#or something old that i rewatched and felt the need to reblog 30 posts for

[salzspektrum]

my blog during those 2 months of the year when game of thrones is on:

my blog during the rest of the year:

[fectless]

(This is technically in response to the post right below this one, as world building totally counts for it, right?)

Anywho, more fandom thoughts, but for BLEACH this time. I recently started rewatching the anime again for the nth time as part of my language practice (and having the Japanese subtitles on while watching it in Japanese is an experience) and reached that episode where Aizen and co. get rescued by Menos Grande after declaring their intentions to Soul Society. And then a few things hit me.

The first: Rukia says, the first time Ichigo sees her sending someone on via Soul Burial, that one neither feels hunger nor gets sick in Soul Society. We know that this is false for a few reasons.

Those who can become shinigami definitely need to eat and all souls need water which implies that they can suffer from thirst (and perhaps heat exhaustion).

Captain Ukitake is suffering from an unknown disease that makes him literally cough out his lungs. I’ve read something about it being a defect in the make up of his soul that is only not killing him because of the pact with the Soul King’s arm, but I cannot recall if this was canon or fanon (as the Blood War arc was just like that). If so, does this mean that sickness does occur in Soul Society, but so rarely as to not be mentioned? Or does it occur more in the outer districts? Why does it occur?

Hisana died from a sickness as well. Yes, it’s stated to be exhaustion, but I feel like that doesn’t make sense? Like, the flashback in the anime has her abandoning Rukia after she collapses while carrying her around. And she collapses later when she regrets this and goes to look for her sister. And then she dies.

Seriously, why does it occur? It’s weird. And it cannot be an Aizen thing as I’m pretty sure Aizen is younger than Ukitake. Is it because of what happened to the soul king? Does it have something to do with when people get sent on (like if they were close to being a hollow)? Is it because they died while sick? Is it because of their resolve?

...Do we never see sick souls in Soul Society other than them because they usually just. Die pretty soon after arriving?

And if spiritual power leaking is what causes spiritual pressure, and the “vents” can be closed... do people in the districts sometimes close them by mistake and then blow up? Is spontaneous combustion a thing in the afterlife?

The second: I’m pretty sure “Ichirin no Hana” is a love song that Byakuya is singing to Hisana’s memory.

Someone has probably stated this before, but the lyrics of the song literally say how some one, a “single flower,” is precious and can’t be replaced. How that flower bloomed despite being stuck somewhere dark and how they looked lovely but like they were about to wither away. And that the singer would accept all of their pain if only that person would smile and stay with them...

The title of the song also matches the title of the chapter in which Byakuya reveals to Rukia the secrets he’d been keeping from her about Hisana. He uses the same words, “ichirin no hana” to describe the season in which she died

Literally his whole dilema during this arc, the entire way he interacted with Rukia up to this point, was that he was conflicted between his sense of duty (to his parents, his wife and keeping his word) and his feelings for his beloved Hisana. Rukia’s physical resemblance to her sister is almost uncanny and the lie she is told when she asks why she was adopted was, “You look like Byakuya’s late wife.” How much must he have hated that? A person whom he had sworn to protect that, had she arrived two years earlier might have saved his wife’s (after)life? A person that looks just like his beloved, who reminds him of her every time he sees her (for those first 50 years), but is not and never will be Hisana. And then. To know that she’s going to be executed for crimes, that she felt she could not rely upon him enough to even let him know she’d encountered trouble in the human world when he’s been doing his best to ensure she’s safe (because that is one of the few reasonable explanations for why Rukia hadn’t been promoted yet, and then was promoted during the 3 year gap)? To see her stripped of her rank, her strength even (with that collar and the stone of the prison tower). To see a small form who so resembles his beloved all listless and soon to die, wearing a white yukata like his wife had in her last days...

Watching it again made me feel things, okay? Like yeah, it seems like it’s a stupid dilema from some perspectives. Especially considering Central 46 had a run in with Aizen by then, but. Byakuya was raised in the Seireitei. He was raised knowing that his life was the Seireitei’s tool. That his duty, his reason for existing was for the sake of his family’s honor, so he must be composed, must act as the family and Soul Society bid him. That’s some mighty powerful brainwashing/indoctrination right there. And he broke it once already to marry some nobody from the slums. He did something not only against the norms, but something selfish. Maybe if she’d had high spiritual power this would have been accepted, but she was sickly and likely did not. He went against the clan elders who had probably instilled obedience in him since birth and was afraid of doing it again.

