#All Pacific Travel Concept

[ckret2]

So y'all know the Gravity Falls production bible that leaked three weeks ago. Someone in one of my discord servers pointed this out:

And, naturally, that spawned an entire AU.

AU Concept: Ford was kicked out instead of Stan and takes a job as a trucker to makes ends meet since he couldn't go to college, while still studying the weird and anomalous however he can.

Ford driving around from quirky small town to quirky small town, drifting through the liminal spaces of truck stops, meeting odd people in isolated diners, seeing strange things out on the road—a deer with too many eyes bounding across a two-lane highway, a flirty woman at a rest stop who doesn't blink or breathe, mysterious lights in the sky at night, inhuman growls on the CB or 50-year-old broadcasts on the radio—and taking notes when he stops for gas or food.

Aside from having gotten kicked out before graduating high school, Ford's the same person he is in canon.

He's still an ambitious guy, and here "ambitious" means working hard and saving as much money as he can—so, a long haul owner-operator who spends weeks at a time on the road. (He goes through a LOT of educational audiobooks.) Plus, this is the easiest way for him to get to travel the country; and since it looks like his "travel the world" dreams with Stan are dead, he'll take what he can get.

Since he's never in the same spot long and carries his life in a truck, almost all of Ford's research is in his journal. His bag of investigation supplies has an instant camera, a portable tape recorder, a thermometer, a flashlight, rubber gloves, and a few zip lock bags—and that's about it. It has to share space with all his clothes, toiletries, and nonperishable food when he's on the road. He doesn't have much opportunity to closely examine anything odd he finds, unless he's lucky enough to run into something when he can stop for the night. He has to cram his paranormal research around the side of his full-time job.

He doesn't live in Gravity Falls, but he knows it exists. Every time he moves—to Chicago, to Nebraska, to California—he seems to inch closer. He currently lives in Portland and usually hauls loads between the Pacific Northwest and Chicago or New York. He stops at the truck stop outside Gravity Falls when he can and has gone fishing in town a few times. He doesn't have the benefit of extensive research to know that this is the weirdest town in the world; but it seems pretty weird to him, there are local rumors about the town, and he's had some weird experiences in the area.

Plus, he can't explain it, but it's like the town's calling to him. He wants to move there, but it'd put him over an hour outside of Portland where the nearest jobs are. Maybe if somebody chucked him like $100k to build a cabin in the woods; but what are the odds of that?

He does know Fiddleford. Truck broke down somewhere and Fiddleford kindly pulled over to fix it on the fly. They looked at each other, had mutual knee-jerk "dumb trucker/hillbilly" reactions, and within ten minutes both went "oh wait you're the most brilliant genius i've ever met." Fiddleford's living the same life he was in canon before Ford called him to Gravity Falls—with his family in California, trying to start a computer company out of his garage—but they make friends and keep in contact.

One time Ford stops at a kitschy roadside knickknack store that also sells new agey magic things—crystals, tarot cards, incense, etc. He bought a "lucky" rearview mirror ornament that looks like an Eye of Providence in a top hat and hung it from his cab fan, and ever since then he's had weird dreams whenever he sleeps in his truck.

Things I don't know yet: what Stan's up to; or why Ford's the one who got kicked out. I tend to believe that in canon Stan wasn't just kicked out because he ruined Ford's college prospects, but rather because the family thought he deliberately sabotaged Ford; so in this AU, Ford would've been kicked out over a proportionate crime.

[howtofightwrite]

If a character can manipulate points of gravity (up becomes down, left is down, right is down for yhe duration of the scene) and essentially be a spiderman without the spider webs by getting to run up buildings, and essentially be fighting in a more 3-d space...anything worth commenting on? I think what I'm trying to ask is what should one take into account when it's possible to have fight scenes in three dimensional ways. I recall that you wrote a post about how sea battles would technically look nothing like land battles considering the environmental difference of enemies coming at *all* directions.

That's not, really, “all directions.” For one thing, they don't have to worry about your character phasing through solid objects. It's also not going to be as effective as the web shooters for avoiding fire.

One of the quirks of Spiderman is that he doesn't, and really can't, travel in a straight line. He travels in a series of arcs, and while those arcs are predictable, it's much harder to lead your shots when he can jerk away in a different direction with almost no warning.

This is in contrast to characters with gravity manipulation based flight, who tend to travel in straight lines.

The issue with a battle in the sea comes from this basic concept. If you're a mile underwater in the Pacific, it is quite likely that there is another four miles of water below you, with the nearest land thousands of miles away. There is no cover.

Somewhat obviously, an urban environment offers a lot more cover. Your character can come in around buildings, drop from above.

What's significantly more disturbing is the prospect of your character being able to alter gravity for others. Causing someone to “fall” away into traffic or the sky is probably far more horrifying than the idea that they could run up a wall. Though, I suppose it's important to never underestimate the sheer pants shitting terror one can inflict by crab-walking across the ceiling towards your preferred prey.

Of course if you're manipulating gravity, then it stands to reason you may be able to add or subtract the gravity. It's one thing to sneak up on a mobster and propel him into the sky at 9.8m/s2. It's another thing to casually create a small gravity well inside his brain and crush his skull. Or, an anti-gravity spike and explode him like a forgotten microwave burrito.

It should go without saying by this point, but this power set can get really messy.

It's also worth remembering, this is one of those power sets that are just as dangerous to the user as their foes. Hopping from one building to another while flicking gravity mid flight could very easily result in broken bones and a really unpleasant landing. Unless they also have some pretty significant kinetic resistances, this is probably not something they'd want to use as a travel power (unless they're carefully tuning it to create fight.) Otherwise, inertia is their greatest foe.

To be honest, wall climbing is a slightly strange choice for a primary travel power. Yes, it is a viable choice, but using those same powers to take flight is going to be much less risky.

-Starke

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[hollowed-theory-hall]

I have a question, do you believe that there's other magical communities, that is not the Wizarding world, 'cause it's very interesting this give a lot of possibilities how and why they exist, and I like that theory because it shows magic as art in a way, how there's no one way to do magic. As well seeing why they ignored the Wizarding world.

I don't think this is very likely. I mean, you can have cult-like wizarding communities in secluded areas like muggle ones, but I doubt the Wizarding World as a whole is completely ignorant of their existence or that their magic is inherently different. They might have different spells or methods to cast spells (as wands aren't really necessary and the spells' language doesn't matter) but they are still, like, the same species of wizards. Like, they don't do magic in a way that's completely unrecognizable.

(I actually headcanon that the spell repertoire in different countries is different depending on the local language and language history in the region in general. Like, it makes sense Europe and America (the continent) will use a lot of Latin-based spells due to the common languages there and their history. But I feel like in Asia, in Africa, the various islands in the Pacific, and even in northern Europe (like Finnish which is a different language root) you'd get more spells in local languages. Some spells would be shared across cultures like Avada Kadavara (Ancient Aramaic), Alohamora (Sikidy geomancy symbols), and some Latin spells that don't have an alternative (I headcanon the Patronus to be one of these due to Dementors being invented by a British wizard) but some of the day-to-day stuff would be localized. For example, there could be a different incantation+wand movement for Lumos in, say, Japanese).

I think something like that could only work with small-ish secluded communities and not be, like, a whole alternate ministry of magic. I think it's very unlikely that there is a wizarding world hiding from the wizarding world, but I can see wizard communities existing sort of disconnected from the regular wizarding community and government of their country. Though, as the wizarding population as a whole is pretty small compared to the muggle one (I mean, in the UK, the wizards are only enough to populate a small-ish town) so I doubt these communities are common or big. Like, you could have some secluded families here and there like the Gaunts.

