#standard issue priest

[mendely]

single-celled organisms

[wickworks]

Lancer Tactics dialogue layout crisis of faith

(from this month's backer update)

Every so often, I'll run into something in development that eats away at me until it pushes me to a crisis of faith and I have a breakdown, burn down a bunch of work, and build something better from the ashes. These are moments of transformation and we're almost always able to come out the other side with something much better than what we started with.

This all sounds very dramatic until you take a step back and see the issue in question is just, like, the layout of a menu. But if medieval priests were able to have schisms over angels on pins I can have strong feelings about graphic design, dammit!

This month's episode revolved around how we're doing character dialogue. For reference the plan was to do a standard 4-slot visual-novel talking heads layout. I call it a 4-slot because there's usually four positions that characters can stand; two on the left, two on the right:

I had it ingame, and it was working. But... something felt off. Do you see the difference between every one of the above examples and this?

It's all about perspective, baby.

Answer: all the character art in those examples are drawn at a slight angle so they can be flipped back and forth to be made like they're looking at each other.

Trying to do this with the perspective we chose early — straight on — makes for a chorus line of weirdos who are looking directly into your soul as they ostensibly chat with each other. Credulity is strained; the illusion of these puppets interacting in the same space is paper-thin.

(I was skeptical of choosing this perspective for this reason, but we ultimately went with it to make the customizable assets in the portrait maker easier to fit together)

We tried a bunch of different layouts, but they all at least one of these problems:

they'd stare into your soul while ostensibly directing comments elsewhere.

they felt like text messages; this would be fine if that's what we were going for, but we wanted something that could represent face-to-face conversations. (Tactical Breach Wizards was able to pull this style off because they had little 3D dioramas to go along with it)

or, most damning of all, they felt like zoom calls.

So, my heart aflutter and spirit in want, I spent a day doing a research dive into various dialogue layouts (bless the Game UI Database!) to see if any other games had managed to pull this character art perspective off. I ended up with this massive non-chronological taxonomic tree:

(fullsize here)

The type of layout that particularly caught my eye was this style where each character had their own little box. These layouts borrow a concept from comic books called "closure" where the space and time between characters are left blank. Freed from the constraints of trying to simulate a single space, these layouts allow the reader to fill in the blanks with something that feels more true-to-life than anything we'd be able to render ourselves.

I was especially impressed with the dynamism of Tales of Symphonia and The World Ends With You; rather than sticking to single slots they would animate the entire panels moving around to indicate motion an relative position of characters.

So we threw out the old code and copied them. Here's what we've come up with:

We'll be able to have portraits interact, like smacking each other (I felt like a kid hitting two action figures together, lol)

We can also apply effects like princess-leia-holograms and full-screen "lighting" effects like warning banners:

Carpenter and I came up with a number of arrangements that the portraits can smoothly transition between:

I've also implemented support for choices during a dialogue, potentially leading to branching paths.

Overall, I feel SO much better about this system than our initial designs. It might feel a little more cartoony, but I think we're making a cartoony game so that's not a problem.

Whew. We bit a lot off to chew with this project. I feel like I just made a second visual novel game engine inside of the first. Fingers crossed that it all ends up worth it.

[quitealotofsodapop]

Did Tripitaka ever experience the heat of a tiger? It sure was confusing for him. Humans do not have mating seasons (we look for love when we want but this is not the case with animals).

It must have been difficult for him, especially around Azure. Did Tripitaka come to consider Azure as a potential mate during a time of mating?

OK this is nsft territory so be warned!

Tripitaka is an interesting character to analyze since he's supposed to represent The Ideal™ buddhist monk for his adhereance to the rules... but he's never known anything else really. He was raised in a monastery, and very soon after becoming a priest (and solving his dad's murder + losing his mom), got sent on the mission for the scriptures. Would he be as dilligently a buddhist if his parents had not undergone such tragedies?

Tripitaka never approaches sexuality in Jttw (his own or others) because in Buddhist belief; sexuality is considered a "worldly attraction" like vanity or pride. Same reason the book never has him eat meat, whether for survival or unintentional (like in the Spider Sisters arc). It blemishes his perfect record.

But since the Tiger Monk au has Tripitaka in a situation where he honestly can't uphold the very human standards of buddhism...

Our boy fighting some biological demons rn.

My idea of Tripitaka is that he's mostly on the aro-ace spectrum, but seriously questions his sexuality over the course of the Journey. Seeing hot demons and celestials of many genders does that to a sheltered religious guy.

Combine that with a tiger's seasonal heat, and you got a monk frothing at the mouth, trying to keep himself from acting reckless.

Tigers go into seasonal "heat" every 3-9 weeks depending on the individual. Anyone whos met an unfixed cat or heard a cougar sounding like someone being murdered will know that these mfs make sure that you know about it. Tigers in particular have a deep "Meow" sound they broadcast to find mates. They even have "first dates" to get to know each other. Example.

Tripitaka feels weird one day and subconsciously makes a deep meow sound - scaring the whole gang. Wukong is immediately is putting a bicycle lock on that cassock!

I feel even when pushed to the brink of his urges, Tripitaka wouldn't be comfortable "going all the way" unless its literally someone he wants to stay with for the rest of their near-immortal lives.

Also his disciples are off-limits; the mentor-disciple bond is too precious to him to risk over a selfish urge.

But, Azure Lion offers an opportunity. He's a fellow feline demon with a similar Buddhist background who understands Tripitaka's moral conflict weighing his desires over his faith. He isn't the monk's superior or inferior, so no issue of power imbalances.

Tripitaka needs a moment to think. And to draft a diagram of pros and cons.

If these two ever did do "The Deed" (or just 3rd base)...

Macaque would be the first to know. And he'd be howling with laughter. XD At least until Azure threatens to tell the others why Macaque was in Wukong's room that very same night. Mutual glaring ensues.

And ofc Azure would be seconds away from being skinned alive by a quartet of the tiger's super-protective pilgrim brothers the very second of the them sniffs Tripitaka the next morning.

Peng would still brag in Azure's place as you can imagine - lion done pulled a baddie on insane difficulty. Yellow Tusk would shake his head in disapproval, but would also be a little impressed.

[skaldish]

People who say Loki isn't real because there's no evidence he was worshiped are really annoying. How do I rebuttal?

By understanding this is not a proper argument to begin with.

This argument in its entirety typically goes something like this:

Loki isn't a god because he wasn't worshipped in ancient times. If he was, he would have had locations named after him (place-names), people carrying his namesake, and the presence of a cult following. Since Loki wasn't a god in pre-Christian Norse society, it would be inappropriate to consider him one now.

The origins of this argument are Asatru Folk Assembly. The full argument made by Stephen McNallen goes like this:

There was no devotion given to Loki in ancient times. No place-names marked ritual sites for him; no human bore names related to him; there were no priests or priestesses of Loki. Some modern practitioners of Asatru have apparently considered this an oversight, and one occasionally hears toasts to Loki at Asatru gatherings today. However, I strongly discourage this in the Asatru Folk assembly, and I do not permit horns to be raised to him in my presence. My experience is that Loki-toasts are followed by discord all-around bad luck.

Believe it or not, this is not a valid argument.

Logical argumentation is a kind of math, and an argument will always be invalid if it follows an invalid formula, no matter how true its predicates are.

Here's an example:

Some people are pagans, and some pagans are white nationalists. Therefore, some people are white nationalists.

This is an invalid argument because it follows an invalid formula. We can see this by reframing it:

Some people are herbivores, and some herbivores are deer. Therefore, some people are deer.

The "Loki wasn't worshipped" argument is riddled with these kinds of flaws, and not just ones that follow this particular formula. There's also issues of rocky facts, unfair standards, and general argumentative fallacies:

Heimdallr also doesn't have place-names, and is considered a god.

The absence of developed, structured cultus is not the litmus test of "worship" within the context of Old Norse religions.

The argument is predicated on the idea that the Old Norse people conceptualized "gods" the same way that the Greeks and the Romans did, in that this term applies only to high beings with widespread followings.

Same applies to how the Old Norse people conceptualized "worship." We have no idea how they defined it.

The argument's evidence does not consider all possible data, i.e. attestations found in extant Scandinavian oral traditions.

I can go on, but basically the argument is predicated on assuming the Old Norse people did polytheism according to what we think polytheism should look like.

But honestly? All of this actually doesn't matter, because the ultimate goal of this argument isn't to win the debate of whether Loki's a god or not.

It's to get people to associate "Loki's followers" with "degenerate behavior."

By painting Loki-worship as both factually incorrect AND superstitiously unlucky, it implies that anyone worshipping Loki is not right in the head somehow; that the can't think or reason correctly.

Many of Loki's followers correlate with the political and social Left. They're often queer/gnc and/or neurodivergent, and support socialist policies and rejection tradition. If worshiping Loki is deemed irrational and dangerous, then it stands to reason that these things are also irrational and dangerous, and therefore all of this must be a sign of degeneracy. Or so the argument would suggest.

The fallacies in the argument are there by design, because that is how cryptofascist writers radicalize reasonable people.

The best way you refute these arguments is to deny them a platform. Delete them from your inbox. That doesn't mean you have to ignore them though. You can always speak up about them on your own time. Personally, I try to make sure that whatever it is I bring up about them will be useful to the community at large, as opposed to being an angry hate-letter to those provoking conflict. (It's a philosophy I use regardless of what the motivations of an issue are, simply because devoting my attention to the community makes for a better online experience and is ultimately more effective in the long-run.)

[yamayuandadu]

Hey, I just got done reading your amazing write up about Nanaya. I honestly didn’t expect to find the best information yet on Tumblr! I did have one question though: given that Nanaya was heavily influenced by Inanna/Ishtar, do we have any information concerning whether her cult had similarly third gender/gender non-conforming parts of its clergy?

