#but i really liked the novel so here i am

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

I have a genuine doubt about Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian’s relationship in the novel. (I just read your post about if a kid jc would defend a kid wwx, but has a little to do with that post).

I remember Jiang Cheng tried to defender Wei Wuxian from his mother, and later he even sacrificed himself for wwx, losing his core in the process. (If there’s more, I don’t remember. It’s been a time since I read the novel).

I really don’t understand why he sacrificed? I get that he thought Wei Wuxian was better than him, but… after everything he did, he just let people jeopardize Wei Wuxian in the end of his first life?…

It was a way to say “everything I owed you is paid”? Was he mad that he did that but in the end Wei Wuxian wasn’t “grateful” even never knowing what Jiang Cheng truly did?…

I think after Jiang Cheng lost his core to “protect” Wei Wuxian, he started to see wwx as a servant and nothing more. Before the attack we saw that they got along very well, but after it seemed like he started to agree more with his mother's ideas about Wei Wuxian being only a servant.

That’s why he was so mad that Jiang Yanli died defending him? He threw Jiang Yanli’s sacrifice away and lead a siege against Wei Wuxian anyway…

Not only he threw his relationship with Wei Wuxian away, but he did not respected his sister’s wish and choice. She knew something was wrong, that Wei Wuxian wouldn’t kill her husband for nothing, and Jiang Cheng didn’t trust her…

I am wrong? I really want your point of view about this. And I’m sorry if you already talked about it, I’m new here. Thank you!

Caring about others, is complicated. For as much as I'm called a hater and anti, I have never denied that Jiang Cheng cared (as lacking as that may have been in a significant way) for Wei Wuxian.

Jiang Cheng did care in some capacity for Wei Wuxian and try. He just didn't put up much effort in the long run to maintain that support when it was a detriment to himself and was spiteful when that care required effort and some sacrifices. Even when he "protected" Wei Wuxian from his mother he was still cowed by her threats to him, and let Wei Wuxian be whipped (and later turned to strangle Wei Wuxian, twice actually, and blame him for his parents deaths).

As for the core issue. Jiang Cheng never expected to give more than what he was expecting for Wei Wuxian. He did not willingly give his core and was resentful about that cost for protecting Wei Wuxian. It cannot be a kindness when he hated what it cost and lashed out years after. He always thought of Wei Wuxian as his servant first and foremost despite being "friends". That is what always would make them eventually part. Ideologically they are nothing alike and that was obvious as soon as their talk about servants children and Jiang Cheng dismissing their worth and ability. He threw his relationship away because he felt entitled to Wei Wuxian as a tool more than a friend. A friend does not have stipulations for their care and love especially when they start forming it as a debt of give and take.

[bi-one]

Hi hermitcraft/Life series/Grian Tumblr!

I’m kinda new to watching Grian and I’m kinda trying to understand some of the things I see here, like Grian being drawn as a Scarlet Macaw despite not having any indication of that on his skin?? Or the whole Watcher stuff?

Is this something where there’s a wiki I should read or like,,,a novel? I really don’t know where to start but also don’t want any super major spoilers if it’s like the climax of the season or something? I guess I thought there wasn’t really lore in this series and am just looking for a place to start

I almost exclusively watch Grian rn or collabs with him so maybe I’m just missing something from other videos? I’ve watched all of season 10 on his channel so far and and am starting 9 when I have some time

Literally anything will help I’m honestly so confused about the fanon ^-^”

Thanks!

[centrally-unplanned]

God, this is a very petty example but so on-point:

By Reid Hoffman and Greg Beato.  As you might expect, I am in synch with the basic message of this book. I received a review copy which on the front says “Tyler Cowen edition.”  There is a forward, made out to me personally and highly intelligent, relating the book to my own work.  There is then a gallery of images of me, very well done by AI image generators. This is all yet another way in which many books will change, I am all for the innovation.

Okay, so the people who wrote this book, sent you a review copy, with a forward customized to you via an AI tool. That is fine - only really valuable if you are someone with mountains of writing online to use as data, but w/e, that is a use case. And then they included AI generated images of you. For a nonfiction book about technology innovation.

What in Yudkowsky's name is the point of that?? Who wants pictures of themselves attached to random books?? Did you not already know that AI could generate images? What are you learning, what is the value-add here? I don't want books to be customized to me like that; that legitimately is something a crazy person would want.

But it is a gimmick, it is something that seems like it could not be doable before and therefore is impressive by default because effort was applied. Which is false by the way, in the past I could just use the internet to pull actual photos of you in the same way coded into the book. You just haven't seen that before because that is the act of a serial killer. If this was a horror novel, this could maybe work? Legitimately, AI is useful after all, I could see that passing muster. But his praise has no calibration to it, no judgement, just the syllogism AI = Good on loop. No wonder he is so impressed with AI tools; he has been degrading into one himself.

I think Tyler Cowen is kinda officially washed at this point. He still has many good individual takes, by no means a broken thinker. But there is just too much hype and meme stuff now, too much useless crud to churn through.

