#I feel like this is the source of a lot of their issues

[chronic-conjuring]

This can also be helped with stuff like drinks with electrolytes in them. That’s why those sports drinks often have a vague salty quality to them too. If you’re blacking out a lot you should probably go to your doctor or a cardiologist tho, it’s a sign your heart/ autonomic nervous system might not be working right.

For those who are like me and wanna know WHY this happens: it’s because salt and hydration can effect your blood volume. Low amounts of sodium can cause low blood volume which means you literally don’t have enough blood in your system to get everywhere it needs to be. It just so happens that your brain is like, the hardest part of you body to get blood to when you’re upright and becomes even harder when standing.

This is also sometimes the cause of high heart rates; if you’re noticing it feeling like your heart is trying to beat it’s way out of your chest, eating a salty snack and drinking plenty of water can help reduce that if the cause is low blood pressure.

Basically, blacking out when standing is literally your brain getting suddenly deprived of blood because it all rushes downwards due to gravity. Tensing your leg muscles/ butt when standing up can also reduce this feeling because it helps keep more blood in your torso. It sounds silly but I promise it actually helps.

This is also why POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) and other dysautonomia patients are recommended to have high salt and electrolyte intake as a method of managing symptoms. There’s other reasons this happens too, but the result and solid are the same. Like your veins not being Very Good™️ so they dilate easily, causing you to need a higher blood volume to compensate. This is also why you get the racing heart rates and blood pooling in dysautonomia cases.

If you’re experiencing a lot of dizziness, presyncope (feeling like you’re going to faint), syncope (actually fainting), regularly blacking out when standing up, rapid increase in heart rate that stays high for a significant amount of time, blood pooling, and even digestive issues like IBS symptoms; you should probably go to a doctor and see if you need to get in with a cardiologist. These are all signs of dysautonomia, of which POTS is a subtype of.

Source: I have a form of dysautonomia

standing up and blacking out for a few seconds is just transitioning from a cutscene to the actual gameplay

[historical-fashion-polls]

hi my lovelies! 💕

unfortunately, I've noticed that AI is becoming a bigger and bigger issue in a lot of different spaces, so I did want to formally state on the blog that I do not accept AI submissions nor will I be posting AI-generated images

I have so many problems with generative AI from many different perspectives, and on this blog I want to be sure I'm featuring actual historical images of garments, not things scraped and cobbled together from other sources

therefore, if you see me inadvertently post an AI-generated image, please reach out and let me know so that I can delete it! sometimes when posts are submitted, I can't always check them as thoroughly as I would like, especially when (unfortunately) AI technology is getting harder to detect

I would also ask that if you plan to submit a post, please try to check the source if possible! when I'm sourcing images myself, I tend to go to digitized collections from museums and other institutions to ensure that my images truly are historical objects

and if you accidentally submit something AI, truly no worries at all, because I myself have accidentally posted an image that turned out to be AI, and when someone kindly pointed it out, I deleted it. I just don't want anyone to feel nervous or bad about this when these are uncharted waters, and I hate that we're having to navigate them ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹 mistakes are bound to happen, but I know I've learned more tools for identifying these sorts of images in the process

I really do want this is be a blog for truly historical fashion, and I certainly don't want to be supporting or promoting the monster of generative AI, and since I've been seeing a significant rise in these kinds of images all over the place, I did just want to make a clear statement about it here (I also want to be clear that me saying this wasn't catalyzed by anything in particular, just the general expansion and widespread use of this kind of technology that I've been noticing)

thank you so much for your understanding and for making it so fun and lovely to come back to running the blog! ☺️💕

sincerely yours,

the curator 🪶

[demonic0angel]

Recovery (click for clarity)

After Jazz was overthrown by Danny, she broke down. Recovering from Spectra’s manipulations was extremely difficult for her since the scars from their time together were very, very deep. As such, she basically shut down and could only slowly get better through time.

You can read about Jazz being overthrown in this post and this post. You can also read the one-shot here.

More details about the aftermath of Danny overthrowing Jazz below:

+ The Dannies were extremely distraught by her empty state and basically stuck to her side like glue. One of them would always be with her at all times and if that wasn’t possible, they would get one of the other Team Phantom members to stay with her. Frequent visitors are Sam and Wes.

+ The Dannies’ protectiveness over her has basically never died, although they eventually let her go so she could get away from her source of trauma. As such, that’s why I write them as extremely hostile to Jason in my DPxDC AUs :3

+ Dan feels the most guilt (since there was technically no reason for her to be isolated when he could’ve came back to the Ghost Zone any time during her reign), so he takes care of her the most. It is also partially why he’s the most obedient to her.

+ Danny also gives a lot of leniency to Jazz. There was an uproar about the entire overthrowing incident, but he swept it under the rug and made sure that her reputation in the Ghost Zone was intact. With most other incidents following after, he also easily forgives her. There are little things that Danny won’t allow Jazz to do bc he feels so guilty.

+ Jazz does not like the castle, since that was where Spectra spent most of her time manipulating her. Her self-esteem is also very low, (Spectra would degrade her and her appearance) and she’s extremely frightened of rejection, turning her into an even worse people pleaser.

+ The aftermath of everything generally made her very unresponsive and apathetic to most things. Since Spectra was grooming her to be a puppet ruler, she is rather docile and meek. She eventually regains her cheerfulness and assertiveness, but it took her a long while and a lot of faking it.

