#meta wank

[mariaarnt]

Okay, crazy Star Wars theory time.

I have long suspected that the "keep people from dying" technique that Palpatine/Sidious mentions to Anakin requires that someone else's life force be sacrificed, and that's why it can't be learned from a Jedi. This is arguably what we see at the end of TRoS, only instead of sucking the life out of some hapless bystander, Ben sacrifices his own life force.

Now to the actual theory: Padme did not die of childbirth, or a broken heart, or whatever. The med droids even say there's nothing medically wrong with her, but she's still slipping away. Even after everything she's been through, she's insisting to Obi-wan that there's still good in Anakin.

Padme had outlived her usefulness in Palpatine's plot to create Darth Vader, and she now represented the biggest threat to keeping him. If she lived, she would do everything in her power to drag Anakin, kicking and screaming, back into the light. And Palpatine knew it.

So Palpatine used Padme's life force to stop Anakin from dying.

Now, you might argue, Padme is a long way away from Palpatine and Vader. But Palpatine was probably extremely familiar with Padme's life force. She was only 7 when he discovered her in the junior legislature and began grooming her to be queen and then senator (and the perfect bait for Anakin). Maybe he'd already manipulated her life force. Nothing so gauche as the mind trick - Padme's too strong-willed for that anyway - but maybe he augmented her fear after the assassination attempts (which he orchestrated) so she'd be emotionally vulnerable and therefore more open to Anakin's advances. Maybe he did something to tamper with whatever birth control she was using, and that's why she got pregnant. Or maybe just the literal decades of working in close quarters with her would be enough.

We've seen force users connect over long distance, and while it's usually due to a strong bond such as master/padawan, twins, or dyads, Palpatine is exceptionally powerful, and I wouldn't put it past him to be able to locate Padme's life force from half a galaxy away. And while she was traveling rapidly in the opposite direction, she wasn't as far away as that.

Also puts a little weight of truth behind Palpatine's lie that Anakin caused Padme's death.

Anyway, just a theory that neatly ties a bunch of stuff together. Feel free to poke holes in it or write some fanfic.

[toolateorelse]

#1

It may have occurred to me a way to make the need to broadcast and share feel less like self-absorption and addiction to validation and more like a relatively sane and accepted: I just have to pretend it’s art. Or maybe just start considering it art. After all, I’ve always longed for an outlet that would feel satisfactory, an ability to produce something material, or at least more physical than just thoughts, that I would look at afterwards and be proud of. I still think that thing is writing. Like, writing is what I’ve always wanted to do and be good at, more or less. And sometimes I also felt like I could be good at it. But then, everything is a process. All that I’ve imagined, all the plots that I’ve written down in two sentences and hid away in a folder, they are constantly changing in my mind. Every day, all day, I see new sides, discover more ways to reconstruct the story and mold it to the newest vision I’ve had. So why should I, in the midst of all this, choose a moment to start writing? What would be the meaning of such moment? Am I not allowed to rethink anything about the story once the structure is written in words in front of me? Or would it just become a different kind of process, a more active kind of process, since something has been written and rewriting it would mean that an already final idea - for the process that was going on only in my head, at least - actually wasn’t a final idea, and so why did I decide to write it down in the first place? What is the thing that I need to feel that will make me realize it’s that moment? Maybe it won’t have anything to do with the story, maybe I will exhaust myself by thinking it over so much that the sense of liberation will outweigh any confusion. Maybe I will become one of those authors that are never satisfied with their work and will always edit it until the day I die. They are parts of me, after all, how can I forsake them?

[markvi-flamecane]

Wow. That was underwhelming and disappointing. 

[nightmaregrove]

since some people were asking about my headcanons/theories re: sylvari undeveloped crap, here’s some shit I really need to put into more detail:

sylvari are completely the same at a ‘base’ level. They have no sex chromosomes and no gonads (reproductive organs) and thus, technically, no biological sex. If you remove exterior secondary characteristics (normally sexual characteristics, in humans) they are all the same. other organs/bodily characteristics are not different between sylvari and are not restricted by sex or hormones.

similarily, the idea that gender never matters to sylvari with sexual or romantic relationships, or that they are all ‘pansexual’ is a misnomer. Attraction varies and what an individual may be attracted to also varies, they just don’t tend to associate these things with gender. I.e a sylvari might be solely attracted to others that are female/feminine or have breasts and other features, but not really go insofar to say that they were straight or gay or whatever unless they adopt the idea from another culture (or the Dream or similar). it just happens to be what they’re attracted to.

