#Also every major story beat is FASCINATING | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

nights-at-crystarium · 3 months ago

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i just wanted to pop by and gush about how incredibly well written vivi is because GOD. his story unfolding has made me reconsider several story beats about my wol and thats an amazing thing

theres two things that i think uve done especially well with his storytelling, being that vivi feels like an almost complete enigma to the reader, despite how intimate this story is, and the fact that vivi feels incredibly human - almost TOO human to be comfortable with

so to elaborate on the first point - i think a lot of us (and certainly i can) echo thancreds sentiment that he doesn't know vivian rell, because as intimate as this story can get with his pov, in the end, much like someone you'd meet in real life, we don't know much about him before the point we meet him, and any glimpses we get just signal that theres so much more to him than we get to see. and as much as we DO know about him, i find that every time he does one of his blank, furrowed stares that signal he's thinking something, my brain practically lights on fire trying to figure out what he's considering. to that end i really like how enigmatic uve made him from a storytelling perspective, because it makes him feel so much more real!!! i honestly look forward a lot to learning more fragments (heh) of him and slowly piecing together a puzzle of him as the story goes on. i just want to rotate him in my head lol

but also, this does segue into my other point really well, which is the fact that vivis position as wol really seems to wear on him, and he seems for lack of a better word, completely exhausted! i know (myself included) write their wols with a trait of an almost unbreakable, iron will, which is very much still true in vivis case (again, anyone who gets to the point of shadowbringers without flat out giving up is incredibly strong by default) but showing him at his wits end, exhausted with the burdens of a hero, someone just so throughly *done* with what is, realistically, a pretty shit job is well... yeah! of course he is! he's only human, and he's what, saved the world 3 times now? seen countless die before him, powerless to save them, of course he's numb. the fact that the most defining experiences of the first for him are filled with mostly such... benign experiences, and that the major, climatic moments of shadowbringers get as much fanfare as a forlong gaze, or a like. him hanging out with his fairy bestie is such a cool storytelling decision. (also before i ramble about this the decision to not even show tesleen is such an excellent decision bc like. it makes sense for him for this to not be such a significant moment. shes just another death, another tally to the thousands hes already seen. or maybe im reading WAYYY too hard into a decision to not highjack this love story with plot) basically, what i've been gushing about is the fact that vivi feels very much like a whole person, and is probably one of the most well realised wols ive ever read about. and his relationships with the world leaders, and this impossible burden hes forced to shoulder has gotten me to reconsider how i write my wol, because yeah! any hero might be strong-willed and resilient, but theyre still human, and the burden of a warrior of light is maybe, a little too much for anyone to bear.

i hope u could at least make something out of my rambles, but honestly to sum it all up i am incredibly captivated by vivi. i originally read fragments because i like ANY wolgraha content but now, i come back almost exclusively to see how vivi's story unfolds, and how graha eventually comes into the fold too. hes such a fascinating character, and i think youve done an incredible job of creating a well rounded hero, full of humanity!!! (also, if you want, feel free to post this on ur blog!!)

I think I shat myself like 5 times while reading this (positive)

Vivi being an enigma wasn't really part of the plan. We have a pool that's his lore, things I wanna tell, and a bottleneck through which it has to go. The comic format forces me to consider what bits of info to deliver when, there's only so much I can tell at a time. One deliberate choice I made is completely burn the bridge between ARR and ShB, skip, leave it empty. That already sparks questions when we see a different Vivi at the beginning of ShB (and gives me leeway, time to write with more nuance, I didn't Think about HW-SB in such scrupulous detail as ShB).

I wanted to tell a primarily ShB story from the start, but had less ambition, and planned to condense the angsty bits that you're reading nowadays into an infodump told by Vivi to no one (to the reader). Changing the receiving party to a tangible character who's eager to learn (Exarch) made the info easier to digest and anchored it in the world. This change, fwiw, happened in like 2022 while I drew the ARR arc, saw the warm reception, and got more excited about my thing. I constantly learn and try to improve, writing's a new toy that brings me tons of fun.

So, when I learned the new trick - telling things through other characters - I thought, why not make everyone slightly wrong, or rather, with a specific snapshot of Vivi in their head. Same happens irl, people only know the version of you that they're exposed to, the only person who knows the full and real you is you.

That brings me to the next point, why Vivi feels so human: I made him not as a wol/hero, but a guy I wanna ship with Exarch, his foil. Obligatory note it was dumb of me to ignore Emet's existence in that case, but that's already changed. Exarch denies himself the simple human joys, he plots his own fucking death, so I thought I'd give him a guy that teaches him how to enjoy being alive again. That was THE foundation of Vivi, his core. He's a manic pixie dream boy.

Then I started asking how and why: why he falls for Exarch specifically instead of ARRRaha? He's confident, selfish, casual (these traits are what Exarch lacks), emotionally intelligent, where did that come from? He must've had an utterly normal life and loving family before he became a hero. He grew up being appreciated and happy. OH, then his ass must LOATHE the current situation because he can't go back to that normal life! So on, so forth.

i find that every time he does one of his blank, furrowed stares that signal he's thinking something, my brain practically lights on fire trying to figure out what he's considering.

This's me carefully dropping the breadcrumbs and hoping that you notice them, and you go HOLY SHIT BREADCRUMBS, this's so validating ;w; <3 This's overtly called a story hook, though I prefer "door". So far this story's only opened doors, as in hinted at more stuff without immediately showing it. I love it when questions get delayed answers, when you get time to stew on it and build up anticipation, then, when the door finally closes, it's much more satisfying. I keep in mind all the doors I've opened, if something provokes a question, it's by design.

(also before i ramble about this the decision to not even show tesleen is such an excellent decision bc like. it makes sense for him for this to not be such a significant moment. shes just another death, another tally to the thousands hes already seen. or maybe im reading WAYYY too hard into a decision to not highjack this love story with plot)

You're 100% correct!! I'm not retelling the canon ShB story from a default wol pov, this's a custom thing focused on ships, therefore anything that doesn't contribute to said ships gets cut. You may read what's NOT shown as what Vivi doesn't pay attention to.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me, this gave me so much motivation like you wouldn't know ;//////;

#with your help i wrote The Official Vivi Post it seems #vivien rell #replies #fragments feedback #fragments talk #text post

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jennrypan · 6 months ago

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Let's go down the line of fuckassary: LONG ASS POST AHEAD.

1: Gaia looked and acted like everyone else. She should've been WAY angrier, she should be pissed at Persephone for bringing about winter first of all. Should be pissed that she was a sleep and NOTHING got better over the centuries. But sure, she's giggling and happy.

(I liked that she shoved her hand in Ouranos' chest tho.)

2: It's soo funny that people keep SAYING that Persephone and Hades have true love but the comic hasn't showed us that ever 🤨, like if anything those two losers are obsessed with each other. Be so fr.

3: Once again..this should be Persephones story/POV but its in Hades' always. Fascinating.

4: "You have to spend 3 months away from your sugar daddy" OH NOOOO BUT WEVE BEEN APART FOR SO LONGB 🥺. God. At this point does she even NEED to be in the Mortal Realm fr?? Like..Demeter, Metis and Rhea are back now so..what's her purpose there.

5: The way Gaia just isn't. Gaia is baffling. Anyways. Demeter FINALLY found out what happened to Persephone but she's not..having a moment with her daughter?? Not talking to her about it?? Okay.

6: As usual. They're eager to have sex cuz that's the only thing they do. "I can't wait to see that ass--" ..how very Zeus and Posedion of you quote on quote romantic 🤨

7: She gets her coronation but..didn't she already have that when she married Hades?? Ig not then. Also..Apollo just got a slap on the wrist, not surprising.

DEMETER GOT PUNISHED MORE THAN HIM??? Hell the Titans got punished more than that bitch what the fuck??? God.

8: The disrespect to Zeus is so. 😶 Zeus would literally not sit back quietly for this shit the fuck??? Also..Hera didn't divorce Zeus all those years and now she did ?? And she's what..gonna get with Echo now??? Fascinating. Zeus needs to start tossing rocks. Rachel did Zeus and Heras relationship so fucking DIRTY!!!! GOD!! FUCKING DAMMIT. I hate how she wrote them. Anyways.

9: The Mortal Realm is a lot easier cuz Hades is there?? YOU WERE BORN THERE!!! ITS YOUR HOME!! You ungrateful ass spawn. It wasn't that fun cuz you didn't have a man there?? Insane.

10: The way Persephone clearly doesn't love her own mother is sickening actually. Like..we can't even have them talking to each other?? Dancing?? Even the comment about her doesn't have that much emotion. Also..Dionysus' hair looks goofy, and I guess Hades is all for bringing back mortals now despite making a big stink about it in season 1 but whatever. Yay Semele.

11: "hera just gives him busy work" ..He's literally the king. Literally-- oh my god. "His powers having been the same" which..MEANS WHAT?? And the way Zeus would literally not be happy about this shit is so-- UGH. God it's infuriating. Hades and Posedion clearly don't give a shit about their brother if they aren't concerned about his fucking powers 'not being same'??? Die.

