#we’ve had in a LONG time

[angryturtledragon]

Today (and everyday) my enemy is color theory

[jomeimei421]

Felt a bit nostalgic watching RT shut down…Here are the og faves again for old times sake 💙

[sun-e-chips]

They’re so smug about teasing the angry orca man I love it!

Enemies to lovers and big women/y/n my biggest weakness!!!!!!!!

Had to draw this scene from @naffeclipse ‘s eating krill au with humpback y/n and orca eclipse >:)

(I know this isn’t the actual size ratio but it was funnier for the bit i had to!)

[valewritessss]

This fandom is so nit-picky that I’ve seen more criticism on every little thing about wottg (a book that came out 2 days ago) than people saying things they liked about it

Edit: someone has already gotten mad so I repeat this is a joke and not that deep❤️

[dear-ao3]

once again. it’s train time.

[corellianhounds]

I know part of Leia’s character in the original trilogy is rooted in her stoicism in the face of overwhelming odds but her maturity, capability, and levelheadedness on the Death Star and beyond makes her a largely stagnant character over the course of the original trilogy. Her arc in Empire and Return of the Jedi is being able to swallow her pride and start opening up to Han. Han and Luke both go through drastic and notable character arcs over the course of each movie and the trilogy as a whole which makes them dynamic and interesting to watch

Leia doesn’t have to mature or learn anything because she’s already mature. Though it makes sense for her to need and have that as a young senator being thrust into the role of a war general at a young age, we don’t really get a whole lot else from her (which is why I think we’ve had girlboss!Leia as a cultural sticking point and merchandise opportunity for almost fifty years).

For the most part I’m kind of… indifferent to Leia on her own because we don’t really get Leia on her own. In the original movies the biggest part of her character comes from her interactions with Luke and Han, and then she’s responsible for running the Rebellion after that. Personally, I think the most unique and interesting actions we get to see from her come from the Jabba’s palace sequence, starting with her entrance as Boushh and ending with her strangling Jabba the Hutt. The rest of the time we’re seeing her in the context of the war and/or her romance with Han, but not dealing with the larger implications of some of the things specific to her. She and Luke aren’t together much on Endor especially after the sibling/Darth Vader reveal, and her relationship with Han is still one where the two of them are on largely equal ground with each other. She’s allowed to be angry and irritated with and take out her frustrations on him (which to be fair is a kind of vulnerability in itself) because he has the ability to get under her skin and (largely) has the wherewithal to take what she dishes back, and she doesn’t HAVE to play nice with him the way she does the rest of the people under her command. After that, Leia doesn’t get much outside of what she’s doing for other people.

And I get it! There’s only so much story you can tell in two hours! And I know it’s a fairytale, I know these are still stock character tropes within the context of a space opera, and that’s fine! I don’t dislike the movies or Leia because of that, and I would have been fine with her arc being one of a strong-willed, independent, and capable, mature young woman having to learn to rely on the people around her and learn to ask for help and humble herself to the point of vulnerability with the people who care about her IF…

If they had applied those aspects of her character to more than just her romance with Han. We really only get one genuine moment of vulnerability from Leia in the sibling reveal on Endor where she’s distraught and Han finds her. The rest of her emotional moments are still played with the mask of aloofness and control, and while it DOES make sense for that to be necessary of her because of the position she fills within the story and the Rebellion, it does still make her a little bland in terms of character development because we have nothing to contrast that control with.

Stoicism and regality and capability are more impressive when we’ve seen the other side of that spectrum in the character. Leia’s resilience would have been more poignant and impressive and heartbreaking if we’d gotten to see her grapple with things that are beyond her ability to remain stoic about; the two big ones are the destruction of Alderaan, and finding out who her real father is.

I know Luke is the main character of the trilogy. I know there wouldn’t have been time to explore the gravity of those moments with Leia in a meaningful way without the movies being much longer and running the risk of diverting focus from the story Luke was driving, and the movies are, at the end of the day, supposed to be fun. They’re not meant to be hard dramas.

But can you imagine. Can you imagine.

