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skamenglishsubs · 5 months

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Subtext and Culture, Young Royals, Season 3, Episode 6

Out here in the real world it's been a week since the cliffhanger ending of episode 5 where Simon broke up with Wilhelm, but in-universe it's just the next day, and Wilhelm is being comforted by Felice.

Subtext: This entire episode is incredibly meta, there are so many times characters say things that reference earlier seasons or episodes, or the entire series as a whole. This is the first time, and Felice is saying what we're all thinking. IS IT REALLY OVER?!? 😱

Blink and you miss it: Felice gives Wilhelm her sunglasses and dries his tears so he can hide the fact that he's been crying. Also, look at that gorgeous Swedish summer. It is so pretty.

Culture: The third-years are painting the banners that go on the trucks on graduation day.

Culture: They're also signing each others' student hats, which is a common tradition. You can just sign your name or write something funny or do whatever.

Culture: This car is what we in Sweden call a sossecontainer. It's an old 90's Volvo, it's square, it's ugly, and it was pretty cheap and reliable, so it was very common and popular among working class and the lower middle classes. It was never a high-status car, so it perfectly illustrates the Eriksson family.

Subtext: Oh look, another throwback to season 1 when Sara argued with Simon about their dad, and said that he should stop giving people second chances.

Culture: Oh look, another poem by Karin Boye. This time it's Eternity, a poem about cherishing your time with your loved one, and the text is about how good times feel like an endless summer, which is what it certainly looks like for the kids and their teacher in the lush landscape. But just like in the poem, their endless summer is about to end.

Culture: This is pretty much exactly the reason used when real-world Lundsberg was temporarily closed.

Culture: And Wilhelm isn't wrong, the shitty traditions are in the walls of the place, it's always been like that, and it's always been upheld by everyone involved with the school, parents, teachers, staff, and students.

Subtext: Since this is the last episode, let's prepare the viewers to say good bye to the show, and let's do it with a little montage of students crying and taking their stuff down and emptying their rooms.

Culture: This is a 100% factually true statement, Göteborg is the worst city in the world. Source: I'm a native Stockholmer, and you just have to trust me on this, ok? Look, it's just common sense, alright? Don't listen to people from Göteborg, they're just jealous they're not living in the glorious capital. Also, they talk funny. And they have no sense of humour! And everyone is named Glenn or something.

Culture: I don't think they're referencing an actual school here, and the current Norwegian royal children went to school in Norway, not Switzerland. But the current Danish crown prince went to some boarding school in Switzerland for a while, but then he went to the Danish elite boarding school Herlufsholm. However, it was rocked by a bullying scandal in 2022, so they had to pull him out of that one and deny all knowledge of the events. Feels familiar?

Culture: Solliden is the private summer palace of the real-world Swedish royal family located on Öland, an island off the south-east coast of Sweden. The show has consistently stayed away from every likeness with the real world, but I guess they couldn't be arsed making up a fictional summer palace for the YR royal family so they went with something familiar.

Subtext: Farima is talking about the problems of finding a new school for Wilhelm from an academic perspective, but he's just thinking about how this means he won't be close to Simon any longer.

Culture: Vincent and the boys are pouring one out for Hillerska. It's a way to toast a dead friend, or in this case, a place.

Blink and you miss it: August places a king chess piece on the table before telling his friends that he's Wilhelm's reserve and might be king someday.

Subtext: And he's still so blinded by the glamour of it, despite everything. Thankfully, his friends can bring him down a couple of pegs.

Blink and you miss it: While Wilhelm is returning Kris, the book from last season, the second book in the pile is a book by Kjell Westö, Den Svavelgula Himlen - Yellow Sulphur Sky. It's about a working class kid in Finland becoming friends with his upper-class neighbour family, and his struggle maintaining a relationship with the girl of the family because of their class differences. Slightly on the nose there, show.

Meta: Henry interrupting our boys at the worst possible time is just a running joke at this point. How many times has it happened now? Four times? Five? Read the fucking room, Henry!

Subtext: Last chance to have a party together, but also last chance to see Simon, "maybe ever". Oh no, we have to start preparing for a sad ending!

Culture: Red solo cups are not a thing anywhere outside the US really, but you can buy them as a gag gift in Sweden, because to us they're just a weird movie prop we've seen American movies. Every other party scene in the show has featured regular plastic cups.

Culture: Drinking with the teachers?!? Yeah, sure, why not, everyone is an adult.

Subtext: Emo outfit? ✅ Sitting on the floor? ✅ Full of self-pity? ✅ Exaggerating the catastrophic state of his world in the way only a 17yo disaster boy can do? ✅

Meta: Another throwback to how Wilhelm was referred to as the party prince back in season 1.

Blink and you miss it: Felice hides the wine bottle behind her back before Malin comes in. She knows, Felice. Malin knows everything.

Meta: Another throwback to when Wilhelm was eating the dirt at the very same football field that disaster emo boy Simon is now sitting at together with his friends, who are trying to convince him to go to the final party.

Subtext: This time, August isn't just sorry that he got caught, he is genuinely sorry for everything he did to Wilhelm. He in turn forgives August, and we're all getting closure for this plot point.

Meta: Hey, hey, hey guys, do you remember that scene in season 1 episode 1 when Sara helped hold Felice's hair while she was throwing up? We're doing a throwback here!

Meta: Hey, hey, hey guys, do you remember that scene in season 1 episode 3 when Felice told Sara that maybe you don't have to speak the truth all the time? Well, Sara still doesn't understand why you would lie, but this time she's right, Felice was right to tell the truth.

Blink and you miss it: Stella and Fredrika are making out at the party, Felice saw it, and is making a very funny face. This is also why Stella rudely rejects Rosh, because of course she's gonna choose Fredrika, Rosh was just a distraction to make her jealous.

Subtext: Vincent is talking about Nils, who just came out, but August just saw Sara, and that's the whoever he wants.

Subtext: But despite saying that he doesn't care about anyone else seeing them, he still ducked behind a stack of pallets for this conversation.

Meta: This is a brutal Fleabag reference.

Cinematography: This scene is overwhelmingly lit in that sickly greenish fluorescent hue, but there's golden light coming from somewhere, so Sara and August share one final kiss in that golden light. But there's not enough of it to go around, not enough for their love to last, so August is left standing there alone, and all the golden light is gone.

Cinematography: Wilhelm and Simon left the party sometime after midnight, this is supposed to be a very early morning summer sunrise, and our boys are just gonna be bathed in the golden light throughout the entire scene. Gods, it is pretty.

Meta: Hey, hey, remember that scene in season 1 when Simon was singing that song, and Wilhelm instantly fell for him?

Meta: Hey guys, remember that scene in season 1 when they were discussing welfare politics in class and Simon threw shade on Wilhelm? This is a throwback to that.

Cinematography: Just fucking look at this shit. What a nice view. The nature and the sunrise is pretty, too! Going naked into the water? Yeah, that's a rebirth metaphor as well. Lisa said so!

Subtext: This entire scene is basically Wilhelm trying one last time to get Simon back. They said they weren't gonna, but he's trying anyway. They're talking about that politics class where Wilhelm couldn't speak up because he was "not allowed". So he's still bound by his royal duties, which is why Simon broke up with him last episode.

Subtext: And since Wilhelm is still stuck, he's left on dry land, while Simon swims away from him, free. Guys, I'm thinking we're actually gonna get a sad ending! This does not look good! 😭

Blink and you miss it: Stella and Fredrika are sleeping in the same bed and making out the morning after, and millions of #Stedrika shippers are rejoicing! Yay, fanservice!

Blink and you miss it: Walter is helping Henry up after he passed out in the grass outside after the party, and millions of #Walty shippers are rejoicing! Yay, fanservice!

Subtext: The last photo Wilhelm takes down from his wall is the one with him and Simon, because that's the most important memory of this place.

Blink and you miss it: Wilhelm shuts off his red lightstrip in his room. Those lights have typically been a symbol of his love for Simon, but he's turning it off. Sad ending confirmed.

