Domino Quartz's Delightfully Quaint Random Banter Thread #248

[Rater202]

My experience is that things I think are worthy of threads don't really get much in the way of feedback unless I'm deliberately appealing to the conventional sensibilities of the greater forum.

Honestly surprised the Boruto thread I started got any feedback at all.

If I'm annoying people I'll dial it back.

[Peelee]

My experience is that things I think are worthy of threads don't really get much in the way of feedback unless I'm deliberately appealing to the conventional sensibilities of the greater forum.

Honestly surprised the Boruto thread I started got any feedback at all.

If I'm annoying people I'll dial it back.

Not annoying at all.

[Rater202]

Okay. Sorry...

I'll admit I'm kind of obsessing. I keep finding more depth in the show and I don't think I've ever related to a fictional character as much as Luz Noceda.

[Lord Raziere]

yeah agreed with Rater, if its not complaining about star wars or marvel or whatever else hollywood messes up, the thread simply doesn't last long.

I'd love to discuss Owl House but what I can say other than that its a good show? there is no use in speculating about the underlying system of magic on here since the response is always the same for anything of that nature: "its just a show, don't think too hard about it"/"it doesn't matter"/"we don't know anything" or something else along those lines so why even bother? and everything else I'd say about Owl House would be pretty normal and agreed upon by everyone who has watched it, my opinions that LuzXAmity is cute and the best and that Belos is the worst dude ever is pretty much preaching to the choir/tepid takes, not exactly conversation starters. I can't speculate on the Gravity Falls connection because I haven't watched that show yet.

[Rater202]

I can't speculate on the Gravity Falls connection because I haven't watched that show yet.

To be fair, the implications are almost entirely on the Owl House end.

Basically, when the Gravity Falls DVD came out, Stan Pines describes his ex-wife Marilyn in the commentary track of one episode as well as how they met and how they split.

Then when The Owl House Came out, Eda is almost word for world what Stan described and we later find out that she's used Marilyn as nan alias while in the human realm and Dana Terrace confirmed in an interview that Eda's been to Vegas, which is where Stan met Marilyn.

...and honestly, I'm not sure there's much to speculate on at this point. This is pretty definitive.

Anyway, if you get around to watching GF, do make note that any connection between Bill Cipher and King has been explicitly debunked.

[Lord Raziere]

Anyway, if you get around to watching GF, do make note that any connection between Bill Cipher and King has been explicitly debunked.

???

you mean the pyramid-shaped reality warper?

I have no idea how they would be connected in the first place and it seems ridiculous to me that they would be, so I don't think there is anything to worry about there.

[Rater202]

???

you mean the pyramid-shaped reality warper?

I have no idea how they would be connected in the first place and it seems ridiculous to me that they would be, so I don't think there is anything to worry about there.

Well for one, Alex Hirsch uses the exact same voice for both of them and people noticed.

...anything else, however, is a spoiler.

[LaZodiac]

To be fair, the implications are almost entirely on the Owl House end.

Basically, when the Gravity Falls DVD came out, Stan Pines describes his ex-wife Marilyn in the commentary track of one episode as well as how they met and how they split.

Then when The Owl House Came out, Eda is almost word for world what Stan described and we later find out that she's used Marilyn as nan alias while in the human realm and Dana Terrace confirmed in an interview that Eda's been to Vegas, which is where Stan met Marilyn.

...and honestly, I'm not sure there's much to speculate on at this point. This is pretty definitive.

Anyway, if you get around to watching GF, do make note that any connection between Bill Cipher and King has been explicitly debunked.

"Eda is just blatantly Stan's ex wife" is my favorite thing that isn't directly canon but is fundamentally canon in every way that matters.

[Rater202]

"Eda is just blatantly Stan's ex wife" is my favorite thing that isn't directly canon but is fundamentally canon in every way that matters.

