#sudden season 2 death syndrome

[agirlking]

Man Yellowjackets had such an incredible season 1! It’s weird they didn’t get renewed and it ended there!

[agirlking]

I’m just glad to see someone else say this. This whole season has had atrocious pacing and this just sealed the deal. Idk I’m going to bother to check in for season 3. If they had a plan (they swore they did but I’m doubting it) they clearly threw it out the window.

It’s so frustrating!! Like wtf! You dragged your heels all season only to then have this HUGE choice happen in one episode?! With the nonbelievers joining in?!

i've been trying to stay positive about yjs all season because i desperately wanted to keep loving it but after last night's ep i just cannot pretend it's well-written anymore. that was the most nothing, poorly-paced episode i think we've gotten, at least for an ep that should be a CRUCIAL turning point. there was virtually zero exploration of the worst choice the teens make in 96 (the ritual discussion should have been a fucking bottle episode, tbh, with all that should have gone into it), and too much time spent recapping what we already knew in 21 (without it actually meaning anything/changing the characters when they learned). oof. just truly disappointing tbh.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Reference archived on our website

Could covid be driving an increase in sudden infant death syndrome? Further study is needed, but these statistics aren't looking great.

Key Points Question What is the association between the COVID-19 pandemic and sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)?

Findings In this cross-sectional study of 14 308 SUID cases, the risk of SUID and SIDS increased during the intrapandemic period (March 2020 to December 2021) compared with the prepandemic period (March 2018 to December 2019), with the greatest increases noted in 2021 (9% for SUID and 10% for SIDS). A marked statistically significant monthly increase in SUID from June to December 2021 was observed.

Meaning These findings suggest that the pronounced shift in SUID epidemiology during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic may be associated with altered infectious disease transmission at the time.

Abstract Importance Infection has been postulated as a driver in the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) cascade. Epidemiologic patterns of infection, including respiratory syncytial virus and influenza, were altered during the COVID-19 pandemic. Comparing month-to-month variation in both sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) and SIDS rates before and during the pandemic offers an opportunity to generate and expand existing hypotheses regarding seasonal infections and SUID and SIDS.

Objective To compare prepandemic and intrapandemic rates of SUID and SIDS, assessing for monthly variation.

Design, Setting, and Participants This cross-sectional study assessed US mortality data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for January 1, 2018, through December 31, 2021. Events with International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision codes for SIDS (R95), unknown (R99), and accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed (W75) causes of death were examined. The data analysis was performed between November 2, 2023, and June 2, 2024.

Exposure COVID-19 pandemic.

Main Outcomes and Measures The primary and secondary outcomes were the monthly rates of SUID and SIDS during the COVID-19 pandemic (March 1, 2020, to December 31, 2021) compared with the prepandemic period (March 1, 2018, to December 31, 2019) as measured using generalized linear mixed-effects models. Seasonal trends in RSV and influenza rates were also examined.

Results There were 14 308 SUID cases from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2021 (42% female infants). Compared with the prepandemic period, the risk of SUID increased during the intrapandemic period (intensity ratio [IR], 1.06; 95% CI, 1.05-1.07). Monthly assessments revealed an increased risk of SUID beyond the prepandemic baseline starting in July 2020, with a pronounced epidemiologic shift from June to December 2021 (ranging from 10% to 14%). Rates of SIDS were elevated throughout the intrapandemic period compared with the prepandemic baseline, with the greatest increase in July 2021 (IR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.13-1.22) and August 2021 (IR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.13-1.22). Seasonal shifts in RSV hospitalizations correlated with monthly changes in SUID observed during 2021.

Conclusions and Relevance This cross-sectional study found increased rates of both SUID and SIDS during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a significant shift in epidemiology from the prepandemic period noted in June to December 2021. These findings support the hypothesis that off-season resurgences in endemic infectious pathogens may be associated with SUID rates, with RSV rates in the US closely approximating this shift. Further investigation into the role of infection in SUID and SIDS is needed.

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - I'm DELIGHTED by so much goodness, also I lust after a boy's robot's pants

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

Feb 2024 Wk 1

Ongoing Series - Thai

The Sign (Sat YT) ep 11 of 12 - I support the fact that the producers seem to have decided that even in uniform Yai never needs to wear sleeves. Hear hear.

No sleeves for Yai ever again!

On the other hand, why doesn’t anyone ever wear gloves? Going around touching evidence all willy nilly like that.

No to sleeves. Yes to gloves.

People. Sheesh. Get with the program.

Anygay, this is such a fun show. I could watch 50 episodes of this abject nonsense. I’m sad it’s gonna be ending. And I don’t say that often about Thai BL. 

Pit Babe (Fri iQIYI) ep 12 of 14 - Oh has Jeff been kidnapped again? Here, let's throw fruit at Babe and think about it for a bit. Tra la la. Trash watch happening here.

Cooking Crush (Sun YT) ep 9 of 12 - They are such very good boyfriends. Also, this is a ton of kissing for OffGun. I’m at a loss as to how they are going to turn this into a decent 12 ep show. Unfortunately, I’ve foresee it going off the rails - pacing seems off. 

For Him (Thurs iQIYI) ep 10 of 12 - We have our little No Comebacks twist. The sides are growing on me, but now the mains are boring me. The sudden gun-toting new characters are just weird. It’s like they took the script and just threw it down a staircase, gathered it back up again, then filmed that. 

City of Stars (Fri iQIYI) ep 1 of 12 - Fueang is an actor in the midst of crisis and scandal. Normally I don’t like Thai BL when it’s tackles celebrity and this is... yep, the same. Our actor is pitted against an older worried nerdy app developer, Krom. And I feel that dynamic - hyung romance, jock/nerd? Very nice. But it’s also very Star Hunter. Never met a trope they didn’t wanna do a million times over - in the very first episode. Also I think I’m not a fan of the actor playing the lead. 

My Universe (Sun iQIYI) ep 24fin - The blond who comes to get his hair shaved looks just like Fluke T (SOTUS et al). And even more like him after the shaving (My Bromance et al). Is that him? MDL doesn't say.

Anygay... something something: Orphan. Cancer. Kisses. Dream. Death. 'Bout what I expected. 2/10 even with a decent kiss I don’t do dream sequences and I don’t like death in my BL 

All in all, I’m relieved that that’s over. The series is a slog. And in general I don’t recommend it. I plan to promptly forget its entire existence. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Love For Love's Sake (Korea Weds iQIYI) eps 3-4 of 8 - There is so much to adore about this show. The two younger guys who are suddenly in competition for the one older one. You know hyung romances are my favs. A hyung love triangle? COME ON. Also, I got to say this one’s giving me second lead syndrome. I do love me a brat. Add in all this on honorific play and linguistic flirting (as their should be in age gap). This is just THE BEST show. 

Look I gotta say this: the "Who did this to you?" trope (AKA who hurt you?) is the single most popular romance trope right now, remarkable to see it turn up in a BL. And pleasing. Trust Korea to be ON TREND. It's their national agenda. *respect*

Perfect Propose (Japan Fri Gaga) eps 1-2 of 6 - From Fuji TV (who brought us the Pornographer series) adapted from Mayo Tsurakame’s manga, production team includes Tadaaki Horai (My Love Mix-Up!) and Takeshi Miyamoto (scriptwriter for Old Fashion Cupcake). Hiro’s so stressed at work he barely has time to eat so he passes out on the sidewalk. An unfamiliar face saves him and insists that they once promised to marry each other.

Ready?

Oh I fucking love it. Sullen, out gay, younger seme with serious grumpy overprotective tendencies and beautiful possessive cat eyes? Well, it’s not dimples, but it’s still my catnip. Also they are moving very quickly. Hand jobs already? + dub con seasoning? Say it with me everyone:

Oh Japan, must you? 

Apparently, you must. And I must enjoy it. Carry on.

Please reread those producer creds and understand what we are in for. Okay? I would urge you to avoid this one if you get squeamish when JBL does what... JBL does.

AntiReset (Taiwan Fri Viki/Gaga) eps 1-2 of 10 - I really enjoy the character of an OCD intellectual automaton professor, contrasted to a warm and sunshine actual robot. Out the gate, this is oozing Taiwanese domesticity, we can only hope they juice it with their usual standard of heat too. 

All puns aside: It’s charming and I’m charmed. Does Taiwan finally have another winner on its hands?

I do adore Taiwan's aesthetics: The house designs, the suit designs, the human designs. I wouldn't say no to the robot’s pants either. Very cool. Can I order them in black?

Although I Love You and You AKA Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro ka (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 4 of 10 - The birthday confession was a bit much. But I love how mature the reactions were. It reminded me a little bit of I Cannot Reach You. Always a good thing. 

Girl: I like you. 

Sakae: sorry, not intersted 

Girl: what am I lacking? 

Sakae: a dick 

What you mean it didn’t go that way?

Happy Ending (Korea Tues YT) 2 of 3 - Oh it’s lovely, exactly as I expect from Strongberry.

I gotta say all of the above are pretty neck & neck for top spots for entirely different reasons. BL is seriously giving right now!

Sahara-sensei to Toki-kun (Japan Fri Gaga) ep 8fin - In the end this is mostly a piece about courage, and the rewards and disappointments that being courageous entails. Sadly, I personally didn’t have the courage to enjoy it. Featuring a chaos nugget bad boy student who falls madly in love with his teacher, this should’ve been My Thing. But Japan failed me. It happens sometimes. The leads had no chemistry, and the age gap rather than being a narrative driver and source of conflict, was just ignored. 7/10 

It's Done

What Did You Eat Yesterday Season 2 AKA Kinou Nani Tabeta? Season 2 (Japan Gaga) 10 eps - will binge when I have any spare time. 2024 is crazy busy for me so far.

The Servant and the Young Master - from Vietnam so I assume it's on YouTube. I never even noticed. Anyone got a link?

Began Beginning (Myanmar YouTube) - Is TRUST Entertainment bringing us the first ever Burmese BL? I don't know if it's really the first, but @heretherebedork vouched for it, so I will give it a watch through.

