#I actually did a whole essay on this
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fandomsarefamily1966 Ā· 9 months ago
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amphibianaday Ā· 1 year ago
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day 1421
#uh just a heads up if you expand the tags to see all there's. a lot. very long#amphibian#frog#poison dart frog#based on my most popular frog to date (day 651)#inspired by everyone pointing out what they think it looks like#here's a fun secret fact the original guy is actually a phantasmal poison dart frog (Epipedobates tricolor)#(according to the original artists title of the drawing)#not Anthony's poison arrow frog (Epipedobates anthonyi)#i feel too awkward to really point it out though because they look the exact same. i cannot tell if there is a difference#im half convinced the same frog was just discovered and named twice#its very curious btw if you go on the (english) wikipedia page for either species it doesn't mention the other#while hereptiles.info (no idea if this is a trustworthy site) lists both names as common names for the same frog (incorrectly??)#while inaturalist lists them as two different frogs. curiously with tricolor having wayyyyy fewer photos#ok anyway that's my rant i went on a whole journey trying to figure out if these are the same frog or not and i have no answer#i did some more 'research' and i am more confused. some sources seem to imply they are now considered the same species ( e. tricolor)#i think my conclusion is i am willing to agree the drawing looks more like e. anthonyi. it seems like tricolor is generally less vibrant re#and the white is darker and more green?#i feel like thumblr should stop me from typing more in the tags at this point this is a whole essay#at this point i am failry convinced this is specifically the Santa Isabel frog. isthat the real subspecies or morph or whatever#or just the name pet sites are using to sell it??#i even found some sources (frog selling websites) refering to it as ā€œEpipedobates Anthonyi 'Santa Isabel' Phantasmal Poison Dart Frogā€ lol#Anyways if you read this far hi. species are confusing. i am not a frog scientist#the first few tags are like an hour old now i just kept trying to figure it out and adding more tags
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celebrimborium Ā· 4 months ago
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Stop fighting me and together, let us fight them.
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theodeckrs Ā· 4 months ago
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some of you moved on from this way too quickly. i, however, DID FUCKING NOT!!!
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maiumeni Ā· 2 years ago
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rin-solo Ā· 15 days ago
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These are all just really rough concept sketches but... My point is if I ever make a 600 Strike animatic, it will be so freaking unhinged
Ever since I wrote that essay about the vulnerability in this scene, I've been so normal about this scene, I swear (I say like a liar who lies very lyingly)
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bookwyrminspiration Ā· 1 month ago
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sisyphus moanin about that boulder when he doesn't even have to write a research essay with three strangers
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froschli96 Ā· 5 months ago
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You know what, fuck it, I have to speak my truth! (this is gonna be a rant, so anyone who actually likes assassin's creed revelations and/or the secret crusade, be warned or maybe don't read this at all)
remember how altaĆÆr talks to king richard at the end of ac1, and richard is like "[humans] come into the world kicking and screaming, violent and unstable. it is what we are. we cannot help ourselves."? and how altaĆÆr answers "no. we are what we choose to be." and how that ACTUALLY has meaning bc he himself was "violent and unstable" at the beginning of the game but he has learned and is now CHOOSING to be a better person who cares about others and humanity at large? remember how his calmness and gentleness was something that he ACQUIRED over the course of the story?
and remember how in revelations they then suddenly had a PRE-AC1 altaĆÆr say about the first of his targets "no man should pass from this world without knowing some kindness." and be all wise and calm and collected during a nice little chat with al mualim, who suddenly acts all fatherly? (like, this is suddenly supposed to be a positive relationship? what??)
also, during the confession the target says to altair: "you put too much faith in the hearts of men, altaĆÆr. [...] humans are weak, base, and petty." and altaĆÆr answers: "no. our creed is evidence to the contrary." KJASJFJDKL???? like, itā€™s almost insulting how close this exchange is to the one with richard. you know, the one that was actually earned after a whole game of character development. like WTF??? cool congrats now that development means nothing. like, apparently that was just altaĆÆr reverting BACK to being the exemplary assassin who understands and believes in the creed that he was apparently just born as. (i also hate how having a young inexperienced altaĆÆr saying this implies that altaĆÆr's faith in humanity is a sign of naivete instead of a sign of the wisdom he has gained after being confronted with counter arguments for a whole game, and also something that distinguishes the assassins from the templars who use humanity's supposed wickedness to justify controlling them like in AC1, but whatever)
altaĆÆrā€™s development in AC1 mattered BECAUSE he is not NATURALLY a good person, it actually said something about humanity's capacity for both bad AND good and how humans don't have to be forced to be good through mind control bc they can by their own free will choose to be better when taught how and when allowed the freedom to grow. but no. apparently altaĆÆr has just always been calm, wise and gentle. and he just sort of forgot about that during AC1 bcā€¦. ? bc of adha?? bc of abbas???