12: Echo needs to stand SEVERAL feet away from Hera. That ship is so god damn tasteless and unnecessary. If you're gonna give hera a new love interest. Maybe give them actual moments?? Make it make sense!!

13: "Ares is still a dog!" *cue laugh track sound*, god this is so..why ?? Ares, baby I'm so sorry people keep disrespecting you in every iteration 🤦‍♀️

14: ignoring the Artemis bit cuz she wasn't relevant for any of the major plots and she still isn't. Anyways. Hades stay the FUCK away from Thanatos. "They can have conversations" oh?? How fascinating. Hades just NOW deciding to care about Thanatos doesn't make up for years of his neglect.

15: Persephone, Ares and Aphrodite should beat Eros' ass for being useless about Apollo. I still think that. Eros is an ass of a friend.

16: 'new powers' ..Girl your powers are basically your old powers with one extra step. Shut UP!!! anyways. (No one cares about kassandra, sorry not sorry. Who was worried about that )

17: Hades and Persephones millionth drabble of nonsense fluff. They're not saying anything new, nor are they doing anything new. I do like the art tho. It's just..baffling how..they're relationship started soo much nonsense and we're suppose to see it as a good thing??

THIS is a good ending??

Nevermind the fact Persephone didn't spend time with her friends or her MOTHER, nevermind the fact Zeus and Posedion don't even get to speak to their mother either.

Hera, Hestia and Demeter don't have a moment with Metis either.

Like..what was the point of bringing them back if you weren't gonna bring it to a satisfying conclusion?? Absolutely insane

Also..Eileithyias design is ass. It's sooo boring. It's literally just pilot Hebe but darker. Oh wow she's yellow with purple eyes??? Insidious. Also she just looks boring and bland to be the daughter of the literal king and queen but sure. Give us nothing.

And..again with making the children boring copies of one specific parent! Macaria is so..boring to look at just like Melinoe. Also...hades can..have kids now?? 🤨 okay.

So basically..this was insane from start to finish.

This wasn't a good conclusion. It was absolutely a wreck.

#lo critical #j.p speaks #anti lore olympus #anti lo

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dragonomatopoeia · 11 months ago

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Air's Bizarre Christmas Rom-Com Reclist

I am a fan of Romance Media, but even more importantly, a fan of mediocre art. As such, I have watched a lot of christmas romcoms. I have in fact watched Too Many christmas romcoms. While freelancing between jobs, I would put them on in the background as mindless noise to keep me company while writing copy.

This means that I am uniquely positioned to create a rec list of christmas rom-coms that meet a very specific set of criteria:

Is the movie interesting enough to make me actually Watch it instead of half-listening to it in the background?

Are elements of the plot bizarre enough to make me yell "WHAT" at the screen?

Would I rewatch the movie in the company of friends?

Any movie that fulfills all three of these criteria is eligible to join those privileged few, the elite ranks of My Christmas Rom-Com Rec List

A Chance for Christmas (2021)

Synopsis: "Influencer Christina Chance gets the opportunity of a lifetime: a lucrative sponsorship from the brand of her dreams. However, she soon discovers she's stuck in a time warp where the same Christmas Eve repeats itself over and over again." Commentary: This is a Tubi original, and it lives up to all the mess that status bestows. That established, my favorite parts of this movie are that the main character and love interest have the same kind of obsessive, perfection-driven marketing brain poison that lead them to try to min-max a time loop and learn zero lessons for the vast majority of the movie. There's a kind of frenetic, self-absorbed energy to each of the characters that's fascinating to watch. At one point the main character attacks a man dressed like Santa in an act of misdirected rage, and the love interest holds her concerned family back while yelling "SHE NEEDS THIS LET HER GO SHE NEEDS THIS". Also, the kids are actual characters with inner lives instead of props! There are structural issues with the movie, and in my perfect world, the protagonist would quit her influencer job, but overall, I enjoyed it.

A Christmas Movie Christmas (2019)

Synopsis: "A Christmas movie fanatic and her cynical sister wake up to find they are now the stars of a Christmas movie." Commentary: I have a soft place in my heart for scripts written by actors who have been trapped in this Christmas purgatory for years. There's a certain sensitivity to The Way Words Work that is nonexistent in most of these films. Especially since this industry relies on Never Retaking Any Line Read Ever because these movies are basically made on an assembly line. That is to say, this movie is a love letter and a list of grievances wrapped together in a metatextual bow. All of its jabs at the genre feel like they come from a place of familiarity rather than scorn, and the actors are obviously having fun. Line deliveries and elements of blocking feel like they have actual character work put into them, and one of the love interests feels like a Christmas Homunculi with no understanding that a world other than snowglobes and sugar cookies exists. But on purpose this time! If he encountered a turtle flipped on its back, he'd start feeding it christmas cookies, and the movie is Very Aware of This. It's fun.

Baby It's Cold Inside (2021)

Synopsis: "When a travel agent up for a promotion is directed to forget her tropical vacation and instead visit the world-famous Ice Hotel, she discovers that her sacrifices are more than compensated." Commentary: I'll be honest. This one is mostly here because the editing choices made me feel like I was losing my mind. I ended up dragging my roommate down to the living room at multiple points so that they could witness the same thing I was seeing. The jarring cuts, dropped story beats, and lines that lead nowhere make for an unforgettable viewing experience... except for the part where I have forgotten literally every other element of the movie. Except for the inexplicably evil love rival who becomes niceys at the end. I like her. Girlboss. This isn't even the only Hallmark movie that was set at and filmed at Hôtel de Glace in 2021. Truly the most Hallmark movie on this list.

Christmas Perfection (2018)

Synopsis: "Darcy's been striving for the perfect Christmas since childhood; thanks to a magical figurine her dream finally comes true." Commentary: I have already written up my thoughts on Christmas Perfection in EXTENSIVE detail here. Needless to say, I watch it every year. What a fascinating text. What an odd timeloop. It should have been gay.

Snowmance (2017)

Synopsis: "Each year Sarah builds her "Snow Beau" snowman with her best friend Nick. After another breakup, she begins to wonder if she'll ever find her own true love. A little Christmas magic brings her Snow Beau to life." Commentary: I cannot believe the snowman actually came to life. The snowman came to life and he's not even the primary love interest. Nick sucks in a normal possessive childhood friend love interest way, fuck Nick, everyone hates Nick, sure, but THE SNOWMAN CAME TO LIFE? THE SNOWMAN CAME TO LIFE AND HE TRIES TO SELL THE PROTAGONIST'S HOUSE!!!!! SHE LIVES THERE!!!!! This movie made me scream out loud multiple times. It is not good. Please watch it.

Timeless Love (2019)

Synopsis: "Megan wakes up from a coma in a hospital. The husband and 2 kids she just dreamed about aren't real. At her first job interview, she meets Thomas from her dream - or was it a vision years into the future?" Commentary: Listen to me. Listen. The establishing scenes of this movie are played completely straight. For the first chunk of the movie, it feels like this is going to be a dramatic, serious movie in a way that Hallmark Christmas Romcoms fundamentally are not, which makes it EVEN WEIRDER when it suddenly pivots into your classic nonsense. It entrances me. Who let this happen? Why is the medical professional who is assigned to help Megan with the trauma of losing her coma-construct family and recover from being in a literal coma cartoonishly evil? Why was the information Megan obtained from the coma dream accurate to real life? Why is she suddenly okay with losing her coma children as soon as she found the real-world version of her coma-husband? What a fascinating text. I have no clue what to do with it. But maybe you do. I'm folding it into your hands. Whatever happens next is your decision

#rec list #christmas #christmas ment #i didn't put the netflix movies on here everyone knows about those and they're trying too hard to be weird #where's the naive camp i ask you

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roseforthethorns · 1 year ago

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My listening to @re-dracula has been a fascinating experience. Initially, I kept up pretty well, basically through the first main arc of the story.

Then I didn’t listen to any podcasts for about 2 months. Dunno why, just took a break. (And possibly was far more emotionally distraught with my good friend Jonathan’s cliffhanger that, even knowing the story, I couldn’t bring myself to continue right away).

So I spent 2 separate chunks of time this month getting caught up: first right before Lucy’s final rally, and the second today, so that I’m current and can celebrate “Vamp Team Unite” Day.

The absolute horror of the story is so much more powerful in chronological order. And then adding in the voices- my heart utterly broke for Arthur in a way it hadn’t in previous readings of the text (I also had the privilege to teach it for 2 years at my last school). It puts the speed of everything in perspective when you have the daily sense of it in your own life.

And knowing what comes in just a few days… I dunno if I’m ready or if any of us is.

I’ve said in my discussions about Dracula that it’s no coincidence that Arthur inherits his title before Lucy’s demise. Lord Godalming- so close to “God Almighty.” It’s very fitting for someone who has to then go up against the undead, the only one who can put his true love’s soul to rest. It fits too with Seward’s description of Arthur in the moment of the staking.

Mina’s importance can’t be overstated. She figures out so much, and helps facilitate their plans because she realizes how important even the smallest details are in this story, how clearly the evidence lines up and corroborates Van Helsing’s accounts and knowledge of Dracula. I dunno if I’ve ever felt this terrified approaching the next major story beat before. For all their talk of keeping each other in the light, they immediately begin to hide knowledge that could prevent even more pain. Tho, I suppose that’s part of the horror, isn’t it?

