#it's just the pronounciation because it should be pronounced with the x but it can also be said like faux

[hercarisntyours]

why is making an oc so hard

[rigelmejo]

7/23/2021 Reading Progress - Almost 2 Years

I know I posted a little about reading progress a few days ago, but it’s really just exciting to me! And really really motivating!

These past few days, I’ve been reading one of my favorite fanfic writers. I started intensively reading, and now I can get by reading faster (which for me is only 140 characters a minute ToT so still quite slow but hey its something) and just looking an ACTUAL only 4-5 new words per chapter (which is 4000-5000 characters).  Just the fact I am ACTUALLY 98% comprehending chinese reading material. And material I actually want to be reading. Goal reading material! Because like? 

Even when I was extensively reading before, I was reading stuff that was ‘hard’ to read extensively (enough that I’d need to think and use any clues from context to guess what’s going on for certain key words and phrases I didn’t know but needed, and there were enough of those that I needed to focus a lot). This is really like the first extensive reading I’ve been able to do where I can actually just relax and speed read the extensive reading if I want to. Where it feels more like reading Lord of the Rings fast, or Dracula (some vocab I don’t know or weird phrasings for me but its fine to get through until I get used to it) - or some stuff easier now like reading Good Omens (where its an easy read where I get comfortable fast). Where it feels much more like reading english, just slower (and with less context hints for new words lol - since english I can sound out and guess if I heard it before and already know all the ‘word stem’ hints of meaning). Now, because of there being less ‘context stuff’ i can rely on compared to english, i do plan to keep using a digital dictionary to read sometimes (especially because it is the FASTEST way for me personally to reinforce new hanzi pronunciations). 

Like. This past week I’ve been following the Silent Reading audiobook along with the novel, and also just reading the Chinese novel. And also just reading some new stuff by one of my favorite fanfic authors. And I’ve been able to. The fanfic story is a bit easier, so I suppose I can read it with no prior context! (That’s what I looked up about 5 new words for - chairman, deputy were the keywords I needed then most of the rest made sense from context lol). And Silent Reading I read in english but like years ago, so many paragraphs felt new to me but they were fine to read except a few description-dense sections where something economic-related was being said (along with some 4-character phrases I wasn’t sure of). I knew lately I’ve been able to read new Guardian chapters while following along with the audiobook without the english translation, if I don’t want to know every single word but just follow the plot/most of it, so its been really cool seeing this week that I can do it with Silent Reading too! 

I’m fairly sure my level of comprehension is like this: the more murder mystery, investigative/detectives, more contemporary, more supernatural, more romantic, more daily life - the more I will comprehend it. 

Those seem to be my more ‘comfortable domains’ vocabulary wise. Specifically mystery/supernatural/contemporary (since most anything I watch or read is in usually at least one of these genres partly). When I get into xianxia, the farther it is from the very joking/basic SVSSS xianxia vocab the less I can comprehend. I did read 28 chapters of Tian Ya Ke before so maybe some of that will help with reading wuxia genre, but I’d argue it was months ago and tyk doesn’t really go very deep into using wuxia genre words compared to some novels. So basically my xianxia and wuxia vocab is very basic main-plot words like you’d hear in show scripts, but not necessarily enough to follow the details of novels - I do think I know enough to follow the overall main plot though. Happily, Tian Ya Ke and Qi Ye are on my reading list in the future, so they may both help more with political/court and wuxia genre words so that those genres get more comprehensible for me. 

I’m really excited about the tyk and qy reads now, since I planned to read them extensively while glancing at the english translation for help if I didn’t understand. And since I’m starting to be able to extensively read some of priest okay, then doing that with a novel while using the translation so its like a bilingual-resource to reference making things easier, should not be as hard/intensive as it might have been a few months ago. 

This is just. For me a very big milestone. I’m at a point where some of my goal reading is something I can extensively read without too much pain, and have enough hanzi-knowledge to guess some new words and phrases from context a decent amount of the time.

Summary: it’ll be 2 years in a month. And I’m officially at a point where some of the goal novels are able to be extensively read, genuinely, and some of the ‘goal other stuff’ is extensively readable now (some fanfics, some easier bl novels, etc). Past me would be really excited. ToT

I plan to: keep reading intensively and extensively (with an emphasis on reading through a lot more characters/words), keep doing L-R Method and listening-only during day (keep working on improving listening). And occasionally shadowing now/repeated listening/practicing speaking. In the long term: I’d like to read my grammar guide and practice writing/speaking from what I learn. 

That plan has worked really well the past few months

-

Related: my japanese reading skill! Because weirdly enough its been seeing improvements too!

So, I already realized me knowing more hanzi definitely helps me ‘guess more japanese words’ from context. Because: 1. its like english-french, while some are false cognates with nothing actually in common I can sometimes figure that out from the fact the scene is ‘wrong’ for the word I would’ve guessed, and I do know the word endings in japanese so that helps guess if its noun/adjective/verb, and I do know around 2000 common japanese words specifically so that also helps me notice what’s not actually similar in meaning. 2. so i’ve got this basic framework to guess stuff from context: 2000 japanese words I do know, some basic grammar recognition, ~2000 hanzi I do know and then however many chinese words I know, rough recognition of some of the katakana words, and then I usually try to read something I have prior context for so I’ve either read/played in english or know the overall plot main points in english. Apparently all of this helps a lot.

Now its not putting me on anything near 98% comprehension lol (except maybe KH2 since I know that story so well I really do figure out a lot but its more like idk 90% and me just very good at telling ‘unknown part’ was ‘probably X’ but not actually able to be sure, so i can follow fully but i’m not able to learn from a certain amount just cause i can’t be sure its not perhaps actually-something-else more nuanced). But whatever comprehension it puts me at, its enough to follow the main plot (better than I could ever do before with japanese lol with anything more than... well anything... i couldn’t follow even simple manga main overall plot unless i had a dictionary at year 2.5... so now the fact i can generally follow main plot of games, and catch a decent amount of details - not a majority but still regularly noticing some details, all without a dictionary, is pretty cool to me). 

