#which will fuck all y'all one day

[dukeofriven]

To My Beloved iPod (2018ish-2023)

RIP IPod nano 7th gen. I kept you alive as long as I could since I bought you at the Good Pawn Shop to replace the 30-second battery life iPod nano the other, Bad Pawn Shop sold me and would not let me return. (The Good Pawn Shop died in Covid, the shitty one, of course, survived). You lasted lo these many years, the last few of which have required me to use increasingly elaborate elastic band combinations to get you to attach to the cord. But now, no matter what I try, it's like an essential catch is gone and the cord flies out like a greased pig. I can no longer charge you, much less add new podcasts, and this is thus the end. You represent the era before enshittification destroyed the music business. You existed before Spotify, which will one day erase everyone's music that they don't own and don't even rent, because it can—and anyone who thinks otherwise hasn't been paying attention. You represent an era in which 'having a data plan' (at brutal Canadian prices), wasn't assumed, and I was not treated like an idiot for not shelling out the hundred+ dollars a month to have one just to stream music while paying a rental fee to not own it. You represent an era before it was expected that I would want an overpriced smartphone to do everything poorly—a poor phone, a poor camera, a poor Mp3 player. An era in which I could want to listen to music or podcasts without being interrupted by emails or texts or phone calls or a dozen other notifications—when I was allowed to 'unproductively' be alone with my self and my audio of choice. You represent the last era where it was okay to own things, before neo-feudalism became the 'smart' tech-savvy thing we were all supposed to embrace and everyone wondered why I looked at them with such contempt: given what is now happening with video streaming, I was right, and I remain right, and I was never wrong. I have spent some sum on a knock-off, because replacements are now either the nightmare roulette of second-hand ebay gambles or unopened mint-condition $300 money grabs. I will have to come to terms with ending 20-odd years of iTunes—which hasn't been a good program since 2010 at the latest but I was used to it, damnit, and part of the enshittification is that nothing is allowed to last. A few months ago my pop-corn maker died: it was older than I am, dated from my parents wedding, and had outlast that marriage by over 25 years. Young people won't understand: things used to last. You bought something on the guarantee it would last you many, many years. when you bought it, you owned it, and no one in a C-suit could take it away. And, if it broke, it could be repaired. All of that is dead. We let the tech companies kill it because we kept wanting newer, shinier things. More 'convenience.' Not quality. Not longevity. Just ease. And they have fucked us and our world in thanks. iPod, you did nothing for me but play music and podcasts. It was all you needed to do: not play movies, not have games, not have a browser, or a webcam, or connect me to social media. If we want to improve the world we need to make such things again: items that do only what they need to do, and do that well, rather than accepting a device that does 30 things poorly and thinking it is a good compromise because it is 'convenient' and 'easy.' It just lets capital sell you garbage it won't even let you keep. Ave atque vale, iPod. See you at the crossroads with those who went before: tell them that in my memories, they live on forever.

[necrotic-nephilim]

there is not enough femslash in batcest circles. the girls deserve to be just as weird about each other as the boys are. if BruDick gets to be weird father/son/brothers/lovers/friends/rivals/soulmates then it is only fair that Babs/Cass get to be mother/daughter/sisters/lovers too. Something about that deep intrinsic but undefinable love that is born out of trauma, especially if you consider Cass not knowing what healthy love looks like in the first place. i think it's fun and deserves just as much fandom content.

besides that, you can get even more niche with rarepairs like Helena/Steph. Huntress/Spoiler: Blunt Trauma is already a fantastic comic and even though it's their only real canon interaction it has so much potential. very comparable to TimJay in how Helena tries to get Steph to understand her morals and the corruption you could play with it.

batman: huntress/spoiler: blunt trauma (1998)

that comic also highlights on how both Steph and Helena are outcasts of the Batfamily and don't have the approval of Bruce to be doing what they do in "his city". I think there's so much Potential in Helena taking Steph under her wing because Bruce won't let her in and it becomes a weird codependent toxic sapphic mess. I think the protectiveness Helena feels over Steph from the get-go is so clear and the way she wants to look out for Steph, wants to make sure Steph understands the real world? I love them. Helena should be allowed to steal Steph, actually. I think it'd be fun.

there are a lot of other possibilities too like Babs/Steph or even getting weird with Helena Bertinelli/Helena Wayne and the existential question of "is it selfcest or not." But these two specifically live in my head rent-free, especially Helena/Steph and one day I'll convince everyone else to ship it too.