+ She sleeps a lot during the day, often in the presence of her siblings, and then stays awake at night, wandering through the halls, staring at the Ghost Zone, or silently helping Danny in administrative work. The Dannies worry about her overworking, but it makes her sleep better when she tires herself out so they let it go and keep watch over her.

+ Jazz slowly recovers through the return of her family as she spends time both in and out of Clockwork’s domain (where time can move faster or slower). Eventually, Jazz just forcefully represses her emotions and trauma about her last year as Queen, so she hates mentioning it. (In the future, she works on her own issues through Jason lmao).

+ Shadow was found after Jazz was overthrown! Because she felt so stifled being stuck within the castle, she eventually snuck out from under Danny’s nose, went on a rampage through the GIW, rescued Shadow, and then came back like nothing happened. Also bc of this, Shadow does not know the entirety of what she’s gone through.

+ After awhile, Jazz eventually gets a revelation and has enough of wallowing. She asks Danny to leave the Ghost Zone and find a job, make new friends, get a life, etc. Eventually, Danny agrees and Jazz sets off to a world that is compatible with her body. A violent and crazy world with the boy that once accompanied her as Queen and was revived 6 months later….

[betty-fran]

What probably bothers me most about Uhura's representation in AOS (besides, well, everything), and what I've been thinking about lately because of my thoughts about f/f AOS Kirk/Spock AU, is the inversion.

JJ Abrams, Mr. True Starkiller of two franchises, to quote his interview in The Guardian /"Star Trek", he says, referring to the original TV series, "always felt like a silly, campy thing. I remember appreciating it, but feeling like I didn't get it. I felt it didn't give me a way in. There was a captain, there was this first officer, they were talking a lot about adventures and not having them as much as I would've liked."/ certainly had a rather dubious idea of the original source. I like AOS (mostly because of LNSB, and absolutely not in connection with TOS), and it does have its good sides, but Uhura's representation is definitely not one of them.

AOS, in a way that is completely mysterious to me, is actually built on a constant inversion from TOS. We have a shifted focus of the experience of mass tragedy from Kirk to Spock, as well as the desire for captaincy/a sense of control. AOS Spock reads much more like the man in the center seat than AOS Kirk, and AOS Kirk clearly doesn't see captaincy as something that gives him grounding at all, and he has a noticeably different relationship with the power/control issue. This is actually a very radical change in the characters' personalities, which makes AOS a completely different (unfortunately, very superficially worked out) story, but even in their case, this change is still less noticeable than with Uhura.

One of the biggest discoveries in TOS for me was (who would doubt) the absolutely wonderful brotp dynamic between Kirk and Uhura. I was really surprised by a) how many scenes and constant working-team-companionship dynamics they have, and b) how much they actually share this mutual admiration-delighted-understanding with each other.

Kirk actually has a lot more in common with her than he does with Scotty, or even with McCoy. They are closer in their field of work, being responsible for the command/communication track; they are both very demanding of themselves and have many similar personality traits; they both easily appreciate other people's beauty and have a constant, unconscious, pleasant type of flirtatious expression of admiration; and they have (blatantly obvious) common tastes in men. [Interestingly, not in women: she was the only one who notices T'Pring's beauty (while Kirk was busy giving Spock those stunning looks) + she was undoubtedly interested in Elaan in Elaan of Troyius (this terrible TOS episode could've worked if the role of Petruchio had gone to Uhura actually, but not) /My communications officer generously vacated the rooms hoping you would find it satisfactory./ + in I, Mudd in the scene when Mudd was showing his androids to her and Kirk, she was just blatantly obvious about her interest in female androids (while Kirk was as usual /Don't you believe in male androids, Harry?/.)] But overall, Kirk and Uhura clearly share this chaotic bisexual energy. I know that fandom is much more focused on Spock & Uhura friendship, and I've seen a lot of arts where Spock and Uhura paint each other's nails and discuss their crushes, but for me, it's absolutely Kirk & Uhura brotp dynamic.

This is clearly the kind of friendship that I would like to see develop to a greater extent, and it would seem that the reboot space opens up a lot of opportunities for this, but AOS completely ignores this, turning the best TOS f+m friendly dynamic into concentrated hatred. But what really surprises me is not that, but that this mutual similarity between Kirk & Uhura in TOS, in AOS is replaced with a clearly emphasized and not very sincere mutual similarity between Spock & Uhura. Yes, AOS Uhura is clearly written as a girlboss (and not in an extroverted, but in a completely introverted way), she is intelligent, reserved, and clearly knows what she wants and how to get it. It's as if they're specifically writing her as an almost Vulcan woman (although quite superficially), trying to emphasize her resemblance to Spock as much as possible, thereby explaining their closeness. But it obviously works the other way around, and in fact, Spock & Uhura dynamic in AOS is not much better than Spock & T'Pring dynamic in TOS, hovering in a state of some forced, strained, doomed duty.

There really isn't any solid explanation for this, and I honestly sometimes wonder what was going on in Abrams' head when he was working on this (maybe vanilla donuts, or the last speeding ticket, or maybe Tribbles, but definitely not TOS).

[qqueenofhades]

Hi there! I have a medieval question which you may well not know, but you mayyy know resources to point me toward (and maybe a medieval question amidst all The Politics in the world might be a good distraction?).

