#like otto seems well measured in comparison

[hauntingblue]

Syrax roaring when rhaenyra finds her son's remains omg......

[aphrodisiac-siren]

Dynasty of Flames

Aemond Targaryen x Targaryen-Royce Reader

Summary: Being born into the most respected and equally feared houses in the realm made people look up to you as if you were a god and the devil himself, in equal measure. People say that when a Targaryen is born, the gods flip a coin; and when news of the birth of Daemon's firstborn- a girl, spread, people could only wait in anticipation to see which side of the coin faced up during her birth.

Warnings: Incest (duh) Mild smut ig?

Masterlist

Part 17

Harrenhal was as eerie and daunting as ever, which only added to Jace's nerves as he paced back and forth in the empty and dimly lit hall of the castle whilst awaiting the arrival of someone from the green council to negotiate. Daemon had accompanied him, but he knew he was only there for his own reasons.

The sound of distant footsteps echoed from the hallways, getting louder and louder by the minute until the person walked in, taking both Jace and Daemon by surprise.

"Prince Aemond" Jace curtly greeted, exchanging glances with Daemon. He was expecting Otto or perhaps another member of the council and not Aemond himself to arrive for negotiations. Yet here he was, looking as stoic and intimidating as ever- clad in midnight black from head to toe, armed with his dagger, long sword and his dragon awaiting in the courtyard along with some of the knights from King's Landing, no doubt- the same way knights from Dragonstone had accompanied Daemon and Jace.

"Lord Strong" Aemond said with a grin before he chuckled mockingly, arms clasped behind his back "ah- apologies, you go by Velaryon, don't you? Or was it Targaryen? I'm not sure which lie you went along with"

Jace clenched his jaw as he heaved a long sigh, trying his very best to subdue his anger. It was clear that Aemond was only trying to wind him up, the same way he'd done at that sad excuse of a family dinner. He wouldn’t let him have that satisfaction this time.

"If you are done playing the fool uncle, I would like to get along with the negotiations" Jace began "now about-"

"Since when did lords suddenly get comfortable enough to make demands from the king, hm?" Aemond raised a brow, relishing in the fact that Jace was getting irritated by the minute "you are in no position to make any negotiations. It is I who has come with the terms from my brother"

"I am heir to the throne" Jace almost immediately snapped "I have every right to demand what was taken away from me"

"If I recall correctly, Rhaenyra had chosen Y/N, my betrothed, as her successor before Aegon was named heir" Aemond gave him a shit-eating grin just to tick him off "and I'm sure this is something prince Daemon would agree with as well"

"It was never formally announced" Jace tried to avoid eye contact with Daemon since he knew the older prince wasn’t really on his side "before my mother passed, it was I who she named heir"

"Rather convenient, how the line of succession is changed only when the former heir is on their deathbed with no witnesses to confirm"

All heads turned to find princess Y/N standing in the doorway.

Aemond was even more surprised to see her here in comparison with the others. From what he knew, she wasn’t allowed to leave the Red Keep, Otto had made this very clear. Aemond had of course told her earlier that day he was leaving for Harrenhal to carry out negotiations, despite being told not to, which ended up in yet another argument. Still, he didn’t expected for her to make herself present as well. Gods, how did she manage to sneak past the guards all the way to the dragon pit?

"I must address my confusion" she said with a stern tone as she walked in "you lot seem to be arguing over a throne that doesn’t belong to either of you"

"What are you doing here?" Aemond asked in a hushed tone when she was standing next to him.

"There was to be a negotiation, so I heard" she innocently told him, momentarily glancing toward Jace "I am heir to the iron throne, so it does leave me wondering what gives you and Aegon the pass to put forth terms of your own"

Daemon smirked proudly at his daughter.

"I do take your side when you say Aegon is not the rightful ruler" Jace spoke, taking a few steps toward the princess "but you must know that the person who is to sit the throne is me"

"I have taken your side and kept my mouth shut about certain things on countless occasions Jace" Y/N coldly addressed him "but I will no longer vouch for you when you have made it so clear that you do not support my claim"

"But the crown is mine-"

"If bastards had a claim, the Targaryens would’ve been overthrown years ago from their rule" she immediately snapped with so much venom it left a snake looking harmless in comparison "you should know your place Jace, do not play a game in which you have no chance at winning"

Jace was at a loss for words and this time, he did not have his grandsire nor his mother at his side to speak in his favour.

"And as for you, my betrothed" Y/N turned toward Aemond who was brazenly grinning at Jace who had been put in his place, something he found oddly satisfactory "I shall have you know that my loyalties lie with people who have in turn shown loyalty to me. So you need to decide whose side you’re on. Your brother won’t be on that throne for much longer and I won’t be as tolerant when that happens"

Y/N looked around and smirked ever so slightly when both men stood silent at her words whilst her father continued to proudly admire her.

"I shall pardon both you and Aegon" she turned to face Jace "if you bend the knee and swear fealty to me as your queen, thus renouncing each of your claims to the throne"

"Y/N..." Aemond began but she was quick to cut him off.

"Those are my terms, prince Aemond" she firmly told him, eyes burning with the very same fire that she felt in her heart "fire will rain and all will burn. For the sake of your family, I would urge you to remind them of who the crown truly belongs to"

Jace was truly at a loss for words. He was well aware that Y/N was a feisty one, bold and never one to back down from a fight but he never expected for her be so ruthless and to so openly call him a bastard.

"I shall ask you both to leave me be, I wish to speak with my father" she shifted her attention toward Daemon, who had his arms crossed over his chest. By the amused look plastered over his face, he seemed to be enjoying this whole thing.

Aemond heaved a long sigh before he stormed out with a grunt, making his way toward the long and empty hallway to give his princess some privacy. Jace seemed hesitant but then soon caved in, not wanting to start something with Y/N. He was hoping to have her on his side and that would be difficult if he made an enemy out of her.

Her father would rather obviously side with her, even her step-sisters Baela and Rhaena. That already meant their dragons would outnumber his and Luke's three to two. Not to mention Daemon had a number of men in the city watch still loyal to him and Y/N had the vale behind her. With Baela and Rhaena on her side, it also meant Rhaenys would most likely join her granddaughters, which added another dragon to their side. If Rhaenys joined them it would also leave Jace at risk of losing his strongest ally, lord Corlys.

"Iksā mirre mazverdagon bē" Daemon beamed at his daughter with pride once the others had left. He most certainly was rather joyous to see her stand up for herself and her right to being queen- something he wanted for her for years now.

"You're all grown up"

"Mirri jēdi nyke pendagon lo mirre hen bisa iksis skoros nyke jeldan" the girl huffed, all of her previous show of confidence withering away in front of her father. Her eyes refused to meet his, not wanting for him to see her in such an exhausted state.

"Sometimes I wonder if this is what I even wanted"

"Skoros gaomagon ao nūmāzma, ñuha perzys?" Daemon asked tenderly, a sight not many got to see.

"what do you mean, my flame?"

"Is all of this really worth it? All these fights, these conflicts," she asked, voice dripping with dejection "I never really grew up dreaming of being queen, then I was chosen as heir and suddenly that was all I ever wanted but what if I'm wrong. What if I've convinced myself that it's what I want?"

"My sweet child, that throne is your birthright" Daemon tried to remind her "you know the truth of Rhaenyra's sons, they are in no position to lay claim to it"

"I aspire to be a good queen, beloved and respected by all" Y/N almost scoffed at her own statement "but I'm sure I've already made two enemies of both princes awaiting me outside"

"We both know Aemond could never come to hate you no matter what you'd do. Furthermore, I know he wishes to be king. With you as queen he will be your king consort, the closest thing to his desire" Daemon rolled his eyes, as if Aemond being king was something he found rather odd "as for Jace, he is well aware of his legitimacy"

"I truly don’t wish to start a war-"

"There will be a war regardless" the rogue prince took a step forward, voice subtly shifting from tender to stern "Aegon isn't going to just abdicate the throne and if you don’t fight for your crown then Jace will. Do you want him on that throne instead of you?"

"No, of course not but-"

"Then don’t even for a second think of backing down after all of this" he interrupted her "I've done everything I could to make you heir. I dissolved my marriage with Rhea, wedded Rhaenyra, convinced her to-"

"Dissolved the marriage with muña?" Y/N tilted her head with confusion. She was aware her father did not love her mother and he did try to have their marriage dissolved but he was never granted that wish "your marriage ended when muña died whilst she was out hunting"

Daemon opened his mouth to say something but then immediately shut up to take a deep breath.