My favorite non-canon but basically canon thing is the fact that, objectively speaking, Luz meets like 90% of the criteria to be a Dinsey Princess: She's the female lead of a Disney orignal animated work that is not a sequel, she's fundamentally human, and she completes a heroic act* She isn't an official Dinsey Princess and probably won't be added to the roster because The Owl House isn't a movie, but she's close enough that it would be valid to consider her one in hypothetical discussions.

...Amity, meanwhile, meets several of the requirements to be a Princess given in the Wreck-It-Ralph sequel that we all pretend doesn't exist since it undermines the original—For sure magic hands, probably animals talking to her given ho Palisman work, she literally disowns her mother in the show so "doesn't have a mom" is in play, she has a strained relationship with her dad so "daddy issue," and in addition the necklace her mother made her wear is symbolically a slave collar so an argument for 'kidnapped or enslaved' applies and um.. Hooty did kind of kidnap her when he was playing wingman for Luz so arguably it applies twice over. If you're willing to be flexible, you can probably substitute "gender-noncomforming bisexual girl" for "big dumb man" in '(people assume) all your problems were solved by a big dumb man' and that just leaves out "magic hair" and "made a deal with an underwater sea-witch."

That film postulates that you only need one or two to be a valid princess and Amity arguably hits most of them.

(Also, as 'Old Money High Society Rich' she's the closest thing to actual Royalty in the show given that the Emperor is a huckster.)

Thus, The Owl House is unofficially a sapphic romance between two Disney Princesses.

[Anonymouswizard]

yeah agreed with Rater, if its not complaining about star wars or marvel or whatever else hollywood messes up, the thread simply doesn't last long.

Look, next time the thread slows down I'll misspell wokie. That should generate a half dozen posts from Pele correcting me.

Although it turns out US Amazon Prime puts adverts on series 2 and 3 of Father Ted, it's clearly time for a protest.


...why do people serve onion soup wrong? It's meant to be slices of baguette floating in the stock, not a single big piece covering the entire thing! It's almost as much if a travesty as serving corned beef with your cabbage.


Also my holiday's coming to an end soon, and I think the only major American experience I have left is 'get shot'. I think I'll let it remain on the bucket list for a little while.

[Rater202]

...why do people serve onion soup wrong? It's meant to be slices of baguette floating in the stock, not a single big piece covering the entire thing!

Becuase it's good that way.

It's almost as much if a travesty as serving corned beef with your cabbage.

You can blame that one on culture clash.

A certain Holiday strongly asocated with the Irish is traditionally celebrated with a meal of boiled bacon and cabbage but Irish immigrants s in America back when we first started getting large numbers of Irish immigrants for complicated human reasons mostly had access to kosher delis who, naturally, did not carry pork products such as bacon.

The corned beef was as close as they could get.

[Anonymouswizard]

Becuase it's good that way.

If by that you mean 'the soup is too hot, there's too much cheese, and it's just WRONG' then yes

A certain Holiday strongly asocated with the Irish is traditionally celebrated with a meal of boiled bacon and cabbage

You're assuming the Irish family hasn't made me very aware of this?

Plus American bacon is just wrong to pair with cabbage. You need a side os unsmoked back bacon.

[Peelee]

there's too much cheese

Forget American, are you even properly British?

[Bartmanhomer]

Random Thought:

I just hope that fame doesn't go over my head.

[Anonymouswizard]

Forget American, are you even properly British?

With cheese I should be able to taste soup but not crackers. Unless it's blue cheese, then I should only taste cheese no matter what it's on.

[TaiLiu]

Komala Coffee, right there in the list. They technically have no effect but do give you a free supply of Poke Beans with each purchase, so in a roundabout way coffee makes your Pokemon like you more.

Oh, neat.

Spoiler: no animal evolved to be shut in a single location.

I feel sorry for all the American cats who don't have enough space.

Peelee mentioned cat leashes. There are also ways to safety extend a cat's space out of a window or through a backyard. Those will cost much more than a cat leash, though.

If I don't install a catflap how could the kitty leave at will?

Huh? Isn't the point that the kitty can't leave at will?

