A Bookworm's Musings @makenoiseaboutthinking - Tumblr Blog

I think one of the reasons the Harry Potter Epilogue was so poorly received was because the audience was primarily made up of the Millennial generation.

We’ve walked with Harry, Ron and Hermione, through a world that we thought was great but slowly revealed itself to be the opposite. We unpeeled the layers of corruption within the government, we saw cruelty against minorities grow in the past decades, and had media attack us and had teachers tell us that we ‘must not tell lies’. We got angry and frustrated and, like Harry, Ron and Hermione, had to think of a way to fight back. And them winning? That would have been enough to give us hope and leave us satisfied.

But instead. There was skip scene. And suddenly they were all over 30 and happy with their 2.5 children.

And the Millennials were left flailing in the dust.

Because while we recognised and empathised with everything up to that point. But seeing the Golden Trio financially stable and content and married? That was not something our generation could recognise. Because we have no idea if we’re ever going to be able to reach that stage. Not with the world we’re living in right now.

Having Harry, Ron and Hermione stare off into the distance after the battle and wonder about what the future might be would have stuck with us. Hell, have them move into a shitty flat together and try and sort out their lives would have. Have them with screaming nightmares and failed relationships and trying to get jobs in a society that’s falling apart would have. Have them still trying to fix things in that society would have. Because we known Voldemort was just a symptom of the disease of prejudice the Wizarding World.

But don’t push us off with an ‘all was well’. In a world about magic, JK Rowling finally broke our suspension of disbelief by having them all hit middle-class and middle-age contentment and expecting a fanbase of teenagers to accept it.

Also. Since when was ‘don’t worry kids, you’re going to turn out just like your parents’ ever a happy ending? Does our generation even recognise marriage and money and jobs as the fulfillment of life anymore? Does our generation even recognise the Epilogue’s Golden Trio anymore?

tenderpotter

#i think this one of the reasons why the james/lily/albus naming theme bothered me #because there’s a sense of going in a circle rather than pressing forward #the only way the wizarding world will survive if it changes dramatically from this point #having the station seem exactly the same #right down to the names being thrown around #makes it seem stagnant #so i’m guessing another dark lord should turn up in a couple of decades (x)

navyasarchive-deactivated201905

a person of color: racism–

a white european, materializing out of nowhere: actually i’m not from america so i don’t get this. can someone explain this? race is actually a US-centric concept. it was invented in the US. i need you to break this down for me because here in europe we don’t judge people by race.

navyasarchive-deactivated201905

me: makes this post

white europeans with glass bones and paper skin: ACTUALLY you stupid ethnic american, what you DON’T understand is *insert wikipedia page about the british colonization of ireland/scotland* *insert wikipedia page about the ottoman empire* AND ANOTHER THING, EASTERN EUROPEANS DIDN’T EVER PARTICIPATE IN IMPERIALISM SO DON’T BLAME US, *insert standard speech about how ‘white’ isn’t a category that exists in europe because white people don’t know the difference between racism, ethnic discrimination, and xenophobia and they don’t understand how white supremacy exists as a specific type of hierarchy*

delicateinnocentrottenporcelain

EXCUSE ME, but lemme break it down for you guys. The MCU has been going on for 10 YEARS. Within those 10 YEARS, no movie has EVER been nominated for a Golden Globe until now. Not one.

haberdashing

For those who, like me, didn’t hear the news before seeing this post:

Black Panther got nominated for a Golden Globe in Best Motion Picture- Drama, Best Original Score- Motion Picture, and Best Original Song- Motion Picture.

This from a movie that came out in February when most nominees for these kind of awards come out much later in the year.

Wakanda forever.

mysharona1987

Oh my God. This is exactly what it sounds like, tho.

All that is missing is the outer space background, big yellow letters and ‘A long, long time ago,in a galaxy far, far away…’

dingdongyouarewrong

old enough to remember when smut was called ‘lemons’ but young enough that i had absolutely no business knowing that smut was called ‘lemons’ at the time

lullabyknell

The Star Wars Wiki says, “While C-3PO underwent a memory wipe, R2-D2 was allowed to preserve his memories.” And I am delighted, because 1) I was pretty sure this was the case, but couldn’t remember exactly (R2 is a conniving sneak and I was pretty sure it wouldn’t have worked even if anyone had been foolish enough to try), and 2) this means one of my favorite Star Wars headcanons is actually canon.

