#world's most rendered shitpost

[eggwars]

Living up to my bio again

So in my defence, i was bribed by the lovely @just-slightly-chayotic. That probably doesn't justify just how many hours I spent on this but :') worked well as a color study

(obligatory disclaimer: Jeff if you see this, I'm so sorry and no you didn't <3)

[badolmen]

“I can fix him” well I can crouch-jump at him really fast while punching the air to communicate my undying loyalty and love for him

[shrimpmandan]

The current state of AI discourse is baffling to me because I swear to god some people are just developing collective amnesia and dismissing AI art as "not actually being that bad" when the problems with it are significantly deeper than whether or not it's "real art". It being "real art" is irrelevant to it causing tangible harm. Like yeah I don't think someone AI generating an image to use as a reference is some massive evil, but in the greater scheme of things:

AI art is being used to spread actual real-world misinformation. Propaganda.

Ai art is being used to spread CSEM and other forms of revenge porn. It is also threatening the livelihoods of sex workers to some degree.

People are putting their favorite artists' works through a blender, without their consent, instead of paying them, because image generation is instant dopamine.

Big corps are trying to use AI instead of paying artists/writers because they're greedy fucks.

Most AI programs (with few exceptions) are scraping from existing works without the consent of the original artists.

AI voices are doing the same.

A common argument I've seen is comparing these things to like... digital art, photo editing*, voice splicing. You have to understand that the merit of these things isn't that "they take more time/effort". Effort is not an inherent facet of art. Plenty of tools exist to make art easier that we take for granted now-- many forget the discourse that kicked up when digital art was first gaining popularity. The issue is and always will be consent. Most artists do not want their works or voices to be put into AI databanks. The fact that most AI programs do not care for this, and that a lot of companies are trying to swindle their way into getting artist consent under the pretense of "well they didn't say no", is the main issue. We completely lost the plot when we started focusing more on "is AI art real art?" and "is it bad to use AI for any purpose?", because those are both irrelevant to the question of "is AI harmful?", wherein the answer is yes. This is also failing to consider that "real art" can also cause harm for similar reasons: sexual harassment/revenge porn, defamation, propaganda, etc.

*As a note, this is also ignoring the fact that a lot of people DON'T want their art to be edited or even heavily referenced. It's been commonplace in art usage terms for ages now. This is important to note in the context of AI discourse and copyright law. I also believe there is a difference between voice splicing and AI voices since splicing is more limited and way less likely to get someone actually defamed or 'replaced' as a voice actor, and is just a manipulation of existing voice clips mostly for silly shitposts.

AI CAN be helpful. AI can be used to create references, or make smoother rendering, or even just for fun. A lot of people used AI programs in their baby stages without thinking about how the images were generated or the actual consent of the artists involved, because it was a fun shiny new toy. I also like to think most people who have the means to pay an artist ultimately would. But the issue is not and never has been AI making art easier, or people using it for silly shit, or even people using it for serious art refs. The issue is AI mass-scraping existing artwork, being used to facilitate misinformation, and screwing artists out of jobs. Don't even get me started on AI fucking generating CSEM, or revenge porn, and additionally how it impacts the careers of sex workers.

AI is an issue in its current state. Yes, the panic about it taking over art as a whole was overblown, even if the fears were valid. The capacities of AI art is almost always slightly below the capacities of human-made art, and it's something that will quickly fall in popularity once it stops being the shiny new thing. People using AI to make art easier aren't the enemy either, especially since this can be beneficial for people who do it as a job-- shortening the labor time and all. That doesn't mean AI isn't an issue and that everyone critiquing it is actually just an elitist ableist cuck or whatever. None of this really would've been a problem if not for the mass scraping, resulting in both violations of artist consent, and also it picking up genuinely illegal/nasty content. That's what we should be focusing on. None of this "real art" bullshit.

All that said: I personally would say that using most AI programs-- no matter the purpose-- is unethical because of how most of them function. The only exceptions would be for programs that specifically use consensually obtained data. On this front, I would highly recommend keeping tabs on Adobe Firefly, since it's one of the very very few models out there that has stated a clear commitment to not violating the copyright and consent of artists or persons (it operates off of stock footage and public domain).

[eziojensenthe3rd]

Midnight Gaming: All outta gum

So last night I played Duke Nukem 3d past midnight, checked socials later and found... the skyrim mod Skyblivion presents the work they've done so for.

In one of the levels within episode 3, you can approach a building that explodes in an impressive shower of build engine glory. On it, a sign that reads "Quake Warning", prompts Duke to say the following.

"I aint afraid of no quake"

This line being in reference to id's Quake which would be releasing near Duke 3D's release and for the time, would be heralded as a big step forward for video game graphics and its engine innovations would be the groundwork for games in the future. Any other game, would've been mocked for a jab like that. Such a cocky, pretentious, petty taunt would be lauded as a meme if it were said nowadays. For a game that looks comparatively outdated when placed next to Quake, it had some balls to act defiant against its competitior.

And Duke Nukem 3d had balls indeed. Balls of steel because the game slaps. It slaps hard.

Dukes world of red light sleaze and gritty action hero gruff was a cornerstone of the build engine trilogy, that built their legacy around the theme of cheesy exploitation movies, with shadow warrior covering martial arts kung fu movies and blood invoking the gothic horror films. Redneck Rampage only barely counts in this example.

The weapon roster demonstrates a geniune display of its main characters attitude with punchy ballistics, charged energetics and bombastic explosives, rendering any alien foe that graces your path into another statistic to be included in the end of level bodycount.

The levels in duke nukem 3d charmed a lot of folks with level enviroments that had some interactive elements to them. The toxic dump level in episode 1, to name an example, has that area with the conveyor belts and the crane moving objects, enemies that you killed on those belts would have their bodies carried by the belts before being picked up and dropped onto a different track to continue their journey. Going around and getting lifted up from one place to the next, each stop being dropped and hitting the ground with a wet squelch, like the worlds most morbid crane game. Not just window dressing to act as the background for your crusade, a lot of levels had some objects that the player could use, some of them awarding the player for their curiosity. Cracks in the walls necessitating an explosive to open up shortcuts in the level and some secrets hiding caches of ammo and health. You could even use a toilet for duke to relive himself and even recover some health for the act.

The game was great sure, but theres one aspect I really didnt like and it was that you couldnt save the babes. Women who were kidnapped and strung up in cocoons by the alien menace, begging you to kill them. You could save them in the n64 port but originally? Nah, you gotta leave them behind or perhaps comply with their request. And that sucks, Duke would never leave them behind. Heck he swears vengeance on the alien invaders for kidnapping them, he wouldnt leave a babe behind. Course what Duke is or does has been a matter of debate amongst the modern audience...

The Duke has had a rocky time since Duke 3d, with following games not meeting the height of 3d's success and with Forever going down as a tale of waiting for over a decade just to be presented with a wet fart. The character of Duke Nukem has been scrutinised and picked apart until it became disregarded as "a product of its time" and nothing more.... until nowadays at least. The internet has certanly turned Duke from an expy of every 90's action hero to funny meme guy, a change that is promoted heavily thanks to voice actor Gianni Matragrano's shitpost videos that features the duki nuki man himself.

The version of Duke Nukem 3d I played was the Megaton Edition that was once sold on steam before a certain randy delisted it in favour of a different version titled world tour. And world tour wasn't much of an improvement over megaton, mainly because while the new episode was neat, it didnt have any of the expansions that were available. No duke it out in DC, no Caribbean, not even the christmas one. That kinda sucks. I hope the duke manages to escape the randy pit and gets another game, one that takes inspiration from the memes and shitposts in the same way Doom took inspiration from brutal doom and the rip and tear meme.

Anyways, news. You played Skyrim I am assuming. Why wouldnt I, its been released to several platforms and will only stop being rereleased when elder scrolls 6 comes out. But until that time, lets discuss the game that came before Skyrim, Oblivion.

