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guardian-angle22 · 2 months ago

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I promised a book haul of all the exciting books I purchased on my travels to London and Edinburgh! y'all... I bought TEN books...

Here is the stack of books and also some cute bookmarks I got from various places!

Here is the breakdown of all the books with their official descriptions:

Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson

Rosemary meets Ash at the farmers’ market. Ash—precise, pretty, and practically perfect—sells bars of soap in delicate pastel colors, sprinkle-spackled cupcakes stacked on scalloped stands, beeswax candles, jelly jars of honey, and glossy green plants. Ro has never felt this way about another woman; with Ash, she wants to be her and have her in equal measure. But as her obsession with Ash consumes her, she may find she’s not the one doing the devouring…

Monsters: What Do We Do With Great Art By Bad People? by Claire Dederer

Pablo Picasso beat his partners. Richard Wagner was deeply antisemitic. David Bowie slept with an underage fan. But many of us still love Guernica and the Ring cycle and Ziggy Stardust. And what are we to do with that love? How are we, as fans, to reckon with the biographical choices of the artists whose work sustains us? Wildly smart and insightful, Monsters is an exhilarating attempt to understand our relationship with art and the artist in the twenty-first century.

Little Rot by Akwaeke Emezi

One weekend. The elite underbelly of a Nigerian city. A breakup that starts a spiral. A party that goes awry. A tangled web of sex and lies and corruption that leaves no one unscathed. Little Rot is a whirling journey through the city’s dark side, told through the eyes of five people, each determined to run from the twisted powers out to destroy them. Aima and Kalu are a longtime couple who have just split. When Kalu, reeling from his loss, visits a sex party hosted by his best friend, Ahmed, he makes a decision that will plunge them all into chaos, brutally upending their lives. Ola and Souraya, two Nigerian sex workers visiting from Kuala Lumpur, intersect with the three old friends as everything goes to hell. Sucked into the city’s corrupt underworld, they’re all looking for a way out of the trouble they’ve instigated, driven by loss and fueled by a desperate need to escape the dangerous threat that looms over them. They careen madly in the face of the poison of power, sexual violence, murder, betrayals. Little Rot tests how far these five will go to save each other—or themselves—when confronted by evil, culminating in a shattering denouement.

The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende

Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler is five years old when his father disappears during Kristallnacht—the night his family loses everything. As her child’s safety becomes ever harder to guarantee, Samuel’s mother secures a spot for him on a Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to England. He boards alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin.

Arizona, 2019. Eight decades later, Anita Díaz and her mother board another train, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador and seeking refuge in the United States. But their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and seven-year-old Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes her tenuous reality through her trips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination. Meanwhile, Selena Durán, a young social worker, enlists the help of a successful lawyer in hopes of tracking down Anita’s mother.

Intertwining past and present, The Wind Knows My Name tells the tale of these two unforgettable characters, both in search of family and home. It is both a testament to the sacrifices that parents make and a love letter to the children who survive the most unfathomable dangers—and never stop dreaming.

Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood by bell hooks

Stitching together the threads of her girlhood memories, bell hooks shows us one strong-spirited child's journey toward becoming the pioneering writer we know. Along the way, hooks sheds light on the vulnerability of children, the special unfurling of female creativity and the imbalance of a society that confers marriage's joys upon men and its silences on women. In a world where daughters and fathers are strangers under the same roof, and crying children are often given something to cry about, hooks uncovers the solace to be found in solitude, the comfort to be had in the good company of books. Bone Black allows us to bear witness to the awakening of a legendary author's awareness that writing is her most vital breath.

A House at the Bottom of a Lake by Josh Malerman

Both seventeen. Both afraid. But both saying yes. It sounded like the perfect first date: canoeing across a chain of lakes, sandwiches and beer in the cooler. But teenagers Amelia and James discover something below the water’s surface that changes their lives forever. It’s got two stories. It’s got a garden. And the front door is open. It’s a house at the bottom of a lake. For the teens, there is only one rule: no questions. And yet, how could a place so spectacular come with no price tag? While the duo plays house beneath the waves, one reality remains: Just because a house is empty, doesn’t mean nobody’s home.

Godkiller by Hannah Kaner

Kissen’s family were killed by zealots of a fire god. Now, she makes a living killing gods, and enjoys it. That is until she finds a god she cannot kill: Skedi, a god of white lies, has somehow bound himself to a young noble, and they are both on the run from unknown assassins. Joined by a disillusioned knight on a secret quest, they must travel to the ruined city of Blenraden, where the last of the wild gods reside, to each beg a favour. Pursued by demons, and in the midst of burgeoning civil war, they will all face a reckoning – something is rotting at the heart of their world, and only they can be the ones to stop it.

People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present by Dara Horn

Renowned and beloved as a prizewinning novelist, Dara Horn has also been publishing penetrating essays since she was a teenager. Often asked by major publications to write on subjects related to Jewish culture—and increasingly in response to a recent wave of deadly antisemitic attacks—Horn was troubled to realize what all of these assignments had in common: she was being asked to write about dead Jews, never about living ones. In these essays, Horn reflects on subjects as far-flung as the international veneration of Anne Frank, the mythology that Jewish family names were changed at Ellis Island, the blockbuster traveling exhibition Auschwitz, the marketing of the Jewish history of Harbin, China, and the little-known life of the "righteous Gentile" Varian Fry. Throughout, she challenges us to confront the reasons why there might be so much fascination with Jewish deaths, and so little respect for Jewish lives unfolding in the present. Horn draws upon her travels, her research, and also her own family life—trying to explain Shakespeare’s Shylock to a curious ten-year-old, her anger when swastikas are drawn on desks in her children’s school, the profound perspective offered by traditional religious practice and study—to assert the vitality, complexity, and depth of Jewish life against an antisemitism that, far from being disarmed by the mantra of "Never forget," is on the rise. As Horn explores the (not so) shocking attacks on the American Jewish community in recent years, she reveals the subtler dehumanization built into the public piety that surrounds the Jewish past—making the radical argument that the benign reverence we give to past horrors is itself a profound affront to human dignity.

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

In 1949 Helene Hanff, a “poor writer with an antiquarian taste in books”, wrote to Marks & Co Booksellers of 84 Charing Cross Rd, in search of the rare editions she was unable to find in New York. Her books were dispatched with polite but brisk efficiency. But, seeking further treasures, Helene soon found herself in regular correspondence with bookseller Frank Doel, laying siege to his English reserve with her warmth and wit. And as letters, books and quips crossed the ocean, a friendship flourished that would endure for twenty years.

Rouge by Mona Awad

For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience. With the help of a pair of red shoes, Belle is lured into the barbed embrace of La Maison de Méduse, the same lavish, culty spa to which her mother was devoted. There, Belle discovers the frightening secret behind her (and her mother’s) obsession with the mirror—and the great shimmering depths (and demons) that lurk on the other side of the glass. Snow White meets Eyes Wide Shut in this surreal descent into the dark side of beauty, envy, grief, and the complicated love between mothers and daughters. With black humor and seductive horror, Rouge explores the cult-like nature of the beauty industry—as well as the danger of internalizing its pitiless gaze. Brimming with California sunshine and blood-red rose petals, Rouge holds up a warped mirror to our relationship with mortality, our collective fixation with the surface, and the wondrous, deep longing that might lie beneath.

#books #book haul #guardian reads (sometimes)#when you have so many books you gotta use a cut to save the timeline #I’m very excited to read these!!#I’ve been reading a TON this month!

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ninja-muse · 9 months ago

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February was a pretty good month! I read some books I really loved (and a couple that were simply meh), I got in a father-daughter visit and had really good luck at Scrabble, the weather was mostly not awful, and even if inventory at work took longer than expected, I survived it without brain mush, which has happened before. I am still the fastest scanner! My title holds.

Regular readers will be unsurprised to learn that Eve by Cat Bohannon and Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse were my top reads of the month, or that What Feasts At Night by T. Kingfisher ranks third. My T. Kingfisher problem is at least a year old, after all. (Also I read a couple delightful picture books, so be sure to click through to find them!)

I'm personally more surprised by my lowest picks, because they both sounded so up my alley but fell flat for nearly completely different reasons. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store ended up feeling disjointed and like it was trying for a theme it couldn't quite grasp, and A Market of Dreams and Desires hit all kinds of tropes I love, right down to random Dickens references and weird steampunk machines, but tied everything together a little too neatly for me. Ah well.

And right in the middle of my list is my sole physical TBR read of the month: The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. This managed to tick off "Canadian author" and "classic" at the same time, so I get triple points. (This might have had a hand in me picking it.) Duddy has aged surprisingly well, in that it's still pretty fast-paced and amusing and also in that Richler wrote it with the understanding that scam artistry, hypermaterialism, and misogyny were bad and y'know what? They still are. I would recommend if you're looking for a Canadian teen anti-hero, more than anything. Duddy is a trainwreck and you can't look away.

I managed to get through the month with only three books hauled. (We won't talk about ARCs but the book fairies were kind.) The Unfortunate Traveller and Under a Pendulum Sun were bought during the habitual father-daughter bookstore date, and both because I never thought I'd see them and figured I might never see them again. The Unfortunate Traveller is essays and travel writing by a guy who co-wrote with Shakespeare and I didn't know it even existed. Under the Pendulum Sun was recced to me somewhere (here? bookish website algorithms?) and since it's essentially a gothic novel with properly weird fairies, it's been on my list.

The third book was a total surprise. Apparently I helped crowdfund it in 2019 and they've only just managed to get it printed and also I said I wanted a physical copy? The things we learn. Anyway, it's essays on aromanticism, agender identity, and asexuality so that tracks.

And I know I said I wasn't going to talk about ARCs but I got some good ones this last month and also in January, and there's a lot of them that are out or soon to be out and I'm having that problem where I want to be reading all of them at once. March is going to be interesting and probably a little panic-inducing.

Click through to see everything I read this month, in the rough order of how glad I was to have read them.

Eve - Cat Bohannon

A history of human evolution, through the lens of the female body.

8.5/10

warning: touches on sexism, mental illness, suicide, miscarriage, and rape

reading copy

Mirrored Heavens - Rebecca Roanhorse

The fractures following the eclipse have deepened and no one can see a way back to peace that doesn’t involve bloodshed. Out in June

8/10

Indigenous cast, 🏳️‍🌈 POV characters (bisexual, third gender), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (third gender, sapphic), Black-Pueblo author

warning: war, torture, mentions of child abuse

reading copy

What Feasts At Night - T. Kingfisher

Alex Easton has returned to kar hunting lodge to relax. Unfortunately, the locals claim there's a monster on a property.

