#and then extrapolating across other shit

[nyxi-pixie]

loveee when fantasy uses magic as a metaphor for some kind of modern military weapon. tell me more about how the foot soldiers are nothing once dragons come into play, once the elements do, once pure unfiltered harm made by one persons hands does. youre too small for this. seasoned soldiers but you dont know what youre doing. you were raised on swords on axes on cold hard steel. this has none of that predictability. it doesnt matter what side youre on, the damage will be too wide, too unspecified, and the people using it dont give a fuck about you. they only care about winning. theyll send you to fight for them and wipe out half of your force in their efforts to decimate your enemies. and amongst all this damage, all this ruin, brought on you by the people who decided to go to war in the first place, you begin to wonder for the first time in your military career, why.

[lovemyromance]

Here's the thing: if people try to discredit every Elriel moment with their own warped and twisted explanations and "interpretations" and extrapolations, at some point, they're all going to start contradicting each other at some point

They were founded on shitty, desperate, reaches, and so they will contradict each other because you have 40000 diff EL/GAs brainstorming how to make Azriel saving Elain not romantic or how to make Elain breathing yes to kiss Azriel not romantic or significant -

And they all have a different take that has one common goal: under any circumstances, find a way to discredit the Elriel moment. Whether they have to claim the scene is "platonic" or "just lust" or "silly girl Elain" or "we don't have XYZ POV" , doesn't matter. That's why there's so many conflicting "interpretations".

And the thing is - they cannot all be true. Only ONE interpretation can be correct - and it's the one that matches the author.

Now hear me out - there are 60 diff "interpretations" ELs have of the bonus chapter. They all believe something slightly different.

That's why we see ELs/GAs spouting stuff like

"Elain hates violence and would be disgusted by Azriel's job" but also "Lucien slaughtered his way to Elain and that was very romantic and she loved seeing her mate like that"

"Elain is avoiding Lucien because she feels so strongly and horny for him" but also "Elain and Lucien will be slow burn reluctant mates enemies to lovers"

"Lucien fixed Elian's depressive state by telling them to get her sunlight" but also "Lucien fixed Elain by trusting her vision to go after Vassa"

"Elain & Azriel have a siblings relationship" but also "Azriel only lusts after Elain"

There are so many different "interpretations" because none of this shit exists in the actual book.

But Elriels?? Nah babes, we have ONE narrative. One way of "interpretation" of all these moments. How is it that ALL of us agree on the way these scenes come across? How is it that we all came to the same conclusion?

Could it be ... because it's literally fucking written black and white in the text? So we don't need to add our own interpretation??

The only thing Elriels differ on is FUTURE theories, and even there, there's a lot of alignment and agreement. Ask any Elriel out there about things that have already occurred in the books, however, and we all will give you the exact same rundown of events.

Because there's no interpretation involved or needed when Elriel moments are printed in the actual books.

[funktobacillus]

OK so being once more premature about sporch as per usual, given i am going off but a mere handful of interactions at this point and therefore dipping into the realm of extrapolation and tea leaves. but with that crucial framing established, my current impression of the vibes:

peter at johnny

he likes bothering him and showing him up, in a way that is obviously antagonistic but also intended with a degree of playfulness that maybe doesn't come across as much as he thinks?

like, a clear part of the thrill and power rush of the spidey persona is the gratification in getting to be a filterless Pest. imagine. you're a picked on, put upon dweeb getting shit from All directions, but also now you get to mouth off to literally anyone you want, to either pay back every infraction against you or to at least Earn the unavoidable disdain this time by deliberately provoking it. (and also you're a teenager.)

and that's a delightful charm point: the utterly UNmagnanimous attitude (though not behavior, usually, because he's still a Good Hero Boy). that his immediate reaction to perceived slights is to go "ok :) fuck you forever :)" refreshing! (<- me probably reenacting the original reaction to spidey's debut)

(i love him)

anyway, the relevance of his grudge-nursing here is in the one he seems to still be nursing in johnny and the FF's general direction for "rejecting" each of his respective overtures to them. and again, he's a Good Hero Boy, so i don't think he fully, actually holds it against them (especially in the context of Hypothetical Necessary Superhero Teamups), but there is that lingering pettiness of "well, we could have been friendly, but they weren't, so fuck 'em, i'm not making this easy!"

but that's something too. that he wanted it to be friendly. he wanted allies. he wanted one single person who wouldn't mistrust him, or disparage him, or underestimate him. and did he get that? no. he got the FF being So Meanies by saying stuff like "why did you break into our house" and "we are functionally a non-profit organization" and johnny being So Meanies by saying stuff like "why are you breaking into my house" and OK some stuff that was genuinely Meanies but also it's not like johnny had the context to actually know about spider-man's good intentions.

and that's another thing. peter has definitely had more opportunities to see johnny's good side than vice versa. what with the whole Beloved Celebrity vs. Controversial Mysterious Rando thing, but also because ouch, i just realized ASM #3 was before strange tales annual #2. which means peter was going into a hopeful teamup with the guy who inspired him to keep being spider-man and instead was met with "fucka you, you showoff jerk and probably criminal!" yow! the sting!

it's also worth noting that at this point peter kind of does not have friends. he has, At Most, Liz Allan's Pity. (OK and also the affections of betty brant, but that clearly also has another layer to it going on, mee-yow.) so i think that makes johnny an inherently Potentialful figure in peter's life. Friend-Shaped, in the sense of being Shaped ideally to be his friend, because this is someone else who maybe gets it! someone else who gets what it's like to suddenly have these powers, this pressure, compounded by the preexisting pressures of being this age. the School-Life-Heroism balance of it all. (now if only he weren't such a big frigging jerk!)

plus i bet it's exciting on some level to have this guy he can openly roughhouse with without worrying about turning him into paste or getting connected to his other identity. like, in terms of that outlet, johnny has ben and probably reed he can tussle or do loop de loops with, but peter basically has. Various Of Animal-Themed Adult Men And Sand who want to Kill him.

so honestly with the sheer amount of hostility in peter's life, thrown both at and by him, i think it's possible, or at least funny to consider, that he is maybe not. quite tuned. to Acceptable Levels Of Being A Dick To Someone You Actually Want To Befriend. like, not that he's Trying to befriend johnny at this point, but he's got this Bantery Barb-Based Rapport established, and with this guy who just makes it so easy lol. can't wear your temper on your sleeve any harder than having that sleeve explode into flames.

