#see at least they're badass and take it from living things

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

Your blood loving yassified howdy made me remember that there's a family of moths that are quite literally titled "vampire moths" that like to drink blood [and fruit juice!]

ok i had to look those guys up and! wow! what the fuck! nature took one of its Best things (moths) and combined them with one of its Worst (mosquitos). they're so cute and yet i'm reflexively Afraid!

[defire]

Living weapon after they're rescued part 2

[awkward whumpee vibes]

Always checking to see if they did something wrong.

Whumpee is talking but they trail off as they realize everyone is staring at them. "What... What was it this time? The part about the crushing?"

Whumpee getting so terrified of losing this new-found safety that they start creeping around on eggshells trying to be invisible. It's too good to be true and they just want the illusion to stay for as long as possible.

"You can pretend to be my friends, lie to me, torture me, but I will never tell you what you want to know." "Whumpee, I just want to know if pepperoni sounds good." *Long pause* "...Is that like a meat thing or...."

"oh, fuck, i'm sorry, I got blood on your rug, shit shit shi--" "WHUMPEE YOU NEED STITCHES!" "Yeah but I can heal and the rug--" "forget about the damn rug!"

If someone raises their voice, whumpee flinches and responds with a "yes sir" before they can think a out it.

Protesting too much. "I don't take orders from you."

"I'm not just an asset!" "I'm not saying you are, whumpee--" "then put this back, I don't need nice clothes to have the same rights as you!"

"whumpee, you can stop looking out the window every five seconds. We're in a safe zone." "Yeah, for now," whumpee glances out again.

Patting people's backs to see if they're wearing a wire, disguising it really well as just sincere friendliness and warmth

And then losing all that when they sit down and take out their gun and just set it on the dinner table. "....What?" Whumpee frowns in confusion. "Can I not clean my gun? Do I not get to have my own weapon?"

"whumpee, can you not spray wd-40 right next to my plate. I'm eating here." "Come on, it's not even that poisonous. besides, this gun isn't gonna clean itself."

"Can you not have dinner like a normal person?!" "Already finished."

*whumpee points out a tactical advantage* "Calm down whumpee, it's just snakes and ladders." Whumpee stares at the board, feeling their sense of usefulness drain away.

Going over the times they were completely badass until it gets annoying.

When they realize they're only good at killing. And they almost want to go back to it, because at least then they had a purpose.

[whathehonestfuk]

My brain has created a fun amalgamation of these two posts (link, link)

Steph deciding after Startcourt life is way too short to continue living it for anyone else and immediately starts transitioning, everyone who matters in her life is of course accepting. and the rest of Hawkins is too wrapped up in the drama of the mall to notice that Steph and Steve are the same person, its just assumed Steve got out of dodge after the mall burned down.

the party starts going to hellfire and Stephs babysitter mode activates because these people don't know what monsters and references could set her kids off so she decides to tell Eddie what he is not allowed to use in his campaign or even mention around them. She goes in boymode because no one knows Steph but Steve still has a reputation.

Eddie is very very confused when Steve Harrington approaches him and immediately gets into what he is not under any circumstances to mention in front of the newest members of hellfire and its got to be the weirdest prank or something because the kids have never mentioned knowing Steve at all and all and the only connection Eddie knows about it that Steve is Nancy's ex which would not explain this behavior at all. so of course he has to test it, to disastrous results they do a good job at putting on a brave face but its clear they're terrified and as soon as the session is called they pull out a walkie and start calling for check ins. a voice that must be the mysterious badass and beautiful babysitter Steph that they're constantly going on about tells them to stay put and that she'll come in and get them. they protest that they aren't kids anymore but she isn't hearing it.

Eddies excited to get to see her for himself to see if she really is all they've built her up to be or is this is just a childhood crush clouding their judgment. he decided they haven't been doing her enough justice as she swings the door open and is doing head counts and visual wellness checks backlit from the fluorescents in the hall way like some kind of angel. once shes assured of the partys safety she rounds on him hands on hips looking so bitchy and disappointed "you used something off the list didn't you" it isn't a question. the party catches her attention before he can untie his tongue ruffling hair and giving half hugs, he'll have to thank them latter because the wave goodbye Henderson gives him is definitely conspiratorial like he was taking her attention on purpose.

It takes a day after the weirdness that was the last hellfire meeting for curiosity to get the best of him and he goes to get answers, he has no idea where Steph lives but he's sold at enough Harrington house parties to find his way. Imagine his surprise when its Steph that opens the door and starts talking to him like they've actually conversed before. Like she was the one that gave him the list of things not to mention, while simultaneously dressing him down for not listening.

for at least a brief moment Eddie assumes Steph is dating herself, it would explain how she knows about his conversation with Steve why Steve felt it was his place to tell him about the monsters, maybe she had been busy and he'd offered to go in her stead, and why she was answering his door.

She explains that she can't actually explain all that much about why he cant use demogorgons and mindflayers in his campaigns, because NDAs are a bitch. but does give him what she can leaving him even more curious because what the hell did a bunch of 14 year olds get into in Hawkins that require NDAs

before he leaves though he has to ask how she knows steve because that shouldn't be some huge secret.

Steph looks like a deer in headlights for a moment before doubling over with laughter, snorting hard to breathe crying laughter ( it really shouldn't be as cute as it was) once shes composed herself enough she just states "I am steve"

[yumeka-sxf]

I've been waiting to see Yor's epiphany chapter in the anime and it did not disappoint! I felt like analyzing more than usual because I loved this episode so much~ 💖

I hope that any anime-only viewers who at this point still had the opinion that Yor's just ditzy/submissive, one-dimensional, or whatever negative traits associated with her, have changed their minds. Throughout the cruise arc we've seen so many sides of her character: how she's struggling to understand the exact reason why she's taking on these dangerous assignments when her original reason for doing it (supporting Yuri) no longer exists, how her internal desire to seek her own happiness - live a peaceful life like Olka - is at constant war with her diligence to complete her mission, her yearning to be with Loid and Anya and how sad she looks when she has to tell herself that they're just a cover-up family and she'll have to leave them without a word if anything drastic happens, and how much more confident she is when doing something she excels at - assassinating - yet still retaining her kind and polite demeanor (Unlike Twilight, who dons the mask of Loid Forger, Yor Forger is not a mask for Thorn Princess, at least not in terms of personality. So everything she says as Thorn Princess can be interpreted as her true feelings, including the now two times she's hesitated during fights because of the thought of having to leave the Forgers).