The Gaunts, when we see them in Ogden's memory, live in a small shack, away from any other wizards, doing their own thing, not going to Hogwarts — but they are still under the Ministry of Magic's jurisdiction, technically. Even if the Gaunts don't really recognize their authority. I think any small, wizarding community that is separate from the local wizarding government would be kinda like the Gaunts (not in terms of behavior, necessarily, but more in how separate/connected they are to the rest of the wizarding world in their country).

What's more likely (for bigger non-wizarding world communities) is certain countries' wizards choosing not to be part of the ICW and keep to themselves, not being part of the international wizarding community. Becouse I feel like there would be wizarding communities around the world that wouldn't want to join the ICW. But, again, their magic probably isn't all that different. They may use a different language at the base of their spells, or use different ingredients in their potions, or not use wands at all — but the base concept of how their magic works will be the same as in the Wizarding World we're familiar with.

I mean, the idea of incantations and potions is an old one that existed independently in many different cultures — but the basic concepts were more or less the same. You'd be surprised how much information was shared between ancient cultures of the old world and how many similar stories you find in many different mythologies. Because people traveled back then too, and ideas traveled with them (The Silk Road, for example). You can also find different cultures that came up with similar stories independently becouse humans have always been inherently human (think how so many cultures worldwide came up with dragons ("giant magic lizards") or similar creatures. How so many cultures have their versions of "evil spirits" of various kinds. There are certain concepts that people just tend to come up with).

So even if this theoretical community is currently separated from the WW, unless they lived for thousands of years completely secluded from other wizards and muggles (unlikely) — you'll find more familiar influences on their magic and familiar spell-casting styles than you'd expect. And even if they were completely separate for the past 4,000 years, their magic would still work the same and follow the same logic. They would still be using incantations and making potions because these are easy concepts to come up with. These methods may look a little different and have different names, but they will be the same methods in essence.

[papercook1e]

Advent No. 3 plot holes by Ecstatic-classic-705 on reddit

I’ve seen a few opinions here, and while I agree with a lot of them, I wanted to add some of my own thoughts. I also saw a lot of people praising the author’s world-building abilities, but honestly, I don’t share that opinion.

First of all, it’s clear that Anton Atrii(author) was “inspired” by Attack on Titan, though that’s already been discussed enough. However, my main issue isn’t with the plagiarism itself. Honestly, if the author had just copied the original, I would’ve had fewer questions.

But instead, the author tried to reinvent the wheel by piecing together parts of a coffee grinder. The result is a mishmash of Attack on Titan elements combined with his own flawed ideas, but the original pieces don’t work well when removed from their original context. As the result it’s breaking author’s world logic and plausibility.

So, I wanted to point out some of the mistakes and plot holes created by the author. Also give some examples of how it was done in Attack on Titan and why it worked there, but doesn’t work here.

1. The concept of an unknown enemy.

“Titans appeared out of nowhere” — This works in Attack on Titan because of the somewhat medieval setting, where people didn’t know what lay beyond the walls.

But in Advent’s world, we’re in the future. There’s electricity, air conditioning, labs, and cameras. Why not just attach a camera to a drone and figure out where the threat is coming from?

Fine, maybe flying titans could knock down the cameras. But what about satellites? Why didn’t anyone think to check satellite imagery? The titans didn’t attack everywhere at once, so someone could have looked up and figured out what was going on and where they’re coming from. Problem solved.

2. The Walls

I already saw someone talk about it, but wanted to mention one more thing.

The construction of the walls also doesn’t make sense. People are surrounded by titans, and building huge walls takes years. Even if the titans didn’t attack all cities at once, the logistics of constructing such massive barriers in such a short amount of time don’t add up. Not to mention, the walls don’t withstand attacks from these giant monsters. The titans can fly over them or dig under them — so what’s the point of having them at all?

In Attack on Titan, the walls themselves were unbreakable, and there was a mystery behind their construction, which was explained later in the story. But the author of this work didn’t seem to bother with these details.

3. What have the reconnaissance been doing?

In Attack on Titan, the scouts faced immense losses and spent years trying to gather any bit of information. They had to figure out how to kill titans by targeting specific weak spots, and they didn’t have modern technology to help them. That’s why they spent years exploring beyond the walls with little success.

In contrast, the local scouts here have modern weapons, cameras, and transportation. The titans can be killed with basic attacks, so why haven’t they figured out where these titans are coming from and why? It just doesn’t make sense.

4. The Global Underground Rail Network

To me, of the most puzzling element in this story is the Magistral, the high-speed underground rail network that supposedly connects different continents.

A) How Was It Built?

The Aides, those worm-like titans, live and travel underground. The author himself even mentions that they’re tough opponents because they literally live in the ground. So, how did humanity manage to build an underground highway under constant threat from these creatures? And why they haven’t destroyed it yet?

B) How Was It Built Across Oceans?

The cities in this world are on different continents (for example, in Canada and in Japan), separated by vast oceans. The average depth of the Pacific Ocean is nearly 4 kilometers. Also the author claims that this Magistral is a “ring”. But how could they build a high-speed rail network at such distances and depth in just 48 years, especially while the remaining remnants humanity were battling underground monsters? For comparison, the Eurotunnel took 7 years to build just 50 kilometers!

This concept just doesn’t make sense to me. If humanity had the technology to build such an underground highway across oceans, surely they would have the means to figure out where the titans are coming from and how to stop them.

In short, first two episodes didn’t impress me. Maybe the author will come up with some brilliant, logical explanations later on, but for now, it all feels weak and full of holes. I do hope the story gets better, but as it stands, it raises too many questions that either don’t have a logical explanation yet, or, if answered, would break the world’s logic and its original rules.

Posting this because I feel like this person raised many good points regarding the new story.

[kaijuposting]

Jaegers of Pacific Rim: What do we know about them?

There's actually a fair amount of lore about Pacific Rim's jaegers, though most of it isn't actually in the movie itself. A lot of it has been scattered in places like Pacific Rim: Man, Machines, & Monsters, Tales From Year Zero, Travis Beacham's blog, and the Pacific Rim novelization.

Note that I will not be including information from either Pacific Rim: Uprising or Pacific Rim: The Black. Uprising didn't really add anything, and The Black's take on jaegers can easily be summed up as "simplified the concept to make a cartoon for children."

So what is there to know about jaegers, besides the fact that they're piloted by two people with their brains connected via computer?

Here's a fun fact: underneath the hull (which may or may not be pure iron), jaegers have "muscle strands" and liquid data transfer technology. Tendo Choi refers to them in the film when describing Lady Danger's repairs and upgrades:

Solid iron hull, no alloys. Forty engine blocks per muscle strand. Hyper-torque driver for every limb and a new fluid synapse system.

The novelization by Alex Irvine makes frequent references to this liquid data transfer tech. For example:

The Jaeger’s joints squealed and began to freeze up from loss of lubricant through the holes Knifehead had torn in it. Its liquid-circuit neural architecture was misfiring like crazy. (Page 29.)

He had enough fiber-optic and fluid-core cabling to get the bandwidth he needed. (Page 94.)

Newt soldered together a series of leads using the copper contact pins and short fluid-core cables. (Page 96.)

Unfortunately I haven't found anything more about the "muscle strands" and what they might be made of, but I do find it interesting that jaegers apparently have some sort of artificial muscle system going on, especially considering Newt's personnel dossier in the novel mentioned him pioneering research in artificial tissue replication at MIT.

