#I could have cited my information much more it's true

[kinomiakai]

Hi! Do you think making Sasuke stay in Konoha is ooc? Why or why not because there are so many fanfics that go like Naruto brings Sasuke back in the village he's either imprisoned or rendered unable to use his powers and somehow persuaded to stay in the village and not enough Naruto and Sasuke leave the village together exploring the world trying to help other villages and connect with people that share similar experiences with them while also developing their own relationship together. I don't know this feels more true to their characters. Also would this be something you'd like to explore in your future stories? Love your writing!

Hey anon!! I love this phrasing like an essay question hahaha okay okay lemmie get some brainstorming started

So first off, I’ve written both of these! Not the imprisonment scenario specifically, but I do have some fics with Sasuke in Konoha. So I don’t think it’s ooc, necessarily. I definitely think of the two choices, it’s the tougher one to write - you really have to work on justifying it in Sasuke’s head. Sasuke staying in Konoha, to me, relies on probably one of two things: (1) the world can’t change without his help, and he’s ready to help it again, and/or (2) Konoha is unrecognizable as what it once was, and now Sasuke sees it as another place entirely. I did a mix of those in Rebuilding; [SPOILERS if you haven’t read it] they do go travelling at the end, but they also have a house in Konoha, and Sasuke reconnects to the Uchiha compound. Naruto also really needs his help, as the person leading the charge—and Sasuke not only sees that he’s trying & struggling, but he knows Naruto can do it. In the fic, anyway. So that’s a way I think it can work; Sasuke hates Konoha but I don’t think his desire to change the ninja system is gone or anything. I think he’d either want to be 100% out of the loop, or find it really, really hard not to get involved, because anything that stalled Naruto’s efforts or what have you would infuriate him.

And I think this debate/choice is especially tough for them as a pairing, because either Sasuke needs manage to be okay with Konoha (which, in canon, he really really isn’t), or Naruto needs to be able to detangle himself from Konoha (which, in canon, he really really can’t). This is part of the reason my canonverse fics end up being so long lmao. It takes so much development to get anywhere!!!

But yeah, I’ve done both and I think both can work. It’s a really interesting challenge to try to tackle, too. Right now I’m tackling more of them being out, travelling together in Two is a Crowd - I feel like I’ve being going that route a lot recently, but it does still involve exploring Sasuke’s relationship with Konoha a lot. Especially because Naruto tends to be the Hokage, or getting ready to be, etc etc. It’s pretty hard to try and write Sasuke healing without dealing with the absolute hatred & fury he’s carrying around in some shape or form. And it’s not that much of a jump for the next step to be him being able to go there as part of the healing process, and maybe he's just thrown in head first by being imprisoned and is forced to confront his hatred all at once - that could happen. It'd be a really intense bit of time for him and probably involve a lot of breaking down, but if something could convince him to breathe for a little while and focus on the parts of his life that aren't bringing back trauma long enough to prove that Konoha is changing or something like that - yeah, I could see that. And you know, now that I think about it, I did start writing something like that years ago! It's in my notebook somewhere. It's basically just the start where Sasuke is absolutely furious & lashing out at everything hahaha. Can't blame him! I never finished it though. It'd be a much more intense & less peaceful sort of process for sure, but it could work.

This is a bit of a wishy-washy answer hahaha, but I'm a big believer in being able to make almost anything work with enough justification & development within the story. I think that's part of the fun. So something really tough, like making Sasuke okay enough with Konoha to happily live there, is totally a challenge I'd love to see tackled. Does that make sense? Does this all make sense? I'm rambling at you now.

But thank you for this, and thank you so much! I’m really glad you like my writing!! <3 <3 I hope this answered your question!

[cosmerelists]

The Shallan and Wit Podcast Presents: Insane Conspiracy Theories of Roshar

What do you mean they don't have podcasts on Roshar?

1. Conspiracy Theory #1: Adolin was replaced by a body double after the 4 v. 1 duel

Shallan: Oh, this is a fun one! Shallan: According to some conspiracy theorists, Adolin--my husband--actually died of injuries after his four versus one duel, and after that he was replaced by a body double. Wit: A good story, Shallan, but what is their so-called evidence? Shallan: Well, apparently the time he spent in "prison" after the duel was actually the time it took for him to die of his injuries, be buried, and for them to find a suitable body double. Shallan: People also claim that the new "Adolin" is far different from his predecessor, citing things like him actually getting married--ouch--and the fact that he acted out by killing a highprince, perhaps because the body double is not totally stable. Plus, people claim that his brother Renarin has since gotten weirder, possibly because he knows the truth and it's killing him. Wit: Well, as the wife of the potential body double in question, what do you have to say to these theorists, Shallan? Shallan: How dare you--I'M the one with body doubles!

2. Conspiracy #2: There was no Assassin in White

Wit: This theory actually comes in two flavors. Wit: Some claim that there simply never was an "Assassin in White" and that King Gavilar was killed by his inner circle--perhaps even by his brother Dalinar. Shallan: Gasp! Wit: Others buy that SOME killings were done by the assassin, but claim that many other high-profile killings were simply pinned on him! Basically, that it was an assassination free-for-all where you could easily get away with murder just pinning it on Szeth! Shallan: I mean, if you wanted to get away with murder, it's not a bad play...but what do you think? Wit: Met the guy. He readily admits to doing all of it. Shallan: Puts a crimp in the theory...if you believe an assassin! Wit: Dum, dum, DUM! Wit: Anyway.

3. The Plague in the Purelake was caused by ALIENS

Shallan: So there really was a plague in the Purelake--that much is true--but some people claim that it's not a natural plague, that it was caused...by aliens! Wit: As in...visitors from another planet? Shallan: Yes! Wit: Oh, well that one's true. Shallan: ... Wit: Worldhoppers. Shallan: Oh. Wit: Yup. Shallan: Score 1 for the conspiracy theorists, I guess!

4. Conspiracy Theory #4: Gavilar and Dalinar are the same person.

Wit: It's another one about your inlaws, Shallan! Shallan: Yay? Wit: This conspiracy theory holds that Gavilar and his brother Dalinar are in fact the same person! Wit: In his guise as Gavilar, he played the wise king, but when he wanted to let loose and bring bloody vengeance, he became "Dalinar." Shallan: Again, I'm the one who is multiple people! It feels like sexism somehow that it's all the men who are assumed to be, like, body doubles and fake people. Wit: You're probably right. Shallan: Anyway, I'll be interested to hear the evidence seeing as Dalinar and his brother were, like, seen together. A lot. Wit: Eh, "body double" explains that away. As for why people think this is true--well, it is apparently because it "explains so much." Why did Sadeas and Dalinar have a falling out? Because Sadeas knew the truth and didn't want to hide it any more. Why did Sades become the Highprince of Information? To signal that he had information that others needed to know. Why was Sadeas killed? Because he knew the truth, once again. Why did Navani marry her husband's "brother"--well, because she just missed him after having to pretend he was dead! Shallan (sarcastically): Well, I'm convinced. Wit: So compelling to be sure.

5. Conspiracy #5: Super-intelligent cremlings can imitate humans!

Shallan: For the final conspiracy theory of today's podcast, let's talk about all of Roshar. Apparently, there are people everywhere who aren't people at all--they're masses of cremlings pretending to be a person! Shallan: Literally ANYONE you meet could actually be BUGS! Wit: Ridiculous! Shallan: Yeah...this one is a little bit silly. Wit: The Sleepless are made of hordelings, not cremlings, and there's just not that many of them. The odds of your average person meeting one are simply not that high. Shallan: Wait...this one is true too? Wit: I just said it wasn't (quite)! Shallan: Trying to get a conspiracy started about yourself, I see. Wit: It's of course my dream.

[headspace-hotel]

further thoughts on modern extinctions of species

The scientists have a great difficulty laid out for them, doing public messaging about climate change/biodiversity loss that communicates the urgency and importance WITHOUT inducing a panic and helplessness that leads to apathy and shut-down (exactly what is seen in many young people in regards to climate change)

Now we all probably know here that it is really important for scientists to do "obvious" "water is wet" type studies showing something is a problem, even if the problem is obvious to anybody with eyes, because then the study can be used as hard evidence to change policies or to inform skeptics.

However sometimes these studies themselves end up becoming "Obvious" facts.

Because they are so important, they get cited a thousand times, and it becomes so seemingly reliable, that the methodology of the studies is not questioned very much.

It's not necessarily that the studies are even wrong—it's that their conclusions become Facts when the original study would only say "probably true under these specific circumstances" or "likely if measured within these parameters" or "suggested by what little evidence we can gather."

Here is one of those facts:

We know that abuse and misuse of our ecosystems can cause extinctions. But there needs to be hard evidence backing that up.

"The current extinction rate is over 1,000 times the usual background extinction rate" is an important estimate for understanding the magnitude of the damage deforestation, resource extraction, and other over-exploitation do to ecosystems.

But this estimate has become a Fact. It is treated like a black box. It is so widely cited and in particular it is so commonly used as evidence for the idea that human impacts on the Earth are irreversibly and unfixably destructive. People use it as irrefutable proof that we are in the midst of a mass extinction that we have very little chance of stopping. And that makes people feel hopeless...which makes people paralyzed and much less likely to act on behalf of their ecosystems. "We're all going to die! I can barely do anything, and it's unlikely to make a difference anyway. Why bother?" That's not good.

So...Here's an article that explains how this number is reached.

When bryozoans were my special interest I delved really deep into learning about fossils, and because of this I wondered, "How do we even know the background extinction rate, and how do we know there is a normal baseline for Earth's extinction rates?" The article explains:

I'm having a hard time finding very many articles about this, actually, if anyone has others, I would enjoy seeing them

So here's the thing...the fossil record is really, really, really, really, really low resolution. Fossilization is an extraordinarily rare event, huge periods of time are totally missing from the fossil record in any given place, and...this is just me, but since many living species can only be distinguished from each other by analyzing their genome, I doubt we could tell for sure if two fossils are the same or different species.

The way biodiversity is structured on Earth, there are usually small areas where large amounts of species diversify, often areas that are unique and isolated in some way. In other words, some areas are hotspots for species diversity. Many species on Earth have incredibly small, restricted ranges. (On top of that, these diversity hotspots are often islands or mountains...which seem unlikely to be areas where sedimentary rock deposition is happening.)

Since fossilization is such an unlikely event, and the fossil record is missing most of the time periods for each place because sedimentary rocks just weren't forming there (or they did and later got eroded), fossils probably preserve more wide-ranging, generalist species that were high in abundance. There must have been tons of weird, highly geographically restricted places like the Galápagos islands where bizarre creatures evolved and were never preserved because it was just a tiny area. (This makes me want to cry if I think about it too long.)

