#but what if i do this and he comes out and ive totally mischaracterized him...?!

[ivohex]

would it be crazy to do prompts for lads men and include caleb 🤪🤪

[etoilesbienne]

out of curiosity, what are the common qEtoiles mischaracterizations, and the accurate characterizations you wished people used more? Sincerely, an English speaking fan who is re-learning French!

honestly i kind of consider it a mischaracterization when people like... make etoiles into this team leader who always knows what to do and move things forward. or like that he has a bad attitude to like... match his fighting skills. or like the dark knight brooding warrior. he says he is these things. these are lies. he lies about himself constantly. i wouldnt trust a good 2/3 of the things he says about himself to be true. you read him clearer through his actions than his statements.

in my opinion etoiles is more like. sturdy second in command. he's not there to lead, he's there to fill in the holes where they pop up. he's there as cover. he's quick witted in shortchange scenarios, but that is so not the same thing as a genuine strategist. in another expression, if someone is a leader, the leader is a doctor, etoiles's role is more like... the EMS team in an ambulance. He's not there to fix your problem, he's there to keep your problem covered until you can get someone else to fully fix it. but that doesn't mean his role is any less important when he's needed.

Etoiles is also, like, so very much a team player if he respects and trusts a person. And it is so easy to have his respect and trust. His trust starts at 100% for everyone. he's also so very very very good at reading people (gesture to the bbh clip where bbh moves his mouse slightly downward and etoiles calls him out on being depressed). He read Mousey as enjoying dungeons and pvp way more and wanting to hang out with her. He's also one of the only people who like continuously runs in the girlies group and makes all of them pvp with him and they all love it so he keeps coming back to pvp with them. Thats how he started his whole thing with Tina and pvping with her constantly. Reading other people also, he loves finding other pvpers so he attacks roier constantly now bc he knows roier can pvp.

What else OH Etoiles loves whining (and this is because Rayou loves whining) that dude will just complain constantly. You haven't seen an etoiles stream if youve never seen him whine. Can't say I'm not kind of endeared by it. With this too he loves over explaining things (RIP armor powerpoint wish you couldve been given...) because he wants to help everyone....

OH and he's very over exaggerated too in replying to people in a complaining way and a self deprecating way and also likes to try to push the envelope with people and he does all of that to try and get a laugh out of others. like he's well aware people find him going "Oh so you don't give a shit about me and want me to die ? you want etoiles to die ?" fucking hilarious and also loves complaining in the first place thats why he does that. if your etoiles isn't complaining and whining then it isn't etoiles. the self deprecating thing is... its interesting bc he does have full faith in his abilities but will never say it out loud unless its trying to reassure someone who is worried. pushing the envelope is so specific he won't do it too much and its like........... from what ive seen (correct me if im wrong) heavily directed at non francophones where if they laugh at something wack he's done he'll try to do it again to make them laugh more. shoutout to the time he made bbh laugh so much when he cursed he didn't get languaged by bbh so he kept cursing to try to make bbh do it again. the dudes a total people pleaser.

smaller thing ive talked about extensively already (u can prob find it in my q!etoiles tag if i remember i'll edit a link to the posts in here soon lol) etoiles hates losing he looooooves winning he's very intense about it lol. its cute!

on a final note even if you don't become deeply unwell about etoiles like i am i think this highlight clip video has like everything he's like condensed into like 11 minutes. You should watch it. It's a good starting point.

[wrongcaitlyn]

about your series dear reader, will we ever get to see Nico having a collab or featured song in the future... heehe... love your work btw

thank u for the ask!! and thank u for reading i’m so glad you like it <3 i’ve actually thought abt this quite a bit!! the thing with collabs, is that either i could use an irl celebrity, or i could make a character a celebrity and make them work with nico—so here are my thoughts on both options:

1) a real celebrity - i try to stay away from involving real life people in the fic, as in interactions, because i don’t know any of those people irl and i would hate to, like, mischaracterize someone or write positively abt someone who eventually gets revealed to be like a shitty person, yk? the most i’ve ever done, i think, is that one time i mentioned nico taking a picture with lorde - but even then, it wasn’t him talking abt her, it was just a picture that was posted. that, and the absurd amount of taylor swift name drops that i have, which i will never stop😭

basically, though i have considered it (my mind is literally CONSTANTLY imagine collabs of nico and other celebs/other songs), i literally have a playlist of them, i don’t think i would ever include it in the fic. simply bc of the concerns mentioned above :/

(however, i would like everyone to know that ive been imagining nico as a surprise guest on the rep tour, and having him featured on rep tv, for like- literally as long as ive had this au in my head. ill never write him collating with taylor (bc again idk i just feel strange writing abt real ppl) but in my head, it’s canon)

2) creating a new celeb - this one is hard, pretty much bc i’m… out of characters.

like, i still HAVE characters to use, but i already have plans for most of them and a majority of them aren’t actually part of the music industry. i could justify a collab between alex and nico bc she’s like the only music person i have written, but i also don’t wanna force that

if i ever do, which i doubt, bc i don’t have any plans to at the moment, it’ll be a pjo character, i just don’t have any idea of who that would be :/

oh and! last reason why i’m hesitant to add a collab - i feel like nico writing music is so engrained with him working with apollo as a producer, and their studio dynamic. obviously, it’s good to step out of your comfort zone, but i think that it’s also some sense of caution and comfort between them, that they’re the same people who will work on every nico di angelo song and album.

either way, i have seven albums outlined in total. the time span of greatest of luxuries goes from 2018-2024. that may be subject to change, but im feeling pretty confident abt it (it used to be 2028 btw😭) and anything PAST that time range is completely up to the reader!! i have lots of ideas of what could happen beyond that seventh album, and i have an idea (and a playlist) of the eighth album, but i can definitely imagine a lot of features in the future as he branches out. (and also him on rep tv. or ttpd. will update when ttpd comes out if i think there’s a specific song he’d slay as a feature on)

and lastly, for features. yes. he is on the hunger games tbosas soundtrack bc i say so‼️

(i imagine yellow flicker beat by lorde, even tho that was written for mockingjay, i just feel like it fits his vibe, but also, can’t catch me now works perfectly too)

[yj-98]

What kind of character to people think tim is??

hi <3 this was generally directed at a kind of "tim" that i see people disliking. whiny insecure specialest guy in the room that hes often mischaracterized as where hes apparently got nothing better to do other than be like. miserable to be around. usually at the detriment of like. jason/steph/damian i guess. (characters i genuinely adore btw 😭 so i hate "pitting" them against each other in a fandom way i think its so stupid)

i see it mostly in fanwork and the general impression people get when they havent like. read much. of what hes in. and i was specifically talking abt people ive seen who said they cant be bothered in the first place! so like ofc their views of him are skewed

and to be fair if you read what hes in and came away with that thats so fair im being 100% genuine. i am the last person to police people on whether or not they have to like a fictional character i promise 😭 i just want people to hate that guy for like. legitimate things hes said and done <3 ... if you are neutral on him or dislike him we can be friends i prommy. i have mutuals who dont even like him that much and they apparently put up with me (ty <3)

anyways ofc. reading is open to anyones interpretations. like you can read a character and come away w/ a totally different impression than i!! that is the . basic understanding of subjective opinion. so. idk. what im trying to say is that theres a certain like... purposeful mischaracterization of him that feels like its just . out of bad faith that bothers me. hence the post. idk if that made any sense anyways ty for asking i think

