{"id":992,"date":"2024-11-25T19:19:17","date_gmt":"2024-11-26T01:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/longstoriesshort.blog\/?p=992"},"modified":"2024-11-25T19:19:17","modified_gmt":"2024-11-26T01:19:17","slug":"im-imagining-dragons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/longstoriesshort.blog\/index.php\/2024\/11\/25\/im-imagining-dragons\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m Imagining Dragons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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skrrrt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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i would’ve bought this if it fitted<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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post-its from my textbooks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

FINALS WEEK IS OVER. I’M FREEEEE!!!!!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did indeed skip another week, and I’m late posting this one, because I was suffering. I was truly in the thicket. Finals were\u2026 fine. I mean, they were awful and ruined my life, but they were fine. Three out of four of them have come back okay. I\u2019m still awaiting that fourth one, but I\u2019m not worried. Even if I should be, I just am not. It is so old news. Like, whatever at this point, y\u2019know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of my finals consisted of a presentation plus 1000-word summary combo, and oh buddy. That presentation? I understand teachers now. How am I supposed to know if anything is making sense to these people? All my effort was wasted on a body of lameos. I could get into it, but once again, at this point? Who cares? People don\u2019t get me, I don\u2019t get people, blah blah blah. C\u2019est la vie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m so happy to be over with this quarter. I think the classes I took were necessary, not just in course requirement terms, but also in terms of my life. They were all about identity in some shape or way, and as you may recall from past posts, I have been going through somewhat of a crisis concerning my own. These classes simultaneously worsened and eased the crisis. It would seem that the only way out is through and baby, I am going through it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I need a break. Oh my god, do I need a break. From school, and people, and thinking. So thank goodness gracious for winter break! Woo hoo! And my classes next quarter shouldn\u2019t be as intense as these were, except maybe one, but one intense class is nothing compared to four, so I\u2019ll take it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Let us relish in winter break for now. Ah, winter break. I have some plans for it. I have ideas for surveys, slideshows, and YouTube videos, so be on the lookout for those. I also plan on writing my fanfic! I do not know how long a chapter will take, nor how many chapters it will have, but for now I\u2019m thinking of writing at least two. Depending on how that goes I might write more. I haven\u2019t started writing at all because one, I\u2019ve been busy fighting for my life against finals, and two, I\u2019m still researching. Whatever I decide as Jacob\u2019s reason for being a werewolf, I\u2019m sure it will be at least slightly insensitive and very stupid, so I think I just have to pick one backstory and go for it. #YOLO. Oh, also, now that I\u2019m off from school, fingers crossed the blog schedule goes back to usual. But no promises.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Real quick, I know the last post was kind of heavy, so I want to keep this light, but I do want to say that I feel as if I\u2019m living in the evil version of the time vortex between Christmas and New Year\u2019s. I\u2019m awaiting the Big One (evil) instead of the Big One (fun!), except I don’t even know what this Big One is. My therapist suggested that it might be Inauguration Day, which I suppose is likely, but yeesh. Yeesh! This sucks! I will persist nevertheless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay, now that that\u2019s out of the way, if I see one more announcement for another goddamn live action remake of a beloved animated film, I will flip this table, I\u2019m not joking. Who the hell was asking for a live action remake of How to Train Your Dragon<\/em> (2010)? WHO?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I just rewatched HTTYD (How to Train Your Dragon)<\/em> with my brother yesterday, and it\u2019s confirmed. It\u2019s one of my favorite movies ever. John Powell created magic with that score. It is so beautiful and powerful, and it perfectly fits with the story. Honestly, it does half of the storytelling in my opinion. \u201cTest Drive\u201d is truly one of the all time best songs from a movie soundtrack. At least it\u2019s definitely one of my favorites. It brings me to tears every time, I swear. It just perfectly encapsulates the story. Sideways has a really good YouTube video<\/a> about the music in this movie, specifically how the beginning sets up the movie for success, but he basically says that \u201cTest Drive\u201d is the combination of Hiccup\u2019s and Toothless\u2019 themes. AAAHH