#one episode where they should be adults. if only for the half where they live in a village in that dream.

[quietwingsinthesky]

i do love canon amy & rory but god, does some part of me wish they really had gone with the idea of the doctor picking up a child as a companion (and then later, that child’s best friend with a huge crush on her.) with the rest of the season really not changing at all, except now it’s amelia pond with an angel in her head killing her and lost alone in the woods. it’s little rory who dies and is forgotten and becomes a toy soldier. if this is going to be a fairy tale, then let it be one. children have never been safe in fairy tales.

#it wouldn’t have to change any of the actual plot of the season. except MAYBE amy’s choice but even then i think amy’s choice would be the #one episode where they should be adults. if only for the half where they live in a village in that dream. #because that’s the kind of future that children would dream up. they live in a little cottage and nothing ever goes wrong and their best #friend visits them all the time even though they’ve grown up. #they aren’t actually adults there just children with an idea of what they should be as adults and acting accordingly #and it would still end the same way. #but idk its just. rory’s 2000 years waiting for amy inside the pandorica is already tragic. yes. #now imagine its a kid. a kid in a little roman soldier helmet who will never grow up. who will not leave his best friend. #he loves her and she’s more important than the whole universe and that sort of love is supposed to MEAN something in a fairy tale! #its supposed to melt the ice out of hearts and transform people from stone. #and what that love means here. is that he will have to wait 2000 years. a child and a box. #little rory and the amelia who followed the doctor’s letters to the pandorica. and she doesn’t recognize him again. #and amelia in the pandorica… 2000 years a child trapped in a small box waiting to be rescued. #s5 is already fucked for them but it could be worse. it could be so much worse. #and it would make the doctor choosing to take her place in the pandorica to save the universe later even better. #because who else but the doctor would put the fate of the universe on the shoulders of two children and realize much too late what a #monstrous thing he’d done. and still have to hope. have to hope. that amelia would remember him fondly enough to bring him back to reality. #the logistics of all of this would have been a pain lmao. child labor laws in acting and all that. #BUT. hypothetically. it would have slapped. #doctor who #amy pond #rory williams #<- also this entire time ive been referring to him in my head as rory pond so much that i fuckin. forgot his actual last name. #and then like if you want them to be adults in s6 or whatever you can just timeskip to them getting married and still have amelia remember #the doctor there. it would work. it would. #amelia pond au

[brehaaorgana]

ADHD money/budgeting system I'm currently using for my benefit is going well (I've been using it for like half a year now?), and I wanna recommend it.

You Need a Budget is EXCELLENT. 10/10 do recommend. Uhhh rambling about it and my generic disclaimers + gushing extensively under the cut but TL;DR I think it's great for ADHD ppl, I've used it for 6+ months now and I find it super SUPER helpful. also weirdly fun.

DISCLAIMERS:

Budgeting helps you understand/know your money, it can't make money appear where there is none.

Everyone should learn to budget even if you don't have much money (especially then)

This is NOT a magic trick solution. Just like everything else, it is an assistive tool. This is one of those adult things we can't simply opt out of without negative consequences, though.

My advice is based on something I am currently able to do. That is, I can spend an amount of money on this specific thing that works well for me. If you have no extra money to spend then previously I was tracking things in a notebook. So you can still do this.

I believe Dave Ramsey is a fundie fraud/hack and no one should listen to him about money.

DID YOU KNOW THEY CANCELLED MINT???

Okay? OKAY.

Ahem.

You Need a Budget is EXCELLENT.

It is called YNAB for short. The first 34 days are your free trial, and that is my referral link. If anyone uses it and then signs up for a subscription, we both get a month free. Also you can share a subscription with up to six people (account owner can see everything but individuals can pick and choose what they share amongst each other) so like...idk your whole polycule can be on one account. Or your kids. Whatever.

If you are a student, it's free for a year. If you aren't, a subscription is $99 for a year (paid all at once) or $14.99 monthly, which is equivalent to paying Amazon prime. Go cancel Prime and get this instead tbh.

They got a whole article just on ynab and ADHD. They also have like...a big variety of ways to access their info? They have a book, podcast episodes, YouTube videos, blog posts, q&A's, free live workshops you can join (you can request live captioning), emails they can send (if you want) a wiki, and so on. They got workshops on all kinds of topics!!

So whatever ends up working for your brain. It also has a matching app.

If you lost Mint this year they have a gajillion things for moving from Mint.

Also they have a "got five minutes?" Page which has a slider so you can decide how much attention/time you have before going on lol:

They only have 4 rules of the budget, they're simple and practical, and it doesn't get judgey or like...mean about your spending.

1. Give every dollar a job 2. Embrace your true expenses 3. Roll with the punches 4. Age your money.

THEN THEY BREAK THESE DOWN INTO SMALL STEPS FOR YOU! They even have a printable! Also these rules are great because there's built in expectations that things WILL HAPPEN and it's NOT all or nothing with a fear of total collapse into failure. Reality and The Plan don't always align, especially if you have ADHD. So it's directing our energy towards the true expenses and not clinging to The Plan!! over reality.

You can automate a lot of shit (you can sync with your bank accounts just like mint, but also automate tagging the categories of regular expenses/transactions). And if for whatever reason you accidentally do something that makes the budget look weird or wrong:

A) you can usually fix it somehow OR b) they have like, a button you can press that gives you a clean slate and archives the previous version of the budget for you.

So if you forget for a few weeks or months, or accidentally input something wildly wrong, or just don't want to look at a really terrible month anymore and feel like you need a fresh start you can usually either fix it or start fresh which is really nice.

The app also (for whatever reason) scratches my itch to have things like...have incentives or little game-like goals in a way mint never did? I don't know why. Filling up the bars or putting money into the categories to cover my expenses is satisfying lmao. You can also make a big wish expense category for all the fun shit you want, and fund it whenever you can and then you can see the little bar go up and that's fun.

Anyways I've been using it for like 6+ months now and I think it's really helped me when I use it.

#adhd #adhd money #adult adhd #ynab #adhd blogging

[lilywily143]

The Jock Stereotype Reversal and The Voice of Reason

No one knows how much I love this drone. My view of him never shifted so fast either.

Look, the moment I saw this sports man, I instantly thought he would be a stereotypical jock.

And the whole thing where he complimented Uzi and she got all blushy, it made me think I would hate this drone.

Jock idiot crushes aren't a type I like.

But after his last scene in the episode, I got his personality a bit more. Revisiting his initial scene made me love him more.

One of his first things he says is actually being careful with what he says. He says, "I'd say everyone knows Khan's daughter, but then you might blow the other half of her face off."

He actually made sure to not make her mad about something he wanted to say.

He asks her about her new item and she gets excited and rambles about her plans for the day. And she does shove the gun in Thad's face, scaring him a bit, but he calms down a bit as he listens to her little speech.

He even makes a little nod as she speaks, which does indicate he is paying attention to her before he comments on what she says.

When her plan settles in Thad's mind and he realizes it sounds dangerous, he tries to let her know that it doesn't sound safe. But she doesn't take it lightly.

Also, I do like how Thad doesn't seem scared about a gun in his face a second time. He just instantly got used to Uzi's energy.

His next scene where the Murder Drones got into their safe place, he is the only drones willing to fight them in the group. Even though he is clearly hurt

And he even tries to get the "adult" drones to do their jobs and defend [well more be on the offense], but it doesn't work.

He is nearly killed by a drone before Uzi and N come back to save them and defeat the murder drones. And he's just so happy and compliments the two of them, even though he is nervous around the Murder Drone.

I feel like the stereotype of a jock would try to say he could have been fine without their help when they clearly needed it, but this guy is grateful for the duo saving him.

He's also the only one of the group here to say something nice to either of them, while everyone else is quiet; past the initial clapping. It lets you think he is more open to being nice [definitely more than Liz /lh].

In the next episode, he has an even bigger role with the main characters. He helps Uzi out by grabbing her gun from the safe spot last episode, despite being nervous to hold it.

But I do like how whenever she rambles, he just patiently waits for her to finish.

He also compliments the two of them again for saving him. Even though they are his saviors as he calls them, he talks to them like normal drones and has even given them nicknames. N is "N and M's" and Uzi is "Zi"

The big thing I noticed while watching this episode again, and it's that Thad almost acts like a voice of reason to Uzi.

Uzi self-banished herself from home to live on the outside and she even monologues about how she 'can never go back' which clearly shouldn't be what she should do.

Her being on the outside makes sure she has almost no drone interaction. And the only two are Murder Drones, one that keeps trying to scare Uzi away and the other Murder Drone that is only willing to go with whatever Uzi does and won't go against her ideas at this point.

Thad is the only worker drone that she interacts with before she 'un-banishes' herself, and he was the one to get her back.

He informs her about what is going on at home, how the drones seem to not be taking her banishment seriously. But he does go for the side of their home saying they are just "..more confused". Which is understandable, no drone ever seemed to try and banish themselves before.

The main that he says that convinces Uzi to get back home is talking about a topic she is involved with but scares him, the murder drones.

Thad talks about missing drones and the corpse of a drone 'crawling away' which encourages Uzi to come back.

Most of the following scenes have Thad following Uzi with her plan, which is interesting. He obviously is scared about things with the murder drones - besides the one that saved him -, but he comes along with her investigation around the killed murder drone.

Whether he does it so make sure she's safe, or keep her in 'check' like he has been, or because he feels like helping his saviors; he comes along.

Then he gets captured by the almost rebuilt corpse.

When the corpse tries to fool the two with a hologram of Thad, they don't fall for it for a second. So they definitely seem to know about Thad a lot like a friend.

They save him and he is instantly complimenting them, inviting them to a party of his. Seriously, he calls them his saviors and he just still treats them like friends and not superb heros.

I also thought it was fun he called them cool kids by insulting the corpse for not being invited since "Cool kids only" will come to his shin-dig.