The novelization also mentions that the pilots' drivesuits have a kind of recording device for their experiences while drifting:

This armored outer layer included a Drift recorder that automatically preserved sensory impressions. (Page 16.)

It was connected through a silver half-torus that looked like a travel pillow but was in fact a four-dimensional quantum recorder that would provide a full record of the Drift. (Page 96.)

This is certainly... quite the concept. Perhaps the PPDC has legitimate reasons for looking through the memories and feelings of their pilots, but let's not pretend this doesn't enable horrific levels of privacy invasion.

I must note, though, I haven't seen mention of a recording system anywhere outside of the novel. Travis Beacham doesn't mention it on his blog, and it never comes up in either Tales From Year Zero or Tales From The Drift, both written by him. Whether there just wasn't any occasion to mention it or whether this piece of worldbuilding fell by the wayside in Beacham's mind is currently impossible to determine.

Speaking of the drivesuits, let's talk about those more. The novelization includes a few paragraphs outlining how the pilots' drivesuits work. It's a two-layer deal:

The first layer, the circuity suit, was like a wetsuit threaded with a mesh of synaptic processors. The pattern of processor relays looked like circuitry on the outside of the suit, gleaming gold against its smooth black polymer material. These artificial synapses transmitted commands to the Jaeger’s motor systems as fast as the pilot’s brain could generate them, with lag times close to zero. The synaptic processor array also transmitted pain signals to the pilots when their Jaeger was damaged.

...

The second layer was a sealed polycarbonate shell with full life support and magnetic interfaces at spine, feet, and all major limb joints. It relayed neural signals both incoming and outgoing. This armored outer layer included a Drift recorder that automatically preserved sensory impressions.

...

The outer armored layer of the drivesuit also kept pilots locked into the Conn-Pod’s Pilot Motion Rig, a command platform with geared locks for the Rangers’ boots, cabled extensors that attached to each suit gauntlet, and a full-spectrum neural transference plate, called the feedback cradle, that locked from the Motion Rig to the spine of each Ranger’s suit. At the front of the motion rig stood a command console, but most of a Ranger’s commands were issued either by voice or through interaction with the holographic heads-up display projected into the space in front of the pilots’ faces. (Page 16.)

Now let's talk about the pons system. According to the novelization:

The basics of the Pons were simple. You needed an interface on each end, so neuro signals from the two brains could reach the central bridge. You needed a processor capable of organizing and merging the two sets of signals. You needed an output so the data generated by the Drift could be recorded, monitored, and analyzed. That was it. (Page 96.)

This is pretty consistent with other depictions of the drift, recording device aside. (Again, the 4D quantum recorder never comes up anywhere outside of the novel.)

The development of the pons system as we know it is depicted in Tales From Year Zero, which goes into further detail on what happened after Trespasser's attack on San Francisco. In this comic, a jaeger can be difficult to move if improbably calibrated. Stacker Pentecost testing out a single arm describes the experience as feeling like his hand is stuck in wet concrete; Doctor Caitlin Lightcap explains that it's resistance from the datastream because the interface isn't calibrated to Pentecost's neural profile. (I'm guessing that this is the kind of calibration the film refers to when Tendo Choi calls out Lady Danger's left and right hemispheres being calibrated.)

According to Travis Beacham's blog, solo piloting a jaeger for a short time is possible, though highly risky. While it won't cause lasting damage if the pilot survives the encounter, the neural overload that accumulates the longer a pilot goes on can be deadly. In this post he says:

It won't kill you right away. May take five minutes. May take twenty. No telling. But it gets more difficult the longer you try. And at some point it catches up with you. You won't last a whole fight start-to-finish. Stacker and Raleigh managed to get it done and unplug before hitting that wall.

In this post he says:

It starts off fine, but it's a steep curve from fine to dead. Most people can last five minutes. Far fewer can last thirty. Nobody can last a whole fight.

Next, let's talk about the size and weight of jaegers. Pacific Rim: Man, Machines, & Monsters lists off the sizes and weights of various jaegers. The heights of the jaegers it lists (which, to be clear, are not all of them) range from 224 feet to 280 feet. Their weights range from 1850 tons to 7890 tons. Worth noting, the heaviest jaegers (Romeo Blue and Horizon Brave) were among the Mark-1s, and it seems that these heavy builds didn't last long given that another Mark-1, Coyote Tango, weighed 2312 tons.

And on the topic of jaeger specs, each jaeger in Pacific Rim: Man, Machines, & Monsters is listed with a (fictional) power core and operating system. For example, Crimson Typhoon is powered by the Midnight Orb 9 power core, and runs on the Tri-Sun Plasma Gate OS.

Where the novelization's combat asset dossiers covers the same jaegers, this information lines up - with the exception of Lady Danger. PR:MMM says that Lady Danger's OS is Blue Spark 4.1; the novelization's dossier says it's BLPK 4.1.

PR:MMM also seems to have an incomplete list of the jaegers' armaments; for example, it lists the I-22 Plasmacaster under Weaponry, and "jet kick" under Power Moves. Meanwhile, the novelization presents its armaments thus:

I-22 Plasmacaster Twin Fist gripping claws, left arm only Enhanced balance systems and leg-integral Thrust Kickers Enhanced combat-strike armature on all limbs

The novel's dossiers list between 2-4 features in the jaegers' armaments sections.

Now let's move on to jaeger power cores. As many of you probably already know, Mark-1-3 jaegers were outfitted with nuclear power cores. However, this posed a risk of cancer for pilots, especially during the early days. To combat this, pilots were given the (fictional) anti-radiation drug, Metharocin. (We see Stacker Pentecost take Metharocin in the film.)

The Mark-4s and beyond were fitted with alternative fuel sources, although their exact nature isn't always clear. Striker Eureka's XIG supercell chamber implies some sort of giant cell batteries, but it's a little harder to guess what Crimson Typhoon's Midnight Orb 9 might be, aside from round.

Back on the topic of nuclear cores, though, the novelization contains a little paragraph about the inventor of Lady Danger's power core, which I found entertaining:

The old nuclear vortex turbine lifted away from the reactor housing. The reactor itself was a proprietary design, brainchild of an engineer who left Westinghouse when they wouldn’t let him use his lab to explore portable nuclear miniaturization tech. He’d landed with one of the contractors the PPDC brought in at its founding, and his small reactors powered many of the first three generations of Jaegers. (Page 182.)

Like... I have literally just met this character, and I love him. I want him to meet Newt Geiszler, you know? >:3

Apparently, escape pods were a new feature to Mark-3 jaegers. Text in the novelization says, "New to the Mark III is an automated escape-pod system capable of ejecting each Ranger individually." (Page 240.)

Finally, jaegers were always meant to be more than just machines. Their designs and movements were meant to convey personality and character. Pacific Rim: Man, Machines, & Monsters says:

Del Toro insisted the Jaegers be characters in and of themselves, not simply giant versions of their pilots. Del Toro told his designers, "It should be as painful for you to see a Jaeger get injured as it is for you to see the pilot [get hurt.]" (Page 56.)

Their weathered skins are inspired by combat-worn vehicles from the Iraq War and World War II battleships and bombers. They look believable and their design echoes human anatomy, but only to a point. "At the end of the day, what you want is for them to look cool," says Francisco Ruiz Velasco. "It's a summer movie, so you want to see some eye candy." Del Toro replies, "I, however, believe in 'eye protein,' which is high-end design with a high narrative content." (Page 57.)