If we’d gotten to see Leia truly devastated by the destruction of Alderaan happening in front of her very eyes. Can you imagine seeing her break free from the guards to run to a massive viewport that makes her look small and powerless against the black void of space, Vader and Tarkin allowing it because they finally have something that’s getting a reaction out of the unflappable princess who has apparently endured hours of torture without giving up the location of the Rebel base. Leia struggling and failing to keep down the rising panic as Tarkin threatens to destroy an entire planet, her home world, family and friends and people she’s known her entire life in imminent danger as the Empire closes in with a battle station the size of a moon.

Her mother and father are down there.

The Sith lord is silent behind her as Imperials around the bridge work with complete indifference to this woman whose home and people they are planning to destroy, Tarkin’s boredom and feigned polite tone of voice asking her again where the rebels are located. Leia hesitates at the window, not looking at any of them, and the smile Tarkin had before dissipates as he orders the men to ready the shot. Leia turns back from the viewport to come halfway back across the bridge, struggling to keep up the front of diplomacy as she lies and tells them the rebel base is on Dantooine, desperately pleading with them to spare Alderaan and praying against all hope that she’s bought them some time.

Tarkin finally looks satisfied. And then he gives the order anyway.

Leia finally breaks as the men around them fire up the laser, her pleading with Tarkin not to do it, to spare her people, she’s given them what they want, she gave up the Rebel Alliance, please, there are billions of people there with nothing to do with the Rebellion, please you can’t do this, please—

The sound of a massive energy surge accompanies a flash of brilliant green light behind her. Leia screams “No!” as she turns and runs back to collide with the viewport, her face stricken in horror as she slams her fist against it in a futile effort to stop them, to do something, to do anything—

But there never was anything she could have done that would have stopped Tarkin’s order. Alderaan is annihilated, an entire planet and people blasted into oblivion by an uncaring Empire.

Leia sinks to the floor in horror, one hand against the window and the other covering her mouth as complete and utter heartbreak plays out across her face. Tarkin motions for two guards to drag her to her feet and they begin to take her away. The Sith Lord and Imperial Moff watch impassively as the princess without clan or kin weeps into her hands for the homeworld she would never have been able to save, no matter what she tried to bargain with.

For the rest of the movie we see Leia seemingly untouchable, calm and in control. Nobody thinks to ask if she’s okay because she never gives them a reason to think otherwise. It’s only when those closest to her find her alone that they see how vulnerable she really is, and it won’t be until she nearly loses them too that the façade starts to break.

[snzluv3r]

i actually feel so incredibly uncomfortable and isolated in this space right now and i know that’s silly because of how many people there are just like me who share the same feelings but idk…the fact that people even think this is defensible behavior is making me feel sick

[deus-ex-mona]

lxl are the only ones who can get married twice and go on two honeymoons without being a canon couple (yet…?)

[edwinisms]

I know how it sounds at first, but I really gotta feel bad for the boys that sacrificed edwin; I mean even the term “sacrificed edwin” paints them in a more sinister light than they really deserve– considering that wasn’t really, actually their intention.

they were bullies, they were homophobic (and/or were self loathing gay boys themselves taking it out on edwin, or were equally likely peer pressured into acting a certain way), they planned something stupid and mean to do to an innocent, anxious boy with the goal of scaring the shit out of him, all because he was effeminate and an easy target. but they didn’t know or expect any of the ritual stuff to be real. they were all laughing and joking during the ritual because it was just that to them– a joke. a cruel joke, but a joke.

teenagers can be mean and stupid and they usually regret it as adults and grow out of it / grow from it. they were stifled the chance to grow out of it, at least while alive. none of those boys deserved to be instakilled and sent to hell; they’re really not that much less deserving than edwin himself. they were all just kids, after all.

[septembersung]

[hythlodaes]

getting bitched at for using an ounce of logic in the workplace 🤪

[averagemrfox]

This is so unserious but hear me out. Tai’s semblance basically lets him take a vessel of some kind - like a cardboard shipping container - and create a sort of bag of holding

[tchaikovskaya]

ok so AI can make whole ass HD videos of spaghetti doing gymnastics but I still don’t have a way to blacklist whatever certain celebrity’s face so I never have to see an image of them uploaded to the world wide web on my feed ever again? okay... okay.

