screaming birb @yayforpizza - Tumblr Blog

she's that smart all day and you can't even give her a break for a while, where her only job is to be dumb and obedient and be a puppy? you don't deserve or understand her. give me her number

kuiperblog

Where Star Wars went wrong

Quoting Jason Pargin, who articulates it better than I could:

"In any kind of a sane world, The Mandalorian should have run for 150 episodes at least. They had a formula here that could have worked forever.

"It's a formula that has always worked: a heroic stranger wanders into a strange new land and meets a bunch of colorful characters, usually under the thumb of a powerful threat. The threat is usually in the form of a villain who's played by a famous actor just chewing the scenery. He uses hits wits and his courage to get out of it and then he moves on.

"Have Gun, Will Travel" ran for 225 episodes from 1957-1963. It's where Gene Roddenberry of Star Trek fame got his start.

"The sci-fi space adventures we had years and years ago used to run forever. Star Trek TNG had about 180 episodes, Deep Space 9 had about the same number, even Voyager -- the show that we think of as being a "lesser series" -- had 172 episodes. And here's the thing: most of those episodes were really good!

"But because of the way the business works now, and because of 'corporate synergy,' by season 2 of the Mandalorian, they were brainstorming "how do we get this back to Luke Skywalker and the Death Star?"

"By season 3, fans were lost, because some huge plot events had occurred in a completely different series, because they needed it to connect to their Boba Fett show. And now, the Mandalorian is dead. They're gonna wrap up the story in a movie, and that's it.

And the crazy part is, this was always the perfect format for Star Wars: it always should have been a short form serial! That's what George Lucas was ripping off when he made the film back in 1977: serials like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon.

These were little 12-minute long episodes that played as one continuing story, but each one was its own little lighthearted adventure that usually ended on some kind of a cliffhanger.

"This is why so many of the most hardcore Star Wars fans who are old like me only like two of the movies, because by the third film they were already just repeating beats: they were attacking yet another Death Star.

They ran out of ideas so fast, because this is not the ideal format for this universe. The Mando and Baby Yoda Show is the ideal format! This should have run for the next 20 years! They even set it up so that the star wouldn't even need to be on set for most of it, because he wears a helmet!

"I think some fans object to this, because they think of it as making Star Wars smaller, that you're reducing it to 'just a TV show.' But it's the exact opposite: it lets you expand the universe, because you're forced to to keep coming up with new places for him to go, and new people for him to meet, new villains for him to face -- you're not forced to just keep coming back to the Death Star again and again, and the Sith, and the Jedi.

In Episode VII: The Force Awakens, the Starkiller Base destroys five planets. That's mathematically five times more tragic than the destruction of Alderaan.

"And if you want evidence, just look at Star Trek! It's the show that expanded the universe. The Star Trek films were just action movies that are very forgettable. But I guess the world has changed, because they don't even do Star Trek that way anymore.

Picard ended its run after 30 episodes. Discovery concluded after 65. Hopefully, Strange New Worlds marks a return to form for the franchise.

"I don't get it, because it seems like a version of this show that runs until the year 2040 would have just printed money. The merchandise sales alone would have covered the production costs. Instead, it's 24 episodes and a movie that I think everyone has already stopped caring about."

slyandthefamilybook

The original Star Wars movies were great because they took inspiration from so many places. The Jedi Knights were samurai, the Force was fantasy, Han Solo was a cowboy, the score evoked Holst. Those were the references, the source of inspiration

The later Star Wars movies referenced... Star Wars. The orphan on a desert planet, the planet-killing superweapon, the battle between Rebellion and Empire. The Force Awakens pauses every time a character from the original trilogy appears on screen, as if anticipating applause. Old musical motifs return in the score

It's all just become too self-referential, a snake eating its own tail

smashcut

On the day of Dick Cheney’s death, I’m thinking about a lot of horrible consequences of his actions, but I’m also thinking about Lauren Hough telling Dick Cheney to waterboard her “if it makes him feel better” when she repaired his cable.

