#built secondary

[amelikos]

Not sure what to think about the preview for HZ102.

Any thoughts about that one Pokemon from HZ057 (Carbou) making a return?

[spookberry]

unrelated to my previous manga complaints, but do you ever like read a romance and just find yourself completely uninterested in all the side characters but the mangaka clearly really likes the side characters to the point where the secondary romance becomes just as prevalent as the main characters and actually cuz the main characters have gotten together now the rest of the manga is just going to be brief snippets of fluff for them and then chapters of dedication to the second ship getting together but you dont even care about the secondary characters so you just like skip all of it????

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

I don’t mind taylor swift (although my mom’s convinced she’s a satanic worshiper, well according to her all the secular musicians/actors are so at least she’s consistent)

I actually liked some of the songs on TTPD but I wasn’t comfortable with the religious imagery she uses, at times it felt mocking

LOL, consistency is all I ask!

What a person is comfortable with is what they're comfortable with, and I'm certainly not advocating FOR Christians to listen to Taylor Swift--I think that's a matter of individual conviction. I'm not much of a TSwift listener for a variety of reasons not limited to her terrible worldview and frequent strong language. Nor do I think Christians should be naive when it comes to the secular, which hates God and His people.

That said, I want to invite everyone into my world of music. When I was a teenager, I created a playlist called Sense of the Divine, a phrase which I borrowed from a talk given by Vic Mignogna, but which refers to a concept I was raised from infancy to hold close: Humans are made to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, and every human knows this.

My Sense of the Divine playlist included artists such as OneRepublic, Tonight Alive, Bastille, Bear's Den, and Panic! At The Disco, with lyrics such as:

and

and

(This is one of my favorite lines of all time.)

But eventually, I stopped adding to that playlist, because 80% of all music I now listen to contains some kind of religious language, imagery, allusions, illustrations, allegories, etc. Any time I am listening to music, I am thinking on spiritual realities: how are God and man conceptualized correctly and incorrectly in this song and by the artist? How have I encountered those misconceptions in my own life? My own heart? Where do they come from? How do they affect us? How can they be defeated? Oftentimes, I'm asking, "How can I recontextualize this line in a way that is theologically correct?"; "How does this correspond with the themes of X Story?"; "How does this correspond with the themes in my WIP?"

If this sounds tedious to you, it's just second nature to me, like breathing. From childhood, my parents always asked us spiritual & worldview questions after any secular movie we watched or book we read, and yes, many songs we heard. I guess I've always assumed all Christians engage with media this way out of necessity, the only other option being to disengage with all media not written or distributed by Angel Studios.

Am I saying all Christians are equipped to regularly take in theologically questionable or downright incorrect content? No, certainly not. The discernment we receive from Scripture is a prerequisite, and I do draw the line for myself in some instances. But I feel it would be a safe bet that what most Christians miss in overtly religious poesy, they make up for tenfold in the covert philosophical assumptions (materialism, existentialism, nihilism, gnosticism, mysticism, scientism, etc.) found everywhere else, and which are arguably much more damaging to our relationship with God.

[seiwas]

if u were to make idol groups out of ur chosen anime men, who would you choose, how many would they be, what would their positions be 🎤🙂‍↕️

[bloody-wonder]

why ambivalent? if u don't mind me asking, I know kevin is a fave of yours so I imagine that's nice?

(one book is a prequel to the og series and the other a book set after jeans final book I believe - in case u didn't know)

I'd guess the prequel shows a lot of kevjean (obvs) & ig the other book will likely be about his relationship with wymack? maybe becoming not an alcoholic? not sure tbh. maybe just more kevjean lol

well tbh after not liking tsc and tgr i'm pretty pessimistic about any potential new books in this series. generally speaking i think it's better to quit while you're ahead with any sort of creative project and in the case of aftg specifically i think nora made some bold but ultimately rewarding decisions in the og trilogy which she's now systematically undoing. one such decision was to end the story right after the final match - i mean they haven't even left the building so no wonder many people deem this ending quite abrupt but i think it works much better than if it had been drawn out to include extended falling action. another such decision was that, despite the fact that kevin seems like he should be the main character of this story, he isn't one - neil is. ik there have existed many drafts and neil didn't become the pov character until quite late in the writing process but i do believe this choice contributed crucially to the story's success. the mismatch between neil being the protagonist but the main villain (riko) being kevin's antagonist is the sort of experimental twist on storytelling structures i love selfpub books for. well now we do have extended falling action in the form of another trilogy and if you read my previous posts about it you know i think it brings nothing to the table. and now that we're going to get some books with kevin as a protag after all i struggle to imagine they might turn out any good either.

