#it would be awesome if they were made from better materials etc but that isn’t an affordable widespread option

[crippl-hacker]

People passionate about sustainability need to realize that not everything can be reusable. Some things need to be disposable!

Inhalers, IV’s, Catheters, PIC lines, NG tubes, Adult Diapers, Cutlery and Dishes, Ostomy Bags, and many more things are all single use.

Most of these things aren’t easy to replace or have a reusable version of; especially when you are disabled and dealing with low energy.

If you want a more sustainable future make disposable products for us that use better materials and better manufacturing choices. Don’t pick on disabled people for needing them to live.

[bravelittlescrib]

That’s deeply unfair and unsettling language to use.

It's a mild annoyance to me. You, however, seem to be making this a social justice issue...

Why shouldn’t ROP fans use the same character tags?

When did I say this? I was talking about *fandom* tags, because people have a tendency to use them incorrectly. For instance, works tagged as 'Tolkien - All Media Types' when the fandom tag the work really should have is 'Hobbit - Movies' and so on. I believe this is basic good conduct, but some people have a problem with it, which I've seen in my experience in the Witcher fandom, etc. (as I said).

ROP isn’t a Silm adaptation. I don’t think anyone has ever claimed it is.

You know, except for all the people claiming that it is. Amazon may not be allowed to say it, sure, but as someone involved in a lot of local Tolkien communities... no one is calling it the "Appendices Adaptation". It's the "Silmarillion Adaptation". ????

And why should it matter to you whether a ROP fan goes on to read the books or not? There are plenty of movie fans who never went on to read the books either.

It doesn't, other than the fact that I Iove to see other people take joy in the same things I do, and sharing the pieces of media that are so important to me. Nowhere did I say that I don't want them to enjoy the show (even if I do in fact have problems with it, ethics-wise, considering Amazon is using nostalgia-fueled publicity to hide its human rights violations-- but you'll notice I didn't put that anywhere in my original reblog). If they do, okay. What I *said* was that I want them to use fandom tags properly, or else fandom becomes less fun for everyone else.

What I see from a lot of people in these "gatekeeping" arguments, whatever the subject, whether it's fandom or not, is entitlement. People think they have the right to walk into an established space and demand that everyone conform to them and their interests. They can do that, I can't stop them, but I have the right to make boundaries.

Tolkien fandom isn't a monolith.

I know. That's why I used this same exact sentence in my original reblog.

From where I’m standing, it seems that surely it’s much better for everyone to accept that this overlap exists and that we’re all fans of the same source material (whatever form of it we’re fannish about), rather than trying to package fandom off into neat little boxes of “Silm fans” and “ROP fans” or whatever. 

That's perfectly fine, and to some extent, I agree. That's why I referred to us all as the "Tolkien fandom". I'm not generally a fan of LotR (books and movies), but I have plenty in common with most LotR fans. However, there is a big difference between LotR movie culture and tumblr "Silm" culture. We view the characters differently. We draw them differently. We write them differently. We have different ships, headcanons, etc.. And of course, not every Silm/LotR fan has the same *these things*, but there are definitely patterns to pick up. Recently, a Silmarillion blog actually made a really interesting headcanon poll, which showed how much we have in common-- presumably because the same ideas were passed around in the tight Tolkien-meta blog sphere. If I remember who made it I will add a link, because it was pretty cool.

I would be the first to admit that fandom is mutable with indeterminate boundaries-- I mean, I write and engage with historical RPF-- but that doesn't change the fact that ao3 has tags and people should use them correctly, and if they would, extend the same respect to tumblr folks. Fandom tags are awesome, and using the right ones means ***everyone is happy*** because you can find what you want to find, exclude what you want to exclude, and get your fic to the audience it will be most successful with. Not to mention, helpful for getting intra-fandom statistics, whether you want to study distributions between different sub-fandoms or within a sub-fandom (ex. the Silm headcanons poll).

P.S. I like your profile picture : )

as someone whose love-of-my-life fandom whittled down to a husk because of rampant gatekeeping and subsequently was almost destroyed by a clique of 'liking-things-is-le-el-epic-meme-kung-pow-penis-cringe' malefactors, i get... jittery when the folks in the tolkien fandom start talking about keeping out the new people the amazon show brought in so the fandom will stay 'pure' and 'book-accurate' or whatever horseshit

–

[raifenlf]

Why Loki’s Sylvie Is A Mary Sue

So I am firmly in the camp that Sylvie on the Loki series was/is a Mary Sue.  The last episode made me feel better and like maybe the show was doing a thing where they were faking you out that she was a Mary Sue only to show she was actually sort of a bad guy and I liked that.  But all the recent interviews make me think the show wants to go back to her being a Mary Sue.

But I feel like when I call her out for being a Mary Sue people tell me what are you talking about, she’s not a Mary Sue, bad things happen to her, etc.  But that doesn’t actually make her not a Mary Sue.  

Also, before we start, I know some people find Mary Sue sexist.  But I personally use the term for guys and girls. I don’t use the term to belittle women.  I use the term to criticize a poorly written character.

And I know Mary Sue is often used to describe fanfic characters.  But to me, this series is kind of like a fanfic because the writers took a character who had been in canon MCU material for ten years and then created characters around that character.  So, I kind of review it like I would a fanfic.  It’s very different than if the writers had created a brand new show with all of their own new characters.

Anyway, if you are not totally familiar with the Mary Sue term, then check this out:

I know the term Mary Sue probably means different things to different people.  But I have always used these guidelines when I write my own fanfic to make sure my characters never come off as a Mary Sue.

This article really gives you a full scale of what a Mary Sue is.  If you start reading it, you’ll immediately see why Sylvie is.  But I’m going to take out the parts that most fit Sylvie just to highlight why I believe she is a Mary Sue.  I apologize for this being so long.

Mary Sue Character Traits

Personality

Erm... what personality? The typical Mary Sue doesn't have one per se, because she isn't meant to be a character; rather, she's an entity by which the author makes cool stuff happen.

I feel like that is Sylvie in a nutshell.  She doesn’t have a personality.  I feel like even though she ate screentime, I still don’t really know her at all.  The writers love to say she’s badass.  That’s not a personality.  

Sometimes when I am writing stories for fun and creating new characters, I like to take surveys as my fictional characters.  Like the kind of surveys you’d see in a magazine, like personality types, what’s your dating style, etc.  I figure if I don’t know what my character would do in any of those situations, then I need to keep working on my character.  And if I was trying to fill out a survey pretending I was Sylvie I would have no idea what to answer because she doesn’t have a personality.  She’s just “cool”.

What little personality a Mary Sue has isn't as important as how other characters react to it. No matter how shy or socially awkward Mary Sue is supposed to be, other characters will be inexplicably drawn to her

This is so Sylvie.  Loki falls in love with her...why, exactly?  He falls in love with her in the big Nexus event moment...why?  Because she had a tough childhood?  Mobius spends like two seconds with her in a car and goes from hating her to saying she’s his favorite Loki.  For. No. Particular. Reason.

She's extremely persuasive; everyone finds her opinions to be better than their own

She enchants Hunter B-15 and then immediately Hunter B-15 makes it her whole entire life mission to back Sylvie up.  

And occasionally she'll be a complete asshole...This can manifest itself in several ways...The author wants to write a badass but doesn't know how. This leads to a character who mistreats everyone around her and is never called out on her abrasive, casually abusive behavior.

Sylvie talked down to Loki and treated him like garbage for all of episode three, but it was never portrayed as a bad thing and we never got any impression Sylvie later felt bad for the way she treated Loki

The author doesn't know how to hold back the character, meaning that she will succeed at practically everything. This means that when she encounters rules or authority figures who would otherwise prevent her from doing what she wants to do, she rolls right through them (and they praise her for her "boldness" in defying regulations). If a bad guy is violent and aggressive, she can beat him by being more violent and aggressive (with all that entails). It's impossible for her to go overboard because she's protected by Protagonist-Centered Morality.

Sylvie is shown as a kid to immediately be able to grab a Tempad and run away.  And she can kick ass way better than Loki, for no known reason.  She is always able to fight back against the TVA when they attack her.  And she can kill lots of innocent TVA agents but it’s okay because TVA bad, Sylvie good.

Skills

She will always be superior to the canon characters, regardless of what canon has established they can do or whether it makes any sense.

Whose skill was needed to defeat Alioth?  Sylvie’s.  Of course.  Sylvie needed to teach Loki her skills in order for him to succeed (!).  And again, she is literally called the superior Loki.

Relatedly, there's no effort to her skills. She never actually trains or learns anything to become more powerful; she just wins the Super Power Lottery, or is a freakish natural learner, or is just Inexplicably Awesome

We’re told Sylvie literally taught herself magic.  She literally taught herself to enchant people.  That. Makes. No. Sense.  Like, I have so many questions.  Like, why would it even occur to her to teach herself that?  And how????????????  This is really lazy writing.

Canon Character Relationships

Mary Sue is often designed to hook up with another character, often as a form of Wish Fulfillment. This isn't that bad in and of itself (okay, it is kinda weird), but Mary Sue accomplishes this without any sense of realism. She just grabs her lover's attention straight away, and their relationship will never face any obstacles or tension; it's true love from the start and nothing else. The biggest giveaway is if the love interest is explicitly the author's favorite character, and she essentially "cures" him of all the angst that ails him (at the expense of his characterization).

Yeah, so...this one should be pretty obvious to anyone who watched the show.  Loki literally falls in love with Sylvie immediately, and then he suddenly turns from “villain” to “hero” just because of loving her.  And this was definitely at the expense of his characterization.  And Loki just knows he falls in love with her.  There’s not even any moments of hmm what do I feel for this person?  It’s just true love, immediately.

She will be related to a canon character in some way. This (marginally) helps explain such phenomena as her being a Copy Cat Sue and other characters accepting her so easily.

Sylvie is a Loki variant.  They use this to help explain why Loki is drawn to her and why their falling in love immediately “makes sense”.

Most characters give her more heed than they normally would. The good guys never stop praising her

Seriously, it was so over the top and OOC for Loki to gush over her.  He literally tells her she’s amazing.  They don’t even make it subtle.

Characters' previously established personalities change in reaction to her. Proud, arrogant gimps suddenly acknowledge her superiority in everything. Reckless youths will listen to all her advice. Responsible leaders will defer to her instead. Villains will obsess with her to the detriment of all else. Extremely competent characters will become stumbling buffoons who require her help to do anything. Sweet, mild-mannered characters whom the author doesn't like turn evil and insult her. They all become unnaturally focused on her in some way.

Again, Loki’s whole personality changed in reaction to her.  He became a buffoon who needed her help to enchant the Alioth because of course he couldn’t do anything without her!  Hunter B-15 goes from doing whatever the TVA said to fighting the TVA just because of Sylvie.

Story Elements

Mary Sue is without exception a single-person Spotlight-Stealing Squad. The entire story hinges on her existence; if you removed her, there would be no story. 

Sylvie undoubtedly drove the whole story this season.  It all became about HER meeting the TVA heads because of HER trauma.  Loki’s life was only saved at the beginning because the TVA was trying to capture HER.  And SHE was the one who started the whole multiverse (!).

Mary Sue is The Chosen One, even if the setting already has one. There are many ways she can accomplish this: she can be a Sailor Earth type who "shares" the position with the canon hero; she may be vaguely "destined to help the destined one fulfill their destiny" (i.e. do all the work except the final blow so that the prophecy is still technically correct); or the canon hero may be revealed to be a Fake Ultimate Hero all along. Being the Chosen One doesn't necessarily involve her being a God-Mode Sue, especially as authors become aware of the phenomenon and try to avoid it, but it does make her critically important to the world and allows her to continue stealing the spotlight without the "god mode" label.

HWR wanted Sylvie to come with Loki in the end, like she was chosen all along right alongside Loki.  Like one of the most important characters in the entire MCU is now this character who we only met a few episodes ago.

Most Sues have an unusually Dark and Troubled Past. It's often used to create a Sympathetic Sue, but any type of Sue can have one

They tell us, over and over, how hard Sylvie’s life was because she was kidnapped by the TVA in order to create sympathy for her.

She almost never does anything wrong. In the rare instance that she does, it's usually; (a) a way for the author to disclaim her being a Mary Sue by introducing a single imperfection (that has no bearing on anything anyway), and (b) designed to show her smarts by making her feel instant remorse, and she'll be Easily Forgiven anyway:

So this one hopefully will not come true, as a lot can change between now and when the show is taped. But if the show goes on the way the behind the scenes team is talking, Sylvie immediately felt remorse for betraying Loki, and Loki has already forgiven her and is desperately looking for her.  Ugh.

Alternatively, she is more than capable of doing something wrong, be it in general moral terms or something that goes against whatever code she abides by, and she maybe even frequently does so, but don't expect the other characters or the narrative to ever acknowledge or comment on it in any real capacity. If the other characters do call her out, expect them to be treated like they're the problem for daring to criticize her at all.

Mobius calls her out for killing people, but Sylvie immediately says he’s a bad person and then Mobius agrees, because, of course.

She will often suffer from Special Snowflake Syndrome; i.e., she has a trait or backstory that sets her apart from her group or race.

She is the only female Loki, thus making her the special one among all the Lokis in episode five.

Presentation

In visual media, the camera just can't stop staring at her.

The camera would follow her in fight scenes rather than Loki.

Mary Sue Tropes

Okay, so there are specific Mary Sue tropes that Sylvie is.  One of those is Copy Cat Sue, which I think was referenced before.

Copy Cat Sue

A lot of fanfic writers...start to write something because of their passion for this character, but they find something about the character that doesn't mesh well. Maybe they're the wrong gender or are otherwise not close enough to the author's expectations...In any case, rather than put them through the Possession Sue process, they just get a Clone-O-Matic™ and out pops a Copy Cat Sue...the character might be intended as a replacement for the canon character, but without whatever icky traits the author hates. They'll then rob the spotlight, prove the canon character to be unworthy of his/her position, and either relegate the character to obsolescence or, perhaps, even remove them entirely.

Sylvie is basically a clone of Loki, she is a variant.  But she absolutely robbed the spotlight of Loki’s, and they literally call her the superior Loki.  I mean, they are literally not even being subtle about this.  And there was a feeling by myself (and a lot of other viewers) that Sylvie might ultimately replace Loki in the MCU. 

Black Hole Sue

Much like a black hole, this is a Mary Sue who "sucks in" the plot and characters to her. Characters will behave outside their personalities, logic will be defied, and rules will be broken for her sake.

