This had a little mistake, but posting it as a thank you for how much support I got from everyone reacting on the Soukoku drawing I posted earlier. Couldn't be grateful enough, so enjoy this I guess
Something so profoundly fucked up between the inverse ratio of shrinking middle class and ever increasing aggression of advertisement
I think Nuwho companions give a lot of leeway to The Doctor for some of their odder behaviors on the assumption of oh well they're an alien I'm not gonna hold them to human norms but tbh if they knew other time lords (not the master. The master doesn't count bc the master is also a freak) they'd probably be like ohhh. Never mind it's not a species thing it's a you thing
stsg text post meme. sorry for the last one but also no im not.
bonus:
i couldn't decide which was which so you get two versions. i dont know how to use photoshop
yo…. when jet breaks in the tea shop and accuses zuko and iroh of beinh firebenders….
do you think any of the patrons looked at zukos scarred face - obviously done by a firebender - and immediately think jet was an asshole? like
jet: hes a firebender!!!!
patrons, thinking about the backstory they concocted for zuko and iroh where their home was invaded by firebenders and they barely survived with their lifes so they could come and have a peaceful life selling tea in a city the war doesnt touch:
Absolutely fascinated by the Fairy Walrus Discourse. Naturally, I have a take:
This actually is also a fantastic illustration of a truism about Telling Stories that we all implicitly know but rarely acknowledge aloud: the improbable is far less believable than the impossible.
When you invoke the impossible, you silence the critically thinking, reality checking, lie detecting circuitry. Simpler rules reign supreme.
The Walrus, however implausible, is a thing which is real, and so whatever narrative you imagine either precedes or follows the reveal will be constrained by the envelope of the possible.
This is a webbed site all about Narrative.
The person answering the door to a Fairy is in a fairy tale, and frankly most of us would be overjoyed to find ourselves in a fairy tale. Fairy tales have sensible rules, structures we understand, tropes we love and hate.
A Walrus on your doorstep is just one more giant reminder that the world is a maelstrom of chaos, incomprehensible in its complexity, full of moving parts which obey no narrative. It’s another dose of “what fresh hell is this?”
A Walrus on your doorstep is a burden. A Fairy on your doorstep is an escape.
A murder mystery film set in a medieval village. After an outbreak of plague, the villagers make the decision to shut their borders so as to protect the disease from spreading (see the real life case of the village of Eyam). As the disease decimates the population, however, some bodies start showing up that very obviously were not killed by plague.
Since nobody has been in or out since the outbreak began, the killer has to be somebody in the local community.
The village constable (who is essentially just Some Guy, because being a medieval constable was a bit like getting jury duty, if jury duty gave you the power to arrest people) struggles to investigate the crime without exposing himself to the disease, and to maintain order as the plague-stricken villagers begin to turn on each other.
The killer strikes repeatedly, seemingly taking advantage of the empty streets and forced isolation to strike without witnesses. As with any other murder mystery, the audience is given exactly the same information to solve the crime as the detective.
Except, that is, whenever another character is killed, at which point we cut to the present day where said character's remains are being carefully examined by a team of modern archaeologists and historians who are also trying to figure out why so many of the people in this plague-pit died from blunt force trauma.
The archaeologists and historians, btw, are real experts who haven't been allowed to read the script. The filmmakers just give them a model of the victim's remains, along with some artefacts, and they have to treat it like a real case and give their real opinion on how they think this person died.
We then cut back to the past, where the constable is trying to do the same thing. Unlike the archaeologists, he doesn't have the advantage of modern tech and medical knowledge to examine the body, but he does have a more complete crime scene (since certain clues obviously wouldn't survive to be dug up in the modern day) and personal knowledge from having probably known the victim.
The audience then gets a more complete picture than either group, and an insight into both the strengths and limits of modern archaeology, explaining what we can and can't learn from studying a person's remains.
At the end of the film, after the killer is revealed and the main plot is resolved, we then get to see the archaeologists get shown the actual scenes where their 'victims' were killed, so they can see how well their conclusions match up with what 'really' happened.
