#at last a decent presentation for the chaotic twins

[rakiah]

Akanda & Akedya Siam

▪️Bio

They grew up in a wealthy family in Scalding Sands, their mother is a famous opera singer and their father a Spelldrive pro player, striker for the Burning Sands team.

Both parents are beastpeople, mama is an Abyssinian cat and papa is a tiger.

They’re always together. Never have been separated.

Love their mama a lot and so does she.

Incredibly good swimmers thanks to their dad, unlike their mama who can’t bear it.

▪️Facts

Doing mischief since birth because only their parents can identify which is which.

Their UM appeared when they were 5, consequently they were assigned a special teacher to teach them how to manage their magical power.

Each of them has his own voice but they learnt to speak the same voice at a very young age.

They like shiny things because their mama used to wear a lot of golden bracelets. When they were kittens, she left some of her jewels in their basket to help them sleep when she was performing.

They bite/chew a lot so beware. Can't always say if they do because they like you or they want to annoy you.

▪️School life

Wished to be in Scarabia but ended up in Pomefiore. They fully accepted their fate after seeing Vil.

End up a lot in Scarabia nonetheless for napping under the home-like sun.

Like to hangout with the freshmen (not a shared feeling for most of them) but usually go by themselves.

They’re pretty good students but their attention span is really low. They constantly need new interactions to not lose their focus.

They don’t like reading. Utterly. But someone reading for them can make them deeply attentive and quiet.

▪️Relationships

Vil — Admiration, their new shiny mama

Kalim — Friend (bonus homeland pal)

Jamil — Dislike very much, too sneaky

Silver — Nap friend, he’s like a magnet if Silver sleeps they have to sleep on him too

Floyd — Meal Enemy to Partner in Crime

[hapuriainen]

Hapuriainen's Animation & Comics & Games of 2020

It is again time for the annual compilation!

Manga:

Attack on Titan

I'm so sad this is so close to end... It's been my main thing for a few years now. Eren definitely didn't take the route I expected but I still find this consistent with his character and a bold and interesting move from the author.

(My notes say I also finished the jr high spin-off manga but it's not worth talking about)

Awards given: Best Side Girl (I still like Gabi, haters gonna hate), Best Boy (ditto Eren)

One Piece, My Hero Academia My interest in OP is still at an all-time low and I'm just waiting for the arc to end. There are so many characters and I have little idea what their deal is, Carrot hasn't been interesting in ages and currently Yamato is the only character I care for. Same for HeroAca; at least the excruciatingly long action scene is finally over.

Undead Unluck New Jump series! I think the main duo have a really good dynamic, but they're pretty much the only thing I care about and I'm very lost with what the plot is actually supposed to be about.

Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro

I like detective stories so here's one from the Assassination Classroom creator! The detective stuff itself could get rather nonsensical and as the story progressed more and more fantasy elements were added, but the titular character was entertaining enough to keep me interested. The viewpoint character was refreshingly (for a Jump series) a girl and her dynamic with Neuro (an ordinary schoolgirl and an arrogant amoral troll demon) was great.

Awards given: Best non-romantic relationship (Neuro & Yako)

Spy x Family

Super fun and the characters are cute!  The main couple has such great chemistry and in general I enjoy following characters who are really competent at their job. Not surprised that this has become hugely popular.

Awards given: Best romance (it is rare to get me to ship anything but the main couple here is just so cute)

Delicious in Dungeon

This manga has amazing character design and the author clearly loves to play around with it, like by drawing each character as each other's races, or making clones of everyone but each clone is a little different so you can guess which is the real one with the characters, and there's so much thought put to the outfits too. And then there's of course all the worldbuilding around how an RPG dungeon and the creatures in it could work, but it's presented simply enough that the story is still easy to follow. I also like the upbeat atmosphere; maybe I could get a bit more emotionally involved if there was more drama, but I still really like this as it is.

Awards given: Best character designs

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou

Reread one of my favourite manga ever and it's still just as good. I love how the manga still has a positive vibe to it, under it there is the quiet melancholy of a world that is close to ending. And it's wonderful how uninterested the story is answering any of the worldbuilding questions it sets up.

Beastars

This was incredibly interesting in how it presented an animal society where the carnivore-herbivore differences couldn't be just explained away with "the differences don't really exist", and the story looks at this from so many different angles. Pairs really well with Zootopia for a completely different approach. Louis was a really interesting character with how he publicly managed to appear as if he was a good candidate to be the next ambassador for the peace between the animals but was actually very cold and broken inside, and I really liked his breakdown moment. The ending was pretty meh though.

Awards given: Best Side Boy (Louis)

Kannagi

This one has really cute character designs but apart from that it's a pretty generic harem story. Except for the twist that the main girl already had been involved with a boy which caused otaku to shred their manga or whatever. I believe I would have enjoyed this more if it finished back when it went to hiatus since at this point it didn't do much for me.

