#the native speaker super power I guess

[somerandomdudelmao]

So the some of the background dialogue I made out was “I miss you Leo” and “You’re not making this any easier you know”. I’m going feral rn

LITERALLY H O W ARE YOU ABLE TO READ THIS?

[olderthannetfic]

i'm dumb and its actual hard to guess

--

Haha.

Okay, so... the big issue in minority languages, reviving dying languages, etc. has to do with their draw.

To keep a language vital, you generally need:

monolingual speakers

economic advantage

cultural power

Pick two.

Any language that has its own territory where it is the majority language that is used for business and entertainment and daily life outside of the home does not tend to become endangered. There are plenty of people who only speak that language or who at least preferentially use it and are far more competent in it. They can't and won't run off for other languages at the drop of a hat.

But when you don't have that... boy, you better have a lot going for your language or it's fucked.

People go where the jobs are. If you need English in order to eat, you learn English. Or Mandarin. Or Russian.

Grandma cares deeply about our ethnic heritage and the traditions tied to our ancestral language? Too bad. I'm hungry, the jobs are in a factory in the city, and I need a roof over my head.

My kids want to watch TV. They want pop music and movies and comics. They want to feel cool, not like losers in some dying backwater.

Why the fuck would they care what grandma thinks?

...

Until they hit 40 and they realize their entire heritage just got stolen by the big boys. Who even are they because they're not this majority they tried to join, but they're not the old thing either? Gosh, it might be nice to reclaim their own history, but grandma is gone and so is her language and it's far, far too late.

--

If you don't have the territory and the economic power, your only other option is coolness.

If you've got some hot culture people love, they'll want to learn your language. Native speakers will take pride in that language and keep using it routinely instead of relegating it to the kitchen and living most of their life in another language. Their kids will grow up wanting to speak it instead of beating a hasty retreat for the nearest source of jobs and blockbuster movies.

This is why you get initiatives to make entertainment media in languages like Irish and Welsh.

When the sheer might of English is right next door, you're not going to beat that in usefulness or economic opportunity, but you just might be able to strike back by making people care.

It is very, very hard to make people care.

--

So on AO3, which is largely in English, if you want your ASL fic to matter, the last fucking thing you should do is make it available in English. Other languages, even super globally powerful ones, just aren't so common on AO3, so those translations don't really make a difference in this context.

The ASL translation of an English-language AO3 fic is a curiosity.

An ASL original that English speakers cannot access is a middle finger up to language hegemony.

[lulu2992]

Deleted dialog from Far Cry 3’s main story

In this series of posts, I’m sharing all the unreleased content (minus a few duplicates) I found in the oasisstrings text file, even when it wasn’t very interesting, so we have a comprehensive list of the lines that were cut in each Far Cry 3 story mission.

On a side note, the document never says which character is speaking, so every time you see names, it’s either because the corresponding audio files were available and I know who the speaker is, or because the context made it easy to guess their identity.

Part 5: Mushrooms in the Deep

At the beginning of the mission, Jason apparently wanted to try to send a message to the outside world and would briefly interact with a playful local radio operator:

I gotta send a message to the outside.

It's not sending. I bet the island only has a local network.

I'm on my own now. [beat] I'm so sorry, this is all my fault. [beat] But I'll fix it, I'll make it right. I'll find Riley. I'll bring him home. I'll bring them all home. I'm the only one who can do it.

I'm on my own now. I tried calling for help, but I can`t reach anyone outside of the island. [beat] I'm so sorry, this is all my fault. [beat] But I'll fix it, I'll make it right. I'll find Riley. I'll bring him home. I'll bring them all home. I'm the only one who can do it.

The honor is ours, white one. I hear you come from across the seas. Give us news of our Native American cousins. Are they still dancing with the wolves?

I'm just fucking with you. We are isolated, but we're not THAT isolated.

Then, here’s a deleted call:

Jason: Hello? Dennis: Jason! I almost forgot. While you are with the doctor, make sure to ask him to give you recipes for medicine. He has uncovered some very powerful ones. Jason: Thanks. Dennis: Always remember to listen to the jungle. It'll make you stronger, faster. It will take you off the beaten path. Let it and you will be rewarded.

And here’s a cut comment while Jason is on his way to Dr. Earnhardt’s house:

Hey. Radio tower.

Then, he finally finds the doctor, as well as Daisy. At the beginning of the cutscene, before Jason notices that his friend is “burning up”, Dr. Earnhardt had a few reassuring words:

I have been administering to her every hour. Don't worry. I'm more than able to multitask.

Jason then goes to look for the mushrooms in the cave under the house and experiences a few hallucinations during which he imagines or remembers conversations with his friends and family. Some used to be a little longer, and the cut lines are bolded and italicized below:

Liza: The studio called...I got the role! Liza: Yeah! I was super nervous on the phone. Liza: But I'm starting in three days. Jason: What about the rest of our vacation? Liza: [sighs]I thought we could talk about this like grown ups. Jason: Liza. We're in Bangkok, together, and I can't believe how beautiful you are.

Riley: Hey J, you're gonna come to my pilot ceremony next month, right? Jason: Sorry, I'm busy. Riley: You mean, heading to Oliver's cabin in Tahoe to ski? Yeah, I'll trade you.

Grant: What are you afraid of? You're a natural with a gun. Jason: Grant? Grant: Nothing can stop us! We'll take on death.

Then, Jason had two more comments after finding the mushrooms:

They're real.

Finally. I hope it's not too late.

The conversation with Daisy used to be slightly different, but the only difference is this part. Jason’s line was cut; the rest of the scene is identical.

Daisy: Jason. Jason: What is it? Daisy: Whoever did this. Whoever killed Grant. He deserves to die.

After exiting the house, Jason decides to contact Dennis. At the beginning of the call, he would simply say:

I better call Dennis.

Hello?

The rest of their conversation is still in the game.

[silverzoomies]

20 questions for writers. i'm really bad and boring with these sorry

i was tagged by the lovely and talented @taintandviolent

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

21 !!!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

131,983 !!!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

atm i write for x-men and american horror story. but i've written for other marvel stuff, always sunny, mystery science theater 3000, gotham, stranger things, and even austin powers lmao

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

naive pig (stranger things), judgment clouded (moon knight), honeysuckle, maternal, and a filthy little fic called Uhhhhhhhh (also stranger things)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

i usually don't !! lol i'm tryin' to respond more often. but i'm just too shy for that shit sometimes, sorry

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

the long form fic i've been workin' on for two years now. i haven't posted it and probably never will LMAO !!!

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

all the peter ones have pretty positive endings, i think !!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

only like once or twice? mostly just criticism. which is fine !!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kinds?

i write filthy degenerate bullshit and if my southern traditionalist conservative baptist mom knew she'd be so disappointed

10. Do you write crossovers?

kinda? i write marvel universe crossovers, i guess !! i also rp crossover universes A LOT. like some multiverse, childhood imagination on the playground level shit !!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

recently had a fic concept stolen for a character ai chat. that's fun !! but technically i don't own concepts. so it's fine

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

nah

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

nah

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

y'all ain't gonna have any idea what i'm talkin' about. but i'm batshit over tv's frank/dr. forrester from mystery science theater 3000. also charles xavier/erik lehnsherr is a classic

i'm also a diehard peter maximoff/logan howlett truther sorry but liiiiike that dynamic is cute af to think about !!

15. What's a WIP that you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

the long form fic i mentioned earlier. the one i've spent two years on? as time passes, it feels more and more cringeworthy. as much as i love it, i don't think i'm gonna finish it. which sucks !! i'd love to see it fleshed out !! even if the end result was super lame !!

16. What are your writing strengths?

writing too fuckin' much too fuckin' often idk

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I could make a power point honestly ,,

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

i've done it before !! i know basic children's level russian !! lol i think it's all about research and respect !! and if you can, always look to native speakers for help !!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

big time rush definitely. big time rush got me into fanfic wayyyy back in 2009 !!

20. Favorite fic you've written?

i fucking love screwball so much. so so so much.

uhhhhhh tagging is hard and i'm shy idk do this if you want !!

[needsmoreresearch]

Periodically I start writing a post about how everyone should look into volunteering for a local literacy nonprofit. And it never gets anywhere, but.

There are people in your town who can't read in their first language, and there are people who are not native speakers who are learning your language. And you--yes you!--can help them, even if you don't have formal training as a teacher! And it's incredibly rewarding, even if it's also sometimes tough and sad because Society isn't set up to help them.

idk i just...I guess I want to say:

On a very practical level, people are kept from accessing necessary resources if they can't read and if they can't use the local language. "Knowledge is Power" isn't just a theoretical slogan, it isn't just about understanding the fine points of history and political theory. Reading and writing is how you access government services, it's how you vote, it's how you apply for healthcare and deal with leases and pay bills and apply for a job and locate shelters to get away from an abusive partner and get a driver's license and figure out immigration.

(Increasingly, this also requires computer literacy. More and more of this stuff is ONLY online, and people who can't manage that depend on friends and family to help with their most basic needs. Not everyone has friends and family who can help. If you want to help tutor people in basic computer literacy, that's also super important! I bet your local library would love to support you in this! I'm not talking about coding or anything special, I'm talking about using email and applying to jobs and checking in with the unemployment department. Everything is online. If you're not online, you're screwed.)

But it's also just...neat. It's neat to learn about the different communities within your larger community. It's neat to be talking with someone who doesn't share much of your language and to figure out how to communicate that they miss their brother, or that their little son doesn't like the food at school so they make extra meals for him, or that taking care of their mother-in-law is really tiring, or that they used to love dancing when they were a kid.

If you are interested in this, there are many volunteer groups who would love to hear from you. (If you are in the US, I can probably help you find one.)

[kittilumpo]

the cult is trying to summon some kind of corn "god" to kill people in gotham but its actually a ghost from the infinite realms. the ghost they WANT is super evil and eldritch, becauae corn, but its not even on desiree's level of threat.