The Whisperer (Thai Horror) - @all-you-had-to-do-was-neigh commented with the following: "MASSIVE content warning for extreme ableism, homophobia, and rape plots done for shock value. I don't recommend it, and if any of your followers decide to watch it proceed with caution."

So... yeah, I won't be watching it.

It's Airing But...

[NO INTERNATIONAL] Cherry Magic (Sat YouTube) ep 3 of 12 - yeah Japan put the smack down on our boys. Sadness. You can use a VPN if you like. Read all about it here.

Ossans Love Season 2 (Japan Gaga) - 5 years later, will anything have changed? This is Japan so… probubly not. I won't be watching this. I disliked Season one and actively hated the follow ups. No thank you.

Playboyy (Thurs Gaga) 14 eps - Dear Playboyy, it's not you, it’s me… I hate you. You’re about as deep (and as palatable) as a shot glass of cum. While I'm sure you’re someone’s kink, you're my weakest link. Goodbye. I DNFed this at ep 5. Frankly I'm impressed with myself for getting that far.

7 Days Before Valentine (Weds WeTV) 12 eps - Giving me Luminous Solution vibes. I'm waiting to binge if safe.

Dead Friend Forever (Thai Sat iQIYI) 12 eps - horror, meh, tell me if it's worth my time?

Time the series (Tue Gaga/YT) 10 eps - dropped it at ep 4.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Still Coming in Feb

2/17 A Secretly Love (Thai WeTV) - Khonprot, a third-year head hazer of the engineering faculty, has a secret crush on Pluem, a tsundere fourth-year head hazer. Over the years, he's seen Pluem cycle through many girlfriends. Recently, after a public breakup, however, Khonprot thinks maybe a boy has a chance.

2/24 Unknown (Taiwan Youku) 12 eps - Older brother tough guy criminal breadwinner looks after his sister and defacto adopted little brother. Little bother falls in love with him and is sent away after a stolen kiss. But when he comes back…

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

GMMTV is officially stalking me.

I do love OffGun's particular brand of domesticity. It's fun that they and TayNew are both getting to be so soft on our screens. It's very comforting, like a family favorite warm toddy. (Cooking Crush)

Korea, what's gotten into you? Are you feeling okay? Such bold weaponized gayness isn't like you at all. (Love for Love's Sake)

The Sign, forcing me to ask the eternal question.

I LOVES THEM YOUR HONOR. (Pit Babe)

(Last week)

[dgcatanisiri]

Hey, I've got a question about DS9 I'm wondering if you could answer. I'm in season 5, just watched EP 15, By Inferno's Light. If you don't recall, it wraps up a 2-parter wherein we find out Bashir was abducted a month prior and has been in a Jem'hadar prison. He still wears the original uniform - the cast switched to the grey-top uniforms in EP 10. This means that the changeling imposter has been in place for the episodes in between...

Notably, EP 12's plot involves an infant changeling which Odo begins to care for like his own child. The baby is infected and initially seems to be successfully treated by the doctor. After a couple weeks and some impressive progress by the lil goo baby, it suddenly worsens dramatically and dies. As it does, it's gift of transmutation is given to Odo and he resumes his original abilities.

This has me wondering - did changeling!Bashir poison the baby? Should we see it as a genuine failure of medical treatment or understand it to be sabotage? Right before it's health takes a dramatic turn, the baby had shown to make a huge leap in growth and connection to Odo, and had seemed perfectly fine, if not thriving, up until then. I would think changeling!Bashir would know how to gauge the needs of it's own kind, so like, was it withholding vital medical care? What the hell?

Also, a big deal is made about no changeling ever harming another - and it's funny that the punishment Odo got of being stuck as a solid for killing one of his own is reversed at the end of this particular episode. Not sure what to make of it!

Well, the out of universe answer is that the writers didn't decide that Bashir had been replaced by the Changeling until writing that two parter, so when they were writing the episode itself, Bashir was Bashir (Siddig himself has been interviewed and said that he would have played things differently if he'd known ahead of time). Also out of universe, I think the writers just didn't really vibe with making Odo a solid in practice, as Odo's solidity was not really explored in any significant fashion between the taking of his abilities and their restoration, and they just decided to find a way to undo it.

So what I think is that what happened with the infant Changeling was more akin to something like Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or something of that sort, or perhaps a reaction to the tetryon radiation exposure it had suffered, that while it had made some recovery, it just wasn't enough to prevent it from dying, in the way that someone can be in remission from something like cancer and then suddenly have it return aggressively.

It genuinely seems that both writer intention and in universe evidence is that it was just a routine failure of medicine to solve the issue, which has always been known to happen. It could even be that while the Changeling seemed to be thriving, putting it through the effort of that level of shapeshifting when it was still recovering might have caused problems, like popping your stitches when you exert yourself too much too soon after surgery.

I feel like Odo receiving this gift and specifically like this is almost like being granted "atonement" in the eyes of other Changelings - a life for a life, where Odo took the life of one of their kind, his efforts to save the life of another, while in the end not enough to save the life, was enough to redeem him.

[mehta-hospital]

Dengue – Frequently Asked Questions

In recent days, Tamil Nadu has witnessed a marginal spike in dengue fever cases, affecting individuals of all ages – including Children and Adults.

This mosquito-borne infection has become a significant concern, exacerbated by various factors. One such is climate change, i.e., during the monsoon season, the outbreak of dengue is high.

Aedes mosquitoes, especially Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, are the primary causes behind the spread of dengue through their bites.

Concerning this health concern, understanding its signs and symptoms, causes, diagnosis, and preventive measures is essential in mitigating its impact and preventing its spread.

Here are some frequently asked questions about dengue fever that can help you understand better.

Can Dengue Spread From Person To Person?

Dengue fever is primarily transmitted through mosquito bites, specifically those of Aedes mosquitoes. However, there are exceptional cases where the virus can be transmitted in different ways. For instance, if a pregnant woman contracts dengue, the virus can pass to her baby during pregnancy or around the time of birth. Additionally, though rare, dengue can be spread through blood transfusions.

Can Dengue Mosquito Bite At Night?

Dengue is primarily a daytime-biting mosquito-borne disease.

However, Aedes Aegypti, which is responsible for transmitting dengue stays active during peak times such as early morning (two hours after sunrise) and late afternoon (two hours before sunset).

What Is The First Sign Of Dengue Fever?

Dengue symptoms can range from mild to severe. And some individuals, especially children and teenagers, may not exhibit any signs of the disease at the earliest. Gradually the symptoms start to appear four to seven days after being bitten by an infected mosquito. In its milder form, dengue presents as a High Fever (often around 104°F) accompanied by any of the following seven warning signs:

Headache

Muscle, bone, and joint pain

Nausea

Vomiting

Pain behind the eyes

Swollen glands

Rash

In rare and severe cases, the disease can progress to hemorrhagic fever, leading to damaged and leaky blood vessels, severe bleeding, a sudden drop in blood pressure, and even death.

Can Dengue Fever Occur To The Same Person Twice?

Yes, a person can be infected with Dengue multiple times, as there are four different serotypes of the Dengue virus (DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3, and DENV-4).

Each serotype can cause the disease, and previous infection with one serotype does not provide complete immunity against the others. Some reinfections can result in more severe forms of the disease, particularly with the D2 strain, which is associated with symptoms like Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever and Dengue Shock Syndrome.

Immune complications may also occur in some cases, making reinfections more severe.

Do Platelets Decrease Because Of Dengue Fever?

Dengue fever can lead to a significant drop in platelet count in the bloodstream. As it affects the bone marrow, which is the site for the formation of platelets, platelet production reduces. Despite this, it can even increase the platelet destruction from peripheral blood.

These results in a condition termed Thrombocytopenia, occurring when the platelet count is low in the blood. As a result, it increases the risk of internal bleeding.

If this is the worst case, platelet transfusion may be necessary.

Can Dengue Be Prevented?

Preventing dengue primarily involves measures to protect yourself from mosquito bites and eliminate mosquito breeding sites. Here’s what you can do:

Stay in air-conditioned rooms or ensure that doors are closed if you don’t have air conditioning.

Limit outdoor activities, especially during dawn and dusk when mosquitoes are most active.

Wear protective clothing such as long-sleeved shirts and pants, to cover up the exposed skin.

Use mosquito repellent on exposed skin, and consider applying permethrin to clothing, shoes, camping gear, and bed netting.

Make your living environment free from mosquito breeding sites. Aedes mosquitoes often breed in stagnant water in items like automobile tires, air coolers, and flower vases. Regularly empty and clean these containers and keep them covered between cleanings.

Is Dengue A Fatal Disease?

The person suffering from dengue can recover completely as its symptoms can be managed by staying hydrated and taking medications as prescribed by the healthcare provider.

However, in some cases, Dengue can progress to conditions like Dengue Hemorrhagic fever and Dengue Shock syndrome. When left untreated, it can pose a risk to one’s health.

Early diagnosis, appropriate treatment, and the right medications can reduce the risk in severe cases.

How Is Dengue Diagnosed?

Early and accurate diagnosis of dengue is important for effective management and timely treatment.

When you seek medical assistance because of the concerning symptoms, the healthcare professionals will evaluate your symptoms, medical history, and recent travel history to regions where dengue is prevalent. While these symptoms can overlap with other illnesses, they provide important initial clues for diagnosis.

Followed by blood tests for dengue. This includes the following:

Antigen Test: This test identifies the presence of the dengue virus in a patient’s blood.

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Test: PCR is a molecular test that detects the genetic material of the dengue virus.

What Are The Treatment Options For Dengue Fever?

There is no specific antiviral treatment for dengue. In mild cases, patients are advised to stay hydrated to prevent dehydration and manage their symptoms with medications. However, in severe cases, hospitalization may be necessary, with treatment including intravenous (IV) fluid and electrolyte replacement, blood pressure monitoring, and blood transfusion to address complications.

When Should I Consult A Doctor?