Witch Hat Atelier

The main girl is the kind of heroic, friendly, plucky goody-two-shoes protagonist I really don't like but apart from that this is a great manga. I love the art, and the way the magic works is really well set up but also easy to understand. Great outfits too!

Anime:

This year I learned that in order to clear stuff from your anime watch list you need to actually watch anime. So unexpectedly I think I watched a lot more different series than usual.

Attack on Titan

It was my plan to watch seasons 1-3 before jumping on board with the last one, and of course I dragged my feet for the entire year and had to marathon the whole thing in autumn. I still prefer the manga, but the anime does have great colours, soundtrack and voice acting and some of the action scenes were amazing. But I really hate what they did to Historia in season 3... The final season has been excellent so far and I can't wait for the big scene in the next episode.

Awards given: Best OP (all the Linked Horizon ones)

Ouran High School Host Club

Haruhi continues to be one of the best girls in the anime and manga industry ever with her confident and no-nonsense attitude, and Tamaki's oblivious and overflowing friendliness makes for a great counterpart to her. And the opening theme is so darn catchy.

Awards given: Best Girl (Haruhi)

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Finally managed to watch this. I love the iconic character designs and all the chaotic energy. Kamina for best bro. I've never cared for mecha, the girls were nice but the writing around them sucked and the second half wasn't as strong as the first one, but still a good package overall.

Awards given: Best ED (don't care for the song that much but Simon looks somehow really cool in the second ending)

Haibane Renmei

Another one that had been on the watch list for years. A lovely quiet and contemplative show. Visuals were rather dull though but maybe it's better for a show like this that the characters didn't have bubblegum pink hair.

Digimon Adventure 2020

This started promising but has since lost steam. I really like how different the story is from the original Digimon Adventure, and compared to Precure it's super nice how not every episode has the exact same structure, and the cast has different roles and regularly gets split up instead of shoehorning everyone into every conflict. But on the other hand the characters feel way more samey and flat, and the original "kids want to return to their home from the Digital World" plot was a lot more personal than the current one about global crises and prophecy jargon. And some of the action scenes last way too long.

Awards given: Worst side boy (Agumon and his evolutions, it is of course expected that he'd get a lot of screen time but I'm so over how much he's constantly pushed in your face in the franchise)

Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasu ka? Isogashii Desu ka? Sukutte Moratte Ii Desu ka?

This wasn't afwul but still left me kind of cold. I think the character designs were a problem here, in general I'm used to brightly coloured anime characters but this was trying to be a very serious story about child soldiers who know they're going to die young. But when they were colour-coded and always wore the same clothes (and mostly had pretty generic animu girl personalities) they felt so artificial which made it harder to get into the drama. Nice OP song.

Yashahime

Inuyasha was my first show after really getting into anime so I was super hyped for any kind of new content. So far this has unfortunately been rather dull since I'm not particularly interested in either of Sesshoumaru's daughters, and the way the show treats the absence of the old cast is annoying. Just either show them or make it clear we're not supposed to care about them, now it's just annoying how their disappearance is treated as a mystery but the three heroines know barely anything about their heritage and don't even seem interested in learning either. But I'll watch this to the end for Moroha.

Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angels, Twin Angel Break, Pretear, Happy Seven, Healin' Good Precure

Watched a lot of magical girl stuff this year too, these being shows that play the tropes straight. The Twin Angel seasons had different flaws but were otherwise watchable aside from the awful Twin Angel Break heroine. Pretear had surprisingly nice character writing and I feel I would really have liked this if I saw it at an earlier part of my anime hobby experience but now it doesn't feel so special any more. Healin' Good Precure has been rather dull.

I also watched a bunch of Precure movies, out of which only the Star Twinkle Precure one was actually good, and the Spring Carnival crossover movie was also good in an absurd way, while the rest ranged from awful to somewhat decent.

Awards given: Worst girl (Meguru - Twin Angel Break), Biggest WTF (Happy Seven suddenly going from monster of the week shenaningans to alien mass destruction weapons)

Concrete Revolutio, Myriad Colors Phantom World, Re:Creators

Also some anime where the magical girl was a side character. Concrete Revolutio was an unpleasant mess with nice visuals, Myriad Colors was a pretty boring otaku high school harem thing and the magical girl episode was also rather bland, and Re:Creators had a lot of potential with the "anime characters come to our world" setting but the result was somewhat uneven. Re:Creators had the best magical girl out of these three.

Awards given: Worst non-romantic relationship, Worst side girl (Setsuna from Re:creators, with the main boy) not really an awful character on her own, but the writing around her was pretty bad, let's also give Worst Boy for the said main boy

Nausicaa

I watched the first half of the movie over a decade ago and didn't manage to finish until now. After seeing so many other Ghibli movies this didn't do much for me, but the animation and nature were still beautiful.

