#idk what to tag here honestly

[stealingyourbones]

Ok! You've convinced me! If I want to be part of this community, I should explore the source material. I don't know if I'll like the artform, but if nothing else it's a cultural juggernaut I can research. My mom grew up watching Batman the Animated series, so I know that's an entry point I can try out, but I do like webcomics and manga, so I know that I might like comics better. It's an odd criteria, but is there a batman comic I can start with that's aesthetically pleasing?

Ooo aesthetically pleasing? That’s one I haven’t heard before. I’ll throw you a handful of choices of my favorite pretty comics!

Also I do 100% reccomend Batman The Animated Series which is my favorite interpretation of Batman to this day as it is for many, that and Justice League and Justice League United are WONDERFUL gateways too! (My favorite animated DC series of the time is Superman The Animated Series tied with BtAS)

I always recommend in order: Batman Year One, Batman Long Halloween, and Batman Dark Victory as it’s how I got into Batman in the first place and it’s a pretty good jumping off point. They also have movies of all 3.

mAN ok this is hard because aesthetic comics are SUCH a personal preference. Comic artists will constantly change around all the time. The current Batman/Superman Worlds Finest comic run is INCREDIBLY aesthetically pleasing and pretty as it’s drawn by Dan Mora so that could be a good go to.

- The Dark Knight Returns. It’s has a very fun gritty artstyle that I adore and it’s a comic that changed comics as we know it.

- Batman Universe is a wonderfully fun comic and his artstyle is fun so definitely check that one out.

- All Star Superman (2005-2008) has… ok artwork. But you get used to it and it’s story is one of the best written for Superman modern day.

- JLA Tower of Babel. Art is nice and the story is about Batman’s contingencies falling into the wrong hands. Good shit

Onto some Elseworld stories that aren’t canon but I LOVE the artstyles:

- Batman White Knight’s artstyle is BEAUTIFUL but isn’t a very good interpretation for your first time reading comics as it isn’t normal characterization of everyone.

- Batman Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth drawn by Dave McKean. It isn’t my favorite comic with it’s very edgy “hey what if batman is insane” (which yeah no shit he is insane) but the artstyle is uncanny and disturbing and beautiful.

- Kingdom Come. You have to know a bit about comics beforehand, I’d just recommend reading an article or blogpost critiquing 90s comic books, and behold the genuine beauty and glory that is this story. Painted by Alex Ross it’s one of the most beautiful comics out there.

They’re available online, your local library, or at your local comic shop! I hope you have a blast checking out the cool things comics have to offer!

[please-read-the-manga]

I re-read the manga/get back into thinking about this series like once or twice a year... needed a place to post my thoughts amid the sea of disingenuous, bad faith takes I often see regarding too many characters (mostly Uchiha) and their related scenes.

Wondering about my general takes?

Here's a list:

Sasuke deserved better, mostly from fans who willfully misinterpret or trivialize his character arc/motivations.

Sasuke's worst 'crime' (imo) is stabbing Karin and nothing else even compares. In fact, throughout Shippuden he mostly helped Konoha indirectly (even if that was not his intention). He killed three rogue ninja (Orochimaru, Deidara, and Itachi), he freed Orochimaru's prisoners, he stopped Kabuto/the edo tensei with Itachi, he summoned the past Hokage who helped with the war, and he was fundamental in saving the world and defeating Kaguya - you wouldn't even have a prison to 'lock him up' in (as if he could even be held at this point lmao) if not for him helping save the world.

Actually, let me keep ranting about Sasuke's 'crimes' for a minute... Re: Danzo, the guy was already about to be jumped at the Five Kage Summit for his multiple unraveling deceptions (and generally being a bum ass lol) even before Sasuke got there. Fr, dude had so much blood on his hands/insanely dirty laundry it's not even funny... so, again, Sasuke did Konoha another favor by taking him out. And bffr about the nameless, faceless samurai for 3 seconds OR acknowledge that others, like Gaara when he invaded the Leaf, should be locked up for life for also killing 'innocent' fodder in the background... like c'mon, we're not going to be that disingenuous about the world/setting are we? He also went to the 5KS under stealth which was only ruined by Zetsu announcing his presence and kickstarting an insane gauntlet with the kage that Sasuke didn't give a shit about/hadn't intended. Re: Akatsuki, he joined them for 0.5 seconds, failed the mission to capture Bee, and then immediately dropped them after getting Itachi's eyes. He also claimed he wanted to 'destroy Konoha' and be 'darkness incarnate to unite the world' and, again, didn't do anything truly actionable about those fleeting plans before immediately dropping the ideas altogether after another 0.5 seconds of consideration. And during this series of events we even have rare insight into Sasuke's psyche which reveals that (at this point in the story) he was notably lost and confused, deep in his grief, and very desperately trying to wrap his head around how the world could be so cruel that his own beloved brother was groomed and manipulated into mercilessly slaughtering their entire family/clan (and for WHAT) - he's hopelessly searching for answers/solutions during this time because the reality that the Hidden Villages/Shinobi World are 'just like that' (ie. fundamentally cruel/broken), is too much for him to bear. You could argue one of his 'big crimes' was being a rogue ninja (which in-universe is stated to be treasonous) after he left the village at 12 to train with Orochimaru... but to that I'd counter, even if he didn't know the full truth behind his clan's indiscriminate slaughter, he was still willing to make such a personal sacrifice/abandon the village because he knew by then that Konoha didn't actually give a shit about his quest of justice for the Uchiha. So Sasuke, even then, out of his deep love for his family and an intrinsic need for justice, decided there was nothing left for him in a Konoha that wasn't going to help him achieve his righteous goals of avenging the clan. He left and became a rogue ninja for what he saw as a higher (and certainly a more moral) calling.