Gala (Akkadian kalû) are mentioned among Nanaya's clergy in Kish (during the reign of Ammi-ditana; Drenowska-Rymarz, The Mesopotamian Goddess Nanaya, p. 67), in Larsa (during the reign of Rim-Sin I; p. 69), and in Uruk (historical note in an inscription of Simbar-Shipak from Nippur; p. 70). Pretty sure only Borsippa is missing out of her major cult centers. Given that the evidence pertaining to clergy of Nanaya is relatively sparse overall, especially before the first millennium BCE, it seems safe to say it was a fairly common phenomenon. However, as gala were by no means "priests of Inanna" as commonly incorrectly claimed online, and their much debated gender identity had nothing to do with Inanna (as they also occur in the cults of deities who were essentially paragons of gender conformity; plus even when ambiguity occurs in the case of Inanna, it's not really making her identity gala-like... in fact, other than Lumha no deity is really described as a gala - and Lumha was essentially a personification of the profession), I feel the question is a bit misguided. Gala were professional lamenters, and not really any less common than ritual purificators or temple scribes. Any deity major enough to have multiple types of specialists attached to their temples had gala. They were a core part of the religious landscape of Mesopotamia basically to the same degree as the āšipu, and by the first millennium BCE these two specialized priestly professions are in fact often mentioned side by side (Uri Gabbay, The kalû Priest and kalûtu Literature in Assyria, p. 116). With that in mind, it's safe to assume the presence of gala in the cult of Nanaya has nothing to do with association with Inanna, all it shows is that she was worshiped commonly enough to warrant the existence of multiple types of clergy in multiple cities. To further demonstrate that gala were a class of clergy like any other as opposed to "priests of Inanna": Ninurta's cult involved gala (Wolfgang Heimpel, Balang Gods, p. 583; "chief gala" mentioned among the staff of Eshumesha in Nippur alongside a "chief singer"), as did Ninazu's (Paul-Alain Beauieu, Remarks on Theophoric Names in the Late Babylonian Archives from Ur, p. 170; influential enough for the name to be spelled in emesal as standard in late sources), or Nanshe's (Gebhard J. Selz, Untersuchungen zur Götterwelt des altsumerischen Staates von Lagaš, p. 205-206 discusses members of Nanshe's clergy in ED Lagash); even the late invention of an "antiquarian" cult of Anu involved gala (Julia Krul, The Revival of the Anu Cult and the Nocturnal Fire Ceremony at Late Babylonian Uruk, p. 31), the examples keep piling up. It's also worth noting even the arts of the gala were believed to be an invention of Ea (Uri Gabbay, The kalû Priest and kalûtu Literature in Assyria, p. 116), same as most other professions. I think connecting Inanna's gender nonconformity (which occurs primarily in association with her military role) or occasional ambiguity (which is best attested in astronomical context) with the presence of gala in her cult is an issue in itself (even without going into the mess that is the common trend of connecting gala with the sexual aspect of Inanna specifically, for no particularly strong reason) but I will cover these matters (and more) in a separate long post soon.

[13lunarstar]

About Varnas

Let's dive deeper into some other interesting concepts used in Jyotish. One of them is called Varna or social class or categories that define the roles, responsibilities, and duties of individuals. These Varnas are not merely occupational classifications but also represent a framework for understanding the inherent qualities and purposes of individuals within the larger social hierarchy. Traditionally, different varnas are associated with different natural elements.

4 CLASSIC TYPES OF VARNAS (FROM THE HIGHEST TO LOWEST)

Brahmins ( the priests and people of higher knowledge - water element)

Kshatriyas (the warriors - fire element)

Vaishyas (the merchants - earth element)

Shudras ( the servants - air element)

Note: this classification is a classic one, created in ancient times when the highest hierarchy included the priests, doctors, teachers and occultists, in other words, people who had access to secret knowledge, which wasn't accessible to simple people. Historically, the Varna system has faced criticism, especially with the emergence of the caste system, which imposed rigid and often discriminatory practices. Nowadays, this classification looks different due to modern occupations, however, the core meaning and order remain the same- from water to air elements, from brahmins being on the top of the classification to shudras at the bottom.

Brahmins (water)

Role: Brahmins are the spiritual leaders, priests, and scholars of society. They are considered the highest Varna and are responsible for preserving and disseminating sacred knowledge.

Qualities: they are typically characterized by wisdom, knowledge, and a commitment to spiritual practices. Brahmins are seen as guardians of the Vedas (sacred texts) and are often involved in rituals, education, and guiding others on spiritual paths.

Duties: their primary duties (dharma) include performing religious ceremonies, teaching the scriptures, and providing counsel on spiritual matters. They also play a crucial role in upholding ethical standards and guiding society in moral and philosophical issues.

Occupations: common occupations include priests, those who are involved in medicine and healing, scholars, educators, spiritual leaders, and astrologers.

Element: water, representing the depth of the personality, wisdom and sacred knowledge

Kshatriyas (fire)

Role: Kshatriyas are the warrior and the second ruling class, responsible for protection, governance, and maintaining law and order in society.

Qualities: they embody bravery, leadership, and a sense of duty. Kshatriyas are seen as protectors of the realm and upholders of justice.

Duties: their right activities involve protecting the people, engaging in warfare when necessary, and governing with integrity and fairness. They are responsible for ensuring the safety and prosperity of the community.

Occupations: common occupations include kings, military leaders, politicians, state officers, surgeons, sportsmen, business people managing large corporations, law enforcement officials.

Element: fire, representing action, protection, dominance and power

Vaishyas (earth)

Role: Vaishyas are the merchant and agricultural class, responsible for trade, commerce, and economic activities that support society.

Qualities: they are characterized by resourcefulness, creativity, and entrepreneurship. Vaishyas play a vital role in managing wealth and resources for the community.

Duties: their activities involve engaging in agriculture, trade, marketing, sales and administration, as well as ensuring the availability of goods and services. They contribute to the economic development of society.

Occupations: common occupations include farmers, traders, merchants, middle business owners, entrepreneurs and administrators.

Element: earth, representing stability, groundedness, material resourcefulness and support

Shudras (air)

Role: Shudras are the labouring class, responsible for service and entertainment-oriented roles that support the other three Varnas.

Qualities: they embody qualities such as humility, diligence, ability to work with routines and practicality. Shudras provide essential services and labour that facilitate the functioning of society.

Duties: Their activities involve performing various forms of labour, craftsmanship, maintenance and service work. They serve the needs of the other three Varnas and contribute to societal stability.

Occupations: common occupations include artisans, labourers, people involved in construction, service providers, craftsmen, actors, singers, people involved in beauty industry and arts.

Element: air, representing an easy-going and service-oriented attitude, communication and dexterity.

Conceptual Framework of Varna

The Varna system is often viewed through the lens of guna (qualities) and karma (action). Each Varna corresponds to different qualities:

Brahmins are associated with sattva (purity and knowledge).

Kshatriyas are linked to rajas (action and passion).

Vaishyas are connected with rajas as well but with a focus on material and economic pursuits.

Shudras embody tamas (inertia and stability) but are essential for societal functions.

The importance of Varnas from the astrological point of view

Understanding one's Varna is important to determine the general psychological portrait of a person when analyzing a chart. The predominance of certain elements can give insights into the temper and potential of a person that he or she can strengthen further or those elements he or she simply lacks. Especially it is beneficial knowledge when it comes to questions of changing or identifying the best suitable professional domains, societal occupations and in general, life trajectory. Quite often, individuals have mixed results meaning that they have a certain percentage of each or almost each element.

Typically, the prevailing Varna is calculated by analyzing the elements of the planets and planetary strengths. The more planets in a certain element a person has, the more predominant a certain Varna is.

In short, Brahmins are Jupiter and Venus;

Ksatriyas are Sun and Mars;

Vaishyas are Moon and Mercury

Shudra is Saturn

Rahu and Ketu are not included in Varna calculation

Another reason to learn one's Varna

"...For twenty years a person is engaged in some activity, for example, reading Roman law, and on the twenty-first – suddenly it turns out that Roman law has nothing to do with it, that he does not even understand it and does not like it, but in fact he is a subtle gardener and burns with love for flowers. This happens, one must assume, from the imperfection of our social system, in which very often people get to their place only at the end of life." (с) Mikhail Bulgakov

DM me if you want to find your Varna, I will calculate for you and will give you personal recommendations

[akatharton]

now that i've thought about it for a little bit, i think i can articulate why forsaken fell flat for me. major spoilers ahead, obviously.

i had a lot of issues with the way bowden characterized haytham, tbh. an advantage of writing in first person POV is that it allows you to really get into a character's head and dissect whatever it is that makes them tick, but haytham comes off like a disinterested bystander in his own life for much of this book. it's most apparent in the earlier parts--like, i really can't suspend my disbelief enough to buy that any child would be able to sit down and write a dispassionate play-by-play of their father's murder shortly after witnessing it. yes, haytham is emotionally closed-off even by 18th century british guy standards, but i didn't get the impression that bowden intentionally wrote him as a character who represses his emotions to avoid dealing with pain--honestly, he just seems kind of bored.

this is made worse by the fact that a lot of important character moments happen offscreen or are breezed through haphazardly. to give an example--around halfway through the book, haytham witnesses braddock's troops massacre a group of dutch civilians. this is presented as a major turning point for his character, as his disgust and horror at the experience prompt him to question his (up until that point) rather insouciant attitude towards violence. you would think that we, as the audience, would get to witness this scene and be privy to our protagonist's thoughts and reactions during what is ostensibly a very traumatic moment for him. yeah lol no. we only hear about it secondhand when haytham relays his falling-out with braddock to birch. but we do get around 50 pages of him chasing a bunch of mercenaries through the black forest in a plot thread that ends up leading nowhere and getting unceremoniously dropped.

to give bowden due credit, older haytham seems much more like a fully realized character than his younger self, though as a sad middle-aged man enjoyer i may be biased. i love how jaded and bitter he is, though it's frustrating how the story never really goes into why he no longer believes that any sort of detente between assassins and templars is possible. his reflections on his relationship with connor are probably the strongest part of the book, and some of their interactions--like the scene where he saves connor from execution--are, imo, better than what we got in the game. that said, i really cannot wrap my head around some of the retcons, with the most egregious being the scene in which haytham finds out about ziio's death from connor. in bowden's version, he already knows that washington murdered ziio and is faking his reaction for... gaslight girboss reasons, i guess? (side note: his dumb ass is not that good of an actor.) just a baffling authorial choice. that scene was hugely important for both characters and one of the few times in the game that we get to see haytham genuinely panicked and unguarded, but god forbid you ever include drama and emotional gravitas in your story, i guess? can't distract from the important stuff, like uh... *checks notes* haytham strangling a guy with his thighs and burning a bunch of coptic priests alive for chopping his valet's dick off.

