#but with only one person enforcing any of this…..
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togglesbloggle · 2 days ago
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We're in the early hype cycle for Civ 7, which is all well and good- Civ is Civ, it's gonna be amazing and completely destroy large chunks of global productivity for a while. They're doing an unusually good job of targeting me in particular this time- the "build something you believe in" ad copy is one of those sentiments that has root access to my brain.
But anyway, sifting through the pre-release details has me thinking again about the... I guess you'd call it a 4x game still, but the game that part of me always wishes Civ was. I think a lot of people probably have a sort of personal 'Civ Prime' in their heads, actually, the secret changes they'd make if it was 'their' game. My own Civ Prime goes like this:
Actually-existing Civ always takes the stance that cultures create persons; you build a settler, send it off to some promising river valley, and plonk down a town. The glorious leader then directs the citizens to harvest and cultivate the fertile land around them, and surpluses of food allow the population to grow.
As a corollary, the map in actually-existing Civ starts out nearly empty; aside from a few barbarian camps and city states (or in Civ 7, the 'independent settlements'), the area outside your borders is in a pristine state of nature. And that's all well and good for game purposes, but in "my" Civ I'd reverse this entirely: civilization, not as some supra-human entity that creates and defines humans, but as a narrative that structures their identities and guides their values.
Consider a hex map of the usual sort, but the yields per tile are the local surplus, that is, the amount that tax collectors can extract from the people indigenous to that location without killing them. You begin play at the dawn of agriculture, as a leader/stationary bandit with enough military support and personal legitimacy to enforce those taxes, funnel the surplus towards a centralized urban center, and direct it towards military, priest, or artisan classes. Every hex is a conquest in miniature; at least at first, the size of your territory is directly downstream of your military strength.
That strength is tracked as "Might" or some such civ-wide stat, initially a strict function of how much wealth (that is, grain) that you feed in to it. This represents loosely organized, loyal bravi who are in your employ; they go to hexes you designate, dominate the locals, and render a tile 'productive'. In times of crisis, you can- very temporarily- initiate a levy to make these become traditional army units (and indeed this is the only source of such units, at first). As long as these exist, they are tremendously destructive to any hex they're on, friendly or otherwise, acting as a natural disaster that damages future tile yields for several turns; if every tile around them is already so damaged, they disband automatically. And of course these 'crystalized' forms of Might reduce the 'liquid' Might you have to control tiles, so lengthy wars will also see borders destabilize because you can no longer enforce order in the outer hexes.
But of course military strength isn't the only priority; grain (and later, currency, etc.) sent to the Artisan class allows you to slowly build permanent structures, which have their own bonuses as you'd expect. It's a time-horizon question; investment in Might is a larger immediate bonus, including higher revenues, but wealth spent on infrastructure accumulates.
This is also how you seed new urban areas: Artisans can build things like fortresses, temples, etc. (depending on the initial bonuses that you want) on rural hexes that are distant from existing cities, with tribute from hexes always flowing to the nearest such seed. That wealth in turn supports the new military, industrial, and cultural classes centered on that hex. This can also happen automatically in neutral territories; wherever there are large volumes of unclaimed surplus, NPC urban centers are liable to form at random and begin acting as your opponents.
You can also invest in "Culture," which in the early days generally means a priest caste. And this is where I get a bit clever.
Culture is an umbrella for anything that counts as "an idea", everything from religious formation, to technology, to philosophical ideas and organizing ideologies. There's a base track, mostly 'pure idea' stuff like mysticism and foundational concepts like writing and lawmaking; throw in a few unique ones for your chosen Civ identity (Egyptians get something about handling river flooding, whatever). And every point invested in Might and Artisan classes also helps unlock new ideas to be researched here; once you open those up, they can be researched here with Culture points. All contain some kind of advantage; new types of army units to levvy, new structures to build, higher yields or new types of resources to extract from the map- the usual.
The trick with culture unlocks is, they're not bonuses for you only. Ideas appear in the urban hex where they're researched, but they spread to adjacent hexes at some fixed rate, hopping from tile to tile and stopped only by uninhabited regions like mountain ranges or extreme deserts that don't have a high enough population- and following trade networks from city to city especially quickly. For example, "irrigation" would be an idea that greatly increases grain surpluses in every hex near a river, both for your territory and for neutral or even enemy hexes as it spreads.
As compensation, whenever your ideas spread to a hex, you gain a slowly-decaying bonus on that space called authority, which means that you require less military force to extract its surplus, and it's easier for you to contest the tile against another sovereign. This attenuates with distance from the originating point, but if you're investing in Culture at a good clip, the hexes immediately around your urban centers will be very cheap or even free to extract wealth from. If you're really booking it, hexes will spontaneously submit to you without ever being formally dominated. This creates an "imperial core" dynamic as the game matures, with your military might being concentrated in the provinces, and allows you to extend your reach much further than you otherwise would, extract wealth accordingly, and push yourself in to a virtuous feedback loop / golden age where you snowball outwards with both territorial gains and rapid intellectual progress.
The double-secret trick here is that authority decays; spreading ideas to a tile can only secure its loyalty for so long before they become the 'new normal'. With proper tuning, every civ's "golden age" period would last for a while, but then when it inevitably reached natural barriers or other obstacles, this would reverse into a death spiral. Absent further expansion, authority would begin decaying faster than it was gained, first in the outer provinces; military expansion would give way to managing a cascade of discontent and rebellions, which would further weaken the imperial core- and so on, unto dissolution.
The triple-secret trick is this: rural hexes are just hexes, but when a fully fledged city rebels against the sovereign empire, the player can declare the rebel city to be the 'true inheritor' of their legacy, and jump ship. In other words, you can take either side in a civil war. This switch triggers the legacy empire to become a more passive computer-controlled entity, and gives the emergent civilization a slew of cheap new ideas to promote, rapidly building their own authority- which of course has particular bonuses against their former overlords. Humankind and Civ 7 both implement an "Ages" system to simulate the rise and fall of civilizations over time, but this has the virtue of being a more organic/emergent property. Instead of artificially converting every Roman city in to the HRE in one fell swoop, the HRE emerges from the rotting carcass of Rome at a single point and carves out its own sovereignty by the sword.