I do hope we see him again a bit more, but he does seem stuck in the side character role these last two episodes that are out. n^n

#LilyWily Post #Murder Drones #character analysis #MD Thad #Murder Drones Episode 1 #Murder Drones Episode 2

[angelsanarchy]

Glass Houses: Jack Thurlow x Y/N Series CH 02 -> CH 03

"He looks just like Rusty and he keeps following me." "Unless you're walking through pet sematary, I assure you that's not Rusty."

Tagging: @roryculkinluvr @thatsthewrongwallcraig @icarus-star

"How was therapy?" Shanda asked as Jack walked through the neighbor smoking a cigarette.

"He recommended getting fresh air instead of staying locked up in the house. Naturally I'm having a cigarette and talking a walk." Jack smirked.

"I'd say that's progress, somewhat." Shanda laughed. Jack knew she really didn't want to leave him by himself but it had been a few days and he honestly felt fine. He didn't mind the silence when he was writing and when the silence made him anxious, he turned on a playlist to start boxing things in the upper levels up.

"I was checking with work and I think I might be able to make it back for the weekend-" Jack cut her off.

"Shan, please stop trying to fuck your own life up to babysit me. I am following all the rules, being a good little patient and working on myself. I don't want you to waste your life freaking out about me." Jack loved Shanda. They had been through a lot as kids and now as adults. He wanted her to be happy and live the life she wanted to live and she couldn't do that if she was taking care of him.

"Jack, you're my best friend. I'm going to worry." Shanda defended.

"I know that and I love you for that but I promised you that if I ever got those feelings again, I would reach out. I'm not going to let myself get that bad again." Jack knew the meds were working because his mind was usually at ease. It was his body that wasn't working out.

"How about the sleeping? How's that going?" Shanda asked.

"I sleep a lot more and I'm trying to eat more but everything makes me nauseous. I need to find something to supplement my lack of vitamins or something because sleeping half the day doesn't help when you're trying to meet deadlines." Jack placed the cigarette between his lips to run his hand through his hair.

"What about the sleep walking?" Shanda was the only one who knew about his sleep walking episodes. It was something that bonded them as kids because everyone else thought they were weird for having such vivid sleep walking episodes.

"None that I know of but I did put up some cameras just to make sure. I'm thinking about putting a few inside just in case. Basement cameras, maybe one in the kitchen." Jack could hear whining but couldn't quite place where it was coming from.

"You should get those nanny-cams they have for elderly people so I can check on you when you don't answer my calls." Shanda joked making Jack laugh.

"That would just give me motivation to figure out my dick dysfunction to scar you." Jack had been medicated since he was hospitalized and he hadn't been able to get a single hard on since he started. At first it didn't bother him because nothing was really piquing his sexual interest but now his body felt far past pent up.

"It wouldn't be the first guy whose tried to jerk off at me. Remember I live in New York." Jack heard the whining again and stopped walking.

"What the hell is that?" Jack looked around in the open field he was standing in trying to follow the sound.

"What's wrong?" Shanda asked.

"I keep hearing something whining, like a dog or an animal of some kind." Jack started towards the trees and heard it again.

"Are you sure? Maybe you're just hearing feedback through the phone." Jack knew what feedback sounded like and this wasn't it. He got all the way to the tree line when a small white dog popped out of the woods and strutted up to him.

"Holy shit..." Jack put his cigarette out on his shoe and stuffed the butt in his pocket.

"What?! What is it? Did you find the noise?" Shanda sounded concerned.

"Rusty?" Jack knelt down to the dog and he didn't move.

"Um...Jack." Shanda had the unfortunate experience of seeing the collateral damage that came from Jack's breakdown. Sadly Rusty was it.

"I know, I know. He's dead. I killed him but Shan..." Jack held his hand out and the dog still didn't move.

"I'm sure there are plenty of dogs that look like Rusty in that neighborhood. Your neighbors are upper class white elders. Just walk away from him." Shanda suggested.

Jack stood up and looked behind the dog, not hearing anyone call out for him or come popping through the trees to retrieve him. He also noticed it didn't have a collar either. He tried walking away but now the dog was following him.

"Did you walk away?" Shan asked curiously.

"Yeah but I mean I can't seem to-" The dog had run up to him and was no jumping on his legs.

"He looks just like Rusty and he keeps following me." Jack knelt down to pet the dog now that he was engaging with him.

"Unless you're walking through Pet Semetary, I assure you that's not Rusty." Shanda reminded. Jack missed Rusty more than anything. Rusty had been his comfort through a lot of his life and knowing that he was a victim of his mental break broke his heart more than anything.

"I can't just leave him out here by himself. It's going to get dark soon." Jack got back to his feet and picked the dog up.

"Jack, please don't do anything that's going to set you back. Just ask some of your neighbors. They'll probably be able to tell you who he belongs to." Jack started walking back to the neighborhood but wasn't really ready to go interacting with his neighbors. He didn't see the point in getting stuck in the cycle of everyone talking to him about his dead parents and decision to move into the big house by himself.

"I'll just take him home tonight and call Nancy at the vet. She might be able to figure out who they belong to." Jack scratched the dogs head and started towards the house, ending his phone call abruptly with Shanda. He kept his eyes peeled for anyone running around frantically looking for a lost dog but no one ever came outside.

"Come on little buddy. Let's get you something to eat. You look tired." Jack rooted through some of the groceries Shanda had left behind for him and could only find a bag of goldfish. He grabbed Rusty's old dog dish and took him upstairs. He cleaned him up in the sink before plopping him down on the bedroom floor.

"Sorry buddy, I only have this. It's not much but I wasn't really expecting company." Jack sat on the floor next to the bowls, one filled with water and the other with goldfish crackers. The pup sniffed them both and started eating the goldfish. Jack pet his back softly.

"That's a good boy. Good boy." His heart hadn't ached for much while he was hospitalized but sitting here with Rusty's doppelganger made his heart hurt. He made a mental note to mention getting a new dog to his therapist.

#Jack Thurlow #Jack Goes Home #One Shot Series #Culkin Cult #Glass Houses #Rory Culkin #Y/n will appear in the next one shot #let me know if you want to be included on the tag list #2/32

[deloc-deltoca]

Question for the fan base; how old do you think Kyborg is? Or how old to you perceive him in your head?

Because I have two different versions in mine, both equally messed up. I could write a whole essay about Kyborg with all my dnd elf knowledge, but that's for another time.

Anyway, mad man Kyborog age ramblings below. Spoilers for basically the entire campaign.

Starting off, we know that his entire village was destroyed when he was a child, he spent x amount of time in the Everwinter woods, was visited by a golem who he later took the arm of, and had Entropa show him how to install said arm.

Now based off what we're given, we roughly know Kyborgs age when some of these events happen. His village was probably destroyed when he was, say, between 8-10, because his sister is older than him but she still appears to be very young. And the golem he met appeared when he was a teenager. This means that he spent about 5 or 6 years in the Everwinter woods by himself.

Now here's where things get complicated. We don't know how old Kyborg is, Blaine mentioned like once that he's a bit older, and wood elves can live to be above 2000 years on average (which, side note, in the first episode its said that Kyborg is a half elf, but his wiki says hes full wood elf. And both of his parents are implied to be elves so I'm just going with full elf). And Kyborg was assisted by Entropa to attach his golem arm, but we're never told how old he was/appeared, so I have come to two separate conclusions.

1.) Kyborg lived in the Everwinter woods for about 40+ years, by himself, with only one arm.

2.) Kyborg is in fact a lot younger than he seems, being 25 at like max.

An important note is that Entropa was the one who potentially told Kyborg about the Infiknight Intern position, meaning as soon as his arm was installed, Kyborg probably made his way to Boulderay.

Of course there's a few holes in this whole story, Kyborg claims to have gone on a "decade long" training spree after getting his arm for example.

Either way, Kyborg is still an actual infant in elf age and never got to receive his adult name. Fucked up when you think about it, someone should write a fanfic about that (shhhh i am).

#tales from the stinky dragon #dnd #kyborg everwinter #deltalks #madman rambling #anyway hey guys #apologies if some info is wrong #its been forever since i listened to his arc

[midnightfox450]

It's WTNV's 10th birthday you KNOW I am going to write something sappy. Strap in, this is going to be long.

Welcome to Night Vale being a full decade old feels kind of unreal to me, as I've only been listening for three or four of those years. I was very young in 2012, so I can't accurately gauge the mainstream perception of queerness at the time, but I can't imagine it was very good. So when I first heard Cecil matter-of-factly state his love for a man he had just met in the PILOT, I was surprised and intrigued. I honestly remember the moment quite clearly, that's how impactful "I fell in love instantly" was.

And WTNV is not a teen, coming-of-age, "falling in love with your best friend and having to come out to your parents" type of queer story. The main leads were already grown adults. It was love at first sight. They never had to ask each other if they liked men, and it was never an issue. Just unadulterated (albeit often interrupted by supernatural goings on) will-they-wont-they fluff.

Cecilos has gone through some ups and downs. Both of their lives have been threatened too many times to count, they got an apartment (not a condo) together, they were separated for a year, they got married, they had a kid, they killed a giant worm god, they were briefly in a 50 First Dates situation, etc etc. But throughout the entirety of the podcast, from the very first episode down to the most recent, the theme always comes back to their love for one another. It has been frequently shown that the last thing Cecil thinks about, when nearing death or a similarly distressing plight, is Carlos. And when Carlos continuously saves the town from impending disaster, he does it so he can continue coming home to Cecil.

They are the anchor that defines the rest of the town. Night Vale is their home, because they are the embodiments of Night Vale, and they are each other's homes. And the rest of Night Vale accepts this. They tune in every night with at least partial hope to hear more about their lives. They all attended their wedding. Carlos was once considered, by both the citizens and whatever powers that may be, to be an outsider. But his love and loyalty to Cecil granted him acceptance. Queer love is shown to be powerful enough to keep an entire town afloat. Queerness is what gets you accepted into, dare I say Welcomed, to Night Vale.