[spinjitsuburst]

ramble about ur favs i wanna hear abt ur thoughts -zaptrap

HAN’S INFODUMPING ABOUT JAY... START!!!!

so like sgdkdhdkdhd I say Jay and Lloyd are my “favorites” but honestly it’s so hard to pick favorites out of this skittles squad like I love EVERY character for a variety of different reasons. I was going to also infodump about Lloyd but then I started talking about Prime Empire and then this post got. Long. So. it's just Jay I may infodump about Lloyd another day especially since I'm very Conduit Brained Rn but yea yea!

this is long so i'm putting most of it under the cut so y'all don't kill me for making a huge long post

I considered putting Zane and Sora on here as well since I’d also consider them my “favs” but like this is already gonna be. A lot of. Infodumping (also i typed THIS part before I even started and decided not to yell about Lloyd because this already got long enough). Maybe I’ll make a separate post for those two hmm hmm much to consider but for now MY (technically) FAVORITE NINJAGO CHARACTER: JAY WALKER

THE SPARKPLUG WHO INVADED MY BRAIN LIKE A PARASITE

so hey his name is a pun this makes me laugh ridiculously hard every time I remember he is named. After a misdemeanor HSKSHDKFH

Jay is such an interesting case of a character for me because I started out the show not liking him. Which is. Stares at my entire account I think my feelings have changed somewhat

Jay starts out as an asshole I don’t think anyone can disagree with me there (although honestly they’re all assholes in early ninjago they bullied a ten year old and left him dangling several feet off the ground) but over the course of the show you can see him start developing into a much more interesting character. He goes from being so insecure he's faking everything about himself to someone who knows who he is and is so genuine about it

now yea we could argue about whether his character was too uwu-ified post-season 10 but this is the FUN HAN POST SO WE'RE NOT GONNA TALK ABOUT THAT the point is you can SEE the growth that Jay has gone through and I am going to show you that growth through what I call

✨ The Skybound to Prime Empire Effect ✨

I AM SO PASSIONATE ABOUT THE IDEA THAT PRIME EMPIRE WAS WRITTEN TO BE A DIRECT PARALLEL OF SKYBOUND AND WAS CENTERED ON SHOWING HOW THE NINJA ESPECIALLY JAY HAVE GROWN THROUGHOUT THE SEASON

when season 12 rolls around we are at the point in Jay's development where he is CONFIDENT in who he is. He's a fun-loving jokester with the power of lightning and the drive to help people whenever he can. He uses jokes and humor to help alleviate tension and get people through whatever's happening. And when on his own what does he do?

BECOME AN ENTERTAINER BABEY

i like to think jay's club in prime empire was a safe haven for anyone stuck in the game who figured out hey. we Can't Leave and felt freaked about it. Also Jay would generally try and spread the word that hey something ISN'T RIGHT HERE which would lead people to want to stay with him

(totally plugging my friend's fic but this kind of thing is explored in would you like to enter prime empire by @finn-m-corvex y'all should check it out cool cool)

also the prime empire shorts which i watched all of in the midst of typing this video cuz i love them go watch them please please please jay was publically fighting the red visors which I imagine may have raised some red flags for some players

THIS SOMEHOW TURNED INTO PRIME EMPIRE INFODUMPING LMAO ANYWAYS Jay's confident! He becomes an entertainer because it's who he knows he is! And it's something that will get people hyped and having fun, which is very in-character for Jay to do! He uses those kinds of things to mask the Bad Things going on and get people remembering what's good

I've talked about this sort of thing before but that's Jay's whole philosophy as early as season 9! Which is a DIRECT contrast to how he views it in season 6, as Nadakhan puts it scarily accurately

"You make jokes to mask the fact that you're afraid"