You know, that's a good point. I was looking at this from an American-centric viewpoint. So let's go to the Brits!

British zoological authorities make the same claims you do but lack any data to support such claims.

But that's just an argument. What about actual findings, like "A study published in April [2022] estimated that UK cats kill 160 to 270 million animals annually, a quarter of them birds. The real figure is likely to be even higher, as the study used the 2011 pet cat population of 9.5 million; it is now closer to 12 million, boosted by the pandemic pet craze. Seen alongside drops in bird numbers across the EU and the UK, it is “quite alarming”, says lead author and cat ecologist Tara Pirie from the University of Reading"?

Better?

Thanks for the links to the studies. A good reason to keep cats inside.

Parts of me that didn't even get hurt yesterday are now sore.

I'm sick of being made of meat. Wanna be made of Living Abyss. No skin, no flesh, no blood, no bones, no bile. Just goo. Glorious goo made out of the concentrated essence of the antithesis of life.

That won't get hurt from falling over.

Sorry about your body pain. If you were the concentrated essence of the antithesis of life, wouldn't that mean you wouldn't be alive?

No, not at all. A TV camera randomly filmed me on TV.

Oh, okay.

Update on my Television Debut of Table For All:

So today my supervisor told me that my television debut will be on TV in May. So it like 2 months for now. I thought it will be either this week or next week but whatever it is what it is. 🙂😈👍🏿💪🏿🥰🐲🐉

I guess they need to edit the videos and stitch them together and stuff.

I just hope that fame doesn't go over my head.

I think you'll be all right. You're well-known at your local Starbucks but fame hasn't gone over your head there.

[Rater202]

Sorry about your body pain. If you were the concentrated essence of the antithesis of life, wouldn't that mean you wouldn't be alive?

I mean, not in the strict biological sense, no, but Living Abyss is called living abyss for a reason.

[Keltest]

I mean, not in the strict biological sense, no, but Living Abyss is called living abyss for a reason.

Isnt an abyss defined by an absence of anything? Like being a hole?

[Rater202]

Isnt an abyss defined by an absence of anything? Like being a hole?

In this context, it's referring to "of the primordial void."

Less literal nothingness and more "the nothing before everything."

[Lord Raziere]

I have watched Gravity Falls, all episodes.

Spoiler: Gravity falls thoughts

Show

Its good, real fun. lot of creativity in this, because its filled with a lot of weirdness that works by unusual rules, its never quite how you expect this or that to work.

The only episodes I really have a problem with is The Love God episode, where the love potion is never reversed so two teens are just manipulated against their will into loving each other with no resolution on what Mabel actually did wrong, things just work out for her I guess. bad episode in my opinion.

and the other time is like, why does Dipper have to sacrifice his apprenticeship with Ford? Mabel's the one being unreasonable here. Though I guess the way that the siblings being treated differently is an intentional part of the show, and thus Dipper is held to standards and expected to be more responsible while Mabel isn't held to the same expectations, thus allowing her to get away with more things.

Weirdmaggedon 2 was a bit weird in how it just made Dipper's friends suddenly give into temptation on a dime. but then again the fake Wendy appearing and her beginning to talk about spending time together as the same age and the slow realization nearly at the same time as Dipper has that this Wendy is fake was well done. like at first the fake Wendy seems so true, acting no differently but then when the conversation turns to his specific desires I was like "wait a minute" because its like Wendy would never give this offer, never say this stuff, and he realizes it like, a second after I do.

and the way that they defeated Bill Cypher was clever. Stan taking the bullet on that one just for Bill Cypher to bite it for good? Great. and of course the weird prophecy ends up not being important at all- its a fakeout introduced at the last second while the memory erasing gun was set up episodes in advance- and a much more creative way to resolve it, because there was a chance that Stan would never get his memories back and it would just end on a bittersweet note.

