#it's baffling tbh

[championsandheroes]

I imagine a lot of Hawke's birthdays played out something like this. It's not fair, having a father who is a mage, and he won't even fulfill your one wish of being turned into a dragon :( Every year the anniversary rolls around I'm left absolutely baffled by how I've managed to keep this up all these years. Thank you for staying with me, for joining along the way, for your support, and for the laughs we've had!

If you want to support me, or just want to see more stuff that I do, there’s Patreon and society6. Or just reblog, comment and tag it with something fun, that helps too.

[hosseinis]

the thing about the mummy movies is that you really spend most of the time thinking "wow brendan fraser's character is so cool" or "man oded fehr is so mysterious and heroic" when the fact of the matter is that these two

are the absolute most batshit insane heroes in the entire franchise

these two are intellectual loner siblings with archeology backgrounds who read and speak ancient egyptian, hire a dude directly out of prison to take them to a lost city of gold, and fight mummies literally with their bare hands. twice.

no one in these movies stands a chance against the carnahans. frankly they're lethal in how willing they are to make the absolute and most undeniably deranged decisions. jonathan pickpockets a dude on fire. evy's resurrected from the dead and immediately remembers how to use sai. they're racking shotguns from a cliff in this scene and then proceed to blow away half the antagonists.

rick and ardeth should be so lucky

[sidcrosbrainworms]

today’s ao3 experience

[tempo-takoyaki]

Heaven Official's Blessing except I haven't read the book, remember nothing of the donghua, and saw a few spoilers.

Sorry, for the delay, I got sick last week and couldn't update, here is part 8 ! As always, please, no spoilers in the replies or in the reblogs! I read all the tags, and I intend on reading the novels once I'm done with this serie. In this case, a spoiler would mean any sorts of correction regarding what I've put in this comic: I know I'm wrong, this is the point of this serie. (Character's name or role in the story counts as well.)

Lots of new characters today! One of the rare thing I remember is that this whole arc happens in the Gobi desert, so I wanted to reflect that in some way. I had a lot of fun doing this part, I hope you'll enjoy it too! And happy spooky season! :D

Part 1 | <<Previous Part<< | >> Next part >> | Final Part

[conundrumoftime]

One of the fun things about shipping Haladriel and about Galadriel's story in Rings of Power, for me, is that we know exactly where this is going to end up. And I wanted to babble for a bit about where that place is because I have seen so many people view it as "she is retired to some woods to be a passive wife-and-mother who can do magic but in a mystical New Age-y way", and: no! No.

So a quick overview of where she will end up by LOTR:

Very much not removed from the war against Sauron.

She is constantly mind-battling against Sauron: One of the lines that inspired McKay and Payne's whole show was her talking about this: "I say to you, Frodo, that even as I speak to you, I perceive the Dark Lord and know his mind, or all of his mind that concerns the Elves. And he gropes ever to see me and my thought." In one of the versions of the Annatar story in Unfinished Tales, Sauron immediately realises she will be his 'chief adversary', and has apparently not changed that assessment 3500 years later.

She co-ordinates joint efforts against Sauron: The White Council that Elrond talks about in LOTR, the combined force of Ring-bearers, wizards and elf-lords that first drives Sauron out of Dol Guldur - she's not just on that, she founded it.

She gets Gandalf back after Moria and the Balrog: Galadriel learns what's happened to Gandalf from the Fellowship when they arrive in Lothlórien. The the Fellowship are sad; the elves of Lothlórien mourn; Celeborn loses it a bit and says Gandalf 'fell into folly'; but Galadriel sends Gwaihir the eagle to get him, returns him to health, updates him on the situation with Boromir, gives him some messages to take to the others, and sends him back on his way.

She is possibly in Lothlórien because of its position of strategic importance: from Unfinished Tales here, she 'saw that Lórien would be a stronghold and point of power to prevent the Shadow from crossing the Anduin in the war that must inevitably come' and that's why she and Celeborn go there. (There are other versions as with almost everything else in Tolkien, but this is one of them.) She's not there to hide away from Events.

2. Calmer than in TROP, but not all-wise and all-sweet and still pretty scary.

She is still tempted by power and world domination: "I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired to ask what you offer [...] In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the morning and the night!"