... which, i mean, to non-Amity humans is still too powerful to handle without any preparation, even for most magic users. but ALSO: they didnt even use the right spirit's name lmao.

batman and damian!robin busted the first ritual, but there were so many cultists there that a lot got away, including one of the head speakers who knows the ritual.

duke is the one who finally, in a tired-and-frustrated pique, says "just pretend its fucking homework and ask for his help, i dont know!!"

he gets scolded for his language but theyre all just as desperate; any plan they've thought of or even TRIED hasn't worked so far, and no one WANTS to go with batman's "show up at his apartment at night and demand answers" idea but they are officially out of better ones.

it fucking works and tim (and damian) can't decide if danny is a genius (for knowing enough about ancient native american cultures to know exactly which dialect and region the language is from) or an idiot (for believing that Wayne Enterprises CEO Tech-Genius Tim Drake-Wayne Who Famously Dropped Out Of High School And Never Went Back needed help with homework).

danny: "huh. well, i found your problem!"

tim: "problem?"

danny: "the reason you can't translate it. hah, i can't tell if your professor hates you or thinks you're a miracle worker!"

rim: "uh... why is that?"

danny: "cuz this is basically gibberish, lol. it MIGHT be like, some kind of baby's first offering? but its DEFINITELY not any kind of official ritual."

tim: "baby's first... what does it say??"

danny: "quote, 'dry lizard running, bobcat, field of maize energy, energy of mother ours, hungry field of maize bobcat, dry lizard.' like. i dont even think they even tried, lol."

tim: "buh- wha- that's IT?!?"

batfam listening on comms: "wtf????"

danny: "i told you man, your professor might seriously be playing you. i'd take this up with the dean or something."

tim, 4 days sleepless and fraying at the edges: "there's nothing about gods or demons or summoning or ANYTHING???"

danny: "...? is it... supposed to?"

tim, realizing his mistake: "uh-"

danny: "i mean... it DOES mention a spirit's name? but like i said, its just gibberish."

tim: "what spirit???"

danny: "the bobcat; my GUESS is that the kid's mom was having a problem with lizards in her garden- or maybe the house? and this kid was trying to ask for the bobcat to come eat them. see, it says 'hungry' here, right?"

tim: "... sure, go on."

danny: "they're calling the bobcat hungry, as a way to try to convince it that it WANTS to come eat the "dry lizards," which i think is supposed to be 'desert lizards.' hungry is supposed to go over HERE, but if this was by a kid who learned english first, that would explain why his grammar and stuff is so screwy."

tim, recalling damian's "ghastly complexion" description of most of the cultists: "english first... yeah. yeah it would."

danny, thoughtful: "hm... 'Lizards of The Desert run through The Maize Fields; they bother our Mother, so she has no energy; Bobcat Spirit, you are hungry! devour the Lizards of The Desert in The Maize Fields, Bobcat Spirit!' that's probably close what its supposed to say. the mom having no energy is literally a guess though, that part is MANGLED."

tim, reeling over the strange tone danny's voice took on when he said "bobcat spirit": "....... what was that spirit's name??"

danny, realizing he nerded out and probably said "bobcat spirit" in a magic way: "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh GOOD LUCK MAN" [cheeses it]

tim to batfam: "so we might need to rethink 'meta' to 'magician' here..."

DP × DC The Power of Names Coffee Shop AU

Coffee shops are notorious for misspelling peoples names to the point that it's a running joke and basically a forgone conclusion everywhere. Everywhere except this tiny coffee shop near Crime Alley. The new hire there, Danny, spells everybody's name correctly without having to ask. Whether it's "Carly" or "Karly," he always gets it right the first time. Heck, people give him their names in Chinese and Arabic, and he swaps to the correct alphabet, no problem (because Danny, being king of the dead, can speak all languages dead and living, so might as well be respectful).

It becomes a bit of a running joke in the community to give Danny the craziest names they can find to see if he can get them right. Some of the Bats even hear rumors about him and give it a go for fun. They make a game out of it to see who can find a language or alphabet that Danny can't get. That is until, while massively sleep deprived from a case involving cults and magic and getting nowhere, Tim accidently says one of the words that he'd been hearing in the cultist chants when he orders. Danny gives him an odd look but shrugs and writes something on the cup. It isn't until Tim has already left the shop that he realizes that the symbol written on his cup is one shown in the cultists scrolls he couldn't decipher.

Tim almost dropped his coffee. Danny wasn't just a human who knew a ton of languages, he must have been a meta with the ability to understand EVERY language. And the Bats desperately needed his help to crack this one before the cultist finished summoning whatever demon or disaster they had planned. But how to get the kid's help? From idle chatter while ordering, the Bats learned that Danny wanted nothing to do with the Gotham vigilantes. And Tim had already given his connection to this case away by spewing that word writen on his cup...

(I like to imagine the name Tim gave was something like "corn field" and that's why Danny looked at him funny and not because it's one of the languages of the dead)

[bigbooksbygeorge]

The Ultimate Guide to Teaching Your Kids to Read in Spanish

Do you remember the first time you read a book and felt like you were transported into a whole new world? Well, guess what? It's time to buckle up because you're about to give your kids the ticket to that magical journey. But this time it's en español.

Whether you're a native Spanish speaker or just someone who appreciates the beauty and culture that comes with the language, teaching your little one to read in Spanish can be a rewarding experience for both of you.

So, let's get to it, shall we? Today, we're going to delve into the fun, fabulous world of letters, syllables, and big books in Spanish. Yes, you heard it right. Big books in Spanish that your child will fall in love with, and that will make the learning process a piece of cake Or should I say, un pedazo de pastel?

Start with the Basics: The Spanish Alphabet

Let's go back to the good ol' ABCs, shall we? But wait, in Spanish, we have a couple of special guests like "ñ" and "ll." Learning the alphabet is like learning the building blocks of a castle, and who doesn't want to build a castle?

To make it super engaging, let's turn this into a hands-on project. Get some poster board and markers, and create a colorful alphabet chart with your kiddo. Hang it up in a special place, maybe even their room, so they can proudly see their work every day.

And hey, remember that songs are your best friend. Sing the Spanish alphabet tune when you're driving to school or while doing chores. Before you know it, you’ll have a tiny artist singing the Spanish ABCs while coloring. Now that's what I call killing two birds with one stone: or should I say, matar dos pájaros de un tiro!

Syllable Shenanigans: Breaking Down Words

Alright, you've mastered the letters, so what's next on this fun-filled journey? Syllables. Think of syllables as the glue that holds our beautiful Spanish words together. And the exciting part? Spanish is so neat and tidy; the words often break down into syllables in a very straightforward way with children’s books.

Start with some arts and crafts time. Cut out syllables from magazines or newspapers and make a syllable scrapbook. Let your child glue down syllables next to pictures that represent them. For instance, next to a picture of a dog, they could glue the syllables “pe” and “rro” to form "perro."

And don't underestimate the power of movement. Get your little one to jump or hop from one syllable to the next written on the floor. Imagine how fun it will be for them to hop from "pa" to "pa" and shout "papá". It's exercise and education rolled into one. Now, how cool is that?

Visual Aids: Pictures and Word Associations

Who can resist the charm of vivid, colorful pictures? Visual aids can be a game-changer when it comes to learning. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but in our case, we'll start with just one or two in Spanish.

Let's take your child's favorite storybook and give it a Spanish twist. Use sticky notes to label the pictures with their Spanish names. So, every time you get to the page with a 'house,' you'll also see "casa" right next to it.

You could even make it into a weekend activity by going on a "photo walk." Take pictures of random things around the neighborhood, like a tree, car, or cat. Then, go home and make a cute little album, writing down the Spanish word next to each photo. As a bonus, this can be a treasured keepsake of your child's learning journey.

Ah, and what about your own home? Turn it into a mini-Spanish haven. Place labels on household items like "mesa" for table, "silla" for chair, and "puerta" for door. It becomes a 24/7 learning playground, plus your child will feel super proud as they go around the house reading these words.

The Power of Repetition: Story Time

Ah, the allure of storytelling. Imagine cuddling up with your little one and exploring magical worlds: all in Spanish. When we dive into stories, we don’t just read words; we live adventures. And guess what? The more often we relive these adventures, the more familiar they become.

Begin with a bedtime ritual. Choose a captivating children’s tale in Spanish and read it every night for a week. You'll notice something wonderful: after a few days, your little listener will start finishing sentences and predicting what comes next.

And what about some drama? Turn these story sessions into mini-plays. Assign characters to each other and act out the parts. Fancy yourself the Big Bad Wolf or the brave Little Red Riding Hood? Your living room will soon be the stage for epic tales from Spanish folklore.

Also, keep an eye out for those big books in Spanish with vibrant illustrations. The combination of pictures and repetitive phrases can create a mesmerizing effect. Your child won’t just be learning; they’ll be enthralled.

Be Interactive: Use Everyday Moments

Life is a classroom, especially for a curious child. The beauty of learning Spanish is that you can infuse it into the tiniest moments. Think of it as seasoning everyday life with a pinch of Spanish.

During breakfast, chat about what’s on the menu in Spanish. Pancakes? That's "panqueques". Milk? That's "leche". It won't be long before your child excitedly asks for "jugo de naranja" in the morning.

Stuck in traffic or waiting in line? Turn it into a spontaneous Spanish quiz! Ask your child to spot things outside and name them in Spanish. A tree is an "árbol", and a car is a "coche". Bonus points if they can use it in a sentence.

And how about a dance party? Yup, you heard that right. Put on some catchy Spanish songs and dance away. Not only will this help with vocabulary, but you'll also have some unforgettable fun-filled moments together.

Have Fun: Games and Activities

If there's a surefire way to make learning unforgettable, it's by wrapping it up in layers of fun. Spanish isn't just a language; it's a ticket to a universe of games and activities that your child will adore.

Ever heard of "Lotería"? It's the Mexican version of Bingo, and it's brimming with delightful imagery and Spanish words. Give it a try on a family game night. You’ll be yelling "Lotería" in no time.

For the tech-savvy kids, the digital realm offers a plethora of Spanish learning apps and games. Picture this: animated characters, vibrant landscapes, and challenging quests: all reading in Spanish.

And finally, how about a Spanish fiesta? Host a themed party with Spanish music, food, and games. Your child can invite their friends, and together they can have a blast while learning. Imagine them doing the conga line while chanting Spanish numbers. Uno, dos, tres, ¡fiesta!