It means that during that one scene in Empire Strikes Back, these two assholes know EXACTLY who the other one is.

You are decorated war veterans, you absolute trolls.

deltasquadformingup

Yoda had 20 plus years to prep for this moment and this is probably what he picked on like the second day

lullabyknell

Yoda had 20 plus years to prep for this moment and this is probably what he picked on like the second day <- Holy shit, this is the truest thing I’ve ever read. That is absolutely what he did.

Also, I have a couple of things I want to clarify on this post.

Because of the Luke and R2 exchange right before they land on Dagobah, when Luke is explaining that they’re going to find Yoda, an old Jedi Master, and R2 appears to be like, “whomst??” I now hold the headcanon that while R2 knew who Yoda was, he didn’t actually know Yoda’s name. So when they got down to Dagobah, R2 was absolutely like, “OH SHIT, IT’S YOU. HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU STILL ALIVE, GIVE ME BACK THE FLASHLIGHT, WHY DOES NO LISTEN TO ME, BACK OFF YOU GREEN SOCK, I’LL FINISH THE JOB MYSELF, I HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING AROUND HERE.”

And since droid rights are absolute shit, for R2, when I say “decorated war veteran”, I’m not referring to medals. (Although Anakin absolutely made medals for his droid too, because R2 was there and did, like, ALL the work.) I’m referring to arrest warrants.

lullabyknell

Most of R2’s memory is called The Shit List (With Receipts), with file folders on some of the galaxy’s most notorious and significant figures. Yoda has three folders. Anakin/Vader has five. So does Obi-Wan. The person with the most folders is Threepio (Designation: Useless Husband), bc R2 has never really let an argument go in his life. The only person who doesn’t have a shit list is BB-8, who has Never Done A Blessed Thing Wrong In Her Life. (R2 can and will fight you.)

just-chilln

killerchickadee

You kiddos have no idea how groundbreaking this was. Like there’s a reason THE lesbian website for a billion years was called After Ellen. She changed everything.

aleph-none

oh man you know that feeling that’s like kind of an ache right between your heart and your stomach? like nostalgic knowing of pain? that’s how the scared look in Ellen’s eyes makes me feel.

auntiewanda

Look at her hand too and how nervous she is. Every gay and lesbian person knows this feeling, because we know there are assumptions and consequences and there’s no telling how someone will react.

gayheretic-deactivated20190804

And let no one forget that she suffered consequences for this. It wasn’t just a moment of cathartic unburdening and then business as usual.

auntiewanda

Right, she lost her first TV show. She worked hard to get up to where she is today.

pillowprincesslexa

Ellen lost her TV show and didn’t get offered another job for the next 3 years. All while facing harsh critic from most of the world. Not to mention that Oprah, who immediately said yes to playing her therapist in this episode, got her own fair share of disrespectful and mostly racist comments. All over this one episode on a sitcom. Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe that over 40 million people watched this episode to see the first openly gay character on television.

This is history and it better fucking be in the history books for next generations.

veronica-rich

I thought Ellen’s career was over; I remember watching this in real time. It’s amazing she’s not only where she is today but that she’s so widely liked and seen as nonthreatening.

millennial-review-deactivated20

curlicuecal

i had to look up the monocle republican and i was not disappointed

curlicuecal

hot take

ifishouldvanish

“why are pillowfort/ao3 asking for money?? Tumblr and LJ are free!!!”

y'all really don’t get how this works, huh?

ifishouldvanish

Look y'all. Bottom line is large websites/web apps are fucking expensive

It’s not like a personal or small business site where you pay $25/mo for a shared hosting package and knock yourself out

You need multiple, dedicated, high-performance servers to handle a service like Tumblr or AO3, or Facebook, or what have you, to keep up with the insane amount of bandwidth and unfathomable amount of data.

Shit cost thousands of dollars a month. And those costs only go up the more users you have. Into the tens of thousands of dollars a month. Someone has to foot the bill for it. And that doesn’t include the salaries of the developers who pour hours of their time into making things function the way they need to.

