The Dying Wizard

"Imagine what you'll know tomorrow."--MIB She/Her, born 1991

[willowcrowned]

Legolas: This forest is ancient and scary. I wish I could vacation here.

Gimli: Legolas you’re so fucking weird. I’d follow you anywhere.

[chiiri-h]

im 100% of the opinion that once your service or product becomes something you cannot reasonably go through life without, it should be free.

if you have to make people work, and they need a computer and a cellphone with internet to even get a job, then those should be free and it shouldn't be shitty ones either.

people have to have shelter. housing, heat, water, and electricity are all needed for daily life here, it should be fucking free because there's no reason to have people die to exposure in a 'developed' country.

food should be free. why do we not provide food to the hungry? we throw out hundreds of thousands of pounds of it every year.

[palominocorn]

This applies to the unique needs of disabled people as well.

If you need glasses, or a wheelchair, or medication, or therapy for mental health, or support from a caregiver, or renovations to make your home accessible, or any other number of things that you as a disabled person need to function, they should be free, no questions asked.

[prokopetz]

Some fictional characters are relatable in a Gender way not because they’re nonconforming, but because they’re so incredibly into performing their assigned gender that it somehow wraps all the way around. Like, some sort of gender overflow error.

[ryukiki]

[catchymemes]

[s-n-arly]

OMG!  I thought it was going to be a message about perseverance or it never being too late to follow your dreams, but nooooooo.  This is excellent storytelling.

[horse-on-a-porch]

I’m fine. I’m fine I am not at all emotionally wrecked by this.

[catfindr]

[pluto-the-demigod]

Pfft she hecking bald

[lettersiarrange]

New writing rule: Checkov’s friend

If you introduce a named character with a relationship to a protagonist, their character arc must be resolved in a way that feels reasonable and satisfying

Which is to say: they can’t just dissappear when they’re no longer a convenient plot device

[cluegrrl]

Thor’s Mum rule – If you’re going to kill a character who’s carried any part of the plot, take a bit to reimagine the plot as if she were the main character, and the story ends when she dies.  If it’s unsatisfying, rewrite either her plot points, or her death, to make both more meaningful.

Which is to say – don’t treat side characters as ammo with which to hurt your main guy.  ESPECIALLY if they’re women.

[dr-dendritic-trees]

I’m reblogging because this second part is the best explanation of how I distinguish between fridged characters and other characters who just die.

And yes, it is intrinsically a bit subjective and that’s okay.

[nat-20s]

unironic number one most important and useful writing tip I can give you is to make your women weirder. If your female characters are feeling flat or one dimensional give them a odd lil obsession or hobby. ESPECIALLY the sexy characters add a little “strange and offputting” spice in there and I’ll 1000% guarantee they’ll become better. Listen to me. Listen to ME it’ll work or your money back let the femme fatale give live newts to people as thanks and she’s become a more engaging and realized person.

[jenroses]

Every original character, if I start out assuming they’re cishet, white, male, christian, American, abled, whatever, I ask, “Why?”

Every once in a while it makes sense for a character to be all of those things. But only once in a while. Usually they improve as soon as any of those initial assumptions are challenged.

[luxlightly]

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it a thousand more times: No piece of dystopian fiction has ever been a prediction of the future. They are observations and criticisms of the present. 

[luxlightly]

“Wooow! How did Orwell predict the surveillance state so well in 1984??” 

He didn’t. He was making an observation of the surveillance state that already existed in his present, and exaggerated it to make the metaphor obvious.

Learning and discussing these works in terms of them being predictions and having test questions like “do you think his prediction came true?” is not only pointless, but actively counterintuitive. When you frame these works as being ‘people from the past knew that the future would be terrible’ you shift the entire perspective to one of some kind of nostalgia for a past that didn’t exist. 

These author’s aren’t oracles. They’re satirists. Their predictions ‘come true’ because they were already true when they wrote them. 

[brightlotusmoon]

[brightlotusmoon]

Friend A: "I just realized that this is about attention economy and the new prevalence of attention overwhelm and my mind is blown a little bit."

Friend E: "I saw another meme that compared texting to leaving a card with a request or other message on it with the butler, so the person you wanted to talk to can get back to you later once they're done with whatever they are doing. It makes sense. And isn't that why answering machines and voice-mail were invented? So you could leave your message with a virtual butler?"

[scientificphilosopher]

It wrinkles my brain that Jupiter’s moon Europa has oceans that are sixty miles deep, while Earth’s oceans only reach seven miles deep at most. I’m willing to bet good money that there’s life in Europa’s oceans. Like five bucks. You hear me, NASA? I bet you five bucks that there’s life on Europa… Now that there’s money and reputation on the line, I bet they send a mission there real quick.

