life & death & love & birth & peace & war on the planet Earth

I love lifeforms, from horses to protozoa. All species play a role in the ecosystem. This blog is both politics, religion/spiritually and fandom related. hippie nature lover Wiccan pescatarian cisgender woman anti-alt right anti gun pro-choice environmentalist anti trump

[dollelujah]

"G1 Ghoulia is non verbal"

not speaking english is not a disability you turd

[skufgufbuff]

I’m very passionate about this (SOME of) you G1 fans you are the absolute bane of my existence please be normal omfg

[sorta-slow]

While I do totally agree that she wasn't nonverbal in any iteration, I think the reason people sorta roll with the idea is because functionally zombese is more similar to sign than a random real world spoken language.

(unless I'm mistaken) there is no zombie country where zombese is the main language spoken and ghoulia, and other zombies, physically can't speak English because of their bodies. The communication breakdown is purely one sided, as she can understand others but others can't understand her, just like would happen with a nonverbal person who communicates with sign language.

So yes, while canonically she was never nonverbal and does just speak a different language, it is easy to see why people have also likened it to her being nonverbal. Not to say that the show needed to have made her nonverbal but you can see how it may have felt like a missed opportunity for representation, especially since they completely removed the communication barrier, instead.

[ultratropicalrainforest]

Languages don't have to be linked to countries. Why would the lack of a zombie country mean there can't be a zombie language?

In real life, someone can learn a a language without learning how to pronounce the words. When Slo-Mo's intelligence was increased, not only did he know how to pronounce English words, but he used several long and obscure English words. Zombies were never suggested to be physically incapable of speaking English.

[ultratropicalrainforest]

Thinking about the relationship between Susie and Gerson keeps reminding me of Raven Queen and Giles Grimm.

[astro-egg-celent]

One thing I find funny is that fantasy worlds often greatly overestimate how much modern science people knew in old times. A lot of people don't realize that people before the late 1700s were *completely wrong* about all of chemistry. Because Oxygen was discovered in the 1770s (obviously they believed in air, they just didn't know about oxygen as a chemical within the air), people before then wouldn't even be able to comprehend that metals like gold, iron, or silver were "elements" because they thought that the metal oxides were more pure and that smelting merely added a firey element that turned them into metal. Think of how batshit insane the 4 elements theory really is, and remember that it was the dominant theory until the 1600s. Alchemists didn't even use measurable quantities in their experiments, they thought you could just eyeball it based on material qualities. It was the discovery of oxygen and quantitative chemistry that enabled the industrial revolution and the scientific revolution to hit full stride. It's not just within the field of chemistry, either, the discovery of the oxidization and the true elements led directly to the understanding and widespread adoption of batteries, which evolved out of the understanding of how elements combine. So when I see Senshi in Dungeon Meshi mention Calcium, an element undiscovered until 1808, I think "Dang, Dungeon Meshi society is like 30 years away from inventing the telegraph". As well, it makes Legend of Korra and Fullmetal Alchemist ironic in their own ways. Legend of Korra canonically takes place in a world where the 4 elements theory is objectively true, yet they somehow invented batteries and electronics. Fullmetal Alchemist also takes place in an industrialized fantasy world, but ironically the fact that Edward and Alphonse both know the exact quantity of real life elements that make up the human body and aren't just going off of material properties and the four elements theory proves that they are *not actually alchemists*, just magic chemists.

[theroguescientist]

But a fantasy world is, by definition, different from our world. Who says science and technology has to progress in exactly the same way, even in a world that doesn't have the same laws of physics?

Who says that in a world where chemistry can look a little more magical than it does in our world people who practice it can't be called alchemists (alchemy is a direct precursor to modern chemistry and astronomy and astrology have historically been treated as closely related disciplines)

Of course, a world that runs on the four classical elements has different laws of physics. Using lightning to power your devices surely works differently when lightning is a form of elemental fire, but there is still lightning, so why can't we use it as a power source?

Sure, calcium was discovered in the 19th century in our world, but that's not our world. Even in our world different civilizations have developed at different paces and invented things in a different orders. Why would it not be the case in a world where different races have very different lifespans?

In a fantasy world you can go to the moon without inventing the wheel first. It's not "historically inaccurate" because the whole concept of historical accuracy does not apply.

