Empty Head

I randomly wanted to create a Tumblr, so... A dashboard for my creative process, weird researchs that make me look like a serial killer and midnight thoughts. Traces of biology will be found.

[smhalltheurlsaretaken]

Why is half the fandom now under the impression that Cody’s “actual name” is Kote? I know it’s a fun headcanon that got really popular, but the two don’t even sound that alike (based on the way Kote is pronounce in Vode An). 

It’s Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe erasure! 

[siarrawrites]

OP imma reboot your tags bc I didn’t know all that stuff! I’ve only seen the first few episodes of Clone Wars so I’ve tried to sus things out through what’s most common in fanwork. I guess with the EU being a thing that’s not as accurate as I thought

[smhalltheurlsaretaken]

#huh #i do like the ‘mando clone culture’ fandom has made #but it did always seem off to me bc of how regimented they are in the movies #they’re not meant to have a culture they were meant to be disposable #but of course they probably would end up making their own little one #but it probably would be less mando than fans write #i do like the word vod tho #its a nicer word than saying just clones #but who knows maybe they’re proud of that? (via @siarrawrites​)

Reblogging your tags too x) I like the word “vod” too, tbh. 

But yes the Clones’ ties to Mandalorian culture mostly comes from the EU writers (who created Mandalore almost from scratch, btw); they had quite an impact on the fans, but their work was later almost completely invalidated by the (Lucas approved/overseen) 2009 Clone Wars show. Quite a few people called it “character assassination,” which I find really funny because… no? 

Anyway the fans never let go of this romantic notion of an all-badass, on-par with the Sith and the Jedi, essential to the Galaxy, ultra-noble Mandalore (*ahem* they destroyed their homeworlds through global war *ahem* the word “Mandalorian is never used once in Lucas’ movies *ahem*). And to appeal to them, Disney is now incorporating that image into canon. 

Since the fans love the Clones, they want to shine the best possible light on them (which I’m all on board for), so they continue this trend of Mando-worship in their fanwork. And then newer people arrive, read a fic that uses “vod,” have people tell them that “yes, the Clones are totally Mando at heart, Jango taught them everything about it and also he was the disgraced leader of the True Mandalorians, not the pacifists you see in the show,” and the newbies roll with it, and in their fic the Clones use the word “aliit,” and in the next they’re fully fluent, etc. etc.

There’s nothing wrong with the way fandom developed the Clones, of course. Fandoms will do what fandoms do (i.e completely ignore canon and roll with their own ideas). It’s just that it’s not what’s presented in the movies or TCW, or even Rebels. You wanna see Mando Clones, you pick up the pre-2009 Clone Wars comics, or the Republic Commando books (… it’s Karen Traviss, read at your own peril), etc… 

So anyway yeah I was weirded out by the ever increasing amount of fics that have “btw Cody’s real name is Kote” in the AN. Lucas named him Cody after a fictional hero from his own childhood.

Meet Commando Cody the rocket man, Sky Marshal of the Universe. He’s the origin behind Cody’s name, Cody’s jetpack (and thus all of the Clones’ jetpacks), and Cody’s rank of Marshal Commander. 

So yeah. It’s not Kote x) (still an interesting headcanon though.) 

[smhalltheurlsaretaken]

AND NOW, ONTO “ACTUAL” CLONE CULTURE (aka I have been provided with an opportunity to yell about Jedi and Clones and dammit I will use it)!

TCW does address this question of what inspired the Clones as they built their identities. In Fives’ arc, Nala Se says this:

NALA SE: I’m afraid the Jedi have inspired creative thinking in some of the Clones. That is the cause of this type of divergent behavior.

We also see that a huge influence on the younger Clone troopers is Shaak Ti - she’s the one who teaches Echo and Fives the importance of unity, tying her own understanding of it directly to her identity as a Jedi.

We see Yoda teaching the Clones that they have value at the beginning of the war:

YODA: Come, sit. Your helmets, remove them. Your faces I wish to see.

THIRE: There’s not much to look at here, sir. We all share the same face.

