Actual live reaction.
Noooo!! NO! No no no no no! Oh Noooooo! No no
I cannot believe that cliffhanger!!! đđđđđ
Like literally screaming, throwing hands in my living room.
We only get partial seasons and now they are pulling this shit? I have to wait until next year????
How dare!?! Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!
Ok current status is screaming. Sorry sorry I will try and control myself but holy shit my heart is pounding like crazy.
Continue readingIâm watching The Mandalorian Season 3 (I know I am late) but I am bothered by several things this episode.
1) the unfortunately realistic amnesty of scientists which is uncomfortably close to what happened post-WW2. Like the Empire was so big they had to give a lot of Imperials a pass as they couldnât imprison half the Galaxy but where is the line drawn? The amnesty seemed to apply to people who stayed with Empire remnants. I donât know I just have a âwhat about justice for their victims?â kind of disquiet because of that scene with the Coruscant elite.
Tell me that was supposed to be disturbing with the guy going ârepublic? Empire? Rebels? Whatâs the diff? Who can keep up?â because life was forever a gravy train for him. Because it was seriously disturbing. And having Pershing address that packed auditorium was uncomfortable both for the platform it gave him given his crimes, but also for the performative gratitude towards the mercy of the New Republic which felt icky. Like an adopted kid having to be grateful for their food and housing. Like no if itâs the right thing to do, no need to fawn over doing the right thing.
I donât know the whole thing is just like slippery slope doom feeling. I mean if they want to hint beyond what we already know as to why the New Republic failed then good job.
2) the naming of these amnesty scientists with numbers. Like whaaaat? Why? Thatâs stripping humanity. The clones had numbers and took names because they were people and deserved an identity. Why are they taking that from these people they are claiming to be helping? So wrong. I get they are dealing with a lot of people and social security numbers make sense but thatâs for a database – not to address them. Use their names dammit.
3) the obvious terror of this mind flayer. Like dress it up all you want. Itâs clearly the same tech and crucially itâs involuntary. And they did it without listening to him, by trusting another amnesty person. No investigation. This messes with his mind and they just overruled him like he has no rights. Ok so heâs a prisoner/on probation but that shouldnât matter. There should still be basic rights otherwise how is the republic better than the empire? Let him choose this treatment or prison. Give him information about it. Let him have time to think. Not wake him up from being stunned/arrested and then zap. So wrong.
I canât believe this is what Leia and Hera and my beloved rebels fought for. No wonder they left for the Resistance.
So I have had my piano now for a couple of weeks. Watched a ton of YouTube videos, I have a request in for several theory books at the library, and I have been messing around on FlowKey.
Yeah I know zero chill.
But you see what happens is I start and then I notice something like – itâs hard coordinating my hands – and then I go down a rabbit hole of watching lots of videos for tips about that. That leads to other videos like âbiggest mistakes self-taught piano players makeâ or âthings I wish I had focused on more when starting to learnâ etc. which then leads to more rabbit holes about music theory (as apparently just attempting to play what is there without understanding it is bad) and then yeah I am here.
Anyway while I was sleeping last night I was dreaming and the whole âkey of the songâ and âscalesâ thing clicked. I think I also get how the chords connect but not sure. Seriously most useful dream I have had in a while, usually itâs screaming nightmares so yay.
But itâs a bit like art. I have a lot of general knowledge floating around my head. I can look at sheet music and read it (the more complex, the slower I am but I can do it). However, that doesnât translate to my hands doing what I want them to do.
My setup is bad at the moment and is killing my back. The piano is much too high on the Lego table so itâs easier to stand (as if I sit I am below it) but I donât think standing is sustainable long term. I ordered a piano stand this morning and so hopefully I can move forward with proper posture/practice.
When it comes to practice though I am not too sure what I should focus on. Keyboard familiarity obviously so scales, chords; Rhythm so practicing with a metronome etc. But when it comes to songs⌠Iâm having a bit of a logic question.
Maybe itâs because every song feels like the same approach but if itâs just a matter of practicing the key combinations, working out the fingering, and then getting smoother until I have the right rhythm – what does it matter if I practice a song marked âbeginnerâ or âadvancedâ? Yeah the advanced has more notes, more movement, requires more coordination etc. But it requires practice either way. Break it down into sections, do a couple of measures at a time, do hands separately and then try hands together etc.
