Plan? What plan?

hold on, this whole operation was your idea

[that-vexaholic-cryptid]

It's really true that Janeway is way more comfortable in a battle than our other captains. Kirk finesses, Picard tries to avoid it, Archer resents it, even Sisko grieves the weight of it, but Janeway is down to fight.

She's knows her crew, she knows what her ship can do, and is happy to shove it up some alien's ass. That "do NOT fuck with me" attitude got her far in the Delta Quadrant.

Would have been absolute terror against the Dominion.

[scarlet-macgyver]

Kinda trashy doodles but whatever

"I swear by my pretty floral bonnet"

"You can't take the sky from me"

[scarlet-macgyver]

"To boldly go where no one has gone before"

"Starfleet" (black circle)

[scarlet-macgyver]

A wee doodle I done did. Orange because Scully. Alien ships because yes.

I want to believe

[scarlet-macgyver]

Idk if I have the energy to do a polished version on my laptop. And also like, it has colors.

"I am vengeance, I am the night, I am Batman"

[scarlet-macgyver]

Idk if I have the energy to do a polished version on my laptop. And also like, it has colors.

Planning pic under the break.

"I am vengeance, I am the night, I am Batman"

[scarlet-macgyver]

Little doodle I forgot I did

Hera

[mamuscript]

okay I was talking to a myoot about this a few weeks ago. the absolute sisyphean weight that GA is carrying in this scene because. this is? three seconds of film? and she manages to convey that 1. she’s proud and excited to tell him that she has a date, 2. she wants to appear aloof while doing so, 3. she wants to see how he reacts to this knowledge, then immediately 4. she’s a little embarrassed at having felt all those things because they’re flirty and not professional, so 5. she tries immediately to get a handle on herself and return to being Professional Scully.

(gifs by @dailyflicks)

[thursdayinspace]

@edierone do not leave this in the tags

[elli-incarnate]

Hear me out: the funniest way to read the Emperor's Hand is as Darth Sidious accidentally honoring the traditions of his homeworld.

Because obviously TTT, Mara Jade, and the Emperor's Hand as a concept predate both the PT and Palpatine being from Naboo, but they're all perfectly backwards compatible.

And the Naboo handmaiden system is objectively insane.

I love it! It rules!

It is ALSO insane.

George Lucas was, as always, operating primarily on vibes and mythic imagery rather than asking uncomfortable sociological questions, but if you stop and think about the institution for more than a solid minute, it immediately starts raising eyebrows.

What kind of society elects a teenage queen and then surrounds her with a cadre of teenage noblewomen trained to impersonate her, carry weapons, participate in security operations, keep state secrets, and potentially DIE in her place?? That's not even a hypothetical, that's Cordé.

That's a state security apparatus specifically created from child soldiers wearing silk and makeup.

My favorite headcanon is that the answer lies buried in the institution itself!

Once upon a time, someone kept trying to kill the Queen.

Maybe it was rival houses. Maybe succession disputes. Maybe civil war. Doesn't really matter, the point is that Naboo's history was far uglier than its idyllic image suggests.

Eventually some desperate monarch, cornered by enemies and running out of options, came up with a brilliant solution: every major noble family would send a daughter to court. They would be honored guests publicly ... functionally they would also be hostages. They would be trained to fight, trained to serve, trained to imitate the Queen's speech and mannerisms so thoroughly that no assassin could ever be entirely certain who they were killing.

Viewed through that lens, the institution suddenly starts making a little more sense. What noble is going to sponsor a plot against the throne when the young woman wearing the crown might actually be his own daughter? Every major family now has a personal stake in the monarch's survival. The knives are still there, but now everyone has to think twice before drawing them.

Over centuries, the original purpose becomes obscured. The hostages become companions. The companions become handmaidens. The coercion gets wrapped in honor.

Which is exactly how cultural institutions survive.

And if you accept that premise, Naboo becomes a much more interesting place. Beneath the fountains and beautiful architecture is a society that normalized masks, doubles, hidden identities and carefully managed appearances.

The Queen pretends to be a handmaiden.

The handmaiden pretends to be the Queen.

Political survival depends on controlling appearances.

Which is EXACTLY THE CULTURE that should produce a Sith Lord in the exact flavor of Darth Sidious.

For most Naboo, the culture of masks and doubles becomes a defensive adaptation; for Palpatine, it becomes a worldview. The future Emperor spends decades pretending to be a kindly public servant while secretly engineering galactic catastrophe. He presents himself as a grandfatherly statesman while running the largest conspiracy in galactic history. He doesn't reject Naboo's political culture; he internalizes it and weaponizes it. Which is extremely Sith.

And then we get to the handmaidens themselves.

Because I am convinced that Senator Palpatine watched the events of TPM unfold and took notes.

Imagine him sitting there watching a bunch of fourteen-year-old girls with blasters repeatedly interfere with his plans.

Not just the Jedi or elite soldiers or master spies.

Handmaidens.

Loyal. Adaptable. Good at disguises. Comfortable with deception. Willing to risk their lives for the person they serve. Every time one of Padmé's girls successfully pulls off another switcheroo or security operation, Palpatine's reaction isn't just annoyance but professional admiration.

Somewhere in the back of his mind there has to be a moment of: I want one.

Not a handmaiden, exactly. That's too obviously Naboo. But the concept? The concept is excellent.

Fast forward a few decades!

Palpatine is Emperor now. He takes the idea apart and rebuilds it according to Sith principles.