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

HII im new here and i LOVE the way u write 😭😭🫶🫶 trust me when I say that when I stumbled upon ur prince!gojo fic i fell to my knees. The way u wrote about his devotion and feelings for the knight 🥹🥹🥹🥹 ITS SO GOOD i read some of Ur other fics and the way u write suguru is so perfect like i don't usually read suguru fics cause ppl usually tend to mischaracterize him but U WROTE HIM SO PERFECTLY and im here to just appreciate ur writing and ask if there are any books or films that inspired the way u write? Genuinely curious 🙏🙏

ANON 🥺🥺🥺😭😭 u r the absolute SWEETEST welcome to my silly lil blog!!!!! i cant tell u how much it means to get messages like this and knowing that ppl enjoy my writing T_T thank u so so much!! <333

and wahh!! the fact that u like how i characterize sugu is also such an honour to me…. ive said this before but i rly do think hes so complex and multifaceted so it means a lot to know ppl enjoy my version of him 🥺🥺

AND AND AND…… we are so linked anon. i was literally JUST thinking abt different writing sources that inspire me (bc there are a Lot psjdjs)……. 

i think that just in general i try to emulate the kind of writing that i like the most!! so my writing style is probably like… just one big patchwork of every book/movie/game ive ever loved LMAO. but here are a couple of the most prominent!! 

first off all… poetry!!! :D a lot of books have probably inspired me too but i think poetry especially!!! since its usually so full of imagery its just become a super big inspo source…. :’3 some of my absolute fave poets are frank bidart, clementine von radics, AAAAAAND richard siken <333 hes my favorite ever and inspires me sm. my fave poetry collection of his is war of the foxes literally every single poem in it is so jjk coded ……

aaaa but also…. poetry aside!! i love kurt vonnegut a lot. his writing is so nice!!!!!! i recommend him a ton!!!!!!!! 

AAAAND honestly anon…….. my biggest inspiration source ever ever ever when it comes to writing is disco elysium!!!!!!! its my fave game and honestly probably just my favorite writing source in general? if u havent played it or watched someone play it pls do urself a favor and do so….. the writing is so earth-shatteringly good and pretty it makes me jealous. it’s such a genuinely funny game too (but also so so heartfelt!!!)…. gosh. i love disco elysium like i love nothing else in this universe.

if u play it and then read my fics its GLARINGLY obvious how much its affected my writing i think psjdjd 😭😭 here r some quotes from it for reference!! they’re so good it makes me cryyy

the last dream will be total annihilation. cinders peeling off the fuselage.

a white mourning. a modern death. divorce, or something similar. all you can do is put more distance between you and him, make him smaller. make him less *you*.

”every combination of words has been played out. the atoms don't form us anymore: us, our love, our unborn daughters…”

”where *are* we, lieutenant kitsuragi?” ”in elysium,” he replies, “behind our eyes. like all human beings, detective. (…) the world is what it is. i’m glad to see you’re stable. keep it that way.”

SORRY im just. so genuinely obsessed w this game psjfjdj i seriously could not recommend it enough!!!!

aaaa but what abt u anon??? do u have any sources that inspire u? or general recommendations? 👀👀 i would love to hear em if so!!! <33

[palmett-hoes]

what's your take on the foxes mbti?

oh buddy ur never gonna believe this but i wrote a foxes MBTI post YEARS ago

im also not into mbti anymore and haven't been for many years so that post is probably still more accurate and in-depth than what i could give you now. i’m just gonna copy the whole thing but i read it over and it still totally vibes w how i understand the characters, like way more than i was expecting it to. i only made one edit (it’s marked) and it was to add a detail not change anything

i hope you’re really really into mbti otherwise this’ll probably be gobbeldegook

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i used to be obessively into mbti so here’s an analysis based on cognitive functions mostly.

SKIP IF YOU WANT. for anyone with no idea how it works, here’s a quick rundown: cognitive functions are about the way people think, process, and prioritize information, not necessarily how they act, though people who think the same way often act the same. the 8 letters that make up a type represent how people process and prioritize internal and external stimuli. every letter actually has an ‘internal’ and 'external’ form so there’s Thinking (internal(ti) and external(te)), Feeling (internal(fi) and external(fe)), Sensing (internal(si) and external(se)), and iNtuition(internal(ni) and external(ne)) t’s always go with a corresponding and opposite f (like ti and fe always go together), same with s’s and n’s (ex: si and ne always go together). a set of  t, f, s, and n in a specific order makes an mbti type.

neil: intp (ti ne si fe)

neil has incredible analytical ability although it’s very programmed for survival but he’s also a fast thinker and very quick to adapt to new environments. he also approaches things from original angles that other people dont consider, all that sounds like high ti/ne. the lower functions fit well too. in times of stress, he returns to old habits and falls back on what’s familiar, that’s classic low si. his emotions are also very exterior. he’s bad with other people from lack of exposure, but he’s committed to harmony between those close to him and has an impeccable ability to read the emotional states of others while being completely oblivious of his own, and his sense of self is tied to exterior things like exy, friends, keys, and legal documents (lol) that’s fe

andrew: intj (ni te fi se)

ni is really hard to describe but it has to do with being able to draw conclusions from scattered input, which fits with andrew’s uncanny ability to spot lies and obsession with finding out the truth, especially with high te, which is about spatial order and logic, think of how prioritized he is with the physical order of things: who sits where, who wears what, etc. a lot of people want to make andrew infj i bet as like a “subversive reading” but he’s definitely not. i used to be really close to an infj and they have hyper-empathy, as in she would describe not just caring about other people and being able to read their emotional states but literally feeling the things the people around her felt. this is a common result of the ni/fe combo, and the reason why andrew is definitely not infj. tertiary fi fits very well instead because andrew is deeply attuned to his own inner emotional state. he’s self-confident and doesn’t care about other people’s perception of him, but he’s also very concerned with his own feelings and understanding them, even if they’re repressed. he’s also very aware of his physical surroundings, which plays into his deductive ability, although it’s not his focus. that’s low se

kevin: estj (te si ne fi)

kevin is a classic estj. he’s controlling, demanding, and driven. he tries to control the actions of those around him and gets very distressed when things dont run smoothly, as well as having strong feelings about improving efficiency. high te people make great managers. kevin’s whole story arc is about breaking old habits, which is a very si problem. it has to do with trusting and craving memory and familiarity, and explains kevins need for endless repetition. he’s innovative, though, coming up with new strategies and drills (ne), it’s just based on what’s already familiar, and you can see him spiral into creating all possible worst-case scenarios when he’s stressed (low ne stress reaction, they like to be prepared). finally, he’s a dick, but he cares about other people and wants to improve their lives, as well as being very reliant on other people’s perceptions of him to define his own self-image (low fe)

dan: esfj (fe si ne ti)

dan’s top priority, over everything else, is her team. she wants her team to improve, she wants her team to win, she wants her team to work together. it’s all about the collective. we also see that she’s very open with others and makes a lot of effort to both make new ties and maintain old ones, that’s high fe. she’s sentimental and attached to the past too (si)  esp the photo wall, but we also see her very unwilling to let go of the past ie the monsters but eventually willing to change and grow to mend team cohesion (ne). we also see the fight in underlying logic (low ti) with her: she knows the team needs the monsters to cooperate but she cant figure out how to do it

