#they practically invented that kind of manipulation

[lillybearrie]

I haven't seen anyone else talk about this so I will

THIS MOMENT RIGHT HERE I LOOK AT IT AND GO ABABABA

Icarus knows what's going on here I mean they've said several time that they know they're being manipulated but it's one thing saying you know something is happening and another to watch it happen in real time right after your brother made connections to how you used to treat someone else

Fable looks around at the changes prompting an apology from Icarus leading to Fable quickly and loudly blaming Quixis for changing thing bit in the kinda way you would blame someone for ruining your life and then the other shoe drops Fable knows damn well what day it is so he pretends to apologize for not being able to remove Quixis but then is quick to blame Centross for his failure to do so

you can see a sliver of the want to protest that Centross was protecting them that he saved their life that their best friend died valiantly protecting his family but they just don't have that kinda fight left it's not worth it and admitting that they were ever in need of saving implys a danger to be saved from and it doesn't take a genius to know how that would go over

Icarus is so tired they're fucking exhausted and sometimes when you're that tired the good fight can wait sometimes it's quicker safer and easier to just nod along and wait for them to finish whatever rant they deem it necessary for you to hear let whatever point they needed to make drive home and then go to bed because after everything even doing nothing but listen to them can be absolutely draining

[princesssarisa]

Disney's unconventional "Cinderella" (1950) (long)

Having watched most of the many adaptations of Cinderella, I've come to realize what a unique adaptation Disney's 1950 animated classic really is. Unlike Snow White, which only had a few stage and screen adaptations before Disney produced its groundbreaking film, Cinderella had already been adapted many times before Disney's turn came, and Disney's version makes a surprising number of departures from the standard Cinderella "formula." It was definitely a fresh, creative Cinderella when it made its debut, and it arguably still is. Yet because it's become so familiar in pop culture, and today so often serves as our childhood introduction to the tale, it's easy to overlook its inventive storytelling choices. The 2015 live action remake uses several classic Cinderella adaptation tropes that the original 1950 film actually subverts!

Here's a list of the often-overlooked ways in which Disney's Cinderella stands out from earlier adaptations, and from many later ones too.

Cinderella herself. Disney's Cinderella isn't a traditional Cinderella in personality. The "traditional" portrayal of Cinderella, seen in virtually every adaptation before Disney's and several afterwards too, is the portrayal I call "The Waif": a very young, fragile, melancholy girl, dressed in pathetic rags and smudged with ashes, who makes the audience want to rescue her and who wins the Prince's heart with her wide-eyed innocence and artless charm. But whether chiefly to set her apart from earlier screen Cinderellas or from Disney's earlier delicate ingenue Snow White, Disney's Cinderella is none of those things. She comes across as older, or at least more sophisticated. Nor is she waif-like, but instead combines down-to-earth warmth with ladylike dignity, even at her lowliest. She doesn't sit in the ashes ("Cinderella" is her real name in this version), and her servants' dress is humble yet clean and only slightly tattered. She's gentle and kind, yes, but also intelligent, practical, playful, sometimes sarcastic, philosophical, optimistic, genuinely cheerful when she's with her animal friends, and yet angrier and stronger-willed than virtually all earlier Cinderellas. She doesn't beg to go to the ball, but asserts her right to go, and then sets to work fixing up an old dress of her mother's for herself. Only her stepfamily's sabotage, first by keeping her too busy to finish the dress, and then by destroying it after the mice and birds finish it for her, prevents her from taking herself to the ball without a Fairy Godmother. To this day, she stands out as a complex, unique Cinderella, which pop culture too often forgets.

Lady Tremaine. Some critics today complain that Disney makes Cinderella's stepmother a total monster instead of giving her "nuance" and call her portrayal "sexist." But can't we agree that her sheer cruelty enhances the film's dramatic power? And compared to earlier portrayals of Cinderella's Stepmother, it definitely makes her stand out. In most pre-Disney Cinderellas and many after, the Stepmother is a pompous, vain comic antagonist. Once again, Disney was innovative by portraying Lady Tremaine as a dignified, manipulative, and truly sinister villain, who takes quietly sadistic pleasure in abusing Cinderella and will stop at nothing to prevent her from going to the ball or marrying the Prince. As far as I know, she's also the first Stepmother to realize before the slipper-fitting that Cinderella was the lady at the ball and to take action to prevent her from being found. That's a commonplace plot device in more recent adaptations, but in 1950 it was a creative twist!

The mice and other animals. Viewers debate whether Cinderella's mouse friends, Jaq, Gus, et al, and their misadventures evading Lucifer the Cat are a welcome addition or take away too much screen time from Cinderella herself. But there's no denying that the presence of the mice and birds is an inventive storytelling choice, which makes Disney's Cinderella stand out! And I can provide a long list of reasons why they're more than just "filler." (1) They add liveliness, humor, and appeal for younger children. (2) They gave the animators an outlet for the type of character animation they did best, rather than binding them to the harder work of animating realistic humans. (3) They give Cinderella someone to talk to besides her stepfamily. (4) They give her a way to demonstrate her kindness. (5) The struggles of the mice with Lucifer parallel Cinderella's abuse by her stepfamily, and Cinderella's undying optimism not only keeps her from despair, but inspires them too. (6) They arguably provide a further reason why Cinderella stays with her stepfamily – not only does she have nowhere to go, but an entire community of small sentient creatures relies on her for food and protection. (7) They reward Cinderella for her kindness. From the start, her friendship with the mice and birds makes her life easier to bear, both by easing her loneliness and because they do helpful deeds for her, like mending and cleaning her clothes. They fix up her mother's dress for her to wear to the ball – only the stepfamily's last-minute cruelty requires the Fairy Godmother to step in. And in the end, they're directly responsible for Cinderella's happy ending by freeing her from her locked room. They do all these things because Cinderella has protected them, fed them, made them clothes, and been their friend. Therefore, Cinderella's good fortune never feels "just handed" to her: her kindness directly earns it.

The Fairy Godmother. It's always varied between illustrators whether Cinderella's Fairy Godmother is portrayed as a grandmotherly old woman or as youthful, regal, and beautiful, but screen and stage adaptations before the Disney version virtually always took the "youthful, regal, beautiful" approach. That is, when they didn't change her into a wise, fatherly male magician-advisor, as in several opera adaptations! At any rate, seriousness and dignity were the norm for this character in most adaptations from the 19th century through the 1940s. Making her a sweet, comforting, grandmotherly figure, with a comically and adorably absent mind, was another of Disney's fresh choices.

Cinderella's entrance at the ball. We all know the classic image of Cinderella's entrance from other adaptations. Cinderella appears at the top of the grand staircase that leads down to the ballroom, and a hush falls over the assembly, as not only the Prince, but all the guests and members of the court are amazed by the unknown lady's beauty and magnificent dress. Even in versions without a staircase, Cinderella captivates the room the moment she enters. Adaptations both before and after Disney's, including Disney's own 2015 live action remake, play her entrance this way. But the 1950 animated classic subverts it! The grand staircase leads up to the ballroom, not down to it, and Cinderella's entrance isn't a triumph at first, but a vulnerable moment as she makes her way up the stairs alone, dwarfed by the splendor around her. Then, when she reaches the ballroom, no one notices her at first, because the other ladies are being presented to the Prince and all eyes are on him. But then the Prince notices her in the shadowy background as she quietly marvels at her surroundings, and leaves his post to approach her and invite her to dance. Only then does the rest of the assembly notice her, because she's the one the Prince has singled out. It's more understated and it feels more realistic than the traditional entrance, as well as more clearly symbolic of Cinderella's venturing above her station, then both literally and figuratively being led out of the shadows by the Prince's unexpected attention.

The slipper-fitting plan. Over the years, it's been fairly popular to mock the idea of using the glass slipper to find the Prince's love, as if there were no chance it would fit anyone else. Disney's version is creative by having the slipper-fitting search be the comical, hot-blooded King's idea, not the Prince's, and making it clear that it's not, nor is it meant to be, a foolproof plan to find Cinderella. The Duke points out that the slipper could fit any number of girls, but the King doesn't care if they find the right girl or not: he just wants to hold his son to his pledge to marry "the girl who fits this slipper" and force him to marry the first one who fits it. This also means that Disney doesn't do what most adaptations do and have the Prince conduct the search himself, but follows the original Perrault tale by having a gentleman, in this case the Grand Duke, do it instead. This prevents audiences from mocking the Prince for relying on the slipper instead of knowing his beloved's face.

Cinderella breaking free and asking to try on the slipper. Even though in Perrault's original tale, Cinderella asks to try on the slipper, she almost never does in adaptations. In most versions other than Disney's, including Disney's own 2015 remake, Cinderella's presence in the house (and/or the fact that she has the other slipper) is either discovered by accident or revealed by Cinderella's allies, not by Cinderella's own initiative. In some versions, she even tries to hide from the Prince and/or the search party, either out of fear of her stepfamily or because she feels unworthy of the Prince in her rags. But not Disney's animated Cinderella! First of all, she has an assertive emotional breakthrough when she calls on her dog Bruno to chase Lucifer away and free Gus to slip her the key to her locked room. Earlier on, she urges Bruno to try to get along with Lucifer, lest the stepfamily not allow him to sleep in the house – it's clear that Bruno represents her own rebellious side, and in that scene she's really talking about herself, revealing that she tolerates her stepfamily's abuse so she won't lose her own "nice warm bed" and be homeless. But in the climactic scene, when she finally sees a way out, she gives up playing nice and seizes her chance. First she unleashes Bruno on Lucifer, and then she runs downstairs and directly asks to try on the slipper, not caring how her stepfamily will react, or what the Grand Duke will think of her shabby dress, or whether the audience will accuse her of gold-digging or not. This isn't a common breakthrough in other Cinderella adaptations, but it fits perfectly (like a glass slipper, you might say) with the Disney Cinderella's stronger-willed and more self-assured characterization.