And now you face an interesting dilemma while you play: authoritarian social policies like suppressing foreign ideas can secure the longevity of your empire for centuries longer than it might otherwise last, but you know that sooner or later, the empire you're now controlling will be your immediate opponent during a new phase of expansion. Permissive social policies and liberal attitudes to trade and ideas will make that rebirth go further, faster, than it otherwise would. So do you defend the power you have now? Or do you make yourself vulnerable to your own future?
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thelegend2t · 22 hours ago
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BFDI Theory: The Unluckiest Number
Or story starts the video "X Finds Out His Value" at 3:27
Four and X have just figured out that X's value is 7, leading them and Seven to have a little dance party sort of thing. But after X proudly proclaims his value, 7, Four adds that "It's lucky too!"
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And we get some less than happy faces from the peanut gallery. One and Three standing beside each other to form the infamous unlucky number 13. In fact, 13 is kind of an interesting number when it comes to Algebraliens.
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This is the BFDI Wiki's list of every Algebralien (That is a rational number), notice anything? That's right! 13 isn't there! And this list doesn't leave any number out if it can help it. Eleven, Twelve and Sixteen have never had any significant role in any skit or episode. Thirteen is missing from the official roster of numbers.
Also as a "Sans is a near anagram for Ness" level detail: TPOT 13 is when One herself says "Entree over. Now onto the main course." and as the line suggests, is when One picks up the pace in terms of intervening in TPOT.
I believe that the number 13 is not just unlucky in a superstitious sense, but also if any Algebralien were to become Thirteen the result would be catastrophic, bringing bad luck wherever they went. And that's exactly what One and Three did.
In the first episode of TPOT Winner asks, on the topic of prime numbers, "Are those, like, illegal where you're from?". And while they're obviously not this could be foreshadowing that there is a specific prime number that IS illegal, due to, y'know, bad-luck related catastrophe.
I don't just believe this explains why there's no Thirteen, but I also believe this is why One and Three are where they are.
In the video "Thanks for 2,000,000 Subscribers!" we get a good look at the law enforcement system on Algebralien society, mainly that there is none. There are no police, possibly no government. Any sort of jail sentence or punishment for crime is carried out by the community as a whole. We see this with Fourteens punishment, he's not arrested by police, he's apprehended by his neighbors who seem to hold no special status of any kind.
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Now, if we put our heads together maybe we can think of any Algebraliens that are locked in a cell, presumably, by other Algebraliens. I think at one point both One and Three were kept in cells, but as of now only Three remains imprisoned.
Many have speculated that Three closing their own cell is telling that they wish to finish their sentence due to the guilt of their actions, and I agree, and I think those actions were them being one half of the duo known as Thirteen. (One half of 13 is 3, you heard it here first folks!.)
But One is a lot more bold. They're not content with being held down or people having more power than them. Being a part of Thirteen came with it this great power which they wish to return to. And besides, as long as someone is staffing their jail cell, that's just one more person to manipulate.
But who did she manipulate? The answer may surprise you, but it also may not, I don't know how many people actually watched the subscriber milestone videos.
In the video "Thanks for 1,000,000 subscribers!" at 7:50, we see Seven say this:
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Seven considers One to be their BFF, presumably standing for "Best Friend Forever". Now, Seven as a character has been consistently portrayed as having no friends at all. In the song "Counting on Christmas" sung by the Algebraliens, Seven explicitly states that they "really, really, really want some friends".
Seven is sort of the black sheep of the community, though still, they ARE part of the community. As such, they are also part of the group that decides who is to be in jail, and who is to be free. And if all it takes is the promise of friendship then One escaping that cell was well within her range of capabilities. Who knows, maybe the friendship was in some way genuine, but the end result is the same, Seven let One free and even now sees nothing wrong with their friendship.
So that leaves us with this. One is actively trying to free Three, but Three is still patiently waiting in their cell for their lawful sentence to expire. Which... is kinda what everyone has been saying already, yeah, I'm not exactly the first to theorize that One is trying to free Three. What I am doing however, is laying out how I believe all these puzzle pieces fit together.
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vaguely-concerned · 8 hours ago
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severing the connection of the titans to themselves, each other and their children, to the world, and with it severing the connection of the dwarves to their true nature, the basic state of love and belonging that should be their birthright. ("our children, orphaned".) severing the connection between rook and the reality and true memory of varric, and thus from themselves and their own healing grief AND love. (do we spot the echo, perhaps?) severing (mostly accidentally this time, I'll give him that) the connection between the fade and the real world, dream and reality.
the scale we're operating on varies from the mythic, the cosmic and existential, to the individual and deeply, nauseatingly intimately personal, but it's the same pattern every time. solas keeps committing the same act of enforced dissociation, of creating orphaned pain that cannot even know itself, estranged from its own history, origins and coherence, unhealable in being impossible to recognize for what it is and thus unreachable. (hello lucanis in the minrathous saved route btw. this theme echoes everywhere when you look for it. I do love this game.) making others strangers to themselves for his own purposes and being surprised when it blows up in his face horrifically once more even when it's his same indelible original sin repeated, again and again and again. dissociation is a natural process the mind uses to protect itself from unbearable pain, but to knowingly cause that in someone, to play around with their connection to themselves and reality so fundamentally, to further your own cause... yeah, I'm not surprised the fabric of the world keeps tearing apart in protest in response to that, there's something so unspeakably insidiously wrong about it. forget snacking down on apples and knowing yourself to be naked or whatever, that sounds like a perfectly blameless if presumably slightly chilly afternoon to me -- force-feeding someone else their own fragmentation for your own gain, however ostensibly worthy your final goal, feels much closer to what real sin would be to me. and even worse because *buries face in hands* he just keeps doing it!!! he should know better, but he keeps doing it!!!!!!
