#which doesn't seem nice either

[textless]

Marabou stork! A very big bird which scavenges with the best of them.

Masai Mara, Kenya, July 2023

[greenerteacups]

Hi GT,

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but I absolutely love the recs you've given (you've introduced me to tomione, and I love it!) and I was wondering if it's possible to give you some recs in return? There are some books and fics that definitely have dramione / got vibes, and I was wondering if I could share them with you!

So glad you've enjoyed them! Feel free to rec me anything you want. I've read most of the classic recs in terms of fic and adjacent content (Cruel Prince et al), but I'll try anything that's well-written. My tastes run towards weird and/or audaciously creative stuff, and I can forgive a lot of weaknesses in plot on the grounds of (1) ambition or (2) character work. My turnoffs are instalove, protagonists who can't fail, and most Y/A (I'm not a hater, I swear, I just need characters who can say "fuck" when their leg gets chopped off.)

I'm also a fan of weird and fucked-up dynamics.(Wuthering Heights was my favorite book for a while, and as a teenager I wrote an AU in which the book ends on a long sex scene where Heathcliff fucks Cathy's ghost and then immediately gets murdered by Catherine 2.) Obviously, I am very normal.

[wonder-worker]

"[Elizabeth Woodville's] piety as queen seems to have been broadly conventional for a fifteenth-century royal, encompassing pilgrimages, membership of various fraternities, a particular devotion to her name saint, notable generosity to the Carthusians, and the foundation of a chantry at Westminster after her son was born there. ['On other occasions she supported planned religious foundations in London, […] made generous gifts to Eton College, and petitioned the pope to extend the circumstances in which indulgences could be acquired by observing the feast of the Visitation']. One possible indicator of a more personal, and more sophisticated, thread in her piety is a book of Hours of the Guardian Angel which Sutton and Visser-Fuchs have argued was commissioned for her, very possibly at her request."

-J.L. Laynesmith, "Elizabeth Woodville: The Knight's Widow", Later Plantagenet and Wars of the Roses Consorts: Power, Influence, Dynasty

[guinevereslancelot]

job interview tomorrow 🙏

[lurking-latinist]

🐈

[adozentothedawn]

So I have not yet picked up The Witcher season 3, but I'm sure I will eventually. I do however feel the need to whinge a bit about season 2.

So I will be the first to admit that I am a little Jaskier gremlin. Frankly he is the main reason I am watching this show. I also recognize that he is not the main main character and that there will be episodes not about him, and that's fine. That is not my problem. What my problem is, is that he got completely shafted by season 2 even when he was here, and honestly I don't know why he was after his little trip with Yennefer (the best part of that season in my opinion btw). After that point, he has no narrative or character reason to be here, because Geralt does not give a shit about him it seems. His last episode in season 1 was great drama, Geralt was a complete asshole to him and Jaskier was understandably hurt by that. And yet don't actually bother picking that up at all in season 2. It starts off great with the Butcher song, but it's never resolved in a satisfying way. Geralt has no moment to actually acknowledge that Jaskier didn't deserve that treatment on the mountain, he just mutters a clearly half hearted apology and Jaskier just takes it. And that's it. That's the entire emotional resolution. The first thing Geralt says to him is "I need your help" nah man, that's not fucking good enough. Guess Jaskier's not a hot woman so we can't have Gerlat too involved in his emotional relationship with him. And don't get me wrong, this is not a shot against Yennefer, Yennefer is great. She does in fact have proper chemistry with Jaskier! She is probably my second favourite character! What I do see as a problem is that clearly someone among the writers, whoever it was, decided that that platonic relationships between adults are just irrelevent. Can't have that, no one cares, let's focus more on the sexual brooding. Even Yennefer and Jaskier's relationship, which is really good btw I love that episode, gets pushed away as soon as soon as Geralt is in the picture again. It feels like the only reason Jaskier is at Kaer Morhen is cause... you know. He's Jaskier. You can't just write him out entirely. But at no point does it feel like anyone really wants him there, which would also be fine if that was a plotpoint, but it's not. He's just kinda there. Until he isn't for a season cliffhanger. He's just hanging around, pretending that Geralt actually had a reason to take him along, be that emotional or practical, neither of which I can discern. Let's be honest, Jaskier did not make Ciri safer in accompanying her there. The fact that he got tortured never comes up, despite Yennefer having seen it. No one ever tries to engage with him there. It's honestly painful to watch how he's basically just a prop at this point.

And you know, maybe season 3 will pick it up! Maybe he finally gets to be somewhat vindicated in his feelings! Maybe someone actually apologizes to him for once! But frankly it doesn't feel like that was a deliberate characterization in season 2 that will be played on in the next one, so I'm just putting it off longer and longer because while I am interested and I'm sure there are good parts (season 2 had great parts honestly before that turn), I also don't want to watch my favourite character be treated like a joke again in a way that hits too close to home for me personally.

