#it was actually good

[shallow-wordsalad]

mtg story spoilers ahead.

...in stark contrast to my last gigantic rant about MtG's story, the stories for March of the Machine were actually really good. by simple virtue of having more time and space to tell them, the consequences felt more real, the character's motivations and states were more explored, and the events that happened felt earned and were delivered well. characters actually died, and some lived - but not without cost. Nissa and Ajani get to live on, but at the cost of Karn's spark and Melira's life. Jace and Vraska's fates are unknown. Nahiri and Lukka are just plain dead (couldn't have happened to better people, tbh), and Tamiyo is...a...text-ghost?? which I presume is kind of like being dead - I can't imagine she still has her spark or her magic like that. it all feels very much like there was an *actual* gigantic battle, and it was costly to win, but there was a victory unquestionably.

the vignettes about the invasions of various planes were, on the whole, very good and really brought up the tension and fear of the Phyrexian invasions - making absolute monsters out of the invading zombie-robots that rightly inspire terror in everyone unfamiliar with them. the one about Zendikar was the Big Suck, but I'm gonna gloss over that one because it was mostly about Nahiri and honestly she gets what she deserves - not just narratively, but in quality of writing as well.

despite a really, *and I mean really* rough lead-in, I think March of the Machine is MtG finally getting the "epic, grand-scale battle" story right. Battle for Zendikar felt tropey and overhyping of the Gatewatch, taking out Ulamog and Kozilek *way* too early and frankly too easily. War of the Spark was--actually you know what let's just pretend War of the Spark never happened. but MoM felt good. The length of the story was just right, with plenty of ups and downs, rises and falls for the heroes, and - and this part is key - a lot of characters getting to matter. characters normally relegated to being B-list actors got to be major players and do things that were huge for them - Wrenn speaking with Realmbreaker and convincing it to save the planes (what a great moment, so obvious and yet I didn't think of it), Karn fighting his pacifism and guilt to kill a true evil that absolutely needed to die for the sake of everyone (yes!), Ral Zarek whopping Vraska in one blow (my boy), and all the legends of the planes fighting against the invasion in their own ways and in ways that fit the themes and tropes of those planes - not just throwing spells on a battlefield.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I really enjoyed reading this, and I hope we retain this level of quality for any future stories. and for god's sake please give the writers this much room to breathe for *everything* from here on - letting the writers have more chapters to write and more space to explore makes the writing *so* much better.

[claireandcrap]

Hi so go watch the new Mario movie its good and i loved it.

[dtaegis]

today i ate my first mc donalds

[desperatepleasures]

one time I used the ben affleck smoking reaction image in the family group chat and my mom replied with the funniest possible response which was: "mommy doesn't know who the guy is???" and that phrase has not left my brain since. I'll see blorbos on my dash that I don't recognize and I'll be like well it seems mommy doesn't know who the guy is.

[razzafrazzle]

Just Checking In! (aka Something About Red Triangles)

[lambergeier]

the real danger of spending too much time with friends is you stumble out of ten days of happiness and good food like oh my god THAT was real life. my job means NOTHING

[marisatomay]

People will claim to be a fan of some thing and then hate all of the themes and motifs and story lines and plot lines and protagonists and antagonists like man I don’t think that you actually like it here

[hamletthedane]

Thinking about him (the soldier in Poynter’s Faithful Until Death painting watching an apocalypse unfold around him with horror in his eyes as he tries to keep himself standing beneath a doorway, based on an actual 19th century archeological find of a man in full soldier’s garb under a doorway at Pompeii)

[gwydionae]

Behold, one of my best friend's Halloween costumes, recorded and uploaded by a complete stranger with over a million views on tiktok! (I'm so proud!!)

