#man this went all over the place

[fellhellion]

as a purely personal preference i honestly kind of wish sm/2099 had more self contained issues and/or specials, since the restrained format seems to really prompt the writers (PAD as well as the guest writers of the specials) to play around with and explore a particular niche of the world building implications of 2099 upon the characters.

[egophiliac]

well, I can't say I expected the new chapter to feature Idia (metaphorically) going to (metaphorical) hell, getting a pep talk from his (metaphorical) Phantom brother which helps him finally move on once and for all from his brother's death, and (metaphorically) overblotting again to fight his way back out of (metaphorical) hell, only to have his darkest fear (non-metaphorically) come true when his mom goes through his computer and finds all his secret files. but I am glad it did!

also this is all a flashback for the purpose of explaining to our group what the heck is going on (whether or not any of it is getting through is another matter)

[benevolenterrancy]

May your hardened heart be woken By the soft and distant song Of all you left here unspoken All the shards we keep stepping on - Take this body home Take this body home Call the wind, and let her know Take this life outgrown Take this broken soul Call the stars, call them all And take it high, take it far, take it home

[pineappical]

in light of tedtrent becoming so real, im also jumping on the tedtrent epilogue 😊

there's just no way ted wouldn't keep in touch with the others (and have weekly zoom meetings just like in the christmas special) and I just love the thought of the whole team having reunions once in a while.

and going back to trent's arc in s3, the sunflowers conversation, "And your daughter?" "She's never been happier." I think it could go the same for ted.. we've never really properly saw how henry felt about his dad being in london, it's always other people that told ted his son misses him, who's to say henry would rather see his dad happy because that in turn would make him happy too? he was there to win the whole thing, right? I just know ted’s story isn’t done yet when he still hasn’t learned to let others take care of him in return and who else to pair him with than the man who blew up his career because a man was nice to him (and also because they were so. so cruel for the fakeout tedbecca scenes for that finale) 🥺

I'm no writer so just pretend these are snapshots of a slow burn fic where ted visits london for their team reunion and slowly realizes that trent has a crush on him and they kiss about it 💛

[the-labyrinth-of-me]

Wait did both Alice and Zane record Alan when he was at his lowest point? Didn't Alice make her exhibition to show the world what she sees? To show Alan the truth about himself? That it never was Scratch visiting and terrorizing her, but Alan himself? Did she depict his "self" and Zane depicted his "persona"? The two sides of him that he wishes he can eliminate bc they brought him into trouble (Scratch representing anger and the fallouts with paparazzi and stuff, Zane representing his self-destructive behavior with alcohol and drugs and the party nights)? The both sides that caused his marriage to start falling apart? Was that the reason Zane made that video of Alan when they were on that booze and drug-fueled bender while working on the Return manuscript? Is this party video the companion piece?? Alan's downward spiral, same as Alice's photos? Do they fucking work together aasdffjfjfkfk

[kazoosandfannypacks]

Fendra wedding, anyone?

[bayetea]

I'm gonna froth at the mouth over this in the tags so bear with me but reason #1278038 why the way rick went about breaking up jiper was bad: rereading her povs in hoo where she gushes over jason feels like even more of an unreliable narrator queer girl comphet psychological horror story

[sotc]

missin my crow familia so baddd rn 💔

[psychomusic]

so. I've been reading some posts on the jedi order tag AND i won't talk about my opinion on "are jedi good or bad discourse" BUT i wanna point out some lore to everyone who's complaining about the jedi taking kids into their order: (in the EU) it wasn't always like this.

if you take swtor era (more than 3000 years before the prequels) there were many jedi who joined at an older age. like, for example there was a guy who broke his engagement to become one. most jedi remember their families because they were old enough when they decided to go.

THEN in darth bane's book trilogy (circa 1000 yesrs before the prequels) there is a passage where two sith lords are talking about taking bane, already an adult, to study at korriban. one doubted him because he was too old, ans the other told him he sounded like a jedi, and that ONE DAY jedi will have to accept only kids into their ranks if they really want to find "pure" people that can learn their lessons quicker.

one day!! so it wasn't always like that!! the ongoing wars with the sith, who corrupted and killed many of them, had pressured them into taking always younger people into their ranks.

also, consider a thing that this video explains super well: training to become a jedi is not like exercising, because there is a transformative lesson at the end of the training that changes everything. you can't just do as much as you can, but not finish.

the transformative lesson, as the video explains, is that through the force, everything is the same - from rocks and ships to life and death. at the end of the training you have to understand this fundamental truth.

yoda says "you have to unlearn what you have learned". during times where they were constantly killed off or corrupted by the dark side (and if you haven't learned this lesson you are more susceptible to this corrupting), younger people were taken in to actually finish their training (a training that was ultimately about being a good person AND that you could leave at any point if you weren't sold on that, too)

(remember that for the sith failure = death. like. that was the alternative for force sensitive kids. it's not like sith had any moral problem with taking kids away without consent. sith don't have moral problems: they believe that them being stronger in the force means they can do whatever they want as long as their strong enough to go and do it. there are MANY passages in many different star wars stories, even in different mediums, that say this out loud)

