#theories and wandering through the world I love to consider

[the-overreactress]

Jess and Rory in Season 4 mirror each other in such interesting ways. I’d love to do a deep dive into their introspective lives during that period (maybe I’ll write some of it in fic form lol)

Rory is trying to make something of herself at Yale, struggling academically & socially, all the while, silently mourning a deeply meaningful relationship from which she never gets any real closure.

Jess is directionless, stuck in a way he can’t explain, and desperate to not feel so angry, hurt, and unwanted. He wants to find out who he is, wants to feel something other than the pain. He can’t move on from the one person who saw him for who he really is.

It hurts to watch them both suffer, and THEN, the inevitable dorm room scene…both so vulnerable, so lost. And both make utterly impulsive, panicked decisions at the end of it.

There’s always more evidence of their connection, their intrigue, and their tragedy.

[sl-ut]

even more streamer!ellie hcs

part one | part two

ellie is not at all embarrassed to admit that a large portion of her own fame was largely due to her connection to y/n

like ofc she was already fairly popular on twitch but its not like the average person who didn't watch streams would recognize her

she ends up making a new priv instagram bc she gains like 50k new followers in a month

she only has like maybe 100 followers on the new one and basically just posts random photo dumps, family photos, and especially the literal cutest and/or horrendous photos of her gf

posts a LOT on her ig stories on both accounts

her main pfp is deffffff some screenshot that she took of their happy little sim family or like their little minecraft guys standing side by side lol

ik i said before that she loves playing like the sims w her gf on stream, but she also LOVES playing roblox together

starting drama in dress to impress, causing havoc in bloxburg, making friends and enemies galore in tdi

her avatar is definitely so dumb like its probably the hamster or squirrel or like the most basic ass starter avatar with a shirt that has her gfs face on it

and her username is def like "y/nstan420" or something

when she's streaming alone she's more focused and serious (but still her silly little self) but when she's with others, esppppp if her gf is on with her, she defffff gives weston koury vibes like im actually giggling at this so hard

they both make tiktoks of each other

y/n once did the "watch my gf for me" trend and she came back to find ellie holding the phone and ranting about something so random like she was probably explaining her favourite theory about how the dinosaurs went extinct or something about planets and space idek

ellie doesn't really follow trends as often, instead just posting videos of her scaring her gf or pranking her or maybe even like mukbangs or something

loves to post fit checks before they go out to do literally anything

also likes to lipsync to dirty audios

the video always ends as she's about to get smacked upside the head

idk if i ever actually gave much backstory???? but here we go anyways lol

i think we've established that y/n is an up-and-coming actress

they met through a friend of dina's, who was a costume designer on the set of y/n's first big film

dina visited her friend on set on the last day of filming and she ended up getting an invite to the cast/crew party that night

jesse was tooooo busy to hang out with his bombshell gf ig???? so ellie got to go with her

she already knew who y/n was since she was starting to gain popularity and was immediately adopted by lesbian twitter

she was so nervous when she clocked her on the other side of the room

spent the whole night shuffling around the room to gain the courage to go talk to her

also spent all of that time trying to come off like the coolest chillest most confident masc ever like she wasn't constantly wiping the sweat from her palms lmaoooo

she finally was forced to lay on the moves when y/n came over to join in on the convo with her castmates

ellie made her laugh and vice versa

she shocked herself when she offered to grab another drink from the kitchen "for the pretty lady"

she immediately considered throwing herself off of the impossibly high deck

was even more shocked when the girl only laughed and hopped up to join her, fingers curling into her bicep

she totally wasn't flexing the whole time

dina was wandering around looking for her, way too drunk to be there much later considering that it was almost 2 am and had to work a ten hour shift tmr :(((

she didn't have much luck bc she never thought to check the upstairs guest bathroom

ellie constantly be fighting them uhaul lesbian rumours

but she actually was ready to upheave her entire life to follow y/n around the world

reposts any and all posts of her gf on her story

adds little hearts and stars and little taglines that earn her a scolding

like that one time she wore a tight-fitting corset on the red carpet that had the girls lifted to the heavens

she captioned it "i <3 my gf('s boobs)"

fights with haters in her gf's comment section

wears her gf's merch

omg the way she SCRUMPT when she saw the paparazzi pic of her girl wearing ellie's merch out on a random thursday

they hadn't even made it official yet

flirts with her gf in random comment sections lol

like y/n comments on dina's selfie and ellie is instantly replying to her

"u come here often?"

they have def been caught in compromising positions soooo many times

like by their friends, cast and crew members on set, y/n's manager, even the paps

ellie felt so boss when tmz posted a pic of her pressing her gf against the wall outside of the club they'd gone to on ellie's bday

els had her tongue down her gfs throat and both of her hands jammed up the front of her top, very clearly grasping and squeezing her breasts

they got a stern talking to from y/n's pr team but ellie actually didn't care

she def has phantom dick disorder in literally all aspects of her life

lets not forget that this version of ellie does not have experience in fighting and has not lived through an apocalypse so she's contextually less tough than normal ellie

but that doesn't stop her from mouthing off to assholes three times her size

don't get me wrong, she can hold her own and still works out on occasion, but she fr looks like a chihuahua barking at pitbulls when she gets yapping

speaking of, stoned!ellie absolutely loves when her gf be yapping

i love the dynamic of ellie doing a chat stream w her gf where ellie's got her in her lap, leaning back with droopy eyes and a dopey smile, still giving her gf all of her attention while her gf ends up being more of a "alert and yappy" stoned and is rambling about strangely philosophical topics and answering questions in chat

ellie is just sitting there just giggling and when her gf turns to her she just goes "ur so smart baby" and "u look so pretty rn"

omg omg omg i luv this pairing im never gonna stop writing them like

bonus: this is the vibe of the ck campaign i mentioned in the last part

[lynxgriffin]

Theories on Kris’s soul and Ralsei’s identity

Hey everyone! This is not my usual thing, but after thinking on it a whole bunch, I decided I wanted to fully write out my theory/backstory explanations based on the last two short Deltarune comics. I usually express theorizing through fanworks rather than just talking through it, but since it's still stuck in my brain even now I figured it'd be fun to also just describe it all. I hope you all find it interesting! Who knows what future chapters will bring us, and anything can (and likely will!) happen, but as of right now I'm pretty convinced this is how things are with Kris and Ralsei. It's long and there's lots of screenshots included, so check below the read more for everything. And huge thanks to DemoPhone for getting all these screenshots for me!

So, Kris is adopted by the Dreemurrs at a young age. As the only human in a town populated by monsters, they already stick out significantly. Considering Toriel checked out a book from the library on how to care for humans multiple times, the Dreemurrs were likely going through a big learning curve with Kris, too. 

Kris is not just different physiologically from everyone, but they’re quiet and weird, often mischievous, and just don’t fit in. As a kid, they wear a headband with red devil horns to try and fit in with their adoptive family, and especially to emulate their older brother Asriel, who seems to be everything that Kris isn’t.

He’s popular, kind, well-loved by the town, and is always willing to make friends and do the right thing. Despite how different they are, the two kids clearly care for each other, and Asriel in many ways is Kris’s anchor to this town and this life.

Growing up, the Dreemurrs are friends with the Holidays, and the four kids spend lots of time together. Dess appears to be the more bold and outgoing of the two Holiday girls, but is tempered by Asriel’s responsible nature. Everything between them is going well until one day, when out exploring in the woods south of town, they come across the hidden bunker, and something goes wrong. It’s not clear yet exactly what it is…but it resulted in Dess going missing. Of the four kids, Dess seems to be bold, Asriel responsible, Kris mischievous, and Noelle fearful…so it seems likely that Dess and Kris investigated something in the bunker that the other two stayed away from. Kris witnessed or may have even been involved in what happened to Dess. Dess currently appears to be lost in a dark place, perhaps a place between Dark Worlds, perhaps “stuck in the code” of the game itself. Whatever it is, Dess has gone missing and may even be presumed dead by her family, and Kris witnessed it and may feel directly responsible. This is why they’re still nervous around the bunker, and perhaps even why they’re apprehensive about the appearance of the dark world in the school supply closet.

Dess’s mother, the Mayor, is not going to blame the little kids for what happened…however, she IS going to place responsibility on Asgore, who was chief of police at the time and clearly should have been watching the kids more carefully. Asgore loses his job, and as things slowly deteriorate between the Holiday and Dreemurr families, he also loses his marriage.

The kids stop hanging out together so often, and when they do, it’s more strained. Kris will be playing with Noelle when they stop, getting hit with the memory of what happened, and wander off to the piano to try and play out their feelings.

Kris builds up years of these feelings…underlying guilt for messing up the friendships and even marriages of the monsters that adopted them. Their interests are weird, their habits are offputting, and they can often only express a desire for attention through pranks.

Despite the fact that the monsters in the town act friendly towards them, they still feel outcast and misunderstood. Their popular and beloved brother Asriel is their one solid anchor to everything, and Kris often wonders “wouldn’t things be easier and better if I was just like him?”

But eventually, Asriel gets old enough and leaves for college. Kris is left alone in the town with all their feelings, but no anchor. In some ways, it gets worse, as the other townsfolk continue to talk about how great Asriel is with him absent. And Kris agrees with them…but that doesn’t help at all how they feel.

To top it off, a new girl arrives in the town, who immediately presents herself as a troublemaker. She seems to have some deep problems of her own, perhaps stemming from her own rough upbringing, and takes out her aggression on Kris, the only human in the town. Despite the bullying, Kris takes it all in stride, even amusement. Susie isn’t saying anything about them that Kris doesn’t already believe about themself. If anything, Kris admires how unapologetic Susie is about her behavior, and sees a kindred spirit in her. They’re both outcasts, after all, with gross and offputting interests. And it is pretty funny how clearly Noelle is infatuated with Susie, too. 

And yet, Susie doesn’t seem interested in actually being friends now, and while Susie is admirable, she’s not helping Kris’s long-standing guilt, loneliness and depression. They start resenting how things have gone. They start looking for unconventional solutions. Perhaps they try the church, but the church doesn’t seem to have answers, so they look elsewhere. Maybe things would just be better if someone else was running their life. Maybe someone bigger than them can fix these seemingly insurmountable problems. They start looking up how to do magic online. How to summon demons, stuff like that. 

When that doesn’t work out, they turn to the local goth girl for help. After all, they’ve done occult spells with Catti before…protection spells for Noelle; something to ease Kris’s worries so that Noelle doesn’t suffer from the same misfortune Dess did.

One night, Kris asks Catti to perform a spell to summon a spirit. And surprisingly…something seems to happen. Kris is suddenly confronted with a strange figure who seems to be the devil. The figure says that it can bring Kris what they want: a spirit that can possess them and potentially even solve all their problems. But the figure requires something in exchange: their soul. Kris is at first reluctant, but the devil figure promises that the arrangement is only temporary: they’ll get their soul back when the spirit is no longer possessing them. So Kris agrees, and gives up their soul in exchange for another one. 

