#this is sorted by chronological special interest

[getvalentined]

An open letter to @staff

I already submitted this to Support under "Feedback," but I'm sharing it here too as I don't expect it to get a response, and I feel like putting in out in public may be more effective than sending it off into the void.

The recent post on the Staff blog about changing tumblr to an algorithmic feed features a large amount of misinformation that I feel staff needs to address, openly and honestly, with information on where this data was sourced at the very least.

Claim 1: Algorithms help small creators.

This is false, as algorithms are designed to push content that gets engagement in order to get it more engagement, thereby assuring that the popular remain popular and the small remain small except in instances of extreme luck.

This can already be seen on the tumblr radar, which is a combination of staff picks (usually the same half-dozen fandoms or niche special interests like Lego photography) which already have a ton of engagement, or posts that are getting enough engagement to hit the radar organically. Tumblr has an algorithm that runs like every other socmed algorithm on the planet, and it will decimate the reach of small creators just like every other platform before it.

Claim 2: Only a small portion of users utilize the chronological feed.

You can find a poll by user @darkwood-sleddog here that at the time of writing this, sits at over 40 THOUSAND responses showing that over 96 percent of them use the chronological feed*. Claiming otherwise isn't just a misstatement, it's a lie. You are lying to your core userbase and expecting them to accept it as fact. It's not just unethical, it's insulting to people who have been supporting your platform for over a decade.

Claim 3: Tumblr is not easy to use.

This is also 100% false and you ABSOLUTELY know it. Tumblr is EXTREMELY easy to use, the issue is that the documentation, the explanations of features, and often even the stability of the service is subpar. All of this would be very easy for staff to fix, if they would invest in the creation of walkthroughs and clear explanations of how various site features work, as well as finally fixing the search function. Your inability to explain how your service works should not result in completely ignoring the needs and wants of your core long-term userbase. The fact that you're more willing to invest in the very systems that have made every other form of social media so horrifically toxic than in trying to make it easier for people to use the service AS IT WORKS NOW and fixing the parts that don't work as well speaks volumes toward what tumblr staff actually cares about.

You will not get a paycheck if your platform becomes defunct, and the thing that makes it special right now is that it is the ONLY large-scale socmed platform on THE ENTIRE INTERNET with a true chronological feed and no aggressive algorithmic content serving. The recent post from staff indicates that you are going to kill that, and are insisting that it's what we want. It is not. I'd hazard to guess that most of the dev team knows it isn't what we want, but I assume the money people don't care. The user base isn't relevant, just how much money they can bring in.

The CEO stated he wanted this to remain as sort of the last bastion of the Old Internet, and yet here we are, watching you declare you intend to burn it to the ground.

You can do so much better than this.

Response to the Update

Under the cut for readability, because everything said above still applies.

I already said this in a reblog on the post itself, but I'm adding it to this one for easy access: people read it that way because that's what you said.

Staff considers the main feed as it exists to be "outdated," to the point that you literally used that word to describe it, and the main goals expressed in this announcement is to figure out what makes "high-quality content" and serve that to users moving forward.

People read it that way because that is what you said.

*The final results of the poll, after 24 hours:

136,635 votes breaks down thusly:

An algorithm based feed where I get "the best of tumblr." @ 1.3% (roughly 1,776 votes)

Chronological feed that only features blogs I follow. @ 95.2% (roughly 130,077 votes)

This doesn't affect me personally. @ 3.5% (roughly 4,782 votes)

[weirdmageddon]

why i think aradia and john work so well

(with some stuff i’ve been wanting to yap about for ages)

have you guys ever given arajohn / johnradia (idk if its popular enough to even have a standardized ship name) any thought …? i know it seems kind of out of left field. i’ve considered it and i think its. really really good. i have a bunch of thoughts to unpack. come join me. and maybe grab a snack or something because i didn’t realize how much i'd actually have to say about this

(fantastic art by skeletood)

the other day i made a tweet that did rather well where i said, “john and aradia shouldve talked more. its so simple but i like how she actually earnestly answers his questions. so many characters in this comic are so mean to john for just wanting to know more give him a break”

putting it out there now im not big about shipping for the sake of shipping. there needs to be real chemistry. i need to sense that as a reason why two characters would potentially be a good influence on each other. i never knew why i was always so obstinate about this because it’s fictional and not materially hurting anyone, but i think it might be because i’m not sure how to justify it or explain it if not.

i strongly believe john and aradia would have had it made out for them if circumstances allowed it. (what i mean by “ship” or “johnradia” extends to any kind of interpersonal dynamic, even if just a good friendship. it doesnt even have to be romantic, just some sort of dynamic with them.)

unfortunately aradia originally committed herself to staying out of trolling the kids over their timelines, so john and aradia never talked until year 3 on the ship in the dream bubbles but they never had a truly proper one-on-one without outside meddling. i think if john knew aradia better and her story beforehand, she had more time to explain herself and her history, he wouldnt have been unsettled. and also of course if his experience with the trolls didn’t suck so bad because he already had expectations for how antagonizing most of them were.

i found people’s sentiments about johnradia elsewhere too. i remembered that they were both on the song art for ascend, and searched ao3 to see how many fics have been written to gauge how substaintial it’s been in the homestuck fandom. only 17 of them turned up. but the people who do talk about it are either curious about it or really do like it, and that interested me.

clearly it’s pretty niche character relationship to be depicted in any fanwork and i can understand why. despite being so small, from what ive seen it seems universally agreed upon to be nice. i haven’t seen a single person object to it. what ive seen falls into two categories: “wow i didnt think about this before but i actually dig it” or “(starving) finally some good fucking food”

the pattern im seeing is that people think it’s “random”, but i disagree. there is something there substantiating it even if they’re unable to articulate it.

the fanfic these comments are from is chronology of wind. that fic is really, really good, and sadly unfinished. i have more abstract reasons to believe why aradia and john would be good in theory, so actually seeing someone else actually make something with them helped me read it in action, to get a more tangible feel of the dynamic beyond what we have in canon.

i wouldn’t normally make claims about a relationship with regard to homestuck canon by looking at their relationship in a fanfic, because i think you all know by now i am very nitpicky about accurate characterization, and it does not go unnoticed by me when people get it right because for some reason it feels like a one in a million thing (even though it really shouldn’t be?). so this was a special case. the tone was completely consistent with canon. this fic is so in-character i’d basically consider it an extension of canon. to me it’s like they took the same characters and plopped them into this scenario to see how they’d interact. guys… i love that stuff so much. i love fanfiction or fanworks that depict realistic extensions of canon and stays true to the energy and tone of the source, but deepens it. there isn’t enough of it imo. i want to see more of it.

anyway, what i read of their conversations in that fic basically aligned with what i was thinking in my head about what i’d expect it to be like. i was able to compare how aradia and john talked to how aradia and the other characters interacted, their comparative attitudes towards each other—how they’re treated by others compared to how they treat each other.

have you noticed john and aradia’s communication values are both based on sincerity, being in the proper know, treating people fairly, and thanklessly taking on the necessary work that “must be done” in order to have what they really want — a good time that feels meaningful? and they accomplish this without any adjustment in how they talk to each other.

john is always subtly (or not-so-subtly) asking the people around him to answer him soberly and to the point so he knows whats going on and what that means for what his options are. he needs to know to what end he will be applying his absurd energetic drive into making shit happen. aradia honors his time before john can even become uncomfortable with the amount of time being eaten up by conversation. contrast this with rose, who seems to go on for a while with prose-like conversational adornments. in dire situations that need rapid explanation and definitive answers so he knows what to do, this is really the last thing he needs. aradia doesnt waste john’s time. she answers all his questions, and does it politely to boot. his time talking to her doesn't feel wasted.

john's impatience with this sort of nonsense is also why i can’t see something like dirkjohn working out, for example. to me it feels like @entropicbias also deeply understands this on some level because i literally couldn’t have demonstrated what i mean by it any better myself than that. i'm gonna have to to hit him up about how much i genuinely respect that like tbh hes one of the few i absolutely trust to handle writing and depicting these characters in situations and their interpersonal dynamics. and also care about doing their characterization justice as much as me.

of course people are still entitled to like whatever they like, ship whatever they want to. i dont care. but i just don’t think it would work from the perspective of the minds of the canon characters, how they generally think and approach situations. and i can already tell people might ask me how do i know this? what makes me an expert? i’m not more than anyone else is (although i have been called a "characterization expert" from my friends), but i do know that i can pick up on the energetic chemistry between people, including characters, honestly precognitively, without even thinking? like if it’s stiff or tense or awkward, if people aren’t free to express themselves uninhibitedly, if they feel unsafe or uncomfortable. i can sense this almost instantly. it’s something that’s a visceral feeling in my body i cant express and i have to rationalize it after the fact. like i’m doing now in fact writing this big analysis.

> listen to me talk about my special interest boy

for the next section to make sense, you probably want to read this post. i initially started writing it within this post to explain but there was so much brewing i had to explain the context that it turned into something i wanted to post on its own terms.

> okaaaaaayyyyy i read all that

thank you, really. my main point is using the conceptual tools provided by this system to expIain why aradia and john feel nice together and why i’ve seen people positively perceive the idea of a relationship between them even if it seems “random”.

framing them in this system, it wouldn’t be random! there’s a good reason they seem to fit nicely. this is because john and aradia have complementary forms of information metabolism. information metabolism is talked about in this section.

Jung’s psychic types are the types of cognition, or intelligence. But it would probably be easiest to call them types of IM [information metabolism], since the main difference between the types of people lies in their exchange of information with the external world.

Aushra Augusta, Commentary on Jung’s Typology and Introduction to Information Metabolism

aradia megido’s type of information metabolism (otherwise known as a TIM) is LII. john egbert’s TIM is ESE.

aradia and john’s types are duals. you can read more about what that entails here. in theory, their interactions would reflect the duality dynamic. reading chronology of wind, that one really in-character fic that explored their dynamic made me excited because they do!

michael pierce gave an overview of his impression of the characteristics of this intertype dynamic. despite only rough knowledge in socionics while he wrote this, his understanding of duality was spot on to me from my experience and others and i wanted to share it here. (fittingly, i believe he is also LII.)

Now we have the famous duality relationship: in a nutshell, this role is characterized by two traits: 1) a very close psychological distance or intimacy, and 2) a great ease of interacting with each other. It is sometimes described how meeting one's dual can be the event of a lifetime, because it inspires aspects in each party's character that they had never expressed before: the pair may even drop out of society for a time in order to focus on just each other, and to explore themselves through interaction with each other. The curious thing in this relationship is that these parties are rather different in outlook, and when they are not actually interacting as potential friends it's probably more likely for them to dislike or mistrust each other because of how different they are. […] However, when they are able to interact normally, it is a strange and wonderful discovery to realize that the interaction is unexpectedly smooth and invigorating. It's hard for people to describe, but as I understand it: while both parties recognize their differences on the surface, these differences are created by a root structure that coincides perfectly with each other, so that the differences on the surface are entirely complementary and cause no friction at all.

it’s also meaningful to consider that the structure of my own psyche is LII as well. so i’ve got a bit of a bias towards aradia and john.. not in the sense that what i actually say about them is personally biased, but that the bias is moreso my personal attention to people and characters of these two types in particular to see how my own experiences are reflected in them. i really do feel of a reflection of my own thought and work process in aradia and in the more abstract sense she is like an extension of myself. when people say they like aradia as a character i get secondhand joy from that because shares certain specific traits with me. of course i am still my own person though.

these are some of the most apt profiles i've found for these types at a glance. again, think about these characters as you read these descriptions. [from here (ESE / LII)]

ESE (Ethical-sensory extrovert) - john

The trademark quality of this type is a focus on socializing and guiding social situations and interactions so that the people involved can have fun and enjoy themselves. ESEs are typically in the middle of what is happening socially and know about the latest events and what people think and feel about them. They are skilled at bringing people together in fun and interesting ways and making everyone feel actively involved. Their friends know them as people who love life and feel most at home in social situations surrounded by other fun people. In their pursuit of fun-oriented and stimulating social interactions, ESEs typically neglect to structure their own thought processes and views in a way that would help them know exactly what they think and why. They are receptive to others’ attempts to help them introduce more structure and logical consistency in their life and thinking processes. They gravitate most to people who open up to fun and emotional interaction easily, yet are also skilled at systematizing thoughts and views and explaining ideological matters.