[roseworth]

i think theres this idea in the general public that the "best" fanfic gets turned into real books like 50 shades of grey. but the truth is that the best fanfic can never be published as an actual book because its intricately woven into the canon material so its inseparable even if you change the names

[keithbutgay]

hi!

um

yeah

notes goal post

because i really need motivation

(i stole some of these but shhhhh)

if this post gets 50 notes i'll drink water right now

100 i'll go to bed at midnight for the rest of the week

200 i'll actually do my laundry

500 i'll take a shower every day for the rest of the week

1,000 i'll brush my teeth every night for a full week

2,000 i'll stop binding for an unhealthy amount of time for a full week

3,000 i'll start actually wearing my ankle braces consistently

4,000 i'll eat breakfast every day for the rest of the week

5,000 i'll stop binding while sleeping

6,000 i'll stop wearing earrings i'm allergic to for a full week

7,000 i'll start doing makeup again

8,000 i'll stop eating chocolate for the rest of the week

9,000 i'll make my autodale masks

10,000 i'll touch grass every day for the rest of the month

11,000 i'll water my plants twice a week for the rest of the month

12,000 i'll put on my lotion when i need to for a full week

13,000 i'll eat at least two meals every day for the rest of the week

14,000 i'll finish my water bottle every day for a full week

15,000 i'll write more for forest files

18,000 i'll clean out my backpack

19,000 i'll take my vitamins every day for the rest of the week

20,000 i'll finish my stained glass project

21,000 i'll go to bed before midnight for the rest of the week

22,000 i'll do my summer reading

23,000 i'll move the knife out of my room

24,000 i'll eat three meals every day for three days

25,000 i'll stop purposefully triggering myself for a full week

50,000 i'll try my best to stay clean for two full weeks

i'll probably add more goals if this somehow get past 5k, but there it is for now :)

spam allowed

tagging allowed

ummm the deadline is halloween

*thumbs up*

go for it

[marzipanandminutiae]

"hey why are all the barrier garments like linen shirts or chemises or combinations going away?"

"oh we have more washable fabrics now! you don't need to worry about sweat reaching your outer clothing when you can just chuck it in the washing machine!"

"cool!"

[100 years later]

"so uh all of those new washable fabrics are leaching microplastics into our water, and the constant machine-washing wears garments out faster. they're also not really sturdy enough to be mended, so we keep having to throw them out and now the planet is covered in plastic fabric waste that will never break down. also it turns out that the new washable fabrics hold odor-causing bacteria VERY well. so could we get those barrier garments back please?"

"sorry babe linen now costs $100000/yard and since it's been so long without them, nobody knows how to adapt barrier garments to the current styles anyway"

"..."

"maybe try this new $50 undershirt made of Special Sweat-Wicking Plastic Fabric! :) :) :)"

[frankierotwinkdeath]

Y’all want Taylor Swift to be gay so bad but you won’t even write femslash about her

[problemnyatic]

the steven universe hate is insane bc people are (or at least were) more upset that fictional war criminals got fictional hugs than they recognize that it singlehandedly advanced queer rep in children's media by lightyears and then straight up ate heavy retaliation for the nerve.

It does have real flaws that are worth discussing, but it also put their male protagonist in dresses and skirts and played it straight and even empowering, they aired a lesbian wedding on television, it was a genuinely queer, genuinely diverse piece of media through and through. It did a lot of real good for the real world.

But also the fictional characters caused fictional harm to other fictional characters, and didn't get an onscreen firing squad sentence. So, you know, it's basically ontologically evil in real life.

[endreal]

Apparently there was some kind of race scheduled at a local park or something so I've been trying to avoid the main trail but a little while ago when I had to cross near it I overheard the following shouted exchange

Higher feminine voice: woo, look at you go! You're jogging! Keep it up!

Lower masculine voice (panting): you know it! Last place is still a place, baby!

And goddamn if that didn't rewire my brain a little bit.

Last place is still a place, baby.

[liquidstar]

If my mom sees a significant amount of blood she gets lightheaded, and has fainted on some occasions. Once it happened when we were kids, I wasn't there to witness it but I heard the story from my dad. Basically my brothers, around 7 or 8 at the time, were playing outside while my mom was making their lunch, and she accidentally cut her finger. It wasn't anything serious, but it drew a fair bit of blood and she passed out. My dad saw this and rushed over, but he didn't really know what to do so he just sort of started slapping her to wake her up (not recommended, but he had no idea and panicked)

At that exact moment my brothers both came in from playing, and all they saw was our mom unconscious on the floor and our dad slapping her. So, like, without even saying a word to each other they both just INSTANTLY start whaling on him, like, full blown attack mode to defend our mom. Which obviously didn't help the situation, but she did wake up and everything was fine.

Now our dad says that he's actually really glad they attacked him over what they thought was going on, because it means he raised good boys. And I still think that's true, they're very good boys.