What's more, with vertebrate animals, species that fossilize and get easily noticed as fossils, tend to be larger-bodied, and larger animals generally tend to reproduce more slowly, which means the usual speciation and extinction rate for these larger animals might not reflect the speciation rate for, say, spiders or snails.

How is it determined that a taxon went extinct? Basically, when a taxon appears in the fossil record and seems to disappear, that's considered an extinction. However, that doesn't mean it did go extinct then. Maybe its range just became smaller, or maybe there is an unconformity. We could have a Coelacanth situation.

What I'm saying is...the fossil record is only a tiny bit of all the species that have ever existed, and probably wildly misrepresents the range of species evolving and going extinct at any time.

Now consider that the data is being filtered through something else that distorts it even more: databases and compilations of other scientists' works. So many disagreements and little errors pop up when you try to synthesize these!

All of these reasons are why I think "There is NO WAY we could estimate accurately what the average extinction rate for Earth is." Which is why it's frustrating to see the "1000x the background extinction rate" number treated like a rigid fact.

It's supposed to communicate that a lot of species have gone extinct in a relatively short period, I don't think it can be extrapolated the way it has been, to an irreversible and indescribably dire situation where the destruction of the biosphere is far beyond anything that can be fixed.

Here's the other part of this conclusion I find frustrating: How the current extinction rate is being calculated. It is based upon double and triple digits of species in each group (of vertebrate animals) having gone extinct both since 1900 and since 1500. Essentially, it uses these numbers from the vertebrate animals we know about that have gone extinct to extrapolate about the general overall extinction rates on Earth.

Articles and books that use this "1000x the usual background rate" statistic present it as some kind of ongoing process that is ruthlessly proceeding forward as we speak. But it is derived from scientists going, well, we predicted 1 or 2 extinctions for every 10,000 species per 100 years, but 100-something went extinct since 1900 that we know of, so this means the "current extinction rate" has changed to be a thousand times what it was.

I'm not great with math. But these numbers seem...coarse. Does that make any sense? The species that went extinct are each specific cases that we know about, and when you take these individual cases and multiply them by big numbers and divide those big numbers to get something like "20 species are going extinct every day!!" that seems wildly irresponsible. People are reading that and thinking, "Oh God, every single day more frogs and fishes and bees are gone forever" when there was such a large margin of error involved in each step of getting there that the final number is almost worthless.

And here's the BIG, HUGE, MASSIVE PROBLEM: The study treats the "extinction rate since 1900" as the same as "extinction rate today." The design of the study totally disregards ALL CONSERVATION EFFORTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIONS because it assumes that human impact on the environment in all times since 1900 is the same as human impact on the environment today.

It is baked into the design of the study that the conclusions will assume wildlife conservation is happening to a much lesser degree than it actually is, because it uses the time when there were no protections for wild creatures or consequences for slaughtering them in mass numbers and dumping toxic deadly chemicals in waterways to draw its conclusions on what's happening "Now."

Environmental damage is still continuing, but it is not right to terrify people by treating species extinction as a steadily ongoing thing that has "risen" since 1500 because of broad forces that have stayed totally consistent, rather than something that happened for specific reasons in each case and can be prevented from happening. I have no doubt that species are still going extinct, but so many have been saved and are recovering, and it really matters that effort has been put into preserving them.

[a-book-of-creatures]

What notable books (or author) on folklore and/or mythology would you consider to have reliable info, and which ones definitely don't? It's a broad ask, but what are the first names that come to mind?

Very good ask! I'll try to see if I can put my thoughts in words, but if you need any further examples or evaluations let me know.

Here's a general rule: primary sources are Good. Books that directly reference primary sources are Good. The more distance between a book and the primary source, the less reliable it gets. Always ask yourself, where is this book getting its information from? How does it present this information? If you're not dealing with primary sources, always check to see how information is presented and where possible errors could creep in.

For example...

Books like these are the gold standard for reliability. If I was handing out ratings, they would score a perfect 5 out of 5. Everything is extensively cited (the second book is practically all citations). You can't go wrong with these.

In general the more specialized a book is, the more reliable it is. So the excellent Meeting With Monsters gets a very respectable 4.5 out of 5. Very detailed info just about Icelandic monsters. Why not 5? The authors engage in some speculative creature building where they treat the monsters as real animals and invent features for them (the hrosshvalur has dorsal spines teeming with bacteria that infect the wounds it causes, for instance). But these are restricted to marginal notes and do not interfere with the actual information.

More general books generally get less reliable. Again, ask, where are those sources? What are they?

This one is often held up as the encyclopedia of mythical creatures currently in print. It's a decent starting point to start looking for things. It has sources and each entry is linked to its sources. The entries are written in a dry, concise encyclopedic style. But it relies far too much on second and third (and fourth, etc) hand sources. Scratch a little past the surface and you start finding weird mistakes, errors, inaccuracies. Snowballing misinformation. I would consider this to be of average reliability at best. A 2.5 out of 5 or so. Best used as a suggestion to dig into deeper, better things.

This one is a broad introduction to dragons, but instead of an encyclopedia, each "entry" (chapter?) is presented as a retelling of that story. And with that comes very low reliability and heavy use of secondary sources. The retellings make stuff up that isn't anywhere in the originals and miss a lot of the point of the stories - and spread misinformation that continues to propagate online. Also there's plenty of cryptozoology in there so eeehhhh.

This one is obviously aimed at a younger audience, but I'm mentioning it because of one amusing detail. It seems to be a good introduction for children to dragon mythology. Except it presents with a straight face the marsupial dragon as a dragon from Australia. The marsupial dragon, you know, which was written into Dragonology as a joke? And Dragonology wouldn't even have made my primary-source-reliability anyway! Some due-diligence was not duly diligenced, if I may say so.

Then there are books that are just... confusing.

Like anything by Pierre Dubois. On the surface they seem well-researched. But the references and cross-references are more opaque than... uh... a very opaque thing. He clearly has a lot of them, but it's anyone's guess where the information he got came from (no cross-referencing, you see). Combine that with him just making stuff up to pad page numbers and it's never clear what is "true" and what he wrote (and some of it is distasteful, not going to lie). Sometimes he even misses the interesting part of legends just to write his own stories. The most charitable take is that this is literary fantasy, and maybe what he's said can be traced to actual reliable folkloric sources, but after having used him as a source of information I cannot recommend him. You could also argue that Dubois never does claim that this is a scholarly reference, but it sure is presented as one.

I have so far restricted myself to books that claim (or seem to claim) to be references on myth, legend, and folklore. Books that engage in speculative "creature building" (e.g. Dragonology, The Flight of Dragons, etc) would not be reliable as references, but they're still great books. You just wouldn't use them as sources of information.

... or would you? Sometimes non-reference books get treated as such, and then the information they made up gets reified by being parroted uncritically by later books. Like Woodruff's book above. A fake "long-lost expedition journal" by Pliny the Elder, it's an excuse for (gorgeous) art and Latin practice. Except that some of the made-up stuff in there found its way out of the book and - uncited - ended up in supposedly serious works. Like the Pyrallis being a dragon, or the two-headed Hyperborean frogs. Confusing. It even got a minor news mention because people were taking it seriously!

Anyway, how about you? Any books you find reliable or unreliable?

[yumeka-sxf]

My thoughts on Spy x Family: EYES ONLY Guidebook (English ver) - part 2

Continuing from my previous post about the English version of the SxF manga guidebook "EYES ONLY," today I'll be going over Endo's interviews, as well as showing my favorite "fun" page spreads!

Endo's interviews with his editor Lin and other manga-ka

First off, let's address the elephant in the room: as some of you may have heard, a horrendous clickbait article was released a while back citing an interview from this book (when it was only in Japanese). The article claims that Endo states in the interview that he doesn't like Anya or any of the other SxF characters. Thankfully u/fuyukochii on Reddit had provided an unofficial translation of the interview, so most fans were able to see that this article was bogus. And now we have the official translation as further proof...

Lin, Kato, and Amu are teasing Endo about the fact that he tends to not draw handsome men ("ikemen") in his series. So when he finally did with Loid's design, they joking applaud this big sacrifice he made, to which Endo replies (again, jokingly) that this compromise to his preferred style is why he has no emotional attachment to his characters. Again, all the "laugh" and "clap" interjections in this exchange make it clear that they're all joking around. The article took this statement of his completely out of context and twisted the "no attachment" wording to mean total dislike. It's unfortunate, but false information gets published like this all the time, and often for more dire issues than a manga fanbook. But it seems like a lot of fans didn't fall for the clickbait, which is good. And now everyone who reads the book officially in English can see that there's no way someone like Endo who has such dedication to his craft could downright dislike it.

Moving on, I totally agree with Nishimori, Kato, and Amu's praise for Endo's work in the below exchanges…

The trait SxF has that they convey here is "balance:" balance between making its world believable, with enough serious conflict so that we care about what's at stake, but at the same time, stretching the veil of realism a bit to have comedic moments. There's also great balance to the characters in that none of them are totally good or totally bad, but because we know what's going on in their world and why they do the things they do (like what Nishimori mentioned about the scene with Loid), we can still sympathize with them.

Going along with that thought, Endo's responses on the below page further illustrates his balance between "dark" and "comedic."

I like how he says that he's not interested in grotesque violence as much as dark themes of the psychological kind…the dark side of humanity more than visual depictions of violence. We can see this in how he portrays the serious moments in SxF where, instead of showing actual horrific scenes of war, the focus is instead on the psychological impacts that war has had on the characters. Likewise, he mentions how perhaps "the comedic nature of their (the characters') daily lives is rooted in the severity of their reality." It's said that within comedy there's often some form of tragedy, and I think SxF is a good example of this as so much of the comedy has its roots in the darker aspects of life, like the fact that the characters have to lie about their true identities. But at the same time, Endo mentions that he doesn't want to shy away from the sad reality of war, which was a big driver for why he made the cruise arc. And again, his intention was not to show any kind of "good vs evil" thing, but simply what motivates people to do extreme things in times of war. His quote about how he never intended to show the Forgers as a completely righteous family is something I knew about before and I think is very poignant. It harkens back to what I discussed before about balance and the fact that his characters aren't shown as completely good or completely bad.

On a related note, in the below comment, Endo acknowledges that Loid and Yor have "darker sides."

It's cool that he likes drawing those expressions. It seems like he makes a conscious decision to show their "darkness" at the right times.

It's also very interesting that so many elements of SxF were decided last minute, as mentioned on the below page.

I can't believe Anya being telepathic was decided on so late! Considering it's such a big player in the series' humor, that's very surprising. But Endo does admit on this same page that he hadn't planned out the story at all. Since he had only done short/one-shot series up to that point, I'm sure he wasn't expecting SxF to continue on that long. But once it became so popular, he had to keep fleshing out the story and characters, probably beyond what he originally thought. But considering how little he had come up with for the series initially, he's done a fantastic job keeping up its quality and continuity. It really was some crazy mix of timing, talent, and perhaps a bit of luck, that turned a series with no long-term planning and so many last minute decisions into such a hit.