Meta: Listen, it's a lovely little song that Simon wrote for Wilhelm, but it's 100% fanservice, it's referencing events in the show that Simon actually didn't witness, and it's even referencing the soundtrack to the show itself! I mean, come on! And we're getting yet another sad boy Wilhelm montage of him moping around Hillerska with his earbuds.

Subtext: Remember how the frog snowglobe was a gift from Erik, who in turn got it from their grandpa, the king? It's so obviously a symbol of the monarchy, but Wilhelm is dumping it in the trash. Are we... Are we not getting a sad ending?

Cinematography: The shot of the flag being raised is cut off at half mast, which is a pretty universal symbol for mourning. Oh ok, we're back on track for a sad ending.

Subtext: This is the first time this season that Simon speaks Spanish with his mom, and the first time in the entire series that Sara does, which shows that they're fully themselves again, they've pulled themselves out of the Hillerska world.

Culture: The graduating students are having a champagne breakfast before the graduation ceremony, that's also very common in Sweden.

Subtext: Felice and the rest of the choir decided to have a little rebellion and not sing the boring old Hillerska song, and instead the new improved one that Simon made last season. No-one told him about the switch though, which is why he's so surprised.

Culture: After the ceremony, the graduating students will run out of the school to find their parents and family and friends, who are waiting for them, usually with a big sign with the most embarrassing baby picture they could find of them.

Blink and you miss it: August's mom and stepdad have also made a huge sign with an embarrassing picture of August Malte as a kid. Adorable.

Lost in translation: The queen is saying "lilla gubben", which literally means "little old man", a very common term of endearment in Swedish families. The show has been pretty consistent in that Wilhelm's family are all using normal words, just like any other family would. So it's pretty funny that despite everyone else using titles and styles all the time, to Wilhelm, his parents are simply "mamma" and "pappa", as if he was a regular kid.

Subtext: As a graduating student you get little gifts from your family, flowers, champagne, stuffed animals, all with a blue-and-yellow ribbon so you can hang them around your neck. August is family, so the Queen gives him one as well. Of a frog with a crown. Which is a symbol of the monarchy in the show. Wilhelm threw his frog in the trash, August is getting a frog from the Queen. I think there might be symbolism here! I think we're setting up August to become the next king! Do we dare hope for a happy ending?

Cinematography: Just fucking look at this shit. The composition, the contrast, the height difference, the distance between them. It's so pretty. And they're talking about how good it was while it lasted, just like how a TV show with a sad ending can still be an amazing experience. Hint hint.

Subtext: We're saying our goodbyes, Wilhelm and Simon are saying goodbye to each other, Wilhelm wishes Simon a nice summer, just like how Simon wished Wilhelm a good Christmas back in season 1, and just like back then, they both understand that they love each other, but can't be together.

Cinematography: And then Simon exits the scene, again, leaving Wilhelm standing there alone, again, having seemingly chosen his family and royal duty.

Culture: It's common to either rent a truck as a large group of students, or to be driven in a flashy car alone or with a friend. The two girls in the centre are sitting in a very nice Aston Martin, while a bunch of their classmates are on a truck. I can't make out the full text on the banner, but I think it says something like "Lock up your sons because tonight we become like animals".

Culture: Svensson is a very common Swedish last name, so to "be a Svensson" basically means that you're super average and mediocre, you're like everyone else. Whereas these elite kids are used to having everyone else bow and scrape for them, so that message is on brand.

Cinematography: We're in the car, it looks like the ending of season 1, and we're doing a close-up of Wilhelm's face. We're ready for the fourth-wall-break of him staring sadly into the camera, having been once again broken down by the system and not getting the boy. We've said goodbye to everyone, roll the credits, start your crying...

Cinematography: ...except the show isn't ending here. We're having an honest conversation between Wilhelm and his parents for the first time. Because every other time he's said that he doesn't want to be crown prince of the next king, he's been angry or upset, he's been threatening, and definitely impulsive. But he's never wanted any of it.

Cinematography: His parents let him go, they open the door to their van, Wilhelm exits, and the show turns up the volume of the soundtrack. "Energetic music" my ass, it's the Harmony theme! It's the main theme of the entire show playing as Wilhelm runs away.

Subtext: Oh, yeah, August sees him run away, and understands that he's next in line now. Sorry buddy, sucks to be you, but never mind that now. RUN, WILHELM, RUN!!! GET YOUR MAN!

Cinematography: The shows turns into the most perfect rom-com, with Wilhelm chasing down Simon's car through the incredibly lush and green Swedish summer. He catches up to them, tells Simon that he ditched the crown for his own sake, and asks if it's really over between them.

VAD FAN TROR DU?

As if the soundtrack wasn't triumphant enough, it now starts playing As Long As you Are Here as they throw themselves in each other's arms. Happy ending! They're crying, I'm crying, we're all crying! 😭

Cinematography: A montage? With all the best scenes between our boys from the entire show? With the text of the soundtrack perfectly matching the montage? I should be outraged at how cheesy this is, but it is perfect. Perfect. I love it. I swear, this fucking show.

Subtext: Finally we are at the true ending of the show. Wilhelm has managed to escape Hillerska, him and Simon and Sara and Felice have all escaped the hierarchies, the expectations, the duties, and the toxic environment of the school. He arrived in a Ferrari, and is now running away with his boyfriend and friends in a crappy Volvo station-wagon. The stiff suit jackets are gone, they're all in white, his hair is ruffled in the wind, and for the last time ever Wilhelm looks into the camera. And he smiles.

He is finally free.

#young royals #young royals subtext #young royals analysis #young royals season 3

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manic-marzal · 5 months

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hot take but i think the novelty of ancient breeds and their line breaking genes has worn out a little and i don’t think it makes up for them not being to wear apparel at all or breed with normal dragons

imo aethers, dusthides, gaolers, sandsurges, and veilspun aren’t wacky enough to be ancient breeds. we’ve got bug with horns, smooth boi fat tail, big shaggy moose tundra, not quite ridgebacks, and bug (?) with hair. they all fit the head neck torso arms legs wings tail layout modern breeds do, it’s literally just the line breaking genes that are the issue and the customization from apparel feels better than what the terts offer anyway imho

abberations, auraboas, banescales, and undertides i understand a little more, but…

abberations literally just have two heads and two tails. you can make head and tail apparel just go on both. some people might not want that but there’s a lot of things on the site some people don’t want already so that’s kinda a moot point

auraboas, okay. they don’t have legs or anything analogous to legs. i get why they don’t wanna have a dressable dragon with no legs. i’ll accept that

banescales don’t have arms, but i feel like that’s more manageable since the wings are in the place the arms should be. i think it’s workable putting arm apparel on wings though

undertides i can understand the most. they don’t have arms or legs and the best they have in their place is tiny fins. i can live with them not being dressable

“but the terts are so cool! it would take too long to draw all the apparel for all the breeds! you’re breaking the rules!”

i don’t think the line breaking ancient genes are cool enough to justify it. i’d rather wait longer for them to draw all the apparel stuff than get something kinda mid quicker. people make fake clothing accents for ancients all the time so it’s definitely doable. hell just get creative with how the clothes lay around the line breaking terts. put the terts on a different layer so they can overlap when needed. idk

don’t get me wrong, i’m really appreciative of the art team and everyone else on staff, i just don’t think this is working as well as intended or paying off enough to justify continuing. make the terts crazier (if you can even do that within the square they’re stuck in) or just make them modern breeds <:/

edit: i don’t expect them to change existing ancients if they change anything at all. that would be an enormous backlog and frankly unreasonable. i just think going forward they should be more lenient on what is a modern breed that deserves time put into drawing apparel for them and what should be dug deeper into to make truly weird and crazy enough to justify not being able to customize them with the thousands of different apparel pieces on site when that’s like half the game

also if they’re gonna add parallel genes anyway why can’t you breed them with other ancients or moderns. if it’d result in a gene the other breed doesn’t have just make it default to basic or something

second edit: just make the weird terts some kind of apparel. no it wouldn't have the same color range as genes but looking at clothing stuff like roundhorns and antlers and feathered wings and claws and whatever else, they could make 90% of the weird tacked on line breaking terts into apparel pieces with a good variety of colors and it'd be more or less the same thing

#flight rising #flightrising #fr #if people get mad at me for this i’m gonna be severely disappointed #it’s not important enough to get mad at i’m just voicing an opinion

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max1461 · 5 months

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I had a dream last night that I ran for president. In the Democratic primary I won California, Alaska, "Washington" (which was directly north of California) and another state whose name I don't remember because it doesn't actually exist, but it was east of Washington along California's northern border (you have to imagine the two of them shaped approximately like triangles, making up an approximate square directly to CA's north).