[bb-fennelposting]

MEET THE BLOGGER - MOSSWISP

(featuring Mistah Bonefall, who I held hostage one time.)

Mosswisp ('Pafumsaisi' in Clanmew) is a SkyClan warrior known for being absorbed in her hobbies. She loves arts and crafts, as well as learning new things about cultures and cuisines. Generally, she's very socially awkward and is a bit of a clown, but her jokes are well-received by clanmates and her crafting skills are invaluable to SkyClan.

Miscellaneous info under the cut!

Mosswisp was named for both the peculiar markings on her legs and her crafting abilities with silk and twine.

She has some odd interests, including Twolegs and burial rites.

Terrible hunter and only a decent fighter. She's a bit self-conscious about this, so she tries to "compensate" for this with her crafting abilities.

Born a molly and generally identifies as one, but she also really vibes with being a gib. Ironically, she's very butch/tom-like (at least by Forest Four standards). Uses she/they pronouns.

(whether she publicly identifies as a gib or not depends on if Skyclan's perception of gender and transitioning differs from the Forest Four's)

The mark on her chest is meant to vaguely resemble the triple moon symbol.

Is surprisingly spiritual for someone who seems like a goofy oddball. Very devoted to her ancestors and does her best to foster a close relationship with them. I imagine she'd invoke Skywatcher often.

Many cats wonder why she didn't decide to train as a Cleric, since she often has such strong ties to the supernatural.

The answer is that she hates learning about medicine and doesn't want that level of power and responsibility lmfao.

I want to make her a sort-of afficionado of kitty witchcraft (as an actual practitioner), but idk if SkyClan/Skypelt has the same taboo towards those lmfao. Either way, she had the makings of a priest, but shes a girlie who just wants to make stuff lmfao.

Very fond of Twoleg hats. If she gets her paws on one, she'll keep it and wear it to Gatherings and public events.

Also very fond of food, especially Twoleg food. She's crazy about butter, and will gleefully join raids just to get a chance to nab a stick lol. She likes eggs and sweet foods as well. Enjoys ThunderClan's foods the best out of the other clans'.

Is extremely curious about the culture of the Forest Four, but at the same time, she has a general disdain for the cats there. She hates how violent and bigoted many Clan cats tend to be, and thinks their code is very harsh. She particularly dislikes ShadowClan they were mean to her one time :'( due to not vibing with their particular Brand of humor. Also cannot stand their food, but in typical SkyClan fashion, she's very polite about declining.

Struggles with self-esteem issues and anxiety, but receives medication for the latter.

Likes to weave trinkets/clothing of silk for loved ones during special events.

[lemotmo]

Ooof that finale was…..not it. Like my first issue was they for some reason let Kristen write it. I honestly thought we were free of her with the move to abc but alas apparently not. And she very much made her presence known with how off the finale felt in terms of pacing and just how ooc some of them felt at times. Not to mention the continuing saga of her former reign in making Buck an over sexualized character by turning his dad trauma into a way for Tommy to make jr into a daddy kink joke which was just…. No thanks. Otherwise it just was such a….lackluster finale? And I found myself bored at moments.

And then the season over all I’m left wondering what was the point of half of it ? Like Bathena didn’t get to enjoy their honeymoon. They have no house now. The Amir plot which while I loved the character, ultimately led to nothing? The cartel storyline didn’t need to happen and bringing them back was boring. Bobby being dead for 14 minutes and coming into the station at the end perfectly fine was such a wtf moment even for tv standards.

Henren didn’t get to adopt their baby. They got a foster daughter instead only to then….lose her ? And have her be given to Madney instead for them to visit like truly this was just drama for drama sake and ultimately pointless pain for them.

Madneys wedding got rushed and ultimately turned into a 2 minute hospital room scene. We didn’t even get to see ant build up to the wedding.

Buck: He came out as bi which yesssss 🎉🎉🎉 only to then immediately be forced back into his hamster wheel, stuck in yet another relationship with someone who doesn’t seem to even like him, and is rude to him. And then turned into essentially a background character the rest of the season. I truly feel bad for Oliver because he was so so so excited for bi buck, and so happy and hopeful they would do it right and with respect and not over sexualize it and this is what he gets. A boring rude generic LI making daddy kink jokes and no real development into this part of himself. It’s truly no surprise he did nothing to promote that relationship or this finale.

Eddie and Chris. We hardly saw Chris. And then the way they rushed him leaving at the very end was so… not it. Not to mention so out of sorts for him? Like we have seen when he’s mad at Eddie he always goes to Buck. But this time he calls his grandparents at 2 am and asks them to come rake him to Texas indefinitely? Then the Buck Chris talk. I love their scenes together but even it felt off? And then they systematically undid any progress with Eddie’s parents with Helena often coming off filled with glee over it, and Ramon taking his own guilt in Eddie to make him accept it. Then we have Eddie himself. What was the point of Marisol? There doesn’t seem to be one. And why we had to suffer Edy all season remains a mystery since Tim said she came back because he didn’t want two off screen breakups. Only to then do two off screen breakups. What was the point of Kim? I had hopes they would actually use her to move Eddie along and then they just…didn’t? Even Ryan said he thinks all she did was make it worse.

I will give the show credit because they did stick to the try for buddie scene in every episode. And they had some good scenes. Ryan and Oliver knocked their scenes out in the finale especially but once again we are at the finale and it’s left in a…. Now what ? No real movement forward. Once again all of us going oh next season for sure! And no real clear path toward it. and based on Ryan’s interviews tonight, where it once again sounds like they have no idea what to do with Eddie next season due to the vast amount of directions they seem to want to take him, including apparently Ryan saying in one of them that Tim seems to want to lean more into the Bobby Eddie similarities next season and have Eddie focus a lot more on religion, but Ryan does say he doesn’t think Eddie will become a priest. But still it’s just like… what are we doing. It’s given more we don’t wanna say yes to Buddie and follow the clear narrative direction butttttttt we want the views sooooo let’s make it open ended enough to draw them in. Again.

They said at the start they were going to give, or try to give the fans what they wanted this season and truly, I’m utterly baffled how anyone thought any of this is what we wanted. Like we wanted Henren to get their baby. Madney to have the best wedding. Bathena to thrive and get their honeymoon and have some adventures. Buddie to become buddie and enjoy the Buckley Diaz family in an official capacity. And instead we got circles upon circles with lazy choices taken where they could and next to no real character growth or movement. I’m so sorry for how long this got 😅😅😅

Oh Nonny, how I agree with everything you said here. You get me.

I just posted my episode review and most of the things I talked about are the same things you highlighted.

It was written by Kristen? Ah, that explains a lot actually.

I didn't mind the Diaz parents though. I really do think they were trying to help out in their own way. But all the rest of this post? YEEEES!!!!

I can still see the Buddie of it. I'm still hanging in there. There were too many strange choices made in season 7 to make me believe that Buddie isn't going to happen in season 8. Not to mention the amazing chemistry between Buddie compared to whatever it is they are trying to show us with BT. However, they are on thin ice here. I agree. Things need to start moving along. If not... after season 8 I will retreat to my little nook of Tumblr living off good Buddie fan fiction.

I didn't read any of the Ryan interviews yet. Him leaning into religion and the parallel with Bobby I did see coming. The prayer book was too obvious. I wonder why they had 6 interviews lined up with Ryan over this episode? I get that his storyline is important, but it doesn't warrant 6 interviews, not even the religious aspect of it. I'm going to read some of them today to try and get a clearer image.

I just feel like all of my beloved 911 characters don't have any clear direction at this point. I was surely hoping for some more insight, but all we got was superficial storytelling and no real breakthroughs for anyone.

I don't understand what all those journalists that screened this episode were talking about when they said they saw clear directions for season 8. For me it is the opposite at this point. Where are they taking all of this???

[nutty1005]

Actor of the Year, Xiao Zhan: Interpret Every Role Carefully

Original Article: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/P–3yUvcmaUjWlTi3mnC8w This article is published by Blogger World 博客天下 Weixin. This is also part of the article published in Blogger World 《博客天下》 2024 1st Issue.

This year, Xiao Zhan switched roles between era dramas, fantasy dramas, and workplace dramas, delicately handling the complexity of the characters, creating a layered sense of these characters, and allowing the audience to see more of him as an actor. He never set limits on his performances, his standard for judging characters is to make him fall in love with them. He relied on emotional resonance, observation and feeling, understanding them and becoming them, which made his work real and vivid. For a long time, he had always adhered to his original intention as an actor, hoping that he could give back to the audience with more and better works, and deliver more positive energy through his own actions.

In 2023, people saw more sides to actor Xiao Zhan.

In “Where Dreams Begin / The Youth Memories”, he was Xiao Chunsheng, a youth from Beijing. He was sincere and brave, firm and kind, and he pursued his dreams steadfastly despite the ups and downs of fate. The 30-year time span in the drama made many viewers realize that Xiao Zhan, who had a strong youthful temperament, was also able to interpret middle adulthood characters with ease.

In “The Longest Promise”, he was the cold and aloof Grand Priest Shi Ying, the top magic user of Yunhuang, but he also had a complicated and heavy past, he had experienced the entanglements of love and hate in the world, had experienced strong greed, anger, obsession and resentment, and eventually cultivated a heart of justice. Through Shi Ying, the audience once again felt Xiao Zhan’s interpretation of the complexity and layering of characters.

In “Sunshine By My Side”, he was Sheng Yang, a newcomer who has just entered the workplace. He was sunny and cheerful, and had a firm love for the advertising industry. Even if he was suppressed by his supervisors, he would grit his teeth and fight on. Xiao Zhan delicately integrated the idealistic enthusiasm and the roughness tempered by life, the result was three-dimensional and moving.

This year, Xiao Zhan had been constantly switching roles between period dramas, fantasy dramas, and workplace dramas, and had been active in the public eye. Watching the different lives he performed on the screen, the audience began to realize that Xiao Zhan, who had been in the industry for 8 years, had unknowingly become a mature actor capable of various types of roles.