[astro-egg-celent]

I think you're getting me wrong, I'm not doing this as a "look how bad these fantasy worlds are" thing, I just think it's funny and it creates a fun intellectual exercise trying to think about how people in a completely different world might come to the same underlying philosophy of science as we do in order to explain extremely separate phenomena (or explain the same phenomena completely separate ways) Plus, it puts it into perspective exactly how strongly people of the past believed in incorrect theories, that, even in our wildest fantasies, modern culture can't even portray stuff like the 4 elements theory completely 1:1 because we've had our perspective so revolutionized by it. Yeah, if lighting was a kind of fire it'd make sense for us for us to harness it as electricity, but in a world of the 4 elements theory there'd be no reason to assume that electricity would flow in circuits like it does now. Hell, calcium was discovered *using* electricity (As far as I've learned since making this post, Dwarves do have electricity in dungeon meshi so it's not unlikely) This isn't to shoot down your points though, just to try to encourage thought about how these kinds of conditions would arise. The fun part about science history is that you get to see how people came up with theories from nothing and had to slowly work their way up to what reality was, and I like the thought experiment of figuring out how societies would know what they know. Like, imagine earth benders performing mass spectrometry by seeing how far their bending could deflect a flow of fine sand, using that to determine new elements that are not fully earth. Hell, even the existence of batteries would create a fundamental question for bender societies, because you'd be able to make fire (electricity) from water (acidic solutions) and earth (metals), and then if you reversed the process using electrolysis you'd also create air (oxygen and hydrogen) out of nothing but water and fire. Imagine how mind blowing that'd be to them, it was mind blowing to IRL people too.

[ultratropicalrainforest]

Elements in the Avatar universe are not replacements for the real world elements found on the periodic table. Four elements applies to the magic system, not the entire laws of physics. It's never suggested elements like carbon or calcium don't exist.

[ultratropicalrainforest]

I find some of the criticisms of Harry Potter legitimate, but some alleged problematic elements feel like confirmation bias based on Rowling being a terf. I say because some people claim the name Kingsley Shacklebolt is racist because black slaves had shackles. I want to know whether connecting to black people to chattel slavery is common in England. Americacentric Harry Potter interpretations exist, so I don't want to make assumptions about English culture.

[theotherbackgrounder]

Day 78 standing outside of IDW’s non-existent headquarters flaunting off my toxic masculinity to bring back Ever After High.

I got someone to side-eye me

[ultratropicalrainforest]

Same.

[taahko]

every so often im struck by the memory of one of my college professors getting very angry with our class (art history of pompeii 250) because when she excitedly detailed the ingenious roman invention of heated floors in bathhouses via hearths in small crawlspaces, we asked who was tending the fires. she said "oh, slaves i suppose. but that isnt the point". and we said that it actually very much was the point. she had just told us that in roman society there were dozens of people, maybe hundreds, who spent every day of their enslaved lives crawling in cramped, hot, smoky tunnels to light fires to warm pools of water (which they were not allowed to swim in). how could that not be the point?

she wanted us to focus on the art, on the innovation of heated plumbing, on the tiles and decorations of the bathhouses, and all we wanted to do was learn more about the people under the floors. and she didn't know anything more about that. in fact, she said she thought we were focusing too much on superfluous details.

it feels almost hokey to put too fine a point on the idea im getting at here but i will anyway: There are a lot of people who are still under the floors. all these beautiful, convenient, brilliant innovations of modern society (think fast fashion, chatgpt, uber, doordash) are still powered by people working in inhumane, untenable conditions.

the people who run these systems want you to focus on the good - who doesnt love warm water? - but if anything is going to improve or change in our lifetimes, you need to examine these things with an attentive, critical, and empathetic eye. and for fucks sake stop ordering from amazon

[ardentdelirium]

To be fair to ancient Rome, slavery was very different to the chattel slavery of the US. People could advance to a point of like, middle or upper middle class luxury or win their freedom. Torturing slaves was looked down on (unless they were judicial/penal slaves). Owners were expected to treat them more like an employee than a beast of burden or chattel slave, though they were still considered property.

To be fair to your class, it's still fucked up, because the people likely to be doing it are the "low skill" slaves. They could potentially gain their freedom but practically never did, because people suck. ("High skill" slaves like artisans and scribes and civil servants and educators could often did advance or gain freedom. Because people who became slaves were generally from other conquered nations, they could also gain Roman citizenship, which was extremely unlikely for "unskilled" slaves. (Roman's who were born free could become slaves too, from acquiring enough debt you can't pay it off with money, by being kidnapped and sold, or by being sold by one's parents!)

[ultratropicalrainforest]

Plus slaves did not manage hypocausts.

[moonspellmagic]

[ultratropicalrainforest]

Your daily reminder that nuclear weapons are canon to gen 1 Monster High.

Does this mean there was a monster Manhattan Project during monster World War II?

[blizzard-nightlamps]

my only deltarune theory is that these 5 pixels on berdlys shirt are a patch of his own face

[ultratropicalrainforest]

There is a line in Ever After High: Once Upon a Time that I'm pretty sure is a Hellraiser reference.