When we talk about discipline in medieval armies, how would that have been actually handled? I know, for example, in the Third Crusade Richard’s army had all sorts of ordinances for military discipline (eg no brawling, no stealing, no gambling etc) and that armies tended to have marshals who were in charge of discipline, but I’m curious as to how they might actually enforced on an individual level - particularly as I assume that for lords and knights, physically wading in on any misbehaviour for common men would probably be a bit beneath them. Do you think it would be reasonable to assume that serving the marshal would be the equivalent of watchmen/guardsmen for keeping order, breaking up brawls actually ‘on the ground’ (like we have police, and then military police these days)?

(apologies for such a niche question; thought it might be worth a punt!)

Listen, as far as politics go, I am On Vacation. This is the first time I have even opened my laptop in like, 10 days, and I shall swiftly close it again when I have finished answering the ask. I have checked the news only twice or so in that time, and that only to see if Donald Trump has died yet. So if something else stupid is happening, don't tell me. La La La La La etcetera. Ahem.

As for your question: I assume you're asking who was actually in charge of keeping order and meting out punishments in an army, and more specifically in a crusading army, and even more specifically in the Third Crusade, which is a special case because we actually do have considerably detailed chronicle/narrative sources that tell us a lot about those dynamics. First off: since I know you're writing a piece of historical fiction about said crusade, the first thing you need to do (if indeed you haven't done so already) is to read the Itinerarium Peregrinorum (also known as the Itinerarium Regis Ricardi). It is a book-length primary source that covers the entire Third Crusade in detail, with week-by-week and sometimes day-by-day descriptions of events, and it is easily available in English translation. You can find a free pdf here, and the WorldCat link for the 1997 Helen J. Nicholson translation is here. My UK university library had a hard copy; yours either will as well or will enable you to request it via interlibrary loan or similar. There may also be an ebook. Point is, it is easy to get and will enable you to use a ton of primary materials and details.

In reading the IP (as it is often called for short) you will identify many key named figures within Richard's army who acted as trusted surrogates or lieutenants for him, such as Andrew de Chauvigny, Hubert Walter (bishop of Salisbury), his nephew Henry of Champagne, and various others. So if you want to use them in your narrative for the purpose of enforcing discipline or having responsibility for overseeing the army, that would be a historically defensible choice. However, what will also come out in the IP and other Third Crusade sources is the huge amount of personal responsibility that Richard himself had (and sometimes forcibly appropriated from other crusade leaders, causing various hard feelings along the way) and which was exercised in a wide variety of contexts. This is because it's actually a bit inaccurate to think of lords and kings not wanting to "get involved" or that the squabbles of common men-at-arms would be below them. Obviously they would not be everywhere or involved in every dispute, but even if one of the trusted lieutenants named above identified a disciplinary issue that was anything other than cut-and-dry, they would confer with Richard first before dispensing any judgment or punishment, and Richard himself would reserve the right to personally have the last word and/or decide the sentence in any and all cases. They would almost surely not dare to issue a major punishment on their own authority or without making him aware of it.

This is a reflection of the fact that medieval kingship in general was a) martial, wherein the king's first role was as a military commander who was in fact expected to manage the day-to-day lives of his household knights and armies especially when on campaign, and b) personalist. As such, while, yes, there could be marshals or watchmen or other low-level figures charged with keeping law and order among the rank and file, anyone with any real power would have it as a result of their proximity to and/or personal relationship to Richard, and they would expect to defer to him in any or all of those situations. So basically: yes, most anyone could physically break up a brawl between common men-at-arms, but it's also extremely likely that Richard himself would be the one to do it (at least if he was around when it happened), and the perpetrators would only be actively punished once he had been informed and signed off on it. The culprits might also belong to a specific crusading contingent from a certain town or village, which would mean their liege lord (if he was on the crusade) would also be informed.

Basically: this is a long-winded way of suggesting that you read the IP as it will be very helpful for you, and also that in the specific case of the Third Crusade, Richard took a huge amount of hands-on personal responsibility and would absolutely physically break up a fight or enforce discipline on the spot, and his household knights would follow his example. So no, it's not "beneath them" to get involved; it's literally what they are expected to do in their roles as military commanders and surrogates for him, and he would be the one ultimately consulted and have the final say for any punishments ultimately given. Hopefully that was helpful.

(Okay, back to blissful vacation ignorance I go. Love you people, please kill Trump in the next 9 days, kthxbai.)

[yayasvalveplay]

Why do I want to complicate things! Now I can't get over a sad and miserable carrying Prima with a smug evil Sentinel standing next to him (can you guess im a fan of your Decepticons Win au?)

I can see Prima loathing himself when he was finally carrying. He did it for his brother Alpha Trion, but now he was forced to bring Sentinels spawn into the world. A monster, he was sure. The worst still was that Sentinel could barely keep his hands off him. Always fondling his swollen tanks, pouches, and interfacing "for the sake of the sparkling". He could barely look at Orion when he was born, the only thing he was grateful for was that the emergence had been damaging enough his forge could never carry again. But it changes one day when Prima finds his brother turned beast curled around the toddler aged Orion. Prima realized that if his own tormented brother could see the sparkling innocence, he could too.

Sentinel meanwhile is still creepy in his own way. He loves manipulating Orion and Prima. Threatening to limiting visits between each other if ether of them displeased him in someway. He still has ambitions of ruling Cybertron and reestablishing a new age of Primes in his image. But "unfortunately" Prima could only give him Orion so he does everything he could to mold Orion into a version of himself which puts our poor boy with extreme self esteem issues.