LII (Logical-intuitive introvert) - aradia

The trademark quality of this type is a focus on logical, structured thought and generating true assertions and views. LIIs are typically strict thinkers who are concerned that everything fits together in a logical way. They are skilled at understanding, generating, and criticizing logical arguments and instilling their views in the people around them. Their friends know them as people with well-organized thoughts and opinions who know what they think and can elucidate their ideas to others. In their pursuit of logical understanding, LIIs typically neglect their external social interactions and activities that would help them lighten up and experience a connection with other people. They are receptive to others’ attempts to create these fun and lighthearted situations for them. They gravitate most to people who are interested in their opinions and understanding of things, but are also skilled at organizing social interactions and creating a sense of emotional unity.

ive recently consciously experienced the feeling of duality for the first time since i've been communicating with my mom's high school classmate, and it is definitely a real thing. i even remember mom pointing out she noticed when we were all talking on the phone over a year ago that i perked up whenever he said stuff. here is how i explained it:

its bonkers how only once i experience something for myself i’m able to explain in detail what makes it so great based on what my impressions about it were because i tend to have a peculiar way of describing the qualities of an experience. my specialty is deep precision in my analogies for what it’s like. so now i can tell you how conversations with your dual feel… heres the status report. it’s weightless. its so strange. like the topic conversation stretches into infinity that you can pick right back up at any time. it’s hazy and unfocused but still pleasant (unless you’re particularly self-conscious and need to unlearn hiding your true self). but the best parts of it come when you have a specific issue or insecurity that comes with being your most natural self that the world seems to misunderstand about you, or just not give you what you don't even know you’ve been looking for. i think you might mutually intimidate each other at first because you're lowkey both expecting to be made fun of for your inadequacy with certain types of information that the other is nuanced with (and you’re not), but it never comes. you don't feel like what your dual wants in life is wrong. your dual seems so talented in all the ways you hope to shine but you’re always unsure of. for the introvert (me) wishing they felt their own active presence as an object (Se, Ne, Te, Fe) like the extravert does. for the extravert, wishing they felt their own relationships with other objects (Si, Ni, Ti, Fi) like the introvert does. any other intertype relationship (ITR) vs. duality is like the difference between 99% and 100% totality of a solar eclipse, except it’s the level of understanding with another person, like the eclipsing of your own information metabolism with theirs. of course there are other things that influence how well your relationship with this person goes, but i am talking strictly about when it comes to basic communication, the level of understanding you share. sometimes it might feel like you dont have much to talk about or the topic is unfocused, because you two ARE opposites in many ways after all, especially at a glance (domain of interests usually come with specific macroelements. theories about thought structures—like socionics, for instance—are in the domain of intuition, while physical interests and experiences are in the domain of sensorics.) i’m LII in the NT club (researchers) and my dual ESE in the SF club (social-communicative). so they’re constantly providing you with information from their own niche in life that you may be entirely unfamiliar with, but for some reason still interests and relaxes you to hear. you might not feel like you have a lot to say about the topic since but you are fully amazed by this person’s activity. it also makes you feel more sure of yourself and more confident that people truly appreciate and need your natural abilities.

> let’s break it down

here’s some lightly modified descriptions of the information blocks in LII and ESE's information metabolism models from pyatnitsky so you can get an overarching impression of how their type contributes to the informational sphere. i added some of my own adjustments and borrowed some sentences from stratiyevskaya's descriptions. additionally, you can click on the name of the block for an explanation of the role it plays.

i put about a week’s work into these collages but my goal with them was to actually show where i think these information blocks are most pertinent in these characters specifically and where they apply so it’s not just some abstract thing, just as supplementary examples as needed. (for the meaning of these information elements individually you can refer to cysia’s document.)

LII (Logical-intuitive introvert)

EGO (-Ti? -> -Ne!). Analytical thinking. They are well aware of the interrelationships of some objects or phenomena with others, and what laws are in effect or not in effect. On the basis of a comprehensive analysis, they put forward insights about the global essence of specific objects and phenomena, their possibilities. They acutely charge the situation with potential energy. For every situation, there is an archetype.

Super-EGO (-Fi? -> -Se!). Normative ideas about relationships between people and ways to get out of unpleasant ethical situations. Understands ethics as founded on the principles of fairness; to do to one side of the equation that you do to the other. Volitional manifestations in order to protect their living space are carried out only on the basis of personal experience. Because of the limited opportunities to fight back, they react painfully to attempts of any interference in his life. Does not respond to any arbitrary crudeness or volitional pressuring. Does not compromise goals, stubbornly clings to them. Avoids direct confrontation if possible, would rather talk civilly and earnestly. Uses their naturally strong sense of the conditioning of objects over time to avoid collisions with their material interests. Due to this, they may appear as someone with very little weaknesses.

Super-ID (+Fe -> +Si?) Attracts information about a good mood, a specific positive state, or a feeling. They would like to think that they can eliminate serious inconveniences, make the environment around them more comfortable. This skill needs to be evaluated. They are unconsciously activated when there is a need to make the environment more comfortable, which should lead to a better state, raise the mood at least in the immediate environment. In friendly, comfortable, and informal company, their cool exterior thaws and they start lighting up with joviality.

ID (+Te! → +Ni?). Has developed guidelines and methods that relate to specific practical activities, technological effectiveness, and resource use. Spontaneously feels the correct allocation of resources over time, which allows them to effectively solve tasks at an unhurried pace. This pace is deeply rational in nature.

ESE (Ethical-sensory extrovert)

EGO (+Fe! -> +Si?). Perception of the world is fundamentally emotional. Feels the emotional atmosphere well in any situation, knows the relevance of the way of expression, the place and weight (importance) of the internal state in each situation. Flexible approach to solving problems of managing and expressing emotions. They show bright emotionality both negative and positive. Creatively produces around themself comfort, coziness, conveniently arranges space, surrounds others with beautiful things, changing thereby the general condition and mood. Usually opinionated about their tastes.

(wow i really went all out on that this one that tumblr wont even display it in full resolution, so here. john just has so many more lines to choose from, sorry!)

Super-EGO (+Te! -> +Ni?). Practical and technological thinking is tightly based on acquired knowledge and patterns of solving similar problems. Methods of business activity in both general and specific areas are selected based on the opinion of reputable sources, or adjusted to one of the mastered templates. Predicting specific changes in the sphere of their interests is carried out only on the basis of personal experience. He is not able to compare his own method of forecasting with others, so he is sensitive to criticism of poor timing or deadlines, does not like situations that feel like a waste of his time; he is lost in connection with negative events. Guided by purely personal experience, he chooses specific times and deadlines for various tasks with a normative understanding of business activity in general.

Super-ID (-Ti? -> -Ne!). Attracts information about the order, specific logical relationships in the field of activity or interests. Needs someone to suggest specific ways to make connections between phenomena, patterns, and rules. Tries to be reasonable himself, even though he knows that this is not characteristic of him. Sometimes he openly talks of his actions that were poorly reasoned through, as if inviting other people to laugh at his thoughtlessness. The ordering and systematization of thought opens up a new way of understanding of events that are happening around him, as well as new prospects, potential, and capabilities. He likes to think that he understands the essence of a situation and lights up with new ideas. This skill needs to be evaluated. It is unconsciously activated when it is necessary to create order, clear consistency and clarity on a particular issue, especially if their abilities are recognized.

ID (-Fi? -> -Se!). Involuntarily keeps track of communications in their social circle. Without hesitation, they use a variety of ways to establish and maintain relationships that have been developed in his personal practice. Good relationships are important for personal inner confidence in a situation. To prevent unfavorable relationships, they are inclined, often without even realizing it, to act with pressure, forcing a showdown, forcing the partner to change the relationship for the better. Frequently demonstrates his resoluteness, persistence, and purposefulness, as if proposing his behavior as a model for imitation. Usually tells in much detail what obstacles were created before him, and how he overcame them, what he was told in response, and what he replied with, and so on and in the like.

(full res)

you might be able to see already how they would complement each other's thought process nicely. here are some descriptions of what the communication between these types is like:

+Fe! : program function of ESE and dual-seeking function of LII

The ESE periodically tells emotionally charged "program" function stories, telling of how somebody has acted and what they have done. The main orientation of ESE's leading ethical program is: "No one should be offended." The LII carefully listens to these statements, and, demonstrating a full understanding of these issues, develops logical basis for them, e.g. in calm persuasive voice he explains how the ESE has acted justly and fairly. The effusion of turbulent emotions coming from the ESE is counterbalanced by their absorption by the LII, who breaks them down into fragments by asking clarifying questions of the ESE.

-Ti? : dual-seeking function of ESE and program function of LII

The ESE is tuned to accepting information when it's relayed in clear logical form. He issues requests for logical explanations delivered from a point of view of generalized rules underpinning specific life events, which he receives from the LII, who delivers clear unambiguous interpretations, places the dots over all "i's", and demonstrates good understanding of problems that are of concern to the ESE. Not receiving information of this kind, the ESE begins making demands of those around him to be "intelligent" and understand the reasons of his actions.

-Ne! : activating function of ESE and creative function of LII

The ESE feels uncomfortable if he doesn't extend his help to people who are in need of it. His subconscious orientation is: "care and guard the talented", be kind and attentive towards other people. The LII usually meets such criteria by proving in action his aptitude at uncovering hidden capabilities, winning trust, passing on the knowledge. The ESE creates supportive conditions for people who are capable but lacking in assertive "push-through" qualities, among whom the LII finds himself, and a special work regime that protects such individuals from overloads on sensing functions. Newly discovered possibilities inspire and promote the pragmatic and business-oriented activities of the ESE. He can support a new undertaking or initiative with an enormous amount of energy and enthusiasm, light up by new ideas. Only the LII is able to, even having a vague general notion about the subject, construct a developed theory or idea of any issue. This theory shows to be promising in the process of its concrete application within its field.

+Si? : creative function of ESE and activating function of LII

LII tries to take care of their well-being, but may gravitate towards demonstrative asceticism, exhaust himself with work, studies, or exercise. The ESE periodically takes care of creating an environment that "charges" the LII with pleasant sensations: a reception of guests, a good meal, a visit to a theater or a concert, an interesting trip, and so on. At the same time the ESE takes pleasure in this himself.

+Te! : role function of ESE and observing function of LII

The role function of the ESE manifests as business-oriented activity and initiative, supplying interesting information, provision with material assistance to those who are in need, general restlessness and fussy busyness. This function is normative, i.e. the ESE seeks to comply with the norms and accepted ways of doing things. The nuancing of the understanding of these norms, i.e. introduction of activities that go beyond them, is possible only by considering LII's advice and recommendations. The LII serves as a director of this function, adjusting its workings by advocating the necessity of practical application of some beneficial ideas, rejection of useless though spectacular ideas, and the need to ensure standards of life not below average by rejection of equalization.

+Ni? : vulnerable function of ESE and demonstrative function of LII

The ESE poorly feels the flow of time, both physical, which manifests as running late and poor distribution of his strengths over time, and historical, which manifests as poor ability to anticipate consequences of actions and tendency for traditional ways of solving problems. The ESE finds it difficult to make radical choices. The LII fully takes this aspect onto his shoulders. He has an unconscious ability to distribute activities in time, thereby avoiding work stress and overloads, and is capable of making a radical choice. The LII is able to calmly wait and in the necessary moment get to work when the wasteful fussiness of the ESE reaches its critical point.

-Fi? : ignoring function of ESE and role function of LII

On this function the ESE gives advice and makes demands concerning the creation of appropriate psychological distances in form of proper behavior, courtesy and politeness, denouncing rudeness and boorishness. In this manner, the ESE adjusts LII's role function, which in itself contains a set of large psychological distances: a sullen stubborn look, unsociability, etc. With such fine-tuning it becomes easier for the LII to come into contact with people, whereby he becomes more animated, resolves many of his ethical problems that previously frightened him, gains greater insight into human relationships and a more accurate understanding as to whose side to take in situations of conflict.

-Se! : demonstrative function of ESE and vulnerable function of LII

The LII finds it very difficult to exert pressure on other people from his own will and initiative, especially in cases when he needs to attain something for himself. He finds this difficult to do - to press ahead in certain situations, to gather all the required paperwork, to stand in lines and queues, to petition for his own interests, even the ones that are of vital importance to him. He finds it difficult to push a person away, to sharply refuse someone, to quarrel loudly and defend his rights, to put an end to relations that have exhausted themselves. The ESE doesn't directly affect this function, i.e. he doesn't verbally criticize and teach the LII on this aspect, but takes over its functioning completely. The ESE exerts a constant, sometimes intrusive and imposing pressure on other people if there is a need to achieve something, to defend justice and demand fair treatment, to protect interests of those who are close and dear to him. The ESE goes to the right jurisdictions, inspires people around him and directs them towards work and purposeful activity, keeps up a high pace of life himself, and breaks off relations with those who don't deserve trust.

and some miscellaneous excerpts from literature i liked a lot. (i can't remember the sources i used since i've been working on this on and off, for the past week and i was just spilling things onto the post. i think stratiyevskaya?):

Mood - that’s what matters in this dyad - emotions and feelings. Anything that suppresses and overshadows good mood is considered unethical in this dyad and is strongly condemned.

The ESE does not allow the LII to limit him in the possibilities of consuming the amount of pleasures and joys, which he considers to be necessary and sufficient. Fortunately, both partners in the dyad - LII and ESE - are obstinate and unyielding. Both are demanding, unwilling (and not allowing anyone else) to lower the bar of their requirements, unable to give in and make concessions (especially in anything that is of principle for themselves). Both know how to make their partner reckon with their interests and insist on the fulfillment of their demands.

LII is impressed by the emotional generosity of ESE and his spiritual responsiveness. All this finds the deepest understanding in LII, since he is tuned to the same priorities and values. For his part, ESE admires the ability of LII to speak clearly and definitely on every issue. ESE is struck by the harmony of the reasoning of LII, the amazing clarity, accuracy and laconicism of his statements. To ESE it seems that for LII, there is nothing incomprehensible in this world; he can give a comprehensive explanation on every issue. And everything that ESE thought about before is gradually being built into a definite and clear system of views, which he can now very freely and naturally present. Confusion and chaos in his worldview gradually gives way to a stable logical order, as if someone patient and careful was sorting all his thoughts into shelves. Such clarity inspires and activates ESE; he begins to see some prospects for himself, new opportunities. His energy and activity, in addition to emotional and ethical expression, also receives sensory realization: ESE begins to take care of LII and carefully looks after him. If LII is a colleague with whom ESE is especially pleasant to communicate with, he begins to treat him with something tasty, homemade; will make some small, but beautiful and necessary gift (for example: new cologne or a warm scarf).

