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samijey · 4 months

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Corey Graves with the foreshadowing of all time in this old episode of Smackdown (February 19th, 2021)

Let's talk about this episode, shall we? Because the Sami & Jey dynamic is really interesting in retrospect

Let's talk about how this episode accidentally focuses on the samijey dynamic way before it became "a thing" - remember these were HEEL Jey and Sami - they were both at their lowest points, with Jey at his most volatile and aggressive (still reeling from his defeats against Roman) and Sami being an annoying, paranoid mess (this was shortly before the whole Johnny Knoxville thing).

At the start of the show, Sami interrupts a segment between Edge and Roman (the "real" top feud going on in SD at that time, if you'll remember - oof pandemic era) and immediately starts rambling, which Roman ignores, Edge laughs at and Jey just watches looking equal parts confused and curious:

man literally got the 🤔 going on

that was until Sami got the camera crew involved and started yelling into the microphone, at which point Jey lost patience and superkicked him - look at his face when he turns around to look at the camera guys he's soooo annoyed

classic samijey angst shot before it was a thing i'm just sayin'

Sami rolls to the outside after the superkick so Edge and Roman can resume their thing - and what does Jey keep doing during the rest of the segment? stare at Sami on the outside, of course

he just keeps doing it for no apparent reason

even while they're all making their exit, Jey's in the back of the shot staring at Sami, who's still down (lol at his little head popping up in the right corner of the frame)

cut to the main event tag match of heels Sami, Jey & Corbin vs babyfaces Daniel, KO and Cesaro. Immediately as Jey makes his entrance he and Sami start bickering

that's when you have that great line from Corey Graves about sparks flying (talk about foreshadowing lmao)

also let's talk about how Sami gets in Jey's face but Jey doesn't look phased by it and looks weirdly relaxed as he responds with "I got you"

they go on to bicker during the match, of course

but to also be the only two people to work together (we even pause the match at one point to have a classic "angry" tag spot between them)

and to put a cherry on top, they are also the only 2 to save the other from getting pinned

it's fun to see that even over a year before Sami famously approached Roman to officially kickstart the Sami in the Bloodline story arc, these two were already gravitating towards each other on a random episode of Smackdown 🤧🤧 it makes for really funny (unintentional) foreshadowing

#sami zayn #jey uso #samijey #wwe #wweedit #jeysami #stuff i made #this episode is my new obsession just fyi #dont you love it when old stuff accidentally makes so much sense in retrospect? wwe dont even know the gold they have #hey corey how does it feel to have the power of divination #it's been a WHILE since i've published a samijey rant #i'm lightheaded i might pass out

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dead-beef · 3 months

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Not the twitter Batman gamers trying to come for Harley Quinn because of the new Suicide Squad game I-

"No way could she overpower Batman this is part of the woke agenda"

SHE NEARLY KILLED BATMAN IN THE COMICS/BATMAN:TAS THIS ISN'T NEW FOR HER BFFR RN

#literally the same type of guys who try to tell me i dont know anything about batman #like?? i dont think you comprehend the encyclopdeic knowledge of batman that i possess #ive been obsessed since i was a toddler #not the 'woke agenda' gamers i cannot rn #suicide squad #harley quinn #my love #being a woman / afab in comic fandom is exhausting #like that one time i got quizzed on batman villains at a con #while i was dressed like the riddler #stinks of oooo nice band tshirt name 3 songs #kill the justice league #batman #rant post #spoilers

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virtue-and-beneviolence · 1 year

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cool kids don't cry

an eight year old Hanma notices a girl getting picked on and consoles her in a goofy way only he would think of.

<700 words, plat childhood!shuji fluff, the slightest allusion to a rough upbringing from shuji not proofread, not anything we flop like men

Hanma doesn’t like crybabies. Call it a hard lesson from his parents, but he doesn’t like when other kids cry and carry on over dumb stuff. He’s learned that crying doesn’t get kids very far. Certainly not kids like him, whatever that meant.

Even more than crybabies, Hanma hates brats that pick on kids half their size because there’s no challenge in that. No gamble. No risk, or thrill. There’s no appeal, and frankly, it’s cowardly as fuck. It’s stupid, but most kids are stupid. He may only be eight years old, but he knows he’s not cut out to be some white knight. He’s no hero. Hanma usually observes, fingers itching for action, trying to decide on worthy opponents. When he does swoop into the fray it has nothing to do with the victim, if there was one.

Hanma is, shall we say, an equal opportunist observer. He’s far from the gentlemanly type and isn’t above watching a boy shove the occasional annoying girl down. It warrants an eyeroll, or maybe a ‘tsk’ if she throws a fit.

But today, the classroom bully picked you to pick on. He pushed your little figure down to all fours from behind onto the rough pavement. He expected your yelp and laughed heartily. The last thing the bully (and Hanma, for that matter) expected was for you to get off your roughed up palms, scoot around on torn knees and land as hard a punch as you could on the boy. For better or worse, all you could reach was the boniness of his hip but the hit was enough to shock him into pushing you on your butt and scurrying away. In his wake he left a chorus of jeers from his friends.

