#technology level prevalence of magic etc

[a-total-and-complete-nerd]

Brandon Sanderson: Fantasy vs. Sci-Fi

Almost all of BrandoSando's books straddle the line between the two genres, and after seeing @approximateknowledge's post here, I wondered how they would lay out on that chart. I was also inspired by this fascinating WOB about Skyward's genre. These are just my opinions, so let me know if you agree or what you think you'd change!

[thedancingemu]

Here's a post a started writing up maybe a year ago - I'm still not happy with it but I guess I can post the rough idea now and revise/add to it later!

Worldbuilding post - Divers!

Adventurous folk who “Dive” into ruins and other magically active areas in search of relics, herbs, creatures, minerals and other useful items.

Lost technology is often preserved and infused with magic properties after soaking up magic for years. A lightbulb that's always on and never needs a power source, a door that leads to an interdimensional broom closet (or, rarely, somewhere nicer), a metal lunch box that features odd characters and always has a hot grilled cheese sandwich inside, a radio that can be tuned to intercept telepathic communications, a colorful and cheap looking "gun" made of plastic that fires a devastating beam of energy.

Unaltered items like books and lost technology are also valuable and sought out.

The job is lucrative but dangerous. Monster attacks, mutations (due to high levels of magic) and other hazards make for a high risk high reward occupation with a high death toll. Most hope to make it rich and retire before they’re eaten, maimed or seriously mutated, but some enjoy the chaotic freedom of the lifestyle enough to stick it out long term. Divers generally wear masks and breathing apparatus as well as covering the skin to prevent contamination and slow the mutagenic process. Most divers are covered in good luck charms (prayer beads, evil eye, mirrors, grotesques, ofuda, etc). Prevalence of specific protective symbols and charms is determined by the Diver's personal beliefs, as well as the diversity of the local merchant offerings.

Usually Dives are conducted in small groups of five to ten individuals. Some groups bring a dedicated priest or similar individual to pray / burn incense etc for extra protection during a dive. Beliefs differ, some groups swear by making an offering before a dive, others practice a variety of rituals for appeasement / good luck / protection.

"Dive Towns" tend to spring up on the outskirts of magically active areas, driven by trade demand for recovered items. Hosting trading posts, bars, brothels, dedicated artefact appraisers/testers, and wholesaler merchants with connections to wealthy merchants in far off cities.

Most are fairly rough frontier towns, a magnet for mercenaries, misfits and merchants.

[magic-is-something-we-create]

Happy WBW!! Could you tell me a bit more about the level of technology in your saga? From everything I've read it sounds like a super interesting mix. Any fun details or sciency facts you're particularly proud of for thinking of?

Hi kat!!! thanks for dropping by with this ask, i didn't mean to leave it in the inbox for two weeks but i'm glad i did so i have something super fun to start off with in this catch-up!!!

SO

in the Ehlverse, there's a few different levels of technology going on at once (which is 100% most prevalent in Millennium Saga because they actually interact with multiple different tech levels for plot reasons throughout the books) - and the reasons for these differing levels basically comes down to how prevalent certain magics are in the culture/area we're talking about, because certain Elements, all Sorcery, and most Alchemy manifest in ways that break the physical laws of universe, which breaks things like computers that rely on, say, electricity always flowing in a certain way through the crystals in the motherboard.

(and this got Very Long, as my wbw answers tend to, so it's behind the cut if you want more detail!! thank you again!!! i'll try to remember to hit you up with a double-wbw ask the next time i'm here for it :D)

For instance, let's take Ehlven societies (e.g. the kind we spend the majority of TMS neck-deep in) - every Ehlf is an innate font of Elementalism, and only 2 of the 9 total Elements are guaranteed not to mess with circuitboards, 3 more can be safe if they're used carefully, and the rest are catastrophic and unavoidable in their influence. A metal mage walking too close to a fantasy!iPad would wipe the memory completely with their inherent magnetism, a fire mage touching a keyboard overheats the whole machine, etc. etc.

HOWEVER, this does not apply quite the same to less delicate instruments, like steam engines. In fact, even without the help of Dwarven magic metals, Ehlven societies can get away with running steam trains and other motors without using any fuel, so long as there's either a water mage present to convert liquid to gas or a fire mage to facilitate combustion!

(That's probably one of my favorite science-y things I've done with this system!!)

On the flip side, we have the Lellan crater and the Goblins that call it home. Goblins are a people completely devoid of magic - some would say they're even magic-repellant to a certain extent. And they've been the only people without magic for a very long time.

Long enough for them to be at about the level of your classic hard cyberpunk setting, to compensate for their broader disadvantage in this magical world. And while that doesn't net them any respect when it comes to global politics (which are super magic-centric to the point of even pushing out formerly-magical peoples like the Fair Folk), it certainly makes it easier for them to make advances in science that end up benefiting the whole world. If it weren't for them, the Ehlves probably wouldn't know about, like, evolution, or germ theory, or electricity.

And I talk about it here like they're super separate societies with no overlap, but that's not quite true!! It's just the simple way to talk about it - there's lots of "Little Wasi" districts in Ehlven cities with local power generation and more robust machines and electronics, and there's a not insignificant amount of non-magically-volatile Ehlves in Wasi, Gyr, and the smaller satellite cities of the Lell. And many of the trains that cross the Maelands are of Dwarven make, with self-perpetuating clockwork at their cores.

The only truly isolated people technology-wise are the Fair Folk, whose society functions more like those of wasps, bees, and ants than humans or humanoids. They're nomadic and tend to nest solely in the Godwoods, where they hollow out one tree at a time into a hive, and don't have a huge interest in technology of any kind (or humanoid society at large, honestly). But there's still a few here and there who have stepped away from that society to mingle with humanoid friends!!

[death-munchkin]

Exactly. Now, mind you, I have a loooot of issues with "AI" generators, but deep fakes will not drastically alter our ability to be suspicious of dubious content. People have had the ability to fake content for a very very long time and while it may become more prevalent or easily accessible, it won't magically become more believable.

What will however become more and more dangerous is people's ability to dismiss real evidence as "fake" due to ease of access to deepfake technology, and this is something to watch out for. Of course when things get to the level of going to a court of law it would be easier to prove/disprove if an image/video/audio is fake, due to said evidence being run through data analysis etc. which will often point out if it was altered or not, but for things not taken to court (eg. someone coming forward about abuse but not taking their abuser to court), or for topics people (rationally or not) have reason to believe that the court cannot be trusted to reveal the truth (eg. conspiracy theories), with ease of access to deepfake technology it becomes easer and easier for people to deny the legitimacy of real evidence.

We won't per se see a sudden increase in people taking fake evidence at face value, because the ability to fake evidence has been around for a very very long time. But we will see people (possibly people already believing in conspiracies) be more willing to excuse anything as a "deepfake".

Once the bugs get ironed out, AI Image Generation will forever change propaganda and how easy it is to make and distribute.

[weirdponytail]

How modern is everything in MIC? Like what technology do they have? Plus, what does dragon armor look like in this universe, I’m really curious, lol?

Haha, once again that’s a sort of difficult question that needs to be answered!! Buckle in, folks. Sorry the post got so damn long!

Modern Inheritance Cycle is a bit of a misnomer, really. Technology varies pretty widely, so I can’t point to a chunk of our history and say ‘iz like that!’ for MIC. I’ll do my best to give a general overview.

Big things are that fossil fuel engines do not exist. Planes, automobiles, etc, do not and will not exist in MIC. Horses and walking are still the main travel methods. Both swords and guns are used. In the Broddring Empire, the most technologically advanced computers are those box computers from the late 90s early 2000s. Somehow, MP3 players exist, but not the sleek ones we know now (Eragon has one that he keeps on his person at all times). There is some difference between the level of computer tech humans have when looking at the Empire and Surda. Elves and dwarves have their own levels of tech that are more advanced. Radios are a thing, but for communication and entertainment/news, and again differ somewhat between races. 

Also, big note that my friend Cor brought to my attention: My dumbass completely forgot about the Urgals and figuring out their levels of tech. It’s low, mostly due to combat focused and rather secluded (iirc) lifestyles. 

Alright, let’s get down to specifics.

Handheld Weapons: While guns are a thing (modern, right here, right now guns), they haven’t taken over swords and other bladed weapons completely. Heck, swords are still a major part of the series! Close combat is done with swords, while guns are usually pistols, rifles, etc, used mid to long range. Things like AKs and very large magazine automatics aren’t very common, but burst fire and semi auto are okay. Examples: Arya and Brom both carry pistols and occasionally a long gun or combat rifle of some sort, while Murtagh has a specialized rifle he uses. Fäolin was a trained sniper. It’s sort of up in the air really. I add them when I feel like it. 

Large Weapons: As mentioned in my MIC Dwarves post (LINKED), dwarves developed some artillery type weapons and small tanks (WW2 levels at the highest), run on magic energy. This energy is usually stored in mid to low quality minerals and crystals and can be replenished either via putting your life energy into it, or (and this is something new, I’m not sure if it’s going to stay or not) channeling the resulting energy release from basic exothermic chemical reactions into the crystals, though this is only a thing that dwarves know how to do and they are NOT sharing that information.

Armor: Oddly enough, Kevlar isn’t really prevalent. There’s still enough of a focus on hand to hand sword fighting that there’s mixes of other materials that could deflect sword blows with materials that can dissipate the impact of projectiles. Dwarves are the best to look to for their lightweight metal alloys for this purpose, and Saphira’s armor is the pinnacle of that technological achievement. I’m rusty (HA!) on my metallurgy and aramid fiber applications info, so you’ve sparked my urge to do some research. I’ve not figured out a good dragon armor design yet, but when I do I’ll definitely draw some up!

Oh, more armor! Elves have perfected spidersilk armor, and when properly mixed with metals or aramid weaves it creates fantastically resistant cloth and plating. Arya’s jacket, mentioned plenty of times in MIC stories, is made of this spidersilk cloth mixture. It’s stopped bullets before, and is pretty resistant to cutting from nearly everything but a Rider’s sword or other crazy rule breaking/bending magic. Arya’s armor in my original ‘The Soldier’ drawing is also spidersilk, though it’s more spidersilk alloy plate. If you see anything that’s a mottled texture, mottled blue or blue grey in my MIC art, that’s had spidersilk added to it. Elvish armor (and even some weapons) relies on it heavily. 

Elves tend to have the ‘highest’ level of tech, but it’s mostly due to an abundance of magic, time, and knowledge in other fields that lead to strange new inventions. They don’t develop it often, as it’s mostly a fleeting hobby, but when they do implement it with their magic it can be pretty dang cool. Glenwing studied, among his mental health and medical training, electrical engineering type things and thus knows how to rewire both nerves and devices. Rhunön is quite adept at working magic into her forging, as well as mechanical and electrical (sort of) work. When Glen loses his arm in the ambush, Rhunön is the one that makes a prosthetic for him that sort of ends up being like Fullmetal Alchemist Automail, but without the painful surgical requirements. It requires only the same amount of energy that movement and actions with muscle and tissue would require with his real arm, so it is linked to his own energy. Arya, meanwhile, picks up a lot of mechanical engineering from bothering Rhunön as a kid and gets even more experience with it via dwarvish tech, weapons sabotage, and ‘use everything till it falls apart’ forced rationing with the Varden, leading to a combination of her and Glen’s skills to create their squad’s special radios that are mentioned in a few of the MIC stories.

