#semi-competent writers?? several of them??

[mimdecisive]

s*amista is so bad sometimes I forget it’s actually canon

[lhs3020b]

The Fallout TV show

So, you may remember the days before my social energy-level suddenly collapsed, back in early 2022, and never really recovered? The days when I used to post regularly with idle speculation on media, video games, books and other things? Apparently tonight we're taking one for memory lane on all that.

I just saw the first two episodes of the Fallout TV show, and I have some thoughts…

First, a small surprise: it's actually good. It's a thing. In 2024. Which is enjoyable. Yes, I know, I know, I know. It shows the crisis in popular entertainment that I'm surprised by this. (It's the same feeling, actually, as when Baldur's Gate 3 came out and my socks were blown off by the unexpected experience of properly falling in love with a thing again.)

(By the way? From now on I'm going to call the show FoTV, on the same principle as Fo3 or Fo4 or FNV, just because I can't be bothered to type "Fallout TV show" over and over again.)

Also, somewhat-related to the above, FoTV is the best game adaptation I think I have ever seen. The world of the games is there, from props and set-pieces to the wasteland environment itself, even little nods to actual in-game mechanics. There are also lots of call-backs to the games themselves. For instance, FoTV's opening sequence was, to me, very reminiscent of the opening sections of Fo4, where the perfect suburbia is first set up, and then implodes in front of your horrified eyes, then is incinerated by a literal atomic bomb. The opening sequences of FoTV also do a good job of nailing the fact that while it's a future, it's not our future. It isn't spelled out directly, but we're shown it very smoothly through the mise-en-scène, whether it's news coming via an analogue radio, oldschool chemical-film cameras, or fashions that we just don't wear in our 2024, and so on.

And then Los Angeles gets nuked.

(I do have a small nitpick here. While I understand why the writers structured this scene the way they do, and it works narratively, nonetheless several characters are looking DIRECTLY at the first explosion when it happens. At the absolute minimum, they would have been blinded. More realistically, the radiant heat from the explosion - even at this distance! - would have given them extreme burns on exposed skin. And for that matter the UV component of the flashover would have given them an extreme case of sunburn. Also, the shockwave should actually have been a one-two-three punch - effectively-instantaneous light-flashover first, then the ground shaking as the speed of sound in rock is about three times faster than in the air, then the window getting smashed in by the airburst. Also, uh, they all cope unrealistically well with a storm of knife-sharp broken glass fragments being hurled into their faces.)

(You'll also note that I haven't said a single word about what the hard gamma rays might be doing to the cellular machinery inside their bodies. Actually, this I'm a bit less sure about - gamma rays do attenuate in air, at least somewhat, and also high-energy photons have a tendency just to go straight through people without actually stopping - our soft tissues, at least, semi-transparent to X-rays! -, so I suspect that at the distance the birthday party was from Ground Zero, you could possibly argue this one either way.)

Anyway. Moving on from all of that, before I feel a need to go and look up cumulative radiation-exposure tables or something, because this is supposed to be a Tumblr post, not a peer-reviewed academic paper.

Regarding Lucy's characterisation, I found it interesting how she flips from "sheltered and naive" to "unexpectedly competent". While she's lacking in knowledge of the world outside her vault, she's also clearly very adaptable and good at thinking on her feet. She figures out that the visitors from the other vault are actually Raiders without any direct help, and actually manages to get out of THAT room alive - all the more surprising when you realise she was up against someone who a) had the benefit of surprise, b) had prior experience with violence and killing and c) was also the person with weapons (at least at first). Lucy may be a bit of a cloud-cuckoolander in some ways, but she's not a pushover either. She's also clearly capable of taking initiative and acting on her own when she needs to, and she's also seemingly not averse to taking a third option if she thinks other people are in the wrong. (In particular, her decision to let herself out of the vault stands out here.) On the other hand, she also alternates these merits with getting easily-flustered and off-balance around other people, along with a tendency to telegraph her actions in a very overt manner. (There's a mildly-hilarious moment early on where you basically get to watch her flub her first speech-check.)

The Brotherhood of Steel are, unsurprisingly, back. So far there hasn't been any explanation for how they apparently recovered from the events of Fallout 2 or (possibly, depending on whatever the "canonical" ending is) the events of Fallout: New Vegas. They're also back in the arrogant/dickish mode of behaviour that they fall into very easily. They're also implied to be amoral in their own way - one interpretation of Maximus's trial scene is that he gets assigned to be Knight Titus's squire precisely because they do think he's the guilty party for the "boot-razor" incident, and the higher-ups actually like this bit of backstabbiness. (Perhaps they interpret it as ruthless determination, or a willingness to do "whatever is necessary for the mission". Or maybe they just think it's funny to kick him a little bit upstairs, just so they can see what happens next.)

(As far as I could tell, the narrative and the evidence-in-the-text are coy about whether he's actually guilty concerning Initiate Dane. Personally, I suspect Max isn't the guilty party - given that he had the bunk next to the victim, it would be the dumbest crime imaginable if he was. It's also clear that he has enemies amongst the other aspirants who might be willing to frame him. But who knows? And less favourable interpretations of the events definitely exist.)

While it's subtle, some of the Brotherhood's flaws are also on display here. Remember the overconfident Knights who got themselves blown up by the Boomers in FNV? Knight Titus shows a lot of that sort of behaviour too. Going AWOL in the middle of the mission to do some big game hunting, because he was "bored"? Yeah, arrogance and overconfidence there! Also he displays some real stupidity with his treatment of Maximus, being extremely rude to him and blaming Max for his own failures while he's also too injured to stand up, and there are no independent witnesses present. You'd think anyone who's a wasteland native would know to be extra careful when there's no backup or support! And to add extra sauce to the stupidity, this after he had Max remove his helmet!

The narrative doesn't make it quite clear whether Max either gave Titus a quick headshot, or just stood there until the internal bleeding or whatever ran its course, but it seems clear enough what happened there. And honestly, it's hard to hold it against Max given that Titus was both an incompetent and a dickhead. (Though, one subtlety - as I recall, we don't ever see Titus's body, so I wouldn't be totally surprised if he reappears at some point.)

Somewhat related to the Brotherhood stuff, I was also interested to see how the writers handled what we might call the power armour question. Basically, it's depicted as being, well, powerful, but it's also clear that Max doesn't really know what he's doing, so his T-60 doesn't turn into any kind of Disk One Nuke. (As the Ghoul puts it, "you should've read the manual" after Max gets his leg stuck after landing on a surface that couldn't take his weight.)

As for the Ghoul and what his agenda is, at two episodes in, it's hard to say, and there's not enough evidence to even begin to speculate. However, one detail I did notice was that Lucy's father seems distinctly unsurprised (if horrified) by the break-in to the Vault. Also, while I couldn't entirely sure, he seemed to recognise Moldaver and doesn't seem particularly-surprised to see her there. Moldaver's comment to Lucy - "you look just like your mother" - also seems to confirm that she has some prior history with Lucy's family.

Then there's the vault attack itself. For the Wasteland, the survival-rate among the residents its actually rather high. The Raiders could very easily have exterminated them … and they don't. "Restraint" and "mercy" are not qualities we associate with Raiders, so this is an interesting turn of events. (The "hostages and bomb" scene in particular had a bit of a dog-and-pony-show sense to it - notably, the delay on the bomb is long enough for the hostage vault-dwellers to make an escape, almost as if it was never really intended to kill them in the first place.) There also seemed to be a suggestion that Moldaver wanted them to stay inside the vault, which is interesting for its implications.

Anyway, I look forward to the chance to see future episodes. This has proved to be the most interesting TV experience in some time.

[m1ck-miffs]

Where did I come from? Where did I go?

Hello little people who live in my computer! Its been so long! So long since I've been here.

Most important things first, No One Saves You is still a thing! It's still happening. I've been secretly keeping it on life support in my little bunker. Things are different, some things a lot different, some things a little different but it is different (and hopefully better written, whoever let me write that first dumpster fire should've been jailed.) I'm no where near having anything ready to present but I felt like cleaning up my old blog, so here I am! Call it spring cleaning or something.

Where did I go? Eh, life. I've done a lot of things in the past two years. I graduated high school, I started college, I got a job, I quit my job, I got a new job, I learned to drive, and I learned to do my taxes. I've worked on my story through all of it but it wasn't my priority, turns out being a semi functioning adult is really fucking hard. Who knew! I'm back in the writing seat but I make no promises.

Where am I Going? Well, lots of places! I graduate with my associates in English this summer, I'm moving to a whole new city, starting college again, and I've got about 8 million things I want to do all at once. I'm learning to take it slow...it's a work in progress.

Okay, okay what you're really here for: to hear about this goddamn story. I figure I'd update you on some changes I've started, under the cut (in case you like surprises.) Think of it like a behind the scenes stage access.

ps. If you were hoping I studied the blade how to code during my two year absence, you're going to be severely disappointed. I am unfortunately still a writer first and a coder second (or maybe last lmao.) So this tumblr and my twine will remain ugly, so sorry (I'm not that sorry.)

Okay, so, there's been a lot of changes, especially to characters. I feel like my previous characters were too flat? One dimensional? Under-planned and underutilized? Sound like they were written by a 16 year old? Maybe all of the above. I'll go through them and tell you a bit about the sparkly new and improved people I've pulled fresh out of the oven.

Missy (They/She): Missy has changed, not a ton a ton but some. They're still mean but a little less intensely so. Their design has been altered and I think I've made them more three dimensional and a little less of a rich whinny unlikeable asshole. Their background has has some minor alterations but their main changes have been physical and trying to make them less of a caricature. Missy remains mostly unchanged, Missy is eternal.

Miles Tellez (He/Him): Miles has had some minor design tweaks, I'm still trying to decide if I'm giving him a rat tail, but most importantly Miles has had some major personality changes. He's a little less of a sad pathetic meow meow and has more of a backbone. I've tried to make his sadness more realistically believable. He felt a little cartoonishly anxious and sad so I've worked to make him more mature and competent. His background and home life has has some major overhauls but it's mostly details. Mostly just made him less of a crybaby.

Avery (Gender Selectable): Dead. Jk, I completely changed her, so she is kind of dead, I guess. She's not even Avery anymore, she's Jordan. Jordan B. Bowings. I felt that Avery was too flat, too timid, I never connected with her the way I did other characters and I think it was obvious in the way her whole personality was 'cold leadership role.' So i completely scrapped her and started over form a clean slate.

Jordan Bowings (She/Her): Jordan is very different than Avery but retains some of the traits that I had given Avery. She still holds a leadership role but instead of cold stoic leader she's more confident and bright. She's very competent, independent, and warm. She has a lot of elements form Avery's background that I just tweaked. Overall I connect with her way more than I did Avery and I'm really excited to show off more of her.

Bones (Gender Selectable): Bones has changed a lot. It doesn't feel like it to me but they have. They used a pirate aesthetic but that is dead and gone (thankfully.) They're still walking talking human disaster but they used to be a lot colder I'd say they're more friendly now but not in any good way. They're friendly like someone who is trying to scam you is friendly. I've also made them a lot sadder and angstier IDK it just felt right. They're basically a whole new character.

Crash (She/Her): Dead. The content that she was supposed to be in got cut from the story. It just wasn't necessary and was causing bloat. I kind of just wanted to write about cars and the desert and that is quite literally the only reason her character existed so she is gone from the story my apologies.

