#If you're not from one of those Eastern cultures

[reslari]

The lifting the lore does in glazing when none of the demigods are actually all that powerful is so funny. In fact, neither is Queen Marika.

When GRRM said, "I wrote these guys to be normal humans a long time pre-canon," he wasn't kidding.

Marika, all-consumingly powerful, can rewrite reality with the reality rewriting macguffin! Except where she can't rewrite her children AND herself not to be cursed, and can only just barely seal a couple of Outer Gods and not actually kill them. Where she can't just write the Hornsent or the Crucible out of existence, and instead has to sacrifice people for a miserable, honorless war. Turns out, she's just an average, rote god, but she has propaganda on her side, and maybe a slight homefield advantage. But she isn't special and never has been.

Radahn, mightiest demigod of the Shattering! Who got his ass kicked by some sewer-scented old man with a walking stick. Twice. Plus he couldn't properly siege Stormveil Castle. So his official score in "notable battles" is 1/3/1. That's a championship record if I've ever seen one, truly worthy of the "mightiest" title.

Malenia, the undefeated!!!! Because she had to throw her pride away just to *tie* the dude that got his ass kicked by a stinky geriatric, when she was actively trying to kill him. Sure, Caelid is a mess now, but all she did was slap an aeonia down; the scarlet aeonia and the rot itself propagated under its own power, she wasn't controlling it once it was unleashed.

Morgott: should therefore be as powerful or more than both of the above, but is a midgame boss, and not even a particularly difficult kill, with no particular skills other than a little holy magic, so who knows how he even got Radahn in the first place. Except if Radahn isn't actually as powerful as the glazing tells you he is, and therefore neither is Malenia.

And all of the above can get absolutely humbled by some naked dude with a stick.

I could also go on about how Miquella's plan makes a ton more sense if you take away the bullshit anime superpowers, but bullshit anime superpowers is what makes the video game a video game, so they gotta stay.

PS: "Prime Radahn" isn't actually that powerful; if his fight was only phase 1, he would be easier than Malenia, even before the nerfs. He is buffed by Miquella to be as punishing as he is in Phase 2 - You're not fighting "Prime Radahn" acting under his own power, you're fighting "Prime Radahn" with a pocket buff machine enhancing his abilities; it's the combined strength of Miquella and Radahn, actively trying to defeat you... and you STILL win.

But this is a poignant point about the way FromSoft makes their characters: Even in their "prime", they are still defeatable by a naked dude with a stick. Even in their "prime", they're not all-powerful. It's for the same reason FS never writes people in positions of power as unambiguously good: You are supposed to realize how falliable those in power are. You are supposed to question them, their intentions, and see through the illusion and transience of their "power". GRRM wrote the characters even weaker and more falliable than FS would, it seems, but even "buffed" - just like Radahn - they are still people, and just as susceptible to the faults that come with that.

[mysteryshoptls]

SSR Jack Howl - New Year's Attire Voice Lines

Happy New Year! Wishing you all the best. ...Don't read too much into it, I was just sayin' that to be polite!

Summon: Don't slack off just 'cause we're starting a new year. It's really easy to fall into bad habits, so.

Groovification: I got the hang of ＴＡＫＯＡＧＥ down pat, now. Don't care how many of you wanna come at me, I'll take you all on!

Home: Is this the right way to wear this thing?

Home Transition 1: I've been studying up on eastern culture ever since I got this job. I mean, I can't just look the part and not know anything about it.

Home Transition 2: How many times do I gotta hear the guys from my dorm joke about how the shop's staff are all unapproachable...? They better be ready for what's comin' for them once I'm done with this job.

Home Transition 3: Malleus-senpai is able to stock the shelves and set-up displays in a snap with his magic. There's a lot I can learn from him.

Home Transition - Login: Welcome! ...Hey, don't laugh at me like that. I already know I don't look like I'm cut out for all this customer service stuff.

Home Transition - Groovy: Both sales and our ＴＡＫＯＡＧＥ win record are through the roof. Seein' the results of all my hard work on paper actually gets me pretty motivated!

Home Tap 1: What gives me hang-ups while I work here is whenever someone asks me about some brand or another. Why're people askin' me about those things? Does it look like I know anything about 'em?

Home Tap 2: Not only can he get the job done well, but he's able to practice ＴＡＫＯＡＧＥ properly, too... Jamil-senpai really makes no wasteful movements. I gotta try to make time for everything, too.

Home Tap 3: Just watchin' the way Floyd-senpai deal with customers makes me doubt everything I know about customer service. How is no one complaining about the way he's goin' about it?

Home Tap 4: Tch, the product displays are a complete disaster 'cause of all the unruly customers. You're tellin' me that Sam-san has to deal with these kinds of guys all the time?

Home Tap 5: This outfit's kinda difficult to wear. Walkin' around in it's one thing, but whenever I try to run, my feet get caught on the hem.

Home Tap - Groovy: You don't know where the thing you're looking for is? Got it, just wait a sec for me to finish putting this stuff out. I'll show you where it is. Y'know, just so I can make the sale.

Duo: [JACK]: Floyd-senpai, don't slack off now! [FLOYD]: You're too stuffy, Uni-chan～

Requested by @farfalla049.

[mimiiiiiiiiisstuff]

Hi! I'm new to your account, but just binged your "I bet on losing dogs" storyline, and I had a question and concept for you? How much is the reader free to interpret? I'm a theater kid, so I like her hobbies. But is there any specific physical traits you're writing for her? I know you mentioned that we were/are chubby, which is cool, but do you imagine any certain features? Because I'm Mexican American with certain features, so I was curious if you had a certain ethnicity set for her besides being half White/Jewish from Bruce being her biological father.

I also had the same question about Tiffany, because I'm currently imagining the Stereotypical All American girl. Kinda got that Disney Channel actress vibe to her. (Physically). I also had this really messed up though of the reader having to spend YEARS trying to keep in touch her mother's culture and such, learning dishes, traditions, going to local festivals by herself, having to learn how to do makeup and hair styles/products that fit her face and hair pattern. No one bothered to help or teach her. But than, suddenly Tiffany starts to steal those "habits", uncaring if they were very personal to the reader. Than everyone in the family suddenly starts to like the Reader's culture and such. (I had this scene in my brain where the Reader walks in on Tiffany is bragging about some music or dish "she" tried out from the Reader's culture, while the family are all happy and curious about it. Even when the Reader tried to introduce it to the family, everyone declined even trying it.)

I see the Reader so "Your Best American Girl" coded by Mitski.

Anyway I just wanted to ramble, bye!

ok so, I'm trying to be as vague as possible bc reader is supposed to be whoever is reading so there's no in depth description or specific height or build (except chubby in the prologue). i feel like i've basically made reader an OC which i hate but personally when I'm reading a fic, I just ignore things if I don't like them or they don't apply to me which is what i suggest yall do!!

the reader's mother is Palestinian/ Venezualan, like my own mom but you can change it if you'd like. it's important to mention that reader does have Bruce's jaw structure and face shape and shares facial features with Damian as well. It's small things like the ears, the roman nose, even the eye shape, point is that every time reader looks in the mirror she can see shadows of Bruce and Damian on her face. it's kinda like the vibe of "like him" by tyler the creator. I'm middle eastern and hispanic so I imagine reader with darker feautures like tan skin, thick brown hair, arched brows and long lashes but it's all up to you!

reader is very confused because while her dad is white, she isn't. she did try to bond with Damian and learn Arabic with him but he shamed her for not knowing and kicked her out his room, literally. she used to be embarrassed of her heritage when she was younger (courtsey of Tiffany calling her a mutt) but as she got older she realized how interesting her culture is.

she wants to learn arabic but has no teachers and it's a pretty hard language to learn if you don't grow up speaking it .she has no sources to help her and most of the time culture and traditions are things you grow up with and are passed down to you from family. her mom used to speak to her in arabic and feed her dates and sandwiches with olive oil and sugar and make her fried plantians so those things are very special to her, they're some of the only details she remembers about her late mother. so yeah reader is very "Your best american girl coded"

You're so on point about Tiffany, she's your classic all American girl. Blonde hair, blue eyes, long tanned legs and a set of pearly whites. she's the kind of white girl to act like she cares about other races but is secretly racist. you know what girls im talking about! and that prompt you sent with the food eats so hard, I have a scene mapped out with that in the upcoming chapters. I rambled too girl!!! you really got me thinking tbh but let me stop and actually write the next chapter.

[lee-the-goat]

Ok so I noticed a really funny exchange that constantly happens with antisemites that goes something like "Ashkenazi Jews are white Aryan Europeans!!!!!!"

-"No they aren't, even the genetics very clearly show that they're at least half middle eastern (and the other half originates in classical era Rome)"

"Yes but that's from the patrilineal side and Judaism is only through the mother's side so according to their religion they're not Jewish!!!" Like, what the hell is this kind of reasoning? I've had that exact exchange more than once, do people know what matrilineality is? It's not even an old Jewish tradition it iirc originates in Roman times, do they think halachaic matrilineality erases 50% of the amino acids in your body or some shit? If your dad belongs to some matrilineal African culture and has you with a European woman are you just European? Would those smooth brainers go "Hmm what do you mean African? You're just European so I think these curly dark hair and brown skin and wide nose are just your run of the mill Scandinavian features"?

