#i'm writing an essay and i'm mad

[eso-studies]

ykw actually? the obsession with sources that are "appropriate" for use in academic spaces is just an excuse to devalue non-dominant knowledges/wisdom/forms of knowing and also a way to prevent us from accurately analysing phenomena we know are real.

it's a way of controlling what we can talk and learn about, and how we talk and learn about it. it's a way of ensuring that The Academy can still dictate the language we have to use, the information we can share, and the ways we can share it. i fucking hate it.

[deoidesign]

Thinking about vampires, death, life, and the space they occupy in between

[dootznbootz]

May I ask, did Odysseus ever had children with calypso? I keep seeing ppl claim that he did but idk

Nope! :D

Not in the Odyssey! :)

It's only in other NON-HOMERIC TEXTS that Odysseus has other children with anyone other than Penelope. And those might as well be a completely different Odysseus as he does not behave like the man we know him as in the Odyssey.

Homer wrote Odysseus only having one child, and that being Telemachus. Tele-GONE-us is not canon to the Odyssey either :)

People can write and create what they want but that is not in Homer's works. Even in canon lore, Odysseus' family line is only allowed one son. Most of the "fanon children" that come post-Homer are boys... literally going against Odysseus' own stuff. :)

Telemachus telling the Beggar about his family, telling him how he has no brothers:

"For Zeus has made only sons the rule in our family. Laertes was the only son of Arceisius, and Odysseus of Laertes, while I was the only son who had been born to Odysseus when he left his home"

(Book 16, Reiu)

Could Odysseus technically have daughters? YES! (I write my OdyPen having a daughter after he returns) as Laertes has Ctimene, Odysseus' sister. But that's the thing, the children he supposedly has with Calypso? Sons. With Circe? A son. It's not possible for Odysseus.

Odysseus doesn't have children other than with Penelope in canon, the one who holds his heart.

[raptorrobot]

was listening to the elden ring (+sote) ost on my 8hr bus trip last night and i cannot express how terrible of an idea that was . its was all gorgeous ambience and whatnot that lulled me into a slumber of false security and then i got activated into the waking world like a fucking sleeper agent when i heard malenia's phase 2 music kick into my ears

[commsroom]

mission launch for minkowski's crew was in march 2013. ostensibly, they were put through some mission training, though the extent and effectiveness of that is kinda dubious. pagliacci takes place in 2013, exact date unspecified. but it has to be early. let's say... mid-january.

eiffel thought he had ruined the rest of his life before he'd even turned thirty. he probably spent his thirtieth birthday in jail. and then... for some number of days, weeks, maybe even a couple of months, he exists in this state of, well. of limbo. cutter gets him released from prison, and flies him out to canaveral. he doesn't speak to his family, obviously. they don't want to hear from him, and don't even know. he's still a prisoner, but no one around him knows that, either. at some point in this time frame, goddard first exposes him to decima, before hilbert even knows who he is. and he lives wherever goddard is accommodating him, and he has to go about his day-to-day life in this transitory state between a 26-year sentence he'd just started really grappling with, and the very immediate reality he's now about to be sent into deep space instead.

they give him a certain amount of freedom; it's not like he can go anywhere. he doesn't do much, anyway, is not feeling appreciative for his momentary second chance at life, given the circumstances. he blows off most of his mission training, and they're surprisingly lax about that, which in retrospect probably should have been a sign. he sits around and smokes, mostly. gets takeout food. but he goes to see movies, as much as he can. as much as he wants to punish himself, he needs to do something, or he'll go crazy, and it's not like he'll get a chance to see a movie in a long time. he was already resigning himself to maybe never going to a movie theater again.

the film adaptation of les misérables was released in december 2012. it's entirely feasible it could've been one of the movies he saw in this time period. i think the idea adds some resonance to his shared reference with minkowski in the finale, at least, in the way it pulls things full circle. intentionally or otherwise. and, incidentally, the 2012 film adaptation of les misérables, a story that notably features an ex-convict protagonist seeking redemption, was released on december 25th. call that serendipity.

[zoe-oneesama]

Saw your post about Andre

What do u think about Zoe, then?

As a character, she's not bringing anything worth getting excited about. Personality wise, she's just Marinette-Pre-Origins: sweet and eager for friends, but ultimately letting her fear of Chloe rule her behavior until someone else reaches out, and now she suddenly has a spine. And I'm all for the idea of Marinette taking the lessons she learned in Origins about standing up for herself and not sitting by and letting injustices happen, and then turning around and inspiring someone else to do the same, so on paper, Marinette being that person for Zoe would be sweet and make sense. Except we have a full class of kids that she could've and should've already been that inspiration for, so this feel very Too Little Too Late.

