#otto ege

[leoba]

Manuscripts, Humanity, and AI

Image of a manuscript, generated in MidJourney by Suzette van Haaren

(a few words originally posted on Twitter on March 27, 2023 and then on my blog. It’s resonating there so I thought I would post it here too.)

I’ve been trying all morning to figure out what bothers me about these Mid journey-generated manuscripts without simply sounding like a Luddite, and I think I finally have it.

It’s because my interest in manuscripts is almost entirely about the humanity behind them. Who made them? Who used them and why? What happened to them after they were made? Where are they now? What did they mean in the past and what do they mean now?

A computer generated book doesn’t have any of that context. I’ve talked about the uncanny valley with regard to digitized manuscripts, and this is that, one step further. It’s one thing to digitize a manuscript in a way that elides its materiality, and a whole other thing to create manuscripts that don’t exist materially at all.

I think there are potentially interesting ways to use AI in my work. I’m interested in structure, and have been part of a project, VisColl, to develop models and software to build models of manuscripts. Could AI be used to combine structural models and digital images to create photorealistic imagery of existing manuscripts? Imagine an AI reconstruction of manuscripts cut apart and distributed by Otto Ege. Could it even generate pages that are lost as semi-realistic placeholders?

Just a few thoughts. I’m less interested in generating realistic looking manuscripts than in the potential to leverage the technology to help us understand the use and history of manuscripts that exist in the real world.

Added: If you’d like to hear me talk more about manuscripts and humanity, check out Coffee With A Codex, a weekly 30-minute program both live and posted to YouTube where I present a show-and-tell with books from the University of Pennsylvania’s premodern manuscript collections, and Inside My Favorite Manuscript, a weekly podcast I do in my own time where I talk to people who love manuscripts about manuscripts they love the most.

[rbolick]

Books On Books Collection - Richard J. Hoffman

[sayitaliano]

This is kinda a dumb question but its been stuck in my head all day so I had to ask if you could give some examples of Italian dad jokes and if their just as corny and eyerolling as they are in English?

Ciao!

Yes we do have dad jokes too (we call them "freddure", as you get cold chills -or maybe you stand still as if you froze- after earing them lol). To think about some out of the blue...

"cosa fanno otto cani in mare?" "un canotto" (what do eight dogs do in the sea? a dinghy | word game: cani + otto = canotto)

un uomo entra in un caffé, splash. (a man enters a coffee, splash | caffé = coffee *drink* and fam./short for coffee bar)

un maiale cade dal 5° piano, speck. (a pig falls from the 5th floor, speck | speck = possible sound of the pig hitting the road and famous Italian smoked ham/cured speck)

"ho una camicia di lino" "allora ridagliela!" (I have a linen shirt - then give him back! | lino = linen and common masculine name eg. Lino Banfi)

qual è il colmo per un falegname? avere la moglie scollata, avere un figlio che non capisce una sega.... [there are many] (what'd be the icing on the cake for a carpenter? to have a wife with a big neckline -scollata = unglued + having a neckline-; to have a child that doesn't understand anything -sega = saw + slang for nothing at all-...)

There are more as we can play with any word basically given the occasion, hope these already help!

[syndrossi]

This setting tends to lend itself well to angst, political and family drama, and the premises of the stories revolves heavily around family feels. But which one of your AU's has the greatest potential for comedic nonsense? The silly antics, the absurd shenanigans, all of them.

Most of them have some potential, if you're willing shift the tone for a story!

Restoration: Utter shenanigans with the dragons and starklings. Ned getting roasted for his honorable bastards way of life. Every holdfast in the Vale watching a dragon approach and a white-haired, wild-eyed Targaryen throwback demanding to know if they've kidnapped his children. Popcorn popping across the Free Cities that Daemon doesn't terrify at the stories coming out of the south and across the Narrow Sea.

Reverberate+Regnal: All the chaos the twins can get into as they grow up. The terrible twos from Daemon and Rhea's POV. Baelon appointing the five-year-old twins his advisors for the day to the small council and the eyebrow-raising council session that ensues. Any of @inkykate's pitches for Jon accidentally upending mountain clan politics after stubbornly trying to find his way around a collapsed bridge and getting lost. The King's Landing trio (Laenor, Laena, Rhaenyra) pining after Daemon and egging one another on into stupid dares for his attention. Baelon trying Daemon out as a diplomat...somewhere he doesn't mind pissing off in case it doesn't work out and the mess it creates. Daemon and Rhea getting into a battle of increasingly ridiculous one-upmanship over the twins' affections...the possibilities are endless!

Rescue: ...okay, this one probably doesn't have any.

Reversal: Every stupid thing every person does to win the affections of the twin princesses. Rhaegar/Rhaella having an absolute field day, sending suitors on increasingly ridiculous quests to see just how stupid they're going to be, until it becomes a competition between her and Jon/Aemma. Aegon and Aemond being the stupidest about it, possibly. Otto despairing at them being idiots.

Knight of Stars: People actually believing that Arthur is Daemon's bastard son (either because they go with that cover story for some reason or because a singer writes a song and it's all over from there). A short story about Jon and Rhaegar (during a rebellious phase) evading every single Princesguard set on them except Arthur, who is always summoned to find them and always manages to succeed. (The Cargyll brothers have a 50% chance of success.) Political absurdity as the Iron Throne and Sunspear exchange nasty ravens about kidnapping, plots, stealing precious national artifacts (Dawn), etc.

Aemon's Sons: I feel like there's a Corlys-stuck-responsible-for-the-twins story in here where they drive him to panic. Twins + Daemon likely get up to quite the shenanigans, too, and any time the twins go missing, it's a realm-wide crisis because those are the heirs after Aemon.

Resonant: Not an AU, but still room for comedy! @textbookchoices's suggestion from long ago about the smaller council, aka the small council but for all the Targaryen kids and their little sessions, complete with props that Viserys commissions because he's so charmed by it, where the adults fight over the "honor" of being the kids' cupbearer of grape juice, and Daemon uses underhanded tactics to win whenever possible.

[writingsofwesteros]

Being the brother between Viserys and Daemon and being the heir. Viserys marries Alicent to try to have a son but dies before he can get her pregnant. Otto convinces you to marry his daughter so she can have a second shot at being queen, you get Rhaenyra and Daemon to chill tf out by letting them marry… after you have your first child with Alicent. That way they’ll actually be happy at the announcement.