And, she doesn't just turn down the One Ring because it's abstractly eeeevil. She turns it down because she knows what she, specifically, would do with it. Sam sees a vision of the Shire, and tells her "I wish you'd take his Ring. You'd put things to rights. You'd stop them digging up the Gaffer and turning him adrift. You'd make some folk pay for their dirty work," to which she says that yes, she would: "That is how it would begin. But it would not stop with that, alas! We will not speak more of it."

And saying she wants to rule the world here is not me joking about! This is Tolkien describing that moment in LOTR:

It was not until two long ages more had passed, when at last all that she had desired in her youth came to her hand, the Ring of Power and the dominion of Middle-earth of which she had dreamed, that her wisdom was full-grown and she rejected it

People are scared of her: The only scary moment we directly see is the Ring temptation, but she does other unsettling things. When she meets the Fellowship she tests them by reading their minds and offering something they really want to see if it would make them "turn aside from the road and leave the Quest and the war against Sauron to others." (She offers Sam a garden; the One Ring later on tempts him with the same thing.) Even the hobbits are a bit disturbed by this and Boromir, who's already said he doesn't want to go into Lothlórien because people who do that never leave again, absolutely does not trust her.

Éomer, a few chapters later:

'Then there is a Lady in the Golden Wood, as old tales tell!' he said. 'Few escape her nets, they say. These are strange days! But if you have her favour, then you are also net-weavers and sorcerers, maybe.'

She's scary! She's ancient and powerful and people are scared of her.

3. Married, but not in the character-limiting way the nerdbros want it to be and would have you believe it is.

I am not telling anyone they should ship Galadriel/Celeborn or even find it interesting just because I do, but, the angry nerdbros fancasting Celeborn as Henry Cavill and talking about how he'll come back to tame her and tidy her neatly out of the narrative are writing their own little AU headcanons because that is not what's in the text.

She's the more powerful one. Partly because she's one of the 'High Elves' - she's Noldor and has lived in Valinor seen the light of the Trees - which for various reasons about the way Tolkien's elves work just makes her more powerful, partly because she has a Ring of Power and Celeborn doesn't. It's her Mirror; she's the one reading people's minds; she's the one locked in endless mental battles with Sauron; she's the one the Rohirrim (whose lands border Lothlorien's) tell each other scary stories about. Celeborn at no point ever seems to have an issue with this, and calls her his 'treasure'.

They work together. Even in a big-action-sequences sense: after Sauron's defeat, Celeborn 'led the host of Lorien over Anduin in many boats' to Dol Guldur, where Galadriel 'threw down its walls and laid bare its pits'. But the rest of the time, too: she says of him that 'together through ages of the world we have fought the long defeat'.

You really get the sense that they have been married for a loooooong time. An actual sequence of events in LOTR, somewhat condensed:

The Fellowship reveal there's a Balrog in Moria;

Celeborn goes "!!!!", complains about dwarves waking it up and says he'd never have let Gimli into Lothlorien if he'd known that;

Galadriel smacks Celeborn down for being rude to their guest;

Celeborn apologises to Gimli;

Galadriel tells the Fellowship that Celeborn is accounted the wisest of elves;

Boromir says something about "old wives' tales";

Celeborn, whose wife is one of the oldest beings in Middle-earth, tells Boromir not to be so dismissive because "old wives keep in memory word of things that once were needful for the wise to know";

Galadriel hands Celeborn a drink.

Whatever is going on here is clearly something that works for them, is what I'm saying! And you don't have to find their marriage interesting just because I do, of course; but what it's not is some trad fantasy of domestic subservient-wife anything.

So where her TROP story ends up is ultimately with LOTR Galadriel: powerful, important, tempted to rule the world, a bit calmer than in TROP, a bit happier than in TROP, co-ordinating big strategic efforts in the war, married to someone who's got her back and adores her and they fall out a bit sometimes but generally work pretty well together, and still having Sauron constantly trying to get into her head. I am fine with this! I am more than fine with this.

[turtleblogatlast]

Man “Battle Nexus: New York” was a great episode but I do have one major gripe with it.

Like. Raph being paired up with Ghostbear? Makes sense. Works great. Works amazing, even.

Mikey being paired up with Meatsweats? Yeah that checks out!!