And the few things they did to try and make Zoe unique didn't have enough thought or effort put into them so they fall flat.

So she got bullied out of her old school because she "was playing a part; being someone else" and when she dropped the act, "everyone turned against me". Um, yeah, if I found out my friend who'd I'd been confiding in and getting close to lied and faked their entire personality, I wouldn't want to be friends with them anymore either. I wouldn't go so far as to put cockroaches in their locker, but I can't blame Zoe's old "friends" for feeling betrayed.

(And let's be real, the writers definitely HAD to throw in the cockroaches thing so that Zoe actually had examples of being bullied instead of "no one wanted to be my friend anymore when they found out I was a totally different person")

So she's an actress, putting on different faces to please the people around her (clearly, she learned nothing from her previous experience - it's reasonable that people didn't like you because you lied, not because they didn't like who you really are). But then they didn't even keep up this 'acting' thing for more than one episode! Sure, she dusts it off in "Gabriel Agreste", but that entire aspect of Zoe's story is resolved as soon as it's introduced.

(Though it's obvious that the show is trying to convince you that her old friends DID turn on her JUST because they didn't like her as a goody-two shoes nice girl).

With Zoe putting on a fake persona, there could've been intrigue over the episode, or even the season, about who Zoe really is. Like, Marinette is SURE that Zoe is faking being like Chloe, but she has no way to know Zoe wasn't faking being nice to her when they first met. Why not show Zoe putting on different personas than just those two? Have Zoe interact with Juleka by being low energy and stand offish, then swapping to bubbly and energetic around Rose? Have Marinette be confused and that becomes part of the Mystery of Zoe?

And how about that contrivance, that Marinette met "nice" Zoe first and so is SOOOOO sure that Zoe is faking being "mean"? And because Marinette declares this To Be So, all of her friends just believe Marinette and are willing to give Zoe a chance. (despite not believing her about other things *cough* Lila *cough*) This is the same Marinette who's canonically declared her hatred of "liars" more than once, so even if Zoe is only "pretending" to be mean, why is Marinette giving her a pass? I'll tell you why - because we need to seamlessly integrate Zoe into the main friend group so we can speed run her taking over as the new Bee.

Because that's the main problem with Zoe - it's so blatantly obvious what the writers are trying to get out of her, because they don't even TRY to hide it. Don't get it twisted, I don't care that Zoe is brought in to replace Queen Bee, Queen Bee deserves to be replaced. I care how Zoe was brought in to replace Queen Bee. If the writers had taken enough time and care to ACTUALLY seamlessly integrate Zoe, instead of just shoving her in and bending the characters to accept her with no hesitation, then Zoe wouldn't come across as such a Mary Sue-Diet Marinette.

We already have a pretty full cast, so making the audience care about this new character that they've neither hinted at or bothered to build up to in Season 4 was already a big ask. Which is why I believe they should've stretched her "faking personas" story over several episodes. Have Marinette be as wary about Zoe as she was about Lila, esPECIALLY since she's Chloe's sister, but then have Zoe showcase her range of "personas" to throw Marinette off guard. Then you can have scenes of Zoe's mask slipping, like small acts of heroism where there's no time to think: pulling someone out of the way of an akuma attack, distracting the akuma if it gets too close to Ladybug, or even using her acting to help someone else get out of trouble despite Zoe getting nothing in return. Show the REAL Zoe through her actions DESPITE her acting, which then justifies Marinette being sure that "mean" Zoe isn't the real one.

Could've even had Chloe notice that Zoe's slipping and isn't acting very much "like a Bourgeois" and make it CHLOE who digs up that Zoe was bullied, make it CHLOE who airs out all the things that were done to Zoe. I mean, who better to call out a poser than Chloe? Especially since the rest of the class would more willing to take Zoe's side against Chloe (you would think) and it helps with the whole Zoe vs Chloe thing with the Bee Miraculous. Plus, having that information aired out when Zoe didn't want it to could've been a better reason to be akumatized than just "I'm giving in to playing the role I was already determined to play and putting my shoes in this hole with my dreams." Just saying.

But they didn't want to take the time. They didn't want to try. They didn't want to put in the effort to make Zoe someone to care about, both for the audience and for the characters. They shoved her in, gave her an exposition dump, and suddenly everyone was totally cool with her, No Questions Asked. In fairness, they didn't actually have Zoe be mean to anyone other than Marinette One Time in front of Chloe, so there wasn't much to overcome. But that's just another check in the "wow, you didn't even try" column.

