Nienna Weeps

Like The Hobbit– the book– is canonically a very biased account of events written by Bilbo himself. It’s also Canon that some of things Bilbo wrote were flat-out-lies (Ex. the original version of Riddles in the Dark, where Gollum willingly gives him the Ring as a gift.)

In the books Frodo also says that Bilbo “always jokes about serious things”, makes light of things that were actually important to him or hurt him. Which obviously also puts the bright, jokey tone of The Hobbit in a new light

I seriously love how Tolkien handled that. For those who don’t know, when Tolkien was writing The Lord of The Rings he realized he was going to have to alter a few details of The Hobbit to make sure the continuity smoothed out the way he was obsessively compelled to ensure. Which is to say that there was a slightly revised reprint of The Hobbit shortly before Fellowship came out, with the main change being the Riddle Contest.

But Tolkien didn’t want to leave returning fans who’d reread their old copies of the Hobbit to be left confused! So when Bilbo and Gandalf are discussing the Ring, Bilbo, our kind, reliable narrator who lead us through the entire first novel in Middle Earth, Bilbo remembers the original version. But Gandalf? Wise Gandalf who greatly helped Bilbo and the dwarves through the first half of their journey? Gandalf remembers the version from the recent reprint.

New readers who’d only ever read the reprint get the surprise jolt of Bilbo clearly remembering his story incorrectly, lending strong credence to Gandalf’s concerns.

Old readers who knew the original? Get the horrifying moment of Gandalf disputing the story they read and Bilbo remembers. Bilbo’s not just remembering his story wrong, he copied it down wrong. Is Gandalf lying? Is Bilbo? Was Bilbo wrong about more? They don’t know! The only thing they can say for certain is that whatever is going on, it is a Big Deal.

Have your smarty-pants solve in one day a problem that took you all month. Have them learn in two months what took you two years. Have them know things offhand that you had to look up. Have them fire off snappy comebacks that took you a week to think of.

No need to pretend to knowledge you don’t have or give them nonsense Moffat brain magic.

A good character acts like a person. Doesn't have to be a good person, but a person. Plenty of good characters are terrible people. Which means that all the characters have to behave like a real person, with their own thoughts and desires in their head beyond serving the plot. Which a lot of authors don't bother to do for most of their characters.

I think that in a world where yeerks need kandrona every two hours, the invasion can't happen like in canon. We know a kandrona generator is "the size of a small car" and that yeerk pools don't work without it (#7). The yeerks might have to take a few decades and improve kandrona technology (i.e. #41) and then invade Earth, because an invasion would be too risky without that tech.

That said, the yeerks are fleeing the andalites as much as they are colonizing planets — the andalites control their homeworld, part of why they're stealing everyone else's. So maybe the yeerks try to make do, for lack of time. Probably they'd equip humans with thermoses of kandrona à la AniTV, and then help controllers create excuses to slip out every two hours. The thermoses might have to be refilled often, but there's a system for that in canon.

However, as anyone who's ever raised an infant can tell you, humans do not function well if their sleep is constantly interrupted every two hours. So lots of tired/confused controllers. And all kinds of other issues — work shifts with an "on" component, long tests, driving really far, needing a security team 24/7, being in hospital, etc. It'd preclude taking most important people as hosts, including anyone who regularly flies on airplanes. Animorphs can go for weeks without morphing, and can pop briefly out of morph in a pinch (even underwater and in the yeerk pool as needed). Yeerks literally die without kandrona, and they can't leave their hosts unattended for even a second; Mr. Pardue gets like 10 seconds of freedom in #8 makes a huge mess.

i think their best bet would be homelessness and drug addict outreach-- they could give people food, shelter, a cause to believe in, a sympathetic friend who can help them with self-control, and a people to help.

instead of ‘we are going to take over earth whether you like it or not, so you might as well get in with the winning team early’ they might actually find a number of sympathetic ears (heh) with people who are, themselves, incredibly disenfranchised from normal human society. who would hear ‘we’ve lost our homeland and our way of life and our very ability to operate most of our salvaged technology-- join us, help us, let us make use of your incredible skills and your wonderful body, and you’ll never be hungry or despised or alone again!’

First, and this is something that Sol has brought up before, but we have to ask “how voluntary is voluntary, actually?” Chapman is basically blackmailed into being voluntary with his daughter’s life at stake. Tom, if he is voluntary after Temrash threatens Jake, is the same. We know that Mr Tidwell is voluntary, but we also know that Mr Tidwell got very lucky with his yeerk ending up a member of the Yeerk Peace Movement, instead of ending up with another Temrash. Tobias was originally voluntary in MM4, but that’s because The Sharing doesn’t actually get consent, because they don’t spell out in no uncertain terms what’s going to happen to you. They ask “are you sure?” many times, but that means absolutely nothing when the person in question is 13 and doesn’t have all the information needed to make an informed decision.