There was a brief moment when I was in the lead. I knew it wouldn't last, but I remember capitalizing on the opportunity to proudly tell my parents "I'm the front-runner in the race for president of the United States!". Again, this was supposedly the primary, but I recall the electoral map showing blue for the establishment Democrat, red for the Republican candidate (Trump I think), and yellow for me. So maybe it was the national election; I think this is just one of those dream inconsistencies.

Anyway, for whatever reason me and most of my campaign staff were down in a cave. We didn't have internet access anymore, so I was relying on my campaign manager (who was above ground) to clue me in to what was going on. We were in an upper chamber of the cave, and there had been some kind of near-disaster in a lower chamber where the fire department had to come and rescue a bunch of people who were trapped. I don't remember if any of them were part of my campaign staff. Anyway, as the establishment Democrat took the lead, I remember talking on the phone—a big, thick, 90s-style cellphone—with my campaign manager about what I should do. Should I give some sort of statement to the press about it? Should I congratulate the winner on Twitter? He said no, no, don't worry about it; everyone knows you're down in a cave and don't have service, so they can't possibly expect that.

I have no idea why we were in a cave, if it was intentional or we were stuck there. I guess we were just in a cave!

Anyway, then disaster struck! One of my staffers found a bunch of people in need of rescue in our (upper) chamber of the cave! Now, this wasn't as dire as the earlier rescue. These people were much easier to get to. They were like, sort of hanging upside-down from a horizontally suspended rope, like clothes on a clothes line, basically. I don't know how they got that way but they were in a dire state from hanging upside-down for some long. Some of my staffers insisted they could rescue the people themselves (I think they were worried that calling in the fire department again would be viewed as wasteful and damage my campaign). They managed to get some of the people down from the clothes line. I asked my campaign manager what to do (I was still on the phone with him) and he was like "no, call the fire department!". So he put me through to the fire department and I told them what was going on.

You have to understand throughout these events that I'm like, me. I have no idea how to run an electoral campaign, I'm 100% relying on my campaign manager for every cue, and I'm really nervous about figuring out the proper etiquette for everything. When I was asking him about whether I should congratulate the winner on Twitter you have to imagine it in this sort of tone. Like, first day on the job, nervous "I'm following your lead here" energy. And when I get on the phone with the fire department I'm super awkward (I've never called them before!) and as I'm explaining the situation I'm thinking like "good, good, that was normal, I sound normal to the fire department right now".

Anyway then they come down into the cave and start rescuing people. I get back on the phone with my campaign manager and he tells me confidently "look, here's what we do: on Monday you're gonna give a press conference. You'll announce that your bid for the presidency is over, congratulate the winners, and reiterate your policy positions." I don't remember what else he said about it, but basically this was the most graceful way to end the campaign and keep my political career strong. I was a popular candidate with lots of youth support and energy behind me, so it was gonna be easy to parley that into later success. Now, I didn't want a further political career—this campaign was 100% a one-off—but I agreed the press conference would be a good idea. Unfortunately that would mean I had to write a speech by Monday, which was annoying.

Anyway, the establishment Democrat won in the end, and turns out it was Obama.

Then I woke up.

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jackiequick · 10 months

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TOP GUN OCs Part 3 ✈️

-> Click here to see the other parts

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Nurse Jordana "Echo" Walker 🩺

Callsign: Echo

Age: 38

Relationship status: Divorced, Single

Background: Jordana, known as "Echo," is a skilled medical doctor in the squadron. She earned her callsign due to her exceptional diagnostic skills and the ability to provide vital medical support during missions. Her father was a renowned military surgeon, which inspired her to pursue a career in medicine.

Personality: Compassionate, charming, level-headed, and dedicated to her patients' well-being.

Lifestyle: Echo leads a fulfilling life, both personally and professionally, and is committed to her role as a doctor.

Nicknames: Her colleagues often refer to her as "Jor” or “Jordan”

Extra information: What she loves the most is getting get nails dirty and behind the wheel of a car or plane, ever since she was a child she was fancied by the way Navy pilots took the skies and feel like nothing even better once they’re above the clouds. That feeling of watching the world spin around while your frozen to your seat in the air and the adrenaline you get afterwards.

She was flying for a while in the late 90s—early 2000s, when she saw plenty of pilots become jet washed and she didn’t like it one bit, hearing stories about plenty being injured on the job and not a lot of staff on board, so that resulted in her taking up a medical exam. A few short months later, she started working alongside nurses and doctors to help nurse pilots back to health. Which is where she met Captain Maverick Mitchell, as he was injured after flight testing and sent to the medical wing of the North Islands to get check up, he was charming and thanked her for cleaning up his wounds.

With a smile Jor told Mav, “You gotta be more careful next time, Captain.” Maverick just grinned and nodding, saying he’ll try to best more cautious even though sometimes tells him, he will be back in this medical wing a few short months later. And he was right, meeting Jor again as she was sewing his wounds near his eyebrow. That time, he brought a friend who got hurt with him. Wraith. So she had two patients to nurse back to health, thankfully they weren’t that badly affected from the crash. Just a few cuts, bumps and bruises.

It didn’t take long for Jor to meet the rest of the 86 crew members, as Hollywood, Wolfman and Slider would make appearances at the hospital along with their friends Iceman, Buzz, Valkyrie, Sunset and others. Sometimes it was for checkups, other times to see some of their friends at the clinic but sometimes they just liked hanging out with the staff. Mainly because they were good people.

Captain Apollo "Mack" McCleary🔐

Callsign: Mack

Age: 42

Background: Mack, known simply as "Mack," is a control room operator. He earned his callsign due to his impeccable skills in managing communications and mission coordination. His precision and reliability make him an essential part of the squadron.

Personality: Analytical, total sweetheart, humorous, reliable, and a natural problem-solver.

Lifestyle: Mack has a steady and disciplined lifestyle, often working long hours in the control room.

Relationship Status: Mack is married to his high school sweetheart.

Nicknames: His colleagues affectionately call him "Mac."

Extra information: Apollo has been in the multiple square areas and has been working ever since he started back in 2005 in the Navy, wanting to be apart of Blue Angels and be behind the controls. He has always been one to have honest honor and respect towards everyone around him, putting his trust and thoughts into pilots he believes who can take the heat as he navigates them from the operations center. Such as Iceman, he would give all his attention and follow his leadership, as he stands back in the frontline of the control room sending up to the skies.

But it also gets him into a lot of trouble, due to him listening to Maverick during the Darkstar Project for Mach 10! Apollo knew it was supposed to be canceled that day, but a part of him though they gone so far into the process of making a jet that can go hypersonic it was worth a final flight according to Maverick. So Mack and his team got to quick work setting everything up in the control room launching Maverick into the air as he commuted with him from the ground reaching Mach 10–but it cost him and Hondo in some trouble with Admiral Cain afterwards. Even though, Apollo got into some trouble he was secretly grinning due to the fact that they achieved that purpose for the project, running home to his high school sweetheart to tell them to the good news.

Afterwards, Hondo gave him a call telling Mack he would be sent to Top Gun to help manage communication and mission coordinations. He was humorous about the fact that he would be returning back to North Island. But he always knew that he would never have a bad reputation there, since one of his friends/lieutenants Fanboy Garcia and Payback Fitch would be sent out the same mission too. So let’s just say things got interesting when he saw how The Dagger Squad decided to challenge Maverick, because Mack was waiting for every single one of them for their push-ups with a smirk.

Mack had his arms crossed and said, “It was all shits and giggles, huh? Drop down and start giving me 10 then we’ll raise it to 20.” All the Daggers glared at him, dropping down giving him 20 push ups as Hondo grinned counting them.

