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arminreindl · 7 days ago

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Deinosuchus: Giant Alligator or something older?

I know the title sucks, I couldn't think of anything poetic or clever ok? Anyways, still catching up on croc papers to summarize and this one did make a few waves when it was published about a week ago.

"Expanded phylogeny elucidates Deinosuchus relationships, crocodylian osmoregulation and body-size evolution" is a new paper by Walter, Massonne, Paiva, Martin, Delfino and Rabi, with quite a few of these authors having considerable experience with crocodile research. The thesis of the study is both simple and unusual. They suggest that several crocodilians traditionally held as stem-alligators, namely Deinosuchus, Leidyosuchus and Diplocynodon, weren't alligatoroids at all. In fact, if the study holds up they might not have been true crocodilians.

Ok, lets take a step back and briefly look at our main three subjects. Deinosuchus of course needs no introduction, a titan of the Cretaceous also known as the terror crocodile in some more casual sources, its easily one of the most iconic fossil crocodiles. It lived on either side of the Western Interior Seaway during the Campanian, fed on giant turtles and dinosaurs and with size estimates of up to 12 meters its easily among the largest crocodylomorphs who have ever lived.

Artwork by Brian Engh

Leidyosuchus also lived during the Campanian in North America and I would argue is iconic in its own right, albeit in a different way. It's historic to say the least and once housed a whole plethora of species, but has recently fallen on hard times in the sense that most of said species have since then been transferred to the genus Borealosuchus.

Artwork by Joschua Knüppe

Finally there's Diplocynodon, the quintessential croc of Cenozoic Europe. With around a dozen species found from the Paleocene to the Miocene all across Europe, it might be one of the most well studied fossil crocs there is, even if its less well known by the public due to its relatively unimpressive size range.

Artwork by Paleocreations

All three of these have traditionally been regarded as early members of the Alligatoroidea, one of the three main branches that form Crocodilia. In these older studies, Alligatoroidea can be broken up into three groups nested within one another. Obviously the crown is formed by the two living subfamilies, Alligatorinae and Caimaninae, both of which fall into the family Alligatoridae. If you take a step further out you get to the clade Globidonta, which in addition to proper Alligatorids also includes some basal forms with blunt cheek teeth as well as Orientalosuchina, tho jury's still out on whether or not they are truly alligator-relatives. And if you take a final step back and view Alligatoroidea as a whole, then you got our three main subjects neatly lined up outside of Globidonta in varying positions.

Below a highly simplified depiction of previous phylogenies. Deinosuchus, Leidyosuchus and Diplocynodon are often regarded as non-globidontan alligatoroids.

This new study however changes that long standing concensus. The team argues that several features we once thought defined alligatoroids are actually way more common across Crocodilia and even outside of it while also leverging some of the features of Deinosuchus and co. that have always been out of the ordinary. For instance, early alligatoroids are generally characterized as being comparably small, having had short, rounded heads, the afforementioned globular cheek teeth and of course the feature that still allows us to differentiate them from true crocodiles, the fact that they have a clear overbite. Now Leidyosuchus, Deinosuchus and Diplocynodon all have proportionally longer snouts than alligatoroids, their teeth interfinger like in crocodiles and most prominently (and namegiving for Diplocynodon) there is a large notch behind the snout tip that serves to receive two enlarged teeth of the lower jaw. These are of course just superficial examples, but if you wanna get into the nitty gritty check out the paper.

Below a simplified version of the papers phylogeny. Borealosuchus clades with Diplocynodon and Leidyosuchus and Deinosuchus are successive taxa. Planocraniidae are the sister to Crocodilia, which consists of Crocodyloids, Gavialoids (together Longirostres) and Alligatoroids.

Something also worth addressing in light of these results is salt tolerance in crocodilians and paleogeography. Basically, if you ignore Deinosuchus and co. (or well, just follow this new paper), then it is most likely that alligatoroids originated on the continent of Laramidia, i.e. the western half of America back when it was bisected by an enormous inland sea. Today, alligatoroids are famously intolerant of saltwater, yes, there are instances where alligators have been known to enter coastal waters, but its a far cry from what true crocodiles can achieve (just an example here's my recent post on Caribbean crocodiles). Given that alligatoroids don't appear on Appalachia, the other half of North America, until after the inland sea closes, this very much suggest that this intolerance goes way back. This has however always been at odds with Deinosuchus, which famously showed up along both the eastern and the western coast of the inland sea and at least lived close enough to the coast to leave its mark on the shells of sea turtles. We know it inhabited various near-shore environments and even stable isotope analysis of its teeth points towards it consuming either saltwater or prey that lives in the ocean. To a lesser degree its worth mentioning Diplocynodon, which though usually a freshwater animal has at least one species from coastal deposits. Now I do think its worth highlighting that just being salt tolerant doesn't necessarily mean they can't have been alligatoroids, given that salt glands could have easily been lost after Deinosuchus split off from other alligatoroids. Nevertheless, a position as a stem-crocodilian does add up with it being salt tolerant, with the assumption being that being tolerant to saltwater is basal to crocodilians as a whole and was simply lost in a select few lineages such as alligatoroids.

Given that its range spanned both coastlines of the Western Interior Seaway as well as direct evidence for interactions with marine life, Deinosuchus likely ventured out into the sea from time to time like some modern crocodiles.

There's also the matter of timing. When alligatoroids first appeared 82 million years ago, we already see the classic blunt-snouted morphotype with Brachychampsa and our dear giant Deinosuchus. Now if both were alligatoroids, this would suggest that they've been separate quite some time before that to bring forth these drastically different forms, yet attempts to estimate the divergence date suggest that they split no earlier than 90 million years ago. So if Deinosuchus is not an alligatoroid, then the timeline adds up a bit better. However I think the best example of this new topology really explaining an evolutionary mystery doesn't come from Deinosuchus, but from Diplocynodon. Those that know me might remember that I started working on researching Diplocynodon for Wikipedia, a process that's been slow and painfull both due to the 200 years of research history and the good dozen or so species placed in this genus. Tangent aside, one big mystery around Diplocynodon is its origin. They first appear in the Paleocene and survive till the Miocene, tend to stick to freshwater and oh yeah, species of this genus are endemic to Europe. Given that previous studies recovered them as alligatoroids, nobody was quite sure where Diplocynodon came from. Did they originate in North America and cross the Atlantic? Where they salt tolerant before and simply stuck to freshwater once in Europe? Or are they a much older alligatoroid lineage that entered Europe via Asia after having crossed Beringia. You know, the kind of headbreaking stuff we get when the fossil record is incomplete. But this new study recovers Diplocynodon as being closely related to the non-crocodilian Borealosuchus from the Cretaceous to Paleogene of North America. And that makes some sense, historically the two have been noted to be similar, hell there were even cases when Borealosuchus remains were thought to be North American examples of Diplocynodon. And Borealosuchus has the same double caniniforms as the other crocs we discussed so far. So when our three former alligatoroids got pushed outside of Crocodilia, Diplocynodon ended up forming a clade with Borealosuchus. And since Borealosuchus was wide spread in America by the late Cretaceous, and possibly salt tolerant, then it could have easily spread across Greenland and Scandinavia after the impact, giving rise to Diplocynodon.

The results of this study seem to suggest that Borealosuchus and Diplocynodon are more closely related that previously thought.

And since this is a Deinosuchus paper...of course theres discussion about its size. A point raised by the authors is that previous estimates typically employ the length of the skull or lower jaw to estimate body length, which might not be ideal and is something I definitely agree with. The problem is that skull length can vary DRASTICALLY. Some animals like early alligatoroids have very short skulls, but then you have animals in gharials in which the snout is highly elongated in connection to their ecology. Given that Deinosuchus has a relatively long snout compared to early alligatoroids, size estimates based on this might very well overestimate its length, while the team argues that head width would yield a more reasonable results. Previous size estimates have ranged from as low as 8 meters to as large as 12, which generally made it the largest croc to have ever existed. Now in addition to using head width, the team furthermote made use of whats known as the phylgenetic approach, which essentially bypasses the problem of a single modern analogue with peculariar proportions influencing the result. Now there is a bunch more that went into the conclusion, but ultimately the authors conclude that in their opinion, the most likely length for the studied Deinosuchus riograndensis specimen was a mere 7.66 meters in total length. And before you jump to any conclusions, DEINOSUCHUS WOULD HAVE GOTTEN BIGGER TRUST ME. I know having read "12 meter upper estimate" earlier is quite a contrast with the resulting 7.66 meters, but keep in mind this latter estimate is just one specimen. A specimen that in previous studies was estimated to have grown to a length of somewhere between 8.4 - 9.8 meters. Now yes, this is still a downsize overall, but also given that this specimen is far from the largest Deinosuchus we have, this means that other individuals would have certainly grown larger. Maybe not those mythical 12 meters, but still very large. So please keep that in mind.