(And if you count the filler arcs, you can bet that they held that one Kuchiki who went traitor against him too. Like: “he married that Hisana girl against our orders? What next? Will he betray Soul Society too?”)

And maybe I’m making a bigger deal out of his upbringing than I need to. Maybe it wasn’t really like this. But I feel like it really was. (Moreso with the filler arcs and what I’ve heard of the light novels.)

Also, this song and the way that the opening animation fit together really solidifies the whole “Ichigo and Rukia were always meant to have a tragic romance” vibe that I kept getting the first time I encountered this series.

The third: Rukia was likely younger than six months (physically) when she was abandoned, but I’m pretty sure that she was older than three months when she and Hisana died.

Her blanket was pink in the flashback.

Sure, the above might not seem to have much significance but it’s been proven in canon that clothes are part of oneself. I reblogged a post a while ago that went into detail, but to sum it up, clothes are part of your self image and your self image determines a bit about what you look like when you die.

Babies are usually no longer swaddled by the time they’re six months old, and some places recommend that you stop by the end of their second month.

Babies have pretty bad vision when they’re born. They take four to six months to reliably track objects in motion and use binocular vision decently. They take about four months to see across a room, and about two months to see farther than maybe 30 cm away. And around the three month mark, they start having decent color vision. Around then is when babies supposedly start showing color preference.

Babies tend to have poor long term memory. (To be fair, they’ve got a lot going on compared to being in the womb and sensory overload sucks.) Their memory by the age of six months is only a few weeks. Two months old had a memory span of a few days.

If she’s been consistently wrapped in a pink blanket, then by the time she’s old enough to see color, she would be old enough to remember what color her blanket usually is— or if it was a different color that particular day.

The fourth: when Gin raises his spiritual pressure on Aizen’s orders, Chad remains standing. This raised a bunch of questions as Gin is stronger than Yammy (to the best of my memory).

Chad remained standing. Yes, his whole fight with Captain Kyouraku was about his resolve and how he would stand by his friends and fight for their safety/ideals but. Like. Earlier that year, his spiritual strength was on par with Yuzu. He’d been friends with Ichigo for years which was why he was even that strong. He’d been in a Hollow attack maybe three times before Rukia was arrested and could only barely see them the time Ishida pulled a stupid and used Hollow Bait. Sure, he has experience fighting and he’d trained under Yoruichi, but it feels sus considering how the others fared.

Orihime fell to her knees pretty quickly after Gin turned up the pressure. She’d also fought against high-ranking shinigami at that point, and trained under Yoruichi, and fought off Hollow (alone even! And she was the reason why Sora moved on, despite Ichigo’s Blade purifying him) before. And yet... It could just be a lack of resolve, as that had come up in earlier chapters but it doesn’t feel right.

Ishida is excused from this due to circumstances.

Tatsuki has been friends with him for ages. Sure, it seems like they weren’t as close after his Mom’s passing, but by then they’d already known each other for quite some time. I’m pretty sure that they were hanging out semi-regularly through junior high/middle school, at which point he got close with Chad and she got close with Orihime. She also has experience fighting (admittedly in martial arts rather than the street fights Ichigo and Chad get dragged into). She experienced at least one hollow attack during Ishida’s Stupid Day. But she collapses as soon as Yammy shows up? That feels off.

In contrast, Ganju was struggling about the same amount. He was born to a noble family— who are known to typically have decently high spiritual power, like his older brother Kaien and his cousin/uncle Issin. He was raised in the Rukongai, meaning he likely came across Hollow attacks. (And those definitely occur.)

Makes me wonder things about Karin’s strength. Like, she managed to escape from the hollow who attacked their house to run for Ichigo’s help (manga) or lived long enough while alone with it that Ichigo and Rukia could come save her (anime), both of which are quite impressive for an eleven year old. She also kept up with Hitsugaya when they played soccer and he’s a captain. Based on Ichigo’s experience, it’s likely that she too will become stronger as she grows up. And does she have an inner hollow too, or is that Ichigo only? If White was simply a parasite and decided to stick to Ichigo I could accept it. But as a hollow Ichigo is a Vast Lorde, and hollows of that level can split into parts (like Starrk and Lilynette).