And, in the moment where she's facing death right in the eye, all the doubts she's had since getting this assignment culminate, not only causing the samurai assassin to get the upper hand, but causing her to take a deep, introspective look into her reason for fighting...if it's not for the same reason as the other assassins, what is it?

What's even more amazing is that these things about her character did not come out of nowhere just for the sake of a flashy climax. We saw in previous episodes that not only does she understands that being in the Forger family makes her happy, but most importantly, how she's lived her life only thinking of the happiness of others above her own. And what's most tragic is that, upon finally realizing that her original reason for being an assassin is gone (since Yuri no longer needs support) she's ready to die then and there...until she remembers Olka's words about wanting to live a peaceful life, which in turn makes her remember her core reason for becoming an assassin was to not only support Yuri, but to make the world he lives in all the more peaceful by eliminating the villains in it.

Despite how naive Yor is about many things (due to her upbringing), she's certainly not ignorant about the needless tragedies that exist in the world. And here is where she makes her decision to keep doing her assassinating, not because she enjoys killing people, but because the result of it will make the world a better place...because now, she has even more people whose happiness she desires to protect.

Even if she sacrifice her own happiness by leaving the Forgers, that's not as important to her as preventing tragedy from befalling her loved ones, or the world in general. And these thoughts are so similar to Twilight's reasons for becoming a spy! Coincidently, as Yor has these thoughts, she thinks of how Loid complimented this aspect of her personality way back when they first met...and the thought that the man who she trusts and respects so much would approve of her decision, gives her the final push to keep on going (I love that they reanimated this scene too and didn't just use the exact frames from episode 2).

So yeah, if anyone who wasn't sure of how much depth Yor's character has, I hope this episode shed a lot of light! This is the right way to make a character both cute/sweet but also a total badass who's strong on the outside as well as the inside.

(I will probably reword a lot of this for my upcoming Twiyor analysis posts but I couldn't wait until then, lol).

[theclaravoyant]

fireworks - bucktommy (T, ~1000wd)

AN ~ now taking prompts! because i can't help myself . in the meantime please enjoy this little hurtcomfort, inspired by the prompts "late night conversations/anxiety" for upcoming @evanbuckleyweek <3 (I couldn't wait that long!)

also on AO3.

-

Can't make it tonight babe :( Not feeling so hot.

Buck is running late, but not so late that he doesn't have time to stop by on his way to the Grant-Nash gathering for a little bit of boyfriending. Tommy had sadly had to pull out of this one, but not to worry, Buck has brought over his favourite meatball sub in case he's feeling like a pick me up.. and a bottle of ginger ale in case he's not.

Either way, as he approaches the front door Buck is surprised to hear music so loud – albeit muffled – that the bass in it shakes the windows.

“Tommy?”

He frowns. He, for one, isn't one to blast his workout mix when he's stuck in bed, or bent over a toilet bowl, or whatever other nastiness supposedly awaits him. The lights are off inside.

Brought dinner, he taps into his phone. All good?

He bounces on the balls of his feet.

Babe, let me in x

There's no response, not even those little bouncing dots. Buck is definitely not thinking about Tommy passed out on the living room floor or kidnapped or something. But he does pull up Athena's number before he reaches for the spare key. Just in case.

“Babe!” he calls, looking around. The house is dark. This still feels like something he shouldn't really be doing. “Tommy!”

He follows the sound toward the basement stairs, where light is coming through. From down below, he hears the grunts and slaps of rigorous exercise... or something else, and it dawns on him that well, he and Tommy haven't technically agreed, haven't really discussed, if they're exclusive or anything and he might be intruding on something and that little voice in the back of his head that tells him nobody's ever all in is getting so loud... He freezes at the bottom of the stairs, just before he can turn the corner and see something. What the hell is he doing. How fast can he back track without Tommy noticing that he's being jealous and weird and-

The music stops.

Well. Here goes.

-

“Evan?”

Tommy can't help it, his face lights up at the sight of him. Which is weird, because Evan looks sort of mortified. Probably because Tommy had bailed on something important to him under the guise of being sick and here he is, very much not throwing up or hiding from the light or anything, slicked with so much sweat his hair has dropped a few shades in colour.

“Tommy. Y- You're feeling better?”

“You brought a sandwich?”

“Botticelli's.”

Damn it. Tommy throws his head back, closes his eyes as a pang of guilt punches through him. The kid went and brought his favourite sandwich. He just wants to make sure he's okay. Damn it, damn it.

“I can explain.”

“Is this because you're not ready to meet Athena? 'Cause she can give one hell of a shovel talk but she's cool, really.”

“I've met Athena,” Tommy assures him. In spite of himself, a smile touches his lips, because that was kind of a significant part of this whole thing. “Evan – I promise, this has nothing to do with us.”

It seems to help a little bit. At least, enough that Evan trails after him into the basement proper while he paces and takes a swig of water and tries to wrangle the courage to say it.

“The fourth of July is just... not my thing,” he manages. “I don't really like fireworks.”

He looks Evan in the eyes as he puts it together. Maybe he knows Eddie doesn't either, maybe he knows it's a common trigger for veterans, maybe he just knows what it's like to try and pack the depths of unspeakable horror into words. Especially when you're meant to be a badass fearless firefighter.

“I'm sorry,” Evan says. The fear and confusion and anguish melts away, his expression painfully earnest and concerned as he closes the distance between them. Part of Tommy wants to bury his face, to freeze like a rabbit or run and hide, but something about Evan, as always, makes him stay.

“I'm sorry,” he breathes. “I didn't mean to lie. I'm just … used to dealing with this by myself. And you- you're so- I mean, you died? You actually, for real died in a thunder storm and you got in a helicopter to fly into a hurricane like it was nothing. I guess I worried you wouldn't get it.”

