#literally my favorite bits are the ones where overcommitment to the bit is like

[elodieunderglass]

When does Tolkien start entering the public domain?

(In reference to this poll https://www.tumblr.com/elodieunderglass/730451774219190272 where I tagged it supporting my own personal theory and added that when Tolkien enters the public domain WATCH OUT)

Tolkien’s works enter the public domain in the USA, uk and Canada 70 years after his death - so 2043 with open season starting 2044.

If we’re all still around in 20 years’ time, make a note of it! I’ll write you a story with unhinged hobbit family structures, the Shire being a place that dampens magic, and the unauthorised yet strangely canonical adventures of Belladonna Took and the Silmarils. It will be 200,000 words long and written in the correct tone, and I promise to do completely immersive research to colour in the background: every linguistic reference, Anglo-Saxon folkway, Icelandic influence, weirdly deep dives into topics like kinship moiety and subtle mischief that characterises Tolkien’s work. This would be so funny to me.

Everyone will be racing to publish basic porn and games; the d&d franchise which will be world-eating in 20 years will finally get to drop the pretense of “halflings,” Witcher and other franchises ditto; all the fantasy writers who have tugged at the tit for so many generations will finally be able to do it openly, and the films will be constant and abysmal. But we, we alone, we happy few alone and free; we will be giggling together, like playing dolls, over what the people REALLY want: constructing elaborate conlang puns with a 200k textual payoff.

It will be my honor to work on this for no reason at all, and I will ceremoniously give it to you in exchange for £7.99. And we will laugh and laugh and laugh

#what a hilarious joke let’s do it #GOD #I’d like to think I’ll have my own creative endeavours in 20 years #such as competitive flax spinning or something #but it would be so funny. #literally my favorite bits are the ones where overcommitment to the bit is like #part of the bit #omg we have to do this.

[fanfoolishness]

Steven Universe Future musings

Rambling thoughts behind the cut for A Very Special Episode!  As always, feel free to reblog or message me with your own thoughts and ideas!

We streamed the episode through the official CN app and for a second it cut out part of the vital discourse between Explorer Gal and Mayor Guy.  Thank goodness it wasn’t more!

How the fuck old IS Onion

I thought he was about 4 before but if so he should be pushing 7 and kid should know how to chew a fucking broccoli by now

Oooohh Rainbow can access Pearl’s sand/cloud animation powers and Steven’s levitation powers together to apply them to objects?

Also THE FUCK IS THAT STEVEN PLUSHIE WITH ITS CHEST RIPPED OPEN AND ONE EYE PINK

I thought fandom had left behind the whole Steven loses an eye thing but oh ho!  It’s sorta back!

Maybe Steven will wind up with one permanently pink and one normal, showing he’s scarred by his Gem struggles but still ultimately human???

I’m hard-pressed to see him lose an eye entirely given that the movie definitively established he can heal himself

Leave it to Onion to have that thing lying around

And leave it to Onion to fucking COLLECT GREG’S HAIR OUT OF THE OCEAN BECAUSE YOU KNOW THAT’S WHAT HAPPENED

Rainbow 2.0 has such a sweet voice!

My favorite was What the--???

haha I just spent like 3 hours drawing Steven’s phone but still didn’t draw it correctly. Why didn’t I look up a reference?

Steven got stress eyes IMMEDIATELY

Initial thoughts were “Wow, why is Garnet being so mean to these Gems?”

Later thoughts: ahhhh this is the future where Garnet overdid it.

FUSION DANCE FUSION DANCE FUSION DANCE

MY BOY’S DANCE MOVES ARE SO GOOD

WOW

THAT CONFIDENCE

THOSE LITTLE HAND GESTURES

THE LEAN BACK WITH THE FISTS AND HIS EYES CLOSED

LOOK HOW HIS JACKET FLOOFS AROUND HIM

LOOK AT HIM GO

I’M SO PROUD

THE WAY HE HOLDS GARNET’S HANDS LIKE AN EQUAL AND THEY SMILE AT EACH OTHER AND I’M LITERALLY TEARING UP IT’S JUST SO GREAT AND HE’S SO PRECIOUS

HE’S GONNA DO GREAT AT THE BIG DANCE WITH CONNIE

SOMEONE PLEASE GIF IT FOR ME BECAUSE I WANNA WATCH IT FOREVER

I’ll make a separate post with caps because I just love this SO FUCKING MUCH!!!!!!