Does Yuzu not really have any spiritual strength because she inherited more of the Quincy genes from her mom and the hollow genes she inherited don’t balance out that same way it does in her siblings...? Food for thought.

TLDR: how and why is sickness as thing in Soul Society? Byakuya listens to rock music and I’m p. sure the third opening song is him angsting over his wife’s death; it also gave me strong feelings about how he was prolly brainwashed growing up so his angst over Rukia’s fate is not actually stupid. I continue to have IchiRuki feels. Rukia and Hisana died when Rukia was about 3 months old. And I am more confused now about how spiritual power works than I was before I started rewatching the anime for language practice. Also, more questions have arisen about hollows.

[annakie]

Notes on a blog cleanup.

I’ve been going back through my earliest blog posts (I joined this hellhole in May, 2011) to try and find a particular post I made, and decided to do some cleaning up of the early-blog cringe. Then I got a little addicted to it. 

So I started keeping this running log of notes as I went through.  Enjoy.

Basically the first few months my blog was more or less just a Doctor Who blog.  Just going back reliving those early Doctor Who memories, back when Season 7 was airing... and tumblr was at the height of the Doctor Who craze.  I’m only deleting the cringe-est of cringe posts from back then.

Fuck, this is making me want to rewatch Doctor Who.  I haven’t rewatched Doctor Who in like a half dozen years.  Probably more.  I mean I still keep up with the show when it airs but except for a few select episodes (mostly The Husbands of River Song, I’ve seen that like five times, it’s so good) I almost never actually go back and rewatch episodes.  This is a bad idea.

Also remember when we all felt the need to comment completely useless things on people’s posts who clearly didn’t care or add to the conversation.  Did a lot of that.  Deleting a lot of this unless it’s something I actually want to remember for some reason.

Any proof also that I may have liked Bedknob Cumberbund.  Only a few Sherlock posts but yikes?  Was that me?  Luckily no SuperWhoLock so far, but not surprising because I watched Supernatural enough to catch up to it and watch like season 8 live, and I think I tapped out mid-season 9 and was never THAT into it.

Adam Baldwin Appreciation Post... DELETED.  Yikes.

Apparently I once tagged something “otp3”?  *facepalm*

Found a post I reblogged where someone was DEMANDING CREDIT if someone reposted any pics from a set of pics of an actor because they spent a lot of time working very hard.... removing the watermarks from the pictures.  Imagine demanding credit for stealing the credit from someone else’s work.  Nowadays I’d just block the OP if I saw that on my dash. 2011 tumblr was a lawless time.

Getting in a few months to where I THOUGHT I had started tagging my posts, but instead I was reblogging with other people’s tags when that was able to be automatic.  I keep finding posts with like super thirsty tags that I am 99% sure were not mine, and deleting the tags or usually just the entire post.  Also lots of times I just kept tags that were like “mine” for things I clearly did not make myself.  Been kinda lazy about fixing this.

A LOT of “this post has been hidden for possible adult content” posts, and there’s no way to either see the post or delete the post.  Neat.  Also I’m sure almost none of them were anything objectional because even back then I didn’t relog NSFW stuff ever?

Oh no I’d reblogged a “Wake me up when September ends “joke” post.  Sorry Greenday.  Deleted.

Fuck, I’m rewatching Doctor Who.  How did this happen?  I’m on Aliens of London already?  This is so bad.  Why am I doing this?  Oh, nostalgia.

God I used to be so salty about Doctor Who / people who were assholes about Martha Jones.  I’d actually forgotten just how bad I was about that.  On the other hand, holy shit people were assholes about Martha Jones and I’d forgotten how shitty people were in her tag.  Even back then I’d block those OPs but still.  Yikes on both sides.

I’ve deleted over 300 posts now and I just made it to October 1st, 2011.

This is giving me the opportunity to go back and tag a bunch of posts as personal posts though so that I have a better record of what I was doing back then, which is nice.  I didn’t really start tagging personal posts as much until probably 2012.  Finding some pretty good memories that I’m glad I am tagging for keeps.

