Rory

Primary for @fandsart which is basically just an extension of this blog; I reblog stuff over there and so am more active there, but here is just all my original thoughts and creations, a lot of which you won't see on @fandsart. Born mid 2002. It/its

[roryjor]

You can tell he's had scurvy when he starts saying shit like "I love me burgers"

[graves-yard]

Honestly I couldn’t care less if the people who follow me don’t like bloodymary. I couldn’t care less if you don’t follow or like me bc I like to play with the crossover. It’s your life, I’m not gonna change anyone’s mind on anything with some shitty drawings and lame writing.

But I WILL be blocking anyone and everyone that uses their dislike of the crossover and the ship to be disrespectful to its fans and Markiplier.

ESPECIALLY Markiplier actually. Phm fans have been horribly racist and disrespectful towards him recently under the guise of being aroace or liking a different ship better. It’s incredibly rude and hypocritical to bash on fans that saw the similarities of both these stories and wanting to explore the idea of them coming together, as well as to Mark who has fought to make his own movie and produce it completely independently.

Calling Mark another white man to ship Grace with in the same breath of calling Bloodymary fans racist and misogynistic?? I’m blocking you yeah!! Idc how much you like my other stuff or if we’ve been friendly before that’s stupid shit!!! That’s embarrassing and stupid.

There’s real criticism to be had about bloodymary and the lack of fandom etiquette recently. Fighting about an aroace HEADCANON and being racist and disrespectful to Markiplier’s identity and work is not it.

[roryjor]

Ryland "You really think someone would do that? Get into conflicts over sex?" Grace

Ryland "Wait, for real? You've actually been having sex? Ok, I didn't need to know that." Grace

[roryjor]

I think a big part of the reason Stratt has Grace as her second in command is because he volunteered to help on the project. I think a big part of the reason she goes and abducts people into the project is for the sake of their legal safety once the project is disbanded. They were forced into it. She's protecting them.

Grace gave up that excuse, so why not give him more responsibility

[roryjor]

People have compared Grace to a jellyfish from the perspective of an Eridian in terms of how bizarre he is, but if you consider the fact that they register oxygen as highly flammable, he's specifically like a jellyfish that swims in gasoline as its natural environment

[roryjor]

Something about specific cultural patchwork pieces specifically designed to wrap around yourself to feel more "at home"

And now they both have good luck symbols

[roryjor]

Not to be the language-psychology nerd that I am, but I've seen several instances of Rocky POV which involve him referring to Grace's arms and legs as his "tactile arms" and his "walking arms" or some other broadly synonymous description. But it's not like we don't have a word for limb. Our arms and legs are distinct in their build, but the function of the words' distinction is context dependent.

Eridians use a base six model which implies that they generally use two of their limbs primarily as hands consistently, using their other three to stabilize themselves (unclear if they need all five to actively walk as far as I can tell, correct me if I'm wrong). This makes sense as their limbs don't have any kind of flare out at the ends so they would need at least three to balance on reliably.

All that is to say they probably would have two different words for arms and legs in the same way that we have two different words for hands and fists.

[graves-yard]

I only watched The Fall Guy like two days ago and I was immediately really annoyed in retrospect about all the people mischaracterizing him for the twins au, specifically designating him "the dumb twin" Everyone loves a good contrast like that, I get it ig, but it's so much more interesting to me when twins aren't stark opposites. Anyway, Colt is pretty smart in the movie

Sometimes I'll see people make discussion of "dumb" characters and talk about how they do have smarts in some areas, but have developed a self consciousness around their intelligence because none of their smarts is relavent to schooling and testing environments. Smarts like strategy, improvisation skills, and deductive reasoning are smart skills that aren't necessary encouraged or inspected in school, but which are traits that Colt actively possesses in the movie. Even though these are things that people often bring up in reference to "dumb characters" I haven't actually seen anyone talk about it in relation to Colt specifically (maybe I just missed that discussion). I have seen people write him thinking back to when he was in school, and getting very contrasting grades to his brother

But I ALSO just have reason to believe he would have tested fine in school, if not actively well. Him and Dan play their little memorization game with the movie lines. His "nihilism's a viable worldview" thesis may have canonically been a surface level reading of the text, but it's absolutely something a teacher would accept. Also he was put pretty on the spot about it. He'd have gotten decent grades back in school imo. And maybe he'd be the dumb twin in contrast, sure, but people really crank it up.

"You need carbs! Your brain runs on glucose! For simple cognitive functions, you need them!" <- not the sentiment nor vocabulary of an idiot. But I think because he got into a dangerous field people decided that he's reckless and typecast him as an idiot, even though there are also several instances where he's very hesitant to pull some of the actions that he does on account of the danger and only goes through with them because of the stakes

PREACHING my man Colt Seavers is SMART

There’s a problem just in general of mob mentality, status quo, systemic ideals yadda yadda whatever. If someone sees an academically smart person in a classic way (ie Grace being a scientist) they are going to dumb down the others around them to make the academic seem smarter.