Oblivions been my first Elder Scrolls game and I enjoyed it for what it was, a neat lil open world fantasy rpg that young me mainly played with the tgm cheat to activate god mode. So far, bethesda hasnt tried to remaster the older elder scrolls games (thank goodness) though fans have been working on mods that recreate those older entries within Skyrim. Skywind is one example that rebuilds Morrowind within Skyrim and it seems to be making decent progress, though the one i'm gonna talk about today is Skyblivion.

Recently, Skyblivions development team has released a video preview of the work they've accomplished, focusing mainly on the town of chorrol and a couple of quests. Its looking pretty damn good and I hope to able to play it around the 2025 release date. Assuming bethesda doesnt "update" oblivion and end up completly breaking a lot of mods, which is partly the reason why the fallout 4 mod, fallout london, requires you to downgrade to an older version. We shall wait and see.

Anyways, see you all tomorrow. Feel free to leave game suggestions and feedback. Anons are currently on.

[opal-owl-flight]

I posted 6,713 times in 2022

That's 1,637 more posts than 2021!

1,458 posts created (22%)

5,255 posts reblogged (78%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@rukafais

@oh-hools

@the-wannabe-hero

@crankyteapot

@wingedarrows

I tagged 4,537 of my posts in 2022

Only 32% of my posts had no tags

#kirby - 1,054 posts

#magolor - 877 posts

#kirby fanart - 760 posts

#opal owl’s nest - 577 posts

#opal owl hoots - 303 posts

#meta knight - 223 posts

#character design - 154 posts

#metalor - 119 posts

#oc - 115 posts

#original character - 104 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#…still keeping my interp of susie for the tale im writing but canonically. i think shes alright. assuming the jp one is canon and not both-

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Legacy arc be like

I cant believe I made a shitpost of my own au/interp WKDKEKXOEXJ

I was supposed to post something about the middle/end of the arc but got way too tired so. Shitpost.

590 notes - Posted May 27, 2022

#4

Local world-destroying Knight takes a nap

WAIT, A NON-MAGOLOR POST FROM ME? SURPRISE

I actually like Galacta Knight a lot, wish there was more to him (and make him CANON IN THE TIMELINE PLEASE)

673 notes - Posted April 14, 2022

#3

See the full post

715 notes - Posted April 5, 2022

#2

Really late but!! Happy birthday Meta Knight!! Took me forever to properly render him KAJSKSSJ

Thank god I have many shades of blue and grey

773 notes - Posted March 25, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

YUHHH KIRBY FORGOTTEN LANDS SPOILERS AHEAD

See the full post

1,259 notes - Posted April 2, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[lordsovorn]

Some thoughts about Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

Finally watched Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.

And, not mentioning how good it is and the four (4) tears it got out of me.... While re-listening to its music in an act of sheer emotional masochism, I've stumbled on a bunch of youtube comments that inspired this little text / big ass shitpost.

So, if you're a cave person like me, before you proceed any further:

///SPOILERS FOR CYBERPUNK: EDGERUNNERS///

... not to mention very little of the following will make any sense if haven't watched it already.

...

There's actually two and a half separate topics this neon-lit wonder made me want to talk about, but today I'll only give attention to the first 1,5.

There were two types of comments that grabbed my attention - the first being "he sacrificed everything for her".

While it's undoubtedly true, romantic and tragic, they seem to miss an even more tragic aspect to David's final actions - he also sacrificed everything *she* had.

Lucy's dream of visiting the Moon is clearly stated and David certainly clings to this one true thing he understands about her, but as the anime progresses it seems to become only secondary. She doesn't even *do* anything for that Moon, but guess what she *does* things for?..

David.

She sacrifices the well-being and jobs of her friends, her own fragile stability and relative safety, she kills people and risks EVERYTHING for one thing only - to preserve the one personal connection she has in this heartless world, the only person naive and altruistic enough for her to safely trust and rely on. For David.

Being so lonely and so scared of trusting, she barely even admits to herself she cares THAT much.

"My Man, My Moon"

...

When Lucy asks Falco to turn back, he says it would mean David have died in vain. Ironically, his very sacrifice has already made all *her* sacrifices, all her efforts, vain.

Yet she concedes. One person's sacrifices rendered vain is better than two, maybe?..

Accepting such a self-sacrifice from your loved one, from the one person you wanted to save and preserve above everything else, is tragic. And probably even harder than the self-sacrifice itself.

---

Another type of comment of note - "if only they held back on chrome..."

Any tragic narrative inadvertently elicits "if only..."

It is natural to search for reasons in tragedy, for a lesson that would save you from such a fate - yet sometimes, there just isn't a simple "if only"

While cyberpsychosis is one of, if not the most obvious cause of personal suffering in Edgerunners, it is but a last piece of the domino.

The corporations wouldn't have backed down if Maine or David used less implants.

David, whose absent-minded childhood was shattered along with his sole meaning in life, his mother's dream - wouldn't have become a self-conscious, mature person with a clear understanding of what HE wants in this world, just because of using less implants.

Lucy, groomed to be a sophisticated tool, without a human past or a any human connection, alone and permanently on the run from those who would take away her very personhood - wouldn't have suddenly grown past her trust issues in the cold, bright, apathetic and greedy Night City, just because of David using less implants.

...

That is to say, "if only" doesn't lie merely in the chrome. "If only" lies in understanding yourself, in finding people to trust, in not playing games you can never hope to win, in listening to those who ~know~ how this game can screw up people.

"This game" is not merely about cyber-implants - it is the vicious climb "to the top" over corpses of the weak, the idea that you *can* get what you're worth, the hope to achieve a better future above all the violence, poverty and misery if you just try hard enough, be fast enough, smart enough.

But the house always wins, and the only way for a person to win is to stop playing and run for their lives.

But if there's no meaning in your life. No hope for a better future. If you're tired, and empty, and surrounded by pain, and threatened to lose what little you have, and the clock is ticking...

Why run. Why not burn through it all now. Brightly revel in your own self-destruction, saying to yourself that you're doing it *for something*. For a future, for wealth or power, because that's how it is, because you genuinely enjoy it... Or for someone.

The End.

[brindletonboo]

🌾 | ask game

i got tagged by @oakvy! participating because i have nothing else to do lol

why did you choose your url?

i’m a brindleton bay girl at heart and always will be, so i chose a user handle based on the world that came with cats and dogs! the “boo” was just a suffix i added. it was actually supposed to be “babe” or “bae” but url is taken so >:( i finally settled on “boo”!

how long have you been on tumblr?

i’m pretty new to tumblr! the first time i dipped my toes in was literally when i created this blog back in aug 2021. i was a young, naive girl who doesn’t even know how to navigate tumblr, let alone a sims blog.

do you have a queue tag?

no, i don’t know how queues work and i don’t ever wanna know how (dumb bitch alert)

why did you start your blog in the first place?

i just wanted a platform where i can share all the things i do in sims! i first opted for twitter but honestly, it never really clicked with me. plus it’s toxic as hell. i have an account there but it’s purely just for sharing my builds and a bit of my sims. i finally settled on tumblr because i’ve heard of simblrs and wanted to try running one too!

why did you choose your icon/pfp?

i like cats. end of story.

why did you choose your header?

it’s a pretty screenshot of cavalier cove in brindleton bay, so why not? :D

what's your post with the most notes?

as far as i know it’s my sim lookbook 2, currently sitting at 1,200+ notes and counting. i don’t even know why it’s blowing up 💔

how many mutuals do you have?

uh i think around a hundred or so?

how many followers do you have?

i just checked it and we’re at 1,870 rn! UNREAL. i still can’t believe that but i appreciate and love every single one of them! 

not the p*rn bots, though.

have you ever made a shitpost?

i make a lot in my personal blog hehehe 

how often do you use tumblr every day?

i check in every once in a while but only post once a day.

did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? who won?