The deal supposedly goes over, but Kris finds that it doesn’t seem like anything has changed once the spell ends. They’ve gotten a new soul, but it doesn’t seem to do anything. If anything, everything becomes harder. They start operating on autopilot…saying very little, only doing what’s required of them, and sleeping for huge amounts of time. 

The joke around town now is that they seem like a walking corpse. Sure, they’re not dead, but it often kind of looks like it.

Maybe this spirit was just a total dud? Maybe that devil cheated them out of their own soul after all and they didn’t get anything in return. They try more than a few times to remove the new soul on their own, in the hopes that maybe taking it out by force will get them their own soul back. They find that they can remove the red soul with great effort! However, without it, they’re even slower and it’s even more difficult to move or act in any way. Removing it at least grants them a small degree of agency, and it seems to prove that their own soul is definitely around somewhere, because they’re still alive. But they can’t go for too long without putting the new red soul back in, because moving without it is such a strain.

Meanwhile, Kris’s request for something to possess them has worked, just not in an obvious way. The player experiences the passage of time very differently than the game characters they’re playing as, after all. To the player, they’ve suddenly gotten an invitation from an unknown character that they suspect they recognize from another game they’ve played. They don’t know what the invitation is for, but they’re more than ready to find out, even if it means downloading an unknown and potentially shady “survey program.”

Conveniently enough, this invitation and download become available on Halloween. A bit of an odd day to choose if you want a lot of people to download and play your game right away, since it’s a major holiday and most people already have plans. However…Halloween is a great time to summon a demon.

And to Kris, they wake up one morning exactly a week before their brother is scheduled to return home for a visit, and suddenly find that something else is moving their body for them. That new soul wasn’t a dud after all.

No time to even get really used to suddenly being physically possessed, as Kris and that school bully they admire just go to pick up some missing school supplies and get swept up into a strange place that Kris feels might be distinctly familiar. Once there, they meet someone else who, strangely, already knows who they are: Ralsei.

While Kris has been shambling around town with their player soul not in use, their own soul still needs to be kept in good condition. You can’t just leave a human soul out on its own for a long period of time. It at least needs some kind of container…a vessel. And the devil figure works out a perfect vessel for it…an object close to Kris, that they have a lot of sentimental value around. Something that symbolizes their desire to fit in with their family, and be just like their brother. Kris might have given it to the figure willingly, or it might have been taken without their knowledge, but the result is the same. 

But hey…why not make things even more interesting? A dark fountain can bring objects to life in their own dark world. What happens if you were to take an object currently carrying a human soul, and bring it to life with a dark fountain? What would it look like if Kris’s soul, filtered through an object that symbolizes their desire to be just like their beloved brother, was given its own form and identity?

You get Ralsei. A “lonely prince” who looks an awful lot like Asriel, but seems to more closely match Kris’s age and stature. He seems to be more like a remixed version of Asriel than identical to him. He already knows who Kris and Susie are, and he knows where things are located in the light world…because Kris knows all that. 

He’s able to travel between different dark worlds without being affected by them the way other Darkners are, because he carries a Lightner’s soul. 

While it’s unclear if he is talking directly to the player, just to Kris, or to both, he is at least aware of an entity distinct from Kris, since he names the castle town after the player. It would certainly make sense for him to be aware of the player’s presence and influence because he was a part of that whole exchange between souls in the first place. There’s even implications that Ralsei is, perhaps, communicating with Kris in ways that don’t involve speaking aloud to them. When asking Kris to pick up the items from the classroom, he uses parentheses, which typically seem to indicate a character’s thoughts rather than dialogue.

Since the player is able to read other characters’ thoughts, Kris can even respond to them if no one is speaking.

If parentheses for Ralsei indicate thinking rather than speaking, he is perhaps aware of how to communicate with Kris and/or the player in ways that other characters won’t hear…or perhaps is only even capable of it at all because he has Kris’s soul.

He is always deferring to Kris, even when Kris makes questionable choices. While he’s eager for friends, he seems desperate for Kris’s approval in particular, and takes great pains to not upset them…or allow other things to upset them. He seems to be confident in who Kris is, but struggles more with his own identity.

For Kris, seeing their own wish to be like their brother come to life, and then to have the spirit possessing them keep directing them to hug him…well, it’s kind of awkward. 

Just to speculate on the future, if it is true that Ralsei has Kris’s soul, this has the potential for some serious drama, and even setting Ralsei up as an antagonist without him being generically “evil.” Ralsei hasn’t had contact with anyone before meeting Susie and Kris. However, as they go on adventures together, he’s meeting lots of new people and gaining new perspectives. He’s steadily growing more independent from Kris, and establishing his own identity apart from them. What happens if Ralsei comes to the conclusion that Kris was right to trade him away all along…that not only does Kris not need him, but that he’s just fine without Kris? That he, perhaps, prefers being Ralsei to being Kris’s discarded soul?

Considering the player can’t keep playing the game forever, and Kris really can’t be left the rest of their life with a nonfunctional soul that leaves them on eternal autopilot, they’ll have to get their own soul back eventually. And after several chapters of the player themselves getting really attached to sweet and friendly Ralsei, that opens up the potential for some truly heartwrenching conflict. 

[miquellaluciscaelum]

"Pure and radiant, he wields love to shrive clean the hearts of men. There is nothing more terrifying".

I warn you! It gotta be long, very long. And it's of course mostly my personal opinion, speculations, theories, ideas about my fav character in this game!

If you are ready, let's go!

A rather interesting and ambiguous set of phrases, especially in combination with the visuals.

I'd like to think about what these phrases mean for Miquella in the context of his character. In the fandom, Miquella is actually a pretty unique character. The main reason is how contradictory people's opinions about him are. He is perhaps one of those about whom we know the least, but at the same time people usually attribute some things and qualities to him with such conviction, as if we have his entire biography laid out on the table instead of a set of very ambiguous descriptions of items that often don't even have a direct relationship to him or they aren't reliably verified belonging to him.

First of all, objectively, Miquella is perhaps one of the most sinless characters in the world of the Elden ring. He is not a warrior who killed for the Golden order. He is not a person who has been proven to have organized and committed a conspiracy to kill another person who is a killer's relative by the way. He did not curse the whole region with rot and slow decay. He wasn't engaged in some super vile heretical practices, wanting to gain at least some power. He didn't even burn Minor Erdtree, do you understand? Hi, Rykard! And most importantly, he was not voluntarily associated with any outer god, who bring mostly destruction on Lands between, at least as far as we know.

We know for certain about Miquella that:

1. The main goal for him was to cure his sister from the curse. He was ready to renounce the Golden Order in trying to seek answers elsewhere, in other branches of magic and faith. It costs a lot. Considering than the closer time came to the Shattering, the more rigid and radical the rules of the Order became under the rule of Radagon. Blasphemy, and this is blasphemy, was punished very severely. Radagon was literally at war with his own son because he had renounced the Golden Order. Hi, Rykard again! And it was Miquella who rejected the Golden order and its practices in order to save his sister, and later most likely completely refused from faith, realizing how much the order was rotten from the inside, from its roots literally.

2. Miquella is a genius. Most likely, he is the smartest of all the demigods and people living in Lands between. His inventions in the fields of magic, engineering, and botany are either rare or legendary items in the game. Prosthetics, armor, needles, lilies, spells. The pure gold needle alone is capable of suppressing the influence of outer gods such as Goddess of Rot and God of Frenzied flame, this actually calls into question their power in the lands between. In this way, this confirms Malenia's words about the most fearsome Empyrean. And indirectly it can make it clear where Miquella's curse came from. Here I agree with @miquella-everywhere that the most likely candidate is Greater Will, which probably saw in Miquella the same threat as in Marika. Anyone who can overcome the influence of at least one god can potentially overcome them all.

3. Miquella is known for hosting all those abandoned, rejected and forgotten by the Golden order. Omens, crystalians, demi-humans, albinaurics, tarnished, assassins, wandering merchants. From his face or under the name of his alter ego Saint Trina, he helped and saved more creatures and people than we know for sure anyone else did. The fact that this content was cut from the game at the final stage of production does not mean that it does not exist.

4. He has a reliably good relationship with most of his family members. He and Malenia feel like two parts of the same soul. He should also have a fairly close and warm relationship with Godwyn, it is shown through the statue in his Haligtree and the description of the sword Golden Epitaph. For a while, he must have had a good relationship with his father, with whom they learned the wisdom of the Golden order together. There is also reason to believe that he had a good relationship with some part of the Carian family. Considering the swords of Miquella's knights, made according to the Carian pattern, and knight Loretta, who guarded Elphael in the end.

5. Miquella definitely has special abilities. Whether it's the properties of his blood, or the traits of his character.

Speaking about this property of endearing people to themselves, I think it is logical to assume that until proven otherwise, that:

- first of all, his role as a CHARISMATIC LEADER. Understand that when his curse revealed, he objectively could not become a warrior like all the other members of his family. He was most likely trained to become a ruler, sage or adviser, commonly a politician. This is charisma training, the ability to win people over, the ability to lead people, the ability to convince and achieve your goals. This does not mean that he is a liar or a manipulator, it means that he is a good person in bad conditions, who uses the tools available to him, can sometimes make gray borderline decisions, but at the same time do it for a better future. In an environment where his curse puts him below everyone else and the military career ladder, the faster way to the top, is inaccessible to him, he has to struggle with acquiring some kind of position even more. In the end before and during the Shattering, by the way, he ruled the entire fucking city with his sister, speaking of charisma and leader characters.

- secondly, the possibility of a special persuasion arose from some kind of natural magnetism exists, perhaps even uncontrolled by Miquella himself. We could all have noticed some insect-like features that Miquella has, wings, cocoons, etc. It is quite possible that there are some special pheromones that soften people's reactions to him and cause instinctive affection, like butterflies have, for example. I.e. partially it may be uncontrollable.

- thirdly, this "gift of persuasion" can be completely hereditary, i.e. it could have come from Marika herself. She still somehow forced the last giant to obey her and guard Forge of the Giants.

That is, his so-called manipulation could be partly uncontrollable, and partly caused by his upbringing and the initial limitations of his position due to the curse, which he absolutely needs to overcome because otherwise he will not have enough knowledge or resources to cure Malenia or himself. Can you blame him for using the tools available to him and perhaps even using his innocent appearance to achieve his goals more easily? I wouldn't. (Honestly, if in the end his darker and more ominous side will be revealed to us, and the guess that he bewitched people will become the truth, I won't start love him less🤣, but now all of these are still just speculations) Moreover, it is not mentioned anywhere that he compeled and controlled people on some cosmic scale, deprived them of their will and forced them to madly love him and follow his ideas. He didn't want to put himself on a pedestal, create a new order, or become an almighty god. If he has the kind of potential that you believe he has, if he is one huge reference to Griffith as you believe, he probably could, but it literally contradicts his whole character, goals and motivation.