Other parts of the interview highlight just how dedicated Endo is to his research and how he agonizes over the fact that he may have been inconsistent with something.

I also have to say that as I read through all of Endo's interviews and comments in this book, I admire how down-to-earth he is. Like, rather than sugarcoat things, he just says it like it is, for example, he said he doesn't reveal new character names that often because it's a hassle to come up with them (pg179), how he didn't give any thought to Anya's pink hair besides it being "cute" (pg181), how it's a lot of work to draw characters in a variety of clothes (pg178), and how the main emotion he feels with SxF getting an anime series is "tired" (pg174). But there's often a "laugh" interjection in many of these interview answers, so we know his comments aren't to be taken that seriously!

And here's his message to readers at the end of the interview. Definitely not the words of a man who dislikes his story and characters.

My favorite "fun" pages of the book

Since the Endo interviews were pretty heavy, I'll finish up this post with the lighter topic of highlighting my favorite funny page spreads in the book!

First off is a spread featuring all of Yor's cooking!

The sarcasm for these meal descriptions is hilarious, lol. And what was that dessert Yor made at the end of the cooking lesson chapter? Guess we'll never know.

The next spread from Anya's POV about her made-up spy group "P2" is absolutely adorable.

I love how they included all her mispronunciations of words. Also her calling Fiona "Agent Mean Lady," lmao!

And lastly, Yuri's collection of Yor photos (made with Anya's help!)

This is all just 4th-wall breaking fun as obviously no one was taking photos at these moments in canon, so Endo could just roll with the joke. Anya's inclusion in this whole gag is too good, from Yuri calling her an "unnamed collaborator" to her "Paparotsies, eat your heart out!" And I absolutely love her comment at the end about how she can't show Yuri some of Yor's less attractive expressions, lol. Pure SxF comedy gold.

I'll have one more post of EYES ONLY content coming soon, so stay tuned!

Continue to Part 3 ->

<- Return to Part 1

[infriga]

To add to the discussion about plagiarization and misinformation, one thing I know that can contribute to complacency is how much time and effort it can take to fact check everything you watch. That's daunting for most people, let alone people who don't have as much experience with it or who deal with disabilities and executive dysfunction.

But there are some things you can do to minimize damages that are easier to manage on a more individual basis.

You don't have to necessarily fact check every single thing every creator says in every video in order to make sure they're 100% legit every time. I know not everyone has the mental bandwidth to do that sort of thing constantly. Generally it's okay to just practice some mindfulness and not blindly trust someone if you haven't vetted their claims personally.

What you can do is fact check yourself. Don't repeat stuff you hear from a video as if it is a fact unless you have looked into it yourself first to confirm that what the video said about it is true and that their sources are good. And if you source someone make sure you've vetted them specifically and checked their own sources on that particular topic or bit of information (and check that they even HAVE sources to begin with and aren't just copying their sources verbatim). You can't source every video essay you ever watch or check every single one for plagiarism, but you can source yourself and what you say, and make sure you're not spreading bullshit or citing the wrong person. If you find that you don't have the energy to do even that much in a given moment, then just keep the information in question to yourself for the time being until you do have the energy to verify it.

And some stuff that's generally just good practice: if it's a topic that you're particularly interested in, it's a good idea to seek out more than one video about it from more than one creator. The more diverse your sources of info on the topic the better, especially if you seek out more than just the popular stuff. Get a broader picture of it from a wide variety of people from a wide variety of demographics. It's a lot easier to spot stuff like plagiarism if you're looking at more than just one or two channels, and even if you don't spot it, because they're often good at hiding it, you at least can make sure that you're giving more obscure creators the same attention as well instead of only defaulting to the most popular wide-spread creators and content.

Seeking out more than one type of medium is usually a good idea as well. I know reading stuff like written papers or essays or books on a topic can be difficult for some people, but if you can manage it even just occasionally then branching out every once in a while is still worth doing because it gets you out of one particular information sphere and into another, reducing the chances of an echo chamber effect. If you can't bring yourself to do that much homework on a topic, then again remember to keep in mind that your knowledge about it is limited and could be wrong, and don't spread that info without doing your own research first. Videos are not inherently a bad way to learn about stuff, papers or books can be wrong, and plagiarized, and badly sourced, and can spread misinformation too, my main point is that it's good to avoid having your information come to you through a single choke point if you can help it.

It can be exhausting trying to hold every online creator accountable on an individual basis, I get that, so I don't expect everyone to extensively peer review every channel they ever watch, but at the end of the day you can at least make sure to try and hold yourself accountable first and foremost.

[questforgalas]

Thank you for coming back

Notes: So once again, @zaana's incredible art lived rent free in my head until I put it down on paper. So here's a delightful AU where Crosshair doesn't get sent to Tantiss because guess who gets to him first? Chose to do a rescue from Barton IV because Cross is in his imperial armor in the art, and I thought "Hey, let's maybe give him a break and not make him go through torture before he's rescued?" Neat idea, right? Let's tell Jen and Brad

WC: 3K (lol this was going to be a drabble)

Characters: The Bad Batch (all of them!)

Tags: Wrecker POV (he deserves all the Crosshair reunion energy), angst at the end (Crosshair is going through it ok), hurt/comfort, giant family group hug, Crosshair and Wrecker cry, Hunter is emotional, canon typical violence, implied mistreatment by the Empire (did I mention Crosshair is going through it?), family reunion, all the family fluff I could fit into 3k words

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Read on AO3

The sound of blaster fire was becoming permanent in Wrecker’s ears. Hunkered down behind a duracrete barrier, he kept his DC-17 trained on the Imps attempting to advance on his position, blaster bolts streaming past his head. 

“Seriously, who trained these guys to shoot,” he thought to himself, needing to only dodge a few bolts from the barrage while his targets fell with each pull of his trigger. 

The landing platform at the depot on Barton IV was looking more like a true battlefield and less like a remote outpost with every passing minute. Two T-4 shuttles lay in smoking ruins - the first thanks to Hunter’s skill on the Marauder’s rear gun and the second thanks to an excellent detonator throw by Wrecker - and stormtrooper bodies lay scattered across the duracrete ground. So far, Wrecker and Hunter were executing their part of the plan perfectly, but when it came to creating distractions, there wasn’t much guess work as to Wrecker’s success rate. 

The Batch’s intel told them that the depot, located on a desolate, frozen planet that rivaled Hoth’s  icy temperatures, normally operated as a blip on the Empire’s priority list. In fact, blip might have been giving it too much credit. The small clone trooper squad that was assigned to protection detail put in requests for equipment, supplies, and reinforcements throughout their year of service, and every request fell on deaf imperial ears. Gathered from the information Tech found during his hacking, Commander Mayday of the squad put in a request for reinforcements 40 rotations ago, citing that only five members of his squad remained alive at the time the request went in, but Tech couldn’t find any log of a response anywhere in the records. Complete silence from the Empire. 

Until 4 rotations ago. The call went out for a platoon of stormtroopers to ready for deployment to Barton IV with orders to transport cargo of high importance to the Empire from the depot to the military base on Coruscant. Prior to the platoon’s arrival, a small squad of clone troopers was sent to scout and ready the depot for the cargo transfer. The squad consisted of two standard troopers and one specialized. One prickly, stubborn, unyielding specialized trooper who Wrecker couldn’t wait to see again. 

When Tech caught chatter that a clone trooper shot a commanding imperial officer in broad daylight in front of an imperial depot, he initially intended to send the intel directly to Captain Rex, informing him of another defecting clone who would be in need of assistance, but after he scanned the information log, he didn’t register his datapad falling from his hands, thudding on the floor, only able to to focus on activating the comm on his vambrace, urging Hunter to get to the Marauder as quickly as possible. Because there in front of him, written across the Marauder’s main computer, was CT-9904: Defector. Charged with the murder of Lieutenant Nolan. In custody on Barton IV. Scheduled for armed transfer in two rotations. 

The discussion was short - Hunter the only one remaining cautious until Tech confirmed the lack of security at the depot, even with the stormtrooper platoon coming in - and the Batch set their course to Barton IV less than two hours after the message was intercepted. The plan was easy, one the Batch could nearly execute in their sleep, even with their newer blonde addition. Create a distraction to draw the majority of security out into the open which Hunter and Wrecker would engage while Omega provided cover from the Marauder. Meanwhile, Tech and Echo skirt along the edge of the chaos, slip into the depot undetected, locate Crosshair’s location, and extract him while neutralizing any remaining threats if necessary. 

Plans 5, 4, and 21. The Batch specialty. 

“Wrecker, incoming! Northwest!” Hunter’s smokey voice called over the commotion. 

The far gate of the depot opened, ten stormtroopers running out to join the fight. “Yeah, I see ‘em, Sarge,” Wrecker confirmed. “They look excited to see us.” 

Hunter took cover behind his barrier, and turned his head in Wrecker’s direction.

“How about you give our hosts a warm greeting?” Hunter suggested, cocking his head to the side. Wrecker could feel the smug smirk under that helmet.

“Gladly,” Wrecker responded gleefully. 

Reaching into the pack on his back, he grabbed two thermal detonators, clicked them live, and chucked. They arced into the air, curving in opposite directions, landing right in the middle of the oncoming troopers, and Wrecker watched as all ten stormtroopers disappeared into a beautiful burst of orange, red, and black. 

“Direct hit,” Wrecker yelled, pumping his DC-17 in triumph. 

Across the way, Hunter gave a quick thumbs up and popped his head above his barrier. Wrecker did the same, confirming that the landing platform was clear of imps for the moment, but they knew more troopers would arrive soon. They’d only taken out about 30 of them so far. 

“Agh, where are they,” Hunter wondered, helmet trained on the door they expected to see their brothers emerge from. 

“Give ‘em a few more minutes, Sarge. I doubt the Empire just left Crosshair in a set of binders on a crate.” 

“They’re dumb enough to,” Hunter said. A soft chuckle came through his modulator, “Wonder how long he’d humor them until he took them all out with his hands still bound.” 

“Knowing Crosshair? They wouldn’t even get the binders on him,” Wrecker laughed. 

Hunter went quiet, helmet still pointed at the door. Then his shoulders fell like he was bowing to a weight Wrecker couldn’t see. “We’ll have to be patient. He’s…” Hunter paused. “He’s probably not the Crosshair we remember. There are going to be some … invisible wounds.” 

Wrecker released his own shuttered breath. He looked down at the ground for a moment, and then looked back up to find Hunter looking back at him. “Doesn’t matter how long it takes. We’ll help patch those up too.” 

Hunter remained still for a breath and then nodded. 

The silence was interrupted by a chime on Hunter’s comm. “What’ve you got, Omega?” he asked as he activated the connection. 

