#there was SO MUCH happening

[wojtekaneko]

Sooo.. that tma season 3 finale huh...

[writer-room]

Rewatching the earlier, and even pilots episodes, of Ninjago are so WILD man. First of all, you notice all the things that are just plain forgotten about or pushed aside in later seasons. Kai originally being the main character, sure, we all know that one, but Cole was heavily implied to be, or become, the leader of the Ninja, that was Cole’s thing. Zane was automatically described with having a sixth seer sense, when nowadays it shows up very, very infrequently. Lloyd used to basically be the Avatar, does anyone remember that? This kid was just the Avatar.

And then you remember the silly things. Like how the skeleton army was once a threat. Like...the skeletons. We battled a giant snake, smaller snakes, robot armies, sentient video games, Garmadon a billion different times, the Overlord, Oni...and the skeletons used to be a worthy adversary. The skeletons.

Did you all remember that Cole’s earth dragon used to...breathe earth? I’ve been forced to remember. Rocky used to breathe earth as a form of attack. It was shown through brown swirly wisps in that beautiful, incredibly shitty 2011 effect. The Underworld used to be implied to be the place where all dead people went, or at least the bad ones. We never heard of a Departed Realm. Do we remember the time Cole had a scene that was a direct parody of Michael Jackson? I sure do. Genuinely the highlight simply because I don’t know how to describe the emotion I felt upon seeing it.

[raillue]

that final mission was so fun to play, 12 guardians in one fireteam went just about as chaotically as you’d expect

[killldeer]

damane liveblog

show fans for real do not read this one i talk about the [redacted] ajah SO MUCH

- haha oh boy we are starting at a dead run with the seanchan

- we are in falme!!!! turak moment!!!!

- I really like the way they’re showing us seanchan hierarchy and a little of how sei’taer/sei’mosiev work with the interplay of suroth and turak using/not using their Voices

- OH CUTTING THE NAILS!!!

- haha. we’re in danger

- the way turak and ingtar have been given eye makeup reminiscent of kohl is… interesting, to say the least. I am once again extremely conflicted about the real-world cultures that the seanchan designs draw from

- oh yeah I forgot it’s lanfear time

- “…bitch” THE LANFEAR V MOIRAINE DYNAMIC STRENGTHENS

- if bayle domon dies before he can fall in love with egeanin i riot

- NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

- perrin wolf conflict setup: complete

- holy shit was that a portal stone

- HOPPER GOING BACK AFTER PERRIN. AAAHHHH

- kinda enjoying the way that I can’t tell exactly how much of perrin’s wolf power is his own and how much is Sendings from the other wolves. I don’t know if show-only fans are having a more frustrating time with this but I am personally just kinda vibing with it bc I bet perrin can’t tell either

- HELLO AVIENDHA FAR DAREIS MAI OF THE NINE VALLEYS SEPT OF THE TAARDAD AIEL

- wait is that dain bornhald????

- oh I love the way his cloak is way too clean and finely-cut for where he is. you can tell before you see any white if you’re paying attention that this dude is bad news

- “once you swear their oaths, they leave you alone, more or less” oh god dammit. okay. this facet of the seanchan is interesting in the books pretty much specifically because of the way mat messes with it and goes “they’re just words that don’t mean anything to me” in front of tuon; other than that this point really only ever gets used to make book characters and by extension the audience reluctantly cool with what the seanchan are doing. I would appreciate it if the show would be extremely careful about presenting life under seanchan occupation/colonization

- the design of valda’s cloak with the red snake winding through the sunburst is so cool – I wonder if this iconography is being used to represent Questioners as opposed to the crook used in the books? it would be a very cool change and a nod to the whitecloaks’ status as a religious organization

- new horrifying thing you can do with the Power unlocked!!!

- VERIN MATHWIN HAS ENTERED THE TOWER. EVERYBODY SHUT UP

- LOVING this characterization of the browns as like. not goofballs exactly, but less “dreamy” like in the books and more “overeager”

- I love being a books fan because it means that instead of liandrin being a darkfriend being a dread-inducing reveal it’s just an opportunity to enjoy nynaeve making the surprised pikachu face for 3 minutes straight

- also very interesting to note that nowhere in this scene is the black ajah mentioned. nynaeve said “you weren’t recruiting me for the red ajah…” and I thought she was going to follow it with “you were recruiting me for the black” but it makes sense at this point that neither we nor she knows that it runs that deep!