Many people tend to overlook the symptoms of dengue fever. It’s crucial to consult a doctor if experiencing fever for more than 3 days. Never even neglect the mild symptoms; diagnose early and prevent the potential complications that arise because of dengue.

What Precautions Should Be Taken After Recovering From Dengue?

Eat a well-balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables to help boost your immune system, which even helps you in the recovery phase.

Make sure to include adequate vitamins and minerals in your diet. Avoid oil and junk foods.

Hydrate yourself by drinking water, and healthy & refreshing juices.

Ensure your body gets sufficient rest to aid your recovery and regain strength.

Always follow the guidance and medications prescribed by your healthcare provider during and after the illness.

During the recovery phase, the body may still be weak, so excessive physical exertion should be avoided. Instead, walking or light exercise can be practiced.

Which Signs Include That We Are Cured From Dengue?

The patient begins to regain the lost function.

During the recovery phase, which typically occurs 7 days after the onset of Dengue, the patient’s condition gradually improves. This includes the subsiding of fever, increased urination, and a returning appetite.

In rare cases, even after crossing the recovery phase, if you encounter any of the following symptoms, seek immediate medical attention:

Decreased urination

Few or no tears

Dry mouth or lips

Lethargy or confusion

Cold or clammy extremities

Book Your Appointment with Dr Mehta’s Best Dengue Doctors in Chennai!!

To wrap it up,

Knowing more about Dengue from this FAQS article helps you make smart choices for your health and your community during times when the disease is more prevalent.

By understanding the key aspects of the disease, its symptoms, and preventive measures, you play a vital role in staying safe and contributing to Dengue prevention efforts.

Stay informed, stay vigilant, and together let’s combat Dengue effectively!!!

[dhanukaagritech]

Understanding Soybean Diseases: Common pest and fungal infections and their impact

Soybean is one of the most important crops worldwide, serving as a vital source of protein and oil for both humans and animals. However, soybean cultivation is not without its challenges, and among the major hurdles faced by soybean farmers are diseases caused by pests and fungal infections. These diseases can severely impact soybean yields and quality, leading to significant economic losses for farmers.

Common Soybean Diseases: Pests and Fungal Infections

1. Soybean Rust (Phakopsora pachyrhizi)

The first common problem is Soybean rust. It is one of the most destructive diseases affecting soybean crops globally. It is caused by the fungus Phakopsora pachyrhizi and can lead to significant yield losses if not managed effectively. The disease first appears as tiny, yellowish-orange spots on the lower leaves of the soybean plant and gradually spreads to the upper leaves. As the infection progresses, dark-colored pustules filled with spores develop on the leaf surfaces.

2. Soybean Cyst Nematode (Heterodera glycines)

The second common disease is Soybean cyst nematode. It is a microscopic roundworm that can infect soybean roots and cause considerable damage. It is a major concern for soybean farmers, as it can lead to stunted plant growth, reduced nodulation, and poor nutrient uptake, ultimately leading to decreased yields.

3. Phytophthora Root and Stem Rot (Phytophthora sojae)

Phytophthora root and stem rot is a serious fungal disease that affects soybean plants during wet and warm growing seasons. The disease attacks the roots and stems, causing wilting, yellowing, and eventual plant death. This disease can lead to significant yield losses, especially in areas with poorly drained soils.

4. Sudden Death Syndrome (Fusarium virguliforme)

Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS) is caused by the fungus Fusarium virguliforme and is a significant threat to soybean crops. It typically appears during early reproductive stages, causing yellowing and necrosis between the veins of the leaves. As the disease progresses, the affected leaves may drop prematurely, leading to reduced yields.

5. Brown Spot (Septoria glycines)

Brown stem rot is another fungal disease that affects soybean stems, leading to lodging and reduced yields. It primarily thrives in cooler regions with excessive soil moisture. Infected plants exhibit internal browning of the stem pith and may develop root rot as well. Brown stem rot can remain unnoticed until late in the growing season when symptoms become more apparent.

The Impact of soybean diseases on crop yield

Soybean diseases pose significant challenges to farmers, impacting both crop yield and quality. These diseases can cause:

Reduced Yield: Infected soybean plants often experience reduced seed production due to defoliation, premature death, and weakened stems. Yield losses can range from 10% to 80%, depending on the severity of the disease and the timing of its occurrence.

Decreased Quality: Diseases like soybean rust can affect the quality of soybean seeds by reducing oil and protein content. This can result in lower market prices for farmers and decreased profitability.

Increased Costs: To manage and control diseases effectively, farmers often need to invest in disease prevention and treatment measures. These can

broad-spectrum fungicide contains Carbendazim as its active ingredient, making it highly effective against a wide range of fungal infections affecting soybean crops.

Addressing soybean diseases: The Role of Fungicides

To combat soybean diseases effectively, a well-rounded approach that includes cultural practices, resistant varieties, and chemical control is essential. Fungicides play a vital role in managing fungal diseases, as they can effectively suppress pathogen growth and prevent further spread.

Introducing Vitavax Powder: The Ideal Fungicide Solution

Among the range of fungicide products offered by Dhanuka Agritech, Vitavax Powder stands out as an ideal solution for soybean disease management. This systematic and broad-spectrum fungicide contains Carbendazim as its active ingredient, making it highly effective against a wide range of fungal infections affecting soybean crops.

Key Benefits of Vitavax Powder:

Disease Control: Vitavax Powder effectively controls major fungal diseases like soybean rust, phytophthora root and stem rot, sudden death syndrome, and brown spot. Its systemic action ensures that the entire plant is protected from the early stages of infection, providing a longer-lasting shield against diseases.

Easy Application: The powder can be easily applied to the soil or seed treatment, ensuring uniform distribution of the fungicide. Its user-friendly application process makes it a convenient choice for farmers of all scales.

Enhanced Crop Health: By controlling fungal diseases, it promotes overall crop health and vigor. Healthy plants are better equipped to withstand stress factors and produce higher yields.

Cost-Effectiveness: It offers excellent value for money due to its efficiency in disease control. The reduction in yield losses and improved crop health justify the investment in this premium fungicide.

Best practices for soybean disease management

In addition to using Vitavax Powder, there are several best practices that farmers can adopt to effectively manage soybean diseases:

Crop Rotation: Practicing crop rotation can help break the disease cycle and reduce the buildup of soil-borne pathogens that cause diseases like Phytophthora root and stem rot.

Timely Planting: Early planting can help soybean plants establish stronger root systems, making them more resilient to diseases.

Proper Irrigation: Maintaining appropriate soil moisture levels can minimize the conditions suitable for fungal pathogen development.

Monitoring and Scouting: Regularly monitoring fields and scouting for early signs of diseases can help identify issues promptly, allowing for timely intervention.

Conclusion

Soybean diseases caused by pests and fungal infections can have a severe impact on crop yield and quality. It is crucial for farmers to understand these diseases and employ effective disease management strategies to protect their soybean crops. Dhanuka Agritech's Vitavax Powder, a powerful fungicide, offers an excellent solution to combat common soybean diseases. By incorporating Vitavax Powder into their crop protection program, farmers can mitigate the risks associated with fungal infections, reduce yield losses, and ensure a healthy and profitable soybean harvest.

Remember, early detection and timely treatment are key to effectively managing soybean diseases. By partnering with trusted agricultural suppliers like Dhanuka Agritech and utilizing innovative products like Vitavax Powder, farmers can safeguard their soybean crops and optimize their agricultural practices for a sustainable future.

Source url: https://readnewsblog.com/understanding-soybean-diseases-common-pest-and-fungal-infections-and-their-impact/

[childhodspital]

10 Winter Care Tips To Observe in Your New Child

A new mother includes a one of a kind kind of duty on her shoulders. She desires to deliver her toddler the exceptional of toddler care this is possible. So, whilst the iciness falls and it's far extraordinarily bloodless outdoor, what's it which you want to do to defend your toddler? It is of maximum significance to offer right care because the immune device of a new child remains growing and they are able to effortlessly trap infections, bloodless and get dry pores and skin.

1.            Maintain self-hygiene you may effortlessly keep away from your toddler catching flus and colds via way of means of preserving smooth fingers and the environment. Ensure to scrub your wash or as a minimum sanitize earlier than you choose up your toddler. This manner you may save you passing on any germs or micro organism to them.

2.            Give them an excellent message now that is an essential step because it permits for higher blood go with the drift and stimulation for the duration of the toddler`s frame and provides to their immune development. Go for top toddler oil and preserve the room heat as you massage.

3.            A moisturizer is a need to! Baby pores and skin may be very tender and supple and is quite prone to dryness and itchiness. So, you need to really encompass an excellent moisturizer in its day by day skin care routine. Opt for an excellent herbal product, wealthy in milk cream and butter and keep away from those loaded with artificial elements and chemicals.

4.            Do now no longer pause/prevent breastfeeding is the exceptional and herbal manner to enhance a toddler`s immunity. Ensure which you very well breastfeed your toddler, as a minimum for the primary six months.

5.            Say NO to heavy blankets is quite ordinary to suppose that the less warm it's far outdoor, the heavier the blanket you need to use to cowl your toddler. But, no! keep away from the usage of heavy blankets and pillows as they might limition the toddler`s unfastened actions and may result in SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome)

6.            Maintain the vaccination agenda maintains with the toddler`s scheduled vaccinations as it can make sure fitness and protection for the kid even if he grows up. Even in case your toddler is unwell or has stuck bloodless, do now no longer pass over out at the vaccination appointment.

7.            Don`t overdo the toddler merchandise limition using shampoos, soaps, and frame wash withinside the harsh winters. They may want to reason greater dryness to the pores and skin. A easy water tub observed via way of means of an excellent moisturizer need to be sufficient for the season.

8.            Don`t completely say no to going out Until and until it's far freezing bloodless outdoor, do take your toddler out for a stroll. Staying interior all of the time isn't top – now no longer for you, now no longer in your toddler! Ensure that your toddler is very well included earlier than you step out.

