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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 1 year ago

Note

Hi Miss Raven! I was reading your opinions about Leona and wanted to ask you, do you think Leona would be a better king than Falena?

[Referencing this post!]

Put simply, no--but not for the reasons you're probably thinking. Hey now, hold on! Put down your pitchforks and torches! Please at least hear what I have to say and consider it.

It's not that I think that Leona is incompetent or that I think Falena is sufficient as a king. It's that ruling (especially as a monarch that has a LOT of power and control) is very nuanced and to say that one person would be "better" than another is grossly glossing over all that goes into governance.

This post gets quite long, so I've placed all my thoughts under the cut. Again, I ask that you read the whole post before commenting.

First of all, the baseline we're comparing to is Falena so let's review what we know about him that's relevant to this discussion. Leona describes Falena as someone who has a "carefree attitude". Because of this, Leona worries that Falena will "run [their] kingdom into the ground." Now something I want to make clear: "[running their] kingdom into the ground" is very harsh wording used ONLY in EN. In JP, Leona is much more casual with his phrasing. He simply expresses that he is "worried about the country's future", not that he thinks Falena will ruin it:

In the book 2 post-OB flashback sequence, Leona implies that his older brother can sing and nap but still be guaranteed the crown because of Falena being first-born. Falena is noted as holding a ceremony in honor of his son's birth; he had commissioned for a fountain to be built (even though water is a scarce resource in their land) and unveiled in their capital—an occasion which Leona skipped. He refers to the ceremony as a "self-indulgent party where you show off your son to the people." This characterizes Falena as a jovial and excessive person who doesn't think too deeply about policies. Another example of this comes from Leona's Birthday Boy vignettes, in which Falena sends his younger brother an expensive rug. "In the time he spends sending me gifts I don't even want, he could be sending rugs to neighboring lands and bolstering our foreign relations," Leona says. "Of course, the thought never even crosses his mind." One of the Sunset Savnna’s driving philosophies is “hakuna matata”, which, as Leona describes it, means, “don’t think too hard about things”. And indeed, if Falena is anything like how Leona says he is, then he is the walking embodiment of their country and their beliefs.

One major issue that is unique to their homeland is that of unification. The Sunset Savanna boasts many different kinds of beastmen, each with their own customs and cultures--and because of that, these beastmen tend to live in settlements of just their own kind and don't always get along or see eye-to-eye with others. For example, it is said that very few bird beastmen reside in the capital city and Ruggie has implied that hyenas are low in the social hierarchy. Kifaji, the grand chamberlain, confides that the acting king Falena has struggled with this unification. The Kingscholars' father has communicated that he would like for nothing more than Leona to lend his assistance to Falena for this endeavor. (Keep this in mind, as I will be touching upon this again later!)

What I think many people tend to overlook when it comes to Falena's rule is that he has not been in power for a long time. According to Tamashina Mina, Falena has only been running the country for "the last few years", which is NOT that long. Falena has not even had that much experience as the official head of state to begin with--and yeah, you could argue that he has been preparing his whole life to eventually become the ruler, training for it and actually doing it are very different beasts. No amount of tutoring will prepare you for having the weight of an entire nation suddenly on your shoulders. I would also argue that anyone that is new to a job won't do the best right away and that experience is the best teacher. Falena is likely still learning while on the job and trying to do his best while also juggling being a parent and husband, trying to reach across the aisle to his estranged younger brother, and looking after his ill father.

This leads me to another point: a lot of what we hear about Falena is coming from Leona's perspective, which is very biased (especially in the post-OB flashback, as this was when Leona was at his most bitter). We should be aware of this while taking in the information Leona is offering. I don't doubt that Leona's telling the truth about how his brother is carefree or the things his brother has done, but at the same time we need to realize that this is a limited view of Falena. It's not the whole picture of who he is. Leona tends to focus on his brother's shortcomings and downfalls--but thinking about it, what are Falena's strengths?

Well, one of them is definitely that Falena is friendly, kind-hearted, and honest. Even Leona confesses to this. However, he frames these traits in a negative way, stating that "[Falena] could just focus on the kingdom's affairs--you know, his JOB--but nooo, he's gotta be the caring big brother who's nice to everybody," and, of his honesty, "he just makes things harder for himself." Falena also seems to be positive and insightful--admirable qualities in a leader. When Leona speaks rudely to him, Falena tries to reassure his little brother: "You may never become king, but you are still wise. There is much you could do for this country." He even pursues Leona when he leaves, trying to get his little brother to see reason. Falena sees the potential in Leona and he wants Leona to realize that potential too. If you look at this another way, this personality can be a boon. It could make it easier for Falena to smooth over tensions and get other political figures to open up to him, similar to how Kalim’s empathy helps to uplift and support his dorm mates and how those dorm mates in return give him their loyalty.

Finally, we know that Falena is cognizant of the culture and the values of the Sunset Savanna and likely works in accordance with those. If we revisit Tamashina Mina, Leona talks at length about how some areas of the country are so underdeveloped that its people are still drinking rainwater or from wells. He laments the situation and says that if only they improved their infrastructure and mined the valuable ore their country has, the people would be able to live better lives. Leona here leans pro-industrialization. From the lack of industrialization we see in large parts of the country, we can assume that Falena does not have this same stance. Rather, Falena understands that the people of the Sunset Savanna cherish living in harmony with nature and want to honor their animal ancestors by living in a way that is sustainable He KNOWS that their people would be against industrialization, and so he favors slower development (Sunrise City being one of these metropolises that developed under the rule of their father) and in ways which preserve nature. As Lilia puts it, “Developing is easy. You just throw money at it. But building a city like this, while still preserving nature? That’s the real challenge, I’d say.” (That was a very quick summary but if you're interested in reading more about this topic specifically, I'd recommend this post!)

Falena cares about tradition and upholding it, and there isn’t inherently an issue with that. He values where he comes from and the practices that come with that. That’s why Falena gets upset with Leona for not doing his duties and skipping out on important meetings. It’s not purely that Falena sees these acts as disrespectful (although let’s be clear, it is disrespectful), but it also comes with the sadness of knowing that his younger brother doesn’t see the value in the same things he does—yet he still understands that Leona has his own strengths that be brings to the table.

You can see how this could translate into his ruling style too, even if it is not explicitly stated in the game. Falena is someone who is easy to approach with your problems (let's assume that this is the case both for his own people and for diplomats of other countries). He is someone who cares about tending to everyone, which would make him popular with the public--but that means he may spread himself or their resources too thin. Falena is also for slower progress in order to respect the ways of their culture and their people's values. He sees value in hearing others out and working in teams, even pleads with Leona to join his bureaucracy. But the point is, Falena cares, and all Leona sees in that is a bleeding heart since it doesn't produce what Leona thinks are good results.

And speaking of Leona, it's about time we get to him. What are his qualifications in a situation where he was king? What would his ruling style be like, and who would it serve his country?

Firstly, it's worthwhile to compare Leona's thinking to Falena's. Unlike his older brother, Leona is proactive--he plans ahead and considers the political power in something as simple as gifting an item. Many of the ideas he proposes for bettering his country are things that Falena either never thought of (ie gifting the rug to another country instead of to him; Falena sees spelldrive/magift as a national sport but Leona thinks they can drive up tourism with an elite team for the world league) or would refuse to implement out of principle (speedrunning mining operations). However, it's undeniable that Leona's methods would produce results. As he demonstrates to us with his shady tactics in books 2 and 3, it does not matter to Leona what he has to do in order to achieve what he desires. His eyes are set on the goal, not on how he gets there (though he will plan the steps out meticulously as well). He's willing to tear up the environment if it means enriching the Sunset Savanna's economy and providing clean, consistent drinking water for the citizens. It's ultimately gains, but it jeopardizes maintaining harmony with nature. This would earn him genuine ire from his people (and honestly, disliking someone for blatantly disregarding your beliefs is valid; it's not blindly being petty or hating Leona for being the "lowly second born"). But!! Leona as of book 7 says he is going to intern at a mining and energy lab in his home country. This implies that he is willing to learn about the field and may use that knowledge to enact sustainable change. This is a really good start to his development and growth into a wise leader.

The brothers' personalities are also not alike at all. Leona is... admittedly far more abrasive that Falena. I'm not saying that Leona would behave so rudely to politicians or on a global stage (please, the man has more tact than that), but he would carry himself very differently than Falena. Leona can be polite and speak fancily all he wants, but he still does not have that same approachable warmth to him. Something else we should consider is that... well, Leona doesn't like stuffy occasions or putting on airs, which would basically be expected of him as king. We don't know for sure how he would act if the circumstances ask that he be cordial and yet the man himself detests such a thing. He could play the part if needed, sure. But for how long before he becomes annoyed or tired of it? Leona can also be arrogant and demanding. Do you think he would skip/sleep through meetings with advisors he deems irrelevant or unproductive? (Recall how he skips ceremonies and traditions he deems unimportant or boring, like the celebration of Cheka’s birth and tries to cheat his way out of his responsibilities as Captain of the Sunset Warriors. He also skips classes, deeming school largely unnecessary for him because he thinks he already knows everything.) How do you think he'd act with people who oppose him? Would he defy traditions? He also disregards the “hakuna matata” mantra and cynically labels it “self-serving”. I could see how tensions could rise as a result. (Reminder that I'm not saying it's for CERTAIN that Leona would do these things, I'm just posing possibilities based on what I understand of his character and whether you believe Leona would act like this or not is up to you.) Leona is 10 years younger than Falena and has never formally served in a governmental position. This means that he, too, lacks the political experience to be king. Some would say that where Leona makes up for this is in life experiences. He has been downtrodden and defeated, mingled among the common folk, etc. This means Leona is better equipped to understand the plight of his people, they argue. And I can see where people are coming from--but personally, I think Leona still lacks what he needs to be a "better" ruler. Yes, Leona has lived "out there", but the fact remains that Falena still has 10 years on him. What's more is that Leona has not actually strayed that far from his privileged life. He's dorm leader (a position of power within NRC), attends an elite magic school, and constantly has Ruggie taking care of him. I don't think this really prepares him to rule a whole country.

That's a good segway into Leona and his leadership. As I've mentioned before, Falena is having trouble with enacting national policies to unite all beastmen. Leona does not appear to have the same issue, as even though there is a variety of beastmen within Savanaclaw, they all defer to Leona the same. Therefore, Leona, as king, could easily resolve this problem in the Sunset Savanna--so the theory goes. As for me, well... In my opinion, I do think it's a show of skill that Leona can get many different beastmen rallying under his flag but I don't think this generalizes to (again) the scale of an entire nation. Not only do we have to account for WAY more people, but also people of demographics that differ wildly from Savanaclaw. The mobs under Leona follow him, yes--but thinking about it, they're all VERY similar demographics-wise. They're roughly the same age, all male, all students, and have the same goals in mind (for book 2, it was to be noticed by talent scouts). I would bet that most of them are from middle class or upper-class incomes too. Now expand the scope to a country. Do you think Leona could appeal to young and old? Male and female? Rich and poor? People of all occupations? What about parents? There are so many other factors to account for, so I don't think it's fair to generalize Leona leading a dorm of maybe 85ish (this is just a guess; NRC has ~800 total students, 600 are on-campus and split across 7 dorms so this assumes equal splitting) to a diverse kingdom of thousands. We also have to consider that the rules that govern NRC don’t translate to the real world. At NRC, power and individualism is what is valued—both of which Leona has in spades. Are those same things valued in his kingdom? No, be is feared for his power and can’t realistically accomplish the things he wants to on his own.