Now this girl, Hanma decided, was interesting.

He watched you sit there, alone, slightly bloodied knees tucked to your chest. He didn’t even notice you were crying until he saw your body jolt with a poorly stifled sniffle. Hanma’s stomach sank and before he knew it, his hands were shoved in his pockets and he stalked over to sit next to you. Even young as you both were, he was tall for his age, so much so that even sitting he looked down a bit at you.

“Hey.” He said, as eloquently as was expected of a budding delinquent.

“What.” You said it as if it wasn’t a question, voice was tight in an obvious attempt to keep it from wavering. Hanma noted it, respected it.

“Dunno, you’re the one snifflin.’ Whatcha cryin’ for? You spooked that dumbass away, didn't cha?” When he got no response he pressed on, “Yer knees hurt?”

“S’my hand.” You hiccuped involuntarily and lifted a little fist, with red knuckles from the impact.

A chuckle left the boy. “Got a lot to learn about fighting.” Taking his attention off your hand ripening with a bruise and your knees and looking at your tear streaked face, made his chest feel wobbly. He bumped his shoulder to yours, “C’mon, stop crying already.”

You looked away.

He knew he wasn’t half as good at making people feel good as he was at annoying or hurting them but that fuzziness he felt made him want to do something to help. So he chased your face with his and licked from your chin to the apple of your cheek.

Hanma smacked his lips loudly, making a show of sampling the saltiness of your tears.

“It’s just like I thought.” He said with mock solemnity, looking in the distance straight ahead, ignoring your utterly incredulous expression in his peripheral. “Sad tears taste bad when it’s a cool kid crying them.” He huffed a dramatic sigh.

It took a long pause for your words to come back to you, “What’d you do that for?”

“Dunno. You stopped crying though, didn’t cha?” Hanma stood and held out a hand. “Let's go to the nurse. Or whatever.”

#reminder that im very much not a writer #but shuji childhood fluff incoming #i know there's no reader base desperate for this but its too cute to not share #been a while since i posted anything #(read: since i let something flop)#plat shuji never goes hard with numbers lmao #okay ignore my obvious nervous uncomfortable ranting #hanma shuji #shuji hanma #platonic!hanma #hanma shuji scenarios #hanma shuuji x reader #hanma x reader #hanma shuji x reader #hanma shuji fluff

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wildernessuntothemselves · 6 months

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Kpop stans talking about their fave: wow they sound so good literally they have the voice of an angel i'm gonna cry

Their fave: delivers the most mediocre vocal performance I've ever heard in my life

#it's been a while since I've posted something to get me cancelled #but like you can stan an idol while also acknowledging their shortcomings #it's especially annoying when they demand equal lines for all the members #saying it's unfair #no what's unfair is the good vocalist/rapper getting the same amount of line as someone that can't carry a tune #this whole “all rounder” trend in kpop is contributing to this ridiculousness #no your faves aren't all rounders #that's just what companies are now calling members because none of them stand out enough in any category to be called main anythibg #not gonna mention names #some of them my own faves #but really guys #have you not heard good singers before?#i understand liking someone's tone or voice color #but saying they're objectively great is ridiculous #anyway rant over lmao #delete later #mort talks

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drifting-pieces-blog-blog · 1 year

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TAWERET

I WANT TO TALK ABOUT TAWERET!

I’ve been putting this off for a while and I need to discuss Taweret! Let’s go!

So who is Taweret. (Disclaimer: I am not an expert on Egyptology or mythology in relation, I’ve only done a little research).

Taweret is a goddess that gained increasing power and placement throughout Ancient history.

She is described as having the head of a Hippopotamus, arms/paws of a lion, and tail and legs of a crocodile.

That is one strong and fierce combination. They looked around Egypt and went, “What is the scariest things we have out here?”

So what is her place? Fertility and Rejuvenation (Goddess of pure water from the nile). Okay, They loved that shit back then. Makes sense.

Oh, and Protector of Women and Children.

It was common to find pictures of her around the homes of new born babies and young children. She was painted on their cups and plates, had little statues placed near their cribs.

She was fierce and terrifying. She was meant to protect the children from illness and ill intent. She was motherly and protective. She kept harm from them and the family. It was believed that if you raised a hand to your child or wife, you would face Taweret.

So what DOES happen in the afterlife? Where does Taweret fall into play?

When you died, you came before a series of judges who would ask you questions. (Book of the Dead was an instruction manual filled with how you were supposed to answer these questions, as well as spells to help keep you true).

Once you answered the questions your heart was weighed against the feather of Ma’at. If your scales did not balance, you were fed to Ammit. If your scales are balanced, you would be welcomed to the afterlife by Osiris.

In the afterlife, you were given a plot of land to do with as you wished and expected to maintain it. It was filled with abundance and everything you could need to be happy and good of heart (including worship of the gods). It was supposed to reflect the world that they had left behind (hence taking all your things with you in death that brought you joy in life).

So what place did Taweret have in the afterlife?