[talaricula]

a rly underrated thing about crazy ex girlfriend imo is that it's one of the rare shows i know of that really spends time on exploring what the process of having children is like for queer ppl/for those who go about it "non-normatively". it's not even rly a main storyline but i still find it rly well-handled and touching.

[eilooxara]

bleh

I know useless yearning is my brand™ but it would be nice if I fell for someone who's actually interested for once

[clamorybus]

it's literally such a nothing issue, but i think that's why that night club poll from last night struck a nerve. like, people don't avoid clubs and fancy restaurants because they're boring, they either can't or just have no interest in it

[g0nta-g0kuhara]

I'm soo normal I'm so great and handling other people's opinions on my favourite characters

[guinevereslancelot]

i'm so bummed i accidentally turned town a job interview for a job where I could have worked with a good friend and mentor 😔

[baked-hylian]

some things I noticed in the new totk trailer that I haven't seen talked about

I'm pretty sure that's going to be gleeok or some type of new spelling of the classic boss. I also suspect that it will either be a over world boss like hinoxes are, or it's going to be a specialty type of boss connected to specific quests, main or side. One hope I have is for elemental varieties of it as I think that could pose a really fun challenge.

I think it's likely that part of Death Mountain is going to break off, allowing us to enter into the depths of the volcano and perhaps even find a temple or whatever the equivalent will be for temples. Either that or a very large cave system that has possible story connections, as we do see in other parts of the trailer where it appears that Death Mountain is now spewing malice (as can be seen in the earlier picture of gleerok.)

So like, I can't take a picture of sound, but early in the trailer during this segment it clearly sounds like they're in some form of echoing chamber as the bokoblin hits the ore; which leads me to suspect that this particular area may be a segment of the underneath of Hyrule that we will get to explore.

And redeads have returned! They seem to be modelled after the ones found in oot, but I would also love to see some variants around Hyrule, like frozen ones that leave you in ice once they let go, or ones that constantly on fire in the hotter areas of Death Mountain. I'd also think it'd be fun if we could have a side quest that allows us to find a "secret chamber" hidden within the Kakariko village cemetery.

extra speculations under the cut

Some things I speculate:

That at some point, you as Link will trigger separate story events that causes the labyrinths to rise into the sky, probably in relation to quests to unlock new abilities not directly related to the master sword (like the champion's abilities for example.)

I suspect that we will restore the master sword like we do in past games, either with a sacred flame from each of the springs like in ss (the most likely case,) or uncovering lost ancient temples and inserting the sword into an alter like in ww.

Weapon restoration. Although maybe that's more of a hope. I also would like the option to be able to purchase weapons from merchants, not just arrows.

I also suspect, that like ss, Link is going to be chasing after Zelda for a portion of the game, probably after their fall. Although instead of being with Impa, that Zelda instead will be travelling with an avatar for the being we've seen in the cave carvings.

Purely speculation with no real evidence, but I suspect that green hand we see belonged to the previous hero who initially sealed up mummified Ganondorf.

More voice acting. It was pretty well received, and we now have heard Ganondorf (presumably, I saw someone on reddit suggest it may be Demise speaking in the trailer which would be quite fun tbh.) So I think it may be likely to see more cut scenes this time around with voice acting.

I. Want. Tingle. He would be perfect to add in now that there's sky travel, and perhaps like Majora's Mask, you need to buy map segments from him in order to expand your map of the sky.

[frau-wilhelm-klink]

The generational gap between me and people my own age who use a million abbreviations. Don't get me wrong....I use some of them too, but some of y'all be out here trying to abbreviate a whole sentence into a few letters🤣

The generation gap between me and ppl of my own age

[vampiredraws]

can my friends stop saying ominous shit please

[doberbutts]

Black trans women: hey uhhhhh this space is not safe for me like at all

Black trans men: yeah I agree and it's really not good to me either

Black cis women: oh man don't even get me started, this place is so dangerous for me

Black cis men: for sure, and it feels like it's hunting season for me

Black gnc people: no kidding, and it feels like it's only getting worse

Black nonbinary people: and if people decide to acknowledge I exist (which is rare) it's specifically to hurt me

Black people everywhere: the world is so aggressive towards me, and it just doesn't seem like there's any escape from it, and it would be nice if someone listened to us for once instead of just using us as gotchas and free labour

Nonblack people: hmm. Well that doesn't align with my personal worldview or political opinion, so I'm going to disregard it AND be racist to you about it

[dualumina]

It's not enough to write about Miyani and Zommoros anymore; we have to make them into OOAK Monster High doll repaints