Y/N knew there was something more to it, she could tell by the way her father turned slightly to avoid looking at her. How he clenched his jaw and drew deep breaths.

"What?" she asked, prying for an answer that she deep down had a horrible feeling about.

"I did all of this for you" he said, eyes still not meeting her's "so that you could have the throne that was denied to me"

"Kepa, what are you saying?"

"You would never have been named heir if I wasn’t wedded to Rhaenyra" he told her "granted I married Laena but that was only because Rhaenyra was wedded off to Laenor. But I put things right, I wedded her-"

"You did not answer me" she sharply interrupted.

"I wanted my marriage to your mother to be dissolved yes, but my brother denied that request" Daemon sighed, something he realised he was doing a lot during this conversation "so, I took matters into my own hands and took care of it"

Y/N's heart dropped down to her stomach.

"Say it" she lowly demanded, voice barely even audible "what did you do.."

"I killed her" Daemon darkly admitted, voice just as low as his daughter's "I only did it for you-"

"No, no don’t you dare tell me you murdered my mother for my sake" Y/N's eyes rose to meet his, her voice sounding dangerous as she tried her very best not to scream "you think I would want that? For my mother to be taken from me so that I might rule? You only wanted to fulfil your own desire to rule through me!"

"I thought you wanted this as well?"

"I only wanted it because you convinced me that I did" Y/N snapped. She was filled with so much rage that she felt like setting this very castle on fire to let out her frustrations "you have no other use for me apart from seeing your blood on the throne"

"That is not true Y/N-"

"Not another word" she harshly barked at him, not caring in the slightest how disrespectful that must’ve sounded. She couldn’t bare to look at him.

She never knew her mother well, that was something she could thank her father for. It was already hard enough for her with her father always being absent from court, having her mother at her side would’ve made things a lot easier.

She stormed out the hall, running into Jace on her way out.

"This meeting is at an end" she quickly told him, her mind racing as her heart began to hammer with the news she's just received. She knew she wouldn’t be able to think straight in the moment "I shall send a raven to further discuss things"

And with that she marched straight past him, leaving the boy feeling more confused than ever.

She walked toward Aemond and seized him by the arm, dragging him after her.

"What is it?" he asked as he looked at her with utmost concern. It was clear that she was troubled by something and wanted to know what so that he might be able to help her if need be.

But the girl didn’t answer him, she most certainly wasn’t in the best headspace to have a conversation right this instant. She needed to take her mind off everything.

The throne,

The green council,

The black council,

Her father,

Her mother,

Everything.

She dragged him into one of the many empty rooms in the castle and slammed shut the door behind her before she crashed her lips into his to pull him in for a hungry kiss.

Aemond was taken aback by her sudden desire to kiss him with such desperation, especially since all they'd been doing in the past few days was arguing. He couldn’t deny that he did miss how things used to be between them and with her kissing him after such a long time, it left him craving for more and he immediately melted into it.

Y/N tugged at his clothes with unwavering desperation, in a hurry for him to be rid of them and Aemond obliged. He was quick to slip his coat off, soon followed by his belt from which his sword and dagger hung and then the next to join them on the floor was his shirt. His hands wandered all over the princess before he finally unlaced her dress, helping her out of her underskirts once her dress had pooled at her feet.

Y/N ran her hands through his soft white hair, tugging on it slightly that made him growl into her mouth.

"More Aemond~" she breathlessly whispered into the kiss "I need more"

Aemond soon had her pinned against the wall, his hot mouth immediately latching on to her nipple, tongue swirling around her areola as she slowly began to grind down on his thigh, making a wet spot on his trousers.

In truth, Aemond had almost no experience when it came to intimacy further than this. He'd only ever been with a woman once at a whorehouse when he was far too young and it left him feeling rather defiled than anything else.

But with Y/N it was different. With her, he wanted for it to happen; he just didn’t know what he needed to do. Furthermore, he knew there was something bothering her and he felt as though her current actions were only influenced by it.

"Y/N" he breathed out, pulling away to look into her eyes "not like this"

"Huh.." the girl pouted slightly with disappointment, not too happy about having to stop when she was only just starting to loose herself to it "Aemond please I-"

"What happened back there?" he tried again, referring to her and Daemon's conversation "what got you so riled up?"

Y/N wanted to tell him, but held her tongue. She was not in the right headspace, this much she knew. She needed to be alone, isolated from all of them; some place to gather her thoughts and process everything.

"Nothing" she mumbled as she left his embrace to dress herself "I just need to think, that’s all"

Taglist: @ladybug0095 @sahvlren @bunny24sstufff @dellalyra @ellabellabus07 @champomiel @fan-goddess @lilostif16

[animebw]

Re:Zero: Season 2 Reflection

Re:Zero’s a show that’s weirdly easy to take for granted. For all its ubiquity in the modern anime consciousness, its shallowest traits tend to be what gets the most focus. The edgy deaths, Subaru’s cringe factor, the endless waifu wars, all give off the impression of a show getting by on cheap shock factor and shameless otaku pandering. I know that’s the impression I had before I started watching it. And that’s a criminal shame, because once you table those expectations and take Re:Zero on its own terms, it doesn’t take long to discover that not only does it actually deserve all the hype, it may well be the best blockbuster anime of the entire modern era. It’s rich in thematic complexity, it’s dense with compelling characters weaving a larger story, and it does the impossible task of kicking the worst of the isekai genre in the face while still serving as a shining example of what isekai should be. It’s a tale of genuine struggle and triumph, diving straight to the heart of lonely nerds the world over and offering them a path to self-betterment and self-love. And it accomplishes all that while still being just a damn amazing fantasy adventure, full of twists and turns and epic battles and hard-won triumphs and some of the best damn technical writing in the business. Re:Zero is good in ways that make me jealous, ways that inspire me to do better in my own storytelling pursuits, to constantly push my craft forward without settling for good enough. It is so much better than its fanbase deserves, in every conceivable way.

And that’s just season 1.

Season 2 takes all that and makes it look like child’s play.

I cannot overstate what a titanic achievement this season has been. This is the longest, densest, most complex chapter in this story yet, a magic-infused murder mystery set in and around a scant few locations that throws in a million new characters and expands on a million old characters in equal measure. It weaves in so many different elements, so many different subplots, so many competing motivations and colliding events all intertwining and reinforcing each other in a single composite tapestry of suffering. Long-hidden secrets finally come to light, the history of the world at large comes into the picture, we gain a greater understanding of the story we’ve already witnessed and set up countless threads for stories yet to come. This isn’t just the story of Subaru learning to be a better person anymore, though that is still the focus; this is the story of everyone in his immediate orbit. It’s the story of Emilia reckoning with the demons of her past, of Roswaal’s determination to drag the world down with him, of Beatrice’s loss of faith, of Otto’s enduring friendship, of Garfiel’s fractured family, of the secrets held by the Witches of Sin and the plans they’re still enacting in death, all their dreams, all their regrets, all the lore and backstory and unresolved tragedy that holds them back and drives them forward. This. Season. Is. MASSIVE. Even without the increasingly lengthy episodes, the only possible word to sum it up with it “epic.”

And with that epic scope, Re:Zero is able to rocket into the fucking stratosphere.  This show was fantastic, but the heights it reaches in its fourth arc put everything that’s come before to shame. It’s a staggering journey that puts Subaru through his darkest, most grueling trials yet, forcing him to face a level of despair and helplessness that comes close to breaking him on multiple occasions. It relentlessly pushes him to the brink, interrogating his self-loathing, his neediness, his martyr complex, his suicidal tendencies, his inability to rely on others, all the shame and weakness that renders him unable to move forward. And it sinks its claws equally into every single member of the cast, putting them through hell the likes of which makes even the darkest moments of season 1 seem quaint by comparison. It’s brutal, it’s relentless, and it absolutely fucking wrecks you. I can’t even count how many moments this season utterly destroyed me, left me shaking and sobbing and terrified to even keep watching. And yet, the most painful moments aren’t when Subaru is ripped apart by a pack of ravenous rabbits or slices his own throat with a broken sword. They’re when Subaru realizes he can’t save someone who matters to him. Or when he forces himself to shut everyone out in a self-destructive attempt to take the world on his shoulders. Or when he breaks down sobbing in agony at the chance to finally tell someone else about all the pain he’s endured. Or when he spills the depths of his self-loathing to a coven of witches, revealing just how deeply he’s come to hate himself and everything he stands for. Re:Zero isn’t dark because of all the blood and carnage; it’s dark because it understands the depths of human misery better than just about any anime since Evangelion. It understands why we can come to despise ourselves, all the deep emotional scars that linger long after the initial pain subsides, all the myriad ways people can falter and stumble and fail, even when we’re trying our hardest to be better than our worst. For all the monsters and magic and gruesome deaths, those moments of sheer, vulnerable heartbreak are what linger in your soul long after the curtain finally falls.