Colt is smart in a million different ways. He shows them off brilliantly in the movie. He’s got great emotional intelligence, enough to fully admit to his faults and take responsibility for them. He has good emotional reasoning to things, a good understanding of others. He also takes the safety of his job very seriously. Him noting that the sand’s density was off and that it was going to cause issues with the take. He offers a solid solution very quickly, showing his experience in his field. At several points in the movie, we can see him making direct, fast calculations on how to approach his situation carefully.

We even hear his thought process out loud once!!! When he’s high as shit, talking about getting hit by a car!!! He’s talking through the safest way possible he could go about that, even getting a mouth guard out so he doesn’t shatter his teeth from the impact.

What does the fandom do?? They make Ryland part of that lmao.

People get overexcited to be a part of something. Hence why everyone jumped onto bloodymary and you see people saying “oh I haven’t watched both/either of the movies” and making inaccurate assumptions about the characters and their lives.

It’s unfair to go into something without proper research. Even as something as trivial as a movie crossover for fun. You’ll loudmouth yourself to misrepresentation. Colt AND Grace deserve better than that

[roryjor]

And shout out to him prepping his environment for a fight

[xiketic]

Something I haven't seen many people talk about in PHM is the fact that Eridians probably don't have the same attitudes towards time as humans do. Think about it: Erid is an inherently dayless place, having an atmosphere that allows no light and thus no concept of day or night. We don't really think much about how our entire lives are structured around this cycle that Earth life has been experiencing for eons. Erid life has no concept of this at all. Eridian sleep schedules are somewhat irregular and not synced to each other (they can't be, not if someone always stays awake to watch). They don't track birthdays like we do, they can't unless they're paying attention to their solar cycle, which I'd expect is a relatively new thing for their culture. Maybe they base age on their near-perfect memories or how many layers their carapace has or how big they are, or experiences/accomplishments. They may have an idea of an Eridian year, if their planet has seasons or something like that, but I doubt it has a whole lot of importance to them.

I'd image having an alien who relies so heavily on cycles and repeated patterns in order to function normally would be mind-boggling to the Eridians. What do you mean it celebrates the exact day of its birth every so often, just because? Wait we need to program a reliable change in light levels to simulate its planet, which has almost no atmosphere? And we have to schedule any interactions we have with it around this cycle? Wait it tracks its age by the scientific year, not by life experience and physical aging?

Constantly being reminded that this guy Rocky brought home that saved their entire planet is, in fact, a complete alien.

[xiketic]

Ancient Eridians keeping time by their loved ones’ sleep cycles. By the tempo and duration of songs sung by entire families, like sailors and sea shanties. By feeling the minute rise and fall of temperatures as their sun warms their planet. By listening to the deep repetitive movements of volcanic activity underground. Maybe there were Eridians whose job it was to sing a constant, regular song to mark the “days”, maybe during festivals or mourning periods. Eridians learning about their planet and its cycles, building the space elevator, making new clocks that align with the movement of their world and the hot/cool feeling of their star. These clocks being brought on the Blip-A for the crew to count their passage, but certain Eridians singing traditional shanties carried down through heir families from before they knew that there was more above the sky, sung at the start of their long journey to remember the feeling of home.

To a human, the Eridian cultural timelessness is odd. Their days aren’t structured how ours are, their lives tailored around sleep and watching others sleep, but in a constantly fluctuating and mildly unpredictable schedule. As such their culture is not nearly as consumed by punctuality Earth—or at least Grace’s culture—is. This isn’t to say it’s disorganized or lazy, no, but their attitudes are fascinatingly different from a human perspective shaped by the ancient ritual of “day and night”.

[roryjor]

Oh, I think about this all the time in terms of colonial temporality. Lots of cultures didn't have these concepts of things like punctuality or appointment (or had limited concepts of them) before European colonisation. And I think about it in terms of the Erdians because, yeah, they would be pretty hardwired against adhering to a lot of these concepts due even just to their communal sleeping practices

The "human" perspective presented here that might come of the Eridians of being "disorganized or lazy" is really accurate to the propaganda at the time. That is how Europeans presented native groups relating to their more go with the flow attitudes of time, which often developed around the surrounding nature of the area and working with it in the way which was best suited. Europe's sense of time developed around it's own nature, and because it was necessary for them where they were, they decided the only reason other cultures hadn't developed time this way is because they weren't civilized enough to do so, and didn't work to understand the systems the natives already had in place

Eridians would definitely struggle to even comprehend the idea of a 9-5, especially if it's true that it's been stated (I only have a secondhand source rn) that Eridians are equipped at multitasking, but not good at focusing on one thing for long periods of time

[graves-yard]

I’ve been stressed and upset so I’m drugging the brothers cocaine and sedative

[roryjor]

Something something rainbows and unicorns

[roryjor]

You know, I've seen a few people explore how one might go about adapting the fifth Eridian limb for the sake of making a design for a human!Rocky. Do you not adapt a fifth limb at all? Do you give them some abnormal third arm? Maybe Rocky, being an engineer, made a robot arm? These are all ideas I've seen people come up with; I've seen all of them multiple times I believe.

