#midweekblues

[edersondeaquarian]

2 days into the routine and the boredom is already hitting me so hard! 😩 Parang ang tagal-tagal pa ng Friday!

I just want a long rest right now. My brain is in complete shut-down mode. I'm literally counting the hours until my shift ends.

Sana matapos na ito! Sending good vibes and a plea for faster time to everyone else feeling this mid-week slump.

[cannellaeluce]

I'm SO glad you watched (and liked) The Expanse. I discovered it by chance... ok, for Jared Harris reasons. And it stole my heart. Ok, mostly Camina Drummer did. Anyway, I finished it a few weeks ago and I'm still processing.

Since you've also watched Black Sails, I wanted to ask you: parallels? Maybe? Mostly Flint vs Drummer? (or actually, Nassau Vs the Belt) But somewhat opposite narratives? I don't even know if you could call them parallels or if it makes any sense to relate/compare the two shows. BUT the brainworms are real.

I can't really elaborate right now, so feel free to ignore this if it doesn't make sense 🤣 i just wanted to leave this here, just in case.

What a great ask! I feel like I'm gonna ramble a lot to get to my point, but I'll try and make your question justice =)

So, disclaimer: I adored The Expanse; I deeply deeply enjoyed it, and came to passionately care for its characters, so on so forth. But one thing that I learned the hard way is that it is better for me not to compare any show I like to Black Sails, because what that comparison ends up doing for me is usually to point out how incomparably good Black Sails is above anything else ever.

Now, does this mean that I didn’t think about possible comparisons between the two shows? Hell no. And I do believe that there is something good to be said there about the character work both shows made, both in terms of individual arcs – it could be argued that Camina is a Flint who’s been given Max’s arc – and in more general terms of how nuanced and thought-provoking and subtly progressive the characters in both shows are; how we’re allowed to explore the emotional backlash of every single choice they make; how their psychology feels grounded and real even through all the war and grief and loss they’re all constantly facing. And yet…

And yet, if I look at the overall philosophy of these shows, at their deeper meaning, at the deeper story they tell about the state of the world, I can’t help but feel that The Expanse is yet another narrative convinced that Civilisation is the good guy, and that in the dark there be dragons. There are physical incarnations of Civilisation that may be corrupt, sure: we spend the whole of the first seasons fighting them and outgrowing them. But in the end, the biggest enemy humanity has is a dragon born of darkness, and the best shot humanity has is to come together to fight for Civilisation, and against the dragon.

Now, do I blame the Expanse for this? Absolutely not; were it not for Black Sails, I would not think it possible to have any show articulate the revolutionary idea that there is freedom in the dark once we illuminate it. It’s Black Sails that sets the bar too high; the Expanse is thought-provoking and subtle and progressive in its own ways. I just think that those ways are better found in the character work. Which means that I’ll revel in the thought that the character of Naomi even exists: a marginalised woman who’s a brilliant engineer and who’s allowed by the narrative to put her own survival and shot at happiness before her motherhood, without it depriving her of her capacity for love. I’ll rejoice at thinking that we got a male hero such as Holden: a quiet, physically frail man whose strongest suit is his deep compassion for others and whose arc is fulfilled by him letting go of power. I’ll stand in awe in front of Camina Drummer, pirate queen extraordinaire, a marginalised queer woman who’s allowed to fight and love and lose and emerge from her all encompassing grief unbroken, unbent, unbowed, wielding unimaginable power with which to protect her people. And I could go on raving about Avasarala, the literal more powerful person in the universe being a woman of colour who so easily exudes authority and assertiveness through her every move that she could single-handedly end sexism and racism by the simple act of standing in a crowd and commanding it; or about Bobby Draper of my buddy Amos or anybody else, really.

These are the things that I’ll keep thinking about when I think about the Expanse. Whenever I’ll want to have my mind blown by the thought that we are many and they are few to fear death is a choice and they can’t hang us all – I’ll rewatch Black Sails.

[classichorrorblog]

Has any horror movie ever made you cry?

[colorfulwhispers19]

Feeling really unfocused, tired, frustrated and anxious rn.

[bcbdrums]

Visit Original Link

I recorded @midweekblues outstanding lyrics.  One take, no practice.  I know it’s flawed.  If folks like it, I’ll make a serious attempt.