Alicent half expects the wedding night to be the same as her last one, a single round of awkward, oddly formal, quiet sex. Imagine her surprise when she’s barely entered the honeymoon suite before your head is up her skirt, before you hitch up her wedding dress and bend her over her vanity.

She’s scandalised, both by your actions and the sounds they force out of her, she almost feels ashamed by how much she enjoys it.

Rhaenyra and Daemon manufacturing situations where you two are alone together during the day, not just at night, cuz the sooner you have your heir the sooner they can get married. Rhaenyra encouraging her to get pregnant, Daemon egging on your inappropriate impulses. “You’re the king, why not fuck your wife on the small council table?”

Alicent can’t fucking believe some of the places she’s let you have her. The council chamber, a public hallway, the stables, the dragon pit-

Alicent discovers you have a thing for filling her up right before public events. Once her hair is set and her dress is on her maids fly out the room like bats out of hell before you show up and either bend her over or she climbs on top of you and rides you as fast as she can without fucking up her appearance or being late.

Poor girl can’t go a day without your tongue or your cock inside her, blinding her with pleasure and making a mess for her to walk around with all day. But still, she prays for a girl instead of a boy, cuz maybe that means she’ll have the excuse to do it all again.

!!!!!!! Oh you know she has more babies than in canon ;)

Baby Aegon being loved on and so precious as he follows his mama and papa around the place.

Daemon and Rhaenyra making situations worse for their own benefit is so on par for them, love it.

Imagine him actually having liked Alicent before she married his brother and hated the sight of them together

[presidenthades]

⚠️Spoilers for S.2 ep.2, kinda❓

DAERON EXISTS, LIFE MAKES SENSE AGAIN!

Anyhow, your thoughts on the new episode🎤???

Oh, and in celebration of show!Daeron's confirmed existence: mini tiny Joffron doodle ig? Made with love, not with skill☝️💚🖤❤️

Wait omigod I love this. Why does it perfectly encapsulate the two of them. 😭😍🥰 They really do have a reverse Hades/Persephone dynamic! Honestly I love this art style, it’s giving a chibi vibe that I adore. I’m going to link this to my HOTD artwork list.

Anyway yes, Daeron truthers rise up. ✊

(Obviously, S2E2 spoilers below the cut.)

First I’ll start with new thoughts on B&C. After my rewatch, most of my feelings about E1 remained the same, but I want to update my reaction to B&C. Helaena’s muted reaction made more sense to me the second time around. It is consistent with her character, and the BTS info about her visions makes it understandable why she seemed to treat Jaehaerys’s death as inevitable.

HOWEVER. Viewers should not be required to watch BTS commentaries etc. to have full context for the scene. The background info about Helaena’s visions should’ve been in the actual episode. If knowing about Helaena’s visions about her children’s potential demise is that important, they could and should have incorporated it I nto an actual scene. For example, instead of her opening scene being her embroidering, she could’ve been scribbling about that vision in her notebook.

If for some reason this was too difficult to film, there’s one small change they could’ve made to B&C which would’ve made a huge difference, visions or no visions. When Blood says both children “look the same,” Cheese could have responded with “just kill them both.” This instantly heightens the stakes and makes Helaena’s actions more understandable to even the most casual viewer: if she doesn’t point out Jaehaerys, then both her children die.

End of E1 rant. Onto E2 rant!

I’ve seen a lot of different reactions to this episode. Some say it was great, some say it was awful. IMO, your takeaway of how good the episode was probably depends on who your favorite characters are.

I think Rhaenyra and Aegon had the best scenes this episode. Otto also had some banger lines, and Helaena made me feel a lot of emotions. Daemon did not come away particularly well, Aemond was a little weird, Alicent continues to be frustrating, and I’m convinced that Criston is the writing room’s whipping boy.

TGC really got to show off his acting chops this episode. Personally I wish they could’ve spent more time on Aegon smashing the LEGOs and bludgeoning Blood, but that is a me preference. I think Aegon really did love Jaehaerys, AND he is angry about the blow that has been struck again him as king. Both these things can be true at the same time. The end scene where he’s crying alone in his room proves that his grief isn’t just a show.

And I don’t mind that Aegon’s decision to hang all the rat-catchers makes him seem violent and impetuous, because he is violent and impetuous. The scene is also framed so that you understand why Aegon did it; we see Cheese hanging with the others. And let’s be honest, if Rhaenyra did something similar to avenge Luke (eg burn down Storm’s End because Borros contributed to his demise, which would kill a lot of other people too), a lot of viewers would cheer her on.

(I was definitely thinking during the “Aegon fires Otto” scene that Aegon could really use a Jacaera to kindly knock some sense into him. 🥲)

Speaking of the end scene…omigod Alicent why. 💀 Conceptually, I understand there’s generational trauma going on. Otto was cold with Alicent, who is in turn cold with Aegon especially. But like. Holy shit. Give your son a 5-second hug. It would’ve been nice if they could at least show Alicent feeling conflicted, like she wants to comfort her son but feels incapable, so she walks away.

Backtracking a bit: I feel like Alicent is consistently made the focus of the story in places where she arguably should not be the focus, and I wonder if this is because the showrunners want to take advantage of the fact they’ve paid good money for Olivia Cooke. But I truly do not understand why it was Helaena and Alicent at the funeral rather than Helaena and Aegon. Otto said something about “our gentlest souls” but this could’ve been a great opportunity to showcase more of Aegon and Helaena’s complicated relationship and shared grief.

Whatever my other feelings on the scene, I do think Phia and Olivia’s acting was phenomenal. Helaena’s panic attack during the funeral 😱. I really just wanted to emergency evacuate her from that mess.

I’m going out of chronological order, but I’m going to backtrack again to Otto making the decision to have the funeral as a PR campaign. It’s very Machiavellian, and TBH I understand why he chose to do it. It is a huge blow against Rhaenyra’s reputation. But I feel like the show wants Otto and Daemon to be the only actual schemers on their respective sides. Everyone else kinda just whoopsies or white-knights their way through the narrative. I just want to shake the writers and tell them it’s okay for other characters to be villainous. There’s a reason Daemon is way more popular than Criston. At least Daemon fully commits to his bad decisions.