YODA: Deceive you, eyes can. In the Force, very different each one of you are. Rys, always focused on the enemy, are you. For inspiration, look to yourself, and those beside you. Jek, concerned about weapons you are. Weapons do not win battles. Your mind, powerful it is. Outthink the droids, you can. Thire, rush not into fights. Long is the war. Only by surviving it, will you prevail. Yes. Clones you may be, but the Force resides in all life forms. Use it, you can, to quiet your mind. 

And we see Plo do the same in the very next episode:

WOLFFE: We’re just Clones, sir. We’re meant to be expendable.

PLO: Not to me.

(By this point the Clones already have tattoos, painted armors and unique haircuts, but these are superficial ways of expressing your identity. It’s illustrated very clearly with the episode Innocents of Ryloth. Boil has a mustache and a Death Watch symbol on his helmet. Great! But he spends most of the episode griping about the hassle of protecting civilians, and using his duty as a soldier as an excuse not to take care of Numa. With the combined influences of Waxer, Obi-Wan and Numa’s delightful nature, Boil actually shows who he is by the end of the episode: a deeply caring man. That’s who is is, more than anything else. When Numa hugs him, he has his helmet on but she’s not afraid of it anymore. Because his face isn’t synonymous with who he is, no matter how ‘customized’, his actions are who he is.)

tldr: we’re told that the Jedi are the one who most fostered unity and creativity in the Clones. 

(Again, visible in Innocent of Ryloth, when Obi-Wan’s influence makes his men appreciative of Twi’Lek culture - he even teaches them a Ryl word). Decades after the war, the GAR is remembered as the Jedi and the Clones (see Hera reminding Kanan of the bond between Jedi and Clones in The Lost Commanders.)

Also, remember the remembrance thing fics are so fond of using? 

Ni su'cuyi, gar kyr'adyc, ni partayli, gar darasuum - “I’m still alive, but you are dead. I remember you, so you are eternal” Nu kyr'adyc, shi taab'echaaj'la - “Not gone, merely marching far away”

from Wookieepedia 

Guess what? The Jedi had memory moths in the pre-2009!TCW EU. 

You whisper a name to the moth and it repeats it forever. 

And actual canon has so much stuff about not actually being dead but passing into the Force, and just being on a path everyone will eventually walk, yada yada yada. 

From Return of the Jedi:

LUKE: I can’t do it, Artoo. I can’t go on alone.

OBI-WAN: Yoda will always be with you.

To the Clone Wars:

YODA (s5ep18): One with the force, they are. And our job it is to remember that we will, in time, also pass on. Luminous beings are we, but temporary vessels, our bodies are. And we shall all find ourselves here in time. A moment of silence, I ask, to remember and to move on.

So even fanon Clone culture is directly linked to the oldest and most basic Jedi principles. 

So if the Clones actually had traditions and philosophical/theological views in canon, they’d more likely to be inherited from the Jedi than the Mandalorians. No one in TCW states a connection between Clones and Mandalorians (not Maul, not Bo-Katan, not the Jedi, not Satine, not Almec, not Boba, not Hondo, not the bounty hunters, not the Republic authorities…) but TONS of what we see in the Jedi/Clones interactions points to Jedi culture being a HUGE influence on the Clones’ way of expressing themselves. 

Last little note: Jedi culture is hugely emphatic on the irrelevance of where you come from compared to who you decide to be. While the Jedi have nothing against embracing your birth traditions (see their various traditional clothes, tattoos, jewels, their different accents/languages, their acceptance of other faiths - see Barriss’ prayer statue - and the fact that they keep the names given to them by their biological parents), not all Jedi feel the need to identify with their biological people, their identity is rooted in their role as peacekeepers, as they routinely states, and in their connection to the Force and their fellow Jedi. 

Similarly, the Clones have different views on whether or not their origin defines them, some express themselves with alterations to their appearances, some don’t, and their sense of identity is most commonly rooted in their role as soldiers, their loyalty to the Republic, and their brothers. 

Same basic structure.

Clone culture draws on Jedi culture.

Pass it on.