Looking back on 2023, Xiao Zhan believed that this was a fulfilling and rewarding year. His goal had always been to let everyone see his progress and changes through each work, so that his performance could be recognized by the audience.

Following the light of his ideal, his steps never stopped moving forward.

01 Becoming Them

On the road to acting, Xiao Zhan had always been trying to find more possibilities.

When he met Xiao Chunsheng, he was at the stage where he wanted to challenge more new roles. After getting the script of “Where Dreams Begin / The Youth Memories”, he was quickly attracted to this drama, which was rooted in the 1970s, and moved by the grand story with a time span of 30 years..

On the one hand, Xiao Chunsheng’s sincerity, passion, and friendship deeply attracted him; on the other hand, Xiao Zhan also grew up in the factory area when he was a child, the life and neighborly feelings Xiao Chunsheng experienced had a strong sense of familiarity to Xiao Zhan, which made him resonate to a great extent with Xiao Chunsheng’s choices in family, love, and career.

But aside to resonance, there were also practical problems facing Xiao Zhan: he grew up in Chongqing, whereas Xiao Chunsheng was an authentic Beijinger. How could he grasp the essence of Beijing dialect and capture Xiao Chunsheng’s spiritual temperament? For this reason, Xiao Zhan hired a line teacher before joining the group and spent a long time learning Beijing dialect. In his free time, he would go to Beijing’s alleys with his script teacher and watch the Beijing elders playing chess, cards, and walking birds. These vivid scenes of life allowed Xiao Zhan and Xiao Chunsheng to become more and more familiar, and he could already fully imagine the traces of Xiao Chunsheng’s life here.

The first scene to be filmed was the scene at the Shichahai Ice Rink. At that time, the crew used straw mats to circle an area of ​​more than 10,000 square meters on the Shichahai Sea, restoring the scene of the old Shichahai Ice Rink 50 years ago. At the moment Xiao Zhan stood on the ice rink, he did not have any extra thoughts, he just felt “I am him.”

In Xiao Zhan’s career as an actor, there were many moments of “becoming him”, which were not realized only through emotional resonance. Before performing a role, he would repeatedly search for the character’s supporting points. At those times, he was like a container, putting the character’s personality traits, living habits, and values ​​into his body bit by bit, and then working out the most suitable and fitting shape.

To a certain extent, Xiao Zhan was the person who understood them best, and hence he could become them.

When filming “The Longest Promise”, Xiao Zhan already had a deep understanding of Shi Ying, although he had appeared in works of a similar style before, in his opinion: “The role of Shi Ying feels new to me is that he is a mortal human being, he had human emotions and desires, which are very vivid.” At the same time, “This character has a sense of contrast, he is restrained yet sharp, cold yet empathetic, his character traits are not singular, these gave me a better fulcrum to understand and interpret the character.”

For Xiao Zhan, among all the characteristics of Shi Ying, “coldness” was the most difficult to interpret. He did not attribute Shi Ying’s aloofness to his identity as a Grand Priest, but tried to find resonance points in Shi Ying that would convince him and the audience. With this idea in mind, he chatted with the director and screenwriter on the set to explore Shi Ying’s growth environment and life attitude, and finally presented Shi Ying’s complex and highly contrasting side.

Sometimes, Xiao Zhan would encounter a character he liked, but was not sure whether he could create him with flesh and blood. For example, when he came into contact with Sheng Yang in “Sunshine By My Side”, Xiao Zhan was quickly impressed by this energetic, “wise but not worldly” newcomer to the workplace. However, he hesitated at the time and did not know if he could still be that innocent and lively Sheng Yang, who was like a little sun. For this, he held three script meetings with the screenwriter, and everyone came together to sort out and adjust the character, and a clear and complete Sheng Yang started to appear in Xiao Zhan’s mind finally.

When it came to roles, Xiao Zhan had no fixed restrictions or a certain preferred type. He only had one criterion: this character must be someone he could fall in love with. Because of this love, mutual trust was established and the work became real and vivid.

02 Living Character

During those days on the set, Xiao Zhan’s background colors would fade away and be replaced by a new personality. Sometimes he was more lively and outspoken than Xiao Zhan, and sometimes he had a heavier past than Xiao Zhan.

These differences could not be filled with a few lines, and it would not film strictly with all the lines as planned while on set, Xiao Zhan frequently needed to react on the spot. For example, when filming “Where Dreams Begin / The Youth Memories”, there were many group scenes, there were many scenes just counting dinner table scenes. In the “Menghai Squad”, Xiao Chunsheng was their eloquent leader, so before filming a group scene, the director would always say “Chunsheng, come and say a few words” to liven up the atmosphere on the scene.

In the days when he became Xiao Chunsheng, Xiao Zhan had adapted to such strong social needs, and he often made impromptu toasts. Even after filming completed, these characteristics will slowly fade away, but in this time and space, they had completely overlapped before.

In every drama, Xiao Zhan woud design some details of the character. When filming “Where Dreams Begin / The Youth Memories”, because the character Xiao Chunsheng had to go through a time span of more than 30 years, Xiao Zhan deliberately made some explicit distinctions in each age group. For example, in his youth, Xiao Chunsheng would often have a “careless” attitude when speaking, with his head tilted to one side, which looked cocky, and his body movements were lighter. In middle adulthood, not only did his hairstyle and clothes change, but his tone also began to become calmer, and his feet would completely land on ground when walking, forming a clear distinction from the unrestrained youth in the previous stage.

Xiao Zhan would write a biography for every character he played. Before filming “The Longest Promise”, Xiao Zhan discovered that there were a few years where Shi Ying’s experience leaving imperial city and entering Jiuyi Mountain was blank, he relied on his own imagination to fill in the life of Shi Ying in those few years, imagining how he grew from a prince to a minor priest, which made the character of Shi Ying’s foundation deeper.

During the filming process, Xiao Zhan would also actively communicate with the director based on the logic of the characters. Because of Shi Ying’s “upright” image, Xiao Zhan rarely sat on the set. He would always stand against the wall or a tree trunk to make himself look more upright. But at the same time, after feeling Shi Ying’s inner softness more and more strongly, Xiao Zhan would take the initiative to discuss with the director whether he could break Shi Ying’s “upright” side in some scenes and show his slightly evil inner self, slightly prideful self, to make this character more vivid.

He once mentioned in an interview a scene in “The Longest Promise” before Shi Ying’s death: “In the original script, Shi Ying comforted Zhu Yan and told her not to be sad. I don’t think this is should be the state of someone truly in love with each other, the state of a someone who truly in love with each other should be: I want you to feel sad for me, when I am dying, I will be very happy when I can see you feeling sad for me from the bottom of your heart.” It can be seen that he had a deep understanding of the character’s inner emotional logic.

When performing, Xiao Zhan would also add his own observations and feelings about life to his interpretation of the character. Song Xiaofei, the director of “Sunshine By My Side”, once expressed that Xiao Zhan made many detailed considerations for the character. For example, at first, people would think that Sheng Yang had too few clothes, but Xiao Zhan believed that a designer who had just started working, with a monthly salary of several thousand yuan, it would be unrealistic if every time he went out like he was attending a fashion exhibition, changing his clothes constantly. “We need to bring him back to the real world and make him feel like a new person in the workplace, his clothes are also designed to be relatively simple.” In and out of the drama, on and off the stage, Xiao Zhan never regarded his characters as pure artistic images, in his eyes, they were all living people. With this understanding, he could be natural when performing and make the audience feel the sincerity in the performance.

03 Unchanging Original Intentions

In 2020, “Blogger World” had a conversation with Xiao Zhan, and when asked about his future career plans, he replied: “I still hope to deepen my career and try more diverse roles and dramas with different themes.” 3 years later, Xiao Zhan’s goals had not changed, but he had higher expectations for himself: “Besides hoping to be recognized by the audience, I also hope that my works and roles can bring more power to the audience.”

Xiao Zhan himself had drawn a lot of strength from the characters he has played, for example, he said: “Xiao Chunsheng is a very lively and infectious character, I am often moved by him. He perseveres and has always stuck to his the bottom line in heart, he will not be easily affected by the people around him or the surrounding environment, and he has the drive to face difficulties head on, and frequently say that ‘a difficult road is an uphill road’.”

This character was actually more extroverted than Xiao Zhan himself. “He is very responsible, always taking care of the friends around him as much as possible, and loves to help everyone solve their problems, his pure and innocent heart also affects me imperceptibly.”

Therefore, during the filming process, Xiao Zhan always maintained a high sense of faith to deeply understand the situations Xiao Chunsheng encountered at different stages, every stage had its slight differences, including military service, retirement, employment, and entrepreneurship. At the same time, relatives and friends around him would slowly come closer or become separated. When performing, Xiao Zhan would put himself into the situation and think about “with Chunsheng’s unyielding spirit, what he would think and do when faced with these situations.”

Sometimes he felt that he was the same as Xiao Chunsheng, whatever he wants, he would strive for it through hard work. As a result, the characters and actors actually formed some kind of interaction, influencing each other, and ultimately moving the audience.

When filming “The Longest Promise”, Xiao Zhan felt from Shi Ying’s life attitude that “man could conquer nature and everything depends on his actions”, and destiny was not fixed but could be shaped by oneself through hard work. “He will firmly do what he thinks is right, and in the end he will also succeded in dedicating everything he has to the righteousness and the country,” Xiao Zhan said.

When filming “Sunshine By My Side”, he felt the warmth and rich emotional world in Sheng Yang. In Sheng Yang, there were common workplace dilemmas faced by young people, there were some impulsions when handling with the relationship with his boss, but Xiao Zhan could feel that Sheng Yang must have a pair of parents who loved him very much, his family background might be ordinary, but the emotional condition must be filled.

Every character had a shining point, and as an actor, Xiao Zhan also wanted this light to illuminate more people.

In the past few years, Xiao Zhan had been busy at work and spent most of the year in the drama group. Every time after filming had completed, he would try his best to give himself a vacation and try to return to his daily life, sleeping, working out, and detaching himself from the character. But it would not take too long, “it’s enough to relax for a while, it also takes a while to welcome a new character. You need to read through and become familiar with the script, and sort out the relationships between the characters.” Xiao Zhan told “Blogger World”.