#lauren hough #dick cheney

pinkmoondoll9shihtzu

dollsahoy

There are a lot of people in the notes saying, basically, "Yeah, that's polyester for ya!"

but, the thing is

even polyester fabric was higher quality in the past

yes, not all of it, but, still, a noticeable amount of older polyester was...nicer.

yeah, it would still get picks and hold on to every bit of underarm odor, and that's on top of no-one knowing about microplastic shedding

but a 1950s Wash'n'Wear shirt, or 1970s double knit pantsuit, or 1980s neon sweatshirt, or a 1990s slinky knit or crushed velour mock turtleneck...so many of them would have been significantly higher quality than the fast fashion of today.

scififantasystuff

There are two reasons for this:

FIBER DENSITY!!

If you make two fabrics look relatively the same, but you use less thread to make one over the other, you have saved on the cost of producing that fabric. In doing so, you have sacrificed the structural integrity of the fabric. It will be more prone to damage because it is thinner and weaker.

It's shrink-flation in the most underhanded and difficult-to-observe way possible, because unlike food, clothing manufacturers don't have to disclose the weight of the product, which actually matters!!

When buying fabric, people who make their own clothes take special note of this using "gsm" or "grams per square meter" of fabric. The higher the gsm, the more fiber content there is. This can wildly vary between types of fabric (explained in depth here), but can be an indicator of quality.

FACTORY QUOTAS!!

People like to say that there aren't any skilled fabric workers out there anymore, unless they're boutique. This isn't true. It's about exploitation of labor and CEOs being okay with lower quality if it means wider profit margins.

The people who work in today's fast-fashion industrial complexes are fully capable of constructing better garments with nicer finishing and tighter quality tolerances. But they are not allowed to.

They have quotas to meet, and it doesn't matter how amazing you are at sewing; the speed and quantity being asked of them is physically impossible to maintain with any amount of quality. So they are forced to lower their standards just to keep food on the table.

They're also given less to sew. Ask yourself - when is the last time you saw a dart in a regular piece of clothing? Do you even know what a dart is? Clothing is looking shittier and shittier on people because NOBODY USES DARTS ANYMORE, because it's another line of stitching, and that means it increases the time and cost of production.

Can't have that. Think of the Quotas :( <--sarcasm

morbidromantic

so, every day is the best day ever. is that really love? shouldn’t it be when you’re at your worst, they’re at their worst, you have every reason to give up and you still decide you want to try again?

yuridefender

I hope the bitter cynical lonely fictional character knows that i love them

yuridefender

dorkery

[TN: This is a translation of this note by Maromi. If you are able, I encourage you to read the original article for yourself as translation

I have never read a more excellent article

todayiwrotenothing

brightwanderer

This is a great take and I would like to adopt “Feelings Yakuza” in English actually, I feel like it conveys the whole thing way more obviously than “anti” (not to mention the muddled meaning of “proshipper”).

thebiscuiteternal

To avoid harassment, EA and SEA artists have started pre-emptively blocking users with "proship DNI" or any variation thereof in their profiles as a result of this article and said feelings yakuza are getting pissed that their DNIs are being hard enforced by the other side. How very dare.

septmilleneurones

I’m screaming with laughter at the actual Japanese term, o-kimochi yakuza. The “o” is an honorific indicator to indicate how prissy and self-important these people are being.

brightlotusmoon

I am having the best time learning about all this. Maybe this will wipe out the anti infestation in at least one of my fandoms. No more "Xxx DNI ew nasty I hate you go drown in lava" which frankly is just mean.

nosnexus

“We’re a house. We’re a home.”

Welcome Andhera, knight of the Court of Craft.

evanzbuck

Carson & Greta + physical touch

#carson shaw #greta gill #aloto #a league of their own

gorgonsach

justgfy

Unions are trash. Theyll Destroy a whole company for firing a shitty worker.

gorgonsach

unions are the reason you aren’t paid 2.50 an hour with steel beams about to bust ya head open shut up lol

explorerrowan

Unions are why you have 5 day, 40 hour full-time work weeks. Unions are why they have to pay you in actual dollars instead of “company credits” that you can only spend at the company-owned stores. Unions are why there are fucking fire exits at your place of work. Unions are why it’s not okay for your supermarket ground beef to be any percentage human.