Great overviews of the Jedi’s relationship with the Clones can be found here (gifs from @laciefuyu​) and here (”Your Body and Your Blade,” amazing fanvid by @trickytricky1​)

[your-worst-boy]

Praying Mantis costume by Imile Wepener

[deathstars]

so much could have been improved in the sequels if kylo ren hadn’t been force sensitive

[deathstars]

no wait think about it. kylo ren not being force sensitive, but so desperate to be so he’s willing to do anything. he feels cheated out of his grand destiny, his powers that his mother and uncle (and cousin?) have. give me the story on the entitlement towards the force. it would have shown that the force is beyond biological, it always has been. it would have given a better reason for kylo ren to “fall to the dark side”, so desperate for a connection to the force that he plays the part of a dark sider, swinging a cracking red lightsaber around with no finesse or training, killing hoping that it will push him further into a dark side of the force he cannot feel. it would have given a reason for him to hate han; that because han isn’t force sensitive, it’s his fault that kylo isn’t either. kylo’s character would have been stronger because his choices would have been his own, instead of whatever whisper dream manipulations they were in canon. his evil has nothing to do with the force, but an entitled man trying to claim a power he believes is his by birthright.

this would have foiled perfectly with finn, too- one is a child born to the most powerful force sensitives in the galaxy who cannot feel the force. and finn is a child who was taken from his family, forced into soldier-hood, who feels such a deep and powerful connection to himself and the force that he breaks free. kylo ren, seething and entitled trying to claim a destiny and power that just aren’t his, and finn, who has suffered at kylo’s actions and still connected to the powerful light inside of him. the “nobody” hero of the sequels who has the power of the force and the legacy-born villain who doesn’t.

[quixoticanarchy]

i've seen lots of depictions of post-thangorodrim maedhros whose very striking eyes convey his spirit burning like a white fire, etc, which i'm quite fond of as an aesthetic but on rereading the silm i just noticed (as always) another line i'd never made the connection with before, which is this:

and although the resemblance might be lost on most of the elves, who knew melkor in his fair form or not at all, i do like the idea of maedhros reflecting something of melkor's own appearance in the process of his 'returning from the dead' & fashioning of himself as a weapon... and if i was an orc and this guy i'm fighting looks at me with the eyes of melkor, my tyrannical god-master, i would also flee before his face

[quixoticanarchy]

and actually, speaking of characters who are described with particularly intense light in their eyes, ilúvatar is another one (the chord with which he ends the discord of the music being described as "piercing as the light of the eye of Ilúvatar"). something something maedhros coming back from his ordeal with a little bit of imperishable flame animating (consuming?) his spirit... or well, perishable flame in his case, one might say

[thelien-art]

(X)

After the Lúthien incident🫣

[furious-blueberry0-deactivated2]

Padawan braids should be far more decorated I don't care

I want them to have beads and bows and jewels and rings and bells and-

I want them to scream culture, to scream tradition, to scream history!!!

[furious-blueberry0-deactivated2]

Eheheheeh here is my redesign for the Padawan braid!

Oh and the bells aren’t actual bells, they make no sound, they are called bells due to an old tradition no longer in use

And if anyone wants to use this idea, or some aspects of it, DO IT!!! Use this concept however you like!! Go and create your own braids!!!!!!!!

[the-dreaming-plastic-dinosaur]

Silmarillion Crossword

You ever see crossword puzzles and go "man I wish there was one on the Silm ?"

Well, thanks to boredom, here is one !

I admit it might be better viewed on a tablet than on a phone, however.

Have fun !

[wanderingbluespirit]

This was fun!

My answers under the cut! Hope OP doesn't mind I stabbed Glamrung!

[kwadlayns]

Can you find me? 🌑🩸

[*slaps roof of car* this baby can fit so many symbolisms in it]

Deep appreciation art for Iron Lung and the character of Simon - you indomitable human spirit character, you.

(📻 playlist)

[chephalopods]

The broken nose changes so much mgmgmgmmfhfjfn

[furious-blueberry0-deactivated2]

Headcanon:

If a Padawan dies before having the chance to become a Knight, they are given the honour and title post mortem

A sort of knighthood at honorem.

[furious-blueberry0-deactivated2]

Well buddy thank you for breaking my heart-

[scrimplications]

adding an excerpt from my jedi headcanon doc (forever a WIP)

Death of an Apprentice 

The death of a padawan is considered a tragedy. A bereft master will return to the temple as soon as possible after completing their duties. If on an extended mission, the Jedi auxiliary medical corps may be sent to retrieve the body. Upon return to the temple, the funeral is held. For the master, this is a time of deep reflection and self-searching. No blame is innately laid on them - the Force moves as it wills - but it remains their responsibility to understand why things happened as they did, and what part they played in them.