Of course there's underline creep factor of Sentinel always calling Orion a treasure, how important his "purity" is both in image and ideals, and how he'll be the next Idol of Iacon once hes proven how much like his sire he really is.

Orion hard on himself to prove that, only to realize that was nothing he wanted at all.

Guess I am adding this route but going to stay as far away as I can from incest. (Well i guess there is a heavy difference between incest kink and having incest in a story to show how bad it is.) This is your warning that there will be attempted incest.

But for this Au, Sentinel won't go as far as I had originally thought of last night. Yes there will be lingering touches. Holding him in placing. He'd even go as far as to check if Orions valve seal is still intact( making sure his treasure is still pure and not tanted.)he has never touched it, only letting a medic use a rod with a video stick to see if it's still there.

Orion always tries to think it away, that his sire is just looking out for him. Fixing his posture, keeping him from ruining his polish plating. Making sure he is learning everything so he can be exactly like him.

But each time his valve gets looks at it stating to get harder and harder for him to want to stay by his sires side, and be the next one to rule Cybertron.

And as he gets older the touching becomes more. And suddenly Orion is dredding waking up and starting his daily tasks with his sire. The only source if comfort he gets is the best and his Carrier (he's started going to him a lot more then his scheduled time. Getting caught more and more often in his room just chatting. He can see how Sentinel keeps trailing his optics over the both of them one sitting on the bed, the other a chair. He always leaves. But Irion fears one day Sentinel won't let him leave that room.)

But that's silly. It's his Sire. He has nothing to worry about.

Until on the valve seal checking, before his last upgrade to an adult mech, Sentinel touches him. He knows his sire touched him because of the shock to his system. He bites back a whimper, tries to not tremble as he still feels the fingers on him.

"S-Sire?"

The fingers are away as quickly as they came. And he is let down able to close his valve pannel. When he rushes out of the room the last thing he sees is Sentinel lifting up the same fingers to his mouth.

Orion needs to go. He needs to leave.

It says that there is a position opening as a miners superior.

Anyways- as for the younger years. Orions fins too big for his frame messed up Prima's forge. He was greatful for that. But he still couldn't look at Orion. A single glance at best, because each time he did, he saw Sentinel.

It was until Alpha Trion curled around a toddler Irion that Prima looked at him. And for the first time ever, he saw that Orion was much like him. He unfortunately got cursed with the color blue- though, are those speckles of purple on his audio fins? How has he never seen it like that??

"Orion. Oh Trion, he has some of Megstronus's colors." He kneels down cupping his toddelers face. And now that he is. Hexagonal, his pupils are hexagonal like Megatronus. He's bearly interacted with his baby, if he did he could see hes more him and Megatronus then Sentinel. Prima almost sobs, but Alpha trion nuzzles him.

" if only you could speak. You can tell me how it's possible Orion has Megateonus's features."

I can see Orion using Alpha Trion to get around the place when he's younger. The beast is fast. And Sentinel allows it. Alpha Trion also taking Orion to the library in the tower. It's a hidden place, one only Alpha Trion would know and remember since he was the one who built it. Thankfully he can get in no matter what alt mode he Is in.

Orion spent hours in there. Just reading what he can.

But also Orion leaving to get that position. Alpha Trion bites at his leg softly. "I'm worried about Carrier as well. But I just. I need to do this, Sire's touches are getting unwelcoming. I'm starting to become very uncomfortable around him. I don't want to leave, trust me. But I am. Take care of Carrier for me Trion."

[g00seg1raffe]

I feel like it's not addressed enough that Obi-Wan was so not ready for Anakin at the end of TPM. He wasn't quite ready to be a Knight, let alone take a Padawan, let alone Anakin.

Like, imagine you're 25 years old, already dealing with plenty of issues from your shitshow of a teen-to-young-adult experience when your Master - your father, your friend, your teacher, your guardian of 12 years, who you didn't always have the best relationship with but goddamn it you tried so hard and overcame so much to get to where you are - is literally murdered in front of you by a fucking demon, the ancient bogeymen of all your childhood stories who are suddenly very real and killing the people you love. Everyone looks at you now with so much awe and fear because, in a haze of grief and panic, you managed to become the first to kill a demon in a millennium - which is somehow that's enough of a qualification to immediately graduate your apprenticeship with full honours even though you never actually got the chance to finish it. Five minutes of pure terror turned your life upside down, and now you have to shoulder the burdens of a knighthood that you know you're not ready for, and find some way to live with the crushing expectations that come with your newfound, accidental and very unwanted semi-legendary status. And, if that wasn't enough already, within 24 hours of all this going down, you're also legally responsibly for raising a hyperactive 9 year old ex-slave Child of Prophesy with crippling CPTSD and more power than god. You somehow, somehow have to raise this boy to be both a good Knight - which you haven't had a chance to figure out how to be yourself yet - and a functional person - which was never an easy thing for you to be but is getting harder by the day. You desperately want to do right by your new Padawan and honour your Master's dying wish but you're not ready for any of this, you didn't ask for it, and you're trying so hard to not repeat Qui-Gon's mistakes whilst also being painfully aware that you can never live up to what he could have been. Then there's homework and missions and nightmares and you worry that Anakin isn't making friends and you haven't slept more than 3 hours a night in weeks and the President of the Galaxy is pressuring you for some Private Alone Time with your child -

How the fuck is anyone supposed to handle that?

