His Dark Materials is a franchise that tackles so many branches of physics and even creates a universe where the main course of study is experimental theology which is all about identifying and explaining dark matter while also adding dimensions to string theory, the multiverse theory, and the very concept of the human soul. At the same time, it aggressively calls out the problem with the state being controlled by the church, how people are condemned for being different and religious fearmongering stops the chance at growth both on an individual and a societal scale. It’s a franchise where the heroes of the story are two children who aren’t allowed to know the prophecy they’re a part of, who save the world unwittingly simply by doing what they believe to be right. Meanwhile, the person who thought he was the hero all along, the person who rallied an army from multiple universes to FIGHT. GOD. HIMSELF. is ultimately consumed by his own ego and forced to take a back seat when he realises he’s just one tiny piece of a much larger story that’s true heart is his own daugher. The child he abandoned, the child he didn’t know or care to know how to look after. It’s a franchise about finding love even when your biological family abandon you, it’s about looking evil in the eye and seeing your own mother, it’s about good and evil not being black and white but instead a complex and cruel mixture of both. It’s about the two worst people you know banding together at the last second to save their daughter with their final breaths. It’s about exploration and learning how to grow through experience, it’s about kindness being shared across the multiverse, exchanging stories with strangers and saving the whole world by doing something perfectly ordinary and receiving no reward.
Oh, and it’s also a franchise rich with fantasy, with giant talking polar bears, witches and ghosts, angels and daemons, and a mammal-like species from another world that travels exclusively on roller skates.
And it fucking. rocks.
Sevika, Vi and Ekko, who never saw eye to eye, bonding after Jinx's death over the fact that Sevika was there for her when neither of them were.
Sevika, telling them about the softer side of the girl with the manic eyes.
The three of them getting together, to try and piece together a full picture of Powder and Jinx. Vi, who knew who she started as. Sevika, who knew who she became. And Ekko, who knew who she could have been.
Y'know what else I love? How damn much Ed loves and wants Stede. Like, no one outside the crew can believe it. Izzy thinks Ed's brain has broken. Zheng straight-up keeps saying that Ed dumped Stede. Archie is flabbergasted that Stede is "STEDE Stede?!"
The Revenge crew all get it, though. They went from plotting mutiny to defending him with all their might. Lucius watches Ed and Stede fall in love in real-time. Jim, the most deeply critical of Stede from the start, tells his stories to Fang and longs for when life had meaning on the ship. Olu stays up all night with him and later follows him everywhere. The Swede owes him a life debt. Buttons, probably the most experienced sailor of the group, declares him a pirate with his whole chest.
Stede just showed up one day with his fancy unicorn boat and fancy clothes and depth of human kindness and promptly seduced the most feared pirate of Caribbean without even trying.
They're like the Roger and Jessica Rabbit of pirates.
Gif by @nicostiel
I agree, queerness is more than gender and sexual orientation, and I have been saying as well that Our flag means death represents these other parts so well.
Belonging together when we don't belong in most places. Seeing another queer practicing self-expression and getting the courage to try ourselves. The childlike wonder afterwards with some make-up or new outfit we would have not allowed ourselves to enjoy before. The community singing along, even when we are not doing a perfect show.
The kindness. Encouraging each other to face our emotions. The messiness and yet the magic of it all.
When Izzy first walked out I was worried that he would be made into a joke that the crew would laugh at
but then he started singing and the dancing began and I realized that he wasn’t meant to be a joke at all. This is the most open and happy we’ve ever seen Izzy and the show treated it that way. Not mocking him but instead celebrating this moment.
When we talk about queer representation it’s usually just focused on queer relationships, but what I love about this episode is it shows other sides of being queer. That moment where Izzy saw Wee John doing his makeup and had a realization that he wanted that too? That is what being queer means to me. The crew singing along and cheering for him? That is what being apart of the queer community means to me.
What i love about this show is that it shows queer joy, not in a sanitized way, but in away that is messy, beautiful, and without any mockery or shame.
"I don't want to be a burden" By asking for help and support, you are giving me the opportunity to show up for you, to be loving, to connect, to put to good use the skills I learned in being a human, that's all a gift. If you feel safe enough to be a bit vulnerable with me, that's a fucking compliment. Can't wait for the next time you will give me the chance to be there for you.
“I don’t want to be a burden” you’re more like a relief, a gift, a blessing actually
I don't want to participate in cruelty. In meanness, in fear. Sometimes I do, because I'm human and hurt, but most of the time finding some kindness in my heart is what will allow me to endure this cruel world. One of my worst fear is the world hurting me so badly that kindness, trust, and love would not be accessible for me anymore.
I do everything in my power for that to not happen. When I feel my heart closing up, I fight to open it again.
a good way to inspire yourself to do more is to see yourself as the wacky sitcom B plot character in your friends lives, "wouldnt it be funny to tell the friends in my phone about it." has gotten me to do anything from going to a festival (excelent) to wild camping (it went badly) (coastguard called) to trying to get the train to stonehenge (stonehenge costs money so i ended up just getting lunch in sailsbury, it was okay.) i bought a bicycle today and 20% of my reasoning was "itd be funny to surprise my roommate by coming home with a whole bike." . life is for living. and baby i live for the bit.
been thinking about fantasy/scifi rule systems and free will
As Uncle Iroh said in the last airbender: "if you look for a light, you can always find it. If you look for darkness, it is all you'll ever see."
Though I am realistic about the misery in the world, I refuse to lose sight of hope.
Sea animals, hopepunk, fantasy, queerness, and a bit of philosophy
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