I know I keep joking that solas only has the like three basic moves he keeps rearranging to invent new and spectacular ways of doubling down on making the same mistake yet again, but looking at it like this it's almost not even funny anymore haha. (almost. there is a hysterical amusement and affection that rises within me every time I see his smug little face, we cannot choose who we love only what we do about it.) and the worst thing is that I think he could learn! I do believe he has the capacity, the depth of empathy and soul and intellect, to learn from this, had he chosen to do so, had he let himself pause and truly listen at any point. but at the end of the day, even all these thousands of years later and with the mountains of guilt he lugs around, he chooses not to. and I suspect it's because he fundamentally does not actually understand what he did wrong. on his way to, ostensibly, fix one of these splits he caused, that of the veil, he basically goes and does to rook's mind what he did to the titans, and without the hand of mythal guiding it or anyone else culpable in it with him this time, as if to underline twice that in all these thousands of years he has learned absolutely nothing! almost to an impressive degree! does he even recognize that it's the same thing he's doing? does he even actually afford rook and their internal world that much thought to begin with, aside from what purpose they can serve for him? I'm not so sure. and to do it all with varric's face, with the person he took from them, making them feel complicit in it when they find out, the same way the dwarves will have to grapple with the fact that their whole economy is based in unwittingly selling the blood of like. god. their parents. themselves. solas. babe. what the fUCK. what the fuck. what the fuck.
perhaps part of the blind spot comes down to the way it's the inverse of his own trauma. solas knows exactly what happened to him because it's the endless ache at the center of his existence, the thing -- the first mistake -- he can't escape or undo or forget, nor bring himself to accept: he became real, one coherent set self, with no way back to what and who he was. and what he does with that pain, his one move, is to make others not-real. to himself, and more alarming still to themselves. he makes them forget, as he cannot forget. does he think it's mercy, in some way? does he realize how and why that makes it all so much worse??? and... not quite the same thing, but when mythal dies the structure of his own inner world falls apart catastrophically, and in his vengeance for that, even unintentionally, he imposes that same unravelling on the world. we've all heard the lines about spirits mirroring the real world and what you bring into your relationship with them being what you get in return, but how about the tragedy of the inverse -- the world being brought to mirror you, despite what your intentions might have been going in. no one should have that power, but you claimed that power yourself to do something else and now you have to look into that mirror forever. no such mercy as forgetting yourself for you. you are everywhere now, this broken mirror of a world will reflect yourself back to you no matter where you look. perhaps it would feel easier to simply close your eyes and walk on willfully blindly. AGH it's all so delicious and fucked up and makes me feel absolutely nuts
dissociation is something that's also central in iron bull's character and internal conflict, so presumably this is simply a deep theme trick weekes keeps returning to/is interested in exploring in their writing! and the elegance with which it's done and how inextricably yet subtly embedded in the narrative it is both with bull and overall in veilguard means it's not always engaged with or recognized as I feel it deserves, but to me personally it is Everything and gets at it in ways that feel weirdly real and authentic.
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transfemme-shelterdog · 1 day ago
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I know this sentiment is like, rampant, on any subreddit that isn't transmasc specific
But right now especially, it really hurts
And I don't know what to do
https://www.reddit.com/r/trans/s/hZVLpf6qmq
Aw jeez, that's a doozie of a post. Let's go through this line by line, indents are from reddit, italics are from the Executive Order:
The language of Trumps executive orders regarding trans rights have just been revealed. It is beyond disgusting that his approach to transgender rights was to specifically target transfems and transgender women in his language. 
Well, not to be a pedantic bitch, but Trump didn't write the thing. Stephen Miller did. Anyways, the author of this post is wrong. The order is very unilateral and affects both trans men/mascs and trans women/fems
Some examples:
(b) “Women” or “woman” and “girls” or “girl” shall mean adult and juvenile human females, respectively.
(c) “Men” or “man” and “boys” or “boy” shall mean adult and juvenile human males, respectively.
(d) “Female” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.
(e) “Male” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.
(f)  “Gender ideology” replaces the biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity, permitting the false claim that males can identify as and thus become women and vice versa
(b)  Each agency and all Federal employees shall enforce laws governing sex-based rights, protections, opportunities, and accommodations to protect men and women as biologically distinct sexes.  Each agency should therefore give the terms “sex”, “male”, “female”, “men”, “women”, “boys” and “girls” the meanings set forth in section 2 of this order when interpreting or applying statutes, regulations, or guidance and in all other official agency business, documents, and communications.
(d)  Agencies shall effectuate this policy by taking appropriate action to ensure that intimate spaces designated for women, girls, or females (or for men, boys, or males) are designated by sex and not identity.
As you can see, the order talks about both "men" and "women" in it. It's not targeted only at trans women/fems.
Nearly all orders did not mention the existence of transmascs and transgender men, and used dehumanizing terms and phrases to generalize all transgender people, primarily transgender women.
Buddy, did you read the order? It talks about how men are men from birth, which I can assure you, isn't talking about trans women. What do you think "permitting the false claim that males can identify as and thus become women and vice versa" means?
Us transmascs will not suffer the most- it's clear
Too early to say which will suffer "more" (whatever the fuck that means), but trans men/mascs will suffer
WE HAVE WORK TO DO AND WE HAVE BEEN ELECTED BY THE GOVERNMENT ITSELF TO STEP UP AS THE MORE PRIVELEDGED PEOPLE WITHIN THE TRANSGENDER COMMUNITY.
Literally what? Babes, honey, of two current elected officials, one is a trans man, James Roesener, and he's a state representative in fucking New Hampshire. The other, Sarah McBride, is a trans woman, and holds a higher position than James. No trans man has been "elected by the government".
