#it was just william trolling us

[calscompositions]

the cake was a lie. and i'm once again a fool.

guys the circumstances are aligning again

[chetter-holmgren]

JDub and JWill did an ig live earlier, and Chet got on for just a few minutes, but the whole thing was gold (also feat. former Thunder legend Darius Bazley) 💙💙

[prokopetz]

I apologise if you've already answered this, but I tried searching your blog and I'm unsure if you haven't or if it's another example of Tumblr's amazing search system.

I was talking with a friend recently about how much of a culture clash the Monk Class is compared to the rest of Dungeons & Dragons and was wondering if there is a coherent reason for their original inclusion. I'm aware that they're largely influenced by Shaolin monks as depicted in Hong Kong cinema in the 70's/80's as compared to the Sword and Sorcery stuff most of the rest of D&D takes influence from.

Basically, my question ultimately boils down to, "Is the Monk Class there purely because of an original player wanting to rule of cool their way into playing something wildly out of genre, or is there a stronger link between Sword and Sorcery and Hong Kong cinema that could have organically resulted in the Monk Class joining the rest of the classes?"

A lot of the link between the two was simply a matter of time and place. The kung fu craze hit North America at just about exactly the same time as the sword and sorcery revival that gave us films like Clash of the Titans and Beastmaster and The Sword and the Sorcerer and Dragonslayer and Krull – not to mention the Arnold Schwarzenegger Conan adaptation, which revived popular interest in first-wave sword and sorcery literature – so there was a lot of it going around. Analysis of early Dungeons & Dragons as a product of its media influences often overlooks that it was largely drawing on what was trendy in American popular media in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Even the tonally incongruous Lord of the Rings references weren't a deep cut; while the books were originally published in the 1950s, they'd experienced a strong resurgence in the 1970s, putting them firmly in the popular consciousness at the time that D&D was being developed. All this being the case, it's not surprising that early D&D was also substantially influenced by Hong Kong action cinema.

That said, the reason the monk character class in particular (i.e., as opposed to kung fu media influences more generally) is there is allegedly because one specific guy in one of the game's early playtest groups really, really wanted to play as Remo Williams from Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir's The Destroyer; several of the class's signature abilities are direct references to powers Williams exhibits in the course of the novels. Remarks from folks who worked at TSR at the time have pointed the finger at Brian Blume as the Remo Williams fan in question, though accounts are conflicted whether Blume was actually an uncredited contributor to Dave Arneson's Blackmoor (1975), in which the class makes its first proper appearance, or whether Blume's interest merely prompted its inclusion.

This is the case for the character archetypes in a lot tabletop RPGs of that era; instead of trying to work out what classes "ought" be be present, authors would simply start with the types of characters their playtesters actually wanted to play, often based on specific popular media characters, then work backwards to derive an IC rationale for why those were the setting's standard adventuring professions. Other examples from D&D in particular most obviously include the Ranger (based on Tolkien's Aragon, naturally), but also the Paladin (principally inspired by Holger Carlsen from Poul Anderson's 1961 isekai novel Three Hearts and Three Lions, also the source of D&D's goofy regenerating trolls), the Assassin, back when it was still a separate character class (probably mainly based on the Assassin Caste from John Norman's Gor), and even the Wizard to a large extent (less Gandalf than you'd think: a large portion of D&D's iconic wizard spell list is lifted directly from the 1963 Vincent Price film The Raven).

(I often think that modern indie RPGs could benefit from reviving this approach. Like, fuck textual consistency – just pick half a dozen of your favourite popular media characters without regard for the compatibility of the source material and work backwards to explain why these six random assholes are your game's playable archetypes!)

[dorothylarouge]

US Presidents as Dril Tweets

George Washington: another day volunteering at the betsy ross museum. everyone keeps asking me if they can fuck the flag. buddy, they wont even let me fuck it

John Adams: "ah boo hoo hoo i want to post Foul comments to content leaders" Fat Chance, Dimwit. I will annihilate you under bulwark of the Law and God.

Thomas Jefferson: Q: If your post was proven by a counsil of wise men to be racist, or bullshit, would you bar it from the record? A: I do not delete my posts

James Madison: (sniffing a crumpled up one dollar bill i found on the floor of a dog kennel) ah.. thats greenbacks baby

James Monroe: for decades i have traversed the unforgiving mountains and rivers of south america, hoping to catch a glimpse of the fabled "ass downloader"

John Quincy Adams: "This Whole Thing Smacks Of Gender," i holler as i overturn my uncle's barbeque grill and turn the 4th of July into the 4th of Shit

Andrew Jackson: handing Faves over to my enemies is FRAUD !! base, contemptible FRAUD!

Martin Van Buren: Food $200

Data $150

Rent $800

Candles $3,600

Utility $150

someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my family is dying

William Henry Harrison: (spends all of 7 seconds skimming some blog posts) yep. just as i knew all along. having pnuamonia is good

John Tyler: fuck "jokes". everything i tweet is real. raw insight without the horse shit. no, i will NOT follow trolls. twitter dot com. i live for this

James K. Polk: thhere is no such thing as charisma, and art is fake. the only metrics by which we must determine the worth of a man are Strength and Wisdom

Zachary Taylor: the doctor reveals my blood pressure is 420 over 69. i hoot & holler outta the building while a bunch of losers tell me that im dying

Millard Fillmore: trying to heal..... please donate to my go fund me... $10 will make me less racist... $100 will make me extremely less racist...thank you...

Franklin Pierce: blocked. blocked. blocked. youre all blocked. none of you are free of sin

James Buchanan: #NationalGirlfriendDay please cherish your gal's.. in honor of us, the single Boys who must sacrifice all companionship to #CarryTheBrand...