Grandpa Auspicious Charming set up a treasure hunt for his family. One of his treasures "...the pinned mask of Lord Cenobitious.". A made up variant of the word cenobite and reference to pins feels like a Hellraiser reference. I wouldn't bat an eye if Monster High referenced Hellraiser, but I don't know of any fairy tales where puzzle boxes summon masochistic demons.

[cheatsykoopa98]

Holes in the soma theory

the idea that everyone is a digital copy doesn't make sense when we consider the following:

-scratch was working on a way to live forever because of his brain tumor, but the circus isn't his creation, it's caine's. He didnt create a world to live in, he tested AI first with caine and then with the blue AI (that we assume is the original Abel)

-when we see scratch interacting with caine, caine looks off, like hes still a more primitive AI, still learning, but everyone else looks confused. something went wrong

-If we consider that the devs are digital copies, we have to remember that C&A is not an abandoned building yet. it's already hard to believe scratch made everyone test the game at the same time, leaving no one on the outside to pull them out (assuming its like matrix, where you need someone in the real world to plug you in and get you out), but also, if a digital copy is made when you put on the headset, but your physical body is unchanged, why wouldnt scratch or any other dev see this and not do anything about it? like trying to mess with caine's programming (considering he absorbed abel without any input from the devs) or delete the digital copies? scratch is acting like something went wrong, he cant remember his or his coworkers' names and he cant leave, so why wouldnt he in the real life intervene? unless their real bodies can't access the real life computer caine is running on, like if their entire bodies were digitized (aka the tron theory)

-C&A eventually shuts down (probably because the whole staff went missing) and years later, ragatha, with a team of other people, comes to see the building, probably to sell it or condemn it, and she also puts on the headset. if the soma theory is true, ragatha in the real world saw a working computer, tried the headset, took it off, and didnt tell any of her coworkers about it.

She also didnt get to a deal, which means the building was left abandoned for even longer with electricity (which at this point would be over 20 years), and there have been people who would be able to either shut down the game or the computer, but didnt. if C&A devs were laid off or something like that, they would have turned off the computers before leaving, meaning every digital copy in the circus, npcs and caine would have died, but they didnt

its easier to assume ragatha and her team didnt touch anything (aside from putting on the headset once and not letting anyone else in the team try it, which is hard to believe) and left. But they also had the chance to turn off the power in the building and didnt

then jax, gangle, zooble and pomni came. we dont know what everyone of them was doing there, but I think its safe to assume they were alone, so no holes there since there would be nobody else to pull them out, turn off the computer or try on the headset after them

TL;DR it makes no sense that they are digital copies, because there were plenty of chances of either their real world selfs or people who were with them to mess with the computer caine is running on, delete their digital copies or destroy the computer. It does make sense if their bodies disappear when they put on the headset though

please tell me what you think

[ultratropicalrainforest]

When was it stated that Scratch was trying to live forever?

[ultratropicalrainforest]

Your daily remember that it was never stated that dark worlds representing fiction is the only way to interpret Deltarune.

There's a lot of theories based on the idea that dark worlds are just a symbol for fiction. This has never been stated to be the sole reason for dark worlds in the narrative. We don't need to limit ourselves to one interpretation.

[thosesillytrains]

It so funny that certain Owl house fans look at Hexed a movie that haven't even been released yet and only a short summary of what it about and concept art online and immediately see as a ripoff since apparently the gene of kid ending up in magical world with wizards is suddenly legally own by Dana Terrace and haven't been around for years. I would like to introduce them to something call a isekai

[ultratropicalrainforest]

How long do you it takes to make a film?

[ultratropicalrainforest]

Why do some people care about Hazbin Hotel sinners having lighter or darker skin than when they were alive?

I don't see why an artist has to portray dead souls looking like their living selves. And why was anyone looking for racial representation in this show in the first place? Looking at promotional material shows characters with no visible ethnic features. I'm genuinely confused as to what people expected.

[lauri-rosehearts]

Is no one gonna talk about the fact that Cupid’s birthday just completely changed when she switched from MH to EAH? In Monster high, its November 24th while in EAH its on February 14th. Both of those dates have symbolism relating to her character but why did they change it? Did the people incharge of her EAH bio completely forget that she already had that established canon info from her MH bio? I already talked about how drastically different her personality feels in EAH from MH, but now it just feels like the writers completely forgot that she was already an established character in another franchise, and just made a whole new character with the same name.

[athena-xox]

No because what pisses me off is that eah did keep the lore. They made posts about Cupids birthday on the 24th - in fact they said “don’t you heart spellebrating Cupids birthday every November 24th?” Well I do but they don’t.

