#(Also there is a version of the flag without the heart on the wiki page (/phanian) if you’d like that)

[interarchive]

Hi! Do you know if there's a term like "intersex loving intersex" or "intersex4intersex"? I feel like I've seen a flag for that before but if it exists I can't find it.

It’s ILI (Intersex-loving-Intersex) or “Phanian”, the flag you saw is in the link

(IDK why “Phanian” was picked because there wasn’t a meaning given on the term coining post so if anyone knows Why it’s called that, lmk so I can archive it)

[wainwrightjakobshammerlock]

finally. i decided to do this. anyways hello there, i am jake and today i want to talk about something; you see, if you are in the tf2 fandom, you probably know about heavymedic. Wherther you are a hardcore gamer who resents f2p’s or a person that never played the game but has trillions of notes on their art- you know heavymedic exists and most of all you probably ship it.

And I find that weird. In the few fandoms in my life I have been in I had never seen a single ship be so widely if not shipped, then accepted. Sure, maybe everyone in the GF fandom knows what Billdip is - for better or for worse. Sure, maybe the HS fandom is 70% shipping.

But I have never ever seen such a phenomenon in a prominent multiplayer game fandom. A fandom, sadly, oftentimes filled with toxicity. Overwatch is very similar here - yet ships are either a hot topic of discussion or straight up ignored. But TF2? In here for whatever reason we ship these two mercenaries. And in this essay I will try and find a reason or two why is that.

Apologies for any mistakes or incoherency. English is not my first language, I need to ramble, and my vocabulary is all over the place.

Content warning: mentions of homophobia, blood, death, mentions of WLW fetishization, nsfw mention. Also MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR THE TF2 COMICS.

Part 1: Canonical Evidence and Interactions

Let’s be honest: I could ramble about this one for days on end. But I’ll try and keep it short.

First and foremost we have the official videos. And of course the first thing that comes to mind is Meet the Medic.

At the very start of the part where Medic himself appears, we see him telling a joke about a particularly gruesome situation to Heavy.

He laughs along with him, visibly enjoying his company. He even smiles as he waits for another joke. Heavy only shows genuine fear a lot later.

And of course this damn scene always cracks me up. Medic slightly pinches Heavy’s cheek and strokes his lip gently (the other part is almost not noticeable unless you play the video at slow speed).

Of course we all know about the Hand Hold that happens somewhere halfway in the vid. I don’t think I have to explain the gayness in that. The fact their hands stay interlocked even after Medic helps Heavy up. The deep breath Medic takes because even he cannot handle the emotions. That few seconds is unresolved sexual tension manifest.

Overall the short shows a strong feeling of trust between these two. Medic confides in Heavy and reverse. Yeah he puts a baboon heart into his friend’s chest cavity but the fact (as proven at the end of the video) that Heavy was the first one to have an Ubercharge implanted into him shows that Medic at the very least considers him a lab rat.

I treat End of the Line as non-canonical, as do many others, and as such won’t discuss it here. But it will forever crack me up that Valve endorsed such levels of homoerotic subtext.

These two have some short moments in other videos, like for example in Invasion Heavy helps Medic up (CINEMATIC PARALLELS) but it’s nothing major so I guess I’ll skip forward.

Second is their interactions ingame. You might call me a weirdo for trying to find stuff in there but holy shit I have things to say and I’m going to say them.

You thought I was going to fanboy over the “i love this doktor” voiceline huh? Well not really. I wish these two had unique lines if they assist one another.

Heavy is literally listed on the official wiki as the “ideal medic buddy” and multiple pages on that exact wiki say some pretty interesting things.

I have to say something about the Gentleman’s Ushanka and/or Pocket Medic. They are both community cosmetics - but the fact they both got accepted by Valve says a lot. Above is text snipped from the actual wiki.

Last but not least: The Comics. Darned comics. The pair of mercenaries has basically no interaction - unless you count issue 6.

Heavy getting absolutely PISSED when Medic is killed by Ch*avy. Their reunion. Medic referring to Heavy by “my friend” in a totally straight way. Kind of sad Valve wasted an opportunity for them to hug. Maybe they knew their comic artist ships them and wanted to avoid having to answer the Question™.

Part 2: Dynamics

This part’s a bit trickier, mostly due to the reason that I’m new to this whole dynamic analysis thing. Yeah I’m good at spotting canonical evidence but very specific shipping dynamics often escape my gaze.

The most obvious one is Big Guy, Little Guy. Quoting the TVTROPES page:

[…] This trope describes a pair of guys who always fight together, are best friends forever, and quite often have a very obvious hierarchy: The little guy is often in charge […] The little guy is usually listed first, since he’s the leader, and they are always listed together, as if they are one entity. In fact, some episodes may center on the fact that they can’t live without each other. […] If this is a case of Brains and Brawn, the Big Guy is usually the Brawn, and the Little Guy the Brains. It’s almost never the other way around, but in some cases the Big Guy can be rather smart too. […]

A sub-type of this, a common favorite here on Tumblr is known as “small chaotic big calm” and hoo boy if that isn’t these two. I don’t really have much to say here - again I am not an expert.

Part 3: Fandom Impact

So you don’t think Red Oktoberfest (as Heavymedic is sometimes called) is super popular on anywhere else than Tumblr? Wrong.

It’s hard to find TF2 fics on Archive of Our Own not tagged with Heavy/Medic. Of course most of them only contain hints to their relationship but go in the main tf2 tag and I can guarantee you, you’ll gonna see “implied heavy/medic” all the time.

But these two go further than AO3 or Tumblr or Instagram or whatever. They are recognized even within the wider circle of the fanbase. Take this SFM, for example. (I am using the Saxxy Awards version of Secret Lives here mostly due to the fact that the Heavymedic moment is much gayer. In the normal version, the dialogue isn’t changed, but they simply hold hands.)