“I’m picking up multiple heat signatures heading our way. Looks like our little break is over,” Omega’s voice chirped over the comm. 

“Copy that,” Hunter responded.

Wrecker brought his own comm up to his mouth. “What’s your count, kid?” he asked playfully. 

“I’m at 4,” Omega answered, a smug tone floating through. 

“Only 4? You’re falling behind. I’m at 18,” Wrecker said. 

“I don’t think the thermal detonators should count,” Hunter interjected. 

“What?! Did you see how perfectly those landed? Probably my best yet! Not even Tech could pull that off.” 

“It’s hardly fair when I’m all the way back here on the Marauder!” Omega argued. 

“Excuses excuses, kid,” Wrecker teased. Their debate came to a quick halt when the remaining hangar doors of the depot opened, revealing the last wave of the platoon. “Alright, break time’s over. Shoot good, kid.” 

The platform became engulfed in battle once again. Blaster bolts peppered the air. Thermal detonators flew. Line after line of stormtroopers tried to take the advantage on the two ground soldiers and their coverage, but Hunter, Wrecker, and Omega held them back with ease. Wrecker heard General Skywalker speaking to Hunter about something called meditation once - a staple Jedi practice of centering one’s mind and connecting with the force through quiet sitting - and while Wrecker wasn’t sure this would meet the Jedi standard, he imagined this was the closest to meditation he would ever come. Surrounded by the sounds of battle. Adrenaline pumping in his veins. He’d hit a point of focus that drowned everything else out, his mission the only thought in his mind. And he was dam good at it, too. 

His DC-17 sang, and he let out a jovial laugh as he took down another line of troopers. As he focused on the enemies in front of him, the squad’s comm channel chimed in his helmet, and the only thing in the galaxy that could divert his attention from the battle in front of him called through the speakers.

“Hunter. Wrecker. We’ve got him. We’re approaching the exit. What’s the status of the platform?” Echo’s voice came through. 

For a second, Wrecker and Hunter turned towards each other, both chests rising rapidly with fast breaths not caused by the battle in front of them, and Wrecker knew if he could see Hunter’s eyes, they’d reflect the same bottomless relief he was feeling. 

Wrecker forced himself back to the present and provided cover fire while Hunter responded. 

“You’re clear to exit. A few imps left but nothing we can’t handle. Wrecker and I will provide cover fire while you cross the platform. Go directly to the Marauder,” Hunter ordered. 

Wrecker’s breath caught in his throat when a low, raspy voice could be heard in the background. “No, we thought we’d take a hike in the mountains.”

A hitched breath came through, and in his peripheral, Wrecker noticed Hunter lean his helmet back against the duracrete barrier, shoulders shaking. 

“I never thought I’d miss his attitude,” Omega piped in. 

That broke the tension building in Wrecker’s head, and a laugh barreled out from his chest. Brain clear and ready to act again, he focused on the remaining stormtroopers trying to hold their ground. 

“Omega, get the engines running. We’re getting off this hunk of ice as soon as we’re all onboard,” Hunter finished relaying the orders. 

“One more thing,” Tech’s voice came through this time. “I did the scan. The inhibitor chip has indeed been removed, but only after the encounter on Bracca. Crosshair did remove it voluntarily unbeknownst to the Empire.”

“Tech kind of refused to leave the holding cells until he was able to confirm it all. Hacked records and everything here on the depot. That’s what took us so long,” Echo supplied.

“Thank the Maker for Tech, and his stubborn need for knowledge,” Hunter mumbled. He went back on the comm, “Glad to hear it. Now get out here.”

Hunter turned to Wrecker. “Let’s take out as many as we can before they get here. Once they emerge, you lay down cover fire, and I’ll take overwatch.” 

“Copy that,” Wrecker replied, and they went to work. 

Time that had been passing at light speed slowed to the flow of Mustafar lava. Only ten stormtroopers remained posted across the platform, and Wrecker was determined to clear as many as he could before his brothers emerged. 

Another minute passed. Another. Then another. Time was taunting him.  

A whoosh floated over the blasterfire. The blasted door to the depot finally opened, and there in the doorway were three bent over figures - two supporting the weight of the third in between them - hobbling onto the landing deck. Wrecker allowed himself one glance hoping it would calm his running mind. Echo took most of the middle figure’s weight, flesh arm wrapped around their waist and scomp arm securing the arm wrapped across Echo’s back dangling over his shoulder, while Tech kept one arm around the figure’s waist and kept his blaster at the ready in the other. 

As Wrecker glanced at them,  it wasn’t the figure’s distinct all black armor - the armor of the imperial special forces - that identified him to Wrecker. No, it was the tattoo around their right eye. The tattoo Wrecker sat and watched as Tech gave it to them when they were still just cadets. The tattoo that represented their pride in their skill. The tattoo that told everyone exactly which batch he belonged to, front and center for all to see. The crosshair. 

Flanking from behind, Tech easily took down three stormtroopers before they made their way down the stairs. The remaining seven stormtroopers barked out orders to fall back, trying to regroup due to the new arrivals, and Wrecker used their confusion to his advantage, taking out another three in one go. Realizing they were outnumbered and outmatched, the remaining four stormtroopers fell back to the hangar, shooting wildly at any target they could see. 

Slower than Wrecker would like, his three brothers made their way to his and Hunter’s position across the platform. As soon as they crossed the threshold of their barriers, Hunter stood from his coverage, falling in step to provide cover directly at their backs. 

“Alright, Wrecker. Let’s keep these guys pinned as we head to the ship,” Hunter said. 

Jumping into position, Wrecker kept a steady pace back to the Marauder without breaking his fire on the remaining stormtroopers. Hunter hit one more as they walked, and Wrecker had his finger on the trigger to take down another when a streak of pink flew over his head and directly into the helmet of his target. 

He glanced over his shoulder. 

“Final count: 12,” Omega beamed down at him from the top of the ramp into the Marauder. 

“Aha! Nice shot, kid! Now let’s get out of here,” Wrecker said, barreling up the ramp into the ship. 

The ramp closed up as the ship made its way into the air, and the energy within immediately went still. Tech sat in the cockpit, taking over the controls from Omega once on board, but Hunter, Wrecker, Echo, Omega, and Crosshair remained in the hold. 

Crosshair sat in the chair in front of the computer, slumped over, one hand on the armrest propping him while an elbow rested on a knee like that was all the energy he could muster. He was breathing heavy, chest rising and falling as if he’d just finished a training sprint back on Kamino. Wrecker quickly gave his body a once over. Crosshair had always been lithe, by far the smallest body mass of the Bad Batch, but there had been muscle underneath those long limbs that gave any regular clone trooper a run for his money. Now, Wrecker clocked only bones showing underneath the exposed areas his armor didn’t cover, and his cheekbones were sharp above the hollowness of his cheeks. Purple blotched under his eyes, and it was impossible not to notice the deep scar that covered the right side on the back of his head. The scar he received when he took the full heat of a Venator ion engine. 

The same engine he tried to trap his brothers in. 

“Thank you…for coming for me. I…I wouldn’t have blamed you if you didn’t,” Crosshair drawled, head bent down. Whether he was unable to lift it from lack of strength or not being able to face the current scene, Wrecker wasn’t sure. His own heart was thudding in his chest, threatening to burst out. He called on every ounce of discipline and self-restraint he learned in his years as a soldier and remained rooted in place, holding his breath. The rest of the Batch stood as still as statues, four sets of eyes on their silver-haired brother. 

“You can drop me off at the closest port. You can pick. Doesn’t matter to me,” Crosshair said to the floor. Still, no one else spoke. He raised his head, glancing at each of them. His gaze settled on Hunter. “I…I’d understand if that’s what you want to do. It’s what you should do.” 

The five of them felt the Marauder lurch into hyperspace, but still, Echo, Omega, Hunter, and Wrecker didn’t budge. Footsteps approached from the cockpit, and soon, Tech joined them, choosing to sit in the chair across from Crosshair. The silence grew, and Wrecked noticed the crease between the sniper’s eyebrows deepen while his eyes darted around the group.

“Well, aren’t any of you going to say something?” Crosshair asked, frustration creeping into his voice. He glanced around one more time, and finally stood up from the chair, a growl coming from his throat, back hunched like he was ready to pounce, and his gaze locked on Hunter, a finger pointed at the sergeant. “Listen, I didn’t ask you to come get me. I was ready to die on that platform after I shot the lieutenant, and I was ready to die in whatever maker-forsaken place they were going to send me. You hear me? I didn’t ask for this.” He gestured around the room, around the Batch. 

“So don’t make me a burden you don’t want. Drop me anywhere. Leave me. It’s what I deserve - oof!” 

Wrecker couldn’t take it anymore, and as he watched Crosshair teeter on the precipice of self-destruction, he took two strides towards his brother, and engulfed him in his arms. 

Crosshair stiffened, his arms frozen mid-gesture to the side. Wrecker stood there, arms firmly wrapped around Crosshair’s back and shoulders, head dipping to rest on top of Crosshair’s head, and he waited. Eventually, Crosshair’s arms fell to his sides, but his body remained stiff like he wasn’t actually registering what was happening. Then, after a few breaths, his arms slowly rose, one wrapping under Wrecker’s arm and the other circling over his shoulder. 

“Why did you come for me?” Wrecker heard muffled into his chestplate. 

“We don’t leave our own behind,” Wrecker answered simply. 

Wrecker felt the shaking first, then he heard the soft sobs. Tightening his arms, he held his once-lost brother as if challenging the galaxy to try and separate them again. When he felt Crosshair crumble into his chest, he released the grip he’d been holding on his own emotions, and the tears flowed freely. Tears of sorrow for what Crosshair endured. Tears of rage at the Empire. Tears of sweet relief at his family being whole again. 

Wrecker felt a pair of arms sneak between his waist and Crosshair’s chest, and when he looked up, he saw Hunter wrapped around Crosshair’s back, arms crushing the sniper into the sergeant’s chest. “We’ve got you, Cross,” Hunter murmured. 

One-by-one, Tech, Echo, and Omega joined in, the last squeezing herself into the middle, wrapping her arms around Crosshair’s leg, and even when the sobs quieted, they remained that way. There was a lot to talk about. A long road of trust to regain. They were about to navigate rough terrain. And the past will resurface, in old wounds, physical and not. But none of that mattered right now. In the middle of their home, a family reunited. Unsure what the future would bring them, but ready to face it all together.

[catboybiologist]

1 month HRT update and journal thingy!

So as I said in my pinned post, I'm gonna be doing a monthly kind of progress check on HRT. Well, it's been 32 days, so here it is! Here's some measurements of interest:

But, I found that the raw measurements, and a single "other column" wasn't sufficient to really catalogue my experience. So I wrote a long, probably overly detailed account of some of the things I've experienced in the past month.

And holy shit, what a month it's been.