But for all its incredible darkness, Re:Zero’s optimistic spirit has never shown brighter. For just as it knows how deeply people can sink into themselves, it understands how beautifully they can rise again. It understands the trauma that binds us to our past, but it also understands how to find the strength to keep moving forward. And over the course of the second season, it carries that truth like a battle standard, never once faltering no matter how bleak the battlefield grows. In Garfiel, in Emilia, in Beatrice, in Ryuzu, and, of course, in Subaru himself, it showcases the power of love in all its rawest, kindest forms. The power to love someone else and give them the strength to keep fighting. The power to love yourself and let others do the same for you. The power to love the world and believe that things can get better if you just take the chance to try. In the face of a seemingly insurmountable past, all it takes is the strength to trust in each other, to believe that better is possible, for the chains to finally fall. More than anything, Re:Zero is a testament to humanity’s ability to change. To grow beyond our worst selves, to become someone worthy of loving and being loved, to find new reasons to keep fighting when old ones whither away, to believe that the future, no matter how terrifying, is worth striving for. It stares all the world’s darkness dead in the eyes and comes out saying that better is still possible. Better is worth fighting for. So don’t give up just because you think you’ve run as far as you can. I promise you, there’s always so much further you can go. That is the spirit of Re:Zero, a spirit writ large in stunning detail, with beautiful writing and fantastic characters and a story that constantly leaves you hungry for more. What other world could I give it but “masterpiece?”

Yes, the pacing definitely takes a hit in the back half of this season. Cramming all the backstory episodes into a single chunk means you spend a lot of time waiting for the story to start up again, whereas before backstory and forward motion existed comfortable side by side. But even with that caveat, Re:Zero’s second season stands among the greatest anime I’ve ever seen. I already loved this show after season 1, but now I have no qualms calling it the second-best fantasy anime of all time, surpassed only by the everlasting FMA Brotherhood itself. Hopefully White Fox will get to work on season 3 eventually, once they’ve had a chance to recover from pandemic crunch time and recharge their batteries. But until then, I happily give season 2 a score of:

10/10

What a fucking show. Thank you all for joining me on this return to an old favorite! If you’ve enjoyed my analysis and want more of me, be sure to ask for an invite to my Discord where you can hang out and chat about the shows I’m watching with me and fellow anime fans! And be sure to stick around for the show that will take Re:Zero’s place:

The Promised Neverland Season 2

Ah yes, Winter 2021′s other highly anticipated sequel to a smash hit. Surely this will be just as rewarding a return as Re:Zero, right?

...right?

See you next time.

[milanrej01-blog]

Hyundai Kona: all the data and photos of the urban SUV

Starting in September, the sale of Hyundai's urban SUV begins, the Hyundai Kona, with a new platform, a great electric future and an image that will not leave you indifferent.

Simultaneous launch in Seoul and Milan, photo shoot next to the Prado and Almudena Cathedral, name of the most touristic city on the Big Island of Hawaii ... who doubts that they want the Hyundai Kona to be a global SUV ?

Another small SUV to fight to conquer the city, this time from the hand of Hyundai, first cousin of the also debutant Kia Stonic . The Hyundai Kona arrives to fight directly with Peugeot 2008, Opel Mokka X, Renault Captur, Nissan Juke and the rest of the unstoppable small SUVs or urban SUVs. vidalista

With its 4.16 meters only the Opel Mokka surpasses it (in length), but this list of sales in Spain means that size does not really matter. In fact, the big Opel already has a little brother ready, the Opel Crossland X and this week the Citroën C3 Aircross with the same platform as the Opel was unveiled, with a length similar to that of the new Hyundai Kona. 

The prices of the Hyundai Kona will not be known until itscommercialization, which in Spain will be in September . Korea is the starting market, in July, to continue with Europe and America.

According to its managers, the Hyundai Kona, the younger brother of the Hyundai Tucson, Santa Fe and Grand Santa Fe, will stand out from the competition for its refined interior and its large space and comfort . The Kona also aims to set new references in connectivity and security measures . These include the frontal collision assistant based on camera data and the frontal radar, capable of automatically braking in the event of a collision risk. The front camera is based on three other systems, lane assistant , the one beam and detector alertness of the driver . 

Through rear radars the Hyundai Kona will offer a warningBlind spot and in reverse maneuvers, it will alert you to the risk of collision with passing traffic. Inside stand out the screen, floating on the dashboard, which according to equipment and markets will be 5, 7 or 8 inches , plus the presence of a head-up display -prime in Hyundai- in which speed information will be projected, navigation, audio and lane departure warnings. It will have an infotainment system compatible with Android Auto and Apple Carplay , with an optional DAB digital radio, rear view through a camera.

They aim for a clean style inside, but functional, and with enough space behind despite the descending line of the body. The rear seats have folding backrests (1 / 3-2 / 3) to form a flat platform if necessary. The boot has two load levels.

HYUNDAI KONA ENGINES

The mechanics for each market have not been specified, but the engines shown at the launch of the Hyundai Kona show a "big car" ambition. In Europe the basic gasoline version will be the 1.0 T-GDI that we know from other Hyundai models, such as the i30, a three-cylinder with turbo, direct injection, 120 horsepower and a maximum torque of 172 Nm between 1,500 rpm and 4,000 rpm. It will go with a six-speed manual gearbox and offer acceleration 0-100 km / h in 12 seconds. The maximum speed of the Hyundai Kona 1.0 T-GDI will be 181 km / h.

Above will be the also known 1.6 T-GDI of the Gamma family of engines, with 177 horsepower and 265 Nm of maximum torque, offered between 1,500 rpm and 4,500 rpm. This engine will be linked to the 7DCT seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and will allow 0-100 acceleration in 7.7 seconds, with a top speed of 210 km / h.

Without specifying more details on the power (in September the new Euro 6c standards come into force and the figures must still be in the confirmation phase), they have communicated that the Hyundai Kona will offer the well-known 1.6 CRDi Diesel , which in the Hyundai i30 will offers with 95 and 110 horses, and consumption (homologated) around 4 liters. 

A 149 HP 2.0 Atkinson engine will also be offered in gasoline , whose operating cycle (neither Diesel nor Otto) boasts low consumption and low emissions. Coupled with a six-speed automatic transmission, it promises to accelerate the Hyundai Kona from O to 100 km / h in 10 seconds and a top speed of 194 km / h. The maximum torque is not very high, typical of Atkinson engines, with a value of 179 Nm at 4,500 rpm.

Mechanically the Hyundai Kona will be available with 4x2 drive and will also offer 4x4 all-wheel drive . The rear suspensions change in each case (they rely on the usual McPherson front), with a torsional axle for the front-wheel drive versions and a more sophisticated multi-link for the all-wheel drive Hyundai Kona. They say that the new Kona platform is optimized to allow an SUV's own ground clearance, without specifying the data.

THE AESTHETICS OF THE HYUNDAI KONA

The safety of the Kona does not only refer to the multiple electronic accessories that it will offer, also in structural rigidity. For this they do not hesitate to boast that Hyundai is the only manufacturer capable of producing their own steel . Half of the Hyundai Kona's structure (51.8 percent) will be made of very high-strength steels , hot-stamped, to achieve rigidity and lightness. 

The rigidity of the bodywork is essential in the face of shocks, also for the absence of noise and for the correct work of the suspensions. With this they trust to combine in the Kona good comfort of patching and great road behavior, also relying on a great wheelbase for a small car, 260 cm, just 5 centimeters less than the Hyundai i30 .

The key point of small SUVs is the style and the Hyundai Kona has a lot of that. Those responsible for the design of the Hyundai Kona are the Belgian Luc Donckerwolke (who you know well enough for being the father of a best seller like the Seat Ibiza that you have seen for nine years and who is now leaving us) and one of the current stars of the car design, the Korean SangYup Lee (if it doesn't sound right to you, the person in charge of the Camaro you saw in Transformers, among others).

