Anghraine

In response to this post, yavieriel said:

I don't have particularly strong K/S feelings - TOS Shatner has Dad Vibes too strong for me to overcome - but this has been a delightful journey to watch you take.

I replied:

Interesting, I see that more easily from Nimoy than Shatner, but we all feel the Dad Vibes differently, lol. And thanks, haha—I went from "this is just part of the fabric of the universe of me, I'm not passionate but it just kind of IS to me" to "beating my head against the wall to avoid going insane" so fast it feels like whiplash!

yavieriel said:

Oh that is fascinating, Spock is entirely "hot but unapproachable college prof" to me. I can't even slightly imagine him drinking beer while grilling, or mowing the lawn in cheesy tshirts, or coaching t-ball. Whereas I feel like Kirk would be entirely comfortable with those things, and probably somewhat enthusiastic. My own dad's very stereotypical middle class cishet guy-ness is definitely somewhat performative, but it's not insincere, if that makes sense? Which also matches with Kirk's vibes for me.

I replied:

Ah, I see! My own dad is an extremely reserved and intense programmer from LA with zero interest in the various sportsballs and a great value for reason and debate (and board games that require some amount of tactical thinking), and we've always been conspicuously similar and close. Also Spock continually being on the receiving end of microaggressions is pretty true to the ways my dad has been targeted (as a multiracial Mexican-American man), so Nimoy's Spock feels all the more familiar. That said, I think partly the show sexualizes Kirk so much that I personally find it hard to see him as exactly paternal despite the strong Father To His Crew vibes. But I can see that as a way to read, for instance, Uhura saying she finds it soothing to listen to his voice through the intercom when she's nervous—it could be seen as a shippy thing, but obviously isn't intended that way.

An anon asked:

Have you seen emma 2020 yet? I'm dying to know your take on it haha

I replied:

I haven’t, sorry!

I’d like to say that it’s the PhD taking up too much of my time, but … lbr, it’s actually that I’ve been watching cartoons for seven-year-olds.

turtletotem on Tumblr responded to this post's tags:

#I HAVE SUCH FEELINGS

kasadilla11 responded to turtletotem's reblog:


yangbeifongs responded to the original post (on 6 April 2021):

#feels intensifying #I srsly love that scene #it hits every time #even just reading about it..

ellowie said:


#this scene... #i love it

jinxedcatra said:

#the future scene kills me

adoras-braincell said:

#I’m going to be thinking about this for the rest of the day

I meant to reblog a bunch of these and never reblogged any of them, but I really enjoyed them all and wanted to preserve the Adora feelings fest.

heckofabecca responded to this post:

:D :D :D :D :D

[ETA 5/28/2024: Becca has probably been on the receiving end of my Guild Wars feelings more than any other person, so... ]

sulfin-evend said:

I love your take on Gondor. What do you make of Boromir's quote in the council of Elrond paraphrasing "those who shelter behind us give us much praise but little help". I presume he is talking about other Gondorians. And the Stewards are often referred to as Lords of Minas Tirth or lord of the city.

What does this mean for how Gondor and its provinces view themselves and how its armies function. Are the Princes of Dol Amroth minting their own coin? Do the lords of Morthond present their daughters at the Stewards court? Are all the lords related to each other in a tangle of blood and marriage ties or do they keep to their home fiefs? It could be envisioned so many ways I am curious to read your perspective.

I replied:

Thanks!

I’ve always taken the opposite reading of Boromir’s line—that he’s talking about the peoples of Middle-earth sheltering behind Gondor generally, and this is why (if I’m remembering correctly) the others at the council go out of their way to point out that it’s not just Gondor that’s protecting the people of Middle-earth.

That said, Tolkien described the Princes of Dol Amroth as almost independent, but not quite; they’re “tributary princes” who contribute … something … to Gondor as a state. So while it might not look exactly like taxation as we’d understand it and could refer to things other than money, I do think it suggests some degree of cohesion, if even the Princes of Dol Amroth (definitely the most powerful and independent of the regional nobles) have to contribute to the whole.

