#cie-reads

[cie-reads]

Currently Reading 🌟 The Old Kingdom by Garth Nix.

I borrowed these from my girlfriend who recommended that I read them, and I'm really glad I did. This series is an absolute delight so far. Such detailed and rich fantasy yet it's portrayed in such a down-to-earth, natural way - I agree with Philip Pullman's quote on the cover.

Full review to come once I've finished reading Sabriel.

[emersonfreepress]

help i'm alive

So! Long time, no see. 2023 was a whole goddamn lot lol

I don't have a demo update to share yet, but that's because I had to scrap nearly everything I managed to write during a very, very, very bad stint of writer's block last year. I hadn't even realized it had been a block like that until I went over my work so far last month and realized it was bad -- like, trust me; a slog to read that didn't even sound like me. It's been extremely frustrating but I've finally broken free of that and it's been easy and actually fun to write again for the first time in actual years. I just hate giving updates that have no actual news in them. And I really had nothing to share other than: I deleted thousands of words and feel so much better now 😅

Anyway, little about my demo plans have changed: I'm still putting out the Chapter 3 demos in Choicescript/on Dashingdon and then will be going dark to move things over to Twine. Where I am in the process right now is... feeling like 35% done with the overhauled version of this chapter and 50% done for the next demo update.

As far as asks, I'm... not really sure what to do?? I believe I've read them all (I love you guys), but so much time has passed since getting most of them that I'm not sure if it's, like... still pertinent??? To go back and answer them?? I suppose some of them like character asks could be, but all the nice messages of support -- that feels weird since I've practically ghosted this blog since August! Idk. Y'all tell me what to do with 'em and I'll do it. Maybe I should make a poll.

Uh... that's really all there is to say regarding the game! I've added some personal stuff after the cut, but if you're done here: Thanks for reading and sticking around. It means the world, for real.

So what has occupied my time all this time? Doctor, therapy, money, and friends. And improv! But especially the first two. There was a lot of non-writing related stuff fucking up my ability to focus and write, so hopefully with my mind and body both feeling a lot better, I can get back to being present and active with the game. I didn't realize how physically unwell I was until last year and it's been like... life-long issues I've been treating. It turns out it's not normal to feel exhausted enough to sleep at any given time, at all times, for your whole life! wow!!

I also uninstalled Tumblr from my phone back in February, so you could say I'm sort of generally focused on offline life. (And what an interesting coincidence that my writer's block dissipated shortly after that...) I also just moved!! The last two weekends have been so expensive and stressful -_- But I can't even compare the old place to the new. We're basically paying the same price for idek how much more space. The cats are so happy; which means the house humans get to be happy.

My schedule is finally freed up from constant medical shit (there was a 3-month stretch this winter with multiple doctor appointments literally every fucking week 🙃🙃🙃). My mental health is doing a lot better -- literally incomparably better compared to where I was this time last year. There's live comedy now (which I dabble in, to be clear lol), but I've finally found myself able to like... balance it all. The physical and creative energy that goes into it all, anyway. The lovely thing about improv is that you kinda just show up and do your thing -- it doesn't cut into my writing time so much as it costs energy. Unless I end up in this comedy debate show thing next month, which I am very excited to give up writing time for

So like... Life is life-ing and I'm just vibing. Or something? I'll be around.

Thank you all again so much for your interest, support, patience, and readership <3

[fieryskies]

Dracula accused of being incapable of love proclaiming he has the capacity after staring at Jonathan and calling him his VS Sebastian presumed by Ciel to prefer being a beast admitting he much prefers acting as a butler while fondly thinking of his master. A homoerotic smackdown

[sade-of-spades]

I wrote about going to the most recent live show for an assignment and one of my peer reviews was just this when I described Night Vale

[hotmess-exe]

the way that george rr martin likens writers to "architects and gardeners" is officially like... in my brain forever now. i'm both. that is a great comparison and i am both.

[first-full-moon]

Nice to spend a lunch break scrolling mindlessly every once and a while.

[anonymouscapybara]

people say the worst SI unit is the mole. "ohhh but it's just a number it doesn't even have anything attached it doesn't deserve to be an official unit" BZZZ WRONG

the worst unit is the candela. the candela is stupid.

what's the candela, you ask? well, it measures the brightness of light

"oh that sounds reasonable" you say, "just measure the energy or power emitted!" nope. they would not do anything nearly so simple. a lightbulb emitting a watt of yellow light is more candelas than a lightbulb emitting a watt of red light.

