#History Ancedotes

[roaldseth]

Because the Wolffort clan and the Darkwood/Greenwood (Woodlands) are my chosen spots of interest, carryover notes so that I can refer back to it later if needed:

The Hawk and the Wolf: legend goes that the Wolffort ancestor was lead to their approximate current residence under the guidance of a hawk. The hawk then becomes the united clans banner as seen for House Wolffort for pride and fearlessness.

A possible design angle from a team to approach not naming the current dominant family name (Wolffort) after the hawk (like a name like "Falkes") was to be signifiers of both Draefendi's companions: the hawk and the wolf, as according to the Octopath TTRPG.

The hawk of legend would be the literal placeholder to the companion while the other is honored in namesake and so meant to be seen as the vehicle for the Huntress. This also amplifies itself with Serenoa as a unit, ex. Hawk Dive, battle dialogue "when a wolf is cornered," therein taking both companions. Then, noting that Draefendi's ring is the plume (CotC), the hawk likely has more significance in regards to the goddess and would then be more readily recognizable imagery in local legend.

If Wolffort's ancestor was an emigrant of the Darkwood/Greenwood, the symbolism of Draefendi and the old Wolffort legend seem less of a fanatical myth and more of an actuality that happened reasonably where Wolffort's ancestor was able to understand the desires of that one hawk, provided the latent ability of those clans to possibly borne a child able to connect/commune with beasts a little more readily. Of course, visually both the Wolffort demesne and Woodlands share a lot of the same inspiration, but that's understandable on a surface level for far simpler design reasons.

This ancestor then sees the two feuding tribes, Falkes and Telliore, as ancedote to the Darkwood/Greenwood peoples and so unites them as an opposition to Orsterran history.

In a completely different direction from left field, the parallels and crossovers between these people and/or similarities of Orsterra and Norzelia is that Triangle Strategy's stories might be a collection of Orsterran fables or cautionary tales (or a story a novelist made up for fun. Triangle Strategy could just be someone's choose your own adventure story, which would be funny). This really has no grounds other than the usage of "ser" and maybe possibly the cardinal directions somewhat being used.

As a fable anecdote however, it would make the tie in much cooler and more powerful as a story of "old versus new" or "light versus dark" and such in the sense that weather or not the old gods of Norzelia are actually the Osterran pantheon is individual headcanon, but then Serenoa as protagonist, as a Wolffort tied to the "old gods" through iconography and symbolism and the Scales themselves, facing off against not only something that was created by human hand in hatred and pride, the Goddess of Salt (the "new," the sacrilege of it) but also the powers of what is more tied to the fallen god, Galdera, than its namesake, Aelfric, and an Osterran would likely recognize those connections for hopefully easier digestion about the lesser clean cut parts in both Osterra and "Triangle Strategy."

[sneindeer]

Books I've read so far this year

Velocity Weapon - LOVED IT the spaceship was my favourite character, I love him he did nothing wrong ever ACTUALLY. There was a sentient spaceship. I loved reading this.

The Virgin Suicides- hated it, I can see why people romantisice it, but I feel like the things that people can romantise are the same thingsthat made me feel gross

Cinderella is Dead - ....it made no SENSE the plot twists were SO obvious and the romance felt forced. To be fair it was really obviously YA so maybe I'm being unfair. Thankfully I did not buy this book.

Yellowface - LOVED IT!!! this was the first book with an absolutely awful narrator I enjoyed reading- this book was amazing. I want to read more books from this author

Psychology Through the Eyes of Faith- got it for free from a Bücherschrank. it amused me. And it was a good reminder that people doing science, including psychology are NOT OBJECTIVE and that people bring biases and belief systems to everything they do. I disagree with a lot of it

Our Wives Under the Sea - it was very good at being exactly the kind of book I would hate!! very well executed!! I gave it away IMMIDIATE after I read it bc this book succeeded in being a horror book about underwater stuff with body horror. so uh. great book I hated reading it BUT NOT BECAUSE IT WAS BAD

Legends and Lattes - It succeeds so well at being heartwarming and was exactly what I wanted to read right then. To be completely honest I would have enjoyed a tiny bit more it if there was no romance in it. The romance was sweet!!! just.... wasnt necessary to me personally

Prayer for the Crown-Shy - very sweet!! I love the robot and the human main characters!! I am not able to be objective about these books because they feel a little bit like someone has looked into my soul and written a book about it and that can honestly be uncomfortable to read. Not in a bad way, it's just feels... raw.

Stories Rabbits Tell: A Natural and Cultural History of a Misunderstood Creature- Got this book for free from a bücherschrank. 10/10 very comprehensive thank you for adding ancedotes about your rabbits along with figures of said rabbits

The Women Could Fly- It was fine? I don't think I like that kind of fantasy setting where the real world still exists- this is completely on me!! I just dont like it when there's like wiches and smartphones in the same book.

A House with Good Bones- it was fine. I didn't hate it. The main character was interesting. But kind of similar to the one above, I don't like fantasy settings like that. I found the backstory the book talked about SO MUCH more interesting than the main one. I really would have loved learning about the main character's grandmother in detail.

System Collapse- ....I relate to murderbot because I also DONT WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT while being clearly fucked up again it. Also ART is a sentient spaceship. I want to watch shows with it....

