"It's just a TV show" maybe to you. I absorbed it into my soul though.

Surely this next six minutes of hitting the snooze button on my alarm will leave me feeling well rested. Surely this time.

Scissac <3

allison and kate is crazzzzyyy like she’s your cool aunt and she’s your dads sister but sometimes it feels she’s kind of like yours instead. she gets you when no one else does. she’s the only one who Knows you and maybe you wanna be like her when you grow up because god forbid you end up like your parents. your parents who think you can’t handle the truth when kate will tell it to your face and you love her for that because you’re not a little girl who needs to be protected. not anymore. you’d follow her anywhere. this is what you always wanted. or that’s what you thought or at least that’s what she thought or maybe that’s the same thing you’re not sure anymore but either way it’s looking more and more like all those times you thought she saw you, it turns out she was just looking for her own reflection in your eyes.

Okay I want to talk about this moment between Morrible and Glinda for a sec because it adds such a wonderfully sinister layer to a scene that is otherwise a triumphant defining moment for Elphaba, and it sets up the dynamics for Part 2 so perfectly.

At this point, we are in the thick of “Defying Gravity.” Everyone’s attention is on Elphaba - and rightfully so, she’s up there declaring war on the Wizard, displaying incredible feats of magic, of course everyone’s attention is on her.

…Everyone, except Morrible.

Morrible has realized that Plan A was a bust, but rather than panicking, she’s already worked over Plans B through Z in her head and has realized that Glinda, not Elphaba, is actually the key figure here. Glinda is actually the best thing that could have happened to them.

Mind you, Morrible hates Glinda. She thinks Glinda is vapid and attention-seeking and completely without talent. It would be extremely easy for her to brand Glinda as an accomplice to Elphaba, have the guards drag her off, imprison her, never have to deal with her again, nice and neat.

Instead, while everyone else is focused on Elphaba, Morrible only has eyes for Glinda. She zeroes in on her, releases her, and comforts her, because she understands what no one else understands, which is that yes, that’s great that the Wizard now has an enemy to unify his people against, but they also need a symbol of hope, something that is the exact antithesis to Elphaba, something to keep everyone at extremes. 

The Wizard himself can’t really be a symbol of hope, because the key to his success is that he remains shrouded in mystery, and yes people think he’s wonderful, but there’s a level of uncertainty and intimidation to him. He is Oz the Great and Terrible, and everyone’s preeeeeetty sure he’s a good guy, but if you have someone like Elphaba out there - who Morrible knows from experience is very smart, very articulate, and has her own sort of magnetism - there’s a potential that she could turn at least enough people against the Wizard to make things very inconvenient.

So what they need, now that they have an enemy, is to have an equally magnetic figurehead representing the Wizard who embodies all these one-dimensional ideas of goodness, someone for the public to adore and fawn over so the association between Wizard and Goodness is crystal clear.

And by bringing Glinda along, Elphaba has unknowingly served that figurehead up on a platter.

Glinda is everything Elphaba isn’t, from personality, to appearance - Morrible has already set Elphaba up by calling her green skin an “outward manifestorium of her twisted nature,” which paves the way for Glinda, who is the perfect conventional beauty, to be an “outward manifestorium” of pure goodness. 

Morrible realizes they need these two lightning rods of Absolute Evil and Absolute Good in order to manipulate people - fear alone isn’t enough; the only way to effectively radicalize the populace is to make sure there is no gray area whatsoever, no room for question: you're either good, or you’re evil. And the Wizard alone isn’t a strong enough representation of “goodness” when by virtue of existing, he has to remain in the shadows. Glinda on the other hand? With her looks and her charm and her openness and her ability to expertly win over a crowd? Perfect for the role.

Now the tricky part for Morrible is taking into consideration that Glinda and Elphaba love each other. But we also know from earlier scenes that Morrible is a master at manipulating emotions. Right from the start when Elphaba is having trouble with her magic, Morrible casually brings up the “Animals should be seen and not heard” disturbance from class, spoon-feeding her just enough to get Elphaba upset, triggering her magic, after which Morrible makes sure to give her assurance and praise to keep Elphaba optimistic about her power.

She’s also aware that Glinda does have quite a bit of influence over Elphaba, because when Elphaba flees, Morrible immediately tasks her with winning her over, rather than simply relying on the guards or even going after Elphaba herself. She knows if anyone has a chance at roping Elphaba back in, it's Glinda.