Sasuke wasn't constantly 'arrogant' and Naruto's POV often gets this wrong about his character. While Naruto can be excused for how he interpreted/viewed Sasuke from afar as it's his own bias, it's still the reader's responsibility to realize Naruto's perception is often flawed and should not be simply accepted at objective face value. We, the reader, know that for much of his childhood Sasuke was a severely depressed and traumatized child who had been given the monumental task of seeking justice for his entire clan and their legacy. We often see Naruto wrongfully interpret this as Sasuke being aloof and cocky when really we know that (most of the time) Sasuke was just barely hanging on by a thread and none of his peers could even begin to understand/fathom what he had been through or why he felt compelled to work so hard and undertake his incredibly grueling quest.

The Leaf owes the Uchiha reparations and were/are fundamentally wrong in orchestrating the genocide of ANY clan, let alone a founding clan. There is absolutely no justification for genocide so don't even try to make one with me. The Leaf should be groveling at Sasuke's feet, begging for his forgiveness of their egregious crimes to him and his family. The fact that today (Boruto-era), Sasuke instead chooses to quietly protect them is testament to Sasuke's incredible generosity/capacity for forgiveness - not theirs.

Sasuke is/was the glue that holds Team 7 together. Until Itachi came back in part one to 'kidnap' Naruto and violently torture/mentally destroy his brother again (ie. remind Sasuke of the ultimate task of justice he had bestowed on him/keep him 'on track' with Itachi's plans for his brother), Sasuke had really been opening himself up to his team which was no small feat after the enormous tragedy of the Uchiha Clan Massacre and how badly he had been scarred after horrifically losing everyone he'd ever loved. Sasuke is the reason Team 7 passed Kakashi's bell test and remained shinobi, Sasuke decided that Naruto being fed mattered more than their sensei's arbitrary rules, Sasuke showed Naruto kindness that literally no one else ever had (let alone a peer), Sasuke was willing to DIE for Naruto and give up on his dreams just to make sure Naruto survived (and this resulted in Naruto's life fundamentally changing for the better - this is one of the key reasons why Sasuke is Naruto's most important person/personal mission), Sasuke was the one who led Team 7, Sasuke called Team 7 his precious people and wanted so desperately to keep them safe. Team 7 has always been Sasuke leaving a lasting and profound impact on his teammates and him, in turn, choosing to love and protect them even though he intimately knows how great the cost of loss/losing those he loves is.

The Uchiha Clan Massacre was a horrific event that should not be undermined or underplayed. If you don't remember it this way, then you need to re-read the manga. It was so bad that at seven years old (SEVEN) Sasuke unlocked his sharingan, that is younger than any other Uchiha character we've seen. It's even worse when you remember that Sasuke tried to dissociate so completely from this traumatic event that he didn't re-unlock his sharingan until he was twelve and risking his life to protect Naruto. I hate playing the 'Trauma Olympics' this fandom tries to encourage but don't even go there with me on the Uchiha Clan Massacre OR Sasuke's subsequent torture over it at his brother's hands.

Sasuke is not an 'edge-lord' or an 'emo' or a 'cry baby'... it is 2024 about to be 2025 and if you're still serious about those interpretations of the character then I'm going to assume you've only consumed Naruto through TikTok/Youtube clips and therefore don't have any meaningful grasp on the source material/its themes. The fact Sasuke was able to keep going after what Itachi did (which, as another reminder, was annihilating his entire family, culture, and sense of safety on top of violently torturing him as a seven-year-old) speaks so much to Sasuke's resilience and strength.

Actually (re: UCM), I consider this thread fundamental reading: Kishimoto's Writing on the Uchiha Is Unironically A Good Example of Real Life Pro-Genocide Propaganda (by u/livingwithstupidity).

Itachi is a complicated character to me. I greatly enjoy his pre-massacre relationship to Sasuke and believe he was a loving brother. I also greatly struggle with the way he violently tortured Sasuke in an attempt to mold him into own his perfect vision of 'strength' rather than see Sasuke for the individual he was. Itachi even vaguely tries alluding to this mistake when he dies. That being said, I think Itachi is also a victim of the ninja system and he was far too young to be given the responsibilities he had... buuuuut, the fact he still doesn't acknowledge that the shinobi world (and by extension Konoha itself) is inherently flawed and was wrong for putting him through it all, irks me. So he's complicated in my book.