In highschool I wrote a story about a middle-generation of stellar travelers. Their parents were born on earth and left as children, and the middle generation will not live long enough to see their destination. They live their entire lives on the ship and I wrote about them trying to find their place in everything. They will never know blue skies and warm beaches and open fields with warm breezes. They’ll never know birdsong or crickets or frogs. They’ll never hear the rain on the roof of a dreary day. I never could find the right way to end the story. I wanted it to be a happy ending, but I didn’t know how to do it.
I realize now that it was a book about me dealing with depression before I even knew it. Looking back at how blatant the projecting was, it’s obvious now. It wasn’t then.
In the story, the middle-generation people are lost. They’re apathetic. They’re just a placeholder. The only job they have is to keep the ship running, have kids, and die. As the middle generation of people began becoming adults, suicide rates were skyrocketing. Crime and drug rates were jumping. This generation was completely apathetic because they felt that they had no use.
In the story, a small group of people in the middle-generation create the Weather Project. They turn the ship into a terrarium. They make magnificent gardens and take the DNA of animals they took with them and recreate them and they make this cold, metal spaceship that they have to live their entire lives on into a home. They take what little they have and they break it and rearrange it into something beautiful. They take this radical idea and turn the ship into a wonderful jungle of trees and birds and sunshine.
And I realize now how much it reflects my state of mind as I transitioned from a child into an adult while dealing with depression. You always hear “it gets better” and “when you’re older things will be easier” and I was so sick of waiting for it to get better. I was in the middle-generation stage. And I was sick of it. I was so sick of waiting.
When I was in highschool I didn’t know how to end the story. I didn’t know how to have a happy ending. I didn’t have the life experience then to finish the story in a meaningful way. I didn’t know how to make it better for these middle-generation characters.
But now that I’m older, I’m learning. That if you sit and wait for things to get better, it never will. You have to take your life and break it apart and rearrange it into something beautiful. You have to make the cold metal ship into the garden that you deserve. You have to make your own meaning. You have to plant your own garden.
You have to teach yourself that being happy is not a radical idea.
They've been throwing Sigma's body from one side of the room to the other fifteen times??? I can't ever get over the fact that soukoku's default state is literally bullying the nearest unfortunate person together. It's almost as if they couldn't help it
I decided to do a battle between bsd characters. The twist is I didnt add the popular characters like Dazai, Chuuya, Fyodor and Nikolai. So lets see who will win. While voting please also consider how well the character is written as well as the likeability.
when your moral compass friend is dead
Mordin Solus breaking out in Modern Major General in the middle of a random, run of the mill Normandy conversation will forever be one of my favorite moments in gaming.
This. This is storytelling done right.
The thing is, if Shepard acts all paragon-y throughout the series then you don't get that admission from Mordin because he can just fall in line behind Shepard. Don't get me wrong, Mordin sacrificing himself in order to spread the cure is still an amazing act of repentence and a fantastic, if tragic, ending of his arc.
BUT the thing is, he doesn't have to admit that he was wrong, he can just agree with Shepard while still maintaining that his initial decision to modify the genophage was correct.
Doing the right thing, the heroic thing, the noble thing is something different entirely than admitting your were wrong and fixing your mistake.
His modification of the genophage was the one thing that defined Mordin's career like nothing else. Amazing work, from a scientific point of view, but morally questionable even when seeing "the big picture", Morally reprehensible and ultimately inexcusable when seeing "the little pictures".
It's clear that after his loyalty mission in ME2 and meeting Eve, he's already changed his mind. But he can't admit it, not really. It's easier to keep making excuses, to explain himself, to rationalize. The great Mordin Solus does not make mistakes.
And it's only when Shepard takes the other route that Mordin has to step up. If Shepard won't be paragon, then Mordin has to. And that's much harder and it's the most amazing, the most heartbreaking thing. And when Mordin yells at a Shepard who takes the pragmatist appprach - which is what Mordin did for most of his life - he's actually yelling at himself.
Mass Effect did a lot of things brilliantly. This was one of them.
If only Shepard's ultimate ending decision had come with the same depth and weight, characterization-wise.
replaying mass effect 3, more specifically citadel dlc atm, so here's what it's inspired ✨️ - part one
(part two)
Part One proved very popular, so here's some more (I have SO many of these)
More reasons why Zuko being the Firelord is objectively the funniest thing on earth:
HES SEVENTEEN
He hasn’t been civilised in 4 years, his entire teenage experience consists of living on a boat and sleeping rough. The most stable bed he has was probably in Ba Sing Se he probably will just nap anywhere.