I donât know I am just having a âwell why canât I try it?â type reaction. Not going to lie itâs fun to hear my own hands make notes I can recognise. Is it smooth or in proper timing? Hell no. But I have been playing only a couple of weeks and with no stand and also being afraid of making too much noise (I have an order in for headphones too) I would say my practice has thus far been hindered.
I do have a very bad habit of trying to run before I can walk. I am like this with art. I jump right into trying to draw full pieces rather than do practice studies, as itâs the full pieces that are the reason I want to draw. Same with the piano. I want to learn to play the songs I like. I donât know if as an âadult learnerâ who isnât going to bother with any tests or anything, I can get away with that, or if I am ultimately doing myself a disservice by skipping the practice of the beginner songs.
Anyway eventually I hope the lady at the music school who does piano will feel better, or they will hire a substitute, and I can have a lesson and ask these silly questions about learning effectively. I wish I could find an art teacher who could give me a course of study too. Trying to chart my own path does feel a lot like flailing most of the time.
The dream is the same as with everything I attempt (writing, art and now music). I just want to feel competent, like I am good enough.
Wow ok. I wasnât really feeling the episode all that much until Uhura sang. I guess I wasnât vibing with the songs. Plus the sound felt weird. Iâm not sure if they recorded the songs in a sound studio and it was essentially dubbed, or if it just sounded a bit disconnected because of the dubbed in background music.
Anyway Uhuraâs solo was wow. That hit. Could really feel the heart in it. Her smile is infectious I swear. The way she can light up the room.
I laughed so hard with the Klingons 𤣠I thought they were going to rap or something but then it was like hello Barbie. No wonder they felt so dishonoured. The high pitch alone. Considering that the music targets emotions not willingly expressed it actually makes more sense than some kind of war chant or something. The music pulls from them what they donât want to share.
The way Uhura hummed at the end and freaked everyone out and they are looked at her, and she flashed that cute smile and said âearwormâ. Although like the others werenât into it a bit. I mean câmon Pike it had exploded, it was all over, and he still did a little dance with Pelia – that was all him, not space anomaly induced đ
Anyway I would deffo listen to Uhuraâs solo over and over. Maybe Laâanâs as well. Not so sure about the rest.
As âfunâ episodes go I still prefer The Elysian Kingdom (if we can call that fun given what happened with MâBengaâs daughter đ˘) but this musical wasnât bad.
I just realised what is bothering me about live action Hera – I canât see any markings on her lekku. They just look like solid green in the trailers đ
In which I find a bunch of amazing comments in my AO3 inbox đđđ and now I am hoping I didnât come across too weird in the effusiveness of my gratitude.
But yeah wow. If anybody ever wants to make an authors day – or hell their month – thatâs the way to do it.
On a related note anyone know why AO3 isnât emailing me comments anymore? Itâs still set to do so. I am sad. I mean I nearly didnât know about these!!! They lay undiscovered like some kind of present ambush, in the best possible sense.
Saw a lot of Ahsoka posts on my dash earlier and had a small ahhhh!! that I had misremembered the air date. But no itâs ok it is still August 23rd.
Anyway I have a lot of fears about this show (and a lot of anticipation) because itâs my beloved Ghost crew.
Honestly though the biggest fear in my mind right now is that Ezra is going to be the masked bad guy. I know he dabbled with the dark side at the start of season three, and itâs a lifelong struggle. I know in Jedi Survivor Cal Kestis faced his own version of that struggle which might lead to more in the next game (I presume there will be a third). So itâs not without precedent and maybe thatâs why I donât want it.
It just feels tired to have Ezra fall to the dark side. Yeah he could find a way back to some kind of life like Reva did. I also know that as Ezra played no part in the sequel, with Luke or Rey, that he has to be written out somehow and that a happy ending probably isnât on the table. A similar fate no doubt is in store for Cal Kestis to keep him off the board somehow.
Iâm not one of those that hate Order 66 survivors because there is still only a handful out of 10,000. It feels a hell of a lot more realistic to go with the idea that a first cut got a lot of them. First strike decimated the masters especially, as they were in the thick of the war, or had younger Jedi to protect. After that it was hunting down the escaped Padawans, or the knights who had been on solo missions etc. They would have never established the Inquisitors if there hadnât really been any to hunt. Time on the run cleared up almost everyone over the years between Order 66 and A New Hope. So I find it realistic that there were survivors, I like it as a story, but I hate it because they decided that Luke had to be the only Jedi from A New Hope on which puts an unfair expiration date on all the other characters that we care about.