oh donā€™t get me started on the whole abbas thing. (it doesnt even make sense that abbas is so hung up about his father and "his familyā€™s honor", like what about the whole point of al mualim not allowing parents to be close to their children bc it would make them weak? like, my dude, youā€™re not supposed to HAVE any family aside from the brotherhood)
they used the throwaway character that had like 5 lines and made him into altaĆÆrā€™s main antagonist in revelationsā€¦ like, abbas wasnā€™t supposed to be this ONE dude who had personal beef with altaĆÆr, he was just supposed to show how while altaĆÆrā€™s revered by many, a lot of his brothers also hate him, bc 1) altaĆÆr is a shitty person at this point and 2) bc thereā€™s no real feeling of community and family in this version of the brotherhood, but just a pervasive sense of competition and jealousy ā€” these assassins donā€™t care about their goal of safeguarding humanity bc theyā€™re too hung up on petty squabbles and divided by rivalries (you know, the things that made malik hate altaĆÆr even before solomonā€™s temple and that he overcomes in the end which enables him to forgive and to reconcile with altaĆÆr so they can work together and stop al mualim? (you ever just think about "we are one. as we share the glory of our victories, so too should we share the pain of our defeat. in this way we grow closer. we grow stronger." and cry? bc i do. all the time. malik, the man that you are))
and now abbas is altaĆÆrā€™s childhood best friend turned lifelong enemy?? like, bowden bent over backwards to come up with an explanation for why altaĆÆr is an arrogant ass at the beginning of AC1, when the explanation is right there: he was raised to kill without asking questions and was constantly praised for how good he is at murder, which resulted in him becoming arrogant and disregarding human life. like, it doesnā€™t have to be some shakespearean family feud type shit. and guess what, this "simple" explanation actually plays into the storyā€™s themes, whoā€™da thunk!
(like, abbas might not have been a "fleshed out" character in AC1, but he had a specific function and now that function is gone. mr bowden, mr mcdevitt, you know characters are allowed to simply exist to tell us something about their worlds and the systems they live in and sometimes thatā€™s more important and also more interesting than having every single character have a detailed backstory to explain all their behaviors, right?)
with all of this revelations loses all nuance in regards to the levantine brotherhood and also the creed in general. like, altaĆÆr being a master assassin at the beginning despite being a terrible person and not actually understanding the creed is a criticism of the brotherhood and the creed itself. like, it said something about the order that someone like altaĆÆr was able to get that high in rank, simply bc he's good at killing, which also tells us what is considered important in the al mualim era assassin order. when you make altaĆÆrā€™s arrogance the result of his personal conflicts instead of how we was raised by a brotherhood that only valued one's ability to kill, you lose that characterization of the assassin order itself!
and by suddenly making al mualim a semi good "father figure" you also downplay his manipulation of not only altaĆÆr but all those under his care. (altaĆÆr says something about al mualim being "as a father" to him exactly twice in the codex, but he doesnā€™t mean by that that he WAS a father to him, what he means is that he was the CLOSEST THING he had bc HE DID NOT HAVE PARENTS, not because his mother died in childbirth and his father was executed when he was young btw, BUT BECAUSE IT WASNā€™T ALLOWED, like his parents actually lived but werenā€™t allowed to be close to him, he says he came to view al mualimā€™s "weak and dishonest" love as enough and even better BECAUSE HE HAD NOTHING ELSE, BECAUSE AL MUALIM ISOLATED HIS ASSASSINS FROM THEIR FAMILIES. al mualim "loved" him bc he was good at killing people for him! hm, i wonder if this could be trying to say anything about cults and indoctrination and the inherent contradiction in fighting for peace and free will by taking children away from their parents and raising them to become killers?? like, altaĆÆr wasn't ~the special orphan boy~ taken in by al mualim bc his father died a hero's death, it was "the way of the order" to have al mualim be the closest thing to a parental figure for everyone to ensure absolute loyalty! altaĆÆr saying al mualim was like his father is not supposed to make you go "oh, he must have actually been a good guy for altaĆÆr to consider him a father", it should make you go "oh that's kinda fucked up that he considers the dude who made him into a killing machine and who manipulated him a sort of father figure"!)