Do social work for trans people, participate in campaigns, spread online awareness, stand up for our trans sisters, protest for easier hormone access.
Ah yes, Estrogen, Spiro, and Progesterone, the hard HRT to get. Nothing like those trans men who can just order testosterone off the internet, right? /s
Does that mean that literally anyone can just access feminizing HRT? Nope, but it's definetly a fuck ton easier to get, and actually possible to get, on the grey market, compared to T. If anything, people should be fighting for more access to T, but I guess not.
Even though trans men aren't as targeted as trans women, we WILL NOT STOP FIGHTING for you.
Oh honey, there's still a lot of targeted Trump policy that affects trans men. Have you forgot about the mass protests about the revoking of Roe v Wade? Or how Trump signed another order that revoked Executive Order 14020 which focused partially on access to reproductive rights, 14021 which focused on trans kids rights in school, 14075 which is another bill that gave rights to trans mascs?
Hell, Trump axed a bill that would form an initiative to focus on how to combat the act of corrective rape, which disproportionately affects trans men/mascs, as sexual violence against trans women/fems is usually public/with an audience such as forced genital exposure (Doan-Minh, S. (2019). Corrective rape: An extreme manifestation of discrimination and the state's complicity in sexual violence. Hastings Women's LJ, 30, 167.)
This reads almost like a trans woman pretending to be a trans man, trying to push a narrative that it's the women that are truly affected the most, when in reality, trans men/mascs and trans women/fems are fucked differently, in different ways, with different issues for each.
That whole post gives me the ick, and if the OP is actually transmasc, then I feel bad for his need to prostate himself before trans women and downplay the trauma that his fellow men/mascs undergo daily.
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renardtrickster · 1 day ago
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It makes it clear that the United States considers trans people to be an "enemy", framing the existence of trans women as an attack on cis women, much like how homophobes claimed the existence of gay people was an attack on straight marriage. Even without policy, labeling an entire section of the population as "the other" will increase violence and discrimination against them, though the policies do come later. And if you think the violence of the Holocaust only began the moment they turned the ovens on, I have some premium Rolex watches to sell you on the cheap.
But yeah, if you want examples of the policy effects.
Defining "gender" to just mean "sex" and then erasing any recognition of gender not only legally defines trans people out of existence, it also makes them exempt from things like Title IX or any other protections. You can still be trans, just good luck landing a job, buying a house, renting an apartment, or anything else if someone in charge doesn't approve of your deal. It isn't discrimination, because the category they're discriminating against you over technically doesn't exist!
In fact, Section 5 might imply that you could now argue that if a workplace allows trans women to use the women's restroom, you could sue over that being an act of discrimination against cis women.
The final part of the order is just rolling back any previous protections granted to trans people. Guidance to protecting trans people from workplace or educational discrimination, guidance to schools addressing anti-LGBT+ bullying, protection for intersex youths. Those were already instituted, but he just wants to remove them. If someone wants to treat you like shit or ruin your life for being trans, they can just do it. Your problem now. FYGM.
Speaking of, federal mandates on bathrooms based on biological sex. "Men disguising as women and sneaking into toilets to rape" was never happening in any significant manner, but don't worry! Now visibly feminine people can either wait until they go home to piss (subtly freezing them out of existing in public), or use the men's restroom where they're much more likely to be beaten or sexually assaulted (but it's happening to an undesirable so it's okay).
Federal documents have to ID you based on sex, meaning that not only does the government get to decide what your identity is on your paperwork, but anyone who got their gender marker changed could have their passports confiscated, driver's licenses cancelled, or just straight-up be charged with fraud. For the crime of putting an "X" or "F" or "M" on a little plastic card.
If you do shoplifting and end up in jail, those are now based on sex. Meaning trans women in men's prisons. Meaning they get denied access to medical transition (even ones they were doing before), are forced into wearing men's clothing, heads shaved against their will, and an increase of sexual harassment, assault, and sexual assault from the guards and other inmates. And in spite of the fact that "men disguising as women and sneaking into women's prisons to rape" is just as much fearmongering as the bathroom shit was.
I don't imagine that any of this is going to convince you. You'll either say it's fearmongering and it's not going to happen (until it already happens, in which case oh well), or nitpick the sources and say they're pro-trans and therefore biased (meanwhile your source is a gut feeling), or that none of this matters because sex and gender are self-evident biological truths (which you want the government to enforce with violence). But I'm not really interested in convincing you of anything. You're a 34 year old republican wife who still uses tumblr and your icon is *the* anime shota, you're a fairly ridiculous person. If you do realize how in the wrong you are and seek to learn more in the future that's great. I mostly just wanted to remind everyone what the current stakes are, and how incurious and unintelligent the people who want us dead are.
"You're overreacting, nothing will happen!"
Immediately upon his inauguration, Trump made an executive order that America will now only recognize two genders.
All of you that didn't vote or voted third party can go choke.
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tarraxahum · 2 days ago
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This was gonna be a reply to a reply but I thought maybe I should just make my own post. Yes this is about Vi again.
It's no secret that "Vi should've fought for Zaun" and the expectation of her being Vander's prodigy and feeling like the plot dropped the ball on her in that regard and the betrayal at the fact that she's living comfortably in Piltover now are. Frequent sentiments in the fandom. Which I get, but also I feel that this line of expectations is. Diverging from who Vi actually is by the end and what she was realistically capable of.