To wrap it up, the journey of teaching Spanish can be as colorful, lively, and dynamic as the language itself. Remember, every game played, every story read, and every song sung brings your child a step closer to being a confident Spanish reader. Dive in, enjoy the ride, and let the fiesta of learning begin.

Conclusion

Remember, teaching your child to read in Spanish is not just about the words and letters. It’s about spending quality time together and embarking on a fun-filled journey into a new world. So dig out those big books in Spanish, put on your imaginative hats, and watch your child transform into a little lector (reader) who not only enjoys stories but also gains a valuable skill that will benefit them for life.

Read More:

Childrens Big Books

[fortuna-et-cataclysmos]

Can't get over the fact there is a silly metaphor for sadness/weakness and disease in Transmission (OH WAIT. disease. transmission... that... has to be a coincidence, right?..)

First, Marinette refuses to answer Alya's call because:

If I talks to her, [Alya] will catch my weakness.

Few moments later, Marinette has a visitor. Thinking that it is Alya, she says to her mother:

Tell her that I am contagious, she'll catch my weakness.

Now, my Portuguese is far from perfect, but as far as I know (please native speakers correct me here if I am wrong), you wouldn't commonly use "fraqueza" (=weakness) to say you're sick. I guess "doente" or "enferma" would work better. So the choice of word seems purposeful to me, to show that the illness isn't like a flu, but more like, being mentally unwell.

And Adrien's answer to it?

I've caught it a while ago, don't worry.

I don't know if Adrien's answer has a second layer on his mental wellbeing, or if he was simply making a comment on the flu season.

But the subtext for the audience is clear: she feels sad and weak, and he's been feeling sad and weak for a while now. It's a good beginning to an episode where they decide to transmit their powers.

Is it maybe that the superpowers are like a disease? Their responsibility so big that it breaks you? And Adrien can understand Marinette, because he has it too.

In this context, I don't think that Tikki's earlier comment can be a coincidence:

It's Alya, your best friend! She was a superhero once, she'll know how to console you!

Is Adrien the only person who can understand Marinette and make her feel better? No, of course not. We have seen Alya do it over and over again since season 4. Chat Noir also has been reassuring Ladybug that despite what she believes, she isn't a failure.

But here, for the first time we see Adrien do it too. He understands her way better than she or him are aware. They have similar pains because they both have the "disease" of their super powers.

[apparentlynotreallyfinnish]

I found post which mentions, that, while english is your second language, you write insanely good fiction in it.

As a fellow non-native English speaker, and an aspiring writer, can I get some tips at how you started writing in English, and how you get to the point, where you are good at it?

Like, a process, please? Thank you very much, off to explore your blog now!

My friends are exaggerating a bit. I'm definitely not anywhere near insanely good. But I do think I've progressed a lot since I started writing in English in February 2019. (Before that I'd only written in my native language Finnish.) Here are my two cents anyway since you asked so nicely!

Read! Literally the most important thing you can do is read in English and not just read for pleasure (which is obviously very important and will help you learn, too) but read with the purpose of learning. Look at the way the authors use language: how they form a paragraph, how they vary sentence lengths, what kind of metaphors they use, where they put the commas and em dashes. Also, take note of any words you're not sure you understand completely and go look for the definitions. Investigative reading is the jam!

I know this is super obvious, but just start writing in English and do your best. It can be daunting in the beginning and you'll probably make mistakes, but that's totally okay. Fic writing is an amazing space to learn writing, because the story is more important than the grammar and you'll get positive feedback even if the language is not 100% correct.

If you can, find a native speaker to beta read for you. If they are willing, ask for them to explain their corrections. That way you'll actually understand what was amiss and there's a better chance you'll remember next time.

If you can't find a native speaker there are some AI helpers you can try. I used Grammarly in the beginning. It's a good help but leans more into business-type language rather than creative writing, so I wouldn't take its corrections at face value. Another one I've heard people using and liking is ProWritingAid.

Read what you've written out loud to yourself. We tend to hear the mistakes better than see them. If you don't want to/can't read out loud due to sharing a space with someone, you can use AI again. I use NaturalReader.

Don't get too caught up in the small stuff. Even native English speakers make grammar mistakes and everyone makes typos.

Write as much as you can. Write in different styles. Write drabbles. Write long fic. It doesn't really matter just as long as you keep writing. The good and bad news is that the best way to learn is to put words on paper (or a screen). (My first year of writing in English, I wrote over 500k words of fic. I still have no idea how I managed that. Hyperfixation is a super power, I guess.)

After a little while, go back and read stuff you wrote before. I bet it won't take long for you to start noticing a difference in your abilities.

Have fun with it!

[airplanned]

Hello.  In this Ted Talk, I will discuss how the Barbarian Armor in Breath of the Wild is problematic AF.

Let's start with the word "Barbarian."  This is a term invented by the ancient Greeks to describe anyone who didn't speak Greek or was not a Greek citizen.  It was a dichotomy: you were either Greek or a barbarian.  It seemed, to them, that every non-Greek speaker was just saying, "Bar bar bar bar."  So, it's super offensive.  I'm sure you can think of at least one modern equivalent of a term based on how a caricature of a culture speaks their native language. 

When the Roman Empire came along, they started using the term pretty specifically to mean non-Roman tribes.  Big stand outs here are the Imazighen (who you might know as the Berbers with the same root as barbarian), along with the Gauls and the Celts, all of whom gave the Romans a lot of grief.  Julius Caesar himself wrote a whole book about his war against the Barbarian Gauls.  (It's usually assigned as reading in Latin 2.)

In modern usage, the term has expanded out again to any group that is "other" or "barbaric," but it still focuses in on tribal and indigenous groups and has the connotation of being overly violent, cruel, or merciless.  It is an offensive term equating difference to cruelty.

So let's get back to this armor.  From the neck down, it's Celtic inspired.  They were known for their body paint and furs.  This tracks with the word "barbarian" used as the Romans would use it.  So just with the name and the look of two pieces, this armor is already othering an indigenous tribe with a connotation of cruelty.

The color text for the chest armor and leg wrappings reads, "once worn by the warriors of an ancient warlike tribe from the Faron region. The war paint bolsters your fighting spirit and raises your attack power."

Yiiikes.

Let's dig into why that's a yikes from me.  "An ancient warlike tribe."  1. This moves it from subtext and coding to textual.  This armor belonged to an indigenous group in Hyrule. 

2. "Warlike."  This is the start of the dehumanizing language we're going to see.  It's a common tool of oppressive, colonialist regimes.  "Warlike" implies that they are more violent than even the colonizers coming into their homeland and oppressing them.  It implies that they are more focused on battle than art and science.  It leads to "They are dangerous and need to be reigned in for the colonizer's safety," because they might kill our proper young men or assault our proper young women or steal our proper young children.  And/or "They are uncivilized and the colonizers will teach them how to better themselves."  There’s a level of implied naivete there--that they just don’t know how to do better. If we go back to our Celtic example, historically multiple oppressive groups had epic battles with them, and they were described as "warlike."  In fact, the Celts fought so hard that Caesar was pushed back, and later, after his death, Hadrian gave up and built a wall, saying that that was as far as the empire went and there was just no possible way to push further into their territory.  But now we (enlightened people of the 21st century) think of Celtic culture as having intricate art and music and language.  We know this "warlike" moniker is propoganda born of fear and frustration and propagated throughout the empire.  Think of the cultures that you've heard described as "warlike."  Do you believe they really are?  Or do you think this is a narrative constructed by an oppressor for the purpose of villainizing them?

Other examples of dehumanizing language: "feral," "primitive," "crude," "savage," "wild."  Also things like "child-like" can infantalize and deny the maturity, intelligence, and decision making skills of an adult.  This ties back to the naivete again--the idea that these children need to be guided.

3. "from the Faron region."  Now, you may recall that the three pieces of the armor set are found in the three labyrinths.  Weirdly, none of these are in Faron.  This is where we learn the name of the "warlike culture from Faron": the Zonai.  (Why is it called the Barbarian armor and not the Zonai armor?  Hmmmmmmm.) Zonai ruins are found all over the map, in all sorts of environments.  So why is Nintendo saying they're specifically from Faron?  It's because cultures who live in rainforests are typically indigenous and typically people of color.  There's a common thing here where colonizers judge forest-dwelling groups for not colonizing the forest.  Tear it down and build houses out of bricks! Tear it down and have a field of wheat!  Tear it down and have a field of cattle!  The colonizers’ idea was that if they weren’t “working” the land in the way the Europeans could identify, then they didn’t “own” the land and it was up for taking. Dove-tailing with this, we have colonizers’ constant judgements that their way of doing things is the only "proper" way, and all others ways are wrong.  So where does Nintendo say this fictional indigenous tribe is from?  Clearly, the jungle even though they have a labyrinth next to a snow field and in the middle of the sea, and they have ruins in a forest right next to the Lost Woods.  But no.  They're indigenous, and Nintendo really needs that to hit home.

Now at this point, we need to get into how the helm piece with a skull is not a Celtic thing.  And the Zonai ruins are not Celtic inspired at all.  They're inspired more by Aztec ruins.  This matches a bit better with the jungle habitat.  But now we've gained a level of problematic issues, because suddenly we're not talking about a white indigenous group and Link doing some Braveheart cosplay.  Now we're talking about people of color.  We're talking about demonizing people with the the dual identities of being indigenous and non-white.  Think of it this way: a lot of people have an easier time accepting "the Celts weren't warlike," than accepting "the Aztecs weren't warlike."  My saying this isn’t a judgement against people who struggle here.  We inhabit a colonialst society where this narrative that indigenous people deserve their oppression is pressed more heavily on non-white groups.

So let's look at the color text for the Barbarian Helm, because it's slightly different from the other two: "A helmet once worn by the warriors of an ancient warlike tribe from the Faron region. Wearing it draws out your inner animal, increasing your strength and battle prowess."

4. "Inner Animal."  (big sigh) Now we're comparing indigenous people to animals.  This tactic has been used to oppress and belittle since colonization began. Nothing is more dehumanizing than implying that someone is not a human.  To this day, you can hear groups compared to apes and monkeys.  It's absurdly offensive.