Hahaha remember when Netflix was going to rebrand the dvd side of their business as Qwickster?  My blog does.

Tags on a HIMYM post about shipping Ted and Robin more than Barney and Robin?  Definitely not mine. Ick.  Also remember having good feelings about HIMYM before the finale gut-punched your love of the show out of you?

October 15, 2011 I reblogged a post about Elizabeth Warren.  I was clearly ahead of my time.

There’s so many posts now that are just broken because the posts are deleted or because things were reblogged as links.  Remember when that was a thing?

Anyway I’m on Boomtown now and uh, Micky Smith is still great?  I can’t believe people hated him after the first episode where he was (understandably, humanly) cowardly.

Early December 2011 and I’m getting real tired of my own fandom wank.  I cared so much about a fictional character.  Kind of not regretting deleting more of this but hey I wrote a lot of essays, why not keep that proof?

Also I’ve started requeueing some good posts from way back when now, so expect a blast from the past on your dash starting a couple of weeks from now.  It’s a bit hard finding stuff that’d be considered truly good even today since gif size was so much smaller back then.

Seeing so many old familiar names of mutuals on my dash is nice though.  I miss some of these people... and a few are still around.  Hi there, friends I made through Doctor Who in 2011!

January 11th 2012 - I was watching Supernatural and damnit I reblogged something SuperWhoLock.  I hate you, January 2012 Me.  (OK actually I don’t because January 2012 me made a courageous decision that changed my life for the better in so many ways, but I’m still judging her choices in tumblr posts.)  At least the blog overall is starting to go down to like 60% Doctor Who and 10% Parks and Rec and 30% Other, including some socially conscious posts.  The cringe has lessened, but still there.

Also I’m on The Parting of the Ways, and yeah season 1 of New Who was just as uneven as I remembered it.  Eccelston did the best he could with what he was given, which was sometimes great, and the rest of the main cast was admirable as well.  Mickey, still underrated.  Captain Jack... still amazing.   And the Doctor did him so, so wrong by leaving him behind.  Gah. 

Anyway, in two nights I’ve now gone back over 750 pages of 15 posts per page, I’m on page 2488 of 2981.   I’ve deleted over 600 posts (40 pages worth) because they were dumb, bad, irrelevant, broken or just something I no longer want on my blog anymore.  I’m still only in mid-January, less than 8 months after this blog was started, but also I think I’m getting near the point of where I set up a queue and did a lot less post-spamming.  I may pick this project back up sometime next week, since I’m about to have a very busy rest of the week. I think the worst of the cringe is past, though.

[hauntttedbodies]

I posted 1,586 times in 2021

20 posts created (1%)

1566 posts reblogged (99%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 78.3 posts.

I added 402 tags in 2021

#beautiful art - 104 posts

#wynonna earp - 83 posts

#wholesome shit - 46 posts

#marvels runaways - 45 posts

#bring wynonna home - 30 posts

#evyn speaks - 23 posts

#fear street - 21 posts

#wearp spoilers - 18 posts

#svu - 16 posts

#fight for wynonna - 16 posts

Longest Tag: 133 characters

#but it’s also the beginning of the end because ziggy (using cindy and alice’s knowledge from this movie) is the one to bring him down

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

i really want the “my loved one is possessed (or evil) and i’ll bring them back” trope, but also i just want Waverly to get to go home

20 notes • Posted 2021-03-27 03:17:06 GMT

#4

so, I have this idea about Nicole and bandaids:

she calls them bravery badges and for the longest time she can’t figure out why. she’s called them that for as long as she can remember.

When she was younger, she wanted to be a girl scout (her parents never signed her up or tried to get her involved with the excuse they “traveled too much and wouldn’t have time”) so she assumes it was her way of compensating.

Every time she calls them that her parents laugh and tell her they’re just bandaids...which is fine and all because it’s not like they were going to patch her up anyway

But then she gets to Purgatory and everyone one calls them that

(Well...not everyone, but most of the deputies and firefighters that work closely with kids do so Nicole gladly follows their lead)

Waverly catches Nicole helping a girl with a skinned knee at the station one day. Nicole tells the girl that even through the tears and pain- because of those things -she is the strongest girl Nicole knows. She earned a bravery badge

the little girl beams and Waverly melts at the sight because one day (one day) Waverly knows Nicole is going to be the best mom their kids could ask for.