Sunstone is so much wiser than anyone knows -- turn off that motion smoothing!

Great safety tips, Sunstone!

Steven starts sweating immediately as soon as unfusing... poor kid!

Just... Rainbow, you are the best Mary Poppins that ever was <3

But Onion is just.... beyond

Home Safety obstacle course??? nooo!  Motion smoothing??? Nooo!

BungaCOWA

Do you guys think the tiny arms are Sapphire’s, and the beefy arms are Steven + Ruby?

Steven almost passes out coming out of Sunstone again....

The entire Pearl second video call is AMAZING

Incredible insane angles on Pearl!  The mood!  Onion in the Wall!  Then it goes into like a take on the X-files theme???

You were such a good kid you were never like this I’m so sorry I never told you that omg Pearl your love for Steven is soooooooooooo pure!

But don’t worry Steven you’re still loved now whether or not you live up to someone else’s idea of good!

Steven is so done with Onion by the time they find him in the kitchen

So Onion, like Steven, doesn’t grow, but apparently, he has grown enough to be literate

Oh no Steven’s eyes are just closed on Rainbow’s face because he’s so tired now

Steven is wiped out

No no no, it’s fine, it’s good!

I’m combining all my responsibilities into one responsibility!

Steven just went full Bojack Horseman here somehow!!!!  I think the I’m fine loop does it, and the crazy angles on Steven’s face -- soooo good!

It’s - it’s brilliant!  It’s fine, I’m fine, it’s really, I’m fine, it’s fine, I’m fine --

I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m -- really, just fine -- huh?

Amethyst omg

Why is Onion a Pied Piper??? because he’s terrible

Wait, I just realized both skinny arms have the wedding rings... curious!

Steven for Beefy Arms confirmed 2019

So did any of that happen?  Did it happen as a skit?  Was it all being filmed?  Or was it only shown to us the audience, suggesting it did happen in a future that is not canon?  

I suspect that if Sunstone looked ahead and saw possible futures where a) gems were hurt and b) Steven was hurt by overcommitting, that the possible futures they had to pick from would be influenced by everyone in the fusion.  So since Steven is super anxious these days and thinks he’s the only one who can solve people’s problems, then the futures Sunstone has available to pick from are naturally going to be ones where other people are more incompetent (Garnet being callous, Pearl being inept with Onion) and where Steven tries to sacrifice himself to save the day.  

I’m not entirely sure!  Future vision episodes always give me a bit of a headache in a good way.  Very fun and not the emotional devastation I was expecting, which means that the next episode to be a heavy hitter will probably gut everyone and leave them for dead.

#steven universe future #suf spoilers #steven universe future spoilers #suf #steven universe spoilers #a very special episode #steven universe #sunstone #rainbow 2.0 #fanfoolishness su meta

[longneckreach]

A Non-Exhaustive List Of Every Accidental Parallel Between The Reach Raid And Watership Down

Nah I’m not done calling myself out in public okay. Okay. Let me just do a rundown of all the similarities--some of which were just unavoidable/would be a standard part of writing any raid scene but are nonetheless present, and others which are just a LITTLE suspiciously specific. I bolded the suspiciously specific ones.

I need to emphasize: ALL of this was unintentional. Watership Down is just my all-time favorite book and apparently it occasionally leaks from my subconscious.

Note we’re talking about the book here, not any of the adaptations--none of which have ever really managed to accurately capture either the tone, the events, or the characterization (though the movie managed the second two ALMOST perfectly.)

Here we go.

First things first: A peaceful grassland clan, consisting of a ragtag group of misfits seeking a better life after experiencing severe trauma, has to hold off an attack by a militaristic clan. Standard stuff.

I will note that, unlike Watership vs Efrafa, here the defenders have the numerical advantage.

Said militaristic invaders are here specifically out of spite, because the “soft” defenders won a symbolic victory and freed a large group of people from tyranny.