Taweret held the role of funerary deity. She was in charge of rebirth and passing into the afterlife. She became the center of homes in the New Kingdom, becoming related to life-giving regeneration, rebirth, and purifying.

At times, she was seen as the opposite of Ammit, who was the devourer of the impure soul and path to darkness. Taweret was nourishment and aid to those in need.

SO WHY WAS SHE ON THE BOAT?!

So in the Moon Knight show, the ways of the old world have fallen into the past and current gods/goddesses just kinda watch and don’t do anything. MANY of the old gods/goddesses are imprisoned for not following the rules one way or another. Others are banished (Khonshu).

It’s easy to believe that with important gods being banished/imprisoned, their duties had to be filled by others. It’s easy to think that the one that was supposed to be on the boat got themselves imprisoned and the next closest thing was tossed into the job with a little guide book.

She has a guide book with a speech and rules. She doesn’t really seem to be familiar with her role or how to carry it out. Or perhaps, she isn’t familiar with D.I.D situations. A soul arrives and she expects one and is met with two. Do the rules still apply? Does she still do the same thing? Will she blow them up when she tries to remove their hearts or are they going to be fine?

Marc does not understand Egyptian Mythology. At all. This boy be skating by with “Egypt for dummies” folded up in his back pocket with the first page highlighted and then he figured he’d get around to reading the rest later.

As Avatar to Khonshu, he’s tossed into an afterlife not meant for him and an afterlife he does not understand.

What is more, Marc is so estranged from his own culture and religion that he is in spiritual distress. He knows what is supposed to happen. What he was told and taught to happen.

And here he is faced with a situation he doesn’t understand in the slightest. This further highlights how lost Marc is. He is so hurt and broken up inside that he believes that he isn’t even worthy of his own Jewishness.

He killed people. He did terrible things. He was beaten and blamed for the death of his brother. He was taught to hate his life and himself. He tried to take his own life most likely more than once. He wasn’t even worthy of death as Khonshu kept bringing him back.

This brings us to Steven. Emotional protector and Spiritual protector. Steven not only understands what death means in relation to his Judaism, but he knows Egyptology. He KNOWS the gods and goddesses. He knows the book of the dead forward and backwards. He’s probably read it in three different languages.

So when Taweret shows up, how does Steven explain who she is to Marc?

“This is Taweret, goddess of women and children!”

That’s an interesting breakdown for all that Taweret does. Especially with all that Steven knows she does. And she is kind and gentle with them. She gives them chances, tries to welcome them, even fights for them. She even reaches out to Layla on their behalf.

One has to wonder if she learned their story and, though she did not understand it, she felt for them. A child that needed help and protection and did not receive it.

Is it possible that out of all the gods, one that was most fitting for them was sent to be their guide on the boat?

Is it possible that Steven, the protector, was the one that somehow chose the one to greet and ultimately judge them?

If Ammit was a representation of their mother, then is it not fitting that Taweret, the one of purity and rebirth and protection, would be the one to meet them?

Now as others have pointed out, this is not where they are supposed to be. There is no representation of ‘heaven’ meant for them and the notion of Steven being left behind healing Marc is a pretty bad one.

With Jeremy Slater writing, it was a rough go of what happened. However, I choose to see where Diab, who is NOT Christian (as far as I am aware please correct me if I am mistaken) took us visually. He isn’t Jewish either, but he is Egyptian and telling an Egyptian story.

At this point, they are dead and they are trapped in an afterlife that isn’t theirs and doesn’t make sense to them culturally. Marc my sweet idiot man takes ‘Field of reeds’ literally.

Much like Vallhalla’s field of wheat, it is a large quiet peaceful afterlife filled with joy, celebration, and life. Even on the ancestral plane with Black Panther, it is a beautiful place but there is MORE there. So much more.

Marc just finds himself in an empty field. Just a big ‘ol field full of nothing. Because he does not understand where he is!

“Okay, I’m supposed to go somewhere peaceful in a field.” And it’s beautiful, and it is peaceful, but it’s very literal.

And Taweret is just like, alright. I saw your life and it was full of rage and violence and hate and pain. This must be what you want I guess? Isn’t it nice? It’s pretty quiet and alone here. You must have wanted to be alone because of the whole D.I.D thing I guess?

She doesn’t really understand what’s going on either. This isn’t really it, but this is the first time she’s really come across this situation.

Taweret: Your heart is full. Your journey is over.

Marc: It's so... quiet.

Taweret: The peace you've always wanted but never had. You're manifesting it. No danger. No loneliness or hurt.

Marc: What about Steven?

Taweret: He's gone, Marc. The Duat has him. Please enjoy your peace.

Marc: We need to go back for him.

Taweret: It doesn't work like that. Leave here, and you can't return. Anyway, you don't need him anymore, Marc.

Marc: So I get to go on to eternal peace, and he just... stays lost in the sand forever? No, I'm not good with that.

It isn’t full. We can see it. He’s clutching it and it looks empty. And Marc knows this is not it. There is no Hell in his belief. He just sees Steven as being trapped somewhere he isn’t supposed to be. It’s Marc’s nature to help people. And Steven helped him. Steven protected him.