But what I absolutely deny and hate is the version that it was Miquella who bewitched Mogh in order to use him for his own purposes and achieve a breakthrough in breaking his curse earlier. I think this is absolutely a piece of SHIT and smacks of VICTIMBLAMING. All Miquella got from his kidnapping was a cursed body; an abandoned and slowly degrading sister, whom he was actually trying to save; a dying rotting tree, he tried to grow with so much effort; and he, who fell under the influence of an outer god, the thing he tried to avoid himself and from which he is still trying to save Malenia. Moreover, we know literally NOTHING about what Mogh did to Miquella while he was with him and in what condition. And believe me, you don't want to know what they write about this in fanfiction and what boarders it sometimes goes beyond. I can't imagine any way in which Miquella could have planned something like this.

Returning to the set of phrases at the beginning of the trailer.

"Pure and radiant, he wields love to shrive clean the hearts of men. There is nothing more terrifying".

Two interpretations.

One based on his "special influence on people." Then it can literally be said here that he is able to change people's consciousness and worldview for the better or for the worse. To free people's hearts from evil and evil thoughts, perhaps any thoughts in principle. This means that he has great power. Whether he uses it or not is another matter. This interpretation echoes Malenia's words and seems to be the most obvious and quite ominous.

However, when I watched the trailer over and over again and this moment in particular, I realized something. The words about a pure innocent soul and strength contrast very strongly with the visual. He is literally so disgusting and repulsive compared to the image of Miquella that they create in our heads that it becomes strange.

And then I thought, what if there is another meaning?

What if it means that such a pure innocent soul has great potential to make the world a better place, to make people living there better. But the higher you fly, the more painful to fall. The more hope you have, the more terrible to experience the defeat. What if this literally means:

Such a pure innocent soul with enough love in her to purify people's hearts. That makes the end of these aspirations even more terrifying.

And they show us Miquella's bloodied, emaciated hand from the cocoon. All his desires: save his sister, save his brother, save himself, make the world a better place for the abandoned and rejected, let life and abundance flourish, ended here. In the hands of a pervert and his perverted god, in a stinking bloody swamp, buried deep underground without a single ray of sun, deep in a dream that has no end, abandoned and left alone. The road to hell has been paved with truly good intentions.

Fuck, I'm crying. Let me save my boy😭

I really don't understand how you can compare Miquella to Griffith when it's literally the same type of character that Miyazaki uses in every bloody game he creates. If you want to call it a rebirth of the world, let it be. Gwyndolin, Lothric, Kuro, Miquella. A boy cursed or weak from birth, different from generally accepted norms, with great responsibility and duty on his shoulders, a defender of ideals in spirit and a fighter against fate in fact, with problems in the family and a legacy more burdensome than beneficial, but most often with loving brothers and sisters and a strong warrior behind his back, master in magic or science, cold-blooded, but very naive at heart. Unwilling to give in to fate, gods, and the world that always expects something from them. Unwilling to surrender to death. These are very similar stories and there is no place in them for what you are looking for. I just hope that there will be no place for a bad ending in the new story either. 😭

Thank you for listening to my Ted talk about some cute soulsborn femboy✨. I even cried at the end. Hope you didn't get bored in the process. Trailer touched me on many soul layers.

[wilderness-of-thoughts]

Before:

It would be a mistake to assume that both you and Gojo remain unaware of each other's feelings. "I love you" was never said, and neither of you ever looked at each other in a sexual manner. And yet there was this deeper bond of understanding, this conviction that one could count on the other. This unconditional acceptance.

There are many definitions of love, yours was at a level... That was hard for you to define. Gojo never thought about you in an erotic way. Not because you didn't excite him, but because he never allowed himself to. The chemistry between you was different than in the romantic movies he tortured his mind with. He knew that they presented an exaggerated picture of reality and never talked about what happened after "happily ever after".

And considering how strong his sex drive was, especially as a teenager, it was hard for either of you to even consider something. To some things you just have to mature into.

With his first time he didn't remember, he learned to control his stress level through sex. Easy, quick to pleasure. A shot of dopamine. He had no problem picking up a woman. They were drawn to him like flies, and so were the men. If not for his looks, then for the thickness of his wallet, or for his status as the strongest - If he felt like having sex with someone from the world of jujutsu.

The names were unimportant, he couldn't remember anything about these people. The relief from stress that didn't solve the problem only temporarily gave him a sense of control over his life.

And then there was you.

As a teenager, he treated you meanly. The weakest, the punching bag, the person to be bullied. It was also a way to relieve stress. Especially since despite his behavior, you never hated him. You reacted with a roll of your eyes, a sigh, a wry smile, or a shake of your head in disbelief. He had several conversations with Yaga to come to his senses and calm down, so that he wouldn't treat you meanly...

Your relationship with Gojo can be measured by turning points when the obvious just hit your consciousness so hard and his. One of the first things that caused him to evolve from being an abuser to being mean towards you was when he realized that you cared about him.

∆∆∆

Geto was still there, Riko wasn't even in the picture. You were supposed to come to the evening study for the theory exam on the history of jujutsu with Geto and Gojo. Shoko was the only one to pass the exam on the zero date.

"Gojo hasn't returned from his mission yet?" You asked as you entered the men's dormroom.

"Nope." Geto replied, lazily turning pages in his textbook. He lay on his bed, relaxed. You frowned in surprise.

"Has he contacted you?" You asked, sitting on the ground next to Geto's bed, placing your backpack on the ground.

"Nope." And again silence.

...

...

Weird.

...

...

You looked at the time on your phone.

...

...

...

"Who saw him last?" You asked suddenly.

"Nanami? He was supposed to be on a mission with him." Geto looked at you sideways and smiled slyly. "Are you worried?"

You didn't answer. Without a word, you grabbed the phone and dialed Kento's number. You felt your heart begin to beat faster in your chest and a nasty sense of anxiety slowly crept over your body.

"Ken... When was the last time you saw Gojo?"

"None, good evening?" He asked, clearly sleepy, he must have been dozing. "Around noon? We finished and he was supposed to go back to the dorms." He replied right after.

"... So for the past eight hours... You haven't had any contact with him?"

"Lucky me." He laughed quietly and remained silent. You remain silent. You both were silent. "Um... He didn't come back?"

"... No..."

"Uh, he's probably wandering around somewhere again. Call him however if you need."

So you did. No signal. As if his phone was turned off. It's not like he's never stood you up. It's like he hasn't let anyone know about him for eight hours. He's usually everywhere. And now the silence, and that silence, has taken over you. You called Shoko, his favorite cafe, a few people. No one had any signals from Gojo today.

You were already breathing rapidly, your eyes were wide open and you were nervously biting your lower Lip. Nobody cared? Nobody else was interested? You tried calling Gojo again. Still nothing. Your brain had already created an image of the dead body of the Chosen One somewhere in the bushes. Who and with what killed him - that wasn't important.

"Y/n calm down... He'll be fine." Geto tried to reassure you. You weren't listening. You were now thinking of Gojo not as the strongest alpha and omega in the universe, but as Satoru - a mean asshole who would commit suicide by jumping from his ego to his IQ level. Your hands were shaking.... You had to do something.

"I'll go look for him..." You whispered more to yourself than to Geto. "I'll start from where he had the mission... And then..." Logic. Have you thought about calling Yaga? Yes. But until you were sure, you didn't want to worry him.

"BOO!" Satoru jumped out of the closet. It turned out he had been hiding there the whole time. "You fell for it! Look at her face!" Gojo burst into tears of laughter. "If you could only see yours..." He didn't finish. He could clearly see the emotions on your face. Fear turned to surprise. Surprise to happiness. Happiness turned into anger. Your cute grimace of anger was bigger, more dangerous, he hurt you. "It was just a joke!" He shouted as if in self-defense, spreading his hands to the sides. "It's not my fault you're stupid!" Poorly chosen words... Fuck... Gojo felt like he had to explain himself and show you that you could have guessed... It wasn't hard! "Look. My shoes and jacket are in the room. Food on my bed. Phone on airplane mode."

"Geto..." Your gaze wandered to the black-haired man who shrugged, amused by the joke more than surprised by your reaction.

"He bribed me." He explained as if that excused him.

"I am the strongest, you weakling!" Gojo crossed his arms over his chest. "Did you seriously fall for something bad happening to me?" He asked in disbelief. His smile turned forced. He couldn't change his stance now, not in front of you. "You're so stupid! Weak and stupid! All you had to do was look around a little! Think!"

"Arrogant, self-centered, boor, simpleton, pig, man whore...." You spoke quietly, tightly clenching your hands into fists, you were shedding tears of anger, happiness, shame.... At the same time. And your gaze fixed on Gojo was slowly killing something in him. With each passing second the urge to apologize grew within him, still less than 1% but still more than he had ever felt. "I'm leaving. I don't want to see you now..." You wanted to leave, but his hand involuntarily grabbed your wrist, you quickly pushed him away. He didn't fight. "I was worried something happened to you, idiot!" And you ran out.

Gojo stood agitated, surprised, his eyes wide open and his mouth parted. For the first time he truly felt that someone cared about him. Someone ignored the obvious. Someone cared.

"I told you it was a bad idea..." Geto only commented, sighing heavily.

∆∆∆

Since then, Gojo has never doubted that you care about him. And every time he sees the worry on your face, he is so happy. How much you want to help him. That you don't assume he's the best - although he is; the strongest - that's without a doubt; perfect - in every way. And even though his ego is boiling with anger now, underneath it all is Satoru, the soul of the man who smiles when he sees that you care.

"Could you help me?" You shouted pretentiously as you rummaged through the pile of rubble. You were in the Old Temple (or rather what was left of it). Gojo was sitting on a pile of stones, staring at you with a stupid smile.

"do you know that it's not nice to take advantage of smaller ones?"

"You'll remain this little for a long time if you don't help me! Don't you care about going back to your normal size?" You muttered under your breath.

Good question... Does he really care?

[baejax-the-great]

could you tell us more about the versions of ajax's death?

I would love to.

Ajax is an old, old myth that started out as part of an oral tradition, so it stands to reason that there were multiple versions of his death until the canonization of the epic cycle, but even then the story still evolved as various authors wrote their take on it.

I mentioned in a recent post that outside of Homer, Ajax was known to be invulnerable thanks to Heracles blessing him with the Nemean Lion skin. This makes killing him kind of tricky. Even in the Iliad, where Homer doesn't acknowledge the supernatural aspects of his heroes, Ajax is one of the few who doesn't sustain a single injury over the course of the story.