Dwarves are the most mechanically inclined and, again, use energy storing crystals very frequently in their creations. I think it’s mentioned in my dwarf post that many many households have items and tools that house these crystals. I go more in depth with the post I mentioned so that’s probably where you’ll get the most info.

Humans are kinda stuck. Galbatorix tends to draw from things reported on/seen while fighting against other forces and has his people develop from those. Military weapons have been the main focus, so there’s not much in the way of computers or that kind of stuff. Those old box computers are usually only used in businesses that can afford them for finances and the like. As for artillery, the Broddring Empire has developed ‘cannonbombs,’ artillery shells that are clusterbombs inside an outer shell that can be on a timed fuse for detonation before impact or explode on impact and releases several more explosives (If you want a better explanation, check out MIRV grenades from from the Borderlands games). They’re the bane of trench fighters.

Meanwhile, in Surda, computers are a little smaller! Due to the hot climate, Surdans learned to make more efficient cooling systems and were able to make them smaller and more compact, leading to an explosion of research into making the rest of the equipment smaller as well. They’ve moved on to tower+flat monitor type computers. Surda is more interested in chemical engineering and tech towards the center of the kingdom, while defensive tech and development takes precedence along the border for obvious reasons. 

Even though humans seem to have gotten the short end of the stick, I always want to mention that in MIC, humans are the most ingenious, able to use, reuse and repurpose due to their ‘limitations’ when side by side with other races. They think outside and all over the box, occasionally cutting the material of the box to see if they can make something out of that. It’s something that most dwarves and elves just don’t understand, and thus often overlook or underestimate. 

That’s...all I’ve got at the moment. I hope that helped a bit! Please, if you have any more questions, ask! :D I love world building!!

[mellowgelo]

Misconceptions about Walter White and Grey Matter

Everytime I see a post/video about Walter White’s backstory before the events of Breaking Bad, there’s always dozens of comments from people slagging off his former business partners, Gretchen and Elliott Schwartz. As far as I can see, a lot of the criticisms are completely unfounded. After finishing my 2nd rewatch of the series, I feel compelled to talk about and examine some of these criticisms

1: “Gretchen dumped Walt to fuck his best friend!!”

I mean, I don’t even know why I need to refute this one? In the restaurant scene with Walt and Gretchen, (’Peekaboo,’ 2.06) she clearly describes the events of their breakup: they were both staying at her family home one weekend until Gretchen caught him secretly packing his bags. She asked him what he was doing but he refused to explain and then simply left. 

In the scene, Gretchen asks 'did I dream all of that?!’ and Walt does not dispute her version of events. Pretty clearly, he was the one who ended their relationship.

2: “Gretchen was cheating on Walt with Elliott!!”

Again, I’m not sure why this has become such a prevalent idea? At no point does Walt accuse Gretchen of cheating on him (and you don’t think that if she had, he wouldn’t have brought it up during their argument?) and although he talks about Gretchen and Elliott bitterly several times in the series, the fact that they became a couple is never mentioned as the cause of his anger. It’s not specified when Gretchen and Elliott first became a couple or when they got married. Potentially, their relationship might have started years after Walt left the company. 

So...it’s not impossible? But there’s no facts to support this idea and Walt’s reactions to the couple don’t suggest that any infidelity took place.

3: “Gretchen and Elliot made their billion dollar company by stealing Walt’s ideas and cutting him out of the business!”

Okay, so this is the big one! The main cause of Walter’s grudge against his former colleagues! The first betrayal that set him on the path to eventually becoming Heisenberg!

And...it’s kind of bullshit.

He first accuses Gretchen of ‘cutting him out’ in Season 2, implying that some shady business deal took place which forced Walt out of the company and denied him his fair share of the profits. However, in ’Buyout’ (5.06) Walt seems to contradict this by telling Jesse that he chose to leave Grey Matter for ‘personal reasons’ and sold his share in the company for $5000. 

Now, with the benefit of hindsight, this was clearly a bad financial decision! But there’s no evidence of coercion or manipulation being used against Walt in this situation and as seen in point 1, he’d already begun severing ties to the company by breaking up with Gretchen. Much as he came to regret this choice later, it was a choice that he made freely.

But! What about Walter’s grand contributions to Grey Matter Technologies while he was there? He seems very eager to claim responsibility for the company’s success, telling Gretchen that they built their empire on his work. And in the penultimate episode ’Granite State’ (5.15) watching Gretchen and Elliott claim that his sole contribution to Grey Matter was providing the company name makes Walt furious. He clearly wants to be given the credit as the man who’s research turned a small grad school company into a billion dollar organisation.

But....is he really? 

Walt’s status as a brilliant chemist cannot be denied. Neither can the fact that before co-founding Grey Matter, he was a contributor to a Nobel Prize winning experiment! However, when he tells Jesse about his time with the company, he only mentions ‘potential’ and a few insignificant pending patents. Walt gives no specific examples of his achievements at Grey Matter, only vague references to ‘my work’ and ‘my research.’ What exactly is he taking credit for?

Moreover, by the time the series begins, it’s been approximately 20 years since Walter left Grey Matter. Is it really possible that a company this successful would still be riding the coattails of a man who hasn’t worked there in two decades?

None of this is to say that Walt didn’t provide crucial research during his time at Grey Matter, only that we have no idea what this work was. This missing information could just be a case of the writers not wanting to bog the show down with scientific jargon etc, but I think the lack of specific detail was a clue about Walt being an unreliable narrator.

4: “They only offered him the job because they feel bad for ripping him off!”

This is often linked with the previous argument, making the claim that they must have ripped him off back in the day because that’s why they offer him the job in Season 1, out of guilt. 

Walt certainly seems to think that this is their motivation. He describes Elliott’s job offer as ‘face-saving bullshit’ in ’Grey Matter’ (1.05) and directly accuses Gretchen of ‘waving her chequebook around like a magic wand’ to make amends for stealing his work. In both instances, he makes these accusations in a fit of anger, showing how much inner resentment he holds towards them both. However, as mentioned above, when he makes his speech to Jesse in ‘Buyout’ he places the blame on himself for leaving the company. In this scene, he is calm, suggesting that he is talking about his past more objectively than in his previous statements.

And then we have how Gretchen and Elliott react to him throughout the series.  When he attends Elliot’s birthday party, the atmosphere during their conversations is slightly awkward....but this is all coming from Walt’s end. When Walt and Skylar first arrive, Walt’s pleasantries are clearly forced but the Schwartzes look genuinely pleased to see him again. Walt is embarrassed by his cheap present of a Yum Good Ramen packet but Elliott is visibly moved by the momento of their college days. And when Walt and Elliott are alone reminiscing about their old professors, they’re both laughing enthusiastically and it’s the first time Walt looks comfortable ...until Elliott suggests that Walt come back to Grey Matter.

You would expect that if the Schwartzes had knowingly ripped off Walter’s research, or had an affair behind his back, there would be some embarrassment/shame from both of them upon seeing the man they screwed over at their party. In fact, you’d imagine they’d want to keep as much distance from him as possible! Why would they invite this man, this innocent victim of their manipulations, to their house where he could tell all their guests about how they ripped him off? 

As well as their behaviour, Walt’s reactions to Gretchen and Elliott don’t make sense either. After arriving at Elliott’s party, it’s clear that Skylar has met them both before, showing that the two couples have maintained contact throughout the years, and Skylar seems unaware of any bad blood between the trio. When Walt bumps into another former classmate, he introduces Walt to his friends as a co-founder of Grey Matter and encourages him to describe his role in the company. However, upon getting this perfect opportunity to brag, Walt only mentions how he came up with the company name. And although his cheery facade at the party is not very convincing, he still accepted the invitation to a party he knew he wouldn’t enjoy and does his level best to appear happy. Why would he bother to do all this for a couple who ripped him off so badly? Why did he not completely sever contact with them as soon as he left the company?

Walt’s resentment towards his college friends is clear to the viewer but Elliott and Gretchen seem oblivious to his anger. When Elliott floats the idea of working together, he asks ‘why not?’ and ‘what’s stopping us?’ When Gretchen calls Walt at the end of 1.05 encouraging him to take their offer, she assumes that his reluctance is due to their former romantic relationship, not because of any professional jealousy. And when Walt argues with her in 2.05, she is completely shocked to hear his version of events, furiously responding ‘that cannot be how you see it!’

Walter seems to hold Gretchen and Elliott responsible for ruining his life but they never show signs of guilty behaviour towards their former partner. Perhaps they are sociopaths who are incapable of feeling remorse...or perhaps they’ve done nothing to feel guilty about.

Conclusion

Apart from one flashback where Walt and Gretchen discuss the elements of a human body, we don’t see any of the events regarding the early days of Grey Matter firsthand. It’s all conveyed by characters discussing the past through their own potentially biased perspective and it’s impossible to regard either Walt, Gretchen or Elliott as a definitive source. However, as you can see from this post and my conclusions, a lot of information can be gleamed from reading between the lines and paying attention to what is not being said.

Given the lack of direct evidence, a lot of this debate comes down to whose perspective is more reliable and the series demonstrates over and over again that Walt is not a trustworthy person. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a single episode of the show that doesn’t show Walt telling at least one lie. Despite this, many fans who identify with Walt take his version of events at face value, without really examining how his arrogance and sense of victimhood have clouded his perspective.

After rewatching the show and getting a very different perspective on several characters a second time round, I’d encourage any fan of the show who strongly identified with Walter White to rewatch the series and this time, focus on getting into the heads of the characters he comes into conflict with. You might come away with a very different opinion. And a renewed sympathy.

Thanks for reading, this is my 1st post so any constructive criticism is welcome and any likes/reblogs would be very much appreciated :) 

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Spider-Man: Far From Home Thoughts Part 3 a.k.a. Iron Man Junior: Far From Spider-Man

This will be the final part of this essay series and here I’m going to go through how this film holds up as an adaptation of the source material.

Shockingly the answer will be that it’s fucking awful.

I’ve already made what must be over a dozen posts about how terrible Far From Home is as an adaptation and representation of Spider-Man but screw it let’s go over it more!

Before I start to rant let me qualify something.

When you are adapting a character as famous, iconic and beloved as Spider-Man you don’t have to be a 1:1 translation of the source material. But you 100% do have to respect the spirit of the source material as much as practicality will allow. You have to respect the essential ideas, original intention and core themes and concepts underpinning the character and his world.

That is the root of my objections in this post and so many others.

Homecoming and Far From Home misunderstand Spider-Man on a fundamental level. Or worse they do understand him and actively chose to ignore what he’s about, what he represents.

He’s all about great power and great responsibility within the context of being a relatively relatable Average Joe.