Blitz (They/Them): Ironically one of the few ROs that people have actually met. Generally remains unchanged but that's not surprising since I've actually has Blitz as a character since at 5th grade. They've had a lot of time to be fleshed out.

LiveWire (He/Him): A whole new character. I felt like the cast needed a few metal heads (literally.)

Rayyan Sobhi (Gender Selectable): Remains somewhat unchanged but their backstory and history with the MC has been tweaked. I think they may go through some more changes because I'm not entirely happy with some aspects of their character but It won't be anything too drastic. I also just decided I'm changing their first name, Its now Nour Sobhi.

The plot has had some changes. it's nothing too crazy just some plot holes that needed to fixed small things like that. I've also started rewriting the story! It still needs a lot of work and I haven't even finished chapter one but I intend for there to a lot more branching choices with different outcomes. this of course makes writing it take so so much longer but ultimately I think the game will be more enjoyable because of it.

Thanks for reading my rambling! Let me know if you've got some ideas, questions, or concerns. I am all ears!

[awritingcaitlin]

For the Writer (& Artist) Ask Game

What are your favourite relationships between your OCs? (romantic or platonic!)

I'm gonna give you several! :D

Rinnie/Ciara/Aravae the throuple (as part of the larger polycule) has stolen my heart 100%. They are three women who may have started as "You're hot, let's fuck" but they've turned into a support system for each other. They're friends, they're lovers, they're many things. It's vague. It's only semi-defined. It's great.

Thea/Cael. They're married. They've loved each other for thousands of years. They're a battle couple. They compete with each other. They're dangerous. They play strategy games together and against each other. They were never meant to be major characters and yet look at where we are.

Rinnie&Riela these two are not romantic nor will it ever go that way. They are foils in the sense of... had circumstances been different, they could have easily filled the other role. They sometimes hate the other one, but they also know they can rely on each other. LET WOMEN BE FRIENDS! I say, banging pots and pans together .

Lelia&Em these two are roommates (and oh are they roommates) but I think it's queerplatonic? They haven't exactly defined themselves yet and you know what, fine. But take two thieves who can't get the thieving bones out of their bodies and shove them together and make them do thieving and also things that aren't thieving.

Kanjo&Rinnie. He's her uncle (not biologically, but by choice, which imo matters more.) He looks out for her. He gives her shit. She gives him shit. They're both adults. He grounds her. They support each other. He's the difference between a stable and an unstable Rinnie when we get farther into the story and I can't even tell you how it would have worked without him.

Thanks for asking!!

Writer and Artist Asks!

[expfcultragreen]

Anyway i think Kevyn and Madison have a turtledove themed wedding, right?

And they tell kevyns family that they arent expected to spare the expense to travel to casablanca for it and no one puts up a fight so its a small ceremony with just the Marleys and a handful of friends of the couple that madisons parents covered travel for.

What did kevyn go to college for?

Economics. Unfocused student, didn't finish. Currently in a pottery class.

How does their business work?

They're taped into a network of diy salt driers/salt foragers the marleys know about through an old friend of madison's grandfather (his salt guy), and through them/their exotic salt connections, they got into larger scale specialty imports; Madison trained abroad as an opera singer through highschool and is a semi-competent polyglot by way of learning some italian and being able to cross-purpose a lot of it, but fully fluent in no one secondary language.

Canonically they have three kids

Pretty cute. I think that all kevyns grandparents died around the same time and some of her meagre combined shares-of-the-assets went towards sperm-banking prior to transition just in case. The rest went toward privately funding the transition costs without telling her family, and the remainder has been long-gone from business expenses. The business took a long time to get going and they had to live off madison doing voice talent work until very recently. They've just broken in to the right circle of restauranteurs to actually make 2 cents profit. Literally. They have all this rock salt warehoused in storage units because the online direct orders never really flew.

They dont sweat the salt, so to speak--businesswise that is--madison's family is a functional security net, they understand sticking it out with the salt, everyone in the family believes in angels and stuff. Signs, fate, etc. Theyre like "of COURSE he came back as an angel to tell you kids to keep spreading the salt" and its a done deal.

Their kids?

Are all named after holidays; April First Marley, Easter Sunday Marley, and Valentine Day Marley. They hate this. Easter is an atheist. (They were not born on these holidays, theyre triplets and their birthday is August 12th). They go by Apey, Easty, and Val. All three are nonbinary.

What's that part of chicago like?

Trick question, its not a part of chicago and everyone there knows that, according to bojack horseman's writers. I just cribbed it from them. It sounded kind of hip? Or, like a place for hipsters to raise families, anyway.

Do the kids get left home alone? Do they have to utilize the salt somehow to fix it?

You'd like that wouldnt you. Kevyn insistently taught them to mind eachother without supervision. Theyre frequently home alone but nothing has ever gone wrong. One time kevyn and madison disappeared mysteriously on the morning of august 12th with a note on the tv about needing to run errands and the trips letting their party guests in as they arrived, and after their friends were all there playing smash bros for a while the cat in the hat showed up but there wasnt much more to conceivably teach the kids about being chaotic on command and he split with time on the clock so he didnt get paid for the full birthday party 🤷

Basically kevyns kids will never be home alone unless they move out to live solo, which is unlikely because they all want to have weirdcute codependent relationships like their parents's and go on endless weirdcute triple dates as one group

Kevyn occasionally works at starbucks to cover upcoming known expenses like feeding and clothing the kids over the next several months. Her parents do help out with the childrearing costs if pressed with an opportunity to do so, but they're weird about it and they mention her unfinished degree too much. Her siblings still treat her like a mistake but they occasionally send the niecephews a couple gifts. Theyve never been told the babies hospital-assigned sexes and this annoys them greatly for no good reason. The grandparents are better about it but try to make awkward jokes about it being awkward, which annoys kevyn although madison thinks its really not that bad, realistically.

Some people like, grow up and forget everything. Not bangarang!

Just 👏 because 👏 kevin 👏 vaguely 👏 demonstrates 👏 some 👏 psychopathy 👏 doesn't 👏 mean 👏 he 👏 did 👏 anything 👏 wrong 👏

He's fighting adults you could more reasonably consider psychopaths by the same indicators, theyre just less dexterous so they end up looking like "underdogs" despite being two violent middleaged men on a regular/ritualized crimespree for strictly personal profit and pleasure, vs one violent 8 year old whose entire ability to survive revolves around the house he's squatting not being destroyed (eg flooded) and/or overrun with cops (this is why he calls the cops from the neighbors and says he's mr. Murphy; he doesnt want to go into foster care or whatever, he's self-emancipated and thats a precarious position. He has no legal right to his dwelling or his newfound autonomy.

Also, he clearly demonstrates empathy. The problem is that his older brother is a bad influence, his family expects slightly too much maturity and gives too little genuine concern and they mercilessly punish failures of this functionally-mandated, developmentally-pressured maturity and emotional low maintenance, and he's an american born in the 80s*. So his overall spread on the psychopathic trait bingocard is upsetting. But buzz is entirely worse and the rest of the family are just too up their own asses to see this. Its all in the scripts and the scenework. Buzz is a total freak and kevin is stuck in a competitive dynamic with him. Its a nightmare. The parents are clearly hyper-permissive with buzz, likely because, as demonstrated at the effectively-unmediated family trial in HA2, he has the modicum of self-confident finesse that (just maybe 🙃) comes with his age/experience advantage and the low emotional deprivation he experiences as The Oldest (this seems to be That kind of nuclear family--defacto/unconsciusly patriarchal; kevin isnt The Baby, he's the RUNT. The omega runt, Fuller, isnt part of their specific nuclear unit but kevin barely outranks him across the whole family as we've seen it--the fact that there is a steep, linear pecking order (siiiiigh, ~hierarchy~) is established by the hide-a-bed fiasco. Ergo kevin is outranked by everyone in his own daily unit; we see them shit on him, it flows like their breathing. We see them primed to be so dottingly receptive to buzz's proxy gaslighting of kevin; they revile kevin as a matter of course, whereas buzz can virtually do no wrong. "I hate this family" fuck, me too kid, me too. Fuck em all, fuck the robbers, fuck everyone except bird lady and mr duncan and the shovel slayer. Fuck this meme and all its versions, fuck the meme makers, and finally fuck renegade cut for privilege-jacketing an 8 year old in order to uplift his abusers to the status of antiheroes for obsessively refusing to just not break into that one house, ~because ~harry ~had ~his ~eye ~on ~it. My incredulity seems boundless, because its been YEARS since these memes or that video were made and i havent found the bounds yet. I was hoping to care less by now but it pretty much just makes me madder and madder.

Tell you what, new lore drop: kevin transitions in college and lesbian-marries the shovel slayer's grandkid after a mutual proposal at the new york symphony and they run a bespoke gourmet salt sample mailer box (and seasonal plowing) business together in schaumberg and every december they go to the old church they first met at, and help organize a toy drive

*if kevin is 8 during the first movie and it's set during release year not filming, he was born in 82. Tough vintage! In some ways the 85's are the worst and in some ways we're where the wave broke (and fuck gen x)

[girlactionfigure]

He was called a “lazy Indian.”

Aboard an ocean liner with the likes of a West Pointer named George Patton and a Hawaiian swimmer named Duke Kahanamoku on their way to the Olympics, he was found “relaxing” on a deck chair, according to the Smithsonian. 

A newspaperman approached him and asked, “What are you doing, Jim, thinking of your Uncle Sitting Bull?”

Though the comment was insensitive and racist, he simply replied, “No, I’m practicing the long jump. I’ve just jumped 23 feet eight inches. I think that will win it.”

The Peace Page has shared stories before of Jim Thorpe - how he was raised as a ward of what they called then Indian residential schools and how he was stripped of his gold medals at the 1912 Olympics, but with the Olympics upon us, the Peace Page wanted to share another story of Thorpe’s.

Every once in a while a picture of Thorpe starts circulating on social media, the one where he is wearing a pair of mismatched shoes. The post claims that Thorpe won a competition at the 1912 Olympics wearing different socks and shoes.

It became so popular that even Snopes had to check it.

Snopes concluded, “This photograph does indeed depict Jim Thorpe wearing mismatched shoes shortly before competing at the 1912 Olympics. Thorpe participated in 15 events during the 1912 Summer Games and won eight of them, leading to his capturing gold medals in both the pentathlon and decathlon. His feat was all the more remarkable for his having contested several of those events wearing mismatched shoes.”

Yes, it was a remarkable “feat” - no pun intended.

But, before we get to the story itself, let’s provide some background.

“Jim Thorpe never had it easy,” according to Noble Humans. “As a member of the Native American tribe the Sac and Fox Nation, he was born in Indian Territory outside of Prague Oklahoma in 1887. The children of these tribes were separated from their parents and taught to be more Anglo-American, they were told to forget their heritage. It goes without saying that life on the Indian Territory was tough.”

“Thorpe was orphaned after his father Hiram passed away,” according to writer John Duffley.

His native name was Wa-Tho-Huk or “Bright Path”.

“Thorpe, like just about every other Native American, faced discrimination,” according to Victor Mather of The New York Times. “The founder of Carlisle, Richard Henry Pratt, had an educational philosophy that Pratt summed up as ‘Kill the Indian, save the man,’ and believed Native Americans must shed their culture and assimilate into mainstream American culture.