Obviously AI and the Trump Culture stuff is the biggest part. He was not a man who would positively link to ludicrous Trumpian shillcoin stuff by grifters in the past, but he does that now on the regular, with positive framings. AI is very impressive, but he links every progress report breathlessly, often with framings that are at odds with the actual text of the document. And again with a credulity towards people whose literal job is hyping their product he would not have previously had.

I have never once clicked on a link of his where he says "o1 pro comments" as he does so often now and learned anything - it is, incredibly reliably, either straight wrong with hallucinated facts, providing vague "list of possible ideas" with no actionable conclusion, or just 90% copying the wikipedia page for the topic. I started clicking the links intentionally, btw, to test this idea! I tracked 10 results, 0/10 that I thought added knowledge worth the cost. Not useless, 6/10 I thought were "slightly better than googling", but that is not results that match the tone.

Previously you could tell that he was essentially "compromised", like on crypto he has a bunch of investments there and so he essentially is boosting the product. Which, that is life, you just kinda ignored it. But he was on a series of podcast recently, like he had a blitz - and each one was incredibly mid. All simple, high-level answers to questions, never taking a thread and running with it, not even really engaging in conversation. And I know that he can do that, still? But he needs the inspiration, and now it is hard for him to find when previously it was always on call. (Tellingly, it comes out with his friends, old grooves reactivating)

So I don't think it is just shilling. Part of it is that he too emotional, he let the Culture War tiger out. He obviously just really hates the Dems at this point and very openly blogs partisanly when previously he made a point of goring both oxes. And the other part, sad to say, is that I think age might be hitting him a tad early. Honestly one's 60's aren't even rare for this, it is the default assumption that you stop pushing and settle into your rut at that point. Happens to us all, happening to him now.

Anyway, sort of an official notice my brain sent to myself that I am officially downgrading him on the reliability metric. He was absolutely in my Top 5 Bloggers for econ/policy for a long time; but all things come to an end.

[pharawee]

Do you believe in parallel worlds?

—THE BOY NEXT WORLD · คนละกาลเวลา · Episode 01

[licorishh]

no way she's alive ?? yea those mental health breaks because social media makes people suck are wild huh

[thatswhatsushesaid]

psa that the day there are no jgy stans left on tumblr dot com is the day i am dead

but rest assured i'll go to my grave exactly as i lived: obnoxiously proclaiming to everyone within earshot how great lianfang-zun is. narratively, metaphorically, spiritually. sexually, too, like why limit myself. i like to keep my options open

[myokk]

[thevegetablewhichnoonedaresname]

no one FREAKING understands jo march and friedrich bhaer the way i do

[lloydfrontera]

y'know what's funny in a 'not really funny at all but i have to laugh or i'll start biting people' kind of way??

the adaptation team working overtime to make the relationship between javier and lloyd look so much less deeper than it actually is in the novel makes the novel look so much gayer than it already did on its own. like. sorry but your attempts to cover up the homoerotism just makes it stand out more in its absence.

because if there truly was nothing remarkable about lloyd and javier's relationship and they were just very good friends and nothing else then why take the time and effort to change it in the adaptation so they look less close than they actually are.

why skip entire scenes that make their relationship deeper. why change their dialogue and thoughts so they're less invested in one another. why give interactions that they had with each other to their romantic interests. actually why give javier a whole new love interest that did not exist in the novel.

why go through so much trouble to change something that is so important in the source material if there truly was nothing else going on in the novel.

what was it about their relationship that made the adaptation team decide they just needed to change everything about it so they weren't as close and attached as they were originally.

if they were truly nothing but platonic with each other in the source material then why change their relationship so much in the adaptation that it's almost unrecognizable.

what about it did they find so unappealing that they simply had to modify it until it was but a shadow of itself.

in trying to cover up something they only managed to call attention to it by the people who knew what was there originally. now we know that they wanted to get rid of it so badly they were willing to butcher the story and plot for it.

it's really funny :)

[xxplastic-cubexx]

what is your favorite thing about charles and your favorite thing about erik? separately, as in what you like most about their characters :]

a devious question this one is, my friend!!! it's hard enough for me to explain my thoughts cohesively, but having to pick ONE thing i particularly love is difficult. with characters like charles and erik, theres been so much done with their characters over the decades and so they have so many components to them that make them so interesting and fun to observe. BUT I TRY FOR YOU TODAY. under the cut i kinda ramble and the size of this text box makin me anxious

i think if i were to be simple and broad, what i enjoy most about charles is his determination to help others, even if he isn't really thanked and/or if people don't even like him. ofc, this isn't to say he hasn't done wrong- to be honest, the fact he does wrong/questionable things at times is another aspect of him i really enjoy, maybe because- broadly speaking- he's meant to be altruistic (intent vs outcome and all that). i don't know if that's super exciting to most people, but it is for me

as for erik, my reason for liking him is easier to explain tbh. To Be Simple And Broad, his progression from villain to antihero over the decades has been fun to observe (as much as i have so far anyhow) and analyze. i think to be a bit more specific, him using his rage and pain as justifications for his villainous actions is definitely what compels me the most: hurt people hurt and the sort, an idea i've always found interesting (something something vicious cycles and the like). yet now, he recognizes this wasn't really. A Just Thing To Do and is beginning to change that, which i enjoy