You think your company pays you out of the goodness of their hearts? Or even out of “market pressure?” The “job market” is a myth perpetuated by the capitalists. Corporations would pay you nothing if they could get away with it. And you argue “oh, but if they paid me nothing I’d just go to another one.” Wrong. Because to maximize profits, they all want to pay you nothing. Corporations exist to maximize profits while reducing risk for investors. It’s part of their entire function to find ways to cut costs as much as possible, and that includes finding ways to pay you nothing.

Unions are your defense against that. You think all a union does is strike? If you pay union dues, a lot of that is spent on lobbyists in various governments reminding your lawmakers that you have rights as a living human being that a corporation should not be able to stomp all over. Unions hire lawyers so that if you’re fired for bullshit reasons, the union can stand up for you against your boss. They’re called unions because workers are uniting to pool resources so that they can stand up to these corporate overlords with more money than God. Unions exist because you might not have the words, resources, or time to fight workplace injustices all by yourself. That’s the whole fucking point.

And if a business shuts down because a union is striking, it’s because the business was abusing people and didn’t deserve to be in business anyway. Don’t make excuses for the corporations. They already have trillions of dollars and a couple million lawyers to do that for themselves. They don’t need your help.

mierac

The erasure of labor history from US history curriculum has caused so much fucking damage to this country.

cheeseanonioncrisps

Bosses: If you don’t like how we do things, don’t work here.

Workers: *Go on strike*

Bosses: Wait no not like that

balaclava-trismegistus

FUCK tenderqueer we're starting the violentfag movement. We hit people with chairs.

avoidantrecovery

A collection of useful quotes: Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving

Chapter 5: What if I was never hit?

Denial of traumatic effects of childhood abandonment -> hamper ability to recover

Emotional neglect in childhood creates overwhelming feelings of fear, shame, emptiness

Unmet needs -> can strand you in great deal of unnecessary suffering

Denial and minimization

children need to believe their parents love them, so they deny and minimize the most egregious parts of abuse they suffer

confronting and being able to identify abuse and neglect is crucial to being able to heal from it

Verbal & emotional abuse

survivors of verbal and emotional abuse often never learn to validate it's soul-damaging effects

many will eventually admit that verbal & emotional abuse damaged them much more long term, that physical abuse

assault with critical words will systematically destroy self-esteem and replace it with toxic inner critic that incessantly judges us defective

the person becomes infused with fear and toxic shame and begins to refrain from drawing attention to themselves

eventually the stop seeking any kind of help, connection or attention.

Theoretical neurobiology of the inner critic

unrelenting criticism coupled with parental rage and scorn is powerful enough to change the structure of the brain

repeated messages of disdain are internalized and adopted by the child -> begins to repeat them to themselves over and over again

thick neural pathways consisting of hate & self-disgust are formed

self-hate responses attach themselves to the child's feelings and behaviors

trying to be authentic or vulnerable will instead activate internal neural networks of self-loathing

person exists in paralyzing state of self-attack -> eventually this becomes full-fledged self-abandonment

no more ability to support himself or take his own side

continued negative reinforcement from parents leads to neural networks developing into Inner Critic.

inner critic leads to creation of self-rejecting perfectionism

it obsesses about danger & catastrophizes without pause

often people will identify with the inner critic and be even more abusive with themselves, fearing that if they don't do that they will turn out even worse. this is a mistake.

it is possible to disidentify from the inner critic, but it takes a lot of constant and diligent work

fall pits: sometimes not being able to immediately turn off the inner critic, can lead to more shame and self-loathing. this is a trap, keep going.

attainablerecovery

“There is a good explanation for why emotional neglect had been so overlooked. It hides. It dwells in the sins of omission, rather than commission; it’s the white space in the family picture rather than the picture itself. It’s often what was NOT said or observed or remembered from childhood than what WAS said. All parents commit occasional acts of emotional neglect in raising their children without causing any real harm. It only becomes a problem when it is of a great enough breadth or quantity to gradually emotionally “starve” the child. Whatever the level of parental failure, emotionally neglected people see themselves as the problem, rather than seeing their parents as having failed them.”

Jonice Webb, Running on Empty (pdf is linked)

ravenclaw-reblogs

Sirius bares his teeth a gust of wind whips yet another icy sheet of rain into his face, sticking his hair to his face. Head lowered against the downpour, Sirius pushes open the gate to the apartment block with his hip and crosses the short path in three quick strides, taking shelter under the small porch above the front entrance.