Fink and Cranor have said they didn't originally intend for Carlos and Cecil to have a serious love story. But even so, Cecil was still a gay main character voiced by a gay man - narrating gay attraction from his own perspective - three years before gay marriage was legalized. It was a pretty huge step for indie queer representation, and I don't think its unfair to say it has fundamentally shaped fictional podcasting as a medium. A lot of your faves wouldn't be half the show they are without it.

When I went to the Haunting of Night Vale liveshow a while ago, the opener by Kate Jones and the weathers by Mal Blum both felt like they expected queerness from the audience. Like it was this unspoken theme throughout the entirety of the night. It felt strange and comforting, to be enjoying something where queerness was implicit but inherent. And isn't that what Night Vale is: strange and comforting? Isn't that what queerness should be?

Now, WTNV, especially early WTNV, is far from perfect. I have a lot of criticisms about the show and its fandom I'll save for another time. But at the end of the day, Welcome to Night Vale is a show about a small, culturally-isolated southern american desert town, where the strange is normal and the normal is strange. I don't think it could be lost on anyone how the supernatural is a metaphor for queerness, in both the archaic and modern definition of the word. WTNV is an inherently queer show. And the idea that queerness can thrive in what would otherwise be thought of as a typically conservative town, not in spite of its setting, but BECAUSE of it? That is an incredibly hopeful and much needed perspective. It was needed in 2012, and it is still just as relevant in 2022.

Godspeed, Night Vale. May the sun continue to be hot, may the moon continue to be beautiful, and may the mysterious lights continue to pass overhead as we all pretend to sleep.

#wtnv #welcome to night vale #carlos the scientist #cecil palmer #wtnv 10th anniversary #wtnv tenth anniversary #wtnv thoughts #wtnv meta #wtnv cecil #wtnv carlos #cecilos #night vale

[albentelisa]

Hi there! So what if when Jim used the Khronosphere to turn back time to Season One, he woke up as his half-troll form instead of his human one?

Hi!

Well, I'd say that the things will be way more complicated for Jim in this kind of scenario.

Because, let's be honest, Jim will freak out if he travels back in time and is back to his half-troll form. The fact that balancing human and troll emotions were complicated to him initially, it's easy to imagine that he might lose control over his emotions again if he ends as a half-troll without any warning. He'll panic for sure, worrying that he may scare his mom and Toby, and that sunlight is deadly once again, so he needs to look for a cover. So, Jim escapes from his house without thinking much about possible consequences.

Only once he is in safety in the forest, some common sense returns and Jim starts to consider his situation. Obviously, going back to inhuman form isn't something he will be that happy about, but Jim has lived through losing some dear people (including his best friend), so he probably will think his humanity and regular life were necessary sacrifices in addition to having the memories of that failed timeline where he couldn't save everyone.

Jim will reconsider his initial plan which was leading Toby through the chalenges of being the Trollhunter as currently he cannot even be sure that Toby will pick the amulet. Jim himself also cannot go to get the amulet because of sunlight. So his only possible action right now is to enter the Trollmarket and assist whoever is the Trollhunter now in their quest. The main issue is that Jim has no horngazel to get inside. He decides to look for Blinky who should be wandering on the surface according to his memories (and Jim seriously hopes that Blinky won't treat him the same way as in Unbecoming episode). After some consideration, Jim decides to invent a fake backstory for himself and pretend to be a troll youngling from a different troll community who decided to move to the Heartstone Trollmarket.

Jim doesn't meet Blinky though. He stumbles upon Draal instead - and somehow it's for better as Draal isn't into conspiracies and is just annoyed that some dumb whelp is roaming around risking to stumble upon Bular. So the first step of the plan is finished.

Meanwhile, Toby, who comes to meet up with Jim and go to school together, realizes that Jim is out already, though he has left his bike home for some reason. Toby is both confused and slightly hurt, but he goes to school alone with a full intent to get all the answers from Jim there. Only that Jim isn't in school too. This is where Toby starts panicking for real, not to mention that Jim doesn't answer his phone as well (simply because he hasn't taken it during his escape from the house).

Toby doesn't wait until his classes are over and ride back to Jim's house, where he wakes up Barbara. Barbara tries to act like an adult initially, but her anxiety wins when she finds Jim's phone in his room. Now both Barbara and Toby believe that something is really wrong and go searching for Jim. They end at the canals at some point and Barbara finds the amulet. Both Barbara and Toby are more invested in finding Jim though, so they don't pay much mind to the talking amulet (which is most likely someone's dumb prank from their point of view). Barbara even throws it away (we all know it won't work, though).

The search leads nowhere, and Toby, seeng how much his best friend's mother exhausted, suggest that they both go home, rest a bit and then continue.

Only that there is no actual rest at home because Blinky and Aaarrrgghh (who have been secretly following them for a while) barge in with the shocking news about Barbara's new sacred obligations, giving both her and Toby the scare of their life. Barbara doesn't pass out like Jim in the initial timeline. Instead she tries to connect dots and ask if Jim's disappearance can be possibly connected to all this troll stuff. Blinky says it can be, but he refrains from mentioning that he thinks that Barbara's son may be not alive anymore (Blinky believes that Bular might be involved, so Jim's survival chances are close to none). Blinky and Aaarrrgghh leave as it is close to the dawn, but they promise to come back the next day.

At the Trollmarket Draal introduces Jim to Vendel (Jim gives them a fake troll name to prevent some questions). Vendel is slightly conflicted, because while he is sympathetic to Jim, he still needs to accomodate an underage troll and probably find a good caretaker for him. Blinky and Aaarrrgghh come back just in time to get the caretakers' position. Blinky tries to argue a bit (any other time he wouldn't mind, but currently he needs to sneak the new Trollhunter into the Trollmarket and having a youngling around might complicate the mission). Vendel doesn't wish to listen to his excuses though.

Jim realizes that Blinky has already contacted the new champion, and starts to guess who it can be (his guesses are Toby and Eli). Blinky doesn't want to take Jim to the surface, but Jim still follows. Let's say he's not happy discovering that his mom is the Trollhunter now (and that Toby is also involved). Not to mention that right now Jim has to play stranger around two people who know him the best.

Unlike Jim in the first timeline, Barbara is motivated to be the champion as she believes it will help her to get her son back. Everyone go to the Trollmarket but Bular attacks amid the way. Jim is scared that Barbara might be hurt and fights Bular barehandedly (Aaarrrgghh ends dragging him away in the end). Barbara scolds Jim for being that reckless. She is both angry and worried even though she cannot explain why.

At the Trollmarket Barbara has an encounter with Draal and Jim nearly starts another fight, which both Barbara and Blinky stop. Draal says he respect Barbara's guts but still won't acknowledge her as the new champion. Jim, however, is in the huge trouble because he's basically challenged Draal and Draal won't let it slip even if his opponent is just a child. So, Jim still ends in a deathmatch with Draal (which is difficult for him, because he remembers Draal from his initial timeline). Jim still wins and spares Draal's life. He thinks that he might be able to keep the timeline stable enough while avoiding some bad events and that it's probably for better that he has to build every single relationship from a scratch.

And there's another complication - Toby figures out that Jim is Jim. It takes him just three days because honestly, Jim just keeps slipping with all the inside jokes and calling Toby Tobes. Toby corners his best friend demanding answers. Jim confesses to Toby that he's actuall his best friend, but keeps the time travel part secret. He tells that he just woke up as a troll one day, freaked out, ran away and ended at the Trollmarket and that he has no idea why it happened. Toby insists that Jim should tell his mom too, but Jim is reluctant. Partially, it's because he still feels responsible for Strickler's death and thinks that Barbara might be able to find her happiness without her son around (especially if the aforementioned son is a troll now). Toby promises Jim not to tell anyone, but he still insists that Jim should tell Barbara everything.

As for Barbara, she never gives up on searching Jim, using both supernatural and human means. She meets Strickler who comes to visit after learning about Jim's disappearance. Strickler also thinks that Bular was involved in that disappearance and is rather upset (as he liked Jim). However, he also wants to use it as an opportunity to get the amulet from Barbara. Unfortunately for him (well, we all know that it's actually fortunately) Strickler falls in love with Barbara again. Toby finds this relationship suspicious, but Jim is supportive (he just hopes that Strickler won't pull some shit this time). As for Barbara she feels really guilty for starting the relationship while her son is still missing.

At school, Eli keeps telling everyone that Jim is missing because creeps got him. No one believes him, but Claire is more open-minded. While she doesn't believe Eli, she thinks that Jim's disappearence is odd. And she cannot get why Toby, who is supposed to be Jim's best friend is seemingly rather chill most of time (yep, Toby cannot fake worry and depression 24/7). Claire starts to try tracking Toby and discovers that he goes out with Barbara during the nights regularly. During one of her spying sessions she got attacked by goblins and Jim saves her. Now Claire knows about trolls as well and Barbara isn't happy about dragging another child into the mess.

Claire also discovers Jim's true identity rather fast as Toby slips this time. She also tells him it's wrong to decive his mother like that (as Claire has seen how much Barbara suffers). Jim starts to waver about telling but simply cannot find the right time.

The events of the second timeline seemed to be similar to the first one (minus grit-shaka though as Barbara has no need for a courage boost). The team discover the hideout in the museum and Barbara kills Gladis. Jim thinks that nothing should be changed there, but when it comes to NotEnrique, he is torn. NotEnrique was a member of team in the first timeline and a second brother to Claire, but Jim hates the idea of Claire suffering from losing Enrique.

In the end Jim decides not to risk Enrique's life and find some other way to recruit NotEnrique. However, he has no idea how to prevent Enrique's kidnapping, so he decides to tell Claire that he has read somewhere that goblins kidnap babies. He hopes that Claire will be more vigilant and goblins won't risk, but they still snatch Enrique when Claire gets a minute break. It's even a more devastating for Claire as she blames herself for losing her brother (and she ends even more hostile towards NotEnrique).

