The world turned toward morning

and now, METACEPTION

gyzym:

as in, META ABOUT META. yes i know that’s not really how inception works—believe me, i really know that—but i don’t care. it’s catchy! and there’s also the fact that that’s what inception has come to mean, in current cultural vernacular: people took the concept the movie is structured around (to wit, dreams within dreams) and made its title into a word meaning “a thing within itself/a thing about itself/etc.” which, as set-ups for posts about media go, is pretty solid, so, without further ado….

dear everybody who has ever felt it necessary to inform me that i am reading too much into [whatever piece of media] in writing meta about it: 

first of all, congratulations, you are spot-fucking-on. i am definitely, for sure, no doubt about it, 100% reading far too much into it, every single goddamn time. this is not sarcasm, i very much mean this—in fact, all of my fanon meta is grounded firmly in reading too much into the canon in question. maybe it’s because i threw caution to the winds and went to school to study english literature and creative writing instead of leaning a more marketable trade; it does get hard to break that habit. however, mostly i’m pretty certain i read too much into shit because: 

• it’s fun 
• i find it rewarding
• it’s fun 

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So there’s something I’ve wanted to address re: common criticism of Elementary for a while-

-but I never really got around to it. And I feel like I’m sure someone must have tackled this much more effectively than I have already, but fuck going through those goddamn tags! And I mean, this isn’t going to show up under said tags due to my Tumblr being a dick and not functioning, so goodness knows this is only for me to be irritated about on my own, but there you go.

(Seriously, I just wrote this to articulate to myself why this bothered me and then thought hey, may as well post it. Don’t expect anything interesting here. Doop de doo.)

To be more specific, it’s about the argument that Holmesian canon is specifically about male-male friendship (or queer subtext, for that matter) and that altering this defeats the point of the entire concept.

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witchtrees:

gabzilla-z:

metaraymek:

After browsing a GLTAS thread on /co/, I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought that Razer would become a Star Sapphire, or at least has the potential to be one in the future. 

I actually see that being more plausible than him becoming a Blue Lantern, but it really could go either way, I s’pose!

inb4 he actually becomes a construct of Larfleeze

I’d be ok with him becoming a Star Sapphire.

>)

I mean, he would make more sense as a Star Sapphire than a Red Lantern now.  Or a Blue Lantern.  Or a Green Lantern.

Love for Aya or the memory of his dead wife (that’s what Miri has in the comics after all)

Or hope that he can help others overcome grief and protect his loved oves

Or the will to go on living after losing everything he loved and going past the inital rage

/fangirlmomentover

THIS THIS THIS.

And I am more and more convinced that going the easy route of being a GL would be a bad idea, because both Star Sapphires and Blue Lanterns have been at the core of two vital moments for him now:

• He met Saint Walker (bearing in mind Blue Lanterns seek out and individually choose new members) while being told he couldn’t go on being powered by his anger
• He used the ~power of his love~ to find Aya and save her after being recognised by the Sapphires as someone with love in his heart

But I just really love the idea of him as the latter because not only is it HILARIOUS, like wow, imagine this grumpy moody reluctant Star Sapphire in bright pink scowling at everyone and refusing to admit that no, seriously, you are in a bright pink costume fighting with the power of love, you are not dramatic, but it also just does make sense? His entire motivation this series was rage that came from the love he had for his wife and, it seems, later on for Aya. If he loses his anger, either because he needs to in order to move on, because the guardians are finally beginning to try and make some kind of amends, whatever- that’s what’s left. And it could go either way. But it doesn’t point towards willpower, IMO.

witchtrees:

am I the only person who ships Razer/Aya on tumblr but watches the show and is like ‘meh’ I could do without 

like, thank god for fanfics and art and shit because in the actual show it is just cutesy on Razer’s side for awkward feelings but Aya like kind of ruins it for me