Sylvie really does suck up all the plot and Loki definitely behaves outside of his personality just to fit the Sylvie show.

Jerk Sue

A Mary Sue who is mean or maybe even cruel, but are still treated as an ideal person.

Once again, Sylvie is basically a jerk all of episode three, but you’ve got Loki falling over himself to call her amazing in just the next episode.

Relationship Sue

A Mary Sue who exists to be the perfect mate for a specific character...this character has everything in the plot conspiring to enforce this One True Pairing...in Fanfiction, they are the perfect beloved of a canon character.

They literally have Mobius speculate that Loki falling in love with Sylvie is so extraordinary that it causes an entire Nexus event, that’s how huge this One True Pairing is (!).  And Sylvie is the love interest of Loki, the only character who had been around before the beginning of the series

TLDR: Sylvie has all the tropes of a classic Mary Sue character.  So calling Sylvie a Mary Sue isn’t being sexist or just randomly hating on the character.  If you use common Mary Sue characteristics to examine the character, she just has too many of these characteristics to ignore.

[hamliet]

Metals and Heavenly Bodies: Why There Is So Much Metal in RWBY

So, why is RWBY so metal? 

RWBY uses metallic symbolism to explore the alchemical process (the refinement of metal into gold via the creation of the philosopher’s stone). Alchemy has seven metals that are ordered in terms of refinement: three base metals, one that is the most refined of base metals, and three refined metals. RWBY has been associating each metal with certain characters. It’s also been giving these characters their ultimate focus in the precise order of refinement.

Metals in alchemy are also associated with heavenly bodies, or planets (well, plus the sun and moon, because we’re dealing with ancient astronomy here). The planets, of course, are named after Roman gods, so they too can be associated with the metals, and RWBY directly correlates them.

NB: It’s very valid to critique tropes and subtext. This isn’t intended to invalidate any criticism but rather to offer a symbolic reading of the metal motif.

So, let’s dive in.

Base Metals:

Lead-Saturn

Associated characters: Qrow Branwen, Ruby Rose, Mercury Black

While I can’t think of any specific reference to lead in RWBY, there are a ton of references to the mythical Saturn. 

Saturn's father (Uranus) was a piece of work who hated Saturn’s mother and so took his son (and other children) and imprisoned them in a cave so that they could never see the sunlight. Saturn’s mother eventually persuaded Saturn to take a sickle and castrate his father. He then wasn’t a particularly great dad himself, becoming more like his father than not.

In alchemy in particular, we have images of Saturn with a prosthetic leg (see: above). This is where Mercury begins his arc. He’s abused by his father, who steals his semblance and refuses to allow Mercury to be his own person (effectively rendering him a prisoner). So, Mercury kills him, and then is taken in by Cinder and Emerald to be an assassin for them, an assassin just like his father. You can see the parallels. 

Saturn’s sickle is also often drawn as a scythe, which Death holds in the above image. A scythe is of course the weapon used by Ruby and by Qrow--specifically, Qrow is the person Ruby imitates and admires. But we know (and Ruby now does to) that Qrow is a flawed human himself; Ruby is better of becoming her own person rather than continuing to stay like her father-figure in Qrow (her own dad is great, but that doesn’t mean Qrow isn’t also a dad figure to her!) 

Qrow, of course, is self-destructive, believing his semblance is to bring bad luck wherever he goes. His name is “crow,” the bird symbolizing the first (black) stage of death and rotting in alchemy. His own upbringing can also be compared to Saturn’s. 

But, you see, Saturn isn’t actually a sign of doom and death. It is one of the symbols of the prima materia, the lead to be transformed into gold by the end of the alchemical process. It shows where the characters can grow, and indeed all three of them are along their path towards growing. 

Tin-Jupiter

Associated character(s): James Ironwood (maybe Weiss Schnee)

Well, I’m actually going to talk more about Ironwood and his arc in the next section. But in Ozpin’s circle, in which characters are based on The Wizard of Oz (a blatantly alchemical story), we have Qrow as the scarecrow, Lionheart as the Cowardly Lion, and Ironwood as the tin man. Jupiter is also associated with the Sublimation stage in the process of alchemy, which is where we are now. 

In case we didn’t get the allusion, RWBY has helpfully placed artwork of tin men on the walls in the background of Weiss’s room this season.

I’m aware that this screenshot isn’t from this season but it gets the point across. I also feel tin might well have an association with Weiss and where she was at in her arc after the fall of Beacon. 

Additionally, Jupiter is actually Saturn’s son in mythology, and is saved from being eaten by his father (look Saturn really wasn’t awesome). He returns to force his father to regurgitate his siblings, and Jupiter and his rescued siblings (yes they were still alive; it’s mythology) fight to dethrone their father. They succeed with the use of lightning, among other things. Saturn was then imprisoned in tartarus. You can see the parallels. 

Do note that the glowing sun above the head of the tin man on Weiss’s wall, showing Weiss is destined to become refined like gold. The golden sun is in sharp contrast to Ironwood’s allusion to the Dark Sun, but there’s a lot more to say about Ironwood in the Iron section. 

Iron-Mars

Associated characters: James Ironwood, Marcus Black, Mercury Black

First, let’s continue with Ironwood. I’ve noted before that iron is associated with war:

Iron in particular is ruled by Mars, the god of war, meaning it is associated with violence. It’s not a coincidence that pretty much from the second Ironwood is introduced, the concept of war comes up, and his entire character has gone on to be the embodiment of the military and violence.

In addition to seeing himself as a sort of be-all-end-all Jupiter figure, Ironwood of course is always expecting war. His arc is one of reverse alchemy, which is a thing. It means that instead of becoming refined, he’s corroding from Iron to Tin. I don’t see good things for him. 

Mars in mythology also becomes obsessed with Venus, which... you’ll have to read the next section for that ;) 

Marcus Black, of course, is an assassin, hence it makes sense that his name literally means “dedicated to Mars.” Mercury (our Mercury) becomes more like him in taking over his role as an assassin. He’s so broken from his father’s abuse that he refuses to become his own person and just falls into his father’s role. It’s tragic. 

So is Mercury’s arc reverse alchemy? No, I don’t think so. There’s more (of course) later on, but if we look at the stages of his development, we see he has moved from Lead to Iron. It’s progress. His leg is a focus for the early arcs of the story (he uses it, along with Emerald’s semblance, to trick everyone into turning against Yang), and only later did we learn his history with his father. Even if the events of course did not happen in succession, the story revealed the allusions one after each other. He’s also made progress in that he’s clearly emotionally attached to Emerald even if he pretends otherwise. Also... (see below)

The Most Perfectable Base Metal:

Copper-Venus

Associated character: Penny Polendina

As I also mentioned previously, Penny’s name references copper (a “copper penny”). The Summa Perfectionis, a thirteenth century alchemical text, calls copper “the most perfectable of base metals.” 

Venus in alchemical imagery is almost always wearing (or surrounded by, since she’s also often, well, not wearing anything) green. 

Green is in alchemy the color of the prima materia, the raw, immature material that will eventually be refined into gold, because green is of course symbolic of the earth, fertility, growth, etc.

As I wrote previously, in mythology Mars had a thing for Venus. I’m certainly not suggesting Ironwood has a thing for Penny in a romantic/sexual sense, but he does seek to control her, and like the Mars of myth, his pursuit of Penny/Venus leads to his humiliation (the Mars of myth gets caught in a trap--no literally a net--by Venus’s angry husband). 

In contrast to Ironwood, Penny, who is originally made entirely of metal, becomes human, while Ironwood becomes more metal--not necessarily literally, but in his spirit. He’s lost his humanity, or rather, gave it away, while Penny found hers. It makes sense to me that a story with spiritual alchemy at its core (which focuses in the Jungian sense on individuation/self-actualization, or fully coming into an understanding of the self) would have Penny literally transform into what she has always been: a final product, a real girl, the philosopher’s stone. 

Refined Metals:

Now these are going to be a bit more predictive. The allusions are clearly there, but how exactly those will play out I don’t know because if we look at these metals as steps in the process, we’re not quite there yet. 

Mercury-Mercury

Associated character(s): Mercury Black, (maybe Emerald Sustrai)

I think the name says it all. 

Kidding. Mercury as a metal is also known as argentvive or quicksilver. It, along with sulphur, form the basis of the alchemical process. They must be united to achieve the Philosopher’s Stone (it’s one of the reasons I am wondering if we’re going to get an important, Mercury-related event in a place named for sulphur or its other name, brimstone, in Vacuo; all the places we know of in Vacuo are named after types of stones including several that are sulfuric in nature). Mercury himself unites the two principles of the work, sun and moon (for who those are, read below). Mercury is the metal from which all other metals come from--he’s way more important to this story than we’ve seen yet. Most likely, he will eventually turn on Salem as well, and in a pivotal moment.

As a god, Mercurius is the author of alchemy. He’s the mythical author of the Emerald Tablet (which Emerald’s name alludes to; I actually don’t personally think Emerald alludes very much to Aladdin. Instead, I think her allusion is the Emerald Tablet and her Egyptian design is based on Thoth, Mercury’s Egyptian counterpart). Mercury is the spirit that gives life.

Lyndy Abraham notes that Mercury is “both destructive and creative” (oh look at the relics of Atlas and Vacuo) and that “the elusive, duplicitous Mercurius who consorts with the devil is at the same time a redeeming psychopomp” (”psychopomp” means spiritual guide) “The fact that he can freely participate in both light and dark worlds without taint makes Mercurius the perfect mediating bridge.” Jung calls Mercury “a symbol uniting all the opposites.” So yeah, Mercury should have a redemption arc that will probably be pivotal in the story.

If we follow the self-actualization endgame of spiritual alchemy, with true life and wisdom as the metaphorical philosopher’s stone here, I think it’s likely Mercury becomes more himself--going from being Lead to Iron (as he’s clearly spiraling right now, but also has a connection to Emerald) to Mercury. I would also suspect he’d get his semblance back to establish that he’s his “own person” (a major recurring theme of RWBY), and while, like with Yang and her arm, I don’t think he’ll get new legs, I think it’s pretty likely his semblance will enable him to fly (since mythical Mercury, you know, flies). 

Silver-Moon

Associated character(s): Ruby Rose (also Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Oscar Pine, Jaune Arc, and Summer Rose).

The most important character here is Ruby, obviously. She’s our MC and titular character! But Weiss, Jaune, Blake, Summer, and Oscar are all addressed here. But I think it’s obvious that Ruby’s defining trait is her silver eyes. They got her noticed by Ozpin and sent to Beacon early, they’re the reason Salem is targeting her, they’re what could destroy her (turning into a Grimm) or save the world (what’s going to happen). Silver is noted to be “pure” which is what other characters constantly comment Ruby is. 

Gold-Sun

Associated character(s): Oscar Pine (also Sun Wukong, Yang Xiao Long, Tai Xiao Long, Ruby Rose, Pyrrha Nikos, and maybe Jaune Arc)

The most important/obvious character here is Oscar. Oscar’s first name is a shade of gold and a type of fish that is most often brown or gold. He’s facing a similar dilemma to Ruby: the threat of merging forever with Ozpin (which clearly won’t happen; he needs to be his own person, as Ruby said). 

Both Ruby’s and Oscar’s individualizations are somehow instrumental to defeating Salem. 

[sprawa-przybyszewskiej]

I cannot claim to know about this play more than some others (Ewa Graczyk, Jagoda Hernik-Spalińska, Kazimiera Ingdahl and Maria Janion, in alphabetical order, are the official Horsewomen of the Apocalypse in this topic), with a lot to bring to the table, and so I will sometimes discuss parts of it which are - at the very least at the first glance - absolutely and doubtlessly simple; but  by discussing them I hope to be able to bring into the discussion some new material, new evidence, perhaps - for the contrary of the popular belief.

I remember when I first read the scene between Danton and Robespierre, I was completely mystified, just as Maxime. To somebody who at that point knew nothing about the historical events, the exchange between them was very logical (and everyone knows how hard it is to obtain, especially in a piece of media where the author blatantly favours one of the characters over another). I am very glad then, to be able to say that while Przybyszewska did everything she could to humiliate and belittle Danton in the more visual aspects of the scene - his gestures, movements, actions, mimicry, even the sound of his voice etc.  - she didn't bother making him out to be a complete clown. His arguments are populistic, but that's not necessarily a bad thing when you're n politician aspiring to be even more than that. Perhaps she thought that painting him out to be a weakling would somehow diminish Robespierre's awesomeness, which is a valid concern. For Robepsierre has little left to do in this scene - it is made out to ba a confrontation between them, of sorts, but is it one, really? I don't think so, not for the large part of it. Robespierre comes in, dishes out few sarcastic lines, looks at Danton with disgust and contempt and then crushes him in a yet another sarcastic line and then leaves. There isn't that much he can do not only to participate in the exchange, but to be visually and audially appealing to the audience as a character in a play. And even though we all know staging The Danton Case is a secondary affair, the main thing you can do with it is to read it and ponder over it, when you do stage it, a lot of responsibility rests on the actors recreating the part. Which is why choosing a good actor can, potentially, make all the difference, sometimes going as far as completely changing the way you view the very same scene you read earlier.

I have always assumed by "the same man" they meant Robespierre. It makes some sense in the light of the conversation, altough I have to admit it makes little sense in the light of Robespierre's reaction. The question thus presented to us is: do we go by what is written, do we percieve a play as a piece of fiction in a real world, OR do we immerse ourselves in the fictional world, suspend our disbelief and for a moment treat it as an alternate reality of sorts?

Polish director Jan Klata has managed to put on stage a compelling retelling of The Danton Case and I would like to present to you a scene from his version, which we're lucky enough to have on YT, with translation courtesy of @that-one-revolutionary​. I've seen the play in its entirety: some metaphors were heavy-handed to say the least, some aspects I wish he'd done differently, but all in all, when choosing the main protagonist, the director casted in the role a truly splendid actor (please note that Marcin Czarnik was young. Young! It made all of the difference and it's worth watching if only for that), who brought home some of the points of character of Robespierre's which could have easily been brushed aside in order to highlight some other aspects of the conversation (the most famous example of this would be the very same scene from Wajda's movie, where the appealing and in all aspects imposing Gerard Depardieu dominantes the scene, thus presentign it in a very different ligt). While it can be read as a political statement, or a match of two great personalities, or a display of cunning on either part, Klata (or Czarnik; it's hard for me to say what the director tried to do with it, a lot of Robespierre's quirks, mimicry, gestures etc. seemed to come directly from the actor, which I can only say because I've seen him in other things and that's sort of his style of acting; all in all, I'll try to treat this not as a discussion over this particular staging, because for that I lack needed data, but it's unavoidable in the long run at least at some points, so please bear that in mind) treats the conversation itself as a minor thing in comparision to what is going on in Maxime's mind at the moment.  Just look at this: there is no significance brought into their meeting, no change of the scenery, nothing indicates this meeting is special in any way. The logical conclusion is, then:  it's not special. Both Danton and Robespierre seem to treat this as a step which cannot be avoided, but which bears no great weight either. The only reason they agreed to make this step altogether is - for "the same man". For Camille.