He is a person who listens to outside voices. When talking about the requirements he had for himself at work, Xiao Zhan said: “What I can do is to better fully understand and experience the character, and communicate more with directors, scriptwriters, and the collaborating senior actors, and at the same time, I will also listen to the audience’s well-intentioned and helpful suggestions on performances to improve my shortcomings.”

Xiao Zhan had never deliberately maintained a certain state or image at a certain stage. As an actor, he hoped to prevent the audience from having a fixed concept of his performance or characters. “It would be best if each work could bring a new image that brightens the audiences’ eyes, making everyone forget how Xiao Zhan was like originally,” he said.

“Be down-to-earth, interpret every role carefully, and do my job well.” Driven by this simple original intention, actor Xiao Zhan is walking steadily on his own path.

Conversation of the Year

“Blogger World”: In 2023, you have 3 dramas starring you aired, which have achieved very good results. If you sum up this year, what is your evaluation of yourself, or what do you want to say to yourself?

Xiao Zhan: Fulfilling and rewarding. I hope that I can continue to work hard and give back to the audience with more and better works in the future, and also deliver more positive energy through my own actions.

“Blogger World”: In the era emotional drama “Where Dreams Begin / The Youth Memories”, you play the role of Xiao Chunsheng, a tenacious and upright young man who bravely pursues his dreams. What impact does this character’s character and story have on you? What did you gain from the process of creating this character?

Xiao Zhan: Xiao Chunsheng is a very lively and infectious character, I am often moved by him. He is tenacious and always sticks to the bottom line in his heart, and will not be easily affected by the people around him or the surrounding environment. At the same time, he has the drive to face difficulties. He often says, “A difficult road is an uphill road.”

This character is actually much more extroverted than I am. He also acts as the “leader” among his friends, he is very responsible and always tries his best to take care of the friends around him and help everyone solve problems, his pure and innocent heart also affects me imperceptibly.

“Blogger World”: As an era drama, involving decades of time changes, how do you grasp the characteristics of the characters at each stage? For you, what is the most important element in a person’s growth process, and what needs to be held on to?

Xiao Zhan: I think the first thing is to believe and allow me to put myself in Xiao Chunsheng’s shoes and experience the situations he encountered at different stages. Actually, there are subtle differences in the stages of military service, retirement, employment, entrepreneurship, etc., including the close ones and friends around him, who will also slowly get closer or become separated, so when performing, I need to think about the scenes before and after, and put them into the situation: with Chunsheng’s unyielding spirit, what he would think and do when faced with these situations.

I think for me, it means sticking to what I believe in and doing what I think is right.

“Blogger World”: This time you starred in the fantasy drama “The Longest Promise” and returned to the field of ancient dramas. Do you have any new feelings and surprises?

Xiao Zhan: The new feeling for me about the role of Shi Ying feels new to me is that he is a mortal human being, he had human emotions and desires, which are very vivid. At the same time, The surprising thing is that this character has a sense of contrast, he is restrained yet sharp, cold yet empathetic, his character traits are not singular, these gave me a better fulcrum to understand and interpret the character.

“Blogger World”: Shiying in the play is a lonely and cold person, but his destiny has experienced great twists and turns. What do you think the character’s attitude towards life is?

Xiao Zhan: Shi Ying’s attitude towards life is that man could conquer nature and everything depends on his actions. Therefore he will firmly do what he thinks is right, and in the end he will also succeded in dedicating everything he has to the righteousness and the country.

“Blogger World”: In the urban drama “Sunshine By My Side”, you play the role of designer Sheng Yang. The character has a sunny side of a young man, but at the same time he is very mature inside. Is this the image you want to maintain?

Xiao Zhan: As far as I am concerned, I do not deliberately maintain a certain state or image at a certain stage. In my understanding, Sheng Yang is a person who is wise but not worldly, he has the energy of a young man but is not childish at heart.

As an actor, I hope that everyone will not have a fixed concept of my performance or role. It is best that every work can bring a new image to the audience, making everyone forget who the original Xiao Zhan should look like. (Laughs)

“Blogger World”: Do you imagine what your life would be like now if you had not entered the entertainment industry?

Xiao Zhan: Actually, I have never thought about that, perhaps I might still be in the design industry, I would commute to and from work every day, and might have to work overtime frequently. Or open a bakery, paint when I have nothing to do, or go traveling with family and friends.

“Blogger World”: In recent years, you have participated in a variety of works and diverse characters. What method do you usually use to detach yourself from the emotions of the previous character and adapt to the next one?

Xiao Zhan: Maybe I will just give myself some time off, return to my daily life, sleep, exercise, and relax for a while, that’s about it. It also takes a while to welcome a new role, to read through and become familiar with the script, and to sort out the relationships between the characters.

“Blogger World”: Regarding the profession of actor, do you have any new insights now compared to when you first debuted? Is there any change in mentality?

Xiao Zhan: My idea was relatively simple then, I just wanted to act well and try different roles. My thoughts have not actually changed now, but I will have higher expectations on myself, besides hoping to be recognized by the audience, I also hope to bring some strength to everyone through my roles and works. I think this will be very meaningful and valuable.

“Blogger World”: What is your current ambition on the road of acting? What are the requirements for yourself reflected in your work?

Xiao Zhan: My goal has always been to hope that everyone can see my progress and changes through each work, and also hope that my performance can be affirmed and recognized by the audience.

What I can do is to better fully understand and experience the character, and communicate more with directors, scriptwriters, and the collaborating senior actors, and at the same time, I will also listen to the audience’s well-intentioned and helpful suggestions on performances to improve my shortcomings.

Be down-to-earth, interpret every role carefully, and do my job well.

[gemsofgreece]

Can you explain your post about the fear? Is there fear that if ppl vote for a different party, the right wing party will hurt them? And what are the different options? Sorry for ignorance

It is honestly a little hard to explain because we… or I, at least, don’t know what to tell you for sure.

Would the government hurt people not voting for them? No. Not now. Not in the near future. I don’t believe this.

The problem is different and so shadowy and veiled that it ends up scary in a different way. The government very slyly and smoothly tries to make us not realise that we ought to vote someone else.

I don’t know how exactly to explain this but if you had asked this in 2019-2020, most people would have no idea what you are talking about, most people would think that things are mostly going well. Many people still do.

It was from foreign journalism that we found out Greece is dropping like crazy in freedom ratings and skyrocketing in corruption. It makes sense that we did not know because obviously the media are controlled, hence the collapsing freedom. We knew the first thing this government did when they were elected was to give enormous money to the press and the tv channels but it was after foreign media started picking at it that we had evidence of the consequences.

There are things that have happened in Greece all this time that have opened many eyes - destructive massive ARSONS, evidence the government was spying on ministers and members of the parliament, a justice system that proves to be less and less independent every day, a mysterious and ill-handled train tragedy that killed dozens of young people, a general environmental degradation committed to our face and against our will, a concentration of ministers’ relatives and besties in all positions of power, massive hirings of priests and policemen, a collapse of the quality of education (though this has been happening for years), a marginalisation of the citizens of the country for the sake of tourists and rich investors, apart from all the financial and employment issues that are standard trademark problems in Greece. And just if you explore Greek social media you will see that there are huge problems in the society. Immense toxicity. People REALLY have issues. The society is ailing.

However, any attempt at exposing, criticising, protesting, calling for action just falls flat. Ten years ago something would easily get people out in the streets. Nowadays the most frustration a person will ever express is through social media.

Such attempts from people are met with - not violence - but a debilitating scorn. They react to our concerns and accusations by waving them off as wrong, unfair or silly and they make fools of us to our face. This makes the people feel extremely powerless and numb. We are essentially paralysed and convinced of our impending doom. And then so many people do not go to vote - leaving those who are dripped in the government party’s colours to boost it to the aethers.

Some examples to draw a better picture:

The presence and the voice of non-governmental / opposition parties has been reduced in the media. Not that anyone is worth it to be honest but still. They are silenced.

Nobody has ever resigned for the yearly hundreds of massive fires or for the huge train accident or I think even for the spying exposé. In fact, PM just said after the gigantic fire that surrounded all of Athens yesterday that “every year we strive and we become better out of this”. This is an example of how much of a fool they make of us.

The media do not cover the bad things happening in the country. The fire that burnt Athens was in the news because it was inevitable, half the Greek population lives there. However, there are massive fires happening in other places of the country that are absolutely not covered. A fire has been destroying a virgin forested mountain in Serres for a month now, nonstop. Not in the news. Serifos island has been burnt to a crisp - I posted a photo of the now black island earlier in the summer. It was hardly in the news at all. You learn properly about this all through the internet and the little remaining independent press. But middle aged and older people (who are traditionally right wing) relying on tv or certain standard newspapers, they probably have no idea at all or a very skewed image of what is happening.

Committees coming from the EU to investigate on freedom and transparency concerns - the government members have repeatedly not met them lol. Like, they literally do not show up in the meetings. The reports produced by the EU are very alarming and nobody bats an eye. They probably don’t even read them.

A journalist was assassinated a couple of years ago because it became known he was about to reveal something groundbreaking. Private conversations of his with government members were found in his phone. These were supposed to be disclosed in the trial for his murder that happened a few days ago. During the trial, the prosecutor herself announced that these conversations were “accidentally” destroyed because they were saved ONLY in a single CD-ROM (in 2024!!!) that was ACCIDENTALLY broken with a stapler (in 2024!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Justice and government together, they consider us utter clowns and they are not exactly wrong to be fair. Oh, and the suspects were released because “there wasn’t enough evidence”. Of course.

One main member of the examining committee for the train tragedy in Tempi was upgraded to the highest court of the country. Needless to say, nothing about the shady parts of this accident has been reported or disclosed.

Owners of the largest sports federations have been buying the press, tv channels, the telecommunications and god knows what else.

We are facing a huge problem with the installation of countless wind parks across the country, even in environmentally protected areas and large mountains, which is unheard of in other European countries. In fact, a lot of the fires are suspected to be associated to this. (Not all though, people sometimes exaggerate about this.) The head of Greece’s wind energy company just so happens to be PM’s cousin.