This isn’t making him an everyman the way Bilbo Baggins or Luke Skywalker are. For Spider-Man he has to much more accurately reflect the average person and the world the average person lives in. He has to live in a real city, he has to worry about bills, laundry, studies, getting a job, holding a job, maintaining friendships and romantic relationships. He just has to be Spider-Man ON TOP of that and that must clash with his normal life. Being Spider-Man is one more additional responsibility he must juggle.

Before I rip this film to shreds for so aggressively NOT doing that let me get a few scant positives out of the way.

First of all the action scenes were not just generally improved from Homecoming, but honestly felt more like Spider-Man. I could easily see the way Peter and Mysterio attacked, defended, countered, etc, being something from the comics. Particular praise must go to the Berlin action sequence.

For many years Spider-Man fans have understandably claimed that Mysterio would be the perfect villain for the big screen due to his skill set being about generating great visuals. And we were right because we get not just a classic Mysterio action sequence in Berlin but outright one of the all time best ones from any version of Spider-Man. The film even drops us some appreciated fan service, firstly by putting Peter in his red and blue costume so it feels like the comic come to life and secondly via the giant Mysterio hand ripped straight out of ASM #66-67. The snow globe sequence in particular, if it wasn’t from a comic (and off the top of my head I can’t recall it being so) was simply inspired.

Equally Mysterio’s look was a different yet ultimately brilliant realization of the comic book. To an extent Mysterio is also a spiritually faithful rendition of the comic book character. In the comics he was a special effects master, stuntman and failed actor who craved fame and was frustrated by the lack of recognition he got.

In the movie he created highly realistic holographic technology, was frustrated by it’s small scale use, the lack of recognition he got for it and with a whole crew of helpers fabricated his Mysterio identity in the hopes of becoming the most famous superhero in the world, although he was himself rarely in the costume.

Traditionally Mysterio is a practical effects guy and this makes the most sense given how he physically fights Spider-Man, but the updating of that to holographic technology is fine and dandy because CGI has, for better or worse, supplanted practical effects. Even in the 1994 cartoon when that wasn’t the case the showmakers gave Mysterio holographic tech.

Him not being a stuntman is more of a mixed bag. On the one hand being a stuntman is what enables him to sort of fight Spider-Man himself, but on the other hand outside of his debut Mysterio’s usually been more effective when not physically fighting people but rather tricking them and manipulating them. So if you are focussing more on that aspect of the character dropping the stuntman angle is fine.

In fact one of the two things (and we will talk more about the other later) which does spiritually undermine this version of Mysterio is his lack of explicit connection to Hollywood. However he is still an actor just not a professional actor in the film or TV industry. And a great actor at that as he is so capable of fooling everyone.

We might also argue that having a crew of helpers undermined Mysterio’s independence and intelligence, but I think it works for the movie fro 2 reasons. First of all in a movie for general audiences suspension of disbelief doesn’t stretch as far so savant characters are less acceptable. Mysterio is 100% a savant. He’s a skilled actor, stuntman, manipulator and technician who knows holographic technology, robotics and all manner of things like that. In the movies you could maybe buy someone having a grasp of the purely technical side of things, but even Tony Stark wasn’t an expert on biology or chemistry, maybe he knew enough to get by but remember he needed to read up on stuff in Avengers 2012.

By giving Mysterio a group supporting him it makes it more believable that this villain is capable of all these things. More poignantly, and you can see this especially when they were ‘rehearsing’ for the London attack, it renders Beck something of a director, thus subtextually giving him yet more connection to the world of film. Again it’s just a shame this was not more explicit and instead his abilities and motives stem from...well we will get there.

On a final note Mysterio can in truth be one of the creepier Spider-Man villains and you don’t really get that vibe outside of the Berlin fight scene (and even then only a little bit). I think that’s fine as he was still manipulative which is one of Mysterio’s better skills in the comics.

So there is a lot this version of Mysterio has going for him, he’s faithful in the idea but not in certain details. Unfortunately those details sink this take.

Other positives include the set up of Chameleon as the stoic and silent agent Dmitri within SHIELD. This will not only pay off in MCU Spider-Man 3 but will is also a great example of irony and foreshadowing. Chameleon was introduced as a saboteur and enemy agent so him being a mole within SHIELD lends itself well to his character and the fact that he is an imposter amidst imposters (the Skrulls) is deliciously ironic.

Also this movie gave us the best version of Ned and Betty’s relationship ever because no one died or got cheated on. Finally I liked Aunt May running a homeless shelter. It gives her something to do and is a very fitting role for her.

I want to go back to Mysterio for a moment though as this isn’t really a positive or a negative of his character.

He’s a very tricky character to adapt. In his debut he is pretends to be a powerful new superhero who wants to bring down Spider-Man whom he’s obviously framed.

In a movie I can understand how framing Spider-Man might not sustain a 2+ hour movie.* However the bigger question to ask is whether or not you bother with having Mysterio framed as a hero or not.

In the 90s it was easier as Spider-Man and his mythos wasn’t so prevalent so people simply know a lot of stuff via osmosis, and in the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon the showmakers simply present him as a criminal off the bat.

If you do go with him pretending to be a hero it’s tricky to pull off without feeling like you are going through the motions.

All of which is me saying the movie is faithful to the comics in presenting Mysterio as initially pretending t be a hero but I don’t know how good of an idea that is. I don’t know anyone who walked into the movie not knowing he was the bad guy.

That’s about it for positives.

So...FUCK THIS MOVIE!

Once again in this Spider-Man  movie everything revolves around Iron Man.

I’ve written in posts past how this undermines Spider-Man’s agency simply as a character in a movie but as far as adaptations go this is beyond insulting.

Spider-Man was in part created to be an independent superhero. In part created to literally NOT have the kind of relationship he has with Iron Man in this movie.

I cannot describe how much of a fundamental misunderstanding of Spider-Man’s character it is to have Iron Man be utterly integral to who everything about him.

He’s so goddam integral that Peter’s alleged character arc in this movie is about becoming him (in the most obnoxious of ways too, see Part 2) and he is the wellspring from which 99% of this movie springs from even though he’s fucking dead. I mean my god the plot device everyone is after is Tony Stark’s glasses!

Spider-Man doesn’t get to be his own man even when Iron Man is literally not alive!

Shit even Mysterio is motivated and built to be a dark reflection of Iron Man. And this kills his character not just because it denies him independence because it makes his ambitions entirely too big scale to work as a Spider-Man villain. His motivation is to gain access to Tony’s magic glasses. At least Vulture with a tweak could have worked as a regular Spider-Man villain. He had the working class down to Earth and relatable ambitions and lifestyle down. Mysterio is doing everything to both spite Tony and become him.

Jesus, even Iron Man’s dead weight and most irrelevant supporting character Happy Hogan is not just in this movie but plot relevant...for the second movie in a row! He’s even dating Spider-Man’ aunt. At this point given how she’s never even mentioned him is Uncle Ben even dead in this universe or did he just run off with a somehow even sexier 50 year old?

Oh...and let’s talk about Uncle Ben, whom I was naive enough to think was going to be referenced when that gravestone appeared but noooooope, fucking Iron Man again.

From Endgame onwards disgusting posts and articles were written about how Iron Man’s death now truly makes him MCU’s Uncle Ben. Because you see he was Peter’s father figure and he died...so that’s the same thing.  Nevermind that he didn’t die because Peter was inactive and selfish, or the fact that his death didn’t widow his aunt, or anything like that. Shit Peter doesn’t even seem that upset about it beyond 1 or 2 scenes. And yet that’s one or two scenes more than we’ve ever seen Uncle Ben get referenced. Think about that we’ve seen Iron Man mourned more than Uncle Ben in a SPIDER-MAN movie!

We see that more than we see Aunt May even. Aunt May is just there in the MCU movies which is not just a waste of Tomei as a talented actress but it is again insulting as an adaptation. Even in Spider-Man 3 and ASM2 she had more to do and delivered a good scene or two. In these movies she’s eye candy and nothing more. She is more relevant as a punch line about how men are attracted to her than as her own character.

And now that we are on the subject of supporting characters, I talk about this more in other posts, but Michelle is so bad. The romance comes out of nowhere there is no justification given for their respective feelings for one another and to say she’s not Mary Jane would be redundant.

She fails to be anything like Mary Jane on any level beyond her nickname. This is not okay for several reasons. Among them is the fact that the Spider-man movies have had a problematic habit of treating the love interests as interchangeable characters as opposed to being their own distinct characters. Worse we’re screwing up Mary Jane not only a second time on film but worse than before. This is the Lois Lane of the Spider-Man mythos, she’s an iconic beloved character integral to the over all story of Spider-Man. And we’re treating her as so insignificant as to able to present an OC with her initials and claim that’s good enough.

As for the other supporting characters they continue to be broken. Like how the fuck did Betty Brant wind up the relatively most faithful character? Ned is just a repurposed Ganke except now they’re writing him as a lame Disney Channel sidekick character so he’s not even got the depth of comic book Ganke and Flash...oh Flash. He’s not just irrelevant to the movie, he’s not even really a bully in this film. He’s just a preppy docuchebag no one takes seriously and in fact gets treated as the butt monkey on more than one occasion. The only redeemable moments for his character were when he sang Spider-Man’s praises and was stoked that Spidey follows his social media channel.

All the characters feel like shallow attempts to make Spider-Man ‘about youth’ which as I’ve said countless times in the past, he provably isn’t about and never was. But this film not only continues to lean on that misinterpretation but lean harder on it. Like the premise of this movie is literally about Spider-Man trying to enjoy his summer vacation and school field trip.

But the film fucks up Spider-Man’s defining values in so many other ways.

Of course there is the blip.

People were so hype for Spider-Man to be in the MCU but hindsight is painful because that fact just hurt Spider-Man movies on a fundamental level.

In Marvel comics, we never know for sure if any of Spider-Man’s friends or family died in the Infinity Gauntlet and no one remembered it happening anyway. It also didn’t happen in a Spider-Man story so it could be safely ignored as is the nature of a shared universe.

But in the movies Far From Home acting as MCU Chapter 23 creates an ongoing problem for these Spider-Man movies. The fact that Spider-Man and everyone he knows died and came back but also there were some people who are five years older than him now creates a fundamental dissonance undermining the more grounded, relatable angle of his character. The only solution of which is to simply wilfully ignore the elephant in the room that represents that dissonance. In short these Spider-Man movies would’ve been better off not being connected to the MCU or at least being on it’s fringes.

This applies to even the post credits scene of the movie as now in our movies that are supposed to be about the grounded and relatable hero we have fucking aliens! And they were there the whole time. The movie even gleefully plants its flag in rejection of the idea of having a more grounded Spider-Man by saying Spider-Man ISN’T a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man by virtue of having gone to space. I was okay with that in Infinity War as that was not a Spider-Man movie but by actively rejecting that idea in this movie it showcases how the film makers treat Spider-Man as a more generic hero who can be anything and everything...and therefore nothing. There are no definitions to the type of things he will get involved with.

You might counter outside of the opening school scenes and post-credit sequence the alien involvement isn’t that much of a problem because all the interdimensional and alien stuff wasn’t real in the movie.