I like Kakashi, but sometimes I can't stand his fans and it can bleed into my views on the character (though I do try to couch my biases). And I recognize that the reverse is probably true for them of us Sasuke fans lol. You like what you like, I get it. I'm just saying my piece. Kakashi has a lot of heavy baggage from his past and is mentally unwell but shown to be 'managing' it. Like Itachi, he is also a victim of the broken/corrupt shinobi system and it's important to recognize that he responds to his trauma within this system differently than Sasuke, differently than Naruto, etc. while also being an adult with additional experience under his belt. But, when his fans cheer him on for being unable (and many of them think he is actually 'unwilling', which I'd argue is not true nor would it be in-character) to help Sasuke who is drowning in grief... it just rubs me the wrong way lol. I can completely understand/recognize that Kakashi was out of his depth with handling Sasuke... In fact, after what Sasuke has been through, I personally don't they should have even trained him to be a child soldier to begin with, but whatever the Leaf has to make its money. It's weird to me that, rather than acknowledging this as a difficulty Kakashi is navigating as Sasuke's mentor, some of his fans will just completely villainize Sasuke's valid-but-raw emotions in favor of hyping up Kakashi's stoicism as the preferred/'better' trauma response. Ignoring the fact that this 'stoicism' is really a way for Kakashi to (literally lol) mask his own barely healed emotional turmoil, they're also refusing to explore the far more compelling idea of how varied the processing of grief/trauma can be and how under-explored/understood it is within the shinobi world (especially to the extent that Kakashi was set up for failure here). Not to mention the fact there's a really interesting connection between the two characters and their emotional pain that Kakashi himself recognizes/is reminded of when he sees Sasuke struggling. I just think some fans, in their attempt to woobify Kakashi, diminish the character's agency and his personal journey of navigating how to be an effective mentor to the next generation of struggling kids while still not being completely mentally well/healed/adjusted himself.

Sasuke is Naruto's best friend and most important person. Full stop. It's not Shikamaru, Hinata, Gaara, or Sakura. The narrative repeatedly, constantly, blatantly, underscores Sasuke's fundamental importance to Naruto and who he is as a person. He can be great friends with all of these other people, but each and every one of them will pale in the way he views and holds Sasuke in his heart. This is directly from the text.

Sasuke worked incredibly hard to be where he is today. I think the misconception that he didn't maybe comes from a few comments made in part one by characters implying Sasuke was 'only' good because of his clan's legacy... but again, we know this is untrue. We see Sasuke training constantly. Even as a young child, he works tirelessly to grasp the fireball jutsu to impress his father - it didn't come naturally to him (in comparison to someone like Itachi), but he worked nonstop to make up that difference. At the academy, especially post-massacre, if not dissociating/slipping into depression we see that one of the only things driving him is continuing his training/performing at the top level in hopes he can one day avenge his family. Naruto also gets flak in this 'hard work v. natural talent' debate and even if both he and Sasuke did have natural advantages, they still had to work hard to fully harness and utilize those talents and I don't think that should be negated.

Tobirama's design is sick (in a good way) but his politics are also sick (in a very bad way lol). If you know, you know.

I think Hashirama owed more to Madara. He kind of acknowledges it in the end when they're together/dying once again, but really Hashirama flagrantly ignoring/not doing enough regarding Madara's concerns about his brother's bias against the Uchiha (which we see still remains when Sasuke summons the past Hokage) is a major misstep that I feel falls on Hashirama's shoulders. Madara has his own many faults (no question about that lol), but it's a two-way street and the foundation for Konoha was rocky from the very beginning (and don't even get me started on 'We-Should-Vote-For-Hokage' Tobirama who then goes on to field promote his own successor to the role and continue the lineage nepotism/Senju concentration of power in Konoha lmao). Oy. That said, I do really enjoy the Founders era and wish we had a prequel centering on the Senju/Uchiha instead of Boruto.

Madara and Naruto parallels are awesome/fascinating as are Hashirama and Sasuke parallels. That's it, just wanted to state that. I really appreciate all the talented people who have brought forth that analysis as it's definitely altered the way I re-read/examine certain scenes now.

In general, I'll just never understand Uchiha haters who wish the Uchiha didn't exist... like wdym lol, there'd be no narrative or story without them. They are the drama, they are the moment. Naruto without the Uchiha constantly bringing their best (and worst lol) is nothing.

Neji deserved better - the Hyuga should have been called out and brought to task for their horrific practices.

Ame deserved better. I don't like to venture into Boruto because I don't keep up with the chapters as often (the art style is so bad to me, I'm sorry) but the fact that two sitting Hokage (Kakashi and then Naruto) have done nothing to repay what Konoha did to them is egregious.

Team Taka deserved better. I just really like them and what they represented. The way each of them reflected different key aspects of Sasuke's character was woefully underexplored. I also wish we had gotten to see them accomplish their individual goals/how those goals would evolve over time. Suigetsu reviving the legendary swordsmen, Jugo finding a way to tame the curse inside of him, Karin maybe carrying on Uzumaki culture/lineage as one of the very few remaining members of the clan -- I don't know, I just wish it had been more developed because I really vibe with the concept.