Western:

Most Popular Girls in School

The newer seasons didn't reach the heights of the earlier ones but there's still something entertaining about a very raunchy Barbie doll stop motion show. Also pairs well with the Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse for a fun but more child friendly Barbie experience.

Frozen 2

I'm wondering if these really are the only Western piece of media I consumed this year? I certainly didn't go to movies after March. Anyway, like the previous film I had major problems with the plot and characters (I don't think Elsa's story was set up properly, Kristoff's sub-plot feels like an afterthought when he doesn't factor to Anna's sub-plot at all, Olaf is annoying, too much Lore) but ultimately I still had a good time. I like the costume design, the idea for Elsa's arc is fine, the songs are great and there were plenty of good scenes too, and the lullaby was beautiful. I'd say that like the original Frozen this was patched together from perfectly serviceable pieces that didn't quite work combined.

Awards given: Worst romance (not the pairing itself but the way Kristoff x Anna was written)

Games:

Animal Crossing Pocket Camp

Early this year I just decided not to open this app for the daily money-grubbing grind and haven't touched it since. I'm free!

Animal Crossing New Horizons

However the daily grind continues here! It's been way more enjoyable, primarily due to lacking the microtransactions/limited time item angle and also for being so much more customisable. And the nature is so pretty... But I've reached a point where even this has started to feel kind of stale.

Super Mario Odyssey

My first Mario game since Super Mario World so of course I'm blown away by everything. I like how colourful and welcoming the worlds were, Cappy was a surprisingly enjoyable sidekick/mascot and also the game was easy enough and had a simple linear plot so it was far easier to approach than Zelda BotW which is still on hold.

Plans for 2021

Actually play Zelda BotW

Maybe finally Evangelion?

Finally finish the mostly disappointing Digimon Adventure tri

Various magical girl sequels and remakes

[rosella1356]

Family Therapy

This is for the second day of the vv pride event @violetvineyardnetwork. The color is orange and the prompt is healing. This excerpt comes from the last book of my hidden realms series, although I don’t know where in that last book this will go yet. 

Octavian has been waiting for his family for years. He was the first to die, and the first to realize what all was left for him to do. Unfortunately for him, the rest of the family that he was waiting for, happened to be mostly immortal.

         The first one to join him was his daughter. Ruby, all bright eyes and happy smiles. Only, he knew better than to take her at face value. He knew better than to believe that this was anything but a façade. It took him a week before she admitted that she didn’t want to live without her soul.

         She didn’t have to of course. He had found the other part of her soul. A dragon bonded to her in a moment of true happiness, and he had made sure that the palace he built for them in the underworld had such a huge sanctum for the dragons that he would undoubtedly have to hold over the years. He reaches for her to hold her to him.

         Her mental health was much better the moment that she had Onyx under her legs, and she was safely in the sky. However, she did come back down to the ground now. Part of that was for him, and part of that was for herself.

         Octavian learned that with his daughter, her mental health was tied to the fickle nature of the elements, and the calm of her dragon. Without both, she would drift unhappy into a wasteland as all of her was tied to all of them. Her smiles could blind the dead, and her laugh could raise them. However, her tears could drown them, and her anger would burn them. He taught her to love herself not despite her power, but for it. His belief gave her the strength to find herself a new place to be.

         The next one to join him was his lover, and brother in law. God, his marriage was such a chaotic little event. Still, Suno had his own set of problems. The self-hatred for his own urges was still present only instead of being improved upon, it had gotten worse in Octavian’s absence.

         The afterlife got rid of his bloodlust, but it couldn’t actually help the guilt that Suno still carried for every life that he took when he was out of his mind with the power that he had been forced to take in order to survive.

         This required tiny steps. First Octavian found the criminals that he had redeemed that Suno had killed long before history had written word. Those forgave Suno with bright eyes and happy hearts. That wasn’t good enough to make sure that Suno was okay.

         Second, Octavian found the woman that he avenged. That gave Suno at least a decent amount of closure. However, he still maintained that he should have found a different way. He shouldn’t have slaughtered people.

         Finally, Octavian showed Suno all of the men who meant to kill hundreds, thousands, even a few who planned for the deaths of millions. Those people were evil, and Suno was not. This was just a curse placed on him. His burden for being immortal. Lulu was cost her emotions, he was cost his free will.

         Suno finally started to believe him. Enough that he could live with the idea that he was allowed to be happy. That was good enough for Octavian, because that meant that he could have the man he loved back, and not have to pretend to give him up whenever the guilt over being happy came back to haunt them.

         Asher came healthy into the realm of the dead. Octavian almost swooned with the fact, he didn’t have to heal his son for him to come home to him after living a full life.

         Asher held onto him for the longest time. The old sorrow of having lost the man that he wanted to be his father so shortly after getting him for the first time, almost gained footing. But his magic was of the mental ability. He had learned that helping others was practically impossible, if you weren’t healthy yourself, so he picked the pieces of that grief up a long time ago.