“but Tumblr used to not have ads!!” you say! “They just got greedy!”

No, they didn’t “just get greedy”. This is how free services work. They aren’t magically able to sustain themselves. At any point. Ever.

Investors see proof of concept during the infancy of a project, and they pour their money– hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars– to 1) help fund the project into maturity. (Maturity = stable performance and a large, growing userbase) and 2) have a seat at the table when big decisions are made

Until that point, you won’t see ads, or be nagged to donate, or forced to pay a fee to access your content. That’s no accident.

Investors eat the cost of running and developing the service, because they know that once that userbase has been established, they can– you guessed it– SELL YOUR DATA TO ADVERTISERS.

They can’t do that until after they have users for advertisers to sell their shit to!

That’s how the investors make their money back, that’s how the service becomes profitable instead of being a giant cash pit.

So for the love of God, can we PLEASE stop slandering sites like AO3, Wikipedia, and now Pillowfort for having the audacity to ask for donations, or for having tiered/paid membership options for additional, non-essential features??

giggleboxx3000-deactivated20190

themanonthecouch

If you’re not paying, you’re the product

gangrelslut

If you’re not paying, you’re the product

ganseys-aquamarine-polo

I felt now was a good time for the memes-of-the-year recap:

archivejeankirschteinz

i love how no one messes with avatar the last airbender. there are people who are like, wow you watch doctor who? fucking nerd. you watch anime? gosh you’re such a weirdo. you watch avatar the last airbender? oh man you know that’s pretty cool so um what kind of bender would you be omg isn’t toph badass and don’t get me started on appa

blackfairypresident

you could curse a police officer out, kick their car, throw a temper tantrum and throw trash. and that still doesnt mean they get to kill you. what the fuck is wrong with yall? why do you think police get some special license to kill when they get disrespected?

if they cant do their job without murdering unarmed people, they dont deserve their badge, or anyones respect.

requiemforadeathmask

Except it isn’t always that simple.

forest-of-grace

Except it literally is. I deal with verbal and emotional abuse daily at my job. I get disrespected daily. I’ve had customers throw things at me. Not one of those situations have I ever felt the need to pull a gun on them and shoot them. In fact, I am expected to tolerate that kind of abuse with a smile and often times those people get rewarded for their behavior.

If a cop can’t deal with being disrespected without murdering people then they don’t need to be a fucking cop.

galahadwilder

A sudden, terrifying thought

When you see an animal with its eyes set to the front, like wolves, or humans, that’s usually a predator animal.

If you see an animal with its eyes set farther back, though—to the side—that animal is prey.

Now look at this dragon.

See those eyes?

They’re to the SIDE.

This raises an interesting—and terrifying—question.

What in the name of Lovecraft led evolution to consider DRAGONS…

As PREY?

dorito-and-pinetree

I know this isn’t part of my blogs theme but like this is interesting

haiku-robot

i know this isn’t part of my blogs theme but like this is interesting

kappagecko

@howdidigetinvolved

perfectlygenericblog

The eyes-in-the-front thing (usually) only applies to mammals. Crocodiles, arguably the inspiration for dragons, have eyes that look to the sides despite being a predator.

pyrrhiccomedy

hey what up I’m about to be That Asshole

This isn’t a mammalian thing. When people talk about ‘eyes on the front’ or ‘eyes on the side,’ they’re really talking about binocular vision vs monocular vision. Binocular vision is more advantageous for predators because it’s what gives you depth perception; i.e, the distance you need to leap, lunge, or swipe to take out the fast-moving thing in front of you. Any animal that can position its eyes in a way that it has overlapping fields of vision has binocular vision. That includes a lot of predatory reptiles, including komodo dragons, monitor lizards, and chameleons.

(The eyes-in-front = predator / eyes-on-sides = prey thing holds true far more regularly for birds than it does for mammals. Consider owls, hawks, and falcons vs parrots, sparrows, and doves.)