8/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (third gender), protagonist with PTSD

Library ebook

The Twilight Queen - Jeri Westerson

Will Somers, jester to Henry VIII, is caught up in another mystery, this time of a corpse in Queen Anne’s bedchamber.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 main character (bi), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (gay)

digital reading copy

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz - Mordechai Richler

A delinquent teen grows into a hustler, against the backdrop of mid-century Jewish Montreal.

7/10

largely Jewish cast, Jewish author, 🇨🇦

warning: racial slurs, misogyny

Off my TBR shelves

The Woman With No Name - Audrey Blake

Lonely and craving war work, Yvonne signs up to be the first female spy for the Allies in occupied France. Out in March

7/10

half a 🇨🇦 author

reading copy

The Frame-Up - Gwenda Bond

Ten years ago, Dani turned her art thief mom in to the Feds. Now her mom’s mentor has given Dani an offer she can’t refuse: use her magic to pull an impossible heist, get her life back.

6.5/10

Black secondary characters, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic)

reading copy

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store - James McBride

The Black and Jewish residents of a Pennsylvania neighbourhood are (mostly) in it together, not least of when the government decides to take a local Deaf kid to an asylum.

7/10

Jewish and Black cast, major character with chronic illness and a limp, secondary Deaf character, Black author

warning: ableist characters and institutions, racist and anti-Semitic characters, sexual assault and molestation, (largely) reclaimed slurs

library book

The Market of Dreams and Destiny - Trip Galey

Deri may have a chance to buy out his indenture early when he meets a princess looking to sell her destiny. But in the goblin’s Untermarkt, nothing’s ever easy.

6.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 main character (mlm), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (mlm, genderfluid), British Indian secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 author

warning: child abuse, enslavement

borrowed from work

Picture Books

No Cats in the Library - Lauren Emmons

Cats aren’t allowed in the library but that’s where all the books are!

🏳️‍🌈 author

Read at work

Family is Family - Melissa Marr

Chick gets a note before kindergarten, telling him to have his mom or dad walk him to school. Except that Chick has two moms.

🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters and themes

Read at work

Currently reading

Knife Skills for Beginners - Orlando Murrin

Paul Delamare is filling in at a cooking school when the resident celebrity chef has a, erm, "accident."

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (gay), Black British secondary character

Reading copy

True North - Andrew J. Graff

The Brechts move to Wisconsin to restart a rafting business. They hope it’ll save their young family, but it might do the opposite.

library book

Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century - Richard Taruskin

A history of early written European music, in its social and political contexts.

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

Victorian detective stories

disabled POV character, occasional secondary Indian secondary characters

warning: racism, colonialism

Monthly total: 9 +2 Yearly total: 20 Queer books: 4 + 2 Authors of colour: 2 Books by women: 6 Authors outside the binary: 0 Canadian authors: 1.5 Classics: 1 Off the TBR shelves: 1 Books hauled: 3 ARCs acquired: 6 ARCs unhauled: 4 DNFs: 0

January

#booklr #bookblr #book reviews #adult booklr #reading wrap-ups #read in 2024 #my photos #book stacks #stacks of books

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river-muse · 4 months ago

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Considering being annoying and sharing more of my Tai Kemi stuff I've been drawing for a few years now. I have-- like 10 more finished pieces and a ton of sketches/half-assed drawings of him?

Some are--- so old. This campaign's been going on since 2019. I have even more in my physical sketch book that I might go through and try redrawing eventually. I really did take the "make some guy and get obsessed with them" concept literally. My art improved at an insane rate after him.

He's just someone who really wasn't prepared for the horror life was going to throw at him. He had a good childhood, and didn't really start Going Through It until his late teens. Now look at him. He's traumatized with a bad case of Thalassophobia. He was held captive in a digital simulation for two years and definitely remembers the fucked up death maze he'd gotten stuck in during that time. Not long after being rescued from that he almost died twice within the span of like a month. The enemy doesn't see him as worth anything except a way to force his ex(?/up for debate) to submit. His self-worth was already in the toilet and it just keeps getting shredded any time they uncover more information. As much as he wishes he could go home he's in this for the long haul.

I took a perfectly good Lashunta and ruined him with the help of my DM, that's what I did.

#Kat's TTRPG PCs #Tai Kemi #Travelers Of The Stars Campaign

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retphienix · 11 months ago

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As it comes to an end,

The Gargoyle's Cry was a rather exciting time for me.

It's been 3 whole years since the last event, Orphix Venom, and I was on hiatus at the time!

As a matter of fact the last one I did was Hostile Merger in 2019 and I have all the mats and oplink stuff from Scarlet but I never did it.

So my memory of operations, as I've done so incredible few (THEY KEEP WAITING ON ME TO GO ON HIATUS), is extremely unrewarding but very fun.

Things like the Pyrus Project where we coordinated to fix up a relay which gave us the weapon I probably hate the most in the entire game, the Zylok.

Or the aforementioned Hostile Merger which gave the Glaxion and Spectra vandal, MR fodder if anything though at the time I was extremely excited for the Glaxion.

I'm being harsh in retrospect but in all honestly I LIKE the small scale operation structure- just doing a quick community thing and being given a new toy to play with- I enjoyed that and hope we get a lot more of it- but I talk in this tone because this is THE FIRST "meta rewarding" operation I've ever done- wherein the entire gimmick is "Here's a list of those arcanes you need, grind em out" instead of a new toy.

Apparently, Orphix was the same, so this literally isn't "new" but this is the first time it's happened in over 3 years and the first time I've ever experienced an operation just giving me friggin' Arcane Energize, so I was stoked.

Now. Gameplay wise.

Fuck this operation man lol

I LIKE the boss fight, but doing it something like 160 times made warframe a drag over these last 4 weeks lmao

Now, that's my fault, but when I log into warframe and it goes "Yeah, you could go crack some relics, or farm some rep for arcanes to dissolve, OR- YOU COULD GO KILL THAT BOSS AGAIN FOR ENERGIZE (and others)" you shake you head and give in to the temptation -.-

I guess I'll never actually know since I never experienced it, but researching it back when I was bitching about the modern Orphix missions being extremely unrewarding it read as if the EVENT Orphix was a much much much easier fight and it was a pseudo endless mission that ended at 24 for normal and advances and 36 for the expert version that was most rewarding.

Dude.

Doing an 'endless' mission for arcanes sounds so much more chill than doing this boss fight 100+ times. My god. I want that instead.

But even with that though- this is technically more rewarding than even Orphix was.

For main drops in Orphix you got the necramech mods- which were a pain to get after the fact until this exact update where now you can just buy them from the cavia.

For main drops in this operation you get up to 2 arcanes (boss and angel) and a pinion and there are voca. So you can rep up 2 factions, collect 2 pools of arcanes, all the while building up splinters for a THIRD much more tedious to grind normally pool of arcanes.

Like I've been saying, this operation is extremely rewarding- like ludicrously so, and fucking TEDIOUS lol

I guess I'll round out with my haul, and closing thoughts.

I did something like 160 runs, which should have been enough to max 2 legendary arcanes (nearly 3 I think, it's like 60 runs or something for them) but I shuffled my purchases around.

I maxed Arcane Energize, Arcane Guardian, and Arcane Strike.

FINALLY I have the arcane most impactful to the meta, even if it's not one size fits all. FUCKING FINALLY lol.

I got Arcane Grace to rank 3 (with some extra), Arcane Barrier to rank 2 (with some extra) and bought all the cosmetic nonsense.

That's pretty fucking nice in my book.

My buds also came out like bandits, with one maxing their energize and the other coming VERY close (unless they maxed it and didn't update our chat). Nice :)

I sincerely hope this is a sign of things to come, with operations being rewarding (hopefully allowing those of us who hate eidolons to get our collections complete lol) and NOT TAKING 3 YEARS TO HAPPEN AGAIN lol

I hope we get more small and large operations and return to what appears to have been the old standard of 2 per year, only time will tell.

Now if you don't mind, I am going to take a break for like a week from warframe because this burnt my entire brain doing so many times lol

#warframe #RetPlays

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kylesvariouslistsandstuff · 2 years ago

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SUPERHERO CHOOSINESS

It’s strongly being suggested that the superhero movie bubble is bursting…

There’s the more mixed critical reception of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s remarkably stuffed but hasty Phase Four, and then there’s the equally fast Phases Five and Six… whose ending feature AVENGERS: SECRET WARS is still set to open in the summer of 2026… Meaning that this Multiverse Saga only will last five years, compared to the eleven year span from IRON MAN to SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME… Like, wow!

And not only are there a lot of movies, but there were plenty of shows. So many from 2021-2022 alone: WANDAVISION, THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER, LOKI Season One, WHAT IF…? Season One, HAWKEYE, MOON KNIGHT, MS. MARVEL, and SHE-HULK: ATTORNEY AT LAW. In addition to those, you had the “Special Presentation” featurettes WEREWOLF BY NIGHT and the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY HOLIDAY SPECIAL.

For me, it was starting to become homework to keep up with what was going on. And this is coming from someone who has seen all but two Marvel Cinematic Universe movies in a theater. The two that I missed were THE INCREDIBLE HULK, and BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER.

Then of course you have the DC movie-verse, which is being hard-reset in a few years under the new leadership of James Gunn and Peter Safran. Prior to that, it was an always-changing mess of visions and intentions. Faithfuls kept up with the series, some left afterwards because of these changes, general audiences seemed to stick around for most of the movies. It’s a clustercuss of its own, and further discussing that will likely get me into hot waters… But what happened with The Rock and his apparent strong-arming of the DC movie-verse with his BLACK ADAM project and plans really shows just what kind of directionless mess the whole thing was for ten years…

So we’re now left with a few movies that were locked and ready to go before the Gunn/Safran take-over, the first of which, SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS… Opened with roughly $30m. A pretty blah take, and well below the $53m take the first SHAZAM! took in back in 2019. It’s been said before, but the whole “these won’t matter in the long run” attitude has probably deflated attendance… But many other things do as well… People being choosier with movies, ticket and concession prices being absurdly high… A statistic in 2014 stated that the average American family hits the flicks four times a year. I believe it. I’ve been working at a movie theater since August of 2015, and I see what I charge my customers… Both movies and for snacks… Yeah, I do not wonder why… Especially in the pandemic era, that people are choosier with movies. I feel we see the same thing with animated movies as well. Those are also usually four-quadrant family titles... And then around the corner, them being on streaming. Be it Disney+ for an MCU movie, or HBO Max for a DCU movie.

A month earlier, ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA opened pretty great with $106m. That was way above ANT-MAN AND THE WASP’s mid-70s opening weekend haul, and an overall fine opening for an MCU movie... but the legs? Abysmal so far. It looks to barely score a 2x multiplier, which is pretty bad… It might be the first MCU movie to completely miss that. I don't even know if I'll make time for it, myself. (I've missed a lot of movies in theaters lately because of other lifestuff going on at the moment.)