Nicole doesn’t know how she came about calling them “bravery badges” until Wynonna pulls out the old picture of Nedley. It hits her like a punch to the chest

“You were so damn scared” Nicole was. But she remembers Purgatory and the way she felt safe and secure and remembers the bravery badges on her arms from where she scrapped them on the canoe

And Nedley’s there, face distorted in her young memory, but he’s there, calm and steady. Placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder and a bravery badge over her scrapes

25 notes • Posted 2021-04-22 00:40:18 GMT

#3

the mailbox shot is so beautiful because it’s a combined effort from the four people who made the Homestead home. Doc fixed the actual mailbox (back in season one), Wynonna wrote out the ‘and Haught’, it can be assumed Nicole did the ‘sometimes Holliday’, and Waverly made sure everyone felt welcome on top of putting a sign up.

26 notes • Posted 2021-04-13 22:27:17 GMT

#2

So, I’ve been watching and rewatching Runaways a lot in the past few weeks. I don’t know if it’s because I’m back in school and the analytical part of my brain is in hyperdrive, but I wanted to dissect how the parents subdued/captured Chase, Karolina, and Nico in 2x11 and 2x13.

Content warning for canon-consistent themes, namely: emotional manipulation and lack of body autonomy.

Chase:

Chase’s return home in 2x11 is fairly straightforward:

he’s manipulated based on his need for parental approval and recognition, something Gert bluntly points out once he returns to the Runaways in s3.

(it only goes to reinforce the multi-dimensional character that Chase is.)

He’s needed at home- wanted at home by his father, something he’s never quite experienced -and that alone pushes him to leave.

Karolina:

From the very first episode, the one thing Karolina has strived for is autonomy.

We see it when she asks Leslie to sign her permission slip in 1x01- something that is immediately shot down because Karolina’s “the millennial face of the church.”

in 1x01, she goes to the party and discovers her lights- a revelation that is both literally and figuratively her showing her true colors/self -she's rendered unconscious and her body autonomy is once again ripped from her.

The inhibitor bracelet is a method to keep her true self from emerging

(all of her lessons with Jonah were steps to undo the repression of years of wearing it/ to understand herself)

(this is also totally a metaphor for her sexuality, but that’s an analysis for another day)

When she spouts the prophecy at the Crater and becomes their “Messiah,” she once again belongs to something other than herself.

(Leslie even tells her that in order to get through it, Karolina needs to depend on her.)

Karolina rejects the Messiah title, and Xavin calling her their betrothed. She doesn’t belong to anyone.

Jonah captures her using the inhibitor pods, Karolina is cornered and rendered incapable.

Her ability to fight back- to run, to rebel -is taken away, just as it has been her whole life

Nico:

The subsonic wave generator is intended to do one thing: take away Nico’s voice.

(And, yeah, technically it’s to keep her from casting spells, but her parents were silencing her long before she found the Staff of One.)

In flashbacks, Nico calls an ambulance for Amy, but Tina knocks her out before she can say anything.

Robert mentions that Tina’s iced both him and Nico out since Amy’s death and her methods are clear

(she literally barricades him in Amy’s room, muffling his speech and trapping him when he doesn’t listen to her.)

The first time Nico uses the staff in training, it’s to silence her mother

(After Tina says it’s only fitting, leading us to believe it’s a common trend in their house)

In the iconic fight scene, when Tina uses the subsonic wave generator on Nico, she says (quite happily) that she loves what it does to her speech.

They could’ve stolen her speech entirely, but they left her struggling to say what she actually meant (similar to anxious stutters or jumbled thoughts)

(Moments later Nico can "finally tell them how she really feels," implying she never has in the past, and it only furthers the idea that she was consistently silenced in her home.)

84 notes • Posted 2021-06-02 00:19:46 GMT

#1

i want a movie that’s just the season 3 finale of Marvel’s Runaways. A season 4. I want a season 4.

97 notes • Posted 2021-05-11 04:06:29 GMT

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