I do think Przybyszewska's intention was actually to disguise Maxime under this vague title. If this is a play about love - as I will always state it is - she wanted to underline the fact some people will be hatefully loved by those who are beneath them, who have nothing whatsoever in common with the object of their affection simply because the loved one is so great, so genius, so shining and bright it is impossible not to love them. I think this is the relationship between Danton and Robespierre (that is, on Danton's part) up until this point in the play. Danton idolizes Robespierre against his will (against both of their wills, really), because Robespierre is truly made out to be a demi-god at the very least. If you could team up with a hero like this, you should. So Danton goes through a humiliating process of trying to reconcile with Maxime, because humiliation, if everything paid off in the end, would be worth it. That Robespierre doesn't reciprocate the affection is simply a further proof that he is above Danton in every way.

Klata-Czarnik duo seems to have gone into another, subtler direction though. The man that both politicians make an exception for seems to be Camille, moreso because Robespierre loves him than because Danton has any special feelings for him. What is his relationship with Camille, anyway? They are cordial enough, but always a bit on the edge, and we know that Danton doesn't know everything that Camille thinks and feels in regards to Robespierre, mostly because he doesn't care that much, but also because he is characterised as a brute, and this simply goes above his head, it's too subtle, too delicate of a feeling for him to know it. It is also clear he knows Camille pretty well, but he doesn't know his soul, so to say. Therefore, he cannot actually love him, not to the point to make him the one and only excpetion from his otherwise coldly and precisley calculated plans.

Is there, however, a scenario in which Camille could be Danton's exception? Yes, when it becomes more about Robepierre than about Camille. When Camille is sort of offered as a mean to lure Robepierre in. Danton could make this exception only if it meant getting what he wanted (which is later mirrored by his blatant admission that the only reason he lets Camille take the fall with him is to deny Robespierre any joy in life after this point).

Robespierre, however, doesn't see it this way. He actually makes the exception for Camille and I think Danton's words – whatever he means by them, whichever interpretation we think is correct – put him on alert, for the fear of having his secret discovered. In the video linked above it is even more than that – once Robespierre hears Danton indirectly name "the same man", he gets aggressively defensive. For him to have someone like Danton talk almost openly about what he treats as his personal secret (a secret that Danton, being in great familiarity with Camille, could potentially know for certain) is equal with defiling it. I have violated your secret. Do you know what he says in the original? I have raped your secret. It really brings into the focus how much “the secret” needs to be protected, and how much it will hurt Maxime once it’s uncovered and destroyed.This is what he fears pretty much for the entirety of the conversation, his suspiscion somewhat confirmed when Danton says: No catchphrases, Robespierre. I know you.

As I mentioned earlier, the shift in my reading of the scene was prompted by the video. It is worth observing what exactly does Robespierre do when mentioing Camille by surname – he gets visibly more upset, he ponders for a split second for the best way to talk about him. His choice of words is interesting as well:

Both translations here are poor and I quite like what that-one-revolutionary did with it. "Katarynka" is a music-box, so "an instrument" fits much better (not to mention the obvious English connection to the phrase "play like a fiddle", which is adequate here). A parrots is after all a living being, something with a will of its own, if steered by more powerful handlers. But admitting that Camille, from his own free will decided to go against Maxime and everything that Maxime believes in is much harder for Robespierre than calling him an inanimate object, which can be unwittingly used by people with their own agenda. That leaves Camille almost blameless, perhaps careless and foolish, but not responsible fo anything that has transpired.Calling him names serves another purpose as well, which is to steer away the suspiscion that Robespierre protects Camille becuase he cares about him in a special way. He knows there are Danton's accomplices turning ears by the door, so he doesn't want to give himself away with his care and concern.

Ultimately, what do you believe, whom do you think they were referring to I think says a lot about what you think about Maxime's state of mind at the time. Danton's too, though, it can be used as a litmus test whater or not you believe he was honest in idolising Robespierre and offering him his adoration and obedience. In some stagings it will be presented as true, in some as a lie, and that's the beauty of adapting a piece of literature, there are so many options, all blooming from the same roots.

[maxwell-grant]

You are your top 5 Shadow agents

I don’t talk about the Agents as much as I should, even though I constantly try to stress their importance, because I’m working on essays for them individually. To be honest, I think about the Agents practically every day to the point I have a hard time separating my headcanons from the actual canon material, but I have to stay true to it, and the lack of material regarding them means that the only way I can truly talk about their characterization is by diving deep into the novels and taking notes, which I don’t have much time to do, and then finding the right books or moments to talk about, which is even more difficult. 

This by no means constitutes my big thinkpiece on them, but it’s a start, and ultimately narrowing it down was a lot harder than I expected. This order is by no means final, if you asked me this question next week or next month I’d probably have a different answer, but it’s the 5 that I find myself thinking on the most. 

Honorable mentions: Jericho Druke and Myra Reldon, who are incredibly awesome characters conceptually and who have great moments each, and whom I definitely think deserve big turns on the spotlight if the Agents ever get put on the spotlight again, but are held back by issues with their presentation and lack of prominence. Margo Lane, whom only just narrowly missed the cut because, as much as I like her and think she gets an underseved bad rep and definitely has great things going for her, I sadly have to concede isn’t as consistently great or well-written as she should be. Clyde Burke, whom I definitely like a lot based on what I’ve read and consider an integral part of the line-up, but haven’t read enough of the novels he’s in to really solidify him as one of my favorites just yet. And Slade Farrow, who is a bit too complicated to talk about superficially.

Allright, so here they are

Number 5: Burbank

As the center of all communications within The Shadow’s network and the only character in the series who is even more mysterious and elusive than The Shadow himself, Burbank is fascinating and the kind of character who simultaneously seems to be both begging for an in-depth exploration and yet who also should be dead last on the list of mysteries about the series we want spoiled, because nobody wants the mystery ruined. He’s a bit of cipher personality-wise compared to the other agents, but he kind of has to be, and I think it helps to illustrate the many forms the agents of The Shadow can and should take, that one of them is this total mystery whom we know nothing about and yet is so vital to the whole thing. And it’s interesting also because, for all the many variations we’ve had on The Shadow’s life and thoughts and feelings and etc over the years, Burbank has stayed more or less the same. Whatever variations he’s had in design aside, Burbank just is. 

The pulps did often have moments where we would get to see moments that told us a little more about Burbank, gestures he did, capabilities he had and didn’t have, little details Gibson would sprinkle in to keep people fascinated. Several scenes with Burbank are almost presented like you’re watching a movie, in the way Gibson keeps describing his face being mysteriously blocked from view by objects or lighting, like not even in your mind you are supposed to know what he is. And it’s all the more fascinating because, unlike The Shadow, as far as we know, Burbank is just some guy who’s good with tech, who was only recruited in the 2nd story but apparently knows The Shadow from before it, and whom The Shadow entrusted with virtually every secret necessary to keep his operations running. 

It’s kind of a sign as to how utterly neglected the agents are that, to this day, few writers who’ve ever touched The Shadow has ever come close to giving us any sort of explanation or backstory or anything on Burbank, and I refuse to believe these people had that much self-control. Of course I have my own ideas for Burbank, but even I would hesitate to put them on a story, because Burbank epitomizes that double-edged sword that comes with a solid narrative mystery. Burbank just is, and hopefully he will stay that way. 

Number 4: Dr Roy Tam

Mention of Dr. Tam meant much to Sayre. He was acquainted with Roy Tam, the Chinese physician. He knew that Tam was a power in Chinatown; one who worked for good

Unrolling a map, Tam showed the entire Manhattan area, studded with tiny dots in districts quite remote from Chinatown.

"These represent my outposts," he said soberly. "They are places, owned by Chinese - restaurants, laundries, curio shops, other places of business. In each of these places, I have a friend."

The Shadow understood. Dr. Tam was the motivating factor among the Chinese who adapted themselves to American ways. His mission was to create good will among races, to put an end to prejudice and superstition.

A newer and more sober spirit had replaced the old and dangerous festivities. Feuds in Chinatown were a thing of the forgotten past. Dr. Tam and his associates had done much to bring about the present sentiment; but there were persons - even among that group - who felt regret at the passing of old traditions.

Dr Tam is a remarkably layered character for one that only appears in about ten stories, and he’s one of the agents I’m most eager to discuss in-depth. He’s another one of those agents that Gibson introduced by tricking you into seeing him as a villain, as a Yellow Peril cliche, until he is revealed to be in fact a good man. Not just good, Roy Tam is presented as a powerful, influential and cunning Chinese man with a lot of assistants secretly working for him, and who is consistently presented as a progressive, pacifistic, benevolent civic leader and ally, even friend, of The Shadow. 

Tam is very much westernized and the stories paint that mostly as a good thing, and this is one of the areas that I think could very much result in an interesting story that looks at the ramifications of his role, because of course not everyone is going to agree with his viewpoints, of course him being an advocate against superstition and tradition isn’t necessarily a good thing (and it’s not how Yat Soon, The Shadow’s other major Chinese ally, works, which puts the two at odds), and of course it’s a complicated situation, but the fact that Tam invites this kind of debate at all I think is something very interesting

Largely because of the movie, Dr Tam is one of the few agents of The Shadow who’s managed to sustain appearences in modern stories, and none of them have ever really went with his original angle as a powerful civic leader. Instead he’s been largely painted as either a scientist, like in the movie, a general practitioner, and a psychiatrist, and his age has been all over the board. 

I prefer him in his original form but I also very much like the idea of Roy Tam being, like the Chinese supervillains he was created to be a subversion of, an incredible genius who’s got skills in all fields that can fit under the “Dr” part of his job and is also an incredibly capable leader able to unify splintered communities under a cause of unity and cooperation, someone who absolutely could be the adventuring genius so many other pulp heroes are, except he dedicates himself wholesale to his community and the fight against prejudice and the betterment of lives, even if he’s misguided or wrong at some of the causes he takes up. I really think this character could partake in really great stories if ever brought back.

Number 3: Cliff Marsland

(Fan-art by @cryptixcreations)

Cliff may have actually been the first agent I really fell in love with based on concept alone, even before I read the stories he was a part of and started loving all of the others. He’s one of the few agents who has prior history with The Shadow and we get ever so tantalizing hints at his background that we ultimately never get to learn about in full. He’s the resident tough guy and underworld contact of The Shadow, which in any other series might have made him the biggest badass and a loner action hero who’s too cool for things like thinking and relying on others for help. But here, trying to be that only gets Cliff into trouble, and circumstances gradually morph him into the series equivalent of a Team Dad. 

He was one of the agents who we got to see develop as a character. As he appears more frequently past his introduction, he grows from a headstrong, careless jackass, mostly interested in the action parts of the job, who “resigned himself to an adventurous career with violent death as its inevitable termination”, into one of the most reliable and capable agents, taking the lead during action scenes but otherwise fully defering leadership to Harry, and being the agent most likely to partake in gunfights and rescue The Shadow out of trouble, joining in missions like infiltrating circuses or high-society clubs and forming very strong friendships with Harry, Clyde & Hawkeye, who almost kills a man with his bare hands when he thinks Harry’s been killed. He’s the hardass, square-jawed ex-con who plays the reputation of a brutal killer, and is in reality a great friend, ally and husband (Arline has sadly only been mentioned in three stories), on top of being an invaluable fighter and secret agent.

Cliff could have easily been the protagonist of a long-running series all his own and that’s one of my favorite aspects of The Shadow’s agents. They are people with agency, goals and dreams and relationships and lives beyond the roles they play, they all have strengths and weaknesses and faults and positives that bring them much closer to us than The Shadow could ever be, with no end to the variety of roles they can take, and Cliff in particular is a character I’m very attached to. 

I do hope that he eventually found peace in a quiet life with Arline once his business with The Shadow was over.

Number 2: Harry Vincent

The Shadow as a franchise has been vastly worse off as a result of Harry Vincent being completely sidelined and mischaracterized in virtually every adaptation since, and the sheer love that Shadow fans hold for Harry purely may be the closest thing to a true universal opinion in the fandom. 

Harry is a lot of things: the audience surrogate, the protagonist of much of the early stories, the leader of the agents in field duty, the dude in distress who gets kidnapped far more than even Margo, a hopeless romantic, an action hero, the one who gets sent to recruit agents because all The Shadow has to do is send Harry on an assignment and wait for him to come back with a new friend. He is a competent, resourceful, strong, extremely kind ball of sunshine who's got the potential for greatness, even if he can't see it. 

And for this post I’m going to highlight this: Harry is, on top of all that, the ultimate embodiment of what The Shadow strives to protect, help and uplift. He is the living proof that The Shadow's mission has a good, positive effect in the world, long after criminals are brought to justice and plots are failed and victims are rescued, purely by the fact that he’s alive and helping others who were once like him. Someone who, despite having so much to offer, could have easily been swept away by the world’s callousness and cruelty, if The Shadow wasn’t there to rescue him and uplift him.

I liked The Shadow pretty much at first sight after seeing the character’s design and listening to episodes of the radio show, and my appreciation for the character grew after reading The Shadow’s Shadow, but it wasn’t until I encountered @oldschoolcrimefighters and her brilliantly informative writings on The Shadow and Harry that I not only fell in love with the series, but decided to do everything in my power to try and get other people to love it too and see the potential it has. I think a lot more people should at least be aware of why Harry matters. 

Number 1: Moe Shrevnitz

I was honestly a bit surprised when I rounded up all of the agents to make this list and Shrevy here ended up in Number One, but in hindsight, it may have been obvious all along. 

My reasonings as to why Shrevy is my favorite agent do get a bit too personal, especially because of something that happened to me as I was writing this post, so I’m putting it on a separate post here. 

[ooops-i-arted]

Have you seen S2E4 yet?? I'd really love to get your perspective on it as a teacher/from a child-development POV

Since I just did Baby Yoda’s child development in the last ask I’ll do my Thoughts On The Space School for this one because I was SO EXCITED to finally see a school in Star Wars!