I have yet to see anyone just make a humanoid Erdian design with a tail

[qoldenskies]

i think being able to pick through the things you enjoy and recognize when certain aspects of it are problematic or poorly thought out is really important and seriously helps your critical thinking skills, but i feel like a lot of people need to hear that you really, really dont have to go and look through "[x] critical" tags of shows you like, in fact most people who frequent tags like that and make entire blogs shitting on something you really enjoy and misconstruing every aspect of it are usually very miserable people who are just going to make you miserable. i don't think you're a weird obsessed fan that doesnt listen to criticism if you don't want to engage with that, and those people will only say that about people like you because they want you to feel bad. you don't have to give them that power!

[qoldenskies]

like i have moral ocd and a lot of the time i felt like i had to engage with the most bullshit critiques of the things i enjoyed because i felt like i had to justify my enjoyment for them, and like. i do think knowing Why you enjoy something is important of course, but i don't think its healthy to have to do so to random strangers on the internet who hate you over something so inconsequential, lol. i really don't trust people who say fans of anything inherently can't listen to criticism, when some of the best critique is delivered inside the house in every single fandom i've ever been in

[roryjor]

"Good art, to me, reveals the basic beautiful absurdity of existence. When you find a great piece of art, you catch a glimpse of variety inherent in the human experience and in doing so add dimension to your own world. Trying to describe that affect and spread it around is what I love about art criticism and you're making a mockery of it, Shawn! You're taking something beautiful and making it flat and colorless! Why are you doing this? Why are you pouring water into my hot chocolate, Shawn?"

-Mariana Colín (PhD Candidate in Communications/Media Anthropology at UIUC)

[roryjor]

Also I have this

[qoldenskies]

i think being able to pick through the things you enjoy and recognize when certain aspects of it are problematic or poorly thought out is really important and seriously helps your critical thinking skills, but i feel like a lot of people need to hear that you really, really dont have to go and look through "[x] critical" tags of shows you like, in fact most people who frequent tags like that and make entire blogs shitting on something you really enjoy and misconstruing every aspect of it are usually very miserable people who are just going to make you miserable. i don't think you're a weird obsessed fan that doesnt listen to criticism if you don't want to engage with that, and those people will only say that about people like you because they want you to feel bad. you don't have to give them that power!

[qoldenskies]

like i have moral ocd and a lot of the time i felt like i had to engage with the most bullshit critiques of the things i enjoyed because i felt like i had to justify my enjoyment for them, and like. i do think knowing Why you enjoy something is important of course, but i don't think its healthy to have to do so to random strangers on the internet who hate you over something so inconsequential, lol. i really don't trust people who say fans of anything inherently can't listen to criticism, when some of the best critique is delivered inside the house in every single fandom i've ever been in

[roryjor]

"Good art, to me, reveals the basic beautiful absurdity of existence. When you find a great piece of art, you catch a glimpse of variety inherent in the human experience and in doing so add dimension to your own world. Trying to describe that affect and spread it around is what I love about art criticism and you're making a mockery of it, Shawn! You're taking something beautiful and making it flat and colorless! Why are you doing this? Why are you pouring water into my hot chocolate, Shawn?"

-Mariana Colín (PhD Candidate in Communications/Media Anthropology at UIUC)

[hazemsuhail]

If this page suddenly goes silent one day, know that my brother Samer didn’t make it. I will never forget those who saw him suffering from severe bombing injuries, lacking his vital medications, yet chose silence and kept scrolling.

[hazemsuhail]

I feel completely shattered and deeply ashamed begging strangers for help every single day. This endless nightmare has stripped us of everything, forcing me to sacrifice even my own dignity just to keep my brother and my family alive.

[hazemsuhail]

​I want nothing from this world except to see Samer healthy and free of pain, and to save my family from this slow death. Please donate so we can afford his essential psychiatric and medical treatments before it’s too late.

Please Please donate GoFundMe

[hazemsuhail]

I swear these donations are our only way out. Please keep supporting us to save my brother Samer. 🙏

[sky-scribbles]

The friendship that saved the stars: An aroace reading of Project Hail Mary

As an aromantic asexual person, few things have ever infuriated me like Avengers: Endgame. Specifically, one small plot point near the end…

In my head, if not in canon, Grace is aromantic and asexual. But really, his identity doesn't matter. Grace himself doesn’t have to be aroace for Project Hail Mary to be an aroace story. This is a story about how connection saves us. It’s a friendship story; a story that rejects the idea that platonic love is lesser, or not enough for a fulfilling existence.