Lately I’ve been watching some REALLY old Shin Megami Tensei and related game lets plays in japanese, with the player reading aloud (so hopefully I learn some actual word pronounciations my biggest weak point). Because I understand enough right now that I can pick up a lot more just by continuing to watch. Like, playing KH2 I could pick up the ‘reading’ of some new stuff and grammar. But with a voiced lets play, I can also try to pick up those new words and maybe if I’m lucky how the more common ones are pronounced as they’re said again and again. I figure I can probably learn a lot more words this way, and continue getting used to the grammar, for a while before I see less frequent payoff. For now, I’m seeing constant easy payoff from doing it. I’ve got a lot of grammar I’ve read details on but not seen regularly enough to get used to, so that all gets reinforced and learned better. And I’ve got a lot of hanzi I know, and doing this helps me start learning the similar-cognate kanji and words writing/pronunciation, the slightly different ones and their rougher meaning along with writing/pronunciation, to be aware which ones are totally different (tho depending on scene context i may or may not learn these words at least i’ll know they’re not the same). 

My point is: now engaging with japanese is a lot more relaxing and enjoyable. (I realize lol a few months ago playing in japanese or watching a lets play was doable but exhausting, so perhaps i am getting more used to it or actually have learned a little lol). In the sense that, now it feels a lot more like ‘reading french when i started learning’ - i feel like i have a LOT more scaffolding to lean on and help me when i’m struggling, whereas i know the first 2.5 years i studied japanese i felt drowning since nothing was familiar - not the grammar, not the words, not the sound, not the lack of word-spaces, etc. Now it feels like there’s a lot more i have ‘some prior experience’ with (from grammar being restudied over and over now lol and i still need much more lol, to onyomi kanji pronunciations now being my favorite lol and kanji my favorite part of reading), so when i’m diving into japanese instead of drowning i have some floaties to grab onto usually (unless i go outside of the domains i’m used to).

By domains i mean - if I try listening-only i still drown (since then i only have grammar and 2000 japanese words i’m still rusty on listening to), if i do listening-watching without subs i have fewer floaties to grab (i have my 2000 learned words but am super rusty on hearing them especially without kanji to see for reference), obviously if its an old or technical text i will drown (im used to modern japanese, and very specifically daily life or supernatural/light-fantasy video game stories). So like... nier, kh2, crisis core, persona games, smt games, are much more in my comfort level of following a plot (again with subs, because without subs it HAS to be something i know the english well for if i’m going to follow much besides simple daily life parts since i’ll need the visual context and prior context to guess what’s going on just in general - not understanding those parts of the japanese). 

Long story short, its been super fun for me lately engaging with japanese. Japanese is NOT even in my ‘realistic’ study plan right now lol!

But this month I still: read a chapter of japanese translation of Guardian, played 4 hours KH2, read the opening scenes of the script of FFX (fyi: in Idiom app they made HUGE improvements I can now play the audio line by line and repeat-automatically as much as i want AND the definitions now come from much better dictionaries), watched 40 minutes of SMT game lets plays (both with and without audio - though since my pronunciation info literally doesn't exist for so many words I decided adding audio as often as possible would be better). 

My ultimate goal for japanese was to be able to play the games I like in japanese, and follow them before localization changes. I’m not picking up the level of info necessary to be fully satisfied with how much I’m noticing. But I do follow enough now that I’m able to start practicing/studying japanese BY playing the games I want or engaging with them in lets plays/scripts etc. And its very motivating to know I’m far enough into this goal to be studying by doing (at least for now, if it stops paying off as much I’ll likely need to approach it from new angles for a while). But like? I can taste it! I’m starting to do what I want, not as well as I want but I am starting to be able to do those things. And that’s really exciting. 

Side notes: I still personally want to continue reading my grammar guides until I've finished them (japanese in 30 hours, tae kim, sakubi), and keep going through clozemaster. Both of these were helping, do help, and ensure I’m building the weaknesses (grammar i just need SO much more help with for japanese, and clozemaster gives me actual word definitions and pronunciation and lets me practice listening skills and grammar in context which are ALL weak points for me). So that’s the overall japanese goal for a long while (yes i might also finish Nukemarine’s memrise decks if i ever feel up for flashcards again lol). 

In the LONG long term, i would probably want to move onto my other japanese study books i own while continuing to go through clozemaster - i have two reading-japanese books i think would help a ton especially if i want to speed up reading speed and/or read novels more, a sentence pattern book that for me personally would help with reinforcing and getting comfortable with grammar and common words (particularly for long term active use). I also have a kanji remembering book i probably could go through - although by then idk how many kanji i’ll remember the pronunciations and meanings for by then.

[spanishskulduggery]

how would you say a plural amount of letters? like in english you would say “two K’s” (kays) or “three S’s” (esses), how would you write it in spanish and how would you pronounce it?

Just a warning this kind of goes all over the place because of a lot of grammatical minutiae, but the simple answer:

la K / la ka = the letter K(las) dos kas = the two K’s

la S / la ese = the letter S(las) tres eses = the three S’s

You sometimes see it a letter written by itself or as its pronunciation (la K or la ka in singular), but in plural it’s usually its pronunciation (las kas)

So like…

Hay dos kas en “jackknife”. = There are two K’s in “jackknife”.

“Necessity” tiene dos eses. = “Necessity” has two S’s.

Most of the letters will have a kind of -s sound tacked onto their pronounciation and that will get you the plural of that sound.

There are exceptions… the vowels + X

La a [the letter A] => Las aes [the A’s]

La e [the letter E] => Las es / Las ees [the E’s]

La o [the letter O] => Las oes [the O’s]

La u [the letter U] => Las úes [U’s]

La i (latina) [the letter I] => Las íes (latinas) [I’s]La i (griega) [the letter Y] => Las íes (griegas) [Y’s]

La equis [the letter X] => Las equis [X’s]

With U and I, it’s because you’re preserving the U and I sound so they take on an accent mark to fully pronounce it…. basically because when U+E and I+E are put together, they blend, so the accent mark adds a hiatus. With A+E and O+E, the hiatus is already there so you don’t mix the sound.

It’s really just to keep you from saying something like “the oohs” and “the ees” which could be confusing.