[acourtofquestions]

Rowaelin Chapter 41 Kingdom of Ash:

She'd rebuild it—what she had been.

Perhaps one last time, perhaps only for a little while, but she'd do it. If only for Terrasen.

Rowan swooped from the mast, shifting as he reached her side at the rail. He surveyed the night-black sea beyond them. "You should rest." She slid him a glance. "I'm not tired." Not a lie, not in some regards. "Want to spar?" He frowned. "Training can start tomorrow."

"Or tonight." She held his piercing stare, matched his dominance with her own.

"It can wait a few hours, Aelin."

"Every day counts." Against Erawan, even a day of training would count.

Rowan's jaw tightened. "True," he said at last. "But it can still wait. There are ... there are things we need to discuss." The silent words rose in his animal-bright eyes. About you and me.

Her mouth went dry. But Aelin nodded In silence, they strode into their spacious quarters, its only decoration the wall of windows that overlooked the churning sea behind them. A far cry from a queen's chamber, or any she might have purchased as Adarlan's assassin.

At least the bed built into the wall looked clean enough, the sheets crisp and stainless. But Aelin headed for the oak desk anchored to the floor, and leaned against it while Rowan shut the door.

In the dim lantern light, they stared at each other.

She'd endured Maeve and Cairn; she'd endured Endovier and countless other horrors and losses. She could have this conversation with him. The first step toward rebuilding herself.

Aelin knew Rowan could hear her thundering heart as the space between them went taut. She swallowed once. "Elide and Lorcan told you... told you everything that was said on that beach."

A curt nod, wariness flooding his eyes. "Everything that Maeve said." Another nod.

She braced herself. "That I'm-we're mates."

Understanding and something like relief replaced that wariness. "Yes."

"I'm your mate," she said, needing to voice it. "And you are mine."

Rowan crossed the room, but halted a few feet from the desk on which she leaned. "What of it, Aelin?" His question was low, rough.

"Don't you..." She scrubbed at her face. "You know what she did to you, to ..." She couldn't say her name. Lyria. "Because of it."

"I do know."

"And?"

"And what do you wish me to say?"

She pushed off the desk. "I wish you to tell me how you feel about it. If…"

"If what?"

"If you wish it wasn't so."

His brows narrowed. "Why would I ever wish that?"

She shook her head, unable to answer, and stared over her shoulder toward the sea.

It seemed like he would close the distance between them, but he remained where he was.

"Aelin." His voice turned hoarse. "Aelin."

She looked at him then, at the pain in his words.

"Do you know what I wish?" He exposed his palms, one tattooed, the other unmarked. "I wish that you had told me. When you realized it. I wish you had told me then."

She swallowed against the ache in her throat. "I didn't want to hurt you."

"Why would it ever hurt me to know the truth that was already in my heart? The truth I hoped for?"

"I didn't understand it. I didn't understand how it was possible. I thought maybe ... maybe you might be able to have two mates within a lifetime, but even then, I just ….." She blew out a breath. "I didn't want you to be distressed." His eyes softened. "Do I regret that Lyria was dragged into this, that the cost of Maeve's game was her life, and the life of the child we might have had? Yes. I regret that, and I wish it had never happened." He would bear the tattoo to remember it for the rest of his days. "But none of that was your fault. I will always carry some of the burden of it, always know I chose to leave her for war and glory, and that I played right into Maeve's hands."

"Maeve wanted to ensnare you to get to me, though."

"Then it is her choice, not yours."

Aelin ran a hand over the worn wood of the desk. "In those illusions she spun for me, she showed me variations on one more than all the others." The words were strained, but she forced them out. Forced herself to look at him. "She spun me one dreamscape that felt so real I could smell the wind off the Staghorns."

"What did she show you?" A breathless question.

Aelin had to swallow before she could answer. "She showed me what might have been—if there had been no Erawan, if Elena had dealt with him properly and banished him. If there had been no Lyria, none of that pain or despair you endured. She showed me Terrasen as it would have been today, with my father as king, and my childhood happy, and..." Her lips wobbled. "When I turned twenty, you came with a delegation of Fae to Terrasen, to make amends for the rift between my mother and Maeve. And you and I took one look at each other in my father's throne room, and we knew."