But it gets deeper. (WARNING: THE GAY MOMENT IN THIS ONE IS NSFW. NOT EXPLICITLY SO BUT JUST A HEADS UP TUMBLR PLEASE DO NOT FLAG ME)

And the best part? The comments are extremely positive. You’d expect hoards upon hoards of homophobes screeching but no, the comments are supportive. Even on places such as Reddit or Youtube, comments like “yeah they’re gay and in love” do not get downvoted/disliked to hell; in fact the opposite.

Part 4: Canon Status

Let’s be real. Most ships are shipped because people want to explore the dynamics in fanfic, fanart or something else. But Heavymedic is shipped because… well, I have no idea.

Actually, I kind of do - but only theories. You see, while the canonical evidence is here, the creators have never said anything about them. No confirmation, no disproval, no hinting, nothing.

But the ship is so prominent! There has to be something causing this!- you say. And to that I present you 2 theories on why Heavy/Medic is so popular.

Theory number 1 states that we simply all choose to interpret their interactions as homoerotic. And this is very easy to disprove - there’s simply no way we just collectively agreed on these matters out of nothing. There has to be something bigger.

And theory 2 states that, well, our interpretation is the desired interpretation. But this is even more ridiculous than theory 1 for a number of reasons. If they are in fact gay, why hasn’t Valve made them canon yet?

A Theoretical Scenario

I am going to ramble big time on this one, so buckle up lads. I’ll discuss a theoretical scenario in which, well, if that was not obvious, Valve confirms Heavymedic as canon. Maybe then we will see why they will probably never do so.

TF2 is considered by typical capital G, alt-right Gamers as a “non-political” game. This means no women (in the game itself, at least, and if even, sexy women only), no queer folk and no minorities (for some reason they accept Demoman but throw a fit if someone draws any other merc as not being pearl white). Team Fortress 2 was around before Gamergate and other things like Gamers Rise Up. It’s a classic and Valve is regarded as the good guy to Epic Game’s bad guy. If Valve did anything to confirm doubts, wherther it be clearing up popular fanon or confirming ships, these people would throw hands. (Although they seemed to ignore when one of the writers confirmed Miss Pauling is a lesbian. Huh.) Even those that don’t play TF2 would come to the aid of their bros.

Let me illustrate with two very similar examples. In both cases these confirmations were the first made by the company as a whole, both are fairly recent and both confirm a character as gay.

First we have the confirmation of Tracer from Overwatch as a lesbian. It was done in one of OVW’s comics. Tracer is the FACE of Overwatch as a whole and while most of the fanbase accepted it (thankfully the Gamers are reluctant to infest ow), some people threw what I can only describe as a hissy fit. At least her girlfriend’s a background character.

Second is Neeko from League of Legends. Unlike Tracer she was added a while before it was confirmed she was gay. LOL is much more toxic and filled with Gamers than OW and holy shit people smeared LOL so much.

Of course these are not accurate to Heavy/Medic. In both of the cases I listed it was girls being wlw and we all know how much cisgender heterosexual gamers LOVE yuri porn. Apparently only girls can be gay because they can jack off to it - if it’s two guys then it’s disgusting. Nevertheless I think these are good approximations - in every case the company gets “shat on” on social media and other sites. With the community that Valve has, I think even if they wanted them to be gay, they would never ever confirm it.

Conclusion

I’m sorry for that ending. I had to theorize a bit. Regardless I’d love if you shared this on other sites, reblogged or whatever - I wasted at least 1 and a half hours of my life on it. Feel free to cite this as a source if someone asks you why you ship the big heavy weapons expert and the feral battle medic.

[some-jw-things]

Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Holocaust

Hey so I don’t know what went so horribly wrong with the formatting of that last post-- I’ve seen a version of it without the ask and first like four replies, a version where the long part is repeated twice, and for some reason two paragraphs I wrote up at the beginning went missing. Anyway here is an attempt to make a cleaner, understandable version of it, let’s hope it works

In the 1870s Charles Taze Russell founded the Bible Student movement that later became Jehovah’s Witnesses, and he was a Zionist, which idk what that means but ultimately it doesn’t matter because when he died the leadership was inherited by Joseph Rutherford who was just a regular old antisemitic bigot.

One of the main things that Jehovah’s Witnesses are known for in their literature is shitting on every other religion. They believe that they have the one true religion, and all the others are false and worthless in God’s eyes. Apparently in the 1920′s and 30′s this really got whipped into a frenzy-- even worse than it is now.

https://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/hitler-nazi.php

Jehovah’s Witnesses had already been under heat in Germany. They refuse all military service, don’t vote, and avoid all forms of nationalism and national allegiance as a part of their religion. It is very common for governments to take issue with that-- there’s a handful of countries out there now where some of those things are illegal and JWs just go straight to jail. I think it’s the main issue behind the current Russia thing but that’s unrelated. Anyway, there is a certain type of government that gets more up in arms than most when you say you don’t give a shit about them and feel no allegiance whatsoever. The Witnesses were in an increasingly hostile environment and they knew it.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jehovah-s-witnesses-in-the-holocaust

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nazi-persecution-of-jehovahs-witnesses

Jehovah’s Witnesses had a convention on June 25, 1933 in Berlin. The convention hall was covered in swastika flags. The program opened with Song 64, which had previously not been sung in years due to having the exact same melody as the German national anthem.

There’s an account of that in the book Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Third Reich, but it’s behind a paywall on JSTOR so I can’t really link it. The relevant quote is from Konrad Franke, who was the former branch overseer from Germany’s Bethel and was horrified by what he saw.