Two different interpretations of the same specimen of Deinosuchus. Top a proportionally larger-headed reconstruction by randomdinos, bottom a smaller-headed reconstruction by Fadeno. I do not care to weigh in on the debate other than to say that size tends to fluctuate a lot between studies and that I'm sure this won't be the last up or downsize we see.

Regardless of the details, this would put Deinosuchus in the "giant" size category of 7+ meters, while early alligatoroids generally fall into the small (<1.5 meters) or medium (1.5-4 meters) size categories. The authors make an interesting observation relating to gigantism in crocs at this point in the paper. Prevously, temperature and lifestyle were considered important factors in crocs obtaining such large sizes, but the team adds to that the overall nature of the available ecosystem. In the case of Deinosuchus, it inhabited enormous coastal wetlands under favorable temperature conditions and with abundant large sized prey, a perfect combination for an animal to grow to an enormous size. And this appears to be a repeated pattern that is so common its pretty much regarded as a constant. To quote the authors, "a world with enormous crocodyliforms may have been rather the norm than the exception in the last ~ 130 million years." For other examples look no further than the Miocene of South America, the extensive wetlands of Cretaceous North Africa or even Pleistocene Kenya.

One striking example for repeated gigantism in crocodilians can be found in Miocene South America, when the caimans Purussaurus and Mourasuchus both independently reached large sizes alongside the gharial Gryposcuhus. The illustration below by Joschua Knüppe features some of the smaller earlier members of these species in the Pebas Megawetlands.

So that's it then, case closed. Deinosuchus and co aren't salt-tolerant alligators, they are stem-crocodilians. Deinosuchus was smaller than previously thought and Diplocynodon diverged from Borealosuchus. Leidyosuchus is also there. It all adds up, right? Well not quite. This all is a massive upheaval from what has previously been accepted and while there were outliers before, the alligatoroid affinities of these animals were the concensus for a long time. Future studies will need to repeat the process, analyse the data and the anatomical features and replicate the results before we can be sure that this isn't just a surprisingly logical outlier. Already I heard some doubts from croc researchers, so time will tell if Deinosuchus truly was some ancient crocodilian-cousin or if previous researchers were correct in considering it a stem-alligator. I for one will keep my eyes peeled.

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matchalovertrait · 2 months ago

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Alegría v Caruso: Day 3, Pt. 2

"Please state your name and occupation for the record," Antonio requested.

"Mia D'Angelo-Ramirez. Michelin-starred chef and head judge of Diced Junior," the woman spoke calmly.

"What was your impression of Ms. Alegría?"

Mia smiled. "At first? I saw a younger version of myself, though not nearly as shy. She's a star. A brilliant artist. She made a name for herself."

"So, in your professional opinion and experience, has Ms. Alegría ever shown signs of struggling with originality?"

"Not once. She's quick on her feet. That's one of the reasons why she was chosen to compete in Diced Junior."

Antonio nodded. "Would someone like Ms. Alegría—who has spent years refining her skills, proving her creativity, and training at Santoro—have any reason to steal recipes?"

"No. She wouldn't need to. Even when she and another contestant both prepared soups for the second round, their dishes were still distinct. If we suspected copying, she would have been eliminated for that alone."

Antonio turned to the jury. "There you have it. Straight from one of the most respected chefs in the industry. Ms. Alegría is not a thief. She is an innovator. There is no question about her talent or whether she deserved her spot. She didn't need to steal."

Then it was Isabela's turn. "Ms. D'Angelo-Ramirez, just to clarify, you attended Santoro yourself, correct?"

"Yes, I'm an alumna."

"How many Diced Junior contestants have been accepted into Santoro over the years?"

"Not many."

"So, it's quite rare for a former contestant to be accepted into such an acclaimed program?"

"It's rare because Santoro has high standards, even higher than needed to be accepted to compete in Diced Junior. Clearly, Dulce met them."

Isabela paused, trying not to smirk. "Or maybe... she is not that skilled and had a little help?"

The people in the courtroom grew curious.

Antonio knew exactly where she was headed. "Objection. Speculation."

"Sustained," the judge asserted. "Careful, Ms. Campos."

Isabela continued, "Let's talk about Mr. Caruso, then. Ms. D'Angelo-Ramirez, as part of the Diced Junior selection process, did Mr. Caruso ever make it into the show?"

Dulce had no idea where Isabela was going with this. That's a weird question.. doesn't that go against her own client?

"No," Mia responded with caution, also noting the odd question. "He auditioned multiple times but was never selected.

A few jurors exchanged glances, some of them gasped. Auditioned several times, and he never got in?

Isabela moved forward, "And Mr. Caruso didn't need a TV show to prove himself. He got into Santoro on his own merit, didn't he?"

"I suppose so? I'm not part of the Santoro admission committee, Ms. Campos."

"And yet, Ms. Alegría—someone you publicly vouched for—was accepted into the same program as you, despite the chances."

"Objection-" Antonio began to say.

"Overruled," the judge said. "Proceed."

Isabela looked at the judge. "Your Honor, I have evidence. May I present it to the court?"

"Go ahead. But it better be relevant."

"Ms. D'Angelo-Ramirez, during filming, you told Ms. Alegría, and I quote: "I'll be watching your career closely. Don't let me down, alright? Be smart with your choices."

Mia knew it was true before Isabela played the video. She had meant for the conversation after Dulce's elimination to happen off-camera, but the producers had kept rolling and aired the footage anyway.

"I truly saw potential in Dulce. Don't twist my words," Mia argued.

Isabela turned to the jury. "All I ask is that you consider the possibility that personal connections—not talent—played a role in Dulce's admission to Santoro. Perhaps Ms. Alegría isn't as skilled as she claims. Ms. D'Angelo-Ramirez took a liking to her, after all. And she said, 'Don't let me down.' Now that Ms. Alegría is facing serious allegations, isn't it possible that Ms. D'Angelo-Ramirez is simply trying to save face?"

Fine, Isabela. Want to bring out the clips? Let's do it then.

"Your Honor, if I may, I would like to present a compilation of clips from Ms. Alegría's episode of Diced Junior."

What was this? Movie time? The judge really wished it was allowed to eat popcorn on the job. "Proceed, Mr. Romero."

A lively preteen Dulce was shown on the screen. The courtroom watched the young chef talk about her dishes in detail, share her thought processes, and maneuver around the kitchen with ease. The professionalism and precision were apparent. Many adults now can't do what the child on the television was doing.

When the video ended, Antonio turned to the jurors. "That is the same Dulce Alegría that is sitting in front of you today. Imagine everything else she accomplished in nearly a decade after his was filmed."

He continued. "Dulce Alegría is not a thief. Maybe she didn't win Diced Junior, but she has proved herself in many ways. She had a promising career, which is now suffering because of damaging lies. She lost opportunities. Doors that were once open for her were promptly shut. I ask you to hold the defendants responsible. Words have power, and today, your verdict will ensure that truth prevails. Thank you."

It was time for the jurors to deliberate.

Start from the beginning (Gen 2)

Previous | Next

#yay i squeezed 2 parts together #the verdict comes tmr 😏#technically we need proper closing statements now but ehh you guys already know. we want the verdict!!!#dulce alegria #oc mlt: antonio romero #tjolc gen 2 #tjolc #matchalovertrait #alegria legacy #ts4 #the sims 4 #joy of life legacy #joy of life challenge

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walk-the-plank-the-what · 3 months ago

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Shangjiu fic

Omegaverse AU where Shen Jiu is discovered as an omega and Shang qinghua is the only alpha he considers safe to be with due to Shang qinghua’s general patheticness.

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SJ collapses during peak lord meeting, and is taken to Qian Cao. Mqf did an examination while sj was passed out and finds that sj has been on sketchy/dubious/illegal suppressants ever since coming to Cang Qiong

(Maybe he started suppressants after joining Wu yanzi, since he presented the night he broke free of the qius)

The news of SJ’s 2nd gender is shocking, but MQF is a professional goddamn it, and he won’t spill SJ’s secret. However, since SJ is endangering his own health, MQF will advise that he quits the suppressants and have a heat to rebalance his qi or whatever. Of course he also suggests finding an alpha to spend it with bc alpha pheromones can have soothing effects for what is likely to be a quite intense heat. (Jury’s out on whether he insists that the sect leader know abt sj’s designation, but in this au maybe yqy already knows? but they’re definitely not reconciled either way.)