These are a few examples. I hope you get the picture. It’s not like something is happening directly to people but all these things make us feel powerless, paralysed and afraid of the future. Many are still convinced things are going great. Or want to be convinced, I don’t know.

Even I am not comfortable writing this now.

PS. There are no options if we are being realists. All politicians in the country are either corrupted or utterly useless and usually they are both. We really are doomed.

[angel-of-the-moons]

Nothing Is Lost

Khonshu x Fem!Reader

TW/CW: None, allusions to past assaults but nothing graphic

A/N: Badr makes another appearance! (I plan on checking this over in the morning when I have more energy to check for mistakes)

Taglist: @drinkingwithkhonshu

🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑

Chapter 6:

Trust Issues

You felt like you were going insane. Clinically, literally, justifiably insane. Your freaky dreams where you were sure you were dying? Cakewalk. The dreams where you were actually seeing whoever it was you were in the point of view as? Yeah, no. This was all too weird for you. Far too weird.

So… After one too many nights of reliving the dream as the woman named “Merit” you poured yourself into hours and hours of research. You first did a search of the name, plus some contextual keywords to assist with the search. How you instinctively knew how to spell it is beyond you, but you did it.

Apparently, “Merit” in ancient Egyptian meant “beloved, beautiful” or “loved/treasured one”. And the first thing to pop up beneath the translation was the results of a discovered tomb in Egypt.

You’d hoped that somehow, this was tied to that. Maybe you were dreaming up something you’d read in a passing article while scrolling through Facebook, or even MySpace back in the day, and merely forgot about it, your exhausted subconscious dreaming up these scenarios to somehow distract you from your already demanding waking life…

So, you watched all the documentaries surrounding Merit and her husband, Kha.

You read as many articles and absorbed as much information as your brain could retain, but…

It just didn’t feel right. The Merit of your dreams was not this Merit. They had a wonderful life, Kha being a royal tomb builder, Merit being the dutiful and loving wife and mother.

The Merit of your dreams was young, knowledgeable. You haven’t seen many details of her life, but somehow you knew this woman and the one in your dreams were not one in the same.

It provided illuminating information on ancient Egyptian culture, burial practices, as well as insight into people who weren’t “all powerful” pharaohs or priests. They seemed so… normal. Even by modern standards.

The way their stories were told in the motifs and reliefs in their tomb, even to someone untrained in the field of Egyptology, anybody with a brain between their ears could see just how much love they held for one another.

It made you oddly nostalgic.

You yourself gave dating a try, but it never worked out for you. That and the dating pool was full of horny pricks who merely wanted to pump and dump you, anyways. And you weren’t one for casual flings.

You made that decision when the first and last one night stand was horrendously disappointing and lasted all of half an hour.

Ah, but the love between Kha and Merit was one most strived for, no?

Maybe you’d get lucky and find that, but not any time soon. Not with all the crazy bullshit you’ve got going on in your life, right now. Not while you were so convinced you were losing your proverbial marbles because of your crazy dreams.

All you could do right now is focus on your dreams, what Jezebel told you…

And why the flying hell you were dreaming about being a lovesick noblewoman in ancient Egypt.

🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑

You’d been free of work for three days. You were absolutely going mad, with nothing to do to occupy your nights than binge-watching shows on streaming platforms, reading more useless articles that didn’t pertain to your dreams, or sit on the roof of your building in abject, confused silence.

As well, you couldn’t shake the feeling that you were being watched, either. Everywhere you went, you felt eyes on you. It made you shudder with uneasiness.

But the world doesn’t stop for you just because you’re uncomfortable, and you knew that. Your dreams certainly didn’t stop for it.

You sighed as you leaned back in the old desk chair, rubbing your eyes with the heels of your palms.

You lifted your gaze and turned to look outside the library window. The sun was hidden well beyond the tall buildings of the city, the slivers of sky you could make out dusting pink and purple hues. Looking back down at the corner of the screen, you finally take in what time it was. 6pm.

God, you pissed away seven hours doing research. Educational–yet pointless–research.

You leaned forward with a hefty groan and rested your face in the palms of your hands. You were still no closer to getting any details on this woman you’re dreaming up.

But what if she wasn’t even real? What if this woman was, as you’ve been worried, a figment of your imagination, dreamed up to give you some form of respite from your dreary, overloaded day-to-day life? It made sense, in a way, for your psyche to dream up a distraction to keep yourself from falling into a pit of perpetual exhaustion and despair.

But at the same time, the idea didn’t sit right with you. Why would this “distraction” start out with horrible, sleep-robbing nightmares or blood and abject horror? Why would it include such vividly-detailed scenarios that you can almost remember frame-by-frame?

Ugh. It was practically psychological torture brought on by your own subconcious.

You were shaken from your thoughts when you heard a deep voice come from the table across from you; “Pulling an all-nighter?”

Your eyes opened and you lifted your gaze until your eyes were locked with a man. He looked to be in his mid-thirties at his oldest, perhaps. His skin was dark, almost a shade of burnt toffee, and piercing eyes bore into you from behind small, round glasses. He wore dark gray trousers with a button-up yellow dress shirt that was rolled up to his elbows, revealing visible veins and muscular forearms.

This man, despite his calm look, exuded an unmistakable air that told you he could be a threat if crossed. Something about him seemed familiar, but you just couldn’t–

“Miss..?” He asked you, a brow raising.

“Uh–” You blinked and shook your head. “I, uh… No, I’m just… doing research.”

“Ah. A student, then?” He asked, tilting his head, his voice still so cool it may as well have been a glacier floating in Antarctica. His face was just as equally calm and placid.

Was this guy a librarian or..?

“No.” You say simply, shrugging. “It’s for… personal reasons. But I’m not getting anywhere.”

“Hm, perhaps I can help. What topic are you trying to research for? I imagine since it’s for personal reasons you can afford to make a few mistakes in researching here and there.” He offered.

You leaned back in your chair, crossing your ankles and folding your arms over your chest as you stared at him with distrust.

“No offense,” You began. “But I don’t know you. And besides, I’m kind of doing research on archaeology. Sort of. I’m not looking up sports statistics.”

Finally, his stone-like demeanor cracks and a short chuckle escapes him in a huff. “Ah, of course. I have forgotten my manners. I am Yehya Badr.”

Your eyebrow quirked up ever so slightly and you were still rather hesitant to give out too many personal details. So… you give him a false name as you lean over the table to offer him an outstretched hand. Or. Well… the name was almost false.

You think.

“Merit.”

His eyes got imperceptibly larger, but their change is just enough that it didn’t go unnoticed by you as he takes your hand and gives it a firm shake.

“Interesting.”

“Is it?” You say, releasing his hand to sit back down.

“Yes, it’s a name originating from Egypt.” He says to you, calmly speaking as he walks around the table, his hands clasped firmly behind his back, his shoulders squared and chin up as he strides over to you.

“It can mean a number of things, actually. The most settled upon is “beloved”. Your parents must have liked the name very much. It is very uncommon nowadays.”

You were instantly surprised as he sat down next to you. He takes a glance at the monitor and the research you’d accumulated in the different tabs. “Ah, so you’re trying to… research the historical significance of your name?” He hummed.

“Sort of.” Your mouth twisted as you chose your next words very carefully. “I’m also just a bit of an archaeology nerd. If I could afford it, I’d go to school… But research is as close to it as I can get, at the moment. How do you know what my name means?”

He flashed a smile, his teeth standing out in stark contrast to his darkened lips. “I grew up in Luxor. It’s hard not to grow up in a place like that and not know about ancient Egypt, and the archaeological knowledge gathered there. I also spent many years during school in the museum. It was a quiet place, and history can be a very quiet and enamoring companion when you’re smothered by the hustle and bustle of people every day.”

“Oh. Well that’s… convenient.” You admitted to him, shifting your eyes back to the computer.

“Mhmm.” He hummed.

“So… like, what made you want to stop to talk to me?” You tilted your head at him, scrutinizing him curiously.

He seemed to take no mind to your suspicious looks, merely offering a polite smile to you in return.

“You looked distressed, and in my medical opinion–just on a pure glance alone–you are exhausted.” He replied.

“That doesn’t explain it, though.” You pointed out.

He chuckled again and his dark, obsidian eyes locked with yours. “It doesn’t, does it?”

“Nope.” You looked around, noticing you two were alone in this part of the library. “And it’s kind of creepy, if I’m being honest.”

He laughed, his voice tight but full of humor at your jibe. “Ah. Yes, it is, isn’t it? Perhaps a better explanation is in order. I made an oath to aid those who need it. And you looked like you needed help. So, therefore…”

“Uh-huh.” You said, still skeptical.

He shook his head, still smiling. “You are a very suspicious young woman.”

“Some guy tried to assault me not too long ago, and I’ve been mugged several times in the last few years alone, so yeah.” You said, leaning in with a squint. “I’m suspicious.”

Yehya seemed shocked by your admission, and you didn’t know why. It’s as if what happened to you seemed to personally offend him, judging by the flame of revulsion and anger that flickered in the dark pools of his eyes.

“An no-one did anything?” He asked you slowly. “You fought them off yourself?”

“Considering every time it happened in the dead of night–er, well, more like at like 2am–no. Because nobody was around to do anything. As for fighting them off? No again. I bargained with a few of em, stopped carrying valuables on me, and…” You chewed the inside of your cheek. You didn't know this guy, so there was no way for him to call all the bluffs you were making. “The most recent time, I did fight him off. I was… violent and he died. I didn’t get in trouble, thankfully. Because it was in self-defense, you understand.”

You leaned back in your chair and waved your hand with a dismissive huff. “Where’s a caped crusader when you need one, huh?” You added sardonically.

He took a deep breath and leaned away from you, closing his eyes for a moment. “Of course. I’m sorry those things have happened to you.”

You shrugged your shoulders and laughed. “Hey, man. You aren’t a cop. Don’t take offense to it or anything. It’s not like it’s your job to walk the beat. You’re a doctor.”