Evan cups a hand around the back of his neck and it's grounding, it's nice, and Tommy's forehead falls forward against Evan's. He takes a ragged breath. Evan's phone starts ringing.

“You don't have to tell me,” Evan says, “what you've been through. But I'm here for you, okay? If you want me.” He glances at his phone and adds- “It's Maddie. Just checking where I'm at. Want me to tell them I'm not coming?”

Tommy shakes his head. “No. Go. I'll be alright here, have a night in. My boyfriend brought me my favourite sandwich."

-

He smiles. Buck smiles back, and presses forward a gentle, comforting kiss before they part. Tommy shakes it off as he heads back toward the stairs, but there's a long stretch of silence. The muffled whistle and echoing boom of an airbomb sails overhead and he can hear Tommy's breath quietly catch and it's almost as if it pulls out the words from his chest.

“I can't remember the lightning.”

“Hm?”

He turns back. Tommy is watching after him.

“I can't remember the lightning, Tommy. That's probably why I can fly into a hurricane. It's- actually it's pineapple jello for me. It was all I could eat for weeks after they took the tubes out. Pineapple jello and vanilla icecream. The first time I smelt a piña colada after I got out, I thought I was going to die.”

I get it.

Tommy nods. After a beat, he adds-

“And hey, Evan. This is something I kind of like to keep to myself. So if anyone asks-”

“Violent gastro. Got it.”

He rolls his eyes, and huffs, and smiles as he tucks the little foam earplug back in place.

“I love you, too.”

[moonlight-tmd]

What do you think would happen if tfp Bumblebee meets tfa Bumblebee?

Tfp Bumblebee: A child soldier who has seen nothing but war watching everyone around him die or return with serious injuries and lifelong trauma, Megatron tore out his larynx and because of this he is now unable to speak so that humans can understand him. He had to face Megatron repeatedly after that. He had to leave his planet because it simply wasn't safe for him anymore.

He continued to lose more friends and then saw his father figure almost die in front of his eyes and the only option was to enter Megatron's mind (please leave the boy alone) in order to save him.

He then had to deal with Megatron in his mind trying to control him and he hurt two of his friends because of it so that in the end he lost all control and now Megatron forced him to revive his body to to be able to come back to life.

(there are many more things, but I don't want to be overwhelming or anything like that)

What do you think?

From TFP Bee's perspective; he would be so relieved in a hurt way... this version of him was spared the absolute horrors he endured and had a chance to live a somewhat normal life. Little Bee had his downsides and struggles no one saw as serious, it hurt him but not as much as it would hurt to know Little Bee met a similar fate as him. He was happy that at least one of many other possible versions of him has a happy life. To be quite honest he wished so badly that was him... at least he has Raf and others back at their home, they're his family.

TFA Bee's perspective; tiny man Bee would be both amazed and jealous of how cool and badass this giant alternate universe him is. He always wished to be like that and now he can learn just how to do that. It was until later when Big Bee started to open up (cuz he was unbelievably shy, according to Little Bee) that Little Bee learned what it takes to be a proper soldier. He went from seeing the big version of himself as a heroic idol to seeing him as a victim of war and cruelty of the world. I guess he would see how lucky he is to be where he is right now- Big Bee had not said alot (Bee had a hard time understanding some of the binary beeps) but he said enough for Little Bee to not take everything he knew and had for granted.

Both of them learned things from each other- Big Bee taught Little Bee how to fight some and and defend himself while Little Bee provided emotional comfort and ways to soothe when he was hurting that Big Bee has never knew. I'm not entirely sure what would Big Bee do but Little Bee would definitely be more thoughtful and cautious with what he says and does- be it with his chosen family or in combat. He was grateful for all the things and comforts he had now, that one meeting will stay in his mind forever.

[david-talks-sw]

Hello @David-talks SW,

I was just wondering do you, by any chance, have any quotes from George Lucas talking about The Sith or The Emperor's ultimate goal?

I can't find the exact quote but I think he said that Sidious' goal is to rule the galaxy, allow his apprentice to challenge him when the time is right (be it Vader or Luke had he turned to the Dark Side) and allow his apprentice to strikes him down.

All Sith is after immortality but from their point of view life after death does not exist. The closest thing to immortality is their own legacy. That is why Sidious is trying to find the perfect apprentice in I-III. He find that in Anakin. Vader fails him at the end of III with his fight with Obi-Wan Kenobi. He find another chance with Luke Skywalker and that is he is so obsessed with trying to convert young Skywalker over to his side.

At the end of the day, he doesn't care what happen to him as long as the Sith rule the entire galaxy after him forever.

It is consistent with what he told Yoda before their fight in the Senate in III: "DARTH SlDIOUS: You will not stop me. Darth Vader will become more powerful than either of us."

I believe Dave Filoni said something alone the line of Maul's own goal in Rebel Recon, which was a behind the scene show of Star Wars Rebels (2014-2018). Mind you I think Dave Filoni's understanding of the Sith, in general, is akin to those of George Lucas' vision of them rather then the Jedi.

I could be wrong on the matter and I would be thankful if you could correct me on it.

Thank you.

Hey there!

I see @writerbuddha already answered you here.

Let me just add a few more quotes for your information!

"The Jedi are the enemy of the Sith because the Sith want to dominate the galaxy, to control everything, and for a thousand years they have had a plot against the Jedi." - Sci-fi Online, 2005

The Sith just wanna subdue and control everyone around them, including the Force itself, to fashion the galaxy in their image.

"The end game for the Sith was to bring the world into a very selfish, self-centered, greedy, evil place, as opposed to a compassionate place." - James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction, 2018

I go more into clarifying the Sith's goals here. Here's another quote that isn't in the linked post:

Q: So what is the Phantom Menace? There are lots of different ways to put it. It's the Dark Lords of the Sith, of which there are only two. That's the opposite of a Jedi. It's somebody that works with the dark side of the Force. There is one Sith Lord is who trying to wreak havoc and take over the galaxy, and he is the phantom menace. I think you get the idea. There is somebody pulling the strings for everything. - Premiere, 1999

Hope it helps!

