#you can probably ignore this

[soupbitch-moneybitch]

i've been pondering it for ages now, that there is some Significance to the fact that stede is always on the left and ed is always on the right in all their intimate moments (to the point that they mirrored the wall kiss scene to make it that way), except the mermaid sequence

seriously, every significant encounter, stede is on the left and ed is on the right:

-when they meet

-when they've exchanged clothes and are playing around on deck

-"run me through"

-"you wear fine things well"

-"wouldn't be the same with six"

-act of grace (from the side shot)

-first kiss

-stede's dream sequence where they run to each other

-"you wear fine things well" reprise

-captured by ned lowe

-when they're about to dance

-stede killing ned

-aformentioned wall kiss

-"i love you, i love you"

but the mermaid sequence has ed on the left and stede on the right. and actually, as i'm thinking about it, there are actually two other scenes, and those are the "i love everything about you" scene, and the final shot of them at the would-be inn, and that feels significant too. like, maybe i am just looking way too hard into things, but something something, science tells us all the important bits are on the right, but the heart is on the left, and stede represents ed's heart, but in the mermaid sequence stede is saving ed's heart, the "i love everything about you" is stede healing ed's heart, and the final shot is stede giving himself over to ed's heart's desires, so in those scenes ed is representing the heart, something something

idk, i'm probably seeing things that aren't there, but istg this has haunted me, and who doesn't love a little over-the-top meta?

[g4laxy-drag0n]

All our orbiters are going to be old and falling apart by the time we need them for MSR? Gee, if only there were solutions to this problem

If only there were ways we already knew about to extend spacecraft lifetimes and functionality so we could continue using the ones we already have (ahem)

If only there was another orbiter that is somewhat new and in good condition and from a friendly country that we could ask for support from (cough cough)

If only we were sending two smallsats to Mars next year that we could probably modify for communication purposes (cough cough cough)

If only there was a neatly outlined plan for an orbiter we could build and launch that was made for this exact situation (AHEM COUGH COUGH)

[floccinaucinihilipilificationa]

[agryffindordivergenttribute]

I can’t believe that the series finale of The Flash tonight will be the end of the arrowverse. I started watching Arrow during season 2 at the urging of one my closest friends, and I have watched The Flash since the beginning. The series finale has me feeling kind of nostalgic tonight, especially since I don’t really talk to the friend that got me into the arrowverse anymore. Anyway, I’m going to try liveblogging about the show for the first time in years... while doing my French homework. Taking summer classes sucks.

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

putting my prediction on record now that the coming decade is going to see the rise of viral-marketed fancy at-home water filtration systems, driving and driven by a drastic reduction in the quality of U.S. tap water (given that we are in a 'replacement era' where our current infrastructure is reaching the end of its lifespan--but isn't being replaced). also guessing that by the 2030s access to drinkable tap water will be a mainstream class issue, with low-income & unstably housed people increasingly forced to rely on expensive bottled water when they can't afford the up-front cost of at-home filtration--and with this being portrayed in media as a "moral failing" and short-sighted "choice," rather than a basic failure of our political & economic systems. really hope i'm just being alarmist, but plenty of this already happens in other countries, and the U.S. is in a state of decline, so. here's praying this post ages into irrelevance. timestamped April 2023

[maddie-grove]

It really is amazing that people think there had to be some kind of unusual explanation for the Salem Witch Trials (like ergot poisoning or, even worse, actual witchcraft) when the Satanic Panic happened in the last quarter of the twentieth century.

[krazieka2]

Here's a big old Fire Emblem Search & Find I did for the FE3H Masquerade Zine! Find the Golden Deer, but see if you can't find the rest of the students as well! For the ultimate challenge, see if you can't name every character! (Disclaimer two characters are NPCs with no names)

[fuckassfag]

Need to stare longingly at a guy while he rambles and rambles and rambles about whatever is on his mind. Maybe even give him a kiss from how cute he is when talking.

[dinoserious]

ornithocheirid girl. her feathers are black and white but she dyes them various colors

[pr0cyon-lotor]

Shen Yuan is the type of guy to get proposed to and brush it off with a "yeah sure. if you don't change your mind when you're older I guess lmao"

Little does he know but he has a husband because that little former street rat isn't letting go

[muffinlance]

Wait, what’s going on with Embers???? That fic has been on my read later list since 2021, what’s happened with it???

