#like how kai was first to learn the technic

[black13fox]

ok so after another rewatch of drs2 part1 one thing still bothers me with how the ending went

and idk if anyone else mentioned/noticed it yet

spoilers ahead

why did Kai as a sacrifice work??

right before he gets thrown into the portal, lord Ras said that he needs a person with unshattered soul for the ritual to work but Kai doesn't have that??

if we go by what has been said in the show

in the second episode a serpentine shared "if you wear the wolf mask and hit the gong of shattering it shatters good part of your soul" which is also said in later episodes. so, one would think that if the gong sounds while you're wearing it, you already have a shattered soul (even if it's barely anything I guess)

then in last/10th episode we see Kai (Sora and Wyldfyre) are literally wearing the masks and the whole thing happens. the gong is hit (multiple times!), the masks light up and they even struggle to get them off

so with what we know the trio doesn't have unshattered souls anymore and Kai's sacrifice shouldn't have worked

unless it doesn't work the first time or they had masks on for too short amount of time (??? which both would be weird) or something like they're souls are too strong (?) or something completely different that we don't know? (maybe even learning the rising dragon technic prevents it somehow??) idk

unless I'm not picking something up

or I'm just looking too much into that lmao

[local-soda-can]

i have two live reactions(as my friends like to call them) this is one of them :D

(this is part 1/??? of this live reaction)

me: oh boy! my other friend wants to also rp their own nightmare time episode! let’s see how this goes :3

(@pastriibunz <— this is the friend btw go check them out :DDD)

[thesinglesock]

I like how all the Ninja have their strengths. None of them are really "better" than anyone else, they know the same martial arts disciplines, and sure, often the writers have just had them mastering the same techniques all at the same time for efficiency's sake, but sometimes (especially in the later seasons) they show us how they all learn differently and are all the "strongest" in their own ways.

Cole is physically strong. He's surprisingly nimble for his build, but his strong suit is Pure Power. He can Pack a Punch and usually excels at things that require him to perform in short, yet powerful bursts.

Nya is the most in tune with her elemental power. It took her some time to get there, but once she found the right frequency, she quickly became the most dangerous elemental master in the world. Controlling the tides is like breathing to her.

Jay's strength is his creativity. He may not be the most in control of his power, the strongest, or that great at honing his skills in martial arts, but because he's able to think outside of the box, he finds ways to use his strengths that no one else on the team would even have considered.

Kai is the most disciplined when it comes to martial arts. The elemental stuff doesn't come that naturally to him, but he has a knack for picking up the technical skills really quickly, and so the elemental powers follow suit.

Zane is the most precise. He can't always master the most complex moves at first, but he never misses a target, and always knows where to strike to end fights quickly.

Lloyd is the most spiritually inclined. New mythical powers just grow on him like rashes. He works hard too, don't get me wrong, but if the moment calls for a new magic trick that hasn't been practiced in centuries he's your guy.

idk I just think it's neat that this is a thing they've kept pretty consistent throughout the multitude of seasons

[hauntingsunshine14]

SPOILERS FOR ALIEN ROMULUS

no seriously like spoilers for the ending not just a bit in the middle

It's just a funny (hilarious) bit of foreshadowing but still spoilers

I'm driving home from watching this movie with my mother, and we're both just yapping about how we liked it, and I was suddenly reminded of what I noticed about Isabela Merced's character Kay!

Early on in the movie, we get a shot of her in bed after she tells Rain that she's pregnant, with a flat oval necklace clearly displayed.

This isn't the exact scene, but example:

you can kinda see the necklace once you zoom in

This medal is easily identifiable even from the distance/lack of detail thanks to Catholic guilt! yay! This is a Miraculous Medal (pictured below)

This is a necklace that centers Mary with a whole bunch of lore attached that details how St. Catherine Labouré saw Mary in a vision (twice technically) and the second time was instructed to

 “Have a medal struck upon this model. Those who wear it will receive great graces, especially if they wear it around the neck. Those who repeat this prayer with devotion will be, in a special manner, under the protection of the Mother of God. Graces will be abundantly bestowed upon those who have confidence.”

tldr: it's a very common and recognizable representation of Mary, they often have these medals at catholic churches as back when I worked at mine they were literally just sitting in the lobby.

What made me laugh so profusely in my car ride home is that Mary is considered literally THE mother in Christan lore and Kay does in fact give birth at the end of the movie... to what is essentially Weyland-Yutani Jesus.

Technically she took David's goo injection and produced the 'Offspring' (apparently what the horrifying human/xenomorph is called) (I prefer W-Y Jesus)

This is a wonderful bit of foreshadowing for the ending sequence, coupled with the engraving of Romulus and Remus and the Capitoline wolf, as well as the painting that was zoomed in on right before of a mother and child. And kinda as well to the whole thing about Weyland-Yutani trying to 'play God' with humanity's evolution.

But, on a larger more franchise-wide scale, this foreshadowing continues on with some of the themes from the previous two movies concerning origins and beginnings, as the whole Mary/Jesus thing is technically speaking, the 'origin/beginning' part of the New Testament. This is shown very plainly in the titles (Prometheus, Covenant, Romulus) which are all pulled from various origin stories - Greek, Abrahamic, and Roman. Prometheus stole fire, the covenants in the Torah/Pentateuch, and the founding of Rome. All different stories about the growth of humanity, ranging from how to live all the way up to founding empires. These ideas somewhat parallel the actual events of the movies.

B/c we watch David - and therefore Weyland-Yutani - discover the goo, experiment on it, learn how to interact with it, and then attempt to build a new empire with it.

It's a very messy analogy and kinda? does not fit with the Mary thing in Romulus, but in very broad strokes it ties in well enough, which for the whole confusing Prometheus/Covenant situation is par for the course.

Overall, Alien: Romulus is an amazing addition to the franchise and at the risk of sounding cheesy is literally a breath of fresh air. Right down to the pacing of the movie, it's classic Alien. I loved it, and even if you haven't seen any of the alien movies or even if you've only seen the first, and even if you have these spoilers, it's a fantastic experience!

(and for all the alien: isolation lovers there's such a cute nod to the game in the movie)

[too-antigonish]

How to Seduce Endeavour Morse: A Guide for the Perplexed

The ways are many and varied. Your chances of success are—unfortunately—highly dependent on factors outside of your control. You can, however, learn lessons from those who have tread this path before you.

1) The "I-Forgot-to-Tell-You-I’m-a-Killer" Approach

Comments: Used with surprising frequency given ultimately low success rate.

Rosalind Calloway (S1E0 Pilot): First, become a world-famous opera singer. Your artistry will convince him that life is worth living. When the time comes, gently but firmly rebuff his rather innocent advances. Be unmasked as murderess and crush his will to live via the revelation of your utter lack of humanity and subsequent suicide.

Susan Fallon (S1E0 Pilot): Be at Oxford. Have snobby parents and lots of snobby friends. Be his first great love and agree to marry him. Then abandon him very publicly and with maximum cruelty for your first great love. Many years later become murderess (although Lewis will never allow him to find that out). However, still successfully crush him to pieces again by committing suicide.

Isla Fairford (S6E3 Confection): Live in a charming small village with adorable son and amiable veterinarian father. Have an appealing origin story involving cruel abandonment that reminds him of his own life experiences.  Go on intimate date where you seem to be everything he could hope for and then share a sweet but chaste kiss goodnight. Oops, murder someone…again…sort of. Suddenly transform into personification of vengeance.

2) The "It-Never-Hurts-to-Ask" Approach

Comments: Success rate zero, but very high entertainment value.

Pamela Walters (S1E1 Girl): Like it says on the tin: Just ask. She asks, “Will you take me to bed?” Sorry sweet girl. He won’t—but he will read you a very nice bedtime story

Kay Belborough (S3E1 Ride): Play flirty name games and ask him breathlessly if he’s falling in love with you. Share a romantic kiss under fairy lights at a party.  Eventually tell him he can “have you.”  He won’t—but by then he will have saved you from a suicide attempt so I think he’s done enough really…

Annette Richardson (S3E2 Arcadia): Request help with home security. Tell him you can’t possibly undress yourself. He won’t bite—but he will come maddeningly close to nibbling on your neck and you’ll refuse to believe that he won’t come calling, ”…when he’s ready.”

Bettina Pettybon (S4E2 Canticle): Just show up at his flat looking generally bedraggled. Tell him how your mother forced you to spill the beans and get him kicked off the case. Down some hard liquor. And then—tell him you love him. When he’s gobsmacked by your revelation, assume it’s because there’s “someone else” and not because he barely knows you.

3) The "Let’s-Just-Go-to-Bed" Approach

Comments: Has an impresseive 100% success rate but never ends well.

Alice Vexin (S1E3 Rocket): Secretly crush on him for years. Go on one quasi-date where you dissect his personality quirks in excruciating detail. Show up at his door when he’s emotionally vulnerable and then sleep with him. Promptly abandon him with maximum cruelty. Be sure to tell him, “It’s not me. It’s you,” in the form of, “You’re just not ready yet.”

Carol Thursday (S5E2 Cartouche): Be very attractive. Be suddenly, unexpectedly available. Be directly in his path. This means you can skip the date part (a drink will do). Go straight to sleeping with him. Then go straight to the realization that this might be…one of the most awkward situations you’ve ever gotten yourself into. Manage to handle it all with amazing sweetness and grace nonetheless.