Edit:

To be clear, saying the Sith care about their legacy is giving them wayyyy too much credit. They're selfish assholes. The whole point of having an apprentice is that if they die, at least the lineage goes on.

But they're not planning on dying, they're trying to go against the Fates and do everything in their power to NOT die.

The Jedi are the ones who deal in things like a legacy. You tell the word "legacy" to a Sith and he'll laugh in your face, he doesn't care that his *worst case scenario* is safe and sound and will carry on without him, he wants to be the guy that carries on forever.

And as @unhelpfulfemme points out in the replies, this comes with a "might makes right" mentality.

"If scum like you managed to kill magnificent me, then I deserve to die for being so pathetic and losing to a worm, and you deserve to live for having overcome the badass warrior that I am."

[bloodboonfic]

So you have done a few bullet point AUs? Curious what would a Bloodboon role swap AU look like (Philza kidnaps Techno at the very start but Techno wants to return to nether)?

Me and Pink had a lot of fun with this one :D

Techno doesn't have anything on par with Philza's kids, so the circumstances need to be different: a full on war between the Nether and the Antarctic empire. Techno is King Ashthorn's top warrior/general. The Nether is loosing the war, and when talking terms of peace, the Antarctic council comes to the grim decision that The Blood God is too dangerous to let live.

Philza, however, has respect for his enemy, and doesn't think someone deserves to be executed just for being on the wrong side of a conflict. He manages to talk his council down to taking Techno as a prisoner of war/hostage.

Ashthorn is stoked to have a scapegoat for everything that went wrong with the war and pins it all on Technoblade, the dishonourable war prize. As a last chance to take advantage of this, he even promises Technoblade an honourable return home, on one condition: successful assassination of the Antarctic royal family.

A grim plan forms. Technoblade must endear himself to emperor Philza and his sons, get their guards down, and strike when it's least expected. It shouldn't be that hard, right? As the emperor's war prize, he'll be expected to serve him in all ways, right?

Philza promptly puts Techno is a palace wing as far away from his own courters as possible and tells him to stay away. Techno is a guest, for all intents and purposes, and he'll be treated with decency and respect, but he is still a dangerous enemy agent who will not be trusted. As the whole situation is quite awkward, Philza would prefer to forget Techno is even here. This is very confusing to Techno, who was under the impression he'd be used as slave labour. Philza is appalled at the very notion. Prisoners of war as slaves, what savagery!

Techno then makes the quick calculation that the fastest way to Philza's good graces is through his sons. Bad news: Philza has forbidden his sons from interacting with Techno is any way, shape, or form. Good news: Tommy doesn't listen very good.

Techno never even attempts an escape. Instead, the large conflict that leads to actual friendship building comes from secretly training Tommy, because that's what the prince wants and Techno needs to befriend him, but then Tommy accidentally injures himself. Philza walks in at just the wrong time, immediately sees red, attacks Techno, and would have killed him if Wilbur hadn't intervened quickly enough. Techno does, however, break a tusk.

Philza, after having the truth explained, feels bad, and invites Techno over for a fancy dinner. Techno is perplexed! He's been eating bread and cheese this whole time, what could be fancier than that!?

Philza also gets Techno an iron prosthetic tusk later, which is really badass from a piglin cultural point of view.

Random assortment of things that could also happen at some point:

Techno half-accidentally breaks into the royal library and has a grand old time. This might be how he meets Tommy in the first place, who was hiding from his dumb boring tutors

Techno discovers reading glasses, significantly improving his quality of life

Not seeing any signs of Techno actually doing his mission, Ashthorn sends more assassins: Witherbrand and Thornwhip. They're lured into defecting by the promise of bread and cheese

The happiest ending, I imagine, would be Philza arming Techno to the teeth with the best armour and weapons the Overworld has, and Techno returning to the Nether to duel Ashthorn and take the throne.

And thus, we come full circle. Technoblade rules the Nether as a wise and just king, with the bonus of excellent trade deals with the Overworld established early on in his reign. Also Techno and Philza can visit whenever they want ^^

-Anchestor

[thesoftboiledegg]

"Analyze Piss" was a great episode but not what I expected, which made it hard to write a review at first. I assumed that most of the episode would take place in Dr. Wong's office with Rick hashing out some of his issues. Admittedly, I guess that's what happened in a more indirect (and more entertaining) way.

When Jerry's fight with Pissmaster went on for a good couple of minutes, I was like...are we seriously spending valuable screentime on this? But I guess we needed to see Jerry being a badass and humiliating Pissmaster to understand why the world was fawning over him.

The topic of change keeps coming up this season. People tell Rick that he won't change, and he doesn't want to, but he IS changing. Unfortunately, no one seems to notice.

He tries to tell Jerry that acting like a superhero is a bad idea. The family boos him. He tells them at the end of the episode that he knew Jerry's adventures would fall apart, and they boo him again.

Rick tells them that they're only praising him for trying to change because they want to feel superior--and maybe he's right. In their minds, THEY don't have to change anything. HE does. And it's 100% true that Rick's fucked up a lot of shit, he's been abusive, he's hurt Morty in ways that he probably can't atone for, and he needs therapy more than anybody.

But they talk about his therapy visits in a condescending way, like "Aww, that's so cute! Are you going to change for us, Rick? Are you going to be docile and passive?" They praise him when they think that Rick concocted some crazy plan to boost Jerry's ego for no reason. When they learn the truth, they turn on him again.

I won't say that he doesn't deserve it. They don't owe him anything, and they'd be well within their rights to kick him out of the house and never talk to him again. But Rick didn't create the toxic family dynamic that Beth and Jerry had been cooking up for 16 years before he showed up. I think they're telling themselves that everything that happens is his fault, and he's getting to the point where he's kind of letting them think that.

Rick smiles to himself when the Smiths leave with Jerry on his ship (although he does drink from his flask) and ignores a couple of the bad guys tailing him. When they start fighting each other and leave him alone, he thinks that he's got it all figured out.