THE JAEGER FROM DOWN UNDER is the only Mark 5, the most modern and best all-around athlete of the Jaegers. He's also the most brutal of the Jaeger force. Del Toro calls him "sort of brawler, like a bar fighter." (Page 64.)

And that is about all the info I could scrounge up and summarize in a post. I think there's a lot of interesting stuff here - like, I feel that the liquid circuit and muscle tissue stuff gives jaegers an eerily organic quality that could be played for some pretty interesting angles. And I also find it interesting that jaegers were meant to embody their own sort of character and personality, rather than just being simple combat machines or extensions of their pilots - it's a great example of a piece of media choosing thematic correctness over technical correctness, which when you get right down to it, is sort of what Pacific Rim is really all about.

[nimblermortal]

Please tell me about the etymology of the word Shaman!

Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuu

From The Archaeology of Shamanism by Neil S. Price:

When a dissident priest called Avvakum arrived in the lands of the nomadic, reindeer-herding Evenki in the early 1650s, having been exiled to central Siberia by the patriarch of the Russian Orthodoz Church, no outside had ever heard of a šaman, let alone written the word down or explored the cosmological understandings that underpinned its meaning. By the time of his execution for heresy in 1682, Avvakum's descriptions communicated during his sojourn among the Evenki had already laid the foundations for what anthropologists would later term the study of shamanism. Over the following 150 years, as Siberia was traversed by missionaries, political exiles (often highly educated intellectuals), Tsarist agents, and European travellers, more and more stories were recorded of the intriguing beliefs and practices to be found among the tribal peoples there: from the Nenets, Mansi, Khanty, Ngansan, and Enets of the Uralic group around the Yamal peninsula, the Ob and Yenisei river basins and the north Siberian coast; the Turkis-speaking Yakut and Dolgan on the lower Lena; the Tungusic-Mandchruian peoples of central Siberia, including the Even and the Evenki themselves; and the Yukaghir, Chukchi, Koryak, and Itelmen of eastern Siberia and the Pacific coast, amongst many others. The tales told by these early voyagers were startling, and aroused intense interest in Russia and Europe. A fragmentary picture emerged of an 'ensouled world'in which everything was alive, and filled with spirits - animals, natural features, even what to Western eyes were inanimate objects. To such beings could be linked almost every aspect of material life: sickness and health, the provision of food and shelter, success in hunting, and the well-being of the community. The maintenance of good relationships with these spirits was thus of crucial importance, and the most striking of the travellers' stories concerned the special individuals who attained states of trance and ecstasy in order to send out their souls to communicate with these beings, to enlist their aid or bind them to their will, sometimes even to engage them in combat. The operative sphere of these people, whom the Evenki called šaman, was revealed as a world of mediation, of negotiation between the realm of human beings and the adjacent, occasionally coincident, planes of existence in which dwelt the gods, the spirits of nature, and the souls of the dead. The complex variety of equipment used in these ceremonies was also described: the strange headgear and jackets hung with jingling amulets, the fur and feathers of animals, metal images; the masks and veils; the effigies and figurines; and above all, the drums. Some of this data was published and widely discussed in scholarly circles, and during the eighteenth century the Evenk concept of the šaman was taken up in Russia as a useful collective for the similar figures that were encountered from one tribe to another across the region. From the phonetic constructions used to record these concepts (the indigenous Siberians had no written language), šaman or sama:n was soon normalised via Russian to the western European languages, creating the more conventional 'shaman'(the Evenki pronounced the word with the accent on the second syllable, 'sha-márn', but the alternative forms of 'shár-man' or 'sháy-man' are now more common). At first, there were few that associated these individuals, and the role that they played within their communities, with 'religion' in the sense of an organised system of worship. The notion of a collective pattern of belief - shamanism - arose first when the Christian missions began to seriously target the Siberian peoples for conversion, and thus sought to identify a pagan religion towards the overthrow of which they could concentrate their efforts.

He's such a good writer, isn't he? Anyway that's the first section of the introduction, but I also wanted to include this next paragraph because it deals with the evolution of the term to deal with cultures outside of Siberia (emphases mine):

One major trend however continues to polarise shamanic studies: the question of geographic frames of reference. Even now, echoing the debates of the early twentieth century, some historians of religion strongly resist the use of the term 'shamanism'beyond certain regions of central Siberia. In one sense these objections seem baffling, given that - as we have seen - the concept of shamanism has always been an externally imposed construction, and does not exist anywhere at all other than in the minds of its students. Not even the Evenki have an overall word for what the šaman does, though like several other Siberian peoples they have a broad vocabulary for the different components of the shamanic complex. As both a term and a notion, shamanism is entirely an academic creation, and as such it is certainly a useful tool serving to describe a pattern of ritual behavior and belief found in strikingly similar form across much of the arctic and sub-arctic regions of the world. Even within this broad understanding, the meaning of shamanism is entirely a matter of consensus, discussion, and continuing redefinition; this extends to terminology, many scholars now preferring to write of 'shamanhood' or 'shamanship'. The essential question is to whether we can truly speak of shamanism beyond the circumpolar sphere... in the broadest and most popular undestanding 'shamanism' has latterly come to cover virtually any kind of belief in 'spirits' and the existence of other worlds, states of being, or planes of consciousness - a definition that of course encompasses the majority of the world's religions, organised or otherwise, ancient and modern.

[atopvisenyashill]

what do you think IS the heart of winter? a physical or metaphorical place? it's one of those things that has me reeeeaaallly stumped

yeah i'm with you on the stumped thing. let's break it down a bit together. so this is the passage that references the "heart of winter"-

Finally he looked north. He saw the Wall shining like blue crystal, and his bastard brother Jon sleeping alone in a cold bed, his skin growing pale and hard as the memory of all warmth fled from him ... North and north and north he looked, to the curtain of light at the end of the world, and then beyond that curtain. He looked deep into the heart of winter, and then he cried out, afraid, and the heat of his tears burned his cheeks. Now you know, the crow whispered as it sat on his shoulder, now you know why you must live. "Why?" Bran said, not understanding, falling, falling. Because winter is coming. Bran looked down. There was nothing below him now but snow and cold and death, a frozen wasteland where jagged blue-white spires of ice waited to embrace him. They flew up at him like spears. He saw the bones of a thousand other dreamers impaled upon their points. He was desperately afraid.

This is also that infamous "curtain of light at the end of the world" passage too. There's a lot of theories, a lot of analysis - this chapter, like a lot of the more magic heavy chapters, contains a lot of information that feels like it's going to be massively important in the endgame. So what the hell does it mean? Some bullet points-

foreshadowing Jon's death -> Jon is certainly cold at the Wall, but he hasn't yet left for any sort of excursion at this point. The combination of his skin growing "pale and hard" makes me think this is specifically about the moment he's killed.

showing us bloodraven's lil hide out -> I bolded the point about the spires of ice that are attacking him and the bones of other dreamers because we see this come up later - the cave. there are wights and bones surrounding the cave but they can't enter, very similar to the dead dreamers on the spires who couldn't fly.

the three eyed crow wants Bran afraid -> this section is just fear on top of fear on top of fear. Whoever the Three Eyed Crow is, what he wants more than anything is for Bran to be terrified of the Others and their coming.

the curtain of light and the heart of winter -> this seems like the "home" of the Others.