I don’t get why they had to mess everything up with one card

I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt since Cupid was left on Eros’s doorstep so I doubt she would know her actual birthday. So maybe she was left on his doorstep November 24th but she was actually born the same day as drac

[ultratropicalrainforest]

What I'm wondering is why Monster World and Ever After would use the same calendar. Monster World is a fantasy version of Earth, so using the Gregorian calendar makes sense. (This implies a monster version of Pope Gregory XIII existed, but that's a whole other topic.) Meanwhile Ever After might not even count as a planet.

[athena-xox]

We see calendars in a couple of the chapter 3/4 episodes (I can’t recall lmao) but so we know the months of like 6 episodes.

Oh! And Mira Shards diary gives multiple dates and so we know the school year goes sep-June

The first day of school is the same in MH and EAH (13 wishes and the first EAH episode take place the same time, there’s a bit a time difference but I can’t recall what it is, like 6 hours or so)

[ultratropicalrainforest]

That doesn't explain a Gregorian calender being used at Ever After High that I'm confused by. It's something that's easier for writers but doesn't make sense.

[athena-xox]

I mean the narrators narrate all lands so I wonder if they’d have any effect on what calendar system happened, to make it easier for them 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

And all the lands used to be connected so there is a certain amount of overlap

It’s also something to note that Turkey is implied to exist because the word Turkish delight is used, the word Indian is used (to refer to Native Americans) and the instagram has made multiple posts putting the characters in backgrounds of real world cities (London, Paris and some town in Ireland that I knew the name of two years ago but can’t recall rn)— all to say that the world of EAH is not as removed from the real world and alternate world fairytale-ish as it appears so using the Gregorian calendar makes sense

Also from a doylist perspective it’s a show for kids so you want to make it relatable and easily understandable

[ultratropicalrainforest]

Monster World having a Gregorian calendar stands out to me because of it's real world origin. Gen 1 of Monster High having Christian holidays lead me to conclude Christianity exists, and overthinking the whole Monster World calendar supported my conclusion. Writers for gen 3 corrected this oversight and invented monster versions of real holidays. (Though Skelita can't be separated from the incredibly Catholic Day of the Dead.)

[lauri-rosehearts]

Is no one gonna talk about the fact that Cupid’s birthday just completely changed when she switched from MH to EAH? In Monster high, its November 24th while in EAH its on February 14th. Both of those dates have symbolism relating to her character but why did they change it? Did the people incharge of her EAH bio completely forget that she already had that established canon info from her MH bio? I already talked about how drastically different her personality feels in EAH from MH, but now it just feels like the writers completely forgot that she was already an established character in another franchise, and just made a whole new character with the same name.

[athena-xox]

No because what pisses me off is that eah did keep the lore. They made posts about Cupids birthday on the 24th - in fact they said “don’t you heart spellebrating Cupids birthday every November 24th?” Well I do but they don’t.

I don’t get why they had to mess everything up with one card

I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt since Cupid was left on Eros’s doorstep so I doubt she would know her actual birthday. So maybe she was left on his doorstep November 24th but she was actually born the same day as drac

[ultratropicalrainforest]

What I'm wondering is why Monster World and Ever After would use the same calendar. Monster World is a fantasy version of Earth, so using the Gregorian calendar makes sense. (This implies a monster version of Pope Gregory XIII existed, but that's a whole other topic.) Meanwhile Ever After might not even count as a planet.

[athena-xox]

We see calendars in a couple of the chapter 3/4 episodes (I can’t recall lmao) but so we know the months of like 6 episodes.

Oh! And Mira Shards diary gives multiple dates and so we know the school year goes sep-June

The first day of school is the same in MH and EAH (13 wishes and the first EAH episode take place the same time, there’s a bit a time difference but I can’t recall what it is, like 6 hours or so)

[ultratropicalrainforest]

That doesn't explain a Gregorian calender being used at Ever After High that I'm confused by. It's something that's easier for writers but doesn't make sense.

[athena-xox]

I mean the narrators narrate all lands so I wonder if they’d have any effect on what calendar system happened, to make it easier for them 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

And all the lands used to be connected so there is a certain amount of overlap

It’s also something to note that Turkey is implied to exist because the word Turkish delight is used, the word Indian is used (to refer to Native Americans) and the instagram has made multiple posts putting the characters in backgrounds of real world cities (London, Paris and some town in Ireland that I knew the name of two years ago but can’t recall rn)— all to say that the world of EAH is not as removed from the real world and alternate world fairytale-ish as it appears so using the Gregorian calendar makes sense

Also from a doylist perspective it’s a show for kids so you want to make it relatable and easily understandable

[ultratropicalrainforest]

I've thought this about She-Ra characters, none of whom live on Earth, having official birthdays. I probably forgotten about if not for someone noting that Scorpia is not a scorpio. None of that involves Ever After High, but that's how my brain works.