"I have the other slipper." We can probably all safely assume that when audiences first saw Disney's Cinderella in 1950, they all expected Cinderella to try on the glass slipper she lost, with her identity revealed by its perfect fit. They never would have expected Lady Tremaine to trip the footman and break the glass slipper... only for Cinderella to calmly reveal that she has the other one. It's yet another clever and unexpected twist, not seen in any other version. Not even Disney's own 2015 remake.

Disney's Cinderella deserves far more credit than it gets for being unique among the myriad versions of the tale, especially compared to the versions that came before it.

[alexanderwales]

One of the dominant models of magic and superheroes is that everyone has their "thing", what I would call a bespoke magic system, but is mostly just a power that sits orthogonal to all other powers. This crops up all the time, because it's really really good for having dynamic fights, for characterizing people through their powers, for having new surprises and twists, and just generally keeping things going.

It's adaptable to all kinds of genres. Superheroes are the obvious one, whether it's canonized as Quirks or just an aspect of the setting. But I'm pretty sure that the basic concept was first invented in anime, with marital arts settings, where every character had their own jutsu or whatever, or the system in theory is all about ki manipulation or equivalent exchange but in practice everyone has their own particular niche. You can slot this into urban fantasy, giving every vampire their own special Power, or you can have some magical fantasy thing where everyone has their own unique Semblance.

So this is all well and good, but it leaves us with a narrative hole, which is progression. Having a unique power is cool, because you can think of new uses for it, have unique matchups, etc., but it doesn't give you that juicy sense of becoming more, and if you're facing down terrifying villains with their own powers, then a god-tier power is just kind of ... random. Luck of the draw, rather than the consequence of a powerful will or keen mind.

You can strip out limitations and amplify effects, and this is cool and good, or you can lean back away from uniqueness and toward uniformity, which I think is sometimes the right call, depending on your narrative needs.

So you say that actually the guy who can swap places with someone and the guy who can cut people from a distance are both unwitting hyperspecialists in the same field of magic or whatever, and that in theory, with unlimited time to train and experiment and explore, each could do what the other does.

This allows for a lot of snazzy narrative stuff. Two intense rivals "learn" each other's techniques, or at least adapt them into their own technique. Maybe the guy who does teleport swaps never learns to cut from a distance, but his teleport swap incorporates a cut into it, slashing at the person he's trading places with. A widower incorporates aspects of his dead wife's power, a mentor passes down elements of his technique to all his students, a young protagonist has some angst about using the aspect he got from his abusive father, etc.

If powers are a reflection of character, then you get to physically manifest a character's relationship with other people.

[loonybun]

Surgical whump prompts!

(req by @i-eat-worlds)

warning some of these will not be medically accurate or possible without an immortal whumpee so ignore that 💖 also sort of more intense gore stuff/me going on several tangents about my favorite pieces of unethical medical history. specific warnings for lobotomies, manipulation, infection, and dismemberment.

- i’ve kind of loved the idea of implanting something silver underneath the skin of a creature that’s weak to it. Every movement causes it to shift and itch and burn even after the skin has healed over

- amputation :) one too many escape attempts? why not make that a little harder? nab a limb every time they try running off. Maybe just start with the fingers or toes and work your way up from there.

- you know what i see a surprising lack of in whump? lobotomies. seriously where are the lobotomies. the lobotomies with long term effects. the lobotomies which a magical regenerative or immortal whumpee could recover from but leaves them scarred for life. In case you’re unaware of what lobotomies actually do to the brain, they essentially shut off your ability to think for yourself. You may still be responsive and you can still follow instructions, but they have to be very specific and step-by-step. (specifically referencing transorbital. there are different kinds with different ranges of damage potential but the transorbital is the most well known. fun fact the guy who invented the transorbital lobotomy rode around in a car he called the lobotomobile. you can’t make this shit up.)

- my love for victorian medical practices is seeping in here but perform a surgery with dull and dirty tools! The crusted blood on the scalpel adds to the effect. Bonus points if it causes a nasty infection

- Circling back to lobotomy-adjacent stuff, have your whumper fuck around with removing non-essential parts of the brain. Get an H.M. situation where you remove their ability to move short-term memories to their long-term bank. Maybe remove the amygdala, too. Or parts of the cerebellum so that they’re all uncoordinated. Not sure just how effective that would be though since I’m pretty sure the cerebellum controls other stuff too.

- leather straps securing them to the table. must i say more.

- also seriously implant devices into them. explosives, a little thing that releases drugs, something that taps into their nerves, etc…

- organ harvesting. classic but hey. i’m a simple man.

- maybe the whumper is a respected surgeon. whumpee goes to whumper for help with a rare medical condition that could maybe be solved through surgery, and instead of immediately helping them whumper keeps them to document their condition, subjecting them to various treatments and vivisections in order to find some way to “help” them. whumpee case studies, folks!

- sorry this is absolutely me sneaking my personal favorite tropes into this post but please dismember your whumpees n put them back together ball jointed doll style. surprise you can’t move on your own anymore but you can still hold a pose! loser.

[astrosky33]

PLANET MEANINGS IN ASTROLOGY

[READ] People often question why there’s so many meanings for each planet/house and the reason is so that you can learn more than just one thing about yourself through each placement. Otherwise astrology would be very vague and boring. These are all meanings that I’ve learned from my astrology classes at Kepler College

THE SUN: your ego, your identity, your vitality, attention, spotlight, leadership, creativity, authority, royalty, pride, generosity, individuality, development, dignity, consciousness, things that make you happy, festivals, validation, and self expression

THE MOON: your inner emotions, emotional responses, emotional instincts, care, your comfort zone, femininity, your mother/motherly figure, family, your childhood, your nurturing instincts, fertility, baking, maternal instinct, adaptability, nursing, menstruation, pregnancy, boobs, the ocean, habits, and comfortability

MERCURY: communication, speaking, the mind, health, perception, lower education (pre-k, elementary, middle, and high school), writing, social media, cell phones, short trips, transportation (not flights only ground transportation), mannerisms, twins, gestures, reason, change (in general), forgetfulness, clumsiness, the press, trading, publishing, correspondence, profanity, gossiping, literary works, daily routine, mathematics, youth, and printing

VENUS: love, attraction, romance, who you fall in love with/who you’re attracted to, your love languages, beauty, sympathy, pleasures, art/artistry, self love, harmony, femininity, rhythm, sentimentality, compromise, sharing, cooperation, aestheticism, dancing, entertainment, values, festivities, possessions, luxury items, cheerfulness, sloth/laziness, jewelry, your vagina, and sensuality

MARS: passion, desire (in general), confidence, ambition, lust and sexual desire, sexual preferences, sex style, anger/aggression/aggressiveness, competitiveness, athletics, temper, impulse, courage, fire, self-assurance, tasks, masculinity, assertion, dominance, activity, physical energy, heat, sexuality, enthusiasm, forcefulness, friction, combativeness, war, your dick, tattoos, motivation, and violence

JUPITER: luck, abundance, wealth, success, opportunity, popularity, expansion, knowledge, honesty, wisdom, travel, air travel, ease, blessings, philosophy, higher education (college/uni), optimism, religion, justice, the law, exploration, profit, vision, devotion, study, growth, faith, fulfillment, speculation, and gambling

SATURN: hard work (and rewards), achievement and mastery, challenges, struggles, karma/karmic lessons/karmic debts, your father/fatherly figure, work (in general), fears, guilt, delay, longevity, old age, limitations, discipline, responsibility, your work ethic, contraction, the past, deficiency, bones, skinniness, practicality, confinement, effort, self-control, stability, endurance, maturity, detachment, consistency, grudges, and history

URANUS: friends/socialization, technology, film, unplanned/sudden changes, uniqueness, ups and downs, fluctuation, rebellion, independence, invention, freedom, originality, the unexpected/surprises, freaks/freakiness, p*rnography, shock, chaos, natural disasters, science, engineering, fans/followers, and electricity

NEPTUNE: kindness, compassion, creativity, glamour, sensitivity, selflessness, escapism, intuitiveness/intuition, the hidden, dreams, imagination, deception/lies, delusion, mysteries, hallucination, disguise, confusion, disappearance, evasion, divinity, spirituality, inspiration, mysticism, transcendence, hypnotism, prophecy, fascination, and idealism

PLUTO: transformation, power, sex, orgasms, destruction (ending in renewal), rebirth, intimacy (not just sexual), death, intensity, magnetism, regeneration, infatuation, obsession, black magic, seduction, manipulation, sexual organs, evolving/evolution, extremes, and purging

MY MASTERLIST

MORE BEGINNER ASTROLOGY

HOUSE MEANINGS

© 𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐤𝐲 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐝

[reaper2187]

Asami sato x firebender reader

I still remember the first time I saw her.