and between that and just not being super familiar with johnny’s personality yet and operating on a default mode of filtering all his spidey interactions through Being Needling, plus everything else i outlined, there's this cocktail that basically amounts to I Must Be A Shit To This Guy, For Reasons.

well, that's on the highly extrapolate-y end of my thoughts, but if this Undersocialized Spider Gremlin interpretation isn't entirely me being tea leafy and bears out even a little bit, i think that'd be fun because it'd mean there's a facet to their dynamic that's like

peter: haha somewhat friendly ribbing, i am going to get a Passing Grade in Teenage Superhero Acquaintanceship

johnny: I Am Going To Kick This Guy's Ass

johnny at peter

genuinely kind of fucking pissed off by him lol. but like, in a way close to how he and ben genuinely piss each other off sometimes, if not exactly to that level of underlying fondness.

that is, he's definitely intrigued by spidey and knows that he is ultimately a Good Guy, but that is an awareness that is 1) reserved for Terminally Serious Situations and 2) buried under an outer nougaty crust of God, He's So Annoying. (the outermost coating on top of the nougat is, i dunno, Basic Denial or something.)

because it does come across to me that spider-man is, like, kind of more in johnny's craw than the other way around at this early point. which i'm basing partly on the general tenor of how they think about each other in strange tales #115.

peter: man, good thing sandman didn't murderize him. still a pain in the ass tho.

johnny: grr, spider-man, freaking spider-man [with "imminent wall punch" energy] freaking spider-jerk, grr!

but i think it also makes sense just taking into consideration, like with peter, what johnny sees of spider-man and how that factors into the other relationships in his life. i mean, he had a bad first impression (maybe one of the worst kinds to form on specifically a member of the FF?), and then a bad second impression informed by that first impression (even if it turned around into the germ of what i'm sure will be a beautiful friendship v_v), and now spidey's decided to follow it up with an awesome hat trick of his seemingly established approach by this point: showing up both randomly and uninvited, being a fighty dick, then fucking off.

then there's also how, in the way that johnny has more people around to receive positive attention from, peter has more people around to receive negative attention from. (proportionally, anyway. and discounting villains, since, y'know, obviously they both have those. superheroes.) that is, johnny has three other people who specifically Know what It's like (aside from the "treated like the tagalong kid" element) because they were literally there, so peter isn't as unique a potential source of Connection about that as johnny is for peter. (not to say spider-man doesn't still have Peer Appeal, especially in the department of getting brushed off as an impudent teen.)

and at the same time, johnny is accustomed to that (imperfect but still present) level of support and the general adoration of the masses and of most of the teens around him, so when someone DOESN'T act impressed by him, it stands out to him more than it does to peter "class pariah" "public menace" "shitbearer" parker who is, as established, dumped on 24/7 on all fronts of both halves of his life.

that's something made clear through dorrie evans, for example, and johnny's total befuddlement around her. she doesn't give a SHIT about the human torch?? which should maybe be flattering, and somewhat is, that she's interested in him beyond the flashy parts that everyone knows about, but also, like. this is his whole shit right now? being The Human Torch of The Fantastic Four is kind of an important part of his identity? he kind of works really hard at this and it's like one of his favorite things to do? and also how can she not think the human torch is cool as hell, he literally flies and shoots fire? he goes whoosh? he goes fwoosh kablam?

(i'm enjoying dorrie so far. humble that boy. keep him guessing.)

incidentally, it's interesting seeing how johnny's feelings on his own popularity has apparently shifted, since he used to seem more shy about the attention and secretive about his identity (unnecessarily lol), in a way that was somewhat surprising to me based on what little i knew about him before i started reading FF. it gives the impression that it took him some time to warm up (heh) to his new lifestyle, which is fitting with this era's more "realistic" approach to characters compared to previous superhero comics.

so i suppose from that we've got: a guy who's a little overwhelmed by his new powers and fame, but grows used to it, grows to enjoy it, to understand and embrace the role people expect of him. he likes being part of the fantastic four, and going on adventures, and helping people and saving the day. he likes using his powers, and therefore demonstrating them. and people like that about him, so he indulges them because he likes it too, he likes having these abilities. and it's not like he can help that their nature makes him one of the literally most visible members of the FF. he is, basically, by physiology a flashy guy.

but since The Spotlight is inseparably part of his skin now, i think so is the scrutiny. the scrutiny working its way under there, by eyes that are drawn to the flash even as they're blinded by it. more plainly, a clear thing that sets johnny off is being seen as "just" anything. just a hotheaded, know-nothing kid, rather than a full-fledged member of the fantastic four. just a reckless showoff, rather than someone who puts hours of time into this every day to be able to do his utmost, to keep topping his limits, to reach the heights of power but also control, the care needed to Be fire yet touch like he's not. i mean, considering this is like (OK, a fraction of) the power of the sun in the hands of a sixteen year old, the things he's managed to do with it are pretty damn impressive. (if not also silly at times, because: silver age comics.)

and then there's this freaking dickhead who doesn't appreciate any of that -_-

and he's also a costumed weirdo dickhead? who came and picked a fight with johnny's family? which is, like, dime a dozen, but still. what the hell. plus he's not even a villain, maybe, apparently? even though he's been nothing but a mysterious megadick? and alright, so he's on the level, he's still this hostile snob from out of nowhere, what does he know about heroism, who is HE to tell johnny off like he's stupid or incompetent, as if he's better than johnny at handling things, HE PROBABLY DOESN'T EVEN HAVE AN OBSTACLE COURSE.

it is really too bad for a guy who wants to be taken seriously that one of the main tools in spider-man's arsenal is Not Taking Anybody Seriously.

for real, spidey is all tude and flippancy and insults and zingers and johnny has no reason to know or consider that that's a front. there is no time or room to contemplate spider-man's insecurities when johnny is too busy getting led constantly into his own foible-shaped box-propped-up-by-a-stick known as Getting Looked Down On.