Donnie getting…Hypno…? I mean. I guess Donnie doesn’t like magic so it kindaaa works but Kendra would have been a much better choice to me personally. Maybe Big Mama didn’t wanna include a human or something…

And Leo getting…uh…one of the Sando Brothers???? Of all villains? Nah let’s be real, his main villain is more Big Mama herself (or Leo could be considered his own worst enemy lmao-). Hell Hypno would have probably worked better here considering their shared love for magic tricks and stuff, but Carl Sando????

[serizawasgamecube]

mom said its my turn to fix serizawas waistline

[dragonspiral-tower]

a decade after its reign of terror

IT RISES

[vladdyissues]

Dropping some headcanons here.

Vlad finally having someone for himself in the sense that, he's someone's main priority. Finally! Something that was only a concept, a fantasy and as the years went by an impossible dream. And now, now it's a reality. Danny sees him, thinks about him and gives him priority. It took them a while we in getting there. Now they're a team, a unit. Sometimes that thought alone has Vlad in the brink of tears, 10 yrs together and at times he gets anxious that it will be gone. That Danny will leave for someone else or get tired of how jaded he is. That's fine, he'll have his moments and then Danny will remind him that they have forever. He's not leaving, he can't, he doesn't want to. They'll be together for hundreds of years, to infinity.

My pompep-loving heart grew two sizes from reading this, anon 💗

[ckret2]

Hey, found your gic from Ao3 and got so antsy I binged the entire thing! I saw you take asks so I was wondering...

Are we ever going to fully dive into the complexities of Ford and Bill's relationship? Reading TBoB and seeing that Bill thinks of Ford as an ex would be interesting to see, not only Ford's opinion of it but the entire Pines's family. Heck, exploring the more morally gray aspects of that would be fascinating. Actually, as I'm writng this I'm imagining a reaction to the whole O'Sadleys and Mexican Oaradoz situation haha. Anyways, love the fic! By far the Gravity Falls fic I've read in yeaaars.

oh honey.

are we EVER going to dive into the complexities of their relationship.

I don't think Bill thinks of Ford as an ex, though. I think Bill FEELS like Ford is an ex but THINKS he only saw Ford as a worshiper/pawn/potential-bestie-who-betrayed-him.

The cognitive dissonance between how Bill feels about Ford and how Bill thinks he feels about Ford is the subtext that was powering everything that happened in chapters 39 and 46 and a good chunk of 48.

I've got a plot coming up that exists solely for the purpose of making Bill trip and stumble into figuring out his own damn emotions.

His reaction is more or less "aw fuck."

[pandorem]

Me every time I check out the dead boy detectives tag: *rolls up sleeves* welp. Looks like it’s time for another Crystal Palace defence post

[meneatyoghurt]

OK seriously what is wrong with the teens in the youtube chat going "I'm a minor 😭" "I'm only 15" at the more out there jokes.

When I was a teenager, we revelled in a watching rude stuff. Half of it was made for us and the stuff that wasn't was fun to watch because we weren't meant to. (And some of it was way less acceptable than what you get now...) What's all this "I'm a little innocent baby" shit?

[artem1sc0re]

I’ve been reading Stars and Stripes since I got the novel and I’ve done nothing but giggle at the banter that goes down between Aiden and Jordi thank you tumblr for making me aware of this novel’s existence

I also doodled this one scene because I giggled at it and if I giggled at it I feel prompted to show it do you

The ‘scene’ in question:

‘When the waitress came back with fluffy pancakes stacked three deep, each as big as his plate, Aiden’s stomach growled.

Aiden stared at them with abiding love before pouring maple syrup all over until they turned from a light brown to a dark sodden colour.

“You are disgusting,” said Jordi who’d watched him drown in his breakfast with a horrified expression.