@midweekblues I’ll delete if you want.  I couldn’t figure out how to reblog your post and attach the audio; I’ve never done this before.

Also, I did this: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeUU4PHj/

[spiny-norman]

Pretty obvious but: Top 10 LCDP characters of all time? 😁

Oh, now this is a juicy little challenge! This goes without saying, but these are ranked by how much they intrigue me/how fun they are to watch, rather than any ideological reasons lol and also not in any specific order until the top 3, they're all so close

This got so long, so readmore time! TW for brief mention of sex crimes and suicide

10. Tamayo. I love this character. I wanted him to have an aneurysm on screen and die so bad. Big shoutouts to Sr Cayo for doing an absolutely fire job making a white collar bureaucrat interesting

9. Denver. I'm rewatching with my friend and Denver flew under my radar the first and second time I watched, but I love this guy; he is equal amounts dumb and kind, but also a bit of a brawler guy. He intrigues me, and also he is so funny without seeming like a parody of himself

8. Helsinki. Listen, not to be like ~uwu representation~ but good fat gay characters are so rare to come by, and Helsinki is so interesting to me. He didn't get a lot of focus in s5v2, but I think s3 and 4 were really good to Helsinki. I love that he's a big soldier guy, but he really cares about his friends and family, but he's not just a lovable teddy bear, he's also a war criminal who has done some bad shit. I just think he's neat (and complex, and it peeves me when people reduce him to just big nice gay)

7. Tokyo. The personification of lighting up a joint next to a gunpowder barrel. She's the "main character" I guess so we know a lot about her, but she is just soooo ahhhh! Early seasons Tokyo veered a bit too much into #girlboss territory for me, but she had so many moments where she was truly vulnerable, or lost her temper (a lot) so she was still an interesting character. And her story just got better, and she got the best end of them all. Her death was amazing.

6. Nairobi. I know Nairobi is like the universally likable character, and Alex Pina has some issues with writing women (applies to the other women on this list as well), but I think what really made Nairobi one of my favorites (apart from Alba Flores playing her) was when she made the para amar se necesita coraje speech, tough as nails, telling the truth directly to Palermo, but still crying, like that was so powerful.

5. Benjamín. Now here's a guy who comes in and does his job! I loved Benjamín in Plan Paris, he is just theee coolest guy. He might not have gotten all that much screentime, but so much of his character lives between the lines, like his relationship with his daughter, and how he's so worried for her, that makes me cry fr. My sister and I have a tradition of shouting "Benny!" every time he shows up, so I guess that's part of why I love him so much

4. Rio. Río is also someone I didn't fully appreciate until I rewatched, but the idea of this 19 yr old kid who has never held a gun being put into this high stakes situation, he's in love, his parents have disowned him, he is always seen as the weakest link, but he really isn't. And on top of that, his reaction to trauma is acted out in such a nuanced way, as is his whole reaction to Tokyo's death. It's so frustrating to watch him not pull the trigger on Gandía, but then you step back and think about it, and it's wholly understandable why he did what he did. I love Río and I'm so happy he survived.

3. Berlin. Yeah yeah predictable, but this guy intrigued me from day 1. You got this smooth sonofabitch who is just absolutely socially inept. He's been married 5 times but he's The Worst, especially to women. He's a character of contrasts, he's so interesting and compelling to watch (bc yknow good actor and all), and I think he became a much better character after he died. There really was no way to redemption arc that man, so having him in flashbacks to flesh out his character and tie him to others is such a brilliant idea (and also it's an excuse for them to sensually film Pedro Alonso in different locales around Europe). The thing about Berlín that frustrates me is that he is the sort of character people love either for the right or wrong reasons, like if someone said "yea i love Berlin, he's so cool" I would get a restraining order and never talk to that person again, but if they said "yea I love Berlin, he's such an interesting character" then we can talk. Him being a sex pest and him being an interesting multi-faceted character are not mutually exclusive statements. Anyways, I could rant and rave about this bitch all day

2. Alicia Sierra. Ah the pregnant torturer. Alex Pina is not great at writing women, so Najwa really carries the character. I love that she's insane and pregnant and morally bankrupt and sexy and violent and funny. Her interactions with Sergio all of s5 were such a highlight. Like, there is not a single scene with Alicia that I would call boring. And she didn't just go soft after giving birth, she drove that suv at full speed, gun in hand, singing lullabies to her daughter, now that's something! I think they toed the line of redemption arc a biiit too closely, but I'm not mad that she didn't die, and I'm very happy she didn't just join the banda in a group hug as if she wasn't personally responsible for a lot of their trauma. Also, Najwa Nimri big hot, but that has no influence over my ranking here, I promise.