since i ventured into Pure Speculative Territory for peter's section and have been dipping into it again here, i'll finish this section off with some Even Further Dipping, More Like Outright Dunking:

johnny's surface level jealousy as a thing of competition and insecurity around (Not) Standing Out, getting edged out by another teen hero, because the less Special he is, the less reason people will have to care about him as an individual member of the FF? (eh, this is the most baseless thread)

but similarly, dissing spidey as an Arrogant Ego Boy -> a bit of projection or anxiety about how others perceive johnny? both in how it bothers him that spider-man talks down to him but also how johnny knows his own motives and that he's not just a showoff, i mean look at THIS guy, he can't be more of a showoff than THIS JERK

though at the same time, because of that awareness of the difference between interior intention and exterior perception, and of his own temper and bad impulses, maybe he does feel bad about his initial misgivings and misjudgment of spidey (even if spidey doesn't make it easy on account of his seeming allergy to acting sympathetically or to NOT BEING A DICK)

but all this speculation is probably wandering away from the simplest fact of the matter: spider-man is annoying as shit.

peter and johnny at each other

"man what a freaking prick. someone should take that guy down a peg. And That Someone Should Be Me."

another simple and obvious fuel for their spats is that they are both Angy guys. johnny in a thematically appropriate way, where he bursts and goes after whatever provoked (or stoked?) him. and peter with his Auto-Fuck-You-Parry to any injustice he receives, which seems to get stored up as resentment that boosts his Being A Little Shit meter. which then ticks off johnny and incites a hothead response from him, which triggers another Auto-Fuck-You-Parry from peter, and so they are set up to be in a snit forever.

this all also is not That deep, i say, at the end of like 2000 words to the contrary. in that there is already a definite mutual bare respect between them established by the end of strange tales annual #2, and Snarkily Ragging On Others is a standard form of communication for both these and other characters, on account of they are, um. marvel superheroes. (alcohol poisoning game: take a shot every time a character calls something "corny" or "cornball")

so i imagine the direction they are going—or maybe the shape of their trajectory, because i already have foreknowledge of the direction they are going (Friendship)—is they're going to continue having this bantery, squabbly dynamic, which will smooth out into roughly the same harsh words but spoken with an even more obviously jokey tone, and their fights will probably come to blows some more times, including in Actually Serious-ish ways, but they'll understand each other better afterwards, and eventually after more teamups and time spent knowing each other, they'll reach a point of being willing to admit they are friends. or something like that.

anyway, welp, this wound up with Quite a lot of Assertions for something that is, again, Squinting At The Vibes Of A Few 60s Comics. i have known the components of sporch for a couple dozen and maybe-a-dozen issues individually. this is So Very premature. i look forward to seeing how these impressions change as i get further in my readthrough.

i now end these less jokey impressions and return to my more jokey impressions:

peter: ughhhh fucking ass sandman fucking doc ock fucking vulture fucking flash fucking j jonah jameson oh shit hey it’s the human torch lol. lmao.

johnny: man why is it so hard having relationships with girls they're just impossible to connect with. Anyway Time To Go Throw Darts At A Picture Of Spider-Man's Face.

[traegorn]

Do you seriously think all insulin will be cut off from diabetics in a revolution? You are the dumbest cunt to ever put on a flat cap, which is stiff competition. Even if the revolutionaries are waging total war, they still have to manage logistics for civilians, and so a priority would be supplying their diabetic population with medicine to survive, or otherwise evacuating disabled civilians to places where medication would be available. Communists believe in universal healthcare. If "all supply chains collapsed" the war would be lost instantly. And while you're right that Americans would die, the us military would have to pull out from their bases across the world to put down a rebellion in their own country, meaning that it would kill fewer people abroad, and therefore fewer people overall in a hypothetical civil war versus their global wars on the third world. But those would be American lives so that's what makes it unconscionable for you. Diabetic Gazans are dying after a decades long blockade, diabetic Americans would have a fighting chance stockpiling insulin, evacuating, and/or doing logistics for the revolution.

I don't think you understand what societal collapse looks like, or how fragile the complex supply chain that provides for over 345 Million Americans is.

In fact, I was talking about this with your mom the other day. Your dad was hogtied in the corner with his ball gag in, so we had a minute or two while we were waiting for him to get an erection again.

Frankly, he needs to get more vitamin E in his diet -- but that's a discussion for another day.

Anyways, as she was undoing my cuffs, she mentioned that the US had seen a record high of drug shortages in 2024, including Insulin. If we consider how fragile that supply is in peace time and extrapolate even a low level disruption to something like, say, the ability to ship things across the midwest, we'd be looking at a deeply dangerous situation where the death toll would be enormous.

We would have kept talking, but your dad got hard again and my mouth was full with his balls.

Anyways, when "revolutionaries" are fighting a war, their priorities are going to be ammunition, clean clothes, and food for themselves. I'm dead in this revolution, and you don't seem to give a shit -- so explain why exactly I should take you seriously?

Also, as an aside, the people you claim you're fighting for don't even want you to withhold your vote. You're doing this for your own vanity and feelings, and not for the real lives of anyone else. Your parents and I are disappointed in you.

[tanadrin]

i don't have any special insights or strong evidence for this, this is 1000% just Political Vibes, but i feel like there's a good chance this phase of political development sees a realignment that cashes out in, on the one hand, what you might call "revisionist ideology" opposed to "status quo ideology." and here by "revisionist" i mean the term in the way bret devereaux uses the term "revisionist powers," i.e., states that seek to challenge the current international diplomatic order, vs. the "coalition of the status quo" (roughly, but not 100%, the West/Global North/NATO+allies).

by modern standards the revisionist faction is made up of both left and right elements; the coinciding forces here isn't horseshoe theory all-non-liberals-are-the-same type stuff, but simply an alignment of what are in some respects ideologies coming out of very different traditions that are brought together by circumstance. part of this circumstance is that both are nostalgic: tankies who miss the USSR, right-wing populists who miss not having so many immigrants around, social conservatives who miss getting to call gay and trans people slurs, etc. There's a strain of strongman authoritarianism, social conservatism, and economic populism that cuts across what used to be historically very different categories, which is why you see leftist commentators who have defined themselves primarily through their opposition to liberalism rather than right-wing reaction arguing themselves into supporting trumpism; why socially-conservative parties who nonetheless claim the mantle of leftism, like BSW, can cannibalize a lot of the leftist vote in countries like Germany (or, in other countries, the former Marxist-Leninist parties just become outright conservatives and nationalists)--and the germ of this kind of shit goes back as far as like the original red-brown third way types from the 20th century, it's not like the angry contary reactionaries on both the left and right just now noticed they had stuff in common!

but one reason i am cautious about this thesis is that i think this is a type overrepresented online; and i am cautious about extrapolating too enthusiastically to the real world. i suspect that at some point somebody like sahra wagenknecht is going to realize she has quite a lot in common with someone like alice weidel. but maybe not! maybe i am too cynical.