- SUROTH’S CRAZY HIGH BLOOD CREST YEAHHHH BABY

- suroth (and kind of turak as well) having a much more General American accent is super interesting

- perrin “setting loose this random aiel I just met seems like a normal idea” aybara

- “my name is aviendha, nine valleys sept of the taardad aiel. Far Dareis Mai. my water is yours.” “I’m… I’m perrin aybara.” I LOVE YOU BOTH!!!!!

- “perrin aybara… do you like to dance?” she is veiled and ready to kill!!!

- I feel like this is a good time to mention the fact that my aviendha character tag is and has always been “far dareis wife”

- also the theme music being used here for either aviendha or the aiel in general rocks so hard. everybody say thank you lorne balfe

- ooo perrin convincing her to spare dain. iiiiinteresting

- tel’aran’rhiod namedrop!!!!!

- BARTHANES LMFAO

- poor moiraine’s face journey when she says “this is………… rand.”

- I forget how horrible and complex the Damodred Family Drama is sometimes. this is kinda funny

- “heartening to see the dust on that switch, sister. suffice it to say my backside still recalls seveille sedai’s heavy-handed punishments centuries after the fact.” I could feel sara nakamura staring into my soul through that line. that dialogue felt like it was designed specifically to tell book readers “it’s okay. you’re safe now. there is no more spanking in the white tower.”

- gawyn mention >:(

- “I think that [egg, nynaeve, and elayne all being recorded as off tower grounds is] worth remembering.” “…it is. I don’t know how it slipped my mind, frankly.” sheriam bayanar literally caught in 4k this scene is INSANE

- verin needs this book supposedly “just for a short passage on the amyrlin tetsuan”. somebody correct me if I’m mistaken here but I believe tetsuan was the only amyrlin besides bonwhin raised from the red right??? like 2000 years ago???

- update I went and searched because this got me thinking and I was correct! I forgot that tetsuan was ALSO stripped of the stole for betraying manetheren, meaning that not a single red sister in history has been raised to the seat and just like. done a normal job

- so real quick do you think the show fans are clocking sheriam’s behavior here as the reveal that i think it is. this is awesome. bonus points if you also consider the way that verin takes it in stride, neatly slotting all of the info she’s picking up here into her personal game of 5D chess. this scene is so so awesome

- oh my god verin has her squad in on this

- I briefly considered Compulsion too during the previous scene!! not sure if I believe that, and I much prefer to interpret that last scene as two black sisters from different hearts simultaneously trying to maneuver around each other, but interesting nonetheless

- BLACK AJAH MENTIONED!!!

- liandrin putting on a black cloak over her red outfit is so perfect and on brand

- OH FUCK I JUST REMEMBERED THE NAME OF THIS EPISODE

- the way the damanes’ weaves look physically different and more precise is NUTS. specifically I’m looking at the tight corkscrews of Fire here but it extends to their other weaves as well

- egwene :(

- “I’m searching for the car’a’carn.” they’re setting up so much stuff this episode and doing it so smartly!! I love it here

- “I have toh. my water is yours.” “I don’t know about that.” oh perrin oh my GOD

- AVIENDHA LAUGHING. HEART EYES

- ah yes. elayne and nynaeve spending all their energy trying to not kill each other despite being in mortal danger from all sides. perfect.

- stop!! stop making me care about the Damodred Family Drama!!! it’s working way too well!!!

- ishamael talking only in the old tongue and lanfear responding in modern tongue is delicious

- THE WAY ISHAMAEL’S DREAM ZONE JUST HAS A BUNCH OF SEALS STACKED IN THE CORNER. PEAK FORSAKEN

- moghedien and graendal confirmed, mesaana and semirhage potentially axed if the rest of the forsaken are just “the boys”?? hmmmm

- “my lord, my eyes are too low to see such [omens]. only our Empress, and her Court of the Nine Moons, can see and know the omens for what they are.” full disclosure I had to pause the episode here and just take a second bc this sequence made me start laughing out of sheer anxiety. holy shit this episode is going to kill me

- EGWENE D,:

- OH SO THE A’DAM ALSO HAVE A PHYSICAL LEASH TOO. HAHA COOL AWESOME THIS IS FINE THAT DIDN’T MAKE ME ALMOST CRY TO WATCH

- babe I don’t know if putting rand near lanfear on purpose is the move in ANY capacity, much less in FUCKING TEL’ARAN’RHIOD