"ok that's weird" you say, "but maybe they're adjusting for that somehow? maybe it measures number of photons?" again, that would be far too reasonable. a lightbulb emitting a fixed rate of yellow-light photons is more candelas than the same rate of purple-light photons.

but what are they even measuring then? what else is there to measure? clearly they ran out of ideas while making up units, because what they're actually measuring is the SUBJECTIVE BRIGHTNESS OF LIGHT TO THE HUMAN EYE. the candela is STUPID

a reasonable question to ask is: how would you even measure the brightness of light to the human eye? aren't a lot of human eyes different? don't different things look bright in different circumstances? aren't there colorblind people in the world?

surely the General Conference on Weights and Measures, which spent millions precisely calibrating magnetic quantum flux to avoid basing the kilogram on a random block in France, has a clever solution!

no. no they don't. the candela is stupid.

as far as I can tell, what you do is you first measure how much light of each wavelength comes in. Then you multiply each measurement by a "luminosity function", which measures brightness to the human eye:

you will notice that there are multiple functions shown in this diagram. the SI system has five of these, for different lighting conditions. do your lighting conditions not exactly follow one of the Five Official Standardized Lighting Conditions? guess you're out of luck then.

and whose eye are we using? why, the Official Standardized CIE Photometric Observer, of course: the "ideal observer having a relative spectral responsivity that conforms to a CIE-defined spectral luminous efficiency function for human vision"

(and no I can't show you this function because the fine people of the ISO put it BEHIND A PAYWALL. who puts measurements determining a fundamental SI unit BEHIND A PAYWALL. the candela is stupid)

all right, so we're measuring a fundamental unit using a (nonexistent) idealized observer in one of five random lighting conditions. how did they find the values for this? i'm...not entirely sure. but here's a glimpse, based on a few of the most recent studies I found used for this:

"...heterochromatic (minimum) flicker photometric data obtained from 40 observers (35 males, 5 females) of known genotype..."

"To obtain an estimate of the mean L-cone fundamental, we weighted [weird variables] according to the ratio of 0.56 L(S180) to 0.44 L(A180) found in the normal, male Caucasian population...and averaged them together"

that's right, our Official Objective Brightness Unit is probably sexist and racist. none of the other SI units have a chance to be sexist and racist. a meter is a meter in every country on Earth. 6.022*10^23 For Women is still 6.022*10^23. but the candela is-- probably-- the white man's candela, because you can absolutely bet that genetic drift around the world gives different values for this stuff.

in summary: my opinion, as you might have guessed, is that the candela is stupid. hopefully you agree with me after reading this that we need to completely eradicate it from the planet. failing that could we at not give it the same level of officialness as the meter or the kilogram?

[rapha-reads]

I tried to resist the urge but at the end of the day ranting about Romeo and Juliet is my most favourite thing to do, and ranting about vampires is also in my top 10 regular hobbies, so...

Louis, Lestat, Armand and Balthasar, or, a R&J x IWTV unplanned rant.

Under the "read more" because it got long.

Balthasar is introduced in the play as "Romeo's man", often modernised in various adaptations as his valet or his page. The footnote in The Arden Shakespeare 2012 edition states that:

"Shakespeare introduced the name for the part in the play, though it is not, of course, his invention. The name, which is also found in Comedy Of Errors, Merchant of Venice and Much Ado, occurs only once in the text of R&J, even though the character speaks nearly 30 lines in the final act."

Three things from that only: it's a common enough name, at least in Shakespearian texts, that the character could be switched for another one; he's so inconsequential that he barely even managed to make his name known ; yet despite his apparent unimportance, his role at the end is extremely crucial in closing in the tragedy.

What lines does Balthasar speaks and whom does he speak to throughout the play?

Man waits until Act III scene 1 to make his entrance. Given his function as Romeo's man, you'd think he'd be a bit more present before that point, but no, Balthy waits until everything's gone bad to arrive like "Grandma, it's me".