So yeah, it’s been covered before. He leaves. There are whole metas out there (Love you @fdelopera ) about this part and I recommend you go look up the Jewish perspective because it’s beautiful.

But I want to focus again on Taweret.

Marc goes back, the heart glows pure and true and full with Steven there to help fill it, and Osiris opens the gate back.

But she isn’t done.

One of the rituals of funerary rites is to replace the heart with a golden scarab with a spell written across it that helps to guide the soul while they are being judged. It helps keep them true and pure. Keeps them a good person.

Taweret sends a Scarab to save them and fight along them. A protector of women and children to shield them.

So why was Taweret on the boat? Do you think Steven had anything to do with it? Do you think Marc subconsciously knew what he needed as a child? Someone to save them? Do you think she just so happened to have gotten the job as a toss up and then saw two small boys in need of help?

She could have just judged them right then and there and tossed them off. She didn’t have to give them time.

Do you think she knew the whole time that Marc needed to make that choice to go back? That he would always have made that choice? That it was Steven that needed to know that Marc would come back for him? That Steven needed to find his own purpose as the protector?

#Moon Knight #Moon Knight Meta #Steven Grant #Marc Spector #Taweret #It has been a hot minute since I went off #I have been wanting to rant about this since October you guys #You have no idea #AM I MAKING SENSE HERE?!#Am I the only one that stays up at night wondering these things?!#Man yells at clouds about his favorite blorbos while crying

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claitea · 2 years

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porygonhd by @startistdoodles, a few doodles complete with gen 5 styled sprites!

#pokemon #porygon #clai's art #maybe i went a lil overboard but i just Really liked this concept haha #i actually have always been a little annoyed the porygon line ended at z yknow?#like dont get me wrong i love the whole porygon line but it was cool how porygon seemed to develop along with the games #so while it makes sense to stop since its a full three-pokemon evo line. why stop at a Glitched version?#i was looking at the porygon lines' bulbapedia pages while drawing this out of curiosity #and porygon-z's smash bros trophies suggest a patch was on the way. but that never happened :(#also fun thing to note is that porygon seems to have been made purely to poke fun at people lmao #bulbapedia says people told satoshi tajiri it was too late to make a game boy game and he should make games with 3d polygonal graphics #so instead he made porygon. which is techincally polygons as they told him but still in sprite form lmaooo #but does that not make right now and even better time to make an actual split-evo for porygon2?#since pokemon switched to full 3d ages ago why not commemorate that with a fixed up final porygon evo?#anyway thats my porygon rant haha #porygonhd is Such a perfect concept i would do anything to have this in a real game #EDIT: //DANG// THE SECOND AFTER I POSTED THIS I READ THE ASK ABT HOW HD CANT OPEN ITS WINGS HAJGHVDHGD #ah well. its cute here isnt it

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britcision · 3 months

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So we started watching Dungeon Meshi

It’s fantastic, I love it, 10/10 recommend and thus far super faithful to the manga (started reading it afterwards but partner has finished it)

They just said one thing in the episode that super fucking bugged me when eating the killer plants

They said the fruit is delicious as a lure to bring in animals so the plant can eat them - which is probably true at least partially

But the actual literal whole point of fruit from a botanical perspective (and is actually how we define what counts as a “fruit”, like tomato and squash) is that it’s a high energy seed wrapping

Fruit is the only part of the plant that the plant specifically wants you to eat - so that you’ll take its seeds with you and disperse them somewhere else, preferably (to the plant) when you poop so they come with fresh fertiliser

Fruit is tasty and enticing because the plant specifically wants you to take it with you and leave! There’s no point in only depositing their seeds where they already live, and will be competing with the seedlings for resources

Now the parasitic plant that lays its seeds under your skin, that one probably doesn’t put as much effort into nutrients in the fruit - you’re not eating it, and really it only needs a nice smell or bright colour to pull you in enough to grab. Plenty of plants manage that with flowers alone

But it is Super Important for it to let you go at some point because again, if it holds you the whole time and all the seeds germinate literally next to the parent plant, they’re probably not gonna be able to outcompete a grown adult for sunlight, water, or food

If the plant also has parenting behaviours like killing extra animals or people specifically to feed its seedlings, that’s another story altogether and they can spread by slow, incremental growth, but the larger the outlying plants get the less likely the original parent plant in the center is to get food directly

And HERE we can have mycelium networks, interlaced root structures, and all kinds of super cool plant and fungal anatomy! (Or the vines can pass corpses into the middle, but that’s actually less cool)

You do also run the risk of accidental monocultures if your monster plants can outcompete other plant life in the area, but on the whole so long as the bodies decompose naturally there will be opportunities for other plants around them to take advantage of the nutrients too

The big ol’ digestive plant is only sharing with its own root network, so that’s the least cooperative plant, although others can still parasitise that root network or form other symbiotic relationships to cooperate