It was during one of my training sessions, when I was still a young firebender trying to master my abilities. As I practiced, I couldn't help but notice her, standing at the back of the room, her long dark hair tied up in a ponytail and a confident aura surrounding her. I was instantly captivated by her beauty and strength.

Asami Sato, the heiress of Future Industries, was well known among the benders community. Her business empire was built on groundbreaking technology and innovation, and she was also an accomplished non-bender martial artist. Her reputation preceded her, and many firebenders admired her from afar.

But I was not content with merely admiring her from a distance. I wanted to get to know her, to be a part of her world. And so, I mustered up all my courage and approached her after the training session.

To my surprise, not only did she reciprocate my interest, but she also offered to help me improve my firebending skills. Asami could see the potential in me, and she was more than willing to mentor me.

With her guidance, my skills as a firebender improved tremendously. I was able to control and manipulate flames with ease, creating intricate shapes and patterns with my fire. Asami was patient and understanding, never once losing her cool even when I struggled with a particular technique.

As we spent more time together, we grew closer. We shared stories and experiences, and I learned that Asami was more than just a powerful businesswoman. She had a kind heart and a fierce determination to make the world a better place.

I found myself falling deeper in love with her with each passing day. Her strength and grace were irresistible, and I felt grateful to have her by my side.

But we both knew that our love was forbidden. As a firebender, I was expected to marry within my own kind. And Asami, being the heiress of Future Industries, was constantly watched and scrutinized by her father and the public.

However, our love was stronger than any societal expectations. We decided to keep our relationship a secret, knowing that the consequences could be dire if anyone found out.

Despite the risks, we were happy. We sneaked away to spend time together whenever we could, whether it was on a rooftop under the stars or in a secluded area of the city. Asami even started to join me during my training sessions, bringing along her latest invention to assist me in my training.

Our love blossomed, and I felt like I was living in a dream. But as they say, all good things must come to an end.

One day, while we were enjoying a peaceful moment in a garden, we were ambushed by a group of firebenders who were against any kind of relationship between a firebender and a non-bender. Asami and I fought against them, our bending skills meshing together perfectly as we defended ourselves.

But it was no use. They outnumbered us, and just when I thought the end was near, Asami stepped in front of me, using her martial arts skills to fend off our attackers. However, in the chaos of the battle, she sustained a severe injury, and I was too preoccupied with protecting her to notice.

When the attackers were finally defeated, I rushed to Asami's side, my heart sinking as I saw the blood seeping through her clothes. With tears in my eyes, I tried to heal her injuries with my firebending, but it was no use. Her injuries were too severe, and she needed medical attention immediately.

Without hesitation, I scooped her up in my arms and rushed her to the nearest hospital. As her life hung in the balance, I prayed to the spirits, begging them to spare her life. I couldn't imagine a world without Asami by my side.

After what seemed like an eternity, she finally regained consciousness. She looked at me with a weak smile, and I knew at that moment that she was going to be okay.

Asami's father, Hiroshi Sato, arrived at the hospital soon after. He was shocked and angry to find out about our forbidden love, but as he saw the love and care I had for his daughter, his heart softened. He gave us his blessing and even offered to help us keep our relationship a secret.

From that day on, Asami and I were no longer just two people in love. We were a team, facing any challenges that came our way, together.

Asami and I eventually got married, and we continued to train and support each other in our respective abilities. Together, we used our skills and resources to make a difference in the world, just like we always dreamed of.

Looking back now, I realize that our love was the catalyst for great change. Our love had the power to overcome any boundaries and obstacles, setting an example for others to follow.

And as I stand here, beside my wife Asami, I couldn't be more grateful for our love that started in a training room. It was a love that transformed not only our lives, but the world around us.

[nunezs-stuff]

Kianna komori

Her abilities part 2:

She can create butterflies out of her cursed energy and a bit of her blood

And the butterflies can either Kill You by

By either it comes into your mouth or latches on to you and injects poison inside of you and

The butterflies have no effect on kianna and the butterflies

poison can't hurt her either and in fact have a mind of Their Own and are quite fond of her since she is their creator

But it doesn't mean it doesn't have its downsides after using so many butterflies even after given

all the Life Energy still has a massive craving for blood and will take what Target is left and suck up their blood and sometimes she'll consume their heart

And the butterflies that come out of her skin are the ones that heal her and others if she wants to and

most of the time she prefers her injuries to be healed on their own but if it's a wound that's going to leave a scar on her face then she'll heal it or unless it's something that needs to be healed immediately then she'll heal it with her butterflies as well

Paired with becoming a vampire he has been given super speed which makes it harder for her targets to escape her she isn't physically strong but her teeth can rip someone's head off easily if she really wanted to and

Paired with becoming a vampire and being half cursed she's been given Immortal Life

Now with mentioned about her being able to turn her blood poisonous find the ability kind of useless unless she needs to poison someone but the poison is very strong since her butterflies are made from it as well to the point a single drop can kill someone if they're not immune to poison or don't have a poison tolerance

She actually learned how to build and invent in a old club that she participated in while she went to school with the sakamakis

She found that to be uneventful but she did learn how to build and invent it was actually quite fun because it gave her the knowledge to fix broken gadgets and other things

Facts

1:

Her body from her arms also she has self-harm scars some are new and some are old and she has scars on legs and scars on her back and belly and like mentioned in a previous post she has a large burn mark on her hip

2:

The red hair she has is actually from her father since the Oddity about him is that he was born

with red hair which slowly turned into Brown and then turned into black making him the first brother to have three different hair types and then settling on one

3:

She gives off this odd feeling that makes you feel that something is off about her but you can't put

your finger on it it also contrasts with her eyes since they are yellow with cat pupils that makes it feel as if she's staring into your soul and maybe she is

4:

Despite her brutal honesty she can actually be a very good liar make you believe things that aren't true that also works in her favor with her manipulation

5:

She is practically the definition of looks can deceive

With her petite and small size

And innocent and harmless looking features

It's only natural that someone would fall for a simple girl looking for her way back because she got lost in a crowd but just to come to the horrible realization that they may not see the light of day tomorrow

[garmgeyr]

deep dive character sheet

stolen from: old dash game from TOA tagging: anyone left who hasn't done this yet

Note: most of this information is about Gallagher the persona and doesn't take into consideration who or what the history fictionologist is, but Gallagher himself admits that the line between the two of them is very much blurred NAME: GALLAGHER

BODY

height: 190cm / 6′ 3

strength ★★★☆☆ (mechanically has low bases and relies on getting one big break hit to deal damage, which narratively could mean he's more opportunistic than consistent; canonically he admits he's not as strong as he used to be)

dexterity ★★★☆☆ (average, he's using his dex to spin drink tumblers around though)

health ★★★☆☆ (robust in the sense that he's not prone to illness, but docked two stars for a couple of reasons: 1) his character stories describe him as a man past his prime, and 2) whatever's in his flask is some kind of medicine (the details of which is meta for another day); whatever the case, he's lucky a diet of soda and alcohol doesn't mean much in the dreamscape)

energy ★☆☆☆☆ (would be napping or lounging with a drink if given the choice; anything else is done because he has to do it, although he was much feistier in his younger years)

beauty ★★★☆☆ (he probably gets tipped well at the bar is all I'll say; his scruffiness definitely appeals to a certain demographic)

style ★★★☆☆ (his clothes themselves are nice; however, he dresses like a guy who woke up from a 4 hour couch nap 2 minutes ago and does not give a shit about how they look on him. those buttons on his shirt are fighting for their lives)

hygiene ★★★☆☆ (similar to above, he's not dirty, but it's probably been a couple of days since he washed his hair/shaved)

SKILLS

perception ★★★★★ (observation is his whole thing)

communication ★★★☆☆ (communicates clearly and well, but also lies constantly and may not always mean what he says)

persuasion ★★★★☆ (although he doesn't necessarily lie to manipulate others, it does come in handy for making convincing arguments)

mediation ★★☆☆☆ (if he valued mediation, he might have tried to strike a deal with the family earlier, but he's been harboring resentment toward them for years and only cooperated with sunday because circumstances made him; on a larger scale, mediation takes more effort than just punching a guy's lights out and gallagher is in favor of less effort)

literacy ★★★★★ (well-read on a variety of topics)

creativity ★★★★☆ (loves inventing new drinks and usually does it in a sort of spur of the moment way; let's not forget that he wrote the watchmaker's story too)

cooking ★★★☆☆ (probably decent, but also experimental and careless, meaning he doesn't measure anything and rarely follows recipes)

tech savvy ★★★☆☆ (he'll play up the old man card if he has to)

combat ★★★☆☆ (an experienced fighter, but one who has certainly lost his edge over the years)

survival ★★★☆☆ (knows his way around the dangers of the dreamscape, but has a city lifestyle so he would be out of his element out in the wild)

stealth ★★☆☆☆ (as gallagher, no, but as a hound statue, stealth is probably his best skill)

street smarts ★★★★★ (he knows just about everything there is to know about the dreamscape and how to navigate it, especially its dark side)

seduction ★★☆☆☆ (he plays the old man card pretty frequently so in general he's not going to be in situations where this would even be possible or warranted, but he could work some charm if he needed to)

luck ★★★☆☆ (everything with the astral express and mikhail's legacy fell into place mostly due to luck and good timing)

handling animals ★★★★★ (full stars for managing to tame sleepie)

pacifying children ★★★★★ (full stars for managing to tame misha)

