#threads of life

[authorkarajorgensen]

10 Books to Add to Your TBR 2024 Edition Part 1

Most years I put out a list of books I greatly enjoyed from the first half of the year some time in June. This year, I decided to do it early because, besides needing a blog for this week, I have read a lot of good books lately, so I’m thinking of making this something I do more than twice a year (and often forget to do in December). The books listed below are not in any order of favoritism, but…

[ourthreadsoflife]

LOVE (uncluttered)

Love

Uncluttered

Leave it to the “smartest” species to misconstrue, adulterate, weaponize the cradle of life - Love.

An emotion that is empowering (freeing) in its purest form, love is disabling (scary/daunting) in equal measure when twined with doubt (sometimes even a spec of doubt is enough, depending on one’s baggage(s)).

It is too high a kick not to flirt with Love’s extremes (and boy, do we flirt). When we know that someone else needs something from us and we can gate keep that need, we invariably abuse that position, and we feed on that sense of control. We just can’t help ourselves, and we indulge. My humble request to people who meet these gate keepers is not to feed their false sense of control and their derived ego, we are their enablers, the sooner we learn this individually and collectively the better for the world around us. Small changes collectively will yield the desired results, but we need to realize we all matter. We succumb to these gate keepers (becoming the abused) and the reason why these gate keepers (the abusers) indulge in gate keeping is because of Doubt [^]. Doubt makes home in us when we shutout our own voice or fail to identify our voice. We need to learn to value our voice, then we will learn to value ourselves, and then we learn to love ourselves. Then again, we need to realize it is a journey and be patient with ourselves [^^].

"Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom." – Aristotle

“Knowing you helps me to know me better.” – Your’s Truely

We often limit love to a feeling towards another person or something like music, sports, money, or travel, etc. We often don’t look beyond. We are happy with the return for our indulgence. Then we are in this loop we cannot get out of. When we make it about fleeting pleasure derived from our indulgence, that’s where we limit the possibilities of Love. Where we end up always wanting something in return from our indulgence. But if we only ask ourselves “Why?” we are drawn to something/someone, or why something/someone is drawn towards us and then listen, we might find ourselves (only if we don’t doubt the response and pay heed to it, refusing the temptations/pleasures of indulgence) [^^].

Then and only then are we truly ready to begin our journey to attain Love. Love is the only emotion that will enable us to find who we are, all other emotions are offshoots of Love, highlighting our limitations (Control, Fear, Remorse, Disappointment, Anger, Hope), feeding our distractions, encouraging overindulgence in oneself and the world at large, at a superficial level.

Sooner or later these offshoots make us feel miserable, eating into our treasured emotions and make us hate who we are and the world at large (That’s a story for another day. Let’s get back to the journey to attain Love).

All of us have been heartbroken (don’t limit this to unrequited love or being dumped). When we have worked towards something and then on D-day things don’t pan out the way we wanted them to.

That dance competition we didn’t win, that painting being spoilt by your sibling/friend, coming 2nd in class, not being selected for that sports team, and then our favourite, the one we love doesn’t feel the same way, or the worst - never thought/noticed we felt that way for them.

All these instances can either scar us and change our path or make us realize who we are and light-up the path ahead.

The only reason we feel heartbroken is because we cared and loved beyond the bounds of ourselves, that is the simple truth. That is our Truth. The outcome is a momentary set-back.

We need to register this Truth and only the truth. Not the D-day outcome. The outcome is the current reality. But the Truth is the learning. When we learn to register the truth, we will only smile.

As this truth will show us, what we want, this truth makes us pursue things beyond our current boundaries, because when we care or love deeply, we lose ourselves, and surrender to attain something that feels unattainable. We need to tread carefully here as surrender has the tendency to lead us to expectation(s) and then eventual disappointment (Bhai, Investment pe return to banta hai na… Nahin? - No).

I always pray that all of us are given the courage to choose the Truth. Because, that is the only window that will lead you to you. Everything else is doubt and will lead you to indulgence.