[cent-scratchnsniff]

Mermaid

[taraxippos]

I never touched it but I feel like i only ever hear positive things said about song of achilles.. in (rough strokes at least) what makes it dogshit to you?

Okay it's been a while since I actually read it so some of this might not be spot on accurate. Sorry if at any point I say 'the book never does xyz' and it actually does once or twice but I think my underlying criticisms are accurate

-Patroclus is made into like this soft gentle tender quivering little yaoi boy. In the source text, he's shown as compassionate and moved by the suffering of his own men (and apparently having some medical skill, tending to the wounded in the camp), but very much invested n combat and very, very good at it (pages worth of descriptions of the guys he's killing left and right). In this, the arguably more complex character from this 8th century BC text is flattened into Being A Healer, he doesn't want to go to war he just wants to help people, he only goes because Achilles has to but he doesn't want to fight he's a HEALER he's a gentle lover NOT A FIGHTER who just wants to help he just wants to help everyone around him he HEALS while Achilles is a doomed warrior who is so good at fighting and KILLING its a DICHOTOMY GUYS!!!LIKE THE BEAUTIFUL SUN AND MOON DOOMED LOVERS SO SAD patocluse HEALER . (I Think he's specifically characterized as being BAD at fighting but might be misremembering)

-I don't remember much about Achilles' characterization I think it just makes him less of a jackass while not adding anything of interest and levels out into being mad boring.

-Not getting into the literal millenias old debate whether the mythological characters Achilles and Patroclus were being characterized as some type of lover by the original oral sources of the Iliad or its Homeric writers. We will never know. We don't even know what (if any) culturally accepted conventions of male homosexuality existed in bronze age Greece (we know much more about their descendants). But there are some interesting elements of their characterization in this direction, with how unconventional their relationship is WITHIN the text itself- Patroclus is described as cooking for Achilles and his guests (very specifically a woman/wife's job), Achilles chides Patroclus like a father, but there's also scene where Achilles' mourning of him directly echoes a passage of Hector's wife mourning her husband, Patroclus is explicitly stated to Achilles' elder, and is overall treated as his equal or near-equal, closest confidant and most beloved friend (to the point that pederastic classical Greeks would debate over who was erastes (older authority figure lover) and who was eromenos (adolescent 'beloved')- many took it as a given that this text depicted their present-day cultural norms of homosexual behavior but it existed so Outside of these norms that it had to be debated who was who). Their relationship is non-standard both within the text and to the descendants of the civilization that wrote them.

Basically what I'm saying is this book had opportunities to like, explore the unconventionality of the relationship (being presented here as explicitly lovers), explore the dynamics of why Patroclus wants to do 'women's work' (besides being a tenderhearted softboy), the weird dynamics where they take on paternal roles to each other but also roles of wives, how they feel about being this way, and just kind of Doesn't. Which I guess isn't an intrinsic fault (because it omits much of what I just talked about to begin with). it's just like.... Lame. This book takes jsut abandons everything interesting about the source text in favor of flattening it into bland Doomed Yaoi.

-The conflict that sets off the core story of the Iliad is Achilles and Agamemnon fighting over Briseis, an enslaved Trojan woman taken by Achilles as a war-trophy, Achilles spends most of the story moping because he was dishonored by his 'trophy' being taken. Achilles and Patroclus and everyone else are raping their captives, all the women in the story are either captured Trojans (or in the case of the free women within the walls of Troy, soon to be enslaved, and are slave owners themselves). Slavery as an institution and extreme patriarchal conventions are innate to the text and reflective of the context in which it was developed. You cannot avoid it.

But obviously you can't have your soft yaoi boys doing this, so the author has them capturing women to Protect Them from the other men. Their slaves are UNDER THEIR PROTECTION and VERY SAFE (and they might even Like And Befriend Them but I might be misremembering that. Briseis does though). Our heroes have apparently absorbed none of the ideals of the culture they exist in and the author seems to think "they're gay and aren't sexually attracted to their captives" would translate to them being outright benevolent (also as if wartime sexual violence is just about attraction and not part of a wider spectrum of violent acts to dehumanize and brutalize an accepted 'enemy')

In the source text, Briseis mourns Patroclus as being the kindest to her of her captors, who tried to get her a slightly better outcome by getting her married to Achilles (which probably would be the Least Bad of all possible outcomes for a woman in that situation, becoming a legal wife instead of a slave), and wonders what will happen to her now that he's gone. This is a really really sad, horrible, and compelling dynamic which could be fleshed out in very interesting ways but is instead is tossed entirely aside in favor of them being Besties. Like brother and sister.

All of the above pisses me off so much. If you don't want to engage in the icky parts of ancient/bronze age Greece then don't write a retelling of a story taking place in bronze age Greece. I'm not gonna get mad at children's adaptations of Greek myths or silly fun stories loosely based on them for omitting the rape and slavery but it is SO fundamental to the Iliad. If you're not willing to handle it, either fully omit it or better yet set your Iliad inspired yaoi in an invented swords-and-sandals setting where you can have all your heartbreaking tragic doomed lovers plot beats and not have to clumsily write around the women they're brutalizing.

-The author didn't seem to know what to do with Thetis and she made her just like, Achilles bitch mother who spends most of the story trying to separate our Yaoi Boys (iirc her disguising Achilles as a girl and hiding him on Scyros is made to be more about getting him away from Patroclus than trying to save her son from his prophesied doom in the Trojan War) until she sees how much they loooove each other and I think helps Patroclus' spirit get to the afterlife or something in the end?