Abraham Lincoln: unloading an entire belt of ammo at me with a minigun or some such device will now get you "Blocked"

Andrew Johnson: who the fuck is scraeming "LOG OFF" at my house. show yourself, coward. i will never log off

Ulysses S. Grant: i regret being tasked the emotional burden of maintaining the final bastion of morality and Nice manners in this endless ocean of human SHIT

Rutherford B. Hayes: using the toilet when i hear Our national anthem start to play. i do what i must. i stand tall in complete agony; as shit runs down my leg,

James A. Garfield: too much truth in such little time. feeling the heat cominh down to silence me... signing off........ for now

Chester A. Arthur: i WILL wise the fuck up. i WILL super charge my content for 2017. i WILL get blue check mark

Grover Cleveland: the way i see it, people who come on here and submit content that is not up to par, could possibly be considered the "Villains" of this site

Benjamin Harrison: i help every body, im not racist, i keep myself nice, and when i ask for a single re-tweet in return i am told to fuck off, fuck myself, etc

William McKinley: boy oh boy do i love purchasing large amounnts of Fool's Gold. wait a minute... fools gold fucking sucks. this stuff is no good..!! Fuck !!!

Theodore Roosevelt: IF THE ZOO BANS ME FOR HOLLERING AT THE ANIMALS I WILL FACE GOD AND WALK BACKWARDS INTO HELL

William H. Taft: ah.. the perfect Souffle! cant wait to dig in to t(*EVERY PIPE IN MY HOUSE EXPLODES AT THE SAME TIME, COVERING ME IN SHIT AND BOILING WATER*

Woodrow Wilson: the conflicted supersoldier stares over the horizon as he smokes a cigarette. "war is the most fucked up thing ever." he takes a sip of beer

Warren G. Harding: somebody please Bribe me

Calvin Coolidge: aggressively joyless oaf hhere. painfully obnoxious respect demander checkign in. extremely dim witted frowning man looking for pals

Herbert Hoover: it is really quite astonishing that I have yet to win The Lottery, given how good I am at selecting six numbers and saying them out loud

Franklin D. Roosevelt: ive never heard of this “europe” but it sounds like a big bunch of shit to me

Harry Truman: everybody wants to be the guy to write the tweet that solves racism once and for all because it would look good as hell on a resume

Dwight D. Eisenhower: my "F*&k It!! Let's Go Golfin" t-shirt maintains a tenacious stranglehold on my life. after 1,125 days of Golf my body is twisted, deformed

John F. Kennedy: when you do sutuff like... shoot my jaw clean off of my face with a sniper rifle, it mostly reflects poorly on your self

Lyndon B. Johnson: incredibly handsome , charismatic famous boy credited with ending income inequality after saying that slumlords should be called "dumblords"

Richard Nixon: i attribute the complete failure of my brand to the actions of detractors, oor my “trolls”, as it were, as well as my own constant fuckups

Gerald Ford: shutting computer down until the shitty moods & attitudes can fuck off., if you need me ill be on my other computer, sititng 60° to my right

Jimmy Carter: i warnned you all that bad things would happen if you kept letting your wives wear jeans. AND NOW LOOK! the damn gas prices are up again

Ronald Reagan: spend a lot of time thinking about how sometimes even war criminals can be heroes sometimes... Dont like it? Click the unfollow buttobn

George H.W. Bush: just thought off an idea i believe to be bad ass. lets find the address of the leader of isis, and mail him/ her pieces of our SHIT

Bill Clinton: were at the point now, that when i offer to impregnate my girl followers, people assume my motives are sexual. disgusting, grow the fuck up,

George W. Bush: friday night gathering up together a big pile of things i like to respect (flags, crucifixes ,etc) and just roll around in it ,give kisses,

Barack Obama: my IQ has increased 10 points ever since i stopped tollerating people mucking about, on the time line

Donald Trump: THERAPIST: your problem is, that youre perfect, and everyone is jealous of your good posts, and that makes you rightfully upset.

ME: I agree

Joe Biden: I will shut the fuck up , IF , it will restore the Harmony. I will get on my knees like a dog and make that sacrifice, for the sake of Calm

[gentlemanjimcraddock]

I think William de Worde gets underrated as a Discworld protagonist. His book is great but it's not as riotously funny as some of the others. Moist basically replaced him as the not a Watchman Ankh-Morpork protagonist. The Truth often gets lumped in with Moist's books as "the industrial revolution series".

William is basically the opposite of Vimes. Vimes and his family clawed and scraped for everything they ever had. He's seen first hand what it means for the little people when the rich thinks the rules don't apply to them. That's why he does what he does. Vimes makes the law an equaliser, rather than a tool of tyranny.

But William is a pompous, arrogant, entitled, privileged little twit. At first, he hates it and tries desperately to be his father's opposite. He's the well meaning liberal. He knows racism is bad and abhors it, but he still treats trolls and dwarfs and vampires with kid gloves so he doesn't accidentally offend them. He doesn't stop to think about the food he's taking off of people's plates when he doesn't get his engravings done. He just sort of assumes the dwarfs at the press work for him rather than with him. Multiple characters called him out in this throughout the story, and he never really has a answer for them.

But like Otto says, he tries, and trying is how you get there. And William does get there, not by overcoming these flaws, but by using his privilege as a weapon against the rich and corrupt, like Vimes uses the law.

He takes the jewels, basically buys the dwarfs' loyalty with them. (Attempts) to blackmail his dad with them. Does blackmail Slant. Uses his little notebook to protect free speech against people like Vimes and Slant. Backs Vetinari into ensuring Harry King's daughter has a wedding overflowing with the rich and powerful, ensuring Harry will supply him with paper out of gratitude. His first response to a problem to either annoy it into leaving him alone or offering it a job.