I kinda feel bad for Fabien Frankel because the writers seem to really have it out for Criston. They really want to make him the most hatable character. 💀 Imagine if instead we got a more Machiavellian Criston who intentionally decides to claw his way up from nothing to become one of the most powerful people in Westeros. Even if he does reprehensible things along the way, at least he does them purposefully, not because he’s incompetent.

I almost forgot to talk about Aemond, because he really has not been getting a lot of screen time these two episodes. The brothel scene was odd but not as odd as it could have been. I wish the writers would stop having his personality revolve around Daemon, but it’s probably their way of building up to God’s Eye. Honestly, I would’ve preferred a scene of Aemond with his family dealing with B&C aftermath rather than fucking off to the brothel.

Now, changing topics to the Rhaenyra and Daemon divorce scene. I think viewers’ reactions to this scene depend a lot on whether or not you’re a Daemon fan. He really comes off not great in the entire sequence from when Rhaenyra learns about B&C to when Daemon leaves. Also, it’s very obvious Sara Hess wrote the scene; she’s been vocal about how she dislikes Daemon, and a lot of what Rhaenyra says seems to be opinions that Sara has shared. I think Rhaenyra was right to call out Daemon for B&C and for lying to her face about it.

It may have been better if they had more buildup showing cracks between Daemon and Rhaenyra, because she’s also calling him out for a lot of stuff besides B&C. There was the S1E10 argument and choking scene, but some more interaction in S2E1 or E2 where they’re at odds would have made it fresher in viewers’ memories. But it’s not necessary, and I think the scene works as is.

Despite viewers’ feelings on this scenes, it was VERY well acted by both Emma and Matt. And it leads to Rhaenyra’s interesting interaction with Baela. Rhaenyra refuses to risk Jace and send him out on patrol near KL, but she tells Baela to do the exact same thing. It’s very subtle, and the scene is framed as a positive thing between the two characters, but this is probably the most morally gray decision Rhaenyra makes in this episode. She won’t risk her child, but she will risk Daemon’s child immediately after they fought.

The Mysaria scenes were interesting. I really don’t mind the show’s efforts to whitewash her. She’s horrible in the book, but show!Mysaria is actually sympathetic for the most part. She worked her way up from nothing but the people in charge of the system keep stomping her back down. I think her dialogue about Daemon/Otto/powerful men was heavy-handed foreshadowing that she’s going to end up serving Rhaenyra, who is notably not a man.

I don’t have a lot of groundbreaking comments about Erryk & Arryk. It was very emotionally impactful…and I wish the episode had ended either with them dying, or with the scene where Aegon is crying by himself, rather than ANOTHER Alicole sex scene. 💀

Overall, this episode had its highlights, and acting is phenomenal as always. But the writers really need to figure out what to do with Alicent and Criston, other than have the fuck all the time.

[moreespressoformydepresso]

I want the tributes to escape and parkour through the Capitol to escape the cops peacekeepers. Someone films it (as well as the peacekeepers failing hilariously to keep up) and it goes viral.

The kids got away by knocking out the peacekeepers coming to drag them into the cattle car and scatter in all directions, taking the opportunity to wreak havoc across the city. It doubles as a diversion for Circ and Teslee to cause a Capitol-wide power outage and for Ginnee and Otto to hijack them a totally awesome truck to cruise away in.

Mizzen and Sheaf run around causing property damage with their antics, Brandy and Tanner are busy egging the Crane household, Panlo finds news reporters to livestream as many Ways In Which Gaius Breen Sucks And Should Break His Toes Kicking Rocks, Lucy Gray is performing a song (possibly with the help of Treech, Reaper and Velvereen) while actively getting chased, Facet is breaking into Livia’s room to destroy her makeup and deface every possession of hers he can find with it, Marcus is reconciling with Sejanus so they can team up and cause mayhem, Sabyn is cashing in on Forus’ offer to give her fashion products, Dill and Hy are collecting medicine, and generally there is Chaos.

Gaul tries to have the records deleted but it is a lost cause. Everyone remembers.

[noemitenshi]

Jake Otto as a brother

so i promised @minimoefoe to write down my thoughts on Jake. I hope I'm being coherent haha, it's all a big jumbled mess in my head that mostly boils down to seethign rage. I definitely hate Jake more than Jeremiah, so make of that what you will.

Jake, to me, seems to have taken on the role of 'the good kid' (you know, the thing that shouldn't happen between siblings, where one takes on the role of the black sheep and by contrast the other is good..) and not only has he taken it on, i mean, you can't really blame a kid for that (as long as the kid is, you know, a kid) but he seems to be have fully embraced that role in s3 where he is all grown up. Which is what really gets to me (he should know better by now).

You see that in all his interactions with Troy. He expects the worst of him, he's annoyed by all that Troy does. In fact, Troy can't win with him (funny how in s3ep8 jake is telling him "Do something!" about the militia being incapacitated etc and then when troy does do something it's still not good enough…). Also note how Troy, in contrast, almost never raises his voice at Jake (except for that one interaction where he's already all irritated/angry about mike leaving). He's mostly mild around Jake and at least I got the sense that he is resigned. Resigned to the fact that Jake will always see the worst in him. He's not even trying to convince him otherwise - so I assume they had several confrontations about that when they were little (actually would have loved to see more of their past relationship, these little hints we get seem so intriguing (eg tell me about the rabbits)).

I think the most hurtful interaction, imho, is when Troy tries to warn him not to go to Taqa to placate him after Troy went and got Alicia back. He seems earnest in his worry over Jake. "Brother, you leave, I don't think you're coming back" Troy tells Jake. And Jake, unable to see anything but confrontation in Troy and all Troy does goes "ask yourself if that would make you happier." Troy doesn't answer, not with words but his face says it all. He closes his mouth, unhappy. Opens it again as if to argue only to - stop. Probably because he knows there's no sense in arguing with Jake about how he sees Troy. He won't get him to change his mind.