I want to point out another glaring weakness of Leona's: because of his pride, he has trouble sharing power. While Falena is okay with working with others, Leona hates to be challenged. He doesn't have a vice dorm leader because he doesn't want to butt heads with someone else about how to rule. He shuts down Epel, who asks him about strength training and tells him to focus on speed instead, because that's what Leona sees as Epel's best asset. He scoffs at the idea of listening to individual complaints and thinks there would be a more efficient way of handling them. Leona generally lacks his brother's empathy and would rather maximize efficiency by allowing himself to be the only one calling the shots. We get a glimpse of Leona relinquishing his power as dorm leader to Ruggie in book 6, but that's only because Leona physically cannot be present to rule. This could be an exception, or just the first step in Leona shifting to adapt to working in a team.

If Falena were to abdicate the throne to Leona right this second, no, I don't think Leona would be fit to be king. Leona's ideas seem "good" on a surface level, but that's ignoring the long-term impacts and his less-than-stellar personality quirks. He has a ton that he has to learn before he can comfortably govern. At the same time, Falena isn't exactly a perfect ruler either. He, too, lacks experience and can be short-sighted and naive in spite of his good intentions and willingness to hear everyone out.

In an AU where Leona was actually the crown prince (and thus never got talked down to or treated like the “lesser” second born), maybe things would be different. But then that creates the same issue with Falena (now the scorned younger prince) being the "Leona" of the AU.

Each Kingscholar brother has his own strengths and weaknesses, perspectives, and leadership styles. THIS DOES NOT MAKE ONE SUPERIOR OR "BETTER" THAN THE OTHER. Instead, they make up for one another's deficits or flaws, creating a more well-rounded and unified view. This is, perhaps, why both Falena and their father want Leona to step in and help with ruling the country. I think they all see the benefit that Leona could provide and that they value his thoughts.

The "best" situation for the Sunset Savanna, in my opinion, would be Leona and Falena working together to see the country's future through. It does not have to be in the capacity of king and advisor; titles do not matter here. What is most important is that Leona and Falena can meet on neutral grounds and agree to put their all into improving the Sunset Savanna.

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wisteria-lodge · 1 month ago

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Sorting Logan Roy

(More Succession sortings to follow. Spoilers, obviously. More details about the system I'm using are here, but I do explain what I mean as I go along.)

Primary - WHY he does things

Logan Roy is so intensely Loyalist that he doesn’t even seem to believe in ideals as a concept. Patriotism? Rule of Law? Freedom of the press? Running a vaguely ethical and sustainable company? Nah. As he says “The law is politics, and politics is people.” And as Rhea says, “I don’t know if you care about anything, and that scares me.” And she’s... almost right. As Logan puts it: “Most things don’t exist, but this exists, because this is a family.”

This is where I’m going to argue that he’s actually a Badger primary.

Now, obviously Logan comes from the Tony Soprano & Walter White school of “I did it all for my family.” Basically, every character on the show calls bullshit on that at least once. And it IS bullshirt… because of the way Logan Roy thinks about “family” / the Badger primary idea of “community.” In his head, there are weak people, and there are strong people, and he doesn’t owe weak people anything - not the truth, not his respect, not his time.

But how he defines “strong” is interesting. Because Logan is all about his come-from-nothing roots, and (at the time of the show anyway) he has no respect for the intelligentsia, old money, social elites... and anyone who has ever had anything given to them. Like, Logan has fundamentally never quite stopped being a poor boy. He doesn’t have expensive taste - as Shiv puts it “Everything you get him will mean an equal amount of nothing, so make sure it looks like 10 to 15 grand.” Money is power, that's all. That is why he cares how much you spent on him, but doesn’t really care about the object. (The expensive watch that Tom eventually buys ends up given to the staff.) Logan also really leans into this earthy, “unsophisticated” manner of speaking - he swears a lot, he uses a lot of sexual metaphors. And on him (depending on the context) it’s either legitimately scary and intimidating, or kind of vaguely salt-of-the Earth and trustworthy. (It's very silly on his son Kendall, because Kendall's every inch a rich boy.)

I think the names of Logan’s kids reflect his changing relationship with power extremely well. We start with Connor - an Irish name, and Logan is Scottish - but it still seems to reflect some sort of ethnic/class solidarity (very young Badger.) It’s also pretty neutral as names go, which probably means that at one point Logan wasn’t as focused on this question of power (and related topics - heirs and succession - as he would later become.) Connor, uniquely, seems to have been actually parented by his father at one point, in a way that none of his younger siblings were.

Kendall is a WASP name. ‘Kendall�� invokes old money, East Coast/European power, the type of people that the Pierces (who assume that anyone who sits at their dinner table will be able to quote Shakespeare from memory) are. It also explains Caroline, Logan’s second wife. She’s British old money, and when he married her that must have seemed like a pretty good get. But... at some point Logan seems to have become disillusioned with this type of power:

“Refined? Slaves. Cotton. Sugar. This country’s nothing but an off-shore laundry for turning evil into hard currency. And now it just lies here, living off its capital, sucking in immigrants to turn it to stop it getting bed sores.”

Notice how Logan is talking about England with the language of illness and weakness here. This does seem to be something he authentically feels, and it’s very central to his worldview.

Logan’s only daughter is Siobhan - another Irish name that doesn’t have *anything* to do with power. And that’s because he’s - sexist, and fundamentally doesn’t believe that power as he defines it is for women. Mostly he calls Siobhan ‘Pinky,’ referencing her red hair and just general femininity (pink = feminine.) The fact that her nickname “Shiv” is an improvised weapon means this is someone who is going to have to grab at unconventional types of power, if she wants it.

And then the youngest* is Roman. Which is as close to just calling your kid “power” in the abstract as you can possibly get. The Roman Empire, it’s well - there’s a reason I’m writing this with the Roman alphabet right now. Logan also tends to call Roman “Romulus,” the mythical founder of Rome who killed his brother Remus. There’s a lot baked into that. It reflects Logan’s belief that power must be taken at the expense of others, and perhaps a hope that Roman will supplant his older brothers - there is a significant age gap between Roman and the older two. It is very possible that when Roman was conceived, Logan was probably already of the opinion that neither Connor nor Kendall was cutting it.

(in a darkly funny moment, Roman thinks that Logan is actively trying to repeat this move, and father a new son because Roman isn’t cutting it. But he dies before he’s able to.)

[*Edit - it's unclear if Shiv or Roman is the youngest. It seems like Shiv was originally intended to be the youngest, and this was soft-retconned as the show went on. Roman says to “ask Shiv” about the dog cage incident that supposedly happened when he was four, which implies that Shiv had to be at least four, and probably older.]

Anyway, this show is called Sucession, and Logan wants a successor - someone who is powerful and worthy of inheriting his empire. But because of the way he defines power, this can never be his kids. They, his nephew, and pretty much every member of his family… are people who Logan fundamentally cannot respect, because they’re rich kids born into privilege, which is something he associates with weakness.

The only members of his immediate family that this doesn’t apply are his brother Ewan (who Logan absolutely respects, even though Ewan finds him disgusting), his third wife Marcia (who he also respects. Not enough to be faithful or anything, but he gives her what she wants without haggling.) And… Tom.

Shiv’s husband Tom Wambsgans doesn’t have a working class background, but he is like - firmly middle class. And that does help him eventually worm himself into Logan‘s trust and good graces… which is why he ends up as CEO. Of course, he’s only a figurehead CEO - Tom married power, which is not the correct way to seize it (a little femme-coded.) The *real* CEO is of course Lukas Matsson - who (like Logan) does a sort of performative disregard-for-weath thing (sleeping on bare mattresses on his private island), gets into debt and then makes deals to to cover up on them, plays power games with the members of his staff, and likes to present as an ‘disruptor.’ Basically, Logan left his company to himself, only 40 years younger.

When talking about his kids, he often falls back on dehumanizing language (a Badger classic) - “You’re not serious people” is the main one. If you were to ask Logan, most of the world is “people pretending to be people” - and as such, he doesn’t have to care about them.

But the thing is. If power is what makes you worthy/a person, and power is also something that must be taken… what happens when Logan’s power slips. And the answer is… he can't handle it. His first big medical scare is triggered by Shiv challenging his authority, the second by Roman and the third by Kendall doing the same thing. He slaps his grandson Iverson after he says “You lose!” in the context of a memory game. He completely blows up after a perceived (false) snub from the president, and has another melt-down after Kendall asks “Are you okay?” Marcia is out the second she says, “You’re old, and you haven’t been well.” That's is the case with his other romantic partners too - Rhea is replaced with Kerry after she realizes just how much Logan has been lying to her: “It’s kind of a super power, isn’t it. To lie to someone like that, to their face.” And Caroline was probably replaced with Marcia once she got to know Logan well enough to say things like. “He never saw anything he loved that he didn’t want to kick it to see if it would still come back.”

Logan is uninterested in the stuff that money can buy (the way that Kendall and Tom are.) He only cares about power in the abstract, and power is how many people he controls. When he's under threat, he'll say things like - “I think I need more people. More protection.”

This is another way Tom endears himself to Logan. Tom is willing to crawl around and oink like a piggy if Logan wants him to. Or go to jail for Logan, if Logan needs him too. Logan seems to genuinely enjoy how blindly loyal Roman is to him for most of the show. BUT he doesn’t really respect either of them. Logan’s ideal relationship would be with someone who is both powerful enough to matter… and who he can completely control. That's because the prospect of losing even a speck of his power is too frightening, it would mean losing his own personhood.

The place where Logan comes closest to actually having this ideal relationship is with Kendall. Of the four siblings, Kendall is the one who fights against his father the most. Logan smiles when Kendall testifies against him during the coverup Senate hearing… and of course he does. For a second, this is a version of Kendall who is strong enough to be a person in his eyes.

Then Kendall kills (manslaughters) a valet, Logan fixes the situation and… becomes as soft and loving as we ever see him. Shiv comments on how out of character this is: “Dad, you beat Roman with a fսcking slipper in Gustav till he cried for ordering lobster, remember? And Kendall tries to kill you [in a hostile takeover] and he's five minutes out in the cold?"

But it makes perfect sense. No one else knows about the valet cover-up, so publicly Kendall is still commanding respect… but because Logan has blackmail material, he owns him. Kendall is both powerful enough to be a credit to Logan, and someone who will do ANYTHING for him. Therefore, making Logan feel like the most powerful (worthy) person in the entire world. He has Kendall destroy and strip his pet company for parts, break up with his girlfriend, interact with the dead valet’s family, publically read out scripts that Logan’s written, throwing his siblings under the bus. Some of that’s practical, but most of it’s just Logan reveling in his power on a grand scale. And every time Kendall does one of these things… Logan just loves him more. Kendall’s girlfriend is absolutely right when she says “he loves the broken you." The broken version of Kendall is the one who is affirming and flattering.

To summarize, Logan is a Badger primary. He maintains a connection to his original community, expressed through his loyalty to his brother, general interest in his heritage and doing things like returning to the places that he knew as a kid. That’s all very Badger-flavored stuff. He loves to use Badger language of “family,” both when talking about his company and his motivations. Only, his actual community is people with power, and power is “worked your way up into a place of influence from nothing.” (So: a definition that basically only includes him.) Logan isn't a loner - he is IS going to do that Badger primary thing of creating community almost accidentally - but he is ALSO looking for someone both strong enough for him to respect and weak enough to always make him feel powerful. This is a very difficult balance to hit - which is why he cycles through wives and girlfriends, and why his most loving relationship in the show seems to be with Kendall, during the period when he is actively blackmailing him.

