Leia Feels Darkness, composed by Daniel Ciurlizza, Bill Snyder III, and Roland Bingaman of Outlier Studios for the animated adaptation of Tom Veitch & Cam Kennedy's 1991 Dark Empire story. Utilizing the official radio drama, which features the likes of Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, the animated adaptation of Dark Empire is being made by SpikeyTortoise, the first part of which can be seen here.
Happy Amok Time Day, friendly reminder that Theodore Sturgeon, the writer of the episode, is credited with the first positive portrayal of homosexuality in science fiction with his short story The World Well Lost (1953), 14 years before Amok Time aired. Which could mean nothing.
People seem to think this is fake because it's written in English. Apart from the racism in believing that Arab doctors and nurses aren't fluent in English (a second or official language for half of Asia), Palestinians have deliberately been addressing their audience in English on every social media, from journalists to children, because they know speaking English to Westerners immediately makes people more human in their eyes. Because language is one of the ways the imperial cultural hegemony conditions us (yes, everyone in the world) to see who qualifies as "people" and who are simply a mass of bodies who were always made to suffer and die. Gazans know this deeply, which is why they have been using English to beg and plead through social media, "We're not numbers! We're not numbers! We're people like you, we speak your language, we deserve to live!" all the while they're systematically slaughtered.
Israeli forces also encircled Al Shifa Hospital yesterday and bombed it for several hours while shooting dead anyone trying to flee including medical staff moving between buildings. Not sure whether it's still continuing because WHO lost all communications with its staff there a few hours after. The last new report said that thirty-nine babies had been removed from the incubators before the power went out. It's extremely unlikely they will survive.
Please understand that these atrocities depend on the war of attrition between governments and public attention. The momentum of public outcry is difficult to sustain through repeated stonewalling and bureaucratic intractability. When we're flooded with these reports and a sense of futility and despair replaces the anger, it allows compassion fatigue to set in and the violence to become normalized. Massacring hospitals, killing sick children and openly targeting humanitarian aid workers (Netanyahu just declared the UNRWA is in league with Hamas) will become simply more news articles that fade into the background, and open genocides will soon become part of the "lesser evil".
Take care of yourselves how you can, take distance where needed, but please never tune out and give up on the two million people for whom we are the only witness and hope. Never stop boosting and sharing the news and posts you find, never stop getting out there and joining every protest you can, however small. Anger burns out, which is why activism must depend on an immovable sense of justice and uncompromising value for human life. It's not just about Gaza, it's about the kind of evil our generation will be coerced into accepting as unchangeable and inevitable hereafter.
Can I ask how Vasco reacted to hearing about Machete’s assassination? :o did he put on a brave face? Was he inconsolable? Does he imagine that if he were there, he could’ve done something (even if that isn’t true? I imagine it would be tortuous mentally and emotionally for him, poor lad
He most likely went through a mental breakdown, followed by years of paralyzing grief and depression. Vasco had proven to be outstandingly resilient and optimistic in adversity, putting on a brave face was his second nature. But this was his final 'break the unbreakable' moment. He turned withdrawn and apathetic. He had never lost anyone this abruptly before, and he became visibly paranoid about the safety and health of his family while failing to look after his own wellbeing.
Of course he kept rewinding the events in his head and second-guessing himself about whether he could've prevented this outcome somehow, even when everyone who knew about his situation kept telling him there was no reason for him to blame himself for it. He struggled with the suddenness of it, and the lack of closure, and couldn't get over thinking how the love of his life had died alone, surprised, scared and in pain, and that there was absolutely nothing he could do to remedy that. Ludovica's support was invaluable to him. Since he couldn't mourn openly she was one of the few people who were there for him.
Eventually he came to terms with what had happened and learned to live with it, and even though he slowly regained his good-humoured personality, he never fully recovered back to his previous self.
I think there's something to be said for fanfiction that loves canon in a way that’s rude. Like thank you for this wonderful thematic tragedy made out of this character’s entire arc ending in death, it was emotionally and intellectually moving, but also fuck you fuck you fuck you they live, this time and every time they live, they never died, their flaws are not their undoing, actually they have no flaws, actually they save everyone, actually who cares about a story, any story, where this one dies, actually i cared about that story so much i made a new one, actually i cared so much i unmade the old one, you gave me morals and i left them for the mortal, but they’re mine now and i will never let them die, actually thank you, actually fuck you, strongly worded letter to follow
A kiss for canon and spit in its face all at once, it’s great
I know I may dream but I think Sonic should go through a depression/guilt arc, bc you know, he thinks he straight up killed everyone he loves + his whole world while at it. He’s a really neurodivergent kid, he can’t handle something of this magnitude.
Also the second panel happens after their fight, I just wanted to get this finished quick. Anyway yeah they fought and the realization hit Sonic during it and he just froze, and Shadow decked him and probably kicked him to a new shatterspace
AU version where due to that guilt he begins to despise himself, and isolates from everyone, because he feels he’s a liability, and that anyone he comes close to will meet their doom because of him.
EDIT: After reading some theories, I came up w an alt AU version! So if all the shatterspaces are in fact the prime world getting split into pieces, same going for the gang’s personalities and such, the change is that Sonic pushes through and reunites the shards, fixing his home world! But once done so, he disappears from sight, doing the whole isolation bit. The heaviest part of the guilt arc basically gets pushed back to until the prime world’s already fixed.
Of course he deals with a lot of quilt and depression in the meantime, but he learns to bottle up and hide his emotions. Prime!Sonic is very emotional, open and talkative, but in this AU, over the course of the series, he becomes more dubdued- again, hides emotions, talks less (tho not too much less, cuz boy’s gotta mask) and starts keeping to himself more. He’s doing the whole “talking about surface troubling stuff to appear open and honest, while in fact keeping all heavier trauma concealed underneath”. Keeps on a smile, but it begins to hurt.
[start i.d.: a drawing of junior year kristen applebees. she is kneeling, defeated, looking up to the sky with her hands in her lap. she is drawn in vivid yellows and oranges, while the backdrop is twilight purple, with orange poking through. end i.d.]
The New Republic, composed by Daniel Ciurlizza, Bill Snyder III, and Roland Bingaman of Outlier Studios for the animated adaptation of Tom Veitch & Cam Kennedy's 1991 Dark Empire story. Utilizing the official radio drama, which features the likes of Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, the animated adaptation of Dark Empire is being made by SpikeyTortoise, the first part of which can be seen here.
Implementing some of Williams' compositions like The March of the Resistance, the composers noted, "Within these experiments, we explored using both original themes and styles that John Williams used on the Star Wars feature films, as well as themes and styles that Williams and George Lucas might have had as reference music when creating the original Star Wars films."
thinking about how Gotham and Bruce/Batman are cursed and how slowly, over time, by bringing each sequential Robin into his care/mission he's inadvertently cursing them as well and how it would ruin Bruce if he ever knew
aang when he says "the monks taught us" katara when she says "my grandmother used to tell me" sokka when he says "my dad" zuko when he says "my uncle" toph when. the badgermoles.