and the "status quo" ideology is not, like, Objectively The Good Guys, here. this is the liberal, rule of law faction, but it's also the unabashedly capitalist faction, and in many ways the neoliberal faction, too--one that includes a lot of left-liberals, too, but left liberals who by virtue of finding themselves making common cause with other flavors of liberal are going to find their power diluted. and this is a faction that is happy to embrace social freedoms, albeit within certain frameworks: the "we heart gay prison guards" guys, in other words. insofar as it is the party of the status quo it's also the party that finds it harder to imagine things could be better, to push the envelope in terms of policy or even to provide a strong ideological account of what the world should be working toward. the pure grievance-and-xenophobia politics of revisionist politics don't provide much of a narrative in that department, either, but at least they provide someone to blame, and promise the catharsis of taking your anger out on the hated outgroup.

i think this would be a pretty dismal politics, but i think it would be a stable equilibrium for a while--at least as stable as left vs right proved for much of the 20th century. i think there are also a lot of other ways for the zillions of tiny incentive gradients and interest groups that make up society to align themselves in broad political dichotomies, though. i don't think there's anything inevitable or necessary about this alignment, anymore than there was about left vs right or, before that, court vs country or barons vs emperor or guelphs vs ghibellines or populares vs optimates. so if we do find ourselves there i think that's a trap we can escape--if we care to

[idonthaveanyurlideas]

How The Fuck Do Classes At Aguefort Work

AKA Brennan gave me a number of students for this school and I am going to use my expert knowledge of being a teacher in real life to extrapolate things

(disclaimer: i am australian and thus my knowledge is limited to the australian school system of how things are arranged, number of students in each class, etc. this is basically how I would organise aguefort if it were up to me)

SO

aguefort has approximately 500 students split across four year levels, making for about 125 per year level, which you could easily split into 5 'homeroom' classes of about 25 students each. Or 31-32 if you wanted to squish them into 4.

But the thing is, we have all the DND Classes to think about, with each class having its own dedicated teacher and specialist class. There are 12 standard dnd subclasses, plus we know that artificer is also an option, making 13.

It's unlikely that any particular year level has all of its students evenly split between those classes (it would be an average of 9-10 per class if they did, which is quite small for a single class, but not unheard of for (using a real life example) elective subjects like business or design tech)

ADDITIONALLY, we do know that 'regular' classes exist at aguefort, like history and home ec, so I'm assuming other typical subjects like maths, english, science (perhaps broken down into chem/bio/physics, maybe not), maybe PE as well for students that aren't part of one of the martial classes, among other things.

Most likely, the school day is arranged so that each student (assuming this student has a typical workload, AKA nothing absolutely bonkers like what the bad kids are doing in junior year) has at least one Class-Specific class per day, and then some general education ones as well, and then perhaps some more adventuring-focused classes like survival + archery or arcana.

That way each class-specific teacher should be able to fit one lesson with each year level a day, because those classes are probably considered far more important than like. Modern History.

DND-Class classes are likely much smaller and more individualised, and then general ed classes would be with a far bigger group.

I also think Aguefort has a lot of composite classes! Particularly for the less popular Dnd-Classes. Freshman+Sophomores together and then Juniors+Seniors together is probably the most common.

I think sorcery classes are often composites, partly because its one that students Literally have to be born to be able to do, so its not one that other students can multiclass Into, so its numbers probably fluctuate a bunch depending on the cohort.

More technical classes like artificer are probably also composites! Simply because I bet they're less popular than things like Fighters, Rogues, so on.

Bards are also absolutely composites, because they are already split within themselves with multiple teachers depending on the students particular focus (like we did with a separate Music class and Dance class with different bard teachers). So I wouldn't be surprised if some bard classes contain freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors all within the one class and still only have like, ten students total because they're that specialised.

I think combined classes also probably happen on a fairly regular basis. Esp if like, teachers call in sick. The fighters will go join the barbarians for a day, or the clerics will join the paladins.

And then of course they don't actually give a shit if you show up to your classes or not so theres probably some poor admin staff out there who painstakingly arranges every schedule at the start of each semester and then 80% of students ignore half of it anyway

[azems-familiar]

okay okay okay. fine. my interpretation of Ulic, obviously, which i personally think is pretty accurate if you get rid of some of the ridiculous shit that makes no sense the comics pulled, and extrapolated based on little things. anyway.

they're both gifted kids, you know. Ulic is given over to Arca when he's 11, this absolute powerhouse and prodigy. his mother believed herself incapable of training him, instead sending him to a master who scolded him for not developing the innate power of battle meditation; he resented her for it, and resented Arca, but never believed Arca was wrong. Revan, thirty years later, just as powerful in the Force, with the same martial bent as him, feared by Vrook Lamar and certain other masters she would resent for the rest of her life. picked up at twelve by Arren Kae, who only chose her because one day you will save the Republic, i've Seen it.

arrogant, both of them, even as the brightest of Jedi. Ulic knew his strength and believed he could handle anything - boasted about it, even. what were the Krath against his Jedi strength and righteousness? Revan had succeeded at everything she turned her mind to, and was certain she could outsmart Cassus Fett and win the war. what were the Mandalorians against her righteous anger and the Jedi's compassion?

(how long did a Jedi's compassion and righteousness last when loss came, when anger came, when a way to win that wasn't the right path presented itself?)

how often did Nomi Sunrider look at Alek and Qatya, Revan's most loyal friends, and see Cay? (see Tott, see herself?) Qatya, standing numb before the Jedi Council, a fresh scar across her face and her connection to the Force ripped away. Cay, bleeding out and crumpled on the ground, Ulic's lightsaber having carved through his chest.

a mask. an amulet. power, not of the mystic kind but of blade and charisma and tactical genius and an army loyal to the death. Ulic would have taken Coruscant had Aleema not betrayed him. thirty years later, Revan was six months out from conquering the Republic, Coruscant included, until Malak turned and shot her in the back.

Ulic was a prodigy. he proved it a hundred times over before the end. Revan saved the Republic, and then turned around and nearly destroyed it. both of them left shadows over the galaxy that would linger for generations. oh, they'll tell you Exar Kun masterminded the Great Sith War, and maybe they're right - from his hand was the dream of a new golden age birthed. but it was Ulic who led their armies, unmatched by any Republic tactician.

the same eyes in different people, time after time after time.

so yeah. sometimes i think about Ulic and Revan.