and then in revelations they suddenly portray that relationship as positive and healthy??? like, it would be one thing to give it some nuance by delving into the psychology behind al mualimā€™s "love" and maybe showing how al mualim did care about altair in a complicated, fraught sort of way (like, you know, thereā€™s a lot of interesting things you could say about al mualim at several points addressing altaĆÆr as "my child" in AC1 and how that parallels Garnier referring to the people he drugged and abused as his "children", and what that says about how the templars view the people who they say they want to save and in whose best interests they supposedly act (in any case, al mualim doesnā€™t use that phrase because he has any real parental feelings but rather to patronize and to invalidate any objections, like in a "mother knows best" way))
but they even fucking DARE to parallel that relationship with that of altaĆÆr and darim in revelations, by having the reflection in the puddle of darim hugging altaĆÆr showing altaĆÆr hugging al mualimā€¦. like their relationship wasnā€™t inherently abusive but just tragically cut short because al mualim was just "corrupted by the apple"ā€¦ like WHAT???? so itā€™s not the very real problems like grooming, manipulation and indoctrination and the hierarchical structure of the brotherhood itself (all of which are antithetical to the assassin ideology), it was just the evil apple all along. great. thatā€™s DEFINITELY a lot more interesting.
god im sorry i really dont want to spread negativity but this is driving me INSANE. like, somebody please tell me im not crazy bc i feel like somehow most of the fandom is in agreement that revelations and the secret crusade have better storytelling and characterization than ac1.
SPEAKING OF WHICH, can we talk about how, even IF we completely ignore AC1 and treat revelations altaĆÆr as his own characterā€¦. the narrative still doesnā€™t really work?
basically, the whole point of his story in rev is that "he gave his whole life to the brotherhood", this obsession led to him not using his time with his family which has him ending up dying alone in a dark library and this in turn makes ezio reevaluate his life choicesā€¦. except. he doesnā€™t? neglect? his family? or whatever? like, his devotion to the assassins is sort of painted as this tragic flaw that leads to a lonely death bc it supposedly comes at the cost of his family, butā€¦ his wife has joined the assassins, (at least) one of his sons is in the brotherhood and even when he goes to protect the assassins against the mongols, he takes his family with him (except for the son who stays behind bc he has a family of his own and who, ironically, ends up dying bc of that)ā€¦ like, you canā€™t describe altaĆÆr as a good husband and father in the database and have his son tell him that "everything that is good in me began with you, father" when they say goodbye, and then want to make us believe that he put his family behind the brotherhood and that that is a character flaw that leads to his tragedy.
because you HAVE to have a characterā€™s tragedy be the result of a character flaw. like. that is how tragedies work. otherwise it just becomes tragedy for the sake of tragedy which isā€¦ boring bc it has no purpose. and we know it is SUPPOSED to have purpose bc ezIO FUCKING QUITS BEING AN ASSASSIN AFTER WITNESSING IT!
itā€™s like they want to have their cake and eat it, too ā€” they didnā€™t want to actually make altaĆÆr a bad husband/father, but still wanted to make his life a tragedy where he loses his family which is why instead they outsource all responsibility to abbas who now has to be the reason for ALL the deaths.
like, they try to make at least mariaā€™s death kind of sort of the result of altaĆÆrā€™s rashness or whatever but likeā€¦ these guys KILLED THEIR SON and TOLD HIM THAT ALTAƏR HAD ORDERED HIS DEATH. like, altaĆÆr losing it in response to that is not rash, itā€™s fucking logical and justified! if anything the scene made me angry at maria for trying to stop him. like, GIRL, he was YOUR son too??? but god forbid we give female characters actual real emotions, she has to fill the role of "voice of reason who dies for altaĆÆrā€™s man pain" i fucking guess.
like, itā€™s this weird mix where his tragedy is simultaneously painted as his own fault but also not really bc abbas is the one responsible for all the shit that happens. it justā€¦ it just doesnā€™t really go together.
the only way to make his story make sense narratively and to give it actual purpose is by looking at it in the context of ezioā€™s story, bc the things he sees in altaĆÆrā€™s memories are supposed to be a revelation (ha!) to ezio specifically. and i guess thatā€™s maybe the crux of it all ā€” altaĆÆrā€™s story in revelations was conceived of first and foremost to support ezioā€™s story and development. which is probably also why many people maybe donā€™t notice bc, having skipped ac1 and started with ac2, the majority of people mostly care only about ezio and only really appreciate altaĆÆrā€™s story in as far as it serves to push ezio forward. (tho iā€™ve also seen a few people say that ezio is also written kind of weird in rev, but iā€™ve never really been an ezio girly myself so i canā€™t speak to the truth of that)
like, altaĆÆr dying alone in the library doesnā€™t really have to make sense for his character, i guess, bc itā€™s only really supposed to be a cautionary tale for ezio.
