#editorial-list

[shiranuieditorial]

20 inspirational names for a super summer!

List summary: 新夏、夏向、夏涼、夏艷/夏艶、琉夏、夏樂、夏怡、夏悅、夏嬉、夏歡/夏懽、梨夏、夏梅、夏蓮、莽夏、青夏、勇夏、承夏、平夏、峰夏、and 夏緒！ (Keep reading ’til the end to discover their meanings, readings, pronunciations, guide to etymology and history, and more linguistic knowledge!)

Is it just me or has this summer been unnervingly chilling for us tropical islanders? 🌞🥶

Check out this summer-inspired name bank I’ve been working on for the past 5 months!

Each name was…

→ meticulously hand-picked like exotic cherries 🍒

→ carefully translated to the best of my ability 🉑

→ and then packed with a mini beginner’s guide to 夏 (the Han character/Chinese character for “summer”, used throughout the Sinosphere) 📖

→ which contains its standard readings in many languages: Mandarin Chinese, Dungan Tili, Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien, Wu, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese! 🀄

(If you need info on any other topolect, dialect, or time-specific variant not mentioned here, just ask away! I’ll see what I can do for ya!)

👉🏼 An incredibly versatile character, it’s impossible to run out of given names containing/based on 夏!

The possibilities are endless, and the only limit is our imagination! 💡

👉🏼 If we visit the Wiktionary entry for 夏, we’ll see a whole lot more linguistic variants & historical hypotheses on this ancient grapheme dating back to 2070 BC, and even a reconstruction of its Middle Chinese & Old Chinese pronunciations based on recovered millennia-old scripts! 😱

👇🏼 Comment “Wiktionary” and I’ll send you the link to read further. It’s very interesting to read, whether you’re a curious beginner or a veteran Sinologist.

❓ QOTD 1: Which name stood out to you in particular? 🤔

❓ QOTD 2: Do you know what the difference is between “reading” and “pronunciation”? 🗣️

👇🏼 Also also also, let me know what you think of this list! 📜

Is it interesting enough? Are the tables mathematical enough? Are my font choices weird enough? Have I managed to convince you that I’m secretly an omniscient Taoist immortal from the 16th century BCE here to steal all the trees off your backyards, or should I try harder? If so, what other attempts at floor-length grocery lists should I make to satisfy your most honourable expectations?

Remember—your plants are at stake here! ���🏼‍♀️🌲🌳🌴

[batsplat]

wait, is there a dovi/jorge feud???? i didn't know this!! also thank you so much for all you do for this community ❤️

not the only ask I've gotten about this and... look, rather than doing a proper write up that would take forever, I'm just gonna give my top ten fun... facts? bits of trivia. tidbits related to the two of them. quite long tidbits, on second glance. the highlight reel, if you will

(1) that time andrea dovizioso made 14 year old jorge lorenzo cry

the two of them already raced each other before the start of their grand prix careers, competing for the first time in 2001 in the cev when dovi was around 15 and jorge around 14. in riveras tobia's biography, here's jorge talking about their first fight:

I led the way at the start and Dovizioso and I escaped. It was our first head-to-head encounter, the first time we raced each other. My dad had heard that Dovi was a really clever rider and he warned me before the race. But just like in 1998 at Jerez, with Olive, I acted like a dummy and pushed for the whole race. I kept looking behind me to see the bastard still there! It was impossible to shake him off, he was watching me the whole race until the last lap. Three comers from the end I could hear his engine getting closer and I saw his shadow to my left, but he didn't come past. I thought to myself "This guy is going to try something in a second!" I decided I had to on a tighter line and close the door. Sure enough, Dovi went wider through that comer and then dived up the inside. I didn't close the door in time and tried to get in his slipstream, desperately hoping I could get him the next corner, but I ran wide and he won. I came back in tears, I didn't even want to go to the podium, I felt so cheated. I'd been on the limit for the whole race and I felt like I deserved the win more than he did.

so that's a nice and positive start! there's something charming about how even fifteen year old dovi was an absolute menace on last laps

also about that race:

'Jorge beat Dovi in Braga but in the previous race at Most, what a tantrum!' recalls Juanito, laughing. 'He didn't even want to go to the podium, he was crying like a baby! I can still see Dani (Antatriain) talking to him, trying to convince him. In the end he went but he didn't want to look at anybody.'

(2) the photo finish

in 2004, they were rivals in 125cc - a year in which dovi claimed the title and jorge was p4 in the standings. in the very first grand prix ever at the lusail circuit (pretty eventful weekend, you have to say), jorge and dovi crossed the line at the exact same moment

(3) dovi's top three favourite career win

dovi and jorge progressed through the categories at the exact same rate, and after their 125cc rivalry they continued fighting in 250cc. they were title rivals in both 2006 and 2007, with jorge's aprilia winning out both times against dovi's underpowered honda. (the general pattern was that dovi clawed back a bunch of points from jorge in the wet - jorge, with perhaps the exception of a few years in the premier class until around 2013, has never been much of a wet weather racers, while it's always been one of dovi's strongest traits.) for dovi's 300th career start in 2019, he was asked what his top three wins were - and one of his picks was from way back when in 2007