Also, can I just say, the sound design and the dialogue editing and every single performance: absofuckinglutely bravo to every single person working on this project.

#re dracula #audio drama #Dracula daily #getting caught up #thoughts on the podcast #what a gift to have this year #I’m such a lit nerd #Dracula

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the-bitter-ocean · 5 months ago

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oceaaaannn hiii! let's go with 3, 5, and 15 for the isat ask game c:

(MAJOR A6SE / 2HATS SPOILERS + FULL GAME SPOILERS AHOY) Thank you for the questions @dekupalace ! Since I’m going to be talking more in depth about the game for one of these questions I’m going to put my responses under a read more:

3- favorite soundtrack?

Oh god that’s such a hard question the whole game has certified bangers. The musicians at Studio Thumpy Puppy were not messing around or pulling any punches. The soundtrack of the game elevates literally every emotional beat. If I was forced to choose only one song out of the soundtrack my favorite track in the whole game has to be “How Can You Help Me, Stardust?” aka the theme that plays when you fight Loop at the Favor tree during act six. Hearing that for the first time while getting the full context of loop’s backstory made me go crazy. It was so fucking emotional and well done. That and it’s just objectively a super intense high energy song that makes me wanna dance around. If anyone deserves the coolest fight theme in the game, it’s Loop.

5- favorite optional event?

Ooh this is also a hard one! I adore a lot of the optional story events because each of them really shed light on Siffrin’s mental state /characterization, as well as gives depth to other aspects like the other character of the world building as a whole which strengthens the themes of the story. Aside from the obvious choice (2Hats Ending/ Act six loop encounter) I think my favorite optional event would have to be the “Who Was Phone” achievement (Change God event). There’s something so fascinating about learning about the Change God. Someone who clearly adores their certified little guy (Mirabelle) and is willing to offer words of kindness and assurance in her identity even if it knows she won’t remember in one instance..and then in the very same breath tell Siffrin that they enjoy watching Siffrin in the timeloop torment nexus because they’re curious to see how they change in a situation where everything is forced to stagnate. It was so genuinely fucked. I will think about it always forever.

15- anything you’d change about the game? be it game mechanics, a new feature, a change in plot, etc

Overall I’m pretty satisfied with the game both in story and gameplay actually. I think Adrienne did a good job writing and expanding on the characters and story that was set up in the prologue. The quality of life in terms of gameplay got improved since the previous game as well ( those who played the prologue can attest to this) . The fact that it was a in universe story reason as to why makes it all the more satisfying (if you want to know what I mean by that please read my mutuals @felikatze analysis about it here.)

I just am happy that Siffrin got to be happy in the end and stay with their family, to be able to talk things out and escape the loops. I know some people didn’t like that or expected a more darker/sadder ending or wanted the gameplay to be more challenging … my response to that is Literally Just Play Start Again: A Prologue. To me it would be extremely reductive to have Siffrin just suffer with no reprieve or escape from the loops (because that’s just a repeat of what happened in its predecessor) or have the group just split off from each other immediately after everything happened. It would have been extremely unsatisfying and ultimately missing the point of the themes of the game as a whole gonna be real lol.

The only things I’d maybe change or add is like it would’ve been cute to see Euphrasie and Claude be together/ reunite on screen in act 6. They should kiss. Lol. (That and just I would’ve personally loved to see Euphrasie in canon expanded on a little more but that’s not necessarily needed she serves her purpose in the narrative. I just like analyzing her and giving her more depth and I like when others do too, but that’s what fanart/ fics and aus are for so I’m not fussed.)

I don’t mind that the game is sort of open ended and doesn’t answer all the questions. I think that gives artists, fanfic writers, Au makers and people who like to analyze the game more freedom to come up with their own interpretations for things that happened in pre canon and post canon which to me is more interesting. I know Loop disappearing at the end of the game in both endings is sad/ bittersweet but I wouldn’t necessarily change the way that was structured either. I like that their fate was ambiguous because it leads the viewer to come up with their own theories as to where they went. ( personally I love seeing stuff where loop gets to travel on their own and form a new life and identity outside of the loops and learn to heal, as well as post game getting to meet back up with the party and learn to navigate this new life/ change one step at a time. )

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walkswithmyfather · 8 months ago

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This is fascinating! By Stefan Hager (FB)

“We currently have 5,800 plus Greek New Testaments manuscripts, 10,000 plus Latin manuscripts, and 9,300 plus manuscripts in various languages). if we were to stack the manuscripts we have found today it would reach more than a mile high). Beating all other historical records of the ancient world. for example, no one doubts the historical person “Homer” as we have 1.800 plus manuscripts of his life, yet we have 25,000 plus manuscripts of the life of Jesus, and that doesn’t include secular sources). And considering that the earliest copies of the New Testament are written within 25 years after the death of Jesus, but the earliest copies of Homers works are written 400 years after the death of Homer. Jesus is the gold standard for historians. If we’re going to doubt Jesus. We might as well doubt all ancient history.

Comparing these manuscripts we find that the teaching, stories, doctrines of the bible are all surprisingly the same. reading a bible in English vs reading a bible in Russian. It may be worded differently but you get the same story/biblical doctrine).

Tho no one manuscript is perfect. Through the centuries, minor differences arose in the various copies of the Scriptures. The vast majority of these differences are simple spelling variants, inverted words (one manuscript says “Christ Jesus” while another says “Jesus Christ” or different ways people have spelled names). or an easily identified missing word. In short, over 99 percent of the biblical text is not questioned. Of the less than 1 percent of the text that is in question, no doctrinal teaching or command is jeopardized. In other words, the copies of the Bible we have today are pure. The Bible has not been corrupted, altered, edited, revised, or tampered with.

“The early books of the bible” were so vastly copied and wide spread that if one group in Africa wanted to change any part, believers in Israel, Rome, Alexandria would have easily identified the change to the wide spread text/message.

This is also evidenced by the Dead Sea scrolls (large portions of Old Testament) which were found in 1947. These scrolls are dated 200BC. So Jesus would have those as scripture during his earthly time, and the content of those scrolls match. If we look at any bible in any chapter and we look at the Hebrew and the same chapter it’s going to read the same way we have today, now it is true there are variations in reading/wording or translation. Every book prior to the printing press has variations. The Quran has variations, The point is, variations don’t give you a different text, a different theology, a different meaning.

Here’s a scaled down example. using textual criticism and cross checking manuscripts. We can pretty much reconstruct what the original said. How does this work?.

Consider the following example. Suppose we have four different manuscripts that have different errors in the same verse, such as Philippians 4:13:

1.I can do all t#ings through Christ

2.I can do all th#ngs through Christ

3.I can do all thi#gs through Christ

4.I can do all thin#s through Christ

Is there any mystery of what the original said?. None whatsoever. By comparing and cross checking manuscripts. the original can be reconstructed with great accuracy and the reconstruction of the New Testament is easier than this, because there are far fewer errors in the actual New Testament manuscripts than there are represented by this example. Plus a vast amount of material to work with.

Any unbiased document scholar will agree that the Bible has been remarkably well-preserved over the centuries. Even many hardened skeptics and critics of the Bible admit that the Bible has been transmitted over the centuries far more accurately than any other ancient document.

There is absolutely no evidence that the Bible has been revised, edited, or tampered with in any systematic manner. No one group has ever had control over the biblical text. The sheer volume of biblical manuscripts makes it simple to recognize any attempt to distort God’s Word. There is no major doctrine of the Bible that is put in doubt as a result of the inconsequential differences among the manuscripts.

Ancient scribes often copied books letter by letter (one by one). not sentence by sentence. It was a long process but they assured Accuracy. And they would count the letters of the copies and count the letters of the original. if the original had 500 letters and the copy had 497 letters, they would destroy the copy and restart.”

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literary-illuminati · 1 year ago

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Book Review 53 – The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

This is the last novel I read exclusively and entirely because it was nominated for a Hugo, and is also the first thing of Scalzi’s I’ve ever touched. Not that I haven’t been, like, peripherally aware of him for a while, but until now I’ve never really felt compelled by any of the pitches I’ve heard for his stuff. Having now read this – yeah, I stand by that. It’s not a bad book, but it’s just very much brainless dumb popcorn fun. Also he’s got a few writing quirks I kind of despise.

The story is about exactly what it says on the tin – a former grad student who dropped out to join a startup and then got fired and ended up doing food delivery during COVID runs into an old acquaintance and is offered a mysterious but high paying job ‘lifting things’. The job turns out to be with the eponymous Kaiju Preservation Society – an NGO with bases on an alternate earth, studying the nuclear-powered leviathans that are somehow its natural apex predators and protecting them from poachers. From there the plot plays out as you’d expect – crash course training and being introduced to the world, making friends, near-misses studying the Kaiju, an asshole billionaire whose revealed to be the villain, breaking the rules and disobeying orders with those friends to save a Kaiju from the billionaire before she goes nuclear and wipes out half of Newfoundland, and so on. Like I said, brainless popcorn. The pacing would actually work very well adapted to a movie, I think – certainly the whole thing would do better with some visuals.