9.            Supplement with multivitamins your medical doctor has counseled any multivitamins in your toddler, then do now no longer pass the endorsed dosage. Multivitamins additionally help in constructing power and immunity withinside the frame and they'd assist your toddler – each in the end and the fast run too!

10.          Keep your room heat you may use a heater case dry warmness and greater pores and skin dryness. the humidifier is higher. This will preserve him secure from the chills outdoor and defend him from the bloodless and flu.

Shens Clinic is the one of the Child Hospital in Chennai. For Any Queries Contact us: +91-9750269815 Visit us: https://shens.in/

[tokyoghoulstore]

5 Mysteries About Tokyo Ghoul You Should Know

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5 Mysteries About Tokyo Ghoul You Should Know

Tokyo Ghoul was one of the top anime that defined the horror genre in the anime industry for the past decade. The manga debuted in 2013 in Shonen’s Young Jump and was soon adapted into an anime series consisting of 12 episodes. A consecutive second season was followed along with another anime series titled “Tokyo Ghoul: Re”. Tokyo Ghoul had become the 27th best-selling manga series in Japan in 2013 and rose to fourth in the second consecutive year. Both Manga and Anime have been applauded for the impressive representation of a dark storyline often filled with action accompanied with great compelling characters.

Tokyo Ghoul follows the story of Ken Kaneki who lives in an alternate reality where ghouls roam the earth in disguise as normal humans. They hunt down humans and eat their flesh in order to survive and satisfy their hunger. Tokyo Ghoul was one hell of dark anime that left a lot of stories to tell. So here we are taking a look back at some of the facts that intrigue us the most about the popular horror anime.

1. The Writer Of Tokyo Ghoul Is A Mystery:

Much like Death Note’s writer Tsugumi Ohba, who writes under a pen, the writer of Tokyo Ghoul also uses an alias. Sui Ishida, the man behind Tokyo Ghoul uses the name just for print and no one knows his real name or what gender he is. Only, recently one of the editors slipped and revealed that the writer is male. But the rest about him still remains a mystery.

2. Kaneki And His Sudden Change Of Hair:

Kaneki’s hair was suddenly changed to white soon he was tortured. This is a reference to a condition called Marie Antoinette Syndrome and is named after the last Queen of France. She faced the whitening of her hair during her imprisonment before execution. The condition is often caused by extreme stress or emotional trauma.

3. Originally Kaneki Was Supposed To Eat Taguchi:

  One Of Ishida’s rough drafts says that Kaneki was supposed to eat Taguchi as ordered by Tartara. It had to be done so that Kaneki could prove his loyalty to the Aogiri Tree. But things went another side as Noro ate Taguchi while Kaneki and Tartara were left arguing. Anyway, at the end of the day, the scene didn’t make it to the final cut.

4. Suzuya And No. 13:

Yes, everyone has observed Suzuya and his association with No.13. It’s clearly a wordplay. The number represents a lot of things including loss, conclusion, transition into a completely new person, sadness, and a lot. Looking at the character it also represents his hair clip, his connection with Jason, and working in Ward No.14. Above all, the number 13 is considered unlucky in many cultures around the world, often being associated with death, loss, and betrayal.

5. The Torture Changed Kaneki And Yamori In Completely Different Ways:

So, as we saw, both Kaneki and Yamori went through a very similar way of getting tortured. But the thing is despite going to similar methods, both characters came out as different persons aiming for different things in life. For Yamori, he turned into a completely psychotic killer. He literally killed for fun rather than to feed his hungry stomach. On the other hand Kaneki also turned cold but his desire to protect his friends didn’t vanish a bit.

Above are 5 interesting facts about Anime Tokyo Ghoul, we hope you enjoy the post. To read more about this Anime, check out here!

[agirlking]

Me laying flowers on YJ’s grave: I’m sorry sudden season 2 death syndrome took you too.

[chalkrevelations]

WELL. Episode 3 of Word of Honor.

First of all: If you are NEW or JUST VISITING, this is a re-watch, so there are SPOILERS not just for this ep, but for the ENTIRE SHOW. A lot of them, actually. Scroll away and come back later if you haven’t seen all 36.5 eps and want to watch it unspoiled.

So, this ep feels a little disjointed. I don’t think it actually is, not in the way the back nine are a speedrun where the writing starts to feel like it’s thisclose to coming off the rails, but it feels like it, in that we’re now getting a double handful of threads thrust at us that are only just starting to be woven together into a plot, and it’s the kind of hot mess that any fiberwork looks like before the pattern starts to show itself, particularly when you’re using 15 different color threads from jump. There’s generally a major theme or issue or overriding concept that stands out to me in each ep that, you may have noticed, gets primacy of place in these reactions, but honestly, y’all, I really struggled to figure out what that might be for this episode, because a lot of this, on re-watch, strikes me as groundwork for later developments. Wen Kexing gives us an “as you know, Bob” speech about the Amory and the Glazed Armor, we meet approx. 3.2K new characters, and I feel sort of like I should start keeping a chart of who’s supposed to have a piece of the Glazed Armor and who actually does have a piece of the Glazed Armor, but it’s already so confusing that it might be too late.*

ANYWAY, on re-watch, I can absolutely see the value of spending Eps 1 & 2 on introducing us to Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing and getting us pulled into their orbit, because then we have scenes we’re already invested in to maintain our interest as the background politics begin to frustratingly play out with a bunch of people we don’t know or have any investment in yet. I mean, y’all. I forgot just what an ill-tempered gremlin ZZS was in these early eps. He is so fk’n put out that these people will not let him drink himself to death in the gutter in peace! Or, you know, in occasional Nightly Nails Torment. And the exasperation from both ZZS and Chengling over WKX’s antics – both of their faces are priceless in the scene when they discover he’s the one who’s bought out all the rooms at the inn. I literally lol’d. Again. Even knowing it was coming. All of this interaction is so delightful. This is actually the ep that provoked my very first WoH keysmash flailing Tumblr post and inaugurated the “wen kexing’s thirst is practically a third character” tag. I guess the biggest throughline for this ep is that we can continue to see how everything changes when we know about their previous relationship – things like WKX’s insistence that they have a “deep bond through fate” take on additional layers of meaning rather than just sounding like some dude who’s trying to pick you up at last call. Interesting that ZZS describes WKX at one point during their push-pull conversational dance as “like a wretched soul that keeps haunting around.” You mean, like a GHOST? Like a Ghost Valley ghost? Like the almost forgotten memory of a past life ghost? ZZS wants to know why WKX keeps following him around, and it would be nice if WKX would just come clean, but that would be too easy, wouldn’t it?

ZZS, re: Chengling: I do my best to ensure what was entrusted to me.

WKX: :makes (already! in ep 3!) yet another in a series of bad decisions not to say anything about the fact that he, himself, was in fact entrusted to ZZS:

Show: Here’s the first of many helpings of heartache to come. EAT IT. EAT IT ALL.

(Me: Well, here’s another AU idea: What would the course of this relationship be like if WKX flat-out asked ZZS what ZZS’s relationship to Four Seasons Manor was, and bare-faced claimed sanctuary as long-lost shidi Zhen Yan at this point? Because I bet there are plenty of ways that could actually go wrong. Not to mention the deliciousness of just watching them navigate a relationship shift that sudden. I feel like, at this point, WKX would have to be actively confrontational about it, would have to throw it in ZZS’s face – it would need to be something he did in the heat of anger, in order to have this pushed out past all of his fears. Like, you say that, but where were you when I needed you? Also, you think so, well what if your responsibility actually turned out to be the TERRIFYING GHOST VALLEY MASTER, what then, huh? And ZZS, still pretty actively suicidal over all of his failures, having to deal with what’s now being presented as YET ANOTHER FAILURE.)

Also, the theme of “knowing” (zhiji, the one I know) is starting to slide in sideways – we’re seeing a lot of back and forth between them asking about seeing the other’s “true face.” WKX says that he’ll tell ZZS what he (WKX) wants from him once he gets to see ZZS’s true face (LIES, it’s going to take a lot longer than that). ZZS asks to see WKX’s figurative true face, and WKX looks kind of sad and contemplative as he warns that it may be unappealing or terrifying. So, you know, we’re starting to poke at all the softest, most tender places and the issues that are going to stab me repeatedly in the heart for the rest of the show. We’re also already seeing the way Xiao Chu just layered in references throughout the script when she wrote it that call back to each other – it’s like almost any line of dialogue references three other lines of dialogue (and that’s without even getting into all of the literary references that I’m missing because I don’t have cultural context). You get things like WKX’s little speech right at the end that it’s hard to tell a ghost from a human, which on its face might be referring to the two “ghosts” that were coming for Chengling that he took care of and act as an admonishment to ZZS not to be so quick to assume they’re actually from Ghost Valley, but it also refers to WKX, himself, and specifically lays the groundwork (“someone wearing a ghost mask is not necessarily a ghost”) for his conversation in a later ep with ZZS when he asks if ZZS thinks he’s a good person, and also calls back (“someone who looks human may not be human”) to the line from earlier in this ep, itself, when WKX tells ZZS that perhaps WKX’s true face is terrifying. And so we get a nicely little wrapped package of the dichotomy of WKX and his issues. (As a somewhat related aside, A-Xiang’s little face when Zhou Zishu says all of the ghosts of Ghost Valley are full of evil (at 6:55). D: This reaction is obviously for herself, but also may be the first time she acts as proxy for Wen Kexing, as well.)

What else, what else?

So, nobody has a good opinion of the jianghu. WKX is going to be constantly all, “You killed my father, jianghu, prepare to die,” but ZZS also goes off about how it’s just about greed, hatred and ignorance, and yeah, I guess he’d have a pretty bad impression of it, when Prince Jin and Tian Chuang seemed like a better option than the pressure he was facing, trying to keep Siji Manor Sect alive back in the day. We talk a lot about WKX’s childhood trauma, because it’s so awful and right in our faces, but I don’t know how much we actually talk about the fact that ZZS was a teenager not much older than Chengling when he inherited a sect and tried desperately to keep it from being torn apart by the rest of the jianghu. I think we see some bitterness come out in the first few episodes – frankly, in this ep, he doesn’t seem to make much of a distinction between Ghost Valley and the rest of the jianghu. Also interesting that the metaphor he uses about the jianghu’s and Ghost Valley’s greed for the treasures of the Armory is “reaping without sowing,” given what we find out is actually in there in Ep 36.