[hotchfiles]

hi this is just like....idk maybe a supportive message or ancedote about LIFE PATH CAREER STRESS THINGS which is that

like i never knew what i was going to do, or how to do it, and i was always a little envious of people growing up who "knew what they wanted" (ie: I'm gonna be a biologist or I'm going to cosmetology school). anyway, it took straight up like...maybe 5 years AFTER i graduated (with my associate degree cuz i still didn't know what i was doing) that i just sort of stumbled into my career path & now work in education, despite not going to college for it, or "planning" to work in education. and i love it. sometimes life is like so weird like that.

i have a friend who went to school for history/got his degree (slay) and he just like...works for local government as like a campaign manager (i actually don't know his job title), and i have another friend who decided that, in her mid 30s, to learn about being an arborist (tree doctor) and went and got all the certifications/classes for it and has aspirations about becoming a tree arborist who focuses on like natural remedies.

i guess this is just to say that yes its great to "have a plan" but plenty of us are out here with NO PLAN and figuring it out as we go and making changes based on who we are in the present moment

im sorry this got so long.

I NEEDED THIS SOOO BAD

like im pmsing so granted im being a bit dramatic but careers is such an stressful thinggggg

i went to law school bc my dad wanted me to and for a good while i tried to find myself there but i realized that i would neverrrr be able to deal with the high pressure of it and the pandemic hit the literal year i graduated so two years down the drain right there and now im just struggling finding something that will give me some stability and structure while also not burning me out bc of the adhd and its comforting to read stuff like this, really reallu!!! thank you so muchhhhh

also, education is such an important area!!!!! good for you!!!

[celticcatgirl2]

Talked a little bit about our family histories with my crush yesterday!!! The country her family comes from has a cool immigration history :3 also she seemed to find my ancedotes cool as well including the great grandpa I have who has his own Wikipedia page heh heh

[monster-noises]

so I finished my last book/series and had my day off and now I'm reading a non-fiction book about Fantasy Art and oh my goooooood this book is written like the final thesis of a college freshman who has Way too much unfounded confidence in their abilities to write a grounded, engaging, and informational essay about the history of pulp fantasy art. I"m gunna read the whole thing, because it appears to be a series of essays and ancedotes by various authors and the artists themselves, but hooo my Goodness Gracious it's so... it's sO.... it's SOOOOOO.... every like Four lines you can hear the author go 'ohohoho, isn't This a clever little sentence' but it's not, it's not a clever little sentence and then it's like a chunk of text that's all names and dates and then it's back to weird non-informational prose-ing like they just "covered" the part of modern sci-fi/fantasy history centered around the Comics Code and they didn't... explain anything about what it was. They just said it was There.. and then listed a bunch of names and dates that things either shut down or got published. There's no Narrative, there's no Pull, there's no details, it's not a compelling History of Fantasy Art; it's 90% fluffy pontificating and like 2% actual information and the other 8% is the author making weird horny references to the way women are usually depicted in this genre of art.... (I'm not generally one to rag on someone being Horny, even in a professionally published non-fiction book, and Hell the way women are and have been depicted in Fantasy is Something to Talk about, but if I have to read the sentence 'Supple Flesh' in a cheeky reference to a woman's ass One More Time I'm going to start Biting)

They said 'Heironymous bosch -often considered the first Fantasy Artist" and then made it clear they Disagreed like two pages later because Mr. Bosch didn't draw any fucking Dragons like hhhhwhaT? Again interesting debate to be had: where does the turn from mythological/religious iconography to Fantasy happen? how do you apply modern labels to things from the past? should you? what level of content or Style will/does/did define something as Fantasy, as opposed to other possible labels? but this author pushes all that aside and is just like 'it's about the DRAGONS' and it continues to be a running theme like every second paragraph they have something to say about Dragons as the leading Icon of Fantasy Art (I would argue if you were going to give that label to anything it would be Wizards but perhaps I am Biased.)

It's not the kind of Bad writing that makes one Genuinely angry, but is more just...comically Flabbergahsting. Makes you sit there and go; What are you Talking About???? Not to mention the illustrations on each page don't... fucking match the text at all, the author is talking about the works of fantasy artists around world war 2 and the accompanying image is a japanese wood block print from 1 8 3 5 this essay has said 0 words about japanese wood block prints. I am astounded, and frankly, astonished.

[inky-duchess]

21 History Ancedotes for my 21st Birthday

So today I celebrate my 21st birthday and I have decided to gift you all with 21 of my favourite historical Ancedotes. Some are funny, some are sad and some are plain bizarre but I hope the make your day 💜

Mary Maloney, an Irish-born suffragette in England followed Winston Churchill around while he was campaigning for a seat in Parliament, drowning out everything he said with a very large bell and calls for him to apologise for his comments on women's rights and suffrage movements.

Clodius Pulcher was a well born Roman noble during the last day's of the Republic. He gave up his Patrician status to become Tribune of the Plebs (an office in which one had to be a Pleb) by being adopted by a much younger Plebian man who became his "father". Clodius was a bit of a riot, sneaking into religious festivals dressed like a woman to sleep with Caesar's wife, building a shrine to Liberty in the ruins of the Conservative Cicero, vetoed the last speech of one of the Consuls (who basically did nothing all year and was apparently going to roast Caesar) and burned down the Senate House with his funeral pyre (the Plebs who loved him literally tearing up the furniture to build his pyre). He was honestly the best fun.

When laying on her deathbed, Queen Caroline of Ansbach turned to her husband George II of England and told him he should marry again. George refused to ever wed again... But added he would have mistresses. Caroline said , likely with a roll of her eyes, "oh my god that doesn't matter."

Florence was a pretty cool city in the Renaissance until Savanorola came to town. He disliked the loose living artists that crowded the city, with their naked pagan gods and rampant homosexuality. He expelled them all with help of the French hoping to make Florence Holy Again. When the Borgia Pope excommunicated him and sentenced him to death, one man in the crowd was reported to have said. "thank God, niw we can return to sodomy." One Floretine man in the 1490s said Gay Rights.

