#ruhk

[kobadit]

Thrawn: Alliances

[webtrinsic1122]

Tales of the Empire Spoiler:

The way I was like RUHK?

[keydekyie]

That willful man, held fast did he

To his hammer, carried on high

The ruhk did cry, beat great wings up to the sky

Stubborn a beast was he

The ruhk bore the smith to a mountain cliff

dropped hammer and he there

And said to him, “man of iron, teach me this:

How to work your hammer’s trade.”

[fandomsandflyingstingrays]

My thoughts on Tales of the Empire! (Under the cut because of spoilers)

The overall quality of the production was excellent. The animation? Top tier. The music? Heartwrenching. The voice acting? Incredibly compelling

(Did it jumpscare me when Ahmar spoke and Hunter's voice came out? Absolutely)

I found Morgan's story intriguing- I'd love to learn more about the Mountain Clan, and I was very intrigued by the fact that the TIE defenders were originally her idea

That being said, I almost felt like it took away from Thrawn as a villain? In rebels, the biggest threat he posed to the rebellion was the TIE defender project. Since they spent so much of Ahsoka setting him up as this enormous threat without really showing why, it seems weird to make one of the most threatening things he did in Rebels someone else's idea

I also kind of felt like Morgan's story was unnecessary overall? I was hoping it would add context to Ahsoka, giving more information on the Peridean Nightsisters or what the heck was going on with Marrok, but it mostly told a story that we could have kind of guessed for ourselves. There's nothing wrong with that per se, it's just frustrating when there are so many other gaps that still need to be filled in

Off-topic, but Rukh is TERRIFYING in the Clone Wars animation style. I screeched when he appeared

I was thrilled to see what happened to Barriss after all these years, and double thrilled that she found her way back to the light in the end. I thought her arc made sense, and I loved the overall thematic elements

But it did leave me with more questions than answers. Who was that old friend Barriss mentioned? Was it Ahsoka? If so, that's a pretty important story to happen entirely off-screen

And what about that Jedi she promised to save? Did she heal them? Where are they now?

Did Lyn get her out in time? Is she alive? I really hope so, just because I find it way more interesting when characters have to redeem themselves by actually staying alive, trying to atone for their actions and make peace with the fact that there are people they can never apologize to and people who might never forgive them

Between all these loose ends and the fact that we now know Ventress and Quinlan are still floating around somewhere, I do wonder if this is all leading to some kind of series focusing on Order 66 survivors

Anyway, ultimately it was a very fun ride, even if I wasn't totally satisfied! I'd love to see more of these shorts in the future

[cupidsbower]

Indian films I can't find

If any of you know where I can access any of these, I'd be super grateful. My preference is for source with English subtitles, and if possible visuals in reasonable condition.

Starring SRK

Army (1996), Baadshah (1999), Bhoothnath (2008), Circus (1989-90), Deewana (1992), Devdas (2002), Dil Aashna Hai (1992), Guddu (1995), Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega (2000), Heyy Babyy (2007), Hey Ram (2000), Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam (2002), Idiot (1991), Josh (2000), Karan Arjun (1995), King Uncle (1993), Koyla (1997), Pardes (1997), Ra.One (2011), Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman (1992), Shakti: The Power (2002), Trimurti (1995), Yeh Lamhe Judaaai Ke (2004), Yes Boss (1997), Zamaana Deewana (1995)

Starring Kajol

Dushman (1998), Gupt: The Hidden Truth (1997), Helicopter Eela (2018), Pyaar to Hona Hi Tha (1998), Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya (1998), Raju Chacha (2000), Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior (2020), U Me Aur Hum (2008)

Misc

Bajirao Mastani (2015), The Dirty Picture (2013), Ek Tha Tiger (2012), Enthiran: The Robot (2010), Jab We Met (2007), Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983), Kahaani (2012), Monsoon Wedding (1995), Mother India (1957), Mughal-e-Azam (1960), Neerja (2016), Omkara (2006), Panga (2020), Secret Superstar (2017), Thapped (2020)

[spocks-kaathyra]

how do Star Trek writers come up with so many alien names. I'm trying to name Nal's family members and everything I come up with sounds like yeah these r her siblings Scringlo, Zorp, and Dspock

[loreofthejungle]

Started drawing again! Figured I'd start drawing some of the characters for the game I want to make, starting with the MC before I fuck them up. They're a scout in an interdimentional space known as The Salt.