The Hidden Villages can talk all the shit they want but we still never really had a conclusion regarding the impact of their involvement in atrocities against one another nor their latent support of the Akatsuki as an organization and the role that played in the overall war.

The Elders who helped Danzo plan the massacre should have been called out and brought to task. The fact they continue to sit on the Hokage's council even now is insidiously evil.

Fugaku wasn't a bad father. He was simply stern and struggled to sometimes connect with his kids... but he obviously respected and loved them. Sasuke was an incredibly happy and dedicated child growing up (albeit a bit shy) and he clearly felt comfortable enough going to his parents with honest questions - he does this with both Mikoto and Fugaku who reassure him that he is loved and his own person (ie. he doesn't have to be Itachi). The Uchiha are a clan of deep love/loyalty and even if bad actors like Tobirama want to twist that into a terrible thing, I think it's wonderful and I won't tolerate Fugaku slander lol.

Naruto filler/anime-only changes are the bane of my existence. The manga is superior for many reasons, but a big one for me is that so much is lost in the original work's expressions when it is animated. The way certain filler goes out of its way to assassinate certain characters as well (Sasuke and Sakura, in particular) is just... awful. If I have to see the 'Sasuke would have still been an asshole even without the massacre' take one more time and watch that person cite the horrifically bad, non-canon filler that was Tsunade's stupid Infinite Tsukuyomi dream then I'm gonna lose it lmao.

This matters very little to me, but I've been asked before so I'll put it here - I really don't care about romantic pairings at all in Naruto. I think sometimes fans make fun/funny content with the pairings, but the purpose it serves in the narrative doesn't really do anything for me.

Maybe I'll add more to these as time goes on lol. Interestingly, I've held many of these thoughts/opinions for years now. Even as a young kid reading the manga religiously after school in the public library, Sasuke and his pursuit of justice really resonated with me... so it's nice to see that some things never change haha.

That being said, outside of a few of my hard lines (trivializing genocide, for example), I'm largely fine with reading alternative interpretations/analysis when it comes to Naruto and its characters -- especially when it is backed up by the text. I really appreciate anyone who backs up their thoughts with evidence from the manga because I think it goes a long way in combatting the wild misinformation that gets circulated through fandom groupthink and the far too common consumption of Naruto through limited/edited videos of the anime (including filler that gets treated as canon).

TLDR: Most of my opinions/takes revolve around the fact that I think the fandom owes Sasuke a lot more grace and that, in a better timeline, the Uchiha clan (and many other characters) would have received better, more satisfying narrative conclusions than what we were ultimately given.

[nilusart]

I wanna roll the numbers I wanna feel my stars align again Even if the earth breaks like burnt skin And the heavens just won't open up for me Would you invite me in again?

This drawing is a direct product of the many, many hours I put into Sleep Token's music. Idk what it is about, but it happened during listening to Bloodsport on loop.

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

hms captain??

hms captain indeed!!

i meant for this to be a short post but oops its really long already and im nowhere near finished so if you wanna learn about this terribly designed warship, join me after the cut; if you dont, enjoy this picture of an oddly designed ship.

the hms captain was a british warship. it was built during a time where shipbuilders were phasing sails out for steam engines, and where warships were being much better armoured. for example, the hms captain was steam-powered with two propellers and had wrought iron armour.

wrought iron armour caused a problem for warships. like think of any pirate media youve seen where theyve got wooden ships with these iron cannonballs; the cannonballs very easily breach the wooden ships. they dont really do that with iron armour. instead, they bounced off.

so the british admiralty, media and public were all in want, to some extent, of a ship with better guns that could breach ship armour. enter cowper phipps cole:

a man who looks like a rasputin prototype and seems to have the charisma to back up the comparison.

see coles was very good at public engagement. when he needed to, he could very easily get the media and public on his side, which is a power he leveraged in order to get hms captain approved, commissioned and built.

his design, oddly enough, goes back to a raft from the crimean war.

this is the lady nancy, constructed in 1855 to aid during the siege of taganrog. it was for shore bombardment which you can see in this illustration of it. while cameras were a thing back then (i think daguerreotypes existed during this time), i dont believe we have any photos of the lady nancy.

coles was a captain in the navy in 1855, and him and a group of sailors constructed it. according to those there, the guns on the raft were protected by some kind of dome structure or a "cupola" as they called it.

hms captain was inspired by the lady nancy, and so, it was also intended for shore bombardment. for this purpose, two big fuck off rotating turrets were mounted inside the hull on the gun deck.

these had been patented by coles himself in 1859 which is partly how he became a consultant for the admiralty when it came to building ships. being the nephew of admiral lord edmund lyons 1st baron lyons gcb gcmg kch, by marriage, twice over certainly also helped.