Of course sj refuses to have a heat and doubly refuses to have an alpha, but maybe he agrees to take a few days off suppressants, or maybe the reason he collapsed was due to a bad batch and his suppressants had to be tossed out, but for whatever reason, sqq is now off his suppressants for the first time in decades. He tries to seclude himself, but due to general sect sibling nosiness, everyone finds out his secret anyway. (lqg knocks down his door for a spar perhaps, and lqg is too noble to go blabbing, but a disciple probably sees/smells sj through the open door)

Since everyone already knows, sj goes off his suppressants altogether. (Perhaps in the common trope where it’s due to them all feeling regret over how they treated him and wanting to care for his health so they get rid of the suppressants? But I like the idea better that they already cared for him as sect siblings in their own way, but that his upbringing caused him to be wary of them and the rumors around him and his acerbic personality caused them to be a little wary of him in turn. I don’t think there’s any hatred or true cruelty between them though. Sj probably still wants to avoid heats, but his sect siblings make sure to cut off the sources of his suppressants for his health.)

Knowing that an alphas presence can help, many sect siblings offer to spend his heat with him. Of course he refuses due to various reasons (general distrust of alphas for most of them, violent history with lqg, weird guilt relationship w/yqy). I would like to say that he actually would agree to some of those on certain conditions though. For instance, if they would agree to being bound and immobile in immortal binding cables for the duration of the heat. Of course, none of them would agree to this, so it comes to be that there’s no option for him but to spend his heat alone.

However, :D there is a resident little freak in these peaks. Shang qinghua had been off the mountain range this whole time on a supply run/negotiating trade deals or something. When he comes back, a peak lord is filling him in, and of course he already knew that sj was an omega, but he never expected others to find out. While he’s freaking out over why his story’s getting off track, the peak lord grumbles something about sj being unreasonable and demanding to tie up alphas and shang qinghua lets the intrusive thoughts win and says something down bad about wanting Shen-shixiong to tie him up. And of course sj overhears or it gets back to him somehow.

For how sj thinks of shang qinghua, I like the perspective in this post, and in another post that I can’t find anymore, but where sj sees that sqh’s pathetic act is just an act and he sees it as a valid form of self preservation.

Basically, somehow Shen jiu does something a little intimidating and a lot hot to proposition sqh for his heat and they have a really good time with it and all the other alpha peak lords are a little jealous.

After spending this time together, I’d like to think they continue this sort of relationship and end up getting close to the point where SJ seeks out SQH even outside of heats and eventually they get together

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Anyway, I just love the idea of Shen jiu learning that not all alphas are bad and such

#omegaverse #shang qinghua #shangjiu #scumplane #shen qingqiu #scum villain #scum villian self saving system #svsss

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robertreich · 2 years ago

Video

youtube

5 Facts About Trump’s Indictments

Trump’s defenders are still lying about his indictments. Here are 5 crucial facts you can share with whoever in your life needs to hear them.

1. President Biden did not indict Trump.

Four different grand juries — made up of ordinary citizens — indicted Trump after being presented with evidence they found compelling enough to warrant criminal prosecution.

The reason we have grand juries is specifically to help make sure no one gets prosecuted out of a personal vendetta.

2. This isn’t about “free speech”

In all four cases, Trump has been indicted because of what he allegedly did, not what he said. Lots of crimes involve speech, but that doesn’t stop them from being crimes. Even Trump’s hand-picked attorney general, Bill Barr, recognizes this defense is nonsense.

3. It doesn’t matter whether Trump believed the election was stolen

There’s plenty of evidence that Trump knew he lost the election fair and square. His claims of massive fraud were rejected by his own campaign manager, White House lawyers, and his hand-picked Justice Department officials.

And privately, Trump seemed to admit that he either knew or didn’t care that his claims were false, allegedly criticizing VP Pence for being “too honest,” and allegedly admitting to his Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that he lost and wanted to cover it up.

But even if Trump really did believe the election was stolen, that doesn’t give him the right to allegedly commit a criminal conspiracy to try to steal it back.

4. Trump has received preferential treatment because of who he is.

Trump’s defenders complain about a two-tiered justice system.

They’re right about that, but not in the way they claim. Trump has been given special privileges most criminal defendants would never get.

In all four criminal cases, he has been released without bail. He has repeatedly been spared the indignity of a mugshot. He has not had his passport suspended or had limits placed on his ability to travel — even though two of his criminal cases involve direct threats to national security, and even though he has used social media to issue insults and threats against potential witnesses, behavior that would cause many criminal defendants to be held without bail pending trial.

5. Trump was in legal trouble long before entering politics

Some of Trump’s defenders claim the sheer number of criminal charges and civil suits he’s now facing is proof that he’s being targeted for political reasons. But you have to remember that Trump was the subject of about 4,000 legal actions before ever running for president. From his fraudulent Trump University scam to federal lawsuits over racist housing discrimination, Trump has spent his life in court because of his own shady behavior.

Trump is being prosecuted now because, as four grand juries have found, the strength of the evidence against him merits it. If we fail to hold him fully accountable under the law, the precedent will embolden future presidents to break the law, jeopardize national security, incite insurrections, and possibly even overturn an election.

The principle that no one is above the law is only true if we make it so.

#youtube #Donald Trump #Politics #Video #Videos #Republicans #Election #Joe Biden #United States

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inkiighost · 5 months ago

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I am not a person. I am just prey to be added to your fat and tits

I realized this last night after I was watching one of your videos. You ran your claws along your stomach. At first, I was a bit stupid. I thought you were doing it because whatever poor soul was in there you had a little sympathy for. "There there, poor thing. I know it's painful but it'll all be over soon".

Of course that isn't it. You couldn't care less about the meal churning in your guts. I didn't care about the beef stew I had for lunches feelings, so why should you? No, the reason you rub your stomach is because your belly is your real pet. Like petting your dog after it snaps up a spare piece of meat at breakfast.

And then I came. Hard.

That's when I realized I belong in your guts. I set one of your videos to loop through my headphones and fell asleep, to dream that you and your powerful guts would churn me until I was gurgling through your intestines. I slept 14 hours straight and thought I died, and the jury is still out on whether that's true or not.

Its not enough though. Please eat me

Everyone take notes. If you were wondering what a love letter to me would look like, this is pretty much it.

Enough of the singular messages of “please eat me” or “squish me mommy”, I desire supplication. If you genuinely want me to indulge (upon) you, then you must entreat me first.

With that out of the way, this is incredibly hot. It sounds like you were straight up hypnotized by the sound of my stomach mulching down on some poor thing. It never ceases to amaze me just how badly some people want to throw their lives away just to add a layer of fat to my plush body 💜

#inkiighost #askinkii

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author-main · 4 months ago

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Welcome back to Author Takes the Romance out of Wrightworth just to Put It Back Later. The reason why I do this is because, I'm a relatively newer fan, haven't been here for super long. And I wanna share my thoughts and opinions as a fan who got into the games because of nrmt/mtnr. I (personally) think a lot of the meaning in the characters' dialog gets kinda lost in fanon. So today, I will discuss how:

Phoenix becoming a lawyer for Miles isn't THAT extreme when you learn how easy it was to "change his life" to do it.

By that, I mean... it wasn't THAT big of a change.

Point One: Phoenix did not change his entire college course for Miles, nor did he need to.

I should start with: becoming a lawyer is no joke, no matter where you live. But since I'm American, we'll follow the localization.

In the U.S. you're required to obtain your Juris Doctor (J.D.) to take the bar exam. What you need to start working towards a J.D. is any bachelor's degree. Phoenix was 21 and still an art major (April 2014), even after knowing for up to over a year (February 2013) that Miles was a prosecutor. He is said to have taken law classes, that could mean three things

Law electives

Law minor

double major

Note: The double major is the least likely in canon, because if that was the case, his character profile in 3-1 would've mentioned it.

Given the timeline of events, I believe that Phoenix was already a graduating senior at by the time of 3-1. Not a super important thought, just a "he's pretty much ready to get into a grad program anyway" thing.

Point Two: Larry Butz is his other reason in becoming a lawyer.

And not so many people ship them now do they? Most people either see Larry as just a friend to Phoenix, or they outright forget him (which is why I have to point him out NOW). Phoenix knew Larry for his entire life, longer than he knew Edgeworth. And he's the reason they all became friends in the first place. But he's even more important than just being the reason he and Miles became friends.

Phoenix wanted to show his gratitude to Miles and Larry in the exact same way, by defending them in court. This isn't romantic, this is wholly platonic. This is his way of showing how much they actually meant to him, how much their friendship meant to them. He's trying to show them what exactly they've done for him. They changed him as a person. Showed him that he should follow his convictions and intuition, to believe in people and defend them especially when the rest of the world is against them.