-This is more of a personal taste gripe but it has that writing style I loathe where the prose feels less like a story and more like an attempt to string together Deep Beautiful Hard Hitting Poetic Lines that will look great as excerpts on booktok (might predate booktok but same vibe). It's all very Pretty and Haunting and Deep but feels devoid of real substance.

I really like The Iliad and The Odyssey in of themselves. They're fascinating historical texts that give a window into how 8th century BC Greeks told their stories, saw their world, interpreted their ancestors, etc. And genuinely I think these texts have 'good' characters, there's a lot of complexity and humanity to it.

WRT the Iliad- all of the main Achaeans are pretty fascinating, the one singular part where Briseis Gets To Talk and laments her situation is great, Achilles fantasizing that all of the Trojans AND the Achaeans die so he and Patroclus alone can have the glory of conquering Troy (wild), Achilles asking to embrace Patroclus' shade and reaching out for him but it's immaterial (and the shade being sucked back underground with a 'squeak' (the squeak kinda gets me it's disturbing and sad)), Hecuba talking about wanting to tear out Achilles' liver and eat it in a (taboo, exceptioally pointed) expression of rage and grief for his mutilation of her son's corpse, just one tiny line where the enslaved women performing ritual wailing for their dead captors are described as using it as an outlet to 'grieve for their own troubles' is heartrending, etc. A lot of grappling with anger and grief and the inevitability of death, a lot of groundwork laid for characters that could be very interesting when expanded upon in the framework of a conventional novel.

And Song Of Achilles really doesn't do much with all that. I know a lot of my gripes here are kind of just "It's different from the Iliad", I would have thought of it as mostly mediocre and forgettable rather than infuriating if it wasn't a retelling (and I DEFINITELY have strong biases here). But I think the ways in which it is different are less just a product of a retelling (of course there's going to be omissions and differences) and more a complete and utter disinterest in vast majority of its own subject matter, to the book's detriment. I think a retelling has a point when it EXPANDS on the source, or provides a NEW ANGLE to the source. This book doesn't Really do either, it just shaves off the complexity of its source material, renders the characters into a really boring archetype of a gay relationship, and gives very little else. Its content boils down to a middling tragic romance that has been inserted into the hollowed out defleshed skeleton of the Iliad.

Bottom line: I definitely would not be as mad about it if I wasn't familiar with the source material but I think it's fair to expect a retelling to Engage with/expand on its source, and I also think it's weak purely on its own merits. This book was set up to disappoint Me specifically.

[flameo-trashman]

[hanzajesthanza]

maybe i just don’t follow enough about the fanfiction community anymore but… i feel like plot and story, and actually making scenes make sense and have structure and purpose, is harder to get write than even other things about writing that i consider hard—like having consistent, relevant pacing and creating natural-sounding, in-character dialogue.

and from what i’ve seen, it’s like no one ever talks about improving this major overarching skill, when compared to how much as they talk about minute and minor details to improve with your writing, like the vocab you use.

and maybe fanfiction is uniquely challenged here because the point of it (if the source material is decent, anyways) is supposed to be that it’s not necessary, and is often without a serious purpose and written without structure.

my interpretation of it is that the core of writing (which is giving your readers a reason to read) is assumed to be already accomplished when you write fanfiction—because it’s fanfiction—but this is often to the detriment of the writing, no matter if it’s fanfiction or not, because writing needs that purpose to exist.

[ladyhoneydarlinglove]

slightly related to the animanga vs opla sanji post: i think for me the fundamental difference between zoro and sanji as characters (and why i ultimately like zoro more) is that even outside the zosan/sanzo ship dynamics, i find zoro to be an overall enjoyable and interesting character, and while i prefer pre timeskip zoro i think post timeskip zoro has some really good moments. whereas with animanga sanji, sometimes i feel like without the zosan/sanzo ship dynamics, i have an INCREDIBLY difficult time seeing him as a likeable character post timeskip. because without that added element of sanji’s whole ‘love cook’ schtick being a sort of performative overcompensation to deal with his feelings for zoro (because the toxic masculinity inherent in his upbringing tells him he CAN’T have these feelings for zoro), a solid 50% of the time he’s on page all i can think is ‘man where the hell did pre timeskip sanji go? cause this new guy fucking sucks shit and i kind of don’t care whether he lives or dies’

[lux-et-astra]

wizarding fashion

clothing norms - sleeves tend to be shorter, mostly to provide access to wand holsters - this changed during the war (dark marks) - thin material - having thinner and shorter clothes is a sign of privilege because good wizarding clothes tend to be enchanted to keep the wearer at a good temperature. having to wear jumpers or other temperature-specific clothes is a signal that the wearer is poorer, however this isn't as strong an indicator as some other fashion faux pas as they're also occasionally worn for comfort rather than warmth - high waisted shirts/blouses - wizarding shirts don't tend to be tucked in, they end where the trouser waist should start - again they ought to be enchanted to remain in the right position, but there's also not as much of a modesty culture (partially because showing more skin suggests better clothing enchantments therefore more wealth rather than less) - material is also often less hardy because mending it is so easy - although this isn't true for all wizarding clothing (tunics are often made of very thick, tough fabric)