We see our metaphor of light get pulled out again – this throughline strikes me as more like beads on a string than a thread, at this point, but maybe I’ll notice it more on this second time through … Anyway, WKX’s comment at 9:11 that it’s almost dawn is notable. Indeed, but is it because your plan is beginning to work and you can see the destruction of Ghost Valley and the jianghu coming down the pike, or is it because you’ve found your shixiong?

I notice WKX has color-coordinated ZZS and Chengling in the robes he bought for them, has already grouped them together, marked them as belonging to each other – he’s already subtly treating them as each other’s family. The show, with a particular lack of subtlety, also will have ZZS there to wake up Chengling from nightmares later in the end of the ep, as Chengling calls out for his dad in his sleep.

OK, Deng Kuan is the guy in charge of the Yueyang sect contingent that arrived in time to see the Mirror Lake chaos in Ep 2 and has taken charge of cleaning up the bodies in this ep. I actually overlooked him, pretty much, the first time around, but here, he’s already got Shen Shen yelling at him (in a completely ridiculous fashion) for not getting there in time to save the Mirror Lake Sect, so he’s just going to be a punching bag through the whole show, apparently. Shen Shen is wu-di, fifth (little) brother, and he refers to Chengling’s dad as si-ge, fourth (older) brother, so Shen Shen appears to be the youngest of the Five Lakes sworn brothers, leading me to believe that some of what makes him so insufferable through a lot of the show is baby brother syndrome. Also, Shen Shen and his group find the Soul Winding Threads of the Hanged Ghost … supposedly. I mean, the Hanged Ghost was the guy who we saw get got in Ep 1, soooooo …. (remember these Soul Winding Threads, btw).

*This got super long so I’m’a put this last bit under a cut, but I did try to start a running tally of who’s holding a piece of the Glazed Armor:

Each of the Five Lakes Alliance sects is supposed to have a piece of the Glazed Armor, yes? So, as of the end of Ep 3 (hierarchical bro-titles are from didi Shen Shen’s POV):

- Yueyang Sect, led by Gao Chong (da-ge) - presumably still has his

- Tai Hu Sect, led by Zhao Jing (er-ge) – presumably still has his

- Danyang Sect, led by Lu Taichong (san-ge, presumably) – apparently the sect has already been attacked off-screen (by “Ghost Valley?” and WHEN?), as we learn in Ep 3 that Lu-zongzhu has been killed and his remaining two tiny disciples have fled to the protection of Ao Laizi and Tai Shan Sect, one of the lesser sects, and are believed to have taken Danyang’s Glazed Armor with them. We learn this from Tao Hong, Lv Liu and Begger Gang Chief, but I notice that Gao Chong only mentions the Mirror Lake massacre as the precipitating event for the Hero’s Conference and total war on Ghost Valley – he doesn’t even mention Danyang Sect, so does Five Lakes not know about this yet?

- Mirror Lake Sect, led by Zhang Yusen (si-ge) – Zhang-zongzhu killed by “Ghost Valley” in Ep 2, Glazed Armor ��missing” and speculated POST EP 2 to have been taken by Ghost Valley (but will turn up in a few eps, thanks to our little Goldbean)

- Dagu Shan Sect, led by Shen Shen (wu-di) – presumably still has his

And then we move to:

- Tai Shan Sect, led by Ao Laizi – in-world speculation is that he now has the Danyang Glazed Armor. We do see him near the end of the ep with the two tiny Danyang shidi, where he makes the intriguing comment that he’s going to follow their shifu’s last wishes and keep their Glazed Armor from falling into the hands of the Five Lakes Alliance, so what exactly was going on between San-ge and his sworn brothers at the time of his death? This group also is apparently being pursued by Shen Shen to get their Glazed Armor, and they make him sound awful. You need better PR, Shen Shen.

- Ghost Valley – POST EP 2, speculated to have taken the Mirror Lake Glazed Armor (FALSE)

NOTABLY, “Ghost Valley Master” set a lot of this chaos in motion in Ep 1 when he claimed that Hanged Ghost (who got got a scene earlier) had stolen HIS piece of the Glazed Armor, although he shouldn’t have a piece (supposedly) until after Ep 2, when he’s believed to have taken Mirror Lake’s. So, what piece would that be, exactly, Terrifying Ghost Valley Master? You wouldn’t be lying in pursuit of chaos would you? (Somewhere, WKX gasps theatrically behind his fan, and he doesn’t even know what motivated it, this time.)

[mc-critical]

Do you think MC hurrem, before the bayezid and selim conflict of course, ever considered that the traditional fratricide could possibly happen amongst her sons? Mustafa hypothetically killing her sons if he became sultan is constantly used as a reason for why she had to get rid of him but how could multiple princes having the same mother resolve any potential conflict for the throne? Sorry idk if what i said makes sense

Don't worry at all, I understood you perfectly! ^^

No, I don't think MC Hürrem considered that possibility as strongly before the inevitable occured.

First off, her adaption to the harem was a slow and gradual process and she certainly didn't become aware of all the rules, all the sudden. (as when she was surprised that Mustafa was getting his own harem before the sanjack) She knew enough to set a goal in her mind from the first episode, but didn't get to see the full picture until she went through fulfilling that goal step by step and saw an obstacle that would be impossible to ignore. She was so focused on the path to survive, she brushed off the cost of said path in the first place.

It's true that in the beginning, there wasn't a reason for her to consider possible ongoing rivalry or fratricide between her sons. Nigar told her that she would rule the world if she gives the Sultan a child and when she becomes aware of the competition in the harem, what would make her prevail over them all, guided by her desire to make SS only hers and maintain power, for she would stop undergoing the same trauma and disrespect all over again? More children! We could argue that, throughout season 1, she views having more children as a privilege - not only does it secure more her position as a favorite, but it makes her gain advantage and power over her rival in this game. Notice how she boasts about the possibility alone in front of Mahidevran in both E06 and E11! ("It will be a boy. Then it will be a boy again. Then it will be a boy again and again..."; "I will give birth to many princes, but you won't even give birth to a girl.") These lines could be an attempt of assertion and a mask of vulnerability and insecurity, in a way, but this is far from the only thing going on. Not just the children, but the princes specifically are capilatized on, because bearing one is considered an honor in this harem and for every pregnancy, Hürrem expresses an almost firm confidence that it will be, without a doubt, a prince. The whole system in the show, sadly enough, encourages that whoever has more sons is more powerful and will get everyone else out of their way eventually, without shining a light on the more grim implications and what the mothers will possibly have to go through with their many sons, to the point it simply leaves them to find this out by themselves. It puts the princes in idealized superiority that is one of the first things Hürrem gets used to and that's why she was initially taken aback when Mihrimah was born instead of another prince she wanted so much. By that point, she had no time to consider eventual conflicts or fratricide because of her (initial) upper hand.

The higher stakes were kept under wraps in the series itself, too, because of its Cerebus Syndrome nature that lets you endear with the characters at first in lighter, more mainly interpersonal situations and then move to the wider scale of the historical themes, having them grow as people and political players and realize the bigger context along with the evolution of the narrative. That is coupled with the children's ages, for the small age, to me, was presented as a symbol of innocence. There's this prevailing trend in Hürrem's character during season 2 where she kept saying that Mustafa is too little for doing certain stuff (like going to a campaign, to a province, etc.) and that, I think, is telling enough of the amount of awareness she had for an eventual conflict between her sons. That was a general theme of the show, too, because both Mahidevran and Hürrem held no ill will against the other's children when they were small, as seen by them taking care of them during the janissary rebellion and Mahidevran saving Mehmet in E16. The children themselves weren't a priority of eradication for them back then and when they were little, they were something worth protecting as a mother's value, not tools to be moulded for the future battle for the throne. When their mothers find a common ground in this aspect, would a conflict between children of one and the same mother be possible? Only when they grow up, awareness comes to the surface, bacause by the time they're still small, they're harmless and innocent. (handicapped by SS's words to Mustafa in E46: "As you grow up, the innocence between us disappears, my Mustafa.") Even Hürrem set herself against Mustafa only by E38 and she didn't want his death until then. Knowing this, could she predict that something could go wrong between her own sons, no less? Doesn't she have other stuff to do until she reaches that point? Isn't she too busy in forging her own survival path and not think as much about her children before they grow up?

Then again, Hürrem has shown to be capable of anything to always remain in SS's good graces both because she is devoted to him and for her own goals. The princes play a part in this, because they have to gain the padişah's support first and foremost and that simply cannot be done through quarrels. Hürrem may have grown wise to this, with the many cases of her ordering the children to go away once a conflict of any kind ensues and especially, always telling them throughout season 3 not to fight with each other, not even because of her, and stressing that family is the most important thing. She may have wanted their childhoods to be as peaceful as possible, rendering them (except Mihrimah) oblivious to what she's gone through, which gave them a sense of naivety in the process. And while that naivety turned out to be a double-edged sword (as we saw with Mehmet fully believing Illyas and Cihangir believing in SS's promise that he won't sacrifice Mustafa), it could've been a way for Hürrem to make sure that her children in general would always seek a consensus and look good in front of the sultan. That didn't end up being the case. Despite of these possible measures of hers, I doubt she got fully aware of the possibility, precisely because of her set goals. Even though the dismissal of Selim and Bayezid's conflict became a main arc of Hürrem's in S04, there were also hints of this in S02, shown by E53: "Such a sun will rise that that sun will only rise for me and my children." Her fixation on Mustafa as the single pivotal moment of her life fight is a huge character flaw of hers almost right from the moment she began to see him as a threat and even from her first attempt, as we see by the quote above, she thinks that by eliminating him, it would be all over, assuringly discarding everything else afterwards. And Selim and Bayezid were already arguing by that episode and it only escalated further since then, because of her ignorance as a part of the whole issue.

