Rwby's biggest sin (outside of its infinity gauntlet of bigotry) is by and large its incuriosity
The story presents so many amazing concepts only to explore exactly none of them. Systemic injustice and the many ways to combat it, societies that live alongside man-eating monsters drawn to negative emotions, whether or not someone's unique ability reflects them as a person, four kingdoms with a long and bloody history needing to come together to deal with an apocalyptic threat, so on and so forth
That's a major factor in why people keep coming back to rwby, why its most consistent criticism is "wasted potential", why this show garners so much attention for better or worse
The audience is curious and the writers are not ¯\_(:/)_/¯
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good evening, all. it is May the 25th. our lilacs are blooming, just as the ones at the Watch House did. and I am thinking about remembrance of the fallen, and GNU, and the love in commemoration.
y'know, I read Night Watch… oh, maybe a year ago and some months ago. and the lilac symbolism, the remembrance of the Watch, has always struck me with the depth of the emotion of it, the tangibility of it in the flowers. but I wasn't aware that today was the day until I saw commemorative posts, all that gorgeous artwork and more, on my dash.
I was also not aware, until now, that fans commemorated the day not only because of the book reference, but in support of Terry Pratchett and of those with Alzheimer's. which knocked me over a bit because of course, of course the group that would use GNU to honor him would do that. and… I've been thinking about GNU a lot, lately, and this caught me again.
I read Going Postal a bit ago, and reread it recently. both times, the parts about GNU made me tear up. this idea of the names, the memories, the lives of the clacks workers who dedicated themselves to ensuring that people heard each other's voices—all those names spoken again and again and again by that which they poured their souls into, winging along in the air as they could not, an eternal reminder that they were loved—how could that not touch a person's heart?
when I found out that fans online used it to memorialize him, I damn well cried. hell, I still tear up just thinking about it. do you know, there's a code for an HTTP header "X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett" written by Reddit users to put in webpages, where it goes unseen by the average user? and in 2015, when Netcraft took a survey, there were eighty-four thousand websites using it? it's eight years later—how many thousands upon thousands of websites have this now, do you think? how many little cables of light has his name flown along, now? how many times?
that alone is absurdly and unimaginably lovely in its own right, but… there's something else to it. there's something about remembering with the lilac sprigs every year, just as Vimes and those who were there remembered their dead. something about how, when we take up our lilac sprigs, we carry a little piece of the characters in our hearts, too. I kept trying to put my finger on why that makes me tear up the way it does. the conclusion I came to is this:
what greater way to honor a writer is there, but to honor them the way they did the characters they poured their heart and soul into? what better way to say we know you and you are not forgotten and your work and words and gifts to the world are held in our hearts forever than to remember them by their own words, their own vision? how else could we say you embodied all the good you believed in and wished to see in the world, but to memorialize them after the little pieces of their soul they wrapped in ink and put upon the page?
it is a knowing of the writer, to remember them in their way. it is not a worn-out faceless platitude, but a reminder that their work has been read and will continue to be, that the characters and world they loved enough to bring to life last just as their name does. such remembrance is warm and loving and delights in their memory even as it grieves.
and now Pratchett's name has been written in his tradition, over and over and over, across the vast plane of the Internet, where it will—with any luck—continue to fly for generations to come.
there is no way to truly express the beauty of that… but perhaps we can catch a glimpse of it in the lilacs, both ours and the Watch's.
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Another thing I really appreciate about the Underland Chronicles is how it's both grounded but still having a bit of fun. There's SOME thought given to practicality, logistics, and realistic inspiration, but that's held in the same hand as a healthy dose of rule of cool. The people ride on bats and they have acrobatics themed fighting styles that utilize triple bladed swords. Is that practical? Does it even make physical sense? I don't care.
It's grounded in the sense that no one casts a spell, and the nature of free will is left up in the air, but there are prophecies and there are dinosaurs. It feels real but it never feels embarrassed to be fantasy (like SOME OTHER SERIES I WON'T NAME). Sometimes you get scientific justifications for things, and sometimes you don't because it's not important. How do apple trees grow underground? Moving on! No lamp-shading! L+ratio+use your imagination.
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So, he has a new series out so I was reminded of my obsession with Ding Yuxi again and in watching some YT video about the new series I was again struck by how fascinating it is to me how different his looks can be. For example, when I watched the first series with him in the main role (The Romance of Tiger and Rose; which yes, I'll readily admit, I agreed to watch in a large part because I saw him on the poster and was like, well, I wouldn't mind seeing more of this 😏), there were two ~versions of him – in the historical and the modern setting:
And like yeah they all wear those wigs in historical dramas so that's not particularly remarkable, right. Little did I know that this was just a tiny tip of the iceberg
Because then when I went to look him up afterwards on YT etc. and the first pictures I saw were these:
about which I was at first like, is that even him? Like the face is just ... not the same in these? But ok, what do I know, anyway ... And then I watched an interview where he has yet another different look, and that seemed kind of in between, so that "bridged the gap" in a way. And then! – in that same interview – they juxtaposed him with another of his earlier looks:
and it's like, who tf is this person ?
It's just, idk, really amazing how much just different hairstyles, lighting, makeup, accessories will do. Obsessed
Other interview looks are nothing extreme
And obviously there's supposed to be more variety when looking at the different roles
But still, sometimes I'm just like, this is one person .....
And like, sure, these looks obviously aren't impossibly different, but comparing the different ends of the spectrum can be pretty wild
In any case, the one that brought all of this about was this latest one:
and idk at this point I shouldn't be surprised anymore. And yet ...
Anyway, I do actually love his acting too lmao
It really is ... delectable 😌
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