1. Palermo. Every day I log onto tumblr dot gov and see people give Palermo the "smol bean uwu" treatment, and that makes me sad. I mean, everyone is free to interpret a character however they want yada yada, but I think doing so with Palermo is such a disservice to the character and also the brilliant work Rodrigo put into him. Palermo is smart, determined, cocky, mean, a romantic, strong-willed, pathetic, a misogynist, and still in love with a man who died several years ago and left him even longer ago. s5v2 really springboarded Palermo up to my number 1 spot, like Sr de la Serna really put his whole heart and soul into this character. His story is a tragedy, and he became a bitter and broken man, but he cares about the people around him. When Rodrigo (on multiple occasions) calls him pathetic, that's the right word. He's a piece of shit and it's mostly his own fault. I used to be of the opinion that ohh he was broken by Andrés, but he really did that shit to himself by refusing to let go and yeah of course it was a dick move of Andrés to just blue-skedoo out of there, and Sergio was a bastard for not coming to visit him after Andrés died, but he became that broken bitter piece of shit because he let it happen. (Obligatory disclaimer, I am not saying if some1 is suicidal or depressed or whatever that they're the one to blame for their own state, that topic is wayyy too complicated to even touch upon in a text post about characters on a tv show, but just know that I'm talking about this specific fictional character and also I have lived with severe depression and suicidal behavior so yknow, nuance and all that)

Thanks for the ask and I'm sorry for making you read all this. Would love to hear what you think :)

[seacollectsrivers]

Hey, I don't know how far up north you live but, how do you feel about the length of days in summer where you are? I have a feeling that everyone talks about how dark it is in the winter months but I wonder how it feels to live with sooo much daylight in the summer? Do you like it?

i don't live far north at all by norwegian standards, but in the height of summer there is never a true night here, more of a perpetual twilight during night which lasts about 3 hours maybe?

i genuinely love it. i love the timelessness of it, and there is nothing like walking home after a night out and it's either twilight or the sun's coming up. for me it's just an essential part of summer - i always got thrown the times we spent in mediterranean countries during summer, bc it always felt like the day just suddenly ended?? like boom it's 10pm the sun is Gone.

mind, i quite like winter days too!! but there has to be snow, because snow lights everything up (not an exaggeration! there is a stark difference between a snowless winter night and one with snow).

midnight sun is a different beast. obvi mostly this comes down to what you're used to, but the few times i've spent up north north (within the polar circle), midnight sun has just completely thrown me off. it is literally daylight 24/7, and (when you're unused to it) it fucks with your brain a little haha.

like, it never gets dark down where i am (which is about the same latitude as the Shetland Islands, IIRC?) but there is still a clear distinction between 2am and 2pm. Not So up north.

TL;DR: Yes, I like it very much, and it just kinda is what it is because I've lived like this for 25 years hehe.

[chiropteracupola]

For the spring asks :)

Changes, Light, Ocean?

Changes - what signals the changing of the seasons to you? 

Winter to spring: “nice” days exist but are generally really windy, birch trees have their leaves again, sky is cloudless and actually blue for once

Spring to summer: sunny days with the perfect balance of warm and windy, glorious foggy mornings that never stick around past 10:30

Summer to fall: everything is very bright and warm, but in sort of a crisper way than usual, air tastes dry, EVERYTHING IS SUDDENLY ON FIRE OH GOD

Fall to winter: things have mostly stopped being on fire, first rainstorms of the year, the people on this one street near my house take down their thirty or forty ghost decorations from the trees and put up their thirty or forty light-up wire stars...

Light - night owl or early bird?

I think I’m more of a morning person overall, but that might just be because it’s the one time when I can get stuff done without interference from anyone else.

Ocean - what’s your favorite sea creature?

I definitely have a fondness for both leafy sea dragons and moon jellies, but also I really do love a leopard seal.