#desire line

[historicalfightingguide]

"James and Jess spend an hour talking about drills, what we think they are, how useful they are, and relating drilling in martial arts to learning to field a ground ball, to playing music, and to learning vocabulary."

A very interesting episode going over training methodology, especially when it comes to the concept of drilling - what it is, what are the various approaches you can use, how do people define it, how best to approach it for meaningful and joyfull development of fencers.

In many regards what the authors of the video talk about is an approach very similar, but not necessarily the same as constraints lead approaches to learning and the ecological model.

” 

—-

A desire line is formed from many people over time choosing not to walk the paved paths, but instead go the way that seems most expedient to them.  they are typically formed when planners don’t account for real human behavior.

——

About us! James is the founder and principal instructor of the Goliath Historical Fencing Academy. He began fencing in 2009, after being inspired by the film Reclaiming The Blade. At Goliath, he instructs several weapons systems including longsword, rapier, dagger, unarmed combat, quarterstaff and halberd. He has taught at private seminars at major fencing events in Europe and Canada as well as across the US.

—-

Jess Finley has had a sword in her hand for the past twenty years. Her initial interest was in stage combat, but not too long after beginning that pursuit began to ask “… but how did they really fight?” From that question, she branched out to German Medieval Martial Arts after being accepted as a student by Christian Tobler, who remains her mentor to this day.  

She is the head instructor at Ritterkunst Turnhalle in Lawrence, Kansas. She has taught and competed internationally as well as private intensives at her home.

She also has a background studying Judo under the tutelage of Arden Cowherd of Topeka Judo Club.She is a published author, having written a book entitled “Medieval Wrestling” on the fifteenth century Master Ott’s wrestling treatise of German wrestling techniques.

She also researches medieval clothing construction and fabric armor, and has presented her findings at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo and published an article in Medieval Clothing and Textiles (Boydell and Brewer) on her study of a 15th century quilted armor.

Jess’s Patreon is http://www.patreon.com/jessfinley“

For more posts from desire line, and for more CLA oriented posts, check out the relevant tags linked here.

For anyone who hasn’t yet seen the following links:

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Some advice on how to start studying the sources generally can be found in these older posts

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Remember to check out  A Guide to Starting a Liberation Martial Arts Gym as it may help with your own club/gym/dojo/school culture and approach.Check out their curriculum too.

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Fear is the Mind Killer: How to Build a Training Culture that Fosters Strength and Resilience by   Kajetan Sadowski   may be relevant as well.

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“How We Learn to Move: A Revolution in the Way We Coach & Practice Sports Skills”  by Rob Gray  as well as this post that goes over the basics of his constraints lead, ecological approach.

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Another useful book to check out is  The Theory and Practice of Historical European Martial Arts (while about HEMA, a lot of it is applicable to other historical martial arts clubs dealing with research and recreation of old fighting systems).

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Trauma informed coaching and why it matters

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Look at the previous posts in relation to running and cardio to learn how that relates to historical fencing.

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Why having a systematic approach to training can be beneficial

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Why we may not want one attack 10 000 times, nor 10 000 attacks done once, but a third option.

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How consent and opting in function and why it matters.

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More on tactics in fencing

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Open vs closed skills

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The three primary factors to safety within historical fencing

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Worth checking out are this blogs tags on pedagogy and teaching for other related useful posts.

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And if you train any weapon based form of historical fencing check out the ‘HEMA game archive’ where you can find a plethora of different drills, focused sparring and game options to use for effective, useful and fun training.

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Check out the cool hemabookshelf facsimile project.

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For more on how to use youtube content for learning historical fencing I suggest checking out these older posts on the concept of video study of sparring and tournament footage.

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Consider getting some patches of this sort or these cool rashguards to show support for good causes or a t-shirt like to send a good message while at training.

[remxedmoon]

i hit 1k followers recently!!!! yipee!!!!!!! thank you all!!! so in celebration here’s all of my completed isat doodle pages, from oldest to newest. go nuts with them!! and maybe don’t look at the first doodle page too closely. it’s Old.

