Multi-fandom blog of various things, such as Merlin, Orphan Black, Hannibal, Star Trek (of course), Marvel, and many, many others too numerous to name. Sit back, relax, kick up your feet, and enjoy the scrolling.
simple and effective ways to deal with stress include AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have crossed the horizon to find you. I know your name.
Okay but legitimately… this scene is so powerful in some beautifully subtle ways…
One of the tricks that filmmakers use to give an audience visual cues is that when somebody is in a position of power they walk from left to right - because that is the direction Westerner’s read, so it’s how we naturally view everything - and when somebody is in a place of weakness they walk right to left. It’s why when there’s a battle, the people who are going to win ALWAYS come from the left.
But this… Moana is coming from the right, and Teka is coming from the left. The water behind Moana is pale, while the water behind Teka is bright and vibrant - the bright blue and orange overpowering the pale blue and tan.
All of the visual cues are putting Moana in a place of weakness.
All of the visual cues are telling us that Moana is not going to win.
But that’s the strength of Moana… All throughout the movie she questions why the ocean chose her, and I think this very beautifully spells it out. She wasn’t chosen because she put a turtle into the ocean, or because she’s the daughter of the village chief, or because she’s descended from voyager.
The reason the ocean chose her is because when you put her in a position of weakness she will always turn that into a strength. The reason the ocean chose her is because she won’t back down when things are impossible, when the odds are against her, and when everything around her is signalling her imminent defeat.
Only a very special person could be so completely overpowered, and still be stronger than everything around her.
Ever wonder how big wolves are and why running from them is a really bad idea?
This had me so fucked up the first time I worked at the zoo. Because honestly they just look like big German-Huskies when they’re not wild. They look like big puppies. And then… they get close to you… And it’s suddenly kinda fucking terrifying. Like “oh this is the animal that used to scare people shitless.” “This is the animal that used to run through nightmares and poems so much.” And you suddenly fucking get it. As cool as these animals are far away, as important as the animals are in their natural environment, as much as we need them to survive… they’re still pretty fucking terrifying
can you believe these things became our friends
And then people domesticated them and now sleep with them in their beds.
We’re not a species meant to last
I’d actually argue the opposite!
We took these super efficient killing machines and befriended them and now they love and protect us as much as we (ideally) love and protect them
Cats basically domesticated themselves so that they could share in our food, medical care, and affection
In urban spaces, prey species know that there’s a higher likelihood that humans will help you if you’re stuck or injured than them killing or maiming you
It’s just, over time we see trends of our species overcoming environmental pressures that would and do lead to extinction in other species by sharing and forming close bonds with other sentient organisms and just kinda… aggressively community-bonding our way out of it?
For a long time there’s been this pervading idea that we, as a species, are just innately violent and terrible and “sinful” and it’s been that violence that let us survive (see the hunting hypothesis of human evolution). But that’s not what we see
We are, at our core, a species that looks into the face of something other, and thinks “I wonder if they want to be friends?” so long as the individual isn’t actively trying to kill us. Sure, tons of people do awful things every day, but for every terrible act or thought on this Earth, there are a dozen acts of kindness that people do casually for complete strangers
So yeah. We looked at these massive fluffy monsters with the sharp claws and crushing jaws rooting in our garbage just beyond the campfire and thought, the way no other species before or after us has done to the same extent; “They look friend-shaped!”
And they were. And that is how we got to be the dominant species on this planet
Friend shaped is the best phrase ever, dogs, wolves, humanity