Claudine (S5E3 Passenger): Be very attractive. Be suddenly, unexpectedly available. Be directly in his path. Bonus points if the woman he actually wants practically throws you into his arms. Go straight to sleeping with him. Tease him. Toy with him like a capricious child. Play games for your own amusement. Abandon him with maximum cruelty. 

4) One-Off Approaches

Comments: Technically not actual attempts at seduction so...

School Girls (S2E2 Nocturne): Talk about how dreamy he is like we do on Tumblr. Given enough time, write “Love you” in eye liner on your eyelids as per: Indiana Jones movie. Blink very slowly during all interrogations.

Anna-Britt Clark (S4E2 Canticle): Be very attractive. Despise tan lines. Work on said tan next to swimming pool at rock-band-murder-mansion. Show him your (tan line free) naked torso. Find his very “English” discomfort perplexing but charming.

Eve Thorne (S5E1 Muse): You don’t actually *want* to seduce him. He’s a cop *and* a condescending prick. However, the seduction will happen anyway. You won’t sleep together. You won’t even touch. But the hate-flirting will be amazing.

5) The "Let's-Try-a-Normal-Relationship-Just-Once" Approach

Comments: She was too psychologically healthy for you. In the end it was for the best (...except for the murder and prison parts).

Monica Hicks (S2E3 Sway): Find yourself recruited for some light caregiving. Be absolutely charming. After tactless date mix-up and adorable mattress incident at department store, proceed to have actual healthy relationship. Hang out listening to music, discuss your future together, buy him a cute scarf. Then wake up one morning to find out he’s in prison—and about that scarf…

6) The "This-Doesn't-Happen-in-Real-Life" Approach

Comments: It was opera—and by opera rules he actually got off pretty easy.

Violetta Talenti** (S7E1: Oracle): Engineer improbable but spectacular first encounter—twice. Finagle one in Venice and one in Oxford. Overcome all of his valid moral objections and engage in a lengthy, passionate affair. When the moment of truth arrives, reject him with maximum possible cruelty. Die in his arms. Use your last words to ensure that he spends the rest of his life feeling conflicted and confused about the true nature of your feelings towards him.

**Also might fall into "I-Forgot-to-Tell-You-I’m-a-Killer" but we will never know for sure

7) The "We-Aren't-Explicitly-Saying-It-But-You-Know" Approach

Comments: Don't try this at home kids. It will end badly for you. Highly effective, however, when Morse and Thursday need to make up and be friends again.

Joss Bixby (S3E1 Ride): Be the UK Great Gatsby. Invite him to your over-the-top parties. Gracefully take it in stride and allow him to appear extra-clever when he points out that your latest art purchase is a forgery. Manage to be charming and self-deprecating while flirting outrageously with him. Offer him jobs. Give him cars. Have lots of emotionally charged moments (especially on dark docks) and say incredibly poetic things. Die tragically so he can mourn you forever but also use your passing as an excuse to reconnect with his former mentor.

Ludo Talenti (S7E1 Oracle): Be evil. Come up with an evil plan. Get your wife to seduce him. Then (ha, ha) you will also seduce him. You will both succeed beyond your wildest dreams. He will be the most thoroughly seduced man ever. However, once you have rejected him with maximum possible cruelty by pretending you actually care that he was sleeping with your wife, he will discover your secret life of crime and come after you. You will die (justifiably, not tragically), after killing your wife and your death will providing yet another opportunity for our hero to reconnect with his estranged mentor.

8) The "Be-the-One-That-Got-Away" Approach

Comments: Definitely the method of choice for Morse seduction. 100% effective. Hands-down winner!

Joan Thursday (S1E2 Fugue): Be very attractive, articulate, and idealistic. Be the daughter of his mentor/best friend/father figure/brother-in-arms. Have lots of incredibly charged emotional encounters but never say anything directly to him about your complicated feelings. Be together during highly significant moments in your lives, but don’t ever go on a real date (pedestrian!). Touch in a variety of meaningful and sometimes even affectionate ways, but never engage in anything blatent. A passionate kiss would be unthinkable. And never, ever sleep together! Still manage to abandon him with maximum cruelty. Still manage to be the love of his life. Well done you!

[mah-o-daryaa]

Avatar Cycle Trivia

Avatar Wan

Wan's name translates to "ten thousand" in Mandarin Chinese, as he lived ten thousand years before Avatar Korra. His name is also a pun on "one", as in Avatar number one.

Wan wore the colour of each of the four nations during his battle against Vaatu. His robes were yellow and orange (air), his armbands were green (earth), his sash was blue (water), and his scarf was red (fire).

In addition to becoming the first Avatar, Wan is also the first true firebender, as he was the first person to learn firebending from a dragon.

By fusing with Raava during Harmonic Convergence, Wan is technically the oldest Avatar to be identified, being 21 at the time.

The Earth Kingdom battlefield where Wan died is the same field that Zuko visits millennia later in Zuko Alone (Book 2: Episode 7). Interestingly, Wan first appeared in Beginnings, Part 1, which was the seventh episode of Legend of Korra, Book 2: Spirits.

Avatar Yangchen

Yangchen is the only known Avatar to have a sibling (Jetsun).

Yangchen is technically the first Avatar to have an established Team Avatar (not counting Wan and Raava).

Yangchen had split-personality disorder with her past lives, where she essentially suffered from nightmares of her past lives bleeding into her present self.

Yangchen's companion Kavik is the first person ever seen get chi-blocked.

Yangchen did not like the idea of people creating statues of herself in the future. Ironically, she was greatly revered in the Four Nations, and a statue each was built in both the Eastern and Western Air Temples.

Avatar Kuruk

Kuruk is currently the only known Avatar whose predecessor and successor were both women (Yangchen and Kyoshi respectively).

Kuruk had more lovers in 3 decades than Kyoshi did in over 2 centuries (the true story is more tragic).

Kuruk had a habit of challenging random people to feats of strength, which makes him the only known Avatar in history to have participated in an Agni Kai.

Kuruk was the best hunter and tracker in the history of the Four Nations. It's said there was nothing he couldn't hunt or track down (that includes spirits).

Kuruk is the only known Avatar to enter the Spirit World after death. Considering that only people with a special connection to the Spirit World can enter at death (such as Iroh and Yue), this means Kuruk must have had a spiritual connection rivalling that of most Air Nomad monks or nuns.

Avatar Kyoshi

Kyoshi is the only known Avatar known to be of mixed nationality; her father was from the Earth Kingdom, while her mother was a renegade Air Nomad.

Kyoshi had a rare condition with her earthbending where she could move large objects with ease but had difficulty in moving smaller objects (Suffering From Success).

Kyoshi has witnessed more passings of Sozin's Comet than anyone else, with three (not counting Lao Ge).

Kyoshi learned the secret to immortality from Lao Ge, which led her to have the longest lifespan of any Avatar.

Kyoshi has threatened both the Earth King and the Firelord.

Avatar Roku

Roku and Firelord Sozin share the same birthday.

Roku has been featured in the introduction sequences of both Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra.

Roku is the only known Avatar to appear old when he was called upon by the current Avatar.

When Roku entered the Avatar State for the first time, he destroyed the Fire Sage Temple.

Roku's dragon Fang is the only animal companion ever seen in the Spirit World.

Avatar Aang

It took Aang longer than any Avatar in history to become fully realized, being over a century old.

Aang has a scar on his back and on his foot, because of how electricity works.

Aang choosing four toys out of thousands – to identify him as the Avatar as these four toys were the same ones that past Avatars had chosen for generations when they were children – was the same procedure used by the Tibetan Buddhist monks to recognize the next reincarnation of the Tulku Lama.

Aang has met the original source of every bending art: a flying bison for air, the Moon Spirit for water, badgermoles for earth, and two dragons for fire.

Aang is the first Avatar to have his picture taken.

Avatar Korra

At four years old, Korra is the youngest Avatar in history to be identified.

Korra is the first Avatar to learn spiritbending.

Korra is the only Avatar to break out of bloodbending without the use of the Avatar State (sorry, Aang).

Korra is the only Avatar to have killed a member of her own family (Unalaq).

Korra is the first known person to ever tame a polar bear-dog (Naga).

Miscellaneous

Wan and Roku are the only two Avatars to die in combat.

Roku and Aang are the only two Avatars to fight a volcano. Aang was successful, while Roku died.

Aang and Korra are the only two Avatars to ever be defeated in the Avatar State.

Aang and Kyoshi are the only two Avatars to ever get hit by lightning. Ironically, when Kyoshi was hit by lightning, her chakras were opened and she gained the ability to enter the Avatar State; conversely, Aang's chakras were blocked and he was unable to enter the Avatar State.

Kuruk and Roku are the only two Avatars to have been identified the "traditional" way in their respective nations at 16; Wan fused with Raava at 21, Kyoshi was identified at 16 when she recited Kuruk's poem, and Yangchen, Aang and Korra were identified at younger ages.

Yangchen, Aang, and Korra are the only Avatars to have been identified at younger ages than 16.

Wan, Aang, and Korra are the only Avatars who are modeled after real-life people. Wan is modeled after co-creator Bryan Konietzko (but with cooler hair); young Aang is modeled after Arjuna, Sifu Kisu's son (but Aang is bald), while adult Aang is modeled after co-creator Mike DiMartino; and Korra is modeled after various female MMA fighters, most notably Gina Carrano.

Roku and Korra are the only two Avatars who have worn an outfit from each of the four nations on-screen.