This was extremely weird for all of the obvious reasons but also because Jehovah’s Witnesses consider flag worship and all other nationalism to be a form of idolatry. It’s why they refuse to say the Pledge of Allegiance in the US, there’s been several lawsuits over the issue in the past.

The convention was used to issue the Declaration of Facts. It addresses a conspiracy theory that claimed Jehovah’s Witnesses were being secretly paid for their preaching work by Jewish people— by saying that Satan must have started that “malicious” rumor. It immediately jumps to this quote:

“The greatest and the most oppressive empire on earth is the Anglo-American empire. By that is meant the British Empire, of which the United States of America forms a part. It has been the commercial Jews of the British-American empire that have built up and carried on Big Business as a means of exploiting and oppressing the peoples of many nations.”

It also says that JWs do not oppose the German government’s principles, but “stand squarely” for them. And also: “A careful examination of our books and literature will disclose the fact that the very high ideals held and promulgated by the present national government are set forth in and endorsed and strongly emphasized in our publications and show that Jehovah God will see to it that these high ideals in due time will be attained by all persons who love righteousness.”

Link to English translation: https://www.jwfacts.com/pdf/declaration-of-facts.pdf

It was reprinted in the JW 1934 yearbook pages 134-138. https://archive.org/details/1934-JwYearbook/page/n1/mode/2up

According to the 1974 yearbook p. 111, JWs were given 2,100,000 copies of the Declaration to give out to as many people as possible after the convention. https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/301974004#h=239

The one that went to Hitler came with a personal letter from Rutherford attached.

It’s in German. Here is an English translation:

https://www.jwfacts.com/pdf/letter-to-hitler.pdf

It describes Jehovah’s Witnesses as “standing on the foundation of positive Christianity.” Positive Christianity is the actively antisemitic form of Christianity pushed by Hitler and the Nazi regime. It’s mainly about depicting Jesus as white and his main goal in life to have been fighting Jewish people, who then killed him. Here’s the wiki article on it:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_Christianity

Rutherford’s letter also claims the Watchtower Society has been staunchly pro-German for years and that that’s why the entire Governing Body was thrown in jail in the US in 1918. The Watchtower did condemn the war effort and all JW leaders were charged and found guilty under the Espionage and Sedition Act, but it was for 20 years, not 80 like the letter says, and the decision was almost immediately reversed and the charges dropped.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Jehovah%27s_Witnesses_in_the_United_States

https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/watchtower-study-october-2018/1918-one-hundred-years-ago/

The letter blames Jewish businessmen and Catholics for leading a propaganda campaign against Jehovah’s Witnesses and persecuting them. Rutherford then says that JWs “are fighting for the very same high ethical goals and ideals” as the national government. Also “referring to the purely religious and unpolitical goals and efforts of the Bible Researchers, it can be said that these are in full agreement with the identical goals of the national government of the German Reich.”

Rutherford spends a good chunk of the letter denying allegations of communism and begging Hitler to lift the bans on the religion.

In modern contexts, the Society brags about this. This whole story has been respun as thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses sending Hitler personal letters imploring to his humanity and asking for an end to Nazi persecution for everyone. A good specific example is from a 2011 Watchtower. It says “Did Hitler receive letters of protest from church officials concerning the outrages perpetrated by the National Socialists, or Nazis? There were some, but such letters were few and far between. In the Moscow archives, however, Eberle found a file containing a number of letters sent to Hitler by Jehovah’s Witnesses from different parts of Germany, protesting against the conduct of the Nazis. In fact, Witnesses from about 50 countries sent Hitler some 20,000 letters and telegrams protesting the mistreatment of Jehovah’s Witnesses. (...) [This] testifies to an act of collective and uncompromising defiance that commands respect.”

https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2011731#h=4

The letter and Declaration did not give Hitler a change of heart. In March 1935, he reintroduced compulsory military service. All Jehovah’s Witnesses refused to comply. On April 1, the religion was placed under full ban.

There had been between 25,000-30,000 JWs in pre-Nazi Germany, and 20,000 stayed active through that era. About 6000 were placed in concentration camps or prisons.

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nazi-persecution-of-jehovahs-witnesses

Jehovah’s Witnesses— unlike other groups— were allowed to walk out of the camps at any time if they signed a paper renouncing their faith first. I don’t have any hard numbers, but every source just says that very few did. Approximately 1200 died. They wore a purple triangle, and for a while, purple was like the JW color, if that makes sense, but nowadays there’s an official Org logo and it’s blue

Culturally, Jehovah’s Witnesses paint themselves as the shining beacon of spiritual resistance to the Nazis while simultaneously throwing every other group that was there under the bus. They say they’re the only ones who went into the camps and came out spiritually stronger, the only ones who made it out with their faith intact, and the only ones who supported each other as an internal community. Since the internet became popular, they’ve gotten more careful about what is printed outright in publications, but old yearbooks are really bad. They’ll draw parallels to Witnesses thrown into Soviet era gulags and talk about how they’re the only clean and righteous people in there, and everyone admired them and had to admit that, even the guards

Also this might be really shitty of me to say but I don’t think anything about JWs’ behavior in the Holocaust is inspiring or uplifting. I don’t think choosing to stay in the camps is so amazing of them. I think that’s what I would have done if I had lived in that era. I think it’s perverse to tell people— especially children— that God demands proof of their faith in the form of their blood spilled out on the ground

[bedlamgames]

Q&A #93

Next update is very close to being done, so time to get back on the answering questions horse. Plan is to also do these as twitlongers for those that no longer want to deal with tumblr. 