So this list couldn't be complete without an entry of the only American politician I love, Alexander Hamilton who was just a walking entity of sass. I could go on about his sharp sarcasm or his disaster bi vibes with John Lauren's but my all time favourite Alexander Hamilton ancedote has to be this exchange with Thomas Jefferson "There are approximately 1010300 words in the English language, but I could never string enough words together to properly explain how much I want to hit you with a chair."

Caterina Sforza was an Italian noble woman during the Renaissance. She was apart of the powerful Sforza family, which drew many enemies to her. One fateful day at Forli, Caterina's children were snatched as hostages. The besiegers threatened to kill her children if she did not cede the castle. Caterina refused, lifting her skirts and shouted to the besiegers that she had the means to make more children.

Hannibal Lecter's creator Thomas Harris was happy to end his great character's story with the original trilogy. However his publishers forced him to write an unneeded prequel explaining why Hannibal became Hannibal. Thomas Harris agreed lest he lose the rights to his character so he wrote Hannibal Rising, where Hannibal as a young man hunts down the Nazis who ate his sister with a katana.

Nell Gwyn is my favourite mistress of Charles II, mainly because of her sass. Once while trapped in the middle of a riot where Londoners swamped her carriage thinking she was Charles's Catholic mistress. She popped her head out the carriage and told the people "Pray good people be civil. I am the Protestant whore." She also dosed her rival Moll Davis with laxatives in order to free up some of Charles's time and she once flashed her underwear at the French ambassador after asking him why the Franch King did not pay her to spy on Charles because she was with him every night. A true Queen.

Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty of China once rose from his bed to go do some ruling when he realised his lover, Dong Xian was sleeping on his sleeve. Rather than disturb his lover, the Emperor cut his sleeve off at the wrist to leave Dong Xian nap. Nothing has ever been more romantic than that. Y'all could never.

Princess Margaret the sister of current Queen Elizabeth II was a socialable Princess and often tasked to visit the up and coming music stars of the day on behalf of the Crown. When meeting the Beatles one evening, she noticed George Harrison was acting a little odd. When she asked what was the matter, he replied "We arent allowed eat until you go." Princess Margaret laughed and promptly left so the Beatles could get some dinner.

During the Siege of Jadotsville, Irish soldiers under the flag of the UN were attacked and besieged by local insurgents allied with the Katanga Regime. The insurgents numbered thousands while the Irish only had 158 soldiers, all who were lightly armed. They radioed to their allies assuring them that "we will hold out until our last bullet is spent. Could use some whiskey though".

Napoleon was famous for writing raunchy letters to his wife, the Empress Josephine while he was away. She used to reply with really mundane letters or not at all. She really just could not be bothered with him.

Josip Broz Tito was so fed up with Joseph Stalin sending assassins to kill him, he wrote to Stalin personally to say "If you don't stop sending assassins to kill me. I will send one to Moscow and I won't have to send another." It didn't work but Big Dick Energy.

Successful Roman soldiers returning from war often got to march along in parades known as Triumphs. During this, it was customary for them to sing bawdy songs about their commander. One surviving one about Caesar goes like this "Romans, lock up your wives. Here comes the bald adulterous whore. We pissed away your gold in Gaul and come to borrow more."

Matilda, Lady of the English was a woman so badass that history cannot handle her. She was the daughter of Henry I who left his throne to her after the death of her brother. She was away in France when her father died and her throne was snatched by her cousin Stephen. They battled back and forth for years with neither side ceding any ground. Matilda was once besieged in a castle during a snow storm, with Stephen's men all around her. Instead of fighting her way out. She simply donned a white cloak and walked out of the castle. Just walked out without any of Stephen's men seeing her.

Pedro of Portugal once fell in love with a beautiful lady in waiting called Inez de Castro. For years, they lived as man and mistress, popping out a few kinds. Pedro's dad really did not like Inez and wanted Pedro to find a legitimate wife so he had her killed. Pedro returned home to find the mother of his children dead. Pedro went a little crazy. He had all his father's assassins killed, ripping out their hearts as they had done to him. When Pedro ascended the throne, he demanded the Pope legitimize his children by Inez. The Pope not wanting to upset the King, said he couldn't because Inez was never crowned Queen. Pedro dug Inez up and crowned her as Queen, having all the nobility swear loyalty to her corpse. The Pope had no choice but to agree to his request.

A famously clever general once saved an entire city with an ingenious stragety to sit outside the city waiting for the attacking army to come. The attack had come to fast for the city to ready themselves for a Siege so, the general had to move quickly. He evacuated the city and took his place waiting for the army to come. The enemy forces stopped and took one look at him and bolted, thinking he meant to lure them in one of his famous traps.

Michaelangelo was really badly treated by the Vatican when he was painting the Sistine Chapel. He constantly fought with the Popes over the design and his work, which he was paid peanuts for. Michaelangelo got his revenge in his work, painting the gates of Hell behind the Papal Throne and an angel flipping the ol' fig (the Renaissance version of the bird) toward the Pope's chair.

Peter the Great was not a perfect guy. He kept serfdom as a practise in his kingdom, he had his son tortured to death and he could be an unpleasant guy. But Peter was a dreamer. He wanted nothing more to build a fleet for Russia and bring Russia beyond its borders. Peter took a gap year from ruling Russia to wander around Europe. When he stopped in England, he was granted Leicester House to chill in while he did his shipwright studies. It was here that Peter found a new passion. The wheelbarrow. Cue Peter and his new found English buddies drinking in Leicester House, punching the artwork and rolling each other around in barrels across the house's Great gardens.

