cherry valley forever
Keni
Show & Tell
Monterey Bay Aquarium
occasionally subtle
Acquired Stardust
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH

Andulka
Peter Solarz

No title available
Stranger Things
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
Claire Keane
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
AnasAbdin
taylor price
trying on a metaphor

Janaina Medeiros

shark vs the universe
hello vonnie
seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Finland
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from Malaysia
seen from Germany

seen from United States
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seen from Australia

seen from Spain

seen from Hungary

seen from T1

seen from Malaysia
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seen from United Kingdom
@xiansnuts
The concept of Lan Qiren being so aro/ace that he just completely skipped out on his family's Obsessive Love Fixation thing is just hilarious to me.
Man's just watching everyone else in his family spiral over some seemingly random person they've lost their minds about and he simply cannot relate. He definitely thinks it's some kind of curse and that he's personally managed to escape it through like, mindfulness or something? Keeps telling his nephews to meditate and be rational and follow the rules because he thinks attraction is some fake thing that poets invented.
Every other Lan: I do not dare fall in love, for my love is forbidden 😔
Lan Qiren: ?? Then don't? Skill issue
Luo Binghe: do you ever wish you were a bird that hurt its wing by flying into Shizun's bedroom window and he'd come outside and gently fix your wing with his big hands and feed you worms.
Ning Yingying: what the fuck
he'd have so many of these fantasies—a frail little fawn that was separated from its mother and needs to be kept warm during the winter. a kitten without a home that needs to be swaddled and hand-fed. a dog with an injured paw that shizun lets sleep on his bed.
He so would he's such a fucking loser
MY THOUGHTS ON THE AVATAR FRANCHISE
MY MAIN ISSUE WITH THE FILM :
i’m woman of North African descent, i know about colonization and the impact of war. i love the Avatar films, but as I grew up, I realized how much some of the script choices bothered me. My biggest question after seeing Avatar 3 is: what message is James Cameron really trying to convey? What is his true interpretation of colonization? How does he perceive it? Can we really trust the elitist Hollywood industry? Are they legitimate to tell the story of how we, the oppressed people, were colonized? The Hollywood industry sells us an anti-military, anti-imperialist, and anti-colonial film while simultaneously creating empathy for a genocidal colonial character. Giving the Colonel's clone qualities of redemption is, to me, a political choice, a way to smooth over and numb the colonial crimes. Why should we see goodness, forgiveness, and acceptance in our enemies? The entire premise of the first film falls apart, creating empathy for the oppressed, but only through the lens of the white colonizer? It's a way of easing their guilty conscience, and it was an intentional choice. Jake Sully, for me, represents a complete lack of potential. We have a man (a former colonizer) who sold information about a people who accepted him as their own, who literally changes race, but not only that, Jake continues to subject the Na'vi to colonial pressure while simultaneously being someone who suffers human oppression and struggles for indigenous survival a total identity crisis. Unfortunately, this wasn't developed by James Cameron. Becoming Toruk Makto was a way to impress a people who had betrayed him, because it held value in their eyes. Jake Sully's position among the Na'vi has only benefited him. I sincerely believe that it's because he's in love with Neytiri that he "changed his mind" about the Na'vi and their culture. Choosing to make a former colonizer the chosen one of a native people isn't just the white savior syndrome; it's primarily a declaration that "you are kind and help the oppressed, but you are still better than them because you are braver and more capable of obtaining a leadership position within a group that isn't yours, a group you attempted to colonize two weeks prior." Being Toruk Makto is the key. A foreigner attaining a sacred role that no Na'vi ever earns on screen is a deliberate narrative choice. Knowing the enemy doesn't erase the colonial framework; it highlights it. Cameron didn't consider the impact this could have on the audience of colonized people, and that these specific, intentional choices seem designed to numb all the pain and crimes of