Brief overview, then I'm likely never touching this topic again, because this is not a Drama Blog:

Context: Embers is a super old AtLA fic that was written during the early fandom days, read widely at the time, and was the origin of the widely-used fanon name of "Wani" for Zuko's ship (kind of by default that it was one of the first popular fics to give his ship a name, I think?), even though most fic writers don't seem to realize it's from there anymore.

"What's Going On": I used to include a link in all my stories to it, because I believe in crediting other writers for borrowed elements, and I was using "Wani" in all my fics. But BOY did I not want to be sending readers that way anymore, so I've adopted a new name for Zuko's ship, and removed all Embers links.

None of the criticisms about Embers itself are new; I'm assuming they date back to when the fic was being written, because this isn't an "it aged badly" thing, this is an "actually yeah this gets worse the longer you think about it and I shouldn't have ignored my bad feelings just because some of the worldbuilding was interesting" thing.

An Incomplete List of Why I Made the Change:

I don't actually like the story that much anymore, and don't want to rec it

I tried to re-read it recently to see if some things were as bad as I remembered and it turns out they were So Much Worse Oh Yikes. More specifically, the treatment of Katara and Aang and their respective cultures has... rather a lot going on. One example: The Fire Nation and Air Nomads are both given multiple backstory elements in an attempt to make the average Fire Nation soldier's participation in the genocide/war in large part the fault of the Avatar and the Air Nomads themselves, and also fully justified from the Fire Nation perspective. And I do mean fully. One of its core tenants is "People from the Fire Nation (and only people from the Fire Nation) who don't follow orders Literally Die, therefore murdering pacifists and babies and continuing the war (and their regularly scheduled war crimes) is the only thing it is physically possible for them to do". I cannot emphasize enough how literal that is.

Also the name "Wani" means "Alligator" and is... objectively a pretty lame name for Zuko's ship? Where's the personality, where's the deeper meaning, where's the resonance with Zuko's themes? @tuktukpodfics initially thought I was calling the ship "Wanyi", and that's what I've switched to, because it is Objectively So Much Better. In their words: “Wànyī (萬一): Literally ‘one in ten thousand,’ ‘perchance.’ Used grammatically in Chinese to mean ‘what if’ or ‘just in case.’ I think a ship called ‘The Perchance’ is perfect for a boy clinging to false hope.”

TL:DR; I don't rec Embers anymore, because I don't actually like the story anymore, and there are things about it that get worse the more I think on them. I've removed links to it and renamed Zuko's ship to "Wanyi" ("The Perchance") because our boy deserves a ship name that reflects his character arc.

[silverware-is-interesting]

i've never really made a comic before, well, i have, but nothing i had intention to show anyone else

[merlins-strawberriesandroses]

The thing no one ever considers while writing up character analyses about Merlin is that. he must have been sooooooo sleepy.

[coquelicoq]

what i like especially about the pronouns in the goblin emperor is that this language doesn't just have the T-V distinction (aka informal vs. formal second-person pronouns, in this case 'thou' vs. 'you'), it also has informal and formal first-person pronouns. having BOTH of these distinctions in the same language lets you fine-tune your tone by mixing and matching. with only one axis of formality, when you use informal pronouns, are you being familiar in an intimate way, or in an insolent or dismissive way? when you use formal pronouns, are you being polite or standoffish? you can't tell just from the pronouns; there's ambiguity. but a language where you can use a formal first-person pronoun in the same sentence as an informal second-person pronoun allows you to distance yourself (via the formal first) while also being familiar (via the informal second), thereby achieving the conversational tenor known to linguists as Fuck Thee Specifically.

[kiwi-and-pasta-at-3am]

Despite the rumors and the appearance, you may find that Ronal Speirs...

Can actually be kinda soft!!

[stranger-awakening]

One Piece Episode 102 / Episode 377

"I might not have the same bounty on my head as Luffy at the moment, but I swear to you that I'm destined to become the greatest swordsman the world has ever known. Surely that must be worth something."