When we love someone, we are drawn to the qualities we seek (don’t limit the qualities to looks/features, not referring to them at all). These qualities we seek are our truth, not the person we are drawn to. Many a times the person doesn’t see these qualities in themselves (re-run the previous paragraphs to know why [^^]) and/or we have ignored the other qualities completely to suite our narrative. Either way, when things don’t pan out as envisioned, the love doesn’t vanish, does it?

That feeling, that reality, that love we felt is ours forever (only if we will to learn from it). We will smile if we embrace it as our truth, but if we avoid it and discard that reality, it will scar us forever. Remember, every time we discard our reality, we kill a part of ourselves, and replace it with something that is lesser, and unnatural to us.

The same is true when we stop doing things we love. So… never let go of the learning, learn to embrace it and only then will we find our true self.

After all this, we are only halfway through the journey. We haven’t attained Love yet. We have only understood how to find ourselves. But to attain love and be connected, we need to let go of ourselves and surrender (Wait, what? We need find ourselves and then lose ourselves?? – Yes).

Hope you are all familiar with 7 stages of Love (Sufi). They are listed below. The list seems fine except that the order seems to be incorrect (to me) and misinterpreted. I hope to believe, in 7 stages of love, Love needs to be or can be attained only at the end of the journey and not something that props up in the 3rd stage. I wish to presume, someone got this list jumbled up to dilute the essence of Love (Re-run the previous paragraphs to know why [^]).

Sufi: 7 Stages of Love                   My: 7 Stages of Love

1. Dilkashi: Attraction                  1. Dilkashi: Attraction

2. Uns: Infatuation                       2. Uns: Infatuation

3. Ishq: Love                                  3. Aqidat: Trust

4. Aqidat: Trust                             4. Ibadat: Worship/Reverence

5. Ibadat: Worship                       5. Junoon: Focused with Blinders / Nothing else matters

6. Junoon: Madness                     6. Maut: Death / Letting go of Ego and Expectation

7. Maut: Death                              7. Ishq: Love

** DISCLAIMER: Kindly refrain from limiting love as ‘love towards an individual’**

Let us go through the stages of Love:

Attraction (Dilkashi): remember any instance when a fragrance, a point of view, a concept, a person, a personality, a fact, etcetera… intrigued you, made you want to know more about that thing. This “want to know more” draw is the essence of attraction. (Any idea why you are drawn to it? Have you ever asked yourself that question? – please do, you will learn a lot about yourself). You are drawn to it because it is aligned with what you feel in your own core being, what your being finds beautiful. Please for heaven’s sake do not double check yourself here. Do not let someone else’s voice induce doubt. Only exceptions being if your actions are impacting another being and be watchful you are not putting yourself in undue danger of injuries / addiction / death. As there is a thin line between being adventurous and being a fool. Listen to your gut instincts. Have your red-flags ready especially when another individual(s) is/are involved.

Infatuation (Uns): attraction induces curiosity. As we get to know more, we either move closer or move away from our attraction. We move closer when the more we learn about our attraction, we wilfully knowingly/unknowingly want to dive deeper, we want to be consumed by our attraction, simply coz the deeper we dive, we continue to find answers/assurances we have been seeking, answers/assurances that have eluded us till we chose to pursue our attraction. These interactions keep us in the blissful state. We grow fonder of our attraction as it is a source of happiness. Uns is a fragile state, where doubt is at its peak, where one red flag, one wrong step, one disturbing fact, one uncomfortable interaction can shatter the felt connection and we choose/decide consciously or unconsciously to walk-away.

But somehow if we are continued to be reassured, we either remain content with current reassured state as it is a dependable source of comfort, happiness, safety, revenue or we choose to dive deeper, as the attraction has not died down, we feel there is more beneath the surface, keeping the intrigue and the blissful state alive.