quick note on that:

its not technically incest, i think, his wife emily pearson was lyons niece and his mom is the sister of lyons wife augusta

i also didnt know what those acronyms meant beforehand, gcb is a british order of chivalry called most honourable order of the bath, gcmg is another one: most distinguished order of saint michael and saint george, kch is a hanoverian order of chivlary called royal guelphic order. yeah thats just gobbledegook.

lyons was important because of his role in the crimean war as commander-in-chief of the mediterranean fleet (suddenly i feel like im reading an icemav fic) and hes credited as ensuring victory for britain.

originally, the admiralty just ordered prototypes of his big fuck off turrets and they were actually impressed with them.

and so the hms prince albert was built with four of them (is that four turrets in your pants or are you just happy to see me) and the hms royal sovereign was converted to be a turret ship. both, however, could only operate as coastal service vessels.

hence, the admiralty allowed coles to draw up plans for a two (2) turret oceangoing ship in 1863, working with nathaniel barnaby who was chief constructor for the navy. keep in mind, coles had little to no experience in ship design.

then, they suspended the project.

but they allowed him to work on a one (1) turret oceangoing ship that was based on the hms pallas with joseph scullard who was head draughtsman in 1864.

and then in 1865, a committee rejected/cancelled his projects, and decided to move forward with a different design for a two (2) turret ship called hms monarch.

this made coles very angry, and an angry coles is not a good thing for the british admiralty.

(i spent an hour making this because im so bad at making things look purposefully bad)

so you know like today where bad actors like andrew tate, tucker carlson, joe rogan and even like graham hancock can just use public platforms and social medias to get a relatively large portion of the population of their side, seemingly with ease, just by talking/communicating confidently, playing into fears and anxieties of the public, and creating an us and them?

yeah so cowper phipps coles was also really good at this. grifters, liars and pretenders have alway existed.

(milo rossi brings discusses this a lot in his series on hancock's ancient apocalypse docuseries, and id 100% recommend the whole series.)

so how did coles do this?

well, he began with a very strong and very harsh attack on robert spencer robinson who was a vice admiral and controller of the navy, and his full title was admiral sir robert spencer robinson kcb frs.

the title admiral sir is very funny, like i want to get a cat called that with the nickname addy. kcb is basically the same as gcb. lyons was general grand cross and robinson was knight commander, because of fucking course its this stupid. frs is an award given to you from the royal society of london; the fellowship of the ring royal society is granted to those who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics, engineering science, and medical science".

it wasnt just mr admiral sir that coles attacked; he also attacked several other admirals who were on the committee but he really seemed to hate robinson. coles also lobbied parliament and the press, focussing on the flaws he saw in monarchs design and how britain was going to be left behind in the shipping arms race since many other nations were pressing ahead with several oceangoing turret ships. unsurprisingly, it was the united states that were winning the race so far.

around this time, coles' contract as a navy consultant was terminated in january 1866. like thats as hard as he was going, he fully lost his job. of course he had his dear not-quite-incest uncle lord lyons to fall back on. one hell of a safety net, very well entwined.

in response to this professional fuck you, coles simply protested that he had been misunderstood and the man must have rolled a nat 20 on his charisma saving roll because on the 1st march 1886, he was re-employed.

he waited a month and a half to submit his critique of the monarch proposal on the 16th april. he refused to publicly support a vessel that didnt represent his "views of a sea going turret-ship" because He Was Like That™. we're in the cowper karen era. his critique went on to say that hms monarch could not give his "principle a satisfactory and conclusive trial."

now at this point, the admiralty really should have just sent him packing. theyve given him chance after chance after chance despite him having pretty much no experience.

like say you have a blocked toilet that you cant unblock, but instead of calling a plumber, you ask your friends nephew whos an art curator who really wants to give this plumbing thing a go. then his first attempt makes it worse; now the taps in your bath turn on everytime you use the kitchen sink and your toilets still blocked. but you give him another go and now theres a shower curtain stuck in your toilet which is still blocked. and now youre fingers are hovering over the call button on a plumbers number when your friend calls and asks you to give their nephew another go. its only been three weeks and theres a 24 hours mcdonalds up the road that you can go to for the bathroom and youve got a shower at work you can use, so you think, okay, sure. and then he accidentally rips your kitchen sink out and you still have a blocked toilet and a non-working shower and your bath taps are running 24/7, and your friend asks you again to give him a "second chance."

like youre not giving him another chance, theres a goddamn shower curtain in your toilet and your kitchen sink is in your fucking living room. of course, youre not giving him another chance.

but say everyone in your street and everyone in your friend group is on his side because hes been telling little lies and charming them all with his aunts baked goods and his knowledge of local art and history. and everyone else is rooting for him and they all believe this is the chance.

thats the situation first naval lord admiral frederick grey (full title: admiral the hon. sir frederick william grey gcb) found himself in. obviously coles should not be given another chance, but the whole country believes he should.

so on the 21st april (thats me moms birthday :)) he agreed that coles should be allowed to build his "perfect" oceangoing turret ship.