What does this all tell me?

Is it truly superhero movie fatigue? Are audiences catching on to the perceived problems of these big budget shared universe movies?

Here’s what I think is happening…

Choosiness...

I, in true form, am going to relate this to animated movies… And I mean “animated movies”, because let’s face it… There’s lots of animation in your average MCU or DCU movie. QUANTUMANIA, from the looks of it, is an animated movie with some real people in it. Much like GRAVITY, AVATAR and its sequel, Jon Favreau’s THE JUNGLE BOOK, LIFE OF PI, etc. etc.

Once upon a time... $100m at the domestic box office was a magic number for an animated feature film. And I mean a $100m gross on the film's first ever theatrical release, not $100m via the original release and added theatrical re-issue totals (like classic pre-Renaissance Disney films, like SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS and 101 DALMATIANS)...

Only Disney scored $100m domestic totals for their animated movies. Hybrid WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, released through Disney's Touchstone banner, broke the barrier first and grossed $156m in the summer of 1988. Then, an all-animated movie broke the barrier nearly four years later in early 1992... That was Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, which got to its high total through strong word-of-mouth and legs throughout the holiday and post-holiday season. It was slow to start in November 1991, because back then... Theater-to-video release windows were longer. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST was released in American movie theaters in November 1991, and the videocassette and LaserDisc release wouldn't be until... October 1992!

So, an unreachable number for everyone else. Don Bluth, former Disney animator and hot competitor, seemingly peaked with AN AMERICAN TAIL and THE LAND BEFORE TIME, both of which collected in the upper-40s at the domestic box office. His last box office hurrah, the 20th Century Fox-released ANASTASIA (now owned by Disney), grossed $57m by the end of its run in early 1998. Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes hybrid movie SPACE JAM came very close with $90m, two years prior. BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD DO AMERICA put up a decent fight, with over $60m in 1996/97. That was a record high for a TV-to-movie animated adaptation back then, beating out A GOOFY MOVIE, JETSON: THE MOVIE, DUCKTALES - THE MOVIE: TREASURE OF THE LOST LAMP, and plenty of others.

In fact, Disney *themselves* missed $100m on occasion. HERCULES, made up at Feature Animation, the mainline studio, just missed it with a $99m domestic gross in 1997/98. The Disney MovieToons GOOF TROOP movie, A GOOFY MOVIE, made less than $40m stateside. THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS made an impressive $50m back in the day, and became a massive cult classic through video and TV. Hybrid JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, which was also a Henry Selick-Tim Burton Skellington Productions joint, missed $30m.

Then there was a little movie called TOY STORY... The first-ever all-digital animated feature film.

By the end of its theatrical run in early 1996, TOY STORY grossed $191m domestically... No doubt helped by being a Disney release and being the first of its kind, and a genuinely really good movie that audiences loved. So in a way, the only movies to make $100m domestically *before* TOY STORY were Disney Feature Animation movies (BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, ALADDIN, THE LION KING, and POCAHONTAS), and a hybrid movie made by Amblin and Richard Williams Animation but released by Disney...

So Disney still had $100m under lock and key, and TOY STORY was their first non-Feature Animation endeavor since ROGER RABBIT to get it...

Believe it or not, the first-ever animated movie that was a NOT a Disney release, to score $100m domestically... Was... THE RUGRATS MOVIE. No doubt getting there off of the show's sheer popularity at the time. Despite first airing on Nickelodeon in 1991, some seven years earlier, RUGRATS seemed to be at the peak of its popularity in the late 1990s, after the show was renewed for more seasons following highly successful re-runs and the few specials that Nick and studio Klasky-Csupo did after the show's early seasons. I was there. I was 6 when THE RUGRATS MOVIE came out, and I felt the hype. Everybody I knew back then watched and liked the show, I watched it frequently with my sister back in the day. RUGRATS was one of those cartoons that everyone knew and everyone watched. Almost as ubiquitous as THE SIMPSONS, I'd argue. Paramount released THE RUGRATS MOVIE, and it broke that barrier, in addition to being the highest grossing TV-to-movie adaptation animated movie... By a country kilometer.

THE RUGRATS MOVIE came out in November 1998, just one month before DreamWorks rolled out THE PRINCE OF EGYPT, the second animated movie to cross $100m domestically... Two months prior... ANTZ came out, and grossed an impressive $90m. Pixar's sophomore feature A BUG'S LIFE opened, infamously, amidst this four-movie fall shakedown, and won the race with $163m.

So two not-Disneys made $100m domestically, and two not-Disney Feature Animation movies made $100m domestically... This was a turning point in theatrical feature animation, and it would come to benefit - for a brief while - all CGI animated movies.

We'll focus on those now...

1999 saw the release of Pixar's TOY STORY 2, which broke $245m. That was above every Disney animated movie *except* THE LION KING. Wow!

In 2000, Disney released their hybrid live-action/CG feature DINOSAUR, which has been counted as a Walt Disney Animation Studios canon movie since 2008... While that movie didn't make enough money to justify a sequel or to keep the collaboration studio behind it (The Secret Lab) alive, it still broke $100m domestically.

2001... DreamWorks' SHREK and Pixar's MONSTERS, INC. break past $250m domestically. Paramount/Nickelodeon's pilot movie JIMMY NEUTRON: BOY GENIUS takes in a respectable $80m. 2002... Newcomer Blue Sky's ICE AGE makes over $175m domestically. By this point in time, several hand-drawn animated movies... From all the studios: Disney, DreamWorks, 20th Century Fox, Columbia, etc. Largely losing money theatrically, with few exceptions in between. Many of them are missing the titan $100m threshold. For context, only Disney Feature's LILO & STITCH broke that barrier in mid-2002. CGI movies seemed foolproof. Guaranteed blockbusters...

2003 brought Pixar's FINDING NEMO, which became the highest grossing animated movie of all-time, unseating THE LION KING... Then SHREK 2 came out the year after, made that record look like nothing, becoming the first animated movie to break **$400m** domestically. In addition to SHREK 2, 2004 saw the release of DreamWorks' other CG hit SHARK TALE ($160m+), Pixar's THE INCREDIBLES ($260m+), and Warner Bros.' motion-capture pic THE POLAR EXPRESS ($160m+). In 2005, DreamWorks' MADAGASCAR came super-close to $200m, Blue Sky's ROBOTS cleared $120m...

So, unstoppable, right?

The one exception seemed to be the 2001 release FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN, a mocap feature based on the game series of the same name. That one puttered out at $32m domestically, and fell well below its hefty budget with all the worldwide take factored in... But this seemed like an anomaly more so than anything. You also had a few super-limited releases of foreign CG films, like KAENA: THE PROPHECY, which was a French film.

2005 was when it all seemed to be up... VALIANT, a British animated movie distributed stateside by Disney, performed quite badly... Despite it being a CGI movie and touting "producer of SHREK" cred. Disney Feature's first all-CG feature, CHICKEN LITTLE, managed to make more than $100m domestically, but its worldwide total didn't measure up to the budget. HOODWINKED!, an independent venture that only cost $8m to make, was released by The Weinstein Co. at the end of 2005. It made less than $60m domestically.

Then... 2006 happened...

The features that crossed $200m domestically: Pixar's CARS, and only CARS. ICE AGE: THE MELTDOWN and Warner Bros.' HAPPT FEET came very close. ICE AGE 2 won the race worldwide.

The features that crossed $100m domestically: DreamWorks' OVER THE HEDGE.

Everything else... Missed $100m. Some movies got by on being lower budget, like Sony Animation's debut picture OPEN SEASON, and the Nickelodeon TV show launcher BARNYARD. But some of the big flops included DreamWorks/Aardman's FLUSHED AWAY, the Disney-released Canadian feature THE WILD, and Warner Bros.' THE ANT BULLY. CGI and celebrity casts and talky scripts couldn't save them. Then you had movies that just did abysmally, like Fox's EVERYONE'S HERO, and DOOGAL: the Weinsteinized version of THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT.

For a little while, computer animated movies were a novelty for audiences. No one had seen anything like TOY STORY when it first came out in Thanksgiving 1995. Like, this wasn't an episode of REBOOT or a glossy production company ident... This was over 70 minutes of fully animated 3D characters in convincing 3D environments, that stayed watchable the whole time, and on top of that... It was really well-written! Lots of people tend to make remarks about TOY STORY's more, dated, visual qualities... But it remains a classic because of the passion that went into it. And despite some of the aspects that didn't age well, it still *looks* appealing and watchable. Woody and Buzz and the rest of the gang have pretty much kept the same designs over the sequels and shorts/specials, only the human characters have seen slight design changes that matched the much-better rendering over time. (It's already a big difference with Andy and his mum from TOY STORY 1 to 2.)

But enough about that. My point is, audiences ate CGI up circa 1995-2005. Big time. It was the future, it was the **way** to make animated movies. Even with CG incorporated into them, hand-drawn movies failed to keep up. Whether the movies did actually appeal to audiences (TARZAN, LILO & STITCH) or not (TITAN A.E., TREASURE PLANET)... It just wasn't enough. $171m from TARZAN just didn't compare to, say, SHREK's $267m haul. When even your best isn't enough...

Capitalism, ya know?

But soon, audiences began choosing what computer-animated family movies they'd go to see, not seeing all of them each and every calendar year. In 2007, for every RATATOUILLE, there was a HAPPILY N'EVER AFTER. Even a good film like SURF'S UP that year had trouble. Release that movie in 2002, it would've made **bank**... In 2007, it had a hard time appealing to audiences. Let's apply this to 2008 as well. WALL-E and KUNG FU PANDA do great, THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX - a book adaptation - makes $50m and fails to double its budget. So every year, there are the family-friendly CGI movies that do pretty great! And then the ones that lose money.

And eventually, it caught to everybody. Even the heavies.

Pixar saw their first money-loser in 2015 with THE GOOD DINOSAUR, breaking an astounding 15-film hit streak.

Disney Feature Animation's CHICKEN LITTLE did so-so, MEET THE ROBINSONS two years later outright lost money. BOLT did so-so as well. They wouldn't have a genuine CGI flop until STRANGE WORLD, because we gotta mulligan RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON and ENCANTO. Ya know, COVID and release strategies and such.

DreamWorks suffered badly in the mid-2010s, with money-losers like RISE OF THE GUARDIANS, TURBO, and MR. PEABODY & SHERMAN... It was to the point where it seemed like the lights would go out.

