butterfly

Rocky holding a xenonite model of Grace // Grace holding a xenonite model of Rocky

Project Hail Mary (2026) dir. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller

The issue of cheating and possessive jealousy in S02E10 mirrors the development in S01E10 with Tar at the bar and TharnType subsequent confrontation in their condo. Being in a very similar situation, they both fail to believe the other person and hurt him in the process,even if the other man did very little to make the other person suspect him with one exception - Tharn lies about meeting his bandmate in the bar while Type keeps certain information away from Tharn.They are both blinded and haunted by their doubts, pain and insecurity. 

7 years ago, all Tharn’s promises, apologies and explanations were in vain, as well, as Type refused to trust him and kept being angry at him. It’s fitting that they find themselves in the same shoes the other man was 7 years ago: Tharn feeling betrayed and hurt with Type feeling helpless and hurt by Tharn’s distrust. In all those years, especially Type has never fully comprehended the pain Tharn felt back then and this will help him understand Tharn more, what Tharn went through and what Tharn managed to forgive him; and strengthen their relationship and move it foward.

What they saw was part of a disk four times the size of the Moon as seen from the Earth; and it seemed even bigger because of the Moon’s foreshortened horizon. It was not the full Earth so familiar from pictures, but just a slim crescent, streaked with cloud swirls and burning with a fierce green-blue radiance—a light with depth, like the fire held in the heart of an opal. That light banished the idea that blue and green were “cool” colors; it seemed hot enough for one to warm one’s hands at it. The blackness to which it shaded was ever so faintly touched with silver—a disk more hinted at than seen; the new Earth in the old Earth’s arms. Across that darkness, pale golden city lights traced out the shapes of North and South America. But at this distance the planet and everything on it looked small and somehow fragile.

CLUELESS (1995) Dir. Amy Heckerling

"i want to let everybody know what i have done over my career — that japan had a skater like me who performed for a long period."

wishing a happy retirement to japan's KAORI SAKAMOTO! thank you for everything and the joy you have brought to this sport!

@morgwenmicrofic | prompt: "just this time" | pairing: morgana & gwen

This is a follow-up to "I am losing my mind over the lighting of the Hail Mary," which I wrote pretty much to set context and argue It Really Is That Deep. Going into this, I am assuming you also believe the way lighting is used in PHM is intentional.

(Note: My screencaps come from a specific leak of PHM that is shockingly HQ but does have desaturation issues. I've done a HSV Saturation run on several images but not all of them. My screencap folder is like +300 items now and there's only so many hours in the day. If I could buy this on blu-ray TODAY I would.)

Sooooo... what's up with Grace and rainbows, question?

In Grace's very first flashback/recovered memory, one of the first things we see is a ring of light, rainbow. When he finally remembers being betrayed and put onto the Hail Mary against his will, this memory is triggered by the refracting light in Rocky's ship connecting to the rainbow overhead on the day he tried to run.

Refracted light is practically Grace's thumbprint smudged onto every corner of the story, the narrative voice in prismatic form. It truly reaches drinking game levels of ubiquity.

When Stratt first meets Grace, he just happens to be draped in a cloak of rainbow light. More subtly, but still obviously once you're looking for it, when he arrives on the aircraft carrier, he brings along a small halo of colored light.

At its most subtle, it comes from glass. Every time the camera implicitly slides into Rocky's POV, settling over his shoulder to observe Grace through xenonite glass, there are coronas to be found, touching Grace at all times. In the Clock Bros scene, when Grace leans in to observe Rocky's eridian clock, a smudge of refraction just happens to pop up. I cannot emphasize enough how no frame of this movie is safe from the rainbow.

Dr. Ryland Grace adjusts a light and it looks like a dance club in the Castro, it's absurd.

So, down to basics: why? What makes cameras do That Thing?

Well, it's not unique to cameras. It's a matter of glass and white-toned light. Modern camera lenses are either treated with a diffusion layer or have specific filters meant to diffuse light-- to break it up more clearly. When you use a lens without that coating, almost any light source can make this happen.

The rainbow, the prismatic light, it comes from a lack of filter, from the removal of deliberate or accidental barriers. You need light. You need glass. Clarity.

Okay but why, narratively?