Majority of our interactions plateau in this stage. The reasons are endless, ranging from lack of compatibility with our core values/principles, life critical event, family restrictions, doubt to something as silly as a misunderstanding, but at its core it is about alignment. Every single thing needs to feel right. If it doesn’t, it is crash and burn. But if it does align, if doubt and “comfort” don’t creep in, if the attraction is sustained, then and only then infatuation transforms.

Trust (Aqidat): infatuation transforms with continuous reassurances and attraction, into Trust. It can be a skill mastered over time with practice and persistence, information tested and researched to gain knowledge, actions towards others (individual or group / directly or indirectly) or oneself builds trust. Every single action we do is because of Trust. Without trust we will not even be able to walk, talk, eat or shit. Once attained, we often take Trust for granted. Reassurances makes us complacent. That is the major pitfall. We ignore the effort, we ignore the changes, we ignore the time gone by, at our worse we demand more, we demand better, with negligible zero effort/contribution from our side. This slowly but surely erodes our trust.

But if somehow one persists through and delivers consistency, progress and innovation, then it was made possible only because one was able to float through to other stages of love, ‘Worship (Ibadat)’ and ‘Focus with Blinders’ (Junoon), this occurs unconsciously and in extreme conditions. One is unconsciously fluid between these stages, as all three stages (Aqidat, Ibadat and Junoon) feed off each-other and the line between Ibadat and Junoon is fluid.

If and when, one ensures to steer clear of distraction, doubt and apathy. They still have faith, belief and desire to deliver, then and only then do they transcend. I say they coz with consistency, excellence follows. Excellence, draws attention. Consistent excellence, garners trust of people. Then there is no longer any separation between the trusting people and deliverer, they feed off each-other, they become one entity. Trust has then blossomed.

Worship (Ibadat): when someone consistently delivers excellence, they invariably garner trust. Overtime reinforced trust garners Reverence. Then a benchmark is set. Any deviation from this benchmark invites chaos.

Any dip in consistency garners extreme reactions, as they are a collective, they are no longer an individual entity delivering results. Hence their collective reactions embodying madness.

Any milestone is a collective achievement. Reverence morphs into sainthood. Collective reactions again embodying the impractical.

In this state the individual is being revered because of their reverence and madness towards their pursuit. The only reason it is sustainable is because they have each-other. There is no room for doubt between the Worshiped and Worshiper(s). And their constant companion Chaos.

Focused with Blinders / Nothing else matters (Junoon): It’s just there it’s either positive or negative depending on its trigger. Junoon can never be sustained, but it is ever-present, it is only triggered (mostly external), then it cannot be contained. When it is triggered, it is always time for action, or it is all Fun or it rains Scary CHAOS!

But then, why this extreme reaction? Why the thin ice? Why the explosion?

When it is a collective, everything is amplified, everything is transparent. A loss raises doubt of dip in standards, a fall from grace for the Worshiped, which is unacceptable. On the other hand, a win shows promise of a new benchmark, which is overwhelming. This gets amplified/echoed by Worshiper(s). Hence the Chaos.

Death / Letting go of Ego and Expectation (Maut): The improbable. The immortals. True Legends.

Attained by a select few. They are like witnessing a shooting star. One should consider oneself lucky to witness someone in their lifetime. Have you ever witnessed anyone around you who shows-up to ensure things that need to be done are done, never make any fuss about it. Someone who is relentless and consistent. Someone with zero expectation for or from the action/task done. Someone who is immune from criticism, someone against whom no one can and will ever utter any negative. If yes, then that someone has learnt to surrender to the pursuit and have detached themselves from the outcome. For they have learnt, success and failure are not a means to an end, coz there is no end. The pursuit is never ending. This journey might have an end, but the pursuit doesn’t end, coz no one is ever in complete control and all one is supposed to do is show-up and deliver. A lesson learnt the hard way but is easily forgotten, such is life. We want to “feel alive” and we indulge in our ego, then we fail to realize how close we were to attain Love.

