Nienna Weeps

like maybe spooky noises have started coming from that sketchy chest freezer you bought off Facebook so you tell your friend and they say “oh yeah my cousin knows this dude, he can take care of that for you, called him last year to deal with a cursed bong, he’s 100% legit" 

later that evening this COMPLETELY JACKED guy shows up at your apartment and you’re like What are you gonna do, punch the ghost or something? But no he politely asks if he can come in, stands in front of the freezer for a minute without doing anything, then tells you that the evil spirit is gone now and you can store your cowshare portion in peace. Whole thing seems kinda suspect but musclebro didn’t charge you anything and anyway the spooky noises have stopped so no harm done, right?

That said, the single most aggravating, contemptible way that a franchise can operate—and always seems to do, sooner or later—is to insist that the works that make it up can't actually stand on their own strengths. It might seem like this character or that had a whole arc that resolved by the end of the show or the film or whatever, giving every impression that the future's going to be brighter and the character's growth will allow them to finally move forwards as a person and in their life, soon.

But a franchise will almost always look at a satisfyingly resolved arc with hope for the future, and see it as a problem. The argument is almost always, "okay, it might have seemed like they had all that growth and are going to move forwards after the story, but they didn't really, and the story wasn't actually complete. You'll have to watch Trek Wars Before Time XVIII: 2 Warp 2 Hyper, Part III to get what you need to really understand what was going on in that first one thing you liked."

Like, if you look at Call the Midwife, it's done really well as a tv show. 15 seasons, generally good reviews, etc. And it's managed this by pulling off a few different things. The fact that it's a group cast helps a lot - different characters cycle in and out, and they each have their own problems and issues. The fact that the show actually moves in time is also good, because characters can grow and change, and new problems come up as time passes.

If you think someone is queer, or anything else, just .... don't make assumptions. Because they can come back to bite you in the ass.

Like, this is the best case scenario right here. Manager's suspicions were right! Go Manager, for not making this a Thing.

For adults, the appeal is Sir Patrick Stewart doing a kid’s educational bit in full Shakespearean dress and style; there’s a delightful cognitive dissonance between the very serious presentation and the very simple content.

For very small children, it’s educational: this is the letter “B”; here’s how it’s shaped; here’s some words you know that start with it. Oh, and here’s a word you may not be familiar with that starts with it, so you can recognize that it’s the sound that matters, and not whatever other connection you made between the other two words.

For older kids: you’ve probably heard that “to be or not to be?” speech, or at least part of it, so you can enjoy some of the parody the adults are watching. Also, here’s how to describe how a letter is made - how to teach young siblings who don’t read yet, how to explain both the shape and the sound.

For kids with dyslexia: here’s how you differentiate a “B” from a P or D or E. You may have to go slowly and look carefully at the exact shapes that make up the whole, but there are differences and you can learn to recognize them. 

For teens or young college students: In addition to whichever parts of those are relevant to you, here’s what Shakespearean acting sounds like. Here’s how to enunciate clearly and slowly, so your audience can understand terms they may not recognize and still follow the gist of what you’re saying. If you’re reading Shakespeare in school, try sounding it out like this and see if that helps it make sense.

he goes to her with his fears, because even though he is insecure he has always been able to talk to blue without feeling judged.

her voice booms inside his head.

You can find it on their character profiles, along with all the Paladins and the villains as well.

You’re right that out of any of them present and who might have found her, she chose Lance, though! But there’s also an aspect of how the Lions kind of- they almost have a matching psych profile to the Paladin they’re bonded to. It’s heavily hinted that Black is also suffering from trauma, like Shiro is. Green is described as adventurous and upgraded, a match for Pidge’s own sense of adventure and love of science.

Out of none of them, though, is there anyone quite like Lance, who fits Blue’s psych profile as someone just as friendly and welcoming. If Blue was the choosiest and pickiest of the Lions (like Red), then there might be differences in how she and Lance think, which might make it harder for them to understand each other.

Think of it like this - you’re in the middle of a big area full of people, and you’re trying to be friendly, but you don’t really hit it off with the few people who come your way, and you’re not really all that good at moving around. And then - and then! There’s this person who comes to you and they’re friendly and they’re just like you, and now that you’ve met them, you hit it off so well you couldn’t imagine being such best friends with anyone else.

Why we haven’t figured out that children are due the same level of self-identity and respect is fucking beyond me.

There's a really interesting book about this I'm trying to find, I'll reblog again if I do. But often men in minority groups double down on these in response to the degradation our society can put onto them.

Probably he assumed that Laurence would LOGICALLY get married soon.

But just the thought of him offering concubines - god, Laurence might actually die.