(no greyscale version below for once! just some mushy ramblings. you don’t have to read them don’t worry)

hhhhhha?? so many people. where did you come from. how did you all find me.

ok but seriously, thank you all so much for all the support. i never really. expected to make it this far? like, ever?? i’ve mentioned it a few times on here, but i’ve been a lurker for the past… 2 years, i think? and even before that, i never gained much traction outside of a couple posts. so this has been. very new to me!! in a nice way!! it’s weird to feel like an actual member of a community!! that people know about!

the idea of finally coming back to social media was Daunting (i literally got stress hives writing my first post lol) and the warm reception really. meant a lot?? i don’t think i would’ve ever gotten the courage to come back if i hadn’t been encouraged to by the people over at the isat discord!!

the fact that people actually care about my art still doesn’t feel real?? seeing people take inspiration from my art is just. surreal. just. auagssh. thank you all so so much for everything, i really do appreciate it!!! i’m really glad to be in this community. sorry if this all sounds sappy and long winded i’ve just got a lot of emotions about this whole thing!!

(also as a bonus for reading all this or whatever. here’s a concept page for isatscryption! it felt a little out of place next to my normal canvases so i’m putting it down here! yipee! sorry my notes here are so disjointed auauau…)

[skunkes]

actually

[vampireposter]

meeting wyll at the grove, as someone who the tieflings trust enough to train their children, says so much about him. it's so sad that he doesn't get explored in acts 2-3 as deeply as the other companions, when his problems are equally intense. the average player probably long rests once before coming across the grove, but even if not, in that time wyll has already proven to the tieflings that they can rely on the Blade of Frontiers.

this is the immediate first thing he chooses to do after being condemned to slow death via ceremorphosis. his priority list in the first conversations with tav is: 1) hunt down a dangerous devil, 2) help zevlor with the goblins, 3) once nothing threatens the tieflings he will gladly search for a tadpole cure. wyll is perpetually his own last priority, and i wonder if it has to do with the lore about souls.

if he believes mind flayers' souls have been destroyed, and fiend warlocks will all have their souls sent to the hells after death, then becoming a mind flayer isn't the worst possible way for him to die. he would never become a mindless monster to save his own soul, but he's not gripped by horror the way that some of the other origin characters are. lae'zel has been made revoltingly impure to her people, astarion is terrified of losing the scrap of bodily autonomy he just regained, gale is guilt-ridden over the orb detonation if he dies, shadowheart has to survive to prove herself to her cult leader, and karlach has also just regained bodily autonomy and is desparate to live.

this is just another quest for the Blade, whose persona guards wyll ravengard against the vice of self-concern when he ought to be concerned for those in need.

[obstinateson]

and tell them i was loved

that you always loved me

i know you didn't

but spare them the vision

[unreal-dreamygirls]

[alteregomp4]

I hope that old man is the hottest piece of ass on the vampire market and everyone has a turn on that ride next season. I said what I said and I speak the truth.

[cenvast]

Laios, Monsters, & Toshiro: On Racialized Desire and Identification with the Other

Arguably, the most significant part of Laios' character is the societal ostracization he faces because of his non-normative interests and behavior. For the majority of his life, Laios struggles socially, and other humans mistreat him. When he rescues Marcille from the Nightmares, his nightmare dredges up his inability to fit into school and the army. During his early dungeoneering days, he's lied to and exploited by his fellow party members.

One of his earliest and most formative negative experiences with people is his village's abuse of Falin as a magic user. He shares that after the villagers discovered that she can use magic, "adults who were just kind yesterday, all began to bully [her]." Instead of protecting Falin, his parent tell her to leave the village. The prejudice Falin faces and his parents' response to it upsets Laios to the point that he leaves home.

While Laios cares about his friends, the Demon points out that Laios understandably does not care for people in general. Laios doesn't disagree with the Demon's assessment and suspects that the Demon "can sense all [his] thoughts." The Demon goes on to say that Laios actually "despise[s] all humans." Laios denies this assessment, but given the Demon's uncanny ability to sniff out people's desires and Laios' ashamed expression, at least part of Laios likely agrees with the Demon. It's not a stretch to assume that he's held onto some hurt and resentment towards humans due to their mistreatment of him and Falin in their youth.

In response to how human society has othered him, Laios distances himself from humans and invests his time and energy into monsters and demi-humans instead. In the DunMeshi world, monsters and demi-humans are the ultimate societal Other. People fear them, exploit them, and even hunt and kill them. As someone who's similarly been mistreated by human society, Laios resonates deeply with monsters.