The Good:  The classroom seems to be pretty well-supplied.  Enough desks and materials for everyone (maybe the teacher didn’t even have to buy them).  Another shot shows little cubbies for the kiddos to keep their stuff in.  There’s certainly enough light and air though the room seems a little cramped/close for all those kids.  It was so cool to see all the supplies on the side - lots of globes (although one is straight up Jupiter??? the front most one of that cluster of 3 in the middle of the pic.  Did they forget to repaint that one??)  The board is definitely visible to everyone and it’s just awesome in general that the importance of education is recognized by a person of leadership, since Greef is clearly pretty proud of what they’ve accomplished on Nevarro.

Also I’m just so excited to see a space school in general.  I have my own headcanons of course but it is cool to just actually see a school in Star Wars.  Even if, as a teacher, many things grated on my nerves because I know how a school really has to roll. :P  (I am about to complain so much, I swear I really did like the space school, it was a cute lil classroom.)

The Bad:  Uhh..... why does Greef just drop the baby off here?  Isn’t there a class for another, more appropriate age group?  There’s honestly not really enough here to even engage elementary school students* - they are listening to a droid drone with nothing but a desk and a tablet-like device, though at least they’re allowed snacks - so a toddler is gonna be bored as hell.  And a bored toddler is a destructive toddler.  There’s nothing for him to do and presumably no age-appropriate activities for him, since this is an elementary school class and he is a toddler/possibly a preschooler.  They are NOT interchangeable.

Also *Peli voice* you can’t just drop a kid off in a class like that!!  Even in a drop-off program I would rip Greef a new one for that!  1.  Interrupting the class without asking, it’s a miracle those kids didn’t take 10 minutes to be calmed back down.  2.  The teacher has NO information on the kid.  Allergies, health issues - and I imagine that’s even more important when you live in a galaxy with a billion different species - emergency contact info, etc.  3.  YOU DIDN’T EVEN ASK IF YOU CAN LEAVE THE KID THERE.  Okay I know it’s because it’s a tv show but BASIC DISRESPECT.  4.  Since the teacher had no idea Baby Yoda was coming, do they even have enough materials?  How fast did they have to whip up a separate more appropriate version of the day’s activities with differentiation to make it more accessible to his tiny hands?  Any teacher would’ve had a couple extras but still.

Also the kids 100% should’ve fuckin’ rioted when Baby Yoda got brought in.  He’s new and exciting and weird they would’ve gone apeshit.  Pre-COVID anytime a baby sibling got brought in during pickup we all had to see the baby and this would’ve been no different.  Hell we gotta stop and look if someone brought in a new Batman backpack or something.  Well-behaved quiet class? 0/10 too unrealistic

The Ugly:  Oh I see.  While canon does sometimes address droid sapience, droids in Star Wars are usually used for menial tasks or tasks “below” an actual person.  Including, apparently.....teaching.

You think a fucking droid can do my job?  I guarantee you none of those students were learning  A DAMN THING.  All that droid was doing was droning on boring information with no effort to engage the students.  No activity, no music, nothing fun or interesting, just dry boring info while sitting at a desk, so that info is going in one ear and out the other.  My students don’t learn because I bleat dry information at them.  They learn because even during teacher-led times, I make it interesting and engaging for them.  I don’t have them just sit and listen constantly - hell even if they are sitting and listening to a book I’m asking them open-ended questions to engage them and get them thinking + my puppets and read-aloud song to make it fun, and I don’t even do that every day.  I also use activities where they are actively participating and involved because that’s how kids learn.  Think back to your own school experience - you don’t remember the boring stuff, do you?  You remember the fun things, and likely the teacher that engaged you and made you want to learn.  A teacher like that is absolutely vital to education and students learn best when they have a connection with an adult they like, trust, and value the knowledge of.

Okay, to be fair, a droid with the right personality for it could probably teach a great lesson.  I for one would love to see R2-D2 run a classroom.  (Or Chopper.  “Hello and welcome to Murder 101.”)  But from what I saw?  Nah, that’s clearly a droid who’s not supposed to be a teacher but a babysitter.  Because this is a show made by Americans and that’s how waaaaaay too many Americans think of their educators.  And I’m not a fucking babysitter, I am a professional in my field, and teaching isn’t one of those jobs just anyone can do.  Anyone can read a lesson, but it takes training and practice and effort to teach.  /rant

*I’m not gonna get into it because my specialty is preschool, not elementary school, but sitting at a desk all day isn’t really developmentally appropriate or the best way to learn despite it being the norm in America.  I’ve always headcanoned that in the GFFA they know better and have better schooling, so I’m just gonna pretend Greef dropped Baby Yoda off on substitute day when the regular teacher was out and it was a makeshift lesson and not what they normally do even during teacher-led lesson time.

Anyway Greef hire me for your space school I will set up an awesome preschool class for you, just pay me a living wage and let me teach Baby Yoda and see Cara Dune’s biceps on the regular

[onbeinganangel]

top five of 2020

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 (ish) favourite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

thank you sweet @the-starryknight for tagging me! i dunno who to tag because it feels like everyone has done this but in case they haven’t yet and fancy jumping on this i’m tagging @davonysus @bisexualronaldweasley @skeptiquewrites and @julcheninred (also if i haven’t tagged you and you wanna do this, please do it and tag me)

i’m going for a mix of embroidery and fic because i’ve not written that much and i love all my babies

everyone knows i always have a lot to say about everything so i’m just gonna do a little break here because this is about to get long!

2020 was a bit of a shitshow. it’s christmas and i’m in pre food and booze coma mode so i’m about to get real emo here. i have interacted with lots of different fandoms in the past but the drarry fandom? genuinely i’ve not encountered a group of people this nice and welcoming in a really, really long time. 2020 would have been a horrible year for me even without the plague and i’m so glad i had the privilege of finding solace in the safe place that is this fandom when things took a turn.

anyway enough of my sob fest here are my fav 5 things i made this year from hell:

embroidered fic rec for @tinyhistory ’s Running on Air - these took 80 hours of labour! they were my first of the series too and when i look at them i feel so much pride. they ignited a passion back in me for doing creative work and making things that make you happy without worrying too much about the rules! they were a lot of work but every stitch was a joy and they are the one thing i created this year i enjoy looking at the most

inevitable (from the very start), E, 54k - oooof okay here goes mari again talking about her monster fic. creating this was an experience. i think writing (especially fic) should be done for fun, something that you enjoy doing. but sometimes you write something that you put so much of yourself into that it can’t help but feel heavy. don’t get me wrong - it’s, imho, a quite happy story! there’s minimal angst. i think it’s only that heavy to me because i know how much i put into it. writing these words felt like pulling teeth out at times. i go back sometimes and i see clearly how i shaped my own loss into this Astoria and how i moulded this Draco around my feelings and it’s a bit shit lol but it makes me really proud

embroidered fic rec for @quicksilvermaid ’s Who We Are in the Shadows - this one is an interesting one to include in this list because it’s quite simple. the actual stitching on it isn’t massively groundbreaking or anything but i love that i took the risk and finally embroidered on sheer fabric which i’ve wanted to do for years! in the new year i’d like to experiment more with different fabrics and materials and using the cotton wool for this feels like the first step towards that

aeternus solem, E, 36k - any other day but today this spot would probably be for my wolfstar little fic Forever Yours/Yours Forever. however, it is christmas and i have just finished posting this one. this is a funny one to include here because the whole reason why i am including it in this list is because i know i could have done better. i will put my neck on line and say loud and proud that it isn’t my best writing and it could have been better developed. but the whole point of the thing is that it’s a writing challenge! and for averaging 1k words per day for 30 days, i’m fucking pleased with it. i love it mostly because i see so many of its flaws clearly and i still posted it. i wouldn’t dream of doing something like that six months ago, and for that, depression christmas fic is going on the list (also, harry pov??? never again, not for a long time)

and finally my latest embroidery fic rec for @primavera-cerezos ’s apple juice and peach - this one is going on the list because i wasn’t sure about the results until i was nearly done! i’m not sure if it was the stitching itself or the colours but i couldn’t tell if they looked like peaches at all until it was basically finished. it was frustrating in that sense but still enjoyable to stitch and it was a lovely come back to embroidery after a long month and a half of intensive writing. plus, now i know that even embroidery suffers from the wlw/rare pair low engagement curse lmao

i’m also gonna add in a wee honourable mention to my yet to be posted last embroidered fic of the year because it’s really fucking good 😉

[natsspammityspamspamham]

Anime That Deserve Another Season

Category One: Anime That Supposedly Deserve Another Season Even though the title says “deserve”,  I will be listing some anime that I do not think deserve another season. They’re just here because people are loud about not getting another season. These are mostly series I just didn’t enjoy watching. 

Category Two: Anime That Can Get Another Season They’re fine without another season as there are no cliffhangers to close and no questions that are really unanswered. These anime will not keep you up at night asking for an answer. 

Category Three: Anime That Need Another Season While it’s not mandatory that these anime have another season to be enjoyed, they’d sure benefit immensely with it. Whether it’s because there’s too many cliffhangers, things end abruptly, or there is just too much good source material that was left untouched, they’ll end up here. Even if I didn’t really enjoy the anime, some anime may end up here anyway.

Bonus Category: Anime Need a Reboot Not all adaptations are created equal, and even if the anime can be enjoyed on its own, sometimes it’d benefit from actually looking at the source material and going, “Oh, it was written that way for a reason!” Some anime just need the Brotherhood treatment. From pacing to anime-exclusive storylines, anime in this category stray so much that you might as well just start from the ground up.

*Please note that if an anime isn’t here, it might be because I haven’t watched it (or I bypassed it in my listing journey)

*Categories Two and One are listed from “Bottom Tier” to “Top Tier” in terms of how much I think it needs a sequel/continuation

*I almost never read the manga. These are mostly speculations/me spoiling the series for myself by reading the last chapter of the manga after finishing the anime.

*The bottom half of category three really rips my soul out when people say that there’s no chance of another season.

Category One: Anime That Supposedly Deserve Another Season

Aoharu x Machinegun

The manga is still on-going, but I wasn’t interested enough to really pay any mind. It would benefit from another season due to it ending on a point that made sense, but you could tell there was way more behind the curtain.

Btooom

Remember when they joked about this gross anime getting another season? Hahaha! There’s a story behind it, apparently. Anyway, it leaves off unfinished, but I don’t need any more of whatever this show was. This show is garbage, questionable garbage at that.

Ao Haru Ride

This anime made me kinda bored. The characters were kind of bland. The world was kind of bland. This anime left as much of an impression on me as white-coloured pencils did in grade school. I’m sure it’d benefit from another season, but whether that’d actually make me like the series is another question.

Code: Breaker

This series was pretty bad. I enjoyed it at the time, but it was pretty bad. I don’t recommend this show to anyone. It technically has a ton of manga material left (I think it was a 100+ chapters?)

Classroom of the Elite

I actually strongly disliked this show and wanted it to be over, but people said it got good. I stuck it out. I didn’t like any of the characters. I couldn’t find a reason to enjoy this show, and maybe it’d benefit by having some more story content to it, but if you can’t make me enjoy any of the cast after 12 episodes, you’re not getting any more of my time.

No Game No Life

Admit it, 90% of the people who want another season of this just want to see more fanservice.

Category Two: Anime That Can Get Another Season

Kyoukai no Rinne

This series is very repetitive. I’m surprised it survived three seasons. I still really liked it, but it is counted as one of Takahashi’s weakest works (not sure why though). I would mind seeing it receiving the rest of its adaptation.

Hai to Gensou no Grimgar

While it ended well, it probably has a lot more story to tell. This is an earlier isekai, and it’s hard to say whether it’d do better in today’s isekai market. This anime is what Sword Art Online should’ve been. This show takes it slow. Its action isn’t as over-the-top, and while it has fanservice, the show still feels far more real than SAO markets itself to be (but it does it on purpose)

Hinamatsuri

This anime made me laugh too hard for me not to want a continuation. They also had a character they didn’t have time to touch base on.

Runway de Waratte

There’s quite a lot of manga material to go on. I feel like we haven’t seen the characters develop to their max, and the protagonist hasn’t even gotten his full shot yet. This anime is an underdog, no matter how you look at it, it’s a shounen series about runway fashion, but I’m rooting for it!

Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo

I hear the manga goes downhill, and honestly, you could’ve just let it end right where season one ended, and I would’ve gone, “Wow, that was pretty good!” It did come back and “overstay its welcome” according to manga readers, but those final chapters make up for that.

Gakkougurashi

I respect the way that this anime decided to end, but there’s a lot of potential to take it elsewhere. It has a lot of material too. I feel like not a lot of the backstories of even the main cast were revealed.

Category Three: Anime That Need Another Season

Kimi to Boku

I had a hard time determining which category this anime should go under, but I think this category fits it best. The manga does pause sometimes. There are a lot of loose ends romance-wise, but it could’ve easily gone into the previous category.

D-Frag

This is a romance anime that didn’t really get to any of its romance. It hinted, it tried, but it stuck to the comedy route (which I respect). However, there is a lot of potential if this anime ever did want to return.

Hataraku Maou-Sama

This series really needs a season two. It was an isekai before its time, and it has a lot of comedy that made me laugh. There are romance ends that are left up, and the underlying background plot went virtually nowhere. It ended, and it makes the audience go, “That was good and enjoyable”, but it leaves nothing else.

Mob Psycho 100

I’m pretty sure this anime will get another season, but it will take some time. This series does have the popularity, and since it was quite recent, I think it’s just a matter of time. Studio Bones is far too thirsty to leave their man alone. Let’s be real.

Ranma ½

I think what bothers me the most about this one is the fact that they had the right number of episodes to finish the series, but because the manga was still publishing at the time, they had to use a lot of filler which ultimately took away from a lot of the series. The Ranma manga ending had about as closed of an ending that you can have for a series like Ranma. There are some arcs in there that I think would boost the story after a lot of those OVAs left an unsatisfied taste in people’s mouths. I didn’t even bother watching those.

Nisekoi

I’m not sure if I would want an adaptation if it were to happen because I don’t like the ending anyway. There is material there though if they wanted to, and I do think it’s a bit annoying if you focus so heavily on romance and harem then just don’t end it conclusively.

Grand Blue

According to someone I know, the manga gets good. This anime was really funny during some of the parts, so I really wouldn’t mind a continuation.

Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun

This manga actually did end, and I feel like it’s really missing out by not finishing itself. Shoujo manga and other romance manga do rely on having the characters graduate, get together, etc. Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun didn’t get that chance, and since the manga has a more conclusive ending, I think the anime should too.

Tsurezure Children

This anime focuses on everything so ends up with little progression in the long run. A lot of this is puppy love, but we never really move beyond that stage with the countless couples. I think this anime would greatly benefit with a continuation because it got so little done than series that focused on one couple. Focusing on multiple couples is part of this series’ charms though.

Yuri on Ice

I personally don’t feel a strong need for a season two, but I’m sure a lot of people would enjoy it because it has a large audience that are attached to these characters. They weren’t at their final stage yet.

Edit: They just announced a continuation called “Yuri!!! on Ice The Movie: Ice Adolescence”

Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun

The manga just hit a really pivotal point at the time that I’m writing this post, but the manga usually publishes monthly leaving it little room for successive seasons. Regardless, I feel that the series has more than enough popularity to carry it, and despite some of the real big corners that were cut during the making of the first season, people are still invested. I actually read the manga and can say that it has enough material for a second season.

Wotakoi

I actually read the manga for this series sometimes, and let me tell you, this series REALLY SHOULD GET a continuation. Sure, it’s sweet that you know who ends up with who, but this series is about “mature romance” (i.e. beyond high school). 12 episodes isn’t enough for this series. There’s so much awesome stuff that’s happened and is happening in the manga. 

Deadman Wonderland

This anime isn’t great by any means. It’s a gore fest. However, a lot of its plot holes and questions could’ve been answered if it went further in its source material. I’m not sure how much it would’ve made it make sense, but this anime is one of the ones here that really suffered from their lack of time to adapt the manga. Without some of the explanations, this series may little sense. I don’t really want another season simply because I didn’t really enjoy this anime, but I think I put it up here just because of how much it would benefit from a continuation. 

Ouran High School Host Club

Legend has it that every April Fool’s Day, someone goes on Twitter and announces season two. As much as we’d want that, Studio Bones is busy doing something to do with Bungou Stray Dogs or My Hero Academia. I already had to debunk a fake Ouran Season Two post for someone on Discord. I didn’t really enjoy the romance in Ouran (stayed for the comedy), so it would probably benefit from a continuation, even if it is a reboot. I mostly put this one here because of how much fans want it. Personally, I’d still be able to rest in peace either way. Regardless, it woudl still benefit immensely if they were to continue what they started.

Kekkaishi

This anime actually left 200+ chapters of manga untouched when it was adapting. I’m not sure of timelines and whether it was because of the manga publishing at the time that the anime was airing. Now that it’s a finished series in terms of manga, it can always get a reboot. It’s definitely worth it since it just finished on one arc.

Akatsuki no Yona

To me, Akatsuki no Yona was okay, but it could’ve been great... if they didn’t end on literally what the entire series was building up to. As a result of that, the anime really feels like a long manga advertisement going, “Wow, you sure are stupid for not reading the manga like the rest of us nerds!” The only reason why this series isn’t even higher on the list is because the other series did a better job cementing itself into a place in my heart. Akatsuki no Yona could’ve done that if they were given enough time, but alas, this series really suffers from a lack of anime adaptation.

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun

It is such a shame that this anime doesn’t have another season. The OVAs are great, but if this had another season or two, they would be legendary. The voice actors really added to the comedy (the manga is still funny, but it’s didn’t make me laugh as much as the anime). The quirky soundtrack really adds to the atmosphere, and there’s so much development that’s gone down since its first season run. I really, really, really want another season. But this anime can be enjoyed even if it doesn’t.

Gin no Saji

This anime is incredibly enjoyable even if it doesn’t have a third season, but with the manga tying up all the loose ends with Hiromu Arakawa’s incredible storytelling, I find it really disappointing that they couldn’t get another season for this. Its characters were so likeable. I watched this anime with my mom who keeps nattering about a season three. If only such a thing were to exist.

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic

As with a lot of shounen anime, this ended on one arc. However, this still had well over 100+ chapters that could’ve been adapted in series to come. The seiyuu events were hilarious, and this anime really hit its stride, but it left us all hanging. Now that the manga’s finished, I feel that it would be really great if we were to get another season. There were some arcs that I read that were so good. This was the first anime I watched, and it always holds a special place in my soul. I do hear the manga goes downhill majorly towards the end, but I’m sure that even that stuff would still be watched by people like me (heck, people waited for Black Clover to get good, come on!)

This also includes the Sinbad spinoff that felt more like a trailer rather than a full series. It wasn’t given nearly enough time.

Noragami

Noragami is extremely popular, and I think one of the reasons that it didn’t get the rest adapted is because the manga went on hiatus for about a year. However, I feel that it still had more than enough material to make some more way. Studio Bones is still busy with Bungou Stray Dogs and My Hero Academia, but Noragami would benefit by cleaning up some of the cliffhangers left behind. The future arcs are also really good, so the source material at least maintains some quality.

SKET Dance

I finished this series (both anime and manga) a couple of days ago, and I want to write a post about it. It was so good. It made me read 100 chapters in two days or something. But if this were to get adapted, this would give the series a MAJOR CHANCE to fix up the ending. Unfortunately, the manga ending disappointed a lot of people (including me), so being able to maybe just give the people what they want (I don’t care if it’s cheesy). They left a good chunk of great, hilarious, and touching arcs that would be able to keep toe-to-toe with the fantastic series they’ve done up to this point. I think it might’ve stopped due to the anime catching up, but come on, I just want this anime to get equal treatment to Gintama!!! It gets compared so often anyway!!! Series like these make me think, “If I was Jeff Bezos, I would just throw my money into making another season of this.” The seiyuu of this anime made the lines so funny too. I will be thinking and talking about this series for a while. 

Anime that Deserve a Reboot

Soul Eater

They really just dropped the source material in the last half. 

No. 6

The pacing kind of sucked in comparison to other materials, apparently.

Kids on the Slope

The pacing for this also really sucked and didn’t give a conclusive ending either way.

[katiecomma]

Tell me the fandom deets on Macgyver, pretty please?

the first character i ever fell in love with: Jack Dalton - 100% - From the moment I first met him I was like: sassy ex Delta Force who loves everyone too much? MINE!

a character that i used to love/like, but now do not: Unpopular answer: Mac honestly. I love Mac. I love him a lot. I understand that he’s been through some shit. But some of his motivations in the last few seasons (fair warning: I’m not totally caught up on the show - this is one of the main reasons why I stopped watching) haven’t made a lot of sense to me. And the stuff with Nasha really made me mad... And I think if they would have given us the voice overs in S3 we would have been able to see more of his motivation and gotten into his head why he was doing/saying some of the things he was doing it would have helped. And from what I’ve seen... I don’t like who he is in a relationship with Desi (I don’t hate MacDesi, but I hate what they’ve done with it in the show from what I’ve seen)... so I just... I don’t know I feel like he’s not the same character from S1-2... and that’s my Mac honestly.

a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not: I actually think I still love all of my ships from this show... there’s no ship that I don’t like anymore... Huh. But I don’t tend to give up on ships... I don’t know if I’ve ever changed my opinion drastically on a ship in a fandom like that ever.

my ultimate favourite character™: Jack Dalton again... I love him too much. He’s got the greatest lines... he’s charming and witty and loves all of his little found family so much it hurts.

prettiest character: I honestly have to say I think this is a tie between Riley and Mac. I have a bigger crush on Riley... but GAH they’re both so pretty. Like... ridiculously pretty.

my most hated character: James. He’s the worst. I even wrote an entire fic on the premise of Jack getting to punch him in the face. There was some other plot... but I honestly engineered the whole plot and everything around Jack getting to punch James in the face at the end. Worth it.

my OTP: MacDalton - I’m on this ship until it hits an iceberg and sinks. I love them so much. You go kaboom, I go kaboom?! Epic ship material. Coming back for another FUCKING TOUR IN AFGHANISTAN FOR MAC?! Epic ship material.

my NOTP: MacDesi (SORRY! This is not invalidating this ship for ANYONE ELSE - this is a personal opinion and I support you shipping them 100%) - again, fair warning that I’m not caught up on the series... but from everything I’ve seen... Desi is a very abusive SO. I think they had potential, but I really don’t like what they’ve done with it on the show. As for shipping outside of canon... I personally never saw the romantic connection based on their interactions before they got together. Very-Desi centric... the pink dress scene drove me crazy because I didn’t like the idea of Desi trying to win Mac over by doing something like that. Up to that point Desi struck me as the kind of woman to be herself and just wait for a man to make a move on her, or to just be bold and make a move on him. But strutting around in a revealing little dress and playing mating games - I was sad they took her character to that place... so I never really shipped them.

favourite episode: Mac + Jack (S2E12) - as a MacDalton shipped I love this for obvious reasons... but there’s just so much in this episode... I loved seeing Jack and Mac in the army... the way they first met and totally hated each other at first... fantastic. This episode also has my favourite line of all time... when Mac’s trying to defuse the bomb under the hummer... and Jack’s bothering him... Mac: Well, you know what, there is a quicker way to do this. Jack: Really? Mac: Yeah, it involves a loud boom and a bunch of shrapnel in your body. Close second place: Skull + Electromagnet (S2E5) - Harper Hayes is so awesome and badass. I love her a lot.

saddest death: Jill Morgan. I loved her so much. I remember sitting down to watch the S3 premiere and saying: As long as they don’t kill Jill, they really can’t let me down...

favourite season: 2 - I loved Cage. I loved all the dynamics. My favourite episodes are in this season. It’s solid from start to finish. I love this whole season.

least favourite season: I will say 3... because I didn’t watch enough of S4 to name it. But S3 really let me down. I hated the way things just faded away with Nasha. I wish they’d had a better end to that. I hated that we lost the voice overs, especially because some of the stuff Mac was doing and saying was obviously because he was messed up over what happened with Jill and Murdoc and all that, and if we’d had voice overs we could have understood what he was feeling. The same way we did in S1 when all the stuff with Nikki was going on. Jack left. Gross. And he left Mac behind with just that handshake. Before Jack left I hated the way he was treated - they made him into the comedic relief buffoon... and there were several episodes where Mac was making Jack the butt of jokes. Desi showed up and it was pretty obvious when she came on the scene that they were introducing her as a new love interest for Mac. I have 0 tolerance for female characters being introduced solely as a love interest - cause: gross. I hated the Riley/Billy breakup. I hated that they killed Jill.  I hated that Charlie died the way he did, and then that night when they got together for beers Mac was smiling and hitting on Desi And let’s not forget that DESI got a phone call from Jack when Charlie died... but Mac didn’t. WHY?! You really think Jack would find out that Charlie died the way he did and not immediately call his boy!? Bullshit Sorry for the rant... but there were a lot of things in this season I didn’t care for.

character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate: I guess Desi... though I wouldn’t say everyone else loves her. I just... there was so much potential with Desi as a character. Strong asian-American woman who’s the badass strong arm of their team... and they made her a love interest and made her kind of an abusive SO... and I just didn’t care for that. I think her and Mac as characters were both treated badly as a result. In conclusion: I really wanted to like her... I even have a huge crush on her... but I still just... don’t.

my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave: I guess Murdoc?... Cause I love Murdoc a lot. And I was sad that they ruined the dynamic between him and Mac when he killed Jill. Killing Jill made it so their dynamic can never be the same. Mac didn’t like Murdoc before, but now he hates him on a personal level and will never forgive him.

my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave: Riley - she deserved for Ellwood to stick around. She deserved for Jack to stick around. She deserved for Billy to STICK AROUND. And she deserves to have Mac treat her his found sister and not try to get into her pants the way he seems to every other woman he’s EVER around. (AGAIN: I am not in any way saying MacRiley isn’t a valid ship. I can see the potential - ship to your heart’s content). All this talk of love triangles upsets me... I think they’ve waited too long to pull the trigger on MacRiley... because they’ve always very much had sibling vibes to me.

my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship: I had originally written that I didn’t have one, but I TOTALLY DO!!! Jack/Harper Hayes!!! I have this series of fics where she’s basically his Murdoc and is totally stalking him and stuff... and I just... everything I’ve written around their sexual tension is very non-con... but I love them a lot and I DON’T KNOW WHY.

my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship: Mac/Jill - I kinda love them. I love the idea of them being nerds together. I think they would be adorable. Jill is into the spy life but not a field agent so there wouldn’t be as much stress for Mac about losing his girl to the life... etc... So I love them. I think they could have been happy together. And seeing Mac have a happy little home with someone he can still talk about spy stuff with I think would have been great. And yet as much as I love them I just still sit back and dream about it, but I haven’t written much for them. Thank you for the ASK!!! I love doing these!

[writing-with-olive]

How to write a five paragraph essay

This is going to be my third and last of these posts, unless people have questions that arise from them (at which point I am more than happy to make more - just let me know!) You can find my post about writing thesis statements here, and my post on essay conclusions here (both imbedded). Unlike my previous posts, this is going more in-depth about five paragraph essays, though I imagine you can take the tips here and apply them elsewhere. 

Alrighty guys. Strap in because this one’s gonna be a bit long.

1) Prewriting

Okay. Since I hate prewriting as a concept (seriously. You do all this work and you don’t have any essay to show for it? what is this?), I tend to keep it pretty short and sweet, but it is necessary. 

What do do?

Read through your source material, and get an understanding of what you’re going to argue about

As you’re reading, make sure you write down your sources or else doing your bibliography is going to be a pain (just copy/pasting urls should suffice at this point)

Create an argument (generally, what is the point you’re trying to get across)

Write your thesis. It’s important that you do this AFTER reading the material, as you won’t know what to argue if you come up with a thesis before doing the reading. Constructing your thesis is also important to do before you actually get to writing, as it informs a lot of the structure of the essay. For more info on how to construct a thesis, I made this post as part of this mini series not too long ago (same link as above). 

Outline your essay. This can be detailed if you like it like that, or it can just be a few words for each paragraph. As I personally find outlines to be both necessary and a pain, I tend to go with the latter of the two (described further in the example below). However, experiement with both - some people work better when they have detailed outlines with all of their sources and arguments listed under each paragraph heading.

How to outline

(How to outline, as well as how to write the intro paragraph, body paragraphs, a link to how to write conclusion paragraphs, and general tips all under the cut)

As you may have guessed, there are a number of ways to outline. The most basic looks like this:

Paragraph 1: Intro Paragraph 2: [insert topic 1] Paragraph 3: [insert topic 2] Paragraph 4: [insert topic 3] Paragraph 5: Conclusion

From here, you can make things more and more detailed if you like. Some common things people put in outlines are:

evidence presented

points made

relevant sources for each paragraph

their topic sentence

etc...