Anonymous said: The good news is that for explicit content posted in the past, tumblr seems to be willing to let it stay (if my reading of their announcement is correct) -- you may be able to keep this blog as an archive, but wherever you choose to move I'd gladly follow. (I'm already pledged for a dollar on Patreon so that shouldn't be a problem.)

Actually, belay my last message, creating your own website might not be a bad idea. I know that SilverBardGames has their own website and that's like my other indie game developer (with explicit content) that I follow. Word of mouth might still work to spread the good word.

That’s the plan. I do definitely need to sort out a website though sometime. If this experience has shown me anything it’s that relying on a single resource is a baaaad idea. 

justanothorguy1 said: Where are you going to post you new download links for you games?

Will still post them here, the patreon, TFGames, and the Collective. Will also post them going forward on the twitter. 

rafaelivri said: 1. Somehow my slaver that I recruit started with cum lust+++. Is this even intentional (that they can have it from the very beginning)? 2. Any way to get rid of it? 

Worked out what was causing that and it should be fixed in the update. 

Anonymous said: I'm not sure if this a bug but recently I've been getting a lot of slaves and slavers whose descriptions say that they're barely taller than a goblin.

Maybe a weird run of RNG? Not heard that from anyone else yet so one to keep an eye on I think. 

Anonymous said: was wondering if theres a walkthough for no haven somewhere? i played a bunch of it and interested to figure out what i missed

There is a wiki which you can find a link to on the No Haven page here. Not something under my control though so no idea if there’s a walkthrough out there. 

Anonymous said: watch as your posts get flagged anyway tho *shrug*

Been over a month and no flagged posts so worked out how to handle that apparently :D

Anonymous said: I don't think your link in the latest blogpost is supposed to lead to some tony mo and his videogame loveletters on patreon.

Oops missed a character in the copy/paste. Thanks for the spot. 

Anonymous said: i had a idea for a no heaven maybe some content where your bed warmer slave takes control of you in bed if there dominate and your secretly submissive. and if the there a dominator or hypono they start taking more control of your over time secretly controlling you and camp form behind close door.

That’s been on the books for awhile where certain slaves will be very dangerous to have as a bedwarmer. For a start those mantras coming in the next update just might end up being used on you in future updates. 

joyfullyunadulteratedruins said: Is the Hypnopics thread gone? That's the only way I can download No Haven now, and the download link here is still on version 0.821

Looks to be still there to me?

Anonymous said: [no haven 0.832] imgur a/d4SJMAC is it intentional that a fel person doesn't want to get corrupted?

[no haven 0.832] imgur /a/J0ooMqC the love being desecrated drone until entirely embedded sounds to me like the check doesn't have to be done anymore, but I keep having to do it.

Yeah for some reason they may not always think that you have their best interests at heart :)

That other one is a temporary bodge of their thoughts to overwhelm their resistance. In future though there will be more permanent alterations possible like with slaves in the next update. 

Anonymous said: Could we, in the future, have a fourth-wall option to discard a slave or slaver? No reward given, just a simple deletion. It's happened to me a few times where assignments that involve specific slaves - such as the lamia in Dance the Night Away or the drow males in the Deep Mtns quest - bug out at the turn in and leave behind a slave you cannot get rid of. Also been numerous times where I've gotten an abysmal roll on a slaver and had to wait for a guaranteed disaster quest to get rid of them.

Previous anon here who was asking for the fourth-wall purge. Yes, I am aware that there's a quest to remove unwanted slavers. However, since you can't reliably force it to pop, its usefulness is inconsistent at best. Also, it gives a payout and only works on slavers - the purge I'm asking for would be more universal and give nothing. Just a convenient deletion to improve gameplay. The accompanying picture could be a screaming stickman being sucked into a black hole.

I’d prefer to fix bugs rather than do workarounds if possible. Been down that path before and it only complicate things badly. 

The reason why there’s no outright dismiss a slaver is that from the beginning on of the challenges I wanted was some of your own slavers so just booting them would lose a lot of fun possibilities. 

Saying that I do want to do more with morale/reputation so that slavers have a chance to get fed up enough that you can drive them away. I’m also planning a new assignment which will be a risk free depending on choices way to dump unwanted slaves without need for chancing the Whore Makers.  

Anonymous said: Hi! Thank you for for that great game! Some questions about the future: 1) Will we have any mechanics with C:Devices and C:Enchantment in the near future? 2) Any plans to expand the list of slave trainings with anal/vaginal tranings or something else?

Thank you!

Maybe not near, near future, but certainly sooner rather than later as both I want to have as encampment roles. Next update also has some of the groundwork for enchanting. 

Yes absolutely more training is coming including bimbo training in the next update. 

nh-maikochan said: Bug report: Had a slaver level up and had the option for the aspect "Friends in High Places", however, when I clicked on -View Choices-, it instead gave me the entry for "A Friend in Every Port", however the text for that made reference to Scouting the Deep Mountains instead of the Dreadsea Coast. "Aspect: A Friend in Every Port - Requires Friendly and two Scout the Deep Mountains Success or Crits, awards an additional two assignments on Scout the Deep Mountains Success or Crit results."

So just had an interesting bug. I took a slave to auction, my camp leader going along on the assignment, got a critical result, and while the assignment said that the slave was sold, she ended up coming back with me. Some factors that may have had an effect: Had gotten word that bimbo slaves were in demand, and the slave was indeed a bimbo and my leader has Inquisitor, which activated giving me an assignment.

First one I’ve sorted for the update. 

Other was that slave bimboborn? Cause I think that might be causing issues with selling. 

Anonymous said: Hi! What do you think about oppotunity not only gain new perks when slaver lvl up, but to remove existing ones, such as Unruly or Reserved for example? Thank you!

My current plan is to use hypnotic to tackle those unwanted mental traits. Certainly not a bad idea though. 