His desire to become a monster and/or beastman reflects his desire to reclaim agency over how society has ostracized him. If he chooses to become a monster, he gets to place value on what society has deemed despicable. He gets to choose why society hates him and be different on his own terms.

Both textually and thematically, Laios' identification with the Other bleeds into the erotic. More blatantly, he says that he'd have sex with orc women, and his succubus is a monstrous version of Marcille.

The entire story is also steeped in the theme of consumption as carnality. Laios and his party spend the entire manga eating monsters — a taboo physical act which they reap pleasure from; the underlying eroticism isn't difficult to see.

The story also presents consumption as a form of extreme identification. Eating a monster makes the monster part of you through digestion. The line between consuming the monster and becoming the monster — between erotic desire for the monster, demonstrated by eating their flesh, and identifying with the monster — is very blurred. Note that digesting a monster is an act of absorption; it destroys the original creature. Senshi states that consuming a monster erases "its individual identity," and major manga spoilers, but Laios defeats and pacifies the Demon by consuming its desire to eat. We'll come back to this concept later.

As previously mentioned, Laios is disinterested in most humans. The notable exception to this rule is Toshiro and by extension, the Eastern Archipelago. Laios doesn't seem to know much about the Archipelago before speaking to Toshiro, so he isn't drawn to Toshiro because he's an Easterner. Instead, he's drawn to his "odd appearance."

Just like Laios views monsters and demi-humans as a visible Other, Laios views Toshiro as another visible Other. On the Island, Toshiro stands out as a foreigner at first glance. While Laios as a white tallman doesn't appear visibly strange to other people, he's drawn again and again to people and creatures who are immediately visibly "odd." He sees them as understanding what it's like to be different and be mistreated for it, and since he relates to that experience, he wants to learn about them and be closer to them.

Essentially, Laios behaves towards Toshiro and his culture the same way he behaves towards monsters; he wants to know everything about Toshiro's foreign culture — the thing which makes him different. Unintentionally, Laios unintentionally reduces Toshiro to being Japanese; if he wasn't Japanese, Laios would never have approached him.

While Laios doesn't have bad intentions, as Toshiro himself acknowledges during their fight, his behavior towards Toshiro still has negative consequences. Laios' harmless interest in monsters translates to fetishization in the context of Japanese culture. He enacts multiple microaggressions against Toshiro and crossing his boundaries.

Laios goes beyond merely learning about Japanese culture. He takes parts of it for himself when he names his sword a Japanese name. Akin to his consumption of monsters, Laios attempts to participate in Toshiro's culture while failing to respect Toshiro himself. Just as eating monsters destroys them, Laios consuming Toshiro's culture while enacting racism against him causes real harm.

Many people have already written about Laios' microaggressions towards Toshiro, but a couple include Laios telling Toshiro that he looks "odd" and asking where he's from, mispronouncing his name as "Shuro," and assuming his favorite food is rice. Laios' treatment and fetishization of Toshiro is racist and harmful. However, I'd like to dive beyond the surface of Laios' micro-aggressive remarks and examine how his obsession with Toshiro becomes a racialized mode of desire, paralleling real world phenomena.

Though no concrete canonical evidence of Laios' feelings towards Toshiro being romantic and/or sexual exists, his interactions with Toshiro have erotic undertones. Their fight dialogue, in particular, revolves around eating, an act the story consistently shows as carnal. During this fight, Laios places his thumb in Toshiro's mouth and asks him, "What's the point of even having a mouth?" Laios' penetration of Toshiro's body via his mouth and his question's potential as an innuendo lend themselves to an erotic reading of the scene's more obvious conflict. Considering the overlap between consumption and carnality throughout the story, it's not a large jump to read eroticism into Laios demanding Toshiro meet his body's physical needs.

Furthermore, Laios is more enthusiastic about Toshiro than any other human in the series. While he cares deeply about his sister and his friends, Laios repeatedly expresses how much he admires Toshiro. He retains and brings up things like Toshiro's (perceived) favorite food. He wants to go to the East in Falin's place after she rejects Toshiro's marriage proposal, and in the "What-If" extra material, he's adamant about setting up a scenario where Toshiro travels with him through the Dungeon.