I'd recommend the race! which... well, I did in the race rec post - and I can only reiterate that these two kids do not acknowledge each other, not good vibes at all

(4) jorge's thoughts on young dovi from 2008

Jorge has a lot of respect for Andrea Dovizioso and feels that his two 250cc world titles have even more prestige because he had to beat the Italian to win them. 'You wouldn't label Dovizioso as fast, particularly, but he's much faster than he looks. He doesn't set many pole positions but he is always up front in a race, fighting to win. He is very intelligent and you can't trust him an inch on the last lap. He has been faithful to Honda, he has great belief in them. His negative side is that he tends to play the victim too much. He'll say that if his bike had a better engine or if it was a bit faster he would win. He's even said that if he was on the same bike as me he'd give me a hiding. I think he looks for excuses too often sometimes, but as a rider and a person I don't have a bad word to say about him.'

some dovi traits read as very familiar, from how he's a better racer than qualifier to the intelligence to the last lap prowess. as for jorge saying dovi plays victim too much? well

also this:

ER: Don't you think that Dovizioso wanted to be World Champion too in 2006 and 2007? Don't you think he gave everything to achieve it? JL: He will think he gave his maximum but he will be lying to himself because nobody does that. Nobody gets close to their maximum, not even me. He will think that he didn't win because he was riding a Honda. There are very few sportsmen who will say, I deserve what happened to me and there are no excuses. I didn't know how to do any better and I've done things wrong.' That is the only way to be the best, the only way. People who make excuses don't get to the top. I know riders who haven't made it for just that reason.

plus ça change

(5) jorge's thoughts on young dovi from 2018

when they were doing their thing as ducati teammates (bickering), here is one of the things jorge said about dovi:

dovi's been trying to undermine jorge's morale his WHOLE career... even when they were but teenagers... love it when you can really tell someone's been sitting on something for over a decade

(6) "also lorenzo is not my friend"

both of them moved up to motogp in 2008, jorge with factory yamaha and dovi with satellite honda. dovi had a very strong rookie season and finished in p5, only sixteen points behind jorge in p4 (who after a promising first few races had spent a lot of time that season crashing). after that, their fortunes diverged. dovi did not have a particularly happy time in the factory honda team and needed to do some shrewd negotiating to be retained by them for 2011 in that three-man squad, while jorge of course won the championship in 2010

here's a deep cut from 2011, a season where much of the excitement and drama was caused by marco simoncelli alone. jorge had exchanged tense words with sic in estoril, one race before simoncelli was responsible for a crash where dani broke his collarbone. the crash and sic's subsequent penalty meant that the three-way fight between jorge, dovi and valentino became one for the podium, with dovi and valentino eventually grabbing the two remaining spots behind casey. but during the race, jorge had executed a... questionable manoeuvre on dovi, one that did have some similarities to the sic/dani incident. given jorge's strong previous comments on racing standards, unsurprisingly the journalists pounced on this incident in the post-race presser and ask the podium sitters about it. here is the clip:

in this clip, dovi essentially says it was a dangerous move from jorge, but he wasn't sure what jorge's intent had been and he needs to watch the footage again. valentino (who had been the most outspokenly critical of sic of the three of them earlier in the presser) takes the opportunity presented to him to have a bit of a potshot at jorge. he says that dovi doesn't have the best relationship with sic but jorge had done something pretty similar in the race... at which point dovi goes "also lorenzo is not my friend"

which, you know. not exactly a major incident, but I find it very charming dovi felt the need to clarify that, actually, he doesn't like either of them. valentino also adds that by jorge's own standards, surely he too should have gotten a penalty. not exactly a meeting of jorge's biggest fans hm

(7) mapping eight-gate

well I can't leave it out, can I

so in 2017 jorge switches from yamaha to ducati and does not have a great time of it. a lot of weekends, he's just too slow, other times he shoots to the front of a race at the start (typically not great news for the rest of the field in his yamaha days) and then chews up his tyres before gradually dropping like a stone back through the field. at some point that year it became a bit of a running gag - especially when you saw he was the only big name to be picking a soft tyre and just went... buddy we ALL know how this is gonna end....

while this was happening, his teammate dovi was for the first time in his premier class career in championship contention. an extremely close title fight throughout the year with five protagonists until pretty late in the season, it eventually went to a title decider in valencia between dovi and marc. you know, the kind of year where every point counts. the race where marc put a bit of daylight between himself and dovi was phillip island, with marc winning a great dogfight out front while dovi had a bit of a horror show of a weekend. this meant that a lot would have to go right for dovi to have a chance of still winning the title... and sepang was already a match point race for marc

ducati had not won a championship since their 2007 title, courtesy of one casey stoner. after that year, their bike became steadily less competitive every season, reaching a nadir around the 2011-13-ish period. so by the time 2017 rolled around, they wanted this so so badly - even if they wouldn't have expected dovi to lead the charge. dovi had only narrowly beaten out iannone in the 'who's going to be fired for our shiny new lorenzo hire' contest of 2016, and really it was supposed to be jorge who was carrying ducati's dreams on his shoulders. but, never mind, they were throwing everything behind dovi now... no stone left unturned