Clearly none of them have enough of a dominant advantage to outcompete other plants in the area (I do wonder if any of them steal from the fertilising plant), but if the “fruit” really is just a lure and not a seed dispersing method, it’s actually more an edible flower, and we did clearly see some seeds inside the prepared fruit from the fertilising plant and the parasitic plant - which is strange, since its seeds were stated to be inside the vines

(Laios wanted to plant the fertilising plant above ground with them - he specifically is exactly what the plants want to attract)

Anyway, plants are cool, monster plants are cooler, and if they are cooperating through a root structure and sharing food they are also technically communicating and could inform plants along the same root network when adventurers are close even more efficiently than acacia trees releasing pheromones into the air to let other trees know giraffes are coming

There’s also the possibility of some form of plant elitism, where the plant only wants its seeds to be dispersed by a creature strong enough to escape it, and therefore more likely to be strong enough to spread the seeds a really long way

It might not exactly be conscious thought, but it’s fun to think about plants judging you and deciding you’re a bitch

#dungeon meshi #plant rant #monster plants #actual botanists please correct me if i missed anything #it’s been a while since my plant classes #mmm may go look into carnivorous plants for dnd reasons

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savrenim · 2 months

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watched the first 30 minutes of the new live action ATLA bc I was Curious and they have already committed three different mortal sins that I can't Not Rant about, spoilers for the first 30 minutes below the cut

1. They rearranged the order of storytelling to open with the Fire Nation attacking the Air Nomads.

And I'm not.... totally sure why? Like, my guess is either "we need to make an immediate dramatic hook for the people who have never seen ATLA before!" or "we need to explain the background for the people who have never seen ATLA before!" But the truth is, people never saw ATLA before it came out, and they were perfectly fine catching on to learning about what happened to the Air Nomads and the geopolitical state of the world in media res!! That is not an excuse!

By opening with The Attack On The Air Nomads, not only do they rob the audience of getting to do my favorite thing throughout, which is the ability to piece together backstory via being told details as the story goes on, but it also..... vastly undermines the impact that That Attack Happening is going to have later in the story. Instead of piecing together tragedy from 100-year-old ruins and getting the moment of "oh god" and imagining it, we're shown it directly upfront onscreen, which not only to me comes across as unnecessary and gratuitous violence, but it means that every time in the story that The Air Nomads Are All Dead is going to come up, instead of it being this weighty thing that we can only imagine that each small detail adds even more to that weight, the payoff was all upfront. We've seen it, there's nothing to imagine, any detail they give us is not adding to our understanding of the tragedy and increasing the tragedy to us at all, it's just a reference to the opening scene.

2. STATUS!!!!!

So 'Status' is a concept that I rant about a lot and am highly sensitive to in writing, probably bc in the gay theater camp day camps the first thing you need to teach your 8-year-olds in improv workshop is How To Respect Status if you want to have at all a reasonable adventure game; otherwise you have kids interrupting the king's big dramatic speech and hence Undermining The King's Authority and the adventure game falls apart but also so you don't get trapped in scenes where you've got two characters yelling back and forth "well I'm [this thing] so you should respect me!!" and the complete lack of respect between them totally undermines what both of them are saying and the fiction falls apart. I kind of joke but not really that I stopped watching Supernatural in like. season 8?? 9?? because there was some episode with Greek Gods and you got to the finale of the episode and Zeus was going "dO YOU KNOW WHO I AM??? I'M ZEUS. I'M A GOD. PUNY MORTAL" and Sam and Dean went "dO YOU KNOW WHO WE ARE??? WE'RE THE WINCHESTERS. WE TOOK DOWN SATAN AND ALSO SATAN'S MORE EVIL OLDER COUSIN. PUNY MONSTER OF THE WEEK" and I went "by day three of camp my nightmare 8-year-olds can do Status better than this. Why am I even watching this?"

In the first scene, the live-action ATLA severely undermines the status of the Fire Nation and Fire Lord and then continuous to do so throughout the entire opening.

The initial scene is some random Earth Kingdom spy running away with Fire Nation plans to attack the Earth Kingdom and getting captured and dragged before Fire Lord Sozin (to be?? monologued at by Fire Lord Sozin of 'HAH you fell into my TRAP, those plans were FAKE, we're attacking the AIR NOMADS' which is just. dumb. kill the spy, don't monologue at him and kill him, but also why the fuck are you letting an Earthbender spy into your presence in the first place???????) which besides the aforementioned letting?? an earthbender spy??? into his presence in the first place????? He:

is not wearing particularly fancier clothes than the other people around him; like, they're okay, but the 'total desaturation of all colors including/especially in the clothing' aesthetic that Netflix has going makes it not look very royal. that shit should have been BRIGHT red or 10x fancier to make up for the fact that it wasn't Bright Red

they are STANDING IN THE THRONE ROOM and INSTEAD OF BEING BEHIND THE CURTAIN OF FLAMES he's just STANDING DOWN THERE on the SAME LEVEL AS EVERYONE ELSE????? WHY ARE YOU EVEN IN THE THRONE ROOM IF THE FIRE LORD IS???? NOT ON THE THRONE?????? JUST STANDING AROUND???? THE FIRE LORD DOES NOT JUST STAND AROUND WHERE IS THE POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE OF THE OFFICE????????????

and then beyond the absolute idiocy and letting a nobody no-name spy into his presence like that and dramatically revealing battle plans fucking idiot deserves to be assassinated for letting a spy earthbender get within three feet of him that's just extremely bad royal security, Sozin personally Murders this Random Spy. with his own firebending hands.