Point Three: "I'm the only one who knows the real Edgeworth": You NEED to pay attention to the entire conversation to understand why he said this. (though I obviously can't share it all here, but here are the most important parts for this post)

Probably the most seemingly obsessive part this of is: "He's in pain… And no one's on his side. I'm the only one who knows the real Edgeworth. I'm the only one who can help him." But you really need to actually consider what he's saying here. Phoenix knows that the world is cruel and that mob mentality can form no matter the demographic. He knows that whether it's a class of elementary school kids, or full-grown adults in suits and ties; if the world thinks you did it, you're discouraged from defending yourself. If the world thinks you did it, you'll start believing it too. If the world tells you to apologize and take responsibility, you're going to do it, even if what they accuse you of isn't true. And Phoenix knows what it's like to not be able to defend himself. He knows that he needs to defend the seemingly indefensible. That's why he became a defense attorney. That's what the class trial taught him, what Miles and Larry taught him.

"I'm the only one who knows the real Edgeworth." -> "I'm the only one who knows what it's like to be in Edgeworth's shoes and I know for a fact that he's innocent. I know that no matter what happened in the past, that he doesn't deserve this."

Extra: The other reason why I decided to write this is because of Xitter lurking

This was all part of a conversation but I'm only sharing my own opinions

#narumitsu #wrightworth #mitsunaru #ace attorney #phoenix wright #sorry if this seems a little jumbled i wrote all of this in discord during a conversation and tried my best to proofread myself lol

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autisticrosewilson · 8 months ago

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Hello to the one blog I've been loving to read for the past few days :) <3

Just wanted to add a little something that I started thinking abt after reading a few of your really cool posts, I think we should also discuss abt how Bruce's argument abt killing (with Jay) are often framed with "you're not the judge, jury & the executioner" which is really telling of who he thinks can exersise this legitimately? ? ?

I think it'd be constructive to actually properly discuss this aspect of Bruce's philosophy too. Plus, we get more nuanced Bruce characterisation. (Also keeping in mind uh... comic book propaganda of the writers and DC themselves)

YES ABSOLUTELY! Like what if someone is given a death sentence by a court of law? Does Bruce still care? I'm sure most writers would tell you no because Bruce has become a cop allegory. He's a violent enforcer of the law, and he seeks to uphold the law. Which is a recent switch! Batman comics used to be more radical, but now they're being written by old white men. So it's another one of those things where you can ignore it for your PERSONAL INTERPRETATION but you can't say that it's not A Thing because it's been like this for at least a decade.

His argument would likely be that everyone deserves a fair trial, that everyone has the right to be seen in court. Something which I do think Jason would agree with because when he's being written well he's not just shooting petty criminals! Jason's stance comes in with the big players, the disgustingly rich or well connected upper class who get away with murder. This has been true since the Garzonas case, the whole point was that Felipe was virtually immune to the law, and Jason couldn't allow that.

I think what it comes down to is whether they believe in reformative justice or punitive Justice, and I can most assuredly say that Batman believes in the latter. You can argue that Bruce is an advocate of prison reform but we don't really have evidence of that. He considers himself a punishment for criminals, he considers himself an equalizer but that's not true because he just delivers criminals into a system that is fundamentally corrupt and unfair. Do you actually think a trial in GOTHAM of all places is going to look at a rich man vs a petty crook the same way? That rarely happens even in real life.

And I don't think that Bruce does what he does out of inherent malice. Bruce is a deeply empathetic person, the core of Bruce Wayne is that he cares. But that's not enough, Bruce was allowed to grow up sheltered and it gave him an intrinsic idealism. He only has a Birdseye view of what the common people go through, that is not enough to stand there and say that he understands . Because he doesn't. He literally can't. And I think this bias, certainly one projected by the writers but that's another issue, comes through the most with Jason and Steph.

As far back as Jason's Robin era - widely regarded as Bruce's peak of being a good dad - he still makes some pretty big mistakes. Because he finds this homeless kid whose family has been ripped apart by the corrupted systems, who has actively experienced the worst Gotham has to offer, and he comes to the conclusion that if he doesn't take Jason home Jason will inevitably become a criminal even after Jason explicitly says he doesn't like stealing. So he takes Jason in but he makes that position as his son synonymous with Robin. And this is where we have to talk about meta because Jason is intrinsically tied to meta narratives. I'm not sure if you saw my other posts about Robin, as a concept, but I'll summarize here.

Child sidekicks are fine, in early comics. When things were campy light hearted whodunnit mysteries with a few action sequences, when you always knew that the child hero would come out unscathed, would always live till the next issue. And so when Bruce makes Jason Robin you have this veil of suspension of disbelief. But Jason's era is where you start seeing these kids' storylines get worse. More gruesome, more violent, more cruel. They start really testing the limit of Bruce's morality.

Batman: The Cult - Robin Jason has to crawl through a pile of dead bodies and while Bruce is having a mental break this MAYBE 14 year old is trying to get them out. The Diplomats Son - Jason watches a rapist be let go, because he's powerful and his dad has money. He sees exactly the kind of damage it does to the victims, he's the one who finds Gloria Stanson. A Death in the Family - Jason is murdered. Tortured and murdered and betrayed. He's dead and he was always intended to STAY dead. And all throughout Tim's run and then into Steph's the writers retroactively change everything about who Jason was because it has to be HIS fault, because if it's not Jason's fault then it might be Bruce's. Because how can audiences see Bruce as just and good for taking in new kids after what happened to the last one?

The suspension of disbelief shatters. Because now Jason is back and he's angry. Because maybe we as readers know that Tim, and Steph, and Damian need to be Robin because Robin makes money with young readers. But you know who doesn't know that? Jason, who no doubt assumed that his survival depended on being Robin. Who was sold out because he was Robin. Who was badmouthed and disgraced the entire time he was gone by people he loved and trusted. Jason doesn't know that he's in a comic book, but I argue he knows he's in a Batman story.

If not from his first appearance then definitely in recent ones. What can you do besides lay down and forgive and keep coming back when you know that the universe revolves around one man? How do you get rid of the terror and anger at realizing that you can never leave, that no matter how much he hurts you the universe will bend itself in half so that he is still just and right? When you realize that the love that has defined you is a disease rooted so deeply that to rip it out would be to kill yourself, that you can't even stay dead because Bruce does not want you to be.

And they couldn't even stick to Jason being the problem! Because then Steph dies. And all I could think was "Of course she did. She's an East End girl whose been compared to Jason constantly. Or a version of him. Of course she would be tortured to death trying to get Bruce's approval." Here we are, history has literally repeated itself, and...Tim is Robin again. Why? Because this is a comic book, and Batman needs Robin.

But what do you think everyone in-universe thinks? What do you think that looks like? How can you possibly still call Bruce a good parent under these circumstances? Bruce calls Robin a blessing, a gift, a necessity. He relies on Robin, physically to watch his back and emotionally to keep him in line. He trains them, he molds them, he loves them.

But sometimes love just isn't enough and the good Robin does shouldn't negate the harm they get in the process. Robin then becomes this horrible force of change, you get it and you know that this has doomed you, one way or another. Because Bruce believes that suffering is noble, that pain can reform people. It's baked into his character. Even if he doesn't intend to hurt his kids, it's not like we haven't seen him justify it to himself and others. "I love you, I did this for your own good, I thought I could help you, it was your fault I did that, it won't happen again, I lost control of myself but only this once, we can be a family again if you just come home." It reads an awful lot like an abuser trying to convince you or himself that he's not in the wrong.

This was longer than I intended it to be, but I guess my main point is that Bruce and Batman can't ever be fully separated. Something that I think his relationship with Cass shows us he's aware of but chooses to ignore. We know that Batman is dangerous, that he wouldn't hesitate to hurt his kids, we saw that with Zurr-Batman (WHO BRUCE ADMITTED WAS A FACET OF HIMSELF YOU CAN'T SAY IT WASN'T HIM BECAUSE HE HIMSELF SAID THAT IT WAS). So why try and act like it's this impossible out of character thing for Bruce to be harmful? For his kids to feel angry and hurt about his actions or for their feelings to be as or more valid than Bruce's. Batman has and will hurt his kids and Bruce will try to rationalize it all away because he loves them, he would never want to hurt them. And the narrative will tell us that Bruce is right, that this is good and fair and just, that Bruce's perspective is the correct one, that his kids deserve this, because this is a comic book and outrage sells. Or they'll retcon it and pretend it never happened. Or they'll just never bring it up again. Or Bruce will be forgiven regardless just to hammer home how good and right he is.

Because this is a comic book about Batman, and Batman is a hero, he is our protagonist, and so he is reliable and we should never doubt him, or call him out, or be mad at him. Naturally.