Blue Sky's final film, SPIES IN DISGUISE, lost money. After a streak of successes (the ICE AGE sequels) and respectable hits (FERDINAND). That likely played a big part in its shuttering, after Disney had bought 21st Century Fox's film and TV assets.

Sony Pictures Animation had some financial losses, too. The aforementioned SURF'S UP was one such flop, and there was also their Aardman collaboration ARTHUR CHRISTMAS.

So much, like a good hand-drawn animated movie, a competently-made CG film wasn't gonna cut it every single time... Even from a big studio. That's why many of those studios got smart with budgets... Especially Sony Animation and DreamWorks.

Now... Superhero movies...

Superhero movies have been around for a while. Serials, yes, all the way back to the Golden Age of Hollywood. Max Fleischer's SUPERMAN cartoons from 1941-42, every modern superhero movie owes it to those in particular. Long-form superhero movies, I believe, really got their start with the 1978 SUPERMAN movie... But you'd get a big superhero movie every once in a while, or a comic book action hero movie if you will. In the 1980s, you had SUPERMAN II - starting off the decade, and then Tim Burton's BATMAN ending the decade with a blockbuster gross. A big phenomenon. What else was in-between? Well, there was Lucasfilm's infamous adaptation of Marvel's HOWARD THE DUCK that tanked hard. You did see a brief boom in this kind of movie in the 1990s because of BATMAN '89, but plenty of those movies actually went belly-up. DC adaptation STEEL did poorly, movies like THE PHANTOM didn't make much of a mark, but you did have the TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES movie doing quite well, ditto BATMAN RETURNS and BATMAN FOREVER. BATMAN & ROBIN's not-so-great performance in 1997 put the Caped Crusader's theatrical future in limbo. SUPERMAN puttered out back in 1987 with a badly-received fourth movie. So, this was a bit of a false start, if you will? Batman, Ninja Turtles, maybe something else that did okay-ish at best... That was about it, circa 1999.

Then along came BLADE in 1998, which would be the first Marvel movie to do pretty well. HOWARD THE DUCK bombed back in 1986, and the 1989 PUNISHER and 1990 CAPAIN AMERICA went straight to video in the states.

Then, X-MEN came out in 2000, that did even better.

Then, SPIDER-MAN came out in 2002, made a **gargantuan** amount of money...

After the release of X-MEN and SPIDER-MAN, both Marvel adaptations, you saw **some** action going on. More Marvel movies came along. HULK, an ambitious film from Ang Lee, opened big in summer 2003 but had trouble staying afloat. FANTASTIC FOUR did okay in 2005 despite poor reception. GHOST RIDER did okay in 2007. SPIDER-MAN 2 and SPIDER-MAN 3 made biiiig money, and there was also a FANTASTIC FOUR sequel that also did okay. The next Batman-inspired DC movie, CATWOMAN, came about in 2004 and bombed quite badly. The year after CATWOMAN came BATMAN BEGINS, Christopher Nolan's then-bold new take on the Caped Crusader *and* the superhero movie in general. It did pretty well, a sleeper hit that relied on strong word-of-mouth. Then in 2006, a year later, you had an attempt to reboot SUPERMAN with SUPERMAN RETURNS. While it made money, it wasn't enough to cover its then-titanic budget, so it seemed like a non-starter. The other DC adaptation released amidst this was CONSTANTINE, whch did pretty well (and is finally getting a sequel after all these years). Funnily enough, amidst these Marvel and DC movies, you had Pixar's THE INCREDIBLES... A then *rare* animated superhero movie, and it did great business. There was also HELLBOY, too. Non-Marvels and non-DCs had their time to do pretty okay, too. So, superheroes had a healthier time in the early-to-mid 2000s...

But where it really all took off was in 2008...

IRON MAN started the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a BANG! in May of that year, and BATMAN BEGINS sequel THE DARK KNIGHT - no doubt accelerated by the tragic passing of Heath Ledger, who gave his iconic performance as The Joker - was **massive**. It was the first movie since TITANIC to clear $500m at the domestic box office, and make the then-magic $1b worldwide... Only TITANIC, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING, and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST made that amount of money... Nowadays, it seems like there's one billion-dollar smash every year, excepting 2020 of course... Back in 2008, though? Magic number. Very few movies did **that** well...

And from there... Lots of hits. The MCU had barely a stumble, and their highest highs at the box office went very high. They had no trouble getting audiences to come out in big numbers for... Checks notes... Movies based on THOR, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, and ANT-MAN. Warner Bros. had tried very hard to keep a consistently successful DC movie-verse going, but despite the valleys (JUSTICE LEAGUE, BIRDS OF PREY), they too saw some big peaks: WONDER WOMAN and AQUAMAN. BATMAN V. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE and SUICIDE SQUAD made a lot of money, too, despite not meeting particular expectations. Animated superheroes brought home bacon, too! BIG HERO 6, INCREDIBLES 2, SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE, need I say more? Sony's own Spider-Man villain movies VENOM and its sequel did very well, too! Almost everybody was winning the superhero sweepstakes post-2008, with very few actual losers in-between.

But now... Well, with so many of them around, and both cinematic universes from the heavies... Again, Marvel and DC. Known commodities... We don't see any movie-verse for, say, Image Comics, no do we? Well, again, money is tight, theater visits are costly, and the movies aren't always delivering satisfying experiences when other endeavors are next door...

Last year, we saw TOP GUN: MAVERICK, a legacy sequel to a 1986 blockbuster that isn't a superhero movie in any way, mop the floor - domestically and even worldwide - with both Marvel and DC's most anticipated movies. AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER was in second place domestically, top dog worldwide. We're starting to see other movies have a say again, and smaller movies are having their fun again, too. ELVIS and NOPE did very well, as did BULLET TRAIN and THE LOST CITY. Bread-n-butter movies that used to fill up the yearly box office charts quite nicely. We see that nowadays in the form of things like WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING, THE BLACK PHONE, THE WOMAN KING, TICKET TO PARADISE, BARBARIAN, SMILE, VIOLENT NIGHT, A MAN CALLED OTTO, M3GAN, CREED III, etc.

So... With QUANTUMANIA and SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS past us... Here's what I think... Much like in 2006, where some computer animated family movies did great and others not-so-much... That'll happen with this year's crop of superhero movies.

I think the guaranteed hits are GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 and SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE. The former? Well, those two movies functioned well as a standalone story not connected to the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. Like you had some things here and there, like an Infinity Stone or the presence of Thanos, but they're both self-contained, VOL 2 even more-so. They're genuinely good space adventure movies that audiences actually quite dig, the characters are so likeable, and the movies have director James Gunn's authorship all over them. That's a night and day difference from many of the other MCUs... SPIDER-VERSE... Need I say more? The original is beloved, it was a passion project for everyone involved. It was not just a great Marvel or great superhero movie, it was a great movie, period. Rian Johnson himself described it as "The Velvet Underground of superhero movies." That is *high praise*.

Those are both poised, I feel, to make beaucoup bucks.

Everything else? Well... The DC movies coming out this year are much like FURY OF THE GODS. They don't really matter, because the hard reset is coming up with SUPERMAN: LEGACY two years from now. I suppose THE FLASH could do well because of Michael Keaton **and** Ben Affleck's Batman returning, in a sort of NO WAY HOME-esque manner. I don't think much of the general public is in tune with star Ezra Miller's controversies and wrongdoing, so I think this one's appeal hinges on whether fans/audiences see it as pointless or not. I think the novelty of both Batmen being back, alongside some other DC faces (such as Michael Shannon's go at General Zod from MAN OF STEEL), could help it a bit. BLUE BEETLE? I couldn't tell ya, it'll probably come and go. AQUAMAN made over a billion back in 2018/19, and is the highest-earning DC film ever... But will fans and audiences be back for, again, a movie that seems pointless in the long run? Also at the end of the year comes the MCU film THE MARVELS, the sequel to CAPTAIN MARVEL and also a follow-up to the MS. MARVEL TV series... Plus you have Monica Rambeau in it as well, who - as an adult - was a major character in WANDAVISION. That all could help it, but I'm starting to think it falls quite short of CAPTAIN MARVEL's impressive take in 2019. CAPTAIN MARVEL had the benefit of opening right before AVENGERS: ENDGAME, the penultimate episode to the big climactic event... THE MARVELS is just, well, the sequel... With two other faces. I think it'll do pretty well, but not excellently. Disney and Marvel Studios were smart to delay the film from July to November after the CEO-switcheroo with Bob Iger this past autumn. I can only hope they delay all of the other movies, too. Like, two a year is fine, guys. AVENGERS: THE KANG DYNASTY and AVENGERS: SECRET WARS can wait. They don't need to come out in 2-3 years from now, in addition to like 10 other movies and 10-20 other Disney+ shows...

And next year, I think, will show as well where this is all going... Like, I don't see the likes of CAPTAIN AMERICA 4, THUNDERBOLTS, DEADPOOL 3, and BLADE hogging up the top slots anymore. I forgot to point out that these movies seem a lot more frontloaded. Big fans and those who were always going to be there *will* be there on opening weekend, but it collapses after that, as OTHER audiences save their money for other things that they'd rather see... Maybe the JOKER sequel, not really a superhero movie but still based on a DC villain that's tied to one of their most well-known superheroes, could repeat the massive surprise success of the original. Maybe not. BEYOND THE SPIDER-VERSE should do pretty great... I think other biggies are what's gonna surprise this year and next year, and take the Top 3 slots... A new INDIANA JONES movie, a MARIO movie, a two-part MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE epic, AVATAR 3, maybe even something like GLADIATOR 2. 2025 is when the DC hard-reset comes, so it'll be interesting to see how SUPERMAN: LEGACY does, in addition to whatever Marvel movies end up coming out that year. KANG DYNASTY or no KANG DYNASTY...

If anything, the budgeting should be smarter from here on out. Then these movies can come and go, make adequate amounts of money, give *other* kinds of movies the Top 3-5 for once, and then the wheels will spin. Something new will come along and spam up the top slots, even. Maybe we're in for an area of legacy-quels following TOP GUN 2's massive success. I really do think INDY 5 has the chance to somewhat repeat that, and GLADIATOR 2 even. How long till, say, another sequel to a beloved '80s or '90s movie drops? And then too many of those happen and they get tiresome?

All a cycle in Hollywood...

But yeah, I do see the parallels between superhero movies now and CG animated family movies circa 2006...

#box office #superheroes #marvel #dc #comic book movies #animation #animated movies #opinions

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randomjreader · 2 years ago

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TAG GAME!!