Meet Rukh v1.0 (work in progress)

[thedisdainfullysilentvisitor]

Chal Chaiyya Chaiyya Chaiyya Chaiyya...

The Greenway, Karanataka, India

[danielmolloyshole]

thinking about Jacob Anderson saying Armand isn't funny and that's part of the reason they fundamentally do not work as a couple. Like beyond the trial, beyond the lies, he's not funny

Also thinking how fucking joyful and funny Armand absolutely was in the Shah Ruhk Kahn scene. With Daniel.

[2stepadmiral]

Been listening to the Thrawn trilogy again recently, and it brings to mind some of the shortcomings of how Thrawn has been portrayed in the Disney Canon.

To be clear, I’m not saying that Thrawn in the Disney Canon has been badly done, or that his character is out of whack, or even that he hasn’t been portrayed as intelligent, let alone, strategically, brilliant. The real problem with his portrayal narrows down to two specific aspects. Number one: his lack of competent subordinates, and number two: his lack of situations where his strategic genius can really be displayed.

On the first problem, Thrawn was introduced in Heir to the Empire with his second in command being Captain Pellaeon. Throughout the trilogy, they are given a clear Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson dynamic. This works on many levels, offering the reader Pellaeon as a stand-in for the reader, having him ask questions about and work out for himself the admiral’s actions and thought process. This provides an organic way to explain Thrawn’s plans, his analysis of problems, and demonstrate his character and brilliance without relying on monologue or use forced exposition. The dynamic is sort of re-created with Jorj Car’dass and Kinman Doriana in the novel outbound flight, with both characters filling the Watson role to some degree.

In rebels, Thrawn has no competent subordinate to do this with. He either has some random, incompetent officer of the week who we don’t see again for a while, a recurring incompetent officer who we’ve seen before, and will likely see again, Ruhk, in very brief instances which gives no means of understanding Thrawn’s character or intellect, or Governor Price, who is decidedly not a military officer and has a very distinctive flavor of incompetence related to her political nature. With most of these characters, the grand Admiral doesn’t waste time breaking down his analysis of the rebel plan or gives a few hints that go completely over their heads. There is one occasion where this dynamic works in his favor, specifically when the idiot captain wasn’t picking up on the fact that they had captured Hera while Thrawn dropped increasingly obvious hints as to who she was. this made for a dramatic and pretty well done revelation as to how intelligent he was, but it only worked the one time. Moving forward, he continued having a deal with these idiots subordinates, which gave no opportunity for him to really stretch his strategic muscles in that same Sherlock/Watson dynamic. The one episode featuring Colonel Yularen was an exception, as the Colonel’s competence gave Thrawn a good partner to work with and demonstrate this dynamic with, but very briefly and only this one time. The rest of the time, he’s working with idiots that don’t provide this kind of competence for him to play off of.

In Ahsoka, Thrawn gets captain Enoch and Morgan Elsbeth, and both characters have an air of competence that should have translated to the Sherlock/Watson dynamic, but Enoch literally never questions anything Thrawn orders him to do, making him completely useless for this dynamic, and Morgan has the dynamic only in a few brief scenes, scenes where the situation makes it difficult for Thrawn to really stretch his chops.

The second problem stems from the situations that Dave is putting him in. Thrawn is a military and strategic genius, who thrives in situations where it is straight up one fleet fighting another fleet, both in large scale campaigns unfolding over a period of months as well as individual battles. He can identify an enemies likely tactics through understanding of his enemies psyche, and understanding he gains through careful study of artwork, artwork that can be created by or simply enjoyed by individuals or entire cultures/species. He can use this understanding to carefully craft strategies against enemy factions and commanders, and he can do this in the heat of an impromptu battle, or in the context of carefully laid out campaigns put together in whatever time frame he required. The entire Thrawn trilogy puts both of these abilities on display, introducing him by immediately crafting the perfect battle plan against a suddenly appearing New Republic task force in the first chapter of the first book, and then later consistently crafting one brilliant plan after another that builds on each other like a series of chess moves.