I could scream. Can we get into that? Let\u2019s get into that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hiccup and Toothless are the same. They\u2019re the same. They\u2019re both outsiders, with Hiccup being a social outcast and Toothless seemingly being the last of his kind. They\u2019re both dangerous. This is one of my major complaints about that HTTYD live action trailer. Why does Hiccup say, \u201cI won\u2019t hurt you,\u201d when untying Toothless? He already did. Hiccup shoots down Toothless and intends to kill him, but something in him stops him from doing so. Something in him<\/em>, not in Toothless! Although, if you want to say it was Toothless\u2019 doing, I guess you could argue that it was his acceptance of death that made Hiccup stop, not his big, puppy-dog eyes! Toothless is in attack mode when he first meets Hiccup, though he is tied up, so he can\u2019t actually attack. Still, his eyes remain in slits to show his beasthood. As soon as Toothless is released, he pounces on Hiccup as if to kill him instead. But he doesn\u2019t. Whether it\u2019s because something in him told him not to or he wanted to repay Hiccup\u2019s mercy, Toothless also doesn\u2019t kill him when he has the chance. Hiccup and Toothless are both willing to learn. Hiccup attempts to train Toothless by observing his manners and trying new tactics, and Toothless lets him. Then, \u201cTest Drive\u201d comes and they are literally one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toothless can\u2019t fly without Hiccup. Is anyone hearing me? Toothless cannot fly without Hiccup. And obviously, neither can Hiccup. They need each other. They want<\/em> each other. Together, they can fly. The music fanfares. It\u2019s all so incredible. Together, they find acceptance, joy, love, family\u2014not just in one another, but with the outside world as well. How could you not cry at that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then Hiccup loses his leg, and it\u2019s the same side of which Toothless lost his tail wing. They. Are. The. SAME!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sequel has more evidence of this with them being the same age and Hiccup becoming the chief while Toothless becomes the alpha. It also gives Toothless more autonomy, so he\u2019s not completely unable to fly without Hiccup, and neither is Hiccup with his little wing-suit, but you know, is it flying or falling with style as Woody the Cowboy would say? Regardless, they still need each other to fully fly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I haven\u2019t seen the third one, but I\u2019m pretty certain that (SPOILERS! that are honestly kind of obvious) Toothless somehow regains the full ability to fly without Hiccup, and that the two separate at the end. While my heart hates this ending, my brain can accept it. I think. Some relationships change your life, and then end. Well, I guess they all do, if you include death as an end. I don\u2019t know how\/why Toothless regains his solo-flight ability nor why he leaves Hiccup, but I can accept that sometimes separation is the natural way of things. Frankly, I would\u2019ve enjoyed the death ending way more. Let those two platonic soulmates stay together forever and ever until one of them croaks!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m pretty sure (MORE SPOILERS! but you most likely do not care) that there\u2019s an epilogue where time has passed, Hiccup and Toothless both have families, and they reunite?! So like\u2026 what was the reason for splitting them up in the first place? In my mind that never happens because the third movie doesn\u2019t exist. As far as I\u2019m concerned, Hiccup and Toothless are cheif-ing\/alpha-ing up a storm in Berk. The divas are diva-ing. Even if\/when I watch the third movie, I can\u2019t guarantee that I will accept it as canon. I did it with Toy Story 4 <\/em>(2019) (TWENTY NINETEEN?!!?) watch me do it with How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World<\/em> (2019) (ALSO TWENTY NINETEEN?!?!? How are these movies five years old already? I thought they came out, like, last month).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to ride a dragon, man. It\u2019d be so cool. My brother informed me that Universal Studios is currently making a themed land based on HTTYD in their new amusement park. It looks awesome. I will<\/em> be going, but there\u2019s no \u201cfly a dragon\u201d ride! There\u2019s a roller coaster, one of those spinning, flying carnival rides, a water ride similar to the pirates one at Six Flags, and a show. What a massive missed opportunity to have a simulator ride where you ride a dragon! I\u2019m thinking something akin to Disney\u2019s Flight of Passage in their Avatar<\/em> (2009) themed land in Animal Kingdom, though I\u2019ve never ridden it, so I can\u2019t say if that\u2019s good inspo to have. Make it feel like Disney\u2019s Soarin\u2019 Around the World in EPCOT. That shiz is fun as hell. I appreciate the commitment to having diverse rides that aren\u2019t utterly reliant on screens, but just this one would make sense! Honestly, make it like Universal\u2019s ET Adventure if you want practical effects! The dragon-flying ride would need to be more exciting, but ET\u2019s a good starting point!