LMFAO first off, i love how this question has a follow-up one that asks about who won 💀 anyway i don’t think i’ve ever had an argument with another blog before, and i want to keep it that way. i don’t like getting into fights with other people online because;

1. it’s pointless.

2. you don’t even know me. why would i argue with you?

how do you feel about 'you need to reblog this' posts?

like @oakvy i have never encountered those posts before so...

do you like tag games?

maybe. i’m just afraid that i’ll annoy the people i tag in it 😭

do you like ask memes?

i’m okay with it!

which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

this’ll make me sound like i’m bragging so i’m just gonna drop hints 👀 

one is famous because of her aesthetic and sims (her sims are absolutely adorable. i admit, i reblog her posts a little too much) another is a popular cc creator, and the last makes insanely good edits/renders of her sims!

do you have a crush on a mutual?

nope. i already have a girlfriend. her name is @lexofcrows. /j

tagging @shady-sims, @rainymoodlet, @gothoffspring, and @sublimesims! feel free to ignore if you've done it already or if you don't feel like doing it! i’m kinda embarassed to do this so i hope it’s alright 👉👈

[fipindustries]

i just want to talk about books i love

a list of my favourite childhood books. that is to say: books i read in my childhood, not necesarily children’s books. these are the books i read obsessively over and over until they were absolutely worn down and cracked. for ovbious reasons im not including harry potter into the mix

*journey to the center of the earth - jules verne 

i think every amab who was interested in books and sci fi read jules verne at some point in their lives. this was one of his most outlandish premises but the dry naturalist way in which he descrives the wonders the characters encounter and the dangers of survival they come across (beautifully rendered by  Édouard Riou) made me go back to it again and again.

*codex - lev grossman

turns out the guy who wrote the magicians did other things in his past as well. this book was fascinating to me because, out of all the books in this list, i think this is the one where no genre or supernatural elements occur. is about a banker who spends his first vacation in years unpacking and organizing the books of a private collection which leads him into an in depth quest to find one incredibly obscure middle age text that was lost to history. and yet lev manages to descrive all of this in such a wacky, whimsical tone than even descriptions of a guy playing a weird avant garde videogame are enthralling

*deception point - dan brown

i claimed time and again that dan brown is a sci fi writer trying to pretend he is a historical writer, this is the proof. this was the book he wrote before angels and demons, before he cemented himself with robert langdon forever. electoral drama, goberment conspiracies, cientific discoveries in the artic, weird near future sci fi tech, aaron sorkin level writing, dan brown second and last female protagonist, alien fossils trapped in meteorites. this book has everything

*amazing space - ann jeanette campbell

another thing related to space, the joke about how every kid when they reach age has to choose what they are going to bo obsessed with, dinosaurs - bugs - space. guess which one i choose. thanks to this book i passed most of my science tests with flying colors.

this is the one of three non fiction books in this list. one of those books that you dont really read sequentially but rather that you just jump all over the place, back and forth, finding weird little wonders wherever  you go. this was the book that introduced me to the concept of dark matter, neutron stars, the cosmic background radiation, quasars. it showed me that reality is way weirder than i expected and that there are truly strange things out there.

*the sorcerer’s companion - allan & elizabeth kronzenk

i said i wouldnt mention harry potter but i can’t not mention this. my first earnest introduction to the world of actual historical magic and myth as it was practisced in the real world. it showed me how magic actually looked in the past, how it worked, what were the actual beliefs, myths and superstitions of people and how they were far more eccentric and peculiar and off kilter than anything rowling could come up with.

it was the book that made me unironically practisce numerology and astrology and reading tea leaves when i was a kid. it was also the perfect gateway drug to the kind of weird shit alan moore would preach at me when i was a teenager/young adult. fantastic history lesson packaged in an endearing way

*between nothing and eternity - roberto pettinato

pettinato is a stand up comic from argentina, one i am fond of. this book collects random thoughts, long digressions, short stories, stand up sets and other tangential observations that the guy made across his carrer. an incredibly eclectic book that has way too much fun playing around with typography. it replicated in an eerie way (even though at the time i couldnt possibly have known) the feeling of scrolling on tumblr and coming across the effort posts and deranged shitposts made by your mutuals. another eerie thing is how pettinato’s writing style is so incredibly good at conveying his own speech patterns, you cannot help but read this book in his voice, never before or after speech, cadence, delivery, timing, emphasis and tone was so perfectly conveyed in writing.

*the warm-up battle - marcelo figueras

i said more than enough about this book already. my favourite book of all time.

*the girl who loved tom gordon - stephen king

one of kings lesser known books, also the first book by stephen king i ever read. and much like the tip of the iceberg, much like the smallest tendril from the great eldritch beast that reaches from beyond time into my mind, i was amazed and astounded by it without even suspecting that there was so much more where that came from.

this was probably the first book i ever read with a female protagonist. whats more, a female protagonist of my age. again, as someone who was socialized as a boy, i was surprised at how relatable, how close, how immediate the conection to her was. she did things in her mind that i thought only i did. now the title may make you think this is some cute teen romance book or whatever. its actually and incredibly raw and terrifying story of survival, about a girl who got lost in the woods for days and days with nothing but her portable radio (that i would picture as the little pink walkman i had as a kid) and the prescence of something wrong, following her in the woods

*lessons in fear - diana shaw

and while on the subject of female protagonists, this is a practically completly unkown little teen novel where you follow a teenage girl who decides to become a private investigator and find out who has been pulling (potentially lethal) pranks on the most hated teacher at school. yet another book that surprised me by how much i related to the female protagonist as a kid, specially considering it was probably the only book i ever read where menstruation is not only brought up as a thing that exists but on top of that is brought up in a completly non chalante way as in yeah, whatever, it happens, its really annoying, ugh, i forgot my tampons, what a drag. which blew my 11 year old mind

the paris enigma - pablo de santis

speaking of murder mystery, this is The murder mystery novel. the one muder mystery novel that is all murder mystery novels that have ever existed. the ultimate tribute to the genre. it’s set in the late 1800′s, the eiffel tower is about to be completed for the world’s fair and the great twelve detectives, a world spanning organization composed by the best detectives of the world, are getting together. with them there are their adlateres, their assistants, their watsons. among the adlateres we follow one kid, the most recent addition to the group, someone who grew up reading detective stories his entire life and now had to prove himself as a worthy addition to the team. much like worm is the ultimate superhero story and worth the candle is the ultimate rpg isekai, this one is the ultimate crime novel

_______________________________________________________________

extra material

honorary mentions, books that i only read once as a kid and yet they still had a profound impact on my mind:

*the words - jean paul sartre.

the guy talks about his childhood, i had this idea that the guy was a dense and complex philosopher but his writing ended up being very enjoyable and relatable

*the invention of morel - adolfo bioy casares

the proof that latin america could create some amazing science fiction

*the eight - katherine neville

im honestly surprised not more people are talking about this one. dan brown done right. or more precisely the davinci code is katherine neville done wrong

*the metamorphosis - franz kafka

i was surprised at how straight forward the concept was explored, it almost felt like speculative fiction

*trafalgar - angelica gorodischer

the other proof that argentina could create some amazing science fiction, and make it but gustingly funny

*blindness - jose saramago

yet another example in this list of a writer that i expected to be dense and incomprehensible and dull and yet surprised me at how straightforwardly it explored a genuenly fascinating idea

*locked room - paul auster

and this is the one book that breaks that trend. i have no idea what the hell this book is about. i remember it was faintly disturbing to read. it was the book that started my obsession with thoroughly filing and archiving everything i create

[scarfdyedshadow]

On the Decline of Mage Characterization in Ancillary Type-Moon Works (or On Magi Getting Flanderized Into One-Dimensional Evil Arrogant Sods) Part 1: The Matter of Magi Themselves

Yes, I am dumb enough and obsessed enough to basically write an entire essay on this. Yes, the title is pretentious as all hell.