Now, the thing is, it’s pretty easy for a strategist to show his competence in a theater of war against affection of close to equal strength, such as the Empire and the New Republic in this timeframe of five years after Endor. It’s difficult to show the same kind of cunning and brilliance when the context is in all powerful galaxy spanning Empire trying to track down and eliminate a number of small rebel cells instead of going toe to toe with an enemy fraction of equal strength. As such, it makes sense that Thrawn was sort of out of his element in rebels. Even so, he was never really given an opportunity to demonstrate his strategic brilliance, simply because the circumstances of this timeframe made that impossible. They could show him being just barely one step ahead of the rebels as they try to escape his ship, or the factory he was inspecting, or a trap he had laid the plans for and entrusted to a less competent officer, but the effect of this makes him seem simply competent instead of brilliant. When they could show him engage in a proper battle, the sheer volume of resources, personnel, and fire power at his disposal, makes his victory pretty much certain when his enemies are a ragtag group of rebels, with significantly fewer fighters, warships that are significantly weaker and older, and transports that are completely unarmed. This lineup makes any real strategy to defeat the enemy, excessive, and unnecessary, and really difficult to show. That’s why the only two real battles he engages in (Atollon and the attack on the Lothal factory) do nothing to display the grand admirals intelligence. He wins by default based on his overwhelming firepower and resources, not based on a specifically tailored strategy for that particular situation with that particular commander.

In Ahsoka, they touch on his strategic brilliance and tendency to read his opponents, but because his overall goal here was simply to escape, and buying time rather than actually destroying his opponent was all he really needed, it doesn’t come off as brilliant and it doesn’t give him an opportunity to really show off his intelligence. In the final episode of Ahsoka, they could have had a five minute scene when Thrawn returns to the galaxy and meets a new Republic task force, and then proceeds to utterly annihilate the force, despite having only a single damaged Star Destroyer at his disposal.

I remember reading recently that when adding Thrawn to rebels, the biggest challenge was creating situations where he would be involved, but it wouldn’t be his fault that the empire lost. My response to that is simply, then why not have the rebels lose every now and then? Why not have them barely fail to acquire their goal simply because the Grand Admiral was distantly involved, or have them fail outright every now and then because he outthought them at every turn? Maybe have an episode or an arc where they try to help Senator Garm Bel Iblis (who I am very sore about his exclusion from rebel specifically and Disney Canon in general) defect from the Empire and escape Corellia, but due to Thrawn intervening at the last second, the senator’s family is killed.

Point being, I believe that Canon Thrawn is just as intelligent and strategically brilliant as expanded universe Thrawn, he just hasn’t been given situations where he can thrive and truly demonstrate that ability.

[lothcat-lothcat-lothwolf-run]

ok ok ok ok ok SO I got my dad to watch Jedi night and Dume with me (upside to this post here) and his thoughts:

Agreed with Hera that the mullet was terrible

hates ruhk

“why is ruhk that short? He’s like a boney lizard corpse”

“damn Gov. Price is a savage for torturing Hera for the fun of it”

enthralled by project stardust and krennic mention

unhigjed angry thrawn vs tarkin is 10/10

“lmao tarkin dies on his least favorite science project”

“so there’s lots bats, cats, rats, AND wolves?”

“awwwwwww they hugged!!”

“wait kanan lost his lightsaber? But that’s is his life!” (Unintentional foreshadowing using a AOTC reference???)

*cheering when Hera says she loves him*

“Awwwwwwww” *at the kiss*

“she’s gonna blow up the fuel tanks? But then the gas prices will go up!”

“oh :(((((“

“awwwww”

“he dies??? What the hell?”