Secondary - HOW he does things

This one is a little tricky, because by the time we actually meet Logan, near the end of his career - he barely even needs problem solving strategies. He just tells people what he wants and they do it. BUT… there are definitely places where he has to deal with people who are at a similar power level. And with those people… Logan's a charmer. He goes into his meet-up with the Pierces with a very specific plan, knows which of his people needs to talk with which of their people, tells Connor to stay away from certain subjects - etc. He also comes in with a very good idea of what the Pierces want to hear - Logan will own the network, but he respects their vision and legacy and doesn’t want to change the product. He knows to ask about the board members' kids, and he knows exactly how to make an offer that his ex-wife can’t refuse.

He also uses some very interesting tactical mirroring with Mattson during a very high-stakes conversation:

LOGAN. So, what do you think? We doing this fucking merger or not? MATTSON. Wow, just straight in there huh? LOGAN. Well you know, I’m old. What do you want, a bit of ‘oh this is a nice house you’ve got here.’ MATTSON. No, I like it. I get bored easily. LOGAN. Everything’s boring, isn’t it? MATTSON. Yeah, everything is pretty fucking boring. LOGAN. Except this. MATTSON. Yeah, you got me interested (...) I don’t want to be rude, because you’re a legend. You’re bulletproof. Fucking… tank man. LOGAN. So you want me to come in your sauna and tell you what a pretty pecker you’ve got? MATTSON. I’m just really excited about the future. LOGAN. So am I. MATTSON. Yeah, but… are you? LOGAN. Well, that’s something you say, isn’t it. [Beat] No, but I am excited.

Logan’s never met this guy before - so he comes out of the gate with his typical earthy, disarming directness. This seems to surprise Mattson, so Logan lowers the intensity a few notches, half-apologizes and gets a little vulnerable. “Oh I’m old.” Brings up a safer subject (the house), framed as a joke. But Mattson clarifies that he likes the first approach. Logan agrees with him about things being boring, follows up Mattson’s flattery with some self-aware (joking) flattery of his own, then agrees with him about the future, acknowledges Mattson’s doubts, and… ultimately agrees with him about everything.

This is classic Badger secondary mirroring. As Logan says, “I can handle people.” He’s not a good improviser, he tends to crack a little when he’s taken off-guard. And in terms of a Bird secondary… it’s almost as if Logan doesn’t believe in outside data or facts. He means it very literally when he says “You create your own reality.” As far as he is concerned, everything is up for negotiation.

I went into this sorting thinking that we’d be dealing with maybe an Exploded Snake or a Fay Lion, but working it all out… no, I think Logan Roy is a Double Badger. One with Exploded, controlling, authoritarian tendencies... but a Double Badger nonetheless.

#shc #sortinghatchats #wisteria sorts #succession #logan roy #logan roy meta #double badger #badger primary #badger secondary

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thanatika · 3 months ago

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By the way! Forgive me for rambling under your recent posts on Tumblr & Twitter regarding the interpersonal connections, but it reminded me of a tier list you reblogged from me some time ago, sorting the characters into whether or not they’re on first-name basis with Bachelor Dankovsky in Classic.

You asked in the tags if I went through the script myself to check, so I meant to let you know for a while that I had, and these aren’t purely HCs. I made that effort with a similar feeling that might have inspired your post: a bittersweet fondness for the depth of connections within Classic that 2 doesn’t do justice.

Specifically, I’d seen beautiful Patho2 fanart of Dankovsky spending time with Eva and the Stamatins, and the way some responded in reblogs joking about how he ‘somehow has friends at last’ struck me as odd since Eva-and-the-Stamatins are mere tip of the iceberg. I know my mutuals must be weary of hearing me make this argument, but I sincerely believe the fanon characterization of Dankovsky as antisocial/even misanthropic collapses when we start noting and appreciating his existing close friendships, whether with Aglaya or Yulia or Lara or Maria, and so on. Of course, this isn’t unique to him; different characters drew out the worst/best in each other in Classic.

oh, i remember that post! i really do like the idea of going through and counting how and when different names for the characters are used.

and i guess part of what you're talking about in your third paragraph might come from the fact that a lot of people only play patho2, which means that they don't really get to see the bonds that dankovsky forms. but i would say that patho classic especially portrays him as someone who is eager for connections to people -- you could even interpret his immediate day 1 friendliness in the haruspex route or the way he calls both aglaya and block his "best friend" literally a day after meeting them as examples of this. i think these three (+ his connection to rubin, maybe yulia and even lara since they can work together on the house of the living) specifically show that it's specifically collegial connections that he's most comfortable with; he wants allies, people he can work with. this seems to fit with his implied workaholic, emotionally repressed nature, but also sort of shows the myth behind the trope of the "misanthropic scientist" that i feel like people might be tempted to slot him into -- science is actually a very collaborative activity. which at least the quarantine demo seems to be highlighting, with the way it puts focus on his colleagues back at his lab in the capital.

#asks #mayormimii #thank you for the ask! and no need to apologize for rambling- i'm a bit of a rambler myself #i do also think dankovsky has a misanthropic side to him but the connections he makes are also super important #patho meta #pathologic

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dithorba · 2 months ago

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I'll never understand people who uniquely point to Ciygun or Deirdre as the root cause of Jugdral's troubles.

For both women, the whole "don't have more than 1 kid" is a preventive measure that only works if there is no one else to capitalize on it.

"Ciygun cheated." Okay, she "cheated" after Victor did [redacted]. Not to be too "abolish the family" but in a world (our own included) where marriage is a contract that entails exclusive rights of the applicants to have sex only between one another, I think what Victor did breaches it. If Victor was an otherwise normal and loving husband, a considerable portion of the story would not play out the way that it did. Certainly would complicate the plan for the Loptous Sect. Also, IDK, blaming the abuse survivor vs the actual sex assaulter? Think about that for a minute at least.

Now I think it is safe to say that Arvis's marriage to Deirdre can not be consentual in any meaningful way and I'm going to leave it at that.

So, the question is, why is anger regarding breaking the "no more than 1 kid rule" only applied to the women but not Arvis who also breaks it? Now, I don't think Arvis knows the rule at first but I think he can intuit it. He knows by that Chapter 5 conversation with Manfroy, making it clear he has no intention to help them in their plans to revive Loptous. So he without question understands the Loptous Sect is obsessed with his bloodline and likely is interested in some way to manipulate him or his children to their ends. Why is Arvis's agency and choice not demonized with the same level of anger as Deirdre or Cigyun? Deirdre barely had any agency in one of her relationships.

And none of this accounts for Maera or his child's failure to put their desires over the safety of the world. Hey, that's fitting given this story and the personal ambition of the many of our favorite idiots who directly or indirectly assisted in the revival of the Loptous Sect. But we don't expend any thought blaming them do we?

Interesting that we hyperfixate on the sexuality of the women but we do not condemn the men for their sexuality.

I wonder what this could possibly mean.

#Miguel Mumbles #/rant #fire emblem genealogy of the holy war #/sexual violence mention

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bedtimegiraffe · 2 years ago

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Here's my little essay about King Arlan (and a little bit about Baldur) and their complicated relationship with ruling effectively.

Arlan, the (overall) very good king

King Arlan is keeping the kingdom running well

In the very first lore tablet, you learn that, "King Arlan Valleros VII currently sits on the throne. Known as the Gentle King, Arlan has reigned over a period of great peace and prosperity."

Periods of great peace and prosperity are not easy! It's a combination of luck, delegating effectively, and putting in a ton of administrative work to make sure the laws and policies work for the unique situation your nation is in at this moment. That stuff does not happen on accident.

Based on Aerin's statements that he never really saw his father, I'm assuming Arlan keeps busy with actually running the country. We never see Arlan show interest in hunting or any vices that would take similar amounts of time. I also don't get the sense that Arlan and Baldur are always like, hanging out. And we don't interact with many administrators, making him seem pretty hands-on.

King Arlan knows how to maintain an image

When you return from the Shadow Realm...

King Arlan is very savvy. Maybe he's sincere, who knows! But publicly honoring the heroes who saved your ass is a great way to get goodwill for yourself and make it so you no longer owe those heroes. Your party puts in quite a lot of work to save Morella and King Arlan just lets you take some weapons and armor no one was using anyway. Doesn't even send a single guard to help. Unlike Book 2...

Before the battle he does a great job making it seem like he's doing you a favor. Like you asked for his help and he's magnanimously granting it, even though the Ash Empire is very much coming to destroy his capital!

Which brings us to his take on Aerin being gone (assuming he was imprisoned previously)...

This is an awful thing to say about your son! But it's actually a pretty cunning move as a king. Arlan was absolutely right- his best move was to let Aerin go and hope he got killed. He gets to eliminate a problem making him look bad to the court (his son who committed murder and treason in a very public manner) and keep his reputation as a nice guy. He's the 'Gentle King,' not the 'Strong King' or 'Decisive King.'

And in the very unlikely (in his estimation) chance Aerin did come back alive and looking heroic, Arlan could keep him imprisoned indefinitely. Or (much less likely) he could say Aerin was corrupted before and use his success as an excuse to get one of his kids back in the line of succession. That's good for your ego and can help prevent a succession crisis if there isn't a super clear heir in place (which seems to be the case currently).

Overall, (and completely separate from him being a horrendous father) it seems to be like Arlan is actually a very good king. But there is one part of the job he sucks at...

Arlan's fatal flaw is that he is terrible at reading people.

'Baldur's great, no concerns!'

Obviously, we know that thinking that Baldur is going to be a good king is stupid.

But why didn't King Arlan know that? Aerin (who does seem to be pretty good at reading people) says he's, "handsome, bold, outgoing." Those things are all great for winning people over!

But not nearly enough to actually run a country. We know Baldur's not really even trying to have any of the practical, administrative skills that requires. And this system does not seem set up to function with a figurehead.

You know that tutor must have clocked that Baldur was asleep! It was probably common knowledge at the palace that Baldur never learned a damn thing. Either Arlan didn't realize his heir was not gaining any practical ruling skills (bad sign) or he didn't care (also a bad sign).

Even monarchs who aren't invested in their kids as people are usually very invested in their education. Because that's how you make sure the wheels don't fall off once you die, ending your glorious bloodline.

Aerin tells us that Baldur would never contradict their father. So Arlan absolutely could have forced him to read a damn book. But for some reason, he didn't.

'My second son sucks...

Arlan truly thinks that Aerin is useless. Which is a wild stance to take after you watched him kill big strong Baldur in a single blow and open a portal to the Shadow Realm.

Arlan got there a little late for Aerin's full villain monologue. But the second your party disappears through the portal, the smart thing would have been to determine if Aerin did any more damage. It didn't feel like it to Aerin, but he had tremendous access to people and resources. For all King Arlan knows, this could have been just one piece of a bigger plot.

And it was! Aerin admitted to corrupting dozens of people, usually very connected people. That's a ticking time bomb just waiting to cause more damage. One it doesn't seem like King Arlan ever looks into.

Arlan seems to just assume that Aerin can't cause damage because he's... not physically imposing? Because knowledge and connections are never a threat to power?

Pre-crisis, Aerin also talks about trying to smooth over Baldur's brash decisions. Having someone to soften the blow of harsh or unpopular decisions is absolutely crucial for any ruler, but especially one like Baldur. Yet Arlan doesn't seem to have any awareness of that either.

So Arlan at least picked up some vibes from Aerin that he was... something. Troubled could be 'miserable,' but this statement makes it feel more 'he creeps me out.'

-and I'm not worried about that.'

Even if Aerin was incompetent or messed up, King Arlan should have been concerned about that! Baldur is very strong and presumably good at not dying. But he throws himself into dangerous situations all the time for fun! There is a very good reason most monarchs don't stop at one kid if they can help it.

