#so take a premise!

[katabay]

displays of devotion

okay! before I get into this scene, first some context for everyone who isn't fixated on spectacles and sports in the roman world:

We find it stated in the Annals, that when Felix, a charioteer of the Reds, was placed on the funeral pile, one of his admirers threw himself upon the pile; a very stupid way to behave. In case, however, that this event might not be attributed to the great excellence of the dead man in his art, and so add to his glory, the other parties all declared that he had been overpowered by the strength of the perfumes.

Pliny the Elder, Natural History 7.54

onward! this scene is an echo of that incident from the 70s BCE transposed to a different setting, the early 500s CE, amidst the escalating tensions leading up to the Nika riots

I actually was thinking of setting this scene during my "lost century" of the byzantine empire (aka the fake byzantine empire story I sometimes post about) but the immediate sewing together of what Pliny is recounting and the Nika riots is compelling to me….it could make an interesting self contained/standalone comic someday……much to think about………

[dennisboobs]

standing in front of a firing squad would have been easier than reading this script i need to be shot

[kraftykelpie]

Cody? On my blog? On your dash? It's more likely than you think

[bloodsbane]

a criticism ive seen leveled at zenshu multiple times since finishing the show and reading others' comments about it is the claim that it doesn't do much beyond making references to old media, as if the context in which those references are made doesn't matter at all. and im not here to argue that the anime is secretly a masterpiece or anything, but like, i just saw a post saying it was essentially doing the same thing marvel movies do?? and i simply cannot think of a more reductive view of what the show is trying to convey!

the ENTIRE point of zenshu's themes is about the power of media we engage with. it is about how falling in love with a piece of art can literally change your entire life.

i hate to make arguments that sound like "well you just don't get it because of xyz", but based on what i've seen, i really do feel like a lot of what zenshu is actually trying to say is getting a bit lost on its more general audience; if you're an artist, or anyone who was inspired to create something because you discovered art that was very meaningful to you, the way zenshu chooses to engage with its own influences makes perfect sense.

it's not just "and for this episode, we will reference THIS cool thing that people know and like!" it's "the character is drawing something referential because art and animation are her life, and these are the things that came before her, which she studied and draws inspiration from." it's meant to be a bit cheeky and referential, yes, but it's not JUST "hey remember This Thing?" it's paying homage to real great works of art that inspired the REAL people making the show - the ART - that you're literally in the process of viewing! it's artists celebrating the art that made them fall in love with creating things and become artists themselves

[venacoeurva]

obsessed with these little mouse coin purses again

[shoot-i-messed-up]

Was always worried about the angst of unrequited love, had never realized the sheer amount of comedic potential that it has.

Imagine one-sided Superbat where Clark is fully aware that Bruce has a crush on him but is being his repressed self about it, and Clark is just like, “I’m not gonna touch that :) you’re going to figure that out for yourself, buddy, and in the meantime, I’m just going to have a good time and be best friends with you as you inevitably pull yourself together enough to either fall out of love or to confess :) and I’ll just let you down gently because I care about you :)” but he absolutely 100% is using it to his advantage in the meantime. His puppy dog eyes had never been so effective before. He’s gotten out of Monitor Duty three times in the past month.

[blueskittlesart]

*sigh* thoughts on Nintendo's botw/totk timeline shenanigans and tomfoolery?

tbh. my maybe-unpopular opinion is that the timeline is only important when a game's place on the timeline seriously informs the way their narrative progresses. the problem is that before botw we almost NEVER got games where it didn't matter. it matters for skyward sword because it's the beginning, and it matters for tp/ww/alttp (and their respective sequels) because the choices the hero of time makes explicitly inform the narrative of those games in one way or another. it matters which timeline we're in for those games because these cycles we're seeing are close enough to oot's cycle that they're still feeling the effects of his choices. botw, however, takes place at minimum 10 thousand years after oot, so its place on the timeline actually functionally means nothing. botw is completely divorced from the hero of time & his story, so what he does is a nonissue in the context of botw link and zelda's story. thus, which timeline botw happens in is a nonissue. honestly I kind of liked the idea that it happened in all of them. i think there's a cool idea of inevitability that can be played with there. but the point is that the timeline exists to enhance and fill in the lore of games that need it, and botw/totk don't really need it because the devs finally realized they could make a game without the hero of time in it.

[leek-e]

My drawing of the kids of Stugo :) I’ve only seen the first episode but it was very fun. My favourite character so far is Merian <3 she is so funny, I love her massive blazer and highly strung nature.