Saying “aes” is kind of like “a-es”, and “oes” is like “o-es” because of the hiatus.

And with E you get two options “es” and “ees”… typically I hear las es with a long EH sound for multiple E’s or people putting la letra E just to be very clear.

And X [equis] already ends in S, so you don’t have to add an additional thing and make it “equises” or something. If you see something like “XXX” it’s commonly pronounced as (las) tres equis 

Additional note: Q is frequently written as either la q, or la qu or la cu. In plural I think I’ve only seen las qus and las cus. 

———————————————————————–

Onto the confusing part - and I can’t stress enough how regional this all can be, so please let me know if I make any mistakes here, native speakers.

This might be a little difficult to explain completely well because I’m not using IPA here. I’ll try and be as clear as possible but just know that I’m using the Spanish pronunciations of things and how they’d write or approximate it.

First, all letters in the alphabet are feminine probably because la letra “letter” is feminine, so there’s that rule first.

Second this is generally how the letters are pronounced or said in Spanish and I need to point out some things because there’s a lot actually here that won’t make sense if I don’t:

A - (a)*

B - (be / be grande)****

C - (ce)CH - (che)**

D - (de)

E - (e)*

F - (efe)

G - (ge)

H - (hache) [although I did learn it as la ache]

I - (i / i latina)*

J - (jota)

K - (ka)

L - (ele)

LL - (elle)

M - (eme)

N - (ene)

Ñ - (eñe)

O - (o)*

P - (pe)

Q - (cu)

R - (ere / erre)***

RR - (erre / erre doble, doble erre)***

S - (ese)

T - (te)

U - (u)*

V - (uve / V corta / V chica)****

W - (doble u / doble uve / uve doble)

X - (equis)

Y - (i / i griega)*

Z - (zeta)

So now the little bits of explanations begin:

* The vowels - All of the vowels [A / E / I / O / U, and Y] are usually written with their pronunciations like I did above. In Spanish, most Spanish speakers know how “A” is pronounced but for the sake of non-native speakers:

A is pronounced like “ah”

E is pronounced like “eh”

I is pronounced like “ee”

O is pronounced like “oh”

U is pronounced like “ooh”

Y is pronounced like “ee”

With i and y it’s common to differentiate them as i latina [I] and i/y griega [Y]… The letter [I] is i latina being “Latin I” because it comes from the Latin alphabet, and because the letter [Y] comes from Greek it’s griega. They are pronounced the same “ee” like a long E song in English.

So say you were spelling out a word like yanqui “yankee / someone from the US” you would spell it Y-A-N-Q-U-I [i griega - a - ene - cu - u - i latina] in a way that tells you that Y and I are different letters.

** - CH. The letter “CH” which is pronounced like che or “chay” in English is not technically a letter in Spanish anymore, but it might show up in some dictionaries as its own section. 

*** - R and RR. I’ve seen R written as ere and erre before. And while RR is not its own letter (anymore, but in some places it is considered its own), I’ve seen it as erre or erre doble [double R]. I was taught ere [R] and erre [RR] but I understand why that’s not totally great for everyone depending on your own pronunciation; I personally recommend saying erre [R] and doble erre [RR] if you mean RR because it makes it very clear you’re talking about a double letter.

If you were saying multiple RR’s, you’d most commonly see erres dobles.

**** This one is really its own issue but B and V have similar pronunciations in a lot of things. Just suffice it to say it’s its own issue. 

For our purposes, it’s normally pronounced be [”bay”] and uve [”oo-vay”]. Otherwise, you’ll see B as B grande or B larga which mean “big/long B”… and you might see V as V corta or V chica which is “short/small V”

Another common way to differentiate it is to say B de burro “B as in burro [donkey]”, and V de vaca “V as in vaca [cow]”…….. that’s kind of like the equivalent of “B as in boy” and “V as in Victor” in English.

Side Note: It should go without saying but ele is pronounced “el-ay”, and elle is pronounced “ey-yay”… because LL has a strong Y sound. 

Side Note 2: Similarly ge is pronounced like “hay”, and jota for “J” is pronounced “ho-ta” 

Side Note 3: Ñ or eñe is pronounced “en-yay”

So moving on, just note that the letters are feminine, and normally you’re going to say la and then las for plural.

When doing plural, you usually have to add a -S sound to it. That’s mostly easy for the consonants, minus X so you don’t really have to worry too much.

I typically see the letters sort of spelled out so for example: hacer eses which is literally “to make S’s” is another expression for “to spin around” or “to spin out” is typically written as eses 

You might see something like la m but then you might see las emes for “M’s”… I think that might just be for the sake of convenience. But you might also see la ache instead of la h… or la jota instead of la j.

It’s more acceptable when it seems to be a whole different word, kind of like la equis vs la x which I think both make sense. 

I typically capitalize it if I’m going to write it as a singular letter because I think that is a little easier to understand when reading, but that is probably just me.

Additional Note: There are some abbreviations where Spanish pronounces them a bit differently; they’re normally treated as loanwords. 

These are different from Spanish abbreviations:

FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation]In Spanish el FBI is pronounced like el Efe-Be-I sort of how you’d expect

CIA [Central Intelligence Agency]In Spanish this is la CIA which is pronounced la Si-A, rather than pronouncing each letter individually

KO / K.O. [knockout]In Spanish this is normally el KO which is pronounced el ka-o the way you’d pronounce K + O. In some places you’ll hear el knockout with voz inglesa but in some places they use estar KO to mean either “to be unconscious” or “to be dead tired” 

OK / okayIn Spanish estar OK or OK/okay sounds just like English “o-kay”, and it’s pretty directly adapted from English

OVNI [el objeto volador no identificado] In Spanish el OVNI or el ovni is the direct translation of “UFO” or “Unidentified Flying Object”. You pronounce it “ov-ni”, rather than pronouncing every single letter

There are other expressions like this. The one I mentioned above “XXX” in English is “triple X” or “X-X-X” but in Spanish it’s tres equis and is a synonym for “pornographic” in some contexts

There’s some variations with Spanish abbreviations.

