#but i also think these ideas are pretty generic

[aroceu]

yes!!

i've been putting a lot of free time lately just finding more stuff (and also because it's fun for me) so here's another list of some tools.

here are some guides! they do go through a lot so i recommend reading at your own pace, and you can even start projects on the side based on what you know rather than trying to read and absorb them all at once. i usually like using guides as references more than a how-to manual before starting anything, but for the very basics it's usually a good place to start.

Interneting Is Hard (but it doesn't have to be), a guide on the raw basics of what a website is and how to make one, written casually and friendly for beginners

Marksheet, a thorough and introductory website on how to make a website, from starting with the basic stuff to introducing more complex techniques

The Quick ‘n’ Dirty Guide to Making a Website, a guide for how and why you should make a website, geared primarily towards artists/creatives

sadgrl online's webmastery resources, particularly: the what you see is what you get layout maker (no coding required), and html & css snippets, which i have heard great things about

petrapixel's layout generator, which also allows you to customize and generate your own layout with no coding required

web design in 4 minutes by jeremy thomas, an introductory tutorial on thinking about webdesign/website structure

tutorials at htmldog, which was my primary place in learning how to make a website in like... 2008. and yet they're still so relevant today

make your own website, a beginner's guide to making one's own website. it was written for the writer's 12 year old child if that may be less intimidating than the rest of these guides

other sitely resources!

easily download your ao3 fics for archival purposes and if you want to reupload them

owls' guide to webshrines, if you're ever interested in or have considered making in the shrine in the form of a website for something you really like and are a fan of! from a fannish perspective this has always been common among fan-inclined indie website makers - people just want to make websites dedicated to things they love, because hey, that's what the rest of us are doing in fandom anyway. this guide goes into detail how, why, and some suggestions for how to make a fan shrine!

how to make your first randomizer at lions-garb.net. you can make a randomizer through just inputting the stuff, sure, but this is a small guide on how to do it on the backend so you can also make your own randomizers while also making them look pretty on the internet.

resources list for the personal web, a very extensive list of a variety of webweaving resources, from tutorials to code snippets to tips to ideas! it may seem very daunting so i recommend just skimming it and seeing what catches your eye first, there's no chronological way to learn things once you have the very basics down

kalechips's layout thrift store, which has a bunch of free codes already created as basic web templates that anyone can feel free to take and adjust and edit and learn from to their liking! there's a lot of different already preset layouts so you don't have to worry about that part, and learn and modify them (if you want) instead

petrapixel's coding self-study checklist, a thorough list of some webdev coding necessities that hobbyists may have i missed (i know have!)

and if you get to the point where you want your website to feel like part of a community as much as you are, you can join a web ring!

the fic ring for self-hosted fanfic sites

the fandom webring, a webring for any webmasters in fandom

here's a consistently updated list of current indie web-rings!

In the wake of the TikTok ban and revival as a mouthpiece for fascist propaganda, as well as the downfall of Twitter and Facebook/Facebook-owned platforms to the same evils, I think now is a better time than ever to say LEARN HTML!!! FREE YOURSELVES FROM THE SHACKLES OF MAJOR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS AND EMBRACE THE INDIE WEB!!!

You can host a website on Neocities for free as long as it's under 1GB (which is a LOT more than it sounds like let me tell you) but if that's not enough you can get 50GB of space (and a variety of other perks) for only $5 a month.

And if you can't/don't want to pay for the extra space, sites like File Garden and Catbox let you host files for free that you can easily link into NeoCities pages (I do this to host videos on mine!) (It also lets you share files NeoCities wouldn't let you upload for free anyways, this is how I upload the .zip files for my 3DS themes on my site.)

Don't know how to write HTML/CSS? No problem. W3schools is an invaluable resource with free lessons on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and a whole slew of other programming languages, both for web development and otherwise.

Want a more traditional social media experience? SpaceHey is a platform that mimics the experience of 2000s MySpace

Struggling to find independent web pages that cater to your interests via major search engines? I've got you covered. Marginalia and Wiby are search engines that specifically prioritize non-commercial content. Marginalia also has filters that let you search for more specific categories of website, like wikis, blogs, academia, forums, and vintage sites.

Maybe you wanna log off the modern internet landscape altogether and step back into the pre-social media web altogether, well, Protoweb lets you do just that. It's a proxy service for older browsers (or really just any browser that supports HTTP, but that's mostly old browsers now anyways) that lets you visit restored snapshots of vintage websites.

Protoweb has a lot of Geocities content archived, but if you're interested in that you can find even more old Geocities sites over on the Geocities Gallery

And really this is just general tip-of-the-iceberg stuff. If you dig a little deeper you can find loads more interesting stuff out there. The internet doesn't have to be a miserable place full of nothing but doomposting and targeted ads. The first step to making it less miserable is for YOU, yes YOU, to quit spending all your time on it looking at the handful of miserable websites big tech wants you to spend all your time on.

[rius-cave]

This is a Adam character question. Do you think Adam was really a misogynistic? All we see him around is women, his best friend was a woman, he took orders from women, ect. While he did call women the b word, that really had nothing to do with his character since everyone in that show swears.

I don't even personally think he was rude to Lilith because she was a woman. But because the angles told them what their roles were and Adam was probably like. "Alright, do whatever you say!" But Lilith just wasn't having it. 😭

See this is a hot debate, and I feel like not even the writers are really sure about it lol. They wrote him being around a lot of women and, like you said, showing like a decent amount of, I guess respect? towards them. But then I think he undoubtedly comes across as someone who *would* be misogynistic.

There are a bunch of threads on Twitter talking about how no!!! Adam is not misogynistic!!! He says Lute is badass and this and that!! And I feel like we forget that misogyny can look differently and even manifest differently in people.

I think Adam has what I'm gonna call (and don't cancel me for this lol) externalized misogyny LOLOL let me explain

I think if you talked more to Adam about the "concept" of women, he'd spout some pretty awful stuff LOL, mostly he would just be reciting back a lot of classic misogynistic comments that he's heard and that he's SUPPOSED to believe, that also align with his fuckboy persona or whatever you wanna call it. And of course, let's not forget how he calls women bitches and, probably worse, the c word LOL so there is DEFINITELY SOME ISSUES THERE I'D SAY

However! Yeah, he definitely seems to at least value Lute and the exorcists, he thinks they're capable killing machines, and he does take orders from his boss who is a woman. But I think that's where Adam doesn't even realize these women break the "mold" he's supposed to believe, and thus, doesn't even think of them as "women". He knows they're women, of course, but in his mind they're "his girls" or "the exorcists" and "my boss/my manager/Sera". It's like he has misogynistic views about the idea of women, but when it comes to the actual women he knows, he sees them as much more than that.

It could honestly also just be that he's a misogynist only to the women he doesn't like lmao, which is a very real thing that happens in the world lol

I think there are arguments for both sides and I have somewhat of a mixed view on it, I'm not married to either position, I tend to write Adam as just a general dick in all ways possible LOL. The only thing I don't think he is is racist because that's personally funny to me LMAO.