- LANFEAR IN AGE OF LEGENDS ALL BLACK WEARING FULL-LEG LACE UP LEATHER BOOTS. THIS IS THE WHEEL OF TIME ROBERT JORDAN WAS TOO AFRAID TO WRITE

[warlordfelwinter]

also going into the barbariccia trial blind after not playing ffxiv for like six straight months was insane. i didn't die and i very rarely had vuln stacks and i just have to assume it was muscle memory waking back up because the second part of that trial is a fucking bullet hell and i was just screaming the entire time

[flovverworks]

i think akira should cry more in pt2 like. ur little friend the prince has a death prophecy over his head (and theres ANOTHER prophecy thats not known) n then theres akira whos alrdy feeling anxious over the fight w the moon n what they can do n what they can do as the sage in general. its dire in there

[1800-needs-help]

when I was going through mag200 for the first time I was so rattled from everything going on that I just completely missed the kiss. didn't know there was one until going through the q&a's LMAOOOO

[perrieedwards]

i feel like people are skimming over the uk riots in a way that makes me want to tear my hair out. muslims in the uk are in active danger. immigrants in the uk are in active danger. refugees in the uk are in active danger. people of colour in the uk are in active danger. asian communities in the uk are in active danger. black communities in the uk are in active danger.

there are massive far right riots throughout the country right now and people like fucking elon musk and nigel farage are inciting it and still have a platform to speak. people have used three young girls deaths, people's genuine grief in southport, to try and gain traction for their own racist bullshit and it's working.

a lot of refugee charities have been forced to close leaving many people without support, homes, funding, food, etc. if you aren't able to donate please consider sending a message via the conversation over borders campaign! it will send a hopeful, welcoming letter to a refugee in the uk. there is also a guide to staying safe here.

please do your own research and donate to refugee charities, anti-islamophobia charities, mosques who are trying to rebuild after being destroyed, counter protesters, here are some i've heard positive things about but the list is extensive; southport strong together (support for the southport victims and their families), southport mosque rebuilding, riot repair fund, middlesbrough vulnerable residents, nasir mosque rebuilding, hull help for refugees, bristol welcomes migrants,

[creed-of-cats]

"If voting changed anything they wouldn't let people do it-" grabs your face THEY DIDN'T JUST "LET" PEOPLE DO IT, MOST PEOPLE COULDN'T VOTE FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS. PEOPLE OF COLOR ONLY GOT THE FULL RIGHT TO VOTE 50 YEARS AGO IN THE US, THATS BARELY A GENERATION.

IF IT DIDNT MATTER AT ALL WHY WOULD THEY SPEND SO MUCH TIME GERRYMANDERING THE SHIT OUT OF EVERYWHERE?? WHY CAN'T FELONS VOTE?? WHY CANT PUERTO RICO VOTE? WHY DO THEY KEEP SWITCHING DATES AND LAWS AND TIMES AND WHATEVER THEY POSSIBLY CAN TO STOP PEOPLE FROM VOTING?? WHY DO THEY MAKE EFFORT AT ALL??

BEING DISILLUSIONED IS A REASONABLE RESPONSE. BUT PEOPLE FOUGHT AND DIED AND ARE STILL FUCKING DYING FOR THAT RIGHT, DONT SPIT IN THEIR FACE.

[keymintt]

more public art! these fellas were printed on vinyl for the sides of a traffic cabinet

[christadeguchi]

(✿◕‿◕) die (ꈍ ꒳ ꈍ✿)

[bae-lschmidt]

Its 3am in my timezone and im still lying awake absolutely GAGGED by iwtv 02x05

[zenathered]

I just found out the most hilariously amazing thing.

[ninjasmudge]

last night i had a dream that i was playing minecraft and i noticed i had 77 blocks of cobblestone in one slot instead of it being capped at 64 and it was so jarring to me that it literally booted me out of the dream. like sure you can fly now and your childhood home is a pharmacy but 77 pieces of cobblestone? unthinkable. wake the fuck up.

[tearlessrain]

please help me- i used to be pretty smart but i’m having so much trouble grasping the concept of diegetic vs non-diegetic bdsm!

gfkjldghfd okay first of all I'm sorry for the confusion, if you're not finding anything on the phrase it's because I made it up and absolutely nobody but me ever uses it, but I haven't found a better way to express what I'm trying to say so I keep using it. but now you've given me an excuse to ramble on about some shit that is only relevant to me and my deeply inefficient way of talking and by god I'm going to take it.