This instance is explicit. But there are subtler ways that equating an oppressed culture to an animal sneaks into language.  Words describing someone's features as ape-like or rat-like.  Words describing someone's movements as cat-like or dog-like.  Words describing the way people talk as grunting or barking or howling.

So I guess Nintendo didn't consider that indigenous people who encounter this oppressive language every day until it grinds and wears would play their game and have to hear it yet again.  I guess they didn't think about how by using this language, they were perpetuating a dehumanizing narrative that unknowing people would pick up and continue to use. 

Language has meaning.

*

Edit: I am a white dude.  I speak from no authority.  I just spend a lot of time thinking about language and connotations and hating on colonialism (and I took a lot of Latin, if you can’t tell).  It’s not my intention to talk over anyone.

[nyaheum]

My yearly list of Eurovision songs after the first impression (I mean, for like, half of them. I heard snippets of some songs.). Judged on music videos, because...if I only listen to the songs on Spotify, my eyes get bored. :’)

(oh, and don’t talk to me about iceland’s placement, I know this might be unpopular)

X. Belarus

Fuck Belarus, all my homies hate Belarus. Not even going to grace them with a rating.

Norway (TIX – Fallen Angel)

...no. :( And it’s not even because Keiino didn’t win, I just wholeheartetly hate this song. And I’m kinda sorry to TIX, because he seems like a cool dude and his stage outfit is absolutely hilarious, but oh my god do I hate this song with an absolute burning passion.

Poland (RAFAL – The Ride)

eye emoji mouth emoji eye emoji – well, this is a non-qualifier if I’ve ever seen one. Can we just...skip this?

Belgium (Hooverphonic – The Wrong Place)

Nap time! This song annoys me. I cannot explain it, but it gives me a headache and my whole body is revolting against this song. I am not kidding. Objectively, I don’t even hate it, but there’s just something about it...that makes me go...hnghgng…

North Macedonia (Vasil – Here I Stand)

eye emoji mouth emoji eye emoji ver. 2 – I am not trying to sound mean, but does North Macedonia do any music that is not dramatic power ballads? I’m serious. (And I don’t like it, sorry. :((...except for the high notes, I like them. When he can hit them live.)

Estonia (Uku Suviste – The Lucky One)

This (the music video)...is soft porn. I am slightly scared of Uku. I don’t know why. But, uh...this is better than last year’s song? Still, it wouldn’t qualify under my watch, whoops.

Georgia (Tornike Kipiani – You)

He stopped yelling angrily at the microphone. :((( Nah, but this isn’t my thing. It’s great that they are doing their own thing, it’s just not really my thing...it also reminds me of a song I know, damn.

Austria (Vincent Bueno - Amen)

He looks like a german youtuber. I don’t know hich one, but he looks like one. I also canot tell if he’s 18 or 38, lol. (For some reason he also reminds me of Alex Albon, which is even weirder.)...oh, uh, the song? Idk, I don’t care for I. It’s fine.

Spain (Blas Cantó – Voy A Querdarme)

Confession: I’m probably the only person who actually doesn’t like the sound of Spanish all that much. Whoops. Apart from that though, I’m not the biggest fan of this song. Can’t really say more about that. Meh.

The Netherlands (Jeangu Macrooy – Birth Of A New Age)

Listen: I really like the tone of this voice. It’s great. I am not a fan of the song. There’s something just very off about the loud percussions (?) in the background that make me go absolutely crazy when listening to this. My sensory-overload-prone ears hate it, and I’m sorry...the part before the last chorus on the other hand I love. The whole song could have sounded like that and I would have loved it. (...and I can’t unhear “You are my broccoli – You know my broccoli!” ;-;)

Azerbaijan (Efendi – Mata Hari) Whenever I see Efendi, my brain still goes “Cleopatrrrrra!”, oof. This song sounds like a song I know. Which...is super unprecice, but I genuinely don’t know which one. I do like that they kept the weird pre-chorus thing from Cleopatra (and reference the song later on), but I must say that I liked Cleopatra more...but it’s a party song, so I think it will be fun on stage!

Romania (ROXEN - Amnesia)

I didn’t like her song last year, I don’t enjoy this all too much and I’m kinda sorry but also...I don’t want to apologize for my taste in music, lmao. I want her hair though. Give me her hair.

Denkmark (Fyr & Flamme – Ove Os Pa Hinanden)

Ring ding ding, native language bonus. This is also way more fun than I thought it would be, hah. VERY retro, but I don’t hate that? :D (this and sweden really aren’t any different in terms of how much I like them)

Portugal (The Black Mama – Love Is On My Side)

I can appreciate this. I just wish it was in Portuguese, honestly. I don’t really know if I like the English for this song. That being said, I don’t know if you can make these very specific tones (you know what I mean) in portuguese without it sounding super off, so…

Ireland (Lesley Roy – Maps)

Okay, you do you Ireland. :D

Israel (Eden Alene – Set Me Free)

This exists. :D

Cyprus (Elena Tsagrinou – El Diablo)

Cyprus came to party, and I can’t be mad at that. I just don’t know why everybody in the YouTube comments loves this SO MUCH that they are sure that it will win if it gets the jury votes. I don’t think it’s as good as Fuego or She Got Me were, but maybe I just have no taste in party music. I don’t party. (Only if you got a 2000s playlist and some iced tea.)

France (Barbara Pravi – Voilà)

FRANCE sending a BALLAD? In MY Eurovision? It’s more likely than you think. It’s good, objectively. Personally, I don’t really care for it all that much and feel like I already know it.

United Kingdom (Embers – James Newman)

A good, modern song? In my british eurovision song? What happened on the Isles over quarantine? Are you guys okay? Did you find yourself? Have you taken your last breath (breath!) and looked at your past results? I’m impressed enough to put this relatively high, wow.

Serbia (Hurricane – LOCO LOCO)

*adore delano voice* party! Oh, and native language bonus...for a party song! I’m...impressed, actually. I cannot decide wheter I prefer this or Hasta La Vista, but I think it’s this one? The flows smoother, if that means literally anything.

Bulgaria (VICTORIA – Growing Up Is Getting Old)

*shrugs* I think a lot of people will like this. And I get that. I think I even understand it...yeah. I didn’t like her song last year either. It’s just personal preference, I think. I just want to have fun during Eurovision, hah.

Finland (Blind Channel – Dark Side)

Finland: FUCK YOU!!! Germany: Fuck you. <3

That’s all I’ll say, we know how the Finnish are, this is not surprising, lmao. (And I’m one of those children that grew up on Rammstein, so I legally cannot dislike this.)

Croatia (Albina - Tick-Tock)

Tick-tock, can you hear me go tick-tock? My heart is like a clock, I'm steady like a rock-...oh wait, wrong tick-tock! Still, really enjoy this song’s chorus – I actually enjoy it so much that it makes up for the utter loss of interest I experience once it’s over, chrm.

Sweden (Tusse – Voices)

I mean...let’s be honest, it’s a generic swedish pop song. It sounds like every other Swedish entry, and I think that bothers me. I know, that sounds kind of...weird, looking at my choices higher up in the list, but...meh. I think this will easily qualify for the Final and place high, and I am totally okay with that. It’s just not...what I wanted, I guess? :D (and i’m sorry but as a german-speaker I cannot get over the name “tusse”) (oh, and tusse seems to be super cool)

Albania (Anxhela Peristeri - Karma)

Oh, we’re going to war in 130 A.D.? Fine, let me just pack my spear and- oh, Albania has already sent a singer? Ah, well, might as well give up and just vibe.

Czech Republic (Benny Cristo - omaga)

This sounds fun. Not a winner or anything, but fun. I’ll probably still be on Twitter when he’s performing, whoops.

Slovenia (Ana Sklic - Amen)

Wait, there’s TWO songs called Amen? And why do I actually kinda like this? Oh well, might as well just accept it. (Her voice though...mhmmhmhm…yes please)

Iceland (Dadi og Gagnamagnid – 10 Years)

We just vibin’. I liked Think About Things more, but I’m very much biased here...because I’ve known that song for a year now. But this is still very good, and very on brand. (And I understand like...half of the lyrics, but I am okay with that.)

Australia (Montaigne - Technicolour)

not australia flexing at all of europe that they can hold big gatherings! D: oh, but I like this way more than last years song. I feel like Montaigne can show her GREAT voice way better in this song. (Even though her outfit and the sound of the song reminds me of the UK song that had...a dude run on the stage. I can’t think of the word for it right now.)

Malta (Destiny – Je Me Casse)

Destiny’s voice is just….wow. This is very different than All My Love, but it’s fun. The topic of the lyrics kinda remind me of Toy, and I like that…..I don’t really like the music video (especially the dancers in the colorful dresses? idk), but I’ll just ignore that.

Germany (I Don’t Feel Hate - Germany)

Confession time: I actually actively enjoy this song. Everybod is shitting on it, but it’s FUN and it has a good message, and Jendrik seems like the nicest dude ever and...it doesn’t deserve all the hate it’s getting? It’s completely self-produced and just fun. Stop being mean. :(

(...also someone on youtube said “pewdiepie” and I can’t unsee that now so fuck you >:((...no, no I don’t feel hate, just rethink your life choices)

Moldova (Natalia Gordienko - SUGAR)

What in the “Eis.de ist in der Kiste” is this music video? And I thought I would absolutely hate this song, but I actually don’t mind it all that much. It’s actually fun. Oh no, I’m splipping, someone catch me, aaaaaahhhhh….(and that poor cake dude. Is this song about cannibalism? Does she want to eat him?)

San Marino (Senhit – Adrenalina)

Catch me hum the chorus of this song at least once a day...but honestly, without any malicious intent: what the actual FUCK san marino? This is so much better than Freaky, and even though I do not believe for one second that this will win, the simple outragiousness of bringing Flo Rida to Eurovision deserves attention. (Bringing someone like Flo Rida to ESC sounds more like Scandinavia/Bulgaria, doesn’t it?)