matt: enfj (fe ni se ti)

so enfj’s experience infj hyper-empathy too, but to a slightly lesser extent (primary fe is more group cohesion, secondary fe is more understanding others), and through this we see matt’s easy-going open friendliness and ability to befriend even prickly little neil, because he has an extremely good sense of what other people are feeling and need, it also explains why he doesn’t hold a grudge against the cousins in the same way dan does, because he understands where they were coming from. se is associated with a general boisterousness for life, as it’s about experiencing the world around you, which explains matt’s happy-go-lucky disposition and puppydog behavior. the ti aspects mostly go into supporting fe/ni empathic senses

allison: entj (te ni se fi)

i mean, allison’s controlling, both in that she orders other people around and in that her physical being and space are very planned and organized (her clothes, her hair, her makeup, etc) but at the same time there isn’t much sentimentality to her, like how she doesn’t care when her car was destroyed. she easily replaces things because she cares about the object’s purpose, not its history and that all smacks of high te/ni. and i mean, the se definitely contributes to her love of designer things and killer looks, because she cares about the world immediately around her, and why live if not in luxury? and fi? is there any character more aggressively self-confident than allison reynolds?? going against her parents’ wishes for her takes a really strong, independent sense of self, but we also see the problems that can come from not worrying about other people, in how she starts fights and can be abrasive and catty

renee: infp (fi ne si te)

okay this one was really hard tbh. a list of other considerations: isfp, istp, and infj. it’s very easy to read renee as high fe because she’s kind, but i think it’s a mischaracteration of why she’s kind. it’s not because it comes naturally to her, it’s because it’s a conscious choice that makes her feel better about herself. high fi people often read as fe because they’re so comfortable with themselves and in tune with their own needs that they can then go and provide for others. i associate her religion with ne, because contemplation and acceptance of the divine later in life is a very metaphysical undertaking that undoubtedly requires a lot of abstract thought. renee’s storyline also revolves a lot around using things from her past and putting a conscious effort into leaving things from her past behind (how she still uses the skills she learned from her past in new ways ie sparring with andrew and protecting the upperclassmen v/s how she held on to her knives even when she knew it was detrimental to her moving on) this sounds like si. her protective instincts also feed into the te need for order, but it’s a looser leash than say andrew, as it’s lower on her function stack but still present

nicky: esfp (se fi te ni)

godd nicky is like a prototypical esfp. i mean nicholas “sex, drugs, and parties” hemmick cant be anything but se dominant. nicky is all about living it up and living in the moment. like he’s sporadic and ive seen it lead people to think he could be enfp but he doesn’t think enough about the meaning of things to be ne dominant (like how he makes somewhat predatory jokes and such, he’s all about the here-and-now while ne is about the past and future simultaneously). also he of all characters has incredibly prominent fi, as his whole character is about living unashamedly as himself as a gay man and the immense self-awareness and inner strength it takes not only to come out to unaccepting parents but also to leave and start a new life when they rejected him. however, fi is also indicative of his communication problems with his family, as he’s unable to tell that the cousins are fundamentally different from him in their needs and boundaries, leading him to pushing them, making them uncomfortable, and being unable to help them, because he’s unable to understand them. the rest are much more hidden, but a party boy shopaholic like nicky would probably need some amount of te order in like an organized chaos fashion (and he’s often headcanoned as liking to throw parties) and you do see him become somewhat pushy, even controlling in those scenarios. ni is the hardest but could maybe be seen in how he’s attuned to the cousins reactions for all that he cant predict them/doesn’t do anything on his own part to prevent them (the way he handles andrew is like if someone poked a rattlesnake knowing damn well what it would do and then freaked out when he got bit)

aaron: istj (si te fi ne)

im a little iffy on this one and worry it might be an analysis based on his trauma instead of complimentary to it, but aaron’s arc is about breaking out of his habit of holding on to the past. he refuses to work towards moving on from his mother’s death, refuses to listen to things that contradict his preconceived notions, and refuses to make changes in his life that could improve it. that’s unhealthy si. he’s really a very unhealthy istj, and most of his traits manifest through his unhappiness with his life. take his te. that would imply that he needs control over his surroundings, but aaron is incredibly bitter and unhappy BECAUSE he doesn’t have control of his surroundings. he doesn’t get to make his own choices, he doesn’t get to control his space, and he hates it. his relationship with katelyn is also indicative of being an istj. it’s stable, not a passionate fling, but aaron is mocked for wanting that white picket fence, married with kids in the suburbs kind of life, and his relationship, which is his primary source of happiness, is built on stability, which is a very si thing to do. in terms of fi, it is aaron that ultimately forces change between himself and andrew. he may have been pushed but he ultimately came down to him knowing what made him happy and what made him miserable and acting on that. also, he’s an ornery asshole who clearly doesn’t care what other people think of him. fi. i dont really have anything to say in terms of ne, probably because he’s so unhealthy but also because he’s not too explored. heyy istj’s make great doctors

wymack: isfj (si fe ti ne)

okay this one was genuinely the hardest to decide on but ultimately i came to the conclusion that wymack, much like renee, is such a developed person that he loses many defining traits of the functions, and can be read in many different ways. so: wymack’s primary goal is the safety and betterment of other people (ie his team). he wants to help people overcome their pasts, which is a very atypical approach to si, but is si nonetheless. on a personal level, too, he’s never able to move on from people, and specifically never moved on from kayleigh,  continuing their shared dream of an exy team for abused kids long after her death. as ive said before, fe in a secondary position is about deep understanding of other people, and wymack’s ability to understand what other people are struggling through is legendary. the ti mostly serves as support to the fe, serving as the analytical backup in allowing him to understand others. as for ne: he is most definitely an innovator with unusual ideas, or the foxes wouldn’t exist

riko: estp (se ti fe ni)

riko is basically what happens when an estp goes bad down to the core. he’s obsessed with personal glory and immediate self-fulfillment (se) he has no impulse control or fear of consequences. interestingly, high se is often associated with athleticism, because high se people are intensly focused on their surroundings (exy). his ti is also super unhealthy as he gets obsessed with ideas that dont really work with objective reality, like his obsession with ownership and power dynamics despite them not actually being efficient, even backwards. the tertiary fe he uses to manipulate. he doesn’t empathize with others, but he can tell their emotional state and what’s important to them, and uses it to coerce them and destroy their sense of self, like how he knew he could get neil to the nest by threatening andrew. EDIT: /additionally, fe people especially in the lower half of the function stack tend to derive their sense of self from the perceptions of others around them, which riko very much shows in how he needs to be acknowledged as the best and won’t allow any competition for his title, as well as his desperation for acknowledgement from his family/. finally, that ni allowed him to keep multiple plans in place focused on one ultimate goal: getting kevin back. the sheer amount of schemes he sets up in order to fool and push people the way he wants is honestly kinda impressive, but he’s a toxic shithead and im glad he’s rotting. definitely not representative of all estp’s

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this is honestly SO funny to read back a few years later bc HOOOOO boy was i way too into this stuff. and this was written a couple years after my Peak MBTI Obsession, which was honestly scary