And it's only the beginning of disaster as Barbara learns that Strickler is a changeling after checking him with a gaggletack just in case. The reveal hurts her a lot as she already has genuine feelings for Walter.

Jim decides to bargain with Strickler (and Nomura to some extent), as he know that those two switched sides in the different timeline. What he hasn't predicted is that Strickler doesn't know that Jim is Jim, isn't interested in bargaining with a random troll and that capturing him and using as a hostage seems to be more profitable.

Strickler informs Barbara about his hostage and makes a deal to exchange Jim's life with the amulet. While Barbara still has no idea that it's her son, she still cares about Jim as he was always by her side, comforting and supporting her in time of need. She also understands that he's just a kid and she hates herself for allowing him to suffer.

Barbara comes to the agreed spot but much like in Jim's timeline there's back-up coming in the decisive moment. Jim exposes himself during the battle (yelling 'Mom!' when he sees Barbara in danger). Bular still perishes, and Nomura is trapped in the Darklands, but Strickler doesn't manage to run away as Jim captures him.

There's a lot of baggage to unpack after the battle as Barbara has a really serious talk with Jim and asks him if he doesn't trust her at all. Jim promises her not to keep any secrets from her (which is a half-lie as he still intends to carry the burden of the other timeline knowledge alone).

As for Strickler, it's complicated. He has a captive status, but Jim insists on pardoning him, much to everyone surprise. As Jim cannot reveal his true reasoning, he says that Strickler could hurt Barbara countless times, but didn't do that. Everyone else still aren't convinced, so Jim propose he will observe Strickler's actions.

Strickler himself isn't sure why Jim is so deadset on excusing him even if he now knows that it's his favorite student. Walter decides to investigate a bit as well, but he realizes that now he's basically free from Gunmar's orders. Strickler wonders if he can convince other changelings to change sides. He tells his plan to Jim and Jim is willing to give it a try. Those two don't inform anyone else for now.

However, neither Jim, nor Strickler has anticipated that the Janus Order has freed Angor Rot. And unlike Strickler, who pursued his agenda in the different timeline, Otto is too scared to betray Gunmar. He frees Angor to punish Strickler, kill Barbara and her allies and get both the amulet and Killahead bridge.

Otto agrees to meet up with Strickler only to put him under Angor's curse. And it's not like the binding spell in the original timeline - Otto goes for the deadly one, meaning that Strickler is dying slowly now. Angor, however, has the way to lift his curse - and he bargains with Jim, asking for Inferna Copula in exchange for Strickler's life.

Meanwhile, Barbara learns about the Triumbric stones which she plans to recover to be able to travel to the Darklands and save Enrique. However, she doesn't plan to take any children with her (though she considers taking Draal or even Strickler), be it Jim or Claire and Toby, even though she doesn't tell them about that part.

Jim and Strickler come back from their failed negotiations and tell the team about the current predicament. Barbara is upset because those two acted behind her back, but she agrees to find the way to seize Inferna Copula. Jim begs his mom to let him deal with that one as he's sturdy enough and can fight someone like Otto, but Barbara forbids him (she still has nightmares about the possibility of losing her son for real).

Angor decides to help a bit, accidentally 'losing' the shadow staff when the team was recovering Kill Stone. He gets away with Kill Stone though, using it as another bargain chip (because he isn't sure that Strickler's life is that precious).

Claire gets the staff and Toby goes with Warhammer once again. Jim convinces both of them to team up and go to get Inferna Copula (he is more confident that they pull it because Otto's life isn't bond to anyone else's). Besides, Jim is sure that with Inferna Copula they will get both Angor's cooperation and Kill Stone (which should be the last one as the team already has Birth Stone and The Eye of Gunmar is in Strickler's possession). They succeed, however they didn't manage to slay Otto who escapes. Still, Angor is finally free and he keeps his promise.

#tales of arcadia #toa au #post rott #what if scenario #jim lake jr #barbara lake #half troll jim #trollhunter!barbara #text post #ask box #anon ask

[lavie234]

Tlm Hate Train Recap and Highlights

Tw: Racism

In 2019, Singer Halle Bailey is announced to play Ariel in the Disney live-action. This caused mass hysteria on the internet making the phrase “Not my Ariel” a trending topic. Individuals were crying, destroying their VHS tapes and DVDs of the animated “Little Mermaid” in retaliation.

Came up with different disputes as to why a fictional half-human half-fish couldn’t possibly be a black person. Black people can't exist in the little mermaid due to it being a Danish tale and there are no black people in Denmark (allegedly). Stating that this is the worst thing that has ever happened to them in their lives…

~Plague 2020-2023~

It's 2023 and content of the “Little Mermaid” is now dropping. For certain trailers people:

Deep faked using AI Art to make Ariel white while using Halle’s Ariel singing voice.

Stated the movie would promote “Animal Abuse” due to Ariel playing with flounder’s fins in an advertisement. Backing the rhetoric up with the hyperrealistic CGi could confuse kids as if they can swim and survive over 200 ft in the ocean to reach the type of fish flounder is just to play with it.

Claiming the movie is too dark, even though the trailer was showing the scene where it was nighttime in a cave.

Mad at the Ginger-Erasure although the Live action Ariel possessed hair akin to strawberry blond which is a natural color humans can have compared to the animated version you can only get from bleach and a box.

~Movie came out~

Complained over the fact that there was no slavery or Ariel being bombarded as a slave even though Ariel is not a human to begin with and slavery was not a concept in the original source material.

Mad that Ursula called Ariel’s song a “Siren Song,” and said that was a bad influence on kids even though Ursula was the one to use Ariel’s voice as an evil siren’s song to lure the prince and not the other way around like in the…original.

Complaining that Halle’s version of “Part of your world,” is a disgrace to Howard Ashman because *fixes glasses* she sang the song too well and that ruined the meaning.

Claimed that the actress playing Vanessa (Jessica Alexander) should have been Ariel only to get blocked by the actress in return.

Claimed that the actress playing Vanessa carried the film in her 5 minutes of screen time, or that she sang better than Ariel although Halle sang for both herself and Vanessa due to it being her stolen voice used for evil.

Called Halle’s Ariel disrespectful and horrible for kids to see because she did not ask permission before entering the Prince’s study or to touch his things as if her voice was not stolen by a sea witch 10 minutes prior in the film.

30+, childless, single, unemployed adults deep faking the new preschool Ariel show on Disney Junior to be white. Stating that this little show is ruining their childhoods knowing they will never watch an episode of it a day in their lives.

Sadly, using “Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kracken” main villain as a vessel to hate on Halle’s Ariel (she looked like animated Ariel) even though they would never step foot into a screening of this film.

Review bombing a movie they’ve never seen so badly that Google had to change the reviewing system altogether.

Goal posting the profits of the “Little Mermaid’s” box office, continuously stating that the movie did not break even and “flopped,” but continued to raise the money limit because the movie broke their original price statements. They claimed the movie needed 300m to break even then 400m and then 540m now they are stating the movie needed 700-800m to break even. When asked what exactly made the movie a “flop” could not elaborate or explain how the movie is not a success.

Most annoyingly, using the children in their lives to shield their own racism…ahem…” criticism” towards the movie saying that their kid wanted the og Ariel only to find out that the kid loved the live-action and was being used to fuel the hate train.

And last but not least, mutilating, changing, and disrespecting Halle Bailey’s features from her eyes down to her toes. Calling her a monster, alien, and beast. Making racist caricatures and blackface drawings to mock her role. Making colorist comments about her skin tone, calling it dirty, contaminating, and disgusting. Calling her natural hair ugly and so much more making me so happy that little kids (especially little black kids) never had to witness people picking apart someone’s race over a fish movie.

The Little Mermaid has been through a lot, and in my opinion, one of the worst worldwide hate campaigns I’ve ever seen. Although there was so much vitriol, it was lovely to see people from critics to children fall in love with this fairytale all over again and love Ariel regardless of what she may look like. If I missed anything I’m sorry.

#tlm cast #tlm 2023 #the little mermaid 2023 #tw racism #little mermaid 2023 #Disney #disney little mermaid #halle is ariel #halle bailey #tlm #princess ariel #Ariel #the little mermaid live action

[heyclickadee]

I've had this sitting in my drafts for a few days and just forgot to post it. Anyway! Thoughts on "Entombed" (sorry, this got long): 

1. There's an ancient mechanical creature hidden under a mountain on an uncharted world activated by a mysterious crystal and implied to have razed its entire planet. Why? How does this technology work? Is the mechanical creature alive or sentient in some way? What is it about the crystal that activates the creature? Is this just technology, or is it force weirdness, or both? Why did somebody (potentially the Zeffo) build a planet destroying giraffe of terror? Why was it in the mountain? Did someone hide it there? Did the engineer who designed it base its appearance off of a real animal? Did it hide itself? I have questions.

2. I had to watch this one twice to decide what I thought. I enjoyed it the first time, but I was so thrown by how completely different it was than what I was expecting that I had to give it another shot. Second time around? I loved it. Sometimes Star Wars is profound and serious. Sometimes it's silly Indiana Jones shenanigans in space, and I love it for that.

3. I'll talk about the whole "filler" discussion lower down, but one of the throughlines that's been carried through to this episode from the very beginning of the season is the idea of these characters exploring life outside Kamino, the army, and even the "hunker down and survive" mode they were all in last season, along with the choices they are or could be making as individuals regarding what kind of lives they want to live. Echo, for example, wants to go back to being a soldier, but this time in a fight against the empire; Crosshair is still choosing to be a soldier (for now), and he's miserable about it but having to live with the choice he made to stay; Tech's gotten to explore a bit of what he wants and likes through the riot racing episode but, more than that, he's being presented with the idea that the galaxy is broader and deeper than he considered and that he maybe has more to offer it than just what he was designed to offer; Wrecker...honestly needs an episode where he's in focus because he seems to be the most content of any of them and I'm not sure what Wrecker wants, besides being with the people he loves; and then this week was Omega's (and sort of but not quite) Hunter's turn. I'm an adult, so I tend to focus on the adult characters, but Omega's such a good character and it's great that she's also getting a chance to explore what kind of person she wants to be. This is the second episode we've seen that really focuses on her being a bit of an adrenaline junky with an interest in treasure hunting. And given what Romar said to her about how happiness is worth all the treasure in the galaxy, that's probably going to be a theme for her this season, and I'm curious to see where it goes.