History is absolutely littered with examples of people who inherited a throne and ran things into the ground because they didn't have the ability to manage the amount of power they had effectively. If Arlan thought Aerin could fall into that category, he should have had people working around the clock to get him up to standard just in case.

Instead, King Arlan fully ignored Aerin, letting him just haunt the archives like a depressed ghost.

'The Heroes of Morella obviously agree with me, they're important!'

King Arlan makes the assumption, based on your party's status, that you'll agree with him on the 'complicated politics' of executing your own kid. Because you're not 'commoners.' Your party includes one elven noble, one orcish (until like 2 days ago) princess, and one human with a very prominent position in the Temple. Mal is more under the radar, but he was still proclaimed a hero. And your character is the most Hero of all.

So Arlan basically does that thing some people do where they trash talk a marginalized group, because everyone in the room looks like they belong to the majority group, so why would they object? (Never a good look.)

But Mal and Nia are both, at least to you, visibly angry with Arlan for being excited his son is (presumably) dead.

Still, no effort to backtrack or soften the blow from King Arlan. Just sails right over the dude's head that Mal looks pissed and Nia is using her damn customer service voice.

Seriously, King Arlan should probably keep an eye out for Mal... Not a big monarchist, that one.

Bonus Baldur, the tremendous idiot

The fact that Baldur thinks he's the first of his name, when "Baldur Valleros" literally founded his dynasty, is incredibly funny to me. Such ignorance. Such hubris.

I am not about to give him the benefit of the doubt that maybe Baldur I went straight to being king, so our dumbass is the first "Prince Baldur Valleros." His father is Arlan VII, there's no way no other king has named their heir after the founder of the dynasty. More evidence that he has never once learned a thing.

(Don't worry about Kade- he took a shadow lance to the face but he's fine. He's mostly fine. Feel free to look at my older posts if you're curious how that went down.)

Baldur seems to make the same assumptions about people based on their status as his father. I don't think it's an accident that when Baldur wants to tell gross stories (including the phrase "slum girls"), he immediately grabs Mal, the human man. Mal isn't all that subtle about his disdain for the nobility, but he still looks like the best one for Baldur to win over. Mal is also the one who steps up and negotiates for the group, making him look like the leader- even more Baldur catnip.

#blades of light and shadow #choices bolas #blades of light and shadow 2 #aerin valleros #arlan valleros #king arlan #baldur valleros #mal valori #kade #kade of riverbend #*tries to hold back a tide of examples from British history*#I am overwhelmed by the desire to psychoanalyze fictional characters #It would fill me with rage but I would love to be a fly on the wall pre-Dreadlord crisis with this family #Or talk to a servant! Did the common people actually like Baldur? Did they seriously give PRINCE Aerin zero acknowledgement?#Is Baldur handsome? I know I have a type but Aerin would be the one to catch my eye every time

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falloutbradreviews · 4 months ago

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Fall Out Boy Ranked: 2025 Edition

Fall Out Boy is my favorite band, and you know something I haven’t done in maybe a decade or so? A ranked episode with them! I ranked their discography many years ago, and I had a different perspective on their music back then. Over the past decade, I’ve been at odds with the pop-punk scene. Whether it’s the misogyny that ran rampant in the early 00s, or the predators that ran rampant in the mid-2010s, the pop-punk scene has only now started to get better. Fans are holding these artists responsible for their actions, and the bands themselves are becoming more diverse, unique, and interesting. It isn’t just the same runaround of four pasty and skinny white guys whining about how their girlfriends broke up with them. I’ve reexamined a lot of albums from my adolescence and from the past decade, and I’ve been able to look at them in a new light. A lot of albums are a product of their time, but context matters, especially if something was “acceptable then” but not anymore. When it comes to Fall Out Boy, I’ve grown to love and appreciate all of their albums in some way, shape, and form. I went through a period where I wasn’t a fan of their first couple of albums, but I also went through a period where I wasn’t crazy about their last few albums, either, but all of these albums are interesting in their own way. I wanted to rank them again, because it’s been so long since I’ve done that. I think it would be fun to look at their albums again, both because I haven’t done this in awhile, but I also don’t really have anything new to talk about. Not much has come out in the last couple of weeks, so I’m able to rest easy and listen to whatever I want.

Before we start off with the list properly, I wanted to mention a couple of things. I won’t be talking about any EPs, so their acoustic EP, the PAX AM Days EP, and the Lake Effect Kid EPs aren’t going to be talked about. They’re great little doses of their music, but I don’t need to talk about them. I also won’t be talking about their “debut” album from 2002, entitled An Evening Out With Your Girlfriend, because that’s an unauthorized album that was put out without their consent. It was mainly put out to capitalize on the success of Take This To Your Grave, but that’s neither here nor there. We’ll just be strictly talking about everything from Take This To Your Grave to So Much (For) Stardust, so strap in, folks (I also wanted to omit their greatest hits albums, because why would I talk about those). It’s going to be a wild right down memory lane. I’m excited to talk about these records for the first time in a long while, because Fall Out Boy is the first band I fell in love with growing up. I had listened to stuff before, but nothing hit me as hard as Fall Out Boy did. I’ll save my nostalgia for later on, because I can talk about the records themselves, but Fall Out Boy is a band that means the world to me. I grew up with this band, and as I got older, so did they. Their music changed and grew just as I did, so I love it when that can happen. The bands you love grow with you, and you can watch their growth along with yours at the same time. I also wouldn’t say that I dislike any of their music, so there’s nothing here that I’m going to say is bad, mid, or anything like that. All of these albums are solid in their own way, especially having plenty of time to sit with these. 9. Make America Psycho Again (2015)

Like I just said, there’s nothing outright bad in their discography, but I would easily say my least favorite record from them is their 2015 remix album, Make America Psycho Again. That title hasn’t aged well for obvious reasons, but this album was a cool idea. Fall Out Boy was fresh off the heels of American Beauty / American Psycho, and they remixed the whole album to feature rappers on each song, as well as tweak the production ever so slightly so it has a hip-hop / R&B sound to it. Honestly, it’s a cool idea, but too bad the rappers they picked make this album dated as all get out. None of them are outright awful, but who remembers OG Maco? How about Azealia Banks? I thought not, but you did have Migos, Juicy J, Big K.R.I.T., and Black Thought on songs, too, so the album isn’t half bad. Mostly everybody is fine here, but I think the production is the best part. Fans hated this thing when it came out, but I thought it was a very neat idea that no other rock band has really done since. The production is the best part of it, but it’s not an album I would necessarily go to bat for, especially these days, but it’s not half bad. 8. M A N I A (2018)

I hate to put 2018’s M A N I A so low, because this is a really good record, but the more that I think about it, the more it should be towards the bottom of the list. I was a staunch defender of this album when it came out, and I still think it’s a good (almost great) album today, but I do admit that it has some problems. For starters, this album is their most self-indulgent, mainly for Patrick Stump and his love for pop music. This album went very hard into pop, but it also had some cool experiments within Afrobeat, doo-wop, soul, R&B, and more traditional pop-rock. A lot of fans argued that the band “sold out” with this one, even more than their last two albums, but you could make the argument that they did in 2008 with Folie A Deux. This record has some of my favorite hooks from the band, including “Wilson (Expensive Mistakes),” “Bishops Knife Trick,” “Hold Me Tight Or Don’t,” “Champion,” and “The Last Of The Real Ones.” It’s clear, however, that their creative juices were starting to run dry. Pete Wentz’s lyrics weren’t on their A-game here, but there’s nothing outright awful. Maybe “Young & Menace” is a pretty weird song that I still enjoy, despite going into this strange EDM / dubstep kind of thing, but it’s an album that showed the band experimenting more. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t, because people wanted the band to do something different, but when they do, they complain that they want the older stuff again. They were never going to do that, but they made a compromise for So Much (For) Stardust, their comeback album, and fans still hated it, so what can you do? 7. Save Rock & Roll (2013)

Fall Out Boy’s 2013 comeback album was an event. You just had to be there. It was such an exciting time to be a fan, because they first denied any rumors of them coming back, only to randomly say “psych” and drop a new song with the announcement of a new album. “My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light ‘Em Up)” is one of my favorite Fall Out Boy songs, and the rest of the album is quite good, too, but it’s definitely a product of its time. You could argue that most of their albums are, but this one is very much a product of 2013, because some of the sounds are very much something you would have heard in that time. A few of the guests are artists that were popular in that time, such as Big Sean and Foxes, but Courtney Love and Elton John being on the album is really cool. This record has some of my favorite songs from the band, but in terms of a comeback album, you can tell that they were having a bit of an identity crisis still and testing the waters for what worked. The album shows the band very refreshed and energized, but each song has its own feel. It’s not a bad thing at all, as the album is very memorable, but it does feel like a collection of ideas that came from different places as opposed to a unified vision that they had. 6. American Beauty / American Psycho (2015)

The band’s second album post-hiatus is a bit better, because it has more of unifying sound, but they really leaned into what worked. This record is known for the songs “Centuries” and “Immortals,” but like Save Rock & Roll, it’s a product of its time by having a sound that a band like Imagine Dragons popularized just a couple of years beforehand. They brought back a modern-day “arena-rock” sound by having huge hooks, big riffs, and lyrics about being determined and being champions (which they would have a song literally with that name a few years later). This record has lyrics about being “remembered for centuries” and “being immortal,” so there’s a loose theme of being remembered. I would also argue that the band helped to kickstart a trend, for better or worse, in pop music, where artists would interpolate popular songs, lyrics, or melodies to complement their own songs. “Centuries” is a good example of this, because it features an interpolation of “Tom’s Diner” by Suzanne Vega, versus an outright sample. “Uma Thurman” features an interpolation of The Munsters TV show theme, and that little surf-rock riff is so awesome. I always love hearing that song mainly for that part specifically. It seems like that’s been a trend for artists to do now, but it usually doesn’t end very well. American Beauty / American Psycho shows the band firing on all cylinders again, as well as having a loose theme, versus just sticking ideas to the wall to see what sticks. Sure, this album is also of its time, but I would argue it’s held up well. The songs are catchy, the vocals are great, and while Wentz’s lyrics lean into overly inspirational, cliché, and bland, there are some worthwhile moments in there that keep me coming back. 5. From Under The Cork Tree (2005)

Their sophomore album, From Under The Cork Tree, turns 20 this year. That’s another big milestone, and this is also the album that broke them out into the mainstream. They signed with Island after their debut came out, and they put this out in conjunction with Fueled By Ramen. This is the record that started it all for them, minus their debut, but this album has their two biggest hits – “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down” and “Dance, Dance.” This album isn’t quite my favorite, though, but it’s because this album has a transitional energy behind it. It reminds me a lot of Save Rock & Roll, where they had their feet in two different doors. They had foot in the door of pop-punk and another in pop-rock. They wanted to stay within both worlds, but they couldn’t find a happy medium between the two. It works well, and there are a ton of songs on that album that I really love, but it feels a bit rough around in the edges in spots. They want to be more of a catchier and pop-focused band, but they don’t want to fully commit. The balance worked, because those two songs did very well and brought them a lot of attention, so I can’t fault them for that. I still enjoy this album quite a bit, so it’s worth hearing, nonetheless, but this is my least favorite in terms of their early material. That might be a hot take, just because of how popular this album was, but I still enjoy it.