bc like,, what are they gonna be about? "kevin becomes not an alcoholic" does not a book make. besides, the way she's writing "jean becomes not brainwashed and traumatized" does not exactly inspire confidence. kevjean is a ship and a non canon one at that. not to sound like all those posts complaining about the tropification of literature but a ship alone does not a book make. the sequel needs a plot to weave kevin's relationships and character development into and idk if nora can (or indeed will want to) come up with one that works and isn't just ohhh nooo it's the mafia again. the prequel will likely end up rehashing a lot of material we're already familiar with - which i was totally fine with when it was done in short story format and later labeled as extra content. but when a good chunk of tsc turned out to be tkm scenes recycled from jean's pov it annoyed me a lot. i can't really pinpoint what the difference is but with the short stories it's really like you're getting these cool additional insights but with several books worth of that it starts feeling bloated like later mcu. is there something new to be said or are we just beating the dead horse?

so yeah kevin is indeed one of my faves and that's exactly the reason i'm concerned. i don't think he needs more books and i don't think he needs to be the main character (or even a pov character - he'll definitely lose a lot of his kevin day mystique if i'm constantly in his head). i really hope i will eat my own words tho bc i did like everything nora has written about the foxes recently so there's that

[queenofzan]

i've also seen people try to argue that fma's use of prosthetics is "fantasy perfect prosthetics" and like. it's. very textually not.

a: the fantasy part (connected nerves) is shown as being quite painful

b: the materials, despite being necessary, are shown to have drawbacks (primarily the heat reactivity of metal, but also the weight)

c: we get multiple arcs where ed basically has to chill at home because he has wrecked his complicated prosthetic so bad it takes multiple days to fix or fabricate new parts

we also get other automail users struggling with the same issues and also other ones, such as lan fan's uhhhh pushing herself through the recovery process to be present at the final battle and that being stated to be bad for her long term health

automail is fantasy prosthetics in that useful hand prosthetics don't...really exist irl...but they come with enough drawbacks (and outright cost!) that it's very clear why they wouldn't be an option for everyone (and why they would still be the preferred option for someone like ed)

honestly arakawa-sensei did a great job balancing the narrative and technical needs of the fantasy prosthesis in fma. it's thematic, even! it comes with a price! it comes with a sacrifice! it requires adaptation!

there are other things to critique about fma's handling of disability but the complaints i've seen about automail have been very...stupid.

[birchbow]

You've said a couple of times that you can't really find an "in" or a particularly compelling dynamic for ashen relationships, and I also have a hard time coming up with an interesting way to frame a set of clubs so that the emotions are sufficiently intense to hold attention. The only thing I can come up with is basically a poly platonic BDSM relationship: a pair of bratty subs constantly getting into the troll-equivalent of slap-fights with each other, who both deeply respect/fear the central leaf and platonically get off on submitting to that authority. And the third troll gets a kick out of demanding and immediately receiving their obedience - like calming a moirail but more of a disdainful, stern, "You are going to sit down and behave. NOW." I dunno, maybe the two brats also enjoy seeing the other one humbled by the authority figure? I can almost wrap my head around this as a sort of kismesissitude where the respect is externalized to another troll (who is maybe older and/or stronger) and hatred is replaced with petty dislike. But it's still such a difficult dynamic to conceptualize.

This is all so true bestie lol. I'm not ashamed to admit that being like "it would have to be at least a LITTLE D/s, right?" has increased my interest from like a 2% up to more like 15% haha. Couples counselling but it's D/s and also the point is that you're not allowed to be a couple... wild.

Honestly, more than any of the other quadrants, ashen relationships seem prone to be like...temporary? If two trolls were constantly clashing and needed intervention, and then one of them was transferred somewhere else or whatever and situations no longer forced the two side leafs together, it seems like the relationship is now over--I wonder if that's a big trope in troll media? Followed up with either the middle leaf then pouncing on any pitch inclination their remaining partner finds in an attempt to rekindle a relationship, OR an ash/pale swing... or ash to something else! Ash->pitch? Either because one leaf left or because the third leaf couldn't maintain control and got sucked in. Hmm.

It's also a very tricky quadrant to like. Get set up, a lot of the time--there are trolls in my fics I could imagine having ill-advised pitch interest in each other, but finding them people who 1. know both parties/would be aware of their liaisons, 2. would know they're not good for each other, 3. have the inclination to step in, and 4. are not already quadranted to one or the other party.... tricky lol.