Personally I donât see why they had to go in that direction. The rebellion was more than one cell. It always was. So yeah there werenât any other Jedi alongside Luke for the three original trilogy movies. Didnât mean they werenât out there – could just have meant they were doing other things. The first Death Star mission got laid on fast, the second they had time so itâs a little more suspect they wouldnât have called back any other Jedi to help, but then again they didnât need them. Just people blew up the second Death Star, just people dealt with the ground force. Lukeâs mission was more personal than anything and yeah a great distraction and ensured the Emperor âdiedâ but that was hardly the main goal.
Anyway I want Ezra to have made friends in Wild Space, connected with more awesome cool creatures. To have a lot of stories to tell his family when they find him, and it can all be warm and loving because they didnât doubt one another. And he has that solid certainty of a Jedi that he really came to own in season 4, and he protects his family and tells Jacen all about his dad. Just Ezra being grown but still himself and still family.
Maybe itâs a cheat to say âjust because we didnât see it doesnât mean it wasnât always thereâ. But why not? Adding new material is at its core filling in blanks. If some of those blanks include more Jedi being alive for longer then I am ok with that.
I just donât want to see Ezra all twisted and agonised, and have to witness Hera and Sabine grapple with him being lost, and all the anguish of having to fight their family. Just no. Been there, done that, bored with it. Give me supportive family instead, thank you.
Oooof
I am trying to bring order to my thoughts itâs hard. I keep rewriting and deleting. How can StarFleet claim to be so enlightened and evolved and yet be this bad with mental health?
Itâs endemic because itâs not just this episode, itâs not SNW, itâs pretty much all Trek. I have no idea whether the writers are intending the really awful way that makes StarFleet look or if they are just that dense about it themselves. The hope and promise of Star Trek just does not apply when mental health is concerned.
Picard was fucking awful for this. I wonât go into that here and now but boy do I have a lot to say.
In terms of StarFleet playing out the issues of the day – yeah totally. It was politically convenient and it got them something they wanted to gloss over that dudes war crimes. I can also totally buy the directive of âplay niceâ. Itâs politics and itâs not at all out of character for StarFleet but I hate it.
So I am coming at this from two angles really.
Continue readingSo I need another hobby like I need a hole in my head buuuuuut tomorrow I am getting a digital piano đ
When I was a kid I had a keyboard. I got rid of it when I was 9 due to family drama. I didnât give up the idea of learning to play and asked if I could have lessons when I was at high school. Somehow that morphed into clarinet lessons (which mystifies me to this day as how??). I was thoroughly unsuited as an asthmatic as I didnât have nearly enough puff for a wind instrument. It didnât last and I havenât touched a musical instrument in 20 years.
In that 20 years though I have listened to piano arrangements of songs, or listened to songs with a strong piano melody, and imagined playing. Last year when I started visualising living in my own place I thought about getting a piano but decided against it. I mean it really wasnât the time with all the other expenses and besides I was – am! – going all in with art. I already struggle to balance art and writing and games and Lego and reading etc. Something else is just crazy.
But I have this picture in my head I canât shake of the peace of playing on the piano, of losing myself in the melody. I reached out to two places in my town for lessons but neither have worked out thus far. Itâs possible one will in time but I have a character flaw of impatience and decided I would try and practice on my own in the meantime.
It could all go horribly wrong. I am scared and excited all at once. The keyboard comes with a free few months of FlowKey which is a learning app and I hope that will be good to get me started. I always try to run before I can walk, and throw myself at that brick wall of endless frustration. I have a list of songs I want to learn to play which is probably horribly ambitious. Have to see how it goes.
I tried Lower Decks and didnât vibe with it so 95% of my knowledge of it comes via osmosis on tumblr.
I like that the voice actors were the actors for the live action. That’s really cool and they did a great job. I particularly liked Mariner. She had such a great vibe.
I found the episode quite weird. I didnât love it but I didnât hate it how I thought I might. I was genuinely touched for Una. After everything sheâs been through that must have been incredible to hear.