His twin brother, Charlie, died at one of those residential schools from an epidemic which swept the school.

His son, Richard, once asked him where he got his strength. Thorpe responded, "he inherited it from his brother. He felt his brother, Charlie, was with him all the time."

Jim Thorpe became "one of the greatest American athletes of all time,” according to Noble Humans. “He played six seasons of major league baseball for the New York Giants (1913-1919) and bounced around the NFL to six different teams.”

But before all that, before he was finally honored on a Wheaties box (48 years after he died), Jim Thorpe would be remembered for his remarkable feat (sans matching shoes and socks) at the 1912 Olympics.

Thorpe had already crushed “the field in the now-defunct pentathlon, which consisted of five events in a single day,” according to Sally Jenkins of the Smithsonian Magazine. “He placed first in four of them, dusting his competition in the 1,500-meter run by almost five seconds.”

“A week later the three-day decathlon competition began in a pouring rain. Thorpe opened the event by splashing down the track in the 100-meter dash in 11.2 seconds—a time not equaled at the Olympics until 1948.”

On the second day, Thorpe’s shoes went “missing.”

Some say they were stolen.

The sleuths at Snopes reported:

“Bob Wheeler, founder of the Jim Thorpe Foundation and author of the biography ‘Jim Thorpe: The World’s Greatest Athlete’, appears to have been the first to uncover the back story behind this photograph. Wheller [typo? by Snopes] conducted more than 200 interviews with teammates, family members, and friends of Jim Thorpe before publishing his book in 1979.”

According to Wheeler, “There’s lots of theories about why they were missing or who took them or what happened, but the fact is that he had a matter of minutes to get to the starting line. He frantically asked teammates if they had an extra pair of shoes. One teammate had an extra shoe. It was too small but he squeezed his foot into it. And the other shoe he found in a trash bin. It was too big and he put a couple pair of socks to make that fit.”

Note that “this was before Olympic athletes had Nike deals [and, back then] the IOC and the AAU ensured that the atmosphere was more like a modern-day High School track meet than the Olympics we know today,” according to Noble Humans. “He couldn’t just go to someone to get new shoes, and he didn’t want to be late.”

After all that, however, he still “went out and competed against the greatest decathletes in the world and won the race at 1500 meters,” according to Wheeler.

Thorpe “was hailed internationally and got a ticker-tape parade up Broadway in New York,” according to the New York Times.

Of course, if you read the previous stories of Thorpe on the Peace Page, you would also know that Thorpe would be stripped of his medals.

Not because he was wearing mismatched shoes and socks.

But, because he “played some semi-professional baseball before competing in the Olympics, violating the IOC’s code of strict amateurism.”

Note again, this was before the Olympics allowed professional players from participating - we’re looking at you, NBA players.

“The IOC’s decision in 1912 to strip Thorpe’s medals and strike out his records was not just intended to punish him for violating the elitist Victorian codes of amateurism.” according to the Smithsonian. “It was also intended to obscure him—and to a certain extent it succeeded.”

“Oddly enough, it was American officials who pushed the hardest to take away his medals,” according to the New York Times. “They were motivated by an almost fanatical devotion to the notion of amateurism, and, most historians say, a healthy dose of racism.”

“In 1912, there was a little bit of prejudice against Indians,” adds, Thorpe’s son, Richard Thorpe, in The New York Times.

But, then again, that’s a whole ‘nother story there you can find on the Peace Page archives.

“Nobody was in his class,” says Olympic historian Bill Mallon.

Mallon, co-founder of the International Society of Olympic Historians, who has served as a consultant statistician to the IOC, believes that Thorpe’s 1912 performances establish him as “the greatest athlete of all time.”

Even with mismatched shoes and socks.

~ jsr

The Jon S. Randal Peace Page

[gameofdrarry]

Wizards Hearts Recs: Powerful!Harry

Wizards Hearts was a four-month-long Drarry reading fest. Players were given a playing deck of 52 tropes, and were asked to find 52 different fics to read and comment on to fill their decks. To prevent the same few fics from being read, fics were restricted to only being used for the game three times before being considered ineligible for further points. The tropes and submissions list can be found here.

Check out the masterlist of fics for this trope below the cut!

📜 In Evidence of Magical Theory by bixgirl1 Rated:  Explicit Words:  43747 Tags: Hogwarts Eighth Year, Accidental Bonding, Magical Theory, Magical Cores, Powerful Harry, Rimming, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, Switching, Slash, HP: EWE, Falling In Love, forced bed sharing, Blow Jobs, completed fic, Bonding, Forced Proximity, Sharing a Bed, First Time, Loss of Virginity Summary:  When a hex meant for Draco accidentally catches Harry as well, they're forced to learn to understand each other in ways they previously might have thought impossible. In which Harry and Draco can't fight, so they fall in love instead. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Home by gnarf Rated:  Teen and Up Words:  29377 Tags: Post-Hogwarts, Post-Second War with Voldemort, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Minor Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Minor Pansy Parkinson/Theodore Nott, Auror Harry Potter, Curse Breaker Draco Malfoy, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Sentient Houses, Magical Theory, Accidental Marriage, Accidental Bonding, Fluff, Getting Together, Banter, First Dates, Kissing, Cuddling & Snuggling, POV Harry Potter, Drinking, H/D Erised 2019 Summary:  When Harry was forced to leave his house because he couldn't take the things happening there any longer, he realised he'd need to ask for help from the best curse breaker the Ministry had to offer—Draco sodding Malfoy. He knew it wouldn't be easy, but nothing could have prepared him for what happened after he finally jumped over his own shadow. A story about an unsolved mystery, a few minor accidents, and finally finding a home. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Under Pressure by VivacissimoVoce Rated:  Mature Words:  21423 Tags: Romance, Mystery, Muggle Life, Post-Hogwarts, POV Draco Malfoy, Redeemed Draco, Powerful Harry Summary:  Harry Potter has quit magic and left the wizarding world. Draco, a top-notch Tracker, has been hired to find him and save his life. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 A Lick and a Promise by tackytiger Rated:  Explicit Words:  55321 Tags: Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Post-Hogwarts, Post-Second War with Voldemort, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, Past Draco Malfoy/Original Male Character(s), Mystery, Case Fic, Auror Harry Potter, Professor Harry Potter, Unspeakable Draco Malfoy, Professor Draco Malfoy, Undercover, Sentient Hogwarts, Magical Theory, Back to Hogwarts, Blood Magic, Blood Drinking, Blood, Vampires, Magic, Falling In Love, Masturbation, Desk Sex, Brandy - Freeform, Drinking, Feelings, Snarky Draco Malfoy, Magically Powerful Harry Potter, Powerful Harry Potter, Competent Draco Malfoy, Domesticity, Kissing, Undressing, Bathing/Washing, Sharing a Bath, Minor Injuries, minor animal injuries, Minor Child Injuries, H/D Erised 2019, POV Alternating, POV Harry Potter, POV Draco Malfoy, Office Sex, Semi-Public Sex, Hogwarts Professors, Clothing Porn, Love Confessions, Draco Malfoy is a Snappy Dresser, Magical Creatures, Light Angst, Christmas, Christmas at Hogwarts Summary:  Something sinister stirs in Hogwarts! When magical creatures and students at the school are hit with a debilitating blood curse, Minerva McGonagall approaches the Ministry for help. Star Auror Harry Potter seems to be the obvious choice to go undercover—as DADA Professor, naturally. He’s going to need the help of the Ministry’s foremost expert in blood magic to get to the bottom of the mystery, though, and he’s not entirely convinced that going back to Hogwarts with Draco Malfoy is a good idea. Things are complicated between them—what’s new?—but they know they have to learn to work together (and keep their hands off each other in the corridors) in order to solve this case. Luckily for them, Hogwarts itself wants to lend a hand. A tale of love, lessons, and learning to really live. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 The Way Down by lettered Rated:  Teen and Up Words:  65615 Tags: nervous breakdown, Social Anxiety, hermit Harry, Powerful Harry Summary:  Harry is overwhelmed by his own power and fame and angst, so he's become a hermit. Draco Malfoy is tired of the melodrama. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 I Am Not Who I Became by mab_di Rated:  Explicit Words:  93189 Tags: H/D Fan Fair 2019, Secondary Theme: Travel Fair, Secondary Theme: Book Fair, Commercial Fisherman Draco Malfoy, Failed Writer Harry Potter, Depressed Harry Potter, Magically Powerful Harry Potter, Muscular Draco Malfoy, Recluse Harry Potter, Angst, Smut, Drama & Romance, Hurt/Comfort, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Post-Second War with Voldemort, Wandless Magic, Boats and Ships, Finland (Country), Fishing, Redemption, School Reunion, Minor Draco Malfoy/Original Male Character(s), Anal Sex, Rough Sex, Sex Magic, Suicidal Thoughts, Near Death Experiences, Magical Theory, POV Alternating Summary:  Draco left England after the trials and has travelled the world meeting wizards and Muggles from different cultures and with vastly different relationships to magic, each other, and the natural world. Now he's a fisherman in Finland on commercial vessels. Harry has been struggling since the war and has become a recluse while trying to write his autobiography. An invitation to the Hogwarts class of 1998's 15th reunion isn't welcomed by either of them, but neither could predict how the night, and their reunion, will upend their lives. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 And One To Play by tackytiger Rated:  Explicit Words:  21777 Tags: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Auror Harry Potter, Auror Draco Malfoy, Auror Partners, Rimming, Friends to Lovers, Magically Powerful Harry Potter, Post-Hogwarts, Secret Relationship, Violence, Blood and Injury, Minor Character Death, Hospitalization, depictions of violence, Happy Ending, Competent Draco Malfoy, Magical Theory, Case Fic, Blow Jobs, Major Character Injury, Community: hp_drizzle, HP Drizzle Fest 2019, Police Brutality Summary:  Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter are the best team in the Auror Department, even when they're driving Gawain Robards up the wall. When Malfoy is injured on a mission, it causes Harry's magic to go haywire. Meanwhile, a mysterious criminal is draining people's magical cores and turning them into Squibs. Can Harry stop blowing Malfoy away in time to solve the case? And will Malfoy ever stop trying to get the last word? ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Leave Your Mark by Gullviva Rated:  Explicit Words:  26712 Tags: Auror Harry Potter, Violent Sex, Office Sex, Powerful Harry, Jealousy, Blow Jobs, Angst and Fluff and Smut, lots of smut, Top Harry, Bottom Draco Summary:  Harry Potter is known in the Auror Office for his short fuse and powerful magic; a dangerous combination. When Draco Malfoy unexpectedly turns up in his life again, as much of a git as ever, the explosive confrontation that follows is inevitable. But as it turns out, that might have been exactly what Harry needed. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 If an Injury Is to Be Inflicted by shealwaysreads (onereader) Rated:  Explicit Words:  44800 Tags: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Post-War, Powerful Harry, Magically Powerful Harry Potter, Moral Ambiguity, Morally Grey Harry Potter, False Identity, Kidnapping, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Rough Sex, Consensual Sex, Police Brutality, Government Conspiracy, Dark Harry Potter, Sentient Magical House, Murder, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Wizarding Politics (Harry Potter), Intrigue, Blood and Gorefights to the death, Rimming, Anal Sex, Love Bites, H/D Hurt!Fest 2020, Choking, Gambling, Corpses, Serious Injuries, Forced Captivity, Scars, Addiction, No actual animals fighting Summary:  If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared. Harry Potter disappeared a year after the Battle of Hogwarts, and with him went all hope for true change in magical Britain. Three years later, Draco indulges himself and attends his first Dog Fight—the infamous underground fights with no rules, no referee, and no points system bar blood on the floor. The game was simple: you win, or you die. A glint of green amidst the blood-red changes everything. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 The new guy by MarigoldWritesThings Rated:  General Words:  2612 Tags: powerful!Harry, accidental magic, Auror Partners, Angst, Oblivious!Harry, Tumblr Prompt Summary:  Harry and Draco have been Auror partners for a while now, but with the arrival of a new guy who is definitely up to something, things become strained. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Just keep breathing by Dahlia_Rose_83 Rated:  Teen and Up Words:  55645 Tags: Panic Attacks, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Nightmares, Hogwarts Eighth Year, Not Epilogue Compliant, Slow Burn, Redeemed Draco Malfoy, Powerful Harry, Hurt/Comfort, Oblivious Harry, Idiots in Love Summary:  Harry had hoped for some peace and normalcy once he'd defeated Voldemort. What he gets instead are nightmares, panic attacks and his magic going haywire. And suddenly his once sworn enemy is the only one he can rely on. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Love and Other Unsafe Medical Practices by Tedah Rated:  Explicit Words:  116854 Tags: Healer Draco Malfoy, Auror Harry Potter, Auror Ron Weasley, Harry Potter is a reckless idiot, Healing, Injury Recovery, Accidental Bonding, Magically Powerful Harry Potter, Minor Character Death, Canonical Character Death, Post-War, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Unconventional Medical Practices, Light Dom/sub, Competent Draco Malfoy, Pining, Occlumency, malicious bureaucracy, does this even count as a courtroom drama?, House Elves, Slow Burn, Case Fic, Child Loss, Angst, copious amounts of angst, Snarky Draco Malfoy, Draco Malfoy is a delight, Chess, Lesbian Pansy Parkinson, Fashion Designer Pansy Parkinson, Lawyer Blaise Zabini, Happy Ending, Shaving, Kink Negotiation, Anal Sex, Oral Sex, minor sex injury, Explicit Consent, Enthusiastic Consent, magic buildings, Magical Tattoos Summary:  Love is a lot like surgery: sometimes you have to take risks to succeed and most times there are unexpected side effects. Harry is back in a hospital room after an Auror sting gone wrong and nobody is amused at this point. It's starting to become somewhat of a familiar scene for Ron and Hermione. This time his healer is one Draco Malfoy so it's actually a /little/ funny when something goes wrong during recovery. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Burn Your Life Down (but look back to me) by triggerlil Rated:  Teen and Up Words:  35908 Tags: Pining, Smoking, Club owner harry potter, On the Run, Alternate Universe - World War II, Film Noir, Magically Powerful Harry Potter, Hurt/Comfort, No Horcruxes, Self-Medication, Alcohol, Infidelity, (not between Harry and Draco), mention of slavery and human trafficking, inspired by Casablanca, LCDrarry, Eventual Happy Ending, Beauxbatons Student Draco Malfoy Summary:  It's been years since destiny walked into an apartment on Rue Azais, and Harry is over it. Really, he is. He has Blaise, he has his work, and if necessary, he still has his memories. But with the onset of WWII, the foundations of his life are crumbling, and suddenly a certain blond man is walking back into his life, asking Harry to make important, and dangerous, choices. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Criminal by The_Sinking_Ship Rated:  Explicit Words:  83499 Tags: Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Auror Harry Potter, Criminal Draco Malfoy, Card Shark Draco Malfoy, powerful!Harry, smitten!Draco, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Playing House, Domesticity, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, some homophobic slurs/internalized homophobia, but nothing too drastic, Happy Ending, Minor Draco Malfoy/Blaise Zabini, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Complete, references to past Ginny/Harry, minor draco/omc, Slow Burn, Wandless Magic, Humor, Pining, Top Harry, Topping from the Bottom, Bottom Draco Summary:  Things were going just fine for Draco Malfoy. He successfully conned and counted cards across Europe and America, amassing a small fortune, along with a lengthy rap sheet. That was until he made the grave mistake of returning to England for a high stakes card game and got himself caught – by Harry Potter no less. Now, Draco is stuck in England under Auror Potter’s guard with no friends, no distractions, and no escape. How the hell will he pass the time? And since when did Potter get so bloody fit? ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Quicksilver and Phoenix Fire by The_Sinking_Ship Rated:  Mature Words:  4685 Tags: Auror Partners, Wand lore, Magical Theory, Powerful Harry, Mutual Pining, Prompt Fill Summary:  A wizard’s wand is a delicate thing, precisely suited to their magic. To wield another’s wand isn’t just intimate, it’s exceedingly rare. So what does it mean that Harry’s wand responds so beautifully in Draco’s hand? ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Crown Witness by slytherco Rated:  Explicit Words:  70321 Tags: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Post-Hogwarts, Auror Harry Potter, Mobster Draco Malfoy, Bodyguard Harry Potter, Witness Draco Malfoy, Protective Custody, Enemies to Lovers, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Forced Proximity, mafia, Political Intrigue, Crimes & Criminals, Organized Crime, Explicit Sexual Content, Magically Powerful Harry Potter, Wandless Magic, magic kink, Healing, Possessive Harry Potter, Serious Injuries, Happy Ending, Guns, Art, FanartI, llustrations, Minor Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Police Brutality, Duelling, Voyeurism, Drinking, Past Drug Use, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Corruption, Auror Corruption, Blood and Injury, Murder, Gun Violence, Face Punching, POV Harry Potter, Hotel Sex, Bars and Pubs, Masturbation in Shower, Hung Harry Potter, Blow Jobs, Semi-Public Sex, Face-Fucking, Hand Jobs, Frottage ,Rimming, Anal Fingering, Switching, Dirty Talk, Mirror Sex, H/D Erised 2020 Summary:  After the war, wizarding society is oppressed by a new kind of plague—an organised crime group calling itself the Family. When Harry Potter goes to interrogate a potential witness, he doesn’t expect to end up on the run again, trying to keep Draco Malfoy alive, while a manhunt follows in their footsteps, adamant on eliminating the one witness that could ruin everything. In which Harry and Draco learn that the way to each other might just have to go through the dingiest hotels in Britain. ❤️ Read on AO3