#ask #dc #glad you enjoyed my blog!#sorry I hit you with this but I've been stewing on it for a while #jason todd #bruce wayne #bruce wayne critical #meta analysis #character study?#of a sort

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multiheadcanons · 12 days ago

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THIS IS A REQUEST I GOT FROM AN IRL. I HAVE TO DO IT. MERCS ON SURVIVOR, SEASON 49. RED VS BLU

scout: scout’s trying to cut a deal. get him to jury and cut him 10k and it’s a guaranteed vote, regardless of how you use him. the team doesn’t trust this, especially because he busts his ass to gain immunity for the team. but by midgame, most people know he has to go. and no, he can’t make jury. the team would never willingly pull ten thousand american dollars out of their assholes to give to scout unless he was in jail and they needed to pay his bail, and he would definitely get some irritated stares and some questions about what he did. and he knows that. but that’s off topic, and this is television, and he’s trying to make a story happen. it doesn’t help that scout is an absolute menace in almost every challenge. as long as he isn’t having to think too hard, or stay still too long, he is outpacing everyone, and it almost makes it unfair. he’s too competitive, and he has to go. he is fairly loyal to the well-being of the entire team, and most moves he makes are to put the red team in the best position before the merge. deep down, he knows that he isn’t making it any farther than mid game. but it won’t stop him from trying to put his team in the absolute best position to get someone on the team to win the million dollars, regardless of whether or not they take his deal.

scout: scrappy, loyal to a fault, and smarter than anyone gives him credit for, if scout could hold his own for just a little longer, scout could be a phenomenal player of survivor and a great candidate for winning the whole thing. but he doesn’t drop alliances. even if everyone on his team is gone, and it’s just him, he will still not attempt to make any alliances with the red team. and in fact, if he thinks he can, he’ll sow seeds of doubt in the red team about his own medic. if only to promise him a vote if the doctor gets him to jury and then see that fucker not get the million dollars. scout needs a few more years in the mental oven, and if he plays again he has the greatest shot at winning a fair, straightforward game. a big hero archetype, who can get dirty when he needs to. nobody wants to see him lose. but there comes a point where his loyalty is a threat. where his physical capabilities go from a welcome asset to a danger during challenges. and then they have to get rid of him. if he played with strangers, his chances of winning are even better. he would come across as a good kid. his teammates, and frankly even his enemies would want to see him win. he would be the best at doing so while keeping his hands the cleanest. but with the teams, he would probably not win. and frankly, they would probably split the money regardless.

soldier: soldier is a true wild card. he takes bold risks, makes stupid moves, has the tough and direct conversations, and they almost always work for him until they don’t. truthfully, nobody even understands how he makes it far enough to get to jury. but between his no nonsense play style, and his raw strength he’s got more than enough to keep him on most everyone’s good side. it’s on soldier’s bad days that he’s more likely to get voted off in the heat of the moment. because when he argues, he argues like his life depends on it. he genuinely thinks he’s doing the best for the team. and it doesn’t help that he can’t, or moreso won’t keep secrets. he finds them useless, especially before the merge. it makes him a good informant for the more strategic players. and, and he may be wrong on this, he does think his team is at least more morally sound. giving secret information willngly and facilitating difficult conversations is one of soldier’s absolute strong suits. and he’s wonderful for morale boosting. the closer he can keep the team as a unit the better their chances are going into the merge. and he does that job well. by the time he is voted off, whether he made jury or not, the red team is an effectively closer knit band than the blu team.

soldier: soldier tries to be trusting in the way his counterpart is, and it will get him voted off faster than he would expect. they're not really seeing his bold strategy or openness as an asset, like the red team, his team just thinks he's actually lost his marbles. they're more worried he's actually lost his mind, that being on a deserted island has actually made his mind crack, and that the soldier they did know is dead and gone, and that in a couple of weeks it's going to shift from him being open and trusting to him actually killing them all well out of the radius of the respawn machine. scout and snipes are the only ones willing to let him know that they're voting him off because the team is genuinely concerned for his mental health, but frankly, jane feels betrayed either way they slice it. even if soldier played with strangers, i doubt he would make it to the merge. his personality is too... specialized for him to be taken at his word by people who don't know him. he would be seen as crazy, and quick to rage, and generally... untrustworthy. he would do better maybe on naked and afraid. he could definitely win naked and afraid. the team genuinely does have his best interests at heart, and they know jane won't quit, regardless of how he registers he feels. they know him better than he thinks they do. it just doesn't help that he's on a team that has no interest in trying to play a particularly nice game. the blu team's entire strategy is brutality. another waste of talent cast aside for this method, soldier is just the saddest example because he won't drop his morals. and it seems like nobody is willing to put his faith in him, either.

pyro: the only thing pyro is good for is sneaking in some firestarter and then fucking off before they risk showcasing their criminality on national television. pyro refuses to not only part with their flamethrower, but with their axe, their bed, their bathroom, their way of life that they have worked very hard and survived a lot of bullshit to achieve, to the point that to pyro, there is no amount of money in the world that will ever truly amount to everything they have right now. they may even get themselves disqualified, or have the doctor help them fake an injury to give them a inconspicuous out from the game so that they're not having to commit an actual crime and fuck up the competition for everyone. they are happy to have a little watch party at the base, though. they're rooting for their team! just from the sanctity and privacy of their own base. and they love having the base to themselves, mostly. always very ecstatic as members of the team start coming home, and the watch parties to get bigger. they don't care who wins, they just hope everyone's having a good time. they hate anyone who gets a bad edit; because they feel like all of their friends are terrible people.

pyro: this pyro will give it an honest go before they decide that actually, they would rather be at home and not... having their gas mask plastered all over national television. they make good elimination fodder for that reason. the blu team doesn't have many people who don't want to play the game, so the initial elimination fodder is wonderful to keep the players who are actually giving it their all. but nobody can say they don’t at least try! a great enjoyer of the little watch parties their counterpart throws. they love seeing people that pyro themselves would call friends eviscerating each other in the name of a game. they like when the team gets serious about a goal! they’re aware their team is messy. they like them that way. they’re aware their team is ruthless! it’s why they love them. pyro is open, accepting, and welcoming of their team. even if nobody else likes this team, pyro likes this team. and it would be quite nice if they brought home a million dollars. they just know their place in the team. and that’s not on that show. they do get into the habit of watching survivor, even when the team isn’t on the show.

demo: he’s the first to willingly walk away, and the second or third off the team. eventually the lack of readily available alcohol wears on him, and he is aware that it makes him a liability on the team more than he could ever be an asset. he’d rather be posted in the hotel, running the tab up. his team knows he’s like this, they don’t really care, in fact they respect his honesty and self awareness, and it makes votes a lot easier if demo is on the team, because he’s happy to go. he becomes a fan favorite that way, but he would never willingly do another season of survivor. especially without his team. they’re the ones who make it fun to him. he is probably one of the people his teammates would put down as a family member. and he will show up and give it his absolute best. depending on who puts him down, and how much alcohol he was able to sneak into the island, it’s a damn near guaranteed win. if demo was actually willing to put in the effort to play, he would do fine, but will be beat out by his teammates, particularly in his influence and societal pull. he makes a good extra vote, but the effort that he would have to put forth to play the brain games and survive and do well in the challenges... it's a lot. it's a lot he's not willing to do, specifically. not even that he's unable to, he just won't. come get him for a quick debut, though.

demo: if demo can make it past the first couple of weeks without alcohol, or very selective amounts of alcohol, this man is Locked The Fuck In. initially mediocre in almost all areas of the competition, demo relies solely on the good graces he has already built with his team outside of the competition to coast him through the first week or so of withdrawals. luckily, there are more severe threats on the blu team than him, and he makes a good buffer vote those first few times to really ensure his safety. when he finally has his wits about him, he becomes an immediate threat. to the point that if he doesn't want to get voted out, he has to win immunity every single time. there is no room for him to lose. but with his own scout remaining in the running, there will come a time that he just won't cut it. it is much more likely for demo to falter in a challenge than it is for scout to falter in a challenge, unless they're doing something that requires staying still. that is the only thing that scout is not good at. and that happens to be one of the few things that demo is really good at!

heavy: hearty, strong, capable, intelligent, mild mannered for the most part, if not just generally good natured; heavy is in it for the physical challenge of the game. surviving on an island isn’t difficult. this isn’t even “surviving off the land”. this is like… midcore month long summer camp. this is camping with great views and an occasional minor crisis, he’s living life! enjoying a change of pace! catching some fish and a chicken they let loose for food. they’re literally given food to hunt. and not dying for a while is pretty nice. heavy easily makes it to the merge of the groups, because he is simply too big of an asset to vote off. and generally, come the merge of the groups, if his counterpart makes it that far, unless that man was putting in overtime effort to come off as anything less than a conniving, dishonest, selfish fish carcass of a man who would, can, has, and currently does let his teammates die if it saves his skin, misha washes him, no question. he easily makes it to top five before the combined team takes the painstaking move to vote him out the moment he is vulnerable. and he is vulnerable without his doctor to play the social game with him. but if he makes it to the top three, he’s winning the pot. he worked hard. he was trustworthy. he kept his promises and played the social game to the best of his ability without sacrificing his morals. he was satisfied with how he played.