Tag 10 people you want to get to know better :)

Thanks @joelockescoffee for tagging me I really like your blog and I'm glad you like mine too <3

3 ships: Nick and Charlie, Jake and Amy, Nico and Will

First ever ship: Damn I don't even remember, might have been Austin and Ally when I was like 9 or something, there might have been one before them tho but they're the ones I remember

Last song: Do U Really by Lyn Lapid and Ruth B.

Last film: Rewatched Charlie's angels (2019) last week

Currently reading: Fanfiction 👍 but if we're talking actual books I've seriously been meaning to start on Boyfriend material by Alexis Hall

Currently watching: Willow, gonna start on bad buddy soon, plus I rewatched young royals and 2gether the series recently

Currently consuming: tiktok videos where people go thrifting and do a haul or recycle those clothes into something new + food videos on insta + cut lineup vids

Currently craving: Motivation and brown sugar milk tea without boba bcs I just don't wanna chew rn

Tagging: @fabricated-pessimist @daniela1dthings @phan-meme-trash @barrowsteeth @jelazakazone @relatively-good @heartstopperthoughts @simplyjustsimping @immortals-malec @moonepiphany-shitposts

#i know some of these blogs don't know me but i see your posts all the time so hi!!#hope that isn't weird #tag games

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mariacallous · 1 year ago

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Russia has succumbed to authoritarianism: the existing regime has effectively outlawed the country’s political opposition. Its key figures are now in prison or else looking for ways to continue their work from abroad. Meanwhile, the debate about whether Russia’s disparate opposition forces should sacrifice their differences for the sake of building a coalition has become a central question of Russian political life in exile. Graeme Robertson has studied the dynamics of protest and opposition activity in Russia for the past two decades. His most recent book is “Putin v. The People,” published by Yale University Press in 2019. In conversation with Meduza’s special correspondent Margarita Liutova, Robertson spoke about what can and cannot be achieved by an exiled opposition, why opposition is comprised of “disagreeable people,” and what it takes to unite them in a coalition. His remarks have been condensed and edited for clarity.

How would you assess the achievements and failures of the Russian opposition over the past two decades? And what would be a fair way to assess them, in the context of a country where the opposition is barred from the elections?

If you think about what opposition movements generally try to achieve, it comes down to two things. One is to overthrow the incumbents; the other is to replace them with a better alternative, which involves expanding the range of democratic alternatives as such.

In regimes with somewhat competitive but still less than fair elections, this can be achieved in two different ways. (We can think of examples like Ukraine before the Euromaidan, or Russia before the annexation of Crimea as a basic setting, where the opposition had some access to the elections.) So, the first thing that can happen is that there’s a fair election, you get the votes you needed to win, and therefore you win. One example would be the referendum in Chile at the end of the Pinochet regime. Another one could be Mexico’s protracted transition to democracy, when the opposition pushed the regime towards fairer and fairer elections over time, until it finally won, and the regime gave up.

An alternative scenario is to force the regime to cheat in the elections so much that it triggers massive street protest. This was obviously the case with the Orange Revolution and the Euromaidan in Ukraine.

Neither of these alternatives is possible in a place like today’s Russia. They can only be realized in a much more competitive, much fairer setting than Russia today. In a place like Russia, though, to expect the opposition to achieve these goals would mean to hold it to the wrong standard. Even if you were able to get millions of people on the streets in a place like Russia, the likely outcome would be total suppression. The regime itself wouldn’t fall. (We have the examples of Belarus and Iran for comparison.) In conditions like these, even if the regime does fall (as in the case of the revolution in Egypt), what happens is that it gets replaced by something even worse, since there’s no infrastructure a transition to democracy.

And so, we need a different standard for thinking about what’s possible for today’s Russia. A color revolution might have been a reasonable expectation for Russia back in 2011, but it’s not a fair expectation by which to judge today’s opposition. A better standard would be based on the things that Alexey Navalny’s team and other segments of the opposition have been doing: fighting corruption, contesting injustices locally, standing up to environmental degradation, defending the vulnerable, and curbing the excesses of power. And also exposing the vicious nature of the government and building up capacity for the long haul, for the unlikely event that you might get lucky, and the tables might turn in your favor.

Now, has the Russian opposition been a success by this reasonable standard? Have they succeeded in building a broad and deep infrastructure for putting pressure on corruption, or in establishing a potentially viable political party? If you’d asked me this question in 2019, I would have said yes. But it’s all proven to have been very fragile. I’m not sure it’s the opposition’s fault that the regime has now clamped down so hard on them. It’s a measure of how vicious and aggressive this regime is. So, what the opposition has been able to achieve under the circumstances seems to me pretty decent. It’s at least a B+.

There’s a widespread view that the Russian opposition (chiefly Navalny and his team) merely helped legitimize Putin, by creating an impression of democratic competition in Russia.

This is a classic dilemma faced by opposition the world over: to participate or to boycott. But the truth is that no one cares about a boycott. It’s very, very hard to draw the regime’s feet to the fire by boycotting the elections. If you think back to 2011 and the beginnings of Russia’s Bolotnaya movement, what got that movement started was an election, in which the Communists’ votes had been stolen by United Russia party and Gennady Zyuganov called on people to go into the streets. Had the communists not participated, no one would have been bothered by the outcome in favor of United Russia, and there wouldn’t have been a protest in Moscow’s Bolotnaya Square.

People don’t take to the streets in their millions because someone who didn’t run failed to do well in the election. That would be a bit absurd. And this is why the current regime has you trapped in this dilemma: if you participate, you make the regime look good; but refusing to participate also doesn’t help things. Still, participating in elections beats boycotting them almost every time. The one exception to this is the kind of boycott that turns into a real problem for the regime (as in the United States during the Civil Rights era).

All of Russia’s opposition leaders are now in jail, or else exiled abroad, where they’re often seen as mere talking heads instead of politicians. What do you think about public commentary as a political activity, and what else can politicians do in exile?

I’ve been trying to think of some example of an opposition that sat down in another country, wrote a platform, and then somehow came to power and implemented that platform at home. One example that I can think of is Vladimir Lenin in Switzerland, at a time when all of the Russian opposition gathered in Europe debated which version of utopia would be the best. Then the state collapsed, due to an imperial war, and they came to power. Germany then sent Lenin by train to Petrograd to facilitate the overthrow of the provisional government and to get Russia out of the war. That’s a pretty unusual set of circumstances, all told. Besides, when the Bolsheviks did seize power, they did this as a minority. Next, they had to eliminate all the democratic elements from the Soviets, and that’s an ugly tale.

There’s no substitute for this work since a regime like Putin’s won’t fall by being toppled from the outside. If it falls, it’ll be because of its own internal contradictions and problems, like, for instance, a big split over succession after Putin dies. Events like that open up windows of opportunity. And to seize that opportunity you have to get the people organized and enthusiastic and motivated on the ground, in Russia itself.

If you think about the collapse of communism in Poland, it wasn’t the Polish government exiled in London that did it. It was organizers in Poland itself, who worked for years, clandestinely, building the workers’ movement and gradually coming into the open by the 1980s. It hadn’t been a coup. It wasn’t done by the foreigners. And it was all about building an organization. I can’t imagine a harder thing to organize, meaning that things are really bad in Russia, but not as bad as they had been in communist Poland in the 1950–1960s.

In Putin v. The People, you argued that the dividing lines in Russian politics are very different compared to Western democracies, the only real dividing line being loyalty to the president. This, you said, lends the opposition a kind of deviant quality.

This is a classic mark of an autocracy. If you’re against me, you’re against the state. Think Venezuela and Nicolas Maduro, whose strategy was to present his opponents as American tools, essentially as foreign agents. This is Authoritarianism 101, but, on the other hand, it’s also a classic tool of democratic politics. During the Cold War, American conservatives tried to smear liberals as Russian spies and communist “foreign agents.” I grew up in Britain in the 1980s, and Margaret Thatcher’s strategy against the British Labor Party was to present them as stooges for somebody else. This is a classic conservative “patriotic” move, even when it’s totally absurd.

What’s really interesting is the particular choice of issues that Putin picks to help in consolidating the vote, by driving in wedge issues that will divide the population not 50-50, but 80-20. He’s managed to expand the coalition of people who feel that something isn’t right, isn’t Russian, isn’t authentic about what Putin himself finds undesirable — like LGBTQ people, for example. This is what makes Putin resonate so much better with the broader public, and this is what’s clever about him. Every society has conservatives in it, but it takes political creativity and skill to maximize a coalition and make your opponents appear weak. That’s where the politics comes in.

You’ve argued that support for Putin isn’t based on his accomplishments or even his promises, but instead on the human need to fit in.

I would’ve given a different answer to this question in 2019, but the war has changed things dramatically. This regime has become the war, and war has become the regime. It’s become the central principle of the state’s operation, and the issue of loyalty and of casting the opposition as disloyal has become much more serious in the context of the war, where it’s all about “us” against “them,” “patriots” against “traitors,” etc.

In this context, fitting in and acting agreeable has become more important than ever. The why and the wherefore of the war have receded to the background; you’re either a patriot who supports the war, or a traitor who opposes it. That’s where the regime has had quite a lot of success, in terms of public opinion.

Most Russians take their cues about good citizenship from the propaganda. Can the opposition take charge of this discourse and reframe the public’s understanding of what good citizenship means?

It’s important to create a narrative about good citizenship, but it’s hard to get that kind of message out and to get people to buy into it, when the social pressure is to simply to follow one particular vision. But things can change, and so can narratives. During the Afghan war, when Russian soldiers started coming home in sealed coffins, this quickly rendered the war very unpopular, and that became the dominant narrative. But we’re not in that situation now, despite much greater casualties. This time, casualties had almost the opposite effect than what we might have expected: they seem to have encouraged people to double down on the war effort.

There’s a fairly well-known psychological theory about why this kind of thing happens. System justification theory, or SJT, was developed in the U.S. to try and understand why people who are made poorer by the system, who are worse off because of the system, will nonetheless support it and make sacrifices for its sake. This is the question of the rural U.S. regions and their poor, super-patriotic, conservative populations who oppose the very same programs that could make their own lives better. SJT says that when people see an oppressive system as unchangeable or inevitable, they identify with it. Supporting the system then becomes a matter of pride, which makes people embrace further costs in order to defend it, even if they don’t get any benefit from it.

But there’s another kind of people in Russia, who may support the war but don’t want to assume its extra costs. They are the highly agreeable people that I look at in Putin v. The People. And when we talk about agreeableness, this isn’t the same thing as conformism. Agreeableness is a mixture of wanting to fit in and to get along with the people around you, but it’s more of an active position than conformism. Denouncing someone whose conversation you overheard in a restaurant or on a bus isn’t something a conformist does. This is causing trouble, calling attention to yourself, which is more than a conformist would do.

