Words and Birds

Irene Adler’s an opera singer. We still have those! They don’t have the same subtext exactly, but nothing is going to because we aren’t the Victorians. She could continue to be an opera singer. I have never seen this happen.

I have a friend who works in education and he told me about how he was working with a small group of HS students to develop a new school sports chant. This was a very daunting task for the group, in large part because many had learning disabilities related to reading and writing, so coming up with a catchy, hard-hitting, probably rhyming, poetry-esque piece of collaborative writing felt like something outside of their skill range. But it wasn't! I knew that, he knew that, and he worked damn hard to convince the kids of that too. Even if the end result was terrible (by someone else's standards), we knew they had it in them to complete the piece and feel super proud of their creation.

Fast-forward a few days and he reports back that yes they have a chant now... but it's 99% AI. It was made by Chat-GPT. Once the kids realized they could just ask the bot to do the hard thing for them - and do it "better" than they (supposedly) ever could - that's the only route they were willing to take. It was either use Chat-GPT or don't do it at all. And I was just so devastated to hear this because Jesus Christ, struggling is important. Of course most 14-18 year olds aren't going to see the merit of that, let alone understand why that process (attempting something new and challenging) is more valuable than the end result (a "good" chant), but as adults we all have a responsibility to coach them through that messy process. Except that's become damn near impossible with an Instantly Do The Thing app in everyone's pocket. Yes, AI is fucking awful because of plagiarism and misinformation and the environmental impact, but it's also keeping people - particularly young people - from developing perseverance. It's not just important that you learn to write your own stuff because of intellectual agency, but because writing is hard and it's crucial that you learn how to persevere through doing hard things.

Write a shitty poem. Write an essay where half the textual 'evidence' doesn't track. Write an awkward as fuck email with an equally embarrassing typo. Every time you do you're not just developing that particular skill, you're also learning that you did something badly and the world didn't end. You can get through things! You can get through challenging things! Not everything in life has to be perfect but you know what? You'll only improve at the challenging stuff if you do a whole lot of it badly first. The ability to say, "I didn't think I could do that but I did it anyway. It's not great, but I did it," is SO IMPORTANT for developing confidence across the board, not just in these specific tasks.

Struggling is part of the process, and I've had a lot of people argue with me that it shouldn't be who fail to see the point. When you replace an composer with an AI music generator, an artist with an AI-generated image, or an author with an AI-generated fanfic, you are missing out on the critical, fundamental experiences humans need to learn and grow. You are robbing yourself of essential skills you need as a person.

(I realized on rewatching the trailer that the scene featured more from the Battle of New York, but if you want to get all of Steve’s life in there, there’s got to be some things cut).

Please enjoy my plan for the musical numbers that would be in a Steve Rogers musical because you know, it’s the intersection of two things I’m obsessed with.

There is no ‘rest of the Mona Lisa’ - it doesn’t exist.

luke skywalker is public enemy number one, with a bounty on his head that's astronomical, who took down the deadliest weapon the galaxy's ever seen in a single shot he fired on gut instinct listening to the advice of a ghost with his eyes closed. in one shot he took the rebellion from a sprawling network of small resistances to engaging in all-out war with the empire. he wears the lightsaber and the last name of a murdered jedi traitor, uses a banned weapon and believes in a banned religion and accompanying psychic powers that children are either slaughtered or indoctrinated into a cult for having. yesterday he'd never flown in space before and a day later he's the commander of a squadron, and he flies like a natural.

in the span of a few days after the death star is blown to smithereens, taking out a massive portion of the empire's top brass, the scariest guy in the empire - seven feet of murder and death where if he steps on a battlefield the only advice anyone can give you is run and pray he doesn't find you - calls on a moratorium of Hunting The Pilot Who Destroyed The Death Star. the scariest motherfucker in town decides that he wants luke skywalker's head on a pike, and bans anyone else from getting it. in the span of a week it looks like luke skywalker made a mortal enemy in the cyborg that hell spat out because he was too evil to contain.

"make this character but with more murder to make him edgier" is not the point. the point is that luke is eerily capable, beyond all reason; he does the impossible by destroying the death star, does the impossible by pledging himself to a dead religion that paints a target on his back, does the impossible by outrunning the guy that no one else can outrun, does the impossible by looking said evil in the face and saying "do better" and it actually working. the point is that he's not an optimist because he's naive or young, but because he's made the impossible work, he found a way. he's a fighter and a believer and that's what makes people want to follow him, from people like han to people like darth vader.

Like, their main hobbies are "drinking" and "girls" and you're like 70% sure they deal meth on the side but if you show up and say "hey we're gonna burn down the police station, wanna help?" they'll loan you their pickup and shotgun without question.

“This is how it feels to be Anakin Skywalker, forever: The first dawn of light in your universe brings pain. The light burns you. It will always burn you. Part of you will always lie upon black glass sand beside a lake of fire while flames chew upon your flesh.”

“This was not Sith against Jedi. This was not light against dark or good against evil; it had nothing to do with duty or philosophy, religion or morals. It was Anakin against Obi-Wan. Personally. Just the two of them and the damage they had done to each other.”

“But even in the deepest night, there are some who dream of dawn.”

“In the end, the shadow is all you have left. Because the shadow understands you, the shadow forgives you, the shadow gathers you unto itself—And within your furnace heart, you burn in your own flame.”

“This is Obi-Wan Kenobi: A phenomenal pilot who doesn’t like to fly. A devastating warrior who’d rather not fight. A negotiator without peer who frankly prefers to sit alone in a quiet cave and meditate.”

“Everything dies. In time, even stars burn out. This is why Jedi form no attachments: all things pass. To hold on to something—or someone—beyond its time is to set your selfish desires against the Force.”

“Obi-Wan looked down. It would be a mercy to kill him. He was not feeling merciful”

Her Only Hope (2022)

“Almost home, Princess.”

…

I’m obsessed with the the flawlessness that is the Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Seeing little Leia was SUCH a delightful shock and I can’t believe that kept that secret. And she is absolutely perfect. Uncle Obi-Wan keeping an eye out for these kiddos that he loves more than anything, the last remnants of his best friend, just melted my heart.

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