         His twin sister on the other hand caused him such joy. The idea that she was here and not a figment of his subconscious meant so much to him. Plus, she was actually happy. For the last bits of her life, he wasn’t even sure whether that was even close to true. So, now he had his sister, he had his father, and he even had his uncle. That was enough to cause him to smile for all the hidden blessings that the world chose to give him.

         Healing his son, Octavian realized was giving him the family dinners that he had been cheated from because Octavian had dared to be progressive. It was holding his son on the rare nights that he woke up screaming, because being dead didn’t remove either Ruby’s or his magic. That meant that the hurts, the pain of the dead flew through Asher’s head. Most days, that meant that Asher walked around the dead helping them.

         Other times that meant their pain rushed through him in such frequencies that he fell to his knees and prayed for forgiveness. Those were the days that Octavian held him. Ran him through all of the actions that he had done to save others. And most days that was enough.

         The last person to join him was his wife. Lulu didn’t die to appear in his realm. She came of her own free-will, and she could leave by the same. Her cost to the immortality that she got all those years ago didn’t leave, because she didn’t join the dead.

         She smiled, but that was empty. And, for once Octavian didn’t know how to heal one of the members of his family. This was supposed to be his whole purpose. This was meant to be his time to save them.

         Lulu slipped her hands into his, and she carried the children. That’s when he realized that for Lulu, it was never going to be about finding her emotions. She’s lived tens of thousands of years without them.

         For her, the only thing she needed to be content was to see her family happy. Yet, these people may be the first family she had, but she can’t claim that they are her only family. She has her dragon’s children that she considers her own. She has the man that stayed next to her in the dragon realm as the pain of losing the rest of the family hurt her. She has the world at her feet, but she comes home at least once a month.

         Octavian managed the impossible. He healed his family, and in return he finally got to rest in peace.

[cabinvoucher]

Instructions to pick an ideal bed for your loved ones

The motivation behind this Guide

A toss cover is an ideal expansion to your bed or lounge chair to keep you and your family cozy! Also, they're a savvy method for adding pizazz and style to your home.

This guide will assist you with the frequently overwhelming undertaking of picking the ideal bed toss cover for your requirements. Whether you intend to involve it for pragmatic or enlivening purposes, a few things need thinking about when you put resources into a bed toss cover. In this aide, we'll cover the various materials, picking the right size and style, and how to really focus on a bed toss cover. Here's the beginning and end you want to realize while looking for a bed toss cover!

What Is a Bed Throw Blanket?

A toss cover is a solitary layered, multipurpose cover that is lightweight, warm, and adaptable. They're extraordinary covers for pulling over while perusing a book on the sofa or when you want additional glow in bed around evening time.

A decent toss is delicate and comfortable and carries tone and interest to the room. It very well may be utilized as a stylistic layout thing all through your home, including rooms, relax, offices, seats by the window, outside seating region, and the sky is the limit from there!

When to Use a Bed Throw versus Different Types of Blankets

A bed toss cover fills a similar needs to some other covers the best articles you can get from Bensons for bed utilize the Bensons For Beds voucher code: presently to let you know that the other cover keeps you warm and comfortable! Be that as it may, tosses are more lightweight contrasted with comforters, duvets, and blankets, which are heavier and layered. They're ideally suited for utilizing and lasting through the year! Toss covers additionally ordinarily have more modest aspects than different covers, making them simpler to put over your lap, shoulders, or on top of your duvet. It offers a bonus and isn't planned to supplant the customary cover that covers your bed.

Assuming that you battle with sleep deprivation, a toss might be by and large the thing you really want to bring comfort and assist you with nodding off with an additional glow. They're extraordinary to go on with you on a street outing or while setting up camp because of their conservativeness.

Toss covers additionally go about as style pieces and improve things in the home gratitude to their various sizes, varieties, and surfaces. They're normally dispersed over the rear of the love seat for an easygoing look, collapsed flawlessly over the couch, consequently the name couch toss, or hung across the foot of the bed. They might have sewn components or a periphery to give the room a finished, extravagant feel. Furthermore, a toss offers an in vogue method for covering and safeguarding your bed and parlour furniture from pets and chaotic children. This is the very thing that separates a toss cover from the rest!

Picking the Right Size

While duvets and different covers come in twin, twofold, sovereign, and lord estimates, a toss cover is commonly large enough for one individual to comfortably appreciate. In any case, a few producers offer a scope of sizes to give you more opportunities and meet your particular requirements. This makes it simple to match with any household item in your home for additional flare!

While picking a toss, you should be sure about how you intend to utilize it to find out about the right size. Do you believe a toss should crease over the finish of the bed? Is it will be hung over the sofa? Would it be a good idea for it to simply be large to the point of folding over your shoulders or do you need full-body inclusion?

