#Not the seed; the root

[theres-whump-in-that-nebula]

I remember seeing a little bit of an episode of Beauty and the Beast (the weird 80s show; not the Disney movie lol) and noticing the similarities to another thing I had just seen, not even an hour before (I was seven-ish), and went, “Wow that’s a weird coincidence… twice in one day?? What.”

Anyway… I started thinking about that movie because of an article I read… and then that made me think of that weird series again… so I looked up the episode list.

Hoooooly shit I was not aware of the sheer amount of whump in Beauty and the Beast

Everyone gird your loins; I’m about to enter critical hyperfixation levels

#[Dr. Smith voice] “I am being s u m m o n e d” [walks off into the sunset like a zombie] #uh oh #it’s the “hyperfixation chain reaction” at it again #It’s not done #oh god #o fuk #o lei o lai o lord #< and thanks to a Tumblr post about a certain alternate version of a certain character from a certain sci fi show #I now associate that song with [someone] who is very relevant to the whole reason I am interested in THIS series #so of course I would put that in the tags #I got Pavloved so hard; ring the bell and watch me beg (that came out unintentionally 😏ohohoHO but whatever) #But I have a feeling that I need to recharge the mother root of the hyperfixation chain reaction #Not the seed; the root #And the tree in the bog and the bog down in the valley-o #No literally… all my interests? They’re one big expansive root system #All part of the same tree #A chestnut tree #Aaaaaaand CUT #Currently vibrating like a jackhammer #aieou #OUIOUIOUIIIUIIIIOIIIOOGH

[kirby-the-gorb]

#kirby #legend of zelda #daily kirby #my art #digital #hal laboratory #nintendo #after 45 days I have beaten tears of the kingdom lol #it's not true full 100% completion I only got like 250 korok seeds #skipped the completionist fabrics and tracking down some armor #but I got like. all the shrines and light roots and quests and stuff. #which is why I had so many hearts lol

[softtidesworld]

#jacob seed #joseph seed #john seed #faith seed #ethan seed #far cry 5 #far cry new dawn #far cry fandom #fc5 #fcnd #far cry five #personally i would pick joseph hear me out #mf is the root of all problems here. master manipulator #took his brothers trauma and made sure he benefited from it #not to mention all the faiths he groomed to take the place of his dead wife #yucky garbage man but he’s a great villain👍🏽 #ubisoft understood the assignment

[mah-o-daryaa]

For a show that's progressive, one-of-a-kind, ground-breaking for its time, and relies on "Show, don't Tell" a lot throughout the series, it bugs me how ATLA (or, more specifically, Bryke) preferred to tell the audience that Aang is a master airbender without showing us why. I mean, Toph, Zuko, Azula, and Katara are all shown practicing and improving their mastery in bending (although Katara has become rather overpowered), so why can't Aang have the same treatment?

Yes, Aang may be a child prodigy, and he did get airbending tattoos from inventing the air scooter, but I personally think that inventing an airbending technique (which demonstrates impressive ability and skill) is a way to gain the arrows prematurely, but isn't a requirement. Nothing in the show ever suggests just how far he's mastered his native element, let alone the other three. In the beginning of Sozin's Comet, Part 1: The Phoenix King (3:18), Aang says he thinks he still needs to practice his firebending more (which in hindsight makes sense, as he's just started relearning it from the dragons five episodes ago), and Toph notes that his earthbending could use more work too. Right off the bat, Aang is two elements away from complete mastery of all four, but later on he's seen practicing waterbending with Katara, implying he hasn't mastered it either.

We don't even see Aang practicing his airbending by himself post-iceberg, preferring to show off to random girls (like in Kyoshi Island). He just learns the elements, but doesn't really learn the philosophies behind each element. In this regard, he makes Kuruk and Roku look venerated in contrast. (To be fair to Aang, he had a specific deadline to master the four elements before Sozin's Comet that no other Avatar besides Wan had to deal with, but couldn't he try to make an effort to learn from the other nations?) Additionally, compared to Tenzin and Zaheer, Aang doesn't stand a chance against either of them (even though Tenzin is his son, but since Tenzin wasn't the Avatar, he could focus on upholding the Air Nomad culture and legacy). Even Jinora could go toe-to-toe with him at similar ages. He isn't really that impressive in any of the elements, to be honest; we've seen what a master of any specific element can do in both ATLA and LOK, as well as in the novels.