which brings us, of course, to the subject of team orders. this discourse really took off at the penultimate race of the season at sepang, but was already brewing before that - and in phillip island, satellite ducati rider redding had been told early in the race to let dovi past

here from marc at sepang:

dovi had been in great form all weekend at sepang - and with his wet weather prowess being what it was, really there shouldn't have been any need for team orders at all. but he got a sluggish start, and the race unfolded from there... until eventually jorge was in first, dovi was in second and marc in fourth. in those positions, marc would have clinched the title there

and then, jorge got a message on his dashboard. suggested mapping: mapping 8. pit boards and dashboards and all sorts of boards will feature various codes during races, most of them completely innocuous - but of course they are a healthy source of all sorts of conspiracies. the timing of this one was certainly... notable, and speculation immediately started about how it might be a way of telling jorge that he should swap positions with dovi

jorge didn't end up letting dovi pass - it is questionable whether he really would have done so with what would have been his first ducati win on the line. in the end, he made a mistake that let dovi through so that dovi claimed the win anyway, keeping himself in mathematical contention in valencia. and jorge did say afterwards he was keeping dovi's title hopes in mind, kind of

jorge also said he hadn't gotten any message indicating team orders, and of course nobody at ducati confirmed that mapping eight did have anything to do with team orders

for what it's worth, this is what dovi said about their relationship at this stage:

lovely! let's see what the vibes are like a few months later

anyway, onto valencia. this race was pretty boring despite being a title decider, but the jorge/dovi bits were just unequivocally the weekend's most enjoyable aspect and rather nicely spiced up the whole thing. dovi's chances were always slim going in, given he'd have to win the race and marc would have to barely get any points at all... but still, you never know, right? marc could always crash (narrator: he did almost crash). jorge plays coy early in the weekend about the whole 'helping dovi out thing', and basically just started putting in place...? ... very specific conditions...? under which he'd help:

so during the actual race, dovi got stuck behind jorge in p5, with marc ahead of both of them. valencia is traditionally not a fantastic track to overtake at... so even if dovi had been faster, it's not like he'd have an easy time clearing jorge and cracking on. but they were beginning to drift further away from dani in p3 as ducati watched on, increasingly unamused by what was happening - and the tv cameras were of course kind enough to repeatedly show the ducati box looking deeply unamused. again, they went for the good old mapping eight message, which, hey, that could mean anything! they sure did keep showing it to jorge though, almost like he wasn't paying attention to it

eventually, they abandon all subtlety and go for a pit board message that does just straight-up tell jorge to swap positions. jorge kept ignoring the messages, lap after lap, and he never ended up letting dovi past. eventually they both crashed and marc claimed the title with a p3 finish, so it wouldn't have mattered anyway, but... still. the feeling was that this might things rather awkward inside of ducati

publicly, ducati was extremely keen to smooth over the whole controversy, saying they totally weren't mad at jorge blatantly ignoring team orders. jorge had, after all, explained to them (and the media, repeatedly) that he had totally been intending to help dovi by dragging him closer to dani

Giving his take on events, Lorenzo acknowledged that he ignored Ducati’s instruction because he felt Dovizioso’s chances would be boosted by having him directly ahead. “Even looking at this [dashboard] suggestion, I keep pushing until the end, because I knew it was the best thing for me, for Ducati and for Dovi,” said Lorenzo. “I helped him to improve his pace by one or two tenths, to be as close as possible to the first group. My intention was, and it was the case, that we arrive at the first group. If he had the option to win, I would have gone wide and let him pass. But unfortunately it was not like that. Maybe in some corners Dovi was close and I slow down a little bit his pace, but in general terms, having my wheel in front of him made him improve slightly his pace. I helped him stayed closer to the front group. “I knew Dovi was struggling, I knew his pace during all the weekend, and I knew he was making the best pace of the weekend just in the race. It was [because of the] help from my wheel. I’m happy because I was not wrong. If I was wrong and slowing him, I would be very sorry. But it’s not like that, my feeling was true.”

which, you know. is it really that easy to tell how much faster you are than someone who's sitting on your rear tyre? who's to say. dovi did certainly seem rather keen to get past

anyhow, of course there were plenty of fun dramatics post-race:

'our rider ignored team suggestions not team orders' is a great line, fairs. there's plenty more of this from ducati, some excellent spin doctoring - and dovi was extremely magnanimous about what had happened:

the whole thing was pretty undignified from all non-dovi parties, but it was also very funny so who's to say if it was bad or not

(8) runner-up-gate

let's check in on them in 2018, the second and ultimately last year in which they were teammates. remember that 'undermining morale' quote from above? those are from early 2018, after dovi says he wouldn't be surprised to see jorge elsewhere the following season. so, once jorge has complained that dovi had been trying to put him down his entire career, comes this:

so that's something. jorge, dovi and dani have a three-in-one crash in jerez, after which some fingers are pointed but it all remains fairly civil, and a bit later dovi says that jorge's approach doesn't work at ducati:

by the summer break, jorge's results had gotten better, but it was already too late to save the relationship with ducati and they parted ways. anyway, here's dovi and jorge having another go at it:

And while a rough patch for Dovizioso coupled with breakthrough back-to-back wins for Lorenzo in Mugello and Barcelona have now left the pair just three points apart in the standings, Dovizioso refused to back down from his claim when speaking to Spanish sports daily Marca ahead of the upcoming Brno race. “He’s won two races,” Dovizioso said. “Winning two races does not solve the problem of a year and a half. Lorenzo was not signed to win two races. Therefore I do not change my mind.” When the comments were put to Lorenzo, the three-time champion offered an ardent retort, stating that Dovizioso's rhetoric was proof of the claim he'd made back in April. “I'm a bit fed up with this situation, mainly because when I had trouble and he was winning, I was down there applauding,” Lorenzo told Spanish broadcaster Movistar. “What I said in Argentina - and the comments caused a big surprise - you can see that I was right. “He tried to undermine me, or downplay what I achieve or just attack me. As you can see, I wasn't lying. He's still doing it and now he says my method is not good, according to him.” Lorenzo intimated that Dovizioso was in no position to criticise him, as the Italian could do no better than runner-up to Marc Marquez in a 'perfect' 2017 season. He said: “I think my method has not worked too bad in my career. I've won three MotoGP titles and have 46 wins.” “In my second year in Ducati I'm usually faster than him, but maybe I should look at his method closer if in his best season, with everything going perfectly, he was second. Otherwise he's fourth or seventh usually. I'd tell him to leave me to go my way and to focus on his own and everything will be better, because when you have an angry Lorenzo it's usually worse for you.” 

fair to say that by this point the pretence at civility has mostly been dropped. I'm rather fond of the "lorenzo was not signed to win two races" line, though "when you have an angry lorenzo it's usually worse for you" is also really strong stuff. dovi tries to restore a little bit of peace:

Responding in turn to Lorenzo's tirade, Dovizioso sought to play down the conflict. “Jorge has his ideas and I think they are based on particular things. I don't think like him, but it's not a problem,” he told Movistar. “Everybody creates their own ideas based on what they see and how they live. “I don't think he has everything clear in his head about what's happened, but we continue the relationship that we started last year with respect, there's no particular problem. If he thinks this way, that's his problem."

so basically the classic 'idk what he's on about but it's not my problem' approach to attempting to defuse feuds

(9) twitter-gate

there's a few more on-track battles where it's nicely obvious how badly they want to beat each other, with jorge beating marc just ahead of dovi in austria and then dovi beating jorge in brno. jorge's season is increasingly derailed by injuries, which sets the stage for their next big spat:

The row was sparked by Dovizioso's comments to Sky Italia after qualifying at Sepang on Saturday, as he was asked what he thought of Lorenzo having to pull out of the Malaysian GP weekend with injury. "I don't know the details, I don't want to get into this, it's a bit of a strange situation," said Dovizioso."It happens often in Ducati or to certain riders, but I don't understand the details and I don't want to get into it and give my opinion." When it was put to him he was offering 'cryptic words', he added: "I leave things there, it's not my problem."

pretty vague, yeah. but anyway, I'm sure jorge had a proportionate response to this

Dovizioso's comments prompted a series of irate posts from Lorenzo on Twitter, with his first reaction being "Thank you very much @AndreaDovizioso! You are a real gentleman!". In his next post, he went on to call Dovizioso "an exemplary teammate", adding: "You applaud him under the podium when he wins and then... (That's right, he does not give his opinion, it's not his problem)." After that, Lorenzo labelled Dovizioso "envious" and described him as "a world champion... in 125cc."

the podium thing really bothered him, don't you think. their ducati in-fighting follows that general pattern where dovi says something... a little shady, a little ambiguous, where his intentions aren't entirely obvious... at which point jorge goes all in at fighting back and has a go at dovi - often not as much for what dovi is actually saying, but what jorge thinks dovi is implying. which is based on his understanding of dovi, the image of dovi he's built up in his head over the years, so that he is... predisposed to think ill of the intentions of the 'intelligent' dovi who always knows exactly what he's saying

again, dovi tried to downplay the argument, while simultaneously not exhibiting much patience for jorge's stance:

After the Malaysian GP, Dovizioso was asked about Lorenzo's responses to his comments, and the Italian accused his teammate of reading too much into headlines. He said: “Why should I talk to Lorenzo? I do not waste time on these things. He makes the usual mistake of giving too much importance to what is written, even without the context. "I have not pointed my finger at anyone and I have no problem with Jorge."

if I were ducati, I probably would've let the whole thing blow over given jorge was off soon anyway. but they decided the whole thing was so bad they had to organise a peace summit

Asked about the situation, Ducati sporting director Paolo Ciabatti admitted to Motorsport.com that the Bologna marque has already planned to sit its two riders on Tuesday in Milan to make it clear what its priorities are. Ciabatti said: “It is clear that the interests of Ducati come before personal problems between riders. On Tuesday we will be together in Milan, for the EICMA [motorcycle show] and we have in mind to spend half an hour to sit and talk to Jorge and Andrea. "We want to avoid similar things to what happened last weekend. "I understand that these kinds of situations can happen. Sometimes riders get nervous during a Grand Prix weekend and on a rainy day, with tricky conditions, sometimes they say things they shouldn’t have said."