Naomi "Nova" Reynolds🍻

Callsign: Nova

Age: 28

Relationship Status: Single

Background: Naomi, known as "Nova," is a bartender who owns a popular bar near the naval base. Her callsign reflects her vibrant and outgoing personality, which lights up the atmosphere in her establishment. She serves as a source of support and encouragement for the Navy personnel and fighter pilots who frequent her bar.

Personality: Charismatic, welcoming, and known for her sense of humor.

Lifestyle: Nova enjoys a social and active lifestyle, always looking to bring joy to those around her. But she also sassy, knowledgeable due to being a bartender so she knows secrets, and loves karaoke.

Nicknames: She's often referred to as "No" by her regular customers. The women know the rules for the bar set by Penny Benjamin, so she doesn’t have a problem telling people “No”, or “No roughhousing, take it outside.”

Extra information: Naomi never really knew what she wanted to do in (still doesn’t to be honest), as she always has dreams and aspirations for things but as time files so quickly it feels like those ideals weren’t coming as fast as she wanted. As Naomi always said she wanted to be a writer, a musician of some kind finding herself making stories and music, then posting them on social media for some sort of attraction. One afternoon, at The Hard Deck she decided to take a chance singing on the small stage with her old guitar and caught a few eyes.

Penny, the owner of the bar saw how nice of an impression she made on the crowd and offered her a chance to sing whenever she wants. She even asked if she was open to working at the bar as well, Naomi didn’t mind it at all and agreed to Penny’s offer. Training under her and practicing bartending. And to be honest, Naomi loved it!

Working at The Hard Deck made her smile, let her have some fixable schedules since she had an active lifestyle and socialize with brand new people everyday. It resulted in her meeting some friends such as Lucky Kenner, who she already met before she started working there, and the rest of the Daggers. Anyone who walks into the bar, she’s always the first one to greet them at the counter with a smile pouring drinks and taking orders. They would say she’s a sight for sore eyes with an encouraging enough smile.

Jeremy "Renegade" Turner 🗃

Callsign: Renegade

Age: 47

Background: Jeremy, known as "Renegade," grew up in a family with a military tradition. His father was a Navy pilot, and he followed in his footsteps. His callsign reflects his tendency to sometimes push boundaries and sometimes take unconventional approaches during missions, often against orders. Makes sense how he ended up with Maverick as a friend.

Personality: Adventurous, sarcastic and snarky, witty, a bit rebellious, and unafraid to take risks depending on the situation.

Lifestyle: Renegade is a single pilot who leads an adventurous and sometimes unpredictable life, as he’s always sent on missionary work to go undercover and investigate tasks for the Navy. Sometimes it makes him question his line of work and wonder when’s retirement for him again.

Relationship Status: Single

Nicknames: His fellow aviators often call him "Ren" for short.

Extra information: Due to him messing around with Maverick and his gang so much, it makes wonder if he needs new friends, then he remembers Iceman and Wraith are there then he feels a little better. He thinks he’s sarcastic, stubborn as hell and snarky until he met Iceman’s wife Daredevil also known as Hazel, who nicknames him Hawkeye as a joke.

Ren has been working on and off duty for years, everytime he thinks he’s off the hook or thinking retirement is on his way—BAM! He’s given new duties to watch over new records and recruits for TOP GUN, which in his opinion ain’t so bad. He actually liked the new fresh faced students at TOP GUN, being so young and spirited in the way they fly. Some are way cocky for their own good where they get in trouble with their superior officers meanwhile others are trying to keep an low profile and just learn from their own actions.

Ren being well..Ren, always try to get under their skin and see what they’re made of, in small manners. Like let’s say he’s talking to another person and a student is running in the halls, he tells them to not do that but they won’t listen. So in result, Ren would lean a foot outwards causing the student to trip and learn to not run in the hallway. “Oops..i said watch where your going!” Ren said with a little smirk.

Sometimes Ren gets dragged into the craziness of Maverick Mitchell and the others plan. Such as when he was given the role to return to Top Gun as an independent counsel with Hondo and Hazel, having to watch over the team of returning recruits for the highly competitive mission. A few of them, he trained himself being their co-instructor years back, being Payback, Phoenix, Yale and Harvard. Even met Halo once during her classes.

Ren was in charge of being the one up in the far skies and taking notes of the crews flying skills, measuring their speeding length as they went along. Having everything ready for pre and landing as well! Like said beforehand, Ren has a tendency to not always follow orders and end up regularly regretting it later depending on what it is, pushing a few boundaries when it came to Admirals. So in result, he was the one to open the hard deck without Admiral Cyclone’s permission for Maverick to fly and even a few other things.

—

Thanks for reading! Who are your favorites of the 4? Let me know in the comments below

Remember to like, share and reblog for more like this

Tags: @gaminggirlsstuff @starkleila @halesfavoriteharlot @missstrawbs2001 @gcthvile @mandylove1000 @rooster-84 @mallowbee4 @degenbrat @hardballoonlove @queenslandlover-93 @djs8891 @theloveoftoms @topgun-imagines @simplyscorpio @roostersforevergirl and etc

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celticcrossanon · 6 months

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Dear Celta, what a collaboration you’ve had with @ladykinrannoch you’re very complimentary to each others style of tarot reading. Something came up in the last day or so as to what Harry might be holding over Camilla/Charles. Feel free to not post this ask, as it’s just my ruminations and it may just be a wild conspiracy theory.

In considering how William feels about the press I made a post yesterday about how William came to distrust the media. In casting back into the past I recalled the forged financial statement, and the lie that was told to Diana that William was wearing a watch with a listening device. A huge question came up. WHO would have so much influence that they would convince a staff member off the BBC that Diana would be susceptible to these lies. WHO had that much influence that they would bring this to bear, to bring this level of malevolence to the Princess of Wales. To push her over the edge in such a personal, cruel and sadistic manner??? I remember that the BBC laid the blame squarely at Martin Brasheer’s feet and closed the investigation down without delving into the source of the forgery. Oh Brasheer was that creative and instinctively knew she would fall for this. But the more I think about the more I see a possible influence there.

Also Harry was living at Highgrove when William went to uni. So he was on his own with C&C. Is it possible that he overheard them speaking about the BBC and Martin Brasheer interview in a totally different way? Did they reveal themselves in a certain conversation that Harry overheard??? Is this the source of the blackmail?

Remember the Queen was wise, she knew a divorce would weaken the monarchy, and she didn’t have any constructive advice for Diana about her marriage since she herself couldn’t control Charles. Is it possible that C&C colluded with the BBC to concoct this false story with the aim of making Diana look crazy and paranoid. The lies did convince her to give that infamous interview which started the ball rolling towards her death in Paris. It started a chain of events which culminated in that car crash in Paris.

Diana refused the Queen’s offer of Ravec security after the divorce. At a minimum she would have had a sober driver. I bet they didn’t foresee how this would tragically play out.

Both you and Lady K’s readings were very clear, it had to do with C&C ‘s marriage, or origin of marriage. Harry is dumb, he’s no constitutional expert, he couldn’t possibly know the ins and out of a Catholic and Anglican divorce and marriage in relation to the monarchy and being head of the church. But he is cunning, and he may have realized later on what it is he heard especially years later after Martin Brasheer took the fall for the BBC. In the 90s both Charles and Camilla together, and Diana separately were involving the press in their war with each other. It just came out recently in a book this year that Camilla was in weekly contact with this journalist, so she also may have been needling Diana in the press, separately from Charles.

If this resonates with you, please consider asking your cards who influenced the BBC to go down this road with Diana. Who gave them the ideas of the forged financial statements and the William watch lie. Imagine the cruelty of such a lie, it looks very personal to me.

Thanks for reading my screed Celta.

Hi AnonymousRetired,

Thank you for the kind words about the duet reading. I appreciate them very much.

I do want to look more into that reading and what came out of it, but it won't be tonight - I am just too tired.

You raise very valid points about the Panorama interview. The forged statement may have been all from Bashir, or other people may have been involved. There was no investigation so it is likely that we shall never know.

I can believe Charles and Camilla firing shots at Diana through the press. The whole time period of the four year separation and divorce was horrible in terms of what was revealed and was was said in the papers.