But that leads us to the next problem. Spider-Man as a globetrotting super spy agent. Again...this is not Spider-Man. Spider-Man is more domestic, more down to Earth and sans space travel there is nothing less grounded and down to Earth that globetrotting and secret agents. There is a reason James Bond is indulgent escapism!

Worse the spy stuff essentially hijacks the movie, it’s not even something that flows out from Peter’s character or world, it comes out of nowhere to appropriate his story.

Speaking of which...SHIELD have to hijack Spider-Man because...Spider-Man doesn’t want to get involved...

...what?...

I will repeat that.

Spider-Man, the character defined by a low level burglar he chose not to stop who then killed his uncle thus teaching him that having super powers gives him a responsibility to use it to help others...chooses to not help out against giant elemental monsters threatening all life on Earth...because he wants to enjoy his vacation...

...words simply cannot do justice to how beyond broken that is as an interpretation of Spider-Man.

This isn’t even a case of he quits because being a hero has taken such a toll on him and he’s had a wobble.

This is him still deciding to be Spider-Man but actively tries to avoid it because he wants to have fun for an extended period of time. MAYBE that’s okay. MAYBE him deciding to not take his suit along on vacation could be justified and in character.

But when presented the means to be Spider-Man and a major crisis that requires his help (it isn’t like there is a small group of equally or more powerful heroes to cover for him) for him to simply reject it, to have to be forced into helping and when he reluctantly does only doing the bare minimum until he realizes people he cares about are in danger...no.

Just no, whoever was responsible for that characterization you should not be allowed to write for Spider-Man.

It’s not even consistent with Homecoming’s already misinterpreted version of Peter Parker. In Homecoming Peter was screwed up because his intervention made everything worse near 100% of the time but even that’s better than presenting Peter as choosing to not intervene at all for purely selfish and unsympathetic reasons. And to rub it in our faces when he does choose to intervene he does it with more high tech Stark crap. No him making the suit himself doesn’t make it okay, Spider-Man shouldn’t be using technology from other people like that nor consistently having access to such high-tech. It goes against the idea of him being independent and of being grounded.

The Stark tech crap is also relevant to what is a major contender for the single worst scene of any Spider-Man film to date. The drone strike on a bus.

In this movie about the superhero who’s supposed to be relatable and like us, Joe Average, we have a scene where he uses a pair of high tech bequeathed to him by his dead superhero father figure accidentally to launch an orbital drone strike on a fellow school student on his bus because he’s about to ruin his chances with hooking up with a girl. Then he has to engage in wacky hijinks to save the kid and everyone else.

Do I need to say more about that scene? To call it jumping a shark would be an insult to other shark jumping moments. It shatters the verisimilitude of the movie maybe even more than the blip.

Let’s switch back to Peter’s personality in this movie. I’ve already talked a lot about it in prior posts but I do have two more things to point out.

The first of these is that we have less quips than in prior Spider-Man movies. And I don’t just mean the most recent ones I mean of any of the movies going back to 2002. And by less I mean 0. Spider-Man NEVER quips or jokes in this movie. Ever. It’s like they’ve grown to understand Spider-Man even less than in the last movie!

The second and more significant is how stupid Peter is when it comes to his secret identity. In the comics Spider-Man is famously secretive about his identity, to the point where it’s almost paranoid.

Here though he isn’t concerned about SHIELD or random SHEILD agents knowing who he is, or Mysterio, or everyone in a bar or anyone looking at the bridge in London where he unmaskes makes out (awkwardly) with Michelle.

The movie pretends like it cares about this aspect of his character by having Peter point out if he goes out as Spider-Man abroad people will deduce it’s him.

Not only is this an attempt by him to weasel out of hero duties but it’s moot because Betty immediately figures it out (leading to the cringe Night Monkey gag which doesn’t even make sense since monkeys don’t crawl on walls or shoot webs!), Michelle figures it out and Peter was cavalier with his identity before and after that scene.

All culminating in just everyone knowing his identity which like in the comics fundamentally fucks up the idea of him as the everyman even more. Forget space aliens and spy shit now he’s a celebrity. Celebrities are the exact opposite of the everyman, that’s why they’re friggin celebrities!

Big take away from this movie as an adaptation?

It was fucking insulting for it to have been dedicated to Lee and Ditko.

Fuck this movie. Fuck this direction for Spider-Man. Fuck Marvel for ruining Spider-Man again.

*That being said I did once hear a brilliant pitch for Spider-Man 4 wherein Mysterio frames Spider-Man and the police call in aid from Kraven the Hunter to catch him. 

[animezinglife]

@goforth-ladymidnight, I recently read one that was excessively Fae in nature called The Thorns Remain.

It's a slower-paced story and won't be for everyone, but if you want the true tricksters, weird magic, mind games, and riddled speech, that might be a good option. J.J.A. Harwood is the author. The Fae isn't necessarily a love interest, but the situation is...sadistically intriguing.

I've never understood why SJM doesn't lean more into iron. It would even the playing field and raise stakes quite a bit more in general, and it would add intensity and depth to the fact Elain wears an iron engagement ring.

I obviously don't want anything to happen to Rhys and consider his and Feyre's story to be wrapped up with a nice little bow on top, but how interesting could that have been to have the "most powerful High Lord in history" at risk of being taken out by something that's so prevalent in his mate's/wife's world?

What about ballistas and "modern" war equipment from the human world being heavily armed and guarded with iron?

Maybe that could be a wicked advantage of Autumn: their fire burns so hot (so fast) that it poses a massive risk to the integrity of these arms. Or Winter, perhaps, could throw enough ice around the iron to either cease its function altogether or defend against iron's effects.

The biggest problem in my opinion with the series is we have no worldbuilding or grounding whatsoever. We've been in Night for how many years and still have no sense of what technologies they have or don't have (Toilets? Electricity? I'm so confused), modern clubbing mixed in with this all somehow, and fashion could either be something very Fae or a sweater and leggings from 2006.

Anything goes in fantasy, but only if you keep it consistent and ground it.

My biggest issue above all else with the Fae?

With the exception of Lucien, Eris, and perhaps Helion, none of them seem smarter than humans. I don't know if their brains just develop much more slowly or what (which, again, would be a contradiction given how young Lucien is for their world), but it's a little concerning.

My continuous complaint about ACOTAR and SJM in general is that she never rolls up her sleeves and digs deep. She doesn't get her hands dirty, and everything stays at a surface level.

Instead of ancient bad blood, political intrigue, and trickery among rivaling courts, I feel like I'm reading a Real Housewives recap.

Instead of having any sense of the very real (I'm assuming) turmoil within the Night Court between Illyrian dissenters, the Court of Nightmares, and Velaris, we get, "Yeah, growth takes time and we'll throw Azriel/Cassian/etc. at it and see if that works." Velaris is great for the people living in it.

Is life great for the lesser Fae living in the CoN? Illyrian women? Young males pushed a little too far? It IS realistic that Rhys wouldn't be able to solve every issue---it's one of his wiser moments to recognize that and not push too hard---yet I also wish there was more on this.

That, and the fact that we're supposed to assume these centuries-old Fae are A-okay with a human woman born yesterday now being their High Lady.

If we brought in more worldbuilding with the tensions between humans and Fae, the threat of iron, faebane, etc., then that could add some interesting, complicated layers.

You truly cannot compare the two, but if you value depth and were to read both The War of Lost Hearts and ACOTAR...there is absolutely no comparison.

You're emotionally exhausted and fulfilled throughout the former for good reason, and you have a nearly perfect sense of what their world looks like, the powers at play, and even worse, you're attached to most of them. There are no saints in that series, and even the more clear-cut heroes face significant, meaningful, grounded backlash.

That series also has Fae, though they're not your traditional sorts either. They're more warlike and hardened.

Sorry this is a long post, I had to rant a bit.

The thing that bothers me the most about the ACOTAR series is the fae. I love fae, I love stories with fae in them, there are so many interesting things you can do with them. So many ways you can make them unique and yet still retain the basis of what fae are. And yet Sarah J Maas just... doesn't.

SJM really just took everything interesting about the fae and threw it in the bin. The fae to me have always been fantastical, "other", they just don't feel human, they feel different, they feel strange. But ACOTAR's fae are just so bland and boring. They don't feel different to the humans. In fact they feel like humans but with magic and pointy ears. It genuinely pains me how SJM threw everything interesting about the fae away.

I personally love the concept of the fae not being able to lie. There is so much fun and interest in that concept. It is something that is challenging to navigate. Every fae character cannot directly tell a lie therefore you have to get creative with what they say, you have to twist words around so that they can lie without actually lying.

That idea is initially presented to us but Feyre learns pretty early on that that isn't true. That the fae in ACOTAR can lie. Even if SJM wanted to take away the concept that fae can't lie, she didn't even play around with Feyre's misconception about them. Feyre could've gone through part of the first book believing everything that the fae said to her to be true. To me, that sounds like an interesting concept and i would've loved to read about it. I can't remember exactly how quickly Feyre is told the fae can lie but it's not even slightly an issue.

Another thing about the fae is that they're mischievous. They love playing tricks, whether it's something mild or completely cruel. But ACOTAR's characters lack that mischievousness, the cunning. They aren't tricksters like fae usually are. Correct me if I'm wrong but I can't seem to remember a time when someone attempted to trick Feyre. Amarantha made a deal with Feyre, but it was straightforward, there was no trick to it. Rhysand didn't trick her into the bargain either. It would've been interesting to see the fae attempting to trick Feyre, to get her to enter into a bargain that seems good but they worded it in a way that it is actually bad.

Instead the ACOTAR characters, specifically the males, are all presented as your typical "alpha male". Rhysand is presented to us as cunning but to me he doesn't feel like that of a cunning fae but a cunning human. Tamlin can literally shapeshift and yet SJM doesn't do anything of interest with that. Luicen was slightly mischievous in Book 1 but even then it is how you expect any normal character to be, he does not play tricks like that of the fae. I might be nitpicking with these but i truly wish we had gotten more trickster like characters.

As much as everyone likes to hate on Book 1, there were interesting fae in that book. The Bogge, the Naga, the Puca (I suppose this one did trick Feyre), the Suriel. Alis was interesting, she was described as having bark like skin. I want more diversity in the characters looks. Our main cast and most of the major side characters all look normal, human but with pointy ears or wings.

Their appearance isn't necessarily the issue. It's the fact that the fae are meant to be seen as difderent to the humans and yet they barely are.

So many interesting things about the Fae, from their behaviour to their culture and magic and rituals, all the funky little things humans do to ward off or stop the fae, down the drain. And if I'm being completely honest, I believe SJM isn't a competent enough writer to pull off the complexities that make the fae, fae. It feels almost disrespectful to call these characters fae.

(I am no expert in fae mythology. But from all that I've seen and read, these characters just aren't it.)