so, i guess, for once, they actually had a MAN dying for another manā€™s character development, which is pretty woke actually. ubisoft, i take everything back jksdsfjhgdsahfhsdhfghfdsgjhsdgjh
#assassins creed#ac1#altair ibn la'ahad#malik al-sayf#ezio auditore#asscreed#rant#long post#this is killing me#i even started rereading the secret crusade bc i thought maybe i remember it being worse than it is#but honestly its the opposite#even just the fact that in the secret crusade altair always says some last sentence after his targets' confessions#has me so irrationally angry aksjdfh#like over sibrands body he says something like 'may death be merciful' or something#like? did they want that to be like requiescat in pace or something???#like aside from the fact that altair WOULD NOT FUCKING SAY THESE THINGS#it also just destroys the tension built up by the target's last words#like... i do think it was very much on purpose that the target always had the last word in the confessions#sigh whatever its just a stupid video game from over 15 years ago who cares#(me. i care. unfortunately. i wish i didn't. send help please.)#also the fact that bowden just completely fucked up arabic naming conventions with the whole ā€œumar/darim ibn la'ahadā€ thing#(which is kind of an achievement considering that wasn't too great in ac1 to begin with)#tho bc of that they kind of inadvertantly ended up implying that roshan is altairs ancestor which i actually kind of like lol#anyways sorry for this giant wall of text#this is probably (definitely) the longest post i've ever made lmsadjf#but i do think i've gotten most of it off my chest.... maybe#maybe ill add stuff if i come across something else that makes me angry lol#sorry i know i promised an essay and instead delivered a rant#i just dont think i have the capacity to actually structure my thoughts any better kajdsf
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old-skyguy Ā· 4 months ago
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Look.
Ace Attorney fandom.
I know why people don't like Turnabout Bigtop. I am among the people who dislike Turnabout Bigtop.
But I GET why people like the case. I'm not going to be one of those annoying people who just blindly dump on it because I hate those mfs too.
Thing about Bigtop isn't that it sucks. Thing isn't the weird grooming stuff (though that is a huge part of it). It's not that it could've been good.
It's that - in my personal OPINION - it could have been *great*.
I think it had the potential to be one of the best third cases in the trilogy. It had everything; a fun and goofy setting fit for a pretty dang goofy lawyer game - where the environment itself had jokes and quips and one-liners and mishaps and tomfoolery written all over it, it had the previous case introducing a very interesting and important plotline that gave background for one of the more well-loved characters while also introducing an equally fucked up and lovable new one who was a child forced into a shit childhood of naivete in a CIRCUS with another character who was very naive and childish - whose interactions could have been funny and cute and reflective of said shit from the previous case (seriously she becomes such an important character in the 4th case, WHY would they not include her in this one for some character development? How did they fuck up letting a CHILD explore a CIRCUS?? That would have made the interactions flow MUCH better).
They had a pretty good, sympathetic killer imo, a morally dubious victim, an asshole of a client (who was pretty flat admittedly in-game, but I like his weird, topsy-turvy reasoning for it in the anime. Also, I think Max being kinda a dick would have bode well for the themes of Farewell since most of his clients up to this point have been like...nice? Not nice, but sympathetic, but him having to defend someone who's innocent but a prick would have shown him that just because someone is an asshole, doesn't mean they deserve to suffer for it and that they have the potential to grow as people, which is almost a complete foil to what Matt was. Ultimately, I would have loved the contrast of them as clients and I think it would have also served as character development for Phoenix, especially with his low-empathy tendencies).
They just didn't think that far ahead. They just didn't execute it well enough. They just decided to make three of the adult characters fight for the hand in marriage of a teenage girl. (Bat's part of the story was actually kinda good if he was just YOUNGER, I think him doing that for Regina would have been a stupid thing someone in the circus would do to impress their crush. Damn you Ace Attorney and your weird treatment of underage girls!!)
It just flopped and that's ok.
Even though it kinda sucked, it can still mean something to me.
Also I'm a Moe Curls apologist. I liked him, shut up.