Man I don't know, if anything what makes this scary is how sensibility just completely goes out the window with these entities I'm legally obligated to count as people. They're trying so damn hard, "The joos are [whatever's considered bad these days] is literally just an axiom to them, and they will sooner change everything else around it than not consider it to be true for one second

[ranticore]

What are some mythological monsters from Siren? Are any of them actually real? 👀 (some visual references appreciated if you're able...)

i was going to save this to draw something but don't think i'll have the time to work on it

some mythological monsters (really limited list tbh you can imagine that almost every community has their own take)

false phocid/doppelganger/mirror self/etc - this creature can be glimpsed at a distance and appears very similar to you, baby phocid, but you must never swim out to greet them. the mirror self will only swim further and further away, tempting you to follow, until it traps you in unfamiliar territory or even an evil maze, a place that resembles no place you've ever been before. moral of the story: don't trust strangers/teaching basic fear of the unknown

Tel!am - this is more of a godlike being than most mythological monsters, and can be found in the stories of people from the southern hemisphere. Tel!am is the seafloor itself, which is why deadly aerated water, which seeps up from cracks in the seafloor, is known as Tel!am's Blood/Breath/etc. Tel!am is asleep most of the time but wakes during rare high tide events, during which they rage against the moons and smash up any land/infrastructure/people that happen to get in their way. moral of the story: if there's a high tide forecast you need to get the fuck out of there

Odr - kind of an inverse of Tel!am, supposedly Odr was a giant selkie from the northern hemisphere who took on various heroic challenges to prove their might. They shaped much of the ice-caps by fighting monsters and enemies there (every stroke of their fighting spear would carve a new mountain or whatever, that kind of tale) before growing so sleepy that they curled up and fell into a slumber at a point in the icecaps now known as Odr's Sleep, became buried in snow, and is now only exposed during low tide events. the world as we know it will probably end if the tide gets low enough to reveal Odr entirely, causing them to wake. moral of the story: if there's a low tide forecast you need to get the fuck out of there

Kin/Ruler of the High Tide/Ishmael - in the western continent it is believed that there is a common ancestor for all phocids who arose from this region and that's how we got phocids, who were born when this ancestor raised a high tide. which is straightforward enough. but as people spread further and further from the western continent and settled more remote places, the legend grew legs and kind of morphed into 101 different cautionary tales about a morally-neutral trickster character who, again, might end the world if he raises another high tide, or might birth a new generation of sirenians. moral of the story: you guys should be writing your history down better probably

The Endless Kattakati - this one comes from zetas in the eastern continent. In the past it was common for zeta packs of up to twenty individuals to all be in one kattakati (i.e all of them were considered to be One Single Entity, like a culturally eusocial rather than biologically). there are surviving stories of a potential future, like a different fork in the path of history, that resulted in every single zeta being in ONE kattakati. a single person with tens of thousands of bodies. whether or not this idea is a comfort to them varies of course; the more traditionally-minded might think it sounds very peaceful, while those more integrated with outside cultures and people might see it as a frightening tale of assimilation and loss of individuality. some say that it could happen in the future, too, if only they could sum up the will to try. moral of the story: peace and community are within reach if only we set aside our differences more/oh god oh no oh fuck

longwing visors in general - with each one being tied to a specific character, some of them do happen to be monstrous in nature. flying monsters are a common theme - usually based on recreations of the large, winged metal caskets in which many visors were first unearthed. these creatures were said to plague the first generations of longwings, ruling the skies and attacking anything around them, until mysteriously they all died, transferring their powers of long-distance communication and foresight into the visors inside their bodies. moral of the story: sorry you got stuck with a visor with monstrous baggage i guess you're kind of a monster now too

the Night-time Professor - if you join the university at the Spire as a new student you might hear stories of a strange apparition that flies through the hallways and lecture rooms at night. that's actually a ghost of a scholar who got sick and died while working on his thesis, but that's no fucking excuse for not turning your work in on time so he's STILL out there working on it and won't be allowed to pass on until he's finished. moral of the story: we don't accept sick notes and you're not getting that deadline extension

[letteredlettered]

Hi!! Out of curiosity, which MDZS character do u think about the most and why?

The answer is, without a doubt, Wei Wuxian.

Part of what makes WWX special to me is he feels really archetypal and yet the archetype doesn't actually appear in most of the western media with which I'm familiar. The archetype may be super common in eastern media or perhaps, more narrowly, Chinese media, but my point he feels singular to me and therefore interests me, and I'm familiar with mostly western media. The comparisons in this post are all comparisons to western media, since that's what I'm familiar with, and I tried to pick popular examples so that people would understand what I mean.

Wei Wuxian is a protagonist who does bad things. Very bad things. We see that in plenty of western stories, but it's less common in western fantasy. That is, you can read a million stories about professors sleeping with their students and making a very bad muck of their lives; you can watch Breaking Bad and The Sopranos, but more often in western fantasy you're going to have a Good Guy who does good and Bad Guys who do bad.

But, okay. There's certainly a significant portion of western fantasy in which no one is a Good Guy, and everyone is a little corrupt: Song of Ice and Fire, Interview With the Vampire. Wei Wuxian feels very different to me than the protagonists of these media, because Wei Wuxian is trying to be the Good Guy. He's well-intentioned. He is willing to stand against all of society to defy corruption and protect those who are weaker than himself. That kind of protagonist isn't very common in the kinds of "dark" genre fiction that are about the corruption of humanity or the political intrigues of society. If they exist, they're usually martyred and disappear from the narrative because they are too good for this world, too pure.

But the point of WWX is that he is not too good; he is not pure. He is good; he is brave; he is righteous; he stands up for the little guy--but he is also over-confident in his own ability. He overreaches. And people die because of it. Lots of people. And then, after he accidentally murders people due to losing control, he goes mad. The Nightless City massacre occurs not due to an accident but because WWX is careless and angry. He kills a lot more people then.

I will say that western fantasy is full of characters who turn to "the dark side. The threat of "going dark" has become, in fact, an integral part of most portrayals of the hero's journey. But in the media with which I'm familiar, when someone does go dark, they become the villain. They are not allowed to live, or if they live, they must still be vanquished. Star Wars is a quintessential example: Luke Skywalker is tempted by the dark side but resists; he is the hero. Darth Vader is tempted by the dark side and gives in. Even though he turns back at the end, he must still be eliminated.

Of course, there are plenty of villains who reform in such stories and then manage to survive. I think you could say that once resurrected, WWX is reformed in this way. He knows he lost control. He knows he hurt people. He's very sorry about it, and while he still has a drive to put his hand in to help others, I can't imagine him coming to the point where he would lose control again, and I also do not think he has the kind of anger or resentment that would allow him to be so careless and wanton with his cultivation again.

So, in this sense, WWX holds the place of a reformed villain, like Zuko or, say, Angel, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. One thing to note about both of these examples--Zuko is shown to be "on the dark side" because of the family and culture in which he was raised, and also, he was a child. Angel was "on the dark side" because he didn't have a soul. That is, the excuses for why these reformed villains were ever villains at all exonerate them to some extent.

Meanwhile, WWX was a villain because he was full of himself. Like, it's still understandable why WWX was a villain: he sacrificed all the power he had for someone he loved; he still needed power to protect his own life when he was being tortured, and this took him down a dark path; he needed even more power to help the world fight corrupt fascists; he was villainized by society even before he became an actual villain because that society feared and desired his power; he was literally ostracized and rejected by his own family for doing the right thing. But in the end, it wasn't like he had no other choice when he caused the death of JZX. He didn't feel like he had another choice to save the Wens, but if he had not been so over-confident in his ability to control himself, JZX would not have died. And while I find the massacre at Qionqi Pass maybe excusable considering the pressures WWX was under, WWX goes mad after that. Also understandable, but there is no way in which the massacre at Nightless City is excusable. There's just no way to say it wasn't his fault.

Okay, but there are some reformed villains in western fantasy who really were villains because they just made some wrong choices. They were arrogant like WWX, or they were petty and small, or they had a sucky childhood but nothing that should've led them into darkness. These characters do exist, but I find them few and far between (and I will fully admit here that maybe I just haven't read enough western fantasy to come up with enough examples). When they do show up, they are not usually the protagonist (Snape); they more often play side roles.

And the point with these guys is that they did bad things because they were not well-intentioned. Their intentions change, and therefore their moral alignment changes. But WWX was always trying to do good. It's only at the very end that he is no longer trying, and he loses his mind partly because all of his efforts to do good have flown up in his face. I just feel like I never get to see someone who was honestly trying to help people so earnestly, and fucks it up because he was trying to do too much. The closest example is Xie Lian, and I think we can all agree Xie Lian never becomes anything close to a villain.

However, now comes the trait that really does make WWX different from any other protagonists I've ever read, and most I've seen on screen: he is all of the above, a reformed villain who was well-intentioned throughout his descent into villainy, who doesn't brood.

Everyone I mentioned above--Zuko, Angel, Snape--are all very serious people who are consumed by their pasts. If they're not dour or bitter, they're still unable to be light-hearted or carefree. Meanwhile, WWX is the definition of light-hearted and carefree. He has a lot of regrets and some guilt, but he really doesn't dwell on it. Like, he fucked up. He died. How else can he atone? He knows he can't make it up to the people he hurt. Might as well move on and not get in their face about it.