Obviously, Glinda isn’t successful in getting her back, but while this puts a dent in Morrible’s plans to get control of Elphaba, it does give her an extra weak spot to exploit in Glinda.

So now, at the height of “Defying Gravity” when Elphaba has officially taken her stand against them, Morrible sees Glinda, and Glinda is at her most vulnerable, her most emotionally fragile. Not only is she heartbroken and in shock, she’s also just witnessed in real time exactly how easy it is to turn an entire nation against someone. She’s scared, she’s powerless. She’s just lost the love of her life her only friend, she has no one to turn to - Morrible has definitely picked up on the fact that even though Glinda has countless people who fawn over her, none of them can be considered a true friend except for Elphaba, which means Glinda is completely isolated. Glinda also has a very limited understanding of the bigger picture of what the Wizard is trying to accomplish, and because she’s never been a victim of the system the way Elphaba has, she is still desperately clinging to the idea that everything will be okay as long as she plays by the rules of the people in power.

She has been perfectly primed for Morrible to begin manipulating, not through violence or intimidation, but by offering her comfort when no one else would - when not even Glinda’s only friend would - when no one else is even paying attention to Glinda, because they have the very real and present threat of Elphaba quite literally hanging over them. In this moment, Morrible chooses Glinda, which Glinda has been striving for since the beginning. Elphaba has chosen her principles, the Wizard has chosen his enemy, but Morrible has chosen Glinda, and in this moment of being so alone and so afraid and so betrayed, that makes all the difference.

We also get kind of a parallel shot too - Elphaba really sealed her fate the second her hand closed around the broom. But here, Glinda seals her fate when she gives in and reciprocates Morrible’s hold on her.

THIS is the moment that sets us up for Part 2, with Elphaba and Glinda as our lightning rods for Absolute Evil and Absolute Good, but more to the point, it makes it clear that they’ve BOTH been used, they’ve BOTH played right into these respective roles Morrible and the Wizard need in order to be successful - even if it wasn’t how Morrible originally planned for things to go.

I just love it, because “Defying Gravity” is Elphaba’s song - it’s triumphant, and it’s heartbreaking, and it’s everything a defining moment should be for a character. But by injecting this little moment between Morrible and Glinda into the scene, we also get an underlying current of dread because we know we’re about to see the consequences of Elphaba’s defiance versus Glinda’s compliance and how both serve to benefit the Wizard/Morrible’s propaganda.

TL;DR - when I said "I want to talk about this scene between Morrible and Glinda for a sec" I clearly meant "I'm gonna write a whole essay. Like a nerd."

I know nobody cares, but...

Marvel picked MY fucking short story, "Lost Cause," to be the official excerpt for the updated announcement of the Captain America: The Shield of Sam Wilson anthology.

No, really, look.

I'm fucking shocked they picked mine. What a tremendous honor to represent our boy. <3

On the off chance someone cares, info below!

As a Black man in America, Sam Wilson knows he has to be twice as good to get half as much credit. He must be a paragon of virtue for a nation that has mixed feelings towards him. In these thirteen brand-new stories, the all-new Captain America must thwart an insurrectionist plot, travel back in time, foil a racist conspiracy, and save the world over and over again.

As the Falcon, Sam Wilson was the first African American super hero in mainstream comic books. Sam’s trials and tribulations reflect the struggles many Black Americans go through today, as Sam balances fighting supervillains and saving the world with the difficulties of being the first Black Captain America. This action-packed anthology inspired by the Marvel comic book universe, will see Sam team up with familiar friends like Steve Rogers, Redwing and Nomad, while fighting HYDRA, Sabretooth, Kingpin, and other infamous villains.

These are stories of death-defying courage, Black love and self-discovery. These are the stories of a super hero learning what it means to be a symbol. These are the stories of Sam Wilson.

Release date: January 14, 2025

Pre-order now in ebook, hardcover, or audiobook: https://www.amazon.com/Captain-America-Shield-Sam-Wilson/dp/1803363878

And can I pretty please get some notes? PWEASE? Struggling indie black author here, just saying.