> okay that's great and all but when are we talking about john and aradia specifically?

yes, that was the point of this post. i just had to build all that up first so i could walk you through my thoughts in a fully substantiated way.

considering chronology of wind again, john doesnt realize it but he needs aradias frankness and insight. even if she’s unable to explicate on vague things, she states the reason why instead of making him feel stupid (it would create a doomed timeline) but thats all john needs to hear. she is self-effacing and only tells him the truth, and we know other people can take advantage of john’s suggestibility in this way. aradia tells john who is or isnt trustworthy, what actions would be useful/necessary and which ones wont, without any selfish personal motive a la vriska or terezi.

^ (juuuust the record my nitpicky ass doesn’t agree with the truth of the classpect interpretation on behalf of the author in the last bit BUT that is beside the point here. the point is that she is answering john’s question in a way that is meaningful for him)

aradia doesnt realize it but she needs john’s friendy goofiness to brighten her up because she is surrounded by people who antagonize her when she’s literally not even trying to get under anyones skin. everybody gets frustrated at her “spooky nonsense” because theyre afraid of their own mortality, basically telling her to put a lid on it because thinking about hard truths makes THEM personally uncomfortable. but to her it’s always just been a fact of life. plugging your ears to reality is ignorance, but at the same time that doesn’t mean there’s no meaning in anything. she wants to help people see this and she dedicates herself to becoming a psychopomp for the deceased and earnestly trying to make people feel emotionally and physically comfortable in their situation through exploring their memories.

john isn’t hostile towards her. by being herself she is immediately able to earn john’s trust when they initially talk. this is also true in canon; the one time they talked when john initially comes up to her, saying “can i ask you something? seem reasonable, and pretty nice.” unfortunately he asked her the one question she didn’t have much to say about, and i can’t blame him for expecting all the troll girls to be basically insane at that point. but i don’t think aradia is insane. yes she is odd, but i think it’s evident that she has a good head on her shoulders with knowledge of the way the universe around her works, and in the end wants to simply bask in watching it play out. i think she deserves to get childishly excited about it, especially considering she was dead for most of her developmental years.

aside from getting his answers answered, john shows curiosity about her and her species and even care about her well-being and state. this naturally comes from their conversation’s ebb and flow. aradia tells this straightforwardly, without bells and whistles and without trying to trick him, unlike the other trolls who seem keen on well..trolling him.. and providing him with unclear answers to those sorts things. maybe aside from vriska, but she did have a little bit of an attitude about it wherein her and john’s dynamic felt uneven or off-rhythm, with a large psychological distance. it’s a different feeling with aradia, however. they exchange information on the same rhythm and so are able to achieve a closer psychological distance in communication.

there are no judgments coming from aradia about john being “stupid”. she doesn’t underestimate him. it’s not just that john wants to understand (although he does), but he needs to understand what he is doing. aradia compliments john about the traits he possesses that allow him to be effective. i guess in a way i’m doing the same thing with john right now.

john is so mobile and strung along by being the action hero going from place to place as a can-do deliveryboy that he never has time to reflect on his losses, think through them, and accept them.

literally who else is more qualified in all of homestuck than aradia for talking to john about these things?

on top of all of this, they have objectively significant connections beyond just mutual self-realization in a way i think could've been fleshed out. there is potential here.

for a story, i can think of a way that a conversation between them could plausibly happen using the systems established in homestuck's mythology. in canon, we see that john never met aradia until year 3 on the golden battleship in the dream bubbles when he goes to sleep.

but john still dreamt out in the furthest ring. that means during those 3 years it was possible for john to have had a dream with her in it, or at least aradiabot. i know john didn't know aradia's name beforehand but let's just explore the possibility that they could have had met before that. remember that all these aradiabots were once this person.

aradia had obtained john's crosbytop, his dads hat, and his wallet quite a while before their sgrub session. theres your entry

imagine john seeing that

memories of dear old dad get stirred up through the link of seeing those items

the dream bubble transforms

john is forced to stand in his memories and explore grief and the meaning of life with aradia

physically being in the space around him would definitely help john reflect easier i think because it will force him to actually exist within the space and talk to someone, taking some time out for this. he wanted to know if anything could've been done or if he was just too late to save them. i know aradia would be able help him slow down and introspect. don't forget the opportunities created by the properties of these spaces that are glubbed out in the furthest ring by the horrorterrors that meld the labyrinthine time and space of their surroundings to the memories of the people and finding others through common points in memory. i would imagine that objects known by multiple people would provide a common point in memory to bring them together.

The bubbles allow the players of Sburb/Sgrub who have lost a life to continue dreaming. The reality constructed in the bubbles is a combination of the memories of everyone inside the bubble accessible to any who has learned the bubble's nature. According to Aradia, it would be quite difficult to exit a bubble to get into a new one, however someone inside a bubble can travel to another one through common points in memory, taking their own memories with them to be integrated into the new bubble. These memories mix and combine, but in general, no new memories are created. Additionally, the bubbles store the consciousness of a player who has lost their dream selves and their original selves, making them double as a form of afterlife; the player is then capable of accessing the memory of anyone else who has gained access to the bubbles. Living players, who have lost or become their dream selves, appear in the dream bubbles when they are asleep. It is in this fashion that the bubbles can be used as meeting places between the dead and the living; even those from alternate universes and doomed timelines can be found in a bubble. Furthermore, in addition to memories, the bubbles can to some extent reflect the thoughts of a player. Beyond that, the bubbles can also behave similarly to Skaia's clouds, showing things that are in some way relevant to the player - such as when coin-flip Dave saw alpha Dave grieving over Bro's corpse - something he was not aware of before being shown it by a bubble.

physically reflect the thoughts of the player…… rubs hands

john and aradia share points in memory related to those objects, and to top it all of they are directly related to john's dad on the same day he died, while aradia grew up with them as bizarre alien artifacts from an archeological dig. the memories are more emotionally charged for john, and i think that distinction would probably be relevant to them both.

to be honest i think after speaking with him for a bit she would readily tell john that she regrets not talking to the kids from the universe her team created sooner before she died, but is glad that she can in the afterlife. in canon, alpha aradia told a doomed dave, "i think its absurd i never introduced myself to you in all that time i spent moping around the lab. guess i wasnt in a very good mood".

now not all the aradiabots would know who john is, because the trolls only found out about the humans once they created the genesis frog and hid out in the lab in the veil from jack who infiltrated their session. the aradiabot in the lab was the last one that survived. so if any one of them would know who john is, it would be the aradiabot that exploded. aradia's dream self ascended to god tier in jack noir's rampage on trolls' derse and took those memories with her which we can assume is what made the last aradiabot explode. its known that any original copy that dies when another rises up becomes a ghost and lives on in the dream bubbles, which would include her. a doomed aradiabot we see in the comic, which was the one that originally landed to alternia in the past, becomes more lighthearted after she dies, a bit more like her alive counterpart.

oh yeah, and the more obvious surface-level connections to top it off? ghostbusters? john ain't afraid of no ghost girl. john would be genuinely interested in what aradia living as a ghost irl on her planet and not as a gaming abstraction in the furthest ring would be like. i imagine she would be able to explain the subjective experience and that she had to prototype herself into the kernelsprite order for her server player to see her. there's also no way john hasn't seen a movie as classic as indiana jones and judging from her poster i can imagine he probably thinks it's sweet that aradia's strife specibus whipkind is a reflection of her own personal tastes, interests and hobbies.

so yeah i've just been chewing on all of this and thinking about it but i know i needed to just get this out there somehow. obviously since i spent two weeks putting this post together i'd be happy to hear your thoughts

[azure-firecracker]

Fic Rec Roundup!

In honor of my going off to college (my posts will be slowing down), and finishing 3 seasons of TXF, I asked y’all what sort of “special post” you wanted me to make. You voted on a roundup of some of my favorite TXF fics, so here it is! Prepare to watch me gush profusely about the phenomenal writers in this fandom.

This will be in chronological order, so first time watchers like me need not fear spoilers:)

I’m not including my own writing here, but you can find it in my masterpost.

Without further ado, let’s get into the fics!

Season 1:

starstruck by @thursdayinspace (General Audiences, 671 words): Set post-Pilot. The title says it all. This is quite possibly the cutest thing I’ve ever read.

Something Bigger Than Us by Mungo_of_Maundery (General Audiences, 721 words): A nice coda to Deep Throat after Scully rescues Mulder from the air base. Internal monologue is great.

humans in nature by @theswisscheeserag (General Audiences, 2,733 words): Mulder and Scully’s conversations post The Jersey Devil. Philosophy mixed with fluff and some laugh-out-loud humor. Perfectly captures the vibe of early MSR.

Still Feeling My Father Ascend by @cecilysass (Teen and Up, 13,073 words): Mulder and Scully share some tender moments post Beyond the Sea. Both of them have a lot of healing to do, for different reasons. Some of my favorite MSR introspection can be found in this fic, and you can tell how much thought and care this author puts into the characterizations. There’s also several excellent funny moments - a true gem of a fic!

Egit Genius Loci by snow_and_rain (Teen and Up, 21,937 words): Case fic set right after Beyond the Sea. Featuring early-onset MSR, angst, mutual pining, and hurt/comfort. A little whimsical, a little eerie, a little sad.

Between Two Truths by @agent-troi (Teen and Up, 1,621 words): Missing scene from E.B.E after Scully’s speech to Mulder. An excellent internal monologue from Mulder’s POV followed by some top-tier MSR banter.

the progression (and regression) of first names by skuls (Teen and Up, 5,421 words): A series of vignettes exploring Scully and Mulder’s relationship as it evolves throughout Season 1. Pitch-perfect Scully characterization and several moments that really showcase her inner conflict fantastically, but also many wonderfully tender MSR scenes (keep an eye out for the coffee scene - my favorite!)

never learned to read your mind by @swinging-stars-from-satellites (General Audiences, 1,071 words): An alternate version of Season 1 where Scully leaves after Deep Throat. Profound, heartwarming, wistful and a bit sad, this takes an interesting concept and really tugs at your heartstrings.

Season 2:

distractions by @thursdayinspace (General Audiences, 1,181 words): Post-abduction. Mulder does his best to help. Absolutely heart-melting, sweet and tender and a little sad too.

The Safety of Guilt by the_status_clo (Teen and Up, 732 words): Mulder’s guilt post-abduction. Do you like to feel miserable? Do you like to slip into a pit of unwavering guilt and wallow in beautiful words? Read this!

Redial by @theswisscheeserag (Teen and Up, 7,423 words): A frequent reread of mine! Set during Mulder and Scully’s quarantine post-Firewalker and told through a series of phone calls. This fic has everything you could possibly want: introspection, angst, fluff, humor, friendship and romance all mixed into one…it’s just really good in 1000 different ways. Endlessly rereadable.

until it heals by @actual-changeling (Teen and Up, 2,351 words): A post-Irresistible fic that captures all of the poetry, panic, and drama that is Season 2 MSR. Incredibly tender with some stunning inner monologue moments. A perfect coda to my favorite episode.

Authority and Gravity by Xecotcovach (Teen and Up, 2,338 words): Another excellent fic where Scully (with Mulder’s help) tries to deal with some of her season 2 trauma. Their dynamic here is very tender and their banter is just the right amount of sassy and quippy. Set after Fresh Bones.

If You’re Sinking, I Will Jump Right Over by SammyLovesASOIAF (Teen and Up, 1,642 words): An alternate version of End Game where things go…badly-but then Mulder has to confront his emotions!An interesting alternative, angst with a happy ending. Lovely poetic language; I have some lines from this that I remember word-for-word.

Our Town by @leiascully (Teen and Up, 813 words): Scully’s thoughts during and after the climax of Our Town. Very in-character, appropriately intense, really conveys the fear and desperation intertwined with Season 2 MSR.

Season 3:

Light in Dark Places by @agent-troi (Teen and Up, 2,697 words): Set in Season 3 but it’s really about Irresistible and Scully’s insecurities in general. Peak hurt/comfort, this one makes your heart hurt in the best possible way, and then it feels like a warm hug with the resolution.

Got You(r) Back by @shearmouth (Teen and Up, 4,933 words): This is THE injury fic for me. Set post-731. The hurt/comfort levels in here are unmatched. Scully’s internal monologue is perfect. Mulder is an actual puppy and Scully takes care of him and it makes my heart melt in all of the right ways.

stay close, listen by @actual-changeling (Teen and Up, 2,667 words): Post Pusher. Very angsty, but in the best possible way and with an extremely satisfying resolution. This fic definitely wins best-written: it’s essentially poetry, and its uses of metaphor and literary references are stunning. I can’t recommend this enough.

find me defenseless by @impulsive-astrophile (Mature, 7,421 words): Case fic! Do you like Mulder torture? Do you like badass Scully? If so, you will love this fic because it has both in spades (plus-spoilers-a wonderful ending to make up for the pain). Whenever I’m fed up with the show’s kidnapping ratio, I read this: it’s probably my most frequent reread. I will say that it is more violent than anything I’ve written, so be aware.