Like the myth of Achilles with the vulnerable heel, Ajax was said to have vulnerable areas. There was a version where he was the one shot in the heel with an arrow by Paris and he died from blood loss when the arrow was removed from his body back in camp, but more commonly he was vulnerable in his side or his throat (I am also very vulnerable to death when being stabbed in these areas). In most versions of his suicide depicted, he falls on his sword somewhere in his torso, so presumably he hits that specific vulnerable area in his side. I'm not sure if any of the suicides depicted have him piercing his own throat with his sword.

There was another pre-Homeric version of his death in which the Trojans killed him by throwing earth at him. I've chosen to interpret this as them attempting to bury him alive given that they cannot stab him to death. Interestingly, Ajax is the only Homeric hero whose dead body is interred rather than cremated, and a lot of theories have been proposed as to why. I think it was Sophocles who put it in his play that being interred was a punishment for his outrage against the other generals, but historians generally discount that interpretation. Interment was at no point considered a dishonorable way of dealing with a body, so it didn't make sense. Some historians hearken it back to other aspects of Ajax being anachronistic compared to his Iliad compatriots-- his shield, for example, is described in the older Mycenean style rather than getting the classical update contemporary with Homer's time like the rest of them. Most recently I read a theory that his interment might have been a nod to this history of invulnerability and the belief that covering an invulnerable person in dirt was the only way to kill them. Basically you give the person a direct route to the Underworld by sticking them... under the world.

Okay, but eventually everyone settled on the version of Ajax's death where he commits suicide. This version underwent substantial evolution over time. The oldest version (so far as I've seen as I wander my way through history books) goes like this: Agamemnon doesn't know what to do with the Arms of Achilles. He's afraid if he gives them to Ajax, the new Greatest of the Greeks, that the other men will lose their shit and start rioting (some may interpret this as a reflection of his piss poor leadership abilities). So, instead of making the call himself, he decides to let Trojans settle the matter. There are two version of this, one in which they ask their Trojan hostages to decide who is the better warrior, Ajax or Odysseus, and one in which they eavesdrop on some Trojan women talking about the warriors.

In both of these versions, Athena intervenes to make sure they declare Odysseus the victor. Two points here-- one is that in this oldest version of the story, Odysseus doesn't do anything to win. There's no trickery on his part. He's just there, and Athena picks him. The second point is that one of the key aspects of Ajax's character throughout all of his stories is that Athena fucking hates him. The feeling is kind of mutual. I could write a whole new post about this, but Odysseus doesn't factor into her decision necessarily--she's not favoring Odysseus, she's fucking over Ajax, who she hates.

After the decision, Ajax goes mad (more on this later), possibly kills some animals, and kills himself with Hector's sword.

It is only much later that we get versions where there is some sort of contest of words going on and complicity of Odysseus with Athena's scheme. This evolves more and more over time until it becomes "Ajax is an idiot who can't string two words together and Odysseus is a wordsmith." Whatever. Ovid's version is pretty hilarious with Ajax killing himself in front of everyone while bellowing something along the lines of "Try winning the war without me, dipshits."

The madness that Ajax suffers also changes over time. In the beginning, it's kind of vague. He goes mad. This could mean he got really super angry. It could also mean... he was put into a headspace where killing himself seemed like a reasonable response. Most people accept that state as a form of madness. It's only later that his madness is attributed to Athena--she made him mad rather than it being a natural consequence of his accomplishments going unacknowledged after ten years of war and also watching his friends die and lugging their corpses around etc etc. This also gets to the animals he slaughtered--in some version, he just does it. Because he's mad. In some versions, it's suggested he kills them because he won them for the Greeks, and if the Greeks don't appreciate him, by god they are not going to get to enjoy the spoils of his labor. Sorry, sheep. And in Sophocles' late version, Athena's madness causes him to imagine the cows are various Greek generals (Agamemnon and Odysseus and others) and he tortures them thinking he's torturing the generals. When he realizes what he's done, he kills himself.

What's interesting to me is that the evolution of Ajax's suicide seems to simplify his motives for doing so and make him a less compelling character. Well, he was driven mad by a goddess. And he wasn't very bright to begin with. And he killed himself to deny the Greeks his service (as if he couldn't have just gone the fuck home with all his cows).

The original suicide story as I understand it is a man who has proved himself ten times over, who everyone knows is the greatest among them, and who still gets passed over and disrespected by his fellow soldiers who all know the truth. There is nothing Ajax can do that will get other people to recognize him, and when he realizes this, that he will never accomplish his goals, this drives him "mad." He loses his purpose for living, and he dies.

[fortheloveofarchons]

My opinions on Sunday from Honkai: Star Rail

C.W. Contains spoilers after the 2.2 Honkai: Star Rail Trailblazer Quest + theories and lore

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I kinda agree with his philosophies and thinking... to some extent...

Okay hear me out!!!

We all know by now that Sunday's whole motive is to protect everyone and ensure that they won't have to suffer anymore (like when he states that he wants everyone to have seven rest days). I can empathise with his character so much, as someone who (as ridiculous and cowardly as it sounds) is afraid to face the harsh realities of life. I mean, even if he's set as a villain, he is as gentle and empathetic as his sister Robin, just that they both express it differently.

Seeing the cutscenes of him and Robin from their past to the present was just so immersive, because Sunday brings up some very demoralizing and harsh situations that he faced back then, and we, the audience, can understand and relate to struggling to cope with his disappointment, frustration, grief, and anger - all while often having little to no power to change things.

From the way Sunday is acting, he seems more like a traumatised parental figure (as we've seen the reason why Robin has to wear excessive neck accessories due to her being shot) who cannot let go and provide his care and safe environment for his loved ones.

Moreover, his ideologies felt surreal as I myself would take that path since I can relate to his trauma and ideals (and also as someone who has a sibling too)

His viewpoint is understandable, but...

Taking away the basic right of an individual's free will for safety is always a controversial issue.

As Himeko once called out Sunday, she states that he's just going to trap everyone in a bird cage through eternal slumber, which robs them their freedom and agency.

Plus, from what Robin said, if Sunday's plan worked, he's going to hurt himself too. Because Sunday will be in charge of everything and everyone, he won't even have time to rest, causing his body and mind to be exhausted to the bone (maybe possible cause his mind and body to corrode cause he needs to rest at one point)

Moreover, Firefly made a good point disapproving Sunday's point that he should not assume just because someone is weak doesn't mean that they should automatically escape to fantasy. It is up to you to be strong so you can fly into the sky, and that not everyone who is weak should be weak.

I remember someone commenting on Youtube stating that Sunday protects Robin so much, that Sunday doesn't even know how to protect himself for facing the outside world. It's kind of ironic considering that Sunday is supposed to be the protective, influential type of characters in Penacony, yet he barely knows how to fly. Robin, however, took the opportunity to spread her philosophies of Harmony and influence others in reality.

In conclusion, Sunday has the right idea, it's just that he has a terrible execution. But I know that there are some people who don't mind, I've been on Instagram to see a lot of people agreeing with his views... yes I'm talking about all those sunday stans cause I've seen a lot from them

(I ain't complaining plz we need more Sunday content!!!)

I mean-- in reality I wouldn't agree; but in this story, I would agree with him. (if we don't consider my simping and bias because that has the most influence)

Honestly, I'm hoping he gets a redemption arc because I really love him (I personally wouldn't mind if Sunday gets the Wanderer treatment from Genshin Impact if it means that Sunday will be playable), and hoping that he is really alive (as stated by the leakers that Sunday has a bunch of specific codes and emotion codes that's exclusive to playable characters).

That said, may we Sunday havers have more Sunday content and playable Sunday in the future!!! I'm gonna write a fic for Sunday so stay tuned!!

Let me know what you guys think of Sunday! Do you think he'll get redeemed? Playable? Alive?

PETITION TO MAKE EVERYDAY SUNDAYYY!!!!!!

[somethingclevermahogony]

Happy WBW! What are some common superstitions in your setting?

Happy WBW! (Also a bit delayed, oops)

There are too many cultures in the world of Kobani to go over all of the various superstitions, as such I will stick to just Kishetal and only a couple of the more prevelant superstitions within Kishite Culture.

Superstition #1: Placing food back onto the serving dish or plate is not only bad manners, its bad luck. And don't forget to spit on the dead.

If one attends a Kishite banquet they will find no steaks, no whole roasts, nothing on the bone, nor unsliced fruit like apples or peaches, rather they will find that every food item has been cut or sliced into bite-sized portions with the exception of bread (and soups of course).

This is because it is considered not only bad manners but also bad luck to allow a food item which has touched the mouth to be set back down onto the serving platter or even onto a plate, “double-dipping” is viewed with similar hostility. It is believed that doing so may spread disease or illness. As a direct consequence of this belief, knives are a relatively rare piece of cutlery, as it is expected that the food will either by soft enough to be torn apart with the fingers (like bread or fish), naturally bite-sized (like olives, grapes, or shellfish), eaten with a spoon (like a soup), or cut into appropriately sized pieces. The only equipment a dinner is expected to bring to a meal is a cloth to wipe the fingers between bites and a spoon.

Of course the Kishites have no concept of germ theory, rather the explanation for this particular superstition is the belief that spirits are attracted to saliva, which is in itself viewed as a source of vitality and energy, secondary to blood in importance. 

This particular belief in the power of saliva also comes into play for other parts of Kishite life. Spitting in a domicile is considered a grave insult as doing so may attract unwanted spirits. On the other hand, spitting on the stones used for the creation of Kishite burial rounds is believed to attract spirits which can in turn act as guides for the deceased. In parts of north-eastern Kishetal starting around the city-state of Naloch, it is tradition for the family to spit on the clothes of the deceased. This practice is so entrenched that in northern dialects of the Kishite language the most commonly used word for grief or grieving is pisuki/pisukiwash (Literally from the verb biski meaning to drool or spit), as opposed to the more common term(s) nahulpati/nahulpatiwash (nahul- death, pati- love/affection).

On a similar note, spitting on a living person is equivalent to wishing death upon that person.

There is very little truth to this particular belief as any sage could attest, though this has not stopped this particular superstition from proliferating.

Superstition #2: Curses: The Real and the Fiction

When one walks through the narrow and filth ridden streets of Labisa’s less savory neighborhoods, they may be approached by men and women holding scraps of hide, sherds of broken pottery, and swishing jugs of unknown contents. These so-called “magic weavers” offer a range of services, from curing baldness to making another person fall in love with you, and most infamously, bestowing curses. Most often curses take the form of pottery sherds (the more expensive examples may also be the bones of various animals) carved with the name of the intended victim and the intended outcome of the curse (impotency, leprosy, infidelity, etc). These curse tokens will then be hidden somewhere in the proximity of the intended victim, often buried near houses, or even crushed and poured into wells or sprinkled over a person’s threshold.

Of course these “curses” are pure fiction and have no real effect, save for parting a gullible and angry person from their wealth (though on very very rare occasions a wandering spirit may decide to act upon the “curse” to pass the time.)