I can't bring myself to care about Zoe because she's just a tool. She was brought in with the sole purpose of putting in nearly no effort to become friends with everyone and use the Bee Miraculous, as quickly as possible and as effortlessly as possible. Never mind that such a thing probably should have been earned. I just hate it when I can see the writer's intentions so blatantly.

But I get it, the Bee Miraculous is seriously OP and it'd be a shame not to use it just because Queen Bee was benched. Too bad Ladybug can't just merge Miraculouses and use it hersel- ohhhh, wait.

[eats-a-berry]

i think for me part of the struggle of enjoying toshiro is how his flaws are actually really interesting and i like to think about them as i analyze stuff, but its literally become the same as how it feels for people who like laios where like there's a gut feeling of being defensive... i want to be able to talk about this stuff and the commentary of his character without that looming sense of hate, where it feels that if i acknowledge if something is a flaw its just going to make people hate him more, instead of being interesting or sympathetic, yknow? it makes things harder when i'm trying to be objective about it, a sense of guilt almost, and it makes me feel sort of frustrated when people can't see the same things that i do, where the things i find compelling in a character might be the same reason people hate them... cus it really gets tiring, even though it's, y'know, its fine if people don't like him. the odds are pretty much stacked against his favor on here. but i feel like there's a difference in talking about his issues as someone who cares about him and knows his character inside and out and in people who can't seem to even get all the details lined up to have any sympathy for his situation. but its okay. because in my heart ryoko kui is speaking to me and thanking me for analyzing every last bit of her guy with care even with his very unfortunate spotlight

[lu-is-not-ok]

It sure is an experience to get lectured on what NPD is while you yourself have NPD. Like bro. I know. I've been living through this shit for a good chunk of my life.

Got a good laugh out of that at least.

[heir-of-the-chair]

I just need everyone to know that I fucking hate Hamlet prince of Denmark. This stupid fictional man makes me so goddamned angry I need to squeeze him like one of those rubber toys where the eyes pop out and shake him so violently like a child discovering snow globes for the first time. I fucking hate Hamlet prince of Denmark oh my god.

[andi-o-geyser]

oh god they butchered glintshore so bad. i know my motto is "the show isn't like the stream and that's okay" but goddd they butchered it so bad. what the actual fuck

[sugaldean]

I hate Kipperlilly Copperkettle but I will protect her against misunderstanding of her character till I die

[shannonsketches]

I just think Toei gives Vegeta a lot of shit for a guy who's maintained his rank within the top ten most powerful beings in the mortal realm since he was like five years old.

[gooseclarinet]

Some people have said that epic Odysseus' character arc in act 1 is about him learning to embrace ruthlessness and that you can't always show mercy. In actuality, he already knows these things at the beginning of the story and he has an Eren Jaeger-type arc of going off the deep end after taking too many L's. In this essay I will

[dootznbootz]

This is how Penelope is first PHYSICALLY introduced in the Odyssey as it's when she first speaks.

(Fagles, Book 1)

This is how the other women whom Odysseus gets with (aka assaulted by) are first physically introduced:

(Fagles, Book 10)

(Fagles, Book 5)

The two goddesses are singing during their introduction while the woman he loves says to stop, granted at the bard but I just think it's interesting. I'm definitely thinking it wasn't on purpose by Homer but I wanted to point it out.

Penelope never needs to enchant/sing to Odysseus to "lure" and/or entice him because that's where he wants to be in the first place.

[mysteriouslybluepirate]

I just need a piece of media that combines:

The humor and feeling of community we got from S1 of OFMD

The storytelling, world, and humanity behind Disco Elysium

Izzy Hands just for fun

You know?

[waterlinkedgirl]

Musical Touken Ranbu: Gou on Stage ~ Satomi Hakkenden; New Edition english sub

At long long last I am able to present you the subtitles for the senshuuraku of Goumyu! After a very turbulent year, I'm glad to be lowkey picking up subtitling again. For this performance, though, I won't be able to do a tl notes file. If I were fair to myself, I'd allow myself to write my grievances with what Goumyu's plot does to what had been established for Kogitsunemaru and Mikazuki when those are relevant, but if I were fair to you all, I wouldn't give you a file that's 90% complaining and 10% actual notes or background.

Don't let my grievances distract from the performance though, it's still genuinely fantastic even if the theming choices may be painful to me. Especially Oodenta is fantastic. Goodness gracious.

Keep in mind that this is only the subtitle file, timed and tled to the DMM senshuuraku. The archive version will have a talk at the start, so the starting times of the subs will have to be delayed accordingly.

Download the subs for Goumyu here!