#WHY DO WE BUILD THE WALL

[jadetheblueartist]

MY CHILDREN

(That includes you my little oldie Laz man)

These are my little guys who finally got references. They are rottmnt ocs and I am becoming quite fond of them. Lazarus is a spinosaurus yokai, and Yuki is an Indian Star Tortoise yokai.

I am wanting to s q u e e s h them

[would-they-be-good-at-asmr]

Propaganda:

Look up Hey Little Songbird or Why Do We Build The Wall from Hadestown and tell me he wouldn’t be perfect.

[shreddies-scribbles]

this came to me in a dream

[puppppppppy]

i wrote this as a joke because I wanted to strangle a guy watching tiktoks without headphones on the bus, but im genuinely disturbed that we've gotten to a point where convenience comes first. and it depresses me even more that its used to justify and monetize greed

[inamindfarfaraway]

I’ve seen a lot of posts praising the intertwined love stories of Hadestown - their songs, their themes, their acting, their emotional impact - and all of it is absolutely deserved. But can we take a moment to appreciate the weight of "If It's True"?

“If it’s true what they say, what’s the purpose of a man? Just to turn his eyes away?”

“If he turns his back on everyone that he could’ve stood beside?”

“If it’s true what they say, I’ll be on my way.

But who are they to say what the truth is anyway?

‘Cause the ones who tell the lies are the solemnest to swear.

And the ones who load the dice always say the toss is fair.

And the ones who deal the cards are the ones who take the tricks

With their hands over their hearts while we play the game they fix.”

“I believe in us together more than anyone alone.

I believe that with each other, we are stronger than we know.

I believe that we are stronger than they know!

I believe that we are many. I believe that they are few.

And it isn’t for the few to tell the many what is true.”

I was expecting star-crossed lover feelings. I knew there would be an archetypal tragedy that seems both preventable and inevitable. Those elements, I could brace myself for somewhat. But nothing prepared me in the slightest for the CLASS CONFLICT arc, and it gave me chills like Eurydice had in that storm.

[emdotcom]

*remembers what they did to Vanny* 500 FUCKING PIPEBOMB ATTACK.

[thestarsaresapphic]

tbosas stage adaptation when????

[came-out-of-the-coffin-desisted]

writing dragon age fanfiction is so so so so hard for me because every time i spot another historical inaccuracy that’s like “i don’t care that it’s fantasy they have the same level of technology this is WRONG” i have to have a moment of like. “kaed NO ONE ELSE will EVER care about this. you watch ‘ranking period dramas on corset accuracy both in construction and writing’ videos on youtube for entertainment normal people simply do not give a FUCK about medieval castle layouts!”

and yet this cycle continues, because the dragon age devs so so so so clearly DID research but they did BAD research and it HAUNTS me. like WHYYYYY is there only one courtyard that isn’t even really a courtyard in castle cousland WHY is the “main hall” huge with no furniture while the great hall “dining room” is tiny as fuck and in a horrible to access spot WHY are there no ovens in the kitchens where the FUCK do they bake the breaaaad!! like ok fine cool servants get beds in thedas i’ll bite. that fucks hard, actually! but WHY are there more servant rooms than rooms for visiting nobles do you honestly think anybody in the middle ages fucking had servant rooms???? they slept on the FLOOR in the GREAT HALL! and WHY is there a fucking library and a ‘treasury’ (which what the fuck is THAT there should be a DON-JON in there you locked your valuables in the TOWER at the TOP, not in ONE room centrally located on the first floor with TWO guards!!) like i KNOW it was for level design i KNOW it was but oh my fucking g-d it’s gonna KILL ME to write out creeping through corridors when there WERE NO CORRIDORS! like look at this. look at this.

castle cousland: stupid, awful design, honestly they kinda asked to be coup’ed with their garbage unsurvivable castle that supposedly nobody sieges regularly even though it’s literally a death trap. there is ONE main exit, no way to trap your enemies, and only one official guard post that i can see. fuck awful.

harlech castle in wales: it took 115 years for someone to successfully take this castle, and it’s withstood COUNTLESS sieges, you can go visit it right the hell now if you go to wales (not at all getting into the evilness of the english building castles in wales, that’s not the point i’m trying to make.) see how the outside makes it so that even if your enemies breach the walls, to actually reach anyone important they have to survive the volleys of arrows from the ramparts? and then presumably kill everyone ON the ramparts, or the minute you go to open a door or try to drag someone out, you’re going to get shot full of arrows. that’s after breaching TWO heavy doors (which would require a battering ram both times) which would wake up the entire castle LONG before they got anywhere NEAR the heir to the castle’s wife and child.