In general, WWX's personality is unusual for the kind of hero he is. While it's true that the wise-cracking, smart-talking hero is a staple of western fantasy (Iron Man, Spider Man), these aren't the kind of heroes who can make the serious mistakes that WWX makes--or, though they do make mistakes that lead to the deaths of countless bystanders, they are never really confronted with the enormity of those crimes. I know that some people will say that WWX is not confronted with them either, that his crimes are not dealt with seriously enough in the text. I admit that I was very surprised that WWX blames the death of JZX on JGY during the final showdown in the temple. In the end, however, I think there are enough questions about whether WWX is actually a Good Guy that the story of MDZS seems quite different than, say, many western superhero stories, in which yes, superheroes do bad things and make mistakes, but are still ultimately our heroes.

But the other thing about WWX's personality that is unique for such a protagonist and also further distances him from heroes like Iron Man is this: WWX is pathetic. He's allowed to be pathetic, on quite a few occasions. He pretends to be a child. He pretends to be a damsel in distress. He purposely harasses and teases others in a way that is actively annoying to them. He's laughable. The closest parallel I can think of to how deeply WWX is willing to abase himself and annoy the fuck out of others in Deadpool, but the thing about Deadpool is that he is ultimately comedic. You know you're going to laugh if you're reading a Deadpool comic or watching one of his movies. Also, while Deadpool is a badass, need I remind you that WWX is the most powerful and the most feared person in the entire world, perhaps in all of history. The fact that WWX is as powerful as he is and still throws himself on people he likes and pretends to weep is only matched by Luo Binghe, but LBH is different in that his willingness to be pathetic is a tactic of manipulation. Meanwhile WWX is pathetic for fun; he likes to annoy people; he's ridiculous; he's laughable.

He's also lovable, but imo, like Deadpool and like LBH, I don't think we're always supposed to find him charming. We're supposed to recognize that these characters sometimes go too far for a joke. We're supposed to be annoyed at times, at least imo.

But in the end, we are supposed to like WWX. We're also supposed to feel really sorry for him and sympathize with him for what he did. He's an enormous woobie, while at the same time he massacred thousands and then laughed it off. Who does that? Who does it like the Yiling Lazou? When you add in the fact that he's super gay, but all his gay fantasies consist of farming and eating Lan Wangji's cooking and talking about fishing and keeping house, I'm just left asking, Wei Wuxian, who the fuck are you? Who the fuck can match you?

This is why I spend so much time thinking about this character. I can't actually wrap my head around him, and frankly, the way MDZS is told doesn't help. MXTX actually does not really get into WWX's head very much once he starts his path of demonic cultivation, and while we get some insights as to what is going on with him through flashback and his dialogue at the time, I am still somewhat in the dark about why he made the choices he did.

The only character I've ever encountered who even comes close to WWX is Spike from BtVS, and WWX is still on another level.

Lastly, I'll say that the relationship between Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng is another thing I have never witnessed in western media. It is so complex and interesting to me that I could make a whole post on it, which is why even though the answer to your question is by far Wei Wuxian, if WWX didn't exist, Jiang Cheng would win this question by a landslide.

[nkjemisin]

Hey there. I'm writing a story set in New York City and am not American. I have few characters, but most of them are arab or white. I can't help but feel a bit wrong about it, given that America is much more diverse than that, and NYC being an emblem of that. Do you think I should force myself to include more representation or should I just tell my story, and leave that more diverse cast to some other story I could write? I know this is a neverending debate and there are many opinions about it, but I've always agreed with everything you've said in matters of representation in fiction, and so I'd be curious to know your personal answer on it.

I'm a little confused by how you're using "representation," here. It sounds like you think representation = "randomly sticking BIPOC everywhere." I think when most people use that word, it means something more like "create an accurate or at least plausible depiction of a group or place." In actual New York, there are plenty of Middle Easterners and white people who live in relatively homogeneous small communities where they might only see someone of a different ethnicity on the subway. If your story is set in one of those communities -- and you do stick some random BIPOC in that subway scene, because that's plausible -- then it sounds like your characters might be an example of good representation.

(Note: if you're not writing something set in the real world, but it features human beings, it needs to represent humanity as a whole, unless there's a good in-world reason not to. But if it's our world? You can get specific.)

Here's the catch, tho: plausibility is relative. If you've absorbed some biases and haven't done enough research, then you might end up writing something that feels plausible to you, but which isn't actually representative or plausible to anyone else. The way to avoid this is to do the research and check (to the best of your ability) your biases. For example, you aren't American, I assume you've at least visited NYC? If not, you should. You can visit some of the communities I mentioned! You can eat in restaurants, visit mosques, have conversations with actual real people who are living the life you're writing about! If you don't have the time, money, or spoons to do that, there are other ways to do good research -- films and YT/Tiktok videos made by people from the communities in question, for example. But you'd need to watch a lot of them to get a good representative sample.

I recommend this book to all the writing students I've taught at Clarion, and other writer workshops: Writing the Other, by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward. There's a particular part of it that seems relevant here, which is a kind of hierarchy of "appropriate" appropriation, I think first mentioned by Diantha Day Sprouse but included in Writing the Other. Basically it says that if you want to write about a culture that isn't your own, you can learn about that culture in one of several ways: a) You can be an Invader, and just go take whatever intellectual and artistic tidbits from that culture that you want, regardless of how damaging this might be to members of that group. Example: non-Indigenous people who write about actual secret practices, or who encourage the desecration of sacred places. b) You can be a Tourist, in which you're still mooching from that culture, but at least you're figuratively paying someone for it and accepting tidbits that the culture has chosen to sell. Example: getting a sensitivity reader. Or c) you can be an Invited Guest, who brings in as much as they take out, and who has formed relationships that are beneficial to all involved. Example: being part of an exchange program, both as a student and later as a host, and maintaining those friendships outside of the program.

The goal is to be an IG, but that isn't always possible. Tourist is still better than being an Invader. (...I feel like I'm leaving out a category. It's been a while since I read the book; any more recent readers want to check me here?) But the closer you can get to actually participating in that culture, the more your work will be informed by reality instead of biases or misinformation, and the more likely your work will read as plausible not just to you, but to your widest possible audience -- people familiar with the culture and people who aren't.

(I'm a little concerned about your phrasing of "force myself to include more representation," note. Why would that need to be a forced thing? A writer's goal should be to write something that feels lived-in and authentic to [if it's a real place] most people's experience -- not to meet some arbitrary standard, but because that's how you master immersion and characterization. If good immersion and characterization feel forced to you right now, that suggests you need more practice. I recommend writing short stories!)

[paintedkinzy-88]

"You're far more powerful than the people of this planet, yet you defend them. Why?"

"Big talk from the guy that was defeated by those very people."

"Hm. Don't make me laugh. The... beasts that managed to delay our reign were far from human..."

In other words, I decided that the ancient mystic warriors that created the Key to the Prison Dimension are now dragonfied... somewhat successfully-

More info on them below, why not.

Almost a thousand years ago, after the creation of yokai, dragons of the time advocated for peace between humans and yokai. However, the tensions only grew as each attempt ended in failure, by the fault of one side or the other. Eventually, a war was declared, and the powerful beings ended up as targets for many.

The story is typically different depending on the location. Generally, in the East, dragons were more respected by humans than yokai, and the West was the opposite. Draxum's family grew up in the Western yokai cultures, primarily, whereas the Hamato clan originally lived in the East.

One by one, by either human or yokai, dragons were hunted down, often seen as either a threat due to their power, or as foolish for their optimistic desires. When the Krang's full army made it to Earth, only four remained across the globe. Seeing this massive threat to life itself in their home, they gathered together and sacrificed themselves in order to create the Prison Dimension, locking away as many Krang as they possibly could and trusting the stragglers could be taken care of.

With them gone, the Yokai were eventually forced to hide away, with any remaining rebels quickly struck down. Currently, the only remaining proof of the dragons, aside from many mixed stories and historical drawings, is the small, inferior yokai breed (think like Bruce and his gang.)

Blazure: Having lived in the Eastern side, Blazure was a constant target of human armies. He used to have a small group of fellow dragons he often socialized with in surrounding territories, but they were all taken down by the kingdoms around them eventually. His home no longer safe, Blazure spent most of his remaining life traveling and trying his best to help people of all kinds where he could, without getting killed.

Pyre: Immediately after the war was declared, Pyre set off with as many Yokai as he could, trying to guide them to safety. While he still wholeheartedly believed they could live in harmony, he also recognized that reasoning with humans was not in his personal skillset, a lesson he had learned the hard way many times. Instead, he took to running with the yokai he could protect, gaining new members at every turn. It's rumored that he was the start of the first Hidden Cities.

Shilong: Highly revered by the humans of his territory, Shilong was a mighty warrior who, unlike many dragons, had no problem resorting to physically fighting for his beliefs. Many yokai saw him as a threat and even a weakness of their kind due to his desire for peace between them and humans. Because of this, he was often attacked. Even still, he stuck around and defended human villages and cities when he saw it necessary.

Zuma: Settling down in Japan with a few others, Zuma was highly worshipped by multiple human clans. They were free to walk the streets of these villages unharmed, and often received gems, food, jewelry, and other gifts, which they always made sure to repay in one way or another. Overall, they were well treated and defended from the many yokai who wished to hunt them down.

Curse of Icarus Masterpost

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 Ep1 Musings - Daciana: History through Visual Context in Ploiești, Romania

I immediately fell in love with The Vampire Daciana & her Romanian castle, and wanted to know more about it all.

