Let's talk about magic

[vaguely-concerned]

qifrey feeling fucked up and predatory for how his feelings for olruggio mirror the instincts of the silverwood: the desire to seek towards him, bring him close, wrap around him and entangle with him -- to be with him and around him and inside him forever.

(the tree is many things including internalized homophobia lol. 'my roots seek towards you' will never stop fucking me up. it's eternally aching within me. of course it's about yearning, but I think it's also desire. we see the silverwood bursting out of qifrey's body in moments of high emotion/relief, but olruggio seems to be the one thing it actively consistently reaches for. it sprouts with new shoots directly from qifrey's reaching hand in the panel juxtaposition of all fucking time.

and qifrey thinks if he follows that impulse -- the one the tree shares -- he'll hurt olly so bad and that would kill him. if he ever tells his best friend how he really feels, it'll ruin both their lives and he'll die. he thinks the best thing he can do is to contain it and let it wreak havoc on himself before he ever lets it (or himself...) touch olruggio. like I don't think I'm even overstating the metaphor here: it's something that always lay latent within him but that blossomed irresistibly at just about the onset of puberty (!) after a moment of intense emotional intimacy with his best friend, and his means of keeping it in check is to take a cold ptsd-triggering bath about it. I'll refrain from any references to morning wood here because I'm classy like that but feel free to insert your own here. like. Okay. it isn't the whole of what the tree means, of course, but look me in the eye and tell me there's nothing of this in there. and then I still won't believe you.)

[chewbacca]

▸ Sleeping Beauty (1959)

[yy0k08]

the fallen

[catilinas]

(rotk / earlier version of the same passage in HoME vol 8)

the change from ‘leant upon his father’ to ‘leaned upon his father’s chair’ is crazyyyyyy. like you can see tolkien thinking hmmm. actually i need to make the relationship between denethor and faramir worse

[codeblueberry]

I cannot stop thinking about how this scene ends.

There is this blink-and-you-miss-it moment right after Langdon says, “It’s a healthy habit.” The camera cuts to Whitaker’s face as he takes a deep breath, his head tilting slightly backwards, never breaking eye contact. He stares at Langdon with an expression that reads both resigned and relieved.

I actually think Langdon here manages to do what both Robby and Santos did not. He gets through to Whitaker. Maybe it is because Whitaker had already dropped his polite, composed mask a minute earlier when he snapped at him, so something had already cracked open. But whatever the reason, Langdon gets through.

What is interesting is that Langdon is not even saying anything new. It is the same message Robby and Santos have already tried to give him. The difference is that Whitaker is not performing anymore, not defaulting to politeness or carefully managing how he comes across. He is just listening.

And in that moment, he actually lets the words land. He starts connecting them to everything that has been happening.

Because the Amy situation is one thing, but isn’t there a pattern here? Dennis constantly bending himself to accommodate everyone else in his life.

And his expression in that moment feels like he already knows. He knows he needs boundaries, he knows he needs to stand up for himself, he has been told this over and over, but he cannot quite make himself do it.

And it is almost ironic that the person who gets through to him is Langdon, the only person Whitaker has actually stood up to in the entire season and someone he clearly is not happy with. Maybe it is secondhand bias from Trinity, or maybe Langdon’s fake-nice demeanor hits too close to home. But in that moment, Whitaker does not have to perform anything for him. In fact, he has just drawn a line in the sand and told him he will not fit into whatever role Langdon is trying to assign him. So maybe that is exactly why it works. Because for once, Whitaker is not trying to be understood through politeness. He is being direct, fully himself in a way he rarely allows. And Langdon, for all his flaws, is the first person who actually meets that honesty head-on.

[timgy]

Whitaker is a textbook people pleaser, and people pleasers become that way because they HAD to put others needs ahead of their own at some point. I’m so curious to know more of Whitaker’s upbringing because what made him that way? Why is it so hard to let go of?

He and Robby share a need to feel useful, which makes them good at their job and also makes them more likely to find less fulfillment outside of work (as Robby points out, work is the only place he has purpose—this is a trap it would be easy for Whitaker to fall into). Whitaker helps out Amy on the farm because it gives him purpose outside of work, but the boundary issue means he’s probably got to stop doing that.