Decided that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to pull in questions from other sources to give as much info as possible out in one place at one time. So going forward I’m also going to be including some of the questions asked elsewhere along with including the answers I made. 

From TFGames: I'm a little confused as to biomancy and hypnotism and changing other characters. The odds seem to really not like being "in the field" but I can't figure out where else to be? Also, I can't seem to figure out what hypnotic triggers actually do when you put them on a slaver. Is there a way to alter someone's personality via hypnotism or domination? In terms of customization and exporting... is it just the char-gen where you can export a character? Is there a way to say, see a slave get captured, manipulate or change them via training and influence, turn them into a slaver and then export that character and see what happens on their career? Alternatively, is there a way to change the names of the slaves you capture and slavers you recruit? For say, immersion purposes >.> Or generate and specify your own "number two" ?

Hypnotic triggers on slavers currently are used for respect checks which are when a slaver doesn't want to do something like go whore themselves out, where a slutty outfit, or be corrupted and you need to persuade them. Using the triggers is a lot more effective than some of the other options. In the next update triggers will also be used on slaves to help with their training and unlock new bonuses. In future those slave mantras will be able to be used on anyone including yourself, and I'm also planning extra usage to deal with annoying traits like reserved and unhinged. Currently it's just the main character. I'd like to do more, but given I also want to move away from rags I'm not planning to do anything with it for now. There is an option to nickname under help and options. I don't think it's ideal though in the current implementation and it needs another look sometime.

From TFGames: Is there any get mind controlled content besides the "dreams" ascociated with Lacey's toy?

Being possessed is the main one which is a rare outcome from corruption which then has a bunch of follow up text at end of day, during respect checks, and leadership challenges. The Quick as You Like mini-adventure if you go on it assignment has MC content, especially if you 'win' the race. There's the hidden cults when you go into town where you can lose control. There also might be some assignments that have a bit of MC action if you go on them. If you're submissive there's also mind control content in the story line assignment to unlock the hidden area and slave auctions.

From the Patreon: A suggestion to add more interplay with your slavers in NH - in the "Talk" menu add a topic called "ask for rumours" where you can ask your slavers if they have any leads/tips. Depending on certain factors they could offer you a tip-off for a mission (type & quality determined by slavers type and your relation with them), to be added to your list, in exchange for gold/supplies/days off/sexual favours. Could also lead into leadership challenges if you rely too much on a slaver. Slavers could also have an x% chance of approaching you for a chat each day and ask you for things and you could choose what to charge them (no charge leads to a relation increase, refusing outright leads to a decrease). Would be a way of getting slavers to wear things/do things that they otherwise wouldn't and vice-versa. Looking forward to the update.

That's a really neat idea. Added it to my to do list.

[luck-13]

Thank you so much for all the information.I knew about the director, but not about Christa Winsloe, who wrote the original play, or the fact that the writer was a lesbian. I will look for your blog, as I am interested in learning more about this film. I really appreciate if you recommend readings related to Winsloe's lesbianism and the fact that her play was inspired by her own life. Also, When the play was first published and whether there is any translation of it into English. I am sorry, if I am asking much, but I am really interested to read more. I watched this movie 11 years ago, and rewatched it recently. I wonder why I couldn't see how special it was before. I also wonder if it was inspired by Clemence Dane's novel, Regiment of Women (1917), or maybe vice versa, in case that the original play was published before 1917? I see much similarity between the two story-lines, and scenes, and characters, though the essence of the love relationship between the pupil and the teacher is completely different in these two works, as in Regiment it is manipulative, abusive, and non-mutual. Have you read Regiment, or any article discussing the connection between the two works? I also love the music so much. One of my all time favorites, or maybe the best. I never get tired of watching your video. :)

(Source: another comment to my video (Mutual Love at First Sight - Mädchen in Uniform https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bJVYYV3dLE) by Xena Gabrirlle.)

___________________________

Hello again :D

At first, sorry, the title of the book in German is Das Mädchen Manuela, and this is the tag on dorothea-wieck but the link in description is correct.

Warning. The answer is very long, and it's muuuuch longer than I thought. I suppose, no complains from both sides (my writing and your reading of this is/will be enjoyable.) Mädchen in Uniform is my yyyeeess, but Christa Winsloe /with or without MiU is so much yes.

Also, sorry for the long links, but I think about shitty redirecting which Tumblr uses and if it's wrong all the links are not links.

___________________________

Yes, I can recommend you something. I'm one of lucky owners of Christa Winsloe's autobiography, but it's in German. (I have almost no German, but I've read a little with 100% help of Google translate and some other sites.) You can be a lucky owner too. eBay has the best variants to chose from, so search for Auto-Biographie und andere Feuilletons. (Yes, it's also about Christa's love of cars.)

Also, I would recommend Christa's (semi?)-autobiographical book Girl Alone about her lesbianism (including a way of finding her real lesbian self *(me) waving by pride flag*), but Amazon has no copies *Whyyyyy??? T_T* If I'm not mistaken it's in English originally (!!!). Winsloe was giving English lessons in her early 20's, so I think writing in English was easy for her.

SEARCH HERE: www.amazon.com/GIRL-ALONE-Christa-Winsloe/dp/B006G3YZB0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1530739149&sr=8-1&keywords=Girl+Alone+Christa+Winsloe

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NOW, ARTICLES (not too much details, or it will be endless):

1) "The fact that her play was inspired by her own life."

Hertha Thiele's (Manuela) interview with a little bit about Christa. The article starts with info about the film, about Thiele & some info from two interviewers about Thiele's opinion on MiU, etc.