[hanakihan]

oh my fucking god

my friend just texted me after finishing watching Monte Cristo adaptations and asked me why man went so hard on revenge shit because it’s not like his time in prison was that bad and he had treasure on him why not just move on or do it other way

head in hands

see that’s what I mean by adaptations missing the key point of his imprisonment time

without knowing what happened in château d’if, without understanding how much of his life was destroyed here along with his psyche and morals, without understanding that he was so destroyed that by the time he met abbe faria, even faria himself high key was regretting teaching/telling dantes who screwed him over because at this point he helped to finalize monster in dantes, because if faria didn’t tell him that, dantes would’ve never even decided to have revenge because he didn’t had need/target for it

i just keep noticing that people who watch adaptations without reading source material always get confused on ‘why’ of his revenge because the start and result don’t weight the same for them and such people more than right to ask the question what stopped him from starting new life with treasures faria left him

dantes with his wealth honestly could’ve simply hired assassins or mercenaries to kill people he deems responsible for his demise and call it a day. but no, he wastes even more of his years for a revenge and even went overboard with it because it’s extremely personal for him in his broken unhinged mind. his broken psyche concluded that death would be too easy for them, they need to go through equal amounts of hell he went through. because his revenge is more psychological torture focused than physical one, he is a broken man who doesn’t understand he overstepped boundaries of equal revenge and only snaps out of it when his plans backfire on people uninvolved.

his hyperfixation on such hard to execute and too complex revenge is pretty much what is keeping what remains of his broken mind and morals intact, since he in his head (as well as narrative) justifies his actions and goals based on what he went trough in prison. because if abbe faria didn’t unintentionally given him a goal, a target of revenge, even if he proceeded to escape and find a treasure, he simply would’ve started his life anew.

so yea adaptations missing on fatalism and mindfuckery of his time in château d’if is what ruins them all. book really gives you time to savor the shit he went through here, starting from time passage, changing of his cells and how ‘life’ around goes up to his mood and behavior changes through years, from hopeful hysterical boy to depressed apathetic half corpse who ironically considered his jailers as some sort of friends he can talk to even if they don’t talk back to him anymore

[unforth]

Whenever I see danmei discourse reliant on translations, especially where translator interpretations differ, it's so clear that a lot of English-speaking danmei fans truly believe, consciously or unconsciously, that translation is a plug-and-play, one-for-one prospect - that languages are interchangeable and there is an Exact One True Translation that the Perfect Translator will be able to unearth and provide to the masses that ideally encapsulates the original using accurate words.

I suspect this is a venn diagram in the shape of a circle with people who are English monolingual.

I also suspect this is a venn diagram in the shape of a circle with people who think their own interpretation of a text is Truth instead of one possible reading.

Like, even when we read a book in the language it was originally in, there isn't only one true meaning - different people will interpret it differently.

That is magnified when we can only access the text via translation - translation can never be a perfect art because languages aren't one-for-one and English doesn't have words or phrases for every concept in every other language (no two languages do!) and translators have to take what's in the original, interpret it as best they can through their own lens, then convert that into another language while trying to preserve the meaning, the intent, the nuance, the lyricism, and give the secondary language reader something readable, polished, and eloquent.

It cannot be done perfectly.

Having access to multiple translations that differ is a strength, not a weakness - a window into the nuance that is lost in any one translation, a glimpse at how complex and beautiful the original language is.

But there will never be One True Translation, anymore than there will ever be One True Interpretation. That's. That's not how books work.

I am begging English-speaking danmei fans to wrap theirs heads around this, and maybe attempt to study even a little Chinese before opening their mouths about the translation aspect of these books.

If I never see another "I plugged the hanzi of this characters name into a machine translator and they literally mean this hahaha" post again it'll be too soon. If I never see another "this version of the translation is Wrong I will use the version that narrowly supports my personal interpretation" post again it will be too soon. Like. Uggggh.

(This wasn't prompted by anything I saw recently/today it's just a constant low-level annoyance.)

[kirkwallguy]

It's so jarring to see people treat Spite like some angry dog or silly little man when he's a demon. Like, every other game treats demons as untrustworthy, dangerous, and unreliable. Look at what one demon did to Redcliffe out of sheer boredom. I don't think being a demon specifically of spite should lessen how people react to him. Maybe I'm just overthinking it?

i feel like they're TRYING to show different cultures think of demons/spirits differently but the execution is just bad... if spite was actually threatening and taash and emmrich were the only ones to keep a cool head and knew specific ways to deal with him then that would be interesting, but just having taash go "bad boy!!! drop it!!!!" because spite is acting like a hecking chaos gremlin feels like it trivialises his whole deal.

so i guess in a way the fault is more with spite's characterisation imo? i kind of like the idea of emmrich trying to sympathise with a dangerous demon lol it's in character for him, but spite just does not feel like a dangerous demon so the entire thing falls flat