god knows how that turned out

(10) wow, you guys aren't gonna let this go, huh

late 2020 and jorge's career is already over, while dovi's looks like it will be... paused, at the very least. which is always a good time to check in with riders on how they feel about their rivals - if they're still being nasty you know that shit was personal. from december:

some quality petty material here. "I can't understand his somewhat peculiar mind" vs "he was envious of me since 250cc, but I wanted to give our relationship a chance". note too jorge talking again about how generous he had been in the face of dovi's 2017 successes, and how he feels like this was not reciprocated at all. jorge's complaints don't stop there:

merry christmas!

not the only rider jorge has beefed with post-retirement, but compare and contrast with how he really hasn't been doing any of that with some of his biggest career rivals. valentino, marc, dani - sure, he still talks about the controversies he's had with them pretty regularly (to put it lightly), and he's hardly free of complaints... but mostly it's a distinctly nostalgic tone he's adopting with these guys. admittedly, it helps that none of those three have gone out of their way to say anything particularly inflammatory about jorge. still, the absolute lack of any sort of rapprochement with dovi of all people is pretty funny

bonus: that time when jorge skittled all of marc's rivals

you know how in catalunya 2019, jorge took out like? all of marc's major rivals in that era including himself in one go? with half a decade of hindsight, this was kind of hilarious, and it did also feature jorge having to eat a hell of a lot of humble pie and go to the three other blokes to apologise. anyway I have a lovingly assembled set of screenshots of all three of them emoting in their boxes after the incident, all suffering some form of an existential crisis. here is dovi contemplating the bleak realities of our brief lives on this planet:

truly one of the world's least enthusiastic waves

bonus 2: another one for old time's sake

already posted this elsewhere, but this from late 2023 made me laugh

"jorge came to ducati and thought he was going to beat everything, but in the end he didn't" uh huh

[cer-rata]

Zdarsky when I get my hands on you I swear to god--

[n7punk]

She-ra (2018) Action Dolls: Design Details

In 2019, Mattel released a line of eight action dolls for the 2018 She-ra reboot. The line featured Adora, Glimmer, Bow, Catra, Shadow Weaver, and 3 versions of She-ra (there was also a Swift Wind model). There were more dolls planned that were canceled which I've covered in their own post.

For this post I've gathered official images and information about the dolls' design courtesy of the Instagrams of two of the designers: Darren Sander (known for work on Monster High, he designed this line's packaging and did work on She-ra and Swift Wind) and Annalise Lao (who worked on the BFS & Catra). It takes a lot of people to make even one doll for mass production (the SDCC exclusives were two years in the making, before the show even debuted!), but these are the only designers I've found talk about their personal involvement. I found a few more names to credit further in, though.

For data such as price and further stock/promotional shots (as well as the source of most of the ones in this post), see the line's page in the Dollect database.

Builds:

[Regular She-ra; Glimmer, Adora, Bow, & Catra; Battle Armor She-ra & Swift Wind. I'll cover the SDCC exclusives later in the post. Photos via Twitter.]

For the main four dolls (center image), the bodies are pre-existing sculpts, with the girls coming from the 2019 DC Super Hero Girls line and Bow coming from Monster High (generation 2). She-ra had a unique body sculpt. All of them had unique heads and clothing/accessories.

Glimmer's body is supposed to be a "curvier" sculpt compared to the other girls. Annalise says the foreshortening on the promotional pictures makes her look skinnier, but I will say that what counts as curvy when it comes to dolls is usually ridiculous. They tried with the options they had, at least.

Swift Wind was designed by Darren Sander and his wing artwork was done by Kristen Kress. His wings are supposed to flap when you move him up and down, and he has a plastic clip on his back to keep She-ra in place.

She-ra(s):

[Regular She-ra; SDCC-exclusive She-ra; Battle of Bright Moon She-ra - officially named "Battle Armor She-ra & Swift Wind." All stock photos.]

Regular She-ra: Her outfit is made of plain fabric with plastic accessories for the boots, gauntlets, chest emblem/pauldrons, and tiara (basically, anything gold). Her peplum skirt is unhemmed (on all her outfits) and is made from a sparkly tulle. Her cape is a one-sided fabric, but both sides look pretty much the same. The cape has no hemming either and is sewed directly onto her shoulders. It matches the shorter (more practical) length in the show. The plastic chest piece has overlapping straps and pegs in the back to hook it on.

SDCC Exclusive: The plain fabric of her uniform has been swapped out for a thin, rubbery pleather and her skirt "upgraded" to an iridescent fabric (the fabric feels stiff and way cheaper than the tulle, but was probably chosen for displaying well. It's one-sided). Her cape was redone, now much longer and made from a double-sided foil, still unhemmed. Her boots also have extra paint on their backs (details on that all the way down in the boots section). Otherwise her outfit is the same.

Battle Armor: Her torso and legs are cast in white to give the illusion of clothes. A plastic chest piece clips over the front of her, leaving her back exposed underneath her hair. She has no gauntlets, her forearms instead cast in gold to give the illusion that she is wearing some. Her boots are their usual cast, but they're solid gold with no painting. She has a one-sided reflective skirt, but its curving cut means it's shortest right in front and it often lets her articulation joints peek out. The chest piece was sculpted by Kittaya Wongchinda.

