Aromantic asexual atheist obsessed with Star Wars, LotR, and other assorted geekdoms. I appear and disappear in spurts and reblog everything on a queue. Most stuff is tagged plainly for navigation, so have fun wandering here.
Watching the mummy 1999 for shits and giggles, thought it’d be fun to bitch abt the inaccurate hieroglyphs now that I know smth abt all that. Disappointed and disgusted to find out that they hired an egyptologist consultant and the hieroglyphs are actually well done. Night ruined
I love the random replacements for clichés writers insert in science fiction shows. like when a 21st-century human would say “stop pacing you’ll wear a hole in the floor” but in a space show the alien/future human says “you’re oscillating like a Betelgeusian night badger” or some shit. like fuck yeah he is. amazing drive-by worldbuilding. I’m gonna spend the next half hour wondering why the Betelgeusian night badger evolved to do that
Because it is the anniversary of his death, I wanted to share a small story about my grandfather.
Before I knew that I was intersex, I identified as a trans man. And I went the way any trans man has to go if he wants to transition in my country. My parents thankfully were supportive but I was afraid to tell my grandparents. My grandparents were German and lived/were raised during the third reich. While both of them never said or acted in a way that suggested that they had fascist views (my grandfather was until he died part of a leftwing political party), but there still was this fear in me. “They are old, they grew up surrounded by abhorrent beliefs…”. And then there was my aunt. Who would constantly claim that my grandfather was homophobic.
The problem was, back then, there were no openly out gay people in our area, so I never got the chance to see my grandfather interact with someone who was queer. So I just believed her. Because she was so insistent on it. And because it confirmed my fears and my brain loves to be constantly afraid.
But I knew I wanted to come out. I had to, eventually, because I had stopped my estrogen treatment (back then, I did not know that I got that because I was intersex) and went on testosterone instead and first physical changes began to show. We all lived in one big house, so my grandparents would eventually notice.
I was so afraid that my father at some point offered to talk to his parents. I waited outside in the hallway that led to their kitchen and listened.
My father explained, easy to understand, that I was going to transition from female to male because I felt terrible in my body. My grandfather asked, “Is that why the child* is so depressed all this time?” I had been in and out of multiple clinics for manic depression at that point. My father gave a yes. And my grandmother made the incredibly selfish comment, “Can’t that wait until I am dead?”
Before I even got time to be upset, my grandfather slammed his fist down on the table. I had never seen or heard him do anything like that before. He was a very calm and collected man who preferred to leave the room before he got too angry. “No, it can’t wait. The child gets to get well now. And if that is what is going to help, then it needs to be done.”
From that day on, he never used my deadname again or used the wrong pronouns for me. Sometimes, he would stop in a sentence to think and remind himself, but he did always address me correctly.
He celebrated with me when my name was legally changed. He built the bed frame for me and my boyfriend’s bed when we moved in together, just like he had built the first adult sized bedframe for me when I outgrew my small bed. He drove my boyfriend to his chemo sessions because my grandfather also had cancer and knew how terrifying it was to go alone.
Did he fully understand what it means to be intersex? To transition? No. But he understood that one of his loved ones was suffering and that he could help to alleviate that pain. And so he did.
He taught me calligraphy. He taught me how to sew. He taught me bookbinding. He gave me many gifts.
But the biggest gift he gave me was, that when someone hated me for what I am, I could stomach it. Because this man was willing to unlearn the bigotry he had been taught for decades so he could love me for who I am.
*in my grandpa’s dialect it was normal to refer to children as just ‘the child’ (genderless)
EDIT
I was blown away by how many people have reblogged this post. I believe my grandfather would be very happy to see that he can give some hope and love to others even now.
I do not want him to stay faceless; so here is a piece of art I made for his obituary, with a slightly altered quote added now.
Dahlias were his favorite flowers. Orange ones especially. They reminded him of the home he had to flee from as a child.
I’ve already said that my number one piece of writing advice is to read.
But my number two piece of advice is this: be deliberate.
Honestly this would fix so many pieces of bad writing advice. Don’t forbid people from doing something, tell them to be conscious and deliberate about it. This could help stop people from falling into common mistakes without limiting their creativity. Black and white imperatives may stop a few annoying beginner habits, but ultimately they will restrict artistic expression.
Instead of “don’t use epithets”: “Know the effect epithets have and be deliberate about using them.” Because yes, beginners often misuse them, but they can be useful when a character’s name isn’t known or when you want to reduce them to a particular trait they have.
Instead of “don’t use ‘said’” or “just use 'said’”: “Be deliberate about your use of dialogue tags.” Because sometimes you’ll want “said” which fades into the background nicely, but sometimes you will need a more descriptive alternative to convey what a character is doing.
Instead of “don’t use passive voice”: “Be deliberate about when you use passive voice.” Because using it when it’s not needed can detract from your writing, but sometimes it can be useful to change the emphasis of a sentence or to portray a particular state of mind.
Instead of blindly following or ignorantly neglecting the rules of writing, familiarize yourself with them and their consequences so you can choose when and if breaking them would serve what you’re trying to get across.
Your writing is yours. Take control of it.
It probably sounds like I’m preaching to the choir here because most of my mutuals are already great writers. But I’m hoping this will make it to the right people.
of all the wonderful and imaginative Gil-galad origin stories out there, “Fingon stumbles across a stray orphan on the battlefield and adopts him” is maybe my favorite
a single andes chocolate mint from the olive garden can fully nourish an adult human for up to 96 hours
This is genuinely the idea behind Kendal Mint Cake
Say what now?