[clover-46]

the writers on here making the miguel fics need to remember his fangs inject paralytic venom hes not a real vampire it was just a joke in the movie 😭

oh but i still want him to bite me don’t get me wrong idgaf if they have venom 🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Charlie Tangaroa and the God of War

book 2 in a middle grade series about a boy whose father is a Ponaturi (sea-goblin)

charlie and his brother are back living their normal lives - until a visiting scientist is stabbed in a local campground, right before a meeting between iwi and the government over local resources

they try to investigate and quickly learn that Whiro, atua of chaos is involved, sowing discord between various groups, and they have to figure out a way to solve things before anyone else gets hurt

cover & illustrations by yours truly!

[dailykugisaki]

Day 217 | id in alt

She's a county girl, Inumaki. Give her a break.

(Right to left💥)

[thewhizzyhead]

The floor is now open for suggestions for video games that are story driven or fun that Do Not Require Too Many Brain Cells or Do Not Take Too Much Fucking Time To Complete (I.e. baldur's gate 3)

editor's note: OKAY FINE I WANT GAMES LIKE HI FI RUSH THERE

[chi-the-idiot]

Im sorry, I lied, we aren't watching Netflix tonight. Let me tell you my ideas for an Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi rewrite

Lemme start with wasted character potential #1, mother herself, Karen.

The reason

It is not common at all in fantasy books for parents to participate in their children's adventures. For obvious reasons, really: parents would not allow their kids to be put in any danger, thus it is easier for them to not appear in the story at all, or even be the thing that the kids are chasing after in the first place.

That last one is exactly what happens in book 1, Karen is kidnapped and the kids need to save her. But unlike other stories, where "saving mom" is the end goal, Emily and Navin end up saving Karen in book 2 out of 9. And not only that, Karen insists on staying with her children in Alleida until they finish what they started.

Let me explain why this is so important, aside from the general subversion of the genere: Amulet, at its core, is a tale of grief. A family rattled by the tragic and horrific death of a father. The three of them are broken, in many different ways, but they insist on staying together no matter what.

If the topic was tackled properly, this could have been a story that explored all the different facets of grief and how a family tries to overcome its hurt. How you can rebuild yourself up from what may appear as the bottom of a well if you reach out for those who love you for support. How you don't need to suffer alone.

With Karen, this could have been especially interesting. If Kazu hadn't based his story on the idea of "kids parenting their parents", an interesting point could've been made. After all, Karen shouldn't rely on her kids to provide her emotional support at such a young age. She could, however, learn to open up about her pain to make them understand that they are not alone, while she also makes her own connections to the world around her.

So. How exactly would I do that?

Focus a little bit on Karen's past. Make her have a personality and purpose outside of "Mom"

Give Karen her own storyline and character arc paralel yet separate from her kids

Focus on Karen's own grief and loss, how she has carried the burden of her guilt for so many years, yet put on a front of strength for the sake of her kids.

The Idea

Just as Emily is "The Stonekeeper" and Navin is "The Recistence's Leader", Karen should also have a role. Personally, I decided to give her that of "The Messenger".

Karen, in the books, has been characterized in a way I can only describe as stereotypically "motherly": she's caring, understanding, and tries to offer support whenever she can. She might not be very open in the begining, but once she talks with a character a bit more she has been shown to become more trusting. These ideas are not expanded upon any more, so we dob't really get much information about her character aside from that.

I, personally, chose to take that idea and reshape it into Karen being the more "friendly/comunicative" of the group. Although yes, Navin is shown to be more charismatic, there is something to be said about friendship that is formed due to a building up of trust over time.

As a result, I have come up with the following concept:

Karens journey is one in which she learns to rely on other friends for help, that she doesn't need to carry her burdens and face the world on her own while putting on a mask for her children.

On the other hand, Karen also learns that her children are growing up, and they will need to know that they are not alone either. It is her job as their mother to teach this to them.

And in my opinion, the best way this could be potrayed was if Karen started writing to those she met on this journey. Sharing their experiences with those they left behind, communicating the situation in far away nations to others. Being the conection between locations.

And so, in the end, when the battle is about to start, she writes one last message to those old friends, asking for support in the conflict, thinking that she will recieve no answer. Only to be then met the following evening with entire towns worth of troops waiting to help.

Because Karen may not have powerful magic. Or the knowledge to pilot entire ships. But she does have the written word and the ability of forming conections. And that power, sometimes, is as strong as an entire army.

[cuteniarose]

The consequences of my poor financial decisions are here!!