He has customer service experience which means he probably uses his customer service voice on his minsters.
Additionally he probably just wanders into to kitchen to get his own snacks and tea because he forgets what servants do.
He probably has no idea why he can’t just chase after an assassin he used to hunt the avatar for Agnis sake why is the captain of the guard demanding he stay in his room he’ll find the guy first (he’s probably right)
Katara probably has a free pass on Eco terrorism because what’s he going to do challenge her, she’ll beat his ass.
If he saw a minster doing something shady he will either invite lady Beifong to detect their BS or commit B&E and look for evidence himself.
He somehow found a baby dragon and raises it.
He will be far to willing to give Kyoshi island anything they want cause he feels bad and Suki scares him.
He randomly insisted on giving some earth kingdom village 100 ostrich horses.
The Avatar will just show up call him Hotman and demand the go on adventures and the Firelord will just dip because he’s been confined to long and has the Zoomies.
He takes far to much advice from Sokka and will genuinely believe if someone doesn’t get Sokkas plans they must be an idiot because Sokka is 16.
Sokka and Zuko also get into a lot of teenage rebellion phases by accident.
Toph just walks in breaks a wall of his palace and demands a field trip that always involves the Firelord having to explain himself to the cops.
He somehow knows every dangerous teen in the world and they all come for tea uninvited.
He has broken into both the NWT and Ba Sing Se.
He has a really well documented facial scar and official portraits but still disappears to be Lee the tea guy like no one knows.
HES SEVENTEEN.
woke up today and realized that tumblr entirely killed fuck ya life bing bong so here ya go again
This is my magnum opus
Thinking about how Garrus and Shepard are not exactly public with their relationship until ME3 and then suddenly someone with a camera sees two people sitting on the presidium with a sniper rifle doing target practice and at first thinks its just two random delinquents and then they zoom in AND ITS COMMANDER FUCKING SHEPARD KISSING A TURIAN.
what a way for the world to find that out. Especially with how the citadel seems to focus on ANY news but the imminent attack by the Reapers... the Press would have a field day.
So. The Pillars of Creation are in the Eagle Nebula, which is of course a system you can visit in Mass Effect. But I have seen theories that the Pillars actually no longer exist. We just can't see their destruction yet, because they're 7,000 light years away and the light that would show it to us hasn't reached us yet.
Which now has me doing a lot of thinking about what humanity sees in their night sky on Earth verses the reality that's available with FTL and relays.
Imagine being a quarian who could look at an alien sky and still see a Rannoch that was theirs?
Imagine being someone who had loved ones in the Bahak System, looking through an alien telescope and seeing it still unbroken and whole?
Survivors of a reaper cycle could flee to the other side of the galaxy and look back to a time where reapers didn't exist.
It's gone forever. You can still see it in the sky.
I'm going to go lie down for a while.
There idiots I love them
Thinking about the time the entire batfamily accidentally came across the same body
Just them sharing one brain cell <3
they try, honestly they do, but the doctor isn't a stationary creature and never has been, especially not when they know there's something they could help with. which is to say, it takes a week of soft quiet life before he starts begging kate for a job. kate in turn withstands three weeks of the doctor's incessant begging and big puppy dog eyes while donna noble stands right behind him and mouths don't you fucking dare before she makes a counteroffer: he can work in a lab (the 'very far away from active duty' is implied) as long as he meets with unit's therapist.
and he refuses, of course, loudly and profusely, right up until donna very gently but very firmly tells him that it really could help, actually.
so. therapy. the doctor assumes it won't do anything. the unit therapist is no nonsense and unflinching and very very bright, and twenty minutes later the doctor sits outside the room hyperventilating while kate finishes paperwork and kindly doesn't mention the way he's all but curled into her.
the second session ends much like the first, and the third, and then the fourth he walks out with dry eyes and a tremulous smile. the fifth, kate calls donna and she takes him home and they drink hot chocolate and he doesn't start talking again until the next day. it takes him seven sessions to be able to stay in the room for the full hour; kate pats him on the back and then finally allows him to build a shield for her office as a reward. she sits outside the therapist's office every time he has a session, even though she has to have better things to do. they don't talk about it.
