this existence has been downgrading for a while

august BirdWhisperer painting - a neat little guy i'd never seen before, a bateleur eagle

reference photo by Abubakr Bapir

I love her so much

(Bernadette Banner, in a video redesigning the clothes on romance novel colors to be more period-accurate)

A sketch I don't think I'll bother finishing

At the Nosferatu in 35mm showing last night, the host told everyone to keep off your phones and don't talk or else he would "send a burly man to suck you dry" and I really don't think that guy considered his choice of words, it wasn't really the threat he intended

Backyard King

cracking myself up thinking about the movement towards simplified forms in cave paintings

grug: grug must paint every hair on buffalo in realistic detail

thog: grug can chill out, audience know what buffalo look like. just do one line like thog

thog: cave painting world no longer look for photorealism. expression of form and movement is new frontier

grug: but then how will grug demonstrate high level of skill? grug have art degree

thog: any caveman represent buffalo as it is. grug must represent what it means to grug

grug: hm. this will challenge grug. but grug enjoy rising to occasion

[Image ID: Reply from crematedEqually reading: I sent this to my former anthropology advisor (he worked with Neanderthal and cro magnon sites but he helped me a lot with my art history minor) and he sent me back a single thumbs up emoji and a picture 40 minutes later showing he'd printed it out and thumbtacked it to his bedroom wall. /End ID]

- the scar on her eye is both a cut and a burn. when she fell in all that fire the only spot unprotected by her armor was the break in her helm, and now it's a patch of burned skin. the harsher scar pictured here is present as well because that scar comes from the initial blow from finn.

- i'm also willing to bet phasma doesn't wear makeup either. "there's no time for it nor is there a need". however she would, on free time/when she's training, wear industrial/cargo pants, thick military/combat boots, and a gray tee tucked in neatly with a simple black belt. the logo to accompany that shirt is a small first order sigil near the collarbone and on her pants she would wear patches with her name, rank, and perhaps home flag on it as well as the first order's sigil as a patch.

- she's not offended by the assumption of masculinity, because she takes on the role of forceful and brutal commander whilst maintaining a strong reputation amongst the ranks of the first order. secretly, though she sees him as freakish and only tolerates him for his status, she's quite amused by kylo ren and wouldn't have it any other way. “the first order is not the same without him." she would also quietly tease him for his inability to find the map to skywalker.

- she would also probably take great pride in how shiny her armor is and routinely keep it clean on her free time, desperate to keep scuffs and marks out of it. she doesn't like deformalities, especially when it comes to her personal items.

- in terms of where her loyalties lie , she is ultimately loyal to herself despite her position and rank amongst her fellows. she would never admit it out loud though, and keep to herself about that opinion, but if it came down to her or a few members of her troops, she'd be fine with the sacrifice.

- phasma would probably pretend her baton is a lightsaber on occasion, side training with saber combat on either opponents or training dummies. if she is caught doing so, she would most certainly threaten the life of whoever caught her playing pretend. "you won't tell a soul if you value your life. now get back to work.”

- she probably secretly drinks tea in her quarters as well because she's british and it's natural.

in my humble opinion , she is most certainly , “gaslight , gatekeep , girlboss”.

(grits teeth while i write my stupid little fanfic with my awful little words full of bad ideas) most readers will want two cakes. most readers will want two cakes.

Junco hyemalis | Spizella passerina | Spizella pusilla | Amphispiza bilineata | Pooecetes gramineus | Ammodramus savannarum | Passerculus sandwichensis

Plate XXIII | Die Nordamerikanische Vogelwelt (1891)

I'm thinking, once again, about the Star Wars sequel trilogy and the incredible wasted potential of the characters. Specifically, I'm thinking about Rey and Poe as foils against Phasma and Hux.

Here, we have two men who were raised from birth as true believers in opposing causes, the only sons of heroes, who then far surpassed their parents in fame and influence. There are some hints of contrast, in that we see the stark differences in how they lead, but the films are almost maliciously committed to misunderstanding Poe as a character*, that I have to assume those moments are purely accidental.

Then there's Rey and Phasma, two women from baren, brutal worlds, with a single name and no legacy**, who survive and succeed based entirely on raw talent and relentless determination. Phasma is nominally set up as a contrast for Finn, but she ends up being an unsatisfying personal villain. Likewise, Rey is set in opposition to Kylo Ren, but that whole dynamic is so messy and loaded, without exploring any of the meaningful parallels and conflicts between them***.

There's also something to be said about contrasting sibling dynamics. With Rey and Poe, we get glimpses of a squabbling rivalry rooted in obvious affection, whereas Phasma and Hux are shown (in EU material) to have a conspiratorial closeness based on mutual respect and mutually assured destruction. Neither of these relationships is developed to full potential or used to develop the narrative or themes of the films.

The reliance on external knowledge to prop up the core films is a long-standing critique of Star Wars, and I wholeheartedly agree that the movies should be able to stand on their own. However, given the volume and emphasis on the extended universe, it's reasonable to expect at least some degree of consistency. In the case of these characters and others, though, the most interesting character development is either jarringly ignored or deliberately removed, as with a scene cut from The Last Jedi which tells more about Phasma in two minutes than the rest of her screen time combined. There's plenty of discussion to be had about what's actually in the films, but I think the great tragedy of the sequel trilogy is what could have been there and isn't.

Footnotes and reading recs under the cut.

Shoutout to selfshippers who feel left out, selfshippers who feel as if they aren't enough or aren't acknowledged. Selfshippers who feel as if people don't listen to them or brush off what they have to say. You are always going to be enough for your f/os. They notice when you feel alone and disregarded in certain situations, and they'll do their best to give you the attention you deserve. They'll make sure you feel included, because you deserve to be listened to and heard.

Oh, damn me the day I take you for granted!

im a fucking sucker for the “character gets so badly injured that they can’t think clearly and start calling for help in a distressingly vulnerable way.” characters who start using nicknames for their friends they haven’t used since they were kids. characters who start begging for their brother they haven’t seen in years to be there. characters who would usually use their parents’ names or call them mother/father/etc crying out mama when they go down. u understand.

job search

so I found the Phasma novel in the bookstore and I wasn’t gonna get it I was just like “ooh silly let’s open it till I get a page with Hux on it”…

Tell me how this is the page I opened to

HOW????

FUCKING HOW????

SCARBABRHATHEYEYHEJEYJYYEJEEE

needless to say the universe was telling me something I’m buying the book

Look I have zero excuses for this, but the idea popped into my head and now it's in your head, sorry