In the event that you intend to get a toss for your room or visitor room, really look at the size of the bed before looking for a toss. Remember; you need to pick a somewhat more modest size than your standard duvet so it doesn't assume control over the entire bed. All things considered, tosses ought to stick out!

Picking the Right Material

There are a few toss materials to browse, in the event that you need to zero in on style, work, or both. Here are the absolute most well-known materials:

Fleece Bed Throw Blanket: This is a weighty, warm material that is ideally suited for the cold weather months. Fleece has a massive vibe but at the same time is a breathable material.

Alpaca Bed Throw Blanket: This is a lightweight, sturdy and delicate material that is ideal for keeping you warm. Gives an extravagance look and feel.

Cotton Bed Throw Blanket: Cotton is a characteristic material that is utilized to make a delicate, comfortable texture. It's an affordable, flexible, breathable texture that can make lightweight or heavier toss covers, contingent upon the season. Notwithstanding, it is significant that cotton may not be offensive enough for those in freezing environments. On the in addition to side, cotton has solid filaments that can get through different washes, pursuing it a decent decision for youngsters as well concerning open-air use.

Engineered Materials: Synthetic materials like acrylic and polyester are cheap, warm, lightweight, and hypoallergenic. They're not difficult to clean and are sturdy. Fleece and cotton are frequently mixed with engineered materials to make toss covers that are warm and flexible.

Downy Bed Throw Blanket: Fleece is an illustration of a manufactured material that is warm, lightweight, and simple to wash. Produced using polyester or acrylic filaments, it's famous among those with fleece sensitivities. Downy has a fleecy surface and protecting properties that make it a #1.

Cashmere Bed Throw Blankets: Cashmere is a delicate, sleek texture that gives your home an extravagant look. Produced using the fleece of Cashmere goats, this texture is lightweight, warm, and delicate, though costly. It's ideally suited for protecting against the virus air during winter!

Fake Fur Bed Throw Blanket: Faux fur is a mercilessness free texture that makes for a thick, warm, feathery toss. It's extraordinary for adding an instinct with regard to fashion and lavishness to your home.

Picking the Right Throw Design

Toss covers are well known inside plan pieces that arrive in an overflow of varieties, examples, and surfaces. Each toss offers a straightforward method for enlivening your home stylistic theme without committing a major responsibility!

It's essential to focus on the look and feel of your home climate while picking a toss. Do you need something that mixes in with your furnishings or would you like to add a pop of variety? Is it true or not that you are making a moderate look or would you say you are keen on a bolder, designed toss? Do you believe the toss should mix in or stick out?

Make a point to facilitate your toss covers with different components, like your bedding, cushions, sofa, drapes, and covers. In any case, feel free to add various surfaces and examples for some interest.

Caring for Your Throw Blanket

Bed tosses are frequently ignored contrasted with different sorts of cloth. Very much like apparel and bedding, toss covers are powerless against stains, residue, smoke, and soil - particularly assuming you have pets or use tosses outside on your porch. In any case, they can keep going for quite a while, given you want to them appropriately!

A toss cover just should be washed at regular intervals or months, contingent upon the material. It's suggested you wash it on a virus wash cycle utilizing a limited quantity of delicate cleanser. On the off chance that you really want to treat a stain, utilize a spot treatment and allow it to sit for 10 minutes before running the sweeping through a virus water wash. Allow the toss to air dry out of direct daylight to keep away from mileage or blurring. In the middle of washes, consistently shake out the sweeping to eliminate soil. It will look and feel delicate and clean in a matter of moments!

Note: Avoid washing a toss cover with different things and don't utilize dye or cleansing agents to protect the texture. A few covers are laundered just, so ensure you actually take a look at the name for care bearings.

At long last, when toss covers aren't being used, it's smart to store them to safeguard against residue and irritations. You can overlap them up and keep them in a crate or footstool - this adds one more utilitarian yet classy part of your home. You may likewise need to utilize a sealed shut, plastic holder and keep it in a cabinet.

[lovejustforaday]

Cocteau Twins Ranked #5 - Head Over Heels

5. Head Over Heels (1983)

Main Genres: Ethereal Wave, Goth Rock, Post-Punk

A decent sampling of: Dream Pop, Experimental Rock

Cocteau Twins’ sophomore LP Head Over Heels is their first full-length record to truly possess the distinctive qualities that most people would associate with the band today: fantastical, echoing, and resplendent. It’s hard to fully appreciate now (not that I was there) just how fundamentally different this would’ve sounded from just about anything else happening at the time it was released.

That said, while this record was definitely the blueprint for later developments in the band’s sound, it is also, in my opinion, definitely a rough draft.