But you might say, okay, well Tobias could end up in a cage after that, right? Well, maybe . . . but the thing is, what the yeerks do is a form of abuse, and there are many different trauma responses to forms of abuse. One form of trauma response is to freeze. This isn’t necessarily a literal freeze; what it means is that you don’t do anything to fight back. You keep your head down and stay quiet in a way to minimize the abuse. If a host is told, “If you be quiet and don’t try to run away, you can have control of your body for a few hours in a comfy chair with a hot meal,” they might go for that not because they are okay with the situation, but because they feel hopeless and trapped and they will take any form of respite they can get. Not everyone has the strength to scream and sob and fight back against the big, terrifying, bladed alien captors. And while we know that some hosts sat dejectedly in their cages, we don’t know how long they’ve been like that. We don’t know that they don’t “upgrade” to the “voluntary” lounge for “good behavior.” We just don’t have enough information.

Also, I personally have a very hard time believing any host is “best friends” with their yeerk . . . again, I know we have Mr Tidwell and Illim, but I feel like a.) that’s an incredibly rare scenario, they’re like Controller Georg over here, and b.) it’s still such an imbalanced relationship that I just can’t feel comfortable even calling them friends, really. I mean, if Illim decided one day that actually the imperialism of the Empire was good and great and Mr Tidwell sucked actually, he could do all manner of things to hurt Mr Tidwell, and Mr Tidwell would have no recourse to fight back. He could force Mr Tidwell to hold his breath until he got dizzy and passed out. He could force Mr Tidwell to eat garbage. He could force Mr Tidwell to self harm in a variety of other ways. And Mr Tidwell wouldn’t be able to so much as “blink once if you need help.” Now, from what we know of Illim that would be out of character . . . but nevertheless it would be within his power, because the yeerk has total control over the host’s body. The host can’t breathe without the yeerk giving the OK. So while it’s nice that Mr Tidwell and Illim get along okay, ultimately it’s an incredibly unbalanced relationship and I’d be more inclined to believe that for most Controllers, the host holding any kind of affection for the person that controls their every twitch has trauma bonded* rather than formed an actual relationship.

(*Contrary to popular fandom belief, trauma bonding is not when two or more people go through a traumatic experience together and bond because of it. Trauma bonding is instead what happens when a victim of abuse forms an attachment to their abuser, i.e. a bond is formed out of the trauma the other person is inflicting on them. This is commonly seen in situations where the victim will say “they’re a good person deep down” or “they’re nice to me sometimes” or “they only hurt me because I make them angry” or “I know they love me, though.” The victim feels dependent on the abuser and holds onto those brief moments of respite, thus forming a bond of attachment.)

Gordon never gets mad and shouty at the kids. Because they're kids, and they're learning. He gets frustrated sometimes, but he never gets angry, never raises his voice. He helps them, and teaches them, and advises them.

Gordon almost never gets angry at lower-level workers - servers and dishwashers and lower-level line cooks. Because they're mostly doing what they're told, and not doing what they're told will often cost them shifts, tips, or their jobs. He'll occasionally get upset if someone's clearly doing wrong stuff when they should know better, but that's a rarity.

The leader

The cool one

The strong one

The smart one

The girl

And was like

“We’re doing this, but they’re ALL girls. Also the one whose personality is The Girl is also the main character. Die mad.”

If a woman wants to get an abortion because she is financially unable to give birth to and raise a baby, the organization will pay for everything she needs during the pregnancy and after, until she’s financially stable to raise the baby on her own.

This organization won’t stop women from going to the abortion clinic, but would rather hve a healthy conversation with them. Ask them if they can help her with anything in order for them to keep the baby. They also hand out contraception in the streets for those who can’t afford it.

First off, Nana almost certainly had her kids helping out with meals on the regular. A person needs to eat, and I cannot imagine that fine woman would ever allow one of her kids to head out into the world unprepared to meet their own basic needs. As far as I’m concerned, Hardison left her house with a favourite family cookbook, a half-dozen dishes he could make in his sleep, and the ability to follow a recipe and produce perfectly acceptable results.

Second, this is the guy who learned how to convincingly forge an artifact in a weekend. Who took up molecular gastronomy for the fun of it (and OK, more than a little to bug Eliot — but that was part of what made it fun!) in the middle of a con. If the man can do that, he can certainly throw together a casserole in a pinch.

The issue isn’t that Hardison can’t make perfectly normal, edible food — it’s that he doesn’t want to.

For one thing, normal food is boring. He has no interest in making it. He’s a very rich, very busy man! If he wants basic sustenance, why go to all that effort when he can order something delivered (efficient and tasty!) or heat up a hot pocket (fast and effective!). If Hardison’s going to put the effort in, it’s going to be for something interesting and complicated, ideally involving lasers.