Take This To Your Grave (2003)

Take This To Your Grave, their debut album, is a record that I’ve had a complicated relationship with. I went from loving it a decade ago to not being crazy about it about five years ago to loving it again. I didn’t really love the subtle misogyny that some of the lyrics have on it, but context matters, and you have to understand that the scene was rampant with that at the time. That doesn’t excuse it, but these guys were in their late teens when this record came out, so it makes sense that the immaturity is there. It actually makes the album a bit more charming and endearing, and the language used isn’t that bad, so it doesn’t make me cringe as much anymore. Some of it still hasn’t aged very well, but at the same time, the songs are iconic and catchy. This is a pretty scrappy and rough around the edges record, especially Patrick’s vocals coming into their own. I’ve said it before, but this album sounds like a hardcore record trapped in a pop-punk record’s body. It has the makings of a hardcore record, but it has a catchy pop-punk sound. It makes sense, too, because the band started in the hardcore scene. I’ve grown to really love this album now, especially after going back to it many times over the last handful of years, so it’s easily one of my top favorites from the band now. 3. So Much (For) Stardust (2023)

I’ve made it no secret that I love Fall Out Boy’s second comeback album, 2023’s So Much (For) Stardust. It’s crazy to think that this album turned two this year. I can’t believe it’s been out for a couple of years already, but I was extremely excited for it. It absolutely delivered, as this record was a nice compromise between their pre-hiatus stuff and their post-hiatus stuff, along with adding some new ideas to the fold. There’s a definite pop-punk and emo sound here of the first two albums, but you can hear the echoes of Infinity On High and Folie A Deux, as well as the more contemporary sounds of their post-hiatus material. There are some traces of funk and disco here, too, which is a lot of fun. I’ve talked about this album many times over, but it was my album of the year for 2023. I wouldn’t have put it there for no reason, but this record absolutely exceeded my expectations. For being my favorite band, I was hoping this would be good. It’s not just good, but it’s great. The band truly feels like they’re firing on all cylinders, whether it’s Pete’s lyrics being some of his best in years, the instrumentation being really solid, and Patrick’s vocals sounding out of this world. It’s not an album that I totally expected, but I love that. 2. Folie A Deux (2008) I just wrote a lengthy piece on this record, so I won’t talk about 2008’s Folie A Deux too much, but I love this record. This album is easily my second favorite of their discography, because of how this record defined my taste. I feel as though this album influenced a lot of other bands from the era, especially the neon pop-punk bands of the mid-00s and early 2010s. It influenced myself, too, because I really enjoy catchy, fun, energetic, and pop-focused stuff, especially in the pop-punk and alternative vein. Those are the types of pop-punk bands I enjoyed the most, and even now, those are types of bands I like in the genre. State Champs, in particular, is a band that I feel as though has picked up the mantle of having a strong pop-focused pop-punk sound. Fall Out Boy went fully pop-rock with this one, and despite the fan backlash, it works wonderfully. This album is extremely catchy, fun, energetic, and infectious. It has some of the band’s best hooks, best vocal performances, and best riffs. The lyrics are great, too, and the band took a risk with the lyrics being less personal and more about the world at large. I really do not get why fans disliked this album originally, maybe the pop-focused sound, but even then, it doesn’t sound too far different from a lot of other bands at the time. A lot of the neon pop-punk bands that were popular at the same time as this record coming out were even more pop-focused than this record, so what gives? I’m glad it’s getting the flowers it deserves, but even so, it shouldn’t have gotten that backlash to begin with.

Infinity On High (2007)

Infinity On High is my favorite Fall Out Boy album. I’ve talked about it a million times, so I won’t say much of anything here. Although, if you are new, I’ll say a little something. This is the album that got me into music, so I don’t know where I’d be if it weren’t for this record. This album has my all time favorite Fall Out Boy songs on it, although every album has some of my favorites on them, but this has the best of the best. This is one of those albums that I can listen to and immediately be taken back to that time in my life. I remember when I got it, when I first listened to it, and I remember spending a lot of mornings in 8th grade listening to it on my old CD player before school. I have memories playing this album over and over again, but I’ve grown to love and appreciate this album in different ways over the last 18 years that it’s been out. This is easily my favorite album from them, but it’s the album that made me fall in love with music.

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bonzos-number-1-fan · 1 year ago

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TMAGP 25 Thoughts: Tech Support

The fabled mukbang episode is upon us. This is probably the most TMA an episode has been too. Jonny wrote it so that's not a major surprise but it really does feel like the most seamless to slot into TMA of all the episodes so far. It was a great one too. Who doesn't love dinner and a show? No notes.

Spoilers for episode 25 below the cut.

Alice and Sam's interaction is interesting to me for entirely how uninteresting it is. I'm not sure if it's just me but I feel like there has been this run of episodes recently that are sort of coasting in terms of plot progression. That's not a bad thing but it does feel like we're in a bit of a trough between big things right now. Not that this episode doesn't have at least some progression in it. It's just not now, and not next.

The incident was a lot of fun IMO. Really evocative, a great format, a nice solid contained story where no one horrifically dies. Hard to complain about anything that happened here. Just some great Magnus-flavoured horror. Similarly to the last couple I don't know that this is going to have much bearing on later episodes. It doesn't feel like there is much in here we haven't seen before. Obviously the specifics are different but I couldn't point to anything metaphysically unique in this one. It is, of course, the most hunger related one of these we've had in a while. So the Hunger-not-Fear theorist are eating well I'm sure. I don't really buy that. Or, at least, I don't think it's actually all that different than TMA. I think the strongest name we have for them right now is Dread thanks to the capital D Dread from the transcript of Hard Reset. Although it's entirely possible there is more than one category of entity here. If we didn't have German to go off of I'd also say it would be a good theory for what DPHW might mean. Each letter representing an entity, or type of entity, and the influence they have upon any given incident. That's all unrelated to the incident, of course, but I did feel like I should talk about something here.

Poor poor Colin. Cursed by the plot to get institutionalised for being right. Well, for the hammer stuff but that's nearly like being right. What's probably the most tragic part about this is that the team is primed to believe him now. Had he laid out what he knows sans hammer he'd probably have won them over but paranoia is a cruel mistress indeed.

Lena caring more about rules than people is unfortunately attractive. It's incredibly funny to me that the OIAR offices are in such a disarray that the terminals are apparently right next to server racks. I'm going to be interested to see where this goes. Sam standing up to Lena and flatly declaring that things are fucked up in the office should have some sort of payoff but I do sort of worry it might not get mentioned. The compartmentalisation of the OIAR is clearly falling to bits but she didn't seem super worried in this exchange about that. Hopefully we'll get to see more of that in the future.

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Incident/CAT#R#DPHW Master Sheet and Terminology Sheet

DPHW Theory: 2474 is about where I was expecting it to land. Not a whole lot to add there.

CAT# Theory: At CAT2 this is another one of those that reinforces my belief that if CAT is Person/Place/Object then CAT is a terrible way to grade anything. Obviously the restaurant is a place but there was also clearly someone in the place working with it in some way. That's entirely ignored by putting it in CAT2 and so is discarding information of merit for no real reason. If a team responds to this you'd expect them to want to know that there is a killer cook in the building too.

R# Theory: B seems a little high to me but I also can't really think of a good reason why it shouldn't be B.

Header talk: Food (Gorging) -/- Compulsion (Disgust) is pretty descriptive, so not much to say on that one.

#the magnus protocol #tmagp #tmagp theory #tmagp speculation #klaus = kl4-u5

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lilareviewsbooks · 1 year ago

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4 SFF Books For (Humanities) Nerds

Hey guys! I know I promised this like, last year, but life got in the way :( But now I can finally present to you - my list of books for humanities nerds!

To put it simply, these are books I think broach topics that are close to the humanities nerds' interests - sociology, history, art, anthropology, political sciences... And sure, they could be considered "boring", but if you're into the humanities - you'll have a ball with them! (and, of course, anyone can enjoy these!)

The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison

5 stars | 446 pages | standalone, but there are spin-offs | queer side character

This is the book that spurred this list, so, if you want a longer review, I have it on my blog. But suffice it to say that The Goblin Emperor is a fairly long and detailed account of what happens in the court of a country of elves when the youngest, unfavoured and half-goblin son of the king ascends the throne. This book is masterful. It seemlessly weaves in personal and political concerns as we follow Maia, the newly crowned emperor. The writing style is slow - we follow the emperor's every day life. We are with him when he rises in the morning until when he wakes up. It waits for something to happen, and is quiet and slow. It's absolutely delightful: despite his politicking, Maia is mostly and more ardently concerned with kindness. He wants to treat people fairly. This not only makes for a sweet main character, it also means the book is a fascinating character study, as well as an incredible feat of world-building. I think nerds will enjoy its slow and traquil pace, its dedication to politics, language and customs of this world and its charming main character.

A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine

5 stars | 462 pages | completed duology | queer main characters

For a sci-fi twist, I think A Memory Called Empire is the way to go. The duology follows Mahit, a citizen of a small satellite of the Teixcalaan Empire, who is chosen as the next ambassador for her home. She must journey to the capital with a very important mission - find out why her predecessor mysteriously disappeared. Again, what there is to enjoy here is lush, expansive world-building. The Teixcalaani feel so, so real. Every little detail was thought of, from their language to their smiles. It's truly impressive, and the prose, I remember, is also beautiful, making these details pop out even more. This is also incredibly political, as Mahit descends into the belly of the beast, so to speak, in search of answers. But it is framed by a pretty straight-foward murder mystery, which might be fun for people used to mystery stories. And the second book broaches first contact! - it's just so much fun! I also have a longer review for this series, if you would like more details! Nerds will be drawn to the expansive world-building, attention to detail, and reflections on empire, memory and legacy.

Elder Race, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

4 stars | 201 pages | standalone | no one's queer, I don't think :(

This one might be a good pick for veterans of SFF - it has a fun gimmick! You must've heard the phrase "any science advanced enough in undistinguishable from magic", attributed to Arthur C. Clarke. This book takes that concept and runs with it. For Lynesse, a princess in a medieval society, Elder Nyr's "giant tower" is magical, and he, a magician. For Elder Nyr, an anthropologist come from a different planet, his interests are scientific, and his "tower", a spaceship. The fun of the novella is that we flip-flop between these two people's perspectives, so that half the story is a sci-fi, and the other half, a fantasy. I found this story to be unique, and to understand its place in the speculative genre quite well. It defies expectations and conventions in a creative way that I think nerds familiar with them will enjoy!

The Traitor Baru Cormorant, by Seth Dickinson

5 stars | 399 pages | uncompleted series | queer main characteres

Another good bet is The Traitor Baru Cormorant, the first installment in the Masquerade Series, which is not finished yet. It follows Baru, who, as a child, watches her country be colonized by the Masquerade Empire. She vows revenge, and to destroy the empire from the inside out. In this installment, she is finally trusted to be sent as an Imperial Accountant to Aurdwynn, a famously ungovernable territory... This one is very, very brain-y. It's dense political fantasy, and I admit I had some trouble following the economics, sometimes - that was never my strong suit!! The tapestry of betrayals, alliances and twists is rich, intricate and realistic. People have diverse interests, are multi-faceted individuals, and yet have a reason to be acting they way they are acting. This makes for satisfying plot lines, and incredible twists. I still haven't recovered from what the first book did to me, to be honest. Nerds, if you want to be dazzled and made to work for it, pick this one up. The Traitor Baru Corumorant will have you scratching your chin, thinking hard and having a lot of fun with (yay!) economics and accounting!

I have a couple more of these if anyone is interested :) And as always, if you need a book rec, feel free to send me an ask!

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variousqueerthings · 9 months ago

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the ask meme for due south cause yeah! and cobra kai

thaaanks -- will do cobra kai separately!