[opens-up-4-nobody]

I wanna play with Legos right now :-[

[moe-broey]

I don't really consider this a spoiler/might not even take this route anyway, but. Sharena Engage active wear color palette. Choose.

Also factoring in my notes from when I flipped through all the chara's outfits to find The Pattern

Okay NOW you can Choose

Another thing you can consider is having the shoes be all one color/Not having the second color stripe accent. I noticed some characters wouldn't have that as part of their palettes! Seemed arbitrary which ones would and which ones wouldn't!

[habitat28]

Facing the Housing Affordability and sustainability issues head-on, Habitat28 is looking to provide an alternative housing solution. Evolving the Prefabricated Homes and merging it with the Tiny Homes Movement, Habitat28 intends to empower consumers with multiple options to suit their housing needs.

[ryderdire]

It’s whack bc yapping is like the most effective way my brain processes things. I am such a verbal thinker that I on multiple occasions have completely changed my opinion on something mid rant because I had a relization.

But like so many people think that it’s annoying it’s rare with anything but solo work or rambling to my ever patient friends. And it’s like, it makes me look at the culture of slient classrooms and stuff and go wow. Their idea of what good focus or even a good student looks like purposely or not excludes people like me. And it makes you wonder what the world would be like if the definition of “good” student didn’t exlude visiblly neurodivergent

[hometoursandotherstuff]

Ok, this house is weird. Firstly, I was wondering what was up w/the garage door.

Turns out it's a mirror. Built in 1955 in Palm Springs, CA, it's been remodeled and you must see the choices. 3bds, 3ba, 2,319 sq ft, $1,499,999.

Check out the floor, like a mass murder scene.

Conversation pit decorated with a sofa and tables. Was this once a hot tub?

The stains continue throughout the kitchen.

Two lone side chairs in a corner.

Gray cement walls in the kitchen.

Snacks for the buyers?

Looking out toward the pool from the pit.

Cement dining table. I think it's built-in. It also appears to have a convenient electrical outlet.

It's such a huge space to fill. The sun is casting shadows, but it looks like there are steps here.

The glass wall opens to the pool.

There's a shower room here, but it's open. At least the shower & toilet are behind a wall.

The bedrooms and baths have floors that look watercolor stained. Interesting how they put the bed partly under the arch.

The bed from behind. Is that a fridge?

The ensuite is big, but so sparse and spread out. I would've expected a sink under the neon mirror. This is so ugly.

The secondary bedroom is plain and has floating nightstands installed.

The primary bedroom has folding doors to the patio.

Out by the pool, it looks like they repainted the statues pink and black, themselves. The lamp is broken.

Matching statues.

Nice fruit tree.

Fancy ceiling lights in the garage.

.28 acre lot.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2275-E-Belding-Dr-Palm-Springs-CA-92262/18019319_zpid/

[franeridan]

new march is so so so sooooooooo cute I'm so glad I'm getting her for free cause she's so insanely absurdly ridiculously useless to me that I'd have been forced to skip her had they asked rolls of me but she's free and she's SOOOOOOOOO cute can't wait to have her just to never use her ever

[thenevarranaccord]

What’s really jumping out at me on my second playthrough is that the writers of the first three games understood that your character was the main character. The Veilguard writers clearly thought that the main characters were their characters, the companions.

Every scene is about setting the companions up as cool or competent or sympathetic. Often, this is done at Rook’s expense. The companions get all the witty one-liners; Rook’s attempts at humor not only frequently fall flat, but are frequently called out for falling flat (even when they’re completely automatic and the player has no say in them).

The companions have all the knowledge and skills; Rook just brought them all together and gives them all pep talks so they can focus. I’m trying to edit out all of the comments where Rook is like “Um… what????” from my videos, and let me tell you, it takes WORK. There are A LOT of them. I can count on one hand the number of times when the Inquisitor or Hawke comes across as dumb, but it seems to be a built-in, unavoidable part of Rook’s character. I have not selected a single “purple” option in all of Act 1, and Rook is still coming across as the kid who tries to be the class clown to cover for the fact that he’s always confused. Rook’s role in most scenes is to say “Uhhh… what?” so that the companions look smart.