Roku and Korra are the only two Avatars to have connections to royalty. Firelord Zuko, and thus every following Firelord, are descendants of both Roku and Sozin, whereas Korra's father was a member of the Northern Water Tribe's royal family, and was later elected as the chief of the newly independent Southern Water Tribe.

When Kyoshi first met Yangchen, she (Kyoshi) mistook Yangchen for her own mother.

When Kyoshi first met Kuruk, she almost drowned her physical body trying to communicate with him.

Roku and Yangchen are the only two Avatars to have hugged the current Avatar at the time (Aang and Kyoshi respectively).

Wan, Korra, and Kuruk are the only Avatars to refer to Raava by name, although the latter (Kuruk) had never met Raava.

Yangchen, Kuruk, and Aang are the only Avatars to have invented an airbending technique. By extension, Kuruk is the only person outside of the Air Nomads to invent an airbending technique (he didn't get his mastery tattoos, what a shame).

Aang and Korra are the only two Avatars to learn energybending.

Kyoshi, Roku, and Aang are the only Avatars to use bending after their respective deaths.

Kyoshi, Roku, and Aang are also the only Avatars to have descendants (but let's be realistic, so did Kuruk).

Aang and Korra both learned their native element from a companion of the previous Avatar, and their final element from a descendant of the previous Avatar. Aang learned airbending from Monk Gyatso, a companion of Roku, and learned firebending from Zuko, Roku's great-grandson. Korra learned waterbending from Katara, Aang's wife, and learned airbending from Tenzin, Aang and Katara's youngest son.

That's all the fun facts I could find.

[so-long-soldier-writes]

drabble #15 - attention to detail

kai parker x reader

summary: kai admires the way you watch tv

tags: tv watching, fangirl behavior, neurodivergent behavior (?)

word count: 1k

a/n: neurodivergent and/or fangirl reader; idk, this is something i do, idk if i'm crazy for it, or if people relate to it. lmk if i'm crazy. i just want my weird habits validated by kai, mmkay! 😅

Your finger hovers over the exit button on your screen as someone enters the room. Anxiety grows in your chest, but you try to not let it show. They circle around you, likely to join you on the couch, but hopefully not.

“Hey,” the person greets. You relax at the voice of Kai. Despite his reputation, you quite like the guy. He has his own demons, and is learning his way about the world, and while you have nothing in common otherwise, you kind of relate to him in that way. 

“Hi.”

You don’t see it, but he smiles at your response. Just the acknowledgement of his presence is nice to hear. Especially in the gentle, non-accusatory tone you use with him. “Whatcha watching?” He saw a glimpse when he passed behind the couch, but didn’t want to make you uncomfortable by lingering. 

“Oh, just this show I’ve been into for the last couple weeks,” you say, not wanting to reveal the title and give him an opportunity to poke fun. 

“Ah, the one you were watching yesterday? With the- with that actor you like?”

A small blush rises to your cheeks as you squeak out a “yes”, and Kai finds it absolutely adorable. 

“What season are you on?” He asks, no judgment about the show, nor the actor you like. A wave of confidence splashes over you. 

“Six, technically, but I’m rewatching season four before I watch anymore of six, because I’m not ready to process new information.” You chide yourself immediately. What a strange thing to say. And you were doing so well until then. 

Kai narrows his eyes, but then shrugs. “Okay.”

“Like, something big just happened in season six. They’ve already introduced the Big Bad, but the Big Bad in season five was so detrimental to the team - it killed a bunch of folks, and mentally scarred a whole bunch of others - that I’m not really ready to deal with another, so I’m rewatching a season where I know what happens, so that I already know who gets hurt, so it’s less painful to watch. Plus, rewatching episodes always helps me see things I miss the first time, which gives me a better understanding of the plot and the characters.”

Kai tries to not study you like a bug, but he’s fascinated by your explanation. The empathy you have for fictional characters is something he can’t help but admire, as is your desire to soak up every detail like a sponge. He wonders what it would be like to care so much that watching any further would genuinely hurt him. For the first time, he wishes he could love, so he could love like you do.

“Sorry,” you say after a moment of silence, “I just… infodumped on you. That was probably really confusing and weird.”

“No, not weird. It’s nice.” Kai tries to reassure you, but can’t find the words he needs you to hear. 

“I should probably just watch the season and have one big cry at the end like a normal person.”

“No, I think your way is better.”

“Wait, really? Most people tell me it’s just a tv show and to get over it.”

“Well, yeah, it’s a show, but it’s something you love, so who gives a fuck how you like to watch it? They’re not watching it with you; they’re not even in the room. I like the way you say you take the time to learn the characters and understand the plot. Y’know, someone put a lot of effort into that show you’re watching, and you’re enjoying it the way they’d want it to be enjoyed. Like it’s a piece of art in a museum, and you’re pointing out all the brush strokes and reading the plaque to understand the medium.” When you give him a confused glance, he smiles sheepishly. “I know a little about a lot of things. Went to a couple museums when I was stuck in 1994.” 

“Ah.”

“But my point is, coming from a sociopath, the empathy you have for the characters in your show is really cool. And I can understand the rewatching bit, too. I haven’t rewatched anything with the intensity that you have, but obviously, I could only watch anything made pre-1994, and to hell if I’m watching anything black and white, so I’ve seen some of the same movies once or twice, or more. Sometimes I get tired of rewatching the same stuff, but sometimes, I’ll also pick out a funny line I missed the first time, or a hand gesture that reveals a character knew something all along.”

You smile at him, grateful for his words and engagement in the conversation. You feel a little less childish about your own habits, especially knowing Kai’s not one to lie or hold back his true feelings about anything. For him to go as far to say he recognizes your empathy is a lot, and nothing you’d expect from the newly-reformed serial killer. 

“Thank you,” you blurt out, not wanting to leave him hanging.

“For what?”

“For not making me feel stupid about my interests.”

His eyes narrow. “Who makes you feel stupid?”

“A lot of people. Family… Damon.”

“Well Damon tries to make everyone feel stupid, and family sucks.”

You snort. “True.”

“If he says anything again, he can go through me.” Kai sends you a wink. 

“Okay,” you giggle in response. 

“Good.”

The man watches you for a minute longer. You press your spacebar to make the show play, and he takes note of the smile that spreads across your face as the characters fill the screen once more. He wants to ask to watch it with you, but doesn’t want to push just yet, so he doesn’t. He’s making progress, though, and gaining your trust. Hopefully soon, you’ll be less shy around him. 

And you think the same, feeling his eyes on you. Your trust isn’t something that’s easily given, but this isn’t the first time Kai’s made you feel comfortable, and you have a feeling it won’t be the last. He stays on the other end of the couch, but sticks to himself, and within a couple minutes, laughs quietly at something on his phone. The air between you is pleasant. His words run through your head once more, as the same scene plays for maybe the tenth time, but this time, you aren’t as worried about the people in the room as you watch.

[princelylove]

Hmm I just have this question in my mind. Who do you think is the worst yandere to deal with and who is the easiest to deal with in Joestar blood line? (If can, I'd love to know your ranking on each person)

For me, I think the worst to deal with is Jotaro (he is too strong and smart to fight back) and the easiest is Jonathan (a gentleman, he is so sweet, so easy to manipulate)

~ 🏵️ anon ~

I included Lisa Lisa + Holly because nobody talks about them enough. I love women. Technically Lisa Lisa doesn’t count but shhh. I omitted Johnny because I feel like I should reread sbr… This is subject to change if my interpretation of any of these characters develops, but for now I'm fairly confident in it.

From easiest to worst:

I have to agree with Jonathan for the easiest. He hasn’t discovered free will or the fact that he has the potential to be a lot worse. Look at DIO- besides from the vampirism, that’s all Jonathan. That’s terrifying. A man of that size hunting you down is frightening, but you’re in luck, Jonathan has no plans of mistreating you. He’s very careful to respect your wishes- and mopes when you tell him no. He respects you, he’s not going to go against your wishes and escort you home without you wanting it. (He’ll just follow behind. Very far behind. No one is going to harm his darling on his watch.) He sulks if you flat out reject him, but he’ll leave you alone for a little while. It’s not gentlemanly to pursue someone after they’ve said no! It’s not gentlemanly to beat all of his love’s suitors to almost-death either, but that’s got nothing to do with you. “I just can’t afford to lose you. Won’t you please let me walk you home?”

The worst you’re getting with Josuke is his little random urges to act on his sadism, which is once in a blue moon. You’re fine. You even have the right to go outside and go places without him! He’s like the obsessive boyfriend that blows up your phone when you haven’t texted him in a while. If your phone has a do not disturb mode you’ll be alright. Just send him a selfie and a quick explanation of every little thing in the shot. He tends to cling when you return to him, but is that really so bad? Josuke’s your own personal weighted blanket, and doesn’t jump to conclusions when you miscommunicate. He’ll hear you out, let you explain yourself, take some time to think about it, and give you a little smack on the wrist if you didn’t do anything too bad. That isn’t to say that he won’t properly punish you, it’s just that it takes a lot for him to get there. He’s fair. “You’re going out? Kay, text me.”