So first off, lets start with what’s not happening. Some good, some bad. I think I missed the skin softness gene or something. I’ve really noticed no change in skin texture, and that’s often cited as the first noticeable physical change from HRT. My skin was somewhat soft before, but nothing like the transfemmes I know irl, so this was a bit disappointing. But in all honesty, it’s not that big of a deal.

The other thing that I haven’t noticed yet is a reduced aerobic capacity or physical ability. I’m sure this will come in time, but the interesting thing here is that one of my main physical activities, freediving, is actually a far more direct measurement of aerobic capacity than most others. I can’t do this in nearly a consistent enough way to actually log it, but my casual breath hold times in the couple of times I’ve been freediving since starting HRT haven’t changed. On a fairly standard dive, I usually stay down 60-70 seconds, and that’s still true. With good prep and good air conservation on the bottom (I like to hold onto rocks and kelp, and stay motionless while looking around lol), I can get 90 seconds or beyond (I don’t like pushing it). Part of the problem is that so much of this is variable, and is highly dependent on how good my equipment prep is that day (insulation and weighting), water conditions (cold and rough=more energy=shorter dives), and my boy physiology (how much I’ve eaten, caffeine intake, etc). But in general, I haven’t noticed major physical fitness changes yet. 

Weight gain has been intermittent. I’ve always been a bit swingy on my weight, and can easily go +/- 5lbs in no time at all. At one point, I was 4lbs over my pre-HRT weight (3 week interval), but now I’m down to 1 pound over. My waist is slightly thinner than it was pre-HRT, but that seems to be normal fluctuation. Where did the extra 1-3lbs go? We’ll get to that, LOL.

My waist measurement hasn’t changed, but anecdotally, I do think there’s changes going on there. The 43 inches measurement is still at my widest point, around my thighs (which have always been pretty good). Now, however, I’m noticing what seems to be some growth on areas that aren’t covered by the exact circle I’m using to measure that. My butt seems slightly bigger, although I could just be lying to myself. Time will tell.

Onto the stuff that has changed!

Mood. Oh my god mood. My resting state is no longer a crackling misery. I don’t think I was ever suicidal because of dysphoria alone, but I was certainly pushed to that point far, far easier when it was a contributing factor. I also just… didn’t enjoy anything about my body. When I was happy, it was a distraction. Now, it’s already much better. I still don’t like my body. I got a long way to go. But, I’m seeing progress, and it’s been incredible.

Emotions overall have been more intense. I’ve had a couple of downswings, and I get misty eyed easier. I haven’t had a proper cry yet, though. I get excited about things again, which was a COMPLETELY dead feeling. And I have also gotten angry at some things, which is also something I killed as a teenager because I was scared of where it took me. It hasn’t been as uncontrollable as I expected, however, and the negative emotions I’m experiencing more viscerally have been immensely cathartic. 

            And then, there's the big one. Hopefully that's literal. And that's breast growth. Almost immediately I noticed some kind of perking up, but no breast bud formation and no immediate growth. At about week 2, I was able to feel the distinct disks of breasts buds under my nipples, and my bust size started increasing. Now, at 4.5 weeks in, my bust size is 1.5 inches larger than it was pre-HRT.

           This is ludicrously fast. As in, so fast it has me questioning if I'm actually intersex or something. I think my E levels will be enlightening.

I really, REALLY don’t want to get too hopeful. But overall, if some of these trends continue… I’m gonna get a LOT curvier. Honestly, my ideal body would be pretty tight and trim… but I’m fucking estatic anyways. I’m just really, really hoping that the breast growth trend continues, and also that the tiny observations I’ve made about a bigger butt and thinner waist are actually real. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to boymode like this LMAO.

There’s also the opposite fear: if my estrogen levels are too high, it could signal the end of “puberty” too early. It’s looking like a possibility, but I gotta wait until next week for my levels check.

There’s one final set of observations I wanna put here, but y’all gotta not be weird about it LOL. I WILL block you and erase this part if you treat this as anything more than impartial observations about myself. Got it? Good. NSFW warning for the next bit.

I want to make some remarks on libido and erogenous sensitivity in general, because that has also been one of the most notable changes.

First off, I heard so many stories about HRT killing libido. Holy fuck, this has not been true for me. I’m going crazy sometimes LOL. I absolutely have a somewhat higher libido on average, but its already changed the way its expressed itself.

First off, my entire body is more sensitive to erogenous soft touch. The right kind of touch and care on my waist will feel very similar to more traditional erogenous zones. I’ve NEVER had this before, and was completely blindsided by it. I’m absolutely fascinated by what neural change caused that, but its really cool even if I don’t know the underlying explanation.

Second off, my libido spikes and hot flashes sometimes. I think this is pretty typical of anyone going under a hormonal change, and tbh I’m not surprised.

Third off is the weirdest one, and something that I’ve asked other transfemmes about, and none have been able to answer. My chest sensitivity seems to be going through very distinct mini-cycles, on the approximate span of time being one full “cycle” per week. Essentially, when I started HRT, my chest first got very sore, itchy, and sensitive to sources of pain and itchiness. It stayed like that for a few days, and then all sensitivity to the area cut out. My nipples pre-HRT were always more sensitive than other cis men, and in this phase, they were actually less sensitive than they were pre HRT. This lasted another couple of days… and then there was a period of massively increased erogenous sensitivity. Soft touches made me wild, and I started wearing  bra not for the support, but to block my shirt from rubbing against them and distracting me. Holy FUCK, this phase is insane. And then after that, they went back to sore again, and then dead again, and then erogenous again. Right now, I’m in the erogenous “phase” of what I think is the fourth cycle here since I started HRT. I have no fucking clue what’s going on. It’s not the period that some trans women report getting, its not a monthly thing. It might just be my body adjusting strangely to new hormones in general, but yeah. Its weird, bc it seems like a pretty unique thing. 

So yeah. That’s a journal thing. I had a LOT more thoughts about HRT starting beyond just the initial measurements, because so much hit me way faster than I thought it would, so I wanted to write something long form. I think I’m going to write something similar each month along with my measurements update, but I expect future writing to be much, much shorter. It’s been incredible so far, but I’m guessing less will be novel- I think things will only be different when I change aspects of my HRT regimen. We’ll see.

[vanessalocke]

I received a question from Anon: "You spoke about FrUK toxicity, can you elaborate on what you meant by it?"

Because these two questions are essentially the same question, I will answer indirectly instead of directly.

Please note that all of the knowledge below is not cited, or comes from unofficial sources. Therefore, do not consider this as "fact". I only rely on this information along with my feelings to build my own headcanon, but I myself question their authenticity.

Dover's relationship is actually extremely toxic.

I once said that the more I read documents about the relationship between these two countries, the more I feel that the British deeply love France. Yes. But next to that love is an obsession and unpredictable calculation.

England's toxicity here is that England always wants France to depend on him, and at the same time, the only person with whom England agrees to share power in Europe is France. Because of that, England always deliberately nerfed France so that when France encountered difficulties, France could only rely on England. According to my knowledge, there were 3 times England made such a decision:

- Prussia was one of the countries sponsoring the French Revolution to create discord between France and Austria and defeat the French monarchy, thereby enhancing Prussia's position. The British Embassy in France knew all that but did nothing to stop it. Reason: England wanted Prussia to weaken the French monarchy. When the French monarchy is weak, England will support the French monarchy, then put its influence on the French monarchy, or become a dynasty (as England has openly wanted the French crown for so long). Having the French court, England could spread British influence throughout Europe. But England did not expect that the French Revolution would be so violent that it would behead a series of nobles and the French monarchy would completely collapse. Only when the French Revolution was truly successful did England turn to support the French mornachy, but it was too late to do anything.

- Whenever Britain feels that France is starting to become hegemonic on the continent, Britain will immediately gather an alliance against France (even though it is not affected as much as other countries on the continent). Specifically: the time of Napoleon.

- In de Gaulle's memoirs, he wrote that before World War II, Berlin was getting stronger and the risk of Germany going to war was in sight. But London ignored Berlin because London wanted when France and Germany went to war, France would depend on Britain. Uhm and later, the exiled French had to rely on England. That is why, when WW2 happened, de Gaulle argued with Churchill a lot and refused to compromise on post-war demands because de Gaulle did not want to fall into the same situation as (what he thought, I'm not saying this is true) London thought before, that is, to become into a French dependency on Britain.

That's why I call the most toxic person here England, not France, and every time I write about Arthur's feelings towards Francis, it's always: "He hates Francis when Francis shines brightly, because then Francis will look down on him. And he loves Francis when Francis is weak and defeated, because then Francis depends on him." = )))))) England is the one who will deliberately nerf France, not only because there is any security threat to England, but simply because England still wants to have the crown of France even when the French monarchy has collapsed because England really wants France to depend on England.

[bumblebeerror]

I’ll admit my views of Dream are a lot more negative than positive.

I don’t love that he made MCC so competitive, but I get why he did. Speedrunner. Good at pvp. Etc. I still felt it was whiny and not in the spirit of a competition that aims to let the creators have fun (in that the intake form has things like “do you prefer sillies or sweaty” and each team has about an equal amount of both) but like. It wasn’t just him for that. I think MCC is much more fun without him and a few other very competitive people, and getting to see more range in creators is more enjoyable.

I think he’s a bit overhyped; but I’m not gonna cite Wilbur creating the manhunt idea or Minecraft but, it’s mostly just. I dunno, reflexes aren’t everything in this game. And someone being a builder or redstoner doesn’t mean they can’t win pvp, and I feel like he was very… derogatory, toward those types of players. The Grian twitlonger comes to mind.

I think he dropped the ball severely on his own server, and it impacted the lifetime of that story. I think rushing everyone to finish their stories and refusing to communicate is dick behavior, and I especially think that ignoring how the women and non-binaries on his server were treated by fans when a statement from him would have gone a long way is a bit of a dick move. I understand that ADHD can make you bad at communicating, but even support or information in private would have helped, or even an admission that he didn’t know.

I personally think the situation with QSMP, something Quackity was publicly working on for ages, and Dream’s spur of the moment half baked idea for something similar, was and is dumb. I think Tommy’s criticism of it was both funny and justified. Quackity wasn’t secretive about this server. Everyone knew it was coming for a while, and the only true surprise was Quackity having the language mod developed to release during the second week of the server. I think Dream’s meltdown about lack of communication is a little ridiculous all things considered. I do wish Quackity had been more able to curb his own audience away from harassment and stalking, and that Dream would take literally any responsibility for the way his own fans act as well. It’s not impossible to curb your community - if Techno could do it despite us all being notoriously feral (I.e. encouraging his community not to hate on squidkid or reminding us that roleplay is roleplay) then it’s not impossible to make a statement and calm the masses some. Dream’s relationship with his fans is very parasocial and I know he fosters that a lot. I feel it should come with some sense of responsibility. Just like Fit deserved to be called out for what he said about the one mod’s mobs, I think these criticisms are fair. (and watching the clip of Fit being told about the implications, I do think “it was a refrence” was meant to be an apology - it’s sorta just how he talks, but I get if people still dislike it. He has gotten more mindful about it moving forward and now won’t repeat a meme/joke unless he knows it’s not hateful, so he has changed behavior.)