A disclaimer before we start though, this is not directed at or meant to condemn or call out or mock or invalidate the many a Tumblr shitpost on evil arrogant magi getting owned by Guda or various other characters. It may not be humor personally up my alley, but I understand the appeal, and it’s not like there isn’t some grain of truth to them. Likewise this isn’t meant to in any way condone anything Nasuverse magi. A fair amount of them are evil regardless of mitigating circumstances, a lot of the ones that aren’t outright evil have capacity to be evil because of ethos and mindset, and the acts they commit are certainly evil. I am not condoning them, or dismissing them as not evil. I simply urge a more nuanced rather than simplistic analysis of that evil. This also unfortunately omits Mahoyo, which probably has quite a bit of insight, because I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet, thus rendering me a fake fan you should not listen to. Thank you for your consideration. Also, spoilers.

This first part is primarily concerned with the inhumanity of magi and misconceptions about magi and their ethos as a whole, while the next part will actually go into the history of magus villains in Type-Moon works and what I feel is their decline, and build upon and further points of this part. There may be a potential third part on the Crypters, Gordolf, and Olga, the modern faces of Nasuverse magi and the greatest illustration that magi are far more nuanced, complex, pitiful and yet admirable, than they aren’t, and Nasu’s thesis statement on the power of love and life.

(Note: Okay my theme is actually pretty eyesearing to the point I recommend you read this on dash, I’ll go get it fixed)

"Do you know what it is that magi are aiming for?"

After a moment of blankness, Gray replied with a difficult expression.

"Umm...I heard about it in class. What was it...the Spiral of Origin?"

"Right. The Spiral of Origin, or more simply the Root. Sometimes it's referred to as「 」, the thing for which there can be no reference. It is the source of everything, the 'zero' from which all matter and phenomena flow. Ah, but now that I'm trying to put it into words, I'm realizing that's not a good idea. After all, even the idea of 'zero' has baggage that makes it unsuitable as a comparison."

"Regardless, the goal of magi is to eventually reach that place. Of course, there are also those who simply derive pleasure from touching the supernatural, or from being superhuman. Because we are weak, we fall to that diversion. But in the end, that's not our ultimate goal."

For modern magi, most understood that reaching the root was something that just wasn't possible for them. After all, even though magecraft itself had been in a state of continuing decline since the Age of Gods, there were no reports of anyone facing that past and trying to return to it. Likely, the appearance in the Far East of the fifth - and often called the last - Magician was the same as the gate to the Root being all but closed to everyone else.

Even so, we didn't give up.

Anyone who would give up in a situation like this would never have become a magus to begin with.

Ironically enough, despite opening up with a quote from Lord El-Melloi II Case Files, which I’ll have some critique for, the crux of my thesis is this. As originally presented in Kara no Kyoukai, and generally only kept up to a meaningful degree in other Nasu written works like Stay Night, Clock Tower 2015, and Grand Order, magi were the piteous, tragic, inhuman not as in inhumane but as in a broken machine product of an impossible ideal and a broken system. They were the villains, yes, unambiguously so, but at the same time they were sympathetic and nuanced to an extent that would decline down the road.

You see, Araya. A mage always lives hurriedly. What for? If it was for themselves alone they wouldn't bother with the outside world. So why do they intrude upon the rest of the world? Why do they rely upon it? What will they achieve with that power? What will they save with the Ars Magna (Ars Magna: Meaning 'great secret technique', it stands not for a technique that is not learnt through study but for a mystery that is secretly passed down)? If that was the case it would have been better for them to become a king instead of a mage.

You think people live foully, but you yourself would not be able to live like that. You would not be able to live while accepting the fact that you know that everything is worthless and base. You would not be able to live without the pride of knowing that you alone are special, and that you alone can save this crumbling world. Of course, I was like that too. But that sort of thing has no meaning. --- Accept it, Araya. We chose the path of transcendence called magecraft because we are weaker than everybody else.

Magi were presented as absurd, as farcical, as maddeningly helpless and hopeless compared to those living normal lives. This will come up in Part 2, especially as pertains to Touko and Gordolf and the like, but normal everyday life, not superior thematic superpowers or an army of Servants, is what is truly far more powerful than any magi.

"... I'll just ask one thing. What do you mean when you say that secrets are kept even within that Association?"

Unexpectedly, I hear something from the sofa.

Over there is Shiki, who has been sitting there since before without a word. She's the type of person who doesn't get involved in a conversation that she's not interested in, so until now she had been staring at the scenery outside the window.

"--- There is that. A mage won't reveal the results of his experiments even within the Association. What the person next to them is researching, what their goals are, and what they have obtained are all a mystery. The only time a mage will reveal the results of their work is when they are passing it on to their descendants just before they die."

"Studying for their benefit alone, yet not using that power for their own sake? What purpose is there in a life like that, Touko? Is it that the goal is to learn, and the process is to learn too? If the only things you have are the beginning and the end, that's the same as having a zero."

Their pursuit for the truth is maddening. It is greedy yet at once devoid of greed. It is selfish yet at once devoid of selfishness. Their ethos and methodology are not fundamentally inhumane, but inhuman. Magi are an odd sort of creature indeed, and it isn’t the case that they’re all evil in their absurd quest. Indeed, virtually all early Nasuverse ancillary material, and this is still said today despite the opposite being true in practice, is that the vast majority of magi are shut ins who stay inside researching as opposed to eating babies.

The everyday life of a magus is mostly spent conducting research. Magi who use magic outside of a research capacity, such as those who use magi to work and profit for themselves, are few in number. People who treat magic as a tool, such as assassins, are called “spellcasters”, and are looked down upon with disdain by the magical establishment.

Furthermore, it is precisely because they are magi that few magi use magic in their daily lives.

Practically speaking, for every mage you see committing mass murder or fighting the mass murdering mage with superpowers, there are ten who we certainly can’t call conventionally moral, who we certainly can’t call normal humans, obsessively striving towards a seemingly impossible goal inhumanly but not inhumanely. Because Type-Moon does action series this has never been tenable to properly depict besides the minority, but it is the truth regardless. This is from a later work I actually have some measure of criticism for, but Strange Fake actually illustrates that point perfectly.

"A mage's mage," he muttered disgustedly to himself, eyes narrowed, "is no different from a hard-working corrupt politician." What about me? He wondered as soon as the words were out of his mouth. As long as corruption stayed hidden, it was difficult for the public to tell the difference between a corrupt politician and an honest one. In which case, mages, who never entered the public eye to begin with, probably ought to be lumped in with them. There were exceptions, but from the standpoint of the general public, mages were generally evil.

Other Nasu written works like Stay Night and Clock Tower 2015 also touch upon it.

Magic is just what it sounds like… magic. I don't care if you get ideas like abracadabra or whatever. You can just think of us as people who do strange things by casting spells. Oh, though it's not like we fly around on brooms or make stars appear with a wave of a wand. …Well, we could do that, but we don't bother as it's kind of meaningless. We're basically heretics who hide ourselves from the world. We're prohibited from standing out and even if we weren't, we would rather be at home studying magic.

Clock Tower 2015 especially hits it up by depicting what might be called the ideal magus, the point of being a magus that is often distorted by human concerns but that all of them are to some extent, not an inhumane monster but an inhuman man who has dedicated his life to magecraft.

"Ahhh, the life of a magus is so brief. It would have been great if I were born with just the brain and nothing else." Like what you just saw, Leiv was a pure academic magus. All his efforts were poured solely into his theory and magecraft. He cared naught of any other responsibilities, the application of his magecraft, his lineage, or building his faction. From Leiv's perspective, those magi were the same as the plebians that were "normal people". If one were to decipher the mystical, then he must sacrifice his humanity. A magus was a creature with nothing but magecraft on his mind. There was no room for burdens such as "life".

So to begin with, what we call magi are far from all arrogant murderous sods, and if anything arrogant murderous sods are the minority. They come in all manner of varieties, united simply by the pursuit of the impossible, by the desire to reach the truth, by the desire to transcend. Even more so than just that, they do have their values and ethics. They are often cruelly distorted, to the extent “magi parents” is a phrase that might as well be an oxymoron, but I would opine that as a product more of recent years than anything.