One of the whole things that makes ~the Fire Lord~ so terrifying is the sheer amount of weight around The Institution Of The Fire Lord, the courts and the backstabbing nobles of the fire nation, both the extreme imperial politics and complications there but also the almost deification of the office itself. The Fire Lord is untouchable, I forget if it's fanon or canon that they've got a 'descended directly from Agni / divine right' thing going but if it's fanon at least canon has those vibes, and one of the biggest aspects of the finale of the whole show is the combination of Azula's meltdown making it so that even though she was 'Fire Lady' she.... wasn't particularly scarier because in panicking and banishing everyone she'd totally undermined her own power structure, but also realizing that Ozai was Actually Just Some Dude Who Sure Was Pretty Good At Firebending And A Really Shit Person And Terrifying For What He'd Done With His Power but he wasn't a god, he wasn't impossible to defeat, when push came to shove he was just a firebender and as such his power could be stripped.

Fire Lord Sozin standing on the same level as his advisors and a random earthbender spy, and then doing things with his own hands, instead of, you know, sitting on that throne behind that wall of fire while this scene was happening if this scene really needed to happen in the first place, totally undermines that sort of deification level of status that the Fire Lord is supposed to have. Sozin becomes an Evil Scary Murderer Villain, sure, but what proceeds to be established about his character is. Nothing to set him apart from "a particularly skilled Firebender." Hell not even that, as nothing ever demonstrates that he's substantially more skilled than the firebending soldiers around him!!!!!!!

And it undermines the severity of the threat of the whole Fire Nation to undermine the status of the Fire Lord and hence the Thing That Makes The Next Fire Lord So Scary. hnnnnnnnnnng.

3. Every single character keeps giving extremely stilted monologues about how they're feeling?

It just feels like Bad Writing. And it also kind of feels like incorrect characterizatons? Big "he would NOT say that" mood but also just, like. Aang giving a three minute monologue purely to Appa about how he never asked for the responsibility of being the Avatar, he just wants to be like other kids, that just feels. So Cookie Cutter. So "gotta check off our refusing the call so our protagonist is Relatable!" and also just he would not say that.

This doesn't quite bother me as much as the other ones because it doesn't feel like a fundamental undermining of the narrative and/or the setting but it is Highly Annoying.

anyways defs not worth the watch. 30 minutes of my life Wasted. some of the costumes are kind of nice tho so might go back for the costume refs.

#live action atla #netflix avatar #just some random musings but it's been a While since I've dropped any sort of writing analysis #and I kind of miss doing it #do truly love how like. the Vast majority of my media criticisms #or at least the ones that I get Annoyed enough to Go On Rants about #are the ones that break the rules of Status #bUT HNNNNG STATUS IS SO IMPORTANT!!!!!! YOU LITERALLY CANNOT TAKE ANY CHARACTER SERIOUSLY UNLESS THE CHARACTERS #OR IN THIS THE FRAMING OF THE SCENES THEMSELVES #RESPECT THAT STATUS #HNNNNNNNNNNG

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thyandrawrites · 2 years

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I'm gonna voice a bit of an unpopular opinion here but I wish Horikoshi would've put more of a focus on anti-mutant discrimination through the pov of non-villains. (using the word mutant here bc iirc 'heteromorph' is the less sensitive one as far as Viz's translation goes)

I believe someone before me (possibly @/transhawks) has already said this much, but... Hawks could've brought so much nuance to the table. He's a mutant, but he has more privilege than most because he retains a mostly human-like appearance; unlike fanon, his feet and his hands are human looking, and the only "birdier" trait he displays is a heightened sight. All in all, his wings are the only part of his appearance that make him visibly a mutant, and he's exempt from the anti-heteromorphic sentiment because his wings are the very things that make him a hero. His entire brand revolves around them: he uses them to fight, to save, to gather intel. Without them, he's simply not a hero, because they're a fundamental part of him, of how he does his duty. The Commission made them his trademark, exploiting his trauma ("what are those wings for?") as a way to leash him. They trained him to exploit the potential in his quirk to the max, and then made it a focus for the public to latch onto and idolize. He's not just Hawks, he's the Wing Hero: Hawks. When he models, he puts them on display. When he's out in the streets, he lets fans get into his personal space and touch them, feel them up. And his admirers do. In their eyes, those wings become akin to Endeavor's flames or Kamui's branches. They're no longer seen as a mutation that makes him "subhuman", but as the very thing that makes him a hero.