Holly is a sweetheart, and by herself, should be much higher on this list.. Her son, however… is the worst. He likely learned his yandere tendencies from her in his youth, when she was still with his father. If you’re going to “parent” him, he’s gonna make sure you’re really fit to be around her in the first place. Holly knows how to read the room, she’s very good at picking up on someone’s true intentions. She’s seemingly very passive, but that isn’t really the case! Holly is very tolerant. She understands the stress, and just wants to help. You can lash out, say things out of stress, maybe even try to run away, but you’ll be back. If you’re not… Well, first you’ll receive a very special “pretty please” message, and second you’ll receive a very pissed off Jotaro, here to drag you by your collar back to where you belong. Holly truly believes that she knows better, and while she doesn’t have the personality to be firm and a bit mean to you to get you back in line, her son does. She doesn’t want to punish you! You’re her everything, your pain is her pain! You’re never in any real danger with Holly. Jotaro coming to get you, though? Fair game. “Oh, sweetheart… please let me put a bandaid on that. I’ll kiss it better!”

As long as you’re complacent, you’ll survive Joseph. Considering the lack of a physical threat, he should be a bit higher, but he’s more overbearing than Holly is, and more willing to trap you himself. Sure, he’ll follow you everywhere and insist on showing you every little thing he’s doing, but he means well. He’s very overbearing, but as long as you consistently show Joseph affection and the attention he’s begging for, you’re allowed to have a relatively normal life. It’s like having a big puppy following you around that thinks he’s a lap dog. He just won’t ever leave you alone. Or let you buy things yourself. Why would he?? He’s right there, let him do it! Not like he’s doing anything with that Joestar money. Joseph’s very touchy, he’ll almost always have his arm around you, or insist on holding hands. He needs you. He goes crazy without you. He can’t sleep, won’t train to his full potential, and barely touches his food if you’re not there. Joseph is obsessed with you, and can’t do anything without having a little hit of you first. Poor guy. “Have you ever thought about moving to new york?”

Jolyne can be an asshole, but she’s a lot better than the rest of this list. She tells it to you how it is- you’re hers, and she wants to be by you all the time. Jolyne’s not the most emotionally expressive, I see her a lot in younger Jotaro, but she is very verbally expressive. She has no mental filter; Nothing’s ever up in the air when it comes to Jolyne. She’s just sort of keeping guard over you most of the time, and is fine with just being around you, for a little while. She’s fine with physically threatening you if you get out of line, her muscles aren’t just for aesthetics. She does it in “subtle” ways- picking you up to move you out of her way, pulling you onto her lap, putting her well-built thigh over you while you’re sleeping together. She tells you to call her “Jojo” and won’t answer to anything else- I think she spent too much time with Gwess. She craves that mushy, disgustingly affectionate talk she used to get from her ex, and fully expects it from you. She’s terribly insecure, and needs the consistent reassurance that you’re into her or she’ll get in your face about it. You don’t like her anymore? What kind of stupid bitch changes their mind in a day? Did she do something? Are you mad?? What’d she do??? “You and me. That’s all you gotta think about.”

Lisa Lisa loves to micromanage. You don’t really need to think with her, do you. All of your needs will be met on her private island- there’s staff, luxurious utilities, and plenty of space for you to “free roam.” You might feel free in the beginning, but once you see people going about their day across the water, it’s clear how trapped you are. Lisa Lisa likes keeping you where she can see you, and if she’s busy with training, you can sit off to the side where it’s safe to watch. If it weren’t for Suzi Q, she’d ask that you bring her drinks every once in a while. Aht. Don’t forget her kiss, either. Lucky for you, Suzi Q is absurdly good at her job, and you won’t need to lift a finger. Just sit there, read your magazine in the sun, or pay attention to Lisa Lisa’s teachings. Not that she’d ever approve of you using hamon. You're meant to be hers, that's it. What's the point of teaching a lap dog how to be a guard dog? Just sit still and be pretty for her, or face the consequences. “Darling, come back inside.”

Jotaro does not know how to be normal. His yandere “habits” weren’t exactly discouraged in his youth, so he sees no issue with behaving this way. An older Jotato might be better to deal with- he’s more calm, more rational. I’d put older Jotaro in the high middle difficulty rather than being on top, since he has a lot more patience and won’t just rush to kidnap you, but young Jotaro? I’ll pray for you. Most of the people down this low on the list are intelligent, thorough, and aggressive. Jotaro meets all three of those categories. He just wants to protect you. Don’t be stupid and push him away. Controlling and way too overprotective, Jotaro sleeps well at night knowing that you’re exactly where you need to be- locked up where no one else can find you, and in his arms. He doesn’t really think much of physical affection- his mother normalized it so much that he truly doesn’t see anything wrong with always touching you. He’s just making sure your heart’s still beating, your lungs are still working, your stomach isn’t growling… Jotaro knows you need the sun, but to be honest, the most you’re getting is the courtyard, or an open window. He just can’t risk it. Maybe he can be convinced to give you some vitamins for what you’re lacking, as long as he can read the label and have some time to research where exactly it’s coming from. If you try to run away enough times, he’ll break your legs. He really doesn’t want to, and will hesitate riiiight before he snaps them both, but he will. He’ll nurse you back to health, and work you through physical therapy, so don’t whine. You did this to yourself. “Don’t be such a pain in the ass, I’m helping you.”

Giorno is not too keen on letting his possessions act on their own. That’s what you are, really. All of passione is under his possession, sure, the products, the money… the people. He views you as one of his things. That isn’t to say that he doesn’t love you, he very much so does, but there just isn’t room for doubt that Giorno views you as ‘his’ first, and a person second. He knows what he’s doing to you by clipping your wings, it’s a shame things have to be this way in order for him to obtain what he wants. He understands it's wrong to kidnap someone, and to restrain them, but in the end, isn't it for the better? It's like keeping a cat strictly indoors. You may underestimate him since he isn’t as physically built as the rest of his family- even Jolyne has considerably more muscle than him- but that would be unwise. Giorno’s thought of every possibility, and has prepared for it sufficiently- what he has on Jotaro is his ability to adapt, quickly. He's a very quick learner. Giorno can sweet talk his way out of any situation, whether that be through twirling his hair and giving you that doe eyed expression or through a genuine threat. He has both the foundation and passione twirled around his pinky. What makes Giorno so awful is his ability to read you, and the fact that if you ever seriously wrong him, you’ll never see Heaven. Once Giorno loves you, it's him or death- You get no warnings. It’s pointless to hide your true intentions from Giorno. You may think you have choices, but it’s all the same in the end. His expectations are very high, but to avoid disappointment, he’ll likely pick someone that already meets some of his requirements- Why would he go through the effort of fixing someone to his liking when he can find someone that’s perfect for him, and will stay perfect? Giorno is as alluring as can be, and once you’re finally within his grasp, there is no way out. “I expected more from you.”

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 10/8/2024

The Boy is out of my house. end of an era. formally adopt the boy for only twenty of god's own dollars here!

listening

i really really love reading perfume reviews and i would love to start describing songs like a perfume reviewer but maybe this song is not a great one to start out with: the ghost inside by broken bells, off their 2010 self-titled album. it got stuck in my head bc it is sort of the ur-example of 2010s indie rock. you have to listen to it but after you listen to it you know i am Right. kind of a bonkers scifi music video with mostly practical effects and actress christina hendricks (interview here).

thank u spotify weekly recommended playlist bc i had completely forgotten about broken bells. i think i found them through one of those little music cards starbucks used to give out?

-

reading

The Blood Trials (Book One of the Blood Gift Duology, Jan 2023) by N.E. Davenport. i KNOW i originally put this on my holds list bc of a tumblr post but i cannot find that post again.

explaining the plot of this book to my best friend involved saying the phrase "and then THE BLOOD EMPEROR" a lot. there is no short way to explain the plot of this thing.

Blending fantasy and science fiction, N. E. Davenport’s fast-paced, action-packed debut kicks off a duology of loyalty and rebellion, in which a young Black woman must survive deadly trials in a racist and misogynistic society to become an elite warrior. It’s all about blood. The blood spilled between the Republic of Mareen and the armies of the Blood Emperor long ago. The blood gifts of Mareen’s deadliest enemies. The blood that runs through the elite War Houses of Mareen, the rulers of the Tribunal dedicated to keeping the republic alive. The blood of the former Legatus, Verne Amari, murdered. For his granddaughter, Ikenna, the only thing steady in her life was the man who had saved Mareen. The man who had trained her in secret, not just in martial skills, but in harnessing the blood gift that coursed through her. Who trained her to keep that a secret.

this is a "graduate or die" book that i would normally say is YA but the protagonist Ikenna is ~20ish and there are two quite explicit sex scenes. so i feel it veers more new adult? what if you learned to be an ancient greek spartan praetorian but also had blasters? that's what this school is.

this is a military scifi that is also a murder mystery (HELL of a dense concept to pick for a debut novel) that gets SO yuckydisgusting with loving descriptions of military training wounds and a cannibalism scene (not by our protagonist) i had to skip over. i think this would be terrific for locked tomb girlies but it is at the bleeding edge of my tolerance level. i am a noted big baby about gore, so ymmv.

tumblr user kay, why the fuck did you keep reading it? one of the best technically written debut novels i've ever read. extremely compelling in how the narration is from Ikenna’s point of view and she has almost all the murder mystery pieces but fails to put them together bc of personal flaws and foibles. and she is so good at tripping face first over those flaws and foibles it really effectively distracts you from the pieces of the murder mystery! she’s so so so good at making the worst possible decision (in hindsight) at any given point. all her decisions have complex hidden downsides but at the same time she could not have made any different decision. failsafes her grandfather put in place fail bc of the way she interprets them. she is a very good soldier but less good as a strategist. terrible as a politician. this sort of thing.

she is quick to act and quick to decide, and allies and enemies flip fairly quickly without much hemming and hawing. once she has definite proof of betrayal or alliance, she accepts it and charges on. i think the occasionally flimsy lead up to these flips is one of the book’s weaknesses, but i also think it’s one of Ikenna’s major weaknesses. im not convinced the author handles doling every clue out or how the very complex political situation clicks together Well, but Ikenna’s reaction and dealing with the fallout of these things is very believable and well done.