William doesn't become a hero of the working class, not really. But he uses his pompous twittery to give them chances. To get a job, sure. But also to learn the truth. To help draw the lines that the rich can't just cross without fear of reprisal. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.

[lukolathoughts]

Dearest Gentle readers,

I have been a member of Tumblr for a while without posting a blog entry. I suppose I have been getting the lay of the land and trying to formulate my thoughts. As most of you know, I am a tarot reader on YouTube and I also share my thoughts on X. I am a Lukola through and through and no amount of bullying, intimidation, nasty comments etc. will deter me from my mission. The last few weeks my trolling comments have increased exponentially from what I can only assume are desperate Jakehole's, (apparently I am credited for making the term 'Jakehole' up, I actually have no idea if it was me or not, but I like it) trying to convince me that Nicola is with Jake and Luke is with Antonia. I will come to my thoughts on this in a moment.

I do realise that a public tarot reader, I put myself at risk to exposure and criticism from these types of people. I am fully aware of that. What I underestimate sometimes is the sheer vitriol they come with. I am an empath also and I absorb a lot of a energy, not just from the fandom, Luke and Nic and adjacents, but from my own life as well. I am a teacher and I am surrounded by a lot of people daily. I have always used my television shows as a coping mechanism to detach from reality and 'switch off'. I never thought this time last year I'd be sharing tarot readings on YouTube about a real life celebrity couple that I was barely aware of in January 2024. But here we are. Bridgerton season 3 took hold of my brain and injected some sort of magic crack into it and I haven't been the same since. Don't get me started on the press tour. I've never seen anything like it and it was honestly like a spiritual awakening.

But I digress, I have been reading for a few years and learning the tarot cards and their meanings. I have watched countless YT videos by other readers and I came into this fandom watching the OG tarot readers of the fandom. I do not see myself as any different or special, I just read the cards as they come out. I also repeatedly say 'this is for fun and entertainment purposes only, I do not personally know Luke and Nicola'. And the fact of the matter is I don't know them, none of us do. I do not follow them around all day like some weird little psychic Martha from Baby Reindeer. I merely read the energy of the cards and I observe.

Why I love teaching English so much for me, is there is never a right or wrong answer in English Literature. It is up to your interpretation and all about reading the subtext of what is really going on. Now you might call me delusional, but I have always had an uncanny knack for predicting who the murderer in a story is before the end of a novel. It's called critical thinking. This drives my husband mad because he is very black and white and for him 2+2 = 4. Simple as. For me, I'm like wait a minute, what if... My brain is like a whimsical, magical unicorn sometimes, but I always go with my gut and my intuition. I will NOT waver on my intuition because I believe it is stronger than my rational mind.

Ok, so here we go. In my opinion haters!! Nicola is not now or ever has been with Jake Dunn romantically. My readings tell me he sees her as mother figure and mentor. Jake is clearly gay and most likely in some sort of relationship with Dylan. I think the Jakehole ship is a dead, rotting corpse. Nicola and Jake have reached the end of their agreement where she provides him with networking opportunities in exchange for some possible PR diversion to take the heat off Nicola's real relationship. William Tell is out. Luke is home from Rome, there is no need for Jake anymore. I also get the feeling from my readings that Jake is tired. Nicola is tired and Dylan is doing his best to set the narrative straight. I do not need tarot cards for this, it's blindingly obvious. As far as I know, Jake has no straight male friends. It is extremely rare in UK culture for straight men to hang out with all gay men and feel secure about that. It's just the way things are. I am not saying Jake and Nic are not friends, of course they are and I won't begrudge them that. I think he has a lot of genuine affection for her, but he also sees her as someone who can get him places and opportunities which we have seen time and time again.

And now we come to Antonia. I know she is only 23/4 and young and whatever. I have taught students older than her. But I will be truthful and say I don't like her energy. I don't like reading on her. I don't trust her little dancing self. I did have some sympathy for her in October as I had big crushes on boys when I was young, I get it. Luke is hot. But that pasta video she shared in Rome (a video she could have got from anywhere and shared an hour after she had seen Luke had been there) by her was mean, malicious and intentional to hurt the fandom. Her flouncing around with a shitty red bag always implying she's in Luke's vicinity is also callous and calculating and she's shared so much pasta stories now, it almost puts me off eating it. Almost, I love pasta. The biggest takeaway for me is she was not with Luke this Christmas and NYE. It is well documented where she was. We do not not know where Luke was, but we do know Nic was spotted with a lovely tan at the WT premiere. Could Antonia be PR? I sigh, because I think it's more complicated than that. In my readings, I do pick up a delusional obsession from her in regards to Luke. But she is convenient to bring up when they need her. I know the haters will call me delusional for thinking this and as my husband would say if 2 + 2 = 4 then it's 4.

But is it 4? Is it so straightforward as that? My intuition is telling me no, it's not. We have had no sign of Luke being anywhere near Antonia since July in Sorrento when he jumped on a plane and left two days early alone. All Antonia has are literally pasta videos and photos, that I am convinced, enraged Luke. She is giving me serious Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction vibes.

Let's address the elephant in the room. The comment by 'Luke's mum' on her private FB account to a relative. I think it's bullshit. I have three boys and I'm telling you now I would walk through fire if anyone touched a hair on their heads. I will go to prison for my kids. If I was Luke's mum and some 23 year old dancer had systematically tried to ruin my son's career, and she did folks, I would not be writing on a public page outing her as my son's girlfriend. It is all too suspicious and convenient. I could speculate for hours on what has happened, but you guys have group chats and your own brains for that. As one ship falls, another one rises in an unexplained manner.

In conclusion, yes I do believe Nic and Luke are together and this is a very important time for them right now. The silence is LOUD for me. I keep getting the four of swords for Nic. She is resting and taking care of herself in the way that she should. Luke is in a besotted Emperor mode. All is good. Until Nic and Luke specify otherwise, that is what I am sticking with.