Seen from behind, the Hyundai Kona has the air of a Hyundai i30 wagon that would have gone through a bodybuilding room, and the same muscle-on-muscle feel is seen on the wheel arches. Come on, you will like it . Better to see the photos of the Kona, than to explain the peculiar interpretation of the plastic protections on the wheel arches. 

Ahead is more of the above, with an evolution of the Hyundai grill , which will take Hyundai away from those criticisms that it looked like an Audi (reproaches that they surely did not dislike). You will not be short of comparisons again, with the thin led daytime running lights on the top, next to the hood, separated from the main optics: yes, they are reminiscent of the latest Citroën designs. The Hyundia Kona offers two-tone paint, with a black roof, as is becoming the norm in the small SUV segment.

Black marks it all, contrasting each of the five double spoke spokes, the front grille, but also the engine air intake at the top of the bumper. If it aesthetically transmits robustness, it will better supply air to the engine compartment. To make matters worse, for the launch they have teamed up with Marvel to present a special edition Ironman , which seems to provide armor to the Hyundai Kona. On 19-inch wheels and 40 mm wider, it will be possible in the window of the Hyundai Motorstudio in Seoul, for a month.

Starting in 2018, an electric version of the Hyundai Kona will also be offered , whose autonomy will not be less than 390 km with a recharge. It is part of the intention to launch 31 electrified models in Hyundai (between hybrids, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell), before 2020. In the first half of 2018 Hyundai will launch a hydrogen fuel cell SUV on the occasion of the celebration of the winter olympics.

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

Chapter 39: Many Matters Up For Consideration

Content warning for this chapter: some unintentional misgendering of a gender-fluid character occurs. Walt knows Bernie's preference is "if it's unclear which pronoun set I'm currently using, use 'they/them'," but Walt is also out of practice checking if there is a pronoun set Bernie is currently using other than 'they/them', and so refers to Bernie as 'they/them' while the audience knows Bernie is using 'she/her'.

Becoming the Mask

[Tumblr used to have a line break option but for some reason it isn’t here anymore?]

"So, what did Blinky say when he dragged you off earlier?" Toby asked Jim.

The Changeling rolled over in his sleeping bag and propped himself up on one arm, facing the bed.

"He apologized for some stuff he said when he found out what I am, and he told me where troll babies come from. Whelps incubate in Heartstone chunks called 'birthstones' – which I think explains the thing about Gunmar's Birthstone being 'a rotten Heartstone'. It makes a lot more sense now. Like calling someone 'a bad seed' or 'a bad egg'. Birthstones are kind of like fish eggs, except both parents fertilize it externally. And it takes thirty years for one to hatch."

"Wow."

"I know, right? I wonder if some Changelings might've been taken as birthstones instead of whelps. I mean, it's got to be easier to carry a rock than a squirmy baby. I know I'd already hatched by the time I was changed, because I kind of remember it, but that's probably just so we actually know stuff by the time the age pause switches over to our Familiar."

"You remember getting turned into a Changeling?"

"Kind of," said Jim again. "It hurt a lot, especially my hands because I grew an extra finger on each one. And there were other Changelings there, too, and … our Creator."

He said the last part softly. Toby took that to mean Jim didn't want to talk about it. Them. Whatever.

"… Do you remember anything from … before? Like, your first family?"

"No, that's mostly blocked out. I half-remember being warm? And some blurry noises and smells? But I don't know if any of those are real memories or just something I invented. Like, I figure one of my parents must have been blue, but I don't remember that, I just think it because I am. And I've always been really drawn to soft things, so I think one of them might've had fur and I subconsciously remember that? But I don't actually know."

Toby didn't mean to snort, really, but –

"One blue and one with fur? So, Blinky and AAARRRGGHH?"

There was a moment of silence before Jim huffed amusedly. "Well, Blinky did just give me The Talk. But if I were going to claim any troll as my dad, I'd probably say Stricklander."

"Wait, if you guys are both Changelings, doesn't that make you the same age?"

"No, no, he's, like, centuries older than me. Enrique's around my age, though."

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Bernie increased magnification and switched forms. It was a habit of hers. Trolls and humans had evolved in different lighting conditions, so troll eyes could catch a detail that human eyes could not, and vice versa.

Bular's death was tragic, of course, a deep setback to the Order's plans and an agonizing blow to the Underlord (or would be, once someone was brave enough to bear the bad news), but his remains offered a wealth of knowledge. Bernie intended to wring every scrap of information possible from the stones.

The Janus Order had not had troll remains available for study since before most of Bernie's lab equipment had been invented. Changelings who died in troll form tended to explode. Bernie had samples of the dust and was eager to see how Bular's chemical composition compared. She felt like a human paleontologist studying a mostly intact dinosaur fossil after decades working with tiny bone fragments.

First she was running a series of passive tests on the stones. More intrusive testing could wait until she and Otto and Stephan had rebuilt Bular enough that she could take samples from pre-determined areas. There could be any number of factors differentiating between what had been his horn or his stomach or his tail, and the chemical analysis would run more smoothly if she knew what she was testing.

The stones were not responsive to blacklight and showed no response to infrared other than warming up. Bernie hadn't quite dared expose Bular's remains to ultraviolet light yet – it shouldn't do anything, with the tissue already dead, but she didn't want to risk degrading the samples so early on when there was such a finite quantity. She was using infrared and ultraviolet cameras as well as a standard one to record everything.

"So far," said Bernie aloud to the video cameras, "Bular seems to be composed of a sedimentary version of the same mineral that comprises Changeling dust. That suggests we aren't as different from unaltered trolls as previously believed. Possibly the changes are more noticeable in live tissue."

She wished he had been willing to provide tissue samples while still alive. The Son of Gunmar had made it clear in life he was not interested in indulging Changeling curiosity. Decades ago, Bernie developed a formula that should work as a sunblock for trolls, but the Gumm-Gumm prince had taken offence at the request that he, as the one sun-sensitive troll available, consider testing it, and the Changeling scientist had gotten broken ribs and a broken wrist for the 'insult'. After that, Bernie stopped asking for the troll's aid in experiments.

Between comparing Bular's remains to Changeling dust and cross-referencing that with some of the old notes recovered from the Pale Lady's workshops, Bernie might be able to reverse-engineer how Changelings were made. Their numbers were limited with their Lady currently inaccessible, but if new technology could substitute for raw magical power, then their numbers could grow once more.

Bernie would meditate at the gramophone to seek Her Ladyship's approval before actually trying to recraft the formula, of course. Bernie Sturges was a lot of things, but not a blasphemer.

(Bernie thought of herself as 'Bernie' all the time, regardless of how her gender fluctuated, but classically-gendered names like 'Bernard' and 'Bernadette' were a useful verbal shorthand, to sidestep having 'the pronoun conversation' with every casual acquaintance and speed up telling those 'in the know' which pronouns to use at the moment.)

She switched back to human form to write a few more notes. She liked having a written record as well as audio-visual.

"The fact these remains are Bular's, specifically, raises another possible field of comparison," Bernie mused. "A comparison to the Eye of Gunmar may yield vital data, not only on how our eyes work, but on how genetic ties manifest in living stone. It is hypothetically possible some Changelings are related and don't know it."

Maybe siblings, maybe cousins, maybe an aunt or uncle and their niece or nephew.

"Will investigate the vault and determine which security measures I need to override to access the sample."

Bernie had been living on the base since Stricklander had sent the Order into deep cover. She was between human identities at the moment, so her disappearance would draw less notice in the world above than trying to slap a new cover together in a rush. Fortunately, she maintained a small apartment just off the lab, in case of projects which couldn't be left unsupervised.

The base had three underground stories. Bernie's lab was on the middle one, but off to the side so that any explosions could be contained by the emergency blast doors and nothing was directly above or below.

The vault was down a level and on the opposite side of the base. It had been built to store the gramophone, before it was determined that the magical wards interfered with the signal, pieces of Killahead Bridge, before construction had begun, and two other artifacts which were considered too vital to move about without direct instructions from the Order's head or the Pale Lady herself.

Bernie swapped her safety glasses for a mask and brought a few of her smaller scanners along. If she could get into the vault, she could run some tests on Gunmar's Eye before reporting the security system's weaknesses.

To her surprise and concern, the Order's head was already standing at the vault's door.

"Stricklander," she greeted. Bernie never bothered with introducing herself to him, because –

"Dr Sturges."

