#thoughts from the void

[mars2moons]

Well done everyone

[katerinaaqu]

I don't think people talk enough about Odysseus's reaction when he first heard the news that Calypso finally lets him go! 😭😭😭 (and no, not referring to his words to tell her "HELL no! Not unless you swear to me that you have nothing in store for me!)

so she spoke, and much tormented, divine Odysseus shivered

(Translation by me)

My boy...😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭like the first reaction was that he literally shivered/shuddered (ῥίγησεν). That reaction gets me every moment! Not gonna lie! It was an immediate, almost completely instinctual reaction of his body, upon hearing the news! And Homer managed to convey literally every single emotion the poor man could feel in a blink of an eye with just one verb!

Disbelief that after almost ten years of imprisonment to Calypso's isle and after years of abuse he cannot believe that she suddenly decided to let him go about his way

Relief that after so long he is finally able to go about his way.

Happiness that maybe, just maybe he has a chance, that the curse Polyphemus placed upon him was that he would finally return home to his loved ones instead of the dreadful scenario of him never seeing his home again

Fear that Calypso has a trap set for him or of the unknown that waits for him

Like...so many different emotions hiding within that simple non-verbal reaction! His shudder! I do not think that people talk about that enough! Not to mention that it is combined with the epithet πολύτλας "man of many torments" or "much tormented". All his torments...everything he has been through is simply summarized by that simple instinctual reaction! 😭😭😭which also seems to be in contrast when Calypso herself shudders upon hearing the news that the gods decided to let go of Odysseus, which is a reaction of a wide range of emotions too including frustration, sadness and fury but yeah!

I can FEEL his shiver! I can almost HEAR the way his breath probably quivered as he did! I can SEE the look on his face; that mixed feeling that I enlist above! Daresay the eyes that are STILL crying! And all that with just one single word of a verb describing a non-verbal and automatic reaction! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

HOMER WHEN I CATCH YOU!!!!!!

[shanehollandersautism]

i guess the thing about people getting parasocial with willmack and rpf things breaching containment because people don’t know how to behave comes down to the fact that if you take the gay out of it, what you’ve got is the next generation of hockey players who are open and honest about having a very close friendship and opening the door for the kids that come after them to do the same without the stigma, and the people ruining it for everyone are some of the same ones screaming (rightfully so) about toxic hockey culture, and you can’t have it both ways

[goldensuncameron]

WWE doing a piss poor job of building stars and not having a backup plan and having to pivot a 7 weeks before the biggest show of the year is what ruined Rhea and Iyo not them being in a tag team. They were crushing it together and by far the happiest I've seen either of them in the longest time. Like stop blaming them and blame their bosses for sucking at their jobs

[superducky800]

i’m playing mass effect 3 for the first time and i only just met eve today, but im really glad im playing as femshep because i feel like shepard being female adds a depth to her relationship with eve that i cant picture being possible for male shep, no matter how great of a guy he may be. eve and femshep both understand societal prejudice and pressure towards/on women, especially as women in powerful positions. i feel that this makes their connection even more special and powerful. i’ve never played as male shep though, so im curious to know what that relationship looks like

[eyeofgender]

I watched Suzume again yesterday. Such a wonderful movie. It does a lot of genius stuff with its storytelling, imagery, callbacks and motifs, etc. But one thing I want to talk about is how it handles its world-ending stakes plot.

A lot of stories have world-ending stakes. It's... pretty common. Ending the world is like, objectively Bad in nearly every way a story could spin it. But the thing is, the World is very large. Too large. Too large to really comprehend. It makes it hard for the protagonist to actually care, and even harder for the audience, since we don't actually live there, and we don't know anyone outside of what the movie shows us. Sure, saving the whole world is the Objectively The Right Thing To Do, but I feel like a protagonist's actual motive for doing so a lot of the time is 'I have friends and family that live there.' Same reason for the audience cares too.

So Suzume sets the stakes lower. The threat isn't the whole world, its just Japan. The characters (just one character I think actually, the cat) do say, a couple times, that "the Earth will crack," but it really seems like the threat is localized to Japan. And with the threat hitting close to home, it actually makes the stakes a bit easier to comprehend, makes them feel more real.

But even then, Japan is still very large and has a lot of people we don't know or care about in it. So the movie makes us care. Throughout her journey across Japan, Suzume meets and becomes friends with several people. These people give her food and a place to stay and help her along her journey out of kindness and human connection. Whenever she seals a door, she hears the echos of those who once visited these places, small everyday moments. All these people will likely die if she lets the worm fall, and she knows it. And for the audience, we can't reasonably be there for Suzume's entire journey and see everything she does, so we're given a special view. In the moments before the worm falls, the scene flashes around, showing people all going about their daily lives, talking and working and playing and all these small nothing moments. We can see the shadow of the worm over them and the golden strings pulling taught around them, but all these people can't, they're just going about their normal lives with no idea what's about to happen. And it just feels devestating.

Despite being smaller in scope than the usual world-ending plotline, the stakes feel so much higher, because the movie so effectively made us care.

[brokendownbabe]

I would be so evil if I had big boobs

[mylifeinpixels]