#and the impact it has on Yang's character? the way ppl will be like *you dont understand ruby is just a constant BURDEN to yang* i just-

[gravitywhatgravity]

I'm tired of ruby's breakdown being an excuse to just. ignore her entire character before this? looking for hints and foreshadowing OR intentionally reading her character in a new way is cool, but theres such a lack of self awareness in entirely reinventing her character

saying "see! she's always been angry and sad and toxic!!" and then pulling previous lines and moments out of context is just as frustrating as saying her breakdown was OOC or too "ugly"

ruby rose is a shockingly complex character!! she can be a good leader and a good friend and a good sister and a positive person AND be angry and hurt and inherently tragic and depressed!! ruby getting to be more than one thing is what makes this exploration of her character so interesting!!

[drumlincountry]

3 & 17 for the book asks?

Hiiiiii gem I hope you're keeping well!!! 💞💞💞

3. What were your top five books of the year?

Coming in with the big guns, huh!!!

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. I'm including all 5 novellas and the 1 full length novel in this because i can't be dealing with fractions and it would eat all the other spaces on the list. 10/10 worldbuilding, 10/10 bastardous snarky and goodhearted main character, 10/10 side characters all described in minimal detail because the mc doesn't care for details.

Superman Smashes the Klan – Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru (2020) It's a comic book but it made me CRY twice! once for in-text reasons, one for the included essays by the creators of the comic about what inspired them to tell the story. It does exactly what it says on the tin.10/10 also.

Make Bosses Pay: Why We Need Unions – Eve Livingston (2021) nonfiction. it was so ENERGISING. A short read, about modern union orgnising, v relevant for ppl living in Ireland and the UK.

The Blue Castle – L M Montgomery (1926) I've read this book at least 5 times now and I love it every time. it's just about a 1920s woman going apeshit and deciding to live life on her own terms, because she's 29 so why not!

Night Watch – Terry Pratchett. Another reread. I read like 1 terry pratchett book a day for about a week in may. This one is always the most impactful. My notes from the time: "Oh, fascinating, particularly when taken along with the actual revolution and civil war things I’m imbibing – like It Could Happen Here, and Women’s war, two podcasts by Cool Zone Media. The idealist in me can’t help – being an idealist. But yeah this. Fucks. Also: love young vetinari and his aunt."

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

There is No Antimemetics Division – Qntm (2020). This is a self-published book which was initially published as a series of interconnected SCP short stories. I won't claim it's like, an amazingly well written book. But it is REALLY REALLY GOOD for what it is.

It has cool fun scifi horror, really nailbiting stuff, despite its predictability. You know, all the delicious features of pulp. But ALSO . antimemes is fascinating - the idea of self-containing knowledge. Things that people avoid thinking about or struggle to understand. Like, antimemes exist. Dense texts, taboo subjects etc. and this story is like. what if a horror monster was antimemetic in that way? What if, when you look away, you can't remember that it's there?

And then at the end of the story, (disclaimer, this might be me reading entirely too much into the text) they knock it out of the park with a fascism metaphor! The brutality at the heart of fascism is the antimeme, the dark heart people avoid looking at it. really satisfying conclusion as well.

[faunusrights]

Hey so... How do you like... Find character voices, tones and speech patterns or mannerism for your characters? Especially with so any variations on the same cast members? I really admire it, and am having trouble doing it for a story I've had outlined and a cast I've had set for years, but now the writing time cometh and I cannot for the life of me put dialogue to any of this.