Rook is always the one offering sympathy and never the one getting it. No one actually comes to comfort you after Varric’s death. No one asks you how you’re feeling about having to lead the team now that Varric is gone. No one tries to reassure you or give you advice for dealing with the trickster god haunting your dreams. We’re told that Neve could keep Solas out of your head, but she never actually offers to do this for you. No one comforts a Shadow Dragon Rook when Minrathous is destroyed or a Grey Warden Rook when Weisshaupt is destroyed. Rook’s problems don’t matter. Only the problems of main characters matter.

Rook is a secondary character in their own story.

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

Hot take

Night furies are actually perfectly evolved for hunting and killing other dragons and the only reason they aren't a dragon-hunting species like the death song or deathgrippers are is because DreamWorks couldn't have their adorable main character dragon be a "cannibal"

(below I'm gonna try to summarize what we've figured out in a convo with friends on discord)

(also tw animal death via predator)

First of all yes I'm aware that pretty much every decision made about their design was with consideration of the effect it would make on human audiences but hear me out

Night furies are most iconically known as dive-bombers. They are built for speed, high maneuverability, night-time camouflage and for striking targets from above. If we remove human settlements out of the equation (which would not have existed long enough to actually influence night fury evolution, come on), what does that leave us with?

They aren't built for catching fish for sure, they aren't very hydrodynamic and their head is round, wide, and their teeth are dull. Honestly, the monstrous nightmare is much better suited for catching fish, with its long neck, almost pelican-like jaw and rhamphorhynchus teeth

Compare to

Yeah the jaws look kinda like a porpoise of some sort but for that the whole body would have to be a lot more aquatic imo. The light fury looks a lot closer to an aquatic diver, it has a sleeker body, rounded fins instead of spikes, and a long neck.

I don't really see them hunting land animals either, they just don't look like they're adapted for that minus the resemblance with large felines and even then, they're too large to effectively hunt in forests.

The one thing I can kinda imagine them hunting is large mainland megafauna, but we're working with a setting that takes place pretty much exclusively on islands. And overall, dragons are the only abundant species there with the exception of fish and human-bred sheep and chickens.

In general, night furies have duller teeth, smaller claws and are smaller than most dragons. Disregarding the movies making Toothless weirdly OP, a night fury would be disadvantaged against most dragons in a 1v1 fight and besides, it has four huge weak spots that would highly discourage it from a direct physical fight - the primary and secondary tail fins. One unlucky rip in the membrane and the night fury is fucked.

The night fury however noticeably resembles falcons, given their dive-bombing ability and high maneuverability.

Falcons too have smaller beaks and weaker claws compared to most birds of prey, and for that they compensate by simply picking up speed, balling up their talons and Punching. Really. Hard.

And they use that ability to kill other birds, even much larger ones, by knocking them right from the sky.

Here, the night fury's plasma blast works the same way as a falcon's punch. Dragons are fire-resistant, so what the plasma blast does is really just a densely packed bolt of energy that has the effect of either stunning or outright killing prey by damaging its spine. And what the plasma bolt doesn't do, rapid contact with the ground would finish. And if even that doesn't do it, the night fury's wide jaws and dull teeth are just fine for simply clamping around the unlucky dragon's neck and strangling it, like a lion or a pitbull.

The night-time camouflage allows the night fury to soar for extended periods of time perfectly unnoticed in the night sky, and by the time it strikes, the dragon wouldn't even know what's coming.

Unless

Say the hunting night fury is aware of other dragons sleeping under the trees, as most dragons probably would at night (village raids aside, most dragons seem to be diurnal), so how does the night fury get them in position where it can use its signature attack? Well, there's That Iconic Screech Of Death. Since in the movies it tends to appear not just during dive-bombings but also when charging up a blast, I imagine it's something the night fury is able to control to some degree. So by simply fake-diving in close proximity to sleeping dragons, it can effectively terrify them into leaving their hideout and fly out into the open where it can easily take them out.

I dunno, the possibility of night furies as predators to other dragons just makes so much sense to me, I really don't know what other reasons there would be for them to evolve these particular adaptations.

And one more little headcanon to add to this whole rant - since night furies are significantly smaller and less equipped for dragon vs dragon fights and are primarily speed-based predators, I imagine there is this very likely scenario:

There is one dragon who resembles a hyena, a lil bit

Ok, rant over

[gar-a-ash]

I bought a new prebuilt pc a few months back to FINALLY replace my 8-year old one and while I hate the setting up of a new pc/importing old files and shit I do have to say that they've definitely made it a lot easier than it used to be. AKA I've been dreading installing this for months and now that I finally did it it wasn't actually that bad and maybe I was a little bit of a baby about it.