[the-tggtvav-zine]

Hi! First of all, a big thanks to everyone who applied. We are very happy to announce our full list of contributors!

WRITERS

Jennie

Eighteen-year-old writer and student Jenn spends most of xier time immersed in one fandom or another, spinning elaborate ideas that will never come to fruition. Locke has had a number of her works published, including two Dragon Prince zines and several original works through in print and online literary magazines.

Portfolio: (x)

Social media: Tumblr, Instagram (2), AO3

Arwyn Florence

Hi, I'm Arwyn (they/them)! I'm a writer for the TGGTVAV Zine! I've been writing for/part of the TGGTVAV fandom for about two and a half years! Though I'm in other fandoms, TGGTVAV is my main one. This is my first time being part of a zine but I'm really excited to take part with all these other talented writers and artists!

Social media: Tumblr, AO3

ARTISTS

Blake

I'm a recent grad in love with stories. My degree was focused on illustration because I believe there is an incredible power to connect people through art. As cheesy and embarrassingly earnest it is to say that, the connection is my main driving force for continued creation throughout my life, as well as my deep love for reading. To see. To be seen. The triumph of the human spirit. All that jazz.

Portfolio: (x)

Social media: Instagram, TikTok

Aurelia

A semi-competent aspec artist who jumped at the chance to illustrate for TGGTVAV, one of the only books I know with great ace representation! I absolutely love the books and the characters, and I’m super thrilled to be part of this zine.

Social media: Tumblr, Instagram

Efflyn_art

I'm Eyla (she/her), I read TGGTVAV last year and really enjoyed it and I look forward to reading the sequel hopefully soon! I really like both reading and art and tend to join too many fandoms at once but I'm really excited to work on this zine!!

Portfolio: (x)

Social media: Instagram

Kerosene

Hi! I'm an artist who is interested in creating LGBTQ+ representation (especially in YA lit) and I've loved this series for three years now. I'm delighted to be able to work on this zine!

Social media: Tumblr, Instagram

Shiro Shoyo

Hi, I'm Shiro Shoyo or Sho for short! I go by She/Her They/Them pronounce I've been drawing for about 6 years now but I only began to improve about two years ago! I have been in and currently am in many fandoms so I like to draw fanart a lot! In general, I love cats, anime, comics, art, and at the moment am very into Minecraft Youtubers!

Social media: Instagram, Twitter

Vanessa Yendall

Hey there! I’m Vanessa (She/Her). I am a 22 year old illustrator based in Vancouver, BC. My practice centres around creating art in the realm of digital illustrations, comics, and concept art. Many of my illustrations involve otherworldly environments and characters along with sci fi, fantasy, and horror themes. Besides art, I enjoy reading (books, manga, and comics), watching anime, horror movies, roller skating, and playing the guitar.

Social media: Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter

Romeo

Hi! I'm an illustrator for the zine. I've liked gents guide since 2017, and I've liked drawing my whole life. If I'm not drawing, I'll be cooking something, taking a long drive with good music, or writing!

Social media: Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter

DESIGNER

Killian

Hi! I'm Killian. I mostly do zine formatting work and some writing on the side. I am a psychology major with two cats that help me take breaks. I'm really excited to work on this zine.

Social media: Tumblr, Twitter

We’re looking forward to working with you all!

- Mod Em

[sol1056]

wuxia/xianxia: a loose and somewhat second-hand introduction to the genre, pt1

Sorry for the unconventional q, but i keep seeing Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation everywhere and I kinda want to get into it but a) don't know where to start (web series? live action adaptation?? wait how many are there!) and b) i don't really "get" wuxia / xianxia, that sorta stuff, i find it really hard to cross that cultural barrier and chinese mentality seems very alien. (it's not that i have no experience w different mentalities but chinese in particular is v hard to grasp w/o sources).

So if you have the time and patience, I'd love to hear a summary of it (like, a coherent summary bc all i get on the wikis is a shower of names and concepts that don't make sense to me) and perhaps some "intro for dummies" abt the relevant parts of chinese history and mentality tied to it? not just the cultivation / buddhist part but also re: familial relationships, philosophy and all that. (v brief and low effort of course) Thank you and sorry for bothering you!

("brief and low effort" referring to what I'm asking from you, not to what I need for me - as in i asked for it so i'm more than ready for a complicated essay, but you can write with as much detail as you like, I don't want to ask for some sort of comprehensive tome)

Okay first, you do realize that if you want “brief and low” for anything, you’re asking the wrong person? I was a philosophy major. brief got drilled out of me a long time ago. 

Second... well, explaining what makes The Untamed / Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (mdzs for short, from the chinese title, Mo Dao Zu Shi) such a standout story does require understanding some of the wuxia conventions it subverts -- as well as some that it plays straight (so to speak) very, very well. 

I figure the best approach (again, sadly not brief) is to first get a handle on the genre of wuxia. Gonna break this post into two, so you’re not reading in a single three-hour stretch or something. I’ll do a follow-up about mdzs, to hopefully make it a bit more accessible for you. 

before I do that, let me first say: I didn’t grow up with this genre, so there’s going to be parts that I may miscast unintentionally. for an insider’s view, my go-to voices are @guzhuangheaven, @atthewaterside, @dramatic-gwynne, @the50-person and @drunkensword. if any of them are reading this and can point to more/other/better voices, please do.