MIND

intelligence ★★★★☆ (carries an abundance of experience in a variety of areas, has learned all kinds of things from both books and talking to others, has practical knowledge for many skills)

happiness ★★★★☆ (his life has had its peaks and its deepest, darkest valleys, but at the end of it all, he managed to get the ending that he mostly wanted and regained his former glory; docked a star because he does regret that the end came so soon and that disagreements between paths had ultimately led to it)

spirituality ☆☆☆☆☆ (ironic question because the philosophy of enigmata forbids its followers from believing in anything and yet doing so asserts belief in the path's aeon; anyway, 0 stars because the fact that gallagher is an enigmata pathstrider is kept a secret so he just comes of kind of nihilistic otherwise)

confidence ★★★☆☆ (he will hand the reins over to other people when it comes to things he's not good at and does shy away from situations that might embarrass him)

humor ★★★★☆ (his sense of humor is saying ironic shit to get a reaction from others and he does it a lot; in some cases, those people just barely restrain themselves from strangling him (sunday))

anxiety ★★☆☆☆ (generally laidback, but does get anxious when he has to be relied on for important things (writing the charmony festival invitations, leading the trailblazer to the legacy))

patience ★★★★★ (he waited many long years to fulfill mikhail's wishes)

passion ★★★★☆ (it's passion for mikhail's vision for penacony's legacy that carried him this far)

nice         ☆★☆☆☆ mean (friendly to most, but won't hesitate to call someone a fucking donkey)

brave       ☆★☆☆☆ cowardly (having something or someone to protect is usually what allows him to put on a brave front, but that doesn't mean he isn't nervous about it)

pacifist     ☆☆★☆☆ violent (used to go around fighting people for the hell of it)

thoughtful ☆☆★☆☆ impulsive (doesn't usually act unless he's thought something through, but also improvs his way through most of his lies)

agreeable ☆☆★☆☆ contrary (pretty easy to get along with and usually won't write something off immediately for no reason - unless you're mikhail and then gallagher is biting your ass constantly)

idealistic   ☆☆☆☆★ pragmatic (the pragmatist protecting the dreamer's ideals)

frugal        ☆☆☆★☆ big spender (he is buying that top shelf liquor whenever he has the chance)

extrovert   ☆☆★☆☆ introvert (somewhere right in the middle)

collected   ☆☆★☆☆ wild

ambitious / possessive / stubborn / jealous / decisive / perfectionist

SOCIAL

charisma ★★★★★ (charisma comes with the territory of a good drinksmith, and gallagher is a talented storyteller)

empathy ★★★★★ (similar to above, empathy comes with the territory of a good drinksmith especially in a place like dreamjolt hostelry, where the drinksmith usually has to play therapist for the guests)

generosity ★★★★☆ (he'll make sure his friends are taken care of)

wealth ★★★☆☆ (as a member of the family, he's taken care of, and as a drinksmith, he has enough to pay the bills, but that's about it)

honest  ☆☆☆☆★ deceptive (lmao)

leader   ☆☆★☆☆ follower (he's a security captain but deputy to the watchmaker; capable of leading but just as easily falls into line under someone else's leadership)

polite    ☆☆☆★☆  rude (crass as hell but will be polite to guests in all but word choice)

political ★☆☆☆☆ indifferent (the watchmaker and his followers are colored as rebels against the system and gallagher has strong (negative) thoughts about the way the family runs the dreamscape so yeah, political)

BELIEFS

higher power ★★★★★ (yeah aeons exist)

fate/destiny ★★★★★ (enigmata is most similar to the philosophy of absurdism, which has a whole thing about how humans face turmoil when confronted with the meaninglessness of their actions in the face of destiny)

magic ★★★☆☆ (dreams are full of it)

soulmates ★★★☆☆ (some people are tethered to one another through lifetimes)

good and evil ☆☆☆☆☆ (it's all relative)

luck ★★★★☆ (good luck and bad luck are both important facets of the chaos and ultimate meaninglessness in one's life)

PRIORITIES

family ★★★★★ (values family through the lens of mikhail as a father figure and micah as a brother)

friends ★★★★★ (otherwise, extremely committed to the people he cares about)

love ★★★★★ (love does not have to be romantic, and gallagher's love for penacony and mikhail's vision fuels most of his actions)

home ★★★★★ (his whole reason for getting involved in the story is to save penacony)

health ★★☆☆☆ (values is health enough to have given up soulglad at some point, but not enough to stop drinking altogether)

praise ★★★☆☆ (he'll take it)

justice ★★☆☆☆ (similar to his view on good and evil, justice is also relative, but he does fight back against the family under his own concept of justice and believes that what the family is doing ultimately deserves retribution)

truth ★★★★☆ (never stop questioning and never stop seeking is his whole philosophy)

power ☆☆☆☆☆ (does not care)

fame ★☆☆☆☆ (cares a little bit, since he admits that writing real history for once does feel good)

wealth ★☆☆☆☆ (just needs enough to get by)

others' opinions ★★★☆☆ (other people's opinions are what inform his presentation and concept of self)

[redhuntressnewtrail04]

Does the Rover seem hollow to anyone else?

The trailblazer mc is a trash goblin.

The traveler has a rabbit hole full of lore.

But the rover seems odd?

Not without personality, I mean canonically they're considered a very intelligent person with a lot of feats of their strategic abilities but it kind of comes off as manipulative to me.

Changli, Jinshi's teacher; met the rover as a child and Jinzhou's sentinel refers to the rover as master, the same sentinel that brought a dead baby back to life.

Which can be the reason why Jinhsi was practically expecting us.

The rover is indirectly responsible for the existence leader of the nation they just happened to land in.

The Somnium Labyrinth event lets us understand that the power to go through people's dreams was somehow invented by the rover.

Dreams of people that we haven't even met yet seeing as we can play as Calcharo, Dajin and Yuanwu.

The entire existence of the black shores is because of the rover.

They have influenced two people into working for them the shore keeper and Camellya both non human characters that have devoted themselves to the rover.

I just want the rover's thoughts on people that they have influenced and honestly I just hope that the rover isn't evil because that is so boring.

You can be manipulative and still be a good person at heart, I mean look at Sunday or a good portion of the DC heroes.

[aylen-san]

How do you like the functionality of the palantíri? Sauron shares his know-how...

My dear lovers of dark secrets and forbidden knowledge! Today, we will talk about how to use palantíri — these amazing ancient artifacts, created so you can spy, watch, and manipulate without leaving your fortress. And who better than me, Sauron, to tell you about them?

Once, the palantíri were simply communication devices for elves and Númenóreans. But as always, I saw more in them. After all, why just talk when you can control?

The Beginning: Comfortable Surveillance

So, when I began actively using the palantíri, I immediately understood their main advantage — you can see everything without leaving the gates of your fortress. Perfect for introverts and dark lords, right? It's like social media, but without cute cats and memes. Instead, on your screen, you have the entire world: kings in their throne rooms, generals plotting conspiracies, even your enemies discussing how to overthrow you. Isn’t that the best reality show?

For example, here's a little life hack: when I'm bored, I tune the palantír to Gondor to watch Denethor nervously pacing his hall, wondering when his end will come. Or I open a feed to Rohan, where Théoden sits on his old throne, thinking no one has noticed him. Watching their fear is pure pleasure. And let's not forget the inspiring evening news from Orthanc: Saruman, as always, inventing something utterly useless.

Creative Solutions Functionality

But what truly makes the palantíri useful is not just observation. No, my friends, their true power lies in manipulation. I quickly realized that I could not only see events but also influence the minds of those daring to peer into them. Humans, as it turns out, are quite suggestible. Their minds, terrified by visions, are filled with the images I choose. For instance, once I showed Gondor a bit more darkness than was needed. And what did they do? They went mad and burned their ruler! I can't say I planned it, but the outcome was quite satisfactory.

Here’s a small trick to scare or confuse your opponent: start by showing some kind of horror, like a ruined fortress, corpses of soldiers, anything that will make their heart race. Then, slowly ramp up the pressure, showing them their own fears — imagine them trembling in terror as they see their loved ones destroyed or consumed by shadows. Trust me, after a few such sessions, they become entirely different people.

My Personal Development: Palantíri as a Tool of Deception

Everyone knows that palantíri show the truth, but it doesn’t always have to be the whole truth, does it? I found several tricks that allow you to play with reality, showing only fragments of it. One of my favorite strategies is to display only what benefits me. People love to believe what they see, and if you show only part of the story, their minds will fill in the rest with the worst scenarios. Manipulating the truth is so easy, it's almost boring.

That’s how it was with Denethor. I showed him only one side of the war, only defeat and despair. Of course, he didn’t know what was happening on other fronts, didn’t know his son was still alive. He saw only what I wanted him to see. Call it fake news if you will, but hey, I didn’t coin the term.

Practicality and Innovation: Durability and Style

Now to more practical matters. As it turns out, the palantíri are extremely durable. Just think: over millennia, they haven’t gathered dust or lost their functionality. Fëanor did a fine job, and for that, he deserves my thanks. A true quality product. And although the fashion for stone spheres has long passed, they still look stylish and menacing in any interior — whether in the Tower of Barad-dûr or a cozy study in the fortress of Orthanc.