Undoubtedly, Laios is drawn to Toshiro. Since he sees non-white-ness and monstrosity as equivalent markers of societal othering, Toshiro's identity as a foreigner is what cultivates and maintains Laios' interest in him. Even if Laios learns to care for Toshiro as a person, his desire for Toshiro, platonically or otherwise, is still filtered heavily through race within the narrative.

Laios' relationship with his masculinity is also fraught. He broke off his engagement with a girl from his village and doesn't express normative interest in female tallmen. Seeing how the nightmare versions of his parents ask him when he's going to give them grandchildren, Laios experiences societal pressure to conform to a normative performance of masculinity through being attracted to and marrying a tallman woman and creating a family with her.

Laios frequently talks about how cool and admirable Toshiro is when he performs masculinity through combat, etc. He might find Toshiro's Asian masculinity more appealing and more accessible to him than the masculinity that's been forced onto him, precisely because Toshiro's Asian masculinity appears non-normative in a Western lens. But co-opting the masculinities of men of color as a white man would only further feed into the white consumption of cultures of color.

Overall, Laios' entitlement to and consumption of Toshiro's culture mirrors the real-life way white people co-opt and fetishize non-white cultures. Laios' fetishistic treatment of Japanese culture, because of his attraction (platonic or otherwise) to Toshiro, parallels white people's treatment of Asian people in the Western diaspora. I can only speak on the Asian American experience, but Laios immediately being drawn to Toshiro's "odd appearance," obsessing over his culture, and primarily treating Toshiro as a conduit for his said culture feels eerily close to how some white anime and/or K-pop fans act towards Japanese and Korean people.

Similarly to Laios, real queer, neurodivergent, and/or otherwise non-normative white people are marginalized by white Western society. They relate to how society others non-white cultures and/or people of color and latch onto them. While forming human connections based on curiosity and shared experiences is wonderful, white people are often unaware of the racial dynamics at play when they engage with non-white cultures and people of color and unintentionally, end up consuming and fetishizing non-white cultures in detrimental ways.

None of this negates the reality that Laios and Toshiro canonically care for each other. For instance, Toshiro's willingness to hug Laios reveals his genuine familiarity with and affection for him. The racial dynamics of their friendship complicate their relationship in fascinating ways and open up a potential path for Laios' growth. With time and effort, Laios could absolutely unlearn his racism and become a much better friend to Toshiro.

In conclusion, Laios' behavior towards Toshiro is a study in a marginalized white person's identification with and racialized desire for a non-white Other and how even a well-intentioned attempt at connection can replicate harmful racist dynamics. Toshiro's experience with Laios closely parallels real Asian people's struggles with racism and fetishization in our world today.

[stefisdoingthings]

i put my hand near my mouth so i know i'm still breathing

[historicalfightingguide]

This episode talks among other things about  various aspects of training wrestling in HEMA and historical fencing more widely, with a special focus on safety of wrestling within tournaments and how to approach it all sensibly.

” James and Jess invite Keith Cotter-Reilly on to talk tournaments and Ringen and where they should overlap.

—-

A desire line is formed from many people over time choosing not to walk the paved paths, but instead go the way that seems most expedient to them.  they are typically formed when planners don’t account for real human behavior.

——

About us! James is the founder and principal instructor of the Goliath Historical Fencing Academy. He began fencing in 2009, after being inspired by the film Reclaiming The Blade. At Goliath, he instructs several weapons systems including longsword, rapier, dagger, unarmed combat, quarterstaff and halberd. He has taught at private seminars at major fencing events in Europe and Canada as well as across the US.

—-

Jess Finley has had a sword in her hand for the past twenty years. Her initial interest was in stage combat, but not too long after beginning that pursuit began to ask “… but how did they really fight?” From that question, she branched out to German Medieval Martial Arts after being accepted as a student by Christian Tobler, who remains her mentor to this day.  

She is the head instructor at Ritterkunst Turnhalle in Lawrence, Kansas. She has taught and competed internationally as well as private intensives at her home.

She also has a background studying Judo under the tutelage of Arden Cowherd of Topeka Judo Club.She is a published author, having written a book entitled “Medieval Wrestling” on the fifteenth century Master Ott’s wrestling treatise of German wrestling techniques.

She also researches medieval clothing construction and fabric armor, and has presented her findings at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo and published an article in Medieval Clothing and Textiles (Boydell and Brewer) on her study of a 15th century quilted armor.