and before somebody says “oh well kaed maybe you just don’t know your castle building periods very well” think again. i know my castle building periods. that style above is concentric (harlech castle’s initial construction was finished in 1289 and was one of the first finished castles in england in this style,) which came after the keep and bailey style, which came after the motte-and-bailey style, which came after the burh (which arguably WASN’T a castle but whatever,) etc. there are no fortified castles in english history that look like castle cousland, because it’s fucking indefensible. now, this does lead to the question of “oh, well, what is the timeline for the game, maybe there’s something you missed!” so let’s examine the time period of origins:

at the very, very latest, origins could be based off of the BEGINNING of the british “wars of the roses” (the civil wars between the various members of the house plantagenet) which began in the 1450s— this is personally what /i/ think origins is based off of, for a couple reasons. 1) trevelyan was a real person— g.m. trevelyan was a british historian who wrote about the wars of the roses, and in one instance there’s a quote of his the devs almost verbatim used for the design of the free marches: “the Wars of the Roses were to a large extent a quarrel between Welsh Marcher Lords, who were also great English nobles, closely related to the English throne…” they ixnayed the part about the marcher lords being ferelden nobles, i imagine because it was too complicated, but trevelyan? marcher lords? a close relationship with this country? (i.e. like somewhere that might take in their refugees after a catastrophe?) cmon. 2) because ferelden is fucking huge and the histories are kinda weird, because they aren’t 1 for 1, i’m gonna say that we have to use the norman conquest of england as our unification date. in other contexts i wouldn’t try to argue this, but in this one, i’m saying 1066 is the unification date of the anglo-saxon kingdoms into england. calenhad gives us a hard unification date for ferelden— the first landsmeet was in 5:42 exalted, ergo origins is 388 years later. the wars of the roses started in 1455, 389 years after the norman conquest ended. 3) the wars of the roses happened because of a succession crisis— admittedly, these two succession crises are very, very different, but there are definitely parallels between loghain and henry vi and alistair and edward iv. henry vi was crowned at a young age (loghain largely ruled for maric at various points in his life, starting when he was very young,) and was very ineffectual— he suffered from an unknown mental illness which made him extremely unstable and unable to rule for large periods of time. loghain, on the other hand, ruled when the /theirins/ weren’t stable, so you argue he had the opposite— meanwhile, his policies WEREN’T sustainable, whatever you might think of him. loghain is too shaped by his own experiences to be a truly good leader, and by the time his rule/anora’s rule is threatened by cailan, he’s sacrificed enough of his principles that he’s willing to commit atrocities (notably, margaret of anjou ruled during the worst parts of her husband’s mental instability, which again could apply to loghain OR anora, as they ruled fairly jointly after a certain point.) edward iv was the son of richard of york, who was eligible for the throne at a very young age (18 to alistair’s 19) because his father was dead. he was coaxed and led into battle by his cousin, the earl of warwick (also known as the kingmaker— sound like a protagonist you might know?) that’s about where the similarities end, but that’s largely because alistair is a grey warden— if he weren’t, he’d probably be able to have kids and end the question of succession. but he can’t, which, assuming the devs eventually remember, WILL lead to another civil war. hence why i say this is at the BEGINNING of the wars of the roses.

another option that could be argued but makes much less sense and i have no evidence for is that alistair has similarities to edward ii (second son who only became king because his brother died, married a more powerful woman to consolidate power, not very good at ruling, no offense to alistair,) but that still puts origins at like 1307-1327. in either case, they would have been using concentric castles— and given what time period castle cousland was originally built in, it would have been built as a motte-and-bailey, which would NOT have lasted four hundred years. so the castle had to have been rebuilt, and bryce cousland would have had to update that rebuilt castle, because no one lived in it during the orlesian occupation. so where the hell does this winding, weird multi-level design come from?

i GUESS— and this is SO charitable— they could have designed castle cousland based off of a country house design from the mid 1500s, but none of them look like that, either. they’re exclusively rectangular, for one thing, and one of the huge bragging rights of owning one was that they weren’t fortified— they came into fashion during a period of relative stability under the tudor rule, when it was considered guache and maybe even treasonous to build a fortified castle. ferelden is NOWHERE NEAR a period of stability, if anything at the end of origins they’re entering their greatest period of INstability, given what happens in inquisition, and that no matter who ends up on the throne, there’s no way for them to have children. so there’s NO way this castle is a country house, or inspired by one.