It has my most favourite Christa's quote (the only one known apart from what she wrote???) This is also about me. "The experience (life at boarding school Stift) is one which I had to write from my heart."

tlweb.latrobe.edu.au/humanities/screeningthepast/reruns/thiele.html

2) It was found via Tumblr. How first of two known Christa's partners/lovers/girlfriend's, Dorothy Thompson fell in love with Christa Winsloe and about their relationship. That Fateful Christmas, 1932 (my title.) There's also a few pictures with Christa. However, her portrait with autograph (!!!) is on another site too. I've found the photo a few years ago via Google, but source was different.

http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2012/12/dorothy-thompson-and-sinclair-lewis.html

3) Yesss, the photo with autograph is part of short biography in German

http://www.fembio.org/biographie.php/frau/biographie/christa-winsloe/

4) A little bit similar to #2. This is where I found my most favourite Christa's photo which is profile picture on YouTube.

http://thisrecording.com/today/2014/7/10/in-which-dorothy-thompson-could-not-forget-vienna.html

5) I suppose I stumbled upon this article long ago, but I don't remember reading it. At least, I remember this user. https://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/2112318.html

!!!!!! 6) There somewhere were 2 parts of a very rare article. . . I have to find the parts again . . .

Yesss, Google search querie Christa Winsloe Erika Mann (the last played Fräulen von Attems who taught girls how to play in 1931 movie version) gave what we need, but the second part.

Title: Maedchen in Uniform. From repressive tolerance to erotic liberation. Author: B. Ruby Rich

So, here are both parts:

https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC24-25folder/MaedchenUniform.html

https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC24-25folder/MaedchenUniform2.html

7) Oh, and don't forget to read Wikipedia (Christa and MiU):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christa_Winsloe

German version is probably more detailed, but (I forgot to mention) it has Christa "Kate" Winsloe. LOL, Käte is Manuelas Mutter in the book. Therefore Christa made part of herself related to Manuela through mother. (I can talk about this and other similar "coincidences" forever, just ask for more.)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mädchen_in_Uniform

Articles found after "asking" Google. I've never read them before or completely now.

8) Mostly about Christa + MiU, and a little about a few years after.

http://www.lesbengeschichte.de/Englisch/bio_winsloe_e.html

9) The movie (and the book) is based on the play "Gestern und heute" (Yesterday and Today). Something about it (15 pages).

https://www.academia.edu/1780103/_Yesterday_and_or_Today_Time_History_and_Desire_in_Christa_Winsloe_s_Mädchen_in_Uniform_._In_German_Life_and_Letters_65_2012_457-471

There are much more (something new, not repetitions), I suppose. You can simply search Christa Winsloe on Google, but I think this long list is enough.

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"When the play was first published and whether there is any translation of it into English."

Going back to article #1, "Winsloe was a lesbian. She wasn't even sixteen when she married Baron von Hadvany (There's an) - the marriage only lasted two or three days, yet they both remained in contact for a long time. I met the Baron shortly before Christmas in 1930 on the occasion of the Leipzig theatre premier of Rittner Nerestan (which I later called Gestern und heute - Yesterday and today)."

Sorry, I don't remember where I read it, but I distinctly remember that the first version of the book (Rittner Nerestan, as we can say judging by Thiele's words) had been written during Christa Winsloe's marriage.

Somehow another articles says that Christa had been married for years. In one article was info that she left Ludwig von Hatwany and moved ??? (place was mentioned). Anyway, I suppose the info that ex-husband helped Christa by money is true. Christa is a great sculptor and artist (drawings), so I'd like to use second part of a pun found on Tumblr (about her marriage). "The details are sketchy."

Christa was born on 23.12.1888, so she turned 16 in 1904. Therefore, according Hertha Thiele this can be the year.

However, the play on the stage was in 1930 (because it was a year before the movie), and final version was probably written in 1933 as Amazon says https://www.amazon.de/Das-Mädchen-Manuela-»Mädchen-Uniform«/dp/3861995387 Despite of this, my memory gives 1932 as the year. Maybe it's just the difference between finished book and publication.

___________________________

The book yes, is translated, but I have no idea if the first play survived ever the way as it was in German.

___________________________

"I am sorry, if I am asking much." LOL, don't be sorry, another Christa's new fan. Honestly, because of my habit of trying to talk (to almost everybody who asking/commenting about MiU which has happened rarely) about Christa, I suppose there are ~5 of females who became her fans, and you are the 6th :D

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"I watched this movie 11 years ago, and rewatched it recently." Wow, 2007??? You were lucky.

I watched it on 11.24.2011 only because I wanted to watch teacher/pupil, but couldn't believe this was possible. Then I found MiU on one of the lists on Wikipedia (lesbian movies, not LGBT ones, I'm sure). Happily, it's not tragedy, so I decided to watch.

I've watched parts too many times to count, and even listened to parts as audio. German pronunciation is sooooo beautiful.

" . . . and rewatched it recently. I wonder why I couldn't see how special it was before."

Agree 100% with part since "how". The reason why MiU is special for me is it's higher rated, boarding school-included (instead of public one), more emotional (Manuela's part before she tried to end her life) version of my since 11 to 13 y.o. past.

___________________________

"I also wonder if it was inspired by Clemence Dane's novel, Regiment of Women (1917), or maybe vice versa, in case that the original play was published before 1917?"

Hmmm . . . We both have no idea now. If Hertha were right, The play was written in 1914, so . . . maybe?