Sidenote, yeah I don't think it was him being sexist that drew Lilith away, like you said I also believe that he was just following what Heaven told him to do

[randomguy0ntumbir]

Ok so the Mario series does this beautifully. (TLDR below) We start with Donkey Kong, which is for all intents and purposes the beginning of Mario. Then we have Donkey Kong Junior, which changes some characters and mechanics but is straight-up a sequel to Donkey Kong. However, we also have Donkey Kong II, which released on the Game & Watch. It is not a G&W adaptation of DKJr, which got its own G&W adaptation, it is just... Donkey Kong II. Donkey Kong 3 is not a Donkey Kong game, it is sequel to the G&W shooter Green House. And Mario Bros. is disputably part of the Donkey Kong series, but would only be a sequel to the first as we play as Mario, who was only the player character in DK1 (and maybe II, I haven't played it), and the mechanics are most similar to DK1.

Super Mario Bros. might be a sequel to Mario Bros., it takes a lot of elements from it, but it mostly uses it as a base to create an entirely new type of game. Super Mario Bros. 2 (The Lost Levels) and Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA) were both, to some extent, developed as a direct sequel to SMB but had no relation to each other and were both released officially at a similar time. (Also VS. Super Mario Bros, which was basically a half-step between SMB1 and Lost Levels) Super Mario Bros. 3 may seem like the 3rd (4th? 5th?) Super Mario Bros. game, but it takes none of the ideas or themes from any game after SMB1, making it more of a direct sequel. Super Mario World is a direct sequel to SMB3, expanding upon a lot of its mechanics and would make the series seem pretty cohesive if you ignored SMB1's 2.5 other sequels.

Around this time the Game Boy released, and it got Super Mario Land, which may seem somewhat like a side game but that is mostly due the the GB's weak power, it is generally considered mainline. It got a sequel, Super Mario Land 2, which looks more like SMW but just plays like Mario (in general). The GB also got Wario Land, which we'll get back to. However, it also got Donkey Kong (1994), which seemed like a port of the arcade game but featured 96 original puzzle-platformer levels played similarly to Donkey Kong and with a similar plot and style, making it essentially a sequel to DK. It got a successor on the Game Boy Advance, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, which got its own sequel, Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis, which played nothing like the first and was just based off the gimmicky side levels. That was followed by Minis March Again, Mini-Land Mayhem, Minis on the Move, Tipping Stars, and amiibo Challenge. However, Minis on the Move played nothing like any of the other ones, and was called Mario and Donkey Kong, while the rest of the games were called Mario vs. Donkey Kong, except for the last one, which was actually called Mini Mario & Friends: amiibo Challenge, but played exactly like the other vs. games.

Super Mario 64 was the Mario series' jump into 3D, but it wasn't a 3D game in the vein of SMW or something, it was an entirely new style of Mario with a completely different structure. Super Mario Sunshine was a sequel to SM64, directly evolving the structure and mechanics. But the next "mainline" 3D game was Super Mario Galaxy, which was 3D but designed linearly like the 2D games, and was in space. Super Mario Galaxy 2 was about as direct a sequel as is possible. Super Mario 3D Land was a 3D Mario game designed linearly like Galaxy, but otherwise had nothing in common, it took most of its style from the portable NSMB games. It got a sequel, Super Mario 3D World, which takes its visual style more from the home console NSMB games (I think). Then we got Super Mario Odyssey, which is a 3D Mario game that reverts to the structure of Sunshine. In this way, there are three largely unrelated series of 3D Mario Games; 64-Sunshine-Odyssey, Galaxy, and 3D. These are often thought of as one, and within themselves are pretty cohesive, but are very much different things. Captain Toad Treasure Tracker exists, which was a spinoff of 3D World, a continuation of the Captain Toad stages in 3D World and presented it as a sort of 3D World prequel. However, its Switch port presented it as a prequel to Odyssey, and the Switch version was ported to the 3DS, the Console with 3D World's prequel on it. There is also Bowser's Fury.

New Super Mario Bros. on the DS was a return to form for the 2D Mario games, and was briefly considered as the fifth Super Mario Advance game (a series of ports of the older games) but was very much its own thing. It got a sequel, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which expanded upon the mechanics and style. However, after that it got the actual direct sequel, New Super Mario Bros. 2, which undid everything Wii did and expanded upon the style and mechanics of DS on its own. Until New Super Mario Bros. U came along, after 2, and ignored everything 2 did and expanded upon everything Wii did instead. New Super Luigi U is kind of a sequel to Mario U, but is more of a bonus level pack the length of a game, with the exact same mechanics, style, UI, etc, and also by being bundled with or as DLC for Mario U more often than not. Super Mario Run took its visuals and game engine from NSMBU, but is an autorunner phone game. Finally we have Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which while bearing some similarities to the NSMB games is intended to be part of the "core" mario series, hence the naming, making it, if anything, the 4th entry in 1-3-World-Wonder, though every other Mario game released between then firmly weakens this line of thinking.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island on the SNES was named as if it was a sequel but it took place in the past and played nothing like a Mario game. It got a sequel on the N64, Yoshi's Story, which played a little differently. Yoshi's Island got two sequels, Yoshi's Island DS and Yoshi's New Island (3DS). But Yoshi's Island also got a sequel, Yoshi's Woolly World on the Wii U/3DS, which had its own style but played and was designed exactly like Yoshi's Island. That got its own sequel, Yoshi's Crafted World, which was visually similar but (I'm pretty sure) played like Yoshi's Story. on the N64.

Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 was like Yoshi's Island in the sense that is was basically an original game featuring someone from the previous game but it was named like a sequel for marketing. It was followed by Wario Land 2, 3, 4, and Shake it!, making for a pretty simple Wario Land series. Except for Wario Land VB, which was a direct sequel to Wario Land on the Virtual Boy and came out before Wario Land 2, but is usually forgotten about; Wario World, which was a 3D platformer on the GameCube and may or may not be a Wario Land game; and Wario: Master of Disguise, which was bad.

Back on the SNES again we got Donkey Kong Country, which took the character of Donkey Kong and adapted him into a side-scroller reminiscent of Mario. It got two numbered sequels, also on the SNES. The 3 games would get companion-pieces/ports on the Game Boy called Donkey Kong Land 1-3, which were trying to be the closest thing to DKC you could do on a Game Boy. Then there was Donkey Kong 64, which was a 3D adaptation of DKC. Then there was Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, which was played with the DK Bongos but by every other metric was a proper DKC game. Then we got Donkey Kong Country Returns, which is generally considered a reboot of the SNES games because of the relative obscurity of 64 and especially Jungle Beat. Returns then got its own Sequel, Tropical Freeze.

All of this is my own opinion, but it generally lines up with the Mario fandom's loose consensus. please don't debate any of the minutia here. Also this is not remotely close to a complete list, just the most important points.

TLDR: Almost every mainline Mario game is a sequel to another but almost never forms a cohesive series with the ones before those, leading to a monstrous amount of sub-series that often have nothing to do with each other conceptually other than being Mario platformers. I drew a diagram of this here:

@hbmmaster this was inspired partially by your vid

Before Disney reorganised the titles, the games in the Dark Forces series were titled Star Wars: Dark Forces, Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight, and Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, and I feel it's a great loss that this pattern was not continued. There's something fascinating about every game in a series being the second one.