We already know how much the set/costume designers on IWTV looooove attention to detail; they tell whole stories just through architecture, furniture, clothes, etc. So I was like OK, AMC, I see you; lemme start doing some reading up on Romania, so I can try to figure out what might be going on with Daciana. (Warning: I know eff all about Romania or Eastern Europe.)

ROMANIA

Map of Romania. Ploiești's the dot just under Muntenia, north of Bucharest, the capital. Ploiești's part of Wallachia, the IRL kingdom of Vlad Tepes (aka Dracula). Louis & Claudia went there in the 1940s, so I hope this map is accurate enough. (There's this map, but I dunno the date.)

DACIANA

The most obvious thing about her is that she's not dressed in the typical traditional Romanian folk clothing I see all over Google, full of white-red-blue/black palettes.

Daciana's not following traditional 19th/20th-century Romanian nationalist images. Her green/brown palette & silhouette is telling, as she lacks the puffy white blouses & dark skirts. (Despite her name, I'm ruling out her being Dacian (X X)--you think you're FUNNY, AMC! But IDK about Cezare Romulo (X X); might do a Pt2!)

Sleeves

First thing's her trailing slashed open sleeves, which were screaming Medieval! at me. Here's some 15th century Renaissance examples, but with surcoats, which is different, but the sleeves reminded me of hers so IDFK.

We could chalk this up to Daciana's design as just generic "medieval" fairytale stuff and keep it moving. But to give her a fair shake, I looked at local examples for anything similar that's more recent.

Traditional clothing from Huedin, Romania (north Transylvania), (X X).

Traditional clothing from Cluj, Romania (north Transylvania).

Keep Transylvanian/Muntenian cross-cultural contacts in mind when we get to Daciana's castle, cuz it's important!

Wrt rarer non-puffy sleeves, the square cut (light blue) seems to be more prevalent in Wallachia/Moldavia/Bessarabia (southern & eastern Romania); while the rectangular cut (dark green) is all over Romania, but definitely has a concentration in Wallachia & Moldavia.

And this makes sense, cuz the style seems to also be prevalent in 19th - 20th century Bulgaria, just south of Wallachia. Hrm....

Daciana's sleeves hang very long--the only example of super long sleeves I could find is a 19th century one at the Met (C.I.47.3.4a–d). The only example of slashed sleeves I could find is in this museum exhibit at Bran Castle (yes, THE Bran Castle--I'll get to it in a minute!)

Belt, Bodice, & Fabric

Daciana's belt is so plain compared to everything else. Is it supposed to be a leather Romanian chimir (worn by mountain/forest folk)? Those are only worn by men though? Or it depends? Or is it a just a plain cloth belt? It's reminding me of these examples (X X):

I wish I could see more of Daciana's bodice, if there's any particular kind of cut or patterns. Is the diamond netted/knotted/roped pattern on her arms significant? Her fabric is interesting, too:

What's this embroidery? Brocade? (Byzantine-Renaissance?) Damask? (c. 14th-16th century?) Lace? Something else? My brain wants to assume it's imported? Meaning: she's hella rich. Cuz like, the traditional Romanian blouse & skirt used to belong solely to peasants, b4 19th-20th century aristocrats started wearing it, too.

IDKY--more reading led me to a whole bunch of complicated stuff, that can probably be simplified by just saying: The Ottomans. XD

The pre-19th century Romanian aristocracy wore super opulent clothes, inspired by not just the Ottomans (X), but also the Byzantine Greeks (via 18th century Romanian Phanariote boyars (X X X)), etc. But aside from the hanging sleeves, Daciana's dress doesn't really resemble any of these foreign examples. However, it does track with my theory that Daciana predates the 19th-century Romanian nationalist/traditional clothes that became so iconic later on.

Like Louis & Claudia did, let's follow Daciana to her castle! ^0^

DACIANA'S CASTLE

I NEED to know if AMC filmed on location in Romania, or if Daciana's castle is just a studio set/green screen.

The interior's nowhere near what I expected, considering Daciana's haggard appearance. It's really nice--clean & tidy. No spiderwebs, no chipped plaster/paint, not even any bloodstains--but I've mentioned before that I think it's indicating that Daciana's a mother who takes better care of her home (and "child") than herself.

Archway

The first thing is the arch when they first come in (noticeable mostly cuz of how Louis had to bend down to get in, he's so tall).

These types of doors/arches are called "shouldered arches," dating from the Medieval-Gothic periods, which Europeans adapted from Islamic architecture during the medieval Crusades. (Examples inc. Lainici Monastery in Wallachia, and the Academy of Art in Cluj-Napoca (north Transylvania).)

The left pic's Biertan Fortified Church, in Sibiu (south Transylvania). (Another door.) The right pic's Bran Castle, in Brasov (south Transylvania). (Another door.) (Vlad Tepes/Dracula historically never owned this castle, but pop culture says otherwise.) Both places were built by the German/Saxon Transylvanians in the 14th-16th centuries; which might help date Daciana's castle, if not Daciana herself? (The Saxon Transylvanians were in Wallachia, too.)

Wall Ornamentation

The last thing I'll discuss is the wall ornamentation/decoration:

The painted floral trim everywhere instantly reminded me of The Witcher 3, as found in Hungarian, Polish, Ukranian etc buildings. Apparently the designs are all related to fertility, growth/luck, and the Tree of Life. Walls (X X X) and doors (X X) were painted. You can see northern Romanian painted ornamentation in Suceava (Bukovina).

There's painted wall designs in southern Romania, too.

"The research of the popular interior in the Argeş and Muscel areas leads to the determination, along with a local specificity, and some Transylvanian influences, in the contact areas between southern Transylvania and northern Muntenia. In the researched areas, two lines of development of the popular interior can be observed, one relatively simple and the other complex. If the first is the prerogative of a typical Subcarpathian interior, the second represents a distinctly Transylvanian form, which was also imposed due to the presence of the Transylvanian population in the south of the Carpathians, settled in numerous villages." -- (Google Translated from Arta populară din zonele Argeș și Muscel, 1967)

(The website RomaniaDacia has A LOT to say about Transylvania, and the impact of the Germans, Saxons, Hungarians, etc on Wallachia & the rest of Romania.)

Sure enough, I was finding way more carved ornamentation (X X X X X X) than painted ones.

But I wonder if that's why a lot of southern traditional Romanian interiors I've been finding have totally plain whitewashed walls, too, with no painted ornaments, just tapestries (X X). I did find Romanian interior floral wall painted trims (X), but not nearly as much.

Cuz actually, the closest comparanda I was finding for Daciana was Northern European rosemaling (X X), which is also giving me medieval vibes (X); specifically: trims on illuminated manuscripts like the Book of Hours (X X X)--which we know from Lestat in S01E06.

And we do see some Romanian medieval fresco borders & frescoes that had been plastered over & whitewashed, in Biertan's 15th century churches, and in 13th-15th century Darjiu (Transylvania).

So, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Romanian buildings (especially castles with whitewashed plastered walls) were formerly painted similar to Daciana's. Unfortunately, I just can't find an example or figure out what AMC might've been inspired by--Romania has hundreds of castles & churches.

So, I'm tapping out--this is the most I could find so far. U_U

Results? Inconclusive! 😭 My Google-fu has failed me, LOL!

I still have no idea what time period Daciana could be from. We could go several routes:

Go by her name, and say she's ooooold AF, an actual Dacian. She's just been collating Eastern European culture as she ages, but stopped at some point (as her mind deteriorated)

She's medieval, somewhere roundabouts the 14th-16th century (making her ~500 years old, the same age as Armand--but she's weaker (as I've theorized b4), which is why she was able to burn herself up.)

Settle on her being a local Wallachian from Southern Romania, likely pre-19th century / pre-industrial early-modern Europe

Handwave everything aside as Renn-Faire fairytale fantasy; let the tale seduce you~!

OR, we can just bully AMC until they give us an extended BTS look at how Daciana was conceptualized, telling us all the tea about her! 😈

[linkspooky]

Okay, so I received an ask in response to an MHA critical post I received last night that I originally responded to, but then decided to delete the ask and the original post because I didn't want to get into an argument.

However, I feel like I should address one of their complaints about a post I made last night. That I was being too dismissive on the cultural reasons for some of the writing choices Horikoshi made because I am obviously not a part of the culture that Horikoshi grew up in and is commenting on in his piece of work.

I tried not to dismiss the cultural reasons entirely in the post though, I just said I don't think you can entirely blame Hori's writing choices on them. My cited example was there are other shonen jump mangas that don't go out of their way to gruesomely kill their villains (which is what I'm taking fault with.) I understand that the death penalty is a common response to murder in japan, but within the realm of fiction of shonen manga doesn't have a trend of killing all their villains.

But yeah, that might have been a shallow argument.

So there are different lenses of fiction you can criticize Horikoshi's writing on, because every piece of fiction is in fact influenced by the culture it's in, as well as obviously the author's personal life and unconscious biases but that's not all. There's also genre to consider, and influences / inspiration the author might have taken from other works.

For example, there is also genre in particular MHA is written as a response / commentary to both western comics and classic shonen jump manga. Horikoshi said in an interview:

“Probably have to be Goku and Spiderman. To me, when mentioning heroes, these two are the ones that I think of. In Goku’s case, it’s the reassurance that everything is going to be fine he brings when arriving.” 