Also, since I rewatched the scene, notice how Troy actually does understand Jake. With the "i think you'd be happy if Walker took your scalp." Jake does seem like the self-sacrificing type (they both do haha, they are brothers after all), like he'd want to die for doing the right thing. Troy gets that about him. Whereas Jake does not seem to even start being able to comprehend Troy. There seems to be too much bitterness on Jake's side for empathy.

And sure, yes they've both grown up in an abusive household, yes, probably Jake was told to look after Troy a lot (so Troy was made his responsibility which is super unfair, absolutely), probably also blamed for when Troy behaved in a way deemed unacceptable (which, given the parents were drunks could be literally ANYTHING e.g. drawing too loudly (an example meant to show their unreasonableness). add to that the fact that Troy was shown to be easily upset (in the video tape in s3ep3 he starts crying when his parents fight), they probably didn't want to deal with him upset/crying, demanding he stop it or demanding jake do something abou it…). So yes, all that is horrible also for jake, an impossible -abusive- situation for both brothers.

Jake should've grown out of it though. He's an adult now but he still can't see past these roles they were given. He probably even still blames it on Troy, like if he were a better child to their parents things would've been easier also on Jake. Why can't Troy never do what he's asked to? Etc etc. And all this colors his interaction with Troy as grown ups. All sympathy he has ever felt for Troy eroded over the years...

And I do think as a kid he was also trying to help Troy and protect him, as he says -though I also think Troy protected Jake. Troy seems like he's very used to dealing with pain, so I definitely think he made sure the ire of his parents fell on him. Kinda playing into the black sheep role, too (like kids tend to do once they've got this role)… anyway so Jake tried to protect him/help him though I think with time the bitterness took over. And that's all he has for Troy now, bitterness and disappointment. And Jake gives himself away. When he says "Ask yourself if that [jake not coming back from trying to placate Taqa] would make you happier" that's not troy's thinking at all. It's HIM, Jake, who'd be happier if Troy went off to some kind of mission (exile) and wouldn't come back.

tl;dr Jake is a shit brother to Troy (while playing the white knight to others -or should that be 'and'- fully embracing the 'good kid' role) and I'll never like him

[tweedfrog]

OK I've been thinking about the "I have sinned" // "I do not wish to hear of it" convo between Alicent and Otto in particular as it comes right after this shot of Otto holding Alicent's hand with both of his own

Now where else have we seen a shot like this?

Now obviously this could just be a mannerism Alicent has picked up from Otto in the same way Aegon has inherited picking at his nails/fingers in anxiety from Alicent.

BUT coming as it does right before Alicent tries to confess her "sin" to Otto and he shuts her tf down I think another possible way to interpret this scene is that Otto thinks Alicent is trying to confess something she did regarding Rhaenyra which she is now feeling guilty over due to the death of Jaehaerys and that he's trying to tell her he doesn't want to hear about it. Not because he doesn't care about Alicent but because he doesn't care that she's "sinned" as he doesn't view it as a sin.

I think Otto has been shown to not really believe the stuff he professes but rather that he's the type of person to use things like religion and patriarchy as a useful shield. Eg he certainly was willing to exploit Alicent and Rhaenyras "close relationship" in season 1 to try to manipulate Rhaenyra.

In contrast Alicent seems to actually believe in the ideology she espouses and she clearly has a lot of trauma and guilt associated with breaking taboos in the faith of the seven. I very seriously doubt she'd ever publicly intentionally imply that her and Rhaenyra had anything but the average friendship between 2 ladies.

Not only do the relationships on team green suffer from a lack of time and care because they've all got bigger fish to fry. In my opinion they suffer from terminal "I don't know the right way to love you-itis". Because they way team green keeps trying to offer care to one another is the way that they themselves would like NOT the way the other party wants to receive it.

Otto might think he's helping his daughter by telling her he doesn't wish to hear of her sins but he's not because the way Alicent views it he doesn't care enough about her to listen to her get this off her chest.

[insom-nom-nom-niatic]

Welome to tonight's drunk drabbles...

Set after Troy "died" that's all you need to know.

CHARACTERS: Troy Otto X Fem Reader

PROMPT IS FROM THIS LIST!

16. “I had a thought.” “Oh no.” “I swear it’s a good one this time!’

“I had a thought.”

Troy's blue eyes glanced up from the //// he was doing

“Oh no.” He could see you wiping the sleep from your eyes. Another dream. Another new way to 'save' humanity as if you hadn't already done enough for multiple lifetimes. And it would be yet another downfall of tears he'd have to see you go through knowing there is no more hope, just living or trying to.

“I swear it’s a good one this time!" Your hands hit flat on the table in front of the curly brunette. His eyes scan you from your fingertips to your eyes slowly. Inhaling a deep breath before sighing it's release. His blue orbs egging you to go on.

For a full 20 minutes, you sat in the wooden chair opposing Troy at his desk, spilling out your idea in full detail, barely taking a half second to breathe between sentences. You took the notebook from under his left hand, opening to a blank page and scribbling your plan so he can see it, not just hear it. When his eyes began to gloss over, staring intently at the book that only he wrote in, that only he touched you quickly quieted down.

A few silent moments passed before you sheepishly spoke again.

"Just think about it. That's all I'm saying."

Troy sat in complete stillness for a heartbeat or two. His mind turning over the 'brilliant' idea you dreamt of during your nap. Most of the ideas you came back to the living with were ways to help the living, cures or new medical practices for survival.

This time you awoke with a plan for war.

"You're saying to use them as a weapon? To our advantage?"

Troy raised an eyebrow, making sure he heard you correctly. His eyes had a certain sparkle to them... surprise laced with pride? He was proud of his girl changing the course of the future. Not once did he think you of all people would be the one to come up with such a devastating idea for those that would oppose your group of survivors.

He liked it. He liked it a lot.

"An army, yeah. Use the dead as an army against them."

[end-orfino]

i'm watching superhorrorbro's new video and while i disagree with some things he's saying, one comment got me thinking again about what happened to Otto and his sister, anyway? We don't know much, but I think we know just enough to throw some loose speculations? It seems like only children who were somehow traumatized/badly treated are able to reach the Nowhere (something superhorrorbro states, but it seemed pretty clear considering everything), that's the first thing. Also, if Otto is still not capable of moving on from Sisi's disappearance YEARS later, having lived the majority of his life without her at this point, then that means that she must have been incredibly important to him, and everything could have possibly gone downhill for him after she disappeared. Another thing to note is that Sisi was the older one of them two.