[manualformarsh]

sometimes I think about how it would be cool if we got an animation series of Tftb with all the amazing features used in animation movies, for example I wish jack would be like jinny from aladdin and could shapeshift/do anything with his digital ghost body for trolling and creeping out rhys

GOD I WANT IT SO BAD

AND HIM SINGING «FRIEND LIKE ME» TO RHYS WHEN THEY START TO TEAM UP AAAAAAAAAA

oh and bonus:

just for you to question yourself a little bit🫢🎀

[heart-of-the-morningstar]

I’m gonna write this down now so I can look like an absolute genius later (or look like a clown, but at least I said it with my full chest!)

❌ Spoilers for the FNAF Movie below! ❌

Ok, I might be huffing hopium here, but in my heart of hearts I STILL think Mike Schmidt is Mike Afton. If (or when) they make a sequel, there’s a way they can reveal this

So the most obvious thing from this movie is when Mike is in “Steve’s” office, and when “Steve” is reading Mike’s name out loud from his résumé, he stops mid-sentence. He looks at Mike for a weird amount of time, almost studying him, before completely changing the subject. There’s no way in hell “Steve” recognizes Mike from when he saw him as a kid when he kidnapped his brother Garrett 10+ ago, no chance. Also why would he go to Nebraska (unclear where the movie takes place, but let’s assume Utah because of the books) to kidnap a random kid and just drive off? Here’s what I think is going on…(also I’m gonna call him William from now on cuz we all know lol)

William fingered out that Mike is his son during that interview. My theory is that at some point, William was married and him and his wife have a son named Mike. And for one reason or another, they got divorced. This is when Mike was too young to really remember which is why he doesn’t recognize William during their meeting. Mike’s mom gains custody of Mike and remarries, she marries Mr. Schmidt. They have a child together, Garrett. Sometime after the divorce, William adopts a child, trying to cope after losing his only son. He adopts Vanessa.

William finds out about his ex-wife having another kid. He wants to cause her pain and suffering for leaving him. He follows the Schmidt’s and takes Garrett during the camping trip. Unable to handle the pain, Mike’s mom takes her own life, leaving Mike and his stepdad. Mr. Schmidt marries a little later to another woman, and she has a daughter named Abby. Sometime after this, both Mr. Schmidt and his new wife die, leaving Mike to care for Abby.

Vanessa owed William so much, he had adopted her while she had suffered in an orphanage for years. She would do anything he told her, even if it meant covering up his crimes. Years later, realizing what she was doing was wrong, she left her father and became a police officer, hoping to stop people like her father as she had failed to stop him.

Here’s another thing. Scott Cawthon knows that the fans are obsessed with the lore of FNAF. I think he knew he could make more movies, this isn’t going to be a one and done deal. Plus, he had his hand on this project every step of the way, he wouldn’t agree to anything that he didn’t want to happen in the story. Mike being William’s some is CRUCIAL to the story of FNAF (at least in the games). I think he’s trying to fake us out, you know how he loves to troll the fans!

Again, this is just a theory (A GAME THEORY lol), but I don’t think the idea of Mike being an Afton is dead just yet. Hoping and praying so I can look incredibly smart if or when the sequel drops 🙏🏻

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

It is immensely difficult to understand just how completely white Southerners wrote off slaves in their political calculations. How, we ask, could they contemplate war without worrying about the possibilities it opened up to four million enslaved people? But so irrelevant were slaves to their thinking that William Yancey, the influential Alabama fire-eater, could recommend secession as a resolution of all the old struggles. It would augur, he said, a future with "no irrepressible conflict and no domestic enemy to incite our vigilance." Black Republicans--that is to say, white Northern men and not slaves--were the domestic enemy Yancey had in mind.

Southerners of all political persuasions worried publicly and to good effect about the way abolitionists incited slaves to violence. One can readily discern the heavy weight of racial thinking about people of African descent. It was hard for white Southerners to think of slaves as "the enemy within." More than thirty years of proslavery training had mostly dissuaded them from that view. But the fear lurked just below the surface, and a benevolent paternalism always confronted a deeper antagonistic view. One can hear their conflicting emotions when white Southerners learned of John Brown's attempt to raise slave support in his raid on Harper's Ferry. One contributor to the Charleston Mercury opened with a brave denial that planters had anything to worry about at all--"they would as soon suspect their children of conspiring against their lives"--but descended quickly into a tortured consideration of circumstances in which slaves might indeed pose a threat. When "constantly tampered with," the writer fretted, faith in the Africans' good nature could prove a flimsy defense. "Our negroes are constantly tempted to cut our throats or pink us" with rifles. It was well to be prepared for the worst. Those "foot peddlers" from New York trolling the neighborhoods could "put the devil in the negros' heads," and could have been down there already "for all we know, arming the troops." The conflicted view of slaves' nature was palpable but controlled. Slaves were said to be, by nature, good, childlike, and loyal servants to their masters; they posed a danger only when white outsiders attempted to "rouse an ignorant people [by appealing] to their superstition and lust." Thus when secession dispensed with the Black Republicans, as Yancey promised, slaves would no longer represent a force of any sort.

[...]