[glowtechnology]

The Secrets of the Most Complete Luminous Watch Technology Ever

[1993, New safe luminous material-Luminova without radiation]Since the 1990s, with the development of science and technology, a new type of long afterglow light-storing rare-earth-based alkaline-earth aluminate fluorescent material that does not contain radioactive materials has appeared. It is now a prevalent Luminova luminous material. Luminova is a non-radioactive, environmentally friendly material, developed in the 1980s by Japan's radical particular chemical group.Its luminous light resistance is extreme and will not cause discoloration for a long time. Because it is fundamentally different from traditional radiation-type luminous materials, it does not contain any harmful elements at all and is more secure and stable.Most of the current Swiss watches use Luminova type luminous. More ideally, Luminova can add a variety of colors as a match, such as pink, blue, yellow, red, etc., to create a colorful luminous effect. Panerai proud of its Radium and Tritium technologies now also adopted Super-Luminova to manufacture its unique "sandwich " dial structure. It is sandwiching the Super- Luminova luminous coating for hands and digital scales.The appearance of the watch is to facilitate people's lives, but reading the time in a dark place is still very troublesome, and must use other light sources. As a result, some people began to apply fluorescent materials on the hour and scale of the hands and dials so that they read the time easily at night. These are the emergence of the luminous watch.

Speaking of the watch's luminous function, many people think that it is nothing, bright is standard on many watches. Diving watches represented by many famous brands, such as Rolex, Omega, and Blancpain, have excellent luminous functions. Luminous watches only have a hundred-year history. The luminous watches are now safe and clear after people's repeated research and exploration.

But in fact, the birth of the luminous watch was first affected by military operations. Because early military instruments included military watches, because there was no luminous material to emit light, it was difficult to see time in a dark environment. Strong light sources such as flashlights and easy to expose locations were very dangerous. In this case, luminous paints and luminous watches were born.

[In 1898, early luminous paint- the deadly Radium element]

The first luminous material for watches was Radium (Ra). In 1898, Madame Curie discovered the element Radium, which would emit a light blue light in the continuous decay. After mixed the Radium element and Zinc sulfide, they can emit light by themselves without being illuminated by a light source. In 1915, the Italian military watch(Panerai), applied to the product and applied for a patent. Therefore, from the 1930s, a mixture of Radium and Zinc Sulfide was widely used on the luminous coating of watches.

However, radium, as a radioactive element, is extremely dangerous. People did not realize it until the Ra girl incident broke out. Girl radium is the nickname of a female watch worker who applies luminous paint to hands. At that time, the luminous paint was a mixture of Radium and Zinc sulfide, so the female workers deal with radium every day, but soon after working, they developed anemia, jaw ulceration, and finally died, and even the corpse was still glowing. Since then, people have recognized the danger of radium and abandoned the radium element.

[In1949, luminous material with a shelf life-

Tritium

element]

After the Radium element, people began to use Tritium as a luminous material. In 1949, another essential noctilucent technology of Panerai, Luminor also applied for a patent. The content was the use of another radioactive element, tritium as a light-emitting material. This technology was more secure but still had potential safety hazards. And there is a time limit, but the time limit is longer.

Two kinds of radioactive materials, Radium, and Tritium are self-luminous noctilucent materials and do not need to absorb energy from the outside to continue to emit light. However, the half-life of Tritium is 12.5 years, which means the effective life of the noctilucent materials produced by Tritium is only more than ten years, and then it gradually begins to age until it loses the noctilucent effect.

[In 1991, The Ball watch used Tritium to the extreme]

Many people know that when it comes to the luminous watch, how can there be no king of the luminous watch--Ball. In recent years, Ball has gathered more and more popularity among watch fans. The most intriguing of these is Gas Light technology. The main elements of luminescence are the same as those of Panerai in the early years. But the structure of the luminous body was redesigned in this patent. They changed the way that Panerai used a needle-shaped tool to apply on the dial or the needle directly and changed to inner wall coating. The mineral glass tube with a phosphor substance full of gaseous Tritium, and the Tritium reacts with the phosphorescent material to form a cold light source. Its safety performance has almost reached the highest level.

The self-luminous miniature gas lamp itself has the advantages of small size, precision, and lightness. They inlaid these glowing miniature gas lamps on the hands and dial of the watch, eliminating the risk of damage and being protected from any radiation when worn. It does not require sunlight to supplement the light source and not require any batteries. Brightness is 100 times higher than general luminous paint. The service life is up to 25 years, but inevitably, its brightness will gradually decline over time.

[1993, New safe luminous material-Luminova without radiation]

Since the 1990s, with the development of science and technology, a new type of long afterglow light-storing rare-earth-based alkaline-earth aluminate fluorescent material that does not contain radioactive materials has appeared. It is now a prevalent Luminova luminous material. Luminova is a non-radioactive, environmentally friendly material, developed in the 1980s by Japan's radical particular chemical group.

Its luminous light resistance is extreme and will not cause discoloration for a long time. Because it is fundamentally different from traditional radiation-type luminous materials, it does not contain any harmful elements at all and is more secure and stable.

Most of the current Swiss watches use Luminova type luminous. More ideally, Luminova can add a variety of colors as a match, such as pink, blue, yellow, red, etc., to create a colorful luminous effect. Panerai proud of its Radium and Tritium technologies now also adopted Super-Luminova to manufacture its unique "sandwich " dial structure. It is sandwiching the Super- Luminova luminous coating for hands and digital scales.

[In 2003, Blancpain led a new path, the luminous sticking]

Luminous technology: Luminous scale bonding. Now that light technology is so mature, how to present this technology has become the focus of the attention of various brands. In 1997, Blancpain produced the Fifty Fathoms watch with a water resistance of 300 meters. In 2003, in commemoration of this legendary watch model, Blancpain also launched a new limited edition watch.

[In 2008, Rolex Chromalight broke the monopoly and carried out luminous technology to the end]

Rolex's luminous dial shows that Chromalight, an innovative fluorescent material, is used. The so-called "Chroma" is "color, saturation." A range of Rolex professional oyster watch clocks uses this material, which emits blue light. According to the official description, compared with the general standard fluorescent materials. Its luminous intensity is more stable during a complete dive and lasts more than 8 hours.

Tips

If you suddenly find that your luminous watch no longer glows, please don't worry. If there is no light exposure for a long time, the light energy of the luminous material is released. If this is the case, you need to expose the watch to light for some time to allow it to fully absorb energy so that it can glow again at night.

The luminous function is the most inconspicuous among the complicated features of the watch. But it has brought us more convenience in actual use. Like the eyes of a watch, it adds a magical charm to the night. Energize a quiet night. This faint highlight is incomparable to the great night, but just such a soft light can make people feel warm and steady.

Glow Technology often receives questions about luminous watches:

How big is the particle size of watch application luminous powder?

Usually, about 250 mesh.

How long can the luminous effect last?

12 hrs.

Which parts of the watch can apply luminous powder?

Dial, pointer and block.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Glow Technology.

[writingonesdreams]

5 Things you may not (and should) know about - When the worlds cross

I was tagged a while back by the wonderful @gottaenjoythelittlethingzz. This was a lot of fun, thanks! 

The aim of the game is simple: list at least 5 lesser known facts about your WIP and/or the OC of your choosing!

1. There are 3 levels of magic a mage can achieve: 

Level: Telekineses and surges of energy with magic. 

Level:  magic becomes visible to the eye in the form of aura or smoke around the mage using it and becomes more powerful in effect. 

Level: means the mage is capable of having his magic resonate with one of the five elements and controling said element without spending so much of their stamina. 

2. The aura that seems like a colourful smoke at the second magic level is like the manifestation of the mage’s soul. Everything he is, is inside that haze. The color is always different and the smell and sensation when around it feels to others as things that represent the mage the most. Hence sharing magic with another mage is considered the most personal and intimate connection.

3. Mages need to master at least the basics of the second level of magic to travel between dimensions.

4. The dimensions aren’t parallel in the sense they are similar each other. They are different worlds with different histories and conditions. Often however do dimensions close to each other share certain characteristics like geography, the type of magic etc. Some worlds are technologically developed, some are historically only in mediaval times. 

5. All dimensions are diveded into 4 categories after the prevalance of magic:                            

No magic - worlds like our earth, where magic never existed and never will

Weak magic - worlds where magic existed but either started to die out or is very weak and rare.

Common magic - worlds where magic is part of daily life and utilized in various ways. Magics here can have diffrent sources - from the planet’s core, from the atmosphere or the mage himself.

High magic - worlds mostly populated by the mages that generate their own magic and aren’t therefore dependent on any external source or place. Magic here is omnipresent and dimension travel is common. 

Btw if something is unclear or insufficient, please ask me or comment? This is the first time I'm explaining the magic of my wip so not sure if it's clear enough :).

Not sure who already did this but tagging: @writerwiththegoodhair @farrradays @agentorange-writes @agent-me @the-writers-soul@possibledreamswriting @sheabutterskyes @madammuffins @queenie-dragon, @sundaynightnovels, @kainablue, @nightskywriter@ofvisitorsthefairest @the-writers-soul @gettingitwrite @latechickadee @starlitesymphony @themagicalypurplemastodon @death-over-coffee @usuallydecentwriter @knightsofeclipse @fourohfourlifenotfound

[qqueenofhades]

Medieval Magic Week: Witchcraft in Early Medieval Europe

Apologies for not getting to this last week, but I will try to be at least semi-reliable about posting these. If you missed it: I’m teaching a class on magic and the supernatural in the Middle Ages this semester, and since the Tumblr people also wanted to be learned, I am here attempting to learn them by giving a sort of virtual seminar.

Last week was the introduction, where we covered overall concepts like the difference between magic, religion, and science (is there one?), who did magic benefit (depends on who you ask), was magic a good or a bad thing in the medieval world (once again, It’s All Relative) and who was practicing it. We also brought in ideas like the gendering of supernatural power (is magic a feminine or a masculine practice, and does this play into larger gendered concepts in society?) and did some basic myth-busting about the medieval era. No, not everybody was super religious and mind-controlled by the church. No, they were not all poor farmers. No, not every woman was Silent, Raped, and Repressed. Magic was a common and folkloric practice on some level, but it was also the concern of educated and literate ‘worldly’ observers. We can’t write magic off as the medieval era simply ‘not knowing any better,’ or having no more sophisticated epistemology than rudimentary superstition. These people navigated thousands of miles without any kind of modern technology, built amazing cathedrals requiring hugely complex mathematical and engineering skill, wrote and translated books, treatises, and texts, and engaged with many different fields of knowledge and areas of interest. They subjected their miracle stories to critical vetting and were concerned with proving the evidentiary truth of their claims. We cannot dismiss magic as them having no alternative explanation or way of thinking about the world, or being sheltered naïve rustics.

This week, we looked at some primary sources discussing ‘witchcraft’ beliefs in early medieval Europe, which for our purposes is about 500—eh we’ll say 1000 C.E. We also thought about some questions to pose to these texts. Where did belief in witchcraft – best known for early modern witch hunts – come from? How did it survive through centuries of cultural Christianisation? Why was it viewed as useful or as threatening? Scholars have tended to argue for a generic mystical ‘shamanism’ in pre-Christian Europe, which isn’t very helpful (basically, it means ‘we don’t have enough evidence, so fuck if we know!’). They have also assumed that these were ‘superstitions’ or ‘relics’ of pagan belief in an otherwise Christian culture, which is likewise not helpful. We don’t have time to get into the whole debate, but yes, you can imagine the kind of narratives and assumptions that Western historiography has produced around this.