I really, really, REALLY like her

don’t get me wrong

but for this season I just really like her as an A.I. trying to be a Green Lantern, I think the romance being mutual would be forced the way the writers have continued to write her throughout this season.  That being said, if her character is developed a little more in the second season beyond the whole ‘awkward awesome computer badass’ I could probably actually like it in the show’s context because the only thing that is canon as of right now is that Razer has feelings of love for either her or his dead wife that have been transposed onto her (honestly, I kind of like this option because of the beautiful shippy feels)

god someone’s gonna snipe me now I know it

I LIKE THEM I SWEAR

DON’T HURT ME

plus she looks more like carol than razer’s dead wife please don’t kill me and how did she cry she is made of metal and green energy really don’t kill me I need to graduate next semester first

tl;dr don’t hire a hitman to take me out, I really do ship it, I just want more development in the second season before I can see it as more canon on both sides.

I actually agree, personally! I ship it hardcore, but this series has focused waaay more on Razer’s arc than Aya’s and as a result, we haven’t got much reason to believe she currently reciprocates. But on the other hand, this series has also barely touched on the fact that they’re going to be shipped, so I think it’s understandable. This series didn’t have a shippy subplot as much as it laid the bare-bones groundwork for a shippy subplot *next* series, and I don’t think the bulk of the work has been done yet.

I could actually buy Aya/Razer as it stands in the sense that I could buy her simply having affection for him because she enjoys his company, and I think she’s gained enough emotional understanding to, well, understand it, *but* I don’t think that would in and of itself make for entertaining watching. I’m rooting for her to get more development on the matter next series.

Anonymous asked you:

Watch feels anon, and YES THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED IT WAS PERF. And now I want to hear what you have to say about Angua and Carrot and Angua/Carrot?

Read more because WOW, FEELINGS EXPLOSION?!

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Amon’s Master Plan

birdbrainblue:

I’ve been doing some pretty intense thinking about what Amon’s potential goals are, lately - particularly during the times when I’m supposed to be doing work for school - and I think I might have come up with a reasonable theory.

The first time we saw Amon in the show, he was telling the Lieutenant that it was time to “accelerate [their] plans”. We know that he has a strategy, and as of “A Voice in the Night”, we know it ends with him personally taking down the Avatar. But while most people have guessed that he has some kind of massive plan to remove bending abilities from every person on the planet, my idea is different.

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All of this is great, but especially that last paragraph.

++

cake-light:

I don’t understand the desire to saddle every female character with children regardless of whether they want them as some lazy stand-in for a happy ending, particularly in sci-fi and fantasies. If you’ve earned that with sufficient backstory and evidence, like, FINE. Olivia Dunham and Donna Noble and Scully and Ripley canonically want to have children. Amy Pond, Hermione Granger, Kara Thrace, Katniss Everdeen - these women are all ambiguous about or uninterested in being mothers. So it’s problematic when a head writer or a fan art illustrator or a writer of fanfiction just sticks these women with children as though motherhood is always the inevitable and right and desirable end, even when their characterization directly contradicts that. 

Even River Song falls victim to this trope because that is the image Moffat chooses to close on in the Library episodes. River, a woman who has never expressed any desire to raise children or be a mother, someone who (if her arc had allowed for any emotional consequence whatsoever) would likely have had some deep-seated issues with nurturing and parentage and abandonment - is “saved” in a purgatory/afterlife where she is forever caring for these ersatz, computer-generated children. Because children are shorthand for happiness in women’s narratives. 

How to get rid of obvious romantic tension in five episodes or less

elfgrove:

lyndez:

jessiphia:

slothesaurus:

by Bryke

basically

This might be a good thing. Now we can get actual character development. 

Episode 5, get it all in the open, deal with the bulk of it so final things can develop at a sane pace with less drama and hurt feels. Now back to revolutions and bending tournaments hopefully with better focus.