[marioposssa]

There's a joke I've heard a few times, that Laurence is so formal that even his lover calls him by his last name. And there's certainly something to that idea so I wanted to do some fun statistics on the question: Who get's called by their first name in Temeraire, how often (and by whom)?

For anybody who only wants the numbers here's the overall highscore:

Total mentions by first name only (638 total)

1st "Jane" Roland: 243 2nd "Emily" Roland: 154 3rd "Catherine" Harcourt: 100 4th "Edith" Galman/Woolvey: 55 5th "John" Granby: 25 6th "Tom" Riley: 23 7th "George" Allendale: 8 (all in Victory of Eagles) 8th "Tenzing" Tharkay: 6 9th "Henry" Ferris: 5 (all by his family in Empire of Ivory) 10th "Jean-Paul" Choiseul, "Augustine" Little, "Bertram" Woolvey, "Gerry" Stuart: 1

The more in-depth answer got way longer than expected, so I decided to split this post up a bit. For a more thorough look at first four places, keep on reading after the cut.

For place 5-10 read on in part 2. For a look into usage of Will and some dragon thoughs go to part 3

The place for most first name mentions over all goes to Jane Roland, who is mentioned a staggering 243 times out of 638 total. Laurence starts both thinking of her and addressing her as Jane after their first night together and even Temeraire uses Admiral Rolands first name in conversation (in Black Powder War).

What is interesting to me is that, after Laurence starts he does not really stop thinking of her as 'Jane' or addressing her as such in conversation, even after their break at the end of Empire of Ivory and through Laurence's general feelings of guilt in the later books. To me this goes a long way of showing that Laurence still considers them close, even if he can not get over the harm he has caused with his actions after taking the dragons cure to Napoleon.

Beyond Laurence narration, we also get two other moments in League of Dragon where Excidium talks of her as 'Jane' and 'my Jane' <3.

Looking beyond Jane Roland, one of the most consistent topics in her conversations with Laurence beyond the war seems to be her daughter. As soon as Jane first mentions Emily by her first name in His Majesty's Dragon, Laurence picks it up and Emily Roland becomes Emily more often than not from then on. This seems to happen especially often in more familial or interpersonal scenes, such as when Laurence takes her and Demane to task about their relationship in Crucible of Gold or when she is meeting Laurence father at Wilberforce's subscription-rally early in Empire of Ivory.

Emily is also called by her first name by both Temeraire and Mrs. Pemberton, who in their own way might both count her as part of their family or as in their care. We may also guess that, since Emily is friendly with a number of characters especially other minors over the course of the book, she may also go by Emily in a lot of other occasions that are simply not part of the narrative.

Interestingly, while Laurence is shy of calling any of the other aviators by their first name, he starts calling Catherine Harcourt 'Catherine' in his head by Empire of Ivory. Specifically he starts using the name after seeing Tom Riley greeting her on the 'Allegiance'. This moment seems to signify a shift in Laurence perceiving her as different from just her status as an aviator friend or acquaintance. While to our knowledge he never uses the name to her face, he also starts calling her Catherine when talking to Tom Riley. The usage of 'Catherine' continues through Laurence narration in Victory of Eagles, though he is back to using 'Captain Harcourt' in the later books.

Overall there are 100 times when Harcourt is called Catherine. In conversation it is mostly Lily (11) who uses her first name, but there's also Jane Roland who calls Harcourt Catherine in non-formal settings (2).

And then there's Choiseul in His Majesty's Dragon of course. His use of 'Catherine' is a pretty good indicator of their intimacy, even before Laurence picks up on their relationship. I think it works so well, since at that point in the books, the mention of any first names has been pretty rare. In response she calls him Jean-Paul. This stops immediately after Choiseul's betrayal though, and indeed he never mentions her by name from this point on until his execution.

I also want to mention Rankin, who certainly has not earned the informality, but calls Harcourt almost dismissively by her first name at her first introduction to Laurence. Possibly being condescending both about her age, as well as her being a women.

Overall I think the use of Harcourts first name in the books is the most varied and it can almost always tell us as much, if not more, about the people using it in their different forms than about Catherine Harcourt herself.

Forth in place of intimate mentions is Edith 'Woolvey' née Galman. As Laurence former promised childhood friend he is consistently on a first name basis with her. She is mentioned as just 'Edith' 55 times in the course of four of the books: His Majesty's Dragon, Victory of Eagles, Blood of Tyrants - where Laurence thinks of her exactly once during his amnesiac arc and finally League of Dragons.

As you may have guessed from the numbers, the women make up the staggering majority of all first name mentions with a staggering 552 of 638, or 86% of all moments.

-----

Notes on the gathered data: I looked at all instances of known first names of main or supporting characters, but excluded the following:

Any mention where the first name was part of the full name or was prefixed by a title (such as Captain Catherine Harcourt, Lady Emily)

Any dragons, since dragons (with exceptions) only have single name

Any character mentioned exclusively by their first name (I'm sorry Demane, Sipho, little Gerry the Orphan and various babes)

[namgyunation]

Do you see Nam-gyu introducing his s/o to drugs or do you think he’d be the type to shield you from that type of thing?

cw; talking about drug usage and unhealthy stuff here

mmmm based off of my interpretation of him, i don’t think he’d really try to “shield” you. just doesn't seem like something he'd do

i also don't think he would gaf if you knew about his substance abuse. you're his s/o. if you're with him, he's prob thinking "this is what you signed up for when you got with me." i could see him hiding it from his family, but not you.

with a job like his, it'd be pretty hard to hide, anyways. if anything, i think he'd try to at least hide or be vague about the intensity of the drugs he takes and just how addicted / dependent he is on them. he'd probably try to convince you that it's just something casual that he does or brush you off if you display any concern

i could see him wanting to keep the details of his drug usage off your radar, but not because he’s like. concerned that he’ll be a bad influence or rub off on you, or anything. nor would he do it with the intent of trying to protect you or keep you "innocent" / drug-free.

i don’t think he’d enthusiastically be like “here baby, snort this!!! take this pill!!! ❤️” out of nowhere or straight from the jump when he enters a relationship with his s/o. he also doesn’t seem like the type of dude to go out of his way to share what drugs he’s taking or even just his emotions in general. he seems like he’d be very closed off and be more than happy to keep that part of his life from you if you never asked / pushed the issue.

i think he’d just want to avoid his s/o giving him a hard time: asking too many questions about what he’s doing, how it’s affecting him, his health, their finances, and their relationship, and/or trying to get him to stop. he just wants to do what he wants while still keeping you in his life. he doesn't want you to complicate or overdramaticize things with your concern. he knows what hes doing and can handle himself.

but i think if you expressed any sort of interest or vague curiosity, he might initially be shocked, find it amusing, and be surprisingly interested in the idea of introducing you to something, jokingly offer to get you stuff, though he genuinely would if you just straight up asked him to do so.