"Keep those for me. They are some awful cigarettes from Taiwan but I only have those now. Of course there isn't any company that made them, it's a famous item that some eccentric master made only one box of. Yeah, out of all my possessions that is the second most valuable thing I have." Leaving behind some strange words, she turned around and walked out. ... Perhaps her most valuable possession is herself, that kind of thought popped into my mind so I asked her, but she only turned back her head and answered. "That's rather rude. I know it's me but even I don't treat people like possessions." Like herself when she has her glasses on, she pouts as if she's sulking. And then, returning to her usual cool expression Touko-san continued talking. "Kokuto. Those people called mages, with an apprentice or other people they are close to they feel like parents. Since they are something like their offspring, they often fight desperately to protect them as well. ... Well, it's like that so relax and wait here. I'll bring Shiki back tonight." Thock thock, the sound of her walking away. Unable to say anything to her back, I let the brown-coated magician go.

That magi value their children, their apprentices, their legacies, even if only as a next step on the path to the Root, is also a truth echoed at the same time that it’s often contradicted. But then, magi are in of themselves contradictory creatures. After all, despite pursuing an inhuman ideal, despite throwing away their humanity, they themselves are still human. That contradiction between reality and ideals, best exemplified by Fate/Stay Night, is one of the themes at the heart of Nasu’s work.

So, to repeat it once more, magi as a whole, magi society as a whole, is not fundamentally inhumane but inhuman. That inhumanity often lends itself to the inhumane, but not necessarily, and indeed I opine that should be considered on a deeper level. That inhuman society is by no means a good thing, but to simply call it evil and magi evil and call it a day is to do a disservice to its nuance. There are arrogant murderous magi as well, sure, but they too are products of a tenacious ideal, they are the long shadow cast by lineages stretching for thousands of years.

In reality, what really forged the magus of the modern day was not a supernatural power or transcendent conscience, but a tenacity built and reinforced over generations. Clinging to a shadowed, intense ideology for hundreds, or in some cases even thousands of years, developed its own sort of extreme power. Even if science were to exceed magecraft in all other respects, as long as that ideal survived, magecraft itself would be ineradicable.

But what then of Souren Araya? What of that bastard Zouken and worst dad of the year Tokiomi and that arrogant asshole Kayneth? Rest well assured that I will cover them in exacting detail in the next part of whatever the hell this is, and everything I say about them will build upon this. That may seem contradictory, since this part is mostly devoted to showing that magi are far more than just evil sods, but believe it or not Kayneth is going to be mightily relevant to how pitifully weak magi in truth are, and Tokiomi is going to be relevant to how magi value their children in ways that don’t have to be inhumane, but can be inhuman. Until next time, all I can ask is to consider that while magi are indeed monsters, monsters really can be quite interesting creatures.

Things in this world were all like that.

It wasn’t limited to magecraft. It wasn’t limited to those beyond humans (monsters). In a world of common sense (the obvious), it was something everyone understood.

If you said that misunderstandings, miscommunications, disagreements, and false understandings are what connected them, then...

“We are misrecognition. Our world itself is misunderstanding. We can experience a multitude of truths, not just one single reality. No matter how wise you are, or how much time you are given, you will never reach something like a single truth. Magi may just be those who continually reject that fact.”

Speaking as if in self-deprecation, my master had pursed his lips at that.

He had finally realized that his words and the objective that all Magi pursued, known as the “Spiral of Origin,” were in contradiction.

Sources: Lord El-Melloi Case Files (TL by TwilightsCall), Kara no Kyoukai (TL on baka-tsuki), Fate/Stay Night (TL Mirror Moon), Clock Tower 2015 (TL by food), Fate/Strange Fake (TL by OtherSideOfSky)

[ladymirdan]

The Emperor takes a last shuddering breath, and his body slumps out of the golden throne and down to the steps below. He can see it happen. His soul stepped out of his body, looking at a humanity he no longer recognises. His least favourite son is a ruling tyrant. Mankind is lost in its revelries of religious fervour. Everything he feared has come true.

He closes his eyes and waits for darkness to come. For chaos to claim his failures. For the Daemons to descend and render reality into oblivion. Nothing matters anymore.

Nothing happens. The Astronomicon is fine. His Throneroom is fine. Terra is fine. How can this be?

He can see his most beloved servants, clad in resplendent gold, haul his body back upon the throne. He tries to call out to them, but he has no voice.

“We really need a seatbelt on this thing; this is getting ridiculous”, is the last thing he hears before losing consciousness.

Did you really expect GW to let this cash cow die? They will beat this dead horse until it drinks again. Just look at old world.

Boosting so you might get some better responses. Sorry for shitposting 😅

I wonder if/when Games Workshop will finally give an end to WH40K, will they let the Imperium or humanity as a whole just die to finally end their suffering & misery? That seems like a fitting end with all the grimdarkness.

[determined-magi]

Alright verse page rewritten.

under readmore are the chances so you don’t need to enter.

Main verses:

v|pre-war|: the mages will be set before the war, a time set where humans and monsters have relationships that are at odds, but still upholding some treaties and concords of economic value, and few over political and public relationship

Bellegur, the king and kindness mage who declared war, will be set as a prince trying to uphold political and economic treaties, concords and social relationships along Agarwaenor, the red soul barrier mage who currently holds power of the Resets, Loads and the Files, as he is the currently most determined user of them alive.

v|war-verse|: Bellegur has been issued to ascend and take his father’s crown, the tensions between monsters and humans have declined, and at last, the newly crowned king has declared war. The banners towards campings for monsterkind’s erradication have been risen, and slaughters are to follow in their wake.

Five of the greatest magicians have been issued as new generals, to follow the king and his right hand veteran War-mage, Braigon, the barbarian bear, into leading the slaghter. Agarwaenor, the red dragon; Gilrin, the mistress of nightmares; Thanneth, the bleeding gale; .Rhowën, the golden arrow and Thannor, the wrathful lion are to ensure every town is rendered to ashes and dust, whether they want it or not.

v|post-war|: Humanity has won’t against mosterkind, and they have been sealed underground with a magic spell, made by their greatest mages. But this hasn’t been done without consequences. That they will pay with a weight equal if not greater than the one to pay.

v|ghost-verse|: The mages have died, but their souls remain. And with their magic, the seven barrier mages have been revived as undead spectral beings, now they haunt the legendary mount Ebott and nearby lands, until they are finally slain, or their souls finally find the rest they could not in death.

v|void prison|: The mages have died, set their bodies and souls aflame until only ashes remained. But their beings have found no peace. They are cursed to remain neither alive nor dead int he void, to watch everyone around them move on, and for them to remain stagnant and trapped as ghostly beings within the endless dark.

v|reincarnated-verse|: The souls of the mages have been born anew, in the bodies of seven persons. Bellegur is now Gabriel, a guide for Ebott’s nature and history museum; Agarwaenor is now Avanon, a waiter and museum guard; Braigon is now Osmund, a bodyguard of a night club and assistant of his family's restaurant trying to earn a profesional liscence to do so ; Thanneth is now armlena, a student that works as a librarianto help pay her studies; Rhowen is now Serethiel, a prison guard after being pushed off profesional archery and other shooting sports ; Gilrin is now Ivanka, a teacher and agricultural researcher working a part time job on the natural and history museum of ebbot, and as a biology teacher to low grades on school; And lastly Thannor is ,Leonidas A metal worker with a past time as a recreational smith that fashions both weaponry, tool making and armor and vestment crafting.