It's even questionable whether she has ever thought that, maybe there is more work to be done after Mustafa, because Hürrem's fixation became more predominant as the series progressed, in conjunction with the evergrowing Selim and Bayezid conflict. It was already so prevalent by S04 that Hürrem went as far as to blame Mustafa for the first big scandal between them in E112 and Mihrimah had to remind her of their rivalry-slowly-turning-to-enmity's very existence in the first half of the season that is there in spite of who Hürrem thinks is the bigger problem. She didn't give it the significant attention it deserved when they were little and I, for one, believe that she had to investigate more when Selim set Bayezid's arrow up for failure around E91/92 and not scold only Bayezid, for it only heightened his resentment for Selim. She didn't think of it as something that big to deal with, it was probably a problem they would fix by themselves for good measure, because they're still children after all, aren't they? But a resentment of a child could only continue to live on, especially in such a time period, so if Hürrem, knowing how paranoid she could be and how much she tried to evade everything that could oppose her success, predicted the future mass of the conflict, wouldn't she do something more, wouldn't she nullify it? It's a given that she can't be next to them in every single minute of the day, but the possible outcome itself just screams for tiiiny bit more involvement on her part. The earlier you interfere, the earlier would stop the obstacle in its entirety. Hürrem is smart enough to know this, so the logical thing is that she didn't fully take all that into account. She couldn't, and possibly didn't, want to predict this as a mother.

The very realization of the actual massive power of Selim and Bayezid's enmity and her newfound inability to interfere almost at all to it came as such a surprise for her. She not only completely miscalculated, but it broke her heart into pieces. She didn't see coming any conflict of the like, because if she did, even before the whole fiasco happened, early into S01-2, she would never let it reach such extremes. And the realization hit her in such an unexpected way that she wanted to escape the shock that she had to choose and try to solve things as she has always had, doing things that should've been done such a long time ago. Would she be so helpless when she finally came to terms with the following fratricide, if she saw it coming before the conflict even started?

In summary: Hürrem didn't think of something like this at all early on and when it happened, she did see the roots, but could never, not even in her dreams, imagine the devastating results.

Though yeah, could a conflict between sons of the same mother fully be resolved in circumstances like these? I very much doubt it. Even if the mother removed the tension between them, there are other factors we shouldn't forget (I refer to SS's reign in particular): they are sons of the same mother, but they're still candidates for the throne, hence they're rivals and both the people and the padişah will have to pick a favourite. No matter how impartial a sultan seems to be, he does end up picking sides eventually - whether it's about the province one is sent in, when they're sent in it, how often does he visit them, what in them does he approve or disprove of or how competent they are in his eyes. It's inevitable for them to live in absolute peace in an environment that would sooner or later cause them to fight until one's absolute and total failure.

[mallowstep]

nursery things

when do queens move into the nursery?

also it is very important to me that kits call their parents by their names

this lost all formatting when i pasted it but i need to sleep in literally three mintues enjoy

gestation

cats have a gestation period of about 2 months. for the sake of cat ease, we'll say they think of it as a full season, but obviously they don't know if they're pregnant until as little as a moon before they give birth. this is not factually what is occuring, it's what they think, because that means kits become apprentices at nine moons, a holy number.

anyway, cats will show at three weeks to an experienced eye. at four weeks, they'll have a bit of morning sickness. by five weeks, they'll be able to feel the kits development. so that's uh, about 5 weeks before they give birth?

i'm really bad at math i'm sorry.

after that, they're going to grow rapidly and become unfit for patrols fairly quickly. i'm trying to construct a timeline for the fourth apprentice and the poppyfrost drama, but if berrynose knew poppyfrost's kits were coming, he probably had a point.

i mean, she didn't have to move into the nursery, that was overzealous, and she had some time before she couldn't serve as a warrior, but pregnant queens are not exactly mobile.

like mate. she's not going anywhere.

queen madness

i've talked about this a lot and i'm kind of rushing to get this out bc i have a midterm tomorrow so i'm going to bed in 15 minutes regardless of whether or not i post/queue something but i don't want to cheat by uploading allegiances for something i wasn't planning on writing allegiances for (plus those always take me forever) and fuck i'm getting to the point

look. i've talked a lot about this and i don't have anything new to say.

queens. they get overprotective.

frankly, squilf refusing to take young kits back to camp and them hiding under her tail is a fucking trope in my fic.

i don't even know how that's possible, and yet.

fading

so there's this cat equivalent of sids (sudden infant death syndrome) where young (feral) kits just kind of...don't live.

it's also pretty similar to what's called "failure to thrive"

anyway all of these things are interesting go look them up (sad tho be forewarned, also re. failure to thrive lots of very unethical decisions.)

but anyway, i've introduced this concept as fading for several reasons.

one, it explains the vanishing kits problem.

two, it explains why so many kits die despite having socialized medicine with around 95-99% cure rates.

three, it's a good folklore thing. like, queens are scared of this. they're anxious about it. especially in leaf-bare. it adds a good bit of filler drama and all that.

four, more cat biology accuracy.

anyway, this is marked by a kit failing to grow properly. there's nothing wrong with them, they just...never "get on board."

i'm not digging it out now but i have a quote somewhere that's basically "well, she's quiet and calm, but she's growing, so i don't think she's going to die in her sleep."

anyway, this is basically my merciful catchall for kit death. sue me, that's one of my lines.

(but wait, i hear you say, didn't you literally write a fic involving neonaticide and neonaticannabalism? i made that word up i can't spell for shit tho. well, yes, however, those are not character kits, they are plot devices, and you know it. so it doesn't cross the line. i didn't give them personalities for a reason.)

so yeah. okay 10 minutes left and two more sections i can do this.

birthdays (birth days)

heh no one fucking cares.

about, like, the human concept of a birth day.

no, so queens will know they're going to kit soon up to a week beforehand. hazy sources, i'm sorry, provide on request.

again i'm rushin.

right anyway so queens are pretty Aware as you will, and so there's plenty of time to prep the nursery. or other location. that's fairly common in green-leaf, but the clan works real hard to avoid it in the other seasons because it's significantly riskier.

but anyway, a separate kitting nest is provided, and because these are near human levels of intelligence, the cats don't have problems figuring shit out. the other kits are cleared out to the elders den for as many as three nights (kitting can take up to 40 hours), and it's usually the queen's wish to spend a night w her mate. (a) because parents and (b) because safety instincts.

(also as an only vaguely unrelated side, i've recommended "the minor fall, the major life" before and i can't say too much now because i don't have 15 minutes to reread the whole thing i read 1k words a minute and type 100 words a minute how do you think i publish so much but there's some funny? i think it's funny stuff where redtail is all "you know it's kind of concerning how willowpelt keeps having children with no clear father")

and uh, yeah. queens usually track their kits birth to the nearest whole or half moon depending on the clan. there's usually a transitional day ceremony and a mid season ceremony, kits are done when the queens decide they're mature, usually erring over six moons, but on occasion, erring under.

as far as i'm concerned, cinder/bracken/thorn/bright situations never happen. i never remember the four of them are littermates because of that.

moving on i have like 1 minute fuck i forgot i need to brush my teeth

kinship terms

i've already started work on a separate piece for this but.

kits call everyone by their name. they might stumble over it, and those become nicknames, the way young kids do, but please remove every instance of a kit calling "mama" and replace it with either a generic meow or their mother's name.

this is important to me. it just doesn't make sense for the clan to do this, imo, because we see no other terms to refer to people, not even a father term. kits canonically call their fathers by their name (skyclan and the stranger.) anyway i'll talk more about this later i'm out of time.

conclusion

love u bye <3

[twentiethcenturymoviesandtv]

M*A*S*H: The Characters, Part 2: Trapper McIntyre, Henry Blake, and Margaret Houlihan

Trapper (Wayne Rogers) was a similar type of character to Hawkeye: a trickster Deadpan Snarker who had had his fill of the war by the time the show started.  Originally beginning the show as Hawkeye’s equal, he unfortunately fell to the position of ‘sidekick’ more often than not, a natural side-effect of Alan Alda’s magnetic performance and Hawkeye’s overpowering personality.  But where Hawkeye was unattached and had more potential for sincerity, Trapper was married, (but still playing a Casanova) and tended to be more lighthearted.

Trapper started out as ‘The Lancer’, a supporting role that got plenty of screentime and action, and despite only being on the show for three seasons, a fair amount of character development.  While he was never as depressed a character as Hawkeye, Trapper did have his moments of darkness, such as being tempted to kill a North Korean POW(who had unintentionally cost the life of one of Trapper’s patients) or punching out Hawkeye in an attempt to rush home.  Episodes like “Kim” and “Check Up” do give Trapper a spot in the limelight, but in the end, over the grand scheme of the show, Trapper’s chief influence came after he’d left.

Between seasons three and four, Trapper acquired enough points to get sent home, which he did while Hawkeye was on R&R.  This event signaled the second gut punch of the show, as Trapper’s departure occurred directly after Colonel Henry Blake left the show the episode prior.  But while Blake had a send-off (a heartbreaking one that we’ll come back to in a minute), Trapper…didn’t.  He just left.  No note, no message, nothing but a peck on the cheek for Hawkeye, his best friend.

Unlike most sitcoms on at the time, where Trapper’s departure would have been largely overlooked for the rest of the show, the hole that Trapper left in the camp, and notably in Hawkeye, was felt for the remainder of the series.  He is often mentioned in episodes after he’s gone, and the impact of his exit (and the lack of goodbye) is felt even by characters who never met him, such as his replacement, B.J. (more on him later).  Trapper was an early staple, who, despite his short time with the series, made a difference, just like real people do, and in the end, he was one of the lucky ones: he got to go home.  Trapper returned to his wife and kids, and left Korea behind, and left the 4077th a little emptier as a result.