This is a very simple novel, clearly designed to be a comfort read rather than something you wrestle with. Everyone is exactly who they appear to be when they’re introduced, there’s no moral complexity or clever mysteries, the plot plays out beat for beat as you would expect it to. Cozy fantasy for people who like giant monsters and action scenes, I guess?

The tone is very jokey, in a very 2010s nerd culture kind of way? This is a book written about people who name the bases on the world full of 12-story kaiju after classic Godzilla movies, and for people who would do the same. Just about every sympathetic major character is a massive nerd of some variety, and this is very clearly a reason you’re supposed to relate to and like them. And the lampshading – the book knows its worldbuilding makes no sense, and it takes pains to point this out to you as you read it so you can laugh at it, again and again. Hell, it lampshades how much its lampshading, complete with a definition of the term that feels like it was read right off of TV Tropes. Others may find this endearing, for me it just grated intensely.

Lastly - so this isn’t a book about COVID, but it’s very clearly a pandemic novel. The non-Kaiju World parts will probably be a fascinating cultural artifact for undergrads a couple decades down the line. It’s got the housing crisis, the gig economy, ZIRP corporate phantasmagoria, COVID lockdowns, and all that’s before all the cultural references. Anyway, it wins a decent amount of goodwill from me by remembering the existence of all the people for whom ‘lockdown’ wasn’t really a thin because ‘essential worker’ was a shockingly broad category. Still, it’s all just backdrop that stuck out too me, not really the book’s actual subject.

Anyway yeah, I’m probably being a bit harsh – this was nominated for a Hugo? Really? - but the book’s fine. Inoffensive. Would make a great Disney movie.

#book review #sff #hugo nom #the kaiju preservation society #john scalzi

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ewanmitchellcrumbs · 3 months ago

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Silly but pls give us your ranking of Ewan’s characters? Either by performance or your personal enjoyment or whatever!

-🍍

Oooh, I like this question!

Osferth. My sweet baby monk. My first Ewan love. Osferth will always be my favourite. Osferth was a major character in Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories (until Bernard got old and forgot the character existed, so didn't feature him at all in the last couple of books lol) and I will never forgive the creators of The Last Kingdom for sidelining Osferth as much as they did. I truly believe that Ewan would have stuck around until the end of the series if Osferth had have been a more prominent character, and not just used for comedic relief (he doesn't die in the books!!) If I had a pound for every time Ewan's played a character where the TV show does not do the book counterpart any justice then I'd only have two pounds, but it's weird that it's happened twice.

2. Billy Washington. I could fix him, I know I could. But also I'm just obsessed with Vicky McClure. I've been in love with her since I first watched This is England, and I'm insanely envious of Ewan for getting to act alongside her. If I ever meet Ewan, I want to ask him what Vicky smells like.

3. Tom Bennett. This was peak Ewan, let's be honest. The hair, the face, the attitude. He really was the full package. Way too good for a series as awful as World on Fire.

4. Aemond Targaryen. People likely expect him to be higher on the list, and if he featured more prominently in the TV show then he probably would. I didn't care for Aemond's character at all in Fire and Blood. It was Ewan's performance of him in House of the Dragon that made me fall in love with Aemond. He brings such nuance and charisma to Aemond's personality and is truly captivating to watch. There's just not enough of him.

5. Billy Taylor. Ewan's London accent for Billy was god awful, but Billy is so adorable you can't help but love him. And he's the prettiest corpse I've ever seen. Honestly, if you've not watched The Halcyon, it's worth seeing it just to skip to the bit where Billy's laying there dead. He looks beautiful.

6. Ettore. He should be last, because he's awful, but Ettore served up so much shirtless goodness, and despite playing a very minor (and very nasty) character, there's so much mystery around his psyche and what makes him tick. I find him genuinely interesting.

7. Michael. Genius little weirdo. Again, I find him fascinating, but we just didn't get enough of him for him to feature higher on the list.

8. Genyen. Ewan looks so good with a buzzed head, but his screentime was minimal and not really worth watching for how terrible the series is.

9. Abraham. Grantchester as a series is terrible, Ewan's screentime was minimal and also they should not have cast him to play a person of Romani descent. Piss poor decision making from the writers that was wildly racist. If you want a community of travellers and can only be bothered to cast white people, then make them Irish travellers. Romani culture is not a gimmick.

I'm not featuring Will, simply because the character is only 17 and I find that a bit icky. Likewise, minor characters like Daniel, Jason, etc. are such small parts they aren't worth featuring (plus Jason helps to beat up a trans girl :()

#asked and answered #ewan mitchell #🍍 anon

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argisthebulwark · 7 months ago

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Ao3 20 Questions

thank you @kagedbird for the tag!! <3<3 i will tag some friends @daedrabait @miraakswhore @somethingscarlet13 @queerbashir if u wanna participate <3

How many works do you currently have on ao3? Currently 25. holy shit, i thought it was more than that lol

What's your total ao3 word count? 98,336. Used to be like 200k before i cleaned out some old works i didn't care for anymore.

What fandoms do you write for? Skyrim and Star Trek TOS & AOS

What are your top five fics by kudos? Sorry Lass, Make Me Feel Mortal, Don't Shut Me Out, Fascinating, and Destroy Rebuild

Do you respond to comments? Sometimes! Honestly it depends on whether or not i'm online and see them. if i don't respond right away it feels rude to respond weeks after the fact, but for repeat commenters or usernames i recognize i try to!

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Idk i used to like to emotionally beat up Jim a lot, so probably one of the short stories where i explore all his traumas

What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Probably Sorry, Lass. I originally wrote it in 2015 and i'm fairly certain it ends with a mushy marriage scene.

Do you get hate on fics? Surprisingly, no. I think i got a few rude comments back when i first started, but honestly everyone's been too kind to me.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Hell yeah brother that's what i do!! I love angsty, emotionally charged smut. my personal favorite to write is angry, hatefuck type of stuff. or when they're using it to avoid talking about feelings.

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? Not that i've ever posted lmao. I don't usually post non canon compliant fics for whatever fandom i'm working in.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Kinda. a few years ago someone let me know that my work had been reposted to a fic site i don't use and one quick message got them to take it down. Also, i once posted a fic as a one off, forgot that i'd done that, and used the same scene much later in a larger story - and some nice commenter on the original let me know that someone had stolen my idea lmao

Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope, never had anyone request that and don't want to do so incorrectly.

Have you ever cowritten a fic? Kind of? an old friend and i used to write separate chapters of our self insert marvel fics and mush them together into one story lol. never posted it anywhere, it was just shared emails and google docs.

What's your all time favorite ship? God, that's hard. probably McKirk. as i've gotten older and unlearned all the internal shame about self inserts it's gotten easier to do a self insert story instead of an established pair.

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Every few weeks i pluck away at my regency au Miraak fic. i don't think i'll ever actually finish it because it's just so big in my head it's hard to get on paper, but i hope i do someday.

What are your writing strengths? I'm very comfortable writing sex scenes. I think that often when the author is uncomfortable about writing explicit sex the reader can really feel it in the story and i put in a lot of work to get over those mental hurdles. i've been told i'm good at characterization, which is awesome! i love getting in a character's head!

What are your writing weaknesses? Very often i find myself bogged down with the need to describe every little scene. it's a major reason i haven't posted a longfic in a while - i want to write these big stories but find myself getting lost in the little details. i also have a terrible habit of editing myself while i'm writing, which just gets me stuck in an unproductive loop.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? Since i'm only fluent in English, this isn't something i am confident in. i've written in a few fictional languages for fics before but would probably reach out or suggest another author if a reader wanted something that heavily involved this.

First fandom you wrote for? Twilight babey!!! self insert oc to smooch Edward Cullen when i was a little middle schooler!!! i didn't know what fanfiction was but i knew i had a big ol crush on him.