However this does not mean that there are no real ways to curse an individual or even an entire family. Curses are the domain of sages and seers and are exceptionally rare as their continuous nature results in a considerable toll from the caster, or even when they are not continuous( magic/the sage’s energies do not need to be supplied for the continuation of the effects) they instead have a level of complexity which prevents all but the most powerful and competent sages from producing them. 

The most infamous curse currently active in Kishetal is the disease called Asherdul’s Bane, which affects the male members of the Royal Line of Asher (This includes Hutbari, Akard, and Kurush aka Ninma’s family). This particular curse stems from a western Makurian Tribe, placed in retaliation to the destruction of a Makurian temple by the Labisian King, Asher. This particular curse took the form of genetic manipulation, imprinting the genes for the disease within Asher, thus passing the illness down his male line. The disease first presents around the age of 25 as a gradual degradation of first the skin and then the muscles and vital organs, leading to the eventual death of the afflicted.

Superstition #3: The Hoopoe is a portent of love

The hoopoe bird of Kishetal is viewed as a symbol of the Goddess Uniki, patron of marriage and romantic love. This has resulted in a number of superstitions arising around the colorful crested birds.

#1 Killing a hoopoe is incredibly bad luck: Killing a hoopoe or crushing a nest is almost guaranteed to either ruin any current relationships or prevent the formation of new ones. This perceived blanket of bad luck can only be lifted via a heavy donation to the nearest temple to Uniki or else by some other act of atonement.

#2 A lasting wedding must include the presence of hoopoe feathers of some sort:  The preferred method of doing this is through the creation of a hoopoe feather crown, these are often passed down from mother to daughter. However if one does not inherit a crown they must go and make one. This particular practice is complicated by the previous superstition, the feathers must be gathered without killing or harming the bird, as such only shed feathers are collected, and are often mixed with other kinds of bird feather as well as flowers and other plant material.

#3 Being pooped on by a hoopoe is a sign of divine favor: To be pooped on by a passing hoopoe is a sign that a person is favored by fate, particularly when it comes to love and romance. A man who is pooped on by a hoopoe is certain to find a good wife, make a good home, and have strong children. As a result it is not unusual for lovestruck Kishite boys to gather under a tree where hoopoes are known to nest with the hopes of gaining their “favor”. And after receiving said favor they may run to the home of the girl they fancy, to plead to their prospective father-in-laws, with the mark of the hoopoe as proof of their qualifications.

[kcwriter-blog]

Defeating the Big, Bad Wolf

The always amazing corseque has theorized that a boss fight with the mutant dragon/wolf Fen’ Harel is inevitable. The default world state on the Keep has the Inquisitor choosing to stop Solas. In other words, BioWare wants our new protagonist to kill Solas. That’s the plan. That’s what they’ve been leading up to. That’s what they think game players want. 

I’m not saying most players don’t want to “scramble the egg” as they put it. There is enough hated for Solas on the fan sites for that to be believable. At the end of the day though, BioWare is supposed to be about choices. We were given a big one at the end of Trespasser and it would suck if BioWare chose not to honor that. 

If all choices lead to us having to kill Solas, that isn’t a game I want to play. Not because I personally love Solas (I do) but because I consider it lazy writing to turn such a nuanced character into Thanos or Corypheus. He deserves better if that is what some of us want for him. 

I don’t think Weekes is a lazy or boring writer. However, if they were told by others on the team to make it so, that’s how it will go. 

How could BioWare give us the “redeemed” ending some of us asked for and still ensure the big boss fight they have been leading up to happens?

One theory is that this is all a distraction. There is a bigger boss out there that we will have to defeat. Maybe. Another option is the old trope “The villain decided he was wrong and died saving the world.” Boring, but also plausible. It’s also possible that Solas dies but is reborn in the Fade as a Wisdom spirit. He won’t remember anything about his past self, but he will at least be at peace.

I have another option. I don’t think we will see it, but I felt I had to throw it out there into the void. I just finished reading Asunder. In it, Wynn gathers a couple of mages and heads out to Adamant to save a Tranquil who has been researching how to reverse the Rite of Tranquility. When they arrive, they discover that the Tranquil managed to reverse the Rite but in doing so became possessed by a powerful demon. 

Wynn believes the situation is salvageable. She enacts a ritual that rips a huge hole in the Veil. She and the mages enter the Veil (not physically) with the goal of fighting the demon on its own turf. It takes the mages, Wynn and the spirit of Faith she carries with her to defeat it. Once they do and return to the waking world, the Tranquil is alive and no longer possessed. 

What would this mean for a good ending? Solas and the Dread Wolf seem to be separate creatures. In banter, Cole remarks that Solas is in two places at once, meaning the waking world and the Fade. Solas brushes it off by saying that he wanders the Fade a lot and that is probably what Cole is sensing. What if it isn’t? What if Solas is separated from his demon by the Veil?

If so, our protagonist can enter the Fade, do the boss fight most players have been salivating over and instead of killing Solas save him. Free of the Dread Wolf, Solas can become whatever he was before his spirit was twisted into a Pride demon. That might still result in him “dying” a la Wisdom in his personal quest, but maybe he will have enough sense of self left to “push through” and become mortal. 

I like this ending for several reasons. One, everyone gets what they want. Two, Solas has a chance to start undoing the damage he caused. A sacrificial act, while dramatic, does not really equal atonement. You can’t atone if you are dead. 

As I said, that is a very unlikely scenario. All foreshadowing points to Solas’ death at the end of DAD. It makes me sad because the ending could have been much more interesting. 

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

2023 Year in Review

1. 28,490 notes - Jun 16 2023

You know, it’s kinda funny how much of high fantasy centers around kings and nobility and courtly intrigue considering that the archetypal high fantasy, Lord of the Rings, had the rather explicit moral of “saving the world is up to this backwater hick and his gardener because no politician, least of all inherited nobility, would have the ability to see past their own ambition and throw away a weapon”. Oh sure, Aragorn is a great king and all, but there’s a reason he’s over there running a distraction ring while the hobbits do the real work. Sauron loses because he gets distracted by kings and armies and great battles (i.e. typical high fantasy stuff) letting Frodo and Sam sneak through his back door and blow it all to hell.  

Just saying, maybe old Jirt knew what he was saying when he said that the small folk doing their best and holding to each other was more powerful than a dozen alliances and superweapons and we should respect him for it.

2. 22,425 notes - Jul 6 2023

“LOL. You think your vote matters? ROFL and LOL.” Yes, I am aware my vote carries less and less relative power the more people I’m voting with, but unlike your glorious violent revolution, it actually exists.

3. 20,183 notes - Mar 7 2023

The 4 approaches to “orphaned etymology” problems in fiction

1. Obviously we can’t call it French toast if there’s no France so we’re just gonna replace it with something else.

2. The word abattoir sounds too French so it wouldn’t make sense for it to be here without a France. Even though we use English without there being an England.

3. This is called a Ming vase because when you tap it it makes a “Ming!” sound.

4. I am JRR Tolkien and every single word I write has a fictional etymology attached to it that I am translating into English for your convenience.

4. 17,918 notes - Dec 26 2023

As to whether the Gavle Goat’s consumption should be seen as a good omen or a bad omen, I’d say good. Traditionally the Yule goat is made of straw from the final harvest and as a talisman against hard times, and there are unproven theories that its shape is inspired by Thor’s goats, who are constantly killed, eaten, and reborn to provide endless meat for Thor and whatever guests he entertains.  Therefore, its use by birds as a food store and safe harbor is an affirmation of its original purpose and truly in the Christmas spirit of generosity in lean times. What’s more, the birds eating it seems to be have been the one outcome to unite both goat burners and goat keepers, as they have decided not to scare the birds away from their safe harbor and not to harm the goat, a decision that has been universally lauded. 

As omens go, this one’s all positive: safety, plenty, and unity between previous ideological opponents through a creative third solution built on shared values (birds being fed and sheltered is a good thing). May more birds find their way to the Gavle Goat next year. 

5. 11,031 notes - Apr 24 2023

Okay hearing that people actually do this has made me morbidly curious so... My house was split into Parents and Kids bathrooms...

6. 9,188 notes - Mar 16 2023

The best decision The Mandalorian ever made was centering their show around an archetypal masked, taciturn gunslinger who wanders from town to town never putting down roots, and then revealing that he acts that way because he’s a massively awkward introvert who uses that archetype to avoid having to socialize with people beyond the three interaction scripts he already knows.  10/10, top tier characterization, I love seeing this man outshoot a bar full of people and then get scammed by a random mechanic because he’s too polite to confront her about it. Truly a hero of our times.

7. 5,183 notes - Mar 21 2023

Okay but for a corporately mandated love triangle (Gale was meant to be Katniss’ cousin, publisher asked to make him the childhood friend with a crush), Hunger Games absolutely nails it. It can’t just be solved by polyamory because it represents her choosing between two aspects of herself. Yes Gale sometimes acts like a dumb teenager because he is, but not to an obnoxious level. The one and only time Peeta and Gale get a conversation about it, both of them fully acknowledge that it’s Katniss’ choice so fighting over her is pointless. It’s not a marketing gimmick to generate unnecessary tension, it’s a complicated relationship that informs all three of their characters and is deeply intertwined with the series’ themes of war and trauma.

8. 4,122 notes - Jul 1 2023

I mean I’m not even trans and I can still tell Nimona the movie is basically ND Stevenson going back and saying “okay, let’s do it on purpose this time”.

9. 3,850 notes - Jan 4 2023

What I really like about the dinner mystery is that they could have made it super easy or had Blanc go on about how obvious it is since he needed to solve it quickly, but instead he’s thrilled by it. He points out every subtle clue, all the foreshadowing, the style of it, and he even tells Miles that it was satisfying and the perfect bite-sized mystery. “A dramatic, passionate, and colorful crime for a fashionista!”. He might have solved it easily, because this is his job, but he can still appreciate the artistry in it and enjoy solving it.

It provides a nice counterpoint to the later reveal, where he is genuinely disappointed by how dumb the murders where but still prioritizes the victims. He might love solving the mysteries, but he knows what’s really important. So what could be better than a mystery with no victims?

10. 3,467 notes - Apr 6 2023

Honestly when you hear that someone once held bigoted views in the past but no longer does that shouldn’t be a disappointment, but a victory. Yes! We got ‘em! One less person on the wrong side of history and one more for us! This is exactly what we want, for people to leave their prejudices behind, and we succeeded!

Created by TumblrTop10

[rrrrinmaru]

liveblog of 01 - to begin

first thoughts are that i really like the podcast-esque opening of the prologue with DPSC FM - it's giving wtnv vibes and the va does an excellent job of delivering his lines. i would actually enjoy hearing a full podcast version of the events of this game narrated through a radio station i think...

"traceback ii is about to pass the event horizon and enter the black hole" / "we are stuck in this loop, in this never ending journey" - pensive... is this related to the main storyline or is this foreshadowing about the multiple world theory?