4. Theres. An inexplicable megazord. Just. Out there. On a dead planet.

5.  Hunter's...Hunter's not okay. And not even in just a "tired dad" sense, I mean that Hunter's probably been crying under his helmet since "Aftermath" and that he's getting to the point where he can't hide how bone-tired and sad he actually is. It's almost shocking going back and watching the first half of season one and comparing Hunter there to how he's been in his season so far, because he was so much more open back then. He was exploring options, asking questions, trying to find a new life for all of them, and came across as pretty confident in his decisions, but after the one-two-three punch of encountering Crosshair on Bracca, getting shot by Cad Bane, and losing Omega? The man shuts down. And he only shut down more after what happened with Crosshair on Kamino. I actually suspect that Hunter agrees more with Echo about what they should be doing than he lets on, even taking his opinion that Omega shouldn't be forced into become a soldier the way they were into account. He's not happy about what they're doing, he doesn't like going on dangerous missions for someone else, and he really only got involved with Cid because they were broke and desperate and because she kind of blackmailed them into doing it, but he keeps digging his heels in and refusing to move. It seems like he feels like he's a failure as a leader, a brother, and maybe even as a father, because he hasn't really been proactively leading the group since episode nine of last season. He isn't really making decisions about what they should or shouldn't do--he's mostly letting other people decide on their missions and then letting them guilt, blackmail, or push him into it because he's so scared of making a decision that get's another one of them hurt or results in them losing another person the way they lost Crosshair (or worse) that he's mentally and emotionally paralyzed AND emotionally isolating himself from everyone else. And that paralysis is starting--more than starting--to cause friction on the team, and I'm curious to see how that's going to affect the story moving forward.

6. Seriously, someone get this beautiful bandana man some therapy.

7. Likewise, the vibe between Echo and Hunter this episode was interesting. As much as they're (at least outwardly) disagreeing on what their next steps should be, there doesn't seem to be any animosity between them, at least not yet.  All those silently exchanged glances? They disagree, but they trust each other, and I kind of think they both think that they other one is going to come around to their point of view. Eventually.

8. Omega is me if someone sets me loose on a scavanger hunt.

9. They gave me the space archaeology (kind of) and I am VIBRATING

10. I WISH archaeology was this fun. I spent an entire season walking surveys up in Wyoming, and did I ever come across a map to an ancient mecha-beast? No. No I did not. (I kid, real life archaeology is very fun and I have absolutely cried about lithic debitage and fingerprints on potsherds because someone it means someone lived and breathed and died and that stuff might seem boring but it's evidence of a human life and that's beautiful.)

11. Phee! All hail our pirate queen!

12. Phee is fun and her fashion sense is impeccable. And she has a sword. She's got a vibro-cutlass. Or something like unto a sword. But in space. And regardless of how anyone interprets them, I really liked the scenes with her and Tech at the beginning (characters being a bit snarky towards each other? I'm going to have fun), and Omega imprinting on her like a little baby duck was adorable. It's similar to the vibe Ezra had with Hondo, but where Ezra was a bit of a little shit (and I mean that affectionately) with a tendency to give Hondo chances he knew Hondo didn't deserve because he thought Hondo was a fun dude to have around (and maybe because he saw in Hondo a lot of the kind of person he would have turned into if the ghost crew hadn't picked him up and given him a chance), Omega's just all starry eyes with Phee. Is Phee trustworthy? Probably not. Is she fun for now? Oh yeah.

13. It would be hilarious if Phee turned out to be a former jedi who worked in the archives but left the order well before the war or order 66 because she wanted to go treasure hunting. This is the crackiest of crack theories and I do not expect it to happen. But it would be funny.

14. I loved how into the treasure hunt Tech started to get. Asking questions? About the puzzles? Doing his own investigation on the age of the site? Yes.

15. "I suspect that this is not, in fact, a treasure vault," as the aforementioned inexplicable megazord shambles to life once again proving that Tech, with his deadpan one-liners, is the funniest damn character on this show.  

16. Not much Echo this episode, which was a little disappointing, but I liked what little we got. Hopefully there's more in the next one!

17. There's a MAP to an TECHNOLOGICAL MONSTER that PREDATES THE REPUBLIC just OUT in SPACE and I am HERE FOR IT.

18. I didn't think it was possible to make something that vaguely resembles an ankylosaur look scary. I've been corrected. I'm glad Wrecker was able to throw the ankylosaur from hell out the window. (But also I feel a little sorry for it). 

19. Mel??? Running from the death ray??? And not making it??? Corbett and Rau I AM IN YOUR WALLS WHAT THE HELL??? But no, actually, that was a pretty good way to up tension without taking out one of the regular characters.

20. So...I'm not saying that spite is low-key a good motivator, but spite might low-key be a good motivator. I'll just leave it at that.

21. No one calls the clone characters by their names. I didn't think this was anything at first, but the more of this season I see, the more I think it definitely is. No one who isn't a clone addresses a clone by their name. And it's not just the villianous or morally ambiguous non-clone characters, no one does it. Not Phee, who has a couple different nicknames for everyone in the batch (including Tech, even though she asked what his name was), not Cid, not Rampart, not even Romar, and Romar was definitely a good guy. The only exception was the announcer and the crowd using Tech's name in "Faster," because that's the name he gave when he signed up (and there's a pretty good chance no one suspected he was a clone) and even then the announcer had to comment on how weird it was and questioned whether or not that was even a name. It's an interesting trend and is probably playing into the idea of how clones were viewed by most of the galaxy during the war--basically as non-people--but I also want to see where it goes before I come down on any hard conclusions. Apart from the overall trend, I do think that every character we're meeting is doing it for a different reason. Rampart pointedly calls clones by their CT numbers as a sign of disrespect. They are not people to him and he doesn't care if they know that. Cid? I think it's so she doesn't get attached. She doesn't want to like them too much. It might be the same for Phee, buuuuuut I'm not sure. And then with Romar...I kind of wonder if he kept calling Tech "Ace" partly because he didn't realize that Tech's name was Tech. Same with the announcer in "Faster" scratching his head over "Tech" being a name. Romar could have thought that "Tech" was a codename or a squad designation, because...I mean...clone names are unusual. Even within the galaxy far far away with the exceedingly silly names, clone names are often etymologically weird. And every person in the batch is named after their job. It'd be like going to the store and finding out that the person loading the shelves is just named "Stocker." And--hey, sad thought about clones--I kind of wonder if most people in the galaxy just assumed that clones didn't have names. After all, they're manufactured people, people who didn't--from what people could tell from the outside--have families. Who would name them? is probably what a lot of people who didn't know the clones would ask. The only people who called the clones by their names were the jedi and other clones; now the jedi are gone and most of the clones aren't in a position to even use their own names right now.

22. I just made myself sad about clones.

23. I LOVED the look of...well, of everything in this episode. It honestly felt like half the purpose of this one was to allow the art and effects teams to flex and flex they did.  

24. This whole episode is like if someone decided that Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Castle in the Sky, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and Godzilla: King of Monsters were the same movie, and I appreciate that energy. 

25. I love that the batch's reaction at the end was basically just, "Well. That just happened." I need Crosshair to come back so they can tell him this story. Them just saying, "While you were off with the Empire we were awakening the ancient horrors," and him jokingly threatening to leave again because there's no way he's believing that this happened.

26. What is the kingdom of Elweys? I need it. I need to know. (For real, though, I'm actually glad that none of the crazy ancient technology stuff in this episode was explained. It gives the GFFA a bit of temporal depth that it doesn't always have and I'm here for it.)

27. Regarding the filler discussion: Not every story has to be serialized. It's okay for some shows to just be a series of putting characters in different combinations and scenarios and seeing what they do. In fact, that used to be the norm. For decades. That was how television worked. It's only in the last decade or so that serialized television has become more of a regular thing. 

Furthermore, there's a spectrum of ways to serialize something. On one end of that spectrum you have your eight-hour movies--things like Kenobi and Moon Knight, where pretty much every episode begins where the previous episode ended, and where no episode is complete without the overall structure of the entire show. On the other end of that spectrum you have your tentpole episode shows--think something like the first season of the Ducktales reboot--where you can mostly watch the episodes in any order you want because most of the episodes are the characters getting into various shenanigans while most of the plot is reserved for big event episodes, usually mid-season or season finales. And then elsewhere on that spectrum you'll have shows that are written a little more like a novel. Every single episode or chapter will have its own story, its own miniature inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and its own mix of plot, character development, and worldbuilding (sometimes focusing a little more on one than the others), but the successive episodes or chapters build up to an overarching story and overall structure, and it can be hard to see how or what that overarching story is until you get to the end of the whole story. That's what The Bad Batch is. It's that kind of serialized story. 

And--just a last thought--if we're going to say that an episode is filler and doesn't contribute to the plot, we've got to one, consider that maybe story is more than plot, and two, ask ourselves what the "plot" actually is. Anyway, this is just me being a little bit salty, but the unending "filler" discourse whenever The Bad Batch isn't Crosshair's Agony Half-Hour got old last season, and this will probably be the last thing I say about it. (Also, this is just me and my two cents, so take it with a grain of salt). 

28. Jumping off of that, this kind of episode does make me suspect that we are getting at least a third season, because it feels like the writers are taking their time taking us we're they're going. I am more than okay with this.