But inevitably, he starts to fall apart. He gets drunk and hears people at the bar mocking Pissmaster. "Who could relate, being that much of a piece of shit?" Rick can. He and Pissmaster aren't that different--they provoke people, they're pieces of shit and everyone wants them to be the villain. He's going to visit Pissmaster so they can drink beer and bond over their shitty lives.

He arrives to find that Pissmaster killed himself. Through the door, Rick hears Pissmaster's daughter apologize and say that she's worried about him, she loves him and she'd blame herself if something happened to him--all things that Rick would love to hear from his own daughter, and probably never will hear. At least not in that same fretful, emotional tone.

Everything goes to shit for everyone except Pissmaster's daughter, who believes that her father died a hero. Admittedly, Rick shouldn't have told Morty about the note--it's understandable that he'd want someone to know the truth, but he can't trust a 14-year-old kid with that information, and he needs to stop seeing Morty as his peer anyway. He should've taken it to Dr. Wong.

But telling the truth just makes the Smiths turn on him again. And after all that, why should Rick change? Why be honest? Why not play the roles that they want him to play: the aggressive villain or the docile old man, or both?

Sometimes, the people around you don't want you to change even if it's for the best. I don't think the Smiths want anything to change. That would force Beth and Jerry to face their shitty marriage and the ways they abused and neglected their children, especially Morty, and that's not going to happen.

Just keep blaming everything on the drunk old man in the garage.

But Rick IS changing. In seasons 1-4, Rick would have taken the fact that they believed that he was always Pissmaster as an opportunity to gloat and manipulate everyone. Here, he just looks at them sadly. He tries to talk Jerry out of doing something that he knows will end badly. He desperately tells Morty the truth because he's sick of lying. And the entire premise of the episode is based on Rick willingly going to therapy.

Seasons five and six have countless moments that show that Rick's trying to grow up, show affection, be a father figure, admit to his fuckups and treat Morty gently. Even in season four, he was starting to cut the bullshit a little.

And it must be hard on him. Everything was easier when he was a monster. Beth loved him, Jerry was out of the way and he did whatever he wanted with no guilt, fear or regret while suppressing his trauma and shame. Wouldn't it be easier to be the heartless patriarch who can manipulate his family into doing anything? Go on adventures? Cook and clean for him? Stop talking to Jerry? Show him affection? Actually want to be around him? Make him feel human again?

There's no going back even if he tried--they know him too well now. And he shouldn't go back because he was a monster destroying his entire family. But he needs the Smiths' affection and encouragement if he's going to get anywhere because he's not going to get it from himself.

[ghostoffuturespast]

1 November 2024 - Friday Field Notes

Autumn's finally sighed itself in on the prairie.

I live in an area that has a lot of new housing development going in, and it kills me to see all this prairie getting ripped up. I get it, people need places to live. But seeing all these cookie cutter houses and turf grass supplanting everything that's here, just seems so ungrateful and wasteful. People just have no fucking clue and are so disconnected nature. I see all theses Prairie Dogs and Northern Harrier Hawks and Bullsnakes they're all getting boxed in and pushed out. People water and mow their Kentucky Blue Grass and wonder why all the pollinators are gone and there's no water...

I'm one person and there are limits to what I'm able to do, but I've been going on walks in the evening and collecting seeds from the plants I find. The plants that people walk past and call weeds. There's a lot of non-native plants but just some of the things I've been able to find just on the fringes of the sidewalks. Hoary Tansyaster, Sunflowers, Buffalo Grass, Blue Grama, and the Side Oats Grama. The Side Oats Grama! There's so much Side Oats Grama out here and it's beautiful! It has these gorgeous crimson red hues when they're flowering and on they're leaves. A gorgeous grass and almost no one ever takes the time to admire it.

Blurry Swainson's Hawk. (I think. I'm still horrendous at IDing birds.)

The last of the Sunflowers.

Cold sleepy prairie.

I'm really glad it's November. This past fall and summer season has been so fucking hectic that I feel like I didn't really get a chance to enjoy them. In between project planning, I'm gonna try and spend more time outside this winter. Try and keep the SAD at bay.

It may not seem like there's a lot going on in the cold season but I'm interested to see how all the plants get along through the winter. What they look like. Who's growing when. Having a better understanding of plant life cycles and growing succession will hopefully help more with our restoration and gardening efforts.

And look at these buggers! A couple of badasses right here, growing straight out of some rocks. I think that's Hairy False Golden Aster (on the left, some kind of asteraceae at least) and Fringed Sage (on the right).

If you two can make it, then so can I.

[gffa]

What is trigun stampede even about

At its heart, Trigun Stampede about the conflict between love/pacifism and rage/retribution, set between two twin non-human brothers who love each other but diverge because of this conflict, even as they desperately want to pull the other back to them, with a mix of various other characters coming along for the ride. When future humanity creates a new type of lifeform called Plants, beings that are connected to a higher dimension's energy source which allows them to be used to create food/water/air/etc., humanity is not exactly great about this. Some people are kind and compassionate, some are horrifically abusive, uncaring of the hurt they're causing. The only two sentient Plants of the series are the twins--Millions Knives and Vash the Stampede--and when they discover what the humans are really doing, Knives crashes humanity's ships onto a desert planet with no resources, where they will truly die without the Plants to create food and water for them. Vash believes they can find a way to live together with the humans, he sees the best in them. Knives thinks they should all die for how they use Plants up until they die, for how they experiment on Plants, for how they attack anything that they're afraid of. (It's very much a "the villain really kind of has a point, but takes it way too far, but you can kind of understand how he got there, especially depending on how much pain Plants are capable of feeling, not that we know the answer to that" kind of set-up.) Their conflict (not that Vash wants a conflict, but Knives isn't going to stop stealing back all the Plants the humans have taken, killing anyone who gets in his way) plays out across the entirety of the desert world, with Vash basically unable to go anywhere without some kind of trouble coming down on his head (whether through his own Plant abilities being necessary, bad luck, or Knives stealing back a Plant) and this weighs on Vash's soul like a ton of bricks. Vash tries really hard to keep up the appearance of being the local sillyman, but babygirl has the biggest case of depression you've ever seen, because he can't stop people from being hurt, he can't stop his twin from hurting people, he can't stop all the conflict going on around him, he can't save everyone, no matter how hard he tries, no matter how many pieces of himself he loses along the way. But neither can he just sit things out, because he's a Plant, he's stronger and faster and more powerful than any human, he has to at least try. Try to save them, try to reach his twin. What makes it all worse is that, underneath everything else, Knives is doing this for Vash. Oh, he's definitely not doing what Vash would want and I don't mean to make Knives sound soft or kind or nice, he's manipulative and awful, but I do genuinely believe that his motivation under all of it is to build a better world for Vash, one that doesn't have humans, one that only has Plants. It has some really beautiful animation, some great humor, some really excellent side characters, some badass fight scenes, some fascinating worldbuilding, but primarily I am here for the conflict between "we can live together" versus "the humans have and will continue to kill us if I don't do something" overlaid with how they both desperately want the other to come around to their side. Also, it's basically a Space Western with scifi elements and it's great.