Russia (Manizha – Russian Woman)

Not gonna lie, I miss Little Big, but at least they are sending something that’s at least as weird. I love that. Russian Rap is cool as fuck anyway, so I’m fully here for this...but I’m glas this song doesn’t have a music video, this just has to be a live performance. (Oh, and another strong woman!)

Ukraine (Go_A – SHUM)

I’m SO glad Go_A are back. But, let me be completely honest: I know why they had to change the lyrics, but I still liked the first version better. BUT I feel like the new one will grow and me and it will climb one or two places, because the Instrumental just slaps SO HARD. (Makes me feel like putting on a Cybergoth outfit and start dancing at a German industrial park, lmao.)

Latvia (Samanta Tina – The Moon Is Rising)

Does this count as my guilty pleasure this year? I loved her song last year, and this sounds similar, so...I like this too. It sounds modern as fuck (well, for Europe, you know) and I can definitely...”vibe” with that. I genuinely really enjoy this, and I don’t know why. (Even though I prefer last years drop.) A lot of “strong, independent women”-songs this year, and I’m not complaining.

Switzerland (Gjon’s Tears – Tout l’Univers)

Just so we’re clear, this and Italy share the exact same spot. I just cannot compare them at all. Gjon’s voice just takes me hostage throughout this whole song and won’t let me go. And everything that isn’t english/is in the countries offical language immediately gets plus points from me. As if this song needed them anyway.

Lithuania (The Roop – Discoteque)

Aaaaaand...dance break! Good, I just love them so much, it’s not even funny anymore. And I’ve been singing this song randomly since it came out. I can’t stop. It has burned itself into my brain. Let’s dis-co-teque right at my home! *waves arms around with no sign of coordination*

(and does anyone else feel like he’s serhat, just with a different alignment? Like, they are both chaotic, but serhat is chaotic neutral and he’s either chaotic good or chaotic bad, it really depends on the way he looks at the camera)

Italy (Maneskin – Zitti E Buoni)

Italy delivers, as they do every year. Not only do I really like this song (it is very much my genre), THIS is an aesthetic I can get behind! Knowing Eurovision, I doubt it will win, but damn if it won’t be super fun! (I am so glad this won Sanremo, hah.)

[scaryorganmusic]

Dean doesn't say "me too. That would be "yo también". Dean says "y yo a ti", which is a shortened version of "y yo te amo a ti" (and I (love) you too). as a native spanish speaker it kinda bothers me to see it translated as "me too". i guess it's because the confession in spanish just sounds naturally more romantic.

that 100% IS more romantic and if someone i had been flirting with for 12 years said it to me i too would be taken away to super hell from the sheer power of how happy it made me

[konpithepuppy]

[TRANSLATION: WiNK UP 02.2021]

7 MEN SAMURAI CROSS TALK

Scans not mine

Neither an English or a Japanese native speaker

Feel free to correct me, thanks

WHAT SHOULD WE DO TODAY?

This month, images of before going in a date with the girlfriend who works in the same company were photographed. With the 6 of them in a round table discussion, they talked about the theme 「7 MEN 侍 Popular Guy Championship 」. The member who shined as the most popular is...?

If you date Katsuki, it feels like all her data will be gathered by Katsuki...

Yabana: Today's theme is "7 MEN~ Popular Guy Championship"! The winner is Reia-kun!

Nakamura: Thank you very much!

Sugeta: Wait, wait a minute! After taking time away from the topic, I think that Rinne is also popular!

Nakamura: What do you mean by that? LOL

Sugeta: I think each member is popular. But, in the end, it makes me think that Rinne is the most popular after all. Moreover, if we probably do a "the member you want to be as your lover" ranking, Reia would be in the 1st place. Well then, since we answered the question so fast, shouldn't we add some variations?

Nakamura: I see. How are we gonna expand it?

Sugeta: Like "Who is the リア恋枠?" Rinne thinks it would be these two (Motodaka and Rinne). (T/N: リア恋枠 = ria-koi-waku; a term for the idol who you want to be your bf/husband, he doesn't have to be good looking or your favorite member)

Konno: To be in love with Yabana?

Yabana: Am I not kind of like that? Since it seems like there's this sense of closeness with me. But, I think it's different with Daka-san. Since he is super smart, it seems like there is a high hurdle so I feel like the girls will have a hard time approaching him.

Motodaka: I think that's not true.

Nakamura: No, if you date Katsuki, I feel like all her data will be gathered by Katsuki...

Konno: He'll make his partner something like a report card LOL.

Sasaki: That thing that looks like a hexagon (radar chart), right? LOL!

Nakamura: Yes, that. Look, during the end of the year, we get a report card from Katsuki every year, don't we? He'll do that to the girl too LOL.

Motodaka: Stop it, people will probably really believe in what you said! To the readers, I don't do that kind of stuff! I don't do assessment of other people!

Konno: Then, who is the リア恋枠 (ria-koi-waku)?

Sasaki: Isn't it me?

Nakamura: Well no, since you (Taiko) are still a high school student. I think it is still early to be a partner for that.

Sasaki: So what you mean is that I should not yet talk about love, right? LOL

Nakamura: Yup. When you graduate from high school, I will let you join in this theme.

Sasaki: That means I'm on hold for now LOL.

Konno: But, I feel like older girls think that Taiko is cute.

Yabana: Nope, I think the the one who the girls think they want to protect is Konpi. Your atmosphere too provides healing.

Sugeta: What? There's no doubt that the guy who you want to protect is Rinne, right?!

Yabana: You can run for this position thoughtlessly, but wanting to protect that kind of body...it's impossible! Since the one that you would like to protect is a guy who is like a puppy LOL.

Konno: Rinne is rather a Tosa LOL.

Yabana: Exactly! Since his muscle is amazing LOL. That's why, ain't Rinne-kun No. 1 in popularity in "girls who like strong men"?

Sugeta: No, I am thinking that I want to be popular so I am doing muscle training, but a person who doesn't like that kind of person will not like him/her after all...

Nakamura: Ah, you were told about that on YouTube. Someone said "I don't like that much guys who are macho."

Motodaka: That can't be helped. It's just natural that there are also people who are like that.

Yabana: Since it is impossible to be popular to everyone.

Konno: But I definitely think that there are people who are "I like those well-built type of guys."

Nakamura: Certainly. It will be impossible for the other 5 of us to be popular to people who like that type of guys.

Konno: But, me being want to be protected is somewhat...

Motodaka: Konpi, I understand!

Konno: Coz I'm a guy.

Sugeta: Actually, you're probably the manliest among us, right?

Yabana: He is like a good old Japanese man.

Sugeta: That-is-why!! The person who you want to protect is Rinne!!

Nakamura: Okay, I get it LOL. Well then, when you (Rinne) see this girl, what would be the thing where you would think that you cannot compromise?

Sugeta: I don't like people who gives in to temptation too fast~

Yabana: You're stoic after all!

Sasaki: Maybe that not all you want to say but you can't get your words out LOL.

Motodaka: There's no concrete words for what you want to say?

Sugeta: There is! Colored contact lenses are iffy~ right?

Motodaka: That is very specific LOL.

Sugeta: In make-up and fashion too, I think it is better if it is natural.

Nakamura: You want someone who looks neat and clean, right?

Sugeta: Yeah! That was what I wanted to say!

Konno: Reia-kun is difficult on the contrary. Since he is cute that even girls look jealous of him.

Yabana: Since his disguise already came off in front of us so we are really not affected by that LOL, but maybe for people who don't really know him will see him like that. For Reia-kun, what kind of girl is okay for you?

Nakamura: An omoshiroi person I guess. Even though I said "omoshiroi", I don't mean someone who is laughable, but the type "the more you know that person, the deeper you feel for that person" is good. (T/N: omoshiroi can either be "funny" or "interesting")

Motodaka: Ah, someone you'll have fun with when you're together, right?

Nakamura: That's why I think I like someone who is well-mannered.

Motodaka: Well-mannered, or rather, someone who is refined, right?

Sugeta: Rinne also like that type of girl! I like someone who will not say "umai" but "oishii" during mealtime. (T/N: umai and oishii both mean "tastes good" but umai is an informal/slang kind of saying it, while oishii is the standard/formal way of saying it)

Motodaka: The words they use, right? That's important.

Yabana: I also like a person who is polite. Like someone who will not cause a trouble in store. But, I don't mind if she is being sarcastic if she is only in front of me.

Nakamura: Well then, is it okay if she is like Katsuki who can get hold of himself when she is outside but she is like Taiko when she is inside the house? LOL

Yabana: I'm okay with that LOL. Rather, with that, I think I will be glad that she is a careless grace at home. Also, a cheerful one is better after all.

Nakamura: That cheerfulness may help you, right?

Yabana: Yeah. Since I am already gloomy, if I go out with the same type, we will become gloomier LOL.

Motodaka: Me too, I'm about the same with Yabana.

Yabana: Yey! (Did an air hightouch with Motodaka)

Nakamura: What type do you like, Taiko?

Sasaki: Someone who looks clean and tidy is second to none I think. If I talk about visuals, more than being pretty, I prefer someone who looks cute.

Nakamura: How about Konpi?

Konpi: I like someone who is pretty. But it's not about visuals, it's about fashion. Her sense with clothes is quite important.

Yabana: What will you do if that person is your super type but her fashion is different from your preference?

Konno: I'll give her clothes as a present.

Other 5 members: Woah~!

Yabana: That is so manly!

Konno: Ah, but, saying something like this, I think I will be disliked by girls who are thinking of wanting to protect me LOL.

Yabana: Or perhaps I should say, if we put in total this discussion, the member with largest gap is Konpi, right?

Motodaka: Certainly. It seems that there are a lot of people who go "kyun" with that gap. (T/N: kyun = momentary tightening of one's chest caused by powerful feelings)

Nakamura: Well then, all in all, it is decided that Konpi is the No. 1 popular guy.

Konno: Really? Yey!!

Nakamura: Rinne, are you okay with that?

Sugeta: I'm fine with that. Here (Sugeta did an air pass).

Yabana: Just now, you (Rinne) handed over to Konpi the trophy that looked like it was in your possession until now but you really don't have one LOL.