Shmi in tpm always has dignity, and her agency is emphasized, it's noteworthy. She's still not a main character- she's a role and a messenger more than a person in some ways- but her words and her choices are given respect by both the narrative and the main characters. She conveys several of the central themes and messages of the movies- and the entire series, bookending Vader's eventual choice. When Anakin wants to race, she is the one one who's permission he needs. She and Qui Gon speak quite extensively about Anakin going to the temple, and it's only with her permission that he asks Anakin, and then it's only with her encouragement that agrees. She's constricted by the harshest of circumstances, but her choices are some of the most important of the movie.

And she has this dignity about her.

Three separate people have felt the need to duly inform me that shmi is a slave in response to this post and quite honestly, I don't know what to say to them

Fandom being fandom. This is almost universal.

Comprehension of media is strategically reduced to the barest and most basic of symbols (which always tend to support their agenda). The idea that the movie deliberately chose to portray Shmi as having dignity and agency despite her status of being a slave is absolutely missed (or ignored). The idea that the movie deliberately had Qui Gon go to Shmi for these conversations and permissions rather than Watto, the slaveowner (whom Qui Gon treats as an obstacle at best) is absolutely missed (or ignored). It doesn't matter what Star Wars tries to say about the Jedi's respect for individuals or the inherent autonomy of living things, it falls on deaf ears if a character existing in a complex universe doesn't act like there are any bad consequences to the naked expression of power.

It's tiring.

sometimes i think about how scott wanted to kill himself in season 3 and how that moment was treated with the depth it deserved by the writers until it isn’t and how the fandom disregards that and scott in general by writing him off as some terrible friend. he’s suffering under the weight of the pressure of keeping everybody alive and safe….he is literally just a teenaged boy……he didn’t want any of this…..

fuuuuck that is my circus. are those…? yep… those are my monkeys….. goddammit.

"The boy not only goes through a transformation, but his body is discarded, shed to make way for the 'beast' within. The horror is conveyed through torture and agony of havoc wrought upon a body devoid of control. The identification is then leveled at that loss of control - the fictional body is as helpless as its viewing subject."

Horrality: The Textuality of the Contemporary Horror Film

But what if that's not what happens? If you don't get what you deserve?

PSA the reason the pornbots are bad is NOT cause it’s porn and you will damage your pure morally correct eyes if you accidentally see a pussy. They’re bad cause they’re spam. The fact that it happens to be porn is infuriating because we had all our non-spam, unique, female-made-for-a-female-audience porn censored, but it’s not the porn that makes it bad! It’s the spam. Spam. It’s bad cause it’s spam, my kids.

The next time you want to call a sequence “Well animated” do yourself a favour and rewatch it with the sound muted. Often times ir’s only after you remove sound from something that you can truly see if the animation underneath is actually good or not, or if the music/acting is manipulating you.

….but on that same note, “Well animated” does not mean “Fluidly animated”. Because something can be VERY well animated and have few frames if those frames are in the right place, or have a shit ton for frames and be badly animated because it’s over-animated and moves way too much.

The animation is kinda choppy, but its still likeable.

Vs.

The hair doesn’t need to bounce, every time this person blinks.

Bad animation

Limited but Good animation

Good animation

Over-animated (at least done on purpose in this case)

you can't thread a needle? i'm trying

Theo & der Soldat

Still thinking about the fact that Theo instantly recognizes Douglas, despite the fact that der Soldat looked very different when he was in a tube of magical goo. 

Even stranger, Douglas immediately recognizes Theo.

When the two of them finally have a moment alone together, they speak, in my humble opinion, like they’ve spoken before (6x07):

So when did they talk?

I like to think that at some point, years before Theo comes back to Beacon Hills, the Doctors decide that der Soldat might be more useful in a different way. They get him out of the tube, make sure he can’t go anywhere, and then proceed with their experiments.

Which leaves a let’s-say-12-year-old Theo to babysit a furious Nazi German alpha werelion from the 1940s. 

Keep reading

https://archiveofourown.org/works/62080843

Not an Exception to Want.

By Phallus Impudicus on AO3

Category: Gen

Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV)

Relationships: Scott McCall/TheoRaeken, Scott McCall & Theo Raeken

Characters: Scott McCall, Theo Raeken

Additional tags: Post-Season/Series Finale, More feelings would be shared if they weren't so invested in their inner monologue, Pining, It's technically mutual but Theo is panicking about it

A very belated gift for @spikeface but hopefully it is still enjoyable!

Trust me when I say that this fic was illegible gibberish until like three days ago. But I think I've straightened it out a bit now.