Diogenes is hands down a walking shit post. He was a great thinker in Greece during the reign of Alexander but a rather dry, sarcastic wit. He lived in a pithos/a jar because he shunned all vanities and values of society. He trolled other philosophers, attending their debates to heckle them and eat loud foods through them. When Alexander the Great came to fan boy over him, saying that if he were not Alexander he would like to be Diogenes to which Diogenes just said "yeah me too, now get out of my sunlight."

Cosimo de Medici was the son of a Floretine banker with a great knowledge and love of art. Cosimo wished for Florence to release its potentially and join the Renaissance. He hired Filippo Brunelleschi to finsh the Great Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore which had láin unfinished for over a century, a symbol of a failure of ambition. The builders had lost the knowledge of creating a dome so large so it remained unfinished. Despite much opposition from the other nobility and denouncers of the Renaissance, Cosimo's dream of the completion of the dome was completed, making it the largest brick dome in creation at that time. There is nothing like achieving your dreams and certainly nothing like leaving a lasting reminder that screams 'I was right and you were wrong' to stand for centuries.

[ohlooknothing]

Y’ALL this is too funny

[robocops-a-christ-allegory]

I get kind of mad when people say the peacemaker show was nothing like the comics because like ok YES none of the characters Peacemaker interacted with in the comics was there except Adrian, the plot wasnt adapted from any of Peacemakers comics, and there were major changes to his backstory, but like.

 Thats all honestly kind of surface level shit. Its important to note Peacemaker has had one solo run and thats his Charlton run in the 60s, after getting folded into DC hes mostly been used as a supporting character in teambooks and has only gotten one miniseries and one oneshot, the miniseries being from 1988 and the oneshot being that piece of shit Ennis one from this year.

The Peacemaker show understood Peacemaker as a character and combined the elements from all his appearances while making him able to stand on his own as the main character of something. Show Peacemaker has elements from the stuff by Paul Kupperberg, Charlton Peacemaker, and BB2006 Peacemaker and thats why it was so good and so many people liked it. If he was a 1:1 adaptation from just one of his Set Of Appearances he wouldnt be interesting and the show wouldve sucked.

Like I probably wouldve still liked it but you know he wouldnt be as well rounded, he would’ve either been “Crazy” Funny Villain Guy, Stoic Weird Mentor Guy, or a GI Joe character who loves US interventionism. Ok thats all thank you

[gettothestabbing]

“As ever, Lincoln was the shrewd politician and in October of 1864 he saw no profit in alienating any of the factions of his political support by making a selection before the election,” writes President Lincoln’s Cottage (PLC), a historical group and museum dedicated to preserving Lincoln’s legacy.

Not only was the Senate out of session in October when Taney died until December 5 making it difficult for Lincoln to move forward with the confirmation proceedings necessary for a new justice, but Lincoln also strategically delayed the nomination to ensure he had Chase and other potential picks’ political support through the November election.

“Lincoln was not above using the enticement of the office to encourage campaigning on his behalf,” PLC wrote.

“Lincoln, from the time of his first election, adopted the strategy of attempting to harness and co-opt Chase’s political and personal power to use in his own causes,” PLC added.

Even though Lincoln reportedly did not like Chase, he struck a political deal with his former presidential race rival offering him the potential nomination in exchange for his support campaigning. This election was also in the middle of the Civil War and Lincoln did not want to miss his chance to follow through on his war-time efforts.

Lincoln, was correct in his assessment of Chase’s appeal to potential Lincoln voters and won re-election in November of 1864.

“After Taney’s death in October 1864, Chase took the ‘cue’ and stumped for Lincoln throughout the Midwest in marked contrast to his earlier maneuverings in 1864 to replace Lincoln as President. (Of course, Chase’s unusual behavior did not go unnoticed and rumors of a bargain surfaced.)” PLC explained.

It was after this win that Lincoln formally nominated Chase as Taney’s replacement one day into Congressional proceedings for that term on Dec. 6, 1984. The Senate confirmed him on that same day.

[dreamstormdragon]

Happy STS! What is your favorite relationship (platonic or not) in your WIP? Why?~writing blog @paula-writes~

Hm... That’s honestly tough. I love all of them, but there’s some that definitely are near and dear to my heart.

EijiXCarmen, being a big one, since it’s my first established couple. I wanted to explore something different, with instead of a couple falling in love, showing a couple that’s been married for a long time and have a history. It’s been really nice, since I can write things with them and not have to have a ton of build up... But I can drop in little ancedotes or quips about their love life for the past several years. 

Platonic - I love writing about family relationships in general. Be they silly ones, or strained, it’s fun exploring different dynamics since we’re the products of our upbringing. I like exploring what that’s like for characters - canon characters or my own originals. 

[ducktracy]

56. bosko’s knight-mare (1933)

release date: june 8th, 1933

series: looney tunes

director: hugh harman

starring: carman maxwell (bosko), rochelle hudson (honey)

i wonder what this cartoon could possibly be about. as the title suggests, bosko dreams that he’s a knight in medieval times, but quickly realizes it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

this opening is almost exactly like the opening to an itch in time! bosko (elmer) is reading a book by the fire, lounging in his rocking chair, whereas bruno (whatever the dog’s name is in that cartoon) is asleep, waking up to scratch at a flea.

bosko excitedly tells bruno the story he’s reading about knights, but bruno is asleep. undeterred, bosko continues his read until the radio signals that it’s 8pm. he turns the channel and enjoys “knights are bold”, but falls asleep. listening to a song about knights and reading about knights, i wonder where this could possibly go. side note, i guess that’s carman maxwell voicing bosko? it doesn’t sound like johnny murray, and of course rochelle hudson is the only voice credit i’ve found. he sounds a LOT more like mickey mouse here, moreso than usual. pretty interesting, i wonder if he’ll always continue to sound like that? his voice seems to have been fluctuating as of late.

you guessed it. bosko dreams he’s a knight, perched on a gallant horse. he sings a few bars of “knights are bold”, later switching over to “young and healthy”. his faithful companion bruno is right behind him, also iron clad.

bosko approaches a castle, guarded by a moat. he does a yell (very similar to the one the hippo does in lady, play your mandolin!) and the drawbridge drops down for him. a looney tunes staple as various doors open to reveal the inside of the castle—and a trio of squires trumpeting a fanfare. their helmets snap shut in the middle of their blaring noise, and thusly cutting their trumpets in half. great gag of the squires playing on their broken trumpets, the sound tinny and high pitched.

eagerly, bosko and bruno cross the bridge, each doing a little dance. bosko slides out of his suit of armor to the tune of “shave and a haircut”, and barges in on the knights of the round table.

here’s somethint your math teachers and history textbooks don’t teach you: the knights of the round table were actually the marx brothers. huh! who’da thunk it? i love all of the anachronistic elements here—bosko’s jazzy dancing and singing and the inclusion of the marx brothers all in the medieval era. it makes the entire premise a lot funnier. the marx brothers sing, and there’s a great visual of two knights clinking their beer glasses together, the beer rising up in the air and then catching them with the next clink. there’s a great dancing sequence with “42nd street” blazing in the background. i love the overlay of bosko dancing and the knights dancing in the background! the quality of these cartoons has improved drastically, and will continue to do so! apparently, there was also a scene where laurel and hardy are there, too? research tells me it was cut in the 80s on nickelodeon for time, which is a bummer. i wish i could’ve seen it! maybe there’s another rip of it that has it.

in my last review, i joked about how we were overdue for a kidnapping. i spoke too soon. enter the villain, a dastardly knight singing “knights are bold” on his horse. he wants to woo a certain damsel, who happens to be honey. she’s having none of it, pooh-poohing him and griping “i don’t like that old meanie!” old meanie is the last straw for the knight, and he breaks a padlock with his teeth and breaks into her tower.

honey begs for help, and bosko stops his shindig to run to the rescue (along with his suit of armor, which he dives into). there’s a great shot of the villain climbing the stairs of the tower, and tiny little bosko squeezing in beneath his legs and beating him to honey. i have utmost respect for any animator who has to draw stairs—my condolences!

bosko tells the villain “stop, you mug!”, but to no avail. okay, quick ancedote. so i had talked about yesterday how in bosko’s picture show it sounds like he says “that dirty fuck!”, even though his lip movements say “mug”. i guess this solidifies that he really DOES say mug. it’s one of those things where if you think either of the words, you’re going to hear your desired outcome. how disappointing! i can always imagine.

anyway, the villain takes out a cigar and snaps bosko’s helmet shut on the tip, cutting it off. he then flips bosko’s helmet open like a lighter and lights it. that’s so creative and funny! something about cigars makes them inherently funny to me, especially when you have cute characters or babies chuffing on a big fat cigar. they just look funny to me. a higher air of authority than a measly old cigarette. my ability to find humor in everything comes in handy. the villain blows smoke in bosko’s face and puts him aside with ease.

once more does honey cry for help, but it’s too late. the villain snatches her up and jumps out of the window, aiming to land on his horse below. technically he does, but he drags the horse’s ass with him a few feet in the ground. nevertheless, the horse charges on, its now stretched out body carrying the kidnapper and his damsel in distress.

bosko charges after them via donkey, but a lake blocks their path. the donkey bucks him into the water, where his suit of armor turns into a submarine (brilliant!). he follows the villain to his own castle, perched on top of a mountain with a winding, twisting road. the castle, like all things in 30s cartoons, is sentient, using its drawbridge tongue to throw bosko inside. another great, dizzying stair shot of bosko chasing the villain up the stairs to his chamber.

in the safety of his own tower, the villain slams the door shut to keep bosko out. then, of course, bosko pops out from beneath his bed and shoots him! i love unprecedented gags like these. the villain rolls up his sleeve (which is metal—great gag) and socks bosko right in the face, knocking him unconscious. honey begs for him to wake up, caressing his face.

bosko DOES wake up, but to bruno licking his face instead. bosko bats him away and sleepily stumbles down the hallway in a fugue, stopped only by a suit of armor he just so happens to own. not wanting a repeat of his dream, bosko lets his grudge towards knights known as he uses the battle axe the knight is holding to smash it to pieces. iris out as he happily jumps into the comfort of his own bed.

when i first read the title of this cartoon, i didn’t have high hopes. i’m not a big medieval damsel in distress hero swoops in to save her kind of gal, but i’m actually pleasantly surprised! bosko was endearing as ever and the gags were creative and at their best. the animation was beautiful, from all the dancing scenes to chase scenes, and the music score only uplifts it further. i love the anachronisms in this cartoon (such as the marx brothers), it made it funnier and certainly appealed to the lunacy of looney tunes. overall, worth a watch! these bosko cartoons have been getting better and better, and i’ll be interested to see how the remaining few turn out (10 more reviews til our buddy buddy makes an appearance... the countdown begins).

link!

[laurafloriology]

The Many Deaths of a Painting - 99% Invisible (347)

I chose this episode because I have a lot of interest in art history and art culture. I skimmed the first bit of the transcript to see what it was about, and was hooked by the ancedote from Barbara Visser. To have such an emotional response to a painting, especially an abstract painting, is just really amusing. I love when that happens- its both funny and genuinely cool. That, on top of the fact that I hadn't heard of the painting, interested me.

I really enjoyed the story of the "death" of the painting. I had expected this to be more about the psychology of color, but I found this equally interesting. Art history, crime, and conservation are fun topics, but my favorite part was by far the initial vandalism and the response. It really shows how important art is. Its important enough that a man was so incensed as to mutilate the piece. It was so important that the painting was described as being "murdered." I don't mean to say that this was good, but I find somwthing really exciting about that situation. Not the crime, but that the painting effected people in their actions. Its incredible!

[sulevinblade]

OC Interview Meme

Tagged by: @mocha-writes (hopefully it tags you properly this time? But still, THANK YOU!!)

I’ll tag: @gremlinquisitor ofc, and anyone else who wants to do it! I don’t know who all among you may have already done it for your OCs but I love reading these!!

Since I did Ghilanel here, this one will be with Varevas. I’m... sorry, about him.

1. What is your name?

“You’ve lost my confidence with the very first question.”

2. What is your real name?

“Varevas, First of Clan Lavellan and Lord Inquisitor. I should make you use the entire thing for the duration as penance for not doing the least amount of background research.”

3. Do you know why you were called that?

“The end of it is just titles, of course, and I’m called those because I earned them, more or less. My given name is a variation of one given to at least one child in every generation of our clan in order to ensure someone carries our freedom forward. But no pressure.”

4. Are you single or taken?

“I am taken, frequently and to great mutual satisfaction.”

5. Have any abilities or powers?

“I love hearing them called powers because the implication is I went to bed one night unable to conjure a great fist of stone out of the loose Fade energy pouring from the rifts and then woke up able to do so. Maybe that’s how it looks to people who don’t possess magic of their own. I have many abilities, learned and honed through time and training. I have one power and that is closing rifts. I had nothing to do with that.”

6. Stop being a Mary Sue.

“I have no idea who that is.”

7. What’s your eye color?

“Green, light green.”

8. How about your hair color?

“Dark red. I’m thinking of growing it out.”

9. Have you any family members?

“My mother was killed by human bandits but my father is still alive, and I have one younger brother and a cousin with whom I’m quite close.”

10. Oh? What about pets?

“No, but recently we were in the Emerald Graves and I found a handful of caterpillars all climbing on some sort of communal nest or cocoon site. I didn’t really think anything of it and no one there knew what kind they were or if they were dangerous, but they did seem to respond to the sound of our voices. It was as though it startled them, but it looked like they were dancing, so I spent a few minutes teaching them different rhythms. I don’t think they cared for it but I never said I was good with animals. Bull thought it was hilarious.”

11. That’s cool I guess, now tell me about something you don’t like.

“I don’t like having my ancedotes dismissed. If we’re looking on a larger scale, I really don’t like that there’s an ancient magister threatening to destroy the world and start over and some people’s greatest concern is still how the ears of the person leading the fight to stop that are shaped.”

12. Do you have any hobbies/activities you like doing?

“I enjoy reading. My clan didn’t have many books and what we did have were focused on our history and written by other elves, which is very effective if you don’t ever plan on interacting with anyone other than elves ever. I can understand why many in my clan would have preferred that but I’ll take Skyhold’s library any day.”

13. Ever hurt anyone before?

“Oh yes, it’s a running joke. If you asked Dorian what my hobbies are, he’d tell you it’s indiscriminate murder, but I think I’m very discriminating.”

14. Ever… killed anyone before?

“I got ahead of myself with the last one. Well, asked and answered, but again, it’s not indiscriminate.” He looks unusually serious for a moment. “I learned my history and I know what indiscriminate murder looks like. What Corypheus intends is indiscriminate. What I am doing, as a representative of the Inquisition, is as thoughtful as it can afford to be. I don’t expect the families of people on the other side to thank me but I am doing what I feel has to be done.”

15. What kind of animal are you?

“A bear. Please ignore all follow up commentary from Dorian should there be any.”

16. Name your worst habits.

“I enjoy reading but I’m very bad at finishing books. There’s a stack of them beside my bed, all with bookmarks in them just waiting for my attention span to resolve itself. I don’t spend as much time here [in Skyhold] as I probably ought to but I’m not comfortable here. I interrupt Dorian’s research on a daily basis, though I can’t say that’s really all that bad since he still gets an impressive amount done.”

17. Do you look up to anyone at all?

“It’s disappointing to me that our differing opinions on the sovereignty of mages keeps Vivienne from giving me so much as the time of day because she’s achieved a kind of power and status that defies all expectations I have ever held for myself as a mage, and I was going to be Keeper of my clan. She’s competent, powerful, self-possessed, and a dazzling conversationalist. Many of those same things can be said of Solas but he also hasn’t kept himself apart in the same way so what admiration I may have for him is tempered by familiarity. We’re friendly, though I do still look up to him and now that he knows we share an interest in manipulating the energy coming from the rifts I think we’ll become even closer. Vivienne, however, is a class apart.”

18. Gay, straight, or bisexual?

“Gay. What a strange way to follow up your previous question.”

19. Do you go to school?

“And yet another unexpected turn! I began a mentorship under my clan’s Keeper as soon as I came into my magic. She ensured I studied other subjects as well but the main focus was history and lore; that’s a Keeper’s function, after all, it’s... it’s literally the name. Keeper.”

20. Do you ever want to marry and have kids one day?

“I haven’t really thought about it. I want to spend the rest of my life with Dorian but marriage is complicated for a lot of reasons, and frankly I can’t imagine anyone who takes the threat our world faces right now seriously daydreaming about raising a child. I want to make sure we have a world where raising families is still a possibility at the end of this but for myself, I don’t know.”

21. Do you have any fanboys/fangirls?

"I pay for my drinks at the Herald’s Rest just like anyone else. I really don’t care for being recognized even though I realize it’s inevitable. Except with you, though, you didn’t even know my name.”

22. What are you most afraid of?

“Fucking it all up. Absolutely just ruining everything. I like to keep my fears general so I’m always just a little terrified, it’s very motivational.”

23. What do you usually wear?

“I prefer light clothing that allows me to move easily. I need to ground myself in order to cast but I need to have my arms and body free.”

24. Do you love someone?

“I do. I never imagined that being an outcome of all this but I’m also lucky enough that he loves me back.”

25. When was the last time you wet yourself?

“Have you ever been gripped by the wrist and hoisted like a wet rag doll by a twelve-foot-tall creature made of red lyrium and avarice who wanted nothing more than to snap your hand off and kill you, knowing all your back-up had fled because you sent them away and the only outcome of this encounter was your death? You’d pee a little too, trust me.”

26. Well, it’s not over yet!

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he made me piss myself again, but this time I’ll be ready.”

27. What class are you? (High class, middle class, low class)

“Being the First of the clan meant I enjoyed certain privileges but our clan was not a wealthy one. My life here in Skyhold is an improvement in a lot of ways over life with the clan in that regard, and I suppose I am a lord now.”

28. How many friends do you have?

“More than six but less than ten. Draw your own conclusions.”

29. What are your thoughts on pie?

“Surprisingly difficult to make but worth it.”

30. Favourite drink?

“The water in Skyhold is the cleanest, freshest tasting water I’ve ever had, and it’s often bitterly cold too, so cold your teeth ache when you drink it. The castle is too cold to really enjoy that but I do enjoy it. Dorian thinks I’m mad but it’s the only cold thing I like.”

31. What’s your favourite place?

“My quarters, with all the doors closed and curtains hauled over them, a fire on and my lover close at hand. It’s the only way I can thaw out.”

32. Are you interested in someone?

“Keep. Up.”

33. What’s your bra cup size and/or how big is your willy?

“I've received no complaints.”

34. Would you rather swim in the lake or the ocean?

“Dorian tells me in Tevinter they have great indoor baths for swimming in. Given the option, one of those.”

35. What’s your type?

"Fire and Rift.” He pauses and sighs. “I don’t know that I could ever be with someone who wasn’t a mage. It made life in the clan very isolating because even as the First you were still seen mostly as competition for younger mages who wanted to keep their place in the clan. Having a ‘type’ never occurred to me. It still hadn’t when I ended up here. I don’t know that I have one. I love Dorian. I don’t need a type.” 

36. Any fetishes?

His eyes flash and narrow and Varevas leans forward in his chair. “Whenever possible, I try to convince Dorian to keep his clothes on when I go down on him. I get off on the smell of the leather and the jingle of all those ridiculous buckles and clasps keeping him bound up while I try to make him explode.” He maintains eye contact the entire time he speaks and there’s not a hint of color on his cheeks. “Dorian is an incredibly private man who would be profoundly hurt if I revealed anything factual in a situation like this, so do with that statement what you will.”

37. Seme or uke? Top or Bottom? Dominant or Submissive?

“We’re done discussing this.”

38. Camping or indoors?

“Indoors. Who doesn’t like being warm and dry?”

39. Are you wanting the interview to end?

“If that’s what it takes to end these questions about my private affairs then yes.”

40. Now it’s over!

“Brilliant. You can show yourself out.”

[fakeosphere]

so for the sake of making sure im not just like vomiting a half false memory up (i did watch the entire video but holy fuck it's a narcissistic blur) i have gone back to check the video. it's been very painful. there's actually more than one instance of her egotistically dismissing the idea that she's being racist or bigoted and instead postures herself as intellectual yet misguided but: it turns out i DID remember something and it's actually kinda worse than my half done egg of a memory

so 1) in 2013 lindsay made a really bizarre and insensitive islamaphobic joke by dressing in a niqab (she doesn't even spell it with correct romanization in the video, to show that she's very sorry) and whining about how this is the only way men will accept her or whatever bullshit.

so she decided that ~context~ was a good idea and admitted to basically getting mental permission from her egyptian neighbor, who wore niqab and allegedly approved of her joke. she not only treated all muslim women as a monolith but did so in order to make a cringe joke for thousands. while she did admit that it was essentially in poor taste and not ok, she never once appropriately assigned her actions the proper narrative: that of extremely dangerous islamaphobia.

even just the idea that she tries to give perspective was overstepping it for me, but she never even apologized in a meaningful way. it was just like... it felt dismissive. like "oh i was just ignorant! : (" and it's even listed as a "sin", hyperbolically categorized to minimize how seriously you take it. like just say im sorry that was totally islamaphobic and i wish i could take it back and i know how badly this harms muslim women like... putting in the video description "elevating poc voices" but not appropriately attesting to your damage seriously...