My advice is to play around and see what works best for you. If you’re like me and really really hate prewriting, you may go with a simpler approach. Or, if you find drafting to be hell on earth, maybe put more time into prewriting to make drafting faster.

2) Introduction

This is arguably the most important part of your essay (at least, that’s what my middle school teachers always said). The common difficulty is that everyone seems to be saying how important it is, and how cructial it is, and how [insert synonym for important and crutial] it is, and all that jazz. Which means after a twenty minute lecture of WHY you should write an introduction, there never seems to be enough time to teach people how to actually WRITE it. 

Here’s the thing. The point of your intro is to ease your reader into the topic. You don’t want to blind side them with something hyperspecific out of the blue. At the same time, you don’t want them to loose interest because you’re taking too long. 

The trick is to use the funnel method.

It works like this: each sentence is a layer, and how wide the funnel is represents how broad your statement is. Your first statement is going to be huge - something that encompases a lot. Each sentence should encompass less and less, until you get to your thesis, which is very narrow. 

A formula I frequently use (depending on if it’s applicable) is:

Intro: Sentence about humanity as a whole (establishes basic concept)

NS 1: Sentence that establishes that Intro thing applies to certain time/place (establishes the what/where)

NS 2: Sentence that specifies how, exactly, Intro thing applies to time/place (establishes how)

NS 3: Sentence that specifies relevant groups within this time and place

Thesis: the specific thing I am arguing. 

In this (very generic, and also very fake) example, I’m going to bold every other sentence so they are easy to distinguish from one another. It’s the same pattern featured above.

Conflict is one of the universal truths of life. Throughout the ages, individuals and groups have found themselves on opposing sides of a disagreement, but few could compare to the 1789 B.C. Battle of the Frogs in what is now modern-day Tatooine. Dissention had been brewing for years, but when the Narnians finally stole all of native unicorns, the civillians of the sandy outer-rim planet finally hit a tipping point; they were prepared to sacrifice anything if it meant being free. Despite the epic proportions of the Battle, a few individuals were able to record the events of the conflict in journals that have survived to this day. In his journal “Of life on the Desert,” Percy Jackson describes the effects of war, including the impact it had on his family, his work, and the state of his village.

3) Body Paragraphs

These three paragraphs are where you will be backing up your thesis statement. This is a fair bit of space, to work with if you do it right, but it’s also not a lot of space, so you do have to make sure to use it wisely. An easy way to make sure you’re doing this right is to.....

Follow yet MORE paragraph formulas

(yay!)

Seriously though. Using formulas in your essays will set you free, and it makes it look like you know what you’re doing.

Sentence 1: Topic Sentence

This is usually going to start out with some kind of transition phrase such as “in addition to [previous thing]” or whatever. Then it’s going to introduce the thing you’re actually going to talk about in this paragraph.

Sentence 2 - Second to Last: Evidence and Analysis

For each paragraph, you’re probably going to want between three and four pieces of evidence (as two looks like there’s not actually solid evidence, and five becomes tedious). 

For this structure, you’re going to want to spend a sentence introducing a piece of evidence, making sure to include the proper in-text citations (which I am not going to cover here, but I can cover in another post if someone asks me to). 

After your evidence citation, you’re going to want to write at least one or two sentences of analysis, either picking apart just that piece of evidence, or linking that evidence to other pieces of evidence. For beginners, many teachers will expect about one line of analysis, from about sophomore year of highschool up, teachers begin to expect two or more. 

Make sure that your evidence and analysis flows together - that is, organize your evidence into a logical order, and use transition words (there’s huge lists out there - google is your friend) to go from an analysis sentence to another piece of evidence. 

Sentence 3 - Conclusion Sentence

This is one of the harder sentences to nail, but the idea is that you want to restate what your topic sentence is.

If you can’t think of a good conclusion sentence, you can write a transition sentence instead, and on the topic sentence of your next paragraph, leave off the transition. 

4) Conclusions

I already did a post on conclusions, which is linked here (imbedded). 

5) Miscellaneous Tips!

Never use “you” statements. This is because you can never be sure of your reader’s background, so it wrecks some of the credibility of your argument! If you’re describing something and you feel a burning urge to write “you might do X” or something along those lines, switch “you” out for the word “one”

Similarly, never use I statements. They make things look like opinions rather than facts. NOT GOOD. A good fix is to not use personal experiences that would force you to use I statements (unless explicitely asked to), and to cut off all phrases such as “I think” or “I researched.” These are implied, and you make your argument look stronger without them.

Avoid using the word “that.” If you can cut it out and the sentence still makes sense, cut it. It’ll make your narrative voice stronger.

If you need to make your essay look longer, find places where paragraphs end at the end of a line. Then, throughout the paragraph, un-abbreviate words that can be sensably un-abbreviated. This will push a few words onto the next line and give the apperance of a longer essay. 

Similarly, if you want your essay to appear shorter (if you have a page limit or something), look for places where a paragraph just barely makes it onto a new line, and cut extra words so that the words move back until that new line isn’t there.

Keep track of all new sources as you go - it saves so much time.

Make in-text citations as you go, rather than trying to put them in after the fact. 

Run spell check before turning in your work

Make sure your grammar is correct, and understand how to use colons and semi-colons (they will save your life)

Now, here are 1000 awesome points for reading until the end, and good luck with your essay!

[okayoonoh]

MARK’S FAMILY

a/n: i have a bit more time now since school is out! i hope to get as many things out as i can!

here’s the masterlist to all things nct dad related! go and check it out!

MARK LEE:

he has 2 kids, both boys. ethan lee is the oldest, 2 years later, eli lee was born.

ETHAN LEE: >> as a baby <<

a giggly little thing

he was honestly just a lowkey baby

like he wasn’t super energetic

he wasn’t super fussy

he was just lowkey

mark honestly was so nervous the entire first couple months of ethan’s life

he genuinely felt like he was doing everything wrong and was so scared that he would do something that would eventually hurt ethan

but you would reassure him that every new parent just needs to figure it out and everything will be okay

mark was still pretty nervous tho

ethan is the oldest of the kids born in his year

there’s only three of them

ten’s second son, shawn leechaiyapornkul and jaehyun’s daughter, jung lani

all three dads would come together as a joint baby sitting project

but honestly, ten and jaehyun went over to help mark and ease his nervousness

like shawn is ten’s second son, so even if ten doesn’t have it completely figured out, he at least has the experience

on the other hand, jaehyun has read a ton of parenting books and such so he knows a lot about the facts of the matter dealing with temperature of baby food, the right type of crib, the material of the baby’s clothes, etc.

jaehyun and ten would go to mark’s house a lot to help him out and teach him the ropes

(omg i have scenario ideas haha)

but a little snippet:

mark: okay, ten-hyung, he’s been crying for the last hour and i already fed, changed, and burped him and i’ve been trying to get him to sleep for a while now... what do i do?

ten: stop bouncing for a sec and hold him. *walks over so his face is level with ethan’s face* ethan look! *takes out a toy to distract the baby*

ethan: *gnaws on his fist but stops crying, his attention on the toy now.*

mark: how did you know?

ten: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  all experience, dude.

(another scenario)

mark: okay ethan, time for your bath!

jaehyun: waIT STOP

mark: ???

jaehyun: did you check the temperature??? you can’t put ethan in the same temperature that you bathe in... babies can be sensitive towards this... *puts his hand in the water* oh my goD! mark! this is way too hot!! turn down the temperature!

(oh man imma have fun with these three haha)

ethan was born first 

shawn was born next

and lani was born last

they were all born rather close to each other tho

like coincidentally, they were all born like within 30 days of each other lol

ethan was born 2 weeks late (i know... poor you...)

shawn was born roughly on time

and lani was born like 2 weeks early

since they were all around the same age and such, jaehyun, ten, and mark found that as a reason to all get together and help each other

(it was more mark freaking out and ten and jaehyun helping him out haha)

just give mark sometime with ten and jaehyun and they’ll make sure he knows what to do :)

>> as a child <<

started to become a little more active

he’s so lovable

like he’s so magnetic

so many of the kids are just so drawn to him it’s weird

like even he doesn’t really know why but people just always want to be his friend

he’s so talented and so dedicated when he puts his mind into something

ethan is such a hard worker

he’s best friends with ten’s second son, shawn leechaiyapornkul and jaehyun’s daughter, jung lani

they all remain best friends basically for life

the three of them are pretty clever for kids

like they make really good decisions

they won’t go and buy the high quality toys that are expensive

they’ll buy the budget toys bc there’s more of them

the three of them all play well together

shawn is really shy and was really scared to try new things

he wasn’t really adventerous

ethan and lani decided it was their life mission to make shawn more social and adventurous

most of the things they all did together was to try and get shawn to try more things and be less scared of not scary things

and he loves it!

ethan is like the leader of the group

as the oldest, the other two tend to just follow him

ethan is the same way towards his little brother

like at first, he was awkward like mark was

tbh ethan is super awkward around babies lol

like he doesn’t know the right way to talk with them

he’s okay with his younger brother

he didn’t really know how to interact with eli when he was an infant

ethan gets better when eli is a toddler

he starts to gain an interest in rapping and stuff around this age

mark shows him some of his old videos and such

and he’s honestly so entranced

he thinks mark’s rapping is the coolest thing in the entire world (bc it is)

mark starts to teach him as much as he can

and ethan is just so interested in all of it

ethan spends almost all of his free time writing lyrics and such 

mark helps him out

ethan most definitely can speak english too

like mark made it a point that he wants his kids to be bilingual lol

ethan is just as passionate about canada as mark is

honestly? ethan looks like a mix between you and mark

but his personality is all mark

when he hits puberty, his voice is squeakier than average lol

he still raps through it tho

he doesn’t let the squeaky voice make him feel insecure at all lol

>> as a teen/adult <<

becomes such an amazing rapper it’s crazy

he doesn’t join a boy group

he becomes a solo artist

he’s honestly just as busy a someone in a boy group tho

like not only did he get his personality from mark

he also got his busy schedule :,(

this was unintentional

but ethan is such a good rapper that they just filled up his schedule

lani becomes a solo artist herself and they collab together a lot

like they collab together so much that at this point, they should just say that their in a group together lol

ethan is so multitalented

like his rap style isn’t limited to just one

like he can do all kinds of different styles

he can spit bars

he can deliver a super strong rap

he can even rap in a chill way

ethan’s voice is honestly so calming too

like he has one of those voices that you can just listen to for hours on end

his on stage persona is so intimidating 

but his normal personality?

he’s soft™

around lani? even softer™

tbh

like lani and ethan just decide that they’re together one day

they both probably danced around that topic because they both were scared that getting together would ruin their friendship

like lani didn’t want to confess because she didn’t think ethan liked her like that

and ethan vice versa 

ethan would probably be writing a song and he would call lani to be there bc she was his muse

and like they found themselves super close with each other and stuff

then they were like “look, let’s just start dating, wth.”

and they do

and they become the power couple of the century™

lol they probably were super scared to tell shawn

but when they did he’ll be like “FINALLY”

and lani and ethan were like ???

and shawn was like “y’all. I’m hella dense, but even I WAS ABLE to see that there was something going on between you two.”

ethan and lani were both hella relieved and their status as a couple didn’t mess with their friendship with each other and with shawn at all

anyway

ethan gets really famous bc he’s just such a good rapper and such

and he maintains his relationship with his best friends

and he also supports the heck out of eli

omg eli would like make a dance cover to every single one of ethan’s songs

and ethan and eli would dance together a lot

they were super good siblings

if ethan needed choreo, the only person he would go to is eli. periodt.

ethan is honestly such a good and awesome person :) 

ELI LEE: >> as a baby <<

he was so chic as a baby

like he would give you guys smiles and stuff

but the smiles only lasted a quick second

then his face is straight again

everyone was lowkey like “why is he so mad at us all of the time”

eli wasn’t mad

that was just his face lol

he was a rather bouncy baby

like he was definitely happiest when he was in his bouncer

mark was better this time, dw

he definitely wasn’t perfect

but the training ten and jaehyun put him through prepared him for this

eli also tended to smile a lot when ethan’s in the room

and mark is definitely happy to have a little helper

even tho ethan was still a little young when eli was born

he was still a huge help

like if eli was crying

ethan would walk over and hit him reassuringly

and eli would stop crying!

but it was out of shock and not comfort lol

it’s okay bc it gave mark enough time to get over there :)

eli honestly was the biggest momma’s boy

like the first day you were gone the whole day

eli couldn’t take it

he cried basically the entire day

eli loves mark, but he just loves you so much more for some reason lol

even tho he looked mad 25/8

he was such a pretty baby

like he was all you with mark’s eyes

those rare times eli did smile, oh man

the universe stopped when you saw that precious smile

he was a really sweet baby regardless of what people would say :,)

one of the quickest ways to make eli really happy is to put him in his bouncer

turn on some music

and boom

happy baby right there

mark is really good at playing with his boys

like both ethan and eli had such an active imagination

and mark was right up there with them

when eli was stomping and walking around, that’s when mark shined as a dad haha

eli is happy sunshine even tho he has one of the most severe cases of rbf lol

>> as a child <<

still pretty chic

like nothing really phases him

he looks scary or mean

but he’s honestly really sweet and nice

people would be really scared to approach him tbh 

bc he just looked so mad

but the second he opened his mouth?

happy boy™

omg but if someone was talking crap about eli?

ethan would have none of it

ethan will defend his brother until the day he dies. 

he’s best friends with yangyang’s oldest son, ryu wei

they’re born the same year

eli and wei both love love love hip hop

they also both are so talented at dancing

like when you watch like those dance company things (like the MILLENNIUM DANCE COMPLEX) and you see the little kids?

that’s eli and wei

their personalities compliment each other well

like their both goofballs

and they both work really hard

and they both have a huge passion for dancing!

omg eli is definitely the shy one between the two

okok imagine

it’s eli and wei’s first super huge dance comeptition

and they both have major solos / a duet part of the dance together

the entire family is there

(including all of nct and their kids lol)

(they totally take up half of the theater but that’s besides the point)

wei is HYPED

but eli is super duper nervous

to the point where eli doesn’t want to go onstage anymore

and even tho wei reassures him, eli is still nervous

wei knows exactly what to do tho

he goes and grabs ethan and takes ethan to eli

and after a quick pep talk and such, eli is all ready to go out

eli and wei both KILL it

they do so freaking well so like ofc they won :)