#didn't care for the dialogue either.#DON'T GET ME STARTED ABOUT FRANZISKA DON'T DON'T DON'T DON'T DON'T YOU DARE GET ME STARTED#THIS CASE WAS SO GOOD FOR HER DEVELOPMENT THAT'S NOT EVEN A ā€œCOULD HAVEā€ THING#sure she could've been fleshed out a bit more#but the stuff we get from our interactions with her in this case is GOOD. SHIT. It's just that this case is so hated that it's overshadowed#and yeah. i like Moe Curls. i think he's cool and he added some flair in an otherwise bleak case.#i think his whole unfunny clown schtick was very entertaining. it reminded me of this one shel silverstein poem i loved as a kid#clooney the clown.#tbh ive wanted to rewrite Bigtop for a while now#get a script together and all that. but im an amateur writer who's burnt out as shit and never posts anything writing related#except analysis i get way too excited and proud of. oh well#maybe someday.#also rq why does every other tripple-a game get really good in depth analysis video essays#with their complex literary themes talked about#but with Ace Attorney - a game about reading longer than most books - half the fans have the absolute most dogshit literacy comprehension#it's actually painful. ESPECIALLY with Franziska's character#anyway i'll stop.#ace attorney trilogy#ace attorney#ace attorney justice for all#turnabout big top#franziska von karma#phoenix wright#phoenix wright ace attorney#pearl fey#farewell my turnabout#moe curls#regina berry#ig ore if this is incomprehensible i did not proofread this.#i simply do not like how fran's only traits to somea these mfs is ā€œannoying overemotional teenager haha grumpy whip ladyā€
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prolibytherium Ā· 2 months ago
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I never touched it but I feel like i only ever hear positive things said about song of achilles.. in (rough strokes at least) what makes it dogshit to you?
Okay it's been a while since I actually read it so some of this might not be spot on accurate. Sorry if at any point I say 'the book never does xyz' and it actually does once or twice but I think my underlying criticisms are accurate
-Patroclus is made into like this soft gentle tender quivering little yaoi boy. In the source text, he's shown as compassionate and moved by the suffering of his own men (and apparently having some medical skill, tending to the wounded in the camp), but very much invested n combat and very, very good at it (pages worth of descriptions of the guys he's killing left and right). In this, the arguably more complex character from this 8th century BC text is flattened into Being A Healer, he doesn't want to go to war he just wants to help people, he only goes because Achilles has to but he doesn't want to fight he's a HEALER he's a gentle lover NOT A FIGHTER who just wants to help he just wants to help everyone around him he HEALS while Achilles is a doomed warrior who is so good at fighting and KILLING its a DICHOTOMY GUYS!!!LIKE THE BEAUTIFUL SUN AND MOON DOOMED LOVERS SO SAD patocluse HEALER . (I Think he's specifically characterized as being BAD at fighting but might be misremembering)
-I don't remember much about Achilles' characterization I think it just makes him less of a jackass while not adding anything of interest and levels out into being mad boring.
-Not getting into the literal millenias old debate whether the mythological characters Achilles and Patroclus were being characterized as some type of lover by the original oral sources of the Iliad or its Homeric writers. We will never know. We don't even know what (if any) culturally accepted conventions of male homosexuality existed in bronze age Greece (we know much more about their descendants). But there are some interesting elements of their characterization in this direction, with how unconventional their relationship is WITHIN the text itself- Patroclus is described as cooking for Achilles and his guests (very specifically a woman/wife's job), Achilles chides Patroclus like a father, but there's also scene where Achilles' mourning of him directly echoes a passage of Hector's wife mourning her husband, Patroclus is explicitly stated to Achilles' elder, and is overall treated as his equal or near-equal, closest confidant and most beloved friend (to the point that pederastic classical Greeks would debate over who was erastes (older authority figure lover) and who was eromenos (adolescent 'beloved')- many took it as a given that this text depicted their present-day cultural norms of homosexual behavior but it existed so Outside of these norms that it had to be debated who was who). Their relationship is non-standard both within the text and to the descendants of the civilization that wrote them.
Basically what I'm saying is this book had opportunities to like, explore the unconventionality of the relationship (being presented here as explicitly lovers), explore the dynamics of why Patroclus wants to do 'women's work' (besides being a tenderhearted softboy), the weird dynamics where they take on paternal roles to each other but also roles of wives, how they feel about being this way, and just kind of Doesn't. Which I guess isn't an intrinsic fault (because it omits much of what I just talked about to begin with). it's just like.... Lame. This book takes jsut abandons everything interesting about the source text in favor of flattening it into bland Doomed Yaoi.
-The conflict that sets off the core story of the Iliad is Achilles and Agamemnon fighting over Briseis, an enslaved Trojan woman taken by Achilles as a war-trophy, Achilles spends most of the story moping because he was dishonored by his 'trophy' being taken. Achilles and Patroclus and everyone else are raping their captives, all the women in the story are either captured Trojans (or in the case of the free women within the walls of Troy, soon to be enslaved, and are slave owners themselves). Slavery as an institution and extreme patriarchal conventions are innate to the text and reflective of the context in which it was developed. You cannot avoid it.
