Aurora Australis

MARRIAGES

Two limits! You can have a maximum of 4,096,000 characters in 1 [one] tumblr post. I would work out how many combinations this is, but 26^6,000 is already considered to be "Infinity" by most calculators, and a program I wrote threw an error code.

26^95,000 is already over 134,000 characters long - which would take 33 different text blocks to convey via tumblr. Whenever somebody says we're running out of posts, don't forget that tumblr is needlessly designed for MASSIVE amounts of information [no matter how detrimental it may be for mobile phones].

Though I'm not certain if that character count includes spaces, unfortunately, as I got that figure by googling "how many letters are in lord of the rings" and came upon a TikTok that counted the number of letter characters in LotR in order to figure out how many Spaghettios cans would be needed to re-write the entire thing, if one were to cut and paste each individual letter from the cans blackmail-letter style.

For those curious, the numbers are 2,261,081 letters in LotR, which calculates out to 8,795 cans of Spaghettios needed, which would cost about $12,225.

Part of socializing and having friends is being a good listener even when you don't actually give a shit about the subject.

Your are hurting other people's feelings when you bluntly respond with "Anyway..." and then change the topic.

It can not always be about your preferred topic.

"they used to have lovely old toy trains. Really old ones. They don't anymore. This other museum had an incredible collection of Victorian matchboxes. They don't now"

He then went on to tell me that our current local museum he went and offered advice on how to beef up their security from people like him and the woman was like "....ok. also we're going to walk around with you" and then he stole something and gave it back to her at the end just to make a point

So he let down his tires and then gaslighted him about it

This man is the most chaotic person I have ever met

Last night the local cinema showed Sound of Music and I saw it again for the first time in a LONG time–holy shit, the way this actress portrays a character who is arguably the sole antagonist of the film besides the Nazis…

It’s stated that the Captain has been spending months of his time away from home and his children running from his problems WOOING the everloving crap out of this lady who is both TITLED and WEALTHY AS SIN, and they genuinely seem to care about each other! They’re alike in ages and life experiences, they’ve both known the hardship of a lost spouse, they should be a fine match and they ARE.

And in swans Julie Andrews, the governess aka the nanny, and the duchess sees the sparks flying between the man she loves and this random nobody. She goes to confront Maria fully expecting to play coy and underhanded, pointing out their chemistry and that the Captain might “think himself in love just because a woman loves him first” (SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE EH DUCHESS? THAT’S DEFINITELY NOT YOU AND THE CAPTAIN, RIGHT?) only to have Maria go “SHIT that’s what my feelings are??? ABORT ABORT ABORT.” 

Maria: I’m going to pack all my things and leave I M M E D I A T E L Y

Duchess: Oh….kay???? 

She genuinely thought there was going to be back and forth, and sneering jibes, and ‘oh did you want him? too bad’s, and instead Maria is as pure as the driven edelweiss. 

Later the Duchess starts realizing she doesn’t know what to do with kids, she’s never spent time with them before and suddenly there are seven, WHICH AGAIN WOULD HAVE BEEN FINE WITH THE CAPTAIN before he met Maria and remembered he actually liked his family. This dude was already fucking off for months at a time and never hugged his children and didn’t let them play–he wouldn’t have thought twice about packing them off to boarding school once he married the Duchess. Before Maria. 

The scene from this gifset though is just. Ugh, pure gold. The duchess finds the captain watching Maria from the balcony. By this time they’re engaged, bc Maria left and with her went every ounce of the Captain’s emotional awareness. The duchess starts lamenting that the captain is a hard man to buy a wedding gift for–she’s babbling, laughing, pointing out that she knows him very well but that he already has everything he needs, and she can only give him frivolous things like a yacht or a summer home, and–

The captain interrupts her. They’re smart adults who’ve seen the world. This is not their first romance. And he knows that she knows they can’t go on as they have been, and he apologizes. “It’s no use, you and l. I’m being dishonest to both of us… and utterly unfair to you.”

She could fight him. She could scream and rage and she’d have every right to do so. She loves him. At the very least it seems she’ll have to listen to him break it off with her. 

And she doesn’t let him do it. “Don’t say another word, please,” she tells him, and then dumps him on her own terms. “Fond as I am of you, I really don’t think you’re the right man for me. You’re much too independent. And I need someone who needs me desperately… …or at least needs my money desperately.” 

It’s honest, and funny, and kinder than he deserves. But she deserves better, and I don’t know that I’ve seen another movie that lets the rival in love realize that on their own. 

Elsa isn’t sassing him. She is giving him NEW INFORMATION, because she cares for him. She genuinely wants him to be happy. SHE IS BEING KIND.

And sometimes, you have a string of fandoms that are Actually Pretty Good. And the danger of this—the very great danger—is that when you have a string of Actually Pretty Good and even Actually Amazing obsessions, you start to believe that maybe you have taste. Perhaps you are now immune to the indignities of losing it over something mostly bad.

And frankly, it’s starting to really get on my nerves when people read “I think this thing is good. I wouldn’t change a thing about it and frankly I don’t even think there should be more canon added to it, but I am still going to write thousands of words of fic, make a cosplay, and draw fanart” and then completely misunderstand and respond with “yes I agree—I like things that are good too. But I never feel the transformative/creative fandom instinct for them because they are too good.”

compelling worldbuilding (invites interaction with the setting)

interesting gimmick (see: daemons, drift compatibility. subcategory of compelling worldbuilding)

shipping bait (duh)

original character bait (in-universe categories/factions and design elements that make it fun for people to create their own characters)

compelling narrative (invites interaction and tweaks to the storyline: AUs and fixits and so on)

basically anything that invites interaction and recombination. but fandom also has a sort of multiplying effect: the larger the interactive audience of fandom is, the more likely it is to generate ideas and works that draw in more participants. so: