#not bad just odd

[glimblshanks]

Mariner's story line this episode being about her seeking out domesticity and community was fascinating to me. Especially considering she starts the episode by complaining that she'd rather go to a (presumably fairly regular) Taquito Night with her shipmates than go on an undercover mission that's objectively pretty exciting and unusual compared to what the Cerritos normally does.

I've said before that Mariner gives "homebody who's idea of home just happens to be high energy space adventure", but damn this episode really leaned into that in ways previous episodes haven't.

[mightaswelljxmp]

hm ok so interestingly, bdubs’s courthouse is built on an odd number of blocks. note the roof of the facade coming to a point, but more importantly, the nine pillars….

you don’t use an odd number of pillars. like ever.

let me get this out of the way first: i get why you’d build with odd numbers in minecraft. i usually do it myself, to not run into problems like double doors or two-wide pointed roofs or frustrating spacing/symmetry between decorative elements. however. to not even out the design of something so unequivocally done in every other example of columns and pillars…. fascinating implications…

every other example guys. every other building with columns like this has an even number of them.

doing so sets the line of symmetry at an invisible point between two pillars, an even number on each side. but an odd total number of pillars makes the central pillar itself the line of symmetry. this does a couple things.

one, it upends the sense of community and equality. which i know sounds crazy, but really, a group of columns are all put there to hold up a structure. there’s no focus on one because they are all are working as supports.

symbolically, at least when first used in ancient greece, pillars represented people. and it makes sense for courthouses, especially, to want to show an even, fair, equal number of people on each side. no focus on any one, no inherent bias right off the bat just looking at it.

with an odd number of pillars, though, one will always be placed front and center.

and THEN. and then you walk in the courtroom itself (also odd-numbered blocks) and you are immediately opposite the judge, bdubs, located exactly centrally. and true, courtrooms are often set up like this anyway. but bdubs ups the ante and reaffirms that no, focus is on him by staging it all as a daytime court show, boom mic just over his head, cameras pointed in, spotlights on him.

literally by design, it was not built for justice. it’s built for show, for entertainment. and just look at the credits to know exactly what sort of message you’re supposed to be getting from this show.

the biblical story he used, with king solomon. it’s about king solomon. isn’t really about the trial itself, or the babies, or the women. it’s about showing (off) how wise and just he is. that’s the point. hm. interesting.

now, getting to the second point that etho also picked up on: it feels like a prison.

it’s not just the color palette. when your eyes naturally draw to the center point, you aren’t seeing an open space. instead of feeling like an arch or gateway or otherwise some kind of opening, the pillar there makes it feel closed off. the overall effect is that of prison bars. not pillars lining the entrance to a place of order or a temple. bars of a cage, a cell.

imagine the lincoln memorial were set up with 11 or 13 pillars. he’d look so much more trapped in there.

having a central pillar blocks the entrance. it’s not welcoming. you have to go around it; it’s immediately inconveniencing you. and when you go to leave, it’s there blocking you again.

this courthouse was not designed and built to be fair, nor accomodating, nor equitable, on any terms. even if unintentional, i wouldn’t call it so much coincidental as i would… subconscious.

after all, y’know. form follows function.

[swiggity-swexual-i-am-asexual]

As per usual, it’s DP crossover with (probably) DC, although you could probably adjust it for other fandoms

ANYWAYS

A little kid and his mother are trick or treating in another city, perhaps at some kind of event rather than knocking on doors, and the kid is dressed as Phantom. It’s very adorable, with his little ghost-shaped bucket and clearly homemade and already stained costume—listen, white only works if you can just fly over street grime or phase it out of your clothes—and his slightly I’ll fitting wig. The kid is SO happy to be out and about dressed as his favorite, and maybe even showed it off to Phantom back in Amity Park before his family left.

The hero, insert whoever you wish here, is probably in civvies and just enjoying the event. The kid, meanwhile, is so glad when people ask who he is so he can explain, and so- the hero gets to hear ALL ABOUT the local town hero who is probably pretty small time despite the kid’s clearly exaggerated stories. The hero certainly never heard of him, but the kid’s mom confirms that Phantom really was the town hero, despite some mixed reviews of the poor guy.

“Did you manage to show him your costume?” the hero asks.

“Yeah! We went down to the cemetery to leave flowers and I got to show him my costume.”

Wait. Cemetery? Maybe it was part of theme, because Phantom had to be named that for a reason, but… it sounded like…

The kid ignores the suddenly VERY still hero and instead turns to his mom. “Momma, do you think we should bring him candy? He doesn’t get to trick or treat like we do, and I can work super hard to get him a bunch!”

The kid’s mom just smiles. “We could, but maybe we should bring him something homemade. I bet he’d like something more filling, teen boys like him have a hollow leg.”

The kid wrinkles his nose. “Like Vernie with the pizza bagels?”