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of practical effects, I AM SO FUCKING HAPPY THEY\u2019RE BRINGING \u201cThe Untrainable Dragon\u201d TO THE US!!!!!! This show has been in the Universal Beijing Resort, I believe, and everything I have seen of it is absolutely breathtaking. They use puppets or animatronics (not sure which\u2026 could be both) for the dragons and they are so beautiful! They\u2019re big and cartoony, but not uncannily so or even, somehow, unrealistically so. Watching the actors interact with them makes me believe that they are real life creatures. GAH! I LOVE PRACTICAL EFFECTS!!!! Another thing I hate about the live action remake of HTTYD: Why make it live action if you\u2019re just going to animate half of it? Might as well make the whole thing animated. Oh wait, you already did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was anyone ever into Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons? It was a crossover fandom consisting of Rise of the Guardians <\/em>(2012), Brave<\/em> (2012), Tangled<\/em> (2010), and HTTYD. Izzzyzzz has a great video<\/a> on it. Thank you Izzzyzzz for being the perfect internet historian for my niches. Well, I was never actually completely into RBTD (Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons), but I did watch the occasional YouTube edit. I was mostly into uh\u2026 Rise of the Brave Tangled Frozen Dragons? This name is too long. Anyways, I watched a couple ship edits of Jack Frost and Elsa. I was never a huge shipper, but I thought it was cool (no pun intended) that they both had ice powers, and I was amazed by the edits. Honestly, the ones I watched were pretty good for the time. I should try to find them again to see if they still hold up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RBTD is such a silly concept. It\u2019s so early 2010s Tumblr. Let it be known that I am not hating. In fact, I support\u2026 ish. It\u2019s mostly harmless fun about attractive animated teenage characters from popular and good (some better than others) movies. It\u2019s cringe and stupid, but since when was that illegal? If it is, they\u2019re gonna have to lock me up. Fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think I could write a fanfic about RBTD, unfortunately. Will I? Only time will tell. I fear that writing my first fanfic will open the floodgates. (To the tune of \u201cThe World Was Wide Enough) What if this Twilight<\/em> AU is my Pandora’s Box? Wait, I don\u2019t even need to change that last lyric\u2014what if this Twilight<\/em> AU is my legacy? What if this is the only fanfic I will ever write? Debatable if that would be a tragedy or a triumph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I made a Minecraft server with my friend! Here\u2019s a tip: Do not make a Minecraft server with your friend in the middle of finals week. You will<\/em> become addicted and not want to do your finals at all. Don\u2019t ask me how I know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love Minecraft so damn much, dude. It\u2019s fun yet frustrating, calming yet exhilarating, and awe-inspiring yet terrifying. The songs tie a bittersweet knot in my chest, and fill me with nostalgic memories, some of which I\u2019m yet to make. Exploring the world makes me feel equally excited and nervous as I would be if I did it in real life. Fictionalism. An idea in philosophy that believes that even what is made up exists in some way that matters. Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to take my friend to the Nether because apparently she\u2019s never been there before. Maybe eventually we\u2019ll go to the End together; I\u2019ve never been there, not that I remember. I\u2019ve never killed the Ender Dragon, though the End Poem is one of my absolute favorites. I think I\u2019d cry if I saw it scroll past my screen in its true form. And sometimes the player believed the universe had spoken to it through the zeros and ones, through the electricity of the world, through the scrolling words on a screen at the end of a dream\u2026\u2026 Fictionalism. Yeah.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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sleepy boy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

F1 TIME BABY!!!! I stayed up until 2 AM Saturday night to watch the Las Vegas GP. Was it a mistake? Yes. My sleep schedule is forever ruined, I fear. But I got to watch Max Verstappen win his fourth World Drivers Championship titles, so that was a nice treat. He\u2019s the second only driver to win four WDC in a row, alongside Sebastian Vettel, who also won his with Red Bull. What a fun coincidence. I\u2019m sure Red Bull will stroke their ego with it. There\u2019s two more races, which I\u2019m going to try to watch live (emphasis on try for Abu Dhabi, that thing is at 7 AM, oh brother), but frankly, this race felt quite Season Finale. The whole thing is very convoluted and drawn out, but let me try to give you the cliffsnotes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Max won his fourth WDC, finally putting an end to the Max Verstappen\/Lando Norris title fight narrative that\u2019s been going on this season, especially in recent races. The commentators\u2019 annoying asses were saying this near the end of the race, when it was clear Max was going to win, \u201cLando Norris will return next year for the title fight.