heavy: how far heavy gets is solely dependent on how much trust he is willing to not only put in his own team, but how much they can trust him. most of the blu team is well aware that their heavy interacts with them on a need-to-know basis. they are very accepting, when it comes down to the fact that they respawn, that they don’t particularly feel a need to trust him. but out here, yes, they kind of have to trust him. and that requires him trusting them too. and he is almost incapable of doing that. this will generally make him third, or fourth off the team before the merge. the power and strategic prowess he brings to the game is simply not enough to overcome the idea that the team can’t trust him. he understands. he doesn’t blame them because he isn’t interested in changing his dynamic with the team, either. but if he’s willing to put in the effort, he can make it to the merge before he gets absolutely societally clotheslined by his counterpart, who is guaranteed to make it to the merge. he simply cannot manufacture enough trust not only with the tatters of his team that made it to the merge; but the remains of the red team, who absolutely do not trust him, to keep him any longer than the merge. at that point, he’s worthless. in fact, he’s a threat. but the fact that his own team treats him as a threat makes him think that maybe they don’t want the million dollars that much. he’s bound to flip his vote for the winner. but he has to make it to jury for that vote to matter. and chances are, he won’t.

engineer: engineer is damn near a hidden immunity idol magnet, and it is his sole strategy. he hoards them like a goblin, placed in locations that are precarious to reach, which only speaks for how he balanced himself to get them hidden, and speaks to the difficulty of retrieving them. you cannot blame the texan for finding a tool and utilizing it to the fullest extent possible. it's one of the few things he actually does at camp. will set and hold the record for the quickest the immunity idol has been found. the entire red team knows that, somehow, someway, engineer is going to end up with the immunity idol. and sometimes, he doesn't even have the immunity idol. but people are making moves regarding him like he does have it. and to make the matters better, sometimes they’re just handed to him to keep stress on him so moves can be made around him. and that means he can make some big brain moves to keep himself safe up to the final five. normally, by that point, it does get easier for other teammates to plead an emotional enough case to him that he may be willing to part with an immunity idol. but then he is left very vulnerable to get out. and he knows that. but honestly, he doesn't mind. he played the game until his back hurt too much from sleeping on the ground. and he does think it's one of the best things about his team. they are not all needed all the time. and it's for the best for everyone that they all understand exactly when they've served their purpose, and be willing to bow out as vote fodder to give who they know will be the best shot at winning the million.

engineer: another borderline unwilling participant, engineer’s keen eye and cool head is desperately wanted on the team, but he effectively doesn’t want to be there. and he sees the way that they treat soldier when he tries to play the good game. engineer doesn’t want to give them the opportunity to make him look stupid on national tv. he doesn’t want to play a cutthroat game. he’d really rather just go back to work and do… not this? anything but this, really. this is not his particular cup of tea. and not something he really wants to watch, either. but, as long as the season is running and his team is on it, he’s gonna watch! they get the royalties, you know. he definitely didn’t let mann co.’s lawyers handle the paperwork. if his team want to indulge in what they call “good, healthy fun”, and there happens to be a monetary incentive, then he’ll support it… and also quietly collect the royalties check and divvy them up how he feels is fair. engineer would probably also be a very good competitor on big brother. he is fairly easygoing enough that most people don’t see him as a real threat until he becomes the head of household.

medic: there is a fatal flaw the doctor has. the man is not subtle. this man couldn’t make a bold strategic move without letting out at least three evil chuckles about it that can be heard across the island. and he knows this, so he is very careful about the moves he tries to make. it is one of the few times he is lowkey, at least as much as he can be. he isn’t very good. it’s because of that he relies heavily on alliances and his own physical prowess in the challenges to come off as an asset… but not a threat. because the second the team, pre or post merge get the inkling that he is a threat, that he is planning on making a move that could potentially disrupt an otherwise straightforward game, they will put his ass on the block and send him home. because he is a formidable physical opponent, and he is a liar, and he will manipulate whoever he has to, and look as weak as he needs to. at least to get to jury. his strongest asset is his ability to swing a vote and strengthen an alliance, especially as the field medic who treats the wounds. he’s chaotic to have on the team, because his teammates will just tell him things. and he’s moving around with so much information that he can’t do… anything with. so he tells heavy. and lets heavy decide what they do. and together, they are a near inseparable unit. he is more willing to purposefully throw his own game and get on the jury to keep heavy off the block because he knows if heavy makes it to top 3, he’s going to win. especially as his counterpart coasts into the merge. he is happy to be first, or second to the jury. he just has to make it there. and he makes good bait that way. it’s a wasted vote on a man who knows he can’t make moves, to push the actual threat forward.

medic: he’s an insanely vicious man. on the field and in the camp. a true string puller, with the ability to move undetected in the social sphere until it is entirely too late, the doctor, also the blu team’s field medic, is seen as a prime candidate for an alliance, and can coast on alliances and pure physical prowess gaining his tribe and himself immunity well into the final five, minimum. he is mainly kept on a need-to-know basis, but everyone is keeping him in on a need-to-know basis, so he knows everything. and everyone thinks he is on their side, and he’s using all of that to pit people against each other to get him a very convenient final four to go against. passing notes to the red teammates during challenges, feeding true and false information, luring some in and getting others removed. quickly. an insanely influential man, he is the nail in the coffin for many of the competitors. and he kicks it into high gear on challenges come the merge. he is never without individual immunity. the competitors want to keep him in the game, especially as his counterpart takes a seat on the jury, because everyone but him is aware that the doctor will not receive many votes if he makes it to final three. there’s a level of trust most everyone has with him, and it is incredibly easy for him to manufacture trust with the red team. he’s the nicer counterpart. the more humble man. and he takes care of them when the red donned doctor is offered on the chopping block instead. he’s a perfect fill in, if not better. and it will get him to the final five. he is a prime candidate for winning. he shoots himself in the foot with the amount of lying he does to get there. the jury will never be his friend. but he makes for a damn good show.

sniper: sniper is a formidable opponent, and one of the best competitors in the game. he is more likely to be taken out of the game by an injury than he is to actually get voted out. most people want sniper on their alliance! he’s nice, he’s easygoing, he can survive on the island, and he doesn’t try to make bold plays and moves. he knows where he is best at, and he picks his alliances wisely. he even gives prior alliances a fair warning that he’s jumping ship. this is one of the biggest threatening moves sniper can make. in fact, this move can totally dismember the red team’s stability come the midgame. and nobody knows how to turn what is a guaranteed nuclear strike on the red team into something that actually works in the red team’s favor before the merge, and by that point the red team is convinced he stays long enough to get an influential competitor out of his own team and then purposely twists his ankle or pulls a muscle to get him out of the fallout. sniper doesn’t know how to fake an injury and get out of dodge if he tried, he just really has an unlucky streak with it. he has never made it to jury.

sniper: what sniper lacks in motivation to really play the physical game, he makes up for in inadvertently playing the social game. sniper is a key player during the midgame to make an alliance with, and will normally opt, once the merge happens, to stay with his team. he and his scout together become a duo almost impossible to truly crack. they trust each other fully and wholeheartedly, and it makes it hard to sew any distrust with each other. and with scouts physical prowess in the challenges, that leaves sniper as the target to break up the alliance. however, because he and scout are on the same team, if scout isn’t sat out a challenge, sniper is effectively untouchable. he can easily make it to jury if he keeps his scout’s back. but he’s usually aware of the fact that he’s not making top 5. he’s happy if he makes it to jury, and he hopes his scout makes it to top 3, but he also knows if he goes, and scout isn’t consistently on top of his game, he’s next. but he doesn’t worry about the kid. he just plays the game the way he wants to. he does okay at most challenges. he is the best at endurance challenges. also a very strong swimmer, and thoroughly enjoys taking those challenges on.

spy: spy is dragged to the island kicking and screaming, and is used for elimination fodder. he's okay with this. he is far too refined for this. they just needed even numbers. but, i do think spy is an avid watcher of reality competition shows like these. i think once he gets back to the base, he is the one who takes pyro's tiny watch parties and turns them into teufort wide watching parties. maybe they aren't the most liked, but he's sure watching them in what can only be called a less extreme version of the teams' natural element will add to their likability. the only annoying thing about spy is that he thinks he's such a strategist, but when he was given the opportunity, he squandered it. but i just don't think he would ever want to be on a show like survivor, where he has no access to his modern comforts. i do think spy would be absolutely killer on big brother. capable in the challenges, a smooth and effective cheater, and a social god, that is where he is best at. not the castaway bullshit.

spy: if they don’t take a certain someone out first, spy will offer himself up as the first gone. though, if someone else gets put up for elimination, he won't go against it. at the end of the day he doesn’t want to be here, not for a million dollars, he doesn’t want to be here even if it’s just stepping on the island, he wouldn’t be here and stay here for forty acres and a mule. he only let them put his name down because he wanted to support the team, and he wanted the team to feel that he does support them and their stupid little money making schemes. nobody can say he doesn’t. because this is what he's willing to do for them. and when he’s finally back at the base, which will be very quickly, he’ll join the red pyro for their little watch parties at the base. he really grows to respect not only his own teammates, but the red team as well. they put up a hell of a fight!