All day, actually, Whitaker has been stepped on in various ways and has responded with people pleasing—he’s been patient with Ogilvie when no one else has (and it was helpful! It got through to Ogilvie and might change him for the better!). He has been supportive of Javadi when she messed up, again—helpful! He was polite and jokey about Park the Shark treating him like shit.

The other guys in the betting pool were condescending about him joining in and he took it on the chin (not a big deal, very normal, but one more thing on the pile for his day).

He fucked up the picture of the board but didn’t sweat it.

Joy joked about the homelessness thing, which Gerran has said definitely bothered Whitaker.

Trinity has been pretty rude to him, and he has worked hard to see through it to the hurt underneath and be there for her anyway.

She told Robby about Amy, leading to a lecture from his mentor about boundaries, which he also accepted.

And now Langdon—it’s not just second hand anger, I think Langdon is the straw that breaks the camel’s back—also part of why he feels bad, because he immediately recognizes that it’s not really Langdon he’s mad at, it’s the whole day.

But Langdon takes it, and encourages him, and it’s maybe the first time someone has given him back what he’s been dishing out all day—someone sees him and meets him with grace.

Anyway I love this moment and I love Whitaker

[yeytomi]

This one looks good I guess (I tried to make him look more like in manga.)

[boykavalier]

THE PITT 2.14 "8:00 P.M."

[asofspades]

Appreciationfor how much Kiryu loves his sister btw, he's beaming at seeing her. All of them were just confused.

Suo's analysing again I can tell

I love how it only took them one look to know they had to lock in for Kiryu

Nirei was trying so hard to look intimidating and meanwhile the others don't even have to do all that much, the one who has to do the least is Suo, not even furrowing his eyebrows, it's all in his eye and mouth

The confusion from a bunch of only children (I still think Suo's "brothers" are not blood related). The reactions are amazing, Sakura looks almost afraid of the concept, Nirei so excited with his notebook,Tsuge is just Tsuge and Suo is like "oh wait, that was an option"

They're so unused to this thing.

They don't even know how to react, they're so awkward

I can tell even Suo is surprised, although maybe not as much as the others, he's observant but also I feel he's on hyper vigilant mode again

Suo, your projection is showing, you haven't been to a friend's house either ever before and you're also cataloguing everything already

[orpheuslament]

Introduction to The Iliad, Emily Wilson

[demoncity]

25TH ANNIVERSARY OF SPIRITED AWAY Released on July 20th, 2001 in Japan

[millidew]

in many ways blue was post-game hgss' special little guy and i'm so thankful for that. you have to go look for him because he's not at work, and when you find him he's waxing poetic about man vs nature. he's the only gym leader that won't let you challenge him in any order. his standards are so high that he doesn't even care that you have all the johto badges or that you're the champion. he has no type specialty, an obnoxious spinning neon gym puzzle, and a bunch of elite trainers who love the gym. his pidgeot, his ace/second oldest pokemon, knows return. he's one of two gym leaders to not directly give you his phone number. to get it you have to basically prove to his older sister that you'll be a good influence on him by letting her groom your pokemon. she gives you his number not for battling but because he's lonely. and after all that he calls you to ramble about how much he misses red. his rematch team has a tyranitar which are only found on mt silver (technically you can get a larvitar in the johto safari zone but the environment switching mechanic is only implemented during the events of the game. also he doesn't seem to have a very high opinion on johto so idk if he'd even go there)

[random-brushstrokes]

Kaj Piehl (Swedish, 1921–2000) - City at Night

[anniilaugh]

”When we’re together, we have no weakness. No vulnerability. We perfect each other.”

aka @wellship 's ”20 Year Waltz” and their ”The God with no back” concept lives in my head rent free and forever loved💚

[random-brushstrokes]

Nikolai Mikhailovich Romadin - A Fellow Student (1939)

[hauxicrook]

If they ever ask you why you love Spider-Man so much, show them this. His suit needs to be washed, he leans against the washer with bruises all over his body, life fucks him up in every single stage but he never gives up, and that's why Spider-Man will forever be the greatest superhero to ever exist.

[keenayart]

🗡️ ⠀

[platoapproved]

O YOU whom I often and silently come where you are,          that I may be with you; As I walk by your side, or sit near, or remain in the          same room with you, Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your          sake is playing within me. —Walt Whitman