But obviously you can't have your soft yaoi boys doing this, so the author has them capturing women to Protect Them from the other men. Their slaves are UNDER THEIR PROTECTION and VERY SAFE (and they might even Like And Befriend Them but I might be misremembering that. Briseis does though). Our heroes have apparently absorbed none of the ideals of the culture they exist in and the author seems to think "they're gay and aren't sexually attracted to their captives" would translate to them being outright benevolent (also as if wartime sexual violence is just about attraction and not part of a wider spectrum of violent acts to dehumanize and brutalize an accepted 'enemy')
In the source text, Briseis mourns Patroclus as being the kindest to her of her captors, who tried to get her a slightly better outcome by getting her married to Achilles (which probably would be the Least Bad of all possible outcomes for a woman in that situation, becoming a legal wife instead of a slave), and wonders what will happen to her now that he's gone. This is a really really sad, horrible, and compelling dynamic which could be fleshed out in very interesting ways but is instead is tossed entirely aside in favor of them being Besties. Like brother and sister.
All of the above pisses me off so much. If you don't want to engage in the icky parts of ancient/bronze age Greece then don't write a retelling of a story taking place in bronze age Greece. I'm not gonna get mad at children's adaptations of Greek myths or silly fun stories loosely based on them for omitting the rape and slavery but it is SO fundamental to the Iliad. If you're not willing to handle it, either fully omit it or better yet set your Iliad inspired yaoi in an invented swords-and-sandals setting where you can have all your heartbreaking tragic doomed lovers plot beats and not have to clumsily write around the women they're brutalizing.
-The author didn't seem to know what to do with Thetis and she made her just like, Achilles bitch mother who spends most of the story trying to separate our Yaoi Boys (iirc her disguising Achilles as a girl and hiding him on Scyros is made to be more about getting him away from Patroclus than trying to save her son from his prophesied doom in the Trojan War) until she sees how much they loooove each other and I think helps Patroclus' spirit get to the afterlife or something in the end?
-This is more of a personal taste gripe but it has that writing style I loathe where the prose feels less like a story and more like an attempt to string together Deep Beautiful Hard Hitting Poetic Lines that will look great as excerpts on booktok (might predate booktok but same vibe). It's all very Pretty and Haunting and Deep but feels devoid of real substance.
I really like The Iliad and The Odyssey in of themselves. They're fascinating historical texts that give a window into how 8th century BC Greeks told their stories, saw their world, interpreted their ancestors, etc. And genuinely I think these texts have 'good' characters, there's a lot of complexity and humanity to it.
WRT the Iliad- all of the main Achaeans are pretty fascinating, the one singular part where Briseis Gets To Talk and laments her situation is great, Achilles fantasizing that all of the Trojans AND the Achaeans die so he and Patroclus alone can have the glory of conquering Troy (wild), Achilles asking to embrace Patroclus' shade and reaching out for him but it's immaterial (and the shade being sucked back underground with a 'squeak' (the squeak kinda gets me it's disturbing and sad)), Hecuba talking about wanting to tear out Achilles' liver and eat it in a (taboo, exceptioally pointed) expression of rage and grief for his mutilation of her son's corpse, just one tiny line where the enslaved women performing ritual wailing for their dead captors are described as using it as an outlet to 'grieve for their own troubles' is heartrending, etc. A lot of grappling with anger and grief and the inevitability of death, a lot of groundwork laid for characters that could be very interesting when expanded upon in the framework of a conventional novel.
And Song Of Achilles really doesn't do much with all that. I know a lot of my gripes here are kind of just "It's different from the Iliad", I would have thought of it as mostly mediocre and forgettable rather than infuriating if it wasn't a retelling (and I DEFINITELY have strong biases here). But I think the ways in which it is different are less just a product of a retelling (of course there's going to be omissions and differences) and more a complete and utter disinterest in vast majority of its own subject matter, to the book's detriment. I think a retelling has a point when it EXPANDS on the source, or provides a NEW ANGLE to the source. This book doesn't Really do either, it just shaves off the complexity of its source material, renders the characters into a really boring archetype of a gay relationship, and gives very little else. Its content boils down to a middling tragic romance that has been inserted into the hollowed out defleshed skeleton of the Iliad.
Bottom line: I definitely would not be as mad about it if I wasn't familiar with the source material but I think it's fair to expect a retelling to Engage with/expand on its source, and I also think it's weak purely on its own merits. This book was set up to disappoint Me specifically.