[ben-talks-art]

Trapped and Dreaming Freedom

So I've been reading these two webtoons lately about female leads stuck in very toxic and unhealthy relationships (while being aware of it), and I'm loving every second of it!

If you know me, you know I just love a badass cool female lead and I also love seeing characters stuck in very difficult situations and watching how they use their brains and/or skills to get out of it, and both comics excel at these aspects!

First series is "Trapped", a comic about this taxi driver who got tangled by accident with a vampire who develops an obsession with both her and her blood after she manages to outsmart him a couple of times, something that hasn't happened to him in years.

It feels very "Tom and Jerry" with both characters trying to get the upper hand on their relationship, and you would think it would be super one-sided but vampires actually have quite a bit of annoying rules on how they work that severely limit their freedom and our female lead exploits as many of them as she can to make him eat sh*t! It's just glorious!

"Dreaming Freedom" is... somehow less dark, and at the same time way darker of a series.

It's not as violent or gory but it deals with more realistic problems that hit closer to home for some like school bullying, abandonment, harassment, family abuse, and so on.

The premise is that our female lead teams up with a guy that has the power to use dreams to affect people in the real world, and they use this ability to get revenge on all the girl's classmates that harassed her, but the more our female lead does that, more the male lead gets obsessed with her and we later find out that he has some serious anger issues making him extremely dangerous.

Our lead basically goes from "I can use him to get payback!" to "Oh my God, I'm the only thing that's keeping this dude under control and away from people!"

It feels like you're being handed a living knife that you just pray won't run out of control or turn itself against you. It's so uncomfortable but at the same time so thrilling!

While I really don't like when unhealthy relationships are glamorized and used to send some kind of "Oh, he's kinda dangerous... But at least he loves you, so it's okay, right?" message, I do like it when the unhealthiness of the relationship is the focus AND is painted as a problem that needs to be fixed.

I like how both female leads always call the male leads on their bs and keep them in check whenever they start going too far, and it's fun to see how they use them whenever they're backed into a corner by the antagonists of the stories.

Also like the themes these series explore, about how when you keep dealing with people that act like monsters you see yourself slowly turning into a monster yourself and start to attract other monsters as well, eventually making you question how far can you go? How far should you go? Can you get back from it? And so on.

But most of all, I like that both series make sure to show that these "bad boys" were their last freaking options. Not the first, not the second, but the very bottom of the barrel. They went to them only after they felt they had no other choices and were sure that nobody else would take their side.

This isn't just "Oh, I went to him because he's a hot bad boy", this is "The world turned its back on me so I'm gonna use the only cards that I have left."

They basically made a deal with their devils and now the fun is watching to see how/if they're gonna get out of it.

This is how I like to see problematic relationships. You don't paint them as something normal or something good, you paint them as a hardship that needs to be dealt with and use it to do clever commentary on the worst aspects of humanity so we can learn how to be better and as a source for good and intense drama to make us worried for the main characters and invested in seeing them get out okay.

[maineshewrote]

I-just-started-s4e3-thoughts:

Excuse me but Sazz and Charles share a rare blood type?!

Galifragilistic (which is how I shall be calling him). I didn't like him the first time we met him and I am starting to dislike him even more now. Get over yourself and take your teacher's advice. Even Loretta-in-the-trailer said that actors are investigators.

Why is Oliver constantly getting stuck with overbearing Greek people? (read: I miss Teddy.)

Big wow to the killer for leaving the bullet shell behind. The easiest thing to clean up from your crime scene.

Yes, please, Detective Williams in cahoots with the trio is what was needed. Now, she's obviously somewhat ticked off that she's being shut off from investigating a murder on her turf, but also she totally likes the trio.

I'm so pleased to see Williams develop as a character, too. She goes from a very serious workaholic no-nonsense badass to fresh mama badass, who unashamedly loves the theatre enough to leave her interrogations and cheer for Charles (as seen in the Pickwick Triplets music video), to openly concerned helpful mama bear to her podcast triplets. This show is just brilliant, letting all its side characters shine and have their own stories.

Let's just let her do her little cop monologue, she's earned it.

No, it's suspicious because supposed-man-in-Portugal-and-not-in-Spain left a live piglet in his bathroom and tried to get into the apartment while Olimabel was in there.

So if Prof. Dudenoff—which is a hell of a suspicious name and probably means something significant—is supposedly in Portugal and the Oh Hell gang get their toilet ham from Portugal, do they just call the apartment next door Portugal and make ham there?

It's very possible that no one exactly hates Charles enough to kill him, maybe his death would just benefit them in some other way. Although they already did that with Bunny and why should the writers repeat themselves, so I remain unconvinced.

The set chairs on the roof were a nice touch.

Okay, but Williams is married with a kid. And the best thing about Galifragilistic is the Mary-Poppins-inspired nickname that Oliver gave him. I did like her calling him a baklava, but that's it. Calm down, detective.

Even if Levy is just being tactically polite to Charles, which is yet to be proven, it still makes him the kindest and most likable of the Hollywood trio. It's about time someone was nice to Charles without turning every compliment into a joke at his expense.

