#i should be devoting more time to that

[she-anemone]

need to draw frequently again. need to make a video game. need to make MONEY. need to LIVE.

[manderleyfire]

BOYD CROWDER & AVA CROWDER in 'JUSTIFIED' (SEASON 2)

I lied for you taking that mining money. This is different, Ava. I guess me taking you in and building you up was a mistake. Just set you back to square one. That's not true. You took me in, and you healed me, Ava. You give me a reason to wake up in the morning. For that, I'll be eternally grateful.

[silusvesuius]

this drawing is from a couple mouths back now; ......but i still like it 😝 forbidden love as witnessed by ms. Varona. it killed off my traditional art kick when i was done with it, but i had fun. i used very faint watercolors for this one just to see how well i'd do with them and pencils together. my favorite part of it is this tree, love how it looked in this WIP pic i took:

and some random bits of the drawing but closer because i do love pencils as yk✍

had to compress the whole pic a bit cus it was huge, but a version that's a bit better can be seen heare, still not the best it could be, still crunchy, but better nonetheless

[happyk44]

percy needs to be haunted by bianca's ghost more

[inspired-lesson-plans]

Math, grade 7, Ratios and Proportional Relationships 7.RP.A.3: Use proportional relationships to solve multistep ratio and percent problems. Examples: simple interest, tax, markups and markdowns, gratuities and commissions, fees, percent increase and decrease, percent error.

Essential Question: How can basic calculations of percent change influence major world events?

Do Now: Calculate the percent increase or decrease in each of the following equations. x = (28 - 17.9)/28 x = (41.5 - 57.7)/57.7

Class Discussion: Remind students about how to perform basic calculations of increase/decrease factors. Ask them whether this calculation would be more complicated if the quantities were dollars instead of just numbers (answer: no). Ask them whether this calculation would be more complicated if the quantities were billions of dollars instead of just dollars (answer: no). Show students that they just performed the exact same calculations that Donald Trump did in order to decide what tariffs should be put upon Indonesia and Thailand, respectively.

Finally, ask students whether important global trade decisions should be calculated with 7th grade math skills, or if perhaps this is insufficient given the severe consequences that could arise from such a dunning-kruger error.

Direct Instruction: Explain what a Dunning-Kruger error is, if for no other reason than to communicate how absolutely maddening has it is for legitimate experts who have dedicated their lives to nudging fiscal policy in the right direction and then watch as their president makes the worst decision possible on purpose.

Take a moment to explain the difference between an import and an export, so that students understand what these billions of dollars actually mean in the real world. Feel free to call out anyone who has ever questioned whether or not they would ever use this kind of math in the real world. Show them that it's happening right now, and make sure they understand how terrifying that is.

Acknowledge the variables: x: total exports from US to country i m: total imports to US from country i tau (τ): calculated % tariff on all imports to US from country i epsilon (ε): elasticity phi (φ): passthrough

Ask students what they think elasticity and passthrough mean, then show students this passage from ustr.gov:

Parameter Selection To calculate reciprocal tariffs, import and export data from the U.S. Census Bureau for 2024. Parameter values for ε and φ were selected. The price elasticity of import demand, ε, was set at 4. Recent evidence suggests the elasticity is near 2 in the long run (Boehm et al., 2023), but estimates of the elasticity vary. To be conservative, studies that find higher elasticities near 3-4 (e.g., Broda and Weinstein 2006; Simonovska and Waugh 2014; Soderbery 2018) were drawn on. The elasticity of import prices with respect to tariffs, φ, is 0.25. The recent experience with U.S. tariffs on China has demonstrated that tariff passthrough to retail prices was low (Cavallo et al, 2021).

Ask students if this clarified anything about what elasticity and passthrough mean. Most will say "no", but if anyone points out that multiplying 4 by 0.25 cancels them both out, reward them. That student is correct, because elasticity and passthrough have been arbitrarily assigned so as to make this calculation so simple that even Donald Trump can understand it.

Modeled Learning: Show how to apply these tariffs to popular imports such as raw coffee beans. For example, the USDA report of coffee imports from 2024 (page 6) shows that the vast majority of raw coffee is imported from Brazil.

A simple search with Perplexity.ai tells us that in 2024, imports (m) = $42.3 billion and exports (x) = $49.7 billion, so the reciprocal tariff would be (x-m)/m = (49.7-42.3)/42.3 = 17.5%.