I will add the tarot reading to my list and consider it when I have more energy. :) Thank you for sharing your theories with me. I always like hearing what other people have to say.

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mariesocuniverse · 2 years

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Byeol’s Relationships: Hyung Line

ByeolChan

byeol’s soulmate

literally one of the only reasons byeol stayed in JYP

chan said that he had this dark image as a trainee bc of how long he’s been at the company but byeol never saw that

even if he tried to hide it, byeol always saw the way he got her to get food or how he quietly tried to get her out of trouble

she wanted to return the favor and thus a friendship formed that it would take a very very very big event to happen to break them apart

she knows that she can depend on him for anything and vice versa

byeol tries her best to relieve the burden of him as a leader whenever she can so he can relax

and also force the man to sleep bc sir you need to get off your laptop and sleep

she can, will, and has dragged him to bed and cuddle him so he won’t leave chan knows that he could remove her but he doesn’t want to so he yields

basically the parents of skz

if chan isn’t there to get the members focused, byeol is there to corral everyone

good comparison would be vice captain? like how in nct dream theres leader mark, captain jeno, and vice captain (?) renjun?

that but byeol and chan

MinByeol

Byeol’s dance teacher

Byeol is very slow when learning dance so she always asks Minho for help

said dance practices are 90% serious and 10% jokes bc someone says something stupid and they need to take a ten minute break to recover from laughter

he’s also very protective of her and making sure she’s eating by cooking her food

was actually the one who asked minho to join their group considering he was the last member who joined jyp

you don’t understand how much grief she went through when he got eliminated during the survival show

nor the relief when he got added back in the last episode

she didn’t say it out loud but byeol very much wanted to fight jyp in the moment even now but who doesnt really

the two of them are like really clingy so whenever they’re resting the two of them just gravitate towards each other

she just doesn’t want to leave him you guys 🥺

you know how some people say minho is the mom of skz? yeah byeol and minho are unintentionally fighting for that title amongst the fans

they just have a silly dynamic with each other considering how much banter they have

byeol has jokingly said she will take away minho’s cats and minho took that as a declaration of war /hj

they’re stupid but they’re stupid together yknow?

ChangByeol

same age friends!!!!!

they’re the only 99liners so they have to look out for each other yknow?

although he does make fun on byeol for being old even though she’s only five months older seo changbin

very protective of her

he always makes sure that she’s inside they’re little bubble surrounded by the members and staff whenever they go to airports or other schedules

gym buddies too!

whenever he goes to work out he tries to bring byeol along too for her to build muscle for her noodle arms

not for her to get built like him but enough to get toned yknow?

he also likes to run through lyrics with her whenever 3RACHA is producing new songs for the album

he always gets shy whenever he gets complimented with also a sense of pride

also another person she has to drag home bc music can wait i’ll fight you if you don’t go to bed

fans think the dynamic is funny bc at first glance they look like complete opposites

but then five minutes later byeol is smiling while changbin ends up doing aegyo for whatever reason

sometimes byeol wonders if changbin is really the same age as her or if he’s really just part of the maknae line

HyunByeol

you know how hyunjin and jisung said they used to fight? yeah byeol was the one who stopped them

he likes to think he’s her favorite of the 00liners and he’s right /hj

they take the time together and paint and have quiet time whenever they want to relax

they just have a sense of comfort for each other whenever they’re stressed

whenever hyunjin is feeling very overwhelmed or unconfident byeol always makes sure to stay by his side and cheer him up

she will literally square up to anyone who says bad things against him and no hyunjin you can’t stop me let me go-

she’s also very affectionate with him and loves clinging to him like she does with minho

there are a lot of clips of byeol looping her arm around hyunjin’s and leaning towards him

of course it doesn’t stop the teasing from him

as one of the taller, if not the tallest, he always clowns her for her height and pretends he can’t see her from his perspective

sometimes she threatens to hit his kneecaps, other times she sighs and accepts it

hyunjin likes to think of byeol as the sister he never knew he wanted

you know that look when people who are the only child find someone who they consider a sibling? yeah that

#9th member of stray kids #stray kids 9th member #stray kids female oc #stray kids female member #stray kids female addition #kpop female addition

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jbk405 · 1 year

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I’m finally going to lay out my thoughts on the “Battlestar Galactica” revival series

The 2003 BSG relaunch is apparently seeing something of a resurgence right now. I’ve seen more and more people discovering it online over the past few months and beginning full-series watches. I’m happy for any old TV series to get rediscovered (Although the thought that a show I watched as it aired is now considered “old” is disheartening), but I’ll be honest that I was never as in-love with the series as others seem to be. And after seeing so many people talking about how it’s one of the greatest underappreciated shows of the ‘00s I’ve got to get out my thoughts.

It's not a BAD show, not by any means, but I do honestly think it was much more impressive at the time it came out than it is now. It tried to do new things for TV sci-fi in the early 2000s, and now that other shows are doing those same things better it doesn't stand out. It was the novelty that made it seem so amazing at first.

One of the things it is praised for is that it brought in long-form storytelling from the beginning. The standard for ‘90s sci-fi was to slowly introduce ongoing plotlines into episodic standalone stories, and BSG had direct episode-to-episode continuity starting from square one. Except that BSG had no plan for what the ongoing storyline would be, despite frequent on-screen references to “the plan” (And even the eventual release of a film called “The Plan”). The writers have admitted that they did not start the series with any idea where they were going, so plot threads would drag on and climax with no buildup or any emotional oomph. The exemplar in the beginning was Helo’s entire story on Caprica in season one: He wasn’t supposed to reappear after the pilot miniseries, but the staff liked him so much they brought him back for the series and didn’t bother to figure out why the Cylons were observing him and sparing him until season two. So all of his scenes are filled with pseudo-mysterious conversations from the observing Cylons to cover up the fact that there was no plan. The eventual reveal that they’re trying to see if “love” will allow Cylons to bear living children was just bizarre and nonsensical in my opinion.

Babylon 5, which aired 10 years before BSG, was conceived with a clear arc for the entire plot so they could put things in the first season that foreshadowed what was to come in the last. But BSG, despite being praised for ‘pioneering’ serious serialization in TV Sci-Fi, couldn’t even foreshadow the rest of the first season from the pilot.

The series is also praised for its character development, when almost all prior TV shows had a mandate to keep development to a minimum so as to make all episodes accessible even if viewed out of order or without context. And the characters definitely do change over the course of the series. Except, just like with the main story plotline, the character arcs were not planned in advance. The writers have admitted that the reveal at the end of season three that four recurring characters have been Cylons all along was not planned in advance at all. They specifically said they picked these characters based purely on who would be the biggest surprise. There was no foreshadowing at all for the audience to have picked up on earlier in the series, since until they made the decision while writing those episodes the characters weren’t Cylons.

In fact, they even needed to put in retcons to patch over this twist, since it directly contradicted their own canon and the in-series mythology.

This end result was that the show was “pretty good”, and it had some individual episodes and arcs that moved up to “great”, but it was dragged down as a whole. It had meandering plotlines, “shocking” twists with no logic or emotional foundation, and a general lack of focus. Season three is where I lost interest, and season four is just a mess. Even the more devoted fans of the series are heavily critical of the finale, and personally I think the ultimate fate of the characters was just plain bad.

And -- again -- it’s still not a bad show overall. I saw much worse shows on TV in 2003, and I’ve seen much worse shows on TV right now. None of these faults take away from the phenomenal acting that the cast put into their performances, or the truly beautiful soundtrack (The soundtrack is the one area that I think surpasses the hype for this show). Even the CGI holds up pretty well twenty years later. But I just can’t get behind the “This was one of the greatest shows of the era” brouhaha that’s bubbling up.

#Battlestar Galactica #BSG #BSG 2003 #Hype backlash #TV

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girlactionfigure · 2 years

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Photograph by Jewish photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt of Nazi Propaganda Minister

scowling, seconds after Goebbels supposedly learned of Eisenstaedt's 'true identity'

Alfred Eisenstaedt (December 6, 1898 – August 23, 1995) was a German-born American photographer and photojournalist. He began his career in Germany prior to World War II but achieved prominence as a staff photographer for Life magazine after moving to the U.S. Life featured more than 90 of his pictures on its covers, and more than 2,500 of his photo stories were published.