We haven’t quite yet reached the point where the band is making a complete dream pop record on this LP, but there are definitely a few early dream pop songs here, namely “Sugar Hiccup”, “In The Gold Dust Rush”, and “Multifoiled”. And while this is definitely an example of the distinctly surreal Cocteau Twins experience, the record’s tonality and songwriting are still very much informed by the angular styling of the post-punk and goth rock scenes of its time.

But despite these observations, Head Over Heels is more than just a transitional record for the band. It stands out among other major Cocteau Twins releases for its muddied production style, with excessive amounts of reverb and echo even when compared to the band’s later releases. This sound design makes for a howling solar wind storm of a record, sometimes reaching the magnitude of a musical supernova.

Naturally, Head Over Heels is quite easily the most hard-hitting album in the Cocteau Twins discography, and indeed their most unruly concoction. You could probably even get some metalheads into the band with this one. Likewise, this is a record that is definitely best enjoyed when played loud.

“Sugar Hiccup” is my personal favourite cut here, and the cleanest song on the record in terms of production. This early dream pop soundscape floats on a gust of musical helium, with rubbery guitar atmosphere and a swaying 3/4 waltz beat. Essentially, it’s music made perfect for a trapeze performance at an ethereal goth circus.

This track was a first for several Cocteau Twins tropes; "Sugar Hiccup” was their first song to sound truly whimsical, and it’s also the first of many swirling 3/4 waltzes that the band would go on to include at least once or twice on nearly every subsequent record. I’d go so far as to say that this is arguably the most important song in the Cocteau Twins oeuvre for establishing the foundations of the band’s identity. It is the precise moment on this record where the band goes from ‘Cocteau Twins, a goth rock band’ to ‘Cocteau Twins, one-of-a-kind musical architects’.

But beyond this track, the other major highlights better exemplify the distinctly chaotic harmonies present on this particular Cocteau Twins LP.

There’s “In The Gold Dust Rush”, a completely blown out sonic avalanche of chimes and clanging, semi-acoustic post-punk guitars, whisking away the listener into a bed of dream clouds that are somehow also simultaneously thunderstorm clouds.

“The Tinderbox (of A Heart)” is a bit more akin to the tonality of songs on their debut Garlands, but with the Head Over Heels maximalist production approach. This one sounds deeply paranoid to me, as if I’m alone somewhere in a cave and the voices of malicious spirits are following me. One of the band’s eeriest songs.

Finally, there’s the closer “Musette And Drums”, perhaps the most apocalyptic piece in the band’s discography. Fraser wails in utter distraught over the sounds of a particularly nasty, blurry sound tempest whipped up by Guthrie. Hell, even the guitar “solo” at the end is basically just a guitar wailing in agony. This track would serve as the conclusion to the band’s most overtly dark era sonically, though it’s certainly not the last Cocteau Twins song to be steeped in melancholy.

I would say that, if Garlands was a cold and empty nightmare, and future Cocteau Twins records are heavenly soundscapes, then Head Over Heels is somewhere in between, going back and forth from unreal highs to gloomy, depressive lows. It is essentially a record of both nightmares and dreams, or a mysterious gate standing at the divide between these two worlds.

It’s oddly fitting then that I rank Head Over Heels in its own tier. It’s definitely a significant step up from their debut, and a stronger album than the band’s final two records, but also not as consistently stunning to my ears as the next four LPs that follow. There are still a few moments here that sound more stifled rather than emboldened by their early influences (I promise guys, I don’t hate post-punk or goth rock), and there are one or two tracks where I’d say the production hasn’t aged incredibly well.

Mind you, the next four records are THE Cocteau Twins essentials as far as I’m concerned. Nevertheless, Head Over Heels is still very much a worthwhile listen with a lot of truly exquisite textures to offer, particularly if you enjoy experiencing a more overtly gothic kind of trip.

8/10

Highlights: “Sugar Hiccup”, “Musette And Drums”, “In The Gold Dust Rush”, “The Tinderbox (of A Heart)”

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The Crito - Plato’s democracy essay