Thus, all coffee imports from Brazil will automatically be 17.5% more expensive.

Be sure to highlight that this is happening to every country in the world, even those with total populations less than 1000.

Higher Order Learning:

Students should consider the following facts:

There is very little territory within the United States that can grow coffee.

Almost all coffee in the world is grown within what is called "The Global South", where the climate is warm and the labor is cheap.

The US exports significantly more (sometimes vastly more) to countries in the Global South than we import from them.

Students should then answer the following questions:

What will this universal tariff calculation do to the price of coffee?

Is there any way that US coffee companies can import the same amount of coffee as before without passing on the cost to consumers? Why or why not?

Do you think this tariff program will equalize imports and exports between the US and other countries? What other impacts could it have, good or bad, across the world?

[kacievvbbbb]

Ty Lee becoming a kyoshi warrior made no sense to me. If anything it feels like a regression. Don't get me wrong I think she'd fit in well with them and I love suki/ty lee but realistically at the start of the season we hear Ty Lee proclaim that her trauma of growing up with six identical sisters is what drove her to the circus and it was kind of dismissed. and then we never really get any closure on this the time we see her she betrays Azula and is imprisoned and then after that the last time we see her she is part of the group in full garb after befriending them off screen.

she joined the one group where a huge recruitment is looking like everyone else. Why?

And the thing is this totally could have worked her coming to terms with her identity even tho she looks like everyone else she is still Ty Lee and she has a lot to contribute by simply being her (and also like how she taught them chi blocking) and so the idea of becoming another "faceless" girl doesn't scare her as much because she knows that to the people that matter they know who she is.

But like the way its done just feels like they needed a nice little fun way to wrap up ty lee's story but it also makes it feel like Ty Lee is incapable of standing on her own, if its not the circus its azula and mai if not them the kyoshi warriors. She's never just on her own being Ty lee she is always playing fidde to some group.

I think it would have been better if the ending had ty lee instead of having already joined the kyoshi warriors had instead been separated from mai and anyone she knew in prison and had had to for the first time get by on her own merits as a person not what she could do for other people. (a bit like what Suki does in Suki alone) and then a little moment between her and Suki where they reconcile Ty Lee tells her how she wants to help rebuild the word after the devastation of the fire nation and Suki's like "it's not exactly rebuilding the word but maybe you can teach me and my girls that chi blocking you do, it's impressive." and Ty lee could smile and agree. Not exactly an invitation to join but a way for her to carve out her own niche and make a mark in a safe space. It could also tie into the chi blockers that we see in LoK of Ty lee decides she likes teaching and decides to teach more non-benders how to protect themselves since the Kyoshi Warriors is pretty sacred and has traditions that not everybody can adhere too.

I just think making her a kyoshi warrior came out of nowhere and not that ut couldn't work at all but it would have needed more time to breathe. I would say have Suki introduce the fact that the kyoshi warriors are going to stay as Zuko's security detail for a while and Ty Lee's knowledge of the palace and Chi blocking skills would be an amazing hep to them so she starts of working with them and maybe int he comiucs we can see that she joined them (but I doubt they had decided this little plot line when the series actually ended)

[queer-whatchamacallit]

@ochrogasting has been making some awesome trans woman Carms, and I fell headfirst into obsession

[shima-draws]

Shima is it Coralaw 👀👀👀

...................MAYBE

[giantchasm]

"It turns out that sometimes the future actually belongs to someone else."

Happy Taransusie Tuesday, everyone! Here's...

Content that only ostensibly focuses on Taransusie and is more than anything character analysis of a third party?

How romantic! 🎉🥳

Okay, but no, seriously. Joshing aside, the other day I posted a meme about Sectonia and how she might feel about the idea of Taranza eventually moving on from her. And it was funny. We all laughed. But things can't always be goof-goof "If everyone started saying 'she sent her for you' I would start haunting literally everyone here because no I didn't." I'm a serious guy. I like exploring concepts that make me go "OUCHIE!" and so let's look at that sort of idea through a more somber lens for a moment.

...How would Sectonia feel if Taranza eventually moved on?

Now, I don't know if she's out there... somewhere in Hades or haunting his ass, but either way I think about her a lot. How she might feel in death, especially if she was returned to her right mind.