And he wasn’t the only one.

For the first three seasons, the 4077th was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake, (McLean Stevenson) hailing from Bloomington, Illinois.  Henry was a skilled, caring doctor…and a terrible colonel.

Very much ‘The Alleged Boss’, Henry freely admitted that he wasn’t an army man.  He was a surgeon, with a practice at home.  Extremely Mildly Military, (frequently out of uniform and sporting a fishing hat) Henry left the running of the camp to Radar O’Reilly, the company clerk, and tended to try as hard as he could to not make command decisions.

With that said, Henry was a very kind man, understandably frustrated with his situation and missing his own wife and family back in the states (though, like Trapper, he did cheat on his wife a few times during the course of the show, with little remorse.  He was a Father to His Men, (especially Radar), and despite his typically goofy, down-to-earth nature, he had his moments of wisdom.

Hawkeye: “I haven’t cried once since I came to this crummy place. Why am I crying for him? Why not any of these other kids?”

Henry: “If I had the answer to that, I’d be at the Mayo Clinic. Does this look like the Mayo Clinic to you? All I know is what they taught me in command school. There are certain rules about a war. Rule number one is young men die. And rule number two is doctors can’t change rule number one.”

He was well-liked among the camp (except by Frank Burns and Margaret Houlihan), and in the end, his departure was a celebrated event…at first.

We can’t discuss Henry Blake without talking about “Abysinnia, Henry”.

The season 3 finale, “Abysinnia Henry”, was television history, for one major reason (at first): Henry Blake was going home.

By season 3, M*A*S*H mattered to people.  It was doing well in the ratings, many people were watching it, so when season 3 rolled around and the news hit that Henry Blake was going to go home, many people were, just as they are in the episode, elated for him.  The episode is a funny, heartfelt goodbye to the commanding officer, complete with a touching goodbye from each character.  Henry gets on the chopper, takes off…and the war goes on.

Until the final scene.

Radar O’Reilly, company clerk and son-figure to Henry Blake, barges into surgery in a state of dazed distress, reading off a note:

“I have a message… Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake’s plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan. It spun in. There were no survivors.”

That was a gut punch, and audiences, as well as the characters, felt it keenly.

To quote the video essay: “Lightning in a Bottle – a M*A*S*H* Video Essay” by Ladyknightthebrave:

“Before this, characters did not die on half-hour situational comedies.  Not main characters anyway, and certainly not like this.  This moment changed television.”

It’s true.  In the 1970s, main characters did not die on sitcoms, and they certainly didn’t die on the way home from a war to be reunited with their families.  It wasn’t fair.  It wasn’t right.  Henry was almost home…and in the end, it didn’t matter.

While we often point to the episode “Sometimes You Hear the Bullet” as the moment M*A*S*H’s Cerberus Syndrome kicked in, there is an undeniable level of gravity that entered the scene the moment the news of Henry’s death entered the world of the 4077th.  All of a sudden, M*A*S*H went from ‘zany military hospital sitcom’ to coming face-to-face with the horrible reality that not everyone gets to go home at the end.

And like with Trapper, Henry’s shadow hung over the rest of the show.  

“They’ll never stop coming, you know. Trapper left, and they’re still coming. Henry got killed, and they’re still coming. Wherever they come from, they’ll never run out.”

At the end of season three, M*A*S*H lost both of these major players, and the loss was keenly felt, by the characters as much as by the audience.  Again, in the early 1970s, sitcom characters didn’t just leave, much less die, especially like that.  But the show had to go on, much as the war would, and instead of leaving two gaping holes in the command structure, replacements were sent in for the missing crew:

“Trapper John goes. No problem, there’s plenty more where he came from.  B.J. Hunnicutt. Same size, same shape.  Frank Burns out, Winchester in. Only a hair’s difference.  Henry Blake… Rest in peace, Henry. Incoming, Sherman Potter.”

But we’ll get to that later.  You see, while these characters would fade out and bring replacements in their wake, other characters, besides Hawkeye, remained staples of the show from beginning to end.

Characters like Margaret Houlihan.

While Hawkeye, Trapper, and Henry got by through Mildly Military antics and a blatant disregard or incompetence when it came to the army way of doing things, Major Margaret Houlihan (Loretta Swit) was a born soldier and head-nurse.  A strict, by-the-book Battleaxe Nurse and an ex-Military Brat, Margaret Houlihan was the definitive Defrosting Ice Queen, matching Hawkeye, and even outpassing him in terms of character development.

Margaret started the show as a one-note, one-joke caricature, much like most characters did.  Originally wholly unlikeable and serving as an antagonist to the rest of the main cast, Margaret was a Gung Holier Than Thou exaggeration of a character…early on, anyway.  Beginning the show as an entirely unsympathetic person, partner to Frank Burns (romantically involved with him, despite the fact that he was a married man), Margaret’s early personality left few positives to be seen…at first, anyway.

“I don’t fall over, captain. Everything around here will be just fine if there’s a little less leaning and a lot more leadership. We need obedience. We need discipline, not this chaos. Doctors like you constantly out of uniform. Nurses who don’t belong in uniform. Dogs running around loose in camp…they’re getting run over by jeeps.”

While there were glimmers of character development early on, as seasons went by, slowly, Margaret started to change, for the better.

Starting in season 5, with her engagement to Lt. Col. Donald Penobscott and dumping of Major Frank Burns, Margaret began to lose a number of her sharp, hard edges, becoming a warmer person, proving herself Not So Above it All, with plenty of Pet the Dog moments becoming more and more prominent as the show continued.  Slowly, she began to demonstrate real humanity, and a desire to be accepted.

“Did you ever show me any kind of friendship? Ask my help with a personal problem? Include me in one of your little bull sessions? Can you imagine what it feels like to walk by this tent and hear you laughing and know I’m not welcome? Did you ever once ever offer me a lousy cup of coffee?”

Despite this growth coinciding with her marriage, things were to change yet again for Margaret in season seven.

After a tumultuous marriage to her high-ranking husband, (a type she has demonstrated an attraction to in the past) a frustrated, exhausted, and cheated-on Margaret makes the decision to divorce her husband, a decision that would stick through to the end of the show.  Margaret remained single to the end, growing out of her role as stickler and love-interest, and becoming a full-fledged, strong character in her own right, as a Vitriolic Best-Bud to Hawkeye and B.J., and a compassionate, kind, strong, woman who learns to define herself, not only by the army, but by her own terms as a person.

Easily one of the most dynamic characters of the show, arguably the most dynamic, Margaret managed to become one of the most human characters on the show, without becoming perfect.  Her edges were smoothed somewhat, but never taken away, and she ended the show a deeper, richer person than she had been at the start.

Which is more than we can say for Major Frank Burns.

(Join us next time for Part 3: Frank Burns, Radar O’Reilly, Maxwell Klinger, and more!)

[alvearesss]

Tow Ubukata hates Ginoza Nobuchika

I don’t know about you guys since a lot of you don’t care all that much about Ginoza Nobuchika as much and believe Kougami is the stardom of the series and should be treated as such despite the show introduces a balance for each character to have their own share of screentime unlike other shows and anime who share a habit of favoritism for the main character and leaving no other character a fair share for their own growth and how the progress among the characters themselves and the plot.

Although Ginoza was not the main protagonist of show, he was still an important character, or the tritagonist (the third important character after the protagonist and deuteragonist) followed after Akane. I have yet to make a Kouginaka anayls essay on why Akane and Kougami (or as in the Shinkane territory) cannot progress or even happen without the presence of the senior Inspector and no matter you all want to deny this but it is true, where did you think the direction would go if Ginoza never existed?

Anyways on to this…

It’s not a unheard for me for having such a hatred for S2 and for good reason. One of my biggest pet peeves for S2 is that it’s a rewritten version of S1; everything Urobuchi worked and developed for the series was thrown in the trash to make room for Ubukata’s gory sci-fi and melodramatic scenario and the characters are watered down from their representative personalities in favor of the new environment and drama playing in his tunes.

But to become an exact clone of his former father? why make him a Masaoka 2.0 if the writers knew on producing another season for psycho-pass, look at Tenma for peek’s shake he’s basically another Masaoka 3.0 (are there any other Tomomi Masaokas I should know about? ok, enough with the Spongebob jokes) By the end of S1, Ginoza became more down-to-earth after being rehabbed and no one seemed to realize and ignore the fact he was not only devastated by the death of his father and Kougami leaving them behind and was possibly dying from blood loss as well, he showed no signs of the former Enforcer and lost father in terms of personality and antics by the end of the series. This just makes Ginoza appear out-of-character and it drove me nuts to this sudden character change and haven’t notice it by the first time watching S2.

In Case 2, we finally got introduced to Ginoza’s mother for the first time after years of curiosity wondering what happened to her, we came to the conclusion to the possibility of her being dead since she was barely mention at all and how did that impacted Ginoza as a person. Masaoka said his son have the same eyes when he was younger meaning that senior inspector have took after his mother in appearance. We can see distinguish them as they don’t look that similar

let’s not us forget the horrible same face syndrome from Frozen (a movie so mediocre that it deserves the same mockery as Twilight did back in the late 2000s - early 2010s, good old days)

Ginoza and Sae manage to dodge the bullet on this one

Plus, there is also the Mika-Ginoza dynamic, because why not? if you notice how in both season 2 and 3; any interactions between Kougami/Akane and Ginoza seem nonexistent? In season 2, they barely talk about anything else outside of the workplace and all Gino does is worry constantly about Akane’s hue despite knowing she is capable of handling her hue very well by the end of S1 after putting her down multiple times for her so called reckless behavior. His reunion with Kougami in S3 was a shallow one and to my disappointment, was expecting a soft of teary-like or grounded, hell even Ginoza and Akane don’t have any interactions in S3 now that I think about it. In Case 1, it is revealed he is worried and misses Kougami and talks fondly about him; how he hated himself for not saving him but is proud of him for being strong which made him jealous. Then there’s the hallucination trope that Shinkane fans are madly in love with and it brutally debunks the notion that it’s only Akane but it turns out Ginoza also suffers from hallucinating Kougami as well!

