#so close that is a prehistoric fish

[caminthemoshpitatweezer]

I'm reading burning Avalon and got jumpscared by huitzi with no hat

[caminthemoshpitatweezer]

I love bive

lemon demon reference??

[caminthemoshpitatweezer]

how do I.

[mokeonn]

Eusthenopteron in hats

[marinebiologyshitposts]

FISH KIN: @lampriformity, your fish kin is...

Lampris guttatus, the Opah! Now, I do personally think it's cheating to assign you a lampriforme, because like. It is literally in your name, but I just couldn't resist this guy- and how could I? The Opah is a discoid pelagic ray-finned fish closely related to the Oarfish, probably one of the best-known Lampriformes! The Lampriformes shaped like the Opah are called "bathysomes", where the longer, slimmer ones are called "taeniosomes"- translating to "deep-bodied" and "ribbon-bodied" respectively! While the Opah is kinda an odd-man-out among the Lampriformes, given its unusual shape, the fossil record shows that MOST prehistoric Lampriformes were bathysomes- and it's only relatively recently that they started getting stretched longer! Thank you so much for your donation!

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results: Nirmosho

Today's is interesting in that it's notably vague about what kind of creature this is, other than "lives in the river" and "smaller than a crocodile". (Convenient that the crocodile was so recent, now that I think of it.)

It should also be noted that this is our very last entry on an individual animal -- as we're winding down, our final half-dozen Bestiaryposts are going to be collections of multiple entries, mostly ones that I felt were too short or too obvious to give their own post. Artists should feel free to pick & choose which to draw, or do a group shot, or however they like.

If you don't know what this is about, you can learn at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting.

To see the entry the art is based on this week, click this link:

To see the entry for next week and potentially participate, click this one:

Now, let's see what people came up with.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has drawn this very charming little beastie that is not unlike a horseshoe crab, just less flat. I really like this overall, but I'd like to highlight the tiny little eyes, the detail on the mouthparts, and the nifty fin-thing on its back.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) correctly observes that she's already drawn this one -- this is indeed the "certain kind of fish" mentioned in the Dolthruk entry, which she included in that illustration. However, in light of addition details, they have revised their design to create a fish that's capable of being mobile on land, basing it heavily on the mudskipper. Here we see an excellent image of two having a dispute in muddy water -- I particularly love the rendering of the fins and think the background works well here. (Also thank you for providing alt text.)

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has drawn this really nice fish inspired by various prehistoric species -- to me, it genuinely looks like this drawing would fit right into a series of illustrations in a paleontological text. To me, it's giving coelacanth, but that may be mostly because that's the only lobe-finned fish I recognize. I also like the little fang at the front. (And thank you for including alt text.)

@strixcattus (link to post here) has drawn this rather polite-looking snake, noting that the description provided lines up quite well with it being some sort of snake. As usual, the gold is in the naturalist-style description they've provided in the linked post -- in this case, I think it fits right in with any given article about unusual animal life cycles & behaviors. Weird, but not implausibly weird.

@wendievergreen (link to post here) is depicting, in their usual aesthetically pleasing stylized form, an insect life cycle. I like the idea of it being an insect, which does fit the description, I like the thought put into this crocodile-centric life cycle, and again I really like the vibe of the artwork here. See the linked post for more detail on the life cycle being depicted, and close-ups of the individual details of this drawing.

Now to see what the Aberdeen Bestiary has to say:

... yeah, that is neither a crocodile nor a fish.

The beast being killed here looks more like a medieval hyena than anything -- people who have read these posts from the beginning may find that spiny back familiar. And the creature killing it, which this entry is ostensibly describing, is dead-on identical to the standard-issue Medieval Wyvern Thing that you see in a lot of different manuscripts.

Anyway, as I'm certain nobody guessed from that illustration, we're going out with a bang on the world-famous... Ydrus.

If you've never heard of it, you're not alone. It isn't real, and is one of those imaginary beasts that never quite caught on. As far as I know, it pretty much only shows up in bestiaries -- occasionally it gets confused with the Hydra, but I don't think they were originally intended to be the same, similar names aside.

And now you know.

seriously i don't think the illustrator was making a lot of effort to fit the description

[lovelyerotica25]

Senshi x Laios fanfic idea:

Modern AU:

Senshi: A polynesian, Okinawan, or Filipino private chef who cooks with unique and exotic ingredients. He quite often goes hunting, foraging, fishing, etc, for the ingredients himself.