"metaflux index" - it's fascinating that they've developed the technology to sense this metaflux index and identify problem spots in the city where wanderers are more likely to appear. they seem to be able to predict the rough locations where the wanderers will appear and likely can dispatch hunters to these areas on standby, but i wonder if they can narrow it down to the time itself?like "1400, wanderer attack down at the pizzeria", or if it's a shorter warning time, like the metaflux index spikes and it signals a wanderer attack in the next 20 minutes?

deepspace tunnel appearing leading to anomalous geomagnetic storms, which caused the wanderers to appear - i'm assuming the deepspace tunnel is something like a wormhole / space portal. does this mean the wanderers entered our planet through some portal / wormhole tearing a rift in space and time to deposit them directly on our planet (think loki and the first avengers movie when he brought the chitauri over with his spectre)? did someone create this portal or was it like some act of mother nature?

if you listen carefully during the 01 story, when tara is speaking to you, the president in the background says "but we only care about results. the ends justify the means." considering they view the wanderers as invasive aliens (zergs www), the standpoint makes sense, but it is quite funny to hear it be declared so self-righteously. does make me wonder how much you can get away with if you claim it's for the purpose of defeating the wanderers though... severe structural damage ala the avengers?

it seems that the new list of hunter graduates are released ahead of graduation and the leaders (?) of each hunting division / squad / team get to select the rookies they want to join their team - there doesn't seem to be any autonomy on the part of the graduates to indicate which team they want to join.

i do wonder why mc is the first rookie called up to receive the badge: from a gameplay perspective, it makes sense since it would be a chore to have to "sit through" other people before it reaches our turn. i don't think it's based on alphabetical order either since all the players' names are different, and it's likely that any numerical number (e.g. student number 12020) would be in order of name. from a plot perspective, are we like... hunter valedictorian???

tara being into tarot cards is so funny i won't lie. all this technological advancement and the venturing into space to see all the planets and having a wormhole tunnel appear in our planet and having to fight aliens and still bestie believes in fate. i mean so do i but it's still kinda funny wwww she's super cute though. i love her short bob.

interesting how mc uses a gun for the first mission - are they assigned guns only as beginner rookies? it's clear mc can use other weapons from the battle mechanics, so why gun - more importantly, have they invented auto aim in plot yet or does she still have to manually aim at people?

not sure if this is a gameplay thing or intentional plotwise - xavier's wounds were glowing with "metaflux" (suggests that wanderers' attacks use metaflux?) but the moment you touch him to try to wake him up, the glow disappears.

IS XAVIER COLLARED? COLLARED? COLLARED? HOW HAS NO ONE SPOKEN ABOUT THE COLLAR? WHAT THE FUCK? HE HAS A COLLAR?

"it activated its protofield" - are there any repercussions to like... just ignoring the protofield? like you see it manifest in front of you and you know a wanderer's lurking inside and you just decide no thanks and walk away? obviously you cordon off the area so the public can't wander in and stuff, but apart from that are there any... space time repercussions? like the protofield gets bigger the longer it goes ignored, or the wanderer can just dismiss the protofield and come back out to walk the earth?

protocores are crushable??????

erm very bold of xavier to just take my wrist and drag me along but ermmmmmmmm hehe hehe...... let's just say i'm agreeable.

hm i'm a bit confused. luminivores eat light - xavier's evol is light - they eat the light he produces (??) - therefore the warehouse full of luminivores is likely a trap for him. i think xavier mentions that the luminivores will respawn with the light if they don't defeat the luminivores quickly enough, meaning the luminivores consume the light and use it as refuel / to respawn with health. but when mc and xavier resonate, the combined power of the resonated light evol is "so bright" it seems to dissolve all the luminivores? does this mean it's like a speed / intensity thing? shine a bright enough /damaging enough light on the luminivores to hurt them faster than they can devour the light and it's enough to destroy them? maybe part of the hunter gear should include really, really, really high powered industry grade flashlights

protocores seem a lot weaker than i imagined... can they really be destroyed so easily? xavier crushed them in his palm and they were disintegrated by the power of the resonated light evol? regardless, protocores can be broken into protocore fragments - can they be pieced together to form a new protocore?

i do wonder - they can sense metaflux energy levels, and a high enough metaflux energy level typically means that wanderers will be appearing / have appeared in the area. is the reverse true, whereby a metaflux "explosion" (maybe in the research of metaflux energy and somehow the scientists accidentally create an explosion), will it draw wanderers to appear at that location like a beacon?

tara was about to try every method possible to contact mc, both scientific AND mystical? i would give money to see tara conduct a seance in the abandoned warehouse to try to triangulate my location. maybe pull out an ouija board. speak with any lingering spirits to figure out if i'm having a little tete-a-tete with a hot single silver-haired injured man in my area.

do teams like data analysis go into the field as well? that is so funny... imagine joining the hunter academy (?) because you've always been fascinated by metaflux and want to help develop technology / weapons to better sense and identify and hunt wanderers, and you suck it up throughout all the combat fitness and field training because you just want to be Where The Scientists Are and when you finally get assigned to data analysis you find out you still have compulsory field assignments. like i would end it all

mini drones with 360 degree eyes and infrared sensors designed to monitor wanderer activity patrol the sky - oh so we are in the Surveillance Society that all the sci-fi books predicted. got it

if jenna saved tara 14 years ago during the wanderer attack, and assuming jenna was like employed with some kind of law enforcement at the time, putting her at maybe 20-22 (at least), she should be about >= 34 years old? sexy... ok i am seeing the tara/jenna vision...

i wonder if they have flying cars....

fucking funny how rafayel just catches the fish and. lets it flop on the net pathetically for however long he talks, SUFFOCATING, before he plops it in your water container. he was really ready to just chat with you while he let his friend (fish are friends not food) die

HE JUST WALKS OFF OH MY GOD ok lilydally i see what you see in him. the bitch energy is hilarious

mc says she hasn't met zayne for over a decade and only recently met him 6 months ago for a follow-up checkup for her heart, but their families are friends and meet occasionally for meals - did they just stop meeting post wanderer attack? actually, did mc's grandma take mc in before or after the wanderer attack? if mc met zayne when she was 8 (and assuming this was pre-wanderer attack), she's at least 22 years old

not gonna lie if my ex-childhood friend turned out to be my primary care physician i might ask for someone else to be my physician... unless they were the best at their job and irreplaceable (which i assume zayne is?)

damn this office is fancy as hell... what kind of doctor's office has a whole ass couch inside? with a long table? with multiple couch cushions??

i like how low caleb's bar is. what matters is that you're alive. thank you chief.

military flights go INTO the deepspace tunnel?! by military she meant SPACE EXPLORATION? < with hindsight i now know by military, caleb is in the deepspace aviation administration. it's funny how they still call it aviation. the sky is vastly different from space, methinks........

you can find wanderers IN the deepspace tunnel? like are they floating? are they in their own spaceship of some kind? how do their bodies adapt to the change in pressure from space and on earth? if it's revealed wanderers are capable of flying spaceships too that would be so funny.... forget hand to hand combat on solid ground. let's have a laser battle in space in the deepspace portal. we'll see whose nuclear shields hold up better

caleb doesn't like cilantro... i will remember this

[squadrah]

Now you gotta do la squadra as old 👵women

The grind never ends... This is a continuation of the La Squadra as MILFs post and I also consulted my La Squadra as old men post for this one, so I'm linking it as relevant.

Risotto: Still insists on her cooking and favorite chores, including picking fruit from her trees, but her joints are definitely acting up, and she's probably struggling with a lot of back and hip pain. She's become hard of hearing, bordering on deaf, and appreciates sign language immensely. Will bake a pie for you if you use it courteously.

Formaggio: She's aging very gracefully, all things considered: had to get one knee done, but she recovered in record time and has been moving about and driving her friends as much as ever. She can't drink as much as she used to, but she doesn't care very much, and she's not above a crude joke if your eyes wander to her cleavage.

Prosciutto: Her hair thinned out considerably, which makes her somewhat self-conscious, but even so she continues to be the GMILF of the neighborhood. As the matriarch, she reserves the right to micro-manage, but she's also very supportive of the in-laws, so it's a continuous balancing game for all. Sometimes uses a cane.

Pesci: Her core strength is getting her through the trials of age better than anyone dared imagine, and she's way less anxious about her appearance than she used to be decades ago. Still doing much of the lifting despite her family's protests and offers of help. Would love to move into a greener area, preferably with a pond.

Ghiaccio: By this age her tits are not as rock hard, but she has definitely had the pleasure of an orgasm and has a ton of acquaintances of all ages from the various sports clubs she had participated in due to her children and even grandchildren. Screams at the neighbor's huskies every day, and the beef is mutual.

Melone: Has never lost her inquisitiveness and sense of wonder at the world, but with age she did succumb to some horrendous rabbit holes, including conspiracy theories. She loves to talk about it at the salon while they dye her hair yet another shade of pastel because she will never quit. Her medications are a meal onto themselves.

Illuso: Unfortunately, the empty nest syndrome was not kind to her, and as soon as almost everyone was gone, her eccentricities and possessions started multiplying to fill the void, so to speak. Is on her way to becoming a formidable hoarder and hypochondriac and I'm not sure her family is going to be able to handle it.

Sorbet: Is very sour about the fact that she has to use a mobility aid and that a good one costs so much, but in turn she's not afraid to run down anyone with it if they cross her. Her home is now exclusively plants and an homage to the forces of darkness. Embroiders doilies with pentagrams and swear words in them.

Gelato: Was gifted a mobility scooter and she has been the menace of the town ever since, because she's always out on it and has probably driven it inside buildings on the occasion (and then feigned just enough innocence to get off the hook). Has once thrown her dentures at a cop and that got her into some trouble, though.

[angevon]

podcasts I'm listening to (and not)

In 2023, I began to listen to lots of podcasts during my daily commute. Here’s a list of the ones currently in my queue. I’ve found I tend to prefer fun stories and comedy.

Murphy’s Inc. - this is about a company that owns a Time Machine and uses it to go back in time to find items for wealthy clients. The first season they’re trying to find an amulet owned by Erik the Red. My main complaint is the characters don’t seem to like each other much which detracts from the overall vibe, but it seems wholesome overall  and I'm enjoying it.

Mission to Zyxx - a sci-fi story about a misfit team going on diplomatic missions to weird planets. It's improv and there’s a big focus on special guests for each episode which never lands or works for me personally, but I love the main cast and their interactions continue to be entertaining even in season 4 where I'm at now.

No Such Thing As a Fish - a comedy podcast where people from qi.com talk about fun facts they learned during research for their other shows. 

The Mansfield Mysteries - a high-class mom and daughter duo solve murder mysteries among the upper crust of their hometown. There is a focus on distinct character voices which is hit or miss tbh.