Love (Mohabbat/Pyar/Ishq): Only those mortals who dared to let go of their egos successfully were able to attain love. When all they wanted to do was to make sure they could add value to someone else’s life. When their predisposition is being selfless, they always manage to achieve more than what they themselves feel was beyond their abilities. Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, Sachin Tendulkar, Diego Maradona, Pele, Michael Jordan, Newton, Aryabhata, Meera Bai, Chhatrapati Shivaji, Bhagat Singh, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Onake Obavva, the makers of The Godfather, Sholay, Harry Potter, Sistine Chapel, and few many more of their ilk.

Closer to normalcy, a parent (generally a mother), a brother, a sister, a friend, a Partner, a teacher and finally a pet dog.

People who have attained Love do not generally realize their attainment. Most of us attain love fleetingly and then let doubt and expectation creep in. We need to learn to acknowledge these pitfalls and curb our natural predisposition (our survival instincts), only then can we sustain our attainment. __________________________________________________________________________________

Then again, all this feels like a rarity, feels text-bookie, and feels artsy, impractical.

Yet it is attainable, if one knows the path and its pitfalls and acknowledge Love is not attainable alone.

It feels impossible, it feels scary, to let go of our ego, then to let go of our comforts, then to let go of doubt. It is scary only coz we want to hold on to our false sense of control, as all these emotions feeds our primal instincts. End of the day it is the choices we make. These choices are made unconsciously, in line to our individual predispositions and instincts.

My only hope is to enable people around me to make these vital choices consciously. For if we don’t know the path and its pitfalls, we will never reach our goal, or even worse, we don’t realize our goal, our purpose. __________________________________________________________________________________

Love is a journey we all are blessed to experience. Few ever attain Love. Who so ever have attained love are all revered as Geniuses in their respective fields/domain by the world at large (Some lucky few are revered in their lifetime) and at an individual level they have found true happiness and companionship.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Ego and Doubt are the main inhibiters in our journey towards love. Keep a keen eye out for them.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Love is the only emotion that can bind us together. But we have been derailed, consistently.

Love’s offshoots (doubt, faith/hope, fear, remorse, disappointment, anger, ego) are weaponized by people seeking control, to garner followers in exchange of protection, prosperity, and false sense of control.

For Love in its truest form never discriminates, Love never seeks to control, Love never compares.

Love empowers us to do better for ourselves and others, Love enables us to seek things beyond our limits, Love familiarizes you with Freedom it is purest form.

We need to find our way back, we need to learn to identify these abusers and call them out. They are everywhere around, we are also one among them (as we are all silent), brushing away our responsibilities. This will need another blog to explain.

The focus above might seem to be at a collective, as in one’s journey towards love attracting many followers (one onto many or many onto one interaction). That might only be coz of my limited writing ability, vocabulary and an effort to steer clear of the generalized point of view towards “Love”, for love is all encompassing and infinite, in my view point. Hope I have conveyed my point of you across and done justice to my thoughts.

That said, the above is also true for love between two individuals. The journey is more probable between two individuals, than it is in the collective. Imagine you and your partner have let go of each-other’s Ego, where you have killed all scope of Doubt [addressing all issues without judgment] and resentment, and then you both have let go of the clutch that is the hardest of them all to let go of, Expectation. It is a continuous, tireless, at times might feel thankless pursuit [that’s when one needs to communicate, for silence/ignorance kills love]. But when you are together [sustained through communication] on this journey, it’s more fulfilling. Especially when you are Parents [in equal measure]. The journey towards Love is serene as companions.

The hardest of all is the journey of the one in unrequited love. Triggered by external stimulus, but can only be sustained by internal stimuli. One’s clarity and purity of thought is the only assured path to attainment. Clarity that there can be no expectation from the one we are in love with and this is a lonely path filled with ridicule and tearing questions by people witnessing your ‘Love’. Purity of thought is the hardest to sustain as the fight is with yourself, your self-esteem/pride, no matter how little and large an ego one carries, ego is the constant lever that triggers expectation, then invariably derailing your journey. I am not referring to our school, college crushes being sustained. I am referring to the journey of a Single Parent, a Patriot, a Priest, an Apostle, a Solder, an Activist, a Whistleblower, etc.