Laios: An American Paleontologist who loves learning researching about dinosaurs and the prehistoric world. He has a massive obsession with wanting to eat dinosaurs, since they are extinct, much to his dismay, he settles with their modern day relatives and creatures that resemble them.

How they met: Laios was conducting field research on prehistoric fossils with his team; Marcielle, a medic.

Chilchuck, an expert on prehistoric and ancient architecture, artifacts, and traps.

Falin: an expert on botany and horticultural medicine.

They had run out of food whilst on their expedition, and Laios took it as an opportunity to capture a crocodile to eat. An argument ensues amongst the team, and the noise alerts Senshi, who is nearby hunting for ingredients himself. Excited that he found someone who loves out of the ordinary ingredients as he does, he offers to help them cook the crocodile. Laios and Senshi bond over the experience, and Senshi asks to join their expedition.

They grow close over the expedition and eventually sexy stuff ensues. The expedition ends with Senshi inviting Laios to his home in Japan, which Laios just ever so casually happens to be working next, and Laios accepts. They eventually become boyfriends and live together and go casually hunting and foraging together as dates.

[ladychandraofthemoone]

In my au Stanley (narrow gauge) has a special interest in insects (I hc him as being into animals, they don’t judge you for your “jinx” and he’s got a soft spot for critters that are seen as “bad luck”) and tends to blurt out the most detailed information, he often info-dumps with and to Nia who encourages it cause it makes him happy once he’s freed from his “jinx” and she know every single insect name alphabetically along with their scientific names and nicknames Here we have Duke immediately regretting asking them if they can name every single species and ends up sleeping when they’re engrossed in their conversation before leaving when they were in the mid section of the e category (Nia gave him “the disappointment older sister look” awhile back so the poor guy can trapped there and wondered how did he got ever himself into this situation)

Basically it’s just Stanley to Duke in alphabetical order: Alderflies Angel Insects Anoplura (Sucking lice) Ants Antlions Aphids Archeognatha (Bristletails) Barklice Bees Beetles Bird lice Biting lice Blattodea (Cockroaches) Booklice Bristletails Bugs Butterflies Caddisflies Chewing lice Cicadas Cockroaches Coleoptera (Beetles) Collembola (Springtails) Crickets Damselflies Diplura Diptera (Flies) Dobsonflies Dragonflies-

Nia joining in cause she was mad at Duke: ah yes the alderfly which are megalopteran insects of the family Sialidae. They are closely related to the dobsonflies and fishflies as well as to the prehistoric Euchauliodidae. All living alderflies – about 66 species all together are part of the subfamily Sialinae, which contains nine extant genera. Sialinae have a body length of less than 25 mm (1 inch), long filamentous antennae, and four large dark wings of which the anterior pair is slightly longer than the posterior. They lack ocelli and their fourth tarsal segment is dilated and deeply bilobed. Dead alderfly larvae are used as bait in fishing-

duke:shooketh (Nia’s is basically the train version of a encyclopedia also her design is based off of MrTerrier673 on Twitter)

[caminthemoshpitatweezer]

I love bive

Bive when she sees Pest:

[caminthemoshpitatweezer]

Words cannot express how much I love this art

(Credits to cube watermelon on deviantart)

[d6b-onion]

"Why can't this river just be normal," Mystia complained, slowly overtaken by boredom at the edge of the pier, fishing rod in hand. Her legs slowly dangled just above the water, with some of the higher ripples tickling the bottom of her feet from time to time. "Catching lamprey's usually a piece of cake," she pouted.

"Hun, I told you the Sanzu was pretty unusual~!" Urumi said in a sing-song voice. The fisherwoman sat a bit further along the pier, alongside several fishing rods affixed to the ground, which both increased yield and meant she had nothing to do until something took the bait. Compared to Mystia's flimsy handheld setup, it was very clear which one of the two was a professional. Patience being part of her trade, she just lounged with all of her length on the wooden floor, using her long, red horns to idly scratch the surface from time to time.

"Yeah, yeah, in any case, the lampreys here just look plain weird."

"That's because they're not your usual lampreys. Rather, they're a close prehistoric relative thereof, which doesn't really have a name, but I call a Yanliao lamprey. In fact, the Outside World name for it is apparently Yanliomyzon-"

"Oh, save it with all the fancy talk!" Mystia interrupted, throwing her arms up in the air, before quickly realizing she had significantly shaken the bobber, scaring away any and everything that was remotely close. She slumped down slightly and sighed deeply.

