#utterly pointless

[swbumblebee]

“Thank you for joining me Masters Jedi” The reporter, a petite Mon Calamari, greeted them with a well-practiced smile, desperately hoping it hid her nerves as the selection of available (or, she had a sneaking suspicion, those who were not quite quick enough with a plausible excuse) council members filed in. They took seats in the comfortable chairs arranged in a semicircle in front of her.

“Thank you for inviting us” Obi-Wan Kenobi responded with a charming smile, characteristically polite and the voice of the group as they sat down. Mace Windu and Plo Koon both nodded in acknowledgement, Shaak Ti smiled serenely and Kit Fisto flashed her his usual wide grin. It was like looking at holo-posters.    

“Please make yourselves comfortable” She cleared her throat and switched on her holo-mic “and before we start, my listeners have asked me to pass on their heartfelt thanks for all your efforts during the war, and for making the Galaxy safe once again.”

At this there was some shuffling, her Jedi guests looking between each other, a surprising air of awkwardness settled over the group and she instantly kicked herself.

“We simply followed the will of the Force, and we were fortunate enough to have our Trooper brothers with us. We could not have prevailed without them” Master Plo Koon replied with a slight dip of his head in thanks, even as he shrugged off the compliment.

The reporter smiled back at him.

“Of course, I’m very excited to meet them later.” She said, noting the rather pleased looks on the Jedi’s faces as she did so and hoping she had clawed back some goodwill. “For now, though, I’m very interested in learning more about our Jedi heroes and I have some fantastic questions from our listeners.”  She settled back in her chair and looked at her notes, willing her hands to stop shaking. This was a career making opportunity.

 “Could I first ask, to set us up nicely, for you all to state your name, species and age for the holo-mic please. It helps listeners distinguish voices and really build a picture of you” she explained, getting down to business.

“Sure! I’m Kit Fisto, Nautolian, and I’m fifty-five in standard years.” The first Jedi, a shockingly youthful (and very handsome) male smiled at her reaction as the reporter’s face widened in surprise.

“My species age well” he said with a wink, and the reporter was amused to note his confidence got him a whack on the leg from the next Jedi, Shaak Ti.

“Greetings, I am Shaak Ti, Togrutan and I am fifty-eight in Galactic Standard Years” she said with a lovely, measured voice that would make an excellent narrator, the reporter thought.  

“Thank you” She said, before moving down the line.

“I am Plo Koon, Kel Dor, and I am three hundred and eighty-five GSY old” he said rather proudly, the reporter thought. She nodded in appreciation and slight awe. She understood some of the older races had different life spans and ages, but she’d never met one before.

“I am Mace Windu, Korun from Haruun Kal, and I am sixty-one GSY.” The reporter struggled to meet the serious brown eyes of the head of the order, trying very hard not to be intimidated she nodded in thanks and moved on to her last guest. Her personal favourite.

“Hello there, I am Obi-Wan Kenobi, a near-human from Stewjon and I’m thirty-eight.” He said with another polite smile.

“Excellent, now then-“

“Pardon?”

The reporter was incredibly surprised to be interrupted by the serene master herself, Shaak Ti, who had something akin to shock on her face.

“ah, sorry? What?” Master Kenobi asked, a little unsure, looking between his colleague and the reporter, who shrugged a little.

Master Ti looked at him down the line.

“You’re how old?!” she asked again.

Master Kenobi was starting to look downright uneasy.

“I’m…thirty-eight.”

Master Ti continued to stare at him.

“In Galactic Standard Years?” she clarified incredulously

“Yes-“

A snort came from Master Fisto at the other end of the line.

“Ahh Shaak. All this time, didn’t realise he was a baby did you?” he said knowingly.

“I am not a baby!” Master Kenobi spluttered.

“I mean I knew he was young but…”

“Now hang on, I’m not that young-“

“I had a similar moment of realisation about halfway through the war” Plo pacified her with an understanding pat. “We basically followed a teenager into battle” he said sagely.

“Oh now you’re just being –“

“Did you know about this?!” Shaak asked the head of the order accusingly, ignoring her young colleague’s protests.

Master Windu’s frown held a hint of amusement.

“Yes…I can do mathematics, and read personnel files…” he answered slowly, dry as the dessert. Master Ti glared at him.   

“Sorry Obi-Wan” The surprised Togruten turned at last to mollify her colleague. “I’m just…surprised. That makes you the youngest member in…a while. I can’t believe I never knew!” She said in amazement.