[whiskeyswifty]

the question if taylor swift is actually as well read and booksmart as people make her out to be is one of my favorite swiftie things to ruminate over. she has become such an icon of the english lit major bookworm girls and it's fascinating because most of her obvious literary references are pretty "basic" (e.g. the great gatsby), and from the way she talks about her reading habits in interviews, a lot of her analysis revolves around the things books make her feel/how they relate to her experiences (e.g. rebecca and tolerate it). is it because she uses big words and occasionally mentions emily dickinson? and at the same time: how much of what i am describing here is a result of her desire to appear relatable and down to earth and "just like you"? maybe there is a lot about her reading habits we don't know because they would alienate the younger parts of her fanbase.

i would say that the biggest cornerstone of the Taylor Swift brand is always relatability, and it is the driving factor of all the products (songs being products) she produces. As she's gotten older, her products have matured for sure, but not nearly as much as the average person her age. which is not a knock, or even a bad thing, it's just her brand. she is well aware that her success at this scale hinges on broad appeal, as broad as possible across ages and whatever other demos (see her recent turn into WAG-dom for example). so whatever she puts in her songs has to be as broad as possible to appeal to as many people as possible, and not alienate as many people as possible. Hence Gatsby, Emily Dickinson, and the like. mainstays of the american literary canon that everyone with an american high school education will clock and understand. because of the goal of broad appeal in her music, i'm hesitant to say with finality that that is the extent of her personal reading list, though. it's kind of a misnomer in that way, not to mention that we have no way of knowing the extent of who she is as a person and never will. but to me, i'd agree that desire for broad appeal is the reason the books she chooses to reference are so "basic" and not because she isn't well read by any subjective standards. and she does occasionally reference slightly more niche things, like in the lakes where she sings about the lakes poets and the romantic poetry movement, so she's not sitting there pulling from high school syllabuses only. the extent to where she's pulled from and what exactly she's chosen to read is, at this point, impossible to know. we can only add little bites of info to a list as she chooses to feed them to us.

i also would say yes, she does talk about books, and movies and whatever else, in terms of how they make her feel, but that's incredibly normal to me. we all do that, which both boosts her relatability but is also probably true because it's how most to all people consume media. as peering through a window into someone else's life where you occasionally catch your own reflection in the glass. so i don't know if that's a good indicator either. you can read anna karenina and be like yeah i'd be paranoid about my man cheating too cuz men aint shit. there's always relatability in the human experience.

However, by my estimation, the main reason she is assigned this literary title is because her songwriting tends to err on the side of narrative and storytelling, as opposed to most songs that focus on hooks and simple setups and concepts. she will break structure and even sacrifice musical cohesion at times to focus on the story playing out in a given song. also she has her own personal canon that she has imbued her music with, so there's a breadth of text and metatext to analyze and extrapolate from, just like a novel would have compared to the average pop song. in that way she's gained a sort of literary title, for sure. the booktok types who make reading their personality are attracted to this type of content in general, and her music is similar to a multi-volume book series where everything connects and calls back to itself. makes total sense that she is the musical saint of that crowd. that much is clear to me, at least, but it's still not an indicator of her reading list though.

[fipindustries]

one interesting thing ive noticed in stories about generational trauma, particularly those that have some elements of fantasy or exalted reality or magical realism or just feel like adding interesting flairs to its world, is the weird like escalation of evil as you go back generations.

there are four really disparate, really different and yet really poignant examples that i can think of.

mad men, venture brothers, KND, succession.

with mad men, the story is centered in don draper, a guy who is frankly not the best father, he is distant, irresponsible, and improper. sally comes out of being raised by him as someone who has serious attitude problems and a mean streak. but then he was never as bad as his own father who was a violent mean drunkard who treated his son like shit.

with venture brothers we have rusty, a bitter asshole who is callous and mean, who turned his boys into manchildren who are kind of mentally broken in many ways, unfit to live in the real world and who have serious issues managing their emotions, but then you have jonas who was a violent manipulative narcissistic monster.

then there is KND where you had father, a raging evil genius who brainwashed his children into cold, selfish cruel monsters, but then you had grandfather who was a monstrous overlord far more powerful and threatning.

and here, finally, for the one example that we can take four generations across, you have kendall in succession, a weak selfish, petty douchebag who keeps forgetting about the existence of his daughterand who is incredibly neglectful in his duties as a father, who was raised by a meagre, manipulative, controlling asshole who would constantly fuck with his mind and use love as a way to extort his son into doung what he wanted, who in turn was raised by brutal violent people who beat the shit out of him as a kid and who blamed him for the death of his sister.

so yeah, there is this interesting trend where, however bad or harmful a father figure seems to be in fiction, somehow the previous generation manages to be even more evil and abusive, but like, not just "as abusive or bad" but specifically even more so than the next.

obviously real life doesnt work like that, in reality when you go back what you come across are situation where good loving parents in bad situations end up rasing worse people than them or where the badness levels off or any other number of complications.

but i dunno, it would be fun to explore a story where this is extrapolated to cartoonish levels, about a family lineage where the further back you go the more absurdly evil the ancestors get. where you start at someone who is kind of a mean school bully, who has a dad who is just kind of an asshole irresponsible dad, who was raised by a mean drunkard, who was raised in turn by a violent brute, who was raised by a sadistic torturer serial killer, who was raised by an evil lord who had slaves and plantations who was raised by some great genocidal conqueror king, who was raised, i dont know, by the fucking devil or whatever.

[inspiteofganon]

Designing any male gerudo/voe (other than possibly AU Ganondorfs) is always kind of stressful because Ganondorf is the Sole Specimen I can study for traits they'd have, which is AGONIZING from a spec bio angle. Sure there's stuff I can reasonably extrapolate from all the female gerudo, and common traits I can draw lines between across the various designs and concept artworks for Ganondorf himself, but since Ganondorf is the only man of theirs we see... there's no way to tell whether any traits he consistently has are weird ones that are exclusive to him. What if? What if he's really really physically strange for a voe? We wouldn't know. We have no way of knowing. There's no one to measure him against to be sure. It drives me a little crazy.

My dear friends assure me that because Nintendo is a stubborn and cowardly little bitch we're NEVER gonna get a non-Ganondorf voe, and so I can go ham... which I try and do! But a part of me dreads the slim possibility that one day we're gonna see a canon normal gerudo dude, and I'm gonna feel like how every spec bio writer must've felt when they realized that the neanderthal remains they'd all been using for caveman reference were only hunched and shit b/c they had severe arthritis.