SDCC Exclusive:

[Display packaging in the upper left; both dolls in middle; compact storage box in upper right; closeups on bottom. All stock photos.]

These two dolls were the first part of the line revealed. She-ra's unique sculpt in the regular line originates here. She-ra is capable of standing on her own while Shadow Weaver requires a stand. Shadow Weaver has the same body as core line Adora and Catra, but this is the only set that includes a stand since it's supposed to be more deluxe.

Shadow Weaver: Her outfit is two layers, made from a long red dress with a turtle neck and an unhemmed, tendril-cut bottom edge. Over the top of it she wears a monastic scapular made from red foil and black fabric. She does not have any shoes. She has a black shadow accessory to hold with glitter suspended through it.

Her mask does not come off, but is cast as a separate piece and then glued tightly to her head to create the appropriate silhouette and depth. Her head is likely smooth underneath and she has small elf ears. Her hair is Polypropylene.

Packaging: The display packaging on the upper left folds in half (with velcro on the insides to keep it together while unfolded) to fit into the storage box in the upper right. The tops of the displays feature the same backdrop as the storage box with Shadow Weaver and She-ra's names written in the First Ones script to label each of them. The storage box has the show logo on two sides with Shadow Weaver and She-ra art opposite each other on the other two sides.

Models & Designers: We know Darren & Garrett Sander (fraternal twins, the latter also being the creator of Monster High) worked on the SDCC dolls, in addition to more unnamed creators, but we have some modeler names!

[Shadow Weaver's model with her accessory; She-ra's plastic chest emblem model; She-ra's body model, via Instagram. There are three more photos showing She-ra's accessories and sword through the link but I've hit the image limit.]

The dolls and their accessories were sculpted by Arpine Keurjikian, Kittaya Wongchinda, Adam DeFelice, and Sean Olmos (this is gonna shock you but they all worked on Monster High).

Regular She-ra vs. SDCC:

[SDCC exclusive on the left, regular on the right]

For the con exclusive, the Sword of Protection's blade has glitter suspended throughout it while the others are clear blue, but the cast is otherwise the same. I already compared outfits in the She-ra section, but the con version also has unique hair. Her hair is longer (10 inches vs. around 6 regularly) with some reflective strands (likely tinsel) threaded through it to make it shine. More side-by-side comparison photos of regular vs. con She-ra can be found on Darren Sander's Instagram.

Main Line:

Annalise and Garrett were both fans of the show (unknown for anyone else since I don't have their personal comments) and worked back and forth with Dreamworks on rounds of revisions for the dolls. The dolls had all major joints articulated (just missing ankles, and no torso/chest articulation). They have 11 joints, many of which can be moved in multiple directions. Some individual details:

Catra:

[Catra's screening; the rest are stock photos]

Catra's faceup is pretty much the first design Annalise tried, painting it directly onto the prototype early in the process. Her tail is rotatable, giving her an extra point for posing. She has all her stripes (and pant rips, Catra was Annalise's favorite) from the show. Her belt includes a tiny (and fully painted!) Force Captain badge. She came with a staff accessory. Catra uses Saran for her hair.

Glimmer:

[Glimmer's boots; the rest are stock photos]

Glimmer's hair is also saran, but it has been heavily gelled to achieve its shape, which explains why it's often a mess (or at least deflated) in any dolls that have been played with. Glimmer's white glove is painted on to make the layering with her gauntlets work, but otherwise she has her accessories from the show and her jumpsuit is two layers. She has a unique star sparkle in her eye screening and uses the same skintone as the original DC Super Hero Girls Wonder Woman doll. She came with a "sparkle burst" accessory to hold.

Bow:

[Bow's chest; the rest are stock photos]

Bow has real textured hair up top with his short sides painted (the more expensive Monster High dolls also have their short sides painted on). His top is a white fabric shirt with a single plastic accessory layered over the top of it to represent his armor pieces. Funnily, the strap for his quiver is included despite him not having one. He came with a (single piece) bow-and-arrow accessory.

Adora:

[Posed photo; the rest are stock photos]

I don't have many details on Adora's build, but here's her closeups. The white long-sleeves that are supposed to be from her shirt actually start at the hem of her jacket sleeves and are sewn directly to them. She has a white shirt front sewn on under the jacket collar to give the illusion of proper layering, but it's all one piece. She came with the same Sword of Protection that the two core She-ra dolls had.

Bootprints:

This was the only line they had at the time (and could still be) to have unique bootprints. I don't have a photo of it at the moment, but Adora's boots have four sparkles (the same shape as the emoji ✨) printed on the tread. She-ra's boots were fairly generic, but Glimmer's have a moon print on the bottom and Bow's featured hearts. Dreamworks shared the show designs with them ahead of time, since these dolls started production long before Bow's heart-soles were shown off in season two, and it was a detail they were excited to include for the fans.

It's mentioned up above, but the same cast was used for all of She-ra's boots. The pair pictured here is her con boots. Her regular boots didn't have the blue paint on the very top edge but were otherwise painted (they're up in the sword comparison photo in the SDCC section). The Battle Armor version was gold with no painting at all.

