#give this article a read

[frnkiebby]

give the poor guy his soda damnit~🎃

[eskawrites]

so i’m rewatching bits and pieces of s4 for fic reasons and it’s hitting me all over again how and why nancy reacts to robin the way she does before and during the library scene. like! nancy has spent every season having to justify why she thinks what she does or, more often than not, fight with someone to try to pursue her theories. barb is missing and no one is listening to her. barb’s death was unfair but steve thinks they should just keep living their lives normally. she knows there’s a story with mrs driscoll but everyone, jonathan included, is telling her to drop it.

so of course in s4 when she has this idea in the back of her mind, her first instinct is to pursue it alone. even though the others are right there, and they know what’s going on. she still thinks no one will believe her, and she’d rather just do it herself than have someone try to tell her no.

and when robin comes with her nancy thinks that she was right, that robin is just another person who is going to doubt her theories and fight her about whether this is worth their time. except, robin does believe her, she’s just trying to get the information she needs to keep up with nancy. and once they finally get on the same wavelength, everything clicks. robin not only supports nancy’s theory, she takes it and runs with it, and suddenly they have the foundation they need to figure out everything.

and what gets me even more is that, from that moment on, nancy keeps robin at her side. she’s keeping an eye out for her, standing near her in the group, letting her ride shotgun. even when she doesn’t fully trust robin at pennhurst, she still chooses her. and robin proves her wrong again, so nancy keeps choosing her and keeps trusting her.

idk man i just love how strong their dynamic is, and how clear it is that this is good for both of them. for robin to have someone other than steve see her and accept her and care so deeply for her after being the odd one out at the end of s3. and for nancy to have someone finally in her corner, supporting her and believing in her without trying to get with her. they fit so well and their arc in s4 is such a treat, i love it so much

[firelxdykatara]

I am more convinced than ever that virtually no one in this fandom can read.

[not-the-coffee-machine4]

Me: *tries to see what the Queen fans on TikTok have to say*

*Jim hate*

*”facts” that may or not be actually true*

*”Freddie Mercury was bisexual-“*

*Using Barbara Valentin as evidence*

*thinking things that happened in the movie actually happened irl*

*general misinformation about everyone and everything*

Me: aaaaand back to Tumblr I go

(open tags at your own risk, there’s a whole essay in there)

[courtney-deserved-better]

i don't see it as often now that the reboot's been out for a while, but it does bug me whenever i see td fans poke fun at nichelle's name because it's "not a real name" or "they just misspelled michelle lol".

guys. it's an actual name. specifically a black american name. i have met multiple women named nichelle. and my guess is that nichelle the td character was named after actress nichelle nichols, who was one of the first black women featured in a major television series.

it's fine if you aren't familiar with a name. statistically speaking, we're probably unfamiliar with the majority of names that exist in the world. but the small amount of effort it takes to make a post mocking the name can probably be put to better use doing a quick google search.

[oddcryptidwrites]

For every note i get on this I'll write a sentence on the 5 page paper i have due tonight that i haven't started instead of procrastinating and handcrafting a new constitution for my made up world.

[narudoodles]

Update! A kind soul over on twitter let me know that there are pretty reliable AI art checkers online, that have been developed by people specialising in AI and machine learning!

An NYT article also talks about the pros and cons of a number of them.

I tested all the 3 free open access sites (Illuminarty, Optic AI or Not, Umm-Maybe) and only Illuminarty and Optic AI or Not gave consistent results on both art and photographs.

I'll put the links below so anyone can go and check for whichever art they want to (download the original images from tumblr posts, and upload them)

https://www.aiornot.com/#home

https://app.illuminarty.ai/

These are the results :

Optic flagged it as AI immediately.

But Illuminarty had very interesting aspect : when I uploaded the full image, AI probability was 10%. but, on cropping out the bottom of the image (jacket) the probability jumped to 73.9%

This is consistent with my original comment on the art here

My limited understanding of these programs indicate that they scan the entire image including all the individual pixels. AI programs like Stable Diffusion, Mid Journey, DallE all leave signal artifacts when they process an image, which is then left on the final pic generated!

Compare these two @/skykashi original arts, that are immediately flagged as human made.

And now I get to my favourite AI art bro in the fandom @madasama! I commend you for admitting that you not only use AI, but are proud of producing a large number of "real" arts in such a short time!