A small tip: place the palantír in the most visible spot. Let anyone who dares to enter your hall immediately feel under its gaze. No one should forget who sees and controls everything here. Remember, enemies love to spy on you through palantíri, but nothing prevents you from using that against them. Innocent glances into the magical sphere can easily turn into nightmares that will haunt them for the rest of their days.

And Finally: My Exclusive Mode of Working with Palantíri

As a parting gift, I’ll tell you about my favorite “exclusive mode.” If I need not just to frighten but to completely break someone’s will, I use the palantír for direct contact. I stand before it, rise to my full height, and begin speaking directly to the victim. Seeing my face on the other side of the sphere is a special experience. A few words, a couple of hints, a slight smile... and soon the person on the other side is trembling in fear and obeys without further questions. As they say, face-to-face communication is always a powerful tool.

So, my friends, don’t underestimate the palantíri. They’re more than just magical orbs. They are windows to the world that grant you power and control. The key is knowing how to use them. And who knows, maybe one day we’ll meet through one of these ancient spheres. But be careful: if you look too deeply, you may never be able to turn away. And as you understand, I am always watching.

Yours truly, Sauron, master of control and great manipulator of the palantíri.

[kenobster]

Mostly to save myself some space on a post later, I'm gonna be anecdotal for a second and talk about my complicated feelings about Fox whump.

For context, I've actually enjoyed Fox whump on occasion. Recently, I even wrote a tiny bit of it. While I have not delved much into Fox fan creations (other than the fic This, too, was a gift, and my enjoyment this incredible fanart), I have, for a long time, been observing Fox fans & Fox spaces and noticing certain trends in the Fox & Corrie Guard fandom. Although Fox has about two minutes of screentime for the entirety of TCW (and never removes his helmet IIRC), fandom has expanded upon his character with an enormous amount of headcanon. To keep us all on the same page, I'd like to establish a baseline of my understanding of his character. For starters, people seem to characterize Fox as a good person but also (endearingly) a total trainwreck. He's someone who has made mistakes and done some not-so-great things, who huffs and haws and gripes and groans, but who eventually decides to do the right thing. Generally, Fox fans seem to agree that Palpatine is manipulative and abusive of him and the Corrie Guard, but they do tend to fall shy of acknowledging that Anakin was one of Palpatine's primary victims. In fact, despite the amount of attention Fox fans seem to devote to Obi-Wan (and Codywan as a ship), their headcanons leave Anakin mysteriously absent. At worst, the Fox fandom seems notoriously biased against Anakin and has characterized him in ways much worse than pre-O66 material actually shows him to be.

Normally, this kind of headcanoning wouldn't be an issue to me. As a writer of trashy noncon, I support the stance that every fan should be allowed to create, headcanon, and play as they wish in their fictional sandbox. In the case of Fox fanon, however, I have misgivings. These headcanons, characterizations, and portrayals of whump tend to usurp everything about Anakin's storyline and fill it with Fox instead. For a classic example, see this post's idea to put Fox in a situation practically identical to popular Darth Vader/Anakin fanlore. For another example, see this poll where Fox outscores everyone by a landslide on the matter of who deserves to kill Palpatine the most, a poll upon which Anakin doesn't even make the list. Additionally, see this popular post listing the top three characters who deserve to kill Palpatine, upon which Fox ranks No. 2 and Anakin isn't featured at all. That's Fox, a character with two minutes of screentime (much of which was spent killing Fives), versus Anakin, the protagonist of the PT and the character who actually killed Palpatine. Though only tangentially related, I've also seen fanart that paired a member of the Corrie Guard with Padme, Anakin's own wife! From where I'm standing, Fox and/or the Corrie Guard seems very much like a convenient substitute for the gaps made by tearing Anakin out of his own narrative.

In this sense, the existence of Fox fanon & whump is completely baffling to me. The PT and the OT (the most canonical of canon!) have already provided the exact character that Fox fans seem to crave. Anakin was the victim who was groomed, manipulated, and abused by Palpatine before and after Order 66. Anakin is the good person who made a terrible mistake, the one who huffs and haws and gripes and groans but does the right thing in the end. Anakin is a gift to those exact interests, and what did the Fox fandom do? They denied this gift so fiercely that they had to invent their own fanonical blorbo to take Anakin's place.

Time and time again, I've wondered what could possibly explain this. So far, my developing hypothesis does not bode well. Outside of fandom, society as a whole is currently cycling through another unmerciful and intolerant phase (i.e. cancel culture, purity culture, censorship, etc). It's true that people must face the consequences of their actions and that justice is incredibly important—but there's a fine line between justice and revenge, and an even finer line between preventative and punitive justice. Even the scummiest scum of the earth deserve to be treated humanely. For those who live in the United States, there's a reason the Bill of Rights contains the Eighth Amendment—the government's duty to protect its citizen from cruel and unusual punishment. The idea that it's morally acceptable to treat "evil people" (i.e. murderers, rapists, etc.) like dogshit while they are locked up and/or prevented from doing further harm is one core flavor of the the newest brand of purity culture, but this time it's being weaponized by extremists on the radical left.

Coupled with societal distate toward any villain perceived to be appealing to a young female audience (you know which villains I mean), this new brand of purity culture has invaded fandom spaces as well. In countless narratives, authors are denied or criticized for giving fictional villains redemption arcs. In countless posts, fans are denied or criticized for feeling sympathy toward the ways in which villains can be victims. In Star Wars specifically, a large portion of fandom refuses to acknowledge Anakin's suffering. They label him as evil from birth and/or puberty, and they feel little-to-no compassion for the ways in which he was abused and traumatized (see this post for further description of this subject). Some of fandom even demonizes people like me for not sharing their viewpoints.

It makes sense that people who have been swayed by this new wave of puritanical propaganda will attempt to nullify any morbid fascination they feel toward Palpatine's abuse of Anakin/Vader. Showing sympathy toward a child-killer could easily result in an uncomfortable level of cognitive dissonance, after all. Thus, my hypothesis is that fandom created a new blorbo to cope with their guilt-ridden interest in Anakin. They created a palatable blorbo. A blorbo who shares the same general vibes but has committed less atrocities and is, therefore, still "redeemable." A blorbo who, by virtue of being a fanon creation, is inaccessible to the misogynist disgust society holds toward well-known villains. In other words, I believe that Fox fanon sprung from people's inability to face their sympathy for Anakin—or rather their inability to face the fact that there is no simple answer to the overlap between villainy and victimhood. And now, because of that, we have Fox whump. We have Fox fans who are convinced that a character who shares many similar attributes was evil from birth and/or puberty.

Whether my hypothesis is true or false, I am well aware that there is nothing I can do about the existence of Fox fanon now. I have little interest in ridding the world of Fox fanon anyway... In actuality, I hope with all of my soul that my hypothesis is false. Why? Because if my hypothesis is true, then that's a problem. And it hasn't gone away. And it isn't going away. Regardless of whether we individually like Fox or not, I think it's incredibly important that we collectively reflect on this.

[phoenix-and-found-family]

Because brain said do it:

Personality swap AU

Agent Phoenix joined the agency specifically to make a name for themselves. They are arrogant about their skill sets, bragging about their accomplishments to whoever will listen. Their handler has had to tell them to shut up on more than one occasion.

Their pride is the thing they care the most about, and absolutely despises being corrected.

Despite all this, they are the best agent they have, so no one can exactly tell them their pride is incorrect.

John Juniper is known for being a nice man. Despite being the villain in many performances (and absolutely killing it) John has shown his willingness to help others clearly. A lot of people regard him as the world's greatest actor. Despite this, he hasn't gotten a big head, and people who have met him have said how friendly he is (including au Reggie).

Secretly, John hates himself. (Which might be true in cannon lmao) He thinks his whole career is built on bad lies, and if he makes a mistake everything could come crashing down. Which led him to the worst mistake he's ever made in his life: getting manipulated by Zoraxis into a plot to take over the world.

He's not an idiot, mind you. He doesn't want to do this, but he can't find a way out of it that doesn't leave him broke, disgraced, and on the streets.

more under the cut

Reginald Crane probably shouldn't be a handler. He's not temperamental or anything. (Okay, maybe he's a little temperamental. But can you blame him? His agent is a bitch.) His mind is clearly designed for invention, assisting the head of R&D, Roxana Prism, with various projects when not working. He can go on rants about mechanical engineering, for which his agent has told him to shut up several times.

While it seems to outsiders that Crane likes Prism, under a mask of friendship lies resentment. She clearly isn't suited for the position she's in, one which he'd absolutely love. She had practically stolen his idea with the TK implants, and definitely stole his idea for the robots, which she used for helpers around places instead of what they really should be used for- field operatives.

Selling out to Zoraxis wasn't a thing he had ever planned on doing, but he was furious at her.

Roxana Prism also probably shouldn't have been in R&D. She was social and kind. A lot of people said she gave off a motherly vibe. She has trouble thinking up ideas on her own, but once she got started she could hyperfocus her way through it, with only a few mistakes along the way.

It was a good thing she had a friend like Reginald. He could generate hundreds of ideas, and details about how they would work. She wished she could get him in the R&D, but he was already the lead support agent. She figured he wouldn't want to work here.