[eashgirl]

One detail I find weirdly bittersweet is how both Orion and D-16 were curious young bots who wanted to learn more about their world. It's more obvious with Orion, who wanted to sneak into the archives to learn about Cybertronian history. I think it's mentioned in the novel that Orion would often ramble about Cybertronian history so much that D-16 would act disinterested, which surprised Orion since he couldn't understand how anyone could not be fascinated by it.

Yet, Dee was always interested in his own way. In the storyboards, his dream was to lead an expedition off Cybertron to explore uncharted worlds and locations for Cybertron’s progress. That boy was just as curious and eager to learn—both of them shared the same curiosity and thirst for knowledge, just channeled differently,he never even wanted to become something even remotely close to a soldier,he never wanted to pick up a gun at all and that makes me so sad.

This fits so well within the narrative sense of how they started with the same goal in mind—bringing down Sentinel and rebuilding society with the power Alpha Trion entrusted to all four of them. Yet, the paths they took to achieve that goal were starkly different. Orion saw how broken the system was under Sentinel and sought to create a better system. D-16, on the other hand, wanted to kill Sentinel, destroy everything he built, and rebuild from the ashes.

To think that, in a better world, their initial dreams could have actually been realized... it's just so sad. I need someone to write an AU where Dee gets to lead that expedition he always wanted and Orion to get that opportunity to learn about Cybertronian history,maybe in a world where Sentinel never succeeded in killing the Primes by a deux ex machina they survived so the two of them were able to grow up and live normal fulfilling lives 🥹.

Also I think it was also mentioned in another storyboard that Elita's dream was always to become a soldier imagine in this perfect scenario she gets to enlist in the High Guard or something like that,since they were the army of Cybertron before Sentinel took over, (although honestly I feel like she'd still try and overwork herself either way for a promotion, she's still very much a perfectionist)

I wonder what B-127's dream was I don't believe it was ever mentioned,he did say he wanted to work for the government but I'm not sure of an exact profession for him.

[doveywovy]

genin tobiizu who aren't on the same genin team and are soooo normal about it. they just spent the past like 5 years competing like crazy in school and suddenly they never see each other? they're handling that Great, thanks for asking.

madara ends up tobirama's jonin-sensei and intentionally doing a shit job. sorry hashirama he knows this is your beloved little brother but hes annoying as hell and he bullied izuna for the past five years, madara is going to make him a genin forever or make him quit and become a civilian. he's not going to let him die but like, low bar.

[carmelasoprano]

SHERYL: You can tell me. It takes two to know one.

[gingiekittycat]

Headcanoning that Crowley invented plants so that no one could live without the light from a star

Headcanoning that Crowley designed the Garden before he Fell

Headcanoning that God kept the design with one small addition of a tree in the middle called the Tree of Knowledge as a slight at Crowley’s thirst for answers

Headcanoning that Crowley's angel name was "Eden"

and God kept the name too

[sludgekludge]

stop pointing shit out about the helluva designs i'm still caught up on asmodeuses tiny head ever since you pointed it out /lh

no. look at it

i want you to look at it

[angry-glasses]

i know a lot of people like to take Kokichi's flirting with Shuichi seriously, but consider the much funnier alternative:

he was shipbaiting the audience

[ph-cutie]

ancient reptilian brain voice: remind yourself that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer

[wanderingcas]

happy wip wednesday! here's a snippet from my "bobby takes in cas as a kid and dean and cas grow up as childhood friends" au.

Dean raises an eyebrow at Cas, then at the gas station. Four walls, shifts that you have to show up for at the exact time, people drifting through town while you just sit still.

“I dunno, man,” he says, “as far as jobs go, I’d choose hunting ghouls over this.”

“Well. You made your decisions, and I made mine.”

A muscle in Dean’s jaw twinges as he grinds his back teeth. Cas always knew where to deliver a punch where it’d hurt.

“I’m not gonna sit and twiddle my thumbs at the library if you’re late, you know,” Dean grits out.

Cas opens the passenger door. “I don’t expect you to.”

The door shutting is the firm period at the end of Cas’s sentence. Dean watches as he unlocks the glass door and disappears inside.

Resisting the urge to put his forehead against the wheel and not move for a very, very long time, Dean backs up the Impala and peels out of the parking lot.

For ten years, he’d been able to ignore it: the way things had gone to shit between him and the only person that ever truly understood him. The more miles he put between himself and Bobby’s house, the less it hurt. Time heals wounds and all that noise.

But seeing Cas, breathing the same air as him; it’s like Dean’s right back to square one. It opens up the wound again, like it was nothing but a scab, ready to bleed.

He doesn’t have a choice, because he has to find John. And he needs all the help he can get.

Even if being in the same room as Cas hurts like hell.