My personal guess was that Sisi and Otto had a somehow bad living situation when they were kids - maybe their parents were abusive, maybe they were entirely left to fend for themselves, I don't know. I don't think we have enough information to speculate on what exactly it was. What matters here is that this would have possibly lead to Sisi, as the older one, to be Otto's main caretaker - someone who carried most of the weight of their situation on her shoulders, trying to make most of what they had for her little brother. At the same time, Otto wasn't offering the same kind of support to her, although I don't think it was because of malice, but because of him being too young to realize how much she struggled and/or lacking a way to help her. (I'm especially basing it off him saying he was just a boy after Noone claimed that Sisi could have felt relieved to be free from him. I'm guessing he would have realized over the years that Sisi was struggling more than he could have known back when she was still with him.)

Still, this DID lead to Sisi being incredibly important for Otto. She would have been the main person who cared for him, and I doubt that his situation would have gotten better after she vanished. I think this would be able to explain why he gets so obsessed with finding a way to reunite with her as soon as an ocassion shows up. After so many years, he could even have a somewhat twisted, biased view of her as a person, thinking of the time she was with him as the "better times", having some kind of weird nostalgia(?) for it.

TL;DR: I think Sisi and Otto were stuck in some kind of bad living situation (eg. abusive parents, but we don't have enough info to speculate about what it could have been.) This led to Sisi, as the older one of the two, caring for Otto most of the time without having much support from anywhere herself. Because of this, she was hurt enough to eventually vanish to the Nowhere, leaving Otto - who she was incredibly important to as his main caretaker - to fend for himself in whatever situation they were dealing with. This would explain why her disappearance had such an effect on him that even now, as an adult, he is not capable of moving on from it, and grows progressively more obsessed over trying to reunite with her.

[oliveroctavius]

If it's okay to ask, I'm curious what your initial thoughts are on the potential plot for the Insomniac Spidey sequel game! I'm still sorting my thoughts, but one of the things that definitely crossed my mind was how the story trailer reminded me of both TASM films (eg. terminally ill Harry as a major villain, the main villain plot being forcibly 'healing' the world, and we know from the MM post-credits scene that Connors is behind Harry's treatment with the symbiote, etc.), and while the main issue with the eugenics stuff in the TASM films is how it was framed as being both real and good and neither Peter nor the narrative ever challenges it, rather than just the villains being villainous and it could go differently here, I'm really not sure how optimistic to be at this point in speculation - but it's also not an aspect of the trailer I've seen much discussion on either.

having gone over the original game again, (geez I forgot how hard they went on the Spider-Cop bit) I still don't feel as pessimistic on this plot point as others seem to be... yet.

MSM1 had parallels to TASM1 too, without fumbling the ball as hard. Main villain starts as an ally researching limb replacement, partially for themselves; plot turning point is a Oscorp gene-cure-mist being released into the city with terrible results. It helps that Insomniac's medical science is just 50% less bullshit. Devil's Breath names a real genome editing tech (CRISPR by viral vector) and genetic diseases that aren't just disabling, but fatal (cystic fibrosis, Huntington's) as the intended target. There's no TASM-esque twist where victims with improperly edited genes become a ''devolved'' ''lower lifeform'' or turn murderous. They just get sick.

Otto doesn't consider using Devil's Breath on himself. His condition isn't even genetic. Dumb to have to point that out, but TASM Curt compares limb loss to agonizing death by disease (??) and proposes his amputation be "fixed" with genetic modification (???) while Otto's focus is on (embellished) mobility aids. The idea that brain damage from the arms made Otto evil is brought up and then refuted. Martin and Otto have social + financial motivations which overlap with but aren't fully defined by disability. They're well-intentioned extremists: they want to take down a crooked capitalist who's politically untouchable... time to poison random civilians!

Going by these trends: I expect Harry to have a fairly realistic diagnosis and to use real assistive aids alongside any sci-fi treatments (he has a cane for a second in the trailer). I expect that if he did inherit his condition it was from his mother, and the only person who might be weird about that is Norman. Insomniac Harry's previous vision for "healing the world" has been air and water quality, green energy, and wildlife health. If this changes, I expect a more nuanced explanation than "idk he's sick and crazy now".

Will I actually like it? Who knows! (Like MJ was fine. but she's not My MJ.) I'm still crossing my fingers for sentient alien Venom because I think it would make everything more interesting to have Venom the character rather than just the plot device.

I'm truly more worried for Curt--most of the Insomniac plotlines are pulled from modern comics. (For the love of god please let's not do Shed.) But comics Devil's Breath was a poison that killed only certain genetic lineages, and someone made the call to avoid that minefield of weird ideas. So. Hope remains that this will not be the TASM movies' kind of freakshow.

[nyxrev]

Details

Just some stuff I noticed, from small to serious.

旦那 (dan'na)

K so I found it funny Black Sperm calls Saitama “dan'na” bc the term can mean different by its context, eg. an honorific for husband, patron, or master, etc. I believe it's translated to English as “Boss” which is most fit but when I first read it I automatically associated it with “master” of the more softer nuances and not the rougher casual “hey boss” sort of vibe, so I was surprised like, huh BS is unusually deferential to Saitama, esp. bc the rest of his speech pattern is fairly casual. But, makes sense bc he's seen enough to know. Also makes sense bc on one hand, rn he has to pretend to be a benign, goofy “monkey” …idk how ppl see a black teletubby n just believe it's monkey but s'ok, story logic… to get by heroes, hence the casual goofy monkey speech, but on the other, he absolutely does not want to cross Saitama, so he chooses to refer to him politely.

master (of a house, shop, etc.)​

husband​: can be used to refer to your own, or smb else's husband (add honorifics). Some other ways of address: 夫 otto, 主人 shujin,

sir; boss; master; governor​: used to address a male patron, customer, or person of high status

patron of a mistress, geisha, bar or nightclub hostess; sugar daddy ​(パトロン)

alms; almsgiver:​ Buddhism, usually written as 檀那 for Buddhist context

As you can see, a non-exhaustive list of what it can mean. With automatic association to house -hold and patronage nuances, my mental image got mildly confused for a moment. Like can you really see an obeisant, nice little BS who humbly serves Saitama with utmost formality??