"Tsk, hun, you're gonna scare away all of my fish," Urumi said.

Mystia turned back to look and stuck out her tongue defiantly. "All that means is that I'm going to catch my own." She paused, and leaned forwards a bit. "I do need it for this evening, after all…" she said, sounding very glum.

Urumi sighed even harder, but it didn't sound totally displeased. If anything, she almost sounded.. relieved? "Oh, what will I do with you…" She slowly (and rather quietly) got up, before walking over to right behind Mystia. "So. Need some help, hun?"

Mystia's pride almost had her snappily reply "no", but she held it in for just an instant to consider it. Fishing in the Sanzu was a lot harder than she'd bargained for, and she needed the lamprey to keep her stand running. Urumi knew the Sanzu's fish inside out, and her help would definitely be valuabe. But Mystia really didn't fancy the idea of getting outside help, and relinquishing her sweet sweet "self-made businesswoman" title (that nobody else ever used).

"…Fine," she said, almost resigned to her fate.

Urumi quietly giggled at the night sparrow's theatrics. The sound bothered Mystia, in some way.

"Well, in that case, let me show you, hun. Here on the Sanzu, the current is everything."

She knelt down, and extended an arm above Mystia's shoulder to point to the place where her bobber currently stayed.

"This spot's no good, there's too much current and the fish don't dwell here for very long, you need a quieter place, such as… here."

She moved her arm to point to a spot slightly closer to the shore, where the water looked more still. However, to point more precisely, she leaned forward a bit more, and pressed the rest of her body right against Mystia's back. She instantly tensed up, not expecting the sudden contact. As the sensation settled in, she felt that refusing to get help was perhaps a tad misguided. The fisherwoman was a lot bigger and taller than her, easily encompassing her small frame. Now she couldn't ignore the sizable chest pressing against her back, which turned out to be much more intense than the sight. Urumi's body, close and warm, wrapped around her own small body. The warmth soon spread to her own chest, her head and her cheeks, a blush slowly forming.

Now, now, Mystia thought, this isn't the time to be distracted by her body no matter how beautiful she is, just focus on the fishing. She pulled the bobber back, then the rod, then swung it forwards, taking great care to not hit Urumi (including her horns), aiming for the spot that had just been pointed out to her. When the bobber landed and resurfaced, it was almost right on the spot. Amazing what I can do when not distracted by-

"Very good, hun~" Urumi said in a mellow voice, so close to Mystia's ear that she could feel her breathing against the lobe. Her train of thought came to screeching halt. The voice, the tickling sensation, Urumi's voice was like honey, effortlessly seeping into her ears and brain. Her blush grew even stronger, her body and mind overtaken by Urumi's presence. She breathed out, trying to calm herself down, but realized partway through she was being very loud.

"Birdie? Everything okay?" Urumi asked with concern, oblivious to Mystia's turmoil.

Her embarassment quickly trumped the elation from the use of that nickname, and she scrambled to answer. "Y-Yeah! No problem with me, d-don't worry about it!" she said, very unconvincingly.

Though, it was true that she had zero qualms with their current situation, save for Urumi noticing how much of a mess the proximity was making of her.

"Are you sure, hun? You-"

"Y-Yes, it's okay, I swear! I'd rather just focus on the fishing, okay?" Mystia interrupted, desperate that it would make Urumi drop it.

"…Alright, if you say so," Urumi conceded, wondering what they could possibly be doing other than fishing.

Mystia's embarassment began to recede, but her blush didn't. She would enjoy this small moment of connection for as long as it lasted, just the two of them. She relished in the sensations, both completely unfamiliar and something she knew she'd needed forever.

Mystia reckoned that asking for help maybe wasn't always so bad.

[paleoforest]

My List of super Old Browser Games with Dinosaur Thematic/Lore/Gameplay

There are Flash and Unity

These games I first played more than 10 years ago, and by re-opening them, I had a nostalgic experience. Here only remarkable and memorable games what deserve their ray of glory, yep.

Non-playable games are crossed out by red diagonal: "Jetpack Brontosaurus" (3D) was very poorly archived on FlashPoint, and the second one "Век Рептилий: бои дино!" (it used to called " Dino Crisis: Затерянный мир!") is a 2D multiplayer from Russian social media VKontakte, and its servers have been closed long time ago. So yeah, all most of them still playable! I have info/files each of 'em !!! For example, Lego ones needs .exe for launch. There are many ways to play them!