African slaves in New World societies underwent a process of instrumentalization rather than simple suppression or exclusion. White Southerners were so deeply implicated in that process that they had great difficulty shaking an instrumentalist view of African American people even when confronted with evidence to the contrary. Rare, indeed, was the commonsense observation like that of Waltman Willey, a western Virginia Unionist, who, disparaging the secessionists' argument that slavery would be safer out of the Union, asked bluntly what the consequences of destroying the Union would be: "What then. The common national obligation [to return fugitive slaves] is destroyed. Will not the negro find out? The motives to flee across the line would be increased, because he would know that whenever he crosses that line he will be free." What Willey predicted was precisely what most white Southerners denied: that slaves had motives and interests entirely their own, channels of communication that kept them apprised of relevant developments, and allies whose help they knew to seek. It would take Confederates a long time to learn those lessons.

stephanie mccurry, confederate reckoning: power and politics in the civil war south

[tossawary]

One of my favorite Discworld books is actually one of the more obscure ones, "Moving Pictures", which is about the invention of films and the movie business in this fantasy world that has dwarves and trolls and wizards and so on. It has its rough patches like every early Discworld book, but Ginger's speech about people who were born in the wrong time or wrong place for their dreams really gets to me in a good way, and I love all of the references to classic films and commentary on fame and creativity. It also has classic characters like Gaspode the Talking Dog and C.M.O.T. Dibbler, and it introduces Detritus's romance with another troll named Ruby.

Perhaps most importantly to me is that this book introduces Ponder Stibbons, who is a wizard, and who goes on in later books to be one of the most important members of the Unseen University (he holds like twelve different positions), in that he's one of the few people who can competently manage a project and so ends up managing nearly everything. (Bear with me, it's been a while since I read any Discworld and my memory is a little rough.) In "Moving Pictures", Ponder is the classmate (roommate?) of a fellow named Victor Tugelbend, who is one of the main characters.

Victor begins the book as a career student, in that a wealthy relative left him a great deal of money exclusively for school; so as long as he STAYS in school, all of his living expenses are paid for. If Victor graduates, that's the end of the money. If Victor drops out, that's the end of the money. But if Victor manages to hit a specific mark range in the 80s every year, then he gets to stay on for another year and try again, and so Victor is perhaps the most dedicated and knowledgeable wizardry student in the university's history, because you have to know what the right answer is in order to intentionally get a certain number of the questions wrong, so that you can continue to coast along on your college fund.

Ponder's graduation is (accidentally) Victor's fault, because Victor runs away to get into the movie business. (I won't spoil what happens, but it's VERY funny.) Now, I like to imagine after the events of the book, after Ponder holds a faculty position in the university, Victor comes BACK to the university occasionally as a disgustingly well-paid external consultant, which drives Ponder UP THE FUCKING WALL. Like, people are so stingy all of the time but SOMEHOW the university budget has room to bring your offensively handsome dropout roommate back just to say, "Hmm, yes, that looks bad. Have you tried turning it off and on again?" I'd throw a fit, honestly. (As soon as Ponder has enough seniority, he probably puts his foot down to stop this if Victor isn't actually useful. Maybe he is, idk, but maybe not for THAT consulting fee.)

I also like to imagine that Victor Tugelbend and Theda "Ginger" Withel are still together, maybe even still acting (badly? mediocre-ly? decently?) together, in some dingy little theatre (Ginger is the director and runs their acting troupe like a tyrant) where the front seats are regularly filled with middle-aged folks who still sigh over the memories of moving pictures. (Moving pictures are now, presumably, VERY illegal in Ankh Morpork.) Victor and Ginger have only because even more attractive as they've gotten older, which is EVEN MORE OFFENSIVE to poor Ponder because his former movie star former roommate is married to another gorgeous former movie star?! I'd throw another fit.

Anyway, I think Ponder deserves to have an affair with a pair of aging former movie stars. I like to imagine this purely because I think it's funny. He seems kind of busy for marriage, so joining someone else's marriage part-time might be good for him. It probably makes most of the rest of the Unseen University faculty breathlessly envious and that really does it for him.

And I think that this affair would OF COURSE be covered by every newspaper and tabloid in the city, including The Times, and William de Worde and Sacharissa Cripslock don't fully understand why their entertainment reporter is so breathlessly excited about people who were famous over a decade ago? (Supermarket tabloids love to tell me about alleged affairs of people who were famous 20+ years ago.) The article on Victor Maraschino and Delores De Syn's failing marriage* is their bestselling newspaper in months and William puts his head down on his desk in despair. (He's fine. This happens on a weekly at least basis. He just needs a minute.)

*Victor and Ginger are very happy with this situation, actually. They're going to take Ponder to dinner to go on a double date with Ruby and Detritus soon. Victor and Ponder are going to get distracted arguing about some of the Inadvisably Applied Magic research projects, but that's fine, because Ginger wants to talk to Ruby about this one-troll-woman-show concept. (Detritus will proudly hand out tickets at the Watch station and accidentally intimidate all of his coworkers into accepting the invitation.)

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

It just doesn't jive with some of the PR that KP puts out about William - for instance, the 'statesman' PR they do whenever he travels abroad. You're not a statesman if all you do is travel twice a year for two or three days at a time. You need to be in meetings, going places, talking to people, being in the room, representing the king at other countries' diplomatic/state events.

What do you want the KP do though? They can’t just sit om their asses. It’s PR. And maybe it’s not even for us royal watchers, it’s for the general public whose image of William is probably still stuck to when he was a hearthrob teenager or a young adult stumbling out of clubs or a newlywed or a young balding boring father. The KP PR team have to tell those people something, and maybe for those people it’s enough to see this new phase in William stepping up to his role. They see him taking a meeting with Biden or Trump and they’ll realize ohhh William is doing grown up stuff now lol. I was just watching the Daily Mail youtube show Palace Confidential. In the latest episode, Jo Elvie, the host, made a comment that for her who’s a bit older than William, she still very much sees William as young, so seeing him on his recent trip to Estonia, she feels William is stepping up into his role. There’s no mention of maybe his comms team should avoid saying he’s a statesman when he’s not.

