#this is actually really a cool historical one

[astronicht]

I was DMing a friend yesterday about how the lotr films (imo) do a great job of making Gondor look vaguely Carolingian — I was kind of holding it up as a positive example of intuiting and extrapolating on what Tolkien might have meant when doing adaptations — but said I wasn’t personally sure whether Tolkien was pulling from the Carolingian Empire or maybe the very shaky papacy further south or Visigoths or something. Or all of it!

Anyway then I settled in for my evening pop-nonfiction read, and got to find out why I’m always mixing up the Merovingians and Carolingians, a thing I will never do again. Bc yes they were two ruling families, but one was originally the fucking… stewards. I mean mayors. Haha.

(From The Private Lives of the Saints, Janina Ramirez, 2015. pp. 346-7)

Several points:

- I KNOW I made a post back in Rohan about how it’s very nice and wholesome that Tolkien wrote a fix-it for the brutal sack of the Saxons (Rohan*) by the big post-Roman southern kingdom but I didn’t know how thoroughly he did that. He really said what if Carolingians Gondor and Saxons et al Rohan bonded together to fight evil 💗 instead 💗

- So I don’t actually think Tolkien goes 1:1 with characters and historical figures, but I’m weeping at the idea that Boromir was a sort of Charlemagne but stuck in an AU where Charlemagne touches a magic ring and dies (despite being cool ☹️)

- Alternatively, it was actually Charlemagne’s dad who made a deal with the pope (NO idea on this one lmao good luck everyone) and seized power. Which would make Boromir something of a… potential.. Pippin figure.

Like he’s not, it’s not 1:1! But each Tolkien character does sometimes feel like an avatar of 3-5 medieval characters in a flashing and beautiful and strange palimpsest, while still utterly being themselves and not a symbol etc. it just so happens that you could, I guess? Make this argument for Boromir if you really really wanted to. Or Faramir! Charlemagne really tried to be both brothers, actually, which is— oh it’s fascinating again. Damn.

- Final incredibly important question: Wh at constellation was on Aragorn’s sword. I need to know the constellation on Aragorn’s sword immediately.

*I sound increasingly insane the further I get in these books but as… as established in previous posts there’s no English Channel in Tolkien’s world so Rohan is sort of the Saxons, Doggerland, and the Angles, Jutes, etc (English kingdoms), running up to Wales (the hill people + where Aragon goes on a Wild Hunt). God it’s so ancient aliens sounding but I cannot disavow any of this at this point.

[masterroadtripper]

Con O'Neill as Tony in Urban Myths (2018) ↳ Episode 2x02, Backstage at Live Aid

(Remaining screenshots below cut)

"you are asking me to play god in the atheist world of physics!" - Tony

[the-final-sif]

Just to be clear, because I'm seeing some misinfo going around about the oceangate stuff, it's not particular weird or an indication of failure for the controls of the submersible to be an xbox controller/other game controller.

It might sound odd to people who've never done any of this stuff, but legitimately xbox controllers fucking rock for being used to control stuff. It's significantly more accessible and user friendly for a large majority of people, and it absolutely makes sense to use them in certain contexts. It can actually massively improve safety because of the ease of use, and the fact you can have 10 full replacements in a cupboard that can get swapped in if anything goes wrong. It makes the controls really simple for people, and honestly it's a generally a solid design choice.

Oceangate's Titan isn't even the first company to do this, the idea most likely came from the US navy doing the exact same thing in 2017/2018 for submarines because they realized it was way easier for everyone:

Turns out that game controllers are just really easy to access, use, and sometimes keeping things simple is the best idea. Wow. Who'd have guessed the thing made to make things easy to control would make things easy to control.

We currently don't know what happened to the Titan sub, we don't know why things went wrong, if it was a freak accident or if it was bad practices or bad safety standards. Hopefully people get found and then we're able to find out. It may be caused by poor submersible design, but some of y'all are out here acting like you're suddenly submarine engineers because something sounds silly to you. Let's maybe wait until we have actual information on the situation in order to assign blame.

[princekirijo]

prince i would like to know. whats your favorite kind of polearm? (not necessarily european, any blade on a long shaft counts in my book)

OOHH that is an exciting question thank you!!!

OK I'll admit, my knowledge of polearms is limited compared to my knowledge of swords but I do have two standout favourites (cheating a little with two but one I only learned about recently...)

First one is the halberd! Probably a basic choice but I really like the shape of it and its versatility! It can be used as a traditional spear of course but the axe head and the hook (used I think to help footman drag cavalry off their horses?) add some nice variety to it!