Kendal Mint Cake is a sort of highly dense lump of sugar flavoured with peppermint oil. It does not spoil, and somehow contains 2x more sugar and glucose than sugar or glucose. It is a purposeful product intended as an emergency ration to give a boost of energy when mountaineering. It is associated with hikers and mountaineers in the UK and is sold in camping/outdoor stores. Typically you keep a packet permanently in your camping bag or car or emergency kit, and just never move or remove it. If the time comes, it’s there.
I gestured a hand across an explanation of a Scottish field geologist character named Ken(dal Mint Cake) stating that he always has a packet of Kendal mint cake somewhere and received a message from a friend saying “I didn’t know you also knew (guy that Ken could conceivably be based on)”. I didn’t. This is just a portrait of too many extant guys.
There are several species of this man crashing cheerfully around the UK receiving deep spiritual pleasure from crouching in a puddle in a howling gale up a mountain nibbling pieces of violent mint sugar and apparently metabolising sufficient joy from this to polish off Kendal Mint Cake in marketable quantities for over 100 years.
Unless they made too much of it originally and are still selling it.
It isn’t sugar cube. It’s sugar to the fourth power. Nobody sounds reasonable talking about it.
So I read the first 30 or so animorphs many times over. I also read #54 and the Ellimist Chronicles a lot. But the ones in the late 30s through the 50s, I probably only read once or twice. What are the highlight books in that span? The ones that you get excited about in the re-read?
TBH, #36 - #52 really is where the series dips in quality. Continuity gets shaky, Jordan and Rachel especially have out-of-character notes, and some of the plots are After School Special Handled Badly. But. Many excellent books to be had in there. My favorites:
#38: The Arrival One of the less popular books overall, but my favorite Ax story. I love how the andalite Suicide Squad coming to Earth becomes this visceral demonstration of how much better the Animorphs have gotten than even elite andalite fighters, because the Animorphs are just so damn experienced. It also forces Ax to confront his growing discomfort with andalite imperialism while also driving home just how lonely he is as the only member of his species on this entire planet. He wants to go home, but even if home’s waiting for him, he’s no longer the person who fit in there.
#45: The Revelation Of course I’m a sucker for any book that lets Eva be awesome, but I also really like the pacing and tonal shifts in this one. It goes from light (Marco at dinner with Peter and Nora) to horrifying (Peter almost infested) to bittersweet (Nora infested, Rachel being a true bro) to bleak and disturbing (Visser One’s near-death) to almost giddy with tension and humor (stealing the Bug fighter) to horrifying again (Eva not being the sweet person Marco remembers). It feels like the best of Marco’s narration, silly and dark all at once.
#49: The Diversion Mostly I like this one for the deep irony in Tobias’s and Jake’s arcs. Tobias starts out darkly humorous about how he’s their least source of worry since he doesn’t have any family, while they’re all micro-focused on Jake because they plan to evacuate Tom. Tobias ends trying not to pity the now family-less Jake (because he knows how much it sucks to be pitied) as he and his mom and her dog sit on a park bench playing fetch together. It all reverses, in the span of a few hours. And Jake’s mistake is what got them there.
#51: The Absolute Another one of my all-time favorite books, because the Marco-Ax-Tobias dynamic is unparalleled. It’s a breath of fresh air before the awful bleakness of the endgame, a chance to let the three Animorphs who are actually having an okay time of it have one last wacky adventure set against the backdrop of their friends falling apart around them.
#43. The Test
Look, I know it’s everyone’s least favorite Tobias book, but I love it. Starts with him dissasociating and introspecting so hard he almost misses an entire search team in the woods, which is really the only info we’ve gotten from the kids about Tobias’s mental state post torture: he’s weirdly moody and disassociates. The rescuing the kid was tense and wholesome. We got a lot of side comments from him that really show he’s hanging on to his sanity by a single thread. One of the more heartbreaking ones is when the vets, who he’s never met, leave for the night and he’s like “They’re leaving me?? No, everyone leaves me. :(”
The reappearance of Taylor is horrifying. Tobias is literally shaking with fear the entire time and relishing the thought of death to escape the situation. And then we get to the other kids and their insistence to Not Bring Up Torture in front of him. Which is well meaning, but so not the move. Really reminiscence of when Tobias was first trapped in morph. It doesn’t help Tobias’s whole “No see guys, I’m totally fine. I won’t break down at the mention of torture. I’ll prove it to you. Let’s work with Taylor and I’ll morph Taylor and I’ll be totally chill. :)))”
Taylor’s personality change is stark and from what I’ve seen, something that has been criticized a lot. But it shows how much the aftermath of #33 has actually affected her. She failed to break an andalite warrior. She’s fallen in the eyes of visser three. Her formally voluntary host and friend has turned on her. She’s also barely hanging on to her sanity.
The moral debates are morally debating. Tobias’s inner struggles are interesting. Did he trap himself on purpose? And what does that mean? Is he strong or is he weak? Why does he relate so strongly to Taylor and the tax on morph, both creatures he’s disgusted by and pities? Why does he keep defending Taylor?
The scene where he gets all his friends to safety, while the taxxon hunger screams at him while they’re literally in his mouth, really shows Tobias’s biggest strength: being able to push his inner turmoils aside to get the job done. Not necessarily overcome the turmoils, but ignore them
Also, so many times he looks at Rachel for strength in this book specifically. Really showing the codependency there. And will not at all come back and bite him in the ass (*cries in #54*)
Theme
12:03pmApril 22, 2025
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