I am pretty sick of ~romantic tension~, tbh. IDK it feels like every show feels the need to keep me guessing and on edge about relationships when really, I’d like to know what’s what up front. I haven’t seen this ep of Korra yet, true, but if it gets rid of the tension, well, I’m all for that.

Besides, it’s not like A:TLA had… well, ANY romantic tension. Not much drama either, true, but still: Kataang was obviously endgame by halfway through s1, Sokka/Suki and Mai/Zuko were pretty quickly dealt with, Toph’s crush on Sokka went nowhere… I mean, this isn’t really news for this franchise?

The rules of probending

roserayne:

jhenne-bean:

wallmakerrelict:

I was impressed with the way the show introduced us to probending. Instead of sitting us down for an exposition cram, they showed us the rules and techniques in practice. We discovered them with Korra. I was so impressed, in fact, that I missed something:

For a bending competition, probending has way too many rules.

A bending contest should be about bending. It should allow each style to shine. Instead, probending homogenizes the styles by making them all serve an arbitrary set of rules. When done properly, we’ve seen earthbending matches take place on a dirt floor, firebending matches in a free and open arena, and waterbending matches in a courtyard made of ice. These settings allowed for variable styles and creativity. Why, then, when combining the three, would anyone choose to turn bending into glorified dodgeball? Why would you make bending serve the rules of the game, instead of making the rules of the game serve bending?

Katara made daggers out of rain, and disarmed an enemy while encased in ice. Toph made armor out of earth and metal and used it to charge at armies like a tank. Jeong Jeong made walls of fire. None of these things is done in the probending arena - instead, every style is reduced to projectiles. (And I will bet you, with all the electronics around, that metalbending and lightningbending aren’t even allowed).

Probending is making bending smaller, pulling it back, simplifying it. Bolin’s fighting style is based entirely around probending, with his earthbending added in as an afterthought. If he had been classically trained, he would be firmer on his feet. He would be combining those blocks he’s given and making walls so his team could attack from cover. He would be paving the floor of his opponent’s territory and trapping their feet on contact. He would be closing in and fighting at close range… OH WAIT HE CAN’T BECAUSE RULES.

Bending is commodified in the probending arena, worth only as much as it is useful to the rules of the game. And that’s not the only place that we’ve seen bending demoted from art form to utility - lightningbending used to be respected as the mark of a firebending master, but now young lightningbenders like Mako (all of whom must be very talented) are in menial jobs, using their skill to power the city.

In Aang’s time, bending was expanding. It was innovative and large-scale. Completely new forms were being invented (by Toph, cause she’s awesome).

In Korra’s time, bending is shrinking. And probending is a part of that.

leaving this here for reference e__e

This is all very interesting!! Perhaps, Tenzin understands this and this is why he’s so against probending. (Though as for why Korra needs probending I think it’s because she needs something to focus her bending on.)

I was thinking about Tenzin being so opposed to pro-bending, and I wonder if it’s because he’s acutely aware of the cultural stuff behind bending. I mean, he’s one of the last chances for airbending to continue, and therefore for what remains of air nomad culture to continue. And pro-bending totally removes any kind of context from each bending style- it stops being cultural and having any significance and it begins to just be… a sports match.

The issue isn’t necessarily that pro-bending is ‘bad’, it’s that it risks becoming the default rather than the exception. If pro-bending styles are specifically created for use in the arena and are a ‘special’ style, while elsewhere everyone learns other forms as the ‘normal’ style, then that works. But if pro-bending becomes what people think of when they hear the word ‘bending’ and kids learn specifically to become pro-benders and so on, then that falls apart. Pro-bending styles have to be cut back to create a safe enough environment, I would assume, for professional sports matches, and it can’t possibly work as the ‘normal’ style of bending because it’s so focused.

Like, wow, imagine being Tenzin and thinking of bending as this huge responsibility because it’s the only remaining part of your culture you can be sure to pass on and seeing everyone else just stripping their bending back into a sport and not bothering to continue to develop it in other ways. I can see why it bugs him.