The main thing people often get wrong is that mastery isn't a final goal; it's a specific mindset. As in Pai Sho, what separates true masters from everyone else is that true masters always look for improvement in their strategy or skills. That's why Aang isn't a real master of the four elements: He always takes the easy way out, never trying to better himself or improve what he can already do.

I think this quote from Zaheer perfectly sums up what I've been saying: When you base your expectations on what you see, you blind yourself to the possibilities of a new reality. Even though it stems from his anarchist beliefs, it is genuinely one of the more insightful pieces of wisdom in the franchise because it promotes progress, a constant theme in life. Toph was able to invent metalbending because she wanted to "see" a reality where she could be recognized for her own talent in spite of her blindness; Zuko could learn firebending from the dragons because he could see a reality where he would regain his honor and fight alongside the Avatar, and so on. By contrast, Aang only takes things from surface-level, not putting any effort into understanding the true meaning of being the Avatar.

Speaking of Pai Sho, guess which Avatar constantly improved his/her abilities? Kuruk. Unlike Aang, Kuruk readily asked his companions, Jianzhu, Hei-Ran, and Kelsang, to continue teaching him, ever after he mastered the four elements that he was required to do, saying they would all benefit from the experience (the "true master" quote I mentioned above was actually said by him). Not only that, it was even inverted; sometimes they taught Kuruk, other times he taught them (which technically makes him the first known Avatar to teach bending to others). He was right, as during their lifetimes, they were the most powerful benders of their respective elements in the world!

Kuruk also had an intuitive connection to each of the four bending philosophies, which to this day remains unrivaled by any other Avatar, and was also one of the first people to suggest the idea that the four elements are connected (homeboy's literally a younger Water Tribe Avatar version of proto-Iroh, I'm honestly not going to be surprised if Iroh actually learned his belief from Kuruk during the former's visits to the Spirit World over tea and Pai Sho matches). If you ask me, Mone, learning the cultures and philosophies of the four nations is way more important than mastering the four elements, because the Avatar isn't just the bridge between the four nations; he/she is also the symbol of a unified world, and the franchise is saying that only one Avatar even bothered to do that? In my opinion, if we go by this rule, that easily cements Kuruk as the greatest Avatar in history!

Aang, on the other hand, never does this. Instead, he puts the Air Nomads on a high pedestal (which in turn causes him to place Katara on a high pedestal), and doesn't respect or learn from other nations' philosophies. He openly disrespects SWT culture and actively makes sure Tenzin doesn't have any exposure to the culture that Tenzin still belongs too, and worse, he pushes his own culture on other people's throats (remember the time he forced a homeless couple to "give up on hope because it's a big waste of time"? Or the time he forced Katara to not murder Yon Rha?) and values his own nation and values above the rest of the world (like the time he refused to kill Firelord Ozai because "all life is sacred", even though he has actually killed before, but if he doesn't kill Ozai, the latter's going to burn the entire Earth Kingdom to the ground!). That doesn't sound like something the Avatar is allowed to do, but Aang gets away with it anyway because ... hero?

There's actually another Avatar who focused on his/her own nation above the rest of the world. Avatar Szeto, Yangchen's predecessor, became a government official in his homeland, the Fire Nation. Under his tenure, the Fire Nation transformed from a fragmented, disaster-stricken state to the centralized, technologically-advanced nation we know of today. Unfortunately, this led him to neglect the other nations and, shortly after his death, the four nations were caught in a political event known as the Platinum Affair, which Yangchen had to deal with, eventually kick-starting the cycle of the current Avatar fixing their past lives' mistakes, while leaving problems for their future selves to fix. This problem might have even led to the growing ambition of Firelords Zoryu and Sozin as dictators, with the latter starting the Hundred Years War.

Aang not only valued his own nation's values above the others, he also forced said values on his non-Air Nomad companions; signed anti-miscegenation laws and tried to forcefully deport Fire Nationals from the colonies to return the land to the Earth Kingdom, even though they had already blended in with Earth Kingdom citizens, didn't wan to be separated from their families, and Zuko perceived the citizens of mixed heritage as his own subjects; refused to let his family practice SWT culture, even though his children could benefit from being members of both cultures, not just one or the other, and set an example for mixed-race families around the world; refused to teach Kya and Bumi Air Nomad culture because he thought they weren't airbenders and therefore "not real Air Nomads", even though they were just as Air Nomad as Tenzin was, if not more; and forced Tenzin to uphold the legacy of an entire nation on his shoulders. The fact that this was all written by complete accident is the cherry on top, representing just how badly Bryke screwed up.