imperialism, and also to pander to the white audience watching films. Every system of domination relies on its arsenal of seductive tactics. They will never be able to decolonize because they are unaware that they themselves are the source of humanity's disorder. Jake's attempts to unite the tribes echo real-world leaders who must contend with external threats while striving to preserve their culture, but his idealism underestimates the simmering trauma and anger among the Na'vi who have been constantly displaced and oppressed. Making the arbitrary choice to grant Kiri, the reincarnation of a white woman who imposed colonial schools on the Na'vi who wanted to establish vows on Pandora, a gift and privileged powers—even if she was empathetic and benevolent—remains passive colonialism. Kiri is an imposter, and in my opinion, it's illegitimate to have this connection that other Na'vi never had access to on their own planet. colonialism is also a poison that seeps through DNA. giving spider access to ancestral memories that aren't his, expecting loyalty when he doesn't necessarily have the right to be. Avatar is about remplacement, appropriation presented as a form of awakening. Jake isn't simply learning the culture; he's replacing someone who has never had the opportunity to lead.
FIRE AND ASH?
i have several troubling points to make about the narrative choices regarding the Ash People. First and foremost, the most glaring issue is that we're teased with a new people only to have them quickly erased after a few scenes of cruelty. They fade directly into the background after their alliance with Colonel Quaritch, becoming literally just a weapon for him. This was somewhat disappointing, and I don't know if it was intentional on James Cameron's part, but it makes sense in a way: submitting to an alliance, especially for those with pre-existing rivalries with other Na'vi, might lead them to see the colonizers as a means to gain power and conquer enemies, forgetting that the colonizers see them all the same and will inevitably turn against them, as we saw with how the humans treated the Ash People in front of Quaritch. I also think Cameron created a somewhat simplistic caricature of the Ash People, a group that has experienced tragedy and completely rejects any deity, but it's more than that. Varang embodies the rage of colonized peoples whose suffering is ignored and erased, it also represents centuries of survival under oppression!!! Their rage becomes rational when morality no longer guarantees their survival. James Cameron also underestimated his audience's understanding of fire. We don't all share a colonial perspective, and for me, fire isn't necessarily a symbol of chaos, it's part of an ecosystem's cycle. Some plants actually need fire to germinate properly. It's also a colonial perspective to have displaced imperialist violence onto a new people, portraying them as more violent!!! We haven't had enough time with them to even see through their eyes. But I imagine James Cameron prefers to spend his time humanizing the colonizers. What I would have really liked to see in A3 is precisely the two native peoples, their internal and interreligious conflicts, and the tragedies they dealt with and absorbed in different ways. The way they were impacted by colonialism in different ways...
THE ERASURE OF THE NA’VI PEOPLE
James Cameron gradually erases the Na'vi and their culture from the film. Perhaps this is intentional, as it reflects real life: after imperialist pressure, most oppressed peoples are completely erased from themselves, their culture and faith as well. In the film, they even have their identity and DNA stolen. Good intentions can't undo structural oppression. the Na'vi will never be the same from the moment they accept Jake Sully. The Na'vi (especially Neytiri) have sacrificed too much and ultimately lose their narrative to make room for other characters to focus on the transformation of their own culture, change, and replacement (Jake, Spider, Kiri). The film romanticizes the Na'vi's suffering to make it easier for the audience to digest. It has no problem freely killing dozens of Na'vi on screen while readily reviving the villains and Sky People, it’s politically incorrect. James Cameron needs to take the Na'vi seriously and be intentional in his choices to avoid stereotypes, especially when he's drawing inspiration from real people, like the natives who fight only to sell themselves to the Sky People. It could have been an interesting conversation, but it gets lost in everything else that happens in the film. It's about the infiltration and gentrification of an indigenous group, a human clone has powers no native possesses. It was doomed from the start when Jake scattered his human ideals and introduced them to war machines. I think the Na'vi deserve a better story that goes beyond this lens. The ending is centered on Spider, it's like Manifest Destiny. Pandora no longer belongs exclusively to the Na'vi anymore.