Which stage of love (My list) are you at?

What are the things or qualities you love?

Hope you embrace your Truth and help others to find their truth.

Hope you attain love.

[ahotknife]

i will never stop being 6 years old and lonely. i will never stop being 11 years old and lonely. i will never stop being 19 years old and lonely. i will never stop

[confessionsofanangrymetalhead]

I knew I needed to go to this as soon as I heard that Shadows Fall, who had regrouped in 2021 after an indefinite hiatus that lasted seven years and saw drummer Jason Bittner join Flotsam and Jetsam and eventually Overkill, and lead guitar GOD Jonathan Donais join Anthrax, intended on performing their 2004 CLASSIC, The War Within in its entirety. That was fucking huge news! But for those of you who might be clueless, let’s discuss why! The Importance of The War Within The War Within, the band’s fourth album and third with vocalist Brian Fair, is the most important album in the band’s entire catalog. It was released on the heels of their previous album, 2002’s The Art of Balance, which went on to sell over 100,000 copies in a time when album sales were steadily declining. You bet your ass I was one of those 100,000 people who actually bought the fucking record! I even saw Shadows Fall live for the first time a year later during an Ozzfest off-date. Having come from the New Wave of American Heavy Metal scene that was largely based in the Northeast and spawned bands such as Aftershock and Overcast – those two bands being the roots of Shadows Fall and especially Killswitch Engage – alongside All That Remains (Phil Labonte was actually the vocalist on Shadows Fall’s 1997 debut, Somber Eyes to The Sky), God Forbid (more on that band later!), Mastodon and Lamb of God, the sound was largely a mix of Hardcore breakdowns and Metallic intensity. Unfortunately, this became Metalcore. But Shadows Fall were different. Via Brain Fair’s roots in Overcast, especially after he joined Shadows Fall for their second album, 2000’s Of One Blood, the hardcore influence could be heard. But thanks to those riffs that scream Iron Maiden AND Morbid Angel, along with Jon Donais’ Randy Rhoads meets Zakk Wylde lead guitar style, they were far more Metal than Hardcore. By the time The War Within was released, the press at large had been calling them the next Metallica for two years, thanks to The Art of Balance. With TWW, the guitars were even stronger than on the last album, the drums were harder hitting, the production was clearer, and the song writing was even stronger. The album had debuted at #28 on the Billboard charts. I was a first day buyer, taking to bus to Sam Goody right after I finished with class for the day. It’d earned them sales of almost 400,000 copies – a FIRST for Century Media Records! – their first main stage slot on the next year’s Ozzfest (the last time I saw them live), and eventually, a major label deal with Atlantic Records. I still remember driving from Staten Island to Starland Ballroom to see Mastodon in May of 2005. I was on Rt 9, driving over the water, WSOU (more on them momentarily) on the radio, when the DJ announced that The War Within had sold 200,000 copies. The was incredible to hear; it meant a lot to the fans, I’m sure, and it meant a lot to the underground Metal scene, especially with Lamb of God releasing their major label debut nine months prior, and Mastodon very close to signing their own major label deal. The Show The show, I’m pretty sure was organized by WSOU, the top college station in terms of playing underground Heavy Metal for DECADES. My first exposure to WSOU in the early months of 1997 happened by mistake. I was looking for another station when I came across this one station that happened to be blasting Death Metal, the likes of which my 7th grade, dumbass self had never heard before and I’d assumed that this had to be the station. It wasn’t, but I clearly still listened up until they were forced to change their format right at the beginning of 2002. They eventually were able to revert back to their prior format; but they had to fight hard to make it happen. It’s been my first show at Starland since I saw Zakk Sabbath in 2017. And before that, the last time I’d been there was most likely the 2008 Summer Slaughter tour, with such a shitty lineup that I totally forgot that it was the last time I saw The Black Dahlia Murder! But I spent a good thre...