Among his most famous cover photographs was V-J Day in Times Square, taken during the V-J Day celebration in New York City, showing an American sailor kissing a nurse in a "dancelike dip" which "summed up the euphoria many Americans felt as the war came to a close", in the words of his obituary. He was "renowned for his ability to capture memorable images of important people in the news" and for his candid photographs taken with a small 35mm Leica camera, typically with natural lighting.

Dead Fred's Genealogy Photo Archive

#Jewish photographer #Alfred Eisenstaedt #Nazi #Joseph Goebbels

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yourannoyinglittlesistersteph · 10 months

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I've never seen a Sparkies Diner HC (as in the restaurant itself along with its staff and what they do) so heres some mine:

HC #1:

They would have a week in the start of like summer called "Summer Sparkies Skate Season!" and everyone has to dress in like summer-themed things or pastel-like summer colours and wear rollarskates around the diner and there is a stage that gets built when the time comes and people can go up for summer karoke or play games and shit, usually with one of the staff's permission and mostly when its not being used it can have speakers for hyping summer music in which 90% of the time its corny summer music and the teens hate it with their guts

HC #2:

When Ness calls in sick to work everyone panic so badly and without Ness its basically WaffleHouse BASICALLY LIKE:

Employee #1: Wheres Ness?

Employee #2: *trying desperately not to cry or breakdown* ....hes sick.

Chaos ensues because no one knows how to make the place so lively without Ness being there, and the WaffleHouse atmosphere takes place—and when I mean WAFFLEHOUSE ATMOSPHERE i mean THE FIGHTS, THE TABLE THROWING..

Parents have to check if Ness is there before entering because of this, someone's child got hit with a chair, luckily didn't end in a lawsuit because it wasn't one of the staff, (the chair is still not ok 😞)

HC #3:

I dont even know what happened with this one but I kept it anyway but at some point they had a playplace like mcdonalds and during the seasons the staff would hide easter eggs or play games with the kids

(mostly Ness in this situation, the other employees are professional make-baby-cry-ers somehow)

I'll explain some for examples !

during spring/easter they'd hide easter eggs with little prizes inside some having candies and others getting their seasonal waffles and pancakes or other meals etc etc and usually hide inside the play place with little baskets that are given if you spend more than a certain amount on your meal/bill or something and they'd give your child a basket, so next time when they come they have access to the easter eggs that are hiding and inside the basket theres like a note with sparky the dog that is probably like "Its Easter! Lets help Sparky find the eggs for this Easter! every egg has its own little surprise!" or some corny shit like that for the kids. And there would probably be a staff dressed as the easter bunny to give like kinder eggs or something 😭

During February/Valentines day, hearts are scattered around the playplace to give to crushes, staff(probably shut down quickly because of weird incidents), or—platonically–friends and family. They come with Hershey's kisses, basically a goody bag with a square note that has some cheesy ass pickup line or a heart-warming compliment. Cheesy but I love it sm

During October/Halloween, The staff can chose to dress up in their costumes and scare the customers, along with giving up candies on the actual halloween day but this probably backfired with someone having a panick attack from the scares or the candies being expired or people having allergies so this would probably be shut down quickly,

And thats basically it, I might make more because the ideas keep building up like crazy but yeah first tumblr post go brrrrr

#fnaf movie #fnaf #headcanon #rant post

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nanjokei · 11 months

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To me the appeal of SMT has always been its uniqueness and willingness to stand out, but with modern entries they just wanna recreate the success of Nocturne and don't get that the experimental nature of the series is like, what makes it good. The creators of the series used to describe it as "punk" and recent SMT feels like the modern Hot Topic definition of punk

seriously!!!

its honestly so disappointing... like they are never going as balls to the wall as they did with even smt2 not even in a "oh its harder to get away with bastardizing christianity so directly" but more like "damn they really stopped wanting to think". let alone as experimental as nine and nocturne.

i don't know if its an aging team getting safer with their approach and more conservative (i dont mean ideologically, though from what ive heard about v... maybe a tiny bit of japanese conservatism got in there) even though there's been a clear rotation in key staff (but the ones that are visible... well they're not exactly young either).

even spinoffs wise i like the subversiveness and spunk of 90s smt. devil summoner, persona 1 and 2, soul hackers, they all feel like they were made by people who were expressing themselves and their world view as it was. i don't really get that feeling from modern mainline. as for modern persona i think its squarely a "hashino is a hack that keeps recycling the same twists and story beats and he also hates women and minorities" issue.

in my heart i think "well spinoffs are the best smt anyway!"

cuz dds, desu, even raidou that i honestly don't care for that much (its just my old devil summoner series bias), they're all really good. i feel like up to that point, there is still a spark.

but the last real spinoff we got was desu2. p5 barely counts! im heartbroken... i was hoping smtv would do super well and be good so they would feel safe enough to do more!! and we got soul hackers 2, im very happy about it (sh2 could have been shit and i still would have been happy). smtv probably did well all things considered but like i said it left very little impact... idk, it troubles me so much ...

#ask #wrappedinblack

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apocalypticavolition · 1 year

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Let's (re)Read The Eye of the World! Chapter 28: Footprints in Air

Yup, we're back to Whitebridge and I'm up to my old tricks. This reread is going to have spoilers for everything in the whole damn series and if you don't like that, you should skip this post. And maybe block the spoiler tags.

For everyone else, let's talk chapter icons! We've got Moiraine's staff again, and it might as well be her magnifying glass because she is playing detective this time around. She also plays off of Nynaeve, our POV, this time around (and really any time she and Nynaeve are in the same room).

Another legend, and they don’t even seem to notice. She resolved not to stare where they could see. They’ll laugh if they see me gaping like a country bumpkin.

Nynaeve is really good at getting in the way of her own happiness. Moiraine is way too busy contemplating the singular purpose to which she's dedicated her life to at the exclusion of all else like some kind of 90s anti-hero and her statue of a Warder would probably start gushing at Nynaeve about every cool relic he'd ever seen if he thought it would make her smile. While part of Nynaeve's attitude is just about spiting Moiraine, I think her insecurities come from the same kind of logic that Rand observed in how Wisdoms wouldn't possibly be allowed to dance at festivals: she's not allowed to have emotion or she's even worse at her job than everyone treats her already.

The scowl made her feel like a girl who had been caught acting the fool by someone in the Women’s Circle. That was a feeling Nynaeve was not used to, and the calm smile on Moiraine’s face only made it worse.

See what I mean? Nynaeve hasn't let herself be imperfect in a long, long time.

If only there was some way to get rid of the woman. Lan would be better by himself—a Warder should be able to handle what was needed, she told herself hastily, feeling a sudden flush; no other reason—but one meant the other.

"Their romance comes out of nowhere!" - people who clearly didn't read this sentence closely.

It weighed on Moiraine and Lan, too, as outwardly unperturbable as they were. She soon realized that, beneath their calm surfaces, hour by hour they wound tighter and tighter, like clocksprings being forced to the breaking point. Moiraine seemed to listen to things that were not there, and what she heard put a crease in her forehead. Lan watched the forest and the river as if the leafless trees and wide, slow water carried the signs of traps and ambushes waiting ahead.

They spent the last two weeks assuming that they were finally done looking and could get onto the much easier part of their job of fleeing to Tar Valon. Their POVs right now would be absolutely hysterical and full of exciting expletives, most of which Moiraine learned from Siuan.

Then, contradicting what he had just said, he added, “You should go back to your Two Rivers when we reach Whitebridge, and the Caemlyn Road. It’s too dangerous here. Nothing will try to stop you going back, though.” It was the longest speech he made all that day.

Much like Rand, Lan wants to keep his loved ones out of danger. If they were flirting any more strongly, Moiraine would have to look away for decency's sake.