i think he’d find it interesting / somewhat exciting to see your first-time reactions to things and would find himself enjoying it more than he expected to somewhere along the way, though i don’t think he’d force it on you. if you wanted to stop, he would be cool with that and drop it immediately. it doesn't matter to him whether or not you do drugs or are on the same page as him. he's doing his thing, and you're doing yours. he wouldn't mind and would be just as open to it if you were to ask him about it again later down the line, though.

if you asked him to give you something and lead you through it, i think he’d derive some sort of enjoyment from knowing a lot about something that you don’t, being your sole source of information on the topic, and knowing he's the first and only person that you experience those types of things with.

i could see him being an obnoxious ass trip-sitter just because he thinks it's funny / even getting some sort of ego because of it.

eg. if you start off with weed, he’s laughing at you for coughing, not knowing how to inhale right, and/or making a stupid, exaggerated face when you exhale. when you overestimate your tolerance and get high as fuck, he’s purposefully putting stupid shit on the tv to gauge your reaction (maybe some dumb children’s cartoon or compilation of idk. plants growing timelapse), laughing at you when you're super focused on it (not mean, just teasing / amused), and maybe he takes a few selfies with you to tease you about it later. he would smoke with you, too, but purposefully stays mostly sober so he can take care of you. also, his tolerance is naturally way higher than yours, and i think he'd find it funny if you got high extremely quick.

he says shit like "oh, i invited your entire family and also a hundred of your friends over to the apartment, and they're outside right now. i hope you don't mind" just to get a funny reaction out of you.

he's not entirely mean, though, and despite having his fun, he still wanted to make sure that your experience was good and comfortable from the get-go. he thought ahead and set out snacks and drinks for when you inevitably got the munchies / dry mouth. he has a line up of funny things to watch and a blanket set out to make sure that you're fine. he doesn't leave you alone. even though it's just weed, he doesn't want to scare you.

he feels good and pats himself on the back for taking care of you. he probably enjoys knowing that in that moment, you're completely depending on him and looking at him like he has all the knowledge in the world. he deeply enjoys the fact that you trust him enough to rely on him and trust that you'll come out of the experience okay, because he's there.

nowww, getting on to other drugs outside of weed, i could see him being more serious about it and wanting to make sure that you're okay. he's open and more than happy to provide you with the things you're showing interest in. sharing his knowledge that's completely foreign and new to you and bringing you into 'his world' is satisfying for him, but once it starts to get a little more dodgy / serious, he's very firm on asking you if you're sure and asks a lot more questions. "what are you feeling?" "what do you see?" "do you need water?" "tell me what's going on." etc. he doesn't completely coddle you, but he's not going to leave you alone, either.

also, i was obsessed with breaking bad in middle school LMAO, so it's leaking into this post... sometimes when i think about nam-gyu, i can't help but think about jessie pinkman. there's a particular scene in the show where jessie's gf, jane, introduces him to heroin for the first time, and i think i could see nam-gyu being like jane in this particular scene, with jessie being his s/o that he's introducing shit to.

over time, if you continued to express clear, enthusiastic interest and prove to him that you could handle it, i think that's when he'd finally let himself relax and do drugs with you, rather than staying sober to monitor you. i think he'd grow accustomed to doing things with you, almost falling into a routine or having it be "your thing." he'd sneak things from work that other people gave to him or things that he was supposed to be giving to VIPs and bring it home to share with you. he'd find that getting high with you specifically was more fun for him than when he did it with others.

ending it off with something somewhat lighthearted: after a while, nam-gyu realizes that he's actually kind of excited to have a long-term buddy to get high with. he would start suggesting that the two of you smoke a joint and then go to the aquarium, art gallery, the zoo, etc. if he got something new, he wouldn't let himself try it and wait until he got home to be with you.

tldr; i don't think he'd shield you, but he wouldn't be super open about it either if you didn't ask or push him to talk about it. if you asked him to introduce you to it, he'd find himself oddly excited by the idea. he'd do it but would make sure to keep you comfortable and ask you over and over if you were sure once you got to the more serious shit. he wouldn't push it, either, in the case that you wanted to stop or were uncertain.

[castlekriegler]

Hello everybody! :D

Master Eckhardt, I have a confession! xD For the past two weeks I've been trying to get used to the remastered Kurtis. His new looks has been bothering me. Yes, me, one of the most obsessed people with Lartis and AOD. :( :( :( It makes me feel sad and confused. I was not sure if to write anything because I didn't want to be spoiling the ongoing party! Plus I didn't want to criticize in public too much because that would feel like back-stabbing all the people involved…

Luckily yesterday I realized that with some minor adjustments and rather small changes made here and there, he could be close to perfection and way closer to the original. ;D

Just to make myself clear: I have NEVER meant to bother or attack the creators and/or fans of the remastered version of Kurtis. I'm happy that many people love the new Kurtis' face. And I'm glad, grateful, excited and enthusiastic that TRAOD has got another chance to shine. (Even though we all know that there have been some quality and other issues mostly caused by the lack of time - which is unforgivable! by the people who caused it - AOD has always deserved more and seems to be cursed by the time restrains…)

Anyway I wasn't sure what exactly was bothering me about the new face in Kurtis' case, but something was definitely off to me. I couldn't put my finger on where the problem was, but yesterday I figured it out. At least I think. ;) I made these rough edits last week and et voilà - Welcome back, Kurtis Trent! :D (Sorry for the bad quality. I had only a very simple rectangular selection tool at hand, but you get the picture - I'm planning to make 'clean' versions as well when I have more time.)

(The pictures on the right are the edited ones.)

(The original picture posted by @angel-in-shadow: https://angel-in-shadow.tumblr.com/post/776308000718716928/soooooo-i-might-have-some-remastered-kuris-mesh)

The jaw and chin

The bony face shape from some angles (not visible here) makes him look much younger and even a little bit starving. xD But more importantly, PLS, get rid of the protruding (hag's xD) chin. It doesn't suit him IMHO. It changes a face a lot; it's completely different type of chin. I have a problem with the fact that the original face didn't have even a tiny hint of that face trait. Also his upper lip is does not stick out anymore and the lips are not so uneven now.

(The original picture posted by @minis-gaming: https://minis-gaming.tumblr.com/post/776146302680596480/the-demon-hunter)

The hair and his lips

I'd personally prefer his hair a little bit darker (not visible in the dark pictures in general) and the front hair shorter. I would also add more hair to the front - like overgrown bangs of a sort - more of it getting into his eyes (and covering his forehead more). I also flattened his hair on the top of his head. It looked almost like backcombed xD. Also the strand of hair thrown into the back the remastered Kurtis has - I have no idea how it could stay in place like that. xD The fringe-like haircut seems to be more practical and 'free' and without a need of adjusting it every minute. xD

The shape of his upper lip looks really weird in some angles. I made the upper lip narrower in the second pic. That was it. But to me the difference is HUGE. (The model seems to be okay though, so I guess it's more like a matter of textures or something… Sorry, I'm not very familiar with the 3D terminology.)

(Again the right picture is the edited one - I only made the original on the left lighter.)

I can recognize him now. I wonder if anyone agrees with me?