Unconfirmed timing but spoiler-free:

unravelling by @actual-changeling (General Audiences, 2,208 words): Scully wakes up to a familiar voice theorizing on her television. What follows is as sweet and humorous as it is charged and just a little tragic.

Shakespirited by orphan_account (Teen and Up, 13,670 words): A fic that I’m pretty sure was written specifically for me. Mulder and Scully go undercover in a Shakespeare troupe plagued by strange murders. If you like TXF and are a Shakespeare nerd, you will love this. Definition of a good time (but there’s some angst too-how could there not be?) I think there are some minor spoilers in here, but nothing to really tell you anything as long as you’ve seen up to Anasazi.

Sometimes You Need to Have Fun by @baronessblixen (Teen and Up, 1,192 words): Fluff written by the queen of fluff herself! Mulder and Scully go ice skating. It’s as adorable and sappy as it sounds.

Stupid Cupid by @mulderwearingglasses (General Audiences, 5,325 words): A Valentine’s Day fic! This features jealous Scully (a delight) as well as some excellent humor and fluff. Overall just a lovely time. There may be some minor spoilers in here, but nothing that told me anything.

[housewilson]

A MASTERLIST OF ALL THE BOOKS I COULD FIND IN TIM'S BOOKSHELVES

As someone who basically sees Tim Laughlin as my own version of Jesus Christ (I kind of wish I was lying but I have a 'beyond measure' tattoo branding my skin so perhaps I'm entirely serious), I simply needed to know what was on those shelves of his. And this was a hard task to achieve, believe me... but I got much farther than I initially thought I would.

(I've got so much to say about all of these books and how they might string together to create a deeper understanding of Tim as a character but I won't go into it here... maybe in a future post or video essay, who knows).

If you wish to help a girl out and attempt to figure out any of the other books I simply can not crack no matter how I look at the screenshots and mess with the adjustments... here's a folder full of 2k sized screenshots of those shelves.

Before I list the books one by one, I want to make a couple observations:

1) Almost all of the books I was able to pinpoint are non-fiction. The ones that aren't are children's books.

2) Topically, we see an interdisciplinary interest in:

History: from a book on a king in 4BC, to a survey of landholding in England in the 11th century.

Somewhat current historical events: books on World War I and II.

Western Philosophers: specially from the 16th to the 18th century.

Aesthetics: there's at least 2 books on the subject matter, but I couldn't find the second one, sadly.

Spirituality: not only christian/catholic; some of these books touch on Eastern practices such as Buddhism and Hinduism.

Fairy tales / children's books.

Psychology: specially in regards to mysticism and sexuality.

Science and scientific discovery/research.

3) A lot of the history, current events, and spirituality books are autobiographies/memoirs.

4) A lot of books (specially those on sciences and philosophy) tend to be more so anthologies or overviews on a subject matter rather than a book written by one specific author on one very concrete topic.

Overall, this all reflects very well an idea Jonathan Bailey himself expressed in a brilliant interview you can watch here if you haven't yet:

"Tim has buddhist flags in his 1980s flat in San Francisco, he has crystals, he is someone who is always seeking other ways to understand human experience. Which is probably tiring for him. Throughout the decades, he sort of appears as completely different people. At the crux of it there's this extreme grinding, contrasting, aggressive duality between feeling lovable and not feeling lovable. There's such shame in Tim. But it's the push and the pull which keeps him alive.”

This desire to understand human psychology, spirituality, and the ways of the universe through as many diverse lenses as possible, as well as a predilection for non-fiction, expresses very much to me that insatiable thirst for truth that defines his character so strongly.

OKAY, THAT BEING SAID. Here's the list in chronological order of publication.

PS. if you decided to click on any of the following titles it'd definitely not take you to a google drive link of the pdf file where you could download and read these books for yourself. Because that would be illegal and wrong.

Journeys through Bookland by Charles H. Sylvester (1901?) (1922 Edition)

I don't know which specific volume he owns, sorry, I tried my best but the number is not discernible (hell, the title barely is). If anyone wants the download link to these hmu because I'm not about to individually download all 10 right now.

10 volumes of poems, myths, Bible stories, fairy tales, and excerpts from children's novels, as well as a guide to the series. It has been lauded as ‘a new and original plan for reading, applied to the world’s best literature for children.’

Pilgrimage by Graham Seton Hutchison (1936)

This book provides a view of the battlefields of WW I through the eyes of the average fighting man. 

One curious thing about this book is that it's author, a British First World War army officer and military theorist, went on to become a fascist activist later in his life. Straight from Wikipedia:

"Seton Hutchison became a celebrated figure in military circles for his tactical innovations during the First World War but would later become associated with a series of fringe fascist movements which failed to capture much support even by the standards of the far right in Britain in the interbellum period." He made a contribution to First World War fiction with his espionage novel, The W Plan."

The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton (1948) 

The Seven Storey Mountain tells of the growing restlessness of a brilliant and passionate young man, who at the age of twenty-six, takes vows in one of the most demanding Catholic orders—the Trappist monks. At the Abbey of Gethsemani, "the four walls of my new freedom," Thomas Merton struggles to withdraw from the world, but only after he has fully immersed himself in it. At the abbey, he wrote this extraordinary testament, a unique spiritual autobiography that has been recognized as one of the most influential religious works of our time. Translated into more than twenty languages, it has touched millions of lives.

This book requires no introduction. It's the one he keeps the Fire Island's postcard in and the one we see him re-reading in episode 8 after Hawk brings it to the hospital with him at the end of episode 7.

Just a little detail I noticed:

Apparently he liked the book so much he visited Gethsemani, which was the home of its author all the way up till 1968.

For all we know, he might have even met its author!

Sexual Behavior in the Human Male by Alfred Charles Kinsey, Wardell B. Pomeroy (1948)

When published in 1948 this volume encountered a storm of condemnation and acclaim. It is, however, a milestone on the path toward a scientific approach to the understanding of human sexual behavior. Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey and his fellow researchers sought to accumulate an objective body of facts regarding sex. They employed first hand interviews to gather this data. This volume is based upon histories of approximately 5,300 males which were collected during a fifteen year period. This text describes the methodology, sampling, coding, interviewing, statistical analyses, and then examines factors and sources of sexual outlet.

Yes, Charles Kinsey is indeed behind the Kinsey scale that has done so much for the LGBTQ+ community.

Their Finest Hour (1949), The Grand Alliance (1950), and Closing the Ring (1951) by Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill's six-volume history of the cataclysm that swept the world remains the definitive history of the Second World War. Lucid, dramatic, remarkable both for its breadth and sweep and for its sense of personal involvement, it is universally acknowledged as a magnificent reconstruction and is an enduring, compelling work that led to his being awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1953. 

The European Philosophers from Descartes to Nietzsche by Monroe C. Beardsley (1960)

In so far as we reflect upon ourselves and our world, and what we are doing in it, says the editor of this anthology, we are all philosophers. And therefore we are very much concerned with what the twelve men represented in this book--the major philosophers on the Continent of Europe--have to say to us, to help us build our own philosophy, to think things out in our own way. For the issues that we face today are partly determined by the work of thinkers of earlier generations, and no other time is more important to the development of Western thought than is the 250-year period covered by this anthology. Monroe. C. Beardsley, Professor of Philosophy at Swarthmore College, has chosen major works, or large selections from them, by each man, with supplementary passages to amplify or clarify important points. These include: Descartes - Discourse on Method (Descartes), Thoughts (Pascal), The Nature of Evil (Spinoza), The Relation Between Soul and Body (Leibniz), The Social Construct (Rousseau), Critique of Pure Reason (Kant), The Vocation of Man (Fichte), Introducciton to the Philosophy of History (Hegel), The World as Will and Idea (Schopenhauer), A General View of Positivism (Comte), The Analysis of Sensations and the Relation of the Physical to the Psychical (Mach), Beyond Good and Evil (Nietzsche).

The New Intelligent Man's Guide to Science by Isaac Asimov (1965)

Asimov tells the stories behind the science: the men and women who made the important discoveries and how they did it. Ranging from Galilei, Achimedes, Newton and Einstein, he takes the most complex concepts and explains it in such a way that a first-time reader on the subject feels confident on his/her understanding. Assists today's readers in keeping abreast of all recent discoveries and advances in physics, the biological sciences, astronomy, computer technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, and other sciences.

The Heavenly City of the 18th Philosophers by Carl L. Becker (1932) (1962 reprint)

Here a distinguished American historian challenges the belief that the eighteenth century was essentially modern in its temper. In crystalline prose Carl Becker demonstrates that the period commonly described as the Age of Reason was, in fact, very far from that; that Voltaire, Hume, Diderot, and Locke were living in a medieval world, and that these philosophers “demolished the Heavenly City of St. Augustine only to rebuild it with more up-to-date materials.” In a new foreword, Johnson Kent Wright looks at the book’s continuing relevance within the context of current discussion about the Enlightenment.

I find the particular choice of adding this book very curious and on brand, since it explores the idea that philosophers of the Enlightenment very much resembled religious dogma/faith in their structure and purpose. Just... A+ of the props department to not just add any kind of book on philosophy anthology.

Herod The Great by Michael Grant (1971)

The Herod of popular tradition is the tyrannical King of Judaea who ordered the Massacre of the Innocents and died a terrible death in 4 BC as the judgment of God. But this biography paints a much more complex picture of this contemporary of Mark Antony, Cleopatra, and the Emperor Augustus. Herod devoted his life to the task of keeping the Jews prosperous and racially intact. To judge by the two disastrous Jewish rebellions that occurred within a hundred and fifty years of his death -- those the Jews called the First and Second Roman Wars -- he was not, in the long run, completely successful. For forty years Herod walked the most precarious of political tightropes. For he had to be enough of a Jew to retain control of his Jewish subjects, and enough of a pro-Roman to preserve the confidence of Rome, within whose territory his kingdom fell. For more than a quarter of a century he was one of the chief bulwarks of Augustus' empire in the east. He made Judaea a large and prosperous country. He founded cities and built public works on a scale never seen before: of these, recently excavated Masada is a spectacular example. And he did all this in spite of a continuous undercurrent of protest and underground resistance. The numerous illustrations presents portraits and coins, buildings and articles of everyday use, landscapes and fortresses, and subsequent generations' interpretations of the more famous events, actual and mythical, of Herod's career.

Readings in the Philosophy of Art and Aesthetics compiled by Milton Charles Nahm (1975)

A college level comprehensive anthology of essays written on the arts and the field of aesthetic philosophy.

The Mustard Seed: Discourses on the Sayings of Jesus Taken from the Gospel According to Thomas by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (1975)

This timely book explores the wisdom of the Gnostic Jesus, who challenges our preconceptions about the world and ourselves. Based on the Gospel of Thomas, the book recounts the missing years in Jesus’ life and his time in Egypt and India, learning from Egyptian secret societies, then Buddhist schools, then Hindu Vedanta. Each of Jesus' original sayings is the "seed" for a chapter of the book; each examines one aspect of life — birth, death, love, fear, anger, and more — counterpointed by Osho’s penetrating comments and responses to questions from his audience.

(You don't know how fulfilling it was to find some of these books and just sit there like "oh my god, yessss, he'd SO read that".)

A Third Testament by Malcolm Muggeridge (1976)

A modern pilgrim explores the spiritual wanderings of Augustine, Pascal, Blake, Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Bonhoeffer. A Third Testament brings to life seven men whose names are familiar enough, but whose iconoclastic spiritual wanderings make for unforgettable reading. Muggeridge's concise biographies are an accessible and manageable introduction to these spiritual giants who carried on the testament to the reality of God begun in the Old and New Testaments. - St. Augustine, a headstrong young hedonist and speechwriter who turned his back on money and prestige in order to serve Christ - Blaise Pascal, a brilliant mathematician who pursued scientific knowledge but warned people against thinking they could live without God - William Blake, a magnificent artist-poet who pled passionately for the life of the spirit and warned of the blight that materialism would usher in - Soren Kierkegaard, a renegade philosopher who spent most of his life at odds with the church, and insisted that every person must find his own way to God - Fyodor Dostoevsky, a debt-ridden writer and sometime prisoner who found, in the midst of squalor and political turmoil, the still small voice of God - Leo Tolstoy, a grand old novelist who swung between idealism and depression, loneliness and fame and a duel awareness of his sinfulness and God s grace - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor whose writings and agonized involvement in a plot to kill Hitler cost him his life, but continue to inspire millions

Portraits: The photography of Carl Van Vechten (1978)

Can't find a file but you can borrow it from archive.com in the link provided.

During his career as a photographer, Carl Van Vechten’s subjects, many of whom were his friends and social acquaintances, included dancers, actors, writers, artists, activists, singers, costumiers, photographers, social critics, educators, journalists, and aesthetes. [...] As a promoter of literary talent and a critic of dance, theater, and opera, Carl Van Vechten was as interested in the cultural margin as he was in the day’s most acclaimed and successful people. His diverse subjects give a sense of both Carl Van Vechten’s interests and his considerable role in defining the cultural landscape of the twentieth century; among his many sitters one finds the leading lights of the Harlem Renaissance, the premier actors and writers of the American stage, the world’s greatest opera stars and ballerinas, the most important and influential writers of the day, among many others.