– Stricklander always called her that. She had a few doctorates by now, from decades infiltrating human universities to keep up with their scientific progress. 'Bernadette Sturges' was not so accredited as 'Bernard Sturges' yet, but the degrees under Bernadette's name were more recent.

"I'd like to access the Eye of Gunmar," she said, because it wasn't like Bernie had any other excuse for being on this level and Stricklander usually supported her studies.

"… Why?"

"I've been examining Bular's remains," which he'd know if he'd read the reports she'd been leaving on his desk, but he might not have been to his on-base office recently, "and I wanted to do a comparative study. Since we know they're related."

Stricklander frowned.

"You have fortunate timing, Dr Sturges," he said after a moment. "The Eye of Gunmar is about to be moved to a classified location." More classified than a secret underground bunker? Well, if Stricklander was the only one to know where the new location was, that would be more secure than a vault most Changelings knew about. "I see no problem with you studying it under supervision for the next few hours."

Opening the vault was a complicated affair. There was a Changeling lock, of course, to keep out any other trolls or humans who somehow got into the base, and then a combination lock, and then some other form of combination lock involving floating, glowing runes that Stricklander rearranged into what was probably a password – Bernie could read trollish but it still looked like gibberish – and then some kind of scanner for which Stricklander changed to his troll form.

Inside was dark and surprisingly spacious. Perhaps not surprising, considering it had held about half of the Bridge at one time. There was a shelf along the back wall, which held two boxes, kept a respectful distance apart from one another. Each box sent a faint light up the wall and to the ceiling.

Bernie was mildly surprised that both boxes were open. One would think they'd be kept sealed so that, on the off-chance a thief made it this far, they might still grab the wrong artifact.

One, the Eye of Gunmar, glowed blue. The other, the Inferna Copula, glowed golden.

"I should study the Inferna Copula as well," said Bernie. "Not now, but at some point. Legend says it's a metamorphosed piece of Angor Rot's own flesh, which he sacrificed as an offering to our Lady when he swore himself to her service."

Stricklander took the box with the eye. Bernie stayed near the vault door, ready to bolt for it if her presence set off another security system.

"He could avenge Bular," Bernie realized. "He's slain Trollhunters before, in our Lady's name."

Stricklander let out a sharp but quiet gasp. He handed Bernie the eye box and took the ring box.

"I think I had best keep this close for now."

[Tumblr used to have a line break option but for some reason it isn’t here anymore?]

Walter was nearly positive that Dr Sturges was working with Otto. Sturges hadn't been told the full story of Bular's demise, or they wouldn't be so open with Walt about their current project.

As Sturges examined Gunmar's Eye, talking to the various recording devices set up in the lab, Walt examined Sturges' notes. Sturges had copies of papers recovered from several of the Pale Lady's workshops, which the Order's linguistics and cryptography team had done their best to decipher and translate. Sturges was no linguist, and only a hobbyist cryptographer, but insisted on having copies of the original pages as well as translations.

The papers Walt was studying had to do with Angor Rot.

Angor had turned to the Pale Lady midway through Gunmar's first war for the surface. A few history records that Jim had recovered from Blinkous' library claimed Angor had been a hero, once, defending trollkind from the Gumm-Gumms. Perhaps that was what had driven Angor to Morgana, seeking the same power that her rival Merlin had bestowed on the Trollhunters?

If so, it seemed she had gifted him with even greater power, because at least four Trollhunters were confirmed to have died at Angor's hands, and half a dozen more were rumoured.

Angor was controlled by the Inferna Copula, the ring which contained his soul. Wielding it was hazardous; every past bearer had died gruesomely, either as or shortly after it was taken from them. The assassin himself had vanished centuries ago, supposedly having been imprisoned by Merlin, but the Janus Order had acquired his ring.

Walt could not let Otto get it. If there was a chance Angor Rot was still alive, Otto could set him against Jim, and Walter himself.

But, looking at Morgana's notes about her Champion, and the weak and sentimental heart which brought him to her … If Angor were alive, and Walt were to get to him first …

It would be a foolish quest; more foolish than the quest for the Triumbric Stones, considering that those, at least, were known to still exist.

Walt couldn't just pack up and leave Arcadia. It wouldn't look entirely suspicious to his fellow Changelings, for him to up and leave the town guarded by a Trollhunter strong enough to slay Bular, but it could incite panic and mass exodus.

And who could he leave in charge in his stead, who wouldn't be killed or overthrown but also wouldn't overthrow him? Nomura, maybe. 'A last chance to redeem yourself after the Bridge was stolen from your post.' But could he trust her that much? Could he afford to put her in the position of becoming the scapegoat if anything went wrong with the Order in his absence?

He couldn't send someone else to retrieve Angor Rot. That only raised the same questions, of who wouldn't either be killed or keep the assassin in their own service.

And could Walt really afford to take away the token protection his presence gave Jim against Otto, even for a short while in exchange for a chance to acquire a more powerful ally?

He put down the papers and examined the ring. Gold, chunky but spiky; its bulk reminded him of some Borgia rings he'd seen or worn in the past, with their hidden compartments for poison. He couldn't find any mechanisms. More out of curiosity than anything, Walt tried it on.

Vines and moss and the crushing weight of stone. Sunlight filtered through gaps in an old roof, not quite able to reach him and burn him. Arms and legs spread uncomfortably and held firm, even after centuries. Tired. Hungry. Thirsty.

Walt pulled the ring off quickly. He didn't have a perfect internal compass, but the connection between the ring and the troll had created one, if only for a moment.

Angor Rot was alive, and Walter Strickler knew exactly where to find him.

[Tumblr used to have a line break option but for some reason it isn’t here anymore?]

Previous Chapter (Barbara agrees to let Jim move back home)

Table of Contents

Next Chapter (Toby warns Claire, Mary, and Darci that Barbara wants to tell their families about trolls)

In the episode It's About Time, Jim gets a vision of where Angor is when he puts on the Inferna Copula. This 'inner compass' idea explains how he found him so quickly when Arcadia has a lot of sewer tunnels and there was no reason Jim should recognize that particular spot, and in this fic I'm using it to explain how Strickler finds Angor without Otto also along on the journey.

I'm ignoring the spinoff novel which claimed Angor made his deal with Morgana after the Battle of Killahead, because I don't think that makes nearly as much sense as it being a pre-Killahead thing. Angor specifically mentions that Gunmar's war ravaged his village. It could be interpreted as Angor wanting to protect his vulnerable displaced/rebuilding people after the war is over, but I think his phrasing makes the most sense if Gunmar is still free to threaten them further. 

I am keeping, at least as a rumour, the spinoff novel’s claim that Merlin was the one to chain Angor up and trap him under a pile of rubble in an isolated building.

[aion-rsa]

Fear the Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 14 Review: Mother

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This Fear the Walking Dead review contains spoilers. 

Fear the Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 14

After being sidelined for most of the season, Fear the Walking Dead finally throws one of its best characters into the fray. I’m talking about Alicia, of course, who hasn’t gotten nearly enough screen time lately. So it’s interesting (and refreshing) that “Mother” should lean so heavily into what it means to be Madison Clark’s daughter. The episode continues season 6’s trend of unexpected reunions, and this one certainly doesn’t disappoint. But more on that chance encounter in a bit.

In the meantime, let’s talk about Teddy Maddox (John Glover). We already knew he was a bit unhinged, what with being a cult leader and embalming dissenters and wanting to usher in a nuclear Armageddon. Taken individually, any one of those things is a red flag, to be sure. Taken together, though, and you have a dangerous lunatic who makes the likes of recent antagonists like Virginia, Logan, and Martha seem like dilettantes by comparison. Which is a good thing, really. While the undead have become more of an existential threat to our heroes, the living always prove to be the biggest and most immediate threat to survival. Remember Jeremiah and Troy Otto from season 3? They were good villains! What made them so dangerous was that they mistakenly believed they had the moral high ground. 

Teddy is no different. Like the Ottos, he truly believes that humans are nothing more than bottom-feeders who deserve to be wiped out. While his views are a bit extreme, what transpires in “Mother” certainly seems to bear out this grim hypothesis. Indeed, this episode offers compelling insights into Teddy’s convoluted thought process. He sums it all up when he tells Alicia, “I could preserve everything I loved, and destroy everything I didn’t.” This black-and-white worldview is calcified after he murders someone, and marvels at the flowers growing over her backyard grave. That and 30 years on death row gave him plenty of time to reinforce his twisted beliefs. When the world ended, his second chance began in earnest. Now this wasteland prophet finally has the means to bring his vision to full fruition. To do that, he needs Alicia’s help.