[panharmonium]

stranger things 3, a visual summary:

more coherent thoughts under the cut, because wow.

......okay.  that was a Trainwreck.  an absolute mess.

i remember when my coworkers were watching S3 (and still urging me to start season 1) and they were saying how amazing the latest season was, and honestly i think there must just be a difference in people who watch tv just to be entertained and people who watch tv and automatically evaluate the story (aka fandom veterans and English majors, lol - cue Me twice), because WHO could watch this critically and praise it that way?

it's honestly hard to know where to even begin; i've been sending frustrated notes to @brambleberrycottage ever since episode three and now that i'm done with episode 8 there's just......so much more to say

first, good things:

erica is a great character.  she's what max should have been (aka, uh.......interesting!)  i liked the realization moment where dustin was like "you're a NERD!"

that entire sequence where will is so upset with lucas and mike for not being engaged with the dnd game was very well done, especially the conversation he has with mike out in the rain.  i loved that moment where mike asked him "did you think we were just going to hang out in my basement playing games forever?" and will said, "yeah.  yeah, i guess i did."  i really felt that.  [edit, now that i've finished: this was never resolved.  will giving away his dnd books at the end was not an actual resolution to this conflict.]

steve is still a good dude, and robin was pretty cool.  i'm down for them being super friends.  but i'm still mourning the steve+nancy+jonathan trio that was a thing for like 5 seconds and then never returned.

i loved how genuinely excited steve was to see dustin when dustin came back from camp.  that was adorable.  "HENDERSON!!!!"  "how many children are you friends with?"

and uh. yeah.  i had more problems with this season than praise-bestowing moments, so.  here goes that bit.

OVERARCHING PROBLEMS:

1. keep it simple, stupid

remember in the office when dwight quoted the above advice to ryan as michael's rule for making a sale?  the same advice applies to storytelling.

season 1 of stranger things is so simple.  there is One Monster.  that is the danger.  and somehow, that single monster manages to be a thousand times more terrifying than all of these new "bigger, scarier, more epic" threats crammed into the second two seasons.

how goofy is the stranger things season 3 plot, seriously?  russians are blackmailing a small-town mayor so they can buy up land to steal power from the town while operating a secret lab under the mall to open a gate to the Upside Down (WHY?), while simultaneously a remnant of the malevolent force that was "defeated" last season has reanimated itself and is making people scarf chemicals (WHY?), and then it possesses one of them and uses that person to possess a bunch of other people in order to build itself a body made out of melted people, in order to kill el, whose only story this season is breaking up with her boyfriend, and we have to infiltrate this russian base in order to close the gate (same endgame as last season - BIG NO-NO) to kill the goo monster, except last time the "mindflayer” survived the gate being closed, so why would this even WORK, and -

the fact that there are so many "round-up/info dump" scenes where characters summarize what's going on and make implausibly accurate connections/guesses about what it all must mean is a red flag.  the characters shouldn’t have to tell your story to the audience.  if it's too complicated for us to keep straight on our own, it's too complicated.  

the amount of energy that goes into trying to lash together a Chaos Plot with too many shaky legs leaves nothing left over for nuanced character development or mood establishment.  you're constantly running to catch up to your own flimsy story before it collapses on top of itself.

2. the horror!

S1 of stranger things was the scariest thing i'd ever seen.

granted, i don't watch a lot of horror, because i don't like it.  i get scared too easily and then i legitimately can't sleep.  i watched a horror movie five years ago that i still think about every time the lights are off in my house.  but still, ST1 was something i had never experienced before.

it wasn't creature horror, and it wasn't just suspense.  it was the UNSETTLINGNESS of it all.  it wasn't really about the monster.  it was about the Upside Down.

the reason ST1 is so successful is because of how much we don’t know.  it's the horror of not understanding what is happening, and the terror of knowing that nobody thinks it’s real.  feeling like you're going crazy and being cut off from all assistance.  the conspiracy and the cover-up.  and the sheer unsettlingness of the whole parallel worlds things just tipped me over the edge - the idea that you can take one wrong step and then be suddenly and without warning completely off the map, simultaneously right next to the people you want to get to and also utterly beyond their reach.  that was fucking scary!!!!  

and they do it all with so little.  i have literally never been more scared in my life than when i would see those christmas lights start flickering.  and they're just LIGHTS!  yes, we see the monster later, but it's the uncertainty that's most frightening.  we don't understand how it arrives in our world, and we don’t know where it will show up next.  it could be right next to you - on the other side.  you could be standing on top of it.  you just don't know.  it’s like what jonathan says to nancy in her bedroom - “it can’t get us in here.”  and she says, “we don’t know that.”

the later seasons of stranger things, by comparison, did not scare me at all.  season two was like a zombie movie - hordes of weak enemies that you can just shoot with a gun.  and season 3 was even less frightening - upping the ante and making things gorier, more explosive, and bigger just isn't the vibe they set in S1.  i'm not scared of that giant goop monster.  it's like godzilla.  it's not horror; it's just a lot of noise.

the unsettling, "creep" factor that made season 1 so effective was gone.  it just turned into a regular old monster movie, and i didn't find that particularly interesting.

3. illogical, captain

a while ago there was a wave of pushback against people complaining about plot holes, but you know what?  there is, in fact, an appropriate place for us to talk about plausibility, as well as the point at which our suspension of disbelief collapses.

ST3 is a bona fide plausibility disaster.  i did not believe half of the story, because it was not unfolding in a believable way.

half of the plot points in this season would not have happened if the characters had been behaving with any kind of sense.  it is absolutely impossible for me to believe that none of these children IMMEDIATELY went to joyce or hopper the minute they knew something weird was going on.  it makes no sense.  after the shit they've seen?  it makes sense in season 1, because the kids are still so young that they have that kind of magical thinking that makes all of this seem kind of like an adventure.  but they're teenagers now, and developmentally, they’re past that stage.  they know the evil creature is back and they're pretty sure it's possessing billy?  for some unfathomable reason, they don't go to an adult, but try to trap billy in the sauna and just see what happens.  the other group has actual proof that russian soldiers are up to something shady in the mall?  they don't tell an adult; they send a TEN YEAR-OLD in through the AIR DUCTS to investigate the secret room guarded by MEN WITH GUNS.

this is ridiculous.  none of this should have happened.  none of this WOULD have happened.  it breaks the boundaries of disbelief.  it completely sabotages the audience’s engagement with the story - joyce and hopper's whole detour with alexei and murray is so dull, because its entire purpose is to bring hop and joyce up to speed on something that we, the audience, already know.  the other characters already found out this stuff, but did not communicate it - the gate is being opened again in a russian lab underground.  there's no suspense for us.  nothing new is revealed.  we're just waiting for them to hurry up and finish finding out so we can move on to the next thing.

moreover: there are so many other problems besides just "these characters would have talked to each other."  why on earth would murray, whose sole characteristic is extreme paranoia, take alexei wandering around the festival for hot dogs and carnival games.  why would hopper be so virulently against the possibility that weird shit might be happening again?  does he remember the past year or what?  how on earth would the kids be able to fight off that massive monster with an ax and a hunting rifle?  it's made out of dead guts and bones; why does it care if they shoot it?!  how in the WORLD is this russian facility so penetrable?  i'm sorry, it's just - beyond believable.  it doesn't have cameras?  the russians guards really can't tell that murray isn't a native speaker?  they don't check his id when they don't recognize him?  joyce and hopper really just got that lucky, to be asked a question and have “smile and nod” be the right answer?  nobody ever got shot?  it's silly.  it's just silly.  so many things - erica uses the "Open" button to open the elevator door in order to let steve and robin and dustin inside, but once the elevator is at the bottom of the shaft, robin explains the door's inexplicable non-opening because......you apparently need a keycard to use the buttons????  THAT MAKES NO SENSE; ERICA JUST USED THE BUTTONS A SECOND AGO.

even the entire endgame of this season is a contradiction!  if the mind-flayer survived el closing the gate last time, it doesn't make sense that closing the gate this time would kill it.  literally the entire plot of last season was "we need to get this thing out of will, because the creature will die once the gate is closed, and we want to make sure will doesn't die with it."  but apparently the creature didn't die upon closing the gate; it just got trapped in our dimension.  but now apparently it WILL die upon closing the gate.  for whatever fucking reason.

i'm sorry, but that’s a mess.  that’s a bona fide mess.

4. watch your tone

i honestly think the tonal change is the thing that made me the most frustrated about this season.  it's possible to have a terrible plot and still stay relatively true to your characters - you'll still have a bad season, but at least you didn't bastardize your characters in the process.

i had issues with S2 and i definitely was not as impressed with it as i was with S1, but at least in S2 joyce and hopper were recognizable.  in S3, i felt like i was watching strangers.  the tonal shift was bizarre and off-putting, more so with hopper than joyce, but it affected both of them.  

even as early as the very beginning of this season, i was feeling weird about how often hopper was being used for comedy.  and as the season progressed, this trend only became more pronounced.  almost every scene we had of him felt silly - and not like there was just something funny in the scene for me to laugh at, but like the audience was almost being asked to laugh AT him.  like he was constantly the butt of the joke.  

this really bothered me.  from that incredibly sincere and heart-wrenching portrayal of him in season 1, when they kept him rooted in the trauma of losing his daughter and the breakdown of his marriage, and then how that same trauma made him so driven to save will and protect the kids - what a change.  even in season 2 i was frustrated how the throughline of his daughter wasn’t touched again until the very last episode, and now in season 3 we’ve left that part of him so far behind that he's just there for us to laugh at.  we're supposed to laugh at scenes of him being drunk and a mess.  every scene he's in is either him arguing with joyce for comedic relief or being way over the top with alexei or the mayor.  he was like a caricature of himself, and i didn't recognize him.  

joyce suffered from the same thing, just by virtue of proximity.  she spent almost all of her time in this season with hopper, and virtually all of that time was taken up with silly shenanigans or comically overblown arguing.  what a departure from the desperate mother of season 1, who was maligned by everyone in town and only taken seriously by the audience.  now it’s the audience who are supposed to be chuckling at her.  

i dunno.  the tone shift was very dramatic, very obvious, and it impacted the entire season.  are we supposed to be taking this seriously or is it supposed to be a joke?  a little bit of humor to break tension can be a good thing, but when it's constant, it confuses the mood.  

and i personally don't think it was appropriate or respectful to either of these characters, in this case.