(I've also got Fabby and Solaris swapped but I don't know how I would describe that)

Patch notes:

Reggie and Phoenix probably have a "I'll tolerate you because we're coworkers, but if we met in real life I would punch you" relationship instead of the normal found family one, because of the personality differences.

John is definitely much nicer to his staff, which means that Gibson probably wouldn't be willing to sell him out to Phoenix in Party Crashers.

Reginald still really likes John Juniper movies, he's just less fanboy-e.

I was thinking what would make Prism(Reggie) join Zoraxis, but nothing came to mind. Then I realized that Reggie(Prism) had a perfect reason to join Zoraxis, and it makes an even better betrayal in my opinion.

I'll probably write something about this, I'm definitely writing the kidnapping scene with this in mind

Anybody have any questions, please send an ask 👍

[thegodcyclecomic]

Hello again! Thank you for your post that covered my question on what sources of inspiration you used for Athena. It was super enlightening!

I know this is a tall order because the myths are broad, but could you discuss what aspects of characterization and dimensions you feel are often ignored about Athena? This is me practically begging for a meta post, but I genuinely love hearing your thoughts on her because I agree with your assessment that roughly most media tend to lean to simplistic aspects of Athena. I like hearing from your inspiration notes that you thought of Athena’s childhood with Pallas and how she is more of a pragmatic character that has agency.

I have a lot of thoughts on this so this post won't be as comprehensive as I originally intended, I will be briefly covering the points I want to list out. I try my best to base my writing of Athena on the canon source material, but there will be aspects that veer into my own interpretation/headcanon territory. All Iliad passages here are from the Robert Fitzgerald translation.

Anyway, here are the aspects of characterization I think are normally ignored when authors write Athena.

Her calculating nature / intelligence

This one sounds weird because it's paradoxically the first thing that comes to mind when writing Athena. The issue with this is the same issue when amateur authors try to write characters who are smarter than them: They resort to cheap shortcuts and stereotypes to show a character is "smart".

Examples of this would be the overusage of chess imagery. It's a game that wouldn't exist in Ancient Greece anyway, and it's a measure of spatial memorization rather than strategy. In real warfare, everything is variable to change. Chess pieces don't have motivations or biases that could influence their actions. Opening moves in chess have their counters, but real-life tactics allow you more freedom on how to engage with it.

The next writing shortcut people resort to re: Athena's intelligence is how they use her reading books to show she is "smart" but don't really elaborate on what kind of books she reads of what topics she specializes in which is already in the mythos that can give you lots of ideas.

I mentioned this before but when I started TGC I had a hard time characterizing Athena at first because I didn't understand her domains too well. So you know what I did? I picked up books about military history, Ancient Greek laws, political theory, philosophy, and similar. Learning about these things gave me a perspective of "how would the personification of the state act if they were a person?". Ancient Greece was big on the Social Contract, as exemplified in Socrates's speech in Plato's Apology.

There's a lot more to it, I'm not doing it justice at all in this post. But that's the idea. In the Oresteia, Athena created the practice of cross-examination for murder trials, and then immediately proceeded to undermine the entire justice process by attempting to bribe the prosecution (the Furies). In the Iliad Book 4, she disguises herself as a Trojan soldier to trick Laodokos to shoot Menelaus to break the ceasefire-- essentially enacting what we in modern day would call a False Flag Operation. It's so quintessentially Politician(tm) of her to do.

Athena's intelligence comes from how she seeks to improve and make efficient current systems, like her strategy to Ares's warfare. Or her various inventions in mythos. Another one would be her ability to manipulate people and situations to push for the outcomes she wants. You can see this in her various dialogues in the Epic Cycle:

Athena grifting in the Odyssey in a speech she makes to Zeus about why she should be allowed to assist Odysseus.

520: Athena kept the pace behind them, bearing her shield of storm, immortal and august, whose hundred golden-plaited tassles, worth a hekatomb each one, floated in air. So down the ranks that dazzling goddess went to stir the attack, and each man in his heart grew strong to fight and never quit the melee, for at her passage war itself became lovelier than return, lovelier than sailing in the decked ships to their own native land -Iliad Book 4

and this

100: “Son of Lykaon, I have in mind an exploit that may tempt you, tempt a fighting heart. Have you the gall to send an arrow like a fork of lightning home against Menelaus? Every Trojan heart would rise, and every man would praise you, especially Paris, the prince— you would be sure to come by glittering gifts if he could see the warrior, Menelaus, the son of Atreus, brought down by your bow, then bedded on a dolorous pyre! Come now, brace yourself for a shot at Menelaus. engage to pay Apollo, the bright archer, a perfect hekatomb of firstling lambs when you go home to your old town, Zeleia.” That was Athena’s way, leading him on, the foolish man, to folly. -Iliad Book 4

from what I can understand, Athena's domain of wisdom is not just limited to giving insight to people-- but also in obscuring the truth and leading others to their ruin. Which is in line with one of Athena's epithets which is Απατουρια (Apaturia) "Deciever".

Often times in other adaptations, they relegate Athena's intelligence to spouting random facts or a "nerdy" personality. Or they nerf it so that she doesn't solve these braindead plots in 2 seconds. Take Athena from Lore Olympus for example, the Athena of canon would've never allowed any of this shit with Persephone and Apollo undermining Zeus to happen TT_TT if you have to make your characters stupid for the story to work, then it is a bad story hands down.

2. Interpretations regarding Athena's relationship with heroes

This is something I see a lot where Athena is written to have a personal investment in her heroes like they are "her blorbos" (actual words I've seen people on this hellsite use for this). I'd like to direct your attention to this passage from of Athena speaking in Iliad book 8.

My father, now, is full of a black madness, evil and perverse. All that I strive for he brings to nothing: He will not remember how many times I intervened to save his son, worn out in trials set by Eurystheus. How Heracles would cry to heaven! And Zeus Would send me out of heaven to be his shield. Had I forseen this day that time he went down, bidden by Eurystheus, between Death’s narrow gates to bring from Erebos the watchdog of the Lord of Undergloom, he never would have left the gorge of Styx!

The way I understand this passage is that Athena does a lot of "NPC questgiver" tasks for Zeus in an attempt to curry favor from him. It's a calculated choice on her part and not something she does out of the kindness of her heart. A similar situation occurs when Orestes asks Athena for aid, she helps him on the insistence of Apollo.

Regarding Odysseus, I'm sure there is some fondness she has for him-- but that doesn't stop her from allowing him to be struck by storm (as collateral damage for the crimes of Ajax the lesser for raping Cassandra in Athena's temple). Or from her setting up the suitor problem so she could convince him to murder them all.

If you've noticed, all of Athena's champions are some kind of high-ranking warriors. A king or general or prince. You would think that the goddess of wisdom would favor the philosophers more, or would choose more often to avoid violence. But Athena is very quick to choose violence, it's who she is. And she needs a tool that she can use as a blade.

(these are my interpretations, if you disagree thats fine) 3. Athena as a "peaceful" goddess

This one makes me laugh and also drives me insane.

There are two Homeric hymns that directly and clearly contradict this idea.

(HOMERIC HYMNS 5 - 33, TRANSLATED BY H. G. EVELYN-WHITE) a. The Homeric Hymn to Athena

Of Pallas Athene, guardian of the city, I begin to sing. Dread is she, and with Ares she loves deeds of war, the sack of cities and the shouting and the battle. It is she who saves the people as they go out to war and come back. Hail, goddess, and give us good fortune with happiness!

b. The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite

...Yet there are three hearts that she cannot bend nor yet ensnare. First is the daughter of Zeus who holds the aegis, bright-eyed Athene; for she has no pleasure in the deeds of golden Aphrodite, but delights in wars and in the work of Ares, in strifes and battles and in preparing famous crafts. 

What I find insightful about the second one is that it gives a specific reason for why Athena cannot be moved by romantic love. It's because war occupies the space in her heart that love would normally be. Both hymns specifically name drop Ares, so the idea that Athena finds Ares's violence to be repulsive is just blatantly untrue. If anything, she adores it. The time it would become an issue for her is when his rampages act against her greater interests, which is the source of all their duels in canon.

Other proof for Athena being generally violent can be inferred from her characterization in the Iliad, the instances of which are too numerous to list here.

4. Athena's personality defined by her lack of childhood.

I mentioned this in another post, but Athena was born from Zeus as an adult (though in TGC I changed this to being born as a pre-teen. This is intentional and serves a purpose). What we know about psychology today is that for normal social and emotional development, young children need to form an attachment with at least one primary caregiver. Athena being born as an adult means that she would've missed out on important development milestones that other gods would've gone through.

I will preemptively say that before you bring up the "theyre Gods they're not like humans" that as far as mythos is concerned, the way that gods behave and think is almost exactly identical to that of humans. They experience the same range of emotions humans do, as well as grief and trauma. So I will consider that their psychology is also the same with the difference being that they might experience mental degradation not typically seen in humans because of cumulative negative experiences over a long period.

Back to Athena, the only framework she would have to start from literally being born yesterday would be the fragments of memories she gleaned from being inside of Zeus's head. I think this would be confusing for her, as these are from the first-person perspective of Zeus, so using his memories but lacking context for those experiences might lead to an early identity crisis. Athena would then have to play catchup in learning extremely fast everything to fill those blanks.