I think... Sectonia would have a lot of complicated feelings. Like, before we even get to the relationship nonsense. Let's toss all that aside for a second. I think Sectonia would be simultaneously be crushed by the state she left Taranza in and still... upset to eventually see him heal from it. She'd be glad, of course, to watch the scars she left on him fade, but all the same... seeing him make new friends— leave her behind...

That would have to hurt a little bit, wouldn't it? After all, it's not like she'd be afforded the same opportunity. She died young. Via circumstances that were hardly her fault. Of course she'd be a little bit jealous. Of course she'd be a little bit depressed. Maybe even a little bit angry. And she'd feel bad about it, but she would.

So when you factor in the idea of Taranza entering another relationship... oh my gosh, those complex feelings would only intensify. Taranza deserves to be happy. Taranza deserves to move on. She would know that rationally, but at the same time, the heart isn't always rational.

I do think ultimately she'd support him. In whatever he chose to do. Even if it hurt her a little. The least she can do is give him her blessing after everything that happened.

But that's something that applies to just about any Taranza ship. Let's talk about Susie for a moment.

I... think Susie and Sectonia are people who have some similar issues. At least in my interpretations, they're both people who have warped and maimed themselves in an endless search of perfection hoping it will grant them acceptance from others. But this hasn't granted them peace of mind, and in fact all it's done is pull them further from 'themselves.'

I don't know. I just think they'd have a lot to talk about, even in contexts that don't flagrantly disregard the Bechdel test like this one. They're both girlies who would, like, really vibe to both "Oh No!" by Marina and the Diamonds and "Body" by Mother Mother if that's a sentence that makes even a lick of sense. Their mental illnesses aren't the same, but they're like cousins. Their mental illnesses went to school together.

I think this sort of... self-recognition through the other would both make things easier and harder on Sectonia. Because on one hand, I think it would further be a reminder of all the things she'll never have no matter how badly she wants them, but I also think it would help her... have more empathy for this person she's initially inclined to see as her enemy, and maybe even help her eventually want good things for her.

It's kind of a complex scenario. More serpentine than I could possibly portray in a single comic or Tumblr post. Eventually, I'd like to write a fic from a deceased Sectonia's perspective exploring these sorts of ideas. But for now, I'll leave you with one last preposterous observation:

Perhaps this, too, is yuri. 🤖🐝

[the-priestess-of-dawn]

Grima and Final Blows

The other day I mentioned that I had an essay about Grima to write that I'd been putting off, and between that and all the great essays my fellow Grimleal scholars have been putting out recently, I decided to sit down and finally get it done.

So here you go. An analysis of Grima's difficulties with directly killing people.

Okay, so I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time, because one of my favorite things to explore when it comes to Grima is the gap between their villain act, which they actively play up in front of others in both Awakening and FEH, and their true feelings, which are hinted at in Awakening (particularly through the Future Past DLC) and made even clearer in FEH— their own evil actions are repulsive to them, and they wish they could live normally among humans, but they don’t believe they have any choice but to be the monster that “the fell dragon, Grima” is supposed to be. They are committed to this “fell dragon” character, to putting on a show for everyone, and they are so good at it that it’s easy to overlook that they… uh… aren’t very good at killing anyone important. Not directly, anyway.

Sure, Grima is responsible for numerous deaths. But what is their actual kill count? Well, in Awakening’s main game… zero. (Unless you count Chrom, but, as we witness, that was not a voluntary act on their part; Validar took control of their body. You could also make the argument that Grima “claiming the sacrifice” at the Dragon’s Table counts, but the problem with that is, although it’s obvious that Grima accepts the life force of the Grimleal members as a sacrifice, it’s not at all clear whether or not Grima personally kills them. Although it’s possible that they did off screen, it’s also possible that Validar killed them, or that they were ordered to take their own lives; there’s no reason Grima would have had to lay a hand on them.) In the Future Past, it’s… one, maybe one and half (Naga’s spirit, and Tiki, but only in body. More on this later.)

And it’s not as though Fire Emblem shies away from showing villains directly murdering people, Even in Awakening itself, the intro to Chapter 9 shows Aversa killing a Plegian soldier for delivering an unsatisfactory report, so it wouldn’t have been out of place to let Grima stab a few NPCs as a show of brutality. Especially seeing as Grima is the evil dragon final boss. As early as Mystery of the Emblem, we can see Medeus killing his cleric hostages to restore his own health if you fail to rescue them before trying to defeat him, and as recently as Engage, we get a whole cutscene of Sombron eating Hyacinth. Fantasy violence my beloved <3

Anyway, the point is, Grima could have been written to be much more violent and I don’t think anyone would have complained. Instead, though, Grima repeatedly— and consistently across the series— tries to avoid engaging in direct combat.