leaving us with the final conclusion that a) the game devs definitely did do research into the time period because i can fairly directly trace a line between the event i think inspired origins and the plot, but they didn’t do enough research to figure out what the everloving fuck the BUILDINGS looked like. so these castles make no fucking sense and can’t possibly be called historically accurate even with the fantasy defense, and b) i care WAAAY too much about this for somebody who isn’t even a medieval historian. my area of expertise is the paleolithic, i have no clue why this bugs me so bad i spent four fucking hours writing this post.

[kruxton]

aphantasia not letting me dream at night most of the time but the only two dreams i remember having in all of my life were the scariest shit ever

[pepprs]

idk how to reconcile my new self with my old self. also i fucking hate waiting. GRAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[smiletimeisrunningout]

I'm rewatching new girl and I had forgotten how much I shipped Jess and Schmidt of all things in s1 and at least first half of s2 (I don't remember when/if I stopped, but he's so HUMAN and genuine when interacting with her, especially when Jess vents over things, and Jess is always extra sweet with him?)

[todayisafridaynight]

You're most welcome! I love snooping around maps and seeing stuff others capture from freecam mods myself, so again, I'm happy to be able to share. I really want to have WAY more detailed location pages on the wiki eventually, but this'll have to do for now. Also, I would love to see your layouts and I'm sure others would as well!

I don't think it's actually his apartment, though, he just went HARD in terms of personalizing his space. According to Yokoyama, he does also live in (well, "is the type to" live in) Minato--Roppongi specifically--and Mine mentions having gym equipment at home too, but I don't think it's the same place because the spaces are all work or recreation without any of the necessities, and there aren't any more doors. But if anything, it's pretty safe to say his home probably has the same vibe as his office, and I think that still fits for a "workaholic."

I thiiiiink Mine's old company was an IT startup, but he's got his fingers in a lot of pies, for sure. There's a cell phone software company that's a front for the Hakuho Clan, and I would guess he probably still has shares in Every Taxi Company in Kamurocho. Fitness is very much a thing he holds in high importance and is extremely picky about ("not being in the mood" to work out if he doesn't have his specific brand of protein and cancelling a proper gym membership because he "has better equipment at home"), so if he has the money, why not right lmao

I have seen the uncorrupted piano room and you're right that there's literally nothing else there other than the piano lol; in terms of the missing furnishings I was referring to, it's just some decor, mainly. He certainly could use an actual bench, but there isn't one in the "fixed" model either... fair enough though, since only the piano is "needed" for that shot.

About the doors behind the piano, those actually open out to the hallway outside the office. So you can enter either through the main entrance or the piano room. It is consistent with the game since Katase comes into the gym through the piano room, I guess, but it is kind of weird.

It'd definitely be nice to see more detailed entries for places (though I guess I speak from the minor perspective of artists compared to the general RGG fanbase, so it'd be understandable if it's not a paramount priority)! On that note though, maybe one day I'll dump them to the public. They're pretty old and messy: they have just enough info to get me by but might be indecipherable to. Everyone else LMAO BUT maybe I'll drop it after a revision (I also want to make sure everything's accurate if we're looking at the WHOLE room instead of just bits and pieces of it in the background of comics I make)

I figured it wasn't his personal apartment and was more strictly an office space (definitely a very personal one on that note). With that in mind, I'm forced to wonder what Mine's actual personal space looks like (but I'll let sleeping dogs lie: it's not something we'll ever get concrete info on, so I won't drive myself crazy trying to speculate on it when I have next to nothing to go off of for a layout)

ON THAT NOTE THOUGH the doors behind the piano leading to a hallway is comedically obvious in review. I should jump off a bridge for thinking otherwise 😩

[istherewifiinhell]

some of the best turtles ive ever seen, says guy who said that last time it saw some turtles

[Mirage 14 Eastman, Eric Talbot, Steve Lavinge]

[ID from alt: 1. Eastman Talbot turtles have stream line shapes, and inked with their skin as mid tone by default, except under the chin. Panel of turtles in repose, one, wearing a mask, lounging in the foreground of the scene, the other three sitting at a table, sans mask and heads on chins or arms. Caption box: That morning. Table turtle 1: Where the heck can Casey be--? He was out all night. Turtle 2: Yeah. It's pretty crummy outside, too!"