Another side of agreeableness is that highly agreeable people tend to be quite empathetic. When they see another person suffer, they care about this: they care about Mother Russia and society at home, and they also care about the victims of the war, which makes their support of the war more fragile.

When you look at Western attitudes towards LGBTQ people, one of the best predictors of being open and accepting of those identities is agreeableness. Highly agreeable people in the West tend to be less racist. They tend to be more broad-minded because they don’t want others to suffer. They care about others being happy. That’s not a conformist thing, and it’s the very same thing that gets coded in a completely different way in Russia, where society is told to be aggressive and homophobic, and where agreeableness is weaponized to this effect. And so, where intolerance is socially acceptable instead of tolerance, agreeable people, the same people who might display tolerance elsewhere, will be intolerant instead.

Getting back to the opposition, what do you think about its internal debate about whether to unite or not to?

If you think about big, million-strong coalitions in the street, there’s actually some interesting social science work on this. Mark Basinger at Princeton did some really interesting work on the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. He shows some good evidence that what unites people in their fight is their dislike of the incumbent. That’s it. There’s no positive program that everyone would get behind and take to the streets. When this happens, it’s because everyone wants a regime change.

With regard to Russia, when did we see lots of people mobilize in a way that got the regime worried? How about monetization protests back in 2005, led by a broad coalition, ranging from the liberals to National Bolsheviks, across the whole political spectrum. All of them cared about pensioners, social benefits, and the sense that the reform being proposed was wrong. They weren’t trying to hash out the right policy, because that would have been much harder and immediately divisive.

I don’t know if there’s much value in the Russian opposition getting together and agreeing to some kind of platform at this point. I think it may even hurt things. Having a million people with a million different reasons why the current regime is intolerable is kind of what you’d want. Everybody should just sing their song, have their own critique, and identify their supporters. Then the opposition can unite at the right moment, to take action in the streets or at the ballot box. But I don’t see much value in generating a common platform among the opposition. That just gives you something to argue about.

Clearly, utopia is not on the agenda, so arguments about the best form of utopia are a bit silly and only make the opposition on the whole look small and petty.

Thinking about what it would look like to be an active, patriotic Russian citizen under these circumstances — to be against the war and yet for Russia — is a much more interesting, challenging, and important question than getting personal or even than policy debates. Still, this is a bit of a second-order problem. The main problem isn’t that the opposition is divided and this keeps it out of power: The Russian opposition is out of power because power itself is so very strong, unified, and organized. That is the problem that dominates the narrative, and countering that problem is the most important task.

Beyond this, each opposition group needs to have an image of the future. But this needn’t be a vision that everyone shares. It’s more effective if there are multiple clusters of organizations sharing the same primary goal, which is getting rid of this regime and replacing it with something better. But their visions of what exactly would be better than the present arrangement can range from the far left to liberal. And that’s perfectly legitimate. I’m not going to get into a fight with Navalny if I disagree with him over taxation policy. At this point, that would be absurd.

What do you think about opposition leaders trying to call people in Russia to the streets, the way Navalny’s team just tried to do?

I’m a foreigner. I’m Scottish, I live in the United States, and here I am in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, having a nice conversation about Russian politics, which is something I really care about and have studied for a very long time. It’s very hard for me to say what people in Russia should do, in terms of taking real risks with their lives and freedom, on the ground in Russia. It’s not for me to say, and I don’t have the moral standing this would take.

Public protest in Russia is very dangerous, and if Navalny has the moral standing to call people to protest, it’s because he has earned it through his extraordinary courage. But it’s predictable: if people go out to protest, they’ll get arrested and repressed. What is the likely political consequence of that, then? Would people just convince themselves of the regime’s effectiveness, efficiency, and brutality? Or would they be outraged and angry?

There’s some evidence that members of the opposition feel some fear of repressions, but what they feel for the most part is anger. And this is why they’re the ones who protest and support one another.

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cinaed · 2 years ago

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Astvanor

So happy that we just hit 100 sessions in my wizard’s campaign!

While it’s not the longest campaign I’m in (that goes to a campaign I’m in from 2019 that’s still going), it’s the most sessions of any campaign I’ve been in, and it’s been such a great game so far. Playing Yolov is so fun and this homebrewed world is incredible. Incredibly lucky to have such a great GM and group of players!

Astvanor Campaign Summary

The adventure began with a diary.

Everyone born on Astvanor knows of the Spring War, an old war between Astvanorians and primordial entities called the Sunken Ones. The Sunken Ones’ eventual defeat came at a high cost in the final battle when Alaeymena Thayerblossom, a young cleric of Relatya, witnessed her lover, a paladin of Tsaliora recorded only by the moniker, Ansrivarr, fall in battle.

The twin goddesses who protected the world imbued her with too much divine power as she called on them in her grief. It caused a magical backlash unlike any other, devastating the entire battlefield. This brought about many changes to the world: the withdrawal of the twin goddesses from the world, the creation of a new pantheon with Aleymena as the goddess of Spring, and the holy enshrinement of Springrest where her body fell.

Thousands of years later, archeologists in Striog discovered a diary that mentioned a relic from the Spring War. They believed the clerics who had the journal originally were from a temple just east of the Springrest and lived there during the Spring War.

Someone was needed to journey to that abandoned temple of Relatya, which might have more information on this relic, known only as the Sword. Should the relic fall into the wrong hands, it could be very dangerous.

Session 96

In which the party befriends a crew of child thieves, encounters a very strange artificer, Yolov's mentor continues to be kidnapped to the Shadowefell, and Yolov's birthday starts off less than stellar.

Session 97

In which Hava learns more about her missing sister, the party gets into an unexpected fight with a wizard, and Yolov takes 51 lightning damage and continues to have a terrible birthday.

Session 98

In which the party unburies a body, learns more about their enemy who has Yolov's mentor, and Yolov's no good, very bad birthday concludes.

Session 99

In which Yolov's favorite necromancer comes to the city, Yolov reads a book walking up a mountain, and the party's rest gets interrupted by some very unsettling wolves.

And now, Session 100, in which the party does their best to outrun the wolves and ends up unexpectedly meeting Hava’s sister’s smuggler girlfriend inside the mountain.

Session 100: 1/13 (Days 18 and 19 of Veksdan)

As the party climbs the icy, cold, dark path that is still well-carved by use, they can hear the howling sounds of wolves in the distance. On the left they can see the rough, rocky sheer drop of the mountains. It’s not a spacious path and there’s no way to dart into the woods, which is too thickly clustered to travel easily.

There are a few places along the path above them that are less jagged and difficult, but they’re still a ways from reaching them. Hava can see in the distance that there is a point where rubble blocks the path.

There are howls and returning howls behind them.

They race up the slick stairs as the snow clings to their skin and their hair. Hava makes it up the next few steps without effort and then turns as nearly everyone else slides down the slick steps, Yolov’s feet going out from under him. He lands painfully on one knee.

The party keeps running, Yolov limping a little and Galowen dragging him along.

They reach the rock slide, which was likely caused by Iceclaw’s attack on Radiscune. People have been climbing and clambering over it, with pieces of wood that has been positioned in a way to try and maneuver carts over. Yolov Misty Steps to the top of the rubble to avoid having to climb it, as Hava flies on a wave of twilight magic.

Galowen grabs Az and hauls him up over the rubble as Diana leaps gracefully upon the stones. They can hear the wolves growing a little distant behind them, still present but apparently stymied a little.

The cliff face rises to meet them, narrowing the path. The second of the switchbacks is coming up. There are thick, overhanging trees where the party can take the pathway to the switchback or take a narrow path up the cliffside and through the trees going back east to shave off a couple minutes of running.

Galowen and Yolov both cast Misty Step up the cliff as Hava flies, while Az Dimension Doors Diana as far up the mountain as possible. Galowen, Hava, and Yolov continue to run up the mountain after them.

Az and Diana look over their shoulders to see that there are roots twisting across the path the rest of the party is traveling up. Az and Diana spy another smaller path that leads into a wooded area as the rest of the party catches up, Yolov exhausted and gasping for breath.

They hastily examine the two paths, Diana knowing the one leads to the third switchback before the dwarven roads entrance, while the second wasn’t one Collie knew about, either used by smugglers or hunters.

Galowen realizes that there’s a chance there is a sanctuary on the second path that hunters use. Az remembers being taken along on a hunt with his father, who disliked them but attended them for political reasons, and crying when the hunters killed a deer before they went to a hunting lodge. They take that path.

Galowen and Diana bound easily down the path, Diana swinging through the trees to avoid the tangled roots. Hava races through as well, half-held by the shadows. Az manages to follow, stumbling a little as he gets smacked in the face with a branch. Yolov trips and falls and scrambles gracelessly up the path, feeling the exhaustion and ache in his bones as Diana helps him up and onward.

Everyone can see, ribboning through the darkness, a small but frigid creek twenty feet wide that intersects the path. Together, Galowen casts Plant Growth and grows some extremely thick vines, winding and braiding them together as Yolov uses Telekinesis to direct them towards the creek to create a temporary bridge.

The bridge unravels behind them as they all continue to run, their knees beginning to ache. In the distance, the mountain rises to meet them. For a split second it looks like they have backed themselves into the cliffside with only the forest all around them.

Az and Yolov are both panting with exertion when Hava spies a small, well-hidden entrance to a cave, a thin crack of light revealing its presence. She points it out and immediately begins to run towards it. There is a small canopy of leaves that has been woven to look natural but, pulled aside, reveals a door.

Hava pushes inside, with everyone following. It’s an empty, circular room with two lamps lighting the space. They all crowd inside, closing and locking the door behind them.

There are two bedrolls laid out in the corner. There is a table, with what looks to be an interrupted card game on it, and crossbows set aside by the bedrolls and some boxes in the corner. There are some dirty boots, which are wet, having been here long enough for snow to melt. There are no embers in the fireplace. There are runes inside the lamps, ones that career hunters would know for perpetual flame. The bedrolls are cold but not dusty. The trail mix from the table isn’t stale.

Yolov realizes that the people must have left about six hours ago.

The place is a circle. There’s no obvious exit into a deeper cave system. They investigate the boxes, finding a communal supply of medicine supplies, alcohol, and hunting supplies.

Then Yolov reaches into one and his hand hits the bottom sooner than it should. He remembers this experience from Kiva’s ship and looks to find the crate’s label marked as Dawnscale Trading Company.

They quickly realize all of the supply boxes are labeled with Kiva’s company, and three have false bottoms. The first is empty, the second has fine silks and exquisite jewelry that Az takes a moment to admire, and the third has steps in the false bottom leading downwards into darkness.

Hava uses her prayer breads to cast Greater Restoration on Yolov. The party decides to stay here for the night. Worried that the wolves might break down the door, they head down the steps to investigate if there’s a safer place for Hava to cast Tiny Hut.