SMALLER THINGS THAT BOTHERED ME:

this show has 100% hit maximum character saturation.  by the end of this season there were 13 core characters onscreen at the same time, in the same scene!  it’s too many people!  they cannot reasonably develop that many people in the space allotted.

i still am not interested in max.  i don't feel anything for her.  she doesn't feel real.  i don't hate her, but she's just an empty vessel, and i really do think she's superfluous to this show.  i think you could remove her with very little reworking and the show would be stronger for it.  (they TRIED to do something interesting with billy, and i might have cared if we had been given literally any reason to care about him previously, but there was no investment earned there.  they didn't do the front-end work to make him somebody we were interested in.)

weird relationship sunderings from previous seasons.  i felt very strange about jonathan barely even seeing will this entire season.  i felt very strange about steve having almost zero contact with nancy.  i felt very strange about joyce hardly ever interacting with her kids.  all of these were core relationships - the characters were BUILT on those relationships, and they don't feel real outside of them.  not seeing these characters devote time to these relationships makes it feel like i'm watching a slightly different show.

the VIOLENCE.  apparently this is a beat-em-up now???  i really felt like every other scene somebody was getting beaten to a bloody pulp.  there was SO much smashing and bashing and throwing people into walls and fistfights and head trauma like - first of all, i find that stuff pretty boring, and second of all, all of these people should be in the hospital.  

the GORE.  other people’s mileage may vary, obviously; i just didn't like that.  i looked away at the scene with the rat, and all this...goopy dissolving human shit, and the stabbings, and just...general grossness level - season 1 managed to be bloodcurdlingly terrifying without any of this stuff.

i know this borders on nitpicky, but yet more medical malfeasance - another example of someone receiving an injection via the mysterious 90 degree angle neck route, plus - was anyone else losing it at the fact that steve and robin “puked up” a drug they received……..via injection??????  IT’S NOT IN THEIR STOMACHS, FOLKS!  THEY CAN’T PUKE IT UP!  IT DOESN’T WORK LIKE THAT!

the complete lack of follow-up to last season.  the whole S3 plotline (such as it is) feels like a weird side quest.  last season seemed to be furthering the mythos and setting us up for "there are other children like el/brenner is alive" - but this season, that fact appears to have been forgotten by everyone (even el!!!) and has nothing to do with the story that we're given, which is a goofy and redundant story about russians opening a secret lab under the mall which requires us to solve the exact same problem as last season (closing the gate).

this show's inability to keep certain throughlines in its headlights/keep things visible on the periphery instead of dropping them completely and then bringing them back whenever they feel like they need it again.   i already talked about hopper’s daughter as an example of this (done well in S1 and poorly in S2 and S3).  another example is that scene with nancy and her mom - it’s such a good scene, and yet it misses out on so much resonance, because they completely dropped the plotline of karen feeling locked out of her kids’ lives and desperately wanting to connect with them.  if they had continued to reference that throughout season 2, then this scene would have been so much more powerful.   as a third example, season 3 starts with a clear context/premise, and it’s INTERESTING - the town landscape changing because of the mall, business slow to non-existent, small town discontent over big corporations moving in, hopper pressured to break up the protest against mayor kline when he should have let it proceed - and then the show just drops that entire context.  you expect season 3 to stay rooted in the "our small town is being strangled by this mall" and then to eventually deal with the revitalization of hawkins, but nah.  it's never mentioned again.

LASTLY:

i'm not really gonna get into hopper "dying," because he's, like...clearly not dead.  but the whole situation was stupid and contrived (i was so sick of that arnold schwarzenegger lookalike by the last episode, god that whole thing was so dumb) and it's even cheaper knowing that he'll obviously be back.

what i AM gonna say is that i was livid that they brought back that peter gabriel cover of "heroes" to end this season.  their use of that song in S1 blew my mind - it had me stunned with how GORGEOUS it was and just, the way it worked in that particular scene - absolutely incredible.  floored me.  gave me chills.  to recycle it at the end of such a poorly constructed season made me so mad.  yOU CAN'T MAKE ME FEEL THINGS JUST BY REUSING THIS SONG.  I REFUSE TO HAVE EMOTIONS JUST BECAUSE YOU PULL OUT THIS BEAUTIFUL TRACK THAT YOU ONCE USED TO GREAT EFFECT; YOUR STORY WAS STILL TERRIBLE THIS TIME AROUND; DO NOT TRY TO TRICK FEELINGS OUT OF US THAT HAVEN’T BEEN EARNED.  

and that's it.  i’m sure later i’ll think of other things i neglected to mention here, but...yeah.  i was not impressed.  

[prorevenge]

Cheat on me? You'll get deported, arrested, and never see your child again

I’ve read a lot of these and listened to some amazing narrators on YouTube, so decided to post the story of my ex boyfriend.

Throw away account for obvious reasons. Apologies for the long story, I edited out as much as I could, so the story isn’t too long. Also, apologies if this is the wrong subreddit. I'm a little new to all of this.

My ex boyfriend and I are both native-born citizens of the same country in North America. We got together when I was still in post secondary working towards my degree, and he was taking some time before he started post secondary to work and save up money.

Our relationship was basically perfect from my perspective; we had similar goals and expectations, we both seemed mature and able to work through any problems we had, and we both were happy to be together and enjoyed each other’s personalities. We were together for three years prior to this incident.

Our relationship hit a bit of a rough patch though when he told me he wanted to study for his degree at a University in Europe. I, of course, was a little bit upset because it meant that we would be apart for four years (my job field (medical) would require me to retake schooling if I was to go with him), but he was super excited about it and we determined that we loved each other and no amount of distance could change that.

With time I graduated and got my dream job, and I could now afford to rent our shared apartment with just my income, so I didn’t have to move when he was no longer there to pay his half. He was having some problems with his student visa for the country, but it was determined that he could get a temporary visa for the first semester while we waited for the other one to be approved. So with that, he left. I remember balling my eyes out at the airport when I hugged and kissed him goodbye, and parked outside of the airport to watch his plane take off. We talked on the phone almost every night.

As unlucky as it was, about five weeks after he left, I found out I was pregnant. Horrible timing, I know. When I told him I was pregnant he immediately accused me of cheating on him while he was gone. I thought it was a bit odd, since he had never even mentioned such a thing, and it seemed really out of the blue. That obviously lead to a big fight, and I felt offended and disgusted that he would even consider it a possibility.

When he came home for Christmas, he was super happy and love-dove with me, saying he was excited. He even proposed to me on the car ride home from his parents’ house on Christmas eve. I was so happy and overjoyed that it felt like everything would work out okay.

When he went back to school, it was again stressful to go through the pregnancy without him, but both his parents and mine were incredibly supportive. They helped me get everything I needed for the baby, and even threw me a surprise baby shower.

When I gave birth, my ex watched it over skype from his mom. When he finished his exams, he came home to be with us. He immediately started talking negatively about our daughter, saying things like “why is her hair that color? My hair is brown” and “doesn’t she have (your friend’s) eyes?” and he again accused me of cheating. So I reluctantly agreed to perform a paternity test to calm his suspicions. Wow, could you believe it, she was his. He agreed to pay informal child support (sending me money to pay for the baby without a lawful order to do so) while he was overseas. Now for the fun part.

His student visa had still not been approved, so he had to reapply for another temporary semester visa for the next semester. Since he did not have a permanent residence in the country, as he was staying in student accommodations, and he didn’t trust the university to not go through official looking mail,6 he redirected all of his mail to me, which I would forward to the university in his care packages. When he came to visit us, he had applied for a new passport, as his was going to expire in six months. I was tasked with picking it up at the office and sending it forward. However, around midterm exam season, I decided our daughter and I would travel to deliver the care package in person and visit. I had to get her an infant passport and book the tickets, but a couple months later we were getting on a plane. Side note – travelling with a baby sucks and I’m sorry to everyone else on the plane.

When we got to the country, I settled into our hotel, but was too eager to see him. I taxied to his university (only about 45 minutes from the airport), and went to his dorm room on campus. I knocked on the door, holding our daughter. A woman answered the door. At first, I assumed it was his roommate or something, but I don’t remember him mentioning he had one. Denial is a powerful thing, I guess. I asked her where he was, and she said he was inside and called out to him. I heard a “who is it, babe?” as he came to the door, and when he saw me, he froze. He went pale and his eyes widened. The woman asked him “honey, who is this?” and I just turned and walked away.

He called out after me and eventually caught up with me. He basically told me that he’s been so lonely without me and he couldn’t help it and that he loved me and not her, to which she started yelling at him calling him a pig and stuff. My baby started crying because I was crying and so I just left without saying anything. I stayed in the hotel for another day, while he continuously called me on my cell phone. I booked last minute tickets home and left early and ignored every time he called me.

I gave myself a week to grieve and then I put my big girl pants on. I immediately hired a lawyer, and asked him what I could do to legally separate my life from him (in my country we were considered common law married). My lawyer advised me to begin the legal separation process, and apply for a hearing about custody and child support. I sent him a thick manila envelope with separation papers and a notice for a hearing about custody in his next package. We talked on the phone on speaker with my lawyer, and he eventually agreed to sign. He sent me a copy. The hearing was scheduled while school was in session, so no surprise he didn’t show up. I won full custody and he was given an order to pay child support appropriate for his income (he was paying for his college with a grant mostly, so he had to pay based on the grant).

Now this is some revenge, but it went a little further.

Remember when I went to see him, I was bringing a care package? That package contained his new passport. His passport expired, and he was still in Europe, so he couldn’t travel back to our home country legally. He yelled at me on the phone to send him the passport, but I got an idea. He hadn’t been paying the child support, probably because he couldn’t afford it with tuition and wasn’t working, so he had a warrant for his arrest in my home country because of it (contempt of court, or something). And he had never been approved for a student visa, only the temporary one. And since his final exam concluded and it was summer, he technically wasn’t supposed to be in Europe. BUT he couldn’t travel home because he didn’t have a passport. It would be a shame if someone anonymously reported him to the embassy for overstaying his visa, now wouldn’t it?