(i was gonna grab a screenshot for that like i did with the hunted scene but netflix has bloCKED THE ABILITY TO TAKE SCREENSHOTS THE WAY I USED TO and i don't have them already and i'm too lazy to grab them from elsewhere so alas trust me he says it)

making jokes to hide your fear and using humor to remind yourself of what's good and coping with the bad are two VERY different outlooks on it

so I think this outlook is what drives him to make this glamrock persona in the first place - this is a bad situation, one he's in with other civilians, and what better way to keep him and themself safe until the others get there than throwing a big performance at a safe place!

also it's just so gender okay I want to look like Superstar Rockin' Jay so badly

it's also interesting to see his outlook on his parents change over time! In season six he finds out Ed and Edna aren't his birth parents and feels upset about it, not understanding why his birth parents would've abandoned him. In season twelve, that outlook changing is EXACTLY why Jay's able to get through to Unagami

"I was abandoned by my parents, too!... I never understood why, and I never had the chance to even ask. But I always hoped there was a good reason. What if there's a reason?"

(again curse you netflix i wanted SCREENSHOTS whatever whatever)

It's this scene that gets Unagami to calm down long enough for Milton Dyer to get there, and presumably is what stops him from just. Flattening him and Jay like a pancake.

to piggyback off of this i absolutely adore how Unagami and Jay consider each other adopted brothers in that one book I still haven't read and I hope he's in Dragons Rising at some point Unagami is my favorite "villain" (no longer a villain) in the whole show he deserves more screentime

like this is where i found out about this and it's plagued my mind ever since. i need to read. this book just for them

SO YEA OKAY Prime Empire is "Who is Jay as a Person Post-Skybound" to me also it opens up so many fascinating things about Jay. I rest my case

so backpedaling a little bit. JAY CARES SO MUCH ABOUT HIS PARENTS GUYS IT'S SO SOFT AND I'M sobs

like yea the first episode with Ed and Edna in it has Jay avoiding them like the plague but this gets explained very easily when you remember he was bullied for his home life before he became a ninja. It makes a lot more sense why he wouldn't want them around his new friends, assuming they'd react the same way. Also how was he supposed to know literally all the rest of the groups parents were either dead, presumed dead, or had a toxic relationship with their kid lmao

(Cole calling his mom kills me. Cole's mom is dead. I know they probably just didn't think that far ahead when writing the dialogue but it's so funny mans pretended to call his dead mom to get on Jay for not appreciating his parents iconic behavior)

anyways literally every episode Ed and Edna are central to (except like the one in skybound) Jay stops at nothing to protect his parents and it means the absolute world to me he's so much like them!! They raised an inventive little nerd and he will stop at nothing to make sure they're safe and it's. It's SO IMPORTANT TO ME OKAY

ALSO this is an excuse to clip my favorite piece of dialogue possibly in the entire show. Except Netflix won't let me now. So you just get the text dialogue

Jay's just fallen from the sky with a messed up eye and is incredibly distraught that all his friends are captured. And his dad just. The woRLD IS FALLING APART AND HE'S EATIN' SOUP-

Ed i love you

anyways

anways anyways this just turned into me rambling about prime empire and then Ed and Edna and a lot of disjointed other stuff but thank you for this opportunity i was going to also ramble about lloyd but i put this post in a word count and

yea i think that's enough for a tumblr post anyways! If anyone wants any like. More logically thought out and direct thoughts about characters feel free to send me asks this was fun thank u @zaptrap for this opportunity to scream about jay

[vacantgodling]

not to be weird and sappy on main, but frfr i'm so glad i have found a community of people who think my work is good

[rotisseries]

inspired by elli's poll lol cause this seems fun actually but if you guys have bad answers I'll kill myself on your doorstep or smth

[nilesmoon]

Path to Freedom: an Amprule First Note analysis thingy

Due to popular demand (of my 3 friends), I've decided to type up another break down of an amprule illustration!!! yippee!!!!

Once again let's start simple!! the light composition!! There is a clear light/shadow duality happening in this illustration so here's a neat chart I made to show it:

Now you might notice the red/green tint I added, as well as how Chungsung is in the light meanwhile Dongha is in the dark. So let's break down the components of each side.

Dongha is surrounded by shadows. The shadows likely show how he feels trapped in the Yeon family. The paintings that surround him add even more pressure because he has the Yeon family name to live up to.

