.

- the fact that pretty much all of the Resistance is dead, to the point that the Millenium Falcon can transport them all.

- the plot in general. From the beginning to the end of the movie, nothing substantial happens. The First Order is still there, still way more powerful than the Rebellion. Everyone failed at what they were supposed to do : Rey didn’t get Luke to train her (not really) and she couldn’t bring Kylo back to the light, Finn and Rose didn’t finish their mission and almost died because of it, Poe’s plans didn’t work out either, Kylo didn’t kill Luke and didn’t bring Rey to his side, Hux fails at pretty much everything lol, the Rebellion is almost extinct... And yes failure is a teacher and all of that, that’s what the movie his about (thanks Yoda) but here the movie is ONLY about failure. There’s no satisfaction about that. In generals characters make mistakes AND overcome them in the same film. Here we have to wait for episode IX to see if they did learn from these mistakes. The only one who changed at the end was Luke and he died just after that. It doesn’t make me very hopeful about the next movie.

- also WHERE IS MY MAN LANDO CALRISSIAN???

I wrote so many negative things it looks like I hated the movie but I didn’t, I’m just very critical because I love Star Wars and some characters in particular.

I realize from what I’ve written that it looks like I really hate Kylo Ren but I don’t. I like how different he is from Darth Vader. I like how childish he can behave. I like that, despite Snoke’s influence, he still has ties to the light and can’t seem to cut them. I liked his mask and his fighting style in TFA. I like how manipulative he his. And Adam Driver is a great actor. But I hate the idea of Kylo and Rey together, especially in a romantic way, and I’m afraid that’s where we may be going. I don’t want him to go back to his mother. I don’t want him to have a redemption arc. I don’t want him to be forgiven and to go back to the light. He had two movies to do that, he had plenty of people reaching out to him. Snoke is dead, Kylo doesn’t have anyone making choices for him anymore and luring him to the dark side, he’s doing it himself. He’s done too much to deserve a redemption arc and he DOESN’T want it anyway. I like him as a villain, he’s complex and entertaining, but that’s all he can be anymore. He’s not going to be hero. Having conflicted feelings doesn’t make him more of a good guy, it doesn’t erase all the shitty things he did and the people he killed. There’s only one movie left in the trilogy and I don’t see how he would be able to come back from that. Rey isn’t going to make the mistake of trusting him again, even Leia doesn’t believe in him anymore. And most of all I hate how many characters Rian Johnson butchered in The Last Jedi just to make Kylo’s character more powerful or interesting. Luke’s character was butchered just to make Kylo’s more sympathetic, Rey was too nice, Snoke too easily killed. And that’s what pisses me off the most about this movie. It could have been great if only Johnson cared as much about the other characters as he did about Kylo.