and so the hms captain was born

the ship was to be built on a private shipyard and coles selected laird brothers' chesire yard on the 8th may 1866.

one of the biggest problems ship designers had with turret ships is that ships tend to have quite a lot of rigging that gets in the way of the turrets. this was a genuine design flaw for the hms monarch, it was brought up by the chief designer sir edward james reed kcb rfs, but he was overuled. he didnt think a turret ship should have either a forecastle or poop deck.

on a typical warship, youll see a small rise on either end of the ship. at the front/bow, you have the forecastle which was typically used as a defensive measure. at the back/stern, youd typically have the captain quarters within the hull and the roof of that is the poop deck. it would be used for either the captain or a helmsman or a first mate maybe to supervise the crew and their work.

reed, very correctly, did not want these measures because they interfered with the turrets. he also wanted much less rigging because the more wooden beams and rope and sail youve got, the less room the turrets have to fire.

he wrote that "the middle of the upper deck of a full-rigged ship is not a very eligible place for fighting large guns."

and coles and the lairds seemed to agree with this sentiment because their design corrected these flaws.

their solutions were to erect a hurricane deck to place the rigging on. this is an upper deck that is above the frame of the hull. they also used tripod masts to reduce rigging. they also placed the turrets within the hull in their own special gun deck.

now, just because youve corrected for some flaws doesnt mean you havent introduced several of your own which spoiler, the captain had a lot of flaws which we will be getting into.

captain had a length of 320ft or 97.54m; she had a beam (width at the widest part) of 53ft3 or 16.23m; her draught (the distance between the waterline and the keel/bottom of the hull) was 24ft10 or 7.57m; and her top speed was 15 knots which is about 17mph.

in a futile attempt at a balanced view, i will say that the speed was fairly impressive. most other ships had top speeds of 10-12 knots or about 11-14mph. the use of double propellers was a good choice.

one of the very few good choices.

see the captain was designed to displace or essentially weigh 6910 long tons, and was expected to have a freeboard of about 8ft or 2.4m.

a ships freeboard is the distance between her exposed upper deck and the waterline. typically, warships have high freeboards. its not quite as simple as the higher the freeboard, the more stable your ship is, but in general, higher freeboards do offer more stability. this is something the captain needed

see, most of her weight was high up in the ship which meant she had a low metacentric height. to not get into all of the complicated science that im not entirely sure i understand (dyspraxic nation rise up), lower metacentric heights tend to make ships more unstable.

[from wikipedia:]

so all of this is a bad design. apart from her impressive speed, she seemed like a ship with poor stability and a real risk of flooding because of the exposed gun decks. and with flooding, you might just fucking capsize 🚢⬆️↗️↘️🌊☠️

mr admiral sir robert spencer robins already raised concerns at the design stage in regards to the low freeboard and flooding. reed also raised concerns about the ship being too heavy and having too high a centre of gravity, but they were ignored.

if i had a nickel for every time edward james reed was overruled after raising a legitimate concern about the design of a turret ship, id have two nickels, but its weird its happened twice.

still, first lord of the admiralty (genuinely feel like this is a made up job) sir john pakington approved the design on the 23rd july 1866, though he did note that coles and the lairds would be held responsible for any failures.

if youre interested, john pakingtons full title is john somerset pakington 1st baron hampton gcb pc frs and he was a fucking tory, and the right honourable lord hampton, which okay, dude, you overcompensating for anything over there? pc means he was a member of his majestys most honourable privy council, who are all advisors yes-men to whichever bellend is on the crown.

moving past that cag-mag of a man, lets talk about how this mess got even worse. and you might be asking, "kai, how can it get worse? havent you already told me that the ship can easily sink?"

and you know, fair point, but you can always make your ship even more likely to sink.

see coles came down with an illness during the building of the ship. im not sure what it was; i cant find anything on it, but whatever it was, it meant he couldnt supervise the building of his ship. now, im not sure how much that would help considering he was the art curator turned amateur plumber in the metaphor, but maybe it would have done some good.

because when she was finished, she did not displace 6910 long tons. no, she displaced 7767 long tons. and her 8ft freeboard turned into a 6ft6 or 1.98m freeboard. she was floating 22 inches deeper than expected. oh, and her centre of gravity raised by 10 inches!

reed didnt just raise hell over this, he dragged heaven down too. and its not like he was wrong. the ship was a floating disaster.

hms captain had an angle of list of 21°. this means of she listed 21° or more, she would capsize.

now, theres no real average angle of list, but most people would say 40-50° as a reasonable yardstick. for some vessels, it might dip into the 30s°, but 21° is a ridiculously low angle of list.

for reference, this is a 20° angle.

its not much of an angle, is it?

and remember, the captain is meant to be an oceangoing vessel. the oceans dont exactly have a reputation for being calm.

unless youve got a direct telegram to poseidon and are in a place where you can ask him to calm down, the captains not gonna have fun.

and of course when reed raised his concerns, he was overuled.

if i had a nickel for every time edward james reed was overruled after raising a legitimate concern about the design of a turret ship, id have three nickels, and its kinda concerning that its happened three times.