\u201d What in the MCU end card\u2026 This sport is so unserious. And yet deadly. What? Anyways, boom, finale for that storyline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before this race, Mercedes F1 team CEO and Team Principal Toto Wolff said something like the following about long-time Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, \u201cIt\u2019s a good thing he\u2019s leaving to Ferrari next year, or else I would\u2019ve probably fire him. Everyone has a shelf life, and he seems to be nearing the end of his.\u201d In the race, Lewis managed to get P2 after starting in P10. Mhm, yeah okay, Toto. Lewis also basically said, \u201cNotice how Ferrari is faster than us here. That\u2019s going to be me next year,\u201d in driver tongue, so good for him. Carlos Sainz, the Ferrari driver Lewis will be replacing, got P3, so in post-race stuff it was funny and slightly awkward seeing them with each other. Boom, finale for this storyline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of Carlos, he had an interesting<\/em> race to say the least. He was screwed over by terrible Ferrari strategy once again, and had to become his own strategist once again<\/em> to make sure he didn’t completely bail out of the race. But in doing so, he screwed over his teammate Charles Leclerc. Oooooo, dramaaaaa! I believe what happened was that Carlos pitted before Charles, which was not the plan. Earlier in the race, Charles also had to let Carlos overtake him for whatever reason, so I\u2019m sure Charles was pissed that he followed orders to help Carlos while Carlos didn\u2019t do the same for him. Once the race was finished, Charles SNAPPED! He had a \u201cNo more Mr. Nice Guy\u201d moment and I LIVE! While driving post-race, he had a little rant about how he is always nice and follows orders, but it never gets him anywhere so\u2026 Then, he was cut off by his engineer, leading him to saying something like, \u201cAnd the radio\u2019s on. Great.\u201d Mmmmhm I don\u2019t know if I buy it. Either he was just ranting to himself and accidentally turned on the radio (what lets their engineer and audience hear them during the race), or he intentionally left it on and pretended it was an accident to save face. Which way, I live. So, finale for Charlos’ relationship, but pilot for Charles’ villain arc? You love to see it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were other bits that made this race feel as finale-ish as it did, such as Yuki Tsunoda being the second highest Red Bull driver, Franco Colapinto crashing in Quali, and Pierre Gasly going, \u201cI have no power!\u201d To which his engineer replied, \u201cNah, you\u2019re good, keep going.\u201d Only for him to yell, \u201cI HAVE NO POWER!\u201d And his engine immediately exploding(?) afterwards. Oh, Alpine. They could never make me love you. Anywho, this stuff are more like side plots to me, and they aren\u2019t exactly conclusions to their respective storylines, but I still think they leave their stories in good spots. They\u2019re like cliffhangers. Who\u2019s going to be in that second Red Bull seat? Will Franco Colapinto make it on the grid or is he just another failed Williams experiment? Will Alpine ever get good? Find out next year in the F1 2025 season!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If none of this made sense to you, I don\u2019t blame you. I didn\u2019t do my best dumbing down this time around. But do not fret, one of my video ideas for winter break is THE F1 video. I plan on explaining our characters, important backstories, highlights from the season, predictions for next season, and my opinions about certain aspects (namely the drivers). If there\u2019s one thing I\u2019m gonna do, it\u2019s shove F1 down your throats whether you like it or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FINALS WEEK IS OVER. I’M FREEEEE!!!!!!! I did indeed skip another week, and I’m late posting this one, because I was suffering. I was truly in the thicket. Finals were\u2026 fine. I mean, they were awful and ruined my life, but they were fine. Three out of four of them have come back okay. I\u2019m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/longstoriesshort.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/longstoriesshort.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/longstoriesshort.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longstoriesshort.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longstoriesshort.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=992"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/longstoriesshort.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1010,"href":"https:\/\/longstoriesshort.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992\/revisions\/1010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longstoriesshort.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/longstoriesshort.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longstoriesshort.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longstoriesshort.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}