Hopeless With Technology (Yet Here I Am For Some Reason)

And Sokka just gets distracted by what good quality rope he was tied up with and decides to keep it.

First, Sokka, your origins growing up in a poor isolated fishing village are showing. Good practicality there.

hold on let me look something up

highlights include:

killing the lights and fucking booking it when you defeat him, and then just straight up deserting the garlean army with absolutely no remorse or hesitation

leaving the praetorium and almost immediately posting up under a streetlight in a stupid outfit in revenant's toll like some kind of clown hooker, waiting to direct wol to the crystal tower questline JUST so he could involve himself, too

showing up in the middle of a major city not even slightly in disguise to walk up to a meeting of world leaders and say "now it's clear the problem you're having is that you haven't involved MEEEEEE"

accepting wearing an ironworks uniform but dying it red because #aesthetics

magical girl armor transformation

bonus: cid keeping his sunglasses and then just silently handing them back afterward as if they do this all the fucking time

getting attacked and injured but just refusing to tell anyone about it until he literally collapsed

sneaking out of the infirmary but not before forging cid's signature on his expense report

telling his fellow garleans that if all they were gonna do is whine and refuse any solutions to their problems they could just fucking die for all he cares

You, Me, & this Lonely Feeling

- Han and Luke are arguing the whole way from the cantina to the detention center.

- Then Leia comes in and she's yelling at both of them.

- Then they get stuck in the trash compactor and Han desperately tries to save Luke from the tentacles, and then when the compactor goes on and they're all panicking he's trying to help Leia get to higher ground.

- Trash compactor goes off, they all celebrate, Han and Leia freaking HUG...and next scene we're right back to the Sass.

- Leia kisses Luke on the cheek for luck right before they swing across a gap.

- Han and Luke bond over shooting tie fighters away.

- Han admits he kinda likes Leia even though they've basically done nothing but bicker (when not in immediate danger).

- Luke gets upset when Han wants to take his money and leave even though he's know him for like a day. Han pretends he doesn't care but then leaves Luke with a completely sincere "May the force be with you." Despite thr fact that he doesn't believe in that stuff.

- Luke continues to be upset so much that he complains to Leia about Han leaving and she kisses him on the cheek AGAIN as comfort.

- Han comes back and must have been tapping into the comms the whole time because he swoops in specifically to save Luke.

- When they return to the base Leia runs to hug Luke, and then Luke runs to hug Han, and then they all just end up in an excited group hug.

And maybe it's because Leia just lost her planet and Luke just lost all his parental figures and Han is just lost but they absolutely speedrun found family in a way that critics nowadays would find completely unrealistic, and yet the energy between them is something neither the prequels or the sequels were able to match. Just "nope, these idiots are mine now".

Anyway the point is Star Wars is good when it's good.

Why do you, a person living in an increasingly militarized world suffused by propaganda for the defense industry, think pacifism is boring?

One of the chapters I can't stop thinking about is the one about Anne the Kelpie. It's kind of impressive how well it illustrates the different kind of love people have for animals. And how someone that loves an animal isn't necessarily an animal lover. If that makes sense.

When Senshi calls out Anne what he says is "Don't worry Anne's Harmless" but she isn't, she's a wild animal.

Marcille immediately reacts positively about it thinking it's cute she accepts the treat Senshi has for her. And hers and Chilchuck's reaction to Senshi wanting to cross the river on her back is more surprise while Laios immediately realizes how bad of an idea it is.

But Laios is the animal monster lover so how come when he finally is faced with a "docile" monster he doesn't react positively like the others? Marcille even calls him a monster. That's because Laios loves monsters, and Senshi loves Anne.

I've seen this attitude around me several times, where people love a specific animal but what they love is their idea of that animal, they don't really know them because they don't love the animal part of them.

It becomes a "this one is special because I love them" that can quickly become an issue for the animal as much as it is for the person. It's something unfortunate I see time and time again irl.

Anne wasn't wicked, Anne wasn't mean, Anne didn't trick him. Anne was a wild animal and Senshi loved her as Anne but not as a kelpie.

She acted on instinct, maybe she did love Senshi in the way kelpies can love, but animals are still animals and must be respected and treated as such. Climbing on top of Anne's back was the equivalent of putting your arm inside a alligator's mouth, the mouth is gonna close because that's what they're designed to do.

The real life equivalent I see the most of "I love this animal but I don't love the animal part of them" is with dogs. If you insist on loving an animal without acknowledging they ARE an animal they might hurt you, you might hurt them, it will only end in grief.

The best way you can love an animal is by understanding they're an animal.

That is all to say I don't mean that the love Senshi felt for Anne wasn't real or that it's all his fault. He couldn't have known with the information he had and unfortunately it came down to the worst outcome.