[tenth-sentence]

The six hijacker threads were mixed in, until the tangle began; they were merging with the throng, concealing their nature and purpose.

"Incarnations of Immortality: And Eternity" - Piers Anthony

[bigfatbreak]

Birds of a Feather previous / next

[aslyran]

Visions

[valereth2]

Update on the copy of Threads of Life by Shadows Fall that has the War Within disc in it: I took it back to the store. They figured they just put the wrong disc in it by mistake. They had a copy of War Within but they had sold it earlier that week. Tried to track down whoever Bought War Within. Spent a few days doing that. He never called them.back though. So they searched around at other stores and found a copy at the Half Price Books in Frisco. They had it shipped here for me. I picked it up on Saturday. They included a $5 gift card with it, and I  Used that to get one more album that I owned back in high school: Awake by Godsmack

[allu-viia]

These are hilarious I'm not even joking

[cubbihue]

Wait timmy isnt allowed in the human world, is hazels wish gonna cause him trouble?

Hrmm! Who’s to say? Timmy’s certainly displeased to hear about her discovering such a loophole!

Or maybe he’s just annoyed. I would be too if I discovered there was more work for me once I got back to my office.

Bitties Series: [Start] > [Previous] > [Next]

[ourthreadsoflife]

Trust

                                                                T     T                                                               S          R                                                                    U                                                           …The Core…

At various levels, in various forms, our world is built on Trust, individual and mutual. We cannot function without Trust. We are calm and content with its assured presence. We are a hopeless chaotic wreck in its absence.

Even a “rudimentary ability” like walking (an ability many of us take for granted) is gained through trust. A toddler sees the world around it, where people are moving about effortlessly. It wants to imitate them and move about but it doesn’t know how. Slowly after multiple falls, it learns to walk. The toddler doesn’t understand what it has accomplished, but it has learnt to trust its legs and hands to move about, to learn more about the world it is so curious about. On the other hand its innocent eagerness unintentionally is blowing the roof off of its parents’ anxiety. Who until now only had to worry about poop and food, now have to watch every move the baby makes. Until after few years have passed by and through continued assurances, the parents learn to trust the kid to be safe within the confines of their home. Then as the kid grows, they are again are worried until their kid is accompanied with a “sensible kid” they learn or grow to trust. It goes on and on, while the effect of trust is constant. This is how trust functions, when it is action based, and when the outcome is binary. The equation is enhanced when emotions are involved, when the outcome is no longer binary. The realm of friendship, love, business, society, government, economy, community... And we muddle trust’s essence. Pacifying ourselves that our expectation(s) (which is our core grounding) are unrealistic, we teach ourselves to accept mediocrity. We learn to compromise, underestimating the repercussions.

In any relationship, blood bond or otherwise, trust is the only fabric that can hold a healthy relationship together. Anything else apart from Trust is a telltale of an unhealthy relationship. When trust is broken, the fabric tears and we either use the loose threads to bind us to the relationship, stitching up the relationship with hope (mostly false), coz we have invested time into the relationship, we don’t want another reality where this relationship doesn’t exist, we are scared of that reality, as we have to reinvest and start from scratch. We know, we should cut our losses, and start a new, but we don’t… as it is the scariest and the hardest thing to do. We generally choose the easy option, we choose false hope, and we choose the relationship. We only choose the latter when we learn to value ourselves more than the relationship. This holds true for one to one or one to many relationship(s) and even true for our relationship with ourselves.

“By the standards of the rest of the world, we overtrust. So far it has worked very well for us.” – CHARLIE MUNGER

We have moved to set the standard of trust so low that honesty and success are mutually exclusive. Results plaster over the means. Loss of lives are collateral damage. Hunger is attributed to poverty and poverty to laziness. Simply because equal opportunity is a pipe dream, which even when delivered might not yield equal outcome (But we failed to acknowledge or realize, no is asking for equal outcome).