29. DID I MENTION THE INEXPLICABLE MEGAZORD???

#the bad batch #tbbspoilers #tbb spoilers #the bad batch season two #the bad batch spoilers #omega bad batch #hunter bad batch #tech bad batch #phee genoa #wrecker bad batch #echo bad batch #this episode was fun

[deweydecimalchickens]

So I went down a rabbit hole after the throwaway comment about England's Queen(ish) Matilda/Maud in 'Only Murders in the Building'. You get a years-long civil war known as The Anarchy in the 12th century (Cadfael times) after Henry I died without a legitimate male heir (one legitimate daughter and 24 illegitimate kids). Henry's daughter Matilda and his nephew Stephen are fighting for the throne. I maintain this period should actually be called The Bullshit for reasons including but not limited to:

Entire crisis precipitated by putting all your eggs in one basket, or in this case aristocrats in one boat. The White Ship disaster (which is caused by the passengers getting drunk on the heir's wine and wanting to race another boat) takes out, as far as I can tell, 300 people important enough to be doing international travel in 1120, including the heir to the throne and two of his half-siblings. It's a bit of a political problem.

Stephen, incidentally, was supposed to be on the White Ship but misses it because he's got the shits.

Henry I dies FIFTEEN YEARS LATER, of an honest-to-god SURFEIT OF LAMPREYS (palfreys, according to '1066 and All That'), not having managed to produce another legitimate male child despite apparently being very worried about it and marrying a second wife for this very purpose.

Stephen and Matilda basically fight to a standstill over multiple years with the amount of ridiculous capturings-and-escapings you'd expect from a children's cartoon where nobody can die and the villain has to come back next week, and not actual for-reals warfare. The country is nonfunctional while all this shit is going on. At one point Stephen just straight-up lets Matilda go, because he's too stupid to live, apparently.

Matilda gets as far as a coronation but is chased out by a hostile crowd because god forbid women do anything. She keeps the title 'Lady of the English' which is like when you don't get any more money but your job title gets fancier.

The eventual solution, that Stephen can keep the throne but Matilda's son will inherit, absolutely stinks of everyone else being sick of their nonsense and wanting it to be over. (Stephen has a son, but he's called Eustace so he's obviously shit, but nobody knows this because CS Lewis hasn't been invented yet.)

ANYWAY! That's not the point. The point is Adeliza of Louvain, Matilda's stepmother. Henry I marries her in 1121, after his first wife dies in 1118 and his only legitimate son dies in 1120. Her one job is to produce a male heir to ward off a succession crisis. He's a 54-year-old with 24 illegitimate kids who claimed the throne after his brother had a hunting accident. She's an 18-year-old who likes French poetry. They are together for fourteen years until Henry dies of eating goddamn eels in 1135. They have zero (0) children.

Henry's bits clearly work; see above re: 24 illegitimate children. Okay he's getting on, but that's not a problem for fathers the way it is for mothers. It's not like their part of the baby-making process is difficult or time-consuming.

Maybe she's tragically infertile? LOL NOPE. Three years after Henry dies, Adeliza remarries - to William d'Aubigny, who is six years younger than her. Starting in her thirties, she has seven children with him in twelve years before fucking off to an abbey.

I can only conclude Adeliza - barely an adult, married to the king of England, given the one job of Incubator With A Pulse - spent fourteen years fighting Henry off her lady parts with a shovel. As soon as she's free to marry her toyboy, she has ALL the babies, until she loses interest and does something else instead.

I want to talk to this incredible woman. I need a ouija board and someone who can speak Medieval French.

This has been an episode of Feverish History.

#Medieval history #The Anarchy #Adeliza of Louvain #Empress Matilda #Stephen de Blois #Feverish History #It's like Drunk History but you moderate your alcohol intake and also you have Covid

[eirianerisdar]

I think I’m done.

I’ve written many posts about my experience as a doctor. Some of them are funny, some of them sad. Some of them poignant.

But I think I’m done being a doctor in the current public healthcare system where I live.

I’m a Family Medicine resident. I rotated through two and a half years of hosptial residencies, and I’m in my first year of clinic-only practice. It should sound good; no more 26-38 hour shifts on top of 12 hour workdays.

But I’m currently seeing 33-37 patients from 9-1 pm daily and 24 patients from 2-5 pm daily. I also sometimes work 6-10 pm. Each of these clinic sessions also includes a solid 1.5 inches of seperate lab results I’m expected to screen during consultation time. I work Monday through to half of Saturday. Im expected to also complete a dermatology university diploma on top of this. I have exams in family medicine this year, the year after that, and two years after. Three and a half years more at least until I’m a specialist.

I can’t do it. I can’t keep giving each patient only 5 minutes of time as I’m doing now. I didn’t become a doctor to have to balance whether I should see my patient’s third complaint or ask them to book another session so I can have time to pee and eat.

Peeing and eating is like…the lowest level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. I’ve spent all of my adult working years, from 23 years of age til now, chasing that. The right to pee and eat and drink.

The department head has his head so far up his ass with bootlicking the government that last quarter he pulled workforce away from chronic cases for half-full covid clinics and made us each therefore have to review 56 cases per four hour session. When we raised the issue of patient safety one of his associate consultants said, “I know it’s hard! Let’s get through this together!”

He is famed for picking on whether residents punctuate the numbering of their past medical history lists with brackets or periods.

Nope. Nope. Nope.

This afternoon between patients, I suddenly realised I had lost my voice. I’d been speaking too much. Moreover, I think my autistic brain had finally clicked over into the “dude you better go non verbal or you’ll die” function. Of course, I couldn’t actually afford to be non verbal. I plowed through the remaining cases so dissociated I nearly blacked out.

If I pass these next two years’ exams, I become senior resident. I will have the privilege of not being entrusted with 33 cases every four hours, but 40.

40 cases; all of them episodic patients, not chronic. This means all of them come in with new complaints, as in multiple. Time per patient gets knocked down to four minutes.

Respectfully, Fuck That.

I’m waiting until I get contract gratuity this summer, do the damn exam that everyone agrees is insane, and then I’ll apply to a plethora of private clinics in September and kiss this bloody department goodbye.

I want to be able to spend more than two minutes comforting a crying patient, dammit.

If I don’t leave soon I’ll break, and that’ll compromise patient safety over anything else.

#medblr #medicine #doctor #medical happenings #my post #every time we ask if they can cut the quota so each patient gets better care they’re like oh we’re serving the community #dude we operate in the most underprivileged area of our city #you try explaining things to an illiterate 80 year old man in 2 minutes at the end of a consultation #our chief of service is a lunatic #personal

[cxbin-pxrsephone]

As someone who isn’t really in the Star Wars fandom anymore but still likes Star Wars content (and was a hugeeee rebels fan in its hay day), here’s some of my hopes, headcanons and Thoughts for Ahsoka. These mainly have to do with Jacen tbh

- Jacen’s hair is dyed, I’m not sure how genetics work, like at all, but I feel like he would naturally have brown hair like Kanan and maybe that’s the reason he had brown hair in the Lego set, I would think Sabine dies it for him so he can look more like his mom, I think the only trait we see from Hera is more so the green tips of his ears which haven’t been shown yet in live action. Honestly I don’t really mind if it’s not, I mainly just think having Sabine mention dying his hair would be adorable.

- I’d like to think Ezra maybe didn’t know about Jacen or that Hera was pregnant, it would just be interesting to see him be just as surprised about his existence as the rest of the rebels fandom when the finale first aired (because I literally fell of the couch when I saw him, nothing could’ve prepared me for that) it would be super emotional regardless of if he knew about him or not because either way they’ve still never met, and I’m sure Jacen has heard lots about Ezra and would love to meet him irl for the first time

- Zeb and Kallus. That’s it that’s all I need. Like I would love to see Kallus in live action and it would be great to see Zeb again, hopefully with him. I need to know how their honeymoon went on Lira San.

- A kanan reference. A direct Kanan reference. Please. I beg. It’s only been three episodes so there’s certainly still more time and I can understand why he hasn’t been brought up yet, but I’m sure he will at least once

- more disaster lineage from Sabine, obviously her and Ashoka’s relationship is developing and getting better but Anakin/ Ashoka never stopped causing chaos with their masters regardless of how they’d grown, so why should Sabine?

- I need Ashoka’s happiness, please. Her being more stoic and closed off makes a lot of sense given what’s she’s been through, I don’t really see it as ‘out of character’ because like. She’s seen a lot, she’s been through a lot, she’s dealt with a lot, and she’s just not a teenager/young adult anymore, I can see why she is the way she is now, plus there’s over half a decade we didn’t see of her life (that I know of), there’s a lot we don’t know that I hope is explored but even so, It would be nice to see her be happier again even if it’s over something small, we’ll probably get it when her and Sabine find Ezra.

- a Rex appearance! I’ll even take a reference, since it said in the rebel’s epilogue that he survived it would be great to see him as well or at the very least have him mentioned

- I really hope that Ezra doesn’t just show up at the very end, that he’s at least in one full episode. It’s been five years since the Finale and there’s been like, almost no sign as to where he’s been or how he’s been doing since the finale until now so it would be even more painful to have him only show up at the very end and then have to wait even longer for more on him besides the fact that he’d be alive.

- The wren family, correct me if I’m wrong but they weren’t in The Mandalorian? I think? Again I could be wrong I don’t pay that much attention, but if they weren’t in it I wonder where they could be, and if something did happen to them and if so maybe Sabine would mention it or they could have an appearance at some point too, although I really doubt it tbh, it would just be a nice addition also I just wanna see Tristan in live action

( edit, spoiler for episode 4: well. Probably not gonna have that last one 😭😭😭)

#the way I don’t even mention thrawn 😭 #sorry y’all I have priorities #he’s an amazing villain but I’ve been waiting since 2018 for my blueberry boy #also there’s a reason why I’m not in the fandom so please dont get onto me for these #ahsoka tv #ahsoka spoilers #jacen syndulla #Sabine wren #ezra bridger #hera syndulla #captain rex #Star Wars rebels #swr #the mandalorian

[sukimas]

witch from mercury spoilers

-i hope they're saving some of those tomato seeds. miorine would be sad if she had to start from scratch with new cultivars

-it is really nice that everyone's accepting earth house's help now, though. they finally get that recognition they needed. i hope the goat's ok though

-there is one (1) sympathetic adult in this damn show

-"if control of the fronts were lost, a massive loss of human life would occur at the very least." does this mean what i think it means. please let it mean what i think it means

-congratulations to everyone who predicted lauda of all people would get schwarzette! now: why the hell is it got purple permet stickers

-delling is STILL in the Fridge For Men despite miorine's continued mental breakdown. petra's also there now

-now, granted, miorine absolutely deserves that mental breakdown. i did basically predict that what she did wrt trying to free suletta was playing right into prospera's hands; if she had instead informed someone in power about QZ we would not be in this situation right now.