Romeo asks him "How doth my Juliet? That I ask again, / For nothing can be ill if she is well." The beginning of his answer could lead you to think that he's about to lie so that Romeo can still be "all well", but, naaaah, sike, he's here to deliver news and he's going to do his job. And the way he does it doesn't leave any details to the imagination:

"Then she is well and nothing can be ill. Her body sleeps in Capel's monument, And her immortal soul part with angels lives. I saw her laid low in her kindred's vault, And presently took post to tell it to you. O, pardon me for bringing these ill news, Since you did leave it for my office, sir."

"Her immortal soul"... We'll come back to that point when we'll get to the vampires. Interesting to note that he says he saw with his own eyes Jules' laid down in the Capulet's tomb, but there's no indication in the text prior to that line that he really did. Some stage adaptations have Balthasar lurking around as Capulet and Cie put her in it, most movies totally ignore Balthasar's entire role - which I will come back to in the second part too. In a way, one could think that Balthy didn't see anything, he just heard the news like any other Veronese people, and didn't wait for more information or even actual confirmation and hurried on ("took post") to tell his master. Which, he does say it himself, that's his job, to keep Romeo informed of the going-ons of Verona in general and Juliet in particular. But, man, what are your sources, actually? Whose your informant? What authenticity does your information have, except from "source: myself"?

And then homeboy has the audacity to tell a desperate and ready to commit all kinds of violence Romeo to "have patience. / Your looks are pale and wild, and do import / Some misadventure." You think?? After this we lose track of Balthy while Romeo goes soliloquising looking for his cuppa poison. ... I don't want to tell you how to do your job, Balthy, but aren't you supposed to always follow your master closely...? How are you losing him so easily? Well, to be fair to him, Romeo does send him to "hire those horses", but that's a really thin excuse.

Balthasar reappears then in the Comedy of Situations that is "everybody and their mothers come visit Juliet's body" (you know, Warm Bodies did have a point; the zombies and necrophilia jokes do write themselves). First he enters with Romeo, and then for once shows some working brain cells when Romeo tells him to peace out and he tells himself "For all the same, I'll hide me hereabout. / His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt." Yes, thank you Balthy, maybe stay inside the crypt itself... Nope, okay, I don't know where he hid but Paris "14yo is perfectly acceptable to marry when I'm 30" Escalus makes his own appearance unbothered and unstopped. Great scouting skills there. Granted, he was the first on the scene actually, but if Balthy really hid close by, he should have witnessed the altercation and maaaaybe stop it. But no. I think he's having a drink with Paris' page. Current body count: 3 (yeah, Juliet's not dead yet, for those following).

Then Friar Laurence arrives on the scene. Oh, hello, Friar My-Ideas-Will-Definitely-Work-Trust-Me-Bro. Balthy emerges from the shadows (from where? Who knows, not me and certainly not Willie the Bard himself; homeboy was lurking, planning the best moment to reappear to create maximum chaos I guess). Their discussion goes something like this:

Laurie: who're you? Balthy: come on bro, you know me. Laurie: oh, hey Balth, so nice to see you? But what the heck are you doing here? Balthy: yeah I'm here with Romeo that fail emo lord lol. Laurie: Romeo? Whaaaat? How long has he been here? Balthy: eeh, 30 minutes? Maybe 45? Dunno but it's been a while. Laurie: Jesus fucking H Christ, okay, let's get into the fucking crypt. Balthy: no thanks, without me. I told Romeo I was leaving and if he sees me still here he's going to break my neck. Laurie: ugh, fine, you coward. I'll go alone and I'm not even afraid. Actually I lied I'm scared out of my mind but I'm better than you so nah! I'm going in. Balthy, walking away: oh yeah, another thing, I was napping, ahem, keeping watch, and I think I dreamed, I mean, hallucinated Romeo killing another dude. But I don't think that's real. Anyway, hasta la vista, losers! [Exit] (sadly not pursued by a bear)

I paraphrased, naturally. And... That's Balthasar's last lines. So to recap: he's supposedly Romeo's man, hence, by his job's function, supposed to always be with him and protect him; he only appears at the end of the story to make sure that no one else can get to Romeo first and maybe tell him about Laurence's plot. He always says he's going to keep an eye on Romeo, or tries to get him to stop, but actually never does anything. Literally, by his own admission, while he's supposed to make sure Romeo doesn't do anything drastic visiting Juliet's tomb, he took a nap: "As I did sleep under this yew tree here"! And the only two people he speaks to are Romeo, whose sole purpose at this point is to die, and Friar Laurence, whose role is to fake-kill Juliet, which leads to both of them dying.