semi-casual, day to day items - loose trousers (wide legs which come to the knee at the front and mid-calf on the back, usually are a fairly plain pattern with a wide, decorated band at the ends and the (high) waist. usually a light material) - shorts (usually come in a matched set with the trousers, so also have wide decorated bands at the ends and waist - these are a much more modern twist on the loose trousers, usually only seen on young people) - skirts (a range of lengths, although not usually below mid-calf, more generally not below the knee - tend to tie with laces that go a few inches down the left side. usually a light material) - tighter trousers (these come to the ankles and are a little more formal - part of school uniform for boys usually. a heavier material and not necessarily as high a waist. typically darker colours and almost always come with a waistcoat in adults, although some might skip the waistcoat if they're wearing them with closed robes) - underwear - pants tie with one cord at the top; bras are laced down the centre of the front

robes - everyday robes are almost always black - come with sleeves and without (sleeves usually only to the elbows, although that has changed in recent years) - typically edged with colours/decorations which convey some kind of allegiance - robes are part of graduation/matriculation and are often associated with guilds. potion masters' guild uses green robes, ministry uses purple robes. children tend to wear plain black robes - graduating from any school allows you to wear white edged robes. typically prestigious family houses may wear robes where the edge colour is striped with their colour of significance - open robes have the edging along the sides and around the hood; closed robes for men have the edging along the sides down the middle, whereas closed robes for women have the edging along the exposed edge. all robes also have edging around the bottom/skirt, but closed robes do not have edging around the collar - open robes are very different from closed robes - they have hoods whereas closed robes do not, and they tend to only fall to the knee or mid-calf, whereas closed robes all fall to the ankle (excepting some more modern designs, which are sniffed upon in high society) - will ALL have good pockets - closed robes for men are a straighter silhouette, fasten at the centre of the front with buttons, and have a mandarin collar usually. buttons tend to go down to about the waist, at which point the robe falls open - closed robes for women have a fuller skirt - the top bit fastens at the left of the front with buttons, and the robe then cuts down diagonally across the skirt section. it will twirl out but the robe will not fall open. collar is less prescriptive as women tend to wear blouses underneath, so some will have high collars, but some will sit underneath the shirt collar instead. - men tend to wear closed robes with tight trousers (in the past, the buttons would go all the way down and they wouldn't wear anything underneath - this has changed) - men don't tend to wear a shirt underneath, although they may wear a shorter tunic-style top (NOT a full tunic) - women tend to wear closed robes without trousers, although they will occasionally wear shirts underneath. women don't tend to wear tunic-style tops - if the robe has a high collar, they may wear a peasant blouse instead of a collared one

footwear - usual everyday footwear are ankle boots. these can look more or less like curly elf boots - typically depending on formality/age of wearer. older wizards stick to the older style which looks a little "sillier" to those more familiar with i.e. muggle culture - can be laced but more modern ones may have zips in the side - women's duelling boots go a little higher, more like combat boots - laced - men's duelling boots are almost thigh high typically - laced - the more laces, the better - again a sign of privilege to have laces you have to use magic to do properly - laced shoes are never school uniform and children don't tend to wear them until fourteen/fifteen

practical/formal - the tunic outfit - the tunic outfit is ostensibly worn when you're duelling/expecting to have to fight. thus it's part of the hit wizard/auror uniform, is typically worn in formal situations that aren't balls, and is more common among young people. - it's also a lot more common among wizards of prominent houses because it has a heritage aspect and is more removed from muggle culture - it wouldn't raise eyebrows in the street but it puts forward the same kind of image as a leather jacket or proper combat/steeltoed boots if the whole kit is worn, especially the gambeson. just the tunic without the gambeson is very normal and just like wearing jeans in a practicality kind of sense - for men, it comprises men's duelling boots, a tunic, tunic belt, a kind of gambeson, and possibly open sleeveless robes. for a full outfit a wand holster is worn on the wand arm and a bracer on the other - for women, it comprises women's duelling boots, a tunic, tunic belt, the same gambeson, and possibly open sleeveless robes, wand holster & bracer, but also duelling leggings - the tunic has fairly wide and long sleeves that stop a little before the elbow. it's typically made of heavy fabric and is in darker colours. men's tunics are longer than women's, because they don't tend to wear duelling leggings - tunics are never worn without a tunic belt but the belt signifies something very specific about the outfit. tunic belts are always enchanted in some way. something like a thick ribbon would be worn if the tunic was being worn in an everyday sense, or cord or rope. if it's being worn with the gambeson, a metal belt is better. not everyone has a lot of tunic belts to choose from as they're quite expensive so it's also a sign of privilege. - the gambeson is quite short because it sits just above the tunic belt, which sits above the hips. it has a high collar like men's closed robes (which are meant to evoke it), and no sleeves - if worn with sleeveless robes, they should cover the edge of the gambeson where it overlaps the tunic. it's usually made of thick quilted fabric, heavily enchanted, and features a crest on the front - commonly of one's school house, family house, or guild house. a plain or simply patterned gambeson suggests someone poor or unconnected; a gambeson with a group's symbol suggests a cohesive group or militia. death eaters wore gambesons with the dark mark. - duelling leggings are fairly thin but tight (usually black) leggings that come to just above the knee. they are enchanted to deflect most spells and came into use due to concerns in the olden days about protecting women's abilities to reproduce. it's become common nowadays for women to wear shorter versions underneath loose trousers or skirts (or even shorts sometimes) where they're not visible. - part of graduation involves receiving a full tunic kit. gryff: deep red tunic, gold belt, black gambeson with red background & gold lion, open robes edged with white. huff: mustard yellow tunic, black iron belt, black gambeson with mostly white badger, open robes edged with white. sly: deep green tunic, silver belt, black gambeson with green background & silver snake, open robes edged with white. rav: dark blue tunic, bronze belt, blue gambeson with bronze eagle, open robes edged with white. - styling the kit without the gambeson and boots makes it much less formal and accessible, as the tunics require much less washing. - some tunic belts (all metal, most cord, some rope, very few ribbon) are braided in house-specific patterns - belt braiders are highly respected artisans