Around the square at the foot of the White Bridge piles of blackened timbers, still leaking smoky threads, replaced half a dozen buildings. Men in poorly fitting red uniforms and tarnished armor patrolled the streets, but they marched quickly, as if afraid of finding anything, and they looked over their shoulders as they went. Townspeople—the few who were out—almost ran, shoulders hunched, as though something were chasing them.

Western Andor really isn't going to recover from Rand's recent tour for years, is it? And Elayne really has her work cut out for her; Whitebridge isn't anywhere near as far away from Caemlyn as Baerlon. It is a distance, but the books have already noted that this is one of the only river crossings anywhere in the continent.

Of course, maintaining the bridge is a complete non-issue because it's magic and not repairable even if it did start breaking anyway. If anything happened they'd have to just scrap it and start all the way over. So the crown would have no strong reason to worry about this place and without any serious military threats (*points and laughs at Altara and Murandy*), funding is quite possibly lower to this place than it is to Baerlon, whose mining territories aren't supernatural so far as we know.

So I guess the worldbuilding for the near collapse of Andorian territory actually checks out in a lot of ways!

The truth of the matter was there was a man somewhere in the town meddling with the One Power. It was time to have the Aes Sedai in; past time, was the way they saw it, no matter what the men said about Tar Valon. Let the Red Ajah settle matters. One man claimed it had been an attack by bandits, and another said a riot by Darkfriends. “Those ones going to see the false Dragon, you know,” he confided darkly. “They’re all over the place. Darkfriends, every one.” Still others spoke of some kind of trouble—they were vague about exactly what kind—that had come downriver on a boat.

This is a rare moment in the series where the rumors are more right than wrong. There was a male channeler in town (even though they couldn't have known that, because Rand did nothing), the Fade attack is basically a Darkfriend, and the trouble did indeed come downriver on a boat. Poor Bayle, being driven off for something that wasn't his fault. On the plus side, it may have saved him from further problems.

He seemed resplendent to Nynaeve, in his peaked helmet and burnished breastplate, until he took a pose just inside the door, with a hand resting on the hilt of his sword and a stern look on his face, and used a finger to ease his too-tight collar. It made her think of Cenn Buie trying to act the way a Village Councilor should.

By the end of the series, quite a few people will have put on costumes they never thought they'd wear. Maybe even this militia guy will have the benefit of growing into his role. He's certainly just a dick now though. What kind of asshole tries to kick Nynaeve out of town?

The Aes Sedai studied the tabletop for a moment before raising her eyes to Nynaeve’s, and when she did, Nynaeve started back from a flash of anger that almost seemed to make Moiraine’s eyes glow. Then her back stiffened, her own anger rising, but before she could say a word, the Aes Sedai spoke coldly.

It's incredible that Moiraine spent years being trained to modulate her emotions, first in the crazy political schemes of Cairhien and then by the White Tower itself, and Nynaeve gets her to be openly angry in just two weeks! She could make anyone break.

And that's a wrap on another short chapter. See ya next time for another Perrin POV!

#let's read #wheel of time #wot #robert jordan #wheel of time spoilers #wot spoilers #nynaeve al'meara #lan al'mandragoran #moiraine damodred

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mariacallous · 2 years

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Twitter has been taken over by its least interesting troll for $44bn. When Elon Musk took a stake in the platform, he claimed it was to ensure the “future of civilisation” and preserve a “common digital town square”. Roughly translated, that means the world’s richest man has bought his favourite megaphone.

Musk, with 112.1 million followers, is an obsessive Twitter tryhard: the attention economy’s biggest attention-seeker. From baselessly calling a British diver a “pedo”, to his baffling stunt at Twitter HQ – turning up with a kitchen sink and uttering the punchline, “let that sink in” – he clearly thinks comedy is his metier. He reminds me of Christopher Hitchens’ barb about an enemy: he “thinks he’s a wit and is half right”.

Musk says that buying Twitter is “not a way to make money”. That’s certainly true. The company struggled for years to make a profit. It makes 90% of its current revenues from advertising to just 217 million “monetisable” users (and illegally using their private data to target ads at them). But this is just a fraction of monthly active users on sites like Facebook (2.8 billion), TikTok (1.2 billion), YouTube (2 billion) and Instagram (1.4 billion).

However, Twitter has been great publicity: not just for Musk’s zeppelin-sized ego, but also for his businesses. Tesla spends next to nothing on advertising, but Musk’s actions generate acres of free coverage.

Like Donald Trump, Musk has a grasp of the potential of Twitter. Its salience has never been due to business success, still less to technology. As editor Nilay Patel points out in an article on The Verge, its success is political. Twitter attracts a disproportionate share of addicted opinion-formers like journalists, politicians, writers and celebrities, the sort of people Musk wants thinking about him.

Yet, in buying his platform, Musk has also bought$13bn of debt. Twitter was previously repaying over $50m a year to its creditors. It will now, according to some analyses, have to find more than $1bn a year to merely pay back the interest. Even if Musk isn’t out to make a profit, he can’t ignore such losses. Stemming the haemorrhage will now be a top priority for him, either by charging users a subscription fee for verified accounts or, more likely since charges might drive away users, cuts.

The notoriously capricious boss had already indicated that before backtracking, he would sack 75% of the workforce to help balance Twitter’s books. But now, having already sacked four of Twitter’s top executives – he allegedly claims to have done so “for cause”, apparently in a bid to avoid tens of millions of dollars in compensation – he is also looking for job cuts across Twitter.

Among the easy cuts for Musk would be staff who enforce measures to restrict disinformation, spamming and abuse. Only illegal speech should be restricted, he says. This position – allegedly that of a “free speech absolutist” – would mean that Twitter, already a frequent alibi of repressive governments, would march in step with those regimes. More free speech for trolls and racists, less free speech for dissidents. But it’s a throwback to the years during which Twitter claimed that the best response to “bad speech” was more speech (meaning, more content to monetise).

For all the talk of a “common digital town square”, Twitter has always thrived on angry disputation driven by news and entertainment. This puts the company in a bind. On the one hand, the relentless nastiness is what makes the system so compulsive: the gut-punch of an insulting, racist or stupid tweet in your feed incites the cathartic banging out of quick, angry replies. Likewise, it has thrived on the emotional contagions that drive the viral spread of far-right disinformation, from Islamic State to QAnon. Without them, Twitter would be more boring than it is. And the advertisers would have a less captive audience.

On the other hand, it has repeatedly lost high-profile users over trolling and disinformation. It has been forced, over the years, to ramp up its moderation efforts and ban high-profile users like Trump who, in 2017, was estimated to bring in $2bn a year for Twitter. Despite such gestures, it has been losing its most active and profitable users, who are losing interest – no doubt in part due to sheer exhaustion – in Twitter beefs over politics and celebrities.

Musk may think he can relight the old fires, but Twitter is not alone in struggling. Facebook user growth in Europe and North America flatlined years ago. Instagram growth is slowing. Average time spent on platforms, after soaring in 2020 due to Covid-19 lockdowns, is likely to slide. All social media platforms, indeed most tech firms, are facing tough times as advertisers slash budgets. Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has been searching for the next profit model for years: witness his failed cryptocurrency enterprise and his struggling “metaverse” project causing the parent company, Meta, to plummet in stock markets.

The social industry may be approaching a moment of crisis wherein growth, revenue and long-brewing problems of political legitimacy coalesce in favour of a rupture. The industry has already fragmented on the right, as far-right users alienated by the moderation policies of industry giants form their own social media ecologies. But many others have long hankered for an alternative to the exploitative, manipulative and addictive systems designed for the enrichment of billionaires like Zuckerberg, Musk and TikTok boss Zhang Yiming.

The difficulty has not been the absence of open-source alternatives, like Mastodon. Indeed, some Twitter users responded to Musk’s takeover by trying to trigger an exodus to Mastodon. The problem is the “network effect”. The old platforms offer users advantages precisely because of the number of users they have. To make a dent in that would require a migration numbering in more than just thousands.

But we should keep our eyes open. It is just possible that – Musk being Musk – he will do something stupid and offensive enough to catalyse the crisis that at last loosens the grip of the billionaire monopolists.