After the death of an apprentice, a ten-month period is cursory before the master may consider taking on another padawan, to allow for the wound left by a severed training bond to heal. Some masters choose to don a white cloak during this time, signifying that they are in mourning.

Another common observance is that of a posthumous knighting, usually done before the funeral; The apprentice's braid is cut, and altered vows of Knighthood spoken. Though departed, the apprentice is symbolically elevated to the status of knight, honoring their sacrifice and their service.

By the right of the Council, by the Will of the Force, I bid you farewell, [name], Jedi Knight.

[blueberry-ry]

thank you for breaking my heart pt. 2

[its-captain-sir]

Non-exhaustive list of daily games you can play to help you learn things about the world:

• Worldle - a "guess the country" style geography game with lots of bonus rounds that go through facts about the daily country and the surrounding ones (there is also Statele, a US-centric game by the same people set up in the same way)

• Wheretaken - guess where a photograph was taken with bonus rounds featuring more information about the location and country (also a US-based version and pin-based location guessing version)

• Travle - geography game that asks you to find the shortest path between two countries (also has multiple game modes for traveling within individual countries and a weekly challenge that usually includes a caveat to the travel path, such as only following the coastline or avoiding one specific country)

• Metazooa - a "guess the animal" game where guesses provide you with the closest common taxonomic rank until you narrow it down to the daily animal

• Metaflora - same style of game as the above, but this time with plants

• Anthropeum - given ten artifacts from the Met's collection, guess where each human artifact was made and when, with points awarded based on accuracy in both metrics

• Flashback - history quiz that gives you 8 events to put in chronological order relative to each other **note that this one is a weekly game and not daily!

~

If anyone knows of more games that fall in the same vein, definitely feel free to share and I'll add them here!

And one final note on all of these: DO NOT BE AFRAID TO LOOK THINGS UP!!! these are for fun and there is just as much to be learned in the process of finding the information as there is in testing your knowledge. Have google maps pulled up when you're doing the geography games, turn on borders or use the other hints and aids available to you in each game, click on the wikipedia articles linked to give you a better idea for your next guess, literally anything goes if it means you pick up on something new! Good luck have fun and happy learning 👍

[ctrl-shift-alt-9]

SM-13's Entry Hatch & Implied Scene

I received a DM from @daniqueeninabox asking: where is the door into the rover?

Well, I'll tell you: There is no door. There was a way in, but not anymore.

From deadlymelodic's concept art, we can see that there is a ladder up onto the top of the submersible to a hatch...

...but in later iterations of this vessel, it's gone, with nothing but the ladder remaining:

They took the hatch off, and what's left is a smooth panel. We can further confirm this by having a look at the interior ceiling, where the hatch would have been:

This implies that Simon was shoved into the rover from above and fell into it.

Into pitch black darkness, with nothing but the sounds of echoing machinery and people from the outside.

We see upon entering the tow ship, that the power is cut for safety reasons. I mean, it's pitch black in there:

The only reason the x-ray camera went off was due to David accidentally wiring it to the back-up battery. Otherwise, the power would have been cut off from that, too.

So, Simon would've been sitting in there with a bright screeching light above his head, probably trying to avoid flying sparks, as he watched them seal his fate.

There's a whole missing scene to be implied here if you think about it. Horrifying.

[ctrl-shift-alt-9]

Just had my friend review this post and they had an excellent (horrific yet silly) point to make.

Simon's hood is up in the first shot we see him in.

Dude was keeping his hair from lighting on fucking fire oh my god. 💀

[wanderingbluespirit]

YES YES YES

When I watched the movie, I felt like there were two scenes "missing" so to say (aka, scenes I wished were in the movie but weren't):

1) A flashback of Filament Station (longer than the one we get, I mean, with a bit more context)

2) Simon being thrown into the Iron Lung

At first I imagined him being dragged and forced into it, but that doesn't make much sense, does it? I was ignoring the fact he agreed to the deal COI offered him. So no, he wouldn't be forced into it. He'd be doing so willingly. And after reading this (and seeing this amazing art), an idea for the scene came to me.