SO. the way diegetic and non-diegetic are normally used is to talk about music and sound design in movies/tv shows. in case you aren't familiar with that concept, here's a rundown:

diegetic sound is sound that happens within the world of the movie/show and can be acknowledged by the characters, like a song playing on the stereo during a driving scene, or sung on stage in Phantom of the Opera. it's also most other sounds that happen in a movie, like the sounds of traffic in a city scene, or a thunderclap, or a marching band passing by. or one of the three stock horse sounds they use in every movie with a horse in it even though horses don't really vocalize much in real life, but that's beside the point, the horse is supposed to be actually making that noise within the movie's world and the characters can hear it whinnying.

non-diegetic sound is any sound that doesn't exist in the world of the movie/show and can't be perceived by the characters. this includes things like laugh tracks and most soundtrack music. when Duel of Fates plays in Star Wars during the lightsaber fight for dramatic effect, that's non-diegetic. it exists to the audience, but the characters don't know their fight is being backed by sick ass music and, sadly, can't hear it.

the lines can get blurry between the two, you've probably seen the film trope where the clearly non-diegetic music in the title sequence fades out to the same music, now diegetic and playing from the character's car stereo. and then there are things like Phantom of the Opera as mentioned above, where the soundtrack is also part of the plot, but Phantom of the Opera does also have segments of non-diegetic music: the Phantom probably does not have an entire orchestra and some guy with an electric guitar hiding down in his sewer just waiting for someone to break into song, but both of those show up in the songs they sing down there.

now, on to how I apply this to bdsm in fiction.

if I'm referring to diegetic bdsm what I mean is that the bdsm is acknowledged for what it is in-world. the characters themselves are roleplaying whatever scenarios their scenes involve and are operating with knowledge of real life rules/safety practices. if there's cnc depicted, it will be apparent at some point, usually right away, that both characters actually are fully consenting and it's all just a planned scene, and you'll often see on-screen negotiation and aftercare, and elements of the story may involve the kink community wherever the characters are. Love and Leashes is a great example of this, 50 Shades and Bonding are terrible examples of this, but they all feature characters that know they're doing bdsm and are intentional about it.

if I'm talking about non-diegetic bdsm, I'm referring to a story that portrays certain kinks without the direct acknowledgement that the characters are doing bdsm. this would be something like Captive Prince, or Phantom of the Opera again, or the vast majority of bodice ripper type stories where an innocent woman is kidnapped by a pirate king or something and totally doesn't want to be ravished but then it turns out he's so cool and sexy and good at ravishing that she decides she's into it and becomes his pirate consort or whatever it is that happens at the end of those books. the characters don't know they're playing out a cnc or D/s fantasy, and in-universe it's often straight up noncon or dubcon rather than cnc at all. the thing about entirely non-diegetic bdsm is that it's almost always Problematic™ in some way if you're not willing to meet the story where it's at, but as long as you're not judging it by the standards of diegetic bdsm, it's just providing the reader the same thing that a partner in a scene would: the illusion of whatever risk or taboo floats your boat, sometimes to extremes that can't be replicated in real life due to safety, practicality, physics, the law, vampires not being real, etc. it's consensual by default because it's already pretend; the characters are vehicles for the story and not actually people who can be hurt, and the reader chose to pick up the book and is aware that nothing in it is real, so it's all good.

this difference is where people tend to get hung up in the discourse, from what I've observed. which is why I started using this phrasing, because I think it's very crucial to be able to differentiate which one you're talking about if you try to have a conversation with someone about the portrayal of bdsm in media. it would also, frankly, be useful for tagging, because sometimes when you're in the mood for non-diegetic bodice ripper shit you'd call the police over in real life, it can get really annoying to read paragraphs of negotiation and check-ins that break the illusion of the scene and so on, and the opposite can be jarring too.

it's very possible to blur these together the same way Phantom of the Opera blurs its diegetic and non-diegetic music as well. this leaves you even more open to being misunderstood by people reading in bad faith, but it can also be really fun to play with. @not-poignant writes fantastic fanfic, novels, and original serials on ao3 that pull this off really well, if you're okay with some dark shit in your fiction I would highly recommend their work. some of it does get really fucking dark in places though, just like. be advised. read the tags and all that.

but yeah, spontaneous writer plug aside, that's what I mean.