VERY rapid pace— reminds me of The Hunger Games, where Suzanne Collins’ background in TV helped her know when to break chapters. there aren’t any lulls where I lost interest— i read this book in basically one sitting overnight.

-

watching

meandering through a playlist of oscar-nominated shorts: the 1951 UPA black comedy musical film noir short "Rooty Toot Toot" has been one of my favorites so far.

it's so hyperstylized and so gleefully minimalist. the background characters, even though they are mostly just blobs and circles, are notably diverse for 1951. let's yoink some more background from the description/TCM:

Hubley brought in a number of interesting collaborators on Rooty Toot Toot. Dancer Olga Lunick was hired to choreograph the ballet-style dance moves. There was no rotoscoping involved; her moves were only referenced by the artists and animators, not slavishly traced. Paul Julian designed the backgrounds and utilized some non-typical techniques; in his essential history of UPA, When Magoo Flew: The Rise and Fall of Animation Studio UPA (Wesleyan, 2012), Adam Abraham quotes Julian on one of them: "'I found a kind of oddly corroded gelatin roller - an ordinary print roller that had been pitted and pocked in some way, chemically.' With this device, he produced distressed-looking backgrounds that suited the sordid tale." In addition, Hubley and the studio brought on jazz musician Phil Moore to write the score. Moore had done orchestrations for many MGM musicals in the 1940s, but uncredited--this would be a rare on-screen credit for the black musician. Legendary animator Grim Natwick also joined the crew. Natwick had been active since the silent era and had designed and animated Betty Boop for the Fleischer Studios. He went on to work on such key films as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Gulliver's Travels (1939). For Rooty Toot Toot Natwick animated the memorable shots of Nellie Bly on the witness stand.

-

playing

i don't have anything fun to say about genshin this week. prepare for me to lose my mind next week about hot ocelot lady.

-

making

sanitized/enzymatic cleaned everything orange boy touched in my office and the office bath, bc he was so full of love and also worms and boysmell. i believe the stink has been defeated, but only time and the girls will tell me. unforch, i will have to sanitize and destink the bathroom Again at the end of the month bc a new outside boycat will be recovering here after his neuter. this time i am Not paying for it and he already has a home lined up! it is a complicated case with a friend's exit from a Situation and it is not fully mine to tell. can't believe this office and office bath have been like a revolving door of cats this summer/fall. phil only got fulltime house privileges at the end of june-ish.

[master-jarrus]

Okay so headcanons I had that I kind of assumed they were at least known across the fandom but just learned they were not

A good chunk of these are from fanfics I read back in like 2016-2017 when I first got fanfic and I haven't been able to find those fics to reference them

Misako married Garmadon for career reasons.

Like yes she does genuinely like him but this woman had two GODS fighting over her, she probably had her choice of suitors and went with Garmadon because he would let her have a career and his family being so old and her being an archeologist. She would have to be stupid to pass that up

Lloyd was an oops baby

Also he was a miracle baby

I don't think Misako and Garmadon thought children were a good idea, like they wanted them but with the GD venom and Misako's career they didn't want to bring a child into that

Misako had been pregnant a few times but always miscarried

(This leads into my hc that Garmadon went after the golden weapons because Lloyd was sick as a baby but I didn't assume that was across the fandom so it's not technically included)

While Ray and Wu were closer Garmadon and Ray were actually friends and if Misako hadn't existed Garmadon would've been a weird uncle/3rd parent to Nya and Kai

I remember people shipping Garmadon and Ray and then in the same breath they'd ship Garmadon and Clouse (nothing wrong with multishipping I'm just trying to empathize that I remember it being popular)

Garmadon was actually really popular with the elemental alliance but the friendships started when he was at least tipsy or drunk

He just didn't know how to people and used alcohol to cope but it affected him once in battle and quit drinking that day

Garmadon and Morro either didn't meet

OR

Garmadon met Morro right after he got back from Chen and adored him

It scared him a little to see Morro want the greatness the Garmadon also craved but since Morro wanted to be the Green Ninja Garmadon encouraged him on that path thinking it would've saved him

He regrets that greatly

That's all I can think of for now

Yes they are all about Garmadon because he has always been my favorite character

[my-hyperfixation-hell]

Katara belonged in the final Agni Kai

I was thinking about ATLA again, particularly about the common fandom complaint I hear that Katara was out of place in the last Agni Kai, and it should have been about exclusively Zuko and Azula, or that because Katara technically finished the fight, Zuko doesn't "count" as Firelord; he never won.

But I think that Zuko and Katara winning it together is actually crucial for not only Katara, but Zuko as well.

Let's start with Zuko by examining what the Agni Kai is to begin with. We've seen Zuko engage in two Agni Kais before; against Admiral Zhao, and of course, Firelord Ozai. The notion of an Agni Kai in theory is to prove one's honor.

In practice, it has been used as a means of displaying your power over someone else through firebending. Ozai overpowers Zuko, and Zhao intended to do so over Zuko, but failed.

It's reflective of Fire Nation society as a whole, and the way that displays of power and force have become more valued than actual honor. This is the lesson Zuko has to learn, too; no one can give him honor or take it away, especially not through violence. He cannot earn his honor back through acts of violence, either.

The final Agni Kai, for Azula, was once again about power. Her goal was to overpower Zuko and force him to yield. Zuko's goal was different, he wanted to save the world, and fighting was the way to do so.

Another issue Zuko had to overcome was not allowing others to help him. He rejects help at every turn in the past, most notably from Iroh and Katara, back in Ba Sing Se, when she was sympathetic towards him but he still chose to side with Azula.

Additionally, I'd like to point out the episode where Zuko's crew finds him irritating and self centered, and Iroh explains his backstory to them. Then, Zuko makes the decision to save a crewmate, earning respect for the first time through genuine means.

Lastly, remember why Iroh taught Zuko to redirect lightning to begin with; lightning bending is symbolic of the Fire Nation royal family's abuse. It's a protected secret, a display of force and firebending prodigy. Iroh teaches Zuko to deflect his father's abuse in a very literal sense.

Now, tie all this in to WHY Katara steps in; when Azula lightning bends Katara, Zuko takes the shot for her.

Zuko, the Fire Nation prince, takes the shot from Katara, the last bender of the Southern Water Tribe, one of the areas most impacted by the Fire Nation's cruelty.

This is reflective of Zuko choosing above winning, above the misguided beliefs his family had about what honor is, to protect his friends, his chosen family, and the rest of the world from what the Fire Nation is doing.

By becoming Firelord not by the rules of the Agni Kai, but through the help of a friend, Zuko breaks the cycle of violence that it represents.

Now, onto Katara. This is the finale, the final fight, and it lets Katara shine, too. Remember, here she is, the last Southern Water Tribe bender, putting an end to the rule that had hurt her people.

I don't think bearing that in mind it's any question whether or not Katara deserves to be there.

But it's more than that. Being present at the final Agni Kai lets Katara shine both as a master bender in combat, and as a healer, two skills that she worked hard to grow over the series.

When Zuko says he's going to fight Azula alone, Katara initially protests, pointing out the intention from the beginning was to get help from Katara. Zuko changes his mind because he believes he can do it alone, seeing Azula isn't at her best, and Katara ends up respecting his decision, until the chips are down.

Like Zuko made the split second decision to save her, Katara then saves him, first by beating Azula in a remarkably clever way. The freezing-the-water-around-them trick was a brilliant stroke of creative thinking for her.

Then, after the fight is over, she begins to heal Zuko from a BLAST OF LIGHTNING TO THE CHEST. Iroh made it very clear how dangerous that was when he instructed Zuko to redirect lightning. Always through the stomach, never through the heart.

Zuko isn't 100% healed, as evidenced by him still being in pain during his coronation, but even being alive at all is pretty miraculous by that point.

She shows that she is a waterbending master both in combat and healing.

And more than that, think about what it means for Zuko and Katara as friends. Katara is the last to accept Zuko into the Gaang, because she is not as ready to forgive as, say, Aang, or like Toph who wasn't there when Zuko was the gaang's main threat and had her talk with Iroh.

When she and Zuko do bond, it's over grief for their mothers, and, I think, the fact that Katara can finally recognize Zuko the way she started to see him in Ba Sing Se; as someone else the Fire Nation has hurt.

Zuko, on the other hand, disregards Katara quite a bit during the earlier seasons, as he does Sokka. His focus is primarily on Aang and capturing the Avatar, and I think he falls short of seeing her for the powerful bender she is.

But when it comes down to fighting Azula? Zuko didn't think he could do it alone until he saw her slipping. Katara was the one by Zuko's side. The one who perhaps best understands and shares in his pain, as he understands and shares in hers, after they bonded going after Katara's mom's killer.

She, too, was hurt by the Fire Nation, lost her mother to them.