Trust is built over time, through unadulterated, unwavering, unconditional, Actions. Not words, but actions. It is silent, and continuous. It is reassuring. It is calming. It is humane.

It is nothing like the world we live in today.

Maybe that is why we try to build our own little worlds. Carve out a safe space where we can trust ourselves first, to regain the required reassurance to trust others.

It is hard to walk in a world filled with landmines. It might be plausible to dust oneself and start a new, but to piece oneself back again and again… that requires a rare fabric. It doesn’t have to be so. All we need to do is change our standards for Trust. It starts with us.

So, where will you set your standard for Trust? Do you know where you have set standard for Trust as of now? Will you value yourself or a relationship without trust? Hope you will not compromise on your standards of Trust. Love, Friendship, Community, Company, Economy, Country, All run on Trust.

Respect is the next milestone after trust. Our choice to compromise on Trust only rusts every aspect of our lives. Rots set in with no cure, till we raise our standards for Trust and never compromise.

[spocks-kaathyra]

experimenting w making little trek dolls for the STLV craft swap :))

[avephelis]

RISE TWITTER QNA! no major news or announcements, but here's a list of new information and confirmations:

S3 could be brought back as a retro show in the future, but it probably wouldn't happen anytime soon (focus is on mutant mayhem at the moment)

it was never decided whether capril would be friends or girlfriends (due to rise's focus on platonic relationships)

council of heads! they're in power, but a lot of influential yokai (like big mama) aren't easily controlled, and "game the system"

despite not having his dual katana, supposedly f!leo DOES still have mystic powers

ron corcillo would love to see a spin-off focused on the caseys (if rise were ever continued), and likes the potential of a raph + casey vigilante duo

the turtles got their names after splinter's love for renaissance art

big mama's henchman WAS planned to be the missing sister, and rather than venus de milo, she would've been named after a female artist (possibly frida kahlo)

for halloween: raph dressed up as a kitten, mikey as a lion, leo as a rockstar, and donnie as j. robert oppenheimer

the mystic weapons stolen from draxum acted as a conduit to help the boys unlock their innate mystic powers with a "little boost"

they didn't realise mayhem's potential as a character/force until too late, but it could've been fun to do some stories of him being an operative (a la perry the platypus)

there weren't any planned stories for side villains (aside from the foot's cupcake shop), most focus was on the turtles

not much on casey jr's backstory, just that cass and the turtles were fighting the krang and leo raised him as a warrior. casey jr only has brief memories of cass from when he was very young, and was mostly raised by leo

there were definitely six baby turtles (two sisters)! and the turtles were gonna split up to rescue the one with big mama and the one in "the dimension", but they never planned much of it out

there's most likely a time gap between the rescuing leo and the ending scene of the movie, as "after a fight like that, [everyone] would definitely crash and need some recovery time"

there would've been more big mama in future episodes, and stinkbomb was planned to return

since the turtles became known to the public at the end of the movie, they'd have to fight to retain their reputation. this and their reception to criticism/backlash would've become a major arc.

on brother rankings: mikey is definitely raph's favourite, and they all look up to raph

the stronger someone's ninpo is, the greater the drain on their energy is (as seen with f!mikey and karai)

there wouldn't be much threat on villains going after casey jr's future intel, because most of it would've been rendered obsolete

nickelodeon would never give up the rights to rise, but they could license it to a partner company (such as IDW for a comic!)