[a-wa-c]

Doing the usual random browsing through reddit and came across a 5e subreddit that had someone talking about 3.5 v. 5e and most of the comments were pretty good.

EXCEPT THIS UTTER DICKHEAD:

Let's list this bullshit out:

1. 5e is all about roleplaying. No it isn't. It just isn't. 5e is a combat system that you extrapolate roleplaying from because the medium is about shared storytelling.

2. Shut your mouth about the rules. Fuck you. The rules are supposed to be a framework. It's not the other player's fault that 5e fails to have rules that also prompt player creativity and agency in a defined fashion.

3. The rules are the DMs problem. Double fuck you. Written by someone that sounds like they haven't lifted a single finger to ever try GMing. If they are the DM's PROBLEM then there's a bigger fucking problem with 5e, isn't there?

The final message about allowing yourself to embody you character in the world the GM is creating is a good message, but if it ain't the cream that is stuck several layers of total shit.

[spellcaster-dude]

The spellcaster dude's stats

+10 wisdom

+12 intelligence

+7 dexterity

+6 constitution

+9 strength

+8 charisma

HP: 3692

AC: 19

DND stuff that can be extrapolated from this:

Spell attack bonus is 19, Proficiency bonus is 7, spell save DC is 27.

Crown Mass: 100%

"Spellcaster speaks like this"

"Or like this when ANGY"

"And like this when controlled by nothing but his rage."

<The crimson crown speaks like this>

Alludo communicates like this

{Mod speaks like this}

(Actions action like this)

[Other things other like this]

Conditions:

None!

--------------------------------------------

KNOWN INFO

Names:

The main character of the blog is Furor Corvus Exponentia, God of Rage, though he usually just goes by Spellcaster.

(The crown's name remains unknown, if one exists at all.)

Alludo the Mew.

Pronouns:

Spellcaster: He/him

Crown: Any

Alludo: They/them

Lore drop 1

Owns many magic items

Rage form:

Base: +50% to all stats, increase all stats by 1 every turn until rage ends, exhausted for 1 hour per turn after it ends

What Do I Even Call It (the red shit): Triple all stats, increase by 5 each turn, go into a fkn blind rage, exhausted for 6 hours per turn spent in this form.

Mage armor description:

[Until either 16 asks have passed, they have donned armor, or 8 hours have passed in-universe, the target will be protected from most nonmagical damage, as it takes the form of whatever armor is most efficient for the situation. (i.e. a slash would form chainmail, a stab would form plate armor, and casual situations would form a light blue version of their normal clothing.)]

Wild Spinner post (Links to a tumblr post)

Druidic Blade of The Raven

-Wild Blade: A sword with a spinner on its guard. The wheel spins as the blade cuts and/or stabs through the air, generating wild magic energy. Upon attacking, it spins the wild magic table from the wild spinner (may change in the future). The magic favors the wielder if they hit, and the victim if they fail. (I.e. a boost to spell damage will apply to the wielder if they beat the target's ac, or the victim if they fail.) Acts like a longsword otherwise. Attached to the Blades of Anarchy. (Tumblr post linked.)

Bloodflame Blade post

Run by @kenidur1561

UNIQUE SPELLS/ABILITIES (1 based on each class, plus misc)

Barbarian: The aforementioned rage form.

Bard: Spellcaster's music always seems to evoke just the right emotion for that exact moment, no matter what instrument he plays.

Cleric: Touch of Sano - Spellcaster calls upon his homeworld's god of healing and medicine, healing 5d20 HP and curing all status conditions for a creature he touches. After casting, he cannot heal for 3 hours.

Druid: Ritual of Changing Form - A ritual he learned from a group of druids, it takes 2 turns to set up and cast, but gives him full control over his physical form as it changes to his will, before stabilizing. This costs a lot of energy.

Fighter: Spellcaster is unnaturally good with weapons he's never seen before, picking it up for the first time and almost immediately understanding proper form when using it. (Proficiency with all weapons)

Monk: Spellcaster can physically interact with just about any form of being, and pull objects across planes.

Paladin: Wrath of the Raven - A spell passed down through his family, he enchants his next attack with the spirit of his familiar, adding 1d20 radiant and 1d20 force damage but draining most of the magical energy from the aforementioned familiar.

Ranger: Spellcaster has an indescribable sense of the world around him, even slightly into other planes, and will oftentimes notice things that should be otherwise impossible to spot. (Gain a +8 perception modifier and proficiency.)

Rogue: Spellcaster may, instead of his movement action, cast misty step entirely for free, and with whatever vfx he desires.

Sorcerer: Wild Arena - All terrain in a 100 ft radius around him begins to glow, shifting colors at random, as 50 ft tall walls rise up around the edges. The spell lasts for 8 turns or until dismissed with a bonus action, and any creatures within range of the spell at the start of their turn or entering the area must roll on the wild magic table used by the chaos blades and other wild magic items here. If a creature is within the range when it forms, that counts as entering the arena.

Warlock: Spellcaster may call upon a fraction of the power of any other god he knows from his homeworld.

Wizard: Spellcaster may ignore spell slots below 8th level entirely. Above that, he must either stick to his normal slots or physically strain himself.

Artificer: Spellcaster can create the resources required for any ritual of his homeworld on the spot, excluding magic items.

Call of The Void - Spellcaster grabs his foe, slamming them through the very boundaries of the universe and taking them both, unshielded, into the void. In the void, your very existence is being pulled apart, and if your soul isn't strong enough, you will be erased entirely in mere seconds. Even a god can't survive there for more than a few hours.

Due to his control over rage, Spellcaster may directly control the amount rage and hatred that someone has, to an extent. He may also use it as energy to heal, attack, or buff.

--------------

RELATIONS

@flashbang-guy "Good riddance."

(No comment given)

@the-chaos-lord "Friend, I've finally found you! I'm just glad I stumbled across that teleporter."

@kali-lamb "She revived me twice and made me a whole new body. I owe my life to her three times over."

<I gotta meet the pink crown. I always love meeting alternate versions of my family!>

@disciplesofthelamb "Briar and dotty are pretty neat! Silas is an asshole though."

<I've yet to meet them.>

@askdennycotl "My friend. We help each other out with mental health, and I'm teaching her magic! Though I wish I'd gotten more chances to visit her and others recently."