“He’s the youngest ever member if I am correct” Master Windu stated, with a rather smug smile, and the reporter was amused to note Master Plo Koon nodding along with a distinct air of pride.

For his part, the reporter could swear Young Master Kenobi’s ears were starting to turn an amusing shade of pink, and for some reason he scowled slightly.

“Depa is only five years older than me!” he grumbled into his folded arms.

“Yeah but she’s Depa” Master Fisto chimed in, in a knowing tone.

“mmm”

“True”

“Yes”

“Right”

“Just what is that supposed to mean-“

The reporter blinked at the scene in before her, rapidly descending into a friendly argument and the bickering of age-old friends. Or, young friends, as the case may be.

She looked at her stack of questions again, and grinned, her previous nerves about interviewing the most powerful beings in the galaxy all but disappearing as Master Fisto winked at her again and Master Plo leaned over to ruffle Master Kenobi’s hair, dodging around a protective Master Windu.

She put the questions on the floor under her chair and grinned.

[silver-horse]

unfortunately I have opinions about the ascendant astarion ending and I have been holding back from saying it. but it's a problem that applies to the whole game and it's been annoying me

what's actually weird about the ascendant "romance" scene is that the writer considers it a tempting option for the player. They wrote it to be bad, but they also think it's a fun and sexy option. Same goes for the haarlep scene which they also wrote that way because they find it sexy. Except finding this sexually appealing entirely hinges on the idea that the player is a submissive. So RIP to a scene that the rest of us could have found sexy because the lead narrative designer was a submissive. lmao

In this game you can have a scene where you have to kneel for a male character. But you can never have a male character do the same for you. (Halsin doesn't count. It's a vanilla scene, he is not submissive there and we are not even asking/telling him to kneel down) You don't get such options, not even if you play a drow female! RIP the number one reason for playing drow female to be honest. lol You can kneel and fully submit to ascendant astarion or fully submit to mizora or fully submit to haarlep or submit to lae'zel or submit to minthara. you can get whipped by abdirak or you can tell him "touch me and lose a hand" he even responds positively to this remark and yet the possibility to flip the dynamic doesn't exist. There is never an option where a male character truly submits to the player. RIP to a scene that would have been the opposite of the traditional dynamic. the potential that existed but they never used the opportunity

By the way, how interesting that Lae'zel is dominant but she is a woman so ofc you get the option to tell her “no you will submit to me”. You never get such switch options with any of the male characters... Obviously it's not ascendant where they could have made that an option. My point is that it's NEVER an option among so many male characters.

It's a cool idea that the bad ending in a romance means "I saw this character as a sex object" except it falls apart when the scene is very sexually unappealing to anyone who is more dominant leaning. If I see a character as a sex object then I would place them in sexual situations which are appealing to me. so the message doesn't quite work. because there isn't anything that I can selfishly choose for myself just because I like it and I find it sexy.

[r-2-peepoo]

Coriolanus Snow and Anakin Skywalker are perfect examples of really interesting characters who had every chance to do the right thing but repeatedly chose wrong even though they were surrounded by good people, all because they had one person whispering in their ear and convincing them to be selfish and to hurt people instead. There is no point where they have to do what they do, it’s their choices that make them compelling.

They’re also both incredibly controlling over the women they claim to love but are quick to try and physically harm them when they realise that they’re actually human beings who will not blindly follow them. It’s very clear they were possessive, not actually in love. To sincerely love is to respect someone’s agency and neither of them were capable of that.

Another trait they both share is that, despite being layered and well written but fundamentally flawed characters who turn to evil by their own free will, if you cast an attractive actor to play them, there are always going to be people who blindly ignore the entire plot just to defend them and justify their actions. Being a victim of abuse or oppression does not excuse you from being a perpetrator.

[faunandfloraas]

anytime i watch male idols do girl group dances super halfheartedly- i'm talking limp, not putting their hips into it, not putting their ass into it, not putting anything into i'm always so disappointed... Seo Changbin would never have let me down like this.