as previously mentioned, the 2nd sister would've been trapped in "another dimension" and venus/frida would have to be won over by "helping her see that she had been brainwashed [by big mama] as a child" (and redeemed)

given more time, the show would've fleshed out: the hamato story, the hidden city's origins (krang spaceship that crashed into the crying titan being the source of the ooze, its fuel being what gave the yokai mystic powers), and would've used the rat king (who ron corcillo would've liked to be a powerful yokai with rat-like abilities and some form of mind control, who could've threatened the council of heads for power in the hidden city)

as far as we know, the turtles (aside from leo's spanish) only speak english (and even their english is sometimes a bit off)

rise probably wouldn't have ever "gone dark", but after the turtles were publicly known and full-time heroes, it might've had more of an extended plotline

the turtle's casual clothes somewhat reflect their music tastes (r&b for raph, glam rock for leo, techno (and 80s) for donnie and boy band for mikey)

future heights: mikey grew a bit and then shrunk under mystic strain, leo was at least 6ft, donnie a little taller than leo, and raph at least 6'6

mikey's powers could get pretty intense, which could've resulted in some multiverse episodes (ron corcillo would be most inclined to do a 12 crossover, but any could work). while leo portals short distances, mikey's cross space and time (with great effort)

given more time, how the turtles met april would've been fleshed out

in terms of how they take after splinter: donnie and leo have a lot of his cockiness, raph his courage and sense of duty, and mikey senses him missing his family (which is part of the reason of why he tries to hold everyone together)

given more time they would've done more with the transfer of leadership from raph to leo (and originally the plan was to draw that out over S3, rather than the abrupt S2 ending). they would've been co-leaders for a while, and at times mikey or donnie would lead (they aren't really a group with just one leader archetype)

there were plans for april to have more time with the specific turtles other than donnie (like how the gumbus was focused on her mikey and leo)

the cast's mystic abilities would've increased over time, and splinter has a lot of power that hasn't been revealed (as he spent a lot of time in the hidden city in his past)

venus/frida would've been very disciplined and so serious that's she's funny, and the dimension sister would've been "a little kooky"

there weren't really any plans on how the turtles would look in cloaked human forms, just that they'd resemble lou jitsu and may be inspired by their VAs

mikey is the only brother who can fully pull all his limbs and head into his shell (being a box turtle)

any usagi appearances would be a rights matter, and depend on collaboration

on timelines: april is 16 at the start of the series and 18 in the movie, but exactly how much time passes isn't confirmed

ron corcillo would've liked to do more donnie + raph episodes, like one where despite how donnie considers himself smarter, raph ends up beating him in common sense and emotional intelligence

f!leo didn't go with casey jr to the past due to being mortally wounded in his bleeding side

given more time there would've been more flashback episodes with the turtles at various ages

though he'd never admit it, hueso has a close relationship with leo

in early S3 there would've been an episode of setting up the new lair

mystic warrior f!mikey is pretty old (maybe in his 70s), and is strong enough to use basically any mystic power, but at great cost to him physically

no major plans with bishop, but once the turtles became more well-known he could be a bit of a thorn in their sides (like j. jonah jameson to spiderman)

there might've been some redemption from big mama, but also some relapses into her "villainous ways"

given a full season, karai would've been alive for longer, and would've trained the boys for a number of episodes

confirmation that some of early s1 aired in the wrong order (which the writers weren't happy about)

in rise, there's always an unpredictability as to how sentient a mutant will turn out to be

raph probably wouldn't be super uptight about swearing, provided the boys weren't offending anyone

there weren't any plans for romantic relationships (and DEFINITELY never an april-turtles love interest), but if they had ever tried something eventually it would've been with the same species

there were no specific plans for alopex, rita, or rennet, but anything's a possibility

in terms of the 1000 years ago krang/mystic timeline, the spaceship crashed first (possibly spawning the yokai), and other krang followed it, drawing in the invasion

that seems to be about it but if there's any more i'll do a reblog with additions

[tenth-sentence]

Clotho, the youngest, was the spinner of the threads; it was always her task to fetch the substance.

"Incarnations of Immortality: For Love of Evil" - Piers Anthony

[slythereen]

the funniest part of the ferrari 1644 hard launch is red bull racing admin all up in their business like “☝️ don’t forget that’s OUR emotional support driver in law”