“oh :((((((((((((“

“ I really liked him. I miss kanan :(((“

[tyrantisterror]

No Small Feat Art Pt. 9 - The Bonus Bosses

By request, I’m gonna show off some of the artwork for No Small Feat, a Midgaheim story my friends and I told through the TTRPG system Fabula Ultima. I drew a lot of characters and monsters for it, and my friends - in particular, @dragonzzilla, @scatha5, and @dinosaurana - helped line and color them so we’d have cute little sprites to use on our online battlemaps, which really helped sell the whole “we’re playing an oldschool turn based RPG” vibe that Fabula Ultima’s system is going for.

Before we cover the last two arcs, we're going to look at the Bonus Bosses - optional encounters I placed in the game to give my characters more of a challenge and some additional story if they so desired, which they did!

Bleak Annis played an important role in starting the story, and our heroes realized that if they wanted to truly know what was going on with both the greater conflict and their own personal arcs, they'd have to meet with her. That was easier said than done, though, as before they could find Bleak Annis, they would have to prove their worth to the wicked witch's coven. So they sought out Peg Prowler, Nelly Longarms, and Jenny Greenteeth, three other famous witches from British folklore who are in the same league as Bleak Annis herself.

During their first trip into Fairyland, our heroes stumbled upon a huge and terrifying prison. Locked inside was a Fomorian, a fairy being of such terrible arcane power that its very presence could corrode reality should it escape Fairyland. Worse, the Fomorian's prison was weakening, and should it break free, the gang would have a much worse problem to deal with than the succession crisis and its supernatural side effects that they were already struggling to end. So, like good RPG players, they level grinded by playing the main plot a bit, then went back and killed the fucker when they had enough levels and endgame-worthy gear to do so without too much fuss.

The next bonus boss they saved for later was Katastrophi, a mountain ogre who Prince Goligaunt claimed was his aunt (though perhaps that was more in an honorary sense than a biological). She scrapped with them for a bit to wake herself up fully, then let our heroes go on friendly terms before climbing up the tower to give her punk nephew a good talking to.

Then our heroes went off to chase a sidequest they'd been given a while ago, seeking out the Elemental Masters of the mortal plane: the Royal Ruhk, an enormous eagle who displayed supreme mastery of wind magic; the Sharp Humped Behemoth, a mighty beast who was unparalleled in its domination of earth magic; the Jasconius, a colossal leviathan whose rule over water magic is unquestioned; and the Great Red Dragon, a master of all four elements to be sure, but whose supremacy over Fire magic was mightiest of all. The four masters put our heroes to the test, and rewarded them with materials to make some masterwork armor and weapons to take them through their final arcs of the story. But there was one more bonus boss, the master beyond masters.

The final master and bonus boss was none other than Death Himself - well, a death at least, and specifically the one who had acted as Guard Father and benefactor of Kaboldt von Hubert's grandfather. Foreshadowed in arc 2, Death made his proper appearance much later, and made sure our heroes were truly ready to stop Maelys and reforge the crown of Engelsex.

[keydekyie]

the ruhk's wife has forged her own talons

[merinsedai]

For @dreamlingbingo

And here is snippet 3 for The Wizard and the Unicorn:

Square/Prompt: B2: Creature: Harpy (replacing The New Inn is a temple)

Title: The Wizard and the Unicorn

Rating: T

Ship(s): Dream of the Endless/Hob Gadling

Warnings: minor character death

Additional Tags: The Last Unicorn au, unicorn Dream, wizard Hob, magic, quests, castles by the sea, falling in love, learning to regret, magical transformations

Summary: "You can find the others if you are brave. They passed down all the roads long ago, and the Red Bull ran close behind them and covered their footprints..." Are all the unicorns gone from the world? Is he the last? What happened to the others? To find the answers to his questions, Dream must leave the sanctuary of his forest and face the dangers of the mortal world. Along the way he will encounter friend and foe, witches and wizards, harpies and highwaymen, and a demonic bull guarding the way to a crumbling castle by the sea...