But this is all a speculation on my part because Hawks' original design was different from its finalized version. Before the movie came out and Horikoshi had to scrap it, Hawks' original appearance had a bird head, feathered torso and arms, and bird-like claws for hands. And that makes me wonder: was he always supposed to be a beloved public figure? Was his background with the Commission all it took for him to breeze past the social stigma and become so popular? Or did Horikoshi sacrifice some of its initial plans for Hawks' character when he had to last-minute change his design?

Even without considering the redesign angle, I always thought Horikoshi missed the mark for giving us a bit more worldbuilding nuance when Hawks recruited Tokoyami as an intern.

Like. We know that individuals still get discriminated on because of their appearance and quirks to this day. As this chapter points out, it might be an issue that appears to be smoothed over by some more progressive choices (like Nedzu becoming UA's principal), but Nedzu's backstory itself tells us he was the victim of experimentations by humans. Shouji wears a mask for other people's comfort and Spinner was the victim of social ostracization and became an hikikomori.

The discrimination is still there, but it just evolved into something more rooted and less outright than bullying and religious or social oppression. At least in the city, mutants are now integrated well enough in society, but their needs are still not accommodated or even accounted for. This is why for example Shouji has to rip the sleeves off his uniform instead of getting one custom-made, or why there was that background character TV host who cut one of his horns not to block the viewer's sight of the screen behind him (and was praised as a dedicated professional for it). In other words, mutants are expected to conform to the standards for non-mutants, instead of society actually making any effort to be inclusive and accessible.

And all of this is fine and well as background worldbuilding information. But given how it's now becoming a plot point with its own subplot, I can't help but think we could've used some more set up for it.

One of the stated reasons why Hawks extends that internship offer to Tokoyami, despite not usually taking interns, is because "they're both birds". And of course part of this is just Hawks being Hawks. He's quirky and he makes a habit of throwing off people with his laidback and goofy act. But my point is, what if there was more to it? What if he saw a fellow mutant, a fellow flying-adjacent quirk he could help hone, and thought, "people like us already have it hard as it is. He's a mutant and one with a quirk that can potentially be seen as villainous. The League nearly captured him too, and the media ripped into that other kid to blame him for his own kidnapping. But by taking Tokoyami under my wing, I'm vouching for him. If he associates with me, an already established media sweetheart, it's less likely that anti-mutant sentiment will target him."

I mean, obviously Hawks still would've offered an internship to a class-A kid because he needed insight on the League. But Tokoyami isn't the only kid who can fly. Heck, Bakugou has been doing that with his explosions since day 1, and he was in the League's lair for a few days. Obviously, if intel and quirk compatibility were all Hawks was after, Tokoyami wasn't the sole option. Hawks wasn't looking just for wasted potential, either. Uraraka can float, she's similarly driven by challenges, and has never maxed out on her potential either. It's obvious to me that Hawks feels some kind of kinship for Tokoyami that he doesn't for the other kids. And I'm just saying, it would've been interesting if that was because of their roles as heroes and mutants in a society that is hostile to one but not the other.

Don't get me wrong. On his own, Spinner does bring up a lot of interesting things to the table. But he's meant to be an outsider, someone rebelling against the current state of things. So one thing he cannot portray is the pov of someone who is a cog in that machine. Hawks could've done that, and he could've shown us the double standard at play in all its glory.

Hawks is a mutant, but he "passes" as human—or human enough to be integrated fully. So he has privilege. But that privilege is artificial, since he started off at the bottom of the food chain and only rose into wealth and power thanks to government funding and sponsoring. Yet, at the same time, his integration is still conditional; it hinges on his performance, on adapting to society and its needs over his own, on being a hero through and through with no time to spare. On making his mutation a show that can sell, and that can be a tool for the people who invested time and resources into it. The respect he's given now is not inherent, but it ties directly into what he gives back to the society that "allowed" him to raise to number two. And he knows it. He very well knows it, and he protects his forged hero persona because he's aware it's the only thing standing between his current life and a return to homelessness, poverty and abuse.

Idk. I just think expanding on this would've added a lot to the story. It would've made it an issue to fix, rather than something that only affects "villains," because the heroes learn to deal with it and that makes them "plus ultra" as opposed to oppressed in a different way

#Bnha spoilers #Bnha meta #Meta:bnha society #My post #Been a while since I last did one of my rants on hero society but I guess this chapter gave me some food for thought #Hawks #Spinner #Tokoyami fumikage #Shouji mezou

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cupids-chamber · 6 months

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Sexuality is really confusing, the last few months I've been thinking that maybe, just maybe I'm actually straight and then something happened and I realized that I'm not. But I don't consider myself to be bisexual, pansexual, or even omnisexual; none of those labels really fit me—that being said, I'm definitely not a lesbian.

I mean I identified as pansexual and even omnisexual for the longest time, and bisexual for a little while before I learnt more about sexuality, but it never felt right; maybe I just don't like having a label.

#— rambles #I guess this is a rant?#Not a vent though.#Just been circling around and rethinking my sexuality over the past few months I was practically offline for.#It's weird since I have liked girls; a lot of them but weirdly enough for a long while after I left for an haitus (1/2)#I thought I might've been straight. (2/2)

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rocker-socks · 2 months

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not to be insane but Stephanie Brown is so underrated and i really do hate to say its misogyny but. well. It is.