…although. actually I can picture this? Hammond keeps warning him against accidentally refusing the Emperor/the families of the women, so the women just… end up coming with them? Oops. And basically they become de-facto members of the crew. Laurence can sometimes - almost - forget that they’re technically his harem, except Temeraire has grown fond of the idea of a horde of children that are All His and will not leave, unlike the aviators, so he keeps suggesting that Laurence sleep with them please. He always suggests this at the worst possible moments. Temeraire also enjoys the women’s lovely robes, which are much better than official aviator uniforms, in his opinion; and it doesn’t hurt that the woman all revere and respect Celestials. 

Granby - and later Tharkay - make sure to mock Laurence’s awkwardness appropriately.

Laurence decides that if they’re going to stick with him and Temeraire they might as well know how to defend themselves: thus the concubines are trained in combat.

In later battles their opponents are very surprised when they board this dragon and see a chinese lady in colorful silks coming against them, sword raised and screaming. Before they can react another lady shoots them off the dragon.

Some of them prefer not to fight and start learning from the Ground-crewmaster, the chefs and Dr Keynes instead.

They concubines collectively decide that someone has to teach the young Miss Roland some Useful Things For Girls To Know. Laurence is mortified.

Jane laughing herself silly when learning of the concubines and then promptly taking them all out for drinks/ a party.

While Lord Allendale decides to fume away in his quarters, Lady Allendale takes it upon herself to improve the concubines english skills beyond the basics and military jargong they’ve so far picked up and teach them the ways of british high society. They are very confused, amused, and critical of it.

One of them accidentally becomes a dragon captain herself. Temeraire is inconsolable at this loss.

Some of the concubines decide that it’s a great idea to stay concubines and take up with eachother at the same time: Laurence is’nt sure how to deal.

Captain Janeway would be a bad mother. I’m sure any kid she had would adore her, as she did her father, but she’s a high-ranking military official with a known tendency to overwork herself. She is known to sacrifice relationships with important people in her life and has a stubborn habit of believing she’s always in the right (because, admittedly, history has often shown that she is).

I’m sorry, but that woman is not designed to get married, have a baby, and life an idyllic life aboard a starship that allows families. She is designed to show up an hour late to the function bearing ridiculously expensive bottles of wine, ruffle the hair of all the youngsters, and leave at precisely the time considered polite because she has a project she “really should be working on.”

Maybe, when she gets home to her classy Irish residence on the cliff-side, she will spare a moment to gaze wistfully at the Janeway family photo, trace her fingers over the faces of Phoebe’s daughters and think, “Ah, but what if…?”

Which is her approach to all children from Voyager through to Prodigy: she's nice to them, in an impersonal sort of way, but if there's someone else standing nearby who can take over -- the Doctor, Neelix, Seven of Nine, maybe the child's actual parent if there's no other option -- they're on Kid Duty.

Pauline Hanson claims that there are 872,000 people who can't speak English in Australia as a way to complain about multiculturalism. The thing is: that figure includes over 100,000 babies.

Her claim uses self-reported ABS data, which is not an objective test of someone's English competency. Some of the adults in these figures are likely saying they can't speak English just because they don't speak it as fluently as those with it as a first language.

English competency is a requirement for Australian citizenship (unless you're born here, so babies don't need to prove it). The exception being those over 60, those under 16, or people with a permanent mental or physical incapacity.

So the Australian citizens who were born overseas but aren't competent at English? Probably family members like grandparents, children and dependants. Also, deaf people don't speak English, they use sign language. Oh, and some Indigenous communities focus on their language first as a way to prevent its extinction. There are multiple reasons why English isn't the primary language of many people.

In fact, the level of English competency required was already increased by the Coalition back in 2017. The level required is similar to that to be accepted into a university so those who come here to study, get skills that benefit the nation, and decide they like it here so much as to stay and contribute to our MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY will be fine. But that doesn't fit Hanson’s narrative so she's ignoring all of that.

So Pauline Hanson is trying to misrepresent statistics to stoke racist fears that social cohesion is being undermined by not understanding the idea of BABIES EXISTING and people having grandparents etc. Her solution is something that already is in place. This is just stupidity and racism. That's all One Nation represents.

Like, ok, do we expect a tiny baby to be fully fluent in any language? A lot of these babies are working on important stuff like, you know, crawling and not pooping themselves, instead of learning advanced language skills.

Sure, you can spend a fuckton of money and time on hobbies, but you don't have to. If you don't have a bunch of cash or free time, or you just want to try stuff out without investing a lot of time and money in something that you're not sure that you're going to like, or you just want to do something occasionally instead of a lot .... you can.

You can read books, watch movies/tv, and so on online for free. Get a library card and take stuff out - the cards are usually free or have a nominal fee.

A lot of museums, galleries, etc are free. If they do charge, a lot of them have one day/evening a week that's cheap specifically for people who are short on $$. And a lot of them have online stuff that you can look at, for free, from wherever you are.