A LITTLE EXTRA

saxton hale: first one gone on the red team. fuck that guy. get out. the only use he is for the team is fodder for elimination. they will purposely lose to get him out unanimously, day one. it makes for an absolutely killer season premiere. but the red team can and will bounce back. they literally function better without him.

pauling: if the blu team isn't smart enough to get her out of the competition on day one, miss pauling is absolutely winning the entire competition. miss pauling is one of the only people alive on earth these men remotely respect, and giving her the opportunity to foster trust and respect with the blu team is only securing her more votes come the merge and the formation of the jury. miss pauling is smart, quick on her feet, vicious in the challenges, and essentially commands their respect as their manager. but it's not just that. the team genuinely cares for her wellbeing. she has been in the trenches of some of the worst decisions they can show her without risking both of their jobs. they think she deserves to get a million dollars, really. and she is incredibly touched by both team's show of support to get her there. and what the hell, she'll cut them each 100k to split amongst themselves. it's not every day they get a million dollars to play with! but that does rely on her doing what she absolutely can to make sure they don't vote her out first just to have a fair shot at the million for themselves. and that is a very real possibility in the blu team.

and admin is jeff probst idfc.

#team fortress 2 #team fortress two #tf2 medic #tf2 heavy #tf2 pyro #tf2 sniper #tf2 engineer #tf2 scout #tf2 spy #tf2 soldier #tf2 demoman #tf2 demo

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intimidating-fettuccine · 10 months ago

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I know I don’t usually get political on here, but with recent events happening I wanted to make a post to reach as many people as I can, as a young woman in the US in this current political climate. Everyone needs to vote.

“But what if I don’t want to register because I don’t want jury duty?”

There is no guarantee you would ever be called for jury duty. I have met people in their 80s who have never been called. Even if you are called, if you tell the judges that you will be an awful juror, you won’t pay attention, you’re incredibly biased, etc. they will dismiss you. They do not want someone on the jury that would be an inconvenience to both sides. As someone who has been called but was not chosen, it is not as big of a deal as you might think it is in the grand scheme of things, and at least in my state you can only even be called once every two years. Plus, certain conditions can disqualify you from even having to show up as well.

“But what if I don’t like the democratic representative either?”

That literally does not matter in this actually life and death case, because the other choice is Donald Trump and Project 2025. If you do any research into project 2025, which no, is not just empty promises they’re trying to make, it is a plan built mostly around removing the rights of women, LGBT members, and deconstructing public education. It is a very scary document and it is one they will 100% go forward with if Trump is put into office. Whether Kamala ends up as the representative for the party or someone else does, you MUST vote blue.

“Well, why can’t we all just vote independent?”

Because they will not win. They won’t. Independents are not even always put on every bracket in every state, but even if they were there is no way that they would win the upcoming election because none of them have a big enough audience at present moment. They need time to build an audience, and they need a Blue country to be able to do so. Plus, we have the electoral college to worry about, and there’s no way in hell any of them are voting independent. In this election it is Blue or Red, and Blue is the much better choice.

“But I don’t think that Blue is going to win, so I don’t even want to bother with voting.”

That is the exact line of thinking Trump wants you to have. Trump is scared of losing! He wants you to think he’s the only winner possible, and that’s why we need to prove him wrong! Not voting at all is still a vote for Trump! We need to show up and vote, because otherwise you are just automatically saying you’re fine with letting Trump win, which is saying you’re fine with losing your own rights or your friends and your family losing their own rights. This election is not a joke this time, we cannot just let it slide this time and assume it’ll be different in four years.

“But politics stress me out and make me anxious so I don’t want to get involved in them.”/“I don’t live close enough to reach my polling station.”

That is the same as the previous one. I know this is an extremely stressful time for everyone, believe me, I’m extremely anxious about it too, but you just need to vote Blue, and show up on one specific day to vote. If you’re too anxious to physically go to polling station or you don’t live close enough, you can also do a mail in ballot, which I’ve done before! You can request one online, receive it in the mail, and send it out! No contact with any other people required. Mail in ballots are still an option and literally made for people who cannot physically show up to a polling station.

“I know all of that’s true, but again, I REALLY hate the Blue candidate.”

Well, consider this. We are not just voting for the president, we are voting for Supreme Court members. Presidents serve as of right now up to 8 years, but Supreme Court justices serve for life. Trump put on the last Supreme Court members, and I’m sure you’ve seen the horrible choices they’ve made in the sake of the Republican Party. The president is the one who chooses those members, so if you allow a Red President, you are allowing the possibility of an even more Red Supreme Court. Vote Blue not just because you are voting for the president, but because you are voting for the sake of your literal future with Supreme Court justices. Politicians have historically always sucked. When it comes to voting, it is the lesser of two evils, and when you’re picking between them, Blue is obviously the lesser of the two evils, especially when Red wants to remove as many rights as physically possible.

“What if Trump also gets removed from the running. Won’t we be okay then?”

No! Because it does not matter who the Red representative is, they are STILL going to move forward with Project 2025. Even if Trump somehow keels over and dies tomorrow or decides to drop out (which I doubt will happen), they would still make the next representative go through with Project 2025. They want this plan more than anything else in the world, and so long as there’s a possibility of a republican representative going into office there is a guarantee of them using that plan.

“But what if Project 2025 really IS just empty promises?”

It is not. I guarantee you it is not. Even if it was, do you REALLY want to take the risk? Do you REALLY want to try and play this game? When the rights of women, LGBT members, public education, and the environment are at risk, do you really want to just assume it’s not going to happen? Is it really worth it to you to play this game and assume so? I’m going to guess it is not, in fact, worth it to play this game. You NEED to fully believe that Project 2025 is actually going to happen, because it is going to happen if they win. This isn’t a fever dream we’re going to wake up from and laugh about if they win. It’s the reality of the current shithole country we live in, and this country could become far, far worse if they win.

Even if you do not live in the US, I am just asking of you to please consider reblogging this and spreading it, as there are probably Americans that will see if if you do so. If you’re even still too young to vote, people that are old enough are likely to see it. I know I’m not a huge blog, but reblogs are always important and I still want to try.

As a woman and LGBT member who does not want to lose her rights, I am asking for you to please read and spread this post. Even if I can just reach one person who will care, it can be a great help. They do not want us to unionize and vote against them, but that is exactly what we must do. Regardless of how you feel about the Blue party, you have to vote for them this year, it’s the only thing we can do.

#if you ever do anything for me please do this and take it seriously #voting #please go vote #please vote blue #2024 elections #2024 presidential election #project 2025

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raayllum · 3 months ago

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it doesn't happen often but sometimes you really do just end up writing meta in the discord DMs with your friends re: why the main trio will eventually come to understand Aaravos & the Cosmic Council even if they haven't questioned/understood them yet

1) The show is always very critical of dismissed intentions.

Whether it's Rayla being Ghosted (only for Ethari, "so i know you did not betray them out of malice, but that doesn't matter," to deeply regret and atone for it), or Leola's trial ("this act, however motivated, is the beginning of the end"), not considering WHY a person is doing something is seen as a roadblock to understanding and forgiveness. This is why Rayla pushes Callum on WHY he'd do dark magic again in 6x03, this is why Soren and Claudia's refusal to engage with the other person's viewpoint at all is so intensive, why rather than being reactive and angry in 4x03 (like Soren) over the defaced painting Ez instead comes from a place of empathy, and why the 1-2 times Karim is right it's about "you must show that you understand their anger (aka why they're angry)". This all comes back to Harrow's advice (our most consistent thematic underpinning being his letter): "You must free yourself from the past. Learn from it, understand it, and let it go." The show both consciously and unconsciously demands us to understand why characters are doing things by giving them understandable reasons, even if the actions they take are often flawed (this is true for the entire main cast) and Not Understanding someone (Viren overruling Lissa, Viren & Soren, Claudia w/ King Harrow in s1, Rayla & Callum growing to understand each other better, etc etc) is what causes all the relationship breakdowns in communication/aid.