Given all of those elements, one could then consider Balthasar's role in the play as an agent of Death. Death being a character in Her own right in the play, according to some readings (I admit, the idea of Death being the one pulling the strings as Fate would do is something I very much like but is very much inspired by the French musical).

So. Balthasar, agent of Death, purposefully or accidentally, but undeniably, leading the main character to his own death and carefully not stopping nor even interacting with characters who could stop the final act.

And that's who Louis-as-Lestat compares HIMSELF to. Yeah, Louis calls himself Balthasar, let that sink in. So, spoiler alert for those like me who haven't read the books, but Armand later on is going to lie and tell Louis that Lestat died in the fire that burned down the theatre, lie that Louis will totally believe and that will certainly influence the decades of his relationship with Armand. We know Louis is absolutely not over Lestat, we know Lestat is weak at this point, and wants to scare Louis but also get him back, and we know Armand is a lying liar who lies and twist the truth to better serves him. And we know Armand was jilted by Lestat and while he (genuinely?) loves Louis, he's also bitter that Louis got what he himself couldn't get. We also know that Louis is extremely conflicted by his vampiric nature, that he's a stone cold killer but he's also constantly trying to get away from it, that he hates himself and all vampires but also hates humans and all of humanity. We know Louis feels immense guilt at what he thinks is Lestat's murder, and that this guilt is weighing on him enought hat he conjures up a mental Lestat to follow him around and sass, bitch, moan, comment and critique for him.

So, why is it interesting that Dreamstat calls Louis a Balthasar?

Let's go back to two points already evoked earlier. Balthasar makes a point of mentioning Juliet's immortal soul - in the text, it's evident enough, they're Catholics, Heaven, Hell, bla bla bla. Transposed to the idea of vampires, it does lead one to question first if vampires have souls, secondly, what are the limits of immortality. It links to Louis' questioning of his faith, the morals that he fiercely defends but abandons rather quickly when they don't suit him anymore, and his survivor's guilt vis-à-vis his brother first and Lestat secondly.

The second thing is the way Balthasar is generally erased from the known Romeo and Juliet narrative. From an intradiegetic POV, Louis could mean it as "I'm Balthasar because this story is not my story, I barely even appear, only at the very end, and even then, I'm not important, and I certainly do not want to be the focus of attention" (which could also be linked to the coven complaining that Louis hunts sloppily and will expose them all, and that's actually a point in the Death's emissary column, huh). From an extradiegetic POV, the writers might have chosen to compare Louis to Balthasar because in most screen adaptations, the first part of his role is given to Benvolio (announcing Juliet's death) and the second part (talking with Laurie) is totally erased. Which means that people who haven't read the play (or have but aren't totally obsessed with it *cough cough*) and only know the story through the movies or the musical, would have NO idea who Balthasar is. And that's what Louis tries to be: a nobody, a Monsieur-Tout-Le-Monde, unimportant, invisible, unknown. The way Balthasar is for everybody. Quasi inexisting.

And the final part of the parallel, and that one is definitely extradiegetic, is that Louis brings Death wherever he goes (although maybe in a way, after Lestat and the woman vampire in Romania, Louis thinks that of himself too, but let's not go there just yet). His arrival in Paris is what disturbs the equilibrium of the coven, makes Armand questions what he's doing here and how long he can keep going like this, drives Claudia even more away from him, and intensifies the resentment and inner conflicts of the coven. Which will all lead to the theatre burning dow, the coven dying, Claudia dying, Lestat presumed dead and 70 years of toxic married Loumand. Unintentionally, the way Balthasar seemingly unintentionally too, doesn't protect Romeo, which leads to not only his and Juliet's but also Tybalt and Mercutio's deaths (and Paris too). Unintenionally, but who's pulling Balthasar's strings, Death, Fate itself? Who's pulling Louis' strings? Armand? Lestat? Or is he such an unreliable narrator that he's passing himself as a victim of circumstances while the reality is that he's fully aware of what he's doing...? To be determined.

If you've made it to here, thank you so much and don't hesitate to tell me what you think! You can find my Tybalt/Mercutio fic here, and my essay on adaptations of Tybalt and Mercutio on screen here.