Jess’s Patreon is http://www.patreon.com/jessfinley“

For anyone who hasn’t yet seen the following links:

Some advice on how to start studying the sources generally can be found in these older posts

Remember to check out  A Guide to Starting a Liberation Martial Arts Gym as it may help with your own club/gym/dojo/school culture and approach.

Check out their curriculum too.

Fear is the Mind Killer: How to Build a Training Culture that Fosters Strength and Resilience by   Kajetan Sadowski   may be relevant as well.

“How We Learn to Move: A Revolution in the Way We Coach & Practice Sports Skills”  by Rob Gray  

Another useful book to check out is  The Theory and Practice of Historical European Martial Arts (while about HEMA, a lot of it is applicable to other historical martial arts clubs dealing with research and recreation of old fighting systems).

Worth checking out are this blogs tags on pedagogy and teaching for other related useful posts.

Consider getting some patches of this sort or these cool rashguards to show support for good causes or a t-shirt like to send a good message while at training.

And stay safe

[dontmindmeimjusthereforthesequel]

COLIN REFUSES TO EVEN GO NEAR A CAMERA

COLIN REFUSES TO EVEN GO NEAR A CAMERA

COLIN REFUSES TO EVEN GO NEAR A CAMERA

[lurkingshan]

hi there i hope im not bothering you but i was hoping you could recommend me some good japanese bls? hopefully completed ones? no pressure ofc!

Can I recommend you some good Japanese bls? *laughs maniacally* Oh my anonymous friend, you have come to the right place.

First, go here for a nice little variety pack of some of my all time favorites to get you started. I will add some more gems here in no particular order (all of these are complete and available to stream):

Kieta Hatsukoi (Viki)

You have probably heard of this tumblr fav about a very confused mess of a boy who gets into all kinds of Situations while trying to sort out who he has feelings for and what it even means to like somebody. This one is super sharp, funny, and has an endearing ensemble cast.

Kabe Koji Nekoyashiki kun Desires to be Recognized  (Viki)

Two childhood friends--one a doujinshi artist, one a pop idol--reconnect and get the chance to sort out old feelings. This one has great wacky energy while still being quite emotionally deep.

Life: Love on the Line (Viki)

This bl film follows a pair of high school lovers through coming of age and the challenges of adulthood as queer men. It's so lovely.

Seven Days (Youtube)

A short film told in two parts, this is a very simple story about a high school boy who is willing to date anyone who asks for a week, and the classmate who is so curious about this guy's deal that he decides to take a week for himself. I bet you can guess what happens next!

Takara-kun to Amagi-kun (GagaOOLala, Viki)

Two high school boys decide to date each other. That's it, that's the show, and despite that incredibly simple premise there's a lot here.

If It's With You (GagaOOLala)

A jaded before his time kid who doesn't believe in love meets a nice boy and reconsiders. Another very simple one, but so well executed.

My Personal Weatherman (GagaOOLala)

And on the not so simple end of the spectrum, this is a story about two men whose communication problems run so deep that they've managed to enter into a relationship with wildly different ideas of what exactly they are to each other. Equal parts kink and confusion.

Perfect Propose (GagaOOLala)

The story of an overworked salaryman who reunites with his old high school friend and moves him in as a de facto caretaker. This one is very cathartic for anyone who's ever had a soul destroying job.

At 25:00 in Akasaka (GagaOOLala)

Two former college classmates are cast opposite each other in a bl drama. Old feelings and insecurities return, professional and personal boundaries get blurred, and communication struggles ensue.

A Man Who Defies the World of BL (GagaOOLala, Viki)

This hilarious parody of Japanese bl is most fun to watch after you've immersed yourself in the others, because the jokes will land harder the more familiar you are with the genre and its tropes. There are now three parts to this and they play out as a continuous story.

I will stop there for now or we could be here all day. I hope you find some shows to enjoy, anon! Feel free to stop by for recs anytime. And for ongoing shows, I am always tracking Japanese ql here.

[welcometogrouchland]

(ID in alt) hi sorry for back to back marvel fanart I swear I still have dc stuff lmao. However I did recently read X-Men: first class and got a bit carried away doodling this after Lmao

[serpentface]

This was going to be a panel of a little comic but I got too invested in drawing minute background details so, here.

[fluffylord]

TWELFTH DOCTOR | HELL BENT