study Topic:\n\nThe uniqueness of the changes that occurred to Platos legal age rule definition.\n\nEssay Questions:\n\nWhat is the definition of body politic provided in Platos The Crito?\n\nHow is definition distinct from the stand for-day(a) spirit of state?\n\nWhat is the principal(prenominal) peculiarity of the sophisticated participatory societies?\n\nThesis recital:\n\nThey afford non disconnected their value steady subsequently two molarity years. Plato did non congenial commonwealth at all and he had umpteen terra firmas for that. He would guide neer meeted the recent societies expert exclusively he has no ripe(p) to claim it unsportsmanlike as the meaning of state as changed.\n\n \nThe Crito - Platos majority rule bear witness\n\n \n\nTable of contents:\n\no Introduction\n\no Platos cogitations roughly nation\n\no What is clean fit in to Plato?\n\no Plato and modern participatory societies\n\no last\n\n1. Introduction\n\nThe marches body politic has become kinda popular in the ut boundost(a) years. It suffer be perceive ein truth now and indeed from different mess. Some slew respect what they song antiauthoritarian decree and so do non. It is common knowledge, that the majority of the contemporaneous societies are parliamentary; in that respectfore, there is no wonder that the inclination of land is concreteized in the constitutional expression of these countries. land is considered to be the highest point of the smart sets evolution. The worst function nigh country rectify away is that politicians and counties that are in truth yon from body politic and nevertheless much use this term. The interest to the problems of commonwealth is rattling high like a shot still it was high and m both an opposite(prenominal) centuries ago, too. Such philosophers as Plato and Aristotle analyze the act up superstars happening in the gild during republic. Histori previsey, res publica has of all period been interpreted as the bloodline of muckle. Cotemporary grand deal welcome democracy, considering it to be the go around might in suppose to absorb into count the prospect of the majority of the population of the country and non solely the upper class. Plato was wiz of the most(prenominal) furious enemies of democracy. It is very important to say that the arguments that he per painsed against democracy still possess their primary ply. They confound non lost their value even after two thousand years. Plato did non welcome democracy at all and he had mevery reasons for that. He would strike never considered the coetaneous societies alone nonwithstanding he has no counterbalance to claim it unfair as the meaning of democracy as changed.\n\n2. Platos cogitations roughly democracy\n\nPlato thought of democracy as of a likely potential artificial lake of tyranny. For him democracy was an intermediate period out front that start of tyranny. Pl ato views democracy as the complete of popular indecency, where slaves - phallic and female - have the very(prenominal) freedom as their owners and where there is complete contactity and liberty in the relations between the sexes. For Plato, this innate of liberty was equal to anarchy. Plato suggested that such a liberty would convert the auberge in a chaotic structure that pull up stakes no be able to moderate self-regulation and exit need a despot to control it. Plato did non consider quality to be a good base for semipolitical management of a state.\n\nIn opposite words, Plato was a backer of the idea that democracy makes citizenry stop respecting the laws. Under the term laws he saw both laws of morality and laws of the court. He considered it the start of community for each iodin an another(prenominal)(prenominal) as consumers in the first place. For Plato this stock of extreme liberty was the key to the extreme servitude of people, which is the dialecti cal opposition of democracy.\n\nThese thoughts go bad Plato to very deep conclusions concerning the elected societies. He viewed a participatory partnership as the fellowship where a soul that is obedient to the Law is hated by the rest. He saw the thinkable wiping of the b assigns of everything that was unauthorized. Platos ideas in toll of democracy are very nacreous as he makes a projection to the future. Is a decent society the one and only(a) that adores dogs and fights for their rights and go throughs people in other countries? This is the figurative meaning of the headland that Plato was constantly asking about democracy. It was the judgement of the caboodle that s anxietyd Plato the most. He considered the flavors of the cluster to be not constant and sort of changeable depending on the situation. He could not see this assembly as the potential source of weighted political decisions or whatever decisions at all. He did not see whatever way for this ma jority conclusion the truth in any of its embodiments.\n\nThere is a very popular comparison presented by Plato in his 6-th book. He compares democracy to a ship that has been delight by its sailors. The sailors are the conclave that acts spontaneously. Continuing the though of Plato it is inevitable to say that each of this sailors compulsion to take control all over the ship and non of them has the idea that notwithstanding the best sailor is the one to do it. In other words the almostone to journey the ship has to a strong professional captain and nonentity else but him.\n\nWhat Plato tries to say is that the crowd would rather pick out a person that sees to be smart and not the one that in truth is intelligent. He shows the reader that it is unrealizable to trust the depression of the crowd and therefore democracy looses its main reason to exist. For Plato democracy is not a symbol of ontogeny of the society but a symbol of its degeneration.\n\n3. What is meet match to Plato?\n\nPlato dedicated a tidy sum of his works to the headland of what is in effect(p) and what is not. There is a bright example of the summary of what is in effect(p) in Platos Crito. In this part of the Last old age of Socrates he reveals the true inwardness of what he considers to be unspoiled. It is not hard not to conjure his understanding of democracy as the rule of the crowd. Here, in Crito, Plato through the lips of Socrates asks the question: Should we care about the opinion of the umteen another(prenominal)?[1,46b]. And probably this is the main question that should be asked in order reveal the motivation of Platos thoughts of whether democracy is just or not.\n\nIn Crito Plato says that it would have been the great miracle if the crowd alternatively of doing corruptive deed would do okay things. At the same time he criticizes the opening move of such a phenomenon: but in reality they can do neither; for they cannot make a man either sapient o r foolish; and whatever they do is the result of scene[1].