That problem with the “statesman” tag thing is mostly coming from the niche place of royal watchers. The general public don’t think of that. Anyway, I’m just questioning the whole thing because the whole “Wiliam is trying hard to be a statesman” first came from the Baroness Bruck group of antis anyway. Those group of trolls have an agenda. The sentiment is echoed by William’s “fans” who aren’t happy with William’s workload. Maybe they want the PR to be more honest in a way, but as I said, maybe they aren’t the target audience for it.

I’m not saying I agree with KP’s strategy, I’m just putting forth questions for people to think about. The KP team got to do their jobs. So in your opinion, what would you have them do?

I thought that was clear in my post: KP should not be using the word "statesman" to describe William.

"Statesman" conveys a seniority that I don't think William has, not yet, not when you consider how long and how diverse his career is going to be. He's definitely on track to get there in the next couple of years, though.

But the flip side of it is when you consider who William's peers are - the other millennials in national government leadership roles; the JD Vances (born 1984), the Pete Buttigiegs (born 1982), the Sebastian Kurzes (born 1986), the Sanna Marins (born 1985), Guillaume of Luxembourg (born 1981). Compared to them, William has the most diplomatic experience in terms of the heads of state he's met and the audiences he's had.

In that respect, "statesman" does work, but no one is comparing William to the other millennials in government. They're comparing him to Elizabeth and Charles, and that's where William falls short of the mark for now.

The safer adjective, IMO, is "diplomat." Because that's what William is doing. He's doing diplomatic work meeting with heads of state and, in limited circumstances, representing the monarch abroad. He has not fully stepped into the kind of visible leadership role that "statesman" conveys to me, because his main focus is his family and as I said in the earlier post, that is perfectly okay.

The issue here is that KP messaging needs to align better with what William is actually doing or if William really is doing all this work on the back-end behind closed doors, then KP needs to be communicating that better, and that's something I've pointed out here several times before.

[sundewhasaudhd]

Hi Tumblr :D 👋

My name is Sundew, I’m a MINOR (high school age) I’m ace, pan, trigender, xenogender, ambiamorous, and use all pronouns

I’m an artist, actor, script writer, theatre kid, and AuDHD, EDS, and BPD haver

Special Interests: DSMP, musical theatre, casinos, Tumblr history, theology, and some others that I can’t think of off the top of my head

Hyperfixations (current and main, current and secondary, past and main, past and secondary): DSMP, Hatchetverse, Trolls, Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus, DDLC, The Skinjacker Trilogy, Descendants, Vocaloid, Nyan Neko Sugar Girls, Death Note (I haven’t watched/read it yet though), and Evillious Chronicles (I’m currently in the process of watching the MVs and reading the wiki [and I might try to find copies of the manga and novels online])

Minor fandoms: Other musicals, Amphibia, TOH, ROTTMNT, Ramshackle (kind of), QSMP (kind of), Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, Chikn Nugget (that counts as a fandom right?), Bluey, SheRa, Ducktales, Adventure Time, Tangled the Series, DHMIS, Moral Orel, MLP, IDWTBAMG, TADC, Win or Lose, and probably more tbh

I'm currently working on 5 different DSMP AU's/ animated fanfics, and one day I would like to make 'DSMP the Animated Series' and my high fantasy OC's cartoon, both of which would be indie animated and available on YouTube (but we'll cross those bridges when we get there)

This blog does not support cc!Wilbur or his actions, cc!Wilbur supporters DNI

Speaking of DNI, here’s my DNI list: queerphobes in ANY way (and that includes hating on xenogender people and people who use neopronouns), racists, sexist/misogynists, zionists, antisemitic/neo-nazis, islamophobes, anti therian and anti furry people, cc!Wilbur Soot/William Gold supporters, cc!Dream Team supporters, Robert Manion supporters

I post very sporadically because of school (and by post I mean post creative works, like fanart and scripts), but I post weekly doodle dumps from stuff I’ve drawn during school/on homework

Like I said earlier, I don’t not support cc!Wilbur in any way shape or form. That being said I really really super like c!Wilbur (o!Wilbur and q!Wilbur are neat too) and most of my AU’s have him as a big role

Feel free to ask me about my headcanons for any hyperfixations listed above, just know I might not always answer immediately because of school and shit like that

Here’s my tagging system:

Sundew Sanswers: ask tag

Sundew Yaps: tag for original posts

Sundew’s Scribbles: art tag (I HIGHLY recommend checking out this one)

Sundew’s Scripts: writing art (currently unused)

Also, I have a few side blogs:

@csundewsaysfuckitwebawl my DSMP OC role play blog

@yousummonusonceyousummonustwice my Lords in Black and Queen in White ask blog

@just-a-lil-theatre-guy my Hatchetverse OC role play blog

@bursssss-hesmyson my c!Wilbur AUs ask blog

Double also, say hello to my Tumblr siblings:

@rxccoonboo2 @cotableats (which is an account he and our friend Cota share) @a-sociopath-do-your-research @rae-unbeloved @loneycorner

@alchemicalwerewolf @silverwaredrawersys @beattlecub (no longer on Tumblr 😔😔😔)

Not a sibling (that I know of), but she’s one of, if not my closest online friend: @wigglyobsessedweirdo

Triple also, finally updated my pronouns

Anyway, I hope you all have a nice day and enjoy my Tumblr :D

[royal-confessions]

“Unpopular Opinion: William refusing to take the chocolates is just rude and selfish. Sure, it’s not great for kids to eat too much chocolate, but he didn’t have to give it to them. He could’ve accepted it and still found another use for it—it’s the thought that counts. Flat-out rejecting the gesture comes off as dismissive and ungrateful, especially when someone went out of their way to offer it. If another royal did the same thing, they’d be torn apart by trolls online. And honestly, his PR strategy feels so lazy and self-serving. It’s always about his family, which is fine to a point, but it’s starting to feel like an excuse to avoid doing more. At times, it just looks like he’s more interested in maintaining this perfect family image than actually putting in the work people expect from him.” - Submitted by Anonymous

[lovedrruunk]

What TikToks I think overwatch characters would post pt 2! (>ᴗ•) !