Other verses and miscellaneous:

v|Of Time Cracks and Shitposts| Shitposting and non-serious things go in here with the mages or reincara.

v|unknown-verse|tbn: Verses yet to be named.

v|Multiverse-verse|: Things taken outside towards the multiverse, the mages, or their reincarnations, have achieved multiverse traveling somehow. You can meet pre-war mages, post war, reincarnations, anyone here.

v|Monster or Beast-verse|: Herein the mages couldn't cure all the symptoms of High LV poisoning/syndrome. And their magic has gone haywire to the point they neither act nor look human anymore, and have become a mockery of the innocent they have slain with a less friendly demeanor permanently.

Each has taken to the looks, sounds and behaviors of their magic. And thus, they have become hardly humanoid beasts of magical creatures. Specifficaly those of three draconic creatures, a nine tailed fox, a lion, a gryphon and a bear.

This optionally comes with them as Gaster blaster-like bone/undead beasts after a failed attempt at a suicide.

The first four are the ones I currently have by default, if you wish for some of the fandom’s AUs to be added please tell me, we’ll discuss a bit so we can settle a bit how it may be. So it can be compatible with the worlds of your muses and etc…

Once again, just tell me if you have some question regarding the verses, I won’t bite you for asking me things.

AU verses:

I will write this one

v|dark lords-verse|: This is a underfell-like verse. Where the seven are the lords of their kingdom and rule with a bloody fist.

Here Bellegur took the throne forcibly so from his father, in an attempt to better the wrongs the former king had commited. Only to become a worse monarch himself along his six most trusted generals, and strongest, war mages, as lords of six of seven regions to impose his and their own will. Be it by force, blood or dust.

NOTE: Horrortale and Swap verses will not be made, due to issues with headcanons that make the mages in such a setting impossible to play. As they would immediatelly attempt a genocide in the former. And in the later due to the exhausting process of swapping personalities and roles of the seven mages and their reincarnations.

{Tba}

[steel-nemesis]

Ya'll, I'm loosing my shit right now. This is a shitpost.

ZAVOK AND THE DEADLY SIX ARE ALTERNATE VERSIONS OF HATSUNE MIKU AND THE CRYPTON CREW.

Now, I know what your thinking. " Bees, how in the actual shit are these demon bastards and robot singers alike? " Well. Let me tell you.

Both the Crypton Crew and the Deadly 6 have 6 members in total, including their leaders, as shown here in offical artwork and renders.

As you can see, there are 6 members in total. But, going into further detail, this leads us to #2.

Both groups have several things in common. Such as the leaders having blue hair, one member thats the opossite gender than the rest of the group, as well as both leaders having opossite colors. Miku having more blue with a hint of pinkish-reddish, while Zavok has more red with a hint of blueish-greenish on him. But both are shown to have the same color of nails.

Now we head into #3, the similarities between each members of the group. Such as Zavok being Miku because of their leader status in each group, Zeena and Zazz being Len and Rin, thanks to the fact of HOW MANY PREVERTED SONGS LEN GETS WHILE ZEENA LITERALLY REPRESENTS LUST- while Rin seems more energetic with her songs, and Zazz seems to be the most energetic in his group. Zor being Luka, thanks to their calmer nature, and the fact that Zor probably has depression, and Luka has had a literal song with depression in their name, Depression Of Cybernetics, and has been in some very sad Vocaloid songs such as Reboot, and Lie. Zomom being Meiko, thanks to the fact that shes been seen being a tad bit of an alchoholic, while Zomom is shown to be a glutton. Which leads us to Zor being Kaito, mainly because they seemingly are the oldest in their groups, and are both blue bastard men.

Now, heres where things start to get weirdly specific. In the STH IDW comics, specifically Issue #29, we get this shot of Zavok shooting a fire ball at our heroes.

Look familiar? Well, this is almost the exact same pose Miku pulls off in the song " Ghost Rule ", near the end, where she looks up at the ceiling and screams. The only main differences being that Zavok has his eyes open, and his fists facing upwards while Miku has the opossite effect.

I would also just like to point out that Miku herself has a song titled " World is mine " and the Deadly Six have tried helping Eggman to take over Mobius, Sonic's world, multiple times. And also the random fact that Miku has a Sonic outfit in Project Diva.

Jesus Christ, I regret making this long ass shitpost.

[elfindreams]

MORE THINGS FROM THE UT/DR RP SERVER:

•Knight Knight’s ASMR review blog. It’s literally just a series of links to medieval-themed ASMR/sleep sounds Youtube videos with one-line comments like “This one works. Fell asleep” or “Rain sounds too loud compared to other audio. Still fell asleep”.

•A weird platonic love triangle between Ralsei, Kris, and the vessel from the opening of Deltarune: Ralsei is fascinated by his Lightner pal’s mysterious new twin and enjoys feeding them delicious chocolate cakes, Kris has been making a downright heroic effort to protecc the fluffy boy from bodily harm (which includes tackling and physically shielding him when the two were attacked by some gun-wielding humans) and resents his willingness to immediately embrace this creepy stalkerish clone as a new friend, and the vessel desperately craves love and positive attention from Kris and can’t understand why following their “sibling” around and clinging and fawning over them all the time isn’t working.

•Ralsei getting spooked by his first-ever encounter with rain, and Kris calmly informing him that the wrath of the Angel is upon them and the world is ending and the sky is falling and soon the rainwater will turn into blood and pus. Somehow they’re surprised (and mildly annoyed) by Ralsei clinging to them like a baby koala and screaming his lungs out.

•A clone of Sans who spent several weeks shitposting online before casually mention that he’s trapped alone in this freaky nowhere-place (actually the unused ingame beta rooms) where he never gets hungry or thirsty or tired and his phone never stops working, but where he also can’t escape. He posted a couple pictures as proof but they kinda got buried in the skelebro group chat amidst the general memeing and so far nobody’s even mentioned the idea of rescuing him.

•An alternate universe mad scientist Undyne who’s secretly the most powerful character in the whole cast, because while the ridiculously OP omnicidal god-tier badasses will eventually get dogpiled and killed once the bonehead Illuminati gets its shit together, nobody’s been paying much attention to her, so she’s been off in the background stealthily amassing a huge supply of Determination, an assortment of magic-related patents to make money, an adorable pet Caterpillar made of several dozen stray cats, and legal ownership of Undernet. She also somehow managed to get a job as a school nurse despite spending a couple months in prison for trying to cut Alphys up with a chainsaw, but who’s counting.

•Somebody cyberbullied Papyrus so Sans went after them with one of his troll accounts on Undernet and ended up infecting the FBI’s computer database with a Trojan virus scripted to replace every single file throughout its entire computer system with staggeringly high-res pictures of Bonzi Buddy, thereby rendering their operations completely nonfunctional. (Their fault for letting an agent goof off on Undernet at work and click on a sketchy link tbh.) This has actual consequences with regard to the doomsday cult subplot.

•A human lawyer OC for whom I’ve been doing a bit of actual research to figure out what specific laws are being broken when it comes to time travel, crimes that took place in alternate realities that may or may not still exist per se, magical mind control, and mass conflicts that involve a whole bunch of kids with weird time-travel powers as combatants. It started out as a total joke until it wasn’t.

[facelessxchurch]

What we’re your thoughts about the book?

Some asks were answered already in this post already so I just smacked those asks in here at the part where I talk about the topic in question, which is why the answer may not 100% fit the question.

Massive “Seasons of War” spoilers below the cut:

First off, of all, this book read like GoT/any zombie movie ever. With the necromancers being like the white walkers, Vile is the night king and daugar are the wights. even with the necromancers crumbling away after Vile got killed Tell me I’m not the only one seeing that.

I think there was a lot of fanservice and some confirmed headcanons in the book, which I really liked. Saracen magic got revealed, there was a return to the Leibniz dimension, the Vile vs Vile fight so many wanted finally happened (tho that was kinda underwhelming) and the Dead Men returned which I’m sure made a lot of people happy. 

Ravel poisoning Saracen during the war and Vile being so powerful bc of being dead were two popular headcanons that got confirmed. And I am personally so happy that this book killed the ‘there is no sarcasm in the Leibniz dimension’ headcanon bc I bloody hated that.