Some are like when you might see Los EEUU / Los EE.UU in writing, but you’d hear it as Los Estados Unidos “the United States” rather than hearing it all pronounced.

So it really depends on the actual word/abbreviation in question.

[bookdragonlibrary]

Third Friday YJ appreciation

1-3 ; 4-6 ; 7-9 ; 10-13 ; 14-16 ; 17 ; 18 ; 19 ; 20 ; 21 ; 22 ; 23 ; 24-26

—————————— Evolution

- From how she pronounces Cassandra, it must be the Greek pronounciation, as her name is Olympia. 

- Could she be a metahuman since she has green eyes with black skin? 

- The backstory of Vandal Savage! :o Wait, his last name comes from his prehistoric time?

- Victor Stone!! :D

- “Sorry supersuit!” Relatable! 

- “You won’t be naked anymore.” Thank you for remembering that (thinks Brion). “Forager is naked now.” XD (and Halo reaction!) But we could have guess it.

- We can’t ask the Justice League help because we had tied their hands ourselves. XD In your face, the Light! Appellaxia? The JL fights them again? The Green Lanterns Corps still fighting the Reach after two years? Maybe they’re freeing other planets from them? The other is fighting the new Light’s partner. Darkseid? Klarion is busy with Project Rutabaga. That doesn’t sound good... It names kind of reminds me of the Alpha Squad on the Luthor’s farm...

- Forager fights dirty. The part with the towel on Dick’s ass should be that funny... 

- Halo is so cute and Artemis is so encouraging. Such a great mentor! 

- “Got you covered CK. As usual.” Conner does looses his shirt really often xD

- So Savage received his scars from a big prehistoric bear and is kind of protecting the Earth from aliens after sold it to the Reach. His logic is sacrifice fewer lifes (the metateens) for a greater good or something like that? 

- So it’s Homo Sapiens against Neanderthal? 

- I love it there isn’t any sound during the space battle just like Jaime reminded us: “There’s no sound in space.”

- Halo eats marshmallows, isn’t it made with pork? I’m sure she doesn’t know it (and ignores pretty much everything about Islam). But that would be great if someone is the Team explain her there’s more about it than just the hijab. She feels it right, but she doesn’t know why.

- Forager just throws the banana and eats its skin xD 

- “If they’re being controlled by bad guys.” “Nah that can never happen!” (wink) Remember season 1? xD

- So the meteorite create the first metahuman and gave Vandal the power of immortality. But does it work only with lifespan or heal fatal wounds like Halo too? Or he just gets stronger with blood? 

- Vandal was known as Gengis Khan, an Mongol emperor who ruled one of the longest empire in human history. That reminds me the CGI TMNT movie where an immortal was beyond every great man in history and I’m pretty sure in the same case here. 

- “Unique genetic gift” So metagene is only found in human DNA. 

- Darkseid is after the Anti-Life equation (rings any bells? :p Look at the list of title episodes) and he’s an old partner of Savage. 

- So Apokolips is like a huge warship like the War World? Maybe bigger?

- Jeff x Helga? *wince* Jeff, spend time with Virgil, not with Helga! She’s probably manipulating you, you blind man in love!

- I love Dick said “nom de guerre”, with a pretty good accent! 

- Hot Lava! xD Isn’t it a pleonasm? Did anyone see “cold lava”? (And I don’t mean solidified.) 

- Stripper name xD 

- We were promised LGBT+ rep but Brion and Violet are so cute together! Brion is definitely a charming prince! New Spitfire? 

- I love when Brion does the “mole” tunnel xD (Please, don’t be a foreshadowing!) 

- Manoeuver 7!

- Kalibak, Darkseid’s son with daddy issues. XD 

- Wait, did they just make a kid explode themselves? :( “Disgusting” I agree, Olympia... Is they one of the 8 6 metateens kidnapped in Markovia? Or there are more kids in space? 

- Savage also known as Morduk, a Babylonian god. I think a lot of gods from that time was Savage’s metahuman children viewed as gods, like Ishtar, another Babylonian goddess. 

- Wait is that Doctor Fate? Nabu is a Vandal’s son? 

- The Star creatures seem to be just starfish-like who can control bodies because the green one seems alien but the other ones seem pretty human.

- I know where drunk adults are going on... Ok, it was funny xD I think I’m overanalyzing everything ><

- Wait, they made the dead star creatures sink. Was it the “arm” we saw in season 1 and the tie-comics focused on Atlantis? 

- So Vandal was the one who created the Light.

- So when Halo is excited she turns into green and creates hologrammes replicas. 

- “We’s starting over.” Dick seems so exhausted xD

- “Fight for humanity” God, your father did brainwash you or what? 

- Vandal did take an arm of the star creature and I think they’re parasite who can control other’s body so that could explain how they controled the League at the end of season 1! 

- “Still fresh in my mind.” Yes, do it, because it seems you have Alzeimer, Olympia :/ 

- Savage is for Savior? I’m the only one finding is quite ironical? (Savage is close to sauvage, meaning wild in French (which could be accurate with the scars), so I didn’t make the dots connect. Does it have the same meaning in English as well?) 

- Wait, did he just kill her because she wanted to write his story down? Cassandra trying to justify her father’s behaviour it’s so heartbreaking. She is really blind of him... An redeem arc for her later? 

- Wait Olympia was his daughter? :( 

- Miguel Ferrer, the voice of Savage in the first two seasons, RIP.

- Wolf sleeping again. 

I love this episode, needed for the worldbuilding and maybe for the end of the season.

—————————— Triptych

- Mist, Livewire and Shade? 

“I’m finding the darkness within.” Interesting power. 

- Livewire looks like Killer Frost ^^ But she has electrical powers. 

- “That’s a lot to swallow.” “Straight line.” Was that a gay joke? 

- Jade has a team now? 

- “Best pillow talk ever.” Shut up, Helga. But yes, Jeff, you need to go back, at least for Virgil. And Kaldur because I’m sure he’s workaholic... (I would feel ridiculous if Helga was indeed a good person who made bad decisions :/ ) 

- M’gann and Conner are fixing the fence. Is this a metaphor for their argument? or they’re making peace on the bed? Forager is cute as always!