[fdelopera]

Hi, I noticed something really weird in a French language version of poto I got off Amazon (and was printed by them). It claims it's the original unabridged text, but right near the start of the second chapter (New Marguerite) it describes Raoul as being assigned to go on a naval mission to East Africa (to connect the two oceans?? it's weirdly vague), rather than to the Arctic, as my other French version (bought at Palais Garnier!) and English translations say. Have you heard of this before?? Any idea what's going on?

Hi @batherik -- thank you for your question.

I believe this is an international issue with Amazon, which appears to have limited copies of the unabridged French edition of Gaston Leroux's Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, which is published by Livre de Poche. Livre de Poche bases their text on the 1910 First Edition of Le Fantôme de l'Opéra published by Pierre Lafitte et Cie.

I also checked Amazon France and Amazon UK, they have the same issue. On some Amazon sites, you can purchase the Livre de Poche edition of Leroux's novel used, but they have limited supplies of new copies. Here is the Livre de Poche edition on Amazon France, where they have limited new copies. And here is the Livre de Poche edition on Amazon UK, where they still appear to have some copies available new.

This may also be a distribution issue with Livre de Poche. When I checked the Livre de Poche website for Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, some of their French retailers appear to be low on copies of Leroux's novel as well.

But as to your question -- unfortunately, the edition you purchased from Amazon is abridged, despite its claims to be an "Édition originale et intégrale".

I am guessing the cover of the book you bought from Amazon looks like this?

If your edition of Le Fantôme de l'Opéra looks like this, it is abridged and heavily edited. It is NOT the original text.

This issue appears to stem from the fact that Le Fantôme de l'Opéra is no longer in copyright in France. French copyright states that published works are copyright protected for the life of the author plus 70 years (or 100 years if the author died in combat serving France).

People are taking advantage of this by publishing abridged and highly edited versions of Gaston Leroux's original French text, and then lying and calling the text "originale et intégrale".

Now, you can still buy the Livre de Poche unabridged edition of Le Fantôme de l'Opéra on Amazon US, but it is currently only available in limited quantity new, or else you can buy it used.

Here is the link to purchase the Livre de Poche edition on Amazon US new, but it is in limited availability.

And here is the link to purchase the Livre de Poche edition on Amazon US used.

The important thing is to verify the ISBN, no matter which website you're purchasing from.

The ISBN you're looking for is:

ISBN-10: 2253009504

ISBN-13: 9782253009504

Now, Livre de Poche is the edition of Leroux's novel that the Palais Garnier giftshop sells. When I was there in 2015, the cover of the Livre de Poche edition that I bought looked like this:

I have also purchased a Livre de Poche edition with this cover (this is the cover that Amazon is currently selling used):

I also have a Livre de Poche edition with this cover:

Now, here are my recommendations for reading the unabridged First Edition text of Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, if you can't get it through Amazon:

1) I recommend looking for a used copy of Leroux's novel through an online used books retailer, like ABE Books. Here's a link to the Livre de Poche edition on ABE Books.

2) Do an ISBN search through a site like BookFinder.com, which will show you all the online retailers that are selling the Livre de Poche edition used. Again, the ISBN you're looking for is ISBN-10: 2253009504, ISBN-13: 9782253009504.

3) Or, if you don't want to purchase through used bookstores like ABE, you can also read Le Fantôme de l'Opéra for free online through Project Gutenberg.

Unfortunately, Amazon appears to be pushing their fake, abridged copy of Leroux's novel, so I would be wary when buying through Amazon, and always make sure to verify the ISBN of the copy that you are purchasing.

[cie-reads]

Pandora Hearts Vol. 1

5/5☆ Heartwarming, Horrifying, & full of heart: Lewis Carroll meets Gothic horror meets steampunk meets deep, compelling psychological storytelling.

A series very close to my heart: Pandora Hearts was the first ever manga series I read from start to finish when I was a teenager. Now, revisiting it in 2023, I am just as absorbed by Jun Mochizuki’s spellbinding writing style and captivated by her masterful artwork.

To sum up how I feel about the first entry in one of my favourite manga series of all time in a short review will be a tricky task, but I will endeavour to do so, nevertheless. (Slight spoilers for the first chapter of the book to follow).

The initial pages open this graphic novel on an intriguingly mysterious note, with cowled figures pronouncing a young boy’s very existence to be a sin (yes, his existence), foreshadowing some of the horror and drama to come, but then launches into a contrastingly jovial scene. We are suddenly and merrily introduced to our seemingly carefree protagonist Oz Vessalius bursting triumphantly from his hiding-place - a wardrobe – after he evades the attempts of various household members desperately trying to locate him for his coming-of-age ceremony.