There are multiple critical analysis lenses that you can analyze a story from. If you're talking about MHA from a feminist lens then you're likely to stick to topics relevant to that, like say japanese feminist movements. If you're talking from the sociopolitical angle then it's relevant to discuss collectivism, and especially how it inspired the Todoroki Family. However, my intent wasn't to dismiss sociopolitical reasons as why Horikoshi chose to write the story this way, but to say it's not the only reason that informs Hori's storytelling choices. MHA isn't just one thing it's multiple thing, me deliberately choosing to talk about MHA as a response to both eastern shonen manga and western comics is a valid critical lens to apply to the manga. You can talk about both obviously, but that was a pretty short post. Perhaps I didn't word my post the best but please try to be understanding that I can't make a post covering all of my bases on leaks night.

For a manga where Horikoshi cited his concept of heroism comes from Goku and Spiderman, they both don't kill their villains, Goku specifically let Vegeta live so if those are his inspirations the choice to kill every villain is weird to say the least.

I can make the argument that MHA fails as any kind of meaningful commentary on comics in general because it doesn't seem to understand the comics it is taking inspiration from. The X-Men are the underdogs in their story, not members of the privileged class they are the outcasts. Batman doesn't kill people because he believes that most of his mentally ill victims turned villains deserve a second chance and he can't dictate who deserves recovery and who doesn't.

If anyone reading this post is curious, here are posts by @siflshonen that discuss both the manga influences and comic infleunces easter and western infleunces on MHA, and also the cultural ones. They are also really long posts because those topics require a great length to discuss critically. This one is about MHA's manga DNA in regards to Bakugo's character, and specifically references Yu-Gi-Oh and Kaiba's character as well as Jonouchi as response for Bakugo's development arc from bully to best friend. This one discusses more about the nuances of collectivism. This one is in reference to the Todoroki family, it discusses both collectivism / japanese family roles / honnae and tatamae concepts that the Todofam is critiqueig, and also how Enji is inspired by eastern ideas of heroes while All Might is inspired by western ones. (Therefore it's not a wrong critical lens to compare MHA to other shonen manga and western comics because that is literally what the manga is taking inspiration from and commenting on).

Here's a powerpoint presentation by @sans-san that discussed Hegemonic Masculinity in Tokyo Ghoul in terms of work culture and how the CCG is inspired by that, which I think also applies to Enji's character as well.

This post by @bnhaobservation spoke about how the Todorokis decision for not disavowing or abandoning Toya after he was sentenced to life in prison would still be a progressive ending to the TODOFAM arc, and while I still wouldn't have been satisfied by that ending I'd at least be able to accept it. That is however, not what we got, we got Toya dying a slow agonizing death while hooked up to life support. So we could have still gotten a slightly softer ending where Toya's at least allowed to live that would have still been in line with the values of the culture that produced MHA.

This post by @bnhaobservation also talks about how the Todofam plotline can still be seen as progressive in some ways in regards to his criticism of Enji's parenting, because of certain outdated attitudes of parenting that still exist about Enji pushing Shoto to his absolute limits.

However, I don't want to debate the person who sent the ask, I just wanted to clarify I'm not trying to make a reductive statement that sociopolitical circumstances have nothing to do with Hori's writing choices, but that you can also analyze it from a lens of genre, commentary on comics and shonen manga, and also the predecessors he's taking inspiration from. All of these things have an inspiration on Hori's storytelling choices.

Since I'd rather not debate, now that I've gotten clarifying things out of the way I'm actually going to use this post as a book reccommendation.

Here's Shigaraki with Underground, one of my favorite books. It is a non-fiction work from famed fiction author Haruki Murakami about the Saren Gas attacks.

On a clear spring day in 1995 five members of a religious cult unleashed poison gas in the Tokyo Subway system. In an attempt to discover why, Haruki Murakami talks to the people who lived through the catasrophe and lays bare the Japanese Psyche.

For those who are unaware the Saren Gas attacks were a terrorist attack where members of the Aum Shirikyo cult released saren gas in the public subway system. It is the biggest japanese terrorist attack in modern japanese history and at the time and even the modern day it was a great shock to them as a whole.

The book consists of several interviews with the victims of the attack, and they are incredibly harrowing to read I remember crying while reading this book multiple times. However, at the end of the book after giving considerable time to let the victims share their stories Haruki Murakami also devotes space in the book to interviewing former members of the Aum Shirikyo cult.

Haruki clarifies his intent in his decision to include testimonial from the cult in the afterword of the novel. "As I worked on this book I attended several of the trials of the defendants of the Tokyo Gas attack. I wanted to see and hear those people with my own eyes ad ears, in order to come to some understanding of who they were. I also wanted to know what they were thinking now. What I found there was a dismal, gloomy, hopeless scene. The court was like a room with no exit. There must have been a way out in the beginning, but now it had become a nightmarish chamber from which there was no escape. [...] To all of them I posed the same question, that is, whether they regretted having joined Aum. Almost everyone answered: "No, I have no regrets. I don't think those years are wasted" Why is that? THe answer is simple - because in Aum they found a purity of purpose theycould not find in ordinary society. Even if in the end it became something monstrous, the radiant, warm memory of the peace they originally found remains inside them and nothing else can replace it. [...] However, as I went through the process of interviewing these Aum members and former members, one thing I felt quite strongly was that it was't spite of being part of the elite that they went in that direction, but because they were a part of the elite. [...] However, we need tor ealize that most of the people who join cults are not abnormal; they're not disadvantaged; they're not eccentrics. They are people who live average lives (and nmaybe from the outside, more than average lives), who live in my neighborhood and yours.

Haruki interviews members of Aum Shirikiyo because he wants to make the point that the people in these cult aren't from a dangerous fringe element of japanese society, but rather they are normal people, some of them even highly educated. The capacity to commit those crimes exists in normal people, and also the capacity to fall victim to a cult.

The Ikuhara anime Mawaru Penguindrum is heavily inspired by both the Saren Gas attacks and the questions that Haruki Murakami asked in the Underground. Fully covered here in this article: Exploring Mawaru Penguindrum 2011 from a historical, cultural and literary perspective here.

Underground was Murakami’s attempt to interview survivors of the Sarin Subway Attack. Apart from learning the perspectives of ordinary citizens involved in that shocking incident, he also managed to interview several members of Aum Shinrikyo and tried to get their point of view on the matter. (In the Japanese edition of the book, the interview with the cult members were published in a separate book, titled The Place that was Promised.) It was an important piece of journalistic work that criticized the public’s attitude of questioning what happened, instead of asking the proper question of why it had happened. In the anime, viewers knew that an event took place in 1995 that affected all the characters, but what exactly was the event about? Why did the people do that? What social factors attributed to the occurrence of such event? These are the questions that Mawaru Penguindrum asked, and one that we were left to ponder on.

Ikuhara and Murakami both exist in the same culture as Horikoshi, Haruki is an incredibly prolific japanese author and he was born in 1945 but both of them are able to ask more meaningful questions about the society they live in then Horikoshi accomplishes with the league of villains and the todoroki family. Haruki Murakami emphasizes the humanity of the aum shirikyo members and that they are not lunatic fringe members, and Mawaru Penguindrum is about the extreme social pressures that people especially children can be a victim of.

Literature is influenced by the culture it takes place in, but it's also a response to that influence and the piece of art that Horikoshi wrote just isn't as thoughtful of a response than what was written by both Ikuhara and Murakami.

More book recommendations if you're interested. The Setting Sun, by Osamu Dazai. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. How do you Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino. In the Miso Soup by Ryo Murakami. People who Eat Darkness by Richard Lloyd Perry. Night on the Galactic Railroad by Kenji Miyazawa (I'd argue this is an example of good collectivism). The Memory Police by Yuko Ogawa. Out by Natsuo Kirino. There was a couple more I wanted to include but they had cannibalism in them so I thought it better not to reccommend them.

[leroibobo]

some notes on specifically "middle eastern" (mashriqi + iran, caucuses, and turkey) jewish communities/history:

something to keep in mind: judaism isn't "universalist" like christianity or islam - it's easier to marry into it than to convert on your own. conversions historically happened, but not in the same way they did for european and caucasian christians/non-arab muslims.

that being said, a majority of middle eastern jews descend from jewish population who remained in palestine or immigrated/were forced (as is the case with "kurdish" jews) from palestine to other areas and mixed with locals/others who came later (which at some point stopped). pretty much everywhere in the middle east and north africa (me/na) has/had a jewish population like this.

with european jews (as in all of them), the "mixing" was almost entirely during roman times with romans/greeks, and much less later if they left modern-day greece/italy.