I have three analogies -- like cultural doorways --  and like all analogies, they break down when you get into the finer details. In the broad strokes, though, they mostly work, and if nothing else, hopefully they’ll demonstrate that wuxia may be a chinese-specific version, but part of a storytelling tradition that’s nearly universal.

The three doorways are: the american wild west, the samurai era, and the british arthurian romances. And, in a tangential way, the regency period in the romance genre. 

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

The term ‘wuxia’ can be translated several ways, but I prefer ‘martial chivalry’. Most wuxia takes place in the jianghu, a harder term to unpack. Generally, though, ‘the jianghu’ has connotations not all that different from what americans mean when they reference the wild west. 

More of a concept than a physical place, the jianghu (like the ‘wild’ west) exists beyond the reach of the law and/or civilization. It’s occupied by a diverse cast of farmers, merchants, beggars, and so on, but also by outlaws, gangs, hermits, pretty much all those who don’t like the suffocating nature of the civilized world, for whatever reason. It’s not a lawless place (except to outsiders); it does have laws, but those are only unto itself. 

So, jianghu is a world to itself, for the most part -- which also makes it kind of timeless. Tang dynasty, Song dynasty, Ming dynasty, it could be any of them and all of them and none of them. Just as the heyday of the cowboys and the cattle drives was barely a decade long, a culture’s romanticized history stretches into lifetimes that exist separate from any date you could pin down on a calendar. 

The average wuxia protagonist would fit in reasonably well as knight errants in an arthurian romance, with one important detail in difference: they’re rarely aristocrats. Wuxia protagonists are just as likely (if not more so) to be lower-born, whether the child of farmers, or servants, some common caste. 

This is where wuxia diverges from the british and japanese traditions, which have a bit more noblesse oblige going on (knights and samurai both being upper-class types). Even ‘aristocratic’ characters tend to be so only within the jianghu -- sort of like the way a territory’s elected leader in the wild west would’ve had no pull in Washington, given they weren’t from a fully-recognized state. 

Wuxia does often have politics, between competing sects (think schools of learning), but that political infighting is independent of the capital’s rules or wishes. A lot of stories -- in the rare cases the topic even comes up -- tends to speak of ‘the capital’ in disparaging terms. 

That’s not to say wuxia is all about the flat social systems (it’s definitely not), but most commonly a rank implies some level of competence/study. The title of sect leader isn’t granted, it's earned. Children inherit, but it’s also a common storyline to have an heir with no skills (who then goes through all the trials and tribulations to finally level up and earn that position in turn).

What makes wuxia hard to grasp is its vernacular: the conventions that form the backbone that make something recognizably ‘wuxia’ and not just ‘historical drama set on a frontier in a loosely-defined time period’. 

Frex: in a Wild West story, convention is two gunfighters at opposite ends of the street, and at least one of them is wearing a holster tied to his leg with string in a way that no real gunfighter wore, ever, but Hollywood came up with the idea and now it’s a permanent part of our imagination. In the arthurian romances,  convention is carrying the token of one’s lady love (a distant, untouchable figure who rarely appears on-page), or meeting the unnamed knight in black on the jousting field. Convention are the samurai who’ll die for their lord’s honor, always touchy and prickly at the first sign of disrespect. 

These are things granted the most remarkable gravity, that to an outsider might seem ridiculous. (Why is there always tumbleweed?) 

Now, wuxia is the latest evolution in a long-lived literary tradition (and by ‘long’ I mean like 2000+ years) -- but like any living tradition, each subsequent generation reinvents it for their time. Part of that reinvention comes from particularly influential writers, who put their own spin on things, and their interpretation becomes the next generation’s standard for the genre -- “of course wuxia must have X” or “a protagonist never does Y”. (Like how Tolkien almost single-handedly changed western concepts of elves, in fiction.)

And here’s where I explain what regency romance has to do with it. Another short-lived period, in real history, but along came Georgette Heyer, who took bits and pieces of actual research, blended them with her reactionary politics, exaggerating some things and ignoring other things completely. The result is a time-that-never-was, but she cast (and still casts) a shadow so vast that I’ve seen multiple romance writers complain that readers will see a footnoted-and-researched version as wrong, if it contradicts one of Heyer’s made-up conventions. 

Modern wuxia has its own Heyer-sized influencers -- like Jin Yong (the Condor trilogy, Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils), Wen Rui'an (The Four), Gu Long (The Legend of Flying Daggers, The Proud Twins), to name a few of the biggest. If you have a chance or are inclined, the big names get remade on a pretty regular basis, and catching one will at least let you see some ur-tropes in action. 

But it also means that you can’t really extrapolate, in the sense of saying, “in wuxia, people do X, ergo, X is also a factor in Chinese culture.” It’s like... take any western made in the 50s, and the vernacular is simple. The bad guys wear black hats, the good guys wear white hats, the prostitutes wear bright-colored dresses with frills and the good women wear subdued colors buttoned up to their neck. It told an audience exactly what character filled what role, but that’d tell you zero about real people you might meet in Nebraska or Utah, let alone New York City. 

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

Almost forgot: xianxia is basically wuxia but with ‘immortal heroes’ -- so there’s gods, divine influences, non-human beings as characters (main or NPC), etc. (Btw, by ‘immortal’ I mean exactly that, like this character is six hundred years old, that one’s a thousand years old, etc.) You can think of xianxia as wuxia, but amped way up on the mystical scale. 

Xianxia will sometimes take place on earth (jianghu) but sometimes in the celestial realm (heaven). Or a mix of both, like stories where a character falls (or is banished, or defects) from heaven and has to go through various trials and tribulations as a mortal human in order to regain a power, rise in rank, fall in love, or whatever their goal is. 

A number of wuxia stories are driven by some sort of mcguffin, but in xianxia, the mcguffin is more likely to be a powerful spiritual weapon. But I can also think of a number of wuxia in which the mcguffin would fit right in, in xianxia (some near-mystical thing with significant positive, or negative, power independent of the wielder, which often amplifies or boosts the wielder to an inhuman degree, etc). 

Thing is, the mcguffin being divine/infernal supernatural isn’t enough alone to make the story xianxia. I’m pretty sure you need non-human or super-human immortals and/or creatures to be considered in the xianxia genre. 

part two

[adventure-hearts]

I was asked about this topic recently, and, being bored out of my mind, I felt inspired to use it as a starting point for a new series! I hope to share my current headcanons about the personality types of the Digimon Adventure universe’s main characters, according to different personality systems: astrology, Enneagram, MBTI... feel free to suggest any other typologies you’d like me to explore in the future.

In this first post, I’ll try to explain which of the Sun Sign personality archetypes I find more likely and interesting for each character. Consider this this an update of my previous headcanons, post-tri. (and post LAST EVOLUTION Kizuna).

1: DIGIMON ADVENTURE + ZODIAC SIGNS

Taichi - Aries

Yamato - Aries

Sora - Pisces [semi-canon]

Koushirou - Aquarius

Mimi - Leo

Jou - Virgo 

Takeru - Libra

Hikari - Pisces

Daisuke - Sagittarius

Miyako - Gemini [canon]

Iori - Capricorn

Ken - Cancer

Meiko Mochizuki - Virgo/Libra

Maki Himekawa - Scorpio

Daigo Nishijima - Leo

Note: Every single headcanon is highly subjective and even I will probably change my mind about it. This is only a PROPOSAL.

If you’re interested in my interpretation and methodology, read on!

Canon Clues 

Although there are no official birthdays for the characters, several Adventure materials have provided “goalposts” where we can fit some characters’ birthdays. I strive to make my HCs as canon-compliant as possible, so it’s important for me to take this info into account.

Miyako is stated to be a Gemini in 02.

The official synopsis of tri. Indicates that Taichi is 17 years old during the series, suggesting the has an April-June birthday.

Sure, you’re free to ignore this little nugget if you prefer, but I personally like to think there’s a reason they mentioned Taichi’s age explicitly — something they never did before. They also never mentioned the explicit age of any of the other characters.

Funnily enough, the DALEK official website and novel lists the character’s ages during the events of the film. Since the film takes place in the summer of 2010, taking those numbers at face-value would require us to believe all 8 characters have birthdays in the first half of the year. 

This contradicts the explicit on-screen information about Jou’s age in the original series (see below). 

I’m proposing this should be interpreted as their “average” ages, rather than precise ages at this specific moment in time — after all, in Kizuna it’s more difficult to identify the characters by their school year, like they always did before.

Sora’s birthday is canonically before the events of Our War Game. The film takes place during the spring holidays, which typically begin around the third week of March.

Sora having a March birthday is so universally accepted by Japanese fans that it’s even on her Wikipedia page. I wouldn’t be surprised if more recent writers took that information into account, post-OWG, and portrayed her accordingly. 

Notice that Pisces is only the more likely option considering the canon timeline and Sora’s personality — Aries (late March) and Aquarius (mid-February) could fit as well. Hence why I consider this choice [semi-canon].

Jou, who is a 6th-grader, mentions he’s 11 years old during Adventure. This suggest his birthday would be after August 1.

Ken is supposed to be 9 years old in August 2000, when he’s in Year 3, suggesting he has an April-August birthday.

This is different from other guidebooks which only list the characters “average” ages, because this lists Ken’s precise age during a specific event.

I believe Ken being exactly 9 years old went to the Digital world is deliberate, since Osamu is stated to be 3 years older than Ken, hadn’t yet turned 12 when he died.

Again, except for Miyako, Sora, and Jou birthdays, I can understand why fans chose to ignore any of this.

Personal Notes

My method isn’t about finding a putative “Official / True Birthday” — that never existed, at least for the Adventure eight. It’s about finding birthdays that work within the limitations of canon (see previous section). 

My HCs are based on the personality / character archetypes represented by the the zodiac signs. In theory, any Chosen Child could be understood as representing a specific symbolical archetypes.

The problem is that the Adventure characters are quite complex and often deconstruct traditional archetypes. This explains why it’s so hard for fans to agree on which sign they are supposed to represent. I should also note that anime series seem to understand astrological archetypes slightly differently from the Western mainstream tradition, which explains why typical anime zodiac signs sometimes feel a bit “off”. 

Nevertheless, some archetypes are so strong that most of the fandom seems to have reached a consensus: Jou/Virgo and Koushirou/Aquarius, for example. Then you have textbook examples of archetypes like Gemini/Miyako (unsurprisingly canon), Taichi/Aries, and Hikari/Pisces. But even there is a lot of room for disagreement and subjective interpretation!

*

The 02 writers clearly intended Daisuke to symbolise Fire, Miyako Air, Iori Earth and, due to the Dark Ocean connection, Ken Water. In fact, it’s super easy to place those four characters into any traditional 4-group personality types, such as the four temperaments, Jung’s types, blood types, ABCD personality, etc. 

My HCs respect this, and ended up creating two polar opposites within the team: Daisuke/Miyako (mutable) and Ken/Iori (cardinal).  

*

It’s tempting to ascribe 12 main characters = 12 signs, but post-tri. I’m inclined to do something different and not put myself into such a limiting framework.

For this reason I repeat some signs, and I don’t have any Taurus character (sorry!).