They're gonna go with Levy's plan, right?

Mabel: "Mabel works alone." Also Mabel: *always works with her guys*

I couldn't be more disinterested in Galifragilistic and his rude indifference towards his job and Oliver. I mean, Oliver is so fun and extravagant, anyone would be lucky to play him and should enjoy every second they could spend getting to know him.

I think it's so sweet that Oliver hung up his Death Rattle Dazzle poster in the spot where he used to have his Splash poster. I wonder which show he considers his biggest flop now: Splash or the original Death Rattle (it's obviously not Death Rattle Dazzle which was a hit and no one can convince me otherwise).

I agree with Oliver about the sweater. Where did Howard get that sad sweater? His last one slayed.

Looks like Howard is winning at spontaneous pet adopting this season. Oliver has dropped behind with his Mrs. Gambolini—who I still insist is around although there was no mention of her throughout season 3.

Gloria Swinom? If I may, I would just like to add Tilda Swineton to the pun-name list.

At least Howard is on my side. That little unimpressed sassy chuckle was fabulous.

This guy needs a lot of work. I will not hear one word against Lansbury.

Coming to theatres near you: The Misguided Adventures of Criminally Obscure Doctor Salazar Savage.

I take it back, the Olifragilistic bonding can be quite sweet, too. The 90s Hallmark movie vibes are strong in this one.

Wohoo! Uma's back and kicking!

Okay, so what's up with the theme song from Perfect Strangers?

The roller-coaster that this scene took me on, I tell you. Howard is precious, a little misguided but fiercely loyal, I love it. But it has been a while since I've been so pissed at someone on the screen as I was just now at Galifragilistic. Sure, yeah, his last degrading speech and the little slap was basic Oliver behaviour with an added touch of oblivious viciousness, so he has learned a little something during his day with Oliver after all, but that cruelty was totally uncalled for and I can't believe he just touched Oliver like that. Hands off my pocket-sized baby Willy Wonka!

The funniest part of this episode: Charles and Vince's hug, peak comedy that.

So that picture with the Oh Hell gang and a markered-off-faced pig lady—nice clue, probably an interesting lead, also probably not the killer, but that's all I'm saying about that. Just wanted to say that while I know we're 100% not doing that again, those dungarees and what look like plaits and the connection to pigs are giving Loretta-but-back-in-Mamma-Mia!.

Oh my God. It was less than five seconds between me thinking, "Hmm, I could see Mabel living in a place like this and starting to build it into her own space, after all of this is over and done with. Maybe exactly this place. She could see her guys from her window every day," and Mabel googling squatters' rights.

What is happening, Charles, is some Olimabel bonding time between Mabel-who-is-not-into-this-musical-shit and Oliver who deserves to have his dad moments with Mabel, too.

I'm impressed by how quickly they recognized the number as a frequency. They really are on fire this season. There was a time when they based half of their case on whether the word was "Savage" or "sandwich".

Hey, didn't I say Sazz had been snooping around on her ham radio? So she spoke to the pig lady with the accent.

[beevean]

You know, it's really funny how execution can make or break a concept.

In the Francis Ford Coppola film Bram Stoker's Dracula and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Dracula had a wife before he became a vampire, and said wife's death drives him to villainy. Centuries later, he meets the reincarnation of his dead wife, who he has a doomed romance with.

Yet because Bram Stoker's Dracula derailed a lot of characters not named Dracula and tried to make him out to be a tragic hero while he was still doing terrible things, I disliked the film, while the Castlevania games never pulled such a thing. It used his tragic backstory as a reason why he is the way he is, without excusing his behavior. As a result, it adds dimension to Dracula's character without feeling out-of-character.

Oh yeah, IGA clearly liked the movie and introduced elements of it with his own spin, such as Dracula descending into villainy because he returned home after an expedition only to find his wife Elisabetha dead, or him having the chance to live again with a girl named Mina (although Dracula needs to be reincarnated into a good person first lol)

Something I like about CV is that it has tragic villains, but it has a good balance between showing them in a sympathetic light and still reminding you that they're bastards. Dracula is a grieving man stuck in a cycle of rebirth, but he's also a petty monster who wants to make everyone pay for the sins of a few. Isaac lost everything he held dear through no fault of his own and fell prey to his own master's curse which lead him to a pointless death, but he's also a cruel, bitter man who unfairly caused the death of an innocent woman out of jealousy spite. Brauner lost his dear daughters in the war, but he also took two daughters from another man to turn them into vampires, and he gets called on his delusion by Jonathan. The story never tells you "look at these sad meows meows 🥺 they're not so bad after all 🥺", but they're not generic baddies either, and you come to see at least where they're coming from.

The show takes the "sad meow meow" approach when it comes to Dracula, Isaac and Lenore, and that's why I'm less than impressed. Dracula is a poor man too bereft with grief to think logically and who deserves to live again with his wife. Isaac is actually a gentle man who deserves peace after killing innocents to grow an army because he wanted to continue Dracula's slaughter. Lenore is actually a good, pacifist vampire who only wanted to protect Hector after resorting to deceit, manipulation, gaslighting and rape. You can feel the narrative holding your hand to push you to think a certain way.

Carmilla is a weird case because you'd expect her to be meowified, but she's just a generic badass #girlboss who gets no sympathy for her offscreen trauma. Still, not an elegant approach.

[still-a-morosexual-help]

I mean I would argue that the dame culture presented in game is at least comparable to drag, in the way that it's a very performative kind of gender presentation that is completely unrelated to the performers actual gender, but I totally agree that om is clearly presenting the event as something other than cross dressing or the traditional understanding of drag as a man in a dress and it's really nice to see! Its like- gender performance vs performative gender if that makes any sense? Idk lol but it's really nice to see men performing femininity without any shitty jokes

Also it's really funny to me that beel keeps breaking his heels because they absolutely make heels for drag with steel reinforcements so either he's breaking THOSE (wouldn't put it past beel) or they don't have that kind of heel in the devildom lol

Sorry you're getting weird terfs harassing you :(

No I get that!! I definitely see it as being comparable to drag (which is not a bad thing! Drag is great and allows for a lot of gender expression and there's different kinds of drag) but it also feels different? I think it's because the Devildom doesn't seem to hold any of the gender stereotypes of the human world? Which affects the entire event.