(none of this means jewish people are or aren't "indigenous" to palestine, because that's not what that word means.)

like with every other jewish diaspora, middle eastern jewish cultures were heavily influenced by wherever they ended up. on a surface level you can see this in things like food and music.

after the expulsion of jews from spain and portugal, sephardim moved to several places around the world; many across me/na, mostly to the latter. most of the ones who ended up in the former went to present-day egypt, palestine, lebanon, syria, and turkey. a minority ended up in iraq (such as the sassoons' ancestors). like with all formerly-ottoman territories, there was some degree of back and forth between countries and continents.

some sephardim intermarried with local communities, some didn't. some still spoke ladino, some didn't. there was sometimes a wealth gap between musta'arabim and sephardim, and/or they mostly didn't even live in the same places, like in palestine and tunisia. it really depends on the area you're looking at.

regardless, almost all the jewish populations in the area went through "sephardic blending" - a blending of local and sephardic customs - to varying degrees. it's sort of like the cultural blending that came with spanish/portugese colonization in central and south america (except without the colonization).

how they were treated also really depends where/when you're looking. some were consistently dealt a raw hand (like "kurdish" and yemenite jews) while some managed to do fairly well, all things considered (like baghdadi and georgian jews). most where somewhere in between. the big difference between me/na + some balkan and non-byzantine european treatment of jews is due to geography - attitudes in law regarding jews in those areas tended to fall into different patterns.

long story short: most european governments didn't consider anyone who wasn't "christian" a citizen (sometimes even if they'd converted, like roma; it was a cultural/ethnic thing as well), and persecuted them accordingly; justifying this using "race science" when religion became less important there after the enlightenment.

most me/na and the byzantine governments considered jews (and later, christians) citizens, but allowed them certain legal/social opportunities while limiting/banning/imposing others. the extent of both depend on where/when you're looking but it was never universally "equal".

in specifically turkey, egypt, palestine, and the caucuses, there were also ashkenazi communities, who came mainly because living as a jew in non-ottoman europe at the time sucked more than in those places. ottoman territories in the balkans were also a common destination for this sort of migration.

in the case of palestine, there were often religious motivations to go as well, as there were for some other jews who immigrated. several hasidic dynasites more or less came in their entirety, such as the lithuanian/polish/hungarian ones which precede today's neutrei karta.

ashkenazi migration didn't really happen until jewish emancipation in europe for obvious reasons. it also predates zionism - an initially secular movement based on contemporaneous european nationalist ideologies - by some centuries.

most ashkenazi jews today reside in the us, while most sephardic or "mizrahi" jews are in occupied palestine. there, the latter outnumber the former. you're more likely to find certain groups (like "kurds" and yemenites) in occupied palestine than others (like persians and algerians) - usually ones without a western power that backed them from reactionary antisemitic persecution and/or who came from poorer communities. (and no, this doesn't "justify" the occupation).

(not to say there were none who immigrated willingly/"wanted" to go, or that none/all are zionist/anti-zionist. (ben-gvir is of "kuridsh" descent, for example.) i'm not here to parse motivations.)

this, along with a history of racism/chauvinism from the largely-ashkenazi "left", are why many mizrahim vote farther "right".

(in some places, significant numbers of the jewish community stayed, like turkey, tunisia, and iran. in some others, there's evidence of double/single-digit and sometimes crypto-jewish communities.)

worldwide, the former outnumber the latter. this is thought to be because of either a medieval ashkenazi population boom due to decreased population density (not talking about the "khazar theory", which has been proven to be bullshit, btw) or a later, general european one in the 18th/19th centuries due to increased quality of life.

the term "mizrahi" ("oriental", though it doesn't have the same connotation as in english) in its current form comes from the zionist movement in the 1940s/50s to describe me/na jewish settlers/refugees.

(i personally don't find it useful outside of israeli jewish socio-politics and use it on my blog only because it's a term everyone's familiar with.)

about specifically palestinian jews:

the israeli term for palestinian jews is "old yishuv". yishuv means settlement. this is in contrast to the "new yishuv", or settlers from the initial zionist settlement period in 1881-1948. these terms are usually used in the sense of describing historical groups of people (similar to how you would describe "south yemenis" or "czechoslovaks").

palestinian jews were absorbed into the israeli jewish population and have "settler privilege" on account of their being jewish. descendants make up something like 8% of the israeli jewish population and a handful (including, bafflingly, netanyahu and smoltrich) are in the current government.

they usually got to keep their property unless it was in an "arab area". there's none living in gaza/the west bank right now unless they're settlers.

their individual views on zionism vary as much as any general population's views vary on anything.

(my "palestinian jews" series isn't intended to posit that they all think the same way i do, but to show a side of history not many people know about. any "bias" only comes from the fact that i have a "bias" too. this is a tumblr blog, not an encyclopedia.)

during the initial zionist settlement period, there were palestinian/"old yishuv" jews who were both for zionism and against it. the former have been a part of the occupation and its government for pretty much its entire history.

some immigrated abroad before 1948 and may refer to themselves as "syrian jews". ("syria" was the name given to syria/lebanon/palestine/some parts of iraq during ottoman times. many lebanese and palestinian christians emigrated at around the same time and may refer to themselves as "syrian" for this reason too.)

ones who stayed or immigrated after for whatever reason mostly refer to themselves as "israeli".

in israeli jewish society, "palestinian" usually implies muslims and christians who are considered "arab" under israeli law. you may get differing degrees of revulsion/understanding of what exactly "palestine"/"palestinians" means but the apartheid means that palestinian =/= jewish.

because of this, usage of "palestinian" as a self-descriptor varies. your likelihood of finding someone descendent from/with ancestry from the "old yishuv" calling themselves a "palestinian jew" in the same way an israeli jew with ancestry in morocco would call themselves a "moroccan jew" is low.

(i use it on here because i'm assuming everyone knows what i mean.)

samaritans aren't 'jewish', they're their own thing, though they count as jewish under israeli law.

[piracytheorist]

Things about Greece you're (probably) getting wrong

When you say "Greece" or "Greek", that's automatically referring to Modern Greece and Modern Greek. It's an existing country with a population of around 10 million people. The Modern Greek language is spoken natively by those 10 million along with 1 million people in Cyprus and around 2 more million in diaspora. If you want to refer to Ancient Greece or its history/culture, just add the word "ancient" to it.

The Greek name for the country is "Hellas". "Hellenic" is an adjective used for non-human nouns. Don't call yourself "hellenic" even if you have Greek roots, you're basically calling yourself "Greek thing".

There is no one correct way of pronouncing Ancient Greek as a whole. That language spanned over a thousand years and across places that didn't communicate easily or were outright hostile to each other. It's like claiming that Shakespeare's works should be pronounced with an Australian accent.

Along with the famous 300 Spartans, in the battle of Thermopylae there were also 700 Thespians (not actors, people from the town Thespiae) and according to some sources, also 900 helots (slaves) and 400 Thebans.

The town of Sparta exists in modern day. However, if you visit Greece, unless you actually are from Sparta, do NOT call yourself a Spartan, no matter what school/university you went to. "Spartans" is the name of a far-right, outright neo-nazi political party, so calling yourself that here equals to associating yourself with that.

Greek houses in American campuses sound weird. Do those letters (some of which are wildly mispronounced, btw) even mean anything

Democracy in Ancient Athens was not fair by today's standards. It was mostly a glorified, expanded aristocracy. The "demos" that had the authority to vote only consisted of land-owning Athenian men. If you were a woman, a slave, poor, an immigrant, or a child of immigrants, along with other descriptions I might be forgetting right now, you didn't have the right to participate in the ruling.

Oh yeah, the "birthplace of democracy" very much did have slaves. Some whom were prisoners of war.

Greece is on the southern end of the Balkan peninsula, located in South-Eastern Europe. However, many Greeks are wildly racist and will not admit we're part of the Balkans or Eastern Europe. There are cultural differences due to Greek not belonging in the Slavic languages (the most common language family in Eastern Europe) and for political reasons, but the main reason this distinction happens is very much racism. They prefer to be called a "Mediterranean country" (because then we're associated with countries like Italy and Spain, you know?)

Greece never recovered from the financial crisis of 2008, and has only been going downhill since then. However, the war reparations that Germany never paid Greece for the damages and the deaths it caused in WW2 is estimated to be over 200 billion euros. The German government considers this matter "to be in the past" (since they never paid them, I guess, we can forget about it!), yet is one of the countries that most strongly demands Greece to keep paying back the loans it took over the years from the EU. This is a very painful matter for all of us (especially considering there are people still alive who witnessed the destruction and death the nazis brought to the country, and now they along with their descendants are paying taxes that'll eventually reach German pockets), yet racism centers around hate for other Balkan countries and Turkey. Divide and conquer I guess.

[chocodile]

Apologies if you've answered this somewhere: for your Amaranthine 'verse, are there any "hybrid" animal folk? On one hand, kwillow's Theo has a rat and a stoat as parents, but Theo himself is a rat (with his mother's coloring, but still a rat). On the other, Ambroys very clearly looks like a cross between a horse (father) and Something Else (Celestial mother). In the middle is Hayden's one night stand with the cat barmaid, which resulted in a child with a bunny's snout/tail, a flatter catlike face, and bunny ears a biiiit too wide and pointed to be 100% "bunny."

I'm super curious about the genetics of it as well as the social aspect (i.e. is son considered a bunny/cat/both by his peers?). It's one of my favorite bits about anthro worldbuilding!

Hybrids exist, but are pretty rare!

Typically, children will just inherit their species from one parent or the other. Hybridization is very unusual and typically is limited to one or two very minor traits--like the child of a rabbit having slightly longer ears, the child of a weasel having a noodlier build, the child of a carnivore having fangs, etc. In almost all cases, the dominant species of the child is very clear, and the hybrid traits tend to be very recessive--rarely preserved beyond one generation.

Particularly in the Western Kingdom, though, hybrid children do have a reputation for being unlucky, an ill omen, or even outright cursed (depending how superstitious the person you're asking is). There are a few reasons for this… the simplest is that hybrid traits are sort of a "birth defect" that can sometimes present along with other health issues. Though not all hybrids are frail and sickly, any concern about a child's susceptibility to illness was a huge deal in rural peasant villages that already tended to have high childhood mortality rates.