Of course, the original graphics (lacking in some ways for today standards) was leaving more space for imagination, so I admit we all could see the characters a little bit differently. ;)

Do I like the new remastered face? Yes - with some reservations. All in all, he has always been more than just a pretty face. ;) His appearance is important to me of course, but I especially LOVE his character. On the other hand, like seriously, look at the difference the edited pics make… *drolls* :D AWWW!!!!!! *crazyfangirling* I NEED THESE CHANGES! :P :D :D :D

Many people won't probably agree with me on several points in this post (PLEASE LET ME STILL JOIN THE PARTY!), but I'm just sharing some of my thoughts here. And wondering about your opinions. ;) And I'm also writing this to let the fans of the original model of Kurtis know that they are not alone. ;) :P Either way, the original is still here, so we all can be happy. A WIN-WIN situation, isn't it? ;D

PHEW! I have SO needed to get these thoughts out! You have no idea… I guess I'm too much into the issue; well, it's been a while since my obsession with AOD started, so please have patience and bear with me. xD We have spent a really long time with the original game… ;)

[tsintzask]

I mean, there's some mindless/boring tasks where LLMs are pretty useful for. Pasting a big passage of text and asking it to make it shorter will produce a decent shortened version most of the time. And conversely, posting a short passage of text and asking it to pad it out with filler will also produce a decent lengthened version. In both cases though, there's still a chance it can fuck it up, so proofreading / editing is still necessary.

Having a LLM produce essays, code, or other content from scratch is just never a good idea, the model can and will hallucinate.

As for image generator models, maybe we'll find some uses for them once we have high-quality models that aren't trained on stolen data. I'm not exactly holding my breath for that to happen anytime soon, though.

AI is just another tool, but way too many people are using it wrong, either because they don't know better or because they don't care.

You still have to be the one doing the thinking and reasoning, you can't delegate that to the computer.

One of the common mistakes I see for people relying on "AI" (LLMs and image generators) is that they think the AI they're interacting with is capable of thought and reason. It's not. This is why using AI to write essays or answer questions is a really bad idea because it's not doing so in any meaningful or thoughtful way. All it's doing is producing the statistically most likely expected output to the input.

This is why you can ask ChatGPT "is mayonnaise a palindrome?" and it will respond "No it's not." but then you ask "Are you sure? I think it is" and it will respond "Actually it is! Mayonnaise is spelled the same backward as it is forward"

All it's doing is trying to sound like it's providing a correct answer. It doesn't actually know what a palindrome is even if it has a function capable of checking for palindromes (it doesn't). It's not "Artificial Intelligence" by any meaning of the term, it's just called AI because that's a discipline of programming. It doesn't inherently mean it has intelligence.

So if you use an AI and expect it to make something that's been made with careful thought or consideration, you're gonna get fucked over. It's not even a quality issue. It just can't consistently produce things of value because there's no understanding there. It doesn't "know" because it can't "know".

[plaidos]

Hey Roxy! This is a long and weird question, but you're the only girl I follow who's both gaming literated and Also a cool gaymer, so I wanted to take a shot and see what your advise could be!

So i'm south american, I earn barely above minimun wage here (which is like, not even a quarter of the average usamerican wage? lmao), and I've been considering for a while doing a mid to longer future plan of saving as much as I can to invest in a gaming console. I want specifically a handheld only for acomodation issues and I'm looking for something that is as versatile as possible when it come to catalog (like idk most indie games, most the 00s-2010s classics and when it comes to higher performance to be able to at least tolerate Minecraft without crashing kind of deal?)

Should I get a switch oled (specially now that the price will very likely drop little by little as the switch 2 approaches)? Should I try saving for the 2 in case it isn't over 400$? Or should I try working and saving way longer (like waaaaay longer in my case) for a higher performance thing like a Steam deck or an Asus?

so naturally i’m not gonna tell you what to buy like that would be pretty presumptuous i think lol. but from my experience, the most versatile handheld console is by and far the Steamdeck, because it is essentially just a portable gaming computer running Linux. i can (and have) player Red Dead 2 on the bus — meanwhile the Switch, as much as i love her, was considered underpowered when she released nearly ten years ago. don’t get me wrong — if you’re looking for cheap, you’re not gonna find a better deal than a secondhand switch when the Switch 2 comes out

here’s the kicker for me personally though: the Steamdeck, being an actual computer with an honest to god desktop mode etc, can emulate incredibly well. I am yet to find a Switch game I can’t play on the Steamdeck better than it runs on the Switch.

so yeah it really depends what the most important factor is for you personally like if you want to be able to play on your TV without buying extra equipment (which it seems like you actually don’t wanna do — just handheld right?), wanna play online with friends who use Nintendo Online, or just want something more quickly affordable, then the Switch 1 will definitely be your best bet especially after the Switch 2 comes out. i personally have no idea how much the Switch 2 will cost but i sincerely doubt it’ll be much more than $400 — but i’m not an expert, so don’t take my advice on that like it’s fact.

but if you want your money to go further, and truly are most focused on getting the biggest catalog of accessible games, then it does not get better than the Steamdeck, period. NO console of ANY generation or price can live up to the fact that it is literally a computer. even if the Steamdeck could only play Steamdeck verified games (the Steamdeck helpfully tells you not just if but HOW compatible each game on the Steam store is) then it would still have a wider catalog than the Switch or Switch 2 will ever have. Plus, I don’t know if they’re price adjusted where you live, but indie games tend to be more expensive when they’re sold by Nintendo online, and the Nintendo store basically never has major sales unlike the stuff you’ll see basically every time you log into Steam.

and like i said, as much emulator support as you can imagine. i’ve played PS3 games on the Steamdeck. i’ve played Switch games on the Steamdeck. i’ve played Arcade games on the Steamdeck. my ex girlfriend is currently doing a Gamecube Animal Crossing playthrough…. on her Steamdeck.

Minecraft youll need to download third party stuff for on the Steamdeck i think? but there are probably dozens of guides out there for how to do that. and it’s not like the Switch version of that game is especially well supported and optimised lol.

[jayvikstolemyheart]

Weird thought: DC AU where Viktor is the Kryptonian Superman… but he’s still disabled. He’s super strong but he needs a cane and he keeps breaking them cuz of said super strength.

The idea came from looking at Superbat stuff and then thinking “Personality-wise Jayce would make a good Superman and Viktor would make a good Batman… but how do you handle the matter of Viktor’s disability?”

So I decided Viktor needs superpowers

Viktor was the first natural-born baby on Krypton in centuries, but because of that he was born with a disability. His parents loved him, but it did not help the situation. Not that that lasted long since Krypton was quickly destroyed and Viktor was sent off in a baby spaceship.

He was found and adopted by Czech-immigrant farmers who always wanted a baby but weren’t in the financial position to do so until it was too late.

It was clear that Viktor had difficulties moving but they were limited in what they could do for him since 1. A doctor/hospital could quickly figure out that Viktor isn’t human, & 2. Viktor is invulnerable so surgeries and needles weren’t an option anyway. The parents researched what they could to make canes and help Viktor, but yeah.