They reach a small, underground platform. There is a ladder to descend further, and they climb down it, reaching an empty, cold dark cave with a single doorway leading out.

Yolov can see footprints of people who have been here relatively recently. There is one set of bare footprints. The party debates what could have caused the smugglers or hunters to flee without their belongings and whether they should try to find them.

Az sends Medrash through the doorway. The pseudodragon spies empty crates, some with the false bottoms removed, but doesn’t spy anyone as the path angles slightly downward. Az calls Medrash back.

He tells the group what Medrash saw and suggests that they still keep watch within Hava’s Tiny Hut. After she casts it, Az makes out the distant sound of the wolves attacking the door before they grow bored and leave.

Hava and Yolov resume their watch. She listens and there is silence as well. Before they end their watch and wake Diana and Audacity, Yolov awkwardly squeezes Hava’s hand and says that while he’s been a little distracted, they are going to find Maeve and rescue Professor Dailiir. Hava just needs to let him know what she needs from him and he’ll do it.

Hava tells him that she’s okay and that she just needs him to keep being him. Then she rubs his bald head and heads to bed as Yolov wakes Diana for the final watch.

Diana sits watch, listening to the quiet trickling of water nearby and occasional quiet shift of stone. Nothing else happens, but when another rock falls near the exit of the cave, Diana leaves the Tiny Hunt to investigate it.

Behind her as she leaves, she can see the Tiny Hut begin to fade as the spell hits its final moments. It’s quiet and dark, and she moves to the mouth of the exit where a tiny rock had fallen. When she leans down, it doesn’t look quite right. She can’t tell where it fell from, since there’s only smooth stone above her.

She leans in to get a closer look just as a wire trap tries to snap around her ankle. She just barely dodges out of the way. Nearby, she can hear the disappointed click of teeth and someone saying, “Damn, almost got one,” and another voice hushing them.

Diana goes invisible, earning a startled curse and the sound of moving footsteps further into the corridor. She bolts back to the Tiny Hut as it disappears and tells them about the people. Hava scolds her for leaving the Tiny Hut and Az tells her she should’ve taken someone along. Diana argues that Audacity was meditating, the others were sleepy, and Adrin isn’t stealthy.

They debate leaving out the cave entrance or continuing down the corridor in hopes that it’s a shortcut to the dwarven roads. There are the emptied crates Medrash saw, but as Az and Hava study them, they both notice the residue in the cracks of the wood and realize that it didn’t carry drake-stone but gemstones.

Az knows that one party that would be very interested in gemstones, it’s probably going to be dwarves.

Hava had talked with Kiva during the trip on the Morning Flight, and she remembers a moment leaning on the edge of the ship, wind in her hair as Kiva chatted about the different places he’s been. The only capital he’s never personally been to is the dwarven capital. He’s been trying to establish a trade route there but hasn’t managed it yet.

When she mentions this to the party, Az laughs at the idea of Kiva calling it a trade route, though Galowen points out smuggling does involve a trade of sorts.

Yolov says it seems strange to him that Kiva’s people would empty out the boxes here rather than deliver them to the dwarven roads. They’re debating if the people upstairs were Kiva’s people and chased by thieves.

Yolov sees a flicker of movement at his shadowed feet and a flitting movement as someone uses the shadows to land at Hava’s side. It’s a tiny goblin woman who says she didn’t steal anything. Hava explains that they were just looking at the boxes because they know Kiva.

The goblin stares at her and asks if she really knows Kiva. Hava says she does, and the goblin crosses her arms and squints with all the effort she can muster in her three-foot frame. Then she introduces herself as Captain Kasuno.

Hava introduces them as Donnie and the Hooligans and explains that Kiva wasn’t expecting them. Yolov explains about the wolves, and Kasuno tells them that she and her crew have been here for a week. They were in the middle of moving the items a few days ago when there was a cave in and their passageway to the roads was blocked off.

There are shadow monsters within the smugglers’ tunnel as well, though Cassone’s crewmate Sola is currently warding them off. The party realizes this is the fastest way to get to the dwarven roads and Cassone offers to let them use the passage if they help the group deal with the shadow monsters.

Hava says they’d be happy too, any friend of Kiva’s is a friend of hers. Cassone eyes her and asks if he fucked her real good, making Yolov turn purple and Galowen grin and high five her as Hava grins and agrees he did.

Cassone says she’s known Kiva for years. She explains that under him she has had gainful employment. She didn’t even have to rent her ship, The Lost Mistake, which is in the Sisters’ Reach Port at the moment. Az recognizes the name, which is on a list of ships that Captain-Admiral Zorax of the Striogian navy has made of people he suspects are smugglers. He also remembers that there is a rumor of Cassone being presumed dead, which many don’t believe, though the Lost Mistake crew will insist to people she is.

This list that Zorax has doesn’t have Kiva’s ship or Maeve’s ship on it. Zorax does believe that at one point the Lost Mistake supplied information, people, or resources, or harbored the Stormriders. He knows there is a debt owed somewhere.

Hava asks Cassone if she’s familiar with a group of mercenaries called the Stormriders.

Cassone says she thought she looked familiar, but she didn’t seem to have the same salt. While the party takes it for an insult, Hava waves it aside and agrees. She mostly grew up sheltered and with her family before she left home.

Cassone eyes them and asks what they want with Maeve, since she owes her a debt. Hava pointedly says that she’s her sister. Cassone says yes, she realized that, but still looks unconvinced that Hava is here to help Maeve.

Yolov explains that they’re searching for the Stormriders because they’re concerned something has happened to them. They were due back in Radiscune a week ago to collect their earnings. Cassone is concerned by that, because it doesn’t seem like Maeve to fail to collect her money.

She presses them on if they’re certain Maeve didn’t return to Radiscune and Az says that Mother told them, which makes Cassone curse.

Hava notices the tattoo of a two-headed fish on her arm as she gestures. She silently pieces together that for all the talk of debt and friendship, Cassone and Maeve are more than friends. This is Maeve’s girlfriend.

Cassone leads them down to a spot in the hall where they can hear a ruckus and a weird howling hissing sound. They smell a wave of a sickly sweet rotting scent, familiar and disgusting.

Above the howling and hissing and growling, the party hears an increasingly loud and obnoxious argument happening between two people. There’s a voice that is distinctly not local and haughty complaining that he’s been giving his absolute best holding the wall for 12 hours. Another voice, rougher, says that just because he’s got more magic doesn’t mean he has to let Sola be a dick all night.

The party rounds the corner and sees a red-haired, elaborately clothed and bejeweled pirate holding an abjuration ward to keep the shadows at bay. It’s clearly the Sola Cassone mentioned earlier. Next to him, arms crossed, is a half-orc gentleman called Jeremy.

There are two more individuals. One is a woman called Kyla who looks dwarvish and another is a halfling called Jackie.

Sola holds his arms out at an awkward ankle and turns to study the party. He sighs at more newcomers.

Az introduces them as Donnie and the Hooligans, which surprises Diana since she didn’t realize he was their leader. Galowen explains that he’s not, they just named the group that to keep Az humble.

Jeremy extends his arm, which is missing a pinky, and shakes Az’s hand.

Yolov looks at the arcane shield, impressed at Sola’s control and power. However, he realizes that Sola is over-exerting himself and looks close to collapse from straining his magic. He likely already has collapsed earlier from what Cassone said, leading the shadows to gain a foothold past the blocked tunnel.

Az spies at least four, maybe five shadows that are moving in front of the shield. They fuse together and split apart. At one point three of them combine into something almost as big as the corridor itself and throw themselves at the shield, making Sola wince and the walls shake.

Yolov says that they should deal with the shadows as quickly as possible before Sola strains himself any further. Sola protests that he is fine, but Jeremy says that he’ll grab him if he collapses. Galowen offers Glyn, which makes Sola protest over spoiling his nice clothes before the party explains Glyn is a summoned steed. He sniffs and tells them that they should have said that at once.

Az assures him that his clothes will be fine, and offers him a helpful hand up onto Glyn with a lingering touch, earning a slow once over from Sola as Sola settles himself onto Glyn. Sola holds his concentration on the shield despite being obviously distracted by Az.

Galowen pats Yolov on the shoulder and tells him he doesn’t have to look at the flirting, giving him Bardic Inspiration while Yolov flushes and casts Mage Armor on himself and prepares to cast Mirror Image on himself the second before the arcane ward drops.

Galowen casts Bless on a few people as Cassone orders her group away from the ward, warning the party that she’ll kill them if they get Sola or anyone on her crew killed.

Then Sola drops the ward.

Immediately the five shadows rush forward at the party.

#dnd #Astvanor #dnd stories

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thewomaninlilywhite · 2 years ago

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for those curious what the Heck i’m ranting about

The Semi-Authorized Autobiography of Aisling Vaughan is a kinda biographical novel I wrote for NaNo in 2019. It was a challenge I undertook in the long-haul of recovery from my worst (2nd at the time; 2/3 now) suicide attempt to date way back in January 2019.

It’s mostly comprised of actual journal entries I’ve written and was an exploration in asexuality (before I fully accepted that as my orientation) as well as mental health.

The format is of journal entries, school assignments, and other documents compiled with added commentary by Ash’s sister whilst she was in the hospital recovering from her attempt. Through the novel, there are a lot of footnotes of Ash offering commentary on things included, acknowledging how times can change and life is an unpredictable roller coaster. It also serves as an assurance, particularly when the story gets dark, that Ash did make it out alive.

It’s a book about hope

#me talking about my writing? shocking #ash vaughan #let's chat #theatrically enchanting

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kaoarika · 3 days ago

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From my recent haul, I gave in and bought Smile: (Ryo Ikuemi's) The 40th Anniversary of Debut Special Book, because I was curious and no one else clarified to me what this was, tbh.

It's basically that: a book that collects many things about Ikuemi's career as a mangaka, including comments about her own series, what media adaptations they have had received (up until that point in 2019), what I assume is the "stapples" of what kind of elements or nods she would include in her series (literature, animals, fashion), her favorite pages of a selection of her series (including illustrations), a few interviews and a handful of homages/contributions in this book made by other contemporary artists and/or friends.

And I mean, it's a nice book. I appreciate the timelines for context of her career and for all the media adaptations her series have had (including a few records and "audiobooks", which I think are what we know these days as Drama CD, because, well, these were released in cassette form, too? at the time, I meant, lol).

The pages and the illustrations are a delight to see.

I cannot collect everything of hers (imagine that, lol), but some pages' panellings are simply gorgeous, like the one in the left above?