\n\nSocrates implies that if a man heeds only to the one he should he will prosper and if he listen to the opinion of the analphabetic majority he will suffer harm form it. He passing criticizes the opinion of the many as the source of degradation, because the many do not know what is best for one given person. In other words if a person is a soccer player he should rather listen to his coach than the advise he aspires from idle fans. The same twin is drawn to democracy.\n\nIn cost of what is just Plato says: In questions of just and unjustought we to follow the opinion of the manyor the opinion of the one man who has understanding?[1,47b]. If we apply it to the democracy quandary we see that a democratic for Plato society is nearlything unjust, because it follows the opinion of the many, instead of doing everything another way.\n\nIt is clear form Platos thoughts in Crito that a society will be just only in case if it are command by a person who has understanding of just and unjust[1]. Since, the crowd dictates democracy and its opinion is easily changeable that it is not just in any way. For Plato democracy is a risk of exposure primarily due to the accompaniment that the many can kill us[1, 48b].\n\nAccording to the thoughts of Plato only a virtue society can be a just one and as a democratic society cannot be one from its definition, and then in it not just. He considered democracy to be wrong, as its main morality to be doing evil in bear for evil which is not just at all. This is very vital, in damage of the wars that the modern societies perpetually start against each other with numerous victims.\n\nHow may such societies under any potential condition be called just? So what is just according to Plato? From Platos opinion what is just has to bring the good and if it does not then it is not just at all.\n\n4. Plato and modern democratic societies\n\nIt is not hard to pretend what P lato would have thought about the modern democratic societies, particularly due to the wars. Still, it is necessary to hyperkinetic syndrome that Platos attitude towards democracy had a piece of unverifiable evaluation. For some definite reason modern societies have contumacious that democracy is the best option from them. This is primarily due to the item that modern democratic societies brisk on the edge of democracy and tyranny trying to maintain balance. And the good news is that in some cases they manage to do it.\n\nThe principle of contemporary democracy is its accessibility to all the classes. It has been highly criticized by Plato in terms of the their incapability to make right decisions due to the lack of experience in government. Nowadays, the situation has rather changed. Only qualified people have access to the notion apparatus and they are elect according to what they have already done and the results they have achieved. No hollow speeches are eaten by the p ublic any more.\n\nTherefore, the many strive for what is just. Plato would have called it unjust in general, but contemporary democratic societies have a lot of features changed in comparison with what Plato observed when he was alive. It is believed, that democracy is a real opportunity for the society to choose. It is a kind of self-realization care for for the population. Nevertheless, a deep analysis of this departure makes the reader corroborate that in reality democracy has never been literal power of the many, because the one that does not care will not vote. So it may be said that contemporary democracy it the power of those who are evoke and want to participate in the decision of the future. And of short letter Plato would not be right to call the contemporary democratic societies unjust. In some ways they are, but they manage to get the best of democracy, where everybody is equal. Off course it goes without aphorism that the person who has the power to choose has to be very intelligent. This was one of the main come out of the closets that Plato put against the crowd. This issue is destroyed by the contemporary societies. The level of general statement has grown quite noticeable, curiously in comparison with the people who lived two thousands years ago. So why not let educated people find out their future? coeval political science and societies have nothing in common with what Plato observed. And finally it is not just ordinary people who make the most giving decisions in every society but individuals that are specialists at what they do. Platos ideas are contradictory to the contemporary societies, because people really are educated and elicit enough to influence the course of the political flow. Mass media has fill in the blank that Plato discover two thousands years ago. antiauthoritarian societies have gone through a multi-step evolution that converted them into systems with qualitative differences. Now, anywhere where contempor ary democracy comes into play, ancient Platos political observations disappear. The question of what is just, peculiarly in terms of politics will remains unanswered.\n\n5. Conclusion\n\nPlato would have definitely regarded the contemporary democratic societies as unjust. period and development change everything and he would not have been right to say it now. He criticizes the most dangerous issues of democracy, oddly the issue of participation of completely swinish people in the process election of the power. He would not have been right to call the contemporary societies unjust because contemporary societies and ancient societies, ought both considered to be democratic nave a small-minded in common in their essence. At the present upshot every person has the possibility to get education, which used to be a privilege in the times of Plato. This fact has changed and added a lot to democratic relations. Contemporary people are combat-ready and well informed and that is a major difference in terms of democracy. Some people nowadays state that evaluator is impossible without democracy and some state the contrary statement. Plato without any doubt was a great philosopher but some of his ideas have grown old and especially his notion about democratic societies. Something that has once been unjust can be just now. So the question whether the contemporary democracy in just or unjust remains to the modern philosophers. Platos ideas about democracy cannot be applied to the present worldwide democratic situation. They do not correspond to the causa of the XXI century and to the pelt along of the education and development. So no matter how great some of Platos ideas seem not all of them are to be used now.If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Custom essay writing service. Free essay/order revisions. Essays of any complexity! Courseworks, term papers, research pape rs. 100% confidential!Homework live help. Custom Essay Order is available 24/7!