Viktor had a hard time growing up, being a disabled kid with nerdy interests who was the adopted child of immigrants. He was often frustrated by his parents’ orders to avoid using his powers. But it also grew an affinity with the other kids who were lower in the social caste. And the disabled people he met who didn’t have the satisfying knowledge that they were secretly all powerful like Viktor.

Childhood was far from perfect, but it instilled Viktor with the dream of helping people like himself. To bring a positive change to the world. That partnered with his intelligence caused his parents to put all they had into getting Viktor to the ‘big city’ to a good Uni so Viktor could work to his goals despite the risks.

He’s in a new place where he can hear lots of people in danger. Viktor knows it will take years to achieve systemic changes. He could help people now with his powers. Plus, he’s an adult now, in a big city where it would be hard to narrow down the identity of a mysterious new superhero.

Viktor’s version of Superman would always fly/hover over the ground so as not to put pressure on his bad leg. He keeps all his mobility aids at home. Partly for identity reasons, but also probably internalised ableism with wanting the hero to be an “ideal”. He targets low income areas and disabled people as those he protects the most, but he’ll still help most of the city.

(Maybe a news article calls him “The Herald of Justice” and people shorten that to the ‘the herald’ and it sticks) (but then the Superman aesthetic might be diminished so I’m not sold on it)

As for Jayce, he’s probably not Bruce Wayne rich but wealthy/techy enough that he can create his Batman-esque suit with utility belt and all the gadgets. His family used to be higher class but have fallen down about so he still gets invited to socialite events but mostly out of obligation. He’s gotten a bit more popularity thanks to his good looks but he’s mostly seen as a pretty face that whose family will be caste out of high society within the next generation unless he gets some success.

Because of this, his secret identity is hidden by the fact that he’s considered pretty face from a no-name family, not special enough to be something like Gotham’s knight, the (Batman-equivalent I’m worried I changed too much.)

Jayce stays quiet with the costume on, to avoid anyone recognising his voice. The result of this is that everyone thinks he’s this grimdark serious hero and is able to strike fear into criminals’ hearts. All the mysterious gadgets and booby traps help as well.

I think the two would greatly admired each other’s hero identities. And when they inevitably meet would be very surprised by the other’s true personality. They basically have the opposite attitude that their superhero alter ego presents.

It kind of goes from ‘from-hero worship/admiration-to-disappointment-to-reluctant work partners-to-newfound respect (after realising the true heroic qualities in the other)-to-friends-to-pining/yearning/lovers????

I’m not entirely sure about their civilian identities yet so I’m not sure how those versions would interact but I think Viktor would be scared to reveal his identity cuz it means revealing his disability which would go against the hero identity he’s created (at least in Viktor’s eyes)

Jayce would never think less of Viktor! But he might wonder if Viktor isn’t that serious about Jayce since the other man won’t reveal his identity. Or maybe Jayce worries that he’d disappoint Viktor with his “upper-class, dumb puppy” reputation.

So angst, miscommunication, secret identity stuff, yearning, admiration, etc. ensues!

[inconveniently-discorporated]

Y'all because joy is an act of resistance and so, apparently, is doing science while being a woman...

I AM SO HAPPY. I recently just got over a couple weeks of back to back illnesses, BUT had the delightful combination of recovering just in time for Fool's Spring (the fakeout unseasonably sunny/warm days in the PNW before the final boss music of winter starts playing) (it gives us a stamina boost to get through the rest of it before real spring), AND getting my first ever telescope in.

So I set it up last night and tonight. No idea what I'm doing because all of my research means nothing until I get my hands on the thing. Last night couldn't use my 9mm lens piece for shit, but I used the 30mm to find some pretty jaw-dropping things.

TONIGHT THOUGH??? TONIGHT???? Let my 5yo stay up late. We saw everything on my list (which wasn't a LOT being an absolute beginner using my telescope in my backyard in a city without really any idea what I'm doing,,,, but still wonderful). I'm especially proud to say I got some good use out of the 9mm which last night I couldn't even focus to see ANYTHING. My list:

Pleiades ✅

Orion nebula ✅✅✅

Jupiter and moons ✅✅✅✅✅✅

JUPITER IN ENOUGH DETAIL TO SEE THE FUCKING BANDS ON THE PLANET AND HOLY SHIT IT'S A REAL FUCKING PLANET OUT IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM ✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅

BONUS OBJECTS?!

Saw Venus ✅✅ -- easy to spot, obv, bright as fuck, BUT I DID NOT KNOW that it has PHASES????????!!!!! I actually wasn't trying to look at it very closely because I was like "yeah it's gonna be a bright as fuck dot probably but let's focus on it and adjust the scope/lens piece to help me find stuff later tonight" and it was A HALF MOON SHAPE?!?!!!;;??!:_#$+(; I DIDN'T KNOW THAT????? WHY IS IT LIKE THAT?????? WHAT IS IT DOING??????? IT. HAS. PHASES. IT IS A ROCK OUT IN SPACE. I'M ON A ROCK OUT IN SPACE. WE'RE TWO ROCKS OUT IN SPACE DOING SPACE SHIT AND STUFF OUT HERE AND WHAT THE FUCK! Apparently it's one of the only planets besides Mercury that has phases?!?!!

Y'ALL I OBSERVED A THING AND LEARNED A THING I DIDN'T PREVIOUSLY KNOW ABOUT OUR SOLAR SYSTEM AND I LOVE THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND IT FEELS LIKE I SHOULD'VE KNOWN THIS ALREADY BUT I DIDN'T AND LIKE I DID REAL ACTUAL PERSONAL SCIENCE! WHAT THE FUCK!!!

And like almost by ACCIDENT -- but like accidentally on purpose, like I was TRYING TO do this but didn't expect it to actually work -- I saw ANDROMEDA ✅✅✅. Y'ALL THE GASP I GUSPED! Like, let's level set here -- it was a faint grey smudge in my lens piece. BUT IT WAS MY GREY SMUDGE, AND I KNEW THAT OUT THERE THAT GREY SMUDGE -- THAT I WAS LOOKING AT WITH MY OWN TWO HUMAN EYEBALLS (not through a screen but by way of a couple mirrors bouncing the photons DIRECTLY FROM THIS GALAXY STRAIGHT INTO MY EYEBALLS) -- WAS A WHOLE ASS ENTIRE GALAXY JUST LIKE OURS. And I FOUND it, like some kinda special rock in a great big giant lakes full of other rocks!!! Y'all I died.

And my 5yo?!?! Among the things she said tonight were: "Mom!!! This is great!!! I love you so much!!!" and "WOW, this is so cool, mom you're AMAZING!!!" and "Oh god DAMN!" (About Jupiter) (Yes same girl) -- but also these words she has NEVER BEFORE IN HER LIFE UTTERED: "Mom, I think I want to go inside and go to bed -- I'm really tired." NEVER HAS SHE EVER.

Absolutely incredible on everything all around. I have so many feelings and I don't even feel like I saw all that much yet. Saturn apparently is fantastic around my birthday later this year. I'm hoping so incredibly much that the weather cooperates for the lunar eclipse in a couple weeks, goodness I'd LOVE to get in on the show for that one. That's something super easy my daughter and I can explore together.