What I was slightly? disappointed was the limited illustrations' selection. I don't think that Ikuemi has had another illustration book of hers (The Best of Ryo Ikuemi [1990-1994] is the one that I bought last year), besides that one co-joint exhibition she did a few years ago? so it would have been such a nice thing to have more illustrations in color (don't remind Shuei*sha that their Betsuma Memorial website is still up, lmao)... like, I apreciate that it has some from her first couple of series, which, I mean. Especially POPS. It's the one series that put her on the map and it should mean a LOT to her. I also appreciate that it basically tells you about her artistic evolution in those 40 years.

(I'm only posting only this one, which is pretty resumed, lol, from 1988 towards the 2010s, but man, if those two in the right-center page aren't... really something)

I did mention it contains some contributions, like essays and a few fan comics made by other artists. I SAY, "contemporaries", but what I meant is more like "well, she has been doing manga for so long... so... I feel it's more like, friends? of her. I do know, for example, that she considers Nakahara Aya (LoveCom, DameKoi) as a friend, but she is absent here. Mangaka like Shiina Karuho and Obata Yuki, or Kawahara Kazune and Sakisaka Io, include some fan comics of hers. Interestingly, it's neat seeing how Shiina or Kawahara try to imitate her style.

(this is from Kawahara's contribution, based on Torch Song Ecology)

There's also what I assume (there's too much "assume", because I don't read much JPN and Google Lens doesn't work in my 5 year old phone to try and use Translate) is like a lost? chapter of I LOVE HER, that seem to happen in the middle of some events... but, it's drawn in more recent times (given the art style is more close to her recent stuff than, well, early 90s I LOVE HER) and it's kind of cute. It has this sketchy look more like a manuscript, so.

I really wish Ikuemi's work was more... oficially widely available (or, heck, more fan tl'ed... or AT LEAST complete... some series of hers that catch my attention, and turns out they haven't been continued in years...). I always seem to ask for her works to be licensed here in Mexico (or at least what I think are more "accessible" due them being "recent" or at least, a bit more well known), because... well, Ikuemi's works are a bit strange in general as they don't tend to fit into a "cookie-cutter" mould of shojosei series (especially those that were published in Betsuma between the 90s and 2000s). But, man, I want that kind of "strange" shojosei manga here and let her be more well known (I say "strange" because they tend to be... strange, lol - I'm currently reading My Beloved Niina/Niina, my love, and MAN that series is a storytelling mess -and without doubts, because I feel like, as it was being published online, and Ikuemi was ALSO working on another few series or one shots at the time... and the quality in the story? it shows; no wonder she doesn't seem to say much on the Special Book about it... I have been enjoying it, but the final stretch...)

#my recent purchasing hauls #ikuemi ryo #ryo ikuemi #there's also something about this seemingly unopened smell coming from the book that is slightly intoxicating to me...#I received this when I was awfully sick... so IMAGINE...

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twatkcox · 2 months ago

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[The Keihancarl Diaries: September 14, 2024]

Keihancarl here. The weather feels kind of unpredictable, as there’s the possibility of rainfall during the weekend. Well then, I’m heading to the SMX Convention Center for this year’s Manila International Book Fair, the sixth MIBF event I’ve attended since 2017. And of course, if the weather cooperates, there’s a chance I’ll get to visit Ayala Malls Manila Bay for the second time, as well as the Parqal Mall, both located in the nearby Aseana City.

xxxxxxxxxx

I’m going all-black for this weekend. Not that unusual, right? Well, I have to make sure to make the most out of this day so I really have to leave the house early. I'll probably have to deal with traffic along the way, but I guess it's pretty normal nowadays. Anyway, it was still sunny when I left, and (luckily) traffic was light along Commonwealth Avenue, well, except for North Fairview. I managed to reach North Avenue about an hour later.

On the way to North Avenue, I was having a hard time deciding between riding the MRT-3 to Taft (with a short jeepney/bus ride to SM Mall Of Asia) or taking the EDSA Bus Carousel all the way there (and save me the trouble of switching transport later). I ended up taking the MRT anyway.

I load up my Beep card and head inside the train. Looks like there's rain in the Ortigas area, but only for a bit. Well, the weather report says that there’ll be a chance of scattered rainfall throughout the day. I was hoping it wouldn’t rain in the Pasay and Parañaque areas, since I’m planning to visit a couple of malls at the Aseana City after the MIBF.

Reaching MRT Taft Station, I took a short bus ride (EDSA Carousel) to the Mall Of Asia Complex. Oh, and I happened to see the LRT-1 Gen 4 trains while passing by the overpass to the EDSA Bus Carousel. Would love to ride these new trains soon, well, probably on my 34th birthday.

I reached SMX about 10 minutes past twelve. As soon as I got inside, I decided to have a hotdog (on a stick) at one of the stands. Although I’m starting to get hungry, I don’t feel like having lunch just yet… well maybe later.

I decided to check some of the booths on the first floor, including Fully Booked, National Book Store, and the Precious Pages Group (including Black Ink Comics). I bought a copy of The Restaurant Of Many Orders (at 20 percent off) at the Fully Booked booth, and three bargain-priced manga books at the NBS booth.

Heading to the second level, I passed by a couple of booths, Komiket and Tankobonbon. I bought a couple of books at the Komiket booth.

This is the first time since 2019 that the MIBF occupied two floors of the SMX Convention Center, excluding Function Rooms 4 and 5 (which are closed). And yes, this is the first time that I actually had a large haul of books from the event.

National Book Store finally made a comeback to the MIBF for the first time since 2019. Tuttle Publishing, however, was not among the list of exhibitors. The latter is one of the exhibitors I always visited at most of the previous MIBF events. But at least I bought one of the publisher’s books (the manga version of The Restaurant Of Many Orders) at the Fully Booked booth.

It was already 2:00 in the afternoon, but there was a lot of time left so I decided to leave the event (and the Mall Of Asia Complex) to visit Ayala Malls Manila Bay. It’s been more than 4 years since I last visited that mall (exactly a month before the COVID lockdown), but I knew that it was doing well since then. Might as well visit Parqal Mall while I’m there.

It only took me 10 minutes to walk to Parqal Mall, which is actually a strip mall with a large roof above it. The area was breezy when I got there, not to mention that it is close to the bay. Since I didn't have anything to drink since leaving the house, I stopped by The Marketplace Supermarket to buy something to drink (it's just a bottle of C2) and consumed it along the way.

From the Parqal Mall, it took me less than 5 minutes to reach Ayala Malls Manila Bay. I visited several shops inside the mall, including Flying Tiger Copenhagen (probably the Danish version of the Japanese brand Daiso) and Biblio. There was an event by Foot Locker at the mall’s atrium.

I was getting hungry, considering that I didn’t have anything but a hotdog for lunch. I suppose it’s time for Pepper Lunch (after noticing it from the other side of the balcony). Besides, it’s already 3:00 PM and I’m only at the mall’s second level.

I decided on beef pepper rice, which is so far the only item I ordered at Pepper Lunch (I initially thought of trying their salmon pepper rice). I took a moment to write this post while waiting for the food to cool down a bit. The weight of the books I bought at the book fair adds up to the slight feeling of exhaustion, along with the crowd of people at the venue. It was also quite stuffy inside since the air conditioning unit was under maintenance, hence the portable air coolers.

I then continued checking the rest of the upper floors, as well as some of the shops. The Sun Garden on the fifth floor is already open, the last time I was there it was still closed. So far, I believe only Zus Coffee is open.

After checking the rest of the mall, I headed back to the Mall Of Asia Complex and passed by the Neo Chinatown area. It only took me less than fifteen minutes before I reached the SMX Convention Center, though I didn't bother checking the MIBF again. Anyway, it's time to visit the two malls in the complex, starting with the S’Maison Mall. I got inside the mall via the bridgeway from SMX.

I only checked the Fully Booked branch there, which had already relocated to the ground floor from the second floor. Nothing much, considering that I’ve already bought what I wanted at the MIBF. And yes, all of the books are 20 percent off. Also, I didn't bother checking the rest of the shops inside the mall.

I made my way to SM Mall Of Asia using the other bridgeway at the other end of S'Maison. Once I got there, I checked Decathlon first. After that, I immediately head to the esplanade.

Looks like a reclamation project has commenced near the MOA Eye. Some parts of the esplanade were cordoned off as well. Also, I’m not sure when these lamp posts were installed, but they sure brightened up the area.

From the esplanade, I made my way to the other side of the mall, the part near The Galeon. I then checked some of the shops inside.

Feeling parched, I decided to have a drink from ChaTraMue, at the MOA Food Hall. I ordered a plum red tea, with konjac jelly. The drink was kind of sour and salty at the same time, like kiamoy (dried sour plums/prunes covered by some orange powder). Is that how the drink is supposed to taste like?

I took a moment to check some of the shops. Nitori is opening soon, as well as a gashapon shop.

I then checked the Sky Park for a while, and Aperitif (cafe/restaurant) is now open. I decided to skip the Fully Booked x Kinokuniya branch at the mall due to time constraints.

Later on, I dropped by IKEA at the MOA Square. I was taking pics of some amazing displays, but the gamer’s room was the most awesome. And the kitchen.

And it’s time to go home. Unfortunately, there were no more UV Express vans to SM Fairview so I’ll have to find another way to get home. I could’ve probably taken the MRT-3 or the EDSA Bus Carousel to North Avenue, but getting a UV Express ride from Trinoma or SM North is quite a hassle, especially if I’ll have to line up for about 15 to 30 minutes. Instead, I took a jeep to the Taft Avenue-Buendia intersection and took the UV Express van from there. Traffic is mostly light, with slight traffic in North Fairview.

I got home before 11:00 PM. That was the first time I’d been out on a mall-hopping trip for more than 13 hours, and my hips and my left shoulder hurt so much from walking too much and my bag’s weight respectively. Despite this, I had a lot of fun at the event, and I’m quite pleased with this trip, even with some minor problems.

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It sure was a fun weekend, even though I ended up feeling worn out. My all-black outfit sure was kind of ordinary, but it was complimented well with my usual accessories (particularly the black fingerless gloves).

I’m planning another trip for my 34th birthday (it’s less than a month away). When or where it will happen will depend on the situation, but I’m really pushing for it to happen. Manila might be the obvious choice, but I’m considering Ortigas/Greenhills or Alabang as well (the latter two I’ve yet to revisit). Of course, I’m gonna wear all-black on that trip as well.

I suppose this is where I’ll end this post. Until next time! Ciao!

All pics are uploaded to my Instagram account, @kcox_105, and shared to my Threads account.

#going places #mall-hopping #Manila International Book Fair 2024 #MIBF 2024 #Mall Of Asia Complex #Aseana City #IKEA #all-black OOTD #awesome weekend

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