Report of the Shroud of Turin by John H Heller (1983)

Heller, while a man of science, was nevertheless a devout man (Southern Baptist). He viewed his task concerning The Shroud with great scepticism; there have been far too many hoaxes in the world of religion. The book describes in great detail the events leading up to the team's conviction that the Shroud was genuine; last - not least - being Heller and Adler's verification of "heme" (blood) and the inexplicable "burned image" of the crucified man. Although carbon dating indicates that the image is not 2000 years old and that the cloth is from the Middle Ages, there is not enough evidence to disprove Heller's assertion that the Shroud is indeed genuine.

Context for those who may not know (though I doubt it's necessary): The shroud of Turin "is a length of linen cloth that bears a faint image of the front and back of a man. It has been venerated for centuries, especially by members of the Catholic Church, as the actual burial shroud used to wrap the body of Jesus of Nazareth after his crucifixion, and upon which Jesus's bodily image is miraculously imprinted."

It is a very controversial subject matter and I definitely don't know that from going to an Opus Dei school since the day I was born till the day I graduated high school.

Mysticism, Psychology and Oedipus by Israel Regardie (1985)

I've tried my hardest but despite many Israel Regardie books being on the world wide web, I can't find a copy of this specific one.

Mysticism, Psychology and Oedipus, from the Small Gems series is one of these mysterious alchemys which Regardie and Spiegelman crafted for the serious student of mysticism. Mysticism, Psychology and Oedipus by Dr. Israel Regardie and his friend, world renowned Jungian Psychologist, J. Marvin Spiegelman, Ph.D. was created to reach the serious student at the intersecting paths of magic, mysticism and psychology. While each area of study overlaps they also maintain their own individual paths of truth. One of Regardie’s greatest gifts was his rare ability to combine these difficult and diverse subjects and make them understandable.

Domesday Book Through Nine Centuries by Elizabeth M. Hallam (1986)

In 1086 a great survey of landholding in England was carried out on the orders of William the Conqueror, and its results were recorded in the two volumes, which, within less than a century, were to acquire the name of Domesday, or the Book of Judgment 'because its decisions, like those of the last Judgment, are unalterable'. This detailed survey of the kingdom, unprecedented at that time in its scope, gives us an extraordinarily vivid impression of the life of the eleventh century.

The following two are a fuck up on the props department part because they were published after 1987 but we'll forgive them because they were not expecting for me to do all this to figure out the titles of these books, I'm sure:

The One Who Set Out to Study Fear by Peter Redgrove (1989)

This book barely exists physically, rest assured it does not exist online... LOL.

The author of The Wise Wound presents here a re-telling of Grimm's famous fairy tales, written in a manner and spirit more suited to the present day. Each story is rooted in the original, but cast in an energetic style that is both disrespectful and humorous. 

Essential Papers on Masochism by Margaret Ann Fitzpatrick Hanly (1995)

The contested psychoanalytic concept of masochism has served to open up pathways into less-explored regions of the human mind and behavior. Here, rituals of pain and sexual abusiveness prevail, and sometimes gruesome details of unconscious fantasies are constructed out of psychological pain, desperate need, and sexually excited, self- destructive violence. In this significant addition to the "Essential Papers in Psychoanalysis" series, Margaret Ann Fitzpatrick Hanly presents an anthology of the most outstanding writings in the psychoanalytic study of masochism. In bringing these essays together, Dr. Fitzpatrick Hanly expertly combines classic and contemporary theories by the most respected scholars in the field to create a varied and integrated volume. This collection features papers by S. Nacht, R. Loewenstein, Victor Smirnoff, Sigmund Freud, Jacques Laplanche, Robert Bak, Leonard Shengold, K. Novick, J. Novick, S. Coen, Margaret Brenman, Esther Menaker, S. Lorand, M. Balint, Bernhard Berliner, Charles Brenner, Helene Deutsch, Annie Reich, Marie Bonaparte, Jessica Benjamin, S.L. Olinick, Arnold Modell, Betty Joseph, and Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel.

Let's not forget another book we know has been present in his shelves at some point:

Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe (1929)

It is Wolfe's first novel, and is considered a highly autobiographical American coming-of-age story. The character of Eugene Gant is generally believed to be a depiction of Wolfe himself. The novel briefly recounts Eugene's father's early life, but primarily covers the span of time from Eugene's birth in 1900 to his definitive departure from home at the age of 19. The setting is a fictionalization of his home town of Asheville, North Carolina, called Altamont in the novel.

And Ron Nyswaner mentioned in a podcast (might be this one? I'm not sure) that he scrapped from the script a line where Tim recommends this poem at some point:

He specially emphasized the line "If equal affection cannot be, Let the more loving one be me".

And lastly, if anyone wanted to know:

His copy of the bible is the Revised Standard Version by Thomas Nelson from either 1952 or 1953.

Because why the hell not figure out what specific translation of the holy bible a fictional character was basing his beliefs on — as if the set designers cared nearly as much as I do.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Lol remember the early days when there was an about-even split between people who thought that Gabriel would be Hawkmoth and people who thought Alim Kubdel would be Hawkmoth? Good times, good times. Speaking of Alix’s dad, how would you have had the show pan out with him being Hawkmoth instead?

I wasn't around to see it in real time, but I browse fanfics in rough chronological order starting from the beginning of a fandom, so I'm aware that this theory was a thing because I've read a good portion of the fics that were written pre Origins. (AO3 has a last update filter if you want to pair down your options for a less overwhelming selection or just enjoy fics from before certain plot points came to be.)

While I'm aware of the theory, I'm a little confused as to where it came from. Alim only has two brief appearances in season one. The first is from the start of The Pharaoh. In it, we see Alim telling Jalil that historical artifacts are not meant for testing crackpot theories:

Mr. Kubdel: Jalil, these types of frescoes are almost always the illustration of a legend. They called it a legend for a reason... Jalil: That's what everyone thinks. But I know it's real. I can prove it! Mr. Kubdel: Really? And exactly how are you going to prove it? Jalil: I just need to get my hands on Tutankhamun's scepter and recite the spell! Mr. Kubdel: Are you serious? Don't even think of touching that scepter. I'd lose my job on the spot. It's a priceless historical object! Not a toy! Jalil: Come on, dad! We have to try out the spell! What if Tutankhamun had found out how to bring people back to life? Mr. Kubdel: Listen, Jalil! That's enough! Get your head out of those papyrus scrolls and focus on the real world! This one! (leaves)

And his other appearance is from the start of Timebreaker. In it, Alim gives Alix the watch that is later revealed to be her miraculous:

Alix: They're Marinette's parents. You know, one of the chicks I hang out with? Mr. Kubdel: Yes, I remember. They make the best bread in the whole of Paris. (he notices one of Alix's sneakers) Couldn't you have made more of an effort to dress nicely? Alix: What do you mean? I took off my cap. (points to her cap) Mr. Kubdel: But this is a special day. Alix: Well, it's only a birthday. Mr. Kubdel: No, this is a special birthday (reaches inside his jacket pocket and brings out a watch) This family heirloom was made by one of our ancestors many, many years ago. It's been passed down from one generation to the next, on their 15th birthday. And today, it's your turn to inherit it. Alix: It's pretty sweet, dad. But I've already got a watch, synced up to my smartphone. Mr. Kubdel: But sometimes there's more to things than meets the eye. Let's just say that our ancestor was… (opens the watch) Ahead of his time. (Alix gasps) Of course, I'd understand if you'd rather me buy you a new pair of rollerblades. Alix: No, Dad! I'm stoked to have it. It's awesome, thank you! (her phone rings) Mr. Kubdel: Are your friends waiting? Alix: Yeah, but I don't wanna bail on you. It's cool. Mr. Kubdel: No, no, go ahead. (Alix stands up and grabs her cap) Now, take good care of it.

Based on these two scenes, Alim doesn't read like a villain to me. He reads like some sort of protector. If I had to pick a role for him, it would be the guardian, not the villain. After all, what better way to find missing miraculous than to go into a field that has you informed about all sorts of interesting archaeological discoveries? The fact that he's handing out a miraculous only elevates that potential, especially since Alim was smart enough to give it to the kid who was suited to be a hero while leaving Jali is be his conspiracy-theory-loving self.

Another variation of that is to have him (or Alix's other parent) be the rabbit holder and Alim is passing on the torch to Alix because it's time to start her training. He did say that the watch is handed down through their family and, if there's one miraculous that would need a lot of training, it's the rabbit. Plus a history related field is a perfect fit for a rabbit!

Of course, a villain might also go into a field like curation in order to find miraculous, but I'm really not getting villain vibes here. Part of the reason Gabriel makes such a good villain is that he has a clear, understandable goal: bringing back his wife. Alim has nothing like that, so to make him into a villain, I'd have to come up with a motivation for him and the only thing that I can think of is wanting to bring back his own seemingly missing spouse. That's not a very interesting route, though, since it's just a copy-paste of Gabriel's plot and I'd want Alim to be something unique unless you wanted to swap Adrien and Alix for some reason and just tell the same story with a focus on different characters.

I mean, you could make Alim have a motivation like protecting historical artifacts, but then why would he want the ladybug and the black cat? What wish would he be trying to make? Rewriting history won't protect it! I could maybe see a goal of rewriting history to stop a bunch of atrocities, but any historian would know that undoing a given set of atrocities means massive changes to history and it would likely just lead to different atrocities. You'd have to change how humans work or something equally messed up to make a world without atrocities, which makes it a pretty poor motivation as it would make Alim too cartoonish to really work. He'd feel like such a massive step down from Gabriel's complexity...

All of this is why I don't think that the show should have continued post Gabriel. I just don't see what motivation you can give a villain that isn't either derivative or a cartoonish downgrade. "I want to resurrect my wife" just hits different from "I want to take over the world."

To make Alim a villain in his own right, you'd have to redesign major elements of the show. I think a character with his background would work well as a master thief who collects historical artifacts for his own collection or to sell them so that he can live in luxury, but I can't picture his character sending out akumas to terrorize Paris. Ladybug and Chat Noir would go from action heroes to something more stealthy. Spies who are trying to track down Alim and stop his network, returning artifacts to their rightful owners. Not a bad concept for a show, but too different from Miraculous for me to pretend it's a good concept for a series reboot.

[adalinda-selwyn]

𝑨𝒅𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒂 𝑺𝒆𝒍𝒘𝒚𝒏

⚘ The Heroine of Hogwarts ⚘

𓆩⟡𓆪 Basic Info 𓆩⟡𓆪

Name: Adalinda Marie Selwyn, although she pronounces her name more like Adalin (Ah-duh-lin). Her most popular nickname is Ada (Ah-duh)

Title(s): The Heroine of Hogwarts

Birthday: March 12th, 1875

Age: 16

Gender: Female

Ethnicity: British and Chinese

𓆩⟡𓆪 Appearance 𓆩⟡𓆪

Hair Style: Slightly wavy hair, usually worn down but sometimes put in a makeshift ponytail, especially in tense situations

Hair Color: Dark brown, almost black

Eye Color: Dark brown

Skin Tone: Warm beige

Body Type: Slightly toned from running around protecting the Scottish Highlands

Height: 5’4” or around 163 cm

Clothing Style: Dresses practically in the sense that skirts are off limits when planning on taking down any enemies. Enjoys wearing skirts and cute outfits. Otherwise, will wear anything she finds in order to make a bizarre outfit for her own amusement.

Accessories:

Always wears her necklace with its emerald pendant

When she wears gloves, they are black and preferably fingerless so she can still firmly grip her wand

𓆩⟡𓆪 Magic 𓆩⟡𓆪

Blood Status: Unknown

House: Slytherin

Wand: Hornbeam, Dragon Heartstring, Surprisingly Swishy, Twelve and a half inches

Special Ability: Ancient magic - mostly known by others because of the thunderstorms she can summon

Patronus: Nightjar

Polyjuice: Clearspring green, tastes like a mix of lemongrass and mint

Amortentia: Chamomile, Freshly cut lilacs, Nectarine, Old books

Boggart: Jeers, or even worse, silence of loved ones directed at her from cloaked figure(s)

𓆩⟡𓆪 Academics 𓆩⟡𓆪

Best subject: DADA

Favorite subject: DADA and COMC

Favorite teacher: Hecat, Sharp, and Garlick

Worst subject: Divination

Least favorite subject: Transfiguration and History of Magic

Least favorite teacher: Binns

As a student:

Almost always arrives just in the nick of time

Somehow balanced saving the Wizarding World and schoolwork during fifth-year

Teacher’s pet despite not trying to be one (it's because she always wants to show the professor her appreciation for them, so she thanks them after every lesson)

𓆩⟡𓆪 Personality 𓆩⟡𓆪

Traits: Compassionate, loyal, protective, strategic, resilient, self-sacrificing, energetic (due to either too much or not enough sleep), sarcastic (rudely sarcastic when upset), rash (when already angry), “motherly”, overbearing, overthinker

Likes: Winter (as long as she’s bundled up, otherwise it’s Fall/Autumn), sleeping (despite lacking it basically 24/7), sweets or food in general (put anything in front of her and she will practically inhale it), cooking, reading, watching the sky, playing the piano, lighting things on fire, dueling Sebastian, hyping up her friends

Dislikes: Seeing her loved ones upset or in pain, smelling/feeling dirty, roaches, flies (she will go out of her way to kill it, same thing applies for mosquitos)

Fears: Being abandoned, becoming bad, roaches (will kill it but freak out while doing so)

MBTI: ISFJ-T (The Defender)

Zodiac: Pisces sun, taurus moon, sagittarius ascending

𓆩⟡𓆪 Relationships 𓆩⟡𓆪

Parents: Mr. Selwyn and Mrs. Selwyn (Presumed dead) (No, her dad is not Silvanus Selwyn)

Relatives: None were ever mentioned

Paternal Figure: Professor Fig (Deceased)

Love Interest: She needs time to sort out her own life before getting around to her love life.