WOOF this is a Big Ol Question but i will do my best to explain how i work 😞🤙 the art of dialogue is a careful one and entirely too much practice BUT we will push on

as such, stickin this under a cut

so i’m opening up with a quick flex on y’all: my dialogue is the one of very few things that was always very Good abt my writing (to the point that in uni it was one of those things ppl never even bothered commenting on cause they were like ‘idk i cant make it better lmao’) SO ive been doing dialogue for YONKS and at this point i dont rly have to Think abt it so much as just. do it. lmao

but one of the reasons i got Good was because an a monotone autistic kid i spent a lot of my early years like... listening to how ppl spoke and mimicking it because yall i used to talk At The Same Speed In The Same Tone At One Hell Of A Lick for years and tryna sound normal took me just shutting tf up and having a good listen to how other people spoke, which is my first tip: listen to people!! sit in a discord chatroom!! listen to convos in a coffee bar!! be nosy and listen in on convos!! humans r VERY GOOD at talking and we love 2 do it and theres so many types of dialogue to listen out for that will help u get better!

the other tip is thinking a lot abt personality and how that shines thru; every person i write is a very different person to the character next to them, and how they are effects how they verbalise shit; let’s take, for instance, yang and weiss, yeah?

YANG comes from a backwater island off the coast of vale; it’s a rural, outdoorsy farming community that’s very tight-knit and quite remote, which means a few things for yang’s speech patterns. ONE is that she talks in a dialect native to patch, which is a more drawl-y (yet surprisingly staccato) version of vale’s accent. it’s also SLATHERED in local slang and terms that any valian will be thoroughly unfamiliar with. we’re thinking of a mix of rural southern america and also somehow californian/australian surfer dude stereotypes??? it’s a WILD mix.

WEISS comes from the very high-class, very technologically-advanced and Strict society of atlas, which has scandinavian/germanic origins! her speech is very measured and very articulate, given the high standard of education she’s been subjected to, and her atlesian accent (again, very german-esque) can be suppressed very well in the right crowd to better fit in (tho it shows when she gets Angery). she rarely uses slang, she’s speaks very clearly, and it’s all very... prescriptive, yeah?

so yang and weiss have literally two OPPOSITE ways of speaking, built in entirely different communities for very different NEEDS and personalities. of course they dont sound like each other; it’s not just a change of location, but a change of person. even if weiss had lived on patch and yang in atlas, what you could guarantee is that weiss could still be a stickler for grammar and yang would still learn all the slang that’s used in atlas/mantle/solitas, right?

this same process can be done for any character; ruby’s manic and talks REALLYREALLYREALLY QUICKLY CAUSE SHE HAS SO MUCH TO SAY AND IF YOU STOP HER SHE’LL FORGET WHAT SHE WAS SAYING AND THEN SHE WON’T REMEMBER AND IT’LL BUG HER ALL DAY SO PLEASE LET HER JUST JUST THIS ONE REALLYREALLYREALLY LONG THOUGHT OUT FIRST PLEASE HANG ON JUST A MOMENT--

but blake is very sort of. laid back and chilled and brooding and considering revolution so for them, they speak less often, and usually in much more succinct thoughts: we’ll see a lot of one-word answers, a lot of bluntness. of course, this backfires when theyre trying to be genuine because sometimes it gets in the way! of course, compared to, say, tribelands blake, who is chieftain and is REQUIRED to be more articulate, we see a blake who is still calm and collected and therefore they speak rarely with error. all very thoughtful, a lot more like weiss.

of course, thats not even going into how they TEXT as seen in frapp logs (since how someone speaks and how someone TEXTS is like, two diff ways for speaking) which is a whole other kettle of fish that’s still impacted by a BUNCH of other factors!

dialogue, when boiled down, is basically just an extension of a character’s personality -- and it’s an IMPORTANT aspect of their personality, because speaking is how we impart a lot of our ideas and thoughts into a space that other people can, uh, interpret! a character is, ultimately, a bunch of concepts that form a person, and when they speak is when those concepts are on show for everyone to see! so WHAT those ideas are and HOW they envision those ideas informs the way their dialogue will function. are they like ruby, who thinks twice as quickly as she can get the ideas out of her mouth? are they like blake, who likes to mull things over before jumping to conclusions (unlike theyre impassioned, of course)? are they like weiss, who had her way of speaking beaten into shape by academia? or are they like yang, who speaks in a way that best allows her to connect with her community and her people? these are all distinct people and ideas!

a good way to test if theyre distinct in your writing is to write down a transcript w/o any tags or names, and see if people can tell you how many characters are in that conversation. the most distinct their voice (even if they use similar words or one another), the better chance you have at having characters with distinct speaking methods. consider every word! consider every phrase! everybody approaches speaking differently!