Vi in season 2 is basically running on fumes and because she has no other options. It is a well known thing in irl activist spaces that to participate in any kind of fight for justice you need to take care of yourself, otherwise you won't have the energy to be any kind of useful to your community. Ekko also says this - "It's not enough to give people what they need to survive, you have to give them what they need to live". Vi has been surviving and not living in any shape or form for years, she's exhausted and broken in places. That's no mental state to fight for Zaun or make any kinda change. I think it's extremely realistic and human and hardly a flaw of writing or the character if by the end the only thing she was able to do was collapse into the safety and peace she was offered for the first time in forever (aka Caitlyn). It's clear that in her last scene she's still recovering mentally - Cait seems to be excited to have any sign of life (singing) from her at all, and the "Are you still in this fight?" question is very loaded. (But it's indicated that Vi is very much still in the fight, so? It's really anyone's guess what she'll do once she's healed and remembers how to live. And don't bring up LoL's Vi brutality thing, it's clear they're different characters).
I think in wanting to see Vi stand up for Zaun or be Vander's prodigy we often deny her the flaw of being a breakable human and forget just how much she's held together by duct tape. Just because she was full of this 'fuck Piltover' fire as a kid doesn't mean she is still capable of matching that energy. Sometimes after lots of trauma humans grow up into tired adults who just want to sit down and feel safe regardless of where it happens and how questionable it might look (re: living in Piltover). Not to mention, that even as a child Vi's main reason for fuming at the Topside was wanting safety for her family and herself. Well, now she's all out of family, she's estranged from the community of Zaun thanks to being in prison for 7 years and Silco changing the place so much, and the only person who's offering her safety and not more fighting (which she's exhausted and thoroughly burnt out from!) is Caitlyn, so. How is where she ended up any kind of surprising or a failure of her writing/character?
Yes, a lot of people wanted a revolutionary, no, Vi isn't one. Dare I say, never really was one. At her lowest, when she's got no one left to protect, she's not trying to fill in that void by taking on protecting Zaun and becoming a vigilante or something, no, she spirals. That is not something on her radar, that's not something she's visibly cut out to do, she cares so so much but on a smaller scale. Even the whole shimmer factory debacle was less about Zaun and more about her desire to hurt Silco personally for what he'd done to her family. If Jinx agreed to run away with her back at the tea party Vi would ditch the entirety of Zaun (potentially leaving it to Silco forever since he's still alive at that point) in a heartbeat to keep her sister and save Cait in one move. She puts on an enforcer uniform BECAUSE she cares for Jinx (through convincing herself that at the very least she should take her out of her misery herself rather than leaving it to people who don't care, yes) and Cait both.
Perhaps a hot take, but not becoming a leader despite being good at taking hits to the head and caring about people in general and being a daughter of one does not make Vi a badly written character or a bad person. It just makes her a person. And a character whose arc culminated in choosing herself. And choosing yourself sometimes means leaving the fight to others (perhaps temporarily, considering the final dialogue). And that's okay.
Arcane is tragedy about flawed people, not a feel-good story about a successful revolution and rich people paying for their crap, and it was never going to be. Ergo one of our main character isn't an upcoming hero in shining armor who was allegedly robbed of her potential. She's just a broken young woman who barely knows how to keep her own little life together and her biggest victory by the end is allowing herself to take a breath and live for once. Yes, while her home down there is still in shambles. Yes, that sounds selfish. For some people a bit of selfishness is the greatest thing they can ever learn for themselves.
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thatrabidwolf · 2 days ago
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Questions to ask yourself when creating a magic system
I have more questions for you!!! :D
As there are no real-word examples for this one, I’m going to be talking a lot about my own magic systems, and those of the medias I enjoy! There will be a list of all the things I referenced at the bottom!
What does magic DO
Exactly the title. What does magic do? (Can it make potions? Cast spells? Animate things? Transfigure things? Create things? Kill things? Cast hexes or charms? Multiple of these?)
What does magic have an affect on? What does it not?
How strong is magic? What are its limits? How do these differ from person to person, or place to place? 
Does magic do different things for different people?
How does a magic caster’s intention for a ‘spell’ affect it? Is magic entirely reliant on a mental image of what is wanted, or does it need to be casted a certain way to work, like a recipe?
How is magic casted? (Note- I recommend being creative here! It doesn’t have to just be waving a wand. It can be through making pottery, it can be through sewing certain patterns, or dancing a certain dance, etc etc etc)
How can spells be used for something that is not their intended/common purpose? How are new uses of magic discovered? Which uses are most common, and why?
How does societal standards affect the use of magic? Will less people know about more harmful or taboo spells? Will it be less common for, say, a woman to use/be trained in magic?
Source of Magic 
Where does magic come from? (Do the gods give access to their most devout followers? Is it handed down in one’s blood? Does it come from the earth?)
Is magic learnt, or are people born with it? (E.g does magic work through potions that can be made by anyone with the right ingredients, or is it only possible if one has magic already in their blood?)
Can someone who logically shouldn’t know magic learn/possess it by alternate means? (E.g. Luz from The Owl House learning magic  via ‘glyphs’ despite not being a witch) how would people treat this? (Is it seen as ‘lesser’ or somehow not ‘real’ magic?)
Can magic be harnessed through a wand/staff/etc? Can it only function through this conduit, or can it be done without? How does magic function if it does not have the aforementioned conduit? (Is it harder to manage? Is it more dangerous? Is it simply lesser?) 
Another dot-point because the last one was far too long; how is the use of ‘magical aides’ (wands, etc) treated? (Is it seen as something only a child would use? Is it very common? Is not using one seen as dangerous and bad?) How does the function of magical aides affect this? (Note- a very good example of this is the string in A Marvellous Light, which functions via ensuring a magicians cradles [hand movements one does to cast a spell] are more precise. It is only used by those with little magic, so it is looked down upon.)
How would one learn magic? (Is magic taught in schools? Are there books on it?)
Can magic be done/enhanced if multiple people cast it together? How would this be done? 
Is magic a separate entity from it’s user? Is it an entity at all? Can it react without instruction/ disobey it’s user? Is it a possession of it’s user? Is this different/ perceived differently for different people?