#Sorry this turned into a 100000 word essay on The Iliad it can't be helped#I read Circe by the same author and thought it was like.. better? Definitely not great just less aggravating and kind of boring#Just rote 'you heard about this villainous woman from a Greek myth... Here's the REAL story' shit#It did have a few things I thought were good I remember it starting kind of strong and then just going limp for the remaining duration#I think part of it is that in that case she's expanding on a figure that Didn't have a whole lot of characterization in the source so#like. She had to actually Expand The Character#Again Silence of the Girls is the only Greek Mythology Retelling I have like....positive?.leaning positive? feelings towards#I've got BIG issues with it too but it does pretty much the exact opposite of everything I'm mad at SOA for and in some very#compelling ways (it's just that the author seems way more interested in Achilles and Patroclus than The Main Character Briseis#to the point of randomly starting to have Achilles POV interjections (which I thought were Good in of themselves but#really really really really really really really didn't need to be there) and then get kind of lampshaded by Briseis narrating 'I guess I#was trapped in Achilles' story the whole time lol!!!!!!')#It undermines the book on both a thematic level and just like. a construction level like it's real sloppy at times.#Also the Briseis POV sometimes has these like really out of place Author Mouthpiece Moments where she's very obviously#Stating The Point to the audience and it's like yeah we get it. We get it.#Wow in the scene were our mostly silent enslaved protagonist removes the gag from the mouth of a dead sacrificed girl as a#small but significant act of defiance and grieving in a book called 'Silence of the Girls' you inserted an ironic repeat of the line#'silence befits a woman'. in italics even. Thanks for that. I could not possibly have grasped the meaning of this scene if you didn't#spell it out for me like that. Thank you.#Actually hang on the only Greek mythology retelling I have unequivocally positive feelings for are the 'Minotaur Forgiving'#songs on 'This One's For The Dancer And This One's For The Dancer's Bouquet'. Fully love it. Like not just as songs I think it#does function well as a narrative and engages with and expands on the source in really beautiful and creative ways
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freshmangojuice Ā· 6 months ago
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The thing is... Ace has the same parents as Rimmer.
When he became successful, what do we think happened to their relationship?
Did they love him and treat him like they did his brothers, or even better? Did they still not see him as good enough? Did they continue to belittle him despite his success and heroics? Or did Ace grow to have enough respect for himself to cut them out of his life?
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unordinary-diary Ā· 4 months ago
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Blyke and John: the Followup
In my last entry, I pointed out the similarities between chapters 249 and 121, but I had hit the image limit and wasnā€™t able to embed screenshots. I got around this by linking the chapters, but this is probably my favorite parallel, and to do it justice I think I need to really put them next to each other.
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Itā€™s the same fucking scene but backwards and in a different font.
Theyā€™re the SAAAAAAAAAAME!!!!!!!!
This was definitely on purpose. Shit like this ^^ doesnā€™t happen by accident.
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dontlookforme00 Ā· 9 months ago
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This might be a little strange, but i wanted to post this here. It's the final piece for a topic I was doing in art, and the assignment was to make a cupcake in the style of Catherine Holman (artist we were studying) about something we liked! So I chose chonny jash fucking obviously. And here's the final product, all done with oil pastels, except the sprinkles.
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trash-can-sam Ā· 8 months ago
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What happens when your coworker kills your other coworker but both of you are in a relationship (kind of) with the same ethereal woman who had an admiration for said dead coworker.
+bonus Evandrey because itā€™s funny to me (Iā€™m sorry Eva.)
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#pathologic#pathologic 2#andrey stamatin#yulia lyuricheva#eva yan#evandrey#yulieva#evaandrey#Eva yahn#Andrei Stamatin#see I think that Eva is very okay with Eva being how she is- promiscuous and spreading her love (Maybe a little jealous but more rooted in#self loathing and insecurities)#and sheā€™s like look Iā€™m okay with this whole open relationship (technically we arenā€™t in a relationship even though I really want to be)#thing BUT why HIM. I have to work with him and heā€™s by far the worst man Iā€™ve ever worked with (besides maybe his brother because at least#Andrey actually talks but really theyā€™re a package deal anyways) I need to have meetings with him often and itā€™s horrendous every time#like spread your love itā€™s noble really.#I wouldnā€™t expect anything else from you#but maybe give him less heā€™s annoying as hell#I also think that sheā€™d figure out pretty quickly that Andrey and Peter killed Farkhad#just bcuz like. yk sheā€™s there. sheā€™s seen the already shaky relationship crumble beyond repair. sheā€™s seen them argue in meetings.#she knows the stamatwins are not above murder. especially for art. and sheā€™s clever.#And andrey knows that so he doesnā€™t try to hide it. she doesnā€™t have recourse anyways-#the kains (who I think helped cover up the murder) employ her too#and andrey respects her to a degree- he assumes sheā€™ll see reason.#and honesty. Yulia might be upset that Andrey killed one of the only other architects but also she does not miss him that much.#sheā€™s like I donā€™t agree with this whole murder thing but you are kind of right he had to go he was getting on my nerves#the meetings will be 10x more tolerable now that the twins canā€™t argue with him about things that arenā€™t even real#itā€™s awful but it did drive Eva further into my arms so necessary evils.#my art#sorry for the essay in the tags.