*

My MAIN innovative choice is that I suspect Taichi and Yamato might represent the same sun sign.

Now, I understand this is an extremely controversial opinion. It isn’t a possibility I thought about until quite recently.

But Taichi and Yamato being “different but the same / two sides of the same coin” is incredibly well represented if both of them correspond to the Aries personality archetype. 

After all, they’re the leaders, the heroes, the Knights in shining armor. This explains their incredible similarities, despite superficial differences. as well as their love-hate dynamic: the rivalry, the union, the way they complement and balance each other out in an almost instinctive way.

Here are some examples of the Aries/Aries dynamic from the literature... 

Both of you are independent individuals and you don’t like feeling “owned” by anyone. Neither of you can tolerate being dominated or bossed by anyone else, so you probably make your own decisions, and direct your own lives. You respect one another’s autonomy, and a relationship that is based on constant togetherness and dependency wouldn’t suit either of you. Sometimes, however, there is too much emphasis on individualism rather than on being close and nurturing the relationship. You both have proud egos, and are sensitive to criticism. Almost inevitably you will compete with each other, and in small doses this can be invigorating. But it easily becomes nasty, and one of you is likely to get hurt. If you’ve ever seen two rams locking horns, you know what I mean! You either respect one another immensely or detest one another – rarely anything in between. (X)

If your relationship has been built on the basis that you are equals, the fire element produces tremendous vision and industriousness. Your combined power and effort could well be a force to be reckoned with — but again, only if you both learn to subdue your own ego in the service of each other. Remember, you can’t always be right. You need to try hard to see things from each other’s perspective; this will help the two of you become a great partnership over time. (x)

When Mars clashes with Mars, the result can be full-scale war, with all flags flapping, bravely and colorfully. Occasional flare-ups are bound to occur when these two are thrown into close, daily proximity, without the relief of some separateness in their association. But there will also be some glorious Highs to offset these Lows. (...)  It's been said that Aries people have a way about them. They do. Their own way. Yet, despite that sometimes antagonistic Martian exterior, they'll sense each other's desperate need to be appreciated and liked. When they get together, they may struggle for leadership, but the experience will supply some well-needed lessons. The shock of living with someone - or being around some- one - as innocently thoughtless, selfish and aggressive as one's self, is sure to soften any battering Ram, although there may be a few scars to show for the les- sons in living thus mastered. Aries hearts always carry more scars than the Rams ever show, or openly discuss. (x)

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? The more you read, the more this pattern begins to make sense. Try to watch the Dark Masters arc, the Agumon-is-kidnapped mini arc, tri., and even Kizuna with this possibility in mind, and you’ll understand what I mean.

Sure, order to accept this theory, you have to understand Yamato as a more atypical reserved / sensitive Aries (influenced by a Cancer Moon, perhaps?) and Taichi as a more “pure” Arien type. Yamato is more like a baby lamb, right? (don’t tell it to his face).

You can make a very strong argument for Leo!Taichi (that was my initial HC as well) or Yamato as almost anything else. I wouldn’t disagree. But why not come up with a fresh perspective to explain these two? 

Oh, and in case you’re curious, their (canon) Japanese Zodiac is also the same: Dragon, the direct equivalent to Aries. 

*

A note about tri.: typing Maki and Daigo seemed straightforward enough. Maki is the stereotypical Scorpio antagonist, and Goggle Boy Daigo’s partner evolved into a literal lion.

I couldn’t resist the idea of making Meiko a Libra, considering her digimon partner is literally the Libra and Meiko is the 9th member of the group. But  personality probably fits other signs better — it’s very tempting to type her a Virgo, the polar opposite of Hikari. She could also be the missing Taurus element (Mei as the literal May Queen). 

The truth is... I can’t decide!

*

Disclaimer: There is zero scientific evidence for astrology and, as far as I’m concerned, it’s only interesting as a tool to analyze fictional characters in symbolic /archetypal terms. My headcanons are based on extensive reading about astrology, its symbolism and psychological profiles; I’m happy to share my sources (they’re not from pop astrology). But I’m also aware of the Barnum effect. We are all biased; there are no right or wrong options. Everyone’s conflicting headcanons are equally valid.

Feel free to ask questions or request more in-depth explanations for my suggestions, but FFS don’t start arguing with me and insisting I’m “wrong” based on other people’s equally subjective and disputable headcanons.

*

BONUS: Sun sign Archetypes / Personality Keywords

Aries

Aries at its best : Brave, assertive, pioneering, quick, determined

Aries on a bad day: Aggressive, hard-headed, selfish, impulsive, impatient, brutal

The Aries archetype : Prince Lancelot, the brave and romantic rock star of King Arthur’s court

The Aries stereotype : The rage-a-holic in the pickup truck who just gave you the finger after cutting you off on the freeway

Gemini

Gemini at its best : Curious, inquisitive, quick witted, communicative, inventive, clever, adaptable

Gemini on a bad day : Verbally cruel, deceptive, disloyal, restless, doesn’t follow through”

“The Gemini archetype : The jester; clever and mischievous, your wit and agility are your best defense

The Gemini stereotype : The meddlesome neighbor, snooping and eavesdropping

Cancer

Cancer at its best : Family-oriented, nurturing, intuitive, domestic, maternal, sensitive, sympathetic, emotional, patriotic, retentive, traditional

Cancer on a bad day : Moody, touchy, oversensitive, negative, manipulative, overly cautious

The Cancer archetype : The universal mother

The Cancer stereotype : The smothering mother

Leo

Leo at its best : Regal, creative, magnetic, performer, generous, inspiring

Leo on a bad day : Vain, domineering, attention seeking, insecure”

The Leo archetype : The benevolent monarch

The Leo stereotype : The shallow playboy or party girl

Virgo

Virgo at its best : Discriminating, thorough, scientific, clean, humane, scientific, analytical

Virgo on a bad day : Picky, critical, petty, self-centered, hypochondriac, gloomy, pedantic

The Virgo archetype : Sherlock Holmes, with his staggering powers of perception and analysis and his earthy tweed jacket

The Virgo stereotype : The quiet, slightly geeky scientist or secretary with horn-rimmed glasses and a repressed manner

Libra

Libra at its best : Refined, artistic, diplomatic, sociable, peace loving, persuasive, just

Libra on a bad day : Fickle, over accommodating, argumentative, indecisive, insincere

The Libra archetype : The diplomat

The Libra stereotype : The gigolo or “kept” man or woman”

Scorpio

Scorpio at its best : Determined, probing, brave, passionate, insightful, empathetic, penetrating, investigative, powerful

Scorpio on a bad day : Jealous, suspicious, sarcastic, secretive, vengeful, manipulative

The Scorpio archetype : The magician, able to transcend the laws of nature to achieve transformation

The Scorpio stereotype : A secret agent, skilled at investigative work and most comfortable working behind the scenes”

Sagittarius

Sagittarius at its best : Philosophical, adventurous, freedom loving, scholarly, funny, honest, athletic, traveler

Sagittarius on a bad day : Crude, blunt, know-it-all, arrogant, superior, intolerant

The Sagittarius archetype : The wayfaring stranger who transforms a community with his knowledge and wisdom before moving on

The Sagittarius stereotype : The clown who trips over his gigantic shoes and throws pies in your face

Capricorn

Capricorn at its best : Responsible, authoritative, traditional, pragmatic, hardworking, economical, serious, mature, ethical

Capricorn on a bad day : Domineering, stubborn, inhibited, unfeeling, fatalistic, judgmental, unforgiving”

“The Capricorn archetype : The wise elder

The Capricorn stereotype : A cranky old man or woman who keeps yelling at kids to “stay off my lawn!”

Aquarius

Aquarius at its best : Independent, genius, iconoclastic, rebellious, logical, scientific, progressive, intellectual, humane

Aquarius on a bad day : Eccentric, temperamental, unpredictable, cold, opinionated, radical”

“The Aquarius archetype : The charismatic rebel who wins over his fellow men by thumbing his nose at authority

The Aquarius stereotype : The mad scientist

Pisces

Pisces at its best : Sympathetic, compassionate, emotional, intuitive, musical, artistic

Pisces on a bad day : Impractical, timid, procrastinator”

The Pisces archetype : The mystic

The Pisces stereotype : The flake

from Kent, April Elliott. “The Essential Guide to Practical Astrology: Everything from zodiac signs to prediction, made easy and entertaining”.

[bentacles-hargreeves]

Remus’ List of Fanfic Favorites - @tuafeedbackfest​ Thank you to all the writers in this amazing fandom who worked hard on making and sharing their stories with us, without you the fandom wouldn’t be the same!

Pre-Series:

Revolving, Evolving, by aye_of_newt (Teen and Up) “For fourteen years, the only constant (living) person in Klaus' life was a staff member at his rehab facility. This is an account of Klaus' story from his eyes.” Complete, 2 Chapters & 3,772 Words.

purge your thoughts, by myeyesarenotblue (Teen and Up) “Klaus is lying unconscious, unmoving, covered in bubbles, his skin a deadly white color, his head lolled back against the rim of the tub, his eyes open but unseeing, his lips oddly discolored. He looks dead.” Oneshot, 10,356 Words.

with the beast inside, there’s nowhere we can hide, by MildeAmasoj (Gen) “Little Number Six is afraid of the Horror. One day he gets sick, which makes the monsters inside him stop wriggling under his skin. He won’t tell anyone because he doesn’t want to get better if it means that the monsters will get better too. His family has something to say about that.” Oneshot, 8,054 Words 🖤

We Only See Each Other at Arrests and Bails, by Icestorm238 (Gen) “Aka the five times Diego picked up Klaus from the police station, and the one time Klaus picked up Diego.” Eudora’s POV, Complete, 6 Chapters & 15,712 Words.

All is Well, by VeteranKlaus (Teen and Up) “It's been one year, and Five still can't get back home.“ Oneshot, 1,459 Words.

Fixing the Apocalypse:

The Moon Laughs (from The Sky Weeps series), by Lady_Origami (Teen and Up) “After attempting to transport all of his siblings back in time, Five wakes up to a familiar scene. Again. And again. And again. He doesn't know why he keeps being transported back to the day of his father's funeral, but he is determined to not waste it now that he has the foresight to prevent the apocalypse. He just wished he didn't feel so alone doing it all over again.” Time-loop, In-Progress, 24/? Chapters & 89,302 Words.

I'm Not Okay (I'm Getting There), by kittykatthetacodemon (Gen) “Between seven adults, even ones as severely damaged as they are, there's got to be at least enough common sense to mimic one semi-functional, competent human. Post-season one, Klaus and his siblings travel around in their own pasts, sort out some of their shit, and relive the week of the apocalypse one last time. This time, they get it right.” Complete, 2 Chapters & 49,739 Words.

I am done with my graceless heart (so tonight I'm gonna cut it out and then restart), by ughbutidontwantto (Teen and Up) “Five's jump only takes them five days before the apocalypse. With the countdown restarted, the Hargreeves have to come together and actually talk about the week that wasn't and figure out what fixing Vanya even means. It turns out she already has a few ideas. They'll figure out this recovery thing in the end.” In-Progress, 3/5 Chapters & 50,494 Words.

you'll be tearing me apart (sooner or later), by SheOfWrittings (Not Rated) “The world ends again. It took longer this time around. This time it's because a junkie was sober and the Hargreeves can only unfuck one sibling per time. (This time they are six vs one and still lose. This time, when they fail, they don't time travel with the bomb.)” In-Progress, 10/30 Chapters & 32,407 Words.

new year, new me (things always turn out how they’re meant to be), by Astronomical_Aphrodite (Explicit) “When they travelled back through time, Klaus wasn’t expecting to be the only one who remembered.“ In-Progress, 18/20 Chapters & 80,770 Words.