Part 1 !

Rein, don’t know if u guys know that liver king guy but he’s literally just rein if he took steroids. Posts tons of like gym core/culture videos yk BUT HES ONE OF THE GOOD ONES!!! Ppl in the community love him bc of how positive he is even though he’d give rlly bad advice “EATING THIS RAW TESTICLE INCREASED MY TESTOSTERONE LEVELS BY 9%!!!!”

D.va, this can go 2 ways. #1 in all her Korean celebrity realness posts vids doing trendy dances while using crazy whitening filters and doing aegyo. #2 goes by a fake name and trolls the fuck out of people. D.va being a hater is such a strong head canon of mine like I love her being a toxic bitch like yes slay or whatever so relatable! Replies to streamers she secretly hates like “Wow your mom’s basement looks so clean!” “My left toe can get better plays.” “Bet even your keyboard hates being touched by you.” basically meowbah or wtv her name was but less weird more cunty

Ana, she replies to reins TikTok’s telling his followers NOT to do anything he says, but other than that I can see her posting cooking vids (as every Arab mom does) but she’ll be talking sweetly in English and then suddenly start cussing something out in Arabic and it’ll be so off topic and it’s rlly funny “and then you add 1 cup of flour! ‘I told my lazyass lgbtqia daughter to pick up some earlier but of fucking course she chose to disappoint me again. Ever since the day I birthed her she has been disappointing me over and over again.’ A pinch of salt!”

Hanzo, DEPRESSION CORE SLIDESHOWS LMAOOO some “when the nice guy loses his patience… the devil shivers.” ass shit, bio is probs something stupid like “family betray, women cheat, Hennessy cures.”

Ashe, CONTROVERSIAL QUEEN !!! People forget she’s southern like please you cannot tell me she doesn’t have some crazyass takes. Will post borderline ragebait in like her car or something. “My gun identifies as a PLUNGER. Beat that Biden.” “BIDEN CANT TAKE MY GUNS, I KEEP THEM UPSTAIRS!!!” “Bidens oldass will probably find a way to outlive my OMNIC butler.” She’ll say all this stupid shit with a straight face and I just think that’s so funny. On rare occasions she’ll actually have a rlly good progressive take and ppl will be like okay hold up let her cook…

Tracer, kinda like junkrat where she's only famous cuz ppl lowk make fun of her and she hasn't caught on yet... I LOVEEEE Tracer she's my fav character but CMONNNN "Cheers love!" SHES NOT SURVIVING TIKTOK!!! ppl in the comments will be mocking her accent and she'll just think they're british too... ppl make fun of her NOT cuz they hate her but because she's just ummm eccentric that's the world plus she's british so that's rlly the only reason why ppl make fun of her like not in a mean way but just for funsies yk...

Pharah, being arab and being a lesbian I am 100% qualified to say this but she's such a fucking lesbo ykwim like 'hey mamas' type, she's also really whitewashed like thinks shes a white stud or something. Ellie Williams wannabe makes thirst traps in stained white wife beaters and expects every lesbian in a 100 mile radius to want her (they dont). Thinks playing basketball makes her the shit and she's just rlly desperate and lame. horny on main. Ana found one of her thirst traps once and it led to a really awkward convo

Kiriko, she's only there to post cute videos of her adventures with her gang and fox like shes just there to have a good time ykwim. And she's like popular bc all her fans r girls and her vlogs and stuff r just so nice to watch plus she's funny and rlly cool!

Baptiste, the anti-andrew tate. Hes so attractive and like confident that people can't help but like him ykwim like he makes little straight boys piss their pants with his bazillion level aura. He'll just post a random vid in his car maybe eating chipotle or something and he'll have men and women alike confessing their love for him in the comments. Lesbians love him.

Any character I haven't mentioned i just can't see posting or having tiktok!

[bellaaldamas]

Back from the dead (again) to say happy Kratos month (God of War's 20th anniversary). Hope you're doing well! 💕💕💕

Hey there. A happy Kratos month it is indeed. As much as I and many of us anxiously wait for the news about the new game I predicted that we won't necessarily be getting that for the Gow anniversary. At most, I considered the Greek saga remaster to be the likely scenario but SMS are, understandably, playing it safe at the moment and providing new content for GowR. Which is still relevant and has been rekindled after the PC release. Thus, we are getting new skins and outfits for not only Kratos, but Atreus and Freya and, presumably, some other characters (makes me wonder who else would be included; trying not to even dare to hope Angrboda receives any new princess outfits she deserves, as much as I would love that).

Pleased to see you call it a "Kratos month", as lately I've been feeling left out in the fandom because of the ongoing - and unnecessary - Kratos vs Atreus discourse.

It's a challenging time for those of us who are invested in Atreus's journey and Atreus/Angrboda romance in particular and would prefer for the next installment to be the Atreus led spin off but don't mind a traditional Gow game either. Possibly with a well deserved closure for Kratos and an ensemble cast with potentially 50/50 percents of screen and gameplay time devoted to Kratos and Atreus in equal measure. Holding this view means being stuck between rock and hard place.

On one hand, you have the dudebro trolls who insist Atreus "has not earned his right to be a protagonist" or even a major playable character in the next games. That is, despite the canon set up for exactly this scenario and Atreus's announced giant searching quest not only laying a groundwork for it but Eric Williams (the GowR director) confirming a potential follow up for this storyline. And, moreover, him noting that Atreus and Angrboda are "doing this together" (pointing out how they have each other's marbles and therefore can seek one another at any point).