Favorite fic you've written? not to be cringe on main, but most of my favorites are things that never got published. they're the little things still hanging out in my google docs that i go back to over and over. i rewrote all of star trek into darkness word for word just to make bones and jim kiss, i made a self insert just to smooch skurge after hyperfixating on thor ragnarok, and the weird time a few months ago where i wrote like 40k words of a cowboy romance. i read them often and wish that i'd written more on many of them but i do not read my published works.

thanks to anyone who read my rambling lmao. love you all sososo much, thank you for reading my silly little stories and caring about them. <3<3<3

#tag games #beloved mutuals

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princedetectives · 1 year ago

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nanako is one of the most well written characters in persona 4

⚠️ major spoilers for p4 up to its 7th dungeon in here (yes im talking to you kaylingo)

ive been thinking about nanako a lot over the past few days and, man, i feel like she doesn't get enough appreciation. she rivals akechi as my favorite persona character ever because of how precious she is, yes, but also because her writing is so perfect.

because, let's be honest, a lot of parts of this game aged poorly, especially in a modern lens. i could make a list. i have made a list actually which i give to my friends who start p4 to warn them (hi kaylingo!). you know, like the bathhouse scenes, the poor representation, the countless times the female characters are treated weirdly. the fat girl who only exists for fatphobic jokes. i could go on. nanako is not included in this.

in fact, nanako is one of the most compassionately written characters i've seen. she is just as important to the whole investigation team as she is to yu. she is never treated as a hassle to watch over. she's actively included in things they do. everyone is gentle with her (her very first social link where yosuke finds out her mom is dead and so softly apologizes, the little things like that). everyone loves nanako. that's so important, both for her and the story as a whole.

the justice arcana

nanako being the justice arcana is pretty baffling at first. the wiki says it's thanks to her deep care about right and wrong, but to me that's not as satisfying as:

nanako reflects everyone's sense of justice

this is clearest during Heaven: nanako's death is the reason the investigation team turns murderous, desperate to avenge her. nanako ends up in danger thanks to nametame's skewed messiah complex. nanako being in danger gives dojima the energy to launch a desperate attempt to finally catch the culprit and save her, wrecking and getting terribly injured in the process. importantly, nanako being in danger is what gets adachi panicked enough to slip up and reveal himself as the killer, thus allowing justice to finally catch up to him.

seeing her like this makes every character's actions much more fascinating. she doesn't deserve anything happening to her in the slightest. it's unfair and unjust. everyone knows this. what we see during Heaven is each character's attempts to save her, even nametame.

Heaven is my favorite dungeon in the game. in my book it even beats every palace in persona 5. everyone's love of nanako is stronger than ever in the most painful way. there's so much raw emotion and it's so well written the entire way through.

a few characters specifically stick out to me, like naoto, who chides themself for not figuring out nanako could be in danger sooner and being the person to initially suggest turning murderous against nametame.

teddie, who's so distraught over the injustice of nanako's death and his inability to keep the promise that gave him a place in the world that he loses all will to live. he can only live in the human world with her around, and she only comes back to consciousness upon hearing his voice.

and adachi, who, in an episode of the golden anime, is seen muttering to himself alone in the hospital pushing the blame of everything onto yu (episode 6, i told you, yu. the anime is usually really dinky but that episode is genuinely a masterpiece somehow.), which further proves his warped perception of justice. because he cares about her too. the anime proves that to him, yu took his place in the dojima family, and he's extremely bitter about it.

in conclusion

nanako's role as the collective little sister is so important. she helps everyone throughout their social links and brings out the sides of people that wouldn't be seen otherwise. before Heaven, each dungeon was fairly impersonal, saving people they hadn't met before, which drastically changes with her kidnapping.

nanako gives everyone the strength to solve the case. she's the light that guides them to the clues they've been looking for throughout the past 8 months. nanako is the justice arcana because, without her, the case goes unsolved, and it's all thanks to the love everyone has for her. she's the best depiction of anything like this i've ever seen.

#persona 4 #persona 4 spoilers #p4 #p4 spoilers #nanako dojima #talks

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zivliveblogsop · 4 months ago

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One Piece Reread Chapter 1: Romance Dawn

It's time to kick off our reread with the very first chapter, titled (by now, very famously) Romance Dawn.

(index | next)

The first thing that comes to mind as I open to the first page is, ironically, of adaptations - at this time, every major screen adaptation of One Piece (it remains to be seen how Wit Studio will play it) has made changes to the sequence of events in the beginning of the story, either postponing the flashback to later episodes (as in Toei's anime) or interspersing the events via flashbacks in the first few episodes (as in the Netflix show). No doubt there are pacing concerns, but I find I much prefer the manga's decision to have the story play out in its entirety before we join Luffy in the present - it allows us to get acquainted with his character, and we already feel attached to him as the journey begins. We know where he came from, and we're already looking forward to travelling with him in pursuit of his ambition.

(There's also just the fact that Romance Dawn is a solid introductory chapter - so much so that its structure can be found in a lot of other manga that came after it. Just look at the first chapter of Naruto, which is almost beat for beat.)

Regardless, we open on the iconic stage-setting of Roger's execution. I'm somewhat vindicated to see that I did remember correctly, the manga (the Viz English translation, at the very least) does specify the manner of execution as beheading. This is another detail that adaptations have shied away from, from what I've seen, at least - either by avoiding showing the actual moment of death (Toei) or changing it to stabbing, for some reason (Netflix). I feel like that takes away from a very strong visual of a man cut off mid-laugh. I would be curious to know if the original Japanese also alludes to beheading, or if it is a more general term for execution that's used.

We travel, then, to Windmill Village, where I'm drawn in by the description of the place:

"A small harbor village. One year ago, a pirate ship made the village its base. The wind blows from the east. And the village is at peace."

It definitely feels like the sort of quote that might come back around, perhaps at the very end.

Luffy is first introduced to us as "villager boy" Monkey D. Luffy. The Red-Hair Pirates are nonchalant about his holding a knife, and about his (somewhat ominous) declarations - it's clear that he's already somewhat famous to this, and they're all used to it. Not so used to it, of course, that they're not taken aback by him trying to take his eye out, but by the time the scene changes to the Partys Bar, they're all in high spirits, drinking to Luffy's courage and their voyage. Their familiarity is clear, as is the very early institution of some of the series' most recurrent themes.

From the very beginning, Luffy is drawn to good times, adventure, and, most importantly, freedom.

Interestingly, Shanks rejects his crew's estimation of the pirate's life, which carries fascinating implications for his character. Shanks is pigeonholed often as being relatively laid-back, and while it might often be true, in his first and most extended appearance, he's actually quite serious about instilling the dangers of life at sea.

For as often as he's playing jokes, he's got something to say that sounds incredibly cryptic in retrospect, given what we know at this point, and what we can reasonably infer. (Roger, what was it you said to him when you came back from Laugh Tale?)

Funnily enough, Luffy seems to have a lot of respect for Beckman - calling him by the very polite "Mr. First Mate" and listening fairly diligently to his explanation for Shanks' rejection (even if he rejects it, though even Beckman admits that Luffy may have a point). For all the ways that Luffy and Shanks are alike in somewhat-irreverent disposition, Luffy does respond well, in this case, to being taken seriously, having Shanks' reasoning explained to him, and being treated with the assumption that he's capable of understanding (put a tally on the "Luffy isn't as dumb as you think he is" chalkboard, and leave a lot of room, because I'm going to be harping on it the whole way through).

Shanks and Luffy's relationship rightfully gets a lot of press, but I think this interaction does a lot to show that there's a pretty solid bond between Luffy and Beckman as well. I almost feel like Beckman was primed to handle Luffy from having to wrangle Shanks for a living.

Makino is a character that fascinates me. What happens to leave a nineteen year old as the proprietress of a bar? How did she end up as the one looking after Luffy? I doubt we're likely to get answers, but if our suspicions about her baby pay off, maybe there's a chance.

Higuma arrives, and there is brilliant economy of storytelling in these few panels - Makino's alarm, Shanks eyeing the hand on the counter, poised to step in, and Luffy eating... what is that? This is actually the first panel in which the Gomu Gomu no Mi appears. I actually went back to the last panel Luffy was in to double-check, and he was eating a regular bread roll. It's a Looney Tunes-type cut that provides an almost hysterical, irreverent laugh without breaking the mounting tension of the sequence. It really is a brilliant early example of the series' tone.

Another sequence that I feel the adaptations have failed to capture is that of Higuma breaking the bottles - the breakage is fairly violent, you actually see Shanks struggling with indignity and anger for a moment before schooling himself, which makes the lecture about choosing when not to fight feel much more effective.

That said, Luffy answering Shanks' "where are you going?" with "to find a real role model" is hilarious. He was getting zingers in even as a little kid.

It's time, then, for the Red-Hair Pirates to discover that Luffy ate their Devil Fruit - one wonders whether they truly did just happen to swipe that one by chance, or if it was intentional, and bound for someone specific... regardless, I'm a big fan of the art in this panel. The tension of the moment is broken comedically a moment later, but there's a surprising amount of emotion packed into the gestures and the expressions here that very much pique my interest. Shanks, one of these days we'll figure out what's going on with you, but for now I can only wonder...

I notice that Luffy also calls other people in the village by their job titles - Mr. Fishmonger, Mr. Mayor. His characteristic bluntness follows, but it's a cute detail. I don't remember the habit persisting - I wonder if it was Ace's bad manners that led to him nicknaming everyone he meets in the future.

Shanks does this a few times within the chapter, which is interesting - a panel where his eyes will be in shadow, and he seems almost foreboding, followed by a panel where he's fully illuminated and seems his usual, much more approachable self. Whether it's simply foreshadowing the fact that he's much more of a heavy hitter than he passes himself off as, or if it's hinting at some deeper aspects of his nature, it's very intriguing.

And for another sequence that hasn't been touched in any adaptations, Shanks standing stock-still while Lucky blows a guy away point-blank, and then a couple pages later you get Beckman putting a cigarette out in another guy's eye. I really hope we get to see more of these guys in action soon.