#stephanie brown #batman #spoiler #this WILL get me shot but. steph is everything fanon tim wishes he was #i think i could write a whole dissertation on how if steph was a guy people would love him #like. obviously Some Men In Comics will not be happy with any female characters that aren't background wives or daughters #but this is so apparent with fandom that its kinda. boggling #know i shouldnt read too deep into it bc duke and cas get done dirty as well #(duke and cas are whole other rants. i love them both dearly and i DO think Cas should be Batmans heir bc she is literally the Ideal Fit #while WFA is great but has also reduced peoples perception of Duke to a reader insert that is still learning the ropes instead of like.#the robin gang leader who has been studying since birth to defeat the riddler. who has powers.#duke and cas are kinda insane and deserve that recognition is all so i dont go into another rant)#the way that people are so happy to have the batboys be complicated people (even when they reduce them down to core traits) but not steph #she's always the fun one #her struggle with being a completely average teenager fighting to be recognized and her struggles with self worth gets put to the side #oh for what? waffle jokes? yeah okay #ppl would be dickriding her so hard if she had an actual dick i KNOW it #ppl would be making tiktok mitski edits of her

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doodle17 · 4 months

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Could you maybe tell us what future Raz and Lilis relationship is like now?

*vibrating with excitement*

Putting this under a read more because it might be really long hemngh

So I'd decided to study their characters and how they interact a little more (mostly from the second game, but a little bit of the first too) and think about how their relationship would develop as they got older.

I came to the conclusion that I want to portray them as two people who have some level of affection for the other, but don't have time to focus on being sappy "boyfriend and girlfriend" because of work. The "fun" part their relationship ended waaaay back when they were 18-ish and went from Junior Agents to Official Psychonauts. It ain't exactly easy to go on dates and save the world at the same time y'know, and both of them have a lot of personal stuff going on.

Raz is almost always busy. Constantly filling out paperwork, running around in Sasha's lab, doing agent stuff, Circus stuff, the WHOLE shebang. Lili, is still trying to get over her dad's retirement, as the while thing still feels very surreal to her. Not to mention Hollis and her dad trying to push her to become the next Grand Head, much to her dismay. It's not very easy to have a social life with that much going on to be 100% honest.

Theres also taking their very different personalities into account. Lili's "Fuck around and find out" and Raz's sticking to a solid plan type of methods tend to clash quite often, and many newcomers have a hard time telling whether or not they're dating or competing with eachother.

Lili is probably the most complicated woman Raz has ever worked with, and while he finds it endearing he also finds it incredibly exhausting. Sometimes, It feels like she'll do the exact opposite of what he tells her just to get a reaction out of him, out of spite. But it's not like she can help it. She absolutely hates being told what to do, and one of her least favorite things about Raz is when he decides to become "Mr. Boss man" and order everyone around during missions. Despite all of- that- however, they do end up having very successful missions!... Most of the time.

There's also the pressure to keep up professional appearances for their fellow agents and new interns. One thing the both of them can agree on, is that they'll avoid showing any PDA in front of their coworkers. They still cringe thinking about how a little too comfortable they were as kids, and how almost EVERYONE in the Motherlobe knew about it. Luckily, most of those people are retired, quit or fired, and gives the two a better chance to be a little more professional with their relationship in front of the newcomers, because if they have to hear, "You guys are like the next Sasha and Milla!" One more time...

This isn't to say that things are always rough and gloomy for them. They still have a very special connection, and after knowing eachother for half of their lives, it's not like they're going to get rid of the other anytime soon. So might as well make the most of it, eh? She'll never admit it out loud, but there's really no other person Lili would rather be tied up and dangling over a pool of pyrokenetic sharks with than Raz (which has actually happened before btw) There's no way you won't catch them holding hands or sneaking a quick kiss at least once.

Anyways, to sum all of this shishkabable up best I can: They're WAY too close to be considered "just coworkers", but they also have way too much going on to focus on a serious relationship at this time.

Good on you if you managed to read my nonsensical ramblings all the way through! Take a prize from the prize bin you deserve it 👏 👏👏

#I hope this makes sense-#It's like 1am rn and I kind if blacked out while writing this #I was on a roll for a hot minute #Feels kind of nice to have a creative ruch again since art hasn't been doing it for me recently #Anyways allow me to ramble some more in my tags now that I'm conscious again #I hope I managed to get my take on their relationship clear #I don't dislike razlili #I LOVE razlili #It's one of my comfort ships they're so stinkin cute #And as much as I love sappy future Raz and Lili #I want to try and focus on a more realistic and slightly dramatic take #AT LEAST IN MY EYES #I want to explore their business relationship as well as their romantic one #So why not do a mixture of both amiright #The only people who ever see the two of them “together” are the (previous) interns or the Aquatos #Also the old superstar agents like Sasha Milla etc.#But yeah #Idk im tired #doodles rants #psychonauts #psychonauts 2 #razputin aquato #lili zanotto #anon babble #Razlili #Psychonauts future

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