Shaking his hand out from the damp warmth of his dripping leather jacket, Sirius wastes no time before jamming his thumb into the small metal button labelled “Flat 2a - R. J. Lupin”. The harsh buzzing sound is muffled by the hammering rain. Sirius waits a few seconds.

Nothing.

Rolling his eyes, Sirius takes several steps backwards into the deluge and squints up at the second story window, furthest to the right. Sure enough, a mop of golden curls can be seen peeking through a gap in the curtains, before hastily disappearing from view.

Smiling fondly and shaking his head, Sirius ducks back under the porch and presses the button again. This time, he leans against the glass and speaks into the small intercom.

“I brought pizza…”

Immediately, there is another harsh buzzing sound and the door pushes open under Sirius’ weight. He can’t help but grin.

Taking the steps two at a time, Sirius pulls out his hair tie and shakes his head in the way that always reminds Remus of the dog his parents had growing up. If he doesn’t want his expedition through the worst of Autumn rainstorms to be in vain, the least he can do is look good. Wondering whether Remus will know he intentionally wore his tightest white t-shirt knowing he was going to get drenched, Sirius smooths the translucent fabric against the contours of his toned chest and crosses the second floor landing.

Flashing his most charming smirk that the peephole that Remus is almost certainly already looking through, Sirius knocks.

He smirk only grows as he counts in his head. One… two…

The lock clicks. Sirius chuckles. Three.

Right on cue, the door swings open and Remus leans against the doorframe. “Evening, Padfoot.”

“Somebody order an extra large?” he asks with a wink.

“I don’t remember asking for a side of wet dog.” Remus replies nonchalantly, but Sirius doesn’t miss the pink tinge to his cheeks, nor the way his eyes linger heavily on Sirius’ chest. Sirius’ own take in the soft curls, warm cardigan, and general vision of coziness before him.

“I’m terribly sorry, sir.” Sirius grins and takes a step closer. “Is there any way I can make it up to you?” He says suggestively, wiggling his eyebrows.

Remus huffs a laugh and drags him inside by the front of his jacket. “What took you so long?! You said you were leaving James’ place at seven.”

Sirius hands him the damp pizza box and presses a wet kiss to his warm cheek, shrugging off his soaked leather jacket. “Lily decided tonight was the perfect time to start looking at colour schemes for the reception. James would have skinned me alive if I left him alone to help her decide whether champagne or cream goes best with silver. And I don’t think he would have accepted ‘I’m meant to be hooking up with our other best friend right now’ as a good enough excuse for me to leave.”

Peeling off his t-shirt, Sirius continues. “And then I had to go pick up pizza for said hookup, who isn’t listening to a word I’m saying right now because I just took my shirt off…”

Sure enough, as soon as Sirius’ head emerges from the wet cotton, Remus is blushing hard and trying very hard to follow the conversation with the occasional nod and noise of assent, despite the fact Sirius is no longer speaking. With a laugh, Sirius reaches for the zipper of his equally soaked pants, and presses a kiss to Remus’ curls. “Done staring at my abs yet, baby?”

Remus seems to snap out of his daze and leans up to kiss Sirius’ cheek. “I’ll be done staring at your abs when you’re done staring at my ass, handsome”

Sirius preens and takes in the view as Remus turns and heads to his bedroom to grab him a pair of pyjama pants. “That’s a never, then.”

He hears Remus laugh from out of sight. “Correct.”

Stepping back out into the hallway, Remus throws the pyjamas at Sirius’ head and sniggers at the shout of surprise as he stows the pizza box in the kitchen. By the time he returns, Sirius is stood staring at the legs of the pants, which reach to barely halfway down his shins. Remus would have burst out laughing, if their size didn’t also mean they were also decidedly snug in other areas.

Suddenly feeling rather flushed, Remus ruffles his curls in a way he knows Sirius can’t resist and clears his throat. His heart stutters as Sirius, shirtless in too-small pyjama pants and still with dripping wet hair, looks up and grins.

“I believe you mentioned a hookup?”

Please excuse my horrific grammar and everything because it’s been well over a year since I wrote anything.

I’m imagining Wolfstar in very early stages of their relationship, when they haven’t even told James and Lily yet and are still figuring things out. Enjoy! 😂💙

#wolfstar