[tapsoda]

stocean says something great about both jotaro and jolynes characters. jotaro being the type that takes all the weight onto his own shoulders. even if it means his kid will hate him he wants to make that sacrifice for her safety. when it doesn’t work and she gets used as bait to trap him he goes there anyway. it’s plain (and painful) to see in his actions that he fundamentally believes he is responsible for everything.

jolyne has every right to hate the man that abandoned her. he’s barely a father. but what gets me about her is that the moment jotaro (standless) tells her he’s always cared about her something inside her snaps. she is fundamentally loving and forgiving and there lies her strength. i’m not implying that he is Immediately Totally Forgiven, more talking about the fact that it would have been so easy to abandon him and just go but at that moment jolyne decides she will fight with everything she has to get him back. i think that trait of hers deserves so much more praise. also something something about jotaro jolyne being similar here that i can’t put into words

do i wish the story had been written better? did jotaro and jolyne deserve better writing + could they have benefitted from more continuity? absolutely. but jojo being the action battle manga or whatever that it is i kind of get why jolyne wasn’t put into the story earlier … but these aspects of jotaro’s character have always been here!!! they are only expanded upon! and they both are so interesting. this is more of a ramble than it is a cohesive ask but i could talk at length about them forever … what i mean to say here is i rly appreciate seeing those thoughts from u

OH MY GOD EXACTLY. no literally stocean is so impactful for its reliance on the past of the characters from parts ago, its interesting to see how the relationships play out through actions more than words. because thats just so fitting for two characters who are stubborn and closed off from each other, but coming from a place of this same mutual feeling of love and confliction. its not just "oh she loves her dad" or "oh he loves his daughter" they both have "BUT-" at the end of those statements

like you said, sooooooo true!!! i think jolyne hating the man who abandoned her is so justified and important to her character, it shaped her as a person, its inseparable to her strength while still being a weakness to her. LIKE GOD IDK HOW TO SAY THIS BUT YEAH WHEN HE TELLS HER HE ALWAYS CARED? the way she snaps up and you just SEE how her relationship changes with him after that. not immediate or completely forgiven or anything like that but you see that drive she had to get him to notice her (years of small crime yadda yadda) come back up and go "oh." like she cares, she cares a LOT about him and what he thinks!! she could have left him like he asked her to (OW) and gotten on the submarine but she stuck to saving him. ive seen ppl say b4 “ugh why he wasnt even in her life, why be there for him” and im like.... stunned by how bad the mischaracterizations people will have for jjba? because it only makes sense for jolyne to risk everything to get him back. i really do think her ability to love and keep going for others out of hope and forgiveness deserves SO much more praise and recognition too!!! its a character strength u dont see done very often especially done well... and its still a gradual thing too which is rlly neat to see her constantly have moments where ppl will bring up shes doing all this for jotaro and shell be shocked at herself for a second IDK I JUST FIND THAT SO REFRESHING... 

with continuity i get why she wasnt brought up sooner too because retconning and pt4 already had a lot going on i guess they didnt wanna have a subplot of conflicted jotaro with his child back in america, but i still wish it was talked about more pre-stoncean BUT THESE APSECTS ABOUT JOTARO HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THERE !!! i think thats why hes one of my favorites just because of the amount of time the series gave him to develop. like looking at sdc jotaro and stocean jotaro isnt as shocking of a change solely because he was given time in sdc and diu to be expanded upon for his new solemness and distance. i think its heart wrenching how he probably wants to be a dad, or just present in general in relationships but he knows hes just not meant to be. he doesnt doubt the fact that everything is his fault. “its always me.” LIKE!  i will never understand the arguement ppl use that hes selfish for real cuz his whole thing is just..... disappearing so no one has to deal with his “curse”, which doesnt sound selfish at all in context of the plot/mindset. hell in diu he literally almost dies every episode hes in and hes so willing to if itll help those around him. him and jolyne both have this sort of unspoken devotion to being dependable and reliable when it comes down to it!! UM TYSM FOR SENDING THIS YOURE SO GOOD AT PUTTING IT INTO WORDS IDK WHAT TO SAY OTHER THAN I AGREE W U SOOO MUCH. and that i appreciate you caring for what i had to say about it !!! its soooo important to me so this made me smile kjfkvj 

[cosmosrival]

Rico besides Kama what do you think about the other indian servants?????

AHHHHHHHHHH THIS IS GOING TO GET SOOOO LONG!!!! i have a different view of the indo fam as a whole. i call them the indo fam but i mean the found family trope!!!! theyre like a group of college students sharing a dorm if that makes sense, since their servant selves are obviously different from their initial myths/human vessels!!!

OK SO. RECENTLY, i have an oomf that found books about arjuna that summarize his exploits in the mahabharata(I DONT HAVE THE STRENGTH TO READ IT ALL IM SO SORRY) and also talk about him in a more philosphical manner such as his states of mind during each event etc and i’ve been meaning to read said book because im genuinely interested in arjuna now!!! and i’d like to know more about this indo prince because from what i’ve seen, he is portrayed in a rather bad light(?) in FGO which i find extremely !!!!!!!!!!! and incrdibley !!!!!!! strange !!!!!!! the mahabharata’s conflicts can be put in a mostly grey area where there’s no good nor bad, its not black and white. so seeing arjuna get bashed because of the way his conflict with karna was written is... hm. let’s say that im REALLY starting to understand arjuna fans that dislike seeing him get mischaracterized so much. OTHER THAN THAT, his design is adorable, his travel outfit is my favourite because he deserves to relax and have some fun!!! fgo making him a chuuni is cute and his VAs little moans are cute cute cute!!!!!!!!!!! (mash grabs my shoulder and forces me to sit down) i think that arjuna deserves better and im really happy to see him have fun in his travel costume voicelines. i think we should take arjun on a date!!! he’s a great lover, we’d have the best time!! OH ALSO, kama seeing him as the student council president in their interlude makes me SOOOOOOO HAPPY its unreal, i think it fits him very very well, the seitokaichou who was elected because of everyone’s hopes and recommended by teachers because he’s suuuch a good student but because of that, the pressure to be good is constantly towering over his head and everytime he looks out the window he wishes he could ditch class and skip a day just because he felt like going to the arcade and be a bad student.......just this once........i think hes very very cute...... i want him to cook for me. HAVE YO U READ HIS BOND 4 VOICELINE ?mmmmmggg i want him to get embarrassed everytime i praise him for having such a muscular waistline. AUG