On the other hand, it appears that among the fellow pro-Atreus fans it has become the undesirable and almost criminal view to state you don't think Kratos's story (or that of any fictional character or real life person for that matter) ends with them attaining a peace of mind and stability. The moment you say you don't object to the next game being another classic Gow game with Kratos as the lead, as long as it provides a follow up as respectful and well worked when it comes to other characters and their arcs (particularly that of Atreus and Angrboda) as GowR did in regards to Gow 18 you are automatically lumped together with the dudebros. Those who ignore Kratos's development and want him to go kill more gods on other pantheon despite him putting that part of his past behind him.

From where I stand, it is just as problematic to view a character/person (regardless of gender) reaching a healthy and positive place as a finish line and a sign that their life's work is done as it is to view women's suffering as character building or as a "push" required for a woman/female character to become "strong". Kratos's journey and even his search for stability and contentment is canonically not over by any means. It ought to continue either via another, closing installment wrapping up his story or references, cut scenes, DLCs and occasional playable sections if SMS decides that Atreus should be the main and only protagonist of the following installments (be it in the form of his spin off or in the form of another Gow title).

There are, likewise, a lot of unresolved issues with Freya's character and the matter of SMS not addressing most of them in GowR or even in Valhalla. Treating the milestones she has reached at this point in the current timeline as her "Closing Act" means implying woman's ultimate idea of self fulfillment is to be in the place where she has enough power to give and give and give to others while receiving bare minimum or nothing at all in return for herself (from the people who already turned their backs on her once). And that she doesn't get to attain happiness in her personal life either because she has "more important things to attend to and devote her life to".

These unfortunate implications, if not rectified, would inevitably affect the way SMS treats Angrboda too. So far it has been her giving and others - Atreus predominantly - receiving, in between saying pretty words and promises which have remained exactly that: words and promises. Angrboda's only support system now is conditioned upon how much she can give to him and his loved ones. That was the central theme of Mimir, Kratos and Freya's conversation with her in Ironwood post game: about her being a "valuable ally" to THEM and about how Atreus feels about her and what her "intentions" are regarding him. With Mimir openly admitting later he'd initiated his whole exchange with her in the first place in order to find that out.

Angrboda deserves to gain a support system that would prioritize her needs and comfort as much as Atreus's and that wouldn't depend on how convenient she is for him and those near and dear to him (cue my HC that she could benefit from some bonding with Tyr and him becoming her mentor). That can only be achieved not by "girlbossing" Angrboda while Atreus is away having his journey of self discovery but by having Atreus personally and directly be there for her as much as she was for him and everyone he cared about. Which in turn can only happen if they work as partners in real time next game and their romance becomes one of the main focal points.

My main concern is that SMS conforms to pseudo-progressive trend where instead of a fairy tale romantic happy ending for Angrboda, with her driving into the sunset together with Atreus the developers deem it a "cheesy and unrealistic" scenario for housewives and not for the Real Gamers TM (read: men). Woman's happiness and her being appreciated and treated with respect is apparently "unrealistic" per modern media. Unlike woman's suffering and her getting nothing in return for performing all the emotional, physical, familial and other labor; and it is absolutely not the most obvious patriarchal stereotype, albeit thinly disguised and passed off as "feminist".

As the result, we get the dreaded "girlboss/she needs no man" scenario for Angrboda while Atreus can go "explore all the possibilities". Because men get to explore while women only get to give all of themselves to others and that's called "progressive".

In that vein, both Freya and Angrboda deserve acknowledgment of their own personal needs (within all the spheres of their lives). SMS and the Gow franchise has the perfect opportunity to make a positive change and jump-start a new, post-pseudo "feminist" era where said personal needs and a woman/female character prioritizing them over the Great Mission TM stop being treated by mainstream media as "selfish, juvenile and something a girl/woman needs to learn to ignore in order to grow".

[mariacallous]

My question to Meta is, why bother to roll out the cannons to blast this tome? The effort to neutralize the book seems quaint and futile. For one thing, NDAs do not cancel out the first amendment. In a statement, the publisher, Macmillian, says, “We are appalled by Meta’s tactics to silence our author through the use of a non-disparagement clause in a severance agreement.” The book is still on sale and the author will continue the disparagement, only now as the victim of a trillion-dollar company’s attempt to silence her.

The whole effort is totally unnecessary. This is a company that has had every nasty charge thrown against it for almost a decade and just keeps getting bigger and more profitable. Its CEO now trolls critics by wearing triumphalist clothing and going on Joe Rogan to celebrate masculinity. The campaign against Careless People seems defensive and out of step. One of Meta’s big complaints is that Wynn-Williams did not undergo a prepublication rundown of the text with the company. Please pause for a moment to savor the irony. Meta, the company that recently announced an end to fact-checking in posts seen by potentially millions of people, is griping that an author didn’t fact-check with them?

There might have been a time in history—like a decade ago—when matters of veracity were determined by an empirically driven point/counterpoint process, and the best facts won. That time is over—in large part due to Facebook itself, which has been a major force in promoting false narratives that seem to stick, even after they are thoroughly debunked. When I wrote my own book about Facebook, I spent thousands of dollars on a fact-checking team, and I submitted a long document to the company asking for verification on all I had found. But those who live in the world where facts matter are a diminishing minority.

Now that I think of it, Meta’s actions against Wynn-Williams might be less about defending its reputation than a need to punish a defector who violated her promise to keep its secrets. The campaign seems at one with the desire of the White House’s current occupant to pursue vindication at all costs. As opposed as they may seem, Mark Zuckerberg and Sarah Wynn-Williams both understand something fundamental about our time: Careless people rule the world.

Meta Tries to Bury a Tell-All Book