Let’s start with what Grima does in the main game of Awakening. We know that Risen pursue Lucina into the past, because we see them fall out of the portal with her in Chapter 1. We also know that those Risen, as well as the others that are appearing throughout the land, are not being directly controlled by Grima, because later in Chapter 13, as the Shepherds are leaving Plegia after meeting with Validar, Aversa, and the Hierophant, they are pursued by more skilled Risen, and Frederick notes that “Either they are learning our ways, or someone is commanding them…” So… It seems that sending the Risen—with or without specific orders—to attack while Grima is not themself present is a favored tactic.

But what about when Grima is present? Take a look at the Endgame: Grima chapter. Yes, you eventually get to engage Grima in direct combat. But not immediately. What Grima does first is…

Grima attacks the Shepherds with dark spikes from a distance, reducing everyone’s hp to 1. Now, here’s what happens next: Grima attempts to possess their past self, Robin hears the voices of their friends and breaks free, Naga heals everyone back to full health, and then the fight against Grima begins… Except actually, the Shepherds have to get to Grima first, because they��re at the top of the map and they’re not budging. Naga warns them that “Grima’s servants will beset [them] to no end.” and she’s not kidding. Grimleal reinforcements will spawn infinitely, and they can hit pretty hard. Even with everyone starting at full health, it’s possible to lose units to these Grimleal soldiers if Grima isn’t defeated quickly. Can you imagine what would happen if Naga hadn’t healed the Shepherds first?

Well, I’d guess that they’d probably all die to the Grimleal without Grima having to face them up close. Which was probably what Grima was going for.

This isn’t the only time Grima tries the dark spikes trick, either. Grima attempts this exact same move in the Future Past 3 when they face Lucina, Severa, Laurent, and Gerome.

Grima announces “With the next blow, I will kill you.” and then demands that they hand over the Fire Emblem as well as the gemstone they hold. The threat is very real. But…

Given that at 1hp, a gust of wind could take the kids out, would it not have been easier and faster to kill them and just loot their bodies immediately? And yet Grima lets the kids have an extended discussion about sacrifice, and even suggests that Lucina would indeed buy a little more time by running… Again, I cannot stress enough that Grima should be able to finish them off in one hit at this point.

So the plan was almost certainly to back off and let the Risen do the actual killing, even though that would be a lot less efficient under the circumstances. And when Chrom and the Shepherds arrive, Grima immediately turns their attention to them, saying “If it’s a reunion you seek, my soldiers shall welcome you on my behalf.” Then they once again pick a spot at the back of the map and refuse to move from it, forcing the Shepherds to fight through the Risen in order to engage Grima in combat at all.

And sure, Grima has some excuses. “I was hoping not to have to flex any muscle,” they say right before the dark spikes attack, as if to justify why they didn’t do it sooner. And of course they taunt Lucina over having to choose to whether to run as her friends sacrifice themselves for her or to stay and fight and die with them. “I must say I shall enjoy this either way!” Yes, Grima, we get it, you’ve made it very clear that you’re an arrogant asshole.

But is arrogance really all there is to it? If we look at what Tiki tells Grima in the good ending of the Future Past, it looks as though Grima’s arrogance has brought their own downfall. “If you had left Mount Prism alone, Grima, you might have stood a chance. Instead, you have brought the Awakening right to your feet.” However, when you think about it… Is Tiki’s continued existence not in itself a result of Grima’s repeated pattern of not really wanting to land a finishing blow? The game states that Grima did in fact kill Tiki… but only in body, not in spirit. This is, according to Tiki, because Robin intervened.

Now, the question I have is… Is it really possible that Robin could have intervened both against Grima’s will and without them having any idea? Honestly, it’s hard to tell exactly how aware Grima is of Robin’s resistance, because they lie about it a lot, e.g. stating that Robin’s spirit perished in sending Chrom back to his own world, even though just moments later, Robin is once again overpowering them. So, keeping in mind that Grima is a liar, was Grima really arrogant to leave Tiki’s body in Ylisstol, and to not make sure that her spirit was fully destroyed? Or was Robin simply able to capitalize on Grima’s propensity towards backing off?