instead, she was commissioned on the 30th april 1870 under captain hugh talbot burgoyne vc. to commission a ship is simply to place it into active service. also vc simply means burgoyne received the victoria cross whatever that one is.

anyway, she underwent several trials in the months after this and i guess everyone had pre-ordered their rose-coloured glasses because the captain won many supporters and was considered everything that coles had promised.

part of these trials were the gunnery trials. these took place in vigo and the captain was against both hms monarch and hms hercules, a non-turret ship. their target was a 600ft long, 60ft high rock. they each had 5 minutes of continuous firing.

all three ships had problems with aiming after the first few shots because the smoke emitted from the weapons meant they couldnt fucking see anything.

still, hms hercules had an accuracy rate of 65%, while hms monarch came in with a 40% rate and hms captain limped in with a 35% rate.

and im not just using "limped" as an exaggeration, these trials showed that when the turrets fired, it caused the ship to list and the list was 20°.

im sure you can see the problem there.

if you can, youre better than the admiralty who just ignored it and was like fantastic, she works. coles straight up had the entire admiralty hostage and the only person speaking up was reed.

if i had a nickel for every time edward james reed was overruled after raising a legitimate concern about the design of a turret ship, id have four nickels, which is great and all but id rather give reed a hug at this point.

-

now the 35% accuracy didnt really matter if the captain was going to be used for shore bombardment. most of the time, youre not aiming for anything specific, youre just trying to cause as much damage as possible.

but that 20° list? that mattered.

it mattered a lot because on the 7th september 1870, she capsized.

shocking i know. only five months after being commissioned and everything.

that day, she was running trials in the bay of biscay during a storm when she was hit by a gale of wind. she rolled over and capsized.

there were over 500 people on board and only 18 survived. coles was among the dead. i hope their souls were able to find peace.

theres a memorial for them in st paul's cathedral in london if youd ever like to pay your respect to them.

now theres not much else to say about the captain other than the inquiry into the sinking blame the public for it.

they concluded that "the captain was built in deference to public opinion expressed in parliament and through other channels, and in opposition to views and opinions of the controller and his department" and this was pretty significant in victorian britain as it was unprecedented.

but realistically, it wasnt wrong. they were the ones backing coles the whole time.

so i guess if theres something to learn from this mess, its that if youre going to support a public figure, whether it be a celebrity or politician or scientist or whatever, take a step back and ask yourself "do i agree with what theyre saying or are they just very good at talking?"

im sure someones said it better than me, but you know, that sentiment. we can also laugh at how much of a disaster hms captain was.

[heldentenxr]

okay how do you boop people /genq

[loonfull-sonnetzz]

Francis.Seventeen.he/him.vintage style not vintage value 

Greetings, I’m Francis! This blog is for all my brainrot and occasional posting of my fanfics and art. Enjoy your stay :^D

!!I usually lean toward male and gender-neutral readers!! Please keep that in mind!!!

Masterlist | Rules | Tags | Requests | Queue

Toyhouse | AO3

Divider credit: @inklore

[xxplastic-cubexx]

what kind of underwear do you think Erik and Charles wear (i'm not asking this to see them half naked) ((please believe me)) (((PLEASE)))

My Personal Belief is charles is a briefs guy while erik's a trunks guy. trunks/briefs kinda couple because i can

and idk just a lil bonus or somethin. as i do.

[gatoburr0]

Been thinking about it

[wikiangela]

tease tidbit tuesday

tagged by @bidisasterevankinard @tizniz 💖

more bucktommy the will talk (they're getting there, the conversation went a bit off track lol) - it might be done this week, and then I can focus on the smut, and the buddie fics, and I have a new bucktommy idea inspired by that video of lou barbecuing with his shirt off that I sooo wanna write🙈

prev snippet

___

“Well, yeah, of course.” Buck answers easily, his heartbeat speeding up. He’s a little anxious about putting too much pressure, too many expectations out there, but he also knows that even if he did, they’d get back on track, they’d be fine. And besides, Tommy’s smiling, he doesn’t seem freaked out at all. And that’s after Buck brought up children. But if they’re moving forward with their relationship, they need to know what they want out of life. It seems reasonable to have this conversation this early on.

“Good.” he responds, grinning widely. “Now I won't have to stress about your answer when I ask.” he adds, and Buck feels himself blush, butterflies in his stomach going wild. Oh. Oh. This is- this is real. They’re talking about it, and maybe someday soon- he might marry this man. He will marry this man. Tommy wants him forever. Tommy wants him. Tommy wants to marry him and have children with him, and just be with him. Sometimes it’s still so shocking to Buck that someone as great and amazing as Tommy wants him, but he does. Buck’s not sure he remembers the last time he felt this wanted.

“How- how do you know I won’t ask first?” Buck asks, moving his head slightly closer to Tommy, just enough to look into his beautiful blue eyes. It feels surreal, talking about this, when they only dated for a few months, but it also feels… right. It feels like they’re on the right track to get there one day.