[cruelsister-moved2]

i honestly think one thing gentile non-palestinian leftists need to do urgently is eradicate the idea from your mind that zionism is somehow good for jewish people. we pay lip service to the fact that antizionism isn't antisemitism, that jewish people aren't inherently associated with the state of israel, even that israel doesn't keep jews safe; yet the subtle implication that jews ultimately benefit from zionism creeps into our arguments.

zionism has fostered fundamentalism and pushed jewish communities globally to the right, marginalised and outright erased disaporic cultures, and has contributed to the near-disappearance of entire judaic languages. the zionist project exacerbates antisemitism and then warps discussions of it, encouraging the same dual-loyalty myths and racialised categorisation that were popular in nazi germany. it courts antisemitic christian fundamentalists who fund it because of their apocalyptic beliefs which ultimately involve the annihilation or conversion of all jews, and provides a smokescreen for antisemites who want to push jews from their own countries. and it isolates, incriminates, silences, and arrests the many, many jews who speak out against it.

i don't say this to try and decentre palestinian suffering at this time, hence why this isn't directed at palestinians, but i think it's incredibly important for the integrity of our arguments to recognise unequivocally that zionism is not beneficial to jewish people either.

[mythosidhesdollhouse]

Another slow day, so I'll just share these girls since they had a little trip to the dolly spa this morning. Ah, Liv Dolls.... I wish I loved them more than I do. Always thought they had a cool concept, but the execution never quite hit for me. Once again I only ended up with a representative sample of two in my collection (this will become a recurring theme XD). We've got Alexis from the first wave in 2009, wearing a later fashion pack and wig; and Katie as the Mad Hatter, from the Target-exclusive Alice in Wonderland line released in 2011. Including a 'Sassy' Swappin' Styles Fashionistas Barbie, also from 2011, as it's very possible I purchased her and Katie at the same time, for the aesthetic ;p I used to display these two with my small collection of Ever After High dolls; the proliferation of tiny useless hats in the doll space during the early 2010s amused me greatly.

No promises, but if all goes to plan tomorrow I may break out the Mysticats. Stay tuned.

[spookythesillyfella]

wanted to experiment a bit with my art today !! yaaay !!! ¥_^

...

can anyone else hear those bells ominously tolling in the distance ?

★ version without text under cut :

★ lyrics : "Melancolia" – Caravan Palace

[fridayyy-13th]

had a random thought and wondered what other people’s opinions/headcanons were, so:

[katacala]

10.3.24 • hotel selfies from when I was getting ready for the Soul Coughing show

[the-fidgety-fiddler]

...

[jaundicity]

this might be a hot take depending on whoever comes across it, but if the writing crew at HOTD had pushed themselves into truly showcasing the horrors of war and conflict within the dance throughout the show, i doubt that there wouldn't be as much team-related animosity as there is right now inside this fandom.

this can either be interpreted as fact or assumption, i'm okay with both and neither, but genuinely, if the show that we were given had been a lot more true to its original themes of war and its devastating effects along with many other factors like necessary evils, the failure of government through the targaryen royal family, the unjust acts towards innocent people regardless of social status through tumbleton and blood & cheese, etc.. and had explicitly shown that; no glorification, no glamourization, no nothing– just straight up horror?

we would all be too horrified to even think of rooting for one side or the other.

and to be honest? i really wish that were the case.

war isn't something to root for. it's something to dread, something to fear. the dance was exactly that, and we need to be more aware of the fact that just like war in general, it was utterly pathetic, pointless, and downright a cruel attack on the entire country through its own rulers.

sure, we can root for our faves all we like.. but we can't save them entirely from the fates that george originally wrote for them.

for example, i like alicent. she's one of my favourite characters, but am i gonna let her off the hook for the part she played in the war? not really. the same goes for rhaenyra, aegon, aemond, jace and co, who are all characters that i do genuinely like despite the show giving them all the worst writing that doesn't even concede with their major actions in the book. i'm not gonna come out and say that they're all innocent angel babies who just got dealt a bad hand. i know what they did in the OG story, and that's on them for doing it in the first place.

we can love our faves and all, and i do appreciate how much us fans do care for these characters, but let's be real. they played a part in this violence. not one or two, but a lot of them. all of them did.

[rutadales]

[scalproie]

The more I think about it the more upset I become tho

[hellobrockie]

Its honestly relieving when Gojo asks Geto if he should kill them. A sign that he's coming down from his high. Because an unfeeling god wouldn't have bothered to retrieve a corpse and wouldn't ask what he should do. This is the last time the two are truly equal. Because Gojo is really almost a god from here on out, a special special grade, closer in standing to Tengen than Geto. Geto's moral compass and their shared grief for riko amanai, someone who every side deemed disposable, grounds Gojo.

[mummer]

i know the fascism intrinsic to zionism is obviously apparent on the face of it but it is really illustrative of Something that it has my so-called liberal father posting links to fucking prageru videos trying to manufacture consent for the murder of palestinian children

[askaceattorney]

UTTERLY POINTLESS POST

- Chief Mod Edgeworth