#abstract and argument

[oh-no-its-bird]

Can't you see, you're running out of time?

Idk if I'm gonna finish this, so I figure I might as well just post the sketch. If I do finish it later it'll just be a fun surprise for u guys ig 👍

Orochinatsu my beloved,, I love them so much. They were such a happy little guy tbh, even if it was hard to read off of their face. Then their buddies died and they spiraled straight into depression and got themselves killed trying to chase the shadows of their friends not even a year later. At least they're together again in the pure lands...? Small comforts </3

Anyways, if I'm posting things I want to finish but don't know if I'll find the energy to, pls also take these comic sketches ab Tsuki's mom + Daisuke, and my Haruka+Sakumo - Sakumo+Kakashi death parallel comic. Really wanna finish the second at least, so I have some hope for that

Eventually,,,

[clumsypuppy]

i feel like im not making any sense but does anyone else feel like there are stories that let u run with them and ones that spell everything out for you

[ariiiiih]

Usually, we think He Xuan became the Supreme because of his hatred for Shi Wudu, which was also told by Xie Lian(“Hatred was what made Ship-Sinking Black Water”). However, the plots do not actually support this. And I think the contexts that MXTX created for the blackwater arc had some contradictions, or at least made the analysis of He Xuan’s character hard.

He Xuan became the Supreme before he went to the Upper Court (a ghost in a good disguise must be a Supreme—like XL checked HC’s hand and hair), and he went to the Upper Court to investigate what Shi Wudu had done. So, he had no idea about the fate alteration that Shi Wudu did when he went to Mount Tonglu. Then, how could his hatred for Shi Wudu support him to become the Supreme?

Therefore, other things supported him.

I have two possible ideas (one is more abstract, and one is more personal/specific):

First, his hatred for the unfairness and injustice existed in the society.

This was derived from his life experience (chap 53, pp.27-28): the officials hid his test scrolls and exchanged them for blank ones; fiancée and sister were forcibly taken and died; he was unjustly imprisoned…We could see his tragedy was caused by the powerful malevolent officials who bullied and oppressed the common people for their benefit, the unfunctional social system that couldn’t help the citizens seek justice. (Does this sound familiar? Yeah, that what was Shi Wudi had done, which makes me feel he was just a representative of the cause of this kind of tragedy among the common people in ancient China). Such injustice made him hate them, which made his soul unrested, like what Xie Lian said: “He died filled with murderous intent and resentment…I don’t think a soul hammered into shape by such means would easily rest in peace. Instead, he’d thirst for revenge.” (chap 60, pp. 135)

So, He Xuan went to Mount Tonglu to make himself capable of killing unjust people afterlife. 

There’s no direct description, but we could speculate it from the books.

First, each Supreme acted for their 执念(unshakeable and stubborn belief, the closest word I found in English is fixation, some translators will translate it to obsession, but it is not proper here). For instance, Bai Wuxiang hated mortals, so he created ghosts and monsters from Mount Tonglu. Hua Cheng loved Xie Lian, so he kept searching for him for eight hundred years and supported him no matter what happened. So He Xuan must act for his 执念, and killing injustice----the malevolent people who bullied and oppressed the common people for their benefit----is a reasonable action.

Second, in the Puji Shrine, when Hua Cheng looked through the scrolls that Shi Wudu had put for Reverend Empty Words, he pointed out the people he killed, and Xie Lian found they were all lawless malevolently evil tyrants, and he pointed out the people that He Xuan killed (chap 51). Implying by the type of people that Hua Cheng killed and the fact that Hua Cheng knew the people that He Xuan killed, it was highly possible that He Xuan also killed these types of people, just like what he did in the eve of Hanlu when he was alive.

(belike: Hua Cheng (threw a scroll): Have a look. He Xuan (quietly looked through the scroll, pointing to some names): I’ll take those. Hua Cheng (took the scroll back, casually glancing at the names left for him): Good. Half half this time. (they were splitting the kill list)

And why he decided to use “killing” as an approach to punish the unjust? Because the system in the society at that time didn’t allow him to get his just and punish the unjust fairly. For instance, when he tried to seek justice for his fiancée and sister, he got into jail. If the system is not functional, then he would be the one who executes the final judgment.

Second, his love for his family. While his love for his family is obvious, why this is a reason that he went to Mount Tonglu? He wished to bring the truth and just to his love, the innocent family. This is similar to the reason that Hua Cheng became the Supreme for Xie Lian: to be powerful enough to support and protect the ones we love. If He Xuan couldn’t be Supreme, he wouldn’t have any chance to investigate the truth of fate exchange and kill Shi Wudu in the end.