Rest titles for search: 2D: Eggstinction, Dino Run: Marathon of Doom!, Lego: Dino Outbreak, Dino Panic (2x), T-Rex Rampage: Prehistoric Pizza (Hot Wheels), Dino Paint, Gone Fishing (baryonyx), Robot Dinosaurs That Shoot Beams When They Roar, Dinosaurs and Meteors, Prehistoric Shark, Battle of Giants: Dinosaurs, Donald the Dino, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, DINOK, L.A. Rex, One Man and His Dinosaur (shepherd-theropod), Lego: Dino Archeological Dig, Obama Jurassic Park, Dino Soars!, Dino Duet, Me and My Dinosaur, Caveman Climb, BM REX, Dinosaur Killer 3D and of course Google Chrome Dinosaur. 3D: Dino Storm (Wild Western), Off-Road Velociraptor Safari (developers of Jetpack Brontosaurus)

Someday I will make fanarts and video about paleo games with my voice!!!!!! not in english, cause I'm very poor in english(( P.S. I tried to upload post in r/Dinosaurs, but my suggestion been ignored for 3 months

[caminthemoshpitatweezer]

I love bive

any regretevator fans here

[naomilibicki]

Hey so!

I Heart Sapphfic is doing a weekly reading challenge, and one of this week's categories is Knight, and guess whose book (well, novella) is featured?

But that's not all! In honor of the occasion, Alter and I have written a new bonus story about Aviva and Bet, and you can read it right after the read more:

The doors of the downtown bound B train slid open to a prehistoric sea.  Through the clear water, past schools of fish and waving stands of feathery creatures, Aviva could see the name of the station in mosaic tile: 81st Street - Museum of Natural History. Embedded in the wall beside it were bronze casts of fossils.

No water poured into the car, and none of the other passengers seemed to notice anything strange. None of them moved to get off, either. Aviva—sometimes known as Vivienne of the Roses, Midnight Queen, Grand Sorceress of the Last Court—took a scarf of air and darkness out of her backpack, wrapped it around the lower half of her face, walked through the door of the train and swam out into the submerged platform, which melted away entirely, leaving nothing but the sea.

Bet had invited her to a date in the museum, and she'd been excited to go, but this wasn't . . . Bet, sometimes known as Queen Ysabet of the Sword, Pendragon of the Last Court, had made a lot of enemies when she'd taken the Pendragon's crown, and rededicated the court to fighting the monsters that lay in the shadows and preyed on those who did not see them.  This seemed a lot more like an attack than like a date.

All the fish suddenly darted away as a shadow appeared overhead: a long oval, two flippers on either side of it. Aviva moved along with them, taking cover among the fronds until the thing passed. It took longer than she expected. It wasn't that it was moving slowly, it was just that it was enormous.

Once it was gone, Aviva swam back out and took stock. Even in these strange surroundings, a structure stood out: a massive tower of twisted coral, its top above the surface, out of sight. She made her way towards it, past a school of creatures with tendrils drifting behind spiral shells. Ammonites. Aviva recognized them from the last time she was at the museum, and from the bronze casts in the station.  One brushed against her as they scudded by, heedless, and it felt heavier than it should have been, solid. On impulse, she reached out, and her hand closed on hard stone. When she opened it, the ammonite lay there unmoving. Not an illusion. A fossil.

She slipped it into her pocket and pulled herself into the tower's shadowed entrance. In here, there was air, and she pulled the scarf away from her face, calling, “Bet?  Ysabet?”

Nothing.  The tower was sandstone and coral, with windows of shimmering glass, and a spiral staircase of mother-of-pearl that looped up and around.  She followed it, up, up right near the surface of the water, where Queen Ysabet of Sword hung from the ceiling, her wrists held by cords of seaweed. Her feet barely touched the floor. Her armor was pocked with barnacles and her head hung down, her cropped blonde hair hanging ragged in her face. How long had she been here?

Her head snapped up as soon as Aviva came in.  "Vivi!" said Bet, before Aviva could say anything at all.  "You should've have come."

