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Reading through the Tortall books in publication order is funny because you start with Alanna “the village healing woman taught me all she knew” going off to become a knight, and end with Numair “world’s most powerful mage” as young Arram Draper first learning magic at the Carthaki university. Because of the 40 intervening years and five(?) different series further developing the Tortall universe, the magic system is now SO much more complex.  Arram is learning an elementally-based, heavily theory-dependent form of magic where conceptual power is applied to physical objects or energy constructs. His teachers make him develop skills in non-magical areas like juggling, jewelry making, and gardening so eventually they can safely guide him through complicated applications of magic. In comparison, Alanna complains that Duke Roger is spending too much time on theory in order to prevent her and her peers from learning “actual magic” and becoming his rivals. And then she throws purple light at things until they explode or she passes out! We also learn from Arram’s misadventures that most of “magic” is creating methods of applying, storing, and accessing power so the user doesn’t drain their own life force and pass out or die. Alanna uses NONE of these techniques; instead, she pulls her magic directly out of her own life force, thinks about what she wants it to do, and hopes she reaches that goal before draining herself. She even (sometimes) factors in the impact of magically draining herself of energy while attempting tasks that require both magical and physical endurance (such as when deciding how much magic to spend warming herself when making her blizzard hike to claim the Dominion Jewel.)

For one thing, this makes Alanna insanely powerful. In In the Hand of The Goddess, she breaks open Roger’s magically locked door (presumably designed by Roger himself– an immensely strong and well-trained sorcerer) by shoving her own magic into it until it MELTS. This builds an Alanna who decided magical theory was useless at age 12 because she has an immense access to magical potential energy, and who never learns the basic life-preserving models of magic usage that are taught in intro-level classes. She doesn’t have an interest in learning more sophisticated forms of magic, except in healing, which she cared about enough to learn non-magically. So when she heals, she uses magic as a guide or a supplement, rather than depending on it and then draining herself.  Since she isn’t attempting complex magic, most of the time the limitations of drawing directly from her own life force doesn’t impact her that much. The things she does magically all have much more efficient alternatives, but they require an understanding of magical theory and ability to store energy that Alanna never learned! If she wants to do larger spells, she just keeps feeding energy into it until it breaks or she does. 

The intervening series and Numair’s story makes Alanna’s simultaneously more and less believable. It now makes sense why everyone with even a slight understanding of Alanna’s type of Gift gets angry at times and tells her she’s using magic irresponsibly. (Before, we only understood Alanna’s side of the argument: “Well, I didn’t die and it worked, so calm down.” !!!) The fact that she never actually dies and only rarely is seriously harmed through her own magic use now requires some suspension of disbelief!

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!!🎇

Rowan and Aelin Galathynius by me (llibiarts)

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refseek.com

www.worldcat.org/

link.springer.com

http://bioline.org.br/

repec.org

science.gov

pdfdrive.com

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TRANS MASCS KEEP WINNING 😭🥺

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Latest Hana to Yume, AkaYona freebie ft. Hak and Yona in Georgian traditional outfit illustration by Kusanagi Mizuho.

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Princess Dís of Erebor 💙 💙 💙

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fake horse adventures

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** Permission to post it was granted by the artist Do not repost/edit the art without permission Please, support the artist on their pages too **

Artist : 一春虫虫人 (weibo / twitter)

Source

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早く再会してください

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ok i think what gets me about the kind of post that's like '[children's media] has child soldiers, where are their parents!!' is that those stories really and truly aren't for people who'll think about that, they're for the people the children's age, who don't, for the most part, want to be kept safe or told they're too young to participate in the world, they want to be given a sword

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This is how the golden age of piracy ended.

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I really wanted to contribute to the week, so! Black paladin Shiro saving Keith at the end of the Trials of Marmora 🖤💗 @shirosaveskeith

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fuck yeahhh

social media has irrevocably changed our perception of public/private lives, and with it, our perception of boundaries both personal and public. i use social media minimally, primarily as a content consumer, not as a content creator, but even so, i have become increasingly aware of the inescapable and uncontrollable nature of it. in a sea of billions i am no one, and yet, i am not unseen.

our real life communities range from a few dozens to a few hundreds, the people we see day to day in the course of work, school, social gatherings, and family events. i am known to these people. i am seen. and with social media, i am shared.

aspects of my life that would have struggled to appear in a rumor mill a few decades ago are now readily available for consumption on the socials of my family, friends, and community. a photo here. a video there. a text post. a tag.

we live in a world where our every waking moment could be broadcast to an audience at anytime without our knowledge, intentionally or accidentally.

an ex angling for an incriminating shot. a stranger filming a tiktok who happens to catch you doing dumb/funny/incriminating shit. an unflattering photo at your cousin’s wedding. a school project made for a grade and passed around the community facebook for laughs.

nothing is sacred. nothing is private.

we are, increasingly, a society of voyeurs.

the good news, is that we don’t have to be. we cannot control what the people around us do, but we can unplug from the vicious cycle.

we don’t have to share content containing others without their consent.

we can choose to advocate for our right not to be shared without our consent.

we can set boundaries about what we are and are not comfortable sharing with the public.

we can cut people out of our lives who refuse to respect our boundaries. you are not a content mine. you are a person and you deserve privacy and respect.

demand that respect for yourself, and advocate for that respect to be given to others.

and lastly, don’t forget to cultivate that private life. this isn’t a movie. your life is what you make it, not what you post about it.

completely untested theory but

i think social media not only has eroded ideas of privacy (”if you have nothing to hide why do you care?”), but in a much more harmful way it promotes the notion that there should be no difference between public thoughts and private behaviour. But this is totally bogus because people behave differently according to different situations, and this isn’t being “fake”, it’s just what navigating social situations in a proficient manner is like. 

The way I behave with my friends and my family, the way I behave in private, is not for public consumption. Nor should it be. Publicness is a matter of choice, it shouldn’t be mandatory. People are not entitled to anyone’s private thoughts on anything. People have a right to decide what they wish to show in public and what they wish to hide.

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All that’s missing is a theme song. I cast my cursed vote:

Coming into a fandom late

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Guess who’s been watching Atlantis, the lost empire….and bc I wish she got a better ending I decided to give Helga an alternative universe design where she survives.

Also here’s a fanfic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17352587/chapters/40828961

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most damaging idea of the 21st century: the conviction of vast numbers of people that human history will end within our lifetimes

climate change represents world-altering tragedy if unchecked, but not even in the worst-case scenario does it mean “literally everyone dies”

yet so many people have jumped already to “it’s over, the world is going to end, we can do nothing about it” and are just paralyzingly cynical. How do I explain that the power to imagine a future is essential for creating it