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remantsofthepastatchernobyl · 9 days

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Hello, I am Hitesh Malviya, and relatively new to the world of content writing. Though just starting to be here, till now, I haven't had much experience, but I am looking forward to learning and discovering the world of writing. So, get ready, as through this blog I shall be sharing my thoughts and ideas as I grow and learn in this field.

The Chernobyl nuclear power station in northern Ukraine, near the town of Pripyat, then part of the Soviet Union, experienced the worst nuclear accident in history on April 26, 1986 when a routine safety test went awry. The explosion of Reactor 4 did not only unveil the intrinsic dangers of nuclear energy when mishandled but also flaws in the political and safety culture in the Soviet Union. The event still goes on to represent nuclear risk and human hubris around the globe.

Build-up to the Disaster

This was a Chernobyl plant having four reactors that were originally part of the Soviet RBMK reactor design. These reactors were intended basically for the generation of electricity and producing plutonium for the purpose of military use. Although RBMK reactors were highly capable in terms of producing power, a design flaw also existed with these reactors: they were inherently unstable at low power and more easily subject to overheating.

On the night of the accident, operators in the plant were testing Reactor 4 to determine how the plant would perform in the event of a blackout. They wanted to prove whether, under normal conditions, the reactor could continue generating sufficient power to force cooling water through the plant's water circulation systems until emergency generators could start. But this routine test eventually escalated into disaster as a result of poor design combined with a failure of communication between staff operating the plant and critical operational errors.

The Explosion

At about 1:23 AM, the reactor reached an unstable state with a high-power peak. The control rods-hered to slow down the reaction-were inserted too late. Instead of stabilizing the reactor, it peaked energy and caused a graphite fire that led to two explosions-a steam explosion followed by a graphite fire. The 1,000-ton roof of the reactor was lifted off, sending a massive cloud of radioactive material into the air.

The explosion released a great amount of radiation into the sky, and fires spread across the area, which further exposed the radioactive leakage. Iodine-131, cesium-137, and strontium-90 were released in large amounts and spread large parts of Europe.

Artur Korneyev's photo of the Elephant's Foot, 1996

Immediate Aftermath and Response

The authorities later tried to downplay the seriousness of the accident. Firefighters were rushed to tackle the fire, many not being fully aware of the extreme radiation they were being exposed to. These "liquidators," some of whom were pupils, became the first victims of Chernobyl, perishing in the days and weeks that followed from acute radiation sickness.

Even though there was a massive radiation leak, the town of Pripyat nearby, where workers of the plant and their families lived, wasn't evacuated immediately. It took 36 hours before the Soviet government started to evacuate the residents, having those already exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. During the following months, more than 350,000 people were relocated from the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

The world knew about this catastrophe when the level of radiation in Sweden increased so sharply that it exceeded levels 1,000 kilometers away. Long after such drama, Soviet authorities admitted to the full extent of the disaster.

The aftermath of Chernobyl brings with it disastrous and widespread consequences. Hordes of square kilometers are contaminated; until today, the area cannot be inhabited by anyone. Fallout causes an increased incidence of cancers, particularly thyroid cancer among children exposed to radioactive iodine.

And with respect to the environment, radioactive contamination led to an abandonment of expansive swaths of land. In the exclusion zone, wildlife has since thrived, unfettered by human activity, though radiation remains a factor in the ecosystem.

Politically, the Chernobyl disaster has become part of a story which led to the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union. It was not only the government's failure to respond appropriately and reveal all information, but it was also the secrecy surrounding this event that continue[d] to dismantle public trust in Soviet leadership. Internationally, it generated a great deal of anti-nuclear feeling, leading eventually to changes in nuclear safety procedures and culminating in the phase-out of nuclear power in several countries.

Legacy

Chernobyl has come to serve as a stark reminder of what goes wrong with nuclear power if safety measures are overlooked or not maintained. The miniseries "Chernobyl" that aired in 2019 ignited renewed interest in the sad and tragic event, a dramatized but yet informative account of what happened. The site is a poignant monument; to this very day, the sarcophagus that encases Reactor 4 is slowly decaying, whereas efforts are still under way to contain the radioactive core. Today, the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is an almost absurd tourist destination, a stark reminder of the human mistake and nature's resilience.

#chernobyl

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dsandrvk · 10 days

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Friday, September 13 - Pohnpei Island, FSM

When we are told about ancient civilizations, the ones we heard about were the usual suspects, the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and if we were lucky, the Incas, Maya and Aztecs. What we have learned traveling is that there were so many others who don't seem to have made it into the history books.

Today was a prime example. We visited the main island (and capital) of the Federated States of Micronesia - the island of Pohnpei. The port town of Kalonia and the smaller villages have a more western flavor than PNG, with some ties to Guam (Bank of Guam), and somewhat better infrastructure. There are cars everywhere, and no group transport like in PNG, and although here they drive on the right, the vehicles are a mix of left-hand and right-hand drive. Since there are so many cars, there are also a lot of gas stations, and also a lot of inoperable vehicles which have been left to be reclaimed by the jungle or become trash receptacles (or both). One of the main businesses in town is Ace "everything" - there was this office supply store (with fresh produce), a hardware store, and several other peripheral businesses, all under the Ace banner.

But the main reason we were here was to visit Nan Madol, an archaeological site on the eastern side of the island. This is an extensive area of around 18 square kilometers that comprise 92 constructed islands, separated by canals. The entire area is in a protected lagoon and was an area for nobility and mortuary purposes, and was primarily constructed from around 1180 CE onwards, although there is evidence of occupation as early as around 80 CE, and the islets were constructed beginning in the 8th or 9th century.

The primary building materials were basalt columns from a volcanic plug on the other side of the island and the construction is remarkable, with alternating layers of columns. The largest blocks are on the sea side on the main island, but throughout great care has been given to matching the sizes of each layer. It is estimated that no more than 1,000 people lived in Nan Madol - only nobility, priests and their support staffs, but that the population of the island at that time was over 25,000. This was the height of the Saudeleur Dynasty, which lasted only until 1628 CE, when the rulers were overthrown by another group, who eventually abandoned Nan Madol.

To reach the site we took a variety of buses and vans for about 90 minutes over paved roads that started out good, and eventually degraded to bumpy dirt. We started walking at a property that may have once held the museum (now gone) and were immediately surrounded by the original walled islands, although it was about a 20 minute walk to the main island. We crossed several small bridges over the "canals" - now hard to see due to the overgrown rainforest, and finally had to wade across the largest. There were lots of birds and we could hear the constant roar of the nearby surf breaking on the reef on the far side of the man-made islands.

We were lucky in that we had been in the second van and had been able to get to the main site before the larger buses arrived, so we had the place pretty much to ourselves, and it was spectacular. At the center of the main structure was the altar, and outside on the sea side there was a "dungeon" - a constructed hole in the ground that would have been covered with more stones. The punishment was death, and was effected when the tide came in, drowning the unfortunate person.

We were just thinking of walking back when the rest of the group arrived and the heavens opened up, soaking everyone immediately. I thankfully have water resistant everything (including me) and it was plenty warm, but photography was pretty much ended, and we started hiking back to the vans. Behind us, there was some delay as a tree came down, so between the rain, worse road conditions, etc. we were now very much behind schedule. It didn't matter that much since we were the morning group (we had started out at 7:30), but this was going to really delay the afternoon group. By the time we got our Zodiac back to the ship, we had been gone over six hours - well past the five they had scheduled.

It continued to rain all afternoon and we heard they had cancelled the afternoon tour, but that was a rumor, and we saw the last of the passengers returning around 7 PM, an hour after sunset. In addition to the late start, there had been a mechanical failure on one large bus, and so it was a very long day for all concerned. It made getting up early (as we did) the lesser of two evils. And our wet things should be dry by morning (except maybe the hiking boots).

The next two days are sea days which will allow everyone to regroup a bit. We are next headed to the autonomous region of Bougainville, which is part of PNG, but doesn't really want to be. The ship hasn't been there before so we're not sure what to expect.

A side note - we saw a large pod of spinner dolphins this morning from our balcony. We would have expected to see them in a more pristine environment, but then realized they were by a great reef, and being intelligent and curious, they were probably more interested in being around people and activity. They were a welcome sight, nonetheless.

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