All the way back in season 3, in my review of “Brother’s Keeper,” I suggested that Fear could possibly benefit from killing off Alicia. This was back when the entire Clark family was still alive and seemingly unkillable. Three seasons later, though, Alicia is the last Clark standing. To lose her now would cut Fear off from an important part of its history. Whether you like them or hate them, for better or worse, this Walking Dead spin-off was built upon the Clark family’s misadventures during the earliest days of the zombie apocalypse. Were they always role models? Definitely not. But week after week, their flaws made for more compelling drama. And as we know, over the years, Alicia has tried more than once to leave all the bloodshed behind. Unfortunately for her, Alicia is usually at her best when she’s forced to do her worst. And “Mother” is certainly no exception.

Tapped by Teddy to run a special errand (with new cult recruit Dakota tagging along for good measure), Alicia unwittingly becomes part of a grand thought experiment. It should be said that Alycia Debnam-Carey delivers a great performance, as does Glover. They prove to be excellent foils for one another, playing two sides of the same coin. Throwing them together provides plenty of friction as Teddy continues to woo her to his way of thinking. And if that means revisiting the ghosts of the past, so be it. For Alicia, that means confronting her mother’s legacy.

For Teddy, though, that means liberating his mother’s corpse from its crypt.

It’s amazing that this scene can be so unsettling, given how the Walking Dead universe has spent nearly eleven years “normalizing” reanimated corpses. Maybe it’s because Teddy is obviously unwell. Or maybe it’s because he cherishes his mother’s corpse, rather than fearing it. In this world, any interactions with the dead are assiduously avoided. (That this turns out to be a random corpse is even more disturbing.)

The way Teddy and Dakota casually compare notes on the people they’ve killed and why is likewise unsettling. Killing before the apocalypse landed you on death row. Killing now? Well, it’s just the way of the world. The more we learn about Dakota, the more it seems like Virginia may have been trying to protect people from her daughter. 

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

As for this episode’s surprise reunion, it was great to see a familiar face—until it isn’t. Cole (Sebastian Sozzi) harkens all the way back to headier days, when Madison forged a settlement inside an abandoned stadium. That settlement went up in flames, as they tend to do in the Walking Dead universe. If you’ll recall, Madison gave her life so that her fellow survivors could live to fight another day. Which is why it’s so painful for Alicia to see her mother’s sacrifice squandered by Cole, Doug, and Viv. Since the stadium fell, they’ve become ruthless marauders.  

To Teddy, Cole and his ilk are walking justifications for why he wants to rid the world of loathsome, unsavory types. But that’s all a matter of perspective, what passes for loathsome in this world. Dakota thinks Alicia killing Cole puts the two of them on equal footing, but their moral ground isn’t the same—or is it? Killing doesn’t come easily for Alicia. At least, not like it does for the Teddys or the Dakotas of the world. Each person Alicia has killed, even in self-defense, exacts a tremendous toll.

In the end, taking out Cole proves to Teddy that Alicia is exactly who he needs to bring hope to his coming version of the world. He even goes so far as to lock her away in a secure bunker, to ensure her survival after the beached submarine’s missiles rein down destruction on the guilty. 

Kudos to Fear for playing the long game this season. It’s great to finally get more answers (about that sub, about the graffiti, about those keys), even as they create more problems for our survivors. Kudos, too, for putting Alicia front and center this week. Debnam-Carey is a force to be reckoned with; when given the chance, she elevates every episode she’s in.

A final thought: Fear��seems to be going out of its way this season to remind everyone what a terrible person Strand used to be. After this episode, I’m convinced Strand will ultimately save the world from destruction.

The post Fear the Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 14 Review: Mother appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3wykTGl

[thenuanceddebater]

Let’s Talk About the CNN Debacle

It’s been a while since I’ve done a “let’s talk about post”, but I feel like this latest debacle associated with the CNN meme is enough of a cause to break my unintentional vow of silence. So, without further ado let’s do a general review of what exactly is going on with this whole CNN story and then we’ll talk about legality versus morality and ethics and how this applies. 

For starters, I’m just going to do an incredibly “quick and dirty” summary of the facts in the CNN case. On July 2, 2017 Donald Trump tweeted a gif of him beating up a man with the CNN logo placed over his head. The context from this gif was his Wrestlemania 23 match with CEO of WWE (then WWF I believe) Vince McMahon. CNN and some other outlets chose to interpret this meme as a sort of implied threat from the President (who it is worth noting also retweeted this tweet from the official POTUS twitter as well). The meme was considered in conflict with a statement from Assistant Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders that, “ The president in no way form or fashion has ever promoted or encouraged violence, if anything quite the contrary”, a statement that CNN decided to directly tweet at Donald Trump as you can see here. 

Then the story gets interesting. Reddit user HanAssholeSolo on r/The_Donald claimed authorship of the gif in Trump’s tweet. This ignited a media frenzy over HanAssholeSolo’s other posts-- some of which were antisemitic, or racist in nature (one for example which identified CNN contributers with a Star of David called “Something strange about CNN... Can’t put my finger on it...”). Politico journalist Jared Yates Sexton claims to have been the first journalist that revealed HanAssholeSolo’s antisemitic content which quickly circulated both through other press outlets and over social media. 

Meanwhile, according to its own public statement, CNN then began to look for HanAssholeSolo’s identity while also asking the White House why the gif was tweeted in the first place. The White House proved to be evasive in their response, but HanAssholeSolo’s identity was not so evasive. Apparently, HanAssholeSolo had posted/ had visible personal details on his reddit account that CNN then used to identify him via Facebook. It is that this point that CNN first reaches out for contact with HanAssholeSolo on Monday July 3, 2017. 

HanAssholeSolo does not respond to this request for contact but instead begins to delete all of his reddit posts, images associated with said posts, and finally his reddit account after first posting an apology on r/ The_Donald (which I would love to post, but has since been deleted by moderators there, the CNN official statement includes either the apology in full, or at least in part, so I’ll post that again here). After posting this apology, HanAssholeSolo called CNN, confirmed his identity and agreed to an interview. During this interview HanAssholeSolo, “sounded nervous about his identity being revealed and asked to not be named out of fear for his personal safety and for the public embarrassment it would bring to him and his family.” CNN agreed not to publish HanAssholeSolo’s name citing the fact that he had made an extensive apology, but included a line that indicated that this position could be reversed when they stated, “CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change.” And the Internet exploded again. 

After this point, it’s difficult to do things chronologically.  All of the backlash seems to happen at about the same time. Some important pieces of backlash comes from Donald Trump Jr. Who makes a this tweet (which I’ll also post below)

This tweet is the first real instance of HanAssholeSolo being called a minor, a talking point that CNN’s critics quickly adopted. This tweet from Ted Cruz is also highly important as it is one of the two main tweets that starts the argument that CNN’s actions may have been illegal. 

The other widely-cited comment is from Julian Assange who had this to say 

Now, these legal claims are going to be the basis of the rest of my discussion of this issue. But, before we get to that CNN did have more information to reveal. First, that HanAssholeSolo called CNN and said that he completely agreed with their statement and was not in fact being threatened.

Which led to yet more memes about how this statement sounds similar to the expected statement a blackmailed person would make such as this one comparing CNN to ISIS (further down the tweet)

As well as comparisons to North Korea’s trial, and imprisonment of the recently-deceased Otto Warmbier. 

CNN’s second revelation is that HanAssholeSolo is not a minor and is in fact a middle-aged man

Now, you can come to whatever conclusions you would like to about HanAssholeSolo’s age. I’ve personally seen no evidence that he was in fact a minor, other than what Donald Trump Jr has retweeted which seems to originate form 4-chan, so I’m going to say that he probably wasn’t a minor. If anyone has any further information on the subject, I’d love to see it. Instead, we’re going to focus primarily on the legal claims here. 

So, first is the legal claim from Ted Cruz. In order for this law to apply, CNN would have needed to have obtained HanAssholeSolo’s IP address, and there’s just no reason why they would have needed that. Nothing that CNN did or said indicates that they must have HanAssholeSolo’s IP address. Again, if there’s information I’m missing please feel free to present it. But, based on what I have seen both from official and nonofficial sources, there is no reason to expect that CNN has HanAssholeSolo’s IP address or even any reason to assume that CNN engaged in any kind of hacking whatsoever. I think it is entirely possible that HanAssholeSolo posted personally identifying information publicly and CNN used that to track down his Facebook which had his other personal details on it. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, I think it’s pretty safe to say that Senator Cruz’s remarks while legally correct are completely irrelevant to this situation. 