I feel myself make an uneasy face I cannot quite describe.

Also it was good to see him ask about Manako, but I do want to know if she's alive and safe.

Homewrecker? No it's (unlicensed) Demolition. Opennenoorn Get Out

^after the scene when Forte got hit, Fubuki told Saitama to go with her and said:

あなたの住処を破壊した張本人に会わせてあげる

Basically the reason she gave for their excursion was, “I'll let you meet the person responsible for the destruction of your residence.”

Whom I thought was Psykos bc at the moment, we saw parallel scenes of Tsukuyomi guy at her cell and Tatsumaki had not arrived, but Saitama doesn't know Psykos yet, so when Fubuki made her speech, Saitama confused without so much as context to who all the ppl on scene are, then Tatsumaki arrives most destructively, he must have thought it could be absolutely no other than the “chibi” who threw Genos on a wall.

Which is why Saitama went “I see, the one who destroyed my home was…(Tatsumaki) ಠ ◡ ಠ##”

But I had to wonder who did Fubuki really mean to refer to with “the person who destroyed your place”? If Fubuki meant Psykos how would Saitama react?

Fortress Haven or Death Maze?

Hige Coffee: lit. Beard Coffee (lol)

Well it's good to see Max and Shadow on break, but an emergency call cuts it short, and amidst the commotion, one of them (I assume it's Max) laments the place is so big it's easy to get lost.

What can I say, it's almost like the new HQ, with its concentrated yet puzzled pyramid structure, complete with a moat of self-isolation, remotely omniscient surveillance, a manufactured façade of paradise with luxury security atop seven hells of hidden disasters eager to be released, and so on…almost like it's a direct visual representation of HA's operation hierarchy: centralized system of power and economic monopoly, yet rife with office politics, factions at tension, dysfunctional management, corrupt unstable foundation, and unsavoury secrets to hide.

Cohesively staffed, an impregnable fortress. Yet improperly managed, an exit-less death maze.

And I say it bc the place is not only complicated and spacious but also uniform. Its grand Jenga-Lego stack of cluster structures look so similar, if not literally the same, from every angle, if you rotated it on a turntable, I couldn't tell the sides from each other nor which faced NESW at first.

Of course, part of why they got lost is, it's newly built, heroes just moved to residency, obviously, it's not out of expectation for heroes, or anyone who's never step foot there for the matter, to be unfamiliar with exact floor plan details of such a vast, complex structure, its design sleek at best and dystopian at worst.

But I must wonder, for I feel like it will become a problem later, HQ's isolated vast complexity… If it doesn't fall apart from its core first, what with overpowered resident, destructive visitors, and let's not forget the basement full of a nasty little monstrosity of pets the corrupt executives keep for cash flow they don't use to pay heroes.

Air and Blue Fire: Cyborg Surgery?

On a scale of beneficial to suspicious, question.

Notice the text right next to Air? It's an SFX.

キュイーン kyui—n (onomatopoeia): like a whirr sound effect, low sounds of machinery at work, usually small technical ones which contract or spin. For example, camera lens… how ominous, don't you think?

While Forte is eager to get out of bed and make a quick work of the noisy monsters who disturb his already bad day, blow off convenient steam, it looks like Air can't even emote natural, human facial expressions, and it unsettles me so!

If you look long enough it almost looks like he is controlled like a puppet Σ(-᷅_-᷄⁉︎)

As for BlueFire, I can't tell if it's an empty sleeve or a prosthetic arm but hopefully he got an arm with extra spicy flamethrower fingers so he can be extra terribly efficient. He'd probably max his specs to roast evildoers out of spite. I sense one step to Genos. Same age, similar personality.

Bonus: List of Every Hero Present

aka. faces you see the last moments of your life, if you happen to be a mischievous monster at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Top panel: Golden Ball, Spring Mustachio, Red Muffler, Funeral Suspenders, D-pad, bottom L hat prolly Gun Gun, Shooter, Smile Man, Skunk-Boy Gasmask, top L corner Eyelashes, Mohawk Hacker, Brass Knuckles guy, Great Philosopher, Magic Trick Man, Darkness Blade, Bones, prolly Blue Fire's back (front of Bones), All Back Man? (didn't he quit?), Butterfly DX, Kusari-Gama, Mushroom, Horse-Bone, Twin Tails, can't tell who the mop of dark hair next to her is but prolly Blizzard member, Tank-Top Al-Dente, Tank-Top Rockabilly, another two Blizzards by the suit,

Bottom: Eyelashes, Brass Knuckle, Spiked Club Blizzard, L- Max, Genji, Stinger, Tank-Top Mask, Tank-Top Racer, Crescent Eyebroll, Green, Wild Horn, Skunk Boy Gasmask, Tank-Top Al-Dente, Tank-Top Rockabilly, a sliver of Darkness Blade, Heavy Kong.

Fubuki Group? More like Mafia?

Look at how they stand. Look at how they walk. Look at their formation. If each of them were as strong as Needle Star got, fought as well as the support team cooperated, if equally valued and given opportunity to contribute their expertise, they truly would be formidable, fearsome foes, and reliable allies Fubuki can trust to hold their own and not constantly worry about. Of course part of the problem is Fubuki's own insecurities but we know she has the potential to be a great leader if she put her focus on the right path and used her power to maximum beneficial strategy

Counted around 33 members without Fubuki or Saitama. Rowdy Suit Gang. Mountain Ape n Lily stand out and you can see them from far away.

Extra Bonus: Spot the Spy 6-6

Nah cuz I really need to talk about the cursed Tsukuyomi guys. I brewed some praises n some toasty roasty jokes. I need to cook some wacky, juicy conspiracy about them. Just a little gentle speculation.

[jodjuya]

Bryan Cranston is my favourite actor of all time.

I've never seen "Breaking Bad" and I likely never will.

But I'm up to season 4 of my "Malcolm in the Middle" rewatch, and my admiration for any other actor has never been higher.

Season 4, episode 18, "Boys at Ranch" puts Lois in the fridge for a whole episode, and without her antagonism we get a whole episode where all of the men and boys get to share the spotlight, and it's such a beautiful love letter to them all. So so so much wholesomeness and the payoff of four seasons' worth of character-growth, and it never stops being breathtakingly funny throughout.