“Right…” He cleared his throat and leaned forward, his elbows on his knees and his palms flat against one another in front of him. “Ah, back to the earlier subject. Would you like some help in your research? It might help you to have someone who is from Egypt giving their personal experiences, there…”

You had a nagging feeling this guy just wasn’t going to leave you alone unless you said yes.

“Fine, I guess. Couldn’t hurt.”

🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑

Yehya watched as the young woman left the library. It was well past sunset and she had stayed even after he left.

Her distrustful nature didn’t offend him, hell, if anything it was perfectly sensible to be that way after she had been robbed and assaulted so many times at night, when she should have been protected…

He clenched his fist, trembling in anger as he shadowed her, out of sight at the edges of rooftops.

How could he have failed so spectacularly in his task as Khonshu’s Fist? If this woman truly was Merit, if she died, he would never forgive himself. To fail in the protection of one soul–one specific, special soul–was a stain upon his oath. One he intended to cleanse from the pale, holy trappings he was enshrouded in. Yes, it was impossible for him to be everywhere at once, but while Marc–and his alters–traipsed about in London and Cairo with the woman they were besotted with, Taweret’s new Avatar, Layla el Faouly (whom he’d had the pleasure to meet once when they were here in New York, before Marc let Steven wrench control of the body and lead the course of their lives; and later battle Ammit herself alongside Khonshu and Layla), Yehya vowed to do better.

He would not fail Khonshu again. This woman, she needed his protection. He would not neglect his duties, he would split his attentions evenly. He would continue to watch over this woman, follow her from the shadows and the rooftops when she ventured out into the night, when she would leave and come home from work.

He lifted his gaze to the sky, the stars hardly visible to the eye due to the light pollution of the city. The moon was gone from the sky, having disappeared to be shrouded in darkness to begin the cycle anew.

Yes. He would keep his oath. This woman would never fall unprotected during the night ever again.

Not while there was a possibility that he could bring his God–his Father–the closure he needed.

Not while there was a chance to help heal his pain, the pain that has lasted thousands of years.

Not while there was a chance that he can bring the light back into Khonshu’s existence.

Not while this young life, this ancient soul, still had the chance to possibly remember who she was.

Not while he could heal a wound that still bled.

He was a doctor, after all.

🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑

Chapter 7: Link

[if-mirrormine]

i do

summary: nora and demetri's wedding day.

pairing: nora x demetri

word count: 1398

based on the request: uh yeah based on the interview, im gonna need to know how nora and demetris wedding went down, like why is that his favourite memory??

**unedited//i hope this gives you all the feels. also good charlotte fans unite**

the rain is coming down heavy. beating against the window in a steady, consistent patter. demetri stares at his reflection in the standing mirror, tying his tie. over, under, over, under, over, under, through. the wide end is too short, the knot too small. he has to start over.

he's just adjusting the length of the tie around his shoulders when a knock sounds at the door and he glances up just in time to see it creak open to reveal his brother.

konstantine is dressed in a standard black suit, and though the collar of his white button shirt distinctly lacks a tie of its own, the leather of his shoes matches that of his belt. looking back at himself, demetri feels weirdly overdressed in his tuxedo, with his hair perfectly styled and his face cleanly shaven. despite it being his wedding.

"what's the hold up?" konstantine asks as he rubs his hands together with a giddy excitement. "you were supposed to be out there ten minutes ago."

"can't get it right," demetri mumbles back, his eyes tracking the movements of his fingers in the mirror. over, under, over, under, over, under, through. why can't he get it right?

konstantine hums and comes up to stand behind him. "this is just about the tie? you're not nervous, getting cold feet?"

their eyes meet briefly in the mirror. "why would you ask me that?" demetri grumbles. "i love nora."

"never said you didn't," his brother defends. "but you've known how to tie a tie since you were twelve. this shouldn't be an issue for you."

demetri huffs and starts over. "do you think the rain is an omen?"

konstantine rolls his eyes. "you and nora are meant to be together; you're just nervous about getting married."

"it's not the 'getting married' part i'm worried about."

"then what? please, oh dear brother, enlighten me."

"what if i'm not a good husband? what if i let her down somehow."

"she's marrying you willingly; i'd say she's used to disappointment."

demetri stops, drops his head in his hands and drags his fingers through his hair. "we were supposed to get married outside," he breathes, his frustration sudden and overwhelming. "now it's raining. if that's not an omen, i don't know what is."

"oh, for fuck sake." konstantine storms up to his brother and pulls his hands away from his head, effectively ruining the other man's perfectly coiffed hair even further. "it's not an omen. if you want to get married outside so bad, then do it. nora doesn't give a fuck; the only thing that matters to her is you and you're currently holed in a dressing room, losing your mind over a tie."

the two men stare at each other for a long moment, the only sound breaking the silence is the patter of the rain hitting the window, before a smile breaks out on demetri's face. "i'm going to get married outside," he says and his hands begin moving again over his tie, swiftly tying the knot around his neck without even a glimpse in the mirror.

konstantine returns his smile and claps him on the back. "now we're talking!" he spins on his feet and starts for the door, speaking to his brother over his shoulder. "i'll go inform the bride of change in plans."

as the door shuts behind konstantine, demetri finally looks back at the mirror and his smile brightens at his tie sitting perfectly tied in the center of his button-up. he stares into his eyes as he buttons his navy blazer. "i'm getting married."

standing under the rose archway, demetri rocks on the soles of his feet, drenched from the rain but his excitement keeping the cold at bay. the priest stands a step behind him, unamused but shielded somewhat from the rain by the umbrella clutched tightly in his left hand. "this is highly unorthodox, mr. renfield!" he says, his voice raised to a shout in order to be heard over the rain.

demetri only grins back at him. "just go with it, father!"

before the disgruntled priest can say anything else, he turns his attention to the hotel further ahead where the wooden doors are suddenly thrown open and konstantine appears with nora on his arm, the two of them huddled beneath an umbrella as they hurry down the pathway towards the arch. demetri feels his breath catch his throat at the sight of her, his heart damn near stops in his chest, and he simply can't take her eyes off of her. her wedding gown is extravagant, forming to her figure and accentuating every curve in a way that makes his fingers itch to touch her, to pull her into his arms and never let her go. her hair is elegantly styled and her make-up only serves to enhance her natural beauty. she's never looked more beautiful and demetri can't tell where his tears begin and the rain ends.

before long, she's standing in front of him and konstantine gives her away, leaning in close to his brother to whisper in his ear. "hope you don't mind i didn't tell anyone else," he says, a sly smile on his lips. "i thought it would be more special like this."

demetri shakes his head. "nora's the only one i care about." he turns his attention back to his bride and she beams at him. "you look so beautiful."

"so do you," she says, grinning at him.

"i could marry you everyday if it meant getting to see you like this."

she rolls her eyes good-naturedly. "maybe let's stick to this first time for now."

the priest clears his throat suddenly and they both turn their attention to him. "this is your witness?" he grumbles, nodding towards konstantine and the man in question beams.

"that's me."

"then i'm going to get started," he clears his throat again and clutches his bible to his chest. "if it's alright with you, i'm going to skip to the end bit."

"take it away, father," nora says, not once looking away from demetri and he stares back at her lovingly.

"do you, demetri, take nora as your wedded wife?" demetri nods vehemently and nora has to stifle a laugh. "and do you, nora, take demetri as your wedded husband?" nora nods and rushes to wipe at her eyes. "in sight of god and his witness, i now pronounce you husband and wife. you may kiss the bride."

without a moment's hesitation, demetri sweeps nora into his arms and presses his lips to hers, pouring every ounce of his love and adoration for the woman into the kiss. she clutches onto him, her nails digging into his arms tight enough to leave bruises but he doesn't care. nothing but the woman in his arms matters.

when there's no more oxygen and their lungs begin to burn, they pull away and he rests his forehead against hers, his face beginning to hurt from smiling so much.

"hello there, husband," nora says as she reaches up to wrap her arms around his neck.

"hey, wife," he responds before kissing her forehead softly. "we're married, can you believe it?"

"we're also soaking wet," she laughs.

glancing up, demetri notices both his brother and the priest have both made themselves scarce, leaving the two of them standing in the rain and he gives a laugh of his own. "and alone, it seems." he then nods towards the hotel. "shall i carry you back?"

she flashes him an incredulous look. "are you kidding? even without the rain, this dress weighs a ton."

he simply smiles back at her. "your love gives me the strength to do anything."

again she rolls her eyes but there's no hiding her own smile. "your funeral, renfield."

"what did good charlotte say? the happiest day of my life is the day that i die?" she laughs and shakes her head at him but she makes no arguments when he sweeps her into his arms once more, this time one arm beneath her knees and the other around her back. she wasn't lying when she said the dress is heavy but simply looking at his beautiful bride is enough to put him at ease. and as he begins to walk back towards the hotel, nora nestled into his chest, he vows quietly to himself to never let her go.

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

ALEX DEWITT (DC COMICS)

1.) The term “fridging” is literally based on Alex and what happened to her. She was killed off violently by a bad guy trying to get at her boyfriend only a couple issues after she was introduced (making it obvious they only brought her in to kill her off for shock value). Her death did very little to the narrative other than hurt her boyfriend Kyle and was done in an exceedingly horrifying and violent way. (Bad guy came to the door with flowers and threatening note, broke in and attacked her, choking her to death, before [off panel] chopping her body up and sticking it in the refrigerator as a “surprise” for her boyfriend. This obviously is really fucked up and she deserves better and should win this actually (a vote for Alex is a vote for all fridging victims [in spirit])

2.) It doesn’t get much worse than being the character whose death originated the “fridging” trope. In Green Lantern Vol. 3 #54, Kyle Rayner comes home to find that Alexandra, his girlfriend, has been killed by the villain Major Force and stuffed into the refrigerator.

Alexandra DeWitt is the character whose misogynistic treatment coined the term where a character, usually female, is killed off purely to make the main character, usually male, feel bad. Even if there are other characters who have been subjected to similar levels of misogyny, Alexandra DeWitt’s treatment has been essentially immortalized.

3.) I know she’s not going to win but shout out to my home girl, literally the trope namer for women shoved in fridges. All anyone ever knows about her is that she was Kyle’s girlfriend and got murdered for his character development, even though she had plenty of potential to be her own character.