DUE SOUTH! I'VE ONLY HAD YOU FOR (checks) TWO MONTHS? NOW? AND I HAVENT EVEN WATCHED PASSED SEASON TWO BECAUSE I AM TAKING MY SWEET TIME!!!!! BUT OHHHHHH OKOKOKOK

my favorite female character Meg!!! doubly so because I feel she's probably not popular because she's designated The Love Interest. but she's sooo "puts her under a microscope." - she's so very autism flat voice/resting bitch face coded - add to this she canonically has had issues with male superiors in the past and so her trust in men is Lowww means people around her read her as a bitch (and she is, bless her) - her interactions with fraser, especially once they begin to acknowledge there's mutual smthin going on there, are so fucking funny, because neither of them can just have conversations, it's gotta be a mix of powerplay/who-knows-what-this-is/wants to step on/wants to be stepped on nonsense and so often it's in public!!!! - she was introduced as an authority figure and pretty much has remained so all season, so a lot of her scenes aren't only about love-interest stuff, which is often where female characters fail to get fleshed out -- she's doing her own thing, and if anything, liking fraser is very very annoying to her because she's got shit to do dammit!

my favorite male character fraser and rayv come as such a set pair, argh. the things i like about fraser are the things that rayv corresponds to, the whole martyr-and-guy-who-refuses-to-let-him-be-martyr, the need to give everything and the guy who takes some of the strain, but... i do think fraser edges him out Just (not that kind of edging, stop), because in my heart of hearts, i am always drawn the most to characters who want to be used, characters who want to give every piece of themselves, and within that, characters who are very capable -- AND he fulfills the criteria for another one of my favourite character archetypes, the not-so-talked about butterfly-under-the-wheel (as i first heard @gjdraws call it) he's an atypical version of it, because usually the butterfly-under-the-wheel is partially defined by their inability, that is, they exist to create wonderment/beauty/hope in the world around them, but they don't actually have very many skills and would probably die without the far more pragmatic other characters around them. they do sometimes have a skill (see, lito in sense8) and where fraser fits is that while he has many skills, they're often impractical for survival in the specific world he's in (chicago, capitalism, Society) and his alienation with the world, his unique way of looking at it, constantly makes said world dangerous for him in ways ray has to help him with. he also sucks with money (very common in this type), is considered almost unreal in terms of attractiveness, and ofc... suffers a lot. my sweet sweet butterfly-on-the-wheel

my favorite book/season/etc feels unfair between two seasons -- i will say, i called s2 a denouement the first time i watched it and i think now im watching it slower i am far more able to see it on its own merits, without s1 hanging over it if i do a favourite amount of episodes divided by the amount of episodes in the season however and don't count the Pilot [i leave to calculate] think s2 has more of my very favourite episodes, but i think s1 is more evenly placed in quality overall. what does that tell you? idk, the Pilot's the favourite, shall we say?

my favorite episode (if its a tv show) lol um. toss up. (not counting Pilot) in no particular order: some like it red, mask, vault, north, letting go, the deal, a hawk and a handsaw

my favorite cast member going by amount of other things ive watched, it must be PG, but i have tried to mostly stay away from the cast in interviews and the like

my favorite ship relationship generally (romantic, platonic, third thing, you know the deal) is fraser and ray. like i said, they're thematically a pair, that's just what they are. but i have a reaaal need to explore meg and fraser and ray, considering the shenanigans of two people who feel various kinds of unhinged things about one emotionally somewhat oblivious (but very caring) man

a character I’d die defending gosh, this'd probably go to meg too. specifically her relevance! i think her addition in s2 is incredibly welcome and changes up the dynamics in interesting ways and if you take in her actual personality -- that is, look beyond her "just" as a love interest, she's got a whole lot of interesting foundation, fascinating speech patterns and behaviours, and chemistry with fraser (whether one wants that chemistry to be romantic/sexual is obvs subjective, but their scenes together are Good and tell us a whole lot about both of them in my opinion) i'd also defend victoria As A Scheming No-Good Villainous Person, because I think there's no need to soften her in order to make her cool, idk if that is being done, but i would die on the "her being absolutely terrible" hill is great actually (maybe i'm defending her from some of the writing not wanting to commit, despite... literally all the atrocities... she shot dief!!!??? she burnt down his dad's cabin????? she framed him and tried to send his most important person to jail??????? murder????? and you're telling me that despite all of that she wasn't manipulating him by batting her big beautiful eyes and pretending to be the victim! i desire cruel women in my life dammit!)

a character I just can’t sympathize with i mean... looks above. victoria? but i think she shouldn't be sympathetic anyway. she needs to be a bit vile, a bit fucked up, a bit possessive and destructive for my taste oh and fuck frank zuko of course

a character I grew to love 1. irene! i struggled with her on my first watch and now she's in so many of the private discussions i have about this show -- she does sadly fall right into "fridged woman for man angst" but there are more than enough bits in there + carrie anne moss' performance is absolutely stellar, that you can really feel her as a character as well -- someone trapped, searching for freedom, and nostalgic for something that was probably never going to work out even if they had been able to try it and bitter and stronger than people in the story give her credit for (and ohhhh where's that fic you wrote about her and fraser talking!) 2. frannie. i needed until s2, because s1 just... kept making her weird and stalkery and shallow in ways that i had to just, at times, mentally rewrite (her total lack of situational awareness whilst her brother is drowning in front of her only to be put upon when he's been saved and needs "her good blanket" to keep him warm is like. i simply do not see that scene). but after heaven and earth, beginning with that scene between her and ray, she changes! and you can buy someone building a fantasy and refusing to step out of it because of pain until jolted back into reality and it being a very subtly tragic thing, only to bounce back and take it on the chin. that's frannie!

my anti otp um. i guess fraser and allosexuality/alloromance. that man's relationship to these things is not normative -- he may be analysed to enjoy sex or to want romance, but textually he is so fucking leftfield with these things that if those underpinnings don't exist i can't understand him. my man was canonically asking people to describe what love is supposed to feel like as a 30+ year old man, and had had sex like... possibly once in his 20s (and the consensual aspects to it are vague) and then that same woman at one point in his 30s, who first severely emotionally blackmailed/coerced him and later threatened his life and the lives of his friends that and like. whatever happens to him whenever someone (meg, usually) pushes him around/grabs him/orders him about

hon. mention to elaine, who i feel has been slowly given less to do in s2 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

#due south #benton fraser #ray vecchio #meg thatcher #victoria metcalfe #irene zuko #francesca vecchio #shocking how little i wrote about ray here!#considering he's my dream guy (not in profession 😭)#ask game #ask #pigtailedgirl

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starflungwaddledee · 2 years ago

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Okay you gave me permission so now it's time to go fully autistic

*inhale*

So something I'm really interested in (mostly for my Bandee x Marx bias) is that comic with Marx and Bandee interacting, like, what's their relationship in this au, how'd they get to that point and heck, what was even happening? also it kinda seems like Bandee may be the main guy in this au or is just really important which makes me happy as Bandee isn't treated the best by Nintendo at all (hell, Sakrai said he didn't add Bandee into smash because he didn't like him) so seeing Bandee get the spotlight always brings me joy

And about the Meta and Galacta comic, it seems like Bandee plays a factor here too, with the mention of him being what gets the most reaction out of Meta and that makes sense because canonically Bandee is the weakest of the four and most likely to die quite easily, so it would make sense for the others to be protective of him

ALSO META BEING SEALED AWAY AND GALACTA SAYING HE'LL TAKE GOOD CARE OF, I'M ASSUMING BANDEE, DOES THAT MEAN GALACTA TAKES META'S PLACE??? HELLO???

anyway hi im really invested and also your art is fucking astounding

hell yea, fully autistic! the best kind of message! thank you also for the sweet words about my artwork ahhh! but hoo boy isn't this The Ask Ever. okay, let's get into it!

Bandee is, i think maybe obviously, my most specialist little guy ever and everything i make is likely about him in one way or another. so you're correct that he is indeed the main guy in both these AUs; he is the central protagonist which i think he deserves!!

(but he does also go through the angst blender a bit, just like... a warning. i adore happy endings but before that i do tend to meat-grind my faves pretty well in the drama machine.)

clockwork heart is actually a spin-off of awtdy (we do a little AU-ception in my household) which is our* primary au. (*a lot of my au work and headcanons are fleshed out very collaboratively with my girlfriend! the initial concept for awtdy was her idea, which i then very meanly shoved my bandee-important agenda into lmao)

awtdy sets this basic alternate world-state: during the Haltmann invasion, Galacta Knight defeats Meta Knight in battle and makes a wish on Star Dream to trade places.

this causes all sorts of terrible fun problems for everybody and basically gives rise to a bad timeline that a lot of folks do not come out of intact (rip floralia)

the Meta Knight vs Galacta Knight comic covers an important turning point in the story, where Meta Knight lets slip that he cares about Bandee the way he cares for Kirby. Meta Knight has an especially strong reaction to this for two reasons:

one is because, as you said, of the three remaining heroes Bandee is the most vulnerable-- seasoned and experienced fighter he may be, but against someone like Galacta Knight? 💦 he's still ultimately just a mortal dude. this obviously puts him at terrible risk, because Galacta Knight also considers him far more expendable than Kirby.

"i'll take good care of him" is transparently a threat and not actually... you know, kind.

secondly is because (unbeknownst to Galacta Knight) Bandee uniquely remembers Meta Knight. he knows that the timeline is screwed up and Galacta Knight is not meant to be there, and is actively working to rescue his real mentor. Meta Knight knows that if he's found out, Galacta Knight won't hesitate to kill him.

suffice to say the guilt of this would drive him capital i Insane!

as for the Marx "hurt like hell" comic, I am actually sorry to have to tell you that that scene is their first ever interaction in this au! 😂 in this alternate version of the story Marx is also aware of the timeline fuckery (due to his existence as an eldritch, temporal little creature) and he tracks Bandee down late in the game with a risky trade offer; which Bandee refuses. that's what's pictured in the comic!

it goes on for quite a long ways after that; though I don't know if it'll tickle your ship dynamic quite right because Marx is mildly antagonistic towards Bandee (and everyone) the whole time. so while they are cursed to be Stuck Together By The Narrative they are not really close or even particularly friendly.

they do indeed interact in it quite a lot, and I personally think Marx would gladly shoot his shot if he was offered it; but Bandee is neck-deep in a different ship for the entirety of awtdy and is especially miserable/pining as hell throughout clockwork heart.

but that's okay because Bandee is, uh-- totally fine!! he's normal. he's fine. he's very very fine and things will be very very okay.

#hopefully this last lil doodle is not too dark?#wanted to give u something for your marxdee needs bc i feel like i'm letting a fellow bandee rarepair shipper down 😭#watch me skirt actually dropping my rarepair tho. even rarer than marxdee apparently!#anyway thank you so so much for this ask and your interest?! blew my mind that anyone cared even a little bit about the stuff i'm making <3 #my art #bandana waddle dee #awtdy au #clockwork heart au #asks #cw angst #cw blood

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horizon-verizon · 1 year ago

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There is something funny about the fact that unlike most of the other bullied or abused characters, Aemond is bullied not out of misogyny or ableism or homophobia or parentage, but simply because he's "bullyable" and Alicent never put a stop to it on either end. Because any other Targaryen in his place would have been like, "Yeah I'm in a brothel. So are you. So what if I was feeling a little... nostalgic tonight. Now go away, I already paid for a second round."

But then again, not EVERY Targaryen. And that's where it gets kind of dark. Because the writing itself wants us to have far more sympathy for Aemond in that circumstance, than for Rhaenyra at the same age being accosted by Alicent for her own brothel visit, and this time Alicent has bigotry behind her.