Here's your "art"s results!!

@elhnrt made a far more detailed and organised post about this specific weirdo, feel free to check it out!

I will be using fandom tags on this particular post so that it has a broader reach. Especially for genuine digital artists and art lovers. Save the links, and always keep an eye out for AI, it's everywhere these days.

[guiltyonsundays]

In defence of Will Ladislaw

George Eliot's characterisation of Will Ladislaw is one of the few aspects of Middlemarch that is not universally praised, with no less a person than Henry James commenting in 1873 that he lacked “sharpness of outline and depth of color”, making him the novel’s “only eminent failure.” And while Will's character is certainly not as clearly defined as some of the other characters in the novel, I believe that this was absolutely intentional on Eliot's part. Middlemarch is full to the brim of characters who believe they know exactly what they want—not least among them, our two protagonists, Dorothea Brooke and Tertius Lydgate, whose ardent ambitions and inflexible attitudes lead them into catastrophic errors of judgement and unhappy marriages.

By contrast, Will's lack of strongly defined goals and his changeability are almost his defining character traits. He's aimless and pliable, prone to rapid mood swings and drastic career changes, with even his physical features seeming to "chang[e] their form; his jaw looked sometimes large and sometimes small; and the little ripple in his nose was a preparation for metamorphosis. When he turned his head quickly his hair seemed to shake out light."

Will’s inscrutability is closely tied to his ambiguous status within the rigid class structure and xenophobic society of Victorian England, with his Polish ancestry and “rebellious blood on both sides” making him a target for suspicion. He is repeatedly aligned (and aligns himself) with oppressed, marginalised, and outcast populations—Jewish people, artists, and the poor.

He serves as a narrative foil for characters like Lydgate and Edward Casaubon, who prioritise specialist expertise above all and are consequently incapable of broad knowledge synthesis. He critiques Casaubon's life's work as being "thrown away, as so much English scholarship is, for want of knowing what is being done by the rest of the world." By contrast, Will serves as Eliot's defence of the value of a liberal education. One of the first things that we learn about him is that he declines to choose a vocation, and instead seeks to travel widely, experiencing diverse cultures and ways of life. He has broad tastes and interests, trying his hand at poetry and painting before eventually pursuing a career in politics.

He also functions as a narrative foil for Dorothea. Will is initially apathetic to politics, whereas Dorothea initially professes herself to be disinterested in art and beauty. This is perfectly encapsulated in their exchange in Rome, when Dorothea declares, "I should like to make life beautiful—I mean everybody's life. And then all this immense expense of art, that seems somehow to lie outside life and make it no better for the world, pains one", to which Will replies, "You might say the same of landscape, of poetry, of all refinement [...] The best piety is to enjoy—when you can [...] I suspect that you have some false belief in the virtues of misery, and want to make your life a martyrdom.”

By the end of the novel, Dorothea unlearns some of her puritanical suspicion of sensual pleasure, whereas Will becomes more serious, compassionate, and politically engaged, dedicating his life to the accomplishment of humane political reforms. They are both flawed individuals, who ultimately become more well rounded through their relationship with each other. Admittedly, Dorothea's influence on Will is more significant than his on her—and once again, I believe that this was intentional on Eliot's part.

In my opinion, the negative response to Will Ladislaw at the time of Middlemarch's publication (and in the centuries since) was and is profoundly informed by gendered expectations of masculine dominance in romantic relationships. Will's marriage to Dorothea has often been described as disappointing, with many readers and critics viewing the ambitious Lydgate as the embodiment of the ideal husband that Dorothea outlines at the beginning of the novel—a talented man engaged in important work for the betterment of humanity, to whom she can devote herself.

However, one of the central themes of the novel is that people are often mistaken in their beliefs about what they want, and Dorothea's marriage to Edward Casaubon certainly demonstrates that she would not in fact be happy living her life in submission to a man who does not respect her opinions. I firmly believe that Lydgate's misogynistic attitudes and expectations would have made it impossible for him to be happy in a marriage of equals with a woman like Dorothea. He is explicitly drawn to Rosamond Vincy because she has "just the kind of intelligence one would desire in a woman—polished, refined, docile."