That was nonsense.  "What do you mean I shouldn't have come," said Aviva, crossing the room quickly, standing on her tiptoes to tug at the seaweed.  Enchanted, of course, otherwise Bet would've pulled them loose herself, she was impossibly strong.  "You said to come here and we'd have a date, then there were three smiley faces, one sideways smiley face, a rainbow flag, and there was a pound sign and 'loveyou' as one word."

"Does that sound like the way I talk?" asked Bet.

"No," said Aviva.  "But I thought that's what people were like when they were texting."

Bet sighed.  "Of course," she said.  "You know as much about text messages as she does.  It doesn't matter.  She stole my phone, and she wants you, not me.  You have to—"

“Who?” asked Aviva.

“Undine,” said Bet, and, as if summoned, she was outside the windows of the chamber, massive and inhuman, her face nearly half as tall as Aviva, with small reflective eyes, an elongated muzzle filled with pointed teeth, and hair fanning out behind it like streamers of kelp.

“Undine,” the thing repeated. “And you are the Grand Sorceress of the Last Court. You shall serve.”

Bet clenched her teeth and growled, “No, she won't.”

Ignoring her, Undine fixed one beady eye on Aviva. "There is not enough magic left in this place, for me, and—" there was an angry thrash of its tail, the bulk of moving so much water that the windows of the tower flexed under the pressure.  "And it has become hostile to me and my kind.  So, I will go back to where the world was pleasant, and it shall be your strength that shall keep us there."

"Shall it?" said Aviva, still tugging at the seaweed that held Bet prisoner, not even watching as the bulk of Undine made its slow way around the coral tower.  "I don't think it shall."

"You stood surety for the Pendragon once before," said Undine.  "You shall stand surety for her again, or I shall take her and keep here where you cannot find her, and if my body washes up on the shores of the Hudson, hers will wash up beside me.  If you do not stand—"

“I will always,” said Aviva, reaching up to grasp Bet's hand, “stand with the Pendragon.”

Undine gave a long hiss of satisfaction, bubbles frothing from her snout. “Then swear that you will remain my prisoner, my spark of magic beneath the water, and I will release her.”

Aviva let her hand trail down Bet's arm, seaweed slimy beneath her fingers and the armor hard and unyielding beneath, as she stepped forward and raised her chin.

“Vivienne!” Bet snapped.

And the seaweed binding her wrists snapped too, sending Bet to stumble forward a few steps before she recovered her feet. Aviva shot her a sidelong smile. She'd known she could get that binding loose—she'd just needed a little time.

Bet huffed out a breath and shook her head, then returned Aviva's smile as her sword Glad Tidings leapt into her hand, and she launched herself out the window at Undine.  The windows buckled and cracked, all at once, and the water washed in.  Aviva was battered by it as she pulled her scarf back around her face, and then she ducked down in beneath the water, to watch Bet battle Undine.

Ever since she'd first come to the Last Court, Aviva had loved watching Bet fight, her deadly grace and economy of movement, precision and passion. Undine was massive, half-woman, half-monster, with razor-sharp teeth and a muscular tail that sent Bet spinning through the water when it connected. But it didn't connect often. Bet was too fast, her blade too accurate, leaving dozens of small cuts on Undine's body, ribbons of blood unspooling in the water.

But when she finally drove her sword home, sinking deep into Undine's chest, Undine only laughed.

“Fool! You cannot kill me! My life is hidden, ancient as the sea, hard as stone, black as night—”

As she spoke, Aviva's hand closed on the fossil in her pocket.  She wasn't the swimmer that Bet was, or Undine, and she wasn't at all sure she'd be able to get away from that tail.  But she swam out, fast as she could, and when she reached out with the fossil, Glad Tidings was there; it cut through water and stone and it did not touch Aviva's hand; the two halves of the fossil fell away, one on either side of her hand, sinking fast.  And Undine gave a shriek and sank down as well, down, down into the darkness below.

The water subsided at the same time, the prehistoric creatures flickering and fading from view, the coral tower crumbling beneath Aviva's feet. Soon she and Bet were standing on the subway platform again. Bet let her armor fade and bent to pick up her phone, and Aviva wrung out her hair.

“So,” said Aviva. “You promised me a date at the Natural History Museum.”

“That wasn't me!” Bet protested. "That was someone who texted with multiple emojis."  Then she linked her arm with Aviva's. “But as long as we're here, we might as well go.”

Aviva nodded. “I already got us tickets. I want to see the whale.”