I find him to be generally up his own ass, in other words. Which is whatever - it’s not a sin. I don’t like his stans and they are regularly a more intense type of toxic, but I also think most stans of any creator are insufferable. I mostly just dislike that Dream seems to encourage their behaviour much more. He’s young, and so is his audience.

I think his work with Technodad has been overall helpful especially when it comes to donations to the sarcoma foundation. I understand those who feel uncomfortable about it, and I hope you won’t lash out against Technodad for it. Mans has barely learned Reddit, let him be.

I don’t know what to say about the allegations. On one hand, it’s an awful thing to do and I feel for the victims, especially with having to deal with the stans harassing them for bringing evidence to light. I think the victims deserved far better treatment. I think Dream’s reputation would have been far more favorable if he had at least addressed the situation respectfully, and either owned up to the clear evidence or provided evidence of his own. On the other, I get that again, he’s young and people make mistakes. This does not mean I think his victims shouldn’t have come forward or that what he did was okay - only that I don’t think I was smart enough at 20 to handle sudden and intense fame either. In this case (unless I’ve missed it) it doesn’t seem like his messages actually went anywhere, which is a slight relief. I would feel better about it if he had handled it more seriously, because I’m unsure if he’s really learned anything from that situation besides that he can get away with about anything if he ignores it. As is, it feels unfinished on his end and I wish he would own up.

All that being said, I don’t claim to know much about the guy.

I’ve watched maybe two manhunts and seen a scattered few videos with him involved. I don’t enjoy his style much, it just feels kinda fake to me, idk.

Im not sure what my point really was, I mostly just wanted my thoughts in order.

[scandalouslamb]

How I Characterize Felix Ravinstill

I once told a friend that every single detail we have about Felix Ravinstill could be interpreted multiple ways that they essentially told me nothing. There's also very little information about him in the book to work with. When I write Felix, I try to base my characterization on whatever I can squeeze out of canon, but when presented with choices (which is basically all the time), I pick what's more interesting to me. Obviously, these are just my readings and interpretations.

(@coryo and @persephoneprice since you two expressed interest, I'm tagging you. Also some of these points will be familiar to those who frequent this blog.)

The Basics

Before I get into the true explanation, I thought since there are so few facts about him in the book that I might as well list all of them:

Felix is President Ravinstill's greatnephew in the book (Ch. 11), and son in the movie

Felix is assigned to mentor Dill, the girl from District 11 (Ch. 4).

He does manage to attempt an interview with Dill (Ch. 11).

Felix gossips with Dean Casca Highbottom while in a car with Coriolanus (Ch. 13). (I once answered an ask about this)

Felix is distracted by a camera crew upon arriving to Heavensbee Hall for the first day of the Games (Ch. 13).

Felix does seem sympathetic to Dill. He sends her water and judges Treech for taking her water (Ch. 14).

When Felix is dismissed, Lepidus Malmsey compliments him for getting Dill this far (Ch. 14).

Coriolanus notes Felix's good sportsmanship in contrast with Juno Phipps' reaction to losing (Ch. 16).

As A Mentor and the President's Nephson

I often characterize Felix on the kinder more sensitive side of the Capitol mentors, but I don't actually think this means much. Even the most sympathetic mentors are complicit in the Games and have been raised with the Capitol superiority ingrained in their heads.

I cite his relative care for Dill during her final moments (sending her water) and his ability to get her to participate in an interview as evidence of him being somewhat kind.

Now, Felix's judgment of Treech for stealing Dill's water does highlight his sympathy from her, but it also underlines a sort of limitation to his kindness. He has to have a personal connection to be able to sympathize with the District tributes. (I imagine that this is true for most of the mentors.) He's not going to understand that of course, Treech would do this for survival. Given the connection that Felix's family has to the Games since Pres. Ravinstill did put them into place, I don't think he's thinking about them too critically, and if he starts to, he likely willfully turns away from that line of thought.

Additionally, I find it interesting that Felix doesn't seem to have made much of an effort to help Dill before the Games. There are two options for this: he could have but he didn't want to or he did want to but he couldn't. (I suppose that it is also possible that he didn't want to and couldn't have either way, but that's boring.)

In the case of 'he did want to but he couldn't,' there is a viable reading of Felix that positions him as not very close to the president. He is a great-nephew after all. We get no other details about the President's family, so it's entirely possible that Pres. Ravinstill could have his own children. Perhaps, Lepidus Malmsey would suck up to anyone with the Ravinstill name regardless of how close they are to the President. Felix's attention to the cameras reads as more of a desperate attempt to stay relevant as a part of a lesser branch of a major family.

I choose not to go with that reading of Felix's relationship with the President, because I think it yields less interesting story potential. I am also influenced by the movie's decision to make Felix the president's son, and the potential historical parallel with Julius Caesar's posthumous adoption of his own great-nephew, the future Emperor Augustus (someone else has pointed this out before me, but unfortunately, I can't find the post).

Unlike with Caesar and Augustus, I don't characterize Felix as the president's heir. This is mostly me just wanting to have my cake and eat it too. It takes the some aspects of the less-close-to-the-president read of Felix and transfers it over to Felix who is close to Pres. Ravinstill.

To go back to not getting Dill medical attention, my preferred reading of this is that he is being overly conscious of his image. He doesn't want to draw too much attention to himself, because he doesn't want his mistakes to reflect on his great-uncle/family. I can see a situation where Felix believes that too much interaction with his District tribute might be spun in negative ways on tabloids and headlines.

Additionally, that he doesn't take advantage of the potential and try to spin it any other way leads me to interpret Felix with a somewhat defeatist and unambitious attitude. He also doesn't seem to be the most politically savvy, or at least, he isn't taking after his great-uncle who I imagine was rather ruthless and ambitious to get to where he is today (with Gaul of all people whispering in his ear). Felix's resigned reactions to Dill in the movie are also partially responsible for me characterizing him as defeatist.

Felix being paired with Dill stood out as unusual to me. Despite being a Ravinstill, he's assigned to mentor one of the tributes with the lowest chances of winning. This does lend credence to Felix having being lesser-relation-to-the-president interpretation, but I choose to believe that the president rigs his assignment so that there is less pressure on him.

Being a Ravinstill and More on Being a Nephson

To explain what I just asserted about Felix's mentor assignment, I need to explain how I think being related to the president and a Ravinstill affects him.

Again, Coriolanus' speculation on Felix's relation to the president being the reason that Lepidus Malmsey is speaking so highly of him feels like it would be a constant in Felix's life. People want to get closer to him because of that relation, but people are watching him because of it (see above where I mention this as a potential reason for not trying more with Dill). I imagine that this puts a lot of pressure on him which gets to him.

Due to the disingenuous nature of many people approaching and complimenting Felix, I think that it not only adds to his insecurities, but when he can find people who are genuine with him, he values them dearly and gets rather protective (and maybe possessive). (I've mentioned why I think he and Festus would be good together both as friends or lovers in my other post, but Felix and Hilarius work as friends because I imagine their families are closer in status and wealth than some others.)

As I imagine that Pres. Ravinstill is a distant father figure to Felix but also personally attached to him, Pres. Ravinstill knowing that Felix is both kind-hearted and not ruthless chooses to give him a tribute that has likely no chance of winning. This has the Ravinstills saving face (no chance for a embarrassing defeat if there's no hope of winning) and (the president hopes) that Felix will know better to get attached. (Felix still gets subconsciously a little attached. See Dill ask)

This reading of Felix's mentorship assignment also highlights that his great-uncle doesn't seem to have much confidence in his competence which leads to Felix being insecure and eager to please when possible. I do think it also has him leaning into his defeatism. He'll try his best, but if even his family doesn't expect him to succeed, then what can he do?

Pres. Ravinstill trying to do something for Felix and it backfiring and leading to more insecurities is kind of the story of their failed father-son relationship in my mind. (It might also be Pres. Ravinstill with his entire family.)

I would be remiss to not mention that I don't think that Felix likes Dr. Gaul too much. This draws on him gossiping with Dean Highbottom, but it also has to do with my half-headcanon/half implied canon of Pres. Ravinstill and Dr. Gaul being close. Satyria Click does state that a good report from Gaul is substantial to the president (Ch. 6). (See this tag for my lowkey insane take on the Ravinstill-Gaul dynamic).

What Can We Learn From Movie! Felix?

It should be noted that Felix and Pres. Ravinstill's relationship is also influenced by this line in the movie: "maybe, he would have if he wasn't so busy running the country." (In response to Festus asking if Pres. Ravinstill ever taught Felix table manners)

I love the attempt at showing off status and prestigious wrapped in humor which also hides the reality of an absentee father figure.

Additionally, while portray Felix as rather sympathetic, the haughtiness and judgment of movie! Felix is still something that I see being compatible with my interpretation of him. I think he gets particularly indignant when he feels cornered or embarrassed in a social situation. This is when the worst of him comes out. (I choose to read him shit-talking Sejanus as him actually wanting to shit-talk Gaul, but nobody joined him, so he had to change targets. Yes, I know that this is likely not what the film intended.)

Felix eating with his fingers endears him to me greatly and could be a sign of cracks in his projected facade of perfection, and it does feel to me that Felix's insecurities are showing through when he responds to Festus. I think that there are times that Felix relaxes too much in public around his peers, and he gets self-conscious about it.

I often kill Felix in my stories, and we can blame the movie for giving me inspiration for that too. Unfortunately, being a Ravinstill also doesn't help as I imagine that Coriolanus would want to get rid of any competition for power and the prestige of being family to the previous president puts a tempting target on Felix's back.

Death and a Dip into Extended Ravinstill Lore

Felix's death also speaks to me on a thematic level. The Capitol's children obviously have more privilege and luxury than the District kids. In the bigger picture, amidst all the backstabbing of politics in that corrupt system, the Capitol kids' safety is just an illusion. The system could just as easily turn on them. What better way to illustrate that than with the death of the (former) president's own nephson? In my headcanon lore, Felix is the first time that Coriolanus murders one of his former classmates (See this ask for more).

I have a lot of thoughts on extended Ravinstill lore that goes beyond the scope of this post (See this and this for more) but know that I thinned out the Ravinstill family tree quite a bit before the start of canon. This serves to reinforce the idea of how the Capitol (or at least the unfair system that it runs) isn't truly good for anyone even those in power. It also helps reinforce Felix as a deeply insecure individual who lives in the shadow of two generations worth of dead family members.

...