She didn't fight the stinging in her eyes. "I wanted to believe that was the true world. That this was the nightmare from which I'd awaken. I wanted to believe that there was a place where you and I had never known this suffering and loss, where we'd take one look at each other and know we were mates. Maeve told me she could make it so. If I gave her the keys, she'd make it all possible." She wiped at her cheek, at the tear that escaped down it. "She spun me realities where you were dead, where you'd been killed by Erawan and only in handing over the keys to her would I be able to avenge you. But those realities made me ... I stopped being useful to her when she told me you were gone. She couldn't get me to talk, to think. Yet in the ones where you and I met, where things were as they should have been ... that was when I came the closest."

His swallow was audible. "What stopped you?"

She wiped at her face again. "The male I fell in love with was you. It was you, who knew pain as I did, and who walked with me through it, back to the light. Maeve didn't understand that. That even if she could create that perfect world, it wouldn't be you with me. And I'd never trade that, trade this. Not for anything." He extended his hand. An offer and invitation.

Aelin laid hers atop his, and his callused fingers squeezed gently. "I wanted it to be you," he breathed, closing his eyes. "For months and months, even in Wendlyn, I wondered why you weren't my mate instead. It tore me up, wondering it, but I still did." He opened his eyes, and they burned like green fire. "All this time, I wanted it to be you."

She lowered her gaze, but he hooked a thumb and forefinger around her chin and lifted her face.

"I know you are tired, Fireheart. I know that the burden on your shoulders is more than anyone should endure." He took their joined hands and laid them on his heart. "But we'll face this together. Erawan, the Lock, all of it.

"We'll face it together. And when we are done, when you Settle, we will have a thousand years together. Longer."

A small sound came out of her. "Elena said the Lock requires—"

"We'll face it together," he swore again.

"And if the cost of it truly is you, then we'll pay it together. As one soul in two bodies.

Her heart strained to the point of cleaving. "Terrasen needs a king."

"I have no intention of ruling Terrasen without you. Aedion can have the job."

She scanned his face. He meant every word He brushed the hair from her face, his other hand still clasping hers to his chest, where his heart pounded a steady, unfaltering rhythm.

"Even if I had my choice of any dream-realities, any perfect illusions, I would still choose you, too."

She felt the truth of his words echo into the unbreakable thing that bound their very souls, and tilted her face up toward his. But he made no move beyond it.

She frowned. "Why aren't you kissing me?"

"I thought you might want to be asked first."

"That never stopped you before."

"This first time, I wanted to make sure you were ... ready." After Cairn and Maeve. After months of having no choices whatsoever.

She smiled despite that truth. "I'm ready to be kissed again, Prince."

He let out a dark chuckle and muttered, "Thank the gods," before he lowered his mouth to hers.

"You're my mate." Her words were a breathless rush. "And I am yours."

The world might have been burning around them for all she cared, all he cared, too.

"Together, Aelin," he promised, and she heard the rest of the words in every place their bodies joined. Together they would face this, together they would find a way.

Together we'll find a way, their mingling breaths, the crashing sea, seemed to echo.

Together.

[arinishi]

Once again, I don’t have a lot to say about the new TGS page, aside from 👀

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH CONGRATULATIONS ON THE WIN FOR THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY ON THIS WONDERFUL DAY WE LOVE TO SEE COMMUNICATION AND DEVELOPMENT!!!!!!!

[timechange]

MCFLY JULY ‘24 — on the radio.

JULY 15, 1989

Marty sighs, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. He flexes his hands, rolling his shoulders, trying to work the kink out of his back before getting back to work. That’s pretty much the only downside of tinkering around with various unfinished projects of Doc’s; way too many hours spent hunched over. 

“That was Tom Petty with ‘I Won’t Back Down’ here on KWHV 108.3 and I’m your host, Jamie Lee.” The deejay’s voice is sweet and smooth, and he remembers, warmth creeping across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose, that Jamie Lee was his first crush. As if it wasn’t enough she was the coolest girl inside the halls of Hill Valley High, outside of school she was the best basketball player and had the best music taste. A triple threat for sure. 