Next, we need to look at Julian Assange’s claims. Mr. Assange’s claims are at the very least more probable than Senator Cruz’s; however, there is still  no evidence  that these claims are correct as well. CNN denies having made any kind of real agreement with HanAssholeSolo and instead seems to be predicating its actions on the fact that HanAssholeSolo took certain actions which rendered him no longer a part of the story. Therefore, rather than a tit-for-tat agreement that would make it easy to prosecute for coercion, blackmail, etc. you have a more complicated situation in which people make decisions without consulting one another based on previous decisions that the other has made. 

CNN made the completely legal decision to attempt to contact HanAssholeSolo and succeeded in finding him. This resulted in HanAssholeSolo deleting his accounts, apologizing, and then returning the contact to CNN where he informed them of his actions and likely asked to not be named in their story. CNN agreed to not name him but included a, granted poorly-worded, provision in their statement that this fact was subject to change if HanAssholeSolo continued his actions. This is all the information that we have about what CNN did. IF there is more information, lease feel free to present it but from what I’ve seen it just doesn’t exist. 

Now, allow me to be abundantly clear here: CNN absolutely has the legal right to publish HanAssholeSolo’s name if they want to. It is entirely legal for a newspaper to engage in investigative reporting as long as they do not break the law, and nothing that CNN has obtained warrants them breaking the law in any way, shape or form. The only way that this would not be legal is if CNN made the explicit threat to HanAssholeSolo that his name would be published if he continued to engage in his online activities and then told him that the only way to avoid his name being published was to stop his online activities and give a full public apology to CNN. This situation would trigger the New York statute (and a federal statute) on corruption. Anything less than this? Doesn’t trigger that statute. 

This is the burden of proof that the side making legal claims against CNN must meet. And yeah. It’s possible that this happened. But there’s just no evidence of it. Similar to how a lack of evidence of a rape doesn’t mean that the rape didn’t happen, but does mean that a person should not be convicted of rape, I can’t prove that CNN is not-guilty. I can say very, very assuredly that the evidence to convict CNN in a court of law does not exist at the current time. Therefore, it is entirely premature to talk about CNN as if they have done something illegal. 

Finally, a quick legal and ethical note on doxxing. First of all, doxxing is not as illegal as most people assume. As long as the individual in question acquires the personal information through legal measures (especially if the person themselves admits said information), then publishing public information does not tend to be illegal. Ethics are a different story. First of all, ethics tend to be more subjective and individual than law, but according to the Society of Professional Journalists code of journalistic ethics, CNN also behaved ethically in this situation. Despite what a lot of the fracas online would have you assume, CNN did not in fact doxx HanAssholeSolo because CNN did not in fact publish his personal information. So, even the people upset with CNN about doxxing are a reacting a little over-emotionally. 

There is one real valid reason to be upset with CNN, and that is a subjective opinion that the HanAssholeSolo story was not in fact newsworthy and thus did not warrant any kind of investigative reporting. However, newsworthiness is impossible to really put to a more objective metric and is one of the most subjective arguments against a story possible. In this situation for example, asserting that HanAssholeSolo made a simple harmless meme is just as correct as pointing out that HanAssholeSolo inserted himself into the national discourse through taking credit for a meme that the President of the United States himself retweeted, The former interpretation makes this story seem completely un-newsworthy while the latter makes it seem obviously newsworthy. I leave you yourself to decide on which one of these views you agree with, or if you agree with something in-between. Regardless, this is a subjective personal opinion. Not an objective fact. 

In conclusion, this whole CNN situation has been completely blown out of proportion with people making fallacious legal claims against CNN, claiming that they violated objective ethical standards when they did not, and circulating a lot of unintentionally false information. The truth is that the people who are attacking CNN and condemning them for their actions are being just as subjective as the people who originally condemned Trump for tweeting the meme in the first place. They are not being objective. Because by all non-personal standards CNN didn’t really cross the line. And that means that objectively speaking, CNN did nothing legally wrong, or ethically wrong according to the SPJ. Could they have done something wrong to you? Sure. But that’s an opinion. Not a fact. 

[junker-town]

Marcus Smart is a terrible shooter that's somehow essential to the Celtics' offense

The fact is that Smart is one of the worst shooters in the NBA. But on the basketball court, facts don’t always matter.

Here are two factual statements about Marcus Smart:

He is a terrible shooter.

His terrible shooting significantly improves the Celtics’ offense

Through more than a quarter of the season, Smart is shooting 29.6 percent from downtown, 34 percent inside the arc, and 36 percent on shots inside of five feet. Among players who attempt more than six field goals a contest, only Lonzo Ball and (barely) Frank Nkilitina have a lower effective field goal percentage.

This is an especially bad year for Smart, but he’s never been an expert marksman. He’s a career 35 percent shooter from the field, 29 percent from downtown, and 41 percent on two-pointers.

And yet, that terrible shooting is somehow essential to the Celtics’ offense.

When Smart is in the game, the Celtics score at a rate of 109.3 points per 100 possessions. When he is not in the game, Boston scores an average of 101.1 points per 100 possessions. Only Al Horford — and crucially not Kyrie Irving -- has a more significant effect on Boston’s offensive efficiency than Smart.

Most of that difference is made up in the Celtics’ shooting. Boston attempts better shots when Smart is in the game and makes those shots more often. Sixty-three percent of their buckets are assisted with Smart in compared to less than 57 percent with him out. Their effective field goal percentage as a team rises to 53 percent with Smart in and drops to 50.3 percent with him out. They shoot a higher percentage of their shots from three-point range and convert restricted area attempts at a clip eight percent higher than with Smart out of the game.

How can these two factual statements both be true? Because opponents treat Marcus Smart like the player he pretends to be, not the one he actually is.

Fake it till you make it (even if you never do)

Marcus Smart may be a sub-35 percent shooter, but you’d never know it watching him play. When he’s open — and often when he’s not — he’s firing away. He’s attempting nearly five three pointers a contest, and only three Celtics (Irving, Marcus Morris, and Jaylen Brown) have a higher usage rate.

He doesn’t just stand there and take the shots given to him, either. More than 55 percent of his shot attempts come off at least one dribble, a percentage higher than Brown or Horford. And it’s not like Smart only attacks to score; he’s just behind Horford in third place on the team in assist percentage and nearly 13 percentage points ahead of the next player in the regular rotation.

This is not the offensive profile for a 32-percent shooter. Consider a comparison between these two players:

Player 1 is Smart. Player 2 is Washington forward Otto Porter. Their shot portfolios are about the same. Their roles are about the same. The only difference is that Porter actually makes shots.

Smart ... doesn’t. And that should crush the Celtics, because that’s a ton of possessions ending in the hands of a player that converts his attempts to put the ball in the hoop less frequently than Jose Altuve makes successful contact with a baseball.

And yet, it has the exact opposite effect. Why?

You could go deep on this, as CBS Sports’ Matt Moore did last month. But the answer lies in a single sentence from that article:

With Smart, no matter how he performs, they play him the same way: as an offensive threat.

In other words, he’s so good at pretending to be a legitimate offensive player that he cons defenses into thinking he actually is. He has so overwhelmingly thumbed his nose the obvious reality that he cannot shoot that the opponent can’t help but react to his overconfidence in real time.

Because of that, he is defended as if he is a legitimate shooter. And the beauty of legitimate shooters is that the threat of them making shots sucks in defensive attention and opens opportunities for others.

Just look at these clips

Here are a series of Bucks players running Smart off the line and swarming like he’s a superstar.

Here’s Serge Ibaka flying out for no reason.

Here’s Devin Booker giving up an easy drive instead of letting Smart take a 28 footer.

Here’s Wesley Matthews reacting as if Smart shooting a corner 3 is as devastating as Steph Curry doing the same.

Here’s Luke Babbitt leaving 50-percent three-point shooter in Jayson Tatum to supply unneeded rim protection on a Smart drive.

But Marcus Smart is a 32 percent shooter. Don’t these players know this?

Maybe they don’t. Maybe they’re actually watching Netflix instead of the curated playlist their video coordinator has supplied. Maybe the coaches don’t know where to find basic statistical information that took me a couple minutes to look up.