Then, how did his 执念 change as he realized the truth of fate exchange?

But before going into this, I want to talk about a “problem” in a plot that MXTX created.

The fate exchange could be speculated at the very beginning when He Xuan went to the Upper Court.

Let's see what information He Xuan needed to speculate fate exchange: the birth details of Shi Qingxuan; the fact that he has met the Reverend Empty Words; the time that Reverend Empty Words stopped disturbing Shi Qingxuan was close to the time that He Xuan met Reverend Empty Words; they died at the same time, but one became the god, one the ghost. Are those pieces of information hard to collect? No. Because Shi Qingxuan “is not one to hide anything” (chap 65, pp.241), and there’s no point for him to hide these from He Xuan and He Xuan even purposely being close to Shi Qingxuan to collect information about his brother. And is the speculation hard to make? No. See how Xie Lian quickly found the truth of fate exchange? He even didn’t have any information about He Xuan. And He Xuan is smart, there’s no reason for him not to have this reasonable speculation. 

Then, what is the reason let him take the revenge hundreds of years later?

The first thing I thought of was evidence.

We learned that Hua Cheng had speculated Jun Wu purposely controlled the time He Xuan took his revenge: when Jun Wu felt Shi Wudu was a threat to him (and when Xie Lian ascended, like another test for him: will he help Shi Qingxuan hide the truth of fate exchange because Shi Qingxuan is his friend?), he would “leak the fate-switching affair” to He Xuan (chap 119). Based on the analysis above, the truth was speculated a long time ago, so here must have the direct evidence. And we know He Xuan acted quickly when the evidence was found. Otherwise, there’s no way for Jun Wu to control the time of revenge.

However, if it is evidence, then it means He Xuan wasn’t a hundred percent sure that Shi Wudu did fate exchange. Then, his years of hatred for Shi Wudu didn’t hold up. Though it did make sense just based on the plots, it seems to make the story lack tension. From what Xie Lian had thought after the blackwater arc, we could see there’s a parallel he wanted to make as a contrast between He Xuan and Hua Cheng: If Hua Cheng’s love for Xie Lian didn’t change for eight hundred years, then He Xuan’s hate for Shi Wudu should be same. However, this is not the case according to the analysis above.

So, how to resolve this issue?

My first theory is He Xuan actually had the evidence a long time ago, but there’s another reason that stopped him from taking action quickly, some Jun Wu-like reason, you know he had to make sure He Xuan took revenge at the time he wanted.

My second theory is He Xuan’s hatred is more abstract, and Shi Wudu is just no more than another person who fits his framework of injustice, like the tyrants in Fu Gu. So, it doesn’t really matter whether he had the evidence of fate exchange.

So, did his 执念 change as he realized the truth of fate exchange? Not really. Also, it fits “the hundreds of years of hate contrast”.

(I now don’t have other ideas about the reasons that make He Xuan take revenge hundreds of years later now (there may be some beefleaf versions, but you know it is not the case). So, welcome to share your thoughts:)

Hate and love are just like the two sides of a coin, why we hate injustice and unfairness because we care about the people living in this world. Shi Wudu and He’ family is an instance/ representative of this framework. Why he didn’t disappear after killing Shi Wudu? One of the reasons is the unfairness and injustice would never disappear, is his positive attitude toward life. The resistance is an eternal subject, while the love for life is a great song.

People usually forget He Xuan was raised with love, and this family love is powerful. He Xuan himself is a person who fights for a living, and never gives up. He could once get lost, be affected, and suffered by his pain and hate, but in the deep side of his heart, I believe he still finds himself and his direction.

[utilitycaster]

Ok I'm probably going to regret reinventing 17th century European religious philosophy here but:

Ludinus's issue with the gods as stated to Imogen and Fearne (and I will state right now that we know he was lying or deliberately misleading at points in that conversation so I don't exactly take him at his word, but let's assume he does mean this) is that they did not prevent the Calamity. I have the following questions.

Does he have any loyalty/feelings about the Titans given that they would have killed all the people in the era of the Schism, ie, the gods averted that Calamity? My guess is no, which means that whole avenue of discussing the Titans was something of a dead end.