Finally, Landy tries to please the old fans instead instead of what feels like purposefully pissing them off. I guess the phase 2 book sales weren’t that great so far (nice try blaming it on the pandemic, but no). 

I’m also glad that the romance in this book was kept to a minimum bc The Val/Militsa kiss in the beginning, yikes, fanfiction has better written kisses than that. And the the dialog for the lesbian love triangle (bc for some reason Ms.Wicked aka Laura’s self insert is Militsa’s ex??) was cringy and stiff as hell, it felt more like first graders trying to do a dramatic play and not natural at all.

Surprisingly enough Mevolent’s and Serafina’s relationship seems to be the most healthy and romantic in the entire series and I have no idea if that was on purpose or if Landy just has twisted views on relationships.

I however am actually kinda happy with how Mev was written. He was sympathetic and charismatic, tho some of the stuff he did doesn’t fit to they way he’s characterised when he’s on screen (I know he is probably lying 90% of the time he speaks, but still). Like, banning all languages apart from English doesn’t seem like something a man who cares about culture, literature and art would do. It also seems kinda stupid bc those languages will be forgotten eventually and if they need an old text translated no one will be able to do it. Also, why English? Isn’t Mev old enough that his first/original language should be Gaelic? So weird. I have the feeling this was mainly done so Valkyrie (and with that the audience) can understand what the people on the continent are saying bc I very much doubt she understands/speaks any languages apart from English. 

But I loved that Mev was also shown as insanely smart. He managed to outsmart Val multiple times. And I love how he doesn’t need his magic to fight, how quick and agil and skilled he is. So I take it that his fighting style is more based on agility and not getting hit, and he uses brute force only when forced into it (by Darquesse/the Unnamed). I was wondering about that bc his armor is made of leather and chainmail instead of metal plates which is considered light armor and not something a tank type of fighter would wear.

What really rubbed me the wrong way tho was when he was talking Tanith and Skul and more or less stated the war wasn’t a challenge anymore ever since Skul died. Or when he was talking to Val being like ‘you’re more powerful than I could ever hope to be’.It bothers me even more knowing that Val is based on girlfriend!Laura. Does really everyone and everything in-vers, even a big bad like Mev, rub Skul’s/Landy’s and Val’s/Laura’s ego? Big yikes.

Crespular Vies is surprisingly fun. At first I thought the two men going after the Obsidian Blade were hired by the Unnamed, but since that wasn’t the case, I think Crespular Vines hired them that so he could show up in time to save Omen and his friends. I think him opening up to Omen about being Skul’s former partner came too unprompted, too quickly and that he is trying to gain Omen’s trust so he can get close to Skul through him. I think another giveaway that that’s the case is bc one of the men Omen had to meet to get his brother back wore a Cleaver outfit and Vies gave that man probably the same reasoning Omen gave him.

That said Omen’s chapters were surprisingly enjoyable. By what I had heard of others I expected a sad sack that can’t fight worth a damn. 

I’m not found of the Temper/Kierre stuff, it came out of nowhere.

Val is overpowered AF, it seems that she can get on Darquesses level with more practise/learning how to keep the doors open. She certainly needs to be nerfed.

Also I skipped the Darquesse chapters bc I’m giving negative fucks about her and the plague doctor.

The last 10% of the book were too rushed and felt like half finished thoughts.

Also I was kinda really bothered by the citizen of the Leibniz dimension. They were cartoonishly racist and it was very pretty black and white for the most part AKA everybody good is in the Resistance and all other sorcerers are evil/corrupt. That is also shown by there being children in the Resistance camp while there was no mention of children in the mage cities. In reality, most people are fairly mellow and it’s just a small percentage that is either really good or really wicked. I would have liked to see more racism towards mortals in form of apathy or ‘the soft bigotry of low expectations’ like I’ve seen it from Serpine in DotL. You know, make it a little less black and white.

Also, I understand the mermaids, but the bats in Europe were random AF. Like, I would understand it if they were just in Romania/Transylvania as a nod to the Dracula-typ vampire legends originating from there. As a plot-device they weren’t really needed to keep the protagonists from flying bc the danger of getting spotted by necromancer by doing so should be enough of a threat to keep them on the ground. This might seem nit-picky of me, but the bats just seemed so bloody random to me like wtf????

And also bc I’m a slut for magical creatures, I would have really liked to see more of them than just daugar and giant bats. Some undead cut together and resurrected necromancer experiments would have been pretty cool tbh. Like whatever the hell this is.

Something like zombie bears would have also been acceptable, I mean, bears are fucking terrifying on their own, let alone when undead and decaying.

I’m kinda pissed at China that she wanted Skul to kill Nef, but it does seem in character. Of course I still don’t like it bc I headcanon as Nef, Eliza and China having been besties during the war (no matter what canon says, I’m keeping that headcanon). I’m surprised Skul didn’t let Wreath have Nef considering that. Then again, he thought Nef might still be useful. And he was right. I loved how Nef actually had an essential part in saving the world by throwing the bomb. So proud of my boi <3 But Skul refused to kill him even after that. Could it be that Skul is finally getting character growth and development? 👀

Aaaand, China’s continuing to be a tyrant. With Tanith’s sense of justices flaring up shown when he killed the city governor, Erato, and Nef being shown to go after people that betray him (Lorien) I think those two are being set up to go after China to kill her (and to probably kill Creed too). Imagine Eliza joining the team bc she want a piece of China too.

I feel sorry for Baron, but at least he got a few speaking lines this time around. Still, I really wanted Nef to save him. :C Like, he suffered so much before he died too considering he spend a year alone starving and thirsty with broken legs in the middle of nowhere wft, why is Baron getting fucked over like this? #BaronDeservedBetter2020 he is the only honorable person of all faceless followers and he’s the one that gets screwed over in every book he shows up in, why tho- 😭

Speaking of Nef, I absolutely loved him in this book, he was a delight and stealing the show whenever he was on the page, despite being used as  punching bag through pretty much the entire book. If people have always treated him that way I can see why he turned evil jfc that poor man. Despite that, he was still being such a clever, funny and relatable bae <3 He’s described as ‘cynical, and nasty but also kinda cheerful’ and as liking to ‘needle’ people (aka trolling and roasting) by Val and that essentially describes every shitposter on the internet ever. And I so loved the way he roasted Saracen lmao

And how he’s so clever, like the Lorien part was my favourite scene closely followed by how Nef essentially talked Remus Crux into getting himself killed, just 👌 smart snek boi, I love him <3 Also I hope he keeps poisoning everybody thoughts against Skul like how he had already been doing it to Tanith, he’s poison in human form and that’s just my jam.

That obedience bracelet was kinda fucked up tho.

Why does this thing even exist? Aren't electro shocks or any other form of pain enough instead of shutting his nervous system down/rendering him completely defenceless? I feel like some messed up mage 100% used it to keep himself (sex) slaves at some point in time :/ Landy might have gotten that idea from some fucked up hentai. Even the implications of the name "obedience bracelet".... I can’t be the only one that got creepy perv vibes from that thing, right?

Btw what the fuck happened to Harmony? You know, Leibniz Serpine’s girlfriend. She hasn’t been mentioned again. Did she die? She didn’t seem too found of him in DotL, was she plotting against him and he found out about it, killed her and fled the Resistance? Or did she die prior to him leaving and it was part of the reason he left bc she was the only thing that had tied him emotionally to the Resistance?? Or Landy just forgot  she existed. I would not be surprised.

Of course my biggest issue with this book was how he retconned Nef’s magic and how he took his trademark, his red hand, away, but more about that in a different post.

TL;DR: Nef was a delight even though he was done dirty. Mev’s scenes were a 50/50 split between good and bad. I actually liked the Crespulare and Omen chapters. The Unnamed was a disappointment. The last 10% of the book were to rushed and the final fights that were supposed to be the biggest were underwhelming. The rest is meh, didn’t really care tbh. Let’s be real here, I only bought this book bc Nef played a bigger role in it, anyways.