[jauneda1]

You know I was sitting around drinking and smoking with the boys and one of them brought up this question. If you could change any character in RWBY how would you and what ship would you love to see for that character so here's what I said. P.S I went last btw.

Me personally I've always wanted to see Jaune with a buster sword like the one cloud uses in FF7. Now I know ppl would say that's just not something that would happen or that's just stupid. But imagine back during vol 4 when Jaune used Pyrra's armour and weapon to add to his own he could of put the sword into his shield's sheath permanently and used like 60% of his partners gear to make a sword big enough to half Jaune's height.

Then the rest of it would go towards a full arm gauntlet from shoulder to finger tip. The gauntlet would be Jaune's secondary defense. While the sword being a buster sword now would be his primary. His fighting style would be that of Cloud Strife fast attacks and faster movements but it wouldn't be instantaneous. This change would be around the vol 4 time where Jaune is trying to get stronger so that he can kill Cinder. I say kill is because I've always seen Jaune as like a family man or very protective of his team. So Pyrra's death would change him make him colder and grittier. Jaune's semblance btw would change as well. But his aura would magnified by 100%. This means Jaune's aura would be higher then anyone of his friends. He would unlock it when fighting the Nucklavee. He would hold it back with the buster sword and a surge of white energy would involve him where he would overcome the strength of the grim and rose it to the side. This semblance would be called Retribution. Jaune could boost his strength, speed, agility, and endurance by 100% if he takes enough damage to drop his aura into the teens. Before anyone says that's Over powered let me clarify this would mean Jaune's stamina is impacted heavily by this. Make him extremely tired and fatigued so long battles would not be his strong suit. He would be forced to use his aura in burst to keep him from tiring out. Or he could use it to either boost one final attack that would be strong enough to bring heavy hitters like Hazel and a megolieth to there knees. Of course by vol 8 Jaune would have trained his stamina enough to where he can control and hold Retribution as form for several minutes. Then by the end of the show hold it permanently until it kills him. So his semblance would slowly kill him if he used it for too long because he would be forcing his body to be work at a 100% for the entire battle. Think of it like Might Guy's 8th gate of death just not as bad ass.

This change would make a lot of sense for the mere fact that Jaune would be out for blood and wouldn't care about how he fought or strategized he would see himself unfit to lead and would leave it to Ruby. He at some point need that cold heart of his to be warmed up again and literally anyone from team Rwby except for Blake could do. Ruby could be the first and most likely one because this would mean she and Jaune would be mourning and getting over Pyrras death together, Ruby feeling responsible for not saving her. While Jaune would feel he was to weak to have been there for her. This could be a Lancaster ship that would have heavy development between the two because they would use each other as an outlet.

Now Yang would be number two because Blake her partner left and no one expected her to come back the two would have bonded over that and would have realized that they both had emotional breaks after losing their partners. Jaune and Yang would both share moments of blushing while vibing around each other and Yang would have a sense of want for the knight turned vanguard. Why you ask because Yang is perceptive she would automatically see and understand why Jaune change so drastically she would want to pull him from the mire he is slowly sinking in. That big sister trait would kick in but it would become love after vol 5 like end vol 6. After Jaune finds out about Ozpin's secret. As Jaune would go to grab Oscar it would be more violent as he would lift the farm boy by the neck. Yang would instantly defuse the situation by grabbing onto Jaune and talking him down this would be where the two go off together and she tries to talk him down and keep him from losing his will. Jaune would leave alone and end up at Pyrra's memorial and her mother. Where he would have a new purpose and that would be to save everyone he cared about if that means leaving right then and there to get stronger and stop Salem himself or going back to Yang and making her his first priority.