How should Calamity have been averted? The Prime Deities during the Age of Arcanum largely let people do what they wanted, which is what led to one of those mortals releasing the Betrayer Gods. Should the gods have struck down Vespin Chloras before he actually did anything, Minority Report style? Can the gods even predict based on the actions of a single individual or small group, because my guess is they can't, particularly since within the current stream of gameplay they absolutely cannot [ie, the reason the Changebringer can't tell FCG to stay or run is because Matt Mercer is the Changebringer and he doesn't know how people will roll; you do need to consider the medium here]. But if they could: so you think they should strike down mortals on the basis of thoughtcrimes? Or control them? In that case, why is Aeor a problem? There's a lot you can argue is justified once you permit the gods to override free will and kill people over mere potential for catastrophe.

On that note, Laerryn both was an unwitting architect of the Calamity (shorted on energy and then killed the Tree of Names, which served as a core planar defense system) but also averted the worst of it. Did the lives she saved by preventing the rise of Rau'shan and Ka'Mort outweigh the lives she took by destroying the Tree of Names? How should the gods have reacted?

Should, perhaps, the gods have all sealed themselves away earlier - perhaps post-Schism? If so, then the issue isn't the Divine Gate, now is it? Should the gods intervene or not intervene? Should they remove themselves or no? It feels like the issue isn't that they distanced themselves so that they can do less in the world, particularly if you wish to kill them, but that you really want to fucking kill them and they made that somewhat more difficult.

How do we know the gods (for example) didn't save Laudna? She was hanged and she's still alive; Morri would probably count this as saving her and I don't see the same desire to wipe out all Archfey. [real talk I find most discussion of Laudna specifically to be...incomprehensibly ignorant in its refusal to acknowledge that everything about it is player agency related, whether it's the story that the cast played out for Vox Machina or the decisions Marisha specifically made in creating the character, ie, do you think Matt should have said "well you can't play a Hollow One because that would mean the gods didn't save you" not to mention the fact that again, we are playing this within a game system where the existence Deus Ex Machina would in fact fucking suck ass; but even setting aside those reasons why this argument is stupid, it's still stupid. It's like a layer cake of stupid.] Again: do you want more intervention or less? Killing them guarantees less.

I'm assuming the problem with the Calamity is the vast loss of life, in which case, what's the math on how many people have been killed by the Vanguard or Imperium in the pursuit of unleashing Predathos? How many more will die?

If the release of Predathos doesn't result in the immediate demise of all the gods, and the Divine Gate is down, why isn't this a recipe for Calamity 2? What was the motivation for killing the gods again?

Should we kill mortal diviners who do not do all within their power to stop terrible things that may come to pass? If the issue is that some people have power without working for it, why haven't we killed all the sorcerers?

Should we be listening to a single word from someone who consumes random fey to live longer, and that's just the start of the CVS receipt of atrocities?

Is there a point where one's deeply held beliefs due to one's own personal trauma become invalidated due to one's actions as a result of that trauma? If so, why is the limit for Orym "is okay with killing people who are trying, directly, to kill you (which, frankly, isn't even a trauma response, that's just called not wanting to die, which I highly recommend as a personal philosophy), and gets upset when people defend those knowingly collaborating with his family's murderers" and the limit for Vanguard generals "family abandonment/just. buckets of murder of innocents./child soldier recruitment in multiple different contexts/eating fey as biohacking/destroying an entire city and the surrounding forest for hundreds of years (ongoing)/imperialism in multiple different contexts/I was going to make a gallows humor joke about how while neither exist in-world they've violated the Geneva Convention AND the IRB for testing on human subjects multiple times over but actually those both are in fact written in a lot of the same blood/probably some others that I'm forgetting"

[reggiemess]

"A lot of people think cropping dogs ears is unnecessary, but please consider this argument: It looks dope as fuck."

[the-worms-in-your-bones]

I can not believe someone cited a paper trying to prove their argument to me and the paper directly contradicted them

[miraclesprinkle]

No memories remain of anything before

Yes, I'm with you in a garden of carnage

In a mayhem of trickster and tricked!

[aj-lenoire]

what makes the saying goodbye to staedtler go from sad to a fucking gutpunch is reagan is choosing cognito so she can have a chance at bettering the world, but as soon as she commits to that choice, the robes reveal they’re playing her and her sacrificing her relationship was pointless

[lit-in-thy-heart]

panicking slightly after realising that the guy presenting a paper just before mine at a conference is someone whose research i used in my ma diss and we both have very similar topics

[cantstops1mping]

My thoughts on AI "art" because I was reading an article on it.