So what does "home" of the Others mean? Well, it could just be metaphorical. That winter - true winter, a winter that never ends - and its heart are carried with the Others, that as they approach everything turns cold and hard and dead. It might not be a physical, actual place so much as Bran trying to put into words the horror of the Others and the Long Night. Hell, maybe it's a weapon of sorts - the heart of winter travels with them and it is how they ensure that the dead rise again, perhaps even as a sort of parallel/foil/whatever to the concept of Lightbringer (fire and ice and all that).

OR....it could actually be their home, a physical place. An alternate universe (...pocket universe I suppose), kind of like a Pacific Rim deal, where the alien world is nestled within the human world in a remote location. Or its a physical place, the source of magic (a source of magic?), where the Others come from, not dissimilar from the Aos Sidhe and the Otherworld. Here's a lil explanation I'm just pasting from a book called "meeting the irish fair folk" by morgan daimler but you're likely to recognize the concept-

Called an Saol Eile in Irish, the Otherworld is a complicated place that may be best understood as a series of connected places rather than one contiguous location. Often in stories this is described as an island or series of islands off the coast of Ireland, which is generally hidden from mortal sight. These islands are unique to themselves but all have similar qualities in that they are outside the mortal world. The Otherworld may also be reached through the sidhe. The Otherworld has a different flow of time from the human world and is usually known for its lack of age or illness, although injury and death from conflict can occur.

So what he could be seeing is the Terros version of the Otherworld, where the sidhe of Terros live - again its that sort of "world within a world" thing that is very common in many faerie stories. What's interesting to me about that is that despite the very sidhe coded Others, and stories of being kidnapped by the evil fairies or left in the woods for the fairies (like Craster), we've never really delved into the concept of a Otherworld that is soooo common with this type of fae. The parallel culture, the magical realm, the lore of being fallen angels or corrupted humans, etc - our information on the Others is really missing here because the last Long Night was so far away and the Maesters don't believe in magic. It could mean that we simply won't get anything like this. COMMA BUT. Bran is very intentionally dealing with some odd ~timey wimey~ stuff right now and time passing oddly is a core aspect of most faerie land stories.

So....what is the heart of winter? Is it a physical place or a metaphor? Is it a weapon? Is it a pocket universe? If it is a pocket universe, can you access from anywhere or only once you've reached the curtain of light at the end of the world? Same as you, I'm frankly a bit stumped but I think that's on purpose. With a title like "The Winds of Winter" I think we're going to get some real answers to at least some of those questions in the next book (if we ever get it) though and I think the answers will come through Bran's narration.

[bauernwehr]

Haitian Machete Fencing Workshop 2025

Gotham Swords is excited to welcome back Michael Rogers of the Haitian Fencing Project for an intensive six-hour workshop this July!

In Haiti, the traditional art of machete fencing goes by many names, among them Tire Machèt (“Pulling Machetes”). Tire Machèt has roots in the Haitian Revolution, when the revolutionaries were often forced to fight with fewer guns than soldiers. Its combination of ancestral African combat systems proved highly effective both in battle and as a means of individual self-defense.

Tickets are $225, with all proceeds from this event benefiting the people of Haiti through the nonprofit organization Cultural Capital Haiti.  We hope that you can join us once again for this unique and amazing experience and help do some good in the world:

TIRE MACHÈT WORKSHOP WITH MICHAEL ROGERS Sunday, July 13th, 12pm-6pm 520 8th Ave., New York, NY Tickets Here Interested in Learning More about Haitian Machete Fencing?

Buy the official training manual! Haitian Machete Fencing Project • Gotham Swords • Bauernwehr

The Manual

Haitian Machete Fencing is a functional martial art with deep roots in Haiti’s struggle for freedom. Over the course of a ten-year apprenticeship with master fencer Alfred Avril in Haiti, we were privileged to document this art form in ways never seen by the wider world.

Now, in collaborating with his children and other committed students, this book provides a deeper and more technical exploration of Haitian Machete Fencing than anything available so far, while preserving the respect for tradition upon which our teacher always insisted.

Lush photography by Charles Espey captures thrilling and informative images of Haitian Machete Fencing in action, as well as lovingly rendered portraits. Oral histories and essays – including an extended interview with Professor Avril that has never-before been made public – provide essential insight into the spiritual and cultural significance of this art form.

All author royalties benefit the people of Haiti through our nonprofit organization Cultural Capital Haiti.

GET YOUR COPY TODAY

About

Michael Rogers (Fencing Instructor & Program Coordinator) Michael is an assistant professor of humanities at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. He first traveled to Haiti in 2002 and has spent over four years living and working there. He is the only non-Haitian known to have mastered the art of Haitian machete fencing, and is featured in the documentary short Papa Machete, which he worked on as a consultant from concept through post-production. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Cambridge.

Gotham Swords: The Gotham European Martial Arts Collective is NYC’s premiere historical fencing social club.  The centuries old Art of Swordsmanship offers countless challenges, rewards, and opportunities for personal growth. From general fitness to tournament training, Gotham Swords look forward to being a part of your journey! www.gemac.club

Gotham Bauernwehr — invites students to experience a unique fencing system of Ringen (wrestling), Messer (machete), and Stock (Stick) outside the context of the “noble” historical duel; favoring defensive approaches to an engagement.  Our program is greatly influenced by the Avril Family Method of Tiré Machét, a living tradition of Haitian martial arts which serves as the heart of our practice. https://www.gemac.club/bauernwehr

[txttletale]

i'll actually in a limited capacity defend the overwatch league's regional teams gimmick but the execution was bad. having regional teams could have been hype. like--during astralis' 2018-2019 csgo run, danish esports fans went fucking insane for them. and like of course they did. there's inherently something exciting about having a team you can in some way 'identify' with. and geography does create natural sports rivalries and pre-writes your stories.

there were two glaring bad problems in the dumb way blizzard did this though. one is forcing teams to come up with brand new branding. this was a horrible idea. it forced well-established esports organizations with strong fanbases across different games like cloud9 and optic to try and build new brands up from scratch. they realized this with their call of duty leage where they let teams play as 'atlanta faze' and 'optic texas' but yknow. kind of too little too late

the other one (and this is also the glaring fatal flaw in the overwatch league's entire silly, silly business plan) is the idea of a global league. now if you don't know much about esports you might think 'wait whats wrong with that. its gaming you can do it online players can be anywhere'. however that's not true! first of all, esports--well esports doesn't make money, esports when managed correctly is essentially a loss leader for the game it's an esport for--but esports makes a lot of its money on live events. yeah, people go to see esports games:

much more importantly, ping is a huge factor in esports. the higher the level you're playing at, especially in a game like overwatch that's full of twitchy hitscan aiming, the more a 10ms latency difference can make or break a game. you need to be running in-person events in order to have a competitive esports league and to make a good chunk of your revenue.

and that means that a global esports league runs into the exact same problem a global normal sports league would run into and the reason why that doesn't exist, which is travel logistics. the overwatch league has a london team, a san francisco team, and a chengdu team. these cities are very far away from each other [citation needed] and although overwatch league people will often blame covid for ruining their plans, i honestly think it actually saved them by preventing the horrible idea they had for how the league would work from actually happening. imagine all the problems that travel causes in a league like the NBA--jet lag, exhaustion, the obvious budgetary expenditure. now imagine that the travel itinerary also includes flights across the atlantic and/or pacific.

that's not even all! the thing about esports is that, because practicing for ten hours a day doesn't physically destroy your body like it would for regular sports, esports players and teams... do that. if you spend seventeen hours on a plane from paris to hangzhou for a match that's seventeen hours where you're not practicing. when you arrive, you can't just stay at a hotel--you need to be able to practice in the days leading up to the match too, especially because it's esports, which means the game can change. if you miss some practice as a sports team, you're gonna be rusty--if you miss some practice as an esports team, the rules of the game might have literally changed since your last practice session.