-if the control of the fronts thing from earlier is true, and with the destruction of the SAL fleet, it might just be that prospera wants to create a world where ONLY ericht can live in happiness. mom of the century (only half ironic this time)

-GUNDAM CALIBAN! or, well, calibarn, per subs. really nice that it's in keeping with the play by being considered a "demon", since it has no protection from the data storm whatsoever. congrats suletta for being invincible with the power of love. (well, probably not invincible yet, that wouldn't be dramatic and in keeping with the tempest. but she will be!)

-where IS miorine? i don't remember all the fronts in this anime, but she's not at the school or plant quetta, i don't think. there's just a normal benerit front out there, right? they say that she's in sector L4, so she should be about 60 degrees of the earth's orbit away from the moon. i don't think we know where that would be relative to the school, though that of course has to be at another Lagrange point (unless it's spending one billion dollars on staying stable in order to remain easy to access; it wouldn't be able to stay in low earth orbit alone thanks to being approximately city-sized, though. i think; i'm not an orbital dynamics person)

-interesting move from peil. let's see how that works out for them. i wonder if we'll see a sixth elan; wouldn't make much sense to just toss pharact out on its ear without destroying it in some way, it looks too cool.

-quiet zero is waaaaay out at the L2 point, on the far side of the moon. same as side 3 in UC gundam. rookie mistake by gundam governments: you gotta watch the far side of the moon or else. there's dudes with plans there. interestingly, though, L2 is an unstable equilibrium, so you'd have to transport fuel there to keep QZ from falling out of orbit even if nobody is there. of course, that's basically the only option, since all the other Lagrange points are visible from earth and at least L4 is already occupied by hostile parties.

-speaking of quiet zero: "hey i want to end war so nobody has to suffer from it anymore" -delling "sweet that sounds like a great idea. let's make something that definitely could not be used to take over the world by force and cause untold destruction to do it" -prospera "sure that's awesome" -delling

-i hope that didn't wipe out the WHOLE SAL army, though. that would be anticlimactic.

in conclusion: the payoff for these two seasons of buildup is starting to go off and i am quite excited. however, seeing as there are three episodes left, there is NO way the earth problems are getting resolved in a satisfying way unless literally all life on the planet is wiped out which i don't think wfm wants to do. i am a bit concerned for how the miorine reunion is gonna go (she is holding a green tomato in the end card, after all- now she's the one with some growing to do) but i figure they can work it out. i trust them.

#gundam #g-witch spoilers

[breakerwhiskey]

070 - SEVENTY

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey.

Transcript under the cut. For more episodes, click here.

[click, static]

Lost Springs, Wyoming. The smallest town in America.

I don’t know if that’s actually true. I passed a little rundown sign outside of Cheyenne advertising it—or, I guess not advertising it. Proudly proclaiming it. There’s nothing really to advertise.

According to the sign at the town’s edge, the population of Lost Springs is five. As far as I’ve been able to tell, the population is now down to zero. I—

[click, static] I’m not sure why I wanted to come here. I thought—well, this is going to sound fucking stupid, but seeing that sign and thinking of a tiny town with a tiny population made me think of my miniatures. Like Lost Springs would be a tiny dollhouse set. I mean, with a name like Lost Springs, you know…

[click, static]

It’s not like that really. It’s one road, obviously—there’s a post office and store and a bar. And to be clear, the post office and store are one building, the bar’s on the other side of the street. There’s a few other buildings but I can’t tell what they are.

I did go into the bar and, I guess it should come as no surprise, but their liquor selection was not particularly impressive. But I’m wandering around the main street and it’s…

[click, static]

I don’t know. The weather is turning. Makes sense, I guess, now that we’re in the final days of October. It isn’t raining or anything but…

Well, maybe I’m a little suspicious of gray-green skies now.

[click, static]

I thought it’d make me feel better, coming here. That there would be something idyllic in it—surely those that chose to live in a town with only a few other people did it for a reason. They removed themselves from society, entrusted themselves to a few other hands for something.

It isn’t that it’s a bad place. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s…a town. It’s a town that’s small, yes, but otherwise looks just like half the towns I’ve driven through in this state or any state. It isn’t special or…somehow magical. There probably isn’t any reason why the people who lived here lived here other than it’s where they ended up.

And it just…

This is really it, isn’t it?

We’re it. You, me, Harry. We’re all that’s left.

How is that possible?

[click, static]

Uh, did I ever tell you about the week that Harry and I thought someone was lurking outside our house at night?

It was a few weeks after we’d gotten settled in. We hadn’t seen anyone else in months, but, at that time, that was by design.

It took some getting used to. Being in the house. It’s an old farmhouse and it creaks. Even if you’re sitting perfectly still, the house still moves, like it’s stretching and settling its bones. We both jumped at every sound for the first few days.

Harry is pretty quiet when she wants to be and she kept surprising me, being places suddenly when I least expected her. I kept telling her she should wear a bell. She did not care for that.

It’s…strange. Being in someone else’s home. You think I’d be used to it by now, having never had a real home myself, at least not as an adult. But I don’t know that it’s something you ever get used to. Going through that adjustment with someone else just adds to the strangeness.

The second week we were there, we’d gotten used to the house sounds for the most part and then, suddenly, we both had the sensation that we were being…watched. At first, we blamed it on each other—we’d been stuck together for a while and now had space to stretch out. Without eyes on each other at all times, our minds started to play tricks.

But that wasn’t it. It was worst at night, and that was the time we were usually together, eating dinner, sitting by the one fireplace we had. And even then we couldn’t shake it—that prickling on the back of our necks. Harry would stand by the window for hours, looking out on the backyard, eyes going over and over the tree line, waiting…waiting for something to show itself. Waiting for the whites of someone’s eyes to appear in the dark.

But nothing ever appeared. And eventually, the feeling went away. At least, for me. Harry still stood by the window every night for a good two months.

That’s a bit how I feel now. In this empty, tiny town, I feel like somebody’s is watching.

[click, static]

[beeps]

#breaker whiskey #audio drama #episode #transcript #Spotify

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I have bad news, everyone: I’ve started the new podcasts, and it’s not gone as I’d have liked. I’d really like to have more intelligent tastes than this. I really would.

I started with Three Bean Salad, and it took me a while to sort of work out what they were doing. The first episode was three men whose voices I could not tell apart at all talking about how having posters or other things on your wall to show what things you like in the world is a silly teenage thing to do and you get rid of that stuff when you’re an adult, which annoyed me to a probably irrational level, because they’re entirely correct. I frequently feel self-conscious about letting anyone see my bedroom, because it's so full of stuff all over the walls and shelves that I’ve accumulated throughout my life to represented something I love or did at one point, and I know that makes it look like a teenager’s bedroom. But also, having a room that’s just mine and is set up that way and being able to sit in it and look around at all my stuff is one of the only things that makes me feel relaxed and less anxious, and it’s not like I regularly have anyone else in there anyway, so I keep it like that.

Well, mostly. I actually just moved and have to go to my new house today to unpack everything and set up my new room, but it’s been in chaos for a while and before that I was house-sitting so it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to sit in my room full of my stuff that’s all mine and all over my walls and feel comforted and grounded by that. And I’m moving into a slightly smaller room than my previous one and it won’t have space for everything and I’ve been thinking that maybe I should get rid of some of the stuff anyway because maybe I don’t need the little reminders of every single person I ever used to be, and maybe I’m 33 and don’t need to live in a teenager’s bedroom anymore, most 33-year-olds if they’re not actually sharing their bedroom with someone else have at least grown mature enough so they could do that rather than needing a room that is theirs and theirs along and a little museum of themselves, maybe it's time to grow up and set up my room with just a bed and a night stand and my clothes and not worry about the rest of it, and just sort of acknowledge that the feeling of sitting in a bedroom that’s all set up with my stuff, the feeling I’ve been seeking out for comfort since I was nine years old is not a feeling you’re supposed to have anymore after 33 because most things that were nice when you were young are not supposed to last into your mid-thirties, and maybe I’d be less sad about that if I just accepted it and let go of some stuff. I’ve been thinking of that lately and it still feels sad, and today I am going to go set up my new room and after all that I probably will do my best to set it up the way I had it before because consistency in my bedroom setup is the one bit of continuity I get in life and I like to feel grounded.

So, you can see why the first episode of a new podcast focusing on making fun of their teenage selves for how they show their interests via posters on their walls, and how when people become adults they get rid of that stuff, made it slightly difficult for me to get into on this week. Because I’m aware that they’re correct, I just happen to be slightly sensitive about it right now specifically.

So that immediately made me feel like, I don’t really get where these guys are coming from, they might be slightly too much of proper mature adults for me to get into their stories. It continued to not help that I cannot tell one voice from another. But I reminded myself that I pretty much never enjoy the very first episode of any podcast. I don’t know what they’re doing yet, half my mental energy is going to just trying to understand the situation. They don’t know what they’re doing yet; even if the chemistry was already there from pre-existing relationships among the performers, it takes time for that to click into the format. It’s not fair to compare one episode of a podcast I’ve never heard before to other stuff that’s already familiar, so I have to give it at least a few.