Or maybe Smart’s success should remind us that basketball players must make snap decisions on the court incredibly quickly. They don’t get time to hit pause, carefully identify the shooter, and double-check his catch-and-shoot percentage on the NBA’s stats site to determine the precise speed that rotation requires. They have to immediately plot a course of action, usually split seconds after immediately plotting six other courses of action on a single possession.

This is exceedingly difficult, especially as NBA teams push the limits of three-point shooting. With big men stepping out and guards pulling up from well behind the line, defenders have to cover a significantly bigger slice of the court than ever before, using the same number of people as they did 20, 30, 40, and 50 years ago. This is especially true when playing the Celtics, who zip the ball around the court and make defenders dizzy with off-ball cuts.

That means more snap judgments, all while working harder.

When that happens, the best story takes over, not the most accurate

In his landmark book Thinking Fast And Slow, Nobel Prize psychologist Daniel Kahneman introduces two ways in which our brain processes information.

System 1, as he calls it, is how we make instinctual decisions. It is independent, automatic, and often subconscious, but it also can be prone to systemic biases.

System 2, on the other hand, is how we think more deeply. It is more rational and calculating, but also moves slower. It can check the negative effects of System 1, but is lazy and won’t invest the massive effort unless it’s absolutely necessary. (Think of it like a smartphone with an unlimited data plan, but terrible battery life).

In the book, Kahneman speaks of a process he calls substitution. When we are presented with a complicated question, our System 1 replaces that question with an easier one that can be answered quickly. System 2, lazy as it usually is, then rubber stamps the easier question that System 1 has answered, thinking it has actually answered the more complex question. We are especially prone to this process when we are tired or when we’re focused on another task.

Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

Why does this have anything to do with Marcus Smart?

Because NBA players defending him incorrectly are victims of substitution. As they rotate to cover Smart, they are faced with a complex question: to what degree should they close out based on this player’s catch-and-shoot tendencies and three-point proficiency, as measured by a host of statistics.

That is an impossible question to answer accurately in a split second. So instead of answering that question, they answer a simpler one: does this dude look and act like a shooter?

Marcus Smart looks and acts like a shooter. By constantly firing away and taking the same shots as a great spot-up shooter, Smart has created an easy narrative for his opponent. They’ve closed out on so many players that act this exact way, but actually make the shots. When they see Smart, their System 1 identifies him as one of those players, not a 32-percent bricklayer that could build a mansion with all his misses.

Because of that, Smart is able to take advantage of all the benefits a great shooter has on an offense without actually being a great shooter. He can attack his off-balanced defender, draw help, and kick to open shooters.

He can draw two to him in pick and roll and find the open man, even without being a scoring threat.

He creates enough doubt to cause a help defender to react slowly to someone else’s cut.

He is even treated like a real transition three-point threat, even at the expense of allowing a dunk.

All that activity creates a vision in defenders’ minds, particularly when they are tired from chasing everyone else around and grounded down by the NBA’s unforgiving regular-season schedule.

That’s how the Celtics’ offense benefits from Smart’s hilarious overconfidence.

Perception isn’t always reality, but actually it kinda is

Smart’s unique situation leads to an obvious question: do facts actually matter on the basketball court? (This question could be applied to any number of world concerns, but alas).

We have so many ways to quantify a player’s production these days, down to the most specific game situations. We know what a player shoots on average when he dribbles six times as opposed to four. We can isolate rebounding production by different zones of the floor. We can determine when players create assist situations and even when they create hockey assist situations.

But in the heat of the moment, players’ brains cannot tap into all that information. They have to make too many decisions while covering too much ground on either end of the floor. In those moments, they fall for those systemic biases and clean narratives that seem to make sense, even if they are factually incorrect. They fall for con schemes like Marcus Smart launching jumpers as if he’s actually a good shooter.

Smart is an edge case and it’s likely his positive effect on Boston’s offense will fade in the playoffs when opponents have more time to focus on him. But in the interim, his situation should teach analysts a valuable lesson. The game doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens in real time.

And in those situations, what matters isn’t necessarily what a player does. It’s what an opponent believes a player does.

[aion-rsa]

Spider-Man 3: Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock Return is a Smart Move for Franchise

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Way back in 2004, many speculated Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus would return after Spider-Man 2, even though he ended that movie by vanishing beneath the Hudson River. This of course seemed like wishful thinking at the time: Molina might’ve been the best Spider-Man movie villain up to that point, but Sony couldn’t bring him back after he took a nuclear-heated bath, right?

Nearly 15 years and two reboots later, it turns out they could! Indeed, THR confirmed Tuesday that Molina will return  as the metal-armed scientist in the Tom Holland-led, and Marvel Studios produced sequel to Spider-Man: Far From Home. The movie doesn’t have a title as of yet, but with Molina joining Jamie Foxx—who played Electro in the much less revered The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)—clearly the film is going to be playing with the space time continuum, and bringing back some old favorites.

In the case of Molina, this is a good thing. While his inclusion might point to a cunning (or haphazard) backdoor into a “Sinister Six” movie, it also suggests Marvel Studios and Hollywood itself is learning to be more discerning about what needs to be rebooted for the sake of franchise continuation, and what does not.

When Spider-Man 2 came out, Molina’s Doc Ock was a breath of fresh air in superhero cinema. Willem Dafoe was, of course, perfectly cast as Spider-Man’s arch-nemesis from the comics, the Green Goblin, in the original Spidey movie from two years prior. But the movie’s depiction of the character inside that plastic green costume left something to be desired. While Dafoe was still excellent at chewing scenery as Norman Osborn, his villain kept a foot left planted squarely in the campiness of 1990s blockbusters, specifically the Batman franchise that predated director Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man.

With Molina’s Doc Ock, however, Raimi and the actor crafted a compelling villain who married the zaniness of early Stan Lee and Steve Ditko comics, and its mad scientist authority figures who wanted to take over/destroy the world depending on the issue, and a character actor’s ability to make a meal out of what could be a thin part. The film’s Otto Octavius, who was also given elements of Dr. Connors/The Lizard’s backstory from the comics, had some broad strokes of humanity added by Alvin Sargent’s final drafts of the screenplay. But it was Molina’s dry wit and savviness to underplay the menace, as well as Raimi’s canny eye for spectacle that turned Doc Ock into such an iconic winner.

Released at a time when CGI superhero brawls were not yet a dime a dozen, Spider-Man 2 pivoted on several spectacular set-pieces of Tobey Maguire’s web-head fighting Molina’s not-so-good doctor. It was thrilling then, and remarkably holds up now when so few villains from the modern glut of superhero movies have left an impression. Marvel Studios has improved in recent years, particularly with Josh Brolin’s Thanos and Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger, but few still leave as indelible a mark as Molina’s Doc Ock. And certainly none of the baddies in the subsequent six Spider-Man movies released after Spider-Man 2 have done so.

Thus if Sony and Marvel really are as eager as they appear to do a Sinister Six movie, why not use Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange to avoid the challenge of recasting and rebooting? That industry term of a “reboot,” which once seemed so promising when Christopher Nolan and company created it to salvage Batman, has been abused and reduced by Hollywood across the board—including the Spider-Man franchise, which somewhat arbitrarily rebooted in 2012 to mirror Nolan’s Batman.

The resulting films found diminishing returns in telling the same origin story again, but making arbitrary (and lesser) changes just to create the illusion of uniqueness. For example, recall how the Andrew Garfield films turned Peter Parker into a hipster who never learns “with great power comes great responsibility” and made the Green Goblin a mutated Harry Osborn who is obsessed with Pete’s blood. 

Since Marvel rebooted the franchise again, they’ve so far avoided running into the same problems by refusing to use the same villains as past films (not to mention Spidey’s origin story). But they’ve also denied Sony the ability to properly seed key players for the much desired Sinister Six.

With hindsight, the Raimi films clearly got a lot right… and a lot it might be foolish to invite a direction comparison with. It’s why Sony/Marvel already accepted that J.K. Simmons appears born to play J. Jonah Jameson, and cast him again in the role in Spider-Man: Far From Home.

If Sony is to do a Sinister Six movie, they need a Doc Ock, who is often depicted as the mastermind of the evil guild in the comics. So, as with JJJ, instead of trying to measure up to the Raimi movies, why not just borrow their best elements? And if it facilitates a crossover with Disney’s greater MCU canon via Doctor Strange, well that’s all the more appealing to Sony and most moviegoers. And it also allows Molina to finally revive one of the Spider-Man franchise(s)’ best elements.

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To paraphrase another Raimi protagonist, that’s pretty groovy.

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