unit only has files on things the doctor's done on earth, and even then, only sometimes, which means that when the doctor talks about some things he just. edits, a little. talks about two weeks in a confession dial and a month in prison, because maybe then he doesn't have to think about the enormity of it all. and every single time he does this, the therapist looks at him and very kindly calls bullshit. it's weird, being known. it's different with donna. he is donna and donna is him, in ways they will probably never talk about. but he sits in that cluttered little office for an hour a week (sometimes two or three times, if he's doing particularly badly) and he feels seen.
after four months, there are memories he can touch without flinching, and people he can talk about without crying. he starts spending a couple of hours just sitting in the vortex, not because he's hiding or running but just because he likes the way it feels against his skin. he cooks dinner every other night and washes up when he doesn't. he takes out the bin every week even though it's rose's job, because he loves her. and he can say that now, and he doesn't think about her short lifespan or about all the other people they've loved and lost. he can say that and just mean it.
part of his contract is an agreement to never offer a trip to a member of unit unless it's actual life or death (the small chemical leak in the lab doesn't count; he takes shirley to new mars anyway) but he finds himself toying with the idea of asking for a session in the tardis. just once, just to see. the therapist looks at him and sees him and it is monstrous and they keep looking anyway and now the doctor can sit through a family dinner without wanting to tear his skin off and he doesn't know any other way to say thank you.
it's funny, almost, how quickly he grows attached to this person who picks through his hurts and rifles through his traumas and holds direct eye contact while doing so. the doctor talks about their deaths and their crimes and their cowardice and the therapist nods and asks him how he feels and it's. it's terrifying. it's beautiful. it's the worst thing he's ever ever been through, and the best. he feels ripped apart and put back together in a way that few people have ever been able to— huh.
after his sixty eighth session (he's unable to not keep count) the doctor walks outside to where kate is annotating a schematic and says, thoughtfully, they're the master in disguise, aren't they. and kate says oh 100% and please don't let them know that you know because they will definitely go to the second stage of whatever long con they've been hatching and they're too good at this for us to let them go
wow players having to stand in lines for a quest because a relevant npc can only talk to one player at a time. is the funniest image on the planet
Omg this is amazing
Apparently Cards Against Humanity had a Mass Effect themed set come out in 2017 and this was their official fucking art for it
In today’s modern society, Riddler would be the EASIEST of Batman’s villains to rehabilitate
All you have to do? Give him a job designing/running an Escape Room facility
It’s perfect for him. A non-violent outlet for feeding his need to flex how intelligent he is, he still gets to create his elaborate puzzles and riddles, and people will willingly PAY HIM to lock them up in a room where he can mess with them for an hour or so
Someone get Bruce Wayne on the phone I have an idea for a thing he should invest in
I feel like I've complained about Tim's email situation in Gotham Knights before (edit: I have), but the truth of it is just so funny.
He's signed up for so many podcasts, video game streamers, and random news alerts; it's just a constant barrage of data going straight into his constantly whirring brain. Hell, he even floats the idea of the Batfamily having their own podcast as a way to correct misinformation about them (which Jason shoots down instantly), and it's made me realize something.
Timothy Drake would be a YouTuber.
In this universe specifically, Timothy Jackson Drake, the heir to Drake Industries and the foster son of the late Bruce Wayne would be a YouTuber.
Think about it. It'd be the perfect cover. Who would ever suspect that some 16-year-old nepo baby with a YouTube channel could ever be Red Robin? You'd have to be mad. I mean, look at him.
Red Robin just dropped out of literal thin air and garotted someone four times his size, and you expect anyone to believe that's the same kid who does 24-hour Minecraft charity streams and occasionally drops 6-hour video essays (his last one was on Lex Luthor's illegal bit mining operation on the moon)?
That kid?
You think that kid is Red Robin?
Ch'yah, okay, sure. And the Joker is funny 🤡.
Hear me out,
He was an angsty, teenage kid, high up in the mafia, with literally nothing to lose every day, and always looking for a way to feel more alive.
What if he got tatted the fuck up, now has to cover them because it doesn't fit his ADA aesthetic.
...
Somebody pls draw this, thnkx.