“Like your cousin, yes. We can make some cinnamon rolls and take them to his memorial, maybe bring some of the apples from your grandpa’s garden…”

The hero is pretty much forgotten as the two-part family wanders off, not quite intentionally forgetting the hero is there so much as the hero somewhat accidentally ended the conversation when they just froze and didn’t ask anything further.

Not that the hero didn’t want to. But they’d learn something very serious.

One—there was a small town hero they’d never heard of. Two—that hero was apparently a teen. Third—most pressingly, the teen hero was both beloved enough to have kids dressing up as him and dead enough to have a grave.

This… might require some phone calls.

[lucabyte]

Different standards

[koumori-1999]

this is actually a horrible VA joke no one asked for

[dontbelasagnax]

@codywanfirstkissbingo: kissing through smiles

They had to share a bed. Yes, it was integral to the mission. A new species of octopus was discovered and his name is Obi-Wan. Cody sweat his ass off with the cuddle monster bodily attached to him and subsequently knocked their pillows and duvet off the bed in his sleep. Regardless, they slept well and are having an even better morning. Good for them :3

bingo card under the cut (bingo!!!!!!! I got a bingo!!!!)

This is my last artwork as I was only going for one bingo (and simply posted on this schedule to drag out my posts haha)!

[qqueenofhades]

my mom was defeatist when she found out biden dropped out of the race, but i told her i was having hope. seeing the posts about the donations rolling in, i think my hope is well placed

Hold your ground! HOLD YOUR GROUND!

Sons of Gondor! Of Rohan! My brothers. I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day!

An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Men comes crashing down -- but it is not this day! This day we fight!

By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!

[crystalmagpie447]

YIIIPPEEEEE neat fellows

i love them

(fool and misuta fromm ghost in the machine by @venomous-qwille)

kaBOOM

uncolored version too because why not :-0

[heavenbarnes]

is it controversial for me to say that fan fiction writers shouldn’t have to accept criticism of their writing? it’s not as if anyone is entering this for a grade, they’re writing about characters doing stuff - they don’t need to know that you didn’t like it maybe just move on

[cozylittleartblog]

had a(nother) nightmare

[eliza-the-hunted]

I think the ban on babies should be lifted in fairy world. I think it would be sooo funny if 100 babies are born as soon as the ban is lifted. I want there to be a fairy baby boom. I want the fairy economy to crash. I want there to be a fairy housing crisis from the sudden, dramatic increase in population. I want Jorgen to break down as he has to fix over 100 disasterous baby gender reveals, each more horrific than the last.

I want the anti-fairies watching this all happen to laugh and make fun but then suddenly, dreadfully realize what this means for them as well.

[celtrist]

Let's make our own fate

Needed practice with Alastor's colors before going at it with the wip piece I have (which ironically enough is another red string of fate piece). But while I do oh so enjoy Alastor being an independent mammal who doesn't need no mate, I 100% still have fun shipping with him myself from time to time. And this ship is probably my favorite with him (and y'know what, you can take this as a QPR thing or romance thing, why not?)! And, might I add, severely underrated when it has elements of radiobelle, radioapple, and radiostatic (in terms of colors at least) wrapped up together- HOW ARE PEOPLE SLEEPING ON THIS SHIP HELLO???

Joking aside, Emily and Alastor are in a weird place for me where I like them in this ship dynamic (QPR or romantic), but I also like them in a dynamic similar to what Alastor and Charlie have if you're going the mentor-protege route or parent-child route. Which is a very strange to like those two very opposing dynamics (primarily the lovey dovey and parent-child aspects because y'know... )

I don't imagine these two will really interact much in canon, but I really would love to see how their interactions would go down and if they'd be at all different from how Charlie and Alastor interact (seeing as Emily and Charlie are a wee bit similar y'know?)

[mikimeiko]

The Expanse | 3x06. Immolation

[spacebugarts]

Neurotypicals will never know the experience of seeing a person wearing big headphones or stimming with something at the store and taking out your own stim toy to try and gauge if they're neurodivergent too or just vibing, while also trying to telepathically communicate that you are also neurodivergent.

Thats true solidarity

[beanghostprincess]

A bit tired of people complaining about Sanji's principle of "not hitting women" being misogynistic when it has been clearly stated multiple times that he does not choose it and it's heavily tied to his trauma and admiration for his dad and respect for women and definitely not from seeing women as somehow weaker than him

[starreyblueberry]

Bro I don’t think anyone understands how cosmo and wanda would fully feel, like I always hear about peri but we had multiple confirmations on how Timmy was legit their favorite god child, and it’s confirmed they stayed with him till he was 17. Whenever they were taken away from him they would SOB, like in every episode were timmy was away they actually couldn’t handle themselves. He is haunting the narrative and cosmo and wandas minds, there’s no way they don’t stay up thinking about him, and his whole entire life. There’s no way there’s no small regret in being able to stay in his life forever, there’s no way they just moved on. Don’t get me wrong I love hazel sososos much like top tier godkid, but timmy was like a son to them, family that no one can replace, and I rlly feel like we miss out on the angst on their side!!