u/Vaelcyrie

I was blown away when I started learning more about evolution because I thought most traits happened only once and everyone who had them necessarily had a common ancestor that came up with said trait (I believe there is a special name for them but I couldn't find it)

I however discovered this is not the case at all and that not only the traits appear more than once due to the environmental pressure but it also made me understand a lot better how evolution works.

Like, it's so much more like a big tree spreading and experimenting and having fun with all the possibilities of life. Makes me feel like we are all connected somehow, all forms of life appearing and vanishing from/to the same material like solar flares. I mean, I could be a whale 100 million years from now, who knows.

I was shocked learning that eyes, wings, viviparity and other traits that were to me so complex and elegant were in fact convergent in many species. I'd love to know more examples of both convergent and unique traits, tell me your favourites!

I've been currently on an evolution/paleonthology hyperfocus. Then I remember playing Spore when I was younger and I loved it, specially the aspects of seeing your creature grow, choosing their traits and how they would react to the environment.

I always stopped when the tribal phase was done, though. Even loving strategy games and city builders and such, I always felt like the fun was in the most primitive stages. I haven't seen a game about evolution in this way since, so I was just wondering if you would have any recs about it.

The title pretty much sums it up. I got a cold and it made me feel like watching a very specific type of movie which I describe as "feel good movies with people cooking, women doing witchcraft and helping each other (most of the times the cooking is the witchcraft), travelling, little villages, nature, families/found families and remarkable characters". I'd like them to be light-hearted, but with acid humour and not too superficial. This is because I just rewatched Practical Magic and felt the need to watch something similar.

Movies that I can recall that are kinda like this are Chocolate, Almodóvar's Volver (though it it is not light-hearted and definitely touches on sensible themes that I'd like to avoid for now lol but the family feeling and cooking is there), Fried Green Tomatoes, Under the Tuscan Sun, My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Also one of my favourite movies ever is Babette's Feast, so I'd love any recommendations that could match it as well. I love everything historical, so the earlier, the better <3