Because surely the only way Grima could be unaware that Robin had acted against them is if Robin hadn’t actually acted against them. I don’t think I believe that Grima really wanted Tiki gone. Naga, sure—longtime nemesis and all. But if Grima had truly cared about seeing Tiki’s existence destroyed… Well, I doubt Robin could have interfered that much.

But maybe it could still be a matter of arrogance. Maybe Grima just didn’t think Tiki’s spirit could do anything with Naga’s spirit gone, and thus didn't care to pay attention to her anymore once she seemed dead enough.

If that’s true, it doesn’t explain why Shadows of Valentia Grima exhibits the exact same habits when fighting Alm and Celica, despite never having been outside of the Thabes Labyrinth at this point in their life. As opposed to the various Terrors throughout the rest of the Labyrinth, which chase Alm (or Celica) down in the overworld to force a fight, Grima is immobile in their room, and will wait patiently there indefinitely until the player chooses to engage. You can even evacuate from the dungeon.

But if you do choose to fight Grima, it proceeds much like the battles against them in Awakening go. The main difference is that they actually will move from their starting position this time, if you position someone in their range. That still requires a fight against (proto-)Risen who are spawning in from the sides to stop your party’s advance.

So… Now it’s starting to look like Grima actively prefers this one particular trick… And it’s a fundamentally defensive maneuver, which makes perfect sense from SoV Grima’s standpoint (they were attacked out of nowhere, after all), but is not really an obvious standout strategy for Awakening Grima, whose taunts and threats suggest an aggression that would be better supported with a more offensive strategy… Consider, too, that Awakening Grima is in fact being even more defensive than their SoV iteration, since they don’t move towards you at all.

With all that in mind, it really, really looks like Grima doesn’t want to fight, especially in Awakening. Not that they don’t intend for the Shepherds to die—on the contrary, they’ve set everything up so that the Shepherds will eventually be overwhelmed—but that they don’t want to land the killing blow.

(And gee, I wonder what might be fueling their reluctance? Being controlled and made to kill your best friend by your own hand wouldn't be totally traumatic or anything, right?)

And then... Funny thing here, I’ve been procrastinating writing this essay for a long time. I originally started thinking about it shortly before the Depths of Despair banner was released in FEH, so imagine my surprise when I saw this characterization hold up in the writing of Fell Exalt Chrom’s Forging Bonds as well… The Grima there says that Chrom was the one to kill the rest of the Shepherds. Now, it’s pretty clear that it was through Grima controlling him, but that’s not the point. The point is that once again, Grima didn't have to do any direct killing.

Look, if it had only ever happened once, I could buy that maybe Grima was just underestimating their opponents, that maybe they thought they could get away without having to put very much work in. But for Grima to operate this way so many times, so consistently, and to their own detriment? No...

Grima doesn’t like direct combat. Grima has trouble even when it’s a fight they asked for.

And when you think about it, that makes their reaction to Robin choosing to land the final blow themself in the sacrifice ending all the more understandable.

“…YOU WOULD… NOT DARE!”

Because Grima would not dare. Grima has always preferred to let someone else land the final blow.

[whatisthiswitchcraft]

a recent stupid problem I'm having is how to navigate wanting to keep tabs on/make connections with ppl involved in art & publishing on twitter when the website is actively harmful and also becoming less and less useable. I am tempted to delete everything. I do not particularly want to move to a new site like bluesky. I'm not currently using my Professional Guy twitter but it has been a useful tool in the past and I don't want to shut tht door entirely. do any artist/writer friends have any #thots on how to navigate this or how you personally are navigating this.

[haven-of-dusk]

My brain when I write 0 words in a day: "You lazy bum. You call yourself a writer? You're barely doing anything. I can't believe other writers even have to share air with you, you phony."

My brain when I write >1000 words in a day: "You lazy bum. You call yourself a writer? You're barely doing anything. I can't believe other writers even have to share air with you, you phony."

My brain, probably, if I was able to write >100,000 words in a day: "You lazy--"

[amidxlas]

well. it is starting to grate on me a little bit now i must say

[montrosepretty]

Probably going to save the last two rarepair week prompts for some time next week because finals are trying to kill me with knives

[vriska]

every day

every day i am doing things when i could be thinking about women instead

[offthewall1979]

my review of Moonwalk: hot mess. ★★★.