AND THEN it ends on one of the best special effect sequences ever put to film.

Top! Tier! Television!

One of the show's strongest pre-opening gags too.

The absolute pinnacle of sitcom as an art form.

---------------

This episode REALLY drives home hard how Lois is *the* antagonizing force behind her entire family's dysfunction. It's really stark in a greek-tragedy kind of way. 😬

In two days under in the restorative influence of Otto und Gretchen away from Lois' presence, we see Hal, Francis, Piama, Reese, Malcolm, and Dewey instantly self-actualising into their best possible selves.

We see that Francis' season 3 spent at the isolated Alaskan logging camp was restoratively foundational to his growth as a person. He became a better person (a strict, disciplined, reliable, dependable, responsible, intelligent , resourceful (handsome👀) Capable Man) because ALL of his miserable conditions there were directly connected to personal accountability, rather than to abusive sadomasochistic discipline to force him to comply for the pure sake of authoritarianism.

(eg. Military school, and before/during/after that: his mother's parenting)

We see Dewey connect with his feelings, and actively being taught how to reconcile them, using Gretchen's amusing Germanic silliness to ritually link one's emotional healing to the physical pain of disciplined suffering—such that the energetic outburst from you being overwhelmed by your negative emotions is harnessed, instead, for productive pro-social behaviours of Cleaning The House So Hard It Hurts (In A Good Way 🥰) rather than by you merely lashing out in violent destructive behaviours

[¡and all of this initially triggered by an honest discussion about hurt feelings and accidental mistakes without appointing blame OR shame!]

AND then linking the positive endorphins from the physical pain of your frenzy:

bleeding knees, sore muscles, exhaustion, cramps, and so on; (including inhaling chemical fumes)

to conceptualising freeing yourself from your shame and guilt; explaining that hard work _causes_ you to feel better.

Show, don't tell, all the way to the motherfucking bank by the way.

Diagetically, as Gretchen to Dewey;

and also non-diagetically, as the show's writers to its audience; as all of this stuff just /happens/ without *any* of it being explained.

All this to say, is that after Dewey thoughtlessly broke Gretchen's

"this is VERY personally valuable to me, it's so special and important PLEASE do not touch it, but I have told you so, so now I blindly trust you completely okay byeeee"

Hand-Carved Cultural Artifact Doll;

that after that destructive, harmful, thoughtless act (after *explicitly* promising not to do) caused these two side-characters to become so deeply and lovingly connected to each other on their very first day of meeting each other that Dewey earnestly considers Gretchen to be his grandmother and now affectionately refers to her as such.

(to clarify their initial relationship: Dewey's eldest brother, Francis, is Gretchen's employee. She's his second-boss; co-owner of the dude ranch where Francis is foreman (because her Eccentricly German husband fell in love with the aesthetic of wild-west cowboys))

And because Dewey is a nine year old boy who put the doll into his pocket, and then his two malevolantly-stupid older teenage brothers maliciously conspired to defraud the ranch; where Francis is now Mr The-Capable-Man Foreman; to get Dewey to ride an ATV with no approval or supervision of any sane adult; the legs broke off the doll.

Gretchen was heartbroken by this when Dewey confessed (because he's fundamentally a very good little boy).

and so Dewey was feeling very hurt and miserable and ashamed without Gretchen needing to yell at him about it to cause that, because for Gretchen, her emotions aren't on her sleeve, they ARE the sleeve;

and seeing her hurt is like watching someone kick a puppy.

She is only consoled by Otto reassuring her that he will simply make new legs to replace the legs which got smashed off, "and then he'll be even better than he was before! …just like my eighth cousin!" 😂

[Early foreshadowing: you feel better when amends are made; positive action (in both senses of the words) for the sake of fixing things.]

Later, Dewey comes back to Gretchen. He's really upset by how bad he feels for what he did, and so this time he's coming back to her for comfort and reassurance.

She talks to him about what he's feeling, and gives Dewey the vocabulary to talk about what he's feeling and why, and how to talk about what those feelings feel like, without shame or blame or hostility; let alone whether or not he 'deserves' to feel so bad.

And then continues right along with "and THIS is how you make it feel better"—in the unarguable tone of voice an adult uses when they are imprinting some declaration or another about the definitive nature of reality directly into an impressionable young mind, along the lines of "that thing in front of us is called a tree"—with her little speech about how suffering by doing really REALLY hard work *causes* you to feel better!

AND THEN! she continues right along with "I still feel bad too, so this is a perfect time to teach you how to do this, come with me and we'll do it together!!"

And then she does. Lovely montage of Gretchen and Dewey side-by-side doing a sitcom-level of Cleaning So Hard It Becomes Transcendental; her teaching by example exactly what to clean and how, and giving Dewey excited encouragement the whole way.

Like, "fuck yeah, my knees are bleeding! This is so fucking radical! look how fully sick it is that my knees are bleeding from how much I've been kneeling on them while we scrubbed the floor together! Feel the burn baby! 🤩"

"oh my god this is such good penance I'm unlocking and healing flashback trauma from when I was a nine year-old!' [AN: Gretchen is in her 50s??]

Afterwards they're done and the ranchhouse is so spotless you can eat off the floor and they're surfing the endorphin rush together and talking about how amazing they felt after using self-directed scourging to purge their own sins. (people who like Spicy Sex know what I'm talking about 😏)

So that in the end, instead of screaming abuse and vitriol back and forth in *coercing* Dewey to injure himself cleaning too hard for the sheer purpose of corporal punishment for domination, shame, and humiliation;

After Dewey thoughtlessly smashed Gretchen's priceless and highly beloved doll, the two of them ended up with a MORE loving relationship than they started with!! They *both* feel AMAZING,

AND the entire ranch is SPOTLESS!

&&&&&&&&&

We see Malcolm and Reese further engaging in maliciously-stupid destruction, but this time for wholesome loving reconnection reasons.