Post not-Apocalypse:

Everyone Gets Here Eventually, by anielle (Mature) “At first he thinks it’s a dream, but it’s not long before he realizes that’s not right. If Dave were dreaming, Klaus would be here. It’s okay, though. Everything’s okay here. It’s weird, though, about Klaus. Well, what isn’t weird about Klaus? But. You know. Dave just wants to know. What happened?” Complete, 3 Chapters & 47,855 Words.

Eave of Destruction, by siriuspiggyback (Teen and Up) “After two months post the almost apocalypse, Klaus was feeling pretty proud of how carefully he had maintained his mask of normality around his siblings. He was still fidgety and annoying, sure, but none of them had glimpsed at his fun new brand of fucked.” Oneshot, 5,418 Words.

If You Can't Hear Me, Just Walk Away, by queenbaskerville (Teen and Up) “Klaus's eyes zero in on the Veterans Crisis Line phone number. "Assists Veterans in crisis, even if not registered with the US Department of Veteran Affairs. 24/7. Call/text/chat. 1-800-273-8255 (press 1)." Klaus needs to make a phone call or two. Or four. Or every time he has a flashback, every time he's on the edge and doesn't want Ben to feel like he has to talk him down. The only problem is that he doesn't have a phone. Allison does.” Oneshot, 3,660 Words.

shadowboxing, by Karturtle (karturtle) (Teen and Up) “Klaus is a little distracted during a family meeting. The living room is oddly muggy.” Oneshot, 2,043 Words.

Dear Klaus, by siriuspiggyback (Teen and Up) ““Oh, Klaus, a letter came for you." Klaus reached for the letter, curious, and took a look at the address. His heart skipped a beat. He knew that handwriting. Or, Klaus receives a letter from 1969.” Oneshot, 2,087 Words.

Vietnam:

WIld Eyed Boy, by intheflowers (Not Rated) “Klaus dropped into Dave's life with a flash of blue light. It was the first time Klaus suprised him, but it was far from the last, and while at first he’d wondered if Klaus was maybe a little mad, it wasn’t long before he was certain that he really, definitely was. Not that it mattered much. Klaus had stolen his heart long before then.“ Dave’s POV, Complete, 18 Chapters & 64,414 Words.

Ten Months, by Majure (Mature) “It makes him sad, sometimes, that in order to find acceptance, Klaus has to travel back fifty years into one of the bloodiest wars of American history. Most of the time, he doesn't care. His family probably doesn't even notice he's missing anyway.“ In-Progress, 10/14 Chapters & 122,461 Words. 

Neon Groves, by LiviJoyann (Mature) “Klaus Hargreeves travels back to the Vietnam War and falls in love with Dave... and we've seen almost none of it so far. Enjoy a full following of Klaus's time in 1968 from the first kiss to the first "I love you", and ultimately, to the end (with just about everything in between).” Complete, 30 Chapters &  200,000 Words.

There's a Reason They Don't Make Punching Bags Out of Wood, by anielle (Mature) “It can’t be real. That briefcase, maybe it was like something from a 60s spy caper. Wouldn’t be the craziest thing to happen to him. Maybe it sprayed him with something and has him locked in the most vivid and horrifying hallucination in his drugged out life.“ Oneshot, 4,701 Words.

A Taste of a Poison Paradise, by ObliqueOptimism (Not Rated) “Peter isn’t sure if he can get his men out of the mess they’re in, but Klaus is sure he can help and so Peter is going to have to put his faith in a man who claims he can see the dead.” POV Outsider, Oneshot, 3,716 Words.

[hamliet]

ambitious-witch replied to your post: Its pretty obvious that the show is going with mad...

What pregnancy foreshadowing? I didn’t notice with the horror.

Hi! So, yeah, the whole thing was a sh*tshow, but. Basically, in addition to the literal five Jonerys child foreshadowings we had in season 7, in the past episode we had:

1) Tyrion talking about Dany walking into fire with three stones and emerging with three dragons, thereby reminding the audience--despite the misogynistic context of this conversation--that Dany’s motif is and has always been bringing life from death. In each city she’s traveled to, that’s her motif (it’s def got some white savior implications in how the show did it but narratively, it’s there). I sincerely hope the writers are not stupid enough for us to listen to Varys claim that Jon is literally better because he has a “c*ck” and be like yeah, that’s right! Though they might be and after that episode I don't even know. But Jon needs to be less like Ned and Dany obviously not like Aerys, not that she has been like, at all.

2) Gilly’s pregnancy. As @argentvive has theorized here and I wrote about a bit myself, it’s pretty likely the series plans to stick to its epic fantasy roots which means we can expect a bunch of babies by the end, and the story reminded us that it does plan on doing this with their baby. Not to mention Sam said they’d name it Jon if it was a boy, and Jon responded by saying he hoped it was a girl--implying that clinging to the past is something he knows is a bad thing even if he’s still doing it by acting just like Ned and trusting the wrong people (Sansa). Honestly if there are more babies too I wouldn’t be surprised.

3) Cersei’s foiling with Daenerys. Cersei’s pregnancy was repeatedly emphasized this episode, with Tyrion pleading with her for the sake of her child’s life. I wrote extensively on their foiling here, in which I theorized that like Cersei lost three children and will likely lose her current pregnancy, whether she miscarries or dies pregnant, Dany will lose her three dragons but survive to bear a child. She just lost Rhaegal, so. It’s possible we’d see a pregnancy in the epilogue, but I think it’s more likely that will be a plot point and should be, but we’ll see if the writers are competent enough to set that up because it’d almost certainly have to be next episode if they do. It’d work because it would a) emphasize the Cersei (the true Mad Queen) and Dany foiling, b) set up a way for Jon to get over his squickiness that she’s his aunt because he’s been terrified of having a bastard child, and c) explain Dany’s OOC emotions last episode even better than just “she’s afraid of losing everything.”

Again. This is all counting on the writers being semi-competent, and at least having solid beats of how a story works, but honestly with how things went last episode, I’m not sure. I still think it’s more likely than not, though, and...

(under the cut for potential spoilers PLEASE don’t further if you don’t want spoilers)

last chance to turn back

You’ve been warned.

At this point it’s pretty clear that every leak falls into one of two categories, and it’s almost certain that they at least wrote and quite possibly filmed two endings: the Jon kills Dany one, and the Tyrion betrays everyone one. Several reddit leaks that got ep 4 and ep 3 right list the first one, several reddit and 4Chan leaks that also got ep 3′s Arya twist and ep 4 right support the latter. Additionally, Friki, who has a 100% track record on being accurate about leaks, has stated that he is still confident that Tyrion betrays them and is executed. The former leaks as well do not have coherence on the endgame: some say Bran’s on the throne, some Sansa, some Tyrion, some there’s a council. The latter category of spoilers is pretty consistent in “we don’t know but they’re alive” camp--though, to be clear, Friki stated he did not know but that he thought Jon killing Dany would destroy their arcs (but we’ll see if the writers even have any competence left). The thing to note is that the Tyrion betrayal seems to almost certainly not work with any of the spoilers indicating Jon kills Dany (one tried to splice them together in a laughable way but others were adamant he survives), but again, we could all be the fool because I think Mr. And Mr. “Themes are for eighth grade book reports” (yes they said that) need to repeat eighth grade before writing anything ever again after the absolute trash that was the last episode.

[smiff-faded]

What You Do First After An Automobile Accident?

The angles of the cars at the time of the crash, the seating setting of the vehicle driver and also guests, as well as the direction where the individuals face differs in every single crash. On top of that, speaking to travelers, consuming or driving while driving, and also participating in any task that requires the driver to take their eyes off the road can trigger a casualty. Sleepy driving: While sleepy driving is as hazardous as drunk driving, a sleepy motorist may not be charged with manslaughter unless it is proved that she or he voluntary slept behind the wheel. There are some issues with the data: While the data clearly show a trend towards more secure urban driving, they are manipulated in areas with strong mass transportation. The fact, nonetheless, is that car mishap are really typical, particularly on the hectic roads of St. Louis as well as its surrounding locations. Nevertheless, many traffic fatalities are an accident as well as are classified as uncontrolled automotive wrongful death. Nevertheless, changing shed wages, being able to pay for medical expenses as well as an appropriate funeral are essential to moving on. Syracuse authorities say 51-year-old Jorge Jimenez was a passenger in a black Dodge Battery charger with 3 others when they obviously blew up on a spot of ice and also hit a guardrail before midnight Wednesday on I-690 in Syracuse.

Jimenez was required to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Boeheim struck Jimenez with his GMC Acadia while attempting to avoid the impaired cars and truck, which was relaxing perpendicular on the darkened freeway. Yurisandy Jimenez Arrastre described her dad-- a citizen of Cuba who resided in the United States for twenty years-- as a married man who loved to prepare and also inform jokes. Arrastre informed the paper in Spanish. Jimenez's child informed the Post-Standard he was with close friends getting cigarettes when he was killed. He satisfied his other half, his daughter as well as some buddies for a supper out after the game and also was driving alone from the dining establishment, Fitzpatrick claimed. Onondaga Region District Lawyer William Fitzpatrick claimed he has actually understood Boeheim for 40 years which the coach does not consume alcohol. It is unclear if Boeheim will coach the Orange versus No. 1 Fight it out on Saturday evening. SYRACUSE, N.Y.-- Long time Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim struck and also killed a male along an interstate freeway late Wednesday evening as he tried to prevent hitting the male's impaired lorry, authorities claim. He even utilized his cellphone light to warn various other chauffeurs of the impaired vehicle after the mishap, police claimed.

When 2 or more motorists are associated with a vehicle crash, authorities are called to the scene as well as a mishap record is completed. When a driver operates a lorry drunk of medicines and also creates an automobile mishap that eliminates somebody, the chauffeur can be billed with first-degree uncontrolled automotive murder. Whether or not it calls for an uncontrolled manslaughter fee depends on the details situations of the situation. When a driver is at mistake for causing death through careless or negligent actions, the vehicle driver might be billed with vehicular wrongful death. It looks as if the oncoming driver passed that truck as well as cut back into her lane as well hard, triggering her cars and truck to fishtail and blow up. As you attempt to navigate right into the lane, he will accelerate, triggering an accident with your cars and truck. As long as you will find persistent people in denial on the degree of their intoxication, well never see intoxicated driving with a manageable level. If you desire to send a video clip click "Send Crashes Video clip" as well as see if the video is enabled to be retransmitted with public license and also explain the credit scores of the writers. Video clip link: Auto accident Compilation 2018 HD! A nine-year-old lady was eliminated and the driver of the vehicle she was riding in was detained on suspicion of inebriated driving after a multi-car accident in North San Diego Region on I-5 Monday early morning.