He is looked down by the paintings behind him (it's only Chungsung who's looking up at him) meanwhile Dongha doesn't look at anyone, he fears that he has failed the family (his father). He seems to be considering his choices between the two paths he could take.

What are his two paths exactly? Well, they're shown through the doors! The door next to him and the door below him.

The door next to him will possibly take him deeper into the mansion. The path is pitch-black and the darkness will make him feel even more lost. This path will probably keep him trapped in the mansion forever.

The door below him is lit up and will possibly lead him to the exit. The path is lit up and it all seems good, but there is yet another painting in the way. His fight for freedom won't be easy but we already know that he is determined to take that step forward.

The physical locations of the doors could also mean something. The one that leads inside the mansion is higher up, it means that if Dongha wants to keep his social status he's gonna have to give up his freedom. But if he wants to become free he'll have to "lower" himself and possibly lose his status. (It is worth pointing out how the positions of the characters show their imbalance as well.)

Now, everything I've mentioned to this point has been focusing on Dongha's struggles, so where's Chungsung in all of this?

I've talked about the role colors play in Amprule art in my previous post. Chungsung's red contrasts with the Yeon family green and gives Dongha a place to Be. There is no red in this illustration, Chungsung is as trapped in the family as Dongha is.

Just with the way he's positioned shows us that he is leaning toward the idea of freedom (is it his freedom, does he want Dongha to be free, or is it just his willingness to be a tool for Dongha's freedom). And if we take account of the light = freedom & shadow = restraint meanings, the light is practically shining upon him.

But at the end of the day, he is still only a butler and he is waiting for Dongha to make a decision. His loyalty to Dongha is not something to question, we all know that Chungsung will stand by his side no matter which path he chooses. However, if Dongha chooses to go deeper into the mansion he might end up being separated from Chungsung and their distance would become even bigger.

"To me Amprule means freedom." is something Dongha says to Hajun in the Showdown Aftermath drama track. Dongha forming Amprule is not only him choosing his freedom but choosing to get closer to Chungsung as well. Though I suppose neither of them are aware of how they've been closing the gap.

Considering how this is a bit of a "prequel to Amprule" type of image it gives us a decent look into just how suffocating their lives in the Yeon family were. They still haven't made it to equal footing, but we know that they're slowly getting there and setting themselves free.

[graysongraysoff]

Imagine a world where my parents got a fucking grip lmfao

[sarah-yyy]

at that time of the year where i have No Motivation to work

[theflyingfeeling]

fanfic rambling in the tags, nothing interesting really, just me talking to myself lol, okay to ignore or read as you please ✨

[livwritesstuff]

.

[pardonmydelays]

IN THE HEIGHTS countdown: 1 DAY!

song for today:

abuela, i’m sorry but i ain’t goin’ back because i’m telling your story and i can say goodbye to you smilin’, i found my island i been on it this whole time i’m home!

[unreadpoppy]

Nebulizing a dog is harder than it sounds let me tell you that

[herd-reject-arts]

Here I go to spend several days by myself in the North Carolina wilderness. Wish me luck. Never gone camping alone (but I have my dogs, and I trust them more than any people I know), so that's intimidating. Hopefully I don't have to fistfight a bear over whatever I'm cooking that night. Not looking forward to no toilet or shower until Monday, but it is what it is. I absolutely have to do this, for my mental health. I'm losing so much money taking the time off work to just have mountain time to myself. But I gotta. My life has been such a chaotic mess for over half a year now - everything that could go wrong, has - and I've never felt so close to just letting myself snap. I can feel it boiling right under the surface at any given time.

But yeah. Should be a time. Might post pictures upon my return (provided a bear doesn't decide I'm on the menu). Wish me luck!

[lohstandfound]

ignore this.

learning to shut up when i dont have anything new to say to the discussions my mutuals are having about the treatment of the female characters in this show and fandom

even though ive just gone ahead and rambled in the tags a bunch of bullshit

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

the idea of three hopes dimivain is also so funny to me tho bc dimitri goes and recruits miklan and then miklan just gets back only to find out his brother and king are Very Close and he's just like "oh god. oh no". he knows exactly what he is going to be subjected to for the rest of his life.

[ereborne]

Song of the Day: December 7

"Wolverine" by Goghi