- Dr Moon? Who is that? 

- “I won’t even trust myself.” Is Jade under a controlled device or something? Maybe a blackmail? 

- “I really don’t want to do this.” I think the 3 teens are also controled :/ 

- Halo discovered another aura, bring by anger (or protectiveness?): white which is light power, unsurprisingly. And which can also burn. 

- Sister talk! 

- The League of Shadows is on Santa Prisca, they’re working with Bane? 

- “I always be Cheshire first.” What could that mean? If she is controlled, that makes her Cheshire first, I think? Or maybe she thinks she will have the same effect on her than Sportmasters did. She is concerned for Lian. 

- The Team didn’t free Shade :( 

- Time for Tim’s Team! 

- I love Arrowette’s comments! She seems pretty new to the hero game. 

- So the Mad Hatter was Clayface? 

- I think Orphan knows since she can read body language. She just forced him to reveal himself. 

- Tim figures Clayface is controlled and Spoiler shouts so he would lead them to him. Such a clever squad :) 

- So Mad Hatter controlled the guy thanks to... nanorobots? He still has some control but cannot disobey an order :/ 

- Autodestruction button. It was funny how he said it. 

- Tim trying to save Clayface make me so proud!

- Wait, these two guys were Flash and... OMG is Captain Marvel! Billy has grown up so much!! 

- Wait, why Flash has blue eyes now? He has green eyes last season. Can you please be more consistent? I know they rely more on the animated films than the previous seasons style and that’s annoying.... 

- “Please keep punching!” xD 

- “Oh no you don’t! -- Oh yeah, they did!” Of course Flash and CM would have the same sense of humour! 

- “You have no idea just how lucky you are.” This sentence will make sense later, right?

- And... the 3 groups were in fact only one... like the title suggested. So Batman has only quit the League officially but still works with them informally. 

- Simon Stagg, another bad guy working with the Light? Or more like a competiter since he doesn’t use the round controled device but something else? 

- Nanotech, I was right! 

- I’m glad Mist and Livewire won’t be send to Belle Reve. Them being kidnapped results as them having a second chance :) 

- So the big machine was Reach tech? Was could it do? Metahuman Failsafe. That could be use(ful) later I think. 

- Who is the police inspector? (Edit: Batwoman fiance/girlfriend). 

- Dr Stone! :D ouch, that wiring doesn’t seem good... 

- So Shade was in the three operations: the long hair man kidnapped, then the shave man controled by Mad Hatter and then working with Jade. 

- Well, not anymore, I think she’s freed him. Maybe herself too? And now, he would get his revenge against Stagg...

- So they became the Light’s nemesis by working as they do since season 1. I think Green Arrow doesn’t know, nor Artemis and Conner. The Anti-Light = darkness. Yeah, doesn’t sound catchy but the bad guy took a good guy word for their own... 

- Diana: “are you all prepared to lie?” You weren’t on Earth in season 2 and it shows...

- Sphere! :D 

—————————— Home fires

- New Light. There are Queen Bee, Monsieur Mallah or Ultra Humanite, Klarion, someone small... 

- Wait! Is that Blue? Is he controled again?? 

Queen Bee appears indeed, in front of a big Scarab wall. They are in the Beetle temple we saw in season two. I clearly don’t like it! 

- Savage is there too, return from the War World, thanks to a boom tube I guess?

- Rimbor, is this the planet the JL attacked in season 1? Nope, the one where the trial was made in season 2. 

- The robot looks like the one working with the 3 eyes alien who destroyed the Justice Hall in season 2. Those robots should be pretty common in space I think? And its also telepathic. 

- Lobo? (Well, I would have called him Loco but...) has a target? Sounds bad, he never miss a contract...

- BABIES TORNADO!! 

- I love how Iris put the statement that once a woman has kids, nobody take her seriously at her job anymore. 

- It’s so crash they opened a Center for the abducted metateens. Hope they won’t make the same mistakes than for the Runaways! 

- Of course it’s Dr. Eduardo Dorado Senior who runs it :) Of course Dinah would be the therapist and there is Captain Marvel who can relate being a teen with superpowers (even if nobody should know he’s in fact 17 years old) There are Ed and Nathaniel, they grew up so much! :o 

- I’m glad Mist and Livewire go there. 

- Bart who babysit his dad and aunt (Donnie and Dawn, but Donnie is the short cut from what name?) is the sweetest and weirdest thing xD But they’re so cute! 

- “Dont call him Dad! And don’t call me Grandma!” That should happen pretty often it they’re still at this after 2 years xD 

- That’s Mera and Arthur, the child she was pregnant with in season 1! That could explain why the first Aquaman is retired. 

- Wait, who’s that? Stay away from the babies! Can’t be Lobo right? He won’t use a gun... 

- Gretchen Goode, why I already hate her? If she is working with the bad guys, she plays a part with Gordon, as they’re working for the same people. 

- “Turning brains to mush” Why it feels like that would happen for real, like litterarly? 

- Gordon’s speech seems the typical adult one against technology. Gordon didn’t search his lie far away ^^ 

- Goode World Studios and Wayne Fundation working together, tell me Batman knows what he’s doing, at least has suspicions; But of course they will both give resources to the Center, but not for the same reasons... 

- I love how Gordon plays the bored one xD But he still installs fear of the metateens to his audience è.é 

- Bruce declined his offer to come. Yep, Batman knows what he’s doing! “What is he hiding?” Does Gordon have a clue he’s Batman or what? Or just speculating a rich man couldn’t be that good? (the feeling we should have about Granny Goodness)

- “He’s the worst! But he’s kind of fascinating.” I think it’s the opinion of the whole fandom? 

- Gregor is so great! More country rulers should take him as an example about refugies! 

- Will is there with Lian, Lynn (Jeff’s ex wife) whit their two daughters. 

- Please, Artemis and Will are just roommates helping each other to raise his daugher/her niece. Stop making it sound like a boy and a girl can’t be anything else that a couple...

- It’s Raquel with her son Amistad (who’s the father?) and Karen is pregnant! Is she married with Mal? 