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Doctor Who, but Chronologically: 41

Well. Holy shit.

It's 1955, and hot on the heels of the incredibly socially important episode about Partition, we get one of the greatest episodes this show has ever produced: Rosa, co-written by Malorie Blackman.

(Funnily enough, once again, this dumbest of watch orders has triumphed - this close to Demons in the Punjab, you feel emotionally prepped for Rosa. "Ah yes," you think. "A much-needed and blindingly important historical episode that educates white British people in race relations. One of the functions of Doctor Who."

You still aren't ready.)

I mean this without hyperbole: of every episode, book, comic, radio show, and everything else Doctor Who has ever produced or had a hand in, this one makes you feel the imminent danger to the companions the most, and on a level that none other ever has. We get Whittaker, Ryan, Yaz and Graham back as they all go to Montgomery Alabama, the day before Rosa Parks stages her sit-in protest, and sweet Christ on a stick they do not pull their punches in making every single white person into a raging cunt of epic proportions. They do not shy away from stressing that Ryan could be lynched at literally any time and it would be legally sanctioned. They are not coy about citing the real-life murder of Emmett Till - murdered for daring to speak to a white woman - within seven minutes of the opening credits, after a white man physically assaults Ryan and snarls that he will have him "swinging from a tree with a rope for a kerchief, boy".

It is visceral and shocking and completely out of the normal tone of this show. Part way through, Ryan chooses to go off alone because his spine is apparently made of fecking titanium, and I honestly don't think I relaxed for the rest of the episode (although it leads to a fantastic scene of him meeting the leaders of the civil rights movement, including Martin Luther King Jr, and I really mean that it is FANTASTIC). I've watched companions be menaced by everything from statues to large pepper pots to fucking Bertie Botts; I've seen them trapped in drifting spaceships, partially turned into birds and fish, stuck in the Blitz, slaughtered in the Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, melted, possessed, infected, mutilated, and threatened with compulsory roller derby membership. I have seen it all and then some. Some I have seen in more than one iteration.

This is the only episode where I have been genuinely frightened for one. I've aged, Tumblrs. 73, I am now. Wizened.

Anyway. You know the story of Rosa Parks sitting on the bus and refusing to give her seat to white people. This episode does cover that, but it does so through the medium of an awful time travelling neo-Nazi, complete with Richard Spencer haircut, who has been released from intergalactic prison Stormfront Stormcage and decided to use a vortex manipulator like Captain Jack's to come to 1955 and stop the Montgomery Bus Boycott from happening. There's a nasty scene where he tells Ryan he's doing it to stop Ryan's "kind" from "rising above their station", so when I say he's a neo-Nazi, I am not pissing about, and nor was this show. (Ryan shoots him with a time gun in the end that sends him to a prehistoric past trololol enjoy that, conservative, you people love The Past)

The TARDIS team spend the episode trying to nudge history back into place so the protest can happen. It's genius, really - super simple sci-fi plot, so the focus can be on the social issues. There's a beautiful conversation between Ryan and Yaz about the way they both still face racism in the present day, and the way Ryan has to constantly police his emotions and faces police discrimination even now; but, also about the nature of social change, and the importance of looking forwards and fighting the good fight. There's also a great scene when they first get on a bus - Ryan is forced to sit at the back, but Yaz doesn't know where to sit. The driver lets her on at the front, but she's not white - so which box do they want her in? "Does 'coloured' just mean black in the 1950s?" she asks, having been accused twice of being 'Mexican'. It's a subtle performance, but the indecision of it - guessing if she's endangering herself or not - is shown to be genuinely distressing.

God, fuck, this is such a good episode. It's absurdly good. They fit so much in 42 minutes, while still making it a Doctor Who episode and yet not shirking on any of the fundamental issues. And the writing is still deftly done - there's a dry humour that they intersperse throughout as a palate cleanser that never undoes the impact of the social stuff, like some stupid MCU LOL NOT REALLY bit of obnoxious bathos; instead it's a foil for the serious stuff, making it that bit more impactful. And! A rare Sexy Lamp Test pass for all three companions! That does not often happen in Chibnell's run, so shout out there.

Anyway. ANYWAY. I could honestly write a whole scene by scene breakdown of this episode complete with citations and explain in exquisite detail how much I love it, punctuated with "We laughed at this bit, and then cried at this bit, and threw shoes at the screen at this bit" but uhhhh, that is not the point of this project. So I shall stop.