“Next up we’ve got something kinda special: a new group that’s been soaring through the charts and sent the music world spinning with their electrifying debut.” 

Marty feels his heart quicken in his chest and tries to tell himself to calm down, the radio static buzzing in his head. He drops the screwdriver, which clatters to the table clumsily. There’s no way. There’s absolutely no way in hell she could be talking about–

“So, without further ado, with their lead single ‘Strangerland’ off their album 88, give it up for Hill Valley’s very own hometown boys, McFly and the Flyaways!’ 

His stomach drops. He’d recognize that opening riff anywhere.

“Future sight can’t help me tonight, tired of waitin’ for time to restart–”

“Holy shit,” he breathes. “Holy shit!” he exclaims, leaping to his feet and not even caring that he hits his head on the way up. “Doc! DOC!” 

He only feels a little bad when the door gets kicked open and his best friend bursts into the room like he’s goddamn Batman, clad in safety goggles instead of a cape and wielding a fire extinguisher instead of a Batarang. 

“MARTY!” Doc cries, looking around like a man possessed, frantic in his search for some threat. “What is it? What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

He runs to the scientist, grasping his upper arms. His face hurts from smiling so much. 

“Doc! Doc, listen!”

“—ghosts in my head, there’s a ghost in the mirror that I see instead—" comes his own voice a moment later. 

Marty bows his head, grip momentarily tightening. There’s a lump in his throat and when he looks up at Doc again, his blue eyes are watery.

“My song, Doc,” he whispers. An awestruck, dumbstruck, disbelieving smile on his face makes him look all of thirteen again and he couldn’t care less. He lets out a laugh that’s a little too close to a sob for comfort. “They’re playing my song.” 

The fire extinguisher falls to the ground with a thud as Doc returns the embrace, holding Marty at arm’s length so tightly he thinks he’ll wake up with bruises in the morning. If Marty thought his own smile was big and stupid, it had nothing on Doc’s. 

“Do you know what this means?” he murmurs. 

“You were right,” Marty replies. “All the stuff you said to me.” 

“If you put your mind to it…” Doc starts, gently.

“…You can accomplish anything,” Marty finishes. 

The chorus starts, crackly over the radio, but it’s the greatest thing he’s ever heard. 

“Oh, I’m lost in my dreams, fallin' apart at the seams, and time is slippin' through my hand

But I got somethin' to prove, so what have I got to lose?

I'm gonna make it outta this

Strangerland!

I gotta make it outta this

Strangerland!” 

“Woah,” Marty laughs, tears sliding down his face. “This is heavy.” 

Doc pulls him into a bone-crushing hug which he eagerly returns, the instrumentation that took them weeks to nail blaring in the background.

“You did it, Marty. You made it.”

“I made it,” Marty repeats, as if it’ll make it feel more real. He feels lighter than air and like he’s buzzing with electricity, like he’s flying over a thundercloud. “Holy shit, I made it.” A sudden realization shocks him and his eyes widen. “I-I gotta tell the guys!”

“Go on, go on!” Doc encourages, letting him go, watching him fondly as he almost trips over his feet and the rug trying to make it to the phone in Doc and Clara’s library and study. 

However, it’s already ringing when he gets there. 

“Yo!” he greets, out of force of habit.

“Marty!” his dad’s warm voice responds. 

“Marty, honey, turn on the radio, quick!” his mom jumps in. “They’re playing it! Your, um, your Stranger in a Strange Land song!” 

“It’s your song, kiddo!” His dad sounds full to bursting with joy. “And boy, does it sound great!” 

He laughs, using his thumb and forefinger in a fruitless attempt to try to stem the flow of tears.

“Thanks, guys.”

“Oh, sweetheart, we’re so happy for you. And so proud of you, too, so proud.” His mom sounds like she’s about to cry, too. “Linda’s taping it and everything and Dave has it playing at the office!”

“We love you, son,” his dad reminds him, “and you’ll be home for dinner, right?”

“Yeah, Dad. I will. Love you too.”