- They’re 14 already? Bart, Iris, the twins, Mera, Arthur, Lynn and her two daughters, Will and Lian, Raquel and Amistad, Karen. Yep, it’s 14. 

- Still 4 to come? Who could it be?

- So that is the ruin of Mount Justice? Turned into a training place? I hope it’s a private location or people will find pretty crash secrets! 

- Forager is still so pure! 

- Why Dr Jace is there? “Thank Jeff for convincing us!” Is Dr Jace flirting with Jess to gain his trust and to bring her in the Team? Well, maybe I’m wrong and the showrunners are just playing with us in the wrong direction... 

- Lobo is against Brion? Why? Because he’s a prince? a meta?

- Halo has good reflexes and Forager understood quite fast. 

- Oh it’s just Nightwing. 

- Love Halo and Forager team work :) 

- “He is insane?” Yeah I would have the same reaction xD Maybe Dr Jace is just overprotecting?

- John? Who is.. OMG it’s Red Tornado!! With his adoptive daughter, Traya. (If you want to know more about her, she has an arc in the original Young Justice comics!) John adopted her when she became an orphan after a city’s attack and saving her. I don’t know if she would be from Qurac or Bialya.

- “In your case, it proves you need to train for surprise attack.” *surprise attack* It’s the same sense of humour than Private Security, isn’t it? 

- Lobo’s eyes black patterns reminds me of Blue’s ones. 

- He wants to kill Forager? Why? His Hive bannished him already! 

- “Forget me, protect my kids!” Why my? And yes, she is overprotecting. 

- And Halo is killed again è.é Poor cinnamon roll! 

- Whoa, Lobo is resistant to bear lava and black lightning!

- Lois and Jon! Conner has a baby brother! :D (technically half brother) I hope they would have a brotherhood relationship! 

- Bart is watching his dad running at normal speed :3 

- So it was Ocean Master, brother of King Arthur, part of the Light in season 1 and arrested in the tie-comics, replaced by Black Manta in season 2. 

- How does he have his brother’s trident? 

- Lady Shiva! 

- I fear the nuclear option will come in a later episode :( But I’m glad the Light realised there will be no turning back if they use it... 

- He was six years in prison. Why he’s out? He should have stay in prison, now he’s dead (offscreen). The heroes will never know what they were saved from... I was stressed during the whole episode! Imagine all the babies dead :( (Yes Bart is a baby since he’s not born yet) Can you imagine? :’(

- And of course drowing on lava wasn’t enough to kill Lobo... 

- What was the orange light when he draw back his weapon? How could he, he’s shirtless and still have his sword hanging on his back? 

- Whoa her yellow aura just cut one of his fingers! 

- Did he just kill Forager?? :’( 

- Well, that would work less without a finger! (Yeah I’m bitter, try to take a revenge as I can) 

- HE’S ALIVE! (Of course he is...) Love Brion’s enthousiasm! “Fake your own death club” xD 

- So the Light engaged Lobo, knows he failed but doesn’t care. They want to verify Vertigo’s words. Is he working with/for them? Will it go against our heroes in the future? Wait, how do they know Forager isn’t dead? Who is the mole this season?

- So the gorilla shape was Ultra Humanite. 

- Ra’s isn’t part of the Shadows anymore, but still work with the Light, at least communicate with them. 

- Grayson. So the Light knows the secret ID of the batfamily?? 

- My bad, I confused Deathstroke with Blue earlier in the episode xD 

- And the little silhouette was Gretchen Goode, of course! 

- So the Light and the Anti-Light both have their secret club.

- Lobo’s finger. Will it become Slobo like in the comics?

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Legacies 1x10, There's A World Where Your Dreams Come True -- Review

Welcome to another review of Lega-Trash. This is 1x10, There's A World Where Your Dreams Come True...but really, it should be called Worship Hope Because No One Would Be Happy Without Her...so yeah, if you know my feelings on Hope, I think you can gather how much I despise this episode.

This is going to be an honest review of my thoughts and feelings regarding Legacies, the spin-off of a spin-off that should never have come to pass. But here we are. I'm not a fan of this show, have never pretended to be one, so if you're looking for Legacies positivity, this is not the place for you. Move along, this is not meant for you. I'm very critical about this show. Keep in mind, these are my thoughts and feelings about this mess of a show. Opinions are never right or wrong. I'm not telling you how to think and feel. You don't have to agree with my opinions but I would ask that you respect them, please. Also, spoilers for the episode so if you haven't seen the episode yet, watch the episode and then come back...otherwise, read at your own risk. But let's be real, here. I'm sure my followers who end up reading this have no desire to watch this show and use my ramblings in these reviews as a substitute for actually watching the show...those selfish jerks -- just kidding, I love all my followers and please, only watch the show if you really want to; I'm making a sacrifice watching this trash show so you don't have to.

You know, it's real funny on how Lizzie was in the spotlight this entire episode, but somehow Hope always ended up being the focal point. This episode essentially exists to say, "Hope is the best and she brings light and joy to everyone" ...which hasn't exactly been my experience with her, but whatever. And we're also meant to see in this episode that Lizzie is just the absolute worst because she dares to want things...I know, the horror. And again with this episode, this show continues its trend of having a character with bipolar disorder and yet having no idea how to help that character or properly treat it. I swear, I feel like JP got treatment plans for bipolar disorder based off of watching old Degrassi episodes and bipolar medication commercials. There are different types and subtypes of bipolar disorder. And not all treatment options work for everyone. As an individual, sometimes the medication works really well, but in others, sometimes they benefit more with cognitive therapy. And let me tell you, if I have to hear one more time in this show, characters calling Lizzie "crazy" or making high-handed comments about her being medicated, I'm going to cut a bitch (JP being the bitch in this scenario). I HATE how this franchise continues to use mental illness as a weapon against the villains who are affected by it. Lizzie's bipolar disorder is constantly used as a means to belittle her in some way and it's absolutely despicable. But rant over. Let's talk about what happened in this episode. It's fine if characters want to dislike Lizzie, but stop using her own disorder as a weapon against her.