Welcome to Night Vale - my favorite podcast of the bunch. It’s difficult to explain Night Vale, you kind of have to experience it. Essentially, a radio host talks about the news in Night Vale, but it’s always things we would consider unusual. Like, a sentient glowing cloud going over the town and dropping dead animals all over everything. A football player at the high school grew a second head. Things like that. The storytelling is well done, and the stories develop so naturally, it’s very fun to listen to it all play out. And the music direction is wonderful too. 

Beach Too Sandy, Water Too Wet - a comedy podcast where the hosts find funny reviews to read in a dramatic way. Just mindless fun.

Stellar Firma - A comedy sci-fi about a firm that designs and builds planets for wealthy clients. It stars Trexel Geistman, who is a self-absorbed drunk who never comes to work on time, and his long-suffering assistant, clone David 7. David 7's survival depends on the success of their designs but Trexel always has horrible and outlandish ideas. So it's kind of about how David 7 slowly grows into the role and begins to manipulate Trexel into doing better. ...Kind of.

Inn Between - short episodes about a team of adventurers, and, well, their adventures in a fantasy world. I normally don't enjoy 4th wall breakage but here it's harmless fun. I like Betty the most.

Hey Riddle Riddle - a trio of comedians go through riddle books and come up with better answers and make fun of the riddles

DUST: Chrysalis - after the apocalypse caused by an alien invasion, only one human survives. He manages to combine himself with machinery with one goal: revenge.

Mysterious Universe - two guys talk about conspiracy theories and paranormal experiences. Captivating storytelling more than anything, whether any of it's true or not never crosses my mind tbh

Finished listening to!

EOS 10 - wonderful podcast, it has a rough start but I really enjoyed it. It's about a newbie doctor assigned to space station EOS 10 and the quirky cast of characters he meets there. It does have an overarching plot but the focus is mostly the rapport between the characters, they really work well together.

The protagonist reminds me of Pleck in Mission to Zyxx and his boss reminds me of Trexel in Stellar Firma. 

 Here are some I've dropped and why.

Sidequesting - I really loved this one! It features an ace wanderer in a fantasy world, helping people whenever they can, and has a lot of queer rep. But the last few episodes in my queue focused too hard on crossovers with other podcasts and made them... not fun... so I lost interest. 

Wolf359 - This one's popular and often recommended to anyone looking for sci fi. Eiffel was really funny and plot-building was an enjoyable slow burn. However, about half-way through it dropped all the humor for total seriousness which is not what I listened to this for, so I dropped it. 

Radiation World - I just didn't like it.

Hello From The Magic Tavern - something rubbed me the wrong way in this one, even though one of the characters is the creator of Hey Riddle Riddle. I think it might've been one-too-many improv podcasts and I was tired of the format after Zyxx. I may return to this at some point, maybe when I finish Zyxx.

Pod to Pluto - while it wasn't bad or anything, my heart goes out too much to the protagonist for me to enjoy it. 

The Mysterious Secrets of Uncle Bertie's Botanarium - the protagonist is an asshole and that's the point, but there was dismemberment humor in ep 2 and I just can't.

The Amelia Project - love the idea (an organization that you pay to fake your death in a dramatic way) but it's already 4th wall breaking in episode 9 I guess they're already out of ideas ... ?😅

ARS Paradoxica - too overdramatic, the dialogue where person a says something, person b repeats it as a question, person a repeats it again, it's just too boring!!! I wish podcasts would Stop Doing That. Wolf359 did it a lot too which is another reason I don't feel bad dropping it.

Rabbits - it's meant to be interactive and I'm way too lazy for that. I listen to these while driving, you know?

Ghosts in the Burbs - not bad, but it was pandering so blatantly to suburban moms that I could not relate at all 😂

[fantasykiri5]

I don’t knowwwwwww maybe fucking. Minecraft?

I mean I think they’re doing a pretty decent job as is, or at least they are in theory but then the ways they go about implementing the things they want to add are not quite right? Like idk.

The mob vote for example: really cool in theory and a great way to get the community involved. Grants user feedback on wants and needs for the game. BUT it also sows a Lot of fucking discord because the options usually are not balanced for potential. Like they’ll have one option that’s like. The easy dump option. Not super fleshed out, or wouldn’t blend well with existing gameplay or game lore, or really focusses energy on one specific playstyle instead of a diverse spectrum of players, or would just be kinda fucking annoying (phantoms) or whatever other reason right? Then the other two options will be a bit closer to compare.

The last two votes have had golems as an option, making them an easy immediate no for me (taking something from Jewish lore and attaching it to other mobs that are already insane Jewish characatures tends to make me not like a mob, which I’ll go more into depth on later.) but while this makes my choice pretty easy, others who may not have the context of this knowledge- through coincidental OR willful ignorance (for example: very large very young userbase) still see merit in the actual mechanic and/or worldlore concepts they present. Which is valid!! I would love to see a little guy that wanders around pressing buttons! Just call it a robot or automaton and change the harmful visual design. I would love to see a little guy that turns into a weird little statue that you can decorate!! Just call it a gargoyle or living statue and change the harmful visual design.

Basically the mob vote is a Cool idea (and making it so you need a Minecraft account to vote was SUPER needed after the whole D***m and glow squid thing a few years back, because of him and his goons’ insanely massive twitter influence— plus it gives the younger side of the playerbase a vote when they couldn’t on twitter, which is MASSIVE considering kids younger than 13 make up probably at least half of their playerbase) BUT they need to put more equally balanced mobs up for choice. AND put less focus on it: have a plan for the update, make three mob concepts that would fit the update theme without becoming the face of it, THEN let the community pick.

Or do something like the biome vote again. Maybe a vote for the general update theme honestly. Put together a list of some theme ideas that were planned for being added at some point regardless, draft up a couple bits of concept for each (even just art or mechanic ideas) in, say, two or three sets of three themes each, leaving two-three years before you start to recycle concepts. After the first three are chosen from the first groups, put the three runner-ups together the year after. Go in to the last place choices from the first three years and see community feedback on what parts were enjoyed and which parts weren’t well received, tweak them from there, then toss them back into the list with the other two runner-ups from the first three years, along with any other theme ideas you feel like adding, then just rinse-repeat.

BUT if they’re gonna stick with mobs for the community vote then they gotta have whatever mob chosen be WAYYY less central to the update.

Second example: Trial chambers, Trail runes, and other exploration-heavy additions to the game.

I think adding more exploration elements to the game is awesome, both in terms of being generally interesting, and fleshing out the lore of the world you play in a really cool way! It’s clearly long abandoned, and it’s super fun to travel and learn about those who abandoned it! I think the Trial chambers are a blast and are terrific for playing with friends as they make a great way to pass a few hours and have some laughs, and the Trail ruins I find cool because I just like archeology and enjoy more menial tasks in-game!

However.

That is because of the specific player-type I represent. I’d usually call myself a weird blend of explorer, miner/gatherer/hoarder, and builder, but there are SOOOO many ways to play the game that it just feels silly to CONSTANTLY push nothing but exploration-type gameplay for multiple years when the whole point of the game is that there are literally infinite ways to play it. (And yes, I know there was substantial Redstone stuff in the tricky trials update, but my point is that the focus is on just exploration for so long.)

Like, a very exploration-focused update is fun, but two in a row (at LEAST, that’s being generous to the last good handful), for lack of a better expression, gets old. Updates focused on one play style at a time aren’t a bad thing— in fact I think its better to do it that way because there’s less risk of over-promising and means the updates that do get implemented were really thought about in context to that play style, generally leading to higher quality additions! BUT to do that, you have to mix up which play styles you’re focusing on each update, so as to remove bias.

For example: you could do an exploration focused update, but then next year do a super building focused update, where you don’t add a huge amount in the ways of technical function or interesting structures, but instead focus on a much more vast expansion of the available palette of blocks in the game. Adding things like new wood types or biome variants (without crazy new gen rules or whatever) or new dyes or new ways to use existing dyes like staining wood! Decorative things like non-functional foliage and other decoration entities and blocks would also fit under this (stuff like idk, shelves, or variant block additions like the tuff and copper from this last update would count too.)

After that you could do a Redstoner update that doesn’t add to the game lore and doesn’t add a million new blocks, BUT adds a bunch of cool new practical functions! Or a Miner/Hoarder update that handles inventory management (which is like to say isn’t as big an issue as most make it out to be, y’all just don’t know how to organize your shit. Carrying around two loose sticks a pork chop three coins and a ball of lint isn’t great for inventory management guys >:| just empty your damn pockets.) and other storage and UI changes, like a more vast storage container, or like shulker enchantments to make it hold more stuff. Bundles would also fit under this, since they are technically in the game, they just don’t have a recipe, I’m pretty sure you can get them with /give even without the experimental pack enabled. (BUNDLES AREN’T BAD EITHER YALL JUST DON’T KNOW HOW TO USE THEM. They’re not for large amounts of stuff or things to need frequent quick access to, they’re for small handfuls of odds and ends you pick up while traveling, like small bits of treasure or a small individual amount of a large variety of flowers, etc. You Are All Just Using Them Wrong. Bundles are my fucking baby don’t you dare say anything bad about her again.)

The list basically goes on and on, but the point I’m trying to make is that updates for one type of player at a time are a good thing, but only when you actually devote different updates to a lot of different player types, instead of focusing on just exploration for some reason.

My final point isn’t a future development thing, but an active change I would make as immediately as possible:

Change the fucking villagers.

And I don’t mean the biome based trades (which could be cool as a toggleable option like phantoms, but again, focus on just explorer players while neglecting other player types.)

No, I’m talking about the insane antisemitic caricatures that are the whole way the villagers & illagers are designed (which I briefly touched on earlier in reference to all the golem concepts of recent mob votes.)

I’d like to preface this by saying I’m not Jewish myself, I’m an atheist and mixed Indigenous American and white, so I don’t have first hand experience with antisemitism and am not as intimately aquatinted with every issue with the villagers, but I’ve read a good amount about the main big ones so. If there’s anything else I miss feel free to add on in a reblog, as I would love to see it.

Basically, it’s a lot on the visual designs and the naming. “Villager” and “Illager” are innocuous enough on there own, and the later is a pretty decent pun on the former, but the naming issue comes primarily from Iron Golems being referred to as golems. Again, I’m not super deeply versed, but I do know that golems are a concept from the Jewish belief system and are a form of construct. Again, on its own this wouldn’t be as huge of a deal (I mean, it’d still sorta be appropriation, but if it were done on its own and more respectfully I think it could tilt to appreciation instead.) but it’s very much purposely paired with the visual designs of the villagers and witches (and later other illagers.)

Like. Mobs whose only real shtick in-game is emeralds(money) and trading (implying greed), have big noses and unibrows as highlighted and exaggerated features, AND summon golems?? Honest to god it’s hard to get any more obvious with bigoted stereotyping than that. Notably also with the wart on the side of the nose for witches too. Like it’s just nasty. Having a mob in the game that’s just for trading is fine, but so clearly and intentionally tying it to draw that connection is frankly fucking hateful. It’s very much a remnant from when Notch worked on the game, because he is notoriously a shitty person in a number of regards including but very much not limited to antisemitism, but the blame for it being in the game is not fully off of the current dev’s shoulders as they actively choose not to change it.