AND (this is more of a critical thought than just stating the lore) the fact that they started doing it out of necessity doesn't mean it's 100% good BUT you know. the whole set up of the prequels is that we're starting off the story in a period of crisis and decadence all around. most of the systems of the times were about to fall. OF COURSE they had problems. if they didn't, we wouldn't have the story to begin with.

that doesn't automatically mean jedi = bad and sith are better, tho. you wouldn't take the last, chaotic and decadent period to jugde something, would you? it's like deciding that the athenian democracy sucked because people at the times of Demosthenes failed at recognizing the new schemes in which the world was evolving into, and still believed that their city would be important as it had been in the previous century. They just didn't fucking expect the Macedons would conquer half the world known and more, and have the subsequent political power. Still, their experiences in the 5th century with democracy were very good, even better than ours on many fronts, if you contextualize a little. the jedi had flaws, and most importantly, they didn't fucking know the future and everything that ever happened, ever, so they made mistakes. that doesn't automatically make the system ill, or bad, or not-working. systems can have setbacks when the world changes. (just like athenian democracy had one when they lost the empire that was funding the democracy. they even had a tyranny for a while and then fixed the problems. that doesn't diminish retrospectively their democracy)

[freakinator]

i need to get crazier about zamdoons i think

[nutcasewithaknife]

Can't help but think about how much of Jiang Cheng’s 'I am nothing without my core' outburst when he wakes up after losing it is not because he needs to be the best but because he just lost the only thing he could do for his mother after she died. If it would've mattered less to him once he'd gotten the time to mourn her loss. If he stays up at night thinking about how all his accomplishments so far were possible because of Wei Wuxian's core, and how that would've disappointed her even more. If he thinks that she would've let Wei Wuxian give him his core had she been around back then, and feels an old but horribly familiar anger burn through him. If he still curses her for her last words to Wei Wuxian and curses himself for parroting them. If he curses Wei Wuxian for believing them.

Can't help but wonder if his dedication to the sect was to protect its people and those who depended on it just as much as it was about continuing a legacy, upholding his duty. If he really did all that to make his dead mother proud and earn his dead father's respect, if these considerations ever took first place in the light of day where he had a sect and a nephew to look after, or got relegated to the late hours when he lay awake, haunted by the past. Can't help but wonder if he ever saw Jin Ling cry, realised that his own mother would've scolded him for showing weakness, and decided that what she thought mattered less than he'd realised.

Can't help but wonder how much his mother still haunts his life.

[m00ngbin]

It is so ridiculous that toichiro decided that a LITERAL MIDDLE SCHOOLER was his worst enemy. DUDE. GET A GRIP OH MY GOD

[sukunasweetheart]

Why do you like Sukuna so much?

I was halfway through writing up a few paragraphs but i ended up scrapping it bc i ddint knwo what i was saying anymore. Hes just. My everything

I JUAT LOVE HIM SAUR MUCH WHAT IS THERE NOT TO LOVE??#;@**# HES SO GRRRRAAAHHHHHHHH 💝💓💝💓💗💗💘💓💝💕💘💞💓💝💗💝💓💝💞💝💞💘💞💓💝💓💓💝💘💞💞💝💓💝💗💓💝💘💞💕💘💞💘💓💓💗💝💓💝💘💞💘💕💞💝💓💝💓💞💝💞💞💝💞💓💝💗💝💞💞💝💓💝💓💝💞💞

[sunmoontruth-stiles]

I need a completely rewritten teen wolf series with Derek Hale as the main character. I think it would heal me.

[zappedbyzabka]

Sacrificial lamb and all that

[constantvariations]

Tripping on "the goal of a savior is not to be lionized" again and I can't help but think of that one jewish story

Compare Adam and the wealthy man to those with Hero Syndrome: all are (supposedly, in Adam's case) attempting to gain attention and public affection by doing good deeds, but opposing systemic oppression or building an orphanage are acts that benefit large swathes of people as opposed to an individual resolving a purposefully contained conflict. There's reason to condemn the latter, especially when it's done by those with authority over life and death, but the only grievance to the former is thought crime

Which is, like much of this show, a very Christian thing. Having selfish motivations behind actions do not cancel out the good those actions cause yet thoughts are also subjected to the judgement of god with equal weight

I haven't the slightest idea as to the writers' personal beliefs, but seeing as how Texas is 77% christian and christianity dominates American culture as a whole, it's impossible to argue that it hasn't influenced their writing. The theology I believe rwby echoes the most is Calvinism, the most rotten of the bunch. It holds the belief that humanity is so thoroughly stained by the original sin that they are incapable of saving themselves, that only god's grace can bring them salvation

But grace is in short supply

Thus, god decides apropos of naught but ☆~vibes~☆ who gets salvation and who gets eternal damnation. This choice cannot and does not change no matter how much good or evil a person puts into the world

This is why Emerald and Ilia's redemption arcs fall short, why Adam was never even considered for it, why our protagonists will never need it despite their own multitude of sins: redemption is not a thing earned, it is a thing bestowed. Those who have it are Good, now and forever, and those who don't are Bad, now and forever