At this point, Europe was slowly, but by no means monolithically, becoming Christian, which meant a vast remaking of traditional culture. There was never a point where beliefs and practices stopped point-blank being pagan and became Christian instead; they were always hybrid, and they were always subject to discussion and debate. Obviously, people don’t stop doing things they have done a particular way for centuries overnight. (Once again, this is where we remind people that the medieval church was not the Borg and had absolutely no power to automatically assimilate anyone.) Our first text, the ‘Corrector sive medicus,’ which is the nineteenth chapter of Burchard of Worms’ Decretum, demonstrates this. The Decretum is a collection of ecclesiastical law, dating from early eleventh-century Germany. This is well after Germany was officially ‘Christianised,’ and after the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire as an explicitly Christian polity (usually dated from Charlemagne’s coronation on 25 December 800; this was the major organising political unit for medieval Germany and the Carolingians were intensely obsessed with divine approval). And yet! Burchard is still extremely concerned with the prevalence of ‘magical’ or ‘pagan’ beliefs in his diocese, which means people were still doing them.

The Corrector is a handbook setting out the proper length of penances to do (by fasting on bread and water) for a variety of transgressions. It can seem ridiculously nitpicky and overbearing in its determination to prescribe lengthy penances for magical offenses, which are mixed in among punishments for real crimes: robbery, theft, arson, adultery, etc. This might seem to lend legitimacy to the ‘killjoy medieval church oppressing the people’ narrative, except the punishments for sexual sins are actually much lighter than in earlier Celtic law codes. If you ‘shame a woman’ with your thoughts, it’s five days of penance if you’re married, two if you aren’t, but if you consult an oracle or take part in element worship or use charms or incantations, it could be up to two years.

Overall, the Corrector gives us the impression that eleventh-century German society was a lot more worried about whether you were secretly cursing your neighbour with pagan sorcery, rather than who you’re bonking, even though sexual morality is obviously still a concern, and this reflected the effort of trying to explicitly and completely Christianise a society that remained deeply attached to its traditional beliefs and practices. (There’s also a section about women going out at night and running naked with ‘Diana, Goddess of the Pagans’, which sounds awesome sign me up.) Thus there is here, as there will certainly be later, a gendered element to magic. Women could be witches, enchantresses, sorceresses, or other possible threats, and have to be closely watched. Nonetheless, there’s no organised societal persecution of them. Formal witch hunts and witch trials are decidedly a post-Renaissance phenomenon (cue rant about how terrible the Renaissance was for women). So as much as we stereotype the medieval world as supposedly being intolerant and repressive of women, witch hunts weren’t yet a thing, and many educated women, such as Trota of Salerno, had professional careers in medicine.

The solution to this problem of magical misuse is not to stop or destroy magic, since everyone believes in it, but to change who is legitimately allowed to access it. Valerie Flint’s article, ‘The Early Medieval Medicus, the Saint – and the Enchanter’ discusses the renegotiation of this ability. Essentially, there were three categories of ‘healer’ figure in the early Middle Ages: 1) the saint, whose miraculous power was explicitly Christian; 2) the ‘medicus’ or doctor, who used herbal or medical treatment, and 3) the ‘enchanter’, who used pagan magical power. According to the ecclesiastical authors, the saint is obviously the best option, and believing in/appealing to this figure will give you cures beyond the medicus’ ability, as a reward for your faith. The medicus tries his best and has good intentions, but is limited in his effectiveness and serves in some way as the saint’s ‘fall guy’. Or: Anything the Doctor Can (Or Can’t) Do, The Saint Can Do Better. But the doctor has enough social authority and respected knowledge to make it a significant victory when the saint’s power supersedes him.

On the other hand, the ‘enchanter’ is basically all bad. He (or often, she) makes the same claim to supernatural power as the saint, but the power is misused at best and actively malicious and uncontrollably destructive at worst. You are likely to be far worse off after having consulted the enchanter than if you did nothing at all. Both the saint and the enchanter are purveyors of ‘magical’ power, but only the saint has any legitimate claim (again, according to our church authors, whose views are different from those of the people) to using it. The saint’s power comes from God and Jesus Christ, the privileged or ‘true’ source of supernatural ability, while the enchanter is drawing on destructive and incorrect pagan beliefs and making the situation worse. The medicus is a benign and well-intentioned, if not always effective, option for healing, but the enchanter is No Good Very Bad Terrible.

The fact that ecclesiastical authors have to go so hard against magic, however, is proof of the long-running popularity of its practitioners. The general public is apparently still too prone to consult an enchanter rather than turn to the church to solve their problems. The church doesn’t want to eradicate these practices entirely, but insists that people call upon God/Christ as the authority in doing them, rather than whatever local or folkloric belief has been the case until now. It’s not destroying magic, but repurposing and redefining it. What has previously been the unholy domain of the pagan is now proof of the ultimate authority of Christianity. If you’re doing it right, it’s no longer pagan sorcery, but religious miracles or devotion.

Overall: what role does witchcraft play in early medieval Europe? The answer, of course, is ‘it’s complicated.’ We’re talking about a dynamic, large-scale transformation and hybridising of culture and society, as Christian religion and society became more prevalent over long-rooted pagan or traditional beliefs. However, these beliefs arguably never fully vanished, and were remade, renamed, and allowed to stay, without any apparent sense of contradiction on the part of the people practicing them. Ecclesiastical authorities were extremely concerned to identify and remove these ‘pagan’ elements, of course, but the general public’s relationship with them was always more nuanced. When dealing with medieval texts about magic, we have a tendency to prioritise those that deal with a definably historical person, event, or place, whereas clearly mythological stories referring to supernatural creatures or encounters are viewed as ‘less important’ or as the realm of historical fiction or legend. This is a mistake, since these texts are still encoding and transmitting important cultural referents, depictions of the role of magic in society, and the way in which medieval people saw it as a helpful or hurtful force. We have to work with the sources we have, of course, but we also have to be especially aware of our critical assumptions and prejudices in doing so.

It should be noted that medieval authors were very concerned with proving the veracity of their miracle narratives; they did not expect their audiences to believe them just because they said so. This is displayed for example in the work of two famous early medieval historians, Gregory of Tours (c.538—594) and the Venerable Bede (672/3—735). Both Gregory’s History of the Franks and Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People contain a high proportion of miracle stories, and both of them are at pains to explain to the reader why they have found these narratives reliable: they knew the individual in question personally, or they heard the story from a sober man of good character, or several trusted witnesses attested to it, or so forth. Trying to recover the actual historicity of reported ‘miracle’ healings is close to impossible, and we should resist the cynical modern impulse to say that none of them happened and Gregory and Bede are just exaggerating for religious effect. We’re talking about some kind of experienced or believed-in phenomena, of whatever type, and obviously in a pre-modern society, your options for healthcare are fairly limited. It might be worth appealing to your local saint to do you a solid. So to just dismiss this experience from our modern perspective, with who knows how much evidence lost, in an entirely different cultural context, is not helpful either. There’s a lot of sneering ‘look at these unenlightened religious zealots’ under-and-overtones in popular conceptions of the medieval era, and smugly feeling ourselves intellectually superior to them isn’t going to get us very far.

Next week: Ideas about the afterlife, heaven, hell, the development of purgatory, the kind of creatures that lived in these realms, and their representation in art, culture, and literature.

Further Reading:

Alver, B.G., and T. Selberg, ‘Folk Medicine As Part of a Larger Complex Concept,’ Arv, 43 (1987), 21–44.

Barry, J., and O. Davies, eds., Witchcraft Historiography (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2007)

Collins, D., ‘Magic in the Middle Ages: History and Historiography’, History Compass, 9 (2011), 410–22.

Flint, V.I.J, ‘A Magical Universe,’ in A Social History of England, 1200-1500, ed. by R. Horrox and W. Mark Ormrod (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 340–55.

Hall, A., ‘The Contemporary Evidence for Early Medieval Witchcraft Beliefs’, RMN Newsletter, 3 (2011), 6-11.

Jolly, K.L., Popular Religion in Late Saxon England: Elf Charms in Context (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996)

Kieckhefer, R., Magic in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000)

Maxwell-Stuart, P.G., The Occult in Mediaeval Europe (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2005)

Storms, G., Anglo-Saxon Magic (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1947)

Tangherlini, T., ‘From Trolls to Turks: Continuity and Change in Danish Legend Tradition’, Scandinavian Studies, 67 (1995), 32–62.

[brightaira]

AI-Infused Decision Making

Have you ever contemplated in the number of times you make decisions in a given day? It’s time consuming as well as irritating to be reluctant to purchase an item or make a request. What if you have been given a “magical” tool that could help narrow down your choices? What if we create simple tools that can adopt to your style, situation and the current context to give you more precise and accurate recommendations. If this resonates with you then continue reading this article, as I will share some thoughts around how new type of digital systems can help you and other organisations make better decisions.

What is AI-Infused Decision Making

Perhaps I’m endeavouring to coin a new term in the world of the business decision making and artificial intelligence. Working for so many years in the IT field and observing numerous successful and indeed as well as failed projects, one prevalent mistake I see is when organisations think the use of AI can solve any problem and will wondrously help them sell more and market better! well, the conspicuous answer is in the negative! I shall explain.

But first let me give a definition for what do I mean by “AI-Infused Decision Making”. For so many years, people have talked about Expert Systems and how they help make better decisions. According to wikipedia, in artificial intelligence, an expert system is a computer system emulating the decision-making ability of a human expert. The expert system is fed a set of knowledge base with the aim to solve complex problems by applying rule based systems. AI Decision Support systems on the other hand are systems that aid in making decisions. Normally, they provide means for users to interact and use the system to reason and finally conclude.

So what is AI-Infused Decision Making? it’s simply put a combination of both Expert Systems and the use of advanced sophisticated methods in decision support systems to help guide users reach possible decision choices. Now that we have defined the term, let us dive into why I believe it provides distinct view and perspective of how new Decision Support Platforms are made and how it contributes into transforming how organisations make strategic and operational decisions. Not just that, even on the personal level, many of us make decisions with the help of mobile or wearable devices. Hence, how significant making decision is!

Successful Transformation = Taking the Right Decisions on the Right Time

I would presume many would to concur that making a successful transformation is profoundly correlated with taking the right decisions on the right time. Numerous groundbreaking transformative (ideas, projects, products, etc.) were not completely novel or original but rather composed and packaged entirely in a manner that is truly exhibit solving real and challenging business problems.

So take a moment and think for a second. How many of us when he/she sees a successful business; say I thought about this many years ago? is not that right? well, what went wrong? why didn’t he or she started that business? Was it a lack of will? Perhaps, but I would reckon it’s to do with “Uncertainty“. Our fears of uncertainty heavily influence our decisions. You, for example, made a decision to read so far! if you were uncertain and skeptical about the value of reading this article you would not have spent time thus far reading.