We're all familiar with what happens next - this all started because Luffy, despite being all talk about the Red-Hair Pirates being cowards, told Higuma he was wrong when he said the same, Higuma takes Luffy out to sea, Shanks breaks out Conqueror's Haki hundreds of chapters ahead of its formal debut (and then uses the secret fourth medical Haki to prevent himself from dying in 90 seconds via exsanguination of the brachial and axillary arteries - or something. Don't worry about it).

Something very interesting happens in a lot of emotionally significant moments for Shanks - a lot of the time, Oda doesn't let us see his eyes.

Poor Luffy tries so hard to play up his bravado, but it's already apparent that he doesn't deal well with goodbyes. Still, the stage is set - and the feeling is mutual.

Ten years later, the now-17 year old Luffy makes quick work of the Lord of the Coast and sets out, musing about the things he'll need (any takers on that tenth crew member)?

To me, the funniest change in Luffy from his child self to his young adult self is undeniably the attained nonchalance with which he confronts the things that befall him. On an informed level, we know that this is a Luffy who's spent the last ten years or so fighting lions, tigers, and bears in the jungle, but on a meta level, it works well to affirm what Shanks said just a few pages ago - he says Luffy is a lot like he was when he was a kid, and now, this older Luffy faces things with the same lightheartedness that we saw Shanks very consciously choosing. The explicit parallel between Luffy and Shanks goes a long way to characterize them both, to inform us of the hidden depths of our hero and plant the idea from the get-go that there's more to him than what might be apparent on the surface.

But anyway, down the water-hole Luffy goes - next stop, Alvida.

#one piece #liveblogging #one piece liveblog #one piece manga #one piece color manga

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ellieellieoxenfree · 2 months ago

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So you can't complain no one's playing the choose violence ask game with you! I choose 6, 7, 16 and 22. You can pick a fandom for each, obviously. 🤣

6. which ship fans are the most annoying?

usually every major/main ship in a fandom. i like a main pairing maybe 5% of the time because i’m usually relegated to side character and secondary pairing hell. doesn’t matter if the ship is canon or headcanon, there is an extreme likelihood that i will hate it. i get lucky occasionally (a business proposal and kiseki scored on both main and secondary pairings) but it’s rare. i hated just about every main pairing in MCU fandom (god my sins are vast) and i hated 99% of flash ships — fuck westallen until i die, fuck harrisco — in favor of ghost ships and decades-spanning headcanons.

i also hate when people get snide about exclusively shipping queer ships. ‘oh all hetero ships are annoying, oh the straights aren’t okay’ maybe take five minutes to actually seek out well-written work rather than dismissing it all immediately. as a bi woman in a relationship with a cis guy, i do fucking take it personally when people harp about queer supremacy like a ton of gays aren’t their own special brand of dumpster fire. there’s plenty of well-done m/f media out there and there’s plenty of absolutely garbage-ass m/m or f/f ships and stories. none of it’s inherently good or inherently bad based on the genders of the partners involved.

and because i know you’re baiting me, yes, KP fans were the most annoying motherfuckers on the planet bc they would be deliberately obtuse about their own pairing’s flaws in order to tear down everyone else’s. the number of times i wanted to shout PHYSICIAN, HEAL THYSELF at people who looked at a narcissistic rapist and his kidnapped indentured servant as a model of a healthy relationship is beyond all measure. i don’t care if you ship the assholes, just stop acting like they were in any way, shape, or form a pair of functional adults. god knows those of us on the VP side weren’t exactly rocking the best moral high ground, but at least a lot of us acknowledged they were freak nasty disasters with the social skills of genie the feral child. the toxicity is the point! don’t sanitize it.

oh, and fuck people who think that harassing actors because the actor had the audacity to have a real-life relationship with someone who wasn’t their costar is acceptable behavior. i’m pretty live and let live about rpf until you start causing real-life consequences for people because you can’t let go of your delusions.

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

man, doug renetti from minx is a great example of this. i don’t hate the character in the show. he’s great (he’s fucking awful), he’s compelling, he’s a fucking dirtbag trainwreck and i love watching him. fandom is entirely incapable of discussing literally ANYTHING ELSE about the show in favor of beating off to jake johnson in his greasiest form. i tend to get itchy when people ignore 99% of the show just to spam the tag with the one mediocre uggo they crank their hog to.

i don’t hate him and hopefully never will because he’s perfect, but i also tend to get itchy when people ignore basically all of kiseki and just focus on ai di. like, i love him, too! character of all time! louis deserves a golden bell for that performance! but k4 as a whole deserves that golden bell and just because chen yi and zong yi and ze rui aren’t overtly flashy murder kittens doesn’t mean they’re not fascinating and compelling characters. it’s irrational, but it irritated me as a kiseki lifer to watch people sort of tourist-cruise through and coo over ai di for a week or two before forgetting the show entirely. SO MUCH garbage BL out there and 99% of this site slept on actual good BL. (on the other hand, do i want more people in the fandom? jesus, no. i’ll keep the rent-lowering 21-gun salute going hourly if i have to.)

generally, though, a character is doomed for me the second they become a tumblr fave. if i see a character’s face five times in one day they’re likely to hit my hate list. my tolerance for overexposure is almost none.

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

‘baby’ as a pet name, a/b/o (which makes me fucking puke — i cannot abide that it’s mainstream now), VP petplay, and an overreliance/need to make things porny. i’m no prude; i read it, i write it, and it’s not like i’m above seeking it out. but as someone who struggles with writing it, i wish it felt less necessary/expected to include. i also feel like a lot of shows use extra sex scenes to compensate for lazy/shitty writing, so rather than complement a narrative, it feels like it’s carrying the narrative instead. i like a good fuck scene as much as the next person, but when your simulated boning feels like a time-filler and not something that’s moving the story forward, you’re losing me fast.

i find a lot of enemies-to-lovers pretty poorly handled. not opposed to it, but a lot of people don’t do it well. i loathe miscommunication tropes. there can be exceptions if the characterization and context is strong enough, but it takes a skilled writer to pull that off. despise love triangles. i’m picky about AUs. i CANNOT STAND ‘love interest is rude because they secretly like their future partner.’ nothing will get me to throw the book across the room faster than an arrogant asshole who looks down their nose at their partner. i did not have a mr darcy phase at any point in my life. mr darcy and his ilk can eat paint chips. even watching a man get humbled by love is not enough to save that one for me. i read too much early/mid-2000s manga (this is a hot gimmick callout) to be able to deal with that shit anymore.

as a general rule, i am the cheese standing alone. i am unlikely to agree with a lot of the big/popular headcanons bc i’m contrary and i don’t like going along with the dictate of a handful of BNFs who handed the word down like they were giving the ten commandments to moses. the problem is that i have been in so many fandoms of various sizes over so many years that i have seen some of the worst human beings alive ruin the space for smaller/less popular voices. (and that’s a cassie claire callout. you were a cunt then and you’re a cunt now and even when you were ripping off every property you could get your grimy hands on, your writing was still unreadable OOC garbage.) so i tend to disregard whatever fandom is into in favor of being into my own weird little niche shit.

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

already answered :V

#'ellie these answers are hypocritical and contradictory' good #i want to keep it that way #asks

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anneapocalypse · 10 months ago

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Thoughts Before Endwalker

As I'm about to start Endwalker, I thought it was high time I actually write up some closing thoughts on Shadowbringers, and since I really haven't done this for any of the other expansions, this has turned into a general "thoughts so far" kind of post! And also long. This is not any kind of an essay, just a big long thoughts dump. Spoilers for everything through the end of the Shadowbringers patches.

And I trust I don't have to say this to my own followers at least, but just for the record: please do not tell me anything about Endwalker here, even if you think it's minor, even if you want to hint at something I'll like. I know very little and I'm looking forward to watching it all unfold.

How it started!

It's been a year and change since I started playing this game in the fall of 2022. I didn't actually expect to play very far (I only picked it up in the first place because I was helping a friend set it up! I swore I would never play an MMO! I hated multiplayer games!) and I certainly didn't ever expect to get as deep into it as I have! ARR is very handholdy for new players, which was exactly what I needed to enjoy playing and keep playing. I love the story and the characters and the world and while I do enjoy the solo aspects of the game very much, I've also ended up really actively enjoying playing with other people! I enjoy dungeons. I enjoy raids. I run roulettes more or less every day. Free Company life hasn't always been smooth sailing (long story I won't get into here), but it's also brought me a lot of fun times and some new friends, as well as seeing me step into an active leadership role and not hate it. Who am I? 😂 I don't know! It's not that I've never tried to step out of my comfort zone before when it comes to games and hobbies, it's just that most of those experiences haven't been good and I've ultimately walked away from them. I don't know why this has been different, but it has. It's challenged me to tackle and let go of a lot of old insecurities, which I'm glad for (and grateful to friends who've been patient with me along the way). It's also just been a really good time, and continues to be.

How it's gone! (ARR through Stormblood)

So here I am, in 2024, about to start the last current expansion! Shadowbringers is easily my favorite expansion thus far, but I have really enjoyed the whole ride.

I enjoyed all of ARR, because while I don't think it has the strongest writing and certainly not the strongest characterization, it's really more a very long introduction to the world and its major players and conflicts, and while slow-moving, it does serve that function, and for someone brand-new to MMOs like me, slow was okay. It gave me time to get my bearings and learn the game.