And that's what annoys me with how the show wants you to sympathize with Aemond for being "uniquely" bullied. Because he's not. Because in the episode he's introduced, we're shown how Rhaenyra, Laenor, and their sons are being harassed and outright abused for misogyny, homophobia, and parentage, by adults wielding actual power. Hell, Viserys and Aegon are getting more elder and child abused than Aemond is in that episode. And I find it kind of fucked up that... the writers see the one character who isn't harassed or abused for being vulnerable or marginalized as the true "victim" in that regard.

I'm going to be honest with you. I have not seen this episode so aside form the fact that I know Aemond gets mocked by Aegon at the same brothel Dyana works at. HOWEVER, yes, the show has been doing stuff like this since at least episode 3 or 4. With Rhaenys speaking with Rhaenyra and acting as a sort of diegetic mouthpiece against Rhaenyra for not basically acting as if she has no chance of actually becoming queen. The show places her as the "voice of reason" when she herself has lost her seat bc a man, her own grandfather, made it happen--effectively justifying how misogyny doesn't really matter as much as conforming to the status quo and its threat of violence so you can avoid violence from said status quo...

Or how the Velaryons are apparently paternity tests to use against Rhaenyra's supposed proclivities as if Aegon isn't also having bastards he leaves to fight each other in pits.

This is what we mean when we say unchecked, patronizing sexism is built into the very ethos of this show as well as the moral standard the show is structuring all of its characters and the value of their actions on. This is pretty much what capitalism does--provide a sort of "space" or are of focus for its consumers, pretending that they are pointing out a discrimination when they are really using the consumer's extant biases already socially trained and advertised to them since childhood to sell the product. Makes for seemingly rationally written TV when it's all just shallow trash with glitter on it trying to to seem meagingful or making meaning.

#asoiaf asks to me #aemond's characterization #hotd characterization #hotd writing #aemond targaryen #hotd critical #hotd s2 epi3 #asoiaf fav posts #hotd sexism #hotd male gaze #hotd comment #asoiaf #hotd

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darkvioletcloud · 4 months ago

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So this question sort of concerns Devil May Cry (and game adaptations in general)

How much creative liberty and faithfulness should a storyteller have when adapting a game?

For me, I’d prefer it when other than being a decent adaptation, also explore ideas separate from their source material effectively.

EX: I liked the old Mario movie better because it was unique in its own right, while the new Mario movie, while faithful, was sort of bland and corporate

Gonna put this all in a read more because it's long oops-

Anyway here's me spitballin' about why I think Devil May Cry is a series that's about love and how you can't have DMC without love and compassion.

I think that a good adaptation of anything would, first and foremost, be capturing the themes that the source material have. You can have Dante do cool flips and go woohoo as much as you'd like, but stripping Devil May Cry of the themes of compassion, human connection, selflessness vs selfishness, and how love is what makes us human, then it's no longer DMC.

Dante coming to terms with his demon half and Vergil coming to terms with his human half are core themes of DMC. DMC is silly and goofy and fun and it is also sincere and loving. It's corny and it embraces being corny.

My favorite book series is Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach series, the first of which, Annihilation, had a movie adaptation. It's absolutely gorgeous and has a beautiful soundtrack, but holy shit they did NOT catch onto the themes of environmentalism and nature at all. It's not Annihilation anymore, it's Alex Garland's Funky Swamp Adventure.

I think that if a game or other piece of media barely has anything to glob onto at all, then you can use the setting to play with new themes. From what I understand, Castlevania III barely has any story. (I've only played the very first one and some of Super IV. I wanted to stream III but never got around to it.) The Netflix show took this setting of 1400s vampires and holy vampire hunters and ran with it, weaving a story about how people in high places will abuse their positions of power, and how it takes one good person to stand up and start to make a difference.

Trevor and Dracula share the sentiment, but in different ways.

---

In regards to what takes up more importance, I'd say the story. You can have this sort of over-the-top action anywhere, but without the story and the heart, it's a completely different series. That's partially why the reboot sucks. The gameplay is fun at times, but reboot Dante and Vergil don't have the sincerity that the originals do. Kat is the closest thing to a genuine DMC character, and she'd fit right in if she were plopped into the main series.

However, the reboot bros are just so insincere and bitter. Part of why DMC3's brotherhood works so much is that Vergil is an absolute shithead and a bad guy, but we love him because Dante loves him. Vergil is never too far gone for Dante. Meanwhile, the reboot bros are strangers to each other, and R!Dante is a stranger to his family.

The reboot also tries doing this anti-capitalism and anti-consumerism thing but it never works because everything about the reboot screams "We know our game is stupid!! Don't take us seriously!!" Why should I get invested in a story if the writers want me to think it's dumb?

Devil May Cry is a story about love, identity, and how connections are what make us human. The reboot almost had that with R!Dante's relationship with Kat, but that game is so damn misogynistic that they decided to nuke her from orbit halfway through and make her a damsel in distress.

I have ideas of how the reboot could've been good, but I'll save that for another day. It'd involve Lilith joining the hero side sorta similar to Trish and be a mother figure to the boys.

Ultimately, Devil May Cry is what it is because it's unapologetic about embracing itself. It's a series that jumps straight out of a young teenager's self-indulgent stories scribbled in their school notebooks. DMC memes are fun, yeah, but DMC itself doesn't work if it's irony-poisoned and insincere.

Hngh..... the urge to do a big analysis on DMC and make my case on it in a video... but then remembering I have like. 5 other videos in progress and don't have the time for ANY of them.

#asks #not art #ghostwanderer

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sanstropfremir · 1 year ago

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ok nana unsubtly kicked me in the ass about this and i realized they were mostly done anyways so here we go! only four months late!

best stylings 2023 - first half

runners' up

rising - triples

there are two good stages with funky athletic wear, but it wasn't enough to bump it up to the overall category. mcountdown 230216, the show 230221

abyss - woodz

didn't promote it which is a shame, but the variety in the costuming for the different versions of himself is well done and it's a beautifully shot bottle mv.

moody - superkind

you got a fake member you gotta make it spooky!!! he's not real that's inherently spooky!!! anyways this is what i wanted them to do right off the bat some i'm glad they finally got my psychic memo.

golden hour - mark

absolutely fucking crazy. fantastic imagery. i think i talked about it earlier in the year but it's such a stupid and hilarious idea to make a whole diss track mv about a several year old meme and then actually make it strange and weird art. obsessed with it still.

sos - kang daniel

i'm also including the wasteland music sequence here because holy shit when this dropped i lost my mind. i'm always surprised by what kang daniel does bc i can never predict it, which over the last few years i'm coming to enjoy. and i absolutely did not expect him to produce basically an entire wild west mad max movie with equal the production value???? literally how did he do this. how. and then everyone paid it dirt??? it's an amazing mv and one of my faves of the year, the only reason it's not bumped up categories is bc although the styling was actually one of the only times tactical gear has been thematically relevant to a cb, its been so overused that it has no punch anymore, which makes me sad bc the tactical gear was good! and a good choice! and i feel bad saying it has no punch bc it should have!

small talk - kim sungkyu

we love when sungkyu acknowledges that he's annoying and a loser. all these outfits were so losercore. i loved this deviation from form for him; he's normally king wailer supreme, but he does smooth upbeat rock very well and it's a nice contrast with the capital y yearning that's in the bsides. it's only here bc he didn't promote much and i'm mad at him for putting dancing in the mv and then not dancing in any of the stages. mcountdown 230629, music core 230708, inkigayo 230709

ay-yo - nct 127

this is just here for taeyong's urchin outfit. well i'm a bit of liar it is actually a really fun early 00s inspired mv, but we all know the urchin outfit stole the show.

stamp on it - got the beat

i will hear NO slander against got the beat in this house, this was a great mv i love hot women planning a heist.

tricky house - xikers

FANTASTIC debut. does a really great job of establishing a character for them as a group and it's got such unique flavour. kq has made great use of their ateez money and also the lessons that they learned with ateez. i'm excited to see where xikers goes in the future, and since i'm writing this section from the future i can say that i do like where they've gone with full confidence. the only reason it didn't make the top list is bc the styling is kinda average for this era of kpop.

best overall

rose blossom - h1 key

youtube

i was aware of h1key before this but they hadn't really grabbed me, but damn this cb was so good. the mv is a nice mix of story and dance sections. plus a surreal section in the middle! and by virtue of being like the first cb of the year, they got the jump on this alt girl look that would be the dominating look for ggs this year. and i do think first did it best in this case, all the looks are smart with good group synergy and and a lot of creativity; when you do this type of alt-y punky style it's important that there's a diy element to it, which a lot of groups fail to grasp bc stylists are obsessed with luxury branding. h1key manages to avoid that mostly by being flops, but i'd like to believe its also bc their creative team cared about capturing the true spirit of the style.

stages: music bank 230106, mcountdown 230202, music bank 230203, mcountdown 230119, inkigayo 230108

tic tac - 8turn

youtube

honestly i was kinda ready to not like these guys since mnh shat the bed with chungha, but then i remembered that the mnh creative team is very good at their jobs, so here we are. this is one of the few debuts/cbs this year where every single stage was a hit and it was very hard to narrow down to just a few for here; lots of good emphasis on shape and colour and accent pieces with repeated motifs, which was a big part of the fashion in the 00s that they are remixing here. very strong debut especially for so early in the year and i'm looking forward to more.

stages: show champion 230208, mcountdown 230202, music bank 230203, show champion 230222, music core 230211, mcountdown 230223, music core 230225, inkigayo 230226

bonus: this absolutely hysterical 4minute cover (they even got the name bucket hats! not in the stage, but they had them in photos)

sweet juice - purple kiss

youtube

i'm not normally a fan of wes anderson or wes anderson inspired aesthetics because i find them too twee and perfect, but this wasn't too direct in it's inspirations and definitely had the spooky purki flavour. i really liked the uniformity of the costuming, both literally using uniform motifs and using the same fabrics; i really do miss the days when kpop costumes were design to actually be costumes with the group image in mind.

stages: mcountdown 230216, inkigayo 230219, music core 230225, music bank 230224, inkigayo 230226, music core 230304, inkigayo 230305

sour & sweet - bambam

youtube

bambam again proving that he's one of the few idols that knows his shit in terms of interesting styling. also if anyone knows where he filmed the mv/performance vid please tell me i need to know bc its so beautiful.

stages: mcountdown 230330, music bank 230331, inkigayo 230402, music bank 230407, music core 230408, inkigayo 230409,

bsides: music bank 230331, inkigayo 230409,

macarena - blitzers

youtube

i'm so so so glad blitzers got a bit more attention this year bc they deserve it and macarena was so good. perfect culmination of their goofy ass talents and the unusual creativity of their performance + creative directors. i'm even linking the mv teaser here bc its so goofy and offbeat and different. honestly i'd recommend watching as many of the stages as you can find bc they do different intros every time and it's very funny, but unfortunately tumblr has a link limit so i can't link them all.

stages: show champion 230426, music bank 230428, music core 230429, inkigayo 230430, inkigayo 230514, music core 230527

bouncy - ateez

youtube

yea yea yea nobody is surprised so sue me. this was a crazy followup to halazia and proved that ateez can deftly switch between serious dramatic performance and comedic but no less dramatic. i'm very happy to see how much work has been going into the main ateez mvs in the last year because it has very clear and striking direction that fits both their performance style and their creative ambition, as well as their growth as a group. also yea i'm not immune to neon cowboy shit.