It was near the end of the second episode that they made me actually laugh for the first time, as I felt like I was catching onto where the humour was coming from. It helped that the second episode’s topic, lizards, was a lot more abstract than their first topic, which was posters. I mean, obviously lizards are a very real and non-abstract thing, but if three people talk about them for an hour, they’re more likely to go off on flights of fancy and strange observations because lizards are rarely encountered by people who live in Britain, while posters are commonplace items encountered in day-to-day life. I ended up listening to three episodes, which has been enough for me to form the opinion that I think I like them better when they’re off on weird flights of fancy than when they’re discussing stories from day-to-day life. Though I might have too small a sample size and just had the bad luck of starting with a terrible topic for day-to-day life discussions.

The third episode did make me laugh, as they discussed Rome, and got into facts about history and increasingly strange ideas. I also like the overly long intros and outros, where they comically overreact to listener emails. That part was fun. After three episodes, I was starting to properly get into it, and figured that’s a big enough sample for me to try another one for comparison.

…And this is where the bad news comes in. I’m sorry to report that when I put on the first episode of Peacock and Gamble, they had me laughing hard, uncontrollably, repeatedly within the first ten minutes. I guess it makes some sense for the initial period of weirdness to be waived a bit for this, since I already know who Ed Gamble is so it wouldn’t take as long to get used to. But I also already know who Mike Wozniak is, and I’d never heard Ray Peacock (or whatever his real name is) before, and I’m definitely not familiar with Ed Gamble circa-2009, so I’m pretty sure that what happened is I have such lowbrow tastes that the absolute filth that was Peacock and Gamble circumvented my usual need to take a while to get into a new thing, and got me on board from the very first moment.

And it is absolute filth. I kept checking to make absolutely sure that my headphones were definitely completely plugged in, because it would be really bad if the other people in the centre for disabled children where I work could hear the words used by the guys I was listening to on my admin time. Aside from the problematic thing, it’s also just kind of shit in terms of objective quality. The audio quality is terrible. It sounds vaguely tinny, and for some reason it kept going much more into one side of the headphones than the other, and sometimes it’ll switch which one, and I don’t even know how that ends up happening but I know it wasn’t an issue with my headphones because I listened to other things and they worked fine. It was also clearly not even slightly planned out beforehand. Which I guess Three Bean Salad wasn’t either, but at least in that one it sounds like they were trying, and like they had planned out some of the intro and outro stuff. While Peacock and Gamble were just rambling.

But it was so funny. It was exactly what I hoped it would be: Ed Gamble, whom I really like but my least favourite part of him is how sometimes he seems to polished/sanitized for TV – this was Ed Gamble without my least favourite part. Without… with maybe not quite enough of my least favourite part. It might be good if I had just a touch more of that sanitization back. That might make listening to it easier on my soul.

Fairly recently, I listened to a full Ed Gamble stand-up hour for the first time, and it made me think, I fucking hate when people unironically talk about “edgy comedy” being a good thing and the politically correct lack of it being the death of the artform, but Ed Gamble’s set about his marriage is making me have a rare moment of thinking “God, this would be better if it had a bit of edge to it.” Yet yesterday I thought, I fucking hate when people unironically talk about “edgy comedy” being a good thing and the politically correct lack of it being the death of the artform, but that Peacock and Gamble thing is filled with a painful amount of edgelord humour that would rightly not get made today, but God, it was fucking funny. A bit hard on the soul, very funny.

Surely there’s some mid-point? That Peacock and Gamble episode was funny despite the rape joke and liberal use of ableist slurs, not because of them. Surely there’s a reasonable level of edge, where you could have all the funny stuff from that podcast episode but drop the actual slurs and rape joke, and that would still be just as funny. Ed Gamble does seem like a man who goes from one extreme to another. Actually, that probably applies in a number of ways – to the amount of edge in his comedy, but also to his physical appearance, and the lifestyle factors that affect it. Hey, Ed! I found you a theme for your next comedy set! An hour on your personality’s tendency toward extremes sounds a lot more interesting than stories about your honeymoon. No offense or anything, your marriage sounds lovely and I genuinely hope you and your wife and cat and neighbourhood WhatsApp group are very happy together! I hope you find inner peace, that's more important than being an edgy comedian!

Anyway, the point is that I realized if Peacock and Gamble is going to be the one I stick with - which is looking increasingly likely - I need to start with the context for it. So I've gone back and downloaded the Ray Peacock podcast to do that first. I've only actually listened to the first episode of the Peacock and Gamble thing so far, maybe I'll get two more episode in and find it wears thin fast and I'd prefer another one. And I will still try the others on my list. But the bad news is that I think my taste in comedy might be terrible.

[bereft-of-frogs]

friday! ✨

reading:

(in-progress) Jaw Bone - Monica Ojeda - This is an excellent follow-up to Yellowjackets in that it is about how teenage girls can and will start a cult, while an adult figure in their lives looks on in horror and then does something way worse. Also, the line "Why do [girls] love [their girl friends] so much that they would rather see them dead?" tell me that's not Shauna

(phone book) Into the Dark - Claudia Gray: omg I forgot how much I love Reath. This is legit making me considering pushing through my issues with Midnight Horizon because this can't be where we part ways. He's just so me. He stays behind for historiography. I loved historiography. He shows up kind of buzzed for an important journey. Do you know how many times I've gone through TSA still drunk? So many times. Ok not when I was 17 because I was kind of a square back then, but I for sure made up for it in my 20s. I love him. I think my issues with Midnight Horizon were 1) just being #done with forbidden romances. There are like 4 of them. I'd just read Gray's Lost Stars for book club (which was a disappointment). I don't love forbidden romances at the best of times and I was just over it. 2) some of the dialogue literally made me cringe it was so bad. But. I am considering powering through because Reath is just so me. I will say, this is probably because of my MH annoyance, but I do wish that Jora hadn't died, I think she was better for him than Cohmac is but...maybe that opinion will shift during this reread. I also really appreciate that this dodges some YA sins (unlike some others in this recap...👀 see below) by making a major theme be that the adults are equally as lost and stressed as our teenage protagonist. Like, they're sort of useless because yeah adults are also lost and confused sometimes, not just to get them out of the way of the plot. I just love the cut from Reath's POV being like 'look at them, they've got it all together, maybe when I'm an adult I won't feel so lost and uncertain' and then to all the adults' POVs being like '*internal screaming* what if I'm making a huge mistake.' I feel like, for me, this is what makes a YA book readable as a 30+ year old, treating the teen protagonist and the adult side characters with equal respect and depth.

Lord of the Rings chapter-a-day: I was supposed to finish this today, based on that blog's schedule, but once I fell behind I just decided to keep with the one chapter per day thing. Should finish by early next week and then I'm moving on to The Silmarillion to spite that one person who didn't believe the 'have you read this book' poll results. Many Partings today <3 ah.

watching (tv):

Severance (AppleTV+): I love how for like half an episode I was like 'idk this might not be such a bad idea' because I have a lot of work-related dreams and I'm like, hm but if I can't remember work, will have I have nightmares about it, and then the show immediately spent the rest of that episode and the three following being like 'hey this is a fucking horror show'. What a nightmare. Possibly the most disturbing show I've watched all year so far. Patricia Arquette's character is legit a little triggering haha.

watching (film):

the only movies I watched this week were all of the Hunger Games movies. They put them on Netflix. And. Look. I have such a complicated relationship with the Hunger Games series, some of you might be like 'um don't you bitch about that series quite frequently' yes. Also, when Netflix puts them on I WILL watch all of them. I saw the new one in theaters. I'm committed but. Hunger Games rant incoming, this is one of those things that has gotten a bit ruined by the fandom. Because I really enjoy it -- at least the first two -- I just don't think it's a masterpiece that is so deep it should be taught in high schools. It's pretty shallow actually. The first two books/movies are so fun, they're tropey and fun and a great angsty setting. (When I'm in a certain mood, oof, Hunger Games AUs? Hit so hard.) But they do indulge in some YA sins. Like not as many as the wave of knockoffs that followed, for sure, but they're there. The one that bothers me the most Katniss is both a blank slate for the reader to project on, and also the only one that's ever right. None of the other characters have depth or development just so that Katniss can be right all the time, even though by Mockingjay that just makes her seem like a hypocrite. Mockingjay, both the book and the unnecessary two-part conclusion, is just abysmal. But it feels like both my enjoyment of the tropey dystopian first two books and my dislike of Mockingjay, gets this response of 'you just don't get it, Suzanne Collins is playing 5D chess--' and I'm sorry, I just don't buy it. Anyway, this is but a fraction of the rant I could go on, Netflix tried to email me a little 'what did you think of The Hunger Games' survey and I was like, Netflix, babe, you don't know what you're asking. I also apologize to everyone who has to put up with my commentary whenever I put these on, the victim this time was @aurorawest thank you for putting up with my commentary. Also Gwendoline Christie is in the last one for like 2 minutes and cannot do an American accent so that was kind of endearing. Ok. End Hunger Games rant.

list:

guest-ready level clean of my apartment. we're mopping. we're doing the baseboards. we're making sure there's not any more butter on the walls (side note, I finally figured out how butter got on my wall: I was holding the butter knife in my right hand while picking up the bread in the toaster with the same hand and it tilted and gently brushed the wall exactly where I found the butter, so. no one asked by that's how butter got on my wall it's been like three days and I've been like....what happened here)

ECLIPSE DAY!!! I am both very excited and slightly stressed because the news has been like 'APOCALYPTIC CROWDS' but I do have to remember that my measurement for 'apocalypse-level crowds' has been shaped by almost exclusively living in places with much, much higher population density. So what I consider intolerable crowds and what the good citizens of this lovely state consider intolerable crowds...is slightly different. I definitely am anticipating a lot of traffic but I do think I need to recalibrate my understanding here. XD We'll see maybe it will be bad, but I have alternate routes planned, we'll have snacks, it'll be an adventure either way.

I have no other plans this is all I've been thinking about, this is the first thing I put in my calendar when I got it, I put in my PTO request in January lol

anyway, happy friday

#lists lists lists #long post