ANEWAYS i also have quite the thoughts about karna, his characterization in the game is linked to arjuna’s and thats fine but i think that forgetting how much of a little sassy bastard he can get was a mistake! did you know that in apocrypha’s german dub on netflix, when jeanne calls his name like “You’re Karna, aren’t you ? The son of the Indian Sun God !” HES LIKE “So ?” AND THAT WAS SOOOO BITCHY OF HIM, i think that karna is a good boy in fgo but the fact that he was such a fighty old man in the mahabharata shouldnt be forgotten and is a charm trait. I MEAN ???? HE THREW HANDS WITH AN 18 YEAR OLD(ARJUN) WHILE BEIN LIKE... THIRTY TWO. WHATS WITH THIS ANNOYING OLD MAN !!!!! knowing these little facts about him made me like him so much more actually !! i think karna being so nice is adorable!! but the little bitchy energy u can find in his voicelines is also very charming!! i think karna looking at me emotionless as i ask him to lend me his notes for the nth time that week and then saying “...Mn.” when i thank him is cute!!! his voiceline towards things he dislikes is interesting to me. karna seeming aloof and mean bc he doesnt know how to communicate but is actually nice underneath...... hey... thats a little delinquentcore........ i wouldnt say yankii but hes like... hes like... u know hes the handsome quiet one of the group of yankiis... u know the one...? hey where are you going

ganesha is also a character im deeply interested in but i havent played CCC so i dont know that many details about jinako herself !! my brain goes HMMMMMM it seems lord ganesha is trans in fgo ! (since kama used to be a male god originally as well!!) ganesha uses all pronouns!!! and ganesha is also special to me because they share similar traits with kama when it comes to their characterization AND mischaracterizations. ganesha isnt JUST jinako. theres a part of a god in the servant mix!!! and jinako HERSELF is actually a pretty sad character imo. the whole otaku/neet thing is obviously a facade and her true wish being that she wants to redo her whole life is also proof of how much she hates what shes become, yet at the same time, she doesnt know what else she could do. but anyways, i prefer looking at servants from a lore POV so i think that ganesha should still be considered a god and be adressed as such!! i like seeing people portray ganesha as jinako but i prefer it when a certain lavish more godly side of them is put forward. a side of jinako that managed to move on a little bit if that makes sense ? that got more serious. and became someone else entierly despite sharing similarities. needless to say their bond with karna makes me happy since he shows them respect as you should towards a god!! its a bit different from their bond in CCC... like they matured somewhat!! anyway ganesha is the one who taught everyone else in the indo fam about video games and technology and i will NEVER shut up.

ashwatthama..... MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM %_’(’ç_”’è_ç(è_’”545656455456545453£¨¨µ¨µMµ¨++°=)=)°+ goodness. jesus christ on earth. my love story with him makes me so embarrassed. when he got revealed i instantly fell in love with him despite knowing JACK SHIT ABOUT HIM but since i was the only one in my friend group who was hardcore into fgo at the time, i kept my love for him to myself and just... (looks away)(i drop my wallet full of picturses of him) quietly adored his everything in silence. WELL, ree having an intense crush on yankii type characters isnt new, its been my favourite trope for ages (gyarus go in hand with them!!) and im still very attached to it so thats what made me love him in the first place!!!! BUT THEN. I GOT INTO HIS MAHABHARATAN LORE. And OHHHHHHHHH BABY.......... (im twirling my hair) so theres this 7ft tall war criminal..........<3<33<3(mash leans in and informs me that the convention of geneva didnt exist at the time) SO THERES THIS 7 FTTALL IMMORTALMAN.......<233 gOD he makes me absolutely CRAZY9909840385%£%%£%%µ%µ%µ the love i have for this character is immense and whenever im sad i remember that pako exists and has a tablet and can draw and i suddenly feel so much better. ok im gonna stop horny posting a little bit. but hes my wife. AND WHAT I LOVE ABOUT HIS PORTRAYAL IN FGO IS THAT, they actually made him a good boy despite his initial roughness and misdeeds ???!!! HELLO?? ashwatthama wishing for a redemption ark is my favourite thing and his righteousness that was born because of his regrets is a very interesting drivepoint to me !!! hes a gorgeous character and im buying a ticket plane as we speak right now so i can go find him in northern india. i’ll find him. GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME !!!!!GET OFF ME !!!

miss lakshimi makes me very sad! because every female servant in the indo fam is an already known face. (... would sita count.) and lakshi being a jeanneface is a waste. well, she’s still very pretty and her lore is also quite interesting!! i havent looked into it fully yet but i think she should be kissed on the mouth. her bad luck makes me slip on a banana peel whenevr i get close to her to kiss her and i hit my head on the pavement and pass away- 

parvati is on a tough spot for me atm. i genuinely love thinking of her as the way the indian goddess herself is portrayed because thats where the fun lies for me in her character. especially when shes involved with other indian servants, thats a given!! i would like to see parvati grow, suffer and heal. because branding her as an “all-knowing mom” is easy, but every single parent makes mistakes if you follow that logic. also, since shes the sakura servant “thats closest to her initial personality”, she’s got some of the most Repulsive fans ive Ever witnessed in fandom spaces and lets say that im trying to work my way out of this hellhole and find things to like about parvati without the fandom’s influence. needless to say, im going to keep looking into her mythos and her lore by myself at my own pace and keep doing my own thing in my little corner. 

rama shouldve been a jock. THE RAMAYANA IS OLDER THAN THE MAHABHARATA, WHY IS.....Hrm well him being summoned as his baby version gives me hope for a future rama alt perhaps??? but i think that he shouldve been a total jock and he shouldve been huge with a huge red lion-like mane for his hair and a teethy grin and big biceps and intense love for his wife. SPEAKING OF SITA, her charm point is her purity but i wish.... that their artist still hadnt drawn them like That, im not a fan of lily servants and i think purity = being young is a bit of an annoying excuse!!! rama and sita looking similar is because of their shared history which is fine but... rolls my eyes............. rama shouldve been 6ft tall and sita shouldve been a milf to match...... anyways i doubt ravana would be added as a servant but i’d love to have a ramayana centric event!! where all indo servants have their own lore centric role to play!!! oh thatd be a dream.... but i have learned to not expect much from a fanservice game so im jus gonna draw my own stuff! (strikes a pose!) (mashu claps!)

[timtimmersdrake]

Lazy Sundays - Tim Drake x Reader

This is completely experimental. I’m not changing this blog to be an imagines blog or anything, but after I read a few posts about mischaracterizations on Tim Drake I wanted to take a stab at writing a Tim imagine with some canon stuff for him. This is also my first imagine, so yeah?

Would love to know how it goes for all of you. 

Summary: A lazy Sunday afternoon with Tim at home. The reader likes to tease Tim’s geeky passions. I’m thinking this is set after the Red Robin comics, everyone is alive and Tim is starting to relax after being a tense hero for so long. (Pre-52) (Genderneutral, no Y/N and no ‘you’ character description)

“I guess I’ll…serenade him?”

The incredulous look you got from Tim across the table was almost enough to cause you to break your innocent face.

“You want to what?”

“I’m a bard, right? I’ll serenade him to get across,” You answered a little more confident this time, the laughter building in your chest as Tim stared at you baffled.

“You want to serenade the giant monster to cross the room,” He repeated, looking down at the board and then back up to you.

It was a rare day off for the two of you. Contrary to popular belief, Tim was more than willing to take a Sunday off at home after a long week. Sure, he had work at Wayne enterprises tomorrow and patrol tonight, but he wasn’t doing anything today.

Tim only wore a pair of sweatpants and one of his old high school shirts, one you noted with bemusement that had the sleeves cut haphazardly off.

You had spent the day in, ordering lunch take-out and crashing in Tim’s refurbished movie theater apartment. The place had evidence of the two of you spending the weekend together and Tim’s usual messy vibe. For a hero renowned for being a neat-freak, Timothy Drake was a mess.

You leaned over the table separating the two of you and snatched the pair of dice from his hands.

“Yes, I do,” You state, continuing your amusement.

Timothy Drake was also a massive nerd.

You had come to understand this after a few weeks of dating him. To the public eye, Tim Drake-Wayne was a seventeen-year-old co-CEO of Wayne Enterprises with a cool demeanor and a genius intellect. For the first few dates, that was the person you had gotten to know. Attending galas by his side, going to an occasional restaurant (granted not for very long dinners, you didn’t know why they were so short till later), or visiting him at various charity events he had set up.