They steal Hal's no-limit credit card to buy the sitcom-level of Too Many Fireworks, which they plan to set off in an alluded-to Sitcom Evil Prank Scheme to "get back at Francis" after he was Mr The-Capable-Man serious about how much they fucked up with the ATV thing. His brothers seriously endangered their own lives and the lives of other people, and they did so at the place where Francis is employed to literally live out the perfect life of his dreams, and to top it all off, his own dad was the one so stupidly reckless as to blindly sign paperwork without bothering to read what the fuck it actually was that he was signing; so Francis yelled at them all, taking the role their mother always takes, the role that Francis hated so much he literally had himself legally emancipated so that he could run away from school to an incredibly isolated Alaskan lumberjack camp.

Well anyway, the scheme plays out (which resolves Francis torment over escaping his mother only to become her), which also serves to reconnect Hal's independent plotline back to everyone else's.

&&&&&&&&&&

Hal lost in the desert with Otto, both of them INCREDIBLY drunk, having scared off their horses by Doing Stargazing via using their Authentic Cowboy Guns (Otto has the semi-automatic Luger he mentioned in passing in a previous episode) to point out stars; and with Otto bleeding out from a self-inflicted bullet wound in his butt cheeks. ("...I finally hit something! 🥴🥳🥴".

(Because Otto was like "how about a big bottle of scnapps??🎵? I know what's the nice sugar to get nice boys to take their nice medicine of taking about their 🎶~feel~ings~🎶??")

But all that aside, they had finished talking about Hal's feelings and his crisis of confidence in his fatherhood:

"You've only had him for two months! And he's... and he's a MODEL CITIZEN now! I had him for EIGHTEEN YEARS and it was nothing but horrible every single day for every single person!! What did you DO?! How bad of a father must *I* be?!?!"

Otto cuts through Hal's anguish by chiding him for not seeing that the acorn of Francis had NOT fallen far from Hal's tree; that Francis had ALWAYS been a good hardworking honest dependable reliable upstanding man all along, and that these traits came directly from Hal:

"What? You think he suddenly picked up these traits one day because he just found them lying on the side of the road? No! They came from you! And besides, I didn't do a single thing to teach Francis what wasn't already there inside him: I'm definitely no Super Male Role-Model Genius Guy, remember? I am is the guy who is incredibly drunk and lost in the desert dying because of my own bullet in my arse!"

So then Hal becomes bouyed right back up again, and very-drunkenly reassures Otto that there's nothing for them to worry about at all, because Francis is actually so amazing that he's about to rescue them RIGHT NOW!

Literally Cue The Fireworks

(because of Malcolm and Reese's evil scheme paying out: malicious Sitcom evil-genius prank involving Too Many Fireworks directly above the workplace of their has-legal-duty-of-care foreman brother who's personally responsible for the safety of many inexperienced tourists (including grandmas and preschoolers, and his own wife) who are surrounded by and interacting with many heads of livestock, horses, and Cosplay Cowboys); to "get back at him" lol)

And then yeah, one of the greatest special effects ever put to film; depicting the Too Many Fireworks.

Just a fucking masterpiece of television!

[k00302356]

My primary research came from an old wooden puzzle I found in the garden shed. It brought back memories of how my children assembled the pieces together to create a shape. I got the shape of the horse by tracing around an old statue of a horse. To draw the evil face, I researched books from the library, eg,'Head of Julia' by Frank Auerbach. This drawing bears the scars of its making from much rubbing and erasing that the paper had to be patched, creating swipes of light that work as "brushstrokes" cut from the charcoal with an eraser enhancing it's scary features. I also researched scary faces from Otto Dix, as shown above.

[presidenthades]

Re-reading Lavender and you present an interesting question with what if Jace had agreed with Aegon to run away to Lys from all their responsibilities. It's mostly interesting for the position it puts Luce and Aemond in because if Jace rescinds her position in the line of succession suddenly Luce is now the heir apparent to the whole realm and suddenly all the things she was insecure about are put under a microscope and Aemond who is still likely furious with her sees this and uses it further to justify his anger towards her but is probably being pushed by Otto to make nice for the sake of the realm. It won't help if Rhaenyra furious with Aegon for "stealing" Jace may take out her anger on the Greens and refuse any sort of reconciliatory betrothal attempts even harder this time. This whole thing may even have the potential to fan the flames for the Dance.

What do you think?

Unless they’re flat-out banished, I don’t think Jace and Aegon could realistically run away together without Viserys, Rhaenyra, the Velaryons, etc., sending a bunch of people to find them and drag them back.

Aegon could make a good go of it on his own, but he wouldn’t be alone. Jace is a princess who’s barely ever seen a kitchen before. She’s not gonna know how to keep house. 🥲 Maybe she can be the breadwinner using her smarts to earn money while Aegon does the cooking. But if these two run away, they definitely need to bring a lot of money or they’ll starve. They’re also probably bringing their dragons. Dragons aren’t great when you’re trying to remain unnoticed.

But let’s say Jace and Aegon are gone for a few years. Rhaenyra and Viserys wouldn’t be keen to disinherit Jace straight away. Rhaenyra tells people it was a kidnapping, not an elopement, and her sweet girl did nothing wrong!

More coldly pragmatic people at court—like Otto—are considering the likelihood that Jace never comes back. So Luce would be Rhaenyra’s heir presumptive, and the Greens would view Aemond as next in line.

Otto would put away his Jacegon shipper hat and move on to Lucemond, for the same reasons he shipped Jacegon in the first place. So now he’s egging on Aemond, who is very much in his “Lucera is cold and cruel, and I don’t care for her anymore” era. But Aemond is still filial so he’s listening to grandpa, and there is the temptation of him becoming king/king consort. Also, we know he doesn’t REALLY hate Luce, he just tells himself he does.

As you said, Rhaenyra isn’t going for this match. She might have been OK with Aemond before, but not now that Aegon’s pulled a Rhaegar. Rhaenyra might even go ahead and betroth Luce to someone else, just to make sure it isn’t Aemond. But Luce is only 11 so Rhaenyra isn’t going to make her marry for a while.

Some people view Luce as a downgrade from Jace, so her position would be very shaky. Eventually she needs to return to court and try to establish support. So it could get kinda spicy with Luce and Aemond back at court together.

Insert more conflict that threatens to start up a different version of the Dance…but then Jace and Aegon pop back home just in time with baby Elenar in tow, and somehow everything is fine again. 😇