That's the Dragonslayer side but white knight is completely different it would be one of regret Weiss would feel like if she had given Jaune a chance then he wouldn't of developed feelings for Pyrra and he wouldn't be this hurt and changed now. He would turn into this monster out for blood so to speak with all three of these ships the scene where Yang and Weiss regroupe with the team. Would be drastically different because that lovable knight would be a brooding vanguard who wouldn't talk much and would get up and walk away from the group after saying his part. Like maybe Nora bringing up how he might be the strongest there because of his semblance making him this unbridled ball of aura. Say something like, " If only I was this strong back then" He would realize that even though he tried to be normal he just couldn't because he is damaged beyond repair. This version of Jaune though would have to of seen Pyrra die. As he walks off to try not make the situation any worse Weiss would uncharacteristically give a little chase like put her hand up to reach out to him. But she realize it puts her hand down but Nora and Yang would notice and they would push her to talk to him more. Then Jaune would of course think she's just trying to console him and hold him back which he would try pushing her away only realizing that he might need someone to hold him down or use as an outlet. Weiss would feel responsible and would allow him to use her. If the show was more adult oriented then you would understand when I say used as an outlet for the Lancaster and White knight ships. Just that Jaune would automatically see Ruby as a person and would come to love her faster then Weiss. Jaune would only remember that Weiss being mean to him and wouldn't realize it at first, but would see that she is letting him do this because she truly wants him to be better and be there with him. If people say that's a little dark for his character then you aren't paying attention to how this version of Jaune is described he is going to be darker and in a sense human. He is going to be human. He would use her physical comfort to keep him afloat only after she gets wounded by Cinder would he realizes he has always loved her and that in more ways then one he was hurting her. Weiss would say something while on deaths doorstep like " Jaune it's okay... as long as you stop this revenge shit, or Jaune I'm sorry about before and that I truly love you. Or something really emotional then Jaune wouldn't want her to die he would use what's left of his semblance to heal and empower her. Now that is how I would change Jaune as a character. I know most would find this unlike or unpopular opinion but I don't care. Feel free to ask me anything if you have any questions about the ships or the semblance or how I'v described Vanguard Jaune, I'm copy writing that btw no one can use Vanguard.

[legislacerator]

the gay homestuck tarot discourse you've all been waiting for

i appreciate the vision here, and a lot of these ideas are good, but i think when using a story like homestuck – whose primary characters are women – it’s important to have the art on the cards fall more heavily on the side of female characters and their stories. i personally was extremely fond of the art and character/story choice for “the tower” in the original deck (which was an illustration of vriska'a death) and was disappointed to see that what was probably my favorite card in the original deck was changed to….. some dude. i like dirk, but that was seriously my favorite card in the damn deck, and one of the most fitting.

the issue most ppl have – more than anything (including my minor beef with the choice for the tower) – is that on top of leaning more towards depictions of dude characters (although this is only the major arcana, and there’s so MUCH in homestuck you could create a tarot deck entirely comprised of female characters) – dirk and jake were chosen as “the lovers” over, say, any of the much more prevalent f/f couples. in the original tarot deck “the lovers” was a card depiction Mom and Dad, so i do find dirk and jake a lot better…. but in the wake of act 6 ending and the story having gone on for thousands more words since the release of the original deck, i think a pairing more relevant to the story & feeling of homestuck would be immensely better – and @smuppetsona was not wrong in positing that there are more viable candidates beyond dirkjake.

i don’t claim to be an expert on tarot – tarot is incredibly complex as well as incredibly vague. it’s like astrology – it can provoke anything from a mild, bemused chuckle to absolute reverence depending on the person, the reader, the deck, and the circumstances. the tarot is vague by nature – which is a part of what makes it such a powerful tool used by those who read the cards. if a card is too specific, it leaves little story to be told. it can’t work cohesively with the other cards when reading. there’s no right or wrong way to interpret the varied and often vague stories that the cards tell. THAT ALL BEING SAID – i’m very familiar with both the major and minor arcana. i don’t know how much i do or don’t believe in tarot readings, but i’m very familiar with the base meanings of the cards, as well as the iconography depicted in each.