That was not the Tim you finally got to know.

Tim Drake had dropped out of high school. Tim Drake was a huge superhero worshiper. And most of all, Tim Drake was a passionate Dungeons and Dragons player.

You’re not as passionate as he is when it came to his geekier loves in life, but for his sake, you tried.

Especially if it gave you opportunities like right now to get him all riled up.

“You cannot be serious,” Tim whines at you, slumping forward as you aim to toss the dice.

“Why not?” You inquire, pausing just long enough to tilt your head playfully.

He threw his hands up in the air, something he had picked up from one of his brothers, Dick if you recalled correctly.

��Because there is probably an infinite number of different strategies that are better than that one?”

“But Ives told me-“

You watch, barely holding in giggles, as Tim puts his head in his hands.

“I’ve been trying to teach you how to play for three months and the one time I let you play with the boys, suddenly you think Ives has better advice? Don’t you remember how that game turned out for him?”

It hadn’t turned out well. But that was mostly because Ives had spent a majority of the game flirting shamelessly with you, much to Tim’s annoyance.

You liked hanging out with Tim’s old high school buddies; they weren’t nearly as intimidating to meet as say, the current Superboy. Yeah, you’ve learned that they were all just normal people behind the costumes, but there was still that superhero reputation that was rather intimidating at first.

Ives and Bernard were harmless compared to the Titans.

“Hmm,” You playfully tap your chin. “Then what do you suggest I do, boy wonder?”

“Maybe use any of the objects you’ve been picking up this whole time and doing nothing with because you have a strange obsession of using your bard singing powers to the max?”

“But I thought that was one of the strongest things a Bard could do?”

Tim slid his chair back.

“Maybe we should figure out dinner instead.”

“Pizza?” You throw out as a suggestion, standing and stretching lazily as you looked out the window. The sun was beginning to set over the skyscrapers, and you knew your time with Tim was becoming limited.

“Sounds like a plan,” Your boyfriend hums, heading towards his cell phone on the kitchen counter.

“I’m not eating that artichoke heart contraption you call food, we’re getting a normal pizza topping.” You grumble, coming up from behind and wrapping your arms around his waist, resting your head on his shoulder.

“Who told you about that?” He asks, amused, looking down over his shoulder at you.

“Kon,” You laugh. “Honestly, it sounds disgusting, how can you even say that order and not think so?

“Don’t knock it till you try it,” He smirks. “How about half and half?”

Wrinkling your nose, you nod at the compromise into his shirt.

You could feel Tim’s laughter reverberate in his chest, and you resisted the urge to roll your eyes at his clear happiness of winning. Sometimes dating a bat sucked.

…

By the time you had eaten, night had finally settled over the city and you could already see Tim beginning to transform into vigilante mode.  His voice was steadily dropping as he answered you, and he had already begun typing away at his laptop. You knew it wouldn’t be long before he would be reaching for the Red Robin mask.

“What is on the agenda tonight?” You finally ask, sliding onto the couch beside him.

“I told Bruce I would help him find an informant for a case. Nothing to major, probably going to be a fairly quiet night.”

“Quiet for Gotham, you mean.” You eye him, snuggling into one of Tim’s hoodies.

He turns to look at you, his eyes softening just a tad.

“Will you go to bed when I leave? Tomorrow’s Monday after all.”

You nod, interlacing your fingers on your knee so you can rest your chin on them and look at Tim as he finished off his final things. It would only be a minute before he would stand and announce it was time for him to suit up.

“Try not to stay up too late,” You murmur.

He doesn’t look at you, but his voice is warm when he responds.

“Like I said, quiet night.”

He finally stands, and you know this is it. Tim leans over, kissing your forehead as he shuts his laptop.

“Be careful,” You remind him, your usual mantra as he packs.

“Always,” He responds the patented Robin cockiness beginning to show.

Just as he is about to leave you lean over the back of the couch, grabbing the back of his shirt and dragging him back.

Understanding, Tim leans down once more, his lips connecting with yours lovingly, a comfortable embrace.

That’s when you break the news.

“I rolled an eleven by the way. I totally serenaded the monster to cross the room. Your mage can suck it.”

You laugh as Tim’s groans fill the sound of the apartment.

[yenneferw]

Hi i hope this doesnt come off as ignorant,, or like i'm stupid mayb?? Idk, but I saw that post abt damerey and u said in the tags that tlj was racist towards poe's characterization i think? I know ive seen you mention it before but i was wondering how? It's not that I havent seen any problems with his character in the new movie (it was p different from the first movie) so i was wondering if you could elaborate more for me bc i'm not always well educated on stuff, thank u, i hope im not buggin u

no you don’t sound stupid i understand!! talking about fandom issues is really interesting to me so i don’t mind explaining what i see wrong with it/what i’ve learned from others. i’ll put it under a read more bc i’m realizing i have. a lot to say lol

basically they big time put poe in a position of falling into the racist “sexist hothead latino man” stereotype when that has never been poe in comics or in what little we see of him in tfa. beyond that they just totally mischaracterize him and go to great lengths to make us woobify kyle ron but hate the latino man so that just makes me go hmm big time. 

and making him part of that stereotype works really well with them trying to be White Feminists in tlj by propping up holdo and leia as infallible leaders bc they’re white women, when in all reality there was no reason for leia to stun poe, no reason for her to be so harsh to poe (after the dreadnaught i get it but the entire dreadnaught sequence was out of character for poe, especially if you read like. 3 issues of the poe dameron comics it’s dreadfully apparent that he’d never do that). like this is coming from someone whose favorite character in star wars is leia organa, but pushing poe into a nasty stereotype to make her seem unstoppable bc they want to get buzzfeed points for being white feminists was. icky. giving leia seemingly no flaws isn’t good characterization and i could also get into how i thought tlj was disrespectful to leia’s character but that’s another issue. and whether you like holdo or not (i don’t personally so this is probably harsher than someone who does would say it), what she did was. fucked up. her plan didn’t make sense (which was a writing problem more than a character problem), her not telling the people was shitty and i would stage a fucking rebellion within the rebellion myself if i was in poe’s position too, and also them ogling poe after leia put him unconscious with a taser before anyone ever thought to just EXPLAIN WHAT WAS GOING ON felt… icky. 

and the first volume of the poe comics takes place before the force awakens, before the war has even started, and poe’s on a mission to get info from that guy at the beginning of tfa. he has strict orders not to fire the first shot bc the war hasn’t started. one of his squad members is in a jam and fires the first shot anyway to get them out of the tight spot they’re in, and once everything is over, poe takes him aside is like “buddy you uh. shouldn’t have done that” and explains to him why. the entire time i was sitting there like “this,,, this is exactly the canon that rian johnson skipped over” like you could put comics poe dameron in front of tlj poe dameron and he’d have been ahving the same convo with himself. it’s just not HIM. he’s a little sure of himself sometimes, a little this or that, but every character has FLAWS. he’s not a hothead, he’s not SEXIST (in all reality he ADMIRES the SHIT OUT OF leia organa and his mom shara bey raised him better than to be a sexist before she died so i don’t want anybody tellin me he’s sexist with a straight face). he’s canonically a great leader with great skills with his squad and the other people in the resistance, a sweet guy whose goal in life is to call everyone in the world “buddy,” who when in a tight situation with a group of people who had spent their entire lives guarding an egg believing their savior would be born from the egg went “whoa, i’m not gonna hurt your egg! I- I LIKE your egg!!” like a big fucking DORK,, 

just. in general the big racist parts are how hard they tried to fit him into the stereotype and how they tried to use him to prop up White Feminism, but i also think it’s very “hmmmm” that they worked so hard to make us like the mass murdering white man but hate the sweet, strong, and brave latino man. 