I did really love Heavensward. It hits on several aspects of Fantasy Politics that I enjoy (generations-long war, class politics, structural reform), and postwar Ishgard, while maybe still a little rosy, still doesn't shy away from the growing pains of social change. Also the dragons were cool. I loved Haurchefant a lot, and was heartbroken by his death even as I knew it was coming; I also wouldn't change it. I think his death was meaningful and the natural culmination of his character. A Knight lives to serve. I think Haurchefant was always going to go out sacrificing himself for someone else. If it hadn't been the Vault, it would have been somewhere else. He was a delight and I miss him dearly, but it was a good narrative beat and one I wouldn't change.

Ysayle, on the other hand, I really don't think needed to die. She undergoes a fascinating character arc in Heavensward which I think the writing really drops the ball on at the end. Ideally, I think Ysayle coming to terms with her missteps while continuing to fight for what she believes in would be fantastic. She could have been a meaningful figure in Ishgard's reforms, and she would have made a great Scion. Her death also simply isn't treated with the same reverence as Haurchefant's, and I think that's sad. Heavensward has a bit of a Women Problem, in that it really doesn't give us a lot of female characters who are central to the plot, in contrast to a lot of great and memorable male characters. And the one who is most central dies with a lot less fanfare than WoL BFF Haurchefant. (And I'm not knocking Haurchefant, whom I love dearly, or Aymeric or Estinien! The imbalance is just very noticeable and I wish it wasn't so.)

Stormblood tends to get a bad rap among FFXIV's expansions. It's so common to hear people say it's their least favorite, it wasn't as good as Heavensward, etc. It came up recently in a server I'm in, where a newer player said they were having a bit of content fatigue after Heavensward, and having heard that Stormblood wasn't very good, they were considering buying a story skip. Other responses were, not outright negative, but mostly lukewarm, and I felt like I was the only one who really came out for Stormblood's story. First of all, I don't agree that it's not as good as Heavensward! I grant you that not everyone is as enamored of Fantasy Politics as I am, but as mentioned above, Heavensward is also very political, so I don't really think that's the big difference. Stormblood is maybe a bit grittier in its depiction of war, and that's something I like about it; it's really about the horrors of imperialism and the cost of resistance, and it doesn't pull its punches on that.

Ironically where it does pull its punches is with character deaths, heroes and villains alike. It does feel a little like someone thought they might have hit us too hard in Heavensward, given that we haven't had a lot of major character deaths stick since. I'm not complaining about Gosetsu's return, as I liked him very much and was very happy he lived. I will grumble a little about Zenos, though I'll go easy because I know a lot of people like him. 😛 He just doesn't do much for me. Yotsuyu was a great villain, and I was really dubious when they brought her back, but was pleasantly surprised with how her story ended, to the point that I'm willing to eat a lot of what I said about memory loss as a plot device. They did well with it, and her ultimate death did feel appropriate. Yotsuyu was never going to have a redemption arc, because she didn't want to be redeemed.

It was very refreshing in Stormblood to have more female characters taking essential roles in the plot. Colorism issues aside, I do really like Lyse as a character, and I also loved seeing Yugiri and Alisaie taking prominent roles, especially Alisaie who really hadn't gotten to be in the main plot much before. Rolling around with the three of them was a blast. Raubahn is also a favorite of mine, so seeing him play a major role in Ala Mhigo's liberation and get some character development was excellent. I'm happy that he's stayed involved with the Resistance in the time since.

I also just think Stormblood's new areas are absolutely beautiful. Kugane and the Azim Steppe are particular faves, but I just think they did a great job with the environments and I loved exploring them, including the underwater bits! Eorzea and Ishgard are so European-inspired, and I really enjoyed seeing Asian cultural influences in a fantasy setting. It is after all a Japanese game!

Just this week I finished the reconstruction of the Doman Enclave. As a player who's joined the game more recently, it's always bittersweet to learn about game elements that were temporal and are now lost to time, like the evolution of Mor Dhona during the ARR patches, or the Ishgardian Restoration in the Firmament. I can go hang out in the Firmament and craft and do fêtes and custom deliveries, but I'll never get to see the Firmament being built. It was done when I got there, which for me was after completing 3.3, very soon after completing the main story of Heavensward. The Doman Enclave goes in the other direction. It is a solo experience by necessity, but it's an experience that every new player can have: making their donations every week and watching the Enclave grow. Such things are always a trade-off for an MMO, but between the two, I would definitely choose the one that doesn't lock new players out of the experience.

And to give one last shout-out to Stormblood, I think it's pretty essential setup for what's happening when Shadowbringers begins. It's not just that the Scions are dropping like flies, it's that this is happening on the brink of a full-scale Garlean invasion. Said invasion is also critical to the bad future that G'raha is ultimately trying to prevent. The state and history of Garlemald is inextricably tied to the Ascians who are tied up in all of this. Stormblood is arguably more important to the events of Shadowbringers than Heavensward is, though Heavensward is also not unimportant, both with the continued presence of Estinien (reluctantly so if we believe him 😉), and with the involvement of Tiamat in the Shadowbringers patches. It's all connected!

How it's going! (Shadowbringers)

Urianger is, unsurprisingly, a big part of why I love Shadowbringers so much, as he gets some wonderful character development there and actually gets to be in the plot! But it's not only him—I like how character-driven Shadowbringers is overall, how much the major characters are driving the story and not merely reacting to events. ARR was largely driven by the world itself; the expansions are where the story starts to become character-driven. The driving forces of Heavensward's are much bigger than the main characters, but Haurchefant and Ysayle and Aymeric and Estinien bring a personal face to the conflict and a reason for us to be invested in it. Stormblood's emotional core is Lyse, Yugiri, Gosetsu, and their collective drive to liberate their homelands from Garlean occupation.

Shadowbringers, to me, really brought all of that home. It's not only character-driven but it brings a much more personal touch, I think, to the Scions themselves, with the major players being characters we've known since ARR but now get to know in a deeper way. I've always liked Y'shtola as a character but never felt I really connected with her, and Shadowbringers changed that, even as her story in Shadowbringers is in many ways about her isolation from the others, her (sometimes justified) mistrust and the way she closes herself off even to the people closest to her. Yet there is a deep caring beneath Y'shtola's prickliness as well, which we see in her leadership of the Night's Blessed, the new family she is willing to risk her life for. She's complex and difficult, sometimes angry and stubborn, and we all know I love that in a fictional woman. I really gained a deeper appreciation for her as a character here.

I've said my piece on Minfilia already, so I'll try not to repeat myself too much. I will say that Thancred is the main character I have the hardest time with in Shadowbringers. I appreciated the additional character development given to him at first, but as the story made Minfilia's death more and more all about him to the exclusion of everyone else, the more I started to kind of resent it. It really gets under my skin how he treats Ryne for like, the entire time until Minfilia Prime's final departure. The narrative kind of treats it like oh, he just has a hard time expressing how he really feels! and honestly I don't fully agree with that framing. I think Thancred's cold and harsh attitude toward Ryne does reflect how he really feels at that time—namely, he's angry and lonely and upset for valid reasons, but he's taking them out on a teenager who's fully dependent on him for her survival, to the point that she admits she thinks he hates her. His legitimate pain doesn't justify that to me, and it really kinda chaps my ass how everyone just agrees that he's the one with the most claim to call Ryne family, when Urianger was far kinder, gentler, and more comforting to Ryne than Thancred ever was. And Urianger was in pain too. He also regrets what happened to Minfilia, and his part in it. He was carrying a terrible secret that he couldn't tell his closest friends, which put one of those friends' life in danger. He just owned his feelings, instead of taking them out on a scared kid. I know my bias is obvious, and I swear I don't hate Thancred 😛 but I really didn't like his behavior here and I wasn't really satisfied with the way the narrative handled it.

Probably my least favorite part of Shadowbringers was Vauthry. I just do not like "fat" as shorthand for "evil" and I think there could have been better ways to design him that didn't fall back on that trope. Even Dulia-Chai, a very lovable character in the end whomst we stan, does fall into some fatphobic tropes, and it's unfortunate that in a game without much body diversity (not to single out FFXIV, that's a problem for games generally), we only got fat character models as signifiers for "rich person" (yeah, I get that "fat cat" is the joke, it's just not a good joke) and "repulsive, evil abomination." No love!

On a lighter note, the return of G'raha Tia as the Crystal Exarch was simply wonderful. G'raha was very cute and fun during the Crystal Tower story but his presence was quite short-lived, so we didn't fully get to know him then. I think it's pretty easy to guess that it's him under the hood; he has a distinctive voice and lip shape and also the tower is right there. So the question becomes why he is hiding his identity, what his true motives are, and that's all intriguing! The fact that his plan hinges on his pretending to be the villain at the end and he utterly fails at convincing anyone is… deeply charming. But one of the things I love most about him is the kindness he extends to the people of Norvrandt. Even though his primary mission is the salvation of the Source, he gets attached to these people, offers up the resources of the Crystal Tower freely to improve their lives, helps build a home and sanctuary, fights for the First and becomes deeply invested in their survival as well. He has a huge heart, and I love him. I'm delighted that he gets to return and join the Scions at the end, and it's already been a lot of fun to have him along on the patch quests.