And the focus of that episode entirely! Katara wanted revenge, she wanted to kill for her mother. Zuko was ready to support her in that (and ironically going back to my earlier point about how Zuko used to disregard Katara and Sokka, being focused on Aang, it was definitely one of those moments where he realized just how strong she was).

Katara bonded with Zuko and healed the part of herself seeking revenge for the ways she'd been wronged at the same time. Their stories of grief are intertwined and I think that's beautiful.

Really, what better character to participate in the Final Agni Kai?

My last point is this; ATLA from the very beginning stresses co-existence and harmony, balance. The Fire Nation waging war upset this balance.

I think a water bender helping restore power into better hands in the Fire Nation fits in with this idea of balance and harmony, with the nations working together rather than against one another, or an "every nation for themselves" alternative.

So, basically, TL:DR; Katara belonged in the final Agni Kai, and her helping Zuko win does not make it any less of a victory for Zuko.

[dominolemon]

This show just loves to break me down physically and mentally doesn’t it

GIVE HER HUSBAND BACK TO HER PLSPLSPLSPLS SHE DOESNT DESERVE THIS

First Jay loses her for a entire year then they finally get eachother back and then she loses him for what like 6 years now IM DYING WHYYY WHY DID THEY HAVE TO DO THIS IT WAS SO FOWL BUT I ENJOYED IT SO MUCH RAAAHGGGG

But I just love the fact even though it’s been years since they have seen each other Nya knows him well enough that she was the first one to realize it was a trick BUT IT HURTS MY SOULL

The fact that it’s all dark with the shiny floor so it really has you focus on them is even worse the amount of times I had to pause this scene because it was giving me emotions killed me

I HAVE A THEORY THOUGH

Alright so now that it’s technically canon that Jay has memory loss I’m wondering now. I don’t think Nyas fear was for Jay to forget her I think it was if Jay got hurt, she sacrificed herself to save him she put herself in front of him in prime empire and got cubed she’d do anything to protect him but I don’t think it crossed her mind for him to forget her cuss she new almost immediately when he said “stop acting like you know me” or “who are you” that it wasn’t him, literally the first line that he’s ever said is about Nya dude ain’t forgetting her and she knows this

Maybe I’m just going insane but we learn after that he actually does have memory loss and I just feel like they did that on purpose I called it out when I watched it to my sister (I’m the most annoying person to watch with)

I also wanna add how much I love Jay because he’s just bad at his job but hey at least he’s trying I think, I just love this interaction with Bonsel and Jay RAAHHHg

Please Bonsel TELL KAI ABOUT HIM PLEASE YOU HAVE TIME TO PLEASE JUST SAY IT FOR MY SANITY

HE GOT MORE THEN 20 SECONDS OF SCREEN TIME THOUGH THATS A PLUS AND HES GETTING CLOSER AND CLOSER TO FIGURING OUT WHO HE IS

[the-ninja-legacy-whip]

i know you said that wu and garmadon wont reach true potential but what exactly is holding each of them back

"…I remember now, you know." Zane steps away, tugging off his hood and letting his smile shine through. "I remember everything my parents did to care for me, I remember where I came from…I remember why I'm here…and I feel stronger for knowing. I'd been so concerned lately with all the things I couldn't understand, but…I don't have to understand everything in order to be loved, or to love myself."

. . .

"All I did was realize something I should have a long time ago." Jay finds his strength again, standing while using Nya and Kai for support. "I was so busy worrying how much other people like me…that I forgot to like myself too. I have worth…even if not everyone sees it right way. But those that do, the ones that dare to weather the storm… even if they don't stick around forever, I can appreciate the time that they were willing to stand in the rain."

. . .

"Honestly, at first I thought I was weighed down by all the baggage with my dad. Sure, that was part of it, but…I realized I had come to believe that my worth was tied into what I could do for others, and that was so easy to believe…not only because of how I was raised, but because I care about you guys so much. The idea of letting you down or not being strong enough for you…that could've been enough to break me." A shy, somewhat embarrassed smile takes over Cole's face. "Heh, and I also kinda thought…I was too hard of a person to love, and therefore struggled to find some love for myself as well. But hearing it from my father, and my brothers…maybe that's all I ever really needed. That one, tiny thing…well, even a pebble can cause a landslide, I guess." 

. . .

"…when you said the heart was the key, at first I thought that meant I had to do anything to prove to myself that I was worthy of being the Green Ninja, because I thought that's what my heart was destined for." Kai hums, placing a hand against his torso. "…but all it really meant was to look inside ourselves, and choose to admire what was there. Lloyd helped me see that…I was obsessing over something that I already had. Our Elements are us, and we are our Elements…and I thought Fire was something that it's not. I thought I was something that I'm not."  Kai looks back up at Wu, beaming softly. "Simply put…all we ever had to do to realize our potential…was learn to love ourselves." 

THE ANSWER IS SELF-ACCEPTANCE AND LOVING YOURSELF

Wu and Garmadon can't fully accept who they are/the mistakes they've made/the actions they've taken/what they've done, and feel like they're not who they're "Supposed" to be and they hate themselves for it, though on opposite sides of the spectrum, and thus cannot attain the highest form of their own powers

IT'S THE SAME THING CURRENTLY HOLDING LLOYD AND JESSE BACK CMONNNNNN

(...not Nya tho; she doesn't technically "hate herself", just cannot accept both the best and worst parts about herself yet (plus all the self-identity issues to begin with; can't accept yourself if you don't exactly know who "you" are :d))

"OH but what about when Garmadon reaches his True Potential in S9 with Harumi—?!" He never actually 'fully' achieves it there (similar to Jesse currently) due to Harumi having him go about it the wrong way, but he still gets closer than Wu does (...unless I'm feeling generous in giving Wu some extra character development 👀).

[thecatundertheladder]

First off thank you so much for the answer it was a great read. My second question has to do with my biggest gripe with show, that is wu keeping secrets. He never learns his lesson with it from Moro to asphera and the one I hate the most,Kai and nya’s parents. He was Kai’s fathers best friend and he never tells them anything about their parents except fact that they were elemental masters. That secret helped with whole Chen thing and I’m honestly surprised that the two weren’t furious that he didn’t tell them anything. So does he or garmadon tell them anything, and if not how does fsm and garmadon react to that?

You 🤝 me

Fixing plot holes with this au

So Wu not telling people things is a thing that happens a lot in the show, and obviously the reason is that Ninjago didn't plan ahead with their seasons until Dragons Rising. But I believe that the in-universe reasons are a) he didn't these things were important or relevent (I mean the Aspheera incident happened when he was a child so 🤷‍♀️) and b) he's paranoid about over sharing which leads to under sharing.

The whole Morro incident didn't happen in this universe (see: this post) so we don't need to justify that (thank god).

So if we take all that into account it leaves two main issues. Wu not telling them about their parents and not training Nya as a water ninja from the start. So let's get into that.

In this au, the reason Wu didn't tell Nya about her powers is because Lloyd was born too late (this is also the reason tomorrow's tea happened, it was the universe course correcting). He was supposed to be born well before the venom kicked in fully, so he would be a teenager roughly the same age as his guardians when fighting the Overlord. Instead, he was born not long before the venom kicked in and Garmadon was banished to the Underworld.

This meant that by the time the four ninja were beginning their training, they were quickly running out of time. In an effort to insure the four ninja of the prophecy plus the green ninja got enough training Wu deliberately didn’t tell Nya that she had water powers so he would’t have to spend time teaching her instead of the others. Especially since he doesn’t know much about water as an element, since he, garmadon and FSM couldn’t use it. So he also wanted to wait for Nyad before he started anything beyond basic training with Nya.

But by the time the prophecy was over Nya had already made herself as Samurai X and Wu felt bad about potentially destroying it by telling her. It wasn’t until the Preeminent tried to take over Ninjago that Wu finally got the confidence up to tell her.

Garmadon does not approve of Wu’s decision to not tell Nya about her powers at all. He thinks the longer he leaves it the worse it will be when she finally does get told - and she does have to be told, the ocean does not like to be restrained. But he leaves it since Nya is primarily under Wu’s care. FSM agrees with Wu initial decision to not tell her in order to spend as much time training the the other five

And now the previous elemental masters, which I will admit, was harder to work out, but I love a good opportunity for world building and plot hole fixing! In season four Garmadon says the reason that the ninja didn't know about the other EMs was because they were made to feel special. I assume this decision was to motivate them when facing the Ultimate Evil^tm. However, that doesn't really explain why Wu and Garmadon didn't tell them post-defeating the Ultimate Evil^tm.

Wu told all all four og ninja that their powers came from the First Spinjitzu Master, and the thing is in canon, he's technically not lying, he's just missing out the part where they got passed down through generations of elemental masters. In this au, he really isn't lying. The FSM boosted the fours powers so they could protect Lloyd better - some of their powers are directly from them. But moving on...

Ray was Wu's best friend, so when he went missing and Wu didn't have his powers to track him down, he was devasted. I think in part Wu's decision to not tell Kai and Nya about their parents was because he was grieving them still, and grief makes people do strange things. Obviously this is a mistake, as, like you said, it leads to Kai nearly being manipulated by Chen.

Wu not telling Cole about Lily was in a mis-guided attempt to help him salvage his relationship with his father. He had originally assumed that Lou had told Cole but when it became apparent that he hadn't, Wu left it - he didn't want to damage Lou and Cole's relationship further by revealing something that Lou had kept secret.