2. Turtles in a flat bed truck, two in the cabin, two in the bed. The one in the passenger seat grabs the dash and is looking judgmentally at the driver. Who looks irrate and says "Okay, okay, geez--! I watch TV too, ya know!" His eye level barely clears the steering wheel. The two in the back have their beaks and hands pressed against the rear window. END ID]

HIS ASS.... probably should not be driving....

also me when i summon my squad of beloved menaces

[ID from alt: April tied to a chair held hostage by 3 men. She looks relaxed, smiling as she says "See, I told you!". Behind her is the chaos of the turtles break into the building, Leo lifting up a garage door with a "GAH!", Don swooping under it, bo in hand yelling "Grrahh!". Either side Mikey and Raph, one smashing through a window, the other kicking a "door down with a "HAI!" END ID]

[sunnywalnut]

No but I'm still looking for the Denny's that is still in the middle of nowhere

having cis guy friends is so funny like youll ask if they wanna hang out and theyll send you to the dark woods

[nexus-nebulae]

hmmm i want railings on my bed like a hospital bed but most Bed Railings they sell have to be placed under the mattress to stay in place and i have an adjustable base that means my mattress gets folded frequently and cannot keep the rail in place

[trainsinanime]

I wonder: Do Americans know about american school buses? Not their existence in general, but how they're seen overseas.

Over here, they're one of the symbols of America, on par with the Statue of Liberty, the flag, the Eagle, and well ahead of any chain restaurant you can name. People won't know any US states, but they will know these vehicles.

The thing is, here in Germany, we don't have dedicated school buses. The general idea is that kids go to school on their own. When that's not practical, they're expected to use (and given free tickets for) public transit. Public transit is designed around this requirement; there are many places where there is a bus, and anyone can get on it, but the route and timetable really only makes sense for school children. In case a dedicated school bus is really needed, that's generally subcontracted out, and the lines either use something like a Sprinter Van for smaller routes, or a normal city or interurban bus (often a used one that's a bit older). School trips are normal public transit, or a rented bus, typically a coach or regional bus.

It's not a perfect system, in the past couple of years there's been an epidemic of people bringing their kids to school in their cars instead of letting them walk, which is less than ideal. It is what it is. But building a dedicated network of public transit lines only for students, and building dedicated vehicles only for that, has never occurred to anyone here.

Of course we know about these buses, from movies and such, but they're as foreign here as cacti or pick-up trucks (actually we're seeing more and more of these here) or yellow cabs (all europeans will assume all cabs in the US are yellow until they actually visit).

You do see these buses here at times, because people still generally like the idea of the US, even if they have a lot of issues with a lot of details, and so folks bring them over, along with stretch limos and stuff (also not really a thing here). And of course, if someone goes to all that trouble, they don't do it to haul school kids, they rent it out for city tours or as a party bus or whatever.

So you see these yellow things as a symbol of faraway places, scenic vistas, some vague undefined idea of freedom that doesn't necessarily hold up to any contact with reality, and it's just a huge part of the whole US aesthetic.

And then you go to a student exchange with the US, and you finally get the chance: You yourself get to ride in one of these iconic chrome yellow buses! It looks just like in the movies! You get in, you drive in them a little…

…and you realise they're shit. Just the worst buses in the western world. Terrible suspension. Uncomfortable seats with weirdly high backs (so they don't have to put seatbelts in, they just restrict how far kids can fly in an accident). Everything made out of the cheapest materials. Turns out the reason why the US uses school buses like that instead of normal modern city buses, which the US has, is to save money and because they just hate kids.

And then it hits you why US Americans say "as American as apple pie", a dish that is made and enjoyed literally anywhere in the world, instead of "as American as yellow school buses". Of course the Americans already knew all this. They got tortured by these things forever. It would never occur to them to see this as a symbol of America, it's just a normal part of life for them. It's a symbol of school and school life and sometimes normalcy, and tells us that these actors getting out of it are supposed to be teenagers, nothing more.

But most people in Europe have, of course, never ridden on these buses. So when they see them in movies and TV, that's a giant big yellow signifier that we're not in Hessen or Wallonia or wherever anymore. A symbol of a different world, one that may be at most a once-in-a-lifetime-experience for most people, just like a picture of a tropical beach, Mayan Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, or Hildesheim (there's no reason to go there twice). And I think Americans don't know that, and that's fascinating.