[bomberqueen17]

missbuster replied to your post “the untamed”

is this the chinese series with the wigs and the elf robes?

oh yes. occasionally i’ll be watching and i’ll be like huh, aesthetically, this is the silmarillion right here

lazaefair replied to your post “the untamed”

Ah, the joy of trying to render a non-latinate language in latinate symbols

yes ugh 

fortunately i have enough prior exposure from gifsets and shitposts that mostly i can keep people straight. and, as dude pointed out, they very kindly dress in themed uniforms by family, so that’s super polite of them. 

popkin16 replied to your post “the untamed”

ISN'T IT WEIRD BUT GOOD?

I mean. clearly, a lot of the weirdness is that it’s leaning on tropes I’m totally unfamiliar with, like how buddy cop shows all use the same camera angles and hallmark movies have the formulaic bit where you take the whole thing on faith as having been established somehow by sheer weight of expectation-- clearly, there must be similar conventions in Chinese television dramas that I’m just not familiar with, so maybe the WILDLY SWINGING CAMERAS are just part of that, and so on.

And the fact that people fucking fly for no reason all the time, I have no idea if that’s like, just normal on Chinese TV or if that’s just for this show. 

but yes, it is deeply bizarre and also extremely compelling. I blame the Pretty People In Semi-Unconvincing Wigs. The Man With One Facial Expression Only is so pretty and really gets a lot of mileage out of the only facial expression they let him have (and most of that mileage is furious gay pining which I am so here for). And his brother, with the Square Righteous Jaw And Kind Eyes, he is also so lovely. And our doe-eyed mischievous protagonist whose names are the only ones I can remember because his family name is the same as that of a roommate of mine from college (why is his family name different from his siblings though do they explain that??? also it is only three letters and i am very stupid so three letters is what i can handle and as a bonus they are pronounced like they look like), he is also very beautiful. And I only just met Wen Qing but I want to cradle her adorable sticky-outy ears, she is so pretty. IDK why I can remember her name but I super can. Maybe because nobody seems to call her anything else and she’s one of like two women. She kind of pouts sometimes and that is all I want to look at in this world, thank you for being so pretty, nice lady from Evil World. Gosh I hope she has a nice time in this show.

(I know that she will not. I know that is the point of this show, literally nobody has a nice time in it. I have, after all, seen the gifsets. I was a little startled to see the dripping-blood-hand-off-a-cliff part so early, actually; I sort of figured that was a spoiler but no, this show takes no fucking prisoners, that is the opening scene. Okay then!)

[wormbook22]

Hello world... again

Hellooo,

Thank you for finding me! \(^o^)/

This blog is mostly to promote my favorite arts & music, plus some stuffs about audio production (technical or not).

I used to have another blog on the same topics under the same name. However, due to some issues with Tumblr support (nothing illegal I swear o.O), I now need to create another one.

What you’ll find here:

Reviews of mostly non-mainstream musicians and their works (albums, singles, soundtracks, lives, operas etc.)

My journey of sound exploration, including discussion of music genres, recording techniques, instrument design etc.

(Sometimes) Other stuffs: books, art films, anime, paintings, comics, manga, sculptors, 3D rendering etc.

MINIMAL shitposting. I may post #random things and #announcement from time to time. The truly irrelevant stuffs are marked with #please ignore. Just block them.

I aim to churn out contents once every week for short posts (starting Aug this year), but more in-depth stuffs may take months, as I’m rather busy irl.

Now, here are some house rules before I start with the juicy posts:

1. Non-mainstream music?

That’s over-generalizing a bit, but I like weird stuffs from different genres all over the world. If it’s done right to me, it doesn’t matter if it’s jazz, pop, house, avant-garde, classical, hip-hop, soundtrack stuffs or whatever in-between. A few examples (not in any order): Kajiura Yuki, Ennio Morricone, Billie Eilish, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Björk, Agust D, Ulrich Drechsler, Hanoi Duo.

With that said, I’m quite biased with a mix of powerful female vocals, stuffs in minor keys & lots of evolving counter melodies. Sure, each of those do typically appear in mainstream music, but I tend to prefer more eclectic combinations of them. I’m sure I’ll unconsciously cover more people like that.

You’ll likely discover lots of weird people here. Do follow official channels of those who interest you! :D

2. Sound exploration...?

Well, after having too much time for introspection during Covid-19, I’m thinking of switching career to something along the line of foley artist or sound engineer. No idea what I want yet, so I’m exploring possible professions. Since this is a music-related blog, I just want to share my journey, haha.

Posts about this will have a separate hashtag so those not interested can ignore them. Topics will range from modding instruments, sound-making & recording paraphernalia, music theory, music history etc.

3. Weeb? NO. Maybe nerd at most.

In case someone spotted me mentioning “anime” and “manga” and thought “what if...”, no, I’m not into waifus, bishounen cults, or the other stuffs (you know what I mean)... Do not expect such contents here, though you can freely fangirl/fanboy about your favorite stuffs in the comment section (but keep it toxic-free plz) (^o^)/

I love many anime & manga series just as much as I enjoy Pan’s Labyrinth or NatGeo documentaries. I casually join fandoms, but I’m not hardcore and by no means an expert in anything. So do correct me if I get some facts wrong!

4. NO political stuffs, conspiracy theories, fan wars etc.

More like, I’ll keep potentially toxic stuffs to the minimum. I’ll still discuss them objectively if they’re relevant to the topic at hand. E.g. how a group’s disbandment may affect a musician’s solo career etc.

With all the crap happening in the world, we could do with a bit more positivity. And cooler heads. So I will NOT rant extensively about such things. And I WILL report such posts if I ever see them here.

I don’t care if you shitpost elsewhere. I do too. But please just spare this place...

Also, yes, it’s important to be aware of certain social issues.

However, I believe such things should be discussed with well-sourced information, clear illustrations and non-malicious intents. Not angry people throwing their opinions on the table, and sometimes throwing the table themselves. And more importantly, MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY, social issues must be solved by consistently educating oneself and taking actions OFFLINE.

If you still wanna do that here, please please please switch to DM. I do want to have discussions with you.

Finally, I naturally stand at a respectful distance to my fav musicians.

I do get hyped and have expectations ahead of releases. But I’m not the type to directly message my favorite musicians, or queue up for hours to get their autographs. I also don’t collect merchandise or limited-edition items. I don’t go on “pilgrimages”. Just listening to their music, promoting them and supporting them financially (through streaming, buying releases, attending lives) is good enough for me. I don’t encourage this kind of behavior actually. Without avid fans, lots of musicians would starve... But this is just how I am. Plus, there’re just too many musicians I like. If I were too hardcore, I wouldn’t have time & resources to support them all xD

I’m interested in what they can share about their personal lives, but I don’t want to dig deeply into things that may disturb them. Unless they did something unlawful (not just morally questionable) that went unnoticed or unresolved (like smoking weed where it’s banned and not getting caught).

I love to discuss what make them spark as well as their flaws, casually but objectively. But I’m only human so biases is unavoidable. I always want to anticipate their next works or breakthroughs, if any, as long as their interest in making decent music is still there.

Liking their music doesn’t mean I need to like them as people. And certainly not love them romantically.

I sometimes need to compare some aspects of them (e.g. musical inspiration, background, how they’ve changed following financial success or failure etc.) But I’ll avoid that as much as possible, especially when it comes to music groups. A group is more than just its members.

All questions & gossip regarding opinions of fanbases should go to my inbox, and not anonymously (cuz I can’t reply you otherwise). I wanna keep this space clean, so I want to avoid fan wars & jumping to conclusions. Pretty sure it will happen eventually anyway, one way or another...

Wew, that sure is a lot of text *sweats*. Hope I’ve made it clear to you and myself what this blog will be like.

Please anticipate my next post around 2 months from now.

Thanks for reading. m(_ _)m