... On a completely unrelated note, The Other Side of Paradise by Glass Animals (which is also one of my favorite songs) is definitely a Kuruk song. The last third of the song in particular sums up his tragic journey as the Avatar so well, and I always think of him while listening to it.

#atla #atla critical #atla comics critical #aang critical #mah rambles #fighting back #kuruk #yes I've done it again #to no one’s surprise #you miscalculated #I love Kuruk more than I hate Aang #if no one gets the reference I'm going to be sad #avatar cycle #past avatars #past lives #anti bryke #yes I'm going that far #I can't even be mad at lok anymore #the seeds for who the gaang would end up as were already planted in atla #so I'm going to the root of the problem

[heckyeahponyscans]

I love long, meadow-y grass so I don't mow my lawn. (Except the strip by the sidewalk, which is part of the public right-of-way.)

Today I discovered a ground nesting bird (a dark eyed junco) has built a nest on my yard, hidden by the long grass! Several little eggs in it.

#birds #dark eyed junco #even leaving a small portion of your yard unmowed will increase biodiversity #in the spring the early insects shelter in the long grass #in the summer the grass lays flat sheltering its roots and keeping them damp #in the fall the seeds develop on unmown grass #which the little birds eat #in the winter the old vegetation shelters plants and creatures from the cold #and the older vegetation biodegrades and renews the soil

[allthingssoulful-garden]

I've barely moved from this spot in the past 3 days and I plan to do the same for the next 6.

#growing roots into this couch slowly but surely #trying to catch up on rest enough to make up for the past few months #garden related only because when I'm not reading I'm looking up new seeds to order for next year

[morethansalad]

Kabocha Squash Bowl with Carrot Miso Ginger Dressing (Vegan, Gluten-Free & Low FODMAP)

#vegan #gluten free #lunch #dinner #buddha bowl #rice bowl #pumpkin #rice #lotus root #kale #carrots #green onion #nori #water chestnuts #cucumber #ginger #sesame seeds #lemon #chili #vinegar #tamari #sesame oil #sauces #miso #sea salt #squash #kabocha squash #low fodmap #🧡 #💚

[babykittenteach]

Anyway, here’s some positivity. Plant babs. A little leggy because I didn’t account for them sprouting that fast and so didn’t have a lamp set-up, but they’ll be fine. Roselle, hibiscus sabdariffa. You might know them from agua de jamaica or from all your herbal cranberry-flavored teas that actually are mostly made of this. They were my favorite thing I grew last year,

#Inaugural plant post #i'll think of a plant tag later #also the specialty pepper seeds are putting out roots but it's not photographable yet #I will probably get some normal peppers from the local nursery too but #I wanted to try some purple ones some trinidad scorpions and arbol and those aren't carried

[volivolition]

suggestion do you have... any wants? like obviously you do but like? suggestion my guy my ourple boy. both the easiest and hardest to write. you need a skill to say something to move conversation along but it doesn't fit any skill in particular? about 80% of the time you can have suggestion say it and it will make sense. but like actually characterizing him... how do i define you dude... what makes your character tick... urgh. i dont get you yet. im trying to understand but you are difficult.

#chemi chats #there are some skills that i just dont understand yet and that just means i have to work on their character study chapter #im reading his bio and i think suggestion is a good manipulator and it's instinctive and he tries not to feel bad about it? #he's clever!! charming!! friends with savvy and drama. planting seeds in the mind and coaxing them to grow towards him like he's the sun. #a crude oil reservoir lying beneath a carefully laid flower bed. taps into the roots. the plants don't know any better than to drink. #he's great at sensing what makes people tick and uses that to his advantage. he needs goals to look forward to so he knows how to best #pull the strings to get them there. otherwise he's a bit aimless. he likes being useful. and since influencing others is helpful #he just keeps doing it? because it's what he's good at. and he tries to convince himself its fun and cool and just cuz hes charming and #it's his role as a skill and manipulation isnt thaaaat bad because it's helpful to them after all... but he does feel bad sometimes. #oh im listening to his voice lines and i just got to ''brother you should have put me in front of a firing squad'' and im sad about him now #but what do you want for short term little guy?? probably for people to like him. he likes chatting with people. i bet he'd like genuine #conversations with no strings attached but there's always some part of him filing information and tidbits away that he can't turn off #subconsciously figuring out things he can hold over them or how he can nudge them into thinking someth-/wait.../ no. no he's just talking. #he's /supposed/ to just be talking stop analyzing them stop falling back into that just have a normal conversation!! but he can't help it.. #hm. this is all really helpful for his chapter. he and empathy are very alike but also different. very interesting... #task: swept up #okay good talk everyone i think i understand him a little better now lmao?? still gotta figure him out some more hes not fully there but ye #also i think he goes by whatever pronoun you think he'd use. just ''oh what do /you/ think i am hm?? what /would/ i use; do you think?? :)' #funny fella. i love you.