(without a doubt nct would be so freaking loud lol)

but it was genuinely so good!

eli is full of so much talent

but even so, he’s not lazy

both ethan and eli have such a good work ethic

they work hard to see their goals and it pays off :)

>> as a teen/adult <<

his face remains the same

like his stoic exterior is what makes him so popular

his facial expressions are honestly 10/10

he becomes a dancer

and he’s oh so good

he is another one of the instructors at youngchul and kaleb’s place

eli and wei are the freestyle teachers

like eli can do practically any style

but he feels like freestyling is the purest form of creative expression in dance

lol probably with his stoic expression, everyone thinks he’s the “bad cop”

but it’s the other way around

and like wei isn’t really the bad cop

eli is like “okay! good work guys! let’s take a quick break then start again!”

wei is like “okay! love the energy so let’s all keep it going with no break. we’ll take a break when our legs feel like their gonna fall off, okay?”

eli was probably casted a lot since he’s been in the dancing scene as soon as he could walk

and like he genuinely considered joining a group

like he knew how to rap a bit from practicing with ethan and such

and tbh, eli thought he would do it bc he thought that it would make mark “more” proud of him

but mark would tell him to do whatever he wanted!

like regardless if he joined a group or stayed as a dancer or heck, even get an office job

mark would be so proud

so eli decided (probably on a coinflip lol) that he’ll dedicate his time as a full time dancer

and honestly? he’s living his best life

like best best life

he gets to do his favorite thing everyday

he’s surrounded by family and friends?

eli is thriving

he also is super duper supportive of all of the other dancers in the group

like if a kid wants to dance for fun, eli and wei will teach them!

omg eli for sure inherited mark’s flexibility lol

if eli is really feeling the vibe of a song and wants to go off he’ll throw in the splits 99% of the time teehee

like all of his talent and hard work is shown through every performance

eli is honestly pretty awkward tho lol

like onstage and in front of a camera? he looks like the most confident person in the world

then offstage and someone compliments him? 

poor baby gets so shy haha

he calls you everyday

he’s still the biggest momma’s boy lol

eli is honestly just thriving :))

---

and there’s mark’s fam! i hope you guys liked it!

i have a ton of ideas for a joint baby sitting project between mark, ten, and jaehyun! it should be a ton of fun to write!

let me know if you have any requests! my request box is open :))

- amy <3

[ahiddenpath]

Life Talk

1.)  I won Nanowrimo

2.)  My house is sold

3.)  I’m tryyyyyyying to taking it easy

More below the cut.

So, I won Nanowrimo.  It’s roughly 30K Four Years and 20K Tri: Integrity Lens.  I feel very... blank about it, though.  In the last few years, I’ve been trying to celebrate when I win Nanowrimo, but...  I don’t have any emotions about it this year, probably even less than usual.

I should probably back up and say that, when I was growing up, I was the type that got all As, won every contest, was the lead in plays and singing events, got the good behavior awards, won state-wide science and poetry contests, was on the select sports teams.  I’m not saying this to brag- I was hyper-involved in school and extracurriculars because it kept me away from home.  

It got to the point at home where, if I won an award, the reaction was, “good.”  If I didn’t, it was, “Why didn’t you win that award?  We don’t have money for tutoring, so you had better figure it out *vague threat* ”  Stuff like that.

Basically, it’s hard for me to feel proud of anything.  If I succeed, that’s “baseline.”  Good, I won’t be scolded.  If I don’t, that’s anxiety- “I will be scolded, I will be punished.”  

I can’t change that concept as an adult- it was cemented into me during my formative years.  But I can see it, and I can tell myself- it’s okay.  Don’t beat yourself up over not feeling a certain way.

The big thing on my mind now, still, is that we sold our first home successfully a few days ago.  It’s the most enormous load off my mind.  This whole time, I’ve been wondering- I keep pinning everything on when the house is sold.  Will it actually be a relief?  Will it actually free up emotional and mental real estate?

SPOILER ALERT: IT DID, I FEEL GREAT!  

I told my therapist that I couldn’t feel “at home” and “settled” until I sold the old house, and she challenged me to not wait for some kind of...  Permission?  Catalyst?  Like, don’t put things off citing “my old home isn’t sold” as a reason, because suddenly, a year will have passed and you still haven’t painted your room or put up photos or turned the house into your home.

I absolutely see her point, but I also see mine.  Frankly, now that I’m not paying for two mortgages, I can afford to do some of that stuff (buy paint and supplies, buy a rug, buy a lamp, etc).  It is true that I could have hung my photos at any time, so that was just a mental/stress block, but I do think that pointing to the money that was tied up in paying the mortgages for both homes, and for repairing things at the old home at the buyer’s demand, was... you know, a valid reason not to be throwing money at our current home.

Right now, my anxiety is free to be directed at the fact that the CDC is forecasting such drastic pandemic leaps.  It’s expected to hit in about 10-ish days after today, 11/29, a Sunday that will likely be the largest single day for travel as people head back home in droves to make it to work on Monday after going away for Thanksgiving.  It’s expected that we’ll be seeing 4,000 covid deaths per day in the states around week 2/3 of December.

I really don’t want to go to work physically, because I know coworkers who travelled.  I wish we could all stay home for two weeks, when the symptoms will show for carriers who are not asymptomatic.  I will definitely be limiting my time in the office to after 3 PM, when a lot of coworkers have gone home.  It’s still a risk that I’m not sure is worthwhile.  

Ah!  I should probably say that my therapist is talking about ending therapy.  I started in... I wanna say March or April of 2019?  Is that right?  So I guess it’s been...  Like, 19-ish months?  I’ve learned so much, but I would say...  The biggest difference is that I can see my behavior patterns for what they are, and then decide what to do with them.  I haven’t “changed” at my core.  I can’t, not in the way people mean when they say “you’ve changed.”  The same learned behaviors, belief systems, and emotions from my childhood are there.  I just recognize them when they pop up and can make informed decisions about how to approach them.  

Which, it turns out, makes a huge difference, even if it isn’t really “change.”  I’m always in danger of being too distraught to see what’s in front of my face, though (thanks, anxiety!).

What else...  My husband and I did cheese fondue and hot pot for Thanksgiving!  It was easily the best holiday I’ve ever had.  Holidays are always... so high pressure, always such events that turn a day off into a giant list of chores that might span weeks to complete beforehand.  Plus, I’m always hoping I’m not about to be dragged into some kind of “trap” conversation by both my family and my husband’s, who have very different political views compared to me.

But on Thanksgiving, my husband and I ate amazing food, spent a lot of time together, and I felt so loved and cared for and valued, because my husband came up with the idea and made it happen, all so we’d have a nice holiday together.  Honestly, I don’t deserve him.  I don’t get it.  He’s so amazing?  I love him so much.

As for my writing, I’ve been feeling...  Bad about it, frankly.  I think it’s partially because it honestly looks like no one is reading Tri: Integrity Lens.  I don’t get it?  It was my most requested story in 2018/2019, and I know people wanted a sequel to Growing Up with You, so why is TIL doing so poorly?  At first, I thought people were going back to read GUWY again first, since I saw a huge surge in hits for it.  Now, I’m not sure?  Like, if I open my stats, some random GUWY chapters will have over 10 times the hits as the newest TIL chapter???  ???? ????  ????  ?????

I’m wondering if it has to do with Tri itself...  I think that, the more time passed, the more people who liked Tri are maybe defensive about how... negative the fandom reaction was, overall.  Meanwhile, people who dislike it, I think, have maybe simply... chucked it out the window, and don’t think about it much.  Whereas, when it was still coming out and directly after it wrapped up, I think people who disliked Tri were more interested in imagining ways they might have personally tweaked it.

That makes things awkward for someone like me, who thinks Tri has amazing moments basically... tacked onto a crumbling base.  

Actually, let me give you my weird metaphor for Tri!

When I am deciding if I’m going to write a new fic, often what happens is...  A few powerful ideas coalesce, a few themes and characterizations.  Some people say they are lead by a few powerful scenes.  I think of these ideas/themes/character ideas (or scenes for other people) as sparkling ornaments on a Christmas tree.

The problem is that...  Ornaments in a box don’t... do much.  You need to display them on a tree, right?  The ornaments need to be connected and supported by a plot (unless you decide to write a focused oneshot, which is my recommendation in most cases).

In short: Tri has amazing ornaments, but the tree is... not... doing that well.  The ideas are there, there are plenty of awesome moments, but something about the actual story/execution just...  Didn’t do it for me.  But dang, those are some nice ornaments!

That was quick and dirty, but hopefully it conveyed the general idea.  

ANYWAY, I’ve been trying to decide if I’m going to continue TIL.  I think right now, I would definitely finish Ketsui, since I have so much material written already.  Why waste it, right?  But I’m not sure what the future of the story will be- not plot wise, but rather, “is my time better spent elsewhere”-wise.

I’m not sure if I need to focus on a new story, if I should take a break, or what.  I need to write for my mental health, but it doesn’t have to be a fanfic.  It can be anything, as long as I explore whatever is eating at me.

And that is where I am!  I hope you’re all staying safe <3

[soonsoop]

blog #4 - how to compost!

May 9th, 2021

Hi everyone, I’m back with another blog post! Today’s blog post topic is going to be about composting!

What’s composting? 

Composting (in simple terms) is the process of converting natural material into compost a.k.a. fertilizer for plants! 

Composting has many benefits:

Eliminates food waste going into the landfill (+ makes your trash smell less smelly)

Natural and easy way to make homemade fertilizer

Good for your plants!

Let me share my experience with composting:

A few months back, I was really intrigued to start composting. I had been hesitant several many times to actually start due to my situation and also fear of “messing up”. I currently live in a suburban house with family members including my grandparents. My family (not including my grandparents) was against the idea when I first told them about it. That was discouragement #1. 

I referenced off the experience I had back in my highschool days. In my junior year of high school, a group of classmates and I were in-charge of the compost bin at our school. We visited the bin every week or so to turn the bin and add materials or water if need be. The bin was fairly large and belonged to the teacher. With the subtle knowledge I had back then, I looked into buying compost bins thinking it was the only way to compost “properly”. 

Then, one day after watching a couple YouTube videos and researching different ways to compost, I found out that there were many solutions than I’d imagined. I watched some people composted in their apartment by freezing their food into the freezer and dropping it off at a local composting station or farmer’s market in town. Some people used a coffee bin or container to make their mini compost bin inside their homes, and some who just used the plain ground to pile their compost outside in the countryside.

I combined all the knowledge I gained to apply it to my experience. I asked my family again if I could try composting. Of course they were pretty skeptical of it, but I proceeded on and tried to persuade them through my actions. To start with, I used a plain ol’ freezer bag to collect all my food scraps. With every collection, I zipped the bag up and stuck it into the freezer. 

The next I had to do was find somewhere to actually compost the food scraps. I went to ask my grandma if I could dig some holes in the backyard near the side of our house and she agreed! We dug some small holes up and that’s how my journey of composting really began to take it’s place. Although my grandma didn’t fully understand the in’s and out’s of composting, her agreeing to it was a significant encouragement to me! :’)

I started the composting process by adding my food scraps into the hole, piling some dead leaves ontop, covering dirt ontop of it all, and then finally adding water to it. At first, I checked and turned my compost about 3 times per week. It was a surely slow process but I did see a bit of the results after a month or two! One time I found a tiny piece of ready-made compost with white specs like fertilizer! It got me really excited! Since then, I’ve been composting and try to check it once per week. I learned that it’s better to start now instead of hesitating or fearing the mistakes. It’s not as bad as you think it is!

Now with that being said, I’ll tell you HOW exactly to compost!

How to Compost!

There are many ways to compost depending on your situation and location. I’ll break it down into simpler terms to make it easier for you:

1. Find a compartment to keep your food scraps 

Image from: LiveForLess

There are TWO common compartments to keep your food scraps before dumping it into your compost area. One is a compost bucket and another is a freezer bag/bin. There are compost bins/buskets made to store food scraps for a short period of time and then taken out to be thrown into the compost. Personally, for me it is a bit costly to do that plus the idea of keeping food scraps out even in a bin sounds unappealing since I share a home too. My option, is to use a freezer bag and freeze my compost. I currently use the medium-sized Ziploc freezer bags that my family has lying around in our house to put my scraps and freeze them. I’m planning to invest in a Stasher bag or a similar reusable compartment to put my scraps in for the future but for now, I’m using what I have. I encourage you all to use what you have! It not only saves money but makes the most out of your current resources.

2. Find a place to compost 

This is where things get more complex here. First, keep in mind where you’re located. Do you have access to a drop-off bin? A backyard? How about a community garden? Or are you willing to and financially able to make your compost bin in your home? There are so many places to compost depending on your situation. I don’t think there is one way to do it. I found this infographic on composting you can follow! Looking at the graphic, in my case my compost area would go in the trench/pit section!

Image from: gardensthatmatter

3. Find a time to commit

Lastly, the final step is a time to commit. Depending on your situation, you might need to adjust a bit of time out of your schedule to commit to composting. If you’re deciding on dropping-off your food scraps at a local farmers’ market or community garden, then you would probably have to contact them and set a time, etc. If you’re composting at home, you would need to allot a time to be able to turn the compost every (blank) amount of times each few days, week or even months! It all depends on your commitment and compost bin/area type. Rule of thumb: The more frequently you check/turn your compost the faster the process will go (Of course you still have to be patient and let Mother Nature do its thing.). For generally bigger piles, checking on the piles once a month may be ideal. For me, I try to check my compost once every week usually on the weekends since I’m busy with school during the weekdays.

Ok, so now that we’ve got our areas set, what exactly can we compost and HOW?

That’s right, I’m here with another graphic! :D There’s honestly different lists, graphics, videos and etc. on what to and what NOT to compost which can be quite overwhelming. When I researched all of this information I was honestly overwhelmed and a bit daunted. The list I’ve compiled below isn’t exactly accurate for all compost piles, however it is most inclusive to what is generally accepted in most compost bins/piles. The general rule is you can compost generally all fresh vegetable and fruit scraps. Most natural untreated materials as well. 

Some compost piles can have animal products, but it’s known to attract creatures and have a terrible smell so that is why I don’t include it in my compost pile. I would recommend you do your research if you’re interested into doing that however! Also, obvious things like toxic waste, chemicals and any items containing non-biodegradable plastic aren’t allowed. Yes, even glass and metal can’t be included in compost! You would think it could break down, but..... no it won’t. It will take way too long..... Also, pet waste like dog poop and cat poop is a no no. They may contain parasites that can get into the plants you grow and might eat. Yuck. Also, diseased plants or rotten food are not allowed.