ALSO SIMILARILY, social culture of the sylvari is completely devoid of norms or judgements or just ‘things’ that developed due to the need to procreate and create family lines and status. other races may be pressured into having particular partners to ensure good offspring or to marry into money or status, etc, but the only reason such relationships exist for a sylvari are for pleasure and bonding or just because they feel like it. non nuclear family units are common, with different sylvari assuming varying ‘roles’ if they feel like it. (ex: one of my characters has two people she regards as her parents. they obviously all came from the pale tree, but they’re regarded as swapping between being the mother or the father at any given time. also similar with more ‘officially unofficially adopted’ siblings or anything like that.) multiple ‘partners’ (romantic, sexual or otherwise) is also more commonplace and usually accepted due to the lack of taboos surrounding the matter.

the Dream and what a sylvari experiences in their ‘fetal’ state influences them heavily. (ex: absorbed an experience regarding a person someone had with a cleft palate. sylvari developed a mark similar to the cleft palate and a similar speech impediment) More knowledge of plants and other creatures has allowed new sylvari to ‘mimic’ them; a sylvari can smell like lavender but have fronds that look like ferns. likewise, they can also influence and change their bodies’ growth with time and energy, and shape it how they like with some work.

also their digestive enzymes are very very strong and they can digest bone even, but they...yknow, have no use to eat bone in the first place.

[nightmaregrove]

My personal headcanon is that in the early years of the sylvari, the Firstborn were REALLY... not very well adjusted to certain things? Certain intricacies. The Dream was young, and they didn’t get a whole lot of information about the world and living in general. Pale Tree gives them life, but doesn’t tell them how to live. Not yet. She just doesn’t have enough information to. They didn’t even know what death would feel like when it would happen to one of them. They didn’t know what that was or how to deal with it. The Tablet of Ventari was literally all they had, originally, for a ‘guide to how to people and emotions’. Trahearne is quick to extrapolate and apply what he’s read in books to real-life situations (which I also imagine is a common trend in sylvari; emulating other things and people). Faolain doesn’t realize her behavior is obsessive, impulsive, irrational and abusive. Caithe doesn’t realize that Faolain’s behavior is wrong until she is much, much older, and even still has a difficult time rationalizing it. 

Being said, there’s even canon reactions that suggest Caithe does come off as cold and aloof (Dagonet’s shade, anyone?), but she is certainly not without fucking emotions. I think she has them, just likely has difficulty expressing and dealing with them. A good example of this is during the scene with Wynne. She starts bawling over her corpse, but immediately swallows it down and goes back to neutral face when Faolain calls for her and is about to approach. Faolain is seen onscreen and in books both berating Caithe for perceived weaknesses, particularly when she shows any sort of mercy or really, any fucking emotion at all. If you know anything about abusive relationships, this is textbook behavior; Faolain discourages things she views as weakness and has been cited as trying to mold Caithe to her own views and ‘morals’, while Caithe was, early on, often willing to sacrifice her own values for Faolain’s sake, and their relationship formed at a very early point in their lives. I’d go so far as to say Caithe likely has little experience with dealing with things without Faolain breathing down her neck, as they’ve pretty much been inseparable until Faolain went to the Nightmare Court, let alone the possibility that due to the lack of experience of sylvari in general at that time and other possible factors, possibly just personal ones relating to her, she has trouble processing social interaction/emotions/decisions anyway.

People who make the ‘caithe is emotionless’ argument also neglect to realize that she’s also been quoted as regretting a LOT of her actions, from telling off Caderyn and others to various murders and other things, she regrets a lot of what she, at the time, thought were perfectly reasonable reactions or statements. There’s also the fact that, usually due to things beyond her control, she seems to become the one to bear a considerable amount of weight. The Firstborn didn’t ask to be responsible for anything. Caithe certainly didn’t ask to bear the guilt of destroying Wynne and keeping her secret safe, but she did anyway because there was no other option. She’s often quoted with her line of ‘I will bear your pain,’ but she only seems to be the one to do so because she feels obligated; like she has no other choice.

[markvi-flamecane]

Okay no. I had to finally unfollow a Misha/Cas tumblr I use to really like. They kept tagging all this “when will Crowley finally be off spn” sort of hate towards Crowley in posts not even about him. All while reblogging posts against hating on Misha and/or Cas. I just.. really?! 

[tendersky]

oh my GOD hank green talks exactly like Howl I have to stop being a nerdfighter

[miss-dramateen]

SEND ME ALL THE META?

I'm convinced. Mary Watson, at the end of "His Last Vow" is terrified at the possibility of Moriarty being alive. Mary Watson's past involves Moriarty in some form or another. John could get over her assassian past if it didn't involve Moriarty. He wouldn't get over it or love her anymore though if it involved Moriarty. Think about it. She says she'd go to prison for everything that she had done. Mycroft could easily fix that for her...but he wouldn't if she had been involved with the man who tried to kill his little brother. Would make a big ass meta post and video of every moment I'm talking about, but I think it's all been said. She's terrified of Magnussen leaking these details about her. I don't believe Moriarty actually survived, unless the whole fall and rooftop conversation was an alternative version of events (the fall was, who says the whole ending wasn't just a mind fuck too?). Which is possible. John say's "He (Moriarty) blew his own brains out." So they have a body at the very least. Here I am thinking the .GIF thing was released to shit stir Sherlock...I'm leaning towards shit stirring Mary more.