#thorn rambles

like, it's established so early on you don't have to think about it, and I expect the writers also didn't think too hard about it when they were first putting together the worldbuilding. but we teleport through the Lifestream. we dip in and out of the afterlife every time we go anywhere long-distance. and this is such a normal part of everyday life that major settlements basically all have giant crystals in the middle that are meant to facilitate this kind of travel.

I used to run all the time. I felt free. I felt on top of the world. Unstoppable. And this was important for someone who went straight from super strict over-bearing parents to abusive relationships. Running was my safe haven.

And then, one night when I was black-out drunk, I broke my ankle. The thing that I need to move.

I was serving at the time. This was a death sentence. If my roommate (like 10%) and parents (100%) hadn't been so damn helpful I would have really been in a bad place.

I need you to understand, I didn't have a car at the time. I used to walk EVERYWHERE. Even when I did have a car, I would walk everywhere. My job was mainly me WALKING 10,000 steps a shift. Me breaking my ankle...well, someone should have taken me out back and shot me.

I was depressed for YEARS (this took place in December of 2018) & I watched BLLK for the first time in December of this year. That's 6 years of being scared to do anything. I barely run. I've gained almost 60 pounds. I have been so severely depressed. And then I see Chigiri:

And he GETS it. I see myself in that moment. Enough time has passed for the injury to heal (I can tell the weather though), and I'm still too fucking scared to really start running again. I walk maybe a 10th of what I used to (I no longer have a job that requires walking). And I start bawling because this guy gets it.

I feel so much better after having watched this show. And I'm so thankful for the story line. I'm so thankful that this show really hit home for me that, My body is mine. And I feel so much more comfortable using it now.

Tell me about her unreasonably strong opinions on the ideal qualities of french fries. How he's totally inept at taking pictures with his phone camera. They have a personal beef with a local grocery chain over a misprinted coupon that the manager wouldn't admit was wrong.

Garleans can't use aether, but they can affect and be affected by dynamis. we've seen this in canon.

Culturally Garleans seem to have a lot of emotional repression, breaking through only when pushed to extremes, which has no doubt prevented them from actualizing the combat potential of dynamis in the past. There is now an opportunity for this to change.

Listen, l i s t e n, every few months or so I get reminded of this scene that happens after Aymeric drives a bunch of angry rebels out of The Vault, and I go completely feral with emotions

Edmont tells Aymeric this won't be the last time that happens if the current political climate continues as it has been, and that he needs to make sure to take care of their people and of himself, then drops this line. and just walks away.

Aymeric is standing there stunned and awkward trying to be appropriately honored by a grieving father who's also right about the politics of the situation, and apparently unlike Edmont has probably not forgotten that Artoirel is right there.

Artoirel steps forward behind Aymeric to follow his father, but before he passes the point where Aymeric could see him

he stops still and turns his head, obviously conflicted and gathering himself, and the camera focuses entirely on his face even though he hasn't got any lines in this scene at all. the father he respects and admires is obviously not bearing up well under all the recent changes, and just all but adopted a surrogate for the beloved son he's recently lost without even acknowledging his eldest son's presence. not even so much as a look. his father needs him now more than ever. his father is taking him for granted and always has.

he probably daydreamed as a child about the relationship he might have had with Edmont if Haurchefant wasn't there to be the favorite, and now he has the bitterest proof that it would never have been better, is not going to get better.

and he still walks after his father, away from Aymeric and Lucia and the gathered Scions. Edmont never looks back to see if he's coming, but he is. someone still has to hold this family together.

and that stuck with me because I know my mom, and I know she was simultaneously saying "you still count as a mom if you didn't give birth to the child you're caring for" and also "if you're not doing the work for the kid you gave birth to, fuck off"

What does that phrase even mean?

"Panta Rhei" is a condensation of the teachings of the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus. Heraclitus was a known weirdo, an arrogant, self-taught misanthrope of a man who was known for scolding crowds and subject to fits of melancholy.

The phrase itself translates as "everything flows". Heraclitus believed that fire was the fundamental element of everything in the world, and that as such stability itself is an illusion. All things are constantly changing and interacting, nothing is ever static but instead is in a constant process of becoming. In this view, things that oppose each other are interconnected and interdependent on one another, and strife, while painful, is a path toward refinement.