These juxtapositions of tone are extremely common in this first volume of Pandora Hearts and the series as a whole, and they really make for an interesting time reading the manga. You never really know what’s coming in the next few pages – it could be a wholesome slice of life scene between friends or some of the most terrifying images of psychological horror, body horror, and gore possible in both art and writing.

Now, I won’t go too much more into spoiler territory in this review – because, well, that would defeat the point of writing a book recommendation - but I will summarize what kind of reader I think would benefit from reading this absolutely amazing series. I feel like anyone who is a fan of the Alice in Wonderland books by Lewis Carroll or gothic fantasy in general would appreciate Mochizuki’s retelling of some of the classic features of Wonderland with several key twists – she adds in heaps more horror, stitches in subtle and stunning steampunk elements, and so much extremely emotionally taxing character writing. This series is not for the faint-of-heart – it is chock-full of both horrific scenes and heart wrenching ones. But it is fully worth the emotional toil because it is both a beautiful manga to look at and a gem to read.

[emersonfreepress]

Does the MC's gender play any role in romance? For example, does a RO who has no romantic/sexual experience with a specific gender have different reactions when an MC of that gender shows interest in them?

Also, another related question if that's ok with you: Are there any unique interactions based on MC's gender in general, aside from pronouns and uniforms?

I personally love it when authors add in things like this since most stories I've read only replace pronouns with no further reactions toward the MC's gender. I think it makes interactions more lively and immersive if that makes sense?

Your story is amazing regardless tho! I can't wait to see what you write in the next updates :D

first question answered!

second question answered! That ask was specifically about trans MCs, but I think it gets the picture across? Or you can check out the gender stuff tag, I've touched on all of this a bit :)

[headmate-sanctum]

fairy type Pokémon of your choice, preferably with a typing quirk!

I used a random Pokémon generator, I hope it is okay that they are a dual type. I am also not very well versed in typing quirks, as none of my headmates or friends use them so I hope what I did is alright :> - Raphael

Name: togekiss, angel, soren, eden

Age: ageless (presents as an adult)

Pronouns: they/it/she/he (some neos they might like: mrr/mrrps, feather/feathers, sof/soft, cie/cir, nie/nim/nimbus, clou/clouds)

Gender(s): agender, they struggle to put any labels on its gender so she simply goes by agender.

Orientation: oriented aroace, has a significant enough attraction to women and nonbinary people to list.

Source(s): Pokémon

Role: soother, caretaker, absorber (of negative emotions)

Personality: they are soft spoken and optimistic, often hanging out with the more cynical members of the system to act as a source of brightness. It is very kind, to the point where others may wonder if there is anything that can make her upset. He has an unshakable sense that everything will go right in its life.

Interests: Reading, crossword puzzles (although it is very bad at them), wordle, basically any brain quiz that involves words.

Extra info: has a typing quirk where it will use two a's and two i's in places where only one is needed and will double punctuation.

Ex. The quiick brown fox jumps over the laazy dog ..

Faceclaims:

[ragnarssons]

so, personal theory as to why s2 of hotd ends... like that(tm) - condal and cie wrote the second season quite early on either while s1 was airing or shortly after, they had 10 episodes planned, like s1 - hbo for whatever fuckall reason, dropped on them that they had 8 episodes....... and also: it is a fact that the episodes were written before this announcement was made, because the announcement was made while s2's production was about to begin (meaning, everything was written already). - it is also important to know that hbo is owned by warner bros discovery... you know, the studio that has botched and destroyed several of its own projects (batgirl to name one) to save money and all. it is possible that warner bros' leadership were the ones behind the decision, rather than hbo itself. but yes, let's not forget that 2022-2023 were hell of years for warner bros and all its studios. all in all, what's clear is that it was said to the writers and EPs of hotd quite late, which means they had to change things up DURING PRODUCTION and make decisions - my guess is, originally s2 ended either with the gullet, or... with occuring events at king's landing (if you know you know). but because of episodes cut and budget cut as cited above for reasons cited above, and independant of the writing itself, it got ended sooner......... to me, sadly, they told them "heh we have money for 1 dragon battle only, sike!" and the writers had to make sacrifices, hoping they'd get a bigger budget for s3. - MAYBE if we complain enough, we could get a 12 episodes long s3??????? idk how stable warner bros is (or not) now. i still say, while we don't know exactly what happened when it happened between condal & cie, hbo and warner bros, these are still things to think about. if anything, this article is pretty interesting to read: to cite it, they talk about a major battle, originally planned on s2, being (sadly) moved to s3 (Y'ALL KNOW WHICH ONE, Y'ALL KNOW!) because of episode/budget cuts.