Anyway, FUCK THE PATRIARCHY. Fuck the current state of politics launching an assault on women, diversity, and science. Love science for us. Can't wait to explore some more and make some core lifelong memories. My back hurts like hell bc it's totally fucked up in general but it's totally worth it to see all the things.

[complete-clownery]

some fun facts about this whole picture

(also just because I share all of this with you guys, nothing is set in stone, if you have your own theories that's the coolest thing ever!!! Share them with me please!!)

🍜Some of y'all said that Macaque was sitting alone but believe me just because Bai He turned around to chat with MK and Mei she is only there because Macaque came and Macaque is only there because Bai He begged him to tag along,

THEY COME IN A PAIR DO NOT SEPARATE IN GROUP PICTURES!!!

🍜 You might have noticed that some of the chopstick holders and sauce holders have stickers on them. Those were put there by MK. He first did it when he was much younger to help decorate the shop because he overheard a convo between Tang and Pigsy discussing renovation and finances - it was a whole thing - Pigsy even got mad at MK, but they figured it out eventually and nowadays when the stickers get too worn MK replaces them with new ones

🍜 Mei is showing Bai He a puppy video you can hardly see it

🍜 Mei hardly even touches Red Son in the illustration, Red Son is just completely distraught by the idea of being so close to someone. (He's very embarrassed they might be blushing a bit too (I just weren't able to draw that properly lol))

🍜 Yeeah Yeah okay,,, I know there is a shadowpeach shaped question in the room bugging your minds like: omg clownery is it on purpose that they are the only characters that we can't see the faces of???

🍜MK is sitting on the outside of the boot because he keeps on getting up and helping pigsy around (it's not even a conscious decision anymore, whenever they sit down with the others he sits somewhere, where he can easily get up to land a hand to Pigsy (or to anyone in general))

Except from this one ;]

And my answer to that is: I made this drawing on a whim, I started drawing it purely to mess around with perspective and expected to give up halfway bc it looked ass, I could have hardly given it any deeper meaning or thought. How could've I possibly planned anything? The core elements of this picture are all developed while I was drawing it...

See when I sat down and got an idea about a group picture I wanted to differentiate the celestial monkeys (excluding MK) from the main group

This picture takes place some time after season 3 and a bit before season 4. I would like to say that Wukong and Macaque are not a part of this group. Especially in season 3 both of them have done terrible shit and regardless of where they're sitting and what they are doing, they're not part of it all.

For Macaque this is pretty easily illustrated, he is the one who stands out the most, not a lot of people want him there since they did try to kill members of the group even if he was under the influence of LBD. He's at a different table. MK invited them bc MK genuinely wants to be friend Macaque, but this was already stated: Bai He wants Macaque to be there - I have a lot of head canons about their relationship but I'm not going to talk about this here cuz this rant might get even longer - but Bai He at first was scared as fuck with Wukong around, she only felt better when Macaque was there. She has gotten better since then, as you can see she's pretty comfortable with MK and Mei (even Red Son surprisingly), but she still needs Macaque there.

Well for once he is turned away from the pov, we cant see his face already distancing him from you guys the viewers.

Making Wukong stand out and look isolated is a bit more tricky... He's in the group seemingly chatting with Sandy, he's there, part of the whole thing, but there are subtle hints about his environment and body language you might notice:

Also I think It has been made pretty evident in the show that Wukong loves eating right? If he was perfectly at ease he would at least have 3 bowls of noodles, yet he barely touched anything, he's not eating.

His body language is also closed off, arms crossed, legs just next to each other tightly, he's not comfortable, he's somewhere else, Sandy is there but his talking at Wukong rather than talking to him.

I mean he almost got Mei killed and the whole plan screwed since he was unwilling to cooperate and share his plans with the others. I like to think that Mei just straight up ignored him for a while,, same with pigsy,, those two had enough of Wukongs past getting MK in trouble, they do not like him (and them being so buddy buddy with him in later seasons is annoying af to me,,, maybe season 5 gets some form of pass, because more time has passed and Wukongs actions in season 4 were considerably better, but they were waaaaay too comfortable with him at season 5,,, it bugged me a lot)

I think they're also very aware of each other's presence (I have a whole au that plays between season 3 and 4 explaining how Macaque started living on the FFM with Wukong, so in that context,,,, damn they are having a BLAST especially Macaque, he would like to be anywhere but near Wukong :] )

🍜Also they're sitting away from each other as far as possible, and (this was not planned and got pointed out by one of my friends) Wukong is sitting closest to the sun and Macaque is the one who is in the shade the most

Sorry about the big monkey rant, I am just so extremely shadowpeach pilled that it distracts my brain form everything else

And once again: I tell all this stuff to you guys, but feel free to come up with your own theories about the illustration, details, backstories, whatever you have in mind. You guys have different interpretations makes it all the more fun!!

Please share your theories with me in the comments I would love to hear them 🍎🍊🍊

I'll edit this if I have more ideas 💡

Wow okay

[monstersinthecosmos]

Do you think Louis has Stockholm Syndrome?

I mean I want to say no, because I think this isn’t really the appropriate use/meaning of Stockholm Syndrome, but I’m not trying to be pedantic about it and I understand what you’re asking LOL. 

Being completely transparent with you here, I’m not into Loustat so I don’t have the most generous opinion of them sdgka and this is one of the areas of VC where I feel really critical of the way Anne Rice wrote it in the second half of the series. And not like in a pearl clutchy way like wAHEEHHHH DONT ROMANTICIZE IIT but in like a “please show Louis some respect as a character because he would be so much more interesting if you allowed him to have a personality and to stand up to lestat” 🥸🥸🥸

But really I think like, especially in the IWTV era, it’s just a pretty straightforward unhappy and abusive marriage. I think we could even use the term “trauma bond” to describe the way Louis loves Lestat (at least back then) but there’s something to be said about like, any of the ways in which Louis had loved Lestat anyway, which he didn’t openly admit to in the book. It always begs the question of which came first—the love which then allowed him to stick around and be patient through all the bullshit, or the trauma which then subliminally caused him to become attached?

Something I think people don’t always understand about abusive relationships is that you don’t usually fall in love with someone who treats you like shit from the beginning. You love them for other reasons and then stay around after their masks come off, or after they deteriorate for whatever the reason. You stick around for the sunk cost fallacy, because there’s potential in there somewhere and you stay in love with the idea you have of who the person is and who you wish they were. 

With Louis, we have to READ BETWEEN THE LINES as Lestat says, like. The Loustat shippers have discussed to death that Louis was a repressed homosexual and so like there must have been attraction there and there must have been SOMETHING. But Louis’s story and character is so dictated by Catholicism and penance that his commitment to immortality as a means to punish himself also treats the symbolic marriage to Lestat as a curse. 

We’ve also discussed to death in fandom for decades like, what’s the most true version of events and which of the two of them are being more truthful? I’ve always sort of taken Louis’s side, because there’s some sort of objective things Lestat did (like turning a 5 year old 😂) that are undeniable, were witnessed by others, and which really tell us a lot about the person Lestat is. But I think Louis can tell us an objective series of events and still be dishonest about his own culpability or his own sincere feelings of love. 