This is why I think Athena has a hard time forming personal connections. She doesn't have a true equal. Athena's relationships are defined by power imbalances and transactions, and that is how she understands relationships in general to work.

5. Athena's humanity.

I think what bothers me the most about Athena in adaptations is the lack of humanity given to her character. I know I just went over why she's a manipulative machiavellian character, but what I see is that Athena often gets relegated to the Unfun Stick in the Mud character. She exists to ruin the fun of the Fun Chaotic Dudes Dionysus, Hermes, and Apollo. She doesn't have anything going to her except being a snitch and a daddy's girl, or worse, she exists to be "put in her place" by other male gods. This is why I really dislike Fedini's and "incorrect greek gods" take on Athena. I think there's this underlying biases that an ace-coded goddess can't have anything interesting about her, because all media on tumblr and fandom these days are broken down to fucking shipping instead of seriously engaging with the source material. I've seen people call her a Mary Sue or act like she is an annoying bitch for exhibiting personality traits that would be praised in a male character (the traits of a Byronic Hero).

Portrayals of Athena go one extreme or another, either she is a wholly Good goddess or she is a Villain/mere annoyance. It's a real shame to see, because I hope I can show you now that she is a wonderfully complex and morally grey character. I want to see Athena's curiosity and how she tries to understand the world from her own perspective. I want to explore her relationships with Zeus and her siblings like Ares and Apollo outside of the Meme'fication of Greek mythology.

Anyway, that's all I can think of for now, I hope this answers your question. If you have any point you'd like me to explain more, I'd be glad to make another post in greater detail.

[animeschibia]

Alright, gonna stop the comments and say this.

Mod, or any of your enablers, if you see this. Read it closely.

What you're doing is not adult behavior, this is highschool drama bullshit. You are blackmailing someone, but wording your threat in a way that makes you look like you're being kind by not going through with it. Buddy. Hun. If your kindness is conditional, it isn't kindness. It's manipulative. Period. Not to mention, you literally blocked them months ago, Mod, what are you still doing keeping track of their activity???

You're mad at Snow for plagiarizing you... because they had similar ideas that, frankly, are not ground breaking.

Lamby vs. Lambie? Oh how clever, how interesting to name a lamb Lamby. At least Lambert is a punny name.

Aster vs. Azter? First of all, Azter is not Snow's, Azter belongs to a friend of theirs. But second. As a Lamb RPer, my Lamb muse named Mystic Seller "Aster", so I guess I stole the name from you too. Nevermind that it's Latin for star, clearly I'm plagiarizing you too. Also, do not just judge a fanfiction based off of its rating, E for Explicit does not mean smut. How about instead of claiming a fic is smut without reading it, you read the fic first.

Lamb speaking proper? Is also a very obvious direction to take a character like that. Especially in a world where pretty much everyone else speaks like that. Hell my Lamb does too. Granted, It's because they were practically raised into servitude before they were found and executed and their manner of speech reflects that, but nah, what does context matter, clearly you invented hooved animals speaking that way.

And I can go on and on, but I'll save it for your callout post you're so smug about.

Do better.

[ach-sss-no]

SH liveblog Ch8

First chapter & explanation | Previous chapter

I had then made up my mind that men were my natural enemies and that I must defend myself. Of course it is very different here, but who knows how long it will last? I wish I could think about things as you do; but I can't, after all I have gone through. - Anna Sewell, Black Beauty You people with hearts have something to guide you, and need never do wrong; but I have no heart, and so I must be very careful. - L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

After the I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream quote I was basically out of ideas, but epigraphs are fun and I didn't want to just drop it.

I scoured for these ones. I don't remember how I got to finding these two (what made me think of Black Beauty????), but I remember I decided I wanted them to be thematically similar by being in first-person.

I also considered quoting Stephen King's Misery (the bit where she eats the rat!) and rejected it partly for that reason.

I'm trying to engage with Gollum's real trauma and mistreatment, because it does happen in LOTR and it is psychologically interesting, but you can never make him into a suffering innocent because he's just not. That wouldn't be justice to the work or the character. So I have this 'I can't trust because I hurt bad :(' quote (from Ginger- a genuine tragic innocent, by the way, she's a horse, LOL) - and it's followed up by 'I have no heart, by the way.'

But there's extra connotations here to anyone familiar with the works:

Ginger bites (it's how she got her name. Ginger snaps.)

Ginger dies of starvation and overwork :( (spoilers for Black Beauty by Anna Sewell)

Ginger is a horse. Gollum just said he hates horses in the last chapter. Cinema sin counter go up

I quoted the Tin Man, and his 'thing' is that he DOES successfully develop empathy and kindness without a heart through intentional practice.

Ahhh and we're back in Sméagol's Pastville.

So, Shrodingerbinger's is divided into three parts; they're kind of divided into body-mind-spirit? Gollum heals physically, he heals emotionally and socially and then he reaches a place where he authentically seeks moral redemption. At the beginning of Part 2 he's feeling good physically and is now escaping into Minas Tirith to relationally and emotionally discover this new life he's found.

At the beginning of each part there's also a phase of his past and I was just going through them chronologically, but through serendipity they do kinda correlate with where he is in present day. Part 1 started with Baby Sméagol, who is a pathetic traumatized orphan who just needs physical care and patience. Not much can be expected from him because he's a baby. Part 2 is child and adolesecent Smeagol and his relationship with his village and family network. In part 2 present day, Smeagol's exploring the city and his new social network.

I stay away from the Found Family tag for reasons (I HAVE AN IRRATIONAL DISLIKE OF FADS EVEN WHEN THEY ARE GOOD THINGS IN AND OF THEMESELVES) but it probably would have fit here. Oh well.

When he did start to talk, his first word was 'Why'.

Jirt describes Sméagol as overridingly inquisitive.

"I don't know," Nettle would say, "and I don't know why I'm standing here explaining myself to you. Praps I'll ask you some riddles, Sméagol, my polliwog

Aha and we have another pet name which in future Eardwulf will also independently re-invent

For quite a long time, 'Why' was the only word he seemed to feel he needed. He would also use it to forestall criticism. Nettle would catch him about to do something he shouldn't, and he would stop and feign a ridiculous look of surprise. "Why?" he would ask.

Wow, he learned to be a manipulative liar early on.

The ''Why' and 'How' only stopped when he slept. He curled up like a kitten and dropped off for a few hours at a time and then he sat up and stared at her and started asking 'Why'.

This is how Gollum sleeps in canon. Curl up -> instant off -> he's staring at you suddenly

I did meticulous research for this fic. Not on Middle Earth's history or languages or anything like that, though, just on Gollum.

Nettle taught him to read and taught him the genealogies and all of the old stories she knew. After he learned to write he went through a phase where he walked around the village with his little slate, writing down things people did. He would come back in the evening and read it all off to her. "Aunt Petunia. Cheated Aunt Iris out of one penny. Saw her drop it and she didn't say nothing. Just picked it up. That was not nice. She picked it up before I could. Not nice at all." Nettle politely asked him to stop after the fifth day of this.

Sméagol wtf

He would also eat unripe berries, eggs from trees, and things off of the top of rubbish piles if he thought they were fresh enough- which was not unusual behavior for a growing boy that thought he was invincible to food poisoning, but a bit unseemly for one under the direct tutelage of the matriarch. (Although when he brought home eggs to share, she always accepted one.)

Smeagol's grandmother eating the eggs he steals IS ALSO CANON and NONE of this vital content was in the movies

"He wants to go away on an adventure," Sméagol barked. "I never heard anything so stupid! Goblins and robbers and monsters and who knows what else out there."

Ha! I forgot about the 'Sméagol is a confirmed homebody afraid of the wide world' shtick. It is here purely for purposes of irony.

"My parents thought they could leave. And where are they now, where are they? Not here."

I could have worded that better, I know 'not here' means 'dead' but it just sounds like they successfully left after intending to leave.

And he was meaner than anyone who might be teasing him, at that. But it seemed that this time he was correct about why he wasn't a favorite.

I think I'm trying to insinuate emotional abuse/neglect that Nettle doesn't realize she's inflicting. Of course you shouldn't write off your emotionally unstable orphaned grandchild as mean and useless. It. It won't help.

Meaner than he looked, too. And in a rough old world like this one, was that always such a bad thing?

Also it seems like she taught him to be a jerk to get ahead.

We're back to present day. Gollum assumes he can just find his way out of the city he was brought into unconscous.

He drew a deep, sharp breath, despite his desire not to make noise. A city ringed by walls! He turned, trembling, to look over his shoulder, and saw what he had not seen before, soaring over another wall far behind- the high tower. It must be Minas Anor, he thought. The Tower of the Sun. Anárion's city...

Shouldn't he already know that- *checks* no because the name is different now and Frodo used the new one. ok cool.

Gollum canonically knows about Minas Ithil/Morgul and would know about the twin city (by the original name)

In fact, this city and Minas Morgul had about the same faint, sick resemblance as the faint, sick resemblance between Pippin Took and Gollum.

I picked Pippin for the comparison because they share their insatiable curiosity and quasi-hobbit-nobility. Also because Pippin does a spot-on Gollum impression without even seeing or hearing the real thing. That wasn't in the movies either we were robbed.

