#ts long post

[sonntam]

I don't think I've seen a write-up on various fairy-tale and Russian sayings references in the English translation, so I'd like to make one.

"Puddles make poor drinks" and "Gorkhon water will turn you into livestock": what's up with that?

There is a fairytale about a big sister and the little brother. They walk for a long time and the brother is very thirsty. His big sister keeps telling him to keep going and not to drink from the puddles, like a goat. Eventually the little brother drinks from the puddle.

And promptly turns into a goat.

Rest of the fairytale is about the big sister returning the little brother to his original form.

So, this is where the talks about puddles and water turning you into livestock is about.

The Akela joke did not work at all in the translation.

It comes from Mowgli, which is well known due to the USSR cartoon. In the book (and in the cartoon) the elderly wolf leader Akela misses during a hunt... after which he promptly is deposed as a leader of the pack. Mowgli loses his protection and this is a Big Deal.

So whenever a boss in real life makes a silly mistake (say, throwing a paperball into the bin and missing) everyone thinks it's very funny to say "Akela missed!" implying that they will get a new boss now and the current one will get deposed for this mistake.

Here "Akela never misses" means that Khan being at risk of infection and coming into the nutshell does not diminish his importance at all and his dogheads are just as loyal as before, happily delivering loot to him.

There is a saying: "Better a sparrow in hand, than a stork in the sky."

It means that you should treasure what you have, instead of preferring that which you can't get (so easily).

Lara Ravel references that she can't be happy with the little she has. She wants to help others and for this she needs more.

"Maybe I could be useful to you" is a classic thing that various animals say to people in fairytales, once they are caught and plead for their lives.

I think, this is a popular trope in English fairytales as well, but the phrasing here is lifted directly from fairytales in Russian, so pointing it out either way.

"Everyone's shirt is closer to their skin" is a well known Russian saying.

It means that your happiness and comfort is always more important to you than the comfort of other people. Hence: your shirt is closer to your skin, so you care about it more.

"Silence implies assent" is another popular saying (it even rhymes in Russian).

If someone proposes a course of action and no one speaks out against it or for it, then people usually say "silence is a sign of assent" and consider the matter settled. (Or, more often, people then suddenly say that they disagree and you get a more lively and productive conversation.)

I can't find another screenshot, but Dankovsky says something similar about "I wore down seven pairs of shoes getting to this town".

It obviously could be taken as a factual statement, but most likely it's a reference to fairytales.

In a lot of fairytales the protagonist will be given on a long journey seven pairs of iron boots. Once all of them break, the hero has reached his destination.

Same here: it's a fairytale way of saying that you had a long and arduous journey (or in Capella's case, ran around the whole town for years).

"I'll just peek with one eye" is another popular Russian phrase.

"Can I look?"

"No"

"How about if I look with just one eye?"

Obviously, it's nonsense, but it's a typical thing to say if you REALLY want to look at something, so you just say "pleeeease, I will just look only a little".

[vanessa-rafesgirl]

me since april 19th

[keirahknightley]

Costume appreciation series: Barbie (2023) dir Greta Gerwig

Costume Design by Jacqueline Durran

[lady-arryn]

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON SEASON 2 APPRECIATION WEEK day 1 — dragons

[sonntam]

... was it though? You need to remember that the amount of food any family farmed had to be enough to last them through winter. You did not stop when it was "enough", you continued for as long as possible.

You did not just grow grain, you also grew all the vegetables that you need for both now in summer and to be pickled in winter. You did all the repairs that could not be done in winter. You also had to make sure you would get clothes (so, non-stop weaving) and then there were the nine kids.

Even with communal efforts, none of this is easy or requires a small amount of time.

You literally only get more leisure time in winter and that is because you need to conserve energy (once again, you may still not have enough food to last the winter and every cold could be your last).

I don't think you can really compare farming even 50 years ago to what farming used to be. Even the year 1900 had much better crops and techniques in terms of farming than 500 years ago. That stuff used to have lower yield and higher amount of work that it required. (And if you failed, have fun starving.)

suppressing unbecoming fantasies of making everyone who blithely talks like this spend a couple seasons spinning/weaving all their family's clothing and chopping their own firewood

[galedekarios]

Gale + Being Chosen

"I'm what one might call a wizard prodigy, who from an early age, could not only control the Weave, but compose it, much like a musician or a poet. Such was my skill that it earned me the attention of the mother of magic herself. The Lady of Mysteries. The goddess Mystra. She revealed herself to me and became my teacher. In time, she became my muse, and later, even my lover."

"I know what it is to have a closer connection than most with the gods."

[gojuo]

Remember what they're taking from you

Fire and Blood, p. 398:

Fire and Blood, p. 387:

Fire and Blood, p. 390:

Fire and Blood, p. 401:

Fire and Blood, p. 402:

Fire and Blood, p. 409:

Fire and Blood, p. 424:

Fire and Blood, p. 425:

Fire and Blood, p. 437:

Fire and Blood, p. 473:

Fire and Blood, p. 561:

Dangerous Women, The Princess and the Queen, p. 783:

Fire and Blood, p. 506:

Fire and Blood, p. 381:

Fire and Blood, p. 380:

Fire and Blood, p. 533:

Fire and Blood, p. 541:

Fire and Blood, p. 542:

Fire and Blood, p. 550:

[eddiediaaz]

Oliver Stark about Buck/Eddie on the Zach Sang Show (04.19.2024) [x]

[livebloggingmydescentintomadness]

i hadn't gotten around to watching staged 3 before good omens 2, and now i can't get over how great michael and david are together

[why-i-love-comics]

DC's Lex & The City #1 - "To Live & Date in Gotham" (2025)

written by Brendan Hay art by Stephen Byrne

[moonlightsdreaming]

[elvenlords]

I think it's you that's changed. How so? I think I know why we still meet here, century after century. It's not because you want to see whether or not I'm ready to seek death. I don't think I'll ever seek death. By now, you know that about me. So, I think you're here for something else. And what might that be? Friendship.

How's he faring up after all this time? Who? Hob Gadling? Hmm. I don't know. I was forced to miss our last appointment. Well, I'm sure he'd love to see you.

THE SANDMAN 1.06: “The Sound of Her Wings"

[theokusgallery]

Why, hello there, Virgil. Long time no see!

[slavhew]

made them to strike fear into my heart whenever i falter in my studies

no text ver under the cut

[lady-arryn]

LOTRWEEK 2024 Day 1 — the road goes ever on

[paperclipdrawer]

2025 Year of the Snake — Janus