<If I let her die, him disowning me would be the best case scenario. I don't wanna know of the others.>

@scannys-back "Protect. I will defend him with my life."

<Seems neat. I guess I'll help protect him so spellcaster doesn't kill me.>

@nox-the-cat "My friend, I'm glad she was able to be free of her mod. Though, she doesn't remember it, and it still feels like someone is behind the scenes, still writing her story...."

<The fuck is an olive garden?>

@pbam0ney "My friend, he tries to help me with tally and the such, and made me a new house! He also revived me when tally made all my blood vessels burst."

<He seems like a cool guy.>

Tally: "I hear he's bettered himself as a person and apparently never really wanted to be a fuckhead, but I'm still not taking my chances. I still have that gift box he gave me, though... Never really mustered up the courage to open it or throw it out..."

<I do NOT want to meet him. The memories Spellcaster has of them are more than horrifying enough.>

Oblivion: "They were nice, and I'm pretty dissapointed that they vanished with the other anomalies..."

<I still don't understand why Furor called me off that one time.>

@temporal-mayhem "What are the other websites, Override?"

<Eugh... Spooky...>

@ask-follower-jade "Another student of mine, and I'm glad that they and denny are happy together."

[No comment provided]

@ask-the-red-serpant

<Heh, she's jealous that I get to be a bear :)>

@askthe-littlepoet "What happened to you?"

<Something is off about that tie, but I can't quite tell what.>

-----------------

TONED DOWN (for silly non-canon stuff)

+3 in all stats

536/536 HP

Rage: Double HP and stat buffs

Does not have self-awareness

Can't make quite as powerful magic items.

(The rest is up to mod's discretion)

ALSO THE STUFF THAT HAPPENS WITH THIS FORM IS NOT CANON

----------------------------------------

Gallery:

Crown

Some other forms he's taken in the past (alt text is context)

(I'll probably do a post or two in the future with more, but for now this is as many I can have while keeping the other images in the post.)

Some art that Denny's mod made when she was resurrected

The moment where it all went wrong... (This marked the start of tally corrupting his soul.)

[cutekittenlady]

After kinda discovering the ship last night I have been ruminating on TFA Dratchee (Drift/Ratchet/Arcee) and have officially sold myself on the subject.

LIke, I'll be honest I don't normally ship poly relationships in fiction. It just tends to take a lot for me to be sold on the idea that everyone involved would genuinely enjoy being together and having chemistry. Tfa Dratchee might have a bit of an angle there since Drift, while having a tfa design, was never really properly implemented into the series and so I can kinda go hog wild on adapting him to tfa's universe.

But, like, even with that I can't be the only one who sees it right!?

I mean they're literally a great trifecta!

Ratchets got healing, grit, and a lot of experience Arcee is personable and also intelligent (she was both a teacher and an intelligence officer), and Drifts a badass ninja assassin samurai.

Ratchet is a pessimist, Arcee could be the optimist, while Drifts a realist.

Hell even their personalities I think would be a decent fit. Ratchet is a grouch with an ultimately soft center, Arcee is personable but not really a doormat, while drift is outwardly smily while being kinda depressed inside.

I mean the dynamic is just THERE.

Not to mention if you throw tfa Omega Supreme into the mix it gets even better. Ratchet and Arcee already have a sort of relationship with Omega as his teachers and friends. Sliding Drift in there as a kind of unexpected kindered spirit to the big guys internalized dilemma (wanting to protect but seeming to only be able to destroy).

Hell all three of them are even, technically, similar ages only looking different for various reasons.

Ratchet looking older only because Arcee was in a kinda suspended animation while Drift got a full body frame change.

The only real grey area that isnt fully explored would be the relationship between Drift and Arcee, but I honestly think we'd be able to extrapolate enough info about both characters from various iterations across continuities to be able to think of a dynamic between them.

Like, while tfa Arcee is generally sweet I actually think she'd be VERY careful with Drift starting out. Especially if she knows hes a former decepticon from the start. There wouldn't be a lot of cruelty in it, and I think she'd remain relatively polite and cooperative but it'd be obvious to everyone, including Drift, that she was holding at arms length and treating him with a kind of distant professionalism she never displayed to people she actually trusted.

For Drifts part he would be outwardly very understanding of this while inwardly being intensely frustrated by it. Like, I imagine he has other people like Jazz, Rodimus, Kup, etc who have all accepted that his change to autobot is genuine and he might feel a bit miffed that this kindergarten teacher is giving him dirtier looks than actual members of the high guard.

Course then shit hits the fan and it turns out Arcee never actually dropped that war time training she received and Drift gets to see first hand what a reliable, responsive, and intelligent officer she really is, and in turn maybe Arcee gets more of an opportunity to see how genuine Drifts turn towards autobot is.

And all that is way before either of them realize they both have a history with Ratchet.

I dunno, I'm literally just musing about this idea at random because, again, I just couldn't find ANY content for it when I looked.

[shoechoe]

You know I gotta say if there’s one thing I enjoy about your blog. It’s that whenever you start diavoloposting into analysis about the character and story it actually manage to hit the brakes and make me think: Did I miss something. Has my understanding and opinion on Diavolo and his role in the story been off the mark. Am I in an echochamber of my own mind that has caused me to ignore what aspects of the character answer or justify my criticisms. Should I reconsider my views.

And then I read Part 5 again and it’s like nah. Diavolo still sucks. He’s still a chalk outline of a character. His motivations and how they intersect with his actions are still nonsensical. His DiD is a superpower instead of mental illness and actually makes the supernatural stuff plausible. His relationship to Giorno is still completely lacking. What little he has for other characters like Trish or Bruno or Polnareff or Risotto still falls apart. His threat as a villain is still ripped to shreds across the story. His defeat is still flaming garbage. His twinksona is still the only part of him that actually feels like there’s anything of an actual character going on and Doppio is still dragged down with him. And all of this might sound like I’m shitting on you but I’m really trying to offer praise. Because I’ve never had anyone actually make me double think on if I failed to get something in a story before. Your blog has actually made me feel like I’m a better literary analyst for taking the time to look things over again. So hats off to you for that.

LOL, I hear you. And thank you, I've never heard anyone tell me that before (I mean this in a genuinely appreciative way).

Diavolo is what I would describe as a character with a lot of "noise". There are a lot of lines and traits and connections that suggest some thread of meaning or depth (whether or not it's there by authorial intent is anyone's best guess, but it's there regardless), but nothing is done with any of it in a way that's cohesive or satisfying. That's why people often either come out with wildly different interpretations of what his character is and is trying to do or they just see him at face-value as boring because none of that potential is realized.