Or: this film healed something in my aroace soul and I couldn't rest until I'd talked about why it means so much to me.

[kaiiaii-yapz]

Thinking of Grace and Rocky getting so bored on the way to Erid and also them just being so sad they they can’t speak each others language, no matter how much they understand it’s just not physically possible. But maybe just maybe there’s some word in their respective languages that they can sort of say (not very well) but enough that someone would understand it. And they spend days going through everything thats sort of similar to the vocal range of the other.

POV Adrian when they finally get Erid. Your mate is back with this freaky alien that speaks in such a condensed range of tones and you understand nothing it says but it seems happy to be here and happy to meet you. And then in the middle of a ramble of incompressible sounds it says, in the strangest accent, “thermometer” and then goes back to utter nonsense.

[roryjor]

I don't think Rocky would ever be able to say any actual English words, but he could definitely express paralinguistic sounds, like the I don't know sound or mhm and mm-mm. And he could get some good mileage out of those too

[turtlevariabilis]

A few days ago, I came across a comment in the rottmnt fandom that really caught my attention.

Basically, it was a confession about something that bothered them a lot: angst fanfics that focus on Donnie, especially those that give him the Kraang trauma that, in theory, should have affected Raph more. The discussion wasn’t only about this, but I want to focus on this point and offer a new perspective on why, in my opinion, it happens. Because yes, for me there’s a very clear explanation, and it comes from a flaw in the rottmnt movie (yes, you heard that right, even if it hurts).

But first: I completely understand the comment and, in fact, I agree with it. In the movie, it’s clear that the one who suffered the most from the Kraang trauma was Raph: he literally became some kind of one! I don’t think he came out of it unscathed, and I’m sure he suffered much more than what’s shown. Donnie also experiences the Kraang trauma when connecting to the ship, but unlike Raph, he does it willingly and doesn’t lose awareness of himself. Donnie’s experience seems more like a sensory trauma than one caused by the Kraang.

With that clarified, I still think it’s interesting to dig into why the fandom seems to give more importance to “Donnie’s Kraang" trauma than Raph’s. Yes, it’s a mistake that Raph’s trauma is barely mentioned, but it opens the door to analyzing how certain details in the movie affect fans’ perceptions and, consequently, the creation of fanfics.

So, let’s talk about that small flaw (yes, I’d call it a flaw) in the rottmnt movie. But first, it’s important to understand something about storytelling: stories are made of promises. What do I mean by that? If a story focuses on a candle, it means something is going to happen with that candle, it has special meaning, or it represents something. It’s not just decorative. And, consciously or unconsciously, the audience will form expectations: they expect that candle to be significant later on or that something important will happen related to it. When we create stories, our duty isn’t just to fulfill those expectations, but to surpass them, so the audience feels satisfied. Why do I bring this up? Because in the rottmnt movie, a promise is made that isn’t fully delivered, and that caused some dissatisfaction among fans (especially Donnie fans).

Here’s what I mean: in the movie, when Donnie protects Mikey to save him, his battle shell breaks, and Mikey says: “Oh no, Donnie, your soft shell! You’re exposed!” This gives fans reason to think that Donnie, being a soft-shelled turtle, is more vulnerable without his battle shell than his brothers are. That Mikey says it like that not only confirms it but promises that something could happen to Donnie later because of that weakness. Also, later, when Donnie tries to connect to the Kraang ship and tells Mikey to remove his battle shell, Mikey says: “No, you’re too vulnerable with just your soft shell.” In other words, this vulnerability is made very explicit and is mentioned twice, but in the end, nothing happens about it. The promise isn’t fulfilled. All we get is what we’ve already talked about: a trauma related to his hypersensitivities when connecting to the Kraang ship. Yes, something happens to him, but it doesn’t meet fans’ expectations, it’s not enough.

Is this a flaw or not? It depends on how you look at it. The movie is 100% focused on Leo, it’s short, with no filler, and aimed at kids (and it already has enough angst!). But personally, I do see it as a flaw, especially in Mikey’s dialogues: if nothing more was going to happen, he shouldn’t have said it that way, nor emphasized that vulnerability so much. And I think that’s why fans, especially Donnie fans (who are many), felt unsatisfied and started creating fanfics, fan art, and fan comics about Donnie Kraang trauma, to fill the gap that the movie left open.

With Raph, this doesn’t happen: there’s no promise left unfulfilled, which is why there are fewer gaps for fans to explore (but please, do explore them! As I said, the movie didn’t show all the consequences of what happened to Raph!).

I hope you found this interesting, entertaining, or at least a little enlightening. As I said, this is just one possible explanation I offer on this topic, nothing more.