Packaging:

[A lineup of stock photos with the core five box fronts]

And finally, because it's really well-designed IMO, here's the packaging design that was used for the core five dolls. Darren Sander designed the packaging layout and blister with the artwork coming via Dreamworks. The front has the outlines from the Sword of Protection's blade embossed into it. The sides each have a little sword embossed into them and the top has the She-ra logo. They're difficult to see (much less photograph) in transparent plastic, and of course these are head-on photos, but the details really make it.

[mzminola]

I do think “teenager intentionally kicks off very volatile contingency plan which goes worse than expected due to not having all the information, gets a lot of civilians killed, then dies horribly” is a depressing, unsatisfying story arc. Like, War Games just plain sucks.

So if DC wanted to throw Gotham into yet another city-wide disaster, and wanted it to be this particular kind of disaster, how could they have done it more satisfyingly?

Well, I think... have it be kicked off by a character that’s actually been involved in the Gotham mafias / organized crime. There’s multiple options here.

1. Play up Jason & Bruce being two sides of the same coin. Bruce has been working on these plans a long time, long enough that Jason knew about it (and consulted on it!) during his Robin days. Jason works on his own version, in which Red Hood would take the place of Matches Malone, but outside interference (such as Batman jumping in at the wrong moment) makes everything go sideways and oh fuck.

2. Helena Bertinelli. She’s not kicking off some contingency plan, she just straight up is luring all the heads of the Gotham crime families to one place to kill them, but the end result is the same. I need to read more of her comics to figure out how well this actually works. Heck, you actually could still involve Steph in this one; they teamed up in the aftermath of the Quake, there’s precedent.

3. Two-Face or one of the other Rogues that’s more crime-boss than supervillain. You could even have it be inspired by Bruce; he visits Harvey regularly when he’s locked up. Get them talking about their youth, Harvey’s former passion for the justice system, grand plans for “cleaning up” Gotham that felt really good to black-and-white teenage thinking, but don’t hold up to life’s actual complexities.

Or, you know, let Bruce decide Now Is The Time, kick off his own plan, but something outside his control stops him from making it to the meeting as Matches Malone, and Batman is the one who just completely fucked over the city.

DC wouldn’t ever let Bruce both fuck up on that scale and acknowledge it as a fuck up in main continuity though, so this one would sadly be stuck as an Elseworld.

[ik-kudi-da-khwab]

DAY 1 (23-05-24)

I'm kinda overwhelmed but I'll do this anyway.

For the first day, I tried keeping it short and pushing myself just a little bit.

[x] go for running

[ ] complete examples of p/l discount

[x] complete dissolution questions

[ ] complete short answers of p/l discount

[ ] Indian eco ch-2

[thefaeriefeatherdark]

I do think the wildest part of the Skyrocket/Connie concept is that Visaggio seemed to legitimately believe that Kon-El is like... a D-List superhero. Which is just like, a wild thing to believe considering the Comic Kon won in a fan poll hadn't even finished coming out at the time she pitched her idea.

[ciegeinc]

CIEGEINC's FAVORITE FASHION EDITORIALS 2023

Anok Yai by Nadine Ijewere for Vogue Japan May 2023

Ajah Angau Ajok , Akon Changkou , Amar Away , Rejoice Chuol , Awar Akway & Nyawurh Chuol by Tyler Mitchell for W Magazine September 2023

Bharath Murugaiyan, Neeraj Saini and Ankit Karki by Vivek Vadoliya for How to Spend It Magazine May 2023

Tianna St Louis by Jouke Bos for Vogue Netherlands July 2023

Kirandeep Chahal, Puja and Vaishnavi by Bharat Sikka for T Magazine

Akon Changkou by Nadine Ijewere for Vogue US April 2023

“Le Grand Bleu” featuring Naomi Apajok by Txema Yeste with styling from Bernat Buscato for Numéro Magazine 239 Summer 2023.

Aminata Ba , Coumba Dieye , Sophia Makibdji and Mariama Balde by Mikael Jansson for Dazed Magazine Spring 2023

[littledead-ridinghood]

I have two Google docs for things I want to write: one for meta and the other is for fic and dumb little art ideas. I also have multiple WIPs as any person should have at any given time.

There are so many nice (adjacent) ideas I want to write but I’m so reactionary to certain fandom takes now that I’ll never do it. I used to be able to swallow certain takes with an “I don’t agree with that but it’s cute right now and I’m also on my period so I want to cry over fluff anyway.” But for my own personal sanity, I don’t want to “endorse” certain fanon things I’ve come to bristle at.

I have seen many others before post about how the deeper they get into their fav media, the more they move away from shrugging and scrolling towards visceral rage. Now, I’m not boiling with rage or whatever but I do know that the emotions I’m feeling means I need to back off for a while which is so disappointing. There’s so many ideas that I fear while never see the light of day because I can’t get behind “feel good family” takes without feeling like I’m declawing characters.

[shiranuieditorial]

Vocabulary list for writers: EXPLANATION

📚✍️ Looking to spice up the way you explain your explanations? Check out these cool options!

List summary: Account, accountancy, aide-mémoire, alibi, amplification, analysis, anatomising (also spelled anatomizing), annotation, apologia, argument, assay, assessment, breakdown, briefing, caveat, clarification, commentary, confession, construction, contextualisation (also spelled contextualization), and counsel.