But it’s not like binocular vision is inherently “better” than monocular vision. It’s a trade-off: you get better at leap-strike-kill, but your field of vision is commensurately restricted, meaning you see less stuff. Sometimes, the evolutionary benefit of binocular vision just doesn’t outweigh the benefit of seeing the other guy coming. Very few forms of aquatic life have binocular vision unless they have eye stalks, predator or not, because if you live underwater, the threat could be coming from literally any direction, so you want as wide a field of view as you can get. If you see a predator working monocular vision, it’s a pretty safe assumption that there is something else out there dangerous enough that their survival is aided more by knowing where it is than reliably getting food inside their mouths.

For example, if you are a crocodile, there is a decent chance that a hippo will cruise up your shit and bite you in half. I’d say that makes monocular vision worthwhile.

Which brings us back to OP’s point. Why would dragon evolution favor field of view over depth perception?

A lot of the stories I’ve read painted the biggest threats to dragons (until knights with little shiny sticks came along) as other dragons. Dragons fight each other, dragons have wars. And like fish, a dragon would need to worry about another dragon coming in from any angle. That’s a major point in favor of monocular vision. Moreover, you don’t need depth perception in order to hunt if you can breathe fucking fire. A flamethrower is not a precision weapon. If you can torch everything in front of you, who cares if your prey is 5 feet away or 20? Burn it all and sift among the rubble for meat once everything stops moving.

Really, why would dragons have eyes on the front of their heads? Seems like they’ve got the right idea to me.

nathanpikajew

this is some good dragon discourse right here, 10/10, and i dont mean to derail the whole thing away from the eyes, but i feel obligated to mention that in many stories and accurate to some reptiles, dragons have an extremely acute sense of smell/taste which would definitely help narrow down the depth perception issue. things smell stronger the closer they are. and i feel like i read somewhere that a blind snake can flick the air with its tongue and track its target mouse with no trouble at all. gotta imagine the “great serpents of the sky” had some pretty advanced biology. enough to make field of view win out against depth perception.

anywho. cool stuff. fear the dragons even if they are the prey cause they still beat us on the food chain.

jabberwockypie

“A flamethrower is not a precision weapon. If you can torch everything in front of you, who cares if your prey is 5 feet away or 20? Burn it all and sift among the rubble for meat once everything stops moving.”

loquaciousliterature

“He read the letter again, but could not take in any more meaning than he had done the first time, and was reduced to staring at the handwriting itself. She had made her “g”s the same way he did.”

Patreon ✨

Obliviate HP Zine Restocked on Etsy! ✨

striving-artist

We need a name for the shock-trauma that comes from reading a long fic, chapter after chapter, barely pausing to eat let alone pay attention to what chapter you’re on, and then scrolling down to click a button that isn’t there. There needs to be a word for the way all of the emotions you’ve been carrying that were hurtling forward with you as you read non stop, suddenly crash into a wall around you. There needs to be a word for the way you’re abruptly unbalanced and lost. There needs to be a word for how you futilely attempt to refresh the page, even though you know the next chapter won’t appear.

There needs to be a word for this dammit.

And I have a suggestion:

WiP-lash

avari20

YOU PUNNY BASTARD

konkoa

This has been a PSA.

reapersun

I’m trying not to reblog posts on this blog but I feel that this is important to post here.

enigmaticagentalice

on a related note:

whatshabsening

bonbonlanguage

You know what I think is really cool about language (English in this case)? It’s the way you can express “I don’t know” without opening your mouth. All you have to do is hum a low note, a high note, then another lower note. The same goes for yes and no. Does anyone know what this is called?

rk8con

suspendnodisbelief

These are called vocables, a form of non-lexical utterance - that is, wordlike sounds that aren’t strictly words, have flexible meaning depending on context, and reflect the speakers emotional reaction to the context rather than stating something specific. They also include uh-oh! (that’s not good!), uh-huh and mm-hmm (yes), uhn-uhn (no), huh? (what?), huh… (oh, I see…), hmmn… (I wonder… / maybe…), awww! (that’s cute!), aww… (darn it…), um? (excuse me; that doesn’t seem right?), ugh and guh (expressions of alarm, disgust, or sympathy toward somebody else’s displeasure or distress), etc.

Every natural human language has at least a few vocables in it, and filler words like “um” and “erm” are also part of this overall class of utterances. Technically “vocable” itself refers to a wider category of utterances, but these types of sounds are the ones most frequently being referred to, when the word is used.

classicfern

Reblog if u just hummed all of these out loud as you read them

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