stages: inkigayo 230618, music bank 230616, the show 230620, mcountdown 230622, music bank 230623, mcountdown 230629, music core 230701, inkigayo 230702

kick it 4 now - tnx

youtube

tnx had an absolutely banging 2023 and although kick it 4 now is has superior and more comprehensive production, love or die is also a very good cb, and both of them together have shown that they have a really good grasp on the genre of teen listlessness, from two different directions. kick it 4 now has been i think the most successful cb to actually capture the feel of first gen, and the creative team did a lot of extra work in order to pull that off. from all the graphic design to the goofy lil 90s style music show promos, to the styling, they had a clear goal and achieved it. i think it will be quite difficult for any other group to pull it off this thoroughly.

stages: music bank 230609 (the giant lyrics!!!), music core 230610, show champion 230614 (more giant lyrics!!), music core 230617, mcountdown 230622

shooting star + left right - xg

youtube

we all already know that left right was my most listened song this year, but the fact that the mv was b movie sci fi star trek themed? it's like simon made everything about this specifically for me thank you. xg blew everyone out of the water this year on every front; music, styling, choreography, you name it. i said i wanted groups to commit to their bits and i got it. they were completely unafraid to actually commit to the y2k nostalgia AND to harajuku styling; a lot of groups have weakly pawed at it but always back away due to the fact that harajuku and y2k are not actually 'pretty' fashion trends, which leaves their attempts half assed with no real understanding of why and how those trends happened. xg came saw and conquered the current trend in a way that only a japanese gg can do. my only annoyance is that they tone down the stylings when they promote on music shows, and i know why they do it, so it's not an annoyance at them, it's an annoyance at everyone else.

stages: shooting star - mcountdown 230202, con-tour 230217, the show 230221, inkigayo 230212, inkigayo 230205, con-tour 230224

left right - the show 230228, show champion 230222

circle - onew

youtube

absolute masterpiece. album of the year in every way. it's a profoundly beautiful unpacking of grief and the sadness that comes with acknowledging that things change, and the way that in that change life and humanity and story is eternal. a circle. the theatre imagery combined with the 60s style children's tv show use their similar but contrasting forms to illustrate the same point: something can be eternal and fleeting at the same time, and that heightens its value rather than diminishing it. the promo campaign was so thought out as well, i love the integration of the theatre imagery into the highlight medley and i highly recommend you watch it if you haven't. one of the best cbs from a solo artist in years.

stages: mcountdown 230309, music core 230311, music bank 230317, inkigayo 230319

ignore the fact this was almost five months late even though i started writing in like. november. i'm busy ok. it's planting season and i have to send so much post. the choreos post is the next most finished so that will probably be out before the styling second half one.

#is there even anyone left who wants to read these lmao. i mean other than nana since she was creeping my 2022 styling posts #kinda miss the pandemic days when we were all stuck on the internet but also no i do not #i'm trimming down on how much i do for these posts also since i dont have time to sift through all my saved links #just know there's a lot of one offs etc that are sitting in a mega playlist on my youtube.#im just focussing on the ones that made the biggest impact with me bc there's just so much its actually kinda crazy #text #kpop styling #what else did i even tag these as i dont even remember its been so long #kpop analysis #end of year posts #best of 2023

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amelias-calamity-quintet · 1 year ago

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Would love to learn more about each of the bullet points, but if I had to pick just one, the pantheon around the world sounds interesting

You can send in as many as you like, I will absolutely answer them all. It's one of the reasons I set up the Tumblr blog for my fics, asks like this help me do character voice and worldbuilding and it's good for warmups & breaks from the main writing itself. Very "so y'all found the one NPC I forgot to name" kind of GM exercise. I did it for my book series and I got more worldbuilding done that way than I had in ages, so genuinely, there's not an upper limit to these, I might just have to put them in queue.

That said, I'm going to hand this over to the princess and Marela, I think they'll have the most insight on this topic.

The Pantheon Around the World w/ Princess Zelda & Marela

Zelda: "That is an entire field of discussion. It would take books to cover the full breadth of theological differences across the world. I can give you a summary to the best of my ability, but some topics do require further reading to explore.

"There are some matters of religion that are easy to define in our world. For instance, we have definitive proof of the Golden Goddesses; Din, Nayru, & Farore, along with a handful of other divine beings, like Hylia. But different cultures will value these divines, well, differently. While they all generally share worship for the main Three, and with secondary worship to Hylia for Her connection with the legends and the cycle, it can manifest uniquely based on a culture's primary relation with divinity.

"Take Hyrule for example. Due to our proximity to the Sacred Door, our kingdom has been central to the cycle and the legends as the source of magic evil has always sought out. For this reason, as well as for Her sacrifices, worship for Hylia is more prevalent that in other nations. Many Hyruleans take Hylia's story, of being mortal and of achieving ascension through the forging of the Master Sword and the imprisoning of Demise, as an act of inspiration, of Hope. Now, more recent study would suggest Hylia was already incredibly powerful, of at least two Sage lineages before Her ascension, but Her story still proves primary in Hyrulean faith. That isn't to say that the Golden Trio aren't still highly revered, but many in Hyrule find Hylia to be more..."

Marela: "Personable? Relatable? Achievable?"

Zelda: "Perhaps not the last one, but yes. In that vein. Hylia was the most like us, Her story is the one also most intertwined with our culture, so entangled with the legends as it is. But it's certainly not the only one. And other countries will favor other Goddesses. Unsurprisingly, Rahaal sees Din as a primary inspiration, as does Teromac. Farona chiefly holds Farore in worship."

Marela: "And Naydrana and Kohno hold Nayru in higher esteem!"

Zelda: "Precisely. Then there's Lyberic, which holds the Goddesses in equal value. And Holan, whose current theological debates have put the eight Sages of the Convergence in higher value. For similar reasons that Hylia is favored here, current leading Holanii ideology views the Sages as the most achievable, and thus the mantle most worthy of respect and reverence."

Marela: "It's hard to imagine not having the Goddesses so central to worship. Particularly living here. I know it's true. My family visited the coves in Kohno once. Seeing Din's underwater was a surprise! The lava fissure certainly sold it, if the fire coral hadn't."

Zelda: "Every culture has different centered fixtures in their worship with the Goddesses, none more correct than the others. Like our connection to the Sacred Door."

Marela: "You've been to the other great temples, Zelda. I think you could give some examples."

Zelda: "I have. The closest to us would be the Arborage, the temple within the boughs of the Great Maru Tree in Farona's capital, Pabatta."

Marela: "Great Maru Tree? Like the Great Deku Tree?"

Zelda: "Older even. As old as the Creation, so the stories say. She is an infinitely wise being. And not the only one in the nation. At each of the Goddesses' glades in Farona, one of her daughters has grown. Pilgrimage to them is of both religious significance and part of the ceremony for becoming ruler of the country. Unsurprisingly, Farore holds significant sway. Though I've been to the Endless Ember, it's definitely connected with Din."

Marela: "What about our other friendliest neighbor, Rahaal?"

Zelda: "In Rahaal, the high influence of Gerudo cultures does hold Din in the highest esteem. The Temple of Radiant Fire is said to contain the flames that were used to forge the Master Sword, though the sanctum where they would be held has long been sealed. But in Rahaal, theology and science are opposite sides of the same coin. There are universities built around each of the Goddesses's forges, the University of Arcanum & the Metaphysical for Nayru, the University of Practical & Material Sciences for Din, and the University of the Natural Order for Farore, divided across the nation. Only the University of the Forum is separate, and that's because the Temple of Radiant Fire is so sacred."

Marela: "There are different titles, I've noticed as well. Here in Hyrule we call spiritual leaders priestesses. But in Kohno, they were called anchorites or by a familial title."

Zelda: "It does vary widely. In Naydrana, they call their spiritual leaders mystics, in Farona attendants, and in Holan ministers. Like I said, it would take books to truly delve into this topic, and how widely is varies. I'm afraid I only have so much time to give to this answer, as interesting as its discussion might be. We haven't even had time to discuss the Dreeka and their Goddess, there is truly so much more to explore."

Marela: "I would look forward to continuing this discussion in the future though! Perhaps when we've had more time to travel. And after this little plan of yours in Hylia's temple-"

Zelda: "I think we're getting ahead of ourselves there, Marela. Somethings are better left unsaid, I think."

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Mark of a Hero (Updates on Tuesdays & Fridays, 1 of 9)

Hyrule is at peace, or so the Royal Family would have its people believe. Something is afoot in the kingdom, and someone needs to do something about it. Least likely would be Marksmen Link Sayre- a mercenary and monster hunter doing his best to get by. Until a job goes wrong, and he gets roped into the secret plans of Hyrule's princess. Now Link must play the part of the Hero to dive deeper into the mystery, and maybe stumble into a legend of his own.

AO3 - Wattpad

#markofahero #moah worldbuilding #fanfic writing #fanfic #loz: original legends #legend of zelda #zelda fanfiction #zelda #original legends #zelda fandom #the legend of zelda

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miru667 · 2 years ago

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Hi again, Miru! I need your opinion on something as an old onceling. Do you think there's still room for new oncelings to do an analysis of something in the movie, or maybe interviews, or maybe the fandom itself? Is it possible to find a way to output new content? I look through archives and it honestly feels like the entire movie has already been picked apart way back in 2012 - 2014. Your thoughts?

As we are all unique individuals who have gone through different experiences in our lives and no experience is the same, yes there can always be some new perspective that someone can bestow through their watch of the movie.

For example, in 2020, 8 years after the fandom began, @floooopafloooopa made several analyses on aspects of the movie that I personally had never seen anyone else delve into, and I was really impressed by them. My favourites include the one comparing Once-ler and Thneedville to Disney and EPCOT: [link] and of course the 85 page analysis comparing Once-ler to the Beatles and other popular people and aesthetics of the 60s and 70s: [link]

And another example, just recently I happened to revisit The Conservative Lorax video on YouTube from 2012: [link] and although I know many youtube comments are the most worthless comments in the world, I still found some interesting perspectives from people in the comments even in the past year, talking about capitalism. Here's a topic that really stayed with me: One person said "a real capitalist would replant to make a profit" and another said "a true capitalist would farm the trees instead of cutting them all down" to which others replied:

These comments were all made only within the last 3 years. I doubt these people have even seen the 2012 movie.

So now if you take these ideas and think about our dear Oncie...yes, he is still a dumbass for not thinking about maintaining his resources and then being shocked that he ran out of trees, but there are evidently people out there who would've instead called him dumb for not planning to immediately move on to capitalize on the next big thing, like air. Some people would've agreed that short term profits are the smart move! This, or the Once-ler should've moved on to synthetic fibres to replicate Thneeds, or that he should've planted GMO trees that grew really fast, patent them, then also patent the air they produce (and then we wouldn't need O'hare anymore). But we all know what genetically modifying truffula trees can cause... 🧟 haha. So the 1st comment up there has a point - the story really is more of a metaphor for respecting nature rather than trying to say something specific about business decisions.

And look! I just gathered and put together a mini analysis on the subject of "sustaining your resources vs how far the Once-ler actually could have gone in the other direction". In 2023! So yes, I believe there's room for more analyses.

Not to mention that concept art for the 2012 movie keeps gradually being shared over the years well beyond 2014: [link] I pretty much consider it new source content which can then spark new analyses, as well.

As for anaylses on the fandom itself...I would just advise to be careful and respectful if you're wanting to talk about anything from the past that you weren't a part of (having been in the fandom for only a month in 2012 doesn't count either, iykyk), since many past oncelings are still around even if they're not active in the fandom anymore, and it hurts to get misrepresented.

#SORRY THIS GOT SO LONG #miruask #onceler #the lorax #etsulovesonceler #reference #miruanalysis #long post

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