Honestly, I haven't even heard about this book. BUT it's seems like a challenge forms to try to turn "manipulative, abusive, and non-mutual" relationship into completely opposite. *rubbing hands in anticipation*

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regiment_of_Women  Ooooh YES, yes, yes, this book is very similar to MiU, and now I have some ideas even before reading. Thanks :DDD

● Update: YAY, I’ve found Regiment of Women by Clemence Dane on Play Books (complete and free), thanks to gutenberg.org 😁😁😁😁😁😁😁 (This is also a separate post with main tag #XenaGabrielleAsk)

Also, I've found (accidentally) own post and your mentioning the book probably solves the mystery I've been unable to solve until now. Manuela is in love with the Headmistress??? Yes, you read these words exactly. (Sorry, my English wasn't good then, and I can't correct the post :( ) http://dorothea-wieck.tumblr.com/post/58436934031 (Whole part of an article with my comments.)

ALSO, later update: http://middleagedwomen-curves.tumblr.com/tagged/tell-me-your-story/chrono It's females' stories about their crush/love, and a lot are teachers ❤ It's sooo interesting and also some can be used as ideas.  

Ooooh, thanks to Instagram there are some similar great pictures, but Google found one as text also. Imagine Fräulein von Bernburg's doing this to Manuela. "Before you kiss a girlーgrab her waist, pull her closer to your body, look into her eyes, look at her lips while you're biting yours look back at her eyes again, grab her face gently, then slowly lean in and kiss her. It'll drive her crazy, I promise. 

___________________

Since you're MiU fan, I can recommend you something better than a manipulative teacher.

1) Have you watched Cracks? LOL, I have a blog about this too (but it hasn't been updated for a number of years.) http://cracks2009.tumblr.com No spoilers, except I'm 1000% sure main girl will never abandon her dearest teacher. Also, it's based on a book by Sheila Kohler. My long search gave nothing, so I had to buy this book. Somehow, eBay had a cheap brand new one.

2) How about Loving Annabelle? The info everywhere is that it's ~ based on/similar to/remake of MiU 1958, but nothing about 1931 version *angry* But it has some wonderful f/f scenes :DDD Alternative end is the only reason for YES, instead of *why the Hell it ended this way?*

3) Bloomington is about a student and college teacher, but it has f/m in between because of almost "I hate you" (not at the same time), and split up in the end :(

4) Olivia, 1951? It starts almost like MiU when main character is a new pupil at boarding school. BUT no teacher/pupil kiss, only pupil/pupil. However, the girl loved her teacher so much, and was looking at her (when she was reading to the girls) almost like Manuela.

I watched it once in 2012? (and maybe rewatched lesbian parts later), but it's what I remember about lesbianism there.

● Update 5) I've found a post here on Tumblr and remembered Matilda by Roald Dahl Great Children's book. There's also movie, but I've not watched it completely yet. (No spoilers, if you don't know, but it's the happiest ending of sll teacher/ pupil f/f if a few I've ever read or watched.)

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"I also love the music so much. One of my all time favorites, or maybe the best."

YES?! YES? I thought of commenting that it's probably my most favourite classical piece. GREAT.

● Update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZdiY1pTaR4 is the video the music is from.

Aaaand: https://dorothy-zbornak.tumblr.com/post/57970831013 This is version as a song in Polish :D I added original lyrics and translated it in English (I understand all (except one line) finally.)

Oh, also there were periods in the past (during a few years until a couple of years ago) when I listened to song version many times + music version too (but much less times) on repeat and am listening now too *happy*

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"I never get tired of watching your video. :)"

THANKS. I tried (but there's one grammatical error, unfortunately).

I thought I did it in another video, but this one has it more than one timeーlonger kiss.

Part from Hertha's interview, "When the film went to Romania, a letter came from the distributors there, asking `Please, twenty more metres of kissing'." I wanted this too, since the moment I'd read these words, and I found a way (not 100% realistic as it's clearly a freeze frame at least one time, but yes, it IS longer.)

You can look for more MiU-related videos on my channel. I have some fan-fictions/drabbles about Elisabeth (von Bernburg)/Manuela too.

http://dorothea-wieck.tumblr.com/tagged/fanfiction (there are some that aren't mine, though), but I can look and give link to each if you need.

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Oooh, have you ever watched Anna and Elisabeth? The same Wieck and Thiele as lead characters. My 2nd of top 3 lesbian films (and I wrote fan-fictions too; because these two must be happy together as characters).

___________________________

● Update: The end of your first comment, "the maker/director was a woman and as some scholars suggenst probably a lesbian herself." I forgot about it/forgot to comment. Yes, you're right about Leontine Sagan (Schlesinger // Wikipedia confirmed I remember right.) I read about it somewhere. Also, she played everybody's favourite E.v.B on stage. There are 2 posts from her book Light and Shadows (bought and upload by a girl from East Russia.) http://dorothea-wieck.tumblr.com/post/114300921565 http://dorothea-wieck.tumblr.com/post/114397860189  

She's much better looking than masculine 50 y.o. Meltzer? in the very first version in 1930 on stage in Leipzig (Hertha Thiele was chosen by Christa Winsloe for stage, and for the movie probably too, but there were many girls who tried, so Thiele wasn't sure (she would be chosen for the movie too). 

I don't know if I'm the one, but Sagan as Bernburg look like combination of Dorothea Wieck and Christa Winsloe (oh, the director of the movie playing E.v.B. on stage look like E.v.B. in the movie + MiU's author). Great.  

Also, once I went a little too far and . . .  (AU visual story (with terrible proportions due inability to correctly combine wide-height of original and new part(s)) based on Thiele's interview) http://dorothea-wieck.tumblr.com/post/87629548774

___________________________

Hope we'll talk more soon.

You can send me an ask (but it won't allow much of a text) http://dorothy-zbornak.tumblr.com/ask, or send a submission (longer) on dorothea-wieck.tumblr.com (I made ability to submit only there), but it will be answered on dorothy-zbornak.