For Jay and Libber, Wu was aware that Jay didn't know he was adopted, and it was this that partly influenced his decision to not tell any of the ninja about their parents as it would lead to some uncomfortable revelations with Jay.

For Zane and the previous elemental master of ice, it falls into the catagory of simply not relevent. Zane does not have any relation to him, though he does learn about him when the Ninja eventually get sat down and told everything about the previous generation.

And of course Wu (in this au at least) has a problem of forgetting to tell people things. He was under the impression that the ninja all knew about his and Garmadon's heritage and that they also knew the FSM was alive, but of course they didn't.

Garmadon does not like that Wu kept all this a secret, but as I mentioned before he doesn't want to over step his boundaries and tell them. And he also has the problem of forgetting to tell people things - it's hereditary. FSM also does not like that Wu and Garmadon elect to not tell the ninja about the other and previous EMs. They believe that the elemental masters of each generation should be at the very least aquaintances with each other (they're a little biased, the first EMs are as good as family to FSM). But the thing is, between seasons 3 and 5, FSM pays very little attention to Ninjago. They were planning to find Maya and Ray for Wu, Kai, and Nya post Final Battle, but well, they forgot. Immortals - especially FSM - can have very bad time management skills.

Hopefully this covers everything and makes sense but if not just let me know. And feel free to keeps the asks coming because they're very fun to answer!

[talenlee]

The Origin Of The Word 'Orc'

The term for a cultural group, as a name, is its demonym. In Cobrin’Seil, demonyms are words from the culture in question. There are some political contentions there – the Eladrin consider themselves more legitimate Elves than Elves, but Elves are called Elves and Eladrin don’t call themselves Elves because they do not want to be considered the same thing as Elves. This is a long standing beef between the kind of people who own libraries older than most countries. But notably, these words are in the languages of the Elf and the Eladrin. Drow is a word from the same language group, a term that the Drow chose for themselves and use for themselves. The Kai of Shadar-Kai are named after their fortress home, which is, again, an Eladrin word, but they’re all from the same cultural group and choose the term.

The term ‘Beast’ in common comes from ‘Beastfolk,’ which is to say a generic term for a scary thing from the forest. But Beasts are named after Beastfolk, and Beastfolk, again, named themselves. The Beastfolk formed a coalition, made a common language, and then shared that language amongst themselves, developing the term bhehst which evolved over time to Beast, and when they needed a term to describe the coalition, Beastfolk was the result.

Common did not impose this name on them, it learned it from them.

Consider the word ‘Goblin’, a word from the Goblins, is notable because the way the word is used and structured, in language, it’s a possessive. Whose land is this? Goblin. Where are we? Goblin. Who are you? Goblin. What are your people? Goblin. This incredibly flexible term, with its overwhelming ubiquity, also plays into the way goblins are perceived as speaking a strange and confusing language. It’s more that they have multi-purpose words are build their language on trust and social intuition. This is why Goblins will often drop a conversation exactly when they know you’re getting frustrated, because they can tell you don’t actually care and need time to process what they said.

In Cobrin’seil, heritage names are largely entirely self-chosen demonyms. Oh sure, there are names for Orcs that Orcs don’t use, but those words are largely considered slurs, or are often inexact – Bugbears, Hobgoblins, Goblins and Orcs were all for a time treated as the same culture and named interchangeably by outsiders who did not interact with them (which means some of these ideas remain codified by the Eresh Protectorate and Dal Raeda histories). A proper cladistic chart can rejoice in how interesting it is that yes, Bugbears and Hobgoblins are extremely closely related, and yet Hobgoblins and Goblins are so distant as to be functionally alien to one another. Humans are closely related to Hobgoblins, but not to Goblins, and Orcs, while closely related to Humans, are extremely different to Hobgoblins, such that they don’t even recognise one another’s common cause.

And if you think Humans are racist against Orcs, you should hear what Hobgoblins think of them sometime.

But what is an Orc? Not culturally – linguistically, what is an Orc?

The simplest answer to that is that the Orc word Orc is a pronoun used by Orcs before contact with other cultures to describe the relationship between clan groups. In technical terms, it’s a first-person – plural – accusative – judicative – epicene- imperative – widely clusive pronoun, which is to say:

It’s a term used used to self-describe (first-person)

It’s a term describing a group (plural, it’s not singular)

It indicates reciept of an object (a grammatical object, like a direct object – think of it as ‘doing’ things)

It asserts a correct identification, that the speaker is sure of the word’s truth (accusative rather than interrogative)

It presents no gender (epicene)

It expresses a command of agency (imperative, much like a sentence that starts with “you”)

It asserts as many people who can be in the group as possible (as ‘Orc’ wants to be maximally inclusive)

This set of layers is not at all atypical, because the huge iceberg of study amongst linguists in Orcs isn’t their vocabulary or writing system. Those are still potentially interesting things to study, but the nature of Orc as a language is that the vocabulary is pretty simplified… if you accept the way that the language is made up of modifiers. See, Orcish language and vocabulary is pretty simple when it comes to nouns and adjectives, and there’s an old aphorism Orcs have a hundred words for war and no word for peace. This is both not true and true, because the place where Orcish language has most of its complexity is not in these nouns but is instead in their incredibly intricate and exhaustive system of pronouns.

Orcish pronouns are varied, elaborate, detailed and tonal. In English, we have a single pronoun for ‘the object right here’ (This) and ‘the object not right here’ (That). You can add plurality to those (these and those), but that’s not a lot of refinement. In Orcish by comparison, the pronouns include sequentiality (the first object we mention, the second object we mention), clusivity (who is included in a grouping), trust (I know this because I witnessed it, because someone told me, because someone I didn’t trust told me, nobody told me), and temporality (when in time this thing I am describing has or will happened or is ongoing).

This means that diagrammatically, an Orcish sentence may be composed of the nouns and verbs ‘took axe hut put skull,’ which we in English might scaffold together as ‘I took my axe from by the hut and put it in that guy’s skull,’ but the same sentence in about the same amount of space in Orcish, communicates ‘I am telling you this because I witnessed and did it and can attest to that, of how I took my father’s hunting axe that I have used to fight with only occasionally and would not be my normal choice for violence, near the hut that I use for occasional trips for fishing and storing things, and for reasons that I think are reasonable but I recognise as regrettable, wound up in a fight with that guy which ended when I used the axe to split his skull.’ And that’s even simplifying it, because there’d be specific interlocking references in the intervening words, and it would cover the same basic space. Orcish pronouns can be synthetic, where two different pronouns may want to apply to a word so they just merge together into another, new, giga pronoun.

This is the big problem of translating Orcish language; the pronouns are so complex and carry so much information that an Orc learning Common has to struggle with trying to wedge that level of sophisticiation in the space we in our language normally use for simple words, like they’re trying to park an apple cart in a desk drawer. Since the language can value precision and specificity and provenance, which we don’t naturally do, they wind up having to give up on trying to convey any of that information with the pronouns. This is why you get the stereotypical ‘thag hit man with axe‘ because from an Orc’s perspective, the pronouns and prepositions we use are so limited, they’re more like mumbling you put between words than an actual system for conveying meaning.

Understand that if there were Orc movies, the fansubbers would have absolutely unsolvable problems ahead of them. They’d encounter a scene where two Orcs saying very blatantly different single words back and forth to one another would, to be linguistically correct, with the time allowed to parse the information, have to subtitle it with just the dialogue:

You.” “You.” “You.” “You.“ “You?” “You.” “YOU.

And it would be technically right and incredibly unhelpful. The stereotype of an Orc, inscrutably keyed up just saying ‘YOU.’ at someone is often used to suggest that they’re easily overwhelmed by emotions. That’s not entirely untrue but it’s also that Common is just not fit for purpose to express what Orcs normally can express very freely.

This also results in translation errors of concepts, that result in complicated mistakes about cultural outlook. Take for example the way that Human cultures, speaking in Common, value parenthood to the exclusion of almost all other forms of cultural behaviour. Fatherhood and Motherhood are treated as fundamentally important to even living, when you’re from a Fatherland and you live thanks to the Mother Earth. The fact that Orcs don’t seem to treat either of these ideas with much significance was, for a time, taken as a historical sign of their lack of Human empathy and inability to exist in Human society, with all Orcs coming from parent-less or underparented families, the ‘land of broken homes.’ This is a misunderstanding that comes out of Humans assuming that marriage is normal.

Typically though, Orcs don’t have children. A bit under half the population have children and a bit more than half of the population don’t. It’s not because of a problem or anything. There’s no strong incentive to do so, no implication that you won’t. Orcs typically remain able bodied up to their end of life, and the narrative in a capitalist society of producing children to care for you and keep you company as you get older is already met by the way that Orcish communities are already built on a steady platform of community connection.

Orc society isn’t a typical patriarchal or matriarchal setup but more avuncular. Most Orcs care, a little, for the kids in their community; parents are often considered exhausted by having the kids, and therefore, the community members around them take care of the kid and help raise them. The myth that Orcs ‘mature faster’ is just that any given 14 year old Orc has already been trained, by their community, to do a lot of utilitarian things like making their own food and lodgings and travelling, because that’s just more of what’s in the culture. It’s not that there’s no room for things like birdwatching and painting and creating art objects, it’s just that the foundations aren’t reliant on things like reading and writing and focus more on practical skills.