[isan0rt]

I saw your Dedue post you made recently and OMG THANK YOU SOMEONE HAD TO SAY IT. I’d love to message you further about your other 3houses opinions cause gd your mind.

Honestly like lmao I wasn't specifically trying to call anyone out in particular but it's so so so hard to find interpretations of Dedue that like. Actually consider that perhaps he has complex reasons for talking about himself like he does before the time skip, that rationally follow from his experiences and aren't just like, oh he's got such poor self esteem. Dedue's not Bernadetta, he's as assertive as it's safe for him to be given PEOPLE EXPLICITLY WANT TO KILL HIM for just fucking existing.

If Dimitri wasn't protecting him he would have gotten straight up murdered well before he learned to tank as hard as he tanks, and that's not even counting that first time Dimitri intervened in people actively trying to murder Dedue after successfully murdering his family for the crime of Existing While From Duscur. Like, hello!!!! He's been isolated from his community, from his language, from his culture, surrounded by people who hate him, but with nowhere else to go. Literally everyone else he knew died and his homeland was burned to the ground.

Dimitri is the only person in the WORLD who wants him to live. Of course he's neurotic as fuck about Dimitri. Dimitri is literally all he has left in the world to cling to, and people keep trying to kill Dimitri! It's 100% reasonable for Dedue before the timeskip to feel like he has fucking nothing if he doesn't have Dimitri. Objectively that's true!!!

Like, after the timeskip, he comes back having spent time back among his own people, seeing that his culture isn't gone and he does have something to fight to preserve. He survives because his community comes to save him. He comes back wearing VERY expensive full-body armor (like for real that's absurd amounts of steel and master craftsmanship) with Duscur's motif enameled on the pauldrons, wearing Duscur-woven clothing and accompanied by a whole group of his countrymen fighting alongside him to reach Dimitri. His post-timeskip design screams that he's been reintegrated into his home culture. Of course he's in a better place after that!

None of his emotional development happens in a vacuum! Dedue struggles with his self-worth when he's cut off from his community, and is able to self-actualize only after reconnecting with his community. Azure Moon has so many themes about community healing after trauma, and about relying on support in order to lift all boats together. All the Lions start the game fractured and damaged because of the breakdown of the social contract in Faerghus and improve through Azure Moon by banding together and healing the fractured relationships. Dedue can't be his best self when he's isolated from his roots. Ignoring that I feel like really misses the themes Dedue brings to the table.

#sorry i guess i still had a lot of thoughts about this #Dedue is so critical to understanding the themes of Azure Moon #and i just feel like he gets written off and there's a lack of diving in to his emotional landscape #like. WHY does he feel that way. it's not just for no reason!! #Dedue embodies the core themes of community healing and growth and roots #Very literally in some ways through his motif of tending a garden #cultivating new life from the seeds left behind in the ashes #the flowers are a metaphor!!! Carefully helping Duscur heal and bloom from new growth is his goal!! #you have to grapple with the way race impacts his character to understand him #he's a challenging and complex character and that's valuable actually #Dedue Molinaro #fe3h

[anipgarden]

Hey fellow milkweed nerds of Tumblr I have a question.

So. Swamp milkweed. It's pink! That's pretty cool. I wanna know how pink.

Because whenever I google Swamp Milkweed, whether its to look for seeds or plants for sale or just to show other people, the flowers look like this.

[ID: Three pictures of swamp milkweed, all a very very bright vivid hot pink with white middles.]

Thats Fucking Hot Pink. This bright ass pink is what drew me to the plant in the first place. If I were to find my Dream Swamp Milkweed, it would be this pink.

However, a lot of the times, I end up finding swamp milkweed that looks more like this.

[ID: Two pictures of swamp milkweed, both from the same plant. The flowers are a light, nearly white, light pink.]