(It was in the Bakshi version)

Gollum obligingly reflects on his dead family now that we know who they are! (It's supposedly triggered by realizing he's in a place he's heard stories about but c'mon. It's because I told you who his family is.)

Psychologically, what's meant to be happening here is that Gollum's been burying a lot of (very real and morally neutral) pain, with the Ring, and with other coping mechanisms such as Shelob (he walked with her 'away from light and regret') and his monster boogeyman persona. Ring = gone. Shelob = renounced. Monster boogeyman persona = slowly letting go of as more trouble than it's worth. So all of the pain those things were masking is beginning to come back, starting with the grief of outliving

ALL

of his relatives.

Next, Gollum discovers that Mordor is visible from the walls of Minas Tirith and we neatly transition from his past trauma to his recent trauma!

If the wall had been soft enough to yield to his nails he would have scored deep lines into it.

Well. OK. Anything is theoretically soft enough to have lines scored into it at any pressure. This is a clunker.

"What was that yelling?" Guards. Gollum hopped over the wall and scaled it as quietly as he could. He had been quick enough- he was not discovered, despite his outburst.

Aragorn's asked the guards to pretend not to see Gollum unless he's doing something they need to intervene in. But some of them probably genuinely don't see him slip past in this chapter.

Gollum does canonically go into screaming fits when he's supposed to be in stealth mode I'm not 100% sure how he's alive.

So- I think the Minas Tirith walls are PRETTY HIGH and Gollum's climbing them a little too easy but maybe for him it's the equivalent of a walk up a hill? I don't know. He's enjoying being out and about.

There is some genuine culture shock starting to happen! Gollum compares neat and orderly Minas Tirith to other places he's been where people did wherever they want and made a mess everywhere, and is flummoxed.

Teenagers walk past chattering about hobbits. They- oh come on, that's really coincidental. They're talking about Gollum. I could have probably made this better by including somethin that cues them (like Gollum himself!) (he is right here) (looking sketch). They might even have seen him and thought he was a normal hobbit and mobbed him like a celebrity and carried the conversation to 'did you see the Ringbearer's monster?' So this could have been an easy fix but I didn't think of it and I didn't fix it, oh well.

Gollum doesn't like his reputation so he steps out and says something awkward and leaves. Again, this would have worked better if they'd approached him, because he's shy and really shouldn't have initiated a conversation, just left in a panic. No rewrites to published fic! Not ever! This one bugs me particularly because I used it as an excerpt in the summary, though. Like a showcase. And it's logistically unsound. Uwaaa

What if one of the young Men told about having seen him? He considered this, and decided there was not much risk from it- first, they had not known what he was or that anyone should be told at all, so at the worst they would only say they met someone odd in the street. Perhaps the description they gave would be recognized, but by the time such a thing happened Gollum would be too far away for it to matter. He was already too far away to be easy to find. And they would not know whom to tell about him, and might not even be allowed to speak to that person if they did. Their kind had so many rules about who was allowed to speak to whom!

I'm enjoying the shift in prose to tactical, strategic Gollum. He's not always uhhh doing the best job but he's now analytically thinking about what he's doing and making more conscious choices than he was when he was in 'I was Reincarnated As An Invalid In A City Full Of Strange Giants???' mode.

Here's a cat. Gollum toys with eating it, but he's gone soft and decides to follow it instead.

Gollum made a quick tour of the outside of the structure, and found that all the windows were boarded, and so were the doors. An abandoned house- cities at war had many of them, yes. Such prize habitats were often already occupied when he found them. If a cat was making its home in this one, though, there was likely nothing any bigger than that inside, unless perhaps there was a human owner.

I should have been more specific, I meant owner of the cat, not the house. A squatter. Also 'human' isn't a canon-appropriate term. This whole chapter feels like it's not quite as well-edited as some others. I remember I had to abruptly move to a new house halfway through the posting schedule of this fic, and maybe this was when that happened?

*checks* Yeah actually this was posted the week I found out we were going to have to find a new house, I think. I was preoccupied. Oh well.

I did not use a beta reader.

Anyway. Violence! Gollum kills and eats a bunch of mice. The house is infested.

Feeling empathy with the cat, he feeds it part of his kill and then goes into a food coma in the wardrobe.

Gollum squinted into the darkness. He was lying tightly curled on his side. A ball of fur was tucked up against his back and it was purring. "Ach!" he said, startling the cat awake. "No. No, no, no!" He took the cat by the scruff of the neck, picked her up, set her outside of the cabinet and closed the door on her before she could either come back in or get angry and scratch him.

You're "supposed" to give progress checks on your character's arc every so often. Gollum is now at 'cuddly enough to feed a cat' but not 'cuddly enough to cuddle a cat'.

[script-a-world]

Submitted via Google Form:

Hi, I think I am running into an issue of being consistent in my world in what things are possible and what things are not possible. Like, one world can do spacesuits that look almost identical to thin raincoats except they enclose the entire body and well obviously connected to oxygen tanks and such, which are no bigger than a couple CD cases. What other technology should I expect them to have and not write them as being unable to have technology that should be possible once they have the above type of spacesuit. Like having very cumbersome firefighting gear with heat protection that is woefully underdeveloped for a civilisation that can already develop such spacesuits. Though perhaps, that could in fact be explained by money and amount required? A billion firefighters but less than 200 astronauts. That's just one example of course but I think my story is riddled with things like this that doesn't seem to make much sense I guess? How do I approach this?

Tex: If you already have a couple sets of tech that your world is using, it’s generally helpful to examine how that technology would be made and break it down into its component parts. For example, your space suit has a material that can conform to a body shape, so it might be some form of memory material or possibly integrated with a program to reshape itself. The oxygen tanks are incredibly compact - how do they cycle its input, and what does it do with the waste material?

How efficient are these technologies, how are the component materials produced? What other ways can each component piece of technology also be used for? What are the goals of each component, and what were the lead-up inventions that developed each system?

Licorice: Let’s not forget, it’s realistic for worlds to be inconsistent with their tech. In our own world, we are building quantum computers and can edit genes, yet small children still die of preventable or easily curable diseases. In our world, tech doesn’t ‘migrate’ from one sector to another unless there is money to be made from it. 

As well as the tech itself, one needs to consider who owns it, why it was developed, who’s paying for it, and what community is being served. If the owner of a fabulously wealthy tech-based multinational is paying for the space suits, whereas the firemen work in shanty towns and are paid by subscriptions from the community they serve - well, there's going to be a huge gap in the funds available to pay for the latest tech.

While it is true that we tend to develop tech to solve problems, there are plenty of problem we don’t bother to create tech for - and sometimes there’s a problem, and a small band of dedicated people develop the tech to deal with it, and then nobody has any interest in developing that tech to the point where it has real use in practical applications. 

When considering technology, we need to think not only about the tech itself, but the nature of the society that is creating it. What do they think is important? What are their priorities? 

For example, during 'the space race' some of the tech NASA developed was top secret due to the Cold War also being a thing happening at that time, but plenty of other tech was released for commercial purposes. If you're in Communist Russia, the average person may never benefit from space tech because the central planners of the economy don’t see what the USSR would gain from doing that, whereas if you’re in 1960s USA, capitalism is going to make some of that advanced tech available to consumers, for a price. The consumers here may be private individuals, or private companies, or public institutions. 

Addy: So, first off oxygen/pressure manipulation is different from insulation. If you look at the purpose of an object, as well as what kinds of things need to go into achieving that purpose, you have more room to handwave than if you try to apply a single consistent "tech level." 

Continuing on the firefighter example. Oxygen and other gasses can be compressed, but liquids generally can't. If you're mixing some kind of aerosol spray with a liquid carrier that then expands into a firefighting foam, that could mean you need bulky tanks. If you want insulation, that could mean thick suits to buy them more time, especially if you have them also dealing with super-hot wildfires or chemical spills. More layers, more material to absorb the heat before it reaches the skin… like how thick sweaters are better at blocking the cold (and keeping heat in) compared to a thinner t-shirt. 

Internal consistency can, to a point, be worked with if you look at differences in base requirements. Space doesn't really have much of a temperature, so you're mostly looking at life-support and radiation-blocking capabilities. For the sets of tech you have, what needs do they address? How can they be used for other things?

You also mention cost, which is a huge factor in real-life development. Making fancy materials is expensive, and it gets even more expensive if you need them • to a very tight tolerance • custom-made into certain shapes (such as for each astronaut) • or both of those. A custom-made bespoke suit may cost several thousand dollars, but a suit off the rack is going to be much more affordable.

Sure, you could make every firefighter suit custom-molded to each person's body, but what if they retire or gain/lose weight? Or if they transfer stations and need new badges? Also, are you really going to see a large benefit if you do that vs if you do a standard array of S/M/L/etc? Not really, tbh. The cost of customization isn't worth the added benefit of a custom fit. (Especially for a town, which has a smaller budget than a federal government)

I see it kinda like asking why, in our modern day, you don't see everyone wearing Rolexes or Armani, or why some people have gas-powered cars when electric cars exist. Or why some people don't have access to cars at all.

The big question isn't that the materials for the spacesuits can be made, it's how much making those costs. The world is not a homogenous thing.

So if you're looking at things that seem inconsistent, look at the factors driving the development of those things. What's the motive? And who's paying the cost of that development?