The other thing is that Orc populations often have very lopsided and punctuated population growths; if a band raids an area and brings back with everything the other area had that they now have to care for, the situation can be where the Orcs now have a generation worth of new kids, so there’s no specific reason for them to have more kids of their own through the untidy process of reproduction. There’s no obvious problem here, because again: there’s no assumption of partnership or children as a natural result, so these kids are usually adopted and raised by the Orcs themselves, and again, this is seen as pretty reasonable, even forming out of parenting units that don’t necessarily think of one another as friends or seem compatible the way that Humans would present them. No fixed opposite gender pairings or even fixed sizes of groups, because again: Marriage is not normal.

Humans understand marriage to be a legal codification of a culturally acceptable monogamous structure where two people choose to cohabitate, pool resources, and that this is a perpetual state. It’s usually of opposite genders but not always and it’s usually inclusive of having children, but not always. Depending on where in the world you do it, Humans kids being from married families is seen as a sign the kid has more stability and is less likely to be antisocial or criminal.

Orcs on the other hand, have no such common social arrangement, with the closest they have being a thing that some researchers refer to as a ‘child loan.’ Some Orcs decide they want some kids, so they ask their own support network if they can be, for a period — usually seven years — excluded from typical community obligations for providing. It’s a commitment to create a space for the kid to grow up in, and usually only asked for a first child or an adoption of a few. After the duration of time, the deal is over – the ‘parents’ in the child loan don’t even necessarily assume they’ll be together at that point and the community obligations return. There’s no interest on this, per se, but it’s often framed as a ‘loan’ in language because a lot of Orc language is debt-biased.

Basically, there’s a period where any time you’re given the choice between staying out to gather more resources than you need or chop more wood than you can to benefit communal stockpiles, Orcs believe, if you’re under this deal, you should absolutely the hell not be chopping wood or fishing, you should be back home, enriching the life of your child and supporting your partners in the situation.

This is how Orcs get that common base of knowledge. It’s true that Orcs aren’t fantastically literate, but the lack of written language doesn’t relate to their sophisticated language system. Right now, the Orcish language gets written in a form of Urd script, a little stamp of colonisation from Ogres in the past that the Orcs largely escaped. The lack of infrastructural information is secondary because the culture tends towards being built out of people with direct experience in a lot of different hands-on skills. You don’t need to read manuals if you can rely on finding someone in your society who can help teach you things. This means there’s a lot of focus on less the importance of blood or descent and a lot more about continued maintenance of cultural identities. Basically, nobody likes seeing someone in the community die without an apprentice or a follower to carry on what they knew.

This is also where the stereotypes of Orcs coming from ‘broken homes’ because a lot of Orcs’ parents, after the kid is roughly at a point where they can start contributing to the home, discuss if they want the current arrangement to be ongoing, and decide to change it, meaning less time with one parent or the other. The kid then usually spends their time hanging around an ‘uncle’ in the community with the specialisation they’re interested in.

Now understand that from an Orc’s perspective, this is a pretty reasonable thing. Orcs are very used to the idea of impermanent things, life and property and so on. The Human sees a horrifying constant attempt to emulate Human marriage which always ends in failure and raises a child who is, well, an Orc, and is seen as fulfilling a cycle of violence. The Orc sees Human marriage and asks ‘why do you send a letter to the government to tell them who you’re having sex with? that’s bloody weird.’

Ironically, though, Orcs are also associated with letters for another reason. See, a lot of city folk’s stereotype, to the point where in plays and theatre, it’s one of the most common roles available to Orcs, is the idea of an Orc courier. The idea kicked off from a historical position where, out in the battlefield, Eresh nobles would pay Orcs from nearby to deliver messages, because they were wholly independent, incredibly reliable, and unlikely to break promises. This was such standard practice that Orcish communities would often check out battlefields and wars like it was a corner for work.

But this became enough of a thing at battlefields, that there were established relationships, that when knights and commanders headed back to the cities, Orcs would commonly come along, and do long-distance courier work from city to city. If Orcs were travelling the highways with messages on their own, like a mail service, often nobles would give the general some other notes, and thus began the pattern of a small number of Orcs having this job. That led to more coming along to do it, because it’s work they find easy (long distance travel under no pressure in return for convenient rewards at both ends of the travel).

This was long running enough that nobles started to hire them specifically, Orcs formed loose unions, recruited non-Orcs that could do the job, and language about the stereotype kicked in. It’s a really persistent rumour that Orcs are couriers because they can’t read, so the message is secure. This is a really stupid stereotype, because the messages inevitably have their destination written on them and the Orcs have to be able to read that.

The upshot is that ‘Orc messenger’ is just a weird stereotype that the people of the Eresh Protectorate particularly hold to, because it’s one of the ways that Orcs show up in the cities most commonly… even if that archetype is so old that the Orc couriers founded Orc Courier companies, that are now just Courier companies and the city-living Orcs of the Eresh Protectorate do whole hosts of jobs. It’s also even stranger that some people maintain the stereotype of an Orc as what we’d recognise as a Pony Express style courier, a lone wanderer on a horse with no roots and no friends, romanticised as an image under the starry sky, and as a terrifying highway plunderer.

These two things seemingly exist completely independently in the head of idiots.

This originally started as a series of unstructured chosts over on Cohost, where I talked – without much formal structure – about the Orcs of Cobrin’Seil. This post is here because it’s more searchable and more readable for things like oh, my D&D players. But if you want to see this kind of thing in its draft form, you should check out Cohost. It’s a cool website that lets me draft larger things like this without the same churn as you see on sites like Tumblr.

I like Cohost! I like writing about things like this! I like being able to hand you nearing on three thousand words of Orc lore, derived in pieces from drip-fed ideas about linguistic demonym structure and make a whole ding dang piece about it! And over on Cohost, you can comment on it and encourage me! I like that too! Some of the ideas here were definitely filtered throug people commenting on my Orc cultures!

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[chiiyuuvv]

heyy can I request xikers reaction to you being insecure about something in yourself(anything, u name it) thank youu and I love your writing 🤍✨

• PAIRING — xikers x fem!reader

• GENRE — comfort, insecurities, yeah

• WORD COUNT — 695

• AUTHOR'S NOTE — Everything that i have written has been pulled from here so if there was something i didnt name or you'd like to read more about, i highly suggest it :)

• TAGLIST — @lil-elle , @hyunukitty , @cake1box , @mars101 , @nenede , @soul-is-a-strange-kid , @the-lemon-boy , @yuniniverse , @hunchan444 , @s00buwu , @cherrycolaberry

MASTERLIST! – JOIN THE TAGLIST!

"I'm not going to get into that college"

First and foremost, minjae understands the pressure to get into a certain college in order to please your parents. But you wanna know whats more important? Why do you wanna go? Other than pleasing your parents. After a long talk and cuddle, you should come into a better sense of whether or not college is something you want to do. But either way, you should always believe in yourself! ♡

"I don't have many followers"

Junmin's going to take away your phone. Not because you did something bad, but so you can take a break. Go outside, turn on do not disturb and take a walk with your lovely boyfriend. Its a win-win for you, him, and his dogs. A win-win-win, technically ♡

"I don't have a good fashion sense"

As someone who likes to dress a certain way, sumin knows what its like, but he has a tip; dress for you. When you wear things that make you happy, you often forget about the others around you, and their opinions. It also helps you stand out from the crowd. Wear what you like ♡

"I cant do any better"

Grabbing both of your hands, jinsik will give them a tight squeeze in front of the mirror, making you repeat the same mantras every morning. They may feel silly at first, but over time they help you convince yourself that you are worthy of whatever you desire ♡

"I dont have many friends"

First, hyunwoo will talk about the importance of friends. Friends that help you grow to become the better you and give you a good laugh. Friends that would never judge you for their own benefit. That being said, you need to eliminate the ones that dont actually care for you. Worry less about the quantity, and more about the quality. Who cares if you only have 3 friends? As long as youre happy and growing, thats all that matters ♡

"I'm not pretty enough"

Beauty is subjective. You may be insecure about one thing, but junghoon, 9 times out of 10, finds it really stinking cute. But what he feels doesnt matter, what others think doesnt matter. How you think matters!! So stop worrying about other peoples eyes and work on your inner self. If youre happy.. youre at peace, and if youre at peace, you start to smile. And thats very attractive ♡

"I'm not that smart"

"Why dont you think youre smart?" Seeun would ask, his chin resting against his hand. "Why do you want to be smart?" These questions may be dumb but they have meaning. We all have the ability to learn something. After all, life is about experiencing things and growing from it. It all just takes time, so dont stop believing in yourself, 'kay? ♡

"No one will miss me when im gone"

Although you may feel alone and think no one would care, yujun would care. Yujun would always care. But, stop worrying about the future, you know? Live your life in the present with no regrets. Every moment spent worrying is a moment spent not really living. When you obsess over that type of stuff, you are missing out on whats in front of you. And when you miss that, you wont realize the people who love and support you ♡

"I feel overweight"

Hunter will take you to the gym, but not just so you become 'thin' and everyone will accept you, to focus on being healthy, mentally healthy too. Focus on getting in shape with a well balanced diet and exercise program. Hunter will help! ♡

"People talk behind my back"

"Do you know that for sure??" Yechan would ask, poking his fork in his salad. "Because most of the time, its just an imaginary conversation you have in your head. Stop worrying what other people think and focus on your well being. But what you said is true, expect to see me at your school." He finishes, shooting you an innocent smile ♡