Plot threads! Any answers? Not really. A few things we've seen before though, like the vortex manipulator, that was fun.

And apparently there's a big prison called Stormcage that puts anti-violence implants into its inmates' heads before release! That's fun. Good to know that policy.

“She” (an unknown person) is returning (perhaps River returned as Missy. Maybe Me? Maybe Clara???!)

There is something on Donna’s back

An entire planet, Pyrovilia, just… disappeared, somehow. (Maybe because the TARDIS is exploding??? Saturnine was also lost, and that WAS because of the TARDIS exploding. The lion man’s planet was also lost but he was a bit of a knob about it if I’m honest. The Thijarian planet was destroyed by some sort of impact)

Amy is maybe dead (she’s not)

The Doctor has been cubed (he’s out, but how?)

River is possibly blown up  (unless she’s Missy. Nope: she is definitely not blown up)

The TARDIS has blown up  (It’s fine now. Except it’s sort of melting now because it’s corrupted, but it’s fine again)

The universe appears to have ended  (the universe is back again)

The Doctor has employed(?) Nardole

(And Nardole was “reassembled???” Nardole had glass nipples and invisible hair?? WHAT THE FUCK IS HE)

There’s a vault in the TARDIS and it contains Missy but we don’t know why (sometimes she knocks for the bants)

There’s an immortal Viking girl now. Her name is Me and she’s now looking after the people the Doctor abandons

Why was Rory entirely unconcerned by the entire world suddenly going silent when that is Not Normal and should have been, at the very least, extremely disconcerting?

What did the Doctor do to Queen Lizzie One?

Why is Amy seeing a one-eyed woman in a vanishing window? (She’s with the Silents, but we don’t know why Amy saw her)

Why is Amy’s pregnancy inconclusive? (Maybe because the baby had Time Lord DNA?)

Who is Sarah-Jane Smith?

How is the Doctor Bill’s teacher and why/where does he have an office?

What is going on with the Cyber War and the Cyberium???

What happened with the Other Cyber War?

What happened with the Third War that deleted the void?

Why does Rose seem particularly important?

What order do these Doctors go in? (Eccleston, Tennant, uncertain, Smith, Capaldi, Whittaker)

Which companion just… forgot the Doctor, and how?

Yaz and Vinder are about to die as Mori/Mwri/Muuri

There is a Lupari shield around Earth.

What’s a Time War?

What’s the Rift?

What’s Bad Wolf?

In which war did the Doctor become a war criminal, and how?

Who is the Master?

Why has Amy forgotten Rory? How did she forget a Dalek invasion?

Is Rory plastic or not?

Why is the Doctor sulking on a cloud?

How exactly does the Doctor have a cloud?

What exactly happened with Strax to, uh, tame him?

Which friend killed Strax?

Which friend brought Strax back?

Where did this lesbian lizard and human couple come from?

What happened with Clara as Souffle Girl and the Daleks?

How does Clara actually join?

Why so many Claras?

Why is Missy apparently in robo-heaven?

Why is probably!Missy pushing Clara and the Doctor together?

What is Trensilor and what happened there?

Who is Handles?

The Doctor is about to be dissolved by a beautiful geode man

The universe is being crushed by the Flux

Will the Doctor open the fobwatch?

Sontarans are invading Earth again

Who is Kate?

Who is Osgood? Another name of Clara’s again?

The fuck is the deal with the Grand Serpent

Does Martha get to go to an ice cream planet with 12-fingered massage aliens?

How did the Doctor forget Clara?

Who is Bill’s puddle girlfriend Heather?

How did Nardole die?

When does Bill get Cyberman-ed and die?

When does the Doctor shrink and enter a Dalek called Rusty?

Whittaker is falling to her death rn

Was that ring relevant?

Does anyone know the Doctor’s name?

When did Yaz talk to Dan about fancying the Doctor?

When did Dan talk to the Doctor about fancying Yaz?

What’s happening with the bees?

What happened with Donna’s ex and a giant spider?

What war wiped out the Daleks, and is it one of the ones already mentioned?

What did the Doctor mean when he said “The (Daleks) always live, while I lose everything?”

If Dalek Caan is the last Dalek left why are there more now?

How did the rest of the Time Lords die?

How and why did Amy melt?

What’s the question that will make silence fall?

Why do the Silents… want silence to fall?

How and why are Silents at war with the Doctor when he… hasn’t even heard of them?