the whole show has a very pulpy conspiracy theory nature to it, where lots of weird stuff happens and its kinda explained but you never get the sense of knowing the full story of all this supernatural stuff or why any of its happening. Bill Cypher clearly isn't the source of much of the weirdness, and despite his incredible power just seems to be one anomaly among many, just as random, kooky and unexplained as any other strange phenomenon. all one can really conclude for sure is that weird things definitely happen around Gravity Falls a lot for some reason, but it isn't limited TO Gravity Falls, and that I doubt that Pine Twins will just go back to ordinary lives after this, I can see Dipper probably becomes Ford's apprentice later in life when he and Mabel are more comfortable splitting up, Mabel probably wants to find more monster-people for her to date, things like that. there is no way these kids just go back to normal life and pretend its all in the past after what they experienced. also I can tell it walked so that things like Owl House can run.

[Rater202]

I have watched Gravity Falls, all episodes.

Spoiler: Gravity falls thoughts

Show

Its good, real fun. lot of creativity in this, because its filled with a lot of weirdness that works by unusual rules, its never quite how you expect this or that to work.

The only episodes I really have a problem with is The Love God episode, where the love potion is never reversed so two teens are just manipulated against their will into loving each other with no resolution on what Mabel actually did wrong, things just work out for her I guess. bad episode in my opinion.

and the other time is like, why does Dipper have to sacrifice his apprenticeship with Ford? Mabel's the one being unreasonable here. Though I guess the way that the siblings being treated differently is an intentional part of the show, and thus Dipper is held to standards and expected to be more responsible while Mabel isn't held to the same expectations, thus allowing her to get away with more things.

Weirdmaggedon 2 was a bit weird in how it just made Dipper's friends suddenly give into temptation on a dime. but then again the fake Wendy appearing and her beginning to talk about spending time together as the same age and the slow realization nearly at the same time as Dipper has that this Wendy is fake was well done. like at first the fake Wendy seems so true, acting no differently but then when the conversation turns to his specific desires I was like "wait a minute" because its like Wendy would never give this offer, never say this stuff, and he realizes it like, a second after I do.

and the way that they defeated Bill Cypher was clever. Stan taking the bullet on that one just for Bill Cypher to bite it for good? Great. and of course the weird prophecy ends up not being important at all- its a fakeout introduced at the last second while the memory erasing gun was set up episodes in advance- and a much more creative way to resolve it, because there was a chance that Stan would never get his memories back and it would just end on a bittersweet note.

the whole show has a very pulpy conspiracy theory nature to it, where lots of weird stuff happens and its kinda explained but you never get the sense of knowing the full story of all this supernatural stuff or why any of its happening. Bill Cypher clearly isn't the source of much of the weirdness, and despite his incredible power just seems to be one anomaly among many, just as random, kooky and unexplained as any other strange phenomenon. all one can really conclude for sure is that weird things definitely happen around Gravity Falls a lot for some reason, but it isn't limited TO Gravity Falls, and that I doubt that Pine Twins will just go back to ordinary lives after this, I can see Dipper probably becomes Ford's apprentice later in life when he and Mabel are more comfortable splitting up, Mabel probably wants to find more monster-people for her to date, things like that. there is no way these kids just go back to normal life and pretend its all in the past after what they experienced. also I can tell it walked so that things like Owl House can run.

Spoiler

Show

For what it's worth: there's a 'real' version of Journal 3 and per the Love God's entry, the potions are explicitly temporary and if there isn't some ndrlying affection or attraction for them to work with relationships induced on them will crash and burn the second they wear off.

Anyway, I guess now I can explain the thing: Right before Bill Cipher is killed, he starts spouting off gibberish. Play the scene backward, however...

"Axolotl" being, per supplementary materials... Basically, the closest thing there is to a God in the series. Makes Bill and Tme Baby combined look like ants.

In Dipper and Mabel and the Curse of the Time Pirates' Treasure, a Choose Your Own Adventure Book released in 2016, one of the possibilities is Dipper and Mable encountering the Axolotl, who takes the form of a giant, majestic axolotl, and it confirms that it did reincarnate Bill, but in such a way that Bill would become a better person who would eventually atone for his crimes. Alex Hirsh has stated that while the book in general is non-canon, the twins meeting with the Axoltl did occur.