Its a much lighter, more of a strawberry-milk pink. These are pictures I took from my own swamp milkweed plant, but from the pictures I've seen in my gardening server, a lot of them have plants in a color similar to this.

So what I'm curious about is. If you grow swamp milkweed, or have seen it growing in the wild, have you ever seen it as pink in the first example? Or is it just Photoshop magic? And if you do have it that pink... do you have any seeds you'd be willing to share?

#milkweed #swamp milkweed #pollinator gardening #pollinator garden #asclepias #asclepias incarnata #like im genuinely curious #as the self proclaimed milkweed queen of Tumblr I Want To Know #and also as the self proclaimed milkweed queen of Tumblr if you have a vivid pink milkweed plz send me pics and also seeds #i can send mexican sunflower seeds in return if you want even #i genuinely wanna know because I swear when I see images of vivid pink milkweeds its either a site trying to sell milkweed #or a site trying to promote native milkweeds #NOW. I bought some bare root plants from Home Depot #they haven't flowered yet but if they come back next year and they're vivid ass hot pink then I'll have fulfilled this Research Question #but until they flower next year (if they even come back I kinda neglected them on accident) I am DYING to know #i have seen NO ONE thats like a real person with bright ass pink milkweed #is it a thing they do when the plants are older? is it a specific strain everyone's going crazy over? or is it photoshop #vote now on your phones #ani rambles #out of queue

[louise-auxcimes]

If everything goes as planned, I will have some Soil friends sticker sheets at Culture Fest ! Au Mazette le 28 mai à Paris :) And I have received the Seeds I will offer with my prints ! ✨

If you have some time, you can also come and say Hi at Paris City Pop where I will be a volunteer again his year ! ♥

#protect the soil #creatures #soil #seeds #roots #colembole #isopod #stickers #convention

[wildrungarden]

9/18/23 ~ Marigolds I didn’t even try to grow. Just seeds that fell into the compost garden from last years flowers 🌼 featuring one of my now FOUR Marshmallow Root plants 🙌🏻 I am going to try and collect seeds from the Marshmallow Root this year.

#indoor garden #container gardening #sustainable gardening #vegetable gardening #starting seeds #grow organic #grow your own food #organic gardening #tomato garden #green witch #herb garden #cooking herbs #medicinal herbs #marshmallow root #marigold #compost garden #raised beds

[balkanradfem]

A woman shows you all kinds of containers that to and don't work for raising little transplants inside of your home! And she's right and I agree with her.

#starting seeds indoors #youtube video #now gardening #growing food #diy plant containers #i never even dared to try out those degradable ones #i wont even put the seeds in newspapers #it obviously can't degrade soon enough and roots get tangled in it #i feel so validated by her use of plastic food containers #thats how i do it too! #Youtube

[biteofcherry]

Thots, again:

You are Persephone but what if instead of your mother wanting you to keep pure and a virgin, she decides to marry you off to a king.

After you engagement, you wander off into the underworld and catch the eye of the king of the underworld. You both talk a little and his reason to want you only solidifies in his mind.

Anyway, you wander back to earth and prepare for your wedding day. The day arrives and just after the ceremony comes to an end, the ground splits open and hades captures you.

Your new husband finds you after a lot of pleading to before Zeus but you are tricked into eating half of a pomegranate by hades. Now you have to split your time with you two husbands.

So, who are your two husbands? 😏

Surprising?

I know a few other characters would fit Hades with the dark, misunderstood, tormented trope. But Hades rules the underworld, a whole endless kingdom of it and has to wrangle many sanders and whiners. Who better for the role than Nick, who can run the fucking place with an iron fist and still be soft and flirty with me?

Now Ari for the husband, because if my goddess mother is picking a husband for me she is going to pick one that is chiseled more perfect and hotter than some of the gods, shows courage and strength, and oozes virility.

#not me making a dirty joke about seeing whose seed roots first 😏 #ktficworld #Nick Fowler x reader #Ari Levinson x reader #Ari Levinson x reader x nick Fowler

[morethansalad]

Crispy Rock Tofu Bowl (Vegan & Low FODMAP)

#vegan #lunch #dinner #rice bowl #buddha bowl #rice #chives #tofu #vegan mayo #sriracha #maple syrup #sesame oil #carrots #cucumber #bell peppers #cabbage #tamari #lotus root #sesame seeds #low fodmap #eat the rainbow