I've spoken about it in my previous posts and in some that are still on queue but;

The dressing up/crossdressing is never treated as anything other than normal. Even when the brothers have problems with it it's never with the actual part of becoming a "dame" - it's things like breaking their heels or being too lazy to put in too much effort.

Being a "Dame" is a character, just like how in drag most people play characters, and a Dame is characterized by "nobility" : the Dames are supposed to be kind, gracious, selfless, poised characters

This is shown in OM! by how Mammon loses his accent whenever he's performing as a "Dame". But there's a lot of intertwining/overlap between acting the part of the Dame and the brothers' everyday gender presentation

Barbatos and Asmo somewhat put an emphasis on show makeup (aka exaggerated makeup) versus everyday makeup, they're both well versed in both kinds

Asmo wears a lot of stereotypically feminine clothes & makeup & heels in everyday life without it affecting how he views himself as a man

Mammon and Lucifer both wear heels often enough that wearing them comes naturally to them

I think there's one card where Mammon's wearing (comparatively) light makeup and honestly I see it as being something that he's used to (you can't blend your eyeshadow as well as Mammon has in his recent card and be new to it, specially for someone who's not naturally artistic)

Mammon says that what he wears doesn't matter as long as he looks like a badass, which feels like it's more than just about this specific situation where he has to act like a Dame - it genuinely just feels like how Mammon as a person would see himself

Lucifer & Barbatos (two of the most serious and badass/dangerous characters in the game) are looked up to as "exceptional dames" despite neither dressing up for the contest. They are viewed as professionals in the area. But I don't see either Barbatos or Lucifer as people who would put on a character that is significantly different from their usual selves (the way Mammon had to)

I think what it comes down to is that drag (for most people) is something that you can at least somewhat take off at the end of the day? Like for Beel, I absolutely cannot see him wearing dresses/heels while out of his Dame character. But Asmo wears makeup/heels/stereotypically feminine clothes, Mammon wears makeup/heels, Lucifer wears heels, Barbatos apparently wears makeup often enough too, in their everyday lives while still all presenting as male that at this point it moves away from being a performance and becomes just a part of them and a part of how they present themselves/their gender. And so, at this point, because makeup/heels/dresses are just things that shouldn't be assigned genders of their own it can't really be considered crossdressing anymore. And in the Devildom no one bats an eye at that.

Does that make sense?

Also, just.... these characters are thousands if not millions of years old - of course they're not gonna stick to gender stereotypes or a specific gender presentation. Objectively, I don't think it's even possible - with the way gender & gender stereotypes change with time - even if you pick one gender and stick to it, what it means to be that gender would change over time when you've lived that long. So at some point you're gonna say "fuck it, I'm doing whatever the fuck makes me comfortable"

BEEL WAS GOING THROUGH IT. MAN WAS TRAUMATISED.😭😭😂

No listen he definitely was breaking through them as well!

🤷✌️

[cowgurrrl]

I know you've written about how rockstar!joel and actress!reader experienced paparazzi but a recent video of rachel ziegler handling the paparazzi well really made me think about how actress!reader would handle them in a similar fashion. they're horrible in general and I feel like actress!reader would tell them off but in a smart, sassy sense lol.

the video of rachel, she told them "sorry??? I'm human talk to me as such" and I think that's how actress!reader would go about keeping them and even if the kids were around too. her and joel, in my mind at least, have a different way of handling them and that's how actress!reader would handle them i feel. (joel thinks his wife is a badass for that because ofc! love to see it!!!)

Oh, Joel does not fuck around when it comes to paparazzi. He has little to no patience and will do everything so their photos are unsellable. Anything from flipping off the camera to mumbling answers to TMZ to even pulling up a picture of Mickey Mouse on his phone and holding it up so paps can’t sell the photos unless they’re willing to pay Disney. It’s extremely smart.

You are a little more gracious. Everybody has to make a living. If you’re on your own, you’ll tolerate a few pictures and questions as long as they’re reasonable and won’t get you in trouble. That, of course, changes once you get pregnant. You still answer questions about work and vaguely say something about the baby being good but you don’t indulge them with details such as your due date, the sex of the baby, or possible names. You figure your good standing with the paparazzi will help you when it comes to concealing Sam and the girls. The flashes and mob scare them and your publicity team has a deal that if they do get pictures of you and the kids out that they have to blur the kids faces unless you change the order (which you won’t do until Sam is eighteen and even then you’re reluctant).

One day, when Sam and the girls are little and you’re still in your two-year time off period to be Mom, you’re going to the grocery store with your very young kid and babies. It’s stressful for any mom to have to wrangle that many small children but especially when people are surrounding you, taking pictures. You do your best to distract the kids, cover their faces, and keep yourself calm but it’s hard. “Can we have some space, please?” You ask politely as you struggle with the double stroller and wiggly babies. While you’re strapping Sophia into the stroller, you hear one of the paps say Sam’s name and ask him something. You don’t even fully hear the question but it doesn’t stop you from whipping around and pulling Sam behind you.

“Did you seriously just ask my five-year-old a question?” You snap. It’s one thing for you to get hounded by the press, but your kid? “He’s a kid. What answer are you expecting to get out of him? Do you want me to find your children and grill them about something while taking pictures of them?” The photographer starts to apologize but you don’t let him. “My kindergartener isn’t media trained or used to people shoving cameras in his face just like every other fucking kindergartner on earth. Can you, please, treat him as such and leave us alone so I can go buy diapers and bread for my family?” They back off, finally, and let you finish loading up the kids. You and Joel’s team sends cease and desist’s to all the photographers who got pictures of the kids that day and orders them destroyed. If a single picture of your children emerges on the internet that neither of you posted, a lawsuit will be sent before the end of the hour and not just one. Two.

One thing becomes very clear to the press that day: Don’t fuck with the Miller kids.