for me, the tarot art i appreciate the most borrows from centuries-old depictions of the classic art/iconography of the cards. i think any given card can be illustrated beautifully without following/borrowing from said imagery, but i think that it helps me appreciate the cards & artwork more. i enjoy seeing old tarot art – the poses, the iconography, the ancient depiction of the vague, complex meaning of the card – repurposed into something different and something fresh. my favorite cards in the original homestuck deck deliberately echoed classical tarot art and symbolism to breathe new meaning into each card.

because of that – and bc of my own familiarity w tarot cards – i think that when drawing art and deciding characters for tarot cards iconography and classical imagery is important. with that being said, the best choice for the lovers (to me) is rose and kanaya.

most classic tarot art depicts adam and eve on the card “the lovers”. the lovers – because it depicts both a man and a woman + their unity – has been said to represent yin/yang and darkness/light, but ultimately depicts pure love. adam and eve as a concept are biblical figures tied to both strife and love, but also procreation.

the card can be drawn for readings involving relationships or readings that are unrelated whatsoever. the lovers is essentially a card of happiness – even if it is temporary, which many tarot readers do indeed read into the card – and the lovers reversed has meaning whether the subject is in a relationship or not (being at war with one’s self, fighting inner demons, getting in the way of yourself and your own happiness)

the figures & art depicted on the card don’t inherently have to tell both sides of the cards story, in my opinion, as again – the tarot art is historically vague/layered/open to interpretation – but rose and kanaya actually DO represent both of those things far more than dirk and jake do.

they are, like adam and eve: creatures of light to be depicted under a sun (daywalker + light player) and a depiction of a blessed, wholesome union (they are literally married) to bring forth procreation

AND

they are seen in canon having extreme conflict in the GO!timeline that was due to self-doubt, self-loathing, pain, and the inability for either parties to communicate well and carry on their relationship, instead falling prey to their own demons.

rose and kanaya are, artistically, the perfect choice. i can understand that maybe the act 6 tarot project artists or other people arguing w @smuppetsona thinking that they may not know enough about tarot cards/their meanings to criticize them for this, but i know enough about tarot cards & readings to know that 1) there’s really no right or wrong way to breathe meaning into tarot cards and 2) there’s really no right or wrong way to interpret them

so once again, as always, this boils down to valuing mediocre irrelevant m/m ships over extremely significant and impacting f/f ships –who literally carried the story – and continually choosing them first to be depicted in fan works nonetheless. thanks for reading folks!

[fall2017ugc111]

China Notes

- Source of political power and authority? How shall we live? - Why these 2 questions? Coz we are entering a period called axial age where central and foundation thinkers (excluding Judaism) comes from. Many major thinkers are confined within this 200 years, asking the same question and answering them in very similar ways. - Shang dynasty: - End about 200 years before Greek ends their dark age. - Also, first recorded dynasty. - Feudal society -> hierarchical, peasants ruled by nobles, nobles governed by overlords and overlords governed by king. - Bronze vessels given by king as a transfer of power. - Vessels used for offerings and ancestors are intermediaries between the high god and people. - Appealing to ancestors help garner favour from the high god allowing for peace and success of people. - Divination techniques: oracle bones: - Asking about really pragmatic questions -> carved on the bones. - Question is written on bone of animals, bones then superheated till it cracks then experts come in and see what your ancestors have to say. - Their power and authority to rule comes from their religion and ablity to communicate to their ancestors. - Zhou -> bronze vessels still used. - Took over Shang through conquest and justify it by similarly to others. - Claimed that this happened due to moral failures of last kings and getting favours from 2 Gods: both their gods and the other side’s god. - Also known as mandate of haven. - You can only get the favour of high gods BECAUSE of your great moral character. - Last period of Zhou dynasty was chaos and known as the warring state. - Zhou was not over thrown and remained the rulers in name only. - Other states were constantly at war with each other for about 500 years. - How to live in these conditions? - Confucius: came from a poor but respected family. - Learnt about past kings when educated leading to orientation. - Believes society has lost it’s path but this can be changed for the better – very optimistic for a person living under warring conditions. 