Can magic be mistreated/ abused? (Note- here I do not mean an ‘abuse of power’ I mean abuse in the way one could abuse a pet) what are the consequences of this? (Might magic stop working, or turn on it’s user?)
Affect on Culture/the greater world
Who has magic? Who does not? Who knows about magic? Who does not? Is it a secret? How is this secret kept? Who enforces that it must be a secret? What is the punishment for letting the secret be known?
Can people have more or less magic? Can people have more or less knowledge on it, or skill with it? Does this cause any power imbalances or issues for either side? 
How do the uses of magic impact the way things are done? (E.g. if there is a spell used to dry things, people may not use drying racks.) would the skills of those with more magic be useful in a work setting? (E.g. if some people know the aforementioned drying spell and some do not, might those who do know it work as something close to a washerwoman because of their skill?)
Is magic regulated at all? Who regulates it, what are the regulations, how strict are they, and what are the punishments for breaking them?
Is magic seen as normal? (Keep in mind: if magic is possessed by a majority of people, it very well may be. Because of this, characters may be less likely to be impressed by magic. Think about how this will affect the language surrounding magic, and how people treat it.)
How will different people view or interact with magic? (E.g. a rebellious teen, a businessman and an elderly woman are not going to have the exact same view or uses of magic. Try to explore this!)
How will those with a great deal of magic view those without/ without a great amount, and vice versa? How does this affect the world and it’s prejudices?
Consequences
How can magic hurt a person if misused/overused/ used at all? (Is the damage physical, mental, physiological, all three?) (E.g. my own magic system causes people to actively unmake themselves as they use their magic, leading to sickness, insanity, derealisation, hallucinations, etc etc etc)
Is this damage known? How does the knowledge of it affect the treatment of magic? (Are people terrified of it? Do they not care, and see it as a worthy risk? What might lead  someone to push through the damage?)
How does this damage manifest, and how noticeable is it? (E.g. Are there physical scars or other warning signs, or is it entirely unnoticeable until it is too late, like magical rabies?)
Can damage from magic be reversed or healed? How? Can potential damage be avoided? How? 
Can one’s magic turn on oneself? How would this happen, and what are the consequences of this? 
Can magic be hurt/diminished? How does this affect its users? (E.g. silver and werewolves)
When an attempt at magic fails, how does it fail? Is it like baking, where at worst it’ll ‘taste good, but be a little dry’ or is it like mixing volatile chemicals, where at worst you die?
Appearance
How does magic look? (I highly recommend finding a metaphor or motif for magic, as this really helps flesh out its appearance and makes it easier to describe!!)
Can its appearance look different for different people? Can it change over time?
Does magic manifest itself via means other than visual? (One of my characters has very strong nature magic, and thus he grows flowers when he is happy, and always smells floral)
Does magic have a physical effect on it’s users? (E.g. the dark magic in The Dragon Prince)
Is one able to tell when magic has been cast upon something? 
Every piece of media I referenced in this, in order of appearance
The Owl House, a TV show on Disney written by Dana Terrace
A Marvellous Light, a novel written by Freya Marske (this series is a wonderful example of how to make a magic system. It is very well thought out, and the varied experiences and views of magic for each magician character is so, so good. 10/10. If you want a good example of magic please read this!!! (Granted I might be a little biased because I just love this book series))
The dragon prince, a TV show on Netflix
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lesbiansanemi · 1 month ago
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I hate my roommate’s cat more and more with every passing day
#okay that’s not fair cuz like. I know it’s not really his fault it’s not fair to blame the cat#but oh. my god.#never mind the not really taking care of him so he has become my responsibility#she has REFUSED (re: is too lazy) to actually train him at all#like I understand training a cat is hard but like dude. you really can’t just let him do whatever he wants esp when it’s causing issues#and/or gross#you have to teach him he can’t jump on kitchen counters like I’m sorry that’s gross#I’m not one of those ‘pets aren’t allowed on furniture ppl’ ofc I think that’s insane#but yeah you need to teach him he can’t jump up on counters or shelves#he also likes jumping on top of my bearded dragon’s enclosure#which he has 1. broken two heat lamps so far by knocking them off (which ofc my roommate has not replaced cuz why the fuck would she)#but also I’ve explained to her so many times that I don’t want him up there cuz it’s stressful for my beardie?????#like girl he’s a fucking lizard and all of a sudden there’s this huge dark shape moving around above him#that’s not good for him??????#but she laughs it off and is like ‘he doesn’t look stressed tho’#like okay sure now quickly explain to me what you actually know about beardies and their behaviors NOW#so naturally she does nothing to stop him and when I catch him obviously I get him off and scold him a bit#when he hears me getting ready to turn the corner he jumps off cuz he knows *i* don’t like him there#but with only one person enforcing any of this…..#he also still constantly antagonizes one of my cats and refuses to leave her alone even when she hisses at him#and my roommate is always just like ‘oh it’s just their THING he’s FLIRTING with her boy cats are just more friendly and girls are bitchy’#like okay weird cat sexism aside can you really not fucking see how this is bad for both of them or are you actually that fucking stupid#(she’s actually that fucking stupid)#and all this shit is so fucking irritating and I’m tired of dealing with it and this dumbass cat#that does nothing except annoy me and make my life harder#and she does nothing but brush it off when I bring it up and actually ACTIVELY ENCOURAGES some of it??????#Jesus Christ I’m so fucking done#kaz rambles
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forcenexus · 2 days ago
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AS JAXXSON, HE KNEW LIMITED THINGS. Anakin knew vast amounts of information regarding whatever system or person he encountered. So he had to choose what others could know of him. It was a dance he played for the last decade. One he was a professional at and one he knew would make his safety back to the desert planet possible.
Turner sat at the bench and adjusted his poncho so it wouldn't get in the way. The bench was as comfortable as it got. He felt worse in other star ships. The cruiser he took off world had been cramped and smelly. Loaded with migrant workers and people of lower class, Anakin had melted into the pot. There he listened. Listened about what was occurring on the planet he now lived on and what was occurring in the galaxy. Vader was making a name for himself as an enforcer. None of this should have surprised him. It just made him angry because he took so much from him.
