#or at least doing history *well*

[qqueenofhades]

Alice Albinia's The Britannias is a fascinating book on many levels but also the prime reason why writing about history, especially premodern history, double-especially premodern women's history, is not so easy as just quoting some writers utterly without context/critical scaffolding/enquiry/rigorous methodology and doesn't actually prove what you want it to prove, even if the point is one to which we might otherwise be sympathetic.

[navree]

"rhaenys could have ended the war by dracarysing all the greens right there" yes because a distant relation to the throne deciding to barbecue an anointed and publicly positively hailed king and his entire family who is well loved within the city and in multiple other parts of the country for the sake of the succession of a far-away princess no one was ever on board with who hasn't been seen by the populace in literal years, her psycho husband, her three obvious bastards, and two toddlers from the psycho husband would go over super well with westeros and especially in king's landing where scores of the still-cheering population were killed for no reason by that same dragon who would do the barbecuing, because when targaryens act unilaterally without thinking of how the people would react there's never any problem, which is why the storming of the dragonpit and robert's rebellion were actually just collective delusions dreamed up by readers who hate rhaenyra and not key parts of the story and house targaryen's history that directly contributed to their demise and are intrinsic to the plot

truly team black stans are made up of only the most genius and media literate amongst us

[skitskatdacat63]

Fernando Alonso & His Relationship With Cards

I'm sure we're all familar with the cards on the back of Fernando's Vegas GP helmet by now, but did you know his relationship with cards goes a lot deeper?

I. Magic Tricks

You've probably seen or heard someone at least mention Fernando's propensity for card tricks. As far as I can tell he was doing them(publically) as far back as 2003 all the way to as recently as 2018. Even once performing a card trick, with a condom and a teddy bear(!??!?!??!!), in front of Valentino Rossi who said "How was that possible?"(x)

But how did this start? According to James Allen, "Fernando admits to having been heavily influenced by his grandfather, a mercurial figure, who taught him magic and card tricks, still one of his passions away from the race track."(x) And I'm not sure the validity of this one, because I couldn't find an actual source, but apparently he once said: "My parents are responsible for the two things I like doing most - driving and magic tricks. They bought me my first go-kart and a magician's kit."

In several interviews he described it as his hobby off track, and that he loved learning new tricks and surprising others in the garage with them! So clearly cards are pretty important to him both as a hobby but also to who he is as a person since they've been with him just as long as racing has.

II. Card Symbolism in His Helmets

This is the reason I originally made this post, but I thought I should also explain the origins of his card fascination first. As I said, we probably all remember the cards on the back of his helmet in Vegas, but did you know that wasn't the first time he had cards on the back of his helmet?

From 2008-2013, he used to have a pair of cards on the back of his helmets. The symbolisms of the cards themselves as well as the evolution of their design is really fascinating to me! Even more so with the recent development of the card choice in 2023.

Fernando said he wanted to reference his two titles in some way on the back of his helmet and after his friend sent him several ideas, he decided on having two cards(an ace of clubs and an ace of hearts, sometimes pictured with 05 and 06 on them as well), saying: "I picked the cloverleaf [the ace of clubs - Ed] to give me luck, but the only pity is that it doesn't have four leaves!"(X)

2008.

Here's the very first appearance of the cards! They're displayed flat, with the 05 and 06 clearly visible

2009.

Very similar to 2008, but with a slightly different design, and they're maybe a bit more straight with less shadow?

2010.

This is the first major change! I was sad they didn't have the years on them anymore, but then I realized they're sparkly to match with his signature lightning bolts on the top of the helmet!!

2011.

Honestly I'm still somewhat unsure if this is the actual 2011 helmet? It's pretty difficult to find clear photos of the back of helmets from older seasons. It's easiest to find them on replica sites or auction sites so I'm not 100%? But anyways, I like that this has the championship years on the underside of the cards

2012.

This is when I started getting weirdly emotional about the helmets. Do you see how they've progressed from being a centerpoint to being curled up and sad at the bottom of the helmet? Not listing the year anymore??

2013.

Same thoughts as 2012. And after this season, they cease to exist (just like his ferrari chair in the garage, WOAH CALLBACK), until cards make a reeappearance in his Vegas helmet, albeit in a different form

2013 Monaco(Honorable Mention):

For some reason 2013 helmets were easier to find proper pictures of, so I happened to witness this absolute beauty. The creativity of this helmet genuinely blows me away??? Wanting to keep the card motif, but making sure to incorporate it into the rest of the puzzle piece design?? Mwah! There was another special 2013 helmet but they didn't change the cards at all so I really applaud this one

2023 Las Vegas(The Return of The King):

The magnificent return! But look! The cards are different cards! Instead of being two aces, it's now an ace of hearts, a four of hearts(his driver number of course!) and, the, now iconic, representation of himself as a Joker. I literally could not believe my eyes when this helmet was released and I saw the Joker card, what a fucking silly old man....I really wonder if he felt nostalgic having cards on his helmet again or if he didn't think about it all and was just like, "ah cards because Vegas!!!"