So like I think, as fans, there’s a few version of the story that you can pick at. I tend to read IWTV as a story about a man moving from abusive relationship to abusive relationship, and I read the New Orleans era as an abusive marriage, but whatever love was there doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a trauma bond. 

Lestat keeps him trapped by withholding information, and then babytraps him with Claudia. There are times where Louis worries for Claudia’s safety. Louis definitely stays, at least at times, out of fear. 

But I do always wonder how much love was actually there. It sneaks out from time to time. And like, does Louis reallllllly give a shit, like could he have left if he really wanted to? Maybe. I wonder a lot, too, about how close they actually were during their marriage — we know that Louis never drank another vampire’s blood at least until Merrick, so their marriage was essentially sexless, unless Lestat drank from Louis while Louis just lied there waiting for it to be over. Who the fuck knows lol. 

Ultimately VC is a series about loving and being loved, like love and forgiveness is the ultimate virtue in this universe, and it makes sense as part of the sort of Catholicky world building. Deeply faithful Anne Rice WOULD think that forgiveness is the most divine option. So no matter how ugly someone's past is, they can usually find peace eventually. Louis and Lestat have an extremely ugly first marriage, but when Lestat is in danger in the 1980’s Louis is able to put it behind him and be there and they can try to work through it.

There’s something that shows up in VC about like, even contentious relationships can be so special if it’s someone who’s always been there. (Thinking about Marius & Mael or Lestat & Armand.) So no matter how unhappy they were or how badly Lestat was behaving in IWTV, Louis can soften to him by way of “you are the only constant in my whole wretched cursed immortal life.” 

So like, again we have to ask which came first: the trauma bond or the genuine love? And I’m not a Loustat fucker so I can’t really answer that. I could see either version existing, for whatever reason you need to build the case today. If it’s for meta or for a fic or whatever, there’s not just one single way to approach. 

Either way, where both paths converge is that the second half of the story is so much about grieving an abuser and how complicated it is. Louis feels guilt for how everything went down, but he’s also grieving. And when you grieve an abuser it’s like what I said earlier—sometimes it’s more about the version of them that you wished you’d had. Louis grieves a version of Lestat, and that feeds into the guilt! It’s a snowball! And it’s easy, when you’re away from the abuse, to remember the good things! Louis’s guilt will eat him alive because he remembers all the good things about Lestat, and all the things he could have been!! And it’s hard to make sense of it!  It's also the religious & forgiveness thing that in death your slate is wiped clean, so perhaps in death Lestat has paid for his sins.

It’s really such a poignant book about grief and abuse to me! It even repeats with Claudia—she frees him from Lestat, but becomes cold and abusive herself. He’s miserable with her, and he fears her, and yet the moment she’s gone he reverts to thinking of her as his little daughter that he’s lost.

Anyway.

I’m not sure if this is the answer you were looking for LMAO. Asking me, famously a Lestat Hater, if I think Lestat was a fucking douchebag during their relationship—yes of course!!!! But I recognize that we can frame IWTV in a few different ways to fine tune these points. 

Admittedly, it’s not my area of expertise within VC LOL but this is my reading of it as a layperson!!! 

[likeadeuce]

for the backstory ask: all of your lily donaldson lore?

Art and Tashi (really, Tashi + Art) made a general master plan when they got married, for him to play until roughly 35 and then have 2 kids pretty close together so they wouldn't be trying to raise kids in a world of constant travel. Instead, Tashi has an unplanned pregnancy just as Art's career is peaking and surprises Art a bit by immediately stating she wants to keep the baby...he thought all her reasons for waiting were good reasons, but Tashi's had some thinks and (1) has gotten worried about fertility as she gets older due to family history and experiences of some women she knows (the practical reason that she tells him) (2) deep down the glamorous Eloise-style fantasy of a kiddo traveling the world and experiencing this lifestyle that Tashi can't admit to herself how much she enjoys (the emotional reason that she can't admit to anyone) and it's not that Art doesn't WANT a child at this point in his life it's that when I told Tashi that of course it was her body and her choice, he wasn't actually prepared for the choice she made because it was very much not the life plan he thought they made. He doesn't express any of this to Tashi but she guesses more or less correctly.

Lily's given name is Lily Anne Duncan Donaldson, for Art's grandmother Lillian + Tashi's mother Annette, which was Tashi's suggestion but Art likes it.

Annette was an elementary ed teacher who was working as a school administrator until Lily was born + then she took early retirement to travel with the family and, while they have some nannies and tutors who come and go (the teenage babysitter in Qualifying is a student who went through through the Donaldson Foundation tennis camps and is getting paid to fill in gaps in the schedule + also has her lodging and various events paid for so she can experience the US Open) Annette is primarily in charge of Lily's care and education. Her sixth birthday is going to be in November and the plan is for her to stay with them on the road through NEXT summer/ her kindergarten year but then start first grade where she can stay with the Duncans and go to school with other kids her own age (Annette + Tashi do a lot of work to get her social time with other kids whose parents travel but they don't think it's going to be enough as she grows up + Tashi has this plan figured out but Art -- despite being the demonstrably less involved parent + also not having talked to ANYONE about this -- does not like the idea of regularly being away from his kid for months at a time, which is part of what is dragging him toward retirement). Art's time with Lily is a lot if 'taking her to the zoo' (does not have to literally be the zoo) which is code for 'I need to get away from all thd ppl who run my life and nobody can get mad about it because I'm being a Good Dad.' In fairness to him, he and Lily legitimately have a good time one on one, and Art may actually a bit better at 'empathy for lonely kids and respect for their personhood' (there's a bit of this in 'close your eyes') he just isn't going to exercise it when there's someone else there second guessing him.

About Lily herself, I think she's a pretty confident kid who's used to being the center of attention but also has a little too much of the precocious child who puts on a big personality for adults because she's mostly around adults. She has been known to declare tennis boring and stupid, and both parents are a bit scared of pushing her into a Sports childhood, but she likes gymnastics and dancing and Tashi can't help pointing out thst she's obviously naturally athletic which she is ready to leap on whenever LILY says it's HER idea. Also, as Patrick observes in 'Qualifying, ' she's actually a bit besotted by the idea of Mommy and Daddy playing together.

Thanks for this one!

Still taking asks in the inbox

[bacchuschucklefuck]

and! barbarian!fig! its her

[elftwink]

to preface this post i am anti-advertising i think we should explode the entire industry but it's sooo funny when you people make posts like "and they don't even work!!" like. sorry to be the bearer of bad news but yes they do. that's why we have to put up with so many despite everyone hating them and thinking its annoying. because they actually work really well and make a shit load of money

[pepperpixel]

+ Butch 4 Butch +

(Except neither one of them is rlly that butch but holy fUCKING SHIT THAT SONG IS LITERALLY THEM… the version of them I made up in my mind palace… it’s them.)

Anywayyyy. Yeah! Have a tagr art dump..! aka, those vibes when you, out of a series of moments of temporary insanity, end up finding, taking in, nursing back to health and eventually falling into a tangled messy yearning situationship w the asshole tsundere alien who tried to destroy your entire planet… rlly extremely relatable vibes!!