Friends (in chronological order from first to most recent): Ominis Gaunt, Sebastian Sallow, Natsai (Natty) Onai, Lucan Brattleby, Garreth Weasley, Poppy Sweeting, Amit Thakkar, Adelaide Oakes, Imelda Reyes (took a second to warm up to her), Leander Prewett (didn't like him for a hot minute)

Acquaintances (in closeness from first to last): Anne Sallow, Lenora Everleigh, Nellie Oggspire, Samantha Dale, Nerida Roberts, Arthur Plummly, Richard Jackdaw

Pet(s): Tayla (and any magical creature rescued that really doesn't want to go back into nature)

Tayla is a tawny owl that was formerly the school's

Around turning 13 weeks old, she watched Adalinda barge into the Owlery to find field guide pages

Tayla followed Adalinda out and around the school. When Adalinda realized Tayla wouldn't leave, she got permission from (passionately begged) Professor Fig to keep and name her

[cdr2002]

Introducing Mortal Kombat Odyssey

I wanted to come out here and announce my future big project. Mortal Kombat Odyssey is my fanfic reboot of the Mortal Kombat franchise featuring my own take on the MK universe disconnected from any other media, unlike my previous fanfic, Mortal Kombat Requiem.

I’ve been a fan of this franchise for years now and had a lot of ideas and thoughts and takes over the years, and I think it’s finally time to start putting it all together.

So, what will this entail?

Mortal Kombat Odyssey is going to be my longform take on the overall arc of the Midway Saga, all the way from MK1 (the real one) through to Armageddon and beyond, for as long as I feel I have stories to tell.

This is going to be a lot of my headcanons and character interpretations put to the page and expanded into something which I will give my full effort to making the best story I can put out for you all.

WHERE TO FIND: when I begin writing for Odyssey, it’ll be posted to my fanfic.net profile which I’ll link here: https://m.fanfiction.net/u/13042529/

Different sections of this project will be uploaded as different stories on my FFN profile with authors notes letting you all know when things intersect. I promise to make my very best effort to ensure things don’t get confusing.

For this saga I’ll actually be going in chronological order rather than simply following the release order of the games I’m adapting, starting with the early years of Shujinko’s quest for the Kamidogu, following into Special Forces and Mythologies, and then leading into the classic island tournament stuff.

I’ll be pulling on a variety of influences, primarily Midway MK but also elements of NRS and adaptations, with an effort to give some attention to every corner of the MK universe that I can.

In addition to the story itself, I’m going to be releasing character bios for every character that I’ll be including in this project, right here on tumblr! This will serve to give a general idea of a lot of my character takes going in as well as convey backstories. Visually, these bios will be accompanied by designs for the characters I’ve made using the character creator HeroForge, similar to my friend @apepthehero, who’s OCs, along with the characters of other close friends of mine, I have gained permission to include, and who I think will add a lot to these stories in the future.

Following this announcement, I’m going to try to get started on working on those bios as sort of a preview.

So basically that’s the plan, if you’re reading this thank you so much. If you’re interested, please stay tuned! I’m going to try to get things moving in the near future with those character bios, so I hope you all enjoy.

[consumeroflemoans]

AIGHT YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS

Overanalyzing the new Honkai Star Rail trailer in reference to Greek Mythology because I am mentally ill.

The world begins with Chaos. Gods cast down the 'core flames' in which titans are born. Three carve the heavens and earth, three weave fate, three molded life, and three 'guide calamity's gate'.

In Greek mythology, there were twelve children of Uranus and Gaia that were the Titans. Assuming the unspecified 'Gods' are those two, we can pretty cleanly sort the titans.

Hyperion, Tethys, and Oceanus are the most likely ones to carve heaven and earth being the sun and water-related titans.

Phoebe, Mnemosyne, and Theia are most likely the weavers of fate, being focused on prophecy and intellect, memory, and sight and prophecy respectfully. Curiously enough, Mnemosyne can parallel the Remembrance fairly well

Rhea, Iapetus, and most likely Coeus are the ones that molded life. They focus on fertility/motherhood, mortality, and intellect. (Not much is known about Coeus so take that with a pinch of salt)

This leaves Crius, Cronus, and Themis to 'guide calamity's gate'. Crius is the titan of constellations and many of his descendants specialize in magic. Given Hoyo's track record with things in space and constellations relating to gods/powerful beings, I think this works. Then there's time and justice for the other two. Time is fairly straight forwards, especially considering the Finality's aeon is one that travels through time. My thought process on Justice focuses on the theory that if you do something wrong, it will lead you to calamity.

This all being said, I'm not sure if the actual identities of the Titans will be important for Amphoreus, but it would be interesting if the characters parallel these Titans or their ideals.

--

"These titans' blaze enlightened civilizations" possibly references the myth of Prometheus (despite this being out of chronological order).

The trailer references the Golden Age, which in Greek Mythology was a time when there was an abundance in everything and all living things lived in harmony. This was when Cronus ruled the world and the well-known Olympian Gods did not exist.

From beyond the sky came a heretical black tide...driving the Titans to madness and the mortals to mutual war.

Considering the chronology of Greek myths, this is most likely referencing the Titanomachy, the war of the Olympian gods versus the Titans. This destroyed the Golden Age and brought about the Silver Age, a time where mortals were immature and continuously sinned. This is likely the 'age of darkness' referenced by the trailer. (It could also be that the Silver and Bronze ages are combined for simplicity's sake. The Bronze Age brought about a warlike and rageful race of humans)

Within Greek Mythology, the Olympian gods are often painted to be on the 'good side' of the war. This telling of the myth makes them out to be the bad guys who brought about an age of ruin.

"Flow, golden blood flow. Converge into a boiling river that flows to the heroic heirs of this world."

Alright, and now we are officially into the Age of Heroes. These humans were actually respected by the olympian gods and this brought about demi-gods. These demigods are likely a thing on Amphoreus considering the 'golden blood flowing into heroic heirs'.

Aglaea the Goldweaver: You must gently caress the holy city's silken web and harken to the sounds and voices of destiny.

Aglaea is one of the three Charities along with Euphrosyne (happiness) and Thalia (abundance). Considering Aglaea is already tied to the Remembrance, this is throwing so many conspiracy theories through my head about how she could be related to the Abundance or the Elation. She is known for being Aphrodite's attendant and messenger, which could also tie her to the Beauty, something I theorized would be present in Amphoreus.

The narrator within the trailer seems to be placing her into a position of power, or at least giving her a task that relates to fate.

There shall be the three faced messenger traversing through myriad doors bearing tidings to you from hundreds of worlds.

Tribbie is interesting to me because she seems to combine two different gods. Janus is the god of doorways, journies, and duality. He's most known for having two faces. This 'third face' could be referencing the addition of being a messenger, but I'm not entirely sure.

Anaxagoras the Foolish has enough knowledge to refute faith and to stir up a torrent capable of slaying gods.

Anaxagoras aka Anaxa according to the video description is so fascinating to me. The original philosopher Anaxagoras is the one that first PROPOSED THE CONCEPT OF NOUS. This is pretty much confirming that the Erudition is going to be playing a big part on Amphoreus. Also I am fascinated that he is called 'the Foolish' within this trailer. Could this also be referencing a connection to Aha or perhaps this means he is the one stirring up the conflict within Amphoreus in the first place. Either way, he is no doubt going to be a big player.

Go seek the priest who severs dawn from dusk and let the sky become the slumbering cot from which she wakes.

Hyacine is most likely a refence to Hyacinth, a prince loved by Apollo. I don't have many theories about her other than her obvious connection to the sun and perhaps dreams as well.

Make him roar, Mydeimos the Undying. Pierce the enemy's king with Kremnos' blood.

Mydeimous aka Mydei according to the description is most likely a reference to Deimos. He was a child of Ares and Aphrodite and the god of dread and terror. He has a brother Phobos who is the personification of fear and panic, and I'm curious to see if he's mentioned at all.

The name Kremnos is curious to me. It's the greek word for ravine or deep hole. This could relate to the underworld or perhaps Tartarus? It could also be a reference to Cronus/Kronos who was cut into pieces and thrown into Tartarus. Either way he's fighting something with what is most likely a god's blood.

Set her in motion, Cifera the Fleet-Footed. Command the frozen time to once again flow.

Cifera aka Cipher is a massive mystery to me. She's likely related to Cronus considering her ability to 'command time', but her name isn't related to any gods or heroes. Cipher could relate her to riddles or puzzles. My best guess is she might be related to the Sphinx in some way considering her cat themes

And that servant of the Hand of Shadow, the daughter of River Styx. If you grant her the right to embrace, then even frozen death will sleep peacefully at her fingertips.

Castorice is another mystery to me. She's related to the underworld considering the mention of shadows and the River Styx. It could be she's a combination of several of Nyx's (Night's) children. Many dieties of destruction, death, pain, and sleep have been created by Nyx, which relates to the narration of Castorice.

The actual children of Styx are Nike (Victory), Zelus (Glory), Kratos (Strength) and Bia (Violence), none of which seem to fit Castorice well.

You will hear the sound of the ocean's abyss reverberating through the storm. You will see outlanders from faraway realms visiting under the veil of gloom.

Considering the similarities in outlines, these characters are most likely the very last or very first shadow figure. If we go by the order of names in the description, this is likely Cerydra or Hysilens. I can't find much information on either name. The closest thing to Cerydra is the Ceryneian hind, a sacred deer to Artemis. Hysilens seems to relate quite a bit to the word silence and possibly the goddess Hesychia.

Until the journey's end when the Titans of old have all fallen and the nameless new king ascends the throne alongside countless heroes to embark on the grand mission of deliverance.

Annnd finally we're onto Phainon. He's definitely a reference to Phaenon, who was created by Prometheus and is known to be very beautiful. Once he was discovered by Zeus, he was made immortal and placed among 'wandering stars' aka planets. The planet he's most associated with is Saturn, aka Cronus.

There are two more characters that are shadow figures and also have their names blanked out in the description.

The children of mankind known as the Chrysos Heirs.

Chrysos means gold, a reference to the golden blood from earlier.

There's quite a few references to core flames and the flame chase. This is likely a source of godly power, as flames initially belonged solely to the gods. I don't have a lot of theorization on this, but it's something to keep in mind.

Most 'Heroes Journeys' in the universe are just dice tosses THEY threw on a whim.

This quote from Herta is so curious to me because it implies an aeon influencing fate directly. Technically any aeon has the power, but not many do things on a whim. Could this be Aha? Someone like Mythus that influences reality? Or maybe it's referencing multiple aeons.

And last but not least, the mysterious girl named Cyrene at the end. She's pretty obviously a version of Elysia from Honkai Impact 3rd but I don't know her story, so I am not the best person to theorize on who she'll be in Star Rail

[hoenn-betadex]

Introduction

In October 2024, a massive data breach of Game Freak occurred, leaking tons of internal data for Pokemon, in what has been coined the "Teraleak".

As a big fan of beta/unused content in video games and Pokemon, I've always been extremely fascinated by the design work that goes behind each Pokemon, and how each generation seems to pick up its pieces a little differently.

In this blog, I'll be discussing each Pokemon in the Hoenn Pokedex, ordering and grouping them by their development history. We'll take a deep dive into each one, and hopefully we can learn more about the development of Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire together!

This blog is heavily inspired by the amazing Asmorano's blog about Pokemon Gold/Silver's beta dex, which you can find here.

I'd like to give a special shoutout to TCRF and /vp/ for sorting through this data.

Timeline

Since we'll be going over each Pokemon, it only makes sense to order them Chronologically. This will give us a good sense of which Pokemon were designed first, what types of changes they went through, and more.

January 26, 2001 (Trademark Era)

A short list of Pokemon names that were trademarked on January 26, 2001, predating all leaked development files. These Pokemon are especially interesting, as they were designed and finished very quickly to begin advertising the games.

There are also two Pokemon who are exceptions to this, Duskull and Wynaut, who went through a similar process later in development (September 25, 2001).

August 28, 2001 (Monster Era)

The earliest pieces of concept art for Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. This collection of monstrous designs are mostly dated for July 29, 2002, but one of the images predates the rest by an entire year! This is almost certainly evidence that this entire batch are actually from August 28th, 2001, which would make sense considering the extreme art style difference.

November 1st, 2001 (Voting Area)

The first set of actual sprites for Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire. This is a "first draft" point in development, with many designs being unfinished. During this time in development, internal polls were conducted to see the opinions on designs, and some even include short notes about the Pokemon.

March 25-31, 2002 (Festa Demo)

The next batch of Pokemon is significantly smaller, with many Pokemon, both beta and final, being removed. While it's possible this is just an incomplete data set, it's more likely that this was an attempt to finalize a small roster to showcase at the Pokemon 2002 Festa Demo, which would go on to show off the games. Since this demo was shown off starting on June 10, 2002, it would make sense for them to be finishing off a set of Pokemon to prepare for the event.

