#if you ever want to contribute to that

[vesselsscarlet]

Just decorated my iPad once again with the stickers i got from @a-s-levynn (Tiny Tokens), the DYWTYLM creature from @fivewholeminutes and the cute chibi token ones from @l3earfat-st 🫶🏼 I love every single one I got and they are always with me at uni.🥺🫶🏼

[theredqueenandthebloodwyrm]

Bout to start gnawing and biting motherfuckers on here, istg. Fuck you third party voters, fuck you "I didn't vote because that would taint me", fuck you holier-than-thou moral purity fuckers. Fuck anyone who voted for Trump.

[zylphiacrowley]

☼

[withthewindinherfootsteps]

I AM NOW THE PROUD OWNER OF A 400-PAGE LONG BOOK OF ACADEMIC ANALYSIS ABOUT MDZS (both the novel and CQL, as well as the wider danmei sphere, internet authorship, fan reactions in both CN and non-CN spheres, and so many more interesting things – there are photos of the contents list below) >:DDDD

I only got it this afternoon so have only read the (quite long?) excerpt available online and pages I came across while flipping through, but everything I've read so far is really interesting and well-written. If you're interested, it's promoted on the blog of @pumpkinpaix, where there are also chapter spotlights with comments from authors of each paper/chapter about them and about MDZS in general (which is how I found out about it, one came up in tumblr's 'based on this tag you follow...' recommendation), as well as FAQs (including where to buy it, though I did link that at the start). Alternatively, all posts about it are in the tag #catching chen qing ling!

I really recommend it, especially if content about MDZS interests you! and I promise I haven't been told to advertise this it's just something so so cool... a collection of academic work about MY FAVOURITE BOOK... and I know people do follow me for meta/analysis so this might be the sort of thing people looking at this blog will be interested in..?

[ifmagicexists]

i'm sure it's been said somewhere before but thinking very hard about "no man, however great, can know his destiny. like everyone he must live and learn, and so it must be for the young warlock.." like. the very first line of the entire series. explicitly said by kilgarrah to apply to merlin as well. and yet kilgarrah tried otherwise. he told merlin up front what his destiny was and tried to push him away from living through the bad things whenever possible.

and it feels like kilgarrah reflecting on everything after the fact because he thought he could change it!! he thought maybe by telling him the good stuff it could be happy this time. maybe merlin could become the greatest warlock and help arthur become a great leader and fulfil all of those prophecies and make all those great things happen but also he could kill mordred and destroy morgana and erase all his enemies and still be that great person.

except he couldn't, of course. and by telling him and trying to control the narrative kilgarrah sealed his fate; destiny doesn't allow for choices. it just doesn't work like that, and they all learned, and kilgarrah lived and learned and is left simply with that lesson: that no one can know their destiny.

[backpackingspace]

Okay but consider post Canon over protective Athena who is sick to death of her most devout being raped.

Athena sticking close to the whole family and promising penelope that she'll keep a close eye on odysseus the first time he has to go into the market and penelope can't go with him. (She was going to go anyway. She's never actually going to let any of them out of her sight ever again. And it's an easy promise to her dearest weaver who seems so distressed to have odysseus leaving her side.)

Athena fully manifesting in the market when someone grabs odysseus with godly flashes of snakes and owls and the drums of war to scream /release him/ (odysseus is feeling indulgent for both his patron and his wife it's so cute that they're this worried it's not like he couldn't defend himself just fine. Especially from whatever poor fuck just grabbed him who definitely doesn't deserve a goddess screaming in his face. Hes trying so hard not to laugh if he did athena would send him flying.)

Athena telling all the other gods that yes she knows odysseus is the favorite barbie doll she choose him well after all and to back the fuck off if any of them bother him again they will have made an enemy of her.

Athena disguising odysseus only as an old beggar from here on out instead of an irresistibly tall and handsome man. Because she saw how uncomfortable nausicaa's attention made him.

[penguin-stars]

Something I initially really liked about Cale's character is how he suddenly became the "trash" of the count's family and he seemingly takes it as an asshole permit.

No manners, rude? Well duh, He's the local trash.

And then, hundreds of chapters later it hit me:

This guy really never changed the way he acted, he says so himself and it's why Choi Han was able to easily recognize him in Choi Jung Soo's memories.

Which begs the question: What sort of internal narrative did he have going on as Kim Rok Soo to "justify" his behavior?

Baby Rok Soo was at the bottom of the social ladder, an orphan, poor and his uncle was an alcoholic and a gambling addict to boot

How many times do you think he heard things like "What can you expect from someone without parents?", or "Just what you would expect from someone who wasn't raised properly"

"Someone of your kind"

And then he became a Team Leader

How many things did he do or didn't do under the pretense of being "Cold-blooded"

It also doesn't help that he's unable to process praise or kindness directed at him.