How does Hitler get out of the cupboard?

What’s the significance of fish fingers and custard?

Why does the Doctor feel guilt about Rose, Martha and Donna?

What happened with the space whale?

When does Rory defend Amy for 2000 years?

How does the Doctor survive River

How does he erase himself from history

Did Captain Jack lose his memories to the same people as the Doctor? What did he lose?

When did the Doctor send the Daleks into a void to save the universe?

What’s with the weird crack in the wall and is it affecting memories?

Why do Amy and Rory think the Doctor is dead?

Is Matt Smith’s Doctor a tree racist?

[sleepinginmygrave]

OML 300 FOLLOWERS YES CONGRATS YOU DESERVE IT SM <3

(also lmao sry if you get a notification saying i just followed you i managed to click the unfollow button instead of the ask button like a rly smart human)

help this event is so prettyyyyyy i can’t even it looks so niceeeeeeeeee if you want to ofc/have the energy could you maybe do the manta rays one? you have such interesting interests lmao

AAAAAAH HI EVIEEEE

AND TYSM HJJHLHLHLH YEAH OFC!!!! giggling

i may have been a bit carried away so hmm it's quite long

⇢ ˗ˏˋ {manta rays}࿐ྂ AHHH so i guess you want me to talk any my interests then!!!! giggling okay hmmm i have a big big oral exam tomorrow like really big and we had a theme to chose a subject from i picked science ofc and i made my presentation at hammerhead sharks!! it's mostly about why are they shaped like that and why would evolution create something so different than all the other? hammerheads are the newest sharks to appear on our earth the first sharks appeared around 450 millions of years ago while hammerheads appeared 20 millions of years ago, they didn't knew any of the mass extinction that older shark survived; but like why would evolution take such a different turn? a shark like that look like it's prehistoric or smth while all the others sharks have a pointed snout those are the only one like that. okay first we have the vision reason: the visual field of any creature is what the can see without moving their eyes;; our monocular vision is what we can see with one eye etc and the binocular overlap is what we can see with both eyes. predator often have a wider binocular overlap so they really can focus on their preys while preys have a smaller binocular overlap and a bigger monocular vision on both eyes. when we see a hammerhead we dont really know what going on there like?? its obviously a predator but WHY ARE THEIR EYES SO FAR APPART and i'm making it short but basically in 2009 searches looked into this made an experience with two more basic sharks and three hammerheads (among those were the winghead shark, the one with the longest head compared to his body (his head is 1m long while is body is 2m) and turns out the longer the head the bigger the binocular overlap so YEAH they have the best view of the marine world and it shows!! the second reason is for hydrodynamic!! when thinking hydrodynamic we tend more to think abt dolphins, with thin nose that can cut through water. so like. WHY??? why making something that takes so much more effort for hammerheads to carry!!! for quite some time scientists beleive the cephalofoil (name of the head) acted like a plane wing (that's where the word came from actually) since sharks din't have a swim bladder they can't stop swimming so they thought it was like to keep their head parallel to the water flow or smth BUT again to make it short turns out its for MANEUVRABILITY!!! (or however you type this shit) i won't go into details BUT when the incline their head like upward or forward it help them move?? kinda?? like quicker hk and we we see what their diet is composed of (especially wingeads, bc the bigger the head the more MANEUVRABILITY) it FITS like they do eat a lot of really quick agile fishes so the cane moved up down left right and turn REALLY QUICK thanks to their cephalofoil hehe AND FINALLY the last reasons is their 6th sense!!! all sharks have a six sence that make them able to detect electric fields produced by ughhh living things?? so yeah it's mostly like ''pores'' called ampullae of lorenzini (silly name ik) and its all over their nose!! again u won't get into details of how it works but yeah they can detect electric fields SO since hammerheads have like a way bigger head they have a lot more ampullae!!! so they can detect more!!! (i'm trying to make this the least complicated i promise) SO YEAH that's why you can see their head moving like that close to the sand it's actually a ting like a metal detector but its looking for preys!!! and this sense can work even when the five other senses dont' work SOOOO all this combined makes them GREATTT hunters!!!! yay!!! i love hammerheads!!! i love sharks!!! i may have gotten a bit carried away sorry hjjlhglg also i didn't read all this again so bear with me i'm just excited and sleep deprived as i type this

thanks for your visit!! don't hesitate to come back<33