It should be noted that this is still a work in progress roster, since Volbeat is missing, despite appearing in the Festa Demo.

July 2002 Scratchpads

This is a set of scratchpad files the developers used to draw up drafts of different sprites. By this point, the final Pokedex had been settled on (besides 5 cut Pokemon who only existed in the data briefly.)

Unfortunately, these files are missing dates, but we can assume they come from July-October 2002, considering these are later revisions than the Festa Demo, but still predating the final designs from November 2002.

The reason I suspect July is due to Pokedex files dated July 17, 2002 that has a nearly completed Pokedex, with only a few missing/changed Pokemon.

Since these are scratchpads meant for testing, there are usually multiple drafts, unfinished sprites, or even completely different Pokemon making appearances!

I'll be going through each era of the game's development, looking at each Pokemon from their initial draft up until their final designs.

I will be using the following format (shamelessly ripped from Asmorano) for each Pokemon. For Kecleon, we have the earliest version of the official artwork uploaded online, as well as every rendition of its sprite. The unused "Other" row will be used in case there's anything extra to put.

Hope you're all as excited as I am to go on this journey!

[bigalockwood]

Hey hey Lia 💜,

I only just realised that you were doing the fanfic asks, so I am a little late, but I am wondering about 8,17, 18, 27, 29 and 37 ( I know these are a lot of numbers, so feel free to just answer the ones you want to)

Wishing you a so wenig stressig wie möglich weekend!

Sophia thanks for sending so many!! I love talking about writing 💜💜💜

8) Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

This took me ages to decide. I'm actually not even proud of it because I think it is necessarily particularly well written, but because it's a topic I have very strong feelings about and it felt so validating when I saw how many people resonated with it!

“No, you misunderstand, they didn’t out me. They just asked me about my sexuality and, you know, it was necessary. It’s the sort of thing they’d have to ask me for damage control.”

“Wille, I get that your life can be sort of strange at times and that it often follows different rules and all that, but that is, by definition, still what it means to be outed. I’m glad it didn’t feel like another violation of your privacy to you, but they still shouldn’t have done that,” Simon said, vehemently.

[...] “I’m sorry. I wished people stopped acting like they have any right to know our sexualities. [....]

17) Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

Depends on the story! Royally Whipped I'm mostly writing in order since I don't have much time to write the chapters, so I'll only write down ideas for future scenes. For my new WIP I've written parts of different chapters already. In the chapters themselves I jump around and hardly every write one in chronological order.

18) Do you use any tools, like worksheets or outlines?

No. I have a very, very rough outline, but it mostly only has specific scenes or emotional stages I want to write towards. I never keep to any outlines and overthrow them within minutes after making them, so I no longer bother with them lmao.

27) How do you feel about collaborations?

I did one ages ago, when I was still in school. It was a lot of fun and I'd definitely be open for it again, but it certainly takes up more time and you need someone you can trust in.

29) If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

Honestly? The answer is none, just because I don't think I could do any of my favorite stories justice. Not because I think my writing is bad, but because I love them as much because of the special something they have thanks to the author who's written them. Wouldn't say no to a sequel or prequel written by them though asfdhsfdkja

37) Talk about your current wips.

I've briefly talked about my next projects here. But my BIG WIP's right now are Royally Whipped which is very close to being done (probably two more chapters) and then #Simon's revenge.

Some people have been asking for a social media chapter for RW, which is extremely flattering, and I love reading those, but don't even know how to begin putting one together. So, that might happen, if I ever get my shit together (or someone else volunteers to do it ahsjfdasj).

Simon's renevge is a AU where Wille isn't Prince (still rich tho) and meets Simon under... interesting circumstances. Simon is seeking revenge on someone else and poor Wille becomes emotional collateral damage. It'll be less fluffy than RW, though hopefully just as fun. It's very gremlin!simon (channelling all his dodgeball energy). I have a moodboard that I might post soon and maybe some snippets leading up to it's release, if anyone's interested.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Doctor Who, but Chronologically: 40

Okay, here we go boys: jumping ahead six years from Partition to 1953, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth Two, and wow, this episode hits extremely very differently when the last thing you watched was the Tale of the British Empire (Derogatory).

It's the Idiot's Lantern. At one point a character declares that even though they're losing the Empire, at least the coronation can still give us pride. Yikes.

Anyway, happily, we get Tennant and Rose, who have a lot of chemistry, but unfortunately this is a Mark Gatiss episode. Fortunately, it's edited by RTD, so it is much more interesting than it might have been. Unfortunately, it's still Gatiss trying to write a Spunky Woman, so inevitably, Rose has a shining moment of brilliance where she immediately spots that Evil TVs are stealing people's faces and wanders off to interview the guy responsible, only to be immediately imperilled and then absent for the rest of the episode, trapped inside a telly. Ah well. Could be worse, this could be Amy or River with Smith. Rose can at least pass the sexy lamp test. And doesn't get subjected to sentences like "Of course you're a psychopath, you're a woman."

So yeah, there's an alien that was executed, but rather than dying it made it into an electrical form and thence to 1950s televisions (this is not really explained.) It feeds on the electrical signals of human brains, which is pretty stupid, since it's inside TV sets which have a far higher voltage, but okay. It's planning to feed on the 20 million people who will watch the coronation, and thus have a body again. The Doctor thwarts it by... idk it's really unclear, just electrocuting it somehow in an extended scene that was way too thin on explanations to justify the number of "plot twists" it attempted. "Plot twist! Your wiring hasn't worked!" Okay but we are not electricians and this is fantasy electrical wiring, so this means nothing to us, Gatiss. Honestly though, as sci-fi plots go, it's... fine. Not amazing, but there are much worse.

The side plot revolves around one family - mum, dad, son and grandmother, except the grandmother is fed on and so doesn't have a face. In a series of very poorly acted and directed scenes, it is made painfully clear that the father is a violent domestic abuser, at one point promising to beat the gay out of his son. Nonetheless, in an absolutely baffling and utterly gross scene at the end, as his wife throws him out and he leaves in shame, Rose and the Doctor both tell the son that he nonetheless must forgive his abuser and make amends because "He's your dad." Rose even straight up says that not forgiving his abuser would make the son stupid. It is utterly, utterly unnecessary, and I am entirely baffled by what moral I was supposed to take away from it. I can only assume Gatiss was watching too much American telly when he wrote it? It's the sort of thing you see super commonly in American telly over here - "He's your dad! You have to forgive him, because he's your dad! Let's reconcile the strained father-son bond!" It's almost as common as a boxing episode, which American telly always has. Even Babylon 5 had a boxing episode. Even Leverage. They all do.

Anyway it's wank, and it takes what was otherwise a blandly inoffensive showing to Fuck Me What An Awful Episode.

Still no proper sign of why Rose is particularly special! I mean they have GREAT chemistry, but it's all in the acting, really, though it's increasingly clear that she's maybe the most people-focused of all of them (except Donna). Sigh. Maybe we'll get a non-Moffat/Gatiss Rose episode soon, and then we can finally know.

Meanwhile, shout out to the best actor of the whole episode: Cardiff, doing amazingly in it's starring role as Totally London, Honest. Funny story! I remember this episode being filmed, because my mate Emyr accidentally wandered into the street they used to film the street party, and had the surreal experience of going "Hang on... why are there flags? Why... is it the 50s? Am I in the 1950s? How has this happened? What's that box - oh it's the TARDIS I see what's happened."

(This has happened to me TWICE in St Ffagans and once in the Brangwyn Hall. Common South Walian experience.)

Ummm... no plot threads! I don't think. None resolved, none added. Well, that's about right for Gatiss.

“She” (an unknown person) is returning (perhaps River returned as Missy. Maybe Me? Maybe Clara???!)

There is something on Donna’s back

An entire planet, Pyrovilia, just… disappeared, somehow. (Maybe because the TARDIS is exploding??? Saturnine was also lost, and that WAS because of the TARDIS exploding. The lion man’s planet was also lost but he was a bit of a knob about it if I’m honest. The Thijarian planet was destroyed by some sort of impact)

Amy is maybe dead (she’s not)

The Doctor has been cubed (he’s out, but how?)

River is possibly blown up  (unless she’s Missy. Nope: she is definitely not blown up)

The TARDIS has blown up  (It’s fine now. Except it’s sort of melting now because it’s corrupted, but it’s fine again)

The universe appears to have ended  (the universe is back again)

The Doctor has employed(?) Nardole

(And Nardole was “reassembled???” Nardole had glass nipples and invisible hair?? WHAT THE FUCK IS HE)

There’s a vault in the TARDIS and it contains Missy but we don’t know why (sometimes she knocks for the bants)

There’s an immortal Viking girl now. Her name is Me and she’s now looking after the people the Doctor abandons

Why was Rory entirely unconcerned by the entire world suddenly going silent when that is Not Normal and should have been, at the very least, extremely disconcerting?

What did the Doctor do to Queen Lizzie One?

Why is Amy seeing a one-eyed woman in a vanishing window? (She’s with the Silents, but we don’t know why Amy saw her)

Why is Amy’s pregnancy inconclusive? (Maybe because the baby had Time Lord DNA?)

Who is Sarah-Jane Smith?

How is the Doctor Bill’s teacher and why/where does he have an office?

What is going on with the Cyber War and the Cyberium???

What happened with the Other Cyber War?

What happened with the Third War that deleted the void?

Why does Rose seem particularly important?

What order do these Doctors go in? (Eccleston, Tennant, uncertain, Smith, Capaldi, Whittaker)

Which companion just… forgot the Doctor, and how?

Yaz and Vinder are about to die as Mori/Mwri/Muuri

There is a Lupari shield around Earth.

What’s a Time War?

What’s the Rift?

What’s Bad Wolf?

In which war did the Doctor become a war criminal, and how?

Who is the Master?

Why has Amy forgotten Rory? How did she forget a Dalek invasion?

Is Rory plastic or not?

Why is the Doctor sulking on a cloud?

How exactly does the Doctor have a cloud?

What exactly happened with Strax to, uh, tame him?

Which friend killed Strax?

Which friend brought Strax back?

Where did this lesbian lizard and human couple come from?

What happened with Clara as Souffle Girl and the Daleks?

How does Clara actually join?

Why so many Claras?

Why is Missy apparently in robo-heaven?

Why is probably!Missy pushing Clara and the Doctor together?

What is Trensilor and what happened there?

Who is Handles?

The Doctor is about to be dissolved by a beautiful geode man

The universe is being crushed by the Flux

Will the Doctor open the fobwatch?

Sontarans are invading Earth again

Who is Kate?

Who is Osgood? Another name of Clara’s again?

The fuck is the deal with the Grand Serpent

Does Martha get to go to an ice cream planet with 12-fingered massage aliens?

How did the Doctor forget Clara?

Who is Bill’s puddle girlfriend Heather?

How did Nardole die?

When does Bill get Cyberman-ed and die?

When does the Doctor shrink and enter a Dalek called Rusty?

Whittaker is falling to her death rn

Was that ring relevant?

Does anyone know the Doctor’s name?

When did Yaz talk to Dan about fancying the Doctor?

When did Dan talk to the Doctor about fancying Yaz?

What’s happening with the bees?

What happened with Donna’s ex and a giant spider?

What war wiped out the Daleks, and is it one of the ones already mentioned?

What did the Doctor mean when he said “The (Daleks) always live, while I lose everything?”

If Dalek Caan is the last Dalek left why are there more now?

How did the rest of the Time Lords die?

How and why did Amy melt?

What’s the question that will make silence fall?

Why do the Silents… want silence to fall?

How and why are Silents at war with the Doctor when he… hasn’t even heard of them?

How does Hitler get out of the cupboard?

What’s the significance of fish fingers and custard?

Why does the Doctor feel guilt about Rose, Martha and Donna?

What happened with the space whale?

When does Rory defend Amy for 2000 years?

How does the Doctor survive River

How does he erase himself from history

Did Captain Jack lose his memories to the same people as the Doctor? What did he lose?

When did the Doctor send the Daleks into a void to save the universe?

What’s with the weird crack in the wall and is it affecting memories?

Why do Amy and Rory think the Doctor is dead?

Is Matt Smith’s Doctor a tree racist?

[everywarriorsboard]

Some fan attempting the challenge of making a stimboard for (almost) every warrior cats character ever. main: @khazkat

xe/he/they, audhd, queer / plural.

cats are my special interest. been fixated on warriors since childhood

I am attempting to do this somewhat chronologically, so if I've missed a cat from a particular time period please tell me here. Any other concerns about credit or taking down posts, just shoot a message into my inbox.

CURRENT TIME PERIOD: Ancient / DoTC

This account is, if not obvious, NOT SPOILER FREE.

I am NOT doing:

nameless characters, OCs or any sort of request, or characters who are not cats

I AM doing:

Clans and other groups, deceased & living, all time periods/arcs, all books regardless of canonicity

All images are from the Warrior Cats Wiki unless credited otherwise.

You're free to tag my boards as kin/me irl/whatever, I don't mind.