[icharchivist]

@datflyingbaconbird replied to  “OKAY I FUCKING FINISHED AND IM FUCKING SCREAMING It took me 3 hours...”

so ANOTHER PIECE OF MY MIND HERE i hope you wont mind lmao. imo the scene where killua had asked kpk not to kill anymore and he would do it instead, i think its his inner assassin kicking in. i mean like killua really does not hesitate to kill a man, that kid is freaking metal, hes being raised as an assassin. So im thinking that whats going in his mind is probably like 'im an assassin and ive killed many, so killing one(1) more man wont make a difference anyways'

(second part) whereas he DOES not want kpk to kill omokage because he felt that kpk should not get his hands tainted and since killua has the ability to kill any man without any regrets (like its going to make any difference), so thats why he asked kpk not to kill anymore and he would do it

I kinda agree with you on the Killua’s scene, but where it bothers me is that, the movie is so damn bad with Killua’s characterization that I don’t know exactly where to stand on this scene. A bit like I was saying earlier, I’m not exactly sure about them going forward and telling Kurapika to not take revenge (in the YN arc, they insists on helping him telling him they’re here for him, and then they process into making sure Kurapika doesn’t have to kill again. They won’t tell Kurapika directly to his face)

I do think that for Killua, one more one less is not too important. He can kill if he wants, he considers himself already stained on that. Kurapika killing unsettle the kids, they don’t want Kurapika in this hell, and they saw how Kurapika isolated himself after killing Uvo, they saw him carry the burden alone, and when Kurapika came back to them, even if they made him laugh quite quickly, they saw that he looked dead inside. So they are totally aware of how it’s destroying Kurapika, and the fact Kurapika also puts his own life in danger with all of that kinda freaks them out. So I understand why they would want to stop him if he can.

While I consider Killua’s explainations of why clumsy, I think it’s still rather correct of Killua’s mindset, who considers himself a murderer anyway. He can handle the pain that comes with it, but they’re worried Kurapika would be drown in his own pain so of course they try to protect him. I just find the dialogue itself a bit clumsy. (and also was brought on by a plot hole, the judgement chain is supposed to already be around the heart when Kurapika establish the conditions, not on the outside waiting to stab on Kurapika’s command, and ready to be stopped if someone (killua) tells Kurapika to not do it. It’s not how it works, this was a conveignance made for the movie)

but I do agree with you on some points. Kpk's rage is really being dilluted to the point that theres almost nothing much left. Lets go back to hunter exam when kpk saw the fake spider prisoner guy. eventhough hes fake but lOOK AT KPK hes royally pissed. but in the movie??? heS facing an ActuAL SPIDER that had admitted that he killed the kurtas!! whats even worse is that he even revived pairo as a puppet

^^^totally agree, that’s honestly just. So bad. So so so bad.  Kurapika should have been furious. Everything should have driven him mad. Omokage, the puppets of the troupe, especially Chrollo, Pairo, killing Pairo, /when the actual Troupe shows up/. But nope, no red eyes during those scenes, now Kurapika uses his eyes on controle when he wants to. At least I’m glad the move reminded that it hurts Kurapika and it exhausts him because I’m still fighting to remind that to people, but it had to be in this dumpfire of mischaracterization huh.

oh yea also leorio is almost non existence in the movie, hes supposed to be in the main 4 squad but he does no shit. i mean he probably cant uses his nen very well (or doesnt even have nen idk) but i believe that he could still make an impact in the story if the writers let him to, with or without nen

^^^^^^^

I mean he can’t use Nen at that moment, I get it. But have him investigate, have him talk with people, have him doing something during the final battle instead of just being knocked out. The fact he helps Kurapika at the begining of Pairo’s attack, but gets knocked down and Kurapika kills Pairo alone, while on the other hand, Gon and Killua both kill Illumi together, it looked weird. Having him knocked out when Retz was doing her goodbye? That was weird. 

And it’s even worse because in the manga (not in the anime tho) it was established he had the strongest raw strength of Gon/Kurapika/him, so technically at least on raw force, he’s great. Plus you can do stuff with him fighting with his knives. IF Hisoka could come and have his sweet pleasing killing Chrollo time with his cards, why couldn’t we see Leorio deal wonderfully with his knives, against the puppets at least? 

Give him opinions, give him things to say. I love the Leopika moments, but give him something more than just caring. I know Leorio is a character that is determined by his gentle heart, but there’s so much more you can do with him. Have him met Retz and be the one to doubt her, Leorio is someone who can go to lots of extend if he distrusts you, have him consider his options, give him an actual role to play instead of just saying “don’t forget me too!” to try to remind your audience he’s here. At least have him come up witha strategy maybe? Make Gon and Killua’s friendship power plan not work, have Leorio yelling them to do another thing he just realized would work, I do  n’ t kn o w just give Leorio something to do!

Leorio always gets such a disservice I’m still so upset, he deserves better than all of this.

And especially when you see fucking Hisoka has his glory moment in the movie but Leorio takes a backseat. Leorio is one of the main four, please.

Anyway this movie is a clusterfuck 

[mathematicianadda]

More Great Ways to Annoy a Mathematician

Which Ratio is Truly Golden?

I find it troubling that the golden ratio has so little in common with the golden rule.

Like, if you did unto others 1.618 times what you’d have them do unto you, then we’d all wind up exhausted.

And if you’re only doing 1/1.618 times unto them, then isn’t that a bit lazy?

  A Puzzle About Rates

I’ve always enjoyed those puzzles like, “If 3 chickens can lay 3 eggs in 3 days, then how long will it take 100 chickens to lay 100 eggs?” They’re counter-intuitive (e.g., in my example, each chicken lays 1 egg per 3 days, so the answer is also 3 days), yet deal only with simple constant rates.

So what if the rates weren’t constant? Like in, say, a bureaucracy, where 20 times more people will accomplish only 1/20th as much?

(Sorry for putting the answer upside down. It reads: “Please complete the attached form (Z302: Aggregate Task Completion Rate Information Request) and we’ll process your inquiry in 4-6 weeks.”)

  In this case, “a mathematician” refers specifically to Matt Parker, whose excellent book Humble Pi discusses the first two of these mistakes.

  The Asymptote of Happiness

Lots of poets have found asymptotes a convenient literary symbol – the idea of eternal striving is a resonant one (even beyond the eternal striving of the struggling algebra student).

  I love me some Raymond Smullyan.

Sorry again for putting the answer upside down. I dunno why I thought that was a clever idea. Mostly just forces you to turn off the auto-rotate setting on your phone.

Anyway, it reads: “Ask anything. You should already know not to buy lowfat yogurt.”)

  Proving a New Theorem

Not that I’ve ever felt this myself. I’m just speculating.

  P-R-E-N-A-T-A-L

What is parenting, if not a neat LARP?