We do see that the fiefs have a lot of authority when it comes to what troops they raise and where they send them. They only sent 1/10th of the forces at their command to help defend Minas Tirith because they were so worried about their own people, and seem to have been entirely free to make that call (and the people of Minas Tirith are disappointed but not enraged). So there’s still quite a bit of regional power in the military sense, at least. But Tolkien also said that a Dúnadan king or Ruling Steward was a fairly absolute ruler in other ways (esp dealing with interpretation of law), so it may be that the lords’ authority is particularly pronounced in military matters and more limited in others.

I do imagine that there would be a lot of intermarriage between the Dúnadan noble families, given that there are only so many of them. While Gondorians have less hang-ups about ~purity than in the Kinstrife days, I think it’s still something people are conscious of, as with Éowyn’s joke that Faramir’s people will wonder why he didn’t choose a woman “of the race of Númenor” to be his wife (she doesn’t seem to think her ¼ Númenórean ancestry will count for Gondorians).

IMO it’s entirely probable that the Stewards and Princes of Dol Amroth have intermarried multiple times, say—not with first cousins (I think that taboo became pretty non-negotiable post-Akallabêth), but more distant connections. Perhaps Imrahil is recognizable as part-Elvish to Legolas despite the generational distance from Mithrellas because Imrahil’s actually descended from her many times over. Etc.

[ETA 5/24/2024: sulfin-evend did respond to this, but given that they acknowledged being "contrary" in this interaction and that they defended Elrond's profoundly racist characterization of modern Gondor, I didn't feel inclined to reply again.]

heckofabecca responded to this post:

OH MY GOD I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO REMEMBER THE NAME OF WIZARD'S HALL FOR YEARSSSSSSS

I replied:

Glad to help! I haven’t read it since I was a kid, but it’s always stuck with me—maybe because it was such an influence on what I decided to write.

heckofabecca responded:

Dude the whole quilt of people and their names was SO DARK!!!!

I replied:

yesss

lotesse responded:

wizards hall is so good. did you ever read the pit dragon trilogy? I loved those

I replied:

I didn't!

toomerrymaiden said:

I loved the incarnations of immortality, it's a shame

I replied:

Yeah. :\

I mean, they always had their Anthony issues, but there was a lot that was really interesting and engaging about them (especially On a Pale Horse and With a Tangled Skein IMO). But he’s … blech.

gemmamelon said:

I, too, want Emelan, and was, just the other day, vaguely imagining Mara Wilson as Rosethorn, because I think she’d be able to be appropriately spiky while having a warm relationship with child actors that would also show through, on screen.

argumate responded to this post:

it’s a sword! or is it an advanced nanotech input device with a sharp edge 🤔

I replied:

And either way, it has a magic runestone!

thatvolyova responded to this post:

OH YES YOU'RE ON SHE-RA

I replied:

Yes! Loved her as a kid and I'm loving the new show :)

turtletotem said:

"Corridors" made me BAWL with Catra feelings, I watched it twice back to back

An anon said:

I was also told by a psychologist that bipolar depression is usually worse than mdd/unipolar depression, it really is messed up how it’s overlooked and people seem to really underestimate how bad it is to have bipolar ii. Like it’s not that bad if you don’t have mania that ends up with you in the hospital

I replied:

Some quick research turned up a lot of debate about bipolar vs major depression, but regardless, I agree that there seems this tendency to understate/underestimate what bipolar II is like. Of course mania is more severe than hypomania (that’s what defines the distinction!), but depression is so dominant in both that only treating bipolar I as the real deal is puzzling and awful IMO.

And if “mere” hypomania is supposedly not enough to make bipolar II a serious problem for those of us with it, what about depression with no mania at all? It’s just a terribly harmful perspective all around.

tree responded to this post:

i have a different mix of disorders but the exact same thoughts/feelings. and it fucking sucks. <3

I replied:

It does! I appreciate the solidarity, though :)