- Concept of “Ren” (internal). 

- An abstract concept that works together with Li (external). - Connect to virtue and children. - Seems like a moral compass to guide people’s lives. - Human are good -> as in we have the capacity of goodness that we are born with. - The more you act well, the more your Ren grows. - Propriety: is the core of government. Do what you want your ppl to do. - Follow it and everything will fall into place on its own. - The noble man will always triumph in life. - God behaviour need not lead to wealth and prosperity. - He untangles “nobility” from “status” -> to be noble, you just need to be virtuous. No need to be a king to do good deeds. - If individuals can act on their Ren, the world will change -> ppl can affect social changes just by living well. - If kings do this, impact will be greater but even normal ppl can do it. - *** - Ren and Li -> works together, aim is to be a noble man/ exemplary person. - Imperial China: - Strong pattern in history -> the more society is in chaos, there is more philosophical answers and movements. - Warring states was so chaotic -> it led to hundred schools of thought. - *** - Daoism: - Not sure who is the author of the text. - Written about the same times as Confucius -> about 6th Century, 500 BCE. - Tao = path to live life/ way to live. - Difficult to get proper translation. - Text is unsystematic in core, more on guidelines, mystery and feelings. - Social ideals -> similar to Confucius, believed in going back to past principles. - But definition of “past” is different -> believed urbanization was bad from the start. - Best to look into nature and have small agricultural communities. - Intuition over social order. - Do their best to pretend social status does not matter. - Certainty and knowledge are similar to illusions and cannot be completely achieved. - Comfortable to intuition and mystery coz believe in the unity of everything. - Chaos came from categorizing and differentiating things. Eg. Man vs Nature, Teacher vs Students, etc. - Can be for hierarchy -> separation from unity of Tao. - Concept of non-interference (or not action or not doing) -> avoid messing with the natural order and try to be like water. - Basic idea: act in a way that don’t impose des or control over other ppl or things. - Daoist -> simultaneously idealistic and practical. - Key themes: Knowledge and wisdom, non-interference, desire, the master (who is it? Role? Teaching strategies?), ambition, wealth and power, morality and right behaviour, withdrawal and engagement, role of paradoxes/ opposites. - *** - Opposite ideas can be complementary or contrasting -> similar to Yin and Yang. - Definitions give rise to contrast or contrast gives rise to definitions. - Tao -> intangible essence of life that cannot be explained else the essence is lost. - Idea of balance, original is 4 words each -> there is a rhythm. - Chinese -> need for harmony and balance, even in name pronunciations. - Non-interference =/= balance. - Dao -> wants to look at recognition btw things. No difference btw things, everything is in unity. - Vs. belief in balance. - We label things which results in our desire for them. - Don’t want harmony or balance, wants recognition that we have human constructs/ categories for things and ppl. - Idea is similar to living like a plant -> not doing anything. - Keep trying to do things and you will never get there -> somethings are just out of our control. - Do our work but step back -> be okay with human, good enough. No need for perfection. - If powerful ppl live like that, war would cease and ppl can live naturally. - Openness to potential. - Ethical behaviour can transform society -> similarities in Daoism and Confucius. - But these ideas did not unify China -> it was Legalism that unified China. - Qin dynasty took up legalism. - Self-interest is not over turned by changing mindsets, it is rid of by strict laws and punishments. - There is collective responsibility -> leads to ppl spying on each other and reporting each other. - Legalism -> more of control and conformity. - Don’t care about making ppl good and/or morality. - Legalism created strong incentives to not go against the government. BUT must have strong rulers to be in charge. - Two farmers caught in rain -> would be late and punished but decided to go home and start a revolt. - Confucianism worked well after unification.