Second is one I learnt about recently actually, the corseque! I really love the shape of this thing (it's Italian in origin I believe) and where the precursor to the glaive apparently (another polearm I like)

[tryingtoescapefromhereee]

Seating in the first section of the metro is so weird cause like I can hear the air going by(awesome amazing so cool) and like I will also have a front row seat if anyone happens….(not so awesome amazing or cool..)

(EDIT: I MEANT SITTING )

[nerfedbytheuniverse]

Had a friend ask me the other day if I “notice that people seem to be very protective” of me.

And I said, “no, usually I’m the protective one.”

And I have receipts to back that up but I was not about to start trauma-dumping over it.

And he says “I guess since I feel somewhat protective of you, others might too.”

And like. Here’s the series of issues I have with that:

1) he’s the same age as my immediate-younger brother,

2) Which means I’m older than him by 4 years, and

3) Literally what kind of protectiveness do people think I need?

Like sure, I’m cool with people being protective of me, and I kind of have to be okay with that considering that I AM so protective of others. I don’t let people talk shit about others or themselves, I’m constantly trying to lift people up, and when people vent to me about issues they’re having with others, I’m waiting for an excuse to squeeze myself into the drama and tell people off. Nobody is allowed to hurt my friends.

But I also make the point of reminding myself that my friends are capable people. I remind and sometimes encourage people to eat or sleep or do other self-care tasks, but not because I think they can’t do it alone; I wait until there’s at least an inkling that the need isn’t being met, like if someone messages me at 3AM, or when someone brings up that they’re hungry af.

So I’m careful about how I remind people to take care of themselves. Or at least, I try to be.

But also, there’s this bitter voice inside that’s just like “oh how great, people are protective of me NOW. Where was that energy when I was being abused or bullied or talked down to?”

They didn’t know me yet. And it’s not their job. I want to believe that if shit got bad I’d have help but. I don’t. I want to.

But my closest connections outside of my household live over a thousand miles away. My friends in state? I haven’t known them long enough to expect anything from them. Not even advice.

I just. It’s been bugging me since it was said. And I guess it was a lie, since people are generally trying to help me with things and offer advice. I just didn’t really think of that. Because I know I’m smart, capable, and can handle myself for the most part.

And I have two school friends who really seem to get that balance. The balance of “I know you’re smart and capable, BUT you don’t have to do shit alone.”

They’re the two that I’m closest to, shocker. There’s no feeling that I’m being infantilized. Any defensiveness that relates to me is from a place that I’m comfortable with.

Because ultimately, I’m fine with people feeling protective of me but I’m still a whole entire adult and I can manage my own triggers and most of my own responsibilities. And if I need help I’ll probably ask.

But this kid saying he felt protective of me kind of felt weird, because what could he really do?

[fujouppy]

wouldnt it be Really fucking funny if i named my sovereign dragon oc from my partitions era poland inspired nation august... wouldnt it be Really Fucking Funny

[keeps-ache]

ggghhg i hate vehiclessssssss ghghghhghhhhh [dies dies dies forever]

[deityofhearts]

I hate people who think they have a say in what other people do with their own belongings, people can customize their collectors dolls and figurines, people can write in, fold and tear pages out of their books, people can alter their clothes to their own liking and so that they actually fit. people can do whatever the fuck they want with their own shit, why are y’all so mad over something that isn’t and never will be yours?

[icewindandboringhorror]

oh my god.. a job for me.. historical pierrot beach performer lol

[halfdeadwallfly]

in the mood to do something reckless, like talk to someone

[red-dragon-archfiend]

Another Pokemon hot take for you: Charizard receiving two separate Mega forms in gen 6 was a blatant attempt to sell more merchandise and get people hyped for gen 6 after gen 5 was a relative failure, but the results did make Charizard actually really cool as a competitive Pokemon and both forms look sick

[jup1tersparx]

.

[navree]

god grant me the serenity not to vaguepost about a reply to a post about the memery of the ides of march

[kanyniablue]

haha i used too many tags on that last post

[orcelito]

Never played a Fate game or watched any of the animes really. But I started playing Fate/Samurai Remnant bc I wanted to play a hack n slash kinda game & it got generally good reviews (unlike ffxvi, the other game I was looking at for this wish of mine, which ppl continuously said was pretty but kinda shallow writing-wise)

I've been enjoying it. I've already learned some things about 1600s Japan. It's pretty neat!