So here is how it goes in my head (@ctrl-shift-alt-9, tagging you so you get to see it bc it's your headcanon too):

The scene starts with a shot of a large metal door. It opens and we see three figures silhouetted by strong flourescent light as they walk into the SM-13 launch bay. Simon stands at the center, handcuffed and flanked by two COI guards.

A wide shot shows the launch bay in all it's scavanged glory. Ava is looking over some displays while David and Jack are finishing the last structural weldings on the SM-13. They stop working to stare at Simon as he is escorted in, clearly hostile.

The trio stops next to where Ava is working, one of the guards pulling Simon back by the shoulder when he doesn't noticed they stoped walking. Ava barely looks at him, only enough to register he's there and able-bodied enough to do the mission.

"Load him in," is all she says before returning her attention to whatever she was working on.

The guards pull Simon away towards the SM-13, stopping next to the ladder leading up. They take his handcufs off.

"Get moving, Convict," one of them say and Simon obeys.

He climbs the ladder to where Jake is already waiting by a large square hole.

"Alright. Get down there so I can weld you in."

Simon blinks, confused.

"Weld me in?"

Jack laughs as if it's a stupid question.

"Yes. Weld you in. The pressure down there is too big for a hatch to handle, so we're welding the sub shut. Now get in."

Simon looks hesitantly towards the hole. It's completely dark in there. Instead of jumping, he turns to Ava.

"You didn't say anything about-"

Ava looks at him and then nods to Jack.

Jack pushes Simon into the hole.

He falls on his ass and looks up just in time to see Jack sneers at him, silhouetted by the light outside, before dragging a large sheet of metal over the hole.

The screen goes dark (the window in the sub is closed). We hear the sound of welding, then footsteps and then silence. One second. Two...

"Hello?" Simon whispers, the fear that maybe this was just an elaborate execution by asphyxiation seeping into his voice.

Whirring breaks the silence. The window cover slides open, letting in a sliver of light. Simon turns towards it and walks to the front of the sub. On the other side, Ava stares at him, disinterested.

"Are you done?" She asks someone to her left.

"Almost there, give me another minute," David answers, out of shot.

She stares at him again, a hint of disgust in her eyes. Simon stares right back.

"Alright, all done," comes David's voice, muffled by the glass. "We're good to go."

"Begin the descent," Ava says, not breaking eye contact. "Let's get this over with."

[anattmar]

[wip] why am i doing this to myself

[anattmar]

Maedhros

[wtf-scientific-papers]

Submitter comment: I'd like to submit this '[s]tudy of defensive behavior of a venomous snake as a new approach to understand snakebite' not for it's topic (worth studying!) but for it's insane methodology, which... well, I'll just let the researcher speak for himself:

[Q: Why did you decide to do this experiment?

A: Snake behavior has been generally neglected as a field of research, especially in Brazil. And most studies don’t examine what factors make them want to bite. If you study malaria, you can research the parasite that causes the disease—but if you don’t study the mosquito that carries it, you will never solve the problem. Up until now, the popular wisdom was that the jararaca would only attack if you touched it or stepped on it. But that was not what we found.

Q: Why did you need to be the victim?

A: The best way to do this research is to put snakes and a human together. In this case, the human was me. We put the snakes inside a ring on the floor of our lab until they got used to it, then I stepped in wearing special protective boots. I stepped close to the snake and also lightly on top of it. I didn’t put my whole weight on my foot, so I did not hurt the snakes. I tested 116 animals and stepped 30 times on every animal, totaling 40,480 steps.]

From the recent (aptly named) interview: Researcher steps on deadly vipers 40,000 times to better predict snakebites

[dragongirl-casca]

[doodlespatulas]

"Doomed yuri" this, "doomed yaoi" that

WHAT ABOUT DOOMED SIBLINGS

What if we were two sides of the same coin. What if i lived in your shadow all my life but found comfort in the darkness and dont know what to do once youre gone. What if youre the only person who understands. What if you have have no idea what i went through. What if we went through the same traumas but ended up with oposite conclusions about our suffering. What if i dont recognize you anymore. What if i see the ghost of my former self reflected through your eyes. What if it never had to go this way. What if this was the only way things were ever going to go

[yidany]

Himring