He got deported back to our home country, where he was arrested at the border. I don’t know exactly what happened, but he spent a couple months on probation and with a criminal record, can no longer apply for a visa of any kind to study abroad. Sorry about that future of yours, but I guess you shouldn’t cheat on someone who loves you to the ends of the earth, the mother of your child. Have a nice life, because we sure will. Oh, and don’t forget to put that cheque in the mail, it’s paying for a little girl’s future education.

(source) story by (/u/beaubandit)

[calamity-bean]

Hi !! In your post about "Mad Sweeney through the ages" you noted in the tags that you restrained yourself from going into tangents... I'm super interested about what you mentionned though ! Would you mind wiritng a little bit on the relationship between the Tuatha de and the fairies and the dead ?? Sorry, i'm very curious and I love history and mythology a lot !! (Also sorry for any mistakes, I'm not a native speaker !!) Thank you ! :)

Hello! Sorry it took me all day to answer this; it’s just that, well… this got a bit long, even though I tried to be brief. XD 

Basically, what I was referring to is the same thing Sweeney talks about in the show: the way his identity has changed SIGNIFICANTLY over the centuries because the stories about him have mutated over time. People gradually conflated stories about certain types of beings (such as the Tuatha De Danann) with stories about other types of beings (such as fairies), or allowed elements of certain stories to influence others, and as a result, the very essence of what Sweeney IS evolved along with the folklore.

The cool thing, though — and I guess this is really the crux of what I was getting at in my tags — is that Sweeney’s particular evolutionary path isn’t a concept that’s unique to American Gods. I mean, to SOME extent, it’s AG’s invention; after all, the traditional figure of Mad Sweeney as portrayed in the Buile Suibhne is not a leprechaun or Lugh. He’s cursed, but he’s still just a mortal dude. But I think AG’s decision to MAKE him into those other things makes perfect sense in light of the fact that in certain areas that historically retained a strong Celtic influence (including much of the British Isles as well as Brittany), there really are a lot of intriguing similarities, overlaps, and parallels between the way folklore portrays fairies and the way it portrays the spirits of dead mortals. In Irish mythology specifically, the Tuatha De Danann get wrapped up in the relationship as well. These similarities have inspired a theory that elements of Celtic folklore about fairies might have evolved out of ancient superstitions about the dead and the places the dead were believed to inhabit. Which isn’t to say that it’s a direct evolution, nor that these three types of being are all exactly the same thing — simply that they seem to be related and to have influenced one another over time.

Unnecessarily detailed discussion under the cut, along with more of my thoughts on why I think this whole concept works out really well with regard to Mad Sweeney and lends a lot of weight to his backstory’s arc.

The People of the Mounds

One of the most familiar narratives in a classic fairy story is the human traveler who accidentally wanders into the fairy realm. It’s a story with innumerable variations. Perhaps the traveler simply follows the wrong path, or perhaps they enter a doorway in the side of a hill — either way, they end up in Faerie. It is a liminal space inhabited by beings that, because they are immortal or non-mortal, are not DEAD, exactly, but aren’t quite ALIVE, either, not in the way that mortal human beings are alive. And in many stories, it is also inhabited by dead humans. There are many versions of this story in which the traveler in Faerie is shocked to encounter a neighbor or loved one whom they know for a fact died years ago — like, actually physically DIED. And yet here their spirit is, trapped in this other world! The realm of Faerie is thus a place of great wonder, yes, but also great peril. It’s a place into which a person’s soul might be tragically stolen, though also a place from which they can sometimes be rescued. One such tale of rescue is the medieval poem Sir Orfeo, which is straight-up a Breton/English reimagining of Orpheus and Eurydice — except it’s set in Faerie instead of in the realm of the dead.

In short, Celtic stories often handle fairies and Faerie in a way that strongly evokes death, the realm of the dead, and the spirits of the dead. But for me, perhaps the most interesting aspect goes back to what I mentioned about WHERE these stories often take place. Where do the aos si dwell? Underground, of course — specifically, in hollow hills. It’s right there in the name: “aos si” means “people of the mounds.” Hence the stories in which a traveler enters Faerie through a door in the side of a hill. Coincidentally, where do the Tuatha de Danann dwell? Also underground — not originally, but they were driven underground by the Milesians, who took the above-ground world as their half of the earth in their truce.

But what kind of hill would be hollow? What kind of hill might have a doorway set into the side…?

Well… A hill like Newgrange, perhaps. Or like other hills within the Bru na Boinne complex. Or a hill like Bryn Celli Ddu in Wales, or Maes Howe in Orkney, or the Mound of the Hostages at Tara, or any number of other ancient barrows/tumuli: burial mounds built in prehistoric times as tombs for the human dead. Because the answer to “What other kind of creature dwells underground?” is, of course, dead people, at least in cultures which have tended to bury them.

Thus, the familiar trope of entering Faerie through a door in a hill very much evokes the idea of entering a tomb. This concept is reinforced by the fact that some specific fairy legends are anchored to specific tumuli. Newgrange is said to be the home of the Dagda and other Tuatha De; Cnoc Maedha is home to the fairy king Finvarra. Glastonbury Tor is associated with Gwyn ap Nudd of the Tylwyth Teg, ruler of the underworld of Annwn. Willy Howe is proposed to be the location of a specific version of one of those tales about a traveler wandering into a hill.

Not every fairy legend is associated with a specific hill, not every tumulus is associated with a fairy legend, and not every hill associated with a fairy legend has been confirmed to actually be a tomb. It’s more of a general association based on the tumulus shape. Also, some of these associations seem to have originated much later than others; they might be fairly recent inventions rather than old, traditional myths. But that’s kind of the point in AG, isn’t it: traditions evolve. Over time, they gather new associations and take on new meaning as the stories change. Did the idea that the aos si live in hollow hills evolve directly out of a superstition that specific hills — specific burial mounds — were home to the spirits of the dead? Perhaps! Perhaps not! Perhaps it’s more a case of stories mutually influencing each other, or maybe it’s convergent evolution, or maybe it’s sheer coincidence. But I think that the amount of similarity and overlap in these legends is enough to suggest roots in a common tradition, or at least to suggest that beliefs about these three categories of being have, over time, become intimately associated with each other.

Suibhne, the Dead King?

Which FINALLY brings us back to Sweeney.

I think the idea that the aos si evolved out of the Tuatha De Danann is pretty well known; I don’t think it’s entirely clear-cut from a historical standpoint, but it’s a theory I see mentioned quite often, and I feel like it intuitively makes sense. A transition from one supernatural, subterranean creature to another feels natural; it’s easy to grasp how those legends could be related. So it’s no surprise that American Gods would have a character who starts out as one of them and evolves into the other, especially since it’s been theorized that the concept of leprechauns in general might have evolved specifically out of Lugh. (The names share a possible etymology, and the characters share an association with luck.)

But the primary inspiration for Mad Sweeney — Suibhne, son of Colman Cuar, of the Buile Suibhne — feels, at first, like more of an outlier. Sure, Suibhne was under a curse, but he wasn’t, like, any type of supernatural creature… He was just a mortal human. The whole legend at least purports to be based on a real-life historical man. How does a mortal human get turned into a god or a fairy? How does that stage of Sweeney’s evolution fit in with leprechauns and Lugh?

To me, the key lies in the Annals of Tigernach. As I mentioned in my Mad Sweeney Through the Ages post, these annals record that Suibhne didn’t FLEE from the battle of Magh Rath… he DIED in it. And I don’t know whether AG is doing this on purpose, but in my opinion, this death really fits with the way AG has chosen to tell Suibhne’s story? In the Buile Suibhne, Suibhne flees the battlefield simply because the frenzy and St. Ronan’s curse overwhelm him. The idea that he fled because he foresaw his own death is AG’s own particular twist on the legend. AG’s Sweeney is a character who is haunted, throughout the different versions of himself, by near-deaths and foreseen-deaths and deaths that may or may not have actually happened. By choosing to reference the fact that Sweeney should have died at Magh Rath — possibly even did die at Magh Rath, heck, he supposedly died that night with the seer, too! — American Gods makes the critical decision to recast Suibhne mac Colmain as not merely the story of a king, but of a dead king.

And if you view the Buile Suibhne as the story of someone whose life, historically, ended at Magh Rath, but who through the power of mythology has been given an existence beyond Magh Rath, it becomes a story of undeath: of a mortal who becomes trapped in a strange, supernatural form of existence that is not exactly death but not really life as he knew it, either — sort of like a spirit trapped in Faerie. For me, AG’s decision to connect Suibhne��s legend with leprechauns and Lugh makes the most sense when I view Suibhne as a figure who kind of escaped death, but also kind of didn’t escape death, and always has this specter of death hanging over him for the rest of his cursed “life” after Magh Rath. If Suibhne is, essentially, a spirit persisting in a type of pseudo-life beyond death, then I can contextualize his role in Sweeney’s evolution within this whole theory of how the dead, the fae, and the Tuatha De Danann are intimately entwined.

Conclusion???

…WOW, this got long! Thanks for listening to me ramble. I hope it was interesting to you and that I’ve explained myself in a way that makes sense.

Obviously, I don’t know whether Gaiman / the showrunners of American Gods had any of these same concepts in mind when they were creating the book or the show. And I want to reiterate that the proposed relationship between these types of folklore is more of a theory than a concrete historical fact. It’s a theory that I find very compelling and very inspiring, but it’s difficult to really prove that traditional beliefs evolved in this way. Also, much of the actual scholarship I’ve found on this subject is older than I’d like, and I’m not sure whether different interpretations have since gained more traction in the field. Still, the work of Katharine Mary Briggs is a good place to start if you’re interested in reading more on this subject, especially her article “The Fairies and the Realms of the Dead.”

Regardless of whether it’s provable, though, I think it’s a theory that works beautifully with what we see in “Treasure of the Sun” and that fits really well with the mechanics of American Gods. And when it comes to AG, it doesn’t really matter, anyway, whether the dead and the fae and the gods were originally related or not — all that matters is that we humans believe that they are.