Please share your thoughts, love u
See I've been hyperfixating on Avatar recently and I just think James Cameron is good at world building, and developing new technologies for his films and basically everything else than the story itself. This post basically encapsulates everything I've been thinkng about in regards to, and it's so odd that Eywa herself is choosing a white man over and over again. This isn't to say Eywa never chooses her people but whenever Jake asks for aid she responds immediately, grants him the honor of being Toruk Makto.
I also heavily believe Neteyam should've lived, his death is merely a plot device in order to have some horrible relationship between lo'ak and Jake and for Jake to "finally see him". The mangkwan as the villains and Varangs story should have been enough plot along Neytiris complicated feelings over the sky people, spider and her own decisions about Jake.
Side note: Why the fuck is Jakes personality lowkey becoming being a marine cause like what the hell is wrong with him 💔
i love that shen qingqiu (shen yuan edition) is so fixated on the fact he's transmigrated into a stallion novel that he completely misses the extremely early genre shift caused by his presence. it's a late-game revelation that he's moved over to the danmei section, and he's frankly astonished that he's unlocked a male romance route, wow, what a surprise.
meanwhile this whole time, shen qingqiu is out here collecting handsome men like it's going out of goddamn fashion. half the country's Important Figures are madly in love with him. he trips and falls and acquires another male suitor with some tragic link to his past and a complex history.
shen qingqiu is seriously standing around fixating on luo binghe's theoretical harem of women. meanwhile he's got the cultivation's world Hottest Eligible Bachelors in a state of pure chaos. they are orbiting around him like lost sheep. everywhere he goes he acquires a +10 bonus to homoeroticism and manages to unlock whole new romantic dialogue options. he is at the dead centre of this extremely complex and multidimensional love triangle with zero. visibility. about it.
also, it's extra funny because 14yo luo binghe canonically checks him out and is like "yeah can't complain, he's good looking, not supremely beautiful but you wouldn't kick him out of bed" and then is obsessed with him forever. everyone is obsessed with him forever. turns out that shen qingqiu is a straight up irresistible hottie once he's no longer radiating shen jiu's stinky old cat energy. give the man a snickers bar and a cup of tea to calm down and suddenly he's the world's most in-demand man-on-man bachelor doing constant psychic damage to his myriad suitors through sheer obliviousness
These tags reminded me of this post
Wei Wuxian: I did a bad thing...
Jiang Cheng: does it affect me?
Wei Wuxian: No-
Jiang Cheng: then suffer in silence
Luo Binghe: Shizun-
Shen Qingqiu: No
Luo Binghe internally: Just tell me I should eat wood until my stomach is ruptured from all the sharp splinters next time
Lan zhan to wei ying: I was actually so in love with you that I was annoyed and that's why I looked at you that way
Jiang Cheng: god give me patience
Lan Xichen: I think you mean give me strength
Jiang Cheng: if they give me strength everyone will die
Wei Wuxian: And the problem with that is...?
Lan Qiren: *bursting a blood vessel* Where did you come from?!?!
LMFAOOO
Luo Binghe: do you ever wish you were a bird that hurt its wing by flying into Shizun's bedroom window and he'd come outside and gently fix your wing with his big hands and feed you worms.
Ning Yingying: what the fuck
Absolutely right
Jiang Cheng: god give me patience
Lan Xichen: I think you mean give me strength
Jiang Cheng: if they give me strength everyone will die
Wei Wuxian: Shut up!
Jin Zixuan: I didn't say anything
Wei wuxian: you were thinking, that's annoying
Wei Wuxian: I smell something burning
Jiang Cheng: your future
Kidnappers: we kidnapped your husband
Shen Qingqiu: you kidnapped Binghe? Luo Binghe?
Kidnappers: yes
Shen Qingqiu: Good luck with that *hangs up*
Shen Qingqiu: Can you turn on the lights?
Luo Binghe: I don't have to. You're the only light I need in my life.
Shen Qingqiu: Binghe I can't see.
Wei Wuxian: it must be nice to be rich and not have to develop a personality
Jin Zixuan: shut up
Wei Wuxian: pay me for my silence