(LARP = Live-Action Role-Playing Game, for those of you with less geeky acumen than I anticipate my audience to have.)

By the way, my friend Rayleen once described to me a brilliant comic, where one person asks, “When’s the baby due?” and the other person is drawn with a small horizontal stick figure emerging from their stick torso. (See? It’s such a good comic, I can just describe it.)

  The Sales Pitch for Math

I think a lot about the different arguments for math, and the ways that they support or contradict each other. Is it a beautiful art? An urgent set of universal civic skills? Key preparation for technical professions?

The answer is yes to all three. But not for all math, and not all at once – and attempting to blend the purposes can lead to a muddle.

  The Meaning of “Let”

It’s always tickled me that the mathematician’s verb “let,” which sounds so chill and laissez-faire, is actually a binding command.

  “All Happy Families Are Alike; Every Unhappy Family is Unhappy In Its Own Way”

I wrote a bunch of these a few years ago. This one has the benefit of being true: all circles are geometrically similar, but not all ellipses are.

(The same is true, by the way, of parabolas and hyperbolas. The former are all the same basic shape, just zoomed in or zoomed out, whereas the latter constitute a whole family of different shapes.)

(Chew on that, Tolstoy.)

  The Court-Appointed Translator

I wrote this little dialogue after listening to a great episode of The Allusionist, before it turned out that Game of Thrones would suffer the worst collapse in storytelling that I have ever experienced.

Oh well!

As my wife said, “At least this way we’ll never have to bargain with our daughter about when she’s old enough to watch Game of Thrones. The ending is so bad, in 10 or 15 years no one will be watching it anymore.”

  Identity Politics

This is a really dumb pun.

Also one of the more popular cartoons in this list.

Go figure.

  Another Dumb Pun

This one is inspired by that time Malcolm Gladwell referred to eigenvectors as “igon vectors,” and Steven Pinker blasted him for it, at which point Gladwell blasted Pinker for something else, and eventually we all lost the thread and just went about our days.

And if you want more godawful matrix puns, I’ve got ’em.

  I don’t know what day you’re reading this, but guess what? It’s also a bad approximation of pi! So go ahead and celebrate!

(Though if you want some very clever alternative pi days, check out Evelyn Lamb’s page-a-day calendar, which includes a Pi Day each month, and not where you’d expect!)

  Uncountably Many Wishes

After I posted this, there was a bunch of discussion on Twitter about whether I’d mischaracterized the Axiom of Choice, which is totally possible, in which case, oops.

Also, some folks pointed out that it’s pretty greedy to wish for uncountably many wishes, when you could just as easily wish for countably many.

To which I say: What’s the point of a magic lamp, if not to have greed be your undoing?

  Maximization vs. Minimization

For lots of optimization problems, maximizing makes sense, but minimizing doesn’t. (Or vice versa.) An example: What’s the largest rectangle you can make from 4 feet of wire?

It’s the 1-by-1 square, with an area of 1 square foot.

But what’s the smallest rectangle you can make (in terms of area)? Well, you could make the 1.9999 by 0.0001 rectangle, which has a very tiny area…

Or you could make the 1.999999 by 0.000001 rectangle, which has an even smaller area…

Or the 1.99999999999999 by 0.000000000000001 rectangle, whose area is microscopic…

…and so on.

I hope that was worth it! And I suspect it wasn’t! Anyway, moving on.

  More thoughts here.

  The Villainous Mathematician Explains His Plan

Clearly this villain should be assigning more group work.

Anyway, I for one am curious to know how a complex-valued currency might work. I’d pay a hefty fee for an accountant or tax attorney who can turn imaginary assets into real ones, or real debts into imaginary ones.

  The Cat on the Bed

I found it very hard to draw a decent space-filling curve.

Also, to draw a decent cat.

  Only Slept Four Hours

This is how I feel about anyone who sleeps less than 7 hours in a given night.

  Axioms of Life

This is my version of that xkcd about kitties.

Also pretty well summarizes parenthood. I still enjoy a cerebral geek-out, as I always have; but I also really enjoy holding my daughter in my arms and calling her the world’s best monkey over and over.

  How Many Stars?

I would totally read a graphic novel about the dating life of Georg Cantor.

The problem is that no one is going to write this graphic novel except for me.

Oh well. I’m under contract for two more books at the moment, but after that will come TRANSFINITE LOVE: THE ROMANTIC ESCAPADES OF A SET THEORIST.

  Quick-Draw Answers

Drawn from an actual experience, in my first week teaching 7th grade. I hadn’t really figured out how to tee up a problem-solving experience yet.

  Twenty Questions

Drew this one for a Jim Propp essay. Recommended as always!

  A New Proof

A teaching friend of mine had a whole list of proofs that 1 = 0, which he busted out at various developmentally appropriate points in grades 6 through 12.

I love that. Curious how far you could get writing a book of proofs that 1 = 0, each introducing a key idea in mathematics…

Maybe that’ll be my next project after the George Cantor romance novel.

  E = mc

Philosophical question: Is this a pun?

The case against: “A pun is a joke that plays on words that sound similar but mean different things. This isn’t doing that.”

The case for: “A pun is a joke that plays on linguistic expressions with similar surface features, but different deep meanings. This is doing exactly that: the premise of the joke is that an exponent and a footnote are both denoted with a superscript, yet mean very different things.”

So I guess this has a deep resemblance to puns, but lacks a surface resemblance… which is itself, not very pun-like.

Ruling: Not a pun!

  “The Exception Proves the Rule”

I guess you hear this inane phrase less often these days. But there was a time, kiddos, when people could hear a devastating counterexample to what they were arguing, and then blithely say “the exception proves the rule” with a straight face.

  The Math Sequence

I’m pretty agnostic on the math sequence. But I have strong intuitions that Star Wars should be screened in the order: IV, V, I, II, III, VI, and so on. (I view the sequels as pretty optional. Prequels too, for that matter, but if you limit yourself to the original trilogy, it’s a boring problem.)

  The “Same” Age

A lot of people on Facebook seemed to read this as though the right-hand character was creeping on Ariana Grande. Not my intention at all! I just wanted to pick a mid-20s celebrity. Could’ve just as easily been Bieber.

(My primary association with Ariana Grande, by the way, is her performance in the short-lived bar mitzvah-themed Broadway musical Thirteen.)

  Lemniskate

I’m not sure there’s a joke here.

I’m fond of this drawing anyway.

  Linear Child

Michael Pershan, the internet’s most relentlessly analytical math educator, inexplicably loved this joke, so I call it a win.

Someone on social media speculated about the position by which this linear combination had been “conceived,” which I found quite vulgar and upsetting (but which I also sort of invited by drawing a comic about procreating vectors).

  If P, then Q

Where do we draw the line between logical succession, and outright stalking? I leave that to the courts.

  Loons and Lunes

Sometimes I just want to do a cute drawing that has no joke in it, okay?

  The Vertical Line Test

I’m actually skeptical that the phrase “vertical line test” has any value. To me it feels like a fancy name for a fact that doesn’t need a fancy name. And, as in the two-column-proof version of geometry, giving fancy names to facts that students should be reasoning out for themselves can become obfuscatory rather than clarifying.

  Whose Fractal is Whose?

Please join me in making “Patricia gasket” a thing! E.g., “Did you know Copley Square in Boston is the approximate shape of the mathematical figure known as a Patricia Gasket?”

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