[emo-philosopher]

IGCSE

Heyy everyone

So did CIE's IGCSE and *hair flip* got an A* in all my subjects.

So yeah I'm just tryna help. Fr.

Now listen u dont need to get an A* to be happy with ur grades. If those are ur goals then u go girl. If those are not u still go girl.

But my mum always says "Always aim higher than what u can get. Then you will reach the farthest u can go. Now go make another omelette for me."

Now a major thing I would do before an exam is open a candidate response, the qp, the ms and the examiner report.

Do each question, check with the markscheme, check the candidate response and assess where u are and then the examiner report.

I love this so much: https://paper.sc/

Examiner reports are a really underrated resource and are REALLY HELPFUL.

Use the 'IGCSE' reddit and discord server

IGCSE Notes – Soumya Pandey

Here are some of the resources I used and each subject tips

Maths:

Past papers past papers past pAPERS PAST PAPERS PAST PA-

Girl i cant tell u enough

Also makes sure to learn all the calculator tricks including the linear equations one, differentiation (the only ones I can think off the top of my head)

Make sure to practice past papers have good time management. Calm down during the exam. It'll all be fine.

(trust me i went and got bangs cause i was depressed about the way i wrote the exam and here we are)

Sciences:

Use the examiner report tip. Always always use the syllabus of each subject. And ofc past papers

Skill for Science Packs - Google Drive

Bio:

Drives:

IGCSE Biology (0610) notes from MS - Google Drive

bio

Chem:

Heather Houston - YouTube

IGCSE all chemical tests - YouTube

Drives:

chm

0620 Chemistry – Google Drive

Phy:

physics resources

Business:

Bs is one of the easist subjects cause of the repeated questions and the low thresholds. If there is one subject u wanna chose for fun let it be BS or EVM

EVM:

Smallest syllabus ever

Just do past papers you'll be fine

Ik everyone says that but thats cause its true

The same advice goes to ICT. Like the practicals are the easiest shit u can think of but a big mistake that people do is forget theory.

Study for theory and u get good marks.

English (1st language) :

My fav subject in IGCSE

It was sooo good

Always choose descriptive its just easier to score in

Go read books from good authors like Madelline Miller, Katherine Arden, and Ocean Vuong. Get phrases that u really like and copy them into a word document. Go through it before the exam and use it in the writing

You can also use: https://www.descriptionari.com/

Examiners' Secrets: Descriptive Writing (Mr Salles) - YouTube

Paper 1 video

---------

AND THATS ALL

To everyone doing their GCSE's

All the best

Just remember that it isnt everything. Year 10 and 11 is all about finding urself and having the time of ur life. I sure as hell did. And at the end of the day these results dont matter half as much as u think. Its not that they're not important. Its just that there are more important things in the world.

Go live ur best life before the A level train hits.

[walks-the-ages]

okay, nice, I didn't know the pilot for this had ever been released! Doesn't have voice acting lol, but from what I've read on another post this is what eventually became Inspector Gadget.....? don't quote me on that lol.

Lupin VIII / Lupin the Seventh / Arsene et Cie / Arsene & Co.

He's a detective instead of a thief, like the plot of The Barnett & Co. Agency / l"Agence Barnett et Cie

[convenientalias]

Just finished reading The Blood We Spill by Jo Havens and I have to say, to those of you craving dark f/f, it really goes there.

It's a scifi novel about an imperial assassin and the normal woman she falls for (after said woman witnesses an assassination, and she just barely decides not to kill her for it). Cie, the assassin, is just perfect--she's a ruthless killer with a traumatic past and an equally traumatic present, a slave to the crown, extremely powerful but also a helpless tool of the imperial government. And her relationship with Jemma, her lover is a real roller coaster, very sexy and very angsty and all over the place.

If you do read it, TW for sexual assault and, obviously, murder.