This is particularly seen in 1x01 using Ziard's dark magic use to be our initial "dark magic is (always, unconditionally) evil and scary" only to steadily strip that away over each season (particularly S5-S7) and in 3x01, wherein we as the audience realize that Ziard's context / intentions and movations were intentionally withheld from us, only to be seen as pretty damn reasonable if not heroic.

Therefore, the show letting the audience understand Aaravos as much as we do (even if we don't understand everything) is critical and crucial and very on par, even if the main characters are still playing catchup.

2) My base assumption was always that the main trio were going to grow to understand Aaravos and the Cosmic Council, while also learning/becoming Better than them, was because first they were going to Become them.

S7 did a Ton of ground work in this in particular, given that Ezran has his journey of forgiving Runaan somewhat because -- unlike in the beginning of the season -- by the end he's Become Runaan, willing to kill (assassinate) someone. We also know thanks to S7 that the Archdragons and First Elves used to have conflict while having a season of set up for Ezran and/or Aanya's brother (first elf stand ins) to have conflict with the dragons / Zym in future seasons once project ruby fire starts going off the rails.

Callum also had a very explicit arc in this way. In a lot of ways arc 2 was seeing how he could become like Viren, down to using/acquiring the staff. The other undercurrent throughout arc 2 (particularly S7) was how he could become Aaravos. This is evident through his possesion of the cube, the Book of Destiny / Primal Book just as a Concept, and him becoming a primal mage who ALSO uses dark magic + an Archmage™️ in arc 3. Callum is already on the road path to becoming / being like / understanding Aaravos ("Callum sees the world as I do, understands the need for compromise") and carries all the thematic weight of Being The Thing that Leola was executed over.

Additionally, the main characters (thanks to their political & magic power) are going to get to decide things like who has what / be judge jury executioner (a la the Cosmic Council) / what mercy is. S7 also pushed them more into these roles and these choices more than ever, of the choices you can make when you're scared or sad or angry, and the harm/consequences they can cause.

They'll understand them by becoming them and then progressing past them ("their fear, the Great Unravelling" / "i had to work to unravel all the hatred of my upbringing" / "in mercy, in compassion" / "sometimes the line between mercy and cruelty can be thin" / "evrkynd, a place where we will always be kind to one another") by unifying the magics / peoples / the land in a Better Restoration compared to what it had ever been in the olden times (a la Soren & Viren both having restoration arcs of becoming better versions of the roles they started out in as crownguard and high mage, etc.)

Like to me we are very much Well on our own on all fronts, with plenty of arc 2 providing set up / introducing ideas and complications so that arc 3 can bring it all home

"this is justice! the humans attacked us unprovoked" never being true and that's the whole Point understanding/seeing yourself in your enemy is amaya's entire character arc ("she was callous, she was cruel. and in truth so was i." / "you know who you sound like?" "who?" "me" / "i understand you, karim.") and like. s7 was a massive neon sign of "we're getting there w/ Aaravos & the Cosmic Council" flashing at me every episode

even arc 3 being set up to interrogate the ethics of abandonment/isolationism with the Cosmic Council just dipping ("Callum, I know my leaving hurt you" / "She left us. She left" / "take your people, and build your own future far away from here") when exile/isolationism has always been a Huge problem for Xadia culturally to begin with like. we're so There

like the main trio is acting very harrow in him and sarai's convo about the magma titan and i Believe in them bc basically every time i've gone "huh idk what that's about / that thread is going" (lissa leaving the fam, ezran being so passive in s1/s2 with decision making, the archdragons not just killing aaravos and imprisoning him instead, the sun-moon emphasis in early seasons, the 2x08 dream foreshadwing, etc) tdp has taken me by the hand and gone "oh it's on purpose hun don't worry" and kissed my forehead

like even Claudia BECOMING a dragon (the thing she hates and refuses to meaningfully engage with) like. they are Screaming it at us

#discord groupies #tdp aaravos #arc 3 #a narrative of love #analysis series #analysis #arc 3 speculation #predictions #the cosmic council #tdp #the dragon prince

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mrinafria · 7 months ago

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Seen some viewers not liking The Judge from Hell for different reasons, and I think I kind of get why (just my guess). Also, disclaimer (in case it's not obvious enough): I respect and am fine with anyone disagreeing with me and not liking the show for whatever reason.

If you've watched The Devil Judge, then The Judge from Hell is not that. Unlike The Devil Judge, it doesn't have a dark, grim, ominous setup that stays true to that heavy vibe till the end. If you've watched Lucifer, it's not that either. Close but also not really. Unlike Lucifer, The Judge from Hell hasn't shown us an anti-hero/anti-heroine who, underneath the charisma and confidence and tricks and looks, is full of self-loathing, unprocessed angst and human-like emotions. I'm just going off of the 8 episodes of TJFH aired so far. Unlike Lucifer, Justitia doesn't seem to display a subconscious desire not to be misunderstood and abandoned, nor does she feel complex emotions about humans and humanity (it's just starting with Daon she still has a long way to go). We don't see a Fallen/Demon with a semblance of a moral compass here.

Even her "I trust what children say" doesn't mean much because she doesn't do that out of some morality; to her, it's just facts that children are the least crafty and least vile amongst humans. Justitia is very mechanical (and petty even) in what she does- she's not on some great self-discovery or redemption journey in here to even entertain the notion of humanity or morality. If we expect such nuance from her so early on in the story, we maybe setting ourselves up for disappointment. Y'all she's been doing this for Lord knows HOW many hundred years. It's not her first gig. If you have been having coffee at night despite being an insomniac for like three decades, it's highly likely you'd stop thinking or caring about the morality, the 'rightness' of drinking coffee even when it destroys your health.

It's like that for her, to the point where she can, in fact, treat every murder, every crime, every criminal lightly. She's been the judge, jury and executioner all along, and that's the job she needs to do well on earth too. As audience, we may be living on earth longer than she's been but the moment Justitia stepped in, it became 'her world' that we're now getting a peek at.

She's not some vigilante or messiah; just an eccentric, murdering demon from hell who likes Z cola and a pretty wardrobe and Han Daon too- what's wrong with that lol. I remember seeing similar sentiments when Vincenzo was on, because some felt the comedy and humor didn't go well with the overall theme, with a psycho CEO committing all kinds of crimes+ ML's childhood grief and mafia ptsd+ revenge etc. I feel like it was a conscious choice not to make the show so heavy or serious, despite the subject matter. TJFH feels like it treats heavy stuff casually because it is mostly shown through Justitia's lens, and so far, SHE has been treating heavy stuff casually. She really doesn't feel anything emotionally for the girl being in an abusive relationship, or the child being with that horrible excuse of a stepmom. All she sees are the sinners and their sins, and whether they can help her fulfill her mission.

But even that is changing now, gradually, with Justitia/Kang Bitna starting to feel more and more human emotions (props to Daon).

Now, could we have gotten a more nuanced character arc with a serious undertone? Maybe yes, maybe no. The story is yet to unfold fully so I say it's too early to decide that? However, three things that come to mind are: 1. kdramas generally don't get seasons unlike TV series in the US or UK, to explore things gradually with each season geared towards a certain theme or development. Lucifer did what it did in six seasons. 2. I've noticed that unless it's a super horror, super apocalyptic or dystopian show, kdramas like to incorporate humor in their story no matter what genre it is (even shows like The Light in Your Eyes or Moon Lovers or Hi Bye, Mama have their lighthearted moments). Kdramas aren't perfect. Different shows become perfect to different audiences because of their personal preferences. I watch the show because the trailers promised us a fantasy drama with angst between the leads, because it gives me a good laugh, and also maybe because a small part in me kinda sorta lives vicariously through Justitia's ultimate reckoning lol.

I'm actually glad it's not a heavy show because the stuff they've shown so far can be quite disturbing and triggering and I'd be very hesitant to proceed with it if that were the case. 3. I think it's also okay to acknowledge that not all writers/creatives would prefer to do the research needed to pull off certain themes, nuanced character arcs and dynamic, which can leave some viewers wanting more out of a character/show too.

It's fine not to like a hyped drama or a character (happens to me too). But in my opinion, the show is delivering what it promised to deliver initially, and I'm glad it is.

#the judge from hell #park shin hye #kim jae young #judge from hell #justitia #east asian drama #kdrama #kdrama recommendations #to each their own #just thoughts no hate lol

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