___

no pressure tags: @elvensorceress @thebravebitch @shortsighted-owl @eddiebabygirldiaz @watchyourbuck @eowon @loserdiaz @evanbegins @ladydorian05 @wildlife4life @diazpatcher @lover-of-mine @monsterrae1 @thewolvesof1998 @weewootruck @loveyouanyway @spagheddiediaz @rainbow-nerdss @epicbuddieficrecs @pirrusstuff @spotsandsocks @alliaskisthepossibilityoflove @nmcggg @rogerzsteven @hippolotamus @giddyupbuck @sunshinediaz @honestlydarkprincess @underwaterninja13 @exhuastedpigeon @911-on-abc @jesuisici33 @steadfastsaturnsrings @buddieswhvre @fortheloveofbuddie @your-catfish-friend @theotherbuckley @daffi-990 @dangerpronebuddie @hoodie-buck @aroeddiediaz @diazsdimples

[deoidesign]

sometimes you gotta draw your characters as dogs. not even talking dogs just normal dogs. like what dogs would they be.

[interpolationz]

almost done with season two!!

i think i've finally figured out how to draw kirk's hair

[levemetal]

I wish I was better at backgrounds. For now I shall yeet the blur on the bg. What's going on here? Idk. Post PIDW Qijiu, no I will not explain. A painting study that escalated.

[feyd-meowtha]

Geta thinks his brother used to be beautiful, but it gets harder to remember every day. He watches him now, spread across the sofa like melted butter, and feels something more akin to disgust. The love is still there but it’s mutated. It has too many legs, it crawls across his skin and sometimes he wishes he could flick it off.

Ch1/1, 4301 words, mind the tags!!

[huggingtentacles]

The princesses in Slay the Princess are so fucking sexy. Yes haha huggingtentacles we get it you saw cleavage and went awooga but like no seriously. Once the existential horror passed my brain just goes full horny mode when I see her in almost any of her forms.

[blindmagdalena]

I'd say HL ending up depowered and trapped in another box would work IF they planned for him to appear in any of their endless spin off series and escape. But then I don't know if we can trust how any of them are gonna pan out. 😭 I know they've said they're worried about becoming the thing they're satirising and. Yeah. They should be.

antony has been pretty vocal about the fact that he's not ready to be done with homelander, but he's also talked about wanting to end on a good note and not milk (haha) the character/franchise into being something he's not proud of anymore.

i don't really know what his definition of that would be, though. he clearly LOVES playing homelander. he did the gen v cameo for free because it just wasn't in the budget.

if antony starr wants to continue playing homelander, i hope he gets to do that. especially if it's a post-kripke era where we completely drop the shoehorned trump allegories. i say this selfishly as someone who continues to enjoy his performances, regardless of how bad the writing is.

the reception to gen v was extremely mixed. i anecdotally noticed it was more popular with folks who actually didn't watch the boys. i'm curious what the mexico spin-off is going to be like. the creatives involved (diego luna and gael garcía bernal) give me hope it'll be good, though.

i don't think anything is really gonna capture the spark of the original, though. especially that first season. the spin-offs kind of just confirm that they are, in fact, the new marvel. regardless of whether they wanna be perceived that way or not lol satirizing and subversion can only go so far before you're just doing the thing you're making fun of, and imo we've already reached that point.

[rokurookajima]

and although i was burning | waava week 2024 - memorial

fandom: legend of korra

summary: The flashes of light, the faces she’s known and the ones she’s never seen disintegrating in a burst of flame. The last face that lingers longer than the rest. That one repeating over and over again, and her chest aches. Korra says, "she just realized they’re all gone.” // Korra, Raava, and collateral damage. Post-Book 2 Finale. Pretty heavily implied Wan/Raava (obviously, it's me). notes: OKAY okay...listen. i watched the book 2 finale for the first time in YEARS yesterday during a tattoo appointment, which only mildly numbed the pain (of the finale). today, i opened google docs to work on chapter 5 of claw machine, then classic twilight soundtrack banger A Thousand Years by Christina Perri came on autoplay, i lost my mind for a little bit, and when i came to, we had this. i'm so sad bro. 11 years, and there are some wounds time will never heal...waava week is not over for me

;;

There is light. It’s blinding. It’s pain. 

It’s tendrils of iridescent white smashing against rock and Korra is reaching, but she can’t reach far enough, and every strike brings new pain.

It’s faces. There are faces. 

There are faces she knows, and faces only Raava knows. She is seeing through Raava’s eyes instead of Raava through hers. 

Aang. Roku. Kyoshi. Kuruk. All of them her, all of them lined up, all of them burning. 

She’s feeling what Raava feels. 

They burn faster and faster, and all Korra hears inside of her own head is Raava’s voice, Raava’s pain, Raava’s screams . 

Then there is Wan. Only Wan. 

They see him longer than the rest and on a nightmarish loop, Korra feels her beg—

Please let me keep this one—please, please, please, let me just keep this one, not him, please—

He burns. 

There is only black. 

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