If you have any better ways, I'm ready to think about any.l

[ultralifehackerguru-blog]

New Post has been published on http://www.lifehacker.guru/top-10-services-google-killed-off/

Top 10 Services Google Killed Off

Google has a long history of introducing, then forgetting about, and finally officially killing off its products. Most recently, that included Google Spaces, a service that most of us never knew existed to begin with. Let’s take a tour of some of our favorite services Google’s killed off over the years.

10. Google Buzz

Google Buzz was introduced in 2010 and quickly discontinued in 2011. Buzz was basically a Facebook clone that also integrated with your email for some reason. You could share photos, videos, and links directly to your contacts or the public at large.

Buzz died a quick death because it was unclear exactly what you were supposed to use it for, but it planted the seed for a number of improvements with its rival, Facebook. Google+ followed suit as Google’s own replacement to Buzz a few years later, but even that’s barely hanging on at this point.

9. Picnik

Picnik was a free online photo editing tool that made it easy to make minor adjustments to photos without the need for desktop software. After uploading photos you could easily adjust brightness, color, and more, then save the edited image back to your hard drive.

This type of service is pretty abundant these days. Even when Picnik died back in 2012, the best replacement was Google’s own Google+ Photos, which Google replaced with the much better and more privacy-minded Google Photos. If mobile photo editing is more your game, you have lots of good options on both Android and iPhone.

8. Picasa

Speaking of photo management, Picasa, Google’s desktop photo library tool, was one of our favorite ways to organize your digital photos until Google decided to kill it off in 2016. The good news is that most of Picasa’s features made it into Google Photos.

While Google Photos lacks the desktop management tools that Picasa had, the online version is plenty robust as a replacement. Which is good, because except for Apple Photos, there really aren’t many desktop photo management apps left.

7. Google Answers

Google killed Google Answers way back in 2006. Unlike current competitors like Stack Exchange, Quora, and the always-insightful Yahoo Answers, Google Answers incentivized good answers by offering up cash payments.

When a user asked a question on Google Answers they could also post a bounty between $2-$200. If you liked a well-researched answer, you’d pay out and could add a tip on top of that. Before Google Answers, Google had a similar service, called Google Questions and Answers, where you’d email Google staffer a question and they’d answer it for $3. While Quora is the best replacement, there’s no money involved there, but services like Fiverr and Amazon Mechanical Turk take a similar approach if you’re looking for someone to do your research for you.

6. Google Wave

Google Wave existed between 2010 and 2012 and was one of the company’s most ambitious failures. Wave was too ambitious though, as nobody was quite sure how to use the email-instant messenger-document collaborating-wiki-forum-blogging tool. Once Google laid Wave to rest, Apache took over some of the protocols, but little came of it.

As baffling as Wave was for most users, it laid the groundwork for a number of now-popular services, including Slack and Discord, which are the closest modern equivalents when it comes to Wave’s chat systems. If you miss the document collaboration features in Wave, you have plenty of alternatives in Google Drive, Dropbox, or Office.

5. Google Helpouts

Google Helpouts was a service that connected you to live experts for video chats. Helpouts managed to last almost two years. It was essentially the video version of a something like Quora, but with a live Q&A.

The general idea of Helpouts was connecting you, a normal human Google user, with an expert so you can ask questions live. Some of these Helpouts channels cost money, but most were free, which is why it failed in the long run. Still, it was useful in theory and the ability to ask experts questions on everything from home repair to Photoshop was appealing.

There aren’t a ton of alternatives that work the same way as Helpouts, but Clarity.fm is similar if you need help with a startup and our own Ask an Expert series is great provided the topic of the week is useful for you.

4. Google Notebook

Google discontinued Google Notebook in 2012, but it lived a long and full life by Google standards. As the name suggests, Google Notebook was an online notes platform where you could store notes and even add web clippings provided you were using Firefox or Internet Explorer. If that all sounds familiar it’s because it’s basically Evernote.

The good news is that replacements are a dime a dozen. Google Notebook might have been one of the first online notes apps, but nowadays Evernote, OneNote, Simplenote, and Google Keep all fill the void. While all of the modern options have far surpassed Google Notebook, it still holds a special place in our hearts for being one of the first good options around.

3. Google Labs

Writing about weird Google Labs experimental features was Lifehacker’s bread and butter for a very long time. Google Labs made it possible for the general public to test all kinds of weird new Google features and apps in a variety of its services, from Google Calendar to Google Chrome.

While the main landing page for Google Labs is gone, the spirit lives on in one way or another. Chrome has its experimental flags and Gmail still has a slew of experimental options built into it. Google Labs might be technically dead, but that doesn’t mean the company doesn’t still release weird, random new apps before quickly forgetting about them.

2. iGoogle

iGoogle, which initially launched as Google Personalized Homepage, had a good run from 2005-2013, and the internet mourned its death with surprising despair. iGoogle was a totally personalized startup page that you could customize with whatever you wanted, which, in the age of algorithms, is a long lost feature.

You do still have some options though. For now, myYahoo still exists, igHome looks almost identical to iGoogle, and Netvibes is the most modern option of them all.

1. Google Reader

On July 1, 2013, the internet lost one of its most faithful companions: Google Reader. The RSS Reader that millions counted on since 2005 was gone and in its place was a radio wave shaped hole in all our hearts.

Well, that and a few dozen replacement services. Feedly is still going strong and easily the best alternative to Reader, though plenty of other alternative like Feeder, The Old Reader, and Digg Reader are all worth a look.

Close the Door Behind You

How to Move On When a Service You Love Shuts Down

Readability Is Shutting Down, Here’s How to Export Your Bookmarks to Instapaper or Pocket

Ready For Zero Just Shut Down, Here’s Where to Track Your Debt Now

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