formal occasions - the tunic kit with gambeson is kind of like wearing full military dress - it's appropriate for some occasions and people and not for others - sometimes dress robes are appropriate - these are fancier versions of closed robes - for women, dress robes always have a high collar and shouldn't be worn with anything underneath, they basically function as a wrap dress - they can be more exciting colours, do not have edging as a general rule although some still do, are often patterned, and ALWAYS fall to the ankle - while this is occasionally flouted in everyday robes it is never flouted in dress robes. (yet) - dress robes can also be made out of lighter material and almost never have pockets - dress robes are always sleeveless and show off the wand holster. some have taken to wearing bracers as well with dress robes in order to hide the dark mark, however it's a practice that was well-accepted by a lot of people - dress robes should only be worn with ankle boots rather than duelling boots - for balls, women tend to wear proper ball-gowns, while men wear two-piece dress robes: this is a jacket shirt in the same style as the top of normal dress robes, with some kind of enchanted tails - the aim of this shirt is for the actual material of the shirt to flow as fluidly as possible into the tails - and tight trousers underneath, which shouldn't attract as much attention as the tails so normally aren't patterned, but aren't restricted to being dark colours. these are also typically of a much lighter material than everyday tight trousers - because some people only have one set of dress robes, there are some tailors who will tailor one-piece dress robes temporarily into two-piece dress robes - this is usually quite noticeable but deemed better than not making the effort at all. the quality of tailoring varies based on how much you can spend on it.

uniform - most guilds don't necessarily require a uniform besides edged robes, although for formal occasions some might have guild-specific gambesons & belts or a specific style of dress robes - some professions do have a uniform - i.e. ministry officials tend to wear closed dress robes with a ministry pin detailing their specific role - these pins, when being worn, are trackable from a central ministry office, making it easy for people to tell when officials are in work and therefore available, and where to find them. aurors/hit wizards have a full tunic kit uniform - school boys have to wear plain black sleeveless robes with a house pin, tight black trousers, white shirt - school girls have to wear plain black sleeveless robes with a house pin, grey knee-length lace-up skirt (of a heavier material than usual wizarding skirts), white shirt - sporting uniforms usually evoke the tunic kit - they will typically include an underlayer, usually leggings and a tight shirt, with a high-collared sleeveless jersey to go over, bearing a team's crest. the jersey will usually fall to the tops of an athlete's thighs and they will usually wear boots akin to duelling boots but made of more flexible material

guild colours - potion masters: green (because the herbologists' guild is technically an affiliate of the potion masters' guild, they use olive green to distinguish themselves) - enchanters: blue (due to this, alchemists tend to use teal/turquoise edging - transfiguration specialists use a royal blue whereas charms specialists use a pale blue) - ministry: purple - merchants: gold (it's not gold because a lot of members of the merchants' guild are hufflepuffs, but that's a popular misconception) - duellists: red (the duellists' guild is technically higher in the guild hierarchy than the ministry, so hit wizards and aurors who are members of the guild at journeyman level or higher wear red edged robes rather than purple) - historians: orange - smiths: silver

[moe-broey]

I think they're really cute as a platonic possibly even found family pairing, but. A Reminder

[j-esbian]

(one of) the most frustrating parts about the portrayal of drow society is that it wants to create Reverse Sexism without uncoupling itself from some. pretty foundational patriarchal ideas. it ascribes to the (tired, essentialist) notion that men are inherently good at certain things, and women are inherently suited for different things

but rather than the basic subversion of “women are warriors and men are the homemakers” or even early feminist thought experiments like “traditionally ‘women’s priorities’ are given importance over ‘men’s’ (ie things are governed by council, importance is placed on childrearing, etc)”, menzoberranzan is “this society still holds to patriarchal values and women are not as good at these things which is why it’s demonstrably worse”.

the biggest tell is that they have to control the male population to maintain female dominance, the implication being that in a fair fight, men would easily overpower them. it assumes the misogynist ideas as fact that “women are inherently weaker” and also “women are duplicitous” so the drow fighting style is based on stealth and sabotage rather than “”honorable”” face- to-face combat (letting lie also the assumption that the only avenue for ambition is through military violence, and therefore still making it so that they are reliant on men, even as disposable shock troops, for their success).

the only things that keep women in charge are by stacking the numbers on a systematic level, and through sexual domination on the individual level (because clearly the only real power a woman can have over men is her sexuality).

it is a society where “men act like men” but women don’t act like women; it is evil because an act of god created an aberration against the “natural order” of things, and there is no one to tend the hearth (because if the women won’t do it, no one will)

[starbuck]

i love reading analysis from people who are farther into a rewatch than i am… like. i don’t agree with what you’re saying, but i also acknowledge that you have information that i don’t. nonetheless your claim that a particular character is ALWAYS doing a certain thing is contradicted by the first four seasons where he literally never does that 🤷🤷