diabolical

Multifandom mess. Star Wars (1-6), Harry Potter, ASOIAF, Tolkien, MCU, The Boys, The Expanse. And a whole bunch of other stuff of the sci-fi and fantasy variety, with the occasional historical drama.

[ben-shapiro-onlyfans]

wikipedia is a gem

[laineysbucketlist]

If I’m correct, this is from the article “list of common misconceptions” which happens to be one of my favorite Wikipedia articles

[mctreeleth]

https://xkcd.com/843/

[luckhaver]

The whole article is a wild ride.

[unadulteratedpiratepizza]

W...was this up for debate?

[hellsite-yano]

[wolfofskagos]

Unfortunately the one about infants feeling pain was up for debate. At one point in time (I'm bad at history and forgot the dates, don't judge me) they used to perform surgeries on babies under 15 months old with no anaesthesia, but doped up on muscle relaxants. So basically they'd see and feel everything, but wouldn't be able to move or scream. I still can't wrap my mind around how this even came about. Fucking sociopaths.

[starlightshadowsworld]

As always, the Irish speak nothing but facts.

How many more innocent civilians have to be killed by Israel before you condemn that for it?

That is a genocide.

That this is a crime on all accounts.

And deserves to be punished to the full extent off the law.

[wetheoriginals]

fuck all kinds of radical extremists and the bloodshed they bring but context really really matters. they are and always have been a symptom of a bigger issue (western imperialism).

[l101216l]

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has dropped 18,000 tons of bombs on the Gaza Strip. This is roughly twice the explosive force of the bomb used in World War II to destroy Hiroshima, Japan. Over 32,000 individuals have been injured, and at least 9,061 Palestinians have been killed; men, women, and children who are innocent. We cannot stay silent because these are actual numbers and actual people who, despite 75 years of resistance to injustice, are still being violently removed from their homes, subjected to ethnic cleansing, and colonized.

Continue talking about it.

[midnightmurdershow]

Pacific Rim (2013) Directed by Guillermo del Toro

[05637-deactivated20190328]

[accidental-host]

Y’all have GOT to start putting your fucking x reader porn headcanons under a readmore or something instead of shitting it out into main tags

[catchaspark]

According to Know Your Meme, on August 18th, 2005, Erwin Beekveld brought forth this work into the world. HAPPY TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY, THEY’RE TAKING THE HOBBITS TO ISENGARD.

[timefortigers]

sheds a single tear

[catchaspark]

every august 18th my notifications break and i go, fuck, tumblr has failed me once again, but it hasn’t. it hasn’t failed me. it’s just the taking the hobbits to isengard-iversary. happy 12 years

[malyen0retsev]

kit harington came up with the idea for the new jon snow sequel show and grrm is signed on to be heavily involved, can i get a SCREAMING INTO THE ETHER ABOUT ‘WHAT DID WE DO TO DESERVE THIS SHIT’ AND ‘WE ARE NEVER GETTING THOSE BOOKS ARE WE’

[mrsgojosatoru]

shame that kit h*rrington can’t get other work i guess. 

[f4gf0rfr33g4yb4ll5n0h035-deacti]

See? I didn’t lie about what kind of film this was. If there’s anything you take away today – other than the need to google “what the fuck is dubstep” – it’s that we all need to belong to someone.

[sunsetwordsss]

Yes, I am a feminist who will always believe victims - which includes all genders!! and I do fight for women rights when we haven’t been believed for decades solely because of our gender. However, when evidence shows that a female has been the aggressor in so many ways, I am not going to stand with one because of their gender. When someone is clearly abused, they are abused no matter their gender. And I stand with victims regardless of gender. Men can be abused too. All abuse is disgusting. Always have, always will.

[bebx]

Johnny’s victory is also the victory for all victims and survivor of domestic violence, men and women.

[aaliyahsources]

[aaliyahsources]

she did THAT. wow just wow.

[ethanhunt-deactivated20230911]

Aramis + his hat

[rubyredwisp]

Daenerys Targaryen Appreciation: Targaryen Pride You are the blood of the dragon, and the dragon does not fear.

[sixth-light]

What irks me most about the whole “we can’t do what the audience expects!” attitude that has developed for big franchise stories is that, honestly, 95% of the audience isn’t thinking about it that hard. It says that creators are looking at the 5% of their audience who care the most, who are really invested in their work, often the people who care about stories and narratives in general…and perceiving that not as care, as a positive offering, but as the opening of intellectual combat. 

What a deeply tiring way to interact with the rest of the world. 

[threewaysdivided]

“perceiving that not as care, as a positive offering, but as the opening of intellectual combat.”

That is a great way of phrasing things.  I feel like a lot of the spoiler/nonsense-twist problems are coming from a belief that writers are somehow in competition with their audience - like they have to prove themselves better or smarter by creating a plot that can only be followed or predicted if you’re the author.

Now maybe I’m biased because of my personal preferences.  I love mysteries and police procedurals.  I’m the kind of dork who used to religiously watch Air Crash Investigations.  My favourite RPG puzzles are ones where you’re rewarded for observing and forming strategies based on details and in-game information.  I love re-reading books for all the little things I missed on the first pass.

The end result is that I’m a firm believer in the idea of The Fair Mystery approach to storytelling.  Basically the idea that (with the exception of worlds that intentionally run on whimsy, randomness and/or coincidence) an attentive reader/viewer should theoretically be able to predict part or all of the coming plot. 

An Unfair Mystery is one that the audience has no hope of solving; because essential information is completely withheld, because they’re being deliberately fed incorrect information without any way to distinguish it from the truth in order to keep them off-track, because the ending/ twist/ reveal has no real connection to the preceding events/ information - because there is no way to reasonably infer or deduce what will happen based on the material provided. With an unfair mystery all you can really do is sit back and watch passively as the writers flex how “clever” they or their characters are. (Hbomberguy’s Sherlock video-essay gives some nice analysis of how this ended up hurting the BBC adaptation).

With a Fair Mystery the audience has the possibility of working out the plot for themselves.  It doesn’t mean that it has to be easy, or even probable, just that it’s possible.  (JustWrite made a good video about this.)

The ironic thing is that it actually takes a lot more effort and intelligence to write a Fair Mystery; to ensure details are consistent and cohesive, conceal clues and foreshadowing within the dialogue and setting/ background descriptions, maintain a sense of internal logic in how things connect/ flow on from each other, and so on.  Unfair Mysteries are often talked about as though they’re “outsmarting” the audience, but it takes a lot less work to throw in an unsupported, contrived plot point and exclaim “ha! bet you didn’t see that coming” than it does to carefully set up a story that completely supports its conclusion throughout while still keeping the audience guessing.

You can think of it in terms of making a jigsaw puzzle.  The image can be extremely complex and composed of a large number of pieces.  Quite a few people will be happy to just enjoy the final product and let someone else assemble it for them.  More people will enjoy trying but will only be able to solve it after looking at the box (i.e. a spoiler) for reference.  A good number of people would probably be able to work through it slowly, but couldn’t do so in a short time frame.  And there will be some who are innately skilled or practised enough at puzzle-solving to work it out quickly.  The point is that the audience was invited to solve it.

If your jigsaw can only be assembled by you, you’ve created a bad puzzle.