[curiouslavellan]

hi it's me annoying you with my request to answer all of the ask game questions for the soupmates <3333 feel free to skip those that dont apply or you dont like tho :'D

you're never annoying <3 ty for still being The soupmates fan lol

Gonna put this under a cut because I skipped 0 questions and it got long

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

You lmao. As I've said, big part of why I'm actually writing it down! Re: the way I wrote it though, I've basically always written stuff with lots of POV switches, I like to see the differences between people's attitudes and levels of knowledge. If I ever write a story where everyone in it starts with all the same facts, I've probably been replaced by a pod person

2: What scene did you first put down?

I write chronologically, so that first scene with Ariel and Bethany was the first thing I wrote

3: What’s your favorite line of narration?

Ariel wasn’t the sort to leave things up to chance any more. Anyone could have seen, and anyone could have turned them in, so there were no fireballs or ice storms for them. No mage’s staff. In Kirkwall, it was all down to daggers and luck.  Sometimes that luck seemed too good to be true. Sometimes Ariel moved faster than a person really ought to be able to, and sometimes the idiots trying to kill them tripped over thin air. Only the paranoid would call that magic. 

Join me in my apostate Hawke as a rogue agenda

4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

When Justice in his chapter 1 section remarks on Wade and Herren being soulmates with

“I do not see it. This doesn’t happen to spirits,”

mostly because I immediately said "Ha, incorrect" to myself lmao. Justice himself obviously, but using Wade and Herren was an extra joke because idc what the creators said, if Herren is a desire demon in Darkspawn Chronicles, I believe that it's true for every timeline

5: What part was hardest to write?

Can I say the chapter I'm working on rn? I am being very picky about the first meeting because it's pretty essential in a soulmate au

6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

I've never written for this ot3 before, or actually published anything for Ariel or DA2 as a whole. It's fun to get into Kirkwall! Also there are some pretty big time jumps between scenes, which I have done before but not in stuff that follows a set plot like a video games, so it's neat to kind of work into the spaces in an existing timeline

7: Where did the title come from?

The song Out There from Hunchback of Notre Dame lmfao. I'm just glad it wasn't actually called omg they were soupmates at this point

8: Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?

Not really

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

Not for the overarching plot but I did have a Lot of back and forth over certain details like Anders and Karl's relationship, when different scenes happen and from whose POV, where this story ends, etc

10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

because I love them <3 more seriously, because I love Justice, and I'm sad he's barely a character in DA2, especially because he's so interesting about love in Awakening, and I wanted him to be an equal part of the story. Also because they're the weirdest option in a soulmate au, so I get to poke at the "rules" of the genre

11: What do you like best about this fic?

writing Ariel is so fun! purple Hawke you will always be an icon

12: What do you like least about this fic?

Balancing the different POVs has been stressing me out a little, I know it doesn't actually matter that much but I do want them to be at least roughly equal

13: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

I don't listen to my character playlists while writing, because I can't write and hear lyrics at the same time, so I've just been putting on youtube mixes of fantasy writing instrumentals lol

14: Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?

ummm Justice is amazing and you should love him

15: What did you learn from writing this fic?

this is the fic that got me to commit to small daily increments of writing instead of waiting for inspiration to hit, which we've all heard plenty of times but finally hit me on this one

[hbhcgkycuovouoytftof]

I’d like to post about something important and special to me in the hopes that perhaps someone might see it and derive meaning from it too: the Something Awful Forums. I want to talk about it because I think it’s the best place on the internet.

This is one of the oldest communities on the internet. Once upon a time it was the secondary component of a website mainly dedicated to ridiculing other stuff on the internet. That’s a vein of content that has led to a lot of terrible behavior over the years, and the Something Awful community has certainly had its bad moments. However, within it there has always been a certain strain of, well, I don’t want to say “niceness” per se because at the beginning it was really all about being mean, and we still take any opportunity to lightheartedly razz on each other when it comes up. Instead I would say that there’s always been a strain of accountability. “Don’t touch the poop” is a mantra nearly as old as the site itself, and what it means is "you can use this website as a platform to make fun of things that are silly or dumb, but you absolutely cannot use it as a harassment platform." This hasn’t always been executed perfectly (and in particular was not held to by the site’s original owner, good riddance) but it has guided the SA forums on a journey of evolution that has led to it becoming a less mean-spirited, less volatile, less divisive, less reactionary place while the rest of internet has become (imo) more of those things. In the current iteration the number one rule at play is DON’T BE A DICK.

Nowadays the front page, which was once the main attraction dedicated to skewering other parts of the web, is gone except as an archive. The forums are now the main attraction, and they are now dedicated to simply discussing things you like. Posts go into threads sorted by topic, in chronological order. There is no algorithm. There are no bots. The rules are based on what will result in the best website for users rather than advertisers, so you don’t have to say unalive or sewer-slide. The site is attended to by an active, engaged moderation staff made of community members who are genuinely interested in making it the best community possible. If you see bigotry or harassment, you don’t have to fire off a report to a vaguely defined group of anonymous reviewers who may or may not do something about it. When a report is acted on, the moderator action automatically goes on a big list alongside the moderator’s name and their reasoning for the punishment. If someone is a nazi, they get fucking banned. If someone is a transphobe, they get fucking banned. If someone is an asshole, they get probated for a few days so they can cool off. The result is a forum full of people who are, generally speaking, chill and nice.

My favorite example of the evolutions of the site’s culture and userbase is that we used to say it was a “dead gay forum” to complain about how it was losing popularity, using gay as a pejorative because that’s edgy. Now? We still call it a dead gay forum, but positively because we love how dead it is (low pop makes for a tighter community) and we love how gay it is (the site has a significant queer population, myself included!)

.. and now, I would like to cordially invite you to make the site a little less dead and a little more gay (or not) by joining us!

One of the ways that the SA Forums maintain quality is a high barrier to entry. Well, not that high but certainly high relative to the big sites. It costs ten dollars to make a forums account, which is required to read and post on the forums. However, to celebrate the site’s 25th anniversary, the management is doing something the forums have not done in a long time, a free weekend! This weekend only, you can register a forms account, read the forums, and post in a limited number of them, absolutely free!

If you are nostalgic for the Internet of the late 90s and early 2000s, or you never got to experience them and are curious what posting in them was like, this is your chance to do so. To celebrate the 25th anniversary the forums now have a new section designed to look and feel like the early days, but without all the casual homophobia and such. Same posting vibes, new posting sensibilities. If you are a new member, it is advised that you take the time to not just read the rules but also read existing threads and get a feel for what the forms are like before you post. Newbies beware, you may get flamed!!!

You’ve already read my pitch, but if you want some more convincing, here is a thread where SA posters talk about what the site means to them and why they like it. Some of these people have been posting on this website for longer than I’ve been alive.

But the forums aren’t just for posting about the forums, they’re also for posting about things you love! Here are a few threads dedicated to things I’m interested in, in case you share them.

Balatro:

Jerma:

Excellent birds:

Fanart (56k WARNING NOT DIALUP FRIENDLY):

That’s just a few of my favorite threads. If none of that interests you, check out the main page and start browsing! I guarantee you’ll find something you like. Take note that FYAD is kind of the “anything goes” subforum (still no nazis but you might see a picture of a penis or something) while every other subforum is more or less SFW. My favorite forums are Post your Favorite, Video Games, Ask/Tell, and Rapidly Going Deaf. I tend to steer clear of FYAD and the politics subforums since they’re really not to my taste. Thanks so much for reading, and I hope you’ll find a place on the only forums that acknowledge the truth that modern social media will not: The Internet Makes You Stupid!

[justarandombrit]

Okay, I finally decided to get all my thoughts about 2015 RTC (14/02/2015) into a sort of comprehensive, semi chronological list.

. We already had a Tragic Fact recording, but it's nice to have options. Also they REALLY want you to know they'll be damned if they're working at the mall

. I love Sarah Jane Peltzer's voice

. U.R.A.N.I.U.M is nice, but, God it's hard to hear the lyrics

. According to Kholby, Noel canonically would've written "bisexual werewolf stories", and I just think Noel's terrible writing should be focused on more in fanworks

. Noel's Lament is essentially the same, but it was the version where Monique has a kid. I get why they cut it

. Ocean's dad being left-wing and her mum being right-wing makes for a really interesting conflict, and contextualises "Some of us are left-wing, some of us are right wing..."

. The full version of Play To Win is so different to how imagined it. (And pretty ableist, so yikes) Very catchy though. And I love Rielle Braid.

. Tbh I understand why the crowd loved Play To Win so much.

. As an avid Ocean fan, I really enjoy Brooke Maxwell's whole speech about her character.

. I'd love to see a woman play Mischa in an actual production, however...

. No "take a look baby, he's the real ka-ching"?

. No "Shawtyyyyyy"?

. Is this song even awesome?!?!?

. Talia:

. Let me tell you, I was jumping for joy when Small Things Become Big Things started playing. Well, more accurately, I was so happy I could have jumped for joy but I was saving my energy for other matters.

. References aside, STBBT was almost exactly how I expected it to be, although it was slightly short

. "Once I saw a homeless person eat a raccoon" I love Elliot Loran.

. "Okay, I'm totally having a nervous breakdown right now and I'm going to go grab a beer, and you guys should go grab a beer cause it's intermission" I. Love. Elliot. Loran!

. Early Space Age Bachelor Man was somehow even crazier, also, is it bad that I prefer "Their generals are on holiday, Oh Ricky Potts, what should we do?" to the current one?

. "I spent a lot of time staring at other people's skin and wishing it was my skin" I also love Sarah Jane Peltzer.

. The early Ballad was a lot more on the nose than the current one. Special shout-out to the lyrics: "At the end of the day we're just dead" and "It must be nice, To have a body attached to their head"

."AMELODYFLOATSTHROUGHTHEAITWHENSILENCEFALLSDOESNOONECARE"

. As always, Sugar Cloud is brilliant.

. "Isn't that recorder solo the bomb?" Did I mention I love everyone in this cast?

. Three things one guy on the team suggested: Jane gets wings and ascends into the sky. Everyone comes back to life. KARNAK GETS A SONG?!?

. It's Not A Game/ It's Just A Ride really hasn't changed much in 8 years.

. "Kelly, is there anything that doesn't make you cry?"

. La La Love: La la la, lala, la la la. La LALALA?!?

In conclusion, always check SoundCloud.

[moveslikeanape]

i actually don't play disney magic kingdoms myself, it's just not really my type of game, but i've seen some gameplay of it and read a lot of the little dialogue from it online and it's always seemed really charming and cute! so it really is too bad we might never get to see tarzan characters added to it. i do play disney dreamlight valley on the switch, which is sort of a life sim game like animal crossing but with disney/pixar characters all living together, and a lot more of a story to it with quests you get to do for everyone. it's a lot newer and doesn't have nearly as many characters in it, but a recent update added a jungle biome that would've been perfect for tarzan and jane. i know they'll probably never be added, but if they were then they could live together in the treehouse and we could see how tarzan would feel about living in the valley among so many other humans! there would be so many new things that jane could teach him about.

i recently started collecting lorcana cards after seeing one of rapunzel wearing a green dress, which i found really cool because that was what she had in so much of her concept art! i was also pretty excited to be able to get cards from the emperor's new groove, the great mouse detective, treasure planet, and hercules. i bet they could make some beautiful cards for tarzan... but yeah, that copyright issue is incredibly frustrating. some of my favorite movies may be a bit overlooked or underrepresented by disney, but at least they don't have the legal problem that tarzan has. i guess with once upon a studio they must've wanted to really go all out to make sure every single walt disney animation studios feature could be included! i'm grateful they did, because it would've been a huge shame to see tarzan not even allowed into the special 100th anniversary short. the new movie "wish" also has a tribute to past WDAS films during the credits, where gold-colored drawings of characters from each movie appeared across the screen in chronological order. strangely they actually left out a handful of movies including the black cauldron, but they did include tarzan!

also, i'm sure you already knew about this haha, but just the other day i came across an article from a few years ago where several of the people who worked on tarzan were interviewed and talked about the production. and i learned for the first time that it was originally planned as a direct-to-video movie which would stick closer to the source material with tarzan going to england. i'm obviously very glad that that didn't happen and we got the movie we have now instead. -🌟

Sorry, was out of town for the weekend visiting family.

That's fair about Magic Kingdoms not being your type of game. I think the only real reason I play it is because it's something I can play casually and more of less keep up with, with out it taking too much time.

What I've seen of Dreamlight Valley looks like so much fun! And that would be amazing to see Tarzan and Jane in that game. Probably will never happen, but we can dream!

Ooo, I haven't seen that Rapunzel one, will have to look it up. I've always loved the concept art. So insane to think there's actually even Treasure Planet art in them!!!

Sadly we may never get Tarzan in Lorcana, but I found this artist during the Disemeber challenge on instagram, and he's actually done art for Lorcana. Looks like it was just the one card, Chief Bogo (which he's posted if you go though his stuff). May not be official, but at least here's a Christmas themed idea of what could be if they included Tarzan

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Adam Bunch (@adam_is_arting)

OMG, I never expected any reference to Tarzan in Wish!! I haven't seen it yet (live in a small town, starting to think we may not even get it in our theatre), but now I'm even more excited to see it!

Oh wow, I actually didn't know that! That's so interesting (definitely so grateful they didn't go that route though). Would have been interesting to see how close Disney would get to the source material… don't know if you've ever read the books, but there's a lot of not so family friendly stuff. Also would have been such a waste, given the quality of D2V animation, would have been such a shame to only get Tarzan & Jane quality animation.