They were warned about the attack ahead of time, solely because of a previous and unrelated act of kindness--an act of kindness most people would assume was crazily excessive and could not possibly pay off in any way. They protected someone vulnerable--snatched a mouse from the talons of a hawk--and in the end he came to them and told them they were in danger.

The number of den entrances is explicitly, immediately identified as a very stupid tactical vulnerability.

Noncombatants are evacuated to a specific location, still within the confines of the territory but as far away from the expected tactical strike as possible.

A trick by the defenders forces the invaders to flee underground or be killed en masse. This is a bit of a stretch considering the wildly different contexts, but hey, I said exhaustive. There’s a large dog loose in the wood and also a bunch of Longnecks with arrows.

Their primary tactic is to force the invaders to funnel into narrow spaces, jumping out at them before retreating.

Bigwig’s ambush = Eurion splitting the pack.

Okay this one is cheating because I actually decided to put it in on purpose, having realized all the OTHER similarities, but still.

So for those of you who’ve never read it, in Watership Down, during the final battle, the character of Bigwig lays a trap to catch the invaders by surprise if they get far enough. He buries himself in the loose dirt under the run, so that when the Efrafan attackers break through, they’ll step on him and he can lunge up from below, where they’re not expecting.

Eurion waiting, feeling vibrations in the earth, and busting down the wall right in the middle of the pack in order to scatter them while the Massacre is already on top of him, overcommitted in a narrow passage and can’t turn back? Yeah okay that was intentional on my part.

Turania intentionally filling the space with her body, as well as Aspis’ technique during their staged fight, come directly from Woundwort vs Bigwig. This one was not on purpose. Aspis ducks low to protect his throat, blocking the passage with his body ostensibly to defend the dragons behind him; Turania looms and fills the run, preventing him from moving forward. Combined with the rubble, they create a situation where--had it been a real fight--in Bigwig’s own words, even their dead bodies would prove a real obstacle to either side trying to force their way through.

A seer taunts the leader of the military clan at a crucial moment, rattling enemy morale by speaking the calm, unvarnished truth.

“You are closer to death than I.”

“I am sorry for you with all my heart; but you cannot blame us, for you came to kill us if you could.”

The leader of the enemy clan has a deeply personal reason for trying to kill a perceived traitor, and nearly wins by virtue of pinning him down and tearing at him. He’s so beat-up by the time said leader is no longer on top of him that he has no awareness of what just happened.

“You told me once to start by impressing you, General. I hope I have.”

Ultimately, a battle that had reached some form of standstill is ended by the sudden appearance of a hairy animal that is extremely large and monstrous.

There’s a large Gaoler loose in the wood...there’s a large Gaoler loose in the wood...

And this is the one that really did it for me, this is the moment I had that thunderclap realization of oh god fucking dammit I just wrote Watership Down again: Ennis’ attempt to talk Nalkh down, even as she invades and tries to kill them all, is literally Hazel’s attempt to talk to Woundwort.

I’m actually gonna copy the relevant sections over.

“I’ve come to suggest something altogether different and better for us both. A rabbit has two ears; a rabbit has two eyes, two nostrils. Our two warrens ought to be like that. They ought to be together--not fighting. [...] You wouldn’t lose by that, you’d gain. We both would. A lot of your rabbits are unhappy now and it’s all you can do to control them, but with this plan you’d soon see a difference. Rabbits have enough enemies as it is. They ought not to make more among themselves. [..]”

At that moment, in the sunset on Watership Down, there was offered to General Woundwort the opportunity to show whether he was really the leader of vision and genius which he believed himself to be, or whether he was no more than a tyrant with the courage and cunning of a pirate. For one beat of his pulse the lame rabbit’s idea shone clearly before him. He grasped it and realized what it meant. The next, he had pushed it away from him. The sun dipped into the cloud bank and now he could see clearly the track along the ridge, leading to the beech hangar and the bloodshed for which he had prepared with so much energy and care.

“I haven’t time to sit here talking nonsense,” said Woundwort.

tl;dr GOD DAMMIT I JUST WROTE WATERSHIP DOWN AGAIN.