the result of this, by the way, is that the london and paris teams have never been actually based in europe--and that right now the dallas team is based in korea. it is very silly. every other multinational esport ever invented has created regional leagues--league of legends has a league for korea, china, europe, north america, pacific, vietnam, brazil, japan, and latin america. but blizzard entertainment are god's special little gamers and they weren't going to let something like 'the ocean' get in the way of their global league dream.

and ultimately this means that the entire local team concept was pointless. most of the teams aren't locally based. and even if they were -- the madcap way they play against each other mean that those city affiliations don't matter. when manchester united play liverpool f.c., even if you are not a big football fan, if you're from manchester you presumably have an opinion of liverpool and liverpudlians, and vice versa. there is an emotional hook to latch on to. if manchester united were to play khon khaen united, you would probably say 'where the fuck is khon khaen'. for the localisation to work, the overwatch league's london team needed a manchester or glasgow or dublin or amsterdam or brussels team (etc.) to play against. if you're invested in the esport itself and the players, you can get invested in a philadelphia-london or chengdu-houston rivalry--but the localisation aspect of it isn't doing the work it should there.

tldr: the overwatch league was a bad idea ever since the moment it was announced. people are too harsh on the team localization idea but the way it was executed was hot garbage and it's no wonder this entire venture failed badly

[smilepebble]

ok funnyposting aside here's my spoiler free review/recommendation of trigun (1998). it's a bit long so it's under the cut

trigun is... a show that you can watch! and by that i mean it has its really really good moments... and it's really really bad moments. i won't water it down: trigun has significant flaws that caused me a lot of frustration at times. that said, i still found it to be an overall enjoyable show.

here's the basic concept for those uninformed: trigun is a sci-fi western set on a desert planet riddled with inscrutable ancient technology. the most notable of this technology are the plants, giant lightbulb shaped power sources that a lot of people rely on.

the story follows the life of vash the stampede, a bandit with a $$60,000,000 bounty on his head. our secondary protagonists are meryl stryfe and milly thompson, associates from an insurance company whose job is to find vash and mitigate the destruction he causes. what meryl and milly find, however, is that the $$60,000,000 man is actually a happy-go-lucky pacifist who loves donuts. hijinks ensue.

trigun has fantastic worldbuilding and fascinating themes, along with some very cool cinematic moments. it has a great overall concept as well, and it plays around with your expectations of shounen anime. the show is also not afraid to challenge and question its own central theme of absolute pacifism: even if you don't kill anyone with your own bare hands, if you've still hurt someone, or deprived them of their resources, are you really not responsible if they die because of that? is that truly pacifism?

... but despite the great themes and worldbuilding, trigun is also a 90's shounen anime. which, in most cases, means it's going to be misogynistic. and... oh boy is it. im mostly going to be talking about meryl and milly, but pretty much anything i say can apply to every other female character in this series. like it's Bad. but anyway.

oh meryl stryfe and milly thompson... you did not deserve this... as previously stated, meryl and milly are our secondary protags. and overall, they're important to the plot! but, well, that's pretty much all they get (aside from some good character designs). meryl and milly are almost immediately fit into misogynistic little boxes. they're designated vash and wolfwood's love interests (side note: i don't respect wolfwood. im calling him nick from this point on). milly is characterized as this stupid and naïve girl who loves her family as well as getting drunk and taking off all her clothes. meryl is characterized as (possibly my least favorite type of misogynistic characterization) the "annoying naggy bitch" type character. but don't worry they both have character arcs! ...all revolving around their respective male love interests! it's frustrating, to say the least.

alongside meryl and milly being reduced to misogynistic stereotypes, they are also subject to a lot of sexist jokes, typically made by our male leads. you get to hear groping jokes, "WOMEN, am i right???"-type jokes, everything inbetween, and more. a good amount of which comes straight from our protags mouth! and of course vash is not a real guy whom i can punch in the face for doing so. but it does make it a little hard to like him as a character (same applies to nick). and don't get me wrong, i did ultimately like vash and nick as characters. but the sheer amount of misogyny that comes from those two eventually starts to detract from the effectiveness of their stories. ill get into this a bit more later.

... and of course trigun is a 90's anime, so the racism is also there! im not sure it's as in your face as the misogyny, but it is very much present still. most, if not all of the major non-white characters (and there's not a lot) are either racist stereotypes, villains, or both. all of the towns our main characters visit and all of the crowds in the backgrounds are mostly white. and as our main cast travels the world, there is little to no change in architecture, food, clothing, traditions... there's no distinct cultures! which makes most locations in trigun feel very plain and replaceable, which hurt the overall themes about the wonder of humanity and such! i find it both boring and extremely improbable that humanity settled on a desert planet and built only american wild west looking towns. when your fictional world features only one kind of biome, you would want to create some kind of variety in your locations, so they're memorable, right? well, not in trigun.

trigun's issues hurt its story significantly, and additionally, like many older anime adaptations of manga, there are pacing issues. in trigun's case, i felt that the bigotry directly correlated with that pacing issue. when you mistreat your characters and world like this, it hurts the overall story you're trying to tell. while i really enjoyed trigun's climactic episodes, the impacts of those episodes feel damped because of the aforementioned mistreatment. trigun's misogyny especially eats directly into its screentime; screentime that could have been used to develop our main cast, so that when they go through big emotional moments, it feels deserved: like we, the audience, and the character have worked to get to this point. but it just didn't feel that way to me.

and of course i am well aware that trigun (1998) is only a 26 episode adaptation of a longer manga. ive yet to read the manga, but i am looking into it, and hoping with my entire heart and soul that the pacing is better lol. im also aware of the 2023 anime, which i may check out at some point (although ive heard they get rid of milly. boooo).

but anyway, that's my general thoughts on trigun! i have other thoughts and nitpicks on it, but i don't really have a space for them in this post. would i recommend trigun? yes, but only if you have a high tolerance for the aforementioned bullshit. despite how much longer my complaints were than my praises, like i said, i found it to be an overall enjoyable experience.

now if you'll excuse me, im going to go sit out in the snow and watch vash the stampede scuttle off into the sunset like a scarab beetle. it's really quite a beautiful sight you know

[casino-lights]

Don't be shy drop the details on the reverse harem 👀

@jacknought and I have been working on a concept about an author who travels to a bed and breakfast/nature retreat/campground in the Pacific Northwest during its off season and she ends up meeting the six full-time staff members who are all very attractive and mature men from their late 40s to early 60s. She was looking for isolation but found out that she actually enjoys everyone's company and that they're all just really lovely, honest, hardworking men who are happy to have her there. No drama, no "I must choose one" or jealousy plotlines, just a reverse harem of dilfy men who range from Old Cowboy to Sugar Daddy and from Rugged Hunter to Chronic Yearner.

[iamthekaijuking]

Gigabash Character Overview

Almost 2 years ago I made a review of all the revealed Gigabash kaiju in the lead up to the game’s release and what they were homages to, but the game is now almost 2 years old and its third dlc pack of guest fighters has just released. So I thought now’s as good a time as any to revisit Gigabash’s ten original kaiju and provide much more commentary as someone who’s played the game extensively, starting with…

Gorogong!