I believe AI ‘art’ is not art. No one should ever claim that what the AI made or told them to make is their original idea or claim that it is their art. It disgusts me to see people use AI for a process that is supposed to be creatively inducing. Even when art is ‘ugly’ in someone's opinion you still call it art because you can see the effort put into it, but when it is A.I. you cannot. 

For example the from the article:

If a human were to paint this, no matter how ugly I think it is, I would forever call it art because I would be able to see the effort that was put into it. Since this is A.I. I do not see any effort, all I see is blasphemy and fraud. 

If you want to make art the only thing you need is effort. If people can see the effort you put into the art it will forever be called art.

“Sculptures based on the tool's recommendations.” This from the article specifically made me livid. It’s one thing to tell the A.I. what to make, but letting AI tell you what to make is horrible. The people doing this will end up never being able to be creative again because of their dependency on the AI. When artists allow AI to dictate their artistic direction they risk losing the very thing of what makes art so deeply personal and human.

I don’t think AI can be creative, because it isn’t. A.I. “art” is what the AI thinks people will like based on art it can find on the internet which is plagiarism. AI does violate copyright rules and copyright rules are very outdated. I wish they would fix copyright rules but they don't. AI doesn’t “draw” it makes a collage of already existing artworks and turns it into something new. Those said artworks are copyrighted and if a human cannot make a collage of copyrighted artworks why should a robot? Human creativity is often driven by context, intention, and emotional motivation. AI is driven by nothing. Nothing can’t be art.

Modern and Abstract Art is a whole new discussion. “Art” like a dot on a canvas and splattered lines are not art because there is no real effort put into it. Yes, you made it, but did you really put any real effort into it?

Some people argue that “iT’s ThE mEaNiNg BeHiNd It,” I heavily disagree because what does a red dot even mean? Nothing. It means Nothing. You just want to make money in a way that insults many real artists.

Van Gogh, Picasso, Claude Monet, Frida Kahlo, Alfred Sisley, Andy Warhol, and Edvard Munch did not die for art to be as effortless as it is now.

Thank you for reading! Please tell me what you think about AI "art" and what you think art is!! If you disagree I would like to know why as well!

[welcometogrouchland]

My general stance on AI discourse is that if someone from an industry that is tangibly negatively impacted by AI proliferation is talking about practical, workable solutions, I trust them, I listen to them, I cheer them on and try to boost their voice. If it's someone who sounds like they would've been a detractor of the printing press if they were born in the 15th century then I immediately ignore everything else that comes out of their mouth.

[deamare]

♡ ˚·   @anruraiocht asked:

[ 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐞𝐥 ] : unable to handle their fondness towards receiver, the sender lashes out and they end up in a heated argument. ( ehehe )

Ishtar stands stock still, paralyzed with wrists still stretched between iron bars and palm held open. It's empty now, carefully wrapped remnants of her untouched dinner knocked from it onto the floor. She is frozen as though she expects to be scolded, even though the only person here to do so is a girl covered in filth and bound at the ankles.

"I thought..." Mother had taught her that people would weep to receive gifts from her one day, that there would only ever be gratitude for the Goddess of Thunder.

But this girl shows none, her face contorted in an anger so raw that Ishtar cannot bear to look at it. She thinks first that she should be angry-- that is what she has been taught to be when disrespected by someone labeled as lesser-- but then that feels wrong. What was it that made this girl lesser? The cage that she had been shoved in? The kingdom that she had been stripped of? The blood of her father still drying on his throne? All done in the name of Ishtar's own.

She steps shakily back, distantly aware that she should not be here any longer than she has to, and yet she finds she cannot bring herself to run. "I was trying to help, I-"

It hits her then that to help would be to restore what has been taken, to free her from this prison built within her own home. To help would have been to never allow this to have happened at all.

Footsteps echo from further down the corridor and her time for useless apologies has met its end. There is evidence of her disobedience plainly strewn across the floor of the girl's cell, and with one glance Ishtar knows that her fate rests in the hands of the other.

As the cell disappears behind her, she thinks that perhaps it is only fair. If she is to be punished, let it be at her discretion.

And the next time that Ishtar sneaks away in search of Miranda of House Ulster, she is nowhere to be found.

[brainrot-stitch]

Ough

[maliro-t]

as a bona fide vaxleth lover i am more confused than ever about how they are portrayed on the animated series i'm not gonna lie 😭

[idkwidatp]

Feels like it's about time to Post this video again

[rustchild]

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