A snippet from Chapter Four:

The circus holds sway during the day, drawing crowds of mortals from a nearby settlement, no doubt. Dream can see little, but he can hear the cacophony clearly. The gasps and shrieks of awe. He idly wonders what they see-what rouses them so- but whatever it is is hidden inside the striped tent and does not spill out. Dream knows little enough of mortals in these times and with his magic dampened, he cannot sense their imaginings. It is very limiting. Unicorns are not given to fear, but it disquiets Dream nonetheless, this disconnect from his wider senses.   All day while there is noise from the tent, there is stillness in the circle, even  Ruhk having finished his rounds and disappeared long since. The other enclosures remain shrouded and silent. Alone with his thoughts, Dream paces, and waits.

As evening draws in, though, attention turns to the Midnight Sideshow. Dream watches Ruhk and another man move amongst the cages, removing curtains and lighting torches with a practised efficiency, while a small crowd of humans gathers and waits with an air of excited anticipation.

For the first time, Dream is able to see his fellow prisoners.  Illusions are laid lightly upon them, made to fool the credulous and weak-minded and nothing more. Dream is neither, and even limited to mortal senses as he currently is, he sees these creatures as they truly are. They are a sorry lot, he thinks: a decrepit lion, an ape with a twisted foot, an elderly lizard…. Ordinary animals made weak by old age and captivity; though those who want to believe will see the ferocious manticore in the stead of the toothless lion. It is a base use of magic, Dream thinks contemptuously as his eyes follow the two men as they unveil more of the cages. A lizard made to look like the Midgard serpent, a poor spider believing herself to be Arachne. Shadows and mirages. What good is it? No true mage would waste their time with such empty work. 

The men finally reach and uncover the last cage, working with far more hesitancy than with any of the others. This is the cage that Dream had noted earlier and as he meets the eyes of the revealed occupant, he takes an unknowing pace backwards.

Now he understands why he was drawn to this cage, to that sense of darkness and foreboding that was seeping out from the darkness. She is no illusion, no old vulture-turned-legend by this Mama Thessaly’s cheap tricks. Dream knows her, has encountered her before in ages long past. She is Celaeno. The harpy. And she is as real as he is. 

Celaeno says nothing but she looks at Dream, and he sees death in her eyes.

[amemoryofwot]

Ashok enacting the same cycle on Ruhk and Padma as he suffered with Priya

[cupidsbower]

Dunki review

Spoilers for themes and tone below. Don't read if you want to go in cold. In short: recommended.

I can see now why none of the trailers for Dunki really did it for me. The second drop song Lutt Putt did though, and that was enough for me to think the trailers might be misrepresenting the film.

I was right. Or rather, it's not that they misrepresent the film, but they misdirect about what the actual journey is so that you're not spoiled.

The thing the trailers are working so hard to hide is that this is a tragedy. Yes, it has a lot of laugh-out-loud moments, especially in the first half. It also has some pointed satire as you'd expect from this director, and adventure, and a bit of action, and some rousing speeches. And romance of course, with SRK at his soulful best. It has all of that, and it's deftly done and very entertaining.

But we all should have known from the title that there was only one way a story like this could really end.

Dunki is about the bitterness of poverty, and how it strips people to their core character and forces them into making choices that change their lives forever. Even when that change leads to the best possible outcome - which it usually doesn't - it's at the price of bone deep regret that cannot be undone. It's life ruining.

Of Shah Ruhk Khan's three movies this year, I was bored by Pathaan, but could see why people were keen on it. In contrast, I was sold on Jawan from the first preview and adored it - a highlight of the year for me. But I didn't really get what all the fuss was about Dunki, and why people were so hyped about it.

I get it now. This director knows their stuff.

I'm not sure how big a hit Dunki will be, because I don't think it will be what people expect. It's not a feel-good Christmas movie. I got the vibe from people leaving the cinema that they enjoyed it, but weren't wowed.

I enjoyed it a lot - in a completely different way to Jawan, even though it has some thematic similarities. I need to mull Dunki over some more before I come to a final conclusion about it. Do I want to re-watch it? I think so, but maybe not for a while. It made me sad.

Dunki is a really entertaining movie and I recommend it, just be ready for a tragedy, not a romcom.

You'll laugh. You'll fall in love. You'll have your heart stomped on. It's a whole ride.