Gorogong is essentially the “starter” or brawler character on the roster, an agile character with reliable attack and defense and movement options, but with a surprisingly high skill ceiling. Do not underestimate a Gorogong player! A truly skilled one can wipe the floor with you.

Design

Gorogong is pretty much the poster child of Gigabash and showcases the main design inspiration for most of the original kaiju in the game. Passion Republic Games is a Malaysian company, and Ultraman is really popular there. With this information in mind it becomes clear that Gorogong was designed using traits from a few monsters in Ultraman’s extensive roster. Off the top of my head I can see some silhouette inspiration from Red King EX, and the face reminds me of Bemular (which apparently was the main facial inspiration) and Guigass. Miclas was probably a bigger inspiration than those latter two though.

Overall he wouldn’t look out of place in an episode of Ultraman. But despite being a grab bag of traits, his design process was actually quite extensive! And you can see concept art showing the multiple different iterations he went through before PRG finally settled on what we got.

Gorogong is also pretty obviously a volcanic monster, with his stony hide and lava leaking from its cracks. Gorogong burst into the modern world of Gigabash after being disturbed from his hibernation in a volcano after humans stole something from him. But why was he in the volcano, and what was the important thing humans stole?

Lore

Gorogong’s home turf is Luana Island of the Kahu’a Republic, a Polynesian island smack dab in the center of the Pacific Ocean. How long he was there isn’t known, but what is known is that when Polynesian settlers came to the island many centuries ago he was far from happy. Actually that’s an understatement, because Gorogong’s rage is his primary character trait.

He nearly eradicated the settlers and chased the stragglers for hours around the island before cornering them. But right before he could finish them off, Princess Luana, daughter of king Kahu’a and namesake of the island, began singing to crying children to soothe them. Her voice was so beautiful that it calmed Gorogong and pacified him.

In an effort to save her people she led him into the volcano on the island, and in the art showing this backstory in Gorogong’s story mode, Giga energy (what exactly it is or might be is something I’ll further elaborate as these overviews go on) is seen flowing out from the volcano as it then sealed the kaiju inside.

It was only through Princess Luana’s sacrifice that people were able to settle down on the island, and apparently they remained isolated from the rest of the world until the 1940s. Soon after, travel agencies and fast food companies flocked to the island and now it’s a tourist destination flocked with tourists and companies. Much to the frustration of the natives.

The entire time, Gorogong was sleeping in the volcano undisturbed. Of course word of Gorogong’s legend eventually reached the Global Titan Defense Initiative, an anti-kaiju international military organization created during the first kaiju crisis in the 70’s, nowadays though the organization is filled with corruption and uses its military power and resources to rig elections in favor of politicians who’ll throw more money at them, and many governments around the world are dependent on them. They cause more problems than they solve in their efforts to eradicate kaiju. They set up a base on the volcano to investigate if the legends were true, and it quickly became apparent that the volcano was filled with Giga energy and that a kaiju was indeed inside it. There was also a massive Giga Crystal inside (which admittedly looks kinda like a purple turd) and some point they were commissioned by OtamaTEC to remove and retrieve it for a project (which will be covered in another post). Taking away this artifact woke up Gorogong though, and it seems that he’ll follow anyone who takes it from him to the ends of the earth in order to retrieve it, and there’s some implication that the Giga turd is what became of princess Luana.

Overall, Gorogong is a great poster child for the game and was painstakingly designed by PRG to be loving homage to classic Ultraman monsters. He’s also very fun to play and draw.

[milind52224]

The Hidden Work Behind Every Flight: What Passenger Don't See

I remember being nervous the day before my airport orientation as a Cathay Pacific Customer Service Ambassador. I barely got any sleep that night, and I was so determined not to be late that I ended up arriving two hours early on my first day​. Standing in the terminal that morning with a group of fellow new hires, I felt a buzz of excitement. The staff welcomed us warmly and took us on a behind-the-scenes tour of the airport, giving us our first glimpse into the hidden world that keeps every flight running​. As we tried on our uniforms and received our ID badges, it struck me that I was finally stepping into the aviation industry I've loved since childhood – taking my first small steps in a dream that felt both thrilling and daunting​.

That orientation day opened my eyes to just how much happens beyond the view of passengers. Most people rushing to catch a flight only see a small fraction of the work involved: a smile at the check-in counter, a friendly voice at the gate, and attentive cabin crew in the aisle. What they don't see is the army of people working in concert to make that journey possible. In fact, it can take hundreds of personnel to get a single airplane off the ground. One seasoned aviation specialist estimated that anywhere from 100 to 200 people (or even more) might be working behind the scenes for oneflight to take off​. Think about that the next time you're waiting to board – the few staff you encounter are just the tip of the iceberg.

The small invisible tip represents the pilots, flight attendants, and gate agents you see, while beneath the surface lies a massive foundation of unseen contributors: dispatchers, baggage handlers, mechanics, caterers, air traffic controllers, cleaners, security officers, and more, all supporting the flight

Ground Crew: First to Arrive, Last to Leave

While passengers are still driving to the airport, ground crew are already hard at work. Baggage handlers are loading luggage, engineers are checking for mechanical issues, and cleaners are prepping cabins. According to SITA (2024), "4.5 billion bags were handled worldwide in 2023". And a single narrow-body aircraft might need a full turnaround in under 40 minutes.

Every move has to be perfect. If one step is delayed, the whole flight schedule could fall behind.

Check-In and Gate Agents: Calm Under Pressure

As a CSR, I saw firsthand how intense these roles are. Check-in and gate agents help passengers with baggage issues, rebookings, missed connections, and boarding. Often, they’re the first ones to deal with delays, angry travelers, and nervous fliers.

They perform a high amount of emotional labor. This concept was first defined by sociologist Arlie Hochschild and refers to" how workers manage their feelings and expressions as part of their job"(Beck, 2018). Airline staff have to stay calm, kind, and efficient even under pressure.

Many travelers don’t realize that gate agents also coordinate directly with dispatchers, the flight crew, and ramp agents. They’re not just scanning boarding passes—they’re holding the entire process together.

Cabin Crew

Cabin Crew are usually seen as the friendly faces serving drinks, but they are also trained safety professionals. According to United Airlines (n.d.), "flight attendants go through 6–8 weeks of safety training". They learn emergency evacuations, medical response, firefighting, and conflict management. they are always ready and the first responder of the whole flight.

While passengers relax, cabin crew are checking exit rows, arming doors, verifying passenger lists, and remaining alert for safety risks. Their job requires multitasking and emotional control.

They are trained to remain composed even in turbulent flights or medical emergencies. I’ve seen crew members de-escalate situations with just a calm voice and confident posture. They don’t just serve—they protect. they are also have to prepare cabin after groomers clean a aircraft and even before the flight begins which is a big responsibility and stressful for them even before the time to make the quota and be ready on time to not delay the flight.

What the Passenger Doesn't See

All this work is mostly invisible. The average passenger sees a clean plane, a friendly crew, and an on-time takeoff. But what they don’t see are the ground crew out in the rain, the agents handling rebookings with kindness, or the Cabin Crew ready to respond to a heart attack at 35,000 feet.

Even during my co-op, I didn’t realize how tightly coordinated everything had to be until I watched a delay unfold. One baggage cart issue created a ripple that led to late boarding, missed connections, and complaints. Every role matters, and every person is part of a massive synchronized operation.

Conclusion

The purpose of this blog is not just to inform—it’s to help change how we think about the people who make flying possible. These workers deserve more than just a passing glance. From check-in agents who manage stressful boarding rushes, to ground staff working in all weather conditions, to cabin crew trained to handle emergencies at 35,000 feet—every single one plays a vital role in the travel experience.