III. Why Does This Matter?

*The rest of the post was factual, this is moreso my personal thoughts on the symbolism of the cards/designs

This post spawned from me recently watching the 2010 Bahrain gp and noticing "hey wait a minute...are those CARDS ON THE BACK OF HIS HELMET!?" It's a really tiny detail that's unfortunately covered up by the HANS device pretty much whenever he's wearing the helmet, so it's really difficult to spot! But I became fascinated with the fact that he had cards on his helmet before that recent helmet, and now here we are!

There's something to me about how the design of the cards evolves over the course of six seasons from the cards being front and center to being smaller, more folded up and closer to the bottom of the helmet. As I said, the 2012-2013 ones genuinely made me depressed because it feels, symbolically, like his hopes for getting another Ace are becoming more and more unlikely and falling away until they eventually fall falt and fade away entirely after 2013 and disappear for basically a decade.

But when they return? They're not the same cards! Instead of representing Fernando's championships, they now represent him as a person, displaying his driver number and his persona of being a Joker!! Though I do think it's interesting he happened to keep the Ace of Hearts, even though he talked more about the Ace of Clubs before. I'm not sure it's actually this deep in reality, but I like to think that it's him not letting his championships(and the lack thereof) define him, but rather letting who he is as a person shine and be the centerpoint instead! But on a sadder note, as @suzuki-ecstar said to me, maybe the Aces aren't there anymore because he's lost all hope for a chance at a third Ace entirely :(

[the-algebra-thing]

runaans character is sooo sososo fascinating to me. and I don't even see much more of myself in him than I do any other character that's not the draw. there's just something so compelling to me about how it must all fit together for him: his massive respect for all life/talented assassin career thing from bloodmoon huntress, and his relationship to rayla, and her parents, and his prejudice against all humans, etc. and I feel that this is all going to come together to form such an interesting mindset to study/internal conflict in general in season 7. the idea that he's been gone—half-living trapped in an altered state of consciousness utterly corrupted by an insane depth of love twisted into gut-wrenching guilt, at that—for the two years in which elves and humans have begun to try to coexist for the first time in centuries, missed all that time and gradual change completely & dumped into a completely new political landscape, contrasted with his position as king killer, contrasted yet again with his position as father to one of the most relevant and devoted catalysts to this world-bending change is going to blow up in his face sooo bad as soon as he puts on his slutty little shirt and starts listening to the story. and I think the entire thing is just the most uniquely enthralling quagmire I've ever encountered

[vaguely-concerned]

even at this point in the story and with the romance well and truly confirmed it's very possible that lucanis has never seen even a sliver of rye's naked skin below the throat. very likely no one on the team has yet except possibly emmrich if rye got hurt in battle and needed help patching it up. high-necked watcher garb with gloves and all stay ON at all times. thank god for rye's sake that lucanis' history of romantic interest indicates that surprise bitch he could be kind of into that fhsdkjfas

[raddestrose]

Happy Destiel, Putin Dropout , Dabi Dance, Georgia Blue, Sherlock Rumored Season Five Day everyone

[tokutaiseichan]

i really like how chapter 23 is titled in Japanese. in English, it's simply "Stargazing with A Free Spirit" but in Japanese, it's called "満天を頂に叶えるは空の願い".

i'm struggling to translate and word it beautifully in English but it's roughly around the line of: What Grants [You] a Sky [Full of Stars] at the Summit was A Wish Upon the Sky or Wish Upon the Sky Blessing You with A Sky [Full of Stars] at the Summit

(i know it's kind of a mouthful / repetitive 😅 sorry, i still have a lot to learn)

why i like it? because of how they made it into a wordplay of Towa's name. Towa's given name is written as 叶空 in Japanese and as you can see here, it's incorporated in the title. i just think it's neat! especially when it's a chapter focusing on him. c:

funfact: Towa's name is written as 叶空 (叶 = to grant / fulfill, 空 = sky) but "towa" is also another way to read the word 永遠 (eternity / everlasting / forever, etc)!

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

On the topic tho of like. The archons switching up domains, what do you think could be other interesting changes? Like. Zhongli and Eternity vs Erosion, or how contracts could be subsumed by Justice. Similarly- I think Nahida, with her domain of dreams- could honestly be really fun to play with a Freedom domain, considering the irony of a caged god of freedom to parallel Ventis current story. Alternatively- Freedom in the nation of hydro, where they’re cursed because of the flouting of the rules, and Furina is trapped in a centuries long gilded cage- like. There’s interesting things you can do!! -☁️ (hi it’s me again, I forgot to tag the previous backreading one)

oh yeah absolutely, honestly since the game is about solving problems and dealing with Situations, you could reasonable slap freedom onto any nation and find an interesting outcome. like- freedom from the shogun's dicatorial rule, freedom for ei from her own fears and isolation, freedom for nahida from her prison, freedom of knowledge in sumeru, freedom for furina in how she wants to live life, freedom as it is seen by the people of meropide choosing to remain underwater, freedom for the people of fontaine to finally be people as their ancestors wished without celestia dictating what they can and cannot do, freedom for zhongli to retire and live life at his leisure, freedom for the humans of liyue to carve their own path forward on their own two feet (i admit that's the weakest one); and now natlan will probably be freedom to coexist or freedom from violence or freedom from natlan itself since it's closed. snezhnaya, too, could be about freedom: freedom from celestia's rule, freedom from the heavenly principles (or whatever the fatui are doing); same thing for khaenri'ah and the abyss sibling. freedom from fate and to be able to decide your own destiny. at the end of the day any plot with any conflict can include freedom as a motif, so like- yeah, freedom would be the easier to switch around.