Lizzie and Josie come back from their vacation in Europe and Lizzie is very angry with her father because apparently he missed the message about picking the girls up at the airport and they had to get their own means of transportation back home. Hope is also there and immediately retorts that the girls should cut Alaric some slack as the school's dealing with some big shit right now. And I don't know, I mean, yeah Alaric was busy but also, your teenage girls being left to take a shuttle bus home from an airport terminal, that seems kind of dangerous. I know that when I was 16, no way in hell would my father allow me to procure my own means of transportation home. There's a lot of messed up people out there, the streets aren't exactly safe and since typically airports normally reside in very urban areas where crime is high, urban areas are even less safe. I mean, sure, Josie and Lizzie are witches and can take care of themselves but their magic is siphon magic. Meaning, if they don't have an outside source of magic to suck in, they're as vulnerable as a regular human. And plus, Alaric and Hope are missing the point of why Lizzie is mad. Lizzie is mad that once again she and Josie are being played second fiddle next to Hope when it comes to their father. She feels, once again, that her father doesn't love her as much as he loves Hope. And also, regarding the urn, why is it still in this school full of children? If the past episodes have been any inclination, the students are not safe with these objects around. For crying out loud, put the urn in the Lockwood mansion and set up a trap, there. Stop needlessly endangering these children.

Josie is all understanding of the situation because she's dull and boring and has no personality and JP has no idea what to do with her. Honestly, I can't wait until this whole Gemini curse comes into affect, because maybe, just maybe, Josie might actually do something that's interesting.

Lizzie stalks off to her room and makes a wish that she wishes Hope had never come to the school. But a genie shows up -- and it's actually pronounced jini here, there was a whole annoying bit about the pronounciation -- the genie grants Lizzie's wish and takes her to an alternate world where Hope had never come to the school. And it starts off perfectly happy. Instead of training Hope at ths docks, Alaric's actually training Josie and Lizzie and Lizzie is so happy about this, this is everything she ever wanted...which is essentially her father to love her and put her and Josie first. But she then realizes the world isn't perfect. She sees the school is falling a part because it's not really making a whole lot of income. And the idea to all of this is because without Hope, recruiting is difficult. Don't ask me how having more students in this private boarding school that you don't actually pay to attend is supposed to be better off financially. Its JP logic, don't think about it too much, she needs to tell the audience how special and perfect Hope is and how wrong we are for despising her and calling her a self-insert. But Lizzie knows the tracking spell Hope used and we use that to find recruits for this school. They see a huge dot on the map in New Orleans and we find out that its Hope. So there's the loophole in the first wish. Lizzie wished Hope hadn't come to the school, she didn't wish that Hope wouldn't ever. So Hope comes to the school and Josie talks about how happy their father has become with Hope in his life now...and I'm just like, "Why?" Why does Alaric have more joy for Hope than his own daughters...and also, eww.

But anyway, Lizzie's all screw this world and she makes another wish that the boarding school never existed. Basically, some drama between Lizzie and Josie occurs, Alaric is a drunk history teacher and when Lizzie accidentally loses control and her powers go off, Hope Mikaelson and her team of X-Men arrive not necessarily to get the girls out but because they need Alaric to be the headmaster for the Mikaelson boarding school. Why it's a good idea for a drunk history teacher to be a headmaster? Again, JP logic, best to not think about it.

But third wish is that Hope had never existed which basically creates an apocalypse world. Apparently Klaus loses everything and turns his humanity switch off and goes on a murder spree with Caroline and this causes magic to be hunted down in this apocalypse world. Again, don't ask me why Klaus turned off his humanity considering if Hope was never born he wouldn't have rekindled his relationship with his siblings in the first place, therefore he would have nothing to lose and thereby still being a douche but a douche with his humanity on. And also, don't ask me why Caroline went on this murder spree with him. Even when her humanity was turned off, she wasn't really a murderer. She did bad things, certainly, but they were far from the realm of psychopathic murdering, that was never who she was even with her humanity off. Basically, JP is such a lazy writer that she can't really be bothered to go into specifics on how these worlds all came to be and instead she uses vague statements and hopes her audience will buy it and not think too closely about it. But Lizzie finds out the Salvatore boarding school is now a resistance movement and it's also revealed here that Josie is dead and Lizzie was the one to kill her because Alaric kept the secret about the Gemini coven from them. Lizzie is understandably destroyed emotionally from hearing this news and is equally distressed when she realizes she's used all three of her wishes so she's stuck in this world. But the genie shows up and tells her she actually has one more wish. Genies, I guess, grant 4 wishes in TVD universe...convenient, I know. But the genie tells Lizzie if Lizzie wishes the urn to be in the genie's hand, Lizzie will go back to her own world. Lizzie refuses to do that because even though Lizzie can be extremely selfish and self-absorbed, she also has a very interesting aspect of selflessness to her as well. And this is why I adore Lizzie. She's not afraid to want things. She's not afraid to go after the best, to go after what she wants but also she does care alot about others as well. She constantly worries she'll lose control and her powers will hurt someone so she works extremely hard to keep her temper in check, in the second episode, when the school is attacked by a gargoyle, she could've used the time to run away but instead she uses the magic to seal the gargoyle in the school so it can't attack any of the normal humans in Mystic Falls. She's selfish, sure, but she also cares about the world as well. Now granted, this show definitely paints Lizzie as a bad person in her selfish elements and it's such a double standard. There's these old-fashioned societal views that women who are selfish are seen as ugly but yet men who are selfish such as with Damon and Klaus, are revered as being complex. I've said it before, I'll say it again, JP is not a feminist, Lega-Trash is not a feminist show. But Lizzie realizes a way around the genie's request. She essentially wishes the genie free because JP doesn't write her own shit and instead, copies off of everyone else. Lizzie wishes the genie had never met the being that sent her to Malivore. But there's a catch to this wish. This would also mean technically Lizzie never met the genie so she's going to forget all of this but these experiences are still going to be etched in her soul and it's most likely going to drive Lizzie crazy. So the genie grant's the wish, Lizzie goes back to her own world, she's forgotten everything, but feels a need to hug Josie but doesn't understand why. The episode ends with her talking about these feelings she doesn't understand why she has with Pedro, the little kid we see periodically in this series.