The believed drunk chauffeur suffered minor injuries and was apprehended on suspicion of DUI. The chauffeur of the Dodge experienced minor injuries and the motorist of the Honda was required to a medical facility with modest injuries. An additional male in the group suffered small injuries in the accident, authorities said. This consists of the condition of the roadway, the climate, the time of day, the precise area of the crash, a summary of the other individuals and also automobiles entailed, as well as a description of the accident itself. Those not putting on seat belts commonly had extreme head as well as facial injuries and more severe damages to their breast as well as reduced extremities (this includes the hips, legs as well as feet). These crashes in all likihood were reason in some way by people driving with there direct there back. The unmanageable vehicle then had a vehicle mishap with a Honda CRV, prior to a back end accident with a semi truck. Three various researches (Panjabi, Panjabi as well as Cholewicki as well as Kaneoka) proved the mechanism through which the neck is wounded by a rear influence force. Various other authors have actually disputed these numbers as well as some insurer funded research studies have found the threshold to be closer to 5 mph. When insurer see that a person is stood for by a competent attorney who is actively associated with the prosecution of the situation, the opportunities of an effective result boost significantly.

Prior to assessing the damage to the product, see to it that all that remained in the auto when the accident happened remained in excellent problem. 33 74 percent of fatalities in collisions involving older individuals took place during the daytime. In 2004, of all wrongful fatalities of the youngsters ages 14 as well as more youthful, 21 percent of them were due to DRUNK DRIVING car accidents. It does not aid that drunk-driving-- among the top reasons for vehicle accidents and also wrongful deaths-- is 100 percent preventable. In addition to being in pain, you additionally have the complex and worrisome lawful problems, issues of insurance, and monetary troubles, all looming. If one or more of the events entailed did not have insurance policy at the time of the automobile accident, you must search for a vehicle mishap attorney today. Following the accident, Brandy says she communicated with Aboudiha's enjoyed ones. In our experience, as cars and truck accident lawyers in San Diego, it seems most of the times the intoxicated driver is the one that endures a drunk-driving auto accident, and also innocent individuals are the ones that are eliminated. But if you or an enjoyed one has actually been harmed in a car crash, you need to someone who can defend you, shield your legal rights and also defend what is fair.

[orionsangel86]

which old edlund plot were BL trying to reuse? O_o

Hey! So episode 7x15 Repo Man was an episode written by Ben Edlund in which a man who was formally saved by Sam and Dean from demon possession becomes a serial killer obsessed with bringing back the demon because he cannot live without him.

It was a superb episode was hauntingly dark themes about human nature. It was also chocablock full of dark destiel parallels as this was during the height of Dean’s spiral into alcoholism and depression following Cas’s death.

I would seriously recommend anyone to go back and re-watch this episode (and any other Edlund episodes) and then come back and cry with me at how much of a God he is compared to the absolutely muck dwelling cretins that are Bucklemming. Oh Edlund how I miss you.

So you see, they have completely and utterly ripped him off. This bullshit with Nick and Lucifer is exactly the same as Jeffrey and his demon. Now I know that Dabb tends to like giving us little reminders here and there as a homage to old canon, and I know he tends to recycle old themes in new ways to re-enforce specific subtextual points such as Dean’s daddy issues, Sam’s inner “darkness” and hell connection, and Cas’s obligation to heaven, but I have never seen such a blatant rip off of a former episode before. We have now had two episodes with Nick, and yet Jeffrey had far more character development and believability in his demon bond in the one episode Edlund wrote.

I could probably just be being super bitter because I have made no secret of how much I utterly despise Lucifer and Nick as characters and their actor and want them all off the show for good, but I just find this whole Nick story line to be completely dull and pointless, and yet I found Jeffrey fascinating and terrifying and his complex relationship with his demon was something the show could have easily explored over several episodes rather than just one. 

It’s the kind of deep and troubled psychological story line that only a really talented writer could ever really pull off. Bucklemming don’t even have the skill level of a semi competent first year screenwriting student between them, regardless of their years of experience. It’s just, so disappointing on so many levels.

[fantastic-nonsense]

Thanks for the shout-out! I do have a couple of different metas relevant to your questions, and I'll link them as I try to answer the questions as best I can:

Tim was a little shorter than average as a 13/14 year old, but mostly in the "artists want to make sure people know he's a kid compared to the adults in the room" kind of way. He is noticably a bit shorter than many of his friends, but like @jumbledjupiter pointed out, he's far from absurdly small. I think most character bios pre-New 52 put him around 5'5"-5'7", if I remember right.

I've talked about various Batfam nicknames before here, though mostly in the context of nicknames Dick has for everyone. Someone also helpfully made a slideshow that's more comprehensive (though it's a bit out of date now).

Every single food thing you've probably ever heard about is usually both pure fanon and ridiculously exaggerated. Dick disproportionately loving cereal is no exception.

*crying quietly* No, Tim is not a coffee addict. He's only drunk coffee like four times total in canon and they were all in passing.

On Jason and Austen: no. He was seen reading Pride and Prejudice in prison pre-reboot, but that's the extent of it. He does, however, have a (small) history of quoting various classics, so it technically is rooted in a canon trait...just, as fanon tends to be, wildly disproportionate.

Jason is, however, extremely tidy. The various times we've seen his room and safehouses in canon, they've always been pretty neat.

The "Tim's room is a disaster area" thing is actually true, lol, or at least it was for a long time. While it was usually more "average teenager" than disaster site, as stated above, there were several instances where it was definitely showcased at disaster-level. imo it was an attempt to make him more "relatable," since artists stopped regularly drawing his spaces as disaster areas about the time writers started moving away from depicting Tim as a "normal teenager by day, competent vigilante by night" character (aka, during the Red Robin era).

No. Jason never thought Bruce was a pedophile.

Re: Jason's Titans Tower attack. Okay so canonically he showed up to hurt Tim for the funsies, because he hated (the concept of) Tim and wanted to prove he was better. Bruce technically doesn't actually factor into his hatred of Tim at all; he hates Tim for his own reasons. It's more complicated than that, but it certainly wasn't to try and scare Tim away from being Robin; Jason canonically had no interest in that. However, I think that the meta linked above isn't necessarily telling the full story because it sort of leaves out that the Titans Tower Attack happened well before Jason ever attacked Mia in Green Arrow: Seeing Red. This meta about pre-reboot Jason and Tim might give a bit better context about Jason and Tim specifically rather than just Jason.

BTW If you're more interested about Jason's mindset in general when he first came back to Gotham in Under the Red Hood, my meta here might be more helpful.

No. As stated above, Jason's eyes don't glow green. Also as stated, recurring, semi-permanent Pit Madness is also completely fanon and is not even remotely based in canon. Several Batfamily members have been dunked into Lazarus Pits with no long-term effects on various occasions, and Damian even explicitly states during the Reborn era while fighting a resurrected Bruce clone (sort of) that "any temporary madness would have worn off long ago."

tl;dr being dunked basically causes temporary madness and occasionally uncontrollable rage from a few minutes to a few hours after rebirth, but it's totally gone afterwards. Repeated dunkings over the course of centuries like Ra's has undergone, however, can screw you up.

No comment on Jason dyeing his hair bc it's been covered.

Yes, Dick is considered to be really attractive in-universe. It's actually become highly problematic in recent years because of DC's in-universe and IRL objectification of him as a character; canonically, for a really long time Dick was pretty self-conscious about his looks super uncomfortable with everyone continuously commenting on his looks/butt/etc. As writers and fans keep drawing attention to it, it keeps getting blown up into a much bigger thing than it used to be, and a lot of it is rooted in Devin Grayson's Nightwing run. This is a much larger discussion that honestly deserves its own in-depth response and links to multiple metas, but...yes, Dick is canonically attractive, and while it used to only happen once in a blue moon, characters comment on it fairly regularly now.

*sighs heavily* yes, the "Bruce cutting Jason's throat with a batarang" incident happened, at the end of Under the Red Hood. It's been discussed several times before by various people, though I can't find the particular meta I wanted to link at the moment; there's also been some really fun theory posts about how Jason died again at the end of UTRH, though not from the throat slice (hence why the final page of the arc's final issue is infamously left out of the trade edition, since it basically states that Jason died again in the building explosion he rigged). Basically...as stated above, Jason wasn't originally meant to survive outside of the context of that one story and editorial were giving themselves an out if his resurrection proved to be unpopular; since it was wildly successful, Jason instead showed up in the Nightwing book out of the blue about a year later, perfectly fine.

Yes, Damian tried to kill Tim a couple of times; no, the Batfam was not chill with it. The Damian-Tim drama is incredibly complicated (Tim and Damian are both right and wrong, basically) and a lot of people either don't know or refuse to acknowledge the full context. I've talked about it here and here (and...technically here, through the lens of Dick and Tim), if you're interested.

Zitka the stuffed elephant is fanon (though a rather sweet addition); Zitka the actual elephant is canon. We've seen Kid!Dick with a teddy bear before, though, and we know he and Babs both have a variety of Batman/Nightwing/Batgirl plushies!

That was...long, but I hope informative?

Batfam Fanon vs Canon Questions

Hey guys! I’ve really been getting into the batfam, but still need to get into the canon material. Until I do though, I had some questions about what is canon and what is fanon?

Is Tim actually tiny for his age? I read him described as being tiny for age/looking exceptionally young for his age and was wondering if this is canon.

“Dickiebird” “Jaybird” “Little wing” “Big bird” “Timbo/Timmers/Timbits/Timtam/Timbuktu” “Replacement” “Baby bat” “Baby bird” Are these canon nicknames?

Dick loves cereal a disproportionate amount.

Tim is a coffee addict.

Jason loves Jane Austen the Most.

Jason is extremely tidy.

Tim’s room is a disaster site.

Did Jason actually think Bruce was a pedophile when he first took Jason home?

Did Jason attack Tim at Titan Tower to hurt Bruce, but also to “show Tim how dangerous it is to be Robin” and try to scare him away from it? Or did he canonically show up to kill Tim/torture him just for the funsies?

Do Jason’s eyes ACTUALLY glow green?

Is Dick actually canonically considered to be just like, absurdly attractive?

Jason didn’t actually have to dye his hair black to be Robin right? That’s just a funny haha joke someone made once right?

Did Bruce LEGIT cut Jay’s throat and leave him for dead to save the Joker? Is that an actual thing that actually happened in the actual canon timeline???????

Did Damian actually try to kill Tim several times and the Bat was just like, chill with that?

Dick has a stuffed elephant named Zitka, named after an elephant at Haly’s Circus.

Okay that’s all the questions I have for now. But if anyone has any answers I’d much appreciate it!

[brood-mother]

heavy rain had three (3) solid concepts:

- dad who doesn’t know if he’s staged his own son’s kidnapping bc he’s struggling w blackouts and severe trauma from an accident that killed his other son and is subconsciously punishing himself/forcing him to “prove” he’s actually a good dad

- old gruff-with-heart-of-gold PI that appears to be trying to solve a gruesome crime he’s overinvested in...because he’s actually the killer and he’s “finding” clues and leads so he can destroy/hide them

- over-achieving fbi agent-type who is over-reliant on a mix of drugs and high-tech equipment, who has to balance both to solve the crime bc he’s too addicted to give it up (and might even die) but will literally go insane if he over-uses 

and then proceeded to SHIT THE BED on the execution of all of them so badly the entire game was hot garbage and the more i think about it the more it makes me mad especially since he did the EXACT SAME THING w dbh (three solid concepts he failed to deliver on) and basically i’ve come to the conclusion henceforth david cage is only allowed to brainstorm ideas then he has to immediately hand them over to a semi-competent writer before he ruins it.