As passengers, we can help by doing something simple but powerful: show appreciation. A smile, a “thank you,” or even being patient when things don’t go as planned, sends a message that their efforts are seen. But beyond individual kindness, we should also encourage greater recognition in the industry—through stronger employee support, improved working conditions, and public awareness campaigns.

Air travel is often seen as routine, but it’s actually a miracle of human coordination, professionalism, and teamwork. Let’s not forget the hundreds of people who help get each flight safely into the sky. When we value their work, we elevate the entire flying experience—not just for them, but for ourselves too.

References

Air Transport Action Group. (2024). Facts & figures. https://www.atag.org/facts-figures.html

Beck, J. (2018, November 26). The concept creep of "emotional labor". The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/11/arlie-hochschild-housework-isnt-emotional-labor/576637/

SITA. (2024). Baggage IT insights 2024. https://www.sita.aero/resources/surveys-reports/sita-baggage-it-insights-2024/

United Airlines. (n.d.). Flight attendant information. https://careers.united.com/us/en/flight-attendant-information

#COM01 #airtravel #aviation #behindthescenes

[themissakat]

sorry about taking so long to think of words, but i think i finally have good questions.

what are your guesses for where the 3rd game is going to take place? Visit a new location or return to old locations of the first 2? the forbidden west and carja and nora?

How do you think aloy and friends are going to develop? where could the game go to further the character arcs of the squad?

words are hard you're good

gonna put a readmore bc it has a lot of Forbidden West spoilers!!

My first guess would be that we'll see something related to the Oseram homeland, as its the only one of the main tribes (aside from the Quen ofc) where we've met their people but not been to their capital. I don't have 100% certainty on this because the Oseram are the most nomadic of all the tribes we've seen thus far, those guys are everywhere, so its hard to say if visiting a centralized leader would be applicable to getting their support, as opposed to getting in touch with individual groups like the Vanguard at Meridian or the group at Burning Ember.

I think it would be so cool to see the Quen homeland, and I've read some fics that propose the potential use of Zenith tech (like the shuttle, its just hanging out still) to travel those long distances faster. It would be interesting to see if they push the travel that far, as they played a little bit with that in Burning Shores and going to the San Francisco area, but Vegas to San Fran is a little different than crossing the entire Pacific Ocean.

as for the characters, I really hope to see Aloy continue to open up about accepting help from others and not shouldering the entire burden herself. One of my favorite arcs in hfw was how Aloy contended with Elisabet's "legacy", and how she, at first, accepted sole responsibility for it, to the point of pushing everyone else away from her. Her being the "key" to the facilities obviously put her in a place of "if i dont do this, no one else CAN", but I think that the introduction of Beta and the staunch support of her friends really finally pushed her into "it is okay to accept help".

I think that meeting Beta and contending with their differences despite their being genetically identical was a very needed push for Aloy, because it put a mirror up to her experiences and reinforced for her that she IS NOT just a clone of Elisabet, but her own unique person as well. I will keep saying it but their sisterhood breaks me and rebuilds me into a better human, i love them so much sdjfhsd

I do think we'll be seeing a lot of returning cast of course, including Avad and hopefully the Nora as well. I'm very excited for the introduction of Seyka to the greater group, because I'm curious how the writers will handle Aloy actually having a requited romance, instead of just being the subject of a lot of people's attention. ( my thread for talking about hfw is called "Flirting With Aloy Like It's An Olympic Sport" for a reason ).

Despite not being the main focus of the story, there are SO MANY moments where Aloy interacts with romance and attraction that I can't see them not resolving that plot point for her and Seyka. I, personally, expect it to be tied into the concept of "after", of the future she will have once the future of the planet is secured. I personally headcanon that Aloy will struggle with this concept, as she has been completely goal driven her entire life, and to finally achieve that goal is something she has never considered.

I want to meet Federa and Zo's baby ofc. I dont have too many other specific thoughts about character arc resolution for the rest, aside from that I hope Erend finds something worth fighting for, as he has lost SO MUCH and at times seems to be the most lost amongst the group. He has his heart in the right place, but I feel he is very deep in his grief for his sister still, whereas a lot of the other characters have more specific goals or people to inspire them onward.

I can't think of any more specific thoughts atm sjdfd except, Gildun beloved, Burning Embers crew beloved, good characters all around.

[artsyco3xist]

Part of "Endure" a zine centered around two original characters traveling through different video game-inspired worlds. As far as I know, it was structured so that the zine would follow a loose structure. Mine would be near the last third of the zine since it's the characters entering the final dungeon, which I based on Horizon Forbidden West.

I wanted to incorporate more west coast elements in my version, so instead of the typical cauldron doors, I had the entrance be under a building resembling the Aquarium of the Pacific! I also had to research local flora to add and the ones that stayed in the composition were the California poppies.

Seeing this is a Horizon-inspired background, the post-apocalyptic scenario is that there are now half robot half animal creatures roaming the earth, all from a disease that robotifies organic organisms. I took that part from Sonic the Hedgehog comic lore and incorporated that early badniks look into this eagle creature!

So here, Juno is making shock arrows for Sylvie, referencing the crafting system in these types of games, while Sylvie is using an old-fashioned recurve bow. This whole concept I was what I had in mind from the beginning.

The execution part of it was a mess tho 😅

It was definitely a learning process, but I think it gave me a better understanding of how I should tackle backgrounds from now on. They've always been a struggle for me, but I'd love to try this piece again and fix some things.

Hopefully you guys like it for what it was because this did take me a lot of time and a lot of trial and error. The actual zine never got published though and I still think this piece is worth sharing.

[m--rtyr]

One of the cooler things about your AU is the fact that is seems to have been a Mech Scifi Fantasy First that over the generations and years turned cyberpunk dystopia.

From my understanding, is seems that the Divine Warriors were all mech suit operators who fought their big bad and now their mechs are used as parts for the now flesh and steel cybernetics. That is a very cool and incredibly smart concept. (Weirdly kinda makes me think of the Divine Warriors as a Voltron esc group)

Now, heres a question. Does this take place in space and the mechs are used for interplanetary travel and fights or is this all on a single planet like earth? Cause mechs always make me think of space.

Mechs always make me think of the ocean and I blame Pacific Rim. I’ve never watched them properly, don’t know what they’re about, pretty sure there’s at least one scene of a mech in water.

Anyways!

I’m not sure if I want it to be planetary or inter-planetary. I know O’Khasis is the main city, with different areas of it and towns outside, but do I then make Ru’Aun the planet? Have Tu’La be another planet they’re in close proximity to, and at war with? Have the Enki Warrior Island be a moon of Gal’Ruk?

But if it’s all on one planet like canon then places like Tu’La would just be different countries. Which means I don’t have to figure out space travel technicalities, even though I kind of want to.

I’ve not ironed that part out yet.

But thanks for the compliment for my Mech -> cybernetics lore. Whilst a lot of cybernetic parts aren’t directly harvested from mechs anymore, there’s only so much metal to go around, you can definitely tell which mech designs someone used for their parts. Obviously the Ro’Meave company uses the Matron designs commercially and the Protector designs for the family, but the SKs are Destroyer-inspired, Scholars tend to privately commission Keeper-patterned parts, and so on. Not only for the symbolism of it, but the functions too. Like Destroyer and Protector designs tend to be bulkier, with Protector designs being sleeker and more durable, whilst destroyer designs are, well, more destructive and jagged. You get the idea.