Basically, this episode was just all about telling us how super special and super important Hope is. And it's also really disgusting how Alaric's happiness is completely contingent on Hope. I also noticed that this episode had a lot of similar elements to this week's episode of Supernatural. Meeting alternate versions of yourself, forgetting experiences you had but still kind of remembering them...I mean, maybe it's a coincidence but I also can't forget a couple episodes ago where they tracked Landon's mother to Lawrence Kansas which is something that's also a part of Supernatural lore. So yeah, coincidence? Maybe. But coupled with the fact that JP has been very forward with wanting Legacies to be the next Supernatural...I don't think it's a coincidence. This episode gets a C-. I didn't like its content, but structurally, it was alright.

[tangled-headphone-cord]

5, 6, 7, 10, 12, 14, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24

Linguasks

5: What is the prettiest language?

There’s so many languages and many ways in which one can be pretty, so this is a hard question… I really like the Celtic ones though. (I haven’t yet managed to actually try learning one so idk which I’d like best)

Russian sounds so beautiful

I love Polish language a LOT whenever I hear it I get real happy

Also Finnish?

this is all phonetically (though for Polish I can’t seem to define exactly WHAT I love about it so much or if it’s just the language or also the memories I have associated with it)

Also you know what? 19th century Slovene is RAD. Like, I-was-reading-and-paused-just-to-marvel-at-it rad.

6: What is the ugliest language?

ahhh idk I don’t really want to see languages as ugly you know?

7: Have you ever made up your own language?

I have actually, or better said I tried doing something a few times when I was younger than 10 and didn’t know anything about linguistics or how language works. I’d just make up random words and assign random meanings to them.

10: Have you ever tried to learn sign language?

I tried a little bit, but didn’t stick to it. I’d like to learn it still someday but idk what to chose? Like people seem to use “sign language” to refer to American sign language - does each spoken language have its own sign variant?? Then I’d rather learn whatever is used in my countries, but idk what it is? can I just make up my own

12: Choose a Scandinavian language you’d like to learn.

Icelandic

14. Choose an Asian language you’d like to learn.

I was gonna put the most cliché weaboo option and say Japanese bc of the anime but then I remembered Hebrew is an Asian language too (idk my brain filed it under african for some reason ok)

also guess what I actually AM learning in college now lol

18. Name a dead language that you wish to make a come back.

amm idk that much about dead languages, maybe Old Prussian?

but also if you count Latin then yes, absolutely bring back Latin. With proper accent. (Latin technically doesn’t count as a dead language bc French, Italian and other Romance languages are a thing but shhh)

also, Russenorsk. (I don’t really think it’s a language of its own bc it’s pidgin but it’s rad)

20. What language is overrated?

English

21. What language do you think is too intimidating to learn?

Celtic languages.. phonetics/pronounciation… but idk if it’s really that hard or is it only hard bc I can’t find resources for it that do NOT adapt their explanations to the phonetics of English (ie. no“pronounce like in ”). English is really the worst language through which to learn another one…

22. What language should more people speak?

just have everyone speak more languages in general

but proper Latin, really. Not “I know 1 sentence and 3 other words I speak Latin uwu”, not “I speak Latin but the accent of my native language is showing so bad that anyone who doesn’t speak my native language would have trouble understanding it”, not “I speak Latin but with the syntax of my native language” you know?

also every Christian should learn biblical Hebrew/Greek tbh. At least the basics.. and i guess Aramaic too since some parts of the Bible are written in that

Like I’m not putting up trilingual heresy or anything, I don’t think we should just ditch any translations and say “it’s not sacred if it’s translated” the way Muslims do with the Qur’an but fact is things get lost in translation and being able to read things in the original should be something anyone who’s serious about their faith should strive for.

Old Church Slavonic (emphasis on the OLD) for Slavic folks and bring back glagolitic

23. What language uses the prettiest alphabet?

Quenya (Tengwar/tehtar) nothing beats that tbh.

Then Old Church Slavonic (round glagolitic) is a close second because? ⰾⰹⰽⰵ ⰾⱁⱁⰽ ⰰⱅ ⱈⱁⱆ ⱂⱃⰵⱅⱅⱏⰻ ⱅⱈⰹⱄ ⰹⱄ??? (ⱆⱄⰹⱀⰳ ⰹⱅ ⱇⱁⱃ ⰵⱀⰳⰾⰹⱄⱈ ⱇⰵⰵⰾⱄ ⰾⰹⰽⰵ ⰰ ⱌⱃⰹⰿⰵ ⱅⱈⱁ Ⰹ ⱄⱈⱁⱆⰾⰴ ⱄⱅⱁⱂ)

24. What language uses the weirdest alphabet?

Hebrew.

This probably applies to several other Semitic languages too, but this is so WILD like:

1) write from right to left (not so bad in itself except when your notes are in a language that doesn’t do that and you have to do transcription)

2) who needs to spell out vowels lol (tengwar is like that too, but in Hebrew, the word root isn’t a syllable or group of syllables but a group of consonants. So you see a word and just have to GUESS the vocals in it, but getting it wrong can change the word’s meaning.. idk if Elvish did THAT too)

there IS a system for writing vowels, similar to tehtar, but only used in texts meant for learners.

3) a different, more calligraphy-like (Rashi) script is used in books. It’s not the one you’re supposed to write in. While the letters in this script do look like simply calligraphic versions of the “regular” ones, they’re still harder to read.

4) some letters look different if they’re at the end of the word than if they’re anywhere else. There is no historical reason for that AFAIK (if someone knows the reason please tell me), literally just “it’s at the end of the word so let’s write it differently”. The final version is pronounced and transcribed the same as the non-final one.

and while I don’t mind #1 (you get used to it) and quite like #2 actually (would have liked it better if they were consistent about actually writing out the niqqud…. which btw works similar as in Elvish except it’s usually below the consonant, not above, and pronounced after said consonant. I forgot how that latter part is in Elvish languages, but IIRC one of them pronounced the vowel before the consonant it was written with and the other after), I just don’t get why there’s a need for #3 and #4.