as for the others, that would be the more interesting part i think. like you said, contracts and justice, eternity vs erosion (which is already ei's plot so zhongli wouldn't be all that new honestly), wisdom for zhongli too with the whole witnessing history thing. eternity for nahida in the way wisdom perseveres through time but also in the irony of knowledge is beholden to irminsul and knowledge in irminsul is apparently subject to erasure. stuff like that

we'll have to see how we can play around with natlan and snezhnaya. if snezhnaya is about love that could also be really interesting, as you could also feasibly slap it most of everywhere, too.

[friendcrumbs]

oughhhh ur writing is so good!! and ur art!!! do u have any tips on how to improve writings? i feel like my fics ive written are very bland...if u have a process im very curious to hear what it is too!

thank you so much!! ;w; first of all, your fics probably seem bland to you because you were the one who wrote them -- you got used to the plot and prose, and maybe get caught up in the technical aspects of what to tweak/improve, so much so that the 'magic' of reading becomes lost. have a little faith in yoruself! when it comes to general writing advice, it will probably be super unhelpful and something you've heard before but: writing a lot helps. it doesn't have to be good/finished/"publishable," it's about getting words down on a page. i write between 100k and 300k words a year. most of them are utter garbage or ideas that don't go anywhere, but that's kind of the point, to get into the habit of not agonizing over it. the other unhelpful and generic piece of advice i have is to read/watch media criticism -- i know it won't work for everybody, but for me, seeing why something works or doesn't work in a piece of media helps with knowing how to "steal it" and include it in my own writing. if i may be pretentious about my own writing, cicadas leans heavily on everything i had to read on horror/the gothic and weird fiction as a genre -- seeing the elements of why these genres are successful in evoking discomfort/fear and what techinques they use in plain language makes it easier to put in plot points/descriptions that mimic it (for example, disrupted/stretchy/unverifiable time to get a confused, fever-dream atmosphere).

when it comes to the process itself, i highly recommend a beta reader/friend to bounce ideas off of. they don't have to be super familiar with the original media (hi @nullians who bravely soldiered on despite not liking these guys, i owe you my life) -- it's about whether the ideas you have translate onto the page. i would usually ask for a creepiness rating on a scale of 1-10 and whether certain parts were too short/dragged on too long and then adjusted accordingly. the other thing is an outline. my outlines are notoriously shitty, no matter if it's fanfic/ original fiction/non-fiction, so i'm perhaps not to be the best person to be getting advice from on the technical aspects. but to me, it's helpful to have both the crucial plot points and the "mood" i want in a given segment/chapter. it's so i don't forget where i was going with it after a few weeks, so i can see if the bare bones of the story work without being 'pretty', and lastly, to see if the pacing works. it helps to have an 'objective' to hit within a given segment so i don't get off track and spiral into talking about something that's only tangentially related but really, doesn't contribute much to the 'goal' (if you end up with these bits, save them! i have a dumping grounds document where all the rejects go to save me when i'm stuck)

anyways, this got VERY long, but i hope it's at least somewhat helpful!! and again, thank you so much, it's so nice to hear ;w;

[rogdona]

Can you draw all the OC witches you have in the same room for drama!

JAHDHSHS theyre an interesting bunch for sure.... mago and asa will carry the conversation then probably end up making some sort of mess that the rest will have to fix😭😭 lila is reconsidering her path to be a witch

[deus-ex-mona]

i miss her…

[carnage-cathedral]

sometimes you just yell at a random teenager in a discord server for kinda mocking the erasure and genocide of indigenous cultures

[silent-sentinels]

we have gotta actually finish the other account, it has been months and we want to tell revi that we're also plural hgkjgk

[elephantlovemedleys]

you know i've been doing pretty fine with the process but i need at least some reassurance to tell me that it will work out and that everything is going to pay off and i will be satisfied with my writing

[vicontheinternet]

Not they got to ao3 too

[crimeronan]

probably the most accurate way for AU hunter to react to finding out he's a grimwalker would be like

[longest sigh in the world] hOkay.

luz.

i get why you didn't tell me. i 100% understand that you were scared and didn't want to worry me or to make me feel differently about myself. i'm not mad at you about that that's Fine. but also.

luz.

my fuckign MEDICAL HISTORY,