Loss crippled him at times. Loss had defined his actions at one time. Now, he was forced to learn to let go. A lesson Grandmaster Yoda tried to teach him as a Knight of the Republic. It was a lesson hard to learn. One he hated more than anything. All things went into the Force and became one with it. Just like one day, he would also. Force knowing it wouldn't be any time soon. "I don't think I have. Unless he was there before we left." He had not seen a Wookie hanging around the club, so it was his guess that he had gone off doing other things.
"Sorry, I don't." Another lie as he glanced down at the table. His stomach rumbled in protest. He had not eaten anything since the morning. It was normal for him to skip meals. Anything was better than ration portions. "We really don't see Wookies in the desert, though I have heard of them before." Better to keep it that way. Before the Empire, he had met quite a few of them and even visited the planet they called home. The last time he saw Grandmaster Yoda was before he left for Kashyyyk. He knew the friendship between the Wookies and Jedi had been imperative to the Clone Wars and it was truly sad how they became enslaved like the rest of the galaxy. "He sounds like a good person to have in a bad spot."
Hearing the processor, he glanced over at it as he took in the sounds it made. The smell that came from it was making his stomach make noises with it. It had been a long time since he had Xachibik stew or anything remotely that he used to eat as a Jedi. "Spice never bothered me much. Anything is better than ration bars, frankly." He would be savoring this as long as he could. When he was back at the homestead, it would be back to the cardboard bars. They had no taste, no flavoring... and were hard to chew. The more thought made him frown. "I'll be sure to give my compliments to the chief if I ever meet him."
The next question had him thinking quickly. Stick to the story he had for newcomers. The only ones who knew better were the villagers he saved from the Black Sun years ago and swore to keep his secret at all costs. Only they knew him as Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One, and the liberator. "I was born out there. My parents died when I was younger and left me to raise my siblings. It's only me there now, I'm afraid. The plan is just to survive. Nothing noteworthy."
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mollysunder · 1 month ago
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I just can't turn my brain off for episode 7 because it's foundations are so contradictory. How can we believe that Piltover decided to change it's ways because one Zaunite kid died when Piltover has collectively proven throughout season 1 and 2 that they don't care about those kids?!!??
In season 1 enforcers regularly harassed and assaulted children in Zaun. In Act 1, Marcus tried to fire his pistol at Powder when she tried to escape him, he only stopped because she was out of range. Vi was a teenager when prison guards regularly beat her as she was falsely impropisoned in Stillwater by the same enforcer without question. Caitlyn didn't care that a child as young as Isha (probably 8) got thrown into Stillwater and neither did any of the guards. Jayce felt guilty that he killed Renni's son, but he never apologized for what he did, and chose to leave his body in the same place, in the same position he died for Renni to find her boy.
Remember that one scene where the camera lingered on that one Piltovan kid who has hurt when Jinx diverted the Grey back on Piltover and Ambessa wiped a tear from his eye? It's sad to know a child got hurt by the Grey, but do you know what other child was hurt by the Grey? VIKTOR. He was hurt by the Grey as a child, to the point that it was killing him by the time he was an adult, but Piltover, including Heimerdinger NEVER saw that as a wrong to be righted. I could keep going on about the ways the Piltovan cast have harmed children in one way or another, but that would get repetitive. The point is Piltover and it's cast have consistently proven that they don't care about children in Zaun in any way that matters, so to assume that Vi's death would bring about change is just dishonest to the story that's been told up until that episode.
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kandicon · 3 months ago
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Actually I can't stop thinking about Tim gaining a bit of weight during her time as Persephone and it's killing me now
#she's been an immortal for so long she has no idea how she looked before the lunar war#she was 3-4 years younger and matured during that time despite the starvation#and she probably got a buzzcut when she was drafted but nobody kept up with hair regulations bc they couldn't see each other enough#for them to be enforced#After she first got mechanized the eyes were just one of the many parts of ger body she didn't recognize#and it competed in importance with the weight loss and aging and new scars and more#But when she sees herself at a healthy weight as Persephone bc she hasn't had a complete death in so long that she's managed to hold weight#she just cries because she thinks this is how she must have once looked#though her memory fails to give her any confirmation. she can only guess#she sees in the mirror a person who didn't feast on the corpses she could find#and she can pretend she actually Is Persephone- not Tim#that she's lived a happy olympian life and has never died and that she doesn't occasionally unwillingly salivate over brains in the acheron#and the worst part is she Knows this is temporary#her fantasy and joy is limited#limited until the day she doesn't throw a grenade far enough again or the day she annoys Ashes enough to set her on fire#she can't stay this way for the eternity she is so damned to#and once she does experience a full body reset it's an uphill climb to regain that weight again- if she manages to not die in that time#it's the inevitability of it all that really gets me#and also Ashes obviously thinks Tim looking healthier- well taken care of- is hot as fuck. tho they think Tim always looks hot as fuck#but they don't understand why she freezes when they run a hand along her chest now- unable to even feel her ribs unless they press down#or why she starts making flimsy excuses to leave whenever they offer to take her out on their arson runs
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aaronymous999 · 2 years ago
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I will never shut up about one of the worst tropes in fiction THAT NOBODY TALKS ABOUT- and ahem the winner is: “Pairing off every main character, and I mean EVERY into a romantic relationship at the end of the story or sometime during the story” even if it makes no sense to the plot, or the character made it clear they aren’t interested in romance, all because some authors for some reason ( there actually is a reason but yknow ) think all the characters need to be paired off for a happy ending. Fandoms engage in this trope too sometimes and I very much so dislike it. And then there’s the weird cousin of this trope, “Most characters get paired off, but mostly the women, the men don’t need a partner and three kids, mainly just the women.” LOOKING AT YOU WARRIOR CATS DONT DENY IT YOU ARE GUILTY AS CHARGED.