LEAFPOOL (WARRIOR CATS)

1.) For context, she’s a medicine cat, which is essentially the priest/healer of an ancestor-worshipping religion called StarClan, and there’s a rule in the living Clans prohibiting anyone from dating outside their Clan, and also prohibiting medicine cats from dating/having kits.

So she’s breaking the law by seeing a cat named Crowfeather in another Clan, and eventually gets pregnant. She secretly gives the children to her sister to raise instead, because the kits would’ve grown up in misery if their true parentage was known. When the secret gets out that they’re her kits, Leafpool became demonized to hell and back.

Crowfeather, who ALSO broke the law and fathered the kits, only got a slap on the wrist, and he’s almost certainly going to become leader. But Leafpool was demoted from her role as medicine cat (by her FATHER), treated like scum by her whole community (aside from her sister and best friend), and her children despise her for lying to them (one even tries to get her to kill herself). The narrative constantly paints her as a liar that’s getting what she deserves, and even has her children insult her at HER FUNERAL, years after the secret got out. She’s a main character and she dies OFF SCREEN between books!

It’s not even over when she dies. StarClan decides to hold a trial for her when she dies to see if she deserves to join them, or if she’s banished to cat hell for eternity. War criminals who abetted in genocide never got a trial, they were just let in. An incel who tried to kill 4 people because he was mad his ex dumped him got let in without question. But the cat whose only crime was dating someone in another Clan and having kids gets a full trial? Keep in mind their sire gets a whole book about StarClan coming down to help him, because clearly only she deserved to be punished.

Leafpool’s life is nonstop suffering because of misogynistic double standards. Treated like the devil for getting pregnant and wanting to give her kids a better life, while all the men involved get excused, coddled, and placed into positions of power.

2.) she went through So much bullshit. squirrelflight (her sister) too. i’m sure she’ll also get submitted. Cat God (starclan) vaguely told her to run away with the man she liked and then got mad at her when she did it. and then she was punished for it the rest of her life. She had kids with him and those kids were like Incredibly Important and wouldn’t exist if not for her but she’s still punished for it. BY STARCLAN. Who told her to have those kids in the first place . and of course the books just treat this like it’s pretty much normal and fair

3.) just like her sister squirrelflight, she does many things that male characters do and faces drastically different consequences. she and another cat, named crowfeather, run away from their clans to get cat married. this is illegal because they’re from different clans. when they get home, leafpool is pregnant. when all of this is revealed(years later) their punishments could not be more different. when they first come back, leafpool is suspected, talked poorly about, and outlasted. we aren’t shown any consequences towards crowfeather at all. after the grand reveal of leafpool having kids(and giving them away to her sister since she’s a doctor and doctors can’t gave kids) leafpool is forced to give up her position as doctor, is disowned as her kids aunt figure, and completely outcasted by the whole clan(mostly the same happens to her sister). crowfeather is just minorly treated poorly and gets a cat divorce.

[ultraericthered]

One Villainous Scene: Enough To Feed A Whole Army

It's serendipitous that this one come not only as Winter Is Coming, but also soon after the final episode of The Penguin, as the scene in question pulls a similar thing to what the events of that episode did.

Episode 14 of the first season of Vinland Saga, titled "The Light of Dawn", might just be the most uncomfortable episode in the series, and in any anime series. Rather oddly centering heavily around a bit character who never matters in the series narrative ever again beyond this particular episode and what it sets off for the following one, it reaches its climax when the viking army that Thorfinn, Prince Canute, Ragnar, Priest Willibald, and the rest of Ragnar's men are accompanying - y'know, our main characters - arrive at Anne's village and raids the place, rounding up all the villagers to force them out into the snowy cold while the vikings ransack all the houses to check the grand total of all supplies in the village, particularly the rations.

Only Anne managed to flee to safety but is watching what befalls her family and neighbors from a distance away. We see men, women, children, and even crying infants, all people who have done no harm to these Danish invaders whatsoever, huddled outside. Askeladd has determined that the village holds enough food for 50 people to last the winter, which comes up short for 104 soldiers. After chiding Willibald for an earlier display of defiance towards him and making a threat on his life should he do so again, Askeladd's attention is turned to the villagers as one pleads with him to let the villagers keep half of the food supply, with the other half being forfeited to the Danes. He even plays the "I have a baby!" card as an appeal to Askeladd's humanity. Only no such humanity seems to be moved in Askeladd, who dryly responds "A baby? That's rough." A stern, cold-blooded Askeladd announces to the masses that he has put all of them into consideration, and looks to ensure that none of them have to worry about going hungry during the winter...or for any winters to come for that matter. He intends to release them from their suffering, by ending the lives of all of them. Every last man, woman, and child.

At the protest of doing this to innocent civillians, Askeladd replies with only stone cold rationale - if he were to let all of them live but banish them from their home village, he'd have no food or drink to give to them that would sustain them out in the winter's cold, as he plans to keep all of the village's food and make it last for as long as they're able to stay there before winter fades, and should any one of them escape with their life, they'd be able to tell Thorkell and his forces where they are (which is indeed what ends up happening with Anne after her survival btw). As such, they all must perish. Askeladd's already had his warrior flunkies dig deep holes in the snow-covered ground to cram in up to 62 dead bodies. "But these people are Christians!" Ragnar protests. To which Askeladd gives a literal, word for word "So what?" Askeladd belongs to no conventional religious faith, and he doesn't let beliefs, affiliations, nationalities, gender or age set for him any standard of who he can or cannot shed the blood of without hesitation should the cause of the moment call for such blood to be shed. Which this moment does, as he's keen to remind Ragnar: this is what's best for Prince Canute. So with no more questions to be asked, Askeladd issues his command: "Kill them."

The massacre that follows is appalling and horrific to behold, even though very little of the butchering is shown on-screen. But what gives it its horror isn't what's transpiring, but how and why it is, and by who's hand. Askeladd is the true protagonist of Vinland Saga's Prologue Arc (its first season in the anime) in many regards, and we've followed him up to this point and continue to follow him even afterwards. The insights into his past and how it shaped his present character, the glimmers of deeply held convictions, motivations, and beliefs we get out of him that offset his usual devil may care attitude, his badass warrior spirit and charming personality endear him to us and allow us to be invested in his actions that drive the plot forward. He is in fact so charismatic that the viewer will likely be so enraptured by him to the point of wanting to follow him, of wanting to root for his success, of disregarding or perhaps even forgetting the basic fact of who and what Askeladd is, which is what he's always been from the moment we met him: a remorseless, merciless, spiritually detached, machiavellian and oftentimes cruel mass murderer. He's not a man, he's a beast. He knows he's a beast, and he laments it only as often as he relishes it. The same man capable of murdering Thors in such a despicably underhanded, craven way is of course capable of ordering the bloody massacre of an entire village full of innocent civillians under rationalizations of taking life and butchering bodies when such evils are deemed "necessary" by him. He feels nothing about seeing people all the way down to literal babies get dispatched of swiftly but no less brutally and painfully. To him it's all just part of how he lives his life being the man he is and doing what a man like him does. But to us in the audience who've by this point bonded with him in a way and have come around to trusting, supporting, and liking the bastard, this moment comes in like a knife in the back or through the throat to serve as a wake-up call that pulls no punches. We see Askeladd and his viking crew through the eyes of non-players not affiliated with them and who know nothing of them that we've gotten to know, and it reminds us of the ugly truth of what callous, barbaric, inhumane monsters these people are to others.

And just as disturbing? The silent complicity of Thorfinn and Canute. They're a part of this too. They also own it. The blood of the innocent soaks their hands as well, even if neither one lifted a single weapon against a single villager. This is where the path you follow Askeladd down inevitably leads, and it will weigh on their souls forevermore.

[mediamixs]

Top 10 horror movies from the 70's

The 1970s was a pivotal decade for horror films, characterized by innovative storytelling, groundbreaking special effects, and a willingness to tackle social issues. Here are ten notable horror movies from that era:

The Exorcist (1973) Directed by William Friedkin, this film follows the harrowing possession of a young girl and the desperate attempts of her mother and two priests to save her. Its shocking imagery and intense themes of faith and evil made it a cultural phenomenon.

Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) Tobe Hooper's chilling tale of a group of friends who encounter a family of cannibals in rural Texas set the standard for slasher films. Its raw, documentary-style cinematography and minimalist approach to horror left a lasting impact on the genre.

Halloween (1978) Directed by John Carpenter, this film introduced audiences to Michael Myers, a masked killer who escapes from a mental institution to stalk babysitters on Halloween night. Its use of suspense, iconic score, and the "final girl" trope reshaped horror for decades.

Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971), directed by John Hancock. This psychological horror film tells the story of Jessica, a young woman recently released from a mental institution. She and her husband move to a secluded farmhouse in rural New England, hoping to start anew.

The Omen (1976) Directed by Richard Donner, this film revolves around a couple who unknowingly adopt the Antichrist. The atmospheric score and unsettling narrative explore themes of fate and evil, making it a classic of supernatural horror.

Carrie (1976) Based on Stephen King's novel and directed by Brian De Palma, "Carrie" tells the story of a high school girl with telekinetic powers who seeks revenge on her tormentors. The film's themes of bullying and isolation are as impactful as its shocking climax.

Jaws (1975) Steven Spielberg's thriller about a great white shark terrorizing a beach town became a blockbuster hit and redefined the horror genre. Its combination of suspense, adventure, and iconic score made it a template for future thrillers.

Suspiria (1977) Directed by Dario Argento, this Italian horror film is known for its stunning visuals and a haunting score by Goblin. It follows a ballet student who uncovers a supernatural conspiracy at a dance academy, blending psychological horror with giallo elements.

Don't Look Now (1973) Directed by Nicolas Roeg, this haunting film explores grief and loss as a couple travels to Venice after the death of their daughter. The eerie atmosphere and surreal imagery contribute to its psychological horror and emotional depth.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) Philip Kaufman's remake of the 1956 classic delves into themes of identity and paranoia as alien pods replace humans with emotionless duplicates. Its commentary on conformity and societal fear resonated with audiences during a time of upheaval.

These films not only scared audiences but also pushed the boundaries of storytelling, paving the way for future horror cinema.