...and if Gravity Falls and The Owl House took place in the years they both came out, then King would have hatched around the time Bill died. This, combined with the fact that Alex Hirsch used basically the same voice for the both of them...

However, this connection was explcitly denied... And requires ignoring the fact that King was self-aware in his egg and his egg would have been laid millenia ago.

Also, a blink-and-you-'ll-miss-it shot shows that The Owl House takes place in 2022 so Bill would have been dead for 2 years when King hatched.

[Peelee]

I mean, not in the strict biological sense, no, but Living Abyss is called living abyss for a reason.

Because the writer thought it sounded neat?

[Rater202]

Because the writer thought it sounded neat?

It thinks, it moves, it's physically capable of eating and breathing, it grows and changes over time, and it can reproduce. While it isn't, strictly speaking, composed of cells, it does have something analogous to(and chemically compatible with) DNA.

...Or at least, organisms made of it do.

[Peelee]

It thinks, it moves, it's physically capable of eating and breathing, it grows and changes over time, and it can reproduce. While it isn't, strictly speaking, composed of cells, it does have something analogous to(and chemically compatible with) DNA.

...Or at least, organisms made of it do.

Wouldn't that be "alive in the strict biological sense", then?

[uraniumdragon]

Virtually none of the Imperial units are identical to US Customary. It's ridiculous that we changed every one just ever so slightly!

It was only fifty years after the USA broke away from the UK that it got around to legislating an “Imperial Standard” and overriding the hundreds of local measurement standards. Makes me wonder if someone could track US Imperial units back to a singular locale or if it’s also a hodgepodge of standard wet measures from various Old World origins. If you want to get deep into the subject, as I did when I picked up an “old copper mug” secondhand and found it had what proved to be a literal Victorian-era Weights and Measures Act stamp, an entire http://www.herberthistory.co.uk/userdata/files/marks_and_marking_of_weights_and_measures_of_the_b ritish_isles.pdf]book on such marks[/url] was digitized.

[enderlord99]

Wouldn't that be "alive in the strict biological sense", then?

No, because that requires a cell membrane for some reason. I have no idea why biologists decided to include that as a fundamental part of the definition of "life" but they did.

[Rater202]

Wouldn't that be "alive in the strict biological sense", then?

I've made similar arguments on other topics in the past and been told that that runs on an oversimplified definition of 'life.'

Living abyss organisms don't have cells, as noted, and living abyss isn't organic. Beyond that, the eating and breathing aren't mandatory and the reproduction is less a natural source of events and, unless it's actively induced artificially, something that happens in response to perceived threats.

So it's more like it's mimicking life.

[enderlord99]

I've made similar arguments on other topics in the past and been told that that runs on an oversimplified definition of 'life.'

Likewise. People keep telling me "viruses aren't alive because they have a capsid instead of a cell membrane, and you can't be truly alive without cells, which are defined in large part by having a membrane" so often that I've just given up and accepted that to be true, and that cell membranes are intrinsically needed for things such as "life" or "moral value"

[Rater202]

Likewise. People keep telling me "viruses aren't alive because they have a capsid instead of a cell membrane, and you can't be truly alive without cells, which are defined in large part by having a membrane" so often that I've just given up and accepted that to be true, and that cell membranes are intrinsically needed for things such as "life" or "moral value"

Really? The argument I've always heard is that viruses aren't alive because they have no inherent means of reproducing themselves.

[Peelee]

Huh. I was taught back in high school that viruses are indeed alive, and it seems as if my teacher will turn out to have been correct:


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2837877/

For a growing number of evolutionists and virologists, viruses should definitely be considered as living entities since they exhibit all features typical of terrestrial life: they are made of the same macromolecules as cells from archaea, bacteria or eukarya, and they have co-evolved with members of these three domains according to the scheme of Darwinian evolution.