My solution? Just change it.

I mean, they changed bats’ model after YEARS and years of making merch with bats on it with no problem! Honestly I’d be willing to bet there’s more merch out there with bats on it than there is merch with villagers!! AND they changed the Vexes to better match Allays! There’s no way this is actually an issue (and I hope the change of the bats was a sort of test run regarding merch and audience pushback in preparation for changing the villager stuff, but I’m also a chronic optimist so who knows if that hope is in any way true.)

It’d honestly be a simple set of changes: change the visual designs of villagers and illagers to remove the Jewish caricatures (I’ve seen texture packs that make them different anthros which are fun, but something so simple as getting rid of the nose and unibrow would work too) and change the iron golem face to match whatever they’re changed to, then rename it to ‘iron construct’ or something along those lines. Like it wouldn’t even require much editing of code (outside of name correcting.) it’d pretty much just be a built-in texture pack. There are a million texture packs out there with this specific purpose. It’d be so simple. That’s my whole point, it’s just that it would be an easy as fuck problem to fix and it has to be willful ignorance on the dev’s parts that it’s not even been properly acknowledged, much less addressed, in the time since Notch left the team.

The final thing is change is community communication. It’s just not strong enough I feel. Like more frequent, more in depth progress updates (like the written little articles, not actual game updates) is pretty much it. Over-promising and under-delivering has become a bigger and bigger issue the last few years (often with good reason, don’t get me wrong, or at least when Covid first hit and everything) and honestly just keeping the community up to date on this kind of thing is the only solution. If you pick up something that’s too ambitious for your time schedule and you need to either drop or postpone it that’s fine, it happens, but letting the community know as these things are decided should be the standard. Even if you go back and say “hey, we actually DO have the time, so we’re gonna pick it back up again, false alarm!” That’s LEAGUES better then just saying “oops, bit of more than we could chew with the concept we showed you 8 months ago and there’s no time to live up to it, guess we’ll just leave you super underwhelmed by not letting you know what to expect!” And just. Leaving it like that. Let us know AS THINGS ARE BEING DONE what to expect with updates, let us know if it changes down the line WHEN it changes! A few little surprises could be fun for the final official update, but since snapshots are a public thing anyways there’s no reason to not explain exactly why x thing feels empty or rushed. Like, I like tricky trials a lot, but it also feels a little empty because the whole update pretty much just focuses on that one structure. When the later snapshots with mostly bug fixes started coming out I kept thinking “oh, it’s all in the chambers, nothing else they’re surprising us with?” Like it’s not a bad thing the update is ONLY about the chambers themselves, but making that clearer would have definitely curbed that disappointment in not only myself but a large portion of the community as a whole.

Anyways. It’s 12:33am now and I started writing this at probably 10:45, or 11 at the latest. So. I’m going the fuck to bed. Goodbye all disappears into the night

YOU! Are granted the power to suddenly own ONE video game franchise, and to hire the best people who have ever worked on it (and/or anyone else you want in on it).

What video game franchise are you rescuing--er, acquiring?

[ashleysingermfablog]

Wk 16, 21st of June, 2024 Research

Flower Face in Cymry: flowers as Metamorphosing Maidens

From the text: Flower Face Blodeuwedd Ardd Fotaneg Botanic Garden by The National Botanic Garden of Wales Gardd Fotaneg Genedlaethol Cymru...

There are many places that I love in the Garden one of which is ‘Fairy Woods’. Wandering through the woods you can see fairy doors in the tree trunks, their toadstool houses and even the remnants of a fairy tea party. I think I even saw a fairy once, hidden in the dell which reminded me of Blodeuwedd.

Blodeuwedd is one of the many tales to be found in the Mabinogion. The Mabinogion is a collection of ancient Welsh legends, myths and tales.

Blodeuwedd was created by the relatives of Llew, the son of Arianrhod. Arianrhod had decreed that Llew could not marry a mortal woman; if he didn’t marry then he couldn’t own the land to which he was entitled.  The Magicians, Math and Gwydion created a beautiful woman from nine flowers amongst which were Oak, Broom, Primrose and Meadowsweet. They called their creation ‘Blodeuwedd’ meaning ‘Flower face’.  Blodeuwedd is also the ancient name for the Owl into which she was turned, after betraying her husband, Llew.

Blodeuwedd is considered by some to be the Welsh Goddess of Spring bringing warmth and new life, in the form of flowers, after the cold and barrenness of winter.

Flowers are the symbol of Blodeuwedd; they demonstrate their beauty when they blossom and their resilience when they flower again in the springtime. I feel the plants throughout the Botanic Garden of Wales display in its own way the beauty, the strength and the determination – sometimes with a little coaxing from Horti – of the plant world from which Blodeuwedd was created.

The spirit of Blodeuwedd can be found in the in the Garden of Wales and although the ‘fairy’ that I saw in Fairy Woods has flown away for the winter she is now emerging wearing her Snowdrop costume heralding once again the return of Spring. Why not send her a letter or a picture that you have drawn and post it in the fairy post box in Fairy Woods?

You see there really are fairies at the bottom of the Garden and if you are quick you might catch sight of her in the Great Glasshouse.

Cymru botanic garden's Fairy Woods Signpost, 2019

Cymru botanic garden's Mushroom/Toadstool Fairy Post Boxes, 2019

From the text: Matrilineal Subjects: Ambiguity, Bodies, and Metamorphosis in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi by Sarah Sheehan...

Resenting Gwydion’s safeguarding of her son, Aranrhod lays prohibitions on the boy to prevent his gaining a name, weapons, or a human wife, but Gwydion tricks Aranrhod into naming and arming her son, now called Lleu Llaw Gyffes. Math and Gwydion use flowers to create a wife, Blodeu(w)edd, for Lleu, but she soon takes a neighboring lord, Gronw Pebyr, as her lover and with him plots her husband’s death. Blodeu(w)edd is the only character in Math whose final transformation is not to human form. This peculiarity of Blodeu(w)edd’s metamorphosis—the fact that her (modified) name will be fixed to her transformed body—supports the theory that metamorphosis in the Mabinogi is distinct from metamor-phosis in learned, mainstream medieval culture: it involves losing one’s name and identity when one finds oneself in a different rith (shape), a different cnawt (flesh), a body not one’s own.

From the text: Blodeuwedd, the chapter "a women made of Flowers" by Snowdonia National Park the Government of Wales...

A woman named Arianrhod places a ‘tynged’ (fate) on her son, Lleu Llaw Gyffes. The fate meant that Lleu could never marry a human woman.

But Lleu had an uncle named Gwydion, a legendary wizard. Upon hearing Lleu’s fate, Gwydion created him a wife made of flowers and named her Blodeuwedd.

She was created from the flowers of the oak, the flowers of the broom, and the flowers of the meadowsweet.

From the text: It’s Dell-ightful down in the shade by Bognant Garden Blog...

The area of the garden we call The Dell is in the lower part of the grounds. If you are at all unsure where that is, as a general rule if it is sloping or there is water running through it then that is where you will find our small band of gardeners. Headed up by Maxine our supervisor, we are Steve (our fire starter extraordinaire), Fiona (often found outside the garden, in village halls, giving talks on the history of Bodnant), and myself, Alexandra.

Another way you can tell if you have spotted a Dell gardener is that we are generally less tanned than anyone else. Being in a valley, and with the shade from our massive trees (40-45 metres tall), we only get glimpses of the sun filtering through the canopy. Many’s the time we have walked back up at the end of the day, still wearing our coats, to find everyone else in t-shirts! But what the Dell lacks in sunlight it more than makes up for in atmosphere and challenging gardening situations.

Sturan Farm dell patch, 2016

[thekhoei]

my friend just introduced me into this recently. ive not dig in very much of Nixonverse but i have to talk about how Jesus in Vietnam grasps me

i peak in history classes when i learn about two modern wars in Vietnam during 1919-1975. the invasion of France in three lands of Indochina (we dont even bring up other places that is also colonized) and the infamous lost in that war crime game the USA played on the land of Ho Chi Minh. the big countries have been going to small lands, the "third world countries" and trying to kill, to assimilate us smaller nation as their modern-day slaves for centuries and centuries. and the fact that it still occurs today, tomorrow and no one knows when will this shit ended. Vietnam got out of the war only around 50 years ago (2025 is the 50th anniversary of our win against the US), and there are still people believe that it's Vietnam civil war, or this is communist propaganda (where the fuck are some people's sympathy anyway?). rumors about the third world war are on the verge of becoming true, although it's predicted to happen in one more millennia. shit being called "natural selection". my favorite thing to learn about history is how history is shaped to fit one's belief of a government, and in history classes, i love studying about revolution the most. not about Hitler, or any US president, not even Stalin (bad bitch i always heard shit abt you), but about smaller voices getting louder and louder, and how their fights mean to human rights. im talking like im belong to leftism or sth but no honestly, sometimes i have doubt about my so called "communist" government, too much that i do fear to be in jail if i try to crack one more joke about how shitty they act sometimes. more than a half of Vietnamese population are mad at our government too, i hear them talking sour everyday. from the early days of the existence of humanity til now, four horses of apocalypse have been wandering around, makes me shiver about how vague the concept of death is, yet the way its so significant in daily life.

i talked too much about war stuff above that i forgot the second big topic in the title "Jesus" and religion. im not a big fan of believing in any entity, although i dont deny their existence at all. i do follow Buddhism's belief everyday bc it has been a tradition in Vietnam, but ig its an exception because bro isn't qualified as God. Buddhism is considered as a atheism religion as i read somewhere. anyway talking about Jesus he is the ambiguous concept i learn through tv, books, western medias from younger ages, that sometimes i pray to him although i get scolded for acting offensively to a religion i do not belong too. besides that other thing relevant to him that i learn about is cults, and that shit is wild 💀 i still remember my teacher talking about how France used Portuguese pastors to get Vietnamese people believe in the theory "God allows me to invade your homeland 😜", and how Christians Vietnamese fight against them (my grandfather once joined the Vietnamese Christian to exchange info for the VC (Việt Cộng lmao)). wildest thing i ever learn in secondary school (we learn it in 7th grade which is the second year of secondary school in Vietnam and its around the age of 13) that got me into reddit posts about Jesus when i googled to learn more about the topic. im glad i pay attention to class because i did not know i would be too much invested in Vietnam history back in the day. Jesus is believed to be a propaganda of the US, and when i learn more about this God, it's a cultural shock for me. US government turned out to be the biggest cult in my eye (i love my American friends but honestly im against yall's government and i know yall do too)

anyway i think John Lennon would be invested into this idk