Dealing with Uncertainty?

We live in a world that is for the most part uncertain, nevertheless we thrive to seek certainty, because certainty gives us confidence in the validity and effectiveness of our decisions. Consequently, most of the organisations look for visionary and talent people who can see through future and anticipate opportunities and make “The Right Decision On the Right Time”.

For so many years, IT companies have sought to create tools to help professionals better make decisions. From automations to the most advanced technologies and use of Machine Learning and to help solve complex problems and provide better recommendations.

A Proposed Model to Solve Uncertainty

Let us take a logical example of how most people would go about making a decision. Let’s say you want to buy a car. First you will go to the web and search for the car spec, features, reviews, pros and cons, …etc. Then you may contact a subject matter expert for consultation or a friend who happens to own one. Then finally, you look at the available data like cars sales, parts costs ..etc. Isn’t that a very logical approach?

This is precisely what I’m proposing here is to build an AI-Infused system that takes into consideration the previously described approach. The proposed platform will utilise the leading-data found on the Internet and source all reported news and social media feeds, including customer reviews and ratings. This measure represents the uncertainly observed on the social media platform likely to represents people’s views. Incorporate that with Subject Matter Experts Opinion using methods such as Delphi method to source feedback. After that, combine it with lagging-data such as company’s sales, past deals ..etc. The common methods of forecasting depend on choosing internal factors that are often available to the companies or service providers, such as prices, daily sales, etc. However, this method relies on combining the previously mentioned method with inputs from open data such as people’s sentiments about a product or the popularity of a product or company. As well as integrating economic indicators in the forecasting process and enhancing it with the participation of experts such as SMEs. Integrating all of these inputs into a deep learning-based system in an effort to give a more accurate prediction and forecasting than the currently available techniques.

To read and know more about this approach click here

[tqslogistics]

6 Different Ways to Improve Your Warehousing

By: Shashank Shekhar,

Founder & CEO at TQS Logistics

 With advances in technology and changes being implemented by the government, supply chains are constantly evolving. In these times, how does one improve warehousing productivity? Here are six factors that determine the efficiency of a warehouse. At TQS Logistics we focus on implementing most efficient and productive strategies for better customer experience. There are various ways top Indian logistics companies manage their warehouses.

Your employees are your strength

Keeping employees happy is an art form in itself. Good management begins with efficient frontline personnel. You can increase the efficiency of the warehouse by training your frontline managers. Optimization is the focus of their work, and they can help make sure that our employees' goals are aligned. Managing shift changes and handovers, lunch and tea breaks efficiently will also ensure that productivity targets are met on an hourly basis.

Productivity targets should be reviewed frequently and benchmarked against industry standards. To ensure productivity achievement trends are always on the rise, the learning curve should also be considered.

Finally, keeping employee morale high ensures better results and effectiveness. It has been shown that light music and frequent positive feedback can increase warehouse efficiency. Additionally, incentivizing work beyond KRAs and asking for employee feedback are great ways to improve.

 Technology – Identification, Customization, and Implementation

A warehouse's productivity is determined by its speed and accuracy. Keeping an eye on the newest technologies improves the pace and precision of warehouse activities. Storage companies have found that investing in wireless technology for inventory management has reduced labor costs, improved accuracy, and saved valuable time. Investment in weight-based ordering systems is another highly proven tool on the market. Based on the weight of the items occupying the storage area, this mechanism measures inventory levels, places an order to the vendor automatically if the levels fall, and then processes the payment automatically.

Newer technologies like voice-enabled control are also being made available to Indian logistics companies of all sizes.

They are known for their quick installation, fewer dependencies, and little training. Cold chain technologies are becoming more prevalent too, with temperature-sensitive movable storage, pallet cover systems as light as bottles, and more.

Optimized warehousing activities

Warehouse activities should be optimized based on merchandise whenever possible. Several warehousing professionals make the mistake of standardizing activities, which may not be beneficial in the long run. By taking shelf life and dispatch rates into account, time and money are saved. If the dispatch priorities are dynamic, for instance, implementing FIFO or LIFO procedures may not be the best idea. A great way to increase efficiency is to store items with shorter shelf lives near the staging area, which makes heavy picks easier to organize. Bulk items can be moved directly to staging areas in this manner, simplifying the process. In addition, eliminating unnecessary processes, or combining them, can help save time and money by reducing touch points.

Waste management and Resource Deployment

Wastes, such as excess inventory, over-processing of orders, waiting for resources, etc., should be identified and eliminated as effectively as possible.

Monitoring of projected orders in relation to actual orders should be consistently performed, and resources should be deployed/cross-deployed according to the ramp-up and ramp-down cycles.

An efficient WMS is a pure magic

By implementing a good warehouse management system (WMS), you can optimize your entire fulfillment chain. The right WMS can enhance every process, right from reconfiguring storage to pick-and-pack activities, resulting in dramatic reductions in cost, effort, and time. Boosting warehouse productivity is the single most effective way to increase profitability. There are many modern warehouse management systems that provide customized solutions based on the needs of the warehouse they are serving. Today's modern warehousing professionals take full advantage of this massive advantage.

Predict vendor actions

Often, warehouse activities are negatively affected by unexpected delays and unpredictable delivery schedules. Planning activities according to the promised deadlines may not necessarily be the best idea. Lead time and delivery time may be different depending upon the efficiency of the vendor. One should strictly enforce SLAs with vendors and consistent monitoring should be done. However, it is always a smart move to be well-versed with the history of the vendor’s actions to plan activities ahead of time. The knowledge of this ahead of time may help warehousing professionals plan ad-hoc actions to deal with unexpected inflows. Knowing the vendor's history is important, as it facilitates the mobilization of staff to serve them better, leading to faster turnover.

Final Takeaway

No one can truly define how logistics should be managed but as big our logistics industry is there are always possibilities for improvements. This blog is for people to understand how the logistics business works.

[nightmaresindreamland]

HC: ‘Fear Juice’, What It Is And What It Does

[x] | [x] [x]

Introduction

Nightmare has no organs, no bones, no flesh. No a single part of him is technically organic. This is because he is made up entirely of magic— basically, anyways. This magic is simply called ‘Fear Magic’ because it is based off the user’s fears. In order to be used, the caster must have previously undergone specific rituals to store up this magic or must be subjected to seeing their fears at that specific moment. Nightmare, the biggest and most well known user of this magic, is not subject to this due to his nature as a fear demon; something that gains magic from others feeling scared.

With being an extremely powerful sorcerer whose blood is magic means that he can do some strange things. One of said things is the creation of ‘fear juice’. If Nightmare wills it, he can slightly liquefy part of his body (ex. his finger) and cause it to drip. When it drips, it will start off as metal before turning into a starry, purple mixture (see above). Using certain technologies, this process can be forced to happen, even so much so that it can reduce an entire wizard to a puddle if done correctly.

This is pure fear magic condensed into liquid form. If that doesn’t automatically sound nasty, then I don’t know what would. This stuff landing on your skin won’t do much of anything, but got forbid you get it in your mouth or nose. If fear juice is ingested, to any degree, there are horrible effects.

Lets go through that.

Ingestion

Fear juice has a terrible taste as to keep people from drinking it. It’s sour like year old rotted milk, with a consistency that always seems to change depending on whoever’s drinking it. It will instantly want to make whoever’s drinking it vomit. 

If for some reason they do not instantly vomit out the fear juice and manage to get it down their gullet, then things start. 

Initial Pain

Intense full body pain will occur only after all fear juice given has been put into body. Pain will not start instantly. If there is a waterfall of fear juice being put into one’s body, the pain only begins once it stops.

Pain is caused by bones and bodily organs forcibly shifting from one point to another, unnaturally so. Bones may be broken and vitals may be ruptured, but no matter what, the consumer does not die. 

This is the stage where those who consumed fear juice mutate into a beast of body horror. Transformation can be long or short depending on what the person’s end product looks like and what they’re made out of.

Bodily Mutation

All results are seemingly random. Like a mystery bag, never know what horror you might get. Some features include the following:

Extra limbs or lack of limbs

Additional facial features (eyes, noses, mouths)

Sometimes these extend to places that are not on the face, and can be found on other places on the body.

Body elongation (vertical, horizontal, or both)

Random change of body texture (from skin to goo, from fur to scales, etc)

Random protrusions 

Morphing of clothes into skin

Loss of senses / gaining of senses (additional eyes, ears, etc)

Additional body masses 

Retractable skin

Bones being forced outwards, piercing through skin if sharp or rubbing through if dull

Stomach skin being pulled apart to reveal bodily organs

Organs / inner body being replaced by goo

And much, much more.

An increased amount of fear juice consumed results in more of these traits being prevalent in the end product.

Behavioral Mutation

Those that consume fear juice will be in control of their actions directly. They are not possessed, they are seemingly influenced and moreso driven. The effects of fear juice have a harsher pull on the mind the longer one has it in their system.

The first few minutes after transformation will have it so the consumer is incredibly moody and angry. They will be drawn to attack the one who made them this way (if the transformation was unwilling) or anyone around them who has wronged them in some way. If no one is around, they will search for someone.

The first half hour is random, and seemingly based on strong personality traits. 

Consumers with a desire to protect others above all will search out those they value and possessively protect them to the point where if their protection is rejected they will kill the person they were protecting.

Consumers with a high level of heroism / desire to do good will seek out those they find evil and force reckoning upon them for their wrongdoings.

Consumers with a lot of pacifism will hide themselves away for fear of others seeing them, and if anyone DOES see them, said person will be slaughtered for the greater good.

Consumers who love humor above all else will gather many people to be infront of them and tell jokes. Those who do not laugh are subjected to torture or general bodily harm.

Consumers who are constantly angry are just. On a rampage destroying whatever makes them angry. People, objects, anything. 

Consumers who desire for progressiveness will attempt to annihilate any local authority before turning to anyone who opposes their ideologies.

Consumers with a desire to gain power and grow their ego will act accordingly to their mutations and use it to terrorize people into submission for their entertainment, or instantly go out and seek more juice to consume.

The list goes on, but consumers personality traits are taken and twisted to the worst possible way. They will be in full control of whether they fall into these tendencies, and consumers with extremely strong wills can stray away from any undesirable results. It’s said that the desire to do these things ‘is as natural as wanting to get a drink of water when parched’.

The following hours that come make it so it’s increasingly harder for the consumer to not fall into these desires, and make the consumer more and more outwardly violent and angry. Consumers may not be unlike a wild animal as time wears on. 

People who the consumer loves very much can temporarily stun the consumer’s violence with their presence, causing calm, but prolonged exposure to loved ones causes this effect to dull until it is nonexistent.

Consumers will feel an extreme desire to procure more fear juice the longer they are without a ‘fix’ and the feeling of getting more is an addicting feeling. 

Consumers feel compelled to gain as much juice as possible, which is something only obtainable via fear demons (ex. Nightmare, his creations, fellow fear juice monsters). They will actively hunt down these sources and viciously fight with them for more, even if the juice was given willingly in the first place.