By contrast, George Eliot made a deliberate choice to pair Dorothea with a man who is not ashamed to be influenced by her, and indeed looks up to her as his moral superior. Through Dorothea's influence, Will discovers his life's work. In turn, by marrying Will, Dorothea is able to pursue her true passion. As a result of their influence on each other, these come to mean the same thing—reform. Thus, George Eliot grants Dorothea Brooke a subversively feminist, politically progressive, and profoundly cathartic ending: a life of companionate marriage, sensual pleasure, and meaningful work, in which Dorothea can devote herself (within the limited means available to her as a woman in the 19th century) to the achievement of just and compassionate reforms that "make life beautiful" for everybody—herself included.

[macaiv]

Just wanted to share an excerpt from this article where Esteban talks a little about the Concours Excellence Mecanique competition of Alpine. This interview was done during the Alpine PR event held in Madrid last December.

[fcaruana]

franco's manager about the red bull rumors:

"We are now at Williams, that's all there is. I don't know where they get those rumors from. [...] We are working to get Franco a seat in F1 2025. At this moment and at this time, he will be a reserve driver for Williams in 2025 [...] We have no deadlines, we did not set a date. We are open"

the interviewer brought up the 20M offer rumor and she looked at them like "are you crazy?" 😭

[greenleaf4stuff]

Jumping off from this post about Adar's fighting with Elrond at the end of s2e7, because I had some exchanges in the replies about Adar's sword and wanted to elaborate:

(picture credit: Middle-Earth Weapons for a New Age forming deadly characters, a great article that has some interesting bits about Adar's sword too - also notice the 'wavy' handle in the left pic for example!)

Sadly, we see don't see Adar use his sword very much in the series - even him stabbing Arondir is not explicitly shown. It would have been so cool to see him use it in battle. First of all to see the skill with the blade he has built up over the centuries, and how he wields such a big weapon, but also in contrast to Sauron.

Sauron gets the sword at the end of episode 8 - he immediately fights with it, seems to wield/master it easily, and uses it very successfully in his battle against Galadriel. He even uses the sword in combination with Morgoth's crown!

Questions I am asking myself:

Would Adar have looked like he needed effort to swing that sword? Would he have been slow/heavy with it but very powerful, or graceful and quick like Sauron? What kind of fighting style would he have favored, how would it have compared to Sauron’s? Would there have been similarities or differences in their styles (practical vs graceful)? What could those have told us sth about their shared past (one seeing the other train/being trained, did the sword once belong to Sauron or was it always Adar's)?

This would have not only been very cool to look at, but - as I mentioned in the replies to the other post - help in character building; it would say a lot about their respective physical strength if Adar had a harder time swinging it than Sauron for example, or if Adar used very precise, practical movements to show it is all about survival for him vs Sauron 'playing with his food'.

I felt it aspect was sadly underused in that regard – I am not even sure the sword has a name atm. (I suppose, in a sense, it's fitting when compared to its owner - we as viewers never find out Adar's original name either, so the owner of the sword and the blade itself being 'nameless' kinda makes sense?) (It is still kinda feels unsatisfying though.)

I only hope we find out more about the sword, even if it will feel like a mockery when Sauron keeps and uses it, but I’d love it if the series dove into its history, name, and origins more.

(thx guys for encouraging me to post this and the talks in the replies of the other post btw <3)

[communistkenobi]

reading this article about how climate change denialism is a way to express a hypermasculine anxiety to protect the continued western usage of fossil fuels, a “petro-masculinity” tied to the violent act of burning oil and gas as an expression of USAmerican sovereignty

[my-name-is-siduri]

I don't know Neil what the fuck do you think

[starbiology]

Have you seen the new plushie prize for the discarded magical blue grundo plushie?

It’s called the Discarded Faerie Artificer Plushie, and the description reads,

“An ancient timeworn plushie depicting a bygone office once held in the Faerie Queens Court. The position was done away with so long ago, that few who still walk Neopia today remember who last held the title...”

Anyways, I thought you’d enjoy the plushie since faeries.

okay really funny timing because I am literally Currently sketching out ideas on how Fyoras court has changed over time and this fits so perfectly

But thats Drakara right?? As a past dark faerie court member :O!!??

[slasherscream]

you ever read something so irritating only a man who is a nerd could have had the opinion????

[softavasilva]

Kristina Tonteri-Young featured on Timid Magazine