[curiousobsession101]

I have no idea when this was originally posted, but NASA is working on their Europa mission RIGHT NOW to look for alien life! But get this, they theorize that because of the depth, gravity, and composition of the oceans, any organisms that lived there would be waaay bigger than aquatic life on Earth. So far everything’s going well with regards to their Europa mission so they should have a spacecraft on its way to look for giant sea monsters in space in only a few years. (The planned date is in the early 2020s.)

[scientificphilosopher]

Looks like my negotiations worked. You’re welcome, humanity.

[libraryspectre]

I’ve never been gripped with such cold terror and pure delight in my LIFE

[captain-snark]

explaining to an 18th century sailor that we’re looking for sea monsters in space. 

[whetstonefires]

the 18th century sailor would understand this perfectly well i feel. like honestly ‘there are oceans on celestial bodies and they have giant monsters in them’ feels like the normal assumption we all had to unlearn as space turned out to be mostly kinda boring.

[champagnemoon]

body positivity has largely failed because people started arguing for attractiveness and romantic prospects instead of respect and dignity

[carewitchproject]

this is truly the best summary of what all of this SHOULD be about

[daughter-of-sapph0]

"kids are detransitioning"

no. actually, children now feel comfortable and accepted enough to experiment with their gender, pronouns, name, and presentation. and while some of them end up realizing they were cis the entire time, they now have a new understanding and appreciation for one of the most marginalized and abused groups of people in the world.

there, I fixed your shitty headline.

[umbrella-hr-department]

Also quite honestly, if kids are detransitioning- so what? Honestly, good for them.

Nobody is doing surgery on trans kids. Nobody is doing anything more than MAYBE puberty blockers (which are clinically proven to be safe and are also the go to treatment for cis kids going through precocious puberty). If they decide that actually they're not the gender they thought they were, GOOD.

I want kids to feel safe trying things out. I want kids to experiment with their self expression, be it clothes or hair or gender. If it turns out to be "just a phase" I would far rather it be a phase that they are loved and supported through rather than something they feel is shameful and that they have to hide. I want them to feel like there's no pressure to go one way or the other, just to feel safe to figure themselves out in whatever way makes them comfortable.

Protect trans kids. Protect detrans kids. Protect questioning kids. Full fucking stop.

[libraford]

Explaining to straight adults that much of queer history happened within their lifetime and they were unaware of all the extremely important events and how many laws there were to prevent us from thriving because they werent part of queer circles themselves is like...

-leans in close-

How would you like to know about the war in Ba Sing Se?

[libraford]

My dad LOVES learning about the Cold War. It's full of drama. Backstabbing, cross-double-cross, spy gadgets, secret identities. It makes for great stories and as a journalist he loves a good story.

Me: oh yeah, I was just watching a documentary on the Lavender Scare. Fascinating that it was so recent in our history.

Dad: ....the what?

Me:

[libraford]

Me: -explaining that the moral panic of the 50s slowed down in the 70s only to start back up again with the aids epidemic in the 80s-

Dad: I remember that. It was scary times because no one knew how it was spread.

Me: what if I told you... that they could have slowed the spread of it, but chose not to because it seemed like only queers were affected by it and the government didnt see any problem with all of us dying.

Dad:

[libraford]

Dad: okay heres a simpler question for you- what's with drag queens and Judy Garland and Barbara Streisand? I feel like every drag queen I've seen has a Dorothy costume in their lineup.

Me: -deep breath- okay so let's go back to that lavender scare for a minute and how it intersects with the golden age of hollywood...

Me, ten minutes later: and that leads up to that famous picture of a drag queen dressed as Dorothy protesting in front of Trump Tower with the sign that says 'surrender donald.'

Dad: that's a pretty recent photo though.

Me:... uhhh... 1982.

Dad: ... you've been hating that guy since before you were born, huh?

Me: oh man, wait until you hear about my opinions on Reagan.

the “poor person who refuses handouts” is a classist microaggression, it tells poor kids that the worst possible thing they could do is accept help and that poor people who do get help are “lesser” (because anyone who does get help is always portrayed as screwing the system somehow, ie. “welfare queen”), as well as emphasizing to people that your pride is more important than your continued survival or general well-being.

[pangur-and-grim]

some sort of creature and/or beast

[fanficmemes]

Ohhhhh so the reason I can’t write today is because I didn’t preheat the google docs

[caffeinewitchcraft]

Don’t worry! That’s a very common mistake that we all make sometimes. I actually forgot to let my keyboard come up to room temperature today which was just a nightmare to work around

[soberscientistlife]

'HAPPY'