Over time, the perception of hybrid children = ill omen became warped and exaggerated. Western Kingdom folktales sometimes cast hybrids as vaguely supernatural trickster characters, such as tales of mysterious changeling babies whose hybrid traits eventually revealed them to be half Infernal.

For this reason, the actual frequency of hybrid traits is probably greatly under reported… anyone who can hide or ignore or lie about their hybrid traits probably will. Though most Western Kingdom superstitions fell away after the collapse of the old kingdoms, some degree of stigma in Post-Fall society remains. No one seriously thinks a sheep with fangs is half Infernal anymore (most don't believe that Infernals and Celestials even exist), but it will still probably be passively assumed that a hybrid is less fit for difficult labor, among other things.

Half Celestial and Half Infernal offspring work a bit different… they're always technically "hybrids", but specifically hybridize in such a way that they take the form of mythological creatures (unicorn, dragon, cockatrice, etc). I'll let Kwillow talk more about this when she discusses Ambroys' mother since she's been the one working on this section of the lore, but Half Celestials are most certainly seen as a blessing. Half Infernals… well, fear of them is part of the reason hybrids are stigmatized in the first place, so suffice to say they have it rather rough. How severe the stigma is varies across cultures and tends to be worse in the rural West, better in cities, and pretty much completely absent in much of the Eastern Kingdom.

In the Post-Fall present day, nobody believes Celestials, Infernals, or their offspring exist anymore... aside from those who know about The Kingdom of the Sun.

Also, once in a while, a hybrid is born whose traits are so blended that their parent species are difficult to determine. These very unlucky individuals are referred to as "chimeras" and tend to have shorter life expectancies, among other things. We may be seeing a character who fits this description eventually. :P

[fairycosmos]

Hello

Long time follower. Big fan.

Umm i dont have any "real" friends and i feel like i have to vent about what happened to me with someone so plz bare with me.

Yesterday I was sexually assaulted. Outside my own apartment building by a man that is an "aquaintance" at most. I managed to get away by stepping on his foot and elbowing him in the stomach before it went any further. What sucks even more is that I live in a super conservative middle eastern country that has a society that loves to victim blame. I cant even go to the police cuz i have no proof and the sad thing is this the THIRD time in my life of 30 years where i get sexually assaulted. The first time was my cousin when I was 13 and the second time was someone who was a close friend when i was in my 20s. I feel pathetic and cowardly for not speaking up every time it happened. I know I cant tell my family cuz they are religious and all they care about is my "chastity" whatever the fuck that is and i honestly dont know what to do anymore.

Thank you for listening

🪽

hey angel,

i’m so sorry it took me a minute to see this, and honestly, i'm just fkn enraged that you're even in this position to begin with. none of this should’ve ever happened to you, and it’s so beyond messed up that you’ve had to go through it, and more than once, on top of everything else. first, i just want to say that i’m so, so grateful to you for opening up about it, especially when you’re feeling so isolated. it takes so much courage to even put this into words, and i’m honored that you trust me with it at all tbh. as much of an eye roll it is to hear, you’re truly not alone in this. and you’re definitely not “pathetic” or “cowardly” for how things played out or for not feeling like you could speak up before. the way you’re feeling is real, valid, and so understandable—especially when support and safety feel so distant.

it’s beyond unfair to be in a place where victim-blaming is such a huge part of the culture. to have to carry that, while being made to feel like you have to hide this, is an awful weight. but please know, this is not on you—none of it. the guilt and shame that the world tries to put on you is not yours, even if sometimes that feels impossible to believe. grounding yourself in the truth—that you haven’t done anything wrong, no matter how often you have to remind yourself—can be a solid step. and if you believe that for other people who've been in your shoes, then you must believe it for yourself too. ultimately, the shame belongs to the people who assaulted you and a world that hasn’t supported you the way you deserve. please don’t let their actions shape how you see yourself. your survival, your resilience, your courage etc that’s who you are.

there are a few places that might be able to give you some support, even if it’s from a distance. rainn.org offers confidential chat options and resources, and while it’s u.s.-based, it could still be useful if you need a safe space to talk. another is pandora’s project, a support and forum site specifically for survivors. they have spaces where people from all backgrounds, including those with similar cultural challenges, can connect. <3

if you’re open to it, a counselor or therapist who specializes in trauma and works online might be a good option, too. there are so many who understand the importance of privacy and safety in environments where speaking out can be challenging. the International Association for Trauma Professionals has a directory that could help you find someone who’d really get where you’re coming from and respect those unique challenges.

just remember, it’s okay to take this one step at a time. if all you can do today is share this with someone who cares, or offer yourself some compassion and grace to cry and breathe and be pissed and hurt and numb and upset, then that’s more than enough. i believe in your right to feel safe, supported, and heard, and there are people who genuinely want to help you get there, however and whenever you need.

sending you so much love and strength <3 if you need to vent or if you just need someone to talk to, please msg me any time. i understand what it's like to have your boundaries violated too and i know how lonely and painful it is to contend with it in your own head. x

[room-surprise]

I understand if this is outside your field of expertise, but do you think if the ornamentation of the clothing that (some of) the kobolds drawn by Kui wear is inspired by anything?

Actually this is exactly my field of expertise! I studied costume design for about two years in university before switching to something else :) So clothing is something I love looking at and talking about, and fashion history is one of my favorite elements of history in general!

HOWEVER, though I have some experience with subject, I'm not a fully trained expert in the field, and I know that I may not have all the answers, so please take what I say with a grain of salt. This is only my educated guess.

I'm assuming that you're talking about this page from the Daydream Hour book:

To start with, the caption says: "Kobolds that appear in foreign games and fantasy often have a reptilian appearance, but we chose an appearance that is more familiar in Japan." This doesn't tell us anything about their clothing, but I wanted to translate it to make sure it didn't say anything about their culture.

(You can read more about why the Dungeon Meshi kobolds are dogs in the Half-foot chapter of my Dungeon Meshi research project)

Kobolds likely live all over the world, but their large population centers are all located in the Western Continent, so that is probably the region they consider home.

So those two kobolds on the bottom left of the chart, who appear to be wearing European-inspired clothing, are probably living somewhere in the Eastern hemisphere, where Northern/Western/Central/Eastern European clothing is the norm, while the rest are likely from the West. So we can discard the European-looking clothes, since that's probably not a part of the kobold's traditional culture.

We have very limited information about the Western Continent, but these images plus what we know about Kabru (His name and Utaya's name are both South Asian, the dessert that comes from Utaya is South Asian) and the elves (several of them have South Asian names, some elves wear South Asian clothing and bindis) makes me think there's probably a strong Indian/South Asian influence in the Western Continent. It's a large land mass, so I don't think it's all South Asian, but South Asian culture is the only thing we have conclusive evidence of so far.

The majority of the kobolds are wearing brightly colored tunics with patterns on the hems, or what seems to be dresses/tunics made of draped fabric, also with hem decoration.

It IS worth noting that Kui avoids drawing elaborate patterns, even when it would make sense for her to do so. She does it only a couple of times in the manga and uses screentones instead whenever possible. So the simple hem decoration and single color fabric may just be an artistic choice that doesn't mean anything other than "I didn't want to draw a pattern." However, it's all we have to work with, so I'm going to assume it's intentional.

The repeated over-the-shoulder draped fabric the kobolds are wearing seems like it could only be a Greco-Roman style toga, palla, or cloak, or a South Asian saree. We have seen Western elves wearing garments similar to all of these on occasion, though obviously Kui has made some changes. As I say in my essay, I don't think any of the cultures in Dungeon Meshi is an exact copy of a real-world culture, Kui is remixing things together.

(Except for the Island of Wa, which seems to be entirely based on Sengoku-era Japan.)

Roman togas were just large pieces of cloth that they draped around their bodies, and they were usually white, with brown or black reserved for the lower-classes or for use during mourning, and purple or red reserved for extremely important people. Embroidery and trim, if they had it, was usually either very simple (plain colored stripes) or very elaborate (images of people, animals, or things).

So I think that rules out the toga as a possibility.

On the other hand, the saree and dupatta are also large pieces of cloth draped either around the body and over the shoulder (and sometimes the head), and usually they are either a single plain color, a plain color with a decorative trim, or an all-over pattern. This is a lot closer to what Kui draws the kobolds wearing.

(Pictures and more text after the cut)

Toga:

Saree:

The tunics the kobolds are wearing could be many things, as what's visible is not an uncommon neck shape. They could be something like a kurta, kaftan, or abaya (tunic/robe)... And there's probably a dozen other similar garments that I'm neglecting to name.

There are a million variations on the kurta, but these neck styles looks like what Kui is drawing on a couple of those kobolds.

However, some of the tunics COULD also just be a depiction of what is often called a "Viking tunic" or kyrtill (Nordic name for a kirtle or tunic).

However in Dungeon Meshi, the kyrtill is extensively worn in the Eastern hemisphere, primarily by dwarves, tall-men and half-foots. So I don't think the Western hemisphere kobolds are wearing them, and the style of trim looks different to me than what Kui drew.

Kobold fashion could also be influenced by any culture from North Africa, West Asia, or the Middle East, as these are also cultures that appear to dominate the Western hemisphere of Dungeon Meshi, and that have similar fashion cultures involving patterned textiles and draping cloth/veils/head coverings...

However, because of what seems like a large draping cloth over the shoulder, and the combination of trim with a solid color, I think the primary influence is South Asian rather than these other cultures.