If the consumer recieves more juice, they will be seemingly contented with themselves with however much more they get, no matter the amount (unless they are a megalomaniac). The more consumed whilst still a monster will cause further mutations and further pain, but allows for more ‘power’ to be obtained.

Reversal

In order to remove fear juice from one effected by it, the consumer must get the everloving shit beat out of them. They must be turned into what is essentially a bloody pulp. This is typically easier said than done.

However, removal of fear juice can also be done via a very specific magic that only Mirrormare knows. It involves making a singular cut along whoever is effected and causing fear juice to flood out. Contacting him and asking for fear juice removal is typically the safest, least stressful way to deal with reversing a consumer.

Post-Effects

Once juice is removed from the consumer, they will turn back to their normal form, completely unchanged. Though they will feel aches and generally feel tired. Those who gain extra limbs will feel phantom pains upon their removal.

Those who have stayed within their monster forms for elongated periods of time may feel greatly weakened, along with a pull to return to their previous, ‘powerful’ form. 

Consumers with confidence issues in self and abilities are much more susceptible to this desire rather than those that are confident in their normal body. 

These desires and the length of their stay in the consumer is entirely determined by the user’s will and personality. Intrusive thoughts about consuming more juice and returning to their monster form are very common. Whether these thoughts are acted upon are determined, again, by the person’s will and personality.

Concentration

There are two brands of fear juice; purple and yellow. It’s pretty obvious which belongs to which. 

There is one very significant difference between the two colors. Comparing them would be like comparing a bottle of beer to a bottle of vodka. One has more alcohol content than the other, and can effect someone faster and much more intensely with one bottle.

Purple is beer and yellow is vodka in terms of content. Purple may knock you around, but yellow will destroy you up even in the smallest dosages. 

But consuming either is not a smart decision.

Additional Notes

Fear juice is liquid. It cannot be turned into a solid no matter how much one tries to freeze it. This is because Fear Juice in it’s ‘solid’ form is Nightmare. And no matter how much you freeze a liquid, it’s not going to turn into Nightmare. Sorry.

It can, however, be turned into a gas. The boiling point is 287° Celsius (548.6  Fahrenheit) and will return to liquid state starting at 30° Celsius (86 Fahrenheit). This gas looks like glitter, dyed with its respective yellow or purple coloring.

[wondrousworldbuilding]

Why develop a fictional culture?

When you’re creating a race of people for your new world, you need a culture to give those people and their way of life some context. The culture helps determine how the characters act, dress, eat, solve problems, among so many other things. You can (and sometimes, should) have multiple cultures in your world, depending on how large your focus area is. Cultures affect each other, but also serve in a narrative sense to draw contrast in-world and to draw parallels to the reader’s world. 

So here are some thoughts, big and small, that are meant to help inspire you as you create amazing cultures. (And remember that you’re thinking about the following questions in the context of the general population, not your main character(s).) You can simply answer these questions in short-answer form, or you can write a short story to flesh out one or two or three questions at once. If you do that, submit them to me! I’d love to feature them on the blog. 

How old do people believe their race is? How old are they really?

How prevalent are religions to the common person?

What is/are the origin stories of the main religion(s)?

What do most people think should be the highest priority:

biological family?

chosen family?

career?

service/charity (of any kind)?

religion?

entertainment/fun?

nation?

expansion (of nation/culture/influence/understanding)?

How do culturally shared priorities shape interactions?

What is the common greeting? Does it vary by age, class, rank, or sect?

How is gender viewed by the majority? Why?

What are common myths/legends of your people and how heavily do they influence the modern day?

How trustful are people of outsiders?

How welcoming are people, in general, of strangers into their homes?

How well do people of various factions (class, race, religion, etc.) get along in society?

How far has technology advanced, and how has it been implemented into their daily lives?

If magic exists, what do they believe is its origin? Its source?

If there is division between magic/non-magic, how do the two treat each other and why? How long has it been that way?

What sort of relationship do they have with their ruler?

How content is the average person?

How do people make their living and how big a part of their life is their career (if applicable)?

Do they have “weekends” and if so, what sets them apart from “weekdays”?

How do they treat their close friends?

How do they treat their enemies?

How do they handle small conflict, between individuals or small groups?

How do they handle larger conflicts?

How are they prepared for any potential war? Do they have some sort of military or militia in place? 

How many wars have they, as a society, fought over the course of their lives/history? How much of an impact does that have on their cultural identity? (i.e. WW2′s impact on patriotism in America, and how it’s yet to go away.)

What virtues do they value in individuals? What virtues do they say they value? If those are different, why?

How do they dress? Does it vary greatly by gender, or not? Is their focus on clothing very practical, religious, sentimental, or simply driven by the latest arbitrary fashion? How do the above answers reflect on the culture on a deeper level?

How do they treat their elderly?

How do they treat their children?

At what age does a baby become a child, a child a young adult, a young adult an adult, an adult an elder?

How much regulation does the day-to-day life of the average citizen entail? Or, how involved is the government in micro affairs?

How are these people seen throughout their known world? How do other cultures view this culture?

Check out the rest of the Brainstorming Series! Magic Systems, Part One Magic Systems, Part Two New Species New Worlds  Map Making Politics and Government Belief Systems & Religion Guilds, Factions, & Groups War & Conflict Science & Technology Wildlife & Ecosystems History & Lore

[nakklepiggy]

actually now that thought’s just making me think about how people in BOTW’s Hyrule would react to newer technologies being made available.... (this is long so it’s under a cut WHOOPS)

so for starters, I imagine this all would happen in the post-game when Zelda and Link and their friends are rebuilding Hyrule. somebody finally makes the connection that these ancient Sheikah technologies could be used for purposes other than destroying evil; they can be repurposed to improve the safety of Hyrule, create faster modes of transportation and communication, and up the general quality of life by introducing cleaner power sources/electric lighting and heating.

also as a note - certain regions would need different types of technology, such as Death Mountain requiring heat-resistant stuff and Zora’s Domain needing heavy insulation against electricity; and that’s actually something that’d be really cool to think about! but this post is more about cultural attitudes towards improving tech so I’m just gonna focus on that, haha.

Sheikah people are used to a certain level of this technology, given that so many research it and that it has an impact on their contemporary clothing, but there’s a lot of turmoil related to that tech - the fact that they swore off using it and sealed it away for 10,000 years, and that when they tried to use it again it was turned against them and associated with destruction come to mind... I feel like a lot of Sheikah would be happy to see more relaxed attitudes towards improved technology, but they would be understandably wary about developing or building new weapons using that tech. They’ve got a bit of a delicate reputation as it is. Meanwhile, I have a feeling that Yiga clan people have a stronger dependence on these old technologies (I strongly believe that their teleporting abilities are based off of the ancient tech rather than magic), but also perhaps a bit more strict ideas of how it should be used? they seem to only use it to make themselves stronger/craftier warriors, rather than improving their living conditions with it. so it’s possible that an ex-Yiga agent who’s rejoining the greater Hyrulean society while this technological shift is going on would simultaneously be comforted by the technology and kind of affronted at it being used for ‘foolish matters’ of personal comfort, improved quality of life/health, and ease of communication and travel >o> but I’m sure they’d come to appreciate having running water, indoor plumbing, etc.

In general, Hylians would initially be skeptical of improved technology since many have been living in fear of Malice-tainted machines for a century - so fear of technology is probably pretty strongly ingrained in the contemporary Hylian mind, particularly those living around Hyrule Field. However there are definitely Hylians who are curious about ancient technology, and I feel that with Zelda and Link’s interest in turning it into something more infrastructure-focused than military-focused more Hylians would come around to the idea. it would definitely take some convincing.

The Gerudo are ready adopters of improved technology! It seems like so many Gerudo are craftspeople that there would definitely be curiosity and interest there, and once they see how much it can improve the quality of life - improving travel speed and safety in the desert, helping climate control and water supply and even possibly establishing a radio communication center within Gerudo Town and at the Outpost - they would hop to it. No use wasting time when they could be using these advancements to keep themselves and their visitors safe! their relationship with Vah Naboris could also impact this - the Gerudo see Naboris as their protector and associate it with safety, so that would help them be a bit more receptive to the new tech. additionally: there are many electricity-based shrines in the Gerudo region, so I imagine there’d be a flurry of activity around those shrines when research and development of electricity and related technologies picks up. in which case, I imagine that there’d be plenty of Gerudo developing and experimenting with these electric technologies as well!

The Rito would also be quick to adopt new stuff. They don’t have quite as much affection for Vah Medoh as the Gerudo do for Vah Naboris, but they do have respect for their Divine Beast as their protector, and in any case they’re quick to adapt when given new information! In particular I think they’d get a lot of use out of climate control/heating technology, communications technology - particularly for Rito who fly far and wide - and eventually radar. Not to mention they have such strong winds around Rito Village that it’d be easy for them to set up wind turbines - just modify some of their windmills to generate electricity and boom! Easy peasy. In any case Kaneli the elder seems pretty open to new ideas so he’d be happy to take in new stuff.

Gorons would definitely be interested in new technology, mostly because of its relation to their business practices - but there are marked environmental challenges for bringing stuff like wiring into Goron City. >o> This is where repurposing decommissioned/destroyed Guardians would come in useful, I think; the Guardian materials are strong enough to withstand the high temperatures of Death Mountain, while repurposing the wiring and other systems from the Guardians themselves would keep the Gorons from having to reallocate possible edible materials into building materials (though the importance of that depends on how much metal Gorons actually eat and what importance it holds in their diets). However once the technological workthroughs were established, I think Gorons would readily welcome it. Climate control is useful for making spaces that non-Gorons find comfortable, while improved travel modes (motorized minecarts!) and communications arrays will make it easier and safer to work in the mines and travel in and around the mountain itself. Also: please imagine Yunobo running a radio show. Okay? Okay. Good. that’s just.... a really cute idea. ;_;

By and large, the Zora are the hardest people to sell on the new technology because of the prevalence of electricity, which is so dangerous to them. Many Zora elders also have similar feelings and fears about the ancient technology as Hylians do, since they have many firsthand accounts of the Great Calamity. Additionally, there aren’t a whole lot of applications for climate control or electric lighting in the Domain; the temperatures are pretty mild, and the luminous stone built into the Domain itself provides plenty of light. However, the big thing that Zora’s Domain can benefit from is the communications systems and the eventual creation of radar; like the Rito, Zoras swim far and long and get separated from each other; and radar is useful for exploring deep underwater or exploring structural stability. I have a feeling that Prince Sidon tries to get Zora’s Domain to adopt this new technology early on, but is met with opposition based on safety and it even being necessary; but once he can prove that it’s safe and will benefit them, they gradually begin integrating new technology into their Domain. (this may or may not involve Sidon grabbing a live insulated wire to prove that there are ways for Zoras to safely handle electricity and he gives everybody a heart attack from fright lol)

oh MAN, this got long. and it’s basically just social stuff l m a o,,,,,, but it was fun to write hahaha