To me, it’s feels like the team had Ginoza rewritten for the reconstruction of the new dialogue for the show and as a someone whom Kougami and Akane never had interactions in the past and as someone is now given the background character treatment.

While the official website does mention Mika is a lesbian and the show implied it by the end of the Rikako arc but it was never explored, her interactions with Yayoi seems more like sisterly love rather than romantic love, because of this, Mika’s orientation doesn’t share the same treatment as Yayoi’s creating the notion she is not a lesbian after all. So Ubukata decided it to throw it over the window because an enforcer for some reason doesn’t have a love interest so how could he pair him with someone not named Akane? oh! tease ship him with Mika! (plus gino is not gay so why not AGAIN lol)

what a lovely hetero couple despite they don’t have a much of an emotional interaction but birds of feathers am I right?

Say what you want to say about the Butcher and how he likes to the tease Ginoza just for angst but at least he managed to write and develop a well constructed character who went from an indifferent detective who doesn’t bat an eye for what happens to the people he loves after combating the hurt of losing them to level-headed guy who now accepts a new method on how to handle criminals after becoming one himself because he still has that special someone (not Mika) can show him that there is a life outside and it is not the end of the world to be demoted, Ubukata on the other hand doesn’t know what to do with him and do not see Ginoza as important as the two main two and decided that it was okay to not respect his former character.

I know it is not Ubukata who is only to blame for this, the entire team as a whole and it’s very shocking how Shiotani and Fukami who worked with Psycho Pass since the very beginning hasn’t called any of this out and went along with the flow because reasons

Sure, he wasn’t killed off for any reason but is demolishing his character worthy of it? Geez, who knows what will happen to him in the supposed S4

#JusticeforGinoza2020

I had to delete my previous post because it wasn’t showing on the tag so here’s a standard edition and enjoy your reading and let me know if you want to add commentary in relation to this topic

[lisinfleur]

Vikings - ep1 and 2 analysis

OOOOOOOK! New season, new episode, and here I am again - for probably the last time! - to rant about Vikings!

SPOILERS AHEAD! If you didn't see the last 2 episodes then... GO FUCKING SEE THEM!

Well... What to say, what to say... Let's play Jack the Ripper and slice it in parts... In Nightwish's words, "prepare to hate me..."

Lagertha - The Bitch Kill me. I don't care. I hate her! WHY THE FUCK DID SHE KILL ASLAUG FOR THE CROWN IF SHE-DIDN'T-FUCKING-WANT-THE-DAMN-CROWN? I just can't understand why ruining the fucking balance and hurt Ivar even more - which probably was the reason why this FUCKING MONSTER was created in the first place! - if she would just jump out of the boat in the end and retire like a good farmer. Fuck me, Lags! You were better when you were killing your husband to become an Earl! At least, she had a good reason to act like that and become someone great! Now? She's lost to me. Valhalla is the best retirement. And in this matter? I'm team Ivar. The only good thing about this situation was Björn earning the first of many kicks in his balls of these episodes: no, my dear, mommy won't be by your side now, little boy. FUCKING GROW UP AND... How did Ragnar say to Ubbe? Oh, yeah! BE A MAN! Speaking of the devil...

Ubbe - The Collared Wolf Fine. I thought I would hate him more these first two episodes, but I had a wrong impression of the teasers. At least, for now, I kinda can understand his point about Hvitserk - he's sick indeed, but this is another topic. What I can't understand is this sudden syndrome of momma's boy towards Lagertha. Fuck, my man, she fucking killed your mother, brother! You don't go there and build a damn dollhouse to play home with the woman who fucking killed your family! I mean... You cannot forgive your favorite brother for jumping a damn boat to side with another, but you can gods damn forget the woman who fucking placed an arrow into your mother's back? What the fuck, dude? Where are your priorities? Oh, yes... On your "wanna be Björn" kink... Got it. He became everything Torvi wanted in life: a copy of Björn who wants to raise her children, stay with her, and play home all the time, unlike the original one that was too busy traveling the world - and fucking princesses around - to really think his family was important enough for him to spend time home with it. And more than anything: a copy that she can control, cause it is the second time she just moves her chin up and he does what she wants. Yeah, Ubbe... You quite understood what being a good husband looks like (#no #HELLno!)... Let's just beg the gods that she doesn't go insane, cause good Ubbe cannot deal with insane people, right? Speaking of insanity...

Hvitserk - The Mad Mad Margreth... oops! In two words? POOR PUPPY! Hvitserk seems to be fully lost. And it was clear for me when he spoke about the men that burned Thora. He fully blamed them for her loss and seeing Björn releasing them alive - even banished the way he did - was too much for his heart. He was expecting Björn to allow him to kill them, or to kill them himself and maybe it would have solved Thora's topic in his mind - despite the fact that Ivar is the major responsible for her death. But the way he saw Whitehair and the others going out of those gates alive was too much... Hvitserk now doubts Björn's love for him, he can't understand Ubbe's behavior - and neither can I! I mean, you forgive our mother's murderer but not me??? - and he feels abandoned by both sides, alone. It seems for him that he will never be anything to anyone, not to Ivar - who saw him like a dog and humiliated him - nor to Ubbe - who feeds nothing but contempt for his insane brother the same way he fed contempt for the mad wife he left behind - nor to Björn - who ignored his pain and set free the men who killed the woman he loved. Hvitserk is alone, lost, forgotten, and going down the same hill of self-destruction Ragnar once went through. He's my biggest hope - despite knowing Marco said that Hvitserk "is fucked up" - that somehow this story will have a turn and we won't see a new Ragnar going down into drugs and ending up defeated, killing himself like Ragnar did (Cause tell me whatever you want! Ecbert would have never caught Ragnar and Aelle would have never killed him if it wasn't HIS choice). Now, let's move on to...

Björn - The Super-Wooper-Dooper-Ultra-MOMMA'S BOY!!! Where is Sigurd to spit on his face and call him Momma's Little Favorite? Someone call David and tell him we have one more scene for Sigurd's ghost to do! Not that I never saw this before - I saw, since the beginning! - that Björn was a momma's boy that can't face the world by himself or accept his mother did something that fucked up his brothers' lives and relationship and that she should pay for what she did. But I have to say few things in these episodes were more pleasurable for me than seeing Björn receiving multiple kicks in his damn overused balls! First of all, the amazing domino effect of Lagertha's actions in retiring causing the beautiful baby bear to be all alone at the throne. BEAUTIFUL. Then, Ubbe's carelessness. "Just makes me happy I'm not King." GO-FUCKING-ORGEOUS! The dead Seer (that somehow talks to the living and seems to be Björn's hallucination) even in his own mind, leaving him all alone to make his own decisions. AMAZING! Then Hvitserk's self-consciousness. "I think you're crazy but it doesn't matter for you anyway". I almost had an orgasm. Serious. You fucking wanted the crown. You gods damn fought for it! Now DO IT YOURSELF, LITTLE PRINCESS! I'm really rejoicing to see his arrogant ass being put on its place in this season! But I have to clap my hands and applaud at least one of his actions. I'm here to fuck up his reputation about his mistakes, so I must be here to put in the highlight when he does something good and to go against everyone and answer Harald's cry for help was something good and honored - despite my thoughts and feelings that this is a trap and Olaf didn't steal anything from anyone. As the cherry on top of his cake was Torvi's amazing answer to his credits for the children's raising. "And Ubbe!" I almost peed on my pants laughing! You never wanted to raise your children and be a father, now, admit your brother is occupying your place very well... Speaking of good things and girls...

Torvi - THE LOVE OF MY LIFE IN THESE EPISODES! ALL HAIL QUEEN TORVI, man! She fucking kicked ass in these episodes and I have to thank that girl for kicking the right balls I wanted to kick! While Gunnhild became the calm and cold ruler that's just sitting beside Björn giving him good advice and sewing for her child to come, Torvi fucking took that braid behind Ubbe's head as reins and is guiding the stallion! Hail, girl!! That chin-up of hers is amazing! I laugh out loud when Ubbe put his dick back into his pants and nods like a good dog just because she put her chin up with a mute "Solve it!". Man, the girl was amazing! I loved the few lines she had and I really want to see more of this in this season! Speaking of things I want to see...

Oleg - The... There is a name in human words for such a char? FUCK-ME! AND I MEAN IT! Guy is amazing! Guy-is-fucking-amazing! I just LOVED this man! He's A THOUSAND TIMES better than Headmund and I'm in love! What was that TRUCK that fucking rode over me?? Oleg is incredible! Crazy, like Ivar, but through a WHOLE different way! He takes the fights among brothers to a whole new level and I have to say I LOVED his interaction to Ivar so far. I'm eager for more! GIMME MORE OLEG IN THIS SHIT!! But speaking of Ivar...

I didn't forget to say goodbye to the crippled. What the fuck was Ivar in these episodes? I laughed SO HARD with him! He was amazing! His curiosity, his fear, his tears, his feelings! HIS LAUGHS!!! YAS!!! Fucking human again! Just like I love him! Human! Not a god, not a commander, A HUMAN! Who fears, who shits on his pants when suspended too high, who feels for a man who died saluting his name for loyalty. Who plays with a boy and sits to hear him playing the oud (was it an oud? Idk, but I bet that boy is Sigurd reincarnated just to make Ivar have to tolerate an oud beside him!). This was amazing and I fucking loved the interaction of Ivar with all the things that happened to him since he went through that road. Well, maybe Hvitserk will see this as well and the human-Ivar will attract him back to his side. Maybe not. Idk. I just know that...

Speaking of the whole season start: I'm happy! For the first time since this series entered the boys' phase, I'm happy to see a season starting and so many things that REALLY caught my attention. And I'm really full of hope that Hirst will keep up with this rhythm and offer us a good ending to something that was so enormously loved as Vikings has been since Ragnar. I loved these two episodes, I'm full of energy and all I can say now is...

GIMME MORE!