I hope that helps! And keep in mind that Kui loves to remix things, so I'm sure there's elements from other cultures that would fit right in with what she's shown us of the kobolds, if you want to get creative with your fan works!

[smaller-comfort]

Extremely rambly thoughts on necrontyr society/marriage headcanon stuff. Some of this dovetails with the snecron biology stuff; you get 'gestational parent' and 'inseminating parent' as concepts because I'm not going to be more creative with words tonight.

At the upper levels of society, marriage is solely for cementing political alliances and the transfer of wealth. That's it. It's a legal contract between two families, and the contract lays out how wealth and power are shared and inherited between them.

Courtship would vary wildly between dynasties and even between different vassal states within a dynasty (a lot of this gets flattened out post-biotransference, alas). But before then, culturally, a dynasty from the eastern fringe might be nearly as alien to a dynasty in the west as any of the Unclean. (The fact that they've got mutually intelligible language across the galaxy is hilariously the biggest science-fantasy leap for me, I'll be honest.) Also, space-mormon Ithakas is weird as hell to everyone.

So, for example: Nihilakh crownworld nobility courtship customs involve, first and foremost, a team of lawyers, on both sides. Immediate members of the Phaeron's household probably have to get permission from the Yyth seer before even beginning the process. Courtship gifts are wildly expensive and extravagant and meticulously documented, with particular emphasis placed on the provenance of unique rarities. The exchange of courtship gifts is always a public spectacle- 'subtle' is for crypteks and lawyers.

At higher levels of society, the two people getting married might not even meet until after the paperwork is filed. Mid and lower level nobles are a bit more relaxed about it, but they're also not dealing with quite the same scale of wealth. Weddings are still ridiculously over-the-top affairs that can and will bankrupt smaller houses hoping to secure a politically advantageous match to a larger family.

Meanwhile, on Solemnace, you do see a similar emphasis on legal documentation, and rare or unique courtship gifts, but they're much less extravagant about the displays of wealth. Gifts are more often exchanged in private, and though weddings can get elaborate, it tends to be more about tasteful, elegant luxury than extravagant excess. Is this at least in part to keep their Overlord from stealing the silverware at the wedding? It's impossible to say.

Over on Mandragora, you announce your intention to court by challenging your intended to a duel. The date and time of the duel is the anticipated date of the nuptuals. Generally the intended couple will not actually fight one another, but the wedding will involve a lot of demonstrations of martial prowess, and usually there will be a ritualized duel of some sort between representatives of each family. Whichever family wins gets to officiate the wedding, and keeps the larger share of the dowry.

On Gidrim, no dueling is required, but it's customary to present your intended with some sort of hunting trophy. There'd be some kind of annual tourney or major gaming event where young necrontyr might dedicate their victories to their intended- think medieval tourneys, and knights jousting for tokens from their beloved. Now, given that gender parity is standard, this potentially means that you end up fighting against the person you're trying to court. This sort of thing is frequently the subject of romantic comedies and dramas. Gidrim weddings usually last several days, with feasting and recitations of long form epic military ballads and more games/martial demonstrations. The subsequent hangover may last up to a week, if you're doing it right.

Those would all be courtship practices for a primary spouse or consort for higher-level nobility. Polyamory is common, both for the purpose of providing heirs, and because at the end of the day a marriage contract is a business contract, and why wouldn't you try to form as many alliances as possible?

So it's not uncommon for third or fourth children to be married off as secondary spouses to vassal houses, to reinforce political ties between families. Since everyone is dying of turbo cancer, it's also not uncommon for these secondary marriage contracts to include a clause for what happens when the fourth kid in the line of succession becomes the heir apparent. (Divorce practices vary between dynasties as well, but by and large it is a fast process out of necessity.)

Secondary spouse courtship and weddings can be just as elaborate as consort matches, depending on the status/wealth of everyone involved. Usually they're not quite as involved- on the other hand, if your new intended is the Phaeron's fourth daughter, you're damn well going to go all out, or suffer the consequences.

Because of rampant fertility issues due to turbo cancer and a not insignificant amount of inbreeding among the nobility in certain dynasties, inheritance and succession frequently have nothing to do with parentage or genetics. Heirs are adopted from subsidiary families all the time. There are some families where heirs are always adopted, to reduce infighting among the actual children, or to avoid particular genetic defects.

That said, some dynasties do place a lot of weight on genetics and familial lines, so contract marriages or concubines/surrogates are frequently used to produce heirs. Any children produced via concubine are legally members of the family who owns/employs the concubine. Doesn't matter who the inseminating or gestational parent is; legally, the child has legitimate status as a member of that household. (This can afford the concubine a certain amount of status as well, or at least security; fertility is a highly sought after trait.)

(Sidebar on contraception and eugenics: contraceptive implants are used most frequently among nobility/merchant class/military officers. The further down the social ladder you go, the less available any kind of medical technology is, never mind contraceptives, and commoners/serfs/slaves are encouraged to reproduce as often as possible. Rank and file miltary, however, would be surgically sterilized, and have any viable gametes extracted for genetic testing and possible use by surrogates. Sometimes this is reversible; most of the time it isn't, because it's assumed they're going to die before they'd be able to retire and have children anyway. A majority of pregnancies result in miscarriage; many children don't make it out of infancy because of birth defects. Infanticide is still common in some parts of the galaxy, but they'll usually try to terminate a pregnancy early if it looks like it'll be nonviable.) (Maybe they do lay clutches of eggs, I'm fuzzy on a lot of these details, honestly. Not all of them- but a lot of them.)

(Zahndrekh does not get to retire to a remote garden on a mountain with Obyron to write terrible poetry and raise a bunch of fat, happy children. He thinks about it sometimes, though.) (Obyron does not want to imagine how impossibly unruly Zahndrekh's progeny would be, and is frequently, fervently glad that he's sterile.) (Also he's pretty sure 'retirement' is just what happens when you meet the wrong end of a pike.)

Circling back around to Ithakas being fucking weird, it's traditional for Ithakan dynasts to practice either parthenogenesis or self-fertilization, which is considered either taboo or just kind of gross in most other parts of the galaxy. (Not everywhere- but definitely a lot of places. Parthenogenesis is actually a fairly rare trait for necrontyr; it was considered one of the things that made Ithakka the Lawmaker holy by the original separatist cult. It's not something all of their descendents have shared due to the general weirdness/instability of necrontyr genetics.) So there's no mention of Oltyx and Djoseras's mother, because they only ever had one parent. (Does this make everything about Unnas ever so slightly worse? Sure does!)

If biotransference hadn't happened when it did, Djoseras would've been expected to start producing children as soon as it became clear that Oltyx wasn't going to live past the age of 20. (At one point someone probably floated the idea of ending the Ithakas-Ogdobekh war by marrying Oltyx to Zultanekh. Djoseras would've shot down that idea- and whoever suggested it- with extreme prejudice.) (Zultanekh still laughs about this on occasion. No one ever told Oltyx; Zultanekh certainly isn't going to.) (Zuktanekh would have suggested a contract marriage between himself and Djoseras; after all, would Zultanekh not have birthed the most magnificent sons to be seen in the history of either dynasty? Yes, yes he would have! Alas, it was not to be. Djoseras rejected Zultanekh's courting gift of sulfur wine, and anyway, Anathrosis and Unnas would have come together united in abject horror and rage at the idea.)

Ogdobekh courtship usually starts with gifts of food or wine, followed by fine metalwork- either weapons and armor, or jewelry. Ithakas courtship has similar beats, since they were an Ogdobekh subsidiary originally. They're more about subtle gestures and acts of service than material gifts, though. (Oltyx is not really aware of any of this; as kynazh, he would've been explicitly forbidden from courting because, again, Ithakas is fucking weird. Yenekh, on the other hand, would be familiar with the process, and probably had no shortage of suitors pre-biotransference. He was a little too busy being a war hero to entertain any of them seriously.) (His first true love is the sea the void fancy spaceships fancy swords duty to the dynasty.)

(Drazak courtship usually starts with fighting side by side in the horde; sharing kills, sharing food, sharing flesh. The hunger is always easier to bear when you find someone to share it with.)

Cryptek conclaves can get weird and varied as well; some are extremely insular, and any children born to members of the conclave would be raised and trained there. Others will excommunicate anyone who gets pregnant, because pregnancy interferes with certain schools of technomancy. (You cannot have a pregnant plasmancer. It ends badly for everyone involved. Chronomancy also tends to have unpredictable effects on developing embryos.) Those conclaves actively recruit new members from military and commoner castes, rather than relying on existing members to keep the population going. Generally, crypteks don't marry, because their legal obligations are to their conclave first, and then their patron.

Cryptek/noble or cryptek/merchant couples would be vanishingly rare, because most crypteks don't have the wealth or status to make a politically advantageous match. (Orikan is kind of an exception to that rule, and he would've had a number of people vying for his favor, though not so much in a courtship-leading-to-marriage kind of way. I'm torn between the idea of him slutting it up in the Sautekh court, or being universally repulsed by anyone he considers less intelligent than him. Could go either way.) Pre-biotransference, crypteks of different schools who didn't see each other as competition would be the most common pairing, but even then actual marriage would be rare. There's no wealth or power to inherit or share, so couples would be more common-law/informal.

Otherwise, it'd be bullshit academia rules dialed up to 11. "Did they...you know...publish research together?" "No, they were fucking in the library." "Oh, I thought it was something scandalous. Nevermind then."