Now that you know what to put in your compost, how exactly do you build it? Well, depending on your compost pile/area or situation, it will vary. There are also TWO main categories of layers that make up your compost: The browns and the greens. 

Browns are dead leaves, twigs, branches, and cardboard/paper.

Greens are your food scraps, coffee grounds, grass clippings, etc.

However, usually speaking for actual compost piles you’d first:

Pile your browns

Pile your greens ontop of the browns

Pile browns ontop of those greens

Cover the pile with soil (If a compost trench/pit or in a bin)

Add water

Check and turn your compost pile every allotted time out of your schedule and add water when needed!

Some composting advice!

Make sure to take off labels from your fruit/vegetables! Did you know most of labels on produce are made of plastic? so it’s not compostable. :(

Add enough water. I’ve had times when I didn’t add enough water to my compost so, ants started making their way into the pile. Though, fear not! If you add enough water you’ll be able to scare them away! Ants aren’t a bad thing to your compost, but too much of them and they will try to make a home in your pile-- which we don’t want. Also, don’t overwater your pile either! You’ll be able to know if you pile has enough water when turning it and observing the dampness of the soil.

Creepy crawlies are a good sign! If you start to see insects/bugs like rollie pollies and worms, that’s an awesome sign! They’ll be extremely helpful in breaking down your compost faster by letting them chew their way through the material! 

Keep your compost pile covered. If you don’t cover your pile with dirt/lid chances are it will smell bad and attract pests that you don’t want such as, rodents. I haven’t dealt with that problem before but it is possible.

Try to keep a balance of your materials. (For those who are composting at home) This one may be difficult to accomplish depending on the foods you eat and what you’re able to do. Too much of anything is bad. It’s good to have variety in your compost and not have too many acidic food scraps like citruses for example. Remember: what you put into your compost is what you’re getting as the result.

I hope this simple guide to composting helped you! Happy composting! :)

[theflikchic]

Things I Love About “Good Omens” (From A Christian)

I read the book a year ago but only just watched the show because of a fluke that made us get Amazon Prime. And now that I’ve gotten to watch it and really absorb it (and not be on a ton of painkillers, since I was recovering from surgery when I read it), I realized there were SO many things I love about it, most of which come from the fact that I...am Christian. 

(So heads up: I’ll be referring to all this stuff as if it’s real since...it’s my belief system and I feel “Good Omens” is an awesome show so yaaay, celebrate that darn adorable angel and demon with me) (WARNING- LONG POST AHEAD)

- First and foremost: Jesus’ death. The way that was HANDLED so well just blew my mind. I have anxiety so I’ve tried to avoid all crucifixions scenes but I’m glad this was the one I saw because it was so respectful and heartbreaking (i was sobbing). 

- It was also cool to see Jesus’ death from the perspective of people who aren’t Christian and to see that although they don’t believe him to be the Son Of God, they still recognize it as a tragedy.

-  Frances McDormand as God. Okay, I was iffy on it at first but I was reminded that God is supposed to be the mix of masculine and feminine and He presents himself as Father to us so we can get a better idea of who He is. So although I refer to God as a man, He is supposed to be reflective of both so having a woman voice Him is a really interesting viewpoint........And I just like Frances McDormand.

- Newt’s casting. Just...so perfect. Exactly the way I pictured him.

- The fact that the angels mention how they’re celestial and not organic because HEEEELL yes,

- Adam and his friends ringing their bike bells just to tell everyone how they got into the airbase. Iconic.

- The fact that they toned down the Famine sequence. Reading that part made me feel so sick so I’m glad they toned it down for the screen.

- Michael Sheen’s terrifyingly accurate David Tennant impression.

- The angels, though seen as more aggressive than they probably are, are militant and that’s...kinda what they’re meant to be.

- The fact Heaven is filmed to be nauseating because (in my theory), we as humans find being good to be incredibly hard and stressful so we can’t imagine what it would be like to constantly be good.

- They defeated Satan with a MEME.

- Bonus: They defeated Satan and we got to SEE IT.

- Michael McKean. Bonus points because he’s one of my mom’s favourites and he made us all so happy.

- I’ve read Revelation TWICE and it wasn’t until I saw this that I learned 666 is an actual thing and not just a meme.

- The moment when Crowley prays. Biblically inaccurate but I sorta saw it as us in sin, as humans, praying to God because I have BEEN THERE. The amount of times I’ve asked God- “What do I do. I don’t know what to do,” is wild and I did it just earlier. And that moment hit me.

- “Oh.........FUCK,” *heavenly jingle intensifies*

-  THE FACT THAT REVELATION KINDA HAPPENED

- The fact that, besides Crowley, there are no redeeming qualities in the demons. That’s a hard thing to write and they nailed it.

- *to the Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc jingle* Demons are holding a buuuuckeet!

- Although Aziraphale is genuinely a bad angel, he’s a pretty good representation of what we should try to be as Christians: loving, trying to help everyone, not kill kids, etc.

- “Tickety-boo,”

- The fact that they literally got ALL OF THE HOLMES SIBLINGS TO BE IN THIS LIKE WHAT-

- “We are Satantic nuns,”

- BOOK ACCURATE DIALOGUE

- I will praise Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett on this forever but the fact that the kids talk like kids. Because kids talk like adults. Because kids are little adults. Love it.

- The moment when Aziraphale at the sword and said to Adam- “We’ll be right beside you,” was like a hardcore guardian angel moment and I was SHOOK.

- The casting of literally anyone to play the angels, demons, and supernatural beings because- as Neil Gaiman and the Bible say- they’re genderless. They’re angels and demons. 

- When Madame Tracy just screamed at that woman and she screamed back. That must’ve been so much fun to film, my goodness.

- The narrative creates a flawed way to try and talk to God and recognizes that it’s a flawed way, whereas the real way in the belief system isn’t because we as humans find it difficult to fathom that you can just...talk to the Big Boss.

- The little add-on that that one angel was from Sodom and Gomorrah. Which made me laugh but then made me sad.

- NOT ONE HUMAN BIBLICAL FIGURE WAS WHITE. NOT. ONE. AMEN.

- Those crappy camp chairs being in Hell because of COURSE they are

- The sea monsters. I just really like the sea monsters in Revelation so that was cool.

- Got to see Death ride that motorcycle because that’s the closest that we’re probably getting to a live-action “Soul Music”.

- War’s jacket.

- The fact that I had an existential moment when I realized Death being an actual...being is Biblical.

- Every “Doctor Who” reference.

- The hint that God planned everything because...just up.

- The repeated emphasis on how supernatural beings aren’t the reason behind every choice or event in history. Because they really aren’t. WWII happened because of humans. Supernatural beings can influence but they aren’t the REASON for everything.

- The pushing of the idea that the plan is “ineffable” but it constantly contradicts this idea because even in real life, God’s plan has never been ineffable.

- “He was waving,”

- God narrates so He/She knows everything which kinda gives Aziraphale and Crowley a Jonah-feel since they’re trying to outrun an almighty being. And obviously failing.

- Aziraphale’s gasp when he got betrayed. Legend.

- Agnes Nutter’s prophecies being insanely specific like the actual prophecies in the Bible. (I read a verse and Jesus said- “Remember me when there’s anger in the streets” and I was like WAIT)

- The emphasis that most- if not all- witch killings were rooted in sexism and superstitions. Also, that whole scene gave me “Holy Grail” vibes which is always a win.

- And most importantly: “Good Omens” has fun with the creatures and supernatural beings in the Christian belief system but never ONCE makes fun of the religion itself or the people who believe in it. The book takes an extra step and mocks organized religion (which, YES, do that, please) but it’s never mean-spirited. While flawed and inaccurate in some Biblical aspects (like the basic plot), it’s so funny and witty while remaining accurate in other aspects to the source material of the Bible such as the supernatural beings being genderless. It’s basically like- “Woah...it says in Revelation that there are giant sea monsters! We get to write giant sea monsters, awesome! What can we make the sea monsters do? OOooh, what if they took down a whaling ship?” It also gets the message of Christianity down: love others, forgive others, give second chances. And I feel that’s why it’s so effective, because it’s fun and cool but still hits those perfect emotional beats that resonate with everyone because they’re true. Love each other. 

And go read more Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. They deserve all the love.

[kokiri-at-the-pack]

1004

October 4

Ranting like this isn’t going to be helpful at all…

...I must take a walk first. Better to relax my head.

...

Yes! Yes! YES! I know what I’ll do exactly!

I can’t believe a simple walk around my village gave me a huge inspiration!

Occasionally, homeless people and their children would wander around corners of some streets. They include Mr. Francis, an old man whom I have befriended as I have regularly listened to his magnificent and skillful play of guitar. Well...a guitar-like instrument exactly as it was made up of rubbish like cans, plastic containers etc. Still, it would play melodies that would sound just like an ordinary guitar. That was his ability. Creating a musical instrument and its function out of any material. That and his open-mindedness have allowed me to get closer to him. As usual, I headed towards the street he often dwells in to calm myself through his music.

Just like I expected, he welcomed me with a smile and played soothing balad music like he was a professional musician. I closed my eyes and let every single note fill my head. For a moment, I got oblivious towards my major concern with which I was stressing myself.

“That was awesome, Mr. Francis!” I exclaimed when his music ended, “what song did you play exactly?”

Mr. Francis chuckled, “this is my song actually.”

I could not believe what I just heard.

“You composed it?! I didn’t know you could make music! Seriously! Shouldn’t you apply to a company or something?”

However, Mr. Francis remained quiet and shook his head. Even behind his dusty hat and greasy gray beard which covered half of his face, I could observe sadness in his eyes.

“Been there and done that, young lady. Lost count of it.” he finally answered.

I immediately understood what his words meant.

“I gave thousands of my songs--now all burnt to ashes years ago--in every business I could find. I explained for many times what my ability can do. But maybe the Heavenly Father made a mistake of not putting me luck when sending me to this world. Every result was no different. Rejection. Your music is too bland and old-fashioned. The world has plenty of instruments today.”

I was speechless. Never knew Mr. Francis had such a tragic background.

“We do not need your ability,” he emphasized the last sentence as if that was the most agonizing statement stuck in his head.

Then he returned to his original bright face.

“You may expect what happened next. I spent too much chasing after my hopeless dream. My family lost trust in me. The debt was not paid on time. My home was lost, and... here I am,” he chuckled weakly.

I was lost in thought. Mr. Francis started to remind me of Father. Struggling with what others thought are disadvantageous abilities. Yet, after facing reality, they have both given up paths that could have made them happy. That could have made their loved ones happy. Despite all of that, Father did have his own skills. Mr. Francis just showed me his unique talent. Others would never have been able to imitate them. Is there really no way to make their abilities worthy?

Unless…

...My drawing!

I stood up quickly, “don’t worry, Mr. Francis. Everything will be better soon.”

I comforted him before I returned home, leaving his confused face behind.

I ran as rapidly as my feet could and reached my room filled with notebooks and sketches.

Why did I never think of it before? My ability and its critical effect can be put to good use. If I draw with care unfortunate people like Mr. Francis succeed by following their passion, not only will they have a joyful future ahead in their lives. They will no longer have to suffer from difficulties in the past. They will forget it and become totally new people!

And who knows! They might be seen as diamonds in the rough!

It would be okay. I’m not going to ruin their lives. Just… just helping them. As long as my sketches are safe, I can prove my ability to be supportive!

Ah, I should not waste time writing this. I should gather some newspapers, if there is an article about those who need help.

October 7

After days of searching, I have chosen and written down the list of people to whom I’m going to use my drawings to give them second chances in their lives. I have not written down their full names and addresses as I must respect their privacy. Instead, I have elaborated how they have lived before and the way I’m going to change them in more positive ways. I wish I could pick up more, but I do not have the skill yet to quickly draw all wanted events in detail. Anyways, here is the mentioned list:

Mr. Francis finally gets recognized thanks to his music and his ability.

A girl with a nickname of Jenna opens a pet shop for her ability to communicate with animals.

A lonely man discovers his love of life with his skills of persuasion.

An unpopular Pattern Creator winner of the Design Competition is invited to design products of one of the most famous clothing brands Whiskey.

A college student, who worries about her final assignments for graduation about using her abilities to help people, accomplishes it smoothly and receives honors.

October 12

Alright. I have finally finished drawing all the illustrations of the chosen people. Now, where can be the safest place for sheets of paper in my house? Oh, yeah. The storage room. My hands hurt right now from restless use of them to accomplish my work. But I must remain mindful of how I am going to store the drawings without my family finding them.

Hmm, that’s right. An old wooden box in the corner. There is no way they will even take a peek at it.

October 13

Is my ability finally getting the light it deserves? When I passed by the street where Mr. Francis frequently played his instrument, I was surprised to find that he was not there. In his place, I noticed other homeless people, who seemed to be his friends, having an excited conversation. I stepped a bit closer to the group and eavesdropped on what they were saying.

“You believe what we just saw?” asked one of them.

“Don’t mention it! Never thought about witnessing it at all!” replied another.

“Who was that fancy-looking man from a...very long car?” an old female beggar spoke.

“Dunno. He just said that he liked ol’ Francis’ music and took him away.”

Mr. Francis? Someone liked his music? So he brought him away to somewhere else? Can this happen on an instance? I thought it was just a super rare coincidence...at first.

It wasn’t until I saw my parents watching the small black and white television that I understood it wasn’t. Inside the screen, I recognized at once who that lady was. The Pattern Creator. She was having an interview about how she was happy to get invited to showcase her talent after all the years of namelessness.

“Sigh, even that woman with such an ability succeeds in this world,” Mother complained.

However, her words were barely worth attention to me at that moment. I rushed to ask Father to borrow today’s newspaper and scanned all the available headlines. Sure enough, there was that one headline I had been looking for. Jenna, the girl with an ability to communicate with animals, had just opened up her unique pet shop and wrote an article about how her ability differentiates her shop from others. She was also looking for employees to work with, the advertisement of which was posted at the end of her article.

It worked! This can be the new potential of my ability! They are all smiling. They have a wonderful future ahead! Jenna… Mr. Francis… The Pattern Creator… They have begun new lives thanks to me! If I can utilize this more efficiently, then who knows how far this positive influence can go?

I don’t think I would be able to sleep tonight. But it doesn’t matter. This is the day I discovered my worth!