He keeps the loyalty. He keeps the secrecy. He keeps the personal service and the ability to operate independently. He keeps the willingness to sacrifice everything for the person at the center of the system. Then he strips away the humanity and replaces it with possession. He adds espionage, assassination, manipulation, and dark side conditioning.

Hmm, needs less sisterhood and more murder.

The result of course is Mara Jade.

At some point he absolutely had to workshop the title.

"Emperor's Handmaiden?"

No. Too obvious.

"Emperor's Hand."

Perfect, print it.

Everything gets scaled up, militarized, stripped of its humanity, and rebuilt in obsidian.

Which feels phenomenally appropriate for the dark side. Sith don't invent things from whole cloth. They corrupt, distort, and take something that already exists and twist it into a more selfish, controlling form.

And that's exactly what Palpatine does with Naboo. For all his claims of transcending ordinary beings, for all his efforts to become something greater than human, he never really stops being a product of his homeworld.

He just takes every institution he inherited and asks himself what the most evil possible version would look like.

The final irony is Mara herself.

Because in this reading she's the dark reflection of a Naboo handmaiden. She is the culmination of Palpatine's attempt to recreate and weaponize one of the defining institutions of his youth.

She's like the cultural fusion of Naboo and Sith cultures. Culturally orange chicken.

And after all that effort, after decades of planning and conditioning and control, she eventually defects, marries Luke Skywalker, and gets absorbed into the very family that destroys everything Palpatine built.

That's Star Wars AF.

[fantasticvoidnerdshoe]

do you think Scully ever learns how Mulder was like when she was abducted? Like does she know about the sky lift debacle with Krychek, does she know Mulder & her mom brought a tombstone for her? Does she know how Mulder and Maggie are probably tied together over buying that tombstone, because how can you recover from buying something like that for someone you love more than anything? does she learn that Mulder turned sex into self harm while wearing her cross necklace? Does she even know Mulder wore it, clinging desprately to hope that she wouldn't turn into Samantha and never return while hating himself for not being fast enough to save her? Does she understand how devoted he was to her even that early into their partnership? Does she know he stopped sleeping - he was haunted by endless grief and guilt so he did anything to avoid his mind being quiet? Does she know he came into that hospital kicking and screaming - pleading for answers? When does she find out? Who tells her?

[analysis-mr-spock]

Tuvok: “We will provide the Captain and Commander with everything they need for their survival and comfort.”

*two days later, isolated for eternity on an uninhabited planet*

Janeway: We don’t have a bathtub :(

Chakotay: Say no more

Chakotay’s Personal Log: This was why I was First Officer. I wouldn’t have overlooked a bathtub. Classic Vulcan thinking my wife didn’t need a bathtub. Anyway I’m hand-building my wife a bathtub. Then I’m thinking I’ll make her some moccasins. I’m already experimenting with planting coffee beans and I’ve got an idea on how to reverse engineer a coffee grinder. Then I’ll find a way to make sure her pillow is always cool. She stubbed her toe on a chair the other day. I’ve burnt the chair. Cooked her favorite stew with that fire. By the Spirits she will want for nothing ever again.

[gothinkdexign]

[itsketo-voyaging]

[scarlet-macgyver]

Once upon a time I made a little random word generator because I couldn't believe one didn't exist for like, DnD stuff or whatever. Like, I don't want you to pick from a pre-curated list of pretty words, I want something completely new, something my poor un-creative brain couldn't even dream of conjuring. Gimme stuff like "Rustukovi" or "Finolocu" or "Lywu" or "Jucethira" or "Gistudamek" or even "Laowhychep". Make it random.

[passionpeachy]

for Kestie935 on art fight ⭐️

[katebeckets]

idiots (affectionate)・[78/?] ⤷ 3.22 — “Quagmire”

[scarlet-macgyver]

Httyd Race to the Edge has a secret Easter egg-type of thing that I'm sure all of you know but it blew my mind when I figured it out so imma rant about it anyway.

So if you've seen the show, you'll probably recognize these writings:

It looks like old Norse ruins and that makes sense because, duh, they're Vikings. But it's not Norse. The alphabet they used is JRR Tolkien's version of runes, inspired by Old English runes.

Here are some links if you want to learn more about the runes:

https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Runes

https://forodrim.org/daeron/runes-eng.pdf

So anyway, I (thnx to my nerdy sibling) can read/translate most things that use Tolkien's runes. It's not complicated - it's essentially just a cipher with some extra vowels because phonemic spellings. I've had a lot of fun over the years seeing different media use this stuff and reading what they wrote to see if it's readable. Usually it's not (please see every anime and webcomic that wants "ancient language" visuals), but sometimes I get pleasantly surprised (Vampire Diaries when they're in that cave discovering the names of the Original vampires - it's not 100% accurate, but it's def readable).

However, my absolute favorite has been Httyd. Say what u will about Netflix or whatever, but someone over there put in the effort (I must add tho, that they switch the "H" and "W" letters with a 99.9% consistency rate). 98% of any "Norse" text you see on the screen is readable. Maps? Yes. Those little notes all over Blueprints? Yes. Banners? Yes! Big chunks of text on documents? YES!

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present my most prized discovery:

Ik there's another episode that shows a larger portion of parchment with more text, but I can't remember which one.

This image is from Reign of Fireworms and is a list of assignments for everyone on the island.

It is also the Gettysburg Address.

Literally was losing my mind when I first read it because 1. They chose to use something real and didn't lorem ipsum it all and 2. out of all the things to write, they used the freaking Gettysburg Address.

I want to shake the hand of whoever decided to do this and thank them because this is amazing. I hope this knowledge can bring someone out there the same joy that it brought me.