I understand when I try to give his character concrete meaning or depth in any interesting way, it is me trying to extrapolate that "noise". If it's actually there on purpose, it's not executed well, and if it's not on purpose, it's a vision of how the jumbles of Diavolo's characterization could've been put together into something coherent. It's basically just me imagining a better version of Diavolo based on the scraps that are present. (My goal is to get people to see that picture of "the cool Diavolo in my mind" if that makes sense.)

This is a big part of why Diavolo is such an infinitely interesting character to me. He is logically completely flat, but you can arrange him in so many different ways and analyze him and his flaws for what feels like forever.

[onemillionwordsofcrap]

Deltarune Ch. 4 end spoilers under the cut

There's been some back-and-forth in the notes about whether Toriel's scene with Sans implies that...

...she's a neglectful mother, or possibly an alcoholic. On the one hand you have "Holy shit Toriel is a horrible person" and on the other hand you have "Wow god forbid women do anything" and I think we should be looking somewhere in the middle.

Like. Let's be abundantly clear, it is NOT okay + NOT normal for a minor's guardian to get so drunk that they're falling over, to get so drunk that it's after dark and they've completely lost track of where their kid is, or to be in a position where their child can walk in and see them like that. And when Kris comes back, it's not okay that Toriel didn't shut the night down and let them sleep. Sans shares blame in this, I'm not crazy about him right now either.

Toriel is repeatedly shown to be kindhearted, polite, and a beloved schoolteacher. Across both Undertale and Deltarune, she has an open heart for children with nowhere to go. None of this precludes her from being irresponsible or having problems with alcohol. We do have some lines about how Toriel used to party hard, which implies, at minimum, that she has a history of binge drinking.

A lot of people are reading Kris's embarrassed reaction as an indication that they've seen this happen before, or even that it happens a lot. Personally I don't think we have quite enough evidence for that. What we might be seeing is her relapsing after the separation. Someone raised the interesting point that, if Undertale is any indication, Sans probably knows more than he lets on; he may have gotten Toriel drunk specifically to get her to skip choir practice, and keep her away from the dark fountain. Even if he had completely good intentions, that's still pretty manipulative and the scene clearly drives a wedge between Kris and their mother. The whole scene is tense, ugly and painful and is going to have fallout regardless of who we blame or how much.

Honestly, this is also a GREAT characterization twist for both of them, though. We won't have the full context until 2026, but extrapolating these known and loved personality traits into the absolute gut-punch that this scene was? 10/10. I love it.

[magnetarbeam]

Star Wars Technical Worldbuilding Notes 4

The Malevolence's ion web thing is a mystery in terms of what it was actually supposed to do. That ship didn't accomplish anything any other warship its size couldn't. If anything, it's a waste of energy because of how much of the web just travels past a target that's hit.

All I've really been able to come up with for how that weapon might be uniquely useful is against planetary shields. It'd have to be attached to a much bigger ship, but theoretically if you put enough power into that, you could take down the shielding across an entire hemisphere in a single shot. Still a very energy-intensive novelty weapon at best - the standard doctrine of a concentrated barrage to form a local breach and landing ground forces through the breach exists for a reason - but I can see it coming in handy against a layout of ground defenses that planned on an attacking fleet being able to breach the shield at only a few specific points.

Headcanonically, conventionally armed Subjugator-class variants did end up as the main CIS line cruiser for the rest of that war, because it's also just a better design for a warship. I admittedly have yet to do proper volume calcs for either of them, but no matter how many reactors and cannons and military-grade power conduits you can fit in a Lucrehulk, the firing arcs are still abysmal in comparison.

Fortifications on planets can inherently be much higher-powered than ships, because there's much more space for reactors and neutrino radiator banks and shield generators. The limit on the fuel capacity of ships is the mass of hypermatter, which is also of no concern to a planet.

Ecumenopolis worlds would be the hardest to take, and would probably require specialized tactics, because the amount of territory you have to cover is a matter of volume and not just surface area.

Shields should be present on all planets with access to galactic standard technology. Not necessarily shields that can stand up to a turbolaser bombardment, but they need to at least stop asteroids.

The relative prominence of Mon Calamari compared to Kuat in New Republic and then Galactic Alliance warship construction is something I wonder about sometimes.

Kuat, of course, has their giant fucking system ring and stuff, and is historically the dominant starship manufacturer. But I wonder if the political prominence of Mon Calamari due to their contributions from the Rebellion onward might lead to them getting more new contracts.

Come to think of it, I like the thought of whatever corporate entity probably handles the Mon Cal yards having subsidiary facilities specifically on other ocean planets.

Or maybe the Mon Cal yards are just completely nationalized. I can kinda see the Galactic Alliance, at least, wanting at least one major shipyard to be under their direct control, to limit potential interference from corrupt corporate executives. I don't think I've ever heard anything explicitly contradicting that.

Anything you might hear about pre-Endor Mon Cal designs, which are converted civilian stuff, being superior to their purpose-built Imperial warship counterparts is pure bullshit, for, I'd think, obvious reasons.

Realistically, I do think the New Republic would have started to show original purpose-built warship designs earlier than we see, and as I've talked about before, that's the niche that I headcanonically have brought in the Starhawk for (minus the super-tractor-beam thing, because I think it's dumb as shit). I've also thought of moving the introduction of the MC90 design generation a couple years earlier, like maybe 8 ABY, for similar reasons.

I think the Starhawk Mark II only exists in disney canon because of the stats in Armada, but I can maybe extrapolate it in here as a successor that the NR came up for the sake of quickly coming up with something to pay KDY for after they took the planet, to keep the company happy.

U-Wings also exist in my headcanon because I just like them, and a random piece of worldbuilding I've devised about it is that they're technically organized as NR/GA Marine Corps assets.

The way I understand it, the general basis for the NR and GA naval structure - four to nine numbered fleets at any given time, and most major engagements involve at least one of those being committed in full - comes from stuff set up in Black Fleet Crisis, where the new Fifth Fleet is the centerpiece of the plot and stuff. Some of the reference books elaborated on that in earlier periods, laying out some of the movements and positions of the First through Fourth in the first two years or so after Endor - but it's not as widespread as a point of reference in most of the New Republic-era books. I'd be pretty curious to learn what fleet Han's anti-Zsinj task force was drawn from, for example.