And of course, Urianger my love. 💜 He really shines in this story and every scene with him was a delight, even when I was climbing the walls needing to know what he was hiding. He gets so much good character development in Shadowbringers I could go on for hours about it, but I did especially love the Echo scene where you see G'raha asking him to lie—and you see how much he doesn't want to do it. Urianger's really been on a long arc ever since Moenbryda's death, and I don't think that arc is over yet, but my biggest worry for him as the cracks started to form in his story was that we'd find he hadn't changed, and was lying here for the same reasons he did in the Heavensward patches, and as easily. And that's not the case at all. He hated doing it before, and he really doesn't want to do it again, but G'raha's reasoning is just too strong for him to refuse. I brought it up recently but I think Shadowbringers reveals an Urianger who despite his long isolation really doesn't want to be alone, and does want his friends' understanding and approval and their trust. The look he gives the Warrior of Light if they say they trust him, and then the way he submits himself to their judgment when things go wrong while begging to be allowed to help fix things… god. I love him. And I'll stop there for now, since I'm sure I'll have a lot more to say about him in the future. ;)

Emet-Selch is a fascinating villain, certainly the most interesting Ascian we've seen so far, and the one who finally turns what have been fairly two-dimensional powerful bad guys into a truly motivated and complex faction. My favorite villains are always the ones who believe they're the hero, and there are a lot of parallels between Emet-Selch and Solas from Dragon Age: Inquisition which will be obvious to anyone who's played both games. FFXIV being a more linear story afford the player a lot less choice in how they respond to their villains true motives and history, but there's definitely still an expectation that we will sympathize somewhat with Emet-Selch, and recognize the tragedy of what happened to his people.

Ardbert's ghost, too, was a welcome addition to the story. Between his presence and the role quests (which were 100% worth doing in their entirety), I felt like we finally got to actually know the Warriors of Darkness against which we briefly clashed back in the Heavensward patches, and I really felt the pathos of their story, all they fought for and lost, but also their friendship and how they cared for one another.

Shadowbringers is beautiful in so many ways. The design of the Crystarium is gorgeous. Il Mheg is probably my favorite location in the game so far. Eulmore is a fascinating dark mirror of Limsa Lominsa. The way the game takes the idea of "a world being swallowed by light" and interprets that visually is so stunning. The sky over Lakeland arrests you immediately upon arrival, and the crystallization of the Flood of Light where it was halted at the edged of Amh Araeng is a chilling reminder of how much the First has already lost. The music has also been a highlight for me! I really adore the Shadowbringers music, and it has prompted me to go about collecting orchestrion rolls more deliberately than I had before.

The more I sit and write about how much I loved this expansion, the more I think of, so while I could definitely go on, I think I'll wrap it up there. 🙂

Onward to Endwalker. I'm not making any predictions this time, because I have done my absolute damnedest to stay unspoiled for this one and I know very little about what's coming other than what the locations are, what's been revealed in the Shadowbringers patches, and that it's the end of the big story arc we've been on since ARR. I'm extremely excited.

#afk by the aetheryte #arr spoilers #hw spoilers #sb spoilers #shb spoilers #there is some #ffxiv critical #in here #and some #thancred critical #in particular #i swear it's not hate #just some stuff that sticks in my craw #but mostly this is positive!#onward we go #anne plays ffxiv

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loregoddess · 4 months ago

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For three houses, 5 and 30!

Hmm....I'm gonna do all three methinks.

5. Which route did you play through last? I saved Silver Snow for last, which worked out since the final map was the most difficult map for me to complete, even with my superstar New Game+ team of MVPs from previous runs. But it was also my favorite final boss theme from the ost, so...

8. What storyline threads should have had more development / been further explored? Hm, well every route has its strengths and weaknesses in the writing department. I think either Silver Snow or Crimson Flower could have used the most development.

SS feels like a rough draft, which meant that Verdant Wind, in following all the major story beats of SS but just like, better, felt like the finished draft, so if I had been in charge of writing I would have gone back and overhauled SS entirely, and made it completely unique (they could have made VW unique, but I feel it's strong as is, so SS needs to change).

I feel like the writers could have really leaned into the tragedy of Edelgard and Byleth falling out of trust, instead of the short and weird little scene we get at the start of the second arc after the timeskip, although this would require a lot more writing going into Edelgard for the first arc to make the player really care about her and feel the sting of betrayal more (for me, she came off as very cold in the first arc, which fits the general gist of her characterization, but when I'm losing approval points with her left and right I felt like, "girl what do you want from me" slight frustration rather than like, wondering about her mysterious secret bc even going in blind with my first run being Azure Moon, I figured out her role as Flame Emperor super quickly, so she wasn't mysterious so much as. Cold, and deeply untrusting--which is interesting characterization, but doesn't set up a betrayal plot twist very well).

Aside from really pushing for a more tragic overtone though, how I imagine potential rewrites varies bc there's a lot of room to do all sorts of things that I think could be interesting. What I personally think would be interesting and what like, a larger development team would think was feasible or interesting might be different. I would want to put more focus on Rhea and the history of Fodlan, maybe bring Sothis back into the picture and really dive into the world she knew before she had to heal it. I'd also want an entire arc talking about the demonic beasts and their history and the lore behind them, I am so curious about the monsters in 3H.

Alternatively if the writing didn't focus on the Nabatean characters, I think the writing should have really leaned in more to focus on the BE cast, since I feel like this is the most interesting potential arc for most of their character arcs, but they don't get to shine as much in SS due to having to share the narrative with the CoS characters.

As for Crimson Flower, I felt like the writers chickened out by trying to backpedal and make Edelgard morally grey instead of really leaning into her motives and ideologies that make her an interesting antagonist in all the other routes. Honestly aside from seeing all non-central characters undergo negative growth character arcs (watching the BL kids suffer in CF was SO fascinating for a lot of their characterizations), overall CF was the most boring route to me, ending with me wishing I could have defected to Rhea's side bc her spiral into madness seemed a hell of a lot more interesting than whatever Edelgard was doing.

I think the writers should have leaned in to making CF the "bad end" route, with lots of emphasis on all the bad things Edelgard was doing. I was prepared to play as a villain. Other games have made villain routes a thing, the fandom still would have been a toxic wasteland I'm sure, but at least the route would have been interesting. FE in general has a really hard time letting female villains be villains though, so I wasn't entirely surprised. Would love to see a FE female villain who's ruthless and unapologetically evil with no tragic backstory or mind control or justification, like how we see with Scarlet in FF7, but I know what FE is about so my hopes aren't high.

Also I feel like the Agarthans should have either been fully developed as villains, or cut entirely so Edelgard could have shone more brightly in her antagonist role. Especially since, as we see in Hopes, the writers really wanted to lean in more to making Edelgard morally grey, the Agarthans would have had to have so, so, so much more development to be the proper, potentially terrifying and horrific, villains they could have been.

30. What characters should have more support options and who should have been their support options? For Houses, I was actually pretty satisfied with the supports. Every character (sans Byleth) has about the same number of characters they can support with, give or take a few, so supports felt fairly balanced overall. I might have changed some of the supports to focus on different topics bc I feel there are some missed opportunities or vagueness that could have been written more precisely, but overall I'm happy w/ Houses.

Although if Rhea could've played a larger role, I think she should have had supports with various characters. Supports are where a lot of the characterization is stored, and we miss out on so much potential characterization for her as a result. I specifically think she would have gotten along famously with Mercedes and Annette, and I would pay money to see supports between her and Cyril.

Hopes on the other hand is another story, and this is mostly due to uh, many characters not being added into the playable roster (MY SON CYRIL I MISS YOU). If I had the full cast of characters I hoped would be playable (no pun intended), I would have wanted to see supports between Hanneman and Sylvain, since they took Sylvain's character in an interesting direction in Hopes, and I think the dynamic between the two would have also been fascinating. (Also imagine how chaotic supports between Hanneman and Monica could have been; guy who's been studying all his life, and girl with a genius memory).

Nadir and Judith should have been playable, and they should have gotten supports with each other too.

I also think Ignatz and Hubert should have had supports in the Scarlet Blaze route. Hubert compliments Ignatz's strategy the battle where you can recruit Ignatz, and that is just so rare for Hubert, that I was like huh, wonder what supports between these two would even look like. They also both want to ride pegasi so...yeah I've been thinking about the potential dynamics between those two ever since. They haunt me.

I also really, really wished Miklan lived through the events of Azure Gleam, bc his writing was so much more interesting in Hopes than in Houses, and I want to pull out a lawn chair and get a nice cup of tea so I can watch the Gautier skeleton closet get cleaned out in his hypothetical supports.

#if you take anything away from this post let it be the ''Hubert and Ignatz should be weird friends...if not weird lovers...''#bc it is the most unhinged pairing my brain has ever come up with and if I have to be haunted by it I will make it everyone else's problem #youcantencryptyourface #ask game #I still don't have an ask tag

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