[niuxita21]

😭😭

[implodingpotato]

HOMRA logo cross-stitch patterns for @kresurrectionfest! Full patterns and Color Guide: Colored Black & White

[mohntilyet]

really wish varric survived because if there was anyone who would have defended tyche for lying about all that for several months straight it would have been him. it's a coping mechanism. he'd understand <3

[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

[gingerpeachtea]

i love the small moment during sympathy for the duke where the duke puts satine's sheer robe back on her shoulders. you can kind of see the beginning of it in the last gif of this post by ashleyslorens.

satine, knowing exactly what the duke wants, decides to push her and the duke forward by taking her robe off her shoulders and posing in a way she knows he'll find enticing. she's the one to take that first step forward—which is crucial, considering she knows she's going to have to relinquish control to him in mere moments. satine being the one to initiate is her trying to set the pace they move at, instead of just letting the duke call the shots.

the duke sees and recognizes this, and so he puts his hands on her shoulders and then slips the robe back up her arms and on her body. he then establishes what he wants from her—everything—and thus establishes the full control he'll have over her.

we can also see him use the robe to strip her of her control in other moments throughout the number. about halfway through, the duke grabs satine's shoulders and tears the robe off of her rather suddenly. she plays along, and then follows his lead (a beckoning "come here" motion with his finger). he's telling her where to go; he's the one making the decisions. she still has the robe in hand, and does some flirty choreography with it. the duke then violently rips it from her hands, to satine's visible shock, which she then has to mask in order to keep him happy as 'the sparkling diamond'.

there is definitely more to be said about how the duke uses clothing as a means of controlling satine, but i just wanted to highlight this one instance, especially that particular moment with him putting the robe back on her that i found really interesting.

[thevegetablewhichnoonedaresname]

sorry. I just saw another video with some guy being "hurr durr Japanese has two syllabaries plus kanji so why don't they just ditch kanji and one of the syllabaries and start putting spaces between the words" idk man why does English retain spelling patterns from a bajillion different languages instead of reforming spelling so that everything looks the way it sounds. that stuff fossilizes language history that no one's thinking about otherwise, it's really hard to convince a whole country or multiple countries full of literate people to change everything about the way they read and write, and, yeah, it does carry semantic value that you're underestimating the importance of as well. shut up. I don't ever want to hear about this again

[lyslsstuff]

If you rise up to Heaven

I'll turn the Sun to blind you

If you sleep deep in Hell

I have chains to bind you

(Lingua Ignota-DO YOU DOUBT ME TRAITOR)

((Based on @roosterhouse 's weapon au))

[cel-aerion]

This is where I'm at now, taking screenshots to compare caption colors between MatPat's character and Glitchtrap.

Send help.

(They are ever so slightly different though. I'm intrigued.)

[dead-salmon]

"at least with kamela i'll get my abortion rights back!"

did you know that the germans (who weren't queer, non-aryan, communists or related to poc&jews) benefited a lot from electing hitler back then?

unemployment levels decreased from 5million to under a million! businesses profited a lot! farmers struggled less under the nazis! the general standard of living increased, working conditions improved! a lot of housing became available! (because any non..: ..cishet ..german ..aryan people got killed and their houses raided, obviously.) german childcare was great! (because the nazis sure cared about getting more little soldiers and indoctrinating their youth to blindly follow them)

fun fact: many of the people who elected hitler back then didn't even care too much about him wanting to genocide all the jews, that wasn't why they voted for him. anti-semitism ran high in all of europe for centurues, yes, but it wasn't their main reason to elect him. they got told THEIR lifes wouldn't get any worse and perhaps even BETTER, that's why they voted for him

still doesn't change the fact that they MOTHERFUCKING ELECTED THE GUY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MURDERS OF WELL OVER 6 MILLION PEOPLE

i don't fucking care how difficult and impossible electing third party will be for you. i do not fucking care how much worse trump is and how kamela is so much better in all other topics. you cannot try and look back on history and judge the german people of 1933 and then turn right back around and vote for harris because trump would be worse

you'll have just as much the blood of palestinians on your hands as the germans of 1933 have the blood of all the holocaust victims on theirs

be motherfucking aware that with this elections you're forfeiting your right to ever judge the people who elected hitler back then again

look i won't judge you for wanting to save your own life if you're part of a marginalized group. i won't judge you for being scared of trump. i will not judge you on self-preservation, i don't have the right to do that.

i will however judge you for the way you talk about the genocide in relation to the us-election (this is @ the "singular issue" crowd). i will judge you for who you're willing to sacrifice for your own life (how many until it's too much?). i will judge you for the way you'll talk about contributors of genocides for the rest of your life ("how could the germans elect hitler back then!?" promised benefits, the same way you're willing to elect a genocide endorser for your own).