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repurposedmeatlocker · 1 year ago
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I find it extremely discouraging how a lot of the time art uploaded to be seen online becomes influenced under the constraints of monetary gain and attention.
It feels like value is placed more on what would be most successful within a wide-reaching audience rather than actual care and intention put behind the work one does.
I think this explains why a lot of art, even by really skilled artists I admire, sometimes end up becoming empty and overly similar to each other.
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reserwrekt · 2 years ago
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One of the things I kind of like saying but it really, REALLY pisses neurotypical people off- is "it's just a piece of paper."
Stupid laws? Piece of paper. The Constitution? Piece of paper. Money? Paper. Marriage certificate? Piece of paper. Any contract, degree, ect is a piece of paper. Your value you place on the paper is just that- your value of a piece of paper.
#be chronically ill and tell me every doctor you meet is the smartest person you know#it won't happen#i just watched a docuseries where two BIOLOGISTS went for a hike and one got bit by a rattle snake#and the other tried to suck the venom out and they WRAPPED HIS LEG TIGHTLY while he BIKED MILES back to civilization#literally everything wrong they could have done any they're degree biologists#they paid money for a piece of paper#marrige is a contract which is a piece of paper at the end of the day#people get really mad about that too that marrige is a partnership contract#if you get legally married anyway#and i don't mean to undermine the history of people fighting for marrige equality or anything like that#its just seeing cis het norms doing things like making gameshows for quick marriges to have obligation families#thats a sobering reminder on its the value placed on paper#the constitution obviously is outdated and had been constructed by privileged and some problematic men hundreds of years ago#its a piece of paper regularly used to opress just as often as to protect#what are laws when theres a dictator? you know how many laws are violated by rich people in power? why if i threatened#someone id be scooped up and forced hospitalized while rich white people can threaten acts of treason and sleep in their mansion the same#night. the pieces of paper (laws) are only enforced to such extents when it is convenient (to oppress) many times over#sorry I'm manic and having intrusive thoughts#my point is people break laws and sometimes it's almost like laws are just pieces of paper used or not used when whoever sees fit
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apothecareful · 5 months ago
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telling nick about all the stupid things my coworkers and i do on the line to keep each other in a good mood is everything to me rn
#we call out orders and respond heard#you know like a kitchen does#but we like to play around with it and call back stupid shit. example someone grabs a hot pan and is like 'fuck that's hot' you get back#'hot pan heard'#we love to call fires on the bread baskets.#we frequently will pop out a 'heard heard'#it's esp funny if someone like hates a thing we make and is like 'augh stupid fucking rotini'#you gotta get in the 'stupid fucking rotini heard chef'#also using 'chef' for the dumbest shit. ie 'killing yourself heard chef'#we love the 'oh god oh fuck someone ordered food from my restaurant and now i have to make it' from the bear thing#we all parrot noises. any stupid random groan gets recreated#we do specifically have a 'no moaning on the line' rule that exists only because it's funny to pretend to enforce it#a quiet reverent 'pussay' will get repeated by everyone#our sous does this terrible joke laugh that literally sounds like. a stupid surfer dolphin laugh?? that we can all parrot now#haelp if things are going badly#everyone calls it out#one of our managers names gets yelled in a specific way by all of us#goteem's are always repeated#pac-man wockawocka gets used a lot#mario 'YAhoo' is another one#also stupid vines because we're all adults and the literal one cook who isn't just thinks it's a funny phrase HAHA#fuck ya chicken strips happens anytime there are chicken tenders. no creativity there#our sous plays the role of grandpa so we can all say 'i'm tired of this grandpa'. he of course hits back with 'that's too damn bad'#telling nick about all this he's like 'that sounds incredibly annoying in the workplace' and its so funny#bc like yeah. but that's how we keep each others spirits up in dire ass services#making a stupid ass joke when you all want to walk the fuck out can in fact actually save you#anyways i actually quite love 90% of the line. the only person we all want to die is the morning sous but unfortunately thats a major perso#i love my job but i hate my job but i love my job. when it's not stupid it's the best#cas posting#essay in tags lmfao
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fingertipsmp3 · 5 months ago
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Kinda want to create one of those like 100 days of self care or mental health or something challenges for myself & post abt it each day to hold myself accountable
#i keep seeing them when i look up stuff about language learning#it’s kinda like just posting your habit tracker for everyone to see i guess#which feels v vulnerable but i still kind of want to do it#it’d purely just be me trying to enforce healthy habits for myself instead of spending all my downtime on my phone and filling my body#with crap#i definitely would want to track: sobriety (no buying or ingesting weed or alcohol or any other substance that has not been prescribed)#am i taking care of my nails and not biting them or picking up my cuticles#am i taking my hands (moisturising them and applying eczema cream if needed)#language learning: speaking; listening; writing; reading spanish. plus learning new material and reviewing old material#go out once per day. eating of fruits and vegetables maybe. taking vitamins (especially vitamin d and iron)#am i doing my skincare. am i doing any haircare. am i doing a workout (even if low intensity)#hobby activites: knitting; reading; crochet#8 hours of sleep. AVOIDING UNNECESSARY PURCHASES (which i would define as anything i don’t need to live or that won’t appreciably improve#my quality of life. like subscriptions i have can stay. food is always fine. prescriptions and anything for health are fine#if something happens like my earbuds break i’m allowed to replace them but i’m not allowed to randomly decide i need a better pair when the#ones i have are fine. stuff like that)#okay this is a lot more categories than i actually thought i had lol. and i haven’t even added anything like home maintenance#the only things i reliably stay on top of are dishes and trash. everything else i take WAY too long to get around to#but i don’t know how to quantify that#i’ve always just figured as long as nothing is visibly gross or smells i’m doing okay#personal
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