2) not to mention the Harriet Tubman fanfiction joke. she claims that it's a bad faith argument when really it wasn't her place as a midwestern lipstick stain to say that shit about the history of a black history hero being misused in film. Her job as a midwestern lipstick stain is to inform others midwestern mistakes like herself, not to make easy and bad jokes about how obviously cringe it is. Like she can do what she wants, but if she's doing anything outside of taking the opportunity to directly dismantle white supremacy the she is wrong and that's it. another instance of her actively dismissing people of color who criticize her and only listening to those who lick her boob sweat or whatever it is that she wants 😐 im kidding anyway

3) deciding that twilight's appropriation of indigenous tribes was not worth addressing in her 2010s analysis of Stephanie Meyer because it wasn't "a popular criticism" at the time and because "some people liked Jacob" like duh there are always going to be underrepresented people desperately seeking representation but that doesn't make the representation valid or good. then he became the baby fucker and all of the criticism was suddenly very popular. she didn't release a new video on the subject or modify the old one. she just left it.

she elevated a lot of issues in the self report t video which was cool but with this angle of fake objectivity... You know the kind. "Oh look the racism had a coincidentally positive effect (twilight tourism helped the tribe Jacob is based off of get some money for land rite lawyers)! That's worth addressing right?" Like to contrast it to the fact that Meyer is a millionaire... No. Like. Just address the millionaire thing. Racism and white colonialism have no positives, it's all a part of the big trap.

4) not racism but transphobia here... But the same weapon is frequently used in racist apologist narratives and it fits riiiight here so: repeating trans men ancedotes about being harassed more pre-transition. why is she repeating ancedotes in such a specific way that would lead people to think that she's implying as such? i thought intellectuals knew how dangerous that type of thing was. and then just crying about them being personal ancedotes... you don't just share stuff like that. wave check failed

5) I still like the yellowface movie - Lindsay

6) bisexual erasure is a privilege to experience (what the fuck) and claiming that the dismissal of mara bliss' bisexuality was a "disagreement" and not abusive or bigoted in any way, mostly because she herself is bisexual. and as we know if you're queer you can't be a bigot :D

there's more in this awful video including at like 1:00:00 she starts excusing her public rape jokes for YouTube views as a way to cope with her rape and witnessing of sexual assault and essentially drunkenly confesses all of this on camera and ok: look. im a victim of sexual violence. i know how twisted it is to process the pain alone. i still don't think it's cool to call people "woke diet nazis" for criticizing your public actions with no knowledge that you are a victim of rape. it's just as insincere as the argument that she should be permacancelled for the bad 2009 rape rap. it's cringe but considering her history I would have been willing to let it go, but she had to really push the antisemitism with the constant delegitimizing of the word Nazi in order to refer to her critics and insist that it's fine to publicly process rape trauma like that (not to police rape victims or whatever but producing a context void comedy video about rape being funny cringe sucks like im sorry you got raped but why excuse the "paying it forward" as she would say?????).

basically not only does lindsay kinda bomb as a person but it sounds like she's not very good at handling the responsibility of being a public figure and needs a break. i think that she still has a lot of racism and queer phobia to work out. basically i hope that she takes her YouTube money and gets counseling

Lindsay Ellis mistook her middle eastern neighbor for another race to her face and in her apology deemed that not worthy of being "cancelled" lol to me that's pretty egotistical and racist. After her stupid "self report" video I stopped watching her. She's just a Midwestern white trash pile with red lips and a wasted degree

[mrmedia]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_S7YUrKDow)

TODAY'S GUEST: Richie Unterberger, author, "Bob Marley and the Wailers: The Ultimate Illustrated History”

I must admit that my knowledge of Bob Marley and The Wailers history is pretty limited.

The Jamaican-born singer and his band rose to prominence while I was in a too-damn-white-for-our-own-good high school, and he died suddenly while I was in college, before my five-year run as a rock music critic in the mid-1980s.

I knew his hits – “I Shot The Sheriff, “No Woman No Cry,” “Buffalo Soldier,” “Get Up, Stand Up,” “One Love/People Get Ready” and “Jamming” – most of which have since been co-opted by Madison Avenue for commercials.

That said, it made me quite eager to learn more about what I didn’t know, which, thanks to author Richie Unterberger and his new book, Bob Marley and The Wailers: The Ultimate Illustrated History, is quite a lot.

The book is packed with the requisite and little-known history of Marley and The Wailers, their discography, reviews of each Marley album, and the best part – for me at least – the ancedotes. Like Eric Clapton telling the story of the first time he spoke with Bob Marley, after the Brit covered “I Shot the Sheriff.” Or what happened to early Wailers record producer Leslie Kong.  

https://youtu.be/G_S7YUrKDow

[warsofasoiaf]

I've heard stories of pikemen fighting battles without plate armor, but based on what youve said, advancements in armor tech was a key reason why they were effective, so are these stories just ancedotes and empty boasts?

It depends on the era. Armor and pikes both have rises and falls throughout history, to credit the rise of one with another is an oversimplification. Pikes came back into vogue as a way to beat heavy cavalry and the rise of infantry, armor technology rose and fell based on the prevailing weapons doctrine. For example, the Macedonian phalanx was crippled by a lack of armor if someone got into melee on the flank.

It was desired for pikemen to have armor, certainly, as opposed to not having it. However, pikemen usually came from poor nobles and commoners. During the age, soldiers, usually, had to get by themselves armour and weapons, those with lesser money would have less armour.While they wanted cuirasses and helmets, many couldn’t afford them. Sometimes they had half-armor and tassets, sometimes they only had helmets, Scottish pikes sometimes went into battle with a rank of shieldbearers carrying four-foot pavises. The best armor was typically reserved for people with the ability to pay for it, who would typically act as cavalry (though they are terrifying dismounted, as we saw at Arbedo)

The Spanish tercio, actually differentiated between armored and non-armored pikemen, the latter of whom were placed in the middle. Typically commanders would put the ones with armor in the front ranks. Common armor was no good against bullets, you needed the finest steel, and that meant money. And as firearms technology got better and better, armor became less useful.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King