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semperama Ā· 3 months ago
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When Lena confronts Eddie in Malfunction, because Eddie says, "I thought we were friends," and Lena is like "I know all this shit you're going through, like your dead wife and your kid, and you don't even know if I have a cat or not," but this whole time Eddie is hiding what he's going through and how he's feeling from Buck........this is something, right? Something about how he can't bring himself to open up to Buck because he's afraid of what that vulnerability might lead to, versus dumping it all on a near stranger who he doesn't have to worry will actually try to care too much about him.
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steinwayandhissons Ā· 1 year ago
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arctic monkeys and every time the word ā€˜loveā€™ is mentioned
whatever people say I am thatā€™s what Iā€™m not
tonight thereā€™ll be some love, tonight thereā€™ll be a ruckus yeah regardless of whatā€™s gone before
~ view from the afternoon
oh there ainā€™t no love, no montagues or capulets
~ i bet you look good on the dancefloor
all thatā€™s left is the proof that loveā€™s not only blind but deafā€¦ yeah Iā€™d love to tell you all my problem
~ fake tales of san francisco
she makes a subtle proposition, Iā€™m sorry love Iā€™ll have to turn you down
~ when the sun goes down
lady, where has your love gone, i was looking but canā€™t find it anywhere, they always offer when thereā€™s loads of love around but when youā€™re short of some itā€™s nowhere to be found
~ no buses
well how can you wake up with someone you donā€™t love and not feel slightly phased by it
~ leave before the lights come on
favourite worst nightmare
itā€™s wrong wrong wrong but weā€™ll do it anyway cause we love a bit of trouble
~ balaclava
and those dreams werenā€™t as daft as they seem, arenā€™t as daft as they seem my love
~ fluorescent adolescent
thereā€™s room for the trouble and thereā€™s lovers to be had
~ this house is a circus
itā€™d be a big mistake for you to wait and let me waste your time, really love itā€™s fine, I said really love itā€™s fine
~ the bad thing
old yellow bricks, loveā€™s a riskā€¦ houdini love you donā€™t know what youā€™re running away from
~ old yellow bricks
another roll around and another push and shove, further away from the idea of love
~ da frame 2r
the more you keep on looking the more itā€™s hard to take, love weā€™re in stalemateā€¦ youā€™re slacking love where have you been
~ the bakery
am I too quick to assume that the love is no longer in bloom
~ too much to ask
humbug
i had a hole in the pocket of my favourite coat and my love dropped into the lining
~ i havenā€™t got my strange
suck it and see
i wanna feel your love brick by brick
~ brick by brick
do you still feel love is a laserquest or do you take it all more seriouslyā€¦ when Iā€™m not being honest I pretend that you were just some lover
~ love is a laserquest
your love is like a studded leather headlock
~ suck it and see
jealousy in technicolour, fear by name, love by numbersā€¦ crushing up a bundle of love
~ thatā€™s where youā€™re wrong
before she showed you how to shake loveā€™s steady hand
~ the blonde o sonic shimmer trap
your loveā€™s not what I need, so donā€™t give it to me
~ evil twin
am
itā€™s not like Iā€™m falling in love I just want you to do me no goodā€¦ the look of love, the rush of blood
~ no.1 party anthem
love buckles under the strain of those wild nights
~ mad sounds
I heard that you fell in love, or near enough
~ snap out of it
love like locked horns, love like dominoesā€¦ love like thunder, love like falling snow
~ electricity
I know youā€™re nothing like mine cause sheā€™s walking on sunshine and your love would tear us apart
~ youā€™re so dark
tranquility base hotel and casino
love came in a bottle with a twist off cap, letā€™s all have a swig and do a hot lapā€¦ but itā€™s alright, cause you love me
~ star treatment
when true love takes a grip it leaves you without a choice
~ golden trunks
pattern language in the mood for love
~ the worldā€™s first ever monster truck front flip
I wanna stay with you my love, the way some science fiction does
~ science fiction
the dawn wonā€™t stop weighing a tonne, Iā€™ve done some things that I shouldnā€™t have done, but I havenā€™t stopped loving you once
~ the ultracheese
the car
lights out on the wonder park, your saw toothed lover boy was quick off the mark
~ jet skis on the moat
put your heavy metal to the test, there might be half a love song in it all for you
~ mr schwartz
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