For another, Hardison? Has terrible taste in food. It’s a joke that he makes awful, undrinkable beer, and then wine. But if you listen to him describe what he was going for, it’s clear that he’s achieved his goal. It’s just that his goal is completely unpalatable to most people. Nobody else wants wine that’s as sweet as his orange soda. Which means nobody makes it. Which means he has to do it himself. And so he does.

It’s not that Hardison is a bad cook. It’s that he’s a technically proficient cook who only wants to make terrible, terrible things that no one else would ever enjoy. Bonus points if it involves gadgets in some way.

Hardison knows how to do a lot of Life Skills stuff from living at Nana's. He's at least adequate at basic cooking, laundry, sewing/mending, car and home maintenance, and so on. He just usually can't be assed - it's usually more convenient to use money to solve these problems. For everyday stuff, he'd rather pay for premade food or for a laundry service. He will, however, make the effort for stuff that he feels is worth it. So he'll makes himself food or alcohol that meets his specific desires that nobody else will touch, or fix a button on his favorite pants.

This post is nearly ten years old and I still think about this, honestly. Luke has no consciousness of the dangers and pressures in Leia’s life when he’s playing with his toy starship; she’s already had to become what he can only vaguely dream of. But she’s also never had to consider “where is tomorrow’s food and water coming from” to anything like the degree that Luke, Owen, and Beru do every day. Luke and Leia both make sure they’re armed when they leave home because their environments are so dangerous, in completely different ways.

like, oftentimes he shies away from writing big dramatic emotion and tends to pull back instead, but you don’t get the sense that the character isn’t allowed to feel it, but rather that the narrative voice is, idk, giving them privacy

Neither me or the other mods know a single thing about Sailor Moon. If another anti wants to take this question go ahead.

For an interesting analysis on the anime ages, I’d like to direct you to this: http://www.moonprincess.com/amiages.php As it’s about the most coherent timeline as it stands for the anime. You can apply it roughly to the manga, but obviously a one size doesn’t fit all.

From the Article

“ The year you enter school, and thus your age for any given school year, is determined by your age as of March 31 of the following year. We know that Mamoru’s birthday is August 3 and that he’s a second-year high school student, so he must be 16 at the start of the manga and turning 17. For a list of school years and ages, see Age by Academic Year “

Nothing predatory about that since it would be like a freshman dating a junior in high school …. (Altho Japanese school system is a little different than American) 

Also from the article..

“ A two year age difference is pretty minor anyway, and since they’re both minors, it’s no big issue.

About this time travel.

90’s Anime When they went to the 30th century she was 14.

When they come back she was still 14.

In S ,she turned 15 since its a because of the two part birthday episode.

Between SuperS and Stars she turned 16 since she’s about to enter High School.

Manga and Crystal

She’s already 15 while Mamo just recently turned 17 when they go to the 30th century.

When they come back they are still that age.

At the beginning of Dream she’s 16 and he’s 18 since she’s going to high school and he’s entering college.

So this time travel nonsense doesn’t make any sense.

She wasn’t even in the 30th century long enough for it to effect her or anyone else.

This is not Dr Who or any time travel shows where it’s a time influx. Where time goes quicker than in present time if they are on another planet.

It was a catalyst for Tenya and effects of it still linger in the story, so it was a pretty important point, but why did it happen? We know that Stain only kills ‘bad’ heroes who are in it for the money or some other petty reason, which is why he spared Izuku but went after Tenya. But from what we’ve seen of him Tensei was a pretty good hero and an all around good guy and brother. Not really the type Stain targets. And sure he has that one-off line about popularity being part of it, but he also clearly wants to help people.

A possibility is that Stain tests heroes in some way, to see what they’re made of, and Tensei failed, or maybe he just operates under the idea that all heroes are corrupt unless they prove otherwise; guilty until proven innocent. The latter seems more likely. But chapter 203 hinted at the character of Tensei, with Tenya talking about how he’s representing Ingenium’s good name, which we all know is the hero name he inherited from his older brother.

But that just brings me back to my first point, that Tensei seems like a decent guy, not the type to hide and commit morally questionable actions, certainly not as a hero. From what we’ve seen of him, he expresses good character.

And then I remember that at this point in the manga (I haven’t read Vigilantes or seen the anime) we have only seen Tensei in two perspectives: his injured state after the fight with Stain and, for the majority of his appearances, in the memories and flashbacks of Tenya, his adoring little brother. In other words, a partial witness.

We don’t know Tensei’s character outside of how Tenya sees him (again, haven’t seen the anime or read Vigilantes), which could mean he’s a very different person outside of his appearances.

So the Iidas have canonically been heroes for several generations. The "ingenium" name has been passed down to several people. And we know that they've done well by this. The Iida family have benefited tremendously by being heroes, in terms of fame and fortune and prestige.