💭 Uhh, why this topic in particular? 🤔

⠀

You see, we’ll be doing a lot of explaining, discussing, analysing, surmising, and whatnot during our

🗨️ Q&As

🗨️ Consultations

🗨️ Creative collaborations

(That’s a promise! 🫵🏼)

So, I thought, “What could be a better list to write than EXACTLY about the sheer level of clear communication we’ll practice?”

⠀

Anyway, anyway... I bet you won’t believe I originally intended this list to have only around 5–10 words! 🤯

⠀

🦗🦗🦗

[Crickets suddenly stop in shock]

⠀

Yep, it’s true! I overdid myself with this one… 😅

⠀

Now that you’ve read the first 21 out of 77, why not stay tuned for more vocabulary fun?

⠀

The next parts to this Masterlist of Words Similar/Related to “Explanation” will launch soon! 🚀 ...enough. Hold on to your rockets, fellas 😂

⠀

⠀

⠀

🍔 QOTD 🍔

Which word here is your favourite?

Yes, you have to choose just one!!! 🔪

⠀

⠀

⠀

‼️ DISCLAIMER‼️

I’m not claiming these words are true synonyms (i.e., having the exact same meaning as one another). They are not at all synonymous with each other, but they convey ideas or actions that resemble, complement, or specify the word “explanation”, which—if used with caution—can enhance the quality and impact of your writing, speech, and even your own thoughts and mindset.

⠀

In any case, it’s always a good idea to expand our vocabulary, even if we don’t use these new words right away. After all, science says language learning is good for brain health, so, why not? 🧠

[callioope]

"Science should be free!" Cool. I understand your point about accessibility. How do you plan to pay the writers, editors, designers, production coordinators, and web team? How do you pay server costs and web providers?

[theotherklm]

My Favorite Movies

Check out my latest blog post for a lighthearted take on some of my favorite movie plots.

I have a hard time narrowing my list down to just ten, but I will try. The one about the underdog sports team full of lovable losers. Somehow they win the championship. I like it because nothing says believable like a bunch of underachievers who couldn’t hit water if they fell out of a boat suddenly becoming world champs after one pep talk from a guy in a tracksuit. It’s like watching Congress…

[grimmiearchive]

1 November 2015

Christina's editorial with Nation-A-List Magazine is released Photographed on 30 September 2015

[ik-kudi-da-khwab]

A completed to-do list is like the universe giving you academic validation like yes bbg you have done this why can't you move mountains? <33

friendly reminder - keep faith you can do it

[cluescorner]

I'm pissed af that there are so many DC characters named some variation of 'John/Jon/Jonathan/etc' and somehow all but 1 of them are cool and fun and epic or at least interesting. But the LEAST COOL AND INTERESTING one is who gets all the attention both in publishing and in fandom

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing References: World-Building

20 Questions ⚜ 100 Words for World-building

Basics: World-building ⚜ Places ⚜ Imagery ⚜ Setting

Exploring your Setting ⚜ Habitats ⚜ Kinds of Fantasy Worlds

Fantasy World-building ⚜ World-building Vocabulary

Worksheets: Magic & Rituals ⚜ Geography; World History; City; Fictional Plant ⚜ A General Template

Editing

Setting & Pacing Issues ⚜ Editing Your Own Novel

Writing Notes

Animal Culture ⚜ Autopsy ⚜ Alchemy ⚜ Ancient Wonders

Art: Elements ⚜ Principles ⚜ Photographs ⚜ Watercolour

Creating: Fictional Items ⚜ Fictional Poisons ⚜ Magic Systems

Cruise Ships ⚜ Dystopian World ⚜ Parts of a Castle

Culture ⚜ Culture Shock ⚜ Ethnocentrism & Cultural Relativism

Food: How to Describe ⚜ Lists ⚜ Cooking Basics ⚜ Herbs & Spices ⚜ Sauces ⚜ Wine-tasting ⚜ Aphrodisiacs ⚜ List of Aphrodisiacs ⚜ Food History ⚜ Cocktails ⚜ Literary Cocktails ⚜ Liqueurs ⚜ Uncommon Fruits & Vegetables

Greek Vases ⚜ Sapphire ⚜ Relics ⚜ Types of Castles

Hate ⚜ Love ⚜ Kinds of Love ⚜ The Physiology of Love

Mystical Objects ⚜ Talisman ⚜ Uncommon Magic Systems

Moon: Part 1 2 ⚜ Seasons: Autumn ⚜ Spring ⚜ Summer

Shapes of Symbols ⚜ Symbolism ⚜ Slang: 1930s

Symbolism: Of Colors Part 1 2 ⚜ Of Food ⚜ Of Storms

Topics List ⚜ Write Room Syndrome

Vocabulary

Agrostology ⚜ Allergy ⚜ Architecture ⚜ Baking ⚜ Biochemistry

Ecology ⚜ Esoteric ⚜ Gemology ⚜ Geology ⚜ Weather ⚜ Art

Editorial ⚜ Fashion ⚜ Latin Forensic ⚜ Law ⚜ Medieval

Psychology ⚜ Phylogenetics ⚜ Science ⚜ Zoology

Writing References: Plot ⚜ Character Development