Okay, this is double in size from the Festus post. I hope that this is coherent! I also hope that I'm not forgetting anything! I have so many Felix thoughts that it is possible.

If any of this sounds interesting, I recommend trying to read my fics on ao3 (they're actually unrestricted now!) if you haven't already.

If you have read my fics, I sincerely hope this was interesting/insightful as a lot of what is here is already in my fics in some form.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Tim Murphy at Mother Jones:

Arizona’s fourth legislative district, located in the suburban heart of Maricopa County, might be the ultimate bellwether in the ultimate bellwether state. And this fall, the stakes are impossibly high, not just at the presidential level—where polls show Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in a dead heat—but all the way down the ballot. Republicans control both chambers of the legislature by just one vote. In Arizona, where each legislative district elects two representatives, control of the state house could come down to Democrats’ efforts to flip one seat and hold another in this district that includes parts of Phoenix and Scottsdale.

In their quest to hold onto the legislature, Republicans have turned to a member of a famous Arizona family—Pamela Carter, older sister of the original Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter. On the campaign trail, the candidate Carter has talked up her work as a successful entrepreneur and a record of academic accomplishment, and boasts of having “my family’s full support” for her state house run. But a review of her record and past statements tells a much different story: In contrast to the fourth district’s moderate profile, Carter is a fervently anti-abortion minister who has been “blessed with end-time revelation” and who has made confusing claims about her past. And one notable member of her family is not on board—her famous sister, an advocate for reproductive rights. “On her website, Pam claims to have her ‘family’s full support,'” Lynda Carter said in a statement to Mother Jones. “I have known Pam my entire life, which is why I sadly cannot endorse her for this or any public office.” 

Pamela Carter has offered an inconsistent accounting of her educational background. Her page at Ballotpedia states that she “earned a master’s degree in Communications and Biblical studies and attended Arizona State University,” which a spokesperson for the elections site confirmed was based on an informational survey that was “verified by the candidate.” “I was raised in Scottsdale, went right here to Arcadia High, ASU, and I just love our city,” she said on a podcast in 2022. This is technically true. Carter did attend ASU, and she does also have a master’s degree. But the reality of her resume is a bit more complicated. According to an ASU spokesperson, Carter was at one point enrolled at the university, but did not graduate. Instead, according to her LinkedIn page and other interviews, she attended an unspecified bible college in Kansas City, Missouri, and later received a master’s degree in “communications and media studies” from the Primus University of Theology, a Phoenix-based institution that affirms in its mission statement that “life begins at conception.” (One of the prerequisites for admission is that you order a copy of the founder’s book.) Primus, which aims to prepare its students “for their Ministry calling,” is not accredited by any agency recognized by the Department of Education. Instead, it cites the approval of the University Accreditation Association, which evaluates institutions on their adherence to “biblical truths.” Its degree programs are “designed for the specific and singular purpose of qualifying individuals for Christian Ministry.” But Carter has also described that degree differently in different contexts. Her campaign website during her unsuccessful 2022 campaign for Scottsdale city council said she held a “Master’s Degree in Business and Communications,” a claim she also repeated that year in an interview on a local podcast. In another video that year, she boasted of having a “master’s degree in theology, as well as in mass communications.” A current campaign biography states that “I received my master’s degree in Communications and Biblical studies.”

Carter, who did not respond to requests for comment, has leaned into her biography during her run for office, arguing that her business experiences give her an advantage in the political realm. Foremost among those ventures was Jon Cole Systems, a gym she once owned with her ex-husband, the powerlifter Jon Cole. Newspaper ads for the fitness center sometimes featured Lynda Carter, touting the benefits of Cole’s “TOTAL WOMAN” workout program. 

“It was the largest [gym] in the nation at the time,” Pamela Carter boasted in a 2022 interview, in which she suggested that working people struggling to find housing in Scottsdale needed to hustle as hard as she had when she owned two homes and was helping to run the business in the 1970s.

For a few years, the gym was a major success, with clients such as the Green Bay Packers and members of the Phoenix Suns. But it soon went downhill. The company pursued Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1982, and was sold for $60,000 the next year, according to an Arizona Republic report in 1983. The couple divorced around the same time. After the gym business fell through, Carter went on to a long career as a Christian wellness influencer, pitching the gospel alongside weight-loss and nutrition tips. She moved to California and hosted a fitness show called “Get in Shape with Pamela Carter” (on the Trinity Broadcasting Network) and another program on CBN called “Fit for Life.”

[...]

Carter was not just pitching products, though. She was selling a very particular kind of theology, rooted in a desire to see the United States “united for Jesus,” and a belief that modern-day prophets—like herself—were transmitting revelations from God. A biography at the ministry stated that Carter “is very passionate about her love for the Lord and has been blessed with end-time revelation of His desire for His bride.” (The full revelation was available for purchase for $25.) She talked frequently about building influence on the “Media mountain” and said in 2011 that she was part of “God’s media army…to be raised up for such a time as this, to take possession of the arts, the entertainment media, the internet.” The term is often used by proponents of a Christian nationalist movement sometimes called the New Apostolic Reformation and a belief its adherents subscribe to known as Seven Mountains Dominionism, which aims to take gain influence over the seven spheres (or “mountains”) of government, education, media, family, entertainment, religion, and business.

In response to a candidate questionnaire from the city of Scottsdale two years ago, Carter said she had “been involved…as a volunteer” with three churches or organizations, all of which had ties to the NAR. They included Intercessors for America, a national prayer organization that warns that “there is an Enemy of our souls and our nation who orchestrates a coordinated battle plan that is discernible and beatable with spiritual weapons.”  Another group she touted her work with was the Kansas City-based International House of Prayer, whose founding pastor, Mike Bickle, was dismissed last year amid allegations of sexual abuse. The church, where worship services have run 24/7 since 1999, has “been criticized by some pastors for what they describe as unorthodox theology and a cultish atmosphere, charges that Mr. Bickle rejects,” the New York Times reported in 2011. (In response to a��Kansas City Star investigation into Bickle earlier this year, the organization emphasized that his alleged abuse predated the church’s creation, while Bickle has admitted to “inappropriate behavior” but not “the more intense sexual activities that some are suggesting.”) Long before he was forced out, Bickle had courted controversy with his assertions from the pulpit that Oprah was a forerunner of the Antichrist and that God sent Hitler to kill Jewish people because they wouldn’t accept Christianity.

[...] In that interview, Carter, who served that year as an advisor to the Trump campaign in the state, said she had acted as a prayer “intercessor” while working as a paid poll worker in Arizona. “I was dancing around, I had so much joy in just praying over every person that came in, you know, it was so fun,” she said. “But there’s also a lot of corruption I saw—not at the poll where I was working but at the election facility—and we just have to really watch and pray, watch and pray, and then you can cut that off in the spirit and then report it.”

[...] The district offers a glimpse of how reproductive rights is playing at the ballot box in a highly competitive area. Christine Marsh, the district’s Democratic state senator, won her election in 2022 by a little more than 1,000 votes by relentlessly linking a Republican incumbent to the state legislature’s 15-week abortion ban. The current Republican state representative, Matt Gress, was one of three members of his party to break ranks and vote to repeal Arizona’s 1864 abortion ban, which offered no exceptions even for cases of rape. A recent Fox News survey found that supporters of an abortion-rights ballot initiative in Arizona outnumber opponents by roughly three-to-one—and 50-percent of Republicans said they approved. Carter, though, has sung a different tune. 

Pamela Carter, the sister of Lynda Carter (who played Wonder Woman on the Wonder Woman show), is running for a State House seat in Arizona. Lynda is not backing her, citing Pamela’s anti-abortion views.

Read the full story at Mother Jones.

[sketching-shark]

I don't know if journeytothewestresearch is trusting in some things, because he said that 6 eared Macaque and Wukong are sworn brothers, confusing them with the other Macaque named Macaque King

https://www.tumblr.com/journeytothewestresearch/684822807998283776/hey-sorry-to-bother-hope-youre-having-a-nice?source=share

And from what I've been searching too, Six eared and Macaque King, weren't the same, so Six Eared never was sworn brother with Wukong, and Wukong neber knew 6 eared Macaque to became sworn brother with.

Correct me if I'm wrong tho!

Oh yeah, I remember the controversy that stirred up (though I do find it inch-resting how to this day @journeytothewestresearch's well-cited argument that LEMH is SWK's immoral self which makes up the bulk of that post is still largely ignored lol). But anyway--and keeping in mind as usual that I am an amateur scholar in JTTW matter at best--my general understanding of the situation now is that there is some evidence that the Macaque King and the Six-Eared Macaque might have been sworn brothers, as the Macaque King's self-proclaimed title of "Fair Wind Sage"/"Telltale Great Sage" (depending on the Yu translation you're looking at) could refer to the six-eared simian's ability to gather all sorts of information on the wind as it were. Or it could refer to how this monkey is as fast as the wind. But there does seem to be just as much if not more evidence that the true and false monkey king arc were the first time the two had met. I have seen @journeytothewestresearch say that the earlier Anthony C. Yu translation title of "The Female Monkey King" was a mistranslation on Yu's part, but I've also seen others say that there is in fact a history in some parts of China of considering the simian in question to be a lady, as besides the gender-neutral term used to refer to the sages of the sworn brotherhood macaques do indeed live in groups with a dominant female that oversees the entire troop. And then in Xiyouji itself, and in very direct contrast to the lengths the Monkey King goes through to not fight against Niú Mówáng, he gives 0 signs of recognizing the Six-Eared Macaque even when his true form is revealed, is in fact "unable to contain himself" from bonking the guy to death and then saying, to quote both the earlier and the later Yu translation, "You should not have compassion on him...He wounded my master and robbed us of our wraps. Even according to the law, he was guilty of assault and robbery in broad daylight. He should have been executed." So YEAH not exactly the words of a guy who's super broken up about having to fight against one of his beloved sworn brothers lol. So all in all you do seem to have some wiggle room and leeway with going with one identity or the other for the six-eared simian, but the one thing that does remain consistent across even the Yu translations is how much the Monkey King wants to bonk him dead and does not gaf about said bonking or said death.

I guess the moral of this story goes once again back to the fact that when you're dealing with translations there can be a LOT of room for multiple "correct" meanings for some aspects of it, and that this can be particularly true when it comes to a work like Xiyouji that has a vast history of multiple written and oral versions even before Wu Cheng'en's written classic. And while I do think it's always good to do your own research and remember that even professionals are just as capable of making mistakes as anyone else, I still have to hand it to @journeytothewestresearch for being like one of the very, very few people on this site who actually backs up his statements with academic citations lmao.

[liminalwings]

Working with Dragons: On 'Draconic Codes of Honor'

   In my early days of searching the internet for dragon magic resources, a lot of the same information got yoinked and passed around from website to website. This was the days of Geocities and Angelfire, when literally anyone could build a website and almost nobody liked to cite where they got their information. So you would have pages copied verbatim from D.J. Conway’s (singular) book on dragon magic (now there’s three), with personal UPG or other cool and mystical-sounding embellishments sprinkled here and there. 

   One of these often passed-around tidbits would be a “Draconic Code of Honor”, a 15 or 20 bullet-point list of ethics to follow that some sources brazenly added that “all true dragon magicians follow”. This at least did not stem from Conway’s writings, but originated online at about the same time as Dancing With Dragons’ original publishing in 1994; specifically, from J’Karrah Ebondragon’s “Clan of the Dragon” website. Formerly “Kerowyn J’Karrah SilverDrake”, J’Karrah has been a long-time active member in both Pagan and Dragonkin internet circles, as well as being a dragon artist. Her website, “Clan of the Dragon” (CotD for short) can be searched as far as 2001 on the Wayback Machine, with much of her content being stated to date back as far as 1994. Her dragon magic information is probably the second most-reposted after Conway’s work, including being directly plagiarized in some smaller self-published books in more recent years.  

   Her ‘draconic code of honor’ she even says was based on older traditional sources and codes that were being used in pagan spaces at the time, and according to information gathered by another longtime dragon magic practitioner and Dragonkin, Tysharina, the code was mostly created for use of J’Karrah’s small group of fellow practitioners for their particular ‘Draconic Tradition’; it was never intended to cover all draconic paths, especially with there being so few publicly at the time of its creation. It has been passed around and revised by numerous people and groups, with one version claiming that “dragons will not work with a practitioner that ignores [the code]”. Given that this code was created for one specific group and was never intended as a universal rule for working with dragons (and in fact the original version does not have this ‘dragons won’t work with you’ caveat), this can be misleading and off-putting for those looking to work with dragons with no prior experience or knowledge, and is in fact not shared by all draconic paths. 

   Some folks from around that same timeframe might also have been inspired by the DragonHeart movie from 1996, as the character Draco emphasized Bowen to follow ‘the Old Code’, which, in this case, refers to the Code of Chivalry. This may likely have led to a connection for some between dragons and some sort of code of honor, which has since infiltrated most information you see on dragon magic and working with dragons. 

   Since these two large influences on modern dragon magic, it has become almost standard for dragon magic resources to include some sort of code to be followed. Some of these are vastly different from the CotD’s code, original to their authors, and have been created to best suit their specific tradition. 

   In short, while you might find agreement and feel moved to follow such a code (which is perfectly fine, I’m not trying to dissuade anyone), do note that following such a code is not a necessity for working with dragons, is not universal to all dragons, and was created for specific traditions; dragon magic in general does not require moral guidelines in order to begin working with it. Anecdotally, the dragons I work with have never demanded or even discussed an ethical code with me, but I also give them the same basic respect I would give other people, which tends to be all you really need. 

__

https://web.archive.org/web/20091024212649/http://geocities.com/jkarrah/Honor.html - J’Karrah’s Clan of the Dragon 'Code of Honor' page via Wayback Machine

https://aminoapps.com/c/worldofmagic278/page/blog/the-clan-of-the-dragons-code-of-honor/odp5_Drsduq1NE3eX0x464DRNNb1odEjmW - Tysharina’s article on the CotD’s Code including information gathered from her personal correspondences with J’Karrah, and references to other draconic groups’ codes. (I would love to simply reblog her writing if she had posted it on tumblr, but alas, Tysha tends to go poof every few years, thus why I write this instead with due credit and linkage)

[bonefall]

So way back in the day on the original Warriors website, there was an area where you could submit questions about the series that the Erin's would answer and then post the question and answers on a FAQ page. Someone asked about prefixes that the Clans don't use because they're considered sacred, and the answer had been iterations of Moon-, Star-, or the Clan names themselves, so Sky-, Shadow-, etc.

Obviously this isn't true for canon anymore, if it ever actually was (citing here: lack of continuity between the Erins) but I'm curious to know if your AU has any prefixes that the Clan's absolutely refuse to use for one reason or another? Whether they be sacred or maybe they're considered "cursed", like perhaps a particularly evil cat has tarnished the prefix forever. (Such as the lack of Maple- prefixes in canon books post-Mapleshade! Maybe not intentional, but a cool world-building detail nonetheless!)

Stemming from that, do you think any prefixes would/could be turned into insults/curses later on down the line? Basically, what's the culture like for names? My favorite part of Warriors has always been the names, and the Erin's had such a nice thing going until it was tossed out the window. The system you use with Clanmew and all is super neat and I'd love to know more about Clan naming traditions! Also how each leader names cats - idk if it was you or someone else that I follow, but I saw a post talking about how each leader has a distinct way to name their warriors.

(Also small fun fact while on the subject of names, a friend of mine submitted a question asking about who Bluestar's parents were, and the answer was Duskflower and Stormtail. This was a few years before Bluestar's Prophecy was published, so she was very upset over them changing "Duskflower" to "Moonflower" when it did finally come out!)

The Duskflower thing is actually a misconception: What happened was that in a field guide, the Erins wrote that the name was "Moonflower," and then felt that "moon" should be sacred. That's when they started using "Duskflower," until Bluestar's Prophecy came out and they agreed with the editors that the older information should take precedence

(Rare anti-retcon win)

But anyway I have no banned or sacred names! I don't like that concept! Possibly because I am from an old fandom era of 'traditional namers' that just used it as an excuse to bully people and have bad taste. Hawkfrost's name ROCKS MY SOCKS and they all died mad while I'm still here.

My rules with namings is that EVERYTHING must make sense in-universe. So I don't like lyrical naming very much... names like "Friendlyface" or "Empyreanmist" are funny, but I don't see how a kitten would end up with those names unless every cat in their Clan stopped taking their lives seriously

(Or are in WarriorClan. BB!WarriorClan renamings are going to look WILD)

That also means ecologically invalid names get cut or end up being translation quirks. Names like Cypress, Olive, Myrtle, etc.

I don't ban "insult" names either, but I do rule that they are typically ShadowClan. They have a very dark sense of humor.

And yes I am the one with leader naming styles! So far these are the styles:

Bramblestar: terrible. Doesn't consider names beforehand, often comes up with titles that are awkward or unimpressive

Harestar: Reverant and thoughtful, tries to name based on friendships, interests, and quirks.

Mistystar: Names litters according to 'themes,' often sharing suffixes or picking similar ones.

Brokenstar: Only ever gives "cool" names with deadly and strong connotations.

Firestar: Names awkwardly, but genuinely. Surprises his Clan constantly with banger names (Lionblaze) or shockingly uncomfortable ones (Brambleclaw).

Onestar: Names practically, trying to limit suffix repeats and tonguetwisters.

So on.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Jolene

(WARNING! This analysis contains flaming locks of auburn hair, with ivory skin and eyes of emerald GREEN!)

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene… She’s perhaps the most famous antagonist in all of music. And so who better to do the first ever audio-only villain Psycho Analysis on?

Jolene is a 1973 Dolly Parton song about the titular woman, based on a true account of a bank teller flirting with her husband (something she’s cited as to why she doesn’t like performing the song live often). In the song, Parton begs Jolene not to steal her husband away from her with her feminine whiles; stealing a man from Dolly Parton is one of the greatest sins a person could commit. But is this truly the end goal of Jolene? Is she truly some man-stealing monster, or is she something else entirely?

Motivation/Goals: In Dolly’s eyes, Jolene is the single greatest threat to her relationship, and throughout the song begs Jolene not to take her man. One might think this is Jolene’s goal, but in fact, the truth is far more perplexing: we simply don’t know what Jolene’s true motivations are. We are only receiving the extremely biased point of view of Dolly herself, and there isn’t much indication that Jolene is actually trying to steal Dolly’s man. There’s plenty of evidence that she could steal him if she wanted to, but it is easy to read this as Dolly just being overly paranoid and threatened by another beautiful woman (something her dumbass man isn’t helping by saying Jolene’s name in his sleep. Dickhead).

Evilness: So Jolene’s evilness is honestly up to interpretation. If she’s just some girl that Dolly feels insecure about for no reason other than she views her as so beautiful she could steal away her man, but is otherwise not actively trying to steal him, I’d say she’s easily a 0/10, just not really evil at all. If she actually is trying to steal Dolly’s man knowingly, though, that’s an easy 5/10; not super evil, but boy is that a dick move (though the man is at fault here too for being an unfaithful shitstain).Now, if you subscribe to one of the alternate theories of the song that paints Jolene as some sort of unholy eldritch horror, a demonic siren luring a faithful man to a dark fate as Dolly Parton begs for his freedom… well, that’s probably an 8.5/10 on the evil scale.

Final Thoughts & Score: Jolene is genuinely fascinating because we know so much about her, and yet at the same time we know so little.

The entire first verse of the song is as follows:

Your beauty is beyond compare

With flaming locks of auburn hair

With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green

Your smile is like a breath of spring

Your voice is soft like summer rain

And I cannot compete with you, Jolene

From this, we get a pretty vivid picture of what Jolene looks like and how beautiful she is, which is… odd, isn’t it? So much time is spent describing her and building her up, and then the second verse just dunks on Dolly’s man and talks about him being super unfaithful and calling out for Jolene in his sleep. So we have a sucky boyfriend/husband, we have a woman who is so gorgeous she warrants an entire verse describing how hot she is, and we have the final verse concluding with “My happiness depends on you.” Is there any sort of heterosexual explanation for this?

But that’s just one of many ways to interpret the song, and that’s what’s so great about it. “Jolene” gives you just enough information to paint a pretty solid picture, but leaves just enough ambiguity to allow you as the listener to finish painting the picture however you’d like. Maybe Jolene is a wicked man-stealing bitch; maybe Dolly’s distress is misplaced; maybe Dolly is actually in love with Jolene despite her advances towards her husband, and this is some fucked up love triangle; or perhaps Jolene is some sort of unnatural horror that preys on the weakest men, and Dolly is pleading for his salvation.

Frankly, I find it hard to see Jolene as anything but a villain considering how stressed out she’s making Dolly in the song, and with that in mind she’s about the single most iconic antagonist a song could ever have. But at the same time, there’s not really much information available for me to adequately ascertain just how evil Jolene really is; is she even a villain at all? Can I fairly score her as a villain? If I have to give Jolene a score, I’d say an 8.5/10 is solid enough. The song itself is a perfect classic, and Jolene is really brought to life with the descriptive lyrics, but it’s hard for me to totally make a judgment call on her as a person based solely on Dolly’s word (and Dolly isn’t even placing blame on